"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies...
This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." - Ephesians 5:25-33
The length of a bath or shower depends on the amount of filth, sweat, and odor which has accumulated upon the body. These are produced through daily activities; the more we toil, work, or play, the more we need cleaned.
But what is washed (could be washed) away by the eternal Word of God? What stains us scarlet and produces a pungent stench before our Holy God? We gaze into a mirror. There's no adultery, profanity, stealing or murder. We read Scripture and refrain from lust, hate and envy. Maybe we're pretty clean? Certainly, sweet grandma, my loving spouse, and these precious little kids aren't as grimy as the scantily dressed woman or drunken man (overt sinners) we observe daily.
How dirty are each of us?
YES, Praise God that we are covered by the spotless Righteousness of Christ!!!
Apart from this incredible act of REDEMPTION, we would ALL remain helpless, hopeless, and lost.
But this redemption also enables a process of SANCTIFICATION (cleansing) which produces a progressive transformation into His likeness. Martin Luther depicted us (believers) as snow covered dunghills; but that is not how we are to remain.
What if you were blind and had no sense of smell? Would you be as motivated to bathe? Much like a leaper who has lost the pain sensation, there is no innate warning to prevent us from doing wrong (unhealthy) actions. Yet, even with sight and smell, little children will run straight to the dinner table despite the filth on their hands or will walk through the store with all sorts of mess smeared on their face... if it were not for a governing authority.
Children prioritize their desire to eat, play, or explore over the way they look or smell to others.
What is our condition before our Governing Authority while we eat, play, live and enjoy our lives?
"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was." - James 1:23-24
How do we utilize God's Word...
Does It to draw us into a way of living or does the Word draw us out of a way of living?
One way is by the LAW (Do's & Don'ts), while the other is by LOVE (Grace).
Jesus declared, "You dedicate yourself to the Scriptures, thinking that in them you have found eternal life. But the Scriptures tell you (bear witness) about Me (Christ)." - John 5:39
We either live inwardly by instinct, "This seems right", or we live outwardly by Christ, which is antithetical to our natural instincts and man's natural "me, my, mine" way of living.
If we desire to "cleanse" our smartphone we simply research, read some reviews, and add the appropriate APP to remove the offensive and harmful material. At the same time, we continue to utilize our phones.
This makes perfect sense to us; we need and enjoy our phones, just without the negative junk.
This is a perfect depiction of Religion; we need and enjoy our life, just without the negative junk. So, we add the Bible APP to our life to remove the offensive and harmful material while we continue to live our lives.
But Jesus called for His own to deny self, to hate self, to lay down this life and live a new type of life... A life which He displayed for us.
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it." -Matthew 16:25
If our body is the hardware, then we are being called to take up an entirely different OPERATING SYSTEM.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." -
2 Corinthians 5:17
Perseverance and dedication to SCRIPTURE, such as knowing how Revelation connects to Daniel.
OR
Submission and obedience to CHRIST, knowing how Revelation, Daniel, and all 66 Books testify of Christ, the ultimate expression of Holy (God-like) Love, and then imitating His way of living.
The first is adding an APP to the operating system SELF.
The second is deleting SELF and downloading the Christ (SELFLESS) O.S.
Church Leaders and Disciple Makers,
If we are not constantly and continually emphasizing a pervasive SELFLESSNESS (self-less love) then we are not teaching, preaching, or proclaiming CHRIST; and we are not GLORIFYING GOD. If every Scripture exposition doesn't culminate with the pure sacrificial LOVE which forever identifies our SAVIOR as the Christ, we are not rightly dividing the Word (2 Timothy 2:15).
Why are those, new to the faith, entrusted to your care (Hebrews 13:17), or placed in our (believers) sphere of influence not ever-increasingly (progressively) TRANSFORMING into the likeness of their Savior? Why are they constantly needing fed with the superfluous milk of Scripture, which has little to no effect upon them, because they would become lost or dismayed by in-depth doctrinal dissertations?
The answer is because we treat Christlike self-less love as an APP, not as an entirely new Operating System. We ask, "What would Jesus do?" in my life situation instead of living in the constant state of others-focused love as Jesus showed us.
Every righteous act MUST originate and proceed from Holy Love or else it is useless.
(1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
"Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, say the Lord." - 2 Corinthians 6:17
"For it is written, 'Be holy, because I AM Holy'." - 1 Peter 1:16
Throughout Scripture, we see the most persevering and dedicated people BROKEN, not for the sake of punishment but to make them useful for the Kingdom which Christ Himself ushered into our presence.
The ultra-dedicated proclaimer of Do's and Don'ts, Saul of Tarsus, became the ultra-dedicated proclaimer of self-denying (Christlike) Love, Paul the Apostle.
"I resolved to know nothing while i was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." - 1 Corinthians 2:2
Are you a leader or disciple maker?
Jesus came to them and stated, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." - Matthew 28:18-19
Ours is a faith grown and led by imitation.
New people entering the faith are told to, "Examine the outcome of the leader's way of life and imitate their faith." - Hebrews 13:7
Do we want them to witness wholesomeness or holiness?
One way teaches the do's and don'ts: Read and study your Bible, attend church and small groups, tithe and volunteer, and work hard to cease anything listed on God's all-encompassing 10 Commandments.
The other way teaches a Love that vastly supersedes any way we thought we loved. A Love that is so antithetical to our innate sense of self-preservation that it had to be shown to us.
Jesus said, "If I, who has everything, can humbly come to serve those in need... even to the point of being tortured and murdered, to meet your greatest need. If I, who needs nothing, can become sin on your behalf and bear God's wrath to provide you opportunity... Go and likewise love those in need, imitate Me." - Philippians 2:1-11/ John 13:15 / John 13:34-35
Peter declares, "Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." - 1 Peter 4:1-2
Suffering proves and refines selfless Love and displays Christlikeness.
Suffering proves and refines Faith in our Loving God.
Suffering either drives us into doubt, retreat, and self-preservation (loving self)
OR
Suffering purifies our souls from defiance to God's Greatest and Christ's Newest COMMANDS.
Wholesomeness displays the prosperity and lack of negative consequences that living a moral life produces, which is found in every world religion.
Holiness displays faith and God's faithfulness. It shows a type of Kingdom Love that runs inverse to Worldly Love.
Holiness displays an unusual people not living for self, but instead living and loving sacrificially... and obediently.
Jesus's continual focus was on loving those in need while leaving His personal needs to God's PROMISED PROVISION.
As a result, Jesus displayed perfect stewardship with what God provided Him. He maintained His ability to serve while maximizing His efforts to Love God with ALL His heart, soul, mind, and strength, achieved through loving OTHERS (Matthew 25:40).
When Jesus walked amongst humanity the overt sinners were defiled (filthy). But the wholesome (those with high standards, high morality, and an elevated standard of living) were so much more defiled that HE compared their effort to ever becoming clean as probable as a camel trying to thread a needle.
Who were the filthiest and produced the most stench, the overt sinners (prostitutes and tax collectors) or those enjoying prosperity (the educated and self-sufficient)?
Jesus was asked by the later why He eats, drinks, touches, and speaks with overt sinners.
"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." - Luke 5:30-32
The morally bankrupt maintained no reliance upon SELF.
They had become dismayed with living for SELF. While the moral upright (righteous) displayed great confidence in SELF.
Those with little had "little" to deny, but those with much had "much" to cling to.
I believe the question to be asked is not, "Why did Sovereign God chose to not elect many (if any) of the wealthy"?
But instead, "Is it the attribute that remains within the non-repentant that produces prosperity and high standard of living?"
Without acknowledging the very SOURCE of sin, we merely inculcate the term "Total Depravity" into our Christian vocabulary without embracing the extent of this reality which infects every person, young and old, wholesome or not.
By dismissing the Greatest Command as unapproachable (to Love the Lord with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength), we treat depravity as subjective, mostly judging the outside appearance by the Laws which began and emanate from that Source Command.
But by doing the later without respect to the former, we place "Christianity" in the same category as all other religions seeking to justify self by our ACTIONS.
We think we're being cleansed, but the evidence of little to no transformation says otherwise. People witness stagnant wholesomeness, not prevailing and growing holiness.
If we Love as Jesus showed us, and if we're obedient to what Christ commanded us, then by our NEW NATURE we naturally take care of the do's & don'ts which are governed by LOVE (1 Peter 4:8).
Idolatry, blasphemy, stealing, murder, lying, coveting, envy, anger, lust, arrogance, pride, laziness, and any other sin (even ignoring sabbath rest) does not - cannot - emanate from Sacrificial Love.
Nor can any good deed, from fervently and accurately proclaiming the gospel to laying down one's life as a martyr, account for anything if not emanating from Sacrificial Love.
EVERY SIN proceeds from "Self-focused" Love.
And Christ showed and taught us a HOLINESS manifested in an "Others-focused" Love (John 15:13).
The stench of SELF is abhorrent to the HOLY, HOLY, HOLY God, who wholly Loves OUTWARDLY.
Self-love is prominent in humanity from conception until repentance.
Self-love is the stain which Christ calls us to deny, hate, and become cleansed of.
Jesus calls us to take up our cross and crucify SELF each day we awake in this world.
HOLY LOVE is the antitheses to this World's "Me, My, Mine" Love.
Scripture illustrates Holy Love, Jesus demonstrated Holy Love, and Christ (our Lord) commands Holy Love.
Once we acknowledge the source is selfishness, sin becomes more obvious. The scantily dressed woman or drunken man at the bar is most likely dismayed and lost (broken). Their efforts are to promote the self-esteem they feel they're lacking or to hide from the struggle of self they feel a failure at. They desperately need to hear of the true value their loving Creator and Redeemer has paid for them to become reclaimed and restored.
But the morally upright maintain a healthy respect for SELF, having avoided and shielded SELF from brokenness.
SELF remains healthy and prosperous behind the white picket fences of family.
SELF enjoys the trappings of this world and builds a strong self-esteem within their youth.
SELF is manifest in their home, vehicles, vacations, and retirement accounts.
SELF is built on appearance or abilities, academics or athletics, and the American dream of increasing the standard of living continues.
CHRIST is merely an intellectual endeavor, and Charity an act of Religion, BOTH attempting to appease a conscience, yet resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51).
"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be Lovers of Self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying it's power. Avoid such people." - 2 Timothy 3:1-5
"Do not Love the World or the things in the World. If anyone loves the World, the Love of the Father is not in him." - 1 John 2:15
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