SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/7/2025 10:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to “Standing
Against Apostasy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
3:10-14
Message of the verses: “10 Now you
followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11
persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at
Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all
the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad
to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 You, however, continue in the things
you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them;”
John MacArthur writes the following in his
introduction to these verses and the first statement speaks of his introduction
to the entire letter of 2 Timothy.
“As mentioned in the introduction,
Paul had three overriding priorities in his life: to know Christ, to defend Christ’s truth
(Scripture), and to minister in Christ’s name.
A major part of both of his letters to Timothy focuses on the second
priority, defending God’s revealed truth.
“There is much relational preaching
today that attempts to make people feel better about themselves and about how
God might feel about them, but there is little forceful defense of the full
truth. As in most periods of church
history, strong and effective defenders of the faith are at a premium. Not many pastors and teachers cry out for
doctrinal and moral purity for right belief and right living.
“The New Testament church faced the
same deficiency. ‘Beloved, while I was
making every effort to write you about our common salvation,’ Jude admonished, ‘I
felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the
faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed,
those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons
who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and
Lord, Jesus Christ’ (Jude 3-4).
“Paul here continues to focus on Timothy’s service
as a strong and loyal defender of the faith, pointing up two necessary qualifications
for such a defender: having a strong example as his spiritual mentor (vv.
10-13) and having strong convictions built into a spiritual foundation (v.
14). A third qualification, strong
adherence to scriptural authority and sufficiency, will be discussed in the
following commentary chapter. Because
Timothy already had observed these qualifications, their mention here is by way
of reminder and summary. Timothy should
have no excuse for not being strong and triumphant in battling apostasy,
because he had been privileged to observe the noblest soldier in battle—Paul.”
Spiritual Meaning for My Life Today: I am thankful that Timothy was in the life of
the apostle Paul, as Paul’s letters to Timothy have great meaning, and are
still today as important as they were when Paul wrote them to Timothy.
My Steps of
Faith for Today: This comes
from my other Spiritual Diary that I was working on this morning: “Dr.
Wiersbe quotes from a noted Scottish preacher named George Morrison in many of
his commentaries with a quote that every believer should put to memory and it
is the theme of this psalm that David has written. Morrison writes “The victorious Christian
life is a series of new beginnings.”
This is a wonderful truth to remember, for we all will need new
beginnings.” The Psalm reference is Psalm 30.
5/7/2025 11:10 AM
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