Category: Legalism

Fight For The Faith

9/2/2010

The book of Jude lays it out nicely. It says in singleness of clarity that Christians need to "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3).

Contend means to fight. Fight for righteous clarification and understanding from those who teach the word. Fight against those who attempt to destroy belief in God. Fight against hypocrisy of all Christians. Fight against liberalism of the word. Fight against ungodly secularism of our leadership. Fight against legalism of faith in Jesus. Fight against greed. Fight against sexual perversion of all kinds that are spoken in Scripture. Fight against those who would destroy the true teachings of what it means to have faith in Jesus Christ. Fight against stupidity that permeates an immoral and "politically correct" people.

Read the book of Jude and understand how "the lord's humbled" can fight "for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3).

The Lord's humbled . . . John A. Reeves

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Obedient Faith or Faithful Obedience

3/4/2010

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"And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7).

What is the noun in the phrase obedient faith? It is faith.
What is the noun in the phrase faithful obedience? It is obedience.

What is the difference between the two phrases? The first shows that a person is obedient to the faith found in Jesus Christ: His mission, His teachings, His direction, His __________ anything. The second shows that a person is determined to be obedient for obedience sake. Now, the difficult thing with this is that the obedience that these people might be faithful in may not be anything close to the understanding that Christ had intended. In fact, the trust found coming from the second phrase focuses on how good a person is at keeping "the law" (or their tradition). Their trust then is in law keeping itself; rather, than Jesus Himself - this is damnable (cf. Galatians 1:8; cf. Romans 1:5; 16:26).

Jesus does want His people to be obedient to Him; however, He nowhere teaches that anyone is saved by faithful law keeping; i.e., trusting in their own ability to keep the law. Rather, Jesus wants His people to be obedient to Him, trust Him for salvation, while at the same time living a Christian life.

Show your respect to God and be obedient to the faith of Jesus Christ.

The Lord's humbled . . . John A. Reeves

Please read my article "Polar Opposite" for more detailed understanding.

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Fight For The Faith

Obedient Faith or Faithful Obedience

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