“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” -2 Timothy 2:22-26
This morning, my son and I were watching a video about people arguing supposed contradictions in the Bible (spoiler: they weren’t contradictions, they just were not well researched!) followed by a skit about a man paying to have arguments, followed by another video about people attempting to trip up and trap Christians with tiny arguments that mean nothing. The thing that got me on this, though, is how we get so caught up in minutia, even within the church, that these arguments stop us from the work of the Gospel, in order that we may be proved right in our positions on doctrine.
I admire many preachers that have got caught up in the same kind of thing. Calvinism versus Arminianism, or other such things. They get tripped up on small phrases and nuance of words that ultimately are not of eternal importance. The doctrine that matters is the Gospel of Jesus, the truth of Scripture, and the Holiness of God. Loved ones, even as I write this, researching one of the arguments has distracted me from finishing this writing! Do you see why Paul tells us to have nothing to do with useless and endless arguments? The fact is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the urgency we need to have. While we DO need to, at times, defend the faith, it is more important to spread the Gospel.
People will always have an argument to try and trap us or trip us up. This is a lie of the enemy to get us off course and off topic. The fact remains that people are lost without Christ. Know your faith. Know the Bible, yes, know what, when, why and how, sure. But know Jesus and make Him known. THIS is supreme.
Philippians 3
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Commentaires