Tag: adultery

  • The Christian Hypocrite?

    The Christian Hypocrite?

    Worship & Hypocrisy?

    The family rushed into the church building catching the last praise song before the sermon. LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE. They applauded. (In fact, they noted, it was the colorful writing imprinted on the wall of the building that confirmed this love.)

    He loves us. We love Him. Such a general good feeling we can take out of here to the world! (Applause!)

    But then, upon heading out the door back into the world whey wondered: “Who is this ‘He’ of whom they sing? Was ‘his‘ “Name” ever mentioned? (For I didn’t see it past the darkness on their wall.)

    OH THIS IS FREEDOM..LOVE IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
    LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE
    • The worship song is popular hit on ‘Christian’ radio. Is its lyric and message so ambiguous that the world won’t recognize it?
    • Are the songs so accommodating and preaching so inclusive that young ‘christians’ will rarely hear “Lord JESUS” in worship?

    The challenges of hypocrisy to the church continues as we wear the masks of new trends in worship.

    Yes, the faces change, but so do our masks.

    Hypocrisy OR Acknowledging Sins?

    Scriptures

    Matthew 10

    John 8

    .. go, and from now on sin no more.”

    v. 11
    A partial list from original post linked below:
    • Fathers abandoning our children? Some of us are guilty.
    • Murdering a child by abortion? Some of us are guilty.
    • Divorce? Some of us are guilty.

    Original talkofJesus.com post

    from April 4, 2014 – Topic: Hypocrisy or Sin confessed?
    Summer Reruns! with picture of sun wearing sunglasses
    Summer 2021 AD {Scriptural} Reruns
    • CLICK “…Continue reading ” above,
    • THEN Ask a question or comment at the end of this post
    • OR email Roger@talkofJesus.com with your reaction, questions & comments.

    Stay tuned from more Summer of 2021 Reruns from talkofJESUS.com

    (ditto: Summer 2022 – more to come)

  • Who May Judge SIN?

    Who May Judge SIN?

    Continuing in the Gospel of John

    ‘Who made you judge and jury,’ some ask the Christian who applies the Law? “Don’t judge sin,” some even preach deceptively. Many a sinner will quote Jesus to you: “Judge not, that you be not judged. Matthew 7:1

    We have been following the Good News of the Messiah Jesus told by John, only surviving disciple after all others had died for their witness of Truth, rather than recant the only Way to heaven, Christ Jesus. His Good News is explanation and not necessarily chronological.

    Previously in John 7 at the Jewish Festival of Booths Jesus shouted out an invitation to the crowds:

    “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

    Now we move on to a discussion the following day about authority in the Law. Religious authorities who love to judge sin confront the Messiah with one of their favorites, adultery.

    John 8:

    2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.

    Let’s not miss that Jesus had been teaching on the Holy Spirit of God the previous day.

    He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

    John 7:39 CSB

    Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit as witness to Himself as the Messiah of the Living God!

    Wouldn’t you want to know more about this Man claiming the very power of the One Lord and God? So the crowds came, along with those who claimed earthly authority over the Law of Moses.

    How do YOU judge sin?

    3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.

    Now, dear christian in this twenty-first century crowd, you think very little of the seriousness of her first century indiscretion with a man to whom she was not married. In fact, in all likelihood many of you commited a different and similar sin when you first loved the significant other of your own life. We are oh so ready to condemn any man who claims the authority of God over our own less severe way to judge sin.

    5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

    So does Jesus believe in capital punishment?

    How dare she sleep with another man! After all, she is married.

    6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.

    You know the old (not so funny, really) question of the lawyer: “When did you stop beating your wife?” No right answer to the prosecuting question as stated. There’s more to her story than the evidence presented.

    By the way, have you already answered without having had additional evidence presented – facts which perhaps only God may know?

    Is accusation not guilty until proven innocent in these last days?

    So here we look to the Messiah confronted an accusation of adultery in a court having already judged sin of the accused woman.

    Jesus as Judge

    The crowds look on. Religious officials have stated the Law clearly and ask for sentence confirming their judgment of this accused violator. Surly the Messiah who claims that every jot and tiddle of the Law must be fulfilled will not show mercy to this woman who sinned.

    Yet Jesus does not speak a sentence to judge sin clearly accused of this woman.

    7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them,

    “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

    8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground.

    How does the Messiah of God judge sin?

    Jesus has already witnessed the standard by which the Lord will judge sin.

    “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

    John 5:30

    “Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

    John 7:24

    One reason the Pharisees confront Jesus rather than having arrested Him at that time is continuation from a previous confrontation.

    John 7:50 Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them [the Pharisees] —said to them,

    51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”

    Neither does the Lord Jesus judge this woman accused of adultery without full evidence of what she has done. In His judgment Jesus shows mercy.

    God is Light and Life – Sin is Darkness & Death

    Do you, man or woman of flesh, judge sin?

    Jesus stood to render His decision as Judge:

    “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

    John 8:7b KJV

    8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.

    Justice?

    Was the full justice of the Law served here? Certainly not.

    Did Jesus grant mercy to the woman who sinned against her husband and the Law of the land? Yes, mercy and grace where penalty could have been demanded.

    Would He judge sin at a later time? (Perhaps you had not thought of His temporary grace calling this sinner to repentance.)

    Will Jesus judge sin – adultery, dishonesty, failure to show mercy to the poor or unjustly accused, victims of hateful vengeance?

    • “Put boundaries for the people all around the mountain and say: Be careful that you don’t go up on the mountain or touch its base. Anyone who touches the mountain must be put to death. – Exodus 19:12
    • “Whoever strikes a person so that he dies must be put to death. – Exodus 21:12
    • “If a person schemes and willfully acts against his neighbor to murder him, you must take him from my altar to be put to death. – Exodus 21:14
    • “Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death. – Exodus 21:15
    • “Whoever kidnaps a person must be put to death, whether he sells him or the person is found in his possession. – Exodus 21:16
    • “Whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death. – Exodus 21:17
    • “Whoever has sexual intercourse with an animal must be put to death. Exodus 22:19

    “Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.

    Exodus 31:14-15

    His Merciful Sentence

    “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” –

    Jesus’ question to accusers who would judge sin – John 8:7 NASB

    “I am the light of the world.

    You judge by human standards. I judge no one. And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

    Jesus’ standard to judge sin – John 8:15-16 CSB

    Is Jesus the Messiah?

    If Jesus was, IS, and will always be the Lord God, the Messiah, then He IS Light itself. Jesus is the very image of Light of the Father God our Creator, sustainer and Judge.

    12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

    14 “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge by human standards…

    Is this not true of every man or woman who must judge another man or woman?

    Therefore what is our standard of temporal justice, prior to the judgment of our souls?

    Leviticus 19: Laws of Holiness – Separation to the LORD

    לֹא־תַעֲשׂ֥וּ עָ֨וֶל֙ בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֔ט לֹא־תִשָּׂ֣א פְנֵי־דָ֔ל וְלֹ֥א תֶהְדַּ֖ר פְּנֵ֣י גָדֹ֑ול בְּצֶ֖דֶק תִּשְׁפֹּ֥ט עֲמִיתֶֽךָ׃

    John does not present every proof of witness that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, but closes his Gospel written after many proofs of the resurrection of Jesus with this:

    But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

    John 20:31 CSB

    Light of Life from beyond the grave

    12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    … “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

    20 He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

    … and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

    … You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

    25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

    “Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them.

    Do you believe the Light or hide in the darkness of death?

    26 “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”

    To be continued...
  • My Love – 6 – If I have not love

    My Love – 6 – If I have not love

    ‘I’m not happy.’

    ‘I met someone’

    IF you claim to be a follower of the Bridegroom of the church, Jesus Christ and things don’t go quite your way, would you tell Jesus to ‘get out’?

    Would you look for someone better, who might make you happy in this world?

    (Did God really say, “Don’t eat of the fruit of that tree?”)

    IF you are unfaithful to Christ’s love, would it not be adultery?

    christian whoreThough you claim to be a follower of Jesus, so had Judas!

    This is the unfortunate false witness of some with a cross in front of their home, ‘christianity’ claimed before ‘friends’ as religion, their stamp of approval before the world. These claim many things by the ‘Blood of Jesus,’ yet their more bold witness of worldly sins again crucifies hope in His body and true Bride, the church.

    Some have heard the following, even at weddings, known as the ‘love chapter.’

    IF Jesus Christ is your love, listen then to true love, you adulterers of Christ!

    1 Corinthians 13

    The Way of Love

     If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

    I have heard in churches the noisy gongs of ‘single moms,’ divorced grandmas and others clanging the noise of their own ‘higher’ worship, ‘tongues of angels,’ God’s messengers; as if we should follow these women, rather than Christ Jesus as Lord. Will they who are not bowed down to their husband or any man in Christ not lead the faith astray with their babel?

    And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

    I have heard prophesy given in the church. Is it from God? Why then did the church not record the very prediction of God given? Is the prophesy confirmed and witnessed to the glory of our Lord, Christ Jesus? Yes, sometimes; but believer beware of the wolves in our midst.

    Have you not endured some claiming such superior knowledge and understanding of mysteries who would teach us of their ‘faith to remove mountains’ in their Sunday school class or church small group?

    Did you experience the embrace of Christ’s love in their Pharisaical instruction? Did you hear love for you in their teaching or prophesy?

    I, too, have received prophesy and spoken it. The revelation of the Lord is a terrible and awesome thing!

    Some prophesy has not yet come to pass. For all I know, I may have been given some spirit of deception to accomplish the Lord’s overpowering purpose. Yet in these last days we must fear the Lord, always listening for the approaching trumpet of truth over the blaring cries of some claiming ‘understanding.’

    Read your Bible and pray for revelation by the Spirit of Truth in scripture.

    If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

    And though I bestow,‘ states the King James; bestow, an interesting word more related to charity as we understand it – charity, agape love of God, used in application throughout these verses of the love chapter.

    Bestow: to feed by putting a bit or crumb (of food) into the mouth; of infants, young animals etc.; to feed, nourish to give a thing; to feed someone, feed out to

    Feed on God’s word in scripture. Nourish your spirit in prayer.

    Does this not also bring to mind the love a father and a mother, given to their child, their teen, their grown adult children, even their spouse given in marriage into your own family? Is this not also the gift of adoption given by our Heavenly Father through Christ to gentile believers (like most of us)?

    Are we not all poor and needy, dependent on our Father’s forgiving gracious love?

    Though I give to the poor, but have not love…

    Is that our charity of witness?

    Now that I have shared the seriousness of God’s love for us, allow me to share the more familiar actions of love often and appropriately shared at weddings:

    Love is patient and kind;

    love does not envy or boast;

    it is not arrogant 5

     or rude.

    Are you patient to your spouse, to whom you are joined to each other and God by your vows?

    Is your husband (or wife) patient with you – patient for you?

    Is your love for your beloved partner until death – kind?

    Are you, dear father, and you, dear mother, kind to your son – kind to your daughter – kind to each and all of your children (obedient and faithful, or rebellious and hateful)? Are you kind to your adopted child, your step-child, your child (even an adult child) given into your nurture by God to raise and guide in the Lord, Christ Jesus?

    Is your love patient and kind even to your prodigal teen?

    Is your love for your spouse, your children, your brothers and sisters in Christ ALWAYS patient and kind? Lord help us, impatient and unkind sinners!

    It does not insist on its own way;

    it is not irritable or resentful;

    it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

    Are you just another ‘spoiled child’ of God in your relationships with others in your daily life?

    Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

    Lord: Convict us and forgive us, for the sake of your Son, our loving Savior, Jesus Christ. Help me – help us to love you more and more; help us, miserable saved sinners, to love those you love with your overflowing agape love.

    Love never ends.

    To be continued…

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