SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/5/2019 9:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“Humility”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:3
Message of the verse: “3 Make every
effort to keep the unity
of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
I
have mentioned that we will eventually get to the Spiritual gifts in this
fourth chapter of Ephesians, and also mentioned that they are found in 1
Corinthians chapter 12 and in that chapter we read the following in verses 13
and then: “For by one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we
were all made to drink of one Spirit.” 20 “For by one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we
were all made to drink of one Spirit.” “But
now there are many members, but one body.”
These verses show us that spiritual unity is not and cannot be created
by the church as it is already created by the Holy Spirit. Jesus prayed for this very unity found in
John 17:11 and 21-23 “"I am no longer in the world; and yet they
themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your
name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.” “21
that they may all be one;
even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in
Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 "The glory which
You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them
and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me,
and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”
So
then what is the Churches responsibility?
MacArthur writes “The church’s responsibility, through the lives of
individual believers, is
to ‘preserve the unity’ by faithfully walking in a manner worthy of
God’s calling (v. 1), manifesting Christ to the world by oneness in Him (cf. Rom.
15:1-6; 1 Cor. 1:10-13; 3:1-3; Phil. 1:27).
The world is always seeking but never finding unity. All the laws, conferences, treaties, accords,
and agreements fail to bring unity or peace.
Someone has reported that throughout recorded history every treaty made
has been broken. There is not, and
cannot be, any peace for the wicked (Isa. 48:22). As long as self is at the center; as long as our feelings, prestige,
and rights are our chief concern, there will never by unity.”
Once
again I want to remind you that all of this process began with humility and
that gave birth to gentleness, gentleness gives birth to patience, and patience
gives birth to forbearing love, and all four of those characteristics “preserve the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace.”
MacArthur goes on to write “These
virtues and the supernatural unity to which they testify are probably the most
powerful testimony the church can have, because they are in such contrast to
the attitudes and the disunity of the world.
No program or method, no matter how carefully planned and executed, can
open the door to the gospel in the way individual believers can do when they
are genuinely humble, meek, patient, forbearing in love, and demonstrate
peaceful unity in the Holy Spirit.”
Do
not forget that the bond that preserves unity in peace, the spiritual belt that
surrounds and binds God’s holy people together is the bond that Paul described
in Philippians as “being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in
spirit, intent on one purpose (Phi. 2:2). Behind this bond of peace is love,
which Colossians 3:14 calls “the perfect bond of unity.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I read
this verse and the ones before it which we have been studying I come to at
least one conclusion and that is that people, including me, do not have a clear
understanding of these different characteristics and how they all work together
in order to bring about unity in the church, or should I say promote unity for
we have learned that the Holy Spirit has given us unity.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Humility is
the first characteristic that is to be understood and that is what is my desire
to do as this year goes on as seen in Romans 12:3 and then also in Ephesians
4:2-3.
Today’s
quotation “God’s part is to protect us by giving us wisdom. Our part is to want to be protected by
seeking it” (David Jeremiah).
3/5/2019 10:20
AM
No comments:
Post a Comment