Free From Sin

Freedom in Christ is often spoken of very loosely, as a floaty mental whisp more than a concrete reality. Modern notions of Christian Freedom seem to mean we can sin but avoid consequences.

Freedom in Christ is ultimately freedom from sin, as Romans 6 describes it.

Sin had me bound, it controlled me, it wouldn’t let go. Sin bound everything I did to the extent that nothing in me was good. I was incapable of doing one right or good thing. It was evil slavery.

But then I died in Christ! Dead guys are not bound to laws! Where there is no law there is no transgression. I was raised up to new life in Christ, a life that was free from sin.

Do I still sin? Yes, but I am no longer captive to it at all times. In fact, as I persevere in my freedom in Christ, sin fades until ultimately I am completely conformed to the image of Christ.

Being free from sin does not leave me as the same guy, just gets away with sin now. No, freedom from sin frees up my time, energy, resources, mind, soul and body. I have time on my hands now that I’ve given up many fleshly patterns that bound me. I’m free from me!

Now that I am free from sin I freely bind myself as a servant of righteousness with fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

Paul’s notion of freedom is to use it to serve. Freedom in Christ is not permission to be hedonistically narcissistic. Proper freedom always results in me doing what is right, the right stuff I could never do while bound to sin.

True Freedom always leads to service. That’s how you know you have it.

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Romans 6:18

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God
Romans 6:22

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all
1 Corinthians 9:19

Tozer on Liberty

“Make a complete surrender to God; love Him with all your heart and love every man for His sake. Determine to obey your own convictions as they crystallize within you as a result of unceasing prayer and constant study of the Scriptures.

“After that you may safely ignore the expectations of your friends as well as the criticisms of your enemies.

“You will experience first the shocked surprise of the regimented army of lock-step believers, then their grudging admiration; and if you continue to walk the way of love and courage they may take heart from your example, throw off the bondage of fear and go forth as ransomed men and women to walk in the sweet liberty wherewith Christ has made them free.”

–A. W. Tozer, We Can Be Delivered From Carnal Fear

What Liberty in Christ Is

Paul encourages the Galatian believers to stand fast in the liberty they have in Christ. Much has been said about the liberty we have in Christ, and much of this much, is not right.

Liberty was explained to me once as the freedom Christ bought us by defeating sin so now “I can do what I want.” To which I replied, “This is true, as long as you want to do what He says.”

Liberty is not an escape from reality. It’s not a mind over matter thing. Liberty is a result of being born again, being a new creation. Ultimately, it is the word that defines life in the Spirit.

Note Paul’s progression in Galatians 5:

5:1–stand fast in your liberty
5:13–do not use your liberty as an occassion to the flesh–to sin
5:22,23–describes the fruit of the Spirit “against such there is no law”

There is no law against the fruit of the Spirit, because the fruit of the Spirit is not wrong in any way. There is no law against it so you are free to do it as much as you want!

If you do not see the connection between no law against fruit of the Spirit and having liberty, you are missing Paul’s point in Galatians 5.

Liberty is only possible for the man who has the Spirit. It’s the freedom to overcome sin by an overpowering desire and energy to do what is right. Freedom to do what our Creator desires. Freedom to finally be able to do something other than stupid sin!

This is liberty indeed!

Tozer on New Life

“He [the born again believer] must alter his attitude toward almost everything. Many solid pillars upon which he had previously leaned without question are now seen to be made of chalk and ready to crumble at any moment.

“What is worst of all, his self-confidence suddenly vanishes. He sees through the flimsy pretense of the you-can-do-it school of thought. He wonders why Emerson’s celebrated essay on self-reliance disturbs him now instead of affording him a shot in the arm.

“He hears the Lord say, ‘Without me you can do nothing,’ and falls at His feet like a little child. All the certainty goes out of him and he throws himself out onto the promise of God, every natural hope and every human trust gone forever.

“This can be a bitter and terrifying experience and it is one, regrettably, that not many persons today know anything about.”

–A. W. Tozer, A New Man in an Old World

Tozer on Fruitful Faith

“In the minds of some teachers faith stands in lieu of moral conduct and every inquirer after God must take his choice between the two.

“We are presented with the well-known either/or: either we have faith or we have works, and faith saves while works damn us.

“Hence the tremendous emphasis on faith and the apologetic, mincing approach to the doctrine of personal holiness in modern evangelism.

“This error has lowered the moral standards of the church and helped to lead us into the wilderness where we currently find ourselves.

“Rightly understood, faith is not a substitute for moral conduct but a means toward it. The tree does not serve in lieu of fruit but as an agent by which fruit is secured.

“Fruit, not trees, is the end God has in mind in yonder orchard; so Christlike conduct is the end of Christian faith.

To oppose faith to works is to make the fruit the enemy to the tree; yet that is exactly what we have managed to do. And the consequences have been disastrous.”

–A. W. Tozer, Religion Should Produce Action

You say Shibboleth; I Say Sibboleth

The Gileadites tested those who wanted to cross over Jordan by having them say “Shibboleth.” Those who couldn’t were deemed to be from Ephraim because they couldn’t make the “shhh” sound. So they killed em for not saying it right.

Shibboleth now stands for a test of camaraderie. Groups form and make one issue their Shibboleth, if you don’t say their one thing right, out you go. They may not kill you, but they won’t like you.

You may agree on 98% of Christian doctrine, but if you don’t have the Shibboleth right, they part ways, drop ya like a hot potatoe. Shibboleths I’ve seen in action:

–Oooo, you’re wearing blue jeans.
–Free Grace
–Predestination
–Pre Trib, Pre Mil Rapture
–Luther
–Lordship Salvation
–Age of the earth
–Drums
–KJV

On and on. There are 30,000 Christian denominations in America, all based on Shibboleths of varying degrees of importance.

The Bible says believers are known by their unity, they display the unity the Father has with the Son. Riiiiight.

The purpose of Shibboleths is to divide Us and Them. It’s not something a group of people who wants others to join them employ. It is something a group of people employ who want to remain exclusive.

Take the disciples. They had a Shibboleth: Hey, Jesus! We saw a guy who isn’t us casting out demons!

Jesus replies with a Shibboleth destroying answer we would be best served to repeat endlessly: “For he that is not against us is on our part.”

Oh if we could destroy our Shibboleths, our party distinctives, and rejoice in the unity in Christ. God is the one who shows differences and teaches. Stick together and let Him do His job.

Tozer on True Faith

“To believe savingly in Jesus Christ is to believe all He has said about Himself and all that the prophets and apostles have said about Him.

“Let us beware that the Jesus we “accept” is not one we have created out of the dust of our imagination and formed after our own likeness.

“That faith which passively accepts all the pleasant texts of the Scriptures while it overlooks or rejects the stern warnings and commandments of those same Scriptures is not the faith of which Christ and His apostles spoke.”

–A. W. Tozer, Not All Faith Pleases God

Criticizing Bible Characters

Time to share a pet-peeve.

I get real tired of Christian-types ripping on biblical characters for their lack of faith. A few examples with the typical modern take on them:

Gideon–he was afraid, an angel shows up and he still goes out at night? What a wimp. When God calls him “a mighty man of valor,” God was obviously making fun of him.

Thomas–he doubted, he wasn’t even at their prayer meetings! He wouldn’t believe until he saw for himself. Doubt is baaaaad.

Peter–does the guy never shut up? What incredibly stupid things he says. Even after he received the Spirit, Paul still had to reprimand him.

Jonah–he went the opposite direction! He thought he could escape God. He even had the nerve to be mad when his enemies were saved, he even whined about a plant dying.

On and on, we take these biblical accounts and chalk them up as actions of true losers. All these criticisms are spoken by people whose largest showings of faith consist of saying a prayer, speaking a sermon to like-minded people and maybe, possibly, once or twice sharing the Gospel with an actual unbeliever.

Guys in the Bible are no different from us. I’m pretty sure if God asked you to tear down your fathers idol you’d do it at night too, if at all. It may be possible you’d miss a prayer meeting or two after your favorite religious teacher died.

Seems our criticism of these guys is a defense mechanism in place to ward off facing our own lack of faithfulness. Criticism says more about the criticizer than the one being criticized.

Faith is hard. It was hard for Gideon, Jonah, Peter and Thomas. And it’s hard for us too. That is the lesson. Be wary of comfortable, armchair quarterbacking when reading the Bible.

Tozer on Missions

“The popular notion that the first obligation of the church is to spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is false. Her first obligation is to be spiritually worthy of it.

“Within the last twenty years evangelical missionary activity on foreign fields has been stepped up tremendously. But there is in the whole thing one dangerous weakness.

“That weakness is the naive assumption that we have only to reach the last tribe with our brand of Christianity and the world has been evangelized. This is an assumption that we dare not make.

“Evangelical Christianity is now tragically below the New Testament standard. Worldliness is an accepted part of our daily life. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual. We have lost the art of worship.

“We are not producing saints. Our models are successful businessmen, celebrated athletes and theatrical personalities. We carry on our religious activities after the methods of the modern advertiser. Our homes have been turned into theaters. Our literature is shallow and our hymnody borders on sacrilege. And scarcely anyone appears to care.”

–A. W. Tozer, The First Obligation of the Church

I Am The Way

I was reading about John 14 the other day about how Jesus was going to the Father. Thomas didn’t know where Jesus was going or how He would get there, thus how can we follow?

Got me to thinking, I wonder, if I used the ubiquitous Google Maps, if Google knew the way to the Father. I typed in my address in Box A of the driving directions app, and “The Father” into Box B.

Amazingly enough, it had a suggested location for the Father. Apparently, and I did not know this, Google thinks The Father is in Mount Ulawun in Papua New Guinea, 7,861 miles from my house. I had no idea.

Jesus said He was going away to build a place for His people. He said they knew where and how to get there to follow Him. Thomas, who did not have Google Maps, had no idea Jesus meant Papua New Guinea.

“Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” Jesus, as He frequently does, answers with a more confusing statement. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

I doubt Thomas got it. We assume we do, but listen to the answer–Jesus is going to the Father by way of Himself. We use this verse to refer to salvation, the way to get saved is through Christ, which is true.

But I wonder if we stop short on this one. The way to the Father is not following a map, not following step by step driving directions, it’s by being in Christ. No longer I but Christ. And as John 3 says, he who is born of the Spirit knows not where he came from or where he is going.

There is depth here. Much more than the usual treatment gives.

Tozer on Being from Heaven

“The Christian is a man of heaven temporarily living on earth. Though in spirit divided from the race of fallen men he must yet in the flesh live among them.

In many things he is like them but in others he differs so radically from them that they cannot but see and resent it.”

–A. W. Tozer, The Cross Does Interfere

Tasting and Seeing

Adam and Eve were told not to eat from one tree. Satan got involved and confused the issue, leading to their downfall.

As Eve was being tempted, she examined the tree, she saw that it was a good tree that brought forth good fruit. It was pleasant to look at, plus it held out something she didn’t have, something, in fact, that God didn’t have–the experiential knowledge of sin.

She looked at the tree and tasted the fruit and she came to realize the fruit wasn’t all that good.

Creation was tainted with sin. Now it is the experiential knowledge of good that we miss, that is held out in front of us. I wonder if this is what the Psalmist had in mind when he wrote, “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

These are the two senses at work at our downfall, these may be the two senses at work in our salvation, mixaphorically speaking. What we use to sin, God can transform to bring forth what is good and excellent.

Tozer on the Devil’s Devices

The devil is adept at the use of the red herring. He knows well how to divert the attention of the praying Christian from his subtler but deadly attacks to something more obvious and less harmful. Then while the soldiers of the Lord gather excitedly at one gate, he quietly enters by another.

And when the “saints” lose interest in the red herring, they return to find the newly baptized and pious enemy in charge of proceedings. So far are they from recognizing him that they soon adopt his ways and call it progress.”

–A. W. Tozer

History of Talk

When Adam was created he only had God to talk to. This seems cool. Presumably, Adam was created as a grown man with the ability to talk.

God told Adam to name the animals, which is weird if you think about it, because Adam had no one to talk to! This was God allowing Adam a part of the creative process apparently. It was just for the two of them.

When Eve was created, one can see Adam going through the list with her, telling her how to differentiate the little brown birds that seemingly all look the same except for that little stripey thing above the eye.

Adam probably forgot a few, got a few wrong, and hence, this is how sin spread. Little kids were born not learning how to talk through conversations with God, but by conversing with their parents, who said wrong things.

Eve got the bit about the tree messed up, “Adam said we shouldn’t eat from it, nor touch it.” God never said not to touch it, Adam said that, casting doubt as to what God really said.

Perhaps if we spent more time talking to God than we do anyone else we’d be spared from many sins. Perhaps if we heard more of God’s Words than anyone else’s we’d be better off too.

Harold Camping’s New Date

If at first or second you don’t succeed, try, try again. Camping is not apologizing, except to say that he was wrong about May 21, he meant October 21. Seriously, that’s what he said. Here’s his quote:

“On May 21, this last weekend, this is where the spiritual aspect of it really comes through. God again brought judgment on the world. We didn’t see any difference but God brought Judgment Day to bear upon the whole world. The whole world is under Judgment Day and it will continue right up until Oct. 21, 2011 and by that time the whole world will be destroyed,”

As the spiritual guru Kenny Rogers once said, “You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em. Know when to walk away, know when to run.”

Run Forest Run. Maybe I can fit one more social reference in. Doh!

Harold Camping on May 23

Well, the world did not end. Old Harry was wrong. But now the sadness of the whole thing shows itself. One of his followers, who gave up $140,000 of his life savings to advertise The End, said:

“I don’t understand why nothing has happened,” he said as 6 pm., the appointed doom time, passed in New York. “I did what I had to do. I did what the Bible said,” Britain’s Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

The Bible is a tough book, many have tripped over it. The Bible without the Holy Spirit will be wrested to your destruction.

Church’s Greatest Weakness

“Perhaps the greatest single weakness of the contemporary Christian Church is that millions of supposed members are not really involved at all and, what is worse, do not think it strange that they are not.”
–Elton Trueblood

I saw that quote and immediately thought it was fine. Then I started thinking about it. Seems like a good pastoral view of things–blame the people.

But when we look to Scripture we see that God judges the false prophets and false teachers along with the poor followers.

It wasn’t just disobedient Israel that died in the Wilderness, Moses did too.

The notion of “being involved” in a church is fairly subjective as well. What does that mean? If a guy plays softball and basketball at church does that mean he’s “involved?” Does this actually mean anything?

Looking at how many people come to our stuff is not a great barometer of faith, or the spiritual state of a person.

Seems to me the greatest weakness of the modern church is our ignorance of Scripture that leads us to say stupid things that aren’t true but tend to make us feel better.

End of the World Fail

The first of Harold Camping’s predictions have failed. What we know at least is that his math is off by a couple of hours. We’ll see how further off his math gets.

Make Your Funeral Easy

I’ve done many funerals now. This is my advice for all people who are planning on dying some day:

“When we have carried you to your narrow bed, let us not have to hunt up stray words, and scraps of religion, in order to make out that you were a true believer.

“Let us not have to say in a hesitating way one to another, “I trust he is happy; he talked so nicely one day; and he seemed so please with a chapter in the Bible on anther occasion; and he liked such a person, who is a good man.”

“Let us be able to speak decidedly as to your condition. Let us have some solid proof of your repentance, your faith, and your holiness, so that none shall be able for a moment to question your state.

“Depend on it, without this, those you leave behind can feel no solid comfort about your soul. We may use the form of religion at your burial, and express charitable hopes. We may meet you at the churchyard gate, and say, “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” But this will not alter your condition!

“If you die without conversion to God, without repentance, and without faith–your funeral will only be the funeral of a lost soul; you had better never have been born.”

–J. C. Ryle

Business as Usual

CNN has an article about Harold Camping and his radio network. Receptionists are still setting up appointments and all manner of stuff, carrying on, business as usual.

It also details the amount of money Camping’s ministry has brought in and the strange request for a delay in reporting their taxes this year until November. Perhaps they threw all their money away getting ready for The End.

I, for one, am rather bummed that my last days on earth have to be spent being sick. This is really not how I planned on going out.

Guessing The End

Mr. Harold Camping, the guy who says the world will end this Saturday, originally published a book saying that Christ will return between September 15 and September 27, 1994. “I would be surprised if we saw October 1,” he said in his book.

However, Harold didn’t have too much confidence in his math skills as he also said there’s a possibility the end might be in 2011, thusward and henceforth, here we are.

It’s good to know your limitations. Harold has some. He’s aware of a few. But dear Herold is not alone. Here are some other folks who predicted The End

Hippolytus–400ad to make an even six thousand years of human life on earth, according to his calculations. He later said it would be 500ad. He was wrong.
Philip Melanchthon–while not defending Luther, said the last seal would be opened in 1588
Martin Luther–the world will end no later than 1600
Cotton Mather–world ends in 1697
Jonathan Edwards–Satan would be defeated finally in the year 2000 and the Millennium would begin.
Isaac Newton–Christ will return in 1948
John Wesley–1836 was the beginning of the Millennium

Of course, there are many more, most are little known for saying anything else, which I think is why there’s such a draw to making these predictions–you will get some attention.

It is interesting to note that there are some highly respected names on this list. Everyone has to be wrong about something. Setting dates is a good way to start!

As to my career change, looks like I picked the wrong week to get a monster sore throat. It’s hard to get booked when you can’t speak.

Where the Apostles Died

Cool Google map usage showing where the apostles were supposed to have died.

Career Change

It’s a perfect time to change careers since we only have three days left, which as you know, means we have three thousand years left, except a thousand years is as a day so actually we only do have an actual three days left, depending on what part of that verse God means right now.

Maybe when Genesis says that Noah lived 950 years it really meant he only lived for 95% of a day, which, wow, what a day! Busy, busy. Busy as a beaver, which coincidentally, like to cut down trees and float them across water. Hey, I might be on to something here!

O the depths of the wisdom of God!

Anyway, since I’m not preparing a sermon this week and have basically given up reading the Bible and stuff, because, seriously, what’s the point? I’m just going to spend my remaining three days being merry, and by days I mean actual days, 24-hour periods.

For my remaining three days I’m going to pursue my calling I’ve never had the guts to go for. Yes, I’m going to pursue my dream of becoming a stand-up comic. I think I can make a three-day career of it, depending on what time Saturday God returns in judgment.

Which begs the question, at exactly what time is God going to return? Depending on what time zone you are in, Saturday gets here pretty early in some places, we might only have just two days left. Better get busy.

The End, For Real, Seriously, This Time He Means It

Don’t know if you’re aware, but the world is going to end this Saturday. I just found out about this Sunday. I guess I’m not as up on my faith as I should be.

So, that being the case, I’m not going to prepare a sermon for this Sunday. Bonus week off!

And just so you don’t think this is some crackpot notion, the “Bible guarantees” that the world will end this Saturday.

God told Noah that there were seven days to escape worldwide judgment (Genesis 7:4) and, as we all know, a day with the lord is as a thousand years, hence, there are seven thousand years between Noah’s flood and The End.

Like, for reals, THE End. Just as you could have escaped the flood by entering the ark, so too can you enter God’s mercy today and avoid the judgment looming.

So, as you enter His mercy, I will be taking the week off from sermon preparation and chillaxin. Hope you have the same level of assurance I do.

Imagine There’s No Heaven

It’s easy if you try

Just ask Stephen Hawking, “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Wow, Mr. Hawking better watch out, he’s sounding more like an Evangelical every day!

Singing About Hell

Most hymns/praise songs written in the last 100 years are happy. Most are life-centered, all about “I” and “Me.” They are glorified humanistic rhymes.

There is much discussion on hell these days. More and more “evangelicals” are distancing themselves from the doctrine of hell. It seems too mean, vindictive and non-lovey to be true.

Hey, we’re busy being happy; how dare God ruin our happy with talk of burning sinners.

Ignoring hell is our attempt to pretend it isn’t there. Hell doesn’t get much air time in our worship. The fact is that our teaching on God is so inept we don’t know what to do with hell.

Working hell into worship is like bringing winning baseball to Wrigley Field–it just doesn’t seem to fit.

Yet hell used to be mentioned more frequently. They even wrote songs that mentioned hell and sang them in worship. Isaac Watts, who wrote hundreds of hymns including “O God our Help in Ages Past” and “I Sing the Mighty Power of God,” wrote hell into many hymns.

Here are a few sample verses from various Wattsian hymns:

What bliss will fill the ransomed souls,
When they in glory dwell,
To see the sinner as he rolls,
In quenchless flames of hell.

May I with those for ever dwell
Who here were my delight!
While sinners, banished down to hell,
No more offend my sight.

But vengeance and damnation lies
On rebels who refuse the grace;
Who God’s eternal Son despise,
The hottest hell shall be their place.

There endless crowds of sinners lie,
And darkness makes their chains;
Tortured with keen despair they cry,
Yet wait for fiercer pains.
Not all their anguish and their blood
For their old guilt atones,
Nor the compassion of a God
Shall hearken to their groans.

I’ll stop there! Not bad, eh? Would enjoy hearing a modern praise song mention hell. I think it would be a very positive thing for our modern sin-tolerant churches. Hell is an easy word to make rhymes with too, there’s really no excuse.

Transparent People: Please Shut Up

There is much talk today of the need for “transparency.” For Christians to “be honest” or “genuine” with each other and not to hide things.

Well, quite frankly, I’m not interested in you being honest, transparent or genuine with me if you’re a jerk.

Seems much of our desire to be open is nothing short of a desire to celebrate sin. Pastors who try to be “transparent” tend to like to swear and talk about beer.

If you have a desire to be genuine with people, might I suggest you take care of sin first? Mortify the deeds of the body before you reveal yourself to others.

Being honest and open is a fine thing, if honesty and openness are among a group of honest, pure people. Otherwise it looks like Dr.Phil or, the Great One himself, Jerry Springer.

These sorts of circus acts are not what churches are supposed to be. Get things honest, open and transparent with Jesus first, let the fire of His Word purge and clean you. Once that is done, feel free to bring all things into the open with others.

Until then, shut up.

God Layeth the Smacketh Down

A funny thing happened on the way to outlining a Bible Study I’m teaching, I found some stuff. I love finding stuff!

The KJV word “bestowed” can mean “give” or “deliver” and suchlike. Pretty tame, casual renderings. But as I read further in the Strong’s definition of the word Bestowed (Greek word didomi), it can also mean to smite or to strike with the palm of the hand.

Bestowed can mean “smack!” Here’s why that is cool. 1 John 3:1

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”

Read this verse with the possible definition of bestowed, “smack.”

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath smacked us with.”

Oh man! I love that! God smacks us with His love! What’s the first thing they do to newborn babies? Smack em! There’s stuff here. Feel free to ponder.

Complaining and Catching Fish

Luke 5 shows Jesus borrowing Peter’s boat to preach from. After His message, He tells Peter to go fishing, presumably to pay back Peter for the time He used his boat.

Peter responds with, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.” In other words, “Hey landlubber, you may know beattitudes, I know fish, they aint biting.”

Peter does cast out the net and catches a huge flock of fish, flock? Peter has the same response I do when I catch a fish, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” OK, not really, but it is shocking.

This is an amusing story. You can imagine Peter toiling all night with his nets, not catching any fish. I’ve been in boats with guys who aren’t catching fish enough to know what the attitude is. It’s not good. Much whining ensues.

Jesus could have told Peter the day before, “Hey, I’m gonna borrow your boat tomorrow and I’ll make sure you get fish afterwards so take the night off.” But nope, Jesus lets him toil and, no doubt, whine all night.

Jesus must have enjoyed seeing people’s attitudes of despair right before He did a miracle. At the same time, Jesus seems to get annoyed that no one trusts Him or thinks to come to Him.

What are you toiling on right now that is causing whining and bad attitudes? Could be that soon your ship will come in, as it were. Will repentance be your response or will “Well, it’s about time. Glad MY work finally paid off.”

Don’t Strive

Matthew describes the character of Jesus Christ by a quotation from Isaiah, “He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.”

The apostle Paul describes the servant of Jesus Christ like this, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.”

The servant becomes like his master, neither one strives.

To strive basically means to wrangle, fight, argue. It may particularly have to do with fighting for position and supremacy, gettin’ mines.

Jesus let the world go by, He didn’t fight for attention, He didn’t chase around people who disagreed with Him and try to correct them. On the contrary, they chased Him!

Guys who are always spoiling for a fight, trying to start arguments, who must always dominate people physically or intellectually, show they have little in common with Jesus Christ.

Christ was a dominating presence, His intelligence was incredible, yet He handled it with love. One can only imagine how argumentative we would be if we had Christ’s intellectual abilities!

We’re all dumb, finite people and we can’t seem to shut up for any length of time as we must correct all the idiots out there.

People who trust Christ have a relaxed attitude toward conflict. God is in control. They say what needs to be said with truth and love, then let it go. Lord help me do it!

Every time our mouth opens, we might want to pray first and make sure our mouth should be open.

“for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:
therefore let thy words be few.”