Ruth: 1:20-21; The doctrine of bitterness, part 17 - coming short of the grace of God.

Title: Ruth: 1:20-21; The doctrine of bitterness, part 17 - coming short of the grace of God.

Opsimath - one who learns late in life.

Gal 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Gal 5:2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

Gal 5:3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.

Gal 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

The words "severed from Christ," are an unfortunate translation.

“severed from Christ” - katargeo (to reduce to inactivity) apo (from) = “you have become unaffected by Christ”

Fallen from grace - Christ has no effect upon their Christian lives.

Christ has no more effect upon them in the living of their Christian lives, therefore, they have fallen from grace. What will occur for them if this continues and they don’t understand their freedom in Christ? The root of bitterness will grow and many will be defiled.

Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

"hope of righteousness"- set our minds on sanctification and fully expect the Holy Spirit to make it a reality.

Waiting refers to intense yearning and the hope of righteousness refers to the believer's intense desire for, and eager expectation of, a practical righteousness which will be constantly produced in his life by the Holy Spirit as he yields himself to Him.

Gal 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

Faith depends upon the Holy Spirit to produce love. Faith believes love to be the only way of life. Faith finds its expression in love.

So we put these wonderful sentences together and we see that the Christian, possessing the life that is Christ and the divine seed within, is normal when he has an intense yearning for the expectation of living righteousness, which he knows by faith the Holy Spirit will enable him to perform, and that faith will manifest itself in the very love of God.

Intense yearning and expectation of righteousness by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, which will manifest Himself in love. This is the normal adult spiritual life. Hence, we are called to grow up.

Eph 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

Eph 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

Eph 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

"unity of the faith" - unity in all that needs to be believed about the Son of God, and of the full knowledge (epignosis) of Him.

We all have the same faith in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world who redeemed mankind on the cross by being judged for the sins of the world.

When we believed that fact about Him, we barely knew Him. This unity of faith is linked with the full knowledge of Him, which knowledge I accumulate all of my life and into eternity. The journey in the full knowledge of Him creates in me a mature man, and not just any maturity as defined by others, but of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

There is a unity amongst one another in the full knowledge of Him and faith in it, and there is unity in each of our individual souls. We can be divided in our devotion to Him and our faith in the flesh and the world, and when we come to a full knowledge of Him, that division is erased as faith and love of anything in the world or of the flesh no longer exists. And so, we grow up.

Eph 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

"children"- nepios = infants - souls divided between Christ and the flesh, who need discipline in order to be shown the joy of devotion to Christ.

To find myself carried away by a scheme that lies outside the tradition of faith, I would have to have a divided heart, which heart would not possess the full knowledge of Him.

Eph 4:15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,

The verb "speaking" is not here, but the verb is hard to express in English.

"speaking the truth" - avlhqeu,w[aletheuo] = deal in truth, be true in all things, which would include speaking. "But in love, being true…"

This is a part of growing up. We are not to simply speak all truth as a declaration no matter what it may be and regardless of how a so-called truth may affect another person. We hear people insult other people then try to mitigate it with, "I'm just being real or honest." We are to be true in love; in the self-sacrificing benefit to all others. We are to only let wholesome, edifying words that fit the need of the moment extend from us.

Growing up in the full knowledge of Christ and being true in love is the only way to avoid the root of bitterness. We must not come short of the grace of God.

"Being true in love, we may grow up into Him in all things … "

Eph 4:16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

After our translation work, let's read the passage as a whole.

Eph 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

Eph 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

Eph 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge [full knowledge] of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

Eph 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children [infants], tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

Eph 4:15 but speaking the truth [being true] in love, we are to [we may] grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,

At one time this was well known and practiced by the Galatian Christians, but a false system based on an old system made for children had sowed itself among them.

Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

Gal 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

Gal 5:7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Coming short of the grace of God would mean substituting something else for the adult spiritual life.

Gal 5:6 and 6:15 equate a new creation with faith working through love.

We have everything we need in the word and the Holy Spirit. Truth and love in the new creature are all provided for us by grace. To not use them, to not walk in them, is to substitute something else, and that comes short of the grace of God.

Gal 6:14 But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Gal 6:15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

Gal 6:16 And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

We have all we need in the grace of God. When we stand firm in the grace of God, we are without want, and so we will not get bitter.

If you think about any situation when you have been bitter or if you think of any of the things that could make you bitter, in every case it depended upon a particular want or wants that went unfulfilled and you forgot of all that you had in Christ.