LEARNING DAILY

 

! Timothy 6:11-12, But you, O man of God, flee these things (go back and read the verses before this verse) and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

 

I have a note written in my Bible that asks: Am I a church member or a disciple? Someone asked me that or I read it somewhere and it left an impression on me. A person who wants to walk on the narrow way is not only known from what he runs away from but who he follows, and who he is willing to be faithful to.  I have written often about the deception that Jesus said would characterize the last days. First and Second Timothy are letters from Paul to Timothy to encourage him to pursue and be dedicated to God. Paul wanted Timothy and God’s people today be dedicated to God, find joy in Him and to live for Him every day.

 

That is a challenge for each of us today. 1 Timothy 6:1-10 speaks of false teachers who teach a different gospel from that of Jesus Christ. They are people who stir up trouble by not teaching the truth; they are those who tickle the ear, teaching what people want to hear in order to justify their pursuit of evil desires and cause them to wander from the truth. Paul tells us to “flee from these things”! I am sure that you noticed that the things we are to pursue is part of the fruit of the spirit found in Galatians 5:22.

 

As a Believer, you and I cannot follow both light and darkness. When we accept Christ, we walk out of the darkness of the world system and into the light of Jesus Christ. Satan does not want to lose anyone to the light of Jesus so he attempts the same thing that he tempted Eve with. “Did God really say …? His attempt is to weaken and destroy our faith. Paul tells us how to defeat these attempts; “we are to fight the good fight”. Later in 2 Timothy 2:22, he writes to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace”. The word for fight in the Greek means to agonize and to pursue means to chase after. Paul is telling us that the Christian life is an intense struggle that requires us to persevere in our loyalty, in our walk on the narrow way to eternal life with the Lord. We are called forth to stand firm (Read Ephesians 6:10-20) in our faith and let nothing cause us to wander from the narrow way (Thoughts from the notes in LSSB).

 

Know that my prayer for everyone who reads this blog is to hunger and thirst for the righteousness that Jesus offers. My prayer is for each of you to have the discernment the Holy Spirit gives us so we know when deception comes so we can answer the question Satan tries to plant in our mind. Yes, God did say … and I am going to follow Him!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB