Living in Wisdom

Berean Baptist on February 5, 2018

It is impossible for the natural man to choose a holy and righteous life, or essentially the things that will make him healthy and wholesome. The health I am speaking of is not necessarily physical although many of us have a very difficult time making the right choices in that area. I am speaking of choosing health for the soul—the ability to come to Christ in salvation and to begin a course of living for God.

Righteousness eludes every person who does not know Christ. Our fallen nature prevents us from choosing godliness which is the reason we need the Lord to change our hearts. Jesus said we must be born again. This infers the old life must be replaced with the new life that only He can give. Until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to this truth, we remain carnally minded and cannot please God (Romans 8:6-8).

In regeneration, God changes the disposition of the mind and gives the ability to choose the right path instead of repeating the frequent failures of the past. However, this new capability does not mean we possess immediate wisdom to use it. As we well know, there is a sanctifying process in which good choices are cultivated by prayer, study, and practical experience. Wisdom in this case is not a sudden miraculous endowment as God gave Solomon. This wisdom is best described as discernment achieved through repetitive training. In fact, it is wisdom that will never show itself unless great care is taken to work on it daily. When we indulge sin on a regular basis without being cautious to protect ourselves from it, the heart grows cold and calloused and strongly resists correction. The spiritual man can become a couch potato that never heeds the call to work out our salvation (work out your own salvation—Phil. 2:12).

The first way the Bible tells us to discern properly is in our moral choices. Because the moral character of a Christian is changed, it is possible to choose ways of living that are consistent with the Bible’s commandments. Many of these ways we never thought of before and were never bothered because we did the opposite. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, comes the ability to see sin differently, and rather than enjoy its pleasures, we are grieved in our heart and broken by it.

The second area of discernment concerns doctrinal distinctions. All right choices whether moral or theological are governed by our doctrine. For example, the Gnosticism of the first century led to very immoral lifestyles because the doctrine of the body/soul relationship was wrong. We should recognize that every false doctrine leads to unbiblical thinking. Wrong thinking leads to wrong practice and to compromise which in turn becomes bad lifestyle choices.

There are moral and doctrinal distinctions that must be made. We do not have the option of ignoring them. The best place you can learn how to make right choices is to attend church and sit under good doctrinal preaching. Living in wisdom is not mystical. It is to follow the objective truth of God’s word.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Legalism vs. Discipline

Berean Baptist on November 13, 2017

Recently I read an article that was helpful for those who misunderstand the dichotomy of legalism and discipline for Christians. As you know, I decided long ago as the pastor of Berean not to adhere to a lengthy list of rules that are enforced by the “holier than thou committee.” Many churches use rules to sit in judgment of others’ Christianity. Legalism is a theological issue in these churches and often they do not understand they are legalists.

Strictly speaking, legalism is the belief that salvation is obtained by keeping commandments (rules), or in other words that we are justified by works rather than by faith. This strict definition causes many legalists to say they are not legalists because they would never teach that salvation is by any other means than grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

However, a broader definition is needed because legalism also concerns an inordinate preoccupation with the Law. Legalism may be defined as “excessive adherence to law or formula.” This is where many churches fall into legalism. Their issue is not usually justification but sanctification. Unfortunately, these two doctrines are often blended until unbiblically, sanctification becomes justification. These churches become excessive and insistent about rules for the membership to follow. This definition of legalism must be resisted as much as the other.

We have our own problems to deal with in this area, and my purpose is not to throw stones at those we disagree with. Our problem is not legalism—it is lack of discipline. In our efforts to combat legalism, many have fallen away from good Christian discipline. Discipline may be defined as “activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training.” As the author of this article said, “The danger of confusing the two [legalism and discipline] is that we can lose the important spiritual disciplines which are crucial to our growth, sanctification, protection, and intimacy with Christ.”

This author did not address personal appearance issues but went on to describe other spiritual disciplines that are not optional if a person wants to grow in his walk with the Lord. These are extremely important, and we discussed those things in our Living for Jesus series. I want to turn our attention instead to the issue of how we appear to others.

How we dress is also a spiritual discipline. The teaching of our testimony before the world in all its facets forms an integral part of New Testament instructions for Christian living. How we appear can cause instant formation of opinions, and whether it is right or wrong to form an opinion of someone merely by the way they dress is immaterial to its being a fact of life we must live with. We have few opportunities to sit down with people to explain what we believe. The limited amount of information someone knows about you—who you are and what you are in their minds—is communicated instantly through your appearance. An unkempt appearance, sloppiness, even the wrong swagger evokes its assessments. A clean-cut conservative appearance does the same. We tend to form good opinions of the latter and poor opinions of the former.

Likewise, assessments of moral values are made by appearance. Provocative clothing does not speak a character of godliness. It characterizes the wearer as conforming to the purpose of modern fashion, which is to entice, exude sexiness, and invite the onlooker’s inspection. We can make all the excuses we want, but we can never escape that exposing the body invites examination of things which should never be seen.

What is my point? Disciplining ourselves in appearance is godly and expected. We cannot justify our resistance to legalism by developing habits that kill our influence for Christ. Think about the testimony of your appearance wherever you are. From what I see inside in our church services, more personal discipline is needed, which no doubt means it is needed much more outside among those who do not know us personally.

Personal appearance is not all there is to godliness, but surely it has its important part to play.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith