Spiritual Nuggets
For 04-05-2009
151. As strange as it may sound at first, sin is similar to God! How could that be? Sin’s consequences show no partiality just like God shows none. As God will impartially either oppose or be for a person and his endeavors, based on his behavior, sin shows no partiality too and will drag all people to hell, even the previously faithful. Again, that applies even for the righteous who would turn to do evil. There is no partiality with sin. Remember that! See http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/spiritualdeath.htm The issue, therefore, is: Do not do evil, as defined by God. Some people are missing the point as they seem to major over sub-issues like does a Christian have a sinful nature or not; is there original sin; etc. Where are these shown to be issues in the Bible? They aren’t! Folks, obey God regardless where the source of temptation comes from—the world, the flesh, or the devil:
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. (1 Pet 2:11)
152. At one point in early Christianity the Christians were living in very close proximity to one another. Later, starting with the persecution in connection with Stephen being martyred, they certainly didn’t live in a single group, as in a commune. Peter wrote:
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Pet 2:12)
The unbelievers (or pagans) were able to observe the good and holy behavior of the Christians.
153. Silas was a godly traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. Among other things, he too was severely beaten and jailed:
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. (Acts 16:22,23)
Silas ministered with Paul from Acts 15:40 to Acts 18:5. After that point, he is not mentioned again with Paul. But, if it is the same Silas, we later read of him helping Peter write 1 Peter:
With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. (1 Pet 5:12)
Perhaps, this is where Silas went after he stopped working with Paul. Regardless, the Silas mentioned in 1 Pet. 5:12 was a faithful brother too.
154. The Christian life, to a large degree, is a struggle against sin:
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Heb 12:4)
In first-century Christianity, the Christian attitude was to shed your own blood, if necessary, rather than yield to sin. That attitude alone shows how vastly different it is in our day. How could it get like this? False teachings are the reason. Besides Heb. 12:4, we also have Heb. 11:35:
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
Some unnamed righteous people wisely chose torture over sinning. Here’s another:
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Rev 12:11)
155. Jesus taught we are to make every effort to enter God’s kingdom (Lk. 13:23,24). That includes what we do with our words, thoughts and actions:
As long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit. (Job 27:3,4)
If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Heb 11:15,16)
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live (Rom 8:13)
Paul crucified his own sinful nature daily:
I die every day—I mean that, brothers— just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Cor 15:31)
He knew that even after he himself—an apostle—preached the true gospel, he would end up in hell, if he didn’t control his own body (1 Cor. 9:27). The same holds true for us today!
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