This issue was brought to my attention lately, and I thought I would share my writings here. It is long, but I believe necessary. I have something else written, but will not share it just yet. Don't skip the reading because you may not think you need to hear it, it applies to us all.
Luke 6:27-29
I have often been wrong about this passage, having been asked many times about it, and wanting to be able to justify my own desires instead of putting myself under the authority of God. I wanted to be able to repay evil for evil, but a born again person, living under the power of God will not seek evil at all, even in revenge or anger.(Romans 12:17-19) We cannot go around demanding people respect us and do what we wish them to do. They will sin because they are sinners. We are not to repay evil, but to do what is good. (Matthew 5:43-44, 1 Peter 2:21-23)
They say two wrongs don’t make a right, and that is true. We can often fix a wrong with a right, though. Often, when we are mocked, disrespected, or persecuted, we get angry and lash out or threaten to. This is not how Jesus reacted. When He was persecuted, He fled to another city. He took the beatings that He did not deserve, and stood “ as a lamb to the slaughter” and “as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53) We are not talking about a guy who was not able to stand up and clean house, but God in human form that denied his flesh and chose to take punishment that He did not deserve so that God’s will would be accomplished.
Jesus, on the cross, cried out “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” When He was enduring severe physical agony, exasperated and not recognizable as a man from the punishment, Jesus was more worried about the condition of their hearts than His own body. That is to be our example, and I have blown it many times trying to make myself feel better about my vengeful ways. That is not how Christ did things, and I should be patterning my behavior after Him. We judge a tree by the fruit it bears, and if a tree produces apples, it isn’t an orange tree. If it produces no fruit at all, it is dead. If we are Christians in deed, we will bear the fruit of Christ, not the fruit of sin and selfishness.
James 1:19-27
We should be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
We need to be slow to wrath. A man who is quick tempered does not produce the righteousness which God expects from His children. Those who lose their temper give people the wrong impression(testimony) about Christianity. Overflow of wickedness- vices that are likened to soiled garments that are to be set aside. It refers to those forms of evil which are a holdover from our unconverted days. It also may refer to the sins that flow out of our lives and affect others. Anger, threats of violence, don’t reflect the love of God, but the wrath of man. In order to learn from and be changed by the word of God, we must be morally clean. We cannot expect God to use us when we refuse to make ourselves right before Him.
Another requirement for receiving divine truth is meekness. Often, we read the Bible and don’t think we need to change, or that it should affect us. We study academically, but don’t allow ourselves to be changed, hardening our heart toward God even though we are reading His word. If we refuse to listen AND put it to practice, we are wasting our time and the time of those who wish to help us grow. Christian men spend hours upon hours pouring over the Scripture preparing to share the Word of God with us, and that is God's plan. The Lord uses men to encourage each other in the Word, exhorting us to follow, and rebuking us when we are wrong. The term “implanted word” means that we need to not just try it on or live in the shallow end of the pool, but to immerse ourselves in God’s word, to implant or deposit the truths into our very being, and let God change us more into the image of His Son, Jesus.
The larger part of receiving the truth is obeying it. Refusing to be changed and live for Christ is nothing short of disobedience and is SIN. When the mirror of God’s word says “shave” you don’t think, “wow, maybe I will shave next week” or “I will try to shave if I can make the time” you just do it. If God's Word shows us we need to wash and make ourselves clean before our Lord and master, we need not think long and hard or make excuses, only obey. Religion could be defined as " external patterns of behavior connected with religious belief." Anyone who thinks he is religious that cannot control his tongue... his religion is useless. If what you believe does not get carried out in your life, what is the purpose of it? God is interested in us living a godly life of righteousness.
Galatians 5:18-21 Fruit of the flesh
When we walk in the flesh, we deny the spirit of God the place it deserves in our lives. The flesh is marked by adultery, uncleanness, idolatry, hatred, wrath, contentions, and selfish ambitions. These breed heresies, envy, and many other of the problems we see in churches. When we try to balance between living for ourselves and for God, we are not seeing the problem clearly. There can be no balance. God demands our all, everything we are and desire. We cannot serve two masters, for we will cling to one and hate the other.(Matthew 6) We cannot serve ourselves and God. There is no in between, and that is the hardest thing for me to work out. What does it look like in daily living to be completely sold out for God?
Galatians 5:22-23 Fruit of the Spirit
Love (the love of God, agape love, sacrificial and pure of heart), joy, peace, longsuffering (patience through afflictions and trials), gentleness or kindness, goodness (shown to others and lived out in our own lives) , faithfulness (to God and in our human dealings) self control (desires to sin, anger, wrath, all need to be kept in control). This is what we see in the lives of those who are truly saved, willing to seek what God has for them and not put their own ideas into God’s word, but to come broken and contrite before the Lord. When we are incapable or stubbornly set against what God shows us to do, and how we ought to live, we are spitting in the face of Almighty God. We who call ourselves by the name of Christ have no excuse to continue on in our old ways, living like we did before the Holy Spirit came into our hearts and changed us. It is not "how I always was" or "something to work on" but blatant defiance of God's instructions when we choose to disregard the Spirit's working in our lives. If we "walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
Matthew 10:32-33
What is more reasonable that if you believe in Christ, that He is God, and subject yourself to Him, giving up your own life, and taking up His cross, that we should not deny God before men? We deny God when we say we believe in Him, but won’t be obedient to the scriptures. We deny God when we refuse to reach out in love, as commanded, to those who are dying and headed for hell. This is what we do when we ruin our testimony before men, and disregard the calling to share Christ with those we come in contact with.
Who do we fear, God or man? It would seem we fear men too often, and forget that God is not just a God of love, but also of justice and judgment of sin. Hell was created for a reason, and those who deny God will spend eternity reaping the consequences of the choice to walk after the flesh rather than follow a true, righteous, and holy God. This is all the more reason to follow God and not "lean unto our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths"(Proverbs 3:5-7)
Denial of Christ on earth will be repaid with denial before God in heaven. Anyone willing to deny Christ has not been regenerated by the spirit of God. If God has brought you new life, you will be changed. If you are not changed, or convicted of sin, then God does not truly live in you. You cannot have the Holy Spirit living in you and deny God. You are either changed or you are not. There is no fence to straddle, but more like a cliff. You either live with Christ, or die in the flesh. "Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."(Joshua 24:15,24)
Mark Cowperthwaite
