Continued from the last episode
Text Of Interest:
“But
ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and
church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of
all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things
than that of Abel.”
Heb
12:22 – 24 (KJV)
Also in a believer’s life, malice
should not be there, that a believer is not one who goes about keeping malice
with people either in the faith or outside faith. In life offense must come
from whoever, so is kind of normal thing that people can get one offended
either by commission or omission. However, to a believer there is an inner
ability given to him or her by the Holy Ghost to refrain from reprisal and let
go things. In the previous episodes we talked extensively on the issue of love
or charity. The heart of a believer is filled with love which the Holy Ghost
has poured out abroad on his heart. In a heart filled love, there is no space
for malice and hatred, and that is why it is almost impossible for a believer
to harbor malice and hatred in his heart. Hence, if such a nasty attribute
wants to crop up in the heart of the believer, the believer has no option than to
put it off because such is not in his making. Keeping malice is an indictment
to the nature of the believer; because it means his heart is filled with
‘unforgiveness’. Jesus in His days was addressing a set of people and He
rhetorically said that anyone who forgives those who forgives them cannot call
God his father. And God is the father of the believer and He does not
discriminate and He gives sun shine and rain to all (Matt 5:43-46). This should be
the attitude of the believer and hence the reason to put off malice.
The next thing we are asked to put off is
blasphemia (blasphemy) which is the Greek word used in this text. Blasphemia
means vilification (especially against God), evil speaking and railing. Let’s
consider this, Jesus while teaching His audience said this and I quote “O
generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Matt 12:34). It means that blasphemy
or evil speaking and railing can proceed from the mouth of the
speaker but the truth is that such are not the product of the mouth. Though the mouth speaks them
but they are emanating from the heart, as a result, they are the product of the
heart. Note that for one to be in Christ he or she must have
heard the message of Christ and believed it in his heart before confession is
made from his mouth. Someone who has accepted the message of Christ did that
from his heart and confessed what he believed in his heart through his mouth.
When the Spirit of God comes to dwell in the believer, He dwells in the heart of the
believer and not in the mouth of the believer; the essence of this is that the
believer will not have any occasion to spew utterance(s) that are not
consistence with the character of the indwelling Spirit in him. Hence the
believer is advised to put off all forms of blasphemy or words that are
blasphemous because they don’t represent the presence or identity of the Spirit
of God dwelling in him.
The more reason the believer should do
this is because he has been sanctified by the blood of Jesus immediately he
accepted Christ, the blood purified him from his sins and made him whole. The
sanctification didn’t take place on his body, I mean is not like washing the
body of an individual with the blood of Jesus, the sanctification took place in
his heart, henceforth his heart is set to produce things that are pure. Now,
like I said in one of my write-ups that the heart of a man is his core or the
center of his being. It is pertinent therefore, that sanctification should take
place in the heart because if it takes place in the heart which is the core of
a man’s life it will definitely affect every other aspect of man’s activities.
If the heart is sanctified, the whole
being is cleansed and made pure. It becomes a necessity that the man who has
been sanctified should put off blasphemous talks and utterances from his mouth
because it doesn’t identity with the man who he has become in Christ. Also, is
very important to note that, a man can dress very nice and appears respectful that people will appreciate him and can bet that he is a gentleman. But not
until he opens his mouth to speak, such status is not guaranteed. Though he
dressed nicely and appears respectful, if he start spewing things that are
unbecoming, the impression his dressing has created among people or his
listeners will immediately disappears because his heart has been laid bay and
unfortunately what is inside it is rotten. And no reasonable person can
associate with such a fellow his dressing notwithstanding!
To be continued…..
Till I come your way again, keep on
basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!
Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu
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