Let Put Christ Back into Christians -- Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5:13-16


"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (NKJV).

Earlier this week, a FB image came across my phone that has so resonated with me, something I’ve been thinking about ever since I saw it. I wish that I’d saved it (I didn’t), but it said something like: "Instead of putting Christ back into Christmas, how about putting Christ back into Christians?" Even now, as I’m sitting at my desk on Christmas morning, I want to cry when I think about this. How about putting Christ back into Christians . . . into me . . . into you . . . into the others I know who claim His name? Rather than being so concerned that those around us refuse to change their outlook, their culture, their practices to oblige our beliefs and our comfort, what if we were more concerned about being light and salt, rather than being accommodated?

What is salt and what does it do?

If you’ve cooked at all, you know that salt is called for in many recipes. Often it’s just a pinch or dash, but it helps in so many ways. Salt increases the amount of time it takes for water to boil. It brings out the flavor in other foods. It preserves and enhances. According to one Internet site, salt (combined with water) is absolutely essential for almost all bodily functions, even at a cellular level.

How does salt work? Salt is made up of two elements: sodium and chlorine. Sodium alone is volatile and chlorine is toxic, but combined together (as sodium chloride or salt), they become one of the four main electrolytes that conduct electricity through our bodies and cause our cells to generate muscle contractions and nerve impulses. Salt is basically the power conduit behind the microscopic generators within our bodies.

As Christians, we are the conduit between the Holy Spirit and this world (including all the people in it). While God is obviously powerful enough to do what He wants on His own, He has chosen the Church through which to work out His will in the world. Through prayer and through the operation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, God has empowered us to be the salt through which He will pour out His love and His blessings. And while God continues on a more impersonal way to bring "rain on the just and the unjust," it is directly through the Church acting as salt in the world that His love, mercy, and grace are poured out on individuals.

What is light and what does it do?

If you’ve ever sat in a dark room and then turned on a light, you know intimately that light brings about an amazing change in the environment. Think about being in a situation where all the light suddenly goes out (a power outrage, walking into a cave, being on an amusement park ride that suddenly goes into the dark). Often even our sense of balance, our sense of orientation, fails when we cannot see what is around us. But once the light is turned on, we are able to see the beauty and the dangers around us.

Often in the early morning or late evening hours, the sun peaks out from the horizon. Storm clouds that looked menacing often moments before are suddenly washed with beautiful lighted colors. That which seemed evil and threatening is changed into beauty beyond imagination with the influence of the light. God’s love, shining through the heart of a believer into another person, can change the course of a life from despair to hope, from impossibility to miracle. This is the power that we hold in our spirits, the very Spirit of the Living God, Who wants, more than anything else, to bring salvation—to bring complete restoration—to each person who was ever born, who will ever live.

When we talk about being salt and light, it is so far more amazing than trying to culturize those around us into some kind of pseudo-Christianity. It is about making such a difference that what is hard becomes soft, what is failure becomes success, what is broken becomes whole, and what is sin becomes righteousness. When we actually allow Christ into our lives, when we become Christ-ones, the miracle of God’s mercy and love becomes real to a dying world, not just in an abstract sense, but in a real sense one-on-one with those around us. When we begin to love as Christ loves, sacrificially, laying down our own comforts, our own cultural expectations, our own demands, our own rights; when we live as Christ lives, putting the lives of others ahead of our own; when we reach out as Christ reaches out, to those who are rejected, those who are angry, those who are addicted, those who are different from us; when we become Christ-ones, we will no longer have to concern ourselves with putting Christ back into Christmas. Christ will be there because we are there. But, to be honest, it will no longer matter because our own focus will be on what Christ really wants . . . for us to reach out to those around us as salt and light . . . in this world to serve, not to be served . . . in this world to love, not to be loved . . . in this world to be Christ-ones in all the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit.

　

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Are We among Those "Falling Away?" -- 2 Thess. 2:1-4

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4


Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. NKJ

In 2007, I started this study, this very article. Seven years ago. And as I was reading it again, in anticipation of finishing my study of 2 Thessalonians, I realized two things: One, this article in itself wasn’t really finished, and two, things haven’t gotten any better. Why is that? As a Church, what are we waiting for?

Paul instructs the Thessalonians not to be focused or fixed on the second coming of Christ. "We ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled . . . as though the day of Christ had come." Even in Paul’s day, Christians had doubts about their own salvation, about their place in the kingdom, even perhaps about God’s faithfulness. Paul doesn’t tell them "just to have faith," but rather instructs them in the knowledge of the truth.

"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4 NKJV).



Our faith as Christians is based on the truth, not just based on faith itself. We have faith in God, in His holy and perfect character, in His promises, in His Word. Paul understood this and instructs the Thessalonians not to be "shaken in mind or troubled." Why? Because God can be trusted! He knows that we cannot bring about the completion of our salvation by ourselves, but are wholly dependent upon Him to save us. We need to trust Him and to trust His mercy and love.

However, Paul then tells the Thessalonians the signs of the return of Christ, which include "the falling away." "Unless the falling away comes first . . ." More than focusing upon the timing of the rapture or the Second Coming, as Christians we should be focusing upon the fact that there will be many who consider themselves Christians but who have left the true faith. Matthew Henry:
"A general apostasy, there would come a falling away first, v. 3. By this apostasy we are not to understand a defection in the state, or from civil government, but in spiritual or religious matters, from sound doctrine, instituted worship and church government, and a holy life. The apostle speaks of some very great apostasy, not only of some converted Jews or Gentiles, but such as should be very general, though gradual, and should give occasion to the revelation of rise of antichrist, that man of sin."¹


Notice the things that Matthew Henry lists as characteristics of "falling away:"

• defection from sound doctrine

• defection from instituted worship and church government

• defection from a holy life

These are significant because these are what we are seeing in America today. I think we as Christians often deceive ourselves by thinking that in order to "defect" from the faith, we have to turn our backs upon God and reject Him and that this is somehow a one-time act that we would never do! However, Satan is wily and clever. His insidious attacks often don’t come frontally, but through devious means, appealing to the cracks in our spiritual armor. Defection from the faith often comes in a form of righteousness. In Matthew 23, the Lord Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they had chosen an outward form of righteousness, rather than an inward change of heart.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness" (Matthew 23:27-28 NRSV).

The Pharisees didn’t deliberately turn away from God. In fact, they truly believed they were following Him! Their defection was subtle and over a long period of time. It may be that we are also on the path to defection if we are not careful to listen to the Word, to study it carefully, and to live it out in our own lives.


Defection from sound doctrine

Sound doctrine is that which agrees with the whole of scripture, rather than taking pieces of scripture out and basing beliefs on it. There are many unsound doctrines wafting about in America. We, as believers, must be careful to analyze what is being taught and compare it to scripture. The sources of "learning" come at us from all sides: from books, from the Internet, from social media.

Rather than grasping at the latest book, we need to grasp at the Bible and understand that publishers—even Christian publishers—are in it for the money! They will publish what sells, not necessarily what is spiritually good for us. Even worse, most of what is available on the Internet or through social media hasn’t been vetted. That means that there is no one to fact-check, to make sure that what is being said or that the conclusions being made are valid. We need to constantly be suspicious of what we see and hear, particularly if it rings true in our own hearts! Our hearts are deceitful and Satan will use our emotions and our intuition to trick and blind us. We must constantly question ourselves and what we are drawn to. Much of what we believe as American Christians is wrong! We need to start being aggressive with ourselves and totally open to the Spirit, not just for the working of the gifts, but for the revealing of sin!


Defection from instituted worship and church government

More and more independent churches are arising. A lot of it stems from the corruption from within denominations. But this speaks more to the governing of church from within a congregation! Are we governing ourselves? Do our pastors know who we are spiritually? Most of us would say no. Our pastors barely know our names! And that isn’t healthy church government.

Scripture talks about church discipline, that type of governance where we are so concerned about our sin and the sin of others that we follow scripture to the letter. That kind of discipline is rarely practiced any more . . . out of fear! The fear that we will offend someone, the fear that we will lose parishioners, the fear that we will be seen as unloving or intolerant. And yet church discipline is a part of scripture.

Additionally, many Christians have defected from church life altogether. (I did, for a time.) We give all sorts of reasons that sound good, but the fact is that we are called to be together regularly in worship. If we have defected from the Church, we have defected from Christ, regardless of how valid our reasons seem to be. We need each other! We need to stand together.


Defection from a holy life

Scripture is replete with admonitions over and over of how we should live. And yet, the mantra of Americans is "we’re all sinners, so we shouldn’t really strive not to sin." I doubt that any of the apostles would have agreed with that (wrong) doctrine. The fact is, the self-indulgent life (Well, let’s call a spade a spade) is exactly what may keep us out of heaven. Scripture speaks strongly against the practicing sinner.

What does a practicing sinner look like? Read Galatians 5.

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 19-21 NKJV).

", . . and the like"! The list isn’t inclusive. Rather it is an exemplary list. Paul previously says that "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another" (v. 17). Anything that goes against the fruit of the Spirit for any reason is a lust of the flesh and can lead to practicing, habitual sin that will keep us out of heaven.

The practicing believer is living out the fruit of the Spirit. Are we kind? Are we patient? Are we faithful and loving? Do we give all things in prayer to God or do we, instead, flood the Internet with our "concerns" about the people we believe are evil (the people our Lord Jesus died for)? We need to become convicted about who we are and what we do regularly in the "name" of Christ.

The question we need to ask ourselves is whether or not we are part of those who are falling away. Likely as American Christians the answer should be closer to "yes" than "no." And if that’s the case, we have a lot of spiritual work to do.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com