Post by Category : Doctrine

Indifference is Dangerous, Get Rid of It!  0

 March 18, 2023  

An injurious attitude under the radar!

It goes without saying that the believers in Christ should have the right attitude towards God. That is how it should be. But it is not always so as we live in a world that is far from the ideal.

People often speak of right and wrong attitudes. Such talk may sound reasonable or even welcomed until you realise that “right” and “wrong” are value judgements. Such judgements presuppose a standard. In our world, there are many standards of right and wrong. Some of these standards are even in opposition or direct conflict.

Believers should rejoice that unlike the world around them they have only one standard that is stable and does not change. That standard is the word of God, the Holy Scripture. We are thankful that we have the unchanging Word of God as the anchor for our souls. And it is to that word we turn as we speak about attitudes.

Attitudes are things of the heart. The heart of man can shelter almost an infinite combination of attitudes. However, in our discussion in this writeup / video, we shall focus on just one attitude. This is because, in addition to being quite come and difficult to detect, it has serious consequences for its possessor.

The attitude we are talking about is “indifference.”

And so, the title of this writeup / video is “Indifference is dangerous, get rid of it!”

Here are a few questions to get us started.

Briefly ponder these questions

  • What do you understand by indifference?
  • Are you indifferent?
  • Are you proud of your neutrality?
  • Do you claim to be tolerant of all shades of opinion?
  • Do you realise that if you are so spineless as to stand for nothing that you will fall for anything?

Indifference to God is dangerous

Indifference toward another human being is bad enough, but please we are speaking of indifference to God, a worse situation that is better imagined than be involved in.

The indifference which is the neutral attitude to God. It is the absence of compulsion toward God.

It is expected that believers in God will reference and desire to engage in meaningful service to God. Hence, when a believer becomes indifferent to God it is a serious issue. Perhaps you are surprised that someone who claims to belong to God can be indifferent to God. But it is quite a common attitude amongst believers.

The reason the attitude of indifference is bad and indeed dangerous is because God views it as rejection of His love. It is also a refusal to acknowledge the needs of others and therefore not render help where and when needed.

 

The thinking of the indifferent person is that it does not matter one way or another, it is of no importance or value one way or another. The indifferent person is thus marked by a lack of interest, enthusiasm or concern for God and the things of God. Such a one seems unable to make a distinction between what between what is valuable and should be defended and what is not.

The word of God is our guide.

Indifference is one sign of a “once-upon-a-time love for God” that has gone cold. The fire seems to have gone out. You are no more as excited or enthusiastic about the things of God as you used to be. You have gone on top of the dividing fence but refuse to come down on either side.

Yes, you are indeed lukewarm (Rev 3:15-17).

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Rev 3:15-17).

This passage tells us the heart of the one who is indifferent to God.

Observe:

The one speaking: The Lord Jesus Christ. He owns the church for He purchased the church with His own blood. The church is in His service and is accountable to Him. He is all-knowing and nothing can be hidden from Him. He knew their deeds. They claimed they were serving Him.

The one spoken to: The church in Laodicea. Part of the body of Christ and therefore accountable to Him. He spoke to the church as a group and to the individual members.

The Lord examined and Indicted them: The Lord’s examination of them resulted in their indictment: You are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot. False claims because of blindness to their true situation

Imminent judgement: To spue (spit) them out of His mouth. Sin will not be overlooked in them or in any believer in Christ. Though the Lord is merciful, He will not overlook sin found amongst His people. They must follow the process He prescribed for them to be reconciled to Him.

What They thought: I am rich and have become wealthy. Have need of nothing. They were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked but they did not know. They thought wrongly. This was the situation of their heart that gave rise to their lukewarmness.

The Lord told them what to do: Repent to forestall impending judgement. This was an offer made from love. Though He loved them he would not and was not going to overlook their sin.

The lord said to them: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” (Rev 3:19).

Remember, the church in Laodicea was made up of individual believers in Christ.

God judges indifference severely!

They had what the doctor would call “loss of insight” one of the symptoms of a major psychotic illness like manic Psychosis and Schizophrenia. Put another way, they were seriously sick spiritually but lacked the understanding that they were sick.

They were self-deceived. Because of lack of insight they would not seek help. If someone were to tell them they needed help they will not only refuse but ridicule such a person claiming they were wealthy. They would do anything they could to reject much needed help, and possibly point to their material wealthy as a sign of the Lord’s approval of and blessing them.

To be lukewarm is to lack conviction. The person is half-hearted lacking heart, spirit, or interest. You still consider yourself a believer, but your idea of the faith has become foggy and vague because of persistent neglect. You are comfortable as you feel you are rich and comfortable enough. You do not want anything that will upset current situation. So, you stopped feeding on nutritious spiritual food some time ago. Now your spirit is suffering from malnutrition because of unrelenting supply of unspiritual junk food.

Yes, you cannot see your pathetic situation as you just want to be left alone!

Remember, no excuse is good enough to prevent the sin of indifference from judgement. Loss of insight, ignorance, or refusal to acknowledge lukewarmness or indifference does not prevent judgement.

Only repentance can.

Indifference is a costly sin!

But being indifferent or lukewarm is not only a costly but is a dangerous sin! You might think by being indifferent or neutral you are making yourself a friend to everyone. Nothing can be further from the truth. Commonly, people will prefer you stand for something, that you have an opinion and be known for it than to have none. If you are indifferent it is as if you have a placard across your forehead with the screaming headline: unreliable and undependable. And everyone that comes across you know straight away what to expect.

 

Some of the reasons given for being indifferent.

There are various reasons given by those who care to admit to indifference in their relationship with God.

  • Weariness because of repeated battles with sin.
  • Constant encounter with the ungodly who continuously flaunts his sinful lifestyle without apparent sanction from God. Remember Lot in Sodom?
  • Incessant challenges and problems that seem intractable and with no apparent resolution.
  • Confusion about the love of God because of some unpleasant experience with a church leader or church group.
  • The person who is indifferent has reached the stage that he says, “Whatever happens I cannot be bothered anymore!”

Questions to help you focus.

Here are some questions to help you focus and see if the Lord is already indicting you for the sin of indifference towards Him:

  • Believer in Christ:
  • Do you consider neutrality a virtue and pride yourself as the consummate fence sitter? If so, you are only saying that God is not important to you.
  • Is your love for the Lord still as hot as it was at the beginning?
  • What happened to your first love for God?
  • Why are you indifferent to the Lord now?
  • Are you afraid of persecution?
  • Are you becoming weary from frequent brushes with sin?
  • Is the lifestyle of the ungodly around you beginning to look attractive and oppressively tempting?
  • Is the desire to gain or obtain something you consider to be of great value to you, but which has proved elusive thus far beginning to deflate and demotivate and deactivate you?
  • Are you beginning to think God is too slow or does not care?

Even amongst humans, indifference is frowned upon.

You will not think well of a friend decides to treat you with indifference. Neither will you take kindly to a loved one becoming indifferent to you. Anyone who decides to ignore or behave as if you do not exist will not be in your good book.

  • So why would you do something that even humans including you will not tolerate from anyone to the Lord?
  • Are you confused about the love of God because of some unpleasant experience with a church leader, church group or individual believer?

Remember again, in the view of God indifference is a neutral attitude that is as dangerous as hostility. It is condemned as rejection of God’s love. And God judges it severely.

Manifestations of indifference

Indifference can be directly to God or to things related to or associated with God.

Indifference towards God and towards things of God manifests in numerous ways. We shall look at few to which you will be able to add others as you reflect on the word of God.

Here are a few examples:

There is no desire to seek God.

The person with the attitude of indifference towards God has no desire to seek God. He feels secure in his situation and is unconcerned about God. There is a lack of effort to want to know as it is as if what is already known sufficient for purpose. Such a one fits what Scripture described thus,

“O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:” (Jer. 5:21).

“Seeing many things, but thou observest not; Opening the ears, but he heareth not.” (Isa 42:20).

Thus the problem is not physical inability but a warped perception. The Lord seem to have given one cause for this when He said,

“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (Mat 24:12).

Perhaps because sin has become so commonplace many might think God was no longer going to punish sin. They think God has become slack concerning sin. it is true God has promised that the wicked will not go unpunished. But He does not work according to the timing of humans (2Pet 3:9). Since they think God is slow, they became weary of it all.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2Pet 3:9).

The indifferent person will refuse to heed the word of God.

The indifferent person does not differentiate between the holy and the profane. As such does not see why he should obey anyone, not even God. he thus would not listen to or obey the words of God.

To such a one God might as well not exist and there is no need to countenance anything said to be from God. King Zedekiah and his servants did not listen to the word of God spoke by prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 37:1-2).

And since God is not punishing the ungodly as they think He should they see no reason to obey the word of God anymore. He can no longer take pride in God. And so, to him the word of God is more of a reproach and he does not have any delight in it (Jer. 6:10).

“To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.” (Jer. 6:10).

The indifferent person will therefore not obey the word of God.

Rejection of the discipline of God.

God disciplines His children to correct them and bring them back to the right path (1Cor 11:32; Heb. 12:7-8).

“But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” (1Cor 11:32).

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” (Heb. 12:7-8).

But the indifferent person rather than humbly accepting God’s discipline and mending his ways will usually refuse God’s discipline so that he might continue in his chosen path.

This is like the behaviour of the people of Judah in the days of prophet Jeremiah. The people while claiming to be worshipping God continued to swear falsely and though disciplined by God, they continued in their ungodly living:

“And though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they swear falsely.  O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.” (Jer. 5:2-3).

Such ones when under God’s discipline will point to the devil or some other enemy as responsible for their situation. The last place they would look is at themselves since they see themselves pleasing God.

Whoever tries to point out their ungodly attitude may be accused of being judgemental or not loving. Their thinking seems to be that they are so righteous that no one, not even God can accuse them of wrongdoing (cf. Jer. 32:33). They usually seem to be so full of themselves that the only person that they can see and that matters is themselves!

“And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.” (Jer. 32:33).

Indifference can be global or selective.

Indifference to God may be global or selective. It is global when it affects every area of the believer’s relationship with God. The person is cold and unenthusiastic about any and everything God and about God.

This is akin to the situation of the church in Sardis that the Lord spoke to:

“I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die: for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.” (Rev 3:1-3).

As the Lord commanded, the only remedy is to remember where you have fallen from and repent.

Selective indifference.

In this situation, the indifference to God affects only certain areas or occurs only in certain situations. Though still believing and serving God, this person does not embrace everything but selects according to some self-made rules or preferences independent of the commands of God.

Here are a few examples:

A person may be ignoring a declared intention of God.

The intentions of God are clear concerning many things. Circumstances may conspire to want to make a believer not to want to conform. God looked for someone to stand before Him for Israel and found none.

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” (Ezek. 22:30).

Are you available for God’s use were He to require you for a special purpose?

Examples:

Indifference to true leaders of the church.

There are believers in Christ that the Lord has appointed as genuine human leaders of His earthly church. This is speaking about true leaders of the church. That presupposes that you know the qualifications and quality of those that are to occupy leadership positions in the church.

Becoming a leader in the church or choosing a leader to follow should not be based on sentiments or emotions as such decision has eternal consequences for both the leader and the one following the leader.

The Holy Scripture states clearly the qualifications of those who aspire to or are appointed to the leadership of the church (cf. 1Tim 3:1-13; Tit 1:5-9). We are also not left in doubt as to their fruits too.

Granted no one is perfect. But that should not be an excuse to accept or appoint or follow just anyone with a title.

Relevant questions

  • Do you see yourself as a leader in the church?
  • Are you conforming to the leadership qualities laid down in Holy Scripture?
  • Does the one you follow as your leader fulfil the conditions for the leadership of the church?
  • What fruits are you producing?
  • What fruits is your leader producing?
  • If a large proportion of the church were to be like you or your leader what would the church look like?
  • Would such a church bear a true reflection of the church of Christ?

False leaders and brethren

Ezekiel described a people:

“And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.” (Ezek. 33:31-32).

There are still people like this in the church today. They give the appearance of being believers in Christ, but their attitude and activities show they are only paying lip service to and do not believe the word of God.

Understand this is not about popular opinion or material wealth There are also many false leaders who have appointed themselves or been appointed by others. Observing what is happening in the world today, it is obvious that there are numerous false churches and false church leaders out there.

God repeatedly warned His people about the existence and appearance of them (cf. Ezek. 34:2-4; John 10:12-13). It is the responsibility of the true child of God to discern by the word of God and the Holy Spirit as to who such God-appointed leaders are as opposed to the false leaders.

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.” (Ezek. 34:2-4).

“But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” (John 10:12-13).

True leaders of the church are to be respected, be supported, and be obeyed in the Lord (1Cor 9:7-14. Gal 6:6; 1Tim 5:17).

 

Indifferent to the need of someone.

Believers are to be interested in the needs of others and to make efforts to meet those needs as they are able. But becoming weary of well-doing is possible (Gal 6:9).

  • The chief butler was indifferent to the plight of Joseph after Pharaoh restored him to his previous position (Gen 40:23).
  • The Lord condemned the indifference to the needs of the needy (Mat 25:41-45).
  • The priest and the Levite were indifferent to the plight of the man attacked by thieves (Luke 10:30-32).
  • The rich man apparently was indifferent to the needs of Lazarus (Luke 16:19-21).
  • It is indifference when instead of meeting a need that is within your means you only wish the person well (Jam 2:15-16).
  • How easy is it for you to continue to help someone who does not seem to be making effort to improve himself/herself?
  • How about the unbeliever who derides you and seems to flaunt his wealth and love of pleasure around you?

You could get to the point of being indifferent and thus become cold or even hostile towards such a person. Indifference can make you to quickly consign the unbeliever unto the heap of condemnation. It can also occur in the opposite direction: Someone you believe has the means to help you but who repeatedly refuses to. You could become indifferent, even resentful and stop praying for such a person. But you should not!

 

However, ignoring God is the same as rebelling against God.

There is no hiding the fact that being indifferent towards God is as good as rebelling against Him. When you are indifferent, you ignore and thus consider God of no consequence (cf. Jer.2:19; Ezek. 12:2). That is what the rebellious does.

“Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.” (Jer. 2:19).

“Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezek. 12:2).

And God hates rebellion especially from those who profess to be His people. Remember the experience of the rebellious ones amongst the Israelites during their journey to the promised land.

Those who are indifferent to God are in danger.

When a person is indifferent to God that person is simply saying “I have no need for God for I want to leave my life as I want.” That is another way of telling God, “Hands-off!” that is dangerous as we see in the life of the churches in Sardis (Rev 3:1-3) and in Laodicea (Rev 3:15-17).

And should God step aside from your life, the devil will step in at the first opportunity. Remember the case of Job. Though Job was living right with God and was even commended by God, the devil stepped in at the first opportunity!

The ungodly.

It is even worse for the unbeliever. Because there is no salvation apart from God as He says,

“I, even I, am the LORD; And beside me there is no saviour.” (Isa 43:11).

For those who are unsaved and are ignoring the salvation of God there is no hope. Here is an appropriate Scripture description of such ones,

“But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” (Jer. 7:24).

Hence, they are in mortal danger literarily! Christ made it truly clear when He said,

“He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” (Mat 12:30).

This is because only the Lord Jesus Christ alone is both Saviour and Lord,

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

No excuse whatsoever!

Whatever the case may be and whatever excuse any person may give, indifference to God is tantamount to hostility and rebellion to God. It is one manifestation of the refusal to accept the sovereignty of God over His creation. It is utterly sinful before God.

“For the vile person will speak villany, And his heart will work iniquity, To practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, To make empty the soul of the hungry, And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.” (Isa 32:6).

Indifference is an attitude of the mind, develops slowly and may therefore be difficult to detect. Being aware of the possibility will go in some way to help you detect it as you do your self-examination regularly and according to the word of God.

Remember, the judgement of the church in Laodicea was to the church as a group, and to the individuals that made up the church: The Lord spat them out of His mouth as He said, “I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev 3:15).

The Lord still loves you. Therefore He has granted you the grace to watch this video, “Indifference is Dangerous, Get Rid of It!” He is calling you to wake up from your lethargy now and become hot for Him once again.

The lord said to them:

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” (Rev 3:19).

The Lord is saying the same thing to you NOW!

 

You are being given the opportunity to repent and be restored so you can be zealous for the Lord once again.

Remember, God cannot be mocked:

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal 6:7).

The Lord knows everything. Do not be indifferent to God. Do not be indifferent to your fellow human beings. It is dangerous! So repent.

Please do not be complacent in your relationship with the Lord. Take needed due diligence every day to ensure you are doing your utmost to prioritise the Lord above all others.

May the LORD draw your attention to areas of your walk of faith needing improvement and grant you the means to effect needed change. May indifference be far from you. And may the grace of God be sufficient for you in every situation in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation , , , , , , , ,

How Should the Believer in Christ Respond to Evil?  0

 February 3, 2022  

Evil exists in the world

Evil is commonplace in the world. There is no group or place spared. There is so much evil occurring every day that it is considered an inevitable but undesirable part of life. There is also much talk about evil in society.

Believers in Christ are not isolated or cocooned from evil as many do encounter the same evils taking place within the larger society.

Many do not need the explanation as to or the definition of what is evil. Everyone seems to as if by instinct know what evil is.

People are confused and perplexed about evil in the world

There are many unanswered questions that people ask about evil.

  • Why is there evil in the world?
  • Why do apparently good people suffer?
  • Why is God allowing evil in the world?
  • Why does a loving and all-powerful God not take evil out of the world?
  • Is God the ruler of this world?

These and many other questions continue to occupy the attention of human beings.

The many reasons proffered as both the causes of, and the solutions of evil reflect the diversity of human opinions as to what evil is.

Some blame the church and that is not limited to unbelievers. Some believers claim that evil is prevalent in society because believers in Christ had not and are not doing their duty to society.

The explanation goes thus “If believers in Christ are doing their duty as Christians society will be converted and evil will thus be ended.”

Such simplistic explanation apart from being erroneous seems to forget that evil is not restricted to the larger society but also occurs within the Christian community.

Another attitude in some sections of the church is that believers in Christ should just know how to “command” evil to go and it will evaporate into thin air.

Some other believers are of the opinion that God will end evil one day and as such people should just persevere until that day. These few out of the myriad of opinions both within the church and the larger society testify to the confusion about evil amongst mankind. It should then not be surprising that there is little or no teaching on how believers should respond to evil in the real world within which they live.

It is the responsibility of the believers in Christ to know and avail themselves of the provisions God has graciously provided for them to respond to evil appropriately and it is to this aspect of evil we shall be looking at.

Yes, Holy Scripture give instructions to the people of God as to their handling of evil. And so, to the Holy Scripture we turn now for guidance.

We are not going to engage in endless debate chasing questions the answers to which are beyond human beings at the level of our current knowledge. Rather, we shall be looking at aspects of evil where human beings have been given guidance.

We want to look at and try to answer the question:

“How Should the Believer in Christ Respond to Evil?”

as they are instructed on the pages of Holy Scripture.

The Word of God speaks clearly about evil

Though human beings may be confused concerning evil in the world, God is clear concerning evil in the world. The Holy Scripture confirms the existence of evil in the world. The Word does not go into some convoluted explanation as to the origin or cause of evil.

Rather, it confirms the existence of evil, how God views it and what the people of God are to expect concerning evil.

Believers should view evil as God views it

Those who love the LORD are to hate evil (Psalm 97:10). They are to abstain from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). The whole world is in the power of the evil one (1John 5:19).

“Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of his saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10).

“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” (1John 5:19).

To hate something and to avoid something means such a thing is identifiable or knowable.

 These and other passages of Holy Scripture tell us that the people of God can know and identify evil.

Do not be surprised by the truth that believers in Christ have the capacity and ability to do or engage in evil.

 Therefore, believers are commanded not to under any circumstance do or engage in evil. So, believers should not do evil because God forbids them from doing it.

All are inclined to and vulnerable to evil

Often when people talk of evil, they think in terms of some devastating event like a tornado, a tsunami, and earthquake and other such natural disasters. However, according to Holy Scripture, evil in the main has to do with the personality referred to by various names as Satan, the devil, the adversary and many more, and mankind whose heart has evil ingrained in it.

As the Lord Himself said:

“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5).

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).  

Evil is the tendency of humans to do that which is contrary to the will of God. Both the tendency and the actions themselves are evil.

 One can never fault God’s damning assessment of humans. But it is not all doom and gloom for the merciful God made the plan for the salvation of mankind.

Check before you absolve yourself

Do not be complacent about evil. While some see evil in what others are doing, they do not see evil in what they themselves are doing. Even when a person engages in similar behaviour as those he condemns for a similar evil behaviour, he still will try to deny or justify his own evil acts. Hence, the admonition of the lord,

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5).

This is one command many continue to violate as they cover up or ignore their own evil deeds while condemning vociferously what they see as evil in others.

Sin is evil and wicked

However, one looks at it, many things that people consider as enjoyment and seek after in the world are called evil by God: Adultery, fornication, deception, idolatry, occultism, prostitution, slavery, giving false witness to pervert the course of justice, fraud, covetousness and many more.

The evil actions of humans affect fellow humans and the perpetrators of evil themselves. These things have devasting effect upon the lives of the victims and those related to them, and God hates these things and their perpetrators. Hence, if they do not repent, they will end up in ruin in hell.

In the meantime, believers in Christ are to be guided by the word of and the Holy Spirit while the grace of God avails for them all through their journey of faith till their final glorification.

Not of the world but still living in the world

Believers in Christ have been delivered from sin and its consequences. They have been delivered from the power of darkness,

“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:” (Colossians 1:13).

But believers in Christ still live in the presence of sin and evil within an evil and sinful world. They are still exposed to the solicitation to evil by the ach-purveyor of evil himself, that is, Satan. He is ably aided by the inimitable duo of the world with its blinking alure, and the flesh with its never-to-be-satisfied ravenous appetite.

True believers in Christ recognise the existence of evil in the world in which they live. It is within this evil world that believers in Christ are undergoing continuing sanctification as they work out their own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). As they eagerly await the Second Coming of the Lord, God has made provision for how the believers are to respond to evil in the world.

Believers are not to perpetrate evil

The Holy Scripture refer to evil with a diversity of terms and ways. God hates those who do evil and will ultimately destroy them. To have a heart that does not believe in God is sinful. Hence, evil heart of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12).

It is clear from the pages of Holy Scripture that the believer should not be the perpetrator of evil. He is not to engage in, aid or abet evil in any form (cf. Proverbs 4:14, 27; Romans 12:9; Ephesians 4:27). He is not to even bid the evil doer good speed (2 John 9-11).

“Enter not into the path of the wicked, And go not in the way of evil men.” (Proverbs 4:14).

“Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: Remove thy foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:27).

“Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” (Romans 12:9).

“Neither give place to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:27).

“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” (2 John 9-11).

Be that as it may, the believer still lives in a world that “lies in wickedness” (1 John 5:19), that is, in the power of the evil one. Though not a practitioner of evil, the believer in Christ is surrounded by evil and its purveyors. Hence, it may not always be possible to avoid contact with evil. But contact with evil should not become conversion to evil doing. In other words, if a believer in Christ encounters evil, he should not thereby do evil.

God will judge evil and its perpetrators

Some perpetrators of evil you may come across: The false brethren, the false teacher, the false prophet. And they abound within and outside the church fold.

Believers in Christ are left with no doubt that God will punish evil at His chosen time by the means determined by Himself (cf. Ephesians 5:6-7).

“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” (Ephesians 5:6-7).

Indeed we are informed that “the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).

What the believer’s attitude should be

Attitude is an internal thing, the status of the heart in relationship to God. The attitude reflects what is in a person’s heart. The heart that is given to the LORD will have a God-honouring attitude towards evil.

Evil is ubiquitous with the pandemic ongoing in the world. This will continue up to the time God has determined to end it. In the meantime believers in Christ must continue to live in this world.

The question then arises,

“What should be the response of the believer in Christ to prevalent evil in the world?”

The LORD has not left His people without direction.

Every evil should be avoided.

The disciple of Christ is not to engage in or practice any type of evil. He is also not to be a friend of evil doers (Psalm 1:1). Rather, he is to abstain from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

The believer is to hate evil.

To hate is to dislike intensely. To abhor or detest.

It is a command to the believer to hate evil in all its forms (cf. Proverbs 8:13; Romans 12:9). Those who love the LORD are to hate evil (Psalm 97:10). The evil doer hates the light (John 3:20). The people of God are to hate the evil and love the good (Amos 5:15).

“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, And the froward mouth, do I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13).

“Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” (Romans 12:9).

“Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of his saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10).

“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” (John 3:20).

“Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: It may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” (Amos 5:15).

God is light and true believers fellowship with God (1 John 1:3, 5). What a person hates he avoids or distances himself from. What a person hate he fights. So, if the believer truly hates evil, that will make it that much easier to avoid known evils and fight those he encounters in others.

The believer in Christ is to resist evil.

To resist is to exert oneself to counteract or defeat (something). To withstand the force or effect of.

It is an inner attitude that then manifests in external action. A heart completely given to God will be in a strong position to resist any solicitation to evil.

For example, to resist temptation is to withstand temptation refusing to yield to it and to thus defeat it (Joseph against Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:7-12)). Joseph’s inward attitude was devotion to and focus on Yahweh the God of Israel.

 So, when the temptation came in the person of Potiphar’s wife, he recognised that it was his devotion to Yahweh that was in danger of being disrupted. He therefore looked beyond any temporary gratification as his response demonstrated: “how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).

Though the believer may hate and even try to avoid evil, he may still encounter evil. Evil has an inherent tendency to seek out its would-be victim. Believers are therefore to exercise discernment as to what is an enticement towards evil and to resist it. The more a believer is submitted to God, the more discerning and the more he will be able to resist evil.

Hence,

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).

 What the response of the believer in Christ to evil should be

First it needs to be said and to be understood, it is God that keeps the believer in Christ and cares for him. Whatever the believer does is to be viewed with that in mind.

The commandments of God within the pages of Holy Scripture are not religious platitudes. They are not meaningless religious jargons thrown at religious nuts. Rather, they are the words of the Almighty God who stands by His word and hastens to perform it:

“Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:12).  

A most difficult aspect of the response of the believer is now presented. Many believers in Christ are often perplexed when affected by evil. And some wonder what they should do when evil affects someone else. 

When it comes to practical external actions, believers are to pray against evil, rebuke evil, repay evil with good.

The believer is to rebuke evil.

To rebuke is to denounce or express strong disapproval of.

The believer is to rebuke evil wherever and in whomever he encounters it. There are several examples of instances where evil was rebuked.

Here is a sampling:

Prophet Samuel rebuked king Saul after he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD (1 Samuel 13:13; 15:22).

Prophet Nathan rebuked king David for his evil actions after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, killed Uriah her husband, and then took her to be his wife (2 Samuel 12:9).

John the Baptist rebuked king Herod (Matthew 14:4).

Peter rebuked Ananias (Acts 5:3-4), and his wife, Sapphira (Acts 5:9).

Are you discerning enough to decern the presence of evil around you?

A common question ask by some in such bad situation is, “Oh God why me?” It is sometimes like “It is alright for these bad things to happen to others, but it should not have been allowed to happen to me!”

Or “Oh God, why does this good person have this misfortune?”

However, what informs the counsel of the LORD to act in specific situations and in individual lives is hidden from us. We should therefore have the humility to admit our ignorance as to why and trust in the sovereign rule of our loving Father over the lives of all His creation, especially those who love Him.

Rather than questions that lead to nowhere and potentially away from the LORD, the believer should ask for the grace to be open to and discern whatever lesson the LORD was instructing even through such a difficult situation.

And so, this relevant question:

What is the believer (you) to do when directly affected by evil?

 The believer is to repay evil with good.

One who does evil will be an enemy of God and that of the believer too. The natural response to evil is often to respond in kind. A type of tit for tat.

Do not be impulsive. Do not let your emotions control you. When you are going through an emotional upheaval (pleasant or unpleasant) is not the time to make decisions that could potentially have far reaching consequences.

However, the believer is commanded severally to not avenge himself. He is commanded to repay evil with good.

The Lord Jesus Commanded,

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44).

Further, the believer is to overcome evil with good:

“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:19-21).

Difficult as it may be the believer in Christ is to endeavour to repay evil with good.

The believer is to pray

Believers are commanded

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).

Prayer is the believer’s hot line. Only unconfessed sin on the part of the believer may jam this ALWAYS-OPEN hotline to God. Prayer was and continues to be the response of the people of God to evil.

 Acknowledge your pain

Do not be afraid to acknowledge your pain, loss, or suffering. Acknowledging that your circumstances are bad and even unbearable is not negative confession. God already knows what happened, why, and what you are going through.

So, telling Him from the depth of heart how you feel is not a denial of your faith in the LORD. Do not grieve or lament like someone without hope. You must recognise the majesty of God and never ascribe error or wrongdoing to Him. You only know little about God and His ways so do not act like you know or have all the answers now.

Ask Him for what you need and submit to the LORD’s sovereign reign over your life.

A sample:

Moses cried unto the LORD when the people were almost about to stone him (Exodus 17:4).

When king Hezekiah of Judah was faced with the powerful army of Assyria he prayed (2 Kings 19:19).

When the apostles were faced with the threatenings of the council of rulers they prayed (Acts 4:29).

When Peter was kept in prison the church prayed (Acts 12:5).

Believe and trust in God always

Above all else and in all circumstances, believers are never to waver in their belief in God. It is not difficult to claim to believe in God when things seem to be what a person wants or desires. It is when things are difficult or challenging that one ought to stand firmly in faith.

The believer should be mindful of what he claims when it comes to his relationship with God. Such faith is put to the test in difficult and often, unexpected circumstances.

Be aware that Impulsive denial of faith in God or acting in unbelief is a possibility especially in the face of perceived danger. Watch out and avoid falling victim.

Remember:

The case of Abraham and Sarah: Abraham instructed his wife, Sarah to claim to be his sister and not his wife (Genesis 12:13, 19; 20:2). A woman’s husband could be killed by a would-be wife snatcher who then takes over the wife of the dead husband. It was to pre-empt such tragic situation that Abraham instructed his wife to lie about their true relationship.

This took place even though he knew God had promised to protect and preserve his life (cf. Genesis 12:1-3).

Apostle Peter: Peter repeatedly affirmed to the Lord that if others denied Him, he would never deny the Lord. He even affirmed his readiness to die for the Lord. Yet, in the face of potential danger to his life he denied the Lord (cf. Matthew 26:31-35, 69-75).

Be like the psalmist

The Psalmist affirmed his implicit faith in God in the face of danger:

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4). Also see Psalm 20:7; Daniel 3:17-18; Habakkuk 3:17-18).

Again, our Lord is the believer’s ultimate example to follow. In the face of His impending suffering and death on the cross for our sins He continued to believer and to trust His Father:

“And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39).

Remember the weapons of our warfare

So, when the question comes up, “How Should the Believer in Christ Respond to Evil?”

 The Word of God is the sure guide for the people of God, the believers in Christ.

 When it comes to practical external actions, the believer is to maintain his faith and trust in the LORD and not waver in the face of evil. You the believer are to pray against evil, rebuke evil, repay evil with good.

 Prayer, fasting, righteous living that is, a lifestyle that conforms to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, engaging in the good works as commanded by God are the age-old repertoire of weapons in the arsenal of the believer while still on this earth.

These are to come from a heart completely given to the Lord. A heart that trusts unreservedly in the living God.

They have always been effective and sufficient for the people of God to live a life of victory over whatever the evil tripartite of the devil, the world and the flesh could throw at them. This is because they are backed by the powers of heaven, and such are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

These are the ways believers in Christ are to respond to evil in their world and in their own lives.

You the believer in Christ have been saved by grace through faith. You may not always have all the answers you want but the Lord is always with you and His grace will always be sufficient for you. You are to live in the reality of the presence and faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God.

The believer in Christ is not to live in fear of some impending evil taking place.

Rather, he should live in the reality of God’s sovereign reign over all His creation. God in His wisdom has allowed the continuing existence of evil for His own reasons.

In addition to His presence in the life of His people, God has also made provision for His people to cope with and overcome the vicissitudes of life. He supplies all His people need for living a life that brings honour and glory to God and blessings to humanity.

In the meantime, the believer should live a lifestyle that puts God first in all that he does.

May the LORD show up in your present situation to succour you. May His Spirit raise up the standard against any onslaught of evil facing you and make you the stronger for it. May you receive the grace to overwhelmingly conquer in Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

 

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation , , , , , , ,

The LORD is the True Refiner of the Believer!  0

 January 19, 2022  

Priesthood as seen by the LORD:

The priesthood in the Old Testament developed an ungodly lifestyle under the Old Covenant after Israel returned from captivity. Many of the priests were dishonouring God as they performed their priestly duties.

The LORD called their attention to their dereliction of duty. They denied any wrongdoing.

(Please, read the two previous posts titled: “Are You Honouring God?” and “How They Dishonoured God” for more details.).

You might be full of words now and indeed want to ask a flurry of questions.

  • “Did the LORD let alone the corrupt priests under the Old Covenant?”
  • “What happened to the corrupt priesthood?”
  • “What did the LORD do?”
  • “Were false priests allowed to perpetually continue in their ungodly deeds of dishonouring the LORD under the guise of being the anointed?”

Were you to be able to pose the last one of these questions to the sons of Eli, they would have answered you with a capital NO! (see 1 Samuel 1:1-36, att. esp. vv. 12-17, 22-25, 34; 4:4-5, 10-11).

Yes, it is still the same God in both the Old Covenant and the New. What He did to and for those of old, He still does and will continue to do to all His people.

So, hold your questions for now.

Suffice it to say that the LORD went further than just confronting the corrupt priests with the evidence of their evil deeds. We want to look at what the LORD does to His own. How He deals with those who dishonour Him while pretending to belong to Him.

Please, bear in mind that many of the priests in the New Testament under the New Covenant have also been infected with corruption. Indeed there are numerous non-priests who are falsely claiming to be priests and it is difficult differentiating the true from the false.

The foregoing makes it imperative that everyone professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ should not be complacent for the LORD has set the same standard for all His people both under the Old or New Covenant.

Hence, the title of this article in which we look at what the LORD does concerning His people is,

“The LORD is the True Refiner of the Believer!”

Anchor Text: Malachi 3:1-3:

“1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, Even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: Behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ sope:

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. ”.

Background

Many of the people of Israel had returned from exile. The temple had been rebuilt. Probably the messages of prophets Haggai and Zachariah had been forgotten. Hence, once again the people and the priesthood had drifted away from God.

Therefore, the message of Malachi was to call God’s people to repentance and to let them know that the ultimate fulfilment of God’s promises of salvation is yet to come.

God then confronted them with evidence of their evil deeds. Rather than to repent and to forsake their evil way they persisted with their ungodly lifestyle. By now we know those who constitute the new priesthood under the New Covenant.

Text Exposition.

“1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, Even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: Behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

 This verse 1 begins the answer to the question of Malachi 2:17.

 Behold:

This marks the beginning of a new unit and it calls special attention to the serious events which followed. These unbelievers who pretended to profess faith in the LORD and were coming to the temple with their hypocritical and much blemished offerings were being informed of the momentous truths to follow.

They had asked derisively: “Where is the God of judgement?” (Malachi 2:17). Hence, God responded to their unbelief by saying: “Behold, I will send”, as if saying, look at me!

It is as if God was telling them that their unbelief will not prevent Him from keeping His covenant and bringing to pass in due time that which they had said will never happen.

 I will send my messenger: There is an element of immediacy implied here. The sending is imminent though in the future. I am going to send, or I am about to send. 

 my messenger: This expression seems to be a play on the name of the prophet Malachi (Heb. Mal’aki) which means “my Messenger” in Hebrew.

 Further, it may denote either an angel or a human being. The prophet’s audience might not have differentiated as to which because in bible time angels were messengers of God.

 and he shall prepare the way before me:

It was the usual practice to send an emissary of a king ahead of a king to make sure any obstacles on the road he intended to travel were removed (removing debris, straightening curves, and grading the roads to make the surface smooth for the royal travel) so the king would have a smooth journey to his intended destination (cf. Isaiah 40:3; 57:14; 62:10). 

 This first messenger is referenced in the New Testament as John the Baptist (cf. Matthew 3:3; 11:10; Mark 1:2-3; Luke 1:76; 3:4; John 1:23). The forerunner of the Lord’s first coming. But note that the New Testament quotations of this verse say, “before your face” rather than “before me” (literally “before my face”).

 Perhaps John the Baptist is representative of the long line of prophets starting with Elijah (Malachi 4:5), and culminating in John whom the Lord Himself described as

 “among them that are born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:9-11).

 This is another way of calling him the last and the greatest of the prophets. The Lord came in His humiliation and as the Saviour. 

 And the Lord whom ye seek:

This refers to Yahweh Himself (Exodus 23:17; 34:23). For all the males were to appear before the God of Israel three times in the year.

 God was speaking, and He makes “the Lord” the “messenger of the covenant” one with Himself when He says, “I will send …. Before Me”, and adds, “The Lord … shall …come”.

 Hence, “the Lord” must be one with the “Me.” That is, He must be God, “before” whom John the Baptist was sent. The divinity of the Son and His oneness with the Father are thus proved.

 Also, the distinctness of personality is proved by “I send” and He “shall come”, as distinguished from one another. He also comes to the temple as “His temple” showing His Lordship over it, in contrast with all creatures, who are just “servants in” it (Haggai 2:7; Hebrews 3:2, 5-6).

 whom ye seek:

The people the prophet was speaking to were not truly seeking the Lord. Hence, it is saying to the people, “the one you claim to be seeking”

 These people in unbelief asked when He will come at last. Their unbelief was demonstrated in their questioning,

 “Where is the God of judgment?” (Malachi 2:17; cf. Isaiah 5:19; Amos 5:18; 2 Peter 3:3-4).

 “Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, And he delighteth in them; Or, Where is the God of judgment?” (Malachi 2:17).

 Compare

 “That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, That we may see it: And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, That we may know it!” (Isaiah 5:19).

 “Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! To what end is it for you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.” (Amos 5:18).

 “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

 The Jews anticipated the coming of the promised Messiah and the Day of Yahweh because in their thinking it was going to be a day of salvation for them and of judgement upon their enemies.

They expected it to be a day of unmitigated good news for them and of unmitigated disaster for their enemies! They failed to realise that it would also be a day the LORD will also judge them for their sin (Malachi 3:5).

 At the time of Christ’s first coming, the people waited for, “sought” and “delighted in” the hope of a temporal Saviour to deliver them from the oppression of Roman rule, and not what Christ was at this time of His humiliation. 

 shall suddenly come to his temple:

suddenly is Not in the sense of speed or swiftness. Rather, in terms of preparedness. Hence, unexpectedly, unannounced, and therefore surprising. When they least expected.

 This word is almost always associated in Scripture with an unhappy and calamitous circumstance (Numbers 12:4; Isaiah 47:11; 48:3; cf. 2 Peter 3:10).

 This description marks the second coming unlike the first.

The seriousness of that unexpected coming to judgement (Luke 12:38-46; Revelation 16:15), is demonstrated in the Lord’s (the Messiah’s) expulsion from the temple of the moneychangers who were profaning it (Matthew 21:12-13).

 The temple in Jerusalem where they worshipped.

Understand this when all the preparations are completed, the Lord will come. But not to the temple of Zerubbabel, nor the partial fulfilment to the temple of Herod (John 2:13-24). But finally, to that millennial temple which is described by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 40:1-48:35.

 The unexpected coming of Christ, partially fulfilled at His first advent, will be accomplished in full at His second coming (cf. Matthew 24:40-42).

 Even the messenger of the covenant,

 Even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in:

A personality distinct from “my messenger,” He will purify the sacrifices, the priests, and the nation (Malachi 3:2-5). This “messenger of the covenant” is the Messiah. This is fulfilled in Jesus, who alone has performed the perfect sacrifice on behalf of His people.

 The ancient covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) and Israel (Isaiah 63:9), with which the promise to the gentiles is ultimately included (Galatians 4:16-17).

At the First Coming of Christ, the gospel began with Israel, and then extended to the gentile world. At the Second Coming, it shall occur likewise.

All the manifestations of God in the Old Testament, the pillar of cloud, and human appearances were made in the person of the Son (Exodus 23:20-21; Hebrews 11:26; 12:26).

He was the messenger of the Old Covenant, as well as the New.

 whom ye delight in:

This is sarcasm. This were sinful people who were not delighting in God then, nor would they when He came in Judgement on their hypocritical worship and cleansed the temple (cf. John 2:13-25). Mark you all the ungodly will be destroyed at His return (cf. Rev 19:11ff.).

 Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

He will come without fail and purge the priesthood and the people.

 2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ sope:

 2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ sope:

There is the use of Hebrew parallelism here of two line having complementary meaning:

 But who may abide the day of his coming?

And who shall stand when he appeareth?

 Abide / stand:

That is, endure or withstand.

the day of his coming:

The Day of Yahweh (Joel 1:15; Amos 5:18).

Coming …. Appear:

He will come or appear suddenly when they least expect Him.

The Messiah is surely coming back, but this His Second Coming will be very unlike what they expected (Malachi 4:1; Revelation 6:16-17). They expected Him to come and pander to their desires and do things as they had determined.

But He will come (appear) suddenly, and in power, on His own terms, and to subject them to His fiery test as to the condition of their heart concerning His truth (Matthew 3:10-12).

And to destroy Jerusalem and their corrupt theocracy after they had rejected Him.

This is where endurance or being able to stand His testing will be needed.

For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ sope:

 Refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap:

These are purifying agents. Fire burns off dross while alkali whitens. This is an indication of the condition of their hearts for the fire will burn of the dross of iniquity, and the alkali will wash out the stain of sin.

Instead of bringing rewards as they expected, His coming will be to remove impurities and no one will escape this cleansing. Crucially, He will come purifying and cleansing but not necessarily destroying (cf. Isaiah 1:25; 48:10; Jeremiah 6:29, 30; Ezekiel 22:17-22).

Hence the use of the refiner and fuller as illustrative language here. These are two occupations well known to the people.

The refiner’s work is to purify metals. Silver and gold are common examples.

A major instrument of his work is fire in the furnace or crucible. Fire both destroys and purifies.

The refiner sits down before the furnace. He is not in a hurry for his work requires patience. He lights the fire and heats the furnace to the required temperature.

He brings the silver or gold with all the dross or impurities clinging tenaciously to and defacing the metal. He inserts it into the furnace.

He tends the metal from time to time taking care that the fire in neither to low nor too high to produce the appropriate amount of heat.

 How does he know when all the dross has been burnt off and the metal is in its pure form?

 When he can see his reflection on the metal!

 To full is to launder or wash clothes with liquid.

The alkali (not soap in the way we know soap today) the fuller used was very strong and pungent. This contained harsh chemicals extracted from plants to remove stubborn stains from clothing. 

Thus, a fuller’s job is to clean clothes by treading, kneading and beating them. The cloths thus cleaned is exposed to much friction and is thoroughly cleaned too.

The people of Malachi’s day understood the punishment that raw silver and gold go through before they become clean, glittering, and desirable.

Similarly, dirty clothes undergo severe treatment in the hands of the fuller before they become clean enough for use.

Only now, this is applied figuratively to the corrupt priesthood. That as the refiner takes his time and does his work diligently to produce desirable pure silver and gold from those with dross.

So, the Lord will painstakingly refine and purge the priesthood and indeed, all His people until they are what He wants them to be. There is no escape, the true will be refined, the fake will be exposed and burnt off by fire.  

Both processes of refining metal and cleaning clothes involved separating what was of value from that which is of no value. Both processes also speak to the thoroughness and severity of the purification and judgement of LORD.

 No one will escape the all-seeing eyes of the Lord when He comes.

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:

shall sit: Sitting is a comfortable position. Refining is a long arduous task that requires much patience. The refiner will not be in a hurry for his work requires much concentration.

He looks with intent to detect any dross or the tiniest of impurities and ensures they are all done away with. It is only when he sees his own image reflected back to him by the metal that he becomes satisfied that he now has the pure and valuable precious metal in his hands.

And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver:

 Remember, we are hearing the prophet the way his hearers would have heard him. At stake was the corrupt priesthood. And this is metaphorical language.

What the Lord was going to do to the corrupt priesthood was going to be as a manner of speaking like what the refiner does to get pure gold or silver out of raw gold or silver ore.

purify the sons of Levi:

The sons of Levi needed to be purified because of their disobedience to Yahweh’s covenant (Malachi 2:8). The Levitical priests were instrumental in leading the people astray.

Therefore, a new group of pure priests was required for the work of the millennial temple (cf. Ezekiel 44:1-45:8). The cleansing of the nation would begin with them (cf. Ezekiel 9:6).  

The priesthood of old was to be refined and purged of the sins mentioned in the previous verses. Similarly, the new priesthood, the believers in Christ in the new covenant will go through the same process.

This is being done now as the Lord separates the saved from the unsaved to His right and to His left. And then with those on the right, there is further refining and purging until all dross are removed by His seeing His own image reflected from them:

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren.” (Romans 8:29).

It is those known to and by God, that have been given to His Son that will be made conformable. This he has been doing and will continue to do in the case of His elect (Job 23:10; Psalm 66:10; Proverbs 17:3; Is 48:10; Hebrews 12:10; 1 Peter 1:7).

He does this now sitting down patiently with love and unflinching justice. When the dross of sin is taken from the gold of the believer, he will be forever delivered from the furnace of trial and affliction.

This process will continue until the final glorification at His Second Coming.

Remember that the Angel of the Covenant while leading His people out of Egypt by the pillar of cloud and fire, had the aspect of terror to His enemies, and of love to His friends.

This is the same process of separation that goes on in the world as in each believer.   

 That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness:

 offering in righteousness:

Once their hearts have been cleansed and made right their offerings will be given from cleansed hearts in a right condition before God. That way their offerings will be “in righteousness.”

His refining though unpleasant is necessary for our own good. It is so we can partake of His righteousness and be made fit to serve Him the way we ought to.

In the new kingdom, all shall conform to the holiness of God. Not that has blemish, spot or wrinkle or that offends will be found there (Ephesians 5:27).

The refiner and you

Remember this was spoken to the people of the day. They heard. With the benefit of hindsight we see that they did not heed the warnings of the LORD. Eventually God judged them severely.

The Lord is both the refiner and fuller. God is holy and demands that His people and everything associated with Him must be holy.

What are we to make of it?

Remember also that we are far removed from them by time, culture and other aspects of preunderstanding and covenant.

But we have some things in come: We are people of the same God.

God set the same standard for all His people: They are to be holy, love Him above all else, and glorify Him with their lives.

You may want to absolve yourself by making some claims that are part of but not the whole truth. You are under a New Covenant: True.

You do not have to offer animal sacrifices again because Christ the ultimate lamb of God has been sacrificed for your sins: True.

But that is not the whole truth.

The sin of these corrupt priests and people was not only that they offered polluted sacrifice. But they were involved in a whole load of ungodliness before God while continuing to claim they were holy unto God.

For example:

“5 And I will come near to you to judgment; And I will be a swift witness Against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, And against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, The widow, and the fatherless, And that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, Saith the LORD of hosts. 6 For I am the LORD, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:5-6).

From the verse of Scripture (Malachi 3:5), the whole life of the priests and the people were given up to the same sins as the ungodly around them. Their sinful lifestyle thus made them unfit to be the people of God.

It is particularly crucial to remember that God remains the same, He does not change (Malachi 3:6). Hence, New Testament believers like you are warned against the same ungodly lifestyle (cf. Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5). 

Reminding you not to do these works of the flesh is not legalism. It is not an attempt to control your life or to stop you from enjoying your life. Rather, it is encouraging you to sincerely examine your life and relationship with the Lord.

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God is holy beyond our comprehension. All that belong to Him must be holy according to his own standard.

Read Scripture again, God does not accept any excuse for sinning. Do not be deceived God is not mocked. His eyes are all seeing  

Please understand:

The people that are corrupt are the people of God. They are people of God because God had chosen and saved them. The unsaved, ungodly have been separated and go to the left, to damnation.

The believers are to be made fit for God.

 The refiner is God

He never changes. His standards have remained the same. The process is the same, though methodology may differ as per individual cases.

The process is refining

He shall sit as a refiner. God works with the believer. With his faults, and failures we are full of dross, raw, ugly, and undesirable.

His purpose is that we should be like Him one day without spot or wrinkle or any such blemish. As cloths must be fulled, so gold and silver must go through fire, be heated, and be refined.

He sits and watches patiently while the process is going on, for the metal (the believer) is precious to the refiner (the loving Father). The believer is “being made perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10; 5:8-10)., and God does not want the process prolonged.

And do remember:

The Lord in the garden of Gethsemane prayed for “the cup” to be removed, but it was not (Matthew 26:39, 42; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:20, 42-43). It was taken away for the refining process had to continue to the cross. Rather, he was given grace to endure, for an angel from heaven came to strength Him (Luke 22:43).

The apostle Paul cried three times for his torn in the flesh to be removed it was not (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). For it was necessary for the refining process. Rather, he was given grace to endure.

You, the believer in Christ

A believer in Christ and disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having a high view of the Holy Bible and eagerly looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ in power and glory. Though living in the presence of sin in the world, sin does not and should not have dominion over you.

 Two aspects of the refining process

Man was made in the image of God. After the fall that image became marred with sin. It became so disfigured that man now looked a picture very much out of focus, and so blurry that it is difficult to see the semblance of God in human beings.

God Himself indicted man:

 “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)

 And hence,

 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9.

 Hence, though saved, all the vestiges of the old nature must be removed by means only the Lord can muster. Without the refining process, the believer will not become God-like.

The end of the process produces the refined produce by the purifier of silver.

 How does the refiner know when the process is complete?

 When he can see his face clearly reflected on the surface of the molten metal, he is sure the process is complete.

This will be the final glorification at the Second Coming of the Lord.

We are told:

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

And

“till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13).

Remember: Help is available.

Let us therefore persist, ask for more grace to be sustained.

 May the LORD make available all you need to successfully go through the refining process till you truly reflect His true image in Jesus’s Name, Amen.

 Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation, Uncategorized , , ,

How They Dishonoured God!  0

 February 18, 2021  

In Malachi chapter one God said He was being dishonoured. Specifically we are informed in the words of God as follows,

 “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: If then I be a father, where is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?” (Mal 1:6).

God said He was being dishonoured by the group of people who should be in the forefront of those honouring Him. Rather than accepting the accusation and repenting the priests began to argue. They cast doubt on the truth of what God said. They pretended all was well while they continued with their corrupt practices in the name of God.

And to refute their hypocrisy and throw their lies back on their faces, God now gives more details of what they were doing. Since they knew what they were doing but pretended not to, it was necessary to expose them so others could see and learn not to follow their evil ways of dishonouring God.

What about you?

There is a need to take a second look at yourself too.

Here, in this piece you will see who were dishonouring God, and what they were doing to dishonour God according to God Himself. You will be able to see yourself in the mirror of the word of God. You will therefore see where you are in your relationship with the Lord and whatever amendments necessary for you.

Please, for you to be able to appropriately evaluate yourself, and before you dismiss any accusation that might already be coming your way with a wave of the hand read through this piece. (Watch this video to the end).

It is titled “How They Dishonoured God” for a reason.

With that in mind, let us have a look at some of the details as given by God as in Malachi 1:7-8:

“7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.

8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor; Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.”

Normal turned into abnormal

The events referred to the post-exilic generation who had returned to Israel from captivity. Earlier in the Old Testament each worshipper slaughtered his own offering (cf. Lev 4:4, 15, 24, 29; 1Sam 2:12-17). But by the time of the return from captivity (the time of our text), the priests had taken over this function too.

This should have made it easier to ensure the purity of the sacrifices as every worshipper then had to go through the priests. The priests had the duty and the power to ensure that all animals and other items brought as sacrifice by the people met the standard set by the Mosaic law. This is what was the normal at the start when the priests did their duty faithfully.

But from what transpired it soon became apparent that the priests were failing in the performance of their duties. The priests twisted the normal far enough to turn it into the abnormal. Their practices in the temple were no more recognisable as what initially came from God.

It was then the LORD confronted the wayward priests. But when confronted by God they denied all wrong doings. So God had to show them the evidence. Hence, this text.

7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.

 They brought items to God. They brought items of sacrifice to God in obedience to the Mosaic law. So, to the onlooker they appeared to be committed and obedient to God.

  Polluted, that is, defile, unclean meaning ceremonially unclean and therefore not acceptable for sacrifice to God. Items of food (bread) brought were not fit for purpose.

 These things were brought to the altar that belonged to God. The altar was raised up portion like a large table withing the temple where certain aspects of the sacrifice and gifts to God were to be presented before God in the temple.

 Rather than accepting their wrong, they argued with God questioning Him. They said to God, “how have we polluted or defiled you?” They answered back to God denying any wrongdoing. They were saying to God, “show us how we have defiled you.” “Show us what we have done wrong because as far as we know, we have been diligent in carrying out our duties in our service to you!”

 “The table of the LORD” is figure of speech illustrative of where meals are eaten. A place where God dines figuratively as it were. It was as if the sacrifice of food and gifts offered at the altar were for God to eat.

 To be contemptible is to be worthy of contempt. It does not deserve of any respect or reference. Deserving of scorn or a low standing in any scale of values.

 The priests as gatekeepers

The office of the priest was a privileged and powerful one. They determine those who could and could not enter the temple and its precincts. In addition to worship, the temple was also a centre of social interaction for the people. the priests could banish someone from the temple. Such banishment led to such a one being ostracized by the rest of society. Such a scenario was considered a disaster by the average Jew of the time.

This was why the parents of the blind man healed by the Lord Jesus Christ refused to confirm that it was Christ who healed their son (John 9:19-23). The people might have been wary of calling their attention to what they were doing wrong. They were in their own world and superior to all else.]]]

 The priests vetted the animals and gifts

The people brought their animals and other prescribed items meant for the various sacrifices to the priests. The priests had to inspect the items brought to ensure they met the required standard as prescribed in the law. They were to reject whatever did not meet God’s prescription.

In this wise the priests were the gatekeepers who scrutinized the offerings and gifts the people brought to God in the temple as to their suitability or not. As the gatekeepers between the people and God every aspect of their work within and outside the temple was to ensure that God was given His due honour by the people.

But the priests became corrupt like the people. They showed partiality. They became greedy and covetous. Hence, animals that were healthy and met God’s requirements were kept for themselves. The people were also allowed to bring unfit animals (sick, disabled) for sacrifice after receiving bribes from the one bringing the sacrifice. Thus, they turned a blind eye. 

Every occasion of sacrifice offered the priests the opportunity to inspect every animal brought before they were offered, and as such an opportunity to demonstrate their love and commitment to the glory of the living God.

But what did they do?

They abandoned their sacred duties for temporary and filthy gain.

They undervalued and devalued God

They were able to do this because their heart was corrupt and could not reference God. 

Put another way, they said the table of the LORD was at the lowest level of their value scale! Hence, they treated it with utmost disrespected by offering defiled sacrifices on His altar.

8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor; Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.”

The priests accepted blind, lame, and sick animals from the people and offered them as sacrifices to God on His altar. Both the people and the priests knew this was unacceptable and wrong. Yet they offered them anyway!

 God was not expecting them to answer these questions. Were they to answer, the expected answer to both questions would have been, “yes, it is evil!”

The law of Moses expressly prohibited the offering of blind, lame, sick, and otherwise blemished animals (cf. Lev 22:18-25; Deut. 15:21).

“Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD.” (Lev 22:22).

God dared them to offer similar blind, lame, and sick animals they offered at His altar to their governor!

 The governor will not be please with them, and he will not accept their person or show them any favour were they to offer such unfit animals as gifts to him. Of cause, they would not dare.

 God brought them to a real-life situation that they could all relate to. The giving of gifts to governors and other dignitaries they were familiar with.

They had foreign governors ruling over them. They respected and treated them with utmost regard. Both in speech, and practical things they made extra effort to show their respect and honour for such human dignitaries.

Yet the King of Kings, and Lord of Lord, their maker who had done and continued to do them so much good was despised in their eyes. People do things they would not do to another person to God. They give more honour to human dignitaries than to God.

  • Can you imagine someone giving a sick or blind animal to the queen or prime minister or president or some other dignitary?
  • Can you even imagine a friend giving you a defective gift he/she knows you dislike?
  • Can you imagine someone giving you an item he picked from the rubbish bin as a birthday present?

That is what they were doing with delight and congratulating themselves for service well-rendered. Hence, were arguing with God and justifying their actions before Him!

However, before God all the service they were rendering was evil!!!

Please, examine yourself in the light of the foregoing.

The priests knew what they were doing

Remember: To sacrifice to God is to give up something that is genuinely of value as a way of demonstrating or expressing devotion to God.

But they were offering blind, lame, sick and diseased animals to God. They were offering things they did not want, things that were of no value to them, to God. Theirs were no sacrifices at all. They were just carrying out the motions, the semblance of a sacrifice.

Deep down they knew they were doing wrong, but they rationalised their wrong doings. They must have thought God would not mind, after all, everything was going to be burnt in fire.

What difference does it make, healthy or diseased animal?

They had an ungodly pact with the people

The priests who were entrusted with the keeping of the sanctuary and the offering and other services of God should have rejected such sacrifices as they were being brought by the people.

If the people were willing to despise and disobey God while pretending the opposite, the priests should have refused to go along. The priests should have reminded them, taught them, and insisted on the perfect offerings God demanded of His people.

But we are under the New Covenant

Under the Old Covenant, the people had to take their sacrifices and gifts to the temple, a physical structure and there presented to the LORD through the priests. The sacrifices and gifts had to meet the standard prescribed by the Mosaic law.

However, under the New Testament things get remarkably close and personal! For the believers in Christ under the New Testament are the priests and temple roll into one! It is critically important to understand this.

While the Coming to fellowship should be an opportunity to showcase our faith and believe in God, we should be coming with the honour of God in mind.

God has sacrificed His Son, Jesus Christ for us. That has abolished the animal sacrifices, so we do not have to carry animals to church for sacrificial offerings.

No more animal sacrifices for those under the New Covenant. The sacrifices of the believers in Christ under the New Covenant are of a different kind.

And more than ever, believers still have to fear and honour God. We still have to sacrifice our offerings.

Remember again, sacrifice is to give up something that is genuinely of value to us as a child of God, as a way of demonstrating or expressing devotion to God. If we come to honour God, we should then give our best, that which is of value to us.

Potential sacrifices

Let us just look at few of the ways we ought to offer our sacrifices to honour God:

Our time, our appearance before God and before our fellowmen, and our substance, all of which are part of our lifestyle of faith.

Our time:

In fellowship, pay attention, participate. Do not be a distraction. In the word. In prayer. In helping others.

 Appearance: Dress properly.

At the risk of being accused of legalism or fashion police I would suggest these barest minimums:

Let your dressing dignify you as a child of God, rather than portraying you as someone wayward:

There should be no plunging neckline, and no trousers falling down your waistline and showing the cleft of your bum. Your skirts should not be so far above the knees that you keep making half-hearted efforts to stretch them to cover your modesty, knowing fully well, they will not suddenly become longer than that they are.

There should also be no distracting and attention-seeking transparent clothing.

Cosmetics: No cosmetics or make-ups that make you look more like a made-up manikin rather than a child of God.

 Practice of the people of God (appearance)

In the day of old, both in the OT and the NT, people of God adorned themselves appropriately, especially the women. Women used cosmetics, jewellery, and other ornaments to enhance their beauty. They did not use such to change their identity or to be the centre of attraction or a source of distraction.

Thus the people of God took care of their appearance properly and in ways that glorified God.

For example we are told:

“18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, And their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, 19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, 20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, And the tablets, and the earrings, 21 The rings, and nose jewels, 22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, And the wimples, and the crisping pins, 23 The glasses, and the fine linen, And the hoods, and the vails.” (Is 3:18-23).

Here God was threatening to take away the ornaments of the women as judgement against their sinful ways. These would suggest that holy women were expected to, and it was considered part of God’s blessing to be able to adorn themselves. It was of value to them to do this. They pride themselves at being able to take care of their bodies.

Therefore, loosing, the capacity to adore themselves will be a serious deprivation. Hence, the threat by God to take it away as punishment. But they were not to take care of their external appearance at the expense or to the neglect of their inner or hidden man.

So, we told of them as those:

“3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 4 but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” (1Pet 3:3-4).

This is not saying women should not use gold, jewellery, or ornaments, as some have erroneously prohibited women from adorning themselves. Rather, they should be used in moderation as the word of God again tells us:

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” (1Tim 2:9).

Your heart and practice of your faith

Praise God genuinely with the offering of your lips from a grateful heart. Prayer, fasting, study and practice of the Word of God should be a lifestyle.

Your substance

 To God:

When you give your offering, give genuinely what you can afford. When you give material things, give things of value, useable, and not just worn-out clothes that are not useable for anybody or gadgets that have seen the best of their days.

 To fellow men:

Aim to genuinely help those you can in whatever capacity, without thinking of possible benefits. Do not refuse to help someone you can, simply because you think they will not be useful to you, or because you cannot see any benefit or advantage to derive from them.

 Are you being accused?

  • Are the accusations coming in uninvited like a flood?
  • Yes, has a similar accusation of dishonouring God been made against you?
  • By whom?
  • Any truth in it?
  • Do you think there is no truth in such accusation?
  • Are you already accusing your accusers of maligning your good character?

 Do not dismiss the accusation with a wave of the hand. Rather, evaluate the content of the accusation.

 What are you doing today in the name of God that God may consider evil?

 Especially Note that: Your accuser could come from a number of sources, especially those who are close to you and know much about you: Your conscience, the Word of God, a spouse, a parent, your child, a sibling, a neighbour, a Christian worker, an innocent by-stander, the LORD Himself. These in any combination could be the means God is using to get your attention that you are dishonouring Him. And that it is time for you to re-evaluate your relationship to and service for Him.

 Please, I implore you to heed the call of God now. Do not be too wise in your self-conceit. Rather, repent and start honouring the LORD as He eminently deserves.

 Remember, these old Covenant priests dishonoured God while claiming to be serving Him. It is possible they became complacent because as a group they were in a powerful position. They could even banish people from the temple.

The possibility of people they looked down upon pointing out their errors to them would have be remote. They could even claim like many false teachers do today, that they were God’s anointed and such ones pointing out their evil deeds were in danger of God’s wrath.

God called their attention to their evil deeds. They denied and argued with God instead. God confronted them with the evidence of their evil deeds, evidence they knew was true. Rather than to repent, forsake their evil ways and return to the LORD, they persisted in their evil deeds of polluting the worship of the LORD.

Though the days of animal sacrifices are gone, believers more than ever are to fear and honour God. It is even more critical now that the believer in Christ is both the temple and the priest of the LORD!

God has prescribed for and demanded of all His people for all generations that they must fear and honour Him above all else in all circumstances. The means may be different, but the demand stands for all times.

By what you the believer does every day, you either honour or dishonour the LORD. As His child, you should endeavour to always have the honour and glory of God uppermost in the heart. This will help you to always with His help, honour and glorify the LORD with your life.

 Please, call yourself to order before God does. Resolve now that henceforth, you will begin to honour God with all that you do.

 I pray the Merciful LORD get your attention and grant you the wisdom to genuinely honour and glorify Him according to His prescription in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation, Salvation, Sermon , , , , , ,

Are You Dishonouring God?  0

 January 31, 2021  

Many believers in Christ speak flippantly of their priesthood to God. They mostly cherish the idea but give little thought to what it entails. Many assume they are just alright and claim that all are priests and are therefore equal.

But this is not the whole the truth.

According to 1 Peter 2, all believers in Christ are priests,

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1Pet 2:9).

However, in the Old covenant being a priest of the LORD was a privileged position that came with a heavy responsibility on the part of the priest. The priest of the LORD under the New Covenant also occupies a privileged position that comes with serious responsibilities.

Hence, it is very essential for the priests to know what is demanded of them as priests under the New Covenant instituted by Christ so they can apply themselves in obedience to the Lord. It is also wisdom for the priests to know what mistakes other priests before them made and to avoid similar errors as they carry out their services to the Lord.

A major responsibility of the priest is to honour God. This is one area we need to look at as many of the priests under the Old Covenant did not measure up in this area.

Hence, the personal question that you ought to answer sincerely: “Are You Honouring God?” And this is the title of this writeup.

“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: If then I be a father, where is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?” (Mal 1:6).

Israel gone into apostasy

The nation of Israel had gone into apostasy and were deep in idol worship. There was much injustice and wickedness in the land. The priesthood was not excluded from the corruption.

Rather, the priesthood imbibed the corruption and became more so that the general population. They became careless in their service for God.

God was angry and spoke about the judgement He was going to administer upon the people. He then turned to the priesthood. He first detailed a bit of their sins for them to see. Our text is a portion of their sins as detailed by God.

Israel was initially constituted by God as the chosen people of God, “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” (Ex 19:6, cf. Lev 19:2; 20:26; Deut. 7:6). God then instituted the priesthood in which Aaron and his sons were picked to represent the whole nation of Israel before God under the old covenant (Ex 28:1; Num. 18:7).

The priests were special, and they had to be specially consecrated for the service of God. They served in the temple and carry out all worship services. The priests profess God as their Father and master.

They were to put their profession into practice by their love and referential fear. This is what is demanded even for their earthly parents (Ex 20:12). They were leaders of the people. They stand between the people and God.

Privilege misused

They were supposed to know and understand their privileged position, and the thing required of them by God.

But they had developed a selfish, self-satisfied, complacent attitude towards God and their service to God.

And so, they questioned God as to what He has accused them of:

“And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?”

Their sin of insensibility emboldened them to such a level that they had become blind to the love of God and their own guilt before God.

Hence their questioning God’s love for them,

“I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us?” (Mal 1:2).

The priests dishonoured God

It is like saying to God,

“But we serve you and do our best for you every day. What else do you expect from us? And by the way, what have you done for us? How else can we do again? Just let us be!”

They had forgotten God, who He is in His person, and especially to them:

  • The creator of heaven and earth,
  • Their creator; their provider and protector,
  • The one who delivered them and chose them to serve Him.
  • The reason why they live.

Many believers have gone apostate

The environment of believers today are in similar to the days of the priesthood:

  • The environment is corrupted and ungodly.
  • And many have allowed the pollution of the world around them to contaminate them.
  • Though, they are still apparently believers, they no longer reference nor fear God.
  • Unfortunately, many believers have become apostate as they have gone the way of the ungodly as a way of life.
  • On the surface and for all to see, they seem like and behave like believers. But their hearts are really with their idols.

 Please examine yourself

  • Where are you, brother, sister with the Lord?
  • Have you been ensnared by the ungodly world around you?
  • Are you playing church thinking you are deceiving others or even God?
  • Is the Lord still your first love or you are now lukewarm?
  • Still referencing and fearing God or just going through the motions?
  • Have you gone the way of the world, paying lip service to God but doing your own ungodly things?

 Only you can answer these questions and many more on your own behalf. But please be sincere for the essence of this is so you can rectify any errors of your ways as soon as possible.

 Remember, the Lord Himself called attention to the discrepancy in those who profess to call Him Lord but were not obeying Him,

 “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

 He then illustrated the contrast between those who only profess, and those who not only profess but follow their profession with practical life of obedience: Mr. Rocky House and Mr. Sandy House (Luke 6:47-49).

 Please, think again. Do not pass off this opportunity. Repent and be restored to the Lord.

 May the LORD God Almighty uphold you, ever ensuring that His grace is sufficient for you unto the day of the LORD in Jesus’ Name, Amen

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation, Salvation , , , , , , ,

Do You Practice Love Abuse?  0

 November 13, 2020  

We are starting our talk with a few questions. The subject itself is framed as question, “Do You Practice Love Abuse?” And I pray you will be able to answer that question by the end of this talk.

This question is reframed in three other ways.

  • Are you an abuser of Love?
  • Are You A Practitioner of Love Abuse?
  • Put another way, are you an abuser?

What we are not talking of

We are not talking of:

Human love

No, I am not talking of human love. Human love is majorly lust anyway. I am talking about a different type of abuse and a different type of love.

Foul language

The word “abuse” is quite common in human conversation and in the news these days. Quite often abuse suggests to many the use of improper, obscene or what some refer to as “swear” language. The type of language not to be spoken in the presence of children. Important as that is, it is not what this article is about.

Domestic and other types of abuse

To some others “abuse” connotes the physical or emotional or psychological ill-treatment of someone or something (e.g.: Domestic abuse, drug abuse, child abuse, racial abuse etc). Important as that is, it is not what we are going to talk about here.

All these are legitimate meanings “abuse” in the right context. And it is important to focus on these ills wherever they exist in the society and to deal with them as appropriate.

We are talking of a special type of abuse

But here we are going to concern ourselves with a different or should I say a special type of abuse. There is a more profound abuse that hardly gets a mention in conversations. This abuse is so frequent as to be commonplace especially amongst those who claim to know and belong to God.

So what type of abuse am I referring to?

Let us go back to the beginning so we can get a clear answer to that question.

The right of God to receive loyal love

You see, God created everything, known and unknown, visible and invisible. As we are informed,

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1).

And surveying what He had created, we are told God’s conclusion,

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen 1:31).

All who profess genuine faith in Christ are to love the LORD above all else. Next to that love of God is to love one’s neighbour like oneself:

“29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31).

To love God loyally and single-heartedly is the obligation of every genuine child of God. Such love of God is to be demonstrated by the believer through obedience to God in daily life.

Remember, God did not only create, but loves us too. God is the one who first demonstrated His loyal love for us,

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8).

God as the object of love abuse

Virtually every Christian you speak to will tell you of loving the LORD. That is what is expected and should be. That is it until you realise that such confession is mouth talk and not heart talk. But the people of God are commanded to love God.

Despite what God commands and all the shouts about love, it is apparent that many are abusing love.

I am referring to the love abuse in which God is the object of the abuse. You are probably surprised at that, right?

You might ask, what has abuse of love got to do with God? Well, my short answer is that love abuse or the abuse of love has everything to do with God.

The one type of abuse which is quite common, but which hardly gets mentioned is what I will call “love abuse”, that is, the abuse of love with God being the object of that abuse.

This love abuse or abuse of love is when the love that should be for God is misdirected to and given to something else. It is love for God directed to and showered on something else.

The genesis of love abuse is the lack of loving God above all else. Loving God above all else and loving your neighbour like yourself go together. They are mutually inclusive.

We believers in Christ talk so much of the cross of Christ. If our knowledge of the cross is commensurate to our depth of understanding of the cross, the world would likely be a different and better place. As it is, we know, that is, we have much information about the cross but little understanding of the cross.

There is a whole world of difference between having knowledge (information) and understanding the information. We leave the discussion of the difference between information and understanding for another day.

The cross is a depiction of love

But returning to the cross. It is common to depict the cross as having two beams: the vertical beam with a horizontal one. That is information. What may not be easily realised is a spiritual dimension of the cross

(Sorry to disappoint you, I am not looking for a theological debate right now. Just trying to illustrate a point.).

The vertical beam represents the relationship between God and each human being. God loves all His creation including man. However, the cross is about the reconciliation of humans to God at great cost to God through the finished work of Christ on the cross. One can then say, the love of God flows to man, and this is depicted by the vertical beam of the cross.

Hence, the love for God demanded by God can only come from God for it is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5 cf. Gal 5:22). And you cannot have the Holy Spirit except by Christ (John 14:26 cf. Rom 8:9).

The horizontal beam represents the relationship between human beings. Similarly to the love for God, the love for fellow human beings demanded by God can only come from God, again part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Having received the love of God as depicted by the vertical beam, the true child of God now radiates that same love to fellow human beings as depicted by the horizontal beam of the cross.

The cross is a depiction of the love of God for man and should be that also of the love of man for God.

And so, the genuinely born-again child of God receives the Holy Spirit who then begins to work on the believer so he/she can begin to grow spiritually and manifest more and more of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

But because the believer in Christ, though growing is not yet a finished product, and can indeed not be perfected until the final glorification in the presence of the Lord, he/she is still very susceptible to becoming an abuser of love.

Again remember, love abuse is the redirection of the love that should be exclusively for God to the wrong direction and to the wrong object.

Let us now look at a few examples of the abuse of love. Out of the numerous abuses of love we shall look at four.

These four are broadly representative of the unchanging desire of humans to turn away from God that they may continue in sin:

Love of self

It seems natural for each human being to love himself/herself above all else. But God was aware of this strong tendency in humans before commanding that He be loved above all else. If you are honest with yourself, you will agree that it is quite difficult at times not to be engaging in self-love. The danger is that uncontrolled love of self may then mushroom into selfishness that then causes the person to do almost everything out of self-interest.

Love of self becomes love abuse when you shower the love meant for God upon yourself, you become your own god, and an idolater!

To guard against this possibility, we are commanded,

“3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” (Phil 2:3-4).

Haman is a classic example of someone with love of self that mushroomed into selfishness. Hear what he thought:

“So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?” (Esther 6:6).

And this love of self we are informed in Scripture will be one of the signs of the perilous times that shall come in the last days (2Tim 3:1-2).

Love of self is one form of love abuse as you redirect the love that legitimately belongs to God inwardly to yourself.

Instead of God being the centre of everything, you plant yourself squarely at the centre as the one to whom all else must reckon with.

Possibly without realising it you have become a god. And like all gods, you also desire to be worshipped. You start worshipping yourself as all your resources are harnessed to ensure that all your desires are met. You then attempt to extend your rule to and over others as you crave their attention and worship.

  • Brother, sister, how close to selfishness is your love of yourself?
  • Have you become so immersed in yourself that things are only seen through the eyes of “how will this or that be of benefit to me?”
  • Are you covering you desire with the cloak of righteousness claiming you are fighting for God’s cause?

Love of the world

Our second example of love abuse is love of the world. Remember, we are talking about those who profess to belong to God. Believers in Christ are warned against having love of the world,

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1John 2:15).

The love of the world manifests in a diversity of ways few of which are:

  • Following the multitude to do evil.
  • Colluding with others to bear witness so as to pervert justice (Ex 23:2).
  • One who loves the world will usually conform his ways to the standards of the world. To such a one lust is nothing but enjoyment!

Demas is an example of a person who loved the world. There was a time he engaged in the work of preaching and propagating the gospel of Jesus Christ as he worked with apostle Paul and other believers (Col 4:14; Philemon 24).

But along the way, he fell in love with the present world and departed from the gospel (2Tim 4:10).

The love of the world will usually start innocuously, with something minor that is not thought of as anything. It will then surreptitiously expand its tentacles until it possesses its victim completely. Thereafter, such a person will see things only through the eyes of the world much aided by the flesh.

Love of sin

Sin is doing something prohibited by or contrary to God. In the first instance, God informed the first man, Adam of the penalty for disobeying His command. The instruction would have been noticeably clear to the first man:

“16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:16-17).

It was a direct communication between God and the first man. There was no intermediary. It was the same language with no need for translation. First God told him what he could do, then what he should not do, and the consequence of doing what he should not do. The man heard, knew, and understood what God commanded.

The first couple sinned knowingly

Hence, the man knowingly sinned. He chose to deliberately act contrary to what God demanded of him. Hence, the sin of the first human couple in the garden in Eden (Gen 3) caused man to fall.

Since then, man has not only continued in but also loves and delights in sin. Sin was what has and continues to separate human beings from the Holy God who created all.

The penalty for sin has always been death

God told man that the penalty for disobeying His command was death. And man deliberately chose death over life. God has decreed that whoever sins shall die:

“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezek. 18:4).

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23).

It follows that whoever sins have chosen death instead of life unless God provides a means of escape.

Sin is disobeying the commandment of God.

God in His mercy has provided the solution to the problem of sin by the provision of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Christ is the propitiation (the appropriate atoning sacrifice) for our sins (cf. Rom 3:25; 1John 2:2; 4:10). Though Christ has come and been offered as the sacrifice for our sins, numerous people are still choosing to sin and thereby are choosing death instead of life.

Many are choosing not to appropriate the sacrifice of Christ and are instituting their own alternatives. These man-made, devil-instigated alternatives are unacceptable to and are rejected by God.

That so many are continuing to choose to sin shows the power of sin. Those who sin are characterised in many ways by the word of God. As an example, those who sin are described as those who,

“received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2Thess 2:10-12).

Contrary to what many people claim, sinning is neither accidental nor incidental in the life of a person. Rather, from the beginning human beings have deliberately chosen to sin and taken delight in sin and continues to do so as a habit. There seems to be this innate desire in man to do things that are known to be contrary to the will of God.

Scripture after scripture testifies that those who sin do so deliberately. They chose to do their own will and not to do the will of God. They are those,

“who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Rom 1:32).

God hates sin and we have been seriously warned of the consequences of continuing in sin,

“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” (Eph. 5:6).

(cf. Eph. 5:5 and Col 3:6-9 where some of “these things” are enumerated).

King Ahab of Israel and his wife, Jezebel were supposed to use their position as the rulers over Israel to uphold the true worship of God and to rule justly and in righteousness. But they used their position, power, and influence to oppose God, to oppress the people of God and to serve the devil through the worship of idols.

The word of God describes them thus,

“25 (But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. 26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel).” (1Kgs 21:25-26)

cf. 1Kgs 16:30-33 which give more detail of their abominable idolatry.

“30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. 31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. 32 And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.” (1Kgs 16:30-33).

This couple just loved to sin!

There are many like them today within the church of Christ who outwardly seem to be sheep but inwardly are ravening wolves (Mat 7:15). They are using their position and influence to oppose God by bringing in damnable heresy into the church and exploiting the people of God for filthy lucre. Please, beware of such ones!

  • How are you operating in the position God has placed you in His church?
  • By your activities are you obeying or rebelling against God?
  • What does it take for you to forgo the word of God for the opinion of someone you respect?

Love of other gods

The living God is in intimate relationship with each of His children.

How?

Each genuine child of God, each genuine believer in Christ carries the presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. Hence, each disciple of Christ is truly a temple of God. Loving other gods is tantamount to bringing idols into the temple of God. Such idols will pollute the temple of God making it unclean and unfit for the worship of God.

Hence, the love of other gods is spiritual adultery in Holy Scripture. It is the giving of that which should be the exclusive preserve of God to something profane. It should not be done!

Adultery has devastating effect in human relations

The breaching of the conjugal love within the most intimate relationship between two adult human beings of opposite sex united in the marriage covenant is used to illustrate spiritual adultery. Such a breach when discovered by the victim can be very devastating to the relationship and health of the couple.

If adultery at the level of human relationship could have such serious negative impact, it should be no surprise that it is of even more dire consequence when it is the relationship between God and any of His children that is involved.

The couple in a conjugal relationship are rightly jealous of and diligently guard their relationship against outside interference and enticement as they value their union immensely.

Similarly, God values, seriously and jealously guards His relationship with His children. He does not accept any competition.

In like manner, the true believer should jealously and diligently guard his relationship with God and not allow idol to intrude.

Our God is rightly described as a jealous God,

“for thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Ex 34:14). Also see Ex 20:5; Deut. 4:24).

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” (Ex 20:5).

“For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” (Deut. 4:24)

The commandment of God to all humans is that He must be loved above all else.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3).

And

“4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” (Deut. 6:4-6).

Examples of love of other gods even amongst the people of God abound within the pages of Holy Scripture.

The incident of the golden calf amongst the Israelites during the journey in the wilderness is well known to many (Ex 32:1-35). It is difficult to understand how such evil could have taken place considering that the Israelites had witnesses many miracles from God. God was even leading them through the presence of one of His angels.

But then, it truly happened as we are told,

“3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (Ex 32:3-4).

God was and is too slow for some

Why did the people do this?

Because God’s timing was too slow or too late for whatever they wanted. We are informed,

“And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” (Ex 32:1).

Similarly today, we see people in a hurry. They want everything instantly and on their own terms. There are many that imagine a god only in their own image. The true and living God is foreign to what they imagine their god should be. So, they manufacture or concoct a god of their own making.

  • Hence, today, we see a diversity of caricatures of Jesus, a Jesus that is far removed from the Jesus Christ of Nazareth:
  • Jesus that is too loving to send the wicked and ungodly to hell,
  • Jesus that only blesses if you sow “dangerously” into the coffers of the “name it, picture it, claim it” crowd pastor,
  • A Jesus that can only heal or do miracles in a specially created atmosphere of music and only if you have enough faith or put in enough money,
  • A Jesus that does miracles and wonders through only “specially anointed” one who are the “spiritual elite”
  • A Jesus that mandates the foot soldiers who are the spiritual commoners and downtrodden to contribute all the money demanded of them by the so-called man/woman of God before they can be blessed,
  • A Jesus that is only present when the foot soldiers are wiped into a frenzy by the false teacher masquerading as “the anointed one.”

One can go on multiplying these false gods that people are running after, which some are even willing to defend with their own life! All these are false gods and are nowhere close to the Jesus of the Holy Bible. But the crowds that follow these false gods, like those that followed the golden calf will not be deterred.

Idolaters reject God

On the pages of Holy Scripture, God makes it abundantly clear that He alone is the true and living God. And demands absolute obedience from His people.

What is common to all idolaters is their rejection of God and His righteousness and the institution of their own gods and the righteousness as determined by themselves.

God has the absolute right and authority to demand unalloyed obedience from all His creation as their God. By His will they were created and exist (Rev 4:11). And beside Him there is no Saviour,

“I, even I, am the Lord; And beside me there is no saviour.” (Isa 43:11).

Before you absolve yourself claiming you are not bowing before some statue, hear this:

“Whatsoever and whosoever you give the worship and reference that is due to God only, whatever has taken the place of God in your life is your idol, your new god. That is what makes you an idol worshipper, an idolater.”

Such idol could be your ambition, your job, a relationship, an infirmity, love of money, love of prominence, love of praise, and many more.

Our God knows us much more than we can imagine. He knows that even at our best we are still vulnerable to love abuse. Hence, the numerous warnings and admonitions in Holy Scripture to be on guard and to avoid as much as possible love abuse.

The Love of self, The love of the world, The love of sin, and The love of other gods are a small sample of love abuse. They are all the symptoms of an underlining condition, the fallen condition of man.

The fallen man’s heart is the seat of the evil as we are informed that, “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5).

And his heart is described as, “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).

Hence,

Man is not a sinner because he sins. Rather, man sins because he is a sinner.

The above is not exhaustive. Rather, is more of representative of innumerable others that upon reflection you can add to these. Please, reflection on this small sample.

Are you by any means an abuser of love where God is concerned?

Are you an idolater?

Please, do not wave this off flippantly. Rather, look intently at yourself and the way you are living your life. And if perchance you discover something amiss, please quickly rectify it before it is too late.

I pray the Almighty God will help you to draw the right lessons from what you have heard, and to be in the right relationship with Him in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, eBooks, Exhortation, Salvation, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Let the Word of God Rule Your Life  0

 June 3, 2020  

The world is currently stooping under the burden of the corona virus pandemic. This corona virus pandemic has shown how much connected human beings even as they live widely apart and across the world. It has also exposed the fragility and inadequacy of all the systems set up by human beings purportedly for the good of human beings.

Further, it also demonstrates that the only things that can endure are those things that have the approval of God.

Right now, numerous people are living in fear of the corona.

Why? They fear death.

Why?

I don’t know but the possibility is that the average person does not want to meet God yet. Many have suddenly realised that there is a God and that we humans are responsible to a God who is not only higher than us but who has the authority and power to make us give account to Him. Hence, many are not prepared to go to their maker to render the account of the life He gave them. But eventually, by whatever means as determined by God, we all will give account at the time appoint by God.

Please, use this period for a useful reflection if you are a Christian, a genuine child of God by adoption through the Lord Jesus Christ.

How has your life of faith been brother, sister?

If the Lord is to call today, are you ready?

What will your account show, seriously unrighteous deficit, or God-pleasing righteous surplus?

Now more than ever before, recognise and accept the authority of the word of God over your life. Let the word of God be the ultimate authority for life of faith and practice.

 Move closer to God now. You have nothing to lose other than sin and all its consequences. Rather, you have everything to gain from God who alone can deliver, protect, provide, and keep us secure in and for Himself

So, I implore you to stop living on the faith of others only. Stop living only on the crumbs that fall from the tables of those who take their faith seriously enough to make time for diligent study and practice of the word of God. But in addition, do your own diligent study too. It is as you study the word of God yourself that the word is able to come into your and do its work in you through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Realise that if you don’t seek, know and practice the truth of the biblical Christian faith, you are practicing a false religion and you can only spread and encourage error as a false teacher, a purveyor of death. And may that not be your portion in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

But seriously speaking, “Who will you blame if you don’t make it to heaven in spite of your long association with the church?”

Nobody but you! Again, may that not be your portion, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Stop giving excuses that you are busy! Now for many of you, the current lock down has taken away the excuse of being busy. Except of course if binge-watching of TV can be considered more worthy of your time than making time to nurture your relationship with the Lord.

You can spend hours watching TV, surfing the net and chatting on the phone yet you have no time to improve your knowledge of your faith!

How can you love a Lord you don’t know and whose instructions you don’t care to find out?  Know that ignorance is no more an excuse before the Lord. I implore you to stop wasting the precious time God has given you.

What is more important than that you should practice your faith according to how God demands to be worshipped and as detailed in His written word?

Know this, that amongst those who claim to be Christians one of the greatest weapons of mass ruin and suffering is ignorance of the word of God. Ignorance of the word of God is a very potent weapon in the hand of the devil. It is a major reason why false teachers and heretics are getting away with murder literarily.

I concur with that old saint who has now gone home to be with the Lord. He said “it is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals than to speak falsehood that comforts and then kills.”

On my part I will rather you hate me for declaring the whole counsel of God than you love me for telling lies and hiding the truth because of any potential, perceived or real gratification.

Please, remember this: That numerous others had lived true to this faith in God all their lives and God testified to their faithfulness. They lived through much persecution and suffered much for their faith in God and in Christ, but God supplied the grace they needed to live true to God in the midst of the ungodliness of their day.

Jeremiah was not cast into the dungeon that has no water but mire (Jer. 38:6) for patting sinners on the back and telling them “God loves you but hates the sin in you!” Rather, against powerful forces and all odds he persisted in declaring the true word of God.

Stephen was not stoned (Acts 7:54, 57-60) for proclaiming to the Jewish religious leaders that all roads leading to God. That we all worship the same God, but the methods are just different! He neither spoke politically or socially or religiously correct language. Rather, he spoke godly correct language that cut to the heart of the ungodly who were claiming to be worshiping God.

John was not banished to the island of Patmos (Rev 1:9) for conducting deliverance services for people who were supposed to have been saved but were continuing in their sins and cultural practices and loving it; people who claim to be free while still being shackled by their traditions and superstitions and other consequences of syncretism.

Peter was not kept in prison by Herod and released by an angel (Acts 12:3-12)  and years later killed for preaching prosperity message and declaring to sinners walking contrary to God while claiming to belong to God “God is here to bless you. Indeed, he has sent me to bless you. You can have your best in the here and now. You just need to sow more dangerously. Speaking prophetically, you are getting a miracle within 72 hours!” Rather he preached the gospel of Christ without fear or favour. 

Neither was Paul imprisoned and later beheaded for conducting seeker-friendly, friendship evangelism, saying to the people who were helping him: “Don’t talk about their sins. Rather tell them that God is here to listen to them and do just what they want and give them all the desires of their heart. Let them come in first and the Holy Spirit will do the rest. And while at it let them know that we are ready to listen to them tell us how we should do church; we shall to whatever they want so they can stay and be blessed” Rather, he preached the whole truth of the gospel against all odds.

This is not calling you to become violent in any physical way for violence is alien to true biblical Christianity. But it is a wakeup call to you in case you are beginning to slumber or are even asleep spiritually already!

Part of the reason the author and finisher of the biblical Christian faith the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified was because He told sinners: “Except you repent, you will likewise perish” (Luke 13:3-4).

When God ordered the extermination of Sodom and Gomorrah, He did not tell them: “I love you and hate your sin”. Rather, the sinner and his sins are one and are destroyed together. The sinner either forsakes his sins and turns to God and is saved or he holds on to his sins and God turns from him and he and his sins perish together. 

True, God is love (1John 4:8). But God hates sin.

He is as is said of Him: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, And canst not look on iniquity: Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, And holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?” (Hab. 1:13).

He alone is the judge, and no one can deliver from His hand.

“I, even I, am the Lord; And beside me there is no saviour.” (Isa 43:11).

That is why “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31).  

“Christian” where do you stand?

How are you involved?

Remember, we all shall give account. ALL without exception!

Brethren, may it not be that you treat the written word of God as a common thing, of less value than the opinions of men!

Don’t tell me that “but I’m not Jeremiah or an apostle” for the Holy bible says you belong to “a royal priesthood” (1Pet 2:9).

Do you believe that? Then act as a priest of the Lord Most High now.

I pray that you may come referentially and humbly before God to seek the understanding of the word of God and that He will give you both the courage and strength to be able to declare the whole counsel of God under the power of the Holy Spirit always in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

If you are not yet a believer in Christ.

However, if you are notyet of the Lord. If Jesus Christ is not yet your Saviour and Lord, the starting point for you is to come to the Lord asking Him to save you and become your Lord. It is after that you can begin to speak of the word of God becoming the ruler of your life.

I pray that God will have mercy upon you as you humbly come to Him for your salvation through Jesus Christ. That He will hear your cry for help and extend His forgiveness and peace to you in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation , , , , ,

One Tough Command That Must Be Obeyed!  0

 February 16, 2020  

Many times, we focus on our needs, not that it is bad for us to ask that our needs be met by God. He Himself has promised us that much. Problem comes when we use the degree to which our needs have been met as the standard for judging the health of our relationship with God.

Thus, you find that those who consider their needs to be more than met see God as good and that they are pleasing Him in whatever they are engaged in, even if such engagements are spoken against in His word.

On the other hand, those who seem to be struggling to have their needs to be met, even when they are engaged in things obviously in the will of God often either doubt the goodness of God, their own good works for God or even their relationship with God.

We forget that no matter what, in this life, somethings are just very difficult for us. Some are even not meant to be no matter how much one desires them!

It even becomes quite perplexing for us when we discover that many things that we are commanded to do as believers in Christ are very difficult if not impossible.

Because of such difficulties or seeming impossibilities, many have tried to excuse their failures concerning certain commandments of God. They will usually claim that God will understand their failings, or they may try to re-interpret the word of God to fit their own ideas that make them feel comfortable.

But the truth is that whatever God has commanded, He expects His people to obey.

God gives us difficult things to do because He is willing and have indeed made provision available for such to be accomplished. We only need to realise our utter dependence upon Him and then ask for the help we need to do that which pleases Him. Hence, our difficulties and challenges should point us in the direction of God and cause us to depend more on Him.

The Lord Jesus Christ had numerous teaching sessions with His disciples. His disciples were those who believed in and committed themselves to following Him as their Saviour and Lord. Many of such teaching sessions were held in public with members of the public often in multitudes in attendance. One particular teaching session seemed to have been more popular than the others and is commonly referred to as the sermon on the mount. In addition to the disciples, the public was present as a mixed multitude (Mat 5:1-2).

As the Lord taught the disciples on human relationships, He began to correct the errors in their thinking and attitude. Manu of such errors emanated from the rabbis, religious and political leaders who hid under the guise of the traditions of the elders as they taught human opinions and other things to make the laws of God of no consequence.

Some of these teachings of the Lord are found in Matthew chapter 5 (especially Mat 5:21-48). The Lord was speaking on relationships. So, here he speaks of one relationship everyone abhors. A relationship which everyone has in one shape or another. This is one relationship too many for numerous people believers and unbelievers alike. Yes, the one relationship which many wish either does not exist, or will just disappear with a wave of the of the hand as you make of an irritating fly!

Indeed, numerous people actually spend a large proportion of their resources trying to eradicate this relationship wherever they think it exists whether real or imagined. And many so-called ministries, so-called ministers and industries have arisen whose exclusive preserve and reason for existence is the promise to somehow make this relationship disappear in the life of anyone who will buy into their errors. Yet this relationship clings tenaciously to thriving life in the midst of the cacophony about it.

While the purveyors of deception smile all the way to the bank as they live lives like rock stars, their victims continue to groan and moan as they ever search for means to at least mend the deep holes made in their financial pockets.

But in the passage that we are going to look at the Lord focused His attention on one of the many relationships. This relationship that piques even the most self-controlled amongst us is that relationship with the enemy.

Perhaps you never thought of it this way but truly you have a relationship with the enemy. This relationship is of such importance that the Lord of glory focused His attention up it. It is so important that His followers have a clear idea of this relationship.

Hear the Lord yourself:

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Mat 5:44).

Let us look at one of the very difficult command, one which if I say is one of the most disobeyed commandments will not be an exaggeration.

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Mat 5:44).

The passage of which this verse forms a part (Mat 5:43-48) occurs within the section of the Holy Scripture commonly referred to as the sermon on the mount which spans Matthew 5:1-7:29.]]

To say that the Lord’s teachings of a new and higher standard of inter-human relationships were as radical and unacceptable in the days He taught them to His disciples even as they are today is no exaggeration.

How easy are you finding the Christian lifestyle?

 You have heard

The Lord first reminded the disciples what they knew. They were not being taught for the first time about their enemies. It was not a strange topic of discussion for them.

His audience, the disciples were adult Jews and the multitudes were made up of majority of Jews brought up in the laws of Moses. Most of them would also have heard and some would have known the additions and other interpretations their religious leaders had added to the law.

 This was why Jesus reminded them:

“Ye have heard that it had been said” (Mat 5:43).

 The religious leaders when adding their own additions and interpretations to the law still spoke as if God was speaking. This was so as to gain credibility amongst, and obedience from the people.

 The Lord knew of their deception to present their ideas as the law of God. Hence, He openly rebuked them as He quoted the prophet Isaiah to refute the errors:

“–Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition–” (Mark 7:5-13).

 How true that this is what many people are doing today: they refuse to come to God so they can continue with their way of life unhindered!

What the law commanded:

“Thou shalt love thy neighbour” (Mat 5:43).

The is what the law commanded. For the Lord was quoting the law:

“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.” (Lev 19:18).

But what the religious leaders added

“and hate thine enemy” (Mat 5:43).

This is the part added by the religious leaders, and is the part of what the Pharisees, and the Lord referred to as “the tradition of the elders” (Mat 15:2; Mark 7:3, 5, 8), and for which the unbelieving Saul of Tarsus, was zealous before his conversion (Gal 1:14).

It is as if their thinking was that if you love your neighbour you must do the opposite to your enemy. They possibly forgot that their neighbour could be their enemy or they did not understand who their neighbour was.

This is one command that natural man will find attractive, for it sounds reasonable to wipe out someone who otherwise would like to harm you. The law of self-preservation, if there is anything like that, would demand this to be right too. Hence, many would be eager to obey this than to love their neighbour. But this was not what God would want, and the Lord set out to correct the error.

A radical departure

Then comes our verse,

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Mat 5:44).

The Lord now speaks with authority, and not as one of their religious leaders, and even the people recognised the presence of this authority (Mat 7:29; Mark 1:22). But as might be expected, the religious leaders who were supposed to know the law questioned, and then rejected the authority of Christ (Mat 21:23; Mark 11:28).

The true disciples are in mind

He spoke to His disciples, not the fickle-minded multitudes that followed Him. The disciples of Christ are given this command to obey. They are the ones to carry out this command while they face the hostile actions of the enemies.

Remember, this,

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mat 16:24).

This is for those who will truly follow Him according to what He commands them not according to their own ideas and desires.

This is a serious issue for seriously minded and committed ones. The Lord was not suggesting good behaviour or giving good advice. Rather, He was commanding them, compelling them as to what they should do concerning a specific issue: their enemies. Their response to entities they are aware to be their enemies. The obligation is upon the disciples of Christ and not on their enemies. That obligation is to obey their Lord in all circumstances.

Are you one of those committed to following the Lord as His disciple?

Remember that He is the Word of God. He is the Son of God who came to fulfil the law. And He is above the religious leaders and the tradition of their elders. In spite of their refusal to believe, He was the Messiah they had been waiting for, and He demonstrated His authenticity in both word and deed.

 Enemies are human beings

The enemies are the enemies of Christ and the disciples. They are numerous both spiritual and human.

Enemies here are human beings who are antagonistic to God and to the people of God. These are human beings at enmity against God. Often their thinking is since they cannot hurt God, they can try to get God through harming you. Hence, your credentials that qualify you for earning these oftentimes vicious enemies is that you are a child of God, you are a disciple of Christ. These enemies act like a hostile force against you and your interests. They do this sometimes to see if they can stop God in your life by making you to sin.

Do you realise that you may be sinning by hating your enemy?

You need to realise that if you are a true child of God your enemy is also an enemy of God. More often than not you will have enemies simply because you are a child of God and not because you have wronged anyone in particular.

It is true that Satan the devil is the archenemy of man, he is the adversary especially of the believer in Christ and may even hide behind humans who act as his instrument for his nefarious activities. But this passage is focused on human enemies of the people of God. Flesh and blood enemies and not some phantom in someone’s imagination.

How do I know these enemies are humans?

Remember, God never says and will never say we should love the devil or do good to the devil or any of the evil angels or demons that follow him. Rather, the believers are to resist the devil.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (Jam 4:7).

As we are further taught on the pages of Holy Scripture:

 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12).

And the weapons for that resistance we are told,

 “(for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)” (2Cor 10:4).

To deal with the devil and his hoards know the weapons and use them. And if you suspect another human being as a potential tool in the hand of the devil, then address the strongman behind that visible enemy with the weapons God has provided to believers for that.

But here the enemies the Lord was drawing the attention of His disciples to are our fellow human beings we can see and interact with during our daily activities and are the ones classified as neighbours and or enemies.

Remember, love is what you choose to do.

Love is strong affection for another. It is an affection based on benevolence. It is an act of the will. While love is not primarily of the emotions, it has much emotional content. It is not how you feel but goes with a lot of feelings. It is a “doing” and not a “feeling.”

The command by the Lord to love here shows that what is asked for is not natural. It is not what a person will naturally choose to do. This is especially borne out by the objects of that love. Humans naturally love those whom they like and perceive love them. Love in such situations is more of a prorated thing. You love to the level you feel someone loves you.

Speaking naturally and from the human point of view, one can say this, loving one’s enemies is a herculean task, something impossible from the natural man.

But the Lord commands to do what is not natural because He speaks to the spiritual man, the born-again child of God who has the Holy Spirit resident in him. To such a one is made available the resources of heaven.

So, what are the things required to be done?

We are to love them. Here the love commanded is that based or appreciation and right regard. It is not something to be done flippantly or half-heartedly. Rather to be done excitedly and cheerfully! Are you kidding me! You say. But I am not joking neither am I pulling your leg. You are to love these people seriously.

How did I know that you asked?

Because in doing this we will be emulating God, our heavenly Father (Mat 5:45). And God does nothing half-heartedly. Rather, God does everything joyfully and excellently.

 To bless is to invoke divine care for someone. To speak well of and favour that person. We are to invoke God’s blessings upon them and to ask God to bless them! As far as God is concerned, for another human being, it is “Bless, and curse not” (Rom 12:14).

 To curse is to cause injury or harm by means of a statement regarded as having some supernatural power, because a deity or supernatural force has been evoked. A prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon someone by a deity. It is the evil or misfortune that comes as if in response to imprecation or as retribution. Hence, this is not just words but includes the desire to carry out the intentions.

This is not talking about the rather common idea of asking someone to stop using abusive language by saying stop using “curse words.” This is serious business as it speaks of people who actually believer that there is the supernatural power of a deity empowering their words as they speak malicious words in anger over their perceived enemies. The enemy is perceived to be so evil as to deserve the most horrible punishment possible that a deity can inflict! This is more than just words as it involves desires, intentions and actions.

To do Good is to speak to and do things to and for them that are to their benefit.

 Hate is extreme dislike and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury. To hate is to dislike so strongly with the implication of eversion and hostility. Just mentioning the name of the one so hated sends the blood of the hater boiling!

 Pray that is, speak to God about and for them: Entreat, implore God on behalf of someone which despitefully use you.

Despiteful that is, expressing malice or hatred. To be despiteful is to mistreat with the implication of threats and abuse.

 To Persecute is to harass or punish in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict specifically to cause to suffer because of belief. To persecute is to systematically organise program or event recurrently to oppress and harass people.

If there is one word that can describe the varieties of enemy action, it will be persecution. The enemy persecutes in a diversity of ways: It often raises up false scholars, false teachers, false prophets to name a few to pervert and to corrupt the word of God in attempts to lead the people astray and possibly into apostasy.

 Failing in that, but often in addition, fanatics are raised up who then physically pillage the properties of believers and even physically attack them leading to grievous bodily harm and even death. Ultimately the desire of the enemy is to do maximum damage, and all his resources are calculated to achieve that goal often at whatever cost.

The Lord knew what He was talking about

The Lord did not speak in uncertain terms. Rather, He spoke with certainty and mentioned few of the enemies and the actions of the enemies and how the disciples were to respond. This teaching was radical to say the least that day. It is even more so in our day. To many today as it was in those days, this is unreal. You cannot be serious!

Specific enemies and their acts representative of a wide spectrum of enemies and enemy actions that could be directed against the people of God are mentioned here. Many more are enumerated on the pages of Holy Scripture.

The enemies curse and imprecate evil on the believer in Christ. They desire the doom of the believer in their intentions, planning and actions. They hate the believer with cruel hatred, detest and viciously pursue the believer. At every opportunity, they despitefully use the believer.

They revile, insult and otherwise abusively entreat the believer in Christ. They persistently persecute the believer. They molest, harass and trouble the believer persistently. It is a continuous and unrelenting pursuit that is premeditated and have the goal of either destroying the one being pursued, and failing that, to make life as unbearable for the believer as much as is possible. They will elicit and avail themselves of any help they can get in this ungodly enterprise.

Remember, the righteousness of the believers in Christ is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mat 5:20). As usual the Lord is not in the business of asking His followers to do things that are easy. Of course, if things demanded of the believer are easy there would be no need for God’s help through the Holy Spirit.

So, the Lord meant real enemies who meant to do you and other disciples harm are to be loved by His disciples! There is no getting around it. The Lord Jesus Christ asked, rather, He commanded His disciples to love their enemies. There are no get-out clauses, no loopholes, and no exceptions.

The Lord came to fulfil the law

All these corroborate the testimony of Christ as He said:

“17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Mat 5:17-18).

 Obviously, He was talking about the true law devoid of the additions of the traditions of the elders. Hence, this teaching and command.

 Do remember that the Lord was not talking from the comfort of a house like someone who did not know what he was talking about. In addition to His rightful position as the Lord with authority, He had experienced the evils enemies are capable of more than any human being. Yet He did not repay evil with evil to those enemies.

 The ultimate demonstration of this love was His volunteering to go to the cross and while He hung in agony and excruciating pain as He was dying for the sins of the same enemies that cried crucify Him, he prayed for the same enemies as He said:

 “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

 His foremost apostle gave more details:

“19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1Pet 2:19-24).

 Part of the law the Lord came to fulfil is to love our neighbours as ourselves. That neighbour may be a friend or an enemy. Again, the Lord is our supreme example. We are informed that while we were sinners and still in enmity against God the Lord died for us (Rom 5:8).

 On what authority is your practice of Christianity based: the word of God or the traditions of men? Please, check!

 

Love for the enemy is a trait of the children of God

Perhaps some of them were playing dumb: hearing what he said and knowing that He is Lord, they still asked a question.

 Why must we love our enemies?

 As if in answer to that unverbalized question, the Lord further said:

 “that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Mat 5:45).

 This is not saying that this will make believers become the children of God. You do not become a child of God by your works. Rather, you do those good works because you are a child of God. The believers are already sons or children of God through salvation by Jesus Christ. Rather, now that they are children of God, obeying the commandments of God, in this particular case, loving their enemies, demonstrates them showing their resemblance to their heavenly Father.

 You are still a little child to God

Though you are an adult, you are still a little child in the sight of God. Hence, He takes care of you as a little child in His family meeting you at every point of your needs. He is the reason you are still alive despite all that life has thrown at you. You may not realise it, but you are weathering all adverse situations because of His everlasting arms beneath you.

Remember when you were growing up about 5-8 years old? Mummy said do something. You ask why? And she answers, because mummy says to do it. And you did it because mummy or daddy said so. I am sure if you have brought up children, you also have used that “because mummy said so” or “because daddy said so” cliché.

Further, remember what the Lord said about entrance into the kingdom of God?

 “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat 18:3).

And I put it to you that irrespective of spiritual growth and accomplishment for the Lord, you are the Lord’s little child. So, you do this and many other things because your heavenly Father says to do it! And that settles all dissentions.

Further, the apostles regularly addressed adult believers in Christ as little children (cf. Gal 4:19; 1John 2:1, 2:12, 3:18, 4:4). And believers are admonished to,

 “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” (1Pet 2:2).

As children of God, believers in Christ are to go the extra mile. They are to do much better than unbelievers (Mat 5:20, 41). This can only be possible because Christ is living His life through the believer (Gal 2:20). Such have the grace that is due to the divine life they possess through the presence of the Holy Spirit resident in them. As we are told, the believers are partakers of

“the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2Pet 1:4).

 Believers have the character trait of peacemakers who are blessed, called children of God, and also followers of God who are referred to as His dear children (Mat 5:9; Eph. 5:1).

Similar to many of the things He commands believers, God first demonstrates such by or in Himself. Hence, because He is Holy, He says believers should be Holy. And here, he first demonstrates His none-discriminatory action in terms of provision for all His creation. He is truly the God of providence.

As in the physical climate or weather, God had the ability to be selective as He demonstrates in the way different areas have different weather at the same time. But such selection is not usually on the basis of the location of evil and good people as all people in any particular location experience the same weather at the same time.

Similarly, in spiritual matters, generally people groups are not singled out as a whole for punishment. Though God punishes the wicked and evil person, we may not always know the process by which His judgements upon the ungodly are carried out in the interim before the final judgement.

Please remember that though believing children of God cannot be perfect as God is, God still demands our sincere best rendered faithfully.

Many believers will want to please God because that is the right thing to do even when they might not even know what to do.

 Now a powerful contrast

If the fact your Lord commanded, and obeying enables you to demonstrate your similarity with your heavenly Father, may be the desire to avoid a notorious appellate will do the trick!

 Humans like good accolades. Many even go out of their way to court such praises. The average person would be happy and thumb his chest in elation if commended as being Christlike. But not many especially amongst the children of God would like a negative appellate. This brings us to the next verse.

“For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” (Mat 5:46-47).

To love the one who loves you is the way of the natural man. This is what is most natural and usual for every person: love them that love you.

What goes for love, goes also for greetings in all its different forms. Even the worst of men (this is what these tax collectors had become to the Jewish society of Jesus’ day), would greet only their brethren. And believers are definitely expected to do better than even the best of men!

The Lord speaks to this nature of man because He knew man (John 2:24-25). Most people do things for reward.

But Christian character as reflected from God goes beyond doing what is natural or commonly expected as the earthly nature of man. The Christian has been regenerated and has the Spirit of God living in him. He is therefore to walk in the Spirit. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit that empowers and thus enables him to put his body under subjection or control and thus go beyond and above his sinful nature.

Again, the Lord demonstrates His knowledge of man: man does things for reward or the potential for reward. In that day, to be likened to the publicans was a powerful negative appellate. To be described as a publican was one of the terrible things you could say to a Jew.

The publicans

But who were the publicans?

Why were they so hated by the Jewish society?

The publicans were also called tax collectors. Ordinarily the tax collector is someone who collected taxes for the government.

In that day, the term “tax collector” was a term of abuse as here (Mat 5:46; and Mat 18:17). It was also a foil to the hypocrites (Luke 3:12; 7:29). It was also joined in vituperative apposition to “harlots” (Mat 21:31-32). They were commonly referred to as “sinners” as they were lumped together in the phrase “tax collectors and sinners” (Mat 9:10-11; 11:19; Mark 2:15-16; Luke 5:30; 19:2-10).

In the areas ruled by the Roman empire, contracts for collecting taxes in a region were usually given to wealthy foreigners through a bidding process. The agreed amount of tax was paid in advance to the Roman government by the bid winner. He in turn then sub-contracted specific smaller geographical areas to subcontractors. The subcontractors further subcontracted to lower level contractors too. These then hired local inhabitants to which he contracted smaller geographical areas to collect the taxes.

This arrangement provided ample opportunity at several levels for considerable personal enrichment through the unrestricted inflation of taxes and toils as a portion of whatever was collected went into the pocket of the collector.

One of such local inhabitants is Zacchaeus called a tax collector who amassed wealth in the Jericho area (Luke 19:2-10). They collected much more than was required and pocket the excess themselves. Hence, they were perceived to be corrupt. In addition, the local tax collectors were seen as traitors who were collaborators with the enemy of the people, the Roman government.

 The only standard for the believer is God.

And finally, the Lord commanded:

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Mat 5:48).

This is the crux of the matter, the glory of God and becoming godlike.

To be perfect is to be complete, to be matured. It does not mean to be flawlessly perfect which is impossible for us believers until the final glorification in the presence of Christ. But in our current state on earth, each believer is to through the enablement of the indwelling holy spirit to aspire to Christlikeness.

This calls the believer to engage in things that are not natural to humans, but which God has commanded and thus made are possible to those in whose lives Jesus Christ is Saviour and Lord.

And whatever character traits of God we are to aspire to are glimpsed from the personality of Christ:

“For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9).

He is the one who had come down to earth to declare God to man, and to reveal Him to whoever He will (John 1:18; Luke 10:22).

A very tough command indeed

If we are honest with ourselves, we will agree that it will infinitely be much easier to obey the command of the Lord concerning love amongst believers,

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34).

Even with the help of the Holy Spirit, loving fellow believers have not been easy for many. Hence, there is much strife, divisions, cliques and party spirit reminiscence of the Corinthian church of old (1Cor 3:1-10ff.) in the churches in our day. So, look up to the Lord to see you through as you make sincere efforts to obey Him.

Do bear in mind that from the point of view of the Lord He was not asking us to do anything extraordinary. Rather, He is asking us to do that which should be, though it is not, natural to us as children of our Father in heaven (Mat 5:48).

The Lord lived what He commanded

The Lord Himself was to demonstrate what He commanded His disciples while he hung on the cross. Despite all the humiliation, severe beating, and the excruciating pain He must have been in, He prayed for those who crucified Him out of envy and hatred:

“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.” (Luke 23:24). He says that it is for the disciple to be like his master (Mat 10:25).

His disciples demonstrated obedience

Stephen while being stoned, in excruciating pain and at the point of death prayed for those who were killing him:

“And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60).

God’s standard remains the same

God’s commandments are universal to all His people in all ages. The same standard was demanded of the old testament believers. They were to give their enemies food if hungry and water to drink if thirsty (Pro. 25:21). I would venture that this passage is more than just food and drink.

Remember that love is a central tenet of the kingdom of God. It is a core trait of a genuine believer in Christ. The true child of God manifests lives a life of love. This bears repeating: love is entrenched in both the Old and the new covenants.

“37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Mat 22:37-40),

It appears that the second great commandment, rather than excluding enemies includes them. Or I should say that it does not distinguish between friends and enemies.

 Christ Himself died for sinners while they were yet at enmity against God. Hence, in the new covenant believers in Him are commanded to follow His example. Believers are commanded to love one another as Christ loved them (John 13:34). They were to be known to be disciples of Christ by the way they showed love (John 13:35).

 But the disciples of Christ are in a better covenant that demands a higher standard. Hence, they were to love their enemies in this new dispensation as it was from the beginning:

 “4 If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. 5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.” (Ex 23:4-5).

And

“19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom 12:19-21, cf. Pro 25:21-22).

This should be expected since it is the same God that is sovereign over both the Old and New Testaments, and that His standard has remained the same.

As love for the enemy encompassed the care of this known enemy. Even to taking care of the enemy’s valuable property:

“4If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. 5If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.” (Ex 23:4-5).

So, it should continue with the disciples Christ. We are to do the same as people of God.

Identify with positivity and not notoriety

If the positivity of being commanded to love their enemies so as to be like their Father in heaven is not enough to ensure their obedience, the notoriety and negativity associated with the much-hated publicans will perhaps shock them out of their lethargic practices of their traditions of the day and into obedience of the tough command.

Certain misconceptions, what loving you enemies does not preclude:

  • Loving your enemies does not preclude you protecting yourself.
  • Loving your enemies does not mean close association.
  • Though we are informed that acts of kindness towards the enemy will be like pouring burning coals upon them, we are not told the details of how this pans out when it comes time for God to deal with them (Pro 25:22; Rom 12:20).
  • Hence, you are not to keep one eye open hoping to see the burning coals raining down on your enemy as a result of your acts of love towards them.
  • That is, do not let the motive for loving your enemies be your expectation that God will soon punish them.
  • Remember, God sees your heart and can know if your love for your enemy is genuine or not.
  • Indeed, we are told that God may even stop the punishment of the wicked if He sees you rejoicing at their misfortune! (Pro 24:17-18).
  • You should not be afraid of the possibility of God answering your prayers for the welfare of your enemies. Do not be a Jonah in this wise!
  • Loving your enemies does not prevent or protect from persecution. So, do not see loving your enemies as potential advance payment against persecution.
  • It is only God who can make your enemies to live in peace with you (Pro 16:7).

Your willingness and faithfulness demanded

The difficulty of a commandment has no bearing on our responsibility as believers in Christ to keep that commandment. Therefore, it is not a question of whether we have the capacity to perform any of the commandments. It is our willingness that is required.

Why should we children of God love our enemies and do these things?

  • Because God commands us to love them.
  • Because God demands our obedience as His children.
  • Because God alone gives us the grace to be sustained in the midst of the enemies.
  • Because God says the punishment of the enemy is His exclusive preserve: vengeance belongs to Him exclusively.
  • Because God has “made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Pro 16:4).
  • Because God alone knows all the enemies and all their abilities.
  • Because God alone restrains the enemies so they cannot do all the evils they want to do.
  • Because God alone restrains the enemies so they cannot do all the evils they are capable of doing.
  • Because God alone commands and even the devil obeys.
  • Because God alone knows the reason for the existence and the assignment of the enemies in your life.
  • Because God alone is a righteous Judge.
  • Because God alone loves us like no other human can.
  • Because God alone can and does protect and keep us secure.
  • Because God alone has the power over and above all the enemies.
  • Because God alone has the power to answer prayers and He can set aside any imprecation you may invoke against your enemies.
  • Because God promised that the wicked shall by no means go unpunished.
  • Because doing these recognizes God’s sovereignty: He exercise His right to do as He pleases.
  • Because we affirm God’s right to treat all alike if He chooses to do so.
  • Because obeying these conforms to the mind of Christ (Phil 2:8).
  • Because our obedience shows the unsaved something different from what they are used to, and which is more than they are capable of doing (Mat 5:46-47).
  • Because doing so tries and proves our obedience.
  • Because it gives God the opportunity to work on our behalf.
  • Because it forces us to examine ourselves intently as to our faith and spiritual growth.
  • Because living this way takes spiritual maturity and the more we live this way, the more we reflect Christ (Mat 5:48).

Believer in Christ, are you willing to obey your Saviour and Lord?

I pray that your sincere answer is yes.

When you choose to obey, then the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who is there to help and to assist our obedience will enable you to do what you need to do to please God. Though, the commandment to love our enemies is quite hard, we have the Holy Spirit to help us.

Hence, tough as this commandment may seem, and it is truly hard, the true believer in Christ has no excuse not to keep it. For as he walks in the Spirit, he will not fulfil the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). And the Holy Spirit will supply the supernatural enablement to do this difficult task.

The Lord commanded you to do it knowing that in your natural self, you will not be able to do so. In a sense His hard-to-obey command is an invitation to you to come and be dependent upon Him for the enablement to do His will. He knows you intimately. He knows all the enemies to the depth you cannot. More than that, He superintends both you and all the enemies.

Then, He went ahead a gave His Holy Spirit, who will then empower you to do that which is beyond your natural ability. It is because of the Holy Spirit in their lives that the people of God are able to have peace and joy in the things of God (Rom 14:17) and, God’s commandments are not burdensome or grievous to His people (1Jhon 5:3).

Do not rely on yourself to walk your Christian journey.

 Rather, depend on the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit for help Now. Remember, He is the comforter who comes alongside you to help you. And you will be able to love your enemies as or Lord commanded.

So far so good for the believer in Christ, the child of the living God. God ever watches over all His children. He restrains their enemies while He gives His children the grace needed to obey Him and overcome every onslaught of the enemies for the battle belongs to the LORD who is Man of War who is always victorious.

But what if you are not yet a believer in Christ?

Please understand that the above concerns the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can with the help of the Holy Spirit and the written word of God, and a humble spirit be able to be obedient to God, even in the worst of circumstances. This is because what God demands of His people can only be done with the help of God who superintends the lives of His people.

 So, if you are not yet a believer in Christ, if Jesus Christ is not yet your Saviour and Lord, the above may sound to you as unreal or a fairy tale. But I assure you it is real and not a fairy tale. And better still, you can come in and have what genuine believers in Christ have.

 How?

 By becoming a born-again child of God:

Accept God’s verdict concerning human beings:

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

That is, in the opinion of God, we all fall short of His standard. Further, our sin has earned a deserved wage which is death or separation from God in hell.

But while we are still in our sin, God took the initiative to reconcile us with Himself as we are told:

“But God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Yes, while we were all still in our sin, God showed His love for us by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ to die for us. God gave Jesus Christ to the whole world (John 3:16). So, all we need to do is to accept that Christ has died for our sin by standing in place of us.

We do this by doing what the word of God commands all would-be believers:

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10). “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Everyone who appropriates the sacrifice of Christ is acceptable to Him. And He Himself extended the invitation to all:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

So, I encourage you to appropriate the finished work of Christ and confess Him as your Saviour and Lord NOW!

I prayer that God will accept you into His household through Christ in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

%MCEPASTEBIN%

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation, Feature, Salvation , , , , , , ,

Beware that your attitude does not portray you as one of the foolish  0

 August 1, 2019  

Many believers in Christ are so sure of their faith that they claim that nothing can shake them. That nothing will make them want to think evil of God. On the surface that sounds nice and even spiritual. Yet many are living like God has left them or that they never knew God in the first place. Peter the apostle once boasted that he would never deny the Lord even if others did. He was to later regret that boast as in the face of potential persecution and possible death, he reneged and denied his Lord.

And believers are warned to take heed least they fall. Believers are to regularly examine themselves to see if they are still in the faith. All these go to show to the believers in Christ that it is important for them to know they are vulnerable, especially at certain times and circumstances. They are to therefore be grounded and rooted in their faith and be on their watch against any slip ups.

Let every believer in Christ therefore beware that his attitude does not portray him as one of the foolish. To help us we shall look at a passage of the Holy Scripture, (Job 2:9-10) to learn from the life of one of the believers of old and his wife.

Job 2:9-10:

“9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”.

Most anyone who has read the Holy Bible or been to Sunday Schools knows the story of Job or at least have heard of him. He is often held up as the epitome of faith in the face of adversity. Many often forget that while those reading the story as written in the Bible have the privilege of knowing the behind the scenes conferences held by God with the sons of God, Job in the centre of the testing did not.

And today, many believers in adverse circumstances expect to be told point blank that God is the one allowing Satan to test-prove them. This is not always the case as in the case of Job, God alone has the right to have such privileged information.

What God requires of you the believer is to stay true to him in all circumstances. However, as he demonstrated in the case of Job, God is able to see you through any situation without giving you the details of whatever may be taking place in the spirit realm concerning your situation.

God demands and expects you who claim to be his child to stand with him in the face of the adversary. I pray you will not fail God in the name of Jesus.

God Himself testifies concerning Job that:

  • Job is the servant of God.
  • There is none like him in the earth, a perfect man.
  • Job feared God and eschewed evil (Job 1:8).

Satan the opportunist

And God gave Satan permission to afflict Job, but with one exemption: God commanded Satan to not touch the life of Job (Job 2:6).

What better opportunity could Satan ever had again against such a highly regarded servant of God. The devil took his opportunity with both hands and joyfully went to work on Job. By the time Satan got to the limit of what God permitted him to do, Job had lost ALL:

  • He had lost all his property.
  • He had lost all his children.
  • He had lost all his wealth.
  • He had lost his health.
  • He had lost his standing and prestige in the community.
  • Everything was gone, and he was in a terrible state.

In all his plenty and adversity, his wife was a full participant equally affected as her husband.

Job was now sitting outside on a heap of ashes, scratching his rotten sores with a potsherd (Job 2:8). Job that was a man of authority and prestige (Job 29:1-25) was now an outcast scorned by all. What a terrible personality Satan is!

Job not aware of meeting in heaven

Do remember that Job was not privileged to know God held a council with the sons of God in heaven, neither was he informed of what transpired in that meeting (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6).

Only the readers of this book down the ages, including us are given that privileged information. We are reading it after the events. As such we have a tendency to be wiser after the events forgetting that Job was not privy to the behind-the-scenes spiritual goings-on.

9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

 Job’s wife was married to him in a covenant relationship.

  • She had lived with him for a long time.
  • She is the mother of his 10 children (7 sons and 3 daughters).
  • She knew him very well.
  • She knew his devotion to God to be real, and not a pretension.
  • She had enjoyed the period of prosperity and was now undergoing adversity with him.
  • Hence, she was not a stranger to God’s goodness in their lives.

However, she is a woman deeply grieving. And she spoke out of the depth of her sorrow and grief.

Integrity:

Integrity: (in this context), is spotless character in regard to God; blamelessness before God; Completeness with regard to his relationship with God. This completeness in relationship with God manifested in concrete action as Job refused to charge God with wrongdoing.

Job persisted in the same level of devotion to God that he had at the time of his prosperity even in the time of his great and tragic adversity. God Himself testified to the veracity of Job’s integrity though his wife was not aware of God’s testimony.

 Of Job can truly be said, “He loved the giver of the gifts infinitely more than the gifts.”

 Believer in Christ how are you responding to God in your prosperity?

  • Believer in Christ, how are you responding to God in your adversity?
  • Like Job or like his wife?

 Job’s wife knew Job was still maintaining his relationship with God. That he had refused to charge God with error or wickedness.

 Hence, her question.

  • Are you still maintaining your integrity?
  • Are you still continuing to have faith in your God who has done all these terrible things to us?
  • How long are you going to continue to insist that God is good and loves you?
  • How worse can things get before you wake up from this your religious fanaticism.
  • Stop burying your head in the sand like an ostrich and face the reality of your situation!
  • And on and on. You, fill-in the blanks!  

 She asked the question knowing fully well that Job was still faithful to God and that her husband was still refusing to blame God for their calamity.

The age-old modus operandi of Satan

This line of questioning by Job’s wife is not new. It is as old as when corruption was found in Satan, the adversary. Neither prosperity nor adversity is a panacea against it. It can be indirect through a cooperating agent like the serpent in the garden, an agent who may not be aware of having been coopted like the case of Job’s wife, or direct by the devil himself as in the case of Christ in the wilderness.

Remember:

The serpent (the instrument of the devil in the garden) with Eve:

Eve was in a place of plenty. A place where all their needs as a couple, including regular fellowship with God were met. Yet, the devil came there. Knowing what God has said to Eve, he said,

“Yea, hath God said?” (Gen 3:1).

 The devil directly confronted the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord was in the wilderness and fasting. It was a place of deprivation, preparation and testing. The Lord was fasting as part of the preparation for His soon-to-be lunched ministry of Salvation.

So, further down the line, the devil used the same ploy with the Lord Jesus Christ. Though, he knew Jesus to be the Son of God, he still went ahead to challenge that truth. He said,

“If thou be the son of God” (Mat 4:3, 6).

 Notice that the questions and statements are calculated or framed in a way to create doubt in the hearer.

The devil was saying to the Lord, “you are the Son of God eh! Prove it to me now!” But since when does a child of God has to prove to the devil that he is a child of God? He knows his Father and his Father knows him!

Remember,

Eve was wallowing in abundance, while the Lord was in a 40-day fast and in the wilderness. They were both confronted by the tempter with things that would be quite enticing and irresistible.

The devil makes his moves at the moments of maximum vulnerability of his intended victim! The time the devil is most likely to succeed against the would-be victim in his deception. The devil presents his case in a most believable way. In ways that even others will join in to put pressure upon the intended victim.

Job asked to imitate the heathen around him

Job’s wife’s command to him was, “curse God, and die”

The heathens around them were in the habit of heaping curses upon their idol gods when they thought such false gods had brought misfortune and evil upon them. Job’s wife would have seen them berating and reproaching their gods on many occasions.

Job as the head of the family is the one with authority to call time on the family. Through him, both blessings and curses come, and in this case, all the calamity was because his faithfulness pleased God but angered Satan and led to his being further tested.

And he is the one who could end their relationship with God. Hence, she was asking her husband to do the ultimate: curse God and let Him kill us out of anger and save us from this miserable life!

 What she might be forgetting because of her sorrow was that Yahweh, their God was the true God and not an idol. You can neither curse nor make an end of the true and living God! You cannot even curse the true child of God. If you doubt this ask Balaam and Balak (Num. 22:1-24:25. See esp. Num.23:7-8, 18-21).

 The idea was that Job should make an end of everything, because according to the theology of the wife by what had happened to them, God had proved to be unworthy of their devotion and worship. Doesn’t that remind you of the prosperity crowed?

What worse thing could befall them other than what they had suffered? she must have reasoned. It is better to die and end all than to live such a miserable life she must have thought!

 Please, be aware, suffering and pain can do much damage to a believer’s thinking.

So, mind your thinking and your words when you are in unpleasant circumstances.

Her words were harsh and would have had a devastating effect on Job more than whatever Job’s friends might have said. She was the closest to Him, the only one after God that he could trust, and rely upon. They have done intimate and confidential things together and she knew her husband inside out. Job, her husband knew and trusted her too.

And so, to hear her utter the words she uttered like she did would ordinarily have deflated Him. But he showed that he was really a man of faith. Job demonstrated perseverance in His faith and in his trust in God.

 However, Job’s wife misconstrued his perseverance in faith as religious fanaticism. She thought Job was blindly refusing to face the reality of their very desperate situation. She showed her bitterness against God by lashing out at her husband. Her action would have been another of so many terrible blows to Job, her husband.

 Notice that, though Job and his wife were unaware of what was going on in the heavenly council, the suggestion of his wife that Job should curse God was exactly what Satan had twice predicted in the presence of God that Job would do if God should allow him to attack Job (Job 1:11; 2:5). Hence, inadvertently, she was being an advocate for the devil!

Please be careful that neither your utterances nor your actions inadvertently strengthen the enemy position.

“10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”

Her husband, who was in addition to the loss of their children and all their material wealth, was in serious physical sickness responded but not in the harsh tone that some would have.

Foolish here does not mean to be stupid or lack natural intelligence. Here, foolish means being spiritually ignorant or being undiscerning of spiritual things.

Notice that her husband, Job, did not call her a foolish woman. And no right-thinking believer should call his wife foolish, neither should the wife her husband. There should be no derogatory language between spouses.

Rather, Job was cautioning his wife against speaking unadvisedly. It is as if saying, be careful now. Do not speak like one of the foolish women. Foolish women here likely referred to the heathen unbelievers around them. Job was cautioning his wife not to let their current terrible situation to overwhelm her to the extent that she would disparage and charge God with error.

The fool:

It is the fool who has said in his heart, that there is no God. It is the fool that worship idols and other false gods. It is the fool that claims to be a Christian while living contrary to the word of God, and still expecting God’s blessings.

Brother, sister, how do you speak? Like one of the foolish? Please, speak as one of the wise ones.

What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?

Job was indeed reminding his wife of who she was in God, and their previous blessings from God by his statement put to her as a question. Job was not being a fatalist who resigned to the will of an unknown God.

Rather, Job recognised the sovereignty of God over their lives, and indeed over all of creation. Though he might not be able to explain it or even understand it, Job believed nothing would happen to them except God allowed it.

He was of such trustfulness that God knows all things, and especially in their situation, that he must have rested in the truth that God knew what he was doing. His is the life of one totally submitted to God.

In spite of his own personal pain and anguish, he found time to be the pillar of support for his wife. He was still gracious towards her as in her grieve she lashed out at him.

In all this did not Job sin with his lips:

Try to picture the level of personal agony and suffering Job must have been in because of his terrible physical sickness, add to that the loss of all he possessed except his wife. All his friends and relatives had deserted them. He had lost his high status in society. Yet, he refused to charge God with error. Though in serious pain, he did not sin! Though in a very serious situation he neither understood nor could explain, he refused to sin!

Observe that:

This affirmation and confirmation that, “in all this did Job sin not with his lips”, proved Satan’s prediction wrong. Satan had twice predicted to God that if Job was attacked severely enough, Job would curse God to his face (Job 1:11; 2:5). Of course, Satan is the father and purveyor of falsehood. He raises up false prophets to ensnare the gullible, especially those in pursuit of signs and wonders from whatever source. It also vindicated God’s confidence in Job, and God’s words about Job (Job 1:22, cf. Job 1:8, 11; 2:3, 5).

How would you fare?

  • Brother, sister, how is your relationship with God.
  • In what ways may Satan be challenging your integrity before God?
  • What may the devil be predicting concerning you before God?
  • Will God have such confidence in your integrity or faithfulness if the devil were to argue in the court of heaven that he be allowed to put you to the test, to be allowed to attack you so as to show God that you are not as committed as you claim to be?
  • If such were to happen, or perhaps, is already happening, how will you respond?
  • Like Job or like Job’s wife?

Rather, Job confidently affirmed that trouble (evil) as well as good come from God. Scripture confirms the same (cf. Eccl. 7:14; Lam 3:38). This is in contrast with the view of most people, including Christians. Most people’s view is that bad things happening means the very existence of God is questionable. For if God truly exists and have all the powers ascribed to Him, everything should just be good, and with the complete absence of evil or trouble they reason and affirm.

Later, Job affirmed to his friends that he would retain his integrity till death (Job 27:5).

Job was a human like any, and all of us. He was just getting on with life not knowing what was happening in the spirit world. Though he was oblivious to the conferences going on about him in heaven, he believed not only in the sovereignty of God but also in the goodness of God. He believed whatever God allowed in his life (Job’s) would be in his (job’s) and to the Glory of God.

  • How many of us could have stayed true to God if we were Job?
  • Consider where you are now, and the things you think you are going through:
  • How is your relationship with God?
  • How are you bearing up under the burden?
  • Could you have gone further than Job’s wife and taken the laws into your hands?

Remember, she stayed with her husband till the end and they were restored together.

  • What would you do when you are in that place where though you are a believer in Christ, there is no evidence of God’s presence, and blessing, as in this case of Job.
  • How long do you think you will stay true to God before seeking additions, and or alternatives or even abandoning God altogether as you seek solution your own way at all costs?

This is especially important in this day of benefits Christianity. There is a deluge falsehood and the merchandising of the God of the bible and his word. Purveyors damnable heresies, instant gratifications, and so-called instant miracles have invaded the land and numerous people are being ensnared daily.

Please, it is important to look intently at yourself and sincerely re-evaluate your relationship with the Lord with the intention to make necessary adjustment as soon as practicable. Please, do not delay as the Lord could come back anytime.

While not everyone is called to be a Job and his wife, each believer has his or her place and time of testing.

Remember, both husband and wife were believers. They were both beset in the same calamity, but the husband more so, as he was also afflicted in his body. Both were grieving due to their devastating loss. All they saw was the physical realities of their situation as they were not privy to the meetings that took place in the presence of God. Yet, their response concerning their faith and trust in God were so different.

As people of faith in God, and followers of Christ, we must have faith and trust in God in both prosperity and adversity, even while we are unable to understand why bad things happen.

New Testament believers

Both the Old Testament and New Testament believers have and serve the same God. His standards and demands for his people remain the same. We have seen what would have been foolishness on the part of the wife of Job.

What will be foolishness on our part as New Testament believers in Christ? How a believer could inadvertently behave or act foolishly. And hence the need for the believer in Christ not to be complacent.

 No excuse for unfaithfulness

What Job’s wife said was bad. She seemed to think that Job had good reason to rebel against God in view of all they had lost. Perhaps most people would have thought so too. Hence, her question, and the following statement. But God expect better things from his children.

 And Job like many others in Scripture demonstrate to the rest of believers that believers can be better ambassadors of Christ if they will allow the Holy Spirit and the word of God to do their work in in the believer. This is what Job also amply demonstrated.

 But Job showed that he was not serving God for profit. New Testament believers have an even more obvious or objective thing to look up to: The suffering and sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. And because the sacrifice and persecution of any believer in Christ cannot be compared to that of Christ, it will be foolish to claim or proffer any excuse for not being faithful to God.

 So, if you find yourself faltering or being unfaithful, do not excuse yourself or try to blame someone else. Rather, confess and repent asking God to forgive you. And God will forgive and restore you to himself.

God always have use for his own

Calling Job, her husband to end it all by cursing God is akin to saying God had no use for them anymore. She was deep in sorrow and grief. She was wearied, tired, and seem not to have the strength nor the will to want to continue. The depth sorrow and grief of such horrendous disaster and personal tragedy befalling the home of a believer in the one true God can only be imagined and no doubt would have clouded her understanding.

She was simply numbed by her grief and couldn’t care less whatever happens. She therefore looked for the quickest way to end it all – no point to continue to live a miserable existence. But contrary to what she thought, God still had much use for her and her husband and thus kept them alive in their adversity.

 While she seemed hasty in her decision of advising her husband to abandon his faith, Job, her husband was an example of patience in the face of adversity. And the faith of Job in the face of overwhelming tragedy should challenge every believer in Christ.

 God used Job to confound and silence Satan called the adversary. Satan is still in the business of opposing God by been the adversary to his people. And God is still ever proud of his people, more so wherever there are faithful ones like Job. God still wants to use his people for his glory through empowering them to resist and overcome whatever the adversary may throw at them as he did Job. It is talking like one of the foolish if a believer counsels another to leave God because of some tragedy or adversity.

It is foolish to think that because of being in adversity, God has no further use for any of his children, children that he has gone to extra-ordinary effort to redeem by sending his only begotten Son into the world to suffer and die on the cross for.

 Never let adversity make forget the goodness of God

Job’s reply to his wife showed that though his anguish was intense, he still remembered the goodness of God. God had been good to them with all they enjoyed in the past.

 Though one’s circumstances could change dramatically, God never changes. God is always good even when our personal circumstances wants us to think otherwise. And as New Testament believers, God has and continues to demonstrate His love for us through salvation, daily provision, protection, and good promises for the future. It is therefore foolish to forget the goodness of God when we have problems or challenges that are not easy to resolve.

 As I often encourage us, you should never question what God had spoken or given to you in your steady state when trouble or difficulties come. God is always good and true.

 Satan will do his best to make you charge God with error.

Satan will come, and especially at periods of vulnerability: He will try to sow doubt. He will try to tempt us with foolish questions. He will try to make us draw foolish conclusions from incomplete and corrupt information. And he will try to urge us to urgent precipitate and unwise actions that could make our situation worse if not irredeemable.

 But never forget who you are:

However, whatever the circumstances may be, the believer in Christ should remember who he is: Job never forgot who he was. Job knew he had a living, all-powerful redeemer (Job 19:25). Though his current situation was terrible, and he had no explanation for it, he knew his future was bright (Job 19:25-27).

 The future of the New Testament believers in Christ is in the hands of Christ. This is the living hope that is a sure promise of bright future based upon Christ’s finished work on the cross.

The believer in Christ should be careful that his walk or anything in him does not portray him as one of the ungodly around. There is a possibility this could happen. Hence, believers are commanded to abstain or flee from all appearance of evil (1Thes 5:22).

Christian, believer in Christ, DETERMINE from now not to allow any circumstances to cause you to appear as a fool before God.

The unbeliever

But this has been about the people of God, especially in our time, the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps unlike Job and his wife, you are not of the people of God, you are yet an unbeliever and you are asking, “How do I come in seeing I do not yet know Christ?”

 What if Christ is not yet your Saviour? What if you are not yet born of the Spirit? Then the above does not yet apply to you. You are yet outside the fold of the people of God, the believers in Christ.

 But there is a way out for God has made provision for you too. O yes, God created you. So, he knows you more than you know yourself! God knew you were going to get to this point and he therefore made provision for you.

How?

 By becoming a born-again child of God as demanded and provided for by God:

The invitation has gone out to all human beings including you reading this piece.

Accept God’s verdict concerning human beings:

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

That is, in the opinion of God, we all fall short of His standard. Further, our sin has earned a deserved wage which is death or separation from God in hell.

But while we are still in our sin, God took the initiative to reconcile us with Himself as we are told:

“But God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Yes, while we were all still in our sin, God showed His love for us by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ to die for us. God gave Jesus Christ to the whole world (John 3:16). So, all we need to do is to accept that Christ has died for our sin by standing in place of us.

We do this by doing what the word of God commands all would-be believers:

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10). “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Everyone who appropriates the sacrifice of Christ is acceptable to Him. And He Himself extended the invitation to all:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

So, I encourage you to appropriate the finished work of Christ and confess Him as your Saviour and Lord NOW!

I prayer that God will accept you into His household through Christ in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation, Salvation, Uncategorized

Be a true disciple of Christ and not just one of the multitudes  0

 June 12, 2019  

Many Christians are self-certified and self-satisfied with their Christian life. This often despite a lifestyle that is obviously not in line with the word of God. Some excuse themselves by claiming that they are followers of Christ who are yet to become Christ’s thus creating artificial categories amongst the disciples of Christ.

 

However, there is only one group of Christ’s disciples in Scripture. Hence, those who claim to be followers while waiting to become disciples are drawing conclusions are erroneous and possible delusions from their own minds that have no bearing with the true word of God.

 

Thank God that we live in the time of grace. A time when we can encourage ourselves. And if anyone is beginning to fall asleep at his duty post rather than being awake to his responsibilities as a disciple of Christ, we can nudge him back to wakefulness.

 

Truly, there were multitudes who followed Christ about during His earthly ministry. But such ones were just faceless crowds who saw Him more as an entertainer. They were never considered nor confused with the disciples of Christ.

 

If going off course and into this error, it is required you retrace your steps and go back to your first love, that of being true disciple of Christ.

 

So today, I want each person who claim to know Christ to honestly answer this question in the deepest part of his heart:

 

“Are you a true disciple of Christ or just one of the multitudes?”

 

I say upfront that I desire and want to encourage you to “Be a true disciple of Christ and not just one within the faceless multitudes that followed Him.

 

As a form of help, I encourage you to read and reflect of Luke 14:25-35 as you attempt to answer that question. Please, this is not an attempt to bring you under condemnation. Rather, it is an attempt to remind you of what the Holy Scripture teaches: That those in Christ should appraise themselves regularly to ensure that they are still walking according to the light of the Lord.

Here is that passage of Scripture as in the King James Version of the Holy Bible:

 

“25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14:25-35).

 

While you do your own reading and reflection, consider the following:

 

Background

The Lord was by now used to the crowds that followed him around. He had become so popular that He could hardly go anywhere unnoticed or unaccompanied. Many of these that followed Him were there just for the entertainment, free food or just to witness the miracles and not because of any desire to know the truth and get closer to God.

 

And now, another Passover was coming. Most of the people within these multitudes were Jews who had come from the Jewish diaspora. They were headed to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover as commanded them in the law of Moses.

 

Many of them had spent much money and time to be there. Hence, they were religious. They came because they apparently believed in the law of Moses and the God who gave that law through him. They had come to perform their religious obligations.

 

However, the Lord knew that many amongst them were not committed nor did they know the God of their fathers whom they had come to pay religious homage to as much as they claimed.

 

So He spoke to them as to what is required to be His disciple, and by implication, members of the kingdom of the God they claim to be worshipping. He did not want them to be in any doubt as to what God required of them. What the Lord spoke to them He spoke to all including the one who wrote this piece and you reading it.

 

The Lord spoke to the multitude

25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

 

A multitude is a large number of people gathered together in one place. They are often fickle-minded. People within the multitude are faceless. They are uncommitted to anything. No one could be held responsible or accountable for anything. They are excitable and are easily roused and since they often are on a short fuse can do much damage when they engage in mob action.  

 

The multitudes that followed the Lord were there for the entertainment or whatever they thought could be of benefit to themselves and thus caress their need for instant gratifications.

 

At the sight of any trouble or problem, they will disappear or go away. When angry or in disagreement, they could become very vicious and destructive as they go into mob-action mode.

 

An instant that comes to mind is the multitudes that hailed the Lord and usher Him into Jerusalem as King turned against Him as they shouted, “crucify Him, crucify Him!” few days later.

 

The Lord recognised their core characteristics. He also recognised that committed ones could be drawn out of the multitude. He wanted such ones that would be willing to commit to following God to hear the truth. Hence, the Lord addressed them.

 

What the Lord demands of His would-be disciple

26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

 

It is a very big if. It suggests that there is a choice, a decision to be made by people within the great multitudes following Him. It is conditional upon the person who makes such a decision to fulfil the condition. He wanted them to have the needed information so that they will make an informed decision.

 

And what He said applied to any man, that is, anybody, whoever so choses or desires. There is no exception. There are no special circumstances or situations that could be the grounds for exception. No special privileges for anybody man or woman. All are to fulfil the same conditions.

 

To come to me is another way of saying, believe in and commit to follow the Lord as a disciple.

 

The crowds already had come from their various locations to him and were following Him. But their following Him was superficial and temporary as they followed Him to just enjoy whatever they could get from Him. To many of them, He was just a teacher working miracles which they were enjoying as a form of entertainment.

 

Hence, “come to me” here means to come to the Lord with the intention of wanting to become His disciple. It applies to anyone who would venture to commit to following Him the Son of God, as Saviour and Lord.

 

Hate here is a very strong word, demonstrating the seriousness of what was at stake. It is a figure of speech referred to as hyperbole or exaggeration.

 

Father, mother, wife, children, brethren and sisters are all blood relations within the nuclear family. It speaks of the closest and most important relationships known to all his hearers, and indeed, all mankind in all cultures and traditions. These are relationships that are the products of the family as ordained by God. That any normal person would hold above all others and would do anything they can to keep and to nurture at great expense.

 

Christ is to be held up supremely above all else.

The effect of true commitment to Christ will have an effect upon the person’s (the disciple’s) other relationships as to seem like he hates those other relationships. It is not hatred in the sense of doing harm to these blood and close relations. For in numerous places, the believer is commanded to take good care of such relationships.

 

Examples include:

  • The marriage relationship is to be life long and spousal responsibilities and obligations are to be fulfilled.
  • Fathers and mothers are to be honoured and taken care of.
  • Children are to be properly trained and cared for.
  • Nowhere in Scripture is it said that becoming a disciple absolves a person from such obligations.
  • Rather, neglect of such obligations could be a sign that such a one is really not a believer.

 

In addition, the would-be disciple is to “hate his own life also.” Self-love seems to be in-born and universal amongst all of mankind. Every normal person loves himself or herself more than anybody else. This self-love propels each person in all his endeavour in life. Hence, everyone wants the best for himself/herself. This ingrain self-love must be jettisoned by the would-be disciple of Christ. Failing to adhere to this demand of the Lord, the would-be disciple “cannot be my disciple” says the Lord.

 

Dealing with these important and sometimes crucial relationships is according to Christ, an all-or-none process that the would-be disciple must deal with not as one-off event, but as a continuous, on-going process all through his life as a disciple. Each of these relationships must be treated as prescribed by the word of God.

 

Verse 26 echoes a somewhat similar command of God to the people of Israel in the OT not to allow any close relations to entice them away from their God (Deut. 13:6-8).

 

This tells us that it is the same God with the same commands for His people all the time in all places and eras. As in the days of old, so also should be down the ages and down to us, the confession of the saints:

 

“Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” (Ps 73:25).

 

Jewish understanding of discipleship

The Jews understood what it was to be a disciple in their religion and tradition. Jewish disciples followed their masters or rabbis. They frequently imitate them literarily.

 

Their goal was to one day become masters or rabbis themselves having their own disciples. In contrast, the disciples of Jesus Christ were and still are to remain His disciples, and to follow Him only. They were and still are expected to point or lead others to Christ.

 

The disciple of Christ must carry his cross and follow the Lord

27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

 

The command is to an individual. For it is an individual and not a group decision. It is “whosoever” and not “whatever group.”  Personal responsibility is what is called for. Each person will answer to his/her name.

 

Does not bear or carry his cross suggests that there are crosses to carry. Though some may which they don’t have to but each person is to carry his own cross.

 

But what is the cross?

The cross is not some disease, mental anguish or physical infirmity as some suppose. Nobody decides to become sick or acquires a disease of himself. But the cross has an element of choice in it.

 

The cross is what you suffer because you are a true disciple of Christ. Hence, the content of the cross includes a pathway of reproach, persecution, suffering, loneliness, tribulations, and even death if need be voluntarily for the sake of Christ, and of the word (Mat 13:21; Acts 14:22; 2Tim 3:12).

 

It is not just to carry his cross, but such a one must in addition, come after or follow Christ. To come after or follow Christ is to submit to Him and to obey Him. It is those who obey Him that love Him.

 

A person not willing to carry his cross and follow cannot be a disciple of Christ.

 

Refusal to carry the cross and follow the master tantamount to a rejection of the Lord. The carrying of the cross is not a one-off event, but a life-time commitment carried out every day of the disciple’s life. For the command of Christ is:

 

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23).

 

This level of commitment by a true disciple of Christ was alluded to by the apostle Paul. For the apostle Paul made reference to all the afflictions and troubles he had had, that still awaited him, when he said concerning himself:

 

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24).

 

Discipleship is costly, can you pay what is required?

 

Three illustrations from everyday activities

 

  1. A would-be tower builder (Luke 14:28-30):

 

“28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” (Luke 14:28-30).

 

 

A person wanting to build a tower would start with planning. He would sit down and count or estimate the cost of the project. He would then check his resources to see if he has enough to start and complete the tower project. This wise planning would prevent him from starting a project he may not have enough to complete.

 

Not starting a project for which he does not have enough to complete will prevent him from being the object of derision to be mocked for an otherwise uncompleted tower building project.

 

The Christian must assess himself and be willing to fully commit to Christ. It will not be acceptable to accept to become a disciple, be enthusiastic for a while, and then fizzle away. Even the people of the world will mock such a failure and hold such a one in contempt.

 2. A king going to war (Luke 14:31-32):

 

“31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.” (Luke 14:31-32)

 

The king planning to go to war with another king would first appraise his arsenal of soldiers, weapons and other resources beforehand. If he discovers that he would not be able to win the impending war, he would quickly make arrangement for peace with his would-be adversary.

 

For example: The Gibeonites did this with the Israelites during the early stage of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites (Jos. 9:3-16). 

 

The would-be disciple must be willing to and must forsake all

33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

 

This links back to what has been said in the previous verses about the would-be tower builder and the king about to go to war (vv.28-32). Just as the tower builder, and the king going to war had to use all their resources, failing which each would not pursue his respective project, the would-be disciple would go through the same process of evaluation of ability and willingness to become a disciple.

 

The would-be disciple must determine if he will be willing to forsake all and follow the Lord wherever He may lead and whatever He may demand of him as His disciple.

 

The conclusion to be drawn for him to be a disciple is:

“I am willing to, and I will forsake all that I have to become a disciple of Christ.”

 

If the conclusion of the would-be disciple of Christ is short of this, then like the tower builder who would not start building a tower because he does not have enough to complete it, or the king who lack enough soldiers and other resources to prosecute a war, and therefore sort terms of peace from his opposing king, this person cannot be the disciple of Christ, and has to turn back from becoming a disciple of Christ.

 

Others before left all to become disciples of Christ

We could see the demonstration of “forsaking all to follow Christ” in the:

  •  Life of Abraham (Gen 12:1-5), who left all to follow God, and in
  •  The lives of the apostles:
  • Simon, James and John (Luke 5:1-11, esp. v.11),
  • the publican, Levi (Luke 5:27-28).

 

Some others could not forsake all and could not become disciples of Christ

There were also others who could not forsake all, and therefore could not become the disciples of Christ.

 

Examples:  

  •  The rich ruler (Luke 18:15-24, esp. vv.22-23),
  • Ananias with Sapphira his wife (Acts 5:1-5).,
  • Hymeneus and Alexander (1Tim 1:19-20),
  • and Demas (2Tim 4:10).

 

Note that it is not that a person must be willing to, but that he must forsake all.

Many so-called Christians try to explain this passage away. But there is no explaining away what Christ Himself said was His demand of anyone who would want to be His disciple.

 

Christ knew what His disciple would face, and what the job would entail, so He wanted, and still wants people who will esteem Him above everything else in the world.

 

Same planning and diligence in the affairs of this world is called for in spiritual affairs too. It is common sense and normal practice amongst men to plan and ensure they have all the resources they would need before they start any meaningful and worthwhile project.

 

Why would any right-thinking person suppose that a matter of eternal consequences like becoming a disciple of Christ would require anything less?

 3. Salt, a common item of food (Luke 14:34-35):

 

“34 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14:34-35).

 

Salt is good because of its flavour which is inherent in it. That flavour accounts for its usefulness in the various ways and purposes for which it is put. If the salt should loose its all-important flavour, it cannot be re-flavoured.

 

And if it has no flavour, it becomes useless to everybody. It will not even be good for the land fill or the dunghill (rubbish dump). The useless flavourless salt will therefore be thrown away.

 

This paints the picture of the disciple who starts his Christians journey with enthusiasm and zeal. But along the line, he begins to lose his zeal and begins to renege on his vows and promises.

 

The reason for the disciple’s existence is to live true to his Lord. As he begins to lose focus, he begins to live a life that is miserable and therefore, pitiable. As in the case of the salt, men, not God threw out the useless salt.

 

In the case of the disciple who is not living true to the demands of Christ’s discipleship, God does not cast him it, for that would never happen to a true believer.

 

But this believer that has lost his flavour would have men trample underfoot his testimony, as men hold him in contempt and mock him as someone who started well but is unable to finish.

 

What testimony do people have concerning you and your faith of Christianity?  

 

Finally, the Lord said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”

This is not talking of physical ears and physical hearing as important as those are. This is because all his listeners had physical ears, and they could hear his voice as He spoke, otherwise, the whole exercise would be pointless if they were all earless or physically deaf.

 

Rather, those who have ears and would hear are those who could understand the spiritual truth He was teaching, and to go ahead and obey them.

 

In Conclusion

This was Christ informing His would-be followers of the standard required of His disciples.

 

The leaders of the world, and many Christian leaders today crave, cultivate and are excited by large crowds. They just love the crowds, especially when they are gullible and are easily exploited for the benefit of such leaders. This is contrary to Christ.

 

The Lord was not interested in the crowd just for having a large company of people around Him who were there just for the entertainment, who would not commit to any enduring thing, and would run away at the first sign of trouble or any problem.

 

But Christ was looking for committed people, who would prove reliable and endure to the end what the kingdom of God demanded.

 

So, He spoke to them in plain language, so that, such ones as were hoping to become His disciples, as we say in our day, “would make an informed decision.”

 

And contrary to what many think, being a disciple of Christ is costly to the disciple. Becoming a disciple of Christ is a life-long commitment to him. The apostle paul surveying his life in relationship to his life in Christ said,

 

“7But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Phil 3:7-8).

 

The disciple must prioritise Jesus Christ above ALL Else (family, his own life) bear his own cross, counting the cost, and live with purpose of being salt in the world, consistently all through his/her life.

 

There is no place or time for laxity. The Lord Himself made it clear when He said to all:

 

“No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

 

  • Are you a true disciple of Christ or just one of the multitudes of people?
  • Have you resolved to follow the Lord Jesus Christ anywhere He leads you?
  • Have you counted the cost of being a disciple of Christ?

 

I encourage you today to commit to a life of discipleship under the Lordship of Christ.

 

When you do, you will receive the grace to be sustained in your journey of faith, service and ministry to the risen Lord. 

 

To the unbeliever

But this has been about the believers in Christ. Those who have made peace with God through the propitiation of Jesus Christ. They are the one being exhorted to live true to their calling in Christ as they wait for His second coming.

 

But what if you are an unbeliever? What if Christ is not yet your Saviour and Lord? What if you are not yet born of the Spirit? Then the above does not yet apply to you. You are yet outside the fold of believers in Christ. And you cannot be expected to please the Lord and to do things that are only possible with the enablement of the Holy Spirit.

 

Perhaps you are saying you what to be part of the wonderful people of God who are the disciples of Christ. You want an end to the enmity between you and God.

 

And having read this piece you see the possibility but are wondering how you can change your situation.

 

You are asking, “How do I come into the fold of believers in Christ seeing I do not yet know Christ?”

 

Truly, there is a way out for God has made provision for you too. 

 

How?

 

By becoming a born-again child of God as demanded and provided for by God: 

 

The invitation has gone out to all human beings including you reading this piece.

 

Accept God’s verdict concerning human beings:

 

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

 

That is, in the opinion of God, we all fall short of His standard. Further, our sin has earned a deserved wage which is death or separation from God in hell.

 

But while we are still in our sin, God took the initiative to reconcile us with Himself as we are told:

 

“But God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

 

Yes, while we were all still in our sin, God showed His love for us by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ to die for us. God gave Jesus Christ to the whole world (John 3:16). So, all we need to do is to accept that Christ has died for our sin by standing in place of us.

 

We do this by doing what the word of God commands all would-be believers:

 

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10). “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

 

Everyone who appropriates the sacrifice of Christ is acceptable to Him. And He Himself extended the invitation to all:

 

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

 

So, I encourage you to appropriate the finished work of Christ and confess Him as your Saviour and Lord NOW!

 

I prayer that God will accept you into His household through Christ in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Bible Study, Christian Conduct, Doctrine, Exhortation, Salvation, Uncategorized
<< older entries