Volume 26, Issue 3
Page 28
WisconsinChristianNews.com
Christ’s Character In Us
By Ron Webster Summer 2025
tience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity (26- ‘agape’ perfect love). “For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election (chosen for a purpose) sure: for if ye do
If we claim to be a born again child of God, and don’t emulate the character of our Father in heaven, to love with compassion and mercy, to believe, trust and obey His every word, we are making these claims in vain. (Matthew 5:46-48). “For if ye
(only) love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the Publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect (in your heart), even as your Fa- ther which is in heaven is perfect.” Read also I Peter 5:1-11. I ask, Why is it impor- tant to willingly emulate the character of our Fa- ther in heaven as partakers of His “divine nature,” as Paul was urging Philemon to willingly accept Onesimus back by forgiving him his debt as Christ has forgiven us? Because, we have been called out as forgiven of God, with hope, to be salt and light to a lost, blind and dying world: A city set on a hill that cannot be hid, a candle on a candlestick that is not hid, as we read in Matthew 5:13-16. In Philippians 2:12b-16 which states, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” It is a serious thing to be a child of God, who rep- resents the God of creation, and puts Him in a bad light, as blind fools and hypocrites by our shifting faith. “For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. (“Doing the will of God from the heart,” Ephesians 6:6)… that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and per- verse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Holding forth the word of life; that I (Paul) may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.” As the Apostle Paul describes the virtues of God’s character, which identifies one as born again in II Peter 1:3-11: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life, and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust… giving all diligence to add to your faith virtue,” knowledge, moderation, pa-
Before we look at what forgiving others has to do with His “divine nature” and the oneness of the body of Christ, we will first look at some examples of shifting faith. The first two are found in Jude 1:6-7, where Satan and his followers were “the an- gels which kept not their first estate, but (shifted their faith in their creator to follow the lies of Satan) left their own habitations, He (God) hath re- served in everlasting chains under darkness (being cast down from heaven) unto the judgment of the great day.” And even those in the next verse (7), “Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornica- tion (a shifting of their faith), and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example (all through the Old Testament), suffering the vengeance of (God’s) eternal fire.” This shift is al- ways as described in Romans 1:17-32! The third example of shifting faith is described in Genesis 3:2-6 where Eve knew what her God and Creator had said concerning what was right and wrong, as well as the consequences. For to know evil is not sin; yet to know evil can and will of our own free will, cause one to choose to shift one’s faith from the God of all truth to other gods, justifying evil only in our mind. That is when evil becomes sin! Then Adam knowing the same truths, he took from her without objecting, and did eat also. In doing so they opened up a Pandora box that cannot be shut until it is destroyed in Revelation 20:10-15.
these things (working out your salvation, Philippi- ans 2:12) ye shall never fail: For an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the ever- lasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Giving us hope in this life of an eternal future before the world as a true light in a dark world. Why would they ask us of our hope if they saw no hope beyond this life by the way we live? Our abil- ity to be salt and light that gives hope to others de- pends entirely upon our commitment to emulating His “divine nature.” So, why are we losing the battle against the world? The biggest reason is, our faith has been shifting towards the many gods of this world, even though in our pride we tend to think we are very spiritual, while our lives portray a different side of us to the world. Another reason to willingly emulate the character of God, His “divine nature,” is to strengthen and encourage the members of the body of Christ, to be one as the Father and Son are one! We all struggle with the knowledge of evil that abounds in our world: Being tempted at every turn, to shift our faith to things or people that we think will bring us contentment and purpose. Even though the word “shift” is not used in the Scripture to de- scribe what happens to one’s faith, yet the word “backslide” is used only in the Old Testament to describe this shift. Within the New Testament
there are only exam- ples of this.
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