The Hesitant Prize Fighter

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
  Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

We have discussed that there are many  things Christians ought to learn during their walk of faith.  So far we had covered the following lessons.

Lesson 1 : Learning To Fear God
Lesson 2: Learning To Do Good And Be Honest
Lesson 3: To Learn Righteousness
Lesson 4: Learning To Be A Good Samaritan
Lesson 5: Learning Obedience In The Midst Of Suffering

Lets look at the 6th Lesson

Learning To Show Filial Piety At Home

“Honor widows who are really widows. 
   But if any widow has children or
  grandchildren, let them first learn to
  show piety at home and to repay their
  parents; for this is good and acceptable
  before God.
  … ….
  But if anyone does not provide for his own,
  and especially for those of his household,
  he has denied the faith and is worse than
  an unbeliever.” –Paul (1 Tim 5:3-4, 8)

Paul was talking about being filial to ones parents and showing filial piety. Most people will acknowledge the fact that parents played an important part in their lives. It was the parents who had taken care of them while they were children. There is no doubt that parents played an important role in their process to maturity.

While the west regards filial piety as an Asian concept. The fact is that even in Asia the trend of showing filial piety is eroding.  There was reports of parents suing their children for neglecting them. This situation should be worst as there are many parents who refuse to take their children to courts for neglect.

We are bound to find some Christians among those guilty as well. Which is why Paul rebuke the Christians of his days.  Those Christians send their elderly to the church and expect the church to take care of them.

But the church was only obligated to take care of the widow and the helpless. That is why Paul taught that Christian children ought to show filial piety at home first.

Paul said that those who do not provide for his own are worst off then unbelievers.

How Do We Show Filial Piety?

Therefore let us learn to honour our parents and to love and take care of them. At the  basic level, we should spend time to call them and to find out if they are well. Despite the fact that most parents would lie to their children even if they are unwell, that is the bare minimum one could do. 
 
There are a few aspects in life  that we could consider to show filial piety to.

Livelihood : Some parents gave too much for their children that they failed to accumulate  enough savings for themselves. Therefore Children ought to take care of the livelihood of their parents. Especially when  our parents are too old to earn an income.

Even though many of us live in an affluent place, there are still plenty of needy around us. When we were younger, we depended on our parents for our daily allows. Many a times our parents gave more than they could afford. Therefore it is only fair that the children ought to help care for the livelihood of our parents. 

Respect: Many Children in the modern era tend to look down the elderly. For it appears that they are unable to keep up to pace in our modern world. Many of them are not good at using modern gadgets and technology. Sometimes we find them a nag when they repeat the same question again and again.

But yet God commanded his children to respect the elderly.

“‘You shall rise before the gray headed and
  honor the presence of an old man, and fear
  your God: I am the Lord”- YHWH (Lev 19:32)

This concept was taught in the new testament as well.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord,
   for this is right. “Honor your father and
  mother,” which is the first commandment
  with promise:  “that it may be well with you
   and you may live long on the earth.”- Paul (Eph 6:1-3)

Love:  Many thinks that their basic duty is just to provide money to their parents. But we often neglect the fact that  our parents are lonely, especially when all the children are away from home.

Love and affection can never be replaced with money. Our parents needed our love and our time with them. One could never take away his wealth and possession when they die. At that point of times, only memories and love are important.

For it is love that grants us peace, it will allow us to be at peace before God. If one is able to show love to his parents, siblings and family. He is able to show love to the church as well. That is the love that will allow us strength to face the Lord without fear.

“Love has been perfected among us in this:
  that we may have boldness in the day of
  judgment; because as He is, so are we in
   this world.  There is no fear in love; but
  perfect love casts out fear, because fear
  involves torment. But he who fears has
  not been made perfect in love.  “ – John (1 Jn 4:17-18)

Love can give us boldness in the day of judgement. Perfect love cast our all fear. The fact is that death not as scary as it looks. For the pain is only temporary. No matter how painful it is, that pain will go away one day. 

That is why man ought to fear the judgement that is to  come after death. If we have loved God and love his family, if we have loved our siblings and our parents, then that love will allow us to face the judgement of God in peace.

These are all lessons we ought to learn in life, may we learn down with the guidance of the spirit of God.

Introduction
So far We had studied the choices made by different characters in the bible. In this study we studied the following characters so Far

1. Choice Of Oprah And Ruth
2. The choice Of Mary And Martha
3. The Choice Of Abraham And Lot

Now let us consider the choice of Joshua

The Choice Of Joshua

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord,
choose for yourselves this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the River,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you
dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord.”- Joshua (Jos 24:15)

That is the choice of Joshua with regards to his faith. He is sure of his choice for he said “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord”. Joshua knew that he was to depart from the world soon and he wanted to do one more thing for the Lord. One that he regarded as the most important Israel. He wanted them to confirm their choice to follow God. As he had declared on the verse above.

Today there are some Christians who thinks serving Jesus is not something good. Even though God had great power but he refuse to help them with their problem.  They claimed that even though God is rich in heaven, yet he allowed many Christians to remain in poverty.

Today if we think that it is not good to serve the Lord, let us choose who we should serve today.  There should not be a compulsion in faith, for God would not force us to worship him. For faith that arise from compulsion is not true faith, for true faith comes from within our hearts. We must be willing to believe in Jesus.

Perhaps we all have different experiences on how we came to believe in Jesus. God uses different ways and method to lead us to him. But regardless of what that our experiences may be, God require us to be serious in our faith since we have chosen to believe in him.

Joshua understood that the strength and might of Israel lies not in her army and wealth. but in their faith in God. Therefore he gathered everyone to reaffirm their faith once more before he dies.

The Importance Of Reaffirming our faith

These people are not gathered before the face of Joshua. Joshua wanted to lead them before the Lord so that they would make their choice. If Israel feel that it is no good to serve the Lord. They must make a choice to choose whom they will serve from now on. As far as Joshua and his house are concern, they chose to serve the Lord. That was the last deed Joshua did for the people of Israel. That is something that he regard as important.

Likewise it is important for us to reaffirm our faith. There are times we need to make our choice once again. Especially when we are faced with difficulties that make us murmur against God. . When these difficulties make us wonder whether we should continue with our faith. When these difficulties creates doubts within us and make ask ask “Have we chosen to follow God correctly? Can our faith really save us?”

There are times when everyone else is attacking the faith that we hold dearly. Are we able to continue to have faith in God? There are many things that can make us doubt, especially when we see the weakness and imperfection within the church, when we encounter troubles and set back in life, when we are maligned and slandered by others within the church.

Sometimes events like this make us feel weak and cause us to murmur against the Lord. We asked  Where are you God? Why cant you see my suffering?”. Even though we sing hymns like “Thou Thinkest Lord of me” we wonder if God really saw our suffering and if he really thinks of us often.

Can we still persist in our faith and to move ahead? If we cannot do so, we will eventually stop praying and stop coming to church. Initially our conscience may compel us to come a few more time, but that pricking will eventually be quenched.

That is why there is a need to re-affirm our faith. It is important when we encounter events that sadden us and make it hard for us continue in our faith. That is when we need to re-examine ourselves to see if our faith is true. If we feel that God is unworthy of our worship, we better make that choice once again.

Joshua chose to serve the Lord always, what will our choice be?

The Need To Re-Affirm Our Faith

Today as we travel on this path to heaven,  here are bound to be much troubles. These mishaps and problems robs us of our happiness, sometimes they hurt our family and sometimes they hurt the church as well.

In the face of all these troubles, the author of Hebrews encourage us.

“Therefore strengthen the
hands which hang down,
and the feeble knees,” –Author Of Hebrews (Heb 12:12)

There are many things in life that tires us, it hangs our hands down, and it makes our knees feeble. During those times, we may not have the strength to continue in faith, to worship and pray to God.

So how can we strengthen our hands and legs?

That is when we need to reaffirm our faith and make that choice to follow God once again. We need to ask ourselves “Are we willing to believe in him and continue?”

There was a Scottish evangelist called David Livingstone, he served, preached and died in Africa. He is a a missionary that won the respect of all denominations. For he had given up his life to preach the gospel of Christ.

The Africa we see today is not too different from the Africa in his days, there are wars, battle, under development.  Yet he found courage to go into Africa, his love moved many to respect him.

But why was he able to be that strong? Have he ever regretted his decision to serve in Africa? Had he ever thought of returning home? Indeed there are times where he regretted, there are times he wanted to return home. But whenever he had such thoughts he wrote “My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee”

David Livingstone died of Malaria in Africa and he left behind a diary. That phrase appeared many times in his diary.  So whenever we feel tired, our hands droop and our knees became weak. But we need to make our choice once again.

We need to choose if we will still believe in Jesus and to follow him to the end. By choosing again, we will find the courage to continue walking. We will not focus on the suffering before us, for we know t

By making that  choice once again , we will find the courage to continue walking. We will not just focus on the suffering that is before us. For we know that Christ had suffered for our sake. Indeed he was afraid of the death on the cross and he did not want to drink that bitter cup. But Jesus  did it for the sake of all of us. The salvation which we received is the result of that sacrifice. That salvation  allow us to be reconciled with God today.

Re-Affirm Faith By Counting Our Blessing

Is there other ways to re-affirm our faith with Christ?  Joshua had left us a great example. Before he made Israel choose, he reminded them to take a look at their history. He told them to consider how the Lord have love and protected them.

Jos 24:3-14 records of Joshua talking about the grace of God. If we can count our blessing, it can help us reaffirm our faith. These blessings remind us of the love of God. Sadly, we often count our troubles and not our blessing, that is why we ask God “Why did you not grant us peace?”

So are we counting our blessings or listing our troubles? Often we murmur against God because we did not get our request from the Lord. Other times we choose to focus our sights on what other receives

Lets consider these two scenarios

If one were to receive an apple, he would be happy, but if he were to focus on the bag of apples from the giver. He would find it hard to be thankful. He may even think to himself “Why is he so stingy to give me one apple only?”

There was a man who was too poor to buy shoes and he came before God murmuring “Why am i not blessed with shoes?”  There was another man who was a distance away and he said “Lord I thank you for all that you have done.”

Initially the first man thought that the second man was thanking God for the shoes he had, but as he look towards him, he saw a man on a wheel chair, he had lost both his legs in an accident.

At that point, the man on the wheelchair was praying “Lord I thank you for allowing me to live. Even though I lost both my legs, but I thank God for the wheelchair as well as for those men who had came to help me.

Many a times we lose our hearts of thanksgiving when we fail to see what we received from the Lord. We tend to think of only the things we do not have. We received an apple but we are jealous when others had a bag of apple.

If we want a heart of thanksgiving, we need to change our mind-sets. We need to rely on God and praise him with all our hearts. That is why Joshua reminded the people of the grace they receive from God.

Let us examine the sermon of Joshua in greater details.

Pt 1:  It Is a Blessing To Be Able To Know and Worship God 

“Your fathers, including Terah, the father
of Abraham and the father of Nahor,
dwelt on the other side of the River
in old times; and they served other gods.
Then I took your father Abraham from
the other side of the River, led him
throughout all the land of Canaan, and
multiplied his descendants and gave him
Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.
To Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to
possess, but Jacob and his children went
down to Egypt.” –YHWH (Jos 24:2-4)

If Abraham had not crossed the river Euphrates, Israel would not have existed. Abraham and his families were idol worshippers in the land Of Ur Of the Chaldeans. Over here God told Israel that it was he who had took Abraham and allowed him to know God.

Why did God chose Abraham?

There was some old Jewish tradition talking about the life of Abraham in Ur. Even though no one can confirm the authenticity of the source. but these stories gave an insight to why God had chosen Abraham.

One such story tells us that Abraham and his father are idol worshippers who made idols for a living. Once when Abraham and Terah were cutting a tree, Abraham remarked

“Isn’t it strange that half the wood were used to make idols and the half of it was used for our chair?  If these idols are God then we should not be doing this”

Terah rebuked him for making such remarks.

One day when Terah left the house for a journey, he placed the shop under the care of Abraham. When Terah returns it looks as if war had broken out and all the idols were smashed. The largest Idol was holding a stick in his hand.

When Terah asked about what happened, Abraham replied

“There was a fight among the Idols, the biggest idol destroyed the rest of the idols. I was afraid so I hid myself while they are fighting”

Terah replied “I am sure you are the one responsible, how could wooden idols fight?”

Abraham said “Now you said it yourself, you know that they are not Gods. These idols are not God and they were made by man, they are false gods. For the True God is one who created man, why then do we deceive others? We must worship the true God who created man. Even though I do not know him now, but i must seek him for he had created our world.”

Therefore God was pleased with Abraham and he chose to appear to him.

The God we worship today is the creator who had chosen Abraham. He had likewise chosen us and allow us to know him. As the result we are now blessed. That God came to us as man, even though we did not see him with our eyes, but we know him through the bible.

He had given us his Holy Spirit and  that is a proof that he is alive.

Isn’t this a great blessing from God? Isn’t this faith something we should spend our time pursuing?

Pt 2: It is a Blessing To Be Free From Bondage

“Also I sent Moses and Aaron, and
I plagued Egypt, according to what
I did among them. Afterward I
brought you out.

Then I brought your fathers out of
Egypt, and you came to the sea; and
the Egyptians pursued your fathers
with chariots and horsemen to the
Red Sea.  So they cried out to the Lord;
and He put darkness between you and
the Egyptians, brought the sea upon
them, and covered them. And your
eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you
dwelt in the wilderness a long time.” – YHWH (Jos 24:5-7)

For a while the Israelites moved into Egypt by the grace of God. God had made Joseph premier of Egypt in order  to save his family. There was a famine in the land for 7 years, and God sent Joseph into Egypt to save them.

After the death of Joseph, a new King arose and who did not know the Lord as well as Joseph. The Israelites became slaves in Egypt, under the bondage of the Egyptians. God saved them through Moses and Israel left Egypt as free people. They journeyed in the wilderness and they worshipped God. These people are no longer slaves and it is their God who saved them.

When the Pharaoh did not let Israel go, God sent 10 plagues into Egypt. Eventually as they cross the red sea, they cheer and praised God. For they are no longer slaves in Egypt.

Today we have freedom to become the child of God and to worship him. For Jesus had died for our sins and have forgiven them. As the result we are reconciled with God and we can face the judgement of God with no fear.

This is indeed a blessing to be the child of God. Even though we cannot see God but we know he will come and judge us one day. We may or may not see the last days, but we will definitely face death.

But Jesus had prepared a place for us where we can have eternal peace. He had given us the Holy Spirit as a proof and all believers will know it is true. Whenever we partake of the Holy Communion we are reminded of his death and his salvation. For we know that he died for our sins.

That is why we need to re-affirm this faith , and we need to be truthful before the Lord. We need to know if we would still continue to follow him.

Our Response To Blessings And Grace From God

“Now therefore, fear the Lord,
serve Him in sincerity and in truth,
and put away the gods which your
fathers served on the other side of
the River and in Egypt. Serve the
Lord! “ – Joshua (Jos 24:14)

We need to fear God and serve him with sincerity and in truth. Since we had chosen to serve him, we need to do it with sincerity and truth. In another words our faith must be true and that is important.

For there are many who are not true in their faith, and there are many who claims to follow Jesus. But people are unable to see his faith through his action. It appears as if their faith is mere speech. A faith that is mere speech cannot save a person.

Jesus once told us that a time will come when believers ought to worship God in spirit and in truth. We need to worship God with our true self. Our faith should not be a show for others to watch. For Jesus once rebuke the Pharisees

“These people draw near
to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
   And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the
commandments of men.” – Jesus (Matt 15:8-9)

Jesus called them hypocrites who honour God only with their lips, but their hearts were far away from God. These men knew the teaching of God but they followed the instruction of man.Jesus said that they worshiped in vain.

It will be pity if our worship of God is in vain. Therefore we need to re-examine our faith to see if we truly worship God with a true heart. We are the children of God but do we have the same heart of God?

Will our actions bring anxiety to God and make him indignant? Are we glorifying God or are we bringing shame to his name?

Conclusion

Jesus can see the heart of the people when they come to worship. Therefore he reminds us to worship God in spirit and in truth. For it is the worship that God loves. God does not look at external appearances, but he looks into our heart.

Since we have made our resolve to follow him, let us worship him fully. Let us repent and be serious as we listen to his words. Let us not allow our faith and our worship to be in vain.

Let us constantly re-affirm our faith , by asking ourselves

1. “Do we truly believe Jesus as our saviour?”
2. “If we believe, How Should I Be worshipping him?”
3. “How should I follow and Obey The Words Of Jesus?”

May God help us and may we reaffirm our faith always

Introduction

When a person life is approaching death, that is when he realise his time is short. So therefore he will put in a lot of effort to do things that matters most to him. If they had not drawn up a will, they will put in the effort to write one. Sometimes they may even leave behind important notes and instructions to their family member.

1 Kings 2:1 reads

“Now the days of David drew near
  that he should die, and he charged
  Solomon his son, saying”- 1 Kings 2:1

As David is drawing close to the end of his life, he left his will for Solomon, they contained many of his unfulfilled wishes and instruction. If one were to read this on the surface, it will appear as if it contains many of his personal grudge against people.

But the truth is that the contents of his will concern the kingdom of God. He made them so that both the kingdom and the king would have security.

In the kingdom of God, words of God is used as a standard for right and wrong, those who keep the commandments of God receive the bless while those who went against God will be met with judgement.

These blessings and judgement can be seen clearly in the will of David.

Let us learn from the will and see what lessons can we get out of there.

The 1st Will : To Keep The Commandments Of God

“I go the way of all the earth; be strong,
  therefore, and prove yourself a man. 
  And keep the charge of the Lord your God:

  to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes,
  His commandments, His judgments, and
  His testimonies, as it is written in the Law
  of Moses, that you may prosper in all that
  you do and wherever you turn;  

   that the Lord may fulfill His word which
  He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your
  sons take heed to their way, to walk before
  Me in truth with all their heart and with
  all their soul,’ He said, ‘you shall not lack
  a man on the throne of Israel.’- David (1 Kings 2:2-24)

The first will of David is perhaps the longest part of the will, over here he instructed Solomon to prove himself a man. Every dad hopes that his children will be strong and courageous, that is why they trained them to be like this since young.

But have we ever wonder “Why is there a need to be strong and courageous?”

In life we encounter many people, some may be good while some bad. In the face of enemies if we appear weak and fearful, we would be bullied and manipulated by others. It is true that we must be strong and courageous when facing problems in life.

Being Strong And Courageous Before God

But David is not referring to Solomon facing his problems in life. He wanted Solomon to be a man and be strong in the words of the Lord. this is far more important.

Today we had many men who are hard and strong when it comes to dealing with issues of the world, these man appear fearless, and courageous in face of problems in life. But they are small and weak before the words of God. They are afraid of facing God and are unable to stand before the judgment seat of God. 

It is good to be strong and courageous in the world, for it will bring benefits and riches. But one would stand to lose if he appears weak and small before God. This is why David reminded Solomon to keep the words of God, for there are consequences for not following the commandments of the Lord. 

One would prosper if he keep the commands of God and God promised that David will never lack a man on the throne of Israel if his children were to walk with God wholeheartedly.

David knew that  the safety of the king and his kingdom depends on the faithfulness of the king before the Lord.

In order to be faithful to the Lord, Solomon needs to keep the word of God fully. He must never subtract or transgress against it. For if he went against God, he will bring disasters to himself, his family as well as his kingdom.

David had such experience when he went against the commandment of the Lord. The bible records of 2 of such incidents. They serve as a warning to everyone who reads it. Let us consider these 2 incidents.

David’s sin of Adultery And Murder

The first time he committed sin was when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah was a warrior of David and he was fighting in the frontlines when it happened.

David first broke the 7th Commandment by committing Adultery with Bathsheba. When he discovered that Bathsheba was pregnant, he tried hard to cover the sin. He summoned Uriah to the palace. He was hoping that he will go home and stay with Bathsheba. By so doing there will be no suspicion when they found Bathsheba pregnant

The plan failed, then David proceeded to break the 6th commandment, he ordered Joab to get Uriah killed in battle. Joab must sent Uriah to the battle front and withdraw. That will allow Uriah to be killed on the battlefield. It will appear as if the enemies killed him

Finally he broke the 10th commandments when he took Bathsheba the widow as his own wife. Even though the actions of David appeared legal in the eyes of the Law (all he did was to marry the widow Bathsheba), but God looked beyond his physical action.  

The sin of David brought disaster onto his family as well as his kingdom.

His son Ammon rape and committed incest with Tamar his sister. Ammon was eventually killed by Absalom. Later on Absalom rebelled against King David and he tried to take his fathers throne. His rebellion led to a civil war within Israel

David’s sin of Numbering Israel

David once commanded Joab to number the kingdom of Israel. This was recorded in 1 Chron 21:1-4. Usually it is common for a country to take censes of the people to gather the statistics. For the country needed to know its population, and how large their army is. That statistic is often used as a sign of the glory of the nation. It is also the glory of the ruler.

But this is not the same in the case of ancient Israel. She is the nation belonging to God. All her glory must be given to God. That is why the King is not allowed to number the people. Numbering of Israel is only permitted if God commands so. God had commanded Moses to number the people when they left Egypt, they had a similar census carried out just before crossing the Jordan.

But the king should not number the people for his glory. Even though he may be tempted to see how powerful and glorious he is, but he must restraint himself not to number the people.

That is the reason why Joab said that it is against the will of God. He said to King David

“May the Lord make His people a
  hundred times more than they
  are. But, my lord the king, are
  they not all my lord’s servants? 
  Why then does my lord require
  this thing? Why should he be a
  cause of guilt in Israel?”- Joab (1 Chron 21 :3)

Sadly, David ignored his advice, and Joab had no choice but to carry out the work. the action of David displeased god greatly.

“And God was displeased with this thing;
  therefore He struck Israel.
   So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and
  seventy thousand men of Israel fell.” – 1 Chron 21:7,14)

On the surface, this will appear as if God was unfair, for David had acknowledge his sin

“I have sinned greatly, because I
  have done this thing; but now,
  I pray, take away the iniquity of
  Your servant, for I have done
  very foolishly.” – David（1 Chron 21: 8)

Why then did God kill 70 thousand Israelites? This punishment seem so unfair that David pleaded with the Lord again

“Was it not I who commanded the
  people to be numbered? I am the
  one who has sinned and done evil
  indeed; but these sheep, what have
  they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O
  Lord my God, be against me and my
  father’s house, but not against Your
  people that they should be plagued.”- David (1 Chron 21:17)

David knew that he must face up to the judgment of God, but he did not expect the punishment to be so severe. But was God being unrighteous when he killed those men?

No, for God does not judge wrongly. If we were to look at this on the surface, it will appear as if God is being unfair. But if we consider the full truth then we would refrain from commenting.

Let us examine this closely.

The Question Regarding The Fairness Of God

it is true that King David issued the command to number Israel. But it is also noted that many of the leaders of Israel wanted it to be done as well. Even though all could  understand that it is wrong to number Israel but yet they did not object to it.

Everyone had heard the order of King David, but only Joab spoke out against it.

Today when we see a man on the verge of committing sin, will we take the effort to stop him?

Joab is not the only person who heard the order, the other elders must have heard it as well. But none of them tried to stop King David. If all were to oppose him, King David may not have proceeded to number the people.

Sadly, only Joab spoke against David, while everyone else kept quiet. As they have chosen to remain silent they too have a part in the sins of David. Therefore they must face the judgement of God. If they are willing to repent, they may not have to go through judgment and die.

This can be seen in the fact that God had spared Joab for conducting the censes.

Lets consider this, Joab was the man who physically conducted the censes yet why did God no punish him?  It is most likely because Joab had already spoken out against the King and he already said that it was a sin.

There are further example of Joab making the point.

“But he did not count Levi and
  Benjamin among them, for the
  king’s word was abominable to Joab.” – (1 Chron 21:6 )

Over here the tribes of Levi and Benjamin are not numbered, for Joab found the command of David abominable. Joab did not agree with David and he openly show his displeasure for the kings command.  That is why God was gracious and did not charge Joab for numbering Israel. He was merely a soldier following an order from the King 

Lesson For Us Today

We need to obey the commands of the Lord for it is our duty to do so. But if we were to see someone transgressing the word of God. We need to be like Joab and advice him against it. For if we remain silent, we will have a part in his sin.

So Paul reminds us not to be a part of the sin of others.

“I charge you before God and the
  Lord Jesus Christ and the elect
  angels that you observe these
  things without prejudice, doing
  nothing with partiality.  Do not
  lay hands on anyone hastily, nor
  share in other people’s sins; keep
  yourself pure.” – Paul (1 Tim 5:20-22)

Paul is talking about the authority to church.   The church had the right to pass judgement,  but her judgment must be based on the word of God. The church must maintain order  based on the word of God. They need to continue to warn and execute judgement when necessary.

On the most severe cases, she may even need to excommunicate people. But the duty to  judge must be exercised with care. Just like the way Paul instructed Timothy. 

“Do not receive an accusation
  against an elder except from
  two or three witnesses.  
  Those who are sinning rebuke
  in the presence of all, that the
  rest also may fear.” – Paul (1 Tim 5:19-20)

Paul reminded Timothy to be careful when accepting a charge against an elder. He is only to accept the charge when there are 2-3 witness. This is ensure that the complaint is not a personal grudge.

If anyone have a personal grudge against an elder, they ought to resolve it among themselves. However if the complaint concern the well-being in the church, 2-3 witnesses are needed.  If the complaint is true, and the actions of the elder brings harm to the church, necessary actions must be taken to address the issue.

The church must be cautious  when dealing with an accusation against the elder. At the same time the church must not intrude into the privacy of her members. The church needs to rebuke openly when necessary. So that everyone who heard it will be careful and be watchful.  

Paul reminds Timothy to observe these words and they are important points about church management. Paul told him not to be hasty in laying hand on others, for if he does that he will have a part in his sin.

Conclusion So Far

The bible teaches us to obey the commandments and not to transgress against them. But if we see someone sinning, it is our duty to warn and advise him against it. IF we fail to do so, we will share in his sin

Joab had did well and he had left  a good example for us to learn.

Through the experience of David, we can know the safety of both the king and his kingdom depended on his faithfulness to the law of God

Therefore David instructed Solomon to obey the commandments of God. For if he observe the commands of God, God will abide with him. When God abides with us, we receive blessings and not punishment