In This Issue

• DO NOT DESPISE LITTLE THINGS
• A WORD WITH YOU
• WHAT DOES THE PASSION OF CHRIST MEAN?
• UPCOMING GOSPEL MEETING SCHEDULE
• MORE INFORMATION...

DO NOT DESPISE LITTLE THINGS

Jesus said, "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say to you, he will be no means lose his reward. And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea" (Mark 9:41-42).

The reward is sure to him who cooperates with God's will. Perhaps many of us cannot do great things in the cause of Christ, but we can do something to further that cause. To do what we can, even if it may seem small compared to what others are capable of doing, is to practice faithfulness and to secure such reward.

Unfortunately, we sometimes despise our abilities because others seem to be granted greater places of service, or worse yet, we may despise the ministry of others because their place of service is not in the limelight. Jesus warns against behavior on our part that might cause some faithful disciple to lose heart, stumble and fall away from his faithfulness. According to the Lord, it would be better for us to die young, even a painful and frightening death, than to live long enough to lead a brother or sister in Christ to sin.

This is one of many passages that helps to make us aware that there is a fate worse than death. In our modernistic age, many people have been led to believe, even by misdirected spiritual leaders, that there is nothing beyond the grave. Jesus warned in Luke 12:5, "But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" See also Matt. 10:28.

After this life is over, we must all appear before Jesus in a final judgment. Those who have not served God faithfully will be cast into a burning hell, 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Thess. 1:7-9.

Jesus warned repeatedly, "And if your hand makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched - where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot makes you sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter life lame, than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched - where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye makes you sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire - where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43-48).

--Clarence R. Johnson

A WORD WITH YOU

The word "sleight" (Greek: KUBEIA) is used only one time in the Bible, at Eph. 4:14 - "that we be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error." The Lord does not want His people to be deluded in doctrine or teaching. False teachers craftily use "sleight" in so deceiving.

In English

This word and the corresponding one in Greek are defined by scholars with the same terms, and thus seem to have practically identical meanings. Several English dictionaries give a first meaning as "skill, dexterity; the quality of being skillful in manipulation; mechanical expertness." A familiar usage is the expression "sleight of hand."

A second English meaning gives such definition as "an artifice; stratagem; a scheme; artful trick; a juggler's trick; a trick done so expertly and quickly as to deceive the eye." The figurative application is understandable. Literal, actual hand tricks graphically represent the schemes and deceptions used by false teachers as they wrongfully handle the word of God in attempting to mislead unsuspecting Christians.

In Greek

The scholars tell us that the Greek word has these same meanings, listing them one after another. They add the very interesting fact that the word came from the practice of cheating at dice. KUBEIA (meaning "sleight" is from KUBEUO, which meant to "play at dice." This word, in turn, came from KUBOS which gives our word "cube."

Another meaning of KUBOS was the "little cube," a die; that one of a pair of dice. For nineteen centuries these meanings have remained unchanged in the Greek language. The spellings are still exactly the same, even though the modern pronunciations are different. To this day, for "dice" a Greek says KUBOI (pronounced "kee-vee), and for one it is yet KUBOS (now spoken as "kee-vose").

We have heard how "dealers" in big time gambling are quick with the hands. "The hand is quicker than the eye." "Loaded dice" and cleaver cheating at the dice tables are also much-publicized. Eph. 4:4-11 points out the Lord's purpose that Christians, in their spiritual growth based on teaching, should not be hoodwinked and carried away by the cheating and trickery of deceptive tactics of false teachers.

The awful truth that we must face is that there are false apostles, deceitful workers (2 Cor. 11:13) and they handle the word of God deceitfully (2 Cor. 4:2). The disciples of Christ are urged to "get smart," so as not to be duped by such "dicing." 

--O.E. Watts, Gospel Guardian, January 11, 1973

WHAT DOES THE PASSION OF CHRIST MEAN?

"To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. . ." (Acts 1:3, KJV)

It is undeniable that people from all ages since the cross have been attracted to Christ's suffering, thus fulfilling the prophetic effect: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself" (Jn. 12:32).

"Why did he suffer, and what does it mean for us?" we ask. We shall answer this question briefly in four direct scriptural implications.

First, the passion of Christ means God loves us. Consider Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Other passages teach this fundamental fact, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13; cf. John 3:16). Likewise, Paul wrote the church, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich." Clearly the cross demonstrates divine love to man.

Second, the passion of Christ means that God passionately hates sin. Sin is so horrific that it not only brought the wrath of God through a death sentence upon all men since Adam's day, but it also drove the nails into God's only Son (Rom. 5:12; Isa... 53:4, 5)! The fact that a future and second death exists in a lake of fire for the ungodly is testimony that God hates sin (Rev. 19:20; 20:14-15; 21:8). Again in Romans 5, Paul wrote: "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Rom. 5:9). That the wrath of God is real is indisputable. That we desperately need to apply the blood of Christ to escape God's wrath is equally unquestionable. That preachers neglect to speak on this aspect of God today is dangerously absurd! Men like to "tolerate" sin and "sweep it under the rug," but God sees it and "hates" it. Our culture arrogantly dresses sin up with respectable attire, saying "homosexuality" is "alternative," "abortion" is "choice," and "foul speech" is "freedom." Isaiah warned against men calling evil good and good evil (Isa. 5:20) 

Third, the passion of Christ means that God has provided a place for reconciliation to God: "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. . ." (Rom. 5:10). If Christ had not suffered, there would be no ground today for reconciliation. Paul was careful to identify that this place of reconciliation is found in His death and that baptism places us there "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" (Rom. 6:30). Does your preacher tell you to get baptized? If so, does he give the same reason that Paul gave for it?

Finally, the passion of Christ means that we are no longer under the Old Testament law. Romans 7:4, 6, 7, ".....you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another-to Him who was raised from the dead... But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by... Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet'..." Paul quotes the tenth commandment and says that we are dead to that "law." What law? The Ten Commandment Law, of course. This law was "taken away" by the Christ in His passion (Col. 2:14). Romans 7 implicates that binding the Old Covenant upon men today is seeking to make people commit spiritual adultery with Christ-one cannot be married to Christ and the Ten Commandment Law. This does not mean that we are without law today or that covetousness is commended. The New Covenant condemns such (1 Cor. 6:10). Simply put, one cannot bind Old Testament Law and practices upon New Testament Christians because it has no jurisdiction over us anymore than Australian Law has jurisdiction over U.S. citizens. Does your preacher teach Christians are "dead" and "delivered" from the Old Testament Law or "bound" to it?

The passion of Christ teaches many things. We could add that it also shows the necessity of the church since Jesus purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Would you buy something with your blood that is unimportant? Why not investigate the church of Christ, the church Christ died for (Rom. 16:16; Eph. 5:23)? 

--Steven J. Wallace, Church of Christ, Sunnyside, WA

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