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The Ten Commandments of the New Testament
By Daniel Yordy
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We must distinguish between the law of the Old Covenant and the commandments of the New Covenant. They are two distinctly different things. Most of the time when people refer to God's commandments in the New Testament, they have no idea what they are talking about They look for the least and the outward, commandments that are subordinate and limited, and they cannot see the commandments of the New Covenant that are life.
What are the commandments of the New Testament?
The commandments of the New Testament are utterly different from the commandments of the law in the Old Covenant. I want to share with you the commandments of the New Testament, categorized into a group of TEN. Most Christians do not obey most of these commandments, especially the most important ones. And they despise the most important New Testament commandment and will claim you are of the devil if you take God seriously.
Before I go through that list of ten, let's look at the biggest commandment of the Bible. This is God in your face, sitting upon you, bony finger pointing right at your eyeballs.
"Be just like God."
"Be perfect, just exactly like your Father is perfect." "Love, just exactly like God loves." "Forgive, just exactly like God forgives." "Be holy, just exactly as God is holy." "Walk, in exactly the same way that Jesus walked."
Do you obey this most important command in the Bible? Most Christian's reject them and condemn anyone who takes them seriously. "Who do you think you are? You can't do any of those. In fact, God doesn't want you to do these things, and if you try, you are just being like the devil, who wanted to be like God, and God will bring you down for your presumption."
I have watched Christians run away from me (and I am the least such) because they had heard that I believed in the heresy of taking God seriously concerning these commandments.
Can you be just like God? There are two answers. One of them honors God; Caleb spoke it. "We are well able to do and to be all that God says." The others looked at themselves and cried, "Grasshoppers." And God said, "Why do they keep treating Me like dirt?"
Yet we cannot start with that largest of all commandments, and so I will place it last. We must begin with the tree of life. For all of these commandments are the tree of life and they are fulfilled in our lives only out of that tree. Some of them, in fact, can only produce life no matter how hard you "work" to perform them. You can "do them in your flesh" all you want, and all that will come out of your "performance" is the sweet river of Christ.
Let me give you the short list first, then I will expand and explain. The first commandment stands over all in absolute importance. Obey it and all others will follow, disobey it and all others fail.
1. Abide in Me and I in you.
2. Speak what God says you are.
3. Ask, believing that you have already received.
4. Give thanks in and for all things.
5. Give.
6. Love one another.
7. Watch out; take heed; beware.
8. Cleanse yourself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.
9. Do not love the world.
10. Be just like God.
You might think of other things in the New Testament, yet I believe that most things spoken - Christ - can be found inside of these.
But here I will say this much. The first is everything; out from it all that is God in our lives flows. 2 and 3 are how we know the first. The 4th is the key, the door into full union with Christ. 5 and 6 are the nature of Christ moving through us to others. 7, 8, and 9 are known and fulfilled only out of the operation of 1-4. Apart from 1-4 we cannot know the godly fulfillment of 7-9.
And 10 is Ephesians 3:19. Believe it.
1. Abide in Me and I in You
The first commandment of the New Testament is the tree of life. It is the source of all that is God in our lives. We abide in Christ by faith; He abides in us by faith. We do not go by what our eyes see, but by what God says. It is especially my sinfulness that I must place in Christ. If I cannot believe that He carries all of my human lack inside of Himself right now, how can I believe that He took my sins upon the cross 2000 years ago? It is easy to see ourselves in Christ when we are feeling wonderful; but to abide in Him, we must see ourselves in Him when we are feeling our worst. It is easy to see Christ in me when I am doing what I call "good," but it is essential that I see Christ in me when I have failed, messed up, and even when I have sinned.
[A friend asserted that "Love one another" is the greatest commandment and the sum of the gospel. This is completely true. Yet the only way that we can love with the love of God is first to know beyond all question that we are in Christ and He is in us.]
For many years I understood abiding in Christ to be a willful act. That is, every moment I faced two choices, doing it Christ's way or doing it my way. Abiding in Christ meant that I refused my way and did it His way. Most of the time, according to my thinking, I did it my way. Why did I think that? Because whenever I felt "bad" or "far away" from the Lord, I just naturally assumed that I was "in the flesh." And because other Christians let me know in any number of ways that I must be "in the flesh." And because I assumed that God was somehow "far away" from that which was me. I watched others try very, very hard to do it "His way," but I never liked what I saw; somehow, they had become something unwholesome.
Abiding in Christ is something entirely, entirely different. In fact, the belief that I must choose, all the time, between my way and His way is, in itself, the carnal mind, and all that belief can do is kill me.
I am in Christ because God has placed me there. Christ is in me because He is. I know this truth by faith. Abiding in Christ has nothing to do with what I feel or perceive or do. God says that I am not in the flesh, I am in the Spirit. I reject all evidence of my eyes in this world. I abide in Christ entirely because of what God says. Thus I come to an utter rest and certainty that, no matter what, He carries all of me inside of Himself at all times; I am in Him, period. And that He fills every part of me with all of Himself at all times.
Even when I look at my sin, all I see is Christ - dead upon the cross, and that is an end of it.
I cannot choose between my way and His way. His way is my way and my way is His way. The Lord Jesus Christ and I are one, I in Him and He in me. Abiding in Christ is faith; it is the boldness of presumption; it stands entirely upon what God says. Abiding in Christ resists all voices of doubt, giving all glory to Him, yet content in the present moment of human-ness.
But how can we know that we abide in Him and He in us? God has given us three other simple commands that every human being, down to the simplest child can easily do.
Speak all that God says you are, and ask all that God speaks concerning you believing absolutely that you have already received all that you asked for, and give thanks for all things.
Do these simple things and Christ in you will become larger and larger in your understanding until He fills all your view.
2. Speak What God Says You Are
The verse is Hebrews 10: 23 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." This is a phrase that is not understood and therefore skipped. "To confess" is "to speak. "Hold fast" and "without wavering" means keep speaking and don't stop. But "our hope" is the issue - found in 1 John 3:2-3. Our hope is that we are just like Jesus.
"Speak what God says you are."
The second commandment is how we fulfill the first. Yet the second is possibly the least obeyed commandment in the New Testament. If we will not obey this command, why should we pretend to be Christians? (I do not speak this to condemn, but to challenge.) Here are some of the forms this command takes: "Reckon that you are already dead to sin." "Reckon that you are alive to God." "Deny yourself - declare that you are not a 'self' separate from God." "Acknowledge the good things of Christ in you." "Hold fast the confession (keep on speaking) of your hope (that you are just like Jesus - 1 John 3: 2-3) without wavering." Hebrews 10: 23.
Speaking what God says we are does not make us what we are. There is nothing "magical" in declaring "Christ is my life; I have no other life." What such a vocal declaration does is open our eyes to see Christ, the One who fills our hearts, that His light might fill every part of our understanding. Where does this phrase come from? It comes from combining obedience to Romans 6:11 with Paul's declaration concerning us in Colossians 3: 3-4.
I have been speaking this word, "Christ is my life; I have no other life," now, in all that it means, for over 3 years. By speaking this word in obedience to the command of the gospel, my eyes continue to open, I continue to awake out of sleep. I see Christ; I see Him in me and me in Him.
I do not disobey this second commandment by rooting around looking for sin, or digging up selfishness in my heart. I do not defy God by declaring that I have a sinful nature - two hearts, two minds - that I "walk in the flesh"; God says no such thing about me. I do not "weep" over sin; neither do I wallow in it, nor wear it as a badge. Sin becomes such a meaningless discussion in the presence of the Majestic One who fills my heart and in the presence of His BLOOD that flows over me at all times.
I share more on what it means to "Speak what God says you are" both on my website, www.dyordy.com, in the Transformed into His Image series, and in my book, The Jesus Secret, which you can download from this page: http://www.thejesussecretsociety.com/thejesu123.html
3. Ask, Believing that You Have Already Received
One of the key commandments of the New Covenant is "Ask!" But asking is only half, it is no good to ask, unless we also believe that we already have received.
Ask - all that God speaks - ask and keep on asking, but ask in faith, believing that you have already received all that you ask for.
If I have asked God to fill my heart with His love, then in obedience to the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ, I must believe that God has fully given me that which I have asked for. I do not groan and cry in unbelief. I know that the love of God abounds in my heart. How do I know? Because I asked according to what God speaks (Romans 5:5).
If I ask God to conform me to the image of His dear Son, then I believe that I have already received what I ask for. If I ask God to fulfill His perfection in Me, according to His command, then I believe that I have already received all that I ask for.
I can ask anything God speaks and God has already fulfilled it in me. I believe it. Why do I believe it? Because Jesus commanded me to believe it, and I obey His command.
Jesus' command to us to ask was a big deal to Him. You can hear the urgency in His voice in John 16: 23-24 as He closes out that which is most important in His heart for His disciples to grasp and to know.
Yet how many Christians pull away from this command because it is too overwhelming to obey? Paying tithes is easy; anyone can do that. Asking God to fulfill in me all that He speaks and then believing that He has already done so - that's too big of a requirement for many people.
"Until we all come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Is this the will of God? If it is, can I ask God to fulfill it in my life now? And if I ask God to fulfill it in my life now, can I believe that He has, that I have already received what I ask for? And to hold that confidence firm no matter what I "see" in the mirror when I get up in the morning?
That is the true test of obedience - that first look in the mirror in the morning. Do I see Christ? Or do I choose to "see" something else?
Ask, and keep on asking. Seek, and keep on seeking. Knock, and keep on knocking. But always, always, always, believe that you have already received what you ask for, what you seek for, what you knock for.
God fulfills it in you.
Ask
I find the Lord continuing to stir in me concerning the commandments of the New Covenant. Yesterday I had a conversation with a dear brother. He insisted that we must keep the ten commandments of the Old Covenant, especially the "Sabbath," and that the law does give life. It was as if he had never been taught Galatians or Hebrews or Romans or Colossians. Yet, in his concern for "obeying" God, it was clear that he had never regarded the critical commandments of the New Covenant, nor was he much dismayed that by "obeying" the Old, he was walking in continual disobedience to the New.
I shared with him Christ our life, and I believe that God is taking the simple words that I spoke and is stirring them in this brother's heart to see Christ and Christ alone.
The word God speaks operates at many different levels. We find Him speaking to us at a certain level when we are babes or young men in Christ. Then, as we learn more of His ways, we realize that we had been keeping Him at arm's length. We realize that we had been "hearing" Him wrong.
But it would be foolish to then throw out what is written in either covenant, as many seem to do. No, we wait upon Him, believing what He says without having to "explain" any of it. Then, in our growing knowledge of our union with Christ, suddenly we see that same word, in both Old and New, that we had once applied wrongly when we were carnal, bursting with life and power beyond what we could ever have imagined, fulfilled in all fullness in Christ in us.
But what God continues to speak to me concerning the commandments of the New Covenant I find to be an essential building block in imparting to you my present understanding of the Great Story of God.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7: 7
"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." Mark 11: 24
"And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." John 16: 23-24
There is a story concerning Elisha in 2 Kings Chapter 13. Joash, king of Israel, comes to see Elisha as Elisha is lying sick. Elisha immediately tells him to take his bow and to shoot an arrow out the window. He tells the king that this signifies the defeat of the enemies of Israel. Then he tells the king to take his arrows and strike the ground. Elisha is angry with the king for striking only three times.
The moral of the story is this: when God says ask, ask. Do not ever limit God by any form of timidity.
But what do we ask Him for? That's easy - all that He speaks.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." 1 John 5: 14-15
God's word is His will; God's word is Christ in us.
Every word God speaks in the New Covenant is ours. Every word belongs to us. Every word.
Christians, when contemplating God's command to us to ask, have always set their asking at ridiculously low levels. "We don't want to presume on God; we're not sure what His will is."
Baloney! We know exactly what God's will is. He tells us in the covenant we signed with Him. It is God's will that you and I be filled with all the fullness of God, right now and forever inside all of our human weakness.
Then one more verse before we get to the asking.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." Ephesians 3: 20
It is impossible to out ask God; He will always do more than we ask.
But in Mark 11, Jesus adds this requirement to asking. He commands us to believe that we have received what we ask for.
Let's obey Jesus and ask. In fact - let's not be timid; let's shoot for some big ones. We'll try just two for now to get warmed up - but we won't stop with two. We ask all that God speaks and in asking we believe that we have already received what we ask for.
"Awake to righteousness, and do not sin." 1 Corinthians 15:34
"My little children, these things I write to you, that you not sin." 1 John 2: 1
"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." 1 John 2: 6
"Whoever abides in Him does not sin." 1 John 3:6
Let's ask - with the understanding that whatever is not of faith is sin. Sin is imagining that "I" still live and am "doing" things out of a life that is not Christ.
"Father, it is Your will that I cease forever from all sin, all that absence of faith and confidence in You that displeases You. It is Your will that I walk in all the sinless faith of Christ revealing Himself in me. Father, I ask You to perfect me in just the same way that You, Father, are perfect, according to Your word. I ask you to cause me to walk in this dying body, tempted in all points, just as Jesus was tempted, yet without sin, without losing my utter and continual confidence in You, just as Jesus walked. I ask You to fulfill in me Your own distaste of sin, inside this age of human folly. I ask this according to Your will, for Your word is Your will and Your word is Christ in me.
"Now, having asked according to Your will, Father, I believe with all the faith of the Son of God who is my life that I have received all that I ask You for, that I walk upon this earth, in this age, in this body, without sin, free from all shadow of separation from You or any possibility of displeasing You or falling short of Your glory in any way. Though I may not at this moment "see" it with my eyes, yet I will dance in celebration of victory, for I know that I shall see Your word fulfilled in me, and I shall see it in my flesh, standing upon this earth. I believe that I have received all that I ask, and not only that, but I know that you will still blow my socks off when You do far more in me than what I am asking."
Now some, in praying through these words might notice a little phrase hollering at them from the edges of their minds. It says something like this: "But I - ; but I - ; but I - ! Go ahead and finish that phrase. "But I am a grasshopper." Only that's an Old Covenant word. In the New Covenant, the phrase runs like this: "But I - not Christ!"
Rest assured, the voice that cries, "But I - " is your great enemy.
God's answer to it applies the same way in both Covenants: "Why do you keep treating Me like dirt?"
The correct phrase is "Not I, but Christ." - Yet I live, for He is my life.
Do you see why Satan has kept the asking of Christians so low to the ground? To ask is one of our mightiest weapons. To ask is to end the age of human folly.
Now, it is important to understand what happens when we ask, believing that we have already received what we ask for. Our asking does not "make" things happen. God has already spoken His word. Inside every word God speaks is the full conclusion and finishing of that word. Everything God has spoken is Christ and Christ is the only life we have; we have no other life than the completed Word God speaks.
"Asking" is a simple mechanism God uses to enable us to respond in faith to what He speaks. When we ask, believing that we have already received, our eyes are opened. We awaken from sleep. We see God and not the limitations of our present state.
Some say that we ask once, and then, giving thanks from then on, we don't ask again. This is partly true. Having asked once, we do not continue to ask as if we have not already received what we ask for. Yet Jesus said to ask and keep on asking. How is that?
We can understand what Jesus is after for us by the simple understanding that His grace is new every morning. That is, we ask again, not pleading for something we imagine God is still withholding from us, (that is an evil imagination) but only to reaffirm our faith in our own minds and hearts, that yes, today, His kingdom is come in all of my life and in everything that comes my way. Today.
Someone else might say, "Well, I asked, but look, I just blew it again; I don't "see" that God did anything." Of course not. Do blind people see? And who is speaking the truth, God or the one who cannot see? Those who are physically blind are honest. They know they can't see. But those who cannot see God in all things are arrogant. They imagine that their blindness speaks the truth.
We walk by faith, by the jubilant celebration of what God speaks, and not by the inability of our eyes to see.
Let's try another one.
"For this corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1 Corinthians 15: 53
"For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." 2 Corinthians 5: 4-5
" . . . our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel . . ." 2 Timothy 1: 10
"Father, You say that death is my enemy. You say that I, Daniel Yordy, a mortal man, facing the inevitability of death and the grave, must put on immortality. You say that You have prepared me for the very purpose of experiencing my mortal body being swallowed up in immortal life. You say that Jesus, in dying once, has conquered death forever, and that He has brought to us life and immortality. You say, Father, that Jesus has given me His victory over death.
"Father, it is Your will that I defeat death and cast it from me. It is Your will that my mortal body be swallowed up in the life of the immortality of Christ. It is Your will that I never know physical death. Father, I ask for full and total victory over death. Father, I ask that I see my 100th birthday, walking upon this earth. Father I ask that I see my 500th birthday walking upon this earth, not with a "mortal" body, but with an incorruptible body, one that enables me to walk in all the heavens of God and to walk in all the goodness of the earth at the same time. Father, I ask that I see my 1000th birthday walking upon this earth and so see death defeated and gone forever by the victory of Christ in me.
"Father, You say that the same Holy Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is right now working resurrection life in my dying body, though I "see" it not. Father, I ask for the full measure of that Holy Spirit, that death would be swallowed up by life - in my physical body. Father, I ask that my body be transformed into a body just like Jesus' glorious body right here on this earth by the power with which Christ in me subdues all things to Himself.
"Father, I ask these things according to Your will, for Your word is Your will, and all that You speak in the New Covenant belongs to me. And in asking, I believe that I have already received what I ask for. And in believing, I dance in celebration of the victory I shall see with my eyes in my flesh, for I know that You will do far more in me and through me than anything I could possibly ask."
Do you see how it works, this asking?
There is one little phrase that Jesus commanded us to pray, it is this: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Do you see that if we simply believe we have received this simple request, we bring an end to all human folly and to this age of darkness?
Let us be warned by the foolish timidity of Joash; let us ask all that God speaks concerning us and let us never stop asking nor ever stop believing that we have already received whatever we ask for.
Let us ask to see the same love that flowed through Christ flow through us in all of our present experience. Let us ask to see the overcoming of Christ overcome in all measure through us in this present life.
Let's ask that all the fullness of God fill us now, today, this moment, and all the moments of our life.
Let's ask that mighty rivers of life from the throne of God flow out of our bellies, giving life and healing to all who cross our paths, now, on this earth.
Let's ask that every enemy be cast down, every shadow of darkness defeated, every demon be driven from this planet.
My God, my God, let us ask and not stop asking. Why on earth should we be satisfied with any part of the darkness and evil of this age of human folly? Why in God's name should we accept one iota of it? Shall we put off the evil day? Shall we place upon our grandchildren the curse of walking under the evil and torment of this world because we ourselves were unwilling simply to ask God for its deliverance?
Can we not ask, and in asking simply believe that we have already received what we ask for? And do we not know that God will do in us and through us ever so much more than we ask?
Ask and ask; strike and strike, until all the glory of God covers this earth and no shadow of darkness remains upon it.
This is God's will for us and for our children. Timidity can never honor Him.
Ask, and do not stop asking.
4. Give Thanks in and for All Things
There are many other New Testament commands inside of this one - rejoice always, be of great cheer when everything goes wrong, count it all joy when you are tempted with evil. Even the second most frequent command in the New Testament fits easily into giving thanks - "Do not be afraid."
Revelation 21 reveals to us the glory of full union with Christ. Verse 21 gives us the secret of how we enter into incorruptible union with Him. "The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl."
Understand, first, that all the carnal imagery of "heaven having pearly gates" is nothing more than absurd. This chapter is not describing heaven, it is describing the nature of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we enter into that union through pearls.
A pearl is a reaction to pain and discomfort. An oyster creates a pearl when a grain of sand gets under its skin, rubbing and irritating it. It coats that grain of sand with a secretion that slowly builds and hardens into a pearl.
Do we understand how important it is for God's plan and for us to live under vanity in the discomfort of life in this world? There is no entrance into union with Christ to be found in "heaven" because the entrance into that union is how we respond to all the difficulties and grief of life in this world.
When we give thanks for things that are not right in our lives, acknowledging the full measure of God's sovereignty over all, when we rejoice when everything in our lives goes wrong, when we count it all joy when ill-feelings and doubts and discouragements are hurled at us, when we dance on this side of the sea, when we exult boastfully in the victory of Christ in us, though we do not see it with our eyes, then we are entering into a glory of union with the Lord Jesus Christ that all the hosts of heaven cannot know.
This is a good commandment to obey. You can force yourself to give thanks, you can do it "in your flesh," you can growl it out with gritted teeth, no matter, it will change your life. And should we forget to give thanks? No matter, we give thanks when we remember, and we give thanks for forgetting.
This is a winning situation that Jesus makes available to us. But because He wants us in full union with Himself, and because this is the way the Father has ordained, you can be certain that He will lead us many times into those places between Egyptian armies and impassible Red Seas, He will guide us through valleys of the shadow of death, He will beset our way with difficulties so that we will have an ongoing opportunity to enter into full union with Him through giving thanks, through our response to the pain.
No matter what I write, I still think that my most important piece is Led in Triumph - Always. If you have read it, read it again, and again. You can find it at http://www.dyordy.com/Archives/LedinTriumph-Always.html
It is so hard for our human mind to wrap around the belief that it is God who brings us into difficult, difficult situations. We faced one just a few days ago. My wife and I prayed together a proclamation of full and total victory though we absolutely did not see it. What a sea-change we have known since we made that declaration together! Suddenly doors that we had not seen appeared before us and a way is there, though before we knew it not. That is outward, but inwardly, Oh Father, to know that we are passing through the entrance into all that God has ever spoken concerning His own upon this earth, that is glory indeed.
I know lots of Christians who "obey" in many outward things. But to give thanks for all things at all times, this is obedience indeed.
5. Love One Another
We cannot express how much this command means to the Lord Jesus. It is the overflowing burden of His heart. Never do we ask ourselves if we have this love or not. God says, in Romans 5: 5 ". . . the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." This is absolute truth. God does not lie. Never, never, never do we imagine that our hearts are filled with anything other than the overflowing love of God. Who cares what we "feel like" in a moment of time? Do our feelings speak truth and call God a liar? Of course not!
This is why dragging Jeremiah 17, "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," into the thinking of New Covenant Christianity is so wicked. God found fault with the Old Covenant and set it aside. (Hebrews 8: 7 & 13)
The love of God is poured out in our hearts. We can believe what God says with all boldness.
The LARGEST concern of the New Testament writers and of the Holy Spirit through them was not getting right with God, it was not evangelizing the lost, it was the love relationship between brethren in the church. The largest number of commands in the New Testament are found inside of "Love one another." In fact, it is only through loving one another in the church that salvation will come to all who are lost. Jesus was very specific on this point.
But James and John both say that love without giving is empty. On the other hand, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that giving without love is worthless.
God in us is love; and God through us is a river of life. Love is the source, the throne of God, our hearts, and giving is the river of life flowing out of our hearts to bring healing and life and joy to all whom it touches.
6. Give
"Freely you have received, freely give." Matthew 10:8
"If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink . . . out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." John 7
The command to give does include that which is needed outwardly, food, clothing, shelter. It even includes, on the very outer edges, the giving of money. But primarily it means to give that which we have received - the river of life from the throne of God. As we drink of Him, the river flows. It flows whether we see it flow or whether we don't. Do not ever imagine that the river of life is not flowing out of you when you don't "see" it. Because you believe in Jesus, people whom you may not even know or ever see are being touched by healing and by life.
Yet, people come to know Jesus when they see with their eyes how much Christians love one another, and that "seeing" is of a visible, active giving. I am not much for "evangelism" that is divorced from seeing the love of God among believers in Jesus. You will not find one place in Paul, in Peter, in James, or even in John's letters where they exhort their readers to "get out and save the lost." (I do not speak here against any who move the burden of "go and tell" in their hearts that they have received from Jesus; I do speak against those who use that burden as a whip to beat on other Christians, especially to beat on children.)
I have a very high view of the Savior. Most Christians think He is limited and wimpy, sitting up there wringing His hands. The Father sent Him to seek and to save all that is lost. God tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:28 that Jesus will do exactly that. Jesus will win; He will bring all that God created back into loving submission to the Father. All. God is not bound by the crime Jerome committed against Him at the bottom of the fall into Roman darkness, that hideous accusation that God tortures forever those whom he cannot save. We do not join Jerome in his wicked accusation and assault against God by belittling the power by which Jesus subdues all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:21)
Jesus is Salvation. The earnest prayer and desire of Salvation is that we would love one another.
"Give" is the being of God. It is by giving that God exists. God in us gives Himself freely to all, and especially to one another.
"And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4: 32.
We are never more like God than when we are kind to one another. When we are tenderhearted, when we forgive one another, we are never more like God.
7. Watch Out!
I see God's people continuing to do the same thing almost all Christians since the beginning do with what God speaks. First they get a revelation from God, then they get out their scissors.
People don't like to hold a word of assurance and a word of jeopardy both at the same time. Yet that is our covenant with God.
When I was in the move, we cut lots of verses out of the New Testament. Then, God began to speak to many different ones through those verses that had been cut out. Because many others in that fellowship were continuing to exclude those many New Testament verses, they and we moved on in our walk with God in order to continue hearing Him speak.
Then I noticed something terrible. No sooner did many restore those cut-out verses to our walk with God than they pulled out the scissors and cut out many of those things God speaks in His covenant with us that the move had emphasized.
I see the same thing on Facebook. People get a revelation of the grace of God, which is wonderful, but then the next thing they do is get out their scissors and begin whacking out those verses and passages of the New Covenant that they imagine do not "fit" with a "grace" word.
There is no word in the New Covenant that is not found in grace.
But for me, really, it's fine. Jesus knows exactly what He is doing with all who belong to Him and what He does with others is not a concern of mine. My concern is only to receive all who belong to Him with the same love with which He receives me.
However, I choose not to cut out anything God speaks in the New Covenant. To understand it properly, by the Spirit of revelation, yes. To know what has been poorly translated or deceptively mistranslated, yes. To know what is pre-eminent and what is subordinate, yes. To see it all as God speaking a creative word of power - Christ - into me, yes.
Jesus said that we live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. We live in a deadly and dangerous world, riddled with deceit and destruction. We have never seen anything with the eyes with which we are to see all things. We are blind as a bat. Our knowledge of God and His ways is far more trust than it is true seeing. And that's fine.
But I want all that God speaks.
"Old things are passed away, behold all things are brand new" is a word of grace; it is God speaking, which is Christ, and it is fulfilled in our lives in all of its meaning.
"It was granted to him (the beast) to make war with the saints and to overcome them" and "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" are words of grace; they are God speaking, which is Christ, and they effect our lives in this world in all of their meaning.
Both words are Christ; both words are grace; both words are essential to the covenant we signed with God. Both words bear mightily upon our lives in this world.
Obviously we must understand what God means in each word by the Spirit of truth and through the perspective of Christ our life.
I see some claim that in grace we no longer "fight." Yet I have never been more exultant in the battle. Yes, we fight on a whole different level than we once did. But know this, God loves a good fight; and our Savior is the trickiest strategist in the universe. He deceived death and by His great expertise in battle destroyed it. If God is conforming us into the image of His Son, then we are becoming mighty warriors. Listen, most of the enemy's seasoned strongmen are targeted against the mighty sons of God who are coming to know all that grace means in them. They see in us their destruction and they are terrified.
Some claim that God is not angry when people abuse and torture and steal from others, when people manipulate and control others for their own gain. Sorry, God says different - as part of the Covenant of Grace. Yes, I believe in redemption. My view of God grows larger and larger; I see Him in all things. But I see Him in all things through what He speaks, not through what is suitable to me. God hates all forms of abuse and manipulation of others.
When God sees an American fighter pilot turn an Afghani bride and her wedding party, in the midst of their rejoicing, into hamburger, He is as angry with this arrogant and self-righteous nation as the distraught father who pieces together the mangled remnants of her joy.
The most frequent command of the Spirit of God in the New Testament, through Jesus and through all the apostles is WATCH OUT! TAKE HEED! BEWARE!
It is a word of Christ in us, through us, as us. It is a word of grace!
Here are a couple of examples, two of many, many:
"Take heed that the light that is in you be not darkness." Jesus
"Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." The writer of Hebrews
I am no longer on the outside of Christ with these statements of the Covenant pointing condemnation at me. That darkness is gone forever.
On the contrary, Christ is my life, and the burning passion of His heart burns in mine.
I do not know who I am. John says that clearly in 1 John 3: 1-2. I know that Jesus is revealing Himself through my life in this world. But I have only begun to know this Jesus who fills my heart. It is not possible that my present knowledge defines who He is.
When God says, "As Christ is, so are you in this world," that word has a double meaning; and it is intended to have a double meaning.
First it means that whatever I am right now in all of my humanity, that is Christ living His life as me.
And just as surely, it means that all that He is, the victorious ascended Christ, risen above all the heavens, HE IS in me right now.
We have no idea of the passion, the power, the pathos, the wildness, the anger against cruelty, the wrath, the jealousy, the overwhelming tenderness, the deepest compassion, and the conquering love of the Mighty One who fills our hearts with all of His fullness.
I am an expression of that Mighty One, and He reveals Himself through me.
American Christians have no idea how contemptible, how wicked, how cursed this nation is before God. They bury their heads in fear-gripped denial, all the while loving this world and calling it "God." God loves the people who live in this land, but He hates the system that holds them in darkness.
Do not be afraid; He will keep you. But His love for you will not prevent His destruction of that Babylon that forces all nations to drink her iniquity. [Do you understand that if the sale of sex, drugs, and war, and outright theft were to cease, the majority of the American economy would cease as well? The majority of your paycheck, if you are American, comes from these four things - theft and pornography being the two largest engines of American wealth.] The problem comes when God begins to deliver His people from "America." When that happens, we will begin to understand how the beast has already defeated the saints.
But watch out/ take heed/ beware comes to us as we walk in all that Christ is in us on a much different level than it came in the past.
Take for instance that word from Hebrews 3, the strongest jeopardy passage in the New Covenant. Let me give the larger context.
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."
Notice what is sin. Notice what places our abiding in Christ in jeopardy. Sin is not standing firm in the grace of God. Sin is not exulting boastfully in the victory of Christ in us. Our abiding in Christ is placed in jeopardy when we doubt that Christ is our life, when we begin to imagine that we are self's struggling to bring self into alignment with God and when we forget the confidence of our joy.
The word of grace is drawing people out of the evil sin of unbelief, out of not placing themselves utterly in Christ - out of trying to "line up" with an implacable God.
The tables have turned completely and it is He in us who is watching. I love the meaning of the word "ready" that Jesus used. For instance:
"Blessed are those servants whom the master, when He comes, will find watching . . . Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
The word "ready" includes these truths - -
"Because I watch, I am ready for my Master's coming. I take heed, I watch, I pray. As He knocks on my door, I open immediately.
"I take heed to myself. The cares of this life do not weigh me down. I watch and pray. I am worthy to stand before the Son of Man.
"I am equipped and supplied with what I need for Jesus' return. I am prepared for immediate movement and action at Jesus' return. I offer myself at once; I am available and handy for His need.
"The King returns. I am His friend. I stand at His side. He counts on me. I am there. I am ready. In whatever way He needs me in that moment, I am His. We triumph - together. We win - together. My sword is His. My life is His.
"For this one moment, I live all other moments. My mind is never distracted; my arm is never weary. For this I live.
"I am ready. Come, Lord Jesus."
He is come.
8. Cleanse Yourselves
http://www.dyordy.com/Archives/CleanseYourselves.html
9. Do Not Love the World
http://www.dyordy.com/Archives/DoNotLovetheWorld.html
10. Be Just Like God
(Briefly) http://www.dyordy.com/Archives/TheApocalypse.html
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