Greetings folks:
Last week I discussed the different types of power sources and how they contrast from one another. So we all understand that God wants uninterrupted fellowship with us. This is so that the power (His Power) may flow freely through us and do His intended Work for us. I’ve also discussed how all have sinned and thus fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and how we can confess our sins and receive forgiveness (1 John 1:9) in order to get back tight with Him (reconciliation and restoration). I’ve even taken some time in discussing the practicality of recognizing when we are faded away from God and confessing and repenting in an expeditious manner.
Well today, I wanted to take a look at the danger of religious humanism, at least from the perspective of those who are presenting another “gospel” other than the one as laid out in the Word. God is a God of Standards, Order, and Boundaries (Exodus 20:4-18, 1 Corinthians 11:3, Galatians 5:19-23; Ephesians 5:18-6:10), and He wants our lights to so shine that God is Glorfied…in other words, He (1) wants us to spread His Image and Likeness (Genesis 1, particularly 1:29), and He wants people to see His Son (Image, Hebrews 1:3) when they bump into us.
But what happens when those in religious humanism are not doing these but are still perceived as “representing God”? Remember that the Word is designed for teaching and reproof (2 Timothy 3:16-17). But there are three fundamental things that must be genuine to make God “practical” and emotionally desirable.
(1) The “First and Greatest Commandment” (Matthew 22:35-39): Jesus tells us that loving God with everything that we have is the first and greatest commandment. While this Commandment not necessarily designed to replace the Law of Moses, it is designed to supersede it. When we do this, we get Grace as opposed to bumping into the Law. The other Commandment that is like it, loving thy neighbor as thy own flesh is also very important. They are alike because it starts with loving God which will capacitate us to love our neighbor unconditionally as well. It’s when we fall out of this that we get grumpy with folks and disenfranchise them from the things of God (if they are not already well-rooted). We only FALL out of love when we are too wounded to have the courage to love, whether that be love for God or love from others. If we act like this, visibly in humanism because we want to justify behavior patterns, towards someone with question marks about God, we don’t give that person the right answers and God is not Glorified through us.
(2) “Only useful for building up” (Ephesians 4:29): The entire passage is Ephesians 4:25-32 and it is also very important as well. We must watch what we say because (1) from the outflow of the heart so the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34) and (2) we will have to give account for our careless words at judgment time (Matthew 12:36). But even more practically, the passage of Ephesians 4:25-32 tells us to also “not grieve the Holy Spirit” and “not let the sun go down on our anger, giving Satan a foothold”. Give Satan a foothold? How? Well if we are giving things that aren’t useful for building up, then we aren’t in Kingdom power system. After all, when have we ever seen God use fluff, let alone something that deliberately bashed someone for the sake of bashing them? So if God doesn’t do that, and we do, we misrepresent Him, hurt others, and again, do not Glorify Him.
(3) “Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay his life down for his friends (John 15:13): A wise man once told me, “Me and God are best friends.” Some of you have either met or heard of this man, but that’s not my point. My point is that Jesus said that we may put ourselves to the side for the sake of our fellow man. Coupled to Matthew 22:35-39 and Galatians 6:4, we fulfilled the Law of Christ. And as Christ is God, then loving like Him allows us to represent God. Should you go get nailed to a cross and die? Well no; John 3:16-18 isn’t talking about you, now is it? LOL But that being said, selflessness is next to Godliness. And if we can’t do this, then we aren’t being Godly.
But hey, can’t I just do these things through my deeds and be alright? Well, other than God not being mocked (Galatians 6:7), we also will have to give an account for our motives as well as our deeds at judgment time (1 Corinthians 4:5 for motives, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 for deeds). So we have to be genuine in this. God is a Holy God through and through, and there’s no holiness without genuineness. Next week I’ll give some (purely hypothetical) case studies on how this operates, perhaps a little interactiveness too. Have a good week, folks!
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