If You Love Them You Will Challenge Them

1 John 3:8-10 "…8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.…"

No one who has been born of God lives a lifestyle of sin defending it. If they do sin they confess to be cleansed.

Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"

Have you noticed that God never mentions which sins could lose one salvation, or how big they had to be or how many times one had to sin. It is clear that once Christ changes us into a new creation and seals us with the Holy Spirit we can never go back and be the old creation again. We have been permanently changed by Christ. If we sin as His children He disciplines us until we confess to be cleansed. 1 John 1:9 was written to born-again believers, and so was 1 John 2:1.

1 John 1:9

"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

1 John 2:1 "1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. "

There are many pretenders in the church who think they are going to heaven but they have never trusted Christ, they tried to come into the church in their flesh having never been transformed by Christ but claiming to be Christian.

God says this about those people:

Matthew 7:21-23 "

I Never Knew You

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

There are many if not most people in church gatherings today who have joined the "Christian club" but have never trusted Christ, they confuse the new believers and even some seasoned believers who are reluctant to challenge these pretenders to ask God if they have been transformed.

Instead of challenging people to walk a holy path the church is coddling them leading them straight into hell as they believe they are saved. If we love these people we will ask them to go to God to see if they have ever been saved.

Strengthening the Hands of the Poor and Needy

Ezekiel 16:49

"49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

Notice a phrase here that really stood out on the page for me; "neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

Often people think they are helping the needy by handing them everything they need temporarily so that they are taken care of like children for one day and then the next day they need it all over again. In my opinion, this is weakening the needy.

If we were to "strengthen the hand of the needy" we help them come off drugs, train them in a skill to be able to work and then find them a job to be able to take care of themselves. There is nothing more satisfying than earning one's own way as we make our own decisions that enhance our existence.

Hand-outs do not leave anyone with purpose and dignity, they only keep people in bondage to the whims of others.

Psalm 90:17

"17 May the kindness of the Lord our God be upon us;

And confirm for us the work of our hands;

Yes, confirm the work of our hands."

There will always be those who will not try, they remain on drugs even when offered help. They refuse to work when given an opportunity, we cannot help these people they must make the decision themselves that they want help to come out of their lifestyle before anyone will be able to help them God's Way.

Enabling people is not love, giving them the opportunity and skills to make a lifestyle change is God's way of helping others.

Those who have authentic disabilities are the ones we can help with money but even then we must help them to manage the money they are given so they will continue to have enough, not extra for frills but enough for needs.

We strengthen unsaved people with the gospel, and believers with the truth of the Scriptures so that they might learn to live by God's principles. Sadly in many church gatherings today there is more enabling going on than help from God's Word. I suspect it is because the leaders and the attendees have been silenced through intimidation not to "appear" unkind by requiring accountability.

When we are in a gathering that will not listen to God's Word or abide by it, that is the time to leave. It is impossible to be helpful when people refuse to live by the Words of Christ.

Matthew 15:7-9 "…7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”

May we continually self-reflect to determine if we are walking in the light of God's Word, let us not enable others to remain in sin while elevating ourselves as the Corinthian Christians did, so proud of how tolerant of sin they were that God chastised them. He left their legacy in the Bible for all to see for all time, thankfully they corrected their sin of tolerance, unfortunately, the people of our day will not do it.

Adrian Rogers: The Days of Noah

Your Dignity And The Narcissist's Indignance