Judging is not to become a weapon. Far too many religious institutions have made it into one. “Church discipline” has been misused, abused, and recklessly taught. Many of God's children have been deeply wounded by it.

My hammer is very well suited for each of those things, but when my project requires cutting a board, I do it with another tool. I am the one who decides what I will do with my hammer. My hammer participates, it’s involved, but I determine its specific role in the context of my larger project.

He is the Message and the Messenger of God

We are in Christ in much the same way that we are in our earthly family. By human birth, we are inexorably made children of our parents for life. We are members of their family. We are in their family.

The issue is at least partially how one chooses to define sin. In various places we are told that sin is the transgression of the law, that whatever is not of faith is sin, and so on. The Greek word for sin is (hamartia). At its most basic, this word means to miss the mark.

To have greater faith, or grow in faith, means coming to believe with greater certainty, and that, to me, is trust. That's why I say “trust gives legs to faith.” It is by growing in our knowledge of Him, His vastness, His character, that our temporal lives are transformed without striving in the flesh.

This is his prayer for the saints of Ephesus, and it is one on which we can pattern prayers of our own. First, we might be reminded that Christ does indeed dwell in our hearts. We don’t see Him there nor physically feel Him, yet by faith we are assured that He is there.

This verse closes out Paul’s lengthy parenthetical comment. It is a bit difficult, and the Greek syntax allows for three potential ways of understanding Paul’s meaning. The best of these, which fits well with his urging them to remain strong despite the difficulties Paul is facing, has a parallel in Philippians 1:27–30

Note here that Paul is saying he is less than the least of all saints because he is deeply grateful for the grace of God. He knows that without grace, his religious righteousness, which looked to be perfect to those around him, was worthless and had him just as hell bound as any other murderer.

Clearly there are things that were said to the Jews primarily for their use, just as some things are said to the Gentiles primarily for our use. But in the end, there is one Gospel that applies to everyone on earth equally and in the same way. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

Before we get too far into this passage, I want to take a moment to talk about this word “dispensation”. I think this is important so that you have some background for the day when someone comes along and starts talking about “rightly dividing” scripture according to dispensations.

Paul, who elsewhere wrote that it was for freedom that Christ has set us free, refers to himself as the prisoner of Jesus Christ. This immediately brings to mind his comments in Romans 6:18 “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”

In a recent article, I wrote that God cursed the ground, but if we read this passage carefully, we see that the ground was cursed because of what Adam had done. So, there is deeper truth here that was not addressed in what I wrote earlier.

It would be very easy for me to spend my energy refuting errant teaching. I could argue from scripture, call out poor interpretive practices, and criticize exegesis. I could point out scriptures missing from the "proofs" put forward for the doctrine being presented.

Giving gifts is a way in which we demonstrate Love like Father.
Receiving gifts is a way in which we respond to Love.

It can be easy to say all this, but our human brains are trained from birth to look for the how-to of everything. The short answer is an old cliché. Let go and let God. "Let" is a verb that means: “not prevent or forbid”; “allow.”

Earlier we read that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through Love. We also saw that the Love being referred to here is self-giving agape’ Love. We humans find that challenging. Truth be told, we find it impossible.

If it’s from Father, it will not produce fear, doubt, guilt, or shame. Every good and perfect gift is from Him. (James 1:17) What He says will always be consistent with scripture and it will always be consistent with His character.

Clearly there are things we are designed to do. Apparently, these things are to characterize our lives. That’s what walking in them means. Our lives are to be characterized by good works.

One way is through worship. To worship is to glorify God. We glorify God when we make Him known in a relatable and understandable way. When we “manifest” Him, or make Him tangible to others.