The Biblical Path of Life

Tag: Unstable

  • Stand Fast

    “2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”

    James 1:2-3

    James did not become a Christian until after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. He finally understood that one must trust in Jesus by faith. “8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

    Once James became a Christian, he taught practical ways to live a Christian life. He began by teaching how to understand the importance of temptations (trials). “2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:2-3).

    • Temptations means “trials; a state of trial in which God brings His people through adversity and affliction in order to encourage and prove their faith and confidence in Him.”
    • Trying means “approved; tried; the means of proving; a criterion or test by which anything is proved or tried; as in faith by afflictions.”
    • Worketh means “to work out; bring about; accomplish; to carry out a task until it is finished; to effect; to produce.”

    Not many people consider trying times as being joyful. Yet, James wrote to encourage Christians to understand that now that they had faith in Christ, it must be tried: put to the test. Once that faith is proved by being put to the test, that Christian will gain, or have, patience. Patience means “endurance; perseverance or constancy under suffering in faith and duty.” This patience enables one to persevere or remain constant. Think of this as learning to stand fast – being steadfast through trials. Remember many times in God’s Word where we learn that we are to “stand fast” (see a few of the following):

    • “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13);
    • “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1);
    • “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27);
    • “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved” (Philippians 4:1);
    • “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 3:8);
    • “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle” (2 Thessalonians 2:15); etc.)?

    Christians are encouraged to understand that with faith in Christ comes trying times – but Christians are to persevere, consistently, with patience by standing fast. See what learning how to do this gives to Believers. “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:4). In order to be an effective witness in this world, Christians must stand fast in their Christian faith by living it consistently.

    James helped them understand what to do when Christians were faced with those trying times: “5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1:5-6). Wisdom means “in respect to divine things: deep knowledge; natural and moral insight; represented as a divine gift, and including the idea of practical application; as conjoined with purity of heart and life.” If a Christian does not know how to live right, or what to do in a specific situation, all one must do is to ask God – for He will show Christians how to live and what to do. However, one must remember that after asking God for wisdom in a situation, and then He tells that one what to do (according to God’s Word), it should be done: “nothing wavering.” Wavering means “to separate oneself from; to contend with; to be in strife with oneself; to doubt; hesitate; waver.” A Christian’s life should not be lived as a ship on a stormy sea – tossed about from highs and lows. Do not change your mind, or talk yourself out of doing what is right. Instead, a Christian is to stand fast, “nothing wavering,” and faithful. When one continually shifts from high to low, understand the following warning of a life lived like that. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). Double minded means “doubtful; a person who suffers from divided loyalties – such as one who wishes to maintain a religious confession, desiring the presence of God in his life, but on the other hand, he loves the ways of the world and prefers to live according to its mores and ethics.” When a Christian constantly wavers, or is “double minded,” never fully committing to the Christian life, they will be unstable in everything. That kind of life is not an effectual witness for Christ.

    Do you live a life where you are “double minded”, unstable in all your ways?

    Or

    Have you learned to stand fast upon God’s Word, living a consistent and faithful Christian life?

  • A Heart of Unbelief

    “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
    James 1:8

    The Gospel Message of Jesus is available to anyone who will receive it. However, one must not only believe that message, it then must be received into one’s heart and life by faith. “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Hebrews 4:2). When one does not believe, it does not profit them. See why not: “Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:6). We can read in the next verse that there is a cry for one not to harden their heart (so that faith can enter in). See how this is described: “12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12-13). One who rejects the Gospel message of Jesus has departed from the living God in unbelief. There is no hope for such a one. Remember, in the Old Testament God’s people were to obey and follow God, waiting for Jesus to come.

    One cannot help but remember back to the Bible and a very real example of one without faith. His name was Saul, the first king of Israel. He was physically, everything a people could want in a king. He was good-looking, and he stood head and shoulders taller than anyone else did. However, what kind of a man was Saul really?

    In the administration of his kingdom, we find out that Saul demanded obedience to his command. He even promised death to anyone who defied his command. In one instance, it turned out to be his son, Jonathan, who had unwillingly disobeyed his father’s command. When the king was prepared to kill his son, the people stepped in and saved his life. Shortly thereafter, God required King Saul’s obedience in a matter. But when Saul disobeyed God, God did not demand his death. God is forgiving and although there was discipline for disobedience, God gave him a second chance.

    God told Saul to go and utterly destroy Amalek and everything they had (for they were God’s enemies). He was even to kill the king. Saul gathered the people and went to Amalek. They took the city. “But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly” (1 Samuel 15:9). Saul did not obey God’s command. God declared that Saul had turned back from following Him, and not performed His commandments. When confronted with the truth of the matter, Saul lied. Read his response when questioned by Samuel, God’s prophet. “20. And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal” (1 Samuel 15:20-21). Did you notice that King Saul blamed the people for his disobedience? Because of his disobedience to God this time, God removed the kingdom from Saul and his family. Samuel told him that because he had rejected the word of the Lord, God had also rejected him from being king.

    It was not until the punishment had been uttered that Saul admitted his fault. “And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice” (1 Samuel 15:24). Samuel completed the job that Saul was to supposed do. Samuel killed the king of the Amalekites.

    Shortly after that, God chose a man after His own heart, David. Saul spent the rest of his kingdom not trying to please God, but trying to destroy David. This caused his kingdom to become one mainly of defeat. We do not hear of him seeking after God until right before he died in his last battle. When the Philistine army gathered together against Israel again, Saul gathered all of Israel together. He was afraid. Saul wanted a word from God, but he did not receive one: for God did not answer him (see 1 Samuel 28:6). Saul then searched and found a woman who had a “familiar spirit” (means a necromancer or sorcerer; a witch). Saul disguised himself, went by night, and found her. He sought the world’s ways of seeking answers instead of waiting upon God.

    We can understand that the main problem of Saul was that he had no spiritual foundation on which to build a godly life. Sure, he was God’s chosen man to be king of His people, but Saul never sought God or His wisdom with all of his heart. When David came into Saul’s life, many of Saul’s insufficiencies (his lack of faith and obedience to God) revealed themselves. Saul openly became a double-minded man. He was a soldier pursuing David as if he were Saul’s enemy one day, yet the next he would acknowledge that God was with David. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). We can recognize that Saul had no faith.

    Are you one with no faith, like Saul who departed from the living God in unbelief?

    Or,

    Have you received the Gospel Message of Jesus, by faith, into your heart and life?

    How to be Saved