Hebrews Chapter 2: First Warning

Hebrews Chapter Two: the first of Seven Warnings

Hebrews 2:1-4; Genesis 6:14-22

Introduction:

As we mentioned in the past weeks, along with the many exhortations to genuine believers, and the seven comparisons that are made to demonstrate that “Jesus is Better”, there are seven warnings given throughout the epistle to the Hebrews, which are directed specifically to those who are “along for the ride”, but have not received the Messiah as their savior. They aren’t sure, perhaps, or at least, are not committed.

There are many teachers who attempt to make this a warning to believers against losing the eternal life they now possess. The obvious problem with that is that if that “Eternal Life” is really eternal, then it cannot cease; so the only person who can “lose” eternal life, is one who never possessed it to begin with.

I hope to demonstrate what the warning really is, and to whom it really applies. Interpretation has to precede application; so, before we can rightly apply God’s Word to our lives, we need to understand what it actually says. In chapter two, here, we see the first of the seven warnings to the uncommitted; to the “dabblers”.

Don’t let the Message “Slip” Away from You

Hebrews 2:

¹Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

Given our exalted position in Christ, (provided we have actually crossed over into His life… John 5:24 says that we have crossed over from death into life) and, given the fact that Jesus really is superior in every way to the messengers who were sent to the patriarchs, it behooves us to give special attention to His Word. That is true for all believers…but the “warning” included here is not to believers. This is the beginning of the first warning in the book of Hebrews.

All of the Epistle is to the Hebrew “professing believers” of the Apostolic Age, but among them were evidently (as today) people who, while they professed faith, had never actually placed their faith in Christ as their only hope. They still were “half-in, and half-out”, feeling that they still had the option to go back to Judaism “if things don’t work out”, or if they changed their mind. (The intended audience becomes increasingly apparent, as the warnings intensify.)

This sort of thing is common today among Gentiles, as well, because people “go along” with a church; perhaps, just to “see how things go”.

There are several problems with that approach:

Ultimately, a person who is “half-in” is not in at all.
An unsigned contract is completely invalid. A signed contract is completely binding.
If you put on a uniform, it does not make you part of the armed forces…and if you take it off it does not get you out. In the same way, acting like a believer does not make you a child of God, nor does failing to act like one take you out of God’s family.
The unseen danger is that when one “acts like a Christian”, one can convince oneself that he or she is “just as good as any other person”, and conclude that they are in a secure position because of their works. No one is saved by works. Saving faith produces works, but the works do not produce the relationship vital to salvation.

So, the warnings in the book of Hebrews are specifically to those who have known the truth, but have neglected to do anything about it: they are “dabblers”—dilettantes—those flirting with God, so to speak, but not realizing their own lostness. They are repeatedly warned to not fall short of saving faith.

I have “direct-deposit” for most of my pay, at work; a void “pay-check” is still given to me, every payday, including all the appropriate information regarding taxes, other withholdings, and employer contributions, etc., but it is non-negotiable—the money is already in my checking account, so the paper is only a notification. On the occasions, however, when a bonus is paid (which is not part of our hourly wages), it is not done by direct deposit: the check they give me is a live, valid paycheck, and I have to go deposit it myself. I have to take special care that I don’t lose that check. If I don’t get it endorsed and deposited, it will be worthless to me, though the payment was made to me in good faith. If I let the check “slip” into a drawer, or out of my pocket into the trash, I have lost a large sum of money that would have had real worth to my wife and to me.

We can do the same with the message of salvation. Jesus has “written a check”, so to speak, in the amount of “Eternal Life”, and signed it with His own blood, at the Cross. It is made out to “Whosoever Believeth in Him.” Each recipient is required to “endorse” that check by Faith. God then “deposits” Eternal life and, in addition, the righteousness of Christ, to the believer’s account. (In the Scriptures, this is called imputation. Abraham believed God, and God “imputed” righteousness to Abraham. We studied about this in Romans chapter four.)

When we say, “Well, I’ll think about that,” or “I’m just not ready for that, yet,” then we acknowledge that we heard the message, but that, at least temporarily, we are choosing to reject both the message and the gift…and, consequently, the Giver. The check remains un-endorsed, and the transaction is incomplete. The writer warns to not let that happen.

Don’t Neglect the Gift

²For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

³How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

The issue here is not about “neglecting” a plant, so that it finally withers and dies, but neglecting a message—neglecting to respond to that message. In any human organization, there will be people who are “along for the ride,” but not committed to the cause, so to speak. The military calls them “weekend warriors.” In any local assembly, it is possible for people to fool one another, and there will always be those who secretly feel that “I’ve always been a Christian! I’m certainly just as good as anyone else here!” They are fooling themselves and others, but not God.

That sort of thing is possible at a local level, and a horizontal level: human to human. We can fool people. In the Body of Christ at large, however, only God is keeping the records, and it is impossible to fool God; He knows each heart. He warns against such duplicity, and lets those people know that they can wait too long…that, if they are not “on the Ark when the door closes”, they will be lost, along with the world. He warns them to not miss out.

Don’t Miss the Boat!

In Genesis 6:14-22 we see a very peculiar foreshadowing of Jesus the Messiah. (Read it.) That Ark, which Noah built, parallels the person and work of Jesus in several ways:

The Ark was built according to God’s instructions
1. (Jesus fulfilled God’s prophecies to the letter.)
The Ark was built to endure. (Those animals and people were in there for over a year!)
1. (Jesus’s ministry and work is permanent.)
The Ark was big enough to accommodate all that would be in it.
1. (Jesus shed his blood for all.)
God knew who was going to be in the Ark …but they entered by choice.
1. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, and invites all to come to Him, but he knows from eternity past the ones who will respond in faith.
The Ark withstood the flood of judgment and rose above the judgment.
1. (Jesus bore the judgment for our sins at the Cross and rose from the dead.)
The Ark had only one window, looking up. Noah could not see where he was going.
1. (Our only information regarding our future is with God. We can only look up.)
The Ark was coated inside and out, so as to be impervious to both the water outside and the filth inside. (What do you think those animals were doing during that year?)
1. (Jesus was impervious to the Judgment and also is not affected by our unrighteousness. Our sin cannot sabotage God’s Grace.)
The Ark had no sail, oars, nor rudder. Noah was utterly dependent upon God as to the outcome.
1. (We have no means by which to control our eternal destiny. We have to trust God.)
The Ark had only one door; only one way in or out…and God closed and opened the door. Noah couldn’t close it, and Noah couldn’t open it. God closed and opened it.
1. (We have only one entrance into God’s Grace, by faith, and He says He will never lose us, nor leave us.)
Everyone inside the Ark was safe…not necessarily comfortable, but definitely safe. Everyone outside the Ark was lost: regardless of age, health, intelligence, or even morals: they were lost because they were outside the Ark.
1. All in Christ are safe…regardless of works or any other issues. All outside Christ are lost, because they have not believed in Jesus. (John 3:18)

When we read all that the scriptures have to say about Noah, we find that he spent 120 years building the Ark…and that he was a preacher of righteousness. We assume, then, that those around him had heard the warnings. They knew the purpose of the Ark, and the reason for the coming judgment.

They may have believed that he was just a smelly old man with odd ideas about life, and may have thought, “Well, I’m obviously a better man than you are, buddy! If God is in the business of “saving people”, He’d choose me over you!” Or, it is possible that they actually heard and considered the call Noah made, but ultimately put it off too long. One way or another, we are told that Noah had no control over the door. Only God could close it, and only God could open it.

The only choice Noah and his family really had was whether to get aboard. They did, and the rest is history. Once God closed the door, the only comparison that mattered was the location of the individuals being compared: they were either inside or outside the Ark. That is true today, as well. There are unquestionably people who are better humans than I am, who reject the Grace of God, because they are convinced they don’t need it. They think it is a “crutch”, or something.

But God’s Grace is far more than just a crutch. It is the only antidote to the lostness of the human race. As a race we are lost in sin. Turn to 1^st Corinthians 15:22. There are two positions, or “locations” listed here: Everyone is either “in Adam”, where, it says, “all die,” or they are “in Christ”, where, it says, “all shall be made alive.” My position “in Christ” is the only thing that makes me acceptable to God. That position is perfect, though my condition may vary all over the scale. Do you suppose Noah and his family may have been afraid or seasick, or claustrophobic, aboard the Ark? Very possibly they were. But did it affect their position? Absolutely not! All the other issues are irrelevant to the question of eternal life. My position is secure: I am in Christ. I am part of the Body of Christ. So, how did I get there?

Where’s the Door? How do I get in?

Jesus promised that the “way in” was to place my faith in Him. In John 10:7, He said that He is the door…the “way in”. In John 3:16, he said “…that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The way to become part of the body of Christ, according to 1^st Corinthians 12:13, is to be placed there by the Holy Spirit—baptized by the Holy Spirit, into the Body of Christ. This happens (whether one knows it or not) at the moment of salvation… at the moment one chooses to believe the Gospel, and place his/her faith in Jesus’ shed blood as full payment for sin.

While it is entirely possible to “fake it” on earth, and fool Christians, it is absolutely impossible to fool God. There are no false brethren in the Body of Christ at large. But there can be, in a local assembly.

I have a friend who will tell you very plainly that he faked his faith for 15 years, until it suddenly dawned on him that he was in deep trouble. He was lost. He repented, and placed his faith in Jesus as the blood-sacrifice for his salvation, and has been serving faithfully for the last 40 years or so. There is no question that such things happen. The problem is that we can’t tell for sure who is who, and they can even be fooling themselves, and be convinced that they are Christians, for a variety of reasons. The seven warnings in this epistle are to that sort of person.

⁴God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

The writer continues to point out how much more harsh the consequences may be for those who knew the Gospel, and had heard the apostolic teaching, in person, and had seen the miracles of that age, if they ultimately failed to heed those warnings. Jesus had issued very similar warnings to the Jews in Jerusalem, and Judea and Galilee. (Matthew 12:21-24; 23:29-39)

A person who hears, understands, and rejects God’ plan for the redemption of lost humanity is in deeper trouble than one who simply never heard it, or who heard such a garbled version of it that they never understood. And, a person who pretends faith, through a self-made piety, is in deeper trouble still.

Think about it this way: a person who is not in the service (say, the US Navy), and who walks aboard one of the warships that come to this area for special occasions, is there as a guest. He or she is treated completely politely and cordially. But when the ship leaves the harbor, and the visiting opportunity is over, it is expected that they will have already gone ashore. If they were to stow away, and were later discovered, they would be taken off the ship, probably by a Coast-Guard vessel, or, if they were still in inland waters, possibly a sheriff’s patrol boat, and they would be charged with trespass. I don’t know how serious the results might be.

But… if they had also dressed themselves in the uniform of a first-class seaman, and claimed to be a member of the US Navy, there would be a much deeper investigation, and probably far more serious charges. They would at least be charged with impersonating a member of the Armed Forces, and possibly with espionage.

So the writer is putting forward his first warning that some of the professing believers among that first generation of Jewish Christians might want to stop and think about the nature of their real relationship with the Messiah. He is warning them not to “neglect the message”, but to step all the way into that relationship by faith.

What about those already “in Christ?”

As a believer, who truly has placed his/her faith in Jesus’s blood sacrifice as full satisfaction of God’s Law, you need not fear that God will ultimately reject you: Your position in Christ is completely secure. Jesus promised that of all those whom God has given him, he will not lose a single one.

These warnings are not directed at you. But! The exhortations in this book are to you! There are encouragements, teachings and promises, here, that are specifically to those who already belong to Christ. As we study together, we will try to learn how to apply them to make them applicable to our lives, both individually and collectively.

Lord Jesus, help us to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Help us to correctly understand your Written Word, and correctly apply it to our lives. Make us the Men and Women of God that you have called us to be.

Amen!

January 28, 2017January 28, 2017

Better than the Angels

Better than the Angels!

Hebrews 1:4-14

Introduction:

Last time, we began a study through the book of Hebrews: In our introduction to the epistle, we saw that the book is specifically addressed to the professing Hebrew Christians, most of whom are genuine, but among whom there is at least a definite tendency to think that “Well…if this doesn’t work out, I can always revert to Judaism….” The writer gives seven warnings throughout the book, some of them definitely addressing that thought: he says, “No, you can’t! It will no longer be effective!” Next time, we will read the first of those seven warnings.

But, also listed through the epistle, there are seven comparisons between Jesus the Messiah, and seven of the key ingredients to the historical Judaism as known by these believers. In every case, the reader is drawn to the conclusion that “Jesus is better.” Judaism is/was a prediction of the Messiah. Every factor of the temple services was, in some way, a pre-figuring of Christ. The sacrifices for sin all looked forward to His one sacrifice at the Cross. The entire priesthood looked forward to His ministry as our Eternal High Priest. The list goes on, as the book progresses.

Better than the Prophets: Last time we addressed the comparison between Jesus and all the prophets. The conclusion was that Jesus is better in every regard. But, someone may argue, the prophets were (sometimes) given their instructions by Angels! Angels are fearsome creatures who, though they looked like men, were so overwhelming in their mere presence that, in some cases, the prophets literally nearly died of fright. Surely they must be far superior…aren’t they? Well…no, actually.

Jesus is Better than the Angels; He is God the Son!

The writer pulls no punches, here—he immediately confirms that (yep!) Jesus exceeds the angels in every way, as well…and in some ways even more, as he hints in verse 14.

⁴Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

⁵For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

So, if Jesus is the Son, and the angels are not…then, what is the nature of the relationship between the Eternal Son and the angelic hosts? Read verse six:

⁶And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

They Worship Him!

The writer says that when Jesus entered the world as a human baby, at Bethlehem (though he had eternally pre-existed the angels whom he created), God the Father commanded the entire, mighty, angelic army (the old English word “host” means “army”) to worship that newborn king.

(And we thought there were just a few little “lady angels” hanging around with halos, singing Christmas carols while animals and shepherds and wise men did the worshipping. Well—no, not really! Only those of us who didn’t read the text may have thought such nonsense.) This is not intended as a criticism against any of the hymns. It is simply a reminder that, whenever we talk about the things of God, the only dependable source of information is the Word of God…not tradition, not consensus, not conventional wisdom, nor even human logic. Go back to God’s Word and see what it actually says!

⁷And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

God further describes the Angelic hosts (armies) as spirit-beings, and as His servants: They are in no way to be considered his peers, as though He were just the Head Angel, or that they are demigods of some sort.

By the way, the angels themselves, because they are awe-inspiring, have sometimes been the unwilling recipients of worship. In every case, they instantly rejected the worship, sternly warning off the wrong-headed humans involved, and redirected all worship to God. That is a good thing to remember: the angels confirm the commandment that only God is to receive worship. And they are commanded to worship Jesus! What does that tell us about Jesus?

Jesus, God the Son: the Creator

So…the angels are created beings, and a servant-class, as well: that is what “minister” means. (By the way, if you ever feel that you don’t want to do “menial” work, remember that the root word for “menial” is exactly the same as that of “minister”…if you don’t want to do menial work, you don’t want ministry: you don’t want to serve God.)

But, who created the angels? Jesus did. See John 1:3: “all things were made by Him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” …and then compare it to the following verses:

⁸But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

⁹Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

¹⁰And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

Yes! Jesus is the Creator! And the Father addresses him as “Lord”, just as The Son addresses the Father as Lord! These three verses, as well as the following three, are all the voice of God the Father addressing God the Son. He calls Jesus “God”, and declares that he is Eternally God. He also declares that he has proven himself once for all in the “arena” of Earth, and that because of His proven character, he has been awarded Joy above all other humans (remember, He is fully God and fully Man.) But he is clearly declared to be the Creator, as well.

To me, all the doctrine concerning the full deity and authority and power of Jesus as the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, is beyond mind-boggling. It is beyond imagination. It is simply beyond human comprehension and beyond adequate description.

Jesus, God the Son: the Eternal One

And his eternality is underscored, saying that he will outlast the physical universe, as a man outlasts his clothing. God emphasizes the eternality of the Son, compared to the longevity of the physical creation, saying,

¹¹They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

¹²And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

About thirty-eight years ago, I recall a man challenging my view of Eternal life, saying that the Greek word for “Eternal” didn’t really mean “eternal”, but only “a very long time”; that the Greek word was “aeoneon” (he was right) which only meant “to the ages of the ages” (He was right about that, too!)

I listened to him, and finally said, “Well, I can go look up that word, and see if what you are saying is true: but, right off the top of my head, I am going to guess that the word describing the ‘eternality’ of God is exactly the same as the word describing the ‘eternality’ of the eternal life He has promised us. So…if the reality turns out to be that I only last as long as God lasts, that is OK with me!” He didn’t have much to say after that, and I never saw him again. But I went home and looked up the Greek words to see if he had even been correct, and if so, whether I was also correct in my guess. Both were true. He meant it to diminish the concept of “eternal life”. What it resulted in was an expansion of the idea:

As it turned out, aeoneon is simply how the Greeks say “eternal”: the exact same words are used to describe the eternality of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and our spirits, as well as the spirits of the angelic hosts. We will last as long as He lasts. Oddly, the human believers are the only living things from this world that will outlast the physical universe as we know it. (I say this cautiously, because I am not sure just how much of the physical universe will be destroyed at the end of the age, as described in 2^nd Peter 3:10, 11. It could just be the world we live in and the solar system it is part of. The description leaves open the possibility that it is a complete erasure or disintegration of the entire creation as we know it, and then a fresh start, but I can’t say for sure.)

Jesus, God the Son: Heir of all things!

But, the most telling point showing the innate superiority of the Son, is that… He is the Son! He is superior by relationship: by inheritance! The writer made that clear in verses 4 and 5. There are no promises in the scriptures made “to the Angels”. There are a number of promises made to us, and regarding them, but none made to them.

Very few rich people’s wills include their servants in any significant sense. Unless a servant has, in the lifetime of his or her employer, achieved something like “family status”, the inheritance all goes to the spouse and children, or perhaps grandchildren. There have certainly been exceptions, but that is the norm. In this case, verse 4 makes it clear that Jesus, by inheritance, has obtained a more excellent name than that of the angels. He earned His honor and glory in the arena of human existence, as well as it being his right as God. But the Name was his by inheritance. Even the demons knew him, and trembled at His presence!

So, Who are the Angels?

The Angels are a servant class, created for the specific purposes laid out in scripture. They are highly intelligent (far more so than any human), and they have a free will, as we do. But, unlike us, they were created to be consciously in the presence of God from the beginning, so, in the case of the one third of the angelic hosts that rebelled, no Grace was offered. Every one of them knew God face to face; and they knowingly, willingly chose rebellion.

No human has ever seen God the Father: possibly that is the reason Grace is offered to us, through Faith. We are said to have “sinned ignorantly,” and, to varying degrees, that is always the case. So, to any human who chooses to believe God, rather than the clamoring voice of the World, God offers eternal life. But he never offered such a gift to the angels who sinned.

In like manner, the promise is made to the Son, not to the Angels: He is told to take his place at the right hand of God the Father, until all His enemies are completely cast down. The writer poses this rhetorical question:

¹³But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

The answer, of course, is “None!” No such promise was ever made to them. The writer goes on to explain why:

¹⁴Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

The writer reminds the readers that the angelic hosts, as impressive as they are, are still the servants of God, and nothing more.

So, Where Do We Fit In?

Many similar promises are made to human believers. Why? Because we are now His sons, too! We have become literally His offspring. This is why Jesus said “Ye must be born again!” We have become the offspring of God through the new birth. The Greek word is “teknon”, which literally means “born-ones.”

The new birth is not some religious doubletalk or trendy buzzword: it was not coined by humans: Jesus is the one who stated the reality of the second birth, and made clear the absolute necessity that a human be “born again” in order to relate to God at all.

The Writer concludes the passage by reiterating that not only are the Angels not participants in God’s glory (though they have witnessed it constantly), nor are they the objects of His joy, love and attention; they are not only simply a servant-class, but they are specifically sent for the care of the elect humans. They are our “Celestial Babysitters,” if you can accept it.

That is also a mind-boggling fact. I can believe it, because God says it is true; but I have a hard time “wrapping my head around the idea” that there are many angels, invisible to us, but within arm’s reach, perhaps, and “rooting for us” to win the prize of God’s praise, so that we may hear “Well done, thou good and faithful Servant!”

You see…we are a servant class, too, as created beings; but we are created to be part of God’s Family, which the angels were not. Remember verse 5? They were never even called his sons, except in the generic sense, in the book of Job (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7)…in those passages they are called that name, but never in the same sense as Jesus, who is the “Only Begotten Son”—the crown prince—nor even in the same sense as we are called sons. By the way, this information should serve to dispel the myth that “humans become angels when they die.” They are two separate creations, never to be mingled.

We are actually called his offspring…“born ones”…little children; but specifically His personal offspring. He says that he has become our literal Father, and that we are his literal Children, appointed to be His heirs. (Compare John 1:12; 1^st John 3:9, etc.)

Am I a Child of God?

There are those who teach the universal Fatherhood of God. Jesus sharply refuted that notion, saying “Ye are of your father, the Devil!” in John 8:44. So, how does one become a child of God? How can we be born again, into His family?

John 1:12, 13 states that “to as many as received Him, to them gave He power (Greek “exousia” authority) to become (the Greek word is “genesthe”—to be born) the children (Greek “teknon:” born-ones) of God, even to those who believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

John 5:24 says “Verily, verily I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” Jesus promised that the moment you believe, you have eternal life, and you will never face judgement for your sins: you have crossed over from being spiritually dead into eternal life

All God asks is that you place your trust in the person of Christ and His finished work at the Cross. The moment a person believes in Jesus’s blood as the full price of his or her salvation, that person is born again, into the family of God, whether they are aware of it or not. I cannot even tell you the day I was born again, because at the time I had been told such a variety of things, and was so confused about what it took to be saved. It was only later, when I learned this truth, that I could look back, and know for sure that I was saved—that I had been born again, and that all the other things people had told me were extraneous to that fact.

The Promises and Invitation of God

All the promises in the New Testament epistles that are directed “to the children of God”, or to “the Sons of God”, are to you, if you have been born again. They are virtually all spiritual promises, made to a spiritual people. We are not promised a piece of land, nor monetary wealth, nor physical health, nor even physical comfort. We are promised a permanent relationship with God, and an abiding purpose within that relationship.

We are given the opportunity to serve with God, and then to be rewarded as if we had done the work, when in fact, He did it through us. We are armed with His Word, and indwelt by His Spirit. In fact, in the person of the Holy Spirit, we are told that the entire Godhead has taken up residence in our bodies. What an overwhelming thought!

We are given the right to look into the face of God, by faith, and call him Father, knowing that we are not being presumptuous, nor pretentious. We are simply calling Him what He is. Our Father, through the new birth.

We are given access to the throne of God, and told to come there boldly! Not fearfully tiptoeing into the presence of God, wondering what sort of mood He might be in today. Unlike a human father (myself for example), God never changes. His “mood” never changes. He always hates sin, and he always loves the sinner, in spite of the sin. But his Grace is extended by way of the Cross. We approach the throne boldly because of Jesus’s blood at the Cross.

Consider carefully your relationship with God. If you have been born again, you are already permanently His offspring, and you are invited to draw closer to the Father, through Bible-study, through Prayer, and obedience. If you have not been born again, the invitation is different: He invites you to come to Him and experience His Grace and Love, by placing your faith in Jesus Christ, and His shed Blood.

If you do not understand this message, I would encourage you to talk to me or any of the other leaders in our church, and get your questions answered.

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to the vital importance of the Gospel, the good news of salvation through your Grace. Help us to draw near to you and be blessed daily as we feast upon your Word, and bask in your Joy.

December 25, 2016

What Were They Doing on Christmas?

What Were They All Doing on Christmas Morning?

Hebrews 1:6; Luke 2:1-20

Introduction:

I took some time off from work, to spend Christmas with my family. When I get back to work, people will greet me in friendly fashion, and several are sure to ask, “Did you have a good Christmas?” It is almost a rhetorical question, since the expected answer is always “Yes”, though qualifiers are acceptable. Expansion on what was good or not so good are also acceptable. We are expected to, at most, tell “What we were doing on Christmas Morning.”

So: let’s ask the same question regarding those persons who were present the Night of the Lord’s birth. What were they all doing on Christmas Morning?

We sing, Angels we have heard on High, sweetly singing o’er the plain! Were they? Really? We talk about “We three kings of Orient, etc.” and we usually forget that they were two years away on Christmas morning…not part of the show at all. We say “Shepherds quaked at the sight”, and sing all manner of songs about drummer boys, and donkeys, and Mary and Joseph, and…most of it is very pleasant fiction. Let’s set all that aside for just a few moments and ask, seriously, “What were they all doing on Christmas Morning?”

What were the Angels doing?

What were the Angels really doing? (“Sweetly singing o’er the plain?” Nope…sorry!) Let’s read and see: Luke 2:9-14 The Angel of the Lord appeared (Think about that one! We’ve done a bit of Old Testament study: Who is the Angel of the Lord?) The Glory of the Lord shone around the Shepherds. The Shepherds were terribly afraid. (I’ll bet they were!) And the Angel of the Lord told them to not be afraid, “because He was bringing them good news (Glad tidings—what is the word we usually associate with “Good News?), of Great Joy which shall be (future tense) to all people. (the Gospel)” He went on to announce the birth of the Savior; Christ the Lord. He told the shepherds to go and find the baby (Not Mary; not Joseph: the baby!) and told them where to look, and how to recognize Him.

Immediately there appeared a multitude of other angelic beings (the heavenly host—heavenly army) praising God, and saying (not singing…sorry!) “Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth, Peace, Good Will toward Men!”

And then they were gone!

But what were they doing, by God’s command? Let’s read Hebrews 1:6 “…and when He (God) bringeth forth the firstbegotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him (the baby!)!”

The Angels were worshipping the baby! (Not Mary, not Joseph, or anyone else.) Now: who is the only one (according to God) that can rightfully receive worship? It is God himself! So this is part of the recognition of, and the teaching of the deity of Christ.

The Angels, who worship no one but God, were worshipping Him. In fact, that is what we were seeing over in Luke 2:13, 14…they were praising God…the one in the Manger. They knew Him for who he was.

They were not distracted by His infancy, or his appearance of helplessness. They knew who he was, and worshipped Him as their own creator! (Hebrews 1:7 confirms this! “He maketh His Angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.”) They were not impressed for better or worse, by the surroundings, nor the other people present. They were there for one purpose: to Worship the Newborn King!

What was Mary doing?

What should she be doing? She was a young (probably teen-aged) mother, who had just had a baby. She was terribly tired, but probably very happy with her little Baby. She was with her husband, and was probably pretty overwhelmed by the events of the last nine months. We are not told that she even saw or heard the angelic host worshipping her baby. She evidently heard about the events through the shepherds, as we see in Luke 2:19 that she “kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart”.

How did she feel about the surroundings? We aren’t told…but even in that culture, a woman wanted other women around when they gave birth. An aunt, or a mother or a sister, usually…a midwife, if you could afford one. Hospitals weren’t an option, at that time and place, but a stable wasn’t exactly optimal or normal.

How do we know the manger bed and all the rest were not normal? The Angel of the Lord gave those facts to the shepherd as being the signs by which they would recognize the baby. Why would he give the shepherds things that were completely common, as signs by which to recognize the savior? The manger and the swaddling clothes, while not unheard of, were unusual enough that they were the signs given by the angel by which to recognize the savior! If they were that unusual, how did Mary feel about it all? We aren’t told.

Mary probably spent the next few hours alternately sleeping, and tending to her baby. And the visit by the shepherds was probably a surprise. She and Joseph were huddling together in a dark stable, trying to stay warm, and trying to re-group; figure out what they were going to do next, when these grubby shepherds burst in the door, looking for a baby dressed in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. And there he was! Did they give Mary special attention? Probably so. Most people give special attention to new mothers. But they were there to see the baby! They saw Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger, just as they had been told. But the baby was who they had been sent to find, and was the One with whom they were primarily concerned.

What was Joseph doing?

We really are not told, but, consider: He was evidently an older man, as we see him apparently gone before Jesus began His ministry. He was freshly out of work, as he had been forced to travel away from Nazareth, in Galilee, which is where he had lived and worked, because of the new rule from Caesar.

Joseph was probably thinking ahead, wondering what he was going to do for work. He may have also been thinking back to the visit he had had from the Angel Gabriel, telling him that his fiancée had been chosen by God to bear the child who is the Savior. That has got to have been a hard time, as the neighbors were looking at him and assuming that he had committed fornication, and gotten his fiancée pregnant…or worse, that she herself was immoral and he was just choosing to cover for her. The stigma was there, and would not go away. Think about it: they were in the city of his family, of his ancestry, but there was no one he could turn to for a place to stay. How else did they end up in that stable? Why were no doors open to him and his bride? I would guess it was because he was an embarrassment to them. Perhaps they even ostracized him. We don’t know. All we know are the facts.

What were the Shepherds doing?

That is one we are told a fair amount about: They were minding their own business, caring for flocks at night, in the open field. Possibly having a bit of a chat, to stay awake, or walking around the flock to keep them safe from predators. But they were just carrying on business as usual, until the Angel of the Lord dropped in for a visit. When God steps into the picture, everything changes!

That line about “Shepherds quake at the sight!” is probably one of the most accurate in all the stories. They were scared to death! Isn’t it interesting that all the people who really saw angels or met the pre-incarnate Christ, or saw the Lord in his glory, were not all happy and blessed: they were afraid! Why is it that today all the folk who claim to have seen the Lord say what a wonderful, peaceful experience it was, just flooding their souls with Joy? My guess is that they really didn’t experience what they said they experienced. The ones who really did were terrified, pretty much without exception.

The disciples in the boat, when Jesus calmed the storm didn’t look around and say, “Way cool, Jesus! I didn’t know you could do that!” They had been afraid they were all going to drown. These were seasoned commercial fishermen, who were masters at small boat handling, and had been in storms before. But they were seriously expecting to die, in this storm. But when they woke up the Lord, and asked him to take a hand, he calmed the storm, and far from being overjoyed and relieved, they were more afraid! They said “what manner of man is this, that even the wind and waves obey him?” They were more afraid of the very presence of God than they were of death itself.

When the Angel of the Lord appeared, the shepherds were terrified. They had dealt with jackals, bears, and lions by night all their lives (How would you feel dealing with wild predators at night, with only a stick or a sling, or some other rather primitive weapon to protect yourself and the flock?) But they were terrified at the sight of the Angel. His first words were to set aside their fear, so that he could communicate the Joy of Christmas. And that Joy was in the person of Jesus.

The shepherds left their flocks in the field, which is not normal! If you leave the flock, you are a bad shepherd! But they were commanded to do so, and they did. Maybe they figured that the angels could take a turn watching the flock.

They went to Bethlehem, and hunted through stables until they found the Lord and Joseph and Mary. They told others around the area what had happened, about the angelic messenger, and the child…and finally went back to the flock, leaving an amazed village behind them, and having great Joy in themselves, at the privilege they had shared.

They were glorifying God, and Praising God for all that they had heard and seen, and that all had been as they were told to expect. They thanked him for fulfilled prophecy, in other words. I don’t know whether they had thought through all the other fulfilled prophecies, yet. Micah 5:2 comes to mind, though: The Lord had promised, 400 years earlier, that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. They were the witnesses to the fulfillment of that promise. If they had expanded from that beginning, and considered who that was, and what else was prophesied about Him, they might not have wanted to go back to the flock, at all. I don’t think they put it all together, though…we seldom do today, really.

**What are You doing on Christmas?**

We have been conditioned to think of Christmas as a time of joy and peace…and we want it to be so. But we also tend to focus pretty much on family, rest, children, gifts, and food…lots of food. I don’t see a problem with most of that. When God commanded his people to throw a party, and have a national feast day, they focused on all those things, too. But they remembered what they were celebrating.

I think it is important that we give some time to considering who Jesus really is, and the fact that, right there in that manger, wrapped up in rags, he was the Creator … He was God! When we sing that song, “Mary did you know”, I have to tell you, I don’t think she could have known! We are looking back from the vantage point (and safe distance) of 2000 years, and we still don’t really comprehend it. If she had seen him as the disciples saw him when he calmed the storm, do you think she would have been snuggling him in her arms and crooning a lullaby? She couldn’t have seen Him that way. But I feel it is imperative that we do! That we experience the utter amazement of the fact of the incarnation, and be blessed by the Grace God has extended to us. We cannot grasp it all, but we can reach out by faith and receive it as a gift. We can place our faith in His Grace, and know the Peace of God in an eternal relationship. We are not dragged in as a waif, and simply called his child: we are born into His family by the new birth, and live eternally as his child…his real child, born of His Grace.

When we think about Christmas, we need to be looking beyond the “manger scene”, and look far enough to see the Cross, and the tomb, and the resurrection. We need to look even further, and see His soon coming, and His eternal reign. We should look beyond the manger, and find Peace and Joy in the fact of the Savior. Mary pondered these things in her heart. It seems good that we should do the same. Think about these things: ponder them in your heart. Consider the enormity of what was going on that first Christmas.

The Christmas story was not about Mary. It was not about Joseph or the shepherds. It was not about the angels…they knew that better than anyone. They worshipped the newborn king: They guarded his humanity (though He certainly needed no help), but they worshipped Him as God.

We can do the same. Christmas is about Jesus, our savior; God in the flesh, our only advocate with God the Father. To the World, He is the Judge, though He offered Himself as the Savior. To us, He is the Savior, though He is still the King, and the Judge and the God of the Universe. Relationally, the fact that He is our Savior, takes precedence over all the rest. We no longer have to fear God’s wrath. We have His Grace.

The Shepherds told others about what they had seen and heard. We can do that, too. But especially because we know who He really is. He is the source of all things, and the key to the Joy of Christmas.

Lord Jesus, allow us, momentarily at least, to see you in your Glory, and to worship you as God. Allow us to love you in your humanity, but to look beyond your humanity and to worship and love you as the faithful Creator. Allow us to serve as witnesses to your glory, as did the shepherds. Allow us to continually ponder these things in our hearts.

December 17, 2016December 20, 2016

Hebrews: Jesus is Better!

Jesus Is Better

Hebrews 1: 1-3

Introduction:

Today we will begin a study through the book of Hebrews. This epistle has endured controversy over the years regarding the identity of the writer. The consensus over the centuries has mostly been that the writer was the Apostle Paul, and most Bibles have that printed as part of the title.

However, unlike every other Pauline Epistle, there is no introductory line stating that Paul is the writer, and greeting the recipients with “Grace be unto you, and Peace…” etc. Some have therefore attributed this epistle to Apollos, or some other writer. I tend to think it is Paul, anyway, because of some internal evidence: comments that seem to uniquely fit Paul’s life. There is no clear proof either way, so I will drop that issue, and leave it for others to haggle over. The book was clearly written before AD 70, as a good deal of it regards the temple in Jerusalem, and its service, and there is no mention made of the temple’s destruction (which happened in AD 70). So, most historians tentatively place it at about AD 64, but we can’t be certain.

The general theme is the idea that “Jesus is Better”. The writer shows the infinite superiority of Christ, over seven key aspects of Judaism. He also issues seven warnings to “dabblers” who seem to be believers, but who evidently are just “along for the ride”, and not actually “entering in” by faith. The warnings grow more and more serious, throughout the book. There are forty exhortations of one sort or another, and a great deal of teaching. It is not an easy book to study because there are passages that can be easily misunderstood, if not carefully compared with the rest of the Bible. We will try to address those problematic passages as they arise.

It is interesting, to me, however, that there is almost no teaching in the book of Hebrews on how to be saved, only multiple warnings and exhortations to not miss out on it. Evidently the writer knew his audience, and knew they were aware that salvation was offered as a gift, and of how it must be received. There is also very little teaching on “what the Church is”, or “how it is to function;” only on who Christ is, compared to the Earthly or Heavenly “star-players” of the Old Testament. So, Jesus is better than:

The Prophets (Hebrews 1:1-3)
The Angels (1:4-14; 2:5-18)
The Prophet and Lawgiver, Moses (3:2-6)
The Sabbath (4:1-16; 5:1-10)
The Priesthood (7:4-28; 8:1-6; 9:11)
The Old Covenant (“He is the mediator of a better covenant.”) (8:6-13; 9:1-28)
The Old Testament Sacrifices (He is a better sacrifice) (9:11-14, 23, 28; 10:1-12)

In every case, Jesus was demonstrated to be far superior to whomever or whatever he was to be compared…hence, the thematic choice, “Jesus is better.”

An Abrupt Beginning

The opening lines of the Epistle to the Hebrews actually form one of the problems that make people wonder who the author is: All of Paul’s other epistles begin with a fairly consistent greeting; blessing the recipients and identifying the writer.

The Epistle to the Hebrews dispenses with formalities, so to speak; it makes no “introduction” as to the writer or the recipients, nor even to the theme, but simply slams right into the theme itself. It is interesting to me that the Old Testament Hebrew writings sometimes do the same thing. (Genesis 1:1, for example.) Possibly the reason this book is so different in style is specifically because it is the only epistle Paul wrote for a non-Gentile audience. In Romans 11:13 Paul cheerfully identifies himself as “the apostle to the Gentiles”. So, all of his writings to the Gentiles followed Gentile formats. We have another example by an unbelieving Roman centurion, (Acts 23:35, ff,) and it follows a similar form. So, I am comfortable with the differences between this epistle and the others written by Paul. Most, if not all, of the differences can be attributed to the difference in the intended recipients.

By verse two we can see that a comparison is being made between the Old Testament Prophets and Jesus, with Jesus being shown to be so far superior that no further comment is made. No argument is offered: He is simply shown to be God, while the prophets were simply the mouthpieces or spokesmen for God. In the same short chapter, the angelic hosts are shown to be a servant-class creation, while Jesus is shown to be their Creator and Master; but we will pursue that subject at a later date.

Though the majority of the epistle is written to genuine believers, there are seven warnings to professing believers (sometimes intermingled with exhortations to believers), scattered throughout the whole book:

Don’t neglect the salvation that is being offered. (2:1-4)
Don’t harden your heart. (3:7-4:1)
Don’t fail, through unbelief, to enter in. (4:1)
Don’t fall away, despising the sacrifice of Christ (6:1-9)
Don’t attempt to fall back on the sacrifices…they no longer work. (10:26-31; 35-39)
Don’t opt out for temporal gain. (12:16)
Don’t refuse to hear (respond to) Him. (12:25-29)

There are also about 40 exhortations to believers, which we will address as they arise.

I will be quoting from the KJV. You are welcome to read along in any translation you like.

Hebrews Chapter One: God Speaks to Man

The writer begins with the “Author of all things”—God. Both Genesis and John begin with the same individual. I think it is an effective approach, especially in dealing with an audience of professing Hebrew believers, to begin with the central person of all Eternity: God.

¹God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

²Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
In various ways and at various times, God has approached Man. We cannot approach Him unless He first reaches out to us. Think about it: He is invisible, so that we don’t know where to look; and He’s absolutely Holy, so as to be completely separate from the fallen race of Man. We can only see the effects of His power, and marvel from a distance at His obvious wisdom and splendor. We have no real way to approach God: God had to approach Man.

Even in the Garden of Eden, God called to Adam, “Where art thou?” not the other way around. All through the Old Testament, God reached out to Mankind, meeting us where we lived. And it has continued so today. God says in Psalm 14, and reiterates in Romans 3, that “…there is no one who seeks after God.” We have a hard time with that idea: we insist, “Oh, yes we do!” But the fact is that we only seek after that “missing something”, in each of our lives; perhaps motivated by a longing for meaning and direction and Peace; but, most certainly not seeking the Creator and Judge of all the Universe. We fear Him; we flee from Him, and we reject him at every turn, until He comes and confronts us. (E.g. John 1:11, 12; Acts 9:1-6)

God had sent prophets, many times, throughout the centuries, but they were usually rejected, and were frequently murdered. So, God himself changed the game. After thousands of years of sending prophets, judges, and deliverers at various levels; speaking unto the Fathers (the patriarchs) by the prophets, He finally sent “God in the Flesh:” God the Son. He spoke to the prophets in a variety of ways: out of the air, from a burning bush, from the glory in the tabernacle, and from a towering column of thundering smoke at Mount Sinai… but the prophets were sent to speak to the patriarchs. Who did He send to us? Jesus!

Jesus is Better Than the Prophets

He says that, “in these last days”, he has spoken to us by His Son. But not just any son… the only begotten Son—the heir, “whom He hath appointed heir of all things”. And, lest we forget just who that Son really is (not just a Jewish Carpenter), he reminds us that it is Jesus who carried out the creation of the universe. (Greek “aeonas”—the ages…this is not the Greek word “kosmos”, which can mean a world or a world system. But we see in Genesis that the “time-pieces” (Sun, moon, and stars) were created after the creation of the earth that we inhabit. So, if Jesus is the creator of the ages…all time as well as the whole earth, as we will see, then he is truly the Creator of the universe.) Also; though we see things from the perspective of those locked in time and space, God sees from Eternity, the eternal “Now,” and He decreed before the foundation of the Earth that the Only Begotten Son was to be the means of our salvation. Jesus is “Plan A”—and there is no “Plan B.” (Ephesians 1:4; 3:8-11; 1^st Peter 1:20)

He goes on to describe the person and work of Jesus Christ in astonishing ways, so that any reader can see the unquestionable superiority of the Son, but in ways that are especially tailored for Jewish readers:

³Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

What Does He Say?

He says that Jesus is the brightness of the Glory of God. (Think about the tabernacle! Remember how the Glory of God shone out from the Tabernacle so brightly that no one could go in? That was Jesus, personally showing up to bless the new structure, though it was just a tent at that point! Later, in the great Temple of Solomon, the same thing happened: The “Shekinah” Glory shone out. Jesus is the Brightness of God’s Glory!)
He says that Jesus is the exact manifestation of the Father. (Compare John 14:8-11) We have a hard time with this, because it exceeds our imagination, but the Jews had an even harder time, as they denied that it was possible for a man to be God, or for God to become a man. And yet, had they thought it over, they would have realized that God had many times appeared in the form of a man in their history. He had eaten with them, fought for them, and wrestled with one of the patriarchs! If they read Zechariah 12:1-10, they should have even seen that the one that was pierced was Jesus…and Jehovah!
He says that the Word of Jesus is what is “upholding all things”…maintaining the Universe… (Compare Colossians 1:15-17: “holding everything together”.)
The Greek word for “Power”, here, is “dunamis”, not the word for authority—“exousia”. This refers to the sheer magnitude of His ability. And yet, he does it by His Word.
He says that Jesus himself purged the sins of the human race…he alone did it. There is no other work to be done. The sinner can add nothing to the completed work of Jesus at the Cross. His blood stands for eternity as the full payment for the sins of the Human race. His work is finished!
He further says that when Jesus had accomplished that task, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. (Note—in the tabernacle, or the temple (our only glimpses into the “arrangement” of the throne room of God) the Ark of the Covenant was the only piece of furniture in the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies. If Jesus completed his High-priestly duties, where could he sit? Especially, how could he sit down “at the right hand of God?” The answer is that he is God, and has the right to sit between the cherubim, on the Mercy Seat, in the place of God. Consider John 5:22) Further, the Old Testament high priests could never sit down. Their work could never be completed, even had there been a place to sit.

To me, these are mind-boggling premises. And the writer did not ease up on the ideas, or even try to “build a case,” culminating in the explanation of these facts. He simply, bluntly stated them, and allowed the Jewish readers to draw their own conclusions. The Jewish believers, then and now, were pretty awed by the prophets…and rightfully so. But the writer of the book of Hebrews immediately points out that Jesus surpasses the Prophets in every way.

Conclusion

If we haven’t already caught on to the identity of Jesus Christ, we need to open our eyes and see it! Paul spoke to a mixed audience: not all of them really knew the enormity of who Jesus is/was. Some still had the idea that he was just the most recent in a long line of Jewish Prophets. Some may have thought that he was some sort of exalted spiritual being, along the lines of an angel. The writer gives no room for such thoughts.

Who do you say that he is? Jesus asked that question of the disciples, and Peter responded, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” That turned out to be a great answer.

But there are those who are uncomfortable with it. John 1:1-14 reveals that Jesus is God in the Flesh, and Hebrews 1:1-14 reveals the same truth in more stark terms. We cannot relegate Jesus to a lesser status than who he really is. He has to be one of the following:

The Almighty God, the Creator, who became a Man, so that He could die in our place,
A lesser god of some sort, or
Not a god at all.

Some people diminish Jesus to the state of a demi-god…a great spiritual being of some sort. This means he was not truly Man (which would disqualify Him as Savior) nor was He truly God (which would also disqualify Him as Savior.) So the religions and philosophies that deny His deity also have to deny him as Savior. (By the way, one of these groups, which lifts its name from Isaiah 43:10, where it says “I am Jehovah and you are my witnesses” in their Bible, ignore the next few verses, which say that there has never been another God before or after Him, and that apart from Him there is no savior!

Others go further and declare him to be only a man, possibly a good man, but deluded, at best. Some even go a step further and deny that he ever existed at all, as though he were simply a creature of mythology and wishful thinking…perhaps like Santa Claus. Not only would both of these accusations completely disqualify him as savior, they fly in the face of history.

The secular historians of Jesus’ time knew who he was. They denied his deity, but they surely knew of his existence. And the many thousands who believed on him in the first century were martyred because they knew who and what Jesus was, and because they believed in Him. Theirs was not a faith built on hearsay. They had known him personally, and had personally witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection. People don’t willingly sacrifice their lives for something they know to be a lie. They knew the truth.

The fact is, we know the truth too! So we need to live as those who know the truth, and who, by that truth, have been set free to serve the Living God. As we study through Hebrews, we can be set free by the sure knowledge of the Person of Christ. It seems especially appropriate to think on these truths, at this season of Christmas, when we commemorate His birth. The following song by Mark Lowry, addresses this question:

Mary, Did you Know?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would some day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you’ve delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when your kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

Oh Mary did you know

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the lamb?

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you’re holding is the great “I AM!”

Personally, I find that concept absolutely beyond comprehension! But that is the Truth! The One whom we have come to know, and trust as our Savior.

Lord Jesus, lift up our eyes to see your face. Help us to see you in your humanity, but just barely cloaking your full deity. It is hard, perhaps impossible, for us to understand your deity, Help us to accept that truth, and see your face in the Scriptures as well as in the Creation.

December 3, 2016

Final Instructions and Benediction

Romans 16:1-27

Introduction:

We have been walking (working…studying) through the book of Romans for quite some time now: Today we will complete the journey. That doesn’t mean there will be no more sermons from the book of Romans; it simply means that we have travelled through the book once, at least, in order, and any further sermons will revisit passages we have already studied, either gleaning things we missed, or simply studying things we need to review. Paul is winding up his letter, now: he gives words of commendation regarding quite a number of believers:

Commendations for Servants

16 ¹I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
²That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.

Phebe is listed first—he says that she is a servant (a deacon) of the church at Cenchrea, and a hard worker. It is interesting to see that the Greek word “diakonon” as used here, is identical in its usage to the passage applied to the Lord Jesus in Romans 15:8, where Paul referred to Jesus as a “minister”…a servant of the Jews, for the truth of God. It was not a “feminine form” of the word: there is not a special office of “Deaconess” in scripture. The office is “Deacon”, whether male or female, though they may serve in different ways. It simply means a servant, though it carries the idea of vigorous activity. One commentator suggested that it carries the idea of “kicking up dust by vigorous activity.” I don’t know if that is accurate, but there are a number of words that are translated “servant.” Some have different connotations. The Greek word “doulos”, for example, which Paul applied to himself, was specifically a bondman…a slave…possibly by choice, but still a slave. But diakonon is a different word, having to do with the character of service: the ministry, not so much the person.

He also says she has been a “succourer,” or helper, of many, including himself. This word (from the Greek word, “prostasis”) means more than the word diakonon, in that it carries the idea of standing between an afflicted person and the source of their torment. It is not just the busy character of the deacon, it is one who comes to the aid or rescue of another. It can be translated “helper”, but it means closer to a rescuer, or a deliverer. This is the only place in the scripture where this particular word is used. Phebe was evidently a passionate advocate and helper of those who needed it most, and Paul included himself as one to whom she had applied her gift.

Phebe was evidently there in Rome on church business, and there was a real possibility she would need help in completing her work. Paul asked the church there to respond in a Godly way, as the saints of God, to give her whatever assistance she might need. Remember that the word “saint” means “holy”—“separated unto God”; set aside for God’s service, and His agenda. That is what we are all called to be: we are “set aside” by God, for His service and His agenda.

Greetings and Blessings, to Fellow-laborers and Friends

³Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:
⁴Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
⁵Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.

Priscilla and Aquila, he considered to be his helpers (the Greek word here is sunergous: “fellow-workers”) in Christ, who had risked their lives for him, and for whom he and all the Gentile churches gave thanks. Paul had physically worked with them, making tents. But they had worked with him, as well; in the work of soul-winning, and edifying the saints for the work of the ministry: they later gave Apollos his training, which he then used powerfully for God.

The Church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila is listed separately. We have no idea how many people were there, but it was definitely a church, meeting in a home…the home of tentmakers who had no seminary degrees, but who were used by God to help with the training up of Apollos. Priscilla and Aquila were seen as valuable laborers with Paul, and had risked their lives for the sake of the Gospel. There was a church meeting in their home: this is further evidence of their activity. And that Church was greeted separately as being also of great value to Paul.

Epaenetus was the first one who was led to Christ in Achaia. We don’t know much about him, but he held a special place in Paul’s heart, as being the “first fruit” in Asia Minor.

⁶Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.

Mary is not an uncommon name. All we know about her is the fact that her faith had moved her to work. She was someone who worked hard to meet the needs of the apostles. It was a gift from her heart, and it was received as an offering to God. It says she bestowed much labor upon them. This was an act of worship to God. We are not told anything more about this person. No one could say that her Christianity was just a Sunday-morning phenomenon. She acted on her beliefs, for the benefit of others.

⁷Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

Andronicus and Junia, Pauls’ kinsmen were “noteworthy among the apostles,” and were saved before Paul was. I am not sure whether he is saying that they were “noteworthy apostles”, or that the apostles took note of them. The Twelve were certainly not the only apostles: Barnabas was also called an apostle (Acts 14:14). Possibly these two were also apostles. That is the way it seems to read.

⁸Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord.
⁹Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
¹⁰Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus’ household.

Amplias, Urdane, Stachys, Apelles, and all those of Aristobulus’ household… All we know about them is that they were a blessing to Paul and he never forgot it.

Are you starting to see a pattern, here? Paul did not see people only as a “flock:” the individuals were important to him. From what we see in scripture, I have to conclude that The Lord sees his flock that way, too—as a group of individuals, each of whom is individually important to Him, and each of whom he knows completely. There is a video on the internet of a small boy in Afghanistan. The video is actually about his use of a sling, such as David used, but in the course of the conversation, the interviewer asked how many sheep he had. The child shrugged cheerfully that he did not know the number. So the interviewer asked (through a translator) how he would know if any were missing, since he did not know how many he had. The child looked a little incredulous at such a silly question, but answered that he would know immediately because he knew them all.

Jesus says that even the hairs of our heads are “numbered.” And in John 10:27, 28 he states that he knows his sheep. If he knows them so well and cares about the details of their lives to the extent that he knows each hair by location and number, how could he not also care about us as individuals? In this chapter, a whole bunch of individuals are called out, individually, by name for special attention…which was included in God’s eternal Word. This is not just a casual newsletter.

¹¹Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.

Herodian (a relative of Paul’s, evidently) and them who were saved of the household of Narcissus. He mentioned a few groups here without naming them individually, but recognizing that they as a group were important to him.

¹²Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.

Tryphena, and Tryphosa, and Persis…all servants of God who served faithfully. Persis evidently even more than the others. It is interesting to see that God recognizes degrees of service, as well as the fact of faithful service. This should encourage our hearts, to know that if we serve more, God is not blind to it.

¹³Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

Rufus, and his mother (also Paul’s? If that is the case, this is all the information we have to that effect.) Perhaps he considered her his adopted mother. Jesus, from the cross, turned his mother over to John for care, and instructed her to see John as her son, and John to see her as his mother. I really don’t know what this means, in this passage.

¹⁴Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them.
¹⁵Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.

Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes and the believers with them. Philologus, Julia, and Olympas and the believers with them (more house-churches?)

¹⁶Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.

“Salute all these, and one another; the Churches of Christ greet you.” I am not certain what is meant by the “holy kiss”, but I do know that some churches practice this and other things mentioned in scripture, simply because it is mentioned, whether they understand it or not. There are churches that make an ordinance of physically washing one another’s feet. There are others that will not have musical instruments in their services, because “…there is no Biblical record of musical instruments in the New Testament Church.” (There isn’t any Biblical record of them having special church-buildings either, nor a host of other things that we count normal in our cultures…)

I think it is our responsibility to understand the scripture as best we can, and obey what we understand. It is not acceptable in American culture for men to kiss one another. The Old Russian Believers practice such a thing specifically because of this verse. That does not offend me. On the other hand, I think I am free to warmly greet believers as brothers and sisters in Christ in the manner dictated by our culture. I hope that does not offend them.

Final Warnings and Admonitions

¹⁷Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
¹⁸For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Paul says we are to take note of those who cause division (Greek dichostasias), and avoid them: they are not serving Christ, but self. They will deceive the hearts of the unlearned…that is who they target, and they do so successfully.

¹⁹For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil

Paul said that the obedience of this church (their faith and wise behavior) had been widely spoken of, which was good. But then he told them to “be wise in that which is good”, and “simple” in that which is evil. We tend to want to be “worldly-wise” as well as wise in Christ. We call it “sophistication.” The problem with that is that the word “sophistication” comes from the same root as “sophistry.” Sophistry is “reasoning that seems plausible on a superficial level but is actually unsound; or reasoning that is used to deceive,” according to Webster’s dictionary. People use this sort of reasoning and argument at virtually every level, from politics and religion down to sales literature and folk-medicine.

We are mocked by the world as “ignorant” if we don’t have extensive experience with evil behavior, and they shame us for it. People say “Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it!” They could be referring to any sort of bad decision-making. And yet Paul says that it would be better if we become experts in the Goodness of God, and in obedience to Him, but go right ahead and wear the label of “Ignoramus,” when it comes to sin. It is just fine to have no idea what people are talking about when they are bragging about the evil they have taken part in. God says “…it is a shame even to speak of the things they do in secret.” (Ephesians 5:12)

It is patently ridiculous to suggest that we should have to “try everything” before we can make decisions in life. To begin with, God has given us some directions regarding life. There is nothing dull or “uncreative” about following His directions, since he is the author and designer of life. His instructions are right, and good, and dependable!

When we see a badly-fitted, and crooked shelf or table, which we easily recognize as being bought from one of those stores where you “take your furniture home in a box, and assemble it yourself”, we may think, “That fool doesn’t know how to follow directions!” Or we may be more kindly in our thoughts; pitying one who has such minimal skills. But, we never think, “Oh, look! How creative! He ignored the directions and just went his own way!” As a rule, we don’t applaud bad decisions in the secular, material, natural world; so why should we applaud bad decisions in the spiritual realm? And yet we do! (Think about what sorts of things give movies better ratings.)

When you see a person suffering the consequences of their choices, please don’t judge or condemn them; but do thank God that they have effectively “done your homework for you!” You don’t have to try that particular type of foolishness. They have demonstrated for you that it is a bad idea. But we can read God’s directions and avoid a great deal of trouble to begin with.

²⁰And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

I don’t know in what way the God of Peace would crush Satan under the feet of the believers. Perhaps there is a clue in the phrase “God of Peace.” Perhaps walking with God and experiencing His ongoing peace is the key to seeing Satan defeated in our lives. If that is not it, then I simply don’t know.

Greetings From the “Scribe” and Others.

Paul usually had someone else do his writing for him. From what little scriptural evidence is given us, it is probable that he had some serious eye-trouble. The one epistle he penned on his own was written in large script, as he remarked in that epistle. (Galatians 6:11) Further, he commended the same church for their fervent love for him, saying that, had it been possible, they would have given him their eyes. Putting the two ideas together, along with the fact that, later, he could not see that the man who commanded someone else to strike him was the high priest, (Acts 23:1-5) we conclude that his eyes were probably pretty bad. Thus, someone else nearly always did his writing for him.

²¹Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you.
²²I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.
²³Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and Quartus a brother.

So, we see greetings from all the believers there, including Tertius, who did the writing for Paul of this letter, and who evidently obtained permission to add his greetings. Timothy, Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, along with Gaius (with whom Paul was staying,) Erasmus the city chamberlain, and Quartus, who is simply identified as “a brother,” also extended their greetings. (Note: “Tertius” and “Quartus” are possibly “slave names”: they just mean “#3 and #4.” On the other hand, there are some cultures today where people sometimes name their children that way, so perhaps not. But Rome had many thousands of slaves, so it is entirely possible. Some commentator pointed it out, but I don’t suppose it really matters.)

²⁴The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Notice that his first and last concern for all believers is that they continue to experience the daily Grace of God in their lives. He begins nearly all his epistles with this comment.

²⁵Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

²⁶But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

²⁷To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.

He clearly states that it is God’s power to establish (strengthen and stabilize) us, by means of the gospel; the preaching of Jesus Christ, along with the rest of teh scriptures, and the revelation of the mystery of the Church.

He gives his final Benediction, “Glory to God through Jesus Christ. Amen! ”

Lord Jesus, establish and strengthen us through the preaching of your Word: implant it in our hearts. Make us the men and women of God that you have called us to be.

Amen.

November 19, 2016November 25, 2017

Paul’s Ministry and Motivation

The Mission and Ministry of the Apostle Paul

Romans 15:14-33

Introduction:

We have been studying through the book of Romans, and for the last several weeks, the topic had to do with church unity, and how to deal with the normal, healthy diversity in the church. The point was that the diversity is a good thing, designed by God, but that all of it had to fit within the holiness of God. God makes no provision for sin, beyond the Cross. Paul rebuked virtually every church he wrote to, in one area or another; not harshly, but in corrective teaching, designed to help them walk with God. The only church letter (epistle) in which there was no corrective teaching is the book of Philippians. The two epistles to Corinth are virtually all corrective teaching. So some of the things that were wrong in Corinth had nothing to do with “diversity”, or being “seeker-friendly”, or “relevant to the World.” Some of the issues were simply sin, and Paul addressed those things directly, and unapologetically.

The diversity had to do with different cultures, and different gifting; not morals, or idolatry, or any form of unrighteousness. We would be wise to frequently review Romans 14 and 15 to remind ourselves how to get along with those we find uncomfortable, as well as how we are to become less uncomfortable for others.

Romans is a very well-balanced book, as Paul lays the foundation for faith, and for a stable walk with God. Having done so, Paul goes on to begin to share his own heart; his own way of thinking regarding the gospel, the work of the ministry, the Gentiles, the church, etc.

Paul Shares His Own Heart

¹⁴And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
¹⁵Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God,
¹⁶That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

In verses 14-16, Paul expresses his confidence that the goodness of God was already having victory in the lives of the Gentile believers in Rome. He acknowledges that they were completely capable of teaching or correcting one another, as needed. Why?

How could he be so sure that they were able to continue the Christian life without his assistance? What two things did they have that assured them of it?

They had the same two things we have—the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the written Word of God. Did they have the New Testament? No, it wasn’t completed, yet, though it is possible they had seen portions of it. Romans is evidently the sixth of Paul’s epistles, and the book of Matthew was almost certainly completed and circulating. Possibly the book of Mark had begun circulating, as well. (Remember that there were no printing presses, so copies were written out by hand, and passed around to other believers.)

They had all of the Old Testament, and, as we have seen in our previous studies, it is completely in agreement with the New Testament, where they overlap. The Old Testament laid a firm foundation for the New Testament, so that the believers who were well-taught in the Old Testament were easily able to grasp the teachings in the New Testament, because the two dovetailed perfectly together. The prophecies of the Old Testament were being fulfilled in the New Testament, and the New Testament gave clear explanation to the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit was perfectly capable of teaching them from the Old Testament Scripture, and, if necessary, by additional revelation. But, in this case, Paul was that additional revelation. He was sent to do a particular job, and this letter is part of it. He was used to write at least 13 of the New Testament books…probably 14, though we have no proof regarding the writer of Hebrews.

He says that he was “bold” in writing to them because of the peculiar gift of God with which he himself had been entrusted—that he was the servant of Jesus Christ, sent specifically to the Gentiles. (The word “Apostle” means “sent one”.) In another passage (Romans 11:13) Paul says that he is “the Apostle to the Gentiles,” and that he takes it seriously; he “magnifies” his office. He says that his specific job was to ensure that the “offering up of the Gentiles” would be acceptable before God, being sanctified (made holy) by the Holy Spirit.

When I first read this particular passage (v. 16), regarding the “offering up of the Gentiles”, I assumed that he meant that the offerings the Gentiles made would be acceptable; but it turns out that it means that the Gentiles themselves are the offering—a worship offering—and that he wanted them to be an acceptable “worship offering” to God. I like the mental image this evokes…that the lives of the Gentile believers were to be an acceptable, pleasing act of worship to God. I’m a Gentile believer, too…can this apply to me? Yes! We can take this promise and apply it to ourselves. This is a Church Epistle, and it is “To Us.”

Paul says that the result of applying these truths (the whole book of Romans) to our lives is that our lives will be an acceptable worship offering to God, made holy (sanctified) by the Holy Spirit. That makes the Book of Romans a pretty important passage to learn to apply. Possibly a place to start for serious personal study…meditation…memorization.

Paul’s Motivation: To be Used by God

Paul goes on to explain “what makes him tick”— what his motive in life has become. (Not surprisingly, it matches what Jesus said, in John 4:34—“My food is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.”)

¹⁷I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.
¹⁸For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,

Paul says that this is his only boast: the effect the Gospel has had in the lives of those to whom he preached. Not in the work of others; just his own. And even this “boast” is only the satisfaction of knowing that his life has been used by God to achieve something of eternal worth. He says that he can boast “through Jesus Christ, in those things that pertain to God.” And that he will not boast of anything that “Christ did not do through him.” This gives us a clue as to what sort of things are reward-worthy, to God. The things Christ does in and through his people are the things he will reward as being of eternal value. Paul hungered for that reward, and the continuing experience of knowing his life was useful, as a tool in the hand of the Savior. God help us all to hunger toward that end, that we may be useful as tools in His Hand.

We often tell people, “Well, God needs (insert professions here; hair-stylists, shoemakers, welders, truck-drivers, laborers, etc.) too!” The fact is, that is not true! God doesn’t “need” anything! We need Him. We need to be in His will. Now, does his will have a place for all of those seemingly “common” professions? Yes! It does!

Tentmakers were nothing dramatic or glorious, in the time of Christ, but God certainly had a use for a couple of them in Acts chapter 18. The tent-making couple, Priscilla and Aquila, had Paul work with them for a while. Later, they took aside the “powerhouse evangelist,” Apollos, and “straightened him out!” It seems he only knew what John the Baptist had taught, plus the Old Testament. They filled him in on the “rest of the story,” as they had been taught by both Paul and the Holy Spirit. Amazingly, Apollos not only received it, he put it to use in his public ministry, and was mightily used by God, to refute the false teachers in that area. How frequently a powerful teacher, who has been used by God in great ways, is too arrogant to listen to the quieter, simpler folk through whom God may choose to speak. (It is well to remember that, on the occasion when He chose to do so, God was able to use a donkey to straighten out a prophet. It is not too much to ask, to listen to the voice of the less prominent. In the case of Aquila and Priscilla, it made a huge difference. They were used by God, and it made a difference!

Pauls’ Pattern of Evangelism

¹⁹Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
²⁰Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation:
²¹But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.²²For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.

Verses 19 and 20 are interesting and educational passages: Verse 19 says that he, Paul, “through mighty signs and wonders by the Power of the Spirit of God,” had “fully preached the Gospel” from Jerusalem to Illyricum. What does that mean? Does it mean that he tracked down and preached to every single human in that area?

You can look at the maps of the Mediterranean area, and find all the towns in which he preached, and you can see that what he was describing was a pretty large chunk of territory. But we can read the account in Acts and see that he went from town to town, and preached in civic and religious centers, including market-places and synagogues, so that the news went out from those centers. Once he had believers in an area, he left it to them to find those who had not heard the Gospel and to share it with them. But Paul moved on to an area where the Gospel had never gone. “V. 20 “Yea, so have I strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.” That was Paul’s three-point mission plan:

Preach in centers from which the message could spread and continue to grow after he left.
Try to concentrate on taking the Gospel to places where it had never been before.
Feed those that are hungry, and don’t waste time on those who are not. (See Acts 17)

Pretty simple, isn’t it? And yet we have huge organizations today, some doing great work, but “over-organized” to the hilt. Every believer can take this attitude toward the Gospel. Evangelism is really pretty simple—it is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find free food. And Paul had been so busy doing just that, that he had never been free to visit the believers in Rome

By the way, the above pattern is what Jim and Judy Burdett, with New Tribes Mission, have been doing for the last 32 years, while translating the scripture into Dom. They established three small churches, which are mostly self-sustaining, now, from which Bible-teachers are going out into neighboring villages and clans, sharing the Gospel, and teaching the Bible. Jim and Judy can only do so much. But they have taught in those three areas, and the ones they taught have the freedom to go wherever they will be received. They can go to places Jim and Judy could not go.

Paul’s Personal Plans

²³But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you;
²⁴Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.
²⁵But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
²⁶For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
²⁷It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
²⁸When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
²⁹And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

Paul begins his closing remarks, here, with his personal desire to visit Rome. He says “I have no more place in these parts…” Why? Not welcome there? He was never completely welcome, anywhere he went—he had a ministry that was sometimes very uncomfortable. He preached the Cross; Jesus Christ and Him Crucified: and, while it resulted in salvation for many, there were far more who totally rejected the message, and frequently were violently opposed to it and him.

But that is not what is in the context, here. In light of verse 20, what does “I have no more place, here…” mean? He was simply stating that there were no more untouched areas around him, and he was looking as far away as Spain, in order to fulfill his prime objective—take the Gospel where it had never been before. He had already done so where he was (see verse 19).

I knew a retired missionary couple, Roy and Linda Milton, who had worked in Indonesia. There is an area of Irian Jaya (the other half of the Island of New Guinea) called “The Bird’s Head”, because of its shape, that had never been opened to missions. I remember the way Linda’s eyes glowed, when she stated positively, “If they open up the Bird’s Head, we’ll go back!” Their health is no longer good enough to permit such a thing, and I am not sure whether that area was ever opened, but that was her heart’s desire, to take the Gospel where it had never gone.

Does this mean that we should never tell someone the gospel twice? Of course not! But it does mean that we have a greater debt to those who have never heard than to those who have already heard and rejected the Lord. If people aren’t hungry, move on and find someone who is hungry. It is impossible to feed those who are not hungry. Back in Romans 1:16, Paul stated that he was a debtor to both Jews and Gentiles, because of the Gospel. In Romans 13:8 we are told to not be in debt to anyone except for this abiding debt of Love. I was not immediately receptive to the Gospel, so if I had only heard it once, I would have been lost. I remember the first time I heard it and understood that all the necessary work was completed at the Cross; that all God was asking me to do was to place my faith in that single completed work of Jesus…His shed blood for my sins. It still took about six months for me to come around. I was eighteen, and I know I must have heard the Gospel many times before that and simply ignored it. God was gracious and patient toward me. But there does come a time when the evangelist must kindly say, “Well…I hope you will think it over and change your mind!” and then… close your mouth! There are others who will respond. You need to pray for their soul, continue to love them, and pray for guidance to find someone else with whom to share the Hope of Eternal Life.

Paul planned to go to Spain, but he had to make a trip to Jerusalem first. He asked for prayer, as the people to who he would go were not at all friendly toward the Gospel, nor, especially, to him. But he promised that en route to Spain, he would stop over in Rome and be a blessing to them, as well. We do not know whether he ever made it to Spain…we have no record of it if he did. And the only recorded time that he went to Rome, he went as a prisoner. V. 29 seems to make it clear that he fully expected to go to Rome as a visitor. If there was another visit, outside of the time he went there in chains, we are not told of it. We simply don’t know.

Conclusion: Paul’s Prayer Requests and Benediction

³⁰Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;
³¹That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;
³²That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.
³³Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Paul begged the Roman believers to “strive together”, in prayer for him. The Greek word is “agonizo” –the word from which we derive “agonize”. Paul asked that they pour themselves out for him in prayer, so that he would be delivered from the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem (who desired to silence him), and that his service toward the church in Jerusalem would be well-received. He asked for these things so that, when he came to Rome they could be a blessing to one another, and be refreshed by mutual fellowship.

Paul prayed for them that the God of Peace would be with them all.

Keep in mind that this epistle is to the Church as a whole. God wants his Peace to reign in our lives as well. As we study His Word, and align ourselves with His Will, we find that we are increasingly filled with His Peace. And, honestly, that is about the best thing we can experience in this life: His Peace, and His Joy, and His personal presence as we walk with Him.

Lord Jesus, teach us to align ourselves with your stated will so as to discover your specific will, operative in our lives, and to be filled with your Peace and your Joy. Teach us to practice evangelism the way Paul taught it, and to leave the result to you. Make us continually aware of your presence with us, as we seek to serve you.

November 5, 2016

Church Unity

Unity in the Church

Romans 15:8-13: The Gentiles in Prophecy; Unity between Jewish and Gentile believers.

⁸Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
⁹And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
¹⁰And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
¹¹And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.
¹²And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.
¹³Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Introduction:

The Old Testament is full of promises; mostly (but not all) directed specifically to Israel. In the verses we just read, the Apostle Paul states that Jesus came to serve Israel with regard to the truth of God; in confirmation of the promises made to the patriarchs; but also so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his Mercy.

Paul alludes to Isaiah 42:6, 7, where it says that the Messiah would be a covenant (confirmation of the promises) to the people (Israel,) and a light to the Gentiles, providing healing to the nations. He then gives several examples (by no means exhaustive) of the prophecies specifically referring to the Gentiles. He quotes Psalm 18:49; Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 117:1, and Isaiah 11:1, 10. There are many other passages that make promises specifically directed to whole Gentile nations, or to all the Gentiles as a group. I suspect that, while the Jewish teachers were aware of the theory that the Gentiles would also inherit the mercy and blessing of God, they were, at best, less than enthusiastic about it. Thus, the seeds of division were still present in the early church, though the foundation for unity had been laid at the Cross.

How are the Gentiles to Fit In? And, how can the Jews be at Peace?

Paul’s conclusion regarding the Gentile believers (who were the recipients of this epistle) is, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” They are not to feel inferior to the Jewish believers in any way, nor, as we saw in Romans chapters 9-11, are they to feel superior in any way.

Both groups were condemned under sin, and guilty before God, according to Romans chapters 1-3, and both have been the recipients of God’s Grace through the person of Christ, according to Romans chapters 4-8. They are called to be a blessing to one another and live in unity even regarding things about which they traditionally are in disagreement. (See verse 10: they were to rejoice WITH God’s people the Jews.) Have you noticed that the Jewish believers (as a whole) were never told to drop their customs and start eating foods they considered unclean?

Peter was commanded (Acts 10) to graciously receive the Gentiles who had come to him in obedience to the angelic command given to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius. And the means by which Peter was commanded was by a vision, wherein he was shown some unclean animals, and was told “Arise, Peter, kill and eat!” Was God commanding him to eat unclean food? No; the three repetitions of the command in the vision were only to prepare him for the three Gentile men who were approaching the front door at that moment. God told him three times that if God had made something clean, he, Peter, had no authority to call it unclean. Peter responded correctly to the Gentiles because God correctly prepared him. Romans chapters 14 and 15 are the equivalent preparation for the whole church—the small differences we may have because of cultural backgrounds, diverging traditions within churches, etc. are not allowed to cause division. All believers share in the blessed hope of Christ. But the seeds of division are still there!

The Gentiles were frustrated by the Jews continual emphasis on the Law, and the feast days, and their dietary restrictions. The Jews were horrified that the Gentiles were not in compliance with all these things. Paul said that they were not to be divided over such things, but rather that they were to appreciate one another, and recognize that, just as each part of a human body has a different task (1^st Corinthians 12), so we are to appreciate one another for how each fits into God’s Building, the Church.

What about Other differences?

Other potential areas of division (and just as inappropriate) would include styles of ministry, or individual gifting. One Elder may be specifically gifted as a preacher, and he may completely give himself to encouraging, edifying, and comforting the flock (1^st Corinthians 14:3). He will be a blessing to all those in his care. People are moved by preaching, and blessed, and their hearts are warmed. They find reassurance, and a stronger faith thereby. All of which is good!

But: another elder in the same assembly may be specifically gifted as a teacher. He may spend countless hours ferreting out the most accurate interpretation for any given passage of scripture, so that he can teach others, also, to clearly understand God’s Word. To those hungering to understand, he, too will be a blessing, but in a different way. No one gets “warm fuzzy feelings” over a well-taught point of theology, though some may be thrilled to see how ALL of God’s Word holds together in full agreement. But the emotional content simply is not the same.

And yet, both gifts are valid, and need one another, as well as being needed by the assembly. Good application is built upon good interpretation. Good interpretation still requires appropriate application, as well. It is not a safe practice to simply “jump” to application in one’s life when reading a passage of scripture. One has to read carefully, and consider what is being said, by whom, to whom, and so forth, before deciding how to apply it. Neither is it appropriate to simply understand a passage. Understanding demands action. This is not just “fun stuff to know and tell.” Knowledge is for the purpose of conduct. (Think that over.)

There are cultural divides within major cultures, as well. Music, aesthetics, clothing styles, dietary choices, public behavior, table manners…virtually anything can be a source of division, so long as we are willing to take occasion to do so. The key is to not be willing to break fellowship over such things.

Jew and Gentile issues, again

So, how does all this tie into the issues between the Jewish and the Gentile believers? Consider: How might it help for the Jewish believers to continue on with the Jewish feast days? How might it hurt? How would it help for the Gentile believers to cheerfully go on with their work, their clothing choices and their diets, without regard for the Old Testament Jewish laws? (This is not in reference to moral issues, or things condemned as sin in all dispensations.)

Paul had Timothy circumcised, as a Jew, because he was a Jew, though he had a Gentile father and was not raised as a practicing Jew. He made no attempt to have Titus become a Jewish proselyte, though he had a seemingly identical ministry. Why? Because Timothy was better able to reach Jews with the Gospel, and minister to the needs of Jewish believers, if he fully embraced his Jewish heritage, and was someone they did not see as a renegade, or an apostate. Titus, on the other hand, was a full Gentile by birth, and it would have been detrimental to his testimony to become a Jewish proselyte, because it would add confusion to the message of the Gospel. It may have pacified the “Judaizers”, but it would also have strengthened their claim that one has to become a Jew to be saved, which is pure heresy, and which was exactly what Paul was fighting against from the beginning.

This is why it was so important for the believers at Rome to accept one another as they were, without criticism about things that had no bearing on one’s relationship with God. The enemy was already at work to divide the newborn church, to split it into warring factions, and to destroy the credibility of its testimony. They could either overcome the differences by obedience to God’s Word, or allow the Enemy to destroy the church.

What did the apostle James say about the matter? (Acts 15:19) That the Jewish believers were not to “trouble those who from among the Gentiles had turned to God”. The same could be said of the Gentile believers, that they were not to trouble the Jewish believers. The whole issue, here in Romans 14 and 15, is the matter of unity in spite of differences. They could either choose to appreciate one another for the unique ways that God had gifted them, or choose to destroy the work of God through self-centered arrogance.

So, What about Today?

Those are the choices today, as well. It is never a question of condoning sin, but rather of allowing and appreciating liberty within the holiness of God. A well-meaning pastor once accused my youngest son of being a “worldly man” while he himself claimed to be a “Godly man,” based entirely upon my son’s choice in music. I felt that it was a sad thing, to destroy fellowship over such a thing, and I privately wondered what the music had been that occasioned such an attack, but I didn’t ask. A week or so later, my son and I were driving somewhere, and he had some pretty rocky-sounding music playing on his car system; then he said “This is the song that the pastor was complaining about, when he called me a “worldly man.” So, I listened more closely to the lyrics, to see what the content of the song really was. This is what I heard: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me! Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me! Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation…”

The song was the 51^st Psalm, set to music. That is what he was being condemned for. Why? Because the human accuser did not like the music. But the Accuser of the Brethren is not human, and he doesn’t like the lyrics. He will use any means possible to cause division, and to diminish the effectiveness of the Church. Frequently the damage done is irreparable…the wounded brother quietly leaves, and the accuser feels justified, and grimly quotes, “They went out from among us because they were not of us!”

If you drive away another believer with your criticism, don’t accuse them of being unfaithful, or of being false brethren. It is your critical heart that is doing the damage. Ezekiel 34:15-22 says that God sees such doings, and will judge those doing the damage.

¹⁵I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. ¹⁶I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

¹⁷And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. ¹⁸Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? ¹⁹And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.

²⁰Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. ²¹Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; ²²Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

Those who are driving away the weaker believers will be judged by God. We need to develop a very tender heart toward such offences, and be very careful about our words and actions.

This is not just about what happens in church, by the way: it is a warning that touches on every human relationship. James says that we all tend to sin with our tongues. We tend to have big mouths, and we need to put a guard on them, so as not to injure others with thoughtless words. The root of the tongue, of course, is the heart. Jesus said, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

The self-will and self-centeredness that controls the heart of every unregenerate man is still there, in believers, but we are no longer its slaves. We no longer have to sin. (Romans 6:1-18) We are dead to sin, just as surely as we are dead to the Law. So, we need to set aside the critical spirit that wells up within us, and embrace the New Life in Christ, to the extent that we no longer reject one another based upon differences in tastes, mannerisms, styles, giftedness, or even minor doctrinal differences. It is simply not acceptable to reject one another over things that God accepts…to reject a person whom God says is “Accepted in the Beloved.”

The Result?

Paul says that the church is to be filled “with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

We are to abound in hope through whose Power? That of the Holy Spirit. This is not a “do-it-yourself” project. We are told to endeavor to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace.” We don’t create that unity, and, as the Psalmist says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” But we are not to disrupt that unity for the sake of any of the types of things listed here: Not what we eat or drink (both strictly temporal, at worst); not what we wear, not our ministry style, or our taste in music; not what we believe about the end times (which are easily misunderstood at best, and not everyone who is “confused” is necessarily a false teacher.)

We are to be characterized by the Agapé love, not by our many divisions and schisms. Paul sternly warned the Corinthian church against such divisions. (1^st Corinthians 1:10-16) They were divided over who their individual mentors had been. Some claimed that Paul was their leader. Others claimed to follow Apollos. Still others took the high road and said “Well I follow Jesus!” That one sounds good, maybe, but what they were actually accomplishing was more division, not corrective teaching. Had they said “Can’t we all just follow Jesus? I mean that’s who both Paul and Apollos follow, right?” Then, I would say they were part of the solution. But as it is, they were part of the problem of contention, self-will and sectarian pride.

That still happens today: There was a fellow with whom I attended high school, who was not a believer when we graduated. I was a brand new believer at that time. We met about eight or ten years later and he was a brand new, enthusiastic, and friendly, warm brother in the Lord. We had good fellowship! But I met him again, perhaps five years later, in a grocery store, and something had changed:

He asked me what church I attended. I had been attending a Baptist church, because it was local, and because, doctrinally speaking, it was the closest thing I could find, nearby. So that is what I told him: “We’ve been attending this Baptist Church, up the street.” He physically straightened up so that he could look down his nose at me, and in a sanctimonious, smug, self-satisfied tone, said, “Well, I’m still gathering to the name of Jesus!” I was so disappointed to have him respond that way. He had not asked me about my beliefs, nor my practices. The only thing that mattered to him was the fact that I fellowshipped with people who were “part of a denomination.” The group with whom he met for fellowship, claimed to have no denominational ties, but, in fact they do! In separating themselves from all other believers, they have become a very tight-knit, world-wide denomination (or at least association). They are tarred with the same brush!

Conclusion:

Division is serious business. We are to avoid it like a fatal disease…because it is one! If the Jewish believers were not to reject the Gentile believers because of their worldly habits, and the Gentile believers were not to reject the Jews because of their legalistic bent, and if Paul rebuked the early beginning of sectarianism based on personality cults, then how can we feel we have the right to break fellowship over anything that is not flagrant sin?

We are not to cause division, nor to allow it to continue, if it is possible to heal the rifts. We do not sacrifice sound doctrine to create a false unity…called Ecumenism; but we do seek to maintain unity with those who truly believe the Bible is God’s Word, and who see the Priorities of the Gospel as paramount. It is difficult to sort out, sometimes, but we must be committed to the unity of the true church while not abandoning the Holiness of God.

Lord Jesus, give us the wisdom through your Word, and by your Holy Spirit to discern good and evil, and renew in us a pure heart with which to offer the agapé love to those around us. Apart from your divine help and intervention and empowerment, the task is impossible. Arm us for the fight, and fill us with your Joy, for the sake of your honor and glory.

October 22, 2016April 26, 2018

Unity Despite Differences

Responding to Differences with Unity

Romans 15:1-7

Introduction:

¹We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
²Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
³For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.

Romans 15:1-7 concludes Paul’s argument in Romans 14:1-23. I have no idea why the translators (or Erasmus…whoever) chose to place the chapter division at Romans 14:23 instead of seven verses later. The second word, “then”, shows that it is definitely a continuation of the idea being taught all the way through chapter 14. It is actually the conclusion of the context, though the concept in verse 23 has such impact that possibly they chose to end the chapter on that note just to maintain the impact of that statement. I just don’t know.

But Paul says, in v.1-3, “We then who are strong ought to bear (endure) the infirmities of them that are weak, and not to please ourselves.” I wonder how far this can be taken. Doesn’t this ultimately pool infirmity and ignorance, so that the whole body grows weaker? Or is it really a matter of “bearing up under” their weakness, while they get stronger, and not causing them to stumble as they are trying to grow? That is what these two chapters are about.

Partnership and Fellowship

Imagine a team competing in an obstacle course. By the rules of the game, the whole team has to complete the course; so it would be of no use for the strongest to simply rush ahead, saying “See you at the finish line!”. On the other hand, the weakest member may not be able to complete the course at all, without significant help. And even if he can, the others are not promoting group success if all they do is stand around and criticize the weaker member. So, what is the solution? (It is interesting: in the context of sports, even amongst unbelievers, no one ever has a problem with this question.) Teamwork is the solution.

The weakest member in that team on the obstacle course is being helped along by all the others, and he in his turn is helping where he can, and willingly accepting help from the others because it helps the team effort by hastening his own success. His pride does not induce him to reject their help, because, if he did, they would all lose. Their pride does not induce them to say, “Well, you just need to work harder!” They all know that all of them are part of the team, and all have value. All have to succeed, or none will. They are all partners in this struggle. Incidentally, that is what the word “fellowship” means…”partnership;” having something in common.

So, in terms of the church: while we are each individually accountable to God, we are also collectively accountable. We are a single organism: our testimony and health as a local assembly is dependent upon how we deal with one another. What did Jesus say about that? “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have Love (Agapé) one for another.” It seems to me that there are two forces at work, here: the one says, don’t put a stumbling-block before your neighbor. The other is the need for edification…building up the brethren. We have to grow!

Corrective teaching can be used to build up the believers, but it has to be done very gently. I know of a pastor who gave correct teaching (not even intended to be “corrective”) regarding the Bible’s stance on alcohol. He did not mean to cause division, nor to give any cause for offense, but a couple who held to total abstinence were so offended that they left the church. They were gone for over eight years, before finally returning, realizing that their response had been wrong.

He never condemned them at any level…but they condemned him. He had reached out to them, but they were adamant, and refused restoration. When they finally recognized that their bitter condemnation of another servant (the pastor) was sin, they repented, and apologized to him for their bitterness, and came back and reestablished fellowship with the other believers there.

We have vegetarian acquaintances who have frequently eaten at our house. When they eat with us, we serve them and ourselves food that does not contain meat. We have had vegetable soups, grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit, peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies, tea, coffee, etc. We have never placed anyone in the uncomfortable position of having to refuse the food we offer. On the other hand, they are fully aware that we habitually eat meat, when they are not there… and they are not offended by that. It is OK for them to choose vegetarianism. There is no call for corrective teaching: there is nothing to discuss. We simply serve a meatless meal when they visit. Now: some of these are not even believers…how much more should we be moved to accommodate our brothers and sisters? We are not to risk losing fellowship over things that God does not condemn. We are partners in much deeper matters than food.

No Meddling!

Romans 14:1 through 15:5 make it pretty clear that neither those who are strong nor those who are weak are to try to “twist the other person around” and force the others to live as they themselves do. We are to love one another, and accept one another, appreciating our differences in gifts, and our variety in expression.

Let’s take another example: I personally have no desire to drink wine (or any other alcoholic beverage), but I do not condemn those who do. I do see it as a potential hazard, and in our culture especially, I see it as a possible snare and potentially destructive to our testimonies. But there are those who condemn the use of alcohol entirely, and they condemn anyone who believes otherwise, as well. How does that square with this passage? This is a good example of the need to compare scripture with scripture:

There is no question that the normal drink in the time of Christ was wine, not water, nor even grape-juice. Wine was the only means by which fruit juice could be preserved. It was seen as a normal beverage, but one that had to be taken in reasonable quantity…Drunkenness was spoken against as early as the time of Noah, and was warned against in the Proverbs, 1700 years later, as also in the epistles to the church, another 700 years after that. There is no question in any dispensation, that drunkenness is sin.

But: gluttony also seems to be sin, and no one condemns another person for “eating lunch.” Excess in eating may be sin; but food is necessary. Excess in wine is sin, but the use of wine is not only permitted, it is blessed by God, and even commanded by Him under certain circumstances. Some believers may feel uncomfortable with that statement, but God’s Word makes that completely clear. (Judges 9:13; Psalm 104:14, 15; Deuteronomy 14:26)

When Jesus turned water into wine (John 2), it was not only definitely an alcoholic wine, but apparently a supernaturally aged wine, so that it was seen as superior to what the householder had been able to offer on his own. (And, by the way, the exact same Greek word (oinos) is used for that wine, as is used for the command not to be drunk with wine (Ephesians 5). Either Jesus created alcoholic wine for that wedding, or we are commanded to not get drunk on grape juice.) This should never be a source for contention!

But: we believers are continually seen by unbelievers as tearing each other up over peripheral issues like this, while absolutely wallowing in sin that is specifically forbidden. What do I mean?

What Really Bothers God?

Take a look at Proverbs 6:16-19…God says there are several things he really hates. Pride and haughtiness (arrogance) is one of them. Gossip is one of them. Spreading discord (stirring up trouble) among brethren is one of them. Lying is another. But all of these things are commonly seen in Christian circles among those who would be completely shocked to see one of their members buy a bottle of wine or smoke a cigar, or whatever thing they think “ought not to be done.” Some take it even further and condemn coffee, or even the use of anti-depressants, or other things about which the Bible is utterly silent.

Some churches establish dress-codes, including limits on hair-length for men, grooming codes (Trim that beard, mister!), or forbidding make-up on women, etc. This entire attitude is expressly forbidden by Romans 14 and 15. Dr. McGee makes an interesting point: He says if you were at dinner at the home of someone who had household help (cooks, butlers, etc.), and if the cook were to serve you cold biscuits (his example), you would never consider criticizing the household staff (aloud, at least), because they don’t work for you!

But we seem to forget that the believers around us also do not work for us. We are each accountable to God. If the Scripture really is silent about an issue, or at least does not forbid it, we had better do the same. Don’t condemn what God doesn’t condemn. Do not deny someone else’s freedom, nor use your freedom in such a way as to damage another believer.

Isn’t it interesting: In Genesis 18:25, Jesus is identified by Abraham as being “the Judge of all the Earth” (compare John 1:18, John 5:22); but, during his earthly ministry, he condemned very few: mainly just those who were busy condemning others. He endured the natural perversity of the human race in order to offer Himself for our sakes…and he did not endure the vicious, self-righteous condemnation that the Pharisees, Scribes, and Lawyers, along with the Priests and Temple Rulers pointed at everyone they didn’t like. Does that mean that the Judge of all the Earth doesn’t care about sin? Absolutely not! He cared about it enough to condemn the whole world for sin (Romans 3:19), and to substitute Himself for the whole world, so as to die in our place (1^st Peter 3:18). So, what can we learn from this? Verse four begins to give the answer:

⁴For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

v.4: The Old Testament writings are for our learning, that we, through patience (endurance) and comfort of the (Old Testament) scriptures might have hope. I think (in context of the previous chapters) that Paul is pointing out that the Old Testament writings do NOT place us back under the Law. We are to learn from them, not be oppressed or enslaved through them. Remember what James and Peter said, in Acts 15:10, 19—Peter said that the Jews were “tempting God”, by placing a yoke (a burden) on the Gentile believers, which none of the Jews, either present day or at any time in history, had been able to bear. The Jews, born and raised under the Law, had uniformly failed to keep it. But now they were insisting that the Gentiles keep the Law to be saved. Peter pointed out the failure in logic, and James decreed that “…we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God.” (Wow! That is a really good thing to hear! A Comfort, in fact! It gives me Hope, so I can Endure!)

It is so easy to fall into a trap of “adding things to faith.” We are saved by Grace, through faith…plus nothing. The result is to be good works “…which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) This by no means disposes of the Law…we are to study it and learn from it. But we are not to use it as a weapon against one other, nor allow the enemy to use it to enslave us again. (Colossians 2:20-23 reiterates this message.) Our interaction with the Word of God should produce Endurance, Comfort and Hope, not guilt and hopelessness.

Conclusion: The Goal is Unity.

⁵Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

Paul says that we are to be like-minded toward one another “according to Christ Jesus”. We are to glorify God with full unity. That is tough to do when we are always sparring, jousting and bickering over petty doctrinal issues, or even behavioral issues.

Notice: Unity and conformity are not the same idea. Legalists preach conformity. Christ preaches unity, based upon the Agapé love.

Jesus endured our natural stubbornness, and wrong-headedness, loving us through the Cross. Shouldn’t we “Forbear one another in Love”, as we are commanded to do in Ephesians 4:2? We are to put up with each other’s quirks and habits, and value one another for who we are in Christ!

In v. 7, Paul concludes that we are to “receive one another” (present tense) as Christ received us (past tense) to the Glory of God. How can that include the rejection and condemnation that is so prevalent among churches? Do you see why the unbelievers might see us as hypocrites? And yet, there is a difference between hypocrisy and failure. A hypocrite is pretending to be something he is really not. So, a person who seems to be quite pious, and whose life may meet every outward requirement for holiness, may in fact be a counterfeit, and only doing all the things he does because it gains him a good standing with others like himself, and he may even be convinced that it gains him a good standing with God. But it does not. Jesus pretty harshly condemned that sort of “outward show” of religiosity.

On the other hand, a believer, who truly has been born of God, and who truly desires to serve God with his life and live a blameless, committed lifestyle, may fail frequently and be deeply grieved by his own failure. He is not pretending at all. He is a saved sinner, still struggling with the reality of his old sin nature. Paul went through this struggle also (Romans 7). Can’t we at least appreciate that a brother or sister is trying? That he or she has a love for God, and a hunger for God’s Word? Can’t you extend to him the same grace that God has extended to you, forgiving his failures, and bearing with him in his imperfection, as God bears with you in yours?

There is not a single one of us who was required to “clean up” before being saved. We do “wash up” before “coming to the table”—either the Lord’s Table or the Word of God. We call it “confession.” But confession is all the “washing up” required of us. 1^st John 1:9 tells us that this is how we restore fellowship with God. Here are three things to remember:

Faith in the shed blood of Jesus for our sins is how we were born into the family of God, establishing the basis for fellowship with God and with other believers. (John 5:24)
Obedience (walking by faith) is how we keep peace in the family (1^st John 1:7) and maintain fellowship with God and each other.
Confession (again, by faith) is how we restore fellowship with God (and others) when we have sinned. (1^st John 1:9)

If the issue in question is not actually spelled out in the Bible as sin, don’t add to another believer’s burden. We are already completely accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). So we must completely accept one another, particularly in the vast areas of liberty where God’s Word does not command the body of Christ in any specific way. And what will the result look like?

⁶That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The result will be that the church (or the family, or whoever else is in view) will actually bring honor and glory to God, not cause offense and shame. Romans 2:24 tells us that the name of God is blasphemed among the people of the unbelieving world, specifically because of the inconsistencies that the world sees in the lives of believers. Paul’s conclusion?

⁷Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

That is pretty clear: If you have any confidence at all that Jesus has received you, then you need to apply that same level of acceptance to the brothers and sisters around you, and receive them as well. We have the assignment (Ephesians 4:3) to “keep (maintain) the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace.”

That is an order, folks! And, it applies to every Christian relationship. Let’s take it seriously.

Lord Jesus, we ask that you would shine the light of your Word, administered by your indwelling Holy Spirit into each of our hearts, and allow us to see our own behavior and heart attitudes for what they are. Bring us to repentance for the hardness of our hearts, and teach us to love the brethren. Allow us to maintain the unity that your Spirit provides, so that unbelievers will be drawn to You and not be turned away.

October 7, 2016

Who is the Weak Believer?

Who Is The Weak Believer?

Romans 14:1-23

Introduction:

Weak believers—“Who is who?”

As we read Romans chapter 14 there are three main questions to ask:

What constitutes a “weak” believer, versus a “strong” believer?
How is each to treat the other?
What are we going to do about it?

¹Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

“Him that is ‘weak in the faith’, receive ye.” The writer assumes that the reader is not the one who is weak, but specifies that the reader is to be receptive toward those who are. We all want to think that “We are the strong believers!” That is because we are vain, self-centered people. We all want to think that we are right. But how can we tell “who is who?” Everyone has a right to their own opinion, right? But, maybe we need to find out what God says about the matter.

What Constitutes a “Weak” Believer?

Paul then goes on to say that the one who is unnecessarily limited in his choices because of his poor understanding of scripture is the weak one, while the one who is liberated by his faith is the strong one, but that neither has the right to disrespect or condemn the other. This presupposes that the things in question are not elsewhere forbidden. For example, Idolatry, Murder, Theft, Lying, and Adultery are always condemned. Such things are not a part of this discussion. This is about things not condemned by God, but which are frequently condemned by humans. The first thing he addresses is vegetarianism.

²For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. (Vegetables.)

The strong one believes he is free to eat any food…the restricted one, who thinks somehow he is forbidden to eat meat, is weak in his faith (probably untaught, thereby ill-equipped), and would be guilty (at least in his own mind) if he violated his understanding of God’s Word by eating meat (mistaken though he is.)

How is Each to Treat the Other?

“For God hath Received Him”

³Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

The one who is free in his faith is not to look down his nose at the one who is limited…on the other hand, the one who is limited must realize that he himself is not the judge, and that he must not condemn the one who is enjoying his freedom in Christ. One’s position in Christ is what makes one acceptable to God…not what one eats or doesn’t eat.

But, how is one “received by God?” Ephesians 1:6 states that we have been “…made accepted in the Beloved.” The key, there, is that I am accepted in Him! I was placed in Him by the Holy Spirit at the moment I trusted Jesus as my Savior (1^st Corinthians 12:13); the moment I believed that His blood at the Cross was the sacrifice for my sins. I have no other standing before God. I am either accepted in the Beloved, or not at all. And, if I am accepted in the Beloved, and in fellowship with Him, then nothing else really matters, does it? And yet, we tend to reject one another over some pretty petty stuff. Perhaps we need to ask some questions of ourselves:

Who is the Master, here, anyway?

⁴Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

So, while he is on the subject of judgment, Paul points out that each believer is personally accountable to God. We are not to judge God’s servants…God can handle them. If it is not something expressly forbidden by scripture, then we have no authority to criticize, let alone condemn or attempt to control other believers.

⁵One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
⁶He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

Paul raises another example—he refers to the keeping of holy days: probably specifically the Sabbath was in mind, but, obviously, it could include all the Jewish feast days. And, again, he states that the one who observes a holy day before the Lord has not done wrong…and the one who sees all days as holy to God, and treats them all pretty much the same, is well within his rights as well. In both examples, both believers are fully able to enjoy their fellowship with God, and give thanks…and other believers are not to interfere with them.

⁷For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
⁸For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
⁹For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
¹⁰But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
¹¹For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
¹²So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Verses 7-12 reiterate that we believers are not “free moral agents,” so to speak…we are each accountable to God. Our life and death are all under his authority, and in everything we give account to Him….So Paul asks the question, again, “Why do you feel free to judge a brother?” (With the context making it clear that this is concerning things NOT forbidden by God….) We will all give account to God at the Judgment Seat of Christ…not for sins, but for works.

Paul concludes that rather than judge each other for things in which we have freedom, we should take care that we do not use our freedom carelessly, in such a way as to cause another believer to sin. Yes, the truth is, they have the same freedom we have, but if they are not convinced of that and simply “go along” with our freedom when they still think it is wrong, then we have caused them to sin. They have violated their own conscience, but at our insistence.

What about Conscience? Is it Infallible?

My father, in his junior year in college, had his chemistry book stolen from him. He had left it on the porch, outside the cafeteria, and someone took it during lunch. He hadn’t any extra money, so, for the rest of the term, he was forced to borrow other students’ textbooks, in order to complete his homework. They kept urging him to “just steal someone else’s book”; but he knew it was wrong, and refused to do it.

The problem came to a head, though, near the end of the semester: he still could not afford a new book, and as final exams drew near, his friends could no longer lend him a book, because they needed the book themselves. So, unable to replace the book, and desperately needing one, he finally succumbed to the peer pressure: when he saw a chemistry book just like his, sitting outside the cafeteria, he grabbed it, shoved it under his sweater, and hurried home, feeling exceedingly guilty; like a criminal, in fact, because he had violated his conscience. He had stolen a book!

And, he was guilty—that is why he “felt guilty”—he had violated his conscience! But when he got back to his room, he discovered that he had stolen back his own book; the original thief had finally gotten careless and left the book on the cafeteria porch, just as Dad had done. Was Dad any less guilty? Nope. He truly had violated his conscience. He was very angry, then, and wanted to go back and find out who the thief had been. But it was too late. He rationalized his own theft, and was relieved that it turned out to be his own book…but he was still wrong.

Now: Were his fellow-students right, in urging him to steal? Of course they were not! They were clearly encouraging wrong behavior; urging him to sin. Was he wrong to retrieve his own book? Nope! That was not the issue! He thought he was stealing someone else’s book: that is why he was guilty.

So, let’s take that principle a step further: Paul says that if a person thinks it is wrong to eat meat, then, until God enlightens them further, it is wrong for them. But you have no right to criticize them for that position, though you know they are mistaken.

A Word to the Weak:

Let me “put the shoe on the other foot,” for a moment: let’s say you are the one who thinks it is wrong to eat meat…or something else that God does not condemn. Is it OK for you to use this passage to bully your meat-eating brother and say that he has to not eat meat, because it offends you? I don’t think so! You are clearly commanded in verses 3, 4 and 10 to leave each other alone in such matters. Allow God to work in the other fellow’s heart, as well as in your own. On the contrary, we each need to consciously look for ways to not cause another believer grief in their relationship with God. So, how do we deal with such differences? That is our final question:

What Are We Going to Do About It?

No More Judging: and No More Pressure.

Paul recognized that such behavior is common. He told them to knock it off!

¹³Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

This issue of “stumbling” means to “cause someone else to sin”: it does not mean that I can bash someone else because I don’t care for their taste in shoes, or the way they part their hair. So, while we are to look for ways to not cause others to “fall”, we are also not to go around trying to control other believers by saying “Your hair-do offends me!” (Or something equally foolish)… there is no way that someone else’s hair-do is “causing you to sin!”

I had a fellow take me aside when I was in Bible school and tell me that my shoes offended him. They were odd-looking, oversized shoes, (though brand new) and happened to be literally all I had to wear. I had found them on a clearance table in a mall for $7, and I was grateful to have them. Were my shoes causing him to sin? No! He was just condemning me for wearing them.

¹⁴I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
¹⁵But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
¹⁶Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
¹⁸For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
¹⁹Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

If we convince someone else to do something because we know it is right, when the reason they are resisting is because they think it is wrong, then we cause them to sin. Don’t make a big deal out of peripheral things that have nothing to do with Christ; Paul says that the kingdom of God is not about food and drink, but about Righteousness and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit. These are the key issues we should be looking for in our own lives.

Each of these has two aspects: the one God provides (imputed to us by Grace), and the one with which we respond (and demonstrate and experience), via the Holy Spirit working in our lives.

Righteousness:
- Imputed: (Romans 4:3) “…Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him as Righteousness.” That is how we receive Righteousness, too! When you place your faith in the shed blood of Jesus, His righteousness is applied to your account, and you eternally stand before God in the Righteousness of Christ.
- Demonstrated: (Hebrews 11:8-10) Abraham believed God, and it caused him to live a life of obedience to God. He had his failures, but God holds him up as an example of faith-driven righteousness.
Peace:
- Imputed: (Romans 5:1) “Being therefore Justified (declared Righteous) by faith, we have Peace with God.” We are to first find peace with God, through faith in Jesus’ blood, and then, daily seek the Peace of God.
- Demonstrated: (Philippians 4:6, 7) “ ⁶Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. ⁷And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” We choose the Peace of God by faith. We obey by faith, and leave our griefs with Him. (See also, 1^st Peter 5:7)
Joy in the Holy Ghost:
- Imputed: (Galatians 5:22, 23) “…the Fruit (singular) of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace…” The Holy Spirit is the source of all Joy in a believer’s life. Joy has been conferred upon us by God, in the person of the Holy Spirit. He indwells us and will never leave. (John 14:16)
- Demonstrated: (same passage) The Holy Spirit is the source of the Joy of God, in all cases. We demonstrate, experience, and display Joy in our lives only when we are in fellowship with God and walking in obedience with Him. (1^st John 1:7) In fact, a lack of joy and peace is an important clue that we are not walking with Him.
  - Please do not confuse Joy with Happiness. They are not the same. The circumstances may be severe enough to preclude happiness (the cross for instance) but Joy is still possible (“…Jesus…who, for the Joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross…” Hebrews 12:2)

If we possess (and experience, and display) those three things, we are in fellowship with God, and will be (usually) accepted by those around us, as they see the reality of Christ in us. So, that is where we need to put our priorities…not on the outward things that are of no eternal value, but on the inward things that make for peace, and by which we can build up one another in the faith.

²⁰For meat (food) destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
²¹It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
²²Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

v.20-22. Paul reiterates that we do have freedom, but that we are not to use our freedom in such a way as to cause our brothers or sisters to sin. We can exercise our freedom privately, and not cause someone else to stumble.

When a vegetarian friend or relative comes to our home for a visit, we simply have vegetarian meals, so that they are not forced to “choose”. Sometimes people have medically-mandated dietary restrictions that are so limiting that they simply cannot eat what everyone else does. (We have a niece who has to completely avoid gluten, for example.) But they have no thought or feeling that this is a moral issue; it is simply a practical necessity. In that case we try to prepare a separate, attractive, and tasty meal for that individual as well, so they can eat with everyone else, and be included, but not be affected badly by eating something they can’t handle. We seek to be a blessing, not a stumbling block to those around us.

²³And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

v. 23 is the key verse to the whole subject—he says that one who partakes in an activity that is not forbidden by God when he thinks that it is forbidden, is condemned by his own conscience, because he did not act according to faith. (John 5:24 says we are not condemned by God…and never will be.)

The Conclusion:

“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (This is one of the four definitions of sin, given in the epistles: the others are 1^st John 3:4 “Sin is the transgression of the Law”; 1^st John 5:17 “all unrighteousness is sin…” and James 4:17 “…to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is Sin”) Romans 14:23 wraps it all up: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin!”

Don’t attempt to “bully” others into your own way of thinking, when there is no clear mandate, and especially, if it is a peripheral issue; not a cardinal doctrine. Learn to appreciate your fellow believers for their position in Christ, and not condemn them because they aren’t “just like you!”

Receive the three cardinal values of the kingdom of God (Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit), and practice reflecting those three in your life. That will go far toward building good relations with those around you.

Learn to Love the brethren; Learn to walk with God.

Lord Jesus, we are accepted before God because of your sacrifice at the Cross. Cleanse our hearts and help us to love one another as you have loved us, and accept one another as you have accepted us. Fill us with your Righteousness, your Peace, and your Joy, as we learn to walk daily with you.

September 24, 2016

The Christian and Civil Authority

Romans 13:1-14

Introduction:

We have discussed Christian Living and Relationships. This is an important one: Civil Authority.

Obedience to Civil Authority is Ordained by God

¹Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
²Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
³For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
⁴For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
⁵Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
⁶For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
⁷Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. Authority is what is in question, here. Does the government have the authority to rule? The answer is “Yes!” God ordained Human government directly after the flood. That rule has never been rescinded.

God says that if you resist constituted civil authority, simply because you don’t like being told what to do, or because you disagree with what they tell you to do, then you are ultimately resisting God, as well, as He truly is the one who instituted human government as a principle.

Has God occasionally overthrown a government because of its ingrown evil? Yep. He surely has. On many occasions it was done through the intervention of an outside force—another government or nation, taking over the country in question. Occasionally it has been through a military coup, or something similar—one branch of the government assuming all power, so as to eradicate the evil in the whole structure. The odd thing is that, in Biblical history, he often used a more evil nation to chastise his own people. They were more evil because of their morals, etc. but frequently the enemy soldiers knew that they were succeeding in conquering Israel because Israel had abandoned her God. Sometimes the overthrow has come through revolution, but very seldom. Virtually all revolutions are disastrous to the nation, and fatal to the revolutionaries.

Rebellions Usually Come to a Bad End

Let’s compare two revolutions: the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789-1799. The American Colonies’ conflict was forced upon them by George III. They had submitted what was called the “Olive Branch Petition” nearly a year before. It was not only rejected, but the king refused to even read it. He declared them to be rebels, and not his subjects, and invited their enemies to attack them, by withdrawing his naval protection from their shipping. They were left with no choice but to take up arms and defend against all comers.

The American generals, as a rule, showed considerable restraint in their dealings with the British troops. The American Revolution was primarily by believers, and was steeped in prayer, through all the bloodshed of the war.

The French revolution, on the other hand, was a very bloody affair, lasting years, and costing the lives of many thousands of French citizens. The revolutionaries killed anyone accused of being counterrevolutionary, including anyone who was wealthy, part of the church, part of the government at any level including schools. But the revolutionaries were themselves executed later on. They abolished slavery, but as their other excesses became intolerable, a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup, and set himself up as “First Consul”; later to become Emperor; and, he reinstated slavery. So, in almost exactly ten years, they went from a bloody revolt, storming the Bastille, and setting a new constitution with high ideals, to having a new, more powerful and efficient emperor, and the original revolutionaries all deposed and dead. Not exactly what they had planned. Incidentally, one of the things they also demanded as part of the new constitution was the eradication of Christianity. Is it any surprise that they did not succeed?

They violently rebelled, killing their old masters and anyone associated with them…and simply gained a new master. Yes, the old regime was corrupt, but those who rebelled were godless, power-maddened, self-serving, murderous men and women. So, Napoleon simply executed them all, and went on to conquer a great deal of Europe…but that is another story.

The point of all this is that God does ordain human government…and we are not authorized to rebel against it unless (and this is rarely the case)… unless the civil law definitely demands that we disobey God. And, even then, we are not given liberty to stage a revolt, but are commanded to simply stand for God, knowing it will cost us dearly…possibly even our lives.

In general, civil governments are for the benefit of society, and protection of rights to one degree or another, and the promotion of peace. Therefore, in general, they are no threat to godly, orderly people. I have a friend who grew up in the Philippines, under Marcos. The dictator frequently declared martial law, and there were harsh penalties for infractions, and a general curfew to keep people from roaming the streets at night. My friend said the only change it made for him was that he was completely safe wherever he went. The criminal element was suppressed, and lying low. There were soldiers everywhere, and as a result, virtually zero crime. The curfew did not affect him badly, either, as he was going to be home at night anyway.

I noticed in Mexico that, in spite of the incredibly corrupt government, the federal police were quite prompt about arresting thieves or violent criminals. They did not mess around. There were usually three or four in a pick-up truck, all armed with M-16 rifles or something similar. They arrested the perpetrator, tossed him in the back of the pickup, guarded by two policemen with automatic rifles, and took off. It was quite impressive. One could easily see that these were not men to be trifled with. Were they corrupt, too? Probably… but at least on that score they were functioning.

So, in verse 5, Paul says that we are to be obedient to the civil government not only because we are afraid of their authority and the penalties for disobedience, but also as a constant testimony to the righteous character of God, so that, if nothing else, we are left with a clean conscience.

Verse 6 concludes that we are also to pay taxes, even though we do not approve of the government to whom we pay them. Jesus paid taxes, too, and he advised his disciples to do the same. Remember that the two governments to whom Jesus (the Creator and our savior) paid taxes, were both incredibly corrupt, oppressive and evil regimes. We really have no right to complain; but I have known believers who ruined their testimony through tax evasion. If there is a legal exemption available, by all means take it, but don’t try to avoid paying your taxes.

Verse 7 wraps up by stating that there are various levels of government, and we may have to pay various taxes, and show proper respect as well. Respect the position of the Government, and the office of the governor, even when the person holding the office is contemptible. In Daniel 4:17, God says that He places the “basest of men” in positions of rule …which actually explains a lot.

The Supremacy of Agapé Love

⁸Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

⁹For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

¹⁰Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

v. 8-10: says, “No indebtedness except the constant debt of agapé love.” Agapé love fulfills all other law. Love does no ill to its neighbor—thus the law is fulfilled through agapé love.

Now, I have taken this to be a general injunction against a pattern of indebtedness, as well. “Owe no man anything…” seems to indicate that idea. The question may arise, then; “What is debt?” I am of the opinion that, if the collateral is in hand, so that there is no danger of the lender losing his investment, but there is simply a contractual arrangement whereby an expensive item (a house or land as a good example) is being purchased over a period of time, then it is probably not “debt,” in the sense meant here. But a car loses its value rapidly, and the lender can easily find that a loan is about to be defaulted, when the collateral has depreciated to the point of being relatively worthless. Credit card debt is even worse—the thing purchased may have no collateral value whatsoever. The difference, in the case of a home, is that usually, if foreclosure becomes necessary, the borrower is more likely to suffer than is the lender.

However, Proverbs 22:6 warns that “the borrower becomes the lender’s slave”; so this is not the only warning against indebtedness. But the broader application is that we are not to act in a way that can damage someone else in any way. “Love works no ill to his neighbor…therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law.”

Time to Wake Up!

¹¹And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

¹²The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light

v. 11-12 says to wake up and live the way God wants you to live. The time of Christ’s return draws nearer, and we need to make proper use of the time we have left. Live as men and women of God. Paul says that “the night is far spent, the day is at hand”…if he said that, 2000 years ago, then there are only so many possibilities:

He was wrong and was simply way off on his time-frame (nope, that’s not it…), or
He was right, and was referring to the rapture; in which case we are just that much closer to the second coming, today, and we should live accordingly, or
He was right, and it applies to our end-of-life salvation from the effect and presence of sin. In every believer’s life, every day, we are closer to release—graduation— than we were the day before. We should be applying ourselves, knowing that our time is literally running short. The Game is almost over. Press on toward the goal!

He tells us how to do that, in a few words: cast off the works of darkness! (Repent of and renounce the sins that beset you!) Put on the armor of light. (Light dispels darkness…that is the character of light.) If your life is bathed in the light of God’s Word, it will go far toward preventing the works of darkness regaining a toehold in your life.

Make No Provision for the Flesh.

¹³Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

¹⁴But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Live honestly, as though the light is always shining on what you are doing… because it is! Leave behind the loose behavior and wrong thinking of your past. You can’t get rid of your old sin nature, but you can deny the fulfillment of its desires, and essentially “starve” it. Don’t provide for it. That involves your thought-life, and everything that impinges on it: TV shows, books, movies, music, conversations. Anything that would lead your heart to wrong thinking (and thus lead you to wrong behavior) is an opportunity for the flesh. Sin always begins in the heart.

As a personal example: for me, because of depression, there are many books I will not read and movies I won’t watch, simply because I know what my heart would do with the negative content. Even historical things, sometimes, can be so tragic that I know I could crash into depression through them, so I simply forgo watching them, or reading them. Music that may seem hauntingly beautiful but whose words lend themselves to a feeling of despair, or terminal sadness, irreparable loss, I avoid, because I know my heart will go after the morbid sadness, and swear that “life is hopeless”. Even certain conversations, I have had to simply terminate and walk away, though the other person really meant no harm, because the morbid content was dragging me down. If it is something I can help, or about which I can pray, I can handle it, most of the time. But frequently it is a recounting of some tragedy they heard of, and they are relishing the drama and pathos of the details, but my old sin nature is using it as a weapon against me. So I politely stop the conversation, explaining that it is depressing me. I make no accusation that they are doing so on purpose, and make it clear that my fragility is in question, not their intent.

Each person has areas in which they have to be careful: for one person it may be gossip, for another, anger, especially the so-called “righteous indignation” of hearing about a wrong done to someone else. But God says we are to “make no provision for the flesh”.

Getting too clever with one’s taxes can be a temptation for some. I knew a Christian business man who went to jail for a time because he was convicted of tax evasion. That is a pretty bad testimony, and it lasts a long time. That happened well over thirty years ago, and I seriously doubt he is even still alive…but I would bet I am not the only one who remembers it and grieves over the damage it did to the name of Jesus, let alone what it did to his family.

I knew another Christian man, a pastor, in fact, who was arrested for theft—shoplifting. When asked how such a thing could even happen, he said, “Oh, stealing is easy! I stole the first sermon I ever preached in this church!” There seemed to be no real remorse, except for his having been caught, but he was permanently out of the ministry. He had built a pattern of dishonesty, and it eventually destroyed him. I never saw him again, but I have remembered him often.

All of us can recount stories of people whose lives were devastated by the Enemy, because they themselves made provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts. Any foothold is enough for Satan to start his evil work, so we are told to abandon the works of darkness, cast them off wholesale… not just the obvious ones. Satan and his hosts do not care HOW they destroy the work of God. They only want to destroy it, and damage the reputation of God.

I remember hearing about two churches nearly identical in doctrine and practice, but on opposite sides of town, having a fairly public falling-out about “encroaching” on one another’s “territory;” jealously vying for proselytes: filling pews, but disgusting the world around them. All of which may seem justified, if you are the one doing it, but the world sees it as shameful hucksterism; and the competition makes the churches look like competing scams. (Guess what! They were!)

Conclusion:

The church is supposed to be a reflection of Christ. The ugly behavior of believers, especially lawlessness, greed and hypocrisy, can destroy the testimony of Christ in a city or a nation, to the point that the Gospel of Christ becomes a public joke. And the fault lies with the people of God.

Make no provision for the Flesh. It is too easy to accidentally end up blinded and working for the Enemy. Remember Samson? He was literally, physically blinded, and literally, physically working for the enemy. But believers today can become blind to the light of God’s Word, and enslaved to the evil desires of their own sin nature, all the while justifying themselves with the constant lies of their deceitful heart, and playing right into Satan’s hands, doing his work, instead of the work of Christ. We want to avoid that at all cost!

Lord Jesus, lead us in your paths of Righteousness! Teach us to respond correctly to the World around us for the sake of our testimony and your Honor and Glory.