Sunday, September 24, 2023

CHRISTIANITY FOR DUMMIES: Identity of a Christian

 

Just like a political party member, you are a Christian because you favor Christ as your leader. However, Christ was not a politician, people just thought Him so! They believed that Jesus came to be the ‘King of the Jews’ but rather He came to be LORD of all.

Examine a political party. Let’s call it the ‘Freedom Party’ just for discussion. The Freedom Party would have ideas, or ‘platforms’ to which those in that party adhere. Obviously, the Freedom Party would promote freedom, would it not?

Well, Christianity is much like a Freedom Party might be, “Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, ‘If you continue in my Word, then are you my disciples indeed. and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” [i]

First off, any rational person would want to know the truth, but unfortunately most are blinded by deception. (More on that later.) The thoughts of mankind are not the Thoughts of God but like our genetic “father’ the Devil. Jesus would never consider fornicating, for instance, but most of the world continually thinks on such things.

Jesus was not a king such as people think.

What is a king? One should be a born leader whose reign is for the good of the people. As such, Jesus, as God, and Him alone, is good! “None is good, save one, that is, God. [ii] Therefore, since only God is good, His ‘platform,’ or doctrine, is goodwill. The English translators called that goodwill, ‘love.’

Love has different forms; it can be erotic (eros), familial (storge), neighborly (philio), or divine (agape). (The words in parenthesis are the Greek lexicon for those concepts.)

The first three kinds of love are emotional. They can be sensed, especially erotic love; and anyone that has children know how emotional the love of the family can be.

Agape love is not emotional, but people expect it to be. You may not feel like you love others and God, even though you have goodwill for them!

Christianity is not based on emotions but thoughts!

Father God’s Will is goodness for all of us. There is only one expectation of God; that agape love should be returned to Him — that since He has goodwill for us, that we should have goodwill toward Him. How should we honor God? Having goodwill for Him because He has goodwill for us.

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” [iii] The biggest ‘OTHER’ is Jesus. Jesus made that clearer, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” [iv]

The original language of Jesus was Greek. The Greek Word that Jesus spoke can be translated either ‘commandment’ or ‘precepts.’

Commandments are mandates whereas precepts are sensible rules of order. Order has rules to make people civil. Civil people have goodwill (agape love) toward others. With the coming of Jesus, at His birth, “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’” [v]

Peace is the effect. Goodwill is the cause for the effect. It is more than an effect but an ‘affect.” Peace on Earth is more than an outcome of goodwill, but it makes the world a better place to live. Christianity may not make you feel good, and you should not, but make life much better.

Peace comes about first in the mind of a Christian. Because a Christian is with Christ, and not against Him, there is not an adversarial relationship. That is peace. How would a sinner know that he has become a Christian? How he or she feels about the precepts of God, whether they are precepts of goodwill or merely commandments that must be followed!

The Jewish people misunderstand their own religion. They have not been made free because of misunderstanding. The ‘Ten Commandments’ are not mandates at all but rules for goodness.

Never misunderstand. You are not obligated to follow the rules that God set forth in ages past, but are to relish the idea that you have a choice in the matter.

The list of ten is nothing more than ways to have goodwill for both God and others; nothing more: “On these two commandments (Love of God and others) hang all the law and the prophets.” [vi] It is unfortunate that the English translators chose ‘commandments’ over ‘precepts,’ but perhaps they considered them more mandates than rules for longevity which they are.

How to know if you have become a Christian? Whether you consider the list of ten to be mandates that you must follow or whether they are things that a good being should consider privileged to follow.

Sinners, called the ‘lost,’ see them as mandates. Christians should see them as ways to have goodwill and peace.

Unfortunately, many that call themselves ‘Christians,’ still consider them as mandates that they cannot keep. They cannot keep them because they indeed are beyond keeping. The reason for that is that they are not things that you do, or do not do, but ten ways of thinking or not thinking.

Jesus said about one His tenets, “Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” [vii] The sin is not the act but the thought. A person who is found from their lost condition often discovers that he or she can control actions but not thoughts.

Never sinning, given your own powers, is impossible but “with God all things are possible” [viii] Christianity is not you who is doing things, but God changing the way you think.

The ‘heart’ of which Jesus spoke is not the organ, but the innermost person. It is not the outward man or woman who flesh is nothing more than an obstacle, but the willingness of the person to think like Jesus.

It is written: 

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. “For My Thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My Ways, saith the Lord. [ix]

 So, the problem with mankind is that they are much different than God, so different that they think and behave much different than God. (Note that Jesus is God and God is Jesus, and when one is spoken about, that also refers to the other. More on that later.)

Remember the cause and effect? Thinking wrong thoughts is the cause and actions, or ways, the effects. The person is under control by his or her own thoughts! People act, or behave, the way they think. The solution to the problem is new ways of thinking. People are to think the Thoughts of God and their actions will obey. The way to think differently is to be in the Word.

Christians are made free from their own thoughts. It is the truth that makes them free! [x] The truth is that you are unable to control your own thoughts but the truth spoken by Jesus will free the Christian of thinking wicked thoughts.

Paul said it this way, “Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto Him that teaches in all good things” [xi] The way to communicate with God (Jesus) is to be taught in the Word. From where does the Word come? Scripture.

Scripture is both the New and Old Testaments, both of which are the ‘Last Will and Testament of God’ so to speak. Thus, the Bible is not about commandments at all but the Will of God and that if people are like God they are ‘fellow heirs’ with Jesus [xii] to the Kingdom of God. Thus, there is a reward for being like God, having a will in the Image of God.

Therefore, with thoughts afterward as the Thoughts of God, those who are converted have more so the Thoughts of God; that which Jesus called ‘born again.’ [xiii]

Just like a newborn baby has total dependance on the way of the mother, so goes the Christian. The new dependence is on God rather than oneself or a parent.

It is as if returning to the womb, but not of the mother, but to nourish oneself from the fountains of living water provided by God, and in the end, God will lead and they will follow, “For the Lamb (Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’) which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”[xiv]

The Bible is nothing more than whichever medium the Word is written. It could be skins, papyrus, vellum, paper, or even electronic medium. Thus, the Bible is not so much the technology, but the Word of God that is spoken, written, or demonstrated.

Jesus spoke the Word and demonstrated that it was possible to overcome the world, to wit: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus did that for us!

Because people who think like the Devil and attempt to follow Jesus “are unstable in all their ways.” [xv] Indeed, those who are not stable in Christ will stumble because it is impossible to walk upright without Jesus there to stabilize. For a Christian, Jesus is always there in Spirit; depend on that!

 Sometimes, your voice is the medium of exchange, and you become the walking, talking ‘Bible’ that others hear and see. Better than the spoken or written Word, actions speak better than them. Therefore, you become the ‘Bible” and the Word depends on how you think and act. You cannot be a rebel and spread goodwill at the same time. Goodwill is only from God and not from those who rebel from Him. Each Christian must therefore live the Word to be considered ‘Christian.’

A newborn baby is clumsy and so is a person who is reborn. Because Christians are like little children, they stumble like little children. They ‘lean’ on their parents for quite some time, some more than others.

It is parents who holds them up! Soon their parents will not be present, but if they are taught upright things, they can depend on Jesus!

Their theretofore ‘spiritual father,’ the Devil, would laugh at their stumbling, but God understands that new Christians are not fully developed to walk the Way of Jesus. Jesus would rather have us like stumbling little children than lost children in the world!

Never give up when you stumble because even the apostles stumbled.

“Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [xvi] How are the lost any different than little children? They go their own way, and often end up totally lost. Children may stumble and fall, but if they follow a Good Leader, they make it all the way.

Conversion includes the willingness to follow Jesus. Even the apostles, especially Peter, stumbled, but he went all the Way with Jesus, even to his own death. The Way to follow Jesus is in His footsteps. The ‘Ten Words’ by the ‘finger’ of God — Jesus — are ways to follow well in His Footsteps.

As a Christian, you too will stumble. It is genetic. If you walk on your own two feet, indeed that is unstable. You must lean on Jesus for He, if you are a Christian, is always there for you to lean upon. (Again, that invisible Spirit on which you are to lean is the innermost person of Jesus as you shall see. The Holy Ghost of Jesus is God as much as the Father is God. Even when Jesus is not there, in Spirit He is. Jesus is merely the Spirit of God objectified so that doubters could believe.)

Next, consider God Himself.



[i] John 8:31-32

[ii] Luke 18:9

[iii] John 13:34

[iv] John 14:15

[v] Luke 2:13-14

[vi] Mat 22:40

[vii] Mat 5:28

[viii] Mat 19:26

[ix] Isa 55:7-8

[x] John 8:33

[xi] Gal 6:6

[xii] Ephes 3:6

[xiii] John 3:16

[xiv] Rev 7:17

[xv] Jas 1:8

[xvi] Mat 18:3

No comments:

Post a Comment