Be Holy!
Holy defiled perfected
consecrated godly sanctified glorified
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Chewing on Meat
The Creator is
quoted as exhorting us; “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy”
(I Peter 1:16, Lev 11:44). What does it mean to “be holy”? Would
our Creator ask us sincerely to do something that is impossible to do?
How does one do what He asked?
Holy in the New
Testament is typically translated from Greek, ‘hagios’
(Str 40). According to the Strong’s Lexicon
the meaning is “sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious,
ceremonially, consecrated):— (most) holy (one, thing), saint”. The
epitome of one who is holy is the Creator. "No one is holy like
the LORD, For there is none besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.”
(I Sam 2:2) What makes God holy?
Consider what the
ancient king of Babylon had to say about the Creator. “Now I,
Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works
are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is
able to put down.” (Dan 4:37) Nebuchadnezzar had some very personal
dealings with the Creator that left him awestruck. He recognized that
the Creator was absolutely just and straightforward in what He did and how He
conducted himself.
The Apostle John added
to this understanding. “This is the message which we have heard from
Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
(1John 1:5) God is Holy, He is also pure light
with no darkness. Can you have one (Holy) without the other – pure
light?
"And this is
the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John
3:19)
"For everyone
practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his
deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to
the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in
God." (Isa 5:20-21)
Light exposes action
and deeds. His Children seek the light. The Creator has nothing to
hide. He doesn’t do evil or He would have darkness in Him. Would
He be holy still?
Consider the
Messiah. What example did He set?
"do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and
sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of
God’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but
if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know
and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." (John 10:36-37)
Jesus indicated the
ultimate test as to whether or not He was the child of God was a careful
examination of what He did. Specifically, He seems to be talking of His
miracles, but if any part of His life did not reflect the Father, wouldn’t
the Jews have had cause to doubt?
Consider some of
Messiah’s other attributes.
“For such a High
Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens” (Heb 7:26).
Considering Hebrew parallelism
“holy, harmless and undefiled” are all intertwined
characteristics. They are not separate or independent of one
another. The Greek behind ‘harmless’, ‘akakos’
carries the connotation of being ‘without guile or fraud, free from guilt’
also not distrustful (Online Bible Greek Lexicon). It follows that one
who is holy will not be deceptive, nor will he be distrustful without a
cause.
The Greek behind
‘undefiled’, ‘amiantos’, carries the thought
of being “free from that by which the nature of a thing is deformed and
debased, or its force and vigor impaired” (Online Bible Greek
Lexicon). Messiah did nothing to weaken or compromise himself.
Likely this applied to both His body and His mind.
"And to the
angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is
holy, He who is true, "He who has the key of David, He who opens and
no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens" (Rev 3:7)
Again we have
intertwined characteristics indicating that one who is holy is also
true. The meaning of the Greek for ‘true’, ‘alethinos’,
indicates “that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real
nature corresponding to the name, in every respect corresponding to the
idea signified by the name, real, true genuine”. (Online Bible Greek
Lexicon)
Jesus Christ was not
only called the Son of God, but also had the nature corresponding to and
fitting for that moniker. He was Holy, at least partly, because He
conducted Himself as the Holy One did. It was His nature. When
scripture talks of the ‘name’ of someone, it is talking of the person,
authority and/or reputation, which stands behind that name. The
authority or reputation was based on long term performance, i.e.,
faithfulness, follow through and fulfillment of commitments.
In contrast to the
conduct of the Father and Son, consider Lucifer. Lucifer was holy until
his pride tarnished him. He became corrupted.
“You were the
anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain
of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You
were perfect (complete, whole, entire, sound) in your ways from the
day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. 16 By the
abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you
sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.”
(Eze 28:14-16)
Lucifer was anointed,
set apart to the service of the Father. He was cast out when iniquity,
sin and corruption were found in him. Sin separates from the Creator
(Isa 59:2). It is repugnant to Him.
Holy and Humans
1 Pet 1:15, ‘but as
He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16
because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."’
It appears that the
Master expects us to be like Him. Our conduct, how we live our lives,
is the factor that should be considered.
"A disciple is
not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his
teacher.” (Luke 6:40) Ultimately, we are all being trained by our
teacher, the Messiah (Mat 23:8). He wants to train us to be like
Him. If that doesn’t happen is that His fault or ours?
‘and
he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying,
"Tomorrow morning the LORD will show who is His and who is holy, and
will cause him to come near to Him. That one whom He chooses He will cause to
come near to Him.”’ (Num 16:5)
The Creator ultimately
decides who is His and who is not His. We don’t give ourselves the seal
of approval. Making our own claim to reverence as sacred
to God, doesn’t make it so. Korah claimed to
be Holy. In doing so he corrupted himself and proved the opposite.
"Not everyone
who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who
does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Mat 7:21)
‘So He said to him,
"Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if
you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."’ (Mt 19:17)
Keeping the Commandments,
which the context shows to specifically be the Ten Commandments, and doing
the will of the Father accomplish the same thing. Logic would then
dictate they are the same thing.
There are those who
would say that since Messiah did not mention the first four commandments, He
did not necessarily support them. This shows a willing ignorance of the
culture in which He lived. No Jew of that day would have jumped to that
conclusion. Also Messiah would have been content to leave his original
answer intact without being more specific. He only detailed some of the
commandments at the request of the questioner to make it perfectly clear to
which group of commandments He was referring.
“just as He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love, (Eph 1:4)
This is a tall order, since He is not ignorant of our actions. There
should be no short-changing or pilfering, no taking advantage – the
expectation is blameless before Him!
In talking of the body
of believers: “…that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and
without blemish” (Eph 5:27).
There should be no rough spots, rude remarks or shady dealings.
“…in the body of
His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above
reproach in His sight” (Col 1:22). How
other people view us is not the focus. Messiah is the one we must
please. Hiding things from men is pointless. Believers are to be
blameless before Messiah.
“Beloved, now we
are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but
we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him
as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself,
just as He is pure” (I John 3:2-3). The Creator expects us to purge
the darkness and clean ourselves as Messiah was pure. We should not
claim to be the child of the Creator unless we exemplify the nature of the
Creator.
Sometimes it helps to
break things into pieces and take a bite at a time. Consider that
scripture divides holiness into two aspects, one of the body, physical and
one of the spirit, mental. The spirit is the
nature or mentality of a person.
‘I will be a Father
to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.” Therefore, having these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God”’ (II Cor
6:18-7:1). If there is contamination of the body and/or mind, it should
be eliminated. Remove the rottenness & darkness and only light will
remain. It was expected that a son or daughter would emulate the
parent. If we want to be a child of the Creator, we should act and think
accordingly.
“There is a
difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the
things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.
But she who is married cares about the things of the world––how she may
please her husband” (1 Cor 7:34). The man
has these same issues. We have a body and a mind to care for.
There is a spirit/mental aspect but also a body/physical aspect. Paul
felt that a married person was at a disadvantage. This is certainly
something for married people to consider. Are we a distraction or
impediment to our mate’s efforts to represent his/her Creator?
“For you were
bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God’s.” (1Cor 6:20)
Let’s consider the physical
aspect first.
“Then the LORD said
to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and
let them wash their clothes.” (Ex 19:10) The Hebrew behind
consecrate, is ‘qadash’. It includes
the thought of, ”to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be
holy, be sanctified, be separate” (Online Bible Hebrew Lexicon)
Certainly, when we appear in assembly or at other public events we ought to
be clean.
“For I am the LORD
your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy;
for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing
that creeps on the earth. 45 For I am the LORD who brings you up out of
the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am
holy.” (Lev 11:44-45)
Consider the subject
of Leviticus 11 before that quote. To this point the whole chapter
deals with ‘clean and unclean’ foods, i.e. what the Creator thinks should be
eaten and what should not. This seems an obvious part of the physical
aspect of holiness based on verse 44 & 45. Actually verse 44 or 45
are likely the source of Peter’s quote that the believer is to be holy.
So, from the historical perspective Peter’s statement probably brought to
mind first, the need for a proper diet in the minds of anyone familiar with
the Hebrew Scriptures.
“Do you not know
that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in
you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy
him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” (I Cor 3:16)
We are expected to
take care of our bodies. ‘Defiles’ is from the Greek ‘phtheiro’ (Str. 5351). It includes the
meaning of ‘to corrupt’ and even ‘to destroy’. The Jews considered the
temple was ‘destroyed’ if someone simply neglected their duties. In
other words this defiling is somewhat opposite of how Messiah is described in
Hebrews 7:26. He was undefiled. He maintained his full force and
vigor. The body is defiled if it is not fully functioning as it should
be.
It seems apparent that
unclean food is unclean, because it corrupts or is potentially corruptive of
the body. “Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping
thing.” Is it a surprise that we are what we eat? If what we
eat does not promote good health is it a surprise if we become sick? Do
we represent the Creator well when we’re sick, when our full force and
vigor are impaired?
The December 16, 2008
New York Times reported that New York was considering an 18% ‘obesity tax’ on
high sugar content soft drinks and other drinks. Evidence these
drinks contribute to obesity and a host of related problems is fairly
conclusive. The damage is gradual and there are other factors involved,
so people often dismiss the concern for the instant gratification of
taste. Unclean foods are not significantly different. Many taste
good and the damage is not always obvious immediately. If we wish to
represent our Creator we should not be defiling our body, whether quickly or
slowly.
The Weston A. Price
Foundation (http://www.westonaprice.org/) documents
research that was done as far back as the early 1930’s. Dr. Price
examined isolated native cultures around the world. He found that when
people had sufficient food they were healthy. The diseases and sickness
we see in modern society did not exist in these remote cultures. Most
of these people did not follow the diet recommended in scripture. Yet
they were better off than many in modern societies that seem to follow the
biblical diet. Dr. Price traced the problem with modern society to
processed foods and high sugar content. The problem is, most of the nutrients are removed from our food.
It is defiled. Its full strength eliminated. The Price Foundation
studies would indicate that we would be better off eating unprocessed natural
foods even in if some is unclean than eating ‘clean’ food that has undergone
modern processing. If our food is no longer of full ‘force and vigor’
is it a surprise that those who eat it have their ‘force and vigor impaired’.
A case could be made
that the list of unclean foods in Leviticus 11 is woefully out of date.
The instruction in the Law of God to ‘be holy’ is not out of date (Ex
22:31). If being holy is taking care of our bodies, as I Corinthians
3:16 indicates and we know processed and sugar
filled foods lead to health problems, shouldn’t they be considered unclean
too? They defile us just as sure as the creeping things would have
defiled ancient Israel. Consider the long term effect of what you
eat. Just because it’s not in the unclean list doesn’t mean it
supports good health.
Being holy is
incompatible with being defiled. Messiah’s example speaks to
maintaining the full force and vigor of the body. How successful we
might be in this is another matter. It could be argued that the very
land from which our food comes is defiled. That shouldn’t prevent us
from doing what we can.
Care of the body is
definitely part of being holy. It should not be ignored. The
kingdom of God though, is not eating and drinking (Rom 14:17). Some
things are more important than others. However, even the least of the
commandments is important (Mat 15:19). The thoughts and intents of the
mind are more important (Mat 15:11). So let’s look at that.
Holy in spirit
“Now therefore, if
you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a
special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you
shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…" (Ex 19:5-6)
A priest represents
his God. Israel was to be holy, representing the Creator by keeping His
covenant. Was that the same kind of holy? Would they be holy like
the Creator was holy?
‘And Moses said to
the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His
fear may be before you, so that you may not sin."’ (Ex
20:20) The Creator considered that this awesome display, reinforced by
this instruction was sufficient to prevent sin. If they did not sin,
would there be any darkness? Our Creator considered that eliminating
sin was a real possibility.
"You should
know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your
God chastens you. 6 Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the
LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.” (Deu 8:5-6) The Ten Commandments, His covenant, are
the ways of God, the basis on which He conducts His relationships and His
life. They are how He thinks and the basis on which He makes His
judgments. So it seems that Israel would have been holy just as their
Creator was holy if they had followed through with their part of the covenant
bargain.
‘They answered and
said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If
you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham”’ (John
8:39). Even so, if we claim the Creator is our Father, we should
conduct ourselves as He does. If we can do miracles, great! If
not, we can still walk in His ways and evidence His influence, His spirit in
us by keeping His commandments.
"But I say to
you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate
you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you
may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil
and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what
reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do
the same? 47 And if you greet your
brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax
collectors do so? 48 Therefore you
shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”.
(Mat 5:44-48)
The Greek behind
‘perfect’, ‘teleios’ carries with it being “
brought to its end, finished and wanting nothing necessary to
completeness”. Consider that the whole purpose of creation is
summarized in Genesis 1:26 “Let Us make man in Our image, according
to Our likeness”. What is important about the Creator? Is it
how He looks or how He thinks?
If we have His law
written in our heart, if we walk in His ways, we represent Him on
earth. Our spirit is one with His spirit, making a complete man.
Not that we do everything exactly the way He would do things, but that we do
not do things contrary to how He would do them. We will still need to
ponder His instruction to better understand how to implement the details. The
concept of English ‘perfection’, that something cannot be further improved is
not taught in scripture.
In everything ask yourself: “Am I loving my neighbor or myself?” Am I
willing to set aside what I think is best for me to help my neighbor?
Will I trust the Creator to make it right, if not in this life, then the next?
The instruction is not expecting that there can be no further improvement or
better execution of conduct, but that your mind thinks like the Creator
thinks. Believers help with the necessities of the unjust as well as
the just.
"For whoever
desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it.” Faith is required to care for anyone outside your
immediate circle, but particularly the unjust at some expense to
yourself. Common sense tells us that we need to take care of ourselves
first. The Creator says, “No, I’ll take care of you. You
represent Me as I have asked.”
There is a significant
change of mindset needed to counteract what common sense tells us.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher
than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:9)
Common sense, first is not necessarily very common, but second, is not even
close. His ways require an entirely different perspective. That
perspective is referred to in Eph 4:22.
“that you put off,
concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, 24 and
that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true
righteousness and holiness.”
The old man is to be
dumped by the side of the road. The
new man is to continue the journey. This doesn’t indicate a slow process with
two steps forward and one back or an agonizing hike to the top of a tall
mountain. This change is compared to
simply changing one’s clothes. The end
result is a person living in true righteousness and holiness, the ultimate
creation of God.
Deceitful lusts are a
major problem. We use self-deception that results in justifying
something that is error, because we want what we want. We think no one
will know or everyone else is doing it. ‘The minister said so’ is also
a good excuse, so we can abrogate our own responsibility or just be
lazy. These things are tricks of the old man.
‘Jesus answered them, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”’
(John 8:34) “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with
Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer
be slaves of sin.” (Rom 6:6)
A crucifixion was not an
event that took decades. The specific crucifixion Paul is referring to
here is more like taking a bath. When we aren’t living to the standard
of our Creator we are someone else’s slave. We have some other master,
some other god. We are to kill the old man to eliminate his influence,
so we no longer do what he did. His problem is especially a desire for
things, coupled with a lack of concern for others. These can be
eliminated if we know our Creators ways and commit to doing them in spite of
the apparent cost to us.
“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” (Phil 2:3)
We are here for a
higher purpose than the pursuit of our own happiness, although happiness and
contentment (mental peace) are by-products of that purpose. We are here
to demonstrate that the Creator was right in making this world the way He
did. He did not make it to function with selfishness, but
selflessness. We must have the faith to trust that He knows what He is
doing and will make up any loss we seem to suffer. Our own happiness
& fulfillment will come automatically as a result. We are
representing the Creator of the universe.
“But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self–control.
Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:22-24).
The spirit of God in
us brings the light of love, joy and peace, but rejects the darkness of
fleshly desires. We crucify the flesh when we trust the Creator to give
us what we should have. We are then free to support the noble qualities
of the spirit, because we are not trying to protect ourselves. The
emotional gimmie’s disappear.
One of the best
sermons I’ve heard, I heard on KFWB a local Los Angeles news station.
They told of a woman who left around $1000 in cash on a bus in a paper
bag. It was her rent money. The bus driver found it and turned it
in to his supervisor as lost. Ultimately the woman was reunited with
her money. The radio station asked the bus driver why he didn’t
keep the money. No one would have known. His answer, “If I didn’t
earn it, I don’t want it”. Our attitude should be similar. “If
the Creator doesn’t give it to me, it’s not good for me now.”
It is not always easy
to distinguish what He gives and what we just want or desire for
ourselves. Certainly, if we don’t earn it we shouldn’t think much about
it. If you must distort reality, stretch the truth or carefully work
the angles to accomplish your purpose, it’s probably not a gift from the
Creator. Are you taking advantage of someone else in the course of
caring for yourself?
We do need to plan our
lives and its necessities. Often we confuse our wants with
necessities.
“Every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (Jas 1:17)
“Therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility,
meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one
another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave
you, so you also must do.” (Col 3:12)
Messiah is our judge
and avenger. We need to relax and not be so concerned about being
slighted by others. We make sure we don’t offend and trust Him to take
care of us. Then we don’t have to worry that someone may have done us
any significant damage. The saying goes, “God helps those who help
themselves”. This is true, but it is probably more
true that “God helps those who can’t help themselves”. We do
what we can and seek Him for the rest. We especially don’t worry about
revenge or holding grudges.
There is plenty in the
New Testament that helps us better understand how to
be like our Creator. For the most part the New Testament was all
originally spoken or written to people thoroughly educated in the
Law. To fully understand what Messiah said to His contemporaries
it especially helps to be steeped in the covenant of Exodus 20-23. That
instruction, tells us more than is usually noticed in a gloss reading.
It gives special insight into the mind of the Creator so we can press our own
mind into His shape. None of this instruction requires the existence of
Levi or the temple or animal sacrifices, so we don’t have to guess how to
compensate for their loss. Everything is concerned with showing concern
for one another and the Creator.
The Ten Commandments
would have made Israel Holy if they had kept them (Ex 19:6). There are judgments
that were given to Israel after the commandments were given (Ex 21:1).
A judgment is a ruling based on prior law. The prior law is the Ten
Commandments. So all the judgments add detail and tell us how to better
understand the full intention of the Ten Commandments.
For instance: “If
you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he
shall go out free and pay nothing. 3 If he comes in by himself, he
shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out
with him. 4 If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne
him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and
he shall go out by himself.” (Ex 21:2-4)
This doesn’t seem to
have anything to do with us. Slavery is illegal in the Western
world. Aren’t we all free men?
“For he who is
called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is
called while free is Christ’s slave” (I Cor
7:22).
Actually a
believer is not really a free man. A believer claims to willingly
follow the Messiah and serve His cause. The Creator’s way does bring
true freedom, but to have that freedom the believer must give up his own way
of doing things. He is a servant of Messiah, but willingly. So
how does Exodus 21:4 apply to believers today?
Is there anything more
personal that a man can do above engendering his child? Consider that
the child engendered by a slave was not the slave’s, if the master supplied
the wife. It was as if the master engendered the child. The slave
was the property of the master working with the tools of the master on the
master’s time. The slave was representing and working on behalf of the
master. The product the slave produced was the masters. Certainly
if this included the slave’s child everything the slave did was as if the
master did it himself.
In the same way,
everything a believer does is a reflection of our Master and is as if He did
it. Do we please our Master or shame Him? Mahatma Gandhi is
purported to have said “I like your Christ; I do not like your
Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
If we claim to be followers of Messiah, but do not conduct ourselves as
He taught and expects, our conduct is attributed to Him and we bring shame on
Him. Instead of attracting people to
the Creator, they are repulsed.
As servants of
Messiah, our actions belong to Messiah and the Father. “For ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God’s.” (1 Cor 6:20)
Gedadiah Alon in his book Jews in their
Land in the Talmudic Age, tells of some men that attacked a
city. The men were recognized as slaves. The Roman magistrate
wrote to his superior about this. "I know that they are few, but
they are supported by many more, and paid by the
powerful…I know that most of them are slaves: that is why their masters are
blamed." (Pg 399) The masters were blamed for the actions of
their slaves. The slaves were simply the tool of the masters.
If we are a servant of
someone we are to focus on what they would have us do. We are their
tool. Everything we do reflects on our Master
and should be done according to His will and His authority. Is He
pleased or embarrassed with our conduct? Do we show our Master to be a
sinner?
The judgments given
with the Ten Commandments require careful thought to extract the full meaning
and implication. This instruction + the awesome display on Sinai could
have kept Israel sin free. We don’t typically have a background steeped
in the Hebrew Scriptures as Messiah’s audience was. The rest of the Law
along with the New Testament instruction is vital to extracting the full
intent. We need the Law, Prophets and the New Testament
instruction to properly build on the foundation of Exodus 20-23. It all
must be brought together to help us understand His mind.
“Draw near to God
and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify
your hearts, you double–minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your
laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (Jas
4:8-10)
We can’t assume we
know. We must be open to suggestion and the word of God. There is
none so blind as he who will not see.
Arrogance blinds. The believer must always be open to alternatives and
better understanding. We don’t own the truth. We just seek
it. It shouldn’t really matter to us what the truth is.
We must cleanse
ourselves and prove we will obey before our Creator will commit the Helper to
us. The Helper is a helper, not a fixer. The Master doesn’t force
us into anything, but rather wants us to willingly do His will. Then we
will be in His image.
"And we are
His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has
given to those who obey Him." (Acts 5:32)
“But whoever keeps
His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we
are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk
just as He walked.” (I John 2:5)
The Greek behind
‘perfected’, ‘teleioo’,
means “to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end”.
In my informal
discussions, even those who claim to respect the law of God, still
acknowledge sinning. They think there is no other option. If we’re
walking as He walked, how can we be sinning? Did He?
I John 3:8 "He
who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned
from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that
He might destroy (Str. 3089) the works of the devil”.
Sin and righteousness
are not compatible. Messiah intended to destroy any vestige of what the
devil did. Destroy in verse 8 is Greek ‘luo’.
The primary meaning is ‘to loose any person (or
thing) tied or fastened’. The intent is that Messiah will break the
cords that tie us to sin, so we are free from it.
Mat 26:28 "For
this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins.”
This is exactly what
Messiah intended with the New Covenant. Remission is Greek ‘aphesis’
(Str. 859). The primary meaning is: “release from bondage or
imprisonment”.
Most Christians will
find it hard to believe that believers do not sin. Because Christians sin and everybody else they know sins… and they
are ‘Christian’, certainly they have not been deceived. Many
assume that everyone will regularly sin. Some think John directly said
they do. We’ll look at that, but first, examine carefully what he says
in I John 3:6. “Whoever abides in Him does not sin…” Believers do
not do sin (See also verse 9).
Many will quote I John
1:8 as evidence that we all sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”. This understanding
seems at odds with much of I John 3. The real understanding of what is being said is
found in the immediate context. Consider the previous verse, :7 "But if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." Does the Creator sin? Of
course not. If we walk in the light as He does neither do we. That is what it takes
to have real fellowship with Him. He then cleans up our past sins. As it turns out
verse 7 and verse 8 are talking to two different audiences.
It is possible a
believer might sin. It is exceptional,
not the rule. “…And if
anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”
(I John 2:1def). ‘If’ indicates a
possibility, not even a likelihood. John uses ‘if’ not ‘when’. He assumes no sin, but allows it as a
possibility.
IF anyone sins, or on the rare occasion when a
believer does sin, our High Priest can intercede for us with the
Father. All sin is against the Father. He set the guidelines of
what is proper and what is not. Fortunately, the New Covenant is administered differently than the covenant made at
Sinai. The default penalty is not death for the sinner. However,
Messiah decides who is compliant with the New
Covenant. It is with those who have His nature.
At this point some may
be completely nonplused and think they can never attain to what John affirms
in 1 John 3:6. Don’t give up so quickly. One of the reasons
people believe we all sin is because we’ve always been told that in this life
we will always sin. As long as we believe that, it will certainly be
true. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Likely the same people
that tell us that, tell us other things about the
word of God that have proven incorrect.
If we understand that
sin can be eliminated, then we can diligently seek to understand how.
If we don’t understand it can be eliminated, we won’t bother looking for a
way to do it. If we think sin is as sure as death and taxes, we
won’t work very hard to find out how to avoid it. In fact we come to
tolerate sin. The Creator is repulsed by it (Isa 59:2).
It is the Father’s
will that we join Him in His kingdom (Luke 12:32). He wants to
help. He will help us in this matter just as He enables us to escape
other problems (1Cor 10:13). We’re not likely to seek the escape hatch
if we don’t think it exists. Understanding the problem is often half of
the solution.
Children need to be
encouraged and cheered when they take their first step or catch their first
ball. We don’t expect them to provide for themselves and function
properly in society their first year of life. Over time though things change
and they are expected to step up to responsible adulthood. Messiah has
been leading us all along this same journey, but He is directing us toward
the spiritual adulthood. The yardstick of spiritual is the adulthood of
the Father. We’ve been surviving on milk long enough. Messiah’s
selfless example has been given to us. It’s time to step up to His
example and start a diet of meat.
It can be done.
We can be holy as He is holy. He would not have asked us to do that if
it were impossible. We need to think seriously about how we relate to
our Creator and our neighbor. Be concerned not only for our own
interests, but for the interests of others. This applies to little
things as much as, probably even more than, big things. (John
13:34) "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Was it new that
Messiah instructed them to love one another? Leviticus 19:18 tells us
to love our neighbor as our self. So that part of Messiah’s instruction
was not new. However, that was not all he said. “…as I have
loved you, that you also love one another“. Ponder the selflessness
of our Messiah. He expects us to be similarly inclined to one
another. Trust Him to take care of you. He wasn’t focused on the
enticements of this life, but on promoting the Father, His original creation
plan and redeeming us from destruction. Help and look out for one
another.
We cannot become
complacent with darkness, but seek the light and do those things with which
our Master will be pleased. There is something better than life with
regrets available. He is a rewarder of those
that diligently seek Him. We can be freed from the law of sin that
gives the pulls of the flesh dominance over what our spirit knows is right.
Luke 12:43 "Blessed
is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44
Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.”
Give up the regrets
for a lasting prize.
Phil 1:6 “being
confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will
complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
Why have people
generally not overcome the law of sin ‘till now? What is it that is not
understood? Likely, our relationship with money, sex and/or a desire for
things is the problem. The problems associated with these matters
typically boil down to some form of lust. We want what we want.
Scripture is the attempt of the Creator to teach us to diligently seek Him
and become like Him. Perhaps those living in our culture and
circumstance might benefit from certain aspects of His word being
highlighted. With that thought in mind, CreatorsCovenant has produced a
document that attempts to focus on solutions for modern failures and
misunderstanding. We are not thinking that we can improve on the record
the Creator left us, but attempt to focus on subtle things and a few not so
subtle things that might make a difference. See Cease from Sin.