God Bless you
When addressing events of the future, II Thessalonians 2 gives us the reason why the wicked one’s use of power, signs and lying wonders in the next administration will be so affective. He will deceive people because they just don’t love the truth. Verse 10 says.
II Thessalonians 2:10b:
… because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
It’s our love for the truth that will make us whole. When we love the truth, we settle for nothing less. Only the truth will satisfy the longings of our hearts and souls. This love must be such as to root and ground us in the truth (Ephesians 3:17).
The parable of the sower reflects upon the impact of the power of our love for the truth. The stony ground and the thorny ground represented people who received the Word, but their love for it did not root or ground them to it. Rather, they sacrificed the truth upon the altar of pressure and pleasure. They loved other things more than the truth, and when things got tough, the truth was forsaken.
It will be the same for us as for those of whom II Thessalonians 2:10 speaks if we do not receive the love of the truth. If we seek signs and wonders apart from the truth, we will only be deceived by them. It’s our love for the truth that gets us through. Maintaining our love for the truth takes continuing in it.
John 8:31-32 36:
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth [that you know] shall make you free. . .
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
It’s the truth we know that sets us free. The devil keeps us in bondage by keeping us from the truth that can set us free. He uses pleasure and pressure to keep us distracted. Remember the parable of the sower? Continuing in the Word makes us disciples. That’s because it takes some discipline… some effort… some focused thinking… some directed action.
In our administration we are not called simply to be disciples. That’s only a step along the way. We are called to be doulos(es), bond-slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. The distinguishing characteristic of a doulos is love. Because of his great love he never vacillates in his commitment to his master. His love constrains him. That’s what II Corinthians 5:14 says our love for Christ should do for us.
This love needs to be strong enough as to control our other affections. It doesn’t mean that we do not have other passions, pleasures or delights, but they should all pale in comparison to our love for the truth. Our love for the truth must control our love for every other passion pleasure or delight.
Now don’t be silly. That doesn’t mean that our love for the truth is to be greater than our love for God or the Lord Jesus Christ. Our love for truth can only be realized or actualized in love for God and His son Jesus Christ. Our God is a God of truth, and Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
Our relationship with God can only be based and built upon truth. Psalm 119 entwine God the psalmist and the truth in almost every verse. The only way to know our Father and His only begotten son is in the truth and by the truth. Don’t be fooled by any thing else. Only the truth that we know will set us free and bring us into a full knowledge of our Father and His son. Love the truth, be rooted and grounded in it and you’ll walk above the pressures and pleasures of life and enjoy an ever deepening relationship with your heavenly Father.