Since the fall of man, there has been a breakdown of the order of things, in particular of man’s view of God. God is a God of order. He is a God of laws. Fallen man does not like real laws. Fallen man likes “laws” that offer some flexibility, especially for the person in conflict with the laws. This rejection of absolutes has caused man immeasurable grief.
Unlike man, God does not need to change His laws. Those who are paying attention to world events, know that England is in a severe state of turmoil at this time. The governments of that nation have been under the influence of the New World Order for some time now. The WEF has had a great amount of influence over nations for many years now. The goal of this world system is to break down the independence of a nation. The governments of England have agreed to this breakdown. It does not matter which government is in place, they are all guilty. Thus we have the current mess in Britain where one group of people, the Muslims, are given special privileges over the rest of society. Muslims do not tolerate resistance to their cause. They not only threaten violent retaliation, they act on their threats. The world understands this and so they cater to this bully. Without the fear of the Lord, the fear of man will rule.
In England a large portion of the society is fed up with this arrangement and they are becoming quite vocal and also quite aggressive in their opposition to the current state. Recently England held “elections” and they removed the Tory government and replaced it with a Labour government. This was a disaster in the making. The Tory government was a disaster as well and the current government is worse.
This change allowed for a much more aggressive approach to the demise of the sovereignty of the nation of Britain. The current government is not only threatening, but they are arresting people that will not bow to their destructive goals. They have labelled those who oppose them as “far right”. Who knows how far this will go before it is settled.
Together with this problem, there is the continuing problem in the Middle East. Mr. Biden has threatened Israel to come up with a ceasefire with Hamas within two weeks. The Democrat party wants to legitimize Hamas and keep them alive and well capable of attacking Israel and imposing their will on other nations as well.
This and other conflicts are a constant reminder that the end is near. The trump of God could sound at any moment and the New Testament saints will be removed from this earth at any moment. The world is ripe for accepting the “man of sin”.
As the world is constantly one step away from the end of the current dispensation, God reminded the first century saints to keep things in their proper perspective. Jesus Christ endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. He should have been embraced with enthusiasm as the Messiah. Yet sinners chose to get rid of Him. They chose misery over blessing. They chose chaos over stability. They chose death over life. Nothing has changed over the centuries. The majority of people today still choose misery over peace. They choose lies over truth.
The first century saints needed to be reminded of the importance of truth. This current generation of true saints also needs to be reminded of this. We need to guard against becoming weary and faint in our minds with regard to the opposition that we will face if we look to Jesus as the Author and Finisher of our faith. If we choose to learn of Him and follow Him, we will face trouble. Our trouble will not equal that of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, it could be severe.
In verse 4 the first century saints and the present day saints are reminded that we have not resisted unto blood in our striving against sin. We do not tend to get that serious about sin. We might speak about certain sins we do not like, but we tend to tolerate others.
Years ago, when I was in Bible School, the president of the school did some teaching on the matter of divorce and remarriage. In those meetings he stated that we as students needed to make up our minds as to what we believed about this before it would affect our families or close friends. If we did not make up our minds on this, we would be sure to change our minds when this issue would come to bear upon our families. That word of advice applies to any sin. If we do not take a Biblical position on all things, we will cave in under pressure. That is why we do not resist unto blood. We are not willing to die for what we believe.
Most of “Christianity” proved that during the Wuhan virus debacle. Most were willing to conform to whatever the world demanded. Many professing Christians took the shots. They saw their pay check as more important than their health. Churches closed down and many wore masks inside the church. They did the social distancing, etc. Of course “we needed to comply because we love others”. If we would truly love others we would pray and seek God’s face and stand for truth. We would help others to see the liberty there is in Christ. We do not need to be afraid of death. We do not need to accept the lies of those who should know better but have been brainwashed by evolutionary teaching.
God knows what He is saying when He points out our weakness. God is merciful and He is gracious. As we will see, He does expect us to learn from our sins.
In verse 5 we are reminded to remember an important Biblical fact. Those who are truly saved should not despise the chastening of the Lord. We should not grow faint when He rebukes us. We should sit up and listen and learn. The disciples needed to learn this during their 3 1/2 years of training in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. It would not do for them to say they were going to leave Jesus and do their own thing.
Jesus did not allow Peter and the others to go back to fishing after His resurrection. They were called to be fishers of men and they needed to continue with that calling.
God’s call upon His child is non-negotiable. He knows what is best for each of His children.
In verse 6 we are reminded that the chastening of the Lord is one of the indicators of His love for us. He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It is not that some Christians never face the chastening of the Lord. We all need that. We all have a stubborn streak in us. We need to understand that we must to comply willingly with God’s law. He does not need to change His law for us. We need to change our hearts and minds for Him, if we are saved.
This is not optional. Every generation of true Christians has faced challenges from the lost of that generation. Every generation of true Christians has had access to God’s sure Word. Thus, every generation of true Christians is without excuse for not following God’s Word. Yet every generation of true Christians is guilty of disobeying God’s law at times.
It is incumbent upon each generation of true Christians to take the Word of God as its authority. Each generation can look at what the previous generation of true Christians did, but we cannot blindly accept that as our starting place. We need to take God’s Word as our starting place and we need to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith and we need to run the race that is set before us with patience and with conviction. We must do this. It is required of us.

I Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.