Hebrews Lesson 169
NKJ Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God;
NKJ Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.
Okay. Last time as we were going through the
Doctrine of One Another coming out of our study of Hebrews, we got down to
points 18 and 19. Those two points
really came out of the same context in James 5.
So the 18th point was to confess to one another. This means in a context though…does not mean
just randomly admission of sins to one another; but sins that are related to
the problem at hand. The problem at hand
in James 5 had to do with weakness or weariness, failure to persevere in the
spiritual life. In that case that would
involve a failure to handle one of the tests of faith as identified in the
first chapter of James that we are to count it all joy when we encounter
various trials knowing that the testing of our faith and the doctrine in our souls produces
endurance.
So when we when we fail and
we are being run over in our Christian life and we become road kill on the road
of our spiritual life; then we have to call for prayer from stronger
believers. That's the focus of that
passage. A part of that is confessing
our sins to one another within that context and within that context of
privacy.
Also to pray for one another
and that is as I said the topic of every single verse from James 5:13 all the
way down to the end of the chapter. So
in full James 5:16 said to confess your trespasses to one another and to pray
for one another that you may be healed.
That has to do with a spiritual revival of strength, not a physical
healing as we saw that the idea of physical healing or physical sickness
doesn't fit the context – either the immediate context of James 5 or the
broader context James, the message of the epistle of James itself. The context of James 5 should focus on the
idea of weariness in the spiritual struggle, spiritual advantage.
The conclusion of that whole
section from 13 to 16 is the principle that the prayer of a righteous man
indicating here not a positional righteousness which comes from justification;
but experiential righteousness which means maturity. That fits with the idea I mentioned last time
that we shouldn't be understanding elders in the earlier verse that called for
the elders to pray as an office in the church, but presbuterio means the older ones.
It's also a word just to be used for mature believers. So it is calling upon mature believers to be
in prayer. So we are to pray for one
another.
Then we came to our 20th
point which is that we are to be hospitable to one another. Hospitality is part of the role of the
believer toward other believers and that can be manifested in a lot of
different ways. It can be manifested in
a church environment. As we have here at
Another way to be hospitable
is in terms of your own, your own home: welcoming people, helping people,
providing food for people who are in need - all of these kinds of things come
across.
Now one of the key verses on
this is found in 1 Peter 4:9. It is a
simple command that we are to be hospitable to one another without
grumbling. So you’re not to complain
about it, not to gripe about it.
“Ah, here is another
missionary coming in that we have to take care of.”
But that there is a
willingness to share what God has given us because ultimately it came from
God. It didn't come from simply my hard
work. Everything comes from the Lord and
so I should be willing to help, share the bounty that God has given me with
others.”
So we are to be hospitable to
one another. Now this is a really
interesting word. It is a compound
word. Let me see if I - I don't think
that I put it in here. It is philozenos. You could transliterate it
p-h-i-l-o-z-e-n-o-s, philozenos. You break that down etymologically from philos meaning love and zenos from stranger or foreigner. Xenophobia is a fear of foreigners, fear of
strangers. So philozenos means literally a lover of strangers. It's interesting that gentiles were described
as zenoi, strangers.
In the Scriptures we were strangers to the covenants of
There's a list of
qualifications there for bishops and deacons in Timothy and elders and deacons
in Titus.
If you do a word study, some
people read that and they go, “I just have to have all these qualifications to
be a pastor.”
But every one of those
qualifications is expected to every believer.
It's not unique to being a pastor or a leader in the church. Every one of those character qualities is to
be expected and is demanded of every single believer. That comes with maturity and so that's why
they're isolated there.
So you have those two references
in terms of the qualifications of a pastor.
But in 1 Peter 4:9 and Hebrews we have two specific epistles that are
written the Jewish believers, to a Jewish audience. Peter is written to the
twelve tribes scattered and Hebrews is written to Jewish believers who are
threatening to throw away their Christianity and go back into Judaism. So this word is used there. It has this nuance of not being isolated as a
Jew but also welcomed, breaking down those barriers and welcoming the gentiles
as part of the body of Christ.
It's a quality that is
expected of every single believer. It is
also emphasized in Romans 12 which we’ll look in just a minute. In the context they're describing the
qualities of the Christian Life. So this
is a very important quality for every believer is to have this level of
hospitality. And really all it is is a
graciousness and generosity and openness to strangers. It does not necessarily mean that you always
have to invite the traveling missionary or speaker or whoever to stay at your
house when we have the Chafer Conference or have students or pastors stay with
you. Not everybody has a situation where
they can open their home and make it available.
Some do. But there are other ways
in which we can be the hospitable and show hospitality to people in a very kind
and gracious way. That is how it is to
be, it is to be expressed.
In Hebrew 13 we had the
second key passage on this. We read
(notice the context):
NKJ Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Do not forget to entertain
strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.
The word there for “do not
forget” is a Greek word for pilanthanomai
and it means to not forget or be neglectful.
Again it’s an imperative in the second person plural. So it is a broad based command addressed to
every believer. The idea there of
entertaining strangers again is the word philosonos
which means to be hospitable. So it
should be translated “do not forget to be hospitable for by so doing some have
unwittingly entertained angels.”
Now that is an interesting
passage and every now and then you have somebody quote the old King James –
“somebody entertained the angels unawares.”
But to what does that refer? That
refers back to Genesis. Let’s turn back
to Genesis and take a look at these two examples because this is just referring
to a historical incident. It is not
referring to a normal pattern that when some stranger comes and knocks on your
door, you’d better let him in your house and give him a cup of coffee because
he just might be an angel. I've heard a sermon on that.
Can you imagine that? How dangerous that would be to just – “Oh
well, this might be an angle. I’d better not run the risk.”
Back in Genesis 18 we had two
incidents of this 18 and 19. Genesis chapter 18 we have the Lord coming to
visit Abraham down near
NKJ Genesis 18:1 Then the LORD appeared to him by
the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of
the day.
2 So he lifted his eyes and looked,
and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran
from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground,
This is showing the type of
hospitality that was common in Abraham’s day.
Now we wouldn't handle it quite the same way. There's no command as to how you're to do
this; but that was the way they did in the ancient Near East.
3 and said, "My Lord, if I have
now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.
Abraham knew that it was the
Lord before him, that this was a theophany.
He said:
4 "Please let a little water be
brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
5 "And I will bring a morsel of
bread, that you may refresh your hearts.
So he was very concerned
about their physical needs and taking care of them. He's very generous. He’s providing food and shelter and then he
goes out to the herd. He kills a tender
good calf. In other words he finds the
best steaks in the freezer and thaws them out in order to provide a good meal
for his guests. So we see this wonderful
picture of hospitality there and then we come to discover that one is the Lord
(a theophany, the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ) appearing to Abraham and the
other two are angels.
When you go down to the next
chapter in the next verse of Genesis 19:1 we read:
NKJ Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to
Prior to this they're just
referred to as the two men. They had all
of the appearance. They dressed like
men. They looked like men and for all
practical purposes as far as Abraham was concerned they were men; but they did
not he did not know that they were angels.
So they were up in disguise as it were.
So that's the reference in Hebrews 13:1 that Abraham provides this
example for us of hospitality. So that’s
simply an illusion (an illustration) of the principal of hospitality from the
life of Abraham.
But then we have another
passage to look at and that’s in Romans 12.
So turn with me in your Bible back to the New Testament to the 12th
chapter of Romans. Now this whole
section of Romans as we’ve seen is just loaded with application-type passages;
but, it all flows out of the basic command to love one another. We see that reiterated in Romans 12:9.
NKJ Romans 12:9 Let love be without
hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
Your topical sentence is to
let love be without hypocrisy. So then
what the Apostle Paul is doing is explaining the various characteristics and
illustrating various ways in which we show love for one another. One would be to abhor what is evil. And, that's a very strong word to abhor. We are not going to allow that. It is not good for others. So some may call us self righteous if we take
a certain moral stand; but, it is
because we have a broader picture of what the issues are in life.
Cling to what is good.
So you have the dual command
there. You’re going to completely reject
the evil that which is anti-God, anti-righteousness, anti-biblica; and you're
going to accept that which is inherently good.
Again I believe these are general overriding principles.
Then in verse 10 we have a
“one another” which we’ve already studied.
NKJ Romans
So there's a concern for
other believers and with a degree of sensitivity to their strengths and their
weaknesses. That will be developed as
we'll see in the 14th character which comes up in another couple of
points. So this sets the opening stage.
Then verse 11 goes on to
read:
NKJ Romans
12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,
continuing steadfastly in prayer;
Same principle we see in or
we saw the last time in James 5. Prayer
is to be a standard characteristic in the believer’s life.
NKJ Romans
This is providing food and
finances for those who are in need, who cannot work to eat – one of those key
passages every parent ought to drill into their children so they’ll grow to be
good capitalists is in 2 Thessalonians that those that don't work, don't
eat.
But there are those who can't
work so they are dealt with in generosity and grace and there's a distribution
to the needs of the saints given to hospitality. So once again we have this same word. Hospitality here is related to just providing
for the physical needs of those who are unable to provide for themselves
whether they're older, whether they’re ill, whether there are other
circumstances in life that make them unable to provide for themselves. So those who can, help them out of their understanding
of God's grace that we treat people always on the basis of God's grace - not on
the basis of works, not on the basis of
people having to meet a certain standard before we are good or kind or generous
to them in the demonstration of hospitality.
So Paul is going to go on in
Romans 13 to give some more examples of what love looks like.
NKJ Romans
16 Be of the same mind toward one
another.
That was another one we
looked at early on in the study- having
the same mentality because it’s based on Bible doctrine and then based on
humility. So that covers chapter
12.
Then another example of
humility is orientation to authority.
Without orientation to authority there is no success in life. We live in the world today when people are
more and more arrogant and express it in more and more extreme ways. Without drawing necessarily judgments on
political positions taken, but we've seen this radical discord in this nation
that’s increased over the last ten years because of arrogant polarity that’s
taking place on both sides.
Each president comes in. I can remember that this was stated by the
Republicans in early 2000 when George Bush was running that you know there's
just too much discord and we need to bring people together. So the Republicans
came in and it just seemed like the breach got wider. Then you get into the current situation. You watch these town hall meetings and the
breach is even greater. The country is
polarizing and I believe it’s ultimately due to the breakdown of
worldview. You have people who are still
influenced by a biblical worldview.
Whether they're Christians or not is not necessarily the issue because
we still have a sense of those establishment truths and establishment
principles. Then there are many others
who don't. That's what causes that
breach and causes the sides to polarize against one another. Arrogance breeds in that kind of environment
and people stop thinking, and they just started emoting. It never seems to recover from that.
So humility is foundational
in relation to authority and that is the topic of the 13th
chapter. Then he comes towards the end
in that argument talking about loving one another in verse 8 (13:8) giving
illustrations of what that looks like.
Then in verses 11 to 14 describing all of these characteristics as
walking in the day, walking in the light as Paul says in Ephesians 5 and
putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s
the last verse in Romans 13.
NKJ Romans
Now that verse is addressed
to believers. Putting on the Lord Jesus
Christ is the process. That is the process
of spiritual growth and we're putting on…like you put on a garment, you're
putting on the character of Christ. That
comes because you walk by the Spirit.
The Spirit producers in you the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, gentleness against which there is no law. All that comes as a result of walking by
means of the Spirit and it makes no provision for the flesh.
Now the interesting thing
about that verse is back in the early church there was a young man who had gone
through a lot of soul searching. He had
gone through all these different religions.
He had tried out Manichaeism for a while which was sort of a Persian
dualistic mystical religion. Then he
tried out Neo-Platonism. He was falling
in love with philosophy. He had been
living with a woman for about thirteen years and had a child out of
wedlock. His mother was a Christian and
so those Christian values had also created by this time a certain guilty
conscience. He was in real torment. He was in a city in
He says that he heard a voice
in his head that said, “Take up and read.”
So he picked up his Bible
read Romans 13:14.
NKJ Romans
And he trusted the Lord Jesus
Christ as Savior and was saved. The
man’s name was Augustine. He was one of
most influential (We don't always agree with him.). He was one of the most influential figures in
church history.
I've often thought I would love to preach a
series on verses God used to bring people to salvation, and those verses had
nothing to do with salvation. They’re
understood out of context. How many
people have been saved because somebody was Campus Crusade came up and said to
invite Jesus into your heart? Well,
that's not what that verse says and that's not what Revelation 3:20 means. But there are all kinds of people who have
taken that to be a synonym for believing in Jesus. And I think they’re saved. I have no doubt in my mind that they’re
saved. You don't have to be a theologian
to say just the right way to get saved because what's happening in their souls
is they’re trusting in Christ for salvation.
They're just having somebody use the wrong verse and take it of
context.
As a pastor I'll never
validate that because it's always wrong to use a passage in wrong way; but God
is pleased to enable us to misunderstand Scriptures to get to the right truth
and trust in Christ. That’s just God's
grace. It doesn’t have anything to do
with correct exegesis. That's always an
interesting story to run passed everybody on Romans 13:14.
Then we come to chapter
fourteen. Chapter 14 is a chapter that
is very similar to the discussion that we find over in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11
dealing with the issue of doubtful things.
Here it has to do with weaker brethren and how a more mature believer
needs to think about a weak believer who thinks that they're still under
legalism. We’ll come into that as we
come to our last set of “one another's.”
This last set of “one another's” are prohibitions. There are three prohibitions. Everything that we've seen up to this point
was positive commands: to love one another, encourage one another, admonish one
another, care for one another, pray for one another, be kind to one another. All of these were positive. Now there are three negatives. The first negative comes out of Romans 14
that we are not to judge one another, Romans 14:13. We are not the judge one another.
Now the verse is up on the
overhead, and it states:
NKJ Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one
another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a
cause to fall in our brother's way.
…indicating that they had been doing this
along the way. That's brought out in the
sense of the negative command. The word
that’s translated “judge” is from the Greek verb krino (k-r-i-n-o) and it's used twice in the passage. It's used in the first line
let us not
judge
Krino
one another
anymore, but rather resolve
Krino. See this is one of those cases where in English
there's this artificial rule in English that if you're going to write good
English and you're going to go to the university of whatever and go through
their world-class writing school, they will tell you that you don't use the
same word over and over again within the same paragraph. There has to be word variation. The trouble is when it comes to translating
the Scripture when the Holy Spirit uses a word twice within five words of each
other, it's for a reason. When you bring
that over into English, you don't say good English means we have to translate
one way here and another way here. That
happens again and again and again in Scripture.
What it does is you lose the dots.
Sometimes in Bible study in 8 verses the Holy Spirit will use one word
four or five times.
In the Greek it really stands
out and you go, “Man, that's important.
He's using that same word again and again and again. I need to connect
those dots.”
In English they’ll be
translated with five different synonyms.
You don't see that there’s a group of similar words there that need to
be understood so that you can tie the context together. As a result you miss out on some things. That's what happens here in Romans
14:13.
Paul says:
NKJ Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one
another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a
cause to fall in our brother's way
He's offering an
alternative. They're judging one
way. He says, “No, this is what you
should do.” So he's offering an
alternative not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s
way.
Now let's look at the
context. The context deals with the law
of liberty that believers have the liberty in many areas. Sometimes we call them gray areas. I don't think they’re gray areas because to
me gray implies that they’re a little dirty already. Somehow they’re not quite white. You didn’t use the latest formula of Tide or
Clorox or whatever to get them white; so they still look dingy. So that's not the idea. It’s that there are some things that are
right and some things that are wrong.
There are other areas that are just not addressed in the Scripture. They’re not wrong; but people may think they
are. They may have been taught that it's
wrong to do certain things. How do you handle
that? That's always an interesting
situation.
I got a call related to this
today from another pastor who was working for passage and related to Paul in Acts when Paul goes back
to Jerusalem and he washes his hands in the temple ritual – cleanses his hands
and he brings offerings to the temple.
People (some people) will
say, “Well, that was wrong. Paul was
following the Mosaic Law here. That’s
wrong.”
In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul says:
NKJ 1 Corinthians
NKJ 1 Corinthians
NKJ 1 Corinthians
That’s what he means there by
that in context ( I’ll be all things to all people for the sake of the gospel).
In other words if I'm in – what Paul is saying is, “If I’m in a Jewish home and they have certain
traditions, I'm not going to make an issue out of those traditions which would
distract from the gospel. I don’t want
to make non-issues an issue. I don’t
want to get involved in arguments about things that are irrelevant to
salvation. If I’m with a gentile who has
been influenced by the Judiazers where they have come under the law and
thinking that makes them more spiritual; then I'm not going to rub their face,
their nose in something that just because I have the right to do it, doesn't
mean I'm going to assert my right to do it because it will offend them and it
will create a distraction in communicating the gospel. And if I’m with those who have never had the
Law (in other words gentiles) where something is not an issue then I’m going to
live as if it's not an issue.”
Now some people in our
culture think that that's hypocrisy. Of
course these passages used to always be applied to issues like smoking,
drinking, dancing, and playing cards - things like that which was very typical
of much of conservative Christianity up through about the 1950’s.
I read an interesting study
(survey) taken by Christianity Today
around 1983. They did a survey of I
don’t know how many Christians now, but they did a pretty broad survey. The question they asked was - is it
spiritually wrong (does it violate your spiritual life) to drink wine? In 1951 when Christianity Today first came out they had done a similar
survey. In 1951 about 95% of Christians
said it was wrong to drink wine. In
1983, 95% said it wasn’t. That's a huge
shift. That’s a 180 degree
reversal. I don’t know of anything else
that would have seen such a shift in behavior.
Part of that is because of I think it negatively the influence of the
cosmic system because in 1983 a lot of Christians didn’t even care what the
Bible said. It was much more licentious
liberal Christianity that was in the
But also from the positive
side a lot more people have become acquainted with grace and people have done a
better job teaching on the whole principle of drinking alcoholic
beverages. The Bible doesn't prohibit
it. It just prohibits drunkenness. But the idea here when it's applied to
alcohol would be that if you’re with somebody who has a weakness toward
alcohol, someone who is prone to either a alcoholic or is prone that way cannot
handle drinking; then when you go out to dinner with them they you don't sit
down and say, “I believe in grace. I’m
going to order a beer. I’m going to
order you one too.”
See that's putting a
stumbling block in front of them.
I used to love this. Dr.
Ryrie said this. I heard him say it
about a year before I went to seminary.
He said – he made the point – “To cause somebody to stumble means that
they have to be moving.”
Think about it. You've got to be going somewhere in your
spiritual life to stumble. A lot of
people who want a gripe and complain about legalistic issues – they’re not
going anywhere in their Christian life.
They're mired in legalism and they're stuck there. So you can’t cause a legalist to
stumble.
Gary Friesen came out with a
book in the early 80’s and won a couple of Christian Book Awards called Decision Making in the Will of God which
is one of the best books I've read on that whole topic of decision making. Gary Friesen in there made the point that you
can’t cause somebody to stumble by simply performing an act somewhere in their
vicinity. It's the idea of somebody’s
walking down the path you have to put something in front of them that causes
them to trip. If you lay the log down
over there, it’s not going to cause them to stumble because they're walking
this path. So, the application being if
you’re out with your family and you're having a celebration, then you can have
a glass of wine or you can enjoy whatever it is you wish to enjoy. But next week you may be out with some people
with whom you work and you know they come from a legalistic Christian
background and they would be made uncomfortable if you ordered a glass of wine
at lunch. So out of love for the
brethren you don't assert your liberty there because you don't want to create a
non-issue whereas if you go over if you're out with your family you can do
it. That's not hypocrisy. That’s using good judgment.
I have been out with some
pastors where we'll go out to eat and enjoy a good beer or glass of wine with
our meal. I've been out with other
pastors where they sit in the corner of a restaurant and they will order a coke
and Jack Daniels and, “Please put that in a coffee cup.”
Then I've been out with
others that I would never ever even hint that I would or think about ordering a
glass of wine or a beer because it would take them from now until the rapture
to get over it. You have to realize that
there are some battles you’re never going to win. Some battles you are going to win.
Since we’re talking about
booze, it’s interesting. Dallas Seminary
did not have a code of conduct policy for students until Dr. Walvoord came
in. I don't know if it's true. Maybe somebody is listening out there in the
world can find out. I've always heard
the story. I don't know if it's
apocryphal or not, but the story has gone around Dallas Seminary for years that
J Vernon McGee on Through the Bible -
in fact he has more people listening to him in more people listening to more
countries now than he did when he was alive.
When the man died and went to heaven, he got the gift of tongues and now
you can hear him in Russian and Chinese. I wonder if he still has that east
Anyhow, when McGee first went
to seminary he was from Waxahachie.
That's where he gets his accent although I know a few people from
Waxahachie that don’t talk like that either.
But when Magee first went to seminary, he went to Union Theological
Seminary (the Presbyterian Seminary in
What's interesting is when
Dr. Walvoord became president, he instigated a code of conduct policy that if
memory serves me said something like – “We do not think the Christian leaders
should participate in alcoholic beverages or tobacco products and we expect
students to comply with this.”
…interesting one in wording that.
And Dr. Honer who recently
went to be with the Lord who was a fabulous Greek scholar and the head of the
New Testament department there for many, many years used to give Dr. Walvoord a
hard time in the faculty meetings. To
the day that he died Dr. Walvoord taught that the wine that Jesus turned the
water into which was grape juice. It
wasn’t wine.
It didn't matter what anybody
in the Old Testament Department said or the New Testament Department said or
words studies or history. It didn't
matter. It was water. This is always interesting. I mean the water was turned into grape
juice. It’s always interesting to see
how different things in our background, no matter how far we go in our
Christian life they still affect our
exegesis.
Dr. Walvoord’s mother was a
temperance marcher. She was out there
marching for prohibition all the time that he was growing up. So that was just imbedded in him. So there's no way you could sit down with Dr.
Walvoord and ever think about ordering a glass of wine. He wouldn't have recovered yet even though
he’s in heaven.
So you always have to have
that that realization of where people are.
And, some people are weaker brethren in the sense that they have a
belief or something – they’re moving though.
They're growing, but you don't want upset that. Other people… Paul talks about weaker
brethren and stronger brethren. There's
really a third category. This is what
Friesen brought in. The third category
is the Pharisees. Paul doesn’t talk
about the Pharisee-type. The
Pharisee-type is a non-moving, non-growing person who’s got his feet in
spiritual concrete and you're not going to…
He’ the legalist who says,
“It's wrong to do this. It's wrong to do
that,” all within gray areas. You can't
drink; you can't smoke; you can’t dance; you can’t play cards; you can't pick
corn for any reason on the Sabbath.
So what did Jesus do? He picked corn right in front of them on the
Sabbath, in front of His disciples. See
Jesus confronted the Pharisee, but He had grace towards the weaker brother. That’s why there's a difference there. When you're dealing with the person who is
set in arrogance and hostility, then it’s sort of like - not quite in your face
but close to it.
“I'm going to have this glass
of wine because I just want to see what it does to you because you’re a
legalist.”
It’s not going to cause you
to stumble. You've already
stumbled. You’re in arrogant self
righteous.”
There’s a difference. So keep that in mind as we sort of get the
context here.
In the law of liberty Paul
says:
NKJ Romans 14:1 Receive one who is weak in the
faith,
That is one who hasn’t been
taught enough yet. The faith refers to
his doctrinal understanding.
This is talking about a
believer.
but not to disputes over doubtful
things.
Don't get involved in
arguments over these things yet because they don't have the doctrinal background
to understand it.
NKJ Romans 14:2 For one believes he may eat all
things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
In other words, the one who
is has some doctrine says, “I can do this.
It’s an area of freedom. There is
nothing wrong with this.”
But the one who is coming out
of the legalistic background where he’s been taught certain things erroneously
- we have to take that into account.
He’s a Pharisee, but he needs time to mature.
NKJ Romans 14:3 Let not him who eats despise him
who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God
has received him.
Notice the verbs here. Don’t despise him. Don’t judge him. This is the use of the word judge and in the
sense of making a statement that ridicules, that diminishes that shows
disrespect for someone that impugns them for being silly or stupid or they just
don't know where you're putting them down.
That's the context.
When we come to verse 10 Paul
says:
NKJ Romans 14:10 But why do you judge your brother?
Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ.
See what was happening is the
mature believer was looking at the weak believer and ridiculing him and
condemning him for the fact that he didn't know better. You should never run anybody down because
they don't know any better. They just
haven't had time to learn.
Or, why do you show contempt
for your brother. That's the nuance of
judge. Krino is a broad word. When
you get up in the morning and you are looking in the refrigerator and you know
that last week you bought some yogurt for breakfast and you need to eat that
because you’re trying to watch your weight.
So you open it up and make sure you put your glasses on and look in
there to make sure it's not going any hair yet.
That is krino. It’s evaluating. It's not judging. It’s not a negative thing; it’s a positive
thing. So krino has a broad context.
You evaluate.
When you are at work and
somebody is working for you and you're evaluating their performance, you're
supposed to do that. When you're in the
church you are to evaluate the character of the deacons, the pastor, the Sunday
school teachers. That's the same word krino.
We are to judge one another in those areas understanding krino in the sense of evaluation and
discernment. But krino can also mean to condemn someone, to run them down, to treat
him with a disrespect, or to ridicule them, and to treat them
contemptuously. That's the idea here in
this use. Let us not judge one
another.
Don't show contempt for the
weaker brother but rather judge them in this way. Make your evaluation in this way. Don't put a stumbling block or a cause to
fall in your brother's way. If you know
that he has a problem with something or he hasn't been well taught in an area,
then don't create an issue out of something that he should not be an issue.
Then we looked at James
4:11. James 4:11 is very similar
context.
NKJ James 4:11 Do not speak evil of one another,
brethren.
That's the idea (the negative idea) of judging
or condemning someone.
He who
speaks evil of a brother
That is another believer.
and judges
his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.
Now the word “law” there
notice…I think they’re right there in the English translation and it shouldn’t
be upper case Law meaning the Mosaic Law.
It’s lower case “law” meaning the absolute standards of God - that when
you start running down judging other believers for what they're doing that
you're also making a statement about the absolute standards of God where he has
prohibited this and so you are also condemning that law and saying, “Well, that
really doesn't matter.”
So James concludes:
But if you
judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
You’re not applying the law
of God meeting the standards of God as revealed in the Scriptures; but you are
a judge. You are just condemning
it. He makes the same kind of statement
again in a passage we looked at last week.
James 5, in verse 9 he says:
NKJ James 5:9 Do not grumble against one another,
brethren,
…which is to present active
imperative implying - stop doing it. It
implies that they've been doing this. They are going through the tests of
faith.
lest you be
condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
Every believer is going to be
evaluated at the Judgment Seat of Christ so we need to pay attention to how we
apply the Word on a day-to-day basis.
So the first prohibition is
that we aren’t to judge one another in the body of Christ. We’re not to run down other believers.
Point number 2 – Don’t lie to
one another. Be honest with one
another. Don't lie – very simple
statement. The Greek verb is pseudomai which is where we get our word
pseudo. The second person imperative,
second person plural simply means don't tell a falsehood. You don’t tell a lie to one another.
The context is in Colossians
3:9.
NKJ Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another,
Why?
since you have
put off the old man with his deeds,
The idea of putting off your
man with his deeds is positional truth.
The old man is dead. We are a new
creature in Christ. We still have a sin
nature. The old man is not the sin
nature. We put off the old man. That’s all that we were as an unregenerate
human being and we have positionally put on the new man. But we have to learn to live as the new
creature in Christ.
So Colossians 3 is describing
the characteristics, the character qualities, of the believer who was walking
by Christ, imitating Christ, putting on Christ as he has received Him.
Colossians 2:6 is:
NKJ Colossians 2:6 As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
NKJ Colossians 2:7 rooted and built up in Him and established
in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
That's the foundation for
this particular section.
Then we come to 3:9 where we
begin to talk about the thinking of the believer.
NKJ Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not
on things on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is
hidden with Christ in God.
In other words you died to
the old life. Now we have to learn to
live as the new creature in Christ,
NKJ Colossians 3:4 When Christ who is our life
appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
5 Therefore put to death your members
which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry
Having materialism lust and
covetousness is no different from worshipping Baal. It’s all idolatry.
NKJ Colossians 3:6 Because of these things the wrath
of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
Notice the contrast between
the way you were and the way you are now.
NKJ Colossians 3:7 in which you yourselves once walked
when you lived in them.
NKJ Colossians 3:8 But now you yourselves are to put
off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your
mouth.
Notice it says we’re to put
those things off.
NKJ Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since
you have put off the old man with his deeds,
Same word to put off, apotithemi. But the opposite word is used in verse
12.
NKJ Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as the elect of
God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness,
longsuffering;
So we have put on Christ
positionally. We put off the old man,
but we have to put on these new character qualities which come as a result of
spiritual growth - walking by means of the Spirit, studying the Word of God and
applying it.
NKJ Colossians 3:13 bearing with one another,
We’ve studied that verse
already.
and
forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as
Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
NKJ Colossians 3:14 But above all these things put on
love, which is the bond of perfection.
So this idea of not lying to
one another is in the whole context of removing the sins that easily
characterize us in the way we deal with people if we let our sin nature
control: anger, wrath, hatred, all of these things.
Then our third point (our
third prohibition last prohibition) - do not render evil to one another. Do not do evil toward other believers, 1
Thessalonians 5:15.
NKJ 1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one renders evil for
evil to anyone,
There's actually not a verb
there; it is implied.
but always
pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.
The word there translated “good” is the word agathos meaning good, intrinsic
good. The idea there is you have to have
a mental understanding of what that good is.
Now the trouble is when you live in a relative society, we each have
some idea of what is good. But a lot of
our ideas of what is good really isn’t what’s good for the other person. It’s what’s good for me. So they need to do what's good in terms of my
relative standard for what's good. Now
as a believer you have an absolute external standard of what good is in
relationship to the righteousness of Christ.
So true love is going to do what is best or right or good for the other
person; but that good (the agathos
good) is a good that's defined externally by Scripture, not what is good in
terms of self-serving idea that may be present in my thinking
A lot of people say, “Well,
I'll treat you in love. You need to do
this because that's what I think the good thing is.”
But it really just is what
they wanted them to do. It's fitting
their agenda. As believers you have an
external understanding of what really is good for the other. It may not be good for you. But you know it's the right thing, and it is
a good thing because it's related to the plan of God. So that external objective idea of good is
what controls the way you relate to the other person. You're going to treat them in the right way
no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much you don't want to do it. You're going to treat them with grace and
kindness and love and forgiveness because that is the way Jesus Christ treated
you. That is the way God treats each one
of us because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. It doesn't have anything to do with our own
agenda. That's why the Christian life is
an impossible life. You can't do that in
the flesh. You can do that if you
walking by the Spirit and the Spirit of God is using the Word of God to change
you into the image of Jesus Christ.
Let’s bow our heads in
closing prayer.