Tolerance, Charity, Compassion, Forbearance Part 5

E. Never underestimate the power of false love since whatever you love you give power to over yourself to some degree. The greater your love for someone or something, the greater the power he/she/that has over you. 1. There is the false love of self which idolizes oneself. 2TI 3:2. 2. There is the false love of pleasure which substitutes for love of truth. 2TH 2:10-12. 3. There is the false love of money. 1TI 6:10. 4. There is the false love of the world. 1JO 2:15-16. 5. There is the false love of men’s praise that exceeds love of God’s praise. 1PE 2:14 c/w JOH 12:42-43. 6. All affection other than of God must be ordered, regulated. COL 3:5. F. We are to love neighbor as self (ROM 13:9), therefore we cannot truly love our neighbor if we have no love of self. 1. The absence of natural affection for oneself is not of God since He has written the principle of self-preservation into us. EPH 5:29. 2. Self-loathing is oftentimes generated by pride and envy: one cannot endure his condition or circumstance being less than another’s. Pride and envy will breed hatred of others. PRO 14:30 c/w LUK 18:9; TIT 3:3. 3. Biblical self-loathing is abhorring one’s self-centeredness and fashioning oneself according to the image of Christ. JOB 42:6; COL 3:9-10. 4. There is greater hope in conformity to Christ than any form of false self-love which breeds envy, self-mutilation, confusion, loss of natural affection, etc. With Christ in the picture, the word is “...Do thyself no harm...” (ACT 16:28). 5. Conformity to Christ is the best form of image management. 2CO 3:17-18. 6. Measuring ourselves by other sinners is unwise. 2CO 10:12. a. It feeds emulation (The endeavour to equal or surpass others in any achievement or quality...) which is a work of the flesh and was Ahithophel’s undoing. GAL 5:20 c/w 2SAM 17:23. b. It is an occasion to envy (Malignant or hostile feeling; ill-will, malice, enmity... feeling of mortification and ill-will occasioned by the contemplation of superior advantages possessed by another), another work of the flesh which is self-destructive. GAL 5:21 c/w PRO 14:30; JOB 5:2. c. It feeds defeatism, as if a two-talent man is less value than a five-talent man and a one-talent man might as well do nothing. MAT 25:14-30. d. We should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. ROM 12:3. e. We should not think of ourselves more lowly than we ought, not considering that God is willing and able to exalt the lowly and the diligent. JDG 6:12-16; 1SAM 15:17; LUK 1:52; PRO 11:27; 13:4. f. Do you really think that Satan didn’t anticipate the personal and social turmoil that social media would generate in people? JAM 4:5; EPH 2:2. Tolerance, Charity, Compassion, Forbearance 4-23-23 Page 7  g. What we think of ourselves or what others think of us is not as important as what God thinks of us. 1CO 4:3 c/w 2CO 10:18. VIII. The above information is critical to overcoming this world which not only feeds men false messages of self-fulfilment but also fights against the realities of God, Christ, godliness, etc. which are the true means of maximizing oneself and finding real satisfaction. The world also fights against exposure of the negative effects of its “bright ideas” (2CO 11:14; ROM 1:21-22). A. While not decrying rational thought, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. 1CO 3:19. B. There is a way which seems right to a man but is destructive. PRO 14:12. C. There is the way of Christ, the gospel way which the world despises even though it sets forth the solution to men’s personal and social turmoils. ACT 19:9, 23 c/w MAT 11:28-30. 1. It counters what men imagine as good for themselves. 2CO 10:5. 2. It delivers them from the bondage of lies unto the liberty of truth. JOH 8:32. 3. It gives them a durable hope which evolution, hedonism, etc. cannot give. ROM 8:21-24. 4. It is grounded in the most thoroughly documented and testified event in ancient history: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead which sealed the justification of sinners and turned the world upside down. ROM 4:25; ACT 17:6. 5. It holds all men accountable to God regardless of race, nation, color, sex, language, social status, economic status, etc. and also erases such distinctions as far as man’s hope and access of God. ROM 3:9 c/w GAL 3:28-29. 6. Do you love life and good days? It shows how. 1PE 3:10-12. D. The Scripture, though maligned by the world, is remarkable for its insights into the human condition, human nature, the ill-effects on men personally and socially of anti-God decisions, etc. In fact, its accuracy about man is one of reasons it is rejected as authoritative by worldly men. 1. It is not because it is inaccurate about the sciences but that its accuracy about biology, paleontogy, anthropology, geology, sexuality, etc. has implications for carnal-minded men who want to maximize carnal pleasure and power. 2. It expresses and deals with realities of both seen and unseen things, of material and spiritual things. It has much to say about the invisible Creator and His world above, etc. but it also has much to say about the creation such as: a. biology is emphatically binary, male and female. GEN 1:27; 6:19. b. biology is reproductively coded and not subject to willful change. JER 13:23; MAT 6:27. c. mankind springs from common original parents. GEN 3:20. d. same-sex connection is a recipe for trouble. ROM 1:26-27. e. catastrophe has altered geology, climate, and metabolism (presumably). Uniformitarianism is not supported by Scripture or true science. GEN 9:3-6; 2PE 3:4-6. f. the world will endure in spite of CO2 or SUV but SIN is a different story. GEN 8:22; 2PE 3:10-12. 3. Mind how many of the above issues are central to the insanity that has taken over humanity which not only despises a sovereign Creator but the manifest realities in nature itself which happen to also be declared in Scripture! 4. I have come to the conclusion that a major reason why genuine rational inquiry into these current ills in the world is so opposed is that the answers have to be rooted in Tolerance, Charity, Compassion, Forbearance 4-23-23 Page 8  reality and people under such fantastic delusion cannot deal with reality. 5. Even professing believers in Christ are being swept away with this madness but if your theology and final authority is fluid, why would you not assume that your sex is fluid? a. Transgender-friendly summer camps for children have been popping up around the country. Some of them are “faith-based.” b. When your salt has become strychnine and your light has become darkness, you have no preserving power in the world. MAT 5:13-16; 6:23. 6. Sinful human nature is such that in order to justify its lusts or give in to its weaknesses, it will refuse to change things that can and should be changed but insist on changing things that can't be changed. a. It will not concede the Biblical code of life and reality. b. It will not repent of sinful, destructive thinking and behavior. c. It will not concede even reputable evidence-based study that counters its premise, such as the 200 studies worldwide on transgenderism which ultimately conclude that it is a dangerous disorder of the mind which is not cured by surgery or hormones. A major thirty-year Swedish study shows about a nineteen-fold increase in suicide in the post-transformation clients. d. It will insist that radical affirming modifications are better than coming to grips with psychotic delusions. e. It will insist that others change their minds about obvious disorder, deviancy, perversion, or even climate. f. It will even insist that personal internal conflict is caused by those who do not agree with the inevitability of the conflict and that the latter is therefore the real danger to society. 7. Positive change through Jesus Christ is more real than the manufactured inevitability of disordered thought and behavior. a. Christ cured the lunatic. MAR 5:15. b. The humbled prodigal “...came to himself...” (LUK 15:17). c. Christ yields sober thought and sound mind. ACT 26:11, 25; 2TI 1:7. d. “...such WERE some of you...” (1CO 6:9-11). e. Overcoming is possible. 1JO 5:4. f. The Christ-swept mind is a Christ-kept mind. PHIL 4:6-7. Tolerance, Charity, Compassion, Forbearance 4-23-23 Page 9