Diogenes, a Greek about 400 years before Christ was always looking for an honest man. He believed that men and women lived a life dictated by rules and taboos and therefore no one was really truthful or honest. Men and women were naturally corrupted by the influence of their own government and the ethos of the society. Philippi was a region in Macedonian that included the five Balkan countries one of which was Greece. So the members of the church would have been very familiar with the concept of honesty. Greek Honesty was a phrase coined during the Roman Empire to symbolize a person who could really be trusted. Diogenes never found an honest man but we have found the first honest man, Jesus. Paul iterated that man changed the glory of God to images of beasts and creeping things worshipping the creation rather than the Creator and as a result men’s minds were corrupt and empty of any honesty. Paul gives a more accurate account of the state of man then Diogenes. Therefore in order to be honest a person would have to be free from all the conditioning and traditions imposed upon him either from a conscience or unconscious level as dictated to him by the conditions of the times in which he lives. This would be impossible unless an inward cleansing could take place in the heart and mind of an individual. The only cleansing available to us then or today is the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. The remission of sin by the shed blood of Jesus is our hope of an honest report.
Some Christians are truly unaware of the miraculous change that takes place when they are born of the Spirit. For the cleansing blood of Christ rids us of a reprobate mind and opens our thought processes to the deep things of God. Rather let us say our minds are partakers of the very nature and substance of God the Father in the face of Jesus Christ. Therefore we may conclude that we have the mind of Christ the very impartation of our Father’s personality. He imparts all his attributes and characteristics into our inner most being, the place where rivers of living water may flow out from us. This is the place where deep calls unto deep at the noise of the water spouts. Ps 42:7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
WE are now given the freedom from iniquity because we have been translated from the influence of darkness into the kingdom of light. How would you like this experience? Ask Jesus to enter your heart and mind right now! James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. There is no dishonesty or wavering or teetering in his nature. Num. 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. Yes whatsoever things are honest think on these things. You have a door of understanding open for you to walk in; sit down and rest as you meditate of the honest one.
The ability to think on these things which are honest requires a transformation only the Spirit of Jesus can give us; he is the only one who is honest, a divine attribute only made available by the Father through Jesus Christ. He is the venerable sage with white hair and beard we discover in the Revelation 1. He is the Alpha-man (ALEPH), before Gen 1 In the beginning (BETH) second letter or second creation for we are beta or beth-man, the second man. Matt 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. There is no kalos-man (good or honest man) but if a man will embrace the gospel he will enter into life and keep what is the honest WAY.
This Greek word for HONEST is NT:4586 semnos (sem-nos'); venerable, i.e. honorable: impressed by reason of age; a venerable sage with white hair and beard. Profoundly honored; revered holy man or men, befitting a lord. 1Tim 3:8 Likewise must the deacons (we all) be grave, not double tongued,(not double minded) not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre. GRAVE is the adjective of honest and the word honest is one in which the sense of gravity and dignity is combined. GRAVITY, venerableness and dignity help to illustrate the kingly and royal sense attached to the word, HONEST. Think on these things.
the voice
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LESSON 2: HONEST