“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Eccl. 12:13)
Man’s one purpose is to glorify God, we do this by being willingly obedient to the Holy Spirit, by stepping out in faith as we are led to. By our intellect we are to discern the Word of God properly, and it is only again by the Holy Spirit that this can be accomplished. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 2:11)
The commandments and obligations placed upon us are quite clear and are never to be mistakenly applied by the Mosaic Law, Christ fulfilled that law. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14) We are thoroughly expected to adhere to the commandments of the New Testament, whether they are given by the words of Christ or by the Holy Spirit through the men He choose to do so, for in reality, they are the same. God is Jesus, Jesus is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is God.
These commandments are made clear to all who will ask, all who have been crucified with Christ, we are to study to show ourselves approved, and as we study with that one sole intent, that the Lord would be glorified, the Scriptures are opened up for us. We can then serve as we should with our intellect, when we are shown the truths of the Word of God, there is no emotional context to the truth of the Scriptures. But there is an emotion to our being obedient to these truths when we step out in faith.
We may use our financial offerings as an example here, there is no place in the New Testament, the Testament of grace, to give ten percent of our monetary increase to the Lord. In fact, if you will study the Old Testament in this area, you will find that the offering was actually closer to thirty percent. In this age of grace, we are led to give as we feel we should, the context of the intellectual amount of an offering of our increase is not stated. When we step out in faith many times we do so by our emotions, but we believe the Holy Spirit is leading us, to put it in the simplest of terms, how we feel is how we act. There is no commandment for you to begin a Bible study in your home, but you may believe you are being led to do so, there are no commandments that require us to act in certain ways, we pray for guidance, we listen with our heart, and then, in faith we move forward.
Our Father in heaven has emotions, as best as we can describe them, anger, wrath, love, compassion, just as we do. Our intellect understands the truth of the Scriptures, our emotions act in faith when the intellect can provide no concrete evidence from the Word of God. “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17) Faith will lead you when you trust the Lord, they are one and the same, we can offer Scriptures verses when speaking to someone, but the entire conversation with them cannot be only Scripture, we trust the Holy Spirit to lead the conversation for the glory of God, responding to the one we are speaking to with the intellect and with emotional context.
If we allow our emotions to rule us, the heart that is deceitful above all things will lead us down the wrong path, if we live solely by our intellect, we will not fulfill the law of love, even when nothing but the truth is spoken. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 speaks of a heart that understands both our emotional and intellectual needs.
The best way I have been shown to achieve this so far is by this statement, always speak in love to all you meet, but with firm truth, and always for the glory of God.
