Spartan Christianity

Our previous six-part series covered the process of salvation. We talked about how you can accept God’s gift of salvation and becomes a member of the church He built. The final step in the process of salvation is faithful living. And faithful living requires faithful attendance at the weekly church services. And faithful attendance to a church that engages in each of the acts of worship.

The Bible teaches us that if we are to maintain our Salvation one of the things we have to do is meet with the Saints regularly.

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Hebrews 10:25

And when we meet with them, it should be on the first day of the week. Many churches have additional days where they meet in the middle of the week or other times where church members will get together and spend time with one another. These are all fine and usually beneficial. But the primary day that we are concerned about is the first day of the week, which is Sunday.

When we study the Bible we find that the first century Christians also met on the first day of the week as was commanded.

When they met, they engaged in five specific acts of worship to God.

1. They sing songs of praise to God in acapella style.
2. They prayed to God.
3. Weekly, they partook of the Lord’s Supper.
4. They listen to preaching about the word of God.
5. They set their money aside for the work of the church.

Singing Verses

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

Acts 16:25 ~ (not public worship, but singing nonetheless).

“Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”

Ephesians 5:19

Prayer

“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Matthew 6:6

And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

Matthew 21:13

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Acts 2:42

Lord’s Supper

²³ “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; ²⁴ and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ^[d]“Take, eat; this is My body which is ^[e]broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

²⁷ Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and ^[f]blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks ^[g]in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the ^[h]Lord’s body. ³⁰ For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many ^[i]sleep. ³¹ For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 

³² But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. ³³ Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴ But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.”

1 Corinthians 1:23-33

Weekly Lord’s Supper + Preaching

“Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”

Acts 20:7

Setting Aside/Giving Money for the work of the church

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: ² On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”

1 Corinthians 16:1-2

These five elements are required for the weekly worship on the first day of the week. If one of these elements is missing, the worship lacks a basic scriptural Foundation.

Now many churches try to leave out various elements of worship. Most notably they will leave out the regular partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Stating something like “it makes it lose its specialness if we take it too often”. So these churches will then only partake of the Lord’s Supper on special occasions, such as Christmas or Easter.

But this is not what the Bible teaches, we learn that the disciples met each first day of the week and broke bread (Partook of the Lord’s Supper).

Every week the Lord’s Supper was being observed and partaken by first-century Christians. And whether or whether or not it loses its specialness is all in the mind of the partaker. That’s why an individual has a responsibility to remain focused and remember and direct his thoughts each week so that communion doesn’t lose its specialness.

Arguably, everything loses specialness to us over time. That’s why we occasionally have to refresh our minds, look at something with a different perspective, and regain that appreciation for it. Or some outside event will force us to appreciate it more.

Take your relationships for example. It can be very easy to take these relationships for granted. But then when your loved one has a health crisis, you certainly appreciate the brevity of life and how special they are in your life. And once again time spent with them regains the specialness that it once had.

What happened to your mind? Simply a change in perspective brought on by a change in outside events.

But thankfully for us, we do not have to wait for a change in outside events to change our perspective. We have the power to direct and control our thoughts, so we can change our perspectives whenever we want.

There’s an ancient stoic exercise called negative visualization. In this exercise, you picture the worst-case scenario, or a horrible thing happening to you, a loved one becoming sick and dying. As dark as it is, you imagine all these things so that you can be more thankful for those things that you do have.

This exercise helps you to realize that the present moment is not nearly as painful as you think it is. And by doing this exercise you can shift your perspective without having to literally go through those negative events of losing a loved one, watching them get sick, or becoming sick yourself.

Additionally, you can do the same exercise when it comes to the Lord’s supper or any of the other acts of worship. Find ways to shift and change your perspective so that it doesn’t lose its specialness. Ideas for that could be an article all of its own.

Regarding the other acts of worship, you’ll notice that these can also be done outside of the public worship assembly. There is scriptural evidence of people singing outside of the worship assembly. We are also encouraged to pray outside of the public worship assembly. We can listen to lessons and preach outside of the normal assembly during a gospel meeting or something like that.  The only act of worship that cannot be partaken in outside of the public assembly is the Lord’s Supper, which is on the first day of the week.

But when we come together once weekly on the first day of the week to engage in public worship service, there’s a specific recipe of requirements for that worship. It is that same list of 5 items that we mentioned above, go back and look at those. But each of those elements must exist in the worship service for that service to be acceptable to God.

So if you followed the process of Salvation series, and become a member of the church, you now need to find a congregation that scripturally engages in each of the acts of worship on the first day of the week. I’d encourage you to visit a local Church of Christ. these are the congregation to try to do exactly what the Bible teaches, nothing more and nothing less. Church of Christ is the same church that was built 2000 years ago on the day of Pentecost. So I would highly encourage you to find your local church and start attending! 

Other reading: How to be internally motivated

It is not enough to merely accept the gift of salvation God has given you. Your salvation must be maintained, per se, through faithful living.

What does faithful living entail?

I – Faithful attendance to church services on the first day of each week.

While the rest of the church days are up for debate and left for individual decisions (Wednesday nights or Sunday nights), meeting with the saints at least once on the first day of the week is a basic requirement of Christianity. If there is one thing people of the world know about Christians, it is that they are “at church” on Sundays. 

Attending services on the first day of the week is one of the ways we sacrifice to God. We are sacrificing the first fruits of our week to Him. Many of us would rather be somewhere else on Sunday mornings if we are being honest. It is the weekend capping a week of work, the day before a new work week starts. And many times we would rather just stay in bed than get up early and sit around other human beings. 

But that is what is required of us. And over time, if we work at it, we can begin to shift our attitude away from the kind that does not look forward to the worship services.

Our goal should be to one day possess the mindset of the Psalmist who was glad when they said to him ‘let us go into the house of the Lord’.

“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.”

Psalm 122:1

This same psalmist wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.

What a wonderful mindset to have, and it is one that takes time to develop. It is difficult to think this way about church service, especially if we are in the habit of viewing it as an inconvenience. 

“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.”

Psalm 27:4

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

Psalm 23:6

Nevertheless, the basic requirement of maintaining salvation is meeting with the saints each first day of the week. On this day we must also break the communion bread of the Lord’s supper, and set money aside for the work of the church, as the disciplines in the first century did. 

“And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.”

Acts 20:7

“Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.”

1 Corinthians 16:2

II – Continual Obedience

We have to continue to meet the commands of God. There are many requirements laid out in scripture that God requires of His people. There is a specific lifestyle that Christians are required to live. It is not glamorous, sexy, or exciting. This is because it is an investment for a future reward.

It is not glamorous or sexy to invest in your 401k or IRA, in fact, it costs you something today in the form of money. But your excitement grows over time as you begin to see increasing returns on your investment.

The Christian lifestyle requires that we sacrifice the pleasures of the world today. Christianity requires somewhat of a Spartan lifestyle of discipline and simplicity. This is incredibly difficult and is one of the reasons that many do not choose the Christian lifestyle.

There is an abundance of things to be enjoyed in this world, and God places restrictions on some of them. 

I’ve argued in the past that sexual restriction is one of the prime reasons that young people leave the church, and why people resort to the militant religion of atheism. It can be difficult to understand why God places so many lifestyle restrictions on His people, and many give up on trying to understand and give up on God. They leave the church and join the world. Or they were always in the world and join the atheistic community. 

But for the Christian, if salvation is to be maintained, it requires that the Christian lives his life according to the commands that God has laid out in His word. Christianity requires our obedience.

III – Continual Repentance

The righteous man falls seven times but rises again, the Bible teaches us. Faithful living involves rises after failure. This is the responsibility of every Christian. Once we accept God’s gift of salvation, this does not mean we stop sinning. On the contrary, we have now declared open war on the Adversary. Before we were baptized, we were a part of the world and on his side. Now we have declared allegiance to God and Satan counts us as his enemy (as he always did even when we were lost). This leads us to fight more battles against our sins and has more failures.

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”

Proverbs 24:16

One of the difficult things about becoming a Christian is you become more and more aware of how much sin you are engaging in. The more we study God’s word, the more we find that we are violating the principles of godly living. 

This should not discourage us because we have defined the enemy and we have defined the problem. And a problem defined is a problem half solved. 

When we fight these battles against our flesh and against the Adversary, there will be countless failures. But if we get us, confess our sins to God, and get back in the fight, we have continual forgiveness. 

Please note that this is not “once saved always saved”. That is a false doctrine based on these clear passages of Scripture:

“Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

Galations 5:4

⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

Hebrews 6:4-6

We cannot live however we want and maintain our salvation. We have to continue to repent and change our lifestyles across time to fully meet the requirements of God. 

God knows we will fail often, which is why He built the system of continual cleansing through the blood of Christ. As long as we keep fighting and keep changing our behavior, we can win. As long as we maintain faithful living, we have forgiveness.

⁷ “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:7-9

These are the three core tenants of faithful living. While there are many more that could be discussed, these three cover the majority of necessary topics. 

If you have not begun your journey as a Christian, I would encourage you to study with your local church of Christ and become a member today. And after that, maintain your salvation through the correct Christian lifestyle.

The final step before God’s gift of salvation is accepted is baptism. Everywhere you read the word “baptism” in the bible, it would be more properly translated as “immersed”. But people translating the Bible into English at this time were already completing sprinkling or pouring baptisms. So instead of adjusting what they were doing to the commands of God, they blurred the lines of God’s commands. Just like the Devil did in the garden in Genesis 1. Imagine that, people twisting the reality of the scriptures to suit their personal opinion. 

Nonetheless, sprinkling and pouring are ideas from the minds of men. They are things that God never commanded. Nor do we have any kind of example of these things occurring in scripture.

The principle rule of following the word of God is to do only that which you find in scripture.

Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. Any more is an addition to the world and is a sin. It accuses the bible of being incomplete and needing more information. To take away from the scripture is sin, and suggests that not all of the commands of God are to be taken seriously and obeyed.

As you can see, it is infinitely better to simply follow the bible commands without adding or taking away from them. Not only that, but it is infinitely safer to do so. Who will be considered innocent who tampers with and manipulates the words from the very mind of God?

Aside from that, what we read about in scripture is full-body water immersion performed on rational-minded adults, called baptism. Not sprinkling, not pouring, not infant baptism. 

This immersion reenacts the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and it is what provides the remission of sins. When we are above the water and confess, this represents death, specifically death to our old lives and sins. Under the water we are buried with Christ, reenacting Him being in the tomb for those three days. Then we are raised out of the water, representing the resurrection from the dead. These three elements are a reenactment of the event that bought our salvation. Once raised from the water, our sins are washed away. And for the first time in our lives since we were children, we are pure and sinless again. 

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. ⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin”

Romans 6:3-7

“Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” 

Colossians 2:12

And we certainly will continue to wage war against sin and we will fail.

But the Bible teaches that as long as we continue to confess and repent of those sins and get back up to keep fighting them, we will have the continual cleansing from those sins. The blood of Christ acts as a constant fountain of forgiveness. All we have to do is keep fighting and obeying. 

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

1 John 1:7

Many today will deny the importance of this step in the salvation process.

Perhaps at a later date, we will examine all the various objections that people bring against the idea of water immersion. But for now what you need to know is that in the Bible, no one was saved on this side of the cross (after Christ’s death) without being immersed in water.

No one was saved by the sinner’s prayer. No one was ever saved by accepting Christ as their personal savior. And no one was saved by having some emotional, religious experience where they were convicted in their hearts by God. These are all ideas that man has invented for whatever reason, but they have no scriptural backing. Let me say that again – people are gambling their lives on ideas about salvation that have no scriptural backing whatsoever.

Is it not important to you to know exactly what God Himself has said regarding salvation?

If you think this is important, do not fall into the all too common trap of accepting the words of men over the words of God. The sinner’s prayer, accepting Christ as a personal savior, or religious experience is all the words of men. The words of the Bible are the words of God, and those are the only things you should be basing your decisions on. 

Now, what are you waiting for? You know the steps to accept salvation. It does not have anything to do with prayer, accepting Christ, or anything besides water immersion. I would encourage you to study with your local church of Christ, finish your knowledge of the truth and become a member today.

You have heard the gospel, accepted it as true, and even begun to change your lifestyle through repentance, what could possibly be left in order to accept the free gift of salvation from God? You must confess that you believe these things in front of at least one witness. 

Many denominations would have you believe that you have already done enough to be saved. But when faced with the realities of the bible they fall short of everything that God requires from the individual. This is why you must continue to study for yourself and determine what the truth is by rightly dividing God’s word.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

Now you must verbally confess.

But until that moment, I will tell you that the next step in the process of salvation is confession. This is what God has required of men so it is what we do. So before a person can be immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins, they must confess verbally, out loud that they believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, and this is the public demonstration of belief. It is the same confession that the Ethiopian eunuch made with Philip after they came to a body of water. 

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”

^37 [f]Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

Acts 8: 35-38

Confession is simple, it requires that you state your belief. This is done so that witnesses can acknowledge you have confessed, and so that in the future Christ will confess you before His Father in heaven. 

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 10:32

Once you have confessed, you are now ready to be baptized, the next component of the process of salvation. Usually, confession occurs in the immediate moments before baptism.

Are you willing to walk this path? You have heard the gospel message, believed it, changed your life, and are now ready to confess Christ as savior. But these steps alone are not enough because they do not include everything that the bible teaches in order to receive that gift of salvation. In the next article, we will discuss the necessity and importance of baptism in the salvation process.

I would encourage you to continue studying with your local church of Christ in order to complete your understanding of the truth and complete the process of salvation. What are you waiting for? Accept the free gift of salvation through the systematic process God designed.

When it comes to salvation, many people want to just keep living the way they have always been living even after they become Christians. Even though this is the philosophy of Calvinism, once a person is saved, they are always saved, even if they went on to murder, rape, and do any number of diabolical deeds. But the reality is that a person must repent and change the way they live if they want to receive and maintain salvation.

But the reality is that there must be a change of action in the person who is becoming a new Christian. You cannot continue to live the way you were living before. It simply is not possible. Instead, you must repent.

The Bible clearly teaches time and time again that repentance is necessary for salvation. Yet many various denominations and religions do not push their members to actually change or to maintain their change. 

“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'”

Acts 2:38

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Matthew 9:13

“I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

Luke 13:3

Repentance is a change in the way a person acts. This change is generally brought on by a change in a person’s pattern of thinking. 

“Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance”

Matthew 3:8, indicating that repetnace has observable action tied to it.

Many people try to define repentance as “A change in heart that results in a change in action”. But as you know, I’m not a fan of the word “heart” because of its excessive emotional connotations. If we want to use the word “heart” correctly, we need to understand that it includes more than the way a person feels. Even though I’ve denied it in the past, emotions are a part of a man’s heart, but they are not the only part. 

When it comes to repentance, not only must your emotions eventually shift, but your thinking and attitude about your life must change as well. This all results in a change in your actions. You must think differently about your life purpose and goals. You need to change your attitude towards sin from one of acceptance to one of hatred of sin. 

Also, you must recalibrate your conscience. A Conscience may be defiled, Evil, Seared, or irrelevant before it can be good.

When we live as part of the world, there are many things that do not bother our conscience. If a person does not know the gospel and engages in many sexual relationships, he/she may not feel a sense of guilt because he/she does not know the law of God. Only once the law is heard, understood, and believed does an individual begin to feel the tug of their conscience. 

That is just an example, but there are many various sins like the sin of extramarital sex that may cause no guilt in the heart of the person engaging in those sins until they become aware of the commands of God. But once these laws are known, a person must change their action, hopefully, spurred on by a  sense of shame from living in opposition to God.

Once understood and obeyed, a person must repent – he/she fundamentally changes the way they live their lives. That is the next step in the process of salvation. 

You have heard the gospel message, the story of Christ. You have accepted it as true, which is what it means to believe. And now what you must do is change the way you are living your life. You can no longer live just in anyway you want. You need to completely renovate your lifestyle. That old life you were living is dead, and you cannot live it any longer. 

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? ² Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? ³ Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:1-4

Many people try to skip this step in the process of salvation. They complete all the necessary steps in order to accept the free gift of salvation from God, but they do not change their lifestyle. This is unacceptable. The life of a Christian is one of constant change and of constant war against the desires of the flesh. Constant repentance is the lifestyle of the Christian.

So you heard the gospel and believed it. Are you willing to change the way you live? Will you repent? Are you willing to have a paradigm shift in your lifestyle? That is the next requirement on the path to salvation. I would encourage you to study with your local church of Christ, continue to learn, and complete the steps of salvation.