God does not contradict Himself!
God never contradicts Himself yet today so many Christians “bear witness” to varying pictures of “the truth.”
Such variances may be minor and may also include life-and-death differences such as what it means to be saved, who goes to heaven, what God wants of His people, and what we may believe from God.
Depending on how you count them, there are upward of 30,000 denominations in the world, and, 1) that violates the biblical command for unity (1 Cor. 1:10) and against sectarianism (1 Cor. 3:3), and 2) it is categorically impossible for everyone to be right!
Humans are so fallible, but this article is not meant to harp on the problem, but help point you to the solution: Come to Jesus, learn at His feet what His will is, and what it means to be spiritual in truth!
Though you may have heard it before, it bears shouting from the housetops that God is eternal, He does not change, and His overarching will for His church is the same as it ever was!
James 1:7 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Heb. 13:8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Mal. 3:6 – “For I am the Lord, I do not change; …
Jude 1:3 – Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Eph. 4:4,5 – There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
The Word of God is emphatically clear God has one faith, the Apostles’ doctrine that the church began with (Acts 2:42), and which was the express direction of the Spirit of Jesus Christ who is the founder and only authorized builder of the church (Ps 127:1).
Root issue – the ‘flesh’
The root issue is the earthly mind of humans which pores into the Word of God, and may lack critical thinking skills, make assumptions, be moved by presumptions, ignorance, or worse, devils teaching “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1).
The mistake made by Christians who lean on their earthly intellect is parallel to that which was made by the Jews who Jesus rebuked.
John 5:39,40 – You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
The watchword is “come to Me.” The Lord’s desire is not only an initial coming to Him as He said in Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Required is a continual spirit-to-Spirit availing ourselves to Him as He is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life” for all of our lives! This is actually one and the same as abiding in Christ, which is oneness with the Lord by His Spirit.
Jn 15:1-8 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Eternal life is to know God, and He is the one who keeps us on the narrow way, but how many use their independent minds and deviate from this simple instruction to lean solely on Him as “little children?”
1 Jn. 5:20 – And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
While we of necessity must use our own brains, in understanding God and His truth, we are called to not rely on our earthly mind to the extent that we shut out the still small voice of the Spirit of God. Put in plainest terms, the Word of God teaches authentic knowledge is spiritually revealed but humans have a “fleshly mind” which may superimpose its own sensibility upon spiritual words and pervert the truth.
Col 2:18 – Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, …
This is so vital to understand. While we do learn by reading and hearing, the extra dimension to knowing God’s truth is He Himself is our teacher, or we know nothing yet as we ought to.
John 6 – 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’
1 Cor 2:9-15 –
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
What the Word is saying here is God is our teacher, and He reveals His truth to those who love Him, and by doing so, He is to keep them from straying into error of a fleshly mind.
Alternate terms for the “flesh” are the “carnal” mind (1 Cor 3), or “natural” mind (1 Cor 2:14), or we may also speak of simply the fallen mind – the intellect or feelings we are born with apart from the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:20 says “heresies” are a work of the flesh. Proof that something taught as truth is not of God is not necessarily a simple matter of countering false teaching with “textbook correct” theology, as one might suppose – as this could be just flesh countering flesh – but in the final analysis, a teaching is justified by its fruits.
Matthew 7:18 – A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Another word for fruit is results, and the Scriptures are very clear what results God wanted. We are to be marked by a spiritual righteousness, joy and peace (Rom 14:17), thus under the control of the true Spirit of God.
Gal 5:22 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. …
In sending Jesus Christ, and ushering in the New Covenant, God wanted a people regenerated in the spirit – born again (Jn. 3) – who would be a showcase people that actually proves He is real!
Yes, God’s purpose was people whose very lives were so transformed by the inworking of the Holy Spirit that it was clear to everyone that God had done the work, for it would transcend the best efforts humans could ever do in their own strength or resourcefulness.
Heb. 8:10,11 – For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
2 Cor 3:2,3- You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
John 13:34,35 – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 17:20-23 – “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
1 Peter 2_1-5, 9-10 – Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,[a] 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God andprecious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
1 Peter 1:16 – because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Hebrews 12:14 – Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
From the scriptures above, it is clear God had high intentions for those who truly walked the narrow way of death to self, and being alive to Himself.
They were called to have His own Spirit who would enable and empower them if they met the conditions of absolute surrender to Him, having no other agenda than seeking first Christ’s kingdom, making it their aim in all things to be well pleasing to Him, becoming as a little child, and knowing His voice.
So coming back to the opening statement, what do we make of so many who “bear witness” to contradicting understandings – at times even claiming they know all this yet still coming down on polar opposite sides of the truth?
Again, God does not contradict Himself! Christian take care! Make sure what you think you know, you really do know, and be wise. Wisdom is “justified by her children,” said the Lord, and again, the fruit bears out the value of what we say we know and believe.
While so many live self-centric lives, that is against the Lord’s teaching.
John 12 – Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
The Lord’s actual will is we lose ourselves in God, if you are so willing to let Him lead you into this reality. It is called citizenship in the kingdom of God, and is God’s actual remedy for our sin, and the means He desires to save so many others.
God desires to save many lives, and that people would know Him, love Him, and live lives aligned with His will. You can be sure that anything that contradicts this prime dictate is false, errant, and of the flesh.
John 6:63 – It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Life is all about the new creation, and those who call themselves after Christ’s name are called to learn what it means to be spiritual. In a nutshell, they are yielded and one with Him – in action, not just in theory or as a statement of faith!
Their walk must align with their talk, and their walk must be in the Spirit. God is well able. This is the Almighty God we are discussing here!
If we truly have faith, and our faith is an all-powerful God who does not lie, has one expressed will for us, and says He honors His part of the covenant, how can we not expect to see fruits that bring glory to Him? And, He is “able to keep you from stumbling,” which includes keeping you from error, and correcting you should you stray from the green pastures He has into some other field.
This word is both a warning and an encouragement therefore: God is not the author of confusion, but of peace in our lives. If however what we’re being taught, or we ourselves are holding to as the “truth” does not bear good fruit, the wise would do well to consider whether what he/she thinks is the truth really is.
Lord bless you!
