Concern for the Church Today

2 Corinthians 11:1-4 ESV

 

“I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

 

Paul’s Concern for the Church

 

Paul had labored long and hard among the Corinthian church to teach them the truths of the Scriptures and of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had given himself to them to nurture them in the faith and to see that they were taught the truth. He had poured himself out for them to help and to encourage them in their walks of faith in the Lord Jesus. And he had served them faithfully without expecting anything from them in return.

 

But now the people were listening to liars and deceivers, and they were questioning Paul’s authority, and they were beginning to lean toward following after these other people instead of listening to Paul, it appeared. And so Paul was concerned that that they were being deceived and that they might be led astray from their sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

 

He feared that when he came to them that he would find that there was quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder among them. He was also concerned that when he came to them that he might have to mourn over many who sinned and had not repented of their sins of impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they had practiced.

 

For the people were entertaining in their minds and hearts the accepting of a different gospel, and another Jesus, and a different spirit from the one they had initially received. And it appeared as though they were not testing these spirits but that they were receiving them and that they were putting up with them easily, probably because what these other teachers were teaching them was tickling their itching ears.

 

But Paul loved the Corinthian Christians like a parent loves a child, and he had a divine jealousy for them, for he had married them to Jesus Christ, to present them as pure virgins to Christ, but now it was looking like they were becoming adulterous and that they were possibly wandering from their pure devotion to Christ to go after “other lovers.” And so he was pouring his heart out to them, expressing his deep concern, hoping to change their minds.

 

Concern for Today’s Church

 

I live in America (the USA), so it is all that I really know, so you can apply this to where you live however it fits.

 

I, as a child, was taken to gatherings of the church from birth on up, and I continued going to gatherings of what was called “church,” but which was now becoming not like the church, until I was 63 years old. I am now 72 years old. Yet, the Lord had been calling me to leave “Babylon” for a while, but I kept hoping that one of these “churches” would be the exception to the rule. But there were no exceptions that I could find.

 

Everywhere I went it was pretty much the same. They had all pretty much bought into the purpose driven market-driven flesh-driven “church” which was not the body of Christ but a business of men being marketed to the world just like any other business of men. It wasn’t the body of Christ operating like the body of Christ, but it was businesses, and the pastors were the CEOs (or the cult leaders), and marketing books were now what they were using in place of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit.

 

The people were more like spectators or the audience going to a theatre for a show. For now it was becoming more about entertainment than anything else, and everything appeared to be centered around attracting the people of the world to the gatherings of “the church.” And so they modified and they altered the gatherings of what was the church, and they also altered the gospel to make it more palatable to human flesh and to the world.

 

And since they were now concerned about drawing in large crowds of people from the world to grow their “churches,” i.e. their businesses, they moved in the direction of pleasing the world and away from pleasing God. So, they didn’t want to do or to say anything to offend the people of the world or to make them feel uncomfortable or judged, so they removed from the gospel God’s requirements for repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ.

 

And they began to teach their people to “stay in your own lane,” and to not talk to anyone about sin until you had friended them for at least two years. And they were being trained in their seminars to watch out for people with “strong convictions” and to encourage them to go “somewhere else where you will be a better fit.” And they taught their pastors to use “needy people” to get their churches up and going but to get rid of them once their churches were doing well so that the “needy people” would not drag them down.

 

They weren’t the body of Christ anymore, but now they were a conglomerate of the church, the false church, the world, big business, and the government. And they were trying to please the world, not Jesus. And now they were teaching another Jesus and a different gospel, and if anyone was still holding to the truths of the true gospel, they were either being shamed for doing so, and called out as disunifiers, or as people with “strong convictions,” or people who teach “works-based salvation” or “legalists.”

 

And most of the people have been putting up with this easily enough, and the vast majority appear to have bought into the lies and are not only following after the lies themselves, and are not only propagating those lies, but they are now going after us who are still preaching the truth, and they are attacking us, for they want to discredit the true gospel so that people will reject it in favor of this different gospel which is leading people back into or into continuing in their sins while promising them heaven at the end.

 

2 Corinthians 11:13-15,19-20 ESV

 

“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”

 

“For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves! For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.”

 

But these people who are teaching this other Jesus and this different gospel are false teachers, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as servants of righteousness. And the vast majority of today’s “church” (the institutional church) is following these false teachers and their false gospel and they have rejected the true gospel of grace. And so many are living in sin without guilt and without conscience, and they are living worldly lives, and they are not walking in obedience to the Lord in surrender of their lives to him.

 

So, these false teachers are leaving people in their slavery to sin and are making the people slaves of them, instead. And the people are buying into it because then they can live however they want and still feel as though heaven is secured for them when they die. Even if you tell them the truth, and you show them the truth in the Scriptures, they will reject the Scriptures which say what they don’t want to hear and they will hold on to ones taken out of context which they make to say what they do want to hear.

 

And so many people are professing faith in Jesus Christ while continuing to live in sin but while believing their sins are forgiven and so they can live however they want and it won’t matter for eternity. But they are sadly mistaken, for the Scriptures do not teach that. They teach that we must repent (turn away from our sins) and that we must obey the Lord, and that we must submit to Christ as Lord or heaven is not our eternal destiny. They will not inherit eternal life with God if they continue on that course.

 

But those who are holding fast to the truths of God’s word, who are daily dying to sin and to self, and who are walking in obedience to their Lord and to his commands, not in absolute sinless perfection, but as a matter of lifestyle, of practice, if they continue in this way, then in the end they will inherit eternal life with God and will have the hope of heaven as their eternal destiny.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

I'll Meet You In The Morning

 

By Albert E Brumley

 

I will meet you in the morning by the bright riverside

When all sorrows has drifted away

I'll be standin' at the portals when the gates open wide

At the close of life's long weary day

 

I'll meet you in the morning with a 'How do you do?'

And we'll sit down by the river and when rapture of the plane is renewed

You'll know me in the morning by the smile that I wear

When I meet you in the morning, in the city that is built four square

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iq6daOKXdw

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