Christmas: Make Room For Jesus
Luke 2:6-7, While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Have you ever felt rejected and unwanted?
Have you ever felt like you don't belong, you just don't fit in? It's one of the most painful experiences in life, when no one has time or space for you. Many people have committed suicide, because they felt no longer wanted or useful; they felt they have become a burden to everyone else. Feeling unwanted or not needed will cause a person to withdraw and go into isolation. Perhaps no human being felt that deep, sharp edge of personal rejection more than Jesus Christ, from the time He was born till the very day He died. For the most part, Jesus was an unwanted man. Imagine that: in a world where the most notorious criminals are Most Wanted, the best human being to ever live on earth the world's Most "Unwanted". During Christmas, why don't we declare Jesus Christ Most Wanted? Why don't we make room for Him? That must be the best thing we can do for Christmas: make room for Jesus.
Four Reasons Why You Should Make Room For Jesus
1. He has made room for you.
First, when He made the world, He made room for us, just like He made for Adam. John 1:3, Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Genesis 2:8, Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. He made plenty of room for everyone, for all the families, peoples, languages, and nations of the world.
Second, He made room for us in His life and ministry. He extends to us an open and standing invitation...Matthew 11:28, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Third, On the cross, Jesus made room for us. That space is called Paradise. What He said to the thief on the cross, He says to anyone who turns to Him for forgiveness... Luke 23:43, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
2. He has made room for Himself in your spirit.
When He made you, He made room for Himself. When you let Him become your Savior, He will occupy that room He already made for Himself. It's that God-shaped void in you that was designed and intended for Jesus Christ alone to fill up. 1 Corinthians 3:16, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 6:19, Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
3. He wants you to welcome Him into His room. John 14:23, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Revelation 3:20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
4. Jesus is still making room for you to live forever with Him in Heaven. John 14:2-3, 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Ten Easy Ways to Make Room For Jesus at Christmas
1. Remind yourself in prayer that Christmas is all about Jesus, not about you. Guide your shopping by the consciousness that Christmas is all about Jesus.
2. Let your family know that Christmas is Jesus' birthday, not their birthday. Even if their birthday falls on December 25th, it is still Jesus' birth that we celebrate on Christmas Day.
3. Enmesh yourself in Christmas music. Sing and/or play Christmas songs about the birth of Jesus.
4. Say “Merry Christmas”, “Blessed Christmas” or “Happy Christmas”, rather than “Happy Holidays”. When you see or hear “Happy Holidays”, call someone on it in a gentle and friendly but firm way. Say something like, “If it were Valentine's Day, would you say 'Happy Holiday'? So why don't you want to say 'Christmas'? Is that because it has 'Christ' in it?” Wear a big smile throughout this conversation. If it's not reasonable to have a conversation, you can just respond with “Merry Christmas” every time you hear “Happy Holidays”. And when you see a “Happy Holidays” sign at a store where you shop, for Jesus' sake stop by the customer service desk and say, “You know some of your loyal customers would appreciate it if your store said 'Merry Christmas' on the sign rather than 'Happy Holidays'”. You may even give a short note to the manager. No need to issue a threat or ultimatum that you'll never shop there again; just submit your simple request and move on, let the Lord handle it .
5. In the days leading up to Christmas Day, read the Christmas story as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. That's Matthew chapters 1 & 2 and Luke chapters 1 & 2.
6. Attend at least one Christmas event – an advent journey, Christmas concert, Christmas cantata, Christmas Eve service.
7. Make it a point to give every Christmas card and present you in the name of Jesus Christ. Use Christmas cards that are Christ-centered, not holiday cards. Write Jesus or Christ on it somewhere someway if you want to write a personal note in addition to the greeting card's message. You might write, “This card comes from me to you in the name of Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.” Or you may simply say, “Let's keep Christ in Christmas.”
8. On Christmas morning, celebrate Jesus before opening Christmas presents or doing any other Christmas thing. (a) Sing a Christmas carol; or play a Christmas carol and sing along. (b) Read one account of the Christmas story from a simple translation; or retell the story. (c) Pray – thank God for sending Jesus Christ as His best Christmas Present for you and your family. Rededicate your home and family to Jesus Christ. Pray for family and friends who need to make room for Jesus, who need to receive God's Christmas present so Jesus can save them from sin and make them God's true children.
9. Be content with whatever card or present you receive, and thank Jesus Christ for each one. If you receive no Christmas presents, thank the Lord anyway, because you have already received Jesus the best and greatest Christmas present of all.
10.Receive Jesus Christ as your Christmas Present from God, so you can become a true child of God. Jesus is waiting on you to invite Him into your life, so He can occupy the room He carved in your heart for Him. A wonderful spiritual experience awaits you... a) Your greatest Christmas miracle is found in receiving Jesus into the room of your heart... John 1:12-13, 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That is the most important way to make room for Jesus this Christmas. If you don't remember praying the sinner's prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, just
pray, “Lord Jesus, there is room in my life for You. I receive You into my heart as my Christmas
present from Heaven. Forgive me of all my sins and accept me as one of God's children.”
To receive Jesus as God's Christmas gift, pray these words: Heavenly Father, I realize You sent Your Son Jesus Christ as Your best gift to me. Today, I receive Jesus Christ to save me from my sin. Forgive me and accept me as Your child. Thank You for hearing me. From now on I will live for You as You give me the power.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
ANGER IN THE FACE OF PERSONAL ATTACKS
Getting angry is very easy nowadays. Hardly a week goes by that we don't get upset over at least three or four things.
Millions of honest, hardworking people are outraged because their savings or pension has been slashed due to the greedy dealings of big corporations. Others are mad because they've been laid off from their job. Still others have lost their house, Family conflicts abound, injustices to each other inside the family surpass reason, Many are trapped in painful, expensive illness. Those all seem like good reasons to be irate.
We Christians find ourselves asking: "Is getting angry a sin?"
If we look through the Bible, we find many references to anger. We know that Moses, the prophets, and even Jesus got angry at times.
Is all the rage we're feeling today justified?
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control. (Proverbs 29:11, NIV)
Getting angry is a temptation . What we do after that can lead to sin. If God doesn't want us to vent our anger, we need to see what's worth getting mad about in the first place, and second, what God wants us to do with those feelings.
Worth Getting Angry About?
Much of what gets us worked up could be classified as irritants, those time-wasting, ego-bruising nuisances that threaten to make us lose control. But stress is cumulative. Pile up enough of those insults, and we're ready to explode. If we're not careful, we can say or do something we'll be sorry for later.
God counsels patience toward these aggravations. They will never stop, so we need to learn how to handle them:
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:7, NIV)
Echoing this Psalm is a Proverb:
Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. (Proverbs 20:22, NIV)
There is a hint that something bigger is going on. These annoyances are frustrating, yes, but God is in control. If we truly believe that, we can wait for him to work. We don't need to jump in, thinking God's off napping somewhere.
Distinguishing between petty trifles and serious injustice can be difficult, especially when we're biased because we are the victim. We can blow things out of proportion.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12, NIV)
Patience is not our natural reaction, though. How about revenge? Or holding a grudge? Or shock when God doesn't immediately zap the other person with a lightning bolt?
Growing a thicker skin so these insults bounce off is not easy. We hear so much today about our "rights" that we see every slight, intended or not, as a personal attack against us. Much of what gets us angry is just thoughtlessness. People are rushed, self-centered, worried about their own little world.
Even when someone is deliberately rude, we need to resist the urge to lash out in kind. In his Sermon on the mount, Jesus tells his followers to abandon that "eye for an eye" attitude. If we want nastiness to stop, we need to set the example (even as hard as it it sometimes).
Foolish Consequences
We can seek to live our lives under the control of the Holy Spirit or we can let the sinful nature of our flesh have its way. It's a choice we make every day. We can either turn to the Lord for patience and strength or we can allow potentially destructive emotions like anger to run unchecked. If we choose the latter, God's Word cautions us over and over of the consequences.
Proverbs 14:17 says, "A quick-tempered man does foolish things." Proverbs 16:32 follows with this encouragement: "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." Summing these up is James 1:19-20: "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." (NIV)
Righteous Anger
When Jesus got angry—at the moneychangers in the temple or the self-serving Pharisees—it was because they were exploiting religion instead of using it to bring people closer to God. Jesus taught the truth but they refused to listen.
We can also get angry at injustice, such as killing the unborn, human trafficking, selling illegal drugs, molesting children, maltreating workers, polluting our environment ... the list goes on and on.
Rather than stewing about the problems, we can band together with others and take action to fight, by peaceful, lawful means. We can volunteer and donate to organizations that oppose abuse. We can write our elected officials. We can form a neighborhood watch. We can educate others, and we can Pray.
Evil is a strong force in our world, but we cannot stand by and do nothing. God wants us to use our anger constructively, to combat wrongdoing.
Don't Be a Doormat
How are we to respond to personal attacks, to the betrayals, thievery, and injuries that hurt us so deeply?
"But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:39, NIV)
Jesus may have been speaking in hyperbole, but he also told his followers to be as "shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16, NIV). We are to protect ourselves without stooping to the level of our attackers. An angry outburst accomplishes little, besides satisfying our emotions. It also gratifies those who believe all Christians are hypocrites.
Jesus told us to expect persecution. The nature of today's world is that someone is always trying to take advantage of us. If we are shrewd yet innocent, we will not be as shocked when it happens and will be better prepared to deal with it calmly, although more hurtful and shocking would be the attack, deceitful action, or theft from someone we know well and love such as family.
Getting angry is a natural human emotion that need not lead us into sin—if we remember that God is a God of justice and we use our anger in a way that honors him.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Pride becomes the FALL.
Pride Will Come Before the Fall
s part of the sanctification process that God would like to start with each one of us – one of the things that God will be doing, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is to either take out or prevent certain types of negative qualities from entering into our personalities.
Without question, one of the major qualities that God will be moving very strongly on to either prevent from being able to enter into us to any significant degree, or to literally knock it right out of us if it has moved too far up into our personalities, is the negative quality of pride.
This cancerous, lethal, and destructive quality, probably more than any other negative quality, has brought down more kingdoms, toppled more empires, caused more wars, destroyed more marriages, ruined more friendships, and led more criminals into our jail systems than all of the other negative qualities combined and put together.
The spirit of pride has to be the absolute king of all the negative and destructive qualities that can enter into our personalities – and no one is safe and immune from it. All Christians, young and old, super saint or not, have got to keep a sharp eye on this negative quality, and do everything they can not to let this spirit get a foothold and grip into their personalities and mindsets.
As you will see in the one of the Scripture verses I will list below – the spirit of pride will always come right before destruction and a major fall. Even unbelieving heathens are aware of this basic truth from our Bible.
The saying that “pride will come before the fall” is an universal truth understood by everyone. But as understood and hated as this quality is by most people, many still succumb to its enticing and seductive nature, and many end up losing everything as a result of the consequences of wallowing in it for too long of a period of time.
For the record, I believe that there is a good kind of pride and a bad kind of pride. Many Christians, after reading what some of the verses from the Bible has to say about this toxic quality, try and remove all sense of pride from them and their lives. As a result, they end up reducing a lot of their own natural joy in the Lord.
Webster’s dictionary, and some of the other different Bible dictionaries describe this good kind of pride as follows:
- Proper respect for one-self, self-respect
- A reasonable or justifiable self-respect
- Sense of one’s own dignity and self-worth
- Delight or satisfaction in one’s own or another’s achievements
If your child comes home and tells you that he has just received straight A’s on his report card – your first natural and instinctive response will be to want to tell them “how proud” you are of them and what they have just accomplished. If your husband comes home and tells you he has just received a nice promotion and pay raise at work for the good job he has been doing – again, your first natural response will be to want to tell him how proud you are of him and his efforts to try and make a better life for your and your family.
This is the good kind of pride. There is nothing wrong in having this good kind of pride for what your children may be able to accomplish and for what you may accomplish in your own work for the Lord in this lifetime. I believe that God Himself wants you to have this good kind of pride for the blessings and opportunities He may bring your way.
If God has just blessed you with a nice new house, there is nothing wrong in being proud of that house and wanting to take good care of it. If God has blessed you with a wonderful marriage with a beautiful mate and beautiful children, there is nothing wrong in taking pride in all of them and what they may accomplish for the Lord in this life.
This good kind of pride that you may have in the actual work that you are doing for the Lord and with whatever blessings He may want to pass your way in this life all help to contribute to your own personal joy in the Lord. It helps to give you a nice sense of approval, and it also helps to motivate you to want to keep on pressing further on with the Lord in whatever He has called you to do for Him in this life.
However, as with anything else that may start out good – there is always the danger of possible excess. What starts out as a simple and a humble type of pride can start to grow into something much more deadly if a person does not properly keep on top of it.
One of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of self-control. Not only will you need to use your own self-control to help keep a proper grip and lid on this quality from getting out of control in your personality – but you will also need the self-control of the Holy Spirit Himself to help you keep proper control of it – especially those who are called by God to move into any type of leadership roles within His Body.
In the verses I will list below, you will see two key words being repeated several times. These two key words are the words “pride” or “proud” and the word “haughty.”
Webster’s Dictionary, and several of the different Bible dictionaries describe the negative kind of pride as follows:
- An unduly high opinion of oneself
- Exaggerated self-esteem, conceit
- Haughty behavior resulting from arrogance
- An improper and excessive self-esteem known as conceit and arrogance
- A sin of attitude and of the heart and spirit
- A puffed up and inflated ego
- Boasting and high-mindedness
- A conceited sense of one’s superiority
- Highly exalted in attitude, opposite from the virtue of humility
All you have to do is compare the two different sets of definitions of the good kind of pride versus the bad kind of pride to see what the real differences are between the two of them.
What gets some Christians into major trouble with the Lord is falling and entering into the second category mentioned above. What can start out as a humble, justified, and reasonable kind of self-respect for one’s self and one’s own efforts and accomplishments in the Lord can quickly deteriorate and descend down into the bad kind of pride where one starts to lose all sense of who they really are in the Lord.
The other key word that you will see listed in the verses below is the word “haughty.” Here is what Webster’s and some of the other Bible dictionaries have to say about this negative quality:
- Showing great pride on oneself and disdain
- Contempt or scorn for others
- Proud, arrogant, supercilious (disdain or contemptuous)
- An arrogant spirit
As you will see in the Scripture verses below, the Lord is using some very intense and strong language when describing this negative quality. Not only does God call pride an actual sin in His sight, but He goes one step further and calls it an actual abomination!
As I have stated several times in some of my other articles, whenever God the Father is using the word “abomination” to describe what He is thinking about something – He is using the most extreme and intense word that He possibly can to let all of us know, without any other possible interpretation, that we are to have no part of the activity He is describing as an abomination. We are to avoid it like the plague.
When God puts the qualities of pride and haughtiness in this abomination category – you know that He is giving all of us a very serious warning on this issue.
In the Scripture verse below where God the Father is telling us that pride and a haughty spirit will come before destruction and a fall – He is giving all of us major revelation. The history of our world, and what we see on a daily basis throughout the entire world, are all showing us this piece of revelation in actual operation.
The history our world is littered with the casualties that this negative and demonic quality and mindset has caused. It literally, and I mean literally, has completely toppled and destroyed kingdoms, countries, nations, alliances, companies, marriages and good friendships.
Probably the greatest fall that has ever occurred coming from this one negative quality may end up being the story of how Satan fell from heaven. The Bible only gives us partial information about this story.
As you will see in the three Scripture verses I will list below on how Satan managed to get cast out of heaven – the quality of pride was definitely one of the main causes that led to his own personal downfall in the Lord.
And to think that he was then able to get one-third of the rest of the angels to get cast out of heaven right along with him! I repeat – one third of all the angels who were living with him in heaven were also cast out – and they have now all permanently lost their place in heaven for all of eternity!
There is no more saving grace for Satan and all of these fallen angels. And to think that all of them were born and created up in this perfect heavenly environment – and then to throw it all away – all because one angel thought he could literally overthrow God Almighty Himself. Not only has this got to be the height of pure arrogance and pride, but it also has to be the height of pure stupidity!
As you will see in one of the Scripture verses below, Satan was one of the highest of all the angels God has ever created. He was allowed to literally walk on the mountain of God the Father Himself. He thus had to know how awesome and how powerful God the Father really is and that there was no way that anyone could ever begin to try and overthrow Him.
If God is all-powerful and there are no other Gods in existence – then anyone with half a brain can deduce that God cannot be defeated or overthrown. But Satan obviously was blinded by something else from being able to see this simple and logical truth – and that something was probably the spirit of pride and arrogance that he had operating in him by the time he started to reach this point of no return. I believe that is why God is telling us in this particular verse that the spirit of pride will come right before the fall – as pride is what will start to blind you as to what the real truth of a matter is.
A perfect example of this in our present day and age has to be the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. All this man had to do was to let the UN inspectors complete their investigation into his country for weapons of mass destruction that were never found – and he could have easily retained full control of his built up, corrupt empire. But his pride got in the way.
He had to show our country and the rest of the world that he could stand up and defy the strongest military might in the world. As a result of letting his pride get in the way and cloud his better judgment on giving into the UN inspectors, he literally lost his entire kingdom in just a matter of a few days!
He literally went from living in the most lavish and expensive living quarters that anyone could possibly live in to being found at the bottom of a hole in the ground all disheveled and unkempt.
We are talking about someone falling from the highest peak of a mountain as king and ruler of an entire country to the lowest depths that anyone can possibly fall to in this life – behind the bars of a jail loosing all of his freedom, all of his wealth, and all of his contact with his family and friends.
You have all heard many preachers talk about Joseph going from the pit to the palace. Saddam Hussein managed to do just the opposite. In a matter of just a few days, he literally went from the palace to the pit, and we all know what befell him in the end at those lonely gallows after he was found guilty at his trial.
Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin and all the rest of the despotic and evil dictators who have ever ruled on this earth will all go down as major history lessons for all of us showing us what pride, arrogance and a haughty spirit can do to a person and his life.
It will first completely destroy a person’s soul and spirit, and then it will eventually destroy and ruin the rest of what life they still have left. And then for many of them, they will end up being cast into the most horrible place imaginable when they die and cross over – hell itself, and then eventually into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone after the Millennium has taken place, where the Bible says that the smoke of their torment will ascend forever and ever.
The fall of Satan and all of these evil rulers in this world will serve as major examples of how deadly the spirit of pride can be, and how it can completely destroy a person and his life much the same way that an incurable cancer can invade and attack a person’s physical body. Once a cancer has spread too far into a human body where medical treatment can no longer stop it, the infected person will die shortly thereafter. It is the exact same way with the spirit of pride.
Once pride starts to seep into someone’s personality to any significant degree – it has to be dealt with and neutralized with the help of the Holy Spirit. If it is not, then it will continue to grow and spread through that person’s personality and mindset.
From there, it will start to seep into their emotions, actions and behaviors. And once this negative quality starts to manifest into their actions and behaviors, then their judgment will start to cloud. And once their sense of proper judgment starts to cloud up, they will no longer be able to separate truth from error. The only truth they will be able to see is what they perceive the truth to be, not what God’s real truth is, or what anyone else may try and tell them what is right.
They eventually end up becoming their own little god, thinking they have all of the answers to everything and that the entire world revolves around them and what they are striving to achieve and accomplish. They are no longer willing to be accountable to anyone else in their life, including God Himself.
They have forgotten and forsaken all of their true friends in this life. They have forgotten where they have come from, and they feel they no longer need any of God’s help or guidance to get them to where they are going. They are now totally self-sufficient and they think they can literally conquer the world through their own efforts and wisdom.
And then sooner or later it happens – they fall – and they end up losing everything they have managed to build up over all of those years due to their own stupidity and imperfections.
This scenario not only happens with rulers of different countries, but this same scenario also describes what happens to CEO’s of major companies, to managers, to supervisors, to foremen and to anyone else in any type of leadership position. With any type of position of leadership comes power and authority, and with power and authority comes the possibility of pride and corruption.
Many people end up becoming criminals in this life as a result of too much of the wrong kind of pride operating in their personalities.
Their pompous, arrogant, conceited, know-it-all attitudes convince them that they are smart enough to be able to get away with breaking any law they see fit just to satisfy their own lusts and desires – even if it means committing cold-blooded murder.
Their inflated sense of pride and ego tells them they are too smart to get caught by the law – and then again, it happens. They are caught as a result of their own stupidity and imperfections, and many of them end up never seeing the light of day for the rest of their earthly lives.
And all of this was as a direct result of the spirit of pride and arrogance they had operating in their mindsets and how they thought about things. This is why the Bible tells us that we have to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We have to learn how to develop right thinking in our thought process.
As a result of some of these people never learning what to think right about in this life – many of them have either died before their time may have really been up, or they have ended up spending a good portion of their adult lives behind bars in an eight by six foot cell.
When God the Father says that pride will come before a “fall” – He is giving all of us a major warning that some of these falls could end up being be very severe. For many, it will mean an early departure from this life. For others, it could mean a certain amount of time behind bars, the destruction and dissolution of their marriages, or possibly losing their jobs and the good pay they were making.
There are many different things that we can “fall” from. As a Christian, do not ever tempt your fate with God the Father with what He is personally doing with you and your life. Stay humble and accountable in your walk with the Lord.
If you don’t, and pride starts to enter your personality to any unacceptable degree with the Lord – God will be coming after you with two-by-fours and baseball bats upside your head to keep this deadly quality from becoming a part of your mindset and way of thinking in this life.
I have personally seen the Lord body slam several people to the mat when they got too far away from Him and started to get too big for their britches as a result of too much pride starting to seep up into their personalities.
God has His ways of humbling and chastening you, and He will not be putting up with any of His own getting too far away from Him – especially in the area of pride, arrogance and haughtiness. He has already lost a third of His angelic host to this deadly quality and He will do everything He possibly can not to lose any more of His children to this deadly sin and abomination.
Now here are some very powerful verses from Scripture giving you what God’s opinion really is on this deadly sin and abomination.
1. Pride is a Sin and an Abomination
These first two verses perfectly set the stage for all of us as far as what God the Father really thinks of this negative spirit and quality that could infect anyone of us at anytime. God is specifically telling us in these two verses that anyone who has become too proud in his own heart is committing a sin and an abomination in His sight!
Burn these two verses into your memory banks, and make sure you never, ever let this deadly spirit get a foothold into your mind and heart.
Once again, God the Father could not make things any more clear. Not only is the spirit of pride a definite sin in His eyes, but He is now taking it one step further and calling it an actual abomination in His sight.
God has now drawn a major battle line in the sand on this one particular negative quality with the way He has worded these two verses. And He is letting all of us know, loud and clear, that He will not want any of us to have any part of this destructive spirit that will not only destroy our personal lives down here on this earth, but will also destroy and sever the personal relationship that we can have with Him.
2. God is Afar From Those Who Are Proud
This next verse will now take it one step further. Not only is God calling those who are proud an abomination before His very eyes – but this next verse will now tell us that God is “afar” from those who are proud. And when God says that He is becoming “afar” from you – you are in big trouble!
What this means is that your personal relationship with the Lord can be severely effected and possibly severed if you do not start to see the errors of your ways with this deadly quality. God will start to pull away from you in your own personal relationship with Him if you do not start to get yourself straightened out with Him on this issue of becoming too proud in your own heart.
If you have fallen into any kind of serious pride with the Lord, you still have some time to see the errors of your way and get back into right standing with the Lord. God will be willing to fully forgive you if you are willing to see that too much pride has entered into your mind and heart, and then be willing to confess and repent before Him from this deadly sin.
Humble yourself and get this sin confessed, forgiven and removed from your soul before God is forced to take some kind of corrective action with you. He will only give you a certain amount of rope to run with before He pulls you in and takes the appropriate corrective actions to literally, and I mean literally, knock this deadly sin and abomination right out of your soul and spirit.
Here is the verse giving us this solemn warning:
“Though the Lord is on high, yet He regards the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.” (Psalm 138:6)
There is nothing worse that can occur in your walk with the Lord than to have Him start to pull away from you in your own personal relationship with Him. This particular verse is giving all of us a major warning and should be taken very, very seriously.
3. Pride Will Come Before the Fall
These next two verses will now put the icing on the entire cake on this one particular sin. In addition to God calling pride a sin and abomination in His sight, and then telling us that He will start to pull away from us in our own personal relationship with Him – He is now giving us one more final, dire warning in these next two verses.
In the first verse I will list below, God is telling us that “pride goes before destruction” and a “haughty spirit before a fall.” In the second verse, He states that “before destruction the heart of a man is haughty.” In other words, the spirit of pride and haughtiness can lead to a destructive type of fall.
Again, Satan and Saddam Hussein are two perfect and classic examples of one man and one angel completely falling and losing everything they had built up over their years of living in heaven and on this earth – and they literally lost all of it in just a matter of a few days.
They have both fallen from the top of a major mountain down to the very bottom of that same mountain. They have both gone from the palace to the pit in one fell swoop! That’s how far and how fast someone can fall if they have been operating in the spirit of pride to any significant degree for any length of time.
You can either choose to climb to the top of a mountain operating under a full serrender with God the Father where He will be the One to lead you up that mountain by His Holy Spirit – or you can choose to attempt to climb that mountain all on your own, operating under your own knowledge, wisdom and pride.
Jesus has already told us that if we try and build a house all on our own efforts without any of God’s help or guidance – that we will end up laboring in vain when it is all said and done.
Saddam Hussein managed to build up his empire all on his own efforts and pride – but that same pride ended up being his downfall, and he literally lost everything that took him years to build up – and all of it was lost in a matter of just a few days. His dramatic fall is a perfect example of what Jesus is trying to tell us with this statement. Saddam’s efforts and accomplishments in this life all ended up being in total vain.
The story of Satan in particular should also serve as a major history lesson for all of us on what can happen to someone if the spirit of pride gets too far ingrained into their heart and mindset.
If one of God’s highest created angels can literally fall from the top of a heavenly kingdom in the presence of God Almighty Himself – then anyone of us can fall in the exact same way if we do not stay on top of our walk with the Lord – especially in the area of our santification with the Lord where He is trying to mold, shape and transform us into the express image of His Son Jesus Christ.
These two verses in particular should be memorized by all Christians as God the Father is giving all us a major revelation with the statements being made in both of these verses. Here they are:
In the first verse, God is telling us that we will be better off hanging out with the more lowly and humble type of people in this life rather than trying to hang out with the type of people whose only goal in this life is to acquire more material wealth and riches. What wealth and riches you may be able to acquire in this life will all rot and perish the minute you die and cross over. Not once ounce, not one penny will be crossing over with you on your deathbed.
4. Let No One Glory in Men
These next 5 verses will add very nicely to all of the verses listed above. What happens to someone once the spirit of pride starts to enter into their personality is that they will then start to seek after their own glory. It now becomes all about them and them alone.
Christians who have fallen into this type of pride trap will not only start to try and steal the glory from anyone else who may be attempting to compete against them – but they will also try and steal the glory that would only be due to God Himself!
These next four verses are again, very strong words and revelation being given to us by the Lord, with all of it being for our own good. Here they are:
All 5 of these verses are laying it out very plainly and very clearly. We are not to glory in ourselves or to any other men and women in this life – and we are not to glory in our own accomplishments, in our own strength, or in any of the riches and wealth that we may have acquired in this life. The only Person that we are to glory to in this life is to the Lord Himself.
The fourth verse puts it very nicely when it says that we are not to commend ourselves for our own good works. Any commending that will be of any matter and value to us will be what the Lord will want to commend us for, not what we may want to commend ourselves for or what anyone else may want to commend us for.
In other words, the only Person you should really be worrying about trying to impress and seeking approval from in this life is God Himself, since He will be the only One who will be judging and rewarding you when all is finally said and done.
It’s really quite amazing how many people in our materialistic, greedy, and self-centered society are only working and living for whatever glory, fame, and notoriety they can get from other people in this life instead of trying to work direct for God and His seal of approval for what they are doing with their lives.
5. Stay Humble in Your Walk With the Lord
If God the Father does not want us walking with any kind of bad pride operating in our personalities – then what would be the exact opposite of having this kind of bad pride? These next 4 verses will tell you.
All 4 of these verses are telling us that we should be clothed with humility, that things should be done with a lowliness of mind, and that we should humble ourselves in the sight and under the mighty hand of God the Father. In other words, we all have to learn how to walk with a humble spirit and a humble mindset in our thoughts and in our actions towards ourselves, towards God and towards all other people.
Here are 4 very good verses from the Lord giving us this piece of revelation:
Notice that if you are willing to walk with this kind of a humble spirit in this life, that God will lift you up and properly exalt you to some type of degree when the time is right.
In the type of materialistic, greedy and competitive world that many of us are forced to live in today, trying to develop a real spirit of humility is a tall order. But God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, can work this kind of a humble spirit into your personality if you are willing to work with Him on it. This can be done, even in the type of competitive world we live in today if you really want God to help you in this area.
6. The Fall of Satan
As I stated at the top of this article, probably the greatest casualty of someone falling from this bad kind of pride operating in their personalities has to be Satan himself. The verses I will list below only give us partial information and partial knowledge as to what actually had occurred. We will have to wait until we get to heaven to get the rest of this story.
But these Scripture verses do give us enough information to get a basic understanding of what happened in his story and what caused him to completely fall from grace in the first place with our Lord and Savior. When you really stop and think about this fallen angel’s story – it really is beyond belief!
To think that God the Father gave him and the rest of these fallen angels a chance to literally make it up into His third heaven where He lives at compared to what the human race has to go through. We all live for trying to make it into this heaven. Satan and the rest of these fallen angels were all born into this perfect heaven. They had it all right from the very beginning – and yet they still blew it!
They had God, they had His perfect heaven in which to live and work in, and they also had no corrupting influences trying to come against them until Satan chose to rebel against God the Father after a certain period of time. What will be very interesting to find out is how long of a period of time it took before Satan started to corrupt in his personality, with the spirit of pride and lust causing him to want to try and rebel against God.
To think that all of these fallen angels had an equal chance and an equal opportunity to make it and remain in this perfect heavenly environment. All they had to do was keep their act together, stay humble and accountable in their walks with the Lord, do things God’s way and stay out of trouble – and they all could have lived happily ever after for all of eternity in this perfect heavenly paradise. But for whatever reason, all of this was simply not enough for some of them. They had to have it all, and Satan apparently made some kind of a futile attempt to elevate and exalt himself above the throne of God Himself.
Since they were all living in God’s presence in this third heaven for who knows how long – they all had to know that there was no other god or gods in existence, and that this one and only God was all-powerful and that He could not literally be overthrown. To have this kind of knowledge right at the beginning, and then to tempt their eternal fates by trying to literally overthrow this one and only Almighty God is totally beyond comprehension.
Either Satan and all of these angels were just plain stupid to begin with, or the spirit of pride was so blinding them, that they could no longer see the truth in certain matters and they thus thought they had a real chance to be able to literally overthrow our God.
I have to believe that these fallen angels had the initial intelligence and knowledge to begin with to fully understand how the big picture was all set up with God the Father. I do not think they started out with any kind of major stupidity from being able to see this obvious truth. But somewhere along the way pride entered in, and once it did, it started to blind and corrupt them. And once that corruption started to take place within their own natural personalities, it did not take long for them to malfunction to the dark side and then make an attempt to try and overthrow the Lord.
As a result of this treasonous and rebellious act, God the Father had no other alternative but to cast all of these abominable angels out of His presence for all of eternity – never, ever to be given another chance to be able to get back in!
Just stop and ponder and think on the eternal consequences of this one angel’s rebellion against God – to be forever banished from the only environment they had probably ever known. And all of this occurred as a result of one angel’s failure to keep his act together with the Lord!
For whatever reason, Satan let the spirit of pride and arrogance seep into his mindset and way of thinking. And once this spirit of pride and arrogance got to the point of starting to blind him to the big picture truths they were all living with – then it was only a matter of time before he would literally decide to act on it and go for all the marbles himself.
And once he made his final and fatal move with the Lord, that was going to be it. God pulled the plug, and he, and all the rest of the angels who tried to rebel with him, were all forever cast out of this perfect heavenly environment. Satan and all of the rest of the fallen angels who rebelled with him are now lost for all of eternity – and their final destination will be the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where they will all be thrown into at the end of the Millennium Kingdom with Jesus.
And to think that the catalyst that caused all of these events to occur was the spirit of pride! This is why the Lord is specifically telling us in the above verses that pride will come before the fall – and in this case, we are talking about the most extreme kind of fall imaginable – falling from heaven itself with no chance of ever being able to make it back in!
This is why all Christians have got to stay on top of this particular negative quality. If the spirit of pride can take out one third of the entire angelic host from the third heaven where God lives – then it can do the exact same thing to all of us living on this lower plane of existence. And we see it happening every single day down here on this earth.
Day in and day out, someone who has let the spirit of pride get the best of them is committing acts of murder, robbery, rape, adultery, thefts, scams, corporate fraud and mismanagement of funds and money, etc. As a result of the spirit of pride totally blinding them, they think they are justified in committing some of these evil acts to begin with. And then to top if off, they think they are too smart to ever get caught by the criminal justice system.
And for some, they will get away with some of these crimes and never be caught by the law in this lifetime. But then they forget one simple little thing.
It will only be a matter of time before they physically die and cross over – and when they do, they will all have to meet God the Father Himself head on for a personal judgment – and for many of them, this judgment will be causing the greatest fall of all if they have not been saved before they had died – the fall into the pit of hell, and then eventually the fall into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone after the Millennium has taken place, where they will then spend the rest of their eternal lives with Satan and all the rest of his fallen angels.
To watch this kind of scenario play itself out, day in and day out, is just gut wrenching. To think that so many of these people have become so blinded by their own pride and arrogance that they will no longer listen to God or anyone else who may want to try and help them out. Unbelievable!
Now here are the two main verses from the Old Testament giving us this story about Satan and how he managed to completely fall from the love and grace of God the Father. The third verse is from the Book of Revelation, which will tell us that a third of the heavenly angels were also cast out with Satan.
1. “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onlyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.
You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.
By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you.
You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever.” (Ezekiel 28:12-19)
2. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.
Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?” (Isaiah 14:12-17)
3. “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.” (Revelation 12:3-4)
Satan was called Lucifer before he rebelled and was cast out of heaven. Lucifer means “light bearer.” The name Satan means “adversary.” As a result of his fall from heaven, Satan goes from being a light bearing, anointed cherub to now being an enemy of God Almighty Himself!
Also notice that Satan was not born evil or wicked. The first verse says that he was the seal of perfection, that he was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, and perfect in his ways from the day he was actually created by God. The Bible also tells us that he was literally allowed to walk on the mountain of God Himself, and that he might have been able to walk very close to where God’s actual throne is located.
And then it happened – sin and iniquity was found in him. The Bible does not tell us how long of a period of time there was from the time that he was walking right before God until he started to sin and transgress.
The nature of the sin appears to have been something to do with the trading opportunities that the Lord must have given to him. The above passage tells us that somehow violence started to rise within him as a result of the abundance of those trading opportunities. The word “abundance” is telling us that Satan must have been very profitable with these trading opportunities. My guess is that all of this wealth and success must have started to go to his head.
The very first part of the first verse says he was covered with precious and valuable stones, and then it goes on to state what each one of these stones were. He was thus walking in some kind of significant wealth and prosperity. The verse also tells us that he had a certain number of sanctuaries under his rule as it says that he then ended up defiling a certain number of his own sanctuaries by some of the sins and iniquities he was committing.
Besides letting some of this wealth and prosperity start to get the best of him, the first verse then tells us that pride definitely started to enter into him when it says that his heart was “lifted up” because of his beauty. From that position, it then says that his wisdom started to get “corrupted” – and all of this was starting to occur as a result of the initial “splendor” he was walking in.
Put all of the above together, and it would appear that God the Father greatly blessed this angel with a profitable trading business and a significant amount of wealth and prosperity. But as a result of all of this significant abundance, pride started to enter in – and he then started to focus and concentrate too much on his own beauty, knowledge and wisdom, and on his own glorious splendor.
The second verse then takes us one step further into what happened next. It was bad enough that Satan was starting to corrupt from all of the wealth and prosperity that God had initially blessed him with. But then he had to see if he could start to expand and enrich his own personal territory. And what does he try and target next – the throne of God Almighty Himself!
The wording in the second verse then tells us that Satan literally wanted to exalt his own personal throne above the throne of God. And not only did he want to personally exalt his throne to this unreachable height, but then it states that he wanted to “be like” the Most High God Himself! Not only are we talking total, complete and open rebellion against God – but now we are talking complete and utter blasphemy against the Lord – to literally think that he could become like God Himself!
And no sooner does Satan reach this point of no return with the Lord that he then gets casts right out of heaven! The first verse tells us that Satan was then cast out of heaven as a “profane thing” and that he shall be “no more forever.” In other words, Satan no longer exists in the eyes of God. He is now totally lost forever and he will never, ever have another chance to get back into the good graces of our Lord and Savior.
When God the Father says you no longer exist in His eyes as far as He is concerned when He says you shall be “no more forever” – God is pronouncing the most extreme judgment that He possibly can on a created being. And to think that this created angel went from being a beautiful, wise, perfect and anointed cherub to being cast right out of heaven with God telling him that he will no longer exist in His eyes. We are talking about a created angelic being falling from one of the highest mountain peaks anyone could ever hope to walk on down to the lowest level that anyone can be cast down into.
At this time, Satan is still allowed to roam in the air in the second heaven. But once Jesus comes back to set up His Millennium Kingdom, Satan will first be cast into what is called the Bottomless Pit. And then after the 1000 year Millennium Kingdom has ended, Satan will then be cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where he will then remain forever and ever with the rest of his fallen angels and the rest of all unsaved humanity that has ever lived.
And not only did Satan manage to get himself thrown out of the third heaven, but the third verse above also tells us that he somehow managed to get a third of the angels to get cast out right along with him when it says that his tail “drew” a third of the stars from heaven and threw them down onto the earth. I think the key word to focus in on is the word “drew” – that Satan somehow managed to draw a third of these angels into his plan and scheme to try and exalt himself and his own personal throne above the throne of God.
To think that this one highly intelligent and beautiful angel could corrupt to such an extreme degree to where he thought he could literally overthrow our God the Father – and then to think that he could try to become just like Him – has got to be the greatest miscalculation and blunder any created being has ever made.
For the life of me, I simply cannot understand how Satan could have become so blinded and so deluded to think that this was even a possibility to begin with. Once you examine and analyze all of the above facts of this angel’s downfall – there can be no question that the spirit of pride had to have played a major part in his own personal corruption and eventual downfall.
I believe that his spirit of pride was so blinding and so distorting his view of the big picture, that he literally thought he could get away with trying to overthrow the Lord Himself – much in the same way that Saddam Hussein thought he could stand up and engage with the strongest military might in the world. Again, another major miscalculation and blunder as a result of the spirit of pride totally blinding him as to what the real truth was that was staring him right in the face.
I believe this is why God is telling us in the above verses that the spirit of pride, haughtiness and arrogance will come right before the fall and destruction of one’s own personal life.
Conclusion
The spirit of pride cannot only come after and enter into those who are working in higher positions of leadership and authority – but it can also come after and enter into anyone else – including any Christian. Christians especially have to really watch out for this deadly and infectious enemy.
What happens to some Christians after they initially get saved and start growing in the Lord is that some of this new found knowledge and power starts to go to their heads. All of sudden, they start looking “down” on unbelievers who are not saved and other Christians who are not walking in the same knowledge levels they are walking in. All of a sudden they start to feel “superior” over anyone else. They start thinking they have all the answers to everything and that they are never wrong.
And before they know it, they have elevated themselves onto a platform and are now looking “down” on the rest of the world. They have now become their own little god where everything revolves around them and their own agendas. All of sudden they no longer need to listen to the leadings of the Holy Spirit. They start to become so self-sufficient, they no longer need the Lord or anyone else to tell them what to do with their lives or how to live it.
They start to ignore and pull away from the convictions of the Holy Spirit. Their ego and pride can no longer handle any type of constructive criticism – even if that constructive criticism is coming direct from the Lord Himself. And before they know it, they have lost all touch with their real friends, and now God Himself has pulled away and backed off letting them run as far as they want to run.
And then it happens. With all of their good support structures now gone with God and their real friends pulling back from them, their own imperfections finally catch up with them, and their house of cards all of a sudden comes crashing down on them and they end up losing it all. For some, it will mean the loss of their marriages and good friends. For others, it will mean the loss of their good jobs or ministries they had going with the Lord.
This type of scenario can play itself out across all walks of life. You see this kind of scenario occurring in marriages, friendships, and in all levels and segments of the workplace.
The reason that so many of their good friends will start to leave and abandon them is because no one wants to be around someone who is operating in the higher levels of this spirit. No one wants to be around someone who is always looking down on them trying to make them feel inferior all the time.
If God Himself will start to pull away and become “afar” from a prideful person as one of the above Scripture verses is telling us – then you can bet that most people who are not submissive doormats will have the exact same type of reaction. This is why the spirit of pride is such a killer. It kills anyone and anything that attempts to get close to it.
And the deadly thing about the spirit of pride is how slowly and methodically it can start to work itself up into a person’s mindset and personality. Satan was not born with the high levels of pride that eventually lead to his downfall. This kind of pride is built up over a certain period of time.
How many of us have seen people start out on their ladder of success with the Lord with very humble and submissive spirits, and then all of a sudden half way up that ladder pride starts to enter in – and now they no longer need God or any of the other good supportive relationships that they may have had with their spouses, children and good friends.
This kind of train wreck can not only occur with those working in the higher positions of leadership and authority in this country – but it can also happen to anyone else – no matter what level of society they are living and working in. No one is immune from this deadly enemy, especially in the type of world we live in today where the pursuit of money, power and fame is the only thing that some people think about, not knowing they are just chasing the wind when all is finally said and done.
The fall of some of the major corporations in our country is another good example of the spirit of pride in full operation and the devastating effects that it can have on all those who are close to it. Many people have lost all of their life’s savings in some of these companies as a result of the greed and pride that was operating in some of the CEO’s of these companies.
This is why the Lord is really sounding the alarm with the way He has worded all of the above verses. When God the Father says that the spirit of pride will come right before a fall – you know He is trying to give all of us a major warning that this deadly spirit has to be stopped dead in its tracks before it even has a chance to wrap itself around your mind and way of thinking.
The spirit of pride has to be dealt with very early on before it starts to grow too far and too big into your thought process. This is why the Lord is really emphasizing that each and every Christian enter into this sanctification process with Him so the Holy Spirit can start to take control and help you stay on top of your game as you continue to grow in the grace, knowledge, power, favor and blessings of the Lord.
God blessed Satan with incredible amounts of wealth and authority – and look what happened – he could not stay humble and appreciative of those blessings. And once he started to take his eyes off of the real source, God the Father, he then started to look on his own beauty and on his own wisdom, literally to the point that he thought he could become like God Himself.
Though we can all look at this story from the outside and wonder how anyone could have been so stupid to think that they could become like God Himself or to try and literally overthrow Him – realize that once this spirit gets a real foothold into your mind and thought process – it has a very subtle way of being able to alter and distort your view and perception of reality. And once it has grown into any kind of full fruition in your mindset, you can become totally blinded to any kind of real truth.
I will leave you with one very good verse that puts all of this in proper perspective. This verse is telling us that we should not be “boasting” about tomorrow because we have absolutely no idea what is going to be happening to us tomorrow. And not only do we have no idea on what is going to happen to us tomorrow – we don’t even know what is going to happen to us in the next two minutes, much less what is going to happen to us in the next 24 hours.
As a result of the curse of Adam and Eve that is still in full operation on this earth, we all have to live with a certain amount of uncertainty in this life – never knowing when or how we are going to die, never knowing when we may get sick or be involved in a bad accident, or never knowing when we may lose our job or our marriages. Anyone of us at anytime can get hit with a torpedo shot straight from the pit of hell itself.
This one basic fact alone should help keep each and everyone of us totally humble and accountable in our walk with the Lord. It is only by the grace, power and protection of God the Father that we can even begin to make it through this life in one piece. This is why Jesus has told us that without Him we can do no absolutely nothing!
Now here is another good verse to burn into your memory banks.
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” (Proverbs 27:1)
DEALING WITH DIFFICULT FAMILY MEMBERS AND CONFLICT.
While family relationships can bring support, joy, and other wonderful benefits into our lives, these relationships can also bring stress, particularly when there's unresolved conflict. Because it's more difficult to let go of conflicted relationships with family than it would be if these relationships were mere friendships, unresolved conflicts with family members can bring additional stress at family gatherings. And this sense of strain can usually be felt among other members of the family as well, especially when a person seems to put undeserved blame and added resentment to ALL members of the family that may not have even been involved in the original conflict because they are terribly flawed in their emotional state and acceptance of the blame of their own behavior. In other words, they are unable to accept they are wrong and find it easier to just get everyone in the family involved and blamed for doing them wrong instead of losing pride and apologizing for truly something that only they did. This person is grossly selfish and dangerous with their actions.
Without an apology or other form of resolution, the trust on both sides is compromised, and may not know what to expect from this person in the future. (For example, that one time your mother-in-law was cussed out up and down called every terrible name in the book by her very own child in front of company. So every time that child comes for a visit, others may sense your mother-in-laws tension.) Other examples are when family members offer advice for destructive behaviors, such as the time Aunt Julie cussed out her own brother calling him terrible unspeakable names, getting up in his face, and pushing and hitting him in front of everyone just because he offered her advice about drinking, smoking and having relations with other men and that she should not be cheating on her mate who loved her dearly, that she needed to be honest with him. These are extreme cases, (yet true cases) Also, references or reminders of past conflicts can sting and create new pain. However, it is hard to move on to the future if one is still in the past with their actions.
Once a conflict has gone on awhile, even if both parties move on and remain polite, the feelings of pain and mistrust are usually lingering under the surface, and are difficult to resolve: bringing up old hurts in an effort to resolve them can often backfire, as the other party may feel attacked; avoiding the issue altogether but holding onto resentment can poison feelings in the present. So what do you do at a family gathering when there's someone there with whom you've had an unresolved conflict? Just be polite. A family gathering is not the time to rehash old conflicts, as such conversations often get messy before they get resolved--if they get resolved. In future dealings with this person, you can take one of three paths:
- Try To Resolve The Conflict: At a time when all the family isn't gathered, ask the person if they'd like to discuss and resolve what happened in the past. If (and only if) you and the other person seem to want to resolve things and are open to seeing one another's point of view, this could be a constructive idea. Seeing where each of you may have misunderstood the other or behaved in a way you would change if you could, offering sincere apologies, and in other ways resolving the conflict can heal the relationship for the future.
- Forgive and Forget: If it looks like such a civil meeting of the minds is unlikely, don't push it. It's probably a good idea to try to forgive the other person and let it go. Forgiving doesn't mean opening yourself up to feel wronged again; it only means that you let go of your feelings of resentment and anger. You can be careful in what you expect from this person in the future without actively harboring resentment, and you'll be the one to benefit the most. However, once they continually show recurring attacks and your the one always forgiving and forgetting their bad behavior, while they start coming around acting like "nothing happened", it may be time to resort to 3 Especially if the conflict started over you trying to give them advice over bad choices and behaviors of theirs.
- Cut The Person Out of Your Life: If what the other person did was abusive and there's absolutely no remorse or reason to expect things to be different in the future, you can severely limit your dealings with this person, or cut off contact altogether. This is normally a last-resort choice, but in cases of abuse, it's sometimes a necessary one to make for your own emotional health. This is used for the person who screams at you calling you a $@#$@%%#%#$% or physically attacks you. Catch my drift? Sometimes distance and prayer is the only true resolve to letting God deal with a person.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Keeping the Faith
1 Brotherly love must continue. 2 Do not neglect hospitality, because through it some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment. 4 Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers. 5 Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” 6 So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:1-6).2
Introduction
Once I settled on the title, “Keeping the Faith,” a story quickly came to mind. This is because I read about it years ago in Readers Digest (as I recall), under the caption, “Keeping the Faith.” The story is apparently true, told by a Roman Catholic Priest. He was coming out of the church in the dark of night when he was accosted by a robber. The robber shoved a pistol into the priest’s ribs and demanded that he produce his wallet. The priest was in no position to resist, so he reached inside his coat for his wallet. As he did so, the priest’s collar became visible, and the robber was completely taken aback as he realized he was robbing a priest.
“Are you a priest?” the robber questioned? “Yes. Yes I am,” the priest replied. “Well, I don’t rob priests,” the man said. “Thanks, thanks a lot,” the priest responded gratefully. As he was drawing his hand from his inside coat pocket, it brushed against some cigars that were there, along with his wallet. “Have a cigar?” the priest offered. “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that,” said the thief, “you see, I’ve given them up for Lent.”
Now here was a devoutly religious man! He would rob nearly any vulnerable victim, but he drew the line at robbing priests and smoking cigars – at least for a few days on the cigars. We laugh at this story because it illustrates the tremendous gap that often exists between our faith and our practice. Hebrews 11 provides us with a number of Old Testament examples of faith, so that it becomes clear that all who found acceptance with God did so on the basis of faith. In chapter 12, the author exhorts his readers to run the race set before them with endurance, keeping their eyes fixed on Jesus, the founder and finisher of the faith (Hebrews 12:1-4). He then proceeds to set forth the means and the motivation for endurance. When we come to chapter 13, I believe that our author is spelling out for us just what our endurance should look like – what form our endurance should take. The first six verses can be summed up by the expression “brotherly love.” We might summarize the structure of our text for this lesson in this way:
WHAT ENDURANCE LOOKS LIKE –
BROTHERLY LOVE, AS SEEN IN . . .
Showing hospitality to strangers
Showing compassion to those who are suffering for the faith
Honoring marriage
Living a lifestyle that is free from the love of money
Brotherly Love Must Continue
Hebrews 13:1
Brotherly love must continue (Hebrews 13:1).
Here, the reader is exhorted to persist in showing brotherly love.3 Here, the exhortation is not technically a command, but brotherly love is commanded4 elsewhere in Scripture:
“This I command you – to love one another” (John 15:17).
You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22).
20 If anyone says “I love God” and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too (1 John 4:20-21).
The author writes, “Brotherly love must continue,” indicating that the Hebrew saints are already practicing brotherly love. Indications of brotherly love are found in chapter 10:
32 But remember the former days when you endured a harsh conflict of suffering after you were enlightened. 33 At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way. 34 For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly had a better and lasting possession (Hebrews 10:32-34).5
But in addition to this, the author is well aware that love can grow cold.6 And so the exhortation is to persist in practicing brotherly love.7 In other words, brotherly love is one aspect of a life of endurance in the faith.
Why is brotherly love commanded here and elsewhere? There are several reasons why brotherly love is viewed as highly important and essential to the Christian life. First of all, we must show brotherly love because this is one of the two great commandments of the Bible, Old Testament and New:8
36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40).
9 Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality (Romans 12:8-13).
Second, loving one’s brother is an evidence of one’s faith in the Lord Jesus – of being a disciple of Jesus.
34 “I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
Third, loving one’s brother is the incentive for fulfilling all of one’s obligations to his brother:
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:8-10).
The author of Hebrews emphasized that the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant. The New Covenant changed men’s hearts, so that they would fulfill the law. Love for one’s brother is one manifestation of the writing of the law on men’s hearts and, as Paul writes above, it prompts us to do those things which the law requires.
Fourth, brotherly love is commanded because it doesn’t come naturally, and in some cases, it doesn’t come easily. Not all Christians are equally “loveable.” Some are kind of prickly – like porcupines. And biblical love does not come naturally. Love sets the interests of others ahead of our own. Love gladly sacrifices for the well being of others, even to the point of death.9
Fifth, difficult times were coming, and these are times when love can grow cold.
9 “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of my name. 10 Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, 12 and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the person who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:9-13, emphasis mine; see also John 15:17-25).
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write the following:
“This is the solemn pronouncement of the one who has a firm grasp on the seven stars in his right hand – the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 ‘I know your works as well as your labor and steadfast endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have even put to the test those who refer to themselves as apostles (but are not), and have discovered that they are false. 3 I am also aware that you have persisted steadfastly, endured much for the sake of my name, and have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you: You have departed from your first love! (Revelation 2:1-4)
We can fairly easily understand how persecution could cause some Christians to turn against one another, as Jesus indicates in Matthew 24. But the words of our Lord to the church in Ephesus may take a little more thought for us to understand what is being said. The church at Ephesus started very well.10 Even so, Paul warned the Ephesian elders that some of them would teach error in order to gain a personal following.11 Eventually, Paul had to send Timothy to Ephesus to correct false teaching.12 By the time the church at Ephesus was addressed in Revelation 2, false teaching had been addressed, and the church was vigilant to maintain doctrinal purity.13 The problem (as a friend of mine used to put it) was that “it is not easy for a watchdog to smile.” It appears that in their zeal to maintain doctrinal purity, the saints had unknowingly lost their first love, the love that initially characterized these saints’ devotion to God and to one another.
It should be relatively easy to see that brotherly love was vitally important to these Hebrew saints. The question, then, is this: “What does brotherly love look like?” What are the practical outworkings of brotherly love in the context of the church? This is what verses 2-6 spell out for us. Brotherly love practices hospitality toward strangers, remembers those in prison and those suffering persecution for their faith, honors marriage, and maintains a lifestyle that is free from the love of money, trusting rather in God. Let’s consider each of these aspects of brotherly love in greater detail.
Brotherly Love Shows Hospitality to Strangers
Hebrews 13:2
Do not neglect hospitality, because through it some have entertained angels without knowing it (Hebrews 13:2).
Let me begin by noting that our author does not speak of hospitality in general; he speaks specifically of showing hospitality to strangers. Beginning in the Book of Genesis, we see the importance of showing hospitality to strangers. Abraham welcomed three strangers when they passed his way in Genesis 18. We know that two of these “men” were angels, and the third person seems to be a pre-incarnate visitation of our Lord (see 18:17). When the two angels continued on to Sodom, Lot greeted them and offered the same kind of hospitality (Genesis 19:1ff.). (He seems to have known the danger they faced if left to themselves in this wicked place.) No doubt our author has these two incidents in mind when he writes that in showing hospitality to strangers “some have entertained angels without knowing it.” I suspect that there have been other such encounters as well, which we may not know about for certain until we reach heaven.
Later on in Genesis, we read the account of Abraham’s trusted servant in search of a wife for Isaac. When he reaches Mesopotamia, he prays this prayer for guidance in finding the right wife for Isaac:
“O Lord, God of my master Abraham, guide me today. Be faithful to my master Abraham. 13 Here I am, standing by the spring, and the daughters of the people who live in the town are coming out to draw water. 14 I will say to a young woman, ‘Please lower your jar so I may drink.’ May the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac reply, ‘Drink, and I’ll give your camels water too.’ In this way I will know that you have been faithful to my master” (Genesis 24:12-14).
Most of us probably know this story well. Rebekah arrives and does just as the servant prayed. Why was this the test that the servant devised to determine whether or not a young woman was the one God had chosen for Isaac’s wife? It was because he knew that Isaac’s wife needed to be a woman who was given to hospitality to strangers.
In Judges 19, we find the strange and troubling account of a young Levite whose concubine had fled and returned home to Bethlehem, to her father. When the Levite arrived at her father’s home, he persuaded her to return with him. But her father’s hospitality was such that the Levite had to expend considerable effort to tear himself away from this home and its hospitality to make his way back to the hill country of Ephraim. He passed by Jebus (later to be Jerusalem) because at the time it was inhabited by Jebusites and not Israelites. He did not want to risk seeking shelter among pagans. Instead, he wanted to press on to the Benjamite city of Gibeah. But when they arrived there at sunset, no one offered to take them in. Finally, an old man from the hill country of Ephraim who was staying in Gibeah took the Levite, his concubine, and the servant into his home. The Benjamites of the city then surrounded the house and demanded to have sexual relations with the Levite.
There is much more to this story, but I believe one of the reasons this account is recorded in Scripture is to show us that the Benjamites (one of the tribes of Israel) had become just as corrupt and worthy of judgment as the wicked men of Sodom (in Genesis 19). Another reason for this story is to show us that hospitality to strangers is one of the things that should set God’s people apart from others.
When the law was given to Israel, one of the commands that was repeated several times was the command to deal kindly with strangers, for the Israelites were once strangers in the land of Egypt, and thus they knew how vulnerable strangers were in a foreign land.
“You must not wrong a foreigner nor oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21).
“You must not oppress a foreigner, since you know the life of a foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).
“You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:10).
33 “When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. 34 The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:33-34).
The New Testament also provides us with instruction and examples pertaining to hospitality to strangers. Let’s begin with the words of our Lord:14
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. 43 I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ 46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-46, emphasis mine).
Showing hospitality to strangers is not a work that we do in order to earn our way to heaven, but it is one of the earmarks of a true believer that sets him or her apart from others.
Then there are the examples of hospitality in the Book of Acts:
After she [Lydia] and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded us (Acts 16:15).
The jailer brought them into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household (Acts 16:34).
The importance of hospitality to strangers can be seen from Paul’s writings:
The overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher (1 Timothy 3:2, emphasis mine).
6 An elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, with faithful children who cannot be charged with dissipation or rebellion. 7 For the overseer must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work, not arrogant, not prone to anger, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain. 8 Instead he must be hospitable, devoted to what is good, sensible, upright, devout, and self-controlled (Titus 1:6-8, emphasis mine).
9 No widow should be put on the list unless she is at least sixty years old, was the wife of one husband, 10 and has a reputation for good works: as one who has raised children, practiced hospitality, washed the feet of the saints, helped those in distress – as one who has exhibited all kinds of good works (1 Timothy 5:9-10, emphasis mine).
Here we learn that hospitality is one of the qualifications of an elder. I believe this is true for a couple of reasons. First, an elder is a man who needs to set an example for all believers. The command given in Hebrews 13:2 is addressed to every believer and not just church leaders. But church leaders should be examples of godly character and practice. Secondly, since elders are to protect the flock from false teachers, who better to entertain visiting preachers and teachers than elders?
In his third epistle, the Apostle John has some strong words concerning showing hospitality to strangers (or not):
5 Dear friend, you demonstrate faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers (even though they are strangers). 6 They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone forth on behalf of “The Name,” accepting nothing from the pagans. 8 Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we become coworkers in cooperation with the truth.
9 I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not acknowledge us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to the deeds he is doing – the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church! 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is bad but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does what is bad has not seen God (3 John 5:5-11, emphasis mine).
John’s third epistle commends those who welcome strangers into their homes. These “strangers” are clearly brothers in Christ who go about preaching the gospel. Taking such strangers into one’s home and offering them hospitality furthers the gospel. Those like Diotrephes, who refuse to welcome strangers and who hinder those who would do so, are worthy of correction. We noted that immediately after coming to faith in Jesus, Lydia invited Paul and his missionary band into her home (Acts 16:15). Showing hospitality was her first recorded act as a Christian. The same is true for the Philippian jailer (16:34).
Offering hospitality to strangers is often neglected, as the author’s words in Hebrews 13:2 imply. Why would this be? In the days when Hebrews was penned, offering hospitality to strangers was risky. To invite a Christian brother into your home identified you with him and with his ministry. Where preaching Christ is a crime, offering a traveling preacher hospitality makes one an accomplice. In those days, people did not have the privacy that we experience today, and taking in a guest was quickly known to one’s neighbors.
Today, I think there are other hindrances to hospitality to strangers. One is denominational division. We tend to associate with folks who believe and practice their faith precisely as we do, and we view other genuine believers who differ with us in some non-essential way with suspicion. We tend to keep them at arm’s reach. A second reason is that we are often strongly attached to our privacy. We have our high fences, automatic garage door openers (so that we don’t even have to talk to our neighbors), our security systems. In some cases, we have our intimidating dogs to let strangers know to keep their distance. Taking in strangers is “invasive” and “inconvenient” in our culture.
Third, we often avoid hospitality because we are so busy, or so tired, that we just look the other way when a stranger who is a brother comes our way. Fourth, some people fail to show hospitality to strangers because they don’t realize the importance of hospitality. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone indicate that they “just have the gift of hospitality”15 in an almost apologetic way, as though this is really not a very important ministry.
Finally, I believe that there is one primary reason why Christians neglect showing hospitality toward strangers – we find it much more comfortable to spend our time with people we already know. A few years ago I was traveling in a different part of the country, and I made a point to attend a church in that area. Not knowing anyone in this church, I wondered how I would be greeted. Essentially, I was ignored. I am convinced that it was not intentional. It was just that these saints were having too much fun talking to one another to even notice that a stranger was among them. Nearly every week we have at least one visitor attend our church. My hope is that such visitors will be swarmed upon by members of our body who will make a deliberate effort to focus on those whom they don’t know, or don’t know well.
Remembering the Persecuted and Imprisoned
Hebrews 13:3
Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment (Hebrews 13:3).
As many of you know, for a number of years I ministered in a number of prisons around our country under the auspices of Prison Fellowship. I loved going into prisons where I would teach the Scriptures to inmates, some of whom were Christians. But I am always uneasy when our text in Hebrews 13:3 or the words of our Lord in Matthew 25:36 are used as the basis for prison evangelism. We should take the gospel to men and women, wherever they may be, but the instructions we find in our text (and in Matthew 25) are much more specific.
I am persuaded that in our text we are being instructed to remember and to visit fellow believers who have been imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. This is because it is a manifestation of brotherly love. We are to identify with them as though we were in prison with them – not for committing a murder or a robbery, but for proclaiming and practicing their faith in Jesus Christ. By the way, there is no indication given here that these “prisoners” and persecuted saints are people that we know personally. These folks may very well be “strangers” to us, but as a rule, we cannot bring them into our homes to show them hospitality. Those who are incarcerated are shown brotherly love when we visit them in prison, or at least correspond with them in prison.
So what does it mean to “remember” those in prison and those who are ill-treated? Well surely it means that we should seek to be aware of the plight of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. Some information may come to us through missionaries, or through organizations like “The Voice of the Martyrs.”16 Another means is through the Internet or by articles in Christian magazines. For example, I just read an article on the plight of the church and the people of Zimbabwe in “World Magazine.”17 Our church has partnered with another church in Illinois to pray for Sudan. In addition, we have become prayer partners with a church in Indonesia. One of their members is a Nigerian Christian who is on death row in Indonesia. It appears that his only crime was naming Christ as his Savior. Through one of our members, we have also learned about the persecuted church in Pakistan and of ministry to these saints through micro loans.18 The information is there if we but make the effort to find it, but be warned, learning of such situations places a greater burden of responsibility on us to act in some way to help and encourage our persecuted brethren. As time passes, I believe that we will see more and more persecution of the saints in our own country.
Honoring Marriage
Hebrews 13:4
Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers (Hebrews 13:4).
In the days of these Hebrew Christians, marriage was under fire from many different directions. We know from Matthew 19:3-12 that divorce was acceptable for almost any reason to the most conservative Jews of that day. Even the disciples were shocked at Jesus’ teaching on the permanence of marriage. Some forbade marriage (1 Timothy 4:1-5), while others tolerated it but discouraged normal sexual intimacy between a husband and his wife (see 1 Corinthians 7:1-5). The pagan culture had no qualms regarding prostitution (especially religious prostitution, such as was practiced in Corinth) or the keeping of courtesans. The church at Corinth tolerated a man living with his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5). From what we read in 1 Peter 2:18—3:7, wives were often abused by their husbands, as were slaves. Marriage, even in the church, seemed to fall short of the standard set by our Lord in Matthew 19 or by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:22-33.
I believe our text makes it clear that God has a much higher standard for marriage and that this standard is to be met by every Christian. To be faithful to our author’s words, marriage is to be “honored” among all. What does it mean to honor marriage, and just how is that to be done? The term rendered honor is one that means precious, expensive, or of great value:
18 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed – not by perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19, emphasis mine).
Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire (2 Peter 1:4, emphasis mine).
The city possesses the glory of God; its brilliance is like a precious jewel, like a stone of crystal-clear jasper (Revelation 21:11, emphasis mine).
I understand the author to be instructing believers in Jesus to highly value the institution of marriage, as God first gave it to mankind (Genesis 2:18-25; Matthew 19:3-12), and as He now uses it to portray the relationship of the church (as a bride) to the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33). Thus, Christians are to highly value marriage as the union of one man and one woman, until death parts them. Any other view of marriage cheapens it, rather than honors it.
Furthermore, I believe that we honor marriage as Christians when both the husband and the wife honor (treasure) their God-given mates as a gift of great value.
28 . . . her husband also praises her:
29 “Many daughters have done valiantly,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting,
but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.
31 Give her credit for what she has accomplished,
and let her works praise her in the city gates (Proverbs 31:28b-31).
Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as the weaker partners and show them honor as fellow heirs of the grace of life. In this way nothing will hinder your prayers (1 Peter 3:7, emphasis mine).19
It seems clear from Hebrews 13:4 that we honor marriage (and our spouse) by maintaining sexual purity within (and certainly before) marriage. While the pleasures of marital sex are to be enjoyed without guilt, sexual relationships outside of marriage are forbidden because they dishonor marriage, and this necessitates divine judgment.20 Notice how Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 4 approach sex in marriage in a very similar fashion:
3 For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. 6 In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases, as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly. 7 For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. 8 Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, emphasis mine).
Because a Christian husband’s relationship with his wife is a picture of Christ’s relationship with the church, marital infidelity has profound implications. Thus, the process of sanctification in the believer’s life includes the sexual relationship of a husband and his wife. In a culture as corrupt as ours, this may have many implications.
So what does sexual purity in marriage have to do with loving our brother or sister in Christ? Our culture has managed to interchange the terms “sex” and “love” so that immoral and illicit sexual intimacy is called “making love.” Sexual union within marriage is a beautiful thing, but sex outside of marriage is not brotherly love for any of the parties involved. True love requires sexual purity, as we see in Ephesians 5:
1 Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children 2 and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. 3 But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. 4 Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting – all of which are out of character – but rather thanksgiving. 5 For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them, 8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – (Ephesians 5:1-8, emphasis mine).
Love Maintains a Lifestyle That is Free from the Love of Money
Hebrews 13:5-6
5 Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” 6 So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)
We must begin by noting that the author does not forbid having earthly possessions. It is not a sin to be wealthy nor is poverty necessarily a virtue. It is the love of money that is forbidden here, as elsewhere in Scripture:
The one who loves money will never be satisfied with money,
he who loves wealth will never be satisfied with his income.
This also is futile (Ecclesiastes 5:10, emphasis mine).
“No servant 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. You cannot serve God and money” (Luke 16:13).
1 This saying is trustworthy: “If someone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a good work.” 2 The overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher, 3 not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not contentious, free from the love of money (1 Timothy 3:1-3, emphasis mine).
9 Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains (1 Timothy 6:9-10, emphasis mine).
For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy (2 Timothy 3:2, emphasis mine).
The love of money is a matter of lifestyle. The beginning of verse 5 is translated in a number of ways:
“Your life should be free from the love of money”
“Let your conversation be without covetousness”
“Make sure that your character is free from the love of money”
“Your conduct must be free from the love of money”
If one combines the different nuances of these translations, we might conclude that the issue is a state of mind that has become part of one’s character, and thus it produces a lifestyle that is not driven by the need to acquire and to hoard the things God has given us to manage as stewards.
The solution is to be content with what God has given us, based upon the assurance that God will never abandon us. The author’s citation, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you” (verse 6) calls three Old Testament texts to mind:
“I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!” (Genesis 28:15)
“Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!” (Deuteronomy 31:6)
“No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone” (Joshua 1:5).
These three texts have something in common besides the assurance of God’s presence and provision. In the first text (Genesis 28:15), Jacob is fleeing to Mesopotamia to secure a wife, but also (and probably more important to Jacob at the moment) to escape the wrath of his brother Esau, from whom he swindled his birthright and his father’s blessing. As Jacob flees from the Promised Land, he no doubt has fears about his well being in Paddan-aram and may fear that he will never be able to return to Canaan. God assures Jacob of His presence and protection and thus of his safe return to the land of promise.
In Deuteronomy 31:6, God assures the second generation of Israelites to leave Egypt that He will be with them as they possess the land of Canaan. He will give them victory over the people of the land so that they can drive them out and possess the land. Doubting God’s presence and power is what caused the first generation of Israelites to seek to turn back at Kadesh Barnea.21
The same assurance of God’s presence and power is given to Joshua in Joshua 1. Joshua should be strong and courageous because God will give the Israelites possession of the land which He promised them.
Shouldn’t these promises of God’s presence and power, enabling His people to enter the promised land, serve as an encouragement to the Hebrew Christians regarding their entrance to the heavenly kingdom? God will be with them, and He will provide for them. And He will empower them to safely enter the heavenly kingdom – Mount Zion – to which the author has just referred.22
It may be well for us to recall that possessing great material wealth actually became a curse to the Jews in Jerusalem when Titus sacked the city in 70 A.D. Some short-sighted scholars have concluded that the early Christians were quite foolish to sell their property and give the proceeds to the apostles to be distributed to those in need. But divesting themselves of much of their wealth23 became a blessing to the Christians in Jerusalem. When the Romans sacked Jerusalem, they tortured the rich Jews, forcing them to tell where they had hidden their riches. The poor believers were of little interest to the treasure-hunting Roman soldiers.
Having cited these Old Testament assurances of God’s presence and power, the author now turns to Psalm 118:6, which he cites in Hebrews 13:6:
So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6)
The psalmist gives thanks to the Lord for His goodness, repeating the phrase, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting” (Psalm 118:1, 2, 3, 4). He then describes how he called out to God for help when he was in trouble in verse 5. It is because God is ever present to help those who trust in Him that the psalmist can express his boldness in the Lord, who is always near to help His people.24 Fearing (that is, trusting in) the Lord means that we need not fear what our enemies will do to us, for God not only protects us and provides for us materially, He likewise protects us from our enemies.
As I think about these references to the Old Testament which assure us of God’s care, I can see how they are not just the basis for our contentment with God’s provisions; these assurances are the basis for all of the expressions of brotherly love that are called for in verses 1-6. Showing hospitality to strangers not only costs us financially; it involves taking risks, for there may be those who come to us who intend to do us harm by seeking refuge in our home. Identifying with those in prison also puts the Christian at risk. If a Christian is imprisoned because of his faith, then those who identify with that prisoner also testify to their faith. Does our Lord assure us that He will never leave us nor forsake us? Then if marriage is a picture of the believer’s relationship with Christ, how dare we forsake our mate by divorce or sexual impurity?
Conclusion
These Hebrew Christians have already suffered for their faith. They have already practiced the things which the author calls them to do in our text:
32 But remember the former days when you endured a harsh conflict of suffering after you were enlightened. 33 At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way. 34 For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly had a better and lasting possession (Hebrews 10:32-34).
Even more difficult days lay ahead for these believers (12:4), and thus they are exhorted to persevere in their love for one another. Since the qualifications for elders include these same character qualities and lifestyles,25 believers should follow the example of their leaders. Thus, we shall find three references to leaders in the verses which remain in this epistle (verses 7, 17, 24).
Our text should prompt us to ask ourselves some questions?
Who might be a stranger to me, thus providing me with the opportunity to obey this text?
When is the last time we had a stranger at our table, or in our home?
How much effort do I expend seeking to welcome and embrace newcomers to our church?
How well informed am I about those fellow believers who are currently suffering for the faith, close to home and far away? What am I doing to manifest brotherly love toward those who are persecuted or in prison for the faith?
Has our depressed economy changed my attitude towards material goods? Am I generous with what God has given, or do I seek to hoard wealth and acquire more so that I feel secure?
How do I honor marriage in a society that is becoming more and more tolerant of “same sex” marriages, immorality, and divorce?
If I am single, how is my lifestyle consistent with purity in marriage?
These questions and many others should be prompted by the words of our text. May God work in our hearts to manifest brotherly love to those who share the same faith in the Lord Jesus.
For any who may yet be outside the faith, you are not only separated from fellowship with Christ; you are also deprived of the family fellowship that exists among true believers in Jesus. I urge you to acknowledge your need of salvation, to accept the sacrifice Christ has made at Calvary for your sins, and to join God’s family.
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