Divine Life

From: May 25 – 31, 2010 TOPIC: “Divine Life” 2 Peter 1:3 – 10 Acts 14:6

Acts 14:6 “In past ages He has let all the people walk in their own ways; though He didn’t let himself without a testimony, doing good to others, sending us rain from Heaven and fruitful times, filling us with nourishment and filling our hearts with joy." God’s love has provided rain to the people, and the seasons of the year have been fruitful for them filling their hearts with nourishment. That is God’s testimony, His love for us; but despite all these men decide to walk far from Him and do not want to seek or serve him. Let us look at ourselves, we the gentiles that are saved, we have peace, joy and nourishment; the rain falls for us also, the sun comes out and we have air to breathe; we also have a church, a pastor and union among the brothers, etc. It is so much that in my notebook I cannot write down all the good that God has given us. And even with all that, man decides to walk away from God. What is the reason? It is because we are not growing in the knowledge of God that wants us to live in His fear. In these verses that we have read we are taught how to avoid falling in this life and how we can have the certainty of a triumphant entrance for the coming of the Lord. From a fall here it is difficult to rise and it is dangerous for a separation of the life to come. You may think that it doesn’t matter and that you will have another chance to repent and nothing will happen; but it is difficult to stand, it is very complicated. It says in 2 Peter 1:4, "…having fled from the corruption there is in this world." The corruption is the lust, the concupiscence that is in this world. The promises of God enable us to flee from the corruption of this world. God gives us all the promises so that we can defeat and flee from all this corruption, of sexual sin, drunkenness, filth, disputes and much more. In order to become participants of the divine nature we need to defeat the sinful nature that is in us. In developing a Christian character the first thing that is necessary is the faith. Faith is supposed to be in your life and if it is not this is the reason why you struggle so much with the corruption that dwells in men and this is because the person has not died to it. If you do not have faith you will not move God’s hand over your life, only God’s mercy can be seen the way those who Paul tried to speak to saw it. (Acts 14:16). We are supposed to have faith to add virtue and other graces. Faith needs to be supplemented by seven elements of holiness. There has to be a manifestation of all these graces at the same time: virtue, knowledge, fraternal affection, patience, piety and love, so that we will not fall. We have many examples of men in the Scriptures in who we can see this grace: Virtue in David’s courage, knowledge in Salomon, self-control in Joseph, patience in Job, piety in Daniel, fraternal affection in Jonathan, and love in John. There is none of this in a false prophet, but in his preaching of the faith there is no praise but dishonor; he lives in ignorance and blindness; instead of self control his license is the licentiousness; instead of perseverance in good he perseveres in evilness; instead of piety there is impiety; instead of fraternal love he manifests displeasure towards the children of God; instead of sincere love there is his terrible accusation. We should have virtue, kindness, moral excellence, and spiritual temper as we face a hostile world, strength to maintain ourselves in righteousness. We have an example in the archbishop Cranmer, who was ordered to retract himself from his faith to not be burned. At the beginning he did not want to do it, but because of the pressure he signed the recantation (retractacion) with his right hand. When he realized his error he asked his executors to light up the fire and to not tie up his hands. Then he extended his right hand towards the fire and said: "This hand has offended, the unworthy hand shall die." Courage should be supplemented with knowledge, especially that of spiritual truth. It is necessary to study the Word of God and obey it carrying out each word in our hearts. Self-control is a disciplined life, it is to be able to control your own will under the operation of God’s Spirit. Discipline in prayer, studying the Bible, managing time, living a sacrificial life against the appetites of our body. Self-control should be supplemented with patience which means to bear patiently persecution and adversity. We must have persistence which is the art to bear and persist facing everything that seems to come against us. Piety is how your life should reflect God in your entire daily walk. It is practical holiness. To have a supernatural quality of life in all your conduct, that the others will know that you are a child of the Celestial Father. Fraternal affection is for a supernatural love. Is necessary a divine life to love. If you do not love your siblings, can you imagine? Then, you want to be separated from them, they are strangers to you, therefore you are not a complement but idle and about to perish. The incredulous cannot love because they do not have a divine life. These seven graces constitute a Christian character rounding up. In your life there is either an advance or a retrocedence. There cannot be immobility. There is strength and security in advancing. There is danger and failure in retreating. To not persevere in the development of the Christian character conducts us to idleness, to the lack of fruit, to blindness, to myopia and to forgetfulness. The Holy Spirit is the one that can eliminate the idleness. When there is a lack of fruit it is because one is idle, and such person has nothing in his hands. When you stop practicing what we have known you become sterile, you have a limited sight, you are occupied in material things and forget the spiritual things. We lack the heavenly things- virtue, knowledge, self- control, patience, piety, fraternal affection and love. The celestial things are lost and we are headed straight to this world. This is blindness. One does not know what is really important in life. There is a lack of discernment of what is truly worth in this life. The purification of our old sins has been forgotten, the truth of our redemption has lost its attraction. We turn back to the place from where we were rescued. One trifles with sin that caused the Son of God’s death. You must confirm your calling and election today. Your election was before the foundation of the world; the calling was the day that we converted to Jesus. A holy life shows the reality of our salvation. First we acknowledge the calling. Later we acknowledge that we have been chosen since before the foundation of the earth. Let us be careful of uselessness. We must not ruin our lives. Walk in the Spirit and don’t be disqualified of your service because of your idleness and spiritual blindness. Amen.