2 Look out for those dogs [Judaizers, legalists], look out for those mischief-makers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.
People have always seemed to look towards their flesh to serve our Father. In Paul’s day it was all about being circumcised, which was a sign that you would follow the Law. Today it isn’t so much about circumcision, it is what denomination do you belong too, or do you tithe and if so how much? So many judge today by the clothes that we wear, what we eat, do we drink, dance, sing, or the way that we do our hair. All of these things rely on the flesh, beware of these things! According to the Word those who point towards these type of fleshly things are dogs and mischief makers.
A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers. John 4:23
DO YOU not know, brethren--for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law--that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive? For [instance] a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband. Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her [she is free from that law]; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. Romans 7:1-4
For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice], So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit]. Romans 8:3-4
Here is the glorious Truth, we are now fully controlled by the Holy Spirit. That means that I may be in one place in my spiritual life and you in an other, but both of us are fully and completely saved! The Law judged by what our flesh did, Grace judges by what Jesus did. So do not look at the flesh to see salvation, we look to the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, meekness, long suffering, and faith. Many who drink have the evidence of this fruit. Many who wear their hair differently exhibit this fruit. Many who use words that seem wrong are being used to bare this fruit.
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