Seen ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit
unto unfeigned love of the brethren,
see that ye love one another with a
pure heart fervently: being born again,
not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. For all the flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away:
but though word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by the
Gospel is preached unto you.
I Peter 1: 22 -- 25
Obedience is far too often something that we trifle with and use it whenever it is convenient. For instance: in California where it is posted a maximum speed limit is 70 mph. Yet, it is inconvenient to just travel 70 miles an hour when you are, let's say, going to Sacramento from Redding, California and somehow you are proud of yourself to make it in a shorter time as though this makes a person seem more glorious bodies of others. The person does not leave on time to only travel 70 miles an hour but knows that if they travel 80 to 90 miles an hour they can make up any time that they did not give themselves before leaving. This example is one of many examples that could be used to show that obedience is often simply used when it is convenient. For instance, one sees a highway patrolman and immediately slows their car down to the speed limit posted. What is obedience is the state or quality of being obedient or the act or practice of obeying, in other words comply and with or being submissive to authority.
So what is the authority for an authentic Christian? Is it not simply outlined for us in Scripture? By Scripture a person is purifying their souls through the truth led by the Holy Spirit. It is by this obedience that a person has the ability to love their brothers and sisters and a sincere and genuine manner. The word translated as "unfeigned" comes from the word "feign" and that word means to put an appearance that is fictitiously or deceptively, or an excuse, to make believe, to pretend. So would be "unfeigned" is not to be any of those things. This is true love and that true love has its foundation upon the word of God and our obedience to God's Word.
An Authentic Christian is one who has been born again. What does it mean to be born again? When you came into this world by the means of birth of your mother you were born. That birth gave you life. When you have become an Authentic Christian who has converted their lives to follow the word of God they have been born again to eternal life. The life of this earth for a person has an ending and that ending is death. An Authentic Christian has a life that has no ending whereby there is no death. It is a life that is incorruptible and our faith in the hope is based upon the sheer truth of God's Word. It is this a word of God that lives for ever so that word will guide our lives eternally. Man lives from B-to-D, birth to death, so the analogy of a flower that fades away or grass that dies and withers away represents in this life but the Word of God led by the Holy Spirit in our lives teaches us that that is not true for an Authentic Christian. It is this that is the gospel that is preached unto you, that Jesus Christ died so that we can have eternal life and it is this that is being preached unto you.
If you believe this and are obedient to this you have that eternal life, not by any works that you do, nor even by the Gospel that is preached to you, your eternal life comes to you by that death and life of Jesus Christ. By means of this truth be become obedient and follow the leading by the Holy Spirit that is based upon the truth of Scripture. We don't just go about by some vision or revelation that we believe has come from God, rather, we based all our decisions, all our exercise of life by a truthful examination of God's Word. We do not base it upon any man's supposed truth even though he may be correct we will not know for sure unless we examine what he has said according to Scripture. Turn off the TV, stop running to and fro, pick up your Bible, read it, study it, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide your study. You may use commentaries, or Strong's concordance, all these things are good to have but they are not good if all they are doing is collecting dust. The question is: are you an Authentic Christian, obedient, one who has been born again?
Now let the fear of the LORD,
be upon you. Judge carefully,
for with the LORD our God there is
no injustice or partiality or bribery.
2 Chronicles 19: 7
Praise God for He saves
Richard L. CrumbLearning
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