"Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."
Ouch... Well, my guess is that all you therapists in the pulpits will be staying away from Paul's words this week.
After all, this might hurt someone's self-esteem now couldn't it?
Of course, these are Paul's words, and according to many of you, his words can largely be ignored.
How peaceful, I wonder, are those who ignore Paul's words?
What about Jesus' words "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
What about He who doesn't believe? What are the implications for those who reject Christ's claims?
That can't preach though huh? Too judgmental... Might make some squirm... and we wouldn't want that now would we?
What price is paid by those whose aim in life is to make people feel good rather than make people disciples of Christ?
I'm curious... are you?
Rick in Va
John 3:16 is one of the gospel passages which most every Christian has memorized. Many see it as a very positive statement. "God so loved the world.." How nice. But there is a catch- "whosoever believes.." Yes that does leave out the unbeliever.
This pasage form Romans fleshes out that concept. It is perhaps irresponsible to preach of the joys of heaven without mentioning the price of admission. It is a non-negotiable price--and the good news is that it does not require riches, great wisdom, or a passle of good works. It is, simply to accept Christ as one's Savior and His gospel as a personal message.
BillCMQ
I'm getting tired of being scolded by people who have no idea who I am, what I believe, where I have travelled, where my road has been dark, and how the Lord carried me through all of it!
Rick in Va, you are obviously angry. I will not say it is unwarrented, for I do not know your story either. But will you please stop directing your anger at people whom you have never met? Find a way to deal with your rage that can bring healing, not simply more frustration.
The other Rick
Other Rick,
When one speaks in general terms, why would you get so upset?
And if you quite accurately believe that no one knows who you are then how is that you can conclude that my words are borne out of anger? Do you know me?
Or is it that your logic can only be applied in a one-way fashion...
Why not deal with the passage, do some exegesis which is what I was attempting to do, maybe poorly in your view and I'm big enough to handle that criticism, and leave the psychology to the psychologists. If you're clergy, then 'clerge' buddy, don't psycho-analyze. I believe the left calls that intolerance...
Rick in Va
Ouch ! and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.... Perhaps after reading the comments thus far, we can conclude that Romans may be a useful theological text for the admission that we are under the microscope of God's powerful eye. Surely I wish to fall not on my sword but on His Grace.
There are two kinds of people in the world–-those who are controlled by the Spirit (or spirit) and those who are controlled by the sinful-nature (sarx-flesh).
Those controlled by the sinful-nature can’t do squat to please God. No matter how hard you hand crank that generator you can never produce enough energy to light the bulb.
On the other hand, those controlled by the Spirit please God. How? Why? Because it is the indwelling Spirit (“the Spirit of God living in you”–vs. 9 NLT) who is energizing the operation. This is the same energy that raised Christ from the dead and will ultimately raise us.
More thoughts:
1. Being “in the Spirit” has some mystical qualities. It’s not merely a matter of following certain principles but of allowing the Holy Spirit the liberty of uniting with your will so that you are transformed. There is a union of wills and the supernatural power of heaven takes over.
2. So much of what is called “charismatic” today focuses on possessing the Spirit. But the focus in St. Paul’s writing is on being possessed by the Spirit. Either we are possessed by the Spirit or by the sinful nature.
3. Parallel with Galatians 5:16-26 is pretty strong. Galatians functions as commentary on Romans.
4. When we preach this passage we have to ask ourselves why the church reads it during these last days of Lent.
5. There is tension in the passage in that most of us find ourselves controlled by the Spirit sometimes and by the flesh at other times. The very fact that Paul exhorts Christians to be controlled by the Spirit attests to the reality of our struggle.
-Brad in Turlock, Calif.-
Good one, Brad.
That's what I miss in so much of the Church: the struggle. Oh sure, we struggle to pay the light bill and such, but mostly we seem to be struggling to maintain the staus quo, or go back the the Eden we think the past was.
A note to both Ricks:
Perhaps that's something we can all learn again: General comments are not heard by general people.
Rick in Canada, eh?
Brad in Turlock,
Good stuff... especially about who might be doing the 'possessing' of the Holy Spirit.
Preach it...
Rick in Va
Ah, it has been a while since I've been here. Preaching Romans this week because we all need to know more about what it means to be "in Christ." We probably all have some in our congregations who have all the moves down pat, but don't know what being "in Christ" or having the spirit "dwell" in us means - and worse, have mental images of people whooping and jumping and leaping pews and all that - which is, of course, not welcome in a "dignified" church setting. What I want to do is get some of them to see that it is a "mind set" which begins all of this. We have before us dry bones or the breath of life. Submission is the entrance fee to the Kingdom, and all to often, our minds are set to control all the facets of our life and not to submit control to the author of life, and we can only control what we can sense phsically. The difficulty is to enable our hearers to understand that "leap of faith" into death to self so that we can be breathed upon afresh, and find that with God in control, the Spirit dwelling within, we have a greater life than the one we had when we tried to control it all. Of course, that means that there is a downside - as in - if we try to stay in control we're going to drive ourselves right out of God's grace and into hell. The Spirit will not dwell where it is not welcome, and if we do not welcome the Spirit, we are denying God, and do not belong to God. Now, there are not a lot of alternative for free agent humans in the spiritual realm. So, if we don't belong to God, we belong to Satan, and that upsets a lot of folks to discuss that subject. So, we can drive ourselves to hell, or take the Grace Lines to heaven. (Sorry)
God Bless: Rev. Rick in rapidly warming So. Ga.
Since a good portion of our congregation is computer literate I’m playing with the analogy of the operating system (DOS) and default settings. When Paul says we are controlled by the sinful nature is talking about our DEFAULT setting. The unconverted heart is set to default into a self-centered and self-driven mode. Unfortunately, this setting is never efficient enough to please God. No matter how far it gets in running a program it ultimately locks up and never makes it.
OTOH, a life set to default on Spirit-drive gets the job done because it is running on a superior operating system–the same system that raised Christ. Now, there are times when we are tempted to over-ride the default and go back to that old familiar dos prompt–and that is why Paul is writing to the Romans in this way. He’s reminding them to stay out of the settings file and to run with the program they’ve been given. For such pleases God.
I know the analogy needs a bit of fine tuning–perhaps even explanation for Mac users (!). Maybe someone can help me. I don’t want to get overly complicated and detailed.
-Brad in Turlock, Calif.-
Rev Rick in So Ga.,
Excellent... Especially the references to submission, submitting control to God, and the idea that the Spirit will not dwell where He is not welcome. Preach it Rick, I believe charismatics would say that your words are 'anointed'.
Now, just a quick question. Where did all the Rick's come from all of a sudden?
Rick in Va
Dont you just wish that paul wouldnt beat around the bush and really get to the point? I love how he was that way. Romans 8:6-11 comes directly against the very incorrect and very fuzzy feeling that People are basicaly Good. Paul stops to point out that people are not basically good, people are basically dirt and that at our neutral point we constantly gear towards being God's enemy.
there are a lot of people that fight a good fight against the world and the devil but fail to win the war between the ears.
God help all of us let his Spirit be our fundamental point of reference and not what "seems right" to us.
Troy in TX