One of the most liberating events of my Christian life was the moment I decided I was going to read the Bible honestly, believing everything as it is written, without trying to find ways to force my theology into passages that, on the face, seemed to contradict my theology.
As you might imagine, my theology started changing. It was so liberating to finally be able to accept many passages that I previously rejected—albeit unconsciously—because I was sure, yet self-deceived, that I was a “Bible-believer.”
That is why I’m convinced that the most important requirement to rightly interpret Scripture is not a Master’s degree in Ancient Greek or Hermeneutics, but rather, honesty. Without honesty, reading the Bible is an exercise in self-deception.
How about we give it a try? Please allow me to take one sentence from Scripture that I just read this morning from the first chapter of Philippians. It’s a verse about sanctification, that is, Christian growth in holiness. Let’s try to read it honestly.
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God (Phil. 1:9-11).
Honest Point #1: Paul prayed for the Philippian believers that their love would abound “still more and more.” That indicates they already were demonstrating some degree of love. But, they still had room to grow. So, it is safe to conclude that true Christians are characterized by love, but they often have room to grow.
Confirming this honest point is the fact that John wrote that love is what marks one as being born-again (see 1 John 3:14). Additionally, Jesus said that love is the identifying mark of His true disciples (see John 13:35). Further, John repeatedly warned in his first letter that “Christians” who don’t love are not Christians at all (see 1 John 2:9-11; 3:11-29). Finally, Paul elsewhere wrote that love is the first fruit of the indwelling Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
Of course, Christians don’t love robotically, but by cooperating with the indwelling Holy Spirit. As genuine believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have (of course) submitted to Him, so they take seriously His commandment to love. So, again, true Christians are characterized by love, but they often have room to grow.
Christian love consists of more than passing out handshakes and hugs in church on Sunday mornings. Christian love is sacrificial. It, for example, cares for those people whom Jesus referred to as the “least of these” (Matt. 25:31-46), and it makes sacrifices of time, talents and treasures to meet their pressing needs. Jesus could not have made it clearer in Matthew 25:31-46 that those who don’t make any sacrifices for the “least of these” are not actually Christians at all. They are goats, not sheep, and goats will be cast into hell.
Honest Point #2: Paul next indicated that the primary means to increasing one’s love is “real knowledge and all discernment.” Both can help them “approve the things that are excellent,” with the result of them becoming “sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.”
What kind of knowledge is “real knowledge”? What kind of discernment lends itself to helping believers become sincere and blameless? It is safe to assume Paul was writing about spiritual knowledge and discernment. That is, the more we understand God and His will for our lives, the more likely we are to conform to His image and align ourselves with His will. True spiritual knowledge enables us to approve what is morally excellent.
I have seen this occur so many times over the years when Christians are first exposed to a New Testament passage I mentioned above— Jesus’ foretelling of the future judgment of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46. It is a tragic fact that practicing sacrificial love towards the “least of these” is a missing component of many professing Christians. Once, however, they are no longer ignorant of what Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-46, true believers start obeying Him, making sacrifices for the “least of these.” That is one example of how “real knowledge and discernment” causes the love of Christians to “abound still more and more.”
In contrast, false believers simply ignore Matthew 25:31-46 and the many passages like it, focusing on passages that seem to assure them that they are OK. Some even tragically gravitate toward teachers who tell them that Matthew 25:31-46 has no application to new covenant believers. Their gravitation toward false teaching is a revelation of their unbelieving hearts. They don’t actually believe in Jesus. They are just church people on the road to hell with all the other goats. Money is their real god. There’s no sanctification in their lives because they’ve never actually been born again or actually believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. They may believe in “American Jesus” (who is someone who only wants to be “accepted”), but they don’t believe in the Lord Jesus (someone who died and rose again to be Lord…see Rom. 14:9).
Honest Point #3: According to what Paul wrote, the goal of growing in “real knowledge and all discernment” (and thus abounding in love) is “to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.” Those words fly in the face of standard Christian doctrine regarding sanctification, which generally advocates that blamelessness is impossible to attain in this life, and that “we all sin hundreds of times a day in thought, word and deed.”
In stark contrast is Paul’s stated hope that the Philippian believers would soon be “sincere and blameless” and that they would remain that way until Jesus returned. He knew that God’s Word is like a “two-edged sword” that cuts deeply into our souls and spirits, and it is “able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Thus, it can transform us from being insincere to being sincere, and from being blameworthy to being blameless. But that only occurs in the lives of true believers, that is, those who have submitted to the Lord Jesus. God’s Word has no effect upon the unsubmitted.
Honest Point #4: If we are going to continue to be honest with this particular sentence in Philippians, we cannot interpret the “blamelessness” of which Paul wrote to be an alleged “legal” blamelessness that we somehow already possess as professing Christians, and even when we are living sinful lifestyles (as so many dishonest preachers advocate). Paul was writing about actually living sincerely and blamelessly—as any honest person will admit.
Living blamelessly is possible because, as Paul wrote, true Christians have “been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ.” Again, if we are going to continue to be honest with this passage, we cannot interpret the “righteousness” of which Paul wrote to be an alleged “legal” righteousness that we somehow already possess as professing Christians, even while we live sinful lifestyles, again, as so many dishonest preachers advocate. No, Paul was writing about the “fruit” of righteousness, and declaring that true believers are “filled” with it. And, how could they not be, since they have become one with Christ through His HOLY Spirit who indwells them?
And there you have it. We have just been honest with one sentence in the Bible. And, if you are grounded in the New Testament, you know that our honest interpretation harmonizes well with the rest of it.
Again, we have just looked at a sentence about sanctification, that is, Christian growth in holiness, manifested primarily through an increase in Christ-like love. How different it is from what is often passed off as “Christian sanctification” in many Christian circles—just a theory that amounts to just another layer of spiritual darkness of the false-grace gospel. It further deludes false believers—who have yet to even begin a genuine spiritual journey through true repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—into believing that they are experiencing sanctification, and one that bears no resemblance to biblical sanctification. They nod in agreement, and even say “Amen” when their pastor preaches, “As Christians, we all sin hundreds of times a day in thought, word and deed, and we will never be holy until we are in heaven. But God is working to make us all more like Him.” How does that harmonize with Paul’s words about sanctification in Philippians 1:9-11 (and elsewhere)?
And all of this is why some of the nastiest, most deceptive people you will ever meet are professing born-again Christians. I’ve met scores of them. They aren’t Christians at all. Rather, they are just church people, still in total darkness, as are their pastors.
In conclusion, biblical sanctification begins with the new birth—which only occurs when people yield to the Holy Spirit’s conviction in repentance and genuine faith (that is, one characterized by obedience and love) in the Lord Jesus Christ. And biblical sanctification continues as genuine believers continue in Jesus’ word, by which they learn the truth and obey it, and they are thus progressively set free from sin and selfishness. That is essentially what Jesus said in John 8:31-32: “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free [from sin].” The goal of every true Christian is to be blameless, because that is God’s goal for every true Christian (Eph. 1:4; 5:27; Phil. 1:10;2:15; Col. 1:22; 2 Pet. 3:14; Jude 24).
The proof of initial faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is an initial transformation. The proof of continued faith is continued transformation—in response to the “upward call of God” (Phil. 3:14) to blamelessness. That progression of sanctification is perhaps expressed by Paul in Romans 12:2 as being first “good,” then “pleasing,” and then “perfect”—a sequence that occurs only in the lives of those who present themselves as living sacrifices in an act of worship to the God whom they love. Here it is:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable [or “pleasing” as some translations say] and perfect.
Paul, who wrote those verses, was on that very path himself, and he knew that forward progress depended on his own decisions:
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12-14, emphasis added).
How about you?
