The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
August 26, 2001
In
This Issue:
"Obeying
God for Goodness' Sake"
By
Steve Klein
"Ye
Are Bought With a Price"
By
Bill Mosley
Why should children obey their parents? If you asked a child, he might say, "Because I'll get a spanking if I don't" or "I'll get candy if I do." Perhaps a more grown-up child would say, "Because I love my parents and want to make them happy." But I wonder how many would be mature enough to respond by saying, "Because it is the right thing to do"? In Ephesians 6:1 the Scripture says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." One of the reasons children ought to obey their parents is simply that it is the right thing to do. Of course, few children appear to be phased at all by the knowledge that obedience is right; many will continue headlong in disobedience until corrective measures are taken.
I was talking with a teenager the other day about how to get a certain group of young people to comply with rules. The rules I had in mind were reasonable and very simple, and the young people were very good young people - many of them Christians. Yet, the person I was talking with told me (in essence) that I should not expect young people to obey rules unless I first explained the consequences of disobedience -- and then, I needed to make sure that anyone who broke the rules paid the consequences!
I must confess that there is more than a little wisdom in this philosophy. It is one approach that God Himself has often used to motivate men to obey His rules. A classic example is found in Deuteronomy 28. There, at length, God promised the Israelites blessings if they obeyed Him, but curses if they disobeyed. When, in the course of history, Israel disobeyed, they suffered the exact consequences the Lord promised.
Hebrews 2:2-3 states that under the Law of Moses "every violation and disobedience received its just punishment." The passage goes on to indicate that this principle is even more true for those of us living under the New Testament; if those under the Old Law could not escape the consequences of disobedience, "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" So, just as He did in times past, God still uses the fear of punishment or negative consequences to motivate His children to obey.
It's rather sad, isn't it, that the Lord has to use this kind of thing to motivate us? Don't you think He would be better pleased with children who obeyed Him without threat of punishment, simply because they loved Him and wanted to do right? Can we not simply be like Jesus, who loved righteousness and hated iniquity (Hebrews 1:9)? Can we not learn to do the right thing just because it is the right thing, and to be good for goodness' sake?
If the only reason we do right is out of fear of getting caught and punished if we don't, it may be that we lack spiritual maturity. Let us all try to grow up a little bit, to the measure of the stature of Christ. Spend some time today thinking about WHY you WANT to obey God. Determine that you want to do right because it's right.
by Steve Klein
Paul said, "for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's" (I Corinthians 6:20). The apostle has shown the Corinthians that sin is to be no part of their lives. He relentlessly pursues sin with a view to its destruction. He specifically notes that they are to "flee fornication" (v. 18), and then hauls the matter into the light of the Spirit of God which exposes it: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?" (v. 19). He then slays that sin at the cross, saying "ye are bought with a price." And what a price that was! They were no longer their own, but belonged to somebody else!
That is the great fact - "ye are bought!" The worldly might say this is mere merchandising, and that is precisely the point - "bought with a price" expresses the term with a double force. "With a price" indicates the greatness of the cost, that being the very life of the Son of God. The great alternative is there - either we are bought, or we are not redeemed!
But Paul asserts that Christians have been bought, and that brings consequences, the obvious one being, "ye are not your own." When a thing is bought, it then belongs to the one who bought it. Christians, who compose the body of Christ, the church, belong to Him; they are His people. The conclusion then is that we are not ours to indiscriminately do what we wish. Our bodies, says Paul, are a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19). Therefore, we are not free to abuse and misuse it; it must be used in service to the one who owns it. Suppose someone took something that belonged to us and appropriated it for his own selfish ends without our permission. Such would not be acceptable to us. So it is with Christ - we must use our entire being as he has directed in his word.
When we finally realize that "we are not our own;" that we, as it were, are the "property" of Jesus Christ, only then will we be able to dedicate and devote ourselves entirely into His service. Our problem seems to be that we verbally assent to belonging to Christ, but often the proverbial "Indian giver" in us comes out and we "take ourselves back." No, it must not be this way. When one gives self to Christ, he must give all the way and for all time.
We can belong to Christ nominally or actually. The real thing will come out in the way that we demonstrate our willingness to belong to Christ in this life. There is no better proof as to whether or not one realizes that he has been "bought with a price" than the way he lives his life before God and other men.
By Bill Mosley
via "Put The Brethren In Remembrance"
Taylors, S.C.