Tag: discernment

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 12 – Launching the church

Guarding the faith

[Bible references: Matthew 5:11-12; Romans 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 11:29-31; 13:7; Ephesians 6:10-18; Philippians 1:10; 1 Timothy 4:16; 2 Timothy 2:10-12; 4:5; Hebrews 10: 36; James 1:2-12; 3:2-12; Revelation 2:3]

The church was launched in a world that was opposed to it. Jesus made it very clear that following him was in invitation to suffer. There would be enemies both within and outside the church, enemies that were sometimes not so apparent and therefore requiring discernment by the faithful. The opposition takes many forms but behind all the opposition are the spiritual forces in heavenly realms.

The real enemy is not so much the individual people we see but the spiritual forces of darkness acting around us manifesting as deceivers, scoffers, false apostles, divisions in the church, idolatry, or immorality – all either around us or within us. The challenge of fighting against those forces requires us to put on the full armor of God: truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the Spirit, and the Word. We are called to be alert, to always pray, to learn discernment, to endure and persevere.

By both his life and his death, Jesus offered reconciliation to all cultures. By his teaching Christ called Jew and Gentile together; both were offered a place in God’s kingdom, with the ethnicity of the Jews giving them no advantage whatsoever. While Jesus modeled this reconciliation in his own life and ministry, it took his followers some time to put this aspect of his message into effect. When they did, however, the results were revolutionary. The Jewish disciples of Jesus were taught to reach out with love and acceptance to the Gentiles, whom they had come to think of as beasts. The Gentiles were invited into fellowship with the Jewish disciples without having to become Jewish. … multiculturalism means fostering a genuine respect for diverse cultural expressions such as music, art, literature, and dance, and diverse cultural traditions in such matters as education, the family, and work. Such respect does not mean ignoring moral or spiritual failings reflected in these cultural expressions and traditions (since these can be found in any culture, including European). It does mean recognizing that certain constants of human life — love, growth, need, aspiration, suffering, hope — find expression in all cultures. ^[1]

As we engage with other cultures, we can celebrate God’s imprint on his image-bearers which has produced many creative, diverse, and multicultural ways to display God’s goodness. As we do, we should take care to recognize that all the world’s cultures are also subject to corruption. In our role as God’s ambassadors, we can recognize the good displayed in each culture and also reach out to offer God desire to reconcile all people to himself.

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:  Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:20-23, NIV)

In our discerning of the good and the bad in the cultures around us, we should be discerning of our own cultures and behaviors, not just the good and the bad, but the universal and cultural expressions of the gospel.

^[1] Bible.org “Christ and Cultures: Multiculturalism and the Gospel of Christ” Bible.org bible.org/seriespage/12-christ-and-cultures-multiculturalism-and-gospel-christ.

Read Ephesians 6:10-18; James 3:2-12. What does it take to survive as a fruitful Christian?