For you have heard of
my former conduct in Judaism,
how I persecuted the
church of God beyond measure
and tried to destroy
it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond
many of my
contemporaries in my own nation,
being more
exceedingly zealous for the traditions
of my fathers. But
when it pleased God,
who separated me from
my mother’s womb
and called me through
His grace to reveal His Son in me,
that I might preach
Him among the Gentiles,
I did not immediately
confer with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to
Jerusalem to those who were apostles
before me; but I went
to Arabia and returned to Damascus.
Galatians 1:13–17
Have others
heard of your former conduct? Those
times when you lived concupiscent, when God did not have a place in your
life. Do others still hold your past
life away from God in aberrance, that is, they just will not allow your new
life in Jesus Christ to be real, they only see your past? It does not matter in the most as to the
seriousness of your past sins, although those sins must be accounted for,
people hold grudges against you, they even go so far to condemn you and point
out your past as though it is what you are in the present. Do not despair, do not give up the hope that
was kindled in your heart: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love
of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to
us” (Romans 5:5). Paul had to face
this terrible ordeal by those who disallowed his new life in Jesus Christ, that
he was truly an apostle of Jesus Christ.
It was not non–Christians that were pointing and wagging their fingers
of distrust at Paul, it was those claiming to be Christians. It is to those in the Galatian churches that
Paul had to defend his faith, his new life.
Did Paul decide by his own will to follow Christ? No!
Paul, and you, have be separated by God from his and your mother’s
womb. It is God who has chosen you. It is God who has invigorated your faith to
follow Him. Do not be as the Galatians
had become and follow after a perverted doctrine. Do not allow others to deter you from being all that God intended
you to be. Paul had to suffer many
things for his faith, and those in the Galatian churches had and were suffering
much for their faith in Jesus Christ but were not falling back into the Law fulfilled
by Jesus Christ. I am not speaking of
the Ten Commandments, rather those ceremonial laws, those laws that the nation
of Israel had to perform, circumcision being one of such demanded rites. God’s people are not suffering for no
reason. When a person follows Jesus
Christ and is converted, not just decide to follow Him, rather to convert and
allow that conversion to be real in your life, others will persecute you in
some way: “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received
the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became
examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe” (1Thessalonians 1:6).
God will repay those who persecute you and cause you to suffer for His name and
for His Son: “…since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with
tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with
us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His might angels”
(2Thessalonians 1:6–7). You are not
alone others are undergoing the same trials but you are a friend of God as was
Abraham: “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to huim for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend
of God” (James 2:23; cf. Romans 4:3). Are you looking for rest now?
Don’t! The world, and other
small-minded Christians who will not allow a person to change and hold what
they have done in their past, as though their past is forgiven and yours is
not, to have rest. Paul makes it very
clear; rest is coming, and it comes when Jesus returns for the second time and
this time with His angels and destroys sinners, this world, gives you a new
body, and incorruptible and immortal body: Now you can rest! Until then we push forward in our faith and
do not allow this world or anyone else to deter us from our conversion by a
perverted gospel, by causing you to become slave to works, even those supposed
supernatural works. Remember this: “For
He says to Moses, ‘ I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.’ So then it is not of him
who wills, no of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture
says to the Pharaoh, ‘for this very
purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name
may be declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and
whom He wills He hardens” (Romans 9:15–18). We do not save anyone, we do
not heal anyone, it is God, and God alone who does that which He wills, our
job, our work, is to live the life that He has commanded us to live, and to be
a witness for Him in whatever capacity that we live and work, and play in this
world.
Let us then
tend to that will of God and live for Him that our life will not return to the
past and to destruction, not a loss of our eternal life, rather a loss of His
blessings in this life. We will not be
guided by Him, rather by our own will in matters that lead to sin. Are you now inclined to fall? Are you being
led astray by thoughts that are impure? Are you allowing doomsayers to destroy
your walk with Jesus Christ? STOP! God
is there for you, did He not choose you before you were born? YES! LIVE THEN FOR HIM!
The law of the LORD is perfect,
Converting the
soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure,
Making wise
the simple;
Psalm 19:7
Love God: Live life
Richard L. Crumb
No comments:
Post a Comment