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The Gospel and the Church – Hit the Mark — 2 Comments

  1. "Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap means that if I do good to others, I should expect good to happen to me. If bad things happen to me that is because I am reaping from bad things I did. Explain your answer."

    Interesting question.
    On the broad scale of human interpersonal relationships, it is quite natural for a smile to reap a smile in return; a person who has many friends is usually a very friendly person. In marriage we hear accounts of marriages saved because one partner commits to really building up the other person. The way we treat others does have a significant effect on how others treat us. It can change the whole atmosphere when a happy, positive person enters a group!
    Hopefully we can by that person within our church community, bringing a unity to work together for Christ.

    But then we move to another scene. Paul writes to Timothy that " all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Now we see bad things being reaped because one does good!

    However, I was thinking of the verse in yet a different line. Much of Paul's letter was on salvation through faith not by law. Here he is bringing in a balance, saying, even though we are not saved by keeping the law, yet that law (which is based on love) is there for a reason. God put it there because He loves us and wants the best for us.
    To willingly live outside God's law, thinking it doesn't matter if we obey it or not, is in essence mocking God and his law.
    Disobeying God's laws does have consequences.

    For example, King David, did some pretty bad things, he confessed, repented in genuine repentance, and God forgave him, justified him and even called him a man after his own heart.
    But even though David was restored in a saving relationship with God, yet he still reaped the consequences of his sin. There was, among other things, the loss of respect of his children, and even of his subjects. Life was different and not so pleasant after his fall.

    So even though grace is an undeserved gift to the believing Christian, don't mock God by thinking that the gift, which comes without the law, makes it OK to sin -- a person does reap the results of their sins. Those sins can leave terrible scars. Like nails pulled out of a board, even though the nails are gone, they leave holes. Sins, even though forgiven, leave scars.

    But like David, who held fast his faith in God, and knew his transgressions were covered, even though he knew he did not deserve salvation, we too can be assured that we are forgiven, and even when things don't go smooth for whatever reason, we continue in well doing, for in the end, through Christ working for us and in us, we will reap eternal life, if we keep our eyes fixed on Him.

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  2. Right, Pauls council applys to us today also. After all are not many of our churches in crisis today like the Galatians were? One member takes the victorious life given to us by God through our Lord Jesus Christ, then another, and another, and another in humility and forgivness, realizing that they too are new creatures in Christ. Before we know it, by the grace of God, our church prevails. 1 Corinthians 15:57.

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