Paul's Dedication to God's Glory (1 Thess. 2:6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/6/2014 10:00 AM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  Paul’s Dedication to God’s Glory

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference: 1 Thessalonians 2:6

            Message of the verses:  “nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.”

4/6/2014 2:15 PM

            We will finish up a section of 1 Thessalonians chapter two in today’s SD, a section that helps us to understand what the duties of Spiritual leaders are and at the end of this section I want to put in a quote from John MacArthur as he summarizes how this section (verses 1-6) speaks of Spiritual leaders.

            We can be assured that Paul was a humble person, and not a proud person for in this verse we see that his desire was not to seek glory for himself, but to bring glory to the Lord who called him to be an apostle of the Gospel.  We remember from that calling that Paul was leaving Jerusalem to go to Damascus in order to pick up true believers of Jesus Christ and bring them back to Jerusalem in order to put them in jail, but on the way Paul met the Lord and his life was never the same.  Paul knew that what happened to him was nothing he did on his own, but something that the Lord did and therefore he had nothing to be proud about.  I believe that he was accused by his enemies of being proud, trying to bring honor to himself as false believers tends to do.  I suppose that there are true believers who have pride problems too, but honestly what do any of us who are true believers have to be proud of?  On different occasions I have quoted a song by a man named Roger Miller who sang back in the 50’s and 60’s, and one of his recordings was about pride.  The song is entitled “Husbands and Wives” and it goes like this:

“Two broken hearts, lonely, looking like
Houses where nobody lives
Two people, each having so much pride inside
Neither side forgives

The angry words, spoken in haste
Such a waste of two lives
It's my belief, pride is the chief cause and the decline
In the number of husbands and wives

A woman and a man, a man and a woman
Some can and some can't and some can

Two broken hearts, lonely, looking like
Houses where nobody lives
Two people, each having so much pride inside
Neither side forgives

The angry words, spoken in haste
Such a waste of two lives
It's my belief, pride is the chief cause and the decline
In the number of husbands and wives

Husbands and wives”

            The following are several quotes from John MacArthur and also Warren Wiersbe that will help us better understand this verse along with a review of the first six verses of this chapter.

            “Apostles refers to specially call messengers.  In the strictest sense, the plural apostles was likely intended to link Paul (as one who had seen the risen Christ and been personally commissioned by Him) to the Twelve so as to identify his unique authority.  IN less specific sense, it could designate Silas and Timothy as apostles of the churches, chosen not directly by Christ but by the churches (cf. Rom. 16:7; Phil. 2:25).”  (John MacArthur)

            “Some Christians try to win friends and influence people by appealing to their egos.  A true ministry of the Gospel deals honestly (but lovingly) with sin and judgment and leaves the unbeliever with nothing to boast of in himself.  Paul’s method was as pure as his motive: he presented the Word of God in the power of the Spirit, and trusted God to work.”  (Warren Wiersbe)

            “This passage sets forth five key qualities of fail-proof spiritual leadership:  tenacity, because the leader trusts totally in the power of God; integrity, because the leader is fully committed to the truth of God; accountability, because the leader knows the omniscient God examines his heart; and humility, because the leader is consumed with the glory of God.  If he has qualities, he will be well on his way to exercising fail-proof spiritual leadership.”  (John MacArthur)  

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Pride is something that is hard to deal with, something that I believe the Spirit of God has to remove from my life by the Word of God.  God hates pride, and therefore I do not want anything to do with it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Proverbs 3:5-6.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jezebel” (1 Kings 19:1-2).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which book deals with the Levites and the Priests?”

4/6/2014 2:50 PM