New Testament Discipleship Includes Every Command of God

Posted on by BETH

Paul said “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).  It is clear that he taught all of the truth. When Jesus commanded the apostles, he said “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20) he commanded them to teach much more than first principles.  When Paul told the Corinthians “For I delivered unto you first of all . . .” (1 Cor. 15:3), he made it clear that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ was first but there was much more after that. The first principles are basic, but they are only the first principles.  Babes in Christ are commanded to grow.  They are commanded to long for God’s milk so they can grow (1 Pet. 2:2).  Milk is food that establishes the first principles (Heb. 5:12,13).  The first principles are defined as the foundation for the rest of the building.

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.  And this will we do, if God permit.  (Heb. 6:1-3)

A good foundation is necessary, but it is folly to continue to lay the foundation and never intend to finish the entire building.  The command is to “go on unto perfection.”  Perfection is the complete building – the heart of Christ (Luke 6:40).  The writer of the book of Hebrews himself was determined to go on unto perfection, for he said “. . .let us go on unto perfection” (Heb. 6:1).  Are we also determined to go on unto perfection?  Keep in mind that the book of Hebrews is not solid food.  It is milk (Heb. 5:11-13).  The determination to go on unto perfection is not solid food.

Those who preach only first principles have a good foundation but do not intend to have a building.  They believe the first principles of the foundation are enough.  They either don’t know or ignore the last part of the great commission “…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20).  Jesus taught a great deal more than the first principles.  In teaching the sermon on the mount Jesus concluded the first part with the aim and goal: “Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).

Perfection, the determination to be like the master, is part of the first principles (Luke 6:40). The rich young ruler wanted to know what he lacked to inherit eternal life.  He said that he had obeyed the Royal Law and the ten commandments, which was the first step.  Jesus then pointed him to the ultimate goal saying,  “If thou wilt be perfect…”  (Matt. 19:21).  Perfection, being like Christ, is the major aim and goal throughout the New Testament.  Consider one major reason that God gives for dis-annulling the Old Testament Law.

The Power of a Good Heart

Posted on by BETH

The power of God is found in our hearts.  He shows us that our mouths speak “out of the abundance of the heart” (Matt. 12:34).  Look at the power of the heart!  Most of us have much evil in our hearts.  The heart is the source of the evil and good that we do. “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt. 15:18, 19).  The evil abides in the heart and is manifested when the temptation arises.  It is our responsibility to remove all of this evil out of our hearts.  He command us to: “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded” (James 4:8).

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth (Col. 3:5, 8).

It is also our responsibility to renew the new man we put on in baptism:

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.  Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering (Col. 3:10-12).

We have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27) which is our ‘new man.’  The ways he commands us to put on (above) are all part of the love of Christ, which is growing in his image.  If all of the evil is taken out of our hearts and the love of Christ is put into our hearts, our mouths will speak from the abundance of hearts like Christ’s heart.  Our actions will naturally follow our tongues, for the tongue is the bridle or rudder for the whole body (James 3:3-5).  There is great power if the perfect love is in the heart.  Those with the perfect love do not err in word (James 3:2).  His heart controls his tongue because his heart has been formed with all of the parts of Christ’s love.  That same man is  “. . . able also to bridle the whole body also” (James 3:2).  When would we not obey God if our hearts are full of Jesus love and we are able to bridle the whole body?  If we are unfaithful in the least, we will be faithful in much (Luke 16:10-12). Why?  If our heart is faithful, whether we have little or much, we will be faithful.  God’s power in our hearts is found in the love of Christ!

Consider two examples of the power of a good heart.  God testifies to David’s heart – “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will” (Acts 13:33). David’s heart was formed and thus he was able to fulfill all of God’s will.  God inspired David to write: “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (Psa. 101:2). David would have to have a complete heart because he was a man after God’s own heart–and God’s heart is surely complete!  We need to remember that David was not born with a complete heart.  No doubt this Psalm was written toward the end of his life.  After David died, God gave him a tremendous testimony concerning the power of his heart:

Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 King 15:5).

With the one exception, David did what was right and did not turn aside from anything God commanded him all the days of his life (1 Kings 15:5).  Who could claim that sort of record but Christ himself!  Some scorn David because of the horrible sin he had, but do they have a record where they have not turned aside from any command all the days of their lives except for one lapse?  There are different degrees of temptation.  We have the promise now that we will not be tempted above what we are able.  David did not have that promise.  Peter was sifted like wheat, and Jesus knew he would fall (Luke 22:31).  The promise not to be tempted above what we are able was written after Peter was sifted like wheat.  How strong was David’s temptation?  We will not know until Judgment Day.  Others claim that God’s testimony is false,  and that David did sin more than in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.  Keep in mind the statement: David did not turn aside from “any thing that he commanded him.”  When David counted the people, his heart smote him.  This was not something God had commanded him to do or not to do.  There was no law about counting or not counting the people in the Old Law, which David was under.  Sin is transgression of law.  If there is no law, sin is not imputed (Rom. 5:13).  We must walk by faith.  God made the statement above, and we need to trust God enough to believe it.  David has a marvelous record, because he has a marvelous heart after God’s own heart.

The Lord testifies: “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:2).  This is a marvelous statement.  The phrase in this scripture, “If any man,” would include Job.  God testified that Job was a perfect man, not once but three times, and one of those was to the Devil himself (Job 1:8).  If it were not true, Satan would have contradicted God.  But he did not.  Satan knew that Job was perfect.  We would expect Job not to offend in word according to the definition in James 3:2.  God gives Job this very testimony: “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Job 1:22).  Even after Satan removed all of his possessions and flooded him with boils, God testifies: “In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).  Keep in mind that God said that “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. . .” (James 3:2).  Some, like Job’s friends, would accuse Job of sinning, but there was no proof except their allegations.  In the end, Elihu was angry with the three friends because they could not answer Job (Job 32:1-3).  The worst that Job did (or came close to doing) was to condemn God and dis-annul his judgment (Job 40:8). Sin is transgression of God’s law.  Job lived long before the Old Testament law, and even if he were under the law, there is no such command not to dis-annul God’s judgment.  God did not accuse Job, but asked him if that were what he was doing (Job 40:8).  In the end, God himself justified Job:

And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.  Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job (Job 42:7-8).

Truly David and Job are examples of the power of a good heart.

Look at the hope of glory!  The hope of glory is to have the eternal marvelous and beautiful love of Christ in our own hearts.  (Col. 1:26, 27)!  Love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8).  God is love.  God is eternal.  His love is eternal.  What is unseen is eternal.  If we grow in that love, we grow in what is unseen and thus in was is eternal (1 Cor. 4:18).  If we do not grow in that love, but keep the hatred and/or evil we have in our hearts, those unseen things will also last eternally.  If we grow in the heart of Christ, we will have that love forever and ever.  If we inherit the new body and a new mansion in heaven, and have the heart of Satan, what can God expect?  “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34).  God can expect us to speak evil from the abundance of an evil heart. Heaven will not be heaven if we arrive there with an evil heart.  There is no glory to having an evil heart or even an empty heart.  If we are filled with the heart of Christ we will surely be faithful as Christ was faithful (He 3:1,2).  It is no wonder that “perfect love” gives boldness on the day of judgment and casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).  The heart of Christ is truly the hope of glory (Col. 1:26, 27).  There is a way to overcome the world!  There is a way to obey all the commands of God.

Can we obey all of God’s commands?

Posted on by BETH

Which of the commands of God is too grievous (literally, weighty – 1 John 5:3) to obey?  Is there any command that is more than we can bear?  He says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).  If we can bear it, why would we not bear it?  Which one of the commands of God can we not obey?   Someone argues that we can obey all the commands from time to time, but we will never come to the point where we obey all the commands all of the time.  Is it that we can not obey God’s commands or is it that some folks do not want to obey God’s commands?  He has not given us impossible commandments.  Which thought can we not take captive with his weapons?  His weapons are powerful, to  the  “. . .bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:4,5).  If his weapons can take every thought captive, why do we not do it?  Which fiery dart can Satan throw that the complete shield of faith can not quench?  The shield of faith can make us able to quench all of Satan’s fiery darts.  In fact, this is one of the chief commandments.  He says: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph. 6:16).  If we are able (though his weapons) to quench all the fiery darts of Satan, why do we not do it?  Is it not lack of faith that causes some to say that we can not obey all of the commands of God?  The power is not in us, but “. . . the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God”  (2 Cor. 10:3,4). He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph. 3:20).  What is left beyond what we can ask or think?  Notice the context of that statement.  Paul is praying that the brethren will be filled with all the fulness of God – the heart of God or Christ.  Our Father is ready to help us in all we ask or think if our purpose is to fulfill his purpose.  Through Christ we can obey all of the commands of God.  Now we want to consider the “power that worketh in us.”

“WE WILL ALWAYS SIN FROM TIME TO TIME AS LONG AS WE ARE ON EARTH”

Posted on by BETH

Christians are called to battle against Satan and sin. Satan is the captain of the army of spiritual wickedness.  We are called to fight him and his angels.  The Lord reveals that  “. . . we wrestle . . . against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).  Jesus is our captain in this fight (Heb. 2:10).  Some so-called soldiers of Christ’s army have the heart of a traitor, who has already made peace with the enemy.  Their excuse is that ‘we are human’ and therefore as long as we live we will always sin.  For them, Satan is a stronger captain than Jesus Christ as long as we are on earth.  Satan wins a simple ‘word battle.’  There is no genuine fight.  Their half-hearted ‘battle’ is a mockery of Christ, for they believe that Satan will always win some of the battles.  Why wage a war against sin when the battle will be lost anyway?  Is this the kind of Captain that Christians have?  Is our Captain a sure loser?  Why not at least put up some kind of battle?  Surely something is wrong with this attitude!

Some interpret 1 John 1:8 to say “we will always sin as long as we are on earth.” The Greek language in this verse is in the indicative present active tense.  Thus, to them, 1 John 1:8 says: “If we say that we have no sin (now, present tense), we deceive ourselves.”  According to this interpretation, when we come out of the waters of baptism and say that we have no sin (now, indicative present active tense), we deceive ourselves.  Who would believe that?  According to this argument, when we confess our sins, then God is not faithful and just to forgive us our sins, because we can never say we do not have (now, indicative present active tense) sin, for if we do, we are deceivers.  Who will believe that?  After rising from the waters of baptism we can say we have (indicative present active tense) no sin.  When we confess our sins to our Father and he forgives, we can say we have no sin.  Not even the traitors would accept their own argument on these points.  The present active tense argument does not teach what they want it to teach.

To fit their doctrine they must restate the scripture to read: If we say (or think) that we will not sin from time to time we deceive ourselves.  This would clearly teach their doctrine but that is not what 1 John 1:8 says.  He states that “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”  We have already showed that the scriptures teach that there are times when we can say that we have no sin  – in the sense of sin on God’s record.  God does forgive and it is possible to state that we have no sin (on God’s record) most of the time.  Second, the scriptures do not say that we will always be sinning in the sense that there will never be a time on earth that we will not be committing sins.  We know that we are not always sinning.  Third, to teach their doctrine we would have to change the scripture as stated above.  This is simply not what God says.  What is the Lord saying when he states that we can not “say that we have no sin?”

The only way this scripture makes sense is in the context of verse 10. God said “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10).  The expressions in verses 8 and 10 are almost synonymous.  Some in New Testament times were saying they had not sinned.  They were also stating that Jesus did not come in the flesh (1 John 4:3).  This was the doctrine of the antichrist, of which there were many in John’s lifetime (1 John 2:18).  Today we call them “Docetics,” forerunners to the Gnostics.  To them, the flesh was not real.  Thus anything done in the flesh was not real.  If what was done in the flesh were not real, then their sin was not real, and they claimed to have no sin.  If they had no sin, then they did not need a Savior to save them from sin.  This is the context of verse 8: if we say we have no sin – that is – if we say that we have not sinned (in our lifetime) we deceive ourselves, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).

The purpose for John writing this book is in direct opposition to their interpretation of 1 John 1: 8.  Immediately in 1 John 2:1, he shows us he is not saying that we will always sin from time to time. He said  “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not” (1 John 2:1). How could he teach that it is not possible to come to the point where we do not sin, and then immediately state that he is writing so we will not sin? John did not waste his time writing that book.  His purpose is possible.  It is possible that we will come to the point where we will not sin.  Look at Zacharias and Elisabeth who lived under the old law.  They grew in heart to the point that when John the Baptist was born, the Lord says: “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:6).  If Zacharias and Elisabeth could walk in all the commandments and Old Testament ordinances of the Lord blamelessly, surely God has power to help us to walk in the same steps of faith, under a far better law, with far better promises. We can come to the point where we are “walking in all the (New Testament) commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.”  Jesus overcame the world (John 16:33) and he can show us how to gain the victory over the same world (1 John 5:4).  As these lessons progress we will see God’s plan or pathway to overcome the world.

DOES PERFECT LOVE CAST OUT THE OLD TESTAMENT “Fear of the Lord?”

Posted on by BETH

“The fear of Lord” in the old Testament is in distinct contrast to the trembling fear of the New Testamant, which can be cast out (1 John 4:18).  Many have given their own definitions of “the fear of the Lord” in the Old Testament as reverence, etc.  Not just anyone can understand the “Fear of the Lord.”  Solomon describes how men can understand the Fear of the Lord.  After giving several requirements and conditions, he says “Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” (Pro. 2:5).  God gives his own definition of what he means by the “Fear of the Lord”

Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.  What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?  Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.  Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. (Psa. 34:11-14).

This is the Lord’s own definition of “the fear of the Lord.”  He states that this fear includes 1)  seeing good, 2)  not speaking evil or guile, 3)  departing from evil, 4)  doing good and 5)  seeking and pursuing peace. Many in the New Testament time had the Old Testament fear of the Lord. For example, the churches in Judaea and Galilee and Samaria “. . . were “walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:31). Cornelius was described as a “just man, and one that feareth God” (Acts 10:22). Paul addressed his audience saying: “Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience” (Acts 13:16).  This fear, “The fear of the Lord,” should never be cast out by perfect love or anything else.

In contrast to the fear in Psalms 34 is the fear that “hath torment” (1 John 4:18).  “There is no fear (which has torment) in love, for perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).  This fear  needs to be cast out.  However it can not rightly be cast our prematurely.  We are commanded to have fear throughout the time of our exile (1 Pet. 1:17).  We must obey the command to fear God until we grow to the perfect love which will cast that fear out (1 John 4:18).

Some see where this pathway is leading and counter by saying, “Though we try to obey all the commands of God, and thus do not need to fear His wrath, the scriptures teach that as long as we are on earth, we will always sin.”

Is this true?  Let us pursue this thought.