CHRISTIAN FRANKNESS

GOD-GIVEN FRANKNESS

This is an outline for study. Simplicity in 2 Corinthians 1:12 KJV translates haplotes. Frank or frankness is one possible translation. Free, forthright, honest, sincere, godly sincerity, plain unembellished truth, holiness. Simplicity is the opposite of duplicity. Paul conducted himself with frankness and godly purity as he preached Christ to the Corinthians.

Christ has made us FREE! [Romans 5:1; Galatians 5:1]. I propose using the word FRANK to describe the Christian Freedom seen in the life of Paul and the other apostles. I propose that this freedom is the Mind of Christ [John 8:28-29,34-36; Romans 8:1-4].

Note that Jesus spoke of the Judgment in terms of love, sharing, relationships, concern for others, things which are not usually on the rigorist agenda [Matt. 25:31ff].

Christian "frankness" is the type of attitude which set Paul free from the old restraints of Jewish doctrine and legalism. Frankness made Martin Luther strike out for the liberty he found in God's Word. This Christian frankness makes people more spiritual rather than less. It grows out of the expansion of Christian life. It is emphasis on positive convictions rather than negative denials. It points us to great aims to live for, great convictions to live by, great faith undergirding life, and great hope ahead! Christian frankness is sacrificially in earnest about establishing God's will in all the earth.

If one cares about the future of mankind, there is no cause on earth for which one could better pray and work for than spiritual renewal and the spread of Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Fundamentalism: As the word is used in the news, it means rigorism, the quality of being inflexible, unyielding; harshness, severity - all in a bad sense. Such as Islamic Fundamentalists. The world has been suddenly shocked by the actions of Islamic Fundamentalists.

Religious rigoristic people were the most intense enemies of Jesus. Jesus respected and obeyed God's law. He stressed Spirit in contrast to letter. [Note 2 Cor. 3:6-18.] Jesus touched dead bodies, repealed the dietary laws, didn't punish the woman taken in adultery, etc. He valued human need above law keeping: "the Sabbath was made for man, etc." Since He did not sin - what He did was right! Just what God had intended.

1. Christ was frank in relation to the Law of Moses. It was Jesus who really took the Law seriously. "I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" [Matt. 5:17-19].

2. Frank is usually safer. The rigorist wants to keep it Just Like It Was. God calls us to be renewed day by day [2 Cor. 3:18; 4:16-18].

3. Frank is the logical consequence of convictions. Paul speaks of simplicity in 2Corinthians 1:12 KJV. Simplicity translates as frankness, openness, liberality [in the Bible sense], freedom. "For freedom did Christ set us free" [Gal. 5:1 ASV]. God calls us to love others and serve others just as Jesus did, by the power of the same Holy Spirit and in the same gracious freedom.

4. History bolsters the belief of the frank. Attacks upon the Christian faith often come from those who wish to impose their standards of rigorism on others. The history of the church since Pentecost shows this to be true. Note the Jerusalem conference in Acts15.

5. The frank understands that Satan is intent on diverting attention from the real issues. The rigorist, with good intentions, may "tithe mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith" [Matthew 23:23]. Jesus said: "If you have done it to one of the least important brothers, you have done it to Me." Salvation and abundant life are God's priorities. [John 3:16-17; 10:10].

6. Frank Christianity provides the future with a needed option. Christian grandparents want their grandchildren to know Jesus Christ. The frank Christian elevates and honors Jesus. The rigorist often elevates forms and ritual and even the local church, but neglects Jesus. Children will read in our lives the importance which we place on Jesus Christ.

7. Being a frank Christian tends to distance oneself from rigorism's "white hot but loveless zeal" toward those with whom they disagree. A frank Christian can disagree without being disagreeable. Note the warning to the church at Ephesus [Revelation 2]. They had left their first love: they no longer loved Jesus as they did at first. Zeal cannot substitute for love and faithfulness [Romans 10:1-4].

8. The frank Christian welcomes the freedom which Christ brings. He accepts the search to know Christ Jesus and to follow the Golden Rule in relating to others "For the commandments.. are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" [Romans 13:9]. Contrast this with the yoke which the ancestors could not bear [Acts 15:10-11].

9. The frank Christian believes God has acted to reveal His will in Jesus Christ. God has spoken in Jesus Christ [Hebrews 1:2]. Thus anything man does in principle to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, he does to God the Father. Man cannot love God without first loving his brother/sister [1 John 4:19-21]. God has frozen in time His Will demonstrated in Jesus Christ. We look to His example in the four Gospels - which were written so that we might know the certainty of Jesus (Luke 1:1-4.]

10. Three tests of faith. These are, I think, the three tests of effective Christian frankness:

1) this frankness springs from the growth and deepening of the spiritual life;

2) this frankness integrates in the centers of positive faith and affirmation;

3) this frankness results in a more devoted, efficient, constructive builder of the Christian Kingdom and civilization.

"But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ..." [Ephesians 4:15].

There are some tests of faith and relationship in the New Testament:

1. Jesus is the WORD who "incarnated" and actually came into our world. HE came with the water of His baptism and the blood of His death - actually experiencing these things. HE was tempted in every way that we are. But HE did not sin! [note 1 John 4:1-3; 5:5-13; 2 John 7; 1 Cor. 12:3; Hebrews 4:14-16]

2. HE did not "wear a disguise" but actually participated in human life on our level. HE "emptied Himself" to do this (but did not cease to be God). [Phil. 2:5-11]

3. We worship ONE GOD who is a TRINITY. Father-Son-Spirit. This is a great mystery - yet we ourselves are body-soul-spirit [1 Thess. 5:23]. We must take the Triune God in His Fullness: HE is a "package deal." [Note 1John 2:22-23; John 5:23; 15:23.]