Angelic Conflict part 216: Human history (the Church) – Rom 12:1-21; 2Pe 1:5-11; Heb 13:1-2; 1Co 1:10-13

Title: Angelic Conflict part 216: Human history (the Church) - ROM 12:1-21; 2PE 1:5-11; HEB 13:1-2; 1CO 1:10-13.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

 

Evil is man trying to do what only God can do.

 

ROM 12:9Let love be without hypocrisy [lacking in pretense or show, but genuine]. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

 

If we are to be like God or the image of Christ we must be against sin and for good.

 

Everything that is of God's will is good from verse 2.

 

We must cling to divine good, which is application of doctrine, fruit production, application of the will of God; glue ourselves to it, knowing that we have a tendency to get complacent and knowing that it is this alone that is rewarded and has lasting value.

 

ROM 12:10Be devoted [family affection] to one another in brotherly love [philadelphia]; give preference to one another in honor;

 

This love is also not to be hypocritical [1PE 1:22] but a result of spiritual growth and therefore intrinsic, not for show or pretense, but a product of changed character within the Christian from personal spiritual growth.

 

Philadelphia is a virtue that Christians must cultivate, 2PE 1:7, and therefore it is not of attraction or emotion, though these can result as responses.

 

2PE 1:5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence [virtue], and in your moral excellence, knowledge;

 

2PE 1:6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance [hupomeno], and in your perseverance, godliness [well devoted];

 

2PE 1:7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness [philadelphia], and in your brotherly kindness, love.

 

2PE 1:8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless [barren - yielding no return] nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

A believer who is not growing is idle, barren, and unfruitful. Their position in Christ is not producing anything spiritually practical in life.

 

It's not who we are in personality of talent that is important, but that we become more and more like Christ. That true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is transforming us into the image of Him which treasure produces tremendous returns to His glory in which we share.

 

It requires a Christ-like character in order to be entrusted with Christ's inheritance.

 

ROM 8:17

and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

 

How could one suffer like Christ if one didn't possess His character and virtue? Why was He persecuted? Why did the world hate Him? Was He persecuted and hated because He had the characteristics of the world system or because He possessed the character of God?

 

JOH 7:7

"The world cannot hate you [his brothers who were mocking Him]; but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

 

2PE 1:9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted [cannot see far and therefore cannot see past the immediate world surrounding him], having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

 

Christ healed a blind man who was blind from birth.

 

JOH 9:39-41

 And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind."  Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, "We are not blind too, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.

 

Their sin is the same as their father the devil. A sins of ambitious pride and untruth. They bought the lie and then pushed it on others as the truth. In reality they were recruiters for evil.

 

ROM 1:25

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

 

1JO 2:21

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

 

MAT 23:15

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

 

Those who see is a reference to those who think they see without the true knowledge of Christ. This creates short sightedness. But we see here in 2PE 1:8 that:

 

Seeing with enlightened eyes comes through the full knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ [GodManSavior].

 

COL 3:1-2

If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above [far sighted], where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

 

This is seeing the big picture, the panoramic view of the plan of God for the Church as a whole, for the body of Christ, and for the individual local assembly. This takes eyes off of self and takes self off center stage.

 

The chorus that is supplied by God is the chorus of virtue. Virtue is the star, and therefore the person of Christ is the star, while the person of the believer, fades into the background.

 

Phil 1:21

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

 

2CO 4:7-10

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

 

The earthen vessel or the body is what is in contact with the world and therefore emphasizes the given spiritual gift and our ministry to the body of Christ and the world.

 

Satan's attack on this was gnosticism which taught either asceticism or licentiousness. Ascetics don't minister to others, but isolate themselves. The licentious attain knowledge and give the body whatever it desires and so their contact with the world is degeneracy and not ministry. Both trends taught that the body was evil and so would not be used in the ministry of others. This is a flat out attack against this doctrine.

 

Gnosticism, as in all cults, distort the truth. They rob from the vocabulary and ideas of the Bible and then distort them into a system of falsehood that denies the absoluteness of the cross and redemption. Think of the Hindu who wouldn't ever help another person in distress or need because the law of karma is immutable. A person is suffering because of the mistakes of a past life according to the will of the gods. Their fatalistic philosophy have dulled their ability to empathize. In fact, to help them or to ease their suffering would ultimately hurt them according to Hinduism, since their suffering is helping them escape the wheel of samsara or reincarnation. This was the justification behind the caste system. Is that the true meaning of the Biblical principle that a man reaps what he sows or is it a clever distortion of it?

 

JOH 9:2-3

And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.