Wednesday, June 4, 2014
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12 KJV).
Only by Jesus Christ’s grace, we mark another ministry milestone!
Recently, an individual expressed to me her disdain for “religion” in general. Her main objection was that there were many contradictory denominations of “Christianity.” I proceeded to politely explain to her that she, like many, was unaware of the distinction between pure Christianity and vain Christendom. She needed to understand that Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, alone describe Christianity, God’s current directions and program; everything else in the Bible is Israel’s program.
Beloved, when religionists combine the two programs in Scripture—that is, pick and choose doctrines from “prophecy” and “mystery”—they create Christendom, a spiritual monster, a monstrosity of misquoted Scripture, pagan nonsense, and a host of other errors. Christendom is a system that will devour (and has overwhelmed) Christian and non-Christian souls alike. Any appeal to Scripture seems utterly hopeless, for every denomination is quoting a Bible verse to support its system!
During these last 1100 days, we hope to have been a help and an encouragement to you. The Apostle Peter, in his second and final epistle, wrote about “unlearned and unstable” souls “wresting” (twisting, distorting, perverting) the Scriptures—particularly, Paul’s epistles—and “beguiling [tricking, deceiving] unstable souls” (2 Peter 2:14; 2 Peter 3:16). Basically, unstable souls making other people’s souls unsteady also; the result is a group of vacillating individuals, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight [fraud!] of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:14, the context of today’s Scripture).
God wants “perfected” saints (today’s Scripture), saints who are spiritually mature, “throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:17), saints who can do “the work of the ministry,” who can “edify” (build up, mature) the Church the Body of Christ. In doing so, God’s people will be guarded against doctrinal error, Satan’s policy of evil. Thus, by God’s grace, we will continue in our daily Bible studies, that you may save yourself and others from false teaching (1 Timothy 4:16).
Onward we go in God’s grace! 🙂
333 Words of Grace 