that the same disciples were filled here, filled there, filled on this

The Filling of the Spirit < 79 Spirit. Paul asked, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). If you are a believer, the Spirit lives within you! "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Romans 8:9). So all believers possess the Spirit. You do not have to ask for the Spirit.

He is in you and has been since the time of your salvation.

Paul never says, "Be indwelt by the Spirit." The believer is already indwelt. Paul never says, "Be baptized in the Spirit." The believer was baptized into the body of Christ at the moment of his conversion

(1 Corinthians 12:13). Paul never says, "Be sealed with the Spirit."

The believer is already sealed. Your possession of the Spirit, your indwelling by the Spirit, your baptism by the Spirit, your sealing by the Spirit—all those things were accomplished at your salvation.

What Paul is saying here, literally, is, "Be continually letting the Spirit of God, who is already in you, fill you." The Greek verb means "be continually filled" or "be kept filled." The Greek verb tense is one of continuous action. Paul is not speaking of a second work of grace. Being filled with the Spirit is not a onetime experi­ ence, a step up to a higher level of spirituality. Being Spirit-filled simply means continually letting the Spirit of God, who is already in you, control you.

This truth can be seen clearly in the book of Acts. Start with chapter 4 and study through chapter 13. You will repeatedly read that the same disciples were filled here, filled there, filled on this circumstance and on that. We, too, need to be filled again and again as we yield control to the Holy Spirit. We never come to the place where we can say, "Well, I have the filling, so now I'm set." The filling of the Holy Spirit is a continuous experience. We may be filled today, but tomorrow is a new opportunity.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE We need to clarify precisely what is meant by "filled." Some might hold the idea that it is like dumping something into a glass to fill it up. But that's not a good parallel. Let me give a better illustration from one of my older books.

80 < the keys to spiritual growth A Fizzie is a small tablet used to make a soft drink; it's sort of a flavored Alka-Seltzer. Put it in a glass of water and its flavor releases throughout the water. This concentrated, compact power pill is no good as long as it sits on the bottom of the glass. It has to release its energy to fill the glass, and then it turns the water into something new. If it is a grape Fizzie, you get a glass of grape drink. The flavor of the tablet determines the flavor of the water.

In a measure, that pictures how the Spirit of God operates in a human life. He is in the Christian all the time as a compact, concentrated, powerful force of divine energy. The question is, has He ever been able to release that power, to fill your life so that you can become what He is? A Christian not yielded to the Spirit of God does not manifest the Christ-life. The Spirit of God has to permeate a life if that life is to radiate Him.

We cannot do anything apart from being filled with the Spirit.

I have a glove. I say to the glove, "Play the piano," what does the glove do? Nothing. The glove cannot play the piano.

But if I put my hand in the glove and play the piano, what hap­ pens? Music! But if I put my hand in a glove, the glove moves.

The glove does not get pious and say, "Oh, hand, show me the way to go." It does not say anything; it just goes. Spirit-filled people do not stumble and mumble around trying to find out what God wants. They just go!

People often ask, "How do I know my spiritual gift?" The best way is to live a Spirit-filled life, see what God does through you, look back in retrospect and say, "Oh, that's what I do when God has control of me. Apparently, that is my gift."

There is no need to get analytical. The whole point is that we need the Spirit of God to be released in our lives. This is simply a matter of decisions. When you get up in the morning, you decide what you are going to wear. Next you decide what you are going to eat for breakfast. And so it goes through the day— one decision after another. The Spirit-filled life is yielding every decision to the control of the Spirit.1

In a sense, that is how the Holy Spirit fills the Christian's life. He is already there, ready to explode with His power. The question is

The Filling of the Spirit < 81 not whether He's there, but rather, whether His power fills our lives so that He controls all that we say, think, and do. Being filled with the Spirit means having the Holy Spirit released to permeate your life—to fill you in every dimension so that you become like Him.

To understand better what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, consider some New Testament passages that refer to other types of filling. In John 16:6, for example, after Jesus told His dis­ ciples that He was going away, they were filled with sorrow; that is, they were consumed with sorrow. In Luke 6:11, after Jesus pre­ sented His claims as Messiah, the people were "filled with rage."

In other words, they were totally captured by the feeling of rage.

Acts 5:3 tells us that Satan filled Ananias' heart, meaning Ananias was overwhelmed by the power of the evil one. So we see that the word filled signifies being totally captive to a particular emotion, power, or influence.

In Acts 4:31 we read that when the church "had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness." They were consumed with the Spirit of God—with the joy, the power, and the influence of the Holy Spirit. As a result they could move out uninhibited, unbridled by their own egos, totally self-abandoned and thus could communicate Jesus Christ boldly.

The same can be true of us. We can be so captive to the Holy Spirit that we are utterly controlled by Him. His influence then crowds out our usual fears and other emotions. The result is boldness and a great exhilaration, a thrilling happiness beyond any other—joy upon joy—because He controls and captures every part of us.

THE MEANS: SURRENDER To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be totally under His influence. How does that happen? It is simply a matter of surren­ dering your will, your mind, your body, your time, your talents, your treasures—every area of your life—to the control of the Holy

Spirit. It is saying, "I want the Spirit of God to be the overwhelm­ ing, controlling influence in my life."

82 < the keys to spiritual growth The context of Ephesians 5:18 shows exactly what it means to be Spirit-filled. The apostle Paul goes on to list some of the things that a person who is filled with the Spirit does. A Spirit-filled person sings songs. The Spirit-filled wife submits to her husband.

The Spirit-filled husband loves his wife. Spirit-filled children obey their parents. A Spirit-filled father does not provoke his children to wrath. A Spirit-filled employer is fair with his employees. All those are manifestations of the Spirit-filled life.

Now check Colossians 3:16: "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you." What happens when that occurs? The very same thing that happens when you are filled with the Spirit (see vv.

16-23). Therefore, being filled with the Spirit is exactly the same thing as letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. They must be equal, for they produce exactly the same phenomena.

Now let's go one step further for an additional comparison. To be Spirit-filled is to be Christ-conscious. It is practically the same thing as being deeply, richly involved in all that Jesus Christ is and what is said about Him. The truth Jesus spoke and the truth taught about Him should govern every deed, every word, every internal drive, every hidden motive, and every desire of your heart. And as you study the Word of God, as you dwell in His Word, as it dwells in you richly, you become Christ-centered, you become Christconscious. That is the same as being Spirit-filled.

To put it another way, being filled with the Spirit means living every moment as if you are standing in the presence of Jesus Christ.

You can get up in the morning and in your heart say, "Good morn­ ing, Lord. It's Your day, and I just want You to keep reminding me all day that You are right beside me." What is more practical than that? When Satan or his agents come around to tempt you, you can say, "Christ, I know You are in me. Empower me! Rebuke

Satan and his powers. Lord, I'm being tempted, and I need Your strength right now!"

Being Spirit-filled also gives practical help in making decisions.

"Lord, I don't know which way to go. I have two choices, two The Filling of the Spirit < 83 paths. Show me the way, Lord." If you are really Christ-conscious, you just let Him guide your choices as you move through the day.

Have you learned to live in a Christ-conscious way? Do you habitually think of Jesus and acknowledge His presence in your life? That is the same as being Spirit-filled. Check out 2 Corinthians

3:18: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." You see, if you gaze at the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit will remake you into His glorious image! That's the ultimate in spiritual growth and can occur only when you are totally absorbed in Him!

SINGING AND MAKING MELODY We've referred repeatedly to the joy that comes with being Spiritfilled. That joy is an inevitable consequence of the Spirit's control in a person's life. Ephesians 5:19 shows the consequence of a Spirit-filled life: "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord."

It ­doesn't matter whether you sing well aloud. The point is that you can make melody in your heart. Do you know what it is to have a song in your heart? If you are filled with the Spirit, you can't help singing. That's not just my opinion; the Bible says so. How could it be otherwise if you have the joy and the exhilaration of the Spirit?

As Spirit-filled Christians, we sing.

To whom do we sing? Our verse says, "to one another." In the church we sing to one another. Sometimes the choir sings to us, and sometimes we all sing together. Sometimes someone sings a solo.

All of us sing because of the joy produced by the filling of the Spirit.

Our songs are a testimony to one another, not mere entertainment.

We must be aware of the danger of singing artificially—performing as a self-centered showcase and doing so for fleshly gratification rather than out of the joy of a Spirit-filled life. A performance that does not express the Spirit-filled life is sin because it stems from the desire for self-glory.

In addition to singing to one another, we're to sing "to the 84 < the keys to spiritual growth Lord." Do you know that the Lord loves to hear you sing when you give expression to the joy of the Spirit? Music is the language of the emotions. How wonderful to express your innermost self directly to the Savior! If this is not the true expression of a sincere heart and backed by a righteous life, God is not pleased (Amos

What are we supposed to sing? According to our verse, we sing "psalms"—songs drawn directly from Scripture. We also sing

"hymns"—the kind the disciples sang in the upper room the night before our Lord suffered and died. And last, we sing "spiritual songs"—personal, emotional expressions of our testimony. The phrase "and making melody" is translated from the Greek word psallo, which literally means "to pluck the lyre." Evidently we can also express our joy with instruments. Whether instrumentally or vocally, however, our reason for musical expression is the over­ whelming joy of the Holy Spirit that fills us.

GIVING THANKS In addition to singing, there is a further consequence of being Spiritfilled: giving thanks. Ephesians 5:20 says, "always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father." Spirit-filled, God-conscious Christians give thanks for everything. We tend to be long on our demands—yes, even our complaints—but we are often too short on our thanksgivings.

That was not true of one singularly sunny and praise-filled leader among the early Christians—the apostle Paul. For him it can be said that gratitude was far more a matter of principle than emotion, far more an affair of duty than of ecstasy. Wherever Paul went, he wore "the mantle of praise" (Isaiah 61:3). Some people, if they ever wear thankfulness at all, wear it as a boutonniere. Not Paul! He wore gratitude as a full outfit. Praise was woven into the fabric of his life. And he wanted it to be so with his Christian breth­ ren everywhere. So strong was his insistence on that point that he laid it down emphatically to the Christians in the Colossian church with a two-word imperative: "Be thankful" (Colossians 3:15).

The Filling of the Spirit < 85 In the story of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed, only one returned to give thanks (Luke 17:11-19). And today thanksgiving is still outnumbered at least nine to one—a pathetic minority.

Thanksgiving is not an act; it is an attitude. "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful" (Colossians 3:15). Gratitude fills the soul with the sunshine of God. Ingratitude keeps the soul's windows darkened, shutting out the light of God, turning life into a fog. For the Christian, every circumstance should be cause for thanksgiving.

Like the prophet Habakkuk, you may not understand, but you praise God anyway.

Benjamin Franklin recorded of the first Thanksgiving holiday in the New World, "In a time of great despondency among the first settlers of New England, it was proposed in one of their assemblies to proclaim a fast. An old farmer rose, reviewed their mercies, and proposed that, instead of provoking heaven with their complaints, they appoint a thanksgiving." We might learn a great lesson from that! We tend to focus so often on our com­ plaints, but we could give thanks for many things. Whatever our losses are here on this earth, we know that as Christians we shall someday receive our divine, eternal inheritance in glory—and for that we can always be thankful. Those things for which we are thankful ought to set the agenda in our prayer lives. That's an integral part of the Spirit-filled life.

Jesus said, "Your grief will be turned into joy" (John 16:20). He then used the example of a woman giving birth to a child. The pain is agonizing, but when the child is born, the joy is unequaled. For us the very event that causes sorrow will bring joy, and we should thank Him and rejoice in advance. The indwelling Spirit will pro­ duce that kind of thanksgiving in everyone whom He fills!

THINGS FOR WHICH TO BE THANKFUL Scripture is replete with exhortations to be thankful. Here are some of the many things we can always be thankful for.

86 < the keys to spiritual growth • Gifts from God—1 Timothy 4:3, 4: ". . . God has created [marriage and food] to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with grati­ tude."

• God's presence—Psalm 75:1, 9: "We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks, for Your name is near; men declare Your wondrous works. . . . But as for me, I will declare it forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob."

• Salvation—Romans 6:17: "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed."

• Victory over death—1 Corinthians 15:57: "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus • Victory in life—2 Corinthians 2:14: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place."

• Everything in general—Philippians 4:6: "Be anxious for noth­ ing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks­ giving let your requests be made known to God."

SPIRITUAL MATURITY It is only possible in the Christian life to be either Spirit-controlled or dominated by the flesh. The apostle Paul contrasted spiritual people with carnal ones. All unbelievers are carnal; they have no other option. Believers, on the other hand, have the Holy Spirit living in them; it is their nature to be spiritual. But believers are sometimes influenced by the flesh and can behave in carnal ways.

Growth toward Christ's likeness occurs only when we are spiritual, walking in the Spirit, filled by the Spirit. When we behave in a fleshly manner, we hinder our spiritual growth.

Paul wrote, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to The Filling of the Spirit < 87 receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able" (1 Corinthians

3:1, 2). In other words, Paul could feed the Corinthians only the milk of the Word—the basic truths—because their carnality had stunted their spiritual growth. They lacked the spiritual teeth nec­ essary to chew solid food. Growth can occur only when we allow the Spirit to control us.

Full maturity results only from being filled with the Spirit as a pattern of life. Fuel up, friend, and head for the prize—to be made like Christ.

< CONFESSION Unlocking the Chamber of Horrors At the height of his power, King David committed a grievous sin. He would suffer the consequences of it for the rest of his life.

What did he do? He became infatuated with the wife of one of his military officers—Bathsheba was her name. David accidentally saw her bathing on her rooftop one day, and he began to lust after her. Ultimately he made her pregnant while her husband was away fighting battles on David's behalf.

David tried desperately to hide his deed and finally decided the only way to solve his problem was by arranging for Bathsheba's husband—his friend—to lead a suicide squad into a battle against the Philistines. That's what happened, and the innocent man was killed. Conveniently forgetting his intrigue, David gave the man a military funeral and proceeded to marry the pregnant wife. God relates the whole story in 2 Samuel 11.

By his actions David had broken four of the Ten Commandments: He had coveted, he had stolen, he had committed adultery, and he had murdered. A man with any moral sense, especially a man who knows God, is going to feel troubled, even unnerved, by such sin. Guilt finally caught up with David, and he became obsessed with his sin. He could not get his sin out of his heart or mind, and he could not get it off his hands.

Psalm 51 records David's great outpouring of confession. There he prayed for four things. Sin had made him dirty, and he asked to 90 < the keys to spiritual growth be cleansed. Guilt had made him physically sick, and he asked to be healed. Iniquity had broken his joy with God, and he asked to be restored. He knew he had directly violated God's love and laws, and he asked for pardon and mercy.

The whole subject of confession of sin is much discussed today, and I think we need to see it in the biblical perspective. Confession is ever and always the pattern of the Christian's life. It constitutes one of the essential keys to spiritual growth.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF COVERING SIN Christians today face the same dilemma that David faced: If we try to cover our sin, as David attempted to do for an entire year, we grieve the Holy Spirit. Confession is the only solution, but it requires that we abandon our pride. We have all fought this battle.

I can remember in my childhood confronting the matter head-on time after time. My mother would line up all four children against the wall and say, "All right, which one of you did it?" To admit or not to admit—that was the question! You know, of course, that this is a recurring issue all through life. Fortunately, I learned as a child that it never pays to try to cover your sin. Besides, it is futile.

We can hide nothing from God.

What happens to the one who covers up, or tries to? For one thing, he will forfeit God's blessing on his life. That means very real and practical consequences. "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper" (Proverbs 28:13). Physical illness may be another result of covering up. David testified, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer" (Psalm 32:3, 4).

The one who covers his sin in this life is going to have it uncov­ ered in the next, and whoever exposes it to God in this life shall never have it exposed again in the life to come. A day of judgment is coming. Jesus said, "There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, what­ ever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what

Confession < 91 you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops" (Luke 12:2, 3).

A day is coming in which there will be absolutely no secrets, in which the innermost secrets of every heart will be disclosed. For the godly, that day will be rewarding; for the ungodly, the disclosure will be damning. God will judge all sin that has been covered up; all sin that is hidden will be revealed. But the sin that is exposed in this life and cleansed by the blood of Christ need never be exposed again.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). That which has been cleansed and forgiven will not be brought against us.

That's one of the marvelous promises of Scripture that Christians can claim. When we get to heaven, God will not show us our sins.

He has removed them from us "as far as the east is from the west"

(Psalm 103:12)—an immeasurable distance.

But unbelievers who attempt to cover their sins have no such promise. They face exposure and God's judgment. Revelation 20 says that Christ will open the books to disclose the sin of their lives;

He will judge all their sin, and He will cast the guilty into the lake of fire.

Moreover, Christians who try to cover individual sins face exposure and loss of reward:

Each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

—1 Corinthians 3:13-15 God judges sin so sternly because He is utterly holy. All sin is a personal offense against Him. Everyone who sins directly defies

God. David acknowledged that when he said, "Against You, You only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight" (Psalm

51:4). David did not deny that he had committed sin against him­ 92 < the keys to spiritual growth self and his own body, as adultery certainly is (1 Corinthians 6:18).

He was not denying that he had sinned against Bathsheba and her husband or that he had sinned against the whole nation of Israel by failing in such a way. But he recognized that all sin is first and foremost an affront to God.

Some people tend to look for a place to lay blame when they think they're confessing sin. Adam, for example, began his admis­ sion of disobedience by saying, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate" (Genesis 3:12, emphasis added). Many counselors today actually advise people to search their pasts and identify wrongs done to them by parents, authority figures, and others. Supposedly that process helps a per­ son understand his failures and releases him from hurt he causes to himself. The truth is, none of that is helpful at all in dealing with guilt; in fact, it usually only worsens the problem. True confession of sin is not just admitting that you did something wrong, but acknowledging that your sin was against God and in defiance of Him personally. To be spiritually healthy, we must deal not with the issue of the wrongs others have done to us, but the evil we have perpetrated against a holy God.

So the primary feature of confession is agreeing with God that we are helplessly guilty. In fact, the Greek word for confession is homologeo, which literally means "to say the same thing." When we confess our sin, we must agree with God about our sin. That is, we must see our sin as He sees it. "Lord, I have sinned. I agree with Your appraisal of me."

So confession is not just saying, "Yes, I did it! I did it!" It means full agreement with God. For that reason, true confession also involves repentance—turning away from the evil thought or action. You have not honestly confessed your sins until you have turned from them. If a person says, "I'm sorry, God. I confess" and then continues to practice his sin, he fools himself. Real con­ fession includes a brokenness that inevitably leads to changes in behavior.

Perhaps we tend to confess our sin in a superficial way because we do not understand how God sees our sin. We need to under­

Confession < 93 stand more fully what Scripture means when it speaks of confes­ sion. A closer look at David's confession in Psalm 51 shows us three crucial elements of true confession: a right view of sin, a right view of God, and a right view of self.

A RIGHT VIEW OF SIN What is a right view of sin? First, it is a recognition that sin deserves judgment. David prayed, "Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compas­ sion blot out my transgressions" (v. 1). The fact that David pleaded for mercy was an admission that he was guilty and unworthy of exoneration or acquittal. The possibility of mercy comes only after a guilty verdict has been rendered.

Do you think David was at risk by praying such a prayer? Do you think there was a chance he might not receive mercy? Then read Psalm 103 for great news! "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. . . . For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving­ kindness toward those who fear Him. . . . But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear

Him" (vv. 8, 11, 17). We find many examples in Scripture where God stayed His hand of judgment and extended mercy (see Ezra

9:13; Nehemiah 9:19; and Job 11:6).

Still, a plea for mercy presupposes that sin deserves harsh judg­ ment. We dare not presume on God's mercy. Let us never forget that the penalty for sin is death.

A right view of sin also recognizes an urgent need for cleansing.

David prayed, "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalm 51:2). He wanted every dirty sin washed out of his life. Sin leaves a deep stain, and only a total cleansing will suffice. What is the cleansing agent? "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Jesus' atoning work on the cross paid the penalty for our sin. His blood was shed on our behalf so that we might be washed clean from all our iniquities. Without that cleansing, we would be doomed to an eternity apart from God.

94 < the keys to spiritual growth But because He died for us, we can be washed "whiter than snow"

(Psalm 51:7) and will enter God's holy presence in total purity.

A third thing is crucial to a right view of sin—the matter of accepting full responsibility for it. David wrote, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me" (v. 3). As we have noted, David did not blame anyone except himself. He says in effect, "God, I exonerate You. I myself have done this. I have sinned. You are justified; You are clear. I don't try to escape my accountability." When a person takes personal responsibility for his sin, he advances toward spiritual maturity.

Finally, a right view of sin recognizes that we sin because it is our nature to do so. Sin is no accident. Nor could we stop if we made a willful decision to do so. We are utterly given to sin as a way of life. David said, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me" (v. 5). Sin is passed on from generation to generation at the time of conception. All of us are born utterly depraved—that is, sinful in every aspect of our nature.

"The wicked are estranged from the womb" (Psalm 58:3). From their earliest moments, people are all evil. They cannot help it; it is a part of human nature, passed down from Adam.

A RIGHT VIEW OF GOD Not only does true confession demand a right view of sin, it also demands a right view of God. In Psalm 51, David cites several characteristics of God and draws practical applications from them.

God's holiness, for example, requires "truth in the innermost being"

(v. 6). That implies God is concerned not with external behavior but with the thoughts and motives of our hearts. Some people try to play games with God by carrying on a lot of external religious ritual. He is not impressed with that. God looks on the inside—at the heart.

David also referred to God's authority over sin: "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" (v. 7). David expressed his confidence that if God were to take care of his sin, He would do the job thor­ oughly. Some Christians do not believe God can change their sinful habits. He can, but it requires trust and confidence in the Lord's

Confession < 95 authority over the powers of evil. How often we fail to commit ourselves totally to Him for victory!

After holiness and authority, David recognized God's compas­ sion: "Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice" (v. 8). What did David mean by "the bones which You have broken"? As a shepherd, he knew very well that those who tend flocks sometimes have to break the leg of a way­ ward lamb to keep him from straying. While the wounded limb is healing, the shepherd has to carry the little lamb until the set bone has healed. After that, the sheep will follow the shepherd closely wherever he goes. David got the message: "Lord, I had my legs bro­ ken, but now I'm ready to follow You." He saw God's compassion even in His acts of chastisement.

David also recognized God's mercy. He knew God is a forgiving God, that He has both the power and the desire to pardon sin in those whose repentance is genuine. I can think of no better expres­ sion of this than that found in Micah 7:18: "Who is a God like

You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love." David understood this aspect of God's character; it is crucial to a right view of God.

A RIGHT VIEW OF SELF So true confession demands a right view of sin, a right view of God, and one thing more—a right view of self. Psalm 51 makes this plain. David came to recognize that he needed to turn from his awful sin and live a holy, godly life.

Why? First, for the sake of sinners. David knew that he had to be holy if he was to convert other sinners to God (v. 13). No one is going to listen to a man who has a sense of guilt eating away at him. Moreover, guilt locks a person's lips from giving testimony.

Someone harboring personal guilt has nothing to say to others looking for relief from their sin. I'm sure many Christians find themselves silent because they cannot avow the righteousness of God while they know they conceal secret transgressions.

96 < the keys to spiritual growth Second, we must be holy for the sake of God, who delights in "a broken and a contrite heart" (v. 17). Do you know that you can make God happy? You can—by being sensitive to sin in your own life and being broken before the Lord about it.

Finally, we must be holy for the sake of the saints. In verse 18 David prays for others. Back in a right relationship with God, he can now intercede for others. But he could not do that unless he first came to the point of purity in his own life.

To summarize, true confession can occur only when you see God for who He is, when you see sin for what it is, and when you see yourself for what you are—and what you are to be.

IS CONFESSION REQUIRED FOR FORGIVENESS?

Let me dispel a wrong idea that some people have regarding this matter of confession. When we say confession involves both agree­ ment with God and repentance that leads to sorrow for sin, are we saying that we must beg God for forgiveness? The answer is an emphatic no. Why is that? Because God has forgiven the believer's sin already! When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He bore the sins of each believer—his past sins, his present sins, and his future sins.

So we are not dealing with the matter of forgiveness when we talk about confession. Forgiveness occurred at the cross. First John

2:12 says, "Little children . . . your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake" (emphasis added). There is no unforgiven sin in my life. There's none in your life either if you are a Christian. God does not impute sin to His children. Colossians 2:13 states that God has forgiven us all our trespasses and has made us one with Christ.

On a television program dealing with religious themes, the host invited people to telephone with their spiritual questions. A woman called in and asked, "If I die or the Rapture occurs before I have a chance to confess all my sins, what will happen to me?

I'm a Christian." The host responded, "You'll go to hell." Not so!

The Christian's sins have all been forgiven. Christians have eternal life as a present possession. They are one with Christ. That is what

Confession < 97 the cross accomplished. Nothing and no one can separate God's children from Him (see Romans 8:32-39).

The why of confession will be considered in the remainder of this chapter. I warn you—it is a very heavy sea we are sailing through, so grab the railing and hang on!

We have to tackle three vital words that describe every Christian, taking as our text 1 John 1:5—2:2. The first word is cleansed. "If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellow­ ship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1:7).

That is a fantastic description of a Christian. The Greek word translated "walk" is in a present-tense subjunctive, which means it speaks of continuous, habitual action. John is giving us an index of our true character. We might translate the first part of the verse, "If you are habitually in the light." Who is in the light? The Christian who has been placed in the light—the Christian who is sharing

God's light and life. If you are in Him, then it follows that you are dwelling in the light.

The fact that Christians are living in light is very clear in Scripture. God is light, and no darkness is in Him. We are in His light. That is an absolute. No believer in Christ can step out of the light. We might occasionally return to the deeds of darkness, but those deeds are contrary to our new nature. We dwell in the light.

From the intellectual side, light refers to truth (see John 12:35, 36, 46; Acts 26:18, 23; 2 Corinthians 4:4, 6). From the moral side, light refers to holiness or purity (see Romans 13:11-14; Ephesians

5:8-14; 1 John 2:8-11). God is truth and holiness, and no sin touches Him. And we are in Him. What a thought!

Since we are walking in the light, "we have fellowship with one another." You might think "one another" refers to other Christians, but it ­doesn't. It refers to God and us. That is not evi­ dent in the English text, but it is in the Greek. As you walk in the light, you have fellowship with God, and He has fellowship with 98 < the keys to spiritual growth you. The word fellowship means "partnership." You are partners with God, sharing common life.

What is the result of this? "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." We touched on that issue a few pages back. It is worth looking at in greater depth here. "The blood" is the symbol of Christ's death. Peter wrote, "You were not redeemed with per­ ishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inher­ ited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18, 19).

The blood symbolizes the Savior's death. His blood that was shed is a constant provision for our cleansing. That is, Christ needed to die only once to save us from our sins forever. He ­doesn't need to pay the price every time we sin anew. That once-for-all atonement keeps on cleansing us from our sin.

Revelation 1:5 also speaks to this point: "To Him [Jesus] who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood." When Jesus paid the price for sin by shedding His blood, that blood became like a cleansing agent to wash our sins away. It is not that Jesus' blood itself had some magical or mystical quality, but that the giving of His life paid the penalty for our sin. The shedding of His blood was a graphic demonstration that His death was a sacrifice for our sins.

In the Old Testament sacrificial system, the blood of an animal sacrifice was literally sprinkled around the Temple, on the altar, and even applied to the sinner who brought the sacrifice. That blood identified the sinner with the atonement. In a similar way,

Christ's atoning death applies to us only when we personally iden­ tify with Him. His blood is not literally sprinkled on us, but as we identify ourselves personally with His death, it is as if we were liter­ ally sprinkled with His blood. Thus, symbolically the Bible speaks of the blood as the cleansing agent for our sins.

THE CONDITION FOR OUR CLEANSING Is there any condition attached to our cleansing? Only one. We are cleansed if we walk in the light. Walking in the light, as we have seen, means being a Christian. If you are a Christian, you have

Confession < 99 absolute, total, complete, and continuous cleansing from all sin.

That's what 1 John 1:7 affirms. There is no condition for cleansing but being in the light.

"No, no, that's wrong," someone objects. "This verse implies that we ought to walk in the light. It's saying, 'All right, you

Christians, if you'll just get in earnest and walk in the light, then you'll have fellowship and then you'll be cleansed.'"

That's a common misunderstanding of this passage. But if that interpretation were correct, this verse, in effect, would be saying,

"Don't sin because if you do, you'll be in darkness." So let's read it that way: "If you don't sin, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you from all sin." Well, that is not what we need. That would mean you could get cleansing only when you do not need it. What value is there in getting cleansed when you are already being good? The implication would be that cleansing and forgiveness are available only to those who don't sin.

Instead the verse means that if you and I are walking in God's light, when sin comes into our lives we are nevertheless children of light, and sin is constantly cleansed from us because no darkness can invade God's light. So God continually cleanses and cleanses and cleanses us because of the sacrifice of Christ.

That's exciting! We don't have even one uncleansed sin on our accounts! Instead of being guilty and defiled, we are constantly cleansed. The moment some sin appears, we are cleansed because we are in the light. There is no darkness in Christ, and Christ keeps us pure.

Ephesians 1:7 tells us that we receive from Christ "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." How complete is our forgiveness?

"According to the riches of His grace." And Hebrews 10:14 reminds us that the offering of Christ "perfected for all time those who are sanctified." One offering—His death on the cross—led to our total cleansing, not just for one time, but for eternity.

I am fit to enter God's holy presence. I am going nonstop to glory! Christians are always in the light, always in the fellowship, and always cleansed. That's marvelous!

100 < the keys to spiritual growth Let me give you an idea of how this works. On the occasion that our Lord washed the disciples' feet, Peter was offended that his Lord would stoop to such a lowly task. He said to Jesus, "Never shall You wash my feet!" (John 13:8). Peter's pride was offended.

Washing feet was a servant's task. None of the disciples were will­ ing to do it; so Jesus Himself had taken the basin and towel and was washing His own disciples' feet. This was an unheard-of role reversal—the Master was washing His disciples' feet.

Jesus answered, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me" (v. 8).

Peter, who seemed to have a knack for saying the wrong thing, came back with enthusiasm: "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head" (v. 9).

"Jesus said to him, 'He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean'" (v. 10). Someone who has had a bath is clean. In the first century, as people walked along the dusty road, their feet usually got dirty. They ­couldn't take a bath every time they walked someplace; so people commonly washed their feet. It was a touch-up, not a full cleansing.

Jesus was referring to a similar phenomenon in the spiritual realm. He was saying, "Once you have been cleansed with My blood, all sin has been forgiven. Only the dust of the world needs to be washed off your feet, and I will continue to do that. You don't need another bath."

That wonderfully pictures the positional cleansing and holiness of the Christian at salvation and gives us the promise that Jesus will continue to keep us clean every day as we walk through the world. We do not need to be saved over and over again. Salvation is a once-for-all transaction. It cannot be repeated.

CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL If the first word that describes believers is cleansed, the second is confessing. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (v. 9).

I have pointed out that there was no condition for cleansing Confession < 101 in verse 7, but now we are at verse 9. You see, verse 7 looks at the matter from God's side, and verse 9 looks at it from our side.

"Well, there you are!" someone might say, digging an elbow into my ribs. "You just said Christ takes care of our sins uncondition­ ally, and now this verse says, 'if we confess.' So there is a condition after all!"

No, not really. This is not a condition for cleansing, but a char­ acteristic of those who are being cleansed. Let me show you what

I mean. God forgives and cleanses because of the death of Christ.

God does this instantly, but He does it only for the people who are agreeing with Him about their sin. We could read 1 John 1:9 this way: "If we are the ones confessing our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins." Who are the ones who are confessing? Christians. Do you see it? This verse is not saying, "You must confess or I will not forgive!" It says, in effect, that God constantly, habitually, forever cleanses the sins of the ones who are confessing. That is just another definition of a Christian. A Christian is someone who agrees with God that he is a sinner. So the ones who are admitting that they are sinners are the ones who are being cleansed.

Notice also that this verse says God is "faithful" in this forgive­ ness. He is faithful because He promised that He would cleanse and forgive. He promised He would be merciful to the one who con­ fesses (Proverbs 28:13). In Jeremiah 31:34 He said, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." So God is faithful because He does what He promised.

But our text adds that God is "righteous" or just in doing this.

How could God possibly be just in forgiving sin? Doesn't justice demand rather that sin be punished? Yes, but Jesus Christ paid the penalty, and in doing that He satisfied God's justice. Romans 3:2326 tells us that our Lord was crucified in order to display the justice of God, "so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (v. 26). The way God designed salvation, He can both justify sinners and remain just Himself.

Often a look at the original language illumines a difficult point.

When 1 John 1:9 speaks of forgiving, the word used is in a tense that signifies a single, definite, onetime act rather than continuous

102 < the keys to spiritual growth action. John is not saying that Christians might live in continuous, unbroken sin. He is speaking of exceptional, occasional, sporadic acts of sin in the Christian's life. Those do occur, and they need to be confessed.

The Greek word translated "confess" in this verse appears in the continuing present tense. It refers to a continual confession of sins. This is not a one-time act. It is an ongoing attitude of agree­ ing with God concerning our sins. So the confession of a genuine believer is continual and habitual. God keeps forgiving the ones who are confessing—the ones agreeing with Him that they are sin­ ners. So the continuous habit of their lives is to be acknowledging before God that they are sinners. In doing this, a confessor shows himself to be one who is truly forgiven—a true Christian—in con­ trast to the non-Christian, whose habit is to deny sin (see vv. 8, 10).

Let me illustrate this by looking at the word faith. We are saved by faith, according to Ephesians 2:8, 9 and a host of other

New Testament verses. After someone is saved, can he or she ever quit believing? Of course not. If faith is real, it will certainly continue. Belief is not a one-time thing. For example, 1 John 5:1 says, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."

Literally, that could be translated, "Whoever is believing . . . is born of God." That is what Jesus implied when He said, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine" (John 8:31). And again, "Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who [is believing] that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:5). So faith that is real will last forever.

If the confession of sin that leads to salvation is real, the sinner will go on agreeing with God about his sin as well. What brings us to Jesus Christ—acknowledging our sin and believing in Him— continues through our whole Christian life. That is what the Spirit of God is saying. Those who are saved will continue to believe, and they will continue to confess. Perhaps I can sum it up in four impor­ tant words: Continual confession characterizes Christians.

There may be varying degrees of confession. Some may confess more frequently than others. Some seem more sensitive to their sin than others. Perhaps there are even differing degrees of repentance.

Confession < 103 Some Christians seem to know a repentance that is fuller or deeper than that of others. Certainly the same thing is true of faith, isn't it? Some have more faith than others. Jesus said that even faith as small as a grain of mustard seed is enough (Matthew 17:20). Still, confession and faith must be present in some measure, and as one grows in the Christian life, he will find himself confessing more and believing with stronger faith than when he first believed.

We must be honest in this area. The blessing of God is reserved for a confessing heart. If we have a superficial relationship with God, our confession will be superficial: "O Lord, I sinned again today, and You know it. There are a whole lot of things I've done wrong, and I don't have time to go into them. Amen." You've probably heard people say, "Well, sure, I'm a sinner, but isn't everyone?" If that's your attitude toward sin, I feel constrained to urge you to examine yourself to see if you're truly a believer (see 2 Corinthians 13:5).

Don't just tacitly admit that you are a sinner; agree with God concerning your sin. If you could see the depths of your sin from the bottom of your heart—just once, the way God sees it—your life would never be the same again.

CAN A CHRISTIAN BE OUT OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD?

Some people say that confession is important because it restores fellowship with God, which they believe is broken by sin. We sin, fellowship is broken; we confess, fellowship is restored. But that is not what Scripture teaches. Our fellowship with God never changes, regardless of how we fail. Genuine fellowship cannot be broken by sin and therefore cannot be restored by confession.

We have been led astray by the usual understanding of the word fellowship. We use it to mean "friendship, intimacy, relationship between persons." But the Greek word is koinonia, meaning

"partnership." Our partnership with God can never be broken by sin, Satan, or anything else in the universe (see Romans 8:32-39).

Something does happen when we sin, but it is not broken fellow­ ship. It is forfeiture of joy. "These things we write unto you, that 104 < the keys to spiritual growth your joy may be full" (1 John 1:4, kjv). Although our fellowship cannot be broken, we can foul up our lives so that we lose our joy.

Many, many Christians have done that very thing.

I don't deny that in sinning, a believer loses a certain intimacy, a warmhearted experience, a sense of nearness to God. Something does go away, but Scripture speaks of it as lost joy rather than lost fellowship.

What is the fastest way to regain the joy of your salvation? Do what David did—confess. He prayed, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation" (Psalm 51:12). God then returns His joy to you.

WINNING THE BATTLES So far we have seen that cleansing and confession characterize the Christian life. A third quality common to every believer is conquer­ ing. God liberates the Christian. That is, for the first time He gives the believer an ability to do what is right. That is something we never could do before we were saved. We were dead in our tres­ passes and sins, slaves to sin. We had no choice but to sin. Now we have strength to prevail over sin.

Who needs it? a Christian may say to himself, or even aloud.

Since I'm going to be a sinner for the rest of my life and I have to keep confessing, there's no need to strive for holiness—especially since I'm cleansed anyway. I'll just live as I please.

John responds to that philosophy, "My little children [he was ninety years old when he wrote this, so he could use that expres­ sion], I am writing these things to you that you may not sin" (1

John 2:1). I like that! You will never hear a simpler exhortation than that: "Don't sin!"

Perhaps you're wondering, Why did John say that? If I'm always going to be confessing and always going to be cleansed, isn't it ridiculous to say, "Don't sin"?

No, it isn't ridiculous, because we do not have to sin. That sounds like a contradiction, but it isn't. Within every believer lies the power for victory over sin. That is why I use the word conquer­ ing. We can conquer sin. "Sin shall not be master over you, for Confession < 105 you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). Sin has no more power over those of us who are in Christ. Romans 8:13 says we can mortify sin, or put it to death. Unbelievers cannot win over sin, but Christians certainly can.

One indisputable mark of spiritual maturity is the decreasing frequency of sin. Why would God tell us not to sin if we ­didn't have a choice in the matter? Paul said the same thing: "Become soberminded as you ought, and stop sinning" (1 Corinthians 15:34). "Be angry, and yet do not sin" (Ephesians 4:26). "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:11, 12). In other words, we are not to sin. I once preached a sermon entitled "Four Things the Holy Spirit Does for You, Whether You Like It or Not." Among those sovereign works of the Spirit is subduing the flesh. You can­ not conquer in your flesh, but the Holy Spirit working in you can.

JESUS, OUR ADVOCATE Let's conclude this section on sin and confession with John's brief summary: "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world"

(1 John 2:1, 2). John says, in effect, if we do sin, we have Someone to cover for us. Again, he is not speaking of a habitual disobedience or sin as a course of life, but of individual sinful acts that interrupt our walk of faith. When we do commit such an act, it is cleansed.

What is an advocate? It is the same word translated "Helper" in John 15:26. It means a lawyer for the defense—someone called alongside to help. Whenever we sin, do you think God accuses us? No, but Satan does. "Look at him, God. That child of Yours sinned." The devil is like a prosecuting attorney.

But our Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, rises and says, "It is taken care of, Father. I bore it in My body. I paid the penalty." The Righteous One who has saved us from all unrighteousness, the One who is holy and has made the perfect sacrifice, personally defends

106 < the keys to spiritual growth us. So Satan is foiled. "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" asks Romans 8:33.

There you have it. As those redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, we are cleansed. As cleansed ones, we confess our sins. And as those who confess, we conquer. No matter how deep your guilt, no mat­ ter how frequent your failure, come to God in contrite confession and let Him do His work in your life.

One of the most thrilling scenes in English literature comes at the conclusion of Mutiny on the Bounty. Some seamen are being court-martialed before the Royal Navy. These men are on trial for mutiny, facing the possibility of death by hanging. Roger Byam, a young sailor, is one of those on trial. Because he is a person of loy­ alty and integrity, Byam is granted a pardon by the king. Though judged guilty, he is acquitted and restored to rank, and the record of his crime is forever expunged.

That is what David asked for—and received. And that is what every believer receives in Christ. We believe God is a forgiving God, and in response and thanks, we confess our sin to Him, turning from it, lest we stamp on His grace.

< LOVE Unlocking the Bridal Suite At the time of Moses, God gave His people the Ten Commandments.

But by the time of the Lord Jesus' walk on earth, the legal traditions of the rabbis totaled in the thousands. There is no way any person can keep thousands of laws perfectly. So the Jewish leaders made an accommodation. They divided all their rules and regulations into heavy laws and light laws. "The heavy laws are just that," they said. "They're binding. The light laws? Well, you can give a little on those."

Some rabbis even went further and taught that if a man selected just one great precept to observe, he could disregard all the others.

Against this background, a lawyer came to Jesus with a ques­ tion: "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"

(Matthew 22:36). Jesus replied, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets"

Thus our Lord established love as the highest of all spiritual virtues. The apostle Paul confirmed the superiority of love: "Now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love"

(1 Corinthians 13:13).

108 < the keys to spiritual growth THE EXAMPLE OF PETER What is involved in keeping this first commandment that our Lord termed the greatest? I know of no better illustration than that fur­ nished by one of the twelve disciples in John 21:2-17.

"I'm going fishing!" Peter said one day after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was saying to the other disciples that he was going back to the fishing business, returning to what he used to do. Since Peter was the leader, the rest of the fel­ lows said, "We're going too," and they all followed Peter dutifully to the boat. The Lord then rerouted all the fish in the Sea of Galilee so that none went near the boat. So Peter and the others labored all night with nothing to show for it.

"Have you caught anything?" a stranger called to them at dawn on the next day.

"Cast the net on the other side of the boat, and you'll catch some fish." Who knows why the disciples obeyed such an unusual sug­ gestion. Perhaps it was the innate authority in the stranger's voice.

But they did as He suggested. Meanwhile, the Lord supernaturally directed the fish to the right side of the boat. The catch was so big that the disciples ­couldn't even get their nets aboard the boat.

"It is the Lord," John said. Hearing that, Peter threw himself into the water and swam ashore.

Jesus invited them to breakfast—a meal He had prepared, per­ haps supernaturally. As Peter and the others sat there, eating with the Lord of Glory, Peter must have thought, What a clod I am!

What a disobedient, inadequate person! I've failed again. Peter had failed virtually every test the Lord had given him. He just ­couldn't succeed. There must have been tears in his eyes and grief and pain in his heart as he looked at Jesus, whom he loved so much but had served so poorly.

At last the Lord spoke. "Peter, do you love Me more than these?"

These what? Well, maybe these things—the boat, the fish, the nets, the sea, or the whole fishing business. Or perhaps the Lord was asking if Peter loved Him more than the other disciples did.

Love < 109 Peter had claimed on one occasion that he was more faithful than the others. Undoubtedly he had believed his love for the Master was greater than theirs.

"Peter, do you love Me? Do you genuinely love Me?" The Lord used the word agapao, meaning the highest kind of supreme love.

How long Peter took in replying, we do not know. But he said, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love You." But Peter used a differ­ ent word—phileo—denoting respect and devotion. It was as if he replied, "I like You a lot."

Perhaps Peter felt his love was supreme, but shamed by his recent failure, he could not stand before the Lord and claim that kind of love. Remember, he had denied the Lord three times on the night of the crucifixion, and Jesus had looked him in the eyes when the cock crowed. It would have been ridiculous for him to say, "Lord, I supremely love You, but I don't stand with You when it might cost me something."

I once asked a five-year-old how he could show his parents that he loved them. "I could obey them," he replied. Even he understood that love is best displayed in that way.

It is not right to claim supreme love if you do not obey the one you claim to love. So Peter did not make that claim. Since Peter had denied the Lord on three occasions, Christ gave him three opportunities to redeem himself. Jesus said to him a second time,

"Simon, son of Jonas [the Lord called him by his old name because he was acting like his old self], do you love Me?" Again, the Lord used the word agapao.

"Yes, Lord, You know I like You a lot."

Jesus probed a third time, but now he adopted Peter's word for love. "Simon, do you even like Me a lot?" The Bible says Peter was grieved. Why? Because of being queried three times? No. Because the Lord was challenging Peter's testimony, questioning the level of Peter's love.

"Lord, You know all things. You know that I like You." Peter was implying, "Don't just hear what I say. Look at my heart."

When I was a little boy, I used to think about the doctrine of omniscience—the fact that God knows everything about every­

110 < the keys to spiritual growth thing—a terrible problem if we're not obeying Him. My dad used to warn me, "We may not know, but God knows! He sees what you do, Johnny." I wondered why God would waste His day just watching what I did.

As I matured in my understanding and grew up, I came to real­ ize that in many ways I'm like Peter. There are some days when the only way God would ever know that I loved Him was by His omni­ science. I realized this doctrine had a positive side. Aren't you glad that on the days when your life does not make your testimony very clear you can say, "Lord, I'm sorry about the way I act. Would You read my heart and know that I love You?" That's what Peter did.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR LOVE FOR GOD What kind of love did Jesus seek from Peter—and what does He seek from us? Is it an emotional love—a sentimental kind of thing?

Are we supposed to feel spiritual goose bumps toward the Lord?

Well, there are times in my life when I don't have this overwhelm­ ing feeling of warmth and intimacy toward Christ. And I can't just whip up an emotional reaction. But that is not what the Lord is talking about. We learn what real love is as we look further at this incident between Peter and Jesus.

Sacrifice In John 21:18, 19, our Lord warned Peter about what it would cost to follow Him:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go." Now this

He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.

The phrase "stretch out your hands" speaks of crucifixion.

"Peter, you're going to be crucified. Peter, do you really love Me?

That is what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, and Love < 111 mind. This kind of love is willing to make a sacrifice of itself. It is not the sentimental kind of love we hear so much about. It isn't simply a feeling. Peter had that already, but it ­wasn't enough. So now Jesus offered Peter a way to exhibit his love. He ­didn't just say,

"Peter, does it feel nice inside to love Me? Do you feel slightly warm between your fourth and fifth ribs?" No, He asked for sacrifice.

How can you tell if you love the Lord Jesus Christ? It hinges on whether you are willing to sacrifice in order to do His will daily.

In the first century, the ultimate sacrifice could very well mean physical death. The Roman general Varus reportedly put down an insurrection in Galilee by lining the road with crosses. Peter had witnessed that kind of death; it was fresh in his mind from the Lord's crucifixion. He knew what such a sacrifice would mean.

Peter had always sworn that he could handle dying for Jesus, but he had recently failed miserably under intense pressure. Perhaps he was doubting his own fortitude. Yet here was the Lord making a flat prophecy that in the end Peter was going to be faithful. I think

Peter must have said to himself, Wonderful! At last I'll make it! I'll stand true to the Lord. I won't fizzle out at the end.

Obedience A second quality of the love our Lord demands is obedience. Not only is it self-sacrificial, but it is submissive. "Follow Me!" the Lord commanded Peter (John 21:19). When Jesus got up and walked away, Peter arose and followed, literally interpreting

His command. Yes, it is true that Peter digressed for a moment by turning, seeing John, and asking the Lord what lay ahead for the beloved disciple. "That's none of your business, Peter," the Lord said in effect. And again He commanded, "Follow Me"

(vv. 20-22). And Peter did—for the rest of his life.

What is involved in giving sacrificial obedience to the Lord out of our love for Him? In my life it involves a number of things—one of which is spending five to six hours a day in my study, poring over the Word of God. Quite frankly, however, on some days when

I enter the office, I am tired and don't feel like studying. I would like to do something else, like dusting off the golf clubs and playing

112 < the keys to spiritual growth eighteen holes. But instead I grit my teeth and struggle through a day of intense study. At the end of that day, the only emotion I feel is the sense of accomplishment of having done it. But in working, I have loved the Lord Jesus Christ over against myself. I have fulfilled

His will and sacrificed in order to do it.

Now that may be a small thing, but it demonstrates the prin­ ciple of sacrificial obedience. Such obedience done out of love is not an emotional thing, but a fulfilling of 1 John 2:5: "Whoever keeps

His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him." The love that God seeks—love of heart, mind, and soul—obeys.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS Now let's go back to our Lord's reply to the lawyer who asked about the greatest commandment. First, we are to love God; sec­ ond, we are to love others. Scripture elaborates repeatedly on this point. For example, 1 Thessalonians says we have been taught by God to love one another. In view of that, we are to increase in love toward one another (4:9, 10). And Peter writes that we are to love one another with a pure heart, "fervently" (1 Peter 1:22). The word "fervently" comes from a Greek term meaning "extended or stretched out." We are to reach out as far as necessary to love others.

Just as love for God is not an emotionally induced feeling, neither is loving others. This kind of love also demands sacrifice.

Writing about it in 1 John 3:14, 15, the apostle John switched from a statement about loving the brethren—plural—to loving a brother—singular. Some people say, "Well, I love the brethren collectively—I just can't stand some individuals."

A well-known Peanuts cartoon shows Lucy accusing her little brother, Linus, of not loving his fellowman. "I love mankind," was his indignant response. "It's people I can't stand!" It is very easy to love the whole wide world, and it is easy to love the church.

However, it may be very difficult to love one particular person. But Love < 113 the love our Lord calls for is a practical, personal kind of love that is expressed primarily to individuals.

Love in Action When I first came to Grace Community Church, I wanted badly to love everyone, but I ­couldn't figure out how to get the emotional feeling I thought was necessary. Some people were kind of irritat­ ing, and some even purposely made things difficult for me. I wanted to love them, but I ­didn't know how. One day I went to a man who was particularly difficult, put my arm around him, and said,

"I want you to know something. If there's any way I can ever serve you, I'd sure love to have the opportunity." The opportunity came.

My attitude toward him ­didn't change because of how I felt about him emotionally, but because I learned to love him by serving him.

Loving others is not a question of patting someone on the back and saying, "You're so wonderful, so irresistible. I love you!" We show love by making personal sacrifices to meet someone's need.

Sometimes I'm asked how I can minister to individuals in a large church. It is not by running around to everyone and expressing love, but by making sacrifices in my life to help them to grow spiri­ tually. I care enough about them to do what is necessary in my life to bring them into conformity to Jesus Christ.

How do we best know that God loves us? Has He ever shouted it from heaven or written it in the sky? No; we perceive the love of God because Christ laid down His life for us. God put His Son on a cross on our behalf. That is how He expressed His love—through sacrifice. Since Christ "laid down His life for us . . . we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16). Death isn't always the price; sometimes love requires the sacrifice of our possessions or our time or whatever. "But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (1 John 3:17). If we see some­ one who has a need, we must meet that need as far as we're able, or we prove ourselves to be deficient in love.

"Well," someone interjects, "before we can love someone, we have to love ourselves. After all, the Bible says in James 2:8 we

114 < the keys to spiritual growth are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves." That is a popular concept. But it is not what James 2:8 teaches. Psychologists have made a business out of misinterpreting that verse. They say you must have the proper self-image, and if you do not have an exalted impression of yourself and all that, you will never be able to love other people correctly. That's a serious misunderstanding. It stems from the notion that love is sentimental. When the Bible speaks of love, it describes something quite different.

What does it mean to love others as we love ourselves? Look at James 2:1: "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious

Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism." The text goes on to give the illustration of a rich man and a poor man visit­ ing a congregation and being treated differently. James is saying that as Christians we are not to treat certain people with respect while we treat others with indifference. Rather, to fulfill the royal law, we are to treat everyone as we would treat ourselves. That means that whatever great sacrifices we make for our own comfort, we should make for the comfort of others, without respect to their status in life. It has nothing to do with our psychological self, but it has to do with our service toward others.

Just stop, for example, and consider the lengths we go to make ourselves comfortable. That is the same way we should meet the needs of others. The way we treat our own desires, we should treat the desires of others. We should love them in terms of selfsacrificing service, just as we make sacrifices for our own benefit.

Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to give up whatever it is that makes you comfortable in order to provide for the comfort of someone else? Are you willing to sacrifice the things you enjoy so that another's need may be met? That is loving your neighbor as yourself. It is not psychological; it is sacrificial.

Love in Humility Perhaps the best example of self-sacrificing love for others was given by our Lord Himself. On the night before He suffered and died, the Lord did not tell His disciples in the upper room, "I love

Love < 115 you. I'd like to give you a discussion of divine love and tell you how it works."

Instead, as we saw in the previous chapter, our Lord washed His disciples' feet. John 13:3-5 tells us:

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

God in the flesh was stooping to wash dirt off the feet of His weak, sinning disciples. Now that's love!

It is precisely the kind of love the Lord demands of His disciples.

Following His amazing example of self-humiliation, Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (vv. 34, 35).

How had Jesus demonstrated His love for them? By washing their dirty feet, by taking the role of a slave, by doing the distaste­ ful thing, the sacrificial thing. Loving one another is not just feeling little pangs of emotion. It is serving. When we willingly sacrifice what we want for the good of another, when we choose to fill the need of someone instead of satisfying our own need, then we really love (no matter what our emotions may be). That is what God expects.

The apostle John sums up love as a key to spiritual growth in simple and familiar words: "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth" (1 John 3:18).

< PRAYER Unlocking the Inner Sanctum What could be richer or more rewarding than the Christian faith?

We who are in Christ have all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). We were chosen by God before the foundation of the world

(1:4). We have complete forgiveness (1:7). We have an inheritance beyond anything we could imagine (1:14). We have complete security (1:14). We are alive with new life (2:5). We are the objects of eternal grace (2:7). We are God's masterpiece (2:10). We are in union with Christ (2:13). We are members of one body (2:16) with access to God by one Spirit (2:18). We are the temple of God (2:21) and the dwelling place of the Spirit (2:22). And we are powerful

What extraordinary statements! How great is the Christian life when seen in the light of who we are in Christ! Moreover, we do not have to earn this exalted position. It is already ours through our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The final three chapters of Ephesians go beyond the positional aspects of our life and get into practical issues. For example, we are commanded to walk intelligently as believers (4:17), to walk in God's love (5:2), and to walk in the light (5:8). The apostle Paul spells out in great detail how we can do those things.

This presentation of our sufficiency in Christ has no rival in all the Word of God. If any believer studies Ephesians carefully and concludes that he lacks some spiritual resource, he is blind. We do not need more of the Holy Spirit, more love, more grace, or more

118 < the keys to spiritual growth anything else. In Christ we have it all. We have everything we need to grow and mature.1

THE DANGER OF OVERCONFIDENCE At this point, however, a potentially destructive problem arises. I call it spiritual overconfidence or doctrinal egotism. It is a latent danger in the Christian life that believers who have a very deep knowledge of doctrine and a fairly effective grip on practical spiritual prin­ ciples become self-satisfied. Then heartrending, passionate, constant prayer finds no place in their lives. I have seen this condition develop time and again. As we gain knowledge, a creeping self-dependence can evolve that eliminates the vitality of a real prayer life.

To guard against this danger, Paul commands believers to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He summons us to a life of prayer. Regardless of how much we have in Christ, we must pray. Prayer is an essential key to spiritual growth.

For an analogy on the necessity of prayer, think of the atmo­ sphere and breathing. The atmosphere exerts pressure on your lungs and forces you to take it in. You breathe very naturally in response to this pressure, instead of consciously going around working to inhale air. In fact, it is much more difficult to hold your breath than it is to breathe. You would never say, "Oh, I'm so tired today from all the effort I've used breathing." But you would be very tired if you had been fighting not to breathe—fighting against the natural processes that enable you to breathe almost effortlessly.

The same is true in prayer. Prayer is the natural thing for a Christian. It is the Christian's vital breath. The reason some

Christians feel so fatigued and defeated is that they are holding their breath spiritually when they should be opening their hearts to God to accept the atmosphere all about them—His divine presence.

The one who is not faithful in prayer constantly struggles against his own spiritual nature. He is holding his spiritual breath. And that is spiritually debilitating.

Why would any Christian not pray, since prayer is like breath­ ing? Good question. The answer is sin. Sin in our lives stifles prayer.

Prayer < 119 When we are not willing to confess and to forsake it, we really do not want to pray, because prayer opens us up to God's presence, and we do not feel comfortable there.

Another reason for prayerlessness is selfishness. Of course, that's also a form of sin. Selfishness is surely the primary reason people do not pray. It manifests itself in symptomatic sins such as laziness or unconcern or indifference. Look into your life, and you can probably identify some sin that keeps you from prayer. And if you are not praying, you are suffocating. That is deadly!

A GUIDE TO PROPER PRAYER In the last two chapters of Ephesians, Paul gives two brief but pointed emphases on prayer. Each has a great lesson to teach.

The first emphasis, a general instruction, is found in Ephesians 6:18: "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." Paul repeats the word "all" four times in that verse. Taken together, these make up four different points regarding prayer. We might label them the "alls" of prayer.

The Variety of Prayer The first "all" speaks of the types of prayer: "With all prayer and petition." "Prayer" here is a general word pertaining to its many forms and character. For example, you can pray publicly or pri­ vately, verbally or silently. You can pray those deliberately planned prayers you find in a prayer book, or you can pray those sponta­ neous prayers that just flow out of your heart. You can request something from God, or you can give Him thanks for what He has given. You can be kneeling, standing, sitting, lying down, or even driving. There are many ways to pray because God has designed prayer to go along with every kind of emotion and every kind of experience. We have a variety of forms of prayer to fit every situa­ tion and circumstance.

The second word Paul uses describes a particular type of prayer—"petition" (kjv, "supplication"). That is best defined as 120 < the keys to spiritual growth a specific request. How often we generalize, "God, bless the mis­ sionaries. God, bless the church." Those are not specifics; they are generalities. Such vague requests are likely to lead to unclear answers—if any at all.

My daughter had a habit of generalizing. One night at the end of a long, tired day, she knelt by her bed and prayed, "God, bless everything in the world. Amen." I had to tell her that this was not a very good prayer. I conducted a little theological discussion to try to impress on her that God wanted her to ask Him for spe­ cific things that were on her heart, not "everything in the world."

Supplication must be specific.

The Frequency of Prayer The second "all" indicates the frequency of prayer: "pray at all times." When should we pray? Someone says, "I think it's in the morning." Another insists, "I like to do it at night." Really? When do you breathe? Would you say, "Oh, I take a few gasps of air in the morning" or "I get my air at night"? How ridiculous! We must be praying always and always praying. The Greek construction speaks of praying on every occasion.

I think Paul really meant this! And when our Lord Jesus said we ought to pray at all times (Luke 18:1), I think He meant it too.

If our Savior Himself felt a tremendous desire and need to pray, knowing that He was God in the flesh (John 17), how much more strongly do we need to pray, even though we know our position in Christ?

The frequency of our prayers was a common theme in the apostle Paul's writings. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6). "Devote yourselves to prayer" (Colossians 4:2). "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians

5:17). Paul not only talked about the importance of prayer—he lived it. Paul was constantly praying for someone.

How is it possible to be always praying? First, we have to define our terms. To "pray at all times" means that we are Godconscious—that we see everything that happens with reference to Prayer < 121 God. That is, we live in constant awareness of His presence. Let me illustrate. You get up in the morning and look out on a beautiful day with a beautiful sky. What is your first thought? Perhaps it is,

Thank You, Lord, for this great day You have made. That is pray­ ing at all times. Then you go outside and see your neighbor who is living in sin. So you pray, God, save my neighbor! You get into your car and drive down a street and see signs advertising topless bars. You think, God, what is this world coming to? God, help me reach those people who are lost and sick. Once again you are praying at all times.

Praying constantly is not just reciting some formula prayer thirty-five times. It has nothing to do with prayer beads, repetitious prayers, or any kind of structured, ritual praying. Praying without ceasing means seeing things from God's viewpoint. When we see a hurt, we ask God to heal it; when we notice a problem, we turn to God for a solution. Unceasing prayer means seeing a Christian brother who has a need and praying for him, or seeing a man in trouble and asking God to deliver him. It is communing with God about what you know dishonors Him. All these exemplify what it means to pray without stopping. At every waking moment we are praising God for something wonderful or interceding for someone—living in unbroken communion with Him.

The Attitudes of Prayer Next in Ephesians 6:18, Paul considered the proper attitudes of prayer: "Be on the alert with all perseverance and petition."

"Perseverance" means "endurance"—sticking to the task. When you pray for something, stay with it until you have an answer—like the man in Luke 11:5-8 who kept banging away at the door until his neighbor opened up to give him bread for his unexpected guests.

God says in effect that He will respond in a similar manner. He listens for constant, persevering prayer.

If we are to persevere in prayer, it is important to "be on the alert." We cannot pray intelligently unless we are alert to what is going on. Many Christians forget or ignore Peter's plea to "be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer" (1 Peter

122 < the keys to spiritual growth 4:7). He urged us to maintain sleepless, incessant, persevering, and vigilant prayer.

Do you know what is going on in your home? What about your wife? Do you pray for her faithfully, without ceasing? Do you pray for her constantly, asking God to make her the kind of woman she ought to be? Do you faithfully pray that God will bless her and enrich her life and bring her to spiritual maturity?

What about your husband? Do you pray that he might be God's man in every sense of the word? Do you pray that he might be like Christ as he gives spiritual direction to your home? Do you petition God that your husband might make the right deci­ sions? Do you pray that God will help him in his work? Do you become aware of the problems and conflicts he faces and then pray about them?

What about your children? Do you pray that God will build them up in the Spirit, that they will be strong in the Lord, that He will keep them from the evil one?

What about your neighbors? The people around you? The kids at school? The sick? Others who need your prayers? When some­ one shares a need, do you really pray or do you merely say, "We'll be praying for you" and then forget?

We used to have a man in our church who had in his bookcase a whole stack of notebooks of all the requests that he had prayed for and that God had answered through the years. When I learned what he was doing, he was working on his fifteenth or sixteenth notebook. This fellow was "alert"! When he heard of someone who had a need, he would write it down and pray—a great practice to follow. Then he would record when the answer was received.

His notebooks were a visible testimony to the faithfulness of a God who answers prayer.

On one occasion someone told me, "MacArthur, I'm going to put you on my prayer list for six months." My first reaction was,

Is that all I get? But my second reaction was to praise the Lord. It is unusual to have someone commit himself to pray for you for a certain period of time. I would rather have someone pray faithfully

Prayer < 123 for me for six months than have someone pray sporadically for me for a longer period of time.

The Objects of Prayer The fourth "all" that Paul speaks about concerns the objects of prayer. The direct object of our prayers, of course, is God. This suggests a very important principle that is stated clearly in John

14:13, 14: "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."

Here Jesus comforted His disciples in their sorrow over His leaving. They were thinking how bad it would be without Jesus present to fill their needs, hear their cries, answer their requests, and protect them. After all, He had given them food, helped them catch fish, provided tax money, loved them, taught them, and provided a shoulder for them to cry on. How could they survive without Him?

This promise that Jesus gave filled that void. Even though Jesus was going to leave them, they would still have total access to all His sup­ ply for them. Prayer would remove the distance. What a promise!

However, a condition determines the Lord's response to prayer—prayer must be "in My name." As we saw in chapter 3, praying in Jesus' name is not simply tacking a phrase onto the end of our prayers. Perhaps this subject is worth another look now, since we're considering the question of how to pray.

First, praying in Jesus' name means standing in His place, fully identifying with Him, asking God for intervention by virtue of our union with His Son. Thus, when we truly ask in Jesus' name, it is as if He were the petitioner.

Second, it means that we plead before God the merits of His blessed Son. We ask that an answer to our prayer be granted on Christ's behalf. We desire something for His sake. When we truly ask in Jesus' name, He becomes the receiver.

Third, as we have seen, praying in Jesus' name means we pray only for that which is consistent with His perfection—something for His glory.

To pray in Jesus' name, then, is to seek what He seeks, to pro­ 124 < the keys to spiritual growth mote what He desires, to give Him glory. We can only rightly ask

God for that which will glorify the Son.

So end your prayers with something like, "Father, this I ask because I know this is what Jesus would want for His own glory."

Affirm that in your heart at the end of each prayer, and you will eliminate all selfish requests. We pray in Jesus' name; to Him and for Him we pray. What could be more practical than that? If people understood that simple principle better, they would eliminate a lot of unnecessary and extraneous praying.

Paul also mentions the indirect object of our prayers—"all the saints." What compels us to pray for each other? For one thing, as members of the body of Christ we are all engaged in a common battle. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). We struggle to win victory through the name of Christ and to exalt Him by our lives. Since that is true, we have to expand our horizons above our own individual struggles and think in terms of the whole body of Christ. We are to be con­ cerned not only for our own ultimate triumph, but for the spiritual victory of all other believers.

Often we believers think of ourselves as separate entities. So many times we get the idea that we exist independent of everyone else. Of course we don't. Just as the human body cannot move forward unless all the members move, neither can the body of Christ.

Second, just as the body of Christ ministers through spiritual gifts, so we also minister through prayer. Are spiritual gifts for self­ ish purposes? Does God want me to exercise my gift for my benefit?

Should I take my spiritual gift and go off to a cabin somewhere and teach myself? Should I stand in front of a mirror and preach?

That is laughable. My spiritual gift is to be exercised for others' benefit. So the prayer life and prayer power that I have is not for me either—it is for others. I am supposed to pray for them, and they in turn should pray for me.

Prayer < 125 God designed it that way for our unity. When one part of the physical body is hurt or sick, all the other parts come to its aid.

If my eye is injured, my eyelid directly protects it; but indirectly the rest of my body also functions to send healing to my eye. My reflexes go on alert to keep anything from touching the wounded member. Similarly, if a brother has a need, we may minister to him directly through the exercise of our spiritual gifts or we may min­ ister indirectly by praying.

I'm certain we would see great things happen in the church if we really prayed for each other. Even though we enjoy an exalted position in relation to Christ, we still have a desperate need for the prayers of other believers. Likewise we need to be constantly asking

God to work in specific ways for specific saints.

How do we get to know one another's needs? That is a prob­ lem. Often people are reluctant to share their burdens. So we must take the initiative and open up a little and get to the place where we ourselves are willing to share. Someone else may have the same problem we do! We can pray for each other. Face it—no one can possibly bear our burden if he does not know what it is.

That does not mean we have to tell everything to everyone.

That would be poor judgment. But let us at least start sharing our needs with those we know we can trust and start praying for one another. That will take us out of spectator Christianity and get us into the arena where the struggle goes on. We need to remember that all of us are at war spiritually. If we really believe in the power of prayer, we will fervently pray and see God do things that He otherwise ­wouldn't.

A SAMPLE PRAYER LIST Paul closes his comments about prayer with his second emphasis—a specific application. That fits in with his usual pattern of first teach­ ing, then giving a practical correlation. In this context, Paul follows the "alls" set forth in Ephesians 6:18 with a precise command in verses 19, 20: "Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the 126 < the keys to spiritual growth mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

What a man, this Paul! He laid down the principle and then said, "I'm the fellow you can start with!" Note further that Paul

­didn't ask for his physical needs, as many today might have done.

As great as his physical and emotional needs were, he requested prayer that he might possess the message of God and then have the courage to give it out. So the apostle was not asking for prayer self­ ishly; he asked that his ministry might continue unimpeded, even if he was in jail at the time. He uses himself as a living illustration, sharing his life with his readers in order that they might pray for him.

That sets a pattern of prayer for us. We are to be primarily concerned with the spiritual dimension. This means that instead of praying only for someone to be delivered from physical ills or tri­ als, we should be praying that he would be in a right relationship with God so he can relate to the trial with the proper attitude. Do not be so shortsighted that you stop praying for physical needs, but principally it is people's spiritual welfare that God is concerned with. Our trials are designed to bring spiritual growth. So don't just pray for an end to the trials; pray for the growth that God desires.

Paul's prayers were always in line with spiritual objectives; physical ones were never the issue.

As you learn to pray as Paul instructs, you will find yourself becoming God-conscious and selfless. And as you humble yourself, spend time with the Holy Spirit, and pray under His supervision, you will find your life being molded into the very image of Jesus

Christ. And that's what prayer is all about!

< HOPE Unlocking the Hope Chest Hope is one of the greatest words of the Christian vocabulary. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, Paul gave a triad of Christian virtues, and one of them is hope. Strong hope is a crucial aspect of spiritual maturity.

The very word itself shines like light in darkness, joy in sorrow, life in death.

Sadly, however, many cling to false hopes. They erroneously count on something worthless for security, usually their own good works or a misunderstanding of God's benevolence. Others main­ tain a vain hope in gold or silver. Some of them may be counting on heaven, anticipating a happy afterlife; but without Jesus their hope is groundless. The Scriptures say, "For what is the hope of the godless . . . when God requires his life?" (Job 27:8).

In other words, these people have no real hope. Scripture says the entire pagan world is "without hope and without God"

(Ephesians 2:12). Look at the heathen philosophies in Paul's day, and you can readily understand why. Some believed that the soul, temporarily imprisoned in the body, would one day reluctantly leave through the last gasp of breath or through an open wound.

The soul would then enter hades (or the grave)—the shade world— and would spend eternity bemoaning its existence, without comfort of any kind. The Greek poet Theognis said, "I rejoice in sport in my youth; long enough beneath the earth shall I lie and so be voiceless as a stone, leaving the sunlight which I love. Good man though I 128 < the keys to spiritual growth am, then shall I see nothing more." That is hopelessness—a hope­ lessness without God. Even today we see many people in the world who live without hope, and we can only view them with pity.

Hopelessness is one reason men have devised so many false religions. People must have some kind of expectation for the future if they are to survive the present. Some people delude themselves with false hopes, and others escape through drink or drugs. All that is because life without hope is not worth living.

Romans 8:24 speaks to this issue so far as Christians are con­ cerned: "In hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?" This verse suggests that many elements of our salvation await some future fulfillment.

The fullness of our salvation is a hope for the future.

While we could not begin to investigate all that the Bible says about hope, let us look at some of the general statements. First, the Bible says our hope is to be in God and in God alone. The only secure place for true hope is in Him. In Psalm 43:5 we read, "Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God."

The Bible also tells us that hope is a gracious gift from God:

"Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father . . . has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace" (2

Thessalonians 2:16). God grants to man hope, confidence, assur­ ance, and security for the future—if we accept His gift.

"Where do I get this gift?" you ask. The Bible says that hope comes through the Scriptures: "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4). When you read, understand, and believe the Word of God, you have hope. If you do not believe the Book, you are hurting for hope. For confidence in the future, trust the Word.

A fourth thing may be said about hope: It is secured by Christ's resurrection. If God were merely to say, "You can trust

Me in death; I'll take you through," that would be sufficient. But Hope < 129 we have an even stronger hope when we see Christ go through death and come out on the other side. He has conquered death.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

Hope is further confirmed in us by the Holy Spirit. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans

15:13). One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to convince the believer that he has hope for the future.

That knowledge acts as a tremendous defense against Satan as he tries to shake us up about the future. Without hope, we might begin to get shaky. But hope defends us against Satan and his lies.

First Thessalonians 5:8 refers to "the hope of salvation" as a "hel­ met." Satan comes along with his broadsword and wants to split your confidence wide open. But when you remember that the Spirit of God has confirmed to you, by the resurrection of Christ, the gracious gift of God—hope—the sword bounces off your helmet without injuring you.

Let me point out something else about hope. Hope is to be continual. Among the many passages speaking to this is Psalm 71:14: "As for me, I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more."

Another wonderful thing about hope is that it produces joy:

"How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God" (Psalm 146:5). Why is the psalmist happy?

Because hope brings joy.

Furthermore, hope removes the fear of death. When we really hope in God, when we hope in Christ our Savior, there is nothing to fear. Colossians 1:5 refers to "the hope . . . laid up for you in heaven." We know that God has a future for us; we know that He has a promise for us; we know that we have hope for the future because the Lord Jesus lives in us now! Our Lord's resurrection is the basis for this hope, the removal of our fear of death.

Another thing that may be said about hope is that it is secure.

130 < the keys to spiritual growth Nothing need ever take away our confidence or steal away our hope.

Hebrews 6:17, 18 says that our strong consolation and the hope set before us rest on two immutable things—the fact of God's promise and the fact of God's oath. In other words, our hope is secure because

God made the promise and underscored it with an oath.

When will our hope be fulfilled? When Jesus comes: "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior, Christ Jesus" (Titus 2:13). At the return of the Lord—that's when hope will be finally realized.

FIVE ASPECTS OF THE BELIEVER'S HOPE We could not leave our consideration of this theme without look­ ing at 1 John 2:27—3:3, one of the great passages on hope. We discover in this section five features of the believer's hope.

Our Hope Is Guaranteed by Abiding When John talks about abiding, he is talking about being saved— about a permanent remaining in Christ, which is the measure of a true believer. That concept goes back to the Lord's words, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine" (John

8:31). True disciples continue.

What insures that the believer will abide? The Holy Spirit. A paraphrase of 1 John 2:27 might read, "The Holy Spirit has been given to you, and He will abide in you so that you don't need any human teachers. But as the Holy Spirit teaches you all things and is truth and is no lie, even as He has taught you, you shall abide." The Holy Spirit is an internal lie detector. The Holy Spirit is a resident truth teacher. He dwells within every Christian to prevent him or her from ever forsaking the truth.

Now we come to verse 28: "And now, little children, abide in Him." What John is really implying is, "Be real. Be true believers.

Be Christians." True Christians will continue in Christ.

We are not absolved of responsibility. Many verses in Scriptures say, in effect, "Here is what God has done for you. Now you go out and do it yourself." (Compare Jude 21 with v. 24; John 17:6 with Hope < 131 2 Timothy 4:7.) Privileges in Scripture never cancel obligations; they only increase them. While our abiding in Christ is insured by the Holy Spirit, we are not released from accountability.

The Spirit is given to us, but that does not exempt us or make us irresponsible. It should not make us indifferent, but rather make us more diligent and more faithful, so that we hold more tightly to those things we know to be true. We are to discipline ourselves to conform to the Spirit's work and His will in our lives. When the Bible says we are to walk in the Spirit, it means to behave ourselves commensurate with the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

For example, the Lord said to Peter, "I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail" (Luke 22:32). A few verses later, the Lord looked the disciples in the eye and said, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation" (v. 40).

In 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul says, "No temptation has over­ taken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape also, so that you may be able to endure it." The Corinthians might have said,

"Great! God will make a way out of it. God will take care of our problems. God is in control." But then the next verse says, "Flee from idolatry."

The inward working of God's grace never sets aside exhorta­ tion. Don't ever accept the sovereign working of God in your life as an excuse for indolence, inactivity, or lack of discipline.

Now let's go back to our text in 1 John and read further: "Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming" (2:28). That is a tremendous statement. Not one who is abiding in Christ will be ashamed when Jesus comes back!

The mistakes in our lives will be taken care of through the blood of Christ. The word translated "confidence" literally means "bold­ ness." Jesus is coming, and you can be bold when He gets here. In Revelation 22:12 He says, "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done." Jesus will reward us for our service.

132 < the keys to spiritual growth This is thrilling! Let me show you some verses to explain what is called the bema or judgment seat of Christ. Paul wrote to his young protégé Timothy:

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight,

I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.

—2 Timothy 4:6-8 What day? The day when Jesus is manifest to his church. Paul adds to verse 8: ". . . and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." They love it so much, they serve Him. They are believers, they are Christians, they are abiders. And they will be bold in getting their reward.

Second Corinthians 5:10 tells us, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." The words translated "good or bad" could be better translated "useful or worthless."

To understand that, we have to look at a long parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15:

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

"Wood, hay, straw" do not seem to refer to sin. They are, rather, the useless things you do that have little consequence. They are not bad, just useless. All that neutral stuff will go up in smoke.

Hope < 133 The only things left will be those attitudes and actions that were totally for Christ. For those you will receive a reward.

Since that is true, we ought to be very slow in judging the works of others. That is not our job; it is His. "Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God" (1 Corinthians 4:5). What is every individual at the judgment seat going to have? Praise from God. So when Jesus comes, those of us who abide are going to have confi­ dence when we see Him—confidence because Christ has taken care of our sin, burned up all the stubble, and left only something for which we can be rewarded.

The word translated "confidence" in 1 John 2:28 literally means "outspokenness" or "freedom of speech." It is the same word used in Hebrews 4:16, which invites us to come boldly before the throne of grace. The same word refers to the boldness we have in prayer (1

John 3:21, 22). That same confidence with which we enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Christ allows us to walk to the judgment seat of Christ without shame because we are abiding in Him.

Of course, when Christ is manifest, there is going to be much shame in people who did not abide in Him, who were not believ­ ing. To find out just how ashamed they will be, read Revelation

Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the com­ manders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks,

"Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

The key to this is found in Mark 8:38. Jesus said, "For who­ ever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He

134 < the keys to spiritual growth comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." Who's going to be ashamed when Jesus comes? The people who were ashamed of Him and of His words in this age.

True believers—those who abide in Christ—are not going to be ashamed. In fact, they will be blameless. First Corinthians 1:8 tells us that we shall be confirmed "to the end, blameless in the day of our

Lord Jesus Christ." Not only that, we are not going to have even a "spot or wrinkle" to mar our appearance (Ephesians 5:27). Fantastic!

Do you need more proof? Colossians 1:22 says that Christ suf­ fered death "to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach." First Thessalonians 3:13 says, "So that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus." We have a great hope, and this hope is guaranteed as we abide in Christ. So we have come full circle back to the apostle John's original point.

Our Hope Is Realized in Righteousness Hope is made real or visibly genuine by our pattern of life. Look at the next verse of our text: "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him" (1 John 2:29). John uses two different Greek words for "know" in that verse. The first speaks of knowing something abso­ lutely, the second of knowing by experience. John is saying, "If you know as an absolute that God is righteous, then you know by experience that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him."

God is righteous, meaning He is innocent of any evil at all. He always does right and always makes right judgments. Since children tend to be like their parents, it is fair to assume that God's children will be like Him. He is righteous; so you would expect His children to behave righteously. The people who really have this hope will not be righteous and blameless only at the bema, the judgment seat of Christ; they will be righteous now because they are born of God.

So if our hope is genuine, it will be realized in a righteous life.

First Peter 1:14 adds something to that: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance." He says Christ is coming back (v. 13), and you ought

Hope < 135 to be obedient. You should not act as you did before becoming Christians. Peter immediately adds, "But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (vv. 15, 16). You can tell a child of God because he acts as a child of God should act.

Further, Paul said, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith"

(2 Corinthians 13:5). How would you examine yourself? You would look at your works, at your fruit. So our hope is realized by a righteous life. True hope will result in holy living.

Our Hope Is Established by Love First John 3:1 says, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.

For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." Love gave us our hope.

I used to wonder, Couldn't John come up with something better than "see how great a love"? How about super, colossal, stupen­ dous, magnanimous, unbelievable love? Then I realized that John was simply overwhelmed and astonished. He must have been say­ ing to himself, I can't believe that God loved me so much that He made me His child. It would be far more than I deserve just to be

His slave. It would not have been half bad to be His neighbor and would have been great to be called His friend. But to be His son! I can't get any closer than that! John ­couldn't find words to express it. The concept was too great.

The King James Version uses the expression "what manner of love." In classical Greek the word translated "what manner" (pota­ pos) speaks of a foreign race, country, or tribe. So John is saying,

"What kind of exotic love did God bestow on us to make us His sons?" In other words, the love of God that made us sons is alien to the human race, unfamiliar to the human realm, unearthly, and otherworldly. It belongs in another dimension.

Let us illustrate the use of this phrase further. In Matthew 8:2327 Jesus had a small problem—a storm at sea while He was asleep.

When the disciples awoke Him and cried out, "Save us, Lord, we are perishing!" Jesus arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. He

136 < the keys to spiritual growth stood up and said, "Quiet!" "The men were amazed, and said, 'What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'" (v. 27, emphasis added). Same word. "Where did Jesus come from? What kind of unearthly, otherworldly person is this?"

They used it of Jesus, and John used it of God's love.

One further illustration. In 2 Peter 3:10, 11 the apostle said:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness. (emphasis added) In other words, if you are God's child and you know how it is all going to end, you ought to be an otherworldly, unearthly kind of person. Do you want to attach yourself to something that is going to be burned up? Jesus was an unearthly Person, and we are to be unearthly people.

Now the word translated "love" used throughout 1 John is agape. It, too, carries the idea of being unearthly. Human love is object-oriented. In other words, it selects a nice object and loves it. Human love discriminates on the basis of the object. But God's love has nothing to do with the object. God's love is based on God's nature. And that is a foreign, unearthly kind of love, outside our experience. God loves you, not because you attracted His love, but because it was His nature to love. Because you existed, you got loved! Tremendous!

The result of God's wonderful love is that we should be called the "children of God." It is exciting to realize that God is my Father.

He is not just my great God somewhere off in the distance; He is near, and He loves me. I can go to Him just as I can to my human father and know that if I ask Him for bread, He is not going to give me a stone, because He loves me. I am His child. In fact, He has even promised that I am a joint heir with Jesus Christ, His Son.

Everything He has prepared for Christ, He is going to let me share!

Hope < 137 The parable of the prodigal son illustrates this very well. After the son had squandered his inheritance, recognized his sin, and returned home, did his father treat him as a slave? No, but as a son.

God made you a son, not a slave. Your relation to Him is that of a child to a loving Father.

John is saying in this text: "This whole confidence, this whole hope I have in the future is based on the love of God—an unearthly love, an otherworldly love, a love beyond what humankind could ever conceive." Then he adds, "For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." Jesus said that we should not be surprised if the world hates us, because it hated Him (John

15:18-25). Christ was otherworldly. So are we. But how exciting!

Our Hope Is Fulfilled in Christ's Likeness Imagine that! Someday you are going to be like Christ. "Beloved, now we are children of God" (1 John 3:2). When did you become a child of God? The minute you believed. Are you a child of God now? Absolutely.

Of course, you are not crowned as yet. You still have to struggle with mortal weakness and the devil's crowd. But you are no less a son of God. It is just that God is not finished with you yet. He is a Sculptor who keeps chiseling away as the form He desires emerges.

Michelangelo said once, "In every block of stone I see an angel to be liberated." God looks at each of us and says, "There's something in there, and I'm going to get it out."

What is a continuing process now will become an instanta­ neous accomplishment when Jesus comes. The last part of verse 2 reads, "It has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see

Note the three steps: First, He will appear; then we will see Him as He is; and finally "we will be like Him." That is His plan for us. God is going to make every Christian like Christ. Check out

Romans 8:29: "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." That is exciting— to know that we will be like Him! John 17:22-24 promises this, as 138 < the keys to spiritual growth does 1 Corinthians 13:12. But the promise of all promises about seeing Jesus comes to us in Revelation 22:4: "They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads." We are going to see

Jesus face-to-face for all eternity, and when we see Him, we will be transformed, becoming like Him.

First John 3:2 says we will actually be like Christ. So does Philippians 3:20, 21: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself."

The post-Resurrection appearances of our Lord give us sugges­ tions as to what His glorified body is like. It could pass through walls, could appear and reappear as He chose. He could instantly fly to places—to the mountains, right up to heaven. That is the way we will be.

First Corinthians 15 gives us a great deal more information about our future glorified bodies. They will be incorruptible, mean­ ing no decay, no growing old, and no falling apart (v. 42). Our bodies will be glorious, transcending anything we can imagine, and they will be powerful, with all weakness forever behind us. The bodies God will one day give us will be "spiritual"—that is, gov­ erned by spirit, not by animal life (v. 44). The kind of body Christ now has, we will one day share.

Our Hope Is Characterized by Purity "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:3). If you really have this hope and you know you are going to be like Christ, it should change the way you live.

You see, our hope is not just theological—it is moral. It has behavioral consequences. If I really believe in the Second Coming of Christ, if I really believe that He is going to reward His church, if I really believe that He is going to bring me to His judgment seat, then this belief is going to make a big difference in the way I behave.

In the apostle John's day—as in ours—there were people who were saying, "We're Christians! We're Christians!" But a look at Hope < 139 their lives disclosed no purity, no righteousness, no love, and no obedience. So John declared, "Write them off. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. They're phonies." The proof of being a Christian is not just having a hope; the proof is having a hope that makes a difference in your life.

The knowledge that you will one day be like Christ should moti­ vate you to become like Him now. We are creatures of motivation, and this is certainly the highest motive to make us live pure lives.

When I used to play football, everyone had to do push-ups at the end of practice sessions. We would—as long as the coach was watching. When he turned his back, however, we would be tempted to lie on the ground. But if he glanced again in our direction—back to action! The very presence of an authority figure changed the way we behaved. That is external motivation.

Jesus is not coming back simply as an authority figure. He is coming back as a loving Savior who desires to reward us and make us like Himself. That should motivate us internally to love and obey

Him and to conform ourselves to the purity that is His standard.

There will be times in your Christian experience when you feel like giving up, quitting, climbing out of the arena of life. When that happens, think of that little group of believers—suffering persecu­ tion and tribulations—to whom Paul wrote. He reminded them they had been called so that they might "gain the glory of our Lord

Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2:14). He urged them to stand fast on the Word of God.

Then Paul added this benediction, which I echo: "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word" (vv. 16, 17).

When you're tempted to drop out of the race of faith, hold tight to your hope and think of the poet's encouraging words:

Oh, to be like Thee, dear Jesus, my plea, Just to know Thou art formed fully in me.

On with Thy beauty, Lord, off with my sin, Fixed on Thy glory Thy likeness to win.

140 < the keys to spiritual growth Oh, to be like Thee, Thine image display, This is the Spirit's work day after day.

Glory to glory transformed by His grace, Till in Thy presence I stand face-to-face.

Oh, to be like Thee, Thou lover of men, Gracious and gentle, compassionate friend.

Merciful Savior, such kindness and care, Are only mine when Thy likeness I share.

To be like Thee, Jesus!

To be like Thee, Jesus!

For this I live, to this I'll die; It is my hope, my prayer, my cry.

< BIBLE STUDY Unlocking the Library The Bible is God's final, complete, and authoritative revelation to man. It is our guide for living life, the standard by which we measure our behavior. There may be other things we learn that are helpful, but they don't have the authority that Scripture does. When the Bible speaks, God speaks.

Since that is true, the Bible demands our careful, diligent study.

If the Bible is God's Word, if it is our guide in life, we must learn what it says. Not only must we learn what it says, but we must understand what it means by what it says. Knowing what the Bible says will do us little good if we fail to interpret it properly.

Ours is an entertainment-oriented society. A myriad of different things compete with Bible study for our time. Some Christians spend their time reading all kinds of books besides the Bible. If you go into the average Christian bookstore, you'll find that fiction, personal-experience stories, psychology and self-help manuals, and books about current events far outnumber the commentaries and books on Bible doctrine.

Some of those books may be helpful. Some are written by godly people and are biblically sound. No doubt God often uses them in our lives to promote spiritual growth. But no matter how helpful and biblically sound they might be, they are no substitute for seri­

142 < the keys to spiritual growth ous Bible study. If we neglect consistent, serious study of God's Word, our spiritual growth will be stunted.

Bible Study Is Necessary for Spiritual Growth The New Testament repeatedly speaks of Christians as having been born again (John 3:7; 1 Peter 1:3) or as children of God (Romans

8:16; 1 John 3:1). We have been born into the family of God, adopted as His children.

That implies a capacity for spiritual growth. How are we to grow? Peter gives the answer in 1 Peter 2:2: "Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation." If you don't feed a baby properly, it will not develop and mature. Peter says that in terms of spiritual growth, the same thing is true. Just as a baby grows by taking in milk, so a Christian grows spiritually by taking in the Word.

A graphic illustration of this principle comes from Jeremiah 15:16. "Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart." Jeremiah con­ sumed the Word of God, and it brought him great joy.

Paul understood how important it is for believers to feed on the Word of God. He wrote to the Corinthians, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able" (1 Corinthians 3:1, 2). Paul gave the Corinthians milk, not solid food, due to their immaturity. Nevertheless, he did feed them the Word of God.

Paul's metaphorical reference to milk and solid food should not be misunderstood. He's not saying that some parts of Scripture are milk, while others are solid food. Rather, all of the Bible can be either milk or solid food, depending on how deeply you study it.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life"

(John 3:16) might be "milk" for a young Christian. For a mature Christian, with a greater understanding of the love of God, John

3:16 might be "solid food." The Bible contains truths that are so Bible Study < 143 simple even the youngest Christian can understand them, yet so pro­ found that the most mature believer cannot fully plumb their depths.

Paul exhorted the Colossians, "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed" (Colossians 2:6, 7). How do Christians grow? By being built up and established in the faith—the content of Christianity, biblical doctrine. The more we understand the Bible, the more established and built up we are.

In his farewell message to the elders of the Ephesian church, Paul said, "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up" (Acts 20:32). It is the Word that builds us up and causes us to grow spiritually.

Growth is basic to usefulness. Babies are wonderful to have around, but they're not much help around the house. Unfortunately, that could also be said of a lot of Christians. Their lack of spiritual maturity greatly reduces their usefulness to the cause of Christ.

Bible Study Is Necessary for Victory over Sin Are you experiencing frustration in your battle with sin? Do your defeats outnumber your victories? Perhaps the problem is that you are fighting the battle with the wrong weapon. We will never be able to defeat sin unless we fight it with the Word of God.

All the armor Paul lists in Ephesians 6 is designed for defensive, protective use—except for one offensive weapon: "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (v. 17). What defeats temptation and sin? Ultimately only the Word of God. The psalmist writes,

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. . . . Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You" (Psalm 119:9, 11). The apostle John describes spiritual young men as those who overcome the evil one through the Word of God that abides within them (1 John 2:14).

Knowing the Bible is a wonderful weapon against sin. The more we affirm biblical truth, the stronger we are against sin. After years of studying and absorbing the Word of God, I find it has steeled me against temptation. I can hardly get started in a sin without thinking

144 < the keys to spiritual growth of several Bible verses that confront that sin. On the other hand, if you fill your mind with things other than God's Word, the Holy Spirit has nothing of any value to bring to your mind when you're tempted.

Computer people often refer to the acronym GIGO: "Garbage In, Garbage Out." Computers depend entirely on what information is fed into them. Nearly all "computer errors" are actually program­ ming or input errors. Feed bad information or faulty instructions into a computer, and you'll get bad results. The same thing is true in your mind. What you fill your thoughts with will inevitably show up in how you behave. Proverbs 23:7 puts it this way: "For as [a person] thinks within himself, so he is." Filling your mind with the truths of God's Word will result in holiness and godly behavior. Filling your mind with other things will bear corresponding fruit. Jesus expressed the results of a mind not filled with God's truth in Mark 7:21-23:

"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wick­ edness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolish­ ness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

Bible Study Is Necessary for Effective Service A thorough knowledge of the Bible is absolutely essential for effec­ tive spiritual service. The Bible gives us the support and insight we need to handle difficult situations. It also teaches us how to do the Lord's work His way and keeps us from violating His principles for ministry.

In Joshua 1:8, 9 we see how God prepared Joshua for the for­ midable task that lay before him—the conquest of the Promised

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be care­ ful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Bible Study < 145 How was Joshua to prepare for his task? Did he need to study man­ agement and leadership techniques? Did he need to read a book on how to motivate people? Joshua's first priority was to study and meditate on the Word of God. That, the Lord told him, would bring him success in his ministry.

The apostle Paul, writing to his young protégé Timothy, gave him this wise counsel on how to be a success in the ministry: "In point­ ing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following" (1 Timothy 4:6).

What makes a good minister, or servant, of Christ? It is con­ stant feeding on the Word of God and sound doctrine. When you know the Word of God, you make a good servant of God.

Bible Study Is Necessary for Spiritual Blessing Most of us would rather be happy than sad. Not many people enjoy being miserable. Life is made up of miserable times and happy times, but I've found that the more I study the Bible, the happier I am, no matter what the circumstances are. The Word of God makes me happy. Psalm 1 describes a happy man as one "who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night" (vv.

1, 2). A happy person is someone who studies the Bible.

When you come across a sad, miserable Christian, the first thing to check on is the consistency of his Bible study. In my experience as a pastor, I've seen many people who struggled in their Christian walks until they began to regularly study Scripture.

Bible Study Is Necessary to Make Us Effective Counselors What is the best way to help people who are struggling? By showing them God's solution to their problems. But how can you do that unless you study the Bible? How can you share principles with oth­ ers that you yourself haven't discovered? A prerequisite for helping others is to know God's Word.

Paul told the Corinthians that God "comforts us in all our 146 < the keys to spiritual growth affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Corinthians 1:4). Certainly one of the ways God com­ forted Paul in his trials was through the Scriptures. Paul in turn used what God taught him to minister to others.

Knowledge of Scripture Is Also Essential for Discipling Others In 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul told Timothy, "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Once again we see the truth that we can't pass on to others things we haven't learned ourselves.

If we would be effective in evangelism, we must know the Word. Peter writes, "But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence" (1 Peter 3:15). There's nothing more frustrating than not knowing the answers to the questions people ask us or to know the answer but not remember a verse that supports that answer.

Knowing Scripture is crucial to effective evangelism.

HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE Before we can study the Bible, there is a necessary first step of prepa­ ration. That is found in 1 Peter 2. Verse 2, as we have seen, speaks of the Christian's taking in the Word of God. Verse 1 tells us what we must do first: "Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander . . ." James agrees that sin must be put away if the Word is to benefit us: "Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21).

What does that tell us? Before we can study the Bible with any profit, we must deal with sin. An excellent way to begin our Bible study is with a time of confession of sin and prayer for God's guid­ ance. Then what?

Bible Study < 147 Read the Bible Become familiar with what it says. This is the necessary first step in Bible study, and it brings blessing from God. Some people avoid the book of Revelation, thinking it is too difficult to understand.

Yet God promises that those who read and obey Revelation will be happy: "Blessed [happy] is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it" (Revelation 1:3).

I used to struggle with retaining what I read in the Bible. I'd read a passage, and by the next day I'd forget what I'd read. I'd read through a book and not know much about it when I finished.

I was wasting a lot of time and effort and not really accomplishing very much.

I decided that the best way for me to learn the Bible was to read it repetitiously. Isaiah said we learn "line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there" (28:13). It's like studying for a test in school.

You don't just read the material once; you go over it repeatedly.

I recommend beginning with a fairly short New Testament book (in chapter 1 I described how I began using this method with 1 John). Read it straight through at one sitting. Read it in the Bible you use all the time. (If you're not sure what Bible translation to use, I recommend the New American Standard Bible, the New

King James Version, or the New International Version.) Do that every day for thirty days, and at the end of that time you will know what's in that book. In fact, you will even be able to visualize where passages are on their respective pages (which is why you should do your reading in the same Bible each day). Writing down the theme of each chapter on a three-by-five card will also help you to master the contents of the book. You may find (as I did) that thirty days isn't enough. You may find yourself so excited at what you are learning that you want to extend your reading to sixty or even ninety days.

What happens when you come to a longer New Testament book, such as one of the Gospels? You divide it into shorter sec­ tions and read each of them in turn for thirty days. For example, if you choose to read the Gospel of John, you would read chapters

148 < the keys to spiritual growth 1 through 7 for thirty days, then chapters 8 through 14 for the next thirty days, and finally chapters 15 through 21 for the last thirty days. In ninety days you will have read John's Gospel thirty times.

I suggest you continue that pattern of alternately reading short and long books. In a couple of years you can read the entire New

Testament through thirty times. Since you're going to read the Bible for the rest of your life, you should read it in a way that will help you retain what you read.

That probably isn't the best approach to use in studying the Old Testament. Since the Old Testament is largely narrative his­ tory and poetry, each book ­doesn't need to be read repetitiously.

Instead, just read through the Old Testament consecutively, from beginning to end. Once you have read it, go back and start again at the beginning. That should be a lifetime practice. There are several

Bible-reading plans available that guide you through the entire Old Testament in one year.

As you systematically read through the Bible, you will become increasingly familiar with its contents. You will be able to crossreference passages on your own, without being so dependent on a concordance. Often a topic or theme in one passage will remind you of a similar theme in another passage. You will gradually develop a good understanding of what the Bible teaches on various topics.

Study the Bible Reading the Bible is a crucial first step, and we will learn much from doing it. We must not stop there, however. We need to dig beneath the surface of Scripture by doing serious Bible study. There are various methods of Bible study.

You might, for example, study a Bible topic. Or you could study all the prayers of the Bible. You could begin in Genesis and find every passage where someone prays. Then you could note who was praying, what his or her request was, and how it was answered. Or you could study just the prayers of Paul or any other biblical character. You could study forgiveness, judgment, or any topic you can think of. A topical index, such as Nave's

Bible Study < 149 Topical Bible or my MacArthur Topical Bible, is very helpful in doing topical studies. An exhaustive concordance is also useful, containing far more entries than the concordance in the back of your Bible. The three best ones based on the King James Version text are Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Young's

Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible, and Cruden's Complete Concordance of the Old and New Testaments. If you use the New

American Standard Bible, you'll want to get the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, or if you use the New International Version, the NIV Exhaustive Concordance.

Another way to study the Bible is to study Bible biographies.

You could study one of the great men of the Old Testament such as Elijah, David, or Joseph, or a New Testament figure such as Peter or Paul. You could even study someone not as well-known, such as Andrew. We can learn much of value from seeing how those men lived their lives and how God dealt with them. Bible encyclo­ pedias such as the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, or the International Standard

Bible Encyclopedia contain helpful articles on Bible characters.

Perhaps the most important method of Bible study is to study a passage. After you've read through a book thirty times, you'll have a good grasp of its contents. Outline the book and study each sec­ tion of the outline. That is essentially what I do in my preparation for preaching.

All serious study, of course, begins with reading. Saturate your mind with the contents of the passage. Read it in several different

English translations, since each version will bring out different shades of the meaning of the original text.

As you read a passage, look for the key concepts—the main truths it is teaching. Those will become clearer the more you read the passage. When you discover them, write them down, along with any questions or problems that you come across. Try to learn as much as you can from the passage itself before you turn to outside sources. Finally, put together a preliminary outline of the passage.

The next step is to study the passage verse by verse, using com­ mentaries, word studies, Bible dictionaries or encyclopedias, and 150 < the keys to spiritual growth any other reference tool that might be helpful. Reading what godly scholars have said about a passage will help keep us from misinter­ preting it. Be sure to take notes as you read.

The last step is to prepare a final outline, taking into account all the material you've gathered during your study. If you are going to teach the passage, you will want to find ways to illustrate and apply the truths you have found. I try to use biblical illustrations when­ ever possible, since Scripture is best explained by other Scripture.

A helpful tool in finding other passages with similar themes is The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. This book contains cross-refer­ ences for nearly every verse in the Bible. It is similar to the marginal references found in many Bibles, but far more extensive.

Teach the Bible Don't keep what you've learned to yourself. Find someone else and teach what you've learned. If you are married, share with your spouse. If you have children, teach them. Find someone you can disciple. Even if you're a new Christian, find someone who knows less than you, and teach that person what you've learned.

Being responsible to teach others is a strong motivation for our own study. Undoubtedly the greatest practical incentive I have for studying the Bible is my responsibility for preaching on Sundays.

Be Accountable Find someone who will hold you accountable to study the Bible, especially if you don't teach the Bible on a regular basis. Find some­ one who models biblical truths in his or her life, and pattern your life after that person's.

Hear the Word Taught Attend a church where the Word is honored and taught. Listen to tapes of gifted Bible expositors. Read the sermons of great preach­ ers of the past. That cannot substitute for your own personal study, but it is a necessary supplement to it. Too many Christians are caught up in Christian entertainment. They go from one event to another, watching Christian films, attending Christian concerts, or Bible Study < 151 pursuing some Christian "celebrity." Somehow they never seem to submit themselves to systematic teaching of the Word of God.

Don't let pursuit of entertainment keep you from receiving the bib­ lical instruction that is essential for spiritual growth.

The Bible is central to the Christian life. It is God's infallible, inerrant, complete, authoritative, and sufficient Word to us. It is our source of truth, happiness, victory, growth, power, and guid­ ance. It is an absolutely essential key to spiritual growth.

< FELLOWSHIP Unlocking the Family Room The Bible uses several metaphors for the church. It pictures the church as a flock, with Christ as its Shepherd (John 10:14). It views us as branches of Christ, the Vine (John 15:5), subjects of Christ's kingdom (John 18:36, 37), and children of God's family (John

1:12). While all those metaphors are also used in the Old Testament to describe God's relationship with Israel, there is one that is unique to the church. That is the concept of the church as a body, with Christ as its head (Colossians 1:18).

All believers become part of the body of Christ at the moment of salvation, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a post-salvation, "second blessing" experi­ ence, but rather, the only means of entrance into the body. Paul states that clearly in 1 Corinthians 12:13: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." When you were saved, the Holy Spirit placed you into the body of Christ.

You became a member of the church.

SALVATION: ENTRANCE TO THE BODY It's very important that we understand what takes place at salva­ tion. Perhaps we can best understand the riches of our salvation by looking at several key terms.

Reconciliation. Reconciliation is "the bringing together of two 154 < the keys to spiritual growth parties that are in dispute; particularly, Christ's bringing God and man together, the result of which is salvation."1 Man and God are separated by sin: "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God" (Isaiah 59:2). Christ's death on the cross has reconciled us to God.

Ephesians 2:11-16 is a good illustration of this truth. Verses 11, 12 describe our condition before salvation: "Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh . . . were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." An unbeliever is cut off from God's Son, God's people, God's covenants, and God's presence. He is truly without hope.

Mercifully, God did not leave us in that hopeless condition.

Verses 13-16 go on to describe our condition after salvation:

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

Christ's atoning death on the cross accomplished our reconcilia­ tion. When we put our faith in Christ, the barrier between us and God, which was caused by sin, is removed. All genuine believers, regardless of their denomination, are one with each other through their union with the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Jesus Christ came into the world to bring peace between God and man, who were enemies because of man's sin. Christ accom­ plished that through His sacrificial death on the cross. Truly "He

Himself is our peace" (Ephesians 2:14).

Justification. Justification is "the act of God in bringing sinners into a new covenant relationship with himself through the forgive­

Fellowship < 155 ness of sins. . . . It is a declarative act of God by which he establishes persons as righteous."2 In justification, guilty sinners are declared righteous by God. God is able to be "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26) because the death of Jesus paid the price for our sin (Romans 5:9). The ground of our justifica­ tion is not our good works. Justification is a gift of God (Romans

3:24) and comes through faith alone (Romans 3:28).

Justification must not be severed from sanctification. Justification will inevitably manifest itself in the changed life of an individual.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." As a result of our salvation, we are to "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).

Regeneration. Regeneration may be defined as "that act of God by which the principle of the new life is implanted in man, and the governing disposition of the soul is made holy."3 Another name for regeneration is the new birth. The Bible refers to it in such passages as John 1:12, 13; 3:3, 6; and 1 Peter 1:3, 23.

A good illustration of regeneration is found in Ephesians 2.

Verse 1 says that before you were saved, "you were dead in your trespasses and sins." Before your salvation, you were spiritually dead. You were unable to respond to spiritual stimuli, just as a physically dead person cannot respond to physical stimuli.

That reality was graphically illustrated to me through a tragic incident that took place many years ago. I was sitting in my office one day when someone began pounding frantically on the door. I opened it to find a little boy who lived in a house just down the street from the church. He pleaded with me through his tears,

"Please come and help us. My baby sister just died." I hurried after him as he ran down the street to his house. When I arrived, his distraught mother pointed to a bedroom and said, "My baby is dead." I entered the bedroom, and there on the bed was a baby, about three or four months old. I asked the woman if she had tried to revive the baby, and she said she had. Sobbing uncontrollably, she picked up the limp, lifeless little form and kissed and stroked

156 < the keys to spiritual growth it. Soon the paramedics arrived, but they too were unable to revive the baby.

Although the love of a mother for her child is perhaps the most powerful of all human emotions, even that was unable to elicit a response from the baby. To be physically dead renders one inca­ pable of responding, no matter what the stimuli.

Spiritual death has a similar effect. To be spiritually dead is to be unable to respond to God. That's why Paul says that before our sal­ vation, we "lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Ephesians 2:3). God's love drew no response from us.

That all changed after our salvation: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ" (vv. 4, 5). Being spiritually dead, we were helpless

(Romans 5:6), unable to change our condition. Because of God's great love and mercy, He took the initiative and granted us new life in Christ. As a result, we are now spiritually alive. We have an awareness of God's presence, and we commune with Him in prayer. We hear Him speak to our hearts through His Word.

Among the many blessings of salvation, then, are reconciliation, justification, and regeneration. Those truly are blessings, "far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). Yet, to all that God adds one more blessing. He places those reconciled, jus­ tified, and regenerate individuals into the church, the body of Christ.

In Paul's words, we are "in Christ" (Romans 8:1; 1 Corinthians 1:30). And that grants to us a whole new set of privileges.

THE PRIVILEGES OF THE BODY To be "in Christ" means you are so identified with Him that God always views you in connection with Christ. You don't have a spiritual identity apart from Christ. That's why God can impute righteousness to you and forgive your sins, because He sees you in Christ. That's why Paul can say that we are "fellow heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17). All our spiritual blessings come to us

Fellowship < 157 through our union with Christ: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual bless­ ing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3).

Through our union with Christ, we are adopted by God.

Ephesians 1:5 says, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself." As a result, we have an intimate relation­ ship with Him. Paul says in Romans 8:15 that we refer to God as "Abba"—the Aramaic equivalent of our term Daddy.

Our identification with Christ is also one guarantee that we can never lose our salvation. Because we are in Christ, we have "become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians

5:21). God has imparted Christ's righteousness to us, and as a result we are completely forgiven. God has predestined those who are in Christ "to become conformed to the image of His

Son" (Romans 8:29). Verse 30 shows us the unbreakable link between predestination and glorification: All who are predes­ tined are eventually glorified; none are lost along the way (see also John 6:39). That marvelous truth caused Paul to cry out triumphantly, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns?

Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us" (Romans

8:33, 34). The Father will never condemn us, and neither will Christ. Our salvation is secure.

Not only is our salvation secure, it is also complete. Colossians 2:10 tells us that "in Him [Christ] you have been made complete," while 2 Peter 1:3 informs us that "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness." We lack nothing.

New believers aren't spiritual pollywogs. They don't add new parts as they grow and mature. Just as a newborn baby is fully formed but needs to grow, so also does a newborn Christian need to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). But all the parts are there from the begin­ ning. We are complete in Christ.

What should be our response to all the blessings that are ours 158 < the keys to spiritual growth in Christ? We must live lives consistent with the reality of who we are in Christ.

I have a friend who played football for the Green Bay Packers during their glory years under Vince Lombardi. He told me there was something about putting on a Packer uniform that motivated players to play above their normal level. They wanted to uphold the tradition of that team. That's how it should be for Christians.

Our Father is the sovereign ruler of the universe, and we must live lives that reflect favorably on Him. That's why Paul exhorted the Ephesians to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called" (Ephesians 4:1).

God sees us as perfect and complete in Christ. Spiritual growth does not affect that. Spiritual growth takes place as we live more consistently with who we are in Christ. The Christian life is the process of becoming what we are.

THE GIFTS OF THE BODY There is a real unity in the body of Christ. Although the true church is made up of a diverse group of people, we are one body. In the body of Christ, Paul told the Galatians, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

But along with that unity comes a diversity of spiritual gifts. Each member of the body is uniquely gifted by God, and if one member

­doesn't use his gift, the body suffers.

There are many gifts listed in Scripture, including prophecy, teaching, faith, wisdom, knowledge, discernment of spirits, mercy, exhortation, giving, administration, miracles, healings, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. (The last four were temporary sign gifts given to the early church and are not operative today.)4 Every

Christian has certain gifts, as 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 makes clear.

Each believer is responsible to use those gifts in service so that the other members of the body can benefit (v. 7). I mentioned in an earlier chapter that it would be silly for someone with the gift of teaching to stand in front of a mirror and teach himself. It would

Fellowship < 159 be equally silly to imagine someone with the gift of mercy or giving who uses his gift only on himself. Contrary to much popular teach­ ing today, no spiritual gift was ever intended for private edification.

What is a spiritual gift? It is not a human ability or talent. You may be a natural athlete, musician, artist, or writer, but those are not spiritual gifts. Although you may express your spiritual gifts through those abilities, the two are not the same. In contrast to a natural talent, a spiritual gift is a God-given channel through which the Holy Spirit ministers.

Spiritual gifts are not obtained by seeking or "tarrying." We cannot use gimmicks or techniques to get the ones we want. Nor is there any one gift that all Christians can have (see 1 Corinthians

12:29, 30). Spiritual gifts are distributed in the body of the Holy Spirit according to His sovereign will (1 Corinthians 12:11). And as the analogy of the human body for the church makes clear, all the gifts are important (1 Corinthians 12:20-25). Possession of a certain spiritual gift does not mean someone is on a higher level of spirituality.

How do you discover your spiritual gift? Simply live a Spiritfilled life and see how God uses you.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE BODY Closely related to the topic of spiritual gifts is fellowship. In fact, there can be no biblical fellowship apart from the ministry of spiritual gifts. The fellowship of the body is the mutual care and concern its members have for each other. That care and concern is expressed in the "one another" passages of the New Testament.

We are to confess our sins one to another (James 5:16), build up one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), bear one another's burdens

(Galatians 6:2), pray for one another (James 5:16), be kind to one another (Ephesians 4:32), submit to one another (Ephesians

5:21), show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9), serve one another (Galatians 5:13), comfort one another (1 Thessalonians

4:18), restore one another (Galatians 6:1), forgive one another (Colossians 3:13), admonish one another (Romans 15:14), teach

160 < the keys to spiritual growth one another (Colossians 3:16), encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13), and above all, love one another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 4:7, 11). Obviously, there's a lot more to biblical fellowship than red punch and stale cookies in the basement of the church fellowship hall! True fellowship takes place when Christians come together to minister to one another in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In a normal, healthy human body, all the parts work together.

If they don't, that body is disabled, unable to function normally.

No single part functions independently of the rest. So it is also in the body of Christ. All the members must work together if the body is to function normally. And no member was meant to function in isolation from the rest of the body; the New Testament knew nothing of Christians who weren't part of a local assembly. God never intended the church to be a place where lonely people come on Sunday, sit alone among the crowd, and leave, still lonely and hurting. Rather, in the church warm, intimate fellowship takes place. Fellowship is essential both for the church as a whole and for each individual member.

When each member functions properly, the body of Christ is strong and healthy. And that will be a powerful witness that the world can't help noticing.

< WITNESSING Unlocking the Nursery Quite a few years ago I saw an attempted murder. Two men severely beat a third man, and I intervened and tried to stop them.

When the police arrived, they asked if I would testify against the two men. I agreed to do so and eventually was called as a witness for the prosecution at their trial. After being sworn in, the prosecut­ ing attorney asked me to tell the court three things: what I saw, what I heard, and what I felt.

That's a good definition of a witness. A witness tells what he sees, hears, and feels. Such was the testimony the apostle John bore of Jesus in 1 John 1:1, 3: "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life . . . what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also." That's what a Christian witness is—someone who tells others of his or her experience with Christ.

The Bible ­doesn't view witnessing as optional in the Christian life. Such passages as Matthew 28:19, 20 and Acts 1:8 make it clear that all believers are responsible to be witnesses for Christ. You don't have to be well-versed in all the intricacies of theology to be an effective witness. The blind man healed by Jesus in John 9 ­didn't know how to answer all the theological questions posed to him by the Pharisees, but he could say, "One thing I do know, that though

I was blind, now I see" (v. 25). He was able to tell what Jesus had 162 < the keys to spiritual growth done for him. That's something all Christians, regardless of how much theology and apologetics they know, can do. We can all share what Christ has done in our lives.

Witnesses in a courtroom don't always present their testimony in an orderly manner. They often share things that are irrelevant.

But a good attorney will take that testimony and apply it to the case being tried. The Holy Spirit will do the same thing with our testimony. Some of what we say may be right on target; some may not. We have the confidence, however, that the Holy Spirit will take our witness and use it to accomplish His purposes. The Holy Spirit uses our testimonies to build His case for Christ.

All Christians are witnesses. You can't say, "I hope someday to study theology and apologetics so I can witness for Christ."

If you are a Christian, you have witnessed what Christ has done in your life. The only question is whether you're willing to give your testimony. The victim in the attempted murder I witnessed was too frightened to testify. He certainly was a witness; he knew perfectly well what had happened to him. But his refusal to testify meant that his testimony was useless in bringing those criminals to justice. Similarly, our testimony of what Christ has done for us is useless if we don't share it. Being a witness is not always easy.

Witnesses sometimes face the threat of retaliation from those they testify against. As Christians, we face the possibility that we may be ridiculed or ostracized by those with whom we share Christ.

Most of us care more about protecting ourselves than proclaiming Him. But if we are to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ, we must care more about what the world thinks of Jesus than what it thinks of us.

THE CORPORATE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH Commenting on the importance of the corporate testimony of the church, Gene Getz has written:

Corporate evangelism is basic to personal evangelism. In the New Testament the functioning body of Christ set the stage for individual witness. This is why Jesus said, "Love one another,

Witnessing < 163 so that all men will know that you are My disciples." This is why Paul said, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Ro 13:9), and why Peter exhorted believers to keep their "behavior excel­ lent among the Gentiles" (1 Pet 2:12). Personal evangelism takes on unusual significance against the backdrop of a mature body of local believers—Christians who are making an impact on their communities, because of their integrity (1 Th 4:11-12); their unselfish behavior (Ro 13:7); their orderly conduct (1 Co

10:31-33); their wisdom (Col 4:6); their diligence [Galatians 6:9]; their humility (1 Pet 2:18); and yet, their forthright testi­ mony for Jesus Christ (1 Pet 3:15).

It is difficult to witness in isolation. It is often necessary, but God's general plan is that community evangelism be car­ ried out in the context of dynamic Christianity, and vigorous body life.

United in functioning in all of its parts, the local church can make a powerful impact upon a pagan community. Then it is not so much the extrovertish individuals who are often glamorized as the "most spiritual" because they witness, but it becomes a ministry of the total body of Christ, in which all share the joy and reward of those who have the privilege of "drawing the net" for Christ.1

The witness of a church to its community both reflects and affects the testimonies of its individual members.

Sometimes the testimony of a church affects the testimony of its members. Once a church in our area held a dance. Someone spiked the punch, and the church leaders got drunk. One woman even did a striptease. Needless to say, the negative publicity sur­ rounding that incident destroyed that church's reputation. You can imagine the difficulty those church members had in sharing the Gospel after that incident. Once the person they were witness­ ing to learned what church they attended, the conversation ended.

The credibility of the organization to which you belong is very important to your personal testimony.

The actions of an individual, on the other hand, can adversely affect the testimony of an entire congregation. I was appalled by an 164 < the keys to spiritual growth incident that took place in our church some years ago. A man who attended Grace Community invited an attorney friend to attend one of our Sunday services. "I'd never attend that church," the attorney replied. "The most crooked lawyer I know goes to your church." Here was a case where one man's sinful lifestyle affected the testimony of an entire church. That incident disturbed me so much that the following Sunday I related the incident to our con­ gregation and asked that lawyer, whoever he was, to either get his life together or leave our church.

THE TESTIMONY OF INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS Your effectiveness as a witness for Jesus Christ is affected not only by the corporate testimony of your church, but also by the credibility of your own life. If your behavior ­doesn't back up what you say, people will notice, and your testimony will not be believable.

Jesus said in Matthew 23:2, 3, "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them." They were hypocrites. They said one thing and did another. We must not be like that. People need to see in our lives the reality of what we profess.

I once preached a message at a local prison. Afterwards, one of the inmates came up to me and said, "That was really great.

I'm glad to see a brother in Christ. You know, I'm in the Lord's work too." He told me the name of the Christian organization he worked for. Somewhat puzzled, I asked him what he was doing in jail. "Oh," he replied, "I got several traffic tickets, and I never paid any of them, so I was sentenced to ninety days in jail."

I reminded him of Peter's words in 1 Peter 2:13-15: "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men." Then I said to him, "Do the rest of us a favor, and don't tell anybody you're a Christian. We don't need

Witnessing < 165 that kind of publicity." That really shook him up, but then I had an opportunity to talk to him about the importance of credibility.

You may not be in prison, but there are other less obvious ways that your lifestyle can undermine your testimony. Perhaps you aren't diligent in giving your employer a good day's work. Maybe you talk to others about Christ when you should be working. If your employer and the other employees at your job know that, your testimony will be discredited. Or if you're a student and get caught cheating on an exam, who will listen when you share Christ? Better to fail the exam than to bring reproach on the cause of Christ!

Don't allow your lifestyle to undermine your testimony and the testimony of other Christians. The apostle Peter gives us some wise counsel in his first epistle: "Such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men" (2:15);

"keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame" (3:16). Don't let anyone be turned off to the Gospel by your lifestyle.

OUR WITNESS IS DEPENDENT ON THE HOLY SPIRIT People are not saved because of your testimony. They're not saved because you argue them into silence or because you use a clever

"sales pitch" to present the Gospel. No one has ever been saved, or ever will be, apart from the working of the Holy Spirit. Although the apostle Paul shared the Gospel with Lydia, she was not saved until "the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14). It is the Holy Spirit who will "convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8). Even knowledge of biblical truths will not save anyone, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14).

That's a liberating truth. Sharing the Gospel would be a terrible burden if people's salvation depended on our persuasiveness. How comforting to know that we are responsible only to be diligent and faithful and to allow the Holy Spirit to use us. People sometimes

166 < the keys to spiritual growth ask me if I'm disappointed whenever people don't get saved in response to my preaching. I am disappointed for their sake; yet I know that I have been called to preach the Gospel, not to save people. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. All you and I can do is be faithful witnesses for Jesus Christ and allow the sovereign Holy

Spirit to do His work.

SOME PRACTICAL TIPS FOR WITNESSING2 Witnessing to others about Christ can nevertheless be an intimidat­ ing task. Here are some practical steps to help you get started.

Begin by Preparing Your Testimony I recommend that you write out your testimony. That will enable you to structure it in a clear, orderly manner. Review it often to keep it fresh in your mind.

What kind of structure should a coherent testimony have? Begin by relating your dissatisfaction with life before your salvation.

That's something most unbelievers can relate to because they're unhappy too. Look for an opening in conversations when people express dissatisfaction with their life. Mention that you used to feel that way too, and then share your testimony.

The next step is to explain your conversion. Tell how Christ replaced your dissatisfaction with His peace and contentment. Be sure to use Scripture to lay a biblical foundation for your experience.

Then explain what happened after you were converted. Tell how your desires, goals, and priorities changed. Let them know that you now have a whole different perspective on life.

Make sure that you clearly explain the Gospel, from the Bible.

Express clearly the biblical truths that all people are sinners, justly condemned by a righteous God, and that salvation comes only through faith in Christ, not by doing good works. Make clear that true repentance means being willing to forsake a sinful lifestyle and live in obedience to Christ.

Then look for opportunities to share your testimony. Peter said, "Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make

Witnessing < 167 a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence" (1 Peter 3:15).

When you share your testimony, it is important to give the one you're talking to an opportunity to respond. You might ask, "Can you think of any reason why you ­wouldn't want to receive Christ right now?" The answer you get will demonstrate whether the person is ready to receive Christ or is in need of further teaching and exhortation.

Be Familiar with the Available Resources A printed tract can be a useful tool in personal evangelism. There are many available, including:

Who Do You Think I Am? (Panorama City, Calif.: Grace to You, 1991).

The Real Purpose of Life (Oklahoma City: Max D. Barnett, 1967).

Life's Most Important Question (Winona Lake, Ind.: BMH, 1975).

There are many others as well. Make sure you choose one that clearly and accurately presents the Gospel. Become familiar with it yourself before you use it in a witnessing situation.

If you have the opportunity, take a class in personal evangelism, such as Evangelism Explosion. There are some excellent manuals on how to witness. One of the best is Tell the Truth by Will Metzger

(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1981). Learning effective principles of personal evangelism can be very helpful. Make sure the training you receive or the books you read teach you a bibli­ cally sound method of evangelism. Far too much evangelism today is man-centered, not God-centered.

Be familiar, too, with books that give evidences for the truth of Christianity and answer objections that nonbelievers often raise.

Two helpful works, among many others, are Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Vol. 1 (San Bernardino, Calif.:

Here's Life Publishers, 1986) and R. C. Sproul, Reason to Believe (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982).

Formulate some questions to use in turning a conversation to 168 < the keys to spiritual growth spiritual matters. Be sensitive and tactful in how you introduce the Gospel into a conversation. Having some questions in mind that you can use when the opportunity arises is helpful. For example, you might ask someone, "Who do you think Jesus Christ is?"

Or, "Do you believe it is possible to be absolutely sure of going to heaven? How do you think a person can have that kind of certainty?" Questions like those can be helpful in turning the con­ versation toward the Gospel. They can also provide you with good insight into a person's spiritual condition.

Finally, be alert for opportunities. A man I know once asked an airline flight attendant what she would do if the plane they were on lost power and crashed into a mountain. Startled, she replied,

"Sir, why would you ask a question like that?" He answered, "I just wondered what you would do if you suddenly stood face-toface with God and He asked you, 'What right do you have to enter heaven?'" She thought about that for a while and finally admitted,

"I don't know." With that as an opening, he proceeded to lead her to Christ.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOW-UP Our responsibility to those we lead to Christ ­doesn't end with their conversion. Rather, our goal is to disciple them and bring them to the level of maturity that will allow them to make dis­ ciples of their own (2 Timothy 2:2). Jesus charged us to make disciples of those we evangelize (Matthew 28:19, 20). If at all possible, you should establish a discipling relationship with those you lead to Christ. If you can't, try to refer them to someone who can. At the very least, point them to good books and tapes that will help them grow in Christ.

How do you disciple someone? You meet with him regularly and teach him both doctrinal and practical truths from the Bible.

Be concerned about his life, and warn him of the consequences if he continues in sin. If the person you are discipling has problems handling money, teach him biblical principles relating to finances.

If he struggles with lust, teach him biblical principles for handling Witnessing < 169 temptation. Whatever areas of his life need work, share with him biblical truths that apply. Admonish him if he persists in those sins.

Be sure to set an example of godly living in your own life that he can follow. Otherwise your lifestyle will undermine the truth you are teaching him. Above all, love him. Serve him with a sense of humility. Make yourself available to him. Be his friend.

THE URGENCY OF WITNESSING Some Christians are afraid to confront unbelievers with the Gospel because they are afraid to shake them up. But how much more shaken are they going to be when they realize too late that they don't know the truth? They need to be shaken up. Speaking of the urgency of reaching the lost, Jesus said in Matthew 9:37, 38, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

Are you one of the Lord's harvesters?

< DISCERNMENT Locking the Security Gate About ten years ago I drove across the southern states, ministering in some remote areas. One afternoon as I was driving with a fellow pastor through Arkansas, I saw a crudely painted sign advertising handmade quilts. I was interested in purchasing a quilt for my wife, so we stopped to see what might be available. The house was very old and rustic. A woman answered the door and, on learning I was interested in her quilts, enthusiastically invited us in.

Her husband was seated in front of a television, watching a religious program. Stacked around the living room were books, videotapes, and piles of literature. The woman showed me several quilts, then went into another room to get her favorite quilt, leaving me and my friend with her husband.

"Are you believers?" I asked.

"Believers in what?" he replied.

"Believers in Christ," I answered.

"Oh, sure," he told me. Then he showed us his collection of materials. Much of it was solid biblical material, but he also had quite a lot of literature from Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism,

Scientology, the Unitarian Fellowship, and the Baha'i faith. He was evidently on the mailing list of every major television preacher as well. "We find some good in all of it," he told us.

By then the woman had returned with her favorite quilt. It was, frankly, somewhat unbecoming, made of oddly shaped pieces of 172 < the keys to spiritual growth diverse fabrics stitched together in no particular pattern. The other quilts she had showed me were far more attractive, and I purchased one of them I especially liked.

After we left, it occurred to me that the woman's prize quilt was a perfect metaphor for the couple's theological outlook. Utterly undiscerning, they were stitching together a unique religion out of scraps cut from every source they could find.

Sadly, those people are not terribly different from the average religious person in our culture—reading, listening to tapes, watching television with little or no discernment, just patching together some amorphous kind of belief system that has little rhyme or reason.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 22 the apostle Paul confronts that mentality: "Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil." That's one of the basic truths of godly living and a vital key to any level of spiritual maturity.

Unfortunately, in recent years the church has been plagued by an almost inexhaustible gullibility. Preposterous varieties of aberrant teaching wreak havoc among those who call themselves

Christians. Confusion and error run rampant. Very few believers seem to have the discernment to differentiate between truth and heresy. Chaos threatens to overwhelm the church. As a result, bibli­ cal Christianity is fighting for its very life.

Bad decisions, faulty reasoning, superficial understanding, wide­ spread ignorance, shallow commitment, and poor knowledge of the Scriptures have always troubled the church. In fact, over the ages these internal problems have contributed more to the church's woes than all the external attacks combined. Persecutions have taken their toll, but internal chaos and division over doctrine have left the most scars.

Satan, disguised as an angel of light, wants to confuse the people of God (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Scripture warns repeatedly of "deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1), "destruc­ tive heresies" (2 Peter 2:1), "myths" (1 Timothy 1:4; 2 Timothy 4:4;

Titus 1:14), "perverse things" (Acts 20:30), "commandments and teachings of men" (Colossians 2:22; see also Titus 1:14), "foolish and ignorant speculations" (2 Timothy 2:23), "worldly fables"

(1 Timothy 4:7), false knowledge and "empty chatter" (1 Timothy Discernment < 173 6:20), "philosophy and empty deception" and "the tradition of men" (Colossians 2:8). All of these are pitfalls for Christians.

Jesus warned of "wolves . . . in sheep's clothing" (Matthew 7:15). Paul told the Ephesian elders, "After my departure sav­ age wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock" (Acts

20:29). And he wrote to warn Timothy, "Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived"

No one who understands Scripture and is aware of all those warnings about error should ever be so credulous as to look at the various teachings floating around and say, "There's good in all of them." We cannot for a moment believe that everyone who claims to be in Christ and purports to speak on behalf of Christ is telling the truth. Nor can we passively tolerate such error, thinking some­ how that it is unkind, unloving, or unspiritual to confront false teaching and careless doctrine. Too much is at stake.

There is much in the Bible commanding us to be discerning, discriminating, judicious, and careful defenders of truth.1 No single passage is more straightforward than the one I quoted above,

1 Thessalonians 5:21, 22. There Paul gives three guidelines for the discerning Christian.

JUDGE EVERYTHING "Examine everything carefully" (v. 21) is a call to careful judgment.

People are fond of quoting Matthew 7:1: "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." That verse is speaking of judging others' attitudes, motives, and the hidden things of the heart. We can't judge those things; we can't even see them. Only God can (1 Samuel

16:7). And one day He "will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus" (Romans 2:16). In the meantime, we are not to judge one another. In other words, we are not to condemn others' thoughts, motives, attitudes, desires, or other unseen qualities.

That does not mean, however, that we should be undiscerning.

We are most certainly supposed to judge between truth and error, right and wrong, and good and evil.

174 < the keys to spiritual growth Paul wrote the Corinthian church, "I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say" (1 Corinthians 10:15). Jesus said, "Judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24). Clearly, our Lord requires us to exercise discernment, distinguishing between truth and error.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, the call to "examine everything" has par­ ticular application to preaching and teaching. Verse 20 mentions

"prophetic utterances." Paul is not speaking of extrabiblical revela­ tion, but of those whose gift was to minister the Word with prophetic authority. The modern parallel would be preaching and teaching the Word of God. "Don't despise authoritative teaching," he is saying in essence. "Rather, examine it carefully, cling to what is good, and shun the rest."

That admonition is especially timely today. It runs counter to the trends of a culture that rejects authoritative biblical exposition in favor of entertainment. It confronts the ideas of those who spurn doctrine in pursuit of "unity, " who place relationships before convictions. It challenges those who have become enamored with feelings and have lowered the value of clear thinking.

Trends like those have decimated the church. What passes for Christianity today has become far too tolerant of aberrant teaching, negligent of Scripture, and reluctant to criticize anything. Doctrinal clarity and conviction have been discarded. Discrimination and judgment have begun to sound like bad words.

In fact, many people justify their lack of discernment as chari­ table magnanimity toward those who differ. Thus discernment is often perceived as a malevolent attitude.

We must never be unloving, but we cannot countenance false teaching. Remember that John, the apostle of love, wrote:

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

—2 John 9-11, emphasis added Discernment < 175 We must be discerning. To be tolerant of false teaching and error is to dishonor God.

What measuring stick can we use to judge between truth and error? The Word of God. Paul was very explicit in his instructions to Timothy:

If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and under­ stands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

—1 Timothy 6:3-5 The phrases "sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and . . . the doctrine conforming to godliness" refer to the body of apostolic teaching preserved for us in the New Testament. Many in Timothy's day were teaching that truth could be known intuitively

(mysticism) or by some supernatural enlightenment (gnosticism).

Paul was affirming that the only truth necessary for Christians was the truth revealed by God in His Word.

That's true today, though many still try to seek deeper, secret truth from other sources. There is no accurate gauge of truth besides

God's Word, and we must diligently examine everything by it.

HOLD ON TO WHAT IS GOOD "Hold fast to that which is good" is the second half of Paul's admo­ nition in 1 Thessalonians 5:21. That echoes Romans 12:9: "Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good." It may seem like common sense for Christians to hold on to what is good. Nevertheless, Paul often repeats that same petition in his writings. As the church through the ages has so often tragically proved, it is all too easy to drop one's guard and let go of precious biblical truth. We must be diligent to defend against that.

176 < the keys to spiritual growth Paul also wrote, "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you" (1 Timothy 6:20). He followed that with a similar admonition in his second epistle: "Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ

Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you" (2 Timothy 1:13, 14).

Holding fast to the truth is like guarding treasure. It requires a militant stance against any person of influence who would steal the treasure. Too many Christians have been willing to make peace with the enemies of truth, and the result has been devastating losses of the treasure of true doctrine. The Dark Ages were a bitter fruit of a church that forfeited biblical truth for the vain traditions of evil men. Early in the twentieth century many churches in Europe and North America surrendered the truth of Scripture in exchange for barren liberal theology. Time and again the people of God have failed to guard the truth—and have always paid a painful price.

We must guard the truth as a priceless treasure. Pragmatism, sensationalism, moral corruption, emotionalism, the feigned unity of ecumenism, and a host of other influences have mounted an unprecedented attack on the truth in our age. Now more than ever we need to hold fast.

Holding fast to the truth is one of the essential marks of a true Christian. The writer to the Hebrews emphasized that repeatedly:

"But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today,' so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the begin­ ning of our assurance firm until the end" (3:13, 14). Later he added,

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near" (10:23-25).

The day is drawing near. The passing of time only elevates the importance of holding fast to sound doctrine. Paul told Timothy that the time would come when people would not endure sound doctrine, "but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accu­

Discernment < 177 mulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths" (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). It's happening before our eyes. What is the remedy? Paul told Timothy, "Preach the word; be ready in sea­ son and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction" (v. 2). We want to be found faithful.

SHUN WHAT IS EVIL "Abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22) is the third facet of the apostle Paul's call to discernment. The word translated "abstain" is a very strong verb meaning, "hold oneself away from." It emphasizes the complete separation of the believer from evil in both teaching and behavior. When you see something that is evil, not true, and erroneous—shun it!

The word translated "evil" in this verse means "harmful, injuri­ ous, malignant." It speaks of something that is deadly poisonous.

As we have seen, Paul seems to be speaking here primarily about perversions of the truth, spiritual lies, and false teaching. Of course, included in the apostle Paul's instruction would be the idea that we should shun evil moral conduct. "Abstain from every form of evil,"

Paul writes. Evil in any form is to be rejected. But the heart of his message is a warning against corruptions of the truth.

Nothing in Scripture gives us latitude to expose ourselves to what is not true. We are to be completely separated from all forms of evil. Does that mean Christians should be naive? In a sense, yes.

The apostle Paul wrote the Romans, "I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil" (Romans 16:19). We're not supposed to be experts about evil. Some people subscribe to the notion that the most effective way to oppose false teaching and error is to study it, master it, and then answer it. I don't believe that.

We can refute false teaching far more effectively by becoming truth experts. Truth is the most powerful opponent of error, and good is the most effective adversary of evil. Paul hinted at that when he wrote, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good"

178 < the keys to spiritual growth When the FBI trains its agents to recognize counterfeit money, it does so by having them study the genuine article. Prospective agents spend months learning the details of how real money is engraved.

Only by being intimately familiar with authentic bills can they immediately recognize the counterfeits.

So it is in the spiritual realm. Knowing and proclaiming the truth is the best way to refute error. Paul implied that when he instructed Titus on how to choose elders. An elder, Paul said, must be one who is "holding fast the faithful word which is in accor­ dance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict" (Titus 1:9).

Only those who are skillful in holding forth the truth can be effec­ tive in refuting error.

Note that one of the key tasks of every elder was refuting error.

That may not be in vogue in today's society, but it still is a neces­ sary part of every spiritual leader's role. Elders must be able to refute doctrinal error so that those who lack spiritual maturity do not stumble. God has ordained this role of leadership to keep His church pure. We cannot abdicate our responsibility.

How important is discernment? Ultimately it is the definitive mark of spiritual maturity: "Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14). As you pursue spiritual growth, let the Word of God control your heart and mind, and ask the Lord to train your senses to be discerning.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.