2 Peter 1:5-11: ........ make every effort to add to your trust,
virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to
self-control, endurance; and to endurance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly
affection; and to brotherly affection, love. For if these things are yours and
are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the
knowledge of our lord Jesus the Messiah.
For the one who lacks these things is so nearsighted that he is blind, having
forgotten that he was cleansed from his past sins.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to
be sure of your calling and choice, for if you do these things, you will
absolutely not stumble, for in this way the entrance into the
kingdom of our lord and savior Jesus the Messiah will be richly provided to you
in the age to come.
Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the new creation is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.
Romans 12:1-2: I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters, by
the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy,
pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to the pattern of this age,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you can test and
approve what the will of God is; the thing that is good and pleasing and
perfect.
Philippians 2:12-16: ....... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who
works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things
without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent,
children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted
generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the
word of life....
To “work out our salvation”, means
to live out our faith, to walk like a follower, a disciple, of God's anointed
one.
Hebrews
13:5-6: “Keep your life free from love
of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
So we can confidently say, "The lord is my helper; I will not fear; what
can man do to me?"
2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in God's anointed one
Jesus will be persecuted”
Matthew
7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those
who enter by it are many. For the gate
is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are
few.”
James
3:1-2a “Not many of you should become
teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble
in many ways.”
This is true: There is no salvation but only by
faith and there is no true faith without the respective fruit, the works that
should normally accompany it.
Faith, love, works action: “in the Messiah Jesus neither
circumcision nor un-circumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
2 Timothy
2:11-12 “The saying is trustworthy, for: If
we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also
reign with him...
Romans 8:13
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live.”
Galatians
6:7-8 “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will
he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap
corruption, but the one who sows to the
Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
1 Timothy
5:8: “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for
members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an
unbeliever.”
To deny the faith does not mean I
stand up and make a confession with my mouth against the faith. More frequently
it means I deny to practice it, to do consistently and habitually what
accompanies the faith, living it out in all I say and do.
Those who hear and also do the words
of Jesus are the brothers and sisters of Jesus. For Jesus it is the doing of
the word that matters. The hearing of the words of Jesus should also be
followed by acting on what we heard.
Matthew
7:21-23: "Not everyone who says to
me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day
many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast
out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will
I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness.'”
Colossians 1:9-10 ..... be filled
with the knowledge [epiginosko] of his will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to
him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
[epignosis] of God.”
2 Timothy 2:24-25 ..... the lord's
servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently
enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant
them repentance leading to a knowledge [epignosis] of the truth”
1 John 3:23: “And this is His
commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus the Messiah and love
one another, just as He has commanded us.”
1 John
1:5-10 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at
all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we
lie and do not practice the truth. But if
we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My
little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus the Messiah the righteous. He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
The are two kinds of people in this
world - those who walk in the light and those who walk in the darkness. That is
why we should not be unequally yoked with those who walk in the darkness. We really have nothing in common
with them as we are in this world, but in God's anointed one and not of this
world. The moment we became new
Creations in the lord Jesus we at that moment became different from those who
are walking in darkness. Our commission is to lead people out of their walk in
the darkness to be able to walk in the light of the lord Jesus and our God and
Father Yehovah!
Hebrews
12:1 says: “let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us”. The phrase “so easily
ensnares us” is one word in the Greek text, the word “euperispaston”. According
to Barnes: “it properly means, “standing well around;” and hence, denotes what
is near, or at hand, or readily occurring. So Chrysostom explains it. ..
Tyndale renders it “the sin that hangs on us.”
Romans 8:12 -14 “So then, brothers, we are
debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live
according to the flesh you will die, but if
by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
We become children of God by faith
in Jesus the Messiah (Galatians 3:26 ).
What does it mean to be led by the Spirit
of God? It means to be driven by the Spirit, As a new creation, to walk by the
Spirit, to strive to do the will of God, in total commitment Him, to abide in
the vine and to have His word abiding in us.
John 10:27-29: “My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them age upon age lasting
life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to
snatch them out of the Father's hand.”
Luke 9:23-24 “And he said to all,
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will save it.”
And also: Matthew 10:38 “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of
me.”
To follow the Messiah we need to
take up our cross and go behind Him. Following implies moving. Following the
Messiah is something dynamic, something that implies moving, and in fact moving
behind somebody else, the lord. It is a daily business (“take up his cross
daily and follow me”)
Jude
1:20-25 “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and
praying in the Holy Spirit, keep
yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our lord Jesus the
Messiah that leads to eternal life. And
have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire;
to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless
before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God - Yehovah, our
Savior, through Jesus the Messiah our lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and
authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
John 12:26 “If anyone serves me, he must
follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me,
the Father will honor him.”
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and
keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
John 14:23 “Jesus answered him,
"If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Christian
life is indeed fellowship with God and having the Father and the Son making
their home in us. Having the Son manifesting Himself to us, is the very
definition of this fellowship.
We need to make a total commitment to
Yehovah and to follow His son Jesus, to be Yehovah's faithful servants,
whatever it takes, whatever the cost, living then our lives no more as slaves
of sin but as slaves of God.
Notice: Understanding that the present tense
in Greek indicates duration, i.e. that something goes on happening can really
revolutionize the way we understand many passages.
My suggestion would be that whenever
you see the present tense (“believes”, “forgives” etc.) replace it, after
checking the context, with the construction “goes on” + the present participle
(for example: “goes on believing”, “goes on forgiving” etc.). This will perhaps
change the way you read many passages.
The Lord
commanded the apostles to make disciples and teach them to observe “all that I
have commanded you”. “I have commanded you” is in the past tense. Therefore it
was not new revelation He was speaking about here, but commandments and
teachings that He had already given to them and there is only one.
To summarize: the Kingdom of God Kingdom of God Kingdom of God
If we are
disciples of the Messiah, people who want to enter into the Kingdom of God
Matthew
28:18-20 “And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
The Lord commanded the apostles to
make disciples and teach them to observe “all that I have commanded you”. “I
have commanded you” is in the past tense. Therefore it was not new revelation
He was speaking about here, but commandments and teachings that He had already
given to them and there is only one place where these already given teachings
and commandments of the Lord are recorded: the gospels.
