November 2009

Dear Partner,

A few days ago as I read my devotional, I felt as though I should share it with you.

Don’t Let Division Stunt Your Growth

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions . . .” (I Corinthians 3:1-3)

Envying, strife and divisions had reduced the early Corinthian Christians back to the natural, or carnal, state that they were before they were born again. It had so stunted their spiritual growth that they couldn’t understand the things the Apostle Paul wanted to teach them.

Satan has sent the same spirit of division among us today. He knows that a house divided against itself will fall. He also knows if we all come together in the unity of our faith, we’ll arrive at the full stature of Christ Jesus (Ephesians4:13). So he has assigned a spirit of division to operate in our personal lives, our social lives, and our family lives. His goal is the same as it was in Corinth: to bring envying, strife, division, and to stunt our spiritual growth.

But we don’t have to yield to that spirit. Instead Paul says, “[by] speaking the truth in love [we] may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”

Compare “speaking the truth in love to envyings, strife and divisions.” Diametrical opposites aren’t they? You can’t do both of them at the same time. As you speak the truth in love, you grow up. As you envy, fuss, and separate from one another, you go back to babyhood.

Don’t let Satan stop your spiritual growth by giving in to the spirit of division, but speak the truth in love and grow up into Him in all things!

Scripture reading: James 4:1-11

There has been a book written that has some very controversial statements about grace. Several pastors have removed it from their bookstores. Some never allowed it in the first place. I will only mention two statements:

1. In reference to I John 1:9 “People have taken this verse and built a whole doctrine around it when actually I John 1 was written to Gnostics, who were unbelievers.”

Response: This Bible of mine is written to believers, to include I John 1. If I was to take this approach to the Bible, then Romans would be to the Italians. If this scripture were eliminated from Christendom, there would be confusion, and a deterioration of Christianity, as we know it.

2. “My, this is something that the Apostle Paul never taught (practical righteousness)! There is only one righteousness in Christ Jesus, that is positional righteousness.”

Response: The words positional and practical do not appear in scripture relating to righteousness. They are conclusions that are reached by Bible scholars.

Righteousness:

a. Positional righteousness II Corinthians 5:21

b. Practical righteousness I John 1:9, I Corinthians 15:34
“awake to righteousness and sin not”

c. Work of righteousness and the effect Isaiah 32:17
“and the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.”

d. Fruit of righteousness James 3:18
“and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

Psalm 37:37 “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.”

Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”

Peace is the normal state of a Christian. It is in our secret place, our confidence, our stronghold. If we follow after peace, we can be assured of right standing with God.

In His love,

George Moss