In previous Special Bulletins I felt that it was important to biblically establish how there are different mandates given to the civil government and the church. This is crucial for us to understand if we are to know our own specific purpose in the times ahead.

         As we read last week in Galatians 5:19-24, after listing the deeds of the flesh Paul states emphatically, “those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” So what will become of those who believe they are saved because they made a public acknowledgement that they believed in Jesus as their Savior, but have gone on living in their sinful nature, practicing the works of the flesh stated here?

     Although the Old Testament prophets' mandate of bringing correction to God’s people has become more of the mandate of the apostle in the New Testament, there is still a need for the prophetic preachers of righteousness and justice. John the Baptist, the greatest of all transitional ministries, was the greatest of all preachers of righteousness. We are told that John came in the anointing of Elijah, but unlike Elijah, he had very little prophetic revelation and really did not demonstrate any of the kind of power that Elijah walked in.

          In every field or profession, we can find people who seek to excel, but often there are more who settle into a place of just doing enough to get by. They may have spurts when they decide to do more or do better, but they usually do not last long before they begin to settle again. Unfortunately, Christians are generally the same about their faith with most seeming to just do enough to get by.

     We are told in Psalm 89:14 that righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. So the authority of His kingdom will be founded on both righteousness and justice. Righteousness is doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. Justice is the application of His judgment. We cannot fully understand His judgments if we do not understand His justice.

         In this study, we have spent the longest time on the church at Thyatira. This church spans the longest period of time in the church age, about 1,260 years. This period is measured from the Roman Emperor’s decree in 538 A.D. that made the Bishop of Rome the head of the church to Napoleon’s decree in 1798 that revoked that authority of the Pope.  

Last week we addressed how crucial it is to not just know the truth, but to love the truth. This week we are going to take it one more step to walking in truth. Knowing the truth is important, but not enough. Loving the truth is important, but not enough. We must live what we believe if we are going to be true. Jesus did not come to just be the Way or just be the Truth, but He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If we are going to truly know Him and follow Him, He must be all three to us.

As we have discussed, man was created to be a social creature. But to be complete, we need a relationship with God first. Without this no human being can ever be all that they were created to be. Next we need relationships with other people. These can be of many different types and depths, but basically we were created to need both God and one another.

In this week’s study of Ephesians 6:23-24, we come to the conclusion of Paul’s great Epistle: