Nothing Shall Separate Us from the Love of God

Posted on 03/02/2013 by Paul Pavao

Today my father-in-law’s “Verse of the Day” talked about Romans 8:38-39, which says that Paul was convinced that no created thing and no trial (nor a bunch of other things) can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. My father-in-law asked, “Can you honestly say that you are convinced?”

I believe that my over-a-year long battle with leukemia, its treatments, and its side effect was for that one purpose: God was trying to convince me that nothing would separate me from his love.

Mind you, I’m not a once-saved, always-saved person. Our own sin is not mentioned in Romans 8:38-39. We can separate ourselves from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus if we so choose.

Only a fool would choose that, but Satan has helped the Christian religious system become such that many, if not most, Christians are ill-equipped to live a Christian life. Christians have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal. 5:24). No, they’re not perfect, but they are new and improved … noticeably so.

If they’re not, they’re lying. They don’t know God.

Hey, I’m just repeating 1 John 2:3-4 and 3:7-10. Oh, and for the “not perfect” part I’m quoting 1 John 1:7-2:2.

Anyway, I’m off topic.

I remember days when I could do nothing but lay there in bed. I could barely think, much less pray. I remember days of being on Dilaudid and dreaming every time I closed my eyes, whether I was asleep or not. I hate being out of control, and I was not confident of anything going on around me.

In that severely weakened state, the mental weakness worse than the physical weakness, God was always close. Sometimes I would quietly weep, a tear would run down my cheek, and I would thank him for taking such good care of me. On days like that the sins of my past would rise up before me, and I would be unable to understand why the grace of God was with me so strongly.

And God would whisper to me, “Somehow, some way I am going to convince you that I am always on your side.”

There were other benefits to contracting leukemia. Yeah, I got the joy of having my faith tested, producing patience so that I can become perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Yeah, the pains and trials did things that aged me inside, so that two different strangers at two different times looked at me afterwards and gave me the best compliment I’ve ever had, “You are an old soul. I can see it.”

Yeah, I got to go through adventures, wander close to death and get a good view of my own mortality, and I got to see and experience things only so many people get to see.

Admittedly, there were a lot of benefits, and overall it was an extremely wonderful time.

But clearly, above all, the best benefit and main purpose was that I would be convinced that nothing–not leukemia, not pain, not confusion, not depression, not complete incapacitation–could separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord.

People like me—who actually believe the old Gospel, the one Jesus, the apostles, and the Christians who heard the apostles believed—we’re very prone to condemning ourselves because while it’s true that those who don’t obey the commands of God don’t know God (1 Jn. 2:3-4), it is also true that those who do know God don’t all obey perfectly.

God takes special care of the upright. He gives them grace to be not just upright, but to be able to live by an unearthly righteousness, the righteousness of God that is deeper than anything man can produce (Ps. 36:10; Php. 3:7-11; Gal. 2:20). That righteousness is beautiful to those who observe it in action (e.g., Ps. 90:17; Ps. 96:9; Zech. 9:17).

But even those possessed of such grace, upon whom others look with admiration, can be stricken with conscience. Their mourning over their own sins, no matter how merciful they are to the sins of others, is so deep as to be potentially unforgiving.

The grace of God is upon such humble mourners, and he devotes himself to convincing them of his love. He erases their doubts, and he puts the Holy Spirit in their hearts. He says, “Nothing, child, shall separate you from my love. I am for you, and nothing and no one shall set me against you.”

Originally posted by me, a few minutes ago, at Yippee-Leukemia.blogspot.com.

Posted in Holiness, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Genesis One and the New Creation, Part 3

Posted on 02/28/2013 by Paul Pavao

Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before reading this post, or you’ll probably be lost.

The Sixth Day: Animals and Man

I think it is significant that the sixth day includes the creation of both animals and man. I have been tying the old creation account to the growth of the new creation (us) in 2 Peter 1:5-7, and the sixth trait mentioned there is brotherly kindness.

Notice that the first five traits, and thus my interpretation of days one through five, all have to do with ourselves. We do good; we learn; we control ourselves; we persevere; and we become godly.

But now we approach something new. Now we come to brotherly kindness. Now the focus is on others.

There is a long foundation given before the focus is on others. Our soul is separated from our spirit. Our spirit is joined to God, but our soul becomes a place of creation. The Word of God separates the waters of our soul to form a place to plant his seeds, which grow to produce fruit. He teaches us to receive the lights of heaven: Christ through his Spirit, Christ through his church, and Christ through his individual saints, our brothers and sisters in him, the sun, moon, and stars.

The fruit of this is godliness, and godliness causes our soul to abound with life and noise.

All of this is meant to be shared. All of this is meaningless if there is no one to enjoy it!

But we must also remember that we cannot share if we have nothing to give. The first five days of creation, of transformation, must happen before the sharing of it.

So many people want to rush out the first day and become ministers of God’s word, a word they have, as yet, no way to contain. They have no place to put it. God’s word is not kept in a mere container. It is planted, and it grows. It flourishes in earthen containers, not just pots, but in flowering hearts and fleshly bodies.

Preparing those earthen vessels is not a small task. Paul warns us not to appoint novices as leaders (1 Tim. 3:6). Let us teach them to grow into mature believers, cultivated not just by knowledge, but by long perseverance in self-control and virtue. Our Bible schools can impart knowledge, but that is the bare beginning of the equipping of a man of God. No man will become “thoroughly equipped for every good work” without the teaching that is according to godliness, much correction, rebuke, and instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

But when that doctrine, reproof, rebuke, and instruction in righteousness has accomplished its purpose, and a man begins to manifest godliness, his ministry has already begun.

Those are days one through five. On day six, all the animals of the land and man himself is created. The sixth trait of 2 Pet. 1:5-7 is brotherly kindness.

On the sixth day, our soul becomes a place where others can tread. Our kindness extends to all. It is called brotherly kindness, but a mature Christian can call all men brothers for “he has made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the earth” (Acts 17:26).

This is true even of men who are not worthy to be called men, but whom Jesus and the apostles describe as pigs and dogs (Matt. 7:6; Php. 3:2; Rev. 22:15). Brotherly kindness brings animals and men to the godliness that has been cultivated in us over the first five days.

The Seventh Day: Rest and Love, the Culmination of Creation

There is a goal to the creation.

The seventh day never ends, at least during the first creation. The new creation brings in an eighth day. It is the day on which Jesus rose. It was not by accident that Jesus rose on the first day of the week. Jesus rose to bring a new creation, putting an end to the old creation and to Adam, the mere man.

Jesus is said by Paul to be the last Adam and the second man (1 Cor. 15:45,47).

That is not an accident nor casual use of words. When Jesus died, we who believe in him died with him. Adam was put to death. Jesus was the last Adam, and the man Adam is done with. There is a new man, a new creation … an eighth day, which is a new first day, the beginning of a new creation.

The seventh day of the old creation extended until the beginning of the new creation. It was a perpetual rest. It was never said to end. Fleshly Adam could only celebrate this once per week. He could not enter into a perpetual rest as God did, so he honored his Creator with a Sabbath rest, ceasing from manual labor on each seventh day.

But the new man is a spiritual man. Our lives are not measured by the flesh, but by the spirit. We can enter into God’s perpetual rest, and the Holy Spirit commands us to labor to enter into it! (Heb. 4:9-11).

Rest is a wonderful thing. We are new creations. The labor of the Spirit of God to shape our souls into godliness ends in a wonderful rest.

But beyond even rest, the new creation heads toward love. This is the final goal because while God entered into his rest, he is not rest. He is, however, Love (1 Jn. 4:8).

Many of us quote the verse that says that love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8). Unfortunately, if we want to understand that verse accurately, we need to either live in a previous century, or we need to translate the verse differently. While it may be true that love never fails, Paul didn’t say that. He said that love never ends. Prophecies will end, tongues will cease, and knowledge will vanish away, but love will never end. Like the rest of the seventh day, it goes on and on forever.

This is the creation that matters. The earth and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. They will perish in fervent heat. Those, however, who are of the new creation will live forever in rest and love.

We are not there. Our work on this earth is not to “preach the Gospel” with an outline and mere earthly words and carnal understandings of Scripture (cf. Rom. 10:15; 1 Tim. 3:6). The kingdom of God does not consist of words, but of power (1 Cor. 4:20), and that power must be created in you.

You are being created. The Word of God is dividing soul from spirit, then transforming your soul into a habitable and lively place so that it can house and bless both man and beast. But in all that there is a labor to enter the rest of God, where the very life of Christ can pour out the one eternal thing in this universe: love.

That is the new creation, of which this temporary old creation, even with all its majesty, size, and beauty, is a mere shadow.

Let us long together, as the old creation does, for the “glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21).

Posted in Bible, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Genesis One and the New Creation, Part 2

Posted on 02/27/2013 by Paul Pavao

Don’t miss yesterday’s post if you haven’t seen it. Today’s may not make much sense if you don’t read yesterday’s.

The Fourth Day: The Lights of Heaven

The fourth day is very tied to the previous three. Light and darkness were divided on day one. They were even called day and night on the first day. On the fourth day, however, God creates lights in the firmament to divide the day from the night.

How should we understand this? I suggest that what was once tied purely to God is being shared with us. Light and darkness were separated the first day, but there was no tie between the light and the rest of creation. The waters above which the Spirit of God was hovering, preparing to do his work of creation, were the focus of the second and third day, completely separate from the light and darkness of the first day.

On the fourth day, he gives us two lights to help us separate light from darkness and night from day. He also gives us many much smaller lights for signs and seasons, days and years.

What these lights represent is easy. The greater light that rules the day is Son of God. He said, “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn. 9:4-5).

The night has now come, but there is another light that God has given, a lesser light to rule the night. That light, of course, is the church.

Like the moon, the church does not have its own light. Its light is the light of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said that as long as he was in the world, he was the light of the world. He has departed and sent us his Spirit. Now we are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14; Eph. 5:8).

And the stars? While the moon represents the church, the collective light of all the saints, the stars represent the individual saints. Paul compares us in the resurrection to stars that differ in glory (1 Cor. 15:38-44). God describes Abraham’s descendants as being like the stars in multitude (Heb. 11:12). Jude even compares false prophets to stars. In Jude 13 the planets are used as bad examples, called “wandering stars” and applied to false prophets that will not keep their place.

The saints vary in their shining. Even the church reflects more or less of the light of the Son, though the analogy breaks down there, for we should always reflect the fullness of the Son. It is sin when we do not.

I have been tying the days of creation to the description of the growth of the new creation, which is us, in 2 Pet. 1:5-7. So how does this fourth day compare with perseverance, the fourth trait given by Peter.

It is self-control that produces the fruit we see in the soul on the third day. If the earth is to produce fruit, then the sun must shine and the seasons must come. So, if we are to continue to produce fruit, to persevere in our self-control, we need the light of the Son, the light of the church, and the admonition of individual saints.

In Hebrews 3:13 we read, “Exhort [or encourage, console, beg, plead] one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

We haven’t gotten to the deceitfulness of sin yet. That comes in chapter three, and it produces thistles, thorns, and pain rather than food for all the earth as self-control does. However, if we want to persevere in self-control, we need the influence not just of Christ, but of the church and of the individual saints around us as well.

I don’t have time to go into a long description of the role of the church in a post like this, but the church is called “the pillar and support of the truth” in 1 Tim. 3:15. The church is described as growing together as each part does its share in Eph. 4:13-16. And every individual member of the church is needed by the other members according to Paul in 1 Cor. 12.

The Fifth Day: Filling the Seas and Air with Life

The fifth trait in 2 Pet. 1:5-7 is godliness. On the fifth day, God filled the seas with sea creatures and the sky with birds.

At this point, the creatures of the sea and the birds are not given as food to man. When man is created on day six, God gives all the plants to him for food, but he does not give him the fish or the birds for food. That won’t happen until after the flood.

So the emphasis here has to be life, not food. The waters below, we saw, represent the soul.

Picture this, if you will. You are walking in a beautiful garden. There are trees filled with luscious fruit. Occasionally a field sprawls before you in “golden waves of grain.” Flowers grow along paths that run between the trees.

But it is quiet. There is no sound except the wind. Not a hint of life. For there are no birds, no animals.

When our perseverance in self-control becomes real godliness and not just good deeds, we begin to see not just fruit, but life. Others who touch a godly person are not just fed. They do not just hear the Word of God from such a person, they imbibe it. A godly man influences others by the very life that he brings around them.

What a difference in the world between day four and five! A quiet and empty garden island on day four. On day five, there is the chatter of birds and the splash of fish and dolphins. Life has come to the world, and so godliness will bring life into your soul.

I believe both creation accounts, the account of the old creation in Genesis one and two, and the account of the growth of the new creation in 2 Peter 1:5-7, are going somewhere. They have a purpose, a goal.

The sixth and seventh day embody that purpose, so we will set both aside until tomorrow.

Posted in Bible, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Genesis One and the New Creation

Posted on 02/26/2013 by Paul Pavao

This look at Genesis one is not unusual for me, so those of you who regularly read my blog will find no surprises here. Hopefully, though, you will find some deep encouragement. I know I did.

I started a reading plan on my YouVersion Bible app on my iPhone. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to read next, so I decided to let a reading plan tell me for a while.

The plan begins in Genesis, so I’m back in Genesis one.

The First Day: Let There Be Light

Somehow, today, the Scriptures just seemed to open up. As soon as I read, “And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night” (Gen. 1:5), something clicked in me. I always try to read the Hebrew Scriptures deeper, to find not just what is on the surface, but what God is saying about me, about us. Is there direction and insight hidden below the surface?

Spiritual people are supposed to be able to interface spiritually with the breath of God that is in the Scriptures. At least, that’s how I understand “in-spiration,” the God-breathed Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16).

We all know the Scripture’s constant use of light and darkness in metaphorical terms, applying to our behavior, our knowledge of God, our spiritual vision, and even specifically greed. (Commentators tell us that an “evil eye” full of darkness and a “good eye” that brings light—Matt. 6:22-23; Luke 11:34—is a reference to greed and generosity. See also Deut. 15:9 & Prov. 28:22.)

The separation of light and darkness happened the first day. With us, too, his new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), the first thing God does is separate the light from the darkness.

Peter describes a progression in our salvation. “Add to your faith virtue,” he tells us (2 Pet. 1:5). The first thing that we do is separate light from darkness. We choose the day, and we choose the light. We choose goodness over evil, and we reject the darkness.

You are all children of light, and children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of the darkness. (1 Thess. 5:5)

The Second Day: Let the Waters Be Separated

The first time you read the Scriptures, it is easy to assume that when God says, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters” (Gen. 1:6), that he is talking about separating one ocean from another. That won’t happen until day three, however. He is talking about separating the “waters above” from the “waters beneath.”

What a wonderful picture of the Word of God at work in our life!

Perhaps the foremost work of the Word of God is to separate our soul from our spirit (Heb. 4:12). Going back to 2 Pet. 1:5, what we are to add to our virtue, or light, from day one is knowledge. What knowledge?

It would be easy, if we forget the garden, to think that the knowledge we want is to distinguish good from evil. But we must not forget the garden. We do not want to distinguish good from evil! That is the tree that separates us from God!

We want the tree of life, and life comes from Jesus, the living Logos of God. And Jesus’ work is to separate soul from spirit.

The knowledge we need is to know the difference between what comes from our soul and what comes from our spirit because “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God” (Rom. 8:14). Paul adds, “Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

This is the second day. The waters above represent our spirit, infused with the Spirit of God and by the Word of God separated from our soul.

The Third Day: Let the Dry Land Appear

Lest we think that in the new creation, it is only the spirit that matters, Genesis one shows us where the real work of creation is being done.

Yes, we are to walk by the Spirit, but the transformation that is happening in you and in me is happening in our soul. God never mentions the waters above again, perhaps not even through the rest of the Scriptures, but certainly not in the story of the first creation here in Genesis. The waters above are already perfect. They just needed to be separated from the waters below so that they are not defiled.

It is the waters below where all the work is done.

First, those waters are separated. What appears is nothing but dry land. However, that dry land will become the host and source of all the life-giving food by which we will survive in this world of trials.

It is certain that in the new creation, when we first see the dry land appear, that we are convinced that this will be the source of perfection. This will be the garden of Eden. We will live our Christian life in bliss.

There comes a day for all of us, though, that we find that the land also produces thorns and thistles, and that it is only by the sweat of our brow that we can keep fruit growing.

I am getting way ahead of myself by saying that, though. The thorns, thistles, and the groaning of childbirth don’t come until Genesis 3.

I had a first version of this post in which I got confused and was thinking the fruit arose on day 4 and only the dry land on day 3. I was starting back to reading again, and I realized my mistake and corrected the end of this post. Oops.

Looking back at 2 Peter 1:5-7 and its account of growth in the new creation, we see that the third trait was self-control. On the third day the dry land appeared with all its promise of fruit. Self-control arises in the soul, determination to obey the Spirit of God, to be transformed by the influence of the waters above.

With self-control, the fruit finally arises. Grass, herbs, and trees with fruit are the product of patiently continuing to do good (Rom. 2:7; Gal. 6:9). All arise, and all are good for food, both for us and for the animals of the earth. (We don’t eat “grass,” but we do eat wheat, barley, etc.)

Even so, the next step in the new creation, in 2 Peter 1:5-7, is self-control. If we will continue in self-control, the fruit will come. It will grow, and it will feed our soul, and we will have food to give to others.

Days four through six are for tomorrow. I think day seven can have a post of its own. Thanks for reading!

Posted in Bible, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Leave Those Christians Alone!

Posted on 02/22/2013 by Paul Pavao

Back when I was first diagnosed with leukemia, I thought, “I’m going to trust God. I’m going to live by the grace of God, go through chemotherapy counting it all joy to have fallen into this trial, and be a testimony to God.”

I knew I could only do that by God’s grace. I was not depending on myself, but on him who strengthens us to do all things.

That was all good and fine. He did give grace, and I did what I hoped I would do. I endured, and am enduring, the treatment for leukemia with joy and delight.

I thought that would be something unusual.

Nope.

Robin Roberts of Good Morning America went through breast cancer and then a blood cancer called Myelodysplastic Syndrome publicly, bravely, and cheerfully. Tony Snow, former White House press secretary, prefaced a discussion of his health problems with, “I’m a very lucky guy,” even though he was aware the cancer would kill him.

The point is, I just wasn’t unusual. Those two were in the public, but I spent ten months either living in the Vanderbilt Medical Center or visiting it every day. It seemed to me that the majority of cancer patients were remarkably cheerful.

My wife snapped a picture of me helping a man out of a wheelchair into a pickup truck when I could barely walk myself. My experience was, that’s what we cancer patients do. Maybe there’s some sort of lesson about life in cancer. Cancer patients “get it.”

So do …

Sufferers of Adversity

Remember 9/11? Of course you do. That’s just a transition to get to the next point.

It stirred people up. It roused patriotism, and people leaped up to help.

Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy brought great destruction. They also stirred a great outpouring of cash and volunteers.

Don’t mess with people. You may be surprised at what you find inside of them.

Sufferers of Peace

Ever wondered about people when you don’t mess with them?

Back in the day, when schools were still allowed to teach things like this, I learned that the reason Rome fell was because they got immoral and indolent.

You want to mess up a society? Leave it alone, give it a lot of peace and prosperity without any adversity. Now that messes people up.

How To Make a Church Fail

I wrote an ebook discussing the fall of the church in the fourth century. I know a lot of people hate it when I use the term “fall of the church.” I’m not really free to care what they think because it’s an accurate term.

The ebook, just 20 pages long or so, discusses the fact that persecution didn’t work on the church, but peace did. It’s based on real history, and I like to think it’s pretty interesting because it’s written from the devil’s perspective.

You’ve heard that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it? American Christianity is in a time of peace, and it’s a wreck. Personally, I don’t think we should wait around for persecution or a massive economic depression to get things together. I think we should be frightened of our wonderful circumstances and our embarrassing lack of commitment to Christ and repent.

I don’t want anything in exchange for the ebook. You don’t even have to give me your email address. You can download it by clicking below:

How To Make a Church Fail free download (.pdf file)

Posted in History, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Women Pastors & “Course of Performance”

Posted on 02/20/2013 by Paul Pavao

One of the best arguments for knowing the common, widespread teachings of the second-century Christians is a legal term: “Course of Performance.”

LegalDictionary.com defines it this way:

Evidence of the conduct of parties concerning the execution of obligations under a contract requiring more than one performance that is used for the purpose of interpreting the contract’s provisions.

Huh?

The first line in their article about “course of performance” is easier to understand:

Course of performance refers to the systematic and uniform conduct in which parties engage after they enter into a contract.

Example:

A warehouse stores and ships books for a publishing company. The two companies have a contract dating from 1954. The contract specifies that the publisher must pay rent to A for the space occupied by the books.

In 2013, the publisher adds more books, which are put on pallet racks above the shelving currently being used for the publisher’s other books. The warehouse increases the rent because the publisher is now using more cubic volume of space. The publisher objects, because the square footage being used has not increased.

The contract does not specify how the rent is to be determined.

If this dispute were taken to a court of law, the court would determine the meaning of the contract, cubic feet or square feet, based on the “course of performance,” if it could be determined. In other words, how have the companies determined the rent for the last 59 year? That will determine the meaning of the contract to the original parties.

This is very applicable to the apostles writings. It is not just two companies disputing the meaning of their writings. It is thousands of denominations.

Fortunately—though some whose traditions are dashed in the process don’t think so—the “course of performance” concerning the apostles writings can often be determined fairly confidently.

Which brings us to the point of this post …

Example: Women Pastors

J. Lee Grady, one of my favorite columnists, put up an article called, “Why I Defend Women Preachers. As usual, it is well-written, and it addresses the main issue in the argument concerning women in church leadership: 1 Tim 2:11-14 (and 1 Cor. 14:34-35, which he does not address) versus the commendations Paul gave to women who were apparently in leadership, such as Phoebe (Rom. 16:2), Junia (Rom. 16:7), Euodias, and Syntyche (Php. 4:2-3).

He suggests that Paul is only silencing heretical women in 1 Tim. 2.

That’s one solution. The problem is, it completely ignores the course of performance. For centuries, there is no indication the churches ever allowed a woman in any leadership position. Woman were servants (deaconnesses), but “deacon” (properly, “servant”) was not an ordained position in the early churches, as overseer (or bishop) and elder were. There is simply no record of a woman overseer or elder for centuries in the churches the apostles started.

Thus, Mr. Grady, with all due respect, is almost certainly wrong in his interpretation.

In fact, to the “course of performance,” I would add that Paul gives his reasons in 1 Tim. 2:11-15, and his reasons do not include “these women are heretics.”

Instead, based on the “course of performance,” it is much more likely than the women who are commended in the verses above were not ordained leaders. Instead, they were in whatever way helpers to Paul and other men. In fact, Phoebe is specifically said to be a servant, a “deaconness,” in Rom. 16:2, not an overseer or elder.

Caveat: This Is Not the First or Second Century

There are a lot of things that should keep us humble in applying what I’ve said to today’s practice in the churches.

  1. Churches today are in shambles. The role of pastor in today’s church is nothing like the role of pastor in the Scriptures. They are qualified differently, they serve differently, and they lead churches that are drastically different than the churches we find in the Scriptures and in early church history.
  2. We must never forget Deborah, who judged Israel, nor even Samson, who was probably the most unrighteous servant of God ever. God uses whom he must. If a man isn’t doing the job, may God be praised that he raised up a woman to do it.
  3. There may be a cultural element to Paul’s instructions.

Take your stand where you will, but I warn you to beware that you do not become a pharisee in your “correct” interpretations of Scripture. Jesus was not fond of them, and he gave more mercy to prostitutes and tax collectors than he did to self-confident interpreters of Scripture.

You search the Scriptures because you think that you will find life in them. The Scriptures testify of me! Yet you refuse to come to me so that you might have life. (Jn. 5:39-40)

A Story

I met a lady once who had started seven churches in the Dominican Republic. (Her name was Mercedes if anyone reading this knows of her.)

Her husband was German, so when she was in Germany with her husband back in 1986, I went to hear her at a Bible Study. The teaching was very in-depth. (I now believe it was probably too in-depth and inappropriate for that audience.)

Afterward, I went to Mercedes. I was quite young, and she was over 50, so I went very respectfully, as I recommend you do if you are ever in the same situation. I asked her, “What do you do with 1 Tim. 2? I don’t mean to be accusing or argumentative, but I’m just trying to figure out where I should stand or if there is something I’m missing.”

She got out a couple sentences, trying to explain how 1 Tim. 2 could allow for women teachers—or apostles for that matter, for she was a church planter over seven churches. Finally, she sputtered a bit and said, “I don’t know why Paul said that! I wish he hadn’t!”

I laughed. I still laugh when I tell the story.

I LOVE her answer.

Why would I love an answer like that? Because it was honest. What was she supposed to do? Go back to Santa Domingo and send everyone off to other churches?

These churches were no ordinary churches. They were real churches, where Christians got together for no other reason than that they were Christians. These churches understood what it meant to be the church. They were family, devoted to one another. Elders she appointed were appointed for the right reason: established character lived out among the congregation.

May there be more like her.

Posted in Church, History, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fulfilling the Law (Matthew 5:17)

Posted on 02/19/2013 by Paul Pavao

One of the more controversial verses in the apostles’ writings is Matthew 5:17:

Do not thing that I came to abolish [kataluo: to dissolve, disunite, destroy, demolish, overthrow, render vain, bring to naught, subvert] the Law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy [kataluo], but to fulfill [pleroo: to make full, to fill up, to fill to the full, to complete]

What did Jesus mean by this?

We really don’t have to wonder. He told us!

Except for verses 18-20, which complete the statement, the rest of Matthew 5 is spent explaining Matthew 5:17. What did Jesus mean by fulfilling—or better, “filling up”—the Law? He meant that we should not just avoid murder, but even hate. We should not just love our neighbors, but also our enemies. We should not just fulfill our vows, but fulfill every word that comes out of our mouth.

We don’t like the idea that Jesus brought a new law, but the Scripture says that he did:

For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change of law. (Heb. 7:12)

The early Christians used the term “new law” regularly. A search of the first volume of The Ante-Nicene Fathers shows that it is used 5 times. Interesting usages!

  • [God] has revealed to us by all the prophets that he needs neither sacrifices nor burnt offerings nor oblations, saying, ” … I am full of burnt offerings and do not desire the fat of lambs … for who has required these things from your hands? Do not tread my courts anymore … Incense is a vain abomination to me, and your new moons and Sabbaths I cannot endure” [Isa. 1:11-14] He has therefore abolished these things so that the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is without the yoke of necessity, might have a human oblation. (<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.vi.ii.ii.html&quot; target="_blank"Letter of Barnabas 2)
  • If … God proclaimed a new covenant which was to be instituted, and that for a light of the nations, we see and are persuaded that men approach God, leaving their idols and other unrighteousness, through the name of him who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and remain in their confession until death and maintain godliness. Moreover, by the works and attendant miracles, it is possible for all to understand that he is the new law, the new covenant, and the expectation of those who out of every people wait for good things from God. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 12)
  • The Lawgiver is present, yet you do not see him. To the poor the Gospel is preached, the blind see, yet you do not understand [Isa. 61:1; Matt. 11:5; Luke 4:18; 7:22]. You now have need of a second circumcision, though you glory greatly in the flesh. The new law requires you to keep perpetual Sabbath, and you, because you are idle for one day, suppose that you are godly, not understanding why this has been commanded to you. If you eat unleavened bread, you say the will of God has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances. If there is any perjured person or thief among you, let him cease to be so; if any adulterer, let him repent. Then he has kept the sweet and true sabbaths of God. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 12)
  • If we patiently endure all things contrived against us by wicked men and demons, so that even amid cruelties unutterable, death, and torments, we pray for the mercy for those who inflict such things upon us … even as the new Lawgiver commanded us, then how is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites that do not harm us—I speak of fleshly circumcision, Sabbaths, and feasts. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 18)
  • For where it is said, “The Law of the Lord is perfect” [Ps 19:7] you do not understand it of the law which was to be after Moses, but of the law which was given by Moses, although God declared that he would establish a new law and a new covenant. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 34)

Abolishing the Law

Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that he did not come to abolish the Law. Yet these early Christians spoke of it being abolished: “He has therefore abolished these things” (Letter of Barnabs quote above).

It is not just those in the apostles’ churches who speak of the Law being abolished. It is in the Scriptures:

In that he says, “a new,” he has made the first old. Now that which decays and grows old is ready to disappear [aphanismos: disappearance, destruction]. (Heb. 8:13)

Okay, admittedly it’s not the exact same word that is used, but there is no doubt that the idea is the same. What Jesus said he did not come to do, the writer of Hebrews says is happening in his time.

What’s the problem? Is there a contradiction here?

Not at all. Jesus is speaking of the old and new law together. He did not come to simply throw the old law out. He came to fill up—or expand—it into what it was originally intended to be. Thus it did not actually disappear, except to our eyes. Instead, it grew up into something else, leaving its old form behind to decay, grow old, and disappear.

There are those today, necrophiliacs of the old law, that mourn over the decay and disappearance of the old, dead form. They want fleshly circumcision, and an idle seventh day. They reject the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ, the new Priest and new priesthood, which calls us to a spiritual and perpetual rest (one that we must labor to enter into—Heb. 4:11); they reject the words of Paul who told us not to let ourselves be judged concerning Sabbaths, new moons, and festivals, which are a mere shadow of Christ rather than Christ himself.

Jesus made himself clear. Those who want the commands of the Law of Moses to be forgotten and left behind will be called least in the kingdom of God (Matt. 5:19), but those who reject the new law, clinging to “you have heard it said” rather than to “but I say to you” are described as foolish and warned that the fall of their house will be great (Matt. 7:26-27).

We don’t have to wonder what Matthew 5:17-20 and the filling up of the Law of Moses means. Jesus told us in the rest of Matthew 5. Therefore, let us neither be necrophiliacs of the old form, living in commands meant for unregenerate citizens of a fleshly kingdom, nor let us be those who break the commands of God and teach others the same, ignorant of the fullness of the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Posted in History, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fall of the Church?

Posted on 02/12/2013 by Paul Pavao

I got an email from someone that objects to my describing “the fall of the church.”

At least, I think that’s what his email was about. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. What I do know is that he offered several definitions of “the church” and he took guesses at what I meant by “the church.”

Anyway, this was my reply to that person:

You’ll see that my “Fall of the Church” posts are all stories.

Here’s the path:

  • 2nd century: awesome testimonies of righteousness and endurance in persecution.
  • 3rd century: More organization and hierarchy, more unrighteousness, less focus, more ritual, persecution produces a greater number of lapsed Christians.
  • 4th century: The churches, almost across the board, forget that they are supposed to be composed of disciples. The public flocks into the church, and the church is violent, worldly, and nothing at all like the pre-Constantinian churches. Influential church leadership positions are often appointed by the emperor or some government official, and corruption and intrigue are common. Monasteries form–in my opinion because committed Christians, with exceptions of course, find it impossible to be a part of the travesty that is called the church/churches.

That’s what I mean by the fall of the church. There are indeed true believers/sheep after that, even, in my opinion, true churches. I’m not trying to define the church in “fall of the church” but to tell the story that I roughly outline above.

I don’t understand why you say that Jesus said the organization would be identified by sheep and wolves together. That’s crazy. He talk about tares, but tares look like wheat. Wolves look like wolves, despite the Aesop’s fable about wolves in sheep’s clothing. Wolves should be driven away; that is the job of shepherds.

In fact, all the wicked should be put away so that we are a pure loaf. That is the command of the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 5).

Tares will slip through our imperfect discernment and our imperfect obedience to the apostle’s command, but if a church is noted for sheep and wolves together, it is a disobedient church that has probably already been spewed out of Jesus’ mouth (Rev. 3:16). Thus, in my opinion, it is no longer a church.

The issue is not definitions. It is actions and goals. Wasting one’s time with a group of people that are primarily nominal Christians is exactly that: a waste of time. No, worse, it is a testimony to the world that Jesus is meaningless and powerless. All disciples should leave such a church, and they should join with one another, not with those who have not even the intention of attempting to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Jesus.

Posted in Church, History | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

That the Body of Sin Might Be Done Away With

Posted on 02/10/2013 by Paul Pavao

The following is a daily devotional written by my father-in-law, Robert Maynard (no, not the former mayor of Oakland, CA). He calls it “Verse of the Day” and he sends it some co-workers and family, though he tells me he’s probably going to make it a blog soon.

I hope he does. This one is from February 8, day before yesterday. All the words and emphases are his, and this is used with permission. Once he makes his devotional a blog, I’ll give you a link:

Romans 6:6 NASB knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Daily Background reading: Romans 6:4-7

1. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him: What do you know? How did you learn it? We know from the things we learn. We learn from experience, others experience or from just the plain facts of life. You can have book learning or life experiences learning (work knowledge). You know and I know that intelligence is not determined by either book knowledge or by life knowledge. Your intelligence is given to you by the Lord. There have been many, many people that have wanted to increase their IQ but have not been able. Why? That’s because only God can give you intelligence. But there is one area of intelligence that you can increase, your “faith intelligence.” You see it goes something like this. You come to faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit comes to live in you to guide and direct your life and to give you understanding in God’s ways. As you pray, read God’s holy word and place more of your faith in Him, you gain “faith intelligence” on what is right and wrong. You start to understand more and more how to please the Lord and to turn away from evil. That is why we call the men and women of Hebrews chapter 11 the “Heroes of Faith.” They are the wise ones of faith, the ones who have grown in their “faith intelligence” to the point of pleasing the Lord with their lives. And that is why the Bible says to us and God wants us to know:

Galatians 5:16 NASB But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

2. in order that our body of sin might be done away with: Just because you know something doesn’t mean you will do it. Some things are dangerous but we take the “chance” and do them. We “weigh the odds” and place our bets, that we will beat the odds at whatever we want to do. What we often fail to do is properly assess the outcome if we “fail” to beat the odds. Let’s take the simple example of driving over the speed limit in your car. We say to ourselves “It’s ok because everyone is doing it” or we justify it by saying “I am late, and I must get there on time.” Whatever the reason or excuse, we choose to “take the chance” and speed. We calculate how fast we can go, for how long and what the chances are that no policeman will be up ahead of us. We even calculate “what are the odds” that if we do get stopped, we will get by with just a warning because we weren’t going that much over the speed limit. Remember one simple fact: Sin will cost you more than you want to pay, keep you longer than you expected to stay, and take more from you than you than you want to give. You see this verse teaches us that Sin is NOT automatically taken away from us. Paul uses the term might be in verse 4 and 6 to strengthen his point. He is writing under the inspiration of Almighty God and he is trying to let us know that the choice is ours. You have been crucified with Him so that the sin in your life might be done away with. We need to be just like Joshua when he says:

Joshua 24:15 NASB “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

3. so that we would no longer be slaves to sin: Think about a slave for just a moment. He has no choice. He must do what he is told. But Praise the Lord, we are no longer slaves to sin. What does that mean? We now have a choice. We can choose whom we will serve in any and every situation. We can choose to serve ourselves and do the things that the flesh craves. That way is always the wrong way or the way of Sin. Or we can choose to serve the Lord and do things that the Spirit of God leads us to do. Notice that I say “leads us” not “forces us.” You “lead a horse” to water but you can’t “force him to drink.” So it is with us. God “leads us” in the path of righteousness not “forces us” in the path of righteousness. You my friend are a “freed slave.” Only do not use your freedom to sin but turn away from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit that is in you to guide you into the path of righteousness.

Lord, I want to practice what I say. I want to turn away from sin and do what is right in your sight. The only way I know to do that is to seek your guidance in every situation. As I pray unceasingly, enable me to know you will in every circumstance and situation. Help me to trust you more and more. Let me have spiritual eyes that can see and know what you see and know. I know that there are many deceivers out there and that the evil one often disguises himself as a child of light. Lord, help me to see through the deception and to be able to say to him “be gone Satan” “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Posted in Bible, Holiness | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Groanings Too Deep To Be Uttered

Posted on 02/09/2013 by Paul Pavao
In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for like we should. However, the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. ~Romans 8:26

Yesterday I laid a foundation for this by discussing tongues for two reasons:

  1. A lot of people think this verse is about praying in tongues.
  2. What I have to say about this verse is related to praying in tongues.

Is Rom. 8:26 About Praying in Tongues?

Romans 8:26 talks about the Holy Spirit making intercession for us with “groanings too deep to be uttered.” Groanings too deep to be uttered are not the same as speaking in another language. “Too deep to be uttered” means, uh, “too deep to be uttered.” That means you can’t say those groanings.

Speaking in tongues is speaking in words. Groaning without uttering is not speaking at all.

This isn’t talking about praying in tongues.

Groanings Too Deep To Be Uttered

I spent yesterday’s post talking about words and Scripture verses. I just discussed the wording of Romans 8:26. Now, it is time to get to what I really want to point out, the imagery of Romans 8:26.

Picture what Paul is describing here. I am going to assume that it is not only the Holy Spirit that is groaning, but that the person in whom the Holy Spirit lives is groaning as well.

Picture this kind of prayer.

A person is on their knees, so caught up in prayer, that they are literally groaning, unable to express the deep—rich even—emotions that are moving in his or her spirit, prompted by the Holy Spirit, whose own infinite, completely unselfish love is longing for good to be poured out on the earth from God; whose own divine purity is agonizing over the impurity that we bring into God’s creation and our own society of his beloved children.

Do we pray like this?

I believe that many of us do not pray like this because we never create the opportunity to pray like this.

One of my favorite stories from Christian history is the arrest of Polycarp, the aged and beloved overseer of the church in Smyrna. Two soldiers showed up to arrest this dangerous enemy of Rome and were shocket to find a fragile, 86-year-old man with white hair and beard.

Polycarp served them a meal, then asked time to pray.

He then prayed … for two hours … out loud and in front of the soldiers.

We read of Jesus himself rising before daybreak to pour out his heart to his Father. We read of him crying out to his Father on the eve of his crucifixion to the point where he sweat drops of blood.

What kind of prayer is that?

Ecstasy

The gift of tongues is occasionally referred to by scholars as “ecstatic” tongues, especially in reference to the ancient tongues that we read about in the apostles writings.

TheFreeDictionary.com defines ecstatic as:

  1. In a trancelike state of great rapture or delight
  2. Being in a state of ecstasy; joyful or enraptured

I want to suggest that this “trancelike state of great rapture or delight” is promoted by the apostle Paul.

That’s probably not the best definition I could have used, but I had trouble finding a word as effective for communicating what I want to say as “ecstasy” is.

The problem is not “trancelike”; the problem is “rapture or delight” and “joyful.”

I don’t think that “groanings too deep to be uttered” are always, or ever, joyful or delightful. More probably, they can be painful, at least emotionally.

Paul was a much more wild man than we usually give him credit for. He was passionate, prone to anger, and impressively bold and hopeful. He was bold and hopeful because he was full of belief in the power of God.

But I wonder how much of his bold, hopeful fullness of faith was prompted by “watchings often.”

He mentions “watchings” in 2 Cor. 6:5 and 11:27. In 6:5 it is watchings and fasting. In 11:27 he adds “weariness and painfulness” and, again, “fasting often.”

What does Paul mean by “watching”?

He means staying up all night or late into the night in prayer. Not a few lines of requests for blessings, but long hours that he considered agonizing work.

When Paul mentions his difficulties and trials, he mentions false brothers, robbers, cold, nakedness, and “that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”

How did someone who had to walk everywhere he went care for all the churches?

He cared for them in prayer, which is why he could tell one church after another that he did not cease to pray for them, even since he saw them or even heard of them (Col. 1:3-4).

I’m going to risk a general statement here and say that no one who has spent long hours praying in care over the lost and over their brothers and sisters in Christ that they know or don’t know … anyone who has spent those long hours has had the experience of being “caught up,” whether in ecstasy or agony. They know the feeling of losing track of this world and being caught up into God, wrapped up in the Spirit of God, seeing things with an eternal view.

For Paul, this was definitely so. He was a man of visions and prophecies. In his prayers for the ship that was transporting him as a prisoner to Rome, which were surely long and full of emotional anguish, God promised him not only that he would survive, but that he would be granted the lives of all the crew members as well. (Toward the end of Acts, probably chapter 27. I’m in a hurry, so I’m not going to go look it up.)

Peter (Acts 10, I’m pretty sure) went to Joppa and was asked to pray for a woman named Dorcas, who had died. For us, that seems a little late to be praying, but Peter was an apostle.

Now Jesus was closer to God than even his lead disciple, Peter. Jesus could just walk into the room where Jairus’ daughter was and tell her to awake from the dead. Peter had to do more. When he was alone in the room with the dead woman, he prayed first, then asked Dorcas to get up.

I have to imagine that was an impassioned prayer. There were people outside counting on him. Can you imagine Peter emerging like a doctor from an operating room, head hung, pulling off his mask, and quietly announcing, “I’m sorry. I lost her.”

Peter didn’t want to imagine that, either. I assure you, he was crying out to God, and there were probably groans too deep to be uttered coming out of him.

Impassioned Prayers, Ecstasy, and Tongues

Let’s wander back to tongues. We read yesterday that Paul thanked God that he prayed with tongues more than all the Corinthians. He also prayed “with the understanding.” He sang, too, “with the spirit” and “with the understanding.”

I do not want to promote tongues. Overall, Paul didn’t, and no other apostles even mention it. You can search the writings of the early Christians, and there are a lot of them, and you will find only one passing reference from Irenaeus commenting that there were still those that spoke in tongues. It doesn’t sound like he even knew them.

Tongues showed up in the Book of Acts without any promotion. If they show up again, without any promotion or any kooky Christians asking us to say “abba” over and over again, then yeah!, I’m thrilled.

I do want to promote ecstasy, or at least that other worldly catching up that happens to those who labor before God for long periods of time.

It’s life-transforming, it’s Biblical, and both Jesus and the apostles gave us examples of it.

Maybe when we are people who can say with Paul that we are in watches and fasts, and that often, we will know again the proper role of tongues, or, even better, we will groan with intercessions too deep to be uttered rising from the Spirit of God to the throne of God.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. ~James 5:16
Posted in prayer | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment