Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 73 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Following Christ's way, 1Jo 1:1-7; Gal 6:1-5.Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 73 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Following Christ's way, 1Jo 1:1-7; Gal 6:1-5.
Announcementsopening prayer:
To follow a person is to follow their way and so our law, the law of Christ, or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, is really the way of a person.
1Jo 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1Jo 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with [in the midst of] one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
The fellowship in the midst of one another is not only a lack of self-condemnation, but also that we don't condemn one another for failure.
A believer who walks or abides in the blood of Christ is quick to forgive and show compassion and is slow to judge and enter into strife. He is interested in bearing the sudden burden of failure rather than adding to its weight. He is interested in the recovery of the fallen and not the sin that caused the fall. His attitude is this because he abides in the blood of Christ.
Gal 6:1 Brethren, even if a man is caught [has detected] in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.
The Galatians had fallen into the cunning of the Judiazers in ignorance and so were sinning in ignorance in some way. We must be careful here since there is a popular but false teaching that sins of ignorance are less godless than willful sins. This is incorrect. All sin is sin to God. Plus, the Galatians are not fully ignorant. They began by the Spirit and by grace. They understood the grace of God as taught by Paul, the most qualified of teachers. Yet with time and deceit they rejected the grace of God and came to believe, in ignorance, that the Law was God's given way of restraint. And so, from this belief, they found that they slipped and blundered in the ways of sin more than ever. They were shocked to see that this way of law did not produce the fruit that is demanded by God for the church.
Now, for a person who believes and professes to understand the grace of God and still willfully rejects it, if he is truly a believer, his recovery will be more tied to his humility than his cognizance. I have witnessed people who were once humble learners and constantly heard the word of God and they were gracious, free, happy, and forgiving, who then turned their back to the word of God and had willfully rejected its authority, choosing rather for the flesh. They became sullen, enslaved, and judgmental. These were not fooled by something else, but rather they allowed the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the pressures of persecution and demonic attack to overpower them and they turned to the flesh and the world for the anesthetic rather than fighting the good fight of faith, which is painful at times. The recovery for such, in my opinion, is humility since the knowledge of the truth is within their memory. They must become humble learners again.
In Pro 8, wisdom is personified. Those who sin against her injure themselves.
Pro 8:32 "Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, For blessed are they who keep my ways.
Pro 8:33 "Heed instruction and be wise, And do not neglect it.
Pro 8:34 "Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.
Pro 8:35 "For he who finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the Lord.
Pro 8:36 "But he who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death."
This all comes from this passage: To follow a person is to follow His way (the law of Christ)
1Jo 1:7 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.
Again, abiding in the blood of Christ means rapid recovery and no condemnation for self as well as no condemnation for others that fall. To follow a person is to follow His way, and this is done by the Spirit of God within the grace oriented believer.
Gal 6:1 Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.
To restore those in Galatia who had fallen into the trap of the Judiazers is to reiterate to them the things that Paul wrote in this epistle. Judging them, criticizing them, condemning them, or even scaring them won't do it. It must be done in a spirit of gentleness, since the other way will bring the temptation of arrogance and then condemnation arises and the fellowship in the midst of one another, in the fellowship of Christ, is destroyed.
There is no reason for those who failed to self-condemn and there is no reason for those who have not fallen into the trap to condemn those who have. The only issue is restoration in gentleness and therefore love. Both love and gentleness are the fruit of the Spirit.
Gal 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
The word "bear" means to bear that which is burdensome.
Condemning another would only add to the burden. Sharing Paul's epistle to the fallen, or in other words, correcting their erroneous thinking with the truth and reminding them of who they are in Christ so that they can recover without guilt or condemnation will help bear that burden. This is no guarantee of recovery, but it is the way of Christ to help bear a brother's burden.
The Lord did not condemn Peter for his denial, but rather, the Lord helped to restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
Luk 22:31-32 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."
1Co 15:3-5 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
First our Lord prayed for Peter, then He encouraged him, and then He came to Peter in grace and forgiveness, and more importantly, in victory over sin and death in order to rid Peter of his guilt.
The burdens in this context refer to the responsibility each saint should feel for the spiritual welfare of his fellow-saints, especially when they have sinned. In this particular instance, the Spirit-dominated saints should feel the responsibility of rescuing their brethren who have put themselves under legalism.
Paul does not mean simply the enduring of these burdens in an enforced, reluctant manner, but the assuming of those burdens in a willing, helpful, sympathetic way, despite the fact that the bearing of them may involve unpleasantness and heartache.
The Greek has a definite article in front of "law of Christ," and this gives it an official designation rather than an abstract nature. This is "the law" that He gave, which is agape love.
Joh 17:26 I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them.
Next is the violation of the law of love, which is arrogance.
Gal 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Php 2:3-5 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus
To think more of myself than I am is to be self-deceived. All believers are what they are by the grace of God and not an iota is added to that by ourselves. That kind of thinking is sanity.
Gal 6:4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.
Here is the case of the self-deceived man of the previous verse, who boasts of his own superiority when he compares himself with the Christian brother who has fallen into sin.
The Greek word translated examine is our old friend dokimazo.
"examine" - dokima,zw [dokimazo] = to put to the test for the purpose of approval. Each believer is [imperative] to put his own work to the test of divine righteousness and not estimate ourselves in comparison to others.
We are not to evaluate ourselves in comparison of others. Our evaluation must always be in the light of divine righteousness. We can always find someone worse off than ourselves. Legalists do this all the time. We can find someone who has a different weakness than us and claim superiority, which is the thinking of the biggest fool.
Gal 6:4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.
The word for boast means that in which one glories. It is not a word for bragging but rather for rejoicing. The believer who sees God's righteousness at work within him should rejoice within himself.
This word removes that false humility that some attempt in arrogance in which they refuse to rejoice in the work that God is doing within them and they think this is some kind of humility, when in fact it is arrogance. Their ascetic attitude is only based on pride and self-love. The child of God who experiences the power and wisdom and work of God within himself should rejoice greatly, but not braggingly. I have known believers who cannot wait to tell you how spiritual they are. They need to put their motivation to the test. |