PT-1 "Settled in Understanding"

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/28/2017 12:14 PM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus: PT-1Settled in Understanding

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 2:2c-5

            Message of the verses:  “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.”

            I just had a thought that I have had before on many different occasions but have never written down.  Think for a moment of the problems that the church of Colossae was experiencing which caused the apostle Paul to write this letter to, and then for a moment think if they had not had these problems, then we would not have this letter in the Word of God.  My point is that many of the letters that are contained in the Word of God are results of problems that the different churches or persons were having and if they had not had these problems then we, today would not know how to solve them if we faced the same situations today.  Paul writes to the Corinthians “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (2 Cor. 1:3-4).” I realize that Paul is talking about some of the afflictions that he was going through, but the same holds true with the difficulties and even the wrong doctrinal problems churches like the Colossian church was going through.  God, through Paul would help them to solve their doctrinal issues and He will also use Paul’s writing to solve similar things that goes on in churches today, that is if they are willing to admit their problems and ask God to forgive them and then heal their churches.

            Now we want to look at our subject for today, but probably will not get through it in one SD.  Now when we look at the words “wealth that comes from the full assurance” we can be sure that Paul is not talking about physical or financial benefits, but spiritual benefits that will last for all eternity.  We have to rely on these assurances in order to enjoy on all of the blessings that are ours in Christ.  MacArthur writes “For example, no one can look forward with hope to the blessings of heaven who doubts whether he is going there.”  Now there are some who believe that God gives them salvation and that after giving it to them He takes it away from them because of the way that they are living.  John writes in John 3:36 “"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."”  John is saying, and in this case it is John the Baptist, that you are either saved or your not.  John writes the following in 1 John 2:19  “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”  Here John is saying that the ones, who went out from us, never were really a part of us.  Good example of this is Judas who spent three years with Jesus but was never a true believer and so he went out from them.  Bottom line is that if we are a believer we have that hope of going to heaven, it is part of what Christ promises to believers.  Now there are a few places in the Scriptures where we read that we are to make certain of our salvation, and one of them is found in 2 Peter 1:10 where we read “Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you.”  Paul writes in the last chapter of 2 Corinthians the following “5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test?”  Now how do we make sure that our calling is sure?  Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:5-8:

“5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

            Now in our next SD on these verses we will begin to look at the meaning of the word “understanding.
2/28/2017 12:41 PM