Partake the Good and Convert the Poison - How to Handle What People Say

Someone email me the following by a famous priest cum author:

Why is it important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top?

It’s important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved.

Partake the Good and throw away the poison.

Statement like the above could be misleading.

Learn the main teaching and throw away with non-essentials.

The Good: must be alone with God to listen to God.

The Non-Essential: Mountain Top. The Real Meaning: An undisturbed place.

You do not need to go the mountain top to be alone with God. May be a toilet will do. In the Car alone while driving will do. In the midst of busy activities, taking a cup of coffee alone. The key criterion is a No-Disturbance environment for some time.

Good to have longer time. But don't wait for a long long time for a longer time opportunity. Keep your quiet short-appointments with God all through the day. Practice the sense of the presence of God. (God is with you all the while even when we are not aware. The key is be aware of His presence).

Don't wait for the day to take leave to go to the mountain-top and then listen to God. If you go to Bk Timah hill top, you will disturbed by the visitors there.

A Pastor told his congregation that they should take a bottle of water and go to a lonely place to pray for 2 hours a day. After a some time, some one finally ask "Why bring the bottle of water?". Pastor answered "To drink when thirsty". The bottle of water does not have any spiritual attributes that add to the effectiveness of prayer.

Hope you can laugh at this and be aware of the times we confuse the non-essentials as essentials.

Understanding Laws & Salvation with Statistical Analysis

We don't need to follow the Laws (the set of moral laws including 10 commandments) for our salvation because our salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Yet if we are truly born again with the new spiritual life in us, we will naturally follows and exceed requirement of the spirit of the Laws (not just the letters).

So, if we are truly saved, our conduct and lifestyles will reflect, at the minimum, we are following the Laws. Not only will we not steal our neighbors' things, we bless them with good things so that they can also live well like us. Looking from external, we can say that saved believers follow the Laws. It then become a simple yardstick to test whether one is saved from his external actions. Taking it further, typical of statistical analysis, which could only present correlations but NOT cause and effect, we make the statistical conclusions that true believers and performance of the Laws are positively and strongly correlated, r=0.9 (leaving the 0.1 for the times we sin). Being human, we will make the conclusion that you need to be saved, like the believers, by following the Laws.

Performance on the Laws for salvation is actually a statistical correlation but not a cause-effect relationship. The true cause for salvation is actually by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It is outside of the domain of the work of the Laws!

Looking at this from the simple logic.

This is the fallacy we tend to commit:
Monkey eats Banana.
Man eats Banana.
Therefore Man is a Monkey. (Some people believes this is so!)

It is observed that :
Christians follow the Laws.
X follows the Laws.
X must be Christians (saved)
In reality, all types of religions want to follow the laws or good works for salvation, except true Christianity. True Christianity is relationship to God through Christ by faith and not by good works. Eph 2:8-9.


Looking at it from the Parent-Child point of view.
Parent loves their Child no matter what. Parents love their baby even when the baby was very difficulty. Parent's love is not dependent on the Child behavior. But Parent want their Child to do well and live well and not live in sins. The Child needs not follow the Laws to get love. But the Child living in a healthy and sin free life is good for the Child and makes the Parent happy because the Child is doing well.

Hope I make the relationship between Laws and Salvation clearer. If not, please post your comment to simplify it. Thanks.

If Adam knows I-Ching, he would not have sinned

As I continued in my deeper study and interpretation of the Classic Chinese Classic, I-Ching, I continued to be amazed by its teachings. See also Chinese Classics and the Bible.

Today I just finished the 40th Hexagram 40解 Freed – Get with Decisive Actions.
Here is a short summary of what it teaches.


Summary of the Teaching of 40 Freed:

I. Freedom is obtained by

1. quick decisive actions, not impulsive actions, of breaking free from dangers
2. staying away from danger
3. seeking the interests of the masses, and
4. forgiving others.

Freedom is about being freed to do good and righteous things and bringing blessings to all. see From "Freedom From" to "Freedom For" & In

II. The additional teaching from the 6 Stage-Lines are: (This is really studying by precept by precept and line upon line ....!)

  1. Differences are harmonized. No Issue.
  2. Straight wins against the crooked. Righteousness brings good fortune.
  3. Show-off brings regrets.
  4. Stay away from bad companies and have trustworthy true friends.
  5. Wise and objective(prejudices free) thinking keeps the office-politics away.
  6. Get rid of the bad and rebellious influences to stay free. Fire the bad leader.

Of course, Adam could not have benefited from the study of I-Ching for I-Ching was compiled after him. Here are a few teachings that impressed me (It is exactly the same as the teachings of the Bible).

Freedom is not about doing anything that you like. Freedom is about keeping away from dangers and temptations! Adam and Eve should stay away from temptations.

Freedom is also about forgiveness. In the original Chinese text, the pictorial commentary states that "Wise men forgive wrongdoing and pardon sins". If we want to be truly free, we must forgive others who have wronged us. Otherwise, we will be in bondage of bitterness and hatred. We could not be free then.

Freedom requires us to rid our minds of prejudices and biases so that we can be objective and think clearly. We will not be fooled by the bad companies, the people who play political games, and the rebellious people.

Freedom is also about taking decisive actions as early as possible to rid the community of such bad influences.


Compare with the Bible:

I.1-2 1Pet 2:16  Live like free people and do not use your freedom as an excuse for doing evil. Instead, be God's servants.

I.1-2 Gal 5:13  For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

I.3 1Co 9:19  For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

For more, see Chinese Classics and the Bible

Building Successful Family & Organization according to I-Ching

As I continue my work in interpreting the Top Classics of Chinese Wisdom, the "I-Ching", I am constantly amazed by the teaching.

Let's take the common topic of family. There is a hexagram in I-Ching that is called exactly by the name "Family" or more precisely "Members of Family". It is hexagram 37 家人.

Hexagram 37 of I-Ching is about “Family“. (See the complete list.)
The teaching is summarized as follows:

• Ladies are in charge of family or home affairs. Men are responsible for external affairs, the career and business.
• Each member of the family must know and play their roles well so that the whole family can prosper in wholeness. Subsequently, the society will be at peace.
• Disciplines are the responsibilities of parents. They can get help but can not outsource to grand parents, maids or teachers completely.

Wisdom from the Stage Lines:

1. Orderliness brings leisure.
2. Play your role well.
3. Discipline must be exercised strictly.
4. Shared Goals and Harmonious Family brings great blessings
5. Extend your concept of family to organization and to society.
6. Trust is the glue that brings continued blessing.

The steps for building successful family and of organization are clearly layout. Trust begins with order, execution of the right roles, monitoring for conformance, ensuring shared goals, extending the family boundary into workplace and succeeds with propagation of trust.

Journey of Life - Victory or Defeat?

Let's begin with the mind-map below:

The life we are living now is the sum result of the past decisions we made. The decisions we made were based on our thinking and values that we experienced and acquired. Our beliefs influence our thoughts, then our words, then our actions. Continued and repeated actions bring forth a habit. A set of habits make our character. Our character determines our destiny of our life be it a glorious one or a defeated and troubled one.

We cannot change the past, but we can make wise decision now to influence the outcomes of our future.

Working Backwards
So, if our desired destination of life is success and victorious, then we must work backward all the way to the basic beliefs we have. What do we belief actually determines the our becoming. If we learned the truth then we have freedom and success. If we believe in lies, then we end up in bondage and suffering.

Re-examine Our Beliefs
What are our beliefs? What are our world views? On what basis do we know we have the truth and not the lies? For Christians, our answers must be the Bible as written words of God and of Truth. We also need the Holy Spirit to be our guide and to make the Words come alive so that we can be lead and know the right things to to do for the situations of life that we meet.

Practice makes Perfect
Knowing without putting in practice results in nothing. Practice begin with meditating on the Words and revelation by the Holy Spirit. This is follow by verbalizing of our understanding by writing or speaking out. Then we must have a plan of actions for execution. Actions need to be repeated often to form a habit that we do without needing the reminder and the effort. However, we must put in the effort first before it becomes an effortless and automatic thing. In the process of execution, we discover our lack of understanding, or we make errors so that we can go back to the drawing board again to learn from the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

Unintentional Learning
In our daily contact with others, internet, TV programs and commercials, we are constantly bombarded with all kinds of concepts that we acquire almost without effort. The subtle messages get in into our mind. Hence we need frequently to re-examine our beliefs, biases, assumptions, prejudices etc against the Bible and Holy Spirit. We need to prune our thoughts in our mind and throw out the lies accumulated. Read John 15 about pruning by the Father so that we can produce more fruits.

It is not Lack of Blessings but Plain Disobedience
We often blame God for our failures or lack of blessings. But the truth is actually either our lack of knowledge of the Word of God or our failure to put them into practice. We give excuses instead of simple obedience by faith. God give promises to us. But God promises are realized in our lives through our obedience. Some are easy. Some takes time to develop. Getting things are easy. Building Godly character and producing the fruit of the Spirit take time. Patience can only be seen in meeting up with difficult and nasty people. Boldness is shown in meeting threatening circumstances.

See also

1. Know Your Season of Life and  
2. Christian Transformation & Growth -The Unified Model
3. Where is Our Confidence? 
4. Five Habits for Effective Christian Living
5. Our Calling of Life - Destination or Journey

Freedom and Responsibility

In last week Bible Study Group meeting, we discussed Galatians 5 Freedom & Fruit. Some of the key learning are:

1. By faith, we received Jesus Christ who freed us from the bondage of sin to enable us to love and glorify God.
2. Freedom comes with responsibility - we have to be responsible for the outcomes of the choices we made.
3. "Faith working through love" - Faith in Jesus and working out the Christ in us through love.
4. Be Spirit centered and focus on the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace etc rather than focus on not sinning. Focus on self and trying not to sin will lead to defeat. Focus on the Spirit and the fruit instead.

We tend to fight for Freedom and at the same time we don't want to be held accountable for the outcomes. Freedom without accountability only leads to negligence and destruction. We are so quick to blame others, the society and the government, for the errors we made or for not stopping or helping us to fix our errors! We consider all forms of rules as restriction to our freedom but in truth, the rules are there to help us take better care of ourselves.


True freedom is not without responsibilities and rules. 

True freedom has two aspects:

1. Ability to act for Good: is the ability and rights to do the right things. 
2. Freedom from Bondage: not be in bondage by bad things such as drugs or lusts. 

We are freed to do good and be truly alive in health and strength. We don't waste time in thinking about how not to sin but go after the fruit of the Spirit, things that are beautiful and build others up.

10 Kingdom Laws for Business Success

In a recent overseas mission trip, I have the opportunities to share the "10 Kingdom Laws for Success" to many young professional and entrepreneurs that are believers on 3 separate meetings. The original posting Kingdom Laws & Principles is too much to share in a 1-2 hour session. A shortened version in Chinese is shared and it is available here.

This post is the English version of the "10 Kingdom Laws for Business Success".

Understanding Work is a Ordained & Not a Curse

1. Work is Ordained by God. Gen 1:28, 2:15
2. Work happened before Sin & Curse. Gen 1:28,2:15 comes before the Curse in Gen 3:17-19.
3. Work is Worship. Hebrew Avodah = Work = Worship =Serving
4. Work is Our Calling Eph 2:10
5. The Curse of Work has been removed by Jesus. Work is stress-free & joyful. Gal 3:13, Col 1:20.
6. Work is not Worry. God provides when we sleep.
   Ps 127:2 . Just following the Kingdom Principles and have worry free & fruitful work.

The 10 Laws are:

1.   The Golden Law - Righteousness brings success
2.   Law of Parallel Universes - Begins in Spirit
3.   Law of Execution - Walk the Talk
4.   Law of Harvests- Sowing and Reaping
5.   Law of Seasons -  Watch & Ride the Cycle
6.   Law of Reciprocation Change begins with you
7.   Law of Greatness - Servant Leadership
8.   Law of Perseverance To Mission & Values
9.   Law of Amplification Growth with Care for Details
10.   Law of Humility - Learning & Renewal

1  The Golden Law - Righteousness brings success
    Spiritual Health brings True & Total Success.  Mat 6:33
    God is in charge - Righteousness is Gain. Quality in Character & Quality in Offering (competence and performance) are both important. Between the two, Character comes first; Character over Competence. Venture Capitalists invest in people of Character.
    Prov 23:5 Chase Money and it will fly away. This is the negative way of expressing the Golden Business Rule.

2  Law of Parallel Universes - Begins in Spirit

•     What is seen is influenced by the things unseen Heb 11:3.
•     Things seen is originated in the Unseen - From the Dream / Vision
•     Get your calling and vision from God
•     Inside determines outside
•     Intrinsic Motivation is better than Extrinsic Motivation
•     Have a Mission & Vision - Unique Customer Value Proposition

3  Law of Execution - Walk the Talk

•     Doing realize the Vision. Mere talk does not. Remember to execute your plan.
•     The Wise and the Foolish Builders - Matthew 7:24–27
•     Hear + Do build strong & lasting thing
•     Pro 14:23  Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty!
•     Joh 13:17  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them
•     We must close the gap between knowing and doing.

4 Law of Harvests- Sowing and Reaping.

•     Invest to Gain -     Luk 6:38; 2Co 9:6-8
•     You sow what you have; You get what you sow
•     Hence, You sow what you need
•     Invest in
•       tithes & offering to the Lord
•       people in needs;e.g. widow, poor, etc.
•       business
•       See the values of generosity
•     It is also know as the Law of Proportional Returns: the more you give the more you get

5  Law of Seasons -  Watch & Ride the Cycle

•     Watch the Opportunity & Timing - Ride the Trends - Ecc 3:1-8
•     Be watchful - Observe the changes and trends
•       Strike at the Right Time
•       Be at the leading edge and not the 1st mover bleeding edge
•     Be Agile & Ready to act
•     God provides the Growth and Set the Timing & Man does the Following of the laws of nature, the seasons & timing  established by God.

6   Law of Reciprocation Change begins with you

•     You changed 1st to cause others to change     Luk 6:37
•     Law of Empathy- Do on to others what you want to receive.
•     Reaction is a multiple of the Action
•       Newton's Law is Reaction = Action
•       Kingdom Law is Do good and Receive Better

7  Law of Greatness - Servant Leadership

•     Lead by Serving - Mat 20:26
•     Serve your staff to serve your customers who repay you with $$$
•     People follow your actions rather than your words
•     How to become Great in influence
•     Leadership is about
•       1 lead at the front with shared mission and vision
•       2 serve from the back with as example and support
•       3 coach in the middle with encouragement & correction

8 Law of Perseverance To Mission & Values

•     Perseverance in righteousness Law#1 ; Luke 18:1–8
•       Don't take short-cut, cut-corners due to pressure
•       Plans/Methods can and should change,
•       but the Purpose-Mission & Values remains
•     Stick to your Vision to accomplish it
•       Once the goal has been set, it must be pursued with a burning desire. The desire must be maintained and sustained with discipline - Fred Smith

9  Law of Amplification Growth with Care for Details

•     Growth & Scalability
•  Get it right before you scale or multiply
•  take care of the details
•  unless there is character transformation, greater responsibility will show forth greater weakness
•     Faithful in Little leads to faithfulness in large - Luk 16:10
• Warren Buffet, "In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don't have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you."
•     Law of Promotion - Luk 16:11-12
•     Strength or Defect get magnified with time and growth
•     Also known as Law of Fidelity or Honesty

10  Law of Humility - Learning&Renewal

•  Glory goes to those that are humble - ever learning & contributing. Mat 5:5
•  Renewal is
•       prepare for the future
•       ride the changes
• Learning
•       New capability building
•  I Ching #15 謙 Humility - means:
• “have it” - resources, ability. If don't have them, there is nothing to be humble about.
• “don’t show it” and
• “use it”. When the situation calls for it and if you have it, humility requires you to use it to help and not to hide it!
• It is not passive but quiet aggressive actions without drawing attention to self.
• 6 stage lines provides additional teachings of:
•         1. develop humility
•         2. let your action do the talking
•         3. accomplished and yet don’t claim credit but give credit
•         4. do more good things
•         5. do corrective actions to remove bad things
•         6. expand humility to others that they may have it too

How to Pass through Dangers?

From my study of I Ching, I have been discovering new perspectives on the key Christian values. I have discussed some of them, like Humility is Forceful Too and Waiting in the mean-time.

Here is another discovery of overcoming danger and temptations. In I-Ching Part 33 29 坎 The Pit /Danger – Be Watchful & Righteous This hexagram represents danger and the pit. The way to prevent us from falling into the pits and to get out of the pits if we ever fall into one, is to stay to the path of righteousness - of honesty and integrity. It is often our own greed that causes us to fall into the pits and dangers. The way to long term successful living, wealth and health is still the golden rule for business Mat 6:33 Seek first the Kingdom and its rules and all the rest, the resources, will follow you. Be the magnet that attracts and not the chaser that chases after the wind Proverb 23:5.

The teaching is:  

Eternal Security Arguments again

Some friend sent me articles that "exposed the errors of famous so and so" and asked me my views. 

Here is my respond.

The articles are just some of many many that debate between the "Eternal Security - One saved always saved" doctrine of Calvinist vs. the "Conditional Security - You could loose your salvation if you continue in sin" doctrine of the Armenians.

Conditional Security followers argues that Eternal Security people give people a license to sin since there is not more punishment for sins. This argument implies that people don't sin because of fear of punishment. If you remove the punishment, people will sin. In this case, sinful nature is still with the people. It is the punishment that keep them from not sinning. If the sinful nature stills remain with them, that would mean they are not saved. Christ's death is to pay for the punishments of our sins and Christ's resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit is to give us a new nature (God's sinless nature) that we will not only don't sin but will love to do good things because love is in our new nature of God - the Zoe Life in us (Christ's life in us).

How then can we explain a saved and born again with God's nature Christian still commit sin? We then have to understand the tripartite nature of man. Man is of the spirit, soul and body. Before salvation, our spirit is separated(dead) from God. After salvation, our spirit is rebirth and connected to God with the Holy Spirit coming into our spirit. However, our soul (mind) and body remains unchanged (our body will be changed, new heavenly body when Christ come again ). The unchanged mind and body with our passions in them still remain unchanged. Hence, there is a process of growth, called Sanctification, where our mind is to be renewed with the Word and Spirit of God, to rule over our body so that our body can be instruments for righteousness rather and sin. The process of Sanctification, where the inner man grows up to rule the mind and body requires discipline or training or exercises in the Word and Spirit and Action or work of faith by the body.

The typical error in the "Eternal Security" camp is the ignoring of this process of growth. They claimed they are mature already in Christ when they are first born! They misinterpreted Bible verses about "we are complete in Christ" and hence there is no need to grow. An apple seed is a complete seed in Apple. If you plant it, it will grow up into an apple tree and produces lot of apples. If the apple seed is incomplete, then either it cannot grow, die prematurely, or don't produce apples. A fertilized egg is complete as a chicken. Given a right temperature and incubation period of 21 days, it will become a chick. An unfertilized egg is incomplete and even given the right temperature and time, it will never become a chick.

Both camps at least agree on the starting point - One need to believe and receive Jesus Christ as Savior in order to be saved. Jesus is the only way to salvation.

They differs in the process of growth. Common errors committed by believers are:

1. Relying on Jesus for salvation and then rely on self-effort for Christian Growth. They only appropriate the Grace of God for salvation. The truth is that God's Grace (God's power for living the lives we should) is not just for salvation but for sanctification (make holy) as well.

2. Relying on God to do everything and then just don't do anything or do your own thing waiting for God to lead. They called the people is group 1 as legalistic and work of the flesh. But the truth is God and Man has their part to play. God initiatives and Man follows.  see Fleshy Work & Spiritual Work and God Initiates & Man Follows and Let Go & Let God - Spiritual or Just Plain Lazy?

Work could be of the flesh, but Work could of Faith as well. Read James - Faith without Work is dead! see Bible Study - James 2:14-2:24 Work Actualizes the Inner Faith . In 1Th 1:3  remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We rely on the Grace of God to live out God's unique calling of life. We are saved for God glorying work. Read Eph 2:8-10 Saved by Grace for walking out God's good workmanship in Christ.

Always have a balanced view of things and hold both extremes in view. God is both LOVE and JUST. Either extremes is wrong.

Lastly, on the security of our salvation, on whom do you place your trust in maintaining your salvation ? On God or yourself?

John 10:29  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

Tough Decision Making - Loyalty vs Righteousness

Right or wrong decision is easier to make when the issue does not involve your friends.

For friendship, do we hide or bend the truth?
Even God faces this issue. God is all love and God is all just.
How does God solve the issue of man's sin?
For justice and truth, God has to punish man for his sin.
For love, God has save man from his sin.

God maintains the truth and justice with love by sending His own son to die for man's sin. This give us the clue to solve this balance of Truth and Love.

The rule is starts with truth and ends with love or

to package truth in love. 

Truth should always be the foundation of decision making.

However, the way we go about presenting it have to be done in love.
Love should incorporates truth for truth is the eternal thing. Truth has to incorporate love because love the binding force for any relationship.

For the love of my friend, I need to show him the reality and yet I must do it in such a way that he accepts and changes. So while the first intention is to show him the truth, I need to approach him with love and gain his trust to hear the truth from me. He must be sure that my concern is for him and not to condemn him.

We tend to be too fast to point out someone's error before we gain his respect and trust. So we normally get a defensive reaction and a rejection instead. This defeats the very purpose of sharing the truth which is for his benefits.

Without the trust, the good intention is misinterpreted as an attack.

Is Telling the Truth a Betrayal?
Coming back to address the issue of loyalty and betrayal. When we are exposing the wrong doings of our friends, are we betraying our friends? What are the criteria of judging? I think there are two criteria?

1. At whose benefits? My, Friends or Others.
2. Truth or Lie?

We then have the following combination:

1. truth that benefits me (at friend's expense)..Betrayal (Juda's betrayal of Jesus)
2. truth that benefits my friend.......................true friend (must do in love)
3. truth that benefits others...........................justice (e.g. injury of others caused by your friend. There must be wrong-doing by your friend)
4. lies that benefit me (at friend's expense)......betrayal of friend
5. lies that benefit my friend...........................still call lies and is wrong.
6. lies that benefit others...............................Contradiction 

 The above classification is a start. I think I need to reflect on it to get greater clarity.

See also Kindness 1st then Truth 2nd

A Good Teacher - Illustrated by Paul & Peter

A teacher is not a person that just impart knowledge to his students. He teaches them how to think for themselves. He doesn't just tell them the conclusions but show them how he arrives at the conclusions. He doesn't tell them his only view but also the views of others so that his students can see from multiple viewpoints and find the supporting evidences for a particular view that they hold.

Good parents do the same thing. They teach their children to know how to decide what is right and wrong. Parents will not always be around the child to tell him what is right or wrong. Parents must implant the right values into their children so that they may grow up to be God fearing and independent people knowing the right and wrong.

Good Bible teachers tell their students that while Bible is true Word of God, not every verse is the command or the promise of God that they should follow. Bible is a historical book that accurately record the actions of people. Some actions  were bad and served as warning to us. Some actions were good and served as examples for us to follow. Some are straight forward commands - 'Do' or 'Don't do that' and they are not for us to decide whether to follow or not. We don't decide whether they are really good or bad.

Now we come to the incidence recorded in Galatians 2:11-14 involving Paul and Peter. There are two teachings here.

1. One, with regards to the truth of the gospel, is very clear - We are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law. Jews and Gentiles are united in Christ. There should be no segregation. 
2. The other is the behavior of Paul towards Peter in exposing Peter's error. Should we follow Paul's example in the correction of others? On what basis?

How Should One Correct A Senior in Christ?
At that point of time, Peter, James and John were the pillars(Gal 2:9) of the Jerusalem Church - the center and highest authority of Christianity then. Issues were to be brought back to Jerusalem Council for final decisions (Act 15:6). Paul was just a 'upstart' relative to Peter. 
So Paul was actually correcting his senior. Can we say in the eye of God, in the defend of the truth, everyone is equal. We learn the 1st principle

1. It is the truth and not the seniority that matters.
   
   What was the error? Before the people came from James, Peter ate with the Gentiles but withdrew from them when they came. Peter's action influenced Barnabas and others creating a separation that should not be there in the 1st place. Their withdrawals implied a return to the Law is better.
   
   How did Paul correct this? He opposed Peter to his face. He said to Peter before all Gal 2:14. The details, the emotions in Paul's words were not recorded for us to know. We can only infer from what Paul has said. It appeared to me to be very strong. If it was not loud, it must have been very firm. Here we can learn two more principles.
   
2. Talk to the person involved directly.We should not talk to a third person about the person's sin. That is called gossiping. Jesus actually taught us how one should correct our brother in Mat 18:15-17. This is the key practice that we all should follow as it was given by Jesus explicitly.
   
   
3. Error committed publicly or have public impact should inform the public. An error involving only the person should be done in private with the person. Mat 18:15.

Did Paul do the right thing by recording Peter's error in this letter that got canonized into the Bible and so all through history we know of Peter's error? May be this is an important 'negative illustration' that we should know. There are no record of Peter's response to this incidence and we don't know how Peter felt. But Peter in 2 Pet 3:15-16 acknowledged Paul's God given wisdom.

Could the matter be better handled?
Could Paul meet Peter privately to discuss the matter? Or invite Barnabas to join and then issue a joint declaration on the matter? This will still satisfy the 3 principles highlighted above and achieve one thing more - Peter's endorsement. At present, we could only assume Peter's silence as admission of fault. Paul in Gal 6:1 said  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Did Paul in his eager defense of the truth has been a little bit strong on Peter at the moment? Or Paul in emphasizing the key points, left out the details? On the other hand, we have Jesus cleaning the temple with force Mar 11:15

My point is that we should carefully study the Bible in context and in an integrated matter, supporting any view with cross-references from other parts of the Bible.

Priorities & Living the Meaningful Life

In the business of life, we often forget what are the truly valuable things in life. The world want us to put 3G of Gold(Money, Wealth, Possession - lust of flesh/eye), Glory(Popularity, Reputation, Position - pride of life), and Girls(Beauty, Attractiveness - lust of eye/flesh) as our priorities. We are some what corrupted by the world too when we get upset with God because our business was not doing as well as before, or we are missed in the promotion, or some thing not going our way. As we put them first, God becomes our means to obtain the 3Gs. It is good to take time to reflect on the real valuable things in our life and adjust our life accordingly.

1. Time - Go for Eternal Value rather than Temporal 
We first recognize that this life on earth is a short one. It is temporary. Temporary means it will go away. Opportunities will be missed and opportunities will come. Are will investing on things that last,  things of eternal values? Jesus tells us to store up treasures in heaven Mat 6:20. What are these treasures?

2 Foundation is God
The greatest thing is to know the Creator God revealed through Jesus Christ. It answers the basic questions and purpose of our existence and our destination. Most believers know this. But knowing God is not a one-off event. It is a eternal relationship of knowing and interacting and sharing of joy and pains and comfort and desires and .... 

Someone say the most valuable thing of life is that we can get to know God. It is not just about quiet time. It is about bringing God into our daily living- running the chores, 'stressing' out in work, serving of customers, socializing with friends. Thanks God for His presence whether you feel like He is there or not. He says He is always with you no matter what. Enjoy God in the midst of disappointments. Trust Him. These things happen to bring us to higher plane - painful though at this time. At least thank God we are still breathing and healthy. Focus on the future and the promises of God and see how your spirit can be lifted. Faith comes not by trying to believe but by reading the Bible and quietly hearing God speaking to you.


3 Relationship & Roles - From Self-Centric to Others-Centric.
We exists with God and with others. We comes first as a child with parents. We have brothers and sisters. Then we get marry and become husband or wife. Then we have children of our own and we become parents. But we will, till death do us apart, be husband or wife to someone. In the midst of all these relationships, be thankful that we have good relationships with them. We have no sour or bitterness in our lives. If we have any bitterness, be thankful that bitterness is something we can handle. It does not depend on anyone else but ourselves. We can decide and choose to forgive and live without bitterness.

Rom 12:18  If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with all people.
We can't control and be responsible for others will. So live in peace with yourself and forgive others.

For those who don't have children, parents or friends, we can decide to adopt. We don't need to go through the legal process for adoptions. We adopt them through the way we treat them. We be nice to our 'adopted' parents  - we are not restricted to 2 or 4, we can have more according to our ability. We can adopt children as well. We don't need their approval too. We extend our love. We of course need to use wisdom in the way we treat others. Love is not forcing people to accept our love or insist on them doing things to our liking because we love them. Love is giving spaces and options for people to receive or reject. Be not upset when your love is not appreciated or even rejected. True love is unconditional.

Don't focus on what you don't have but focus on what you can do to make a difference in the life of others.

4 Wealth & Money
Wealth is a strange thing. Pursuing the right things in serving others will bring them to you. Chasing them alone will give you short-term success but long term liability. Watch out for the saying that money is a good servant but a terrible master. True wealth is not measured by amount we accumulated but in our giving them away to create influence and impact. At the bema judgement seat of awards ceremony, you will be rewarded according to how much and how you spent your wealth. The accumulated wealth not used become a bad testimony of our self-centric life. In the parable of the dishonest steward, the moral of the story is to using wealth for relationship -invest in people - relationship is more important than possessions.

Conclusions - The Valuables in Life
Be thankful of knowing a true and good God, having good relationships within and without, a healthy, adequate and comfortable life, ability to influence others for good, and so forth.... See, God is with you all the while and making sure we grow up to be a better person.

Lim Liat (c) updated 2 April 2013

Grace - Wrong Definition leading to Shameful Behavior

We have covered the biblical defintions of grace in past postings:

• "Grace is Unmerited Favor" - This Common Definition is Wrong
•  Grace - God's Loving Power for You to become Your Very Best

There have been much debates and even accusations about the grace-based preachings and churches that preach the message. The main issue is actually the wrong definition of grace.
Grace defined as "unmerited favor" or "receiving the blessings that we do not deserved". Mercy as "not getting the punishment that we deserved". They sound very good and as if full of depth but they are biblical wrong and misleading.

Grace defined above creates a bunch of lazy bums Christians wanting wealth and promotion without working for them. Of course they will not get them without hard work. So they take short-cut, exploit loop holes in systems, steps over others, and even take from others to get them and then they say it is God's favors and blessing. It is no wonder why they being criticized and condemned.

The Biblical definition of Grace is God's empowerment to do the things that God want and resulting in bringing glory to God. We do not need any grace when we don't want to do anything. We need grace to reach up the standards that God has set for us to show others. If it is a mediocre standard that anyone can achieve, we don't need grace. Our work should be so differentiated from others that show forth the salt and light and reveal the glory of God through us. To do that, we need to ask for grace.

Paul in Eph 2:8-9 stating that "we are saved by grace through faith" quickly followed it with v10 "we are created in Christ for good works which God had ordained and we should walk in them." James 2:17 emphasized that "faith without work is dead and valueless". Jesus said in Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We are saved to glorify God with good works. Let's ask for the grace to enable us to do God glorifying works revealing the salt and light of the Christ in us.

A Taxonomy for Proverbs

Proverbs as a book of wisdom is divided into chapters and verses. Unlike I-Ching, the thoughts are not organized into major topics and keywords. With my work on knowledge management, cognitive learning and taxonomy, it makes good sense and a good exercise to develop a taxonomy on proverbs.

The tools I used to construct the taxonomy is Mindjet mindmanager software. It is a top range mind-mapping software. I use the Text-Marker feature to create a Categories to store the tags (or keywords like love, God, evil, lie etc). Unfortunately, the text-markers only allow a linear list. I have to create my own hierarchical list for the taxonomy tree manually.
Using e-sword, I can past the entire proverb text into the mind-map of mindmanager. For every verse, I assign tags.  So a verse like

• A fool despises his father's instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent. Pro 15:5

can be assigned tags of ‘fool’, ‘instructions’ (using instruction for reproof as well), ‘wisdom’ (using wisdom for prudent) , and ‘despise’.

The software automatically consolidate the assigned tags into a list without duplicated keywords.

I use another mindmanager software add-on ‘ResultManager” to generate another mind-map with the tags as main branches and the relevant verses as sub-branches. Hence, a tag like fool, will have all the verses assigned as fool as sub-branches. I can then study the verses on ‘fool’ and reorganize them to gain a comprehensive understanding of fool from Proverbs.
With the list of unique tags (keywords), I need to construct a taxonomy. Where can I begin? We can follow the “Facets” method of Ranganathan – which classify into 5 facets of Personality (Main Topic), Matter (the What, things), Energy (actions), Space (locations), Time (periods). This system seems to be an overkill for this proverb exercise. It could be useful for future work especially for the study of the Bible. For the time being, I choose a simple tree structure that work well with the mind-mapping software. The result is as follows:
The main tree:

 
The ‘Good’ branch expanded to show greater details:

 The ‘Bad’ branch expanded to show more details:

 
And a study on ‘Fool’ is shown below:
Are we behaving like a fool? We can check the map below to see....

Here is the list of additional topic:

• Wisdom from Proverbs - The Righteous
• Wisdom of Proverbs - Cause and Effect
• Wisdom of Proverbs - Timing

Will post more on the details of other key words as I study them.

Worship: Can't Sing so what ....

Some of us are not musical and vocally inclined. We are a bit tone-deaf and sing out of tune. We are told by people to sing softer. But do nont let your lack of ability to sing stop you from truely worshipping God. True worship of God is found in your behaviour and not just our singing on Sunday Worship Service.

Avodah H5656 is a Hebrew word used in the Bible whose root has three distinct yet intertwined meanings: work, worship, and service. It the service in the Worship Service see Exo 12:25, The Passover Service. Exo 30:16 35:21 the Service in the Tabernacle.

See  Ephesians Chatper 5 Walk in the New Life Part 3 Roles in Life - Discussion
for how we should worship God in our behaviour.

This can be cleary seen in Jesus' statement in Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you have done it to Me.

The best worship we can give to our God is simply our behaviour - living out His life through us. Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.

Those who appeared to sing well during Sunday Worship Services and yet live out a different and non-biblical standard of life are just hypocrites. How are we behaving when our church members are not around, such as in our office and in our family?

Worship to God is more than our mouth. It is in our heart shown forth in our behaviour whether people are watching or not.

Mat 12:50  For whoever shall do the will of My Father in Heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother.

Mat 21:31  Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to Him, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that the tax-collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

Gospel in One Word

What is the Gospel? 

If you can only summarized it in one word, what word will it be?
Applying this one-word formula will force one to pick up the most important ingredient of the message.

So what is your one-word gospel?

For me, the one word will be Life (zoe).

Let's look at John 3:16

• Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The last 2 words "everlasting life" describe the type of life that God has given to those who believe in Him.

We have to go back to the original Greek to have a better understanding.

Everlasting is aionion G166 Thayer Definition:
1) without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be
This means that time is no longer a restrictive dimension. It goes beyond the limitation of time. It transcent time. The speed of light is 300,000 km/sec. It is the fastest speed possible and is the constant in the E=mc^2. Our solar system belongs to the galaxy called Milky Way. It is 100,000 light years across. The universe has many galaxies. You can understand that the speed of light is indeed very slow. But now, with the new Zoe life, we transcend the limitation of time and can travel to any where in the large universe instantly! We can appear and disappear any where. Of course, not with this present body but with the glorified body as Jesus did. ( Jn. 20:27 As they were gathered in the house, behind closed doors, the risen Christ came and stood among them.2 Cor 5: 4b we want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life.)

Life is zoe G2222   Thayer Definition:
2a) of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic “logos” and to Christ in whom the “logos” put on human nature

Everlasting is not a good translation. Unsaved sinners also have everlasting life, except that they are suffering in hell. The Thayer's definition of without beginning and end is a much better translation. Only God is without beginning and end. God transcend time. So a better translation is 'timeless', to 'time-transcending', which is an attribute of God.

Zoe in Thayer's definition is clear in saying that it is God's kind or God's quality of life. This Zoe-life is higher than human-life, animal-life and plant-life.

So John 3:16 says that if we believe in Jesus as Son of God, we will have a new kind of life, the God's kind of life.

God's kind of life will have attribute that it is righteous, complete, full, sinless, holy, timeless, power, etc .... like God. If we don't have God's kind of life, we cannot be children of God and we cannot inherit His Kingdom.

The Common Gospel Message
Most of us heard the gospel as "Jesus came to paid for our sins and give us eternal life".

We ask the people to pray the sinner prayer so that they can be saved. A typical sinner prayer goes like this " Dear Father, I confessed that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins. I thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Amen!". A better version will add "I am now a new born Child of God.".

What is wrong ? Compare this to John 3:16. With following verses...

• Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Rom 10:10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
• Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 
• Joh 6:40  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 
• 2Ti 1:10  But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: 
• 1Jn 4:15  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 
• 1Jn 5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
• 1Jn 5:1  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God:

The criterion for receiving eternal life is simply "believe Jesus". It has no mention of sin! One can argue that "sin" is implied in the "believe Jesus" part. What is the meaning of "believing of Jesus". What to believe about Jesus?

• Jesus is the begotten Son of God (John 3:16, John 6:40)
• Jesus as Lord of all, including me (Rom 10:9)
• Jesus has resurrected (Rom 10:9, which also means Jesus came as man, and die for man for our sin on the cross. Here sin is mentioned. See 1 Cor 15).
• Jesus is sent from God that we believed (John 5:24)

 In 1 Cor 15, Paul gives a fuller explanation of the Gospel that he preached.

• 1 Co 15:3 ...how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; 
• 1Co 15:4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
• 1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
• 1Co 15:34  Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
• 1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Emphasize New Life and We Will Sin Not
What is my point. My point is that we have placed too much emphasis on sins and not on the New Life. The only way to overcome sin is not be sin focus but be life focus. This is in 1Cor 15:34 awake to New Life of of righteousness and sin not.

When we shine the light of the New life, the ugliness of sins will reveal. The goodness of God will bring conversion rather than condemnation of sins (which most people will say they are not that sinful to receive such condemnation and curse God!). We don't know how bad we are until we see how good God is. The Law that was given was to show the goodness of God. It was the Law of Liberty (James) but was some what distorted to become the Law of Bondage! We seek books for secrets to happiness, how to be millionaires, how to be successful in life etc... But the secrets are in the Ten commandments all along! How corrupt one can be until we see the light.


I am not advocating that we ignore sin - Overcome sin with Life living.
We have not spend enough time and exposition on the New Life of, with, and in Jesus Christ. Spend more time living the healthy and victorious new life in Christ. Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Php 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

If we sometime do fall in sin, meet sin face on. Call a sin sin rather than give excuse. Bring the light of Christ, the power of Christ into our sin and see the deliverance. Get up and get going.

Here is a balanced view.

1. Unbelievers =  No Concept of Debt of Sin and No Provision of Life (by Christ)
2. Legalism = Know Debt of Sin and Not Seeing the Provision of Grace/Life of Christ.  Resulting in life of Fear, Pride, Judgmental, Burnt-out, Complains,
3. Easy Believers or Ultra Grace = No Understanding of Debt of Sin (See sin very lightly) and Seeing the Provision of Grace, result in unchanged life.  See grace as license to sin! Hell insurance bought.
4. True Believers = See Debt of Sin (treat sin seriously) and seeing the Grace/Life Provision of God and therefore living in Victory and Joy.

Victory comes from living in the new life in Christ. A life of light (as in 1John) and righteousness and empowered by grace. 

The Gospel is about Zoe-Life and not just forgiveness of sins.  It is a rebirth - Born Again into God's Life. The Cross has two sides. It proclaimed the death of sin. It is the beginning of New Life. Live on the new life and not on the past sins.

See also Demands of Eternal Life - Love God & Men.

Complete as No Lack

A very interesting and important question was asked in our Bible Study group meeting.

We have the following verses about complete and all.

• Col 2:10  And ye are complete in him...
• 2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,  

 If we are complete, why do we still sin, at least sometimes?

A brother said, "while we are complete, we are not perfect."

We use illustration of a seed. A water-melon seed is a complete while we have not seen the water-melon yet.  We have to plant the seed, water it, and give it time to grow and eventually we will see the water-melon. If the seed is incomplete, it may not grow at all.

A human fetus is complete as a human. It will grow up to be a human. It has the complete DNA of a human. A new born Christian has the complete life of God - Zoe life. Otherwise, we cannot be children of God. Because we are a complete Zoe Life, we can communicate with God and we can go to heaven where God is when our lives on earth is completed.

Seeing Complete as No Lack
Chinese has a saying that "while the sparrow is small, all five organs are complete". We cannot say sparrow is not complete because it is small. 

The need to grow does not mean one is incomplete. We don't say a child is not human because he/she needs to grow.

Growing up is a process that takes time, resources and learning.

We could perhaps see complete as "no lack". There is no lack of power to become what God want us to be. All we need to do is to draw from Him, follow Him, and given time, we slower become to be like Him. But the ability to become like Him is already present at the start else we will never be like Him. We are in this growth process of shedding our Adam's DNA through our body and mind with new DNA of God in the Spirit. We are to let the Spirit expands to take over our mind and body so that may think and act like Him.

Humility is Forceful Too

From my study of I Ching, I am discovering new perspectives on the key Christian values.

I have shared that 'waiting', as taught in the Bible, may not be just waiting idly. Waiting in the mean-time is full of activities, complains and even sabotages. We have to persevere through them all.

We now take a look at another virtue, humility.  It is the hexagram #15 謙 Humility.

Commentary on the Hexagram #15 Humility: 

• “have it” - resources, ability. If don't have them, there is nothing to be humble about.
• “don’t show it” and
• “use it”. When the situation calls for it and if you have it, humility requires you to use it to help and not to hide it!
• It is not passive but quiet aggressive actions without drawing attention to self.

The Additional Wisdom from the 6 Stage-lines are:

        1. develop humility
        2. let your action do the talking
        3. accomplished and yet don’t claim credit but give credit
        4. do more good things
        5. do corrective actions to remove bad things
        6. expand humility by sharing it with others so that they may have it too

Humility, in I Ching's description, is indeed a very active one.

Humility is

1. have-it, yet 
2. don't-showoff-it, but 
3. must use-it. 

It is the ability, resources or authority that one possesses. Most of us understands the first 2, having it and yet not show off with it. The third is what is missing in most definitions of humility.

If one have the ability or resources, one is obliged to use it where the need arises. 

If you have money and there is a person without food, we are to buy food and give to the person who is in need of food. That is called love in action. We are to love not only in words but also in deeds.

Jesus cleansing of the Temple is an act of Humility
We can then understand why the most humble person of all, Jesus Christ, can clean out the corruptions occurring the temples.

In I-Ching, we are to use it in two ways - doing good and removing evils.  

Jesus had done both. He died for our sins and raise us up with new life that overcome sins.

Humility is not passive but active, quietly at least, in using one's ability, resources and authority to do good, and to chase away evils, making corrections and thereby establishing the kingdom of God on earth.

With the 'accomplishing worthwhile mission" in mind, we will fill the need for us to learn and stay humble rather than being boastful. Boastfulness is past oriented but humility is future oriented.

See also: Kingdom Principle: Law of Humility

Performance and Relationship

Performance by itself is good. We all want to do well in life. A healthy person will want to and will perform well. The motivation to do well is intrinsic. The problem comes when we perform to gain something else. A typical 'something else' is love or acceptance or relationship.


Performance Can Never Get True Love Relationship
We were indoctrinated since young. Children are told to behave well and get a good result in schools so that their parents will love them. We are told to do good work, attend church activities regularly, be holy so that God will be pleased and will accept us. We fail to see that if we perform to get a relationship, to get love, then the object of the relationship is not us, the person, but the performance. We are loved not because of us, but because of the benefits, such as money, service, a good name that we bring to the person we want to love from. With all the hard work and performance, we actually did not achieve the goal of true love from the people we want. Simply stated, performance cannot obtain a true lasting relationship for you as a person.

A true relationship, or true love, has to be built on something else besides performance. Rich people should understand this well. They are never sure if their spouses married them for themselves or for their money. A true relationship comes from something else, like a blood-line.

There is the quote from a famous Chinese author Bing Xin, 冰心《寄小读者》:

"有一次，幼小的我，忽然走到母亲面前，仰着脸问说： “妈妈，你到底为什么爱我？”母亲放下针线，用她的面颊，抵住我的前额，温柔地，不迟疑地说：“不为什么，只因你是我的女儿！”

Once, when I was very young, I suddenly went in front of my mother, lifted up my head and asked, "Mama, why do you love me?" Mother put down the needle and threads, put her face to my forehead, gently and without hesitation said, "Not because of anything, just because you are my daughter!"

Relationship Always Beats Performance
A true relationship, like blood-line, needs no performance, to be truly loved. Whenever performance comes against a true relationship, relationship wins. This explains the difficulties many daughters-in-law face with their mothers-in-law. No matter how hard the daughters-in-law perform to please her mothers-in-law, the mother-in-laws always put her own daughter first. She does not have to please her mother, unlike the daughters-in-law, and she will be favored!

There is another relationship that is independent of performance. That is Creation-Creatures relationship. The Creator creates and loves his creation unconditionally. God, the creator, is love. He loves unconditionally and truly. Mother's love is just an example for us to appreciate His love. Because of His love, He dies for us while we are still sinners. He extends his love of acceptance and new life to us. Because of love, he cannot force it on us. He can only try to draw us. After we accept His unconditional love and new life, I find it very strange that we often teach people to perform to get acceptance and love! After we are accepted, we need not perform to get acceptance again. Do we then need not perform? There is no need. But, we intrinsically want to perform. Not because we want to gain love, but because we are loved. We can and want to perform because we have a new life of love and health. We will perform well just as our heavenly Father, who is a great performer who created the whole universe.

Grace Based Performance - Performance not for Acceptance but for Glorification
So we now perform, not for acceptance, but for glorification, for us and God because God is glorified through us. They will see our good works and glorify God.  We are given the Grace to draw upon, in our performance. Our weakness is no excuse for lack of performance, because when we are weak, then we are strong in the Lord. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. People will be impressed when we do things, through His grace working in us, beyond their expectations. To go further when they would have stopped. To love when taking revenge is seems more pleasing to the flesh. To bear when striking back seems the more manly thing to do. But our trust and our strength are of the Lord, and we know God will be wise judge and will execute judgment and deliver the righteous. Continue to follow His Kingdom principles, be strengthened by His grace, no matter the times. Let His light shine forth through you.

What is better than "The Just Shall Live by Faith" ?

We have the famous saying of "The just shall live by faith" by Martin Luther. It was probably right for his times when the emphasis should be on faith and not the works of the law. But I find the statement could be misleading. The utmost keyword, "Jesus", is implied and not explicitly stated. Which is more important,  "Faith" or "Jesus"?

If we take a statement out of a context, then we should, as much as possible, keep the right keywords in place, so that we will not create misunderstandings and be easily distorted by others.

Let's go back to the original Bible text, Gal 2:16

In most translations, using ASV as an example, it is translated as:

Gal 2:16  yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

What are the minimum keywords that we need to keep so that the original meaning is not lost?

May I suggest "The just shall live by faith in Christ". (trying to keep as close the proposed quote by Luther).

Now, if we want to further shorten the quote, do we drop faith or drop Christ?

Compare:

1. The just shall live by faith
2. The just shall live in Christ

Which one is the true gospel?

I would suggest that 2 "The just shall live in Christ" as more accurate especially the context is not cited in the quote.

Faith alone does not save. Having faith is not the key at all. Having Christ is the key to a new life.

The KJV translation brings out another important point, not our faith but the faith of Christ:

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

The just shall live by faith overemphasized our faith - it is like trying to live the new life all over again by our effort. We exercise our faith in Christ. We try to believe and trust in Christ. We have the strange idea that by our 'harder effort' in prayer we can get God to answer us. This erroneous thinking is most likely the result of this 'by faith' alone quote.

We will be glad to know that it is not our faith but the faith of Christ given to us that really works. What are the keywords for New Creation living? The words are abiding, yielding, follow-after, resting, etc. It is not about us exerting but about us yielding to, resting on, following the leading, pulling, strength and accomplished works, walking out paths of Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. Our job is to receive and then rest on and in Jesus Christ. It is less about us and more about Jesus.

The just shall live in/by Christ.

When we write a precise or come out with a quote or a tag-line, please make sure we don't drop the keywords and distort the meaning. People reading just the quote have no knowledge of the context. Will they misunderstand your quote?

====== 15 Sep 2025 =====

With the availability of Generative AI like ChatGPT, we can use it to get a better understanding and correction if needed. Here is ChatGPT's comments:

You’ve raised a very important point here — and I agree that the way we frame a “tagline” of the gospel makes a world of difference.

Martin Luther’s “The just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38) was the right emphasis in his time, because the church was drowning in works-righteousness and needed the recovery of justification by faith apart from the law. But as you pointed out, if the phrase is taken in isolation today, it can sound like faith itself (our effort to believe harder) is the source of life, rather than Christ Himself.

Let’s unpack this carefully:

---

1. What the Bible Actually Says

• Habakkuk 2:4: “The righteous shall live by his faith(fulness).”
• Romans 1:17: “The just shall live by faith.”
• Galatians 2:16: We are justified through faith in Jesus Christ (or even “the faith of Christ,” as KJV has it).
• John 15:4-5: Jesus says, “Abide in Me… apart from Me you can do nothing.”

So biblically, faith is never abstract — its object is Christ. Faith is only saving because it unites us to Christ, the true source of life.

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2. Faith vs. Christ — Which Is the Core?

• Faith is the channel.
• Christ is the substance.

To emphasize faith alone without Christ risks making “faith” into another form of self-effort (believing harder, praying longer, trying more).
To emphasize Christ alone keeps the focus on the Person who saves, sustains, and perfects us.

Think of it this way:

Faith is like the wire; Christ is the electricity. The wire is important, but without the power flowing through it, it’s useless.

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3. What Is the Minimal Keyphrase That Preserves the Gospel?

If we are distilling into a phrase that must stand alone without full context, we cannot afford to drop Christ.

• “The just shall live by faith in Christ” keeps the balance (faith + Christ).
• “The just shall live in Christ” goes straight to the source.

Between the two shorter options:

• “The just shall live by faith” — risks misunderstanding.
• “The just shall live in Christ” — safer and more accurate, because eternal life is in Him (John 14:6; Col 3:4).

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4. The KJV “Faith of Christ” Insight

You also highlighted an overlooked truth: it is not just our faith, but the faithfulness of Christ — His obedience, His perfect trust, His completed work — that justifies us. We simply receive and rest in it. This brings out the posture of yielding, abiding, resting rather than striving.

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5. A Suggested “Better Tagline”

If we want a stand-alone phrase that keeps Christ central, avoids distortion, and still echoes Scripture’s authority, here are some possibilities:

• “The just shall live in Christ.” (short, Christ-centered, true to John 15, Gal 2:20)
• “The just shall live by Christ.” (shows Christ as source, not our effort)
• “The just shall live by faith in Christ.” (retains the biblical phrase while clarifying the object of faith)

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✅ My conclusion:
If we have to shorten Luther’s phrase for today’s readers, “The just shall live in Christ” is the safest and clearest gospel-centered wording. It keeps the focus on the Person who is life itself (John 11:25, Col 3:4), not on our capacity to believe.

 

Joy in the Meantime- How to Really Wait

When we pray to God to ask for something and the thing seems to take some time to come, what is our common reaction? Here are some possibilities:

1. we get angry at God
2. we complained to God
3. we grudgingly wait and wait; not doing anything useful
4. we pray again to God thinking either God did not hear or we did not pray correctly at first.
5. we pray again thinking we should have more faith
6. we pray again thinking by our earnest desire, God will have to answer our request. We learned from Jesus' parable of the "Dishonest Judge" and "Demanding Neighbor" that persistent brings forth results (Actually, such a concept is a misunderstanding of the Parable. Jesus reminded us that His Father is much more loving than the Judge")
   
7. we have a debate with God, trying to convince God that if He answers according to our requests it will bring Him glory.
8. ....

If we truly believe that God will answer our request, the above practices just show everyone that we really don't have the faith and the trust that God will answer. What should be the right attitude in this time of waiting? What should one do at this time? Essentially, what does one do in waiting?

Interestingly, the answer was found when I was studying the Chinese Classics I-Ching and I made a posting Learning from I-Ching Part 10 5需 Needs – Wait for the Right Time. It teaches us to wait with work of preparation and with joy. With the heart of expectancy and gladness, we get ourselves ready, as the bride prepares herself for the wedding day. This is exactly what the Bible teaches and it is the true meaning of patience. Somehow, we have the strange concept that waiting is hard, painful, and frustrating that we need to quickly get it over.

If our faith is true, we should value this time of preparation while we await answers to our prayers and the 2nd coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We work with gladness and joy and look forward to a great day. No complaints, please. There is no need to concentrate our efforts on praying and arm-twisting God to answer. Rest from our complaints and work happily and diligently for a great day.

When my wife reads the I-Ching post on waiting,  she said that the waiting time was not quiet at all. There were complaints, robberies, and attacks from the enemy resulting in a real bloody mess. Waiting is not as peaceful and quiet as we thought. It is a very busy, noisy and messy time. So, don't be discouraged when you find your waiting time rather challenging. The closer you get to the opportune time, the more challenges you will face. Be encouraged by the presence of greater resistance, it shows that you are very near! Cheer up and continue to move forward. Your breakthrough is at the door.

Please also read  Joy of Waiting - improving the process in the meantime.

Making a Judgement and Being Judgemental

We are not very sharp in our thinking and use of words. This problem is especially pronounced in the Christian community because we try to spiritualize things too much. So when we try to point out someone error for his awareness and correction we are told that Bible tell us not judge. My previous posts Judge Not yet Correcting, Judging Rightly hopefully shed some light on this. 

A better way of explaining the issue could be summarized as "we are to make correct judgement and not to be judgemental".  We are to make a judgement on the issues and actions and not on the person. We must finally conclude whether the action is biblically right or wrong. But we cannot condemn the person evil and unchangeable. Forever evil or evil forever is reserved for the devil.

This is best illustrated with the story of the woman caught in adultery (used in last posting on acceptance). Jesus made the judgement that it is sin (Go and sin no more) but withheld his condemnation on her, giving her a future and trusting her to change for the better. 1Co 13:7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

We have no record whether the woman in fact did change for the better and sin no more. We believe at least the inner-man was changed and that started the ball rolling for the new life. However, some people may need additional help in the process of breaking free from bad habits as taught in the AA 12-steps. Love requires us to help, endure the process, as Paul did in "Gal 4:19  My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you".

Hence, we are to make a right judgement but be not judgemental. We may be required, in some cases, to be involve in the correction process as labor of love. If we have love, perhaps we will be less judgemental after making a correct judgement.