Who are the Children of God? Who wants to fight against them? How do we identify who the children of God are today? Is it because they say they are God’s children or is there more to it than that?
To be a child of God there are definitely some requirements that you have to meet. You can’t just say you are a child of God, but you have to work good toward all.
I would really like to address the question of who wants to fight against them first.
Revelation 12:17…So the dragon was furious with the woman, and he went off to make war on the rest of her children, on those who keep God’s commandments and hold firmly to the witness of Jesus.
Now we should understand that it is the Dragon, the arch enemy of God himself that is behind this war against God’s children. The enemy knows who the children by the testimony are, that they give about Jesus Christ.
What is the testimony of Christ? A testimony is given as proof to the existence of God’s help by means of Christ Jesus. How he has changed you to become a better person. How your life has purpose and meaning in it. How you become happier and joyful.
This Means War
What is the sign that lets us know this war has begun?
The apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians wrote that the day of God’s judgment and are being lifted up to Christ would not happen without the apostasy coming first.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12… Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. We will be gathered together to meet Him. But we ask you, Christian brothers, 2 do not be troubled in mind or worried by the talk you hear. Some say that the Lord has already come. People may say that I wrote this in a letter or that a spirit told them. 3 Do not let anyone fool you. For the Lord will not come again until many people turn away from God. Then the leader of those who break the law will come. He is the man of sin. 4 He works against and puts himself above every kind of god that is worshiped. He will take his seat in the house of God and say that he himself is God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was with you, I told you this? 6 You know the power that is keeping the man of sin back now. The man of sin will come only when his time is ready. 7 For the secret power of breaking the law is already at work in the world. But that secret power can only do so much until the One Who keeps back the man of sin is taken out of the way. 8 Then this man of sin will come. The Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath of His mouth. The coming of Christ will put an end to him. 9 Satan will use this man of sin. He will have Satan’s power. He will do strange things and many powerful works that will be false. 10 Those who are lost in sin will be fooled by the things he can do. They are lost in sin because they did not love the truth that would save them. 11 For this reason, God will allow them to follow false teaching so they will believe a lie. 12 They will all be guilty as they stand before God because they wanted to do what was wrong.
Apostasy is the act of refusing to continue following, obey, recognize, or listen to God’s direction by means of Christ.
The man of lawlessness is any person lifting himself over another becoming the head of the congregation of God. He will lead people away from the law of God.
The apostle Paul reveals in verse 7 that the apostasy was already at work in the congregation of God back then by means of the man of lawlessness. Who had that kind of influence over the people of God? Has that power of influence changed today? The disciples of Christ had to defend their authenticity as the disciples of Christ before some of these older men, and the same is true today.
The prophet Danial gave a clue to the man of lawlessness by the action he would take in the future.
Daniel 11:32…By deceitful means he will corrupt those who violate the covenant, but the people who acknowledge their God will stand strong and will act.
The apostasy is the act against the covenant that God provides to his people.
Revolution 12:17 speaks of these who keep God’s commandments, what does that mean? Who is keeping the commandments of God today?
The Commandments of God
A commandment is something that God has told us, something that he wants us to do. Can you name any of the commandments that God is given to mankind?
Genesis 1:26-28… Adam was told to have subjection over the earth.
Genesis 9:1-9… Noah was told no eating of blood, no killing of mankind.
Genesis 17:9-14… Abraham was told about circumcision.
Exodus 24:12… Moses was given the Law covenant.
Is there a difference between God’s commandments and God’s Laws? What was Jesus teaching about the law of Moses?
Matthew 5:17-20… Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses or the writings of the early preachers. I have not come to do away with them but to complete them. 18 I tell you, as long as heaven and earth last, not one small mark or part of a word will pass away of the Law of Moses until it has all been done. 19 Anyone who breaks even the least of the Law of Moses and teaches people not to do what it says, will be called the least in the holy nation of heaven. He who obeys and teaches others to obey what the Law of Moses says, will be called great in the holy nation of heaven. 20 I tell you, unless you are more right with God than the teachers of the Law and the proud religious law-keepers, you will never get into the holy nation of heaven.
Jesus did not call for the end to the law, no but quite to the contrary. He said that there would be a judgment based on obeying and teaching the law and how you would be viewed in the Kingdom of heaven. If the law was fulfilled and or not relevant today there would be no basis for that judgment. Also to fulfill the law would be not a one-time event but an ongoing process.
Why are we going to pit what the apostle Paul was teaching about the law and what Christ was teaching?
Controversy developed early in the Christian congregation as respects to circumcision and the following of the law covenant. The Jewish religious leaders wanted all to obey the Law along with its strict interpretation of it. The apostle Paul was teaching that when you received the Holy Spirit you received freedom and were no longer obligated to follow the strict interpretation of the law. But you were required to do good and righteous works toward others with the spirit you had been given.
Read Galatians 2:16-3:29.
Notice that the apostle Paul was calling attention to those who had received the Holy Spirit because of their faith in Christ and not because of the works of the law. Faith in Christ and working with the Holy Spirit was greater than the works of law. If we receive the Holy Spirit by all means continue being obedient to it and work good toward all.
See here at Galatians 3:13 that the apostle Paul said that Christ released us from the curse of the law but not from the law. The law is the minimum that mankind is required to follow. The law of Christ teaches us to do good works better than the righteous works of Law, but the salvation is by faith in Christ.
Colossians 2:13-17… When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ
Christ basically took the teeth out of the law so that we could find forgiveness at the appropriate time if we will approach him asking for forgiveness for our sins. But notice Paul also says that we should let no one judge you by what you eat during these religious festivals. Showing that the early Christians observed the festivals as they related to God’s commandments.
If these things are a shadow that means, there has to be substance to cast that shadow. We should realize that these festivals do play a part in our worship into the future as it relates to the Kingdom of God and Christ being the King of that Kingdom. Isaiah 66:22-24, Ezekiel 46:1-17
Could you be viewed as righteous following the law? Look at the story of Simon receiving Jesus as the child in the temple of God. Simon was a righteous man under the law, but he was also looking for the Christ to come for his salvation. Luke 2:25-38
Who is Teaching You?
Galatians 5:13-8… You, my brothers, and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. But 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Who is teaching us? The tutor, the law that was handed down by angels or the teacher, the Son of God? If we have truly received the spirit of Christ then we need to walk and act in the spirit. We can be as loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, good, and under self-control because there’s no law that sets a limit on how good we act with the spirit from God.
The law is for those who cannot resist the flesh, they continue to engage in selfishness, drunkenness, jealousies… So, the law condemns them and without mercy.
The law has its place, and it doesn’t go away because we use it to teach our children about God’s ways. Even 1 Timothy 1:8 says we should know how to handle God’s Law.
Righteous Works
The disciple James said faith alone in Christ does not save us, but we have to have works to be declared righteous, because faith without works is dead. He spoke this in respects to the law showing that even if you don’t think you are under the law you could be condemned by law for the lack of righteous works or the lack of showing good to others. James 2:17-26
What did the law teach us about our work’s? How do we work righteousness or good toward others today?
The law should have taught us two fundamental things. love or honor God above all. Love or honor your neighbors, including your family.
As you read the 10 Commandments you can see that God calls for the following from us. Exodus 20:1-17
That we only have one God and that our devotion and attention should be toward him and his ways. That he was the giver of life and the one who required from us our obedience and that our labor or service was for him and toward him. That we work good toward our family and our neighbors alike.
Christ came and said love God with your whole soul, mind, and heart and love thy neighbor as yourself. And taught that we need to be more godlike and that we should use the Holy Spirit to produce good works. Matthew 22:36-40, John 14:12
Those who observe the commandments of God are in fact the children of God.
Writingwithlogos.com – 12/10/23