“Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:14-17 NASB1995)
Pursuing peace with all people is never to be at the
compromise of truth and righteousness. It is never to compromise the truth of
the gospel of our salvation so that other people will like us, and so that we
will not offend them with the truth. For the most loving thing we can do for
people is to tell them the truth of the gospel which can save their souls from
hell, if they will believe in Jesus, die with him to sin, and obey his
commands. We should be gentle, but not to the point of withholding the truth
they need to hear.
For, as it says here, we are also to pursue the
sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. And sanctification is purity
and holiness. And holiness involves us dying with Christ to sin and us walking
in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, without which no one will see the
Lord. And if we are living holy lives, pleasing to God, we are set apart by God
for his service, separate from (different, unlike) the world, because by faith
in Jesus Christ we are being conformed by God to the likeness of character of
Jesus Christ.
And if we are to see to it that no one comes short of the
grace of God, then we need to first of all understand what that grace looks
like. For it was God’s grace to us humans that sent Jesus Christ to the cross
to die. But in his death, he put our sins to death with him so that, by
God-persuaded faith in Jesus we will now die to sin and live for God in walks
of obedience to his commands. For God’s grace is training us to renounce
ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and
godly lives.
For, included in seeing to it that no one comes short of the
grace of God is seeing to it that there are no immoral or godless people among
us who profess faith in Jesus Christ. And then we are given the example of
Esau. And in terms of our salvation, what he did was to sell his inheritance
with God in order to feed his flesh, which is what many people are doing who
profess Jesus with their lips. And so they lie to themselves and tell
themselves that God will welcome them into his heaven, but he won’t.
Now, obviously we have no control over other people and
their decisions to either follow Jesus in obedience or to continue living in
sin. But we should be those followers of Jesus Christ who are telling them the
truth of what the Scriptures teach, in context. And so that they are well
informed of what God requires, and of the consequences if they should choose to
reject the gospel, taught by Jesus and his New Testament apostles, to follow a
diluted gospel which does not require of them death to sin and obedience to
God.
For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny
self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if
we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity.
But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience
to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with
God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew
7:21-23).
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts
26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22;
Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews
12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
Your Servant Witness
An Original Work /
March 13, 2012
Christ’s Free
Servant, Sue J Love
Humbly I bow, Lord,
before You,
Bringing my requests
to You.
May I listen; hear
You speaking.
May I follow You in
truth.
Gently lead me in
Your service.
Guide my steps and
strengthen me.
Fill me with Your
love and mercy.
May I live for Thee!
Let me be Your
servant witness,
Telling others of
Your grace.
May I always share
the gospel
With those I meet
face to face.
May I show the love
of Jesus,
Caring for the needs
of men;
Be Your servant
witness always
For my Lord, Amen!
My desire to be like
Jesus,
Living for Him ev’ry
day.
May I obey all His
teachings
Given me, so I’ll
not stray.
Love You, Jesus,
Lord, my master.
You are the King of
my heart;
Follow You where’er
You lead me;
Not from You depart!
Tell Them The Truth
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