More Word to the World

Summary of the Jerusalem Conference

The conference agreed on the points suggested by James so a letter was prepared and was sent out to the Gentile churches by Paul, Barnabas, Barnabas, and Silas. The letter is recorded in Acts 15:23-29. It was taken back to Antioch and read there:

Acts 15:31 Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation [encouragement].

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians which he wrote after the conference, he summarized the law the new churches should keep:

Galatians 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The way to love your neighbor as yourself means that we avoid adultery, fornication (basically sexual sins of all types), witchcraft, strife, murder, drunkenness, etc. (Gal 5:19-21) As you can see, the church did not do away with the Old Testament, and it is important that we clearly understand the message of the Jerusalem conference. Some have used this passage to indicate that it is no longer necessary for the New Testament church to observe teachings of the Old Testament that address issues of holy conduct or modesty. However, only that which pertained to the ritual worship forms and ceremonies was done away with as it was nailed to the cross. How could a holy God do away with holiness and separation from the world?

One of the main speakers at the Jerusalem conference had this to say about holiness:

1 Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

That word “conversation” means behavior. Peter also said that the women in the church should use the women of the Old Testament as an example in dress:

1 Peter 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

Our conduct and modesty of dress, and even our hair according to 1 Corinthians 11, reflect our proper subjection to the authority of the Lord over our lives.

Discipleship

Our lifestyle of worship affects the way we discipline our lives. Some people are shallow Christians where they become Saint Sally on Sunday morning but Fornicating Frieda on Friday night. Discipleship is a form of the word discipline and refers to self-control or temperance. Rather than looking for instant gratification in everything we lust after, we learn to lean on the Lord’s help in controlling spiritually damaging desires.

You are more than an animal whose actions are driven by natural impulses or instincts, you are a special creation of God with a unique purpose:

1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

God created us as a dwelling place for Him, or as human vessels in which God is transported into every human experience. Because He dwells in us and we are not the sole tenants in this body, we do not really have own the right of control. That belongs to God:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Our lifestyle of worship leads us to desire to please the God who has bought us with His own blood and desires that we carry Him around with us in holiness.

Psalms 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Whenever we discuss the love and grace of God, we cannot forget that God is holy and demands holiness as a condition of seeing Him. How can we balance grace against holiness? Let us use for an illustration the different ways that a father and a mother treat their children.

While it is not always true, typically a father is stricter than a mother, and provides approval that is based on their children’s obedience. And typically a mother is less strict and she tends to be more unconditional in accepting their child no matter what, regardless of behavior. The Old Testament was like the father providing a strict standard and the New came along and provided the offer of grace and acceptance. And like both a father and a mother are needed for balance in a home, we likewise need a good balance between holiness and grace.

Jesus went out of His way to embrace the unloved and unworthy, the folks who did not matter to the rest of society. Jesus proved that nobodies matter to God. Hurting people often ask, “Does God care?” We can see God’s answer to that question in the life of Jesus Christ.

There is no question that He does care. Jesus understands hurt for when He was facing the largest hurt of His life, He Himself prayed:

Matt 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

And He also asked the “why” question:

Matt 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Jesus endured because He knew that His sacrifice would be the extension of love that all hurting people needed. Jesus’ love for nobodies provides us a glimpse into God’s heart. Grace always finds a place for rejects.

In our pursuit of living for God, we are to be driven by the Spirit that lives within us. It is called “walking in the Spirit.” We are to be continually filled with the Spirit. In the following verse, the phrase “be filled” has a meaning that translates from the Greek more correctly as, “be being filled” or continually filled. It is like consuming food and water. We have to continue being filled in order to survive. The same is true of the Spirit. We must continually fill up with the Spirit.

Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

But here in this verse, we see that what stands at opposition to being Spirit filled is being drunk with wine. Why? Because the alcohol has a controlling influence and leads the drinker by its own power. Paul described some of that here:

1 Tim 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

So to qualify as a Spirit-driven candidate for leadership in the kingdom, we must stay away from that misguided influence and control:

Titus 1:7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

The destructive results of alcohol consumption are seen over and over again all around us. Solomon observed this truth:

Prov 23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Some people say they do not have enough money to pay their rent or to provide proper food or clothing for their family, but they have enough to purchase alcohol, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. Why? Because they have become led by another power other than God. Let the Spirit be the controlling influence not some chemical substitute. That is the pursuit of someone who wants to live for God.

We conclude this topic today on “How can I live for God?” and tomorrow will begin a very difficult subject: holiness in our talk.

Peter reminded us that as servants of Christ, we are a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). There are some ways of our priesthood that we can learn from priestly instructions in the Old Testament. For instance, the priests had a prohibition against drinking:

Lev 10:8-9
8 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying,
9 Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:

Years after Aaron, Isaiah rose up to repeat that prohibition and explain why it is important. Their vision and judgment are impaired:

Isa 28:7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

In the days of Jeremiah, he also mentioned the prohibition and noted a family that was very committed to it:

Jer 35:5-6
5 And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:

Tomorrow we will look at companion verses in the New Testament.

Should someone who has a desire to please God be a consumer of alcoholic beverages?

Some will do drink alcoholic beverages will point to some passages of where Noah, Jesus, or Timothy drank wine and infer that drinking is acceptable for us. Especially considering that Jesus turned water into wine on the occasion of a wedding.

But then on the side of abstinence, there are many passages that speak of the evils of alcohol and even forbid its use. What is the proper interpretation and application of the subject for someone who is simply hungry to live in obedience to God? The best interpretation of these passages will lead one to abstinence.

First it is important to remember that the same words that are translated “wine” in the Old and New Testaments can refer to either unfermented or fermented fruit drinks. The distinguishing factor is where some references are to “new wine” (unfermented) or to a passage that refers to drinking that leads to drunkenness (fermented).

Let us look at some principles on the subject that help us decide. Consider he plight of this poor soul who took the first drink and was led down the path to drunkenness.

Prov 23:31-35
31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast .
35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

Another question a maturing Christian will honestly consider is, “Should I drink liquor or other alcoholic beverages? Depending on your background, this may or not be important. But for those of us who have had to deal with the strong influence/control of the stuff, it can be a defining question. What about it? Is drinking alcohol ok? The best answer is no. Let’s examine why.

We are King’s kids—that makes us princes and princesses!

Prov 31:4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:

Strong drink has power over the drinker and also indirectly influences the lives of many others. As “princes”, we remember that we are King’s kids and must live responsibly under control over our actions. Our actions DO influence others.

More next time…

We must also remember that we are the temple of the Holy Ghost as we make decisions about how to live for God. God dwells in this body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Here is a good example of how to apply this scripture. Since my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, should I be puffing a cigarette and pouring poisons into my Holy Ghost temple? Consider what is in cigarette tobacco: Cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals including tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, radioactive compounds, irritant substances (for example, hydrogen cyanide, acetone, ammonia, arsenic, phenol, naphthalene). The main ones that cause problems are tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. Tar is the main cause of lung, mouth and throat cancer in smokers and aggravates bronchial and respiratory diseases.

Nicotine is a highly addictive drug that first stimulates the brain and then depresses it and is also a poison, it has a dramatic effect on the circulatory system, increasing the heart rate and constricting small blood vessels. Carbon monoxide is an odourless, colourless and very poisonous gas that is taken up faster by blood in the lungs than oxygen. This causes the blood to have less oxygen to supply the cells of the body.

Cigarette smoke causes the smoker to smell bad and causes other people to suffer around them. In perspective, that does not make for a proper way to treat a holy temple. It is disrespectful to its sacredness. That is why many churches have a healthy tradition of teaching against smoking. It is a hallowed respect for the temple, our body.

Application of the offense principle

There are plenty of things that we may stay away from because we don’t want to sin against our brother. Some things are just a bad idea for kingdom-minded Christians:

1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient [useful, helpful, beneficial]: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Worldly events and entertainment venues where one is brought “under the power” of the mob is not beneficial to our spiritual walk. While some venues of entertainment/recreation that may not necessarily be a sin in and of themselves, and may even be good for our health, yet they may also have another side that is evil. Is that recreation or form of entertainment engrossed by gambling, immodesty, lust, drunkenness, idol worship, and violence? These are things which a maturing Christian will want to stay away from.

Back to 1 Cor 6:12, drinking alcohol and taking mood altering drugs fits under the last part of this verse because they bring users under their power. When making choices of entertainment or recreation, consider if participation in that thing is a hindrance to your faith or can cause someone to stumble or lose out on their faith or damage their testimony:

1 Cor 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

When should traditions of the church affect our living for God?

I would like to introduce what may be called the offense principle. In 1 Corinthians chapters 6 and 8, Paul describes another principle that affects our standards of conduct (holiness standards)—concern for others. Even if there is not a precise verse that says “thou shalt not do this”, there is a principle that says, “thou shalt not make thy brother to offend or stumble.”

In his day, many if not most Christians had been converted from Judaism, including Paul himself and all the other apostles. And, sticking to their Jewish roots, they would avoid meat markets that were owned by idolaters. The meat in those markets, for example, the beef, had been killed and dedicated by the butcher as a sacrifice to a pagan deity. Then after the ceremonial offering to the deity, the butcher would sell that meat in their street market. Eating meat from such a market was an offence to the faith of many of the Jewish/Christian believers.

With this in mind, while with such a person, Paul would not eat that meat:

1 Cor 8:13 Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

Paul said to do so was sinning against your brother, and by sinning against your brother, you sin against Christ—that is serious. This is where the religious traditions of your companions/associates come into play in decisions you make.

1 Cor 8:12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

So another underlying principle of holiness is to not only watch what you do, but also watch for the appearance of what you are doing because of the association with evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.