I am seeing a pattern of pandering to the flesh, beiong immature, and not working. When I saw this, I looked to the teaching these people were receiving. They reflect the teaching, and the character of the preachers they sit under. Clearly they are not getting the “full counsel of God.”
The full counsel says to your faith, diligently applied, add virtue (manliness and attention to excellence), knowledge (hunger to know more), holiness, self-control, patience (cheerful endurance), brotherly love, and charitableness to all. The full counsel says to endure hardness as a good soldier. The full counsel says to deny yourself and take up the cross and follow Jesus.
Let's start with faith. This means a full reliance on the word of God – rather than mentally accepting a partisanship.
Diligence. Diligence. Thise means acting on faith, on the Word of God. This means doing good works – in contrast to sitting back and expecting to be entertained. Or worse, critiquing ministry as if it were entertainment. It means working in a calling instead of expecting that society owes you a living. It means working heartily as to the Lord, and not expecting that an employer owes you a living.It means keeping your commitments.
Virtue means gow up, stop being childish and soft. It means “acquit yourself like a man,” which, if you are not familiar with that statement means stop acting like a wet noodle in the face of a little difficulty, stand up, do the right thing, and have some backbone. It means grow up!
And therefore it includes stop complaining. Do your work cheerfully, glad you have work. It means don't act like a helpless child, when you are an adult. In fact, I don't let my children act helpless when they are not. Why then do we get grown adults acting like children, even in the face of minor difficulties. And surely church leaders doing this is rare, please tell me so. How can you be holy in the dirty world, and how can you love the brothers in a practical way, and how can you be charitable to all, if you are SO concerned with your little minor comfort?
Instead of complaining, be thankful. This is basic teaching for small children! For larger difficulties, even then, the counsel of God is “stop complaing” and replace with confessions from the Word of God. Yes?
Well some don't know this, because they are taught something else. Some get palliative sweet words that only tangetially relate to the Bible. Some get a partisan conversion message. If you “accept Jesus” then that is all. Some get much more – all kinds of miracles, esoteric doctrine, and flashy programs. But are we getting the full counsel of God? Are we applying what we are taught?
And what are we teaching?
Are we following JESUS?
