We’ve looked at the need for every Believer to "earnestly contend for the Faith, once for all delivered to the Saints". To do so, we need to recognize and resist false doctrine.
Unless we can recognize and do resist false doctrine, it will not be long until we, ourselves, will be caught-up in the some form of false doctrine. Once we are involved with false doctrine in one way or another, we cannot follow the command to "earnestly contend for the Faith once for all delivered to the Saints".
Being able to both recognize false doctrine and contend for true doctrine is part of the process known as, among other terms, Christian Maturity. There are MANY traits needed, in the life of a Christian, to bring about Christian Maturity.
It always scares me when I make a list of Spiritual qualities, for several reasons…
(1) Some may think that the list is complete and there is nothing more to add
(2) Some may think that those items on the list are of greater or lesser importance, depending on where they appear in the list
(3) Some may have a different understanding or definition of the terms used
(4) Etc.
However, the teaching benefits of a "list" outweigh the downsides. So here goes another list…
Please keep in mind that none of these "traits" of Spiritual Maturity are static. Nor do you achieve any one of these traits by a single act. You can lose any one of these qualities, so fast that it will make your head spin, unless you are in a constant state of using them and experiencing them in balance with each other.
Hebrews 5:11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
If I were to (and I will) name and number these traits of Spiritual Maturity, the ability to recognize false doctrine and contend for true doctrine could be termed as…
(1) Spiritual Understanding and Comprehension
In our study, we also looked at another trait of Spiritual Maturity and that trait could be called…
(2) Spiritual Discernment
A person can be very knowledgeable in the human realm and have great discernment of physical and business matters, and yet have very little, if any, Spiritual Comprehension or Discernment, and the opposite is also true.
To acquire these traits, in the human realm, involves training, experience and the development of an expertise in these matters, along with many other things. That process is ALSO needed in the Spiritual realm. That is why I’ve put comprehension and understanding of Spiritual matters at the first of the list.
There is a very low possibility of developing any of the other traits of Christian Maturity, unless we have a overall understanding of the truths of the Word of God. As a matter of fact, it requires even more that a "simple" understanding of the Biblical facts.
There must be a "comprehension" of those facts and how those facts fit and are integrated into God’s eternal plan. We could look at a number of passages indicating the NEED of such a process. The passage in Hebrews 5 , that we just looked at, is one of those passages. For our study, let’s expand the context of the passage a little.
Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He (God the Father) who said to Him: "You are My Son, today I have begotten You." 6 As He (God the Father) also says in another place: "You (Christ) are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek"; 7 who, in the days of His (Christ) flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him (God the Father) who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek," 11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing…
The writer of Hebrews mentioned some doctrines, and then said that these to whom he was writing should be able to teach these doctrines, BUT they had lost ground in the Spiritual realm and had BECOME dull of hearing.
Especially in the Spiritual realm, IF we are not in the process of learning and living the basic principles of Biblical teaching, we will lose ground Spiritually until, as stated in an another place, we regress into the baby-state of Spirituality or even carnality.
…6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this will we do, if God permit.
If the Believers, referred to in Hebrews, were Spiritually immature, I wonder where that leaves the majority of today’s Christians? I wonder where that leaves most of us?
Most Christians would not have the vaguest idea about such doctrines as mentioned in Heb 6 --- The doctrine of…:
(1) Christ
(2) Repentance from dead works
(3) Faith toward God
(4) Baptisms
(5) Laying on of hands
(6) Resurrection of the dead
(7) Eternal judgment
These are the foundation or elementary doctrines that we should know and from these, we are to move on to more complete doctrines. The Christian Church in general is NOT moving on to deeper and deeper doctrines. Instead, the church is moving on to..:
(1) Less detailed teaching
(2) Programming designed to please the desires of the flesh
(3) Music that has no doctrinal depth
(4) Etc.
A friend of ours explained what the new modern music of the church is called. You see, I’m not too old to learn. I always thought I knew so much that I couldn’t learn any more(ha!), but someone informed me, in love of course, that it wasn’t that I knew so much, it was just, at my age the brain has shrunk and crystallized, therefore it can’t take in any more. Whatever!?! I still like my idea better.
Our friend said that the new Church music is called…
"7/11"
She said that a modern Christian song has 7 words which you repeat 11 times. Not all of the new music of the church is shallow, some of the new songs and praise choruses have real depth of doctrinal truth. However, by in large, modern church music lacks doctrinal depth, and so does some of the old music.
The music, instead, is filled with "touchy feely things" that express how I feel or should feel. If I don’t "feel" like I think I should "feel", then I try to use the music to work-up a feeling, rather than to have depth of soul based on the truth of the word of God lived out in our lives.
We do need to express our feelings to God, to ourselves and others, BUT only the expression of feelings leads to a self-centered life not a Christ-centered life.
It is the study, application and expression of the Word of God that leads to a Christ-centered life. In general, the Christian church, even though growing in number, is shrinking in depth of Spiritual Comprehension and Discernment.
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
When we have gained a measure of…
(1) Spiritual Understanding and Comprehension
AND
(2) Spiritual Discernment..,
THEN
We have the "stuff" needed to develop…
(3) Spiritual Perseverance
Perseverance, patience, longsuffering, etc. are words describing this third trait of Spiritual Maturity. Spiritual Perseverance or Patience is more than gritting your teeth and enduring to the end.
Spiritual Perseverance is hanging on and enduring to the end, BUT doing so because you’ve gained Spiritual Comprehension and Discernment, not because of self-resignation.
From a Spiritual perspective, you can "hang on", not just for the sake of "hanging on", but because you know the One Who is the Beginning and the End. You know God’s eternal plan and you are willing to fight the good fight of faith, BECAUSE you know that in all these things you are more than a conqueror in Christ!
Be careful!!!! You are still human! When, by the grace of God, you have acquired a small measure of these traits of Spiritual Maturity, it is SO easy to think, "Look what I’ve accomplished!"
EXCEPT by the grace of God, you can’t even think Spiritual thoughts, let alone acquire Spiritual qualities of living. Therefore, we MUST HAVE Spiritual Humility.
Spiritual humility is
not
a groveling, self-despising spirit,
it is a right estimate of ourselves,
as
God sees us.
A mature Believer must have the
hard steel of
discernment and perseverance
blended
together with the
soft steel
of humility.
(1) Spiritual Understanding and Comprehension
(2) Spiritual Discernment
(3) Spiritual Perseverance
(4) Spiritual Humility
2 Timothy 4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
My I interject here. Notice how many things, in this passage, we are TO DO:
(1) Be watchful
(2) Endure afflictions
(3) Do the work
(4) Fulfill your ministry.
These are commands of things WE ARE TO DO. Also notice here, as in many other lists of things we are to do, there is included the fact that we will suffer if we do these things.
Please DO NOT allow anyone to cloud your minds with the false teaching that we are not commanded TO DO things in our Christian life, or if we simply claim God’s promise (of what, they don’t say), we will have no stress or suffering in life.
That little by-pass didn’t have much to do with today’s lesson, BUT it does have a lot to do with some of the many "winds of false doctrine" that are blowing around today. Be careful that you don’t get caught up in the whirlwind of groundless and false teaching.
Verse 5 brings us to the next trait needed in Spiritual Maturity.
(5) Spiritual Responsibility and Commitment
Society, in general, has lost the "frontier spirit" or real commitment to much of anything, except personal comfort and pleasure. Certainly, society has lost the cardinal and royal concept of personal responsibility. AND for the most part, the church, being conformed to the worldly system, has followed the pattern set by the world.
"I have no responsibility! Anything in my life that is wrong, someone else caused. I have a right to all and any freedoms, without responsibility of protecting those freedoms." Nowhere is this attitude more clearly seen than in the church, itself!!!!
An interesting thing about
having
freedom
is that to have a freedom,
we must give up some other freedom or freedoms.
Even before sin in the Garden, for Adam and Eve to have the freedom to eat of every tree of the Garden, they had to give up the freedom to eat of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Since sin entered our world, there are far more than just "one" freedom that we must give up in exchange for each freedom gained. Therefore, we must be very sure that the freedom we are trying to gain and keep is worth the cost to have it.
If you are to make a living, have a roof over your head, food on the table and pay the rest of your bills.., you will have to give up the freedom of lounging on the beach 24/7.
After
you choose the freedom to make a living,
THEN
you must take the
responsibility
of protecting that freedom.
In like manner in the church.
God has given us the opportunity and freedom to be part of HIS Church or Body. Within the earthly Body of Christ, there are many smaller or local bodies called churches. God, in His Word, has spelled out the freedoms and responsibilities of the local body, and the responsibility of each member within that body. One passage that gives us a partial listing of those responsibilities is…
Philippians 2:1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 LET nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind LET each esteem others better than himself. 4 LET each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 LET this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
If we had no other passage (BUT we have lots more), we have sufficient information right here in this passage, if acted upon, to build a local church and make it thrive. On the other hand, if we do not act on this information, given here and elsewhere, we WILL destroy the local church.
It often seems that some people spend far more energy trying to destroy the local church than they do building the church. Some are involved in destroying the church and don’t even know it, because they are doing "just what comes naturally". Doing "just what comes naturally" will blast a local church right out of the water.
If a local church is to survive, as a Bible believing, Bible teaching church, THEN we must have less of "what comes naturally" and more of "what comes Spiritually".
In our passage of Phil 2:1-8 , verse one declares some of the Spiritual freedoms we have in Christ. Paul uses a debate technique of asking questions that have obvious answers. In this case, the obvious answer is, "Yes, as a Believer there is…"
(1) Consolation in Christ
(2) Comfort of love
(3) Fellowship of the Spirit
(4) Affection and mercy
As we know from other passages, Paul did not intend this as a complete listing of what we have in Christ, but instead as SOME of what we have in Christ. Verse one lists some of what we have in Christ, THEN verses 3-8 gives us a partial listing of our "RESPONSIBILITY" to those Spiritual freedoms.
The Holy Spirit, through Paul, gives four basic areas of personal "RESPONSIBILITY" for each Believer, IF we are to continue to enjoy the four Spiritual freedoms of verse 1. These four areas of personal "RESPONSIBILITY" are indicated by the word "LET", two "lets" in verse 3 and one each in verses 4 & 5.
The first two "lets" have to do with how we function or serve in the local body. The "let" of verse 4 has to do with our attitude and action in our personal life, as well as the collective life of the body. The "let" of verse 5 shows us the attitude we MUST have, if we are to be able to fulfill the first 3 "lets".
SO…, let’s look briefly at these very important "LETS". This section dealing with the "lets" is introduced in verse 2 by a summation of the four "lets".
2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
(1) We are to be "like-minded",or the Greek means to be "of equal soul"
This "purpose" for service, is to be the same in each and every person within the local church. Not necessarily that we all have the same thoughts or opinions. Being "like-minded" is the summation of the three to follow.
(2) We are to have the "same love"
(3) We are to be of "one accord"
(4) We are to be of "one mind"
All four of these commands are referenced and included in the last of the four "lets". The mind, love and accord (agreement) is to be the same as that of Christ’s. Sometimes, the way Paul presents a truth seems strange to the American mind, BUT if you will "rightly divide" what he presents, it will make sense and the way he presented it will save pages of text.
3 LET nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind LET each esteem others better than himself. 4 LET each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 LET this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
With that Biblical introduction, let’s move on to the four "LETS".
(1) We are to serve (within the local church)
(a) Without selfish ambition (personal gain or glory through faction or division)
(b) Through lowliness of mind (humility)
(2) In our service (within the local church), we are esteem others (the total) better than oneself
(a) Esteem is a term of leadership or of official authority in which others (the total) are the goal, not personal regard
(3) Our interest and service (within the local church) is..
(a) Not to be ONLY for our own benefit
(b) Others are to have equal or greater preference
(4) Our ability to participate in the first three "lets" is seen in the actions and attitude of Christ
(a) Christ recognized His proper position of Godness
(b) However, to reach mankind and to be obedient, He deliberately took on the attitude of a servant
On December 3, 2000, a homeless man by the name of William Wallace Brown, Jr. was buried in the graveyard of the prestigious St. John’s Episcopal Church, across from the White House.
This would not be unusual except that St. John’s is called the "church of the presidents." Since 1808, the time of the James Madison’s presidency, nearly every U.S. leader has worshiped at St. John’s.
So how is it that this street bum was laid to rest in a prominent burial garden? It all began one Sunday morning when this homeless man spotted President George Hebert Walker Bush entering the church and asked the president to pray for him.
President Bush looked at him for a moment and said, "No! Come inside with us and pray for yourself." So he did. He became a permanent part of the services and every week would place a crumpled dollar bill in the silver collection plate.
In October of 2000 he died. During the funeral for William Brown, one of the speakers said that in the eyes of God "the homeless and the most important are one in the same".
A local church should not be built on programs, BUT on attitudes that gender proper un-selfish actions. These types of un-selfish attitudes are a demonstration of God’s love.
I looked for an illustration that would show, from human Perspective, a little of what it means to have the same mind, attitude and love of Christ. Then, just by chance (ha!), Saturday, we received an email from a friend in Nebraska.
Even though, no illustration can come close to clearly presenting the mind set of Christ, this little illustration may just bring a little illumination to that mind set, in a lighthearted way.
The email went something like…
From a strictly mathematical viewpoint, what Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?
Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more
than 100%? We’ve all been in situations where someone wanted us to give more than 100%.
How about achieving 101%? What equals 100% in life? Here’s a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions.
If the letters in the English alphabet were represented by numbers from 1 through 26, some interesting results will results. Without a lot more work than I wanted to do, I couldn’t get the corresponding number for each letter right under it. So you will have to use your well developed imagination.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Then
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
And
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
BUT, look how far the love of God will take you
L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D
12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%
Maybe we can conclude with mathematical certainty that, while Hard work and Knowledge will get you close to 100%, and Attitude will GET you there. The Love of God will put you over the top!
This mathematical demonstration may not be totally accurate, BUT the truth taught by the illustration is absolutely accurate.
© Clyde White, Austin TX, 2006
oori.org
(Scripture Text NKJ unless stated)
(Many illustrations from sermoncentral.com)
