You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
1 John 4:11-12
11 Beloved [agapetos], if [ei] God [theos] so [houto] loved [agapao] us [hemas], we [hemeis] ought [opheilo] also [kai] to love [agapao] one another [allelon]. 12 No man [oudeis] hath seen [theaomai] God [theos] at any time [popote]. If [ean] we love [agapao] one another [allelon], God [theos] dwelleth [meno] in [en] us [hemin], and [kai] his [autos] love [agape] is [esti] perfected [teleioo] in [en] us [hemin]. KJV-Interlinear 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. NASB
Our relationship with God prior to salvation is through His righteousness and His justice. Righteousness is His flaw free and blemish free perfection. Justice is the cleansing away of any and all transgressions (flaws, blemishes, etc.) which we call in general - sin. Righteousness and justice then come together to form Gods Holiness.
When you add the principles of doctrine (love) to Gods holiness, then you have Gods policy of grace. Mercy, is the action of grace toward mankind in general and to believers specifically.
Man comes in three parts potentially. The first part is the body which comes form the dust of the earth, or the biology of the earth. The body begins in the womb when the female egg is fertilized, and then is discarded in death at the end of the life of the body. The body is a vessel of corruption and contains the life of corruption - biological life. Neither of these will continue into eternity. Nothing of the world will continue into eternity. The physical body if the home of Adam's original sin which we call the sin nature. In Adam all have sinned.
The second part of the human makeup is the soul. It comes into the body at the point of physical birth and it is the second vessel which becomes the home of human life. Human life enters into the soul at the point of birth as described by the Hebrew word 'neshamah,' the spark of life. It is the exhale of God and the inhale of the baby. The first inhale of the baby comes at the point of physical birth. Babies do not inhale while in the womb. The soul leaves the body at the point of death of the body and since the soul and its occupant human life are created with forever life, they will return to God from whence they came for disposition by God into their appropriate destiny (heaven or hell).
The third component of the human makeup is the human spirit. This is formed in the person the very moment the person believes in Christ. It is often called regeneration or being born again. The human spirit is the third vessel and is the home of eternal life which again comes from God. Note that the person does not re-enter into the mothers womb in order to be born again in this spiritual sense.
The human spirit adheres to the human soul and becomes inseparable from it. When the human body dies, then the human spirit leaves the body along with the soul and returns to God for disposition of the appropriate destiny. And in this case that destiny is life with God in heaven forever because of the human spirit component.
Now this is a picture of mankind. You have nothing created by yourself. Even the body is a product of biological function and is nothing more than a temporary vessel of occupancy. It will inevitably rot away someday. The real you is in your soul - your human life. Your real destiny is determined by the presence of your human spirit or lack of it. All of the real you comes from God not from some biological activity. You had nothing to say about your life nor the circumstances of your life.
We do not invent anything which will make it into eternity. Not even human life.
So what of all of this?
Well, we are nothing in effect, and yet God has put together a plan which has given us 'nothings,' life and an opportunity to become just like Him (Jesus Christ), with respect to our resurrection body. That is a phenomenal leap from being nothing.
If God is willing to do all of this for us, us who have earned and deserve nothing, then do we not have some obligation to deal with people in any less a fashion as is taught by the Bible?
Some have seen Jesus Christ, and very few people in history have seen the face of Jesus Christ, but no one has ever seen the actual essence of God, the greatest and most powerful and most perfect being in existence, and yet we as nothing type people, have been given an opportunity to rise up above the angels in all of their glory, and be very near like God.
By having a daily Bible study, and by residing in fellowship, and by learning and using what we learn, and consequently growing up spiritually, then we are perfecting the principles and policies of God within our souls. We call this spiritual growth and advancement to spiritual maturity.
In so doing we become closer and closer to God as no one in history has ever done. Certainly no other religion has accomplished this.
This should be more than enough incentive to make you want to advance in your spiritual life. Your spiritual life is by far the most valuable and important component of your life. Once you recognize this in your life and once you accept it, then your life will begin to advance into a realm that is more phenomenal than you can ever imagine.
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End Of Lesson
Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.
