SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/9/2019 9:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Sound
Doctrine”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph.
4:13-15a
Message of the verses: “13 until we all
attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a
mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of
Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer
to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind
of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15
but speaking the truth in love,”
“13 until the time comes when, in the unity of common faith
and common knowledge of the Son of God, we arrive at real maturity — that
measure of development which is meant by "the fullness of Christ". 14
We are not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of
teaching, and of the jockeying of men who are expert in the crafty presentation
of lies. 15 But we are meant to speak the truth in love,” (Philips).
We
will be looking at the fourth result of following God’s pattern for His church
in our Spiritual Diary for today, which is “sound doctrine.” This comes from verse fourteen which says
that a Christian who is properly equipped and mature is “no longer” a child who
“is tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”
John
MacArthur writes “kabia (trickery) is
the term from which we get cube, and
was used of dice-playing. Just as today,
the dice were often ‘loaded’ or otherwise manipulated by professional gamblers
to their own advantage. The term for
dice therefore became synonymous with dishonest ‘trickery’ of any sort. ‘Craftiness (panourgia see Luke 20:23; 1 Cor. 3:19; 2 Cor 12:16) is a similar
term, carrying the idea of clever manipulation of error made to look like truth. Methodia
(scheming) is used later in the letter to refer to ‘the schemes of the devil’
(6:11). No doubt it has reference to
planned, subtle, systematized error.
Paul’s point is that neither the ‘trickery of man’ nor the ‘deceitful
scheming’ of the devil will mislead the spiritual equipped and mature
believer.”
Now
the opposite of the spiritual equipped and mature believer Paul describes as
children and that word is nepios, and
this word literally means one who does not talk, and this is an example of many
of the Corinthian believers as seen I 1 Corinthians 3:1 and also 14:20. “1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as
to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.” “20 Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be
infants, but in your thinking be mature.”
Because these Corinthians had no thorough knowledge of God’s Word, they
were “tossed here and there by waves” on popular sentiment and are “carried
about by every wind of” new “doctrine” that was appealing to them. I can’t help but think of the Berean
believers which we read about in Acts 17:11 “11 Now these were more
noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great
eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things
were so.” In his commentary John
MacArthur gives a list of NT verses which are replete with warnings against
this danger. Here is the list that he
gives: “Acts 20:30-31; Rom. 16:17-18; 2
Cor. 11:3-4; Gal. 1:6-7; 3:1; Col. 2:4-8; 1 Tim. 4:1, 6-7; 2 Tim. 2:15-18;
3:6-9; 4:3; Heb. 13:9; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 1 John 2:19, 26).
MacArthur
then gives commentary on the church today as he writes “The immature Christian
is gullible; and in the history of the church no group of believers has fallen
into more foolishness in the name of Christianity than has much of the church
today. Despite our unprecedented
education, sophistication, freedom, and access to God’s Word and sound
Christian teaching, it seems that every religious huckster (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17;
4:2; 11:13-15) can find a ready hearing and financial support from God’s
people. The number of foolish,
misdirected, corrupt, and even heretical leaders to whom many church members
willingly give their money and allegiance in astounding and heartbreaking.” I have to say that I totally agree with what
MacArthur has written here, especially about those misguided believers who give
their money to the health and wealth gospel that is being peddled by the
tele-evangelists today.
One
of the things that Paul writes to Timothy and perhaps to Titus in his pastoral
letters is that it is not good to have young believers become leaders in the
church, and this is what is happening in many churches today. I went through this experience about ten
years ago and had to leave that church which I had been attending for 32 years,
but by the grace of God my wife and I went to a wonderful Bible believing and
Bible teaching church. They’re out there
you just have to look at churches that teach and preach the Word of God and
then do like the Bereans and check the Scriptures and make sure that what the
preachers are preaching lines up with the Word of God.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my desire to be like the Bereans and
make sure that what I learn is from the Word of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I mentioned in our last SD that God is
continually showing me the need to be humble as it was brought up in the quote
from Jonathan Edwards, and so as I quote the verse that goes along with that
quotation it gives me more evidence that God’s Spirit is indeed working in my
heart showing me the importance of humility.
Verse to go with yesterday’s quotation
is 1 Peter 5:5b-6 “Be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but
gives grace to the humble.” Therefore
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time.”
4/9/2019 9:51 AM
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