SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/20/2019
10:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Prisoner of the Mystery”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 3:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 For this reason
I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles- 2 if indeed
you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before
in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight
into the mystery of Christ,”
We
have been talking about the stewardship that God gave to Paul in order from him
to “by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in
brief.” God gave the “job” to Paul to
speak about this mystery that both Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ once
they are both saved. Paul goes on to say
that he had written to them briefly about this and this can be seen in 1:9-12
and 2:11-12. This truth was a mystery
unknowable by men until God revealed through the apostle Paul. I realize that Peter actually was the first
one to give out the gospel to Cornelius found in the 10th chapter of
Acts, but in Paul’s missionary journeys he led many people to the Lord who were
Gentiles and because of this he spread the truth to those he led to the Lord
that Jews and Gentiles were one in Christ.
Paul goes on to say in verse four “By referring to this, when you read
you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,” John MacArthur writes “Paul was instrumental
in revealing many mysteries to the church, but the particular mystery in view
here is the one he has already mentioned in general and is about to state
specifically—namely, that in Christ, Jew and Gentile become one in God’s sight
and in His kingdom and family.”
Paul
not only would write about this mystery, but he would explain it so that all
believers would understand it. He gives “insight”
to this mystery as seen in verse four: “Sunesis (insight) “literally means to
bring together and metaphorically refers to comprehension and understanding,
mentally bringing knowledge together in order to grasp its full meaning and significance. Spiritual insight must always precede
practical application, because what is not properly understood cannot be
properly applied.”
MacArthur
goes on to say that the opposite of spiritual insight is “foolishness” (asunetos Romans 1:21):” “For even though
they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became
futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” We can see from this verse in Romans that
these men Paul writes about lacked discernment even though they knew God. Knowing about God and knowing God are two
different things!
One
of the things that I am trying to work on this year is to realize truth making
it better for me not to get emotional, but stand on God’s truths. John MacArthur writes “Paul did not get his
zeal for the gospel and his passion for souls from high emotional experiences,
though he may have had many of them. His
love, passion, and energetic zeal to win the last and to build up the saved
came from his great ‘insight’ into the gospel.
The more he comprehended God’s fathomless love and grace, the more he
was compelled to share and exemplify that love and that grace, the more he was
compelled to share and exemplify that love and that grace.”
If
you take a look at the 2 Corinthians chapter twelve you will see a chapter full
of things that Paul went through in order to fulfill his stewardship by compromising
his health, wealth and many other things for the sake of the gospel. Yes Paul was passionate, but his passion was
based on the truth that he got from God and taught to even us as we read his
writings.
The Answer to the very last Bible
question is Ester 8:9, which is the longest verse in the Bible.
Today’s first Bible quote comes from St.
John Chrysostom and once I give the quote try and figure out what verse goes
with it. “The Holy Scriptures were not
given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave
them upon our hearts.”
I will give you the verse in our next
SD.
1/20/2019 11:12 AM
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