Jehovah's Witnesses Straight Talk - Forum/Blog

1Cor.1:7 so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;
1:8 who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The flesh, and sadly that is what these brothers and sister were in, and it was the reason Paul was writing them over division among them because they were walking and thinking in fleshly terms.

1Cor.3:1 Brothers, I couldn't speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.
3:2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren't yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready,
3:3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren't you fleshly, and don't you walk in the ways of men?

What is a gift for the flesh, lets talk frank here? It is a boasting right as having gained something by our special abilities we've used to work for. It is a competition earned by competing against others. It is something worked for, study for, gained by the power of our own will, is it not?

1 Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn't receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

However, what these brothers and sisters had lost sight of was when they thought in terms of the flesh they were not walking in Spirit and truth so the had lost the Christ. Gifts in Christ were not given by the will of men, no more so then an apostleship; nothing in Christ was of man's will at all, they had been born by God's power, God's will; all in Christ including the very life of Christ indwelling was a gift of God's love.

Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers{TR adds ", raise the dead"}, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give.

Romans 3:24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;

1 Corinthians 2:12 But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely bestowed favor on us in the Beloved.

Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" He who hears, let him say, "Come!" He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.

In other words, one false step put them on the road into death and destruction they had been delivered out of by the power of Christ life, how much did they appreciate the glory of God indwelling them through the life of Christ, were they going to be foolish, and fall back into sleep in the flesh dead in Christ, or let Christ confirm them by his being their wisdom, sanctification, and righteousness? Could anything in Christ be approached with less then faith in God's love?

1Cor.11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord's cup in a manner unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
11:29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn't discern the Lord's body.
11:30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
11:31 For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn't be judged.

You see if they turned back to the weak and beggarly things of the flesh all they taught would be tainted with yeasts, half truths created from the flesh that God tells mankind is a lie, such a lie that a person cannot even direct their steps in this world, such a lie that they certainly have no grand teaching ability to direct the lives of God's anointed children.

Romans 8:6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;

Romans 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be.

Romans 8:8 Those who are in the flesh can't please God.

1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.

Soon as is true of all flesh they would account the faithfulness of men as God's faithful, light and darkness, good works and bad and removing the power of Christ for the power of mankind's will, making everything a false kingdom on earth where all is done and taught by the power of the flesh once more.

Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

1 Corinthians 1:29 that no flesh should boast before God.

2 Corinthians 1:17 When I therefore was thus determined, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the "Yes, yes" and the "No, no?"

2 Corinthians 5:16 Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

Is God faithful, or was he like us sometimes faithful, and sometimes unfaithful, how would they know truth without the faithfulness of God in them by Christ life? You see the subject is easy to understand if we love truth, Christ, more than this world, and all the lies told by corruptible flesh.

James.1:6 But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
1:7 For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 1:8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James. 1:16 Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers.
1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
1:18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

1 John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

God is faithful but he is not when we are in our flesh, why? Because the flesh oppose the Spirit it lust against the Spirit so a little of flesh cannot benefit us at all. Sadly, these brothers and sister did not believe that their flesh was all bad against God they could no longer determine what was truth, and what was the lie. They sought as our world does leaders and teachers that could keep them impressed in the flesh in sight worship by works of law.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

James 3:5 So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!

See also Nu-truth.com