As I was memorizing our Memory work for church, I came across the phrase, "according to".
1Tim. 6: 3 "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
4* He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings," etc.
I was instructing a new believer and we came across a scripture in Galatians 5 which has such like in it. It goes like this:
Galatians 5
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
In Ephesians 4:24 it reads, "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
There are other scripture such as Eph. 1;4,5,7,9, and 11 that give an action according to the will of God, His pleasure, His purpose, etc.
So what does it mean to do some according to, or after, or what does it mean, such like?
It would have been impossible for the Lord to write the Bible with all the application of God's principle of all ages and all cultures. So the Lord has given us His word and Christians have to interpret what the such likes and the according to are. This is what it means when it says in Ga 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and Ga 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Walking in the Spirit does not extinguish the commands of God, but understanding them and knowing how the apply to the such likes and the according tos. It is not legalism to apply the scripture, but Spiritual. The legalist will say, we will only do what is directly commanded in the scripture, the Spiritual man will say, is this according to the Spirit of the scripture. Is it according to God's love, His forgiveness, His discipline, His righteousness, His holiness, His intent for purity, modesty, His creation of male and female, etc.
Do we have the mind of Christ?
PRAYER
Lord, instill in me your Spirit. Give me wisdom to know what is according the spirit of Satan and that which is according to the Spirit of Christ and His Word. Lord, help me to be renewed in the Spirit of my mind, and to put on the new man which after God (according to God) is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:23-24).
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