Hebrews Lesson 169 August 13, 2009

^NKJ Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

^NKJ Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Last time as we were going through the Doctrine of One Another coming out of our study of Hebrews, we got down to points 18 and 19. Those two points really came out of the same context in James 5. So the 18^th point was to confess to one another. This does not mean just randomly admission of sins to one another; but sins that are related to the problem at hand. The problem at hand in James 5 had to do with weakness or weariness, failure to persevere in the spiritual life. In that case that would involve a failure to handle one of the tests of faith as identified in the first chapter of James that we are to count it all joy when we encounter various trials knowing that the testing of our faith and the doctrine in our souls produces endurance.

So when we when we fail and we are being run over in our Christian life and we become road kill on the road of our spiritual life; then we have to call for prayer from stronger believers. That's the focus of that passage. A part of that is confessing our sins to one another within that context and within that context of privacy.

Also to pray for one another and that is, as I said, the topic of every single verse from James 5:13 all the way down to the end of the chapter. In full James 5:16 said to confess your trespasses to one another and to pray for one another that you may be healed. That has to do with a spiritual revival of strength, not a physical healing as we saw that the idea of physical healing or physical sickness doesn't fit the context, either the immediate context of James 5 or the broader context James, the message of the epistle of James itself. The context of James 5 should focus on the idea of weariness in the spiritual struggle, spiritual advance.

The conclusion of that whole section from 13 to 16 is the principle that the prayer of a righteous man indicating here not a positional righteousness, which comes from justification, but experiential righteousness, which means maturity. That fits with the idea I mentioned that we shouldn't be understanding elders in the earlier verse that called for the elders to pray as an office in the church, but presbuterio means the older ones. It's also a word just to be used for mature believers. It is calling upon mature believers to be in prayer. So we are to pray for one another.

Then we came to our 20^th point, which is that we are to be hospitable to one another. Hospitality is part of the role of the believer toward other believers and that can be manifested in a lot of different ways. It can be manifested in a church environment. As we have here at West Houston Bible Church from almost the inception, there has been an openness to people. They see that. They come in. When we first moved into this building, we have a kitchen. There’s coffee and cookies and baked items, whatever. People were really open and it was hard (still is) to get everybody out of the kitchen and to get them in here for Bible class because there's just that openness. When new people come I've been very pleased to see how people will welcome them and introduce themselves, and it's not the kind of the formulaic formal artificial thing that you have in lot of churches with “Everybody who's a member of this church, please stand up.” That’s a tricky one. They don’t have the visitors raise their hands. It’s everybody who's a member of the church stand up. Now turn around and find the person sitting down and go over and introduce yourself and give them a hug and tell them you love them. And it’s superficial. It has to flow out of a person's own spiritual life and their desire to get to know people and it has genuineness to it that comes across. That's one way of being hospitable.

Another way to be hospitable is in terms of your own, your own home: welcoming people, helping people, providing food for people who are in need. All of these kinds of things come across.

Now one of the key verses on this is found in 1 Peter 4:9. It is a simple command that we are to be hospitable to one another without grumbling. So you’re not to complain about it, not to gripe about it.

“Ah, here is another missionary coming in that we have to take care of.”

But that there is a willingness to share what God has given us because ultimately it came from God. It didn't come from simply my hard work. Everything comes from the Lord and so I should be willing to help, share the bounty that God has given me with others.”

So we are to be hospitable to one another. Now this is a really interesting word. It is a compound word. It is philozenos. You break that down etymologically from philos meaning love and zenos from stranger or foreigner. Xenophobia is a fear of foreigners, fear of strangers. So philozenos means literally a lover of strangers. It's interesting that Gentiles were described as zenoi, strangers. In the Scriptures we were strangers to the covenants of Israel. Ephesians 2:13ff talk about the fact that gentiles were separated from the covenants of the Jews. They were strangers to the covenants of God. So they were zenoi and so there's one sense in which philozenos would refer to Jewish believers. These are found in 1 Peter and also in Hebrews. Now the cross references I have up are Titus 1:8 and 1 Timothy 3:2. I Timothy has to do with the qualifications of a pastor, as does Titus 1:8. A pastor is to be that way, but so is every believer.

There's a list of qualifications there for bishops and deacons in Timothy and elders and deacons in Titus.

If you do a word study, some people read that and they go, “I just have to have all these qualifications to be a pastor.”

But every one of those qualifications is expected to every believer. It's not unique to being a pastor or a leader in the church. Every one of those character qualities is to be expected and is demanded of every single believer. That comes with maturity and so that's why they're isolated there.

So you have those two references in terms of the qualifications of a pastor. But in 1 Peter 4:9 and Hebrews we have two specific epistles that are written the Jewish believers, to a Jewish audience. Peter is written to the twelve tribes scattered and Hebrews is written to Jewish believers who are threatening to throw away their Christianity and go back into Judaism. This word is used there. It has this nuance of not being isolated as a Jew but also welcomed, breaking down those barriers and welcoming the gentiles as part of the body of Christ.

It's a quality that is expected of every single believer. It is also emphasized in Romans 12, which we’ll look in just a minute. In the context they're describing the qualities of the Christian Life. So a very important quality for every believer is to have this level of hospitality. And really all it is is a graciousness and generosity and openness to strangers. It does not necessarily mean that you always have to invite the traveling missionary or speaker or whoever to stay at your house when we have the Chafer Conference or have students or pastors stay with you. Not everybody has a situation where they can open their home and make it available. Some do. But there are other ways in which we can be the hospitable and show hospitality to people in a very kind and gracious way. That is how it is to be, it is to be expressed.

In Hebrew 13 we had the second key passage on this. We read (notice the context):

^NKJ Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.

² Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.

The word there for “do not forget” is a Greek word for pilanthanomai and it means to not forget or be neglectful. Again it’s an imperative in the second person plural. So it is a broad based command addressed to every believer. The idea there of entertaining strangers again is the word philosonos which means to be hospitable. It should be translated “do not forget to be hospitable for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”

Now that is an interesting passage and every now and then you have somebody quote the old King James – “somebody entertained the angels unawares.” But to what does that refer? That refers back to Genesis. Let’s turn back to Genesis and take a look at these two examples because this is just referring to a historical incident. It is not referring to a normal pattern that when some stranger comes and knocks on your door, you’d better let him in your house and give him a cup of coffee because he just might be an angel. I've heard a sermon on that.

Can you imagine that? How dangerous that would be to just – “Oh well, this might be an angle? I’d better not run the risk.”

Back in Genesis 18 we had two incidents of this 18 and 19. Genesis chapter 18 we have the Lord coming to visit Abraham down near Hebron near the oak tress of Mamre. That is in the area of modern Hebron, which is in the Palestinian controlled territory.

^NKJ Genesis 18:1 Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

² So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground,

This is showing the type of hospitality that was common in Abraham’s day. Now we wouldn't handle it quite the same way. There's no command as to how you're to do this; but that was the way they did in the ancient Near East.

³ and said, "My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.

Abraham knew that it was the Lord before him, that this was a theophany.

He said:

⁴ "Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

⁵ "And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts.

He was very concerned about their physical needs and taking care of them. He's very generous. He’s providing food and shelter and then he goes out to the herd. He kills a tender good calf. In other words he finds the best steaks in the freezer and thaws them out in order to provide a good meal for his guests. So we see this wonderful picture of hospitality there and then we come to discover that one is the Lord (a theophany, the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ) appearing to Abraham and the other two are angels.

When you go down to the next chapter in the next verse of Genesis 19:1 we read:

^NKJ Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom

Prior to this they're just referred to as the two men. They had all of the appearance. They dressed like men. They looked like men and for all practical purposes as far as Abraham was concerned they were men; but they did not he did not know that they were angels. They were in disguise, as it were. That's the reference in Hebrews 13:1 that Abraham provides this example for us of hospitality. That’s simply an allusion (an illustration) of the principal of hospitality from the life of Abraham.

But then we have another passage to look at and that’s in Romans 12. This whole section of Romans as we’ve seen is just loaded with application-type passages; but it all flows out of the basic command to love one another. We see that reiterated in Romans 12:9.

^NKJ Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

Your topical sentence is to let love be without hypocrisy. Then what the Apostle Paul is doing is explaining the various characteristics and illustrating various ways in which we show love for one another. One would be to abhor what is evil. And that's a very strong word to abhor. We are not going to allow that. It is not good for others. Some may call us self-righteous if we take a certain moral stand; but it is because we have a broader picture of what the issues are in life.

Cling to what is good.

You have the dual command there. You’re going to completely reject the evil that which is anti-God, anti-righteousness, anti-biblical, and you're going to accept that which is inherently good. Again I believe these are general overriding principles.

Then in verse 10 we have a “one another” which we’ve already studied.

^NKJ Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;

So there's a concern for other believers and with a degree of sensitivity to their strengths and their weaknesses. That will be developed as we'll see in the 14^th chapter, which comes up in another couple of points. This sets the opening stage.

Then verse 11 goes on to read:

^NKJ Romans 12:11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

¹² rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

Same principle we see in or we saw the last time in James 5. Prayer is to be a standard characteristic in the believer’s life.

^NKJ Romans 12:13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

This is providing food and finances for those who are in need, who cannot work to eat. One of those key passages every parent ought to drill into their children so they’ll grow to be good capitalists is in 2 Thessalonians that those that don't work, don't eat.

But there are those who can't work so they are dealt with in generosity and grace and there's a distribution to the needs of the saints given to hospitality. So once again we have this same word. Hospitality here is related to just providing for the physical needs of those who are unable to provide for themselves whether they're older, whether they’re ill, whether there are other circumstances in life that make them unable to provide for themselves. Those who can, help them out of their understanding of God's grace that we treat people always on the basis of God's grace; not on the basis of works, not on the basis of people having to meet a certain standard before we are good or kind or generous to them in the demonstration of hospitality.

Paul is going to go on in Romans 13 to give some more examples of what love looks like.

^NKJ Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

¹⁶ Be of the same mind toward one another.

That was another one we looked at early on in the study. Having the same mentality because it’s based on Bible doctrine and then based on humility. That covers chapter 12.

Then another example of humility is orientation to authority. Without orientation to authority there is no success in life. We live in the world today when people are more and more arrogant and express it in more and more extreme ways. Without drawing necessarily judgments on political positions taken, but we've seen this radical discord in this nation that’s increased over the last ten years because of arrogant polarity that’s taking place on both sides.

I can remember that this was stated by the Republicans in early 2000 when George Bush was running that you know there's just too much discord and we need to bring people together. The Republicans came in and it just seemed like the breach got wider. Then you get into the current situation. You watch these town hall meetings and the breach is even greater. The country is polarizing and I believe it’s ultimately due to the breakdown of worldview. You have people who are still influenced by a biblical worldview. Whether they're Christians or not is not necessarily the issue because we still have a sense of those establishment truths and establishment principles. Then there are many others who don't. That's what causes that breach and causes the sides to polarize against one another. Arrogance breeds in that kind of environment and people stop thinking, and they just started emoting. It never seems to recover from that.

So humility is foundational in relation to authority and that is the topic of the 13^th chapter. Then he comes towards the end in that argument talking about loving one another in verse 8 (13:8) giving illustrations of what that looks like. Then in verses 11 to 14 describing all of these characteristics as walking in the day, walking in the light, as Paul says in Ephesians 5 and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the last verse in Romans 13.

^NKJ Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Now that verse is addressed to believers. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ is the process. That is the process of spiritual growth and we're putting on, like you put on a garment; you're putting on the character of Christ. That comes because you walk by the Spirit. The Spirit producers in you the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness against which there is no law. All that comes as a result of walking by means of the Spirit and it makes no provision for the flesh.

Now the interesting thing about that verse is back in the early church there was a young man who had gone through a lot of soul searching. He had gone through all these different religions. He had tried out Manichaeism for a while which was sort of a Persian dualistic mystical religion. Then he tried out Neo-Platonism. He was falling in love with philosophy. He had been living with a woman for about thirteen years and had a child out of wedlock. His mother was a Christian and so those Christian values had also created by this time a certain guilty conscience. He was in real torment. He was in a city in Italy where he had come to hear one of the great preachers of that time, a man by the name of Ambrose. He had heard him preach, and he was under conviction by the Holy Spirit. He was sitting outside in a garden.

He says that he heard a voice in his head that said, “Take up and read.”

So he picked up his Bible read Romans 13:14.

^NKJ Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

And he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and was saved. The man’s name was Augustine. He was one of most influential (We don't always agree with him) figures in church history.

I've often thought I would love to preach a series on verses God used to bring people to salvation, and those verses had nothing to do with salvation. They’re understood out of context. How many people have been saved because somebody was Campus Crusade came up and said to invite Jesus into your heart? Well, that's not what that verse says and that's not what Revelation 3:20 means. But there are all kinds of people who have taken that to be a synonym for believing in Jesus. And I think they’re saved. I have no doubt in my mind that they’re saved. You don't have to be a theologian to say just the right way to get saved because what's happening in their souls is they’re trusting in Christ for salvation. They're just having somebody use the wrong verse and take it of context.

As a pastor I'll never validate that because it's always wrong to use a passage in wrong way; but God is pleased to enable us to misunderstand Scriptures to get to the right truth and trust in Christ. That’s just God's grace. It doesn’t have anything to do with correct exegesis. That's always an interesting story to run passed everybody on Romans 13:14.

Then we come to chapter fourteen. Chapter 14 is a chapter that is very similar to the discussion that we find over in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 dealing with the issue of doubtful things. Here it has to do with weaker brethren and how a more mature believer needs to think about a weak believer who thinks that they're still under legalism. We’ll come into that as we come to our last set of “one another's.” This last set of “one another's” is prohibitions. There are three prohibitions. Everything that we've seen up to this point was positive commands: to love one another, encourage one another, admonish one another, care for one another, pray for one another, be kind to one another. All of these were positive. Now there are three negatives. The first negative comes out of Romans 14 that we are not to judge one another, Romans 14:13. We are not the judge one another.

Now the verse is up on the overhead, and it states:

^NKJ Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.

…indicating that they had been doing this along the way. That's brought out in the sense of the negative command. The word that’s translated “judge” is from the Greek verb krino and it's used twice in the passage. It's used in the first line

let us not judge

Krino

one another anymore, but rather resolve

Krino. This is one of those cases where in English there's this artificial rule in English that if you're going to write good English and you're going to go to the university of whatever and go through their world-class writing school, and they will tell you that you don't use the same word over and over again within the same paragraph. There has to be word variation. The trouble is when it comes to translating the Scripture when the Holy Spirit uses a word twice within five words of each other. It's for a reason. When you bring that over into English, you don't say good English means we have to translate one way here and another way here. That happens again and again and again in Scripture. What it does is you lose the dots. Sometimes in Bible study in 8 verses the Holy Spirit will use one word four or five times.

In the Greek it really stands out and you go, “Man, that's important. He's using that same word again and again and again. I need to connect those dots.”

In English they’ll be translated with five different synonyms. You don't see that there’s a group of similar words there that need to be understood so that you can tie the context together. As a result you miss out on some things. That's what happens here in Romans 14:13.

Paul says:

^NKJ Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way

He's offering an alternative. They're judging one way. He says, “No, this is what you should do.” So he's offering an alternative not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.

Now let's look at the context. The context deals with the law of liberty that believers have the liberty in many areas. Sometimes we call them gray areas. I don't think they’re gray areas because to me gray implies that they’re a little dirty already. Somehow they’re not quite white. You didn’t use the latest formula of Tide or Clorox or whatever to get them white; so they still look dingy. So that's not the idea. It’s that there are some things that are right and some things that are wrong. There are other areas that are just not addressed in the Scripture. They’re not wrong; but people may think they are. They may have been taught that it's wrong to do certain things. How do you handle that? That's always an interesting situation.

I got a call related to this today from another pastor who was working for passage and related to Paul in Acts when Paul goes back to Jerusalem and he washes his hands in the temple ritual – cleanses his hands and he brings offerings to the temple.

People (some people) will say, “Well, that was wrong. Paul was following the Mosaic Law here. That’s wrong.”

In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul says:

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 9:20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 9:21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law;

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 9:22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

That’s what he means there by that in context (I’ll be all things to all people for the sake of the gospel). What Paul is saying is, “If I’m in a Jewish home and they have certain traditions, I'm not going to make an issue out of those traditions which would distract from the gospel. I don’t want to make non-issues an issue. I don’t want to get involved in arguments about things that are irrelevant to salvation. If I’m with a gentile who has been influenced by the Judaizers where they have come under the law and thinking that makes them more spiritual; then I'm not going to rub their face, their nose in something that just because I have the right to do it, doesn't mean I'm going to assert my right to do it because it will offend them and it will create a distraction in communicating the gospel. And if I’m with those who have never had the Law (in other words gentiles) where something is not an issue then I’m going to live as if it's not an issue.”

Now some people in our culture think that that's hypocrisy. Of course these passages used to always be applied to issues like smoking, drinking, dancing, and playing cards, things like that, which was very typical of much of conservative Christianity up through about the 1950’s.

I read an interesting study (survey) taken by Christianity Today around 1983. They did a survey of I don’t know how many Christians now, but they did a pretty broad survey. The question they asked was: Is it spiritually wrong (does it violate your spiritual life) to drink wine? In 1951 when Christianity Today first came out they had done a similar survey. In 1951 about 95% of Christians said it was wrong to drink wine. In 1983, 95% said it wasn’t. That's a huge shift. That’s a 180-degree reversal. I don’t know of anything else that would have seen such a shift in behavior. Part of that is because of I think it negatively the influence of the cosmic system because in 1983 a lot of Christians didn’t even care what the Bible said. It was much more licentious liberal Christianity that was in the United States.

But also from the positive side a lot more people have become acquainted with grace, and people have done a better job teaching on the whole principle of drinking alcoholic beverages. The Bible doesn't prohibit it. It just prohibits drunkenness. But the idea here when it's applied to alcohol would be that if you’re with somebody who has a weakness toward alcohol, someone who is prone to either a alcoholic or is prone that way cannot handle drinking; then when you go out to dinner with them they you don't sit down and say, “I believe in grace. I’m going to order a beer. I’m going to order you one too.”

See that's putting a stumbling block in front of them.

I used to love this. Dr. Ryrie said this. I heard him say it about a year before I went to seminary. He said – he made the point – “To cause somebody to stumble means that they have to be moving.”

Think about it. You've got to be going somewhere in your spiritual life to stumble. A lot of people who want a gripe and complain about legalistic issues – they’re not going anywhere in their Christian life. They're mired in legalism and they're stuck there. So you can’t cause a legalist to stumble.

Gary Friesen came out with a book in the early 80’s and won a couple of Christian Book Awards called Decision Making in the Will of God which is one of the best books I've read on that whole topic of decision making. Gary Friesen in there made the point that you can’t cause somebody to stumble by simply performing an act somewhere in their vicinity. It's the idea of somebody’s walking down the path you have to put something in front of them that causes them to trip. If you lay the log down over there, it’s not going to cause them to stumble because they're walking this path. So the application being if you’re out with your family and you're having a celebration, then you can have a glass of wine or you can enjoy whatever it is you wish to enjoy. But next week you may be out with some people with whom you work and you know they come from a legalistic Christian background and they would be made uncomfortable if you ordered a glass of wine at lunch. So out of love for the brethren you don't assert your liberty there because you don't want to create a non-issue whereas if you go over if you're out with your family you can do it. That's not hypocrisy. That’s using good judgment.

I have been out with some pastors where we'll go out to eat and enjoy a good beer or glass of wine with our meal. I've been out with other pastors where they sit in the corner of a restaurant and they will order a coke and Jack Daniels and, “Please put that in a coffee cup.”

Then I've been out with others that I would never ever even hint that I would or think about ordering a glass of wine or a beer because it would take them from now until the rapture to get over it. You have to realize that there are some battles you’re never going to win. Some battles you are going to win.

Since we’re talking about booze, it’s interesting. Dallas Seminary did not have a code of conduct policy for students until Dr. Walvoord came in. I don't know if it's true. Maybe somebody is listening out there in the world can find out. I've always heard the story. I don't know if it's apocryphal or not, but the story has gone around Dallas Seminary for years that J Vernon McGee on Through the Bible - in fact he has more people listening to him in more people listening to more countries now than he did when he was alive - when the man died and went to heaven, he got the gift of tongues and now you can hear him in Russian and Chinese. I wonder if he still has that east Texas accent!

Anyhow, when McGee first went to seminary he was from Waxahachie. That's where he gets his accent although I know a few people from Waxahachie that don’t talk like that either. But when Magee first went to seminary, he went to Union Theological Seminary (the Presbyterian Seminary in Virginia, not the liberal one up in New York). After the first year they were into covenant theology and all this other stuff. They were very legalistic. He didn’t appreciate that. He heard about this new seminary in Dallas Texas. It was either ’31 or ’32. It might have been even earlier than that. Maybe that’s when he graduated. He decided to check it and wanted to make sure that they weren’t legalistic. So he found the largest blackest cigar he could find and lit it up and walked into Stern’s Hall to the registrar to make sure that no one reacted or he’d know he was in the wrong place. So that was his little test for Dallas Seminary.

What's interesting is when Dr. Walvoord became president, he instigated a code of conduct policy that if memory serves me said something like: “We do not think the Christian leaders should participate in alcoholic beverages or tobacco products and we expect students to comply with this.” …interesting way of wording that.

And Dr. Honer who recently went to be with the Lord who was a fabulous Greek scholar and the head of the New Testament department there for many, many years used to give Dr. Walvoord a hard time in the faculty meetings. To the day that he died Dr. Walvoord taught that the wine that Jesus turned the water into which was grape juice. It wasn’t wine.

It didn't matter what anybody in the Old Testament Department said or the New Testament Department said or words studies or history. It didn't matter: the water was turned into grape juice. It’s always interesting to see how when there are different things in our background no matter how far we go in our Christian life they still affect our exegesis.

Dr. Walvoord’s mother was a temperance marcher. She was out there marching for prohibition all the time that he was growing up. So that was just embedded in him. So there's no way you could sit down with Dr. Walvoord and ever think about ordering a glass of wine. He wouldn't have recovered yet even though he’s in heaven.

So you always have to have that that realization of where people are. And some people are weaker brethren in the sense that they have a belief or something – they’re moving though. They're growing, but you don't want upset that. Paul talks about weaker brethren and stronger brethren. There's really a third category. This is what Friesen brought in. The third category is the Pharisees. Paul doesn’t talk about the Pharisee-type. The Pharisee-type is a non-moving, non-growing person who’s got his feet in spiritual concrete. He’s the legalist who says, “It's wrong to do this. It's wrong to do that,” all within gray areas. You can't drink; you can't smoke; you can’t dance; you can’t play cards; you can't pick corn for any reason on the Sabbath.

So what did Jesus do? He picked corn right in front of them on the Sabbath, in front of His disciples. Jesus confronted the Pharisee, but He had grace towards the weaker brother. That’s why there's a difference there. When you're dealing with the person who is set in arrogance and hostility, then it’s sort of not quite in your face but close to it.

“I'm going to have this glass of wine because I just want to see what it does to you because you’re a legalist.”

It’s not going to cause you to stumble. You've already stumbled. You’re in arrogant self righteous.”

There’s a difference. So keep that in mind as we sort of get the context here.

In the law of liberty Paul says:

^NKJ Romans 14:1 Receive one who is weak in the faith,

That is one who hasn’t been taught enough yet. The faith refers to his doctrinal understanding.

This is talking about a believer.

but not to disputes over doubtful things.

Don't get involved in arguments over these things yet because they don't have the doctrinal background to understand it.

^NKJ Romans 14:2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.

In other words, the one who is has some doctrine says, “I can do this. It’s an area of freedom. There is nothing wrong with this.”

But the one who is coming out of the legalistic background where he’s been taught certain things erroneously we have to take into account. He’s a Pharisee, but he needs time to mature.

^NKJ Romans 14:3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.

Notice the verbs here. Don’t despise him. Don’t judge him. This is the use of the word judge and in the sense of making a statement that ridicules, that diminishes that shows disrespect for someone that impugns them for being silly or stupid, or they just don't know where you're putting them down. That's the context.

When we come to verse 10 Paul says:

^NKJ Romans 14:10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

See what was happening is the mature believer was looking at the weak believer and ridiculing him and condemning him for the fact that he didn't know better. You should never run anybody down because they don't know any better. They just haven't had time to learn.

"Or why do you show contempt for your brother." That's the nuance of judge. Krino is a broad word. When you get up in the morning and you are looking in the refrigerator and you know that last week you bought some yogurt for breakfast and you need to eat that because you’re trying to watch your weight. So you open it up and make sure you put your glasses on and look in there to make sure it's not going any hair yet. That is krino. It’s evaluating. It's not judging. It’s not a negative thing; it’s a positive thing. So krino has a broad context. You evaluate.

When you are at work and somebody is working for you and you're evaluating their performance, you're supposed to do that. When you're in the church you are to evaluate the character of the deacons, the pastor, the Sunday school teachers. That's the same word krino. We are to judge one another in those areas understanding krino in the sense of evaluation and discernment. But krino can also mean to condemn someone, to run them down, to treat him with disrespect, or to ridicule them, and to treat them contemptuously. That's the idea here in this use. Let us not judge one another.

Don't show contempt for the weaker brother but rather judge them in this way. Make your evaluation in this way. Don't put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in your brother's way. If you know that he has a problem with something or he hasn't been well taught in an area, then don't create an issue out of something that he should not be an issue.

James 4:11 is very similar context.

^NKJ James 4:11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren.

That's the negative idea of judging or condemning someone.

He who speaks evil of a brother

That is another believer.

and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.

Now the word “law” there, notice. I think they’re right there in the English translation and it shouldn’t be upper case Law meaning the Mosaic Law. It’s lower case “law” meaning the absolute standards of God; that when you start running down judging other believers for what they're doing that you're also making a statement about the absolute standards of God where he has prohibited this and so you are also condemning that law and saying, “Well, that really doesn't matter.”

So James concludes:

But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

You’re not applying the law of God meeting the standards of God as revealed in the Scriptures; but you are a judge. You are just condemning it. He makes the same kind of statement again in a passage we looked at last week.

^NKJ James 5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren,

…which is to present active imperative implying - stop doing it. It implies that they've been doing this. They are going through the tests of faith.

lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

Every believer is going to be evaluated at the Judgment Seat of Christ so we need to pay attention to how we apply the Word on a day-to-day basis.

So the first prohibition is that we aren’t to judge one another in the body of Christ. We’re not to run down other believers.

Point number 2 – Don’t lie to one another. Be honest with one another. Don't lie – very simple statement. The Greek verb is pseudomai, which is where we get our word pseudo. The second person imperative, second person plural simply means don't tell a falsehood. You don’t tell a lie to one another.

The context is in Colossians 3:9.

^NKJ Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another,

Why?

since you have put off the old man with his deeds,

The idea of putting off your man with his deeds is positional truth. The old man is dead; we are a new creature in Christ, and we still have a sin nature. The old man is not the sin nature. We put off the old man. That’s all that we were as an unregenerate human being and we have positionally put on the new man. But we have to learn to live as the new creature in Christ.

So Colossians 3 is describing the characteristics, the character qualities, of the believer who was walking by Christ, imitating Christ, putting on Christ as he has received Him.

Colossians 2:6 is:

^NKJ Colossians 2:6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

^NKJ Colossians 2:7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

That's the foundation for this particular section.

Then we come to 3:9 where we begin to talk about the thinking of the believer.

^NKJ Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

In other words you died to the old life. Now we have to learn to live as the new creature in Christ,

^NKJ Colossians 3:4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

⁵ Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry

Having materialism lust and covetousness is no different from worshipping Baal. It’s all idolatry.

^NKJ Colossians 3:6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,

Notice the contrast between the way you were and the way you are now.

^NKJ Colossians 3:7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

^NKJ Colossians 3:8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Notice it says we’re to put those things off.

^NKJ Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,

Same word to put off, apotithemi. But the opposite word is used in verse 12.

^NKJ Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;

So we have put on Christ positionally. We put off the old man, but we have to put on these new character qualities which come as a result of spiritual growth - walking by means of the Spirit, studying the Word of God and applying it.

^NKJ Colossians 3:13 bearing with one another,

We’ve studied that verse already.

and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

^NKJ Colossians 3:14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

So this idea of not lying to one another is in the whole context of removing the sins that easily characterize us in the way we deal with people if we let our sin nature control: anger, wrath, hatred, all of these things.

Then our third point (our third prohibition last prohibition): do not render evil to one another. Do not do evil toward other believers, 1 Thessalonians 5:15.

^NKJ 1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone,

There's actually not a verb there; it is implied.

but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

The word there translated “good” is the word agathos meaning good, intrinsic good. The idea there is you have to have a mental understanding of what that good is. Now the trouble is when we live in a relative society, we each have some idea of what is good. But a lot of our ideas of what is good really isn’t what’s good for the other person. It’s what’s good for me. So they need to do what's good in terms of my relative standard for what's good. Now as a believer you have an absolute external standard of what good is in relationship to the righteousness of Christ. True love is going to do what is best or right or good for the other person; but that good (the agathos good) is a good that's defined externally by Scripture, not what is good in terms of self-serving idea that may be present in my thinking.

A lot of people say, “Well, I'll treat you in love. You need to do this because that's what I think the good thing is.”

But it really just is what they wanted them to do. It's fitting their agenda. As believers you have an external understanding of what really is good for the other. It may not be good for you. But you know it's the right thing, and it is a good thing because it's related to the plan of God. So that external objective idea of good is what controls the way you relate to the other person. You're going to treat them in the right way no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much you don't want to do it. You're going to treat them with grace and kindness and love and forgiveness because that is the way Jesus Christ treated you. That is the way God treats each one of us because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. It doesn't have anything to do with our own agenda. That's why the Christian life is an impossible life. You can't do that in the flesh. You can do that if you walking by the Spirit and the Spirit of God is using the Word of God to change you into the image of Jesus Christ.

Let’s bow our heads in closing prayer.

Illustrations