I have unbelieving and lost friends and correspondents. I don't expect them to exhibit much of a fear of God. They don't know Him to fear Him. They are like the Philistines who handled the Ark of the Covenant yet did not die. Oh, they got hemorrhoids and had a bad mice infestation that ate their crops.
When they figured it out and got rid of the Ark and things went better for them.
God judges unbelievers different from believers. Unbelievers are judged for their lack of obedience to the call of the Holy Spirit. The consequence for that is a Hell of one nature or another. Not a popular doctrine, but there is a hell of Few Stripes and of many Stripes. It all has to do with the unforgivable sin rejecting the Tug of the Holy Spirit. That is a long topic which not of this post.
Believers judged at the Bema Seat are much more seriously judged. If you knew to do right and didn't do it to you it is sin. Not a sin that sends you to hell, a sin that costs you reward. And it is an eternal judgment. It should strike fear in the hearts of believers. It doesn't for some reason.
Like few and many stripes in hell, there are partial and full rewards in heaven.
Yet I see unthinking reckless statements about Christian leaders made by people who apparently fear neither God nor Man. They talk about these people in degrading terminology that should only be reserved for rapists and despots.
My concern here is the lack of the fear of God among HIS PEOPLE.
There will be an accounting. We will all stand before a Holy God and give an account for every one of our actions. That is a fearful thing to consider.
It appears that in the greater body of Christ there is little real fear of God. We gossip and spread half truths without any consideration for the consequence of it all.
I won't tell you what brought all this on, it would be continuing to spread the lies. It's just enough to say that if you know someone is in error your job is not to trumpet it in front of unbelievers causing them to stumble, your job is to go to the offending party one way or another and confront them directly. The world will bring judgment without any help from the Body of Christ.
The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom. Some so called Christians are unwise in the way they deal with other Christians. If they were wise they would shut the HELL UP.
That is a theologically correct admonition. I'll let you think about it. OK, here is the hell to be shut up.
1 comment:
Reading the blog reminded me of 1 Peter 4, "For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God: and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God!"
Luther always began the explanation of the ten commandments with, "We should FEAR AND LOVE GOD that we may not....but that we may......" We are not yet fully the whole person God intends us to be, though we are called 'saints' in His sight through Christ. We stil have what Paul calls "the old man", and it is this 'old man' nature that lifts the foot high off the gas pedal when a policeman comes in sight, even though our renewed conscience through Christ should be the overriding motive. St. Paul puts it this way, "therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, no only because of possible pnishment but also because of conscience" Rom. 13:5.
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