Lovejoy

Saint (noun) - A saint is a person who has not only been declared righteous by faith alone in Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God, but he or she is a person who is living free from the power of sin in their life by following Jesus Christ as his disciple. The penalty of one's sin does not count against a person when they come to faith in Jesus Christ. But, not everyone continues in the fruit of repentance by way of choosing by free will to become a Christian = one who follows Jesus Christ. A saint is one who is not caught up into any habitual sin. A bond servant of Christ is a Saint, because living for Christ as His servant involves following what the Lord commands. This involves learning his commands, putting them to memory, committing oneself to obey those commands, not by a legalistic self righteous way, but by faith in Christ Jesus who empowers believers to live obediently to Him.

Slave (Bond Servant) - (noun) A person who is subjected to a master (to a Diety, another person, sin nautre, a bad habit, etc.) for the work of some service for which there is no earned wage. A slave or bond servant subjects his or her own personal wants, desires, needs, time, weaknesses and strenghts uder the will of the master and is not expecting anything in return. Some slaves lose their free will and that not by choice (IE: Aftrican forced to be slaves simply because of the color of their skin.). Others have chosen freely to subject their will to the will of their master. A person who comes into God's Kingdom has the right to be called a child of God, a son of the Living God (Jn 1:12 et.al) immediately upon initial faith where one has crossed over from death to life and declared righteous before God. But there is an invitation by God's Anointed Son, Christ Jesus, to become His disciple which involves denying one's selfish imperfect will for the will of the Lord's (Matt 16, Mark 8, Luke 14). This invitation is given to anyone who would come after Him, to anyone who would choose to follow Jesus Christ and therefore willingly subject his free will under the will of a new master, the Living God who in fact fills the believer by the Holy Spirit to guide them in this process. I say "new" master, because before faith in Jesus Christ is expressed by any believer, he or she is a slave to sin a slave to Satan's kingdom (Rom 6, Eph 2). The new master will lead those who choose to become His bond servants by the Holy Spirit into works of service in the Kingdom of God; each given a unique combination of spiritual gifts for the building up of the church body (Rom 12, I Cor 12, Eph 4). Those who choose to live their own life after expressing faith in Jesus Christ but never to become His bond servant may escape the flames of hell just barely, but when they enter into the eternal Kingdom, they will suffer loss (I Cor 3) since they never moved forward into becoming the Lord's bond servant. Slavery is really not an option for anyone. You are a slave to sin and Satan before faith in Jesus Christ is expressed. After initial faith, you can return to your vomit, that is slavery to sin and suffer the consequences, and that usually more sever than before you were saved since now God is trying to woo you into recognizing your invitation to become a follower, bond servant of Jesus Christ. Or you can choose to become a slave to righteousness and escape the hardship of being saved and ignoring the invitation of being a slave to the one who loves you and wants to take care of you. A person who lives to satisfy the sinful nature is a slave to sin. But it is our choice to find the power in Christ Jesus to humble ourselves and take on the very nature of a bond servant as Christ did (Phil 2) and therefore find freedom to live free from the slavery to sin through the Holy Spirit who is at work calling believers into a life marked by the fruit of repentance. The choice to become Christ Jesus' bond servant or slave is an open invitation to the new believer in Christ Jesus and even to those who after initial faith chose to do their own selfish thing for awhile. However, the window is open for a little while for there is a moment when one is sealed off from being able to repent again. There is a point when repentance from sin becomes impossible for a backslidden Christian. Although forgiven from the penalty of their sin is once and for all (Rom 8) since his gift of the Holy Spirit is irrevocable (Rom11)and therefore that person is allowed to enter into the Kingdom of God with all other believers, he or she will suffer loss in the process of going in empty handed and naked (I Cor 3, I Peter 1). Furthermore, choosing not to willfully become Christ's bond servant once saved means you chose to give up the right to live in the freedom from the power of sin in this life before the second coming of Christ. (Heb 6) Therefore, it is to be considered a privledge to move on from initial salvific faith in Christ Jesus to the next higher state, a bond servant of Christ, which takes a load of humility, a Spirit led humility, but is still a higher state of sanctification than just having your name written in the Book of Life. Some have said that the first step for a new believer is to build their self esteem. This goes exactly contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit. The first step must emulate Christ's first step when he came to earth, to humble oneself to become a bond servant of the living God. If slavery is inevitable, is it not more wise to chose to be free from the slavery to sin, free from slavery to Satan's way of disobedience, and rather subject your will to a loving, gentle, compassionate master who is slow to anger and rich in mercy and grace? For me that is how I choose to live as a believer. Besides that is where the ABUDANT LIFE really is! NEXT POST I WILL ANSWER THE LAST TWO OF THE THREE PART QUESTION #1 ---- See below

Hello everyone, my name is Kevin and I am just getting started on Philippians. I too am new at this forum. I live in West Sacramento, CA, USA and am a student of the Word. I have a loving wife and a six month year old boy. My handle is Lovejoy. May God bless you all!!