SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/3/2025 10:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Promise of Eternal Blessing”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
2:11-13
Message of the verses: “11 It is a trustworthy
statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If
we deny Him, He also will deny us; 13 If
we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
I will pick up from where I left off from yesterday’s SD by quoting from MacArthur’s commentary: “Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,’ Paul explained to believers at Colossae, ‘yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless beyond reproach00if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister’ (Col. 1:21-23). Only if Christ is Lord of a life, can He present that life before His Father ‘holy and blameless and beyond reproach.’ The only life that can endure is an obedient life. A life that will not serve Him will never reign with Him.’”
The following is what Jesus promised the Twelve, and I am sure that this promise certainly was not for Judas “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28; cf. Luke 22:29-30). I have though over these passages and wondered if Paul would be a part of this or would Matthias, the one who took Judas’ place after he denied Christ and hung himself. If Paul is not a part of this group I am sure that there will be a special place for him to be. MacArthur then writes this good news “Believers also have positions of authority in the millennial kingdom, as 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 indicates: ‘Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?’ (1 Cor. 6:2-3). Speaking of all Christians in the final glory, Paul declared, ‘For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 5:17).”
He goes on by writing “To endure, or persevere, with
Christ does not protect salvation, which is eternally secured when a person
trusts in Him as Savior and Lord. We can
no more ensure salvation by our own efforts or power than we first gained it by
our own efforts of power.
“The next two conditions and promises are negative and
are parallel, at least in form, to the preceding positive ones.”
This is where this will get long and so I don’t want to
begin it and then stop in the middle, and so I will, Lord willing, begin it in
my next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I think
about the word “endure” that Paul is using here in this part of his letter to
Timothy, and I suppose that is exactly what Paul’s reason for writing this
letter, was for Timothy to endure what he was going through and continue serving the Lord. I go through difficult times and I too must
endure and I suppose that is why it has taken me so long to study the letter of
2 Timothy. I see some things in my life
that Timothy was going through, and on top of that on my other blog I just
began going over my Spiritual Diaries from 2011 when I studied the book of Job.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is my
desire to learn from both Job and 2 Timothy the things that the Lord desires me
to learn from them.
2/3/2025 10:54 AM
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