I suppose there are certain times when a man needs many words to get his point across. Times when a brief explanation simply will not do. It may very well be that the true mark of manhood is how many words a man requires to be adequately understood by his listeners. Jesus has few recorded words, but all of them carry the weight of gravity. Paul gives believers a lifetime of content in significantly less space than Augustine or Aquinas. More often than not man should make brevity his guide. After all, if man is commanded to be brief in talking with God (Eccles. 5:2), how much more brevity should he exercise when talking with his fellow man?
It is the obvious facts that need no explanation, but in the modern age it is the obvious facts that are being described the most. Chesterton wrote, “Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things” (The Way of the Desert, The New Jerusalem). Things like the difference between a boy and a girl, or whether a baby, for centuries recognized as the most precious being on earth, should be slaughtered by her mother for being an inconvenience. The books, the discussions, the forums, the podcasts, the conferences, the think tanks, the speakers, and the politics are devoted to the exploration of these most basic and obvious facts. Anyone who has been a Christian for more than twenty-five seconds will not be surprised to learn that the world stays confused about obvious things. However, it should shock the man of God into immediate action when he hears someone in the pulpit who seems to think these issues have never been resolved by the word of God. This is precisely why the book of Jude should be studied by anyone calling himself a student of Scripture. Jude uses his words as a weapon; wielding them with absolute precision against the enemies of God. He fights the thankless fight that causes him to speak timeless truths the world does not want to hear. This proceeds from the fact that he intimately knew the truth, and thus, had been set free. The complete freedom with which he wrote means that his speech was not constructed to appease dissenters, for his speech had only one guide - the truth. The book of Jude, therefore, is as important today as it was in the first century. Jude fights for those within the church, those sheep, who are being led astray by those playing the part of shepherds; evil actors who feign innocence while conjuring hidden strategies to lead their flocks into pastures far away from home. The reader can take great courage in knowing Jude was already fighting the battles faced by the church today. And it is clear from the sheer fact that his letter has circulated for two millennia that this is a battle that can be won. Though much more could be said of the reasons to read the book of Jude, the best thing is to begin to dig into the verses themselves. Before following along with this commentary take the time to read the entire book of Jude. As when reading any passage of Scripture, an effective tactic is to read it twice. Read it the first time on a macro level, without stopping, taking it all in. The second reading should be done slowly, listening to every word intently, letting the Holy Spirit reveal anything to which you should pay extra attention. In these last days it is tempting to see the success of the enemy and be quick to despair, forgetting that beneath the dark clouds there remains a remnant the Good Shepherd will defend with all His might. For He “...is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory…” (Jude 24). The book of Jude reminds the reader that the blessing of mercy is both given - and received - by the child of God. And it does so in seventy-two fewer words than are found in this introduction.
0 Comments
So now that we have defined prayer and examined its purpose, let’s look at how to pray. It has become popular to say that anything a Christian says to God will be enough; the phrase “there is no wrong way to do it”, or “just tell Him what’s on your heart”, has a decent enough sentiment; God does want transparency in prayer. According to Jesus, however, there is a correct way to do it. Prayer is a discipline, not just an opportunity to get something off your chest or clear your mind.
When a child is learning to ride a bike she must first learn the basics: “grip the handles'', “push your feet in a downward motion”, “sit this way to keep your balance”. As she masters the basics she will begin riding with greater speed, prepared for more dangerous tasks and challenging riding conditions. However, she will never learn to navigate difficult terrain if she has not first learned to go in a forward motion. If she abandons the basics before she rides, she will never get farther than her starting point: if she begins to ride and abandons the basics mid-ride, she will crash. Jesus, in the Lord’s Prayer, teaches believers the basics of talking with God. The Lord’s Prayer, fully recorded in Matthew 6:9-13, is a deep well of wisdom for anyone willing to draw out the living water. Like a child riding a bike, the believer will often feel that her prayer life is stagnant, or that she crashes every time she attempts to pray. She will do well to remember the basics so she can advance in her faith. Each individual verse in the Lord’s Prayer has significance. Verse 9 begins the prayer with a deep reverence for the authority of the Father. There is immediate authority when speaking the name of God. The Father is not just an authority figure to Jesus, but the One who dwells in Heaven. Therefore, His name alone is revered, feared, held in the highest esteem. God is not that friend with whom someone gives a high-five; He is the Almighty and deserves the highest honor. Solomon taught his hearers that they should always remember their place when talking with God. Rushing into prayer, or offering too many words, is pure foolishness. The next basic, desiring the will of God, can be found in Verse 10. Jesus was volunteering for service, ready to do the Father’s work in every moment. His kingdom advances as the body of Christ moves in the earth. To have a pure desire for the will of God to be done, the believer must have a pure humility to be obedient to the call of God. In Heaven, God receives absolute obedience from every being; the person of prayer should be seeking that same absolute obedience for building the kingdom on earth. The third basic of prayer addresses provision for what the believer needs. The focus is not on tomorrow, but on the day at hand. The righteous person does not seek personal gain, but only asks for what is needed for him to perform daily ministry. While this demands complete honesty (truly delineating between needs and wants is a very humbling experience), it also comes with great blessings. If a person only focuses on what they need for the day, then anything provided by God that surpasses those needs will be recognized as riches beyond compare. Fourthly, verse 12 addresses what is owed to God. Debts are real things, and forgiveness of those debts requires sacrifice. Forgiveness from the Father does not come until the believer has first forgiven his own debtors. Jesus seems to anticipate that this prayer basic will need further explanation, because He explains its meaning in the two verses immediately following the Lord’s Prayer. When the Christian faces the temptation of unforgiveness she should always think back to how she has been forgiven. To not forgive others is to forget the debt paid by the Savior on the Cross. Jesus ends His prayer with two requests for the Father: one defensive and one offensive. The first request is that the Father would defend, or prevent, the believer from being “lured and enticed by his own desire”. God would never lead someone into temptation, but He can actively work to defend the believer against the onslaught of evil desire. The closing request of the Lord’s Prayer is that God would fight to deliver the believer from evil itself. Jesus does not suggest that His followers request the absence of evil, but a way out when it comes after them in any form. Persistence is often a key component to receiving an answer to prayer. Daniel’s persistence was not the nonchalant, “aww shucks” kind that keeps plodding along and rolls with the punches. His persistence was the kind that is painful: an agonizing, mourning kind that excludes all happiness and temporary comforts. The desperate kind of prayer that will not stop until that door is opened, will not stop until that person is spared, will not stop until that mother sees the demon leave her daughter for good. Jesus showed persistence in prayer when He repeated the same prayer three times in Gethsemane, when the darkness kept closing in. Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 7:7-11, tells His listeners that the Father is eager to give good gifts to His children. Notice that there are no caveats in verse 7; it does not say to ask in a contrived manner, or knock with a secret repetition. The verse says that when you ask, seek, and knock, the result will be receiving what you requested, finding what you sought, and walking through doors that are open. God is waiting for you to make your requests to Him. Be blessed. That prayer is part of the Christian life seems so obvious that it need not be mentioned. However, so few Christians make prayer a part of their lives that it seems necessary to repeat the obvious fact. They are afraid to get on their knees and pray, for they think that their communication is heard only by themselves.
Believers make many excuses for neglecting prayer. Those excuses range from time restrictions to impatience, but the great secret is that most people think prayer does not actually work. Sure, they see that prayer can be found frequently in the Bible, but they reason that God will work everything out in His sovereignty whether they miss a prayer or not. Ingrained in their minds is that prayer exists as a formality. But prayer that is a formality could in no way be “powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Far from being a formality, prayer in Scripture is active, not passive. For example, God told Hezekiah(2 Kings 20:1-11) that the illness he possessed was one from which he would not recover. Upon hearing the news, Hezekiah did not consult with Isaiah (who was right beside him), or resign himself to the dire outcome. Instead, he turned away from everything and wept bitterly before the LORD. Hezekiah’s prayer added fifteen years to his life for he had touched the heart of God. Along those same lines, numerous examples exist of God saying He will act in a particular way if His people heed His commands through prayer. One of the more descriptive examples of those contingencies can be found in 2 Chronicles 7. The chapter begins with God raining fire from Heaven and filling the temple with His glory; this occurred, “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer…” The chapter ends with God acknowledging that He may have to punish the Israelites for their wicked deeds, but even devastation coming directly from Him could be altered if His people were willing to repent. If His people humble themselves and pray, seek, and turn, God would be ready to hear, forgive, and heal. Most encouraging, He says, “...my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer made in this place.” Prayer also wages unseen wars in the spiritual realms. Daniel, who was thrown to lions because he refused to stop praying, once mourned in prayer for three weeks(Daniel 10). His prayer was heard from the first day he prayed, but an unseen enemy, the Prince of Persia, withstood Gabriel for 21 days. Gabriel needed the help of another great angel, Michael, before he could respond to the prayer of Daniel. Many unseen battles must be waged in the spiritual realm that the follower of Christ will never see with his own eyes. The believer today can be encouraged in knowing that prayer does something in the heavenly realms; prayer is no formality, but communication with the Almighty Himself. Such an understanding should make the Christian afraid that he will have to eventually get off his knees and end the sacred session. When he is willing to humble himself and pray he can be certain that the God of Hezekiah, Solomon, and Daniel will not hesitate to respond. For thoughts on how to pray see Prayer (Part III) - How To Pray. Prayer, simply put, is talking with God. Whereas the witness of nature and the Bible are monologues from God to man, prayer is the dialogue between man and God. Such dialogue is necessary for the kingdom of God to advance in the world. Fervency in prayer, or the lack thereof, ultimately reveals the love an individual has for God.
To take a common example, imagine the relationship between a husband and wife. A husband may learn every fact possible about his wife, may talk about her all day to his friends and coworkers, even build her a beautiful home and care for her children. But if he never talks with her, if he never seeks her heart and never lets her seek his, she will know that there is no real love between them. In the same way, the Christian is called to “pray without ceasing”. This constant, personal communication is evidence of the love he has for God. To serve God without communicating with Him personally is to engage in ritualism, for loving God, and loving the idea of God, are not the same thing. When Jesus was spending time with Mary and Martha it was Mary who was commended for sitting at His feet. Martha had the outward appearance of obedience (giving service to Him without listening to His voice), but it was communication with her that He truly desired. God, who is infinitely wiser than any earthly teacher and can see right through every empty phrase, knows what a person needs before he asks. Sometimes people think of God as a gatekeeper who only allows prayers to pass through if those prayers are in the right format and pleasing to the ear, like a child not letting his sibling into his room until she has said the proper password. But prayer is not about creating some special series of words that unlock a promise or blessing. What father would only provide his children gifts if they said the exact phrase he had hidden in his mind? It should also be noted that there are some things that prayer is not. Prayer is not a wish list to some genie, nor is it a replacement for inaction. The Christian need not waste his time praying for the problems he has already been given the power to remedy. He could spend Saturday night praying that God would send someone to talk to his neighbor about Jesus, or he could walk over to his door and deliver the good news himself. When Nicodemus sought out the truth Jesus responded by talking with him personally. Jesus stands at the door and seeks dialogue with each person individually. The topics may be difficult to discuss sometimes, but when the Christian looks across the table and sees the Son of God he will not hesitate to have that conversation. Now, for more information about why a Christian should pray (and how prayer actually works) look for the next post on prayer. Stephen showed that grace is not provided to remove an individual from a difficult situation, but grace abounds through suffering to make a person more like the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. When the people began to seethe with hatred, Stephen looked up and beheld a Trinitarian revelation, an opening of the heavens. Though he was dragged out of the city and stoned to death, he received magnificent grace with what he saw, and he gave much grace in death. His final words were not for his own comfort or blessing, but for the forgiveness of his murderers.
Grace costs the believer all that he has. Persecution does not only come to a few Christians, but is experienced by all Christians. It is easy to only give grace a thought when it does not seem too costly, or when its benefits seem to run out. The Christian can regularly measure the temperature of his relationship with God by seeing if he is currently enduring persecution for the name of Jesus. An absence of persecution in the believer’s life does not necessarily mean he has forsaken Christ. However, times of peace exist for more than carnal pleasure; those seasons of grace should be used to prepare for dark times ahead. Paul, when writing to the Corinthian church, taught that a Christian receives comfort during affliction so that he can comfort others when they are afflicted. Persecution may not be present in the form of a physical trial, but it may occur as an attack from Satan. James 4:4-10 teaches the Christian to resist the devil to make him flee, which most Christians interpret as just waiting him out. But James describes an active resistance against Satan, a resistance sustained by a kind of humility that comes through weeping and mourning and gloom. It will do the believer no good to resist the devil with pride, for that is a characteristic the enemy knows all too well. Perfect humility is something Satan does not honor, but God will reward it completely. Without this humbling a person is an enemy of God and cannot receive grace, or give it away for that matter. When the Christian chooses to decrease his own desires the grace of God will increase all the more. Getting the enemy to leave one’s life is not about convincing him with truth (he does not stand in it), nor is it about intimidating him (not even Michael, the archangel, tried that). The devil leaves when the Christian humbles himself and receives abounding grace from his jealous God. When the persecuted church scattered after the death of Stephen, the believers initially spread the gospel exclusively to Jews. However, some of the men began preaching to Greek-speaking non-Jews (Hellenists) about the Lord Jesus. When a great number of people turned to the Lord, Barnabas (who was sent by the Jerusalem church to Antioch) recognized that the increase was due to the grace of God. So impressed was Barnabas with this amazing development that he went searching for Saul in Tarsus. When he returned to Antioch with Saul, grace abounded even more as they stayed and ministered for a year. The result was the transformation of people that even the secular world noticed, a transformation that brought about a name for which followers of Jesus would live and die for two thousand years. None of that would have occurred if that man of God, Stephen, had not lived a life of grace. Had he not done great wonders and signs in grace and power, not spoken truth with clarity to his accusers, not forgiven his accusers with his dying breath, then the grace given him would have been offered in vain. Only the grace of God could have changed Saul from a man who took delight in the death of Stephen, to a man used by the Holy Spirit to write half the New Testament. The grace of God will abound in the life of the weakest Christian, and it can save even the strongest of sinners. When you do the work of God and people despise you for it, when you speak truth to those you should be able to trust and they gnash their teeth and close their ears, when your body gives out from persecution and you are ready to either give up or give in, humble yourself. But do it the right way - like Stephen. Do not hang your head or return the reviling, but lift your head to the heavens, gaze upon the One who saves by grace, and let the power of God be made perfect in your life. For the grace He gives will be sufficient for all you need. The Christian receives tremendous insight into how grace exists in salvation through the text of Ephesians 2:1-10. Paul uses the first three verses of that passage to show that not only can dead men walk, but they are led by a spirit - the prince of the power of the air. That spirit, contrary to the Holy Spirit, would have its followers gratify the temporal, the flesh. God, however, saves man by grace and shows the riches of His grace through the placement of the Christian in heavenly places. All that is required is an act of faith for a person to receive that gift.
Romans 5:12-21 explains the relationship between the law and grace. Paul makes the point that sin and grace are different in two specific ways. First, he shows how the acts of grace differ in scope. Sin is linear, like going from zero to one, one to two, two to three, etc. Grace is exponential; a multiplication of goodness. Second, sin and grace differ in the results they yield. The judgment brought a deserved condemnation, but the grace brought an undeserved justification. Sin always gives man what he deserves, but grace always gives man what he does not deserve. Sin is restricting, but grace is freeing. The vices a person falls into, those sins, are not of equal value to an alternative choice. Sins are always the lesser choices; they are the options that restrict freedom, not expand it. Grace is much more powerful than the law; the law hems in all a person’s choices, but grace blesses all those choices. That is why the Bible says that a Christian will not continue in sin; an exonerated criminal would not truly be free if he kept going back to those walls of despair in his prison cell, that hopeless confinement of lesser choices. Continuing with examples of legality, it is important to distinguish between the terms grace and mercy. Those two words are often treated as synonyms, and while their meanings have some overlap, they do not mean the same thing. For example, when Zechariah prophesies about the crucifixion of Jesus, he mentions “a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy”. Additionally, the writer of Hebrews wrote about approaching (with confidence) the “throne of grace” to “receive mercy and find grace”, while Paul greets Timothy by mentioning “...Grace, mercy, and peace…” (Zechariah 12:10; Hebrews 4:16; 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2) Mercy occurs when punishment is not given though it is deserved; grace occurs when something is given even though it is not deserved. Another way to think of it would be that mercy is punishment withheld and grace is benefits bestowed. If Sally is wronged by Bernice, she may say to herself, “I need to show Bernice some grace.” What she likely means by that statement is that she will not treat Bernice poorly - the way Bernice deserves. However, Sally’s response would be an example of mercy, not grace. Were she to give Bernice some type of gift she would be exhibiting grace, but her withholding of retaliation is the practice of mercy. While mercy and grace are not the same thing, neither are grace and truth. Jesus came to earth full of grace and truth, providing grace upon grace. Jesus Christ is truth, so to provide grace without truth is to give someone a gift that has no security - a treasure that will either be stolen or destroyed. Stephen, described as being “full of grace and power”, accused the Jewish leaders of resisting the Holy Spirit during his speech in Acts 7. He delivered the speech after lies were spread about his treatment of the Temple, and most significantly, the law. His speech centered around the fact that Jewish leaders had persecuted their prophets throughout history, culminating in his statement that they “betrayed and murdered” Jesus Christ. His final point, the last moment of his great moment of oratory, rests on the failure of his accusers to observe the law, the same law that had been miraculously delivered centuries before. Stephen chose to show grace and truth in how he responded to false allegations made against him–allegations which centered on the interpretation of the law. Stephen did not earn his salvation through his actions, but his choice to study Scripture and stand for truth made possible an increase in grace in an evil situation.Stephen could have used that moment of grace, when “his face was like the face of an angel”, to smooth-over his defense and make it less antagonizing toward his accusers. He could have tipped the scales of grace and hidden just a little truth. After all, wouldn’t the council be more accepting of the truth if they had first been lathered with grace? More about grace during suffering in the next post. The word grace occurs frequently in the Bible, with explanations of its purpose throughout, but one of the greatest examples of grace can be seen in the life of Stephen. The lives of Stephen and Paul (who mentioned grace in all his letters) intersect at a seminal moment in Christianity. Paul wrote much on grace, but in a way it seems that the majority of his writings on grace can be summed up in how Stephen spent his time on earth.
The early Church appointed seven men to the duty of administering the daily distribution of food to widows in their community; they considered good works an essential action of the body of Christ. So important was this work, that the men they chose were “men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom”; men like Stephen, who is described in that passage as “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit”, and later as “full of grace and power”. Approving of the seven men chosen by the community, the apostles prayed and laid hands on them. The works of caring for the weakest in their midst allowed grace to increase within their community. According to 2 Corinthians, grace abounds to the believer that good works may abound from the believer. The Christian should have a desire to do good for others, giving freely, because he has received freely (Matthew 10:18). God blesses His people not to make them prosperous by the world’s standards, but for building up the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The preservation of grace requires obedience from the Christian; Jude attests to this when he uses the titles “Master” and “Lord” when instructing that grace is not given to live a luxurious life on earth. He teaches that grace becomes perverted when it is used for pleasure rather than for selfless reasons. In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.” Good works do not passively happen in the life of the believer; they occur when the Christian is disciplined, sacrificial, and intentional about building the kingdom of God. Paul teaches Timothy that Christians should be “rich toward God” and “rich in good works”, while also instructing Titus (twice within six verses) that believers should “devote themselves to good works.” This devotion, according to verse 8, comes after the believer has received sound instruction. Stephen, as shown by the speech he gave to the Jewish leaders, knew the Old Testament so well that those who disputed with him “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.” Learning what the Bible teaches about grace will equip the believer for every good work. Where grace is often misunderstood is in thinking it is some random gift that God gives out. Like a rich man throwing scraps to a peasant, many today view themselves as one of those lucky ones who, by sheer happenstance, received a morsel of grace from Heaven. However, an increase of grace in the Christian's life depends upon the choices he makes. Someone may object to that notion, thinking, “But what about Ephesians 2:8-9? Grace is a gift that no one can work to obtain.” Such a question leads directly into the topic of the next post - how grace works in salvation. The word “grace”, like the word “love”, is one of those words everyone feels comfortable employing, but very few care to know how it works. It is great filler for any Christian conversation. The believer says grace at dinner, thanks God for the grace He has given him in his daily life, and stands ready to tell his neighbors that they need to extend grace to that other neighbor down the street.
Take the example of a familiar commodity - gasoline. The person shopping next to you in the produce section is all too eager to inform you how gasoline could be cheaper, or more accessible, or how to exterminate it all together. That same expert, however, may have a slightly different demeanor if you were to press him on what gasoline actually does in the engine. Grace is fuel for the soul; therefore, the believer needs to understand what it actually does in order for it to be used, and appreciated, correctly. The next few posts will examine how grace exists:
"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." - Romans 1:20 Before a man befriends his neighbor he must first know that he has a neighbor, the realization of which only occurs after he recognizes that his neighbor is not a giraffe, or a russet potato, but a person who possesses the same nature as his own. Knowing that his neighbor belongs to the race of man informs him of how they might interact. After all, to truly know someone a person must first understand certain aspects of their nature.
In the same way, before a person can know how to live his life, he must first understand something about the nature of his God. When Paul begins the book of Romans he points to the degradation of mankind as a consequence of maintaining an improper view of God. Romans 1:18-25 explains that the proliferation of dishonorable passions is the result of neglecting, “…his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature…” Power, the first of the two attributes, is the ability an individual has to exert his will over something else. A woman, for example, may be more powerful than her pet cat, or her bonsai tree, but power over those things will vary depending on their size and the way she engages with them. If her pet cat were a tiger instead of a tabby, the power structure would alter, and if her bonsai tree were poison ivy it would possess the power to control the condition of her skin. That type of power may last an evening, or it may last a lifetime, but it ultimately ends with the death of those things. However grand - or menacing - it may be, the power in those circumstances is temporal in nature. Eternal power, on the other hand, lasts longer than a lifetime. God, who possesses that power, will therefore always be more powerful than His creation. This knowledge should bring forth humility from anyone created by Him; if a person knows he will never be stronger than God there is no reason to keep trying to be stronger. Yet, mankind thinks that it has the power to create any world it wants. Boundaries, it reasons, are malleable with any whim of the culture. What it sees as an increase in freedom is actually an unrighteous freefall into realms that should have been off-limits. The second attribute mentioned by Paul - divine nature - remains wholly different from the nature possessed by mortal man. Meditating on the nature of God compels a person to look away from man and look upward toward God. The nature of God is good and cannot be devoted to anyone but Himself. This nature includes true love, pure justice, and such jealousy that He will bring wrath upon anything that is against His nature. People often think of the wrath of God as only external destruction, those images read about in the book of Revelation, or seen in an apocalyptic movie. However, the wrath of God does not always appear in the form of cataclysmic events. Romans 2 clearly states that wrath is coming, but there is also immediate punishment that occurs in the life of the person who chooses not to recognize and act upon the eternal power and divine nature of God. That wrath does not always look like a lightning bolt from Heaven or a fire from the sky that smites the residence of an unbeliever. Instead, the wrath of God may look like those sins described at the end of Romans 1 - a wrath that is realized not by the increasing of laws as in the Old Testament, but by the removal of boundaries from a person’s life. The result of which is a home that is torn apart from within, where lines of distinction between right and wrong grow less clear over time; a home where a man will fan into flame his inward passions and promptly burn his house to the ground. Those shameless acts and dishonorable passions to which “...God gave them up…” are the development of a disease that began by failing to remember the nature of the Almighty. How simple a thing it is for a man to give his thoughts to anything other than the eternal power and divine nature of God. The current scandal of Christendom is that the church has decided to skip over this passage, choosing rather to focus on a defensive mindset that fears rejection more than it fears the eternal power of God. This mindset refuses to condemn evil and defend the teachings of the Bible. The true Christian realizes that unrighteousness has become normalized and that wrath is imminent. He looks around and sees the world on fire around him, but everyone seems to enjoy being burned alive. His pastor will not speak against those evils and his neighbors think everything will work out in the end. So, in a world that increasingly embraces those evils it becomes difficult for the Christian to not despair and drift away from the faith altogether. But there is hope. For God did not merely tell man how to better understand His power and nature. He sent the One who is “the exact imprint of his nature” and who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, entered the world so that man could look upon the face of God. Therefore, when the Christian finds himself losing focus on the attributes of God he can remember the One who lived a life that knew intimately the nature of the Father. Holding fast to the power and nature of God will cost the Christian everything, for freedom comes at a cost. But if the Christian will stand firm on the attributes of God and refuse to drift away he will receive a righteous reward. Just like the wrath of God can develop in ways that go unnoticed, so too can rewards may increase in ways unseen. When persecution comes the Christian knows he is being given the earthly gift of understanding the sufferings of God. Great is the love of One who possesses eternal power and chooses not to use it; deep is the love of One who has the divine nature, but would choose to take on the nature of man. Holding fast to those truths is what keeps the Christian from falling away. Those truths will strengthen him to war against anything contrary to the nature of God. Externally, he will stand on the rooftops and unashamedly declare the righteousness of God. Internally, he will not hesitate to extinguish with living water any spark of fleshly passion he sees rising up in his heart. Knowledge of the nature of God leaves man with a choice between freedom and bondage, suffering and pleasure, and Heaven and earth. He must daily choose to remember his God, fight the good fight, and live with his eyes fixed on the prize. Those are difficult tasks required by His God, but he will not despair, for he will remember that the good news does not exist independent of its implications. Fashionable today is the inclination of the Christian to speak in generalities rather than specifics. He will shout out tautologies and pound his fist on the podium with phrases that vanish like smoke in the wind. Words and phrases like “justice,” “person of faith”, and “love your neighbor”will be spoken in the hopes that he will not have to actually explain what is true justice, which faith is correct, or how true love is shown to others.
Put another way, he utters many words without saying anything at all. To refuse to talk about specifics, however, is to hide within what may be called the comfort of ambiguity. Now, that comfort will appear to some as deep understanding, or as spiritual caution, all the while appearing to God as misused knowledge. Yet, when someone reads the Bible in an honest fashion they begin to notice that time after time the issues addressed are specific in nature, not general. Man is given more than commandments to follow, but also provided with examples of how to carry out the will of God. There are certain implications that result from heeding the words of Scripture, implications that cause a person to respond in a particular way to the world in which he finds himself living. The purpose of this page - "Implications" - is to make clear the implications of following God. These insights are not always easy to ascertain, which remains a grace in and of itself. After all, the wisdom earned through wrestling with the truth provides much more nourishment than that provided by milk alone. Topics of all types will be addressed on this page, so please feel free to reach out with questions or topics you want to see covered at: [email protected] Thank you for spending time at The Revealing Truth. Be blessed. |
AboutSerious content. Archives
September 2023
Categories |