What Does “Love Seeks not Her Own” Mean?

“Love does not seek her own.”
–1 Corinthians 13:5

There are many fascinating things said about love in 1 Corinthians 13. The passage is typically treated flippantly; we pretend it has to do with romantic love and primarily only reference it at weddings.

1 Corinthians 13 says unbelievably tough things though. Things that if taken seriously would make you doubt whether you truly ever loved anyone ever.

Imagine what your day would look like if you never sought your own benefit! I mean, seriously? What would it look like if you only sought the benefit of others, or even more highly, only sought the benefit of God?

How is it possible to not seek your own?

This is especially confusing when you include the pithy remark, “You can’t truly love others until you learn to love yourself.” How do I love myself if love doesn’t seek myself?!

That paradox is easily solved by completely ignoring such a stupid statement derived from secular psychology rather than biblical wisdom.

How do I show love to people who are doing evil? To people who are blaspheming God? It’s very difficult to do these things without some sort of fleshly motivation or interest. Would love ever post anything on Facebook?!

I have more questions than answers here!

That’s kind of my point: what 1 Corinthians 13 says about love is difficult.

I do know that Jesus Christ was the embodiment of godly love in His earthly life recorded for us for our example that we should follow in His steps.

Therefore, love not seeking its own has to be seen clearly in the life of Christ.

Christ said He came to do the will of His Father. He did not desire His own will, but the will of His Father who sent Him. Jesus Christ also was moved with compassion and humble service to the needs around Him.

Jesus Christ was a perfect example of not seeking His own. He carried it out all the way to death on the cross, and don’t forget that “greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.”

He literally didn’t seek His own all the way to His own death on behalf of others. He didn’t defend Himself against His accusers, but let them “win.” He gave up His life, His flesh and blood, for sinners, people who didn’t love Him.

If you do good to those who do good to you, what praise is there in that? True love gives to those who can’t repay. The worse someone treats you, the better opportunity you have to show love.

What about abuse? What about self-defense?

1 Corinthians 13 says difficult things about love.

In the Gospel, by faith, I am crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and raised up with Christ to newness of life. It is no longer I who lives. I’m already dead.

This is the only way in which a person can truly not seek your own. You’re already dead; you have no own to seek. I know the Gospel is the answer. I know Christ is the perfect example of all this.

But, bow howdy, does this get tough in the actual details of life.

Next time you’re tempted to brush through 1 Corinthians 13 because you’ve heard it so often and you think your marriage is totally what is being described, just remember that you probably have no idea the depths of what this chapter means.

Self-Righteousness Irritates God

People like campfires. I generally don’t. Sometimes they are nice, but for the most part they just make me stink like smoke for days and stir up my allergies.

There’s always the part too where you try to figure out the wind direction to place your chair in such a way as to not get smoke in your face. Smoke up the nose is no fun.

God doesn’t like campfires either for similar reasons.

OK, I don’t really know that. But I know God doesn’t like smoke up His nose.

Isaiah 65 talks about how the Messiah will go to the Gentiles because the Jewish people reject Him. The Jewish people play at their religion, but are insincere about it. God can see through it. And that brings us to Isaiah 65:5:

Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me,
For I am holier than you!’
These are smoke in My nostrils,
A fire that burns all the day.

See? God doesn’t like smoke up His nose.

The people He’s referring to are self-righteous players of religion. They drive God crazy. You can clearly see this when God became flesh and dwelt among us. He was constantly at war with the religious types who weren’t really listening to God but sure did put on a show like they were. They wanted others to know just how superior they felt they were.

Jesus was irritated with these people before He even got here! It’s always amazing to me how well He did keeping His composure.

Which reminds me of Luke 12:49, a curious verse, take a look:

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!

Jesus wants to light stuff up! He didn’t come the first time to judge though, but to lay down His life a ransom for many, which works out well for us.

But boy howdy, He sure seems to be looking forward to His second coming already. A time when He can burn up all the sin and evil and corruption in the world and start over in pure righteousness.

Paul tells us that sinners are storing up wrath for themselves for the day of wrath. We think God’s silence means He’s somehow OK with our mess. He isn’t. It’s like smoke up His nose.

And one day He’s going to unleash the fires of judgment and begin anew. Does Jesus love everyone in the world? Yes, He does. But if you are one who stubbornly rejects His life-giving love AND THEN goes on to play at religion. Whoa, Nellie are you setting yourself up for some divine wrath.

Woe to you.

Wake up today. Playing at religion is not winning you brownie points with God; it’s actually making your case worse. You’re just irritating Him. You knew enough to do the religious stuff, but didn’t care enough to actually follow the Lord. You’re gonna get it.

Why Your Bible Study Curriculum Is So Lame

I’ve heard many Christians complain about their small group Bible study materials, or their devotionals, or Sunday School and youth group curriculum.

Most people say these materials are shallow, ask stupid questions, and rarely seem concerned about Scriptural faithfulness.

There is a reason for this: money.

Once Christian organizations turn into businesses, their focus on teaching the Word faithfully diminishes and their desire to make money increases.

In order to make money, these materials have to sell to customers with money.

As you might know, Christianity is a tad fragmented and divided. If a Christian publisher wants to have lots of customers so they can make money, they have to pander to the widest audience possible.

Attracting a wide Christian audience means leaving out doctrinal distinctions and controversial takes. In other words–they have to ignore most of the Bible.

Another factor in this is that these publishers have to pander to what is popular in Christianity right now. This might be a shock to you, but deep biblical study is not popular in Christianity.

There is an immediate payoff to selling what’s popular: It works in the short term. Over time, however, all these organizations will go out of business as they continue to sell out. Once they’ve chucked Christian distinctives, there is eventually no point for them being around anymore. I’m sure you can think of once great Christian organizations that are shells of themselves today, or even non-existent.

There are two primary popular influences Christian publishers are selling right now: Calvinism and self-fulfillment.

The Calvinist/Reformed movement gained steam since John Piper and his ilk have gotten popular. It’s still a small part of Christianity, but it’s a cohesive group. It’s still a wide swath of the market.

Self-fulfillment is also popular. What I mean by this is self-help with Jesus. God wants your dreams to come true, for you to be happy, and for you to have health and wealth. It’s the suburban happy shiny people that mega-churches are made up of and another huge swath of the market.

Most modern Christian material is geared for the mega-church stereotypical person. Very little appeals to the rural and poor, because rural and poor don’t have as much money. You have to be a cool, hip suburbanite. All Christian material is geared to them right now.

I firmly believe Christianity should avoid becoming businesses. Keep things small. The local church is the best place to get quality Bible Study. It’s a shame to me when local churches shirk their responsibility to teach the Word and instead farm it out for prepackaged, marketed, curriculum. No one will gain spiritual maturity with a diet of this drivel.

Almost all children’s ministry is farmed out to publishers. Our kids are not learning the Bible. We’ve been doing this for about 50 years now and the results are in. We’ve really messed up.

Para-church organizations have done more to harm the Body of Christ than edify it.

Be careful not to farm out your spiritual growth to people who are in it for money and to maintain their business organization. Instead, do your part to learn the Scripture, edify the Body, and foster a local church environment that encourages people to use their spiritual gifts and grow itself in love.

It took years to ruin the church and it will take years to restore it. Do your part by growing and studying the Word and encourage your church to do the same.

The Great Commission is not Getting People to Say the Prayer

The Great Commission is the title we’ve invented for the final instructions given to the disciples. There are several versions of it, but mostly we ignore them and tell people the Great Commission means “do evangelism.”

Unfortunately, most people think “evangelism” means get people to say the prayer. We study techniques to eliminate objections and close the deal and get em to say the prayer we invented and then declare them saved and go brag to others how great we are at saving people.

However, a closer examination of The Great Commission seems a little deeper than getting people to say the prayer. In fact, it seems pretty hard and involved.

Take Matthew’s version of it:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you

–Matthewe 28:19-20

Teach all nations sounds pretty tough, much harder than a five minute conversation ending in saying a rote prayer. Especially so when you consider we are to teach them to observe all the commandments of Christ! This would require some time and effort. Might take more than five minutes over a cup of coffee.

It actually seems like The Great Commission is about helping people live a new life, not just “get saved.”

Then there’s Luke’s version:

And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Luke 24:46-47

Here The Commission is to preach repentance and the remission of sins. One thing to notice is that “faith” is never mentioned in any of the Commission versions. Getting people to “believe” isn’t the main issue.

Repentance is a turning from where you were going to a new direction, probably best understood as the commands of Jesus as the new way to go.

There are many who say that we are saved by faith alone, faith plus nothing. Repentance is part of it. The Bible says several times “repent and believe.” If repentance is not part of faith, what faith is it? If you don’t see you’re heading the wrong way and have no desire to change that way, what in the Gospel are you believing exactly? What do you think you’re being saved from?

We’ve watered down the Gospel to the point that it has no power. You can get a person to believe a watered down Gospel in five minutes over a cup of coffee, I doubt you could adequately do Great Commission stuff in that short of time.

The Spirit, of course, can work such miracles, I’m not saying it’s impossible. Some are so desperate and ready, maybe five minutes would be adequate. As a general rule though, as an expectation? I don’t think so.

In the end, I’m not the Judge. I don’t desire to stop someone from conversations about the Gospel over coffee. I’m not attacking anyone’s evangelistic style. Glad they are doing something.

My main point is: make sure the Gospel and repentance and teaching the commands of Jesus are in there somewhere. If this is left out then you are not doing Great Commission activity.

Biblical Christianity is Revolting to Humanity

Here is a quote from Jacques Ellul from his book, The Subversion of Christianity. I agree with what he is saying.

Most of Christianity is just playing a game with God’s Word. You are probably playing the game. If you don’t think so, just reflect upon how much time you spent in God’s Word yesterday.

We just go along with the flow, convinced we’re being Christians because we’re just like all the others who are being Christians. Judgment Day looms.

Anyway, I’ll stop preaching and let Jacques take over. Here’s the quote:

“If we grant that what the New Testament means by Christianity and being a Christian merely conforms to human ideas and pleases and flatters us as though it were all our own invention and teaching springing up from within ourselves, then there is no problem.

“There is however a “but,” a difficulty, for what the New Testament really means by being a Christian is the very opposite of what is natural to us. It is thus a scandal. We have either to revolt against it or at all costs to find cunning ways of avoiding the problem, such as by the trickery of calling Christianity what is in fact its exact antithesis, and then giving thanks to God for the great favor of being Christians.

“As Kierkegaard says, nothing displeases or revolts us more than New Testament Christianity when it is properly proclaimed. It can neither win millions of Christians nor bring revenues and earthly profits. Confusion results.

“If people are to agree, what is proclaimed to them must be to their taste, and must seduce them. Here is the difficulty: it is not at all that of showing that official Christianity is not the Christianity of the New Testament, but that of showing that New Testament Christianity and what it implies to be a Christian are profoundly disagreeable to us.

“Never—no more today than in the year 30—can Christian revelation please us; in the depths of our hearts Christianity has always been a mortal enemy. History bears witness that in generation after generation there has been a highly respected social class (the clergy) whose task is to make of Christianity the very opposite of what it really is.”

The End Doesn’t Come Because of the Evil of the World but Because of the Evil of the Church

As this world winds down to a disastrous end, we find ourselves thinking about what the Bible says The End will look like.

I don’t think sin will get worse necessarily. Sin has always been bad. I don’t think morality will be worse, because morality has always been bad. Ecclesiastes says there’s nothing new under the sun. It also says not think that the former days were better than our day (7:10).

It’s always been bad. In fact, at one point it was worse—the days of Noah.

Certainly there are certain places that are worse off. You can notice declines in certain locales, but on a global scale it’s always been bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not saying it’s not bad! It’ll be bad all right, but I don’t think the badness is the main issue.

It seems to me the main issue is the covering up of the good. The lamp of truth will be under a bushel. There just won’t be anywhere to turn for truth and righteousness.

That’s as it was in the days of Noah. It’s also how it was at the destruction of Israel. The truth was gone. They lost the Book! No one was upholding it.

OK, not “no one.” There’s always been a remnant.

When the New Testament talks about things getting worse and worse, it’s referring to the number of evil men and seducers, deceiving and being deceived. There will be tons of deceivers out there. This theme is reiterated several times.

The location of the seducers and deceivers is in the church. It’s not that the world will get worse; it’s that the church will pretty much lose the Gospel and all semblance of righteousness, truth, and God’s Word.

That Old Testament was written for our learning. We are not learning.

We assume Israel was goofy, really blew it, what a bunch of morons!

In reality, we’re repeating their mistakes in the exact same way.

We have exchanged the truth of God’s Word for false messages of peace. We think that because we show up to church sometimes and got baptized that we’re good to go.

Just like circumcision in the OT, we base our assurance on a one time act. We don’t live by faith. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. Israel lost God’s Word for a time. We’re getting close.

There is a ton of deception in the church today. The Health and Wealth Gospel does many in. Easy Believism ranks up there as a top contender. Calvinism with its fatalistic views of life and choice are deceiving many.

Judgment begins with the house of God. It’s time Christians stop ripping on public schools and abortion and LGBTQ and all the other sins the world is wrapped up in and start dealing with our sin. It’s time we stop thinking politics is the answer. It’s time we stop making peace with materialism and worldliness and come out from among them and become separate.

If the truth were upheld, followed, obeyed, and proclaimed, most of these other issues would take care of themselves. The answer is and always has been the Gospel and its power to transform hearts.

We’re losing the Gospel. We’re losing it while fully convinced we have a solid grasp on it. We are largely deceived. This deception is what leads to The End. There will be so few people left to uphold the truth, the remnant will be so tiny as to be equivalent to Noah and the eight souls saved on the ark.

Satan is a deceiver and one day all those whom he has deceived will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). This is no joke. It’s time to wake up. This isn’t other people’s problem; this is your problem. It’s my problem. We’re all deceived at some level. Wake up to this. Get your mind in the Word and make the necessary corrections. Few are doing this. Many have theological reasons to justify why they aren’t.

The truth of God’s Word is being lost, just like it was in Israel. Now it’s happening on a global scale and the church is failing just like Israel did. This is not a political problem. This is a spiritual problem. The solution begins in each of us. Get to work.

Many Christians Should Not Be Listened To

Scripture is clear that we can grow and attain more and more Christ-like behavior. We can indeed pursue the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

You wouldn’t know that by listening to Christians though.

Christianity has gotten carried away with some of their doctrines about sin and it’s not helping anything.

Christians repeatedly say that we are tainted with Original Sin, we’re guilty before we’ve even done anything. Want to remove all encouragement to get better? Tell people no matter what you do and even before you did anything you were horrible, worthless scum deserving of hell.

Original Sin has been stretched into saying that everything we do is sinful. All our righteousness is as a filthy rag, even after salvation. There’s nothing you can do that is free from sin.

The problem with the results of this stuff is that 1) it eliminates any desire to pursue righteousness and 2) it minimizes the seriousness of sin.

If all I do is tainted with sin and if I’m guilty even while not doing sin, oh well. What’s the big deal? If I can’t help it, then the thing that can’t be helped becomes expected.

If, however, righteousness is possible for us, if we actually can do good, then the desire to pursue that good is restored and it also puts us in a fighting stance against sin.

The emphasis on the horribleness of you has also resulted in a massively happy self-help oriented Christianity that veers into the opposite ditch. As with most extreme teachings, we don’t find the truth, we merely go as far away from the wrong side as possible resulting in wrong in the other direction.

If Christians make too much of our nastiness, the best way to correct that is to constantly talk about how wonderful and awesome we are, right? Aren’t we special and happy being us?!

Constantly telling people God loves them just the way they are and pumping them up with self-esteem boosting sanctimony still leaves people devoid of pursuing righteousness and downplaying the seriousness of sin.

Here’s the deal:

You are a sinner. This is bad. All your efforts without Christ will only result in filthy rags and you will be unable to please God. However, with Christ by faith, you are fully equipped to do righteousness. Add in the ministry of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God, and you can now grow into the perfect man Christ Jesus and be fully equipped to every good work.

You have to keep this in balance. Throwing it out of balance, either by moping in your awfulness or rejoicing in your awesomeness, will keep you lethargic and apathetic.

If, however, you go with Scripture (always a good idea) you will be encouraged to pursue what is good and leave behind what is evil. You will lay hold on eternal life and set aside every sin and weight that slows you down.

You’ll see there is a fight to be fought and a victory to be won. You’ll also see that in Christ by faith you have all you need to fight that fight and get victory. Not only that but our progress will be rewarded in this life and in the life to come.

This is all great stuff. Don’t let weird Christians keep you from pursuing righteousness and fighting sin. There’s way too much at stake for that nonsense!

Two Influences to Beware of: Politics and Self-Righteous Religion

Conformity to the world is pressed on us continually. We are told by Scripture not to conform to the world.

But it’s so hard!

It’s hard because there are many worldly pressures and influences surrounding us, it’s hard to be mindful of all of them.

In Mark 8:15 Jesus tells His disciples to “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”

I like the doubt call to action. “Take heed” literally means to stare at, attend to, be discerning, open your eyes and pay attention! He follows it with “beware,” which is another word that means to look at, perceive, to understand and mentally discern. The first has more to do with the physical sense of seeing, whereas the second might have more to do with the mind’s eye.

I don’t know, I probably made that up.

That’s what I’ll go with anyway.

Clearly the two-fold warning is to pay attention, keep your head on a swivel, walk circumspectly, and be sober minded. We really need to pay attention down here. We are being sucked into all manner of bad stuff.

Leaven is always used as a negative influence. Let a little bit in and next thing you know it will take over everything. Open your eyes, don’t even let one little grain of worldliness get past you.

Jesus warns about two specific leavens to beware of.

The Leaven of the Pharisees—this has to do with their self-righteous rule making, and supposed law keeping. A fastidious concern with external behavior. They were overly rigorous in their religious dealings, never bothering with the internal, only caring about external conformity. Watch out for religious conformity that leads to being like other people not like Christ.

Leaven of Herod—Herod was a bad dude. This could be referring to his nasty, sinful way of life, or perhaps it has to do with being driven by politics and earthly power. More than likely it’s both. Our culture is slipping deeper and deeper into nasty sin. Our government and laws are shifting to meet the new standards of right and wrong and exerting pressure to get you to change with them. Don’t let that influence you. In fact, don’t let any government or political force influence you. We have one King and one Lord, serve Him and ignore all others. Seek first the Kingdom of God. Let the heathen fight over temporal worldly power.

These are two of the forces working against you in the world. They both seek to distract you from following Jesus Christ and get you to follow them. Religious types want you to obey their rules. Political types want your vote and your allegiance. (They also both want your money!)

Beware of both.

What is Spiritual Warfare and Why Do I Keep Losing?

Jesus said that the violent will take the kingdom by force. “By force” refers to taking over a city and plundering it, carrying away all the treasure. It’s a military term.

There are several military metaphors in the Bible: the armor of God, fight the fight, a good soldier of Jesus Christ does not entangle himself with the affairs of the world, are a few.

We’ve shied away from using these military terms in recent years because of political correctness and fear that people think we are mounting crusades again.

When’s the last time you sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers” at church?

That’s too bad. Yet another example of how our wimpy gospel contradicts Scripture. We’ve eliminated the fight and the battle and repeated “Jesus gives us the victory” so many times we don’t even realize we’re still in the war.

The Bible has you thinking you’re on a battlefield and your soul is at stake. The wimpy gospel has you think you’re in Rest and Relaxation and Jesus won the war already, so chill.

We are told that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, that the weapons of our warfare are not physical. One of the most intriguing aspects of the military metaphors is that the offensive weapon in the armor of God is the Bible, the Word of God.

When Christians do mention fighting, it’s usually fighting to take our country back from bad guys. Fighting political parties. Fighting abortionists and sinner types. Which is typical; whatever God says, we do the opposite.

We aren’t fighting people. We are fighting bigger things. I don’t know what all this means in all honesty. Spiritual warfare has been hijacked by science fiction fantasy, so don’t believe too much of what you hear Christians say about it. We’re just not told much, so beware of the person who knows what it is.

What I do know is that there is a battle and we are to do all to stand. Our main enemy is Satan who is firing arrows at us.

Our wimpy gospel has made us believe that sin isn’t that big of a deal. We’ve made peace with most of our sin. The only sins we’re motivated to battle, if any, are the ones that cost money or make us look bad in front of others.

But the Bible says sin is bad and we’re not supposed to do it. There are implications for sinning. It yields bad fruit and leads others to hell, or at least doesn’t do anyone any spiritual good.

The armor of God is used to deflect Satan’s attacks and to stand firm against him and sin. Spiritual warfare has to at least mean: Do all to stop sinning.

It also seems clear that we are to battle the world: its philosophies and systems that pressure you to conform. Of particular importance appears to be money and all the stuff it can get you. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches ruin people.

So, our warfare is at least against sin and against worldly conformity. It has to at least mean that. So, what exactly are we fighting? Why do we need a sword at all? Who are we attacking with it?

The Word of God is sharper than a two edged sword, it has the ability to divide, to discern. Nothing will wake you up to your sin and worldliness like really and truly reading the Bible.

The Scriptures are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, so the man of God can do good. The Bible is what defeats sin and worldliness.

I am reading a book written many years ago by one of Japan’s top swordsmen. He gave up all else in his life to pursue swordsmanship. He traveled the country learning all he could about sword fighting and swords. He fought lots of people and wrote a book about what he learned.

This guy knew his sword and how to use it. He studied every aspect of what he was supposed to do with the sword and also observed what others did in order to know how to defeat them.

Again, we’re not fighting people. If we were, all this would be straight forward. I’d travel the country defeating idiots with the Bible. Sign me up.

But that’s not what this is. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, our weapons are not physical. It’s the actual Bible we use to smash people.

My top three enemies to battle are: Satan, the world, and my flesh tendencies.

The Bible can be used to thwart Satan’s temptations, after all, all he can do is tempt you. Jesus showed how to use the Word to defeat temptation when He was driven into the wilderness. You know Satan’s devices so as to not fall for them. Use it in context! Use it all the time! It is the power to defeat temptation.

The Bible can be used to point out what the world is up to and how to avoid where it’s going. You will become discerning and wise, knowing more than your teachers. The world’s lies will never overpower the Bible’s truth.

The Bible can be used to wake you up to your flesh tendencies. It shines a light in your heart, revealing your sin. It also equips you to clean yourself up and have victory over the power of sin. It fully shows you how you have been crucified with Christ and now have new life. It’s the instruction book for how that new life is to be lived.

We are in a war. We are not battling people or institutions though. People who get caught up in fighting people lose sight of what Satan, the world, and their flesh are up to. Your sin is your biggest problem. Fight like that was true.

Be in the Word. Handle it correctly and handle it regularly. You have to be familiar with it so much that it changes your thinking. Verses should be popping in your head all the time that deal with what’s going on around you. The world has corrupted your mind. Renew it daily with the Word.

Be around others who encourage you to know the Bible and who can teach you. Edify each other with biblical speech. Share what you know with others. Be teachable and humble. Be ready to learn. Be more ready to listen than to cut people off with your brilliance. If the Bible disagrees with your views; change your views immediately!

Check everything you hear with the Bible. Search the Scriptures daily to see if what you’re  hearing is true. Most of it isn’t. You’ll know this the more you get to know the truth.

Be in the Word. This is no daily devotion, 10-minutes a day thing. This isn’t a thing to check off your to do list. This is daily nourishment. You need the Word as a newborn baby needs milk.

The eternity of your soul depends on you getting the Word. Get it.

Why Does Jesus Say There are Few Who are Saved?

Jesus says the Kingdom is only given to those who “take it by force.” Our wimpy gospel today tells people the Kingdom is given to “anyone who this one time spent 14-sseconds saying this prayer we made up for them.”

Although this puts me at odds with Christianity, I’m going to go with Jesus on this one.

I’m going to go with Him because, well, He’s the Son of God, which is reason enough, but also because His point is rather consistent. I don’t believe I’m taking one little phrase and creating a doctrine out of it; I believe I am taking all that Jesus says about salvation into consideration.

Here’s another great verse to consider:

Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

–Luke 13:23-24

A guy, simply by listening to Jesus’ words, asks if the number of people saved is few. Why would he come up with this question?! Possibly because listening to Jesus’ teaching would lead you to believe that there are few who are saved!

Notice that Jesus didn’t correct this question! “What? Where do you get that idea? Don’t you know that anyone who takes 14-seconds out of their life to say a prayer is saved?”

Instead, Jesus makes sure the guy knows that few will be saved. Everyone and their mother wants to be saved, but only a few actually enter.

Calvinist types say the “shall not be able” is because God’s election keeps them out. This isn’t what Jesus is referring to at all. He’s saying they won’t be able to because they don’t want to do what is necessary to enter. That striving bit sounds hard and uncomfortable and inconvenient. Might get in the way of my Netflix schedule.

In the next chapter (Luke 14) Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast. Many are invited, few come. They don’t come because they have excuses, most dealing with worldly concerns.

Jesus goes on to tell the people to count the cost. What cost? I thought this was all free and easy? All I gotta do is say a little prayer.

The cost of a changed life. Not just a mildly changed life, but a life that will put you in opposition to many around you and the entire world system that dictates so much of life. Between the wedding feast parable and the count the cost point, Jesus says these two verses:

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

–Luke 14:26,27

If only Jesus knew He was contradicting grace and our wimpy gospel!

If only we were around to set Him straight. “Come on, Jesus. No, no, no. We’re saved by grace, not by works. What’s all this hard to be saved stuff and denying self and bearing a cross? That’s too hard. We’ve determined salvation is easy. Come, follow us.”

It’s almost as if Jesus has a completely different understanding of salvation than we do.

It’s not almost. He has a completely different understanding of how salvation works. And, never forget: HE’S THE JUDGE OF YOUR SALVATION!

Jesus repeatedly lets us know that salvation is a really hard thing for us to truly embrace. He repeatedly says there will only be a few who take it. He repeatedly says there will be a cost and it will make your life uncomfortable in many ways.

Yet we repeatedly tell each other that salvation is easy, requires nothing, and will result in health and wealth and tip toeing through tulips. Pretty much everyone will be saved, woohoo!

I wonder who’s right. I wonder who you’re listening to.

You’ll stand before the One who said these things one day. You won’t be able to change then. Now is the time to awake out of slumber. He’s offering you great things that will have a slight, momentary cost. Is it worth it to you?

It is to me. Let’s go get it.

Taking the Kingdom by Force and Today’s Wimpy Gospel

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

–Matthew 11:12

This verse has always intrigued me. How do you take the Kingdom by force and why is violence necessary?

This is especially intriguing considering our wimpy gospel we throw out there today that requires nothing but a few seconds repeating a prayer and now you’re done and heaven awaits.

The contrast of our wimpy gospel with the Gospel of Scripture is fascinating. How did we, and why did we, drop off all notions of effort in obtaining salvation?

Most of it ties to Martin Luther and his by faith alone doctrine. Since then people have believed that works are unnecessary for salvation, before, during, or after.

Everyone likes a free lunch, so obviously we would like a free eternal bliss.

No one wants to do what God says, and we certainly don’t want to be held accountable for doing what He says. We want to do our thing, and when we sin we blame someone or something else. Eating from The Tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden is typical of our sin. “It wasn’t me.”

But here’s the thing: it was you! You sin. You disobey God. Obeying God is hard. If salvation has anything at all to do with me obeying God, I’m in trouble.

So, in steps the wimpy gospel: well, lucky for you, Jesus did it all! All you have to do is believe! It has nothing to do with you.

Sounds good and many think this is exactly what the Gospel is. This is how we’ve come to define “grace.” But this is not at all how the Bible talks about salvation.

When John the Baptist showed up, crowds gathered to him even though it required walking out into the desert! They were excited about the Messiah coming and flocked to John. Many point blank asked, “What should I do?” Luke 3:7-14 shows this zeal and effort to get right with God, to make the way smooth for the Messiah.

When Jesus began His ministry the people responded in much the same way. This all seemed to die off over time when they learned more about who the Messiah was, the delay in bringing in the actual physical restoration of Israel, and then all the crazy stuff Jesus told them following Him involved. The crowds eventually demanded His crucifixion.

There was a glimpse of people taking the kingdom by force. By “force” means overpowered, taken by storm. It describes the striving zeal to struggle to get what was available. It conveys the idea of plundering and taking away the rewards of conquering a city.

Getting the Kingdom is viewed as a stronghold with untold wealth that you use all your energy, zeal, and effort to conquer and take to yourself. It’s the guy who sold all he had to buy the field to possess the buried treasure.

Our wimpy gospel tells us to do nothing. Jesus did it all. Just sit and say this prayer, and then go back to doing what you were doing.

Not only is this blasphemous and pathetic, but it also belittles all that is offered through the provision of Christ. We don’t strive for the buried treasure because we don’t know there is a treasure.

If I can believe the Gospel and then go back to my life of sin, if the Gospel requires and guarantees no change, then why bother to take it? Our wimpy gospel offers no treasure, other than a floaty concept of “heaven” that is so unreal and far off it matters none at all.

Jesus is offering new life, life more abundant. He’s offering freedom from sin and worldly traps, freedom from the fear of death, from needing people’s acceptance and approval, and all the stuff that makes life miserable. He offers you love, joy, and peace, not just as floaty concepts, but as real experiential stuff. He offers you the Holy Spirit, to be a partaker of the divine nature, who will enable, equip, and empower you to do good!

What He’s offering is unbelievably awesome. If you understood what He was offering, you would do all in your power to go get it.

But we don’t. We don’t because we don’t understand the treasure available. We don’t because it requires effort and zeal, maybe even fighting a fight, and that’s hard.

Plus, most Christians tell you not to do anything, and doing stuff is actually bad. We’re just supposed to believe, like little kids believing in Santa Claus. We’re surrounded by apathetic, lazy, blame-shifting people in Christianity. “No one else is doing anything for this and they’re all saved” is the general consensus.

Judgment Day will declare who is saved, and it won’t be many. It will only be those who by violence take the treasures of salvation by force. Those who have fought the fight.

“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

–Hebrews 4:11

Jesus Did Not Bear Your Cross

I unfortunately heard a praise song the other day. Never a good thing.

I tease, I tease. It’s typically not a good thing, but there are a few exceptions. This one was not an exception.

The problem with praise songs is that they repeat common misconceptions and clichés as though they were biblical truth. I struggle singing them because they routinely don’t say things the Bible says, thus I’m not sure if I’m praising God or just repeating human nonsense.

I also know I’m cynical, so I tell myself to shut up and let people enjoy what they think praise is. See, there’s cynicism again. Anyway, here’s the line:

It was my cross You bore
So I could live in the freedom You died for

Many songs make reference to Jesus bearing my cross or carrying our cross or such things. I find this idea to be unbiblical. Here’s why:

Jesus didn’t bear my cross or your cross according to the Bible. You can confirm this fact by going to biblegateway or some such Bible searching website and search the phrase “my cross” and you will find zero verses mentioning “my cross.”

There are also zero verses mentioning “our cross”or “your cross.”

Here’s the even better part: You will find seven verses mentioning “his cross.”

Colossians 1:20 says Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. It was His cross, not mine or yours, that He carried. And, here’s the even better part, two verses say that they compelled a guy named Simon of Cyrene to carry His cross! Jesus didn’t even carry His cross that much!

Then it gets even better! Four of the verses center on this theme: “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Not only did Jesus not bear your cross, He tells you to take up your cross. You’re supposed to bear your cross!

This is typically where people tell me, “Lighten up. You know what they mean though.” Maybe I do; maybe I don’t. I don’t know who wrote this song. I do know who wrote the Bible though, and the Bible never said that Jesus bore my cross and specifically says I’m supposed to take up my cross.

This cliché or lyric is just a manifestation of the theory that Jesus did everything and we just sit here passively enjoying the benefits with zero responsibility. “He carries the cross and I get freedom! Such a deal!” It’s Calvinistic, Substitutionary Atonement, Easy Believism philosophy in song form.

It’s not biblical and if taken seriously will lead to apathy, laziness, and fruitlessness.

Jesus says taking up your cross is what following Him means. Jesus carried a cross; if you follow Him you will also carry a cross. If you want to follow Him, then take up your cross.

Lots of duty and responsibility. It almost sounds like I’m supposed to do something and maybe Jesus didn’t actually do every single thing while I sit here doing nothing but enjoying perks. You would be correct, and you’d also be flying in the face of modern wimpy Christianity if you speak this out loud.

But I imagine pointing out such things and getting hostile reactions is part of what taking up my cross and following Christ is all about. So, it’s what I’ll do.

What Does it Mean That the Law is Written in Our Hearts?

One of the coolest aspects of the New Covenant is that the law is written in our hearts. The Old Covenant was governed by some rules chipped into a rock.

Decision making rested on lists of rules. It was a hassle and soon everyone got tired of it and pretty much ignored it. At one point Israel lost the book of the law.

Oops.

So, why is it cool that the law is in the heart of the New Covenant believer?

Well, many reasons I suppose, but here’s a cool one.

There’s a New Testament theme that we are no longer under the law. This has implications. Paul says twice in 1 Corinthians that all things are lawful for him (6:12 and 10:23). That’s a pretty dangerous statement, no?!

His meaning in these verses is not that he can sin all he wants. There are still things that curb Paul’s behavior—not causing his brother to stumble and only doing things that edify.

In 1 Corinthians 9:21 he says when he’s around those not under the law, he acts as one not under the law. He adds this parenthetical statement, “being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.” There’s still a law that governs him, it’s just not the Old Covenant law of 613 commandments.

In Galatians 6:2, Paul tells us what the law of Christ is, “Bear one another’s burdens.”

We don’t have a stone with rules carved in it to govern us; instead we have the love of Christ. The Love of Christ is best seen in the Gospel. The Gospel becomes our standard for living, the benchmark, the plum line, the “rule” that helps us make decisions.

Our behavior is not dictated by rules on a stone; it’s dictated by the picture of Jesus Christ laying down His life as a ransom for many. He who was rich, became poor, so that we who were poor might be made rich.

I don’t have to consult a huge book of rules, nor do I need someone to write me a giant book of rules. All I need do is look to the cross of Jesus Christ. What would the Gospel have you do here?

Falling into a system of morals is a temptation for churches and believers. We don’t trust people’s maturity enough to be guided by the Gospel. Surely we need to impose rules to control them!

You don’t, and stop calling me Shirley.

We are to walk by the same rule and where we are different, God will show that unto us (Philippians 3:15-16). Believers can be trusted.

The problem is that not all people in churches are believers, and even fewer are actually using the Gospel as their standard of behavior. That’s why discipleship and church discipline are a thing. Both things are done out of love and growing people spiritually into the perfect man Christ Jesus.

Instead of doing the hard work of discipleship and the awkward work of church discipline, we just make rules. In the short term this might work, but long term we are creating one massively immature church.

As a believer in Jesus Christ you have the law written in your heart. There is no external check on behavior (note that the external check on behavior didn’t work too well in the OT). All checks on behavior come internally from following the Gospel of Jesus Christ and letting the love of Christ determine our behavior. This looks like edification, service, generosity, and other loving things.

It’s a beautiful thing. Don’t shortchange it by over mothering people and making up rules upon rules. Teach the Gospel. Live the Gospel. Watch morality take care of itself!

Easy Believism, Sanctification, and Rebellious Children

Sanctification is a word that flips some Christians out. Sanctification is the set apartness of the believer, which is seen increasingly over the years of a believer’s life by righteous conduct.

There are several “-tion” words that are part of salvation:

Justification—making and declaring believers righteous.

Regeneration—spiritual rebirth making the believer a new spiritual creation in Christ Jesus.

Reconciliation—brought into right relationship with God.

Redemption—bought out of slavery to sin.

Sanctification—the set apart life that grows in the believer over time.

Glorification—the ultimate step in salvation whereby we are made like Christ when we see Him as He is.

Justification, regeneration, reconciliation, and redemption happen at the exact moment of salvation. Sanctification, being set apart to God, happens at the point of salvation as well, but there is a process of sanctification that begins at salvation and continues through the earthly life of the believer. Glorification is the future hope of our fully redeemed body.

All of these things are part of the package of salvation. You can’t pick and choose; you get them all! This is important to understand.

Easy Believism is the idea that a person can be saved and yet show no fruit or good works as a result. Sanctification is optional. It’s something you should get around to doing, but you don’t have to.

The reason this became a teaching is because of the emphasis on being saved by grace through faith and not by works. If sanctification were a part of salvation, then you should be able to tell if someone is saved. If sanctification is necessary for salvation; doesn’t that mean we are saved by being sanctified?

It’s a legit question. You are not saved because you become sanctified. Sanctification is a thing that happens if you are saved.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God. If you are regenerated, made a partaker of the divine nature, you have the Spirit in you, there’s no way sanctification won’t happen.

In fact, if you look up “sanctification” in your Bible, it’s only used 5 times in the KJV, two of the five verses tie sanctification in with the Holy Spirit. One ties it in with Jesus Christ. If you as a believer are in Christ and the Spirit is in you, sanctification is guaranteed to happen.

This puts people in a bind though. We like to declare people saved. We like to run people through The Prayer and pronounce them good. We especially like doing this with little kids. We tell ourselves all these people are saved now, yet over time we realize their lives are a complete fleshly sinfest.

What to do? Certainly we can’t conclude all our evangelism didn’t work. Certainly we can’t conclude little Billy is on his way to hell. So, instead of admitting any of these common sensical things, we warp the entire doctrine of salvation so we can feel better about little Billy.

Many people who adhere to Easy Believism and make sanctification optional, have kids who walked away from the faith. It’s so common, it appears to be a prerequisite for holding this doctrine.

It also might be that if you raise your kids telling them they are saved because they said a 32-second prayer and now they can do whatever they want and it doesn’t matter, might just be the kind of thing a young sinner will take you up on.

All I know is that there’s a connection between holding Easy Believism and having sin-filled, rebellious, God-rejecting kids.

Easy believism eliminates the power of the Gospel. It tells you that salvation only pays off when you’re dead and are in heaven. It offers no help for life in this present world. It’s ineffective to actually change or transform a life.

That being the case, repentance is usually ignored or dismissed by Easy Believism people when it comes to salvation. The Bible says “repent and believe.” Easy believism says to just believe.

Repentance is turning from your sin, from the way you were going. You reach the bottom of your sinfulness, you hit the rock bottom of terrible sin choices and cry out for a better way. The Gospel says, “Hey! Here’s a better way right over here!”

A person who truly hears the Gospel and knows their sin, will rejoice there is provision to change the road you’re on.

But if the Gospel offers no new life, no true deliverance from the power of sin, no transformation, then why bother repenting? Why bother turning and gong that way if it leaves you in the same spot and turns out to pretty much be the exact same way you were going before?

Sanctification is a thing that is guaranteed to happen with the Gospel. It’s part of what the Gospel is. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Sanctification is just as real in Christ as wisdom, righteousness, and redemption.

Sanctification is not you working your way into salvation, or saving yourself. Sanctification is you using what you’ve been given through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All that Christ has given you and all the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in you.

You can’t be made a new creation in Christ, a partaker of the divine nature, and stay the same person. It’s impossible. Therefore, if no sanctification shows up then you should have no assurance you actually are a partaker of the divine nature. Sorry little Billy, but you need to examine yourself to see whether you’re in the faith!

Why Self-Help Advice Prevents Spiritual Success

When I was a young, insecure man I read a lot of self-help books. There are bits of good advice to be had in these books. Many of the bits of advice were tied to Scripture, usually in an odd way. Like manifesting: if you put a dream into words the dream will happen. The Scripture they use for this is “The word became flesh.” Gag.

From time to time I dabble in self-help stuff again, often just for reminders of priorities, time management, and how to spend time as the stages of life progress. Inevitably I get fed up with the self-help advice just like I did in the past.

Their idea of success is a core reason why their advice falls flat to someone who knows the Bible. Their success is usually money and winning, maintaining a standard of living that doesn’t jive with NT Christianity.

Oh sure, they talk about making all that money so you can be generous, but it’s kind of tacked on, the rich man’s guilt, a thing they have to say so as not to be one of those evil rich people you hear about.

Achieving their success requires selfishness, that is, in fact, why it is called “self-help,” because you are only helping yourself. Often the motivation to achieve is based on showing up people, being better than others, winning at all costs, being better than your parents, lots of anger and resentment, etc.

“Pay yourself first” is typical advice. You have to sacrifice relationships to do your goals and achieve your dreams. You have to be a bit of a jerk to really achieve. One standard self-help advice says to remove yourself from people who bring you down.

That’s pretty much everyone at some point or another isn’t it?! NT Christianity says to esteem others better than yourself. The strong should bear the infirmities of the weak. Self-help says to get rid of the weak to get more strong.

Worldly success requires selfishness.

Spiritual success requires self-denial.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

So, now we have to define what spiritual success is.

As I understand it, spiritual success is being conformed to the image of Christ. Growing up into the perfect man Christ Jesus. In order to grow you actually have to do some stuff.

This is a controversial statement in Christianity with our rampant Calvinism that says God does it all, we’re just passive blobs. And with the over-emphasis on faith alone without works, we’ve come to believe that all works, even Spirit led works after salvation, are somehow bad and antithetical to grace.

Some think spiritual success means you go away from people. You just go work on yourself. Monks do this. So do people who isolate from church because all those weird, hypocritical Christians are in there and we’re totally better than them.

Others go the opposite direction and think spiritual success looks like number of followers, how many conversions you’ve done, how many people are in your church, how much money and size of the church building you have, etc. Something that can be counted.

Both of these are nothing but conformity to the world. This is just Christian self-help selfishness.

True spiritual success looks like Christ. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of love and He lived that out by dedicating His body and will to the will of His Father. What did that look like? Sacrificial loving service.

You can’t do sacrificial loving service alone in a cave separated from others. You can’t do that if your focus is attracting more people to adore you. You can’t love an individual because you’re so concerned about getting the next one.

Sacrificial loving service like Christ did will make you be around undesirable people, people the world has cast aside as not worth the trouble. It will put you in opposition to many who are going after worldly success, and especially those who are going after spiritual success in a selfish manner (isolation or attracting a crowd).

Spiritual success does not look successful by worldly, measurable standards. But nor is it a denial of all people either though, because being alone eliminates the possibility of loving sacrificial service.

Spiritual success, growth in Christ, is a worthy goal, it is the mark we are pressing forward to. The race we are running, the fight we are fighting. There are things you can do to advance and obtain. But they’re not selfish! They’re not even done primarily for you.

Ultimately they are done for your Father in heaven, other people can benefit from this, but your primary goal is to please your heavenly Father and your commander, Jesus Christ.

The result of Jesus’ loving sacrificial service was crucifixion. People didn’t like it. You won’t get worldly acclaim or win many friends by actually following and growing into Christ. Marvel not if the world hates you.

But the number of people you influence is not the measure. The praise of others is not the goal. Living with the destination of standing before God and giving an account is the motive. Hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant” is the goal. All of this is based on love for the Lord your God and loving your neighbor.

Live for that measure of success and you will not have any eternal regrets.

2 Corinthians 5:21, Calvinism, and Substitutionary Atonement

So, we’ve talked pretty extensively about 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Jesus Christ being made sin for us. Now we have to deal with the second part: that we might be made the righteousness of God.

The Calvinist, Substitutionary Atonement theory, says this means the righteous deeds of Christ were credited to our account. This doctrine is called The Active Obedience of Christ.

Essentially it says that Christ kept the law for us, His deeds, His goodness and righteousness, are added to believers so that they are seen by God as having kept the law. God doesn’t see our deeds; He sees the righteous deeds of Christ.

I maintain that this is more philosophical theory than it is biblical truth.

If you ask a Calvinist where that idea is taught, they will point to 2 Corinthians 5:21. If you ask a Calvinist what 2 Corinthians 5:21 means they will tell you it means Substitutionary Atonement and our sins being imputed to Christ while Christ’s righteous deeds are imputed to us.

It’s classic circular reasoning. The verse doesn’t say this, yet this is the verse that is constantly used to prove this doctrine.

One major problem with this theory is that it assumes keeping the law is what saves us. This is a classic misunderstanding of the Old Testament.

The law was not given to provide a means of salvation; it was a covenant between God and the people of Israel that, if kept, would make the Promised Land abundant and secure (read Deuteronomy). The law was not given to save people. You are not saved because Jesus kept the law for you. Galatians is all about this. Read it.

People have always been saved by grace through faith, and that faith has always been in the seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s head. We know this seed as Jesus Christ.

Note carefully that 2 Corinthians 5:21 does not say Christ was made sin for us and His righteous deeds are imputed to us. It says He was made sin for us “that we might be made the righteousness of God.”

Now, I know Jesus is God, but words mean things! Paul has been talking about Jesus and God in 2 Corinthians 5. Verses 18 and 19 are talking about God and Jesus Christ as distinct persons. This is no subtle Trinitarian thing where the righteousness of God might be the righteous deeds of Jesus Christ.

The righteousness of God was around long before Christ did any righteous deeds. The righteousness of God is speaking of the perfect righteousness that defines God’s character. This isn’t doing good works; this is an actual attribute of who God is.

1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

Jesus Christ became righteousness for us. It’s who He is. This isn’t talking about good stuff that Jesus did during His earthly life. This is talking about an attribute of God.

This is bigger, deeper, fuller, more amazing, and wonderful than 33 years of doing right one earth.

The Bible says all people who are saved were saved by faith. Faith was counted unto him for righteousness. Hebrews 11:7 says Noah was made an heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

This isn’t Jesus keeping the law for you. The law has nothing to do with salvation. Again, read Galatians. The law was there to preserve the nation of Israel until the seed would come. The seed came. We are no longer under the tutelage of the law.

The law doesn’t save; the law served to preserve Israel to bring forth the Savior. Abraham was made righteous before the law (Romans 4). The law is not a component of salvation. Stop saying Jesus kept the law for you or that His righteous deeds are what saves you!

Faith saves you. When you believe God you are counted as righteous. You are counted as possessing the full righteousness of God. This is by faith, not by works, not even Christ’s works!

Don’t let Calvinistic theories ruin the Gospel!

Christ was made sin for us, He identified with our sin nature so that when Christ was crucified, so to was our old man. As a result of His dealing with sin, we are now, by faith, made the righteousness of God. We are an extension of His righteousness, which is unbelievably awesome!

As we grow in faith, as we grow into the perfect man Christ Jesus, this righteousness should show up more and more. That’s what sanctification is all about. If righteousness is not showing up in you more, than you should have no assurance that you have been made the righteousness of God. It is an undeniable force! It will show up if you are a partaker of the divine nature.

It’s that simple. Faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation, is the means by which we tap into the Gospel work of Christ and receive new life.

It’s a beautiful thing. Don’t let man’s theories distort the beauty of what’s going on here!