We need to
The other day I was reading the apostle Pauls second letter to Timothy and these few lines jumped out at me. They said,
“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” 2Timothy 1:13,14.
Paul is telling Timothy to pattern his teaching after Paul’s own teaching. Sadly in this day and age many evangelist, pastors and others claiming to be Christians do not pattern their teaching after the apostle Paul.
If we look at Paul’s teaching we see a number of things we as Christians need to do.
When we look at Paul speaking in Athens in the Areopagus Acts chapter seventeen. We see Paul did not speak against anything the Athenians believed in. He met them where they were at. He noticed a temple to an unknown God. Using that as a starting point he proclaimed the gospel of Christ. He said,
"For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:23-31.
Paul proclaimed the gospel message without criticizing the Athenians beliefs. He even won souls for Christ that day and left people wanting to hear more.
Paul was very big on staying on message and not criticizing those outside the church. He said,
Paul points out,
“No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.” 2 Timothy 2:4.
Christians need to remember this we are in an army that proclaims the Love of God. We for the most part should not be getting involved in secular affairs.
Sadly many in the North American church it seems like to criticize those outside the church. They tend to mix particularly secular politics and their faith. This should not be so.
Someone once said “mixing politics and religion is like mixing gasoline and water. The water is undrinkable, the gasoline unusable, and the whole mixture explosive and damaging.”
If we as Christians in the twenty-first century are to reach people for Christ we need to stick to the pure message of the gospel. We need to heed the words Paul wrote to Timothy when he said,
“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” 2Timothy 1:13,14.
We need to follow the advice of the writer of Hebrews who said,
“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14.
Please think about it.
The other day I was reading the apostle Pauls second letter to Timothy and these few lines jumped out at me. They said,
“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” 2Timothy 1:13,14.
Paul is telling Timothy to pattern his teaching after Paul’s own teaching. Sadly in this day and age many evangelist, pastors and others claiming to be Christians do not pattern their teaching after the apostle Paul.
If we look at Paul’s teaching we see a number of things we as Christians need to do.
When we look at Paul speaking in Athens in the Areopagus Acts chapter seventeen. We see Paul did not speak against anything the Athenians believed in. He met them where they were at. He noticed a temple to an unknown God. Using that as a starting point he proclaimed the gospel of Christ. He said,
"For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:23-31.
Paul proclaimed the gospel message without criticizing the Athenians beliefs. He even won souls for Christ that day and left people wanting to hear more.
Paul was very big on staying on message and not criticizing those outside the church. He said,
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?
Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside.
“Expel the wicked man from among you.”
1 Corinthians 5:12,13
When Paul corrected anyone it was always Christians never those outside the Church.Paul points out,
“No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.” 2 Timothy 2:4.
Christians need to remember this we are in an army that proclaims the Love of God. We for the most part should not be getting involved in secular affairs.
Sadly many in the North American church it seems like to criticize those outside the church. They tend to mix particularly secular politics and their faith. This should not be so.
Someone once said “mixing politics and religion is like mixing gasoline and water. The water is undrinkable, the gasoline unusable, and the whole mixture explosive and damaging.”
If we as Christians in the twenty-first century are to reach people for Christ we need to stick to the pure message of the gospel. We need to heed the words Paul wrote to Timothy when he said,
“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” 2Timothy 1:13,14.
We need to follow the advice of the writer of Hebrews who said,
“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14.
Please think about it.
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