Some indeed preach
Christ even from envy and strife,
and some from
goodwill: the former preach Christ
from selfish
ambition, not sincerely, supposing
to add affliction to
my chains; but the latter
out of love, knowing
that I am appointed
for the defense of
the Gospel.
Philippians 1: 15 --
17
Apparently
Paul was being spoken about in a bad way for some as we have learned in other
letters questioned his apostleship and his ministry and this often due to his
former life that was arresting and harming Christians. Paul had met Jesus Christ on the road to
Damascus, spent time for many years learning the Gospel and then taking the
Gospel to the Gentiles but never did leave himself away from the original
apostles of Jesus Christ. Now, he
speaks about those who are preaching about Jesus Christ and at the same time
speaking bad against him, and that they were speaking out of some sort of envy
and strife. How often, and maybe you
have been the blunt of rejection even though you had converted to the Lord
Jesus Christ and were in every way attempting to live according to His
commandments and yet you were still being judged by your former life? Some people never see what they don't want
to see and only see what they do want to see.
For you, continue to grow in your sanctification for the Lord Jesus
Christ and complete your mission here on earth and that mission is to spread
the gospel for why you were left on earth accept to take the Gospel to your world about the Lord Jesus Christ,
is this not what Jesus commanded?
Yes! How often do we see preachers,
especially those on television, not all who are on television, but those who
have grown wealthy and have a selfish ambition preaching with a lack of
sincerity? For Paul they were trying to
add affliction to him while he was in prison.
Authentic preachers and leaders of the church preached out of love, and
that love is for the Lord Jesus Christ and that love in his extended to
you. For Paul there were those who
loved him, and understood his mission and did not look back at his former way
of life knowing that he was appointed to defend the Gospel. You also have been appointed to defend the
Gospel (1 Peter 3:15). When a church
leader preaches out of selfish ambition and not sincerity looking to have some
sort of personal gain or to only preying upon the Church that
destroys the unity of the Church then other things also are affected in the
church loses its authority and ability to help others grow in their
sanctification.
The one
thing that is missing in most churches is church discipline. This is a major problem and is also the
thrust and theme of my new book that I am writing in regards to authentic
Christianity versus Cultural Christianity.
How did the church go so far wrong from that which is plainly written in
God's Word? We can look back and say
well this came from the Enlightenment, or from the Second Great Awakening, and
we can even point to certain preachers who preached a form of liberal
Christianity, and even go so far as to say well people were spreading all over
the United States therefore there was a loss in regards to good teaching and
they wouldn't be far from wrong. With
all of that we still have a problem and that problem is a lack of church
discipline. Holiness, like unity and
catholicity (not Roman Catholicism), or universality, is the essential mark of
the Church of Christ, who is Himself the One holy Savior of all men. That is the foundation for Christianity and
the words of Jesus and those words inspired by God for men to write to the
churches are also to be applied in our day.
It is true, and this is not a copout, this growth in Holiness has yet to
be perfected and actualized in the church today and is subject to
gradual growth with many obstructions and lapses. The church, that is you, has to pass through a process of
sanctification, and that sanctification will not be complete until the second
coming of Jesus Christ. The apostles of
Jesus Christ, those 12 men, never claimed his sinless perfection of character,
and they felt themselves to be afflicted with many infirmities, and in
constant need of forgiveness and purification.
We cannot
expect perfect moral purity in our churches as people come into our church from
all walks of life, with all different types of backgrounds and are in need of
instruction and aid to grow In Authentic Christian Faith. There is a need to grow in virtue and piety,
and to give warnings against unfaithfulness and apostasy, and even to reprove
those corrupt practices that may come into the church even though they are
believers. Sins must be it addressed
and often as we saw when we studied Corinthian's Paul had to review the carnal
spirit that was in the church and had influenced and invaded the lives of
Christians there, this morbid desire for wisdom, participation in the idolatrous
feast of the heathens, and the tendency to uncleanness, and a scandalous
profanation of the holy supper. The
facts are this there is a need for discipline and the church to defend yourself
from the offenders. Even though the
churches of a process of self purification, it is the insertion and the
assertion of a Holiness and moral dignity that needs to be shown in the
church. The offender has merited
punishment and also has merited a means of repentance and reform. You see, the ultimate end of the Church of
Christ is the salvation of souls. Paul
has written some of the severest form of church discipline to be delivered to
the backslider: "In the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with
the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that his spirit maybes they in the day of the Lord
Jesus. Your glory is not good. Do you not know that leaven leavens the
whole lump? Therefore purge out the old
leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was
sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5: 4 -- 7). To show how serious this is Paul goes on to
write: "I wrote to you in my epistle
not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with sexually immoral people of this
world, or with that cover just, or extortion or, or idolaters, since then you
would need to go out of the world. But
now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who
is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard,
or an extortioner -- not even to eat with such a person" (1 Corinthians 5:
9 -- 11).
Brothers
and sisters who holds the priority in your life? Is it Jesus Christ and those harsh words or is it some sort of
soft agape love allowing for sinners to remain in your church who have not
repented? Will you be wrong in your
Christian faith and keep your congregations pure?
Let the priests, who minister to the LORD,
weep
between the porch and the altar;
let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O LORD,
and do not
give Your heritage to reproach,
that the nations should rule over them, why should they
say among
the peoples ‘Where is their God?’
Joel
2: 17
Love sometimes must be tough
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