How many find that they have disobeyed God through misunderstanding?
How many flat out REJECT the religion of Christ Our Savior based on misunderstanding?
While there are no statistics available, it is safe to say that Many people have the wrong idea, or a skewed view of the Scriptures.
Quite a few people see the Bible as a list of "Thou shalt nots."
Many also believe that since they refrain from stealing, cheating, killing, so on and so forth; they then have no reason to submit to Christ.
At the same time there are many who claim to be Christians that show they believe this idea by their own practices.
Yes, they essentially conform to the commandments that state "Thou Shalt Not."
Yet, they forget or ignore that which God Wants them to be doing!
The Bible tells us that there are a number of different ways that we might be disobedient of God.
Reflecting on these ways helps us to understand them, through understanding we may avoid falling into the traps of sin.
In the beginning Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, thereby transgressing God's Will. Gen 2:16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree in the garden,
Gen 2:17 but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
Known as a sin of commission or committing an act which God specifically prohibited.
Many today commit the same type of sin as Adam and Eve,by doing that which is known to be forbidden. These sins still carry the consequences of the "curse" of God.
Next there is the refusal to do what God has Commanded.
The Pharisees turned from God in respect to the baptism of John: Luk 7:29 And all the people and the tax-collectors who heard Him justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.
Luk 7:30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized by him.
Being of Heaven, John's baptism was to be obeyed.Mat 21:23 And when He had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching, and said, By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?
Mat 21:24 And Jesus answered and said to them, I will also ask you one thing; which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Mat 21:25 The baptism of John, where was it from? From Heaven or from men? And they reasoned within themselves, saying, If we shall say, From Heaven, he will say to us, Why then did you not believe him?
Mat 21:26 But if we shall say From men, we fear the people; for all consider John as a prophet.
Mat 21:27 And they answered Jesus and said, We cannot tell. And He said to them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
They disobeyed not by breaking any "Thou Shalt Nots" but by Not doing as God wished them to do.
This is known as a sin of Omission.
Failing to do as God commands you to do.
There will be more who are lost by the sin of omission than any other fashion.
When a person knows what God wills them to do, but they fail to do so, he or she commits sin.
Jas 4:17 Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Those who are not Christian disobeys God by refusing to obey HIS WORD, the gospel. By refusing baptism, and such they are lost.
Good Christians disobey God by failing to do the works he was created in Christ to do. Tit 2:14 who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself a special people, zealous of good works.
If you do nothing, you can be lost eternally for your inaction.
This is a serious matter to ponder, thus I have chosen to break at this point, and shall resume in my next post.
I leave you with these thoughts as well. With the state our world is in these days; and the onslaught of technology driving us away from direct human interaction, it is a very disturbing situation. We spend so much time doing meaningless things that we easily forget about our fellow man. Now, we find ourselves in a time of Me,me, me... How many of us have already been lost by our lack of good deed in the Lord's Name?
Yours in Christ,
William Francis
No comments:
Post a Comment