The Contest and Crown

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. Therefore, I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, BSB)

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church to encourage them to continue in their faith and remember God called them to Himself. He urged Christians to understand that being a Christian is not trivial, but a lifelong commitment. Paul taught them being a Christian requires discipline and encouraged them by reminding them of their eternal hope.

Paul used the metaphor of an athlete competing in a big race, like the games held every two years near Corinth. He reminded the church they cannot take their faith casually and not prepare for the contests. Like an athlete must exercise self-control of his body, mind, and heart, Paul said Christians must be self-controlled and disciplined to fight the battles that will besiege them. By training his body through strict habits and competitions, an athlete subjects his body to his will. Paul taught Christians must prepare themselves with spiritual disciplines that become habits to prepare for battles against temptations, trials, and forces of darkness. He meant each follower of Jesus will face contests to his faith, which can affect his body, heart, mind, and spirit. Therefore, each believer must prepare himself with spiritual disciplines/training, such as reading the Bible daily, memorizing and meditating on it, praying, fellowshipping, and worshipping with other believers, and standing up for his faith. Besides preparing for battle, each trial and/or temptation can grow the Christian and strengthen him. Those battles will make him ready for the next contest.

Living life as a Christian means the person does more than believe. He does not “beat at the air” without affect but strives, with training, to grow closer to God and emulate Jesus. Growing closer to God and becoming more like Jesus happens by following the spiritual disciplines mentioned in the above paragraph. When Christian growth through training happens, the believer gains a greater trust in God—a deeper faith. He fights battles with God’s strength and stands firm in his faith. The runner trains for the contest by subjecting his body to his will.

Discipline yourself. Subject it to your will, which you subject to God, and run the race strongly. By doing this, you will not fall short of the goal. You will not fail morally. Your testimony about God and the salvation He gives will prevail. Your faith in Jesus will inspire others to seek and to know Him as their Savior.

Remember, instead of getting a perishable crown, you receive the crown of life. Though thorny, like Jesus’ crown, your crown identifies you as being one with Christ. The thorns are the persecutions and temptations you endure and conquer, just as Jesus endured persecuted and tempted to conquer sin and death. By this, all who believe in Jesus become saved from sin and death. You, because of battling temptations and trials for your faith, will be identified with Christ. You will receive the imperishable crown as your reward from God, like Jesus’ imperishable crown, just as Paul wrote.

The contests—trails and persecutions of life—will occur throughout a person’s life. The ability to be victorious against them comes from going through them with God while receiving God’s power, wisdom, knowledge, and might. Having these with which to battle requires that the Christian discipline himself so he grows closer to God. By disciplining himself with prayer, meditating on and memorizing God’s word, studying the Bible, and attending worship services, the Christian draws close to God and immediately calls out to Him to be with and equip him for each battle he faces. The Christian, as a believer, has the imperishable wreath. He is God’s forgiven, saved child. With God, the struggles of life are conquerable. Christians have God with and for them, which makes the difference in their life journey.

If given the opportunity, many individuals would avoid engaging in contests of will, mind, heart, body, and spirit. Yet, we Christians have God’s mandate to tell everyone about Jesus so all believers can receive salvation. We have God’s promise that He will never leave or forsake us. Being able to live with and obey God daily with the joy and peace He gives makes the battles we face worth the cost. Our testimonies about God matter, regardless of the cost. Did anyone believe in Jesus because of your actions or words? If someone believes in Jesus and is saved from their sins, then the contests are worth the cost. Paul spoke of this in Acts 20:24. He wrote,

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of God’s grace.”

How we face contests/challenges to our faith is important. Will our lives testify about God and His gospel? Or will our lives push people farther away from God? Facing hardships as a Christian is worthwhile to testify about God. The thorny, imperishable crown is worth the effort in life. Jesus considered it to be true and became the preeminent example. He died to save each person who believes in Him and confesses and repents of his sins. You will face contests as a Christian. The challenges are worth the cost of obeying God to spread the gospel. The crown is worth the contest and cost you will face.

Believe and receive the imperishable crown.

Be victorious in contests and live as a champion of the faith.

 

Bearing and Forgiving: The Example

 

“Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13)

Bearing means to endure or tolerate a person and his or her actions, opinions, etc. It is a stance of not judging because of your respect for him or her as a creation of God, one loved by Him. Bearing comes from living out visibly and tangibly what God has put into you from His being and His indwelling Holy Spirit. Because we are “raised with Christ,” as Paul stated, we are enabled to bear with each person if we are willing to do that which God compels us. We can simplify this action and attitude of bearing with a slogan from the 1980s-2000s, “What would Jesus do”—WWJD.

Paul wrote we are to bear each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ—their various attitudes, actions, thoughts, words, etc. Still, he added to that. He specifically added that we are not only to bear but to “forgive any complaint.” Forgiveness is hard for any person, especially the unsaved. It should be easier for a Christian because he or she recognized and recognizes daily his or her own sins. Still though, without humility, forgiveness is hard to give. Without a willing heart, the forgiveness God puts within you will not be extended to others.

Bearing a person is easier to do. Sometimes we just grit our teeth and put up with a person (“grin and bear it”), probably while interacting very little with the person. Forgiving requires more of a person to be done. It requires humility, understanding, mercy, compassion, kindness, and acceptance of that person with whom you bear his or her opinions, actions, attitudes, etc. Forgiving is freely, willingly, and graciously extending favor, kindness, and pardon to a person who has harmed or offended you or someone else. 

Paul said forgiveness is a refusal to cast blame for “any complaint.” Forgiving is totally removing a harm from your memory of offenses, not harboring any grudges for later quarrels or arguments. Paul also recognized that forgiveness is a two-way street when he wrote, “against one another.” It takes at least two people for an offense to happen. The offense of one person by another may occur from interactions between those two people because of attitudes, words, or actions misunderstood or misstated. Therefore, forgiveness often needs to be extended by each person in the equation of offense and hurt. 

In considering offense and forgiveness, Paul summed up the ultimate example of forbearing and forgiving, in case anyone forgot and in hope they will remember it in the heat of the moment. Just as the word “bearing” should cause us to consider the ultimate reason to bear with another person and just as the word “forgiving” should cause us to think of the ultimate reason to forgive, Paul explicitly stated as reminder and prime example Jesus’ bearing with and forgiving of us, His followers. 

Even if you are so hurt or offended that you do not want to be with or think about the person by whom you took offense, remember, but for Jesus, you would not know or have freely received forgiveness. You would not have received salvation and the promise of eternal life. Your interactions with God read like a litany of charges of offense and rebellion against Him, but He extended and extends undue grace and forgiveness to you. He bears with and justifies you. God removes your sins from your name as far as the east is from the west. 

God did not have Paul write and teach that we are to do something impossible. He bore and forgave all your sins. God gave mercy and grace to you and pours into you the ability to be merciful and gracious toward other people. You can bear and forgive because of His love, of which you are the recipient and the channel to other people. 

So, be like God. By the love of God within yourself, bear with and forgive any complaint you have with one another. Are you willing? 

 

Are you forgiven and saved by Jesus? If not, now is the time to believe in Jesus, confess your sins, and receive His forgiveness.

Joy and Crown

 

 

“But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.” (Philippians 2:17-18)

 

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well; however, let’s keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.” (Philippians 3:14-16)

 

“Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:1, 4)

 

Paul wrote to the Philippians of his love for them and his desire to see them. His love was so great that he longed for them to grow into the image of Christ for which he himself strived. 

 

Paul began by reminding them of the mind of Christ—absolute humility for the salvation of all people. He wrote challenging the people to have that same mind, to be humble and changed because of the salvation they received by and from Jesus. Should the Philippian Christians think this too great a sacrifice—such humbling of oneself—Paul put himself as an example of a person who was and had everything, giving it all up, and being considered nothing by the people who once considered him so great. Even this, Paul said, does not make him like Christ. He said he had not attained the prize for the goal toward which he ran. 

 

Paul gave the prime example of humility—Jesus— and then himself, as one striving to be like Him, so the Philippian believers would realize it is doable and a worthy task.This task is to what Christ calls each of His followers. “It’s the standard to which we (believers) attained” but whose goals are not yet reached.

 

After reminding the Philippian believers of the prime example and goal Christ gives and a human example (himself), he then expressed his love for them. He said he loved them and longed to see them. Paul said these believers were his joy and crown. He felt like a father who loved them and was proud of them. Paul followed that statement of his love for them with the challenge to keep following Jesus and look to the example he himself gave them. And even in the hardship that living a life of absolute humility, Paul taught them to rejoice in the Lord always.

 

Rejoice that Jesus saved you. Rejoice that you are called to follow Jesus’ example. Rejoice that Jesus considers you worthy to be His example to the world. Rejoice that you get to tell other people about Jesus. Rejoice that you have the privilege to suffer like Jesus because it shows your identification with Him. Rejoice because the way you live imitating Christ is considered so true to Him that people want to torment, trouble, and persecute you like other people did Him. Rejoice that you have fathers and mothers in the faith to be examples for you and pray for you. Rejoice that the strength, endurance, perseverance, and love you need for the task to which Jesus commanded His followers has already been given to you through His Holy Spirit living in you. 

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” as Paul said in Philippians 4:4. “Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5) You are beloved. Keep up the faith. Walk in Jesus’ strength and according to His humble ways so that anyone who hears or sees you will see and hear Jesus. Run for the crown all who run the good race receive from God. And rejoice always! “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” (Phil.4:23)

 

Contentment

 

 

“Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10 (NASB)

 

On account of Christ and for the advancement of His gospel Paul went everywhere and endured hardships. That’s what “for Christ’s sake” means in this verse. Paul recognized God’s purpose for his life. He willingly obeyed God.

 

Paul said he was willing to endure hardships and welcomed and took pleasure in them if it meant he advanced the gospel’s reach to more people who had not heard. His trials, persecutions, hardships, and difficulties came because he spread the gospel message. He’d rather experience pain because of evangelizing than comfort from not doing it. Paul’s pain became his badge proving he lived to serve Jesus. Because of that he could and would be content with pain, hunger, harassment, etc. These maladies proved to himself he was obeying Jesus and following His example. 

 

Paul’s weakness/feebleness came from his “thorn in the flesh.” It caused him physical and mental pain. As a human, hunger and physical maladies. 

 

Insults typically come from a person who feels superior to or wants to assume superiority over another person. The Jewish religious leaders who refused to listen to Paul would have insulted him, as might any other number of people. Their sense of superiority came from hubris—pride in themselves and who they considered themselves to be.

 

The distresses Paul wrote about would be the dire straits and calamities he lived through like being bit by a poisonous viper, being shipwrecked, and not having enough food. These also affect a person’s mind like pain and insults.

 

The persecutions are done by people against what the speaker says. They pursued/hunted Paul down like an animal to suppress him speaking. They wanted to punish God’s messenger in order to conquer him and prove what he taught wasn’t so great after all. This threat attacked his mind with fear of pain and could cause physical harm. Insults were verbal only and could cause mental pain. Persecutions went a step further to cause physical pain, too. 

 

Difficulties were extreme calamities. They caused physical and mental limitations. They were magnified distresses. These could be things like being put in chains in jail with only the food and drink that his friends took to him. 

 

Paul explained why he willingly chose to encounter and endure insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties. He may have grown to expect them. Paul said he walked forward “for Christ’s sake” knowing he’d face what most people ran from. What did he mean by this phrase? I explained this in the first paragraph. Paul walked into and endured mental and physical trials because it advanced the spread of the gospel to regions and countries of people who didn’t know about Jesus and the salvation He gives. His joy was the product of obeying Jesus and from the Holy Spirit who rejoiced each time a person believed in Jesus for salvation from sins and death. 

 

Paul willingly chose to obey knowing he most likely would encounter insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties because he was weak—he had a thorn in the flesh—and was not mighty enough to deflect or stop them from happening. He knew God could stop or deflect them, but sometimes didn’t. Why? Because, the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfect in weakness” (vs 9). Because Paul was obviously weaker than God, the strength, power, conviction, endurance, and faith people saw in Paul, though he experienced hard things, was the Lords’s strength, power, conviction, and endurance. Paul’s human weakness and frailty allowed people to see strength they knew could not come from him. They would see it and realize each of these originated in and came from God. Paul, in his devoted belief in Jesus and His love and obedience to Him, showed God’s power. In his weakness, God used Him and made him strong in appearance, word, and action to reach each person who saw and heard him. 

 

How devoted are you to God? Would you obey God if you knew you’d meet with opposition, especially opposition that could cause you physical and/or mental harm? That opposition is no greater than trusting and following God like Abraham to go to a new and unknown country like Abraham or entering the home of an antagonist like David did or being known as a follower of Jesus like Stephen was. 

 

What is God telling you to do or say? What is holding you back from obeying Him immediately? Be like Paul, Noah, Peter, Abraham, and Jesus. Don’t consider your weakness as an excuse from obeying. When we are weak, Jesus’ strength, love, and power to save will become apparently obvious and people will be saved. At what point will you be content, when disobeying God or when following Him in obedience though you don’t understand why He’d use you or how it can be done with the few talents you have? Contentment comes from obeying God.

Reflection

 

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. (1 Kings 19:3 [NIV])

For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. (1 Corinthians 13:12a [NIV]) 

If you are like me, you would never consider saying you are like Elijah. He was the great prophet of God who told the king that God was sending a drought, then it happened. Elijah was the man who challenged the 850 prophets of Israel to burn sacrifices to their god, Baal, so God would show them He is real and almighty. He was the man who promised a widow she would not run out of oil and flour during the drought; God kept His promise. Elijah, along with Moses, stood with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3). God took Elijah and Moses to heaven without them first being buried. Both men pleased God and received the reward of their faith in God. Who of us even dares to consider ourselves equal to this great man of God? How can we say we are like Elijah?

We can say we are like Elijah the prophet in several ways, though we would not like to acknowledge them. We would rather say we have his faith, steadfastness, and obedience to the Lord. Yet, when we consider a person to emulate, we should consider that person’s characteristics, actions, and words. Elijah obeyed God. He did each of the above listed things. Still, he had his weaknesses.

Elijah feared Jezebel, King Ahab’s wife, would kill him because he had killed her priests, the ones who proclaimed what she wanted. He isolated himself from people who could encourage him as he walked with the Lord, including his servant. No person can work with God in reaching unsaved people without growing weary, needing encouragement, rest, nourishment, and counsel, and needing solitary time with God. For several reasons, each person needs other people who will walk with him or her-to encourage, teach, console, and correct him or her. Elijah became tired and had no one to remind him to rest and eat. God did this for him. He experienced depression because of obeying God while serving God; he chose isolation. God led him toward people.

This prophet of God had his mountain top experiences, literally, with God. In obeying God’s commands, he needed great faith and people to encourage him to go into the valley. Many of us cannot truthfully say we go into the valley when God tells us, but we read in the Bible that Elijah did. We might have a mountain top experience with God, but sometimes we refuse to serve God in the valleys. If we are truthful with ourselves, our commonalities with Elijah are more in his humanness. We fear, tire, isolate ourselves, and get depressed. We challenge God like Elijah did when the widow’s son died after God provided oil and flour to sustain them. We rail at Him asking, “Why”. Our faith in God is shallow. Our humanness is more comfortable to us.

Yes, we are more like Elijah in these ways than the others. We would love to say we are like him in his spiritual faithfulness to God, but honestly, that would not be the truth. The good news is that Elijah was not always close to God. He began his walk with Him like we do, with a step of faith. That step that takes us from promise to assurance, knowing without doubt that Almighty God is our God, and we have a hope and future with Him (Joshua 29:11). To perceive God’s voice, Elijah had to grow in his faith so he would learn how He sounds as a still, quiet voice, a voice like the roar of a storm, and the voice like the crashing and shaking of an earthquake. Elijah’s steps of faith continued. He wanted to follow God’s will for his life. Elijah desired to pursue God’s purposes. Though he faltered in his life’s purpose because of his human weakness, he continued to seek God and to love Him through obedience to Him. Elijah bravely faced 850 prophets and Almighty God showed He is real. When Elijah ran away in fear, God took him to a quiet cave beside a still brook so he could rest and replenish with sleep and the food and drink God sent.

Each time Elijah’s human weaknesses arose, God showed him He provides for the needs of those who follow Him with their whole being-heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 & Matthew 22:37). Elijah understood and related to God in the way Paul expressed when he wrote Romans about a thousand years after Elijah’s time. Paul said in Romans 8:26a & 28, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness…And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (NLT) Elijah’s spirit cried out to God in his weaknesses-tiredness, isolation, fear, and depression. Though he mentally and physically felt beaten and his heart fainted at the task, Elijah trusted God and relied on Him.

As humans, we are very much like Elijah. We can have hope, like him, if we take a step of faith. We can do like Elijah did and cry out to God. God can remake us in His image for His purposes. He makes us more than we could ever make our own selves. God made Elijah into the man who was His great prophet. Through Elijah, the Lord did great things to remind the Israelites He is one true God. He did that with each of His prophets and servants. He equipped, trained, and remade them for His purposes, to be people who would seek Him above everything and everyone. Just as Oswald Chambers notes in the title of His devotional book, God remade and remakes people to be the utmost for His highest, so that each person will come to hear about Him, trust in Him, and receive salvation from their sins and death through Him.

Elijah had a mother who delivered him into this world. He was a man. Just like any other person, Elijah had human weaknesses. He learned about Almighty God and believed in Him. Elijah believed God and determined to serve His purposes for his life by being obedient to His plans. God took this life offered wholly to Him for His use and remade it into who He wanted him to be. This enabled Elijah to do His will-telling and reminding the people of Israel about Him. Elijah, because of his love for God, willingly sacrificed his life to God for His purposes. He allowed God to direct His paths.

Are you like Elijah? Consider his life. Elijah was born, raised, heard about God, desired to know Him more, loved and obeyed Him, had human responses of fear, tiredness, isolation, and depression, learned to trust God more each day, and received God’s promise in full when He took him to His kingdom. We are like Elijah in our humanness and can be like Elijah in his faith in Almighty God. Our greater calling is to be as relationally close to God as possible. Through Jesus, His Son, God made that closeness to Him available to each person who believes in Jesus Christ. Consider, you are already partly like Elijah; you are human. Elijah became more than just a man. He had faith in God. Because of Elijah’s growing faith in God over the years, God called and trained him to be His prophet. His growth in faith and obedience to God grew him toward being perfect, toward being like Jesus, though he had not seen Him. Elijah saw Jesus in the glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12) but saw Him clearly, face to face, when God took him on His chariot of fire to heaven (2 Kings 2:11).

We are each like Elijah; we are humans. But God can remake us into His image, like at creation.

How much like Elijah are you?

·       Will you admit your human weaknesses of tiredness, fear, despair, depression, etc.?

·       Will you take the step of faith and move from promise to assurance of salvation?

·       Will you listen to God’s voice and obey Him by taking another step of faith, like Elijah?

·       Will you allow Him to train, encourage, correct, and lead you?

We can be more than like Elijah. We can be like the One he hoped for, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who came to earth and now sits on His throne in heaven.

Be more than one who sees his reflection in the mirror.

Begin to see Jesus as you allow God to renew you. 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:11-12 [NIV])

Desires of My Heart

 

“Everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.” (Exodus 35:21 [NIV])

We each know of or are a person who grudgingly did what someone asked. A parent would have asked you to clean your room and you delayed in obeying. With a threat of disciplining (the compulsion), you did the task. This unfortunate part of our nature shows itself because we chose to exercise the freewill God gave us by rebelling. In this instance, you rebelled against your parent because you chose to follow the desires of your natural heart. Any rebellion we do is against God since He created the moral laws from His own holiness. The opposite of a negative compulsion (disciplining by grounding, loss of privileges, etc.) is a positive compulsion. A positive compulsion comes from an inner calling to your spirit to obey because of love and/or respect for the person, the law, and God. A person often obeys this calling because of who compels him or her, his or her care for the one calling him or her, and the result or reward for obeying.

The Bible tells of compulsions, desires, impulses, heart-stirrings, and urgings within our hearts, minds, and spirits. We can note these from as early as Adam and Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden. First, they wanted to be with God and grow in their relationship with Him. Next, they learned of something more enticing to them than their relationship with God. The compelling and urging by the serpent led to their desire and choice to go against God’s commands. Adam and Eve’s freewill led them to choose self over God. This instance is not exclusive to this one passage. People rebel and sin against God like the Bible writers recorded throughout the Bible. They choose to follow the desires of their own heart intent on themselves. Other instances in the Bible show people respond to God’s urgings, compulsions, and impellings by following Him. Let’s consider a few of these instances and understand what they meant at the time and what they mean for us, identifying the  of what God urged, what action occurred, and what reward or result occurred for the person and/or people following God.

After the Israelites left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they lingered at Mount Sinai. At this mountain, God instructed them through Moses. Moses spent much time with God on the mountain and received His plans on how to build His tabernacle. He told Moses of the fine wood, gold, silver, and linens He required for building His tabernacle. The Egyptians gave these things to the Israelites before they left Egypt (Exodus 3:22 & 12:35-36). What happened after Moses told the Israelites of God’s requirements is what we must notice. Moses recorded their actions in Exodus 35:20-35. He said in verses twenty through twenty-one,

Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. [NIV]

Three things happened in these verses. The Israelites recognized God. They responded to Him. Something happened. These three things we will call the impetus, action, and result. Through each of the Scripture passages we consider, we will look for these three things.

Exodus 35

In Exodus 35:20-21, the impetus for the Israelites’ action came from their hearts’ moving. In other translations, the passage says, “their hearts were stirred.” Notice the verb is passive. The Hebrew word from which this “stirring” comes means to be carried away by an external force to oneself. The Israelites did nothing to cause their hearts to stir. It occurred by God’s calling to them. As Moses relayed to the Israelites what God said He needed for the tabernacle to be built to His specifications, God’s desires moved the people’s hearts and as He called them. God moved their hearts. The people recognized God as divine and almighty. They knew He rescued them from slavery.

Their recollection of what He did for them and who He is caused a reaction to the impetus. The Israelites heard with their ears, their hearts, and their spirits. They responded to God’s love with their own love for Him shown through obedience. They responded by giving back to Him that which He gave to them-love and tangible items. Remember in Exodus 3:22 and 12:35-36, God told the Israelites through Moses to ask the Egyptians for gold, silver, and fine cloths. Back before these people understood why God gave them these fine things from the Egyptians, He had a plan for them. The Israelites did not yet understand God’s plan for them when they received the gifts from the Egyptians.  He provided what the Israelites needed for themselves and what they needed to give back to Him to build His tabernacle. God gave the impetus by stirring the hearts of the Israelites. The Israelites action occurred because they chose to bend their hearts toward God in love and obedience. They gave to Him what He requested to build the tabernacle.

Whenever calling by God and an action toward that calling occurs, a result in obedience to God takes place. The result for the Israelites was four-fold. Physically, God would continue to give what they needed for life; He would continue to bless them. Mentally, the Israelites acknowledged God as the One who provides and realized they could trust Him. Emotionally, they received God’s love and returned it to Him. They deepened their connection with Him. Spiritually, they recognized God as almighty and eternal, the God of their forefathers, the One who never left them. With this recognition, they responded with faith and trust in Him by loving Him in return and trusting Him to provide all things. Notice, each of these four parts of a life is intertwined with the others. One does not exist without the other on this plain.

To sum this passage up, the people recognized God and His call on their lives. They responded out of love because of His love and care by acting on His stirring their hearts by obeying His plans for building the tabernacle. The Israelites grew in their faith in God, in their relationship with Him, and proved their covenant with Him. The stirring of the Israelites’ hearts did not occur at their bidding, but at God’s Spirit. God was the force outside of them that stirred up their hearts to seek, recognize, acknowledge, and heed Him. People from neighboring nations watched the lives of the Israelites to see how their God worked among them. They sought, too. The Israelites answered God’s stirring of the hearts and brought Him glory.

As we continue to consider God’s stirring of people’s hearts, we must recognize He did this throughout the Bible. From Adam and Eve in Eden, to Moses at the burning bush, to Mary when God spoke to her, to the apostles, Paul, and other Christians, God stirred hearts, compelled, urged, entreated, and impelled them for His service.

1 Corinthians 9

In 1 Corinthians 9:16-27, we read part of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. In verses sixteen through eighteen, Paul said,

¹⁶For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. ¹⁸What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. [NIV]

In considering this passage, what or who compelled Paul? Notice, Paul said, “I am compelled.” He did not compel himself. God did. This word “compel” comes from a Greek word meaning necessitated from external conditions. God compelled Paul when He saved and called Him on the road to Damascus. God gave the impetus for Paul’s resulting actions. He placed it in Paul’s heart. Paul desired to seek, recognize, acknowledge, and obey Him out of love for Him.

What action did Paul say occurred because of God compelling Him? He said in verse sixteen God compelled him to preach. That preaching is not of what the people in the Greek world heard before, but of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like with the Israelites, God’s compulsion was specific. Out of love for Him and for people who did not trust in Jesus, God called Paul to preach the gospel. He recognized in this calling, this compulsion, a negative occurred if he did not preach the gospel. How do we learn this? Paul said at the end of verse sixteen, “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” Not only did Paul recognize God and accede to His authority over his heart, spirit, and life, he realized consequences came from living contrary to God’s compulsion. When a person walks life contrary to God’s best plans and desires, he or she is rebelling against God. Many stories tell about rebellion against God and its consequences. Noah and his family remained the face of the earth after the great flood. Two of Aaron’s sons died for performing their daily services in the tabernacle in the wrong way. The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. Judas Iscariot died a sinner’s death for betraying Jesus. The stories of rebellion and their resultant consequences can be found throughout the Bible. Paul recognized God’s calling Him came with a warning for not complying. He did not want to experience that discipline.

We have knowledge of Paul’s life story. He accepted God’s compulsion to preach the gospel. What result came from his loving obedience to God? Paul’s preaching free of charge in obedience to God’s compulsion made him a voluntary slave submitted to God’s will. By submitting to God’s desire for his life, he aimed to tell as many people as possible about Jesus so they could become children of God – Jews and Gentiles, slave and free. He summarized this life of service to God and humanity with verses twenty-two and twenty-three, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” [NIV]

Paul ran to get the prize, he said (vs 24-27). For him, the goal of his life revolved around completing the race as an obedient child and servant of God. Paul’s reward of receiving the prize of being perfected in Christ’s image, being with Him in heaven, came only from God. This prize represents three motivations for Paul’s life. He obeyed out of love for God, out of love for others that Jesus put in him, and for God’s glory. He said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Paul’s goal and the result of His life’s obedience to God’s compelling and love for him was to give God glory. He recognized and acknowledged God’s call on his life as the impetus, the desire of God for him and accepted that desire as his own. Paul responded to this impetus from God with action by telling every person he met about the gospel. His action led to people receiving salvation through Jesus and God getting glory.

2 Corinthians 5

¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15 [NIV])

In these verses, just like in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul spoke of God compelling Him. This word “compelling” means urging, impelling, and compelling of the soul/spirit, heart, and mind. This compelling is an urging of one’s being to respond with action according to what is asked. What came with this urging that would make a person more favorable towards doing what the Spirit compelled? See at the beginning of verse fourteen-Christ’s love. Paul left no doubt in a person’s mind as to Who compelled him. He recognized the call of Christ on his heart because Jesus saved the Pharisee, the one who persecuted and killed Jesus-followers. Paul understood he did not deserve Jesus’ love.

Because of Jesus’ merciful love for a sinner like him, his response to Him could only be to love Him. Paul’s acknowledgement of Jesus’ right to his life and his own love for Him led him to answer God’s calling to preach. Out of love obedience came. Paul would do what Jesus called him to do because of this love. Jesus’ love for sinful Saul/Paul compelled him to do what He asked of him. That impetus, Christ’s compelling, led Paul to preach the gospel. Paul recognized Who called him to preach. He acknowledged that call and the reason, His grace though he himself sinned, and obeyed Jesus’ calling. Paul’s action, internally, was loving Jesus and, externally, was preaching to every person to whom he could.

The result of Paul’s recognizing, acknowledging, and being obedient to Jesus’ compelling him to preach affects the four spheres of a person-mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Paul yearned to be “fully clothed” by being perfected by Christ on the day he entered heaven. He no longer wanted to groan and be burdened because of not being clothed in His heavenly dwelling (vs 3-4). Paul received courage from Christ while at home in his body (on earth) and away from the Lord (vs 6). He was called Christ’s ambassador (vs. 14). Paul worked for Christ (vs 21). He carried within himself the hope of becoming the righteousness of God through Jesus (vs 21). These are the result of Paul acknowledging and acting on Jesus’ call on his life. Each of these brings glory to God. God would be seen in Paul’s life in each of the actions and the results. People would seek God and glorify Him because of who He is and what He has done as they saw in Paul’s life and their own.

Impetus leads to action then to result. What one allows to cause their actions shows what his or her desires (impetus) are-self or God. From those actions come results, either praise of self and what one did or acquired or praise of God for what He did and Who He is. Paul chose to act on God’s compelling of him. He gave all the glory to God.

Luke 24

Luke wrote about two disciples of Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus after Jesus’ death and resurrection in Luke 24:13-53.  As these two disciples walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus (about 23 miles distance), a man met them on the way and walked with them. As they walked, the third man explained the Scriptures to them from Moses and all the prophets that told about the Messiah. When the three men arrived in Emmaus, the two disciples invited the third man to stay with them for the night. Roads were unsafe at night and people were often robbed. This third man stayed with them and when they sat to eat, He broke the bread and prayed to God. At that moment, the two disciples realized Jesus had risen from the dead alive and walked with and talked with them throughout the journey. Jesus then disappeared. At this point, Luke recorded what the two disciples said and did in verses thirty-two to thirty-five. He said,

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven (Jesus’ first disciples) and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread. [NIV]

What or Who caused the impetus, the action, and the result of the actions of these two Emmaus-traveling disciples? What compelled these two men to action? Upon looking at the statement they made to each other after Jesus disappeared from their sight (vs 31), we read, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” The idiom of “hearts burning within us” is what compelled the men to action. Their “hearts burning” within them means they experienced movement in their hearts to recognize, acknowledge, and respond to someone with action. The word “burning” lets us realize the urgency of this compelling, desire of their hearts. The fire within the men required quenching with action immediately. Upon reading verse thirty-three, we realize these two disciples left Emmaus immediately to return to Jerusalem. The two men disregarded their safety by walking at night on a road with boulders that provided hiding spots for robbers. The care for their safety came second to declaring Jesus rose from the dead. They had seen, heard, and eaten with Him. The impetus for these two disciples began with the burning in their hearts. It came from Jesus.

These two disciples did not manufacture the desire, but obeyed God’s compelling. They desired to tell the disciples in Jerusalem about what they saw. Because of the burning in their hearts caused by Jesus, they felt compelled to tell the disciples about Him being alive. The two men acted immediately, walked urgently to Jerusalem, and gave testimony of Jesus’ resurrection. They understood the importance of Jesus’ resurrection because of what the women told the disciples that morning, what Simeon Peter verified for himself, and what Jesus explained from the Scriptures as they walked to Emmaus. The testimony of these two men became a stabilizer for Jesus’ followers’ faith in Him and an impetus for sending them out to testify about Him. Jesus revealing Himself to the two disciples impelled the men to return quickly to Jerusalem.

Their actions and words testified to Jesus being alive. Their actions resulted in the other eleven disciples and the other Jesus-followers to believe for themselves when Jesus met them (vs 36-49). It resulted in belief by His disciples and worship of Him and praise to God (vs 52-53). Jesus speaking to them opened their spiritual eyes. The two men recognized Him and responded with an urgency. They acted upon the compelling. The actions of the two men resulted in others trusting Jesus fully. It also led to worship and praise of God.

Philippians 2

Paul often wrote letters encouraging Christians to be like him and/or to be like-minded. For him, Paul sought to live his life so like Christ that he could teach people to be like Christ by being a living example for them to imitate. In Philippians 2, he urged (compelled) the believers to be of the same mind as Christ. Here again, the one doing the urging is someone outside oneself. The people would have known Paul from his visits and would realize he preached the gospel. This means they might heed the urging of Paul. The Philippians would do this because they looked up to him as a man being close to the Father and Jesus, and one who learned the gospel very well. Paul became their spiritual father. When urged, out of consideration of Paul’s life and the gospel he preached and out of the truths God taught them and Who they recognized as the One who loved them salvifically, the Philippians would consider the urging/compelling of Paul. They would recognize its validity and author. The believers in Philippi would acknowledge the intent came from God. They would seek to heed the urging/compelling to be like Christ because of love for and out of obedience to Him. The impetus, in this instance, was Paul’s urging of the Philippians as their spiritual father, which he wanted them to consider as Christ’s urging. Paul wanted them to respond to his urging so they would respond to Jesus. Paul explained what being like Christ meant in verses five through eleven.

If the Philippian Christians followed through on Paul’s urging, they would be humble, servants of others, and obedient to God. Their actions would resemble how Jesus acted. The result of their being like-minded with Christ would show they live humble and obedient to God. Their lives would show a striving to grow in relationship with Him and people. God would continue to sanctify them. He would be pleased and would receive the glory.

Paul continued teaching, in Philippians 2:12-18, about obedience to God. In these seven verses, each parent can relate to what he wrote because of raising his or her own child. Paul taught against grumbling while serving the Lord and each other. It appears some Philippian believers did what they felt the Lord required, but they made it known they did not like doing it (vs. 14-16). If a person seeks to “work out their salvation with fear and trembling” (vs 12), he or she strives to grow in likeness to Christ-grow in sanctification. Grumbling is not growing. Grumbling while doing what an authority said is grudging obedience. Paul told the Philippians if they obey God’s will and grow in Christlikeness, then they will become “blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation” (vs 15a). That would result from obeying the compulsion without grumbling. The life of the Philippian believers who obeyed the urging of Paul to be like Christ without grumbling would grow the believers in their walk with Christ (in their sanctification). It would also make their lives a testimony to God’s praise and glory.

More

Many other passages in Scripture tell of God compelling/urging, moving a person or a group of people to action in love and obedience to Him, that resulted in a testimony of Him and praise and worship lifted to Him. Paul urged Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 to “preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season.” Paul told him to keep his sense of urgency from God to proclaim the gospel. That urgency, the impetus, came from God. The action of obedience caused him to preach. The result would be people hearing about Jesus, professing faith in Him for salvation, and praising God. Timothy would bring glory to God.

In 1 Peter 5, Peter wrote to the elders of the church. He urged them to keep the compelling God placed on their lives, even if they must share the sufferings of Christ. By doing that, they will also “share in the glory to be revealed.” Peter urged the elders to shepherd God’s flock, just as He called them to do. He told each Christian to humble themselves. Be alert and of a sober mind. Resist the devil. Stand firm in the faith. Each of these commands Peter wrote to the dispersed Christians in the Roman empire, reminding them of God’s compelling them. Peter concluded the body of his letter to the Christians in 1 Peter 5:10-11 by writing, “The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” Peter reminded the Christians they answered the calling God put on their hearts to trust him. They acted on it by trusting in Jesus as their Savior and living as a Christian, though persecuted. The result of their obedience would give God glory. They would recognize God’s power and praise Him just as Peter did in this closing.

Conclusion

God speaks to each person. He created humanity with a desire (a compelling) for relationship with Him and other people. The freewill He gave each person allows him or her to choose what he or she will do with their desires. God calls to each person to come to Him. He urges him or her to seek, recognize, acknowledge, and come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ. Belief in Jesus as the Son of God causes that close communion with God, for which He created each person. It involves the heart, mind, spirit (led by God’s Spirit), and body. A person’s seeking, recognizing, acknowledging, believing, and obeying this call from Him and the call to tell others about Jesus is obedient action, the physical part of the covenant with God a person makes when he or she trusts in Jesus. The result of a person’s obedient action to God’s calling, compulsion, urging, impelling, and movement of one’s heart, mind, and spirit, results in praise to God by other Christians and heavenly beings. It may result in people coming to faith in Jesus because of that person’s obedience. What we must remember, God does not call a person once, just at the time of trusting in Jesus Christ. God calls to a person compelling and urging him or her to follow Him daily. Jesus calls His disciples to pick up his or her cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23).  Alternately, a person can choose to fill his or her own desires and experience fulfillment only on a mental and, maybe, physical level. Contrarily, the desires of one’s heart, when fulfilled, do not give complete satisfaction and peace because every facet of a person does not receive fulfillment. Most often, the spiritual side of a person remains unquenched.

God wants a close relationship with each person. He does not coerce anyone. He lets each person choose to seek Him or seek to fulfill personal desires. Each person gets to choose what will guide his or her way. To have a close relationship with God requires communication and communing with Him. Because of this, God will talk to you each day if you will listen for Him. He will move your heart, stir your spirit, urge, and compel you to do and be for Him in this world. Your obedience to what He says will bring Him glory. If the glory does not spotlight God, then the urging and compulsion you followed did not originate from Him, but from yourself.

Each person will feel compelled by things. Wisdom and communion with God will illuminate if that compulsion or desire is from God. If from God, it will lead to Hi, receiving the glory. If it originates from a person, the result will cause the glory to shine on one who is not God.

The urgings you obey determines who you love most and who will get the glory,

you or God.

Who leads you? Who do you follow?

Who receives the glory at the end of your day?

Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24 [NIV])

Desire and Salvation

“Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?” (2 Samuel 23:5 [NASB])

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Colossians 2:6 [NASB])

After reading these two passages, you might wonder what God teaches from both that is a commonality weaving them together. Remember, every book and passage in the Bible has one commonality.  The thing in common is God - who He is, and what He has done, is doing, and will do.

Consider 2 Samuel 23, David’s last words before his death. He began by declaring an oracle, like a prophet, that these are his last words, then emphatically made his point with four descriptors of himself in relationship to God that could not have been if he had not made God his LORD. David said he is the son of Jesse. His Hebrew ancestry traces back to Abraham through Judah, and to Ruth, the Moabitess God considered righteous because she followed the God of Naomi, her Hebrew mother-in-law, into Canaan. He had covenant ancestry, meaning he is part of the tribe God has chosen, and he made God His LORD by His choice. David continued by saying he was “raised on high” and was “the anointed of the God of Jacob.” Literally, God raised David from the status of being a common man, a shepherd, and made him the king of His people, Israel. As king of Israel, God anointed David to be the one who would lead His people to act righteous, as God is righteous, representing Him on earth. David concluded by saying he was the psalmist of Israel, the one who would lead His chosen people to testify about God and praise Him in word and action by testifying and praising Him himself. David recognized his covenant connection with Yahweh through his ancestry. He confirmed his God-chosen connection with Yahweh through His anointing of him and raising him to the throne over His covenant people. Finally, David reminisced of his intimate relationship with God through his psalms. His relationship with God spoke of how each believer can relate to God.

David continued by proclaiming his “last words,” this oracle, came from God in 2 Samuel 23:2. He said, by His Spirit, Yahweh’s words were on his tongue. Next, David emphasized who Yahweh is, the God of Israel (the Covenant-maker) and the One who is the Rock of Israel (faithful, steady, and strong). This Covenant-maker, faithful, and strong God is the One who chose the Hebrews, anointed for them a king, and provided for them a psalmist to lead them to remember, revere, and worship Him alone.

God’s oracle through David told about the people who God chose; they are faithful to Him and revere Him. They are like David. The chosen of God are righteous and fear God with awe and reverence (vs. 3b). They show God’s righteousness by living righteous lives empowered by God. These children of God are like the light of morning when the sun rises with no clouds in the sky after a rain and the grass rises from the ground (vs. 4). They radiate their faith and trust in God. The people of God radiate Him with their lives like the God-chosen and God-anointed psalmist and righteous king of Israel. They shine God’s radiant glory through their spirit and lives. Visible in the Israelites lives is King David’s relationship with God.

David explained how God worked in his life as His righteous man and king. God made an unending covenant with him. He promised David’s kingdom would never end. Jesus the eternal King, the descendent of David and the Son of God who reigns forever, shows God faithfulness to His covenant with David. David confirmed his faith in God’s fulfilling His covenant with him when he said, “He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured” (2 Samuel 23:5 [NASB]) God set forth and made a legally binding covenant with David, unlike the old covenant with Moses, and kept and secured it (vs. 5). He is always faithful to His promises. God kept this covenant with him through His coming Messiah, Jesus. At the end, this righteous psalmist and anointed king of Yahweh declared God would provide for his salvation and his desires (vs. 5b). God would do it because of His faithfulness and would make it grow. He, through David, emphasized this by asking a rhetorical question with his last words in verse five. God would make David complete and perfect with the full salvation He can offer. He provided for David’s soul to be with Him eternally, just as He provided for his natural body during his life. David trusted God completely and explicitly. His final words prophesied of the Messiah to come and he trusted in God to keep this covenant promise. David’s life presaged the life of the Messiah, who fulfilled the old covenant and brought in the new covenant with God, who God raised on high and anointed to be the righteous King for eternity, and who led the people of God to testify in action and praise about who God is. David looked forward to the Messiah and King. David had been the admired king of the Israelites. God’s people would look to the King from David’s line, Jesus Christ, fulfilled prophecy from God as the epitome of how to be in relationship with God.

Contrasted to this righteous, faithful, trusting, radiant servant and child of God are those who are not such in verses six and seven. God, through David, said unrighteous, unfaithful, untrusting, self-serving people are “worthless.” He instructed His people to “thrust them away like thorns, because they cannot be taken in hand” (vs. 6-7). God’s people must keep these wicked people from influencing their lives on earth. God will keep them from His kingdom because of their lack of faith in the Messiah and the surety of His covenant to David. He, through David, compared them to thorns which only draw blood but have no fruit. These, God said, will burn as rubbish because their wickedness proves they are not God’s people and because they bear no good fruit. When living among and working with wicked people, God’s people must not touch them, but keep them the distance of a rake or spear shaft’s length away so they will not prick and trick them to heed and follow them. Paul said in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Wicked people try to trick people into following them instead of God. They declare human deceitful philosophies and false teachings. Thorns are not part of God’s plan of salvation and have no place in God’s kingdom.

This oracle from God through him was David’s personal testimony of his life with God. For David, God’s presence and activity in and around his life led to testifying about Him. Testimony serves two primary purposes – to tell people about God, His works, and His promises (covenant) and to praise Him. Testimony can lead people to know Him personally. Like David’s psalms, this oracle from God serves to testify to people about who God is, what He has done, and what He promises, and to lead them to want to know Him personally. This, David’s last testimony, is a prophecy of the Messiah God will send. It foretells, just as the prophets did, of God’s fulfilling His covenant to and through David to the Israelites and to all people as their God. David was a shepherd and psalmist whom God raised to lead people to Him with his life and testimony. God’s people today, Christians, are ones whom God raised to lead people to Him with their lives and testimonies. David’s testimony about God was that He is faithful to His covenants and His promises. He testified God is his strength, protector, and provider. David believed He would provide for his daily needs, his desires, and, through the revelation of the Messiah, his eternal need, salvation (2 Samuel 23:5). He tuned his heart to God’s. David’s ultimate desires were that God give him salvation and his life give glory to Him. Though David’s flesh led him into sin (thorns), he desired God more than anything. David repented of his sins and sought the God of His heart, mind, and soul. He chose God over the thorns and turned to Him repeatedly. David’s life and last words declared God and his eternal trust and faith in Him.

Like David, Christians can live testifying about God and praising Him. God’s covenant promises are for each person. He wants and provides for him or her to become part of His chosen people. God does not want anyone to die eternally separated from Him. Anyone can be righteous because God sent Jesus the Messiah to make him or her clean, holy, and right with Him when they believe in Jesus as the Son of God. As a follower of Jesus, a believer can live a life in reverence and awe of God. He or she can be like the morning sun rising upon cloudless skies. The Light (Jesus) in a person can lead the new grass to spring up toward Him. Each Christian can lead people to know Him through His light in him or her so people can arise and praise Him, too. God kept His promise to David. David believed in God. God counted it to him as righteousness.

Each person who knows Jesus as Savior can identify with David’s ways of relating to God. Believers can know God as David knew Him. He or she has a covenant ancestry with Yahweh through Jesus by choosing to believe in Jesus as God’s Son, the Savior. God changes and raises on high each person from his or her fleshly self to a child of God, a child of the King, part of His people. He lifts each believer up out of the morass of his or her sins and away from Satan to lead him or her to Him and strengthen him or her with His truths. Like God anointed David from Jacob’s line to lead His people righteously, He anoints each of His children, by salvation through Jesus Christ, to act righteously on earth, representing Him. God calls each Christian to be the psalmist for his or her people. The psalmist testifies in word, action, and song about Jesus Christ and of his or her intimate relationship with the God through Christ. He or she tells of who God is, what He has done, and that God wants to be in a loving relationship with the person and how He has provided a way for that relationship. Like King David of the Old Testament, God’s people have at least four roles and as they live these out, an intimacy grows between that Christian and God. No one is like Christ, but we can be like David, in a righteous and intimate relationship with God. The words of Paul in Colossians 2:6-7 aptly describe this relationship and its growth, from being firmly rooted in Christ to overflowing with gratitude.

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Colossians 2:6-7 [NASB])

            Each person must decide if he or she will let God be his or her Lord, if he or she will become part of the lineage of faith like David. God will anoint believers to proclaim Him with righteousness, reverence, and awe. This makes it possible for them to arise and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to others. The Light of Jesus (the sun of a cloudless sky) that flows through believers from His Spirit living in them attracts people to Him like the “tender grass springs out of the earth” (2 Samuel 23:4).  Christians should “walk in Him,” as Paul said in Colossians 2:6-7, since they have been firmly rooted in Christ and are being built up in Him. They must be establishing their faith and overflowing with gratitude so other people will know about Jesus Christ and seek to be in a personal and saving relationship with Him. David’s life with God sets an example for a Christian relationship with Him (2 Samuel 23:1). Paul challenges each Christian to “walk with Him” because Jesus laid the foundation for their faith. Have a relationship with God like David did, one of covenant-faith, anointed and chosen, and proclaiming the Lord.

As David realized and “declared” (testified) with his last words, we must decide if we will testify about Jesus, who provides salvation and our heart’s desires. As David matured, God’s desires became his desires. He realized God provided all he truly desired – a relationship with Him. This right relationship with God is salvation, freely given by His grace through His Son, Jesus. Notice, in 2 Samuel 23:13-17, the life of David’s men and his own sacrifice to God was more important than drinking water from Bethlehem’s well. Bethlehem was the place where he began life in covenant relationship with God. David’s birth city was where he was shepherd and psalmist, and from where God raised and anointed him as His king chosen for His people, Israel. David’s deepest desire was to serve God and to show this testimony of his absolute dependence and devotion to Him. He did this by pouring out the desired earthly water from Bethlehem’s well as a sacrifice of his desires to God’s desires. By this, David’s desires were God’s desires, oneness in heart, mind, and spirit.

God calls to each person to receive His saving grace. He chooses us to receive it but are not part of God’s family until we accept His grace and forgiveness and believe in Jesus Christ.

Are you walking in Him as one who has received Christ Jesus?

Walk in Him.

Triumphant Freedom

Overview of Earlier Colossians Bible Studies

Through the first eleven Bible studies of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we’ve learned of the background of the letter to the Colossians and have studied Colossians 1:1-2:10. The study called Background of Paul's Letter to the Church at Colossae taught us about the cultural, philosophical, and spiritual aspects of Asia minor that affected the Christians in Colossae and Laodicea. We learned how Paul identified himself and Timothy with the Christians in Colossae and Laodicea and helped those Christians identify with them in the Bible study titled Identification. In the Bible study called Thanksgiving in Colossians, Paul thanked God for the Christians in these cities. He continued his prayer, as studied in Glorious Might, by asking God to give the Colossian and Laodicean churches His spiritual wisdom and understanding so they would bear fruit in good works. Paul continued to intercede for the believers to God asking Him to strengthen them with power, steadfastness, and patience, and that they joyously give thanks to Him.

In Colossians 1:13-20, Paul told about God and Jesus Christ, and how Jesus’s sacrifice is enough for salvation. He taught in the study titled Snatched and Delivered that the Father is the one who rescues believers and transfers them to Jesus for salvation. Paul explained Christology in Colossians 1:15-20. Jesus is the exact embodiment of the Godhead, Paul informed them, as written about in Superabundant Peace. The study titled Attaining Hope covers Colossians 1:21-23 and shows how Paul used if… then clauses  as a teaching tool. With this technique, he explained who the Christians were before their salvation by Jesus and then what Jesus would do if they exercised the faith God gave them. If the people would believe in Jesus, He would save them from their sins and death. Paul continued speaking about God in Colossians 1:24-29. In this passage, he told of his calling by Jesus and his stewardship to God. Paul explained that Jesus told him to proclaim the “mystery of God,” Jesus Christ is for all people, not just for the Jews. Jesus died to cleanse people from their sins and give salvation from sin and death to each person who trusts in Him. Paul taught God calls to people with gentle persuasion. Later he would contrast the way and purpose of God’s calling with the false teachers’ method of proclamation. The study titled God's Power and Gentle Persuasion teaches about Colossians 1:24-29.

In Colossians 2:1-5, Paul returned to a favorite topic of his, rejoicing while or because of suffering. In this passage, he showed his pastoral care and concern for the Colossian and Laodicean Christians as noted in the Bible study titled Rejoicing During Trials. Paul encouraged the Christians to stand strong and unified in love so they would attain “to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, Jesus Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3 [NASB]). He taught this so the false teachers would not trick the Christians with persuasive arguments and would not delude them about the surety of their salvation and their hope of glory. Paul continued to remind the Colossian and Laodicean churches of their salvation by Jesus through faith in Him. In Overflowing Gratefulness, He told these believers that because they trusted in Jesus and received salvation from Him, they could know they were rooted firmly in Him. Paul told them that though their salvation was in the past, they were to continue being rooted in Christ, being built up, and being established in their faith. These present continuous verbs showed growth as a Christian happens throughout a person’s life and comes from an active staying in a close relationship with God. Salvation happens at a point in time, but growth and sanctification should be the continuous aim of each believer.

With Colossians 2:8-10, Paul taught more about the “mystery of God” of which he wrote in Colossians 1:26. He taught in depth about the philosophical thoughts the Christians of Colossae and Laodicea faced in Colossians 2:8-10. Paul taught that the false teachers proclaimed human, empty, and deceptive philosophies that came from the elementary principles of the world. He contrasted them with Christ’s teachings that came from His full divinity and made believers complete. Paul wrote Jesus Christ is head over all rule and authority. The Bible study called Freedom from Deception teaches about this passage.

The Fullness of Christ in Believers

With Colossians 2:11-15, Paul explained about the completion Jesus gives. He taught in six statements what each believer receives through the fullness of Christ when He completes him or her. The surety of salvation through and power from Jesus, through His indwelling Spirit, gives each Christian the ability to reject teachings of philosophy from men and women that offer nothing compared to the superabundant fullness, the completion and perfection, that comes from Christ.

Spiritual Circumcision occurs by Jesus Christ

“… and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision (performed by) of Christ.” (Colossians 2:11 [NASB])

This verse written by Paul speaks of one law Moses gave to the Israelites, the circumcision of a son on the eighth day of his life. Paul brought this up to highlight two important things about the Colossian and Laodicean Christians and each Gentile believer; they were not Jews. They did not have the privilege of sonship or daughtership of God under the Mosaic law. Gentiles are not part of the people of God because of their non-Hebrew lineage. From this, the Gentile people understood they were outside the law and outside God’s old covenant. Twice in chapters one and two, Paul told them of the mystery he received from God to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles. In these two Bible passages, people can understand the salvation from Jesus is for each person born in and outside the people of Israel.

When we look at the Greek words of this verse, we realize Paul meant, “In Christ, you also received the sign of circumcision from Him that shows your dedication to Him, your eradicating the fleshly desires with His power and strength, and His removal of your sins. God, not man, does this circumcision. Instead of the foreskin being removed, God removes the from the body the human nature that alienates each person from Him.” Each Gentile experienced alienation from God in two ways, by non-Jewish birth (covenant) and by fleshly sins (law). Yet, Christ, by His death and resurrection, made a relationship with God possible for each person who lives. Because Gentile Christians had not received circumcision by human hands, that did not mean they needed it when they became Christians. Paul said their God circumcised their hearts when they trusted in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God.

Jesus, with His death and resurrection, broke down the two walls between God and Gentiles, the walls of ancestry and sin. His death and resurrection provides the circumcision each believer needs to be in a covenant relationship with God. God gave the Mosaic law to lead people to Him. The Messianic covenant provides access to and relationship with God through salvation and reconciliation. The Mosaic law did not reconcile people to God. Sacrifices required in it did not remove a person’s sins and empower them to avoid sin. It reminded them of their sinfulness, but they still felt guilt for those sins.

With verse eleven, Paul taught against the false teachers who reasoned that the body and all material things were evil and all things spiritual were good. To them, circumcision and uncircumcision did not matter in the long run since it occurred to the body. To say Jesus gave a spiritual circumcision was laughable to them since Jesus lived in bodily form and, in their minds, was not God.

Spiritual Circumcision is Baptism

“… having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12 [NASB])

With verse twelve, Paul used a death-resurrection metaphor to explain how a believer’s spiritual circumcision is their baptism in Christ. The two actions of dying/being buried and then rising to new life relate to immersion baptism and circumcision. Immersion baptism, going down into water and then rising above it, is dying to self and rising to Christ.

When a person trusts in Jesus Christ for salvation, that person dies to him or herself, to fleshly, human desires, and rises to newness of life given through Him. This reflects Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection to life. Baptism symbolizes this death and new life. The spiritual circumcision Christ gives is His removing the sins of each person, those who die to his or her right to him or herself, from the sin-hardened heart. That reflects the dying to self and gaining new life in Christ when He removes the hard part. The removal of sins from each believer allows a right relationship with God. Jesus reconciles that believer to God.

Each person knows he or she sins. He or she carries the guilt of it. When the person faces his or her sinfulness, the guilt weighs on him or her. A person’s recognition of his or her sin and feeling the weight of that burden separating him or her from God is the way a person shares in Christ’s suffering on the cross. Jesus carried the weight of each person’s sins. The believer bore the weight of his or her sins. Jesus’ death took the weight of sin away and the person’s repentance, getting right with God, took the weight off him or herself. (Galatians 2:20 speaks of Paul’s understanding of being crucified with Christ and living his life with Christ living in him.) This reflects the initial part of baptism and circumcision, carrying of the weight of sins, realizing one’s separation from God.

Paul taught repentance and dying to self is a person’s burial together with Christ. The next part of immersion baptism, going down into the water, reflects repentance and giving up one’s right to his or her life to God for His purposes. Spiritual circumcision of the heart conveys the same thing. Only Jesus can do both actions-spiritual baptism and spiritual circumcision. He will not demand them, but only does this upon a person giving his or her life to Him.

Jesus’ resurrection expresses another part of baptism and circumcision, the arising. With baptism, a person must rise from the water after being immersed in it. This rising up is rising to new life in Christ. Just as Jesus came back to life after bodily death, a believer comes to life after being dead because of sins. The spiritual circumcision Christ gives to each believer is the removing of the hardened skin from his or her heart that occurred because of sin and gave a hardened heart. With spiritual circumcision, the heart can beat with God’s heart and will.

Both spiritual baptism and spiritual circumcision express the new life Christ gives by His victory over sin and death. Jesus victoriously reigns and gives each believer this victory upon repentance and death to his or her old way of living. The Christian lives a new life in God’s will with His wisdom, knowledge, power, and strength through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Spiritual circumcision and spiritual baptism are synonymous. They express death to the old way of living and resurrection to new life in Christ. This Christian life continues throughout the person’s lifetime. It begins at the moment in time when a person trusts in Jesus as Savior and repents of his or her sins. It carries on throughout the person’s life as he or she lives growing to know God more and become made more in the image of Christ each day. Christ will perfect the person upon entrance into His kingdom upon the Christian’s death. Until then, each Christian has the fullness of Jesus available to live each day walking with Him and growing to be more like Him. Paul made sure Gentiles knew Christ died for them, too, by his declaring the mystery of God, salvation for all people through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

Paul taught that the false teachers of that time did not understand bodies could return to life. They considered bodies evil. These false teachers thought each person’s goal was to rise to a state of spirituality. Bodies were unable to be spiritual. Since this was impossible, in their reasoning, Jesus could not save people from death or sins. Paul taught otherwise when He said God raised Jesus from the dead and His death and resurrection allows His followers to have resurrection life.

Covenant Relationship comes by Jesus

“When you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him (Christ)…” (Colossians 2:13a [NASB])

Once again, Paul returned to what had been the Colossian and Laodicean Christians’ obstacles to having a relationship with God. They were not Hebrews, and they were sinners. Paul said, because they had these two barriers between themselves and God, they were dead. This “dead” Paul used means spiritually dead and not devoted to God, but to sinning. From verses eleven and twelve, we understand the Colossians and Laodiceans were not Jews before becoming followers of Jesus. They were uncircumcised Gentiles. Because of that, they were not in a covenant relationship with God. These Christians were dead because of their sins and uncircumcision before they believed in Jesus Christ. They had been hostile to God because they and separated themselves from His divine influence. Yet, God had a plan. He made them and each person who believed in Jesus alive through Christ.

Nothing the Gentiles were able to do would earn them a reprieve from their just punishment. Nothing could make them Jews. They had a double strike against them. It seemed to obstruct any possible relationship with God. Those human issues did not stop God. He loves each person. God had a plan to reestablish a relationship with each person since before He created the world.

With this verse, Paul aimed at the false teachers in Colossae and Laodicea. As stated earlier, they did not believe in bodily resurrection. These teachers also did not believe God intervened in the lives of people. He was too distant from humanity. For them, God was always transcendent, never imminent. Yet, Paul taught God wants a relationship with each person, about which the Gnostics scoffed. The Christians in these two cities received this reminder from Paul so they would stand strong in their faith.

Assured Forgiveness comes through Christ

“… having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13b-14 [NASB])

In this verse, Paul wrote of two things Christ gives superabundantly to His believers. Christ gives assurance of forgiveness and He gives freedom from the law. Jesus forgives a believer of his or her sins. He cancels the debt certificate of sin. Jesus Christ erases the judgment against the Christian the law requires.

The separation from God for the Christians in Colossae and Laodicea had occurred because of sins and ancestry, Paul said. God’s plan made a way for that to change because He loves each person. Did this plan involve people doing certain things to receive forgiveness? Did sacrifices make a person clean from sin forever and remove the guilt from those sins? Can a person do enough good things to erase the rebellious actions he or she has done? Nothing any person can do will ever be enough to erase his or her sins and remove the guilt to provide a sinlessness that will allow him or her to be in the presence of holy God.

Paul explained how God made Christians alive with Christ. For each person who trusts in Him, He raises them to new life without sin. God forgives the transgressions of each person who believes in Jesus Christ. This forgiveness Paul spoke of comes from the Greek word charizomai and means to favor, pardon, and show grace. Because God wanted renewed relationship with each person and holy God will not be where sin is, just as light cannot be where darkness is, He freely showed His favor to people by granting forgiveness upon their belief and repentance of sins. God knew nothing a person can do can erase the judgment for sins, so He showed His favor towards people. Paul explained this to the churches in Colossae and Laodicea. God favored them and showed them grace.

Jesus’ love enacted through His sinless life, excruciating death on the cross, and resurrection provides total forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. Paul said, though ancestry and sins alienated the Colossian and Laodicean Christians from Him, God’s love made a way for them to have a saving and righteous relationship with Him. Their deadness due to sins and ancestry kept these people from life. Yet, their death to sin by faith in Christ made them alive.

This forgiveness of sins by Jesus’ death and resurrection “canceled out the certificate of debt comprising decrees against” them, Paul said. Just as when a person promises to pay a financial debt and signs it, so a moral debt causes a decree of judgment against a person unless repaid. Yet, a person cannot repay moral debt because no sinless person exists to pay the sinner’s debt.  Nothing any person can do, say, or think is good enough for repayment because it would come from a sinful person. Paul explained this in Romans 3:23 when he said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [NASB]. Anything a person offers to repay the sin debt is tainted by sin. For these debts, decrees (laws) declare the guilt of people, just as the Mosaic law did. These decrees are against every person. They declare his or her sinfulness. No person can be sinless in his or her own strength. But God, in His love, forgives each person and cancels (erases, obliterates) the certificate of debt against each person who trusts in Jesus Christ. Though God meant for the Mosaic laws to lead people to Him, they reminded each person of his or her sins. People carry the guilt since they are unable to be sinless in their own strength.

Jesus Christ did not just erase the debt of sin; He nailed it to the cross. Christ caused their sins and guilt to die. He carried the sins of all people to the cross. Jesus bore the burden of those sins in Himself. He canceled the sin debt for each person who would believe in Him by dying to him or herself. A believer’s dying to him or herself is dying with Christ in His sufferings. That person puts off the old fleshly ways of living and rises with newness in Christ. He or she rises with His power to defeat temptations and His cleansing to be in relationship with God.

For the Christians Paul wrote to in this letter, he taught them they can know they have forgiveness of sins and a relationship with God because Jesus the Christ walked on earth, died, and rose from the dead.  His death canceled their sin debt. The decrees that held them in debt, bondage to this life, no longer had a hold on them. Jesus victoriously rose from the grave and broke those bonds. He paid the judgment penalty for each person’s sins, so sin and death no longer would have hold on them.

Paul wanted the Christians in Colossae and Laodicea to know the empty and deceitful philosophizing by men held no weight. This philosophizing was wrong because Jesus was a man and is fully God. His body did not stay in the grave, but defeated death, sin, and earthly decrees so that each person who trusts in Him would have a relationship with God. The Gnostics thought of God only as transcendent. They taught people are unable to ascend to the level of God and have a relationship with Him. Paul taught God always wanted a relationship with people. Ancestry and sin do not thwart His plans and desires. Jesus Christ gave the Colossian and Laodicean Christians, and all who believe in Him, access to God, as Romans 5:2 and Ephesians 2:18 say. The Gnostics taught sins occur because all material things are evil, including the body. Instead, a person can try to rise to the spiritual plane, they reasoned. These Gnostics taught that God did not interact with people. Paul taught that God loves people very much and wants to have a relationship with them. God made this possible through His Son, Jesus the Christ.

Freedom from Demonic Powers comes from Christ

“When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” (Colossians 2:15 [NASB])

In this verse, Paul wrote of another thing Christ gives superabundantly from His fullness to His followers. Jesus Christ gives His victory over demonic powers to Christians. In the first part of verse fifteen, Paul said Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities.” With His death and resurrection, Jesus proclaimed His victory over demonic powers. This means He defeated demonic rulers and authorities and completely stripped them from people He claims for Himself. Jesus emphatically denounced these rulers and authorities before God and other beings. Christ claims the lives of each person who trusts in Him. He makes His power available to them so they can have victory over these rulers and authorities. His victory came in other ways, too. As part of the Godhead, Jesus created all things. As Creator and Redeemer, He is the most powerful of all beings. These demonic powers (rulers and authorities) have no ultimate power over each person who believes in Jesus Christ. Jesus gives the ability to defeat demonic powers from His fullness to His people so they can stand against rulers and authorities. God’s fullness for us is more than visible, tangible things like food and wealth. It includes spiritual power, surety, and victory.

Paul continued in this verse by saying Jesus made a “public display” of these rulers and authorities. He paraded them, as an example, in front of witnesses. Consider the young man who had many demons living in him. Jesus cast the legion out of him into a herd of swine (Mark 5:1-17). Jesus has and makes available to believers the ability to resist demonic powers. Through Him, Christians can have victory over them. Jesus took it a step further and said his public display of these demonic powers included a triumphal procession, a parade, celebrating God’s victory over them through His death. He conquered them as their supreme head and Creator and as the Redeemer of humanity.

The Colossians and Laodiceans had Christ’s victorious power available to them to defeat the demonically influenced teachers. Jesus gave it to them from His superabundance, from His fullness. Jesus will make Christians perfect when they get to heaven. They will have fullness on earth now because Jesus already has the victory over all beings, including evil powers. The Gnostics taught a spiritual lesson contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These false teachers allowed Satan to confuse and convince them of the rightness of this philosophy. They did not exercise the faith God gives each person to believe in Jesus. Instead, they took the rational way because of Satan’s deception. These false teachers philosophized and taught this deception, hoping to lead people away from Jesus and gain followers for themselves. The Christians in Colossae and Laodicea could have Christ’s strength and victory over these false teachers. They could proclaim triumphantly with Christ of their freedom from sin, the law, and demonic powers.

Thoughts to Consider

            Paul warned the Colossae and Laodicean Christians in verse eight about the trickery of the false teachers’ lessons concerning spirituality. Do not fall prey to secular wisdom, he told them. With verses nine and ten, Paul reminded these Christians, with a more focused lens, about Jesus having all the fullness of the deity. Because of that, Jesus makes perfect each person who believes in Him. He gives from His fullness, just like He gives His wisdom, knowledge, strength, etc. Jesus Christ gives from His fullness to make each person full (perfect/complete) and keep them growing toward perfection. The perfection the Gnostics taught was not true perfection. Only Jesus can make a person complete because He reigns over all rule and authority and is the Creator of everything that is. Because of who Jesus is, Christians can know with absolute certainty that all the fullness of Christ is available through the Holy Spirit to them. This means circumcision by human hands does not give salvation. God makes spiritual circumcision available for all people for those who believe in Jesus Christ, repent, and die to themselves. All other teachings and proclamations come from human reasoning and do not provide salvation or a relationship with God. Believers in Jesus Christ can know they are part of the new covenant with God. Because of this covenant with God, Christians realize they have forgiveness of sins and freedom from the law. Jesus canceled the sin debt certificate and judgment against each person who believes. He is supreme head, Creator, and Redeemer, He disarmed the rulers and authorities, the demonic powers. Each person who trusts in Jesus has this same power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit dwelling in him or her to combat these beings who teach and go against God’s truths. Christ’s fullness is available to each believer through the Holy Spirit to teach what each needs to know and to remind of all Jesus said.

Questions:

• Is there a teaching you have heard that keeps you from believing in Jesus?
• If not a teaching, what keeps you from trusting Jesus Christ as the Savior who died for your sins and offers you eternal life in a right relationship with God?
• As a believer, do you feel you are fighting a losing battle? Remember, you have the fullness of Jesus Christ, the Conqueror of rulers and authorities, available for you to stand strong against those demonic beings.
• If you are a Christian, what keeps you from telling other people about Jesus, the One who died so all humankind can receive cleansing from sin, cancellation of sin’s debt, and relationship with God?

For next week, re-read all of Colossians 2 and pay close attention to verses 16-19.

“Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize…” (Colossians 2:18a [NASB])