Love versus Pride

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails.

2 Timothy 3:1-8

3 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! 6 They are the kind who work their way into people's homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. 7 (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.) 8 These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses.

They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith.

What is the opposite of the agape love of God?

How do the fruits of love differ from the fruits of pride?

Resources:

Pride

https://96tolife.blogspot.com/search?q=Pride&m=1

Where Does It Stop?

The Apostle Paul wrote, "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22-24)." When you believe something that the Bible does not support, you are forced to suggest that the clear reading of scripture is unclear. There are those who believe when Paul said, "all have sinned" in verse 23, that the word "all" doesn't mean everybody. Now, there are those who have taken the time to try and define the meaning of the word using greek definitions, concordances, etc. However, the simple answer is that if God wanted to use a different word, He would have instructed Paul to use it. However, the reason people suggest that the word "all" doesn't mean all is so they can protect their beliefs that may not be supported by the Bible. In this case, an individual was trying to defend the "sinlessness of The Blessed Virgin Mary." If all have sinned then so has Mary and their belief falls apart. If that falls apart, then what else starts to collapse? The truth is that people don't want to admit that what they believe is wrong. The cost of admitting they have put their faith in error is too high. No pastor, church leader, or layman wants to go back and tell their congregations, "I have been teaching or believing an error." They would get replaced or kicked out and their lives may fall apart. Do they want to lose their jobs, income, reputations, and families over it? Many will not. Therefore, they create entire theologies to defend their error. But, the question must be asked, "Where does it stop?"

Other Books

In the book of John, it says, "There are many more things that Jesus did. If all of them were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books that would be written (John 21:25)." How many religions have their sacred writings? You have the Quran, the religious text of Islam. There are the Vedas of Hinduism. The Latter-Day Saints have the Book of Mormon. Catholics have their Catechism. The list goes on and on. Most, if not all, of these religions, claim their texts are divinely inspired. They could, and some do, point to the verse from John as justification for their beliefs. This leads to everybody claiming that their beliefs are of God. Why believe Jesus is the only means of salvation when any religious text outside of the Bible can make its own claims without objection? However, the verse itself says, "If all of them were written down ..." It doesn't say that the books were written, but if they were written. Secondly, John is writing about all the things that Jesus did during His life and ministry that could have been written down. He is not talking about the creation of all of the writings that inspire other religions. 

The Nephilim

Prior to the Flood, we read about the Nephilim. "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown (Genesis 6:4)." There is not enough information given in the Bible as to who the Nephilim were exactly. The theories are endless. The most common belief is that they were fallen angels. If they are fallen angels, then we have to be careful that we have not opened the door to undermining the integrity of the Bible and destroying the Gospel. The verse says that the Nephilim had children with the "daughters of humans." If angels are having children, then is it farfetched to believe that someone could say the angel that announced to Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus was His father? Furthermore, how many other angel and human "hybrids" are running around? Do you see where this can lead? Besides, as is often the case, the Bible tells us that the Nephilim were "men of renown." They were men, not angels. Unfortunately, believing that they are men is not profound enough. We need to keep the "mystery" alive to justify our endless pursuit of solving it, no matter what the cost is to God's word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Days of Creation

When it comes to the debate between creation and evolution, the days of creation are at the root of the disagreement. How long were the days of Creation? Were they six 24-hour periods or longer spans of time like thousands or millions of years? In Genesis 1, after each day of creation was over the Bible uses the phrase, "So the evening and the morning..." After the phrase it says, the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, and the sixth day (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31). If the days of creation were other than 24-hour periods why would it say evening and morning? Did God not know how to write the words thousand and millions? The seven-day week we have comes from verses like Leviticus 23:3 where God said, "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." This is a direct reflection of the six days of creation. If God didn't use six, regular days during creation, His command in Leviticus doesn't make sense. Could you imagine if the workweek were thousands or millions of years long? But, again, in order for people to fit their beliefs into the Bible, they destroy the Bible in the process. Not only does Leviticus 23:3 make no sense, but the Gospel is also destroyed, Adam should have lived longer than 930 years, Jesus wouldn't have asked the disciples "Haven't you read" when referring to the creation of mankind, and so on. 

The conclusion to all of this is that people don't want to believe the Bible. You can't believe both your religion and the Bible if they don't agree. If they disagree, the problem is with your religious beliefs, not with the Bible. Their beliefs are more important than the truth. Religious pride becomes an issue as it makes it next to impossible for a person to see their error. They would rather fall on the sword than take up "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17)." It is telling that people would rather believe their religions when what they teach is in disagreement with the clear reading of scripture. Rather than asking God to explain the conflict or testing the spirits to see if what they are being taught is from God, they will change what God has said. That is a recipe for disaster and gives the devil a foothold to undermine God's truth and will ultimately shipwreck the faith of some. 

Mean as a Hornet

"For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!" Galatians 5:13-15

In Galatians chapter 5, the apostle Paul is writing about Christian liberty in Christ, love being the fulfillment of the Law and walking in the Spirit. Along the way, he takes the time to warn the Church about falling from grace, being hindered from obeying the truth and avoiding the works of the flesh. While he is encouraging Christians to stand for the truth of the grace of God, he points out that those who will try to undermine their faith, surprisingly, will be those from within the body of Christ. For example, I recently took the time to view the social media page of a ministry that meant a lot to me in my early years of being a Christian. The ministry teaches what is referred to as the "finality of the Cross" and the "reality of the Resurrection." In other words, they proclaim that the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross forgave all the sins of mankind, past, present, and future and that salvation is the restoration of the life of God made possible through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the nearly 20 years that have passed since I grabbed a hold of this message and proclaimed it, the majority of opposition to it has come from those within the body of Christ. It was not any different on this ministry's page.  Under a post where they were promoting some products, a Christian who opposed the message wrote, "...when did the Apostles or Jesus EVER sell the gospel? I see your motivation is to sell and push your products for the false doctrine that you teach." When some supporters of the ministry challenged them on their accusation, they replied with, "You must embrace the same abomination that he does." After being called a "legalist," they shot back with, "I follow God's Word the way it's written. I don't wrangle the scriptures to make them mean what I want them to mean," " If you were a "Christian" you wouldn't be on this site," and, finally, "A Legalist: One who obeys God...as viewed by someone....who doesn't." The whole exchange is wrong on so many levels. There is no dialogue, no reasoning from the scriptures and, definitely, no love being exchanged. The conversation is nothing more than two factions devouring each other with name-calling and judgment. While nobody wins in this scenario, it could have been avoided if the individual had either said nothing or tried to ask questions in an effort to start a dialogue. Unfortunately, this type of exchange seems to be the norm when it comes to online Christian "discussion." Out of curiosity, I visited the profile of this person and found a post that read, "Dear Lord, please help me to speak the right words, at the right time, with the right attitude so I might be effective in reaching some with Your truth..." Given that this post and the argument they ignited are about 10 months apart, one can only hope their prayer is a sign of God working on their heart and not an example of their hypocrisy.

Interestingly enough, the pastor of this ministry once said, “Religion makes you mean as a hornet.” Just like a hornet, they are unwanted, irritating and can ruin a good time. While I do not know the person who caused the uproar, I have encountered many like them over the years. And to the pastor's point, they are mean as a hornet and it can be traced back to their religious beliefs. Regarding the roots of the word religion, Webster's Collegiate Dictionary traces the word back to an old Latin word religio meaning "taboo, restraint." A deeper study discovers the word comes from the two words re and ligare. Re is a prefix meaning "return," and ligare means "to bind;" in other words, "return to bondage." That is eye-opening. To be religious means you are in bondage. That is what the Apostle Paul was preaching against. He wanted the Galatians, and all Christians, to stand in their liberty. Liberty means freedom; the exact opposite of bondage. Religion does put you in bondage. The individual mentioned earlier proudly embraced being called a legalist by saying they are one "who obeys God." There are different meanings for obedience. However, by making such a claim, I have to believe they have convinced themselves they are obeying the commands of God. In short, they are under the Law; i.e. a legalist. That is the ultimate form of religion. And if religion is bondage, it will make you as mean as a hornet. Why? Because the law is of no use without somebody to compare yourself too. And, in my opinion, misery loves company. Are prisoners happy? No, they are in jail cells wanting freedom. Are dogs in a kennel happy? No, they are in cages barking up a storm trying to get out. When people leave churches, it is often because they have encountered people like the one mentioned earlier. Once they get out, they want nothing to do with Christians, church or God. They don't need the hassle of the endless pressure to obey, condemnation for failure and the shame of not being good enough for God or His people. Religious people like this person are compelled to judge others for their perceived lack of obedience because only two things can result from comparing yourself to others; you are either better than other people or worse. One is religious pride. The other is self-condemnation. In this scenario, you see the religious pride that comes from convincing yourself you are being obedient to God. Both are of the devil! You can't love your neighbor when you are consumed with trying to be obedient to laws God never expected you to obey. Only when you are resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ and allowing Him to live His resurrected life through you, will you begin to receive the love that God wants to give to you. You will then know what it means to be free in Christ and "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36)."

Born Again

"Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” John 3:3

It is a simple question, but one that often times has the most impossible answer. How long have you been a Christian? For most Christians the answer is simple. The answer usually takes one of three forms; you give the year you became a Christian, the amount of years you have been a Christian or the place you became a Christian. For me I would say, "Since 1996." That answer would give the person asking the question a reference point as to how long I have been saved. However, I have noticed a lot of people who say they are Christians who would answer how long they have been a Christian with an answer like, "I have been a Christian my entire life." While for some this is just another way of saying that they have been a Christian since they were a child. This is fine. Most likely it means they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior at a young age. Yet, for many, when they say they have been a Christian their entire life, they literally mean their whole life; since birth. This is wrong and not an answer backed up by Scripture. As one pastor said, “No one came out of their mother’s womb saying “Praise, Jesus”. We were born dead spiritually and that’s the problem of mankind, spiritual death.” Being raised in a "Christian" family or having membership in a particular Christian church fellowship or denomination does not make you a Christian. In fact, Jesus Christ said, "no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again (John 3:3)." He didn't say, you must be born, but born again. Their is a difference. All of us have been born into this world, but their must come a time when we realize our need for salvation, or to be saved, by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. Now, some of these people who say they have been a Christian their entire life may even say that such a moment took place. But, that "moment" is usually a time when they were "confirmed" and admitted as a full member of a particular church, as is the practice of many denominations, or when they were water baptized as an infant by their "believing" parents who believe "that at the heart of a baptized child, faith as a gift or grace from God, as distinct from an act by the person, is made present." While this may make an individual a part of a church, it doesn't make them a member of the true body of Christ. Thus, I believe there are many people who say they are Christians, but who truly are not. I speak from experience.

For the first 25 years of my life, if someone were to ask me if I was a Christian, I would have said, "Yes." Why? Because, I was raised in a "Christian" home, lived in a predominantly Christian culture, occasionally went to church, was baptized as a kid and was "confirmed" by a church.  Yes, I knew of Jesus. I knew He died on the cross and was raised from dead. I knew a few scriptures. Who doesn't know John 3:16? "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." But, I don't recall ever hearing anything about having to be born again, spiritual death or anybody explaining the fullness of the Gospel to me. Nobody becomes a Christian until there arrives a moment in their life where they recognize their need to be saved from the wages of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is the life of God found only through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, we are all born physically alive to the world, but spiritually dead to God. Through various life struggles and experiences, the average person realizes they are missing something in their life and turn to Jesus to find it. This happens many ways and most Christians cannot even really explain it at the time it happens. But, they all know that at a certain moment in time they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. It is at that moment that they were born again of the Spirit of God. The life of God was restored to them and they came alive to Him. That something that was missing is the spiritual death everyone born into this world has and tries to fill through all the world has to offer, but can only be satisfied by the life of God, in Christ. While this may seem to be a nitpicked, theological point to some, not being clear about it has eternal consequences. Jesus said, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son (John 3:18)."It is clear that if you do not believe in Jesus Christ as your savior, you stand "condemned already." That means you are headed straight for a Christless eternity; forever separated from God in Hell. In other words, you are born on the path to destruction unless you are born again. Therefore, if you believe you have been a Christian your entire life, you may have put faith in the wrong Jesus and are not truly born again.

Let Us Serve The Egyptians

“As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert (Exodus 14:10-12)!” Recidivism is defined as a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior. You often hear this term used when talking about ex-con’s who relapse into criminal behavior. One of the factors that lead an individual to commit crimes that lead them back to prison is that they are more comfortable with the structure, culture and surroundings of life in prison then they are with a life of freedom. The fear of being in charge of their life is often too much to overcome. In many ways it is like the Jews shortly after God freed them from slavery in Egypt. Despite being an eyewitness to the plagues God inflicted on Egypt, living through the Passover, having God lead them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire to give them light by night, they still wanted to go back into slavery when they saw Pharaoh’s army approaching them. They had just been set free after 430 years of slavery, but would rather be in bondage to the Egyptians then trust their God! Is it all that different then the ex-con committing crimes that land them back in prison? Is it any different than Christians today who choose the bondage of religion and forsake the freedom of being led by the Holy Spirit of God?

 They love the structure that religion provides despite the fact that in most cases it prevents them from being free in Christ and learning to trust and depend on their God. What did Paul ask the church in Galatia? “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh (Galatians 3:3)?” The Jews were foolish to think that the bondage of slavery was better than being led by their God who freed them from it? They obviously forgot that they initially were enslaved by the Egyptians because after Joseph died, “a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt (Exodus 1:8).” The “new king” had forgotten what God did through Joseph that benefited the Egyptians and it led to the enslavement of the Jews. It is easy as a Christian to long for the “structure” of religion because people would rather be told what to do by their religion and its masters then be led by their God. Freedom can be scary for a Christian. Will they live a life of sin now? Will they stop going to church? Will they stop reading their Bibles? The list is endless. It is as if God is so small to them that He cannot provide them with a life to live that is more meaningful and fuller then anything they’ve previously experienced. Moses led the Jews out of bondage, but they still desired it. Paul, through his letters, tried to lead the early church and present day Christians out of the bondage of religion and its legalism, but people still desire it. Jesus Christ set the world free from the bondage of sin and darkness, “but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).”  There is a lesson to be learned from the ex-con, the Jews and the early church who loved bondage more than freedom. That lesson is to embrace the freedom you have been given and never return to bondage.