W W W W  World Wide Web Witness Inc.  Home Page   Contents Page for Volume  What is New

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE PATH OF LIFE AND THE DOOR TO IT

Some seem dedicated to the idea of being born. It is as if, in some celestial setting, some nursery, a whole lot of prospective souls-to-be on earth, were wondering, arguing. Some wanted to be BORN, and saw this as the greatest imaginable glory: that is, born on earth. Some on the other hand, wanted to walk on earth, to be a going-concern, and being born was more or less taken for granted. Others saw the end of a stay on earth, and thought that here would like the important thing. After all, they would urge, if you end well, that wraps it all up.

But WHAT does it wrap up ? Ends do NOT by any means always justify means. But they proceed, this is spiritual. If you end spiritually in good odour, what more matters ? However, take Israel, certainly a national case, but still illustrative in some measure of principle: IT will by the word of God end very well (Romans 11), but WHAT misery in between, and what unhallowed happenings so often! (cf. Romans 11). It is more than a Job-like test, for Leviticus 26 has forewarned of both the cause and the consequence, chronic rebelliousness, scamping of mercy, solidarity with surrounding evils, failure in testimonial truth. Multitudes have fallen, and the least of nations can become a threat, because as a nation, they forsook and did not repent, the only God and in His grace so that in turn, HE allows them so to be threatened by foes they would scarcely have considered in the days of their power. Deuteronomy 32:13-22 for example, spells it all out. Minimise the truth and maximise your oppression by the untrue!

No the end by no means simply justifies the means; nothing justifies unrighteousness here or there. To be sure, a sinner may be justified (you cannot justify a self-righteous person since there is no room to place a grant of any other righteousness, like that holy perfection which belongs to God only, by transference where faith receives (Romans 5:1-21); but that does not justify the sin. That is mercy, and man's follies cannot dupe God. You cannot play Him like a fish on a line; there is no line to God but Christ, and that begins with a repentance of life, to Life (Luke 13:1-3). That cost more than the world to do, and takes more than this world, to receive (II Corinthians 5:17-21).

Any way to a good end, then  ? No, this is oblivious of cost, dependent on mercy, abuses kindness and has no chartered course, its very sophistication its chief flaw, its abuse of the cost to God, its supreme presumption, its abuse of interim like, its arrogance, its spiritual smog its contribution.

This does not satisfy the differing speakers, then.

Now another of them  cries, to present his own  case, Listen! he says, being born IS the best of all these approaches, because then it ALL lies open, with no spiritual mortgages or loss. You can then have open slather.

Rubbish! says the walker-talker. Once get going, sailing on an even keel, in well-selected waters and your trade is sound. It is the middle that matters, the journeying as such. Grab, gain and go on; it is getting to that point that is crucial and really, the best of it all.

Self-trust however is infinitely worse than trusting in God, since neither birth nor death ask questions as to one's preference, in the natural man, nor do events stand aside lest they unfairly smite you, in terms of your journeying specifications, written by yourself. This is blindness, that fails to see in both nations and individuals,  falls so catastrophic that you find books like the Lamentations of Jeremiah standing in a horror of smitten awe, just to behold what has happened, even when it was foreseen, and the correction ignored.

Unfortunately, not much of these the proposals had close relevance to the word of God, and as in many human discussions, leaving out the ultimate is neither wise nor relevant, like leaving out a debt for 100 million, in computing your need for a weekly salary, or a credit for the same, in estimating liberties available in choosing work.

In fact, spiritually is the operative primary consideration in order of need, since mind and body can be captured, but not spirit, and it is the spirit which returns to God in the first instance (Ecclesiastes 12:7). To be born in spirit, that is regenerated because of the inadequacy of the physical birth to convey spiritual requirements, now man is caught up in sin from the first, IS necessary. It is not only desirable. Man continually seeks out his own schemes, and as continually they do not work, while philosophies waggle and clash, millions die, wondrous majesties fall, and people are crushed like grubs under falling masonry,

Without this, the spirit of man reborn by the Maker's grace and in His operating quarters, you have nothing that lasts in any desirable sense, in truth, in peace, in reality and eternity combined; only a judged and horrid residue of rebellion, resistance and superficiality, with different means of masquerading, as if truth were a puppy, and you were the leader.

Again, to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16,25), this is vital also; for if you were born and could never walk, it might almost be better never to BE born: that is spiritually. It cannot happen, in fact (I John 3:9), but in principle, for a relativity test, it has to be considered. Indeed, in Galatians 5, Paul is inspired to exhort us to both WALK in the Spirit and LIVE in the Spirit. The enduring process, the stable voyage/flight, this is a character depicting path; although sudden swerves may compromise and reveal inherent weakness. These may be overcome, and then appear more as growing pains; or not: and that reveals a false birth, like a large burp, with confession a verbal burp, without meaning, a virally infected substitute for a working model, from the first.

To end, then, what of this as a preference, as the suggested criterion of choice, to set above all  else ? This has two applications. It can be, as in I Timothy 1:5, be in the sense of purpose, or ultimate purpose, and there it refers to love out of a pure heart, a clear conscience and unfeigned faith. These have to obtained through mercy, acquired through gift, received by action, embraced through faith, granted through goodness. Indeed,  the purity signifies massive purging, pardon and work, the clarity the resolution of conflict in courage and patience, and the unfeigned faith shows the reality of the connection with the dynamic of deity. Without that, what point!

The "end" can also refer to the terminus, or eventual situation. In this sense, as in II Timothy 4 where you see in eventual lustre, the confidence Paul showed a little earlier in II Timothy 1:8-12, now in final version, as death leapt up on the screen of life, as imminent. Paul here is evidenced not only assured of the Lord's benign reception, but of the principles of that for anyone else, even for ALL who have LOVED Christ's appearing (II Tim. 4:8).

The whole is inter-connected, and all present or implicit in the gift of eternal life (cf. Ch. 5 above).

When you are regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3), so as to be with those who can say, "He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit," not by our works, but so that "having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life," then there are results. These include FRUIT. In its botanical imagery, but not until your regeneration, which is to be compared with being PLANTED (as in Matthew 15:13, Isaiah 61:1-3, Romans 6). It is then only that you come to the effective operation of producing fruit. It is like that with trees; they have to be planted or germinate FIRST, just as living creatures have to be born, and sinners reborn.

GOOD trees, duly planted by the good hand of the Father, and supplied by the water of the Spirit, have good fruit. In a but you have to take care with your observations! As Matthew 7 makes clear, you have to be watchful not to be carried off even in assessment, by false prophets, who by design, give a false impression, being wolves in sheep's clothing!

So you check carefully.  BAD TREE, BAD FRUIT. You know them by their fruits. However, in the midst of this detection mode, to prevent imposture, there is the opposite side. In this Matthew 7, the negative side and its methods receive major attention, but there is the other side. Thus  a GOOD tree bears good fruit. Indeed, it cannot bear bad fruit (that is, taken as one whole as a kind of tree cf. I John 1:7).

That is very pleasant. IF you are converted, walking in the Spirit, regenerated by faith through grace, then you CANNOT be a bad-fruit-bearing type of tree, as in I John 3. The reference there is to a continuity of action. If even a dog trusts you, and if you were good, then the trusting dog, being of a heart and trusting disposition to relate to you wisely, does not become a faithless cur. That is simply ridiculous as a rule for canine cautions. It may be smitten with diseases of various kinds; but operating as it is, that is the way of it. The bonds are warm, mutual, understanding, delicate, sensitive and substantial, and tend constantly to reinforce with their very felicity.

PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCTION

Indeed, with the scripture in view, we may formulate some principles about fruit and result.

PRINCIPLE ONE. A bad tree is known by its fruit (false prophets the topic).

PRINCIPLE TWO. Every good tree bears good fruit. It CANNOT bear bad fruit
(nor is it expected to be in all its ways perfect, but characterisable thus).

PRINCIPLE THREE. Bad trees, known by bad fruit, are cut down
(discipline must be merciful but not blind).

PRINCIPLE FOUR. "Therefore" by their fruit, you will know them.

Again, as in vv. 15-16, so in 19-20, the immediate proximity to this, is the negative one. In the second case, the topic moves to caution against self-deception, at a large level, in vv. 21-22!

In the same Chapter, we find, indeed at the outset, another command.
 

JUDGE NOT THAT YOU BE NOT JUDGED

The Principle of Care

Here is a prohibition, whereas above there is a warranted action. How may these be combined ?

First, however, let us note that this includes SELF-JUDGMENT, that godless regimes tend to contradict with passion. Their righteousness rises to the heavens, while murder is often taken lightly, and misnamed devotion, force is the mode of preference, and submission is the intended result. If God were merely a God of power then of course, the results would be simply attributable directly to Him,  and as evil abounds, so would its source. But God is not simply a God of power as is so stringently attested in the lamentations of Psalm 73, and has far more important motives than simply exercising it (John 3:16, I John 4:7-10, I Corinthians 13); for freedom demands restraint and the opportunity to expose itself, and love demands freedom, and it is the love of God which gave to  a fallen world at cost to the Giver (John 3:15-18, II Cor. 5:17ff.), who did not even esteem the offer of the whole world to rule, by its sin-stirrer, Satan (Matthew 4), but dismissed it with contempt.

This world and the ruler of its vice, has many lures, but less results.You must confess, in many cases, and possibly be re-educated as well, by an angry nation desiring your complete submission. That is, you may be made to resemble a brute by having your resistance so marred by the scars and scares of physical brutality, social deprivation, financial stress and utter humiliation, that you profess willingness to agree to the tyrannical assault on your soul! This is not exactly a soulless exercise, however brutal the re-educators; but it is a denial of the soul, of its assessive nature, which exceeds mere brutality, and becomes devilish, seeking that control over man which is the typical lust of Satan (cf. Genesis 3, Matthew 4, Revelation 12).

Nations desiring to manipulate the lost, often add to it the desire to massacre the saved (John 16:2 an example). They may thus want you to CONFESS your transgressions to them, so that with an appearance of justice, they may force you either to conform, or to be tortured to death with some kind of pretence that you deserved it, or incarcerated in hope of making you deny truth in fear of them, by all means seeking a tyrannical control. JUDGE YOURSELF, they cry, and may have sessions of self-examination, under a strict, totalitarian control, to weed out the blooms, and make sure only weeds are left. This is the way of the world when aroused, of those who seek it, who ignore its source, the ways prescribed and misuse the liberty, replacing the love behind the enterprise of creation with a grab for destiny as a power.

This is the other way, what Psalm 119:29 calls "the way of lying," but "I have chosen the way of truth."

Others may judge you, but God is the judge. You may attempt to judge your own performance, but God is the judge. As far as mutually competitive endeavours are concerned, various evaluations of performance, Paul indicates in I Corinthians 3, don't do it. Judge nothing before the time when all becomes manifest. Leave to God creation and estimation!

You are instructed not to attempt to judge yourself^*1, that is appoint for yourself this or that, with a refined discernment, since this is not YOUR JOB! as in I Corinthians 3. NEVER try to do what is a God-exclusive task, and that includes playing God, a notable spiritual insanity (Hosea 9:7, Ezekiel 28:9). Firstly, it is not a matter of playing, and secondly, when finitude seeks to undertake the due tasks of infinitude, it is less than comic, as if a flea should desire to become the emperor of the world.

In other words, this is not merely a caution not to be aggressively domineering in making subjective assertions about other people, as if that were the truth. It is a chiefly a warning not to attempt that totality of knowledge type of action, which belongs to God properly, He having what it takes to do it, in stark contrast with such excursions which might be made by your lusting self. It is also an exhortation, a righteous warning to your awakened self.  It is an annunciation that at certain levels God only is competent. Indeed, the principle is extended. Not only should you not do this type of thing, in spiritual style, like a haughty, naughty princeling flapping his flimsy wings, but if you do, then with  the kind of judgmental arrogance, or intemperance, or sensitivity with which you judge, the level in kind of your mode of assessment, will the estimate for you, be applied to you (Matthew 7:2). "With what measure you use, it will be measured back to you."

A perfect example of this is found in a parable. Indeed, it is one of the best known, and it is found in Matthew 25:14-30. Having given servants, before leaving, an interim quantity of money to use on his behalf, some more, some less, a nobleman returns. The time of results is now come. The one given most gets proportionately most; the next, proportionately in keeping with this, but the one given least has had a problem. He knew, he indicated, that the nobleman was an austere man, collecting what he did not deposit and reaping what he did not sow. Hence, apparently to be safe, he just buried it in the ground.

Taking him on HIS OWN PRINCIPLE, the nobleman depicts him as a wicked servant. Since you knew that I was this type of man (granting for argument's sake this assessment of himself), then WHY did you not put it in the bank, and so gain interest ? If the boss is a self-centred grabber, and you attest this character, and accept a job from him, why not at least act on your perceptions with some level of intelligence, and be consistent in your actions, with your stated judgment of him! Why uselessly use it by burial, when even the bank would give more to the allegedly grasping hands of your boss!

Take, he said, the one unit of currency given to this man and give it to the one who had and gained the most. How come ? To him who has, will be given, and from him who has not, will be taken even what he seems to have^*2.

Why ? Presumably, the more acumen, reliability, trustworthiness, perception and competence you show, the more you are shown worthy to exercise those very things, and so DO proceed to that step, as a reward that is totally realistic. If you fail utterly, then why commit more to you ? Indeed, your unfaithful and unimaginative and JUDGMENTAL attitude towards your employer marks you out as unworthy to act on his behalf at all.

WHO CAN JUDGE THE HEART ? There is the difficulty in any such plan s makes man the measure of all things, including the worth of his fellows; for then, as II Corinthians 10 points out, he is measuring himself, his own tpe of bying, by himself. What however about the measuring ruler, himself ? What does he know of that ? What does he assume ? Is it to be taken seriously that he appoints or even anoints himself as the assessor of mankind when he is merely one of them ? Is the ruler to be unknown, while its results are tabulated ? Is there no limit to corruptly imaginative lordliness! Sin loves having no limits, and that is why, unredeemed, the sinner fits so well in hell. Limits are too tedious ? truth is too evacuative of self ? Then what is left, like that, is available.

In man, lost as he naturally is, as an unconverted race in the milling multitudes, the "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" Jeremiah 17:9. Such follies as those above merely illustrate this.

The infinitude of wisdom in God suffices, however, this suffices for assessment of the human heart: "I the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings." There, if you will, is your auditor. If you do not like it,  truth will  still operate. You were not born with a mind seeking to enquire and discover, so that truth might be mocked, but found.

It is quite useless to assess yourself as if you understood all, knew all and displaced all as your regal thought finds out all. Without that, why arise and JUDGE things literally past your understanding. Judgment is not a question of guess-work, but truth, as in God Himself, who IS it! The hope of such marvels is good, for the marvel of the mind of God has made our own, derivative as it is. The placement of them IN our own minds appears as a supercilious folly, since what is known includes this, by any orderly use of the mind, that it did not make itself, nor did matter with its servility to law make it, nor did law make liberty, to ponder and weigh, so that reason inevitably leads to its revocation or to God (cf. SMR, TMR). THIS assessment comes first, that God is the assessor; and in His grace He lets us see and consider what is what, and in His wisdom, it is only there that even reason is sated (cf. Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ).

This principle of judgment in Matthew 7:1, is just as strong as the earlier four, concerning fruit and knowing the one concerned, by it.

BOTH the principles of fruit and the principle of judgment must be in parallel and in composition, fulfilled; and it is not too hard.

If you see someone murdered, then that is observation. If you see a theft, so is that. If however you want to make someone a divisive urchin, a fool without character, an arrogant meddler, and that sort of thing, where you obviously are acting as JUDGE, not just another person, which is your actual place, then this is different. Then you are getting past fruit, and fraud, to assessment on pre-suppositions of your own thinking, reactions of your own psyche and subjectivities of your own soul, while arising like a giant breaker on the surf, to threaten your victim. Do not do this! Judge not. But at the same time, if there is for example bribery and blackmail and hiding of moral faults, and you gain certain knowledge of these things, then the FRUIT is clear. If each dimension is given its just due, then so far from entanglement of fruit and judgment, watch on the one hand and do not do, on the other, there is a sublimely efficient combination, leading to careful conduct and wise restraint, as well as wakeful awareness.

When the Bible is constantly assaulted, you are surely not in the presence of a God-fearing person. When however it is often exalted, are you surely in the presence of a God-fearing man (as in Isaiah 66:2) ? Not necessarily is this latter case, so. It could instead in reality be someone aspiring for recognition, showing off a diplomatic deceptiveness to gain prestige, power, salary, eminence or a base for self-congratulation, which to some may be very dear. You must not be godlike positively or negatively. When, despite good appearances perhaps in many dimensions, someone is nevertheless demonstrably light with zeal in the APPLICATION of the Bible, and slow to recognise violations, then you gain an objective index. This has to be sober and careful, lest one's perceptions are exalted over the evidence.

Indeed, Christ made a scathing denunciation of an habitual censoriousness which is so scrupulous in seeing minute things, and expanding these critically, that it fails to see its own faults, being self-centred and blind. Mathew 7:4-6 exposes such a character. Suppose someone is asking his brother for leave to try to get out of that brother's eye, some speck which he thinks he discerns there, how ludicrous if in so doing, to take it further, he whacks the man over the head with a whole PLANK of wood, which is protruding from his own eye! It interferes with surgical precision, not to say exposes the victim to bruising or contusions in the process!

Clearly, poorness of spirit and humility and awareness of spiritual realities are pre-requisites for ANY work in the kingdom of heaven. A wrong attitude here can comport with self-ignorance that makes such an attitude an enormity, even a comedy, as in the other notable related case, where some are prevented from entering the kingdom of heaven because they are so loaded with things of this world (whether pride or possessions or a nice position in the eyes of one's fellows) that entering would be rather like putting a camel through the eye of a needle. To be sure, the camel could be killed and made into a mulch, liquefied and put through with an eye-dropper if need be; but you see, THEN it would no longer be a camel, but dead, and quite unrecognisable, whereas the whole point is IN recognition!

Allied to the need for care in judgment, that is in assessments which violate these spiritual conditions, is the
area of gossip and slander. I well remember when asking my Presbytery in New Zealand to affirm the bodily resurrection, in the time when the Assembly was denying its need for the faith, that when by one vote, that Presbytery failed by faith to affirm it, then I was sent a libellous letter from it. They felt led, it seems, to tell me in some 5 handsome assaults, that I was this and that, of a derogatory character.

The next day, following up on their Ahab-like detestation of the confrontation in an Elijahic sort of way, as was needed in such a folly as this, they sent another letter. They expressed regret for not adding what may have been a 6th or similar new, traducing assault on me, factually void as the other. Thus they said, forgive our omission in the last letter, but  You are also THIS! before signing off in a formal sort of way. Often, one meets, sometimes even from what externally appear churches, such judgments when those bodies or churches are shown objectively to violate basic Christian matters, which need attention. Such surges of hatred and reviling can occur in the wounded conscience, that it can come to resemble the condition of the Corinthians Church noted in II Cor. 12, where Paul speaks of their report:

"I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish,
and that I shall be found by you, such as you do not wish:
lest there be contentions, jealousies, outburst of wrath,
selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults;
lest when I come again, my God shall humble me among you,
and I shall mourn for many, who have sinned before
and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication and lewdness
which they have practised."

When doctrine fails, one finds morals soon follow. Actually, as with the prophets of the Old Testament, although they in their case, were often also writers from the mouth of God, there is a calling to attest truth, which is beyond the personal realm, and involves integrity, courage and conviction.

It is found for example in II Timothy 4:2-5, and may not be sidestepped:

"Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.
Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves teachers:
and they will turn their ears from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry."

The martyr Stephen (Acts 7) is one of the most striking examples of this spiritual syndrome, for his eminence in faith and works was remarkable and delightful; but the more he challenged them, the more murderous they grew, and his spirit was to their spirits, as the sun to the dead old moon, as being stoned in their wrathful outrage, he died in a haze of glory and wonder, seeing Christ at the right hand of God as he went. Nor did he fail to seek forgiveness for them, as his life flitted from earth to the hand of God.

One can think of situations rather less drastic, but doggedly determined, in what one calls one's "slander squad" who seem infested with an irritation which they cannot control, and cannot cease from derogation when one has dared to challenge them in the name of the Lord. Do not then, faithful Christian, let such well-known devices concern  you, for just as a corpse untended, becomes noxious to the nostrils, so do dying churches, leaving the foundations of the faith, avoiding the clear teaching of the word of God, become assailants of the spirit, when activated! John 16:2 shows an end result often enough to be found, as predicted by Christ.

The principles of false judgment are many. Its motivations can be varied, and need to be watched for, both in oneself, lest one err, and in others, to realise when they merely fulminate obnoxiously, it can be like a snake rising to eye level, before spitting. In themselves, they may be reacting to some challenge or charge, as if an elephant had just stepped lightly on a foot, when in fact it was a red flag over a precipice that they choose to ignore.

Thus in matters of dubious or inadequate evidence, the best scope for the forbidden "judging", there may be lying in the background of the mind, or the heart, such evils as these:

1) False assumption. In this case, the person attacking may have some generalisation that all people who believe X or do Y, are always, by observation the sort also to do Z, so that we may safely assume that Z really is true of the victim of the verbal assassination in progress.

2) False attitudes. Here, you could for example have camps, or theological NAMES (such as Paul, or Apollos as in I Corinthians 3), and you may choose (as if buying shares on the market) to back the one or the other, as a personal hero, or to de-list, as a dangerous stock! This vying partisanship leads most readily to injustice, as I have found even in seminary, and that repeatedly. It is FORBIDDEN, in I Cor. 3. It is deemed virtually childish (fit for "babes in Christ").  It is Christ, not some commentator, who is pre-eminent. You may choose to adhere to certain beliefs, so long as you do not IN PRACTICE put these above the Bible, as in some confessional churches. But you may NOT place this as a preferred hand-me-down from here or there, citing a grand name around which all should competitively gather, while slinging arrows at other groups on the horizon, or missiles if the distance is too great for mere arrows.

It is forbidden.

3) False attributions. This is well exemplified in the two letters which I received, when my call for Presbytery to acknowledge the bodily resurrection of Christ, in clear terms of FAITH, with all that this required in a challenging national situation, was met by a smog of libel. I did not and do not like to prosecute, even when the missile flinging body has left the faith; for even then, though the case noted by Paul in I Corinthians 6:1ff., would not apply, for then these are no longer brothers but assailants of the biblical faith, I slowly learn what is in man, and seeking an outsider to adjudicate in such matters, can be void, a waste of time, and a peril to productivity! FRUIT production must abound; it is a good occupation. In the New Zealand case, I therefore did not come with an Overture to the Assembly seeking for it to denounce the heretical Principal, but to  evict the doctrine in view; and to announce the biblical doctrine, confirming it as before. It was this error which was denounced in the approach to  Assembly then made, in 1966.

4) The squint of an evil eye (Matthew 20:15). Here it was Christ who used this phrase. A man in this parable gave a full day's pay, both to those who laboured all day, and to those taken on late in the day. Objection was aroused, so he told them that it is for himself to do what he wishes with what is his own. If he chooses to make a gift in some measure, is this not for him to decide ? or "is your eye evil because I am good!"

In this case, certain principles are used, which equate fairness with equality, and without ground, and these ideas are then used to club someone over the head, to force him to do what is wanted and not what he sees fit to do. People and principles differ; and who gives to the club-wielding assailant, the power to insist that this or that superficial idea must rule! This is mere intimidation and dictatorship, the more so when government as now increasingly in this land, becomes prone to this type of assault. On the basis of principles that are not even consistent (as for example between one race and another quite explicitly), they may harass people into a conformity to their hastily mouthed morals, as if they were God, and had been voted full control over religion, when it is absolutely denied to them to make any provisions or requirements in this sphere.

You can do this, but here, not contrary to the Constitution, not without rebellion, and misuse of power in autonomy, when in fact it is formally exceedingly limited in the case of the Commonwealth of Australia, and in this matter especially, as in Article 116.

Thus such vulnerabilities in judgment rashly and wrongly, on the one hand, and such needs to watch for fruit in trying to avoid imposture, need significant care, not just presumption followed by force. James speaks most vigorously in this domain, and the need for self-control, in 1:25-26,19-2 0, 2:10. In James 3:1-12, the malady of an inflamed tongue is given its exposure! Again, unjust partiality as in James 2:9 is not a matter of exemption! Mercy is free; but when JUSTICE is in view, the term is not in need of being distorted by desire. The concept of making someone guilty before total examination, as actually proposed in the so-called anti-discrimination Bill of 2012, is utterly unconscionable: who would want it of him/herself! It is presumptuous, arrogant and insensitive, wantonly uncaring about reputation and truth.

How DARE anyone make an affirmation, certainly not even duly tested, so that truth is the apparent result in the term used, such as "guilty" in this case. If you are temporarily called guilty, and then found not to be, then the one so calling you has LIED! Is this to be government by LIE! Nor is this without excellent application at the individual level, where something virtually similar may occur at the hand of a committee, or individual. As soon as this style of finding takes a hold, we are nearing the time near the return of the Messiah in judgment, as noted in Isaiah 59, where "truth is fallen in the street."

Again, in view of the principles exhibited, when someone is exposed utterly, opportunity to rebut is often in place, especially if there is simply no existing method available; for this is normally what one would desire for oneself, and the second commandment sets the ultimate tone (under the first one, of course), of loving your neighbour as yourself. This comes before assignation such s GUILTY, if you value truth beyond convenience.

THE PRINCIPLE OF GRACE

As in Ephesians 2:5-8, Romans 3:23-27, the procedure in assessing production, is NOT that of being "planted" (Isaiah 61:1-3, Romans 6, cf. John 3). You have to germinate in order to show life at all. It is possible so to relish, as in the case of a wheat seed, so to  value your nice, robust, comfortable, dull yellow distinctness that you abhor dropping to the ground, and in the midst of lowliness, actually germinating! That gives a destiny of rotting instead of regeneration.

Turning to sheep, the door must be entered before grazing and spiritual growth can occur; for in this case, registration and regeneration go together. Entering THAT door means BECOMING one of His sheep (John 10:9, with 10:27-28), who hear His voice and follow Him, being re-natured to make this natural, as it should be since the creation. Now however, being denatured, it has to be re-equipped: being compromised, it needs to be re-created. The results of eternity are then assured, but so is growth (I John 3:8-9 applies,  as does Philippians 3:12. The present tense in "sin" in the former, is a concept of continuity, not the merely episodic cf. I John 1:7).  Perfection has to wait. Moreover, there is discipline (Hebrews 12), and there is growing up into the Head of the body (Ephesians 4:15).

To the one who has germinated, been regenerated, repented and been converted, there has been a sorrownever to be repented of and hence, what follows is ALL THE REST of spiritual  life, both temporal and eternal. You are not left in the nursery forever ("babes in Christ"), but like 'teen-agers in the crew at school, may be expected to eat steak, even if you have to chew it ... hard! Among other things, now there comes the joint power to open the eyes and discipline the tongue (cf. James 3, Ephesians 1:17-19), and to find for yourself the exceeding greatness of the power of God, even that which raised the body of Jesus the Christ (Ephesians 1:19).

Grace gives you in the kingdom of heaven,  a place. Its plan is of grace; its apportionment is of grace - it did not have to  apply in the way it does, by which God would have all come to repentance (I Timothy 2, Colossians 1:19ff.), would have all moving to reconciliation, while still honouring their scope not to do so. While indeed,  He foreknows and accordingly predestines, He does not abolish freedom in HIS sight, in the process: John 3:19 being the divinely authorised simple statement on WHY some are, en  fin de compte, as the French put it, LOST, lost beyond reach. Whether they be disdaining, dismissing or missing through total unconcern, the grace that goodness brings. God can penetrate what is humanly impossible, or characteristically impenetrable, something amazing forgotten by some; but it has all been assured from eternity, and there is no possibility of error with the eternity.

What grace is this, you cannot go to hell by technical fault or oversight, and since God would have all reconciled to Himself,  there is no lack of motivation; and though purity is not to be sacrificed to statistics, nor is reality to be squashed, as if love turned to lust. There is grace, that such in such a condition as this, are yet desired, won, found, even when yet sinners, the love of God reaching beyond incapacitation through spiritual pathology, and knowing preference past dysfunction, indeed able to bring life from the dead.

Fruit and its place arises as a question only when you are PLANTED. Once there are definitionally seen as distinct, it is hard to achieve confusion! Before root and fruit, there is planting. After planting, then only,  do these question apply. How they apply has been our first concern; when they do so and why, the second. Now both are covered, for the soul recovered. Praise the Lord for His total oversight, living power, glorious heart and supreme patience.

NOTES

*1

While this is explicitly forbidden in I Cor. 4:4-5, rather like an employe acting as if the were the company's Board, there is a self-examination which is not only permitted but attested for use. It is different of course, but needs to be clearly differentiated. Thus in II Corinthians 13:5. In reviewing some matters of very due concern, Paul suggests that they examine themselves. WHY ? It is to see whether they be IN THE FAITH!

This, instead of resembling a worker trying to assess himself, instead of having the Board do so, or whatever other authority consigned the task, becomes more like someone with a large brown, irregular growth on his arm, not bothering to check it out. Perfect people, to follow the analogy, never have growths and need never look at their angelic bodies; but we men and women, are not so (I John 1:7ff.). We need to check. But what sort of check ? That depends whether you already savingly rely on and have been redeemed and regenerated, sealed and accepted in the Lord (Ephesians 1:6,11). If not, then this is the way. If so, then a check is still, in type, in place. What kind ?

It is not, then, a matter of whether we BE IN the faith. That  is not such a delicate thing; for even your dog may most manifestly trust you or not. Reliance may be deceptive, but in one's own heart, where one goes for information ultimately, morals, help, worship, the position is not readily confused. Still, adverse circumstances, collision with biblical principles, is surely a reason for looking!

Nevertheless, God does give assurance of eternal life as we have seen in Chs. 2 and 5 above, and to doubt Him is in itself not faith. In this sense, you are already placing your whole destiny BY FAITH in the hands of the God who made the promises, so that performance is excluded as a criterion of having faith; for now it serves to illustrate it: a good tree, being so planted by God (Matthew 15:13, Romans 6:1-6,23), and then kept by the power of God (I Peter 1), CANNOT be a bad-fruit-bearing tree. As soon as the confused soul begins to seek assurance from his/her own performance, already the wrong path is being followed for as we have seen from  Titus 3 (as in Romans 3, Galatians 3, 5), salvation itself is NOT OF WORKS. As soon as you begin to rely on them you are ready to fall into two pits: the first is self-judging - it really is so when you so abort divinely granted principles concerning your own salvation - and the second is frank contradiction of what God has assured you.

Examining oneself, in this particular case,  then becomes a matter of seeking, asking the LORD to try you and see if there be any evil way in you, while leading you on the way everlasting (as David did, seen in Psalm 139:23-24). Depending on where one is, what and indeed whom one believes, so the situation changes (II Timothy 1:12): for what is already promised eternal life, and has this by faith from the very word of God, as multiply expressed, does not need to doubt; but DOES need to check for blemishes and errors, and be ready to be corrected,  not lest - in this case, there be dismissal by the Lord, but lest one offend Him, a thing intensively undesirable because of love and delight in Him, and His profound merits in Christ.

*2

In Luke 19:12-27, the plan is varied, illustrating various productivities from the same initial amount. One had one unit, and so did the other. One gained ten, one five, and one none from this, over the period given. The productive result gives an index to the number of cities over which the worker gains rule. The more competence shown, the more point to such an appointment. What is shown in fidelity and strength, wisdom and discretion gives a lead to what fits, and so is appointed. To God, the results are clear, and so too the consequences of them. The nil performer, not a lemon on the tree if you will, lost the site, but not only this, his initial grant, unused, was given to the one who had made the most. The point is productivity here, just as grace is the point in salvation as such. If someone is enormously functional, then that is used. There is no place for pride, pretension, emulation in truth. The yoke is easy, the burden is light, and there is point in strain. Rest for the souls is in the hand of the Holy One, not scrambling self-seeking.