Tag: free

  • Am I not free? Religion 1 Corinthians 9

    Am I not free? Religion 1 Corinthians 9

    Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

    1 Corinthians 9:1 New Heart English Bible

    Freedom and Religion

    Eric Kress outlines two main points of application from the previous chapter of 1 Corinthians 8:

    Paul’s 4 questions intertwined in context and application

    Paul’s four-fold point (in the Apostle’s letter without chapter and verse) begins:

    οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐλεύθερος 

    ‘Not am I free?’ literally begins the Greek text.

    OR the King James begins:

    οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐλεύθερος

    ‘Am I not an apostle?’

    1 Corinthians 9:1 Bibles


    We won’t want to miss that the Apostle’s pivotal questions follow his concern regarding the idolatry of Corinth and communion between the saints of the Corinthian church with the revelers of the city.

    Freedom of religion

    Suppose for a moment that most every Sunday you go to some local church with an identifiable ‘christianNAME like:

    • such and such FREE church or
    • Our evangelical denomination brand church
    • City name Christian church
    • Korinthian cathedral and parish?

    Won’t most of the people who know you in town also know that:

    • you claim to be a saint,
      • part of you so-named christian church
    • worshiping some god JESUS
    • preached by some Apostle Paul

    • AND in this church occasionally inviting YOU
      • (of another sect celebrating other gods)
      • to go gather in community with these worshipers of One JESUS Christ their Lord?

    Shouldn’t these Corinthian christians come join our religious feasts and live the life of revelry and worship we do with our gods?

    Why should they?

    As we have learned previously in Paul’s letter, his question is not so much:

    • where the Corinthian saints go join in the community as much as
    • how they exercise their freedom publically as witnesses of Jesus Christ our Lord.

    To the Jews and by the Law food sacrificed to idols would seem to be the unlawful offence against the Lord God. (The Messiah Jesus [Yeshua] after all was hailed as the King of the Jews.)

    Community feasts and festivals were, after all, organized by Jews (a small minority in the city), Roman citizens, Hellenists or perhaps adherents of some other foreign religion.


    In a Common Era context, (perhaps Orthodox or Latin Catholic) religious communions and idolic festivals resemble that of the larger communities of like A.D. first century Roman Corinth.

    Authority of an Apostle

    4 Have we no right to eat and to drink?

    5 Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

    8 Do I say these things according to human authority?

    Or does not the Law also say the same thing?

    Paul then quotes the Law of Moses. 

    And without getting into technical reasons why, the more authoritative KJV begins with Paul's apostleship. It then proceeds to freedom. And ALL of Paul's four questions lead us to his authority in personal witness of the risen Christ and the Apostle's ultimate authority over those gathered as the saints of the Corinthian church.

    Paul’s Deuteronomic illustration of the muzzled ox begs the question:

    .. Is God merely concerned about oxen?

    Or is He speaking altogether for our sake?

    Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

    If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

    1 Corinthians 9:11 LSB [context vs. 9-14]

    Paul’s Humble Witness of Christ

    If others share this authority over you, do we not more?

    Nevertheless, we did not use this authority, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

    1 Corinthians 9:12

    NO MAN IS FREE OF AUTHORITY.

    Paul points out that he and Barnabas, as apostles of the risen Jesus Christ, do NOT impose their true authority over the church for their own gain.

    Apostles of the Lord all take on the humility of Jesus for Christ’s sake.

    And Paul points out that community leaders who do have authority over feasts, festivals and cities must not see these ‘CHRISTIANS‘ as a hindrance to Christ — a Korinthian christian who becomes a stumbling block to true faith.


    14 So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel… For woe is me if I do not proclaim the gospel.

    The Religion of Paul’s saints

    Many of Paul's questions are rhetorical, designed to make us think through the logic connecting theology and religion,

    our knowledge of God with our witness of faith.

    Everyone practices religion. A Korinthian will get up early, stretch their mind and muscles, breathe in the life-giving air of mother self — and then go worship her at some celebration of community occasion of feasts in the name of some god of their passions.

    The Apostle knew the religion of Roman sailors and Corinthian guides to the temples of debauchery! So he cautions the saints of Corinth to abstain from such religion in all cases for the sake of Christ.

    Religion defined and maligned

    Men will write for religion, fight for It, die for it; anything but live for it.

    W. Cotton Commentary on James 1:26-27

    • I make myself a slave to everyone – 1 Cor 9:19b
    • To the Jews I became like a Jew v.20
    • To the weak I became weak -v.22

    Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

    James 1:26 NIV

    Even James writes warnings against hypocrisy; not against the Jews but the Hellenists of every town.

    And like James, the Apostle Paul cautions the saints of Corinth against getting caught up in an inclusiveness of the local religious practices of other religions.

    Adherents of Christian religion are NOT free to practice any anti-Christ religion in order to win someone to Biblical freedom of religion.


    Why is religion most maligned in the name of freedom by preachers from other churches freely claiming Christ?

    Roger@talkofJesus.com

    I urge you, brothers and sisters, saints of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to drill down into thoughtful application of the definition of religion below. - RH 

    Strong’s G2356 – thrēskeia – feminine noun, From a derivative of θρησκός (G2357), adjective, from θροέω (G2360), verb

    θρησκεία – Religion, Worshipping –

    • religious worship
      • esp. external, that which consists of ceremonies
        • religious discipline, religion

    Strong’s G2357 – thrēskos adjective, (Probably from the base of θροέω (G2360): to cry aloud, make a noise by outcry

    religious (apparently from τρέω to tremble; hence, properly, trembling, fearful

    fearing or worshipping God

    to tremble, trembling, fearful


    Religious fear and worship such as this appears throughout the Bible.  (Today however we will not examine several religious encounters with the LORD from Old Testament.) 

    An Apostle claiming Corinthian saints for Christ

    Returning to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians: 

    Paul the Servant to All

    19 Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

    Imagine that! -- an Apostle and witness of the risen Christ Jesus -- a man with complete religious authority over the church, especially those saints who belong to Christ in places like Corinth to whom the Apostle writes his epistle. 

    23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

    Paul has already stated clearly:

    For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel, not in wisdom of word, so that the cross of Christ will not be made empty.

    1 Corinthians 1:17 LSB

    In the opening of his epistle Paul continues:

    For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

    Consider that many who CLAIM "FREEDOM OF religion" truly argue for FREEDOM FROM RELIGION, which, of course, is "foolishness," since ALL men and women are religious about certain religious routines of   life and mortal limbs of dust. 

    .. you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

    Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

    1 Corinthians 4:15b-16 LSB

    The Apostle claims the loyal saints of the Corinthian church for himself as their personal, loving father of the faith in Jesus Christ.

    If others share this authority over you, do we not more?

    Nevertheless, we did not use this authority, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

    1 Corinthians 9:12 LSB

    Are YOU a Korinthian falling down in your faith?

    What is your city of Corinth, with its festivals so licentious that that they call you Korinthian for your sins — what is the life here in Corinth like?

    And where does a saint of Christ Jesus fit into the milieu of these gods and your festivals?

    HOW WILL YOU ever reach the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ when the Lord calls to Himself all of His saints?


    Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

    Run in such a way as to take the prize.

    Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline.

    They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.

    The Apostle, father of the Corinthian saints once again makes an example of his own religion and faith:

    Therefore I do not run aimlessly;

    I do not fight like I am beating the air.

    27 No, I discipline my body

    and make it my slave,

    so that after I have preached to others,

    (And here is Paul's warning of our own witness to our community, neighbors, friends and family..) 

    I myself will not be disqualified.

    1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Berean Standard Bible


    And NEXT, the Apostle to the Gentiles will once again warn the Jews who have come to Christ AND again the local Greeks of the Corinthian Church.


    Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

  • Stand fast therefore in the liberty

    Stand fast therefore in the liberty

    It’s Memorial Day (celebrated holiday in the not-so-united States).

    free for what

    Flags for freedom flown for feasting leaders of the free world or drawn to half staff for some politically offensive act of violence by an ungodly man.

    Hardly a memorial to any who have died for the freedom of any man or woman who suffers the ravages of war and injustice in an evil world of the year of our Lord 2022.

    Therefore, claimer of Christ, communicant of the Church, Evangelical Patriot who claims the crusade of christian UNDER GOD, it must be US who have failed in our pursuit of freedom, liberty and most of all righteousness as an example to our fellow man (that is, creating being in the image of the Lord God).

    Letter of Paul to the Church at Galatia (1st c. A.D.)

    Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

    Galatians 5:1 NKJV

    A Question to ‘christians’

    I ask YOU,

    • ‘evangelical christian’
    • roman catholic
    • orthodox christ claimant
    • liberal tolerant lover of anyone of the world

    I ask you the same question as Paul asked the Jews in first century Galatia:

    For once YOU ran well.

    Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

    Galatians 5:7 NKJV

    Paul speaks to the Jews of his day, but his question about freedom applies to US, WE THE PEOPLE who use GOD and claim CHRIST in those times when it is most politically expedient to claim TRUTH.

    The Truth of Freedom

    Although men and women may fight for it, be maimed by it, flee from it and even die for it; liberty and freedom have little to do with ever-changing currents of political action in places of providential blessing or demonic deference to rule of some despot.

    God in Christ Jesus calls any who would run this race of mortal – yes MORTAL, not immortal LIFE – to not again be yoked in the slavery of sin.

    For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

    Galatians 5:13 Christian Standard Bible

    For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement:

    Love your neighbor as yourself.

    But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

    Galatians 5:15 CSB

    Are WE THE PEOPLE truly ‘ONE NATION under god’ in the Common Era of error led by sinful man recreating US in the image of resconstructed truth?

    Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

    Do WE THE PEOPLE truly believe, in A.D. [the year of our Lord] 2022:

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident,

    • all men are created..
    • that certain ‘rights’ are endowed by their Creator
    • That the ‘Bill of Rights’ forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others NOT promoting FREEDOM FROM RELIGION?

    The basis of law is the LAW of God.

    A CLAIM under GOD.

    WE THE PEOPLE may not memorialize evil as we no longer as a NATION stand faithful anymore than ISRAEL could still claim covenant which they broke long before the REDEMPTION by CHRIST JESUS, the Son of GOD WHO was and IS and will judge all men.

    Orthodox? Catholic? Evangelical?

    As in Galatia, our CLAIM to Christ is not enough.

    Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.

    I am warning you about these things ​— ​as I warned you before ​— ​that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

    Galatians 5:19-21 CSB

    24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

    If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

    Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.


    Thank God Almighty that we are FREE — FREE at last in Christ Jesus.

    “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?

    The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ from Mark 8:18
  • Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 4- Tragic Death of a shepherd

    Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 4- Tragic Death of a shepherd

    sunrise over earth from space

    I had opened my eyes (just for a moment) and thought that I saw a sunrise from long long ago.. Watching for a long time (it seemed) or maybe for just an instant (I could not tell). I then observed the sun waning beneath the surface of this paradise.

    Tragic DEATH!


    This instant of time quickly reverted into a darkness.. and my eyes (I thought) were not even closed again. I quivered and held my breath (I thought), as an eerie sense of a chaotic scene drew me down beneath the place where I thought I had just stood above the once magnificent paradise.

    So I was no longer filled with any breath of joy at what I had already seen.

    Then a scene planted my mind into a still and horrific place which pierced the ash-like fog into which I had fallen. I knew that this place emerging into the strain of my blinded eyes was not only beyond the garden, but it is beyond the fields where I had just witnessed a contentious conversation between two brothers.

    I looked deeper into the darkness.. and then, I now realize, — beneath it.

    Just then, I remembered my Guide, who I guessed had not only led me to the garden east of Paradise but also to this place. And I remembered straining to hear what the two brothers were saying: Kahyin, the gardener, and Heḇel, the shepherd whose offering had pleased the LORD.

    .. It was only then that a dark and joyless truth wounded my briefly revived heart.

    HE KILLED HIM!


    So it came about in the course of time that Cain [qayin] [Smith {like Moses’ father-in-law}] brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

    Bereishit (Genesis) 4:3 :: קַיִן The same as קַיִן (H7013) The KJV translates Strong’s H7013 in the following manner: spear

    Once again I wanted more knowledge from my Guide about what I had just seen.

    So CAIN, a disgruntled gardener, KILLED his brother, a shepherd?

    You have just witnessed its result, my Guide confirmed.

    So Cain was ALSO the Hunter, wasn’t he?

    No.

    I was wrong already..

    Who then, I wondered as my Guide continued His response.

    He murdered Abel, just as later in your timeline you know that Moses would murder a Hebrew brother.

    WHY? Why did the Lord allow it?

    I plead for the bloodied body I had just seen of the shepherd brother of Cain not even thinking (in my response) of the man Moses had killed.

    I reasoned with my Guide:

    This shepherd, Abel, was a righteous man. AND the LORD even accepted his offering at the same time He rejected what Cain brought Him.

    And logically I added:

    HE could have stopped Abel’s murder.

    Yes, of course the LORD could have prevented Cain from killing Abel.

    AND The Almighty could have prevented the guilty man to whom HE gave this story, Moses, from killing a Hebrew slave when he lived as a prince in Egypt.

    I had no answer..

    You asked why the LORD allowed these things to happen to Cain who mostly lived as a good man trying to please God.


    I thought of Moses (this time)..


    and Joseph in Egypt before their slavery..


    THEN I remembered what my Guide had just asked me an instant ago, “Why would it make any difference to you if one brother’s offering is better than the other’s OR if either brother knows about the offering of the other?

    And I even remembered that David was also a later shepherd, just like Abel, yet like Moses and Cain King David had murdered a man.


    Do you think it would be better for these men to have NO choice in what they do and just have God lead them here and there to do as the Lord their God pleases?

    I began thinking about Cain and Able BOTH being FREE to choose their own actions and reactions in the paradise of God.

    Each of them Slaves!!? — I thought. IF we are NOT FREE to choose wrong, it would make us like slaves of GOD..

    I’m thankful that I am free from slavery, even to GOD.

    I wondered if maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.

    Of course you are free to say whatever you would like to me.. and to God.

    And even though you may say anything to any other man you encounter on the earth the LORD does not restrain you, think of those words you cannot hear. You just witnessed the consequences of only one such encounter.

    Now look ahead to right judgment of the LORD when we freely choose to accept His Word.


    sunrise over earth from space
    IN THE BEGINNING…

    For an instant I looked back.. further to the west of the endless line..


    I thought I heard sobbing.. and “I’m so sorry I didn’t raise you right” and “We didn’t want you to know the mistakes we made..” ..and yet more wailing the way I felt over the death of Abel. Adam and Eve loudly lamented all of this.. and the separation of a father and mother from one sinful son: Cain, who had just killed the other son they loved..

    I could only imagine my own father or mother IF I had actually killed any of my siblings.. (or anyone, for that matter).

    “Not only is this tragic death of their son Abel new to them,” my guide pointed out to me, “the impact of DEATH itself has just gripped Adam and Eve — two parents who the LORD had told many years before,

    ‘You shall surely die.’”

    I thought of those times one of my brothers had been MAD at ME… What if it were my blood in that field?



    Then the LORD said to Cain,

    “Where is Abel your brother?”

    And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

    Genesis 4:9 NASB20

    Then He said, “What have you done?

    The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.

    “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

    “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you;

    you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.”

    Genesis 4:12 NASB20

    4:16 וַיֵּצֵא קַיִן מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּאֶֽרֶץ־נוֹד קִדְמַת־עֵֽדֶן׃


    קַיִן [

    Once upon a time there was a man named Kahyin.. who brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

    I heard the Voice of my Guide in Hebrew, yet somehow I understood every word.

    I have told you about qayin and heḇel his brother for good reason.

    Now it’s time for me to introduce you to the hunter.

    3:1 וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה אַף כִּֽי־אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹֽאכְלוּ מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּֽן׃

    Genesis 3:1 – Masoretic Text [Click this link to meet the Hunter, the first character Moses mentions here]

    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    Roger Harned, Christian Author

  • The Gospel of the Kingdom

    The Gospel of the Kingdom

    Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

    What is the gospel?

    More specifically, what is the gospel of the kingdom which Jesus proclaimed?

    To begin, look back to the centuries and millennia at the role of kings in general.

    Kings do not rule a republic. Kings do not rule a democracy. The power of a king is absolute and those who rule in the king’s domain (territory, dominion, lands) tell the king’s people (subjects) what to do and because they are subjects of the king the people must do what their king demands.

    The message is NOT one from a common subject to other subjects of the king. No, a proclamation is written and spoken by the authority of the king and ruler of his subjects. This is true of the Kingship of God, as well as that of a mortal king.

    The ‘proclamation, qara‘ is spoken to the subjects of the king with the expectation of obedience by the king’s subjects. Someone (in the Bible, sometimes an angel or a Prophet) has met with the king (or with God our Heavenly King), heard the message or news to be heralded or proclaimed and by authority of the king, he tells everyone.

    Most are familiar with the first announcements of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

    Luke 2:10-11 KJV  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

    The announcement by an angel from God is that the King has been born, a King of the Jews, as Jesus will come to be known as He becomes the sacrifice for our sins on a Cross.

    God is NOT like any other mortal king and God has proclaimed Himself through Scripture.

    Exodus 19:7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.

    Moses is proclaiming the gospel of God. Moses has met with the King of Creation and proclaims the good news to the captives of Pharaoh.

    8 All the people answered together and said,

    “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

    The Hebrew slaves of Pharaoh might as well have said, “We accept the LORD as our King in the place of Pharaoh our king.”

    And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

    9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

    Again, God! our King and Leader and Ruler and Sovereign, and Creator of all things, judge of all souls!

    Christ Jesus IS God incarnate; that is: Jesus Christ is GOD in the flesh!  He has set the captives of this world free from sin and the ruler of this world.

    What had happened earlier, when God our Heavenly King challenged the king of Egypt (Pharaoh) with plagues and curses on the lands Pharaoh ruled, a land where the Hebrew people had been subjects of the lowest caste as slaves below every man and woman of Egypt?

    Why had God chosen to take His own subjects, chosen by His covenant through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?

    (Here is God’s proclamation to Pharaoh, a mere mortal king of men, through Moses.)

    Exodus 9: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews,

    “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.

    16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

    And from the days of Moses until this day the Name and Power of God is proclaimed in all the earth and the miracles the LORD did for His people of Israel in the desert at Sinai, as they were led from the slavery of Pharaoh to God’s promised land.

     Set Me Free – Castings Crows

    To be continued…

     

     

     

Do you SHARE the Gospel by either email or text?