“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and godly, in this present world. 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
This is one of Paul’s greatest statements about the work of the grace of God. Let’s dig into it and see what it teaches us. First, we see how it started: The grace of God appeared in the person of Jesus Christ. In John 3:16 it is stated: “For God loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Paul wrote about it in Romans 5:8: “For God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” All of the Old Testament prophets attest to the appearance of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Second, we see what it brought to humanity: It made salvation possible for all people. Paul shared with us how this happens: “For by grace through faith are you saved through faith.” (Ephesians 2:8) We know that not all people will take the grace invitation. Jesus said that the road that leads to destruction is wide and the road to leads to everlasting life is narrow. (Matthew 7:14) This is why we send missionaries around the world, even into dark and dangerous places. We want to make the invitation available to all people. Third, we see the result of salvation by grace: “Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Never mistake that grace does not make any demands on our personal morality. Grace does not nullify the demands of the gospel on the lives of those it touches. We chafe at the word “godly” today, but that does not make it unimportant. We might mistake “godliness” for “self-righteousness.” A sign of true godliness in humility. The righteousness that we live before the world, is imputed to us from the Spirit of God in our lives. Fourth, we see the goal of the life of grace: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” The life built on grace is always looking forward to Jesus Christ. We do not put our hope in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ alone. We get glimpses of His glorious appearance now, but when He really comes --- whoa! As the gospel hymn states: “What a day, glorious day that will be….” Bro. Joe
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“He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.”
Our text is a reminder that we need to practice self-discipline in order to live effective Christian lives. We need to make sure that our “spirits” under the control of the Holy Spirit and walk in His guidance. The reference to a “city that is broken down and without walls” meant the undisciplined person is without the defenses needed to live victoriously. This made me think of some walls that we need to build around our lives if we are to live in the Spirit. I thought of the “wall of faith.” Hebrews 11:6 reminds that “without faith it is impossible to please (God).” 1 John 5:4-5 reminds us of the importance of faith in our lives: “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 5. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” In Ephesians 6:16, we are counseled: “Above all taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of wickedness." I thought of the “wall of prayer.” Frankly, I have experienced a lack of self-restraint when I have not surrounded myself with prayer. Our faith needs to be fed with prayer. .We cannot live disciplined lives if we do not stay in constant contact with God. Prayer is not just a means of getting things from God, it is more like the oxygen that we breathe. “Take it to the Lord in prayer” is not just good advice; rather it is necessary if we are to live effective Christian lives. Build a wall of prayer around your life. I thought of the “wall of Christian fellowship.” The writer of Hebrews reminded us not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves, as the manner of some is; but exhorting (encouraging) one another…” I also call this the “wall of accountability.” We need each other. We learn from each other. We worship with each other. We set examples for each other. The fellowship that I have had with Christian brothers and sisters has been a constant source of encouragement. Sometimes what I thought was a critical spirit, was really a word of wisdom. (Of course sometimes it was just a critical spirit.) We need to build a “wall of fellowship” around our lives. If we want to “rule our own spirits,” we need to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit as He leads us in faith, in prayer and in Christian fellowship. Bro. Joe "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Paul’s point in this text was that we depend on the Holy Spirit to enable us to live the Christian life as defined by the “fruit of the Spirit,” not by keeping the Mosaic Law. We are not saved by legalism but by faith in Christ, who indwells us with the Holy Spirit, who guides us in living the Christian life. This takes the focus off of ourselves, and puts it on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us into love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness and temperance.” We are given an interpretation of the statement, “against such there is no law” in 1 Timothy 1:8-9: “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully. 9. Knowing that the law is not for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners….etc.” The Mosaic Law tells us what is wrong, but the Holy Spirit leads us away from what is wrong. Living the Christian life is not a “do it yourself” project. We do not keep the law, instead we live it in our daily conduct as we follow the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He leads us to love and honor God, and to love and treat people right. Look up the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1ff and notice that if we love and honor God, we will heed the first four commandments, and if we love people we will heed the last six commandments. Both Jesus and Paul said that love fulfills the law: Matthew 22:37-40 and Romans 13:10. You will note that love is the first thing mentioned in the “fruit of the Spirit.” Following the “fruit of the Spirit,” makes better people of us. It does not make us self-righteous and judgmental, but it does give us a sense of right and wrong, and defines what is right and wrong. Following the “fruit of the Spirit” will keep us from being offensive in our conduct, because this fruit will lead us to have loving attitudes towards our fellow man/woman. We will be careful about what we say to people and about how we treat people. I hope that all of this explains what “against such there is no law” means. Bro. Joe “Temperance” is also translated as “self-control.” Self-control covers every area of our lives. In this age of affluence in America, self-control is a real struggle, even, or especially for Christians. After all, there is so much to buy and to consume. However the Holy Spirit in our lives reminds us that we need to be temperate in all of life. We will consider three facets of temperance in this article: Discipline, mastery and servanthood.
Discipline Without discipline we will not control ourselves. Paul realized the value of discipline when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:27: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” Obviously, the Holy Spirit convicted Paul of this need to stay in control. When we lack discipline in any area of our lives we stand the chance of rendering ourselves useless as witnesses for Christ. Discipline might seem like a negative thing in our free-wheeling society, but it is positive when we realize its value in our lives. With it we control our habits, tongues, bodies, time, etc. Mastery The Holy Spirit enables us to master ourselves as we serve the Master. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things…” This is a reference to foot racing. It is impossible to excel in foot racing without mastering oneself. It is also impossible to excel in Christian living without mastering ourselves under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We need to constantly look at our lives and see if there are areas that are mastering us instead of our mastering them. Servanthood Until the Holy Spirit controls our lives, and until we practice self-control under His leadership, we will not be the servants of Jesus that we could be. David was sidetracked by a moment of intemperance when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. Moses was sidetracked by a moment of intemperance when he killed the Egyptian who was mistreating one of the Israelites. Peter was sidetracked by a moment of intemperance when he denied knowing Jesus. All of us could probably recount times when we gave in to intemperance. Thank God that Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to help us master ourselves while we serve Him. The world needs to see the servants of Christ living up to that great name. It takes real discipline and real mastery over self to be effective servants of Jesus. All great servants of God have been temperate people. Like us, they probably had moments of intemperance, but the balance of their lives was heavily weighted toward self-control. The reason for this is that they were led by the Spirit of God instead of by the world. “Go thou and do likewise…” Bro. Joe Meekness is also translated as “gentleness.” However, we translate the word, “proates” in the Greek, it does not mean weak. In our day “meekness” could we be spelled “weakness,” but that is definitely not the meaning of meekness as translated from the Greek. The word has three main meanings in the New Testament. (This was derived from The Daily Study Bible.)
It means submission to the will of God. The “meek” that are mentioned in Matthew 5:5 are an example of what this means. “Blessed are the meek” means “blessed are those who are submitted to the will of God.” Matthew 5:5 tells us that the meek “will inherit the earth.” People who will inherit the earth are not wilting flowers who are afraid of their shadows; rather, they are people of faith who have submitted to God’s will for their lives. This means that they are under God’s control, not the control of the world. They are like horses that have been broken. They still have their innate strength, but that strength is channeled in a more creative way. Their strength is now at the command of God instead of self or Satan. It means that one is teachable. A meek person is one who is not too proud to learn. A meek person would certainly not be a know-it-all, who never has anything to learn. The meek person is quick to see the error of his or her way, and turn from it. The meek person is willing to learn, even if he or she has to change his or her mind based on what he or she has learned. Only God is omniscient – all-knowing, and the meek person accepts this truth. It means that one is considerate. According to scholars, this is the way meek is used most often. In 1Corinthians 4:21, Paul used the word in this way: “What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip or in love with a gentle (meek) spirit?” The meaning: Shall I “clean your plow,” or shall I be considerate. Jesus is the best example of meekness as considerateness. This meekness is beautifully illustrated in Jesus’ consideration for His mother, Mary, at the cross. He gave her over to the care of the beloved apostle John. If we follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our fellowship, we will be considerate of each other. The Holy Spirit teaches us, and leads us, to be submissive to God’s will, teachable and considerate to each other. The truly meek person will have each of these qualities simultaneously. We need all three of these qualities if we are to be the best witnesses for Jesus Christ that we can be. This is certainly the aim of the Holy Spirit who is at work in our lives. Bro. Joe The Greek word used for faith here is “pistis.” It is the word that we normally translate as “belief” or “faith.” There are several shades of meaning to this word, and all of them probably apply to this text. The Point is that the Holy Spirit gives us faith for every aspect of our lives – for everything that we might face in our lives. What are these shades of meaning?
Belief The Holy Spirit simply leads us to believe. He leads us to believe in Jesus in order to be saved. He leads us to believe in the Bible and Bible doctrines. Vines wrote that “pistis” primarily denotes firm persuasion or conviction. This is the kind of belief that is commanded in the Bible. We are never told that we should take our commitment to Jesus lightly. In fact, it is always the exact opposite. For example, because they believed firmly in Jesus, the early disciples gave up everything in order to follow Him. It is the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit that makes believers out of us. Faithfulness The Holy Spirit, who inspires our belief in Jesus, leads us to faithfulness to Him. If we will pay attention to the urging of the Holy Spirit, we will be faithful. We do not want to deny Him, as Peter did, or betray Him as Judas did. If we follow the Spirit’s leadership we will not want to do anything that would be unfaithful to Christ’s high calling on our lives. I don’t guess any of us lives up to this 100%, but we should surely try. Jesus saves us and puts His mark on our lives; therefore, we belong to Him totally. Like Peter, we need to overcome any denials of Jesus’ lordship in our lives and go in great service for Him. The Bible never shows us people who serve as perfect examples of loyalty, but there are a lot of people, like Barnabas, who show us the importance of faithfulness. Trustworthiness Our faith in Jesus leads us to be trustworthy, and we can give the Holy Spirit credit for that. With the leadership of the Spirit, God can trust us with responsibilities in His church and in the community. People can trust us to do right by them. Too many people are like Demas in 2Timothy 4:10 who, because he loved the world too much, forsook Paul while Paul was in prison. We need more people like Timothy, Titus, Ephaproditus and Tychicus, who faithfully stood by the great apostle during his imprisonment. Understand that their loyalty to Paul was borne of their faith in and loyalty to Jesus. This is the same reason why we can stand by each other, and trust each other, as we serve Jesus in our time. Can your Christian friends, your church, trust you to serve in a trustworthy manner? If you will follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, you will have the faith to be trustworthy. The Holy Spirit has given us all of the faith that we need to do whatever we need to do. He can deepen our belief and help us to be faithful and trustworthy. Bro. Joe The Bible tells us that no one is “good.” But the Holy Spirit can lead us to do good. A quick study of the Greek word (agathos) used for “goodness” here revealed some key words that I will refer to in this post to illustrate what this fruit means.
The first word is "generous." I think that everyone would agree that a Christian person should be generous instead of stingy. Our stewardship responsibilities demand us to be generous. One of the basic disciplines of the Christian faith is the tithe. Besides that we are expected as Christians to be generous in giving to causes that help people who cannot help themselves. I agree that we need to be careful that our generosity not be misused, but if in doubt, we should still be generous. We should not just be generous with our finances, but we should also be generous with our time. We should take the time to do good things for people. We should be generous with our love. We should also be generous with our forgiveness. Remember, the Holy Spirit has given us this fruit; we just need to claim it. The second word is (50 cent word warning) "beneficence." A beneficent person is one who does not hesitate to do good, even if it is difficult to do so. The dictionary definition of the word is “the habitual practice of doing good.” Jesus was certainly a beneficent person by this definition. Look at all that Jesus did while on ministry among people. At one point, Jesus actually touched a leper in order to heal him. John did not use the word beneficence in 1 John 3:17-18, but he certainly defined it: “But whoso that 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. 18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and truth.” The third word is "virtuous." The dictionary definition of this word is: “moral excellence, merit, power or efficacy.” According to this definition there is power in goodness. Efficacy means to “produce the desired effect.” I have always heard that you can draw more flies with sugar than with vinegar. If we want to impress people about life in Christ, it would be efficacious for us to do good. In other words, we are better witnesses for Jesus when we do good than when we do badly, or when we are indifferent about human suffering around us. The Holy Spirit has implanted virtue withIN us by His presence in our lives. Bro. Joe I think you will agree that we really, really, really need gentleness and kindness in the world today. The Holy Spirit has put kindness in our lives; now we need to claim it. The Greek word is “chrestotes” (chres-to-tees), which means goodness of heart – or kindess. It can mean “warm-hearted” as opposed to “cold-hearted.” Christians, of all people, should be warm-hearted. Barclay suggested the following words in reference to chrestotes – gentleness, sweetness, and mellowness.
The first word is “gentleness.” Jesus is the supreme example of this aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. When Jesus saw sick people, even lepers, he reached out and touched them. He was even gentle and kind with the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8:1-11. Jesus’ first words from the cross gave evidence of His gentle kindness: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” There is far too much harshness towards each other in our country today, and, I might add, there is far too much harshness towards one another in our churches. The second word is “sweetness.” Before you gag on this word, read on: Why do we belittle sweetness of spirit and attitude today? If you had to be around someone for hours every day, would you prefer that they be irritable or sweet? I’ve worked with both and I choose sweet - period! While Paul’s irascibility is sometimes evident, he also portrayed a sweetness of attitude and spirit. (For an example of this, read Philippians 1:3-8.) If you had a choice of being remembered as being irritable and mean or sweet and kind, which would you choose? The Holy Spirit has given us a sweet spirit. Let’s claim it and live it out before the world. We could start by practicing it in our churches. Just saying! The third word is “mellowness.” The Greek word for yoke in Matthew 11:30 is close to our word for gentleness or kindness. According to Barclay: “Christ’s yoke is called chrestos, that is, it does not chafe and irk and gall.” Jesus calls us to serve and obey Him, but He does not make it irksome. If it appears to be irksome to other people, maybe we need to check our attitudes. In fact, Jesus makes service to and for him joyful. Why? Because Jesus is kind and gentle, and kind and gentle people are not irksome people. This doesn’t mean that we nod agreement to unchristian and unbiblical behavior. It does mean that a winsome and kind spirit will win people to Jesus quicker than a sarcastic and ugly spirit. We can be kind, gentle, sweet and mellow people because the Holy Spirit has given us gentleness and kindness. We need to claim it. People need to see the kindness and gentleness of Jesus in us and in our churches. Bro. Joe The Greek word "makrothermia" (longsuffering) can also be translated as "patience." However there are some subtle differences between the usual word of patience and the word of long-suffering. The normal New Testament Greek word for patience is hupomene (hoopomenay) which means to passively wait. This is the way we normally use the word patience. It is used a lot in reference to trials, as in we just have to wait until it is over. Makrothermia literally means to be able to suffer long and bear it in strength and courage. Pardon the “Greek lesson,” but the subtlety of the language is important here since there is a difference in waiting on someone or something and bearing up under suffering. I want to share some words that come to mind when I think of the meaning of long-suffering.
The first word is endurance. The Holy Spirit helps us endure all slings and arrows and pains of life without losing patience and without the desire to retaliate. This is the kind of endurance Jesus needed to go to the cross. It was this holy endurance that led Jesus to say, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” It is the kind of endurance that early Christians needed as they faced various formS of persecution from both unbelieving Jews and Romans. It is the kind of endurance that we need to face life in the twenty-first century. The second word is persistence. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to persist in serving Jesus under any circumstances that we might face in life. In my lifetime I have seen a change in the public attitude toward the Christian faith. I think that most people are at least sympathetic to the Christian faith, but the fear of offending people has caused some powerful forces to try to keep us quiet about Jesus. Before it is all over, we might learn the real meaning of long-suffering. Paul certainly had this fruit in his life as he went from place-to-place establishing churches, meeting opposition in every place. Persistence in our faith is necessary if we plan to reach our sophisticated world today. The third word is restraint. The Holy Spirit gives us a spirit of restraint when we need it. “Long suffering is that quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish.” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, page 604) Jesus certainly illustrated this aspect of long-suffering when He was slapped, beaten and spat upon without retaliating. It is important for us to realize that the Holy Spirit also makes restraint possible for us. Keep in mind that the Holy Spirit has given you all of the endurance, persistence and restraint that you need to live for and to serve Jesus. When you find yourself in situations where you need this fruit of long-suffering, remind yourself that the Holy Spirit is at work in you helping you to endure, persist, or restrain yourself. The wonderful thing about this is that you do not have to ask for long-suffering. You just need to claim it and practice it. The Holy Spirit is with you at all times and He will not let you down. When you feel yourself weakening under pressure, desiring to quit or to retaliate, remember that you have the power to undergo all of it. Bro. Joe The Greek word for peace, “eirene” (eiraynay), is derived from the Hebrew word “Shalom.” Peace as a fruit of the Spirit does not just mean an absence of conflict, but denotes a positive, upbeat, benevolent view of all of life. Paul certainly knew the meaning of this peace as he dealt with all of the troubles that he encountered. We need to look at least three results of “eirene” peace in our lives.
It is peace with God. In 1 Thessalonians 3:16, Paul wrote: “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way.” (NIV) Of course the Greek word translated peace here is eirene. The idea is that the Holy Spirit does not just give us peace; rather, it means that He is peace within us. Peace with God is part and parcel with being a Christian. Peace with God is not something that we merely hope for. It is a fact because it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. It is peace with ourselves. Pogo (Remember him?) was right when he said: “We has met the enemy and he is us.” Sometimes in the matter of peace of mind and heart we are our own worst enemies. As alluded to above, quite often we Christians do not claim the peace that we possess because we are unaware that we already have it. Paul encouraged the Philippians, and us, to claim it: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV) We need to remember this as we deal with ourselves. When life has us down and it does not feel worth living, we need to remember that God loves us, has, or will, forgive us, and that He has given us the peace that only His Holy Spirit can give – the peace “which transcends all understanding.” It is peace with others. If the Holy Spirit can give us peace with God and with ourselves, He can surely give us peace with other people. Again, it is a matter of claiming it. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to “live in peace with each other.” (1Thessalonians 5:13b NIV) In Romans 5:13 Paul wrote: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all (people).” In other words, if there is no peace between you and another person, don’t let it be your fault. You can’t control the other person, but you can let the Spirit control you. Think of what would happen if every Christian suddenly claimed peace with and in the power of the Holy Spirit today. Well, think about it! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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