“CONVERSATION” (Heb 13:5)
April 27th, 2003
Int. This word is found 20 times in Scripture.
1. The meaning of this word is: "Let your conversation (manner of life) be without covetousness;"
2. John Wesley's Rule for Christian Living in Christian History, Vol II, No I , said:
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever...
You can!
1. CONSIDER OUR PAST CONVERSATION IN OUR UNREGENERATE NATURE.
a. (Eph 4:22) "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;"
b. (1 Pet 1:18) "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things , as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers ;"
1. Paul found this our: (Gal 1:13) “For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
c. (2 Pet 2:7) "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:"
d. (1 Pet 3:16) “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
e. (Eph 2:3) “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
f. (Eph 4:22) “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;”
John Newton wrote:
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopp'd my wild career:
II. CONSIDER THE PRESENT CONVERSATION OF THE TRUE BELIEVER
a. (Phil 1:27) “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”
b. (Phil 3:20) “For our conversation (our citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:”
c. (1 Tim 4:12) “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
1. (Associated Press, 3-11-91) “Two Nashville hotels, the Marriott and the Ramada, are refusing to rent rooms to a convention of young people because those same young people damaged rooms and disturbed other guests during previous conventions there. So this year they are unwelcome. Now this is a convention of young Tennessee Baptists.”
d. (James 3:13) “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.”
e. (1 Pet 1:15-16) “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
1. Vincent's Greek says of this word: " A favorite word with Peter; used eight times in his two epistles.”
2. Holiness must be written upon our bridles when we war; upon our cups when we drink." (Zech. 14:20-21)
3. (Zec 14:20-21) "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD'S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. {21} Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts."
a. "It is said of a certain Scotch Divine, that he did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life."
4. (1 Pet 3:1-2) “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.”
5. Mt. Henry says: "In a chaste conversation, which their unbelieving husbands would accurately observe and attend to:
a. “Evil men are strict observers of the conversation of the professors of religion; their curiosity, envy, and jealousy, make them watch narrowly the ways and lives of good people.
b. “A chaste conversation, attended with due and proper respect to every one, is an excellent means to win them to the faith of the gospel and obedience to the word."
6. (1 Pet 3:16) “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
a. (1 Pet 2:12) "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles : that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers , they may by your good works , which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."
7. (2 Pet 3:10-12) "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. {11} Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, {12} Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, where in the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?"
III. CONSIDER WHAT THIS CONVERSATION IS TO AVOID.
A. OUR CONVERSATON IS TO BE WITHOUT COVETOUSNESS.
1. Octavius Winslow said: “Let all beware of the sin of covetousness.”
a. Even Seneca wrote, "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor."
b. Matthew Henry said: “Those shall never have enough in God (who alone is all-sufficient) that never know when they have enough of this world, which at the best is insufficient."
2. Covetousness has drowned many souls in perdition.
a. For Achan, it was a wedge of gold,
b. For Ahab, it was Naboth's vineyard.
c. For Ananias and Sapphira, it was lying to the Holy Ghost over money withheld from the church.
3. (Lk 12:15) “...them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
a. Gill says: "Seneca, the famous moralist, was notoriously guilty of this vice, being one of the greatest usurers that ever lived:"
b. Someone else wrote, "Half the world is unhappy because it can't have the things that are making the other half unhappy."
c. Steve Brown said: “The most unhappy person is the one who got what he or she wanted and then found out that it wasn't as wonderful as expected
4. Covetousness is connected with our church giving. (2 Cor 9:5-6) "Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up before hand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. {6} But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."
5. (Eph 5:3) "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;"
a. Most of us are anxious to condemn “fornication and uncleanness,” but what about the sin of “covetousness?”
6. Paul calls “covetousness” a form of idolatry. (Col 3:5) "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:"
7. False Ministers are full of covetousness. (2 Pet 2:3) "And through covetousness shall they with feigned (artificial or fictitious or false) words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."
a. "False ministers claim that if you give to them, God will make you rich. Thus, "through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you," \
b. The motivation of Simon the magician was money and power, and Peter rebuked him for thinking, "that the gif t may be purchased with money," (Acts 8:20).
c. Today, as in ancient Israel, false teaching; motivated by greed for money, is prevalent.
8. When giving the law, God specifically spoke against this wicked tendency
a. (Ex 20:17) “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.”
9. President John Adams said: “"If 'Thou shalt not covet,' and 'Thou shalt not steal,' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free."
10. A Sunday School class was studying the Ten Commandments. They were ready to discuss the last one. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was. Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted. "Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbor's wife.
a. Rome holds that this coveting another's wife is not a sin as long as you don't yield to the actual taking of his wife.
Conclusion:
Many thrilling stories have been told about the Klondike gold rush in Alaska. One day a prospecing party, penetrating far into the Klondike, came upon a miner's hut. Entering the hut, they found the frozen bodies of two men and a large quanity of gold. On a table there was a letter which told of the successful search for the precious ore. In their eagerness to mine the gold, the miners had neglected to make provision for the coming of winter.
Each day the two men found gold in abundance. One morning they awoke and saw a blizzard had come. For days the snow came. All hope of escape left when their little store of food was gone. They wrote the letter and lay down to die in the midst of abounding gold!
The miners' folly was not in finding and gathering gold, but in neglecting to provide for the coming winter.
How like them are those who take no thought for the coming winter of death and judgment.