Great Is the Mystery of Godliness

Great Is the Mystery of Godliness

“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.” 1 Cor. 2:6.

For this reason we should at all times and in all places take heed to what is written: “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” 1 Cor. 4:1-2 [Emphasis added].

Not every preacher is allowed to be a steward over the mysteries of Christ. For most of them, their understanding of the mysteries goes no deeper than the forgiveness of sins. But everyone must confess, “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit . . . .” 1 Tim. 3:16. These mysteries require stewardship.

Notice these mysteries are called “the mysteries of godliness.” In other words, we make them our own through personal godliness. We cannot lay hold of them through traveling around preaching, through being highly cultured and educated, through earthly or religious rank or title nor through any kind of religious begging for “God’s work,” as it is so elegantly called. Neither can they be obtained at theological colleges or Bible schools, even if the instructors have titles such as professor, apostle, pastor or elder.

Whether you are Jew or Greek, slave or free, poor or rich, man or woman, you can only have the mysteries of Christ revealed to you through personal godliness. You don’t tell a secret to just anyone. Neither does Christ.

Down through the ages, those individuals who have offered themselves to do God’s will have been regarded as heretics by the religious people of their time. After centuries have rolled by and a comfortable distance has been established, they are exalted as saints. The fathers murder, and the children build the tombs.

Jesus prophesied about a time when “whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.” John 16:2-3. When people travel far and wide to issue urgent warnings against those who are most God-fearing, we understand that such a time is close at hand. People do this because they know neither the Father nor the Son. Preachers are at the forefront of all these well-meaning maligners. They would rather serve themselves, living as religious beggars, than serve the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus had nowhere to lay His head, but these people have endless wants—everything from the smallest things to houses and cars. “All for God’s work,” they say. Not the slightest thing goes to them personally, of course. To even think such a thing would be reprehensible. Yet some of them have a life style that equals that of the country’s highest paid bureaucrats. But, of course, it is all for “God’s work.”

Since they manipulate “God’s work” so nicely, let’s see what His work really is:

Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come”; and He said: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Everyone with sound judgment should be able to understand that “God’s work,” or if you prefer, “Christ’s work,” is first and foremost that His kingdom may come.

What are the characteristics of this kingdom of God that Jesus prayed might come? “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.” Rom. 14:17-18 [Emphasis added].

“Nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21.

These verses make it clear that God’s kingdom has nothing to do with acquiring many houses or with begging for all kinds of fixtures and fittings to fill them or with being thoroughly anxious about whether there is enough money to support all the projects you have started. God’s kingdom is within us, but houses and cars are outside us—if, in fact, we really do possess God’s kingdom at all.

“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matt. 6:30-33.

God Himself has promised to meet all the earthly needs of those people who, first and foremost, seek the kingdom of God.

Where then does all this begging for God’s work come from? Quite simply from the fact that such people do not seek God’s kingdom first. They feel that what God gives is not enough. They want everything to be nice and elegant, but God has not promised to add such things to anyone. So they are like the Gentiles. They seek the things here below and consequently become complete strangers to the things above—those things that belong to God’s kingdom. Despite their wretched state, they are puffed up enough to believe they can act as guides for the blind and a light for those who are in darkness. At the same time they think they really have a grasp of what is the pure doctrine and what is not.

“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Matt. 21:22.

I don’t doubt that such people pray, but I don’t believe for a minute that God will give them all they pray for, for they would only spend it on their own human pleasures. Such people will not receive anything from God, and since they must have it at all costs, there is nothing left for them to do but to start a large scale begging campaign for “God’s work.” I have never read anywhere in the Scriptures that if you desire something according to God’s will, you must plead and ask people for help, both verbally and in writing. This practice does not come from above, nor is it biblical, which is also why it is inexcusable. It is not genuine; it is not true; it is fundamentally false. People who bury themselves up to their ears in such things should start doing something more useful than trying to be teachers. First and foremost, they should get a thorough training in the school of the Spirit.

In the days of the Maccabees, there were some priests who wanted to imitate Judas Maccabee, who had gone to war and performed heroic deeds and who had become famous. But they fell in the war because their motives were impure. Similarly, there were a great many Israelites who fell in battle, and when the reason for so many deaths was scrutinized, it turned out that all of them had taken idols into battle with them.

So covetousness is not a good idol to take with you onto the battlefield. As long as you worship this god, you should stay home and calculate your income and expenditures and speculate about how you will be able to make ends meet in the time to come.

May God save His people from this bondage and idolatry.

Israel carried the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Remphan with them in the wilderness. Acts 7:43. That is why they could not enter the Promised Land. In similar fashion, many of God’s people today wander around in the wilderness and in bondage because they weigh themselves down with the very burdens that the Scriptures command us to put off. Heb. 12:1. But naturally, they call all of this “God’s work” and “biblical.”

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. We are not greater than Him, are we? He has been given to us as an example that is well worth following. We who live in the far north certainly need a warm house, but when we have that, as well as food and clothing, we should be content. Those who receive sacrifices and gifts like the Levitical priests ought to live their life in just the same way as those who give them the tithes and gifts (Heb. 10:8), because it is a fact that it is mostly poor people who give money to God’s work.

The one who rebukes at the gates has always been hated, because shepherds believe themselves to be within their rights when they treat the sheep and the wool as if they were created for the sake of the shepherd. They exploit people who have weak consciences, preaching at them so they feel penitent and compelled to dig deep into their wallets for “God’s work.” Dear soul, take a look behind the scenes and see how the shepherds tend to use the tithes and the gifts you donate for God’s work. Get your eyes anointed with eye salve!!!

“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God”—with us. 1 Pet. 4:17. This is the condemnation: that the light has come into the world. Whatever cannot bear the light belongs to the darkness, where the prince of darkness has power. So it should not be any surprise that the flesh rages when light is cast over what keeps the whole business going. In ancient times they also cried out, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians,” when the apostle clashed with the craftsmen’s livelihood. Acts 19:23-32.

Everyone cries out, “Behold, here is Jesus!” Luke 21:8. “We have the Jesus of the Bible!” Implicitly, what they are implying is, “With our Jesus business will boom!”

With their carnal imagination they have developed their own image of an ideal Jesus, and the real Jesus must in no way conflict with this image. They have a Jesus in whose flesh sin was not condemned. Rom. 8:3. They have a Jesus who never said, “Not My will . . . be done.” The Jesus they worship in their fantasy had no other will in His flesh than God’s will. I assume that these lords—without us—can give a clear explanation of how the following Bible verses are to be interpreted: John 5:30; John 6:38; Matt. 26:42. So they have a Jesus who did not become like His brothers in all things. Heb. 2:14. They have a Jesus who was not tried in all points as we are, yet without sin—that is, without committing sin when He was tested. Heb. 4:15. It does not fit well with their teachings to acknowledge that Jesus was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Rom. 1:3. The same applies to Philippians 2:7, that He gave up being equal with God and took the form of a bondservant, and Philippians 2:8: “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

If I were to throw a stone into the water and then shout, “Look how obedient that stone was,” everyone standing around would say, “That man is crazy.” When it is written that Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered, then people with some sense in their head and heart must understand that it was by obedience that He overcame Himself according to the flesh. But for all those who worship a fictional Jesus and run a religious business, this is a huge riddle. And yet, this is quite clear for everyone, even the simple, who, by obedience to the Spirit, are following in Jesus’ footsteps.

Without an understanding of the basic principles and elementary teachings in Christ, how can such people comprehend these verses: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” 1 Cor. 12:13. “But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.” 1 Cor. 12:20. “You . . . He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death.” Col. 1:21-22. “Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Heb. 10:19-20. “Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:10.

Sirach says: “The wisdom of the learned is won by opportunity of leisure, and a person not weighed down by business becomes wise. How can he who steers the plough and boasts about his pike staff become wise, who drives oxen and is occupied with their work, whose conversation is about bullocks? His thoughts go to laying furrows, and his continuous care concerns feed for heifers.” Chapter 38 (Norw.).

By the same token, we can ask: How can anyone become wise when their thoughts and minds are occupied night and day worrying about houses and cars, about how they can make more money and gather more earthly goods? When we have come to faith, the intention is that we enter into rest. Heb. 4:3. Instead, many enter into an exhausting struggle to acquire all the comforts that God has promised to add to us. Is this biblical? Is this freedom? Such people boast of both, but it is extremely unbiblical, and if they feel a freedom in this bondage, it must be freedom for the flesh.

Personally, I have nothing against moneychangers and those who sell doves (Matt. 21:12), as long as they stay where they belong—outside, for God will judge those who are outside. However, it is a different matter when they gain access to the temple of God and market their wares, crying, “Come here, listen to me, for here is the Jesus of the Bible!!!” Surely then anyone who has even a small portion of the mind of Christ must become zealous. You should not be at all surprised when such people overturn tables and chairs and drive such peddlers out. For it is written, “Zeal for Your house [and we are His house] has eaten Me up.” And then: “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges.” 1 Cor. 5:12-13.

The fact of the matter is that most believers are ignorant of God’s way and want someone to rule over them. This makes it easy for religious “lords,” who consider themselves to be competent as watchmen of Israel, to exploit the opportunities, especially when there is also a chance for profit and the calling is potentially “lucrative.”

Our immediate question needs to be: Where are honesty and integrity? Where are those who selflessly preach the Word? Where can we find fellowship of the Spirit? Is there anyone of whom it can be said: “See how much they love one another”?

Jesus’ return is close at hand. Will He find faith on the earth when He comes? No doubt, He will find a lot of exhausting activity, charitable institutions and piles of rubbish—all for “God’s work.” But I wonder—will He find faith???