Are You Passing Your Test?
Everyone who is called of God at the end of this age will be salted with fire (Matt. 3:11; 1 Cor. 3:13; 1 Peter 1:7; Mark 9:49). What might some of these tests include?
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (Matt. 10:34-36). This example would also include a husband against his wife. What is this test about?
The Lord said those He would send with His message would be hated and misunderstood by the world (John 15:18-20; 1 John 3:13) because they preach the truth from God’s word. This test is about your loyalty to God and His servants who brings you God’s truth.
Jesus said that He will receive the ones who accept or receive the person He sends with His true message (Matt. 10:40-42). You don’t have to receive that person as a prophet. You can just receive him as a righteous man (John 13:20). Notice that God continued to send other apostles, other prophets and other teachers as time went on (1 Cor. 12:28). Jesus said that He puts in charge those who should teach His household, and if they remain faithful until He comes, Jesus will put them in charge of all His possessions (Matt. 24:45-47). You are to obey these true men of God because they must give account of you before God (Heb. 13:17).
How would you know for sure whether these men were from God? The blind would receive their sight. The deaf would hear. The lame would be healed. The dead would be brought back to life, the poor and lowly or teachable people, would have the true gospel preached to them (Luke 7:22).
How would anyone know the real truth in this religiously deceived world unless someone were sent from God anyway (Rom. 10:15)? And how will you understand unless someone preaches to you that one truth (Rom. 10:14-16)? Yes, God is still sending apostles, prophets and preachers. That is His business, not the business of seminaries. Jesus Christ is still training and revealing His one truth to men whom He chooses, such as the Apostle Paul who Jesus taught personally through revelation (Gal. 1:11-12; Ex. 4:12; Psalm 32:8).
There is only one truth that comes from one God, that is found in one book, the Bible. It is the only book that requires your repentance in order to believe (Mark 1:15). By only this book, will the world and all who live in it be judged (John 12:47-50).
Just like Jesus was, those whom He sends will be spoken evil of (John 7:12). The person God sends would not be a lover of money as the false ministers are today (Luke 16:14; Titus 1:11). In regard to those who followed Jesus by being loyal to those He sent, He said that some would leave their homes, brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters, children and farms for His sake. This would also include husbands and wives (1 Cor. 7:12-16). He said if they passed that test they would receive a hundred times as much in this lifetime, and in the world to come they would receive eternal life (Mark 10:30). He also said, however, that they would continue to be persecuted. God is going to test our loyalty to Him with the members of our own household.
Another test that many will receive concerns wealth. When a person keeps God’s Ways and does His Will daily on this earth (lives to be pleasing to his Maker daily), God gives that person the power to make wealth (Deut. 8:17-18; Prov. 10:22). God makes the poor and the rich (1 Sam. 2:7). However, many are the problems of the rich. Some become wise in their own eyes (Prov. 28:11). God warns the rich not to boast of their riches (Jer. 9:23-25). Riches make it harder for a man to enter the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:23-24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25). Why? The rich spend so much time with worldly things and worldly pursuits that they become lukewarm towards pleasing God, daily studying His word and serving others for Christ. Pleasing God is no longer first in their lives. They stop producing fruit on their trees, which means they stop building godly character (Matt. 13:22).
It is the rich who become lukewarm for good deeds in Revelation 3:15-19. God is going to remove the lampstand of those who lose their first love for the truth because they are no longer loyal, and because they are not doing the good that they do with the same zeal and love they had at first (Rev. 2:5). God wants the rich to be rich in good works, and generous and ready to share (1 Tim. 6:17-18).
Another test of loyalty would be that the Lord’s disciples are to be of one mind—one accord. They are commanded to love one another, serve one another, and cause no dissensions among each other. They are to be loving, giving, forgiving, and full of long-suffering (able to endure suffering). They are to practice all the fruits of God’s Spirit toward one another daily (Gal. 5:22-23). They are to practice being without spot or wrinkle towards each other (John 15:12-19; 1 John 3:10-11, 14; 4:7-8, 11-12, 20-21). If they have a spiritual problem, they are to discuss it with the one who told them the truth and thus be loyal to him and God. If you have God’s minister sent to you with the truth, you are to obey Him, says God’s word (Heb. 13:17).
Most of all, they are to prove this message is the truth, and then be loyal to the one God has sent in their lives to preach this truth to them. Many are now being tested with the tests that have just been described. Many will fail. A few, however, will pass the test that God is testing them with. Will you pass your test? This article was written for you, in the hope that you do.