An alarming epidemic
of
spiritual adultery
and “friendship with the world” ran
rampant in the
early church
(James 4:4)
James passionately told his readers to
repent from their wicked ways
and
return to the Lord:
“Draw near to God,
and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and
purify your hearts,
you
double-minded”
(James 4:8, ESV).
God desires His followers’ wholehearted
loyalty and devotion
(Exodus 34:14; Mark 12:29–31).
Believers who stray from the Lord
must
submit themselves to God and
draw near to Him again
through repentance.
“Purify your hearts, you double-minded”
was James’ clear and distinct call to
inner purification--
to recognize and confess our sins
and
receive God’s forgiveness
His language closely resembles that of
the psalmist:
“Who may
ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his
holy place?
The one who has
clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not
trust in an idol
or
swear by a false god”
(Psalm 24:3–4).
James branded the believers
“double-minded”
because they continued to live with
one foot in the world
while claiming
to love and worship God.
Their vacillating
was dividing their loyalties.
A similar charge was issued against the people of Isaiah’s time:
“These people come near to me with
their mouth and honor me
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”
(Isaiah 29:13).
Earlier, James noted that
double-minded people
are “unstable in all they do”
(James 1:8).
The apostle John
acknowledged that the
true
children of God
who look forward to
Christ’s return
“purify themselves, just as he is pure”
(1 John 3:3). The Lord Jesus Himself said
, “Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they will
see God”
(Matthew 5:8).
The term pure here indicates
the absence of impurity, contamination, or filth.
It suggests a single-mindedness
of
purpose that is free of distractions.
Double-minded people lack purity of heart.
The Lord desires His followers
to be laser-focused
in heart, mind, and purpose
(Matthew 6:33).
The greatest commandment, Jesus said, is
to “
love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul and with
all your mind”
(Matthew 22:37).
The apostle Paul explained that God looks for servants who commit their entire being to Him:
“If you keep yourself pure, you will be a
special utensil
for honorable use.
Your life will be clean, and you will
be ready for the
Master to use you for every good work.
Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts.
Instead,
pursue righteous living,
faithfulness, love, and
peace.
Enjoy the companionship of those
who call
on the Lord with pure hearts”
(2 Timothy 2:21–22, NLT)
Anything that distracts us
or has a contaminating influence on our lives
will divide
our loyalties and soil our hearts,
rendering us ineffective
kingdom servants.
A
Pure Heart is evidenced
by
openness, clarity, and
an
uncompromising desire
to
Please the Lord in everything
we
think, say, and do.
Purity goes beyond
just cleaning up our outward behavior
(“cleanse your hands”)
to the internal purification
of
heart, mind, and soul
(“purify your hearts”)
In reality, humans are incapable of purifying their own hearts.
David prayed,
“Create in me a pure heart,
O God, and
renew a steadfast spirit within me”
(Psalm 51:10)
God is the only one who can make
us pure in heart and single in mind.
It is the shed blood of Jesus Christ His Son that “purifies us from all sin”
(1 John 1:7)
And the sanctifying
work
of the Holy Spirit that cleanses
our lives
(Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Peter 1:2)
Christ provided the necessary
sacrifice for sin
so that we could
receive God’s forgiveness
(John 1:29; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:12–22; 1 Peter 1:18–19)
God’s Word commands us: “
Purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
And God’s Word—the Logos,
who is Jesus Christ
makes the command possible. Since we can
enter God’s presence
“by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way
that he opened for us through the curtain,
that is, through his flesh,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed with pure water”
(Hebrews 10:19–22, ESV).
In Isaiah 53, the prophet describes the
ordeal of the Messiah who would
bear His people’s iniquity
and suffer on their behalf
(verses 4–6).
In the next chapter, Isaiah predicts
The Coming Glory of
Jerusalem
and the restoration of God’s people,
who
would know the
everlasting kindness
and
compassion of God
(Isaiah 54:8).
Then, in Isaiah 55, the prophet extends
God’s invitation to partake freely of the promised blessings
(verses 1–2)
and
experience God’s “everlasting covenant”
This promise of restoration, forgiveness, and blessing
would have been
especially encouraging to the
future generation
of
battered and bruised Jews
returning from
their exile in Babylon.
Through Isaiah, God compassionately called the surviving remnant of Israel to spiritual renewal. As part of that renewal, they would have to thoroughly abandon their sinful lifestyles and return to Him to receive the forgiveness the Messiah made possible (Isaiah 53).
They would have
to “
seek the LORD while
he may be found;
call on him
while he is near”
(Isaiah 55:6).
Now was not the time
for
Israel to drag its feet.
There would be a window
of opportunity
and no room for delay
With the instruction
to “seek the Lord while He may be found,”
Isaiah stressed the urgency and seriousness of God’s summons.
The prophet Amos communicated
the same sense of urgency,
repeatedly issuing the Lord’s appeal
to “seek me and live”
(Amos 5:4–7, 14–15).
Dedicating our lives to the
pursuit of God
is a matter of life and death. If we procrastinate,
the opportunity
to respond to His invitation may run out
This theme of exigency
recurs in the
Parable of the Great Banquet
(Luke 14:12–24)
and the Parable of the Wedding Feast
(Matthew 22:1–14).
Just as Isaiah called the remnant
to come
to the Lord’s table to eat and drink
(Isaiah 55:1–2),
Jesus urged His primarily
Jewish audience
to
“eat at the feast in the kingdom of God”
(Luke 14:15).
Through the parables, Jesus explained that
The invited guests
rejected the Master’s offer,
and thus the
door of opportunity
was closed to them
Since those invited refused to come, everyone in
“the streets and alleys
of the town, . . .
the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame”
were invited to come and dine
(Luke 14:21).
Proverbs 1:20–33
illustrates how God’s patience
with fools those who
Refuse to Listen
to
The voice of Wisdom
eventually Runs Out,
“I called you so often, but you
wouldn’t come.
I reached out to you, but you
paid no attention.
You ignored my advice and
Rejected
The
Correction I offered
So I will laugh when
you
are in trouble!
I will mock you when disaster overtakes you
when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when
disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and
anguish and distress overwhelm you.
When they cry
for help,
I will not answer.
Though they anxiously search for me,
they will not find me”
(Proverbs 1:24–28, NLT).
When we hear
the voice of the Lord calling us to
seek Him,
inviting us to fellowship
at His table,
we must respond immediately
while there is still time.
“For God says, ‘
At just the right time,
I heard you.
On the day of salvation,
I helped you.’
Indeed, the ‘right time’ is now.
Today
is the day of salvation
(2 Corinthians 6:2, NLT).
We are not
promised tomorrow
(Proverbs 27:1; Luke 12:16–21).
As the psalmist urged,
“Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found”
(Psalm 32:6).
Jesus taught us to stay
focused
and seek God’s kingdom before
and
above all else
(Matthew 6:33–34).
Seek the Lord while He may be found means to
take up our cross and become
His disciple
(Mark 8:34)
at this very moment, today. The command is accompanied by another command and a promise:
“Let the wicked forsake their ways and the
unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord,
and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon”
(Isaiah 55:7).
We must repent of our sin and return to the Lord
right now because there will come a day when our time is up.
Scripture tells us to get ready, for
the day of the Lord’s return will
come suddenly,
“like a thief in the night”
(1 Thessalonians 5:2; see also 2 Peter 3:10).
While we still have time, before it’s too late, we must seek the Lord. God graciously promises to be found: “
You will seek the LORD your God and you will find him,
if you search after him
with all your heart and with all your soul”
(Deuteronomy 4:29, ESV).
Over and over throughout the Bible, God calls His people to repent,
return to Him, and seek the Lord while He may be found
(Deuteronomy 30:2–3; Leviticus 26:40–42; 2 Chronicles 15:4; Jeremiah 29:13–14).
The Bible talks a lot about
suffering for
the sake of Christ.
In the era in which the
New Testament was
written,
followers of Jesus were often ostracized
by their own
families and communities.
Some of the worst persecution came from the religious leaders (Acts 4:1–3). Jesus told His followers, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"
(Matthew 5:10).
He reminded His disciples,
"If the world hates you, keep in mind
that it hated me first"
(John 15:18)
Second Timothy 3:12 says,
"Everyone who wants to
live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted."
As in biblical times, many Christians today have
found that making a public declaration
of faith in Christ
can result in imprisonment, beatings, torture, or death
(Hebrews 11:32–38; 2 Corinthians 12:10; Philippians 3:8; Acts 5:40).
Often those of us in free nations shudder at the thought, but we feel relatively safe. We understand that there are thousands
who suffer daily for the sake of Christ and are thankful we don’t have to.
But is there only one kind of persecution?
Jesus stated clearly what it means to follow Him: “
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves
and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world,
and yet lose or forfeit their very self?"
(Luke 9:23–25).
Our modern understanding of the phrase "take up their cross and follow me" is often inadequate. In Jesus’ day the cross always symbolized death. When a man carried a cross, he had already been condemned to die on it. Jesus said that, in order to follow Him, one must be willing to die. We will not all die martyrs’ deaths. We will not all be imprisoned, beaten, or tortured for our faith. So what kind of death did Jesus mean?
Paul explains in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." To follow Christ means we die to our own way of doing things. We consider our will, our rights, our passions, and our goals to be crucified on the cross with Him. Our right to direct our own lives is dead to us (Philippians 3:7–8). Death involves suffering. The flesh does not want to die. Dying to self is painful and goes against our natural inclination to seek our own pleasure. But we cannot follow both Christ and the flesh (Luke 16:13; Matthew 6:24; Romans 8:8). Jesus said, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).
Paul suffered more than most for Jesus’ sake. He said this to the Christians at Phillipi:
"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ
not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him"
(Philippians 1:29).
The word granted here
means
"shown favor,
given freely as a gift."
Paul does not present
suffering as a curse,
but
as a benefit.
Suffering can take many forms.
By choosing to obey the
Lord Jesus Christ,
we are setting ourselves at odds with the world.
Galatians 1:10
says,
"For am I now seeking the
favor of men, or of God?
Or am I striving to
please men?
If I were still trying to please men,
I would not be a
bond-servant of Christ"
(NASB).
By closely adhering to the teachings of the Bible, we set ourselves up for rejection, mockery, loneliness, or betrayal. Often, the cruelest persecution comes from those who consider themselves spiritual but have defined God according to their own ideas. If we choose to take a stand for righteousness and biblical truth, we ensure that we will be misunderstood, mocked, or worse. We need to keep in mind that no threat of suffering deterred the apostles from preaching Christ. In fact, Paul said that losing everything was worth it "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Philippians 3:10, NASB). Acts 5:40–41 describes the reaction of the apostles after they received another beating for preaching about Jesus: "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name."
Suffering in some form is always going to
be a part of being
a true
follower of Christ.
Jesus said the path
that
leads to life is difficult
(Matthew 7:14).
Our hardship is also a way of identifying with
His suffering in a small way.
Jesus said
if we deny him before men,
He will deny us
before
His Father in heaven
(Matthew 10:33; Luke 12:9).
There are many
subtle ways to deny Christ.
If our actions, words, lifestyle,
or entertainment choices
do not reflect His will, we are
denying Christ.
If we claim to know Him but live as though we didn’t, we are denying Christ (1 John 3:6–10).
Many people choose those forms
of denying Christ
because they do not want to suffer for Him.
Often our greatest suffering comes from within as we battle for
control over a heart that must
die to its own will
and
surrender to
Christ’s lordship
(Romans 7:15–25).
In whatever form suffering comes, we should embrace it
as a badge of honor and a privilege that we,
like the apostles, have
"been counted worthy of
suffering disgrace
for the Name."