Tag Archives: Bible

Feb 4 2009

Living to love, and Loving to Live


In Paul’s letters to the Galatians and in his first letter to the Corinthians his messages were to groups of Christians who were rife with problems. In the church in Corinth, you name it and they were guilty of it. Sexual immorality, divisions over favorite Apostolic leaders, law suits filed against each other, and even drunkenness and gluttony at fellowship meals, rudeness and selfishness in the worship assembly, and more, were the problems and character flaws of this group of immature believers whom Paul still called “saints”.

The believers in the region of Galatia had begun to abandon pure dependence on Christ alone for salvation in favor of circumcision. They were behaving as if under a witches spell. While in Corinth behaviour unbecoming followers of Jesus was glaring, the diluting of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ was the greatest offence of the Galatian brothers. He carefully defended his apostleship and masterfully laid again the foundation of their standing in Christ.

In both situations Paul’s inspired pen rebuked and pleaded, warned and encouraged, while pointing them to Christ who is himself the standing of our faith and practice as believers. In Galations Paul wrote,

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13,14)

Paul said to the Corinthians

 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Then in v13 Paul sums up perhaps the most read chapter in all of his letters by saying,

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”

Living to love, and Loving to live is both our mandate and mission. Love is our anchor and our attitude as we flesh out the Christ life, especially to those who are fellow followers of Jesus.

You might say “I have a Chistian duty to defend the faith once delivered to the saints, to teach sound doctrine!” Ok, but how’s your loving coming along? Are you clinging to hope, trusting that one day Christ will come and take you to himself? That is noble but how have you loved today?

Excellent theology and sound doctrine are commendable but they take a back seat to loving your brother. Being faithful in church attendence, saying all the right stuff, and doing all the right things are grand, but does the fellow who disagrees with you about some practice or doctrine feel the love?

If you are the most elequent speaker, know more about the Bible, are more wise than your peers, and give more generously, but are not a lover of those around you, you are nothing! You have the same utility in God’s kingdom as one ringing a cow bell in a symphony orchestra.

If you and I want to matter to Christ and his cause let our words be seasoned with salt and our manner marked with longsuffering and gentle kindness. Even if our enemies decide to say something about our ego driven lifestyle we should make them have to lie to do it. Ours is a call to live above the crowd and to those within and without to love them unconditionally with a pure heart and God’s help.

For love,

Royce

Jan 23 2009

coC loosing churches and members


The headline in the latest on line edition of the Christian Chronicle is “Church in America in decline”. According to the article churches of Christ numbers are the lowest since 1980 when such stats began to be compiled. The Chronicle states:

“In the newly released directory, 21st Century Christian identifies 12,629 a Capella Churches of Christ with 1,578,281 adherents nationwide.

Those figures represent 526 fewer churches and 78,436 fewer people in the pews than just six years ago.” 

I’m sure there are a number of reasons for this decline. One that I believe is at the heart of the problem is this. The time frame referenced in the article closely corresponds to the birth and expansion of  the Internet, the “Information Age” if you will.

For most of it’s history, Restoration Movement congregations, especially churches of Christ, received their doctrine/theology almost completely from the guy in the pulpit, from elders, and both groups gathered most of their instruction in truth from “brotherhood”journals. The sphere of the church (coC) was relatively small. A few members visited lectureships, summer camps and work shops, but there too, they likely got a recycled version of what they had already heard. Most all of the information available was exclusively coC.

Suddenly, in the span of a few short years, almost every family had a PC connected to the world wide web. The information available was astounding! Now, those same folks who had lead sheltered lives religiously were now exposed to other views of Bible teaching and theology. The “brotherhood” journals which had been the principal source of instruction from outside the local community was in a very short time relegated to only fraction of what the family on the pew read.

As church members have been exposed to more views, more Bible teaching, they were challenged to rethink why they believed some of what they had been taught and began to think for themselves. The more isolated a group is the easier it is to keep them under the iron thumb of legalism and error.

The sectarianism of the past several decades is regularly being rejected and more and more coC members are embracing the ideals and passion of the RM founders like Alexander Campbell who coined the phrase “Christians only, but not the only Christians”. Tens of thousands of people have studied themselves out of sectarian bondage and legalism and are now grace filled and grace giving people. Some of them are in more “progressive” churches, some have gone to some other brand, and some are toughing it out where they are, but their children are long gone and aren’t coming back.

Another reason for the decline is the glaring foolishness of people like 21st Century Christian’s brilliant idea to purge churches like North Richland Hills from the directory because they have instruments “in one or more services”. They are evidently no longer considered a church of Christ because they don’t tow the party line. This is exactly the kind of narrow minded, shoddy Bible scholarship many people are running away from in large numbers.

Meanwhile the church fathers are wringing their hands trying to figure what the problem is. I have a news flash! Churches that are growing by winning new converts are making a big fuss about Jesus! So long as churches of Christ major on other topics and minor on Jesus they will continue to swirl down to extinction and they deserve to do so.

I have looked at sermon topics of dozens and dozens of churches on their websites and a Capella singing, the church of Christ, baptism, the church of Christ, the error of the denominations, the church of Christ, and many other topics take precedence over teaching about the Christ.

Will there be a revival of love for Jesus Christ and the desire to be in unity with believers of every stripe which was the plea and ideal of the early Receptionist’s? It isn’t looking good. The vast majority of those who fill the pews in churches of Christ on Sunday morning are like me. They have gray hair, are either retired or near retirement age, and they are not bothered very much by the sound of young children in the assembly. Two generations from today, perhaps three, and most of those folks will be buried. Who will replace them? I hope revival comes, but I am not hopeful.

Royce


Apr 28 2008

The Bible, Which Version is Best?


Recently I have read some posts on friends blogs asking questions like “What is your favorite Bible and why”, What version do you preach and teach from and which do you use fore personal study and devotions? I answered New King James Version to both questions. A few years ago I switched from the trusted KJV to the NKJV because the archaic words frequent in the KJV are changed to contemporary language.

Most of my friends at church I believe use the NIV. I do have a copy but have never really liked it very much. It is very readible but in my view strays too far from the original documents and even omits some phrases or verses. And now I have made what for me is a new discovery, the English Standard Version.

I was reading a sermon on-line and saw references to “ESV” and became curious. I Googled “ESV” and after some research ordered an English Standard Version from Amazon. (On another blog a brother was chastised because he bought from Amazon rather than from a “Christian” bookstore….Oh boy!)

I encourage my friends and even those who are unfriendly to consider buying an ESV Bible. It was translated with great fidelity to the original manuscripsts with a “word for word” theory of translation. I recommend you read for yourself about this Bible. Also you can compare it to the version you are using now here. I believe the comparisons are thoughtful and fair. I was especially impressed with an article entitled “Translation Philosophy“.

I am interested in what you think of the ESV?

His Peace,
Royce Ogle