1 John 2:1-6 Love With All Your Heart!

1 John 2:1-6  My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.  We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.  But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.  This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

The New Testament has 1,050 commands for a Christian to follow.  If we combine the duplicates, we have approximately 800 commands for obedience to righteousness.  If Christians believe we must live by these commands or laws, our primary responsibility should be to know them.  We need to catalog them in such a way that we can view them often.  Of course, in the New Testament these laws are presented to us, but they get mired in the prose of the writing.  If we really believe we must follow them, we need to know them.  Obviously, the best way to have them available would be to list them in a booklet, providing a comprehensive understanding of all the commandments in the New Testament.  In today’s focus scripture, John says, we validate this claim of intimacy with Christ by keeping his commandments.  We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.  Considering this and other scriptures, many Christians today attempt to serve Jesus by obeying as many laws as they detect in the New Testament.  Of course, the more conscientious believers often will feel they have failed either in their actions or in their thinking.  This attempt to be faithful Christians by obeying laws will many times rob people of  the joy of their salvation.  Serving God through obedience to laws demands constant evaluation of where you stand before a righteous, perfect God.  Sensitive Christians who evaluate everything they do or think find themselves unlike God and his holiness.  God demands perfection; eternity demands perfection.  Eight hundred written laws will sink any conscientious servant of God into failure and defeat, for we know as the Bible says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:23)  In the Old Testament, sacrifices were necessary to appease a holy God.  These necessary offerings, appeasing a righteous God, revealed the unholy nature of men and women.  For people to be in right relationship with God, the blood of animals was required by God.  Death is the sentence imposed upon any imperfection.  Payment was required for the sins of a person—animals paid the price of death.  Why must anything die?  Because God cannot accept the cancer of sin in his presence.  If we are to be his chosen, we must be cleansed of imperfection.  If we are to live eternally with him, in his very presence, sin must be eliminated from our existence.  In other words, we must be holy as HE IS HOLY.  Faced with this dilemma, Paul cries out, O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  He answers with our only hope, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Romans 7:24-25)

If we get caught up in our own efforts to be holy, we confuse the issue of salvation.  Salvation has not come to us Christians because of our works but as a consequence of Christ’s works.  If we sustain our Christian lives through our efforts to keep laws, we contaminate the work of the cross.  We do not stay Christian by our efforts, but our lives of purity are based on Christ’s work and not our own works.  Is the sacrifice on the cross enough to keep us to the end of our lives as Christians?  How do we keep holy, acceptable and right with God if we do not obey all of the eight hundred commandments all of the time?  Are we not to be without fault concerning our relationship with God?  In the scriptures we find a man devoted to God by being obedient to every commandment and lifestyle demand.  He, of course, is Paul the apostle.  He attempted to please God through the efforts of his flesh.  In fact, he could be considered one of the most righteous Pharisees in the Jewish culture.  If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.  (Philippians 3:4-6)  His zeal for God brought him status in the world of Judaism.  He was given the assignment to stamp out apostasy.  Consequently, he persecuted Christians, even escorting them to Jerusalem, maybe to be put to death. We know he rejoiced when Stephen was stoned to death.  He might have been one of the leaders of that mob who took Stephen’s life.  The participants in that stoning laid their coats at the feet of a consenting Paul.  But Paul counts all of his supposed goodness in serving God with a reverent zeal as garbage.  But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  (Philippians 3:7-9)   Paul explicitly says that righteousness comes from God, not from man’s efforts.  To Paul, his effort of pleasing God was garbage in comparison to God’s holiness and perfection.  He needed something more than obedience to law.  We also need something more than obedience to the eight hundred laws in the New Testament.  We need a Savior who is Christ our Lord.  

Our salvation is always in flux if we attempt to find righteousness through fleshly efforts.  We must count our efforts to be like God as garbage, for the new covenant is God’s work completely.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)  We do not save ourselves through our efforts, our goodness, our ability to obey all the commandments.  No, God saves his people.  The angel announced to the Shepherds, Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for ALL THE PEOPLE.  (Luke 2:10)  Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God brought in a new covenant that would satisfy the wrath of God on sin.  No more the blood of animals to appease God’s anger on sin.  No, his Son came to pay the price for righteousness once and for all time.  Every human being that ever was is under this covenant of grace.  God’s everlasting redemptive plan, as timeless as God is, was brokered for all humans made in his image.  “This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.  I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.  (Hebrews 8:10-13)  The writer of Hebrews says Good News has come to all people.  Through faith in God and in Jesus’ death and resurrection, all people can have the righteousness of God written on their hearts.  All people can become the temple of God where the Holy of Holies dwells.  All men and women can have the voice of God speak to them through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the innermost part of their beings.  We are no longer law bound or law driven, for the Holy Spirit’s work in us is a heavenly work, not of ourselves but of God.  If we fail to trust completely in God’s work, our salvation is always uncertain.  One day we feel safe and secure in Christ, and the next day we feel desperately lost in our sins.  As fleshly humans, we often do things we are not proud of, either overtly or by omission.  We can sin and not even know it, such as walking by, brushing off someone who needs our help.  God wanted us to help that person, but we disobeyed him by putting our self-interests above the other person’s needs.  Such sins are not noticed by us, but God sees these imperfections in us.  We waste the resources He has given us.  Jesus would not even waste the food that He asked God to bless when He fed the 5,000 men.  He had the apostles collect the leftovers, for God had blessed the food.  We might have thrown the leftovers in the garbage.  The point is: we are not perfect!  We need a stand-in between God and us.  We need a perfect, complete death for our sins—one that will make us forever acceptable to a righteous God, one that will make us as God: HOLY.  GOD IS LOVE.  Jesus said if we are satisfying God’s demands on our lives we will love as He loves.  By loving we are one with him.  The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”  (Mark 12:29-31)  Dear friends around the breakfast table, we should seek to love everyone.  By loving people sincerely, we image God’s heart—we are one with him.  Our obedience to him by loving him with all of our heart and loving others will satisfy all the laws written in the Bible, for that is how Jesus lived and loved.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  (1 John 4:10)  Walk in his love today as you love one another. 

 

1 John 1:5-10 Pure Light!

1 John 1:5-10   This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

From the beginning of time, people’s thoughts of God were of a creator, an entity that made all that is perceived and experienced. Additionally, the absolute foundation of Christianity is that God is as pure as light.  Then Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12)  In today’s focus, John claims that God has no darkness in him.  Consequently to be with God eternally, we must be as God is with no darkness within us.  The darkness can be ascribed to sin, the opposite of light.  These blots of darkness cannot exist with God.  If God, everlasting life, and eternity consist of light alone, we must be cleansed of all the blackness within us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  John states that if we believe we have no darkness within us, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.   We cannot have fellowship with God, Absolute Light, if we are not cleansed of sin.  Neither can we have unadulterated fellowship with the body of Christ while loving a sinful life, permitting and flaunting our sin in front of fellow believers.  Such a lifestyle, of course, was what some believers were doing in the church of Corinth.  They seemed to be proud of their willingness to accept open sin within their congregation, but Paul knew as John knows, sin is cancerous, deceptive, and finally destructive.  Therefore, Paul tells the Corinthians to expel the wicked man from their congregation and then hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.  (1 Corinthians 5:5)  All people have some darkness or waywardness from God’s purity within them.  This, of course, in the Christian sense is dealt with by faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.  We experience a constant, ongoing purification provided by Jesus’ death on the cross.  When John wrote that Christ’s blood purifies us from all sin, the verb tense he used means that it cleansed us yesterday, it is cleansing us today, and it will cleanse us tomorrow.  We are cleansed, we are pure, because Jesus paid the price for our purity or rightness with God.  But to flaunt sin, to say it is okay to be openly rebellious to God’s nature is a dangerous place in which to live. 

To be openly sinful, glorying in your freedom to sin as we function in the household of God is very dangerous, but to claim purity because of our good works is even more dangerous, for we have lost contact with the TRUTH OF ETERNAL LIFE.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.  To make God out as a liar, to contradict Jesus’ words that we must be born again, is unredemptive in nature, pushing us toward blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.  But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.  All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  (John 6:35-40)  Jesus speaking under the Holy Spirit’s authority told his audience that He is the bread of life.  The disciples wanted to know, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  (John 6:28-29)  Jesus lays out very clearly that He and his words must be partaken of literally.  Eternal life comes only through eating of him, believing in him, taking his words into their lives.  The TRUTH of the Word of God is to believe in the Christ and in his saving works.  Salvation happens when a person believes in the Christ God sent down to Earth.  Matthew at the beginning of his gospel introduces us to this idea of redemption from our sins through Jesus Christ.  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.”  (Matthew 1:20-21)  In this account, we see a man from the lineage of David, a servant of God as David was, place his faith in what he heard from the angel.  The angel said that this baby would save people from their sins.  How can anyone change the self-will of an individual?  How can anyone change the imagination of a person?  How can anyone change the deceitfulness of mankind?  How can anyone erase the sinful actions of men from God’s judgment?  But, the angel of the Lord says conclusively, he will save his people from their sins, not that people will save themselves from sin.  

Salvation is not the work of men, but the work of God.  As Paul wrote, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV)  Only God knows how to bring eternal life to men.  He sent Jesus to do that work for us.  We have little perspective of how to be better in an enduring way.  We might do better for a while; we might even think of ourselves as being sinless for a brief time.  But perfection is not something that we can attain by ourselves.  The Bible says that we need a Savior, someone who is perfect at all times and forever.  For us to live eternally, we must not have any blackness in us, any grit of sin, anything that is Not of God.  Otherwise, we must be like God in our nature.  The Bible says that we will be integrated into the body of Christ.  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: And if children, then heirs—heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.  (Romans 8:16-17 NKJV)  In this new realm, we are as white as the brightest star.  All residue of our imperfections is gone by faith.  In place of our sinfulness, Christ’s perfection is ours.  How can all this happen?  Only through the substitution of Christ’s life for our lives, his perfection for our imperfection.  If we do not take Jesus’ righteousness for our unrighteousness, we will not gain entrance to the domain of God.  John understood this truth, and he warns us that we must live in the TRUTH and the Truth is Jesus Christ.  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  Without faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, we walk in darkness without God’s direction and outside of the power of the Holy Spirit.  We are the light of the world so we should walk in that light, knowing God is in us and his words are our words.  Today, begin to see yourself as a shining light, full of the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit.  Turn away from all darkness and allow God’s perfection to have its way in you.  When Paul encouraged believers to fulfill God’s purposes in their lives, he told them that when you give your life wholly to God, you will shine among them (a crooked generation) like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.  (Philippians 2:15-16)   

1 John 1:1-4 Inexpressible Joy!

1 John 1:1-4  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete.

John establishes the parameters of his writing in his opening words: the incarnation of Jesus and the necessity of entering into the fellowship of believers by proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to save sinners.  However, as with all generations subsequent to the time of Jesus’ death, the antichrist spirit remains alive and well with the belief that maybe Jesus was a good man, but not the Son of God.  This antichrist spirit will make allowances for considering Jesus as a prophet or a holy man, but definitely not as the Son of God.  To people who hold to the antichrist spirit, Jesus is just another person with some nebulous ideas about God and serving him.  Of course, such opinions have existed from the time of Christ to discount the necessity of believing in his saving power and his works.  If Jesus is not God, then the Good News is not the Good News—eternal life has not come to those who believe in him and his death on the cross for our sins.  If Jesus is not exceptional, unique in all ways to all who have ever existed, then He is but a man whose teachings and ideas waver between sane and insane, rational and irrational.  Yet John claims Jesus is Lord, and eternal life and fellowship with God comes only through belief in the Creator of all things.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:1-4)  John’s fellow disciple who was on the Mount of Transfiguration with him also confirms the fact Jesus is the only Lord.  Peter states: For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.  (2 Peter 1:16-18)  John and Peter were so adamant about Jesus being the Lord, both gave their lives entirely to him, preaching boldly about Jesus being the Christ, the Messiah.  Delivering this message of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ consumed their lives.  All the disciples were as one in believing that Jesus Christ brought eternal life to all who placed their faith in him.  Later on, Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he too gave his life for Jesus, dedicated his life to the message faith in Christ and his death on the cross.  To all of them and to all Christians throughout the ages, Jesus is the Eternal One, the Creator of all things, even new creatures, the born again people of God. 

Because Jesus is the Eternal One, we too who are one in him have eternal life.  The message the apostles brought to the world was that everlasting life with God can be had through belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The life (Jesus Christ) appeared; we have seen (him) and testify (about him), and we proclaim to you the eternal life (Jesus), which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard (of him), so that you also may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  When we put our faith in Jesus, we become one with him and with the Father.  Jesus addresses us as children.  Children of whom?  We are children of the Father, his Father and now our Father.  When we come to Christ and accept his salvation for our souls, we enter into a new domain, a place where we have fellowship with God the Father, the Son, and with all who are in the body of Christ through faith in Jesus’ works.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  (John 1:12-13 KJV)  John wants us to understand who we are so we might have the joy of fellowshipping with God and with our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.  However, if we who are born-again mind the things of this world more than the things of faith, we will be void of the joy of the Lord, not knowing the excitement of daily abiding in the presence of God.  Worldliness darkens the eyes of faith.  Living as a natural man rather than as a new creature always dissipates the joy of living for Christ.  Paul commends the church in Thessalonica for receiving the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.  (Thessalonians 1:6)  Christians must always keep in mind, their citizenship is in heaven.  (Philippians 3:20)  We are no longer creatures of finiteness.  Our bodies will be corrupted by the grave, but we who are presently sitting in high places with our Father God will exist forever.  John desires us to know this as a reality so that we fellowship with our heavenly family and with the church.

The apostle John has come a long ways since he and his brother asked Jesus for a special place in the kingdom of God.  Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”  “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.  They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”  (Mark 10:35-38)  In this request, we see John, not as the disciple of love, but as a very self-centered man, desiring a high position for himself.  We see him trying to leverage his place as a beloved follower of Christ into a place of honor for himself and his brother.  Jesus does not put them down directly, He merely tells them that their desire for prominence will cost their flesh dearly.  They both say they are willing to pay the price.  James was the first disciple to be martyred; John was exiled on the island of Patmos.  They both paid a heavy price for following Christ.  But the determination of bestowing honor is God’s right, not even Jesus’ privilege.  As he was writing, John was known as the disciple of love.  Love prefers others before the self.  Love desires no special treatment or a special position.  In fact, Jesus goes on in Mark 10 to say that prominence in the kingdom of God comes through servanthood to all people.  Whoever is the least will be the greatest in God’s eyes.  John learned this as he lived his life.  Then he could talk gladly about the fellowship of believers.  His joy was for all believers to know Christ as Lord of all, and as the healer of the souls of mankind.  Now he could say We write this to make our joy complete.  He is writing this book to fulfill his purpose for living, not to achieve a place of special honor in God’s kingdom, but to lead men to a better life, a life of joy that is found through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  John wanted people everywhere to know the Christ he knew.  He could say with Peter, Though you have not seen him (Jesus), you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  (1 Peter 1:8-9)  May each of you walk joyfully in that faith each day.  

2 Peter 3:14-18 Grow In Grace!

2 Peter 3:14-18  So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.  Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.  His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To him be glory both now and forever!  Amen.

How should we live in these last days?  As Peter said by quoting Joel’s prophesy at the day of Pentecost, we are and have been in the last days since Jesus died on the cross.  The church of Christ has always faced the situation of living in the last days.  Harassment, persecution, and death have continuously flamed up against God’s people of faith.  Christians have faced devilish opposition in their living for Christ.  Many believers have been martyred because they dared to mention the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior.  The body of Jesus Christ rarely has existed within an environment of acceptance.  Even today in America, some jobs are withheld from people with a strong belief in Christ Jesus as Savior.  We do not see fundamentalist Christians occupying seats of power such as serving as a Supreme Court Justice.  In our modern world, even in the most sophisticated and civilized societies, faith in Jesus Christ and his works is rejected and often mocked.   Right now, at the time of this writing, people around the world are using the name of Jesus as a curse word.  The devil knows Jesus’ name, and he knows the power of that name, so he uses his minions in the world to ridicule and deride it.  The names of other prophets and so-called deities are accepted and honored, but the name of Jesus is demeaned.  Expressing the name of Jesus with contempt is exactly what God’s enemies desire.  Oftentimes, even Christians forget the power of Jesus’ name: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)  Jesus is the powerful gatekeeper to the domain of God.  He is the Savior, the one who can wash away the stain of sin.  As David beseeched God in Psalms 51: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  He goes on to say, Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Jesus is the Creator!  He emphatically told Nicodemus the Pharisee, you must be born again and receive a NEW HEART to be  acceptable to God the Father.  As Christians, we must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He is divine—the Son of God!  The secular world hates the fact we call ourselves Christians, followers of the divine One.  Say anything else about Jesus and they may accept your words, but if you say, only the Divine One brings salvation, you face opposition, harsh words.  Tell them that Jesus had SOME GOOD WORDS or insight into human behavior, and they will smile, “Yes, I grant you that.”  But if you say He is the Savior and Creator of all things, negativity quickly comes your way.  But if Jesus is not the Son of God, He is mere man—sometimes expressing wisdom and love, but other times irrational ideas about himself, God, and the world, even what we might consider a delusional man.  Still the question remains for Christians in the last days, how should we live?  We will walk in the footprints of Christians who for two millenniums have lived under the name of Christ, believing in Jesus’ works as denoted in the Bible.  We have committed ourselves to the kingdom of faith, not to this kingdom of flesh.  We will live by faith, even though our bodies die in the kingdom of flesh.  Our hope is not in this world.  We will not eat, drink, and be merry, thinking this world is all that there is for us who have breath.  No, we will live in the kingdom of faith.  Our eternal existence resides there as we await our eternal home.  

What is the kingdom of faith?  Faith in God requires action, a new and purposeful way of living.  Faith is not merely believing there is a God or that Jesus is his Son.  It is not merely tagging yourself with the name of Christian.  A life of faith is full of action, dedication, and good works.   What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?  So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough.  Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.  (James 2:14-17, NLV)  If you truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the gate to heaven, you will be obedient to him.  You will perform good works as He did in his life.  Yes, you will pray to God.  You will be in constant contact with God because of the voice of the Holy Spirit within you, but the evidence of knowing God, of hearing God, is the good work and attitude that your life produces.  James says quite clearly, if your life is void of good works and a positive attitude towards others, your faith, your belief in God, is nonexistent.  It is dead!  God has always accepted the faith of people that produces good works.  Rahab, the prostitute found rightness with God when she hid the Israelite spies in her home.  These Israelites were spying out Jericho.  She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road.  Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.  (James 2:25-26)  She was considered a heathen by the Israelites, but God considered her right with him.  We see a Roman soldier, Cornelius, being right with God by his works.  He believed there was a God to serve.  He served him reverently with good works.  At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.  He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.  One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision.  He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”  Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?”  he asked.  The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.  Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.  He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”  (Acts 10:1-6)   We see in these stories that God honored the good works of Rahab and Cornelius.  God blessed them because of their faith.  Abraham was called a friend of God because of his faith in God and his words.  Christians who believe in Jesus Christ are to honor God by their works.  What about salvation?  We must believe.  God brings Christ to those who honor him, for Christ is the gate to eternal life.

Paul’s preaching is all about faith in Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.  Paul met Jesus outside of physically walking with him on earth as the disciples had.  Paul saw Jesus in the spiritual context of eternal life.  He did not see Jesus in the flesh, but he did see the light of the ETERNAL ONE on the road to Damascus.  So his teaching was based on that manifestation of Christ.  How should we live to enter into Christ’s eternal domain was the basis of his teaching.  He was taught by the Holy Spirit that faith in Jesus Christ and his works would bring people eternally into the presence of God.  This was a difficult concept for the people who came from the Jewish tradition.  They could not easily believe that faith in Jesus Christ alone would bring eternal life to them.  The secular heathen world based much of their religion on good works.  But Paul emphasized a NEW CREATION came only through faith in Christ and his works.  Of course, as Peter says, some distort the teachings of Paul and live in a lawless way, believing that just a nebulous belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God will be okay with God, naming Christ as their Savior but not following him.  His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort.  But a mere halfhearted belief in Christ that does not initiate good works is dead.  Paul taught that when he dealt with the wayward Corinthians, he told them that their lives must measure up to God’s holiness or they would be outside of the goodness of God and face judgment.  He was very harsh with them, bringing them to sorrow.  As with the apostles and Jesus, Paul’s life was one of works.  He traveled thousands of miles to preach the gospel.  Everywhere in the New Testament, we see people in action, moving and preaching the Good News as they went.  To display Christ to the world demands action: good works.  Jesus said, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:16 NKJV)  Our good works do not save us, but they show others the Christ that is within us.  As people venture through life, they can smile or frown, love or hate, bring peace or war.  How should we live in the last days?  If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. — The wisdom from above is first of all pure.  It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds.  It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.  And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.  (James 3:13; 17-18; NLT)  To live for Christ is to image God: his goodness and love.  We image him by our actions and by our attitudes.  When we are faithful servants of Christ, He walks into people’s lives when we walk into their lives.  He sits and sups with them when we sit and sup with them.  They hear his voice when we talk; they see his face when we smile.  They know the love of God by our love for them.  Regardless of the darkness of the day or the time of the end, we are to be lights in the world, the salt of the earth.  How can they know that?  They know THROUGH OUR ACTIONS AND LOVE.