Practicing

[B-A-C]

Practice

prac·tice
/ˈpraktəs/
noun
1.
the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it.
"the principles and practice of teaching"

2.
the customary, habitual, or expected procedure or way of doing of something.
"current nursing practice"

verb
1.
perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one's proficiency.
"I need to practice my French"

2.
carry out or perform (a particular activity, method, or custom) habitually or regularly.
"we still practice some of these rituals today"

When you practice something, you rehearse it, refine it, do it over and over again to get better at it.
It become you're standard way of doing things, your policy, your convention, and even your tradition.

Musicians practice to get better. Athletes practice to get better. Doctors practice medicine. Lawyers practice law.

What do you practice? Everyone practices something. The Bible says we are supposed to practice righteousness.

1Jn 3:10; By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

It's usually pretty obvious who people belong to Spiritually.

Php 4:8; Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Php 4:9; The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

We are supposed to practice whatever is good, honorable, pure, and whatever is right.

1Thes 4:9; Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
1Thes 4:10; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more,

Even brotherly love requires practice. I have certainly found this to be true in my life. Some people are not easy to love. But you can, ... with practice.

Heb 5:11; Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Heb 5:12; For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
Heb 5:13; For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
Heb 5:14; But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Are you a mature Christian? You can become one by practicing "the elementary principles" of God's word. Or, are you still a spiritual baby who refuses to grow up?

2Pet 1:4; For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
2Pet 1:5; Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
2Pet 1:6; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
2Pet 1:7; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
2Pet 1:8; For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pet 1:9; For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
2Pet 1:10; Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
2Pet 1:11; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Peter says it's possible for us to "become partakers of the nature"... to... "escape the corruption that is in the world" ( lust ).
He gives a long list of things to practice. He says if you are practicing these things, and increasing in them, you will never be unfruitful, never be useless, and and never stumble.

... what are you practicing?

 

[B-A-C]

On the other side of the coin, is things we should NOT be practicing.

Matt 7:23; "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

If you believe Jesus is Lord, but you're still practicing sin, iniquity, lawlessness.... Jesus will say He doesn't know you. Get Lost!

Rom 1:26; For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
Rom 1:27; and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Rom 1:28; And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
Rom 1:29; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
Rom 1:30; slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31; without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
Rom 1:32; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

unrighteousness, greed, evil, envy, strife, murder, gossiping, slandering, disobedient to parents, unloving, unmerciful..... homosexuals, men with men, women with women...
That's quite a list here... but those who "practice" these things are worthy of death. Even if you merely give approval to other's who practice things you are worthy of death!

Rom 2:2; And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.

Gal 5:19; Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
Gal 5:20; idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
Gal 5:21; envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

We have yet another list of things, that we aren't supposed to do. Those who "practice" these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now to some, these verses are a little intimidating and scary. But to me, they actually give me a little hope. I'm not perfect.

Prov 24:16; For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity.

Even a righteous man can stumble sometimes, we don't have to be absolutely 100% perfect all the time. But we do have to quit practicing sin, and start practicing righteousness.
I don't know of a single professional athlete that never missed a shot, or dropped a ball, or struck out. I don't know a single musician who never played the wrong note at the wrong time.
,,, but then, that's why we practice.

1Jn 1:6; If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1Jn 3:10; By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

 

[B-A-C]

Jas 2:10; For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

Some Christians take this to mean... I can't be perfect, even if I break one law, I'm just as guilty as if I broke all of them, so I might as well keep breaking all of them.
But if you read that verse in the context of James 2 ( the entire chapter ) it's about faith and works. That faith involves what you do... what you practice.
It's not saying you might as well sin all you want to. It's saying you you shouldn't do any sins at all. It's saying there aren't good sins and bad sins. It's all sin!

Heb 10:26; For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

The key word in that verse is "willfully". It's OK if you stumble sometimes. But if you're practicing sin, and doing it willfully....
that's another story.

 

[Br. Bear]

Greetings Brother,

Now to some, these verses are a little intimidating and scary. But to me, they actually give me a little hope. I'm not perfect.

not wanting to tip the thread over, so please don't help me de-rail it, but I was moved to make mention of that use of that word, "perfect".

Condemnation is easily fed by it, if we hold onto the 'usual' way it is used. We don't need condemnation if Christ has set us free.

I take you to Hebrews 11:40 and where it is written,
"... that they without us should not be made perfect."

Why are you (anyone) not perfect ?
Is it something to do with the fullness of the Body, the Temple?

What do we compare to, or who?

We are well advised:
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
2Corinthians 10:12

Sometimes when we use the words, 'I am', we do well to consider what we say.

Glory ye in His holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.
Psalm 105:3

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13

Ye are washed.... ye are sanctified.... ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.


Bless you ....><>

 

[complete]

'Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed.
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue,
but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world.'
(Jas 1:21-27)

 

[B-A-C]

not wanting to tip the thread over, so please don't help me de-rail it, but I was moved to make mention of that use of that word, "perfect".

Condemnation is easily fed by it, if we hold onto the 'usual' way it is used. We don't need condemnation if Christ has set us free.

I take you to Hebrews 11:40 and where it is written,
"... that they without us should not be made perfect."

Why are you (anyone) not perfect ?
Is it something to do with the fullness of the Body, the Temple?

Rom 8:1; Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

..but only those, "who are in Christ Jesus". ... and not everyone who think's they are actually is.

Heb 11:40; because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

Is this saying they can't be perfect? Or is it saying they won't be perfect without us?

(AMPC) Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us, so that they [these heroes and heroines of faith] should not come to perfection apart from us [before we could join them].
(NIrV) God had planned something better for us. So they would only be made perfect together with us.
(NLT) For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

Why aren't we perfect? The subject of yet another entire thread in my opinion. But it's a good question. Why aren't we?
Many large denomination doctrines say we won't be or even can't be until we reach heaven. But where does it say this in the Bible anywhere.
The Bible says some people were perfect and blameless ( besides Jesus ). Jesus Himself tells us to "be perfect" ( as your heavenly Father is perfect ) .. how perfect is that?
Most of those people were in the old testament without the Holy Spirit to help them, What excuse do we have?
Paul says we have been set free from sin, and Jesus says if we have been set free, then we are free indeed!

But I myself, I am not perfect... but I strive to be.

Php 3:12; Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13; Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
Php 3:14; I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15; Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;
Php 3:16; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

Paul seems to say some are perfect.

Matt 5:48; "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Why would Jesus tell us to do this if it was impossible?
Jas 1:4; And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James says we can be perfect also.

Php 1:10; so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
Php 2:15; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

Gen 6:9; These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
Job 1:1; There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.
Luke 1:5; In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Luke 1:6; They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

If all these verses say we can be perfect, and some people were perfect... then why aren't we?

Matt 13:58; And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
I seriously wonder how many Christian continue sinning, simply because they don't have the faith to believe that Jesus can change them.

Mark 9:23; And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."
No, I'm not perfect, but I'm all for telling people we can be, and we should be. I'm more afraid of telling people they can't be perfect. If they believe that, then they never will be.

Matt 5:13; "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

 

[B-A-C]

Ye are washed.... ye are sanctified.... ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Some denominations believe in "once clean, always clean". But the Bible says...

2Pet 2:21; For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
2Pet 2:22; It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."

Rev 3:4; 'But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
Heb 12:15; See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

John 13:6; So He *came to Simon Peter. He *said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"
John 13:7; Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter."
John 13:8; Peter *said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
John 13:9; Simon Peter *said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head."
John 13:10; Jesus *said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you."

Some of us need our feet washed every now and then.

 

[complete]

'Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed.
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue,
but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world.'
(Jas 1:21-27)

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed.'
(James 1:25)

Hello B-A-C,

The word translated, 'looketh', in the verse quoted above, means literally:- to stoop down to look: which implies that you, 'stop', 'look', and 'listen', carefully. James was talking to his own countrymen (James 1:1), believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who were scattered among the nations. Men and women who, until they had heard and believed the gospel of God concerning His Son, had been under the bondage of the law of Moses. It is, 'the perfect law of liberty', that they were now scrutinizing, and seeking to fully understand, and also to walk worthy of (i.e., practice). It is this which James was commending in the verse above. (2 Corinthians 3:9-18)

'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. '
(Gal 5:1)

Thank you
In Christ Jesus
Chris

 

[B-A-C]

James was talking to his own countrymen (James 1:1), believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who were scattered among the nations. Men and women who, until they had heard and believed the gospel of God concerning His Son, had been under the bondage of the law of Moses.

Of course, however Gentiles were under the law just as well. Unbelieving Gentiles still are.

 

[Br. Bear]

Greetings,

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
Isaiah 26:12

Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Psalm 85:10

Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Isaiah 57:15


I am reminded of children. While able to believe that Jesus died for their sins and indeed the sins of the world, children still need to 'learn' things like, how to forgive, how to consider Jesus in everything they do and every situation they 'find themselves in'.

One important, exceptionally important, fact they need to build upon is the forgiveness of God in and through Christ Jesus and that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is because, like all, there are times when they/we realise that we have done it wrong and they/we might feel overtaken and beyond God's merciful loving kindness.
Can we enter boldly in to the throne of Grace or are we duped into thinking we have no chance left to repent, to 'have our feet washed, as @B-A-C pointed out?

Some of us need our feet washed every now and then.

Who is it that perfects that which He has begun in us?

This lead me to consider the OP and the title to it.... Practicing.

While very important to practice doing good according to the 'commandments', we do even better to practice believing in the LORD Who pardoneth iniquity. (Micah 7:18)


God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.
2 Corinthians 5:19

Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation.
Psalm 62:1

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.
Psalm 62:5

The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1 John 1:7

That we might be partakers of His holiness. (Hebrews 12:10) The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon Him (Psalm 145:18) Yes, practicing the new way of thinking is vital for us. Coming in line with the Vine and drawing from Him; bearing fruit fit for the Kingdom and His Table.

Perhaps our practicing ought to be in hearing the promises of His Love in order that we might detest anything unrighteous that tempts us to sin?


The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Psalm 51:17

God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God.
James 4:6-7

Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee. Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee: for Thou wilt answer me.
Psalm 86:5-7

Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
Romans 8:15-16


Bless you ....><>