Monthly Archives: September 2014

A Higher Law

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A HIGHER LAW

“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, to that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer eating in love. Do not by your eating, destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know to be good be spoken of as evil.” Romans 14:12-16.

In the end, it’s not about me. It’s about you.

If I cling stubbornly to my rights and not consider yours, I may, in the end, destroy your faith instead of building you up.

That’s the responsibility of the one who is strong in faith and free of rituals and taboos because he sees that nothing in the physical world has the power to affect his spirit. But the strong one does not have the right to beat a weaker person with his freedom if he or she does not think the same way. It depends on how a person’s conscience has been shaped from childhood.

Imagine, for example, how difficult it must have been for the first Jewish believers to set aside their scruples about not eating with Gentiles, or even entering their homes, for that matter. They were taught from babyhood to believe that it was wrong to mix with “unclean” people. To them, Gentiles were unclean because they did not carry out all the purification rituals of the Jewish faith.

And what about the Gentiles? Most of them would have been idol worshippers. They had their own beliefs and rituals, not the least being the power that the gods, represented by their idols, had over their lives. Meat offered to the gods was sold off at the meat market to be eaten at home. How much power did that meat have over them when they ate it? It all depended on what they believed.

It was difficult for these different groups of people to shed their beliefs and embrace the truth instead that Jesus Christ had set them free from these things to worship God alone because He is the only one with power over their lives. It did not happen instantaneously when they believed.  It was a gradual process that happened as they renewed their minds with the truth. There were many “young” believers who still had scruples about doing or not doing the things that belonged to their old lives.

In the end, it is fear that holds a person in bondage to his old practices; fear that, if he lets them go, something bad will happen to him. That’s how Satan keeps a person in bondage. He deceives him into believing that he has power over him and he has, as long as he goes on believing his lies. But Jesus exposed and defeated the devil through the cross. Until that truth replaces Satan’s deception, that person will be held captive to the false belief and go on living as though it were true.

However, the person who has been set free from his false beliefs must remember that he lives by a higher law – the law of love. He must not use his freedom as a weapon against someone who still struggles with his weak conscience. Since he is free from false scruples, he is also free not to parade his freedom in front of others who are not yet free. Instead, he can quietly abstain in the presence of a weaker brother or sister so as not to offend them.

Paul concluded:

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.” Romans 14:17-19.

There you have it! Once again, in simple and practical terms, it’s about doing the right thing to benefit others more than ourselves. This attitude requires confidence in God. It is not our job to fix others who are not as far along on the journey of faith as we are. Jesus is their Master too. He is perfecting them just as surely as He is perfecting us. We can trust Him to do His work of grace in their lives without our help.

Our task is to administer grace where and when we can, and not the least by having a gracious attitude towards those who are behind us on the way.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Each One For Himself

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EACH ONE FOR HIMSELF

“You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.

“As it is written:

‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me: every tongue will acknowledge God.’

“So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” Romans 14:10-12.

Who can answer that question? It’s like asking a little child who has just been caught red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar, “Why did you do it?” Of course he doesn’t know why. He wanted the cookie in spite of a warning! Like the silly answer my 44-year-old son sometimes gives me, “Because I can!”

The real reason why we judge a brother or sister, or treat them with contempt is that we can’t keep our hands “out of the cookie jar”. We don’t have the courage to own up to our own guilt, so we take it out on someone else. Underneath that is another problem. We are insecure. We are not fully convinced of who we are so we need to control someone else.

It all started in the Garden of Eden. Adam was caught red-handed. God instructed him not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or there would be consequences but, just like a little child, he didn’t believe his Father. He had to try it out for himself. When it all went wrong, just like a child, he blamed his wife and, to make matters worse, he blamed God for giving her to him! And she blamed the serpent and, unfortunately for the serpent, he had no-one else to blame!

We have an inbuilt capacity to dodge responsibility by pinning it on someone else. We might even acknowledge guilt but to be honest enough to admit, “I did it and I take full responsibility for my action,” is another story. But how does that fit in with judging someone else or treating him with contempt because he doesn’t believe or behave the way I do?

There is perhaps more than one reason why we do it. Pride sets us up above others and prompts us to think that we can set the standard for them.  We do this when we are so sure that we are right that we try to force others to believe as we do. Religion does this to the extreme, even killing people when force does not work. The Pharisees killed Jesus because they were convinced that they were right.

Underneath pride lies a more sinister reason for inflexibility – a sinful lifestyle that does not want to be exposed. The Pharisees hated Jesus because He read them like a book. In response, they both judged Him and treated Him with contempt – calling Him a glutton and a drunkard and even Beelzebub, and having Him executed as a blasphemer.

But why do believers sometimes resort to treating a brother or sister in that way? We may not be guilty of blatant sin, and yet we can’t keep our hands off our fellow-believers. I believe that it comes from insecurity – we need others in our camp to bolster us up because we are afraid to stand alone on our convictions. We need approval and, when we don’t get it, we turn on them.

We need to take our cue from Jesus. He was the Son of God and He knew it. At His baptism He had received His Father’s approval and He lived in that security through every experience of His earthly life. He had no need to prove Himself by gathering supporters around Him. He lived under His Father’s approval and left it to them to make up their own minds about Him by examining the evidence.

“But,” you may say, “God has never audibly told me that I am His son.” True, but it is written very clearly in His Word.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are.” 1 John 3:1.

If you are not convinced, what about this one? “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12.

Only when we are secure in the awareness of our Father’s approval can we allow others to follow their convictions without interference. God does not hold us responsible for what others believe and do, but we will give an account before Him for ourselves. Each of us will be judged according to the truth we have received.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Alive Or Dead, We Are His

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ALIVE OR DEAD, WE ARE HIS

“One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in his own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” Romans 14:5-9.

What a comfort! Belonging is one of the deepest needs of the human heart.

Paul settles many issues with one profound declaration – alive or dead, we belong to God!  Criticising, judging, controlling, despising (or even the opposite, idolising) would have no place in our lives if we kept in mind this profound truth – we belong to the Lord and He alone has charge of us and the right to direct our lives the way He wants us to go. Of course that assumes that we are listening to and obeying His voice!

The point is that being a Christian is much more than “signing on” to a creed or joining a club. It is a commitment to following on obeying Jesus as our Master and Lord. It also means that every other believer belongs to Him as well and it is His right, not ours, to decide what they must do and how they must live. We can safely leave them to Him, because “to their own master, servants stand or fall.” Romans 14:4

Of course this relates to what other Christians believe and do which falls into the category of non-essentials like what to eat and what not to eat, or whether one day is more sacred than another. For them, the more important issue is the matter of conscience. If their conscience is sensitised to doing or not doing what they believe is right but they fail to follow their conscience, to them it is sin.

“…everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Romans 14:23b.

When it comes to deviations from revealed truth which have serious repercussions on our destiny, it is the responsibility of a mature believer to come alongside and gently point the offender in the right direction. However, even then, we cannot force him to respond. He must decide and take the consequences.

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently…” Galatians 6:1a.

According to Paul, we who believe in Jesus have an indestructible connection with Him and, since He is Lord, it gives Him the right to direct each person’s life in the way He chooses since each one has a unique destiny in Him. This presupposes that each believer maintains that connection by doing what Jesus commanded:

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4, 5.

The things that are abhorrent to the Lord; criticising, judging, despising, controlling, would not be an issue if we were to be more careful to maintain our connection with Jesus instead of trying to keep others in line. Confidence in Him must extend to being content to allow Him to be Lord of their lives as well as ours. If we insist on trying to control others, we are in fact telling the Lord that He is incompetent to do the job. How unthinkable is that!

Imagine how much less stress we would have if we left the Lord to take care of the lives and conscience of others instead of trying to keep control of them ourselves! If the other person believes that eating meat is wrong, or worshipping on a Saturday, not a Sunday, is the right thing to do, will he go to hell? Of course not! It all depends on his motive.

Our all-controlling motive should be that Jesus died to pay the debt of sin and I can add nothing to what He did. “It is finished!” says it all. Whatever else is peripheral and irrelevant – bottom line!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Guard Your Own Heart

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GUARD YOUR OWN HEART

“Accept one another whose faith is weak without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows him to eat anything but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To their own master servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” Romans 14:1-4.

Is this really a problem today? Who cares what another believer eats or wears or even drives or lives in?

In the Apostle Paul’s day, it was an issue for both Jew and Gentile believers – Jews because their conscience was shaped by the dietary laws of their religion and culture, and Gentiles because they bought their meat from the market after it had been offered to idols.

There were two matters of conscience that had to be dealt with: What effect did the food they ate have on their spirits, and did meat offered to idols in a pagan temple have any power to influence them? But, for Paul there was another and more subtle problem – that of judging.

From God’s perspective, judging was more serious than what a person ate. Remember what Jesus said about food? Since it goes into the stomach and passes out of the body, it does not have any power over a person’s heart. It is from the heart, not from what one eats, that wickedness in all its forms originates, and what one eats cannot change the heart, for good or evil. On the other hand, judging another person is a subtle form of idolatry because the one who judges sets himself above the other person.

What about eating meat that had been offered to idols? Does that meat not have the power to influence the eater for evil? Was there not some sort of demonic transfer that took place when the meat was offered to the idol? It all depends on what a person believes.

Never forget that the devil is a liar and that the only language he speaks is the language of lies. His most powerful weapon is deception. He holds people captive to fear only if they believe that he still has power over them. Jesus exposed and utterly defeated him at the cross but he tries to hold people captive by suggesting that he has power over them.

It is up to every believer to decide who his master is? How tragic that many Christians still fear the devil although they say that they trust in Jesus. In the everyday, practical issues of life, we have to ask the question, “Did the cross work?” According to Jesus, when He cried out, “It is finished!” on the cross, He completed everything necessary to reverse what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. He made a public spectacle of the devil, unmasked and defeated him and took away his power to deceive and destroy.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15.

What kind of food we eat and where we got it from should never be an issue because it has no power to influence our hearts except the power we give it when we act out of fear and not faith. However, when we judge someone who has no problem with what he eats because our faith is weak, we usurp the role of master and set ourselves up as the standard of judgment.

“Let it go,” said Paul. “He has a Master who will take care of him. It’s not your problem.” When we try to control someone else, we subtly expose our own insecurity. When we judge another, we expose our own guilt. Our mouths are the mirror of our hearts. By focussing on someone else’s supposed weakness or guilt, we deflect attention from ourselves in case we are exposed.

What is the solution? Rest in Jesus and take care of your own conscience. Trust God. You are not responsible for your brother’s conscience.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

How You Live Does Matter

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HOW YOU LIVE DOES MATTER

“And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.

“Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissention and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” Romans 13:11-14.

Swimming against the current is hard work. Have you ever watched the salmon navigating fast-flowing streams to reach their spawning ground? The life of a believer in Jesus is a bit like that!

Paul’s well-thought-out and thorough explanation of the gospel inevitably leads to an appeal for a response from his readers. Why did God do all this for us? He had a far greater purpose than simply rescuing us from hell and taking us to heaven. If that were all He were interested in, He would have taken us out of here the moment we put our faith in the Saviour.

He does not disqualify those who make a last-minute decision. The thief on the cross who recognised who Jesus was and submitted to Him in his dying moments, assures us that God is merciful to repentant sinners even at the eleventh hour. But He has a far greater plan than that.

For us to experience in fullest measure the salvation of God, we must dig deeper than mere forgiveness, as crucial as that is. God’s forgiveness opens the door to His rich treasury of benefits the cross of Jesus provides for us. Not the least is access to our inheritance.

Every child receives an inheritance from his father – even though he or she may never have known him or enjoyed a relationship with him. We inherit our father’s nature and disposition towards evil and we possess our inheritance by confirming that nature in our choices and behaviour.

In the same way, when we are born of God, every son or daughter receives an inheritance from our heavenly Father. “But how,” you ask, “do we know what our inheritance is and how do we possess it?” We find clues here and there in the New Testament, summed up in Peter’s second letter.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” 2 Peter 1;3, 4.

Through believing and appropriating God’s promises, we learn to overcome the old sinful disposition inherited from our fathers, and increasingly grow towards the disposition of our elder brother, Jesus. How does this happen?

God orchestrates and permits uncomfortable or difficult circumstances in our lives in order to test us and to expose the corruption in us so that we can lay hold of His promises, not for material things but for transformation into the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). Why does He do this?

Since God is perfect, He has no sin and therefore He cannot die because sin leads to death. He has promised us eternal life but, in order to receive that promise, we must learn to overcome sin and become partakers of His divine nature. What we do in this life matters because it is the preparation for eternal life which is the result of holiness.

“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:20-23.

So Paul urges: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now, much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12, 13, which is eternal life.

Acknowledgement

Scripture take from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.