Bondage, Biting, Bragging, and Beating

February 28, 2022 at 12:36 pm | Posted in II Corinthians | 4 Comments
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I say again, let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.

II Corinthians 11:16-19

Since, in their so-called “wisdom,” they had decided to follow fools, the Apostle Paul reasoned that perhaps he would have to speak like a fool in order to get the attention of the Corinthian Christians.

For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.

II Corinthians 11:20

When someone becomes influential in church and begins to lead people into confusion or rebellion against God’s ordained authority, these are the types of things they typically promote, or the types of poison fruit resulting from their influence:

1. Bondage: Works-righteousness or legalism that says you must conform to a man-made standard that goes beyond or against Scripture.

2. Devour: They take advantage of people financially, or they use them (“eat them up”) for personal gain.

3. Take of You: Today we might say “take you in” – the idea of setting a baited trap or catching fish with a lure. They use outwardly attractive ideas or words, and then get people hooked.

4. Self-Exaltation: Beware of those who seek much honor for themselves in contrast to honor for Christ.

5. Smiting: Physical and perhaps emotional bullying and intimidation.

I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.  Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.

II Corinthians 11:21-22

Paul was an Israelite – a descendant of Abraham – by his nationality, but also spiritually and prophetically.

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

II Corinthians 11:23

The answer to the question, “Are they ministers of Christ?” was no, they are ministers of the devil.

Keep Walking until You Get Caught Up

February 24, 2022 at 11:04 pm | Posted in I Thessalonians | 7 Comments
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Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

I Thessalonians 4:1 

In the first three chapters of I Thessalonians we see the stabilizing legs of the Christian life, but Christian living means more than just standing. It means moving forward – walking. We need God’s Spirit (the Holy Spirit), God’s Word (the Bible), and God’s body (the church) in order to be stable in our stand, but these legs not only stabilize our stand – they also walk.

We need to know how operate our legs in order to walk. When a child first learns to walk, he will often hold onto an object to help himself stand, but when is ready to take a step – perhaps to reach out for his father – he will let go of the object and reach for the person he loves more than the thing which is helping him stand. There is a “letting go,” but – even more than letting go – there is a desire to get to his father. When you want God more than the world, you will let go of not only sin, but also vanity.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus’s His sustenance – what made Him full, what satisfied Him – was to do the will of His Father (John 4:34; 8:29). When we do God’s will, we “abound more and more.” We take a step, walk, walk quickly, run, leap, and bound.

For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

I Thessalonians 4:2-4

God gives negative commands (“abstain from fornication”) and positive commands (“possess your vessel in sanctification and honor”). Like a car battery that won’t let a car “start up” and “run right” unless it has both a negative and a positive charge, we need both types of commands. We are to be holy and SEPARATED FROM the world, and CONSECRATED UNTO God.

Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

I Thessalonians 4:5

The term “Gentiles” here is not intended as an ethnic insult. The Thessalonian Christians were no longer primarily either Jews or Gentiles when it came to their true spiritual identity, but Jewish people – even prior to coming to Christ – had been commanded under the Old Testament law to abstain from fornication. A typical Gentile pagan gave no thought to the sinfulness of fornicating.

There is an admonition here that Christians should “possess their vessels” in the sense of controlling their bodies, and in the sense of husbands taking care of – even loving possession of – their wives.

Christians have the Spirit, so we need to empty out the fleshly desires and BE CONTROLLED BY the Spirit. We have the Body of Christ, so we need to do things which honor and help the Body, even if it means denying our own BODILY pleasures.

For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

I Thessalonians 4:7

Our election comes with a calling. Personal holiness and purity are seen as old-fashioned and out of style in today’s world, even in today’s church, but they are not out of style with God. He wants a pure Church, and He wants pure fellowship.

But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

I Thessalonians 4:9

Because the Church is a body, God wants us to be unified. When we WALK, we need to be WALKING together. Being born again changes our ontology – the nature of who we are in Christ. If you are born of God, you have the ability to LOVE.

And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Genesis 37:4

Why could Joseph’s brothers not speak peaceably to him? They had vocal chords, lips, tongues, teeth. They knew the same language. The problem wasn’t with their anatomical ability to produce sound or their understanding of language. The problem was in their hearts. Because of their hatred of him, they could not force themselves to speak kindly to him, even for appearances’ sake, and even though doing so would have avoided conflict and trouble. It is simply not in the nature of our fallen flesh to love others selflessly. However, it is in the nature of regenerated, Spirit-filled hearts to love like that.

And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

I Thessalonians 4:11-12

Christians are to stay busy, but they should not be busybodies. Having God’s Spirit, we can and should operate in the Spirit to remain holy and to move close to God. Having God’s Body, we can and should show love and be unified, thereby being good witnesses to unbelievers. Having God’s Word, we can and should comfort our fellow believers as they walk.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

I Thessalonians 4:13-15

The souls of people who have died in Christ are not literally “sleeping” until He returns. Their bodies are sleeping, but not their souls. When a Christian loved one dies, we don’t sorrow as those who have no hope. Sometimes, when comforting a grieving family member, we will say, “I’m sorry for your loss,” or a widow might say, “Last year I lost my husband to a disease,” but we haven’t really “lost” our Christian family members and friends when they die. They are not lost because we know where they are: with the Lord.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

I Thessalonians 4:17

The Greek word for “caught up” (what some people call “raptured”) is rich in textured meanings. It is translated from the Greek word harpazo, which in Latin was raptus (hence, rapture), meaning to catch away speedily. The event described here will happen in the twinkling of an eye. We should be living in a general state of readiness when it happens. Once it does happen, there will not be time to stop doing something wrong, or to start doing something right.

Rapture can also mean to seize by force. Prayerfully, we would not have to be dragged by force out of this world the way Lot had to be dragged out of Sodom.

Rapture can mean the arrival of someone claiming what is rightfully His. Jesus will one day visibly make it plan that He has already done the work of redemption, and that He will finally and completely “redeem” everything that is God’s, the way a groom lovingly but purposefully takes hold of his bride. “Do you TAKE this woman..?”

Rapture can mean to relocate quickly. We will leave this world which is not our home and take up residence where our rightful citizenship is.

Finally, rapture can mean to rescue from danger – just in the nick of time – before the Tribulation. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him – he was “caught up” into Heaven without dying – and then the rain started.

The Lord’s Vineyard

February 15, 2022 at 4:23 pm | Posted in Isaiah | 3 Comments
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When God’s people were broken He would save the remnant.

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.  In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

Isaiah 4:1-2

The branch of the Lord was a picture of Jesus, the “tender shoot” coming up out of the dead stump of David’s dynasty. The Messiah would be from David’s seed, from his family line, even though the line of David may have been thought to be dead and decaying. This is characteristic of the consolation woven into Isaiah’s prophecies. Even in the midst of condemnation he provided comfort.

Isaiah condemned those who spoke carelessly about the Lord.

That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

Isaiah 5:18

“The Holy One of Israel” wasn’t their name for Him. That was Isaiah’s name for Him. Isaiah was a man who hated sham religion. He was also a man who hated sin.

Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:  And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:1-2

God has given us everything we need to be “good grapes” – to be “fruitful.” He has “fenced” us – called us unto salvation – made us His people. He has placed us in a place where there is room to grow. This is true in our churches, in our families, at our jobs, even in the geographical locations in which we live. He has taken out the stones – the obstacles which would keep us from growing. He has built a tower; He watches over us and protects us. And there is a winepress waiting. He expects us to bear fruit, and the fruit will not rot before God uses it.

Obsessed with Testimonies?

February 11, 2022 at 1:02 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments
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Question: Maybe I’m cynical, but I don’t understand the obsession that Protestants have with sharing and listening to people’s personal salvation testimonies. Why do y’all have such an all-encompassing fascination with giving your testimony? Y’all act like telling people about the time you got saved is a grave matter of life and death. Shouldn’t we just preach the Gospel so that people don’t get the idea that our banal and ego-inflating personal story is a substitute for what Jesus actually did for everyone?

Answer: I don’t think that’s cynical, and it’s a fair question. I don’t consider myself to be a Protestant, and I certainly can’t speak for the people you’ve encountered. I’ve been actively ministering in Christian churches for about 30 years and I’ve never met a sincere Christian who had an “almost all-encompassing fascination” with his or her personal testimony. I don’t deny such people exist, but they may not be as common as you think. However, I will admit that I, like many others, love hearing about what Jesus has done in the lives of the people whom He loves and for whom he died (Psalm 107:2). I wouldn’t claim that sharing a personal salvation testimony is a “grave matter of life or death,” and we do have to be careful about using our testimony as a “lure,” whereby we try to sell Christianity to people based only on what happened to us. However, despite the limited value of a personal testimony, it is clear that the Bible condones and even encourages faithful Christians to tell others about their experience of coming to know Christ through saving faith: Luke 8:39; II Timothy 1:8; Matthew 10:32; I John 1:1-4; Mark 5:19; I Corinthians 1:6; II Corinthians 4:13.

Also, it is kind of ironic that you are sharing your personal experience of being around people who share their personal experience, while labeling their experiences as “banal.” And, in fact, what may seem banal to some, may be fascinating and encouraging to other brothers and sisters in Christ who love the same Lord in the same Spirit, and who love to praise Him openly for His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and eternal salvation.

Thinking through the Battle

February 9, 2022 at 3:57 pm | Posted in II Corinthians | 6 Comments
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We might think that after three or so chapters dealing specifically with financial giving, and knowing the unpopularity and potential for offense inherent in that subject, Paul would want to take a break and move on to some other topic, and in II Corinthians 10 he does change the subject. However, his interaction with the other problems that needed to be addressed did not get any easier.

Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

II Corinthians 10:1

Paul took up a position of humility, reminding them how “base” (lowly) and gently and meekly he had behaved when he was personally present in Corinth. The undercurrent to these thoughts has to do with the accusations of the Judaizers and false teachers. One of their insults about Paul was that he was very bold in his letters (when he himself was far away), but that he tended to be obsequious and much less confrontational when he was present. This was not true, of course, but he did feel the need, when forced into it, to defend himself and his ministry.

But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

II Corinthians 10:2

First, Paul did not need to be as aggressive when he was present in Corinth, because the church members didn’t cut up as much when he was there (a sign of immaturity, like the people who skip church when the pastor is out of town). Second, the false teachers themselves weren’t as bold when Paul was personally there. They just lurked in the background until he left town, then they came out of the shadows and tried to turn people against him and recruit followers for themselves. Third:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

II Corinthians 10:3

Paul wasn’t interested in fighting a spiritual battle with fleshly or worldly weapons. That doesn’t work. The devil is a better fighter than Christians when it comes to devilish techniques, and when we utilize sin (or when we think we’re strong in the power of our might and don’t need to rely on the power of God) we tend to cut ourselves off from God’s help. As a general rule, God won’t fight a battle for me that I’m trying win in my own strength. Christians have better weapons than personality, charisma, deceit, flattery, gossip, extortion, bullying, faction-forming, appeals to pride, appeals to greed, appeals to popularity, and appeals to influence and ego. Instead, we have the Bible, prayer, love, ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, faith, and trust in the will of God.

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

II Corinthians 10:4

This is the part of spiritual warfare that is not as appealing to most people as a prayer march, the pronouncement of the reception of a special “anointing,” a big event, or an outreach strategy. The battle is really in our minds and daily lives. We must ask the Holy Spirit to help us answer this question: “What unbiblical strongholds exist in my mind, and how did they get to this ‘high place?’ Have I imagined them through my speculations, and exalted some worldly thinking or common sense wisdom of man to a place that’s higher in my mind than the place I’ve given to God’s revealed will in His Word?” If so, here is how I’m supposed to deal with them:

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

II Corinthians 10:5

I must intentionally and carefully tear them down and place them under the feet of Jesus. I must obey Him even when something else seems to make more sense.

And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

II Corinthians 10:6

This was Paul’s statement rebutting the claims of the false teachers in Corinth who said that Paul talked big in his letters, but was much less confrontational when he was personally present in Corinth (vv.10-11). “Having a readiness to revenge all disobedience” means that Paul was more than prepared to deal with these false teachers harshly when he arrived. However, he wanted to give the faithful church members in Corinth the opportunity to do it themselves first. Only when their obedience in dealing with disobedience (to Apostolic doctrine) was “fulfilled,” meaning when they had done all they were willing to do, would he come in and deal with it himself. The exact nature of the “revenge” is left unspecified. It could have meant excommunicating or throwing them out of the church, or even something as extreme as the use of his God-given supernatural gifts and power to chasten, discipline, or punish them.

Paul knew that the false teachers were handsome and charismatic and eloquent. They were good at making shallow friends and influencing people in such a way that they didn’t realize they were being manipulated.

Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? if any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.

II Corinthians 10:7

The expression “think again” can be a warning expression, “If you think I’m gonna stand for that, you better think again!” Paul was reminding them that they had come to put their trust in Christ by hearing and believing Apostolic doctrine. He didn’t want them to let someone tell them that what Paul and the apostles had taught and preached was false. Rhetorically, if Paul and the apostles had been false teachers, then the Corinthian church members would have been false converts.

For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:

II Corinthians 10:8

Augustine on Those Who Will S.W.I.M. When Brought Ashore

February 3, 2022 at 4:32 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments
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In this wicked world, in these evil days, when the Church measures her future loftiness by her present humility, and is exercised by goading fears, tormenting sorrows, disquieting labors, and dangerous temptations, when she soberly rejoices, rejoicing only in hope, there are many reprobate mingled in with the good, and both are gathered together by the [G]ospel as in a drag net; and in this world, as in a sea, both swim enclosed without distinction in the net, until it is brought ashore, when the wicked must be separated from the good, that in the good, as in His temple, God may be all in all.

Augustine, The City of God

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Matthew 13:24-30

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:36-42


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