TCH MINI-STUDY 58
THE STRUGGLE WITHIN THE BELIEVER
The scriptures teach us that there is a tremendous daily choice
and struggle within every believer in Christ. It is a struggle that pits our love of God and the spiritual world against our love
of carnality, self, and the natural world. Let us examine a few of the scriptures that address this struggle.
The apostle Paul
details his own struggles: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not:
for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is
good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no
good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not:
but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But
I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:14-25).
The apostle Matthew
teaches us that we cannot love two opposing options at the same time:“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The
light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve
two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:19-24).
Speaking to the multitudes around Him, Jesus clearly taught that the believers' priority
must be Christ, and Christ alone: "If any man come to me, and hate [Greek, miseo, detest, love less] not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all
that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against
another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise,whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-33).
Writing the church in
Galatia, the apostle Paul addressed the requirement of pleasing God rather than pleasing men with these words: "As we said before,
so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade
men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:9-10).
The
apostle James teaches us that when we lust after the world and its' ways, we become hostile to and an enemy of God. James wrote, “From
whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not:
ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because
ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship [fondness] of
the world is enmity [Greek, echthra, hostility, hatred, reason for opposition] with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy [Greek, echthros, to hate, actively hostile, an adversary, foe] of God” (James 4:1-4). When we befriend the world,
we become hostile to God, an adversary and foe of our God almighty.
To the strangers scattered abroad, the apostle Peter addressed
the dangers of fleshly lusts with these words: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts,
which war [go to warfare and battle] against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).
Regarding the believers' choice to love God or the world,
the apostle John teaches us, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Clearly, the believer in Christ must make many choices. He or she must choose between the law of
the Lord and the law of the mind, choose between the treasures in heaven or the treasures on earth, choose to keep all that he has
or to forsake all that he has, choose to please men or God, choose to be a friend of the world or a friend of God, choose to engage
his or her fleshly lusts or abstain from them, and, lastly, choose between loving the world or loving the Father.
The believer
in Christ even has a choice to heed, or not, the words of God the Father spoken through Moses: "I call heaven and earth to record
this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy
seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him:
for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). As Jesus taught His disciples, “If any man [or woman] will come after
me, let him deny himself [of the things of the world], and take up his cross [and crucify his flesh], and follow me [in a life of
humility]. For whosoever will save [protect, preserve] his life shall lose [destroy, cause to perish] it: and whosoever will lose
his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). AMEN.
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD
A
Judeo-Christian Bible Study
WOE UNTO THEM THAT CALL EVIL GOOD,
AND GOOD EVIL
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light,
and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent
in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked
for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame
consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the
law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel"
(Isaiah 5:20-24).
A SEASON FOR EVERYTHING
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the
heaven: A time to be born,
and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time
to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time
to break
down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones,
and
a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to
refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a
time to keep,
and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to
keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love,
and a time to hate; a
time of war, and a time of peace”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
JESUS CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED
"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with
you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but
in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God”
(1 Corinthians
2:1-5).
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread
to the eater: So shall my word [Hebrew, dabar; the speaking, movement, and operation of the Holy Spirit, not the bible] be that goeth
forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the
thing whereto
I sent it”
(Isaiah 55:8-11).
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which
ye have learned; and
avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly;
and by good words
and fair speeches deceive
the hearts
of the simple
(Romans 16:17-18).
I DECLARE UNTO YOU THE GOSPEL
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have
received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of
the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but
some are fallen asleep”
(1 Corinthians 15:1-6).
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? IT IS EVEN A VAPOUR
"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into
such a city, and continue
there a year, and buy and sell, and
get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your life? It is even a vapour,
that appeareth
for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought
to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and
do this, or
that”
(James 4:15).