KINGDOM CHARACTER
(Written by Kevin A. Hall
07.2017)
In
search of instructions for my walk with Christ, I came across these powerful
texts during Bible study. I had a few questions going into this search of
scripture: How should I live in a world gone absolutely crazy? What will happen
to me if I live like the world? Is the Christian walk supposed to be easy? What
of the trend these days to deny what Scripture says about sin by placing more
tolerant labels on our actions? Does God even care about my lifestyle?
In light
of all these questions…How should I walk?
The
lure of sin is ever so close since globalization (the world at our fingertips and voice commands) and
we can expect the pressure to live a compromised life to increase. Take courage
my friend, God has a rhema word for us:
1
Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one
be found trustworthy. 3 But to me it is a very small thing that I may be
examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.
4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted;
but the one who examines me is the Lord. 5 Therefore do not go on passing
judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to
light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's
hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God. 6 Now these
things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your
sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no
one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. 7 For who
regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you
did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 8 You are
already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us;
and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with
you. 9 For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men
condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to
angels and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in
Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are
without honor. 11 To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are
poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; 12 and we toil,
working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are
persecuted, we endure; 13 when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have
become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. 14 I
do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have
many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. 17 For this reason I have sent to
you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will
remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every
church. 18 Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not
the words of those who are arrogant but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God
does not consist in words but in power. 21 What do you desire? Shall I come to
you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?
What happens when we ignore God? / The Practice of Unrighteousness
Romans 1
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their
hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For
they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this
reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the
natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the
men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire
toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in
their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not
see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things
which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness,
greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving,
unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who
practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also
give hearty approval to those who practice them.
1 Corinthians 6
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor
the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the
kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were
sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in
the Spirit of our God.
The Body Is the Lord's
12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are
profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by
anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will
do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the
Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord,
but will also raise us up through His power. 15 Do you not know that your
bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and
make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that
the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says,
"THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH." 17 But the one who joins himself to
the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man
commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Walk By The Spirit
Galatians 5
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry
out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one
another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are
led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are
evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of
anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and
things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that
those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
References:
Nasb. Life Application Study Bible
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