”Be holding to yourself and to the teaching, be remaining to them. For this doing both yourself you will save and the [ones] hearing you.”
-How does that saying go? Faith that fizzles before the finish was faulty from the first? Look out, be careful and be watching for any signs of spiritual drift, for any part of you which may be not in, which may be wandering away from the truth, the truth of the Good News which is able to save your soul. Cuz drift could indicate that you’re not really “in” in the first place (Hebrews 3.12). Pastor/teacher Timothy (and all those who follow in his footsteps), you need to be doubly careful, not only to be watching yourself and holding yourself to these truths about Jesus but be watching your teaching as well. God has put you in this place of being responsible for helping others learn and understand these truths about Jesus, and you need to make sure you are holding on. Nothing worse for the flock (and those outside) than a preacher who drifts away from Jesus. Sheep/people (sadly) do it all the time, but when a shepherd drift, when a ministry leader does so, it can have ripple effects which extend far beyond his own life or immediate circle. A entire flock and community of onlookers can be adversely affected. So pay attention!
-Remain/abide in Me, Jesus says (John 15.4-5). In My words (John 15.7). Doing what He wants, doing what He did, walking how He walked (1John 2.6). It is a work, something to which we must apply ourselves with all due diligence, making every conceivable effort (in the strength which He supplies of course!), every day, waking up and putting one spiritual foot in front of the other, just like you did yesterday, and the day before, each day a new beginning of obedience and faithfulness, beginning again as if nothing before had been done for God. Yesterday’s obedience doesn’t pay forward to today. Today, this day, is a NEW day! A day pregnant with fresh opportunity for glory, and just as full as the day before with need for total dependence and reliance on Jesus, full of just as much impotence and powerlessness apart from the enabling of His Spirit.
-Today, this day, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, Paul says (Philippians 2.12). But in applying ourselves towards this end, we find that we are simply getting in joyous step with what the Lord is already doing! We are working out that which He has already put in, the seed of His saving truth springing up to eternal life, but what’s more, we enter in to the amazing reality that He is the One actually doing the work (Philippians 2.13). In cooperating with Him, we are like the little child who is “helping” their dad fix the car. Dad lets us do some things, and makes it look like we’re actually doing something productive, but he’s the one doing the producing. We then become like the man who when viewed from a distance appears to be vigorously pumping water from a well, but when you get close enough you realize that it is not a man but a stick figure made to resemble a man and more importantly, the well is not a well but a spring, one which is gushing up and causing the hand pump to move by the very overflow of the water. We do not ultimately do the work - the work and the fruit flow out of us as they are produced by God’s Spirit in our lives. But we have a part to play - pay attention, and go all in (and stay there, by His grace and power!) with the teaching...!
No comments:
Post a Comment