CHEMISM - CHEMICAL ACTION
CHEMOTROPISM - MOVEMENT IN RESPONSE TO A CHEMICAL STIMULUS
In the natural world and in scientific experiments chemicals do all kinds of amazing things. By mixing different chemicals together man has discovered how to make all kinds of things from explosions to vehicles that work as a result of small explosions; from things that can cause illness and death to things that can cure illness and prevent death. It is truly marvelous the way that God created this world and our minds to be capable of all this variety. Every chemical from the single element to the most complex combination has certain qualities that affect what it does when it comes in contact with other chemicals.
In the church we sometimes need to have something that causes a reaction or an action like chemicals do in the physical world. There are other times when a chemical reaction is the thing that we don’t need. It all depends on the chemical and what it will do. Spiritually there are as many different kinds of ‘chemicals’ as there are in the science lab. There are good ones like love and understanding, and there are dangerous ones like hatred and gossip. There are some that are neither good nor bad in themselves, but dependent on how they are used and what others they are used with. For example: anger used with love and truth can be very effective in correcting a sin problem, but anger used with hatred and lies can destroy all that come in contact with it.
One thing of which we must beware is the way we allow these things to affect us. Chemism is the chemical action itself, and we need to never use a ‘chemical’ in a way that would cause a problem. Chemotropism is how we or someone else responds to the action of the chemical. We can’t control how another will respond, but we must control how we respond. You see, the spiritual world is not like the physical world. In the physical world if enough of a chemical that is deadly contacts you your body will die, you can’t control it. In the church, however, no matter how much of these deadly chemicals people use against us we still control the response. We can allow someone’s hatred of us to destroy our faith, or we can overcome that evil and continue to do what is right.
The church must be on the alert so that we do not allow what society or other religions or even other congregations of the Lord’s body to control us or draw us away or push us away from the truth. We need to be a people who act on the Word of God and not a people who react to every trend or false teaching that comes along. Throughout the last 2000 years churches have split and split again because even though the Bible says “B” one group says “A”. Instead of countering the falsehood with the truth, the second group goes to the other extreme and says “C”. Christ’s Deity is a perfect example of that. One group says, ‘He was just a man’ and the other group says, ‘No, He was just God’. Then they begin to design all kinds of elaborate theories to prove their points rather than going to the Bible and seeing that He was both man and God. We need to be firm on teaching the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is never right to counter one false teaching with another no matter what the intentions are. (Eph 4:13-15) “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: {14} That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; {15} But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”
CHEMOTROPISM - MOVEMENT IN RESPONSE TO A CHEMICAL STIMULUS
In the natural world and in scientific experiments chemicals do all kinds of amazing things. By mixing different chemicals together man has discovered how to make all kinds of things from explosions to vehicles that work as a result of small explosions; from things that can cause illness and death to things that can cure illness and prevent death. It is truly marvelous the way that God created this world and our minds to be capable of all this variety. Every chemical from the single element to the most complex combination has certain qualities that affect what it does when it comes in contact with other chemicals.
In the church we sometimes need to have something that causes a reaction or an action like chemicals do in the physical world. There are other times when a chemical reaction is the thing that we don’t need. It all depends on the chemical and what it will do. Spiritually there are as many different kinds of ‘chemicals’ as there are in the science lab. There are good ones like love and understanding, and there are dangerous ones like hatred and gossip. There are some that are neither good nor bad in themselves, but dependent on how they are used and what others they are used with. For example: anger used with love and truth can be very effective in correcting a sin problem, but anger used with hatred and lies can destroy all that come in contact with it.
One thing of which we must beware is the way we allow these things to affect us. Chemism is the chemical action itself, and we need to never use a ‘chemical’ in a way that would cause a problem. Chemotropism is how we or someone else responds to the action of the chemical. We can’t control how another will respond, but we must control how we respond. You see, the spiritual world is not like the physical world. In the physical world if enough of a chemical that is deadly contacts you your body will die, you can’t control it. In the church, however, no matter how much of these deadly chemicals people use against us we still control the response. We can allow someone’s hatred of us to destroy our faith, or we can overcome that evil and continue to do what is right.
The church must be on the alert so that we do not allow what society or other religions or even other congregations of the Lord’s body to control us or draw us away or push us away from the truth. We need to be a people who act on the Word of God and not a people who react to every trend or false teaching that comes along. Throughout the last 2000 years churches have split and split again because even though the Bible says “B” one group says “A”. Instead of countering the falsehood with the truth, the second group goes to the other extreme and says “C”. Christ’s Deity is a perfect example of that. One group says, ‘He was just a man’ and the other group says, ‘No, He was just God’. Then they begin to design all kinds of elaborate theories to prove their points rather than going to the Bible and seeing that He was both man and God. We need to be firm on teaching the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is never right to counter one false teaching with another no matter what the intentions are. (Eph 4:13-15) “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: {14} That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; {15} But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”
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