Setting the context
We see mocking behaviour all the time, as the thoughts, ideas, and character of individuals are publicly ridiculed and laughed at. In that sense, mockery seeks to undermine a person’s value or worth, by deliberately and overtly not paying attention to what they have to say, or by dismissing it as worthless, even laughing at it.
In most cases, mockery is inflicted by individuals who simply disagree with the ideas and opinions of others. They use this cruel technique to elevate themselves above the one they are mocking, and to influence people regarding what and who is right or wrong.
Of course, people often are wrong, even to the point where in some cases their ideas and character pose a serious threat to society. They may use lies, for example, as a pretence for waging war or other evil. What they say and do is not right and therefore should be rejected.
The world mocks God
It is a sad fact that people mock God because they are naturally his enemies, and they think his words and actions are not right.
The natural man dismisses God’s treasures of wisdom and knowledge as foolishness, of no value to them. In arrogant ignorance, they question the creator of all things, visible and invisible. The natural man is unable to understand the things of the Spirit of God.
To mock God is what one might expect from an unsaved person, even to the point where they openly encourage others to laugh at God, as if he is a worthless myth devised by primitive man. They ridicule the bible by making fun of the mighty works of God, from creation and the flood to heaven and hell. They even laugh and try to entertain people with jokes and so-called comedy sketches about the crucifixion of God’s only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Just as he was mocked by the chief priests back then, and by the soldiers who stripped him, dressed him in a purple robe, platted a crown of thorns, which they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews, so too do men mock today, saying if he saved others, why couldn’t he save himself!
It doesn’t stop there: some unbelievers, in their God-hating ignorance twist the very character of God by describing him as a blood-thirsty, vengeful failure who got creation wrong and who spitefully inflicts needless pain, suffering and death.
The Righteous Judge of the whole earth
Regardless of whether people choose to believe or not, God will be justified in all his sayings, as his word is true and all of it will come to pass.
Those who mocked and spitefully entreated Christ while he was on the earth, were merely fulfilling the written word of God. The crown of thorns, the casting of lots for his garment, the piercing of his hands and feet, the mocking offer of vinegar and gall to drink while he hung on the cross, and so many details were prophesied hundreds of years previously. The mockers back then were ignorant of the fact that God’s written counsel will stand. While they fearlessly mocked God, his word was being shown to be true as those mockers unwittingly played their part in the greatest prophesied event in all history.
Unbelievers today also have no true understanding of the Almighty, eternal God. Yet, without knowledge, they mock His word, as if they know more than their creator. They weren’t around when God created the heaven and the earth, yet they teach big bang and evolutionary theories across the whole world as if they are facts based on sound science, thus darkening the counsel of God in his word.
Imagine heaven full of God’s enemies
As vessels of clay, made from the dust of the earth, mankind proudly rejects and mocks the words of his maker and the gift of eternal life made possible through the death burial and resurrection of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Would God be righteous in judging such disbelief, or should he just welcome everyone to heaven even if they were to hate him and remain his enemies?
Regardless of how clever people think they are in this age of grace, there is a day coming when God, the righteous judge, shall judge according to the Gospel of Christ.
One thing is sure, that it is appointed unto all men once to die, and then the judgment.
For those who do not obey the gospel, there is no use in blaming God for taking vengeance at that day of judgment, as he has done everything necessary to grant an eternal life of righteousness, peace and joy for all who simply trust that he died for their sins, was buried and raised again for their justification.
Yet men in their ignorance would rather trust their own reasoning than trust in the words of God, the saviour and judge of the whole world, who will be justified in all his sayings.
Philosophy and an imaginary god
Unbelievers would rather cling to the words of philosophers than the words of God. In their imagination, God would have made everything such that evil and suffering could not happen. At the very least, their imagined God would immediately step in to eradicate evil.
On the one hand they say the Bible is not true, and God is not real, yet on the other, they look for excuses to blame God for their predicaments and for all evil. They even ask why they were born in the first place, as if to say God made them just so they would have to suffer, so everything bad that happens to them is his fault and not due to sin and their rejection of his mercy.
Mocking God’s plans for heaven and earth
It is because of ignorance and rejection of the truth that natural man fails to grasp who God is, including his love, wisdom, power and righteousness.
It is foolishness to an unbeliever that God says he is God and there is none other, that it is he who made the earth, and created man upon it: that his hands stretched out the heavens and he commanded all their host.
The unbeliever does not accept that God sent his only begotten Son to dwell among us; they reject God’s words in this fundamental aspect of the gospel.
God’s purpose in sending his Son to suffer and die for the sins of the world is foolishness to an unbeliever. In this also, they mock God through their ignorance, accusing him of being an unloving parent.
The wisdom of God is foolishness to the unbeliever. They miss the big picture entirely, that it was through Christ’s blood of the cross that God made it possible to redeem his entire creation, both in earth and in heaven!!
Through ignorance, unbelievers are unable to reconcile the evil state of the world with the vain God of their imagination. Instead, they dismiss and mock God’s character, his foreknowledge and wisdom, and his ability to perform that which he planned from before the foundation of the world and declared in his written word.
The essence of man: body, soul, and spirit
Man consists of body, soul and spirit, the body being the physical vessel of clay, in which dwells a non-physical spirit. Together, they are a living soul that thinks and acts in unison as one body, soul, and spirit.
When God created man, he formed him from the dust of the ground, but it wasn’t until God breathed life into man, that he became a living soul.
There were no scientific analysers around when the book of Genesis was written, yet we now know that the human body is indeed composed of a combination of naturally available chemical elements that are found in the earth. However, there still is, nor will be, any invention of science that can empirically measure the immaterial spirit, that life force given by God, the Father of spirits.
The physical human body without a spirit is an inanimate object, a lifeless combination of chemical elements. From the dust it was taken, and to the dust it returns, at which point the spirit of life which God gave returns to him.
Be under no illusion, the fact that all spirits return to God does not mean a happy outcome for all men.
All are resurrected, but not all are justified. In this age of grace, justification is by believing in Christ’s faithful shedding of his own blood as payment for sins.
God is not mocked, and so his word will be fulfilled in its entirety. Believers from this age of grace will be caught up to heaven prior to the prophesied ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ and the return of Christ to set up his 1,000 year reign upon the earth, prior to the final resurrection and the ‘great white throne judgment’ of the unjust, who will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity.
The Triune God: Father Son and Holy Spirit
God is a Spirit, the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God whom we worship.
The truth is that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the Word made flesh, and it is by him that all things visible and invisible were created, and it is by him that all things consist.
Just to be clear, Jesus Christ is the Word who became flesh and who made all things. Nothing made has been made without him.
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.
The invisible God may be found by any man that seeks after him. The apostle Paul summed this up in his address to the Athenians on Mars’ hill:
Father, Son and Spirit dwell in a believer
In the following verses, we see that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit who are one, dwell within all who are saved by trusting in the gospel of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as payment for sin.
All those who are saved have the Spirit of Christ our God dwelling in them. The contrary is also true, if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
With the Holy Spirit of God now dwelling in this body of sin, as Paul calls it, a believer may begin to grow in knowledge and wisdom from the word of God, to discern between the flesh and Spirit. They need to learn what this means for their daily lives, how they should walk, whether it be after the flesh or after the Spirit.
Can believers really mock God?
A core aspect of this study is to understand the meaning and importance of choices each member of the body of Christ makes in their daily lives. In the most simplistic of terms, to disregard the instruction which God gave for the church in his written word, is to count the words of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ as either not true, not important, or not to be taken seriously.
As we’ve seen already, that is pretty much the definition of mocking a person. It’s what you would expect from the world, to dismiss the words of God as worthless. But when a member of Christ’s body claims the bible as their authority, puts on a façade of sincere obedience to the truth, and yet wilfully sets their affections on things to satisfy their fleshly nature, that is mocking God. They are not truly thankful for the grace and mercy of God, who has saved us for a purpose. Sowing to their flesh rather than the Spirt has consequences, for God is not mocked and we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Knowing the terror of the Lord
In love, Paul laboured from the heart to bring this doctrine to believers, because he knew the terror of the Lord. He knew that the unsaved would face eternal damnation, and that each believer would appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive according to the things done in his body, whether good or bad.
Constrained by the love of Christ, and knowing the terror of the Lord, Paul laboured to persuade believers that they should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Preaching the gospel – a holy calling
Like the Corinthians, we have received salvation by the grace of God and have been made members of the body of Christ, who called us with a holy calling for his purpose. It is as important today as it was back in Paul’s time, that we receive not that grace of God in vain, but that we work together in the body as ambassadors of Christ, representing him on the earth by preaching the message of reconciliation and by giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.
In the simplest of terms, preaching the gospel requires a life and fellowship in the gospel that is consistent with the doctrine we preach, otherwise the ministry will be blamed, and the gospel hindered.
As we meet together, the Lord would have us increase in love toward one another, so that our hearts would be established unblameable in holiness before God, at Christ’s appearing.
The great mystery of marriage and the church
Christ so loved the church that he gave himself to suffer and die for it, so that by his word he might sanctify and cleanse it. He has given us his word, but we must receive it to become a church as Christ intended, one that he can use for his purpose, without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish.
There is a great mystery in this church, body of Christ doctrine, where we learn the purpose and pattern by which husbands and wives should love one another, and how that applies to all who are joined together as members of Christ’s body.
The institution of marriage
Marriage is an amazing institution, designed by God, and in which we can learn to love as he intended, becoming one flesh that is knit together in love by daily nourishment from the word of God, putting off the old man of sin, pride and covetous selfishness that leads to conflict, but rather, individually being the person who God has called us to be in his word, putting the other before ourselves and being thankful for one another. This is exactly the behaviour that is required in the church, the body of Christ.
In a marriage there is plenty of opportunity to grow in godliness, by putting on the mind of Christ and daily applying lessons from God’s word that by experience we can also apply in the church. If we don’t exercise love, obedience, accountability, selflessness, duty, longsuffering, and charity at home, we have not submitted to Christ our head. Our marriage will suffer, and we also cannot function as members of his body in the church.
Marriages and churches alike can suffer as the sin of one or more members can create what may seem like an impossible situation. However, God has given us all of what we need for him to turn such situations into opportunities for growth in knowledge, love and edification of his body, making us stronger and enabling us to continue ministering to one another, for his glory.
Roles in marriage
Submission to Christ, the head of the church which is his body, also applies in a marriage. The roles of a husband and wife are set out clearly in the word of God, yet mocked by the world as archaic patriarchy, a man-made system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women.
The role and responsibility of the husband
In God’s design, the purpose of submission in a Christian marriage is not to establish dominance. God has given husbands huge responsibility, with clear instruction on how to love their wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Even though a husband is the head of the wife, they are not God over them and the headship responsibility of a man in marriage must never be misused to exert pressure, to manipulate, control or blame the wife for problems in the marriage. Any lack of obedience to your role in a marriage, or in the church, is ultimately a rebellion against God and His design.
Husbandry is about cultivation. A good husband has the responsibility to nurture spiritual growth within his marriage and family. Before he can sow seeds of faith and love in his family, he must first be a partaker of the fruits of his identity in Christ.
By receiving the word of God, the husband seeks to mirror the love of Christ in the marriage, offering unconditional love, just as Christ does to us, not contingent upon our performance. The role of the husband therefore, is a sacrificial commitment to foster their wives’ spiritual growth; not to dominate but to serve and lead with love, according to Christ’s pattern of love for the church, which is his body.
This unconditional love, initiated by the husband, creates an environment for spiritual growth within the marriage, and is pivotal in directing the spiritual growth of the family. A lack of spiritual leadership can lead to dysfunction within the family and marital relationship. When problems arise in a marriage, the husband’s responsibility is to take ownership first and do everything he can to rectify the situation, rather than to blame the wife.
There’s no place for a Christian husband to hide from his responsibility. God has charged them with a very difficult task, but has provided all of what is needed to fulfil this privileged role. Husbands cannot just bury their heads but must take ownership of their responsibilities, of their failures, their wife’s failures and their family’s failures. God has given the husband the responsibility of headship in the marriage, so blaming someone else is no excuse.
The role and responsibility of the wife
Christ is the Head of the Body and any submission to her husband must be done after the wife submits to the will of God. When a wife submits to her husband, she is helping him grow into what God intended him to be in Christ. By walking in that role, wives take important steps in reconciling conflicts within the marriage.
As believers in this age of grace, we submit to Christ by grace, faith, and love, not by law or force. The same goes for wives in a marriage. It is not passive, inactive, or ignorant, but in love according to the wife’s vocation in Christ.
Christ submitted himself to the will of the Father yet was equal with God, not any more or less but one with God.
The wife’s role is not by coercion or force, nor is it in ignorance, but one in which she gladly submits to her own husband by emulating Christ’s pattern of mind and humility in the flesh, of one mind and judgment with her husband, where the two become one flesh.
Sincerity and truth in marriage and the church
At the heart of our relationship with God and our communion with one another in the blood and body of Christ, is sincerity and truth. If these fundamental elements are compromised then so too is the relationship, which can break down if not repaired by submission to Christ, our head, and the doctrine which is according to godliness.
In both marriage and the church, sincerity and truth are essential and must be maintained for proper functioning. It is the duty of the husband, wife or fellow member of the body to care for one another, to ensure that we are perfectly joined together. In that bond of perfectness, there is no place for insincerity or lies, knowing the damage it causes to the whole body.
The allegory of reaping and sowing
The allegory of reaping and sowing helps us understand the consequences of the choices we make in our Christian lives.
It is not a contradiction to say that men mock God, but that God is not mocked. God is not mocked, because his word and character will be upheld, regardless of how a saved man chooses to live, whether sowing to his flesh or to the Spirit of God who dwells within him. The outcome will be just as God has declared; a man will reap what he sows.
What does it mean to reap and sow?
Sowing and reaping are fundamental agricultural practices involved in planting and harvesting crops, so not too difficult to understand as a physical concept. Put simply, we sow in order to reap the fruit of the land as necessary for food.
Of course, there’s more to it than taking just any seed and planting it in any ground. It requires the right seed, of good quality, sown on well-prepared ground that is tilled and weeded. After planting, regular watering is needed to promote germination and growth.
With the end goal in mind, the farmer monitors growth of the crop to determine maturity and the right time for harvesting, when the fruit has reached its full size and has ripened. In agriculture, the timing of harvest is crucial to ensure the best quality and yield.
While all these things might seem obvious regarding physical farming and husbandry, it’s important to understand that the living soul is more than a complex organized combination of chemicals with physiological and metabolic functions. It has a mind, a spirit of life that has a conscience and self-awareness, emotions, feelings, language and the ability to reason and control what we say or do in the body, which is one with our spirit.
Where and what to sow
As man consists of body, soul and spirit, he requires both physical and spiritual food. This study is focused on the spiritual food, the things that we sow to the flesh or the Spirit.
As with the agricultural analogy, the things we sow spiritually determine what fruit is borne spiritually. The ground into which seed is sown is the heart. The heart is where our thoughts are and it is from the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks, whether it be good or evil. A person sees with their eyes, hears with their ears, but it is the heart where understanding takes place. God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, regardless of what comes out of a man’s mouth. From the heart of the natural man proceeds lies, evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness and blasphemies. The heart is where we reason and determine things. It can be hardened, so as not to accept the word of God. It is within the heart that confidence lies, or where doubts exist, and it is with the heart that a man either loves or hates God. The conscience of a man’s heart can be pricked, or it can be hardened and seared.
For believers, the Spirit of Christ resides in our hearts.
As a result, we can be renewed in the spirit of our minds and are instructed as such, to put off the old man, which is the carnal, fleshly natural mind, and put on the new man, the mind of Christ.
Until we leave this earthly body, believers have a choice in whether to sow to the flesh, or to the Spirit of God. This determines the fruit that is brought forth in our lives. The important question here, is whether we want to bring forth fruit unto God, or to ourselves. When the bible talks about sowing to the Spirit, it’s with a capital “S”; that’s talking about the Spirit of God, not the spirit of man, our old man, known as the flesh.
When we receive the Spirit of God, our spirit is made alive and we are as newborn babes in Christ. We need nourishment in order to grow and bear the fruit of the Spirit, in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
Sowing to the Spirit
What could we possibly sow to the Spirit of God who knows all things? The Spirit of God does not replace our spirit, but because we have the Spirit of God we can grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom, to be renewed in the spirit of our mind by putting off the old man and putting on the new. Putting on the mind of Christ is not a passive thing that just happens to a believer; it is the result of prayerful obedience to the instruction which Christ gave for the church, which is his body. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, for a purpose.
If we receive the word of God and yield to it, this is how we are cleansed to become a glorious church, sanctified by the word and without blemish.
With the Spirit of God, we can know the things of God. If we study the bible we can increase in knowledge, we can even grow in understanding. But for the word to take root in our hearts we must yield to the Spirit, our hearts must be open to receive and not be hardened. This requires prayer and meditation on what we have learned, otherwise, like the agricultural analogy, we will not bear the fruit of the Spirit and we will not be able to serve and minister to our families or within the church.
How do we know what we are sowing?
We know from scripture that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, so how can we know whether or not we are allowing the word of God to work effectually in us?
The word itself is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We only have to read the doctrine given for the body of Christ, and ask ourselves in all honesty and sincerity if our affections are set on things above and not on things on the earth; are we studying to become workmen that need not to be ashamed; are we presenting our bodies daily as our reasonable service, choosing to be transformed by the renewing of our minds?
Free will to choose whom we serve
The flesh seeks to command our thoughts, affections, time, desires, and the way we live our lives. But God, through his Spirit has given believers the free will and ability to choose whether to sow these to the flesh, or to the Spirit, in the knowledge that whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap, whether corruption or life everlasting.
The ignorant state of the natural man
What a man knows in his natural state is according to “the spirit of a man which is in him”, but only the Spirit of God knows the things of God.
As mentioned previously, it is impossible for a natural man’s spirit to discern the things of God; he simply can’t receive them and they are foolishness to him.
As a brief reminder, the natural man is the state into which all are born as sons of Adam. It has a sinful nature in which the fleshly or carnal mind is at enmity with God.
The secure position of a believer
Someone who has heard and believed the gospel of Christ, that he died for our sins, was buried and raised again the third day for our justification, is sealed with the holy Spirit of God and has the promise of eternal life.
At that moment of belief, the saved person who was previously dead in their sins is quickened, made alive in Christ; all their sins and trespasses are forgiven, and they are forever saved, not by any works of their own, but entirely by the grace of God.
A saved person, from the moment they believed the gospel of our salvation, receives the holy Spirit of God in their hearts as an earnest (or downpayment) until his heavenly body is redeemed.
This is known as the firstfruits of the Spirit, which is ours until we are caught up to be forever with the Lord.
Sin still dwells in a believer
What must not be overlooked, is that we still live in a body of sin, even after receiving the Spirit of God and being counted as his children.
As children of God, how should we feel about our sin, and how do we even know when our thoughts, words or deeds are evil? The answer is by the law, that is how we have the knowledge of sin and by it the whole world has become guilty before God.
For example, we know about the lust of our flesh because the law says, thou shalt not covet;
The law says: Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
It is a fact that while still in the body, there is a law at work in our members, warring against the mind. In our inner man we desire to serve God, but because we still live in a body of flesh, sin dwells in us and we find that the good that we would we do not: but the evil which we would not, that we do. If we do things we would not, it’s not who we are in Christ that does these things, but sin that dwells in us.
This is crucially important to understand, for many reasons, not least of which is that our sins are forgiven because we placed our trust in Christ’s payment for sins on the cross; we were placed into the body of Christ by his Spirit and there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Bought with a price, to glorify God
This saved and sealed position, with its eternal benefits has been bought and paid for by Christ’s own shed blood at Calvary. We are not our own, the Holy Ghost dwells in us, we are bought with a price and so we should glorify God, not just in our body, but also in our spirit, which is God's.
God is not mocked – judgment awaits
Regardless of how men constantly mock God, the bible is very clear in stating that God is not mocked.
How can it be that men mock God, yet God is not mocked? The reason why God is not mocked, is because whatever a man sows, that is what he reaps, and so rather than being mocked, God’s word will be fulfilled.
These verses are not saying that the actions of a man determine whether or not they receive eternal life. Otherwise, salvation would be by works, and not by grace. However, God has a purpose for his church and whatever we sow in our lives, while in this body, will be judged. God is righteous and so, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, which every believer must do, we will be judged according to what we have done in our body, whether it be good or bad.
Our labour of love toward one another in the body
In meekness, therefore, we must consider and love one another as members of the same body, allowing the word of God to dwell richly in us and being prepared to teach and admonish one another, with grace in our hearts in whatever we say and do, giving thanks to God in everything.
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