August 27, 2019 AS YOU WERE INSTRUCTED
Colossians 2:6-7 “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
There seems to be in our culture, a resistance to being instructed, or told what to do. This resistance to instruction is not something unique to the world, but is also all too common among believers. Because God loves us and desires His best for us, in His grace, He saw fit to give us His written word. In His word, we learn of the nature of God, we find true wisdom, we find our true identity, we find forgiveness, we learn how to relate and respond to others, we find hope, and we find instructions for life. His word is perfect; His word restores our soul; and the keeping of His word leads to abundant life and His word fills the void inside of each person. His word is a light to our path; His word corrects us when we need correcting; His word is alive and powerful; and His word is not difficult to understand because we have the Holy Spirit who guides us into the truth of His word. It is good for us to study and grow in God’s word, but it is even more important to act on the instructions that we know in God’s word. As often discussed in previous blogs, the all-important factor in keeping the commands and instructions of God is that it is experiencing the love of God that gives us the desire to obey Him; it is of no avail if try to keep His word as a means of earning His approval. From the verse above, we see that the believers had been instructed to “walk in Him;” walking, or living in Him impacts all we do. These believers that Paul was writing to were “firmly rooted” and were continually being built up in Him, was established in their faith, and they were “overflowing in gratitude.” That verse is a concise summary or a picture of what it looks like to live out the gospel. The good news is that we can live in the same way. May we welcome, and embrace all of the instructions of the scriptures and may be make the choice to put into to action the instructions. There is no need to be overwhelmed; simply obey the Spirit has He speaks to us and do what the scriptures tell us to do. If we do, we will be firmly rooted and overflowing with gratitude, just as these early believers were.
2 John 1:6 “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.”
Like 11:28 “He replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Psalm 19:9b-10 “The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them righteous. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”
Blessings,
Buddy
RSS Feed