“Convictions and Beliefs”
Pastor David Moore
Old Testament reading: Hosea 3:1-4
1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”
4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods.
A theme in James is that a person’s convictions shouldn’t be theoretical but rather real and a living faith. ~D. Moore
Christianity is not an ethical code, but a living faith. ~D. Moore
New Testament reading: James 4:4-10 (NIV)
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
What is a good life according to whom? ~D. Moore
Beliefs have to be internalized, enacted, and lived out. ~D. Moore
We are to look into God’s Law and live in accordance with what we see. ~D. Moore
James says where we read God’s Law, we are reading about ourselves. We know who we are because God tells us. God tells us we should not steal or lie. God has put our weakness into His Law because of our natural sinful human self. We are naturally against God. ~D. Moore
True religion does not draw men out of the world but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it. ~William Penn
We are in Christ, that makes a difference in our lives. Christ takes us to a higher standard of living. When we fail to follow God’s Laws, we forget who we are. ~D. Moore
James says to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. Don’t let the world define you, come near to God and He will come near to you. Be bold, be courageous, be holy, be humble, it all starts with a basic truth. You are a child of God; the Cross is yours. But you are unfaithful, that’s the truth. You are God’s child, but an unfaithful one. ~D. Moore
In Hosea, the metaphor is about a marriage and the wife is unfaithful. That describes Israel and its relationship with God and our relationship with God. We are not faithful to God. ~D. Moore
Other places in the Bible the marriage relationship is used to talk about our relationship with Christ. Isaiah 54:5, Jeremiah 2:1-3, Ezekiel 16
In Romans 7, Paul says being converted to follow Jesus means that you die to the things that captured your heart before, because now you belong to a new husband (Christ). You are to be intimate with Christ, and so there is fruit born into the world through you. James is building a marriage metaphor. ~D. Moore
Ephesians 1:4-5 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.
Someone who loves the world can’t love God, too, until your heart changes and you fall in love again with Jesus. These three ideas will help us with our relationship with God.
1) Our relationship with God is a loving choice.
2) God will make us vulnerable because we are committed to Him.
3) Christ is the center of our life.
My hope and goal are that our relationship with God is backed on love and joy. ~D. Moore
I want to please Him. I want to honor God; bring Him glory through the things I do. ~D. Moore
1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us.
There is no reason that God loves but loves us with passion. ~D. Moore
James says if we experience God with passion and intimacy, we will become bold and humble and strong.
The only way to have a life of boldness, humility, strength, and compassion is to stop committing adultery with the things of the world.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
This week: Consider James’ words and ask Christ for help to get back to a life centered on Him. Have a good week.