don't let me be a talker...
Today my small group and I decided to work through the letters Paul sent to Timothy. As expected, I find the word of God challenging at its roots of the gospel message. There is a stint in chapter one where Paul discusses the goal of the gospel, the goal of the good news. The goal of the gospel is love, agape, which flows from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Which leads to the questions I have been asking myself for some time now, "What does living out agape love look like within the church, within society, within a personal and social holiness lifestyle?" You see because I am stuck in the dichotomy that is a conservative upbringing versus a wide kingdom of loving God's creation as Christ did. You might ask yourself the same thing or why I am having such a problem with this. To discover the balance of a disciplined lifestyle according to scripture and an unrelenting love for the destitute in this world without sacrificing integrity according to the church leaves me at a crossroads of wondering how the two co-exist.
In short, I am looking for the balance of personal holiness and social holiness because I know God desires for his people to be holy as he is holy. The answer to this comes with maturity, which means time for me, so I will continue to wait upon how the Spirit guides me so that I may first become right with God, which in turn flows through my service.
Paul continues to say in verses 6-7; "For some men, straying from these things (pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith), have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions." To be honest, I tire of discussing alcohol, war, sometimes politics not that it is fruitless but because maybe if I were more busy actively living out my faith such issues would not be the forefront of every discussion I have. Who wants to talk gospel, good news, the kingdom, the power of Christ, and then let the Spirit intervene in our service rather than have countless debates (usually two stubborn people arguing opposite points with no real intention of changing their position-which discredits the entire thing in the first place), so that we may remain fruitful in discussion opposed to just talking about what fruit looks like and how it might taste and the texture and flavor of it when Christ has offered the fruit to us to enjoy every day in all of our disciplines, services, and joys that come along with life. People say what does fruit look like and I say they gospel says the Spirit. The idea is never as good as the actualization.
Peace.
In short, I am looking for the balance of personal holiness and social holiness because I know God desires for his people to be holy as he is holy. The answer to this comes with maturity, which means time for me, so I will continue to wait upon how the Spirit guides me so that I may first become right with God, which in turn flows through my service.
Paul continues to say in verses 6-7; "For some men, straying from these things (pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith), have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions." To be honest, I tire of discussing alcohol, war, sometimes politics not that it is fruitless but because maybe if I were more busy actively living out my faith such issues would not be the forefront of every discussion I have. Who wants to talk gospel, good news, the kingdom, the power of Christ, and then let the Spirit intervene in our service rather than have countless debates (usually two stubborn people arguing opposite points with no real intention of changing their position-which discredits the entire thing in the first place), so that we may remain fruitful in discussion opposed to just talking about what fruit looks like and how it might taste and the texture and flavor of it when Christ has offered the fruit to us to enjoy every day in all of our disciplines, services, and joys that come along with life. People say what does fruit look like and I say they gospel says the Spirit. The idea is never as good as the actualization.
Peace.
posted by Levi at
2:44 PM
1 Comments
