It is amazing to see the tone of the bible concerning how we live our lives in obedience to God & what is heard today. Let's start with the language & actions of the writers of the New Testament.
Jesus, God in the flesh, comes down to preach??!! Amazing, God comes in the flesh to give a sermon here on a mountain, there by a smelly fishing dock swarming with flies, on some dusty road.. What is this? Could there be something so important?
Let's see, the whole world is condemned to eternal hell & he has come to show us the way to life. He has come to repair the damaged relationship between God & fallen man. His first words, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near". So, apparently another Kingdom will replace this fallen regime. We need to switch allegiance, we need to get into this Kingdom to partake of it's rewards of eternal life. The only way in is to repent, turn from the ways of this world dominated by Satan & turn to God.
Now, He came all the way down here, left His throne to say the same thing all His prophets have been saying for hundreds of years!! Turn to God, mend your ways. He preached about Pharisees replacing the commands of God with their own rules & He was quite upset about it. He preached about 'doing the will of the Father'. Feeding the poor, visiting the sick etc. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off & warns that this would be better than going to hell, where the worms do not die. He even uses the Word 'works' every so often to let us know what He is talking about - our works!
27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works
Now, He has given a message , but wait, new wine can not go into old wine skins, He gives His life to enable us to have it. Yes, the great exchange, our old nature for a new one. We have ,once we have repented, a new heart that the Word can be written on & a new spirit, so that we obey from the heart now being enabled to do so by the Spirit of God within.
Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost using many words, the bible says, he warns the crowd to 'save' themselves from this generation that is difficult to govern, self willed, 'untoward'. He tells them to repent & receive the Promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of grace. Strong words, what happened to everyone knows they are sinners & only need to hear they can be forgiven? Notice how Peter is focused to much on human behavior when discussing eternal life? He needs to read Martin Luther.
Paul, Peter & John write to churches in support of ministers. Peter refers to men twisting the words of Paul to say what he did not say. He claimed that Paul taught the same things as he & other apostles did. Actually, he mentions the words of the prophets, Jesus & names Paul twice to warn us to be on our guard against the error of the 'wicked' & fall from our secure place. This is an unnecessary passage to tell us to be prepared for the coming of Jesus, we are eternally secure, right?
We see John & Paul actually name false ministers ( don't they know not to backbite) & warn people to beware of them. Paul asks the readers in Corinth, Galatia, Colossi & Thessaloniki to take note of his handwriting & greeting. He emphasized that he does this to prove the letter comes from him. He sends trusted men & women to churches to bring him word on what is going on in the church, even though he gets letters from people who he already has stationed there to guide. Oversight is constant & he tells of his constant burden for the church in 2 Corinthians 11. He speaks of his many trials & suffering to let us know the difference between him as a true minister & the false who are out for their own gain.
28 Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?
In order for the church in Corinth not to be led astray by an attitude of tolerance for sin, he commands the man in adultery with his mother in law be put out of the church & turned over to Satan. Wow.
You wont hear that listening to Pat Robertson.
In his last letter he warns that on his return those still in sin, whom he has already warned will see the use of their authority from & in God, He will not spare them, straighten up so he will not have to deal severely with them, & so on. Strong language, severe discipline, exclusion of people, name & shame & cast out, when all we have to do is just believe??!
To say you BELIEVE in someone in the historical & cultural context of when the New Testament was written is a statement of gravity. It is not a christian concept. Many people were believers of different men & women, they practiced what they preached concerning different things, some dealt with sex, others politics, others art & some religion. To BELIEVE was to commit your life to be a persons disciple. The way we apply it in our western culture began to slip in the church back then & James had to tell them, the demons believe but faith without WORKS is no faith at all!!
Jesus, God in the flesh, comes down to preach??!! Amazing, God comes in the flesh to give a sermon here on a mountain, there by a smelly fishing dock swarming with flies, on some dusty road.. What is this? Could there be something so important?
Let's see, the whole world is condemned to eternal hell & he has come to show us the way to life. He has come to repair the damaged relationship between God & fallen man. His first words, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near". So, apparently another Kingdom will replace this fallen regime. We need to switch allegiance, we need to get into this Kingdom to partake of it's rewards of eternal life. The only way in is to repent, turn from the ways of this world dominated by Satan & turn to God.
Now, He came all the way down here, left His throne to say the same thing all His prophets have been saying for hundreds of years!! Turn to God, mend your ways. He preached about Pharisees replacing the commands of God with their own rules & He was quite upset about it. He preached about 'doing the will of the Father'. Feeding the poor, visiting the sick etc. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off & warns that this would be better than going to hell, where the worms do not die. He even uses the Word 'works' every so often to let us know what He is talking about - our works!
27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works
Now, He has given a message , but wait, new wine can not go into old wine skins, He gives His life to enable us to have it. Yes, the great exchange, our old nature for a new one. We have ,once we have repented, a new heart that the Word can be written on & a new spirit, so that we obey from the heart now being enabled to do so by the Spirit of God within.
Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost using many words, the bible says, he warns the crowd to 'save' themselves from this generation that is difficult to govern, self willed, 'untoward'. He tells them to repent & receive the Promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of grace. Strong words, what happened to everyone knows they are sinners & only need to hear they can be forgiven? Notice how Peter is focused to much on human behavior when discussing eternal life? He needs to read Martin Luther.
Paul, Peter & John write to churches in support of ministers. Peter refers to men twisting the words of Paul to say what he did not say. He claimed that Paul taught the same things as he & other apostles did. Actually, he mentions the words of the prophets, Jesus & names Paul twice to warn us to be on our guard against the error of the 'wicked' & fall from our secure place. This is an unnecessary passage to tell us to be prepared for the coming of Jesus, we are eternally secure, right?
We see John & Paul actually name false ministers ( don't they know not to backbite) & warn people to beware of them. Paul asks the readers in Corinth, Galatia, Colossi & Thessaloniki to take note of his handwriting & greeting. He emphasized that he does this to prove the letter comes from him. He sends trusted men & women to churches to bring him word on what is going on in the church, even though he gets letters from people who he already has stationed there to guide. Oversight is constant & he tells of his constant burden for the church in 2 Corinthians 11. He speaks of his many trials & suffering to let us know the difference between him as a true minister & the false who are out for their own gain.
28 Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?
In order for the church in Corinth not to be led astray by an attitude of tolerance for sin, he commands the man in adultery with his mother in law be put out of the church & turned over to Satan. Wow.
You wont hear that listening to Pat Robertson.
In his last letter he warns that on his return those still in sin, whom he has already warned will see the use of their authority from & in God, He will not spare them, straighten up so he will not have to deal severely with them, & so on. Strong language, severe discipline, exclusion of people, name & shame & cast out, when all we have to do is just believe??!
To say you BELIEVE in someone in the historical & cultural context of when the New Testament was written is a statement of gravity. It is not a christian concept. Many people were believers of different men & women, they practiced what they preached concerning different things, some dealt with sex, others politics, others art & some religion. To BELIEVE was to commit your life to be a persons disciple. The way we apply it in our western culture began to slip in the church back then & James had to tell them, the demons believe but faith without WORKS is no faith at all!!
