Originally posted by RJHinds
I am not trying to eliminate anything. I am identifying them like the servants
of the master. My words were somewhat of an exaggeration to emphasize the
point that there is not much time left before the harvest. I agreed completely
with his interpretation. However, I am not limited by Christ as being only a
servant, or being only the seed, or being o us with ever increasing speed?
P.S. RHP is not the Christian church. RHP is the world.tHE
P.S. RHP is not the Christian church. RHP is the world.
What does RHP stand for ? I didn't read much of the link in your OP.
Did I miss something ?
I am not trying to eliminate anything.
Then you are not trying to "gather" tares for anything.
So the word "gatherer" was not a part of your role as you meant.
Whew ! I thought we were in for a second Inquisition.
I am identifying them like the servants of the master. My words were somewhat of an exaggeration to emphasize the point that there is not much time left before the harvest.
The Harvest implies that the Christians must attend to their own growth spiritually. It is our maturity as Christians which is the greater priority.
Suppose I can identify every kind of "tare" out there, but I myself am a not fully grown wheat staff ? This will be a problem to me at the Harvest.
As for indentifying tares, it is evident that the master's workers themselves cannot always tell the difference. If they were able to he would have not said -
" ... lest whule collecting the tares, you uproot the wheat along with them." (v.29)
This means that humans cannot always successfully discriminate between true believerss in Christ and false believers in Christ. They should not try to "uproot" them because they may perform the action upon a true wheat, ie. true Christian.
Some "tares" we may identify. And we may warn the wheat not to mingle with those tares. The tares sown by the enemy are for confusion and damage to the wheat. The Christian worker may indeed sometimes warn Christians that they are mixed up with false brothers.
The operative word there is "sometimes".
I agreed completely with his interpretation. However, I am not limited by Christ as being only a servant,
I don't understand this because there is nothing better than being a "servant" of Christ. The word there is well translated "slave". There is nothing better than being the servant or the slave of Christ.
All the serving ones are servants. No one serving Christ is not His servant. I don't understand what you mean about being "only a servant".
Actually we serve Christ best by being taken over fully by Christ. Rather than work we do for Christ firstly it is to allow Christ to work Himself into us.
The servant of Christ serves Christ to people, if possible.
What we serve is a
Who. In our help, administration, teaching, evangelism, or whatever else we do unto Him it should be serving Christ to people. We serve people with the Christ within us that we live. They may recieve or reject the One living through us. But we try to serve people with Christ.
That is how ALL the workers for Christ should serve Christ. We should pray in all our labors "Lord Jesus, I only want this person to receive from me Yourself. Lord I am here to serve You to men and women."
Even if you are putting cloths on the backs of people or food and shelter to people, you should be serving
Christ to people, in the power of Christ, by Christ.
Paul said of him and his co-workers
"For we are a FRAGRANCE of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing." (2 Cor. 2:15)
All the servants, all the workers for Christ, should each be a "fragrance" of Christ. Putting it in the vanacular, the servants of Christ should "stink" with the smell of Christ. This is a spiritual "fragrance". This is an aroma of the living Jesus. Whether they are saved or they perish, they should sense the "fragrance" of Christ.
I would like to write more, but will cut it here on that. The servant of Christ, every servant of Christ has the highest calling to be a
"fragrance" of Christ to God and in human beings. You know, it is hard to get away from a fragrance.
or being only the seed, or being only the wheat. Can't I also be used
by Christ as a messenger and worker in the field, who by identifying the tares, make the separating and binding process more clear and easier at the time of harvesting, which is coming upon us with ever increasing speed?
The identifying of false teaching and therefore some false believers, has been useful in church history. But here again, this too must be done with the fragrance of Christ and smell like Christ.
As for the "binding process" I don't see much for the Christian worker to do, depending on what you mean. We do not have to call false Christians together to gather them or bind them. In a free country we cannot bind them in any way.
You may pray to "bind" them in the heavens. This means we may pray binding prayers to ask God to restrict their damaging enfluence. But the Christian workers does other physical binding of false Christians.
The best way to "identify" the false is to be the constrast in truth. By far the the best way to expose a counterfeit is to be as genuine in life and nature with Christ. Even towards the end of the age though, absolute discrimination can only be the operation of the angels of God.
Remember in Exodus. God told Moses to throw down his staff and it would become a live serpent. Incredibly, Pharoah said "No big deal." He called some of his magicians and they were amazingly able to do the same thing by their deep Satanic art of miracles. Up to a certain point Pharoah's magicians were able to imitate Moses
(Exodus 7:8-14). Eventually they could not.
But for a season the world with its practicioners will do the same things that the Christian worker does. The modern day Pharoah will boast that he can do everything the same as any Christian can do. So what's the difference?
This was a lesson for us. So the imitation of the enemy of God is often too subtle to detect. I think this keeps us dependent and trusting on God and not on our own wisdom.
But that we, the Christians, as wheat, must tend to our growth and to the growth of one another is paramount. Paul said we are God's farm -
"For we [apostles] are God's fellow workers; you [church] are God's cultivated land [or farm], God's building." (1 Cor. 3:9)
And the growth that is taking place on God's farm must be the growing of Christ the divine seed within the believers. The apostles plant and water. God only gives the growth of the divine life in man:
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth." (vs. 6,7) 
Dividing the Wheat from the Chaff
18 Mar '12 20:29
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