Gospel Life Today

Friday, April 16, 2010

If you DECLARE the gospel and don’t LIVE IT – you will confuse people.

If you LIVE the gospel and don’t DECLARE IT – you will condemn people.

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This week in our series on Biblical Soul Care for the Local Church we looked at Session #8 - Psychological Labels and Biblical Equivalents

Paul says in Colossians 2:8...

"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

...and then in 2 Corinthians 5:16 he says, "from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh..."

But in fact the world only knows about "philosophy according to human tradition" and they can only look at man "according to the flesh" because...

"A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." (1 Cor 2:14)

When people are hurting and need help...the world may be good at describing but they are clueless as to why and they are definitely poor when it comes to prescribing.

This is not at all surprising however...Why? Because it always comes down to the heart...and there is only one heart Knower

And since God is the only "heart knower" He has the only prescription that works

One of the problems with the world's labels is they can take away our responsibility and even promote blame shifting...in other words...we have an excuse to sin

Many times there is the tendency to hide behind the labels…even taking on a "victim" mentality...we hear things like..."you are just going to have to deal with it because this is just how I am"

But we are not victims...we are violators

Another problem is that people start identifying themselves with the label..."I'm ___ "...We become known by whatever our "disorder" is...instead of..."I struggle with the sin of ___"

But God goes right to the real issue which is the heart...

"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Heb 4:12)

The Bible not only diagnoses our problem but it tells us our very motive and gives the solution

Let's take one example of labeling

The world might say something like, "He has conduct disorder, or oppositional defiant disorder, or disruptive behavior disorder," etc..."He needs to enter an anger management class"

The Bible would simply say that he has a heart of anger...out of that heart of anger comes rebellion and bitterness and foolish behavior

But God has an answer for every heart issue...and it's not about coping with or "remodeling" sin...it's about radical transformation...it's about mercy and forgiveness and forsaking sin

In the end hurting people need hope...so where is it? If I have some sort of disorder that I just have to live with...and that is just "who I am"...where is the hope in that?

Answer...NOWHERE

On the other hand there is hope when I know it's a sin issue...why? Because that is what Christ died for

He died for our sin...not our disorders...and so the hope is where it's always been...

THE GOSPEL