There is every
kind of problem among the born-again, living, and Holy Spirit–guided children
of God — it is important to rightly identify the truly faithful, for many
counterfeits exist everywhere. Yet the essence and foundation of all these
problems is the same: an earthly gospel. In other words, the root of all
heresies among the born-again faithful is preaching an earthly gospel.
The
Birth of an Earthly Gospel
Why do we have
gospels of ethnic groups, social classes, ideologies, nationalism, and every
kind of “ism”? It is because we are still flesh and blood, infants in spirit.
The welfare and dignity of every believer are important, but our gospel is not
about this earth. Ensuring welfare and dignity is an expression of
faith, not the essence of faith. In fact, we must be ready to sacrifice
our welfare and dignity for the gospel, that our treasure may be stored in
heaven.
The
Gospel of Letting Go
If you love
your family, let them go — that is our gospel. When God tells you to sacrifice
your only son, the gospel is let go. If you love your nation, let it go
— that too is our gospel. If you love your ethnicity, let it go — the same
gospel applies. Die and be crucified with Christ, for the world has been crucified
to you. The only pride you need is the work of the Cross.
Deny
Yourself and Be Reborn
Die and bury
your fealty garments with you. Let go of yourself entirely. Denounce your
education, your philosophy, your ideology, your common sense, and your
knowledge. Have faith against practical faith. Be hungry and thirsty for
the Spirit of God. Whatever you have held higher than the gospel, now consider
it trash and worthless, so that you may truly know the Lord and grow into His
image.
The
Purification by the Holy Spirit
Let the Holy
Spirit remake you — light from light — without any spot of darkness. In our
empty lives, we have hoarded much garbage: nationalism, ethnic identity,
ideology, human wisdom, and worldly pride. Clean it out. Die to yourself and be
reborn in the image of Jesus. Then the same Spirit who gave life to the dead
body of Christ will also give life to your mortal body.
The new you
will be a refined and purified version of yourself. Your national identity,
ethnicity, ideology, culture, and knowledge will be purified by the fire of the
Holy Spirit. The new you will be the heavenly upgrade of your old self. It will
no longer be you looking at your old problems, but Jesus — His eyes and
His heart — working through you to solve them.
Living
as Christ in Every Calling
If you still
wish to be patriotic, be Jesus first and patriotic second. Then your patriotism
will be holy — a Jesus-kind of patriotism. If you desire to be wise and
intellectual, let the Jesus in you light heavenly wisdom in your earthly mind.
You will no longer measure truth by evidence alone, but by the Word of God first.
You will not live by sight but by faith. When you measure and count, all things
will be subordinate to biblical truth, for you are the body of Christ before
all else.
Die
to Heal the World
To heal the
world, we must die and fade away so that Jesus can take over. Then, as the body
of Christ, we can let Him speak and work through us. The Jesus expressed in
different persons will not be merely human, for we are not just flesh and blood
but born of the Spirit.
Before
rebirth, an angry black man may hate a white man, and an angry white man may
hate a black man. But when one is born again in the image of Jesus — when the
fly that once loved dirt becomes a bee that loves flowers — it becomes
unnatural for the faithful to hate. A bee does not chase dirt; it is not in its
nature.
The
True Division of Humanity
Now the world
is no longer divided between black and white, left and right, nation and world,
capitalism and socialism — but between the dead and the living. The living are
brothers and sisters in Christ, one body with no ethnic, national, ideological,
or gender division. We are one, as the Father and the Son are one. Our mission
is to save the dead — to bring them from the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of light, from the devil to Jesus.
Addressing
Earthly Issues as One Body
While doing
this, we can still “chew gum” — we can talk about social, political, cultural,
and economic problems. But we must do so not as black or white, left or right,
superior or inferior, male or female — but as one body of Christ. We face our
problems as one family, one faith, one body.
The
Problem of Refusing to Die
So where lies
our problem? It is that we are not willing to let go and die. The wood of
ignorance and sin blinds our eyes. We still carry all kinds of bias and
prejudice, yet we want to fix the world’s bias. We call others flesh and blood,
while we ourselves are still flesh and blood. We must let go of the earth and
ascend to heaven before we can heal the earth. Our gospel is not about earthly
matters — not about “chewing gum” issues — but about the salvation of souls and
the holiness that radiates through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Light
in the Darkness
How then do we
deal with the world, which lies in darkness? With light. Shine your light in
the darkness. Your politics, your ideology, your patriotism, your economic
system — none of these is the light. Only Jesus is. Proclaim the gospel. Speak
the gospel in word and in life. Live it. Be a witness to Jesus and glorify Him not
only with your mouth but with your life. Glorify God, and He will glorify you,
for nothing is impossible with Him. Your weapon of mass destruction is God
Himself — hold tight to Him.
The
Danger of Earthly Power
Even if you
think some earthly power is needed to enforce godly ways, such as government,
be careful not to lose God in the pursuit of earthly power. Politics is
dangerous because Jesus reflects the Father — while the reflection of the
dragon, the old serpent, is the empire of the world. The image of the dragon is
the beast, and the beast is empire. Its nature is devilish, not heavenly.
So when you
enter government, remember that you are stepping into a system shaped by the
powers of this world. An honest, kind, and faithful person — one who never
lies, turns the other cheek, and gives both coat and shoe — might survive
there, but the odds are against him. Politics is never about a single law; it
is always a package of laws. The same legislation that seeks to ban abortion or
homosexuality is often bundled with others that are partly biblical and partly
antichrist. When you push for such mixtures, spiritual purity is traded for an
adulterated gospel.
The
Core and the Periphery
Faith must
have a core and a periphery. The core must remain Bible-centered, focused on
the work of heaven. Yet this center may extend outward, touching earthly
matters, sometimes even in political form. Peter and John must focus on the
gospel, but others may become governors for Christ. Still, our mission is not
power, for the gospel is not spread by power but by the Holy Spirit — by
preaching, living, and manifesting the truth of Christ.
The
Gospel Beyond Politics
Our faith
indeed includes rejecting sin — including abortion and homosexuality — no
matter what the world says. But it is much greater than that. The gospel cannot
be reduced to such simple battles, and our weapon cannot be reduced to
politics. We must cling to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, more tightly
than to any earthly authority. Many may call this impractical, but the way of
the Spirit is always foolishness to the people of flesh. Who would have thought
that death could be defeated by dying?
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