Healing and the Fear of the Lord IX - Living Grace Fellowship

Wednesday 08/21/13

Topic: The Fear of the Lord & Healing

Series – And He Healed them all:

The Fear of the Lord and Health IX.mp3

Key Text:

Prov. 3:7-8

Prov. 4:20-27

The Fear of the Lord and Healing…

At the beginning of the message I emphasized the phrase “Fear the LORD and depart from evil”. As I did so I felt led to explain that the evil we are to depart from is the evil we are aware of – not that of which we have no understanding. Meaning, one is not held accountable for what one does not know. To illustrate this and drive the point home I had them turn to 1 John 1:7 which speaks about this issue directly.

Now, the first chapter of 1 John is being reinterpreted by many people today, especially those of the “grace movement”. By grace movement I do NOT mean people who have a clear and solid understanding of Grace for that is not “grace teaching” it is simply the gospel. Nor is any of this to implicate or even stereo-type everyone who hails from the grace movement camp, so to speak. So if you identify yourself as someone within the “grace movement”, please show me some grace and do not be offended until (and even after) you’ve read the entirety of this post and the referenced article.

The re-interpretation of the first chapter of 1 John requires the initial audience addressed to be entirely non-Christian Gnostics. This is simply not consistent with the language, the false doctrine being addressed (which was most certainly Docetism NOT Gnosticism) or the style and manner of John’s writings. In short, John would virtually have to stop being John to address non-Christians in a letter in the first place, and secondly to mix up his own, clearly stated understanding and doctrine concerning how a non-believer comes to Christ, in order for this first chapter to be addressing non-believers [See 1 John 1:9 & John 3:16]. For more information on this please see my article entitled, The Truth about 1 John 1:9.

In 1 John 1:7, John speaks to Christians a conditional statement. It reads like this…

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” ~ 1Jn. 1:7

If taken as read in the English translation this verse makes no sense, for if I am actively ordering my habitual conduct within the sphere of the light I have in Christ then there would be no sin from which to be cleansed. The problem here is a poor rendering of the three words

Walk
fellowship
sin

The word walk is in the present subjunctive, stressing habitual action and therefore any responsible translator should have translated this as “But if habitually walk…”. Some translations are “word for word” translations and therefore do not add words for clarification, so in such cases there should be a clearly marked footnote describing the mode, tone or nature of a given word so that clear understanding can be conveyed.

The word Fellowship here means, joint participation with or co-partnership with another. My co-participation (not relationship) with Christ can only occur when I am walking as He walks. if I am in rebellion to Him by not walking in the light (revelation) that I have, I am sinning and am therefore not walking in agreement with Him. The scripture in Amos applies,

“Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” ~ Amos 3:3

Finally, the word sin here actually means sins of omission. Kenneth Wuest a notorious theologian and Greek scholar says this about these words,

“And while we are having this fellowship with Him, the blood of Jesus, His Son, keeps constantly cleansing us from sins of omission, sins of ignorance, sins we know nothing about in our lives and for the reason that we have not grown in grace enough to see that they are sin. These would prevent our fellowship, with God if this divine provision of the constant cleansing away of the defilement of sin in our lives was not taken care of by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So holy is the God with whom we have fellowship.”

1 John 1:7 COULD NOT be referring to non-Christian regardless of the meaning of the word sin here, but it only makes sense concerning a Christian if it were wrongs committed which are NOT sin due to the fact that the believer is unaware of their action being “wrong”.

Let me offer an example which may help to illustrate such a phenomenon…

There are many, many Christians who would never recognize that telling a person that they look nice when in fact they do not, is a lie.

If you were to corner them on it, they may see your point, but they still believe that “love” would never tell that person something potentially hurtful and so this somehow magically turns this lie into the truth.

After all, they reason in their minds, truth is beautiful and what’s beautiful about telling a person that they look bad?

In cases like these when a Christian’s morality is situational (not the same thing as deliberate) Christ’ blood cleanses their “wrong” so that fellowship (co-partnership) with Him is not suspended until they understand what they did wrong. He chooses to cleanse His children of “sins of ignorance” due to His goodness.

Discussing the Fear of the Lord…

Next we spent some time identifying attributes of the Fear of the Lord as they are “walked out” in the life. As we did so Teri (my wife) wrote on a marker board those things we identified. (See below)

[Believe it or not this is clearer if you click on it.]

We made this chart so that as we went forward with more scriptures illustrating a very cohesive link between the fear of the Lord and health – it may be obvious that the fear of the Lord is implied EVEN WHEN it is not specifically mentioned.

The only verse we read through with the benefit of the chart were in Prov. 4:20-27.

For more, listen to the audio by clicking the above link.

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!