The fullness of the Spiritual life is a heart inspired by love that walks in responsibility.

Jesus, our Pattern and Teacher, was a man under authority.  Much was given to Him, and much was required of Him from the Father.

When the Life of the Spirit and the love of our Savior grows to such a point, it encompasses and takes the place of every other thing.  It is our all in all.  While for some, this may come quickly, for others, it has grown over time.

But, the place of the Spiritual man is life in Christ.

There is no life in another.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

For Paul said that when our obedience is made perfect, our every disobedience would be punished.

Is this at odds with the Cross and the Grace of God?  No more than continuing to sin that Grace would abound.

And, yet, it never could be out a heart established by works, by eating and drinking, but by Grace (Hebrews 13:9).

This is the heart of Grace.  It was for freedom that Christ has set us free, free to live and have our being in Christ.  Yet, the one who is born of God cannot continue in lawlessness.

As Jesus was our Leader, He taught that we would be fruitful.  Yet, every man is given different office, opportunity, skills, and abilities.

To the one given five talents, ten was a good return.  The man with two talents was not expected to reproduce the same results, but the same proportion, doubled.  Similarly, if the man with one had simply reproduced another, he would have been on par with the man with ten, even though he had less.  If, however, he managed to produce 2 extra talents, he would have been twice as productive as the man who ended with ten.  Who knows, that perhaps the master of the house may have then taken  one or two talents from each of the others and given them to him, to see what he could do with them.  If he could produce a 200% return with little, could he do it with more?  If so, surely, he would have promoted over all of the house.

For Moses was of the men on the Earth the meekest of all.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you because you say or think you are humble that it is proof that you’re not, for Moses wrote the books of Moses.  Numbers 12:3, written by Moses, says that Moses was the most humble upon the entire Earth.  Moses wrote it of Himself.  Talk about humility!  Not to mention, Jesus said the same of Himself.

Perhaps for this reason more than others it was to Moses that God chose to speak face to face.  And, that he was faithful in all God’s house (Numbers 12:7).

But we are given the life of Christ.  We are given the walk of faith, and not by sight.  We know and understand by the Spirit, and not of the flesh.  By Faith we enter into the life of Christ.  By faith we enter into the promises and blessings of Abraham, where some of natural Israel was broken off.

Faith is no more a decision than anything, and yet it steps out of time and out of this world, and into the other, and brings heaven to Earth.

And, this faith is not independent nor merely some power or impersonal force, for outside of the heart of the One who came and brought the Word of Faith, it is nothing short of theft and robbery to use anything of the Kingdom, but in the realm of love, it is life Eternal in Jesus Christ!

The man in perfect faith would never dream of sinning.  The greatest thing is God Himself.  The only reward is to see Him, and be with Him, and Him with us.  The man in perfect faith in God walks in perfect obedience to the Father, no matter the cost.

The choice is always whether to follow, whether to believe, whether to receive His Grace.  For it is overcoming, that we are made whole, and it is in following, that we are made alive.

Faith is the connecting of our selves, through God’s supernatural gift, to that which God has supplied in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).  It is no different than the branch receiving from the vine, and producing the harvest according its nature, that is, Christ.

For it is in the life of the Father that we do overcome.  The life of the Spirit is greater than this world, and in Jesus, we do overcome.  When we stand in the love of the Son, we stand where others fall, for our life is built upon the rock.  And, as we behold Him, what can stand before us, for He that is in us is greater than He that is in the world.

It is in this place of understanding, of faithfulness, and of diligence that we stand in responsibility.

And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

2 Corinthians 10:6 NIV

For, we are instructed that we must live up to what we have already attained (Philippians 3:16).

As Ananias and his wife Sapphira learned and were made an example of, we are responsible for the light that we have received, and for the level of revelation in which we are walking.  Though they knew full well that it was a sin, they lied to the Holy Ghost, according to Peter, and fell down dead at his feet by the Word of the Lord.

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah were an example for us, so is this, to those who would walk in Christ Jesus.  It is a child that lives without responsibility.  While there is always mercy and grace at the cross, it is clear throughout the context of Scripture in the New Testament that not only are we responsible to live Holy before the Lord, but that if we do not, there are consequences, including untimely death (1 Corinthians 11:30).

As men and women lived and died, had their dead restored to them, as people were healed and delivered by the prayers of the saints in the New Testament, the lack of prayer, true worship, and devotion to Christ is the root of all failings in the church as we see it.  As even Peter was delivered from prison while the church held a prayer meeting, it stands to reason that without the fervent and effectual prayers of the righteous, many who would have been freed, who God desired to be freed, would not, indeed are not, likewise saved.

For this we stand, and this we believe.

No one has ever been righteous in themselves, save the Perfect One, Jesus Christ.  Yet, in Him, we are called to a true righteousness that is by His Grace, established through love and tenderness, and is lived out solely by the work of the Holy Spirit within us..  Having been made righteous, we are called to perfect holiness out of reverence for God, lest we be found wanting and to die in the wilderness as carnal Israel, due to unbelief.

This is the will of God concerning us, that we walk uprightly in His Son, Jesus.

Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound?  Of course not.  In the same way, in light of the great love that He has shown us, and as we come to know and believe in this love as John wrote in 1 John 4:16, we come to live it, that is, to truly love (1 Peter 1:22).  To do otherwise is to demonstrate that we have not known the truth.  To continue to sin would demonstrate that we have not understood His grace, nor entered into His Life.

For this life springs from this Grace, and this truth springs forth from the innermost belly of our being.

The deception lies in the details.  We must be about the Kingdom, or we will fall for anything else.  We must have Christ formed in us, that we might discern the light.  We must be ever growing in lovingkindness and the Grace of God, that we might never stumble.

But, this walk of in His Truth is always about His Love.  It is His Son that is this Grace.  Who could, after coming to know Him, and His character, continue to live in sin any longer?  It is He, Himself, that is our righteousness, not only Eternally before God in a legal sense, as if that was somehow abstract and separate from actual holiness.  But as He Himself is our life, and He and His holiness have come to dwell, and as we are purified in our hearts and our souls (Luke 11:36), His life is all that is manifested through our walk, through faith.

The very life that we profess becomes the life that we live, because it is Truth, and not a lie.

The unstable and the carnal twist these things, and often presents an intellectual “gospel”.  But, the true Grace from God teaches us to say no to all ungodliness and worldly passions (Titus 2:11-12).  The Grace itself teaches us.  If your grace is really Grace, it teaches you.

The Truth Eternal is not a mere fact, nor a doctrine or understanding, but, as to God looks at the whole vessel, it is a true seed, planted, that although it starts out small, if given the right conditions in the heart (Matthew 13:1-9), it will produce the true fruit of Grace.

How could the true vine produce anything but true fruit, unless it burned away by the difficulties or choked out by the world?  Yet, this is exactly what we see.

In many places, we have only dead-ness, where once there was life.  In other places, although it is alive, it seems to produce little if any fruit.  And, the causes are manifest.  Hardness of heart and a lack of separation from the world, as Jesus indicated from the beginning, when we examine them closer, are always directly at their root.

The true seed, Word, when planted does come in with a Word, but it is Spirit and it is life.  This truth is a Man, the very Son of God.

This is the Kingdom, and this is His life, that we live by His Eternal Words, and so abide in His love (John 15:10).

Yet, the Word we have written are those letters to the churches that generally didn’t quite yet understand, and for that reason were they was written.  Some knew, and were reminded, others were corrected.

But, the true, main, plain of the Scripture, is that as we choose to live by His Spirit, He is found by us.  If we seek Him, we will find Him, when we seek Him with all of our heart.  He is to be sought diligently, and all of His Kingdom is ours.

For even Paul judged the man in gross sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 5:3).  Let it never be misunderstood that there is no punishment within the church, for it is written, judgement begins at the House of God.

These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

Titus 2:15

For a church afraid of rebuke is a deaf and dumb man (Psalm 38:13-14).  But, the body alive both stoops to the woman caught in adultery and rises in rebuke at the ungodly, whether they are Pharisees or otherwise.  This is does using spiritual judgment with spiritual eyes, in the heart of the Father.

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

1 Corinthians 5:12

In the Spirit, we are given everything necessary for life and godliness.  No other life has power, and not life will ever trascend this mortal, material world.  No compromise is allowed here.  As it is said, You cannot walk in the power of God and live a lie.

Without holiness, no one will see the Lord, and without a righteous church, demonstrating the true plant of Christ within, there is no abiding grace and mercy within the saints, despite what any doctrine may propound.

As a man by his words is either justified or condemned, so the righteous man is required to live godly in every word.  As James writes, he who does not sin with his mouth is the perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check (James 3:2).

But, this is the place of His World.

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of God when He is not on our side.  We should not presume upon His grace, as many have done, and demonstrated their littleness of love by departing from His commands.  We must not think that He ignores our sin.  For the sinner trapped in sin, for the weak and those crushed, for those learning Christ and His Spirit, there is always grace, but the proud He knows from afar.  To those who are desperate, He will always be found by them, but for those comfortable in their sin, He warns, chastens, and reproves, even unto the destruction of the body that the soul might be saved!

In Christ, in the place of being His, and given to Him, we are responsible for what we before God for our what we have in Him.  As God places us in Him, and gives us a Grace to learn that teaches us, and mercy when we fail, He expects us to live up to what we have attained.  He expects us to live holy.  He expects us to live in Him, and by Him, and unto Him, alone.

And, this is the secret to holiness, not that we perform, work harder, nor do it with our own self, but with that indwelling Christ, with the power of His Spirit, with the grace with which He has enabled us, that we stand against sin, putting off the old man with its misdeeds, because we have an Eternal Spirit within.

By this, we are forced to live by His Spirit, and by this, we are forced to live the life of Faith.  Because our focus and our ability is only ever from the indwelling Christ, we see every day that our ability to stand is solely from Him alone, and not from us.

The Gospel then so works in us, that if we are to stand in the heights, in the heavens where He has ordained, we must lose the things of this world, and be so focused with heart and mind upon the things above, where Christ is seated, and not on things beneath (Colossians 3:1-2), that to live any other way would be corruption.

As Jesus spoke from the very beginning, unless we hate our life, that is, our soulish, earthly existence lived only in the flesh, we cannot be His disciple.  So long as we attempt to save our lower, earthly, and mundane life, we will lose both it, and our spiritual, heavenly life in Eternity.  For, as Paul wrote, if we live by the flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit, we will live!

As the eye is set singly upon the Heavens, and as all that is treasured is placed only within the Heavens, there is nothing in all of Heaven and Earth that will ultimately distract us, or pull us from Him and His Love.

As we look on, as seeing Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27), we endure, because His strength, His Grace, is sufficient.

In so doing, we see the great divide set between those of this Earth and those of the Heavens.  There is no confusing of the two, for those who are of the Lord are heavenly, even as He was heavenly, and those who are of the Earth are carnal, though they may profess the same.

For, it is not in learned behavior or in having the right answers that we are granted access to the heavens, but it is in the living faith, the abiding anointing, and the indwelling Christ that we are assured access to His grace.

From the moment of belief, from the moment of acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Lord, to the heights of revelation, understanding, and insight into the mystery of Christ, this is the rule.  From the very moment of conversion, whether it is understood or not, a man is transferred from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son He loves (Colossians 1:13).  From the very moment of belief, the great shift is accomplished, and there is no half-way into the Kingdom.

Yet, for the man who refuses to progress in holiness, while already completely holy in God’s eyes in the Spirit, he refuses His Grace, refuses His life, and, in some sense, demonstrates a hardness that God will not honor.  While many in this condition are ignorant and untaught, some demonstrate rather that they understand little of His Spirit or Him.  Whether they will fall or stand on that day  is His knowledge, but whether they remain in our fellowship is our decision, as it was to Paul, who wrote at one point to expel a certain immoral brother for the grossness of his error.

A man may, for a time, imitate the grace of Christ, and while it is good to restrain from known evil, true grace and goodness can only ever be demonstrated in a life as a work of the Eternal Spirit within, from that which is alive within, and not merely knowledge.

For Paul Himself wrote that the Spiritual Man judges all things, and yet is judged of no one (1 Corinthians 2:15).  It is the essence of the false religious spirit to bind a man with rules, with regulations, with social restrictions, and with “good behavior”, rather than with Christ.  It is the nature of the mind of man to attempt to accomplish what God can only do, perhaps to “help Him out” as it were, and to attempt to add to the leading of the Spirit within by the establishment of good works prompted upon the basis of guilt, shame, manipulation, fear, loss of goods or reputation, loss of position, loss of the things of this life, but this all springs from a bad conscience.  This all has the roots and establishment in the self, and is worthless before God.

So far as any church or institution, or any person, uses these tools or devices and attempts to motivate any out of fear, guilt, or a woundedness, they are guilty before the cross, for in so doing, they blind the children of God from seeing the true, seeing the Eternal, and knowing the unknowable, invisible God (Ephesians 3:18).

Further, any group or body that attempts to use a wound in a person to perpetuate service is guilty of service to Beelzebub, the prince of devils, for in the manner of its chosing, the wound is not healed, but perpeutated, and so he is the lord of the flies (that is, where flies are prophetically “lies”).  Instead of using the pain to bring them to Christ, who would heal them, they are instead brought to the “church”, the institution, and forced into conscripted labor in children’s ministry, in altar service, in ushering, and in “ministry”, without the heart, attitude, and character of Christ.

All such who do this intentionally wound and lead the body astray into dead works, the likes of which God is never pleased, nor is He ever served.

For, no good thing can come from that which is not specifically authored by His Spirit, and although we may say that we would then have no Christian workers, if that is the case, then let us turn back to the cross, and back to His Spirit, so that we might first have true Christians, led and called forth by His Spirit, and true leaders, who lay down their lives for the flock rather than seek promotion, and then, as assuredly as God called His original twelve, God will call, ordain, and equip His chosen vessels for service, and the work will go forth and be established.

Paul writes that when our obedience is perfected, we are responsible for what we have learned.  Not merely sowing and reaping, but Paul includes punishment.  As Ananias and Sapphira were required to know what they failed at, and were judged of the Lord through the word of Peter, they serve as witnesses to us that punishment extends even to the believer.

The lovingkindness and Grace to the unknowing is great, but the requirement of holiness within us who believe, to be conformed to Him is not demonstrated but commanded.  For who would not want, out of this great love that He continually shows us, to be His friend?  And, who is His friend, but He who walks with Him, is where He is at, and does in like kind as He does?  But, God is not mocked, we reap what we sow.  If, even as believers, we make a practice of sowing to the flesh wantonly, knowingly, we should expect punishment and wrath.  But, for the man in chains, who for all of his striving, ever rising, yet continuing to fall, with no recourse, His mercies are new, and His cleansing is constant.  To the man who would not even lift his eyes to heaven, Jesus said he went away justified.  To the one merely looking on him, saying thank-you that he wasn’t like that sinner, his guilt remained.  For, ever, the rule is, to the humble grace is supplied, and to those who have nothing left of their own, the Kingdom is theirs.

The Spirit of Grace teaches us to pray.  It teaches us to pursue.  It teaches us to say no to ungodliness.

The Spirit of Truth, God’s only Son, shows to us that God is true, whether every man is proven a liar in the process.

The Spirit of the Lord is the only Truth we have upon this Earth (John 8:23), and it is only about the Kingdom, all the time.

Whoever would choose to live another way, no matter what scriptures they might try to use to make their case, is wrong, for Truth is a Person.  Results or no results.

Whoever would try to excuse sin or deny that sin is sin demonstrates that they do not know The Way, and that the Truth is not in them, nor do they have the light of Life.

But, as the heart is established in Him, a greater love for God and His ways grows in us.  We see that even in greater detail, we hate the things we once loved.

In a Christian atmosphere empty of a passion for holiness, there is little zeal for the things of God.  Yet, the cup is always full, ready to be drunk to the full by anyone who would take it.

Is the outpouring of the fullness of His Grace and Spirit within us dependent upon God?  Yes of course it is.  Does it depend upon us?  Well, however it comes out, if we do not, in ourselves, believe that He is the One, we will fall.  It is not in our efforts, not in our labors, but merely in our Faith.  And, as we believe, so are we saved.

In the end, is it our responsibility to make the choice to follow?  Not so much as our will would demand, but as His great faithfulness within us dictates within our heart to take the next step forward, and the next, and to keep on going.  For all who are godly in Christ Jesus have done so, and it is not to our credit, but to His, and that alone!

You see, many were called to the marriage feast.  Yet, one man chose not to wear his garments.  Rather than the master of the feast saying, “Go fetch a robe for him to wear and a ring for his finger”, he was cast out!  The master did not excuse his unpreparedness.

The spiritual man cannot long enjoy the presence of God and the things of this life.  He is a very jealous God, eager for all our affections, and to walk in His manifest power and glory and yet entertain an idol is a lie.  As with any shipwreck, the pressure of the water demonstrates the presence of a hole, and where the leak is there then is the problem.

But, God, not desiring that we falter, extends patience and mercy, allowing us to repent, and to turn from our ways, back to Him.  As is usually the case, each minister is offered many opportunities to repent, if he is earnest.  God makes sure that man can learn.  He offers His patience without begrudging it, but He demands that we worship Him, and do service and homage to Him, for we will either love Him or we will hate Him (Luke 16:13).

So, the man of God who does not keep a close reign on his life, his tongue, his ministry, and his appetites invites disaster.  And, though this devastating consequence is never the desire of the Lord, because of His great name, He must, for He must be righteous, even according to His own words, that whoever does not build upon this sure rock is sure to fall, and that with a great crash and destruction.

Every man is responsible for His own life, for as Paul wrote, “But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another” (Galatians 6:4).  Because he has stood in Christ, and has made His life only about His Spirit.  As unbelievers, we are responsible to hear the Word of Truth and to obey, becoming born again.  As babes in Christ, we are responsible to continue to drink the milk of the Word, so that we might grow.  As those growing, we are required to increase in godliness, gentleness, meekness, and in all the power of God.  As ministers, we are responsible to demonstrate a perfect life.  As we have been given, it is required of us.  Those knowing the good they should do who do it not are beaten with many blows, and those not doing who do not know what to do, with few.

What is the man that would walk perfect?  Let Him see the Word, Jesus Christ, firmly in his heart, believing and abiding in His heart in us.  Who then is the man who would walk blameless?  The man who has submitted himself fully to Christ, fully to the Spirit, and so fully walks out Christ’s peace and humility, where the labor of the man is merely to enter His rest, and from that place, to obey.

It is never in the amount that one is able to give, but it is in the heart to give it.

If a man were given all the wisdom of the ages, and never given a chance to release it, is he guilty for not doing so?  How could he be, seeing he was never given the opportunity.  Another man may have the opportunity and means to share, and perhaps it is his responsibility to hear, and obey, and obtain wisdom, perhaps from such a man as this.  But, to each one, the responsibility simply rests upon what is he is able to do.

Even John the Baptist could do nothing more than what he had been given.  He knew that his greatest calling had been fulfilled through the baptism of Jesus, and that he was not to be given the ministry that was given to Jesus.  He in humility lowered himself, and pointed to the one greater, though he of all natural born men was the greatest of all world history.

Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

Luke 12:41-48

This is His Word.  This is His statement of punishment.  This is His explanation of stewardship.

For, man was created to be a servant, and to serve Christ first, and then men.  And, while the heart is duly established in love, it is from this love that His true service come forth.  The church without works is dead, even as faith without them is.  Not the dead works coming from the flesh, but those of the Spirit, from and through His life, with all the strength of Him within.  The greatest is the servant of all, and the man who will not serve is a drunken and a glutton, and is none of His.  The servant finds a place at the table of the Lord in that day, and those who ate all of the delicacies of the Earth and rode upon its high places are brought utterly low.  Because of love.  Because of faithfulness.  Because of His hand upon them.

For, even as a man catches a glimpse of anything of the Kingdom and loses all his earthly life to have it (Matthew 13:44), so does all service come forth.  Whether it be a Word, a vision, an impression, a desire, those things that are born of the Spirit do well, an prosper, because the Lord has ordained it.  And anything else, no matter how grand, is merely of the Earth.  It passes away (Isaiah 40:6-8).

In the vision of Ezekiel, he saw the four living creatures, with four faces.  The Lion and the Eagle both represent kinds of kings, one of the Earth and one of the sky.  The Ox and the man both represent the servant, one of beasts, and the other, of men.

Man is a servant, and those who would serve Christ must be with Him where He is.

But, to the one who is an unworthy servant, who receives not praise for only doing his due, this is the one in whom the Lord finds favor (Luke 17:10).  And, one day, He will seat us on thrones, and we will serve Him by judging the Earth.

This is truly life, that we may know Him.

As He was upon this Earth, the servant to all, we too must serve, that He would be increased.  This is the Spirit of Christ, it is the Spirit of love and brotherly kindness; it is God Himself.  Let all who are godly in Christ Jesus acknowledge these things, for of the keeping of them it is great.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Revelation 3:19

For it is for His love that He corrects, as dear children, for those who would respond.  For, God’s power is great, and those that would touch it, and see Him, must be holy in Christ Jesus.

God does not listen to sinners (John 9:31), nor will the way of the wicked prosper (Psalm 1:6), ever more so in His Kingdom! As God has given us the power of His Spirit to overcome, those that would demonstrate the life of Christ to the Earth must walk as He walked, live as He lived, and demonstrate through an indomitable life that God will not be mocked nor overcome.

For, the heavens, both good and bad, know the difference.  The kingdoms of this world and that of Christ know difference between a man with faith and the man with mere thought.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Ephesians 4:17-19

Regardless of dogma, regardless of theory, we are responsible for how we live in Christ Jesus.  If we fall a thousand times, and rise again, we are forgiven.  So long as it is out of our heart, it is out of His.  But, let me ask you this?  Is it really repentance if you still haven’t hated it?  Have you truly hated wickedness and embraced His Truth if you plan to turn again tomorrow to it?

For the one trapped in sin, there is always mercy, and grace to change.

For the one playing games, by his own words and his heart, he will be judged.

With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;
With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward [torturous – ESV].

For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.
For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

Psalm 18:25-29, editorial added

God will not be mocked.  The ESV renders the second half of verse 26 as “and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous”.  Those that would play games with God will find that He is a much better game player than we are, and He will see to it that there is no middle ground in the struggle over your heart.  Either He is King, or He is not, and He is able to bring us to decision.

Yielding, we are servants unto the Lord, and we receive of His glory, God will not share with any other.  Those that, through patience and servitude and Grace learn to walk by Him, and He entrusts them with His mercies. To those that through patience and long suffering learn to walk with Him, He endues His treasures.

Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his, and, Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.

2 Timothy 2:6

The works of the flesh are obvious.  For there are no grey areas in Christ.  For those that would put dark for light, and light for dark, should be warned.  There is a righteousness in the Earth, and it matters that we live in it.

But, as the Gospel is the message of Grace, we learn by continual use to discern both good and evil, even having our sense trained by continual use.  We learn it, as He teaches us, and shows it to us.  As people do preach the truth, and present the Word and the Spirit in all diligence, we hear His voice, and, if some area an avenue of darkness is revealed, His Grace is sufficient to cleanse us, and to purify us, and to bring us into all truth!  As we are rebuked, corrected, and reproved for all righteousness, that we may be prepared and equipped for every good work.

Faith, when it is really faith, demands that we see these things as God sees them, even as it grows.  Faith is proof, and those that have it are convinced, and need no witness for themselves beside the Word and the Spirit.

Sound doctrine is established on the Word and Spirit, through faith, to produce a harvest of righteousness in souls.

But the Gospel that lacks punishment lacks the fullness of the substance of the truth.  For without responsibility, there is neither servanthood nor faithfulness.  If all standard of reproof was removed, or even if postponed until the end, there would be no point basis for the foundation of God’s throne within His own spiritual nation.

Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.

Psalm 72:2

Even Paul admonishes the difference among the Christians living then, saying,

No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.

1 Corinthians 11:19

As surely as God is in the heavens, His judgement is upon the Earth.

May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,
to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD.

Psalm 149:6-9

For, out the mouth of the Psalmist, God has declared that it is the saints that execute His judgements in the Earth.  These are not their vengeance or punishments, nor their own bindings or written judgements, but they are the Lord’s, already established in the heavens, that we bring to bear upon the Earth, “on Earth as it is in Heaven”.  And, as the Lord’s people, with the praise of God in their hands as the praising church of the first born, they carry out the judgements written by the Lord in the heavens.

How did Peter condemn Ananias and Sapphira?  Because the praise of God was in his mouth, and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, was in his hands.  He spoke and judged as he heard, and his judgement was just, because he did not seek his own will, but the will of the One who sent him.  As Paul elsewhere taught, let each one prophesy according to his own faith.

For the Pharisees condemned Jesus for forgiving sins, saying that only God can forgive sins (Mark 2:7).  But, He wanted them to know that the Son of Man had the authority to forgive sins.  Not only Himself, but all who are Spiritual.  For, after His resurrection, He breathed upon the disciples, saying, Receive the Holy Ghost, adding, that whoever sins they forgave they would be forgiven, and whoever’s sins they did not forgive, they would not be forgiven.

This is the power of the church, of the spiritual church, yesterday, today, and forever.  This is not relegated to some distant past or a mistake.  But, as a Spiritual body, we have even the power, through the church in the power of the Spirit, to both remit and retain sins.  This is the Kingdom entrusted to the saints.

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

1 Timothy 3:16