Monthly Archives: December 2020

IMMORALITY, IMPURITY AND GREED ARE OUT!

Bible Study, ,

IMMORALITY, IMPURITY AND GREED ARE OUT!

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure. No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a person is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:3-5).

We must always keep in mind that the recipients of Paul’s letter were once immoral, impure and greedy people!

The change in a person’s lifestyle, who has become a follower of Jesus, is and must be so radical that they live as citizens of a completely opposite kingdom with opposite standards of behaviour.

Paul defined these two opposing realms as the kingdoms and light and darkness. Light is a synonym for everything for which God stands – morality, purity and generosity in every way towards others as a reflection of God’s character. Darkness – the absence of light – represents whatever God is not. Paul summed up the characteristics of those who insist on living in darkness by three words – immoral, impure and greedy.

We don’t need to look very far, in the world around us, to recognise these characteristics in those who refuse to acknowledge God or to live under His authority.  Selfishness and all its ramifications dominates human society. It’s everyone for himself regardless of what it does to others. Selfishness controls even the most humanitarian of professions – medicine and its associated disciplines.

In my country, if a seriously ill or injured person cannot produce a medical aid card or the upfront amount demanded by a private hospital, he or she can die outside without being seen or treated, and no one cares a hoot. Our government hospitals and ambulance services are no better. People die waiting for an ambulance. Unborn babies die before help arrives for a woman in labour. The motto of employees of these services, mostly controlled by unions, is generally ‘That’s not my job.’

Paul urgently implored these new-born babies in Christ, “Don’t be like that.” He has already explained in detail that they have been given a brand-new life. They were once dead to God but, because of His grace, they were alive and able to respond to His Spirit in them. They had been restored to the family of God and given unrestricted access to the Father. It was now up to them, with all the resources God had given them to live their new lives, to leave the old ways behind and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in them.

What did Paul mean by ‘immoral, impure and greedy’?

“To say that, some act is immoral is to say that violates some moral laws, norms or standards.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immorality – retrieved January 2016.

Purity is a state of being unmixed with anything that taints or pollutes e.g., pure water has no pollutants in it. A pure person is one whose behaviour is not tainted with immoral actions or standards. To be impure is to taint one’s being with actions or behaviour that are not part of upright living.

Greed is “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed” – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/greed – retrieved January 2016.

 

 

What is idolatry? http://www.gotquestions.org/idolatry-definition.html

 

“The definition of idolatry, according to Webster, is “the worship of idols or excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or thing.” An idol is anything that replaces the one, true God.”

 

http://www.gotquestions.org/idolatry-definition.html – retrieved January 2016.

 

These vices have no place in a believer’s life because Christ has set him free from the standards and practices of the world. His citizenship is in the kingdom of light where the standards of righteousness apply. It is up to each citizen of the kingdom of God to establish new patterns of behaviour based on their choice to imitate Jesus rather than the citizens of the dominion of darkness.

 

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

BE IMITATORS OF GOD

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BE IMITATORS OF GOD

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:1-2).

Every word in these two verses is loaded with significance. In the earlier NIV versions, Paul’s words are translated as be imitators of God as dearly loved children. One of the requirements of a disciple in 1st century Israel was that he learn to imitate his rabbi. ‘Imitation’ in this context did not mean ‘a fake’ but rather a replica of his master. A disciple has to live in such close proximity to his rabbi that he learned to think, speak and act just like him.

A rabbi chose disciples in whom he had the confidence that they would become just like him. They were to walk behind him as he moved from place to place. He was essentially a roving teacher, instructing the people who gathered around him in the correct interpretation of the Torah – the 5 books of Moses. He also debated current issues in the light of what other rabbis taught whose authority to interpret and apply his interpretation of the Torah according to what he believed to be God’s original intention was recognised. This interpretation and application was called the rabbi’s ‘yoke’.

The concept of a yoke had special significance in Israel. The Israelites were agricultural people – they worked and lived off the land. Their word of God, made up of two letters, e and l, el, was derived from two pictures in the original paleo-Hebrew script. The ‘e’ was the picture of an ox head, meaning ‘strength’ and the ‘l’ was a picture of a shepherd’s staff, meaning ‘authority’. They understood God to be one who had strength and authority.

The same two letters, e and l appear in the word aleph meaning to learn by association. To a Hebrew person, a yoke was ‘a staff of the shoulder’. In order to train a young ox to plough a straight furrow, the farmer would place a yoke across its shoulder and yoke it with an older, experienced ox so that it became a replica of his ‘teacher’.

Now does not Jesus’ invitation have new meaning for you?

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).

Jesus, as a rabbi with authority from God, invited those who were tired of the demanding yoke of the religious leaders with its petty rules and rituals, to take His yoke. By learning to live the way He taught them, He would change their hearts and free them from the fear and guilt which drove them to seek God’s approval by obeying laws and rules.

In order to be imitators of God, we must live in close association with Jesus and learn from Him. Paul called this “putting on Christ”. God has freed us from bondage to Satan and to slavery to sin. However, change is not automatic. In close association with Jesus, we learn to think like Him and to behave like Him. It is a slow, life-long process which comes through practice. Let me illustrate.

Brick-makers use a mould into which they pour concrete which they must allow to dry before they take away the form. Once the concrete or clay is dry, the brick will retain its shape when they remove the form.

In a similar way, when we imitate Jesus by acting with humility and gentleness, even if we don’t feel it, we are creating a ‘form’ which will eventually become a way of life. Paul used another metaphor, that of getting dressed.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col. 3: 12).

The more we act like Jesus, the more we will become like Him. We are to ‘walk’ in the way of love. The Bible pictures life as a journey through a dangerous and unknown way. If we are to reach our destination, we must follow the one who knows the way lest we wander from the path and die in the desert. Jesus said, “I am the way.” He is the ‘light’ – He walks in the light of God’s Word and is, therefore, qualified to lead us to the Father.

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life (John 8:12).

Jesus came to fulfil the Torah – God’s directions for reaching our destination. He insisted that He had not come to do away with God’s instructions but to ‘fulfil’ them – to show His people how to live as God intended. He wanted them to be examples to the surrounding pagan nations of His best way of living. He fulfilled and made the Old Covenant obsolete but the principle of the Old Covenant, the law of love, remains enshrined in the way He taught us to live in the New Covenant,

Our role as His disciples is to stick close to Him and to learn by association with Him, imitating Him in every detail of our lives until we become replicas of our Master in this world.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com

SETTLE YOUR DIFFERENCES JESUS’ WAY

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SETTLE YOUR DIFFERENCES JESUS’ WAY

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you (Eph. 4: 31-32).

No more bar-room brawling!

The words Paul uses are reminiscent of the way that ungodly men typically settle their differences. One can just imagine the scene in a tavern. An argument breaks out between two drunk men. Tempers flare, words fly, peppered with swearing, cursing and oaths. A fist strike out and the fight is on. Chaos! Blood flows and furniture, crockery, and even some of the bystanders take a beating. Nothing has been achieved but more reason to be angry and bitter.

This is not the way to handle conflict, says Paul. Boys fight with fists, girls with words but fighting resolves nothing. However, you are no longer immature children, driven by heat and not guided by light. There will always be differences and conflicts between people as long as we are in this world. Fighting with fists or words achieves nothing but increased hostility, tension and bitterness. The ripples of anger and antagonism spread outwards, encompassing families and even communities.

Jesus has a way of dealing with conflict and all the emotional baggage it brings that is far more effective and final than fists. It’s called ‘forgiveness’. He had a lot to say about forgiveness since forgiveness is the basis of His relationship with us and should always be the way we relate to one another.

Before we talk about forgiveness, let’s take a look at the consequences of harbouring offences and holding on to bitterness.

Bitterness has a root which produces fruit. Moses reminded God’s people, on the eve of his departure, that idolatry was the fruit of a poisonous root.

Make sure that there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure that there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison (Deut. 29:18).

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews picked up on this thought.

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many (Heb. 12: 15).

What is this ‘bitter root’ of which both these verses speak? Both idolatry and unforgiveness are the expression of self above God. God forbade His people to worship idols because of the terrible effect it would have on them. They chose to ignore His warnings. They put themselves above God and became like the gods they worshipped.

But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved (Hos. 9:10b)

Refusal to forgive is based on the same principle – self above God. God commands us to forgive those who sin against us because we no longer have a reason to hold grudges. Jesus died to deal with the sin of the whole world. His death provides forgiveness for all sin, for all people, for all time. When we refuse to forgive another, we are in effect saying that God is a liar and that He has not forgiven the sin of the one we hold guilty. We think we have the right to punish our offender even though Jesus has already paid his debt. Idolatry! We set ourselves above God just as effectively as those who worshipped idols.

Idolatry, worshipping self above God, is the bitter root that produces the fruit that ‘defiles many’. Selfishness and all the ramifications of self above all, is the root of conflict.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (James. 4: 1-3).

God gives the grace to forgive when we turn from our selfish passions with the earnest desire to please and obey Him. He enables us to look our offender in the face, literally or figuratively, and say, “You owe me nothing,” because God has forgiven him, and I can, therefore, let the offence go. Once my heart is at peace, I have no need to engage in the attitudes and activities of which Paul speaks.

A forgiving heart no longer harbours anger, rage, bitterness, slander and malice. These are the devil’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’ which forgiveness through the power of the Holy Spirit defuses. God’s love, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, neutralises the poison of idolatry and shuts down the need for conflict or revenge.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

A TENDER COMPANION

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A TENDER COMPANION

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:29-30).

God has given every believer a special and very precious gift – the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus. He represents the Father and the Son on earth and takes up residence in the believer as a permanent companion. He is to us everything we need of the presence and power of God to overcome the remnants of sin in our lives and to live in the world as God’s beloved sons and daughters.

It is the dearest desire of the Holy Spirit that we get to know Him as intimately as He knows us. He is not in us to be our servant but to be to us everything that Jesus is and requires of us as His followers. He has many functions in our lives – He is our ‘parakletos’ – meaning ‘one who is called alongside’ to support and assist us in our efforts to live godly lives; He is the Spirit of truth – He reveals Jesus to us and leads us to walk in the truth; He is the author and interpreter of God’s Word – He gives is understanding of the Word as we seek Him. He is our sanctifier – He works the transformation in us to become like Jesus as we submit to Him and obey His promptings.

“To have the Holy Spirit as our Paraclete is to have God Himself indwelling us as believers. The Spirit teaches us the Word and guides us into truth. He reminds us of what Jesus has taught so that we can depend on His Word in the difficult times of life. The Spirit works in us to give us His peace (John 14:27), His love (John 15:9–10), and His joy (John 15:11). He comforts our hearts and minds in a troubled world. The power of the indwelling Paraclete gives us the ability to live by the Spirit and “not gratify the desires of the sinful flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The Spirit can then produce His fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:22–23) to the glory of God the Father. What a blessing to have the Holy Spirit in our lives as our Paraclete—our Comforter, our Encourager, our Counsellor, and our Advocate!”

http://www.gotquestions.org/paraclete-Holy-Spirit.html – retrieved January 2016.

Paul said that there are two things we should never do to the Holy Spirit. We should never quench or grieve Him.

Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19).

The word ‘quench’ in Scripture speaks of suppressing or putting out fire. Just as the devil throws ‘fiery darts’ at the believer to assault our faith, so the Holy Spirit is God’s ‘fire’ within us, keeping our hearts aglow with a passion for God. When believers do not allow the Spirit to be seen in our actions, when we do what we know is wrong, we suppress or quench the Spirit

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).

The Holy Spirit is our gentle and tender companion. He cannot be comfortable in the atmosphere of sin. We can quench Him by ignoring His voice and His ministry in our hearts to keep us strong and true in our walk with Jesus and by losing our zeal for the Lord when we become involved in worldly pursuits. We grieve Him when we become embroiled in sinful ways and ignore His promptings to return to the way of the Lord.

 “We grieve the Spirit by living like the pagans (4:17-19), by lying (4:25), by being angry (4:26-27), by stealing (4:28), by cursing (4:29), by being bitter (4:31), by being unforgiving (4:32), and by being sexually immoral (5:3-5). To grieve the Spirit is to act out in a sinful manner, whether it is in thought only or in both thought and deed.”

http://www.gotquestions.org/grieve-quench-Holy-Spirit.html – retrieved January 2016.

Our hearts should be sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit that we become aware of His silence when we no longer feel His promptings in our hearts. He desires to have fellowship with us. He is passionate about the Son. He uses every opportunity to make us aware of His presence in us as His representative. He lives in intimate union with the Father and the Son and He desires to nurture our union with Him so that we can also have fellowship with the Father and with the Son.

When the Holy Spirit goes quiet and inactive in us, we should be alerted to something we have said or done or some wrong attitude that has invaded our hearts to grieve Him. He will be quick to reveal what has silenced His voice when we seek Him in repentance and humility. The Holy Spirit does not sulk. He cannot have fellowship with us when our hearts have become indifferent to Him or hardened by sin.

We need to keep our hearts tender towards Him just as His heart is tender towards us and towards the one He represents.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER

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DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER

Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body. ‘In your anger, do not sin.’ Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need (Eph. 4:25-28).

Members of one body! Here is the motivation for living a new life. Of whose body are we members? We are members of Christ’s body. We no longer belong to ourselves, and we no longer live in isolation from one another in the body. We are not only joined to Jesus, our head – we are also joined to one another. Paul described it in this way:

From Him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work (Eph. 4:16).

The church is not like an organisation or a club where people are loosely connected by their affiliation to the group. Paul described the church as a body, where its members are inseparably joined to its head and to one another, as closely as the systems in a human body are joined and work together. This means that we make choices and decisions and act in unity and harmony with one another, considering how our actions will affect others in the body.

We have a defence mechanism, as human beings, to protect ourselves in our vulnerability from the attitudes and opinions of others. We put on masks of pseudo-holiness to cover our failings. Paul urged his readers to be transparent with each other because we belong to one another. The cells in a body must work together for the systems to function efficiently. So, we, too, must be honest and open with each other if we are to live as a true body.

In the body of Christ, we are supposed to ‘bear with one another in love’ which means that we are not to criticise or judge one another. Within the body, we should be safe to fail and we should be open to correction when we stray from the path. Unfortunately, believers are often so defensive that they are offended when someone corrects them instead of humbly accepting the rebuke and coming back to the path of obedience to God’s Word.

Gentleness and humility are the hallmarks of Jesus. We are to follow Him and not to allow ego and pride to alienate us from one another. ‘Lying’ to one another implies more than telling lies. It includes living lies in our relationships within the body.

Paul deals with another common and confusing problem with which believers wrestle – anger. Many of us mistakenly believe that anger is sinful. If that were true, then Jesus’ anger at the Pharisees would have disqualified Him from being our Saviour. We feel guilty when we get angry because we do not realise the purpose of anger.

Much of our anger has to do with unresolved emotional pain. There is no such thing as an ‘angry’ person. People are not angry by nature. People use anger to protect themselves from the hurts they have not resolved. Many carry the pain of abuse from early childhood which they cannot face. They explode and lash out at everyone over minor and often irrelevant issues (called ‘emotional overload’) to protect themselves from being vulnerable to the same hurts again.

This kind of anger is sinful because it destroys relationships and isolates the individual from other people. The way to deal with this kind of anger is not to have counselling on ‘anger management’ which is completely ineffective, but to expose and deal with the cause of the emotional pain. Healing comes from facing the memories, acknowledging the source of the pain and forgiving the person or persons who caused it.

There is another reason for anger, called ‘righteous’ anger, which is a legitimate and important response to injustice.  Jesus was angry with the merchants and money changers who turned the outer court of the temple into a market. His anger produced action which sent a clear message to the offenders, including the religious hierarchy who no doubt benefitted from the profits. He drove the offenders out of the temple with the rebuke from God’s Word,

Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers (Mark 11:17)

This anger is not a volatile emotional explosion but a sustained attitude of displeasure which moves a person to take action against abuse or injustice. This was the attitude that drove William Wilberforce, for example, to persevere in his purpose to rid England of slavery. In this understanding of anger, Paul counsels his readers “not to let the sun go down on their anger”. In other words, he encourages them not to let the matter rest until they bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.

Our responsibility, as members of Christ’s body, is to deal with our anger in the appropriate way. If we are bearing grudges and carrying old offences which cause us to hide behind anger, it is time to bring them out of the closet and to own our reactions and forgive the offender.

If we are angry about the harm caused to others, we should not give up on our efforts to change what needs to be changed so that those around us will receive the respect and dignity they deserve as members of the human race. God needs this kind of ‘angry’ people to change society wherever they can and to bring about harmony, not rebellion and conflict between its members.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.