Retain the Standard of Sound Words

The apostle Paul served God as a preacher of the gospel with a clear conscience, and yet he was put in prison more than once on false charges. But he regarded his suffering, that it was for the sake of the gospel. And some people are imprisoned on false charges while the guilty go free. For justice is not always served. Sometimes the innocent are incarcerated while the guilty are given the freedom to keep on in their sinful behaviors. But those whose trust is in the Lord must keep trusting the Lord in all things.

For the Scriptures do not teach that if our trust is in the Lord Jesus that we will have an easy life, and that everyone will like us, and that we will never have to suffer. The Scriptures teach us that a walk of faith in Jesus Christ is hard, and that it will mean suffering for the sake of the truth of the gospel, and it will mean being hated because of our walks of faith and because of our testimonies for the truth of the gospel of our salvation. And it may mean that people will speak lies about us and that we may suffer for it.

But when we truly love as God loves, and we love even our enemies, and those who have done evil to us in the past, or in the present, we put our lives at risk that the ones we love may turn against us and do evil against us, and that they might lie about us, and it may cost us much. But, when Jesus left his throne in heaven, and took on human form, he loved his own people. And he spoke the truth of the gospel. And he was hated, and people lied about him, and he was put to death although he had done no wrong.

But we should not let the fear of that overtake us. We must be strong in the strength of the Lord, and put on the armor of God with which to fight off the attacks of our enemy against us. We must commit our lives to the Lord, knowing that we are not promised an easy life and that we may have to suffer and even die for the sake of the truth of the gospel. And we must continue speaking the full gospel message to the people, out of love for God and out of love for our fellow humans, and for their deliverance from sin.

Never should we alter the truth of the gospel out of fear of being hated, rejected, persecuted, betrayed, slandered, incarcerated, or put to death. We must keep on speaking the truth that people need to hear, even if it costs us our reputations or acceptance or friendships or whatever. We must keep teaching that Jesus died to put our sins to death with him so that, by faith in him, we will now die to sin and live to God and to his righteousness in walks of surrender to God in obedience to his commands, so we have life in him.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Acts 26:18]

Who Believes?

Based off Isaiah 53
An Original Work / October 3, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Gospel message, who believes?
Jesus Christ died on a tree,
Saving us from all our sin,
So we might be cleansed within.

Had no beauty found in Him,
That we should desire Him.
Man of sorrows, suffering;
Crushed for our iniquities.

Surely He has borne our griefs;
From our sadness, brings relief.
Bore the stripes; forsaken, He,
So forgiven we might be.

We, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us turned his own way.
Jesus calls, “Repent today;
My commandments, now obey.”

Jesus said, to come to him,
We must die to all our sin.
Crucified with Him, we live,
Walking in His righteousness.

Suff’ring servants, we will be,
Taking His identity on us,
When confessing Him
As our Savior, Lord and King.


Retain the Standard of Sound Words
An Original Work / February 28, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love