SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2025 11:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “A Compassionate Attitude”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
2:25b-26
Message of the verses: “correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
I have been talking about believers correcting
others which is relevant to what Paul is writing to Timothy in these
verses. Paul wants Timothy to know what
to do in certain situations in the church at Ephesus where he has been the
Pastor. MacArthur writes “The motivation
of such correction should be the sincere desire that perhaps God may grant them
repentance. That is always the motivation
of a humble and compassionate heart.
Paul told the immature, worldly believers in Corinth, ‘I now rejoice,
not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point
of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in
order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us’ (2 Cor. 7:9). Even when those who are corrected are
resentful of us and unrepentant, as some in Corinth were in Corinth were in
regard to Paul, there is never a place in godly correction for personal
animosity or judgmental self-righteousness.”
I have to say that ever since I have become a believer
that the men that I have set under as my pastors, with the exception of one,
have been godly men looking out for the flock that God has entrusted to
them. However the one that caused me to
leave a church where I had attended for over 25 years was just the opposite of
the others. The incident that I remember
well was one that some men were accused of doing something wrong and as soon as
he found out that what he thought was wrong behavior this pastor immediately screamed
out we have to take this to the board of deacons right away. I guess that was kind of the straw that broke
the camel’s back for soon after that my wife and I left that church which was a
heart breaking thing for us as we were young believers when we first joined
that church and raised our two children as they were babies when we first
started to go there. I was the custodian
there and needed that job to help pay our bills, and so it was a very difficult
time for us, but we left and eventually our married daughter left too and now
we are all in the same church. God
worked it all out for our good and for His glory.
MacArthur goes on to write “The hope that God may grant them
repentance is not a last resort. The
idea is not that we must try to persuade them to repent by their own efforts
and in their own power and that, if they fail, we then hope that perhaps God will grant them the repentance they were
unable to achieve for themselves. Metanoia (repentance) does not mean
simply being sorry for what we have done.
It signifies a genuine change of mind, change of heart, and change of
direction. It is for that reason that all genuine repentance must be the
product of God’s sovereign grace, just as is every aspect of salvation—‘in order that in the ages to come He
might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus’ (Eph. 2:7). Now person, no matter
how sincere and determined, can truly repent and change his own sinful thoughts
and ideas and correct his own sinful life.
Only God can work that miracle in the heart. In the same way, we are able to love only ‘because
[Christ] first loved us’ (1 John 4:19), ‘because the love of God has been
poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us’ (Rom.
5:5). God works repentance in the
willing heart of one who truly desires holiness.”
3/27/2025 1:01 PM
I am kind of having a problem finishing this Spiritual
Diary, as I am concerned about what is going on with my wife and the fact that
she has been diagnosed with cancer and so I am not really thinking as well
because of that, but I will try and conclude this SD.
Let us talk about repentance which leads disobedient
believers out of their sin and falsehood into knowledge of the truth. MacArthur explains “Epignosis represents more than mere factual information. It is deep, thorough spiritual knowledge of God’s truth, which, as with
repentance, only He can supply.”
He goes on to write “It is only through God’s gracious
provision of repentance and knowledge of His truth that anyone, including
sinning believers, may come to their spiritual senses. Ananepho
(come to their senses) literally means to return to soberness, indicating that
falsehood and sin produce what might be called a type of spiritual inebriation,
a stupor resulting in loss of judgment and proper control of one’s
faculties. The destructive effect of
false teaching and sin numbs the conscience, confuses the mind, erodes
conviction, and paralyzes the will.
“God’s provision of genuine repentance and knowledge of
His truth enable a believer to escape from the snare of the devil, after having
been held captive by him to do his will.
As Paul apprised Timothy in the previous letter, even an overseer can ‘fall
into reproach and the snare of the devil’ (1 Tim. 3:7). It is a fearful thing that, because of sin
and unfaithfulness, the devil can actually snare and hold a believer captive…to
do his will. The vessel of dishonor
becomes a pawn of Satan to work his evil will within the very body of
Christ. Such is the terrible and tragic
power of sin.”
Now we get to the good part of this section: “But our gracious ‘God is faithful,’ Paul assures us. He ‘will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it’ (1 Cor. 10:13). Not only does the Lord know ‘how to rescue the godly from temptation’ (2 Peter 2:9), but He even promises His unfaithful, dishonorable vessels that ‘if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9).
Spiritual Meaning for my life Today: Stay close
to the Lord, His Word and His people.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord to work in my heart to be able to trust Him through this difficult thing
that we are going through.
3/27/2025 1:19 PM
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