Under Gods Command (Messing with Believers is messing with God)

Zechariah 2:08 For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you-for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye. 

Believers are precious to God (Psalm 116:15); they are his very own children (Psalm 103:13). Treating any believer unkindly is the same as treating God that way. As Jesus told his disciples, when we help others we are helping him; when we neglect or abuse them, we are neglecting or abusing him (Mathew 25:34-46).

Lets Bring it Home: Be careful, therefore, how you treat fellow believers-that is the way you are treating God.


Under Gods Command

1 Corinthians 12:3-6 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Anyone can claim to speak for God, and the world is full of false teachers. Paul gives us a test to help us discern whether or not a messenger is really from God: does he or she confess Christ as Lord? Don’t naively accept the words of all who claim to speak for God; test their credentials by finding out what they teach about Christ.

God is completely involved in the giving, using, and empowering of gifts. Specific gifts, places of service, and activities vary, but they all have their best effects when they build up the body of Christ—the church. God creates a unique place in the body for every believer. Gifts and ministries may overlap, but each believer has a specialized, God-designed role. Part of the exciting adventure of following Christ involves discovering one’s service contribution and then making it available to God.

Lets Bring it Home: Make serving God and his people your motive as you utilize your gifts.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 9:4”Let all who are simple come in here!” she says to those who lack judgment.

Simple men have two options. They can accept Lady Wisdom’s sincere invitation for wisdom and a blessed life, or they can fall for a whore’s lying seduction for death and hell. With a very powerful comparison, King Solomon set out the choice of life and death for his children, nation, and you. Listen carefully! Every man shall bear his own burden!

Consider carefully to see the precious comparison. Two women are after your soul. Both are beautiful. The beauty of one is timeless; that of the other very short. One speaks the truth; the other lies from beginning to end. Both are pleasant, but the pleasure of one is for a very short season, and the pleasure of the other is for eternity. Two women call you.

“Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding,” one says to you, “Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding” (Pr 9:4-6). This is the beautiful and noble Lady Wisdom, who has been described and speaking since Proverbs 8:1.

“Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding,” another woman says to you, “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Pr 9:16-17). This is the lustful and fatally dangerous whore, Lady Folly, who is described and speaking in Proverbs 9:13-18. Do not let this wicked woman seduce you.

This foolish woman, this strange woman, this whore, is also beautiful, and she also calls you. She wants simple men and those that lack understanding to destroy them, for they know “not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell” (Pr 9:18). A wise man is too difficult for her to seduce, for he knows her wiles cover bitter pain.

At her table you are looking at the rapidly decaying features of a malicious liar, who is planning to take advantage of your simplicity for her own gain. Her flattering words are the anesthesia for your soul; her kisses are the kiss of death. Hell is where you are headed in this world and in the world to come if you stay with her one more minute. Run away!

Lady Wisdom is much more beautiful and has prepared a beautiful house, fully furnished, for your perpetual prosperity and comfort (Pr 9:1-5). Her guests are luxuriously entertained and provided for to the eternal benefit of their souls. See the comments on Pr 9:1 and Pr 9:2. Your simplicity does not offend her; she wants to help you gain wisdom!

She has prepared a feast for you, if you will simply take her gracious invitation. She offers you life, and that an abundant life, if you will let her feed you the feast of knowledge and understanding. At this table the simple can become wise and successful. The only thing necessary for admittance is your simplicity. If you lack wisdom and want to gain it, she will be your most willing host. Do not reject her offer. Accept it at once!

These are not merely two literal women here, but a personification of the choices every man or woman must make in life. Will you seek and learn heavenly wisdom to avoid the foolishness of this world that will painfully destroy you? Or will you weakly let a whorish world take you down the seductive path to dysfunctional living, death, and hell?

Simple men can learn wisdom and understanding with Lady Wisdom, who wants to serve and help men needing knowledge. They can become wise by filling their lives with God’s precious Word, sound Bible preaching, godly music, and the Lord’s people. To learn from Lady Wisdom, they must shun this world’s ideas, music, entertainment, and friends.

But simple men can also be destroyed by the strange woman, who will take advantage of their ignorance for her selfish ends. The simple are too ignorant to know her friendship is the way to death and hell. But the attentive reader is now informed and should ponder what house he has entered. Do not be deceived, her pleasure is only for a moment.

All men by nature are simple and lacking understanding. All men face this choice. Will you be wise or foolish? Will you remain faithful to your wife or choose another? Will you seek to correct your foolishness or allow it to take you down to hell? Do you desire wisdom and prudence, or folly and pleasure, to be your companions through life?

Christian reader, to which woman do you turn for religion? Do you seek a simple church of Jesus Christ where a banquet of grace, truth, and fellowship is spread for sinners? Or do you fall for the seductive advances of the harlot church with her gaudy appeal, false doctrine, worldly popularity, and entertaining fables? Remember, her pleasure lasts only a short season, and then comes the death and hell she hides behind her sensual pretenses.

Look instead for that chaste virgin of a pure church meeting in apostolic simplicity and preaching the hard, unvarnished truth of God’s inspired and preserved words. If you are not being convicted on a regular basis and growing in wisdom and understanding, it is likely that you have missed the apostolic church and are in a carnal and compromising church of these perilous times. Let every reader take heed. Life or death is the result.


Under Gods Command 

Proverbs 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. 

The more a person fears and respects God, the more he or she will hate evil. Love for God and love for sin cannot coexist. Harboring secrets sins means that you are tolerating evil within yourself. Make a clean break with sin and commit yourself completely to God.

Fear and hate are good! They are essential to success with God and men. Fearing God is hating sin. The fear of the LORD, a reverential desire to please Him, is measured by your hatred of the things He hates. Four sins are listed here for you to hate, if you really want to please God and be wise. Lady Wisdom also states her hatred for these four sins.

The fear of the LORD is the greatest duty and goal of life. Solomon made this inspired conclusion after testing every possible reason for living with extensive experiments (Eccl 5:7; 8:12; 12:13). It is the first and greatest pursuit of godly men. You cannot love God rightly until you fear Him, for loving Him is His commandment (Deut 6:1-5; 10:12).

No man fears God by nature (Ps 36:1; Rom 3:18). It is the gift of God in a regenerated heart, but it is your duty to stir it up and put it into practice. It is the great prerequisite for wisdom, understanding, and knowledge (Pr 1:7; 9:10; Ps 111:10), and it brings the great blessings of God (Ps 112:1; 115:13; 128:1; 145:19; 147:11; Luke 1:50).

This effeminate and perverse generation condemns fear and hate. Yet they fear Bible preaching and truth, for it proves their guilt; and they hate those who preach and live it, for they would limit their wicked activities. But their opinions do not matter compared to the wisdom of the Creator God and His inspired Scriptures. Fear and hate are still good.

The fear of the LORD is a reverent desire to please God Jehovah, the Creator God of the Bible, which includes hating the things that He hates. The living and true God of the Bible hates sin (Pr 6:16-19; Jer 44:4; Zech 8:17), and His followers are to hate sin as well. Fear and hate are good. So hate evil with God (Ps 97:10; Amos 5:15; Rom 12:9)!

Lady Wisdom hates pride, which is exalted thinking about yourself, leading to an attitude of superiority and contempt for others. It is the inordinate self-esteem adored by this generation. God cast Satan out of heaven for pride (I Tim 3:6), and He will crush any man with a proud spirit, for you are nothing before Him and without Him (Ps 39:5; 62:9).

Lady Wisdom hates arrogance, which is aggressive pride in dealing with others. Pride is your attitude about yourself and others; arrogance is a haughty, condescending, conceited, and presumptuous treatment of others. It is the difference between being puffed up and vaunting yourself in Paul’s definition of love (I Cor 13:5; Rom 12:16).

Lady Wisdom hates an evil lifestyle, which is sinful living with wicked habits. You are to avoid ungodly men and their deeds (Ps 1:1; 5:4-5; 101:3-8; I John 2:16). You are to love God’s directions for each area of your life and hate every other idea (Ps 119:128; Jer 6:16). The blessed King Jesus was honored greatly for hating evil (Ps 45:7; Heb 1:9).

Lady Wisdom hates a froward mouth, which is perverse, obnoxious, and wicked speech. Your words should feed and help others (Pr 10:21; 15:4; 16:24). God hates a froward and lying tongue (Pr 4:24; 6:12,17; 10:31; 12:19; 21:6). Solomon dedicated many proverbs to sound speech, as it is a common area of sin (Pr 10:19; 12:18; 15:1-2,28; 17:27-28).

Reader, do you hate these four things? Are all four of them out of your life? You cannot and will not be wise, as long as you hold on to any of these specified sins. The true fear of the LORD will cause you to hate these things and tear every aspect of them out of your life (Ps 101:2-3). Do not claim to fear the LORD, if you hold on to even a single sin. To continue in your sins is to despise the LORD (Pr 14:2), and the holy God will punish you.

The great men and women in the earth are those who fear the LORD. They are His favorites, and they live happy and successful lives. He is their God, and He blesses them abundantly (Ps 25:12-15; 128:1-6). Jesus Christ feared God, and His prayers were heard, and He rules over the universe (Heb 5:7-9; 1:3,13). Follow His holy and perfect example.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; (6) in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.  


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 7:1 My son, keep my words and store up my commands and you will live.

Sons often neglect their father’s instructions and warnings. If they forget them, they will not be ready, when temptation is in their eyes, ears, heart, and loins. And the temptation here is dangerous and powerful – a beautiful and skilled adulteress (Pr 7:5-27). The same lesson applies to young women, when they are infatuated with a handsome man. Solomon begins and ends his warning with appeals to remember his advice (Pr 7:1-4,24).

Solomon knew the folly and vanity of youth (Pr 22:15; Eccl 11:10). He knew the great vulnerability that young men and women have to sexual lusts and temptations (Ps 25:7; Eccl 12:5; Ezek 23:3,8,19,21; II Tim 2:22). Their freedom, folly, naiveté, sexual desire, and youthful bodies create a dangerous combination. He also knew the haughty spirit in most of their hearts. Therefore, he repeatedly begged his children to listen and remember his instruction (Pr 1:8; 2:1-5; 3:1-4; 4:1-5,13; 5:1-2,7; 6:20-21; 7:1-4,24; 8:32-33).

The dangers of not remembering are great. How will a young man resist, when his eyes are full of her beauty, his ears full of her flattery, his heart full of her offered love and submission, and his loins full of desire (Pr 5:3; 6:24-25; 7:13-21)? How will a young woman resist, when her eyes are full of his manliness, her ears full of his flattery, her heart full of his attention and affection, and her body craves his embrace (Gen 34:1-3)?

The consequences of not remembering are great. Solomon warned his children very carefully about the bitter pain that would wrack their consciences and bodies after sinning sexually (Pr 5:7-14). They would lose their reputations, years of their lives, and their labor and money. They would grieve about their hypocrisy, but it would be too late. They would remember the many warnings they had been given, but it would also be too late.

Why is it hard for youth to remember instruction? They have undisciplined and wanderings minds; they easily forget what was said in their rush to explore new things; they get enraptured in the vanity of youthful activities and lusts; they think their teachers are too conservative and missing the great pleasures of life; they fall into temptation naively and unawares without recollection of warnings. Youth is folly and vanity!

Consider Joseph in Egypt. He worked for Potiphar in his late teens and twenties, the years of a man’s most powerful sexual drive (Gen 37:2; 41:46). He was far from home; no one knew him; Egypt’s morality was low; and a beautiful woman begged him to sleep with her (Gen 39:7-12). He did not have a Bible, and there were none for sale at the local pyramid! How did he resist this woman in these circumstances? How did he give such a sober answer to her? He remembered the instructions of his father from his youth. Glory!

But consider Samson with Philistine women. Though he had good parents, who had been given careful instructions about his life, he chose early on to reject their advice about women (Judges 13:1-25; 14:1-3). By forgetting the warnings of his parents, Samson was in no condition to resist the lying words, hired body, and short-term pleasure of Delilah; and he was utterly ruined (Judges 16:1-21). If only he had remembered his parents’ advice and married a beautiful woman of Israel and had children with her (Pr 5:15-23).

Solomon had been taught well by both of his parents – David and Bathsheba (Pr 4:1-4; I Chron 28:9). And he had witnessed the horrible evils of sexual sins in his own father and family (II Sam 11:1-27; 12:1-25; 13:1-39). But he forgot his father’s instruction and ruined his life with 1000 ungodly women (I Kgs 11:1-8; Neh 13:23-27). If even this wise man could forget the instruction he had been given, the danger is much greater for you.

How well do you hear and remember what you are taught by your parents and pastors? Jesus Christ taught that careful hearing is very important, for He knew the three enemies of retention and application (Luke 8:11-18). Do you crave hearing and learning to grow in knowledge (I Pet 2:1-3; II Pet 3:18)? Do you review what you are taught and practice applying it (Heb 5:12-14)? Can you teach others, or do you still need to be taught?


Under Gods Command

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James doesn’t say if you face trials, but whenever you face them. He assumes that we will have trials and that it is possible to profit from them. The point is not to pretend to be happy when we face pain, but to have a positive outlook (“consider it pure joy”) because of what trials can produce in our lives. James tells us to turn our hardships into times of learning. Tough times can teach us perseverance. For other passages dealing with perseverance (also called patience and steadfastness), see Romans 2:7; 5:3–5; 8:24, 25; 2 Corinthians 6:3–7; 2 Peter 1:2–9.

We can’t really know the depth of our character until we see how we react under pressure. It is easy to be kind to others when everything is going well, but can we still be kind when others are treating us unfairly? God wants to make us mature and complete, not to keep us from all pain. Instead of complaining about our struggles, we should see them as opportunities for growth.

Lets Bring it Home: Thank God for promising to be with you in rough times. Ask him to help you solve your problems or to give you the strength to endure them. Then be patient. God will not leave you alone with your problems; he will stay close and help you grow.


Under Gods Command

(Suffering)

Romans 5:3-4 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. 

For first-century Christians, suffering was the rule rather than the exception. Paul tells us that in the future we will become, but until then we must overcome. This means we will experience difficulties that help us grow. We rejoice in suffering not because we like pain or deny its tragedy, but because we know God is using life’s difficulties and Satan’s attacks to build our character. The problems that we run into will develop our perseverance—which in turn will strengthen our character, deepen our trust in God, and give us greater confidence about the future.

Lets Bring it Home: You probably find your patience tested in some way every day. Thank God for those opportunities to grow, and deal with them in his strength

(see also James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6, 7).


Suffering

Romans 5:3-5
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

1 Peter 5:10
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

James 1:2-4
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

1 Peter 4:12-19
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Revelation 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-10
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

1 Peter 4:12-13
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

2 Timothy 3:12
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

Luke 14:27
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Psalm 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Hebrews 12:11
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

1 Peter 4:12
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Isaiah 55:9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Philippians 1:29
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Philippians 3:10
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

Matthew 5:10
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2 Corinthians 4:17
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Colossians 1:24
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

Luke 9:23-25
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Psalm 119:71
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

Psalm 22:24
For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

2 Timothy 2:3-4
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 5:10-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—

Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Job 13:15
Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.

1 Peter 2:19-21
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

James 1:12
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James 5:10
As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Philippians 3:8-11
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 1:29-30
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Mark 13:13
And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Matthew 24:13
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Hosea 5:15-6:3
I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

John 11:35
Jesus wept.

Mark 4:17
And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

Matthew 25:46
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 10:22
And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

1 John 4:8
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

James 5:10-11
As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James 2:19
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Philippians 4:12-14
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.

Romans 8:35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Matthew 13:20-21
As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Matthew 5:1-48
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Habakkuk 3:16-18
I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Hebrews 12:10
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

Hebrews 11:36-38
Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Romans 8:29
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 6:4
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Acts 5:40-42
And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Exodus 3:7
Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Revelation 21:8
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Romans 8:28 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28-29 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Matthew 14:14 

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Matthew 4:24 

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.

Nahum 1:9 

What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

John 18:11 

So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

Matthew 25:41 

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

2 Timothy 2:12
If we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;

Ephesians 4:14
So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

2 Corinthians 7:5-7
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

John 15:1-5
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Lamentations 3:21-33
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Job 2:3-7
And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

1 Peter 3:13-16
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

James 1:3
For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Hebrews 12:2
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Romans 8:17-18
And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 5:3
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

John 12:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

John 11:1-4
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

John 9:1-3
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Isaiah 45:7
I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Psalm 126:6
He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Psalm 94:17
If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

Psalm 94:12
Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law,

Job 2:7
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Job 1:9-12
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 6:29 So he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

Adultery is a heinous sin. It brings terrible consequences. You can no more escape its results than a man can hold fire or walk on coals and not be burned (Pr 6:27-28). Do not try to whitewash it. You think you can justify it? You think you can explain it? You think it is not that bad? How can something so mutually pleasant be wrong? Keep reading!

Because adultery is a great threat to a man’s success in life, King Solomon warned his son often against it (Pr 2:16-19; 5:1-23; 6:20-35; 7:1-27; 9:13-18; 22:14; 23:27-28; Eccl 7:23-29). The consequences of adultery include ruined reputation (Pr 5:9; 6:33), poverty (Pr 5:10), horrible guilt (Pr 5:11-14), illegitimate children (Pr 5:16-18), sexual bondage (Pr 5:22; 22:14), and an angry and jealous husband (Pr 6:34-35).

Should you use popular euphemisms like “an affair,” “casual sex,” or “partying”? No! It is adultery – a heinous sin and a capital crime (Job 31:9-11; Lev 20:10). God hates it and will judge it, no matter what Hollywood, the ACLU, or CNN thinks about it (Heb 13:4; Gal 5:19-21; Rev 21:8). Men may understand a thief, but not an adulterer (Pr 6:30-33).

The world defends and glamorizes adultery, making it easier to commit than ever before. Your heart is full of adultery by nature (Jer 17:9; Matt 15:17-20; Rom 7:8; Eph 4:17-19; I John 2:16), making you vulnerable to sexual temptations. The initial motions of it are very pleasant to your flesh. And the devil would love to entice you into this destructive sin (I Pet 5:8-9). How will you resist this conspiracy and barrage of temptation?

Solomon had given the cure (Pr 6:20-25). Young men must obey parents (Pr 6:20-23; 7:1-5). They must avoid any loose woman, especially her flattery (Pr 6:24; 5:3). They must not think about her beauty or see her wanton glances (Pr 6:25; Is 3:16). Parents must keep their sons from worldly women, and the sons must flee (Pr 5:8; Gen 39:11-12; II Tim 2:22). The cure is to stay far away. Get away from any and every loose woman!

God required capital punishment for adultery, because it reveals a wicked heart, and it destroys marriages and families (Deut 22:22; Job 31:1,12). It violates a sacred trust. Men and women cannot easily forgive it. The Lord allowed jealous husbands to test wives (Num 5:11-31). Are you glad such tests no longer exist? Think again (Num 32:23).

Have you committed adultery? Including fantasies or wrongful divorces, all are guilty (Matt 5:27-32). What can you do? Repent, confess it to God, and reject anything in your life pertaining to it. God will forgive you (Pr 28:13; Job 33:27-28; Mark 16:9; I John 1:9). Then do everything you should be doing with your own spouse to maximize love there.


Under Gods Command

2 Corinthians 12:09-10 – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for  Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, For when I am weak, than I am strong. 

0Although God did not remove Paul’s physical affliction, he promised to demonstrate his power in Paul.  The fact that God’s peer is displayed in weak people should give us courage.  Though we reorganize our limitations, We will not congratulate ourselves and rest at that.  Instead, we will turn to God to seek pathways for effectiveness.

When we are strong in abilities or resources, we are tempted to do God’s work on our own, and that can lead to pride.  When we are weak, allowing God to fill us with his power, then we are stronger than we could ever be on our own.  God does not intend for us to seek to be weak, passive, or ineffective-life provides enough hindrances and setbacks without us creating them.

Lets Bring it Home: We must rely on God for our effectiveness rather than simply on our own energy, effort, or  talent.  Our weakness not only helps develop Christian character, it also deepens our worship, because in admitting our weakness, we affirm Gods’s strength. those obstacles come, we must depend on God.  Only his power will make us effective for hims and will help us do work that has lasting value.