Drunken Mystic

The first thing in this post I want to tackle is the idea of “inalienable rights.”

Despite what modern liberal progressives will tell you, the founding fathers of America studied the Bible extensively for principles of self-government.  That’s because the earliest system of government based on ideas of equality of man and republican democracy was not Greece or Rome but Israel.

These men were at the very least Deists and felt strong conviction of a single creator.  And if that Creator designed the immaculate way in which our world works ecologically and biologically, then He must also have ideas about proper government and we would be fools to ignore it.

And if God instituted a government based on certain rights of self-government and equality, then God also gave those rights to man.  And if God instituted rights, then they could not be taken away.  Those rights were inherent to man, like his DNA – “inalienable.”

Among the rights they found in the Law of Israel was the right of life and property.

My point here is that you have a biblical right to live and a right to your stuff.  It is your right to choose to do with it what you will.  The plea to give up your stuff and your life is not a denial of those rights, but rather evidence those rights exist.

Even in Acts, during a time when the whole church in Jerusalem seemed to be giving up their stuff, Ananias and Sapphira were told by Peter, before God struck them dead, “It was your property to do with what you will.”

Paul, in 1 Corinthians, pleads with that fellowship to be compassionate in financial giving, but he also makes it clear that it should never be by obligation.  It should be with a willing heart.

All of this establishes that no one can take what is yours by right.  Take this with a grain of salt because you will ultimately lose both your life and your stuff, usually simultaneously, but while in this life you must still give it willingly.  And yes, oppression exists, but oppression is evil for the very fact that the rights of self-government and private property are from God Himself.

Jesus never forced anyone to give up anything.  He only declared the spiritual reality and allowed for people to choose eternal destruction or eternal life.

These are rights and privileges that must be given up in this life to have the life and authority of Christ both now and for eternity.

In America, we love to defend our rights.  Anytime we want something or feel something is unfair, we claim it as a right.

It is honorable and good for a worldly government to recognize and protect certain rights.  But it is truly Christ-like to lay them down.

“Let this mind be in you” – the mind that recognizes certain rights from God – i.e. life and property – and renounces them for a  greater reward – the rights and priveleges of being a child of the King.

Jesus didn’t fight for the rights of this life but continually expressed the authority and freedom of a heavenly kingdom.  If we give up our citizenship here, then we are free to be citizens of heaven.

As we see in Paul’s testimony in Philipians 3, Paul even counted his Jewish heritage as lost.  In the context of discussing “no confidence in the flesh”, Paul lists the things he could take confidence in as a Jew – even concerning righteousness which is in the law, “blameless.”  And he counts it all as rubbish “that I might gain Christ.”

“That I might gain Christ.”

Jesus died on the cross to show us the way to life.  And we must identify with that act in order to be like Him.

Galatians 3: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

1 Tim 2: Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.

Colossians 3: For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

While it may seem morbid, God wants you dead so He can give you life.  Your previous life is over.  A dead man doesn’t need to bother himself with the things of this life.  That dude in his grave probably isn’t worrying about leaving the iron on … and if he is, he can’t do anything about it now.

We must die, be crucified with Christ, so we can be dead to sin.  This identification with Christ in His death is a constant struggle because while the flesh may be dead, our brain doesn’t know it yet.

I call it the phantom limb syndrome.  You know, there’s this guy who loses his right leg in a war.  But it wakes him up at night with aches and pains and it itches him.  He swears he feels pain in his right pinky toe.

But he has no right pinky toe.  His whole leg no longer exists.

Our brains are so used to living by the flesh, it is difficult to convince our mind that the flesh is dead.  Hence the importance of renewing our minds and not conforming ourselves to the ideas of this world.  “If you have died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations-” Colossians 2.

“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6.

A disciple changes his thinking, considering himself dead to sin, and “how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

In Colossians 3, Paul goes into more detail, explaining that we are to put off the “old man”, the dead one, and put on the new.  And he makes it clear that this actually means changing our behavior.

However, too often we hang on to our life, our dreams, our desires, our concerns, our careers, our rights and priveleges, our comforts.  God wants us to be about the Kingdom above all else, to the literal exclusion of all else, not only when we can fit it into our schedule.

He wants His house to be a house of prayer, for our zeal for Him to consume us.  That necessitates being dead to this world and the things in it.

Before I move on, I at least want to mention the fact that some are killed and executed for the faith.  I don’t want to minimize at all the reality of truly suffering for Jesus.  All of the first apostles except for John were killed for Jesus.  The early church honored martyrs as great men and women of faith.  There are still martyrs all over the world suffering and dying for the Name as we speak.  True discipleship makes you a target, even if they don’t kill you - if they hated Jesus and tried to kill Him, how will they treat you?  “No servant is greater than His Master.”  That is part of the cost you must count.

8(c) next …

Peace.

Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.  Luke 14.33

Seems like a pretty clear requirement to me, but per my usual way, I’ll be talking about this in four parts. 

No, really.

Jesus didn’t just speak this message one time; it was a central message of His whole ministry.

He also said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”  This is shared in Matthew 16, Mark 9 and Luke 9.  The writers of the gospels must have thought it pretty important.

Look at the language – “cannot be my disciple.”  And “if ANYONE DESIRES to come after Me …”  Do you want Him at all?  The answer is clear, deny yourself, forsake all you ahve, pick up your cross, and then you can follow Him.

The idea of the cross, for the Jews, was one of shame and great offense, a constant reminder that they were, as the chosen nation of the only true God, a subjugated people.  To carry the cross to your own death was a humiliating experience, forced to walk through populated areas as an example of someone with no rights.  To willfully embrace this was a challenge indeed.

What does Jesus say just following this?  “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”

The message should be clear: following Jesus entails a constant testimony that you are giving up your whole life for His sake.

In regards to “forsaking all,” Jesus focuses His teachings in the gospels on three main areas.

First, forsaking your family:  “Anyone who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” and of course “if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”  There’s that “cannot” word over and over again.

Second, a denial of yourself unto death.  These are all related, but a dead man doesn’t need to bother with family, possessions, etc.  He can give stuff away.  A dead man doesn’t need it.

Third, and the main thing I’ll talk about today, is your possessions.

Everytime someone speaks about the Rich Young Ruler, you always get the qualifier: “That was for him alone, okay.  Not for everyone.”

You’re not gonna hear or read that from me. 

In Luke 12.33, Jesus speaks publicly: “Sell what you have and give alms; provide for yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no theif approaches nor moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

(To give alms means to give to the poor)

Look at the clear message.  In summary, if you place your treasure in heaven by selling what you have and giving to the poor, then your heart will be on your treasure in heaven, and that treasure won’t fail you.  Obviously, worldly treasures will.  The implication of the opposite is that if you don’t sell your stuff and give it to the poor, your treasure remains on earth and so does your heart.  Your heart follows your treasure.

So Jesus’ message to the Rich Young Ruler was a common theme in His ministry.  After the young ruler was unwilling to part with his stuff, Jesus says, “It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of the needle.”

Looking at other passages: the merchant “sold all he had” to get the pearl; the abundant farmer was called a “fool” by God Himself for saving his stuff and building new barns to do so.

You can’t have your stuff and Jesus, too.

You can’t have two masters; you can’t serve God and money.

And it is no coincidence to me that in America, the wealthiest and fattest nation in the world, we refuse to give up our stuff and explain away a very clear requirement for what it takes to follow Jesus at all.  And we’re smart enough to come up with great excuses and doctrines as to why God would never ask us to do such a crazy thing.

Yes, crazy like willfully picking up a cross and carrying it.

There’s a reason “forsaking all” is necessary to follow Jesus.  It is what He did to come to us.  If we want to be His disciple, i.e., learn to be like Him, we must begin where he did.

Philipians 2: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God [did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or retained/as something to be used for His own advantage], but made Himself of no reputation [literally emptied Himself of His priveleges], taking on the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

(also read 1 Peter 3:13-4:2)

You want to be a Christian, a little Jesus?  You do this.

Jesus, being God, gave it up while on the earth, “emptied Himself of His priveleges”, took on the form of a man, a servant, while in the flesh, and even still humbled Himself further to die on the cross.

Jesus wasn’t only willing to do it.  He didn’t do it in theory or “in His heart.”  He didn’t make excuses as to why He couldn’t do it or why God wouldn’t ask Him to.  He actually gave up His stuff and gave up His life, living as a servant unto His death.

Let that mind be in you.

You’ll find plenty of churches and Christians that will tell you I’m wrong and you can live your life and fight for your rights and keep your stuff and have Jesus too.  A lot of people believe in a gospel that tells you that you can have the pearl of great price without selling all that you have to get Him.

But if you want to really follow Him, to have Jesus at all, to be His disciple, you’ll do it.  Yes, the world won’t understand and neither will most Christians you know, but God will look down and say, “Hey, there’s my Son.”

more in part (b)

Peace.

Luke 14:27-33

Before I go into specifics, there is the general need to first count the cost of whether or not you want to follow God.

I begin with this aspect of discipleship for a number of reasons: it is central to an understanding of commitment to Jesus, was taught as such by Jesus Himself (see above scripture), and is virtually ignored in pop Christian culture.

Everything has a cost.  While I spend time writing this article, there are any  number of things I am not doing.

We make decisions based on either momentary desire or ignorance, which is short-sighted; or we decide based upon a more long term understanding of value, which is wisdom.  Both ways of living betray our real priorities.

Short-sightedness is ruled by either emotion (I like this!), obligation (I have to do this!), or fear (I’ll get in trouble if I don’t do this!).  All of these reasons are bondage and unstable in the long run.  Wisdom sees the end from the beginning and orders life to dilligently seek a greater reward than immediate pleasure.

Olympic athletes are the latter.  They constantly make decisions and rigorously order their life to accomplish their goal.  I know of no Olympic gold medalist that didn’t sacrifice a “normal” life to have the privilege of a pretty lump of metal hung around their neck.

And despite the countless scriptures that support this as the only means of following God, we ignore the necessity of counting this cost.

“So what is the cost?” you might ask.

Well, what have you got?

“No, really, how much is the cost?”

I’m asking, what have you got?

The cost is always whatever you have.

But again, while some may see this as mean or sadistic, it is not.  It is a measure of whether you understand the value of what you see.  People who want some sort of spiritual life insurance policy look for the minimal payment.  People who really want to follow God give all they have because they understand the value they get in return.

God offers, through Jesus Christ, quite a deal.  You give Him all of you, and you get all of Him.  You don’t get both.  There’s an exchange.  If you have a true revelation of who God is, then you understand what a deal that is.

The cost includes your possessions, your dreams, your desires, your career, your identity, your citizenship on this earth, your ancestry, your family, and even your very life.  The cost includes all of the things we are about to discuss, things Jesus explicitly required of ANYONE who would follow Him.

But you would lose this stuff anyway.  Go on, try and hold onto it for eternity.

Give it up, though, and you get Jesus.  Jesus here and now.  Jesus for eternity.  You are translated from a slave of sin destined to destruction to a son of the King over all creation destined to rule and reign with Him.

People don’t like giving up their stuff, however.  They’d rather keep it.  I understand, believe me.

This is why we count the cost.

We so highly value romantic emotionalism that it seems unloving to even think of the cost, or that there would be one.  Plenty have begun following Jesus based on an emotional experience and fall easily.  Commitments based on emotions are unwise because when it gets tough and difficult, emotions change.  It ain’t fun no more and you walk … or change your theology or doctrine so you think you can have God and your life too … and usually sound really smart doing it.

This happens with any commitment.  It will get difficult.  You will want to quit at some point.  It happens to the Olympic medalist.  It happens to disciples.

In our modern society of convenience and short-sightedness, a gospel that tells people they can have Jesus without paying the cost is very popular and lucrative; and of course there is no need to count the cost with such a gospel.  But it is no gospel at all.  It is a lie.

And those of us who stick to the true gospel are ignored or called names like legalists or sadists or what have you.  It’s okay.  They called Jesus names, too, even said He was of the devil.  What do we think will happen when we teach what He taught?

A couple things about counting the cost before we move on to more details:

First, it is okay to really take your time to count the cost.  If you’re struggling with the cost of following God with all your heart, that’s a good thing.  Keep struggling until you can make an honest decision about whether you’re willing to completely surrender and follow.  Others who have done so should not look down on those that have not.

This doesn’t mean you put off the decision or the struggle.  Embrace and and let it have its work.

Second, while counting the cost is the initial step, it is also a constant reality.  You pick up your cross to carry it every day.  And there will be moments where God calls you further than you are and seems to require even more and you have to count the cost again.

Please understand that there is a joy set before us, something pure and amazing and eternal as a reward for everything we lay down for Him.  It is so very worth it.

Peace.

I’m stealing this from Noah Taylor, from a teaching he gave at Rose Creek Village last Saturday while we were at the conference, and posting this under the “Disciples and Believers” series … ties in really well.  I’ll be putting this in my own words, since I didn’t take detailed notes or have Noah’s …  hopefully he’ll forgive me.

(I steal stuff all the time, by the way, and try to give credit when I do.  God does give me stuff individually, but when I recognize the truth, I try to assimilate it as best I can, no matter what the source might be.  Fortunately Noah is a man who loves God and seeks, above all things, to do His will.)

Some people treat Christianity like high school.  Which is funny because a lot of people hated high school … might explain some things actually …

You get up and go to school where there are these rules to follow, and many of them don’t have any real reason to exist except to keep the machine going.  Things like standards of dress and behavior are more strict than you’d like them to be, but you submit to it because you kinda have to and then wait for that bell to ring at the end of the day so you can leave and do what you want.  While you’re there, you sit in classes and regurgitate information; you’re segregated by age group and some notion of ability; you make friends based on common interests or culture outside of school; and again, when that bell rings, you get to wear what you want and go where you want.  The culture of high school stays there while now you have the freedom to be your own person.  You might have homework (devotions), but most people don’t really do much of that, either.

The Bible describes a different experience of Christianity altogether.  It is the boot camp experience.  Your life is over.  Your stuff is taken and the Army now determines what you will wear and what you will do every moment of the day.  They put you through rigorous personal training.  Just when you think you can’t do any more, you do.  They decide when you wake up, eat, sleep.  They decide your job and when you have to do it.  They do all this because they are training you for a battle.

And you go through all this with a bunch of other guys, and you’re told that the only way you survive is if the dude next to you watches your back – and the only way he survives is if you watch his.  Doesn’t matter if you like him or not.  Doesn’t matter who he is or where he comes from, but your life and death are not intimately tied to these other individuals.

There are guys who go to military reunions every year even though they spent only a few months or a couple years with these other guys.  Why?  They went through boot camp together and then through BATTLE.  They shared an experience that made these men closer than any other relationship they ever had or ever would have – men they would not have chosen to be with, but now count as closer than brothers.

Jesus discipled by bootcamp.  They dropped their nets and gave up their very lives, “everything to follow You,” Peter says, and they went through it all together for three and a half years, many times under the very real threat of death.

Then He sent them out and said, “Go make disciples.”  You think they changed the paradigm?  Not a chance.  They knew exactly what He meant.

When talking about following the call with Timothy, Paul says, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”

This is Christianity as the Bible describes it.  My mentor used to say, “You haven’t been invited to a cruise ship; you’ve been recruited to serve on a battleship.”  Discipleship is a bootcamp experience with the Body of Christ where you are given a new life, a new purpose, and equipped through great hardship and training to fulfill it.  You’ve been given a new family, new friends, closer and more intimately connected than any other relationship you’ve ever had.

Sadly, this is not the experience of most modern/ Western Christians.  We may agree with it in principle or ideal, but we do not live it.

Well … some of us have … and do.  And it is a blessed thing.

Peace.

This one isn’t quite as clear as the others, but good to quickly point out.

In Luke 4, we have another example of an initial “witness” to truth … then a resulting violent rejection.

Jesus has just returned from His temptation in the wilderness.  After overcoming “every temptation” the devil could throw at Him, Jesus “returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.”

Upon coming to His hometown, Nazareth, Jesus went to the synagogue, read a Messianic passage out of of Isaiah, then sat down and began to teach, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Then “all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words, saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’”

Well sure.  Isaiah talks about good news to the poor and the healing of the brokenhearted, deliverance to captives, sight to the blind and liberty to the oppressed.  To a subjugated people, this is awesome.  Easy to bear witness to that.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there.  Why not?  It was going so well …

There’s more to the story.  God loves us enough to tell us the truth, especially when we don’t like it, to prune and discipline to grow us back stronger.

Jesus continues and says, “You will say to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’  No prophet is accepted in His own country.”

Then Jesus gives them two examples, one from Elijah and another from Elisha, where widows and lepers in Israel were ignored but God sent the prophets to the Gentiles.

Well, that’s just too much.  How dare Jesus suggest that God would reject Israel because of their pride (heal yourself!) and take the Messianic message of the Kingdom to those unclean Gentiles!

Not only did they not “bear witness” or agree with the truth He was speaking, their reaction was to rise up, take Him out of the city and try to throw Him off a cliff.

Anyone can believe in a Jesus that just says nice things all the time.  It is when He begins to deal with our junk, to take it away and show our bondage to the “lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life”, when He begins to cut, prune, destroy, tear down, and raise a different standard that we want to throw Him off a cliff.

A true disciple submits to the process in humility, willing to endure all things … not because the disciple likes it … but because of the ultimate reward set before him.  Hence why the ultimate commitment distinguishes a true disciple from those who “just believe”.  A disciple puts himself in a position where there is no other option but forward.  He’s not perfect, but he’ll keep pressing on because there’s “no turning back.”  At the first sign of trouble, those that “just believe” … run … or even worse, reveal a heart of violent rebellion towards God.

No one likes God’s chastisement – His “scourging” as the Bible calls it.  But if you haven’t experienced His discipline, you aren’t His child.  You’re a “bastard” – illegitimate.

Disciples learn how to submit and endure His correction because they begin to see that if they do, time and time again they grow more free, more victorious, and more full of grace and faith and hope and love.

So what is the commitment necessary to follow Christ?

We’re getting there … I promise.

Peace.

Not many people commenting on these … anyone reading?  As stubborn as I am, I forge ahead with a longer one  …

John chapter 8 has an interesting exchange between Jesus and the Jews who “believed in Him.”

After Jesus extends compassion to the woman caught in adultery and about to get stoned, He teaches that He is the “light of the world”, then later that “if you don’t believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

v.30: “As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.”

This the setup for the discussion.  John clearly indicates that these are Jews who believe He is the Messiah come to be the Light of the World.  This is what we’re hoping for right?  Pay attention to what happens next.

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”

Pretty simple.  Keep learning and following His teaching and example and ultimately be intimate with (know) the truth.  Then you’ll be free.  From what?  Sin.

But these “believers” decide to argue with Jesus, the one they believe in.  Not necessarily a good start to “abiding in My word.”

They say, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone.  We don’t need to be set free.”

This is a ridiculous statement.  Not only were they daily reminded of their current subjugation to the Romans, but they had also been slaves to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Syria.  Many were currently slaves in the Roman culture.

Their hears are exposed here, which is what the truth does.  They took pride in their flesh.  The argument is based purely on their physical ancestor.  Jesus’ argument was based on His spiritual source, which He spoke of earlier (when they said they believed) and we’ll see again in a moment.

Jesus answers them first that they are a slave of sin.  He’s talking about the spiritual.  They don’t get it.  If you “commit a sin” He says, you are a slave to sin.  “And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.”

Then Jesus says something really interesting.  First is a “duh” statement.  “I know you’re Abraham’s descendants” – then – “but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you.”  Which He’s just proven by trying to tell them something they can’t understand and have to argue with.

Remember, though, He is saying this to people who “believe in Him.”

Then Jesus says, “I speak what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”  Uh-oh.  He’s going somewhere with this …

The Jews still don’t get it.  They keep arguing, “Abraham is our father.”  Again with the pride in the flesh.

Jesus’ reply: “If Abraham were your father, you would do the works of Abraham.  But you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth from God.  Abraham did not do this. You do the works of your father.”  Why isn’t He just telling them who their father is?  He wants them to argue themselves in a corner.

They keep making it worse.  It’s like a train wreck.  “We have one father – God.”

Now – scripturally – this isn’t such a bad argument.  You can easily back up this statement from the Old Testament.  Israel means “prince of God” and God refers to Israel as His son and daughter throughout the prophets.

But Jesus again turns their eyes to the spiritual and the connection to what they are doing.  “If God were your Father, you would love me … why do you not understand my speech?  Because you are not able to listen to My word.”

No argument can convince someone who hasn’t been given the ears to hear.

Then Jesus really exposes them by saying, “You are of your father the DEVIL, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because the truth is not in him.”

It kinda goes downhill from there.

Now, relating this to what was said in James from what I shared last week, it is interesting that James compares people who just believe to demons and now Jesus actually tells Jews who “believe in Him” but are not doing the works of faith that their father is the devil.

This, of course, would be hate speech in our modern culture.  Very insensitive.

It is love, though.  The first step is admitting you’re an addict.

This passage is important on so many levels, but for this discussion, these were people who believed He was the Messiah and the Light of the World, at some point and to some degree, but were not willing to be “disciples indeed.”  They were not willing to commit themselves to Him at any cost.  They were not willing to give up their focus and pride in the flesh and focus on who their spiritual father was: the devil.

And the mental acknowledgment of His truth earlier didn’t profit them in the least.  Jesus was correct that they were murderers and wanted to do the devil’s work.  By the end they pick up stones to kill Him.

And they had “believed.”

Peace.

I’ll start with some ideas from scripture about those who “just believe” and see where we go from there …

And this one goes for the jugular right off … so …

There’s this scripture that haunts me.  The more I meditate on it, the more I realize the extreme statement that James meant it to be.

In James’ letter to the Church, he makes an argument that “faith alone” – or “just believing” – isn’t life at all.  It is dead.  He says the very popular but controversial “faith without works is dead”, a term I’ve heard taught well but also explained away many times.  To prove that he means plainly what he says, James makes this point:

“You say believe.  Well done!  The demons believe … and tremble!”

Much is made of right doctrine, and I do not want to minimize the importance of good teaching.  I strongly believe in good teaching and sound doctrine.  They are important, especially because what we believe directly affects what we do and who we are.  James even deals with the greater judgment teachers will have.  We are changed into different people because of the “renewing” of our mind.  And different people do different things.

But the test of true faith is not perfect doctrine.  Nowhere does the Bible say that we will stand before God and be judged for our theology or doctrine, despite how important and lofty some people treat it.  But plenty of times it says we will be judged for “the deeds done while in the body.”

Just so you don’t misunderstand James, he purposefully exposes the most extreme reality to make his point.  He is dealing with those who might say they have faith because they “just believe” but have no works.  His example is demons.

Demons.

In other words, demons have great theology.  Possibly perfect theology.  They recognized Jesus for who He was and even reacted in the proper way when faced with the Son of God in the flesh.  They declared who Jesus almost as much as He did in the scripture … maybe more.

Demons have better theology than you do.  But what defines them is not what they believe but what they DO.  They seek to “kill and destroy.”

James is saying that obedience completes true faith.  True faith is responding to the revelation of who Christ is by doing good.  You can believe all day, but without the response of obedience to do good, your faith means nothing.  It is dead.  It has no life.  You are the same as a demon, except the demon probably has better theology than you.

And of course a demon would.  Our enemy’s main weapon is deception.  And the enemy of God isn’t really that creative.  They just twist the truth that already exists.  “Did God really say …?”  Placing doubt and pride and rebellion and making it look like truth.  In order to twist the truth, they have to know it pretty well.

James gives another example, one not quite as harsh, maybe, but even more practical.  Suppose a brother comes to you with a need, a need that you have the ability to meet that need, but instead say, “Go and be warm and filled.”  What does it profit?  In other words, faith does not just wish the good, but faith actually does the good.

James also says, “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without works.”

I really don’t know how much clearer he needs to make it, but there it is.

Don’t fret … more to come!

Peace.

I feel a couple explanations are necessary before we continue.

The difference between those who are disciples and those who “just believe”  is in initial commitment.  As we discuss these things, there are some important aspects to keep in context.

First, just because some “just believes”  doesn’t mean they will never become a disciple.  Of course, teaching doctrine that justifies that state as actual Christianity places even further deception upon a person that must be dealt with, but God can even reveal Himself through that.  Plenty of people that I know, myself included, would have agreed with most basic Christian doctrine for years before being convicted to the point of actual and full commitment by the Spirit of God.  I’m not saying that’s a necessary process, only that someone who “just believes” isn’t hopeless and should never be treated with condemnation or a sense of final judgment, even if they think they’re saved when they may not be.  Love believes, hopes, and endures “all things.”

In general, it is helpful to realize every person is an individual worthy of a certain degree of respect and consideration.  That doesn’t mean you need to compromise the message or the gospel that calls people to take up their cross and follow, but even our “enemies” are worthy of kindness.  While this series will get pretty clear and harsh at times, my goal will always be to encourage people forward to change and repentance, which is ultimately loving others, not to define or demonize an individual based on the state they are currently in.

Second, full commitment, while necessary, isn’t a guarantee for immediate maturity or righteousness.  There is still much to learn, and no one has ever fully “attained” while a disciple of Christ on earth.  The twelve, men who left everything and even said, “come, let’s go die with Him,” were constantly saying stupid stuff and lacking understanding of the Kingdom being revealed to them.  The filling of the Holy Spirit definitely helped, but Peter still had to be challenged by Paul, and men still had to grow into eldership and different stages of maturity: “I write to you children, young men, and fathers” – 1 John.

In other words, you mind isn’t immediately “renewed.”  You are transformed by the “renewing of your mind” and there is plenty in the New Testament  to testify to us that even people who have left everything to follow Him must go through that process of maturity and becoming more like Christ.

We’ll get into it early next week, so here we go …

Peace.

Gonna do a little series here, more to further continue the ideas on my last post.

One of the neat tricks modern Christianity has done is to take all those passages and teachings of Jesus where He talks about being one of His followers, and  explain away our personal obligation to obey those passages by differentiating between those called to be disciples and those who are still believers, like there are different levels of commitment to Christ that are still acceptable even though way less than the standards provided in the gospels.

I’m going to tackle this and probably really upset a few people who might casually read my blog.  Those who read this blog regularly have had to deal with my insane ramblings before and you’re still around … so you can at least handle this without too much of a surprise.

Not once do we see a difference in the scripture between those who are believers and those called to be disciples of Christ as He called and taught them.  Not once.  But people who “just” believe without being disciples are treated as very different.

That should be the end of it, really, but people don’t actually know the Bible well enough to check that out in their memory.  So after this introduction, important in its own right, I will go over what makes someone a follower of Christ … and then what the Bible says about those who just believe … or maybe the other way around … we’ll see.

I hear it all the time.  “Oh, I know I don’t live it, and I know I’m not doing what I’m supposed to … but I still believe.”  And the problem is that people teach that this is Christianity.  The Bible is clear on this point.  If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.

At the end of Matthew, Jesus gives what we call the Great Commission (an important subject for perhaps another time).  It goes like this:  “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  (italics mine)  That makes, in context, every passage about what it means and takes to a be a disciple absolutely relevant to each one of us.

So this is what the Apostles do.  The thousands of new disciples in Acts show extreme change in their lifestyle and in their attitudes and in the power with which they operate.  It is a completely unique time in history … where a nation was born without borders or violence or bureaucracy.  They make, in essence and in truth, disciples … thousands of them through the message of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Church in Jerusalem spent time in the Apostles’ teaching every day.  What were those Apostles teaching?  “To observe all things that I have commanded you.”  Maybe they disobeyed God and taught something different … but I don’t think so.

Time goes by and the Church begins to grow and is ultimately scattered by persecution.  The focus  was still teaching each believer (sorry … disciple) to “observe all things that I have commanded you”, but stuff is spread out.  Apostles have to travel around a little more to make sure sound doctrine is being taught and that people are observing all that Christ commanded.

More time passes and people have the idea: you know, we’re telling all these people about Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His commission to obey all that He said.  What if we wrote it down?  You know, the important stuff that everyone needs to hear and know to be a real follower of Jesus.

So they did.  They wrote down the words and acts of Jesus as a testimony to His death and resurrection and to clearly teach what Jesus wanted taught.  So we have Matthew, Mark, Luke/Acts, and John.

Where I’m going with all this is that all those passages in the gospels that deal with the crazy level of commitment and action that a follower of Christ must take is in there precisely because every Christian is supposed to do them.  No excuses and no exceptions.

That is why modern Christianity looks so different from the testimony of the Bible, which we say we believe.  It is not the passage of thousands of years or a different culture we live in or that we’ve progressed so far in theology.  They called people to those teachings of Jesus and if you didn’t or couldn’t follow them, you weren’t a Christian.  And they produced a people that turned the world upside down.

Before I peace-out, it’s like this:  There are these comics of Superman.  Books and books of them.  He can fly.  He’s super fast.  Bullets can’t hurt him.  He’s incredibly strong.  He shoots laser beams from his eyes and his breath can freeze things.  He can hear stuff from far away.  He saves people.  He is Superman.

Then people see a dude and put him in the Superman suit.  They call him Superman.  Don’t pay attention to the fact that he’s skinny, weak, slow, afraid of heights, blind as a bat, lactose intolerant and speaks with a lisp.  We put him in the suit, he’s got the cape and a big S on his chest.  He’s Superman.

But any idiot can see he’s not Superman.  You can go to a college or university and get a doctorate on how he is actually Superman, but that doesn’t make it true.  It doesn’t match up with the testimony of what those comics say Superman is like.  Even a child can see this.  He’s not Superman and a lot of things have to change before he could be.

That’s what we’ve done with Christianity.  It’s not just about house church or mega church or any of that stuff.  It goes WAY deeper, and it is more challenging than any of those discussions can address.

If you’re still with me … hold on, it gets better.

Peace.