DEFRAUD: To cheat.
1. To deprive of right, either by obtaining something by deception or artifice, or by taking something wrongfully without the knowledge or consent of the owner; to cheat; to cozen; followed by of before the thing taken; as, to defraud; a man of his right.
2. To withhold wrongfully from another what is due to him.
3. To prevent one wrongfully from obtaining what he may justly claim.
4. To defeat or frustrate wrongfully.
If we really want to break through to the fullness of what Our Heavenly Father has for us, we must deal with the most subtle issues of self-preservation. Your mind will rationalize why you can act or not act in order to preserve your status quo. You can hide behind the “letter” of the Law but become a vessel of dishonor by acting outside the intent of the Law. You can claim that the Law doesn’t apply to you so that you can pursue a path of lawlessness and defraud your brother. Jesus made it quite clear that the intent of the Law is Love and that the Law can be summed up by Love.
The church in years past has discarded the Law in order to be lawless, except for tithing of course. That is in essence a form of defrauding your brother by deception. When you selectively demand the sheep to follow one aspect of the Law and no others, you have created an environment of coveting and defrauding. When this happens, you place yourself under the consequences of breaking the Law, being under the Law. When you operate in Love, you fulfill the Law and you by nature are not “under” the Law but you supersede the Law by Love, the higher standard. This does not discard the Law and its consequences, but the its consequences are not applicable to you because you are not a lawbreaker.
In 1 Timothy 1, Paul says it like this:
:8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,
9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
Paul basically tells us that the Law is still in effect toward the lawless, and by necessity the Law is in effect to this very day. Paul admonishes us against walking according to our flesh. As we move toward the fullness of righteousness, we will no longer be under the Law because we walk according to a higher standard of being led by The Spirit of Love. When we are walking according to the Holy Spirit, we fulfill the Law just as Jesus did and are not under the consequences of the Law. However, the Law is still in effect for the lawless. This is why we must embrace the Law and the Spirit, both given at Pentecost. One to establish our starting point of lawlessness, and the other to establish our path to the fullness of righteousness by being led by The Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:
1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
Paul clearly states that Our Heavenly Father is the avenger. An avenger is one who exacts the penalty against the lawless. When you act lawlessly, you subject yourself to HIS judgment. The Blood of Jesus Christ is your path to forgiveness but if you walk in lawlessness, especially habitual lawlessness, you will ultimate reap the reward of that path.
Does this apply to Christians? Absolutely. This is who Paul is talking to. He urges us to “abound more and more” to the point of pleasing Our Heavenly Father. Is is a process and the Pentecostal age and the associated Feast represent this process. The self-preserving spirit would have us negate the need to focus on this process as though we are immune from the effects of the Law. The Law effectively defines lawlessness and you cannot satisfy the Law by your own power or the children of Israel would have. Jesus pointed us to the path through Him and by receiving the Holy Spirit Who would guide us into all Truth.
The Truth will expose any fraud you are participating in. By seeking forgiveness, you remove the judgment of those past acts of lawlessness. As long as you hold on to the lawlessness yet to be dealt with, you will continue to be subject to the Law and the Avenger of the Law. When asked about prayer, Jesus instructed us:
Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
If you truly walk in Love, you will not defraud your brother or be under the Law. That is the simple Truth.
PS: to cozen means: to deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery.