“Having the Spirit”

There are two ways to “have the Spirit”. The first is obvious. Those who receive the holy Spirit “have” it. But there is a second way of having the Spirit that is often overlooked.

When Paul was giving his counsel to the saints in Corinth concerning marital issues, he admitted that even though some of the counsel he gave was from the Lord, some of it was his own judgment. He concluded the counsel that came from his own heart by saying, “and I think I have the Spirit of God” (1Cor. 7:40). Paul was not saying that he thought he had received the Spirit; he knew he had received the Spirit many years before, when Ananias laid hands on him in Damascus (Acts 9:17).

To “have the Spirit” in matters of judgment means to be led by the Spirit in making judgments. To “have the Spirit” in matters of conduct means to be led by the Spirit in the kind of life you live. To “have the Spirit” in teaching means that your doctrine comes from God.

Jude also used this phrase “having the Spirit” with reference to being led by it when he described certain men who falsely claimed to be sent by God as ministers of Christ. This is what he said of them (Jude 1:16, 19): “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great, swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.... These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” We know that these men had received the Spirit because Jude is talking about conditions within the body of Christ. They had the Spirit in that sense. But they did not have the Spirit in the sense of being led by the Spirit to teach the divisive doctrines they were now teaching.

It is no small matter to “have the Spirit” in the sense of being led by it because in the end, the ones who God will claim as His own will only be those who have been led by the Spirit after they received it. Paul warned the saints in Rome, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). Paul understood that everyone who received the holy Spirit belongs to God, and those without it did not belong to Him (Rom. 8:9). But he also understood that after receiving the Spirit, some of God’s children would continue to “walk in the Spirit” and come to know God, while others would choose to follow their own will instead and never come to know Him. Jesus called the former group “wise virgins” and the latter, “foolish virgins” (Mt. 25).

It is essential that we have the Spirit; that is, to receive it. But if we do not continue to have it afterwards, to guide us in our ways, it will not go well with us on the Day of Judgment. In his own way, Peter said that on the Day of Judgment, it would have been better to never have had the Spirit at all than, after receiving it, not to continue to have it (2Pet. 2:20-22): “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”

“But I Say Unto You...”

Jesus pointed out differences between the truth and some of the traditions of his time by saying, “You have heard it said . . . but I say unto you . . .” I will use that same formula now to point out differences between the truth and some present-day traditions held in high regard by many Christians.

1. “Joining the Church”

You have heard it said that it is good to join the church, but I say unto you that if the body of Christ is the Church, it is impossible to join it. The body of Christ is not a club. It is a family into which we must be born by being baptized with the holy Spirit of God. Paul taught us that “by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body” (1Cor. 12:13), and that baptism is the only way anyone can enter into it. God alone “sets every one of the members in the body as it pleases Him,” and any club, religious or not, that someone joins is not the body of Christ.

2. “Accepting Jesus Christ”

You have heard it said that you must “accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior”, but I say unto you that he is already your personal Lord and Savior, regardless of what you accept, do, or think. The very thing that makes sinners sinners is that they are not in subjection to Jesus, their personal and only Lord and Savior. If Jesus were not already everybody’s Lord, it would not be sin for sinners to live without him. The Bible states very plainly that “Jesus is [already] Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).

Besides the fact of Jesus’ eternal status as Lord and Savior, there is no such thing as any creature “accepting” Jesus, because it is always the case that the Greater accepts the lesser, not vice-versa. It is Jesus who makes us acceptable to God by washing away our sins and changing our nature. Our personal Lord and Savior must accept us; we cannot “accept” him, and there is nothing in the Bible that suggests that anyone on earth can do so.

3. “Make Jesus Lord”

You have heard ministers implore sinners to “make Jesus Lord of your life”, but I say unto you that you can make Jesus nothing. Peter said, “God hath made Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Jesus has been exalted by the Father “above the heavens” and has been given “a name above every name.” God has made Jesus “most blessed, forever”, and there is not one thing that we humans can add to his glory.

4. “Get Saved”

You have heard it said that sinners can repeat a few Scriptures and “get saved”, but I say unto you that salvation is the reward for the faithful, which Christ Jesus will bring to us when he returns. Jesus said, “He who endures UNTO THE END, the same will be saved” (Mt. 10:22). For this reason, Paul could say that our salvation “is nearer now” than it was when we first came to Christ (Rom. 13:11). When Jesus was asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”, Jesus did not respond, “Repeat after me.” He said, “Keep the commandments of God.” If you really want to “get saved”, do that, until the end.

5. “Go to Church”

You have heard it said that all believers should “go to church”, but I say unto you that no believers should “go to church”. Yes, of course, believers should “assemble themselves” often, and all the more as they see the day of the Lord approaching, but what does the saints gathering together have to do with “going to church”? Church religion is the greatest danger on earth to the fellowship of the saints, and should be avoided at all costs. I am convinced that God’s heart is broken because His people refuse to reject church religion and come out and worship Him “in spirit and in truth”.

Do not go to church. Instead, gather together with others who have received the holy Spirit (or are seeking it), and let the Spirit of the Lord teach you and make you “free indeed”!

“Among the gods”

from a sermon by Pastor John in Louisville, Kentucky, August 10, 2005

When some of Israel’s elders condemned Jesus for saying he was the Son of God, Jesus quoted this verse from Psalms: “Is it not written in your law that I [God] said, ‘You are gods’?” In other words, Jesus was asking those who opposed him, “Don’t you remember your own scriptures, where God said to you, ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the most high’?” Of course, they did remember that verse because they were the elders of Israel. They knew the scriptures well, and they could not gainsay Jesus’ reasoning.

They had condemned Jesus, saying to him, “You are blaspheming, because you say you are the Son of God.” But Jesus responded, “Hold on a minute, here. Didn’t our God, tell you in your own law, that you are gods? And if that is true, if God called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the scriptures are true, are you telling me, the one the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme’, simply because I said ‘I am the Son of God’? If God said to you, ‘You are all children of the Most High,’ then where is the blasphemy in my telling you that I am the Son of God?”

Who was it that God called “gods”? That is the important thing about the verse which Jesus quoted. According to that verse, “gods” are those people, men and women, to whom the word of God comes. Has the word of God come to you? Consider for a moment what the word of God can do. The word of God created the universe out of nothing, and all the life forms in it. That’s what the word of God can do. And when that word of God comes into your frail human body, it makes you something more than a mere mortal because the word of God is something more than your life. Now, you know that you and I are not to be worshiped, but because of the entrance of God’s word, we now are called gods by the One who created us anew in Christ Jesus.

When Paul said, ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,’ he was saying exactly what David and Jesus said: ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the most high.’ Again, we are not to be worshiped, not to be sacrificed to, but we must understand our status. As children of God, we are more important to God than the cherubim and the seraphim and all those wonderful creatures around God’s throne. We are more important to our heavenly Father than all of them put together. All the angels of heaven do not matter to Him as much as we do. We are His children. They are His creatures. They are His servants. As a matter of fact, they are our servants. It says in Hebrews that they are sent forth from heaven as ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Now, they don’t take orders from us, but they are here to serve us. They receive their orders from above. It’s God the Father who, through His Son, gives orders to the angels for the blessing of His “gods” down here. Even the angels understand that the children of God are “gods”, and that their duty is to serve them.

Paul said, ‘Don’t you know we will judge angels?” We are going to judge the world to come, and we will rule over this world with Jesus for one thousand years. Now, what kind of status is that? Such knowledge shouldn’t make you proud. It should amaze and humble us. John the apostle wrote, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” Believers are children of God now. Believers are “new creatures”. Believers are gods because God Himself said so.

You, as gods on the earth, can sense the spirits around you. You know what people feel and think, even if they do not show it on the outside. Nobody is a secret in the presence of God. How many times have you read in the Bible such phrases as “Jesus, knowing their thoughts ...”, and yet, those people assumed they were thinking in secret. The Spirit is a light; it’s a lamp; it brightens your pathway. When we walk in the Spirit of our Father, we don’t accidentally bump into anything. Nothing surprises us. You know where people are. That’s what comes with the territory of being gods. You know more than ordinary humans can know. You see more than ordinary humans can see. You feel things that humans don’t feel because you have a spirit that ordinary humans don’t have. You have a Father that humans don’t have. You have a family that humans do not belong to. You have a hope that humans don’t have. You live above the ordinary course of life because the word of God has entered into your heart and re-created you. It is not because you are by nature better than anybody else, but because God’s word creates wherever it goes; and in those who believe, it creates a new kind of being that had never been before Christ came. It is a being that knows things that it did not previously know, sees things it did not see, and can now do things it could not do. And it is going to come out of the grave long after it goes in, because the grave cannot hold that new creature down.

What superstition, and “doctrines of demons”, and “ways of the heathen” do, is intimidate God’s people so that they fear to believe and act like their new selves in Christ. Have faith in your God, and do not be afraid to be who you are. Go ahead and think the next thought, see the next vision, feel the next feeling. It’s God in you doing those things, just as Jesus said it was God in him doing the things he did!

Don’t be afraid of what you’re going to see next, what you are going to understand next. Don’t be ashamed of who you’ve become. You’ve become somebody that is connected with the all-knowing God. That’s who you are - sons and daughters of the living God, through the holy ghost.

If any man be in Christ, he’s a “new creature”. You must find out who you are — find out who each other is: a new creature. Old things are passed away. It is such a glorious truth that even those to whom it has happened can hardly believe it. It’s just too great to take in all at once. “Old things are passed away. All things are become new.” One of the things that becomes new when you are born again is your past. In Christ, you have a new past. You have a new family tree. The creature God makes you did not come from natural forebears. You were conceived and born of the “incorruptible seed” of the word of God. That body you have now came from the corruptible seed, the physical seed of your natural parents. But there is another seed. Jesus called it the word of God, and that is where you came from. And one of these days, you are going to shuck off this fleshly shell and be clothed with a new body. That’s what gods ought to have — a different kind of body from this decaying shell in which we live on Earth.

That is a hope worth living for. It is a hope worth dying for. It’s worth being misunderstood for. It’s worth suffering for, worth waiting for. It is worth loving your enemies for, and praying for those that despitefully use you. It’s worth praying for. It’s worth praising God for. It’s worth repenting for. It’s worth everything!

That new creature knows the future. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, Revelation 19 tells us. That is the spirit that you’ve received. You’re supposed to be a prophet. You are supposed to feel the coming judgment. You’re supposed to rejoice in hope of salvation. You are supposed to feel those things coming, and unless you have been confused and made dull of heart by “doctrines of demons” and “the ways of the heathen”, you do feel them coming. It’s real in you. That new creature has a real hope. It knows what’s coming. And well it ought to! Even demons sensed them coming whenever Jesus drew near them! They cried out such things as, “Are you come here to torment us before the time?” Ought we not to know, too, that time is coming? Those demons were not children of God. Then, we who are children of God ought to know that time of judgment is coming, and be excited about it. That awareness of the coming judgment made the demons tremble with fear. It ought to make us praise God. Jesus said that when we see the end near to lift up our head and rejoice, for “your redemption is drawing nigh.” Amen.

God Himself was the one talking when He said, ‘Did I not say, you are gods?” That was God talking, not the psalmist. The least we can do is say is He is right! God doesn’t judge things by how you feel; He goes by what He knows. And when you go by what He knows, you feel as He feels. That’s where good and right feelings come from; from what God knows.

The world mocks at the truth because it doesn’t know a god when it sees one. John said, ‘This world doesn’t know us because it didn’t know him.” The world didn’t know Jesus. How, then, is it going to know his brothers and sisters? The world doesn’t recognize God’s family. It’s too real for this world. It’s just too good.

“Among the gods”

Now, this is an important point for us to consider. Listen to this, from Psalm 82:1: “God stands in the congregation of the mighty. He judges among the gods.”

Referring to the imagined gods of the heathen, the prophets said more than once that the gods were vanity, or nothing. And if we use that definition of “gods” for this verse, then God doesn’t have much work to do, does He? Anyone can judge among nothing. Likewise, if we see the word “gods” in this verse as referring to demons, it won’t hold up for us, in our time, because God has already judged them. They are already condemned. But if we read this verse as referring to God’s children, that means that Jesus is among us, judging “among the gods”. Only God Himself and His anointed Son have the wisdom to do that.

This is why Paul was so distressed that a brother in Corinth had sued another brother and taken him to court. Paul called it “going before the unjust”. In other words, Paul was saying, “How in the world can you expect the world to judge what is right among the gods?” In order for the world to judge among this new race that God has created, they’d have to be led by the Spirit, but all they have to judge by is their eyes and their ears. That is all they have. And Jesus commanded us not to judge by what our eyes see and what our ears hear, but “judge righteous judgment”. The world cannot obey that commandment. So, the foolish man who had dragged his brother to court was not being led by the Spirit, even though in a worldly court he might look or sound better. Only God can judge among the gods.

Paul asked that man who went to the world with his grievances and sued a brother in court, “If you feel as if your brother has done you wrong, why wouldn’t you rather suffer wrong than to bring a reproach on Christ, before the world?” Paul was distressed that a child of God would love himself so much more than he loved Jesus that he would seek the world’s judgment of any matter among the saints, for every wise child of God knows the world cannot judge their affairs rightly. On the contrary, Paul indignantly asked, “Don’t you know that we shall judge the world?” Paul knew that every sincere child of God seeks justice from the Father and does not bring issues belonging to the body of Christ before the world to be judged. When God calls us, He calls us to faith in Him. And “by faith, we understand” that God alone is able to judge rightly “among the gods” and that the real “gods” in this world, according to our heavenly Father Himself, and according to His Son Jesus, are those to whom the word of God has come.

Your Best Helpers

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Those around us who are walking in the love of God do us good in many ways. One of the chief ways they benefit us is to point out errors in ours lives that we do not see. In the Old Testament, God commanded His people not to let it pass, when they saw a neighbor commit a sin. In other words, God commanded His people to love as He loves. Solomon said, “Whom the Lord loves, He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:12). To love as God loves, then, means to correct a brother when he errs, to remind him of the right way when he has wandered away from it. This holy love is what makes certain people around us so valuable.

But there is another group of people who are also among the most valuable to us. They are those who hate us with perfect hatred. God uses them as well as the first group to point out faults that we may be overlooking. These intend their criticism for evil, while the first group intends it for good, but the important thing is that it is done. Jesus warned us that evil men (including fallen brothers and sisters) would speak “all manner of evil” against us, but intermingled with their lies and slander is often a few legitimate criticisms. It is especially from believers who have turned from righteousness that we can receive the best criticism. Having known us, and having once been touched by God, they are able to point out faults in us that the world cannot perceive. These fallen brothers failed to offer in love our needed criticism while walking with us in the light, but God is so wonderful that He uses them anyway for our good, in spite of their malicious intent.

These two groups of people, those who love us as God loves us and those who hate us as Satan hates us, provide our most valuable help in the Lord, with blunt, insightful criticism. It is no wonder, then, that we are exhorted to love both those who are true and faithful, and those who are our enemies; they are all the most important people in our lives! My father taught us that you will never help anybody in the Lord if you fear hurting them. In fact, he taught us that you will never help anybody in the Lord unless you hurt them. And if we fear losing a brother if we are honest with him concerning a fault, what good can we do him? Jesus is not not like that. Once, in John 6, he even invited his disciples to leave him if they didn't want to hear what he said to them. Neither those who love us as God loves us nor those who hate us as Satan hates us will refrain from hurting us. The godly do not want to hurt us, but they love us enough to do it. The ungodly do want to hurt us, and they love themselves enough to do it. Either way, both groups are used by God for our good if we love Him.

But there is a third group.

The least valuable people in our lives are those around us who see our faults and remain silent. They are the real trouble-makers in the kingdom of God. They are the grudge-holders, the luke-warm, whose love is skin deep, who gossip to others about the faults they see in us instead of correcting us so that we can be healed. These foolish believers refuse to function as a healing part of the body by helping others to see their faults and to deal with them. They remain, sometimes for many years, among the body as useless, dead weight. Time usually reveals that they are silent about the errors they see in others because they are hiding from others some secret sins of their own.

Friends, if you are going to be a part of the body, then function! Live from the heart among the saints and be a benefit to others who are striving to do the will of God. One of the greatest compliments ever paid to a body of believers was paid to the saints in Rome. The apostle Paul described them as “able to admonish one another”. This means that (1) the saints in Rome had the wisdom to discern when a brother or sister was wandering off the right path, (2) they had enough of the love of God among themselves to point out error among themselves, and (3) they had the humility to receive criticism from one another when it was offered. For the body to function as Jesus wants it to, these three qualities must exist in it. Do you measure up?

Under the Old Testament law, God said that if we saw a brother sin and remained silent, we were, in fact, hating him. He said, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart! You shall by all means rebuke your neighbor, and not allow sin upon him. You shall not seek vengeance or bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself! I am the Lord!” (Lev. 19:17-18). Jesus loves us, and so he reproves us and convicts our hearts when we err, and he desires that each of us should love as he loves us. He told his disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12).

Do you love the saints around you as Jesus loves them? When you see fault, when you see something in a brother’s life that you know displeases the Lord, do you remain silent or whisper it to others instead of to him? If a brother harms you, do you hold a grudge. Do you seek revenge?

Let us determine today that we are going to function as we should, that we are going to love our brothers and sisters with the love of God while we have a chance. It will help us to do so if we remember that if we see a fault, it is only because Jesus has let us see what he sees so that we can co-operate with him in saving our brother. When we see a fault, Jesus is inviting us to do a good work. To be given the grace to see a fault in a brother is a golden opportunity; it is an open door to become a valuable part of the body of Christ, a healing part of the body, a fellow-worker with Christ, and to receive, in the end, the reward that is fitting for those who have served Christ well.

Only of God: What Fellowship Is

Adapted from a sermon on December 15, 2010

“Unto me is this grace given,

that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ,

to make all men see what the fellowship of the mystery is,

which from the beginning of the world has been hidden in God...”

Paul, in Ephesians 3:8-9

The ultimate goal of everything Satan wants to destroy, or envies (he actually wants to have a part in it, but he can’t) is the fellowship of the saints. What is it about fellowship that makes Satan want it so badly, and yet strive so much to destroy it?

Fellowship in Christ is when we who are in Christ feel the same thing, when we have the same mind - without talking it over beforehand. It is when we have the same judgment concerning situations and people, and the same love for one another. And this fellowship is created only when God’s Wisdom comes down upon us. It is something that is created within us by God. It is not voted on by men. It is not of the will or wisdom of man at all.

The apostle John said that when we are born into the kingdom of God, we are born “not of blood [that is, of human blood, or human origin], nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man” (Jn. 1:13). This concept is very difficult to anchor in the hearts of believers; but, the kingdom into which we are born of God is a kingdom where every thing that counts is not of human origin, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man. If something counts in the kingdom of God, is it not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of human origin (that is, “not of blood” of this world - no human race, no human genealogy, or any such thing). Those are the three things John said that those born into God’s kingdom are not of: they are born not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of blood (actually, that word is plural in the Greek: bloods). That means, we who are in Christ are not of any human race, not of any human genealogy, or anything like that. We no longer have any national earthly identity.

When we are born again, we are born into a spiritual place where everything is that way - not just the born-again person. God’s is a kingdom where communion with God and with one another is not of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, or of human origin. If we have any communion in the kingdom of God, it will only be of God, just as our birth into His kingdom was only of God. Communion with God happens only when God creates something to eat with us, something invisible for us to share with Him. And when He creates something within me and within you for us to enjoy together in Christ, we have fellowship, which is true communion.

The important thing to understand is that if God doesn’t create the fellowship, we don’t have it - even if we both want it, even if we both vote for it, and even if we both claim to have it. What we say does not make anything true. Nothing of earth matters; nothing of earth makes anything real in God’s kingdom. Nothing in God’s world is of the will of man; everything in God’s world is of God, just like our spiritual birth. Everything.

This includes the doctrine. God’s doctrine is not of the will of man. If it is not of God, it is not a part of God’s kingdom and carries no authority over the saints. It cannot be of the will of the flesh and be true in God’s world. It cannot be of human origin. Nothing in God’s kingdom is any of those things. We who believe are in a different universe now. When we entered into Christ, we crossed a line into a heavenly kingdom that is in no part human. Believers live in a different world from ordinary men. We live in a different universe, with different standards and a far greater wisdom. Paul’s famous phrase, “If any man be in Christ ... all things become new”, is real. We are not even our old selves anymore. Paul said, "I die daily" because he was living in that new realm, where his thoughts and his feelings were no longer of human origin.

Our feast days, our baptism, our holy places, the robes we put on for worship - nothing in our kingdom is of the will of man. You know as well as I do, when you see those colorful choir robes in Christian churches, that a man has willed to buy those pretty robes as opposed to what he considered less pretty ones. And because that choice and that purchase was of human will and ability, it cannot be a part of the kingdom of God. Those pretty choir robes do not belong in our world if we are in Christ.

God has called us out of this world; now, let’s stay out of this world! Jesus is saying, “You were born into my world. Now, stay in my world and be satisfied.” Godliness with contentment will make us truly rich.

Many of God’s own people are not content with the world into which they were born when they were baptized with the Spirit. They are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of the flesh, and they are still in the flesh. Or they are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of man, and they are still self-willed. Or they are not content with it because it is not of human origin, and their hearts are still attached to this world. Discontented and divided saints are still enamored of things that originate on earth, such as a carnal ceremony, or some doctrine formulated by human wisdom, or some other familiar form that is not a part of God’s kingdom.

Here at my house, we do not want any of that, and we will not have any of that. The holy Spirit will certainly not have any of that, and if we will only deny ourselves and humble ourselves to the Spirit, it will save us from all worldliness. He will save us from the spirits of the religious systems of man, including that of Christianity. He will save us from the unclean spirit of Christianity so that we can experience true fellowship in Christ and so that we can come together as a body and have it be for our good and not to our harm. We benefit from our gatherings only when we live close to God and worship Him “in spirit and in truth”. The holy Spirit is in no measure of this world.

Our sweet, shared life in the Spirit is the mysterious fellowship that Satan hates above all things because it is of God, and God has cast him out. He cannot share in it. The fellowship of human religions is of the world, and Satan does share in that. Jesus said that Satan “savors the things that be of man” (Mt. 16:23). Satan has been forever cast out of God’s kingdom, and he is very angry about that. He envies and slanders everyone whom God still welcomes into the pure fellowship of His kingdom. God is so determined that Satan will have no part in His kingdom again that even if a body of saints is fooled into making room for Satan, even if they are foolish enough to welcome him into their assembly, God withdraws that pure fellowship, and all that is left is a dead religious form. When God withdraws fellowship from a body of believers, all that remains is something of the flesh and of the world, some ceremonial form, some religious ideas, in which things Satan can have fellowship with man.

If we are to continue to enjoy the fellowship that is in Christ, we must walk together in the Spirit and refuse those things that are of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, or of human origin. Instead of trying to serve God in such worldly things, let’s do the will of God and serve Him “in spirit and in truth”. Doing that, neither the things of this world nor Satan will ever pollute our communion with Christ and with one another.

What Fellowship Is

Adapted from a sermon on December 15, 2010

“...to make all men see what the fellowship of the mystery is,

which from the beginning of the world has been hidden in God...”

Paul, in Ephesians 3:8-9

The ultimate goal of everything Satan wants to destroy, or envies (he actually doesn’t want to destroy it; he wants to have a part in it, but he can’t) is the fellowship of the saints. And I dare say just a few of God’s people on earth really understand what fellowship is.

Fellowship is when we feel the same thing, when we have the same mind - without talking it over beforehand. It is when we have the same judgment concerning situations and people, and the same love for one another. And that fellowship is created when Wisdom comes down upon us. It is something created by God. It is not voted on by men. It is not of the will of man.

The apostle John taught that when you are born into the kingdom of God, you are born “not of blood [that is, of human blood, or human origin], nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man” (Jn. 1:13). What is so difficult to get across and to really get anchored in the hearts of believers is that, in Christ, the kingdom into which they are born is a kingdom where every thing that counts is not of human origin, or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man. If something counts in the kingdom of God, is it not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of human origin, that is, not of the blood of this world - no human race, no human genealogy, or any such thing. Those are the three things John said that those in God’s kingdom are not of: you’re born not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of “bloods” (actually, that word is plural in the Greek). That means, you who are in Christ are not of any human race, not of any human genealogy, or anything like that. You no longer have any national earthly identity.

But what God’s people, in the main, do not understand is that when you are born, you are born into a place where everything is that way - not just you. It is a kingdom where your communion with God and with one another is not of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh. It is not a physical thing. It is not of earthly origin. If you have communion in the kingdom of God, it will only be of God, just as your birth into His kingdom was only of God. Communion with god happens only when God creates something to eat with you. It is when He creates something invisible for you to share with Him. And when He creates something within me and within you for us to enjoy together in Christ, we have fellowship. It may be a common judgment of people, or of some circumstance, or the times in general.

But the important thing to understand is that if God doesn’t create it, we don’t have it - even if we both want it, even if we both vote for it, and even if we both claim to have it. Nothing of earth matters; nothing of earth makes anything happen in God’s kingdom. Nothing in God’s world is of the will of the man. It’s not of the will of the flesh, but of God. Everything. The doctrine. It cannot be of the will of man. It’s not, not in God’s kingdom. It cannot be of the will of the flesh. It cannot be of human origin. Nothing in God’s kingdom is any of those things. We who believe are in a different universe now. In Christ, we crossed a line into a heavenly kingdom that is in no part human. We are in a different world. We are in a different universe. Paul’s famous phrase, “Behold, all things become new”, is real. You are not even yourself anymore. Paul said, "I die daily" because he was living in that new realm, where his thoughts and his feelings were not of human origin. His very life was not of his own will or his flesh's will.

Our feast days, our baptism, our holy places, the robes you put on for worship - nothing in our kingdom is of the will of man. You know as well as I do, when you see those colorful choir robes in Christian churches, some man has willed to buy those pretty robes as opposed to what he considered less pretty ones. And because that choice and that purchase was of human will, it cannot be a part of the kingdom of God, which means that means that pretty choir robes do not belong in your world. God called you out of that world; now stay out of that world! Jesus is saying, “You were born into my world. Stay in my world and be satisfied.” Godliness with contentment will make you rich.

Many of God’s own people are not content with the world into which they were born when they were baptized with the holy ghost. They are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of the flesh, and they are still in the flesh. Or they are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of man, and they are still self- willed. Or they are not content with it because it is not of human origin, and their hearts are still attached to this world. Discontented and divided saints are still enamored of things that originate on earth; some ceremony, some doctrine, some familiar form that is not a part of God’s kingdom.

We, here, do not want any of that. We will not have any of that. The holy ghost will not have any of that, and if we’ll deny ourselves and have the holy ghost in our midst, he won’t allow us have any of that. He’ll save us from worldliness. He’ll save us from the religious system of Christianity, which is altogether of the world. He’ll save us from that unclean spirit so that when we can experience true fellowship in Christ, and so that we can come together as a body and have it be for our good and not to our harm. We benefit from our gatherings only when we live close to God, and we live close to God only as we follow the Spirit that is in no measure of this world.

Our sweet, shared life in the Spirit is the mysterious fellowship that Satan hates above all things because it is not of the world, and he cannot possibly participate in it. He has been cast out of God’s kingdom, and he is very angry about that. He envies and slanders everyone God still welcomes into the pure fellowship of that holy kingdom. Even if a body of saints were fooled into making room for Satan, even if they would be foolish enough to welcome him into their assembly, Satan could not participate in the fellowship of holiness because wherever he is, the fellowship is not, and he will never understand it.

If we are to continue to enjoy our fellowship in Christ, we must walk together in the Spirit and refuse those things that are of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, or of human origin. Instead of trying to serve God in those things, let’s all do the will of God and serve him “in spirit and in truth”. Doing that, neither the things of this world nor Satan will ever pollute our communion with Christ and with one another.

Not Just for Us

Good morning John.

Today I was organizing and mailing out various tract and CD orders from the Isaiah58 web site that came in over the past couple of days.

When a person orders a CD from the site, I usually add one or two old CD's (those that went un-purchased) to that person’s order since it does not really add anything to the postage, and so that people can hear live meetings.

This morning as I reached into the box, of perhaps 50 to 100 of those left-over CD's, the sweetest feeling came over me. I could have picked any of the CD's in that box! We have things of real value! Things that go unclaimed among us just might be golden nuggets of life to someone who is hungry for reality in the Spirit. Many have never heard what is on a CD that we have hundreds of extras of. Tears came to my eyes when I thought about how rich we are in spirit, that we have such things of value. Where would we be without those gifts from God, without each other, without this truth? It's hard to even wonder. I am thankful, after your wonderful message last night, for you, for the saints who before us and paid a price, and for every child of God whom Jesus has put into my life right now.

And beyond that, I am thankful for soberness, for sanity, and for the readiness of mind and heart to want to get this truth to God's wandering sheep.

Gary

=================

Amen, Brother Gary!

God has chosen, for His own good reasons, to wonderfully bless us and give us a special work to do. I pray that we walk worthy of our calling. Our situation calls to mind one of the things God told father Abraham when He first spoke to him, in Genesis 12:1-3. God told that good man that all the nations of the earth would someday be blessed by the blessing that He was giving him. In other words, God was not blessing Abraham just to bless Abraham. And we can be assured that God has not blessed us just to be blessing us.

We have a holy calling upon us, and a work to do. May God give us the strength and wisdom to accomplish it!

jdc

Being the Truth

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Jesus, in John 14:6

You do not really know the truth unless you are the truth. The truth is not a thing; it is a person, and you must have fellowship with him in order to know him. The truth on earth was the Son of God, while he was here. Now the truth on earth is other sons of God who are here. Nor is the light a thing; it is a person. If you are not in him who is the light, you do not know him who is the light. He was the light of the world as long as he was in the world (Jn. 9:5); now, those in whom he lives are the light of the world. The Word of God is not a thing; it is the Son of God, and he is alive. He took on flesh when he took on the body of Jesus of Nazareth, as John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” And he still comes and takes up residence in the hearts of those who believe in him. Has he become flesh in you? He became flesh in Paul, and Paul testified of it. He said, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ is living in me" (Gal. 2:20).

If the Word of God comes to you, he comes to re-create you in his own image. The Word of God comes to you to establish your thoughts, to shape your spirit, to direct your steps. He does not come to be challenged; he comes to take charge, to guide, to heal, to deliver. The Son of God did not take on flesh in order merely to become a topic for discussion. He came to govern, to purge, to make the believer perfect before God.

I do not ask, “Do you know the truth?” It is less important that you know than that you become the truth. Nor do I ask, “Do you know the way?” or “Do you see the light?” The issue is, are you the the way and the light to others? John wrote, “As he is, so are we in this world.” That was good for John and those he knew in Christ, but for us, the question is, are we, like those saints, like him who is sitting at the right hand of the Father?

Jesus never intended for us to stand on earth and point up to the sky, at him, to show men the light. He came to make us lights in this world. Besides, even if we get men to look up, they still cannot see him. They can only see us. Knowing this, my wise father taught us never to speak of Jesus to others unless we could also say to them, “Be like me.”

Paul wrote that “when he ascended on high, he gave gifts to men. . . . And he gave some, apostles, some prophets, some teachers,” etc. This means that, as your pastor and teacher, I am a gift to you. And as light for others in this world, you are a gift to them. Are you really a gift for them? Or let me ask it this way: Does he who is the Truth live in you? Does he who is the Light shine in you? Does he who is the Way walk in you? Can others attain to eternal life by following you? They can if you are following Christ. Paul unashamedly told the saints in Corinth, “Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1Cor. 11:1). This was not an unusual statement for Paul to make. He constantly exhorted the saints in every place to follow righteous men, both himself and others (e.g., 1Cor. 4:16; Phip. 3:17; 1Thess. 1:6; 2:14; 3:7, 9; Heb. 6:12. He knew that godly, mature saints were gifts to the rest of us, that like Jesus, they didn’t just talk about the truth and the way to us; they were the way and the truth for us, and Paul wanted us to take full advantage of them, as gifts from a loving heavenly Father.

The Honor of Jesus

"God has highly exalted him..."

Phip. 2:9

The honor of men is nothing in comparison to the honor God gives. Jesus did not covet and would not accept honors that men bestow. “I do not receive honor from men,” he said (Jn. 5:41). Even when people wanted to take Jesus by force and make him their king, he refused and withdrew from them to a mountain alone (Jn. 6:15). He did not come to gain earthly honor; he came to do the will of his heavenly Father (Heb. 10:7). And as a result of his single-minded pursuit of honor from God, God “highly exalted him, and has given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phip. 2:9-11).

Jesus even refused to honor himself. He said, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing; it is my Father who honors me, whom you say that He is your God” (Jn. 8:54). Jesus was wise. He understood that no honor is worth having unless it comes from God.

In fact, he warned men that seeking and receiving honor from any other source will result in spiritual confusion. He told them (Jn. 5:44), “How can you believe, who receive honor one from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes only from God?” Fallen men are so blind to the things of God that they often do not recognize God’s honor when it is given to one standing among them; and they can badly misunderstand what is being done when someone is truly honoring God. Men have been known to go so far as to accuse someone of madness, or even demon-possession, when he is, in fact, honoring God. They did that to Jesus, and in reply, Jesus said, “I am not demon-possessed! I am honoring my Father, and you are dishonoring me” (Jn. 8:49).

Jesus loved God (Jn. 14:31; Ps. 91:14-16) and pleased Him because he desired only the honor that comes from God. He was even willing to suffer unjustly and die in order to please God. In response, God gave everything to Jesus (Jn. 3:35) and revealed Himself completely to Jesus (Jn. 5:20).

Everybody who hears from the true God comes to Jesus for mercy (Jn. 6:45), and nobody can come to the real Jesus unless they do hear from God (Jn. 6:44). Perhaps the most astonishing honor that the Father has given to Jesus is His requirement now that all people everywhere honor the Son just as they honor the Father (Jn. 5:23). Consequently, no one will be saved from eternal damnation who fails to honor the Son as God. But everyone who loves Jesus will be loved by God, and Jesus said that God will come to that person and live within his heart (Jn. 14:21-23; 16:27). Consequently, there is no hope of eternal life but through Jesus (Acts 4:12). This is the honor that God has bestowed upon Jesus, and there is no greater honor than that which the Father has shown to His Son.

Gluttony

This is a message by G. C. "Preacher" Clark, from about 1965,

slightly edited by Pastor John for this BLOG

Sin, as we know, is very subtle and deeply imbedded in the nature of mankind. Of the three elements of which this world is made - “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jn. 2:16) - the lust of the flesh seems to be chief. Many of us who follow Jesus have been deceived by the spirit of lust and have made gluttons of ourselves. We have often denounced “the lust of the flesh” in other respects, but not in our overeating. Throughout the Bible, God condemned gluttony and drunkenness with the same degree of displeasure. Nevertheless, we find many among the followers of Christ who have failed to see this. All true children of God, I feel, are opposed to drunkenness. At the same time, many of these prohibitionists are inclined to eat too much.

After conducting healing campaigns and mailing out thousands of anointed handkerchiefs – since 1930 – I have learned that the greatest physical cause of sickness among the people of God is overindulgence in eating. Obviously, Jesus saw this deceiving demon at work when he enjoined his disciples, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be with overcharged with surfeiting [self-indulgence, or gluttony], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Lk. 21:34). There have never been so many “overcharged” hearts as we find today, and not all of these heart failures are coming from drunkenness and cares of this life. Thousands of truly converted people are sick and are suffering with heart trouble or other ailments associated with overeating.

Did you ever wonder why artists have never depicted any of Jesus’ disciples as being overweight or of the fleshy type? It is because they know that no one could have followed Jesus very long and remained overweight. There were times when Jesus and his disciples could not so much as pause for a meal (Mk. 3:20). What about you? Some have gone so long without fasting and have gained so much surplus weight that the demon of lust will not let them fast. He makes them sick and nervous every time they try. No, the artists have yet to paint one drunkard or glutton among the followers of our Lord.

You remember that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a little “red pottage”. Oh, that demon of gluttony! Esau, of course, had plenty of good wholesome food, for he was “a man of the field” – a deer hunter; still, he craved “red pottage”, a thick soup made by his brother Jacob. Seemingly, I can hear his words now, as he cried to Jacob, “Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage” (Gen. 25:30). There has been a time when gluttons and drunkards were taken out by the elders of Israel and stoned to death (Deut. 21:18-21). It is fortunate for us that we live under this New Covenant of grace, for we might lose some of our good sisters and brothers in the Lord – not for drunkenness, to be sure, but for gluttony.

No artist could draw a more vivid picture of the gluttonous multitude which is in the body of Christ today than these following words, coming from the pen of the Apostle Paul in his description of some of the saints at Philippi: “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind early things” (Phip. 3:17-19).

Reader, perhaps you are asking the question, “Am I among these gluttons who are making a god out of their belly?” The answer will have to come from you, my friend; however, I will ask you a few questions in helping you to form the correct answer. First, let me ask you, are you overweight? If you don’t know, check with some competent authority and find out. For instance, my weight once was one hundred eighty pounds, thirty pounds overweight. My height calls for one hundred fifty pounds, which I now weigh. So you see, I was thirty pounds overweight, or shall I say twenty percent glutton. Since bringing my weight back to normal, I feel like a new person, especially in body. I suffered many different diseases during my twenty years of carrying this surplus weight. But since my last healing, which was most miraculous, I have brought my weight down, as I was shown to do, through the great light on this subject: Gluttony.

God can and will heal any disease coming from the evil of overeating; however, His healings still carry the command, “Sin no more, lest a worst thing come upon you” (Jn. 5:14). That great man of God, the apostle Paul, turns this emphatic statement of Jesus’ into the question, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The answer is obviously “NO”; for when God heals us, He wants us to cease doing whatever brought on our sickness. In other words, if sleeping in a draft gave you a cold, and God heals you of this cold, then He expects you to quit sleeping in the draft. Or if eating too much has brought on high blood pressure, heart trouble, or one of the many other diseases which come from being overweight, then God requires a reduction in your eating. Gluttony works just like any other sin. The thief must quit stealing, the liar must stop lying, the glutton must stop overeating. Children of God, let’s keep our bodies free from the sin of gluttony, realizing they are the temple of the Spirit of God. There is a place in God where sin and sickness cannot reach us. I know this to be true, even though we may not be altogether there. Yet, thank God for His promise and the desire we have to reach this place in Him. Listen to this promise of His: “If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do that which is right in His sight and will give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have brought upon the Egyptians [the world], for I am the Lord who heals you” (Ex. 15:26). Again, God says to His people, “And you will serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread, and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you” (Ex. 23:25). Don’t forget, God never changes. The preceding promises are as much for us today as they were for Israel centuries ago.

God’s power to heal is being increasingly demonstrated, as time approaches for the gift of healing, along with the other gifts, to be re-established as normative in the body of Christ. Every honest and sincere minister will declare the availability of God’s healing power. And, as we have stated, there is every reason why we should bring our souls, spirits, and bodies into harmony with the perfect will of God. Paul, in counseling his followers, said, “I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless [kept sound] unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thes. 5:23). What precious promises are given to us – if we will only obey God!

The gospel of Christ has not only a forgiveness-of-sin quality but also a healing quality. But we must remember that to receive and retain either or both of these blessings, we must obey the command, “Go and sin no more.” May the Lord bless this message to the heart of every reader.

True Doctrine is a Testimony

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.”

Peter, in 1Peter 4:11

“I’d have you to know, brothers, regarding the gospel delivered by me, that it is not of man. I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it,

but by a revelation from Jesus Christ.”

Paul, in Galatians 1:11-12

The only truth that exists is what the Spirit is saying this moment. Moses and Aaron found out, as did many other biblical characters, that what God commanded to be done in one situation was not the truth later. And because Moses and his brother did not learn that lesson in time, they sinned by keeping an old commandment and were forbidden to lead Israel into the land of Canaan. God said to them, “Because you did not believe me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them” (Num. 20:12). Moses did what God commanded him to do in an earlier, and similar, situation, but God had now given Moses a different commandment, and Moses and Aaron failed to obey it. We might say that they went by tradition rather than by a living faith.

Because only what the Spirit is saying right now is true, the relationship between God and His servants must be a living one. Otherwise, that servant will certainly harm God’s people by following an old pattern, one that worked at another time and in another circumstance. If a minister has no testimony of receiving his doctrine from God, stay away from him. He is only repeating a rumor about God that he has either heard from another man or that he has only read about in the Bible. He does not personally know what he is talking about.

If a pastor’s sermon is not a part of his testimony, if what he is saying is not the result of a personal experience with God, he is teaching falsely as far as he knows. The things that Paul taught the Gentiles were the result of a personal experience with God. He spoke of being “caught up to the third heaven” and of hearing things from God that were “not lawful for a man to speak.” And when his converts were being led astray by men who were teaching things of the past, Paul wrote them with tears, “Who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth?” Paul knew they had been fooled by men who could repeat much about what other men, such as Moses and the prophets, had received from God, but had no testimony of their own.

God is a living God. Therefore, the only issue of life is, what is God's Spirit saying now to the saints? Whatever that is, is the only truth that exists anywhere for God’s people, and everything else is a lie, no matter what great man of God in history used to say it and (as Moses’ story proves) no matter even if God used to say it.

A Friends Question:

Eating and Drinking in 1Corinthians 11

Pastor John

Thank you for your previous reply to my question about 1Corinthians 11.

It's true that we now worship God in spirit and in truth, but these believers were "physically eating and drinking" earthly substance without conducting themselves properly. That's the reason why Paul was correcting and instructing them on that matter. But why did Paul not explicitly explain to them to forsake those earthly, fleshy substance and partake in the real things of the spirit, as you explained to me?

Jerome

==============

Greetings, Brother Jerome.

Let's eat together this message from Paul to the Corinthians, one small bite at a time, and wash it down by taking a spiritual drink or two! The following is from our translation of 1Corinthians, which you can find on our web site: www.GoingtoJesus.com

¶ 17. Now, in the following instruction, I do not praise you, for you come together not for the better but for the worse.

NOTE: Their gatherings in Corinth were so out of order that it would have been better for them not to have any gatherings at all. But what was the problem? Paul explains:

18. For, first of all, when you come together as a congregation, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it.

19. For it is necessary that there be factions among you so that those among you who are approved by God might be revealed.

NOTE: The root cause for their meetings being worse than worthless was the lack of unity that existed among them. Paul already addressed the issue of their divisions in 1:10-13, so there was no need to go into that again here. He refers to it here only as an explanation as to why it would be better to have no gatherings than to have the kind of gatherings they were having.

20. Therefore, when you meet together in the same place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.

NOTE: The word "therefore" is key. "Therefore" means that the reason they cannot partake of "the Lord's supper" is what Paul had just said to them; to wit, they are divided. It is not because of their use or misuse of natural substances, such as bread and wine. Division among the saints is what prevents the blood of the Spirit from flowing from one to another; it prevents some from receiving the testimonies of others, and vice versa. We MUST have the blood of Christ flowing among us, or we should just stay away from each other.

The reason it was not the Lord's Supper wasn’t because of what they were eating, or how they were eating, but because of what they could not eat. Because they were divided, they could not eat each other!

21. For in eating, each goes ahead and eats his own supper first, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.

22. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you show contempt for God’s congregation and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? I do not praise you.

NOTE: In these two verses, what Paul says was being done wrong was that the richer believers were bringing food to a meeting and eating it in the presence of hungry, poorer believers without sharing any of it (v. 21). That was cruel. The point of Paul bringing that subject up was to emphasize their divisions and lack of the love of God, and to command the saints in Corinth that if they wanted to eat physical food, then -- notice this! -- they are to eat it at home, not bring it to the gatherings of the saints! This is what Paul was talking about when he indignantly exclaimed, "What! Don't you have [your own] houses to eat and drink in?" In these verses, Paul is not trying to teach the saints how to eat and drink physically when they meet; rather, he is forbidding them to eat and drink physically at all when they meet.

One of the basics of building successful home meetings is to leave off physical eating and drinking. I have seen home meetings wrecked because meals and snacks became a regular part of the meetings. You may have noticed that I mention this issue in my instructions for a sound home fellowship, on the front page of the PastorJohnsHouse web site. This is what I wrote:

“I have never seen a prayer meeting succeed in becoming what it ought when eating and drinking becomes a part of it. Don't mix food with worship. The same can be said about ceremonies. Don't bring church into the home and then think it is not church. You can have church religion in a home as well as in a church building. Leave off snacks and leave off ceremonies. Just live in the Spirit together, and grow together in the light of God.”

23. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread,

24. and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take and eat. This is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

25. Likewise, after supper, he also took the cup, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood; do this, as often as you drink, in remembrance of me,”

26. for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

NOTE: Here, Paul explains that fellowship among the saints (receiving one another) is the bread we break, and that drinking of the Spirit is drinking of "the cup of the Lord". Paul has already explained in 1Corinthians 10:15-17.

27. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a manner unworthy of the Lord sins against the body and blood of the Lord.

28. Let a man examine himself; only then is he to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

29. For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

30. Because of this, many are feeble and sick among you, and quite a few have fallen asleep.

31. If we would judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

32. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we be not condemned along with the world.

NOTE: Since eating and drinking the Lord's Supper is not a physical consumption of earthly substance but a shared spiritual experience, if we partake of that experience in an unworthy manner (that is, with secret sin), we will be judged for it. If eating and drinking natural substance were deadly for sinners, Christians would be dropping dead all the time, for they regularly partake of their fleshly ceremony, and at the same time confess that they cannot cease from sin. Besides this plain fact, Jesus himself told us that "nothing entering into a man defiles him; it is what comes out of a man that defiles him" (Mk. 7:14-23). On another occasion, when Jesus, like Paul, seemed to be speaking of natural eating and drinking (Jn. 6), he told his disciples, "The flesh is worthless! The words that I speak to you are spiritual, and they are life!" Paul was speaking the same way, spiritually.

33. So then, my brothers, when coming together to eat, wait for one another.

34. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you do not come together for condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

NOTE: Finally, Paul exhorts the saints to love and consider one another ("tarry for one another") if and when they do meet for a meal, and as a last reminder, that they are NOT to eat natural food when they gather to worship the Lord, but to eat physically at home before they come to the meeting. Otherwise, their meetings will be harmful for them, not beneficial.

Above, you asked me, "Why did Paul not explicitly explain to them to forsake those earthly, fleshy substance and partake in the real things of the spirit just as you just explained?" I cannot imagine how Paul could have more plainly told them to avoid (in worship) the consumption of earthly, fleshly substance and to partake, in harmony, of the real things of the Spirit. By giving the commandment -- twice -- for them to eat physically at home before their meetings, was not Paul doing exactly what you say he did not do? Is that not how you see it? Please let me know.

FYI, Jerome, I have been a student of the background of Western Culture for some years now. Let me point out to you a widespread element of the Classical culture which in time was transformed into the religion of Christianity. In the Classical world, there was no sense of responsibility for the poor. If a wealthy man had an impulse to give of his wealth, he normally would give something to his city. He would sponsor the construction of a temple, public baths, or an amphitheater, or erect a statue to one of the city's gods, or sponsor some sporting event, etc. Simply giving to the poor was not done because (1) it brought no fame to one's city and, therefore, brought no fame to oneself, and (2) the poor were commonly seen as lesser creatures, even of "inferior blood", and so, not worthy of much consideration.

One erudite book that deals well with this topic, though it is thick reading, so to speak, is The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor by Arjan Zuiderhoek. Mr. Zuiderhoek convincingly shows how deeply embedded in the Classical world was the impetus and pressures to give -- but to the city or state, not simply to the poor, and that the inspiration for most munificence at that time was the desire for fame, not love for one's fellow man. The rich did not consider the poor their "fellows" at all.

In the attitude of the richer folk in Corinth, we can see this Classical quality of carelessness toward the feelings and needs of the poor, and I believe that is what Paul was indignant that the saints there were allowing the status of the wealthy in the Greco-Roman world to become a guiding influence in the congregation.

Your servant,

Pastor John