Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Now the days of David came near that he should die; and he commanded Solomon his son, saying, “I am going the way of all the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man; and keep the instruction of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn yourself. Then Yahweh may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children are careful of their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you,’ he said, ‘a man on the throne of Israel.’ “Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was around his waist and in his sandals that were on his feet. Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don’t let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother. “Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Yahweh, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Now therefore don’t hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”
(1 Kings 2:1-8)

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife. You are arrogant, and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
(1 Corinthians 5:1-8)

King David charged his son Solomon with ridding the kingdom of men who had shown they were not aligned with the throne or what God wanted for the nation. David also charged Solomon with following the Lord above all – for without it, there would BE no nation to protect. The covenant God made with David was extensive and a real blessing, but it was conditional on David and his descendants serving the Lord. God wasn’t looking for a covenant of works. God was pointing out that service to the Lord brought blessing and favour. Part of that obedience was not letting ungodly people stay in the nation. That was the way to let sinful behaviour spread – like leaven in a batch of dough, or cancer in a healthy body. The Law was clear that the ungodly were to be separated from the godly (Deuteronomy 13:6-11; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21: 24:7). Evil was not to be left among them.

In the New Covenant, the Law wasn’t the operating principle, but Mercy and Grace. This did not mean to accept evil behaviour, however. It simply meant that death didn’t have to be the means to remove the evil. Paul was pushing for the church of Corinth to put out one of its members. To kick them out of the community of believers. The point was to expose the person to the consequences of their actions in order to bring them back to their senses so that they would repent. It would also serve to protect the church so that no one would decide that this behaviour was acceptable, and therefore be drawn into that sin or a similar one. It was designed to remove ungodly behaviour in such a way that Mercy and Grace could shine through and repentance and restoration bring them back together again.

Summary

Being in the world and not of the world doesn’t mean that we’re to head off into closed communities and hold ourselves above the rest of the people. It means that we are to live among them as a witness to the goodness of God. But that ALSO means that we are to be SEPARATE from them in our behaviour and moral character. We are to be modelled on Jesus, not on what the collective thinks. Yes, this can cause some friction. Remember that we are not here to judge. We are not here to point fingers and tell them they’re hell-bound. We are called to live holy lives, to submit to the Lord and align with His Word. In this way we place ourselves in the BLESSING zone. When we are blessed, prospering in all things regardless of our circumstances, we’ll be a witness to God’s glory. How can we be happy when things are bad? How can we have our needs met in this economy? How can we be consistently a-okay when the world is crashing? People will line up to figure out how we are doing it – which gives us the opportunity to sing God’s praises and give Him all the glory. Being a witness because we’ve separated ourselves from ungodly behaviour and chosen to cooperate with God by learning to emulate His moral character.