What/Who Is Your Life?

By: Dennis Smith 

            When the Lord’s Brother, James, wrote, “For WHAT is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14), he could easily have asked, “WHO is your life?”

            Both of these questions are indeed very important to our eternal destination. The what of our life is most important because it signifies the priority which we place on things in our life. By the same token the who will determine the reasons why we do (or not do) certain things.

            Consider the following passages, all of which show the values and importance of having Christ in our lives.

1.      “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” (Galatians 2:20).

2.      “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed IN YOU” (Galatians 4:19).

3.      “…Christ shall be magnified in my body” (Philippians 1:20).

4.      “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

This last verse is the main reason for our having Christ in our life. This should be the reason for all that we do through the Church for it is here that we may receive the proper training and preparing to making ourselves ready for his appearing. This same thought applies whether we see him “at his coming” or that we see him “face to face” when our time here on earth is over. Christ must always be in us!

Responsible Christians

Part 1

By: Keith McNeely           

            To be responsible is to be “accountable to somebody for an action”. The church is the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12), made up of individual Christians, and for it to function as a healthy body all of its members (body parts) need to fulfill their responsibilities. Paul in Ephesians gives us seven responsibility groups, therein giving details and admonitions for each of the individuals that make up these groups.  Notice...

            “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22). Paul here brings up the first responsibility group that we have chosen to study, that of wives. We are each under the given responsibility to be in submission “one to another” (Ephesians 5:21). This passage parallels 1 Peter 3:1-6 where we are told that the wives can positively influence their disobedient, unbelieving husbands to become faithful Christians. One faithful Christian lady I have known indeed did influence her husband, who went from throwing stumbling blocks (quite literally) in her way, to obeying the Gospel, and finally becoming an effective preacher. Peter adds a “how to” section to our study, he tells the ladies of a “hidden man of the heart...meek and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4-5) that has been used for centuries to positively influence their husbands.

            “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” (Ephesians 5:25) Paul here places a tall responsibility upon husbands when he compares their love for their wives to the love Jesus had, and continues to have, for the church. Our author continues to detail the responsibility by saying, “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.  He that loveth his wife loveth himself.” (Ephesians 5:28). Further, in our text we read, “the husband is the head of the wife” (Ephesians 5:23). It does not take much imagination to see the utter chaos that occurs in any relationship or organization when there is no “head” or leader. When men abdicate (defined as failing to fulfill a duty or responsibility) there role as the leader of the family serious problems develop. Men have a God given responsibility, and are a critical part of the design of a godly home.

            “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” (Ephesians 6:1).  Children are to “obey”, and “honour” their father and mother. The phrase “I don’t want to grow up” is one that has found its way into our language suggesting an attitude of being forever a child. To be forever a child is accurately described as immaturity. To be immature is not only to be disrespectful to parents and God, but is also disobedient to both God and parents as well. Disrespectful and disobedient children are truly a bane on society; sadly children that have refused to develop fail to realize the blessings they are missing. Paul clearly teaches us that to be respectful and obedient children is to be in line for blessings the apostle states that this is the “first commandment with promise...That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:2-3).

            “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4). Paul again mentions the man in the family and teaches us that as men we are given the responsibility of father. The very word “father” calls to mind the idea of an individual beginning a family, and as the one who originates that family has the responsibility for it. Further, Paul lists two additional responsibilities: (1) of not being severe in your method of parenting, and (2) of raising your children up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”  It is a ugly thing to (1) see a child in the local grocery store kicking and screaming on the floor, but it is far more ugly (2) to see a father (so called) being rough and abusive to his children! Our inspired writer tells us such actions will “provoke” the child. Thus, if for no other reason, such behavior as parents should be avoided.

            Next week our final three responsibility groups (servants, masters and brethren) will be explored from Ephesians six.

The Called

By: Steve Powers 

“The word ‘church’ in the New Testament is translated from the Greek work ‘eklesia’ which comes from two words ‘ek’ meaning “out” and ‘kaleo’ meaning to ‘call.’ An ekklesia or ‘calling out’ was not just an assembly. The words agora and paneguis, as well as heorte, koinon, thiasos, sunagoge and sunago, can all mean an assembly. The word eklesia was a political term, not a religious term. Jesus was the King and the Bible used the term ekklesia for a good reason. In classical Greek ‘ekklesia’ meant ‘an assembly of citizens summon by the crier, the legislative assembly’.” (Linddell and Scott; Thayer; R.C. Trench; Oskar Seyffert).

 Simply put, the word “church” means “the called out.” Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians, “…For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will live with them and walk among them and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate…” (2 Corinthians 6:16-17).

 Understanding that we are “called out of the world” makes it all the more clear that the church is not “the building.” Rather, the church is the people who have been called out of the world to become the righteous ones of God.