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Tag: evil

  • To have and to hold Christian Love

    To have and to hold Christian Love

    Dearly beloved, Paul writes earlier – a greeting of agape love NOT inappropriate for a marriage, but the Apostle’s intent in this section addresses spiritual gifts and love of the CHURCH specifically.

    we have the mind of Christ.

    1 Corinthians 2:16 KJV

    ἔχω – echō

    • to have, i.e. to hold
    • to have i.e. own, possess

    So think of it this way:

    WE (referring to the Church) hold the mind of Christ. And WE possess the mind of Christ as HIS body, the Church. 

    AND, of course, don't miss this application to our vows of Christian marriage as well, (not to mention our relationship to a dearly beloved local church family). 
    Do our marriage vows model a Common Era witness of christianity to an uncommitted world?

    to HAVE and to HOLD

    used of those joined to any one by the bonds of natural blood or marriage or friendship or duty or law etc., of attendance or companionship

    Strong’s G2192 – echō

    Dearly beloved,

    Do you take this bond of your church (etc.) to:

    have and to hold?

    OR do WE just want to try out relationships of LOVE and church es — NOT having or holding any commitment to Christ Jesus and His body the Church?

    But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have G2192 his own wife, and each woman is to have G2192 her own husband.

    Paul has already pointed the Corinthians to a higher standard.

    Abide in Marriage, Singleness and Christ – 1 Corinthians 7

    Yet HERE the Apostle continues to apply this love to the body of the CHURCH.

    So what is this agape LOVE?

    The Lord Jesus had warned those who would follow:

    And because iniquity shall abound, the love G26 of many shall wax cold.

    Matthew 24:12 KJV

    The Apostle had opened this section by listing what agape LOVE is NOT.

    Love’s clear contrasts in the love of believers 

    Paul now proceeds to list a few of the insufficient adjectives which describe the love of God in Christ Jesus - both what LOVE is and what agape LOVE is NOT.

    Love Charity

    ◄ 1 Corinthians 13:4 ►
    • is patient
      • long-spirited
      • forbearing
      • suffereth long
      • is long-suffering,
    • is kind
      • gentle
      • gracious
      • benevolent
      • desires to do good to others
    • does not envy
    • does not boast
      • brag
      • vaunt itself
      • employ rhetorical embellishments in extolling one’s self excessively
    • is not proud.

    ◄ 1 Corinthians 13:5 ►

    • Doth not behave itself unseemly
      • behave rudely
      • act unbecomingly
      • dishonor others
      • is not disrespectful
      • or inconsiderate.
    • It is not self-seeking
      • seeketh not her own
      • himself, herself, itself, themselves
    • is not easily provoked
      • irritable
      • resentful
      • angered
      • gets annoyed
      • aroused to anger
    • thinketh no evil
      • does not keep an account of a wrong suffered
      • no record of being wronged
      • love that forgives and forgets

    ◄ 1 Corinthians 13:6 ►

    it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

    but rejoices with the truth.

    1 Corinthians 13:6 ESV

    • ἀδικία – wrongdoing
      • injustice, of a judge
      • unrighteousness of heart and life
      • a deed violating law and justice, act of unrighteousness

    The Greek word for “truth” is “aletheia,” which signifies not only factual accuracy but also sincerity and integrity.

    In the biblical narrative, truth is often associated with God’s character and His revelation to humanity.

    John 14:6

    source: BibleHub Study Bible

    Agape rejoices with the truth;

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

    1 Corinthians 13:7 BSB

    • It always protects,
      • always trusts,
      • always hopes,
      • always perseveres.
    • Love never gives up,
      • never loses faith,
      • is always hopeful,
      • and endures through every circumstance.

    ἀγάπη agapē never fails,

    1 Corinthians 13:8a

    And again, the Apostle's list and concern is for spiritual gifts.
    If I.. How NOT to worship

    BUT.. 

    Paul continues,
    • As for prophecies,
      • they will pass away;
    • as for tongues,
      • they will cease;
    • as for knowledge,
      • it will pass away.
    • 9 For we know in part
    • and we prophesy in part,
    • 10 but when the perfect comes,
      • the partial will pass away.

    1 Corinthians 13:8b-10 ESV 

    And let's not forget, the Apostle's instruction to the Corinthians is to contrast these to our agape love in Christ as His body the Church. 

    Now Paul, their teacher for a year and a half concludes his settling of their differences by essentially telling the Corinthian saints to:

    Grow up!

    When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;

    but

    when I became a man, I put away childish things.

    1 Corinthians 13:11 NKJV

    Have YOU, dearly beloved, 21st century saint?

    For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.

    Now I know in part,

    but then I shall know just as I also am known.

    1 Corinthians 13:12 NKJV

    Take a look in the mirror

    TalkofJesus.com post [2 min.] from September 11, 2013

    and now abide 

    νυνὶ δὲ μένει

    menō – not to depart

    • to continue to be present
    • to be held, kept, continually

    to remain as one, not to become another or different 

    These are just a few of the meanings when the Apostle pleas with his beloved church to have and to hold Christ -- the love of God for saints chosen to abide in the love of the Lord.

    What Paul writes here sounds like a benediction — a closing thought. But is not since the Apostle has more to say about spiritual gifts.

    And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love [ἀγάπη agapē].

    1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV 

    NEXT: (with an interruption for Lent 2025 CE) in chapter 14 the Apostle Paul will conclude this section of his epistle on order in worship and spiritual gifts.

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  • Evil spirits, exorcism, possession of Power

    Evil spirits, exorcism, possession of Power

    ACTS 19:

    ..and the evil spirits went out of them.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:12c KJV

    Acts of God, evil spirits and exorcists

    In his account of Paul’s third missionary journey the physician Luke now records signs YOU may find hard to believe.

    DO YOU BELIEVE THIS, 21st Century believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?

    ..they were healed of their diseases, and evil spirits were expelled.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:12b NLT

    Previously, in Luke’s account:

    Lectures about God in Athens’ University of Idols
    Back in Athens Paul had lectured about the futility of worshiping things made by man as having the power of God.
    Powerful Preaching to powerless Christians
    Luke tells us how (as an itinerate preacher) Paul had encountered some believers who had not received the power of the Holy Spirit.

    Powers of Preaching

    Apollos had preached the word with power prior to departing Ephesus for Corinth. Paul then arrives in Ephesus and proclaims the Gospel in the local synagogue for three months.

    BUT in the meantime, some itinerate Jews have heard ot these men attracting a following and so sought to imitate their techniques and powers of persuasion. 

    As you may know it doesn't go so well for them, even as some time ago on Paul's first missionary journey Bar-Jesus lost his evil influence on events in Cypress.

AND you probably have a Hollywood-tainted image of a ritualistic Roman Catholic ceremony.

    Jewish Exorcists

    But there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who attempted to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus when dealing with those who had evil spirits. They would say, “I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

    ACTS 19:13- J.B. Phillips New Testament paraphrase – The violence of evil and the power of the “name”

    “I command you in the name of Jesus!

    CAN ANYONE DO THIS? OR CAN A PRIEST OR PREACHER COMMAND EVIL SPIRITS?

    YOU probably have your 21st century of the Common Era doubts.

    But what happened to these exorcists?

    Mostly nothing at all — just like the Pentecostalism preached on some 20th century television stages. AND of course no authentic healing of the sick like JESUS had done so often.

    Luke’s account however does give us one powerful example of what did happen:

    Acts 19:

    14 Now seven sons of one named Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them,

    “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”

    16 And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them, subdued all of them, and utterly prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

    Acts 19:14-16 Legacy Standard Bible
    Don't YOU just want to say, 'GOOD!' They got their just due?

    BUT WAIT A MINUTE!

    IF WE ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT LUKE TELLS US ABOUT SEVEN PRIESTS RUNNING OUT OF A HOUSE NAKED AND DEFEATED BY AN EVIL SPIRIT, THEN WE MUST ACCEPT AN IMPACT OF EVIL SPIRITS ON ORDINARY MEN AND WOMEN.

    Miracles and Power!

    Luke now moves on from the ethereal teaching of Tyrannus and Mars Hill to the aetheris winds beyond that which is seen by man.

    Most of us don’t really believe in miracles, do we?

    WE know of the unexplainable, but rare is any occasion of seeing the unseen.

    Sinful men and women want power!

    Seven priests talked a good game, but when the higher unseen truth is told, they were humiliated and exposed as frauds.

    POWER has a source — as does life and spirit.

    And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that cloths or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:11-12 LSB

    THEOS (Greek word for God) was performing extraordinary MIRACLES! — dynamis, from which (in English) we get DYNAMITE!

    NOT Paul, but God by the hands of Paul.

    And as a consequence of GOD using these lifeless items and Spirit-filled Christians, the Lord Jesus Christ became known for HIS MIRACLES among the Gentiles of Ephesus.

    KJV Translation Count — Total: 120x
    The KJV translates Strong’s G1411 in the following manner:

    power (77x), mighty work (11x), strength (7x), miracle (7x), might (4x), virtue (3x), mighty (2x), miscellaneous (9x).
    inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth; power for performing miracles; moral power and excellence of soul; the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth; power and resources arising from numbers; power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hosts

    Strong’s G1411 – dynamis – BlueLetterBible.org

    evil spirits

    Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

    And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

    Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.

    Leviticus 19:21; 20:6-7

    confronted by Jesus

    “Aw, let us alone! What to us and to you, Jesus the Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

But Jesus rebuked it, saying, 
“Be quiet and come out of him!” 

And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, it came out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they were talking with one another saying, 
“What is this word, that with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.”

And the report about Him was spreading into every place in the surrounding district.

Gospel of Luke 4:34-37
    So you say you don't believe in evil spirits? 
The Law of Moses addresses them AND
JESUS *cast them out of possessed men [*exorcism] and commanded unseen spirits with Authority.

    confronted by Paul

    And certain of the wandering exorcist Jews, took upon them to name over those having the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, ‘We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul doth preach;’

    Acts 19:13 Young’s Literal Translation

    and the evil spirit, answering, said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with; and ye — who are ye?’

    Acts of the Apostles 19:15 YLT

    SPIRIT – pneuma – from ‘breath’ or ‘of the wind‘

    Holy or unholy? Good or evil?

    Can the HOLY SPIRIT or an EVIL SPIRIT indwell a mortal man [anthrōpos]? (OR perhaps influence intellectual reasoning or affect any actions of a man or women of flesh?)

    By what POWER may a mere mortal become an EXORCIST of EVIL (ponēros) and healer of diseases?

    Questions of the first century Ephesians.

    Yes, even questions for 21st century christians of the Common Era, perhaps skeptical of Scripture and miraculous signs through the Apostles which God gave to witness the Lord Jesus Christ.

    And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:17 KJV

    ACTS of the Apostles — To Be Continued…

    NEXT:
    and fear fell upon them all 

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  • A Python of Prophesy Stalking Paul in Philippi

    A Python of Prophesy Stalking Paul in Philippi

    Who is this soothsaying python of Philippi?

    Luke mentions this woman in Acts 16 who follows Paul, Silas and Timothy around as they frequent a place of prayer down by the river.

    She may not have had such a nickname but her presence foretells the inevitable upcoming skirmishes between good and evil in Europe.

    Acts of the apostles 16:16

    As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out,

    “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

    She’s right!

    Who is this girl?

    Why is a slave girl following these apostles sent out by the Holy Spirit of the Most High God?

    Luke continues by telling the reader:

    18 And this she kept doing for many days. 

    This Philippian slave girl continually followed them back and forth between the wall of Philippi and their place of prayer down by the Krenides River near town.

    Mythical and 1st c. Greece

    Many first century cultural subtleties escape our 21st century eyes. This is especially true of 1st century Greece.

    Paul understands the people of Macedonia much more than we will.

    Luke reveals more about Paul’s challenge ahead in this first European missionary battle about to take place in Philippi between good and evil.

    Philippi is an important Roman city unlike the small mountainous towns we just left. This incident is central to events about to take place.

    This girl is a slave. In the Roman empire her role is ordinary where more than one in ten people (perhaps more than 10% in Philippi) are slaves owned by and performing their labors for someone in town.

    Roman men, their families and slaves settled here in Macedonia live their everyday lives steeped in the myths and idolatries of a Hellenist lifestyle foreign to our 21st century cultural-inclusiveness and geometrically opposed to the Lord God and Christ Jesus.

    Mysteries of a higher and spiritual plane impact men and women in unknown and partially evident ways.

    Certain messengers of darkness, seers of the divine such as this young girl, become actors of revelation in the unseen battles between good and evil. These diviners of the oracles of darkness typically shun exposure to the Very Light of The Most High God.

    pneuma python – the spirit of divination

    Luke’s account of Acts begins with the power of the HOLY SPIRIT, of course — and therein lies the battle in the heavenly places between that which is HOLY [hagios] and that which is unholy.

    πύθων – pythōn

    From Putho (the name of the region where Delphi, the seat of the famous oracle, was located) – source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Parnassos, son of the nymph Kleodora – source Wikipedia.org

    Mount Parnassus [Python] near Corinth Greece
    oracle of the snake charmer

    Python – myth & mystery of the oracle

    DIVINATION .. a spirit by which she predicted the future

    .. by supernatural means. ..a fortune teller,

    μαντεύομαι –manteuomai from a derivative of G3105 (meaning a prophet, as supposed to rave through inspiration); to divine, i.e. utter spells (under pretense of foretelling:—by soothsaying.

    The young slave girl in Philippi is a soothsayer for her owner.

    “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”

    Acts of the apostles 16:17b Legacy Standard Bible

    Since as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve we have partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what conclusion must we draw from the source of her magical insight?

    Paul understood her evil and super-natural source of knowledge. He may have been familiar with Greek mythology of the Oracle of Delphi (as are some of us).

    The Apostle certainly knew Scriptural instances of such knowledge, even one by his Hebrew namesake.

    The Witch at Endor

    1 Samuel 28:

    3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land…

    6 And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. 7 Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”

    Previously, on Cypress

    And Paul was more recently familiar with encountering such spiritual battles as the Apostle engaged a Jewish magician on Cypress.

    Elymas the magician, AKA Bar-Jesus

    But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said,

    “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.”

    Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand..

    Acts of the Apostles 13:9-11a
    Opposed to the Gospel at the Gate: Bar-Jesus
    READ more about this earlier incident above.

    THESE Biblical encounters challenge the 21st century view of all mystery being explainable by science and logic. Even Christians struggle to image the higher reality of powers and principalities of the heavenly places.

    More of Greek Myths & false gods

    We will return to 1st c. Philippi shortly, but first some more background into the culture of these Roman cities in Greece.

    Oracle of Delphi

    source: ehistory.OSU.edu

    Source: Britannica.com

    a python at a river's edge

    The world famous Oracle of Delphi played an influential role in ancient history. For fourteen centuries it helped determine the course of empires. The prophesying was abolished in the 4th century as it conflicted with Christian beliefs that were at that time being embraced by Rome.

    Preston Chesser, Professor Dept of History, The Ohio State University

    A booming industry grew up around the Oracle. Temples were built and rebuilt, priests were trained, rituals evolved and sacrifices were performed. Priests interpreted the incoherent utterances of the Pythia. Presents were brought to both placate the deity and in the hope of influencing a positive prophesy. The Delphic temple itself became one of the largest “banks” in the world. Delphi became a center for banking and commerce.

    oracle, (Latin oraculum from orare, “to pray,” or “to speak”) – source Britannica.com

    DO NOT MISS THIS! Paul, Silas, Timothy and others have gone down to the river to pray. 
So has the young slave girl who speaks revelation of the identity of these apostles of God.

    The most famous ancient oracle was that of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus above the Corinthian Gulf. Traditionally, the oracle first belonged to Mother Earth (Gaea) but later was either given to or stolen by Apollo.

    Oracles delivered through incubation were believed to come from chthonian (underworld) powers..

    A cultural ACT against idolatry.

    18 And this she kept doing for many days.

    Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 

    “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”
    And it came out that very hour.

    Acts of the Apostle Paul [16:18b ESV]

    SO WHAT HAPPENS when a soul is freed from an evil spirit who has given mysterious knowledge by the powers hidden in the recesses of life’s light?

    The slave girl no longer posses the power that has possessed her and therefore can no longer give oracles of value to her owner.

    You don't believe in such power beyond your 21st century scientifically enlightened knowledge, do you? 

I have encountered such evil attached to a place or person. 
Perhaps you have as well, yet were deceived by angels (messengers) of darkness in the unseen places or even the pulpit of false teaching.

Jesus and the Apostles warned the Church against such evil. Paul acted against it by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

    19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 

    ACTS of the apostles Paul and Silas — To Be Continued — in the town square of Philippi…