What about gossip?

Gossip is an interesting word in the English language. It had sinister connotations once upon a time but the word is becoming more fashionable these days. It seems like  a God given right nowadays to know and to probe into another person's affairs. The world tries to bring a distinction by dividing the word into two - harmless and harmful gossip. Is there some substance to this?

Now there are other words in the Bible that suggests something worse like slander or backbiting but I believe gossip will finally lead to these whether it begins harmless or not. The word gossip is not found in the KJV at all, used thrice in the ESV and seven times in the NASB. KJV uses an interesting word - whisperings. All gossips need not be malicious but 1 Tim 5:13 explains the word clearly - 'saying what they should not' (ESV). Gossip usually begins when people have an excess of spare time. They have nothing else to do. They want to feel important and they are keeping their friend informed. What we fail to realize is because of the flesh tendency in us, we naturally gravitate towards pulling the other person down. Now malicious gossips are vicious people. But let us stay far from gossip of any kind. We may be more involved in it that we realize.

I feel sorry for them !

Sometimes, basic differences in teaching can effect our outlook more than we ever realize. Here is a biggie. Jesus walked on earth completely depended on the Holy Spirit and did not do anything out of His nature as God. All His miracles were done in the strength of the Holy Spirit. That is why He sometimes couldn't do some. (Mark 6:5) Because He was not supposed to. Even His discernment was based on the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This means that we could walk the same way He walked because the Holy Spirit can fill us in the very same way. This is what we believe or are supposed to believe.

This however can create a gigantic problem for our non-charismatic believer friends who do not accept the infilling and empowering of the Holy Spirit on us like He (the Holy Spirit) did with Jesus. Now they have to really find a way out of this predicament and so they take a colossal detour. They claim that Jesus did not do everything that He did on earth as man. He could do His miracles only in His capacity as God. Can you see how big a problem this creates? Jesus walked on earth as man but also as God, so we cannot live on earth like He lived. We have to try but we will never succeed. We can win over the flesh but we cannot win over the devil. What an hopeless situation they have brought themselves into. And they still claim to be believers walking in the Spirit. I feel sorry for them. I really do.

Christ in us

It is very important to understand the essence of God's activity in those whom he has called and chosen. It is common to find believers who think that serving God is more of doing your best, hoping that God sees your efforts and rewards you in some way or the other.We understand that Jesus is for us but we fail to comprehend something greater - Jesus in us; which Paul in Col 1:27 calls the riches of the glory of this mystery.

Even though Paul elaborates this blueprint in almost every epistle, somehow many continue to miss it.   The understanding has to be two fold. On one side, we have to come to an end of finding anything good in ourselves. We just cannot afford to boast in what we have done. On the other side, we have to begin to boast and walk in the glory of what Jesus is to us. We are excited about what He can do through us. All our activity should spring out of this two fold knowledge. There is a wonderful contradiction in Paul declaring this truth when he says - "It is I, yet not I..."

My kingdom is not of this world

'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting...' Somehow throughout the ages, Christians have forgotten this vital statement from Jesus when He spoke in response to Pilate’s query. We have seen christians trying to claim name and fame all in the name of religion. We have seen wars being fought and lands captured because christians wanted to expand the boundaries of the kingdom of Jesus. Millions have perished and countless others have been plundered because christians somehow had the misguided notion that they were fighting for Jesus and had to conquer in His Name.

I n these times, we do not find much physical wars but the idea has taken root in myriad other ways. We want christians to rule over nations. We want more christian communities and christian entrepreneurship. These may be quite desirable but if it springs out of the notion that we have to control and take ownership of the world systems, we are sadly mistaken. We are spending our energies on something that is not sanctioned by God. We fail to see that our wars are not in a visible realm. We war against invisible powers and that too, not because we want to have some worldly gain. Our thrust is to establish the kingdom of Jesus just like He was doing here on earth, nothing more and nothing less.

Out of Eternity into Time

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Let's ponder on this for a moment. It is clear that John is speaking about Jesus and it is a revelation that is quite startling. Jesus is being revealed as the manifestation of God meaning that God was expressing Himself through Jesus from the beginning. Whatever God revealed about Himself was through the Son. Jesus did not suddenly become busy when He decided to save mankind but He was before all things. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  (John 1:3). He is like the rays through which the sun expresses itself. He is the radiance of God. Suddenly we are lifted up into a grander vision of Jesus. We never saw Him like this before. He is not just our Savior but the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. When we see Him as Savior and then as Heir of all things, we are seeing Him step out of eternity into time. He was the Living One but He died and then He lives forever more (Rev 1:18). There was a pause in eternity where He stepped out for us and now He is taking us back to eternity with Him. All things were handed over to Him and He is handing them back to the Father. He is Heir and we are made co-heirs with Him. These things are too wonderful to behold! Praise His Name.