Enemies of the Mind – Part 6

 

We have been looking at ways and strategies the devil employs to try to get us off track in our devotion to the Lord. Since we are in the flesh, that is, prone to sinning since we are imperfect, Satan takes advantage of that and lures us using our emotions in several different ways which I have explained to you throughout this course.

 

We need to keep in mind that our faith is dependent on God’s show of mercy and the wisdom that He has revealed to us in Christ. Paul explains in the Spirit:

 

1Co 2:1-16

(1)  And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

(2)  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

(3)  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

(4)  and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

(5)  that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

(6)  Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

(7)  But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

(8)  None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

(9)  But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"--

(10)  these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

(11)  For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

(12)  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

(13)  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

(14)  The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

(15)  The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

(16)  "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (All passages quoted from the ESV unless otherwise noted)

 

As we realize the treasures that our loving Heavenly Father has given us, we understand the secrets to disarming the stinging darts that the devil and his demons throw our way. We just need to make sure we are on the path to maturity, and that we are not always learning but never reaching an understanding of the truth – as it happen to those who are burdened with passions and sins (2 Tim 3:6-7).

 

VII – Perfectionism (also religious legalism) – When you want to be in control

 

Mat 5:44-48

(44)  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

(45)  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

(46)  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

(47)  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

(48)  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (teleios: wanting nothing necessary to completeness; complete, mature).

 

Paul tells the Corinthians:

 

1Co 14:12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel (perisseuo: having in abundance, exceeding, increasing, over and above.) in building up the church.

 

2Co 8:7  But as you excel (same as above) in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you--see that you excel in this act of grace also.

 

2Co 13:11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration (katartizo: completely thorough, perfect, prepared; fit, sound, complete), comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

 

If we are serious about our love and devotion to the Lord we will aim for excellence and perfection. The Lord wants us to aim for the highest mark and run like that person who will win the prize in a race (1Co 9:24). The love of Christ will compel us to do our best for Him! At the same time, we need to be realistic about our situation here, in this body on this Earth.

 

The Lord knows we are but a mist (James 4:14), here today and gone tomorrow. No one is perfect in the sense of being sinless! The word perfect used in the passages above means “to be complete, mature, not lacking anything.” Is it possible for that to happen while in the flesh?

 

Rom 3:10-18

(10)  as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one;

(11)  no one understands; no one seeks for God.

(12)  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."

(13)  "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips."

(14)  "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."

(15)  "Their feet are swift to shed blood;

(16)  in their paths are ruin and misery,

(17)  and the way of peace they have not known.",

(18)  "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

 

Obviously we are “damaged goods”, yet our Heavenly Father considers us valuable and worthy of His calling in Jesus Christ. His aim is for us to be perfect in love. We cannot be perfect in the flesh but we can be perfect, as God is, when we aim for the highest, which is LOVE.

 

Remember the secret Paul shared with the Corinthians? At the end of chapter 12 he says, “I will show you a more excellent way.”  The word excellent in the Greek is the word huperbole, from which we get hyperbole. In the ancient Greek it meant “more excellent, exceeding, beyond (out of) measure.”

 

What way is beyond measure and most excellent? That is the way of LOVE. The whole of chapter 13 in 1^st Corinthians is dedicated to explaining LOVE as an attitude and an action, never as a feeling or emotion. Consider each qualifier of love described and notice that in order for you to experience love you must have this attitude of love in you, which is perfected by practicing it on others. This is what John talks about in these passages:

 

1John 2:4-6

(4)  Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

(5)  but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him:

(6)  whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

 

1John 4:11-13

(11)  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

(12)  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

(13)  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

(14)  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

(15)  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

(16)  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

(17)  By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

(18)  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

(19)  We love because he first loved us.

(20)  If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

(21)  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

 

Paul ties it all up in these verses:

 

Col 3:12-14

(12)  Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

(13)  bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

(14)  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony (teleiotes: moral and spiritual perfection; the state of mental and moral completeness).

 

Love is perfect. When we are mature in love we are perfect in love. Since love is perfect, when we love, we are being perfect. You cannot love and make a mistake while you are loving God’s way. That’s how God designed it, since He is LOVE. Those who try to be perfect in other ways, according to the flesh, will only live to disappoint themselves and others since we are still prone to sin, even though we practice the love of God! There is no such thing as a state of sinless perfection on earth; only in Heaven! We cannot, by our own “perfection”, please anyone, above all, God. The only way we are like God and Jesus is when we love one another from the heart and from the mind; loving God with all our heart, soul mind and strength. Love has to be practiced completely in order for it to be perfected in us (Mark 12:28-31).     

 

 

Well, this is the theology of love and perfection, or maturity; completeness. Now let’s get to the practicals of this excellent way:

 

What can I do to avoid the sin of perfectionism (legalism)?

 

1-     Work on YOUR character: The Lord our God desires for us to mature and be complete. That will happen when we stop focusing on others and begin with ourselves. When we judge others in a legalistic self-righteous way, we are not judging the right way, and therefore our own judgment will be very harsh on the part of God. Being a perfectionist will cause you to eventually judge God Himslef!

 

Jam 5:7-9

(7)  Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.

(8)  You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

(9)  Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

 

  Rom 2:1-8

(1)  Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

(2)  We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things.

(3)  Do you suppose, O man--you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself--that you will escape the judgment of God?

(4)  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

(5)  But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

(6)  He will render to each one according to his works:

(7)  to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;

(8)  but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

 

2-     Trust in the grace and patience of your Heavenly Father: His desire is to give you hope and to make you complete and satisfied, in the only we He can. Often our own course of actions stem from selfishness and shortsightedness. We cannot see past our noses and our plans bring us grief instead of satisfaction. We need to learn to think it terms of eternity to keep our perspective in keeping with God’s plans for us and those around us. Learn to wait on the Lord.

 

Jer 29:11-13

(11)  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

(12)  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

(13)  You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart,

Isa 30:18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

 

3-     Don’t be rigid in your ways – be flexible: Don’t make yourself and others miserable by demanding unrealistic expectations to which no one can measure up. If your heart is hard and your are unrepentant, God will eventually make you see the error of your ways but at a high price. Therefore learn to be flexible with yourself so you can be flexible with others in the matters of this world. Be of soft heart, yet hard in your convictions of the Word of God.

 

Pro 29:1 He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

 

4-     Recognize that each person in the Body of Christ is at a different level of spiritual maturity.

 

Phi 3:8-16

(8)  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

(9)  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (not on feelings) --

(10)  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

(11)  that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

(12)  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

(13)  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

(14)  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

(15)  Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

(16)  Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

 

Rom 14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

 

Phi 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

 

Heb 13:20-21

(20)  Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

(21)  equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

5-     Do what you can to help others.

 

1Th 5:14-16

(14)  And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

(15)  See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

(16)  Rejoice always,

 

1Th 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try (there is no “try” in this passage!) to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

         16 Be joyful always; (NIV)

 

6-     Leave the finishing of the product up to God. He is the Lord and He knows best what each of us needs. Trust He is at work in your brothers and sisters and that He works through them to also help you be complete. He works through their mistakes to help you become patient and to grow in faith, and works through their perfect love to encourage you when you are weak and timid. Whichever way it is, through what you perceive being good or bad, it is God working on your behalf and on everyone’s behalf in the Body of Christ! It is His Body!

 

1Co 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (NIV)