What is Your Attitude towards Sickness?

As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. (Galatians 4:13-14)

The apostle Paul was a great missionary who had a ministry of taking the good news of Jesus to places where people had never heard about Jesus before. His ministry was often conducted with miraculous signs. One of the miracles frequently seen during his ministry, similar to the ministry of Jesus and the other apostles, was the miracle of healing. His ministry of healing people was so powerful, that even articles of clothing that touched his body were used to perform healings:

God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. (Acts 19:11-12)

But this ministry of healing did not exempt Paul from experiencing sickness himself, as the verses in Galatians above state. While Paul could see God work through him to heal others, what was the reason Paul himself sometimes suffered sickness?

While there may be many reasons that we cannot fully know, one thing we do know from these verses is that Paul’s sickness resulted in him having to stay among the people of Galatia, where he may have only been passing by and had not intended to stay. As he stayed among the people in his weak and sick condition, he found the opportunity to preach the gospel (good news about Jesus) to them, and apparently many became believers in Jesus. A church was stared there, where previously there was none. Later he would need to write a letter to this church covering key doctrinal issues, and that letter became one of the foundational writings of the New Testament in the Bible. All this happened because Paul got sick and had to stop there, and because Paul had a positive attitude towards his illness.

We can make some interesting observations about this event in Paul’s life. First, he was human just like us and got sick, even though he saw others healed through his ministry. Second, when he got sick and it interrupted his schedule, he did not stop carrying out God’s purpose for his life and start feeling sorry for himself because he was sick. His sickness disrupted his schedule, but it did not prevent him from accomplishing God’s purpose for him. He did not focus his attention completely on himself, but instead focused on the people around him and took care of their spiritual needs, while they took care of his physical needs.

Now of course God could have gotten Paul’s attention in many other ways and directed him to preach the gospel to the people in Galatia without him having to suffer an illness. Previously, for example, God had spoken to Paul directly in a vision about a location he was to travel to and preach the gospel:

A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:9-10)

We cannot possibly know all the reasons God may have allowed Paul to be sick in this situation when he was passing through Galatia, but we do see one other reason Paul suffered sickness from another situation he wrote about in his second letter to the Corinthian church:

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was some kind of physical weakness or sickness that God was not willing to remove. Notice the reason that Paul gives for his sickness: “to keep me from exalting myself!” Paul was a great leader in the church, and in the previous verses he recounts how he received a special revelation in heaven. Satan attacked him through a messenger, and God allowed it to apparently keep Paul humble, so that he would rely on the power of God through God’s grace, and not his own strength. This was apparently the key to his miraculous life and ministry. So just as he saw his sickness that caused him to stop in Galatia as something positive, so too he saw this “thorn in the flesh” that he asked God three times to remove as something positive. He did not allow physical weakness and sickness to prevent him from accomplishing God’s purpose in his life. In fact, it made him more powerful as he was more dependent on God’s grace in his weakened condition.

Are you facing trials through sickness today? How are you handling it? Can you look at it in a positive light as Paul looked at his sickness, and find some reasons why God may be allowing you to go through these trials? Or do you look at your sickness the way the world does, the way people who walk in darkness with an evolutionary basis of life view sickness? In this view, God’s plan and purposes are not even considered, and sickness is seen as strictly a physical condition caused by natural forces that can only be cured through the purchase of medicine or medical services. This humanistic view of sickness and disease based on an evolutionary world view believes that man can overcome sickness through counter-acting the natural processes, and that there is no intelligence guiding either the sickness or the cure. The resulting attitude is often one of helplessness and depression, being self-focused on one’s unfortunate condition. The belief is that health can be purchased via medicine and doctors as man advances in the evolutionary process and finds cures for everything, one day eliminating even death itself through his science and technology. If the science or technology has not reached a stage yet where the specific cure for an illness can be accomplished, the condition is often diagnosed as “terminal” and all hope is lost, resulting in despair and self pity. Belief in God and his purpose in sickness is replaced with only a faith in doctors and medicine, which has its limitations and disadvantages. How sad!

The Bible does not teach any kind of blueprint or laws to affect healings, and there is no single cause of sickness taught in the Bible either. God has a specific plan and purpose for everyone in life, and the trials and difficulties we all must walk through are unique to that specific plan and purpose that God has for us.

But there is a blueprint given for seeking the answers to our problems and sickness:

Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. (James 5:13-16)

Our first course of action should always be prayer! God made you. He put you together. He upholds the universe by the power of his word. Nothing happens that he is not aware of, and all roads in life lead to a final destination that he has already determined. So shouldn’t he be the first person you consult? And if you are having problems understanding or communicating with him, the next step is to consult with those who know God and can also pray for you. These actions are the actions of people of faith, who believe that God created us, and that he loves us and has a wonderful plan for our life.

One of the reasons God allows us to become sick is to humble us, like he did Paul, and remind us that we are dependent upon him for our health. If we believe that he loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives, we will see the times we get sick as new opportunities for God to accomplish some purpose in our lives, even though they interrupt our schedule and often seem to prevent us from doing the things we wanted to do. But as we saw in Paul’s life, his sickness did not prevent him from accomplishing God’s purpose for his life at all. On the contrary, it made him even more powerful in his ministry. He maintained a positive attitude with his faith that positively affected the people around him. What is your attitude towards sickness today?

…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:23-32)

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Why is there Thanksgiving?

You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (2 Corinthians 9:11)

Paul was an apostle in the early church, and we are blessed to have many of his writings in the New Testament to read. The word “apostle” is not an English word, but a transliteration of the Greek (the original language of the New Testament portion of the Bible) word apostolos. Sometimes this word referred specifically to the 12 men who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry, but at other times it was used in a more general sense. The word means “one sent out,” like a messenger or ambassador. In the Christian context its best translation is probably “missionary.”

Paul had a skill and trade that he used to participate in the economy of his day, and it was the business of making tents. He was also a scholar among the Jews and from the strict sect of the Pharisees. When he became a Christian, Jesus sent him out as a missionary to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. Much of his activity as a missionary to the Gentiles was preaching and teaching them the gospel message about Jesus (gospel means “good news.”) Whenever he could, he would do this full-time, traveling about from city to city spreading the good news about Jesus and God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

During the course of his traveling ministry, he sometimes had to take time out and practice his trade of making tents to support himself and his ministry team. So as new churches were planted in various places where he had visited, he would ask the believers in these churches to contribute to the needs of spreading the gospel message to places where the people had not yet heard about Jesus and God’s love for them.

In Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, he writes some very interesting principles about investing in the kingdom of God by contributing to the needs of those who are preaching the gospel and planting churches. Here is what he wrote:

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:6-15)

Notice some of the principles of giving that Paul wrote here.

1. The more generous you are, the more blessings you will reap from participating in God’s work.

2. We should give cheerfully as God has directed us, and not under compulsion.

3. God’s grace is the basis for our wealth which is given to administer for his purposes.

4. As we learn to give generously and be faithful in managing God’s resources, our wealth will increase.

5. Our giving from the wealth God has given to us through his grace results in thanksgiving to God!

While there are many things that we could be thankful for, the things that make us most thankful are the things we receive that we did not earn or deserve. Since we cannot earn it, the only thing we can do once we receive it is give true thanksgiving, from our hearts. This gives great joy to the one who is the giver. We can experience that joy ourselves through giving generously, and as Paul wrote above, it can result in grateful people praying for us!

The greatest gift of all of course, is God’s gift to us in the person of Jesus Christ, and his sacrificial death for our sins. We can’t earn that, and we don’t deserve it. That is the true reason for why there should be thanksgiving!

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

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Are You Truly Sorry?

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

There are two types of “sorrow” in life; two kinds of sorrow that lead people to say “I’m sorry.” One is a Godly sorrow that leads to life and spiritual health, and one is a worldly sorrow that leads to sickness and death.

We see the worldly sorrow all the time. It is a story all too often seen. It usually starts like this: “I am sorry, but…..” followed by an excuse for the behavior causing the offense. A professional sports player makes some critical comments of his team members or his coach, for example, that get printed in the media. He is forced into a public apology that goes something like this: “I am sorry my words caused hurt feelings, but I am a very competitive person and I just want to win...” Or sometimes we get angry and we say something to the person we are angry with that we know hurts them, and we go to them later after we have calmed down and say something like this: “I am sorry for the things I said to you, but you really made me angry by [enter excuse here about why the other person caused you to be angry.]”

These are examples of worldly sorrow. In such situations we are feeling sorry for ourselves, and we excuse our behavior. We don’t want others to think badly of us, and we may even feel embarrassed by our outburst of anger, so we “apologize.” But there is no true repentance. If the same situation happens again, we are likely to react in the same way, if we cannot restrain our actions or words.

The word “repentance” does NOT mean that we completely change the way we act. It does not mean that we stop being “bad” and start being “good.” The word repentance actually means “to change one's mind” about something. It means we stop thinking that something we hold as true is correct, and change our mind and start thinking that it is not true, and not correct.

In the situations where we get angry and say or do things that hurt others, we need to stop thinking that we have a “right” to be angry when others hurt us or do things to make us angry. We need to instead think and believe that our appropriate response is to love and forgive the person hurting us, seeing their needs and the reason they did what they did as more important than our own needs. This is the way God acts, and as his children we are to act the same way. Only by changing our thinking, our beliefs, can we see a real change in behavior. Then we will truly see that what we did was wrong by God’s standards, rather than excusing our behavior. Then we will be truly sorry for the way we behaved. That is Godly sorrow.

Godly sorrow and repentance starts with the way we think about ourselves in relation to God. If we believe that God is not fair, that he has given us a “raw deal” in life, or “bad luck,” then we will tend to feel sorry for ourselves and the circumstances in our life. We see ourselves as “victims” who deserve better. This is the worldly sorrow that leads to sickness and death.

Godly sorrow believes that God is perfect and just. It believes that we are the ones who are sinful and imperfect, and that we don’t deserve anything good. God is good. God loves with a perfect love. He is also gracious, and gives us his love when we don’t deserve it. We are not good, because our life in these current bodies has a sin nature, and our natural tendency is to be selfish. We are the ones who have to change, and it begins with changing our thinking about God and about ourselves.

The process of renewing our minds to think the things that are true about ourselves and about God, rather than the things that are false, begins with the spiritual rebirth.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:9-10)

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

People who never start this process face a very dark future, when they leave their earthly bodies and face their Creator. They tend to live lives that are full of anger and bitterness, because their thinking is not true about themselves and about God. They feel sorry for themselves and completely miss out on the love that God has for them, until it is finally too late.

Is God speaking to you today? Does he want you to repent, to change your way of thinking, so that you can receive all of his love and blessings that he longs to give to you? Are you truly sorry for the way you have lived the life he has given to you? Or are you only sorry for yourself and all the bad things that have happened to you in life – a worldly sorrow? The worldly sorrow leads to death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death and separation from God. He is patient, and waits for you to change your mind. But that patience will some day come to an end, and it could be today!

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:12-13)

Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." (Hebrews 4:7)

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Your Purpose in Life

Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5:5)

Since God created you, he has a specific plan and purpose for your life. Each one of us is created uniquely in God’s own image, and each one of us has a unique role in God’s master plan for life. While God does not always reveal all the details of his plan for us that are to occur in the future, there are some truths about the present and the future we can know for certain, because they apply to all of us.

2 Corinthians chapter 5 gives us some great insights into these truths from the apostle Paul. First, our current bodies are temporary houses for us. Who we are as created by God is not limited by our current lives inside these mortal bodies. These bodies are imperfect due to the presence of sin, and they are decaying and wearing out. They will not last a long time. When our time of living in them is over, we have a permanent body waiting for us in Heaven made by God.

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)

Having this knowledge about our future affects the way we live our life in the present. We have the ability to endure the pain and suffering our current bodies are going through, knowing this wonderful truth about our future. This gives us confidence and faith.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8)

Our overall goal in life then is to please God in all things, both in this life while we live in our decaying bodies, and also in the life to come.

So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

God is pleased when we receive his love and forgiveness, and then develop a relationship with him through his Spirit. His presence in our life is the “deposit,” the “down payment” for the life that he has for us in the future.

Once we receive God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ, our own spirits are reborn and we become new persons: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) We then become so full of God’s love, that we find our true meaning and purpose in life, and we desire to share that love with everyone else.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

Are you fulfilling God’s purpose in your life today? While only God can communicate to you the specific details of the path you must walk each day (and you need to put aside some time each day to spend with him so you can know this), God’s ultimate plan and purpose for you is to receive his love and forgiveness offered as a free gift through Christ. Once we receive that, we are given God’s Spirit who comes to reside inside these sinful decaying bodies. God’s Spirit (not our own human strength) then gives us the power to fulfill his plan for our life, which includes being his ambassador to the people around us who also need to be reconciled to God and receive his love and forgiveness. There will be a judgment regarding how we lived our lives in these temporary bodies. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) We don’t want to appear before that judgment seat without having been reconciled to God through Christ. Christ’s love should compel us to warn others of the coming judgment, and share with them the love of Christ that is available to them through the ministry of reconciliation. That is our main purpose in this life! All of God’s other purposes for your life, including your career, your family, your finances, your physical health, etc. – are all secondary and to be intertwined with God’s main purpose for your life.

Do you need a fresh perspective on your day to day circumstances? Are you so caught up in the day to day activities of life, that you are forgetting the main purpose for which God created you? Today is the day that you can experience God’s love and purpose for your life. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. So make the most of your opportunity today to know God, and understand his purpose for your life.

As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

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The New Standard for Love

How could Jesus say to his disciples that “loving one another” was a “new” commandment? This commandment, after all, was firmly established in the Law of Moses:

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:18)

In fact, Jesus said in another place that the entire Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets in the Old Testament were summed up in loving God, and loving one another:

And He said to him, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND." This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)

So what was new? The new part of this commandment as Christ gave it, is the standard of love, or the quality of the love as it was demonstrated by Christ himself: “even as I have loved you….”

Jesus’ love for his disciples, and for the rest of the world, was something no one had ever seen before. It was (and still is today!) a love that prior to that time was not humanly possible. No human being born within the stream of human history had ever loved with the kind of love that Jesus did.

Jesus took the command of the “Golden Rule” to love someone as you love yourself to a whole new level. He loved others MORE than he loved his own life. He treated others as MORE important than himself. He gave up his very life for the sake of others – the most extreme expression of human love possible.

The apostle Paul wrote what are probably the most eloquent words ever penned describing this new standard of love in his letter to the Philippi church:

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:1-8)

Jesus is the Creator of the world, and did not have to love or serve anyone. But he humbled himself and did anyway. That is a kind of love that the world just cannot understand.

But it doesn’t stop with Jesus’ new standard of love, and how he showed it to the world, and how he continues to love us today. This new standard of love is now available to us, to love others with the same standard of love that Jesus has loved us.

This standard of love, however, is NOT something someone can try to do in their own strength. It is impossible to follow a “law” of love and try to measure up to its standard, especially this new standard of love that Christ has demonstrated to us. To love others with this new standard of love, one must first receive that love from Jesus, through the rebirth process and receiving the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit in our lives. The presence of God’s Spirit in our life is the sign that God has adopted us as his children and made us members of his family and his kingdom. The evidence of that new birth experience is our love for one another. This is the evidence that we have left the kingdom of darkness that the rest of the world walks in, and have now begun to walk in the spiritual Kingdom of Light where Jesus rules. The apostle John wrote:

Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:7-11)

As we learn to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit each day, we learn how to deny our own natural desires which are self-centered. We stop complaining about how terrible our life is because the world and the people around us do not meet our needs, and we stop trying to manipulate people and circumstances to please us. Instead, we become so full of God’s unconditional love for us, that it overflows in our life and we want to share it with others. We see the world and the people around us with new eyes – we see their needs and we have a desire to help them also know the love of God. Instead of standing up and fighting for our own rights, we stop thinking so much about ourselves and start to consider others as more important than ourselves, with the same kind of standard of love that Jesus had.

So the evidence that the Spirit of God is living in someone and that they are walking in the Kingdom of Light is the observation of this kind of love. It is totally contrary to the ways of the world and their definition and standards of love.

Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:13-24)

So is there anything in life that is more valuable than knowing the love of God? No, nothing! If you are pursuing things that are centered around yourself, such as health, wealth, or other relationships, you are missing out on God’s ultimate purpose in your life, which is to know him and his love for you. Then once you know God’s perfect love and possess it, his Spirit will fill you and empower you to live by the new standard for love which considers others as more important than yourself.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

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Fear vs. Hope

We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

The apostle Paul’s life took a dramatic change in direction the day the Lord Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, where he was going to find Jews who had come to a faith in Jesus Christ as their Messiah. He had letters from the religious authorities in Jerusalem to arrest these Christians and throw them in jail. He had previously participated in the execution of Christians.

But Jesus himself appeared to Paul and gave him a new life mission: to take the good news about Jesus to the Gentiles (non-Jews). In one day his life turned completely around. He went from being a persecutor of Christians to becoming one of the persecuted believers that the Jews hated. He had to be let down over the city wall in Damascus in a basket so that he could escape death.

The book of Acts in the Bible gives us a lot of information about Paul’s missionary journeys and all the opposition and persecution he faced in carrying out his mission that Jesus himself had given to him. He wrote once to his young apprentice in the faith, Timothy, the following truth: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12) Paul spent a lot of time in jail cells, and was physically beaten many times as well, including being stoned one time, and left outside a city for dead. But these things never stopped him from continuing the mission Jesus had given him, as he wrote to Timothy:

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra--which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. (2 Timothy 3:10-11)

Did the pressure ever get to Paul? Yes, it most certainly did. The opening verse above states: “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” He was a human being with feelings and emotions just like you and me. He felt the pressure. He “despaired,” or got depressed, and even thought he would probably die on some of these occasions.

But the one thing that kept him going each time was having the proper perspective on his circumstances. He did not give in to fear, but instead turned to God in faith and hope: “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” He knew that if he tried to rely on his own strength, his own wisdom or his own education, that he would never make it. His reliance and total trust had to be on God alone: the God who raises the dead. With a God like that supporting you, what is there to fear, when death itself has no power over you?

Are you facing difficult pressures in life today that are tempting you to give in to fear and depression? Do you need a fresh perspective on your circumstances? Could it be that God has put you in the position you are in today because he wants you to stop relying on yourself and instead start relying totally on him?

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (words of Paul Philippians 3:3-14)

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What is Perfect Knowledge?

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

In previous devotionals we have discussed the many meanings of the word “knowledge” as well as the word “science.” Science used to be a synonym for knowledge, but in modern times has taken on a much more narrow meaning that constrains it to only the physical realm.

In the famous “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul makes this statement about knowledge: “...as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10) So what knowledge is Paul talking about, and how can it “pass away?”

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is comparing spiritual gifts that are given to the church for the mutual edification of the church. In chapter 12 the church is described as a “body.” Some of these manifestations of the Spirit are temporary in nature, in contrast to love, agape love, which is eternal. The word knowledge in this context does not have the more narrow meaning that our modern day culture associates with science, the observation of physical facts. It refers to a kind of knowledge that is obtained through a relationship; in this case, a relationship with God through his Spirit. This kind of knowledge is communicated to us by someone else who possesses the knowledge.

We utilize this kind of knowledge in our every day life. If I want to possess knowledge about how a car operates, for example, I can learn that a car operates on gasoline in two different ways. I can try operating the car with some other liquid or fuel source and find out directly through experimentation and observation, or I can rely on someone else’s knowledge either told to me directly, or learned by obtaining the information provided by others, such as books. Knowledge obtained without direct observation of the facts is only as reliable as the reliability of the source of my “second-hand” information. Most of our knowledge is obtained in this way, even in the physical world. We usually learn this knowledge from others – not from direct “scientific” discovery.

The knowledge that we obtain directly from God through his Spirit is an imperfect knowledge. Paul compares it to looking through a dim mirror. Glass mirrors were apparently not invented until the 13^th century, and burnished metal was used for mirrors in the city of Corinth in Paul’s day. An image seen in these mirrors was not very clear. Likewise our knowledge of God, a knowledge based on a relationship, is not very clear at this time. The reason for this is because we are imperfect while we are still living in our sinful bodies. Our spirits can be immediately recreated through the rebirth process, but our bodies will not be transformed until after our physical death. So our sinful flesh becomes a lousy filter for God’s knowledge that is given to us through the Spirit.

But a day is coming, after we die the physical death, where we will be able to look at God face to face! “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” In that day the sinful flesh will have been removed and no longer be able to obstruct God’s word to us. We will hear him and see him perfectly – there will be no doubt as to whether or not he is the one speaking to us.

So until that day, how do we obtain God’s knowledge? We work hard to minimize sin’s obstruction of hearing God’s word in our life:

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:12-14)

“Perfect knowledge” then is not defined by “knowing everything” that exists in the physical realm. As created beings, that is impossible for us, even in the future after our physical death and we take on new perfect bodies. Only God can know everything about his creation, the physical realm. Perfect knowledge then is defined by having a perfect relationship. It is knowing without doubt who God is, and what he is saying.

Jesus is a perfect example of this kind of knowledge. Even though the world was created by Jesus before he took on human form and came to earth as the Son of God, once he came to earth and was born into the flow of human history, he was constrained in his knowledge by his human body. There were certain things he did not know:

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (Matthew 24:36)

And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” (Mark 5:30)

However, Jesus had no earthly father, and he had no sin in his flesh. So the obstruction of sin was not present in Jesus’ body to prevent him from having perfect communication with God:

Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19)

Imagine the power of a human life perfectly in tune with God’s Spirit, doing nothing but exactly what God was communicating to that person! This is the kind of life Jesus lived; doing only what God was leading him to do, and accomplishing God’s perfect will in his life (and death). Jesus’ life serves as an example for us to follow and strive for:

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Perfect knowledge then is not defined by how much we know about the physical universe. That kind of knowledge "puffs up" and makes one arrogant. Perfect knowledge is defined by how well we know God, and how closely we allow God’s Spirit to lead us day by day, rather than giving in to the sinful desires of our flesh.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16-25)

So let’s strive to be like Jesus who said: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” If you have been born again into God’s kingdom, God’s Spirit lives in you, and you have the ability and opportunity to have sweet fellowship with God and learn everything he wants you to do today. Are you taking advantage of that opportunity?

Since we are imperfect vessels to hear God’s word, make sure you take time out each day to read and meditate on his written word, the Bible, which can impart more knowledge to you than all the “science” books in the world combined could ever impart. Let God do the talking, and you do the following. Your life will be radically changed.

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