THE TRUTH ONLY part 1

THE TRUTH ONLY  part 1

What you believe matters a lot. In fact your experience as a man in Christ is dependent on what you believe and say. This is the reason for this series. I have heard many people say every body has his own message. Does everyone really has his own message? Does the Bible tells us what to teach? What actually is the truth? How do I know if a message is correct? Can we preach anything we like from the Bible? We will address all these and much more in this series.
The Bible is full of admonitions of what we are to believe and teach.  In fact, it is for this reason that we have the Bible so we can know what to believe, confess and teach others. We will be looking at many of the admonitions on what to believe and teach. I believe wrong teaching is more powerful than the devil, sin or anything we can think of . This is because if people are rightly taught, all these will not be an issue to them. Let’s start with 2 Corinthians 5.
2Corithians 5
17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. note
18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. note
20  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Notice verses 18 and 19. When a man becomes a new creature he receives a ministry. This ministry comes with a message. This means that any man that is not preaching the message is not in Ministry.  The ministry is in the message. It is the message of reconciliation, the message of God not imputing sins on man. Even in the normal world, if someone sends you to go deliver  a message and you go about delivering your own personal message, you are not doing the work. So if you are doing ministry, you must go about preaching THE MESSAGE, not many messages. As a Christian you must ensure that what you believe is the message.  If not, your life will be sure negatively affected. I once heard someone say, he was sick because he refused to do what God told him. Where is that In the message of not imputing sin? Though it is not good to disobey God’s instructions, but to believe God made you sick is a deception of the devil. If God is making people sick? What then is the devil doing? Healing them?
Therefore we have seen that there is a message, we are not to preach anything we like. You know as humans, it would have been good to impute sin, to tell a criminal how God will punish him, to shout death to evil people. But, we are not allowed to do that. If we do, we will be joining the devil who is the accuser.
Having said all of this, What then is the truth? Since we see everybody preaching different things.

UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH
To understand the truth you must know that the truth is a person as much as is a message. The truth is centred on  Christ Jesus and what He has done.
John 1:
14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
This is the testimony of John about Jesus. Here, we see that Christ is full of Grace that is the truth. We also see that Grace that is truth  became flesh in Christ. This doesn't mean that God became gracious in Christ. No. God has always been gracious. His graciousness is seen in the person of Christ. This means that anything any man is preaching as the truth must show the graciousness of God in Christ. We can only know God through Christ who is the visibility of God. (Check my post on GOD'S SELFIE to know more on this). There is nothing gracious in preaching that God is a killer. That cannot be the truth. It may be factual. It may be proven with enough Bible verses but that can never be the Truth. Paul further spoke on this in the epistles.
Galatians 1
6  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
7  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9  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.
Notice verse 6. There is the Grace of Christ which is the gospel, then there is another gospel. This means that if it is not the good news of what Christ has done and who we are because of what He has done, it is another gospel. Notice the tone of Apostle Paul here. It's that of anger against any doctrine that is not the gospel. So anyone that preaches another doctrine should be treated as a cursed thing. But, man of God, what if the man had encounters and saw the visions of what he is teaching ? We  are not to teach visions but the gospel as it is written in the scriptures. As pst Eghosa Alvin Osunde will always put it, God put on flesh in Christ and stock with IT IS WRITTEN. He never taught experiences. In fact Jesus in all His teachings was always refering to what is written , not what He got from encounters. It is not bad to talk of encounters, but it must be subject to the word not like those who claim to have funny revelations of Christians in hell. Things not found in the Bible. Funny enough the people are in hell for stupid reasons like ear ring. What we see in the Bible is that we are citizens of heaven only because of what Christ has done. Philippians 3:20, Romans 5:9-11.(To read more on this click SURETY OF HEAVEN part One, part two and part three).
So the truth is centred only on what Christ has done and who we are because of what He has done. Any topic we preach must be from this truth. For example if you want to teach RIGHTEOUSNESS , you must first acknowledge that we have been made righteous by what Christ has done. 2Corinthians 5:21. We are to live a righteous life not to become righteous but because we are righteous already. If you want to teach HOLINESS you must realise that He has made us holy. He has perfected us. He has set us apart by His Holy Spirit in us. This is why we should live a holy, set apart live. Hebrews 10:10, 14.  You want to teach on POWER, you must realise that Christ has been made unto us power. 1 Corinthians 1:24. In Christ we have received power by the Spirit we have received. Acts 1:8.  So we don’t pray to have power. We pray to know the power we have Ephesians 1:17-20 and to put the power into operation by changing things. Even when it comes to CORRECTIONS, we must correct people and ourselves according to the truth. You must not lie because you want to correct. For example you cannot call a Christian a sinner because you want to correct an action of sin. Reading through the epistles ( the explanation of Genesis to Malachi ) you will see how corrections are made. For example Paul in correcting the Corinthian Church calls them saints. 1Cor 1:1-2. The same people he called saints are those with different immoral acts, even to the extent of sleeping with a step parent. See how he corrected fornication in
1 Corinthians 6.
9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
12  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. note
13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. note
14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
Paul here separated their actions from their person. He calls them the body of Christ even amidst the fornication. So why they should not fornicate is because they are God’s habitation, not to become God’s habitation. This is correction in THE TRUTH. No need to lie against your nature. When people are sick they say I am the healed of the Lord, so when you sin you ought not to call yourself a sinner. That is a lie. You are still the righteousness of God in Christ. YOU ARE NOT YOUR ACTION. Paul will say I choose not to know any other thing among you except Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2. It is a choice we must make to see people in their true personality in Christ.

Knowing and teaching the truth does not mean being able to interpret every verse of the Bible correctly. Correct Bible interpretation is a result  of diligence and having good teachers which every one of us should endeavour to have and be. Even if you cannot interpret every verse correctly yet, you must be teachable and open to corrections, and you must stick to the Truth of the graciousness of God in Christ. Stick to the Truth of God’s word which is in Christ.

In the subsequent part of this series, we will look at other admonitions in the epistles especially in the pastoral epistles ( 1 Timothy, 2Timothy and Titus) on what to believe and teach.

              By OBIAZIKWOR EMEKE MODESTY
                  
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