Category Archives: Christian Life

FULLY MATURE

Christian Life, ,

FULLY MATURE

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13

Spiritual maturity, like holiness, is one of those Bible “goals” that we often dodge or ignore because we don’t know what it means or how to get there.

The Apostle Paul often wrote about being “complete” in Christ, or “fully mature”. He expressed, as his goal, the desire to present his beloved saints across Europe and Asia Minor…little pockets of believers who came to Christ directly or indirectly through his ministry… fully mature.

Paul was not content to make converts. His goal was to make disciples. He wanted his converts to be so connected to Jesus that they would, like new-born babies, thirst after and grow into mature believers in Christ.

How would he achieve his goal?

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Colossians 1:28-29 NIV

Paul worked with the Holy Spirit to achieve his goal. It was a divine/human partnership led and energised by the Spirit and carried out by Paul.

There were many obstacles to overcome on this journey to maturity – false teachers sowing seeds of deception, fallen human nature demanding to gratify the desires of the flesh, power struggles and conflicts among individuals and groups wanting their own way, baggage from their pagan past that kept reappearing, etc.

Paul was patiently sowing truth into the minds and hearts of people whose life philosophies were formed in a godless environment. What an impossible task… if he had to do it alone.

What are the elements of spiritual maturity?

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Colossians 2:2-3 NIV

The Apostle John, in his first letter, gives us the two commandments of the New Covenant.

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

1 John 3:23 NIV

So, essentially, Paul and John were in agreement regarding the goal of the Christian ministry. Through teaching and admonishing, i.e., the tools by which every believer is rooted and grounded in “the faith” – who Jesus is and who we are in Him – and through guiding them by teaching and example, into expressing their new life in Christ by loving one another, believers live out in practice the life of Jesus in them.

So, that’s, what it means to be fully mature.

Do you get the picture of maturity now?

A mature church is a group of people who are

1. Secure in the knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is and who they are in Him so that they can fully trust Him in every circumstance no matter what life throws at them.

2. Doing life together, caring for and serving one another out of, and expressing their love for Jesus by being givers and not takers.

We are mature, then, to the extent that we know God through Jesus and live out in our everyday lives the love and trust that we have in Him.

We express that love and trust by the way that we relate to one another through humility and mutual submission, honouring one another and meeting each other’s needs at our own expense.

Therefore, we all need teaching, correction, encouragement and fellowship to become a fully mature body in the body of Christ. According to Jesus, this is the greatest demonstration to the world of His life in us.

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

John 13:34-35 NLT

” I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”

John 17:21 NLT

It’s quite simple, after all. Trust Jesus in everything and love each other and together you will become fully mature.

FROM Ist JANUARY TO 31st DECEMBER 2020

Christian Life, ,

FROM Ist JANUARY TO 31st DECEMBER 2020

Covid 19 has come and gone, leaving behind for many, the memories of loved ones snatched away by the disease and for others a distant past of restrictions and inconveniences which finally came to an end. Covid is still around, knocking one down here and another there, but it’s not unseen the ogre that stalked the land for two years. So, we ask ourselves, what was that all about?

I wrote this musing at the end of the first year of the pandemic.

This is the last day of a very significant year in the history of the nations and in the church of the Lord Jesus at this time. I say this in faith because the biggest thing that has happened in this year is the global pandemic of Covid-19 which has affected every nation on earth. What has it meant for the church?

According to Paul, despite the way things appear…

“… God raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.”

Ephesians 1:19-22 NLT

So, I believe that even this global catastrophe is part of the ALL THINGS over which Jesus is head and in control for the sake of the church.

The first day of 2020 began for me with the Holy Spirit giving me this cryptic message without any explanation… “Something big is going to happen this year.” I was left to wonder what the “something big” would be.

As the months went by, I began to understand what the big thing is, a global disease over which humans have no control, that has affected every person in every nation on earth.

However, although it has affected every person on earth in some way, God is using this disease in some way for the church, and eternity alone will reveal what its significance is for the church right now.

Where the first day of 2020 began with a message of gloom and warning, the last day began with the unfolding of a beautiful truth which not only explains my past but will also carry me to the end of my days.

I was looking for a picture which would vividly illustrate the final Scripture of my “Bible in a year” reading.

“Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street.”

Revelation 22:1 NLT

What a beautiful vision… the water of life flowing from the throne of God!

My thoughts turned to Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman who came to draw water at the well. What did Jesus see in this woman? Someone who was filthy with sexual lust? An adulteress who just couldn’t stop sinning? Did He accuse and condemn her for her sinful lifestyle?

No. He saw a thirsty woman who kept drinking water from the wrong fountain. She went from husband to husband, lover to lover, desperately longing to be truly loved, only to find that so-called human “love” failed to satisfy her thirst.

Jesus saw her, not as a sinner who had offended God but as a thirsty woman desperate to be loved. Her sin was the result of the quest for love that took her to the wrong fountain.

Let’s put it another way. When someone is sick, the disease or malfunction produces symptoms which are not the real problem. They are signs of the problem in one’s body. The doctor does not treat the symptoms. He looks for the problem that causes the symptoms which will go away when the problem is solved.

Likewise, sinful behaviour is not our real problem. What is it that results in sinful behaviour? We drink water from the wrong source!

Jeremiah penned God’s diagnosis when he wrote,

“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”

Jeremiah 2:13 NLT

Now I understand why I have gone astray so many times in my life, producing guilt and shame but no solution to my thirst for love.

Jesus gave a life-changing promise to those who believe that He is the source of true, unfailing and eternal love…

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

John 7:37-38 NLT

Jesus is the only fountain of living water that satisfies. His love is freely given to those who come to Him and drink.

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”

John 15:9 NLT

When we fail to seek Him in every circumstance of our lives, forgetting that He is our source, we will try other fountains, only to discover that there is nothing outside of His love that can truly quench our thirst.

Our attitudes and behaviour will always reveal the fountain from which we are drinking.

So, at the beginning of 2021, let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is the fountain of living water. To navigate this year in peace and contentment, let’s keep ourselves in His love in every circumstance and let’s stay away from polluted fountains because they will never satisfy our thirst.

But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

Jude 1:20-21 NLT”

Despite Covid and all the unpleasantness and pain it caused, we who are forever joined by faith to Jesus, have this source of eternal love from which we can never be separated.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

FREEDOM – THE SUMMARY

Christian Life, ,

FREEDOM – THE SUMMARY

So, you crave real freedom! So does the rest of humanity. However, real freedom depends on the way you define it.

The world system, over which the devil presides as “the God of this” world, operates under the influence of deception.

“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe….”

2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT

People who are deceived live by the illusion that freedom is only available when all boundaries and restrictions are removed so that they can freely serve self. People try to apply their own law, i.e., no law, but come into conflict with everyone else who lives by the same law.

The result is another kind of bondage because their behaviour arouses the reaction of their conscience in which God has written His law from birth. They have now become worse slaves than those who kick against the discipline of boundaries – slaves to guilt, shame, and fear, and every other emotion that exposes their wicked hearts.

If people carry on in their lawlessness long enough, their conscience will stop working. This leads to a “depraved mind”, a mind that no longer knows the difference between right and wrong. This is not just the consequence of sin – it is the just intervention of God.

“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.”

Romans 1:28 NIV

This is the downward path if those who choose to live lawless lives.

“Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarrelling, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.”

Romans 1:29-32 NLT

Real freedom is not control over our circumstances so we can do as we like. Freedom is to control our hearts so that our hearts have peace in all circumstances.

This freedom is the fruit of

1. Believing in and submitting to Jesus as Lord…

2. Following the Holy Spirit’s leading…

3. Growing inwardly as the Holy Spirit produces His fruit, i.e., the evidence of our new nature in control…

1.1. Love, joy, peace, – expresses our fellowship with God and our union with Jesus, 1.2. Patience, kindness, goodness, – expresses our attitude towards people, especially our fellow-believers, 1.3. Faithfulness, meekness, self-control, – expresses our rule over our own hearts.

When our hearts are submitted to the Holy Spirit’s leading and control, we will experience the freedom which enables us to live in God’s kingdom, here and now, regardless of the attitude and behaviour of those around us.

“So, be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 5:15-20 NLT

FREEDOM – THE DECEPTION

Christian Life, ,

FREEDOM – THE DECEPTION

False religious systems abound but, for most believers in Jesus, false religions are not a trap to us.

However, the god of this world system, the devil, has pulled off two scams, and we, God’s children, are in danger of falling for either of them.

The first scam, called lawlessness, was already at work in the church in Paul’s day.

Our bodies play a very big part in the bondage we still struggle with in our desire and quest to experience real freedom. Our bodies continue to crave satisfaction from one desire or another.

“And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”

James 1:13-15 NLT

Two false teachings come from this truth that much of our sin, conceived in our minds through our desires, is done in our bodies. First, some teach that, since our bodies are going to die anyway, what we do with our bodies doesn’t matter.

This idea cuts right across the teaching of Scripture.

“Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honour God with your body.”

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 NLT

Through His death, Jesus has redeemed all of us, body, soul, and spirit. Our bodies are now God’s temple in which He lives by His Spirit. So, it is God’s intention for our bodies to confirm to His will as much as our hearts.

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT

Paul calls on every believer to give his/her body to God to serve His purposes.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Romans 12:1 NLT

The second part of this error is equally ridiculous. Some, in Paul’s day, believed that the more they sinned, the more God would be glorified because of His grace.

“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?… We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.”

Romans 6:1-2, 6-7 NLT

The whole idea contradicts the very purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

“Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”

Romans 6:3-4 NLT

Our new lives, in God’s kingdom in the protective boundaries of His Word contained in the New Covenant, are lived in this sinful, corrupted world.

God’s intention is to enable us by His grace to overcome temptation by trusting in Him. Our faith is precious to God. He must test us to ensure that we live by faith in His power at work in us.

This leads me to explain the second, opposite error, which we call “legalism”. Many of God’s so-called children still teach and trust in their own self-effort to make themselves holy. They try to apply some of the laws and practices of the Old Covenant to find acceptance with God.

Christians, for example, celebrate some of the feasts of the Old Covenant, not understanding that Jesus has or will fulfil all of them when He returns. Others try to obey food laws and taboos, or keep certain days “holy” e.g., the Sabbath. Some try to copy prayer rituals described in the Old Testament narrative as a means of gaining victory over the devil.

Believers still confuse the prescriptions of the Old Covenant and God’s mercy and grace in the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant had the specific purpose of teaching God’s people that He is holy and unapproachable because of sin, and the impossibility of satisfying His just requirements by keeping rules. The requirement for acceptance with God was, “Do this and you will live.”

“The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So, God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”

Romans 8:3-4 NLT

The New Covenant explicitly reveals God’s complete solution to our sin and all its consequences by sending Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Jesus’ death and resurrection has dealt with all our sin, past, present, and future, and its consequences. The operative word is, “Done!”

“God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”

Romans 5:8-10 NLT

When we trespass into the area of obeying rules to become righteous, we cancel the death of Jesus to forgive our sin, declare us righteous, and make us perfectly acceptable to the Father. We nullify the New Covenant, and we are no longer eligible for God’s mercy and grace.

Paul’s earnest counsel is,

“So, Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”

Galatians 5:1-4 NLT

FREEDOM – THE VICTORY

Christian Life, ,

FREEDOM – THE VICTORY

God has changed our status from sinner to righteous, and our realm from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of God over which Jesus rules as Lord. Now we are free to live under His rule and by His power.

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

However, we still have the old nature in us as well as God’s likeness, His nature, restored in us. Now there is a war going on in us, the flesh against the Spirit.

“So, I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.”

Galatians 5:16-18 NLT

So, what’s the solution to this ongoing battle between our old and new natures?

Potentially, our old life is dead. We have been given a fresh start, like being born all over again, but with a new disposition – towards God, not against Him. We have been restored to our original status as God’s children. We are no longer His enemies.

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!… Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.”

1 John 3:1-3 NLT

This new status comes with an obligation to live like God’s children, no longer giving in to the desires, demands, and cravings of our old sinful natures.

“We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So, use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.”

Romans 6:6-7, 11-14 NLT

“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

Romans 8:12-14 NLT

“Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.“ Colossians 3:10 NLT

This is Paul’s way of saying that we continually have choices to make, our way or God’s way? The Holy Spirit lives in us and leads us by revealing God’s way to us as we have internalised truth from God’s Word.

However, the Spirit gives us power to obey only when we choose to do the right thing. Our new nature becomes stronger when we choose to obey Jesus, weaker when we choose to do our own will. God has provided for every need and situation, but we must appropriate that grace by believing and acting upon His promises.

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT

Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit activates every promise when we receive it by faith.

“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”

2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT

There is one more obstacle to a life a freedom from sin’s power and its consequence, which are the source of bondage and behaviour patterns that confirm that bondage…