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A question - falling away
Marky Mark:
Welcome to the forums Oatmeal. :)
Great first post. Oh,and the answers given by Kat and Marques are what this forum is all about,edification and the Truth of Scripture.
Thanks all...
Peace...Mark
Kat:
Hi Charles,
--- Quote ---How did Paul leave his first love?
--- End quote ---
Well firstly what is our first love? It is when we first understand who God really is. This usually happens early in our church life, though our spiritual eyes are not yet opened, we do realize that Christ is our Savior and we want to follow Him. Paul as with all of the Jewish believers at that time have 'first love.' Paul states in Scripture that "according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee."
Acts 26:4 "My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews.
v. 5 They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.
--- Quote ---How did Paul fall away?
--- End quote ---
So Paul served God as a Pharisee to the strictest degree. This is his 'first love.' But all who have this first love will find it is grounded in the flesh, because they are still carnal and therefore we all will fall. Whether a Christian or a Jew everybody will turn their love of God into serving the doctrines of man. With Paul we know he zealously persecuted Christ's church, but at the same time he was blameless under the law.
Php 3:4 Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
v. 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee,
v. 6 as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless.
Act 26:10 This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
--- Quote ---How did Paul come out ot her?
--- End quote ---
The same as we all do, he had to stop serving the doctrines of men/the chief priests and leave that institution, Babylon.
Here is another excerpt from article no. 13 on falling from our first love.
http://bible-truths.com/lake13.html -----------------------------
THERE IS HOPE FOR THE BUILDERS ON SAND
Yes, there is HOPE for all those who build their house upon the sand? But there is hope only according to God’s choosing. Remember, "many are called, but FEW ARE CHOSEN."
Every one who is chosen out from the called, will have first built their spiritual house upon the sand, and it will FALL! Every one who is of the chosen FEW will leave his "First Love" (Rev. 2:4). There is a time when all of the chosen will "look back," and see a time when they were not, "…FIT for the Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). It happened to Peter, it happened to the other eleven apostles, it happened to Paul, it happened to Paul’s followers, it happened to the entire early church, it will happen to US!
"Surely you [Peter] also are one of them: for your speech betrays you. Then began he to CURSE AND TO SWEAR [Gk: call down curses, damning and swearing], saying I DO NOT KNOW THE MAN [Jesus Christ]" (Matt. 26:73 & 74).
How true: at that very moment in Peter’s life he TRULY DID NOT KNOW Jesus Christ! HIS HOUSE OF SAND FELL!
"But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then ALL THE DISCIPLES FORSOOK HIM AND FLED" (Matt. 26:56)!
v
v
Everyone’s first house (the house built upon the sand) FALLS! It is just part of the process in our suffering to learn obedience, that God has mandated.
"MANY [the called but not chosen] will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Thy Name? And
in Thy Name cast out devils? And
in Thy name done MANY WONDERFUL WORKS?" (Matt. 7:22).
These are "Christians" (Lord, Lord) who BELIEVE in the Name of the Lord, and they do MANY… WONDERFUL… WORKS in the Name of the Lord. But what happens to them? Their house on the sand FALLS— "…DEPART from Me, you that work iniquity [lawlessness]" (Ver. 23). Jesus then goes on to show how those who do not build on the foundation of Jesus are building their house upon the sand, even though they do MANY wonderful works.
Their house falls, not because of the super structure itself. No, the super structure is composed of MANY WONDERFUL WORKS. The house falls because it is not build upon the ROCK of Jesus Christ who is the ONLY FOUNDATION that will support a spiritual house. The "wonderful works" part of Christendom is good. Jesus doesn’t say that all of their works are bad. No, they are wonderful, however, their house will not stand and therefore it must come down. A Christian’s personal good works will not forgive his personal SINS! These must be REPENTED of and OVERCOME.
Now for all of you whom God is calling only, you will not believe what I am saying, you will not do what I am teaching you, and you will not recover (in this lifetime) from the disaster of building your spiritual house (life) upon the sand. But what about those of you whom God is calling AND choosing? What are you to do when you see that your spiritual house has fallen with a GREAT FALL? Answer:
"Remember therefore from whence you ARE FALLEN, and REPENT" (Rev. 2:5)!
"RETURN unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Mal. 3:7).
"For ye [all of you, the whole flock, the whole church, the whole house of God] were as sheep going astray [Isa. 53:6]; but are now RETURNED unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (I Pet. 2:25).
"And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous [‘prodigal or wasteful extravagance’] living.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine [a spiritual famine] in that land [in his land, his earth, for his thoughts were not ‘in heaven’]; and he began to be in want [‘…and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked’ Rev. 3:17].
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of the country; and he sent him into his fields to FEED SWINE [his spiritual house ‘has FALLEN, has FALLEN’].
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
And when he CAME TO HIMSELF [‘remember from whence you are fallen, and REPENT’] he said, How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
I will arise, and GO TO MY FATHER [‘RETURN UNTO ME, and I will return unto YOU’], and will say unto him, Father, I have SINNED against heaven [I have ‘left my first love’] and before Thee…
Seven times Jesus says to the Seven Churches who had LEFT THEIR FIRST LOVE; that they should "REPENT!"
And so after we repent of leaving our first love, and all the sin and corruption that goes along with it, what are we to do? Why we begin building our spiritual house upon The ROCK of Jesus Christ—the FOUNDATION of Jesus Christ, of course.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat
cheekie3:
Kat - Excellently put. Regards, cheekie3.
firefly77:
Kat,
As always, you do a wonderful job explaining it. Thank you!
Angie
mharrell08:
Not to beat a dead horse, but here are some excellent scriptures that Ray points out concerning Paul.
Excerpt from Lake of Fire series part 7 (http://bible-truths.com/lake7.html):
THE CHIEF OF SINNERS WAS THE PERFECT LAW KEEPER
Now then for the shocker! In I Tim. 1:15 we read this:
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation [in other words, what Paul is about to say is the absolute truth and worthy of considerable contemplation] that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, OF WHOM I AM CHIEF"!!
I covered these verses in great detail in a previous installment. Paul REALLY WAS the WORST, PREEMINENT SINNER THAT HAS EVER LIVED. Paul was truly "CHIEF of sinners"!! And we read where Paul was once "BLAMELESS in the keeping of the law of Moses."
Now then, WHEN was Paul (1) "BLAMELESS IN LAW KEEPING"? And WHEN was Paul (2) "the CHIEF OF SINNERS"? The answer: AT THE SAME TIME!!!
WHEN PAUL HAD REACHED THE ZENITH OF TOTAL OBEDIENCE AND ZEAL TO GOD UNDER THE OLD COVENANT LAW OF MOSES, IT CAUSED HIM AT THE SAME TIME TO BE THE WORLD’S WORST SINNER!!!
Paul was both THE MOST PERFECT LAW-KEEPER AND THE WORLD’S WORST SINNER, AT THE SAME TIME!!!
NO WONDER PAUL WROTE:
"Who also makes us competent dispensers of a NEW covenant, NOT of the letter, but OF the spirit, for the letter KILLS but the spirit gives LIFE" (II Cor. 3:6).
The Old Covenant written in Ten Commandments on stone tablets was an "ADMINISTRATION OF DEATH" (Ver. 7). And the letter will ALWAYS KILL:
"They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time comes, that whosoever KILLS YOU will think that he does God service [by following the law of Moses under the Old Covenant]" (John 16:2).
To prove to God his GREATEST ZEAL, Paul persecuted and slaughtered the church, which was legal for him to do under the authority of the High Priest, Chief Priests, Elders and Council at the Temple in Jerusalem, of whom Jesus Himself said, "They SIT IN MOSES SEAT." And it was this very ZEAL FOR GOD that also made him the world’s WORST SINNER! Unbelievable! UNBELIEVABLE!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!
But we must believe it—it is the Word of God!
Thanks,
Marques
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