SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/6/2025 8:43 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1
“A Pure Heart”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 2:22
Message
of the verse: “22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness,
faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure
heart.”
John
MacArthur points out that this verse presents five characteristics of a pure
heart, which itself is a fifth characteristic of an honorable vessel for the
Lord. So I guess we look at this kind of
like in subsections heading up by “an honorable vessel for the Lord.” As one looks at 1 Timothy 6:11 they will see
it is similar to this verse: “But flee
from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, perseverance and gentleness.”
Now
we begin looking at these five characteristics and the first on is a negative
one, a pure heart. This is expressed here
in the command to flee youthful lusts. MacArthur
writes “Flee is from phuego, from
which ‘fugitive’ is derived. The Greek
verb is here a present imperative of command, indicating that fleeing is not
optional but is to be persistent. The
meaning is reflected in the term ‘fugitive,’ which refers to a person who is
continually on the run in order to escape captive. The faithful Christian is continually on the run, as it were, from the
sinful passions that started when we were young.” I have to say that there is nothing to
disagree with last sentence that I have highlighted.
MacArthur
goes on by writing “Timothy was some thirty years younger than Paul when this
letter was written. He therefore was
relatively youthful and was still tempted by many sinful lusts that are characteristic
of young people. These lusts involve
much more than sinful sexual desire.
They also include pride, craving for wealth and power, inordinate
ambition, jealously, envy, an argumentative and self-assertive spirit, and many
other sinful lusts.
“Timothy
was timid and apparently sometimes embarrassed by his close association with
the apostle Paul and the uncompromising gospel he proclaimed. He probably was fearful of persecution and
may not have boldly confront those who compromised and ministered God’s
revealed truth. He seems to have been especially
intimidated by older men in the church who resented his leadership (1 Tim.
4:12). Losing the battle to youthful
lusts would not help him resolve the problem of leadership or effectively
corrected wrong doctrine and immoral practices but would aggravate this conflict. For his own sake and the sake of the church,
he was to flee such temptations and inclinations.”
Lord
willing I will continue looking at the remaining four attributes of a pure
heart in my next SD.
Spiritual Meaning for My
life Today: I don’t think that with age that we are not
tempted with some of these youthful lusts that Paul is writing to Timothy about
here.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I continue to trust the Lord that the results
from my wife’s operation will be tested soon and that through it all will bring
glory to the Lord.
3/6/2025 9:09 AM
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