God bless you and greetings in the name of Jesus Christ whose name may be glorified in us, and we in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (II Thessalonians 1:12).
We looked at the four steps down the last 7 days, not so we can point fingers, but so we can remember how diligent we must be to not let what we have been taught slip away.
We keep ourselves standing strong in the faith and working together for the furtherance of the gospel. Let’s not make the same mistakes again. Let’s not go down that road again. Let’s recap briefly, it’s important that:
1. Our allegiances must be to truth not to personalities.
2. We should not question the integrity of the Word and err concerning the truth or speak contrary to the truth.
3. We should not resist the truth especially when our brothers and sisters speak it to us with such great love.
4. We should not turn away from the truth unto fables no matter how good or logical the fables sound.
Man cannot devise anything that can come close to producing the results that God’s Word does. Believing lies never brings us closer to God. Believing lies never brings the genuine comfort of God.
The foundational verse of our entire Power of God series is II Corinthians 2:5. Do you remember it?
I Corinthians 2:4-5:
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Never forget the context of those verses. It is set in the context of the mystery. It is Paul’s gospel of the mystery which is the power of God unto salvation. This Word of God regarding the mystery is the power of God unto salvation.
I Corinthians 2:6a,7:
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. . . 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in [or regarding the] a mystery. . .
Just so we are very clear about what the power of God is, let’s read one more verse in Romans. Paul said in Romans 1:16:
Romans 1:16:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
There is an ever-present danger that we lose the great mystery of godliness we have been taught. It will not happen doctrinally first. It will happen practically. Although we know it is Christ in each one of us, we will lose sight of that truth and pick at our personalities and idiosyncrasies. Instead of dwelling on what we see in the flesh, we are supposed to likemindedly see the Christ in one another and thereby glorify God.
Romans 15:5-7:
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
Let’s receive one another graciously and avoid journeys into legalism and license in our practical application of the truth. Doing so will take us out of the true liberty we have in Christ and return us to bondage. We must value and be willing to fight for our liberty in Christ. Let’s stand strong and rise up and be the valiant men and women of truth we were called to be.