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There are two sections of passages in Ephesians that use different pictures to describe spiritual maturity.
The first, Eph. 4:12-16, describes growing spiritually until we look just like Jesus Christ. Like him…we’re engaged in the work of service to others, we’re rock solid on doctrines, we speak truth in a relationship with love and we’re active in a relationship with other Christians, i.e. the church.
The other section is Eph. 6:10-18. This section portrays the spiritually mature Christian as a soldier. The soldier is fully armored and weaponed to wage war against an enemy… the Devil.
The Christian soldier has his loins protected with truth, a breastplate which is righteousness, feet protected with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, a shield of faith, a helmet of salvation and a sword which is the word of God.
The Christian soldier also employs prayer for himself and his fellow soldiers.
God calls for his people to develop spiritually both as individuals and as a collectivity of Christians. We are soldiers and we are an army led by a great general… Jesus Christ.
Rev. 1:13-16 and 5:5 describe Jesus not as a passive lamb waiting to be sacrificed but as a lion prepared to wage war against Christians and churches who are not maturing spiritually like they should be and instead are being led astray by Satan.
Our great general wants great soldiers and a great army to wage war against the dark forces of evil led by Satan. If you aren’t wearing your armor or if you have forgotten your sword you aren’t much help and could be mortally wounded.
Matthew 24-25
This section begins with Jesus prophesying about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 with undertones of the Day of Judgement. Then we read of two parables before we get to a section that is definitely talking about the final Judgement Day.
In the final Judgement Day Jesus specifically details the requirements for entering the eternal kingdom. Namely… feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, taking in strangers, clothing those who need clothes, visiting the sick and visiting those in prison.
So now let’s look at the parables.
The first one is the parable of the 10 Virgins. They had a job… one job… to carry oil fueled torches to lead the bridegroom into the wedding feast. The problem was that the bridegroom didn’t come when they expected. 5 of the Virgins were prepared for that eventuality… they brought extra oil. They got to go into the marriage feast. The others didn’t.
The bridegroom is Jesus, the Virgins are Christians and the wedding feast is Heaven. You have to be prepared when Jesus comes. You have to have enough oil when Jesus comes. The oil is helping the hungry, thirsty, strangers, unclothed, sick and prisoners. You can’t stop engaging in those activities and rest on your laurels or like with the 5 foolish the door to the wedding feast will be slammed in your face.
The second parable is about the 5, 2 and 1 talent men. Their master trusted them with money based on their ability and then came back for an accounting. The 5 and 2 talent doubled their money and are invited to “enter into the joy” of their Lord. The one talent man is too lazy to work for the master and returns his investment to him. The master cast the 1 talent man into “outer darkness”
Jesus is the master, the servants are Christians. Entering into the masters Joy is Heaven and being condemned to “outer darkness” is Hell. The investment the master makes in them is the investment Jesus makes in us.
The investment is helping the hungry, thirsty, strangers, unclothed, sick and prisoners.
To sum it up Christians need to be continually doing good because they don’t know exactly when Jesus is coming. In addition, God has an investment in us that is guaranteed to produce if we will just try. That’s all he asks is effort.
Heaven and Hell are waiting. Choose where you want to go by your actions. Don’t be lazy.
Joshua 5:1-15.
There are some interesting things that happened to the Israelites after they crossed the Jordan River and before they conquered the city of Jericho.
Here are my thoughts.
When God parted the river of Jordan and closed it behind them there was no going back… even if they wanted to. There was just one path forward and that was the direction they were headed.
One of the first things that God commanded them to do was to circumcise all the males who had not been circumcised over the past 40 years. After this minor surgical procedure God announces “today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you”.
Let me suggest that the “reproach of Egypt” refers to the Israelites rejection of God when they didn’t believe they could conquer the Promised Land 40 years previously. They had rejected God. Therefore that whole generation of Israelites who had been circumcised in Egypt had to die and a new crop of Israelites who were not born in Egypt but were born in the wilderness had to be raised up.
When this new generation was raised up, they were circumcised, not in the wilderness, but on the soil of their promised homeland.
Circumcision was necessary because it was God’s mark on them that validated his promise to Abraham that he would give them a land. They were circumcised because he was about to fulfill that promise.
Then the Israelites celebrated the Passover. Let me also suggest that this Passover feast had not been celebrated over the past 40 years. So on the proverbial eve of conquering the first city-state of Jericho he was reminding them of what He had done to the Egyptians and the unstated but fully understood message was that he was about to do the same to the Canaanites.
The Israelites could not have been celebrating the Passover because they had no unleavened bread… they had been eating manna. The next day God quits sending the manna.
And thus begins the conquest of Canaan. The transitory phase where God sustained the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness was over. A new generation of Israelites freshly circumcised, celebrating God’s Passover memorial and fully energized to accomplish God’s promise to Abraham stood on the brink of destiny.
1 John 5:14-21 is a section of scripture that describes the “boldness” we have toward God. Verse 14 states that if we ask in prayer anything that is “according to his will” that he will grant that request.
Then in verse 16 the author gives an example of what we can pray for “according to his will”. If we see a fellow Christian committing a certain type of sin… (fornication, drunkenness, pride, etc.) we can pray for them, whether or not they are sorry, and God will give them time to repent. And that’s the kind of prayer God will answer 100% of the time because it is “according to his will”.
However, there is a type of sin that a fellow Christian can commit which we should not pray for and expect a positive answer. In the text that sin is called “ a sin unto death”. Let me suggest that this is the sin of Blasphemy. In the broader context you have Christians teaching that Jesus Christ was not the actual Son of God and that he had no deity existing in him. That is the sin of Blasphemy… insulting God by saying He is not God.
Christians were not supposed to pray for these Anti-Christ Christians… because they were guilty of Blasphemy. Oh we might pray for them but don’t expect God to perform like he promised to for Christians who sin but are not blasphemers.
We have great boldness as Christians because we can pray for other Christians and God will give them time to repent. That is a powerful gift and a powerful weapon against Satan and there is no time limit on it. We should be boldly praying for the souls of our fellow Christians who occasionally stray every single day.
Remember the example of Jesus as he was hanging on the cross…. Father forgive them because they don’t know what they're doing.
When interpreting a passage of scripture its alway best to have some understanding about the purpose of what’s being written.
For instance in 1 John 5:1, “Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…”
OK, without giving some consideration to why the letter was written we might conclude that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and the only thing we have to do is believe. Boom…. I believe therefore I am born of God and have a one way ticket to Heaven.
That would be a wrong conclusion for several reasons.
1 John was written was because there were Christians teaching that Jesus was not the Christ. They started with an incorrect premise. They reasoned that since all human flesh is sinful and deity cannot have anything to do with sin that deity could not dwell in a human body. Therefore Jesus had no deity in him… he was not the Christ.
OK so knowing that… let’s interpret the verse again. Whoever believes that deity indwells within Jesus is born of God. Those who do not believe that Jesus is the Christ are not born of God and are false teachers and false believers.
So the belief in this passage is used to contrast the belief of Christ-ians with the Anti-Christ-ians.
So you see the importance of understanding why a scripture was written and to not make some hasty application that might have disastrous consequences. After all Satan and his minions believed correctly that Jesus was the Christ but they were not “born of God” were they?
The first thing Jesus did after he was baptized and had received the Holy Spirit was to go to the wilderness to allow Satan to tempt him. We get some details about that temptation.
Satan thought he had found a weak point and was going to put his finger on it and suggested to Jesus since he hadn’t had a thing to eat for 40 days that Jesus should turn a stone into a loaf of bread and eat it.
The thing I want you to notice about this is that Jesus had the power to turn a rock into bread and he could have done so and enjoyed a meal with Satan but Jesus, unlike a lot of humanity, wanted nothing to do with Satan.
So Satan decides next to tempt Jesus with power and showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offered Jesus authority over all of them if he would only do one small thing… bow down before Satan and worship him. A lot of humanity wouldn’t give that a second thought. They would drop right to their knees and revere Satan for the power to control all the countries of the world and think that they had pulled one over on old Sate.
Jesus wouldn’t do it because it was wrong to give something to Satan that only belonged to God and nothing Satan could offer was worth offending God. We’re quick to engage in things that are wrong because we know God loves us and is forgiving. Be careful you might get tangled up in that rope. You belong to God don’t give what is God’s to Satan.
The last desperate attempt of Satan was take a stab at Jesus’ pride. Satan led with a scripture this time. He quoted Psalm 91 in which the promise is made that God would send angels to protect his righteous one from harm.
With this scripture Satan invited Jesus to Jump off the highest point of the Temple to see if God would send angels to protect him. Jesus answered with Deuteronomy 6:16, “Thou shall not make trial of the Lord your God”. You don’t have to accept every challenge that is thrown at you. You can walk away.
Why did Jesus start his ministry by allowing Satan to tempt him?
Because he knew that when believers began their ministry after being baptized that Satan would attack them too. And to show them that it is possible to be tempted by Satan and to conquer him. Gather yourself up and get about your spiritual business and don’t worry and moan about Satan. He is a coward and you can beat him… just like Jesus did.
In Luke 3:16-17, John the Baptist after baptizing the people in water promised that Jesus Christi would baptize them in the Holy Spirit and in Fire.
John explained what these two baptisms were by comparing them to an agricultural harvest. Harvested grain was scattered over a “threshing” floor and the grain would be threshed to separate the grain from the chaff or hull. Then the grain would stored in a barn and the chaff would be burned up.
The grain are God’s faithful people, the chaff are the unfaithful. The thresher is Jesus Christ.
This sort of reference when applied to humanity must refer to a separation of people… the good being “stored” or gathered into Heaven and the bad being “burned” or destroyed with “unquenchable” fire and being consigned to Hell.
Therefore, within this context, “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” must refer primarily to the faithful being gathered into Heaven and the process that ends in that event. And “Baptism in Fire” must refer to God’s punishment of the unfaithful.
God’s blessings begin with baptism and end (so to speak) with eternal life.
God’s curses begin with being outside of God’s family and end with eternal punishment.
Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized … in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.
