Rebound revisited, part 7. 1Co 11:28; 1Jo 1:8-10; Eph 4:17; 2Ti 2:25
length: 62:27 - taught on Apr, 10 2013
Class Outline:
Title: Rebound revisited, part 7. 1CO 11:28; 1JO 1:8-10; EPH 4:17; 2TI 2:25.
Those who favored unnatural asceticism often fell into the opposite sin of shocking licentiousness. As body and soul are entirely distinct in their nature, the soul cannot be defiled by anything, however carnal and gross, that the body can do. Let the soul go its way on the wings of spiritual thought, and the body indulge its fleshly desires. [International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised]
[ISBE, R continued] Such was the reasoning of this class of Gnostics. It would seem that this group were the ones who believed that they had no sin in them because they completely distinguished and separated the soul from the body. However, the ascetics, if they were pleased enough with their asceticism would claim that they had reached sinless perfection, which is what John addresses in 1JO 1:10.
2TI 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
Because difficult times will be in the last day doesn’t mean they won’t exist in Paul’s day or our day. This simply means that there will be a huge surge in difficulty leading up to and in the Tribulation. The word for last is “eschatos” where we get eschatology from.
2TI 3:2 For men will be lovers of self [philautos], lovers of money [philarguros], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2TI 3:3 unloving [astorgos - no love of family or RF], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good [aphilagathos],
2TI 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure [philedonos] rather than lovers of God [philotheos];
Light came into the world in the person of Christ. God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely born Son.
God’s love was once known under the English word charity, which was still in use in Christian literature in the mid nineteen hundreds. Satan has successfully destroyed that word and has propagandized the word love to mean romance or eros love.
Notice how often love is used in this passage but for all the wrong objects.
philo - self, money, and pleasure.
No philo - royal family, good, and God.
Good refers to the thoughts of God and excludes everything that is in opposition to Him. It’s awful, miserable, damaging to soul, body, church, community, and humanity and a waste of a creature of light that God has formed out of nothing by means of the person and work of Christ.
Not only that, but God has caused in each of us a need for Him and for one another. It is obvious to those of us who any doctrine that we need God. Yet God has made it so that we have different talents, different skills, different economic statuses, and most importantly different spiritual gifts. This causes us to need one another. The church doesn’t work if there aren’t several spiritual gifts functioning. But God certainly foresaw that our fallen natures would cause us to covet another’s gift, or another’s wealth or talents or skills and so He commanded us to love the brethren. John, writing to his RF who had fallen for false doctrines of Gnosticism, calls them beloved.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
Devoted: philostorgos. Brotherly love: Philadelphia.
2TI 3:5 holding to a form [mold or shell] of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.
“form of godliness” - an overt shell or showing of the Christian way of life while making an idol out of everything opposed to God. Idols become demons and then destroy.
Therefore, having these promises [you are the temple of God], beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting [completing or maturing] holiness in the fear of God.
2PE 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them [He wasn’t real], bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2PE 2:2 And many will follow their sensuality [lasciviousness, indecent, absence of restraint], and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
The root of the verb “follow” used here is used in the gospels for following Christ. Follow = yielding of the will.
So we see in a slightly different way, the yielding of the will to either falsehood or the sin nature or to Christ.
Because of them, the way [hodos = a natural path or road] will be maligned.
2PE 2:3 and in their greed [way of Balaam] they will exploit you [make merchandise] with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
2PE 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell [Tartaros - deepest pit of Hades] and committed them to pits of darkness [zophos = gloom or dark mist], reserved for judgment;
2PE 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2PE 2:6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter;
2PE 2:7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
2PE 2:8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds),
2PE 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly [believer] from temptation [peirasmos - as test designed to make you fail - from KOD], and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
“the Lord inherently knows how to deliver the positive believer out from the tests from the KOD that are designed to make you fail…”
The question for the believer would be, “do you know what to do when you are in the midst of the test?” If you did then you would be godliness.
It’s up to the Lord’s infinite genius to get you out [momentary light affliction] but it’s up to your volition to know what to think while you’re in it. Hence the use of the descriptive noun “godly” which is the same root word as godliness, eusebeia, which means devout or devoted to the plan of God for your life. In the test I always have the temptation to walk in the darkness as well as the power to remain in the light, and if I fail, to recover the light quickly by recognizing my error (self judgment), acknowledging the error, stopping the trend of the error, and thinking the word of God again as one devoted to the truth, and if after completing that process (whether it is momentary or a bit longer) if I still find myself in the midst of the test then I have the real chance of passing it and showing the purity of God through my own heart.
Thieme: rebound and keep moving, McLaughlin: rebound and recover, me: just being a little more descriptive: Judge, acknowledge, stop, doctrine. [JASD]
2PE 2:10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties [doxa = glory. Not angelic majesties but dignities, or glorious ones, i.e. those who are in authority],
2PE 2:11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
2PE 2:12 But these, like unreasoning animals [brute beasts - all instincts and lusts], born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
2PE 2:13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime [think that they are in the light]. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you,
Revel in the daytime means that they think they are in the light, for everyone sees, but they don’t try to hide any of what they do or say, for it all seems right to them. The term brute beasts describes this well for they have no natural law of morality or spirituality. This is not freedom. True freedom is only found in slavery to God. To claim grace and privacy and exceedingly indulge the flesh is a misunderstanding of grace. To deny grace and live in asceticism is also a misunderstanding of grace.
The Galatians got fooled into believing what the Judiazers from Jerusalem were teaching, which was to maintain the rites and practices of the Mosaic Law.
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
I want to emphasize this point.
1TH 5:4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day [God’s destruction; intensive or dying discipline] should overtake you like a thief;
1TH 5:5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness [skotos];
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1TH 5:6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
“sleep” - carnal indifference to spiritual things on the part of believers, carnal death or temporal death.
Any sin [MAS, SOT, OS], evil, or human good that is perpetuated without recovery.
“alert and sober” - watchful and self-controlled as opposed to apathetic and fuzzy in thinking.
The clear contrast is between in darkness, being asleep, and drunk as opposed to being in the light, awake, and alert, and clear headed concerning truth.
1TH 5:7 For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
1TH 5:8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
Faith, hope, and love are represented here as armor. Faith in doctrine, confidence in future deliverance, and love of the Father and the brethren protect the positive believer.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
“God who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that he may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing - or should we say “seeing”? there are no tenses in God - the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the medial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath’s sake, hitched up. If I may dare a biological image, God is a “host” who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and “take advantage of” Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.” [CS Lewis, The Four Loves]
1TH 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath [you are not an unbeliever, an alien, or darkness anymore], but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
1TH 5:10 who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him [eternal security regardless of condition].
1TH 5:11 Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
The lifestyle of either darkness or light for the believer is associated with walking throughout the NT.
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us [love your neighbor; ROM 13:8], who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk.
for we walk by faith, not by sight
What the word of God says.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Children imitate their parents. Spit and image is a vulgar reproduction of spirit and image. We are children of God through the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit at salvation and as such we should desire to imitate our Father by walking in the light, walking in love, walking in our calling, and walking in the Spirit. And if we find ourselves not doing that, in grace we recover that walk without merit, guilt, shame, or condemnation.
for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
2Jo 6
And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
'But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.
2PE 2:12 But these, like unreasoning animals [brute beasts - all instincts and lusts], born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
2PE 2:13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime [think that they are in the light]. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you,
2PE 2:14 having eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;
2PE 2:15 forsaking the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,
2PE 2:16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression; for a dumb donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
2PE 2:17 These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
2PE 2:18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,
2PE 2:19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
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