Three Gospel Truths

Three Gospel Truths

by

Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (11/3/2013)

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace...Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” (Ephesians 4:3, 13, King James Version [Paul exhorteth to unity]).

Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus,

Good Evening, my brothers and sisters, for winter is upon us. Oftentimes, winter tended to bewilder us in thoughts of persecution but not abandoned and struck down but not destroyed. Nowadays, the status quo might not work out that way, truly, indeed, winter persecuted to abandonment and struck down to destruction, in many neighborhoods, as folks struggled to live through the force of God that humbled them down. Many folks since they ran away still seemed shell shocked in the trauma of death of a loved one, lost job, lost income, lost car, lost truck, lost SUV, lost RV, lost friends, lost in the wilderness, away from God without Jesus. My people, let us ponder three gospel truths serving man today with the power to deliver abandonment and destruction, which are fraternized, radicalized, and unified, yet one or more of them could deliver you back to God's embrace in Christ Jesus.

One day, I heard someone say while drawing close to the church they attended to enter in, “The preachers do not teach.” This person was regarded illiterate incapable of coming to a full understanding of the words of God spoken by the preacher. I must respond to that need in this sermon on Three Gospel Truths, when we talk about fraternized, radicalized, and unified. In the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (4:27), Paul said, “Neither give place to the devil”. This is fraternized, the meaning of, mingling as friends, acting like you were or are friends, a cohort with folks you do not particularly like or even care for. It meant to associate on intimate terms with citizens of a hostile nation or for a military man it meant to associate on intimate terms with troops of a hostile nation.

Let us continue to understand, fraternized drawing from it the word cohort. Well, what is cohort? Cohort is a group of followers or warriors. A cohort could be an accomplice or it could be a companion.

The meanings begged the question, Why a follower (a cohort) of Christ Jesus fraternized with folks who not only stood against Christ Jesus but who also planned to persecute his followers to abandonment and who also planned to strike them down to destruction? The gospel truth, unified answered fraternized, for unification in order to deliver effective works for increase checked the need to fraternize which proved counterproductive to deliver effective works.

In the gospel readings of Ephesians, 4th chapter, Paul said, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; ...From whom the whole body fitly joined together ...maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (verses 4, 16). This is unified, the meaning of, joined together, compacted or to pack together, in agreement or in a covenant by everything that the jointly fitted followers supplied or provided. You are a jointly fitted packed together close to one another, follower in the one body of Christ Jesus. What did you supply? Whatever you brought to the table of offerings, unified the body of Christ and supplied effective works, in the measure that every work needed, the work received its part, which ultimately produced increase in the body for the edifying of the body in love.

I ask you, “What did the fraternizers instruct you about for the improvement of your morality when you fraternized with those folks who hated their neighbors and plotted to break the commandments of God, either by killing their neighbor, stealing from their neighbor, committing adultery with their neighbor's wife, honoring their false belief over the words of God and gospel teachings of Christ Jesus? What commandment of God did you improve your practice of? Was the instruction of the fraternizers, in the love of Christ Jesus, in God Almighty? Obviously, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out

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that a unified follower in Jesus does not would not fraternize, thereby you understand it is your unity

with the followers, jointly fitted, packed together, in agreement, in covenant that freed you from

fraternized behavior and set you a captive free to live an abundant life. For as long as you fraternized, stood against Jesus, the one body and burdened the body down, the fruits of your works were not effective and only brought about divisions as Paul spoke to the Corinthians and now we understand the Ephesians received much of the same instruction to improved upon their practice of unity in the faith of Christ Jesus.