The Name of Christ (Col. 3:17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/14/2017 8:02 PM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  “The Name of Christ”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 3:17

            Message of the verses:  “17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

            In our last SD we looked at what Dr. Warren Wiersbe wrote concerning this seventeenth verse of Colossians, and I promised to look at some of the things that John MacArthur had to say about this verse in our Spiritual Diary for today.

            If you are looking for a simple basic rule of thumb for how to live the Christian life what you can do is to do everything, word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  If we do this then we will be acting in a consistent way with who He is and also what He wants.  Sounds easy, but the problem is that we have an enemy, or perhaps three of them, the world the flesh, and the devil, that although they have been defeated at the cross of Christ they are still active and desire to work against us and so we must know our enemy’s tactics and better yet we must know how to rely on the Lord to defeat them when they come calling.  Ephesians 6:10ff. is a good place to begin.

            We may have mentioned 1 Corinthians 10:31 but worth mentioning again as it has similar things to say with our verse in Colossians:  “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  MacArthur adds “Again, Paul reminds that it is always to be done without reluctance or despair or legalistic duty, but with ‘giving thanks through Him to God the Father.’”

            We have been talking about putting on the new lifestyle and to do this is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Romans 13:14).” 

5/14/2017 8:34 PM