To Live For Jesus Christ Is Everlasting Gain

What then?  Only that in every way,

whether in pretense or in truth,

Christ is preached;

and in this I rejoice,

yes, and will rejoice.

Philippians 1: 18

            We must not forget Paul was writing as a prisoner in Rome and speaking of the offense of the cross, he shows that his suffering were reconcilable to the wisdom and goodness of God.  News apparently had reached him in regards to several of the churches and some of the schismatic problems, and false teaching problems that were occurring in the churches especially in his absence.  It is interesting to note that for some, Paul's imprisonment cause them to fall away and teach another gospel and for others it caused them to be more bold to preach, and then to supply his lack of service to the Church.  The opening Scripture must be taken in context for these taken as a single proof text than the proof is not true rather it is false.  What do I mean?  Some would take this to say that what does a matter whether or not a person teaches absolute truth or has other opinions even though those opinions are not warranted in Scripture but Christ is preached, so it's okay.  Is this what Paul is saying?  Paul was not addressing here heresy.  Paul was addressing those who were preaching out of selfish ambition and due to that selfish ambition there preaching was not sincere and fully warranted a Scripture.  This preaching while preaching about Jesus Christ was yet utterly detestable, abominable, and needed to be addressed because they were preaching out of envy and contention and this was not bringing the congregants to a place whereby they were showing love that is the love of Jesus Christ.  It is when the truth is not being taught whereby people are led astray even though the name Jesus Christ is being preached.  Paul was being very generous here and very admirable for he did rejoice that Christ was preached even though the purposes towards him were unkind.  And this is the context in which the Scripture is to be found: "For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boulders as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" (Philippians 1:19 -- 20).  The preaching of Jesus Christ is and should be the joy of all, especially a joy in regards to His kingdom among men.  Brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God already exists, and you are in the kingdom of God if you have been elected by God to be one of His children.  And you know that you are one of the elected because your whole attitude and life turns towards God and His son Jesus Christ and the development of a relationship with Jesus Christ.  When preaching is being taught by truth then there is a tendency to the good for many people, therefore we ought to rejoice especially when the preaching is exegetical and authentic and warranted by Scripture.  Paul, and we also, should be able to say what Paul said: "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what shall I choose I cannot tell.  For I am hard -- pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.  Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you" (Philippians 1: 21 -- 24).  Most Christians have heard and can recite verse 21, but my question is very important and that is, is that Scripture true about you or is it just words?  Paul was willing to endure any abasement or suffering for the honor of Jesus Christ.  Are you willing to endure any abasement or suffering for Jesus Christ?  Salvation is yours, this salvation is also sure, no one can take you out of my hand said Jesus Christ, you are legally in heaven now, and all this is due by the supply of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ and should be a major part of your prayer and thanksgiving is for this appointment.  Prayer of the people is a way in which to bring a supply of the Holy Spirit to the ministers, to ourselves, to others in the congregation, whether it be local or far away, to strengthen them for any suffering they may be having to endure for the preaching of the Gospel.  You see our responsibility is not to be successful in this life, it is not also to accumulate many things as though this is a forever life and you cannot see that it is temporal.  Our responsibility is to do well in what ever we do and this at the same time to be demonstrating and manifesting to the world either by actions or word the Gospel.  Is it because other people who are not elected can choose salvation, no!  It is too those who we do not know who are a child of God and yet living outside of God and need to return to him and they may be you one of those who are following those who are very eloquent speakers and yet are doing so out of envy and self ambition causing you or others to also to have self ambition.  Return to the truth! Paul was strengthening the Philippians church so that Christ might be magnified whether by him until his death or by Christians were ever they may be especially in this letter to the Philippians.  That letters for you as well.  Remember this: all who wish to live is to live for Christ also holds this fact true that for Christians to die will be gain, not a temporary gain, rather an ever lasting gain.  Death is a great loss to the carnal, worldly man; he loses all his earthly comforts and all his hopes; but to a true believer it is again, Ford is the end of all his weakness and misery, and the perfecting his comforts, and accomplishments of his hopes; it delivers him from all the evils of life and brings to the possession of the chief good.  

Inasmuch as there is none like You, O LORD

            (You are great, and Your name is great in might).

Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?

            for this is Your rightful due.

For among all the wise men of the nations,

            and all their kingdom,

there is none like You.

                                    Jeremiah 10: 6 -- 7

Give time for God

Richard L. Crumb

A Missing Element: Church Discipline

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

Richard L. Crumb

Church Government For Our Edification And Protection

But I want you to know, brethren,

that the things which happened to me

have actually turned out for the furtherance

of the Gospel, so that it has become evident

to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest,

that my chains are in Christ; and most

of the brethren in the Lord, having become

confident by my chains, are much more bold

to speak the word without fear.

Philippians 1: 12 -- 14

            The growth of the Church from its beginning faced much persecution and problems even when the Roman government allowed Christianity to be only a part of Judaism.  Yet, many of the congregations throughout the Middle Eastern world faced local persecution at a level that some of us have never had to experience.  Paul was in prison because he asked to go to Rome and while there he was imprisoned and in time was sentenced to die.  For what?  Because he was a Christian?  The emperors of Rome starting with Augustus who brought a Roman peace and was lost by subsequent violent Roman emperors who detested anything that would bring any type of disharmony to Rome.  Nero was one of the worst and most of us know the story of him.  Paul in his preaching and teaching before going to Rome sent many men and to the various congregations to establish leadership for this leadership would become necessary to fend off the harshness of persecution that we congregations may have to face.  Furthermore, there was the problem that existed in that culture and world whereby many women were now widows, and they couldn't just run off to the local grocery store that had plenty of food so hunger was also a problem.  This then required a form of leadership that would not only preach the truth of God's Word, that is, the Gospel, but also had been and women who would care for the individuals within their congregations and at times even send "care packages" to other congregations.  We see this by the gifts that were sent to the congregation in Jerusalem.  The Presbyters cannot handle all the things that needed to be handled themselves therefore from the very beginning deacons and deaconesses were set as the helpers for a congregation and they first appeared in the Church of Jerusalem a whereby there was seven in number and this can be seen in The Book of Acts 6 where this is mentioned.  This is not something new for any precedent from the synagogue who also had those who were in charge of the collection and distribution of alms.  Here in Philippi the deacons took their rank after the presbyters and addressed with them in Paul's epistle.  The deacons, and this according to the narrative in Acts, was that they were to minister at the cable in the daily love feast and to attend to the wants of the poor and the sick.  This is something to think about, the primitive churches were charitable societies, taking care of the widows, and orphans, dispensing hospitality to strangers, and relieving the needs of the poor.  This is a pro active effort and if this is not being done in your church pro actively within it needs to change to become pro active.  We may not be facing the same harshness that the early church faced here in America but we still have those who are in need and we are to care for them.  Not doesn't just start and end with the deacons or deaconesses, it begins with you for you are responsible to ensure that there are enough things and money to care for those of us in your congregations and if possible to send gifts, money, to others who are also in need.  You may be doing this now by sending money to missionaries and this is very good and necessary for the role of each of us is to bring the Gospel to the world and this requires a cost and we were to pay that cost.

            Pastoral care of souls would naturally attach naturally to aid those in poverty and sickness and is well of course, to edify by instruction and consolation.  Therefore, the presbyters, or bishops, or deacons and deaconesses must be living a faith that is exemplary and the conduct that is of Christ for they are also the qualifications for the office of deacons as well as presbyters.  And post-apostolic times, when the bishop was raised above the press picture and the press picture became priest, the deacon was regarded as also was the Levite and was regarded for his primary function was to care of the poor.  This function of assisting also became in function to aid in the public worship and the administration of the sacraments, and also during this time especially, with this work being done aided in as a stepping stone to the office of Presbyter or Bishop.  But deaconesses, or female helpers at similar charge of the poor and sick in the female portion of the Church and in this place within the congregations they can exercise their peculiar gifts of self-denying charity and devotion to the welfare of the Church.  Paul does mention Phoebe as a Deaconess of the Church in Cenchrae, a port of Corinth.  This work of Deaconess is, or female helpers, in some churches as office does not exist --- really seem to be a problem in aiding those female congregants that need help in that help his best exercised by another female.  In fact, no mail person in the church, whether it be a pastor, a deacon, or whomever, should give counsel privately to a woman without a number one woman being present.  This avoids a problem that could become a major problem with this is not followed.  The Church was set up with a government to aid the spread of the gospel and to a others in the congregations.  Anything other than this is outside of scriptural warrant.

            Praise God for He knew all this was going to be necessary and has provided all this for our growth in knowledge of Him, for our protection, and to meet our needs as they become necessary.  It is the body of believers, that which we call the church, that should be the focal point of our lives.

You made known to them Your holy Sabbath,

            and commanded them precepts, statutes and laws,

by the hand of Moses Your servant.  You gave them bread

            from heaven for their hunger, and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, and told them 

           to go in to possess the land which you had 

sworn to give them.

                                    Nehemiah 9:14 – 15

Jehovah God our provider

Richard L. Crumb