Principles of living a set apart, godly life [2] What the Apostles did NOT teach

 The Apostles taught that Christians are called or summoned to engage in the process of living a godly life, a life set apart from the principles and values of the worldly arrangement. Before I look at how the Apostles encouraged Christians to put such a life into effect, it is important to note what they did not teach, because numerous errors have crept in to Christianity over the centuries. 

The Apostles did not -

Make appeals to the external commandments of divine Law, using them as a ‘spur’ to ‘goad’ Christians towards godliness and avoidance of sin. 

Encourage Christians to adopt an attitude of self-surrender, so as to ‘stop struggling and making the effort, and rather let go and let God do the work’. 

Make appeals to the feelings or emotions of Christians as a basis for their behaviour. 

Exhort Christians to seek transcendent or ecstatic experiences as a means of empowerment over sin. 

Encourage Christians to punish their own bodies in order to purge out sin.

Rather, the Apostles constantly appealed to the minds of Christians by presenting ‘spiritual’ knowledge – enlightened knowledge away from the Breath of God that in turn leads to underlying principles of speech and behaviour. ‘Outsiders’ or ‘unbelievers’ cannot, by their own ability away from their deep inner core, be persuaded of such knowledge and principles to the point of obedience. The Apostles encouraged Christians who were receiving enlightened knowledge to think this knowledge through to its logical conclusion, to use their ability to think, evaluate, comprehend and analyse. They exhorted Christians to apply this knowledge and its conclusions by means of engaging in enlightened mastery and ‘possession of their vessel’. Christians were to carry this illuminating knowledge from their hearts and minds across into their behaviour moment-by-moment, within the sphere of practical, beneficial love. The Apostles exhorted Christians to harness the wayward raw passions, desires and energies that are still inherent in their fleshly constitution, and to ‘walk around within the Breath’ and build up their allotted inheritance within the heavenly realm. They taught that when Christians persist in ungodly, worldly behaviour, they incur a degree of loss of their portion of the divine inheritance – not a loss of deliverance itself – but a loss of some of their portion of the treasure of the divine inheritance.