Friday, November 30, 2018

PT-2 "Petition for Believers from Eph. 1:17


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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