SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/30/2018
9:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Petition
for Believers”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
1:17
Message of the verse: “17 that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of
wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
We
have been talking about how believers at times look for more things to come
from God that are not really Scriptural, and also that believers do not realize
the many blessings that God has given to them, things that we have been
studying about since we first began looking at the book of Ephesians, the
inheritance that we have because we are in Christ. We will continue looking at
Paul’s prayer for believers from the 17th verse of Ephesians chapter
one.
A
while back, probably about two years we spent some time going through the book
of Colossians, and in that study we saw that the Colossians thought that they
were actually missing something from God, that God had more to offer them, that
they could receive by doing some kind of act or perhaps a ritual, or even other
requirements in addition to salvation.
For some of the members of that church this actually turned into actual
heresy, which was taught and promulgated in place of apostolic teaching.
What
they were taught was that a person needs Christ plus legalism. You may remember that they talked about
things like the observance of special days, feasts, and various rituals in
order to attain higher spiritual standing and favor with God. Paul writes the following in Colossians
2:16-17 “16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink
or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- 17 things which are
a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”
MacArthur
writes “A third error taught by the Colossians heretics involved both the sin
of pride and the seeking of mystical experiences and visions to supplement the
finished work of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. What they taught as something more really
brought something less, Paul warned, because it took away from Christ’s perfect
work. ‘18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize
by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand
on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19
and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and
held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from
God (Col. 2:18-19).’”
MacArthur
goes on to talk about “A fourth promoted in the Colossian church was
asceticism, the belief that one can gain special favor and reward from God
through extreme self-denial, forsaking of physical pleasure and comfort, and
avoiding contact with the ‘common’ people by living in isolated and austere
situations. The error, even more than
the others, feeds human pride. Under the
name of suppressing the flesh, such ideas and practices actually stimulate
it. As Paul points out, the teaching ‘Do
not handle, do not taste, do not touch…are matters which have, to be sure, the
appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe
treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence’
(2:21-23).’”
Paul
gives the solution to the Colossians and thus to those who seem to be
practicing similar things today when we writes that “For in Him [Christ] all
the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made
complete.” We see from this that all of
God’s fulness is in Jesus Christ, and He keeps back none of that fullness from
believers, for “In Him…we have been made complete,” and the reason for that is
because we are sufficient, authorized saints.
MacArthur writes “authorized saints (as the use of hikanoo [to qualify, make sufficient]
in 1:12 proves).” Colossians 1:12 states
“giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” We will conclude this SD by looking at
something similar that John writes in 1 John 2:26-27 “26 These things I have
written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. 27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him
abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His
anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just
as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”
In
our next SD we will begin by looking at things that some Christians do that are
similar to that which we have seen the Colossians did.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I know that it takes study to understand what
I am in Christ, and so that is what I desire to do, and as I study what I am in
Christ, then by the power of the Holy Spirit I cannot make the same mistakes
that the Colossian “believers” made.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to learn and to grow as I study the
Word of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Bethlehem” (Genesis 35:19).
Today’s Bible question: “Who was the father of James and John?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/30/2018 9:57 AM
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