The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
September 12, 2004
In
This Issue:
Partial
Obedience
by
Carrol Sutton
Are
You Doing What You Can?
by
Steve Klein
Partial Obedience
It seems that many people try to justify a person who does only a part of what God says do. They seem to think that God is pleased as long as a person does some (a part of) what He commands. However, a study of the Scriptures will reveal that such is not the case. God is not pleased with nor does He accept only partial obedience.
Speaking through Samuel God clearly said to Saul (in 1 Samuel 15:3): "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and sucking, ox and sheep, camel and ass." We learn from verse 7 that "Saul smote the Amalekites" and, in verses 8-9, we read that Saul "... took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed." Although Saul claimed he had performed the commandment of the Lord according to verse 13, we learn from verse 11 that the Lord had said to Samuel, "for he ...hath not performed my commandment." Saul's rejection of the Lord's word was rebellion and stubbornness. It was sinful! Saul admitted that he obeyed the voice of the people because he feared them. (Cf. V. 24). NOTE: God rejected Saul from being king because of his partial obedience!
In Mt. 23:23, Jesus pronounced a woe on the scribes and Pharisees because, although they paid "tithe of mint and anise and cumin", they had "omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." Jesus also said: "These ought ye to have done, and to leave the other undone." NOTE: Partial obedience was not acceptable!
James said: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." (2:10). Cf. Rev. 21:27; Mt. 7:21. No, God does not accept partial obedience!
By Carrol R. Sutton
via The Instructor, Sept. 2000
Linus in the Peanuts cartoon once said, "Life is like a ten speed bicycle; most of us have gears that we never use." All too often, we have talents and capabilities that we do not use and may not even realize we possess, simply because we have never tried to use them.
In Mark 14:3-9, the story is told of a woman who anointed Jesus with some very expensive oil. In fact, the oil was worth the equivalent of one year's wages (300 denarii). Some complained that the oil should have been sold and the money given to the poor, rather than being lavished upon the Lord. But Jesus, aware of His impending death, appreciated the fact that the woman had "come beforehand to anoint" His "body for burial." He said, "She has done a good work for me" and "She has done what she could." (Mark 14:7, 8).
When we meet the Lord on the Judgment Day, wouldn't we all like to hear Him say something like that about us? But I wonder though how many of us will truly have done what we could have done? Will we have used our abilities and taken advantage of our opportunities to serve Him?
The Lord never asks us to do more than we are capable of doing. The Parable of the Talents illustrates that we are only expected to do what we can do. Each servant in the parable was given responsibility "according to his own ability"(Matthew 25:15), and each servant was held accountable for doing only what he was capable of doing. The man who was given the one talent was condemned, not because he was a man of little ability, but because he refused to use the little ability that he had.
In 1 Peter 4:11, we are told that our service to God should be accomplished "as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever." Note three things here.
(1) God is the giver of abilities. It was He who made the tongue of Moses, and Moses was out of line when he tried to excuse himself from serving the Lord because he was "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Exodus 4:10). He has given us our abilities as well. And even though He may have given others more or better talents, no one is excused from using the abilities they have. "Use what talents you possess: The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."(Henry Van Dyke).
(2) We are to use our God-given ability to serve Him. Our abilities may not be as good as those that He has given to others, but if they enable us to do the work God wants done, we'd better do it!
(3) God is glorified when we do what we can do for Him. Brothers and sisters, here in the church at New Georgia there is much work to be done for the Lord. There are Bible classes that need teaching, prayers that need praying, Scripture that needs to be read and songs that need to be sung to the glory of God. There is work that is public as well as work that is behind-the-scenes. Many have the ability to do this work. Let us all do our best to have the attitude expressed in the words of this old hymn:
There is much to do there's work on every hand.
Hark! The cry for help comes ringing through the land.
Jesus calls for reapers, I must active be.
What wilt Thou, O Master?
Here am I, send me! (M. W. Spencer)
By Steve Klein