As soldiers of Christ, we must discipline our minds, actions, and attitudes, learning to reshape all behaviours from what they are accustomed to in this world. I Peter 1:13-21:
Therefore, get your minds ready for action, being self-disciplined, and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance but, as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, "Be holy, because I am holy." And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one's work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during this time of temporary residence. For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things, like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Dress your heart in purity and be ready to be steadfast when the Devil tempts you. Discipline your mind, actions, and attitude to never give in to his deceitful wiles. His temptations are what are referred to as "the works of the flesh." Galatians 5:19-21 is our focus passage for this blog entry that will be separated into three parts, and it reads: Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar, about which I tell you in advance — as I told you before — that those who practise such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. I will not be covering all the items listed in this passage, but only the ones that I feel the Holy Spirit has led me to discuss. In this first section, I will be covering some works of the flesh in the human mind.
Hatred
For one thing, hatred is strictly forbidden. Colossians 3:8, But now you must also put away all the following: anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. These are all the ways in which we express our hatred towards one another, be it personal dilemmas between the two or just general hatred within one's heart. Through our anger, we show our wrath by ways of malice, wishing evil to be done upon people. We say wishful desires such as, "I hope he gets hit by a car tomorrow." Even if you don't really wish the person to actually die, the intent is still the same, and the level at which you mean it doesn't matter to God because you still spoke it, so at the time of speaking it you meant it. Through slander we gossip about the individual, conceiving rumours of which are false for the goal to annihilate the individual's reputation and be perceived as socially inadequate and therefore must be avoided at all times. And through the wrath of our anger, we utilise profanity towards one another, otherwise known as "cussing someone out." These vulgar words behold a bitter anger and hatred in which our lack of wisdom impels us to speak what our minds think, of which ultimately lies within our heart.
One must consider the severity of hatred. First John 3:15, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. In God's eyes, if you have hatred in your heart towards someone it is equal to murder, and even more so when you wish someone to be dead even if you don't really mean it. Turning back to I John 2:11, But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn't know where he's going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Hatred is so dark that it blinds one's conscience and consciousness of what they're doing, and they know not where they are going, even on the path of life, for their primary focus is on their ignominy. They walk the dark path, although unaware. You cannot say you love God if you walk in hatred. First John 4:20, If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. Beware of such hypocrisy; its darkness can easily subdue your light. Walk in this way, and God sees you as a fool. Proverbs 10:18, The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool. For if one holds hatred in his heart, they often hide and feed peoples' gullible ears with their cunning lies, conceiving all types of slander, for they are blinded by their foolishness.
As a Christian, you must expect to be a victim of hatred. However, the hatred is not expressed directly towards you, per se. John 7:7, "The world cannot hate you, but it does hate Me because I testify about it — that its deeds are evil." Because of your faith in Christ, those who hate you because of it don't directly hate you but Christ because it is He who testifies of their evil, which they do not believe, or at least refuse to admit. And people don't like it when you someone points out their flaws. We Christians just simply reiterate His testimony; what they're hearing from us is nothing new, therefore they cannot and do not directly hate us for it. However, we were to be hated inevitably. Matthew 10:22, "And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." As stated, those who endure through the hatred and persecution shall be saved. Saved from what? Eternal death and condemnation in Hell, which we justly deserve but will not receive, as believers, because of the grace of Jesus Christ's sacrifice.
Jesus speaks a profound statement in John 15:18-19, "If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you." Jesus was hated before we were because He was crucified — a sovereign martyr. And now we are despised, for now we are martyrs in certain nations and countries starting first with the apostles and other disciples, and many others state their hatred towards us. I have had many atheists, as an example, state their hatred towards me simply because of my faith in Jesus Christ. Because I believe something they don't, they expressed such outrageous hatred towards me. I will not share any specific comments because they're all profane and inappropriate. As Jesus explains, they hate us because we are not conformed to the world — to their general customs and social statuses. We maintain our own customs and social statuses, which is a paradigm in their eyes and so they come to hate us. With any paradigm in our lives, we grow to hate it, an example being a culture that we Americans are not used to, such as an Asian culture.
None of this is an excuse to return hate for hate, however. Matthew 5:44, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you..." When I read this for the first time, I thought, "Lord, you're asking too much of me. They deserve to be hated." It's not as difficult as it seems. Pray for certain individuals in your life whom you have bitterness towards. It takes a certain amount of care and love to pray for them to begin with. As you pray for them more and more, you will find that you'll start loving and forgiving your enemies and soon enough, you just might be able to witness to them and finally have them accept Jesus. Lastly, they may very well deserve to be hated, but that doesn't mean anything. Consider us as Christians. We're all sinners, and we'll always be sinners. The fact is we deserve God's just wrath and to burn in Hell for all eternity, but God won't allow that to happen. Although we don't deserve it whatsoever, God "gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16) out of His complete unconditional love. This is absolutely amazing! As Christians, we always quote John 3:16 as if it's just a cliché but forget the depths of it while using our self-pity to hate someone and be bitter towards people. This is absolute hypocrisy, and as Christians we have absolutely no reason to be hateful at any given time.
Selfish Ambitions
" 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work...' " (John 4:34). This is to be our attitude towards our service for God. As His servants, we must always be hungry for His Word, consuming His Word as often as we can in large quantities. We must have a selfless service to others to do God's work. Romans 15:1, 3: Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves... For even the Messiah did not please Himself. On the contrary, as it is written, "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on Me." We have an obligation to give people the tools to become strong in Christ, and the pleasure goes to God. For us, it is the satisfaction of doing God's will. We are to do this because we are to be an image of Christ, for He did not please Himself but rather our Father in Heaven. If you do just the opposite, how do you think God will see you? Isaiah 56:11, Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
Second Corinthians 5:15, ...And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. This is Jesus' selfless service to us. And so we are officially expected to serve Him and others selflessly so that they may be saved. (Paul had this attitude. First Corinthians 10:33, …Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.) First John 3:17, But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? If you represent this, it is very doubtful whether you're a Christian at all. You cannot be a soldier of Christ if you fail to give compassion to any one person, whether you know them personally or not, for you cannot have God's love within you if you deny His love for others. First Corinthians 10:24, No one should seek his own good, but the good of the other person. You must seek to improve other peoples' lives, not dishearten them. Philippians 2:4 says this another way: Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Envy
First of all, you must be careful not to envy those who live the wicked path. Those of us who see ourselves as a good person, living a good life, and notice "bad people" who live prosperously, we tend to grow jealous of their wealth or successes in life. We all have the tendency to do this. Proverbs 3:31, Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. And meditate on Ecclesiastes 4:4, Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. A friend of mine has me to thank for in his skill on the saxophone. Ever since childhood, he has always gotten what he's wanted. As soon as he saw me playing my saxophone handed down to me from my father, he aspired to get one himself and to learn how to play as well. Ever since then, he's grown to become a great saxophonist, even after being terrible for a long time. Through his envy, he got what he wanted, became very successful at it, but through his envy created a hostile competition between us. (The author of Ecclesiastes writes through the book that all things of the world are futile. Only what we give to God is worthwhile, for everything we give Him has an eternal significance. Everything we do on earth, or "under the sun," as the author writes, is at best only of fleeting value — set against eternity, they have no real value.) We must get rid of all envy in order to grow in the Lord. First Peter 2:1-2, Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby...
To Be Continued...
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