Ques. A young Christian wants to know how to study Scripture rightly. And if the first day of the week is the Lord's day. And how to act toward other Christians? R. P.
Ans. Your desire to grow in grace is just what the Lord tells you to do along with the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:18). These two things go together.
Studying the Scriptures may get them into your head and mind. We are not told to study the Word of God, but to feed upon it. And to do this we must read it with prayer, that He may give us to understand it (1 Peter 2:2; Acts 6:4). Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart (Jer. 15:16). It is the food for our souls (Matt. 4:4).
To get acquainted with it, we need to read it or hear it read; but to understand it, we need to ask the Lord to teach us that we may treasure it in our hearts.
When we believed on Him as our Savior, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us (Eph. 1:13), and He is our great Teacher (John 14:16, and 16:13, 14; also 1 Cor. 2:10, 12, 13, and 1 John 2:27), and prayer is needed to keep us from receiving wrong thoughts about it, and to keep us from the imaginations of our own minds (1 Thess. 5:21).
I am to study to show myself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). And for this I must go on patiently waiting on the Lord from day to day. In waiting on the Lord, we get the word as we need it. We feed upon it as the daily food for our souls. The Holy Spirit applying it, gives us understanding and strength in spiritual things. He teaches us more of Christ.
The First day of the week, is the Christian's day. On it, Christ rose from the dead; on it, the Holy Spirit came down to dwell in the Church on earth; on it, the early Christians came together to remember the Lord in the Lord's supper (Acts 20:7). So it is called the Lord's day (Rev. 1:10. Psa. 118:24, is the Millennial day when Christ returns to reign). The First day of the week is specially the Lord's, though no commandment is given, but love delights to give it to Him, and to spend it for Him.
The Seventh or Sabbath day is the day Jehovah gave to His earthly people, Israel, and to them only. Strangers came and settled among them, and there was one law for Israel and for all that dwelt among them (Ex. 12:49). We do not find that the Sabbath was ever given to Gentile nations, or to the Church, but to Israel only. The law was given to them from God by Moses (John 1:17). "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." "We are not under the law, but under grace." Rom. 6:14.
The standard for our walk as Christians is not the law, but higher than that, it is Christ Himself. "To me to live is Christ' (Phil. 1:21). We are to follow His steps (1 Peter 2:21). His commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3). His love constrains us to live no longer to ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again. (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). "He gave Himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity," that is, from doing our own will (Titus 2:14).
We are to love all Christians because they belong to Christ (John 13:34). We are to "do good unto all men, specially to them who are of the household of faith" (Gal. 6:10). But we need special guidance from God how to show our love, for we must walk in obedience (1 John 5:2)
We must not follow Christians, except just as they follow Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). If a man calls himself a Christian, yet holds bad doctrines against the Lord or His word or work, we can have no fellowship with him. 2 John 9:10 tells us not to salute such, nor receive them into our houses, for they arc blasphemers. Rom. 16:17 tells us to mark and avoid those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines of the Word. 1 Cor. 5:11 tells us not to eat with those who are immoral.
Then 1 Thess. 5:14, 15 and 2 Thess. 3:6, 14, 15, tells us to warn and exhort some who need it, and to withdraw ourselves from those who walk disorderly, yet they might be at the Lord's table with us. Gal. 6:1 shows 'us some we can restore. So we make a difference (Jude 22, 23).
At the best, we are very ignorant, and need to be humble, and to be kept from a proud, hard spirit that thinks itself the only one that is right, and be ever ready to forgive any who do us wrong (Eph. 4:31, 32; Col. 3:12-17). These are fine verses, read them with earnest prayer to the Lord to make them your own, and then as you are kept near the Lord you will be able to help others also (John 13:14-18). If you have troubles and worries, take them all to the Lord, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus, and then you will ever rejoice in Him (Phil. 4:4-7).
Ques. Please Explain Luke 16:9, and the Parable Above It. M. I. C.
Ans. Man is looked at as a steward; especially Israel to whom God has given so many privileges, but he has been unfaithful, and wasted his Master's goods. The elder brother, in the chapter before, thought he had been faithful, (ver. 29), but the rich man in hell pictures his eternal portion. A Christian owns his unfaithfulness, and is saved by grace.
Verse 2. The man will be put out of his stewardship. His lord commended him for his wisdom, (not for his faithfulness, for he was unfaithful).
Though we are saved by grave, we are still stewards. A steward's wisdom is that he uses what is in his care for the future, and that is the great point in the parable-that we can use that which in itself is unrighteous, the riches of this world, for eternal profit (see 1 Tim. 6:17-19), laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of what is really life. The children of this generation look after the future for this world, and so are wise.
We should look further than they, for eternity is before us, and some of the enjoyment which belongs there, is to be secured now, by our present disposal of things; and what is naturally our enemy, can be used to make riches in eternity (ver. 9). It is sending our goods on before us, for what we use now for Christ, and His service, will come up again in the everlasting habitations; but what we hoard up now in selfishness, there is no reward for. Indeed, it is loss, for the next verse shows us that this unfaithfulness in allowing the selfishness of our hearts to retain these things, as if they were our own, spoils the enjoyment of spiritual possessions.
If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, but if we seek riches of this world, we are not serving God, but mammon, and our hearts are deprived of our spiritual enjoyment. This needs earnest consideration.
If I faithfully own myself a steward for God of all that I have here, it will not cause me to be prodigal of what the Lord has entrusted to me, but rather will make me careful to have His approval in using it for Him, or in laying it by for Him to use as His wisdom may direct.
The Pharisees were covetous, and as they heard these things, they derided Him. They were a picture of the rich man who lived for self, and hell was his eternal portion.