Diligence And Its Rewards - 2 Peter 1:5-11

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. - 2 Peter 1:5-11

    Diligence, said to be characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort. Some also refer to it as painstaking. Matthew Henry said, “Without giving all diligence, there is no gaining any ground in the work of holiness.” What Peter is suggesting to us then is that without diligence  in applying the gifts that Christ has made available to us we can never be certain of either our call or election. Living a life with Christ as our focus cannot be accomplished haphazardly. We must make our endeavor worthy of our Savior.
    Just knowing our Lord and Savior is not enough, unless you prescribe to the heresy of Antinomianism, It is all easy-believism from there on out. And we know from Christ’s words that we will not have an easy time of being Christians. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’” - Matthew 16:24-26.
    None of us can claim the Kingdom if we aren’t willing to give all diligence in following the perfect obedience of our Lord and Savior. Even then our obedience will not be perfect but our heavenly Father will see our hearts’ desires. He will see Christ’s perfect obedience within us and thereby declare us just. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” - Ephesians 2:4-5.
    May we always remember the need for diligence in our walk with Jesus and the rich reward we are called to by God’s grace and by His grace alone!

In Spirit and Truth - John 4:23-24

 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” - John 4:23-24

    “In spirit and truth.” Hardly an argument can be found in Christ’s words. Away with all the ostentation and pomp; we must worship in spirit and truth. Jesus holds nothing back. He declares it to all the earth, “the Father is seeking such to worship Him!” And if that were not enough, He doubles-down - “ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Do we need more?
    The Jews and Samaritans had a long standing feud of sorts as to the proper place to worship God. Much the same way we today bicker over denominational “doctrines.” It was as if Christ had had enough of it all. He was setting the community of believers straight, once and for all. The veracity of the believer’s worship had nothing to do with where they chose to worship, whether on Mount Gerissim or in Jerusalem. The significance of worshiping in spirit and truth is firmly placed within the heart of the believer - “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” - John 14:16-17. The Spirit of truth whom Christ empowered to dwell within each and every true believer is the Spirit of truth whom has been indwelling believer’s hearts ever since the Day of Pentecost. Those who worship in truth and spirit do so without regard for where they worship or minor doctrinal differences. They worship without ostentation or dramatic pageantry or pretense because those who worship in spirit and truth worship from the heart! “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.” Psalm 51:17.
    May we always worship in the spirit and the truth as commanded by Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Submission To Love - Ephesians 5: 22-24

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” - Ephesians 5:22-24

    The Greek word for “submit,” hupŏtassō , in its simplest translation means “to obey.” Countless disagreements have arisen from these three lines of scripture. With the rise of feminism in the latter half of the 20th Century to its highly fanatical form today, new antagonisms have reared their ugly heads suggesting that Paul was at the very least a condescending chauvinist if not a blatantly outspoken misogynist. Neither of which accusation is true. But the misunderstanding of the passage owes itself to two patently obvious errors. (1) That women are under no obligation to submit or obey any man, let alone their husbands; and (2) that men have carte blanch power over what their wives think, say, and do. There isn’t an element of truth to either of these relational errors. The lynchpin of the misunderstanding lies in our failure to properly understand  the word “submit.”
    Do we show our love for one another by the way we disagree with one another? By the way we intentionally ignore or defy one another? By the way we backbite, argue, and fight with one another? Do we exhibit our love for one another by blatant disobedience? Love truly is a demonstrable emotion. In other words we more easily exhibit it by our actions than with our words. Love is not defined by contention. It is more truly defined by cooperation and compatibility. Men and women who love one another do not exhibit it by expecting their demands to be met based upon conditions held over one another’s heads.
    “ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
    In fact, the only true submission we make to one another is when we submit to one another in love. We submit neither to command or demand; we submit only to love. This is the point of our title verse. Wives are to submit to their husbands AS TO THE LORD! Would the church flagrantly disobey Christ? To what purpose? Would the church suggest that Christ might demand or command something unholy of them? By the same token would a woman charge her husband with some unreasonable demand? Her husband must be at the task of doing what has been commanded by God - “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her . . .” - Ephesians 5:25 As Christ would never mistreat His church neither would a Godly husband ever mistreat or disrespect his wife! This speaks directly to the mutuality of love between a husband and a wife. This being said, a husband would just as surely “submit” to his wife were she to ask what is righteous and what is holy of him.
    To all of us who have been blessed in this lifetime with a Godly husband or wife let us submit to them as to the Lord. Let us submit to love.

Resisting the Fight - Romans 12:17

 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. - Romans 12:17


    If two sides were engaged in mutual combat in the middle of a field, how would we be able to determine the right side from the wrong side? The good from the bad? The moral from the immoral? If their tactics were the same, their anger the same, their violence the same, how could we tell? Without some symbol or uniform there would be no way to tell; they would all seem to be the same: simply two sides fighting one another. Our title verse seems to close out such options for Christians pacing for a fight. “Repay no one evil for evil,” is not a call to us to lay down our lives before violent men but a call to us to resist the use of violence to merely remedy what we see as “evil.”
    “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” - Romans 12:18. The command is clear - “live peaceably”, if it is possible and as much as it depends upon us. The mere presence of evil in the world is nothing new and certainly cannot excuse us for using tactics similar to those of unbelievers. Such behavior neither justifies us nor ingratiates us to our heavenly Father. His command is clear.
    “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” - Romans 12:19. Perceived wrongs, whether from the secular world or the state, may in deed be wrong in the eyes of the Lord, but we are not contracted by God to undue these wrongs. We must not support them but we must not take it upon ourselves to extract the vengeance that belongs to God alone!
    “Therefore, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12: 20-21. Our heavenly Father is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He is in no imminent danger of being “a king deposed.” There is no power in the universe, either physical or spiritual,  that can undo God’s sovereignty.
     Let our goodness heap coals of fire upon the heads of those who are evil and let us patiently remain faithful in prayer as we wait upon God’s holy judgment against those who deny Him. Anathema maranatha.