Having Joy for Others –
Purity 785
Purity 785 7/16/2022 Purity 785 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the light of morning shining through fog somewhere
near the train station in Adelaide, South Australia comes to us from Dave Baun
Photography as our photographer friend had his trusty Olympus, his talented
eye, and the presence of mind to capture this morning magic while he enjoyed a
brisk and foggy walk on the way to work back on June 25th.
That day was a Saturday, I know that because it was my 50th
birthday and like Dave, or maybe unlike Dave, I had to work that day! And
today is also Saturday and you may have guessed it, I have to work again!
But guess what, that’s okay. Just because I have another pair
of “one day weekends” this week it doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy them, and it
doesn’t mean I can’t thank God, that for me, today is “Friday” which are always
pretty cool – no work tomorrow! – And just because I have to work today it
doesn’t mean that I can’t have some joy simply over the fact that today is Saturday
and that most of my friends are awakening today with no work responsibilities and
are free to choose what they will do and where they will go today. It is my prayer that all my friends, whether
they see or hear this message or not have a great day and a wonderful
weekend.
One indicator of our growth as an adult, or of our maturity
as a Christian, is our ability to have joy for others and to celebrate with
them when they are blessed with good things.
I love to see on social media that my friends are
traveling, are getting together with family, going to weddings, having parties,
have moved into new homes or new careers, or have gotten automobiles or other new
things. Whether they are family, old
friends of the past, or just acquaintance “friends”, I can honestly say that I
have joy over the good things that my friends on social media are experiencing and
sharing.
Their sharing makes me feel good for them and they
sometimes inspire me to try some of the things they are doing or to see the
places they have gone. Their “views” into their lives opens up a window into their
lives and the world at large that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and I am grateful
for the extended vision and different perspectives I get from my friends.
The ability to take joy in the experiences or
accomplishments of others is a real sign of maturity and empathy but it is also
something that the Lord would have us develop as part of our character as
well. Having joy in the good things that
happen to others could be viewed as part of our obedience to obey the Lord’s
commandments and can also be seen as a form of spiritual warfare.
Let me explain.
The last of the Ten Commandments that is often forgotten
and may be difficult to understand demonstrates God’s concern for our
relationships with others, and it shows he cares not only about how we behave in
those relationships but also how we feel.
The Tenth Commandment is:
Exodus
20:17 (NKJV)
17 "You shall not covet
your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male
servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is
your neighbor's."
The
word “covet” is something we don’t hear every day and it’s basic definition – “to
yearn to posses or have something” or “to wish for earnestly” may not even seem
like there is anything wrong with it. “It
okay to want stuff!” And wanting things
for ourselves isn’t bad… but even in the most basic definitions of the word “covet”
that I found online there was an indication that “covet” was different from
wanting or desiring something in general and that the things yearned or wished
for in the “covet” scenario belonged to somebody else! The word itself is flavored undoubtedly by it’s
use in Tenth Commandment.
The trap
the world, the flesh, and the devil sets for us to fall into is that of
jealousy, envy, and coveting the things that are not ours.
The
tenth commandment indicates that to even have feeling that you want what
belongs to someone else is a sin. Your desire for someone else’s thing are
wrong.
If we
think about the things listed in the tenth commandment, we can see that even
the desire to want the things of others can lead to other sins. Coveting the neighbors wife could lead to
adultery. Coveting the neighbors things
could lead to theft.
But beyond
these gross sins of commission, God establishes the tenth commandment to show
us that He doesn’t what that desire and its negative mental and emotional effects
in our lives.
God
doesn’t want us to be jealous, envious, or depressed because of what our
neighbors have. If we covet what they
have, we might not like our neighbor so much.
Our coveting not only messes with our heads and hearts, it also can mess
up our relationships with those around us because of it.
Instead
Christ commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves and if we endeavored to
do that we would have joy for the good things that our neighbor has, because we
certainly have joy over the good things that happen to us. If we are going to love our neighbors as ourselves,
and we have joy over the good things that happen to us, we should thus have joy
over the good things that happen to them.
So God’s
tenth shows His great concern for our mental health and happiness, and his
concern about our human relationships.
But God’s tenth commandment is a support from the first two commandments
– to have no other gods before us and that we would have not make idols.
When we
covet, our earnest desires to obtain the things others have can be seen as a failure to honor God, that we
are in effect saying that God can’t comfort us or make us happy, but if we only
had the things our neighbor has we could be fulfilled. The objects of our desires become idols as we
focus on them rather than our relationship with God and all that He provides us
with.
Our
coveting also reveals our belief that we believe that we in effect don’t need
God because we can make our own happiness by our own efforts by getting the
things we covet!
So
obviously, we have to keep a spiritual eye on the things that we want and ask ourselves:
· How
does this “want” or desire make me feel about myself?
· How
do my desires make me feel about others?
· Is this
desire good and pure?
· What does
the word of God indicate about the things I want and how they make me feel?
· What
if I did get those things? Would they
really satisfy me?
· Have
I wanted similar things like these desires in the past? What were the outcomes
when I failed to get them or when I received them?
· Am I
so focused on the things I desire in this world that I have forgotten about who
I am in Christ and about my relationship with God and all that He provides me
with.
When
we suffer in life, generally we can trace the pain back to choices and decision
that we made that were selfish or violated the principles that God establishes
for us in His word that He would have us live by.
In
the examination of this one commandment, we can see God’s great concern for us,
for our neighbors, and for our relationship with Him.
Through
scripture God indicates that when we follow His ways we will be blessed.
As we
walk toward the Father, the truth is revealed and it can show us that we have
been deceived into believing that the things of others or from the world would
satisfy us. The truth is that our peace and fulfillment come from knowing the
One who made us and who calls us to Him.
So
keep walking and talking with God. Think
about what you are thinking about. Examine your emotions and take a look at
what you want out of life and why you want it. Through His word God directs us
to put faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and to follow in His ways to
discover the pathway to peace.
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
Today’s Bible meditation verses are:
Matthew
6:19-21 (NLT2)
19 “Don’t store up treasures
here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves
break in and steal.
20 Store your treasures in
heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and
steal.
21 Wherever your treasure is,
there the desires of your heart will also be.
In today’s verse, Jesus teaches us about the importance of having an eternal perspective and to value the things that time can not take away.
Here Christs points to our earthly impermanence and the fact that although we could build quite a fortune throughout our lives, we can’t make it last forever and we can’t take it with us.
So Christ subtly encourages us to invest in the things of God and the one thing that can’t be taken away from us our relationship with Him and to focus on accumulating the treasures that will be honored in heaven, like the good works we do in His name and the Christian character that we develop and take with us into eternity.
We have to think about the things we treasure and ask if they will last and come with us into God’s kingdom.
And here again, the Son points to the fact that we are to value our relationship with God above anything we see on earth. God treasures us and showed it by sending Jesus to die for us and here His messenger and our Savior encourages us to treasure the Lord above all else.
God has such love for us that He doesn’t want us to waste any of our time on things that will fall apart or fade away. He wants us grounded in the things that are valuable and that will last forever. So follow His advice and focus on Him and the things that will be of great value in eternity.
______________________________________________________________________
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold’s
“Powers of Darkness”
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and
encourage all to purchase Clinton Arnold’s books for your own private
study and to support his work. This resource is available on many
websites for less than $20.00.
8 A New Kingdom and
Identity for Believers
A few years ago while
driving on a freeway, i saw a bumper sticker on the car ahead of me that caught
my attention. It read: “Christians Aren’t Perfect, Just Forgiven.” For a few
years this epigram became rather popular among Christians. It seemed to provide
an answer to the accusations of hypocrisy assailing the church from those
outside (and perhaps soothing the conscience of the Christian breaking the
speed limit!) while conveying a foundational doctrinal truth, the forgiveness
of sins.
I do not object to
the message conveyed by the bumper sticker. I do disapprove of the simplistic
attitude toward conversion that such a statement could engender. Christians
truly are people who have been forgiven. But there is so much more that happens
behind the scenes at conversion. One who becomes a Christian genuinely becomes
a brand-new person and a member of a new kingdom with an all-powerful and
all-loving Lord. The new believer is divinely rescued from slavery in a kingdom
controlled by evil supernatural forces. And so much more. Far more than just a
decision for Christ, becoming a Christian is a divinely powerful redemptive
work of God.
Christians are given
a new identity. Their new status becomes the basis for renewing their manner of
life on earth. A prominent New Testament scholar once said that living the
Christian life consists of “becoming what you are.” In one sense Christians
truly are not perfect, but they are in progress. In another sense, in the
presence of our justifying God, Christians are perfect.
As believers we need
to know who we are now; that is, we need to know our new identity in
relationship to Christ. Knowing this is the basis for our behavior and for
resisting the supernatural powers of darkness.
Rescued from the
Kingdom of Darkness
Just
as God delivered Israel from their bondage in Egypt, Christ has rescued
believers from Satan and his powers of evil. To the Colossians, Paul says, “For
he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col
1:13). Behind this statement lies the exodus event as the informing pattern of
deliverance. Paul used the same word for “rescue/deliver” that occurs
repeatedly throughout the Greek Old Testament to describe Israel’s rescue from
their bondage in Egypt (see, for example, Ex 6:6; 14:30).
Deliverance from
slavery in Satan’s kingdom is also at the heart of Paul’s concept of
“redemption.” Again Paul used the same terminology found in the Exodus account
to describe Israel’s redemption. Exodus 6:6 says, “I will free you from being
slaves to them and will redeem you
with an outstretched arm” (italics mine). Here the concept of redemption
appears to bridge the gap between two results of Christ’s work on the
cross—deliverance from Satan’s kingdom and forgiveness of sin. Paul’s concept
of redemption, important to his understanding of Jesus’ death (see, for
example, Rom 3:24 and 1 Tim 2:6), is broad enough to cover both concepts. Some
segments of Judaism longed for the Messiah to bring redemption from the devil’s
kingdom. For instance, a second-century B.C. Jewish document states: “He will
liberate [or ‘redeem’] every captive of the sons of men from Beliar, and every
spirit of error will be trampled down” (Testament
of Zebulun 9:8). Christ is “our redemption” (1 Cor 1:30) by virtue of his
work on the cross, where he not only paid the ransom for sin but also destroyed
the power of the influence of the evil dominion (Col 2:14–15).
In this Colossians
passage Satan is the one described as “the authority of darkness.” This
expression highlights his rulership over a domain. The domain includes the
various powers of darkness mentioned throughout the rest of Paul’s letter to
the Colossians—powers, authorities, elemental spirits, thrones and so on. It
also includes his captives—every person who is not a member of Christ’s
kingdom.
Darkness and light
are the contrasting metaphors Paul chose to describe the nature of the two
opposing kingdoms. Paul used this imagery elsewhere to describe the two
conflicting kingdoms. In 2 Corinthians, he says, “What fellowship can light
have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?” (2 Cor
6:14–15). Here the respective leaders of each dominion are distinguished.
Believers have been
uprooted from one domain and transplanted into another. When Paul says God
“brought us into” the kingdom of the Son he loves, he used terminology that may
have reminded his Jewish readers of political deportation and colonization.
According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Antiochus “transferred” several
thousand Jews to Asia Minor in the second century B.C.
Followers of Christ
truly have a new citizenship. We have been rescued from the clutches of the
powers of darkness. This “behind the scenes” action happens at conversion and
is symbolized by the rite of baptism. Turning to Christ involves a powerful
work of God on our behalf. Conversion for some may only “feel” like a personal
decision, but an invisible rescue occurs in the unseen world.
We should not be tempted
to think only those people who are involved in occultic activity and Satan
worship are slaves to “the dominiion of darkness.” Paul made it clear that all
who are not believers (that is, not in the kingdom of Christ) are in bondage to
the hostile powers. This concept is especially difficult for Westerners to
grasp, but nevertheless it is true. Even those who are moral, who obey the laws
of the land and appear to be productive members of society, are captive in
Satan’s domain if they are not believers.
In a number of ways
Paul explained the new identity of people who have been made members of
Christ’s kingdom. An understanding of this new status is essential for
resisting the ongoing hostile influence of the powers of the old dominion and
living according to the new ethical standards of God’s kingdom. We will look at
a few of Paul’s concepts of the meaning of new life in Christ that are
especially relevant for gaining the right perspective on the Christian life in
light of the opposition we face from the powers of darkness.[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple
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(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The
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These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You
Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via
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and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 110–112.
