The New Bereans

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15

We live in a speedy shallow, superficial age. And I am beginning to realize much of our Christian conduct has been infected by our attitudes. If we are content to go to church only as long as the pastor doesn’t talk too long, or dig too deeply into our lives, we are in trouble. I see a parallel between us and the TV Guide channel. When I was young it was just a scrolling list of what was on TV. A few years later they added advertisements to the top half of the screen, and a few years after that they started playing their own mini shows in between the advertisements.

Now, these programs on the entertainment industry and its performers are brief and superficial, but bright and boisterous enough to occasionally keep your attention on them and prevent you from finding out what’s coming on after M.A.S.H. Sadly our Christianity is often as shiny, short, and shallow as these show’s. Most people watching a 5 minute bio on Gilbert Gottfried would never presume they know everything about him, yet we do this with doctrine constantly. Many of us Calvary Chapelers are guilty of thinking or saying “Chuck said it; I believe it, that settles it.”

Where past generations labored in the scriptures and doctrine to find the truth, we will accept offhand pastor’s comments as gospel truth, and feel no need to search the scriptures or study theology on our own. Until we begin to study the word, wait on the lord, and pray, we should expect little more than TV Guide channel fruit in our lives.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22

I love discussing doctrine as much as anyone I know, but there is an inherent danger therein; when we assume that by agreeing with a truth, we must be obeying it. Putting most of our energies into knowing and little into doing is dangerous indeed.  We are sometimes more zealous for being right than we are for being righteous. I will include an obligatory disclaimer here, we are not saved by doing good works, but we are called to conform to the image of Christ, and obey his commandments.

I have nothing against pouring over scriptures and theological writings, in order to rightly divide the word, it is one of my favorite activities; but we cannot stop with knowing, we must proceed to doing. Why? For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.1 Make no mistake, this is no mere thought of mine. James explicitly warns us of the danger of learning the truth but forgetting to obey it, forgetting to examine ourselves, and forgetting to do it.

When Jesus was ministering he never told anyone to merely understand the truth. He commanded them to act on the truth. His message was consistently “repent and believe”2. We need to take his warning seriously, for “blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”3

1. James 1:23-24

2. Mark 1: 15

3. Luke 11:28

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other . . . Matthew 6:24

Few things bring more chaos and confusion into spiritual life, than attempting to gain mans approval. Paul makes the point abundantly clear, “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” He is not saying that no one will ever approve of you if you are serving Christ, rather, if you are seeking mans approval you will not be serving Christ.

The word translated servant here δοῦλος , literally means slave; it is not the Greek word for servant, it is not one of the six Greek words for servant. Why is this important? When Christ taught that no slave can serve two masters, his audience instantly understood. A slave is not an employee; you cannot have a part time master on the side. A slave is completely subjugated to his master, as a Christian is to Christ.

Where is this leading? I am leading to the opposing truth of my first point, just as pleasing man adds confusion, the pleasing only of Christ removes confusion. It makes decision making radically simple. When you aren’t trying to posture yourself in a position where everyone likes and agrees with you, but simply seeking Gods leading, and obeying his word, confusion will be virtually eliminated.

. . . I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.  John 15:31

Every believer eventually reaches a point of profound love for God without obvious expression.   When worship alone cannot fully display your love, what is a saint to do?  Paint a painting?  Plant a tree?  Sing really loud?  To show love for your wife you can buy flowers and chocolates.   To show love for a child, offer them ice cream.  But how do you show God your love? Jesus tells us how his love for the father is evident . . . obedience.  I know this is a four letter word among Christians today, but I bring it up because Jesus did.

Please do not misunderstand me, we are never told that it is possible to earn a spot in heaven, but we are repeatedly told to live a life that pleases God.  Our hearts are wrong when the idea of living a holy life causes us to recoil in horror.  According to Jesus, obeying God is of the best ways of expressing our love for God.

Using Christ’s measurement for love, our love for God should not be hard to gauge because its fruit is visible, obeying gods commands.  Much obedience = much love, little obedience = little love, no obedience = no love.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:21

How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!” Job 25:4-6

I am becoming more and more aware of the necessity of humility for the believer. In American Christianity we place such emphasis on ability, and education while giving humility mere lip service. But the problem is that education and skill alone produce mountains of pride, and prevent Gods blessing from fully coming.

I remember when I was asked in High School, “Why is pride a sin? What is so wrong with feeling good about yourself?” I was tongue tied! I found it impossible to spit out a good answer at the time, but now I can explain it fairly well. The Bible tells us some things about pride: it goes before destruction 1, God hates it 2, and it keeps us from seeking after God 3.   If a sin is hated by God, leads to destruction, and keeps us from seeking after God, this is pretty damning.  Nothing will ruin your walk faster than pride because it gives you boldness to break all the commandments. The thrusting up of mountains of pride should be a self evident problem for the believer.

But there is another grievous effect of the prideful life, it prevents Gods blessing from fully coming upon us. Paul tells us that God has chosen the foolish things . . . base things . . . things which are despised . . .and the things which are not . . . that no flesh should glory in His presence 4 , Pride restrains Gods hand of blessing for he will share his glory with no one.

Pride bars the door of the vault in which Gods blessings reside; because Humility comes before honor 5.

1. Prov 16:18
2. Prov 6:17
3. Psalm 10 4
4. 1 Cor 1:27-29
5. Pro 15:33

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:1-5

Why do we always look outward? When God calls us to repent and believe, we cry out “but what about (fill in the blank)” as we avoid doing what Christ has called us to do. We spend more time prating than praying; more time watching television than witnessing; and far more energy avoiding than obeying. This ought not to be. We are masters at avoiding God; and one of the main ways to avoid obedience is pointing at something, and saying “but what about . . .” to God, as if trying to change the subject is going to make God forget. Or end the need for us to obey.

Jesus did not take the bait and leave his calling, in order to get involved in politics. Instead he challenges them by referring to another tragedy, and telling them “. . .unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Our duty is not to inform God of things we think are in his blind spot, our duty is to obey his commands. Standing at the Judgment Seat no excuse will suffice. He calls all to repent and believe.

“When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:8

As believers we are called to give our best to God, but do we? Or like the priests in Malachi’s day, do we give God only what we don’t want. They were sacrificing blind and lame animals to God and taking the best for themselves. We no longer offer animal sacrifices but we are told to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God.1 Do we give God our best, or do we give him the rest? How do we spend our time? Everyone knows about tithing our money, do we tithe our time?  Do we spend 10% of our day (2.4 hours) Seeking God, studying the scriptures, or evangelizing? If not we should consider our ways.

We are told to love God with all our mind2, how much of our mind is occupied in studying theology, wrestling through scriptural truth, and memorizing scriptures?  Men, if you can remember all the stats of your favorite athletes, but can’t clearly explain the gospel, you should be ashamed.  Women, if you know all about Oprah, but don’t have a clue about Orpha, you are investing your time foolishly.  I will set no wicked thing before my eyes 3 declares the psalmist, do we watch wicked things?  If so Christ warns that our whole body will be full of darkness.4 Paul the apostle declares you are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.5

If we are his disciples we must put him first, give him our best, and seek first his kingdom.

1. Romans 12:1

2. Matthew 22:37

3. Psalm 101:3

4. Matthew 6:23

5. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mark 10:17-31

In the story of the “Rich Young Ruler” it is easy to miss the main point, I did for years. The young man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow him. He did not do this, and we can draw the false conclusion that, because he wouldn’t sell his stuff he couldn’t go to heaven, but if he could have done this he would have been able to get in.

This conclusion is wrong. Jesus never told him that selling his stuff would reserve a spot in heaven, he told him to sell his stuff and follow. Jesus did not give a direct answer to his question because there is no good deed one can do to earn a place in heaven. His issue was not materialism, the issue is unbelief. He was told to leave behind his stuff, and believe that God had rewards for him which far exceeded what he was called to leave behind. The young ruler wanted to add one more good work to his life, and Jesus told him to loose his life. He wanted spirituality not suffering, position not persecution, honor not humility.

We mistakenly focus on his sin of materialism but this is peripheral, the core sin for him was unbelief.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.  Proverbs 28:1

Why is there such timidity in our lives today?  Rather that demonstrating the power of the gospel, by the power of the Spirit, we tend to lob Christianity with all the conviction of a softball pitch.  We commonly tip-toe around bold truth in order to avoid offending unbelievers and we talk to them in an apologetic tone, what is wrong with us?  Do we see anything like this in the life of Elijah, Paul, or Jesus Christ?  No!  Why not?

I would suggest to you that the answer is staring us in the face.  It is my fear that the church today is filled with primarily tares and lost sheep, sin is the norm.  Jesus warned that whoever relaxed one of his commandments would be the least in the kingdom of heaven, yet pastor and parishioner do it with impunity today.  We love our sin and in refusing to turn from it, the church has become quite fearful.

When we give ourselves free license to sin, we are simultaneously quenching the spirit, and spiritually emasculating ourselves.  If we want any boldness, vigor, or life we must stop compromising.  Jesus proclaims, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”1  What does this mean to us?  Simply this; if we pray to God to help us to overcome the big sins in our life, while excusing the small ones with clever phrases like “that isn’t my conviction, bro”, we are deceived and should not be surprised when we experience constant spiritual defeat.

To live the victorious Christian life we must repent, turn from our sins and follow God.  We cannot give ourselves permission to indulge in the “little” sins, or the “big” sins will not have dominion over us.  If we were totally unable to resist sin Paul would not have told us “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts“.2  So we must follow James guidance and Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.3

1. Luke 16:10

2. Romans 6:12

3. James 4:7

But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you . . . for I have no man like minded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.  ₁

But when he (Jesus) saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. ₂

Truly those who want to care for the sheep purely out of compassion, without self interest are quite rare.  For most of my walk I have struggled with this very issue, having a motive to do God’s work partially to gain approval from others.  It is totally biblical to do things for God to be seen by him, and be rewarded by him for it i.e. the Sermon on the Mount; but the exact same verses condemn doing the same things to be seen by men.  On the face of it, the situation can seem hopeless, is it possible to purify our motives?  We find that “The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” ₃ Is there someone, or something else that can purify our hearts?

Proverbs tells us the refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests the hearts. ₄ In the same way that gold and silver are purified, our hearts can be purified, but instead of being melted in a hot furnace or crucible, they are refined by God himself.  He does the work of purifying.  How does he do it?  The answer is found in scripture once again.  You have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, [being] much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ₅ The scripture declares that God refines and purifies us through trials.

God often gives young believers a vision for serving God, before they have the character necessary to do it faithfully; then God begins leading them through trials and testing so that the dross of self interest is gradually removed, our hearts begin to resemble his, and we begin to find ourselves motivated by compassion rather than ego.

1. Philippians 2:19-21

2. Matthew 9:36

3. Jeremiah 17:9

4. Proverbs 17:3

5. I Peter 1:6-7