Category Archives: Disobedience

The Love of Christ Constrains

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Changes can be subtle and subtle changes can be wrong. A wise Christian once said: “Wisdom is the ability to distinguish ‘right’ from ‘almost right’!”

One such subtle change, which has had a terrible impact on Christianity, has to do with the love of Christ. “Now”, you ask, “how can the love of Christ ever be wrong?” As the above saying suggests, it can be wrong when it is almost right.

The problem has come about and is seen in a one–sided love. The love of Christ is that in which the Christian basks. It is the love of Christ that has set the Christian free. In these views, the love of Christ is only a permissive love that enables the Christian to do what he enjoys most.

Is this view of Christ’s love correct? The answer is, no. Whilst the love of Christ gives to the Christian many wondrous benefits and incalculable riches, autonomy is not one of them. By this we mean that Christ did not set us free to a vacuum where we are self-determining kings. On the contrary, Christ’s love set us free to serve God. Jesus’ love set us free so that we could be priestly-kings in His Kingdom, in order to serve Him faithfully and fully.

Missing from the Christian’s view of Christ’s love in our day is the concept found in the hymn, “For the might Thine arm”, which states, For the love of Christ constraining.” As a child growing up, I remember this phrase being used. Christians spoke freely of the fact that Christ’s love constrained.

As individualism has made inroads into the Church, I no longer hear this phrase. Rather, as alluded to earlier, Christ’s love is now simply viewed as a permissive element in which Jesus smiles upon any and all activities of the Christian.

Such should not be the case. The love of Christ should constrain us. The love of Christ should motivate us to obedient action. Likewise, the love of Christ should dissuade us from disobedient actions. The love of Christ should be everything to us. It should be our health and happiness.

Thus, we must ask, “How can we be happy, if we mock the love of Christ?” Someone close to me married an unbeliever. When challenged, their response was, “Do you not want me to be happy?” Our response to that was, “If you are a Christian, how can you be happy when you disobey Christ?”

The love of Christ is a two-way street. Christ’s absolute love to us should be reflected in our love for Him absolutely. This means that we must appreciate and understand the infinite cost of Jesus death; the incomprehensible depth of the statement, “loved before the foundation of the world”; and the implications of, “you are not your own but have been bought with a price – therefore glorify God in your body!”

We simply cannot say that we are encompassed by the love of Christ, when we walk in disobedience to Christ. We cannot say that Christ is our all in all, when we do not love Jesus absolutely by absolutely keeping His commands. Inane concepts like, “God looks at the heart” simply do not suffice. Yes, God does look at the heart. He looks at the heart to see if it is genuinely filled with the love of Jesus, His beloved Son. God looks at the heart to see whether or not the works that come forth are those of outward show or those constrained by the true love of Christ.

Consider Jesus words to the Church at Ephesus: “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

These Ephesians were good. They could spot a heretic at one hundred paces. They could rightly divide the word of God. They had sound doctrine. What they did not have was a genuine love for Christ. This is not to say that they did not love Jesus in any way. Rather, it is to emphasise the fact that spotting heretics and having right theology became an end in itself. They did not learn to eradicate falsehood so that Jesus would be honoured. They did not learn doctrine so that Christ would be glorified. Rather, these elements became an end in themselves.

Brethren, please let the love of Christ constrain us in our day. Give up the radical disobedience of self. Give up the false idea of doctrine for doctrine’s sake. In all our actions, let us be conscious that we act for Christ and His glory. Let us be constrained to action and from action on the basis that we love Jesus and that it would break our hearts irreparably to cause Him any hurt.

The modern view of permissive love is a false view. Christ’s love constrains, and rightly so. How could we not give our all for Him who held nothing back from us? Jesus love for us saw Him forsaken of God, hung on a tree, cursed by His own creation, despised of man; all to purchase a people for God. How little a thing is it then, that the love of Jesus be allowed to govern every word, thought, and action of His people.

May the love of Christ constrain us completely to an obedience which magnifies and glorifies our beautiful Jesus!

Apostasy

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What is in a name? Understood properly, we would have to answer, “A lot!” A name describes. It explains. It divulges. All this seems strange to us because we think of names simply as a label. By extension, we have lost interest in the meaning of words; we simply use them too as a label.

The modern Church has been caught up in this fad through the general principle of Political Correctness. It is now mandatory to “be nice” to everyone and, therefore, we are told that we should not use certain words.

Two words that the Church has dropped from its vocabulary are Heresy and Apostasy. Both terms have to do with false belief. Heresy describes the false belief; Apostasy describes the action of turning to that false belief from the position of truth.

Here, I would like us to think about the terms Apostasy and Apostate.

When we speak of Apostasy, we generally use this term in the sense of a complete turning away. A Biblical example would be that of the Israelites rejecting Yahweh as King by asking for an earthly king (1 Samuel 8:4-9). However, when we analyse the situation, we see that Israel’s request was not a radical change. It was not a “bolt from the blue.”

Examining Scripture, we see that there were a number of steps along the path. Israel did not pursue the conquest of the land as they were commanded. Thus, foreign people and foreign gods remained in the land to tempt Israel. We see throughout the book of Judges an ebbing and flowing in the fortunes of Israel because they did not obey the Lord or listen to His word. We then arrive at the failure of Eli and Samuel, Judges in Israel, to discipline their sons and instruct them in the ways of Yahweh.

Accordingly, we see that there were quite a number of bricks laid that created the path to Apostasy. We may label each brick a heresy, but, regardless of the term, the path lead to Apostasy; to Israel turning away.

Brethren, are you apostatising?

That is a big question. No, I am not asking, have you turned or are you currently turning your back on the Lord so as to totally deny Jesus and His revelation. I am more interested in those individual bricks.

Friend, are their things in your life, belief, and action, here and there, which constitute Apostasy? Do you have little deviations away from the Lord Jesus and His commands?

Again, I am not speaking of trips and falls into sin. We all do this. What I am speaking of is a deliberate deviation into the drive-through of your favourite spiritual fast-food outlet knowing that you have promised your loved One that you will stick to Their diet!

These deviations are not slips and stumbles. These are deliberate course changes brought about to feed a sinful desire. You go there precisely because you want to be there and nothing will dissuade you.

Beloved brethren, beware of such deliberate deviations from Jesus Christ. Each trip to the drive-through makes it easier to go there another time and to select something else from the varied menu. Each time you go, you disappoint your loved One – The Lord Jesus Christ. Each time you go there the turning away becomes easier and the degree greater. Before long, you will find yourself permanently parked in the fast-food outlet’s car park. You will have no desire for healthy food. As to your promise to Jesus … “What promise?”

Remember the Apostle Peter’s words: “For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them” … “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 2:20-21; 2 Peter 3:17-18).

Beloved brethren, beware the turning! No matter what the rate or degree, beware the turning! Apostasy leads from Jesus, not to Him. Apostasy is built on false belief.

Therefore, cling to the truth. Jesus Christ is God’s truth.