Matthew 7

²⁴ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

²⁶ And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

Our life group just completed a study on faith. Next year as we gather again we will be studying doctrine. I have suggested that we look at doctrine from a framework which is based from these verses. The reason I do so is because of faith. In verse 24 and 26 both hearers heard the Word. What defined their foundations, since both received instruction, teaching, which is the definition of doctrine, has to be related directly to doing or not doing. Faith is hearing, believing and doing.

If you could see a house as being security, cover, perhaps even a sanctuary, then both men are building what they believe to be protection from the elements. This would be supported by surrounding verses speaking about rain, floods and heat. So both men are building houses. One builds with faith, one not so much.

The man who builds upon sand, where does he get his design, his blue print for construction? Since it is seen without faith, then would not his instructions be false? Once again we return to the issue of instruction, doctrine. Is this not false doctrine?

2 Peter 2

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. …

But….. to be continued

Romans 12:9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

In the Greek for this verse there is no word for “let”, the Greek begins with Agape. The meaning of agape is love feast. That word, while it implies an unending supply of love, variety, satisfying, and tasty, does not tell us how to love. I good portion of 1 Corinthians 13 tells us how love acts.

Revisionist place the word let in the sentence to try and make sense of and deal with the rest of the sentence which is only two words log. The second word is anypokritos, which means unfeigned, undisguised, sincere.

The truth is, that if you know agape love, you already understand that agape has the character of anypokritos. The rest of the verse is four Greek words which in the raw form only mean abhor evil, cling good. May I suggest that all these words that follow agape in the verse are of and for the mind which has to be instructed in how to deal with agape?

The love of God, agape love, dwells in our hearts by faith.

Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

Because this love is from above, it is not natural to us. That love is greater, more abundant, perfect in every sense. Perfect love is not natural to us and like a feast can only be tasted a little bit at a time, one bite at a time. Until that love completes its perfect work in us we can only express and enjoy that which we have tasted.

Hebrews 6:4c,5 have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the Lord is good:

Matthew 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.