Category: Blog

Luke 6:36-38

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.

Taking JI Packer’s paraphrase of the Moral Law, we can fully appreciate that it is the blueprint of a Christ-like life – a life characterized by loving God and loving one another.
“You shall worship your covenant God exclusively and wholeheartedly, according to His own revelation, regarding Him with consistent reverence and setting aside regular time for rest and worship in His honour; you should respect those who have nurtured you, labour to sustain the family unit; you must do all you can to safeguard the life, sexual purity, property, reputation, and well being of all you meet, and knowing that your God watches over you, you are to be content with what you have.” – JI Packer.

In Luke 6:36-38, our Lord gave us a practical account of what it meant to love one another.

We should show mercy to one another.
We should not be judgmental or have a condemning spirit against another.
We should be forgiving towards one another.
We should be generous towards one another.

What is a judgmental or condemning spirit ? Jesus told this parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Gatherer to some people who believed that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt. Luke 18:9. Viewing others beneath us in spirituality is false spirituality. That is spiritual pride with a judgmental or condemning spirit. We see ourselves as good and minimizing our own faults while maximizing the faults of others.

Showing mercy, especially to the poor and needy, also entails being generous. And when we are generous, God will repay us with the same measure of generosity in return. Prov 19:17. Jesus our Lord gave the following illustration to explain what generosity was. In His days, when one buys from a grain seller, and if the grain seller is generous, he will pour into the measure till it is full. Then he will shake the measure for the grain to settle to the bottom and even press down the grain. And he will continue to pour till the grain overflows into the buyer’s lap. That is generosity explained.

Such a wonderful passage on relationship between one another in Christ has been taken out of context to justify two wrong teachings by false prosperity and hyper grace teachers.

The first wrong teaching is on judging. Our Lord was teaching us not to have spiritual pride with a condemning spirit; but it did not mean we should not discern and judge false teaching and blatant sin. Our Lord and the Apostles judged the Pharisees, Judaizers and those who denied Jesus is the Christ for their hypocrisy, twisting of the gospel for their gain and the anti-Christ teaching respectively. The Scriptures even exhorted not to associate or receive such false teachers and to ex-communicate those who sin blatantly without remorse. 1 Cor 5; Titus 1: 11,13.

The second wrong teaching is on giving. The verse “give and it will be given to you” is taken out of context by prosperity gospel teachers to encourage giving with the promise that God will return many fold. As explained earlier, our Lord was exhorting a generous spirit towards one another.

Christian Joy is a fruit of the Spirit and it is not the same as Happiness as defined and desired by the world.

The Scripture described Joy as gladness in the heart in anticipation of something great while the dictionary defined Happiness as a satisfying or pleasurable experience.

Joy is such that even when one is in need, or in pain, or in the middle of a storm in life, he can still have joy. Joy does not depend on circumstances and is permanent. Unlike Happiness which depend on circumstances and is fleeting due to the vagaries of life.

A Christian, who truly loves the Lord and obeys His commands to bear the marks of a disciple, will surely experience joy and will not oscillate between happiness and sadness because his family, self and possessions do not have any hold on him and are all surrendered to our Lord. Luke 14:25-35.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and JOY in the Holy Spirit. – Romans 14:17.

Count it all JOY, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. REJOICE and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. – Matthew 5:11-12

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will REJOICE, and no one will take your JOY from you. – John 16:22

In this you REJOICE, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. – 1 Peter 1:6-7

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the JOY that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:1-2

Let us REJOICE and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; – Revelation 19:7

The reaction to what I said about this (debate) was mixed. Some evangelicals responded thoughtfully and theologically, others with inflexible dogmatism – I find myself increasingly out of sympathy with excessive evangelical dogmatism – and a third group, especially in the US, was positively hysterical in its denunciation…It’s a very distressing thing about evangelicalism that we are not good at responsible domestic debate. But the hallmark of an authentic evangelical is not the uncritical repetition of old traditions, but the willingness to submit every tradition, however ancient, to fresh biblical scrutiny, and, if necessary, reform.

– John Stott, Balanced Christianity

How often we find ourselves similarly distressed debating over certain paradoxical doctrine. And we often confused debate on balanced Christian living with balanced view of doctrine. Let me explain so that we can have a clear understanding of the difference.

The Bible is full of exhortation to stay balanced in our Christian living. For example in Prov 30:8-9, the psalmist asked not of poverty nor riches for either extreme would be dishonoring the name of God or disowning Him altogether. We must not also be so generous as to be financially irresponsible towards providing for our own family, while at the same time not to be so miserly in not giving anything to anybody at all.

Concerning certain paradoxical doctrine (not including all other clear biblical truth but only referring to paradoxical ones), truth is accepting the biblical truth in both extremes, even mutually exclusive ones. For example, Jesus our Lord is 100% God and 100% man though they are mutually exclusive. In real life, we find light to have both the properties of particle and wave which has confounded scientists eversince, yet it does not deter scientists to continue their research and invention based on acceptance of both properties. Why must a scientist be so dogmatic on just one property of light and miss the whole picture ?

We find this paradox running across so many debates :
1. Faith alone and Works.
2. Predestination and Free Will.
3. Love and Suffering.
4. Etc.

We must bear in mind that God’s ways are definitely higher than ours, so what is impossible for us with our limited understanding may be possible for Him. I have come to believe truth may be found in the biblical part of both extremes. Standing on one extreme may be unbiblical as it will definitely include an unbiblical part arguing against the other extreme.

An example is the existence of both poverty and prosperity gospels. What the prosperity gospel disagree with the poverty gospel insisting that Christians must be materially poor is biblically correct, but that does not make the prosperity gospel a true biblical gospel with some truth in it. The true gospel is the balanced view in the stewardship gospel.

John 17 : 6-19
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Our Lord’s prayer for His disciples in John 17 is the most important exemplary prayer we should pray for one another. Jesus our Lord prayed for His disciples :

1. To believe the Word of God and be sanctified by it.
2. To be united in love.
3. To experience the same peace and joy of Him.
4. To be protected from the evil one.
5. To be sent out into the world to make disciples.

Now in the last days, the urgency to pray for one another is even more acute because there will be troubled times or persecution ahead and false teaching will proliferate.

The hyper grace false teaching is drawing large numbers away from believing the truth in the Word of God and be sanctified by it. Many are experiencing the false security in idols of wealth and well-being instead of true peace and joy in Christ. Many are blinded spiritually by the evil one with very subtle teaching of blending messages which extol grace and promote self-gratification at the same time. Knowing fully well that the hyper grace gospel is a false gospel, we are most uncharitable if we do not warn the believers who have fallen for such teaching and pray for them.

Stop hearing and believing dangerous teaching that we do not need to practise righteousness after believing in Jesus. 1 John 3:7-8. The clear evidence of who are the children of God or the children of the devil is this : those who do NOT practise righteousness is NOT born of God. 1 John 3:10. 1 John 2:29. Beware of the counter twist by the false teachers that if we practise righteousness, we are actually nullifying the perfect atonement of Christ our Lord on the Cross. That is a punch below the waist.  Such twist is good enough for the naive and the blinded. What actually happen is when we sincerely repent and believe in our Lord Jesus, God’s seed abides in us (the Word of God and the Holy Spirit) and we will practise righteousness as evidence of a sanctified life. We will pursue godliness because when we are led by the Spirit, we will set our minds on the things of the Spirit. Rom 8:5.

Stop hearing and believing another dangerous teaching that discipleship is not necessary once we believe in Jesus. Jesus never give us such an option. He stated the necessary demands of discipleship.   Luke 14:25-33.  We are sent out to make disciples, not professing believers, and to teach them to obey every command of Jesus.  Matt 28:19-20

One clear evidence of false teachers today is this: whether they make up clever lies to get hold of your money.  Note the word “CLEVER”.  They will extol grace in their teaching and yet hookwink their believers into giving more of their money in one way or another.

2 Pet 2:2-3 NLT.

Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up CLEVER lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

So if we truly love Jesus, we have to pray often for the protection of His beloved from the enemy and his agents.  We have to pray for them to have such hunger for the Word of God and be sanctified by it.