May 3rd 2015
United We Stand, Divided We Fall!
John 13:34-35 (NIV)
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
It makes me wonder how did we Christians get off track so far, as many professing Christians also profess to distrust other people who belong to another denomination. Jokes are told about other denominations, as believing they are going to be the only people in heaven! These poor jokes are based on some expression from people in those denominations making statements made in a dogmatic way that would seem to indicate such a belief that only they will go to heaven when they die. Do you have strong feelings about someone who attends a church of a denomination that you do not identify with, which may conclude with you having doubts about their possible salvation?
Remember, when Jesus spoke to His disciples there were other worldly religions available for them to choose from. In fact, most of His disciples were born into the Jewish faith, and thus, they were already considered to be leaving their inborn religion to follow this upstart named Jesus. Of course, we know the rest of the story, so that we recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but the devout Jews did not comprehend that Jesus fulfilled prophesies about Him written in the Torah, which the Jews followed.
Paul tried to write about this in a letter to the church at Colossae. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14) In this today it makes me wonder where the love is. In these verses Paul wrote about who he termed, “God’s chosen people.” There are some theological differences of opinion about whether professing Christians can be referred to as “God’s chosen people,” or is this term only relevant to the Jewish people? Paul of course is writing to Christians, so at least Paul is calling Christians “God’s chosen people.”
Paul also writes here about forgiveness and he is telling the people of this church to “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” I wonder what Paul’s reaction would be today, if he heard how the different denominations treat each other? Are all Christians granted salvation, because of what Jesus did in their stead? Is there anything a human being can do to gain access into heaven when they die to this lifetime? Is there any chance that there is a perfect church or denomination that is so close to perfection that Jesus is not needed to save people who attend there? Aren’t all churches on this earth run by human beings, who are sinners? It seems likely that there is some denomination that has the most things correct, but even that church cannot save your immortal soul!
Okay, by now you must be wondering where this commentary is leading? Well the answer is that its purpose is no sure! It has come to my attention recently that many people are becoming disenchanted with emphasis on the differences in options available to select a church of my choice, and thus, some are electing to choose not to attend a worship service anywhere. They are either just not going to a church, or in some cases, they are electing to have a home church.
It seems to me that Satan is working overtime just now to splinter what Paul called “The church of God?” Was this prophesied by Paul for us in this today? Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:28-30)
Jesus Christ left the “Spirit of truth” behind for His disciples to gain power from, and to teach us the truth, and nothing but the truth. Do you depend upon this Holy Spirit to direct your life? But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (John 16:13) The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. The old oath taken by witnesses as they placed their hand on a Bible and swore that their testimony in a court of law would be the truth. In this oath they said, “I will tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God”
Are you a truthful person? No one really is a truthful person, as we dramatize situations to conform to our strong held beliefs and/or sometimes, we just tell a lie(s) to keep us in a conversation or to protect our biased beliefs. Around our once Biblically underpinned country we now see the evidence of how we are spiraling down because we have come to believe that we cannot trust anyone else. This distrust is fueled by the ‘fact” that most of our children are being taught that mankind is just another animal. Animals must fight for whatever they want, because other animals will not do good things to them for some good spirited reason.
We see the evidence of this as whole communities live is fear of those who were installed to protect them, and their parents and other groups teach them that no one loves them or wants to help them. They must fend for themselves, because other people who look different than them are out to get you. Jesus came into this world to obliterate such perceived differences, as He died so that all of mankind could be seen as identical, as they would all look like Him. No, Jesus did not change us to look-a-like, except that we would all become part of one body. We were all created in the image and likeness of God!
Paul wrote about this mystery of joining together as the one body, the Body of Christ. The question for all of us, who profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ, is what are you going to do about this fact? Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5) There is no way that mankind can correct all of the woes we bring upon ourselves, because the fact is we are all sinners, and cannot even save our own immortal soul. However, Jesus left behind this Spirit of Truth, so that we could allow this Spirit to unite us in the Body of Christ.
United we stand, divided we fall! Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? (1Corinthians 1:13) United through Christ, or divided by Satan?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
John 13:34-35 (NIV)
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
It makes me wonder how did we Christians get off track so far, as many professing Christians also profess to distrust other people who belong to another denomination. Jokes are told about other denominations, as believing they are going to be the only people in heaven! These poor jokes are based on some expression from people in those denominations making statements made in a dogmatic way that would seem to indicate such a belief that only they will go to heaven when they die. Do you have strong feelings about someone who attends a church of a denomination that you do not identify with, which may conclude with you having doubts about their possible salvation?
Remember, when Jesus spoke to His disciples there were other worldly religions available for them to choose from. In fact, most of His disciples were born into the Jewish faith, and thus, they were already considered to be leaving their inborn religion to follow this upstart named Jesus. Of course, we know the rest of the story, so that we recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but the devout Jews did not comprehend that Jesus fulfilled prophesies about Him written in the Torah, which the Jews followed.
Paul tried to write about this in a letter to the church at Colossae. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14) In this today it makes me wonder where the love is. In these verses Paul wrote about who he termed, “God’s chosen people.” There are some theological differences of opinion about whether professing Christians can be referred to as “God’s chosen people,” or is this term only relevant to the Jewish people? Paul of course is writing to Christians, so at least Paul is calling Christians “God’s chosen people.”
Paul also writes here about forgiveness and he is telling the people of this church to “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” I wonder what Paul’s reaction would be today, if he heard how the different denominations treat each other? Are all Christians granted salvation, because of what Jesus did in their stead? Is there anything a human being can do to gain access into heaven when they die to this lifetime? Is there any chance that there is a perfect church or denomination that is so close to perfection that Jesus is not needed to save people who attend there? Aren’t all churches on this earth run by human beings, who are sinners? It seems likely that there is some denomination that has the most things correct, but even that church cannot save your immortal soul!
Okay, by now you must be wondering where this commentary is leading? Well the answer is that its purpose is no sure! It has come to my attention recently that many people are becoming disenchanted with emphasis on the differences in options available to select a church of my choice, and thus, some are electing to choose not to attend a worship service anywhere. They are either just not going to a church, or in some cases, they are electing to have a home church.
It seems to me that Satan is working overtime just now to splinter what Paul called “The church of God?” Was this prophesied by Paul for us in this today? Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:28-30)
Jesus Christ left the “Spirit of truth” behind for His disciples to gain power from, and to teach us the truth, and nothing but the truth. Do you depend upon this Holy Spirit to direct your life? But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (John 16:13) The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. The old oath taken by witnesses as they placed their hand on a Bible and swore that their testimony in a court of law would be the truth. In this oath they said, “I will tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God”
Are you a truthful person? No one really is a truthful person, as we dramatize situations to conform to our strong held beliefs and/or sometimes, we just tell a lie(s) to keep us in a conversation or to protect our biased beliefs. Around our once Biblically underpinned country we now see the evidence of how we are spiraling down because we have come to believe that we cannot trust anyone else. This distrust is fueled by the ‘fact” that most of our children are being taught that mankind is just another animal. Animals must fight for whatever they want, because other animals will not do good things to them for some good spirited reason.
We see the evidence of this as whole communities live is fear of those who were installed to protect them, and their parents and other groups teach them that no one loves them or wants to help them. They must fend for themselves, because other people who look different than them are out to get you. Jesus came into this world to obliterate such perceived differences, as He died so that all of mankind could be seen as identical, as they would all look like Him. No, Jesus did not change us to look-a-like, except that we would all become part of one body. We were all created in the image and likeness of God!
Paul wrote about this mystery of joining together as the one body, the Body of Christ. The question for all of us, who profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ, is what are you going to do about this fact? Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5) There is no way that mankind can correct all of the woes we bring upon ourselves, because the fact is we are all sinners, and cannot even save our own immortal soul. However, Jesus left behind this Spirit of Truth, so that we could allow this Spirit to unite us in the Body of Christ.
United we stand, divided we fall! Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? (1Corinthians 1:13) United through Christ, or divided by Satan?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
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