Strive to Excel
February 15, 2017
So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. 1 Corinthians 14:12
stacked papers: Spring Bouquet by Kristmess Designs
Heavenly Father, We are eager to see your Spirit at work in us and in the church as a whole. Please help us to abide in you, walking in a manner worthy of you, seeing people as you see them, being quick to listen, slow to anger and speak, doing not only hearing your instructions, loving in deed not only empty words, delighting in doing good and serving others on your behalf, and loving others as ourselves. We want to be used by you to build up your church and we don't want to tear it down. We want to bear fruit of the Spirit, because we are remaining in your love. We want to be found to be faithful servants when our Master, your Son, returns for us. Thank you for filling us, enabling us to desire and do your will, and for equipping us with everything we need to overcome the flesh and all other obstacles. In Jesus' glorious, beautiful, beloved name, Amen.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. 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. Galatians 5:13-24
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Romans 8:1-9
“I am the true vine, and my Father is
the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and
every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are
clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither
can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the
branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for
apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in
me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered,
thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my
words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
By this my Father
is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has
loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and
abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than
this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do
what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know
what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have
heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I
chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your
fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give
it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one
another." John 15:1-17
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:19-27
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. James 2:1
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brothers. But if
anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart
against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but
in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:16-18
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying,
“Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you
do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances." Matthew 22:16
As shown below, Paul did not at any time equate love with dumbing down the gospel, perverting it into a kind of "love" that leaves us free to willfully live in sin without any effort to please God (instead of free from the power our sinful flesh once held over us to make us do its will), and certainly not to teach anyone that God is there to give us everything we want (starting with the false teachers who charge money to tell the people what they want to hear). People who want to be told that God loves sin need to examine themselves to see if they believe in the same God who hates it so much that His precious Son had to die for ours, as He was the only one who could pay our debt, because He was the ONLY one EVER who NEVER sinned.
And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:25-35
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Jude 1:17-23
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Jude 1:17-23
