What IS Lawlessness?

[tsth]

2 Translations to examine.

NKJV

Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

Mt 13:41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,

Mt 23:28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Mt 24:12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

Ro 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

2Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

2Th 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.

Heb 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions."

1Jo 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

KJV

Mt 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Mt 13:41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

Mt 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Mt 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

lawlessness/iniquity

Strongs #458 ajnomiva

the condition of without law

because ignorant of it

because of violating it

contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness

work

Strongs #2038 ejraunavw

to work, labour, do work

to trade, to make gains by trading, "do business"

to do, work out

exercise, perform, commit

to cause to exist, produce

to work for, earn by working, to acquire

In His Love,

Suzanne

[tsth]

How Serious Is It?

2 Thessalonians 2

1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[tsth]

Something to meditate upon:

2 Peter 3

11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

Avoid Lawlessness!!!!

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest shiloh357]

Where the passage of Matthew 7: 21-23 is concnered, if you examine the context and Jesus line of thought, he is talking about false prophets. They are the workers of iniquity Jesus has in view at this point. The lawlessness in that passage is speaking to the disregard to the Torah by the false prophets. We can further know that is false prophets being rejected by Jesus due to their plea on the basis of their supernatual feats, which may have been seen as means of validating their claims on earth, and thus they felt it would validate their claims before the Lord. Jesus is not talking to the average sinner, nor to the person who simply thought they were saved in that particular passage.

A worker of iniquity or a "lawless" person as seen in the Scripture is a wicked person. A wicked person is not necessarily a person who sins. A wicked person is one who is completely abandoned to sin. They enjoy sin and they look for ways and opportunity to sin all the more. In some cases, they are irretrievably wicked and are given over to their sin by God.

I think we need to be careful not to go around labeling other people as "workers of iniquity." That is not our place. It is one thing to declare God's standard of rightesouness and hold up holiness as the standard for us as believers, but it is another thing altogether to go around pinning a label like "lawless" or "worker of iniquity" on people (most of whom we do not know). Most Christians are not lawless. They may fall from time to time, but they are far from being a "worker of iniquity."

[Guest shiloh357]

So how were they able to cast out demons?

Ever heard of the reference in the Scripture to lying signs and wonders?

Let me ask a question. If a parent told thier child to mow the grass with a push mower, but the child did the work with a ride on mower; was the child legal or illegal?

What does that have to do with being lawless and irretrievably wicked?

[patricia1]

lawlessness is a person who does not adhere nor live according to Gods word. I agree with shiloh.

I consider if Jesus tells me to do something, how, when, what, where and I decide to change the rules and do something a tad bit different I am wrong and have perverted his instructions...What if Noah decided to use different would cause it was easier to cut? What if a couple of animals he thought was alright to miss?

It is all about denying yourself and being obedient. Look at the two kids and their father asked them to do something. One said yes and did not do it and the other one said no and did do it. Who was the better son?

The issue is not how the lawn gets cut but who commanded the lawn to be cut and in what way. patricia1

[tsth]

Where the passage of Matthew 7: 21-23 is concnered, if you examine the context and Jesus line of thought, he is talking about false prophets. They are the workers of iniquity Jesus has in view at this point. The lawlessness in that passage is speaking to the disregard to the Torah by the false prophets. We can further know that is false prophets being rejected by Jesus due to their plea on the basis of their supernatual feats, which may have been seen as means of validating their claims on earth, and thus they felt it would validate their claims before the Lord. Jesus is not talking to the average sinner, nor to the person who simply thought they were saved in that particular passage.

A worker of iniquity or a "lawless" person as seen in the Scripture is a wicked person. A wicked person is not necessarily a person who sins. A wicked person is one who is completely abandoned to sin. They enjoy sin and they look for ways and opportunity to sin all the more. In some cases, they are irretrievably wicked and are given over to their sin by God.

I think we need to be careful not to go around labeling other people as "workers of iniquity." That is not our place. It is one thing to declare God's standard of rightesouness and hold up holiness as the standard for us as believers, but it is another thing altogether to go around pinning a label like "lawless" or "worker of iniquity" on people (most of whom we do not know). Most Christians are not lawless. They may fall from time to time, but they are far from being a "worker of iniquity."

By your "own" words, you just basically tried to discount the passages from 2 Peter 3 that I posted above. Those passages were not addressing prophets, but rather the people. And they were commanded to live "a certain way/holiness", and avoid lawlessness. These passages were not to the priests, but to God's people. I'm sorry shiloh, but your comment above was just that, "your comment'. I would rather regard the Scriptures, whether they are in regard to false prophets OR us or anyone. (By the way, I don't recall labeling anyone?)

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest shiloh357]

By your "own" words, you just basically tried to discount the passages from 2 Peter 3 that I posted above. Those passages were not addressing prophets, but rather the people.

That is not true. I did not address 2 Pet. 3. My point was that the context of Matt. 7 was addressing a specific group of people who were given over to lawlessness, namely false prophets. I am simply stating what amounts to basic fact about Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus, in THAT passage, was addressing specific workers of iniquity, namely false prophets who went about working false signs and wonders in His Name and Jesus called that "lawlessness."

I did not attempt to contradict or diminish what was said in 2 Peter. Peter, in that passage, uses the term lawlessness once and his admonition was to avoid the error of lawlessness which is by the biblical definition, a complete and willful abandon to sin.

This is what I have meant in the past when I said that you cannot just string passages together. You need to examine what the author of each is addressing. Jesus did not have the same issue in mind in Matthew 7 as Peter did in 2 Peter 3. Any proper examination of Scripture must be done without ignoring the object the author has in view. Matthew 7 and 2 Peter 3 are not parallel passages, as they are different in context, purpose, audience, subject matter and occasion.

And they were commanded to live "a certain way/holiness", and avoid lawlessness. These passages were not to the priests, but to God's people. I'm sorry shiloh, but your comment above was just that, "your comment'.

It is a acomment that you completely misunderstand. I am not discounting the need for living a holy life.

By the way, I don't recall labeling anyone?

I don't recall specifically accusing you of labeling anyone in this thread. I do think you seem to start these subjects with certain degree of presumption about other Christians. At least that is the spirit that comes across in these kinds topics.

[tsth]

Then maybe it is you who are in error by assuming that I am labeling anyone, and yes, you did accuse, by inserting it in the discussion, when it was not applicable to it in anyway, as there was no labeling done by anyone.

I think we need to be careful not to go around labeling other people as "workers of iniquity." That is not our place. It is one thing to declare God's standard of rightesouness and hold up holiness as the standard for us as believers, but it is another thing altogether to go around pinning a label like "lawless" or "worker of iniquity" on people (most of whom we do not know).

It didn't even apply.

As far as your comment on the Matthew 7, it is still only a comment that was focusing on false prophets, but it did not invalidate the topic of discussion as a whole, which was "lawlessness" whether in regard to false prophets OR the people. I wasn't trying to connect the 2 passages together, but rather addressing the issue of lawlessness, which WAS in both passages, and the meaning did not change from one to the other, regardless of who it was addressing. It still should not be a trait of believers, which is what was being addressed in 2 Peter 3.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest shiloh357]

Then maybe it is you who are in error by assuming that I am labeling anyone, and yes, you did accuse, by inserting it in the discussion, when it was not applicable to it in anyway, as there was no labeling done by anyone.

I did not accuse you of anything. I said that we need to be careful not to use these passages in such a fashion. I have however seen a lot of labeling in other threads such as a comment made by another poster that not keeping the law makes a person a hypocrite. I have seen a lot of generalize characterizations being made stating that there is an "epidemic" of lawlessness in the church today. I have seen a lot of comments made that tend to paint most of the church as abiding in sin. That amounts to labeling to a degree even if it is generalized.

As far as your comment on the Matthew 7, it is still only a comment that was focusing on false prophets, but it did not invalidate the topic of discussion as a whole, which was "lawlessness" whether in regard to false prophets OR the people.

I did not attempt to invalidate the discussion at all. I did not saying anything that would even begin to intimate any kind of invalidation of the topic. I simply stated that the passage itself does not specifically apply to a discussion of lawless being practiced by Christians in general.

I wasn't trying to connect the 2 passages together, but rather addressing the issue of lawlessness, which WAS in both passages, and the meaning did not change from one to the other, regardless of who it was addressing.

Well, if you were not trying to connect them, then why did you accuse me of trying dsicount the words of 2 Peter by my lone comments, which were entirely limited to Matthew 7???? You did see them as linked, and you jumped to conclusions about my remarks concerning Matthew 7 claiming that I was in some way trying to diminsih or discount 2 Peter.

It still should not be a trait of believers, which is what was being addressed in 2 Peter 3.

I agree.