Tag Archives: punishment

A Loving Family

Bible Study, , , , ,

A LOVING FAMILY

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. (Heb. 2: 1-4)

Perhaps even more treacherous to the faith and faithfulness of the believer than outright temptation, is the tendency to drift. One of Satan’s most effective ploys is to suggest that it is important for us to ‘serve’ the Lord. O yes, he comes to us as an angel of light. ‘God will be pleased with you if you are busy ‘serving’ Jesus,’ he sneers. Unfortunately, we don’t hear the sneer in his voice.

What is the message we heard? Believe in Jesus and receive Him as your personal Saviour so that you can go to heaven when you die? Really? Is that the reason Jesus came? This is not the message of my Bible. Jesus called me to follow Him, to learn from Him and to imitate Him. For what purpose? So that I might have fellowship with the Father as His daughter, redeemed and reconciled to Him through the blood of His Son.

Being a son or daughter of God was His original intention, ruined by Adam’s disobedience, and restored through Jesus the Christ. God wanted a family of humans who would resemble Him and be one with Him so that, through them, He would govern His creation. Living in harmony with Him, with one another and with the world would be a witness to the fallen angels that He is a loving Father, and not a cruel tyrant who evicted them from heaven for their rebellion.

How does a family maintain its loving fellowship? Surely it is by obeying the Father and keeping in touch with Him and with one another! The Father’s greatest pleasure is to see His family being a family. The greatest heartache for any parent is to lose touch with his children and for them to lose touch with one another. Busyness causes them to drift apart and it happens slowly and subtly.

God is a perfect Father. His family is His greatest joy and delight. He gave His people His ‘Torah’, His instructions for living in harmony with Him and with one another so that they could show the world what the true God was really like. They missed it. They were more interested in the pagan gods around them who pandered to their fleshly lusts and selfish ways.

God sent His Son to be the model of a true son who would live every moment in a loving and intimate relationship with Him so that He could know and do the Father’s will. He called twelve men to follow Him. He both taught and showed them how to be sons of God and how to live under the authority of the heavenly Father. They discovered that His way really worked. When the Holy Spirit came on them as He had come on Jesus, they also had the power to imitate their Master.

They went everywhere, living and passing on the good news that Jesus was God’s Son and that He had come to set them free from the shackles of sin so they could return to the Father and to Father’s house. They taught those who received the message what Jesus had taught them. The way to maintain their fellowship with Him and with the Father through Him was to ‘remain in Him’ (John 15: 5).

Of course that would take discipline and perseverance. The other alternative was to drift and lose their closeness to Him. The problem with drifting is that their natural bent was towards selfish and self-centred living, following and satisfying their sinful desires. If they did that, they would drift back into the ways of death. Sin leads to death. If they did not maintain their life in Jesus, they would surely die.

This salvation was no human invention. The Old Covenant, given to God’s people from Mount Sinai was accompanied by awesome signs which terrified them, Violation of that covenant was serious enough to bring judgment – and it was mediated by angels and ratified by animal blood. What of the New Covenant, sealed by the blood of God’s perfect Son? Who will escape and how will they escape if they drifted away from obeying that covenant?

Obviously there is no answer. No one will escape. God is inescapable! Why should anyone escape? God cannot treat anyone leniently who ignores or despises the blood He Son shed to bring us back to Him. The answer? Don’t drift! Walk with Jesus one day at a time, remaining in Him and in His word.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and me in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15: 5, 6)

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.

 

Obey- Right Or Wrong

Bible Study, , ,

OBEY – RIGHT OR WRONG

“But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to inflict punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants who give their full time to governing.

“Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, then pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.” Romans 13:4b-7.

Apart from it benefitting the whole of society when we obey the governing authorities, there is another even more important reason why believers should submit to the government, good or bad – because of who we are.

We have Jesus as our example. God wants us to respond to people and situations as His sons and daughters, not because of what people do to us. Just as we used to be reactive, now we are to be responsive. That means, as Jesus responded in every situation and to every kind of person as the Son of God, representing and being a mirror image of the Father, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, and submissive and obedient to His Father, so must we.

“In this world we are just like Jesus.” 1 John 4:17b.

According to Paul, our response is a matter of conscience. When we act like Jesus rather than rebelling and resisting because we don’t like or agree with the law or the treatment we are receiving, no matter how we are misused or treated unjustly, we will have a good conscience before God. Better to be unfairly condemned by others than to have our conscience condemn us because we have acted against God.

There is a second consideration – the matter of our tormentors. Will they misuse us and get away with it? What if God allows people to treat us badly because it is part of His discipline to refine our faith in Him? Peter speaks at length about the trials he and his readers were suffering at the hands of their persecutors, both Jewish and Roman. Why did God allow it to happen to them?

Habakkuk struggled with the same problem. He could not understand why his people were wicked and yet, God sat on His hands. God’s response was shocking, to say the least.

“Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am doing something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves.” Habakkuk 1:5-7.

Habakkuk was appalled. “How can you do that to your people?” he protested. Again, God’s response was sobering but, in the end, satisfying. “Every person will carry responsibility for his own behaviour.”

“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright – but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.” Habakkuk 2:4.

What is God saying? You may be mistreated by godless people, but submit anyway; hang in there and continue to trust God. They will not get away with it. God is giving them an opportunity to do the right thing. If they do not, they will face His judgment for what they have done to you.

“God is just; He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8.

We can safely obey God, not matter what, and trust the outcome to Him.

Acknowledgement

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