Often times, we do "works" of righteousness in order to earn the favor of God. My upbringing has been such that I do works (earn good grades) in order to earn the favor of parents. This is in stark contrast to the biblical view that we do not earn the favor/love of God by works, but it is by grace, through faith in Christ, that we have been justified and set right before God.
But that doesn't mean we throw works of righteousness out of the window. The problem is not works in itself; the problem is our misguided theology on works. And so I asked God, teach me the proper role of works in the life of a believer. That was yesterday. God is good. The Holy Spirit told me the answer today through the Word of God.
Follow me through the Word of God. Proverbs 7:1-5
1 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
2 keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
3 bind them on your fingers; write them on the table of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend,
5 to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
Keeping the commandments of God is essentially doing works of righteousness. What is the consequence of keeping His commandments? You will live. When you commit yourself to works of righteousness, you will live. Have you ever noticed, dear brothers and sisters, a sense of lifelessness and death and drudgery when we get ourselves entangled in sin? (hatred, sexual immorality, coveting, idolatry, gluttony, drunkenness, orgies, etc.) Observe His commandments, and thou shalt live!
God does not stop at general statements. God goes on to provide a few more details, teaching us to put his words to practice.
Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye - Let the precious lessons of the bible be the utmost craving of our eyes; not food, not clothes, not precious stones, not jewelery, not cars, not fashion accessories, not gadgets, not musical instruments. Instead, His Word.
Bind them on your fingers - we keep His commandments by the way we do things. How do we drive? How do we teach? How do we sell products? How do we manufacture goods? How do we balance the accounts? How do we forecast company profits? How do you chat online? What do you chat about? Bind the commandments on our fingers, observe righteousness through our daily chores and activities.
Write them on the table of your heart - When our fingers are moving, what are the underlying motivations in our hearts? Is it for self praise? Self glory? To polish the boots of the boss and in the process ignore principles of righteousness? Or is it to honor God by observing His commandments?
So, God has covered it all. Keep His commandments through our eyes, fingers, and hearts.
How are we to learn about His commandments? I'm not talking about memorizing the ten commandments, though it does start with that. I'm talking about having wisdom to apply good works, and having insight as to what situations to properly apply them. Answer is here - say to wisdom, "you are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend. I believe God is teaching us that wisdom and insight comes from close and constant fellowship with the Holy Spirit. We are to treat the Holy Spirit, not as some source of power to be utilized, but as our sister, our intimate friend. How do we interact with our sisters, or our friends? We talk to them, we confide our secrets to them, we open ourselves to them, we are honest with them, we listen to them, we learn from them, etc. What more the Holy Spirit of God then?
Keep my commandments and live. I believe the opposite is implied - failure to keep the commandments result in death. Who or what causes death? The forbidden woman, the adulteress, the smooth words. I recall the smooth words spoken by the serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden, I recall the smooth words spoken by Satan to our Lord Jesus in the wilderness. Sin was knocking on the door. Friend, DO NOT open that door, DO NOT let death step in through the gates of your heart. Eve (and Adam) opened the door, and death was the result. The Lord Jesus kept the door firmly shut, and He gave us life.
Keep the commandments of God, do righteous works, that you may live, and not suffer death.
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Hi Sir, great insight. Putting the whole idea of "good works" into context. Then again many "Christians" today tend to depend on hear say and rumours of God and His expectations, but we don't actually dive into His Word to know the lives we are called to live. I agree that we need to come before God holy and accpetable but at the same time we have to look beyond that as well and really start building God's Kingdom in the hearts of the people around. Its sad so many people find Jesus and keep Jesus to themselves until they die thinking their good and right living was enough. We are all human and all fall short of the glory of God but we need to look beyond not sinning and actually start running the race set before us. Its not enough to just live righteous, its more than that. Carrying the cross is never meant to be easy it is denying ourself and looking at a much bigger picture. This was an encouragement to keep me on track and to be steadfast in the purpose He has for me. Great to know that there are poeple out there are really reading God's Word and putting what Jesus taught into context. Thanks Sir, hope to read more. :D
ReplyDeleteHi Jasheil,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that you are encouraged and kept on track by this. When you think of it a little more, works or right living actually has an external focus as well, for example, right living is not just upholding high moral standards, but also "loving thy neighbor as thy self".
Recall that when Jesus was questioned by the Pharisees about the greatest commandment, He gave them a double whammy - love God, and love your neighbors. True works go two directions, to heaven, and to the fields around.
And yes, I shall always try to frequently update this blog. =)
you should check out galatians. paul wrote that letter to basically straighten out their view of works. also... why is the holy spirit our sister and not our brother?
ReplyDeletelove it..btw i really dn agree confiding the secrets with sisters..i mean brothers for brothers n sisters for sisters..
ReplyDeletecoz i know ppl who misuse this 'confiding' part..and take it to another level.. (if u know wat i mean *wink*)
Hi Brad and Praise!
ReplyDeleteWell, I used the word "sister" because that was the word used in Proverbs 7:4. Perhaps King Solomon used the word "sister" to contrast it with the many concubines he had (I will pay attention in my OT readings as to whether King Solomon had a wise sister). Sister as someone who supported him and corrected him; concubines speaking smooth words that resulted in his downfall. Of course, at the end of the day, responsibility of fault is in Solomon, not shifting the blame to his concubines.
Praise, I think I know what you mean *wink*. I don't think I made it clear in the blog post, but I was under the impression that the word "sister" used here is in reference to a blood sister, someone in your immediate family. You know, like you confiding to Glory (not the God of Glory, but Glory your sister). So, by no means am I encouraging cross-gender counseling/confiding sessions.
So true, we need have his statued written in our hearts like the bible says. Only by his grace and thru the spirit can we accomplish this. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete