Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 45 - Predestination - Liberty of God's gloryTitle: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 45 - Predestination - Liberty of God's glory.
Announcements/opening prayer:
1Co 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.
1Co 9:17 For if I do this voluntarily [chose my ministry], I have a reward; but if against my will [God chose it for me], I have a stewardship entrusted to me.
1Co 9:18 What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
1Co 9:19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
If a believer thinks that the reward of offering the gospel without charge is not enough and believes that there should be a guarantee of some earthly type of blessing, even recognition, then he has not thought it through. Earthly type blessings are only temporary. Why does one want approbation anyway? Can he only have joy when someone is watching? If so, he is a slave.
From the same type of virtue is the answer to those who say that if a we do our best and do things right and work very hard that all things will turn out to be very good. Is this true? If it were there would be no tragedies in our world, and there certainly are. Tragedies are common enough that they abound in stories and plays and we love them. We love them because they are real.
Plus, if the premise that virtue and hard work always meant success then we would always have to suspect the motivation of anyone wanting to do good. There would always be the chance that they were in it for the success. But there is real honor in doing something for the sake of its goodness and nothing else. This is Christ to the core.
The ministry of the Spirit within a believer and the fruit it produces is eternal. We might conclude with surety that it is eternal because it is truly good.
Anything added to the attempt at goodness which was inferior to it would taint it completely just like a little leaven leavens the entire lump of dough. A false motivation, like the desire for personal success, would make the act less than eternal and there are no partials when it comes to the infinite or eternal. Either it is or it isn't. God is teaching us to do His works with the joy that comes purely from doing them and nothing else. We must see the good in goodness and thus see the joy and eternity in it. Our power and assistance in this are the word and the Spirit.
Certainly God will bless with certain earthly blessings but they will also be a part of the plan of God, for His own glory. It is also true that the believer will lose earthly blessing at times and this will always be a means of another divine blessing. We will prosper and suffer for His name's sake. Both will come upon us for our testing, which is a privilege to be able to participate in Christ's image the type of sufferings that came upon Him. We do not want to be found un-testable as Paul would write at the end of the chapter.
1Co 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
1Co 9:25 And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
1Co 9:26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;
1Co 9:27 but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.
[back to] 1Co 9:19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
1Co 9:20 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law;
1Co 9:21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.
1Co 9:22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. |