Commands of Christ-24

Wednesday, June 15, 2022 Commands of Christ – 24

A Christian's Relationships: To False Prophets

To finish Study 23:

Read Matthew 7:12

Matthew 7:12 (NASB95) “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:12 (TPT) “In everything you do, be careful to treat others in the same way you’d want them to treat you, for that is the essence of all the teachings of the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 7:12 (The Message) “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.

Matthew 7:12 (CJB) “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:12 (Phillips NT) "Treat other people exactly as you would like to be treated by them - this is the essence of all true religion."

I spoke of the “therefore” last week:

I can understand vs 12 being connected to vs.1-5, but 7-11?

Lenski: But why not let οὖν make the Golden Rule rest on this true judgment that we, although by nature wicked, are yet by grace God’s children, acknowledged as such by our Father who bids us ask the good things we need and grants them to us without fail? The consequence (οὖν) of this must be that, instead of judging others falsely, we shall do to them what we would that they should do to us.

1. Our relationship with all people:The Jewish Talmud stated: "What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else." Likewise, Confucius told his followers: "Do not to others what you would not wish done to you." How does the golden rule (Matthew 7:12) go beyond these commands?

Sam Storms: … the negative form of this rule makes it possible for us to do nothing. The positive form is far more active and demanding: “if you like being loved, love others; if you enjoy being treated fairly, be fair to others; if you like receiving help, help others,” etc. The positive is more searching and substantive: “Here there is no permission to withdraw into a world where I offend no one, but accomplish no positive good either” (Carson, 112).

It commands us to empathize with others. Because that is what WE want others to do for us.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) Empathy

2: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner also: the capacity for this

2. In what sense does this rule sum up the Law and the Prophets?

Matthew 22:36–40 (NASB95) “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Storms: Why should we behave in this manner? “Jesus does not say that we are to do to others what we would like them to do to us in order that they will do it to us” (112). Rather, it is because such behavior sums up the requirement of God’s revealed will.

3. How would the world be different if we all lived by the Golden Rule?

Lenski: Among the good gifts for which the Father’s children pray daily is the power to overcome the promptings of their flesh so that by grace for Christ’s sake they may love their neighbor (ἁγαπᾶν) with a truly spiritual love and thus heap upon him all the kindness they themselves would like to receive. Christ’s Golden Rule has appealed to many, yet only true believers have understood it and have found the power to translate it into life in an ever-increasing degree.

Study 24:

1. Why are people likely to follow popular leaders or celebrities?

I asked my granddaughter about a show that she watches incessantly. It’s because she wants to BE the lead character: A good student (but not a nerd) (rare for children’s shows), beaustiful and live an exciting life.

So do we follow them because we want to BE them?

2. Why are most people apt to believe in heaven but quick to dismiss the reality of hell?

God is love.

But He is also a righteous God.

Just like “all dogs go to heaven” all people go to heaven, because, after all, at their heart, they are ALL good people.

Preachers are guilty of preaching everyone into heaven when they die — we don’t want to make the family mad with us. It’s impolite to speak ill of the dead.

So how do we handle:

Romans 3:9–20 (NASB95) What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” 13 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; 14 “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; 15 “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, 16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, 17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” 18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.” 19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Galatians 2:16 (NASB95) nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

Ephesians 2:8–10 (NASB95) For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Think about how this lines up with one of the 7 parts of a Biblical worldview.

Heaven would not be heaven with all of the world’s failings there to torment us.

Revelation 21:8 (NASB95) “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:27 (NASB95) and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 22:15 (NASB95) Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

The history of the Christian church has been a long and dreary story of controversy with false teachers. Their value, in the overruling providence of God, is that they have presented the church with a challenge to think out and define truth. But they have also caused much damage. Jesus' warning "Watch out for false prophets" (Matthew 7:15) is addressed to us all. If the church had heeded his warning and applied the tests in this passage, it would not be in the perilous state of theological and moral confusion in which it finds itself today.

Read: Matthew 7:13-23

Lenski: This section (v. 13–23) is not a part of the conclusion but a further and more fundamental elaboration of the judgment that is applied to us and that we must apply to ourselves.

First, two negatives show who we are (we will not judge, etc., yet will also not give what is holy to dogs, etc.);

next, two positives (we will ask with trust and will do unto others, etc.);

and now we have a positive plus a negative (we will enter the narrow portal and will keep away from false guides)

3. What command did Jesus give His followers in this passage? (7:13)

Enter through the narrow gate.

4. What exactly are we called to enter? Why? (7:13)

5. How are the two gates different (Matthew 7:13-14)?

6. In what sense is the gate of Christianity small and the road narrow?

7. Why do you think many people dislike the notion that there is only one true gate, road and destination?

8. What is encouraging about Christ’s words?

9. What broad roads did you travel before you met Christ?

10. How did you find Christ? What was your entry through the narrow gate like?

11. What wide gates and broad roads are some of your acquaintances following?

12. How might you respond to the charge that Christians are narrow-minded and arrogant?

13. In what sense is it narrow-minded to believe in Christ?

14. Why do many people prefer the broad way that leads to destruction?

15. Why is it difficult to stay on the narrow road?

16. What kind of inner alarm (if any) alerts you to the fact that a person is a phony?

16. Why is it significant that Jesus' warning about false prophets (Matthew 7:15-20) comes immediately after his discussion of the narrow and wide gates?

17. Jesus says that false prophets "come to you in sheep's clothing" (Matthew 7:15)? What disguises might they wear today (see Matthew 7:21-23)?

18. Why do we continue to be deceived by false prophets if we have Christ in our heart and the Holy Spirit in our lives?

19. In what sense are these false prophets like ferocious wolves?

20. Jesus also says, "By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matthew 7:16). What kind of fruit does he have in mind?

How can the quality of the fruit reveal the quality of the tree?

21. How can we keep from becoming "witch hunters" as we seek to recognize false prophets?

21. "Everytree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 7:19). How can this warning to false prophets also keep us from becoming complacent as Christians?

22. What does this passage tell us about the importance of doing good works?

23. How do good works and salvation fit together?

LifeGuide Topical Bible Studies - Sermon on the Mount. & Adult Questions for LESSONMaker.