PT-2 "United in Love" (Col. 2:2b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/26/2017 9:57 PM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-2 “United in Love”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 2:2b

            Message of the verse:  “having been knit together in love;”

            The display of unity in practice by those who are believers in the church was a constant concern by the apostle Paul, for as believers we are to not only tell a world in need about Jesus Christ, but we are also to represent Him while here on earth and love and unity are a large part of that.  Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:10 “10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”  A similar statement is made at the end of 2 Corinthians 13:11 “be like-minded, live in peace.”  These types of exhortations are rather common in Paul’s letters.

            If we are looking for a key to practical unity we need to look at Ephesians 4:3 “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  MacArthur writes “Preserving the unity the Spirit has created is accomplished by being peacemakers.  Peacemakers love each other.  Such love is evident when believers ‘put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you’ (Col. 3:12-13).”

            MacArthur offers this wise statement:  “Love is always linked with humility, because only humble people can love.  After urging the Philippians to pursue unity in Philippians 2:2, Paul went on to show them how in verse 3-8:

            “3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

            Now as we think about these verses, which speak of the humility of Jesus Christ, we can see that the key that opens the door of love and unity is humility, for there has never been a more humble person than the Lord Jesus Christ, for to leave the “Ivory Palaces” of heaven to come to planet earth, Jesus had to demonstrate humility in doing that. 

            John writes in 1 John 3:16-18 “16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

            MacArthur concludes “Loving someone is not defined by having warm feelings toward them, but by meeting their needs.  The last time you made a sacrifice for someone was the last time you loved him or her.  Love is first action, and then the emotions follow.  So the strengthened heart is a heart that has learned to love.”

2/26/2017 10:19 PM 

PT-1 "United in Love" (Col. 2:2b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/25/2017 6:45 PM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-1 “United in Love”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 2:2b

            Message of the verse:  “having been knit together in love”

            We will begin with the first part of what is commonly called “The Love Chapter,” which is the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians and look at the first three verses:

“1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

            I count six times the word “if” is used in these three verses sensing that the author is really asking a lot of questions that he will answer as he continues in this chapter.  The chapter is about love and “Fervent love is the necessary balance to a strong mind,” writes John MacArthur.  We have been discussing having a strong mind in our last few Spiritual Diaries as we work our way through this second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  MacArthur then adds “Christianity is not mindless enthusiasm, but neither is it lifeless intellectual orthodoxy.”  So what we see here is that the Bible is a book of balance and the balance we are talking about here is love along with intellectual orthodoxy.  I have to say that I am reading a novel written by Jerry Jenkins entitled “I Saul,” and not to give too much of the plot away it is about the parchments mentioned in Paul’s letter to Timothy in the last recorded letter that is found in the Bible written by Paul.  The author uses those parchments to be kind of an autobiography of Paul’s life from the time he is a young man until, I suppose to the time right before he will be killed for his faith, as I really don’t know as I have not finished it yet, but the chapter I am reading now speaks of the intelligence that Paul shows in the school that he is in there in Jerusalem.  Now we know his name is also Saul and that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel from the Scriptures and according to the story Gamaliel was a man who truly wanted to know God personally, something Paul wanted to do too, but Paul was letting his intellect get in the way of knowing God in a personal way and as we know he turned into a very strict Pharisee, and a strict Pharisee had no room for love in his heart.  I think that is what MacArthur is referring to when he writes about the balance between love and a strong mind.  I also think that Paul learned his lesson as can be seen in that 13^th chapter of 1 Corinthians.

            Paul uses the word “sumbibazo” which is the Greek word translated “knit together,” and MacArthur states that this “means to unite, or bring together.  This aorist participle explains the main verb (‘may be encouraged’) by further defining the strengthened heart as one filled with love.  It refers in Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:11 to the various parts that unite to form the human body.  Believers share a common life with love as its basis.  All believers possess the same eternal life, all come to Christ in the same way, and all were placed into the Body of Christ by the same Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:11-13).  The church’s unity is not organizational, but organic.  Believers are ‘all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal. 3:28; cf. Rom. 10:12).”

            It just so happens that we will quote from the very chapter that I am studying in my morning devotions which is John 17, and we will look at verses 20-23 to show the prayer that Jesus prayed shortly before He went to the cross, and we will see in these verses that He prayed for unity.

“20 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 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.”

            MacArthur quotes the late Francis Schaeffer in his commentary where Schaeffer stated “the final apologetic” to the world is the unity of the church:

            “In 1 Cor. 13 the point was that, if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he is not a Christian.  Here [in John 17:21] Jesus is stating something else which is much more cutting, much more profound:  We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians. 

            Now that is frightening.  Should we not feel some emotion at this point?”

My answer to that question is that yes we should!

2/25/2017 7:20 PM

    

PT-3 "Strong in Heart" (Col. 2:2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2017 10:55 PM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-3 “Strong in Heart”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 2:2a

            Message of the verses:  “that their hearts may be encouraged,”

            We begin this evening by looking at Ephesians 3:16 which says: “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,” and this verse shows us what is the means of having a strong mind. MacArthur states that “The Spirit strengthens the hearts of those who yield their lives to His control.  One of His names is Helper (cf. John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).  Helper in the Greek is the noun form of parakaleo and could be translated ‘Strengthener’ in those passages.  True inner strength comes only from being filled with the Spirit.”

            Saul experienced this strengthening after his conversion as we read in Acts 9:22 “But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.”  As Paul continued in living the Christians life after becoming a believer he continued to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, and eventually he could say in 2 Cor. 4:8-9 “8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;” and so as we look at these two verses we can see that Paul had been strengthened by the Spirit enough to be able to endure those things that are written here.

            We have mentioned that it is the Spirit who is the divine strengthener, but the Spirit can use people to help strengthen other believers who are in need of being strengthened.  Jesus told Peter in Luke 22:32 “but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."”  Jesus had just told Peter that he was going to deny that he even knew Him, and yet even though this would probably be the lowest part of Peter’s walk with the Lord, the Lord tells him that He was praying for him and after he had turned back to the Lord, the Lord wanted him to strengthen his brothers.

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing “Strong hearts result in a powerful Christian life.  When believers are strengthened by the Spirit, Christ will dwell in their hearts, they will be rooted and grounded in love, they will know the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19).  The Christ, through them, will do ‘exceeding abundantly beyond all [they can] ask or think’ (Eph. 3:20).”

2/24/2017 11:16 PM 

PT-2 "Strong in Heart" (Col. 2:2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2017 10:58 PM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-2 “Strong in Heart”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 2:2a

            Message of the verse:  “that their hearts may be encouraged,”

            We have been talking about the strengthening of the hearts of those in the Colossian church as Paul desires that to happen to them.  We have also talked about the word encouraged which can actually be the word used in our verse and that word is similar to the word used of the Holy Spirit’s ministry and actually His name.

            I now want to move onto looking at the word heart by quoting John MacArthur from his commentary:  “When used figuratively in the Bible, the word heart is usually more general and refers broadly to the inner person, the center of life.  It often equates specifically to the mind.  In Revelation 2:23 the Lord describes Himself as ‘He who searches the minds and hearts; and…will give to each one of you according to your deeds.’  The heart here is a synonym for the mind.  Using the term heart as the general term for the thinking faculty, Jeremiah 17:9 says, ‘The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?’  Revelation 18:7 says of Babylon, ‘For she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’’  ‘The fool,’ Psalm 53:1 says ‘has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’’  As those verses indicate, the heart refers to the mind, where thinking takes place (cf. Isa. 47:8; Zeph. 2:15; Matt. 24:48).”  Now we have a better understanding of what the meaning of the word “heart” is when seen in the Word of God.

            So if the heart is not the seat of emotions we need to learn that the emotions respond to what is going on in the heart, to what the mind perceives.  So the way to control the emotions is through the mind which we have learned is seen by the use of the word “heart.”  Let’s look at Romans 12:1-2 “1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Actually all we need to look at is verse two but these verses go so well together it is hard to quote one without the other.  Ok we see how we can control our emotions in verse two when we read that we need to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  The word transformed is the word we get metamorphous from like a worm being turned into a butterfly.  So what is the key to controlling our emotions?  By having our minds renewed through the Word of God, which we could say having our hearts transformed by the Word of God.  We need the Holy Spirit to do this as we read, study, memorize, and meditate upon the Word of God and as we do this in different areas of our life that we find in the Word of God then we will actually begin to live a life that is holy to the Lord.

            We will conclude this SD with another quote from John MacArthur:  “What fills the heart will inevitably issue in behavior.  ‘From the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.  The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil’ (Matt. 12:34-5).”

2/23/2017 11:21 PM 

Strong in Heart (Col. 2:2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/22/2017 8:55 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  Strong in Heart

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 2:2a

            Message of the verses:  “that their hearts may be encouraged,”

            We do a lot of looking up Greek words in our Bible study time and we have another one to look up that should be familiar with most people and the word is “encouraged” and the Greek word is parakaleo, a word that the Holy Spirit is called, and the reason that the Holy Spirit is called by this name is because the word means “to call alongside.”  I remember listening to a series of tapes, and yes I mean tapes that were sermons by Dr. David Jeremiah and it was on encouragement and he stated that if a person is encouraging someone he is pouring courage into them.

            John MacArthur writes on this word “Because a person can be called alongside for many purposes, the word has a wide range of meanings.  They include to entreat, appeal to, summon, comfort, exhort, or encourage.  In the present context, however, it could be translated ‘strengthen’ because the Colossians were beset by false teachers and needed strengthening rather than comfort. 

            “Commentator William Barclay cites an example of parakaleo from classical Greek that parallels its usage here.

‘There was a Greek regiment which had lost heart and was utterly dejected.  The general sent a leader to talk to it to such purpose that courage was reborn and a body of dispirited men became fit again for heroic action.  That is what [parakaleo] means here.  It is Paul’s prayer that the Church may be filled with that courage which can cope with any situation.’”

In this partial verse we see that Paul desires that their hearts may be encouraged and we could also replace “strengthen” with the word encouraged.  MacArthur writes “The biblical writers associated the emotions with what the King James Version picturesquely calls the ‘bowels’ (cf. Ps. 22:14; Song of Sol. 5:4; Lam. 2:11; 1 John 3:17).”  Let us take a look at Psalm 22:14 “14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the middle of my bowels (KJV).”  Now Song of Solomon 5:4 “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him (KJV).”  Ok that is enough to make the point I want to make and that when we see this word “bowel” we are looking at the seat of emotions, which some think is the heart, but the heart is the seat of thinking or brains.  I had to laugh when I was listening to the sermon on this subject and MacArthur brought up Song of Solomon 5:4 and was describing the verse so that his listeners could understand it.  He was stating that when her beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door or the door handle that she became excited in a number of different ways specifically we could say that she was aroused but it would be hard to understand it when we look at this word “bowels” unless we knew that this speaks of the seat of emotions. 

We will pick up from here in our next SD.

2/22/2017 09:30 PM

Intro to Colossians 2:1-7

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/21/2017 10:33 PM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  Intro to Colossians 2:1-7

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 2:1-7

            Message of the verses:  “1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. 5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. 6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

            John MacArthur entitles this chapter that covers these verses “Paul’s Love for the Church.”  As for a reminder we know that Paul had never visited the Colossians church, as when Paul stayed a long time in Ephesus the Word of God spread throughout the region of which Colossae was a part of that region along with Laodicea which he mentions in this section of verses. 

            Think about this question:  If you were asked what is the most important quality that a Pastor should have you may come up with several different answers.  Perhaps you would think that the most important quality would be having a good education, being intelligent, boldness, leadership quality, holiness or being able to speak in order that commands attention.  Well John MacArthur believes, and I tend to agree with him that the most important quality of a minister of the gospel is to have a great love for the church.  He writes “No one can truly serve God in the church without that motivation.”  I have been in two different churches since I became a believer in 1974 and have been under four Pastors of which I can say that three of the four have had this quality of loving the church while one did not and so we left after being in that church for 32 years, it was that important to us.

            We know the great love that Jesus had for the church as He died for it and now is interceding for believers in heaven.  Paul also had a great love for the church as in the end he too died because of his ministry to the churches.  Now I am not saying that Paul died for the sins of those in the church like Jesus did, but Paul did die for the cause of Christ.

            Why did Paul, and for that matter for the three Pastors that I referred to love the Church?  Well the answer is that in order to love the church you have to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul truly loved the Lord Jesus Christ right after He saved him on the road to Damascus as seen in Acts chapter nine.

            MacArthur writes “Paul’s love for the church caused him to write this letter to the churches of the Lycus Valley (cf.4:15-16).  He wanted them to know of the great struggle he had on their behalf and their sister church in Laodicea, even though they had not all personally seen his face.  Paul’s love was not selective; he loved the whole church, not just those personally known by or close to him.  That kind of unselfish love should characterize every spiritual leader.  ‘Struggle’ translates agon, from which we get our English word agony.  It is a different form of the same word he used in 1:29 to speak of his striving in the ministry.  Paul’s deep love even for those he had never met reflects his love for Christ, the Head of the church.

            “Just as loving parents have goals for their children, so Paul had goals for the church.  He lists five of them for which he had struggled.  He desired the Colossians to be strong in heart, united in love, settled in understanding, walking in Christ, and overflowing with gratitude.”

            We begin with “Strong in Heart” in our next SD.

2/21/2017 10:55 PM

 

The Strength of the Ministry (Col. 1:29)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/20/2017 10:23 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Strength of the Ministry

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 1:29

            Message of the verse:  “29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

            “Kopiao (‘labor’) means to work to the point of exhaustion.” writes John MacArthur as he describes this word that we find in our verse that we are looking at today.  I have to say that when I have been around the three major Pastors since I became a believer that this certainly was a quality that all of them had, and have as two are now with the Lord, and one is the Pastor I sit under at this time.   It seems to me that God has given gifted pastors a lot of strength to work at the ministry until they are exhausted and for that we should all be thankful. 

            When you read the book of Acts and also the letters that Paul wrote you can see that he worked himself to exhaustion many, many times.  Let us look at an example of this from Paul’s writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28:

“23 Are they servants of Christ?-I speak as if insane-I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.”

            You cannot be a good Pastor and be a lazy Pastor as lazy ones will never fulfill the ministry the Lord has called them to.  “Striving is a form agonizomai, which refers to completing in an athletic event.  Our English word agonize is derived from it.  Success in serving the Lord, like success in sports, demands maximum effort.”

            Now we have to look at the last phrase in verse 29 which Paul says that he strives “according to His power, which mightily works within me.”  Paul was doing the work that God had given him to do and he could have never done it without the power of the Holy Spirit working in him.

            John MacArthur concludes this chapter with these words:  “These eight aspects of Paul’s ministry should characterize every believer.  All Christians serve Christ in some capacity.  Paul’s message to all in this passage is, ‘The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things’ (Phil. 4:9).”

            Let us review the eight aspects of ministry that we have been going over since the 8^th of Feb. 2017.

1.     The Source of The Ministry (Col. 1:23c, 25a).

2.     The Spirit of Ministry of the Ministry (Col. 1:24a).

3.     The Suffering of The Ministry (Col. 1:24b).

4.     The Scope of the Ministry (Col. 1:25b).

5.     The Subject of the Ministry (Col. 1:26-27).

6.     The Style of the Ministry (Col. 1:28a).

7.     The Sum of The Ministry (Col. 1:28b).

8.     The Strength of The Ministry (Col. 1:29).

2/20/2017 10:51 PM