Category Archives: Bible Study

PARTNERS IN CRIME

Bible Study,

Philippians 3:17-19 NLT
[17] Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. [18] For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. [19] They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth.”

In every work of God, there will always be a fly in the ointment, someone or some people whom Satan has placed in the body of Christ to disrupt and confuse.

Jesus spoke of weeds and wheat growing together. These two categories of people are often difficult to differentiate. They look and sound much alike. They are always together, busy with the Lord’s work, seemingly one, but…there are differences which identify their real nature.

Paul’s way to identify them is quite graphic. Watch what they do! “By their fruit you will know them.”

How can we tell the difference?

First, the true believer is one who identifies with and follows what Paul was teaching. This is much more than doing the right thing. This is also about attitude and motive, those inward evidences that reveal the nature of the kingdom in which they live.

They had an example to follow.

Paul was bold in calling people to follow him. We might think he was arrogant but…being an example was part of his calling as an apostle. He was mandated to “show and tell” what the gospel of Jesus was about. It was no use telling people how to live if he didn’t follow his own counsel. So, in all honesty, he could say,

1 Corinthians 11:1 NLT
[1] “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.”

That’s s a bold claim and dangerous if it were not true. Paul often wrote, “I have learned…” implying that he was not perfect but learning and following Jesus as closely as he could.

The atmosphere of the true believer is honesty, humility, and submissiveness. He is not a pushover but a willing participant in the life of God’s family. He chooses to cooperate, to work with and to foster a peaceful environment.

A counterfeit Christian is essentially selfish, talks about himself, promotes himself, and wants his own way at the expense of peace. He likes to be out front, even greedy in a subtle way.

Second, the behaviour of the counterfeit Christian reveals the nature of the kingdom in which he lives. Selfish desires dominate his life. He lives to satisfy himself.

These people have crept into the church but they bring with them a subtly different atmosphere. Watch their behaviour, listen to their talk.

Paul didn’t mince his words. He call a spade a spade. “They are hell-bound haters of the truth of the gospel, enemies of the cross. They are self-made people who worship their “creator”, indulging in all their fleshly appetites at the expense of others.”

Trouble is, the only way such people can be comfortable in the fellowship of the church is if the members of God’s family behave like them. The only way to rid the body of these intruders is to live godly lives and behave like God’s beloved family so that the aliens are shown up and will either believe or leave because it will be too uncomfortable to stay.

PARTNERS IN DOCTRINE

Bible Study, ,

Philippians 3:15-16 NLT
[15] “Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. [16] But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.”

Unity in Christ’s body, as it is experienced and expressed in every local fellowship, is made up of different facets. It’s through humility, for example, that we set aside our own concerns for the sake of the whole. It’s rather like a colony of termites that functions as a unit. Each termite carries out its own function for the good of the whole. Many even die to preserve the colony.

Unity in a local fellowship has a solid foundation that supports the entire structure.

Ephesians 2:19-22 NLT
[19] “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. [20] Together, we are his house, built on the FOUNDATION of the apostles and the prophets. And the CORNERSTONE is Christ Jesus himself. [21] We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. [22] Through him, you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.”

The church is a family…a team working together for the good of the whole family. The church is also God’s house, a spiritual structure in which He lives by His Spirit. A house is a building made of different kinds of material that adhere for strength, safety, and purpose.

Jesus taught that the house must be built on bedrock so that, when storms blow in, it will stand firm. The bedrock, said Paul, is the truth about God, Jesus, and salvation, that makes the house secure, which is the foundation of what the Holy Spirit has revealed and written in the Word of God. The cornerstone of His house is Jesus, everything the Bible reveals about Jesus, which supports the entire structure so that it doesn’t fall apart.

What will happen if some “stones” in the wall decide to believe something different from the truth that holds the stones together? The walls will be weakened and eventually collapse because unity has been compromised.

So, in the “walls” of God’s house, there needs to be the “bonding material” of truth, every stone connected to every other stone by the truth of the “faith” that has been delivered to us and through which we have been saved.

Unity is sabotaged when false teaching creeps in and weakens the bonds of truth which hold us together. Since love and unity in the fellowship witness to the world that Jesus is real and are the hallmarks of spiritual maturity, we cannot afford to allow selfishness or false teaching to destroy what the Holy Spirit is working in His people.

Paul urges his readers and us, “Don’t allow anything to interfere with or slow down the progress you are making towards maturity.” He trusted the Holy Spirit, the builder of God’s house, to reveal the weak places in the fellowship so that each member would play his/her part in contributing to this partnership in doctrine which bound His people together in unity.

PARTNERSHIP AT WORK

Bible Study, ,

Philippians 4:1-3 NIV
[1] “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! [2] I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. [3] Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

Paul’s “therefore’s” always formed the bridge between faith and practice. How believers lived their lives was firmly anchored in what they were taught and what they believed. It was imperative for them, then, to build their lives on the solid foundation of truth.

In this final section of his letter, Paul urged his readers to stand firm on what he has taught them of the faith, which was all about Jesus. As Jesus Himself had counseled His disciples in the Upper Room, “Remain in me.”

Staying in union with Jesus was the safeguard against thinking and doing things that would endanger their lives together as a family. This partnership they enjoyed in all its various facets would only work if they guarded their unity by sticking to everything he taught them, as well as to their personal commitment to their church family.

There was a weak place in their ranks…two women who were allowing self to intrude. Paul doesn’t give us details. Details weren’t important. These women disgreed about some issue which had sent ripples through the whole group.

Since he was stuck in prison in Rome, Paul called on an unnamed faithful co-worker to step in to sort out the problem. Paul knew he could trust this partner to help restore unity which was the real issue.

Paul’s example of “conflict management” is a shining light for leaders in today’s church families to follow. He didn’t urge his fellow worker to find out who was right and who was wrong, to “name and shame” the guilty party. This conflict was not about WHO was right but about WHAT was right.

Can you understand the real issue in most of the conflicts between individuals in the body of Christ? Usually, conflicts happen over minor issues. When leaders focus on who is right, they play one person against another. The winner goes up in his/her own estimation, the loser goes down…and the rift is deepened.

If the leader zooms in on the disunity the argument has caused, he deals with the root cause…pride. Someone’s pride is boosted, another’s is offended. Since pride is always “the spanner in the works”, as the saying goes, the conflict can become a war zone if left to fester.

Paul was quick to value the contribution Euodia and Syntyche had made to the spread of the gospel. He would not allow a small difference of opinion to spoil their ministry together in the church. All they needed was another perspective to help them identify and correct the real issue.

So precious was unity, based on love in the body of Christ, that Paul used a strong word to appeal to these ladies. “I PLEAD with you…” Whatever else was at stake, unity was never to be sacrificed on the altar of non-essentials.

Ephesians 4:2-6 NLT
[2] “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. [3] Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. [4] For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. [5] There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.”

Do you see the pattern? Love and unity…leading to peace… the two most important qualities in the family of God, and the only guarantee of a powerful witness for Jesus in a rotten world, was under attack.

Jesus said that we are to be salt and light, standing apart as different from the world, preserving society from total decay and piercing its darkness with His light. Nothing must be permitted to corrupt the salt and dim the light, least of all pride, the poison that kills unity.

So Paul, helpless to step in himself, calls in a partner to help close ranks in this family of God’s people. His example here, his tactics expressed to his unnamed true partner, leads the way for church leaders today to treasure and preserve unity in the body whenever it is threatened. The way to deal with issues is to identify and deal with the real issue.

PARTNERS WITH PERSEVERANCE

Bible Study, ,

Philippians 3:12-14 NLT
[12] “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. [13] No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Partnering with God throughout life to gain the eternal prize demands a persistence that never gives up, through thick and thin.

If we consider what it took to keep Paul on track through his times of horrific suffering, we realise that he was in an all-out war on many fronts. If ever the devil had a target, it was the Apostle Paul. Yet, he gave the devil no credit for his suffering, except on one occasion. In his desperation, he cried out to the Lord for relief but God said, “No!”. It was the hardships Paul endured that shaped him into the resilient man he became and a true son.

2 Corinthians 12:10 NLT
[10] “That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

In the face of opposition and persecution, Paul argued for his qualification to speak with authority. HE NEVER GAVE UP.

2 Corinthians 11:23-27 NLT
[23] “Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. [24] Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. [25] Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. [26] I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. [27] I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.”

Is there any other person who has ever suffered or done more than Paul to be faithful to his mission and to fulfill his calling?

Why did Paul endure all this? Why didn’t he throw in the towel when his life seemed too painful to carry on?

Paul, first, had a calling from God to suffer. Suffering was part of his mandate to take the gospel to the Gentiles, from the lowliest to the highest.

Acts of the Apostles 9:15-16 NLT
[15] “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. [16] And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

Paul regarded his suffering as a privilege. Suffering was part of the package that identified him with Jesus and qualified him to participate in his inheritance with Jesus.

Romans 8:17 NLT
[17] “And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.”

What was, for Paul, the most painful part of the suffering that he shared with Jesus?

Isaiah 53:3 NLT
[3]”He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”

2 Corinthians 12:10 NLT
[10] “That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul’s identity with Jesus in His death, especially the pain of rejection, gave him access to the power of God’s grace so that he could accept suffering as God’s gift, a privilege to participate in resurrection power. Thus he could write…

Ephesians 1:19-20 NLT
[19] “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power [20] that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”

What is this “resurrection power”?
It’s not the kind of power we think of as POWER, for example, the destructive power of nature. This power gives us the ability to overcome our selfish, dominating, driving old nature with its passion for self-satisfaction, to serve others for Jesus’s sake with unselfish love. This power, the Holy Spirit in us, has raised us to a new life through death to self. Now that’s real power when we see what devastation selfishness creates in the world. The old nature, self, has destroyed everything in our world, from individuals to nations.

Only when the determination to overcome and rule our old nature keeps us living by faith in the power of the Spirit, will we reach that goal of perfection when we see Jesus. You see, persistent faith has a goal. Paul called it a “heavenly prize”, but this prize is only for those who win the race…

Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT
[1] “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. [2] We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”

…a race that is not about who comes first but about who finishes the course.

Every “finisher” will receive the prize, perfect likeness to Jesus! Now that’s a prize worth the endurance!

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT
[16] “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. [17] For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! [18] So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

PARTNER WITH SUFFERING

Bible Study, ,

Philippians 3:9-11 NLT
[9]”…I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. [10] I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, [11] so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

By misunderstanding and mistranslating one original Greek word in this text, most translators have introduced an unfortunate misrepresentation of Paul’s statement at the end of this quote.

[10] “I WANT to know Christ…” in place of … “… by FAITH to know Christ…”

They missed the link between faith and knowing Christ. Instead of making a statement of fact…

Philippians 3:9-10 NLT
[9]… “For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith, (“epi”, on the basis of faith), (“to)
[10] know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead…”

…translators have rendered Paul’s statement as the expression of a desire (“I want to know Christ”). There is no “I want to” in the Greek text. It’s a misinterpretation injected into the text!

How could Paul have contradicted everything he had written in every other letter about knowing Jesus and experiencing salvation and living by faith, by expressing a desire to know Him and His power which he already knew by faith? This makes no sense to me.

I found an accurate translation of this one Greek word in only one version so far.

Philippians 3:9-10 RSV
[9]”…and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God THAT DEPENDS ON FAITH (epi); 10 THAT I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…”

Let’s look at its use here, “epi” meaning “on the basis of”, i.e., “based on”.

What is Paul saying? His argument so far has been that we experience salvation through Jesus alone, by faith in what He has done through His death and resurrection. Paul had to learn this lesson when he met Jesus on the Damascus road. All his efforts to please God came to nothing. He had to trade his self-righteousness for Jesus’ righteousness, and it happened by faith.

Now, if we are to understand his statement here, it is on the basis of faith that we know Jesus and experience the power of His death and resurrection by dying to our old selves. This is the place where Paul’s statement about suffering fits in. In the same way, by believing what God has done through Jesus, we have risen to a new life and can experience suffering through Jesus’ power working in us, disciplining and perfecting holiness in us.

Hebrews 12:10 NLT
[10] “For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.”

Paul said that this is a process. The more we identify with Jesus’ death and resurrection by faith, the more we are able to share in His suffering. The more we share in His suffering, the more God deals with sin in our lives through the discipline of suffering.

Just as Jesus was qualified to be our Saviour and High Priest through His suffering…

Hebrews 2:10 NLT
[10] “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.”

… so we, too, are being prepared through suffering, for our eternal life with Him as His children, perfected in the image of Jesus. All this happens bit by bit, by faith, as we trust in Him.

Do you get the picture?

Paul is not writing about his longing to be perfected. He is telling us that it was happening and how it was happening. He had identified suffering as a partner which would take him towards Jesus’ goal for him.

The way to participate in God’s work in us is also to embrace suffering as a partner so that we work with the Father in His way of purifying our hearts from self to live under Jesus’ authority as Lord.

It’s not WHAT we suffer but HOW we suffer that prepares us for eternity. With Jesus as our example and mentor, we learn…

1 Peter 2:21-23 NLT
[21] “For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. [22] He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. [23] He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.”

Our identity with Jesus by faith not only saves us from hell. It also saves us from ourselves in a process of dying with Jesus by faith so that we live in Him by faith, as Paul stated in Romans 1, salvation is “by faith from start to finish”.

Suffering, then, is not an intrusion but a tool through which, if we embrace it with the same faith that saved us, the Father prunes and purifies us in preparation for our participation with Jesus in glory.

Just as Jesus was qualified to be an atoning sacrifice for sin through suffering, so we too, through suffering with Him, are prepared for our role in eternity.