Sound Teaching: Podcasts, Sermons & Articles by Stan CoxThe third and final item in the list of three things that “abide”, given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13, is love. “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” You may note that Paul additionally asserts that the “greatest” is love.
The context of Paul’s statement is a chapter where love is defined through personification. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Hope is listed by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13 as one of three things which “abide.” “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Because of the great sacrifice of our Lord on the cross at Calvary, mankind will always have hope. Until the world ends, hope will continue. But, the concept of the Christian’s hope is one that may be unfamiliar to many.
In 1 Corinthians 13, as the apostle Paul concluded his great treatise on love, he wrote “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Setting aside the final statement of the superiority of love, we note that each of the three “abide”, and wish to focus the attention of this article to the first of the three, faith.
What does it mean that faith “abides”? The term can be understood most simply within the context of the passage. Paul was here comparing the spiritual gifts, destined to cease with the coming of “that which is perfect” with love, which is enduring. While the need for and presence of spiritual gifts would one day be no more, such is not so for faith, hope and love. As long as the world endures, and men are upon it, these three things will continue.
In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul succinctly stated the means by which man is saved:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Though a simple passage, these words of Paul have been twisted by many to say something Paul never intended to say about the grace of God. Without going into detail concerning John Calvin’s theories on the sovereignty of God, or Martin Luther’s rejection of James 2, we will simply state that Paul here affirms salvation by grace, but does not intend to deny the necessity of man’s obedience to God.
The concept of obedience to law is rather controversial among the religious today. Because of the Holy Spirit’s teaching regarding the Law of Moses, as contrasted with salvation by Grace through Faith, some equate the idea of obedience to God’s law with the concept of meriting salvation. This is not so.
Under the Old Covenant, or Old Law, salvation was not available. Salvation can not come through Law, it must come through Grace. As Paul stated in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” As “all have sinned” (vs. 23), and as redemption can not come through law, it was necessary that Christ give himself as a ransom for all. This is grace. This is why Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
It has been said that the theme of Redemption runs as a scarlet thread throughout the Bible. The red color of the thread is, of course, indicative of the consummation of that redemption for man, as Christ shed his crimson blood upon the cross for our sins.
The purpose of scripture is to reveal that redemptive scheme, that man may know what God has done, and what he must do to obtain salvation. Various theories have conspired to cloud the clear teaching of scripture. However, with care we can study the Bible, and as Paul wrote, “…by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.” (cf. Ephesians 3:4).
God is Holy. The Psalmist proclaimed, “Exalt the Lord our God, And worship at His holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy” (Psalm 99:9).
Because God is holy, supplicants who approach Him must be holy as well. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, profaned themselves before God when they offered up strange fire by way of sacrifice. In punishment, God took their lives. “And Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord spoke, saying: “By those who come near me I must be regarded as holy; and before all people I must be glorified.”’ So Aaron held his peace” (Leviticus 10:3).
This call to holiness is fully realized in the term sanctification. The term sanctification is used, as pointed out by Vine, of (a) separation to God; (b) the course of life befitting those so separated. (pg. 317).
Pagan mythology paints a very unflattering picture of “the gods.” The pagans viewed deity through the filter of their own humanity. In fact, this is a non-technical, but powerful argument showing the difference between the inspired record of Jehovah, and the imaginations of men which led to the pagan superstitions of antiquity. For the pagan, the gods were jealous, petty, capricious, and flawed. Though they had superhuman powers, they were limited, and behaved like corrupt men. War, treachery, infidelity, immaturity and envy are common themes in pagan mythology.
A number of years ago, a popular series of articles ran in various bulletins and publications and were used in sermons which urged people in the denominational world to “Ask Your Preacher” where the Bible teaches….infant baptism, instrumental music, the doctrine of faith only, etc. The series was designed to raise awareness among denominational people that their preachers could not defend certain doctrines inherent in their beliefs and practices. It was an effective method of urging people to read their Bibles, examine their practices in the light of scripture, and question the preaching of those who could not provide book, chapter and verse for their doctrines.
Is the church of Christ immune to error? Should we not have the same attitude of urging our own brethren to read their Bibles, examine our own practices and question the preaching of those who do not provide book, chapter and verse for what we believe and practice? It was said of the Bereans that they “were more noble (fair minded) than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Do we get a free pass to believe and practice whatever we want since we are “the church” and “our traditions” are beyond question?
The Old Testament tells us about a preacher (prophet) who lied to a younger man (1 Kings 13). The lie was told in all good conscience. It was told with the intent of helping the young man (1 Kings 13:11-19). The young man believed the lie, benefited in an earthly way, but ended up losing his life (1 Kings 13:20-28). Thus, we know that religious leaders will sometimes tell a lie with the best intentions. We also know that religious followers will sometimes believe a lie.
How could the young man have avoided being killed by the lion? He could have rejected the lie. How could he know the lie was a lie? If he had stopped to consider that he knew what God revealed to him and what the old prophet said was contrary to it — let God be true and every man a liar (cf. Romans 3:4).
None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See
Even though you soberly warn people of the dangers which are down the road that they are traveling, even though you tell them over and over what the consequences of their doctrinal choices will be, even though you fervently plead with them to realize that they are being deceived, even though you remind them of the vivid history of digression that cries out for them to examine and evaluate the path which they have chosen to walk, it is clearly obvious that many will absolutely refuse to look at the evidence and refuse to open their eyes to the apostasy that they, without any hesitation, seem to have bought in to – hook, line, and sinker! Indeed they choose to remain blind and they willfully refuse to open their eyes to see! Our frustration is almost beyond bearing when we see our own brethren in Christ, many of them the loved ones of our own families, who are not willing to listen to warnings or open their eyes to see the precipice of sin and digression which is only steps away from where they are walking.
Let us suppose that a member of the congregation of which you are a member was seen almost daily jogging publicly in skimpy shorts. Let us say that this same member openly advocated abortion as an acceptable solution to unwanted pregnancy and actively worked to take money from fellow brethren to help fund abortions. Let us also imagine that this same member aggressively implemented programs in schools designed to teach tolerance of unmarried sexual partners and homosexuality as alternate lifestyles. Let us further assume that those programs provided birth control devices to children with graphic descriptions of how to use them. Let us also theorize that this member intentionally employed some militant, homosexual rights advocates to advance the homosexual rights cause. In fact, let us pretend that this member had such a massive influence that he ordered his international business concern, consisting of several million people, to accept homosexuality as an equally legitimate lifestyle. If all of these things were true with a member of the congregation, would you agree to continue fellowship with the man? Should you tolerate this brother due to his power and influence or should you recognize his evil influence and withdraw from him if he refused to repent?
We live in a world where merit means an awful lot. Sometimes there are prejudices and preferences that are based more in narrow-mindedness, but most often merit is what moves people forward toward their goals. Yet when we talk about the New Testament, we realize that our ultimate goal is not achievable by means of meriting it, since a single sin is enough to derail forever the possibility of deserving salvation. Instead, we are instructed to seek out salvation by grace through faith and to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, precisely because our sinfulness prevents a purely merit-based positive judgment.
Whether that understanding is clear or clouded, it remains that many of us are occasionally or often overwhelmed by the need to display our merit, fish for compliments and bask in our own glow rather than Christ’s. By doing so, we prove how little merit we possess and that we are unprofitable, arrogant servants.
I’m a member of the lord’s church. I’ve been ordering your sermons (www.biblework.com), and it is an honor to receive and view those sermons on the word of God. I just received the Wilkin / Hafley debate on water baptism. You most certainly CRUSHED his idea on faith only!
Larry, my wife and I often have discussed the topic of denominational baptism. We were both baptized in a Baptist church. At a later time, I came to the understanding that they (the Baptists) were in error, but my wife, on the other hand, feels that she was baptized for all the right reasons. Although they teach faith only, she says she was baptized for the remission of her sins. I told her that you could not be taught wrong and be baptized right.
In our last article on authority, we documented several “digressions” which resulted from a lack of understanding of how Bible authority is established. The three general apostasies we mentioned were: 1) The establishment of the apostate church (Catholicism); 2) The embracing of human creeds in the Protestant Reformation; and 3) The apostasy in the late 1800′s which led to the establishment of the Christian Church denomination.
In the more recent past God’s people have been troubled by digression. In the 1940′s and 1950′s issues arose in the church, which led to division among God’s people. The digression again came because men either lacked respect for or understanding of the authority of Christ. In this case the digression surrounded the work and organization of the local congregation, and the sufficiency of the church to do the work assigned it by God.
The Power of the Gospel in Foreign Evangelism
In the parable of the sower Jesus pictured the seed being sown on all soils (Matthew 13:3-9). In explaining his parable he showed the seed to be the word of God and the soils to be the hearts of men (Luke 8:11-12,15; Matthew 13:19). His words teach us that the word of God must be sown in order for a soul to react to it. Later, in giving the great commission, Jesus told his disciples, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). As the power was in the seed in the parable of the sower so the power is in the gospel to change the hearts of man (Romans 1:16, cp. Psalm 19:7). All of God’s work in making the salvation of man possible depends on his word being spread to mankind, the objects of his love (John 3:16). It is the offensive weapon (as opposed to defensive) in the Christian’s armor, "living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword" (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12). It will bring forth fruit to the glory of God wherever men hear and obey it (Colossians 1:6). In this article we would like to look at the going forth of the word in the first century giving particular attention to the various manifestations of its power.
