Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Have I Become Your Enemy?

Have I Become Your Enemy?


Like the rising and setting of the sun, God’s Word is reliable, unchanging and enduring. The Word of God teaches us that:
  • God’s promises will not be broken.
  • God’s plans will not be changed.
  • God’s rule cannot be challenged.
  • God’s judgment cannot be escaped.

Christians believe that the Holy Bible is God’s Word. We believe the Bible is absolute truth. We also believe it is very important to share our beliefs. This is done out of obedience to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and out of love for those who have not heard about or have not decided to surrender to the message of truth found in the Bible.
  • Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
    • Jesus, the human incarnation of God, commanded and commissioned His followers to teach the truth of the Bible to all the world.
  • Mark 12:29-31 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
    • Jesus taught that there is only one true God, and that we are to love Him with all that we are. He also taught that we are to love all those we encounter in life (our neighbors).

In order to understand Jesus’ teachings on love, we need to look at the Biblical definition of love. It is important to understand how genuine Godly love is meant to drive the motives for, and methods of, sharing the truth of the Bible with others.
  • 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
    • Love is about putting others needs above our own. Christian love means that we are to make decisions and take actions that pursue the good of others while also glorifying Father God.
  • Romans 12:9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.
    • Hypocritical love is not Christian love. Our love is not so much about feelings as it is about being and doing what shows our love for God and our love for others (even when we strongly disagree with them).
  • Ephesians 4:15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
    • The truth of the Bible can be a difficult message for someone who has not heard it before, or for someone who has heard but decided not to believe and receive the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. The truth of the Bible is to be shared with love.

Here is a summary of the good news (gospel) message of Jesus Christ.
  • All people fall short of God’s commandments, requirements, standards and principles (this is called sin).
  • God is perfectly righteous (every person who has ever lived will stand before Him for judgment).
  • The penalty for sin is death (physical death – the separation of your soul from your body; and spiritual death – the separation of your soul from God).
  • The debt for our sin must be paid (this is the only way to be in a reconciled relationship with God).
  • Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, lived a sinless life, died on a Roman cross and rose from the dead to pay the debt for our sin and make a way for us to go to heaven (Jesus is the only way to peace with God).
  • When you surrender all that you are and follow Jesus as Lord and Savior, you are saved (saved from God’s wrath).
  • When you are saved though faith in Jesus, you are adopted by God as one of His children (washed clean of your sin, indwelled with God’s Holy Spirit, assured that you will spend eternity in Heaven with God).

Here are a few verses from the Bible about the gospel of Jesus.
  • Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
  • 2 Thessalonians 1:9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
  • Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
  • John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
  • Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
  • John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
  • Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
  • 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
  • Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

In the first century, the Apostle Paul established several Christian churches in a Roman province called Galatia. He taught the people there that being saved from God’s wrath against sin could only be accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He had been clear in his teachings that nothing else was required. Years later, upon hearing that some of those who had professed faith in Jesus were allowing false teachers to lead them astray by teaching them that to be saved they also had to follow certain rules and traditions, Paul wrote them a letter. In this letter, Paul confronts his friends with this issue. He urged them not to be misled. He even expressed concern that some of them may not have made a genuine profession of faith in Jesus. And then he asks the readers of this letter an important question.
  • Galatians 4:16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

Now I ask you the same question,
‘Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?’


My sincere hope is that you will not disregard the truth of God’s Word and the good news about salvation in Jesus Christ. My prayer is that you are, or will become, a child of God through faith in Jesus.


Prayer

Heavenly Father, King of kings and Lord of lords, please use the truth of Your Word and the power and presence of Your Holy Spirit to draw those who don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior into a loving relationship with Him. Please rescue those lost in the darkness of sin by bringing them to the light of life – Jesus. I ask this in His holy name. Amen.