Colossians 1:24-29 ESV
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
What kind of sufferings did the Apostle Paul face during his years of ministry on this earth? He had people against him, left and right, falsely accusing him of what he did not do, trying to take him down, trying to kill him and silence him, trying to destroy his ministry, and trying to turn people away from him and away from the truth. And he was falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned for crimes he did not commit, and he faced beatings. And some of the “believers” in Christ turned on him and away from him and deserted him.
So, this was not unlike what Jesus Christ went through, too. And Jesus warned us that if we follow him with our lives that we will suffer as he suffered and that we will be hated and rejected and persecuted as he was hated, rejected, and persecuted. So, if we are following Jesus Christ with our lives, and if we are walking in his footsteps, in doing the kinds of things he did and said, we should expect that we are going to be treated like Jesus was treated, and like Paul was treated, because they stood for truth.
Now we live in a day and time in which truth is coming into disrepute and when the lies are what are largely being proclaimed and accepted as truth. This is a time in history when the lies and deceptions of Satan are what are permeating the church at large (and/or what is falsely being called “church”). And the lies are largely what the people are accepting while they are being taught to reject and to disregard the truth of God’s word and of his gospel of salvation, i.e. to reject the truth as though it is the lie.
And these lies are being spread through social media and their memes, and via short videos and short devotionals and via preachers’ sermons and “Christian” authors’ books, and via movies and cartoons and TV dramas which are loosely about the Bible and the character of God, of Christ, and via “Christian” artists and their music lyrics, etc. And since we live in a “fast-food” society, where most people, it seems, want things short and quick and easy, the masses are falling for these clever lies being told by people in their trickery and cunning and craftiness, and in their deceitful scheming.
Thus, so many people are now being taught that God’s gift of salvation to us is merely forgiveness of sins and a free ride to heaven, but regardless of how we live. And many are buying into this lie and they are regurgitating what they are hearing from those who are teaching them the lies, and some of them are actively opposing the truth via the lies. For the message that keeps coming across loud and clear is that you can believe in Jesus and continue living in sin but you will still go to heaven when you die.
And so we have a large number of professers of faith in Jesus Christ here in America who are continuing in deliberate, and in habitual, and even in premeditated sin against God and against other humans without conscience, without compassion, and without genuine remorse. For they have convinced themselves that they can make a confession of Christ as Lord and as Savior of their lives and now all their sins are forgiven, heaven is guaranteed them, it can’t be taken away from them, and regardless of how they live.
Thus they make a mockery of the whole reason Jesus Christ died on that cross. For he died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and that we might live for him and no longer for self. And he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of slavery to sin so we will now honor God with our bodies (our lives). And he died that we might be crucified and buried with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness.
[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 6:1-23]
So many men who are charlatans and wolves in sheep’s clothing are serving in positions of “pastor” in so many different church congregations and are spreading the lies as though they are truth, and who are refuting the truth as though it is the lie. And they are leading many people astray to believe that they can be saved and on their way to heaven but while they continue in deliberate and habitual sin. And the predominant sin appears to be mainly in the area of sexual immorality and in pornography addiction.
And so those of us who are proclaiming the truth of God’s word in opposition to the lies are being largely rejected and ignored or fought against, like they did to Jesus and to Paul and to the prophets before them and to the other NT apostles. But we need to keep on proclaiming the truth of God’s word in opposition to the lies, even if we are hated and rejected and falsely accused, in return. For it is the truth that saves, not the lies, and it is the truth that offers eternal life with God, but which is contingent on us walking with God.
We need to keep telling the people the truth that Jesus taught. And Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if, for the sake of Jesus, we deny self and die daily to sin and to self, and follow our Lord in obedience, then we have eternal life with God (see Luke 9:23-26; cf. Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Matthew 7:21-23).
And this is not just for the salvation of human souls, but this is to encourage the body of Christ, the church, toward maturity in Christ in walking in daily fellowship with the Lord, in surrender to his will, in living holy lives, pleasing to him, and in being and doing all that he has for us to be and to do while we live on this earth. And so this will involve not only proclaiming the truth of the gospel, but it must engage refuting the lies of the enemy, for far too many people are believing the lies and are rejecting the truth.
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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