Walk Your Talk

Don’t Wrangle About Words

People love to talk about politics, sports, weather, and religion. Unfortunately when they discuss religion they are discussing the differences in theology. They love to talk about the differences between Baptist, Methodist, Church of God and many other types of protestant faiths. Paul warns Timothy not to engage in these types of conversations and to warn his church not to engage in these types of conversations.

In timothy’s context, he was in an area where philosophy and ideas were commonplace in the culture. They embraced discussion about Christianity, but not for the purpose of seeking truth and becoming a Christian. They loved to talk about it to interject their ideas to discredit Christianity. Timothy needed to avoid these conversations because they just upset the new believers faith.

In our context today, people like to talk about the differences in faith because they want to be right. They want to be superior to you in their faith. This is not the Spirit of Christ. We are to avoid these types of conversations. These types of conversations lead to further division among the people of God. We need to discuss the things that we agree on and rejoice in those

10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all [a]agree and that there be no [b]divisions among you, but that you be [c]made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Can you imagine what we could accomplish if we put our doctrinal differences aside and band together for kingdom advancement? It would send a message to the lost that we are a family of faith that loves one another in spite of our differences. People will be drawn to this.

Prove Yourself To Be A Workman

Paul encourages Timothy not to get caught up in meaningless conversations but to demonstrate his faith by working it out in his actions.

14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can [a]that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, [b]be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is [c]dead, being by itself.

18 But someone [d]may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that [e]God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

We must be a people of prayer, but we must couple our prayer with action. The way we do this is by reading scripture, understanding scripture, and living scripture.

Reading scripture

You cannot know God or His will without reading His Word. He tells us everything that we need to know about Him and his will in His word. The basic principles of life are found in scripture.

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Everything in life is predicated on these two principles.

Not only does God’s word give you the basic principles of life, but it gives you situational guidance. This means that if this is happening in my life, what does God want me to do?

Understanding Scripture

It is not enough to just read the Scripture. We must engage with it to discern the original meaning of the text. The author of the text wrote it with one meaning. Contrary to popular belief, their is only one interpretation to the meaning of the text. Although there is just one meaning, there are many applications. Before we can adequately apply God’s Word to our life we must understand the original meaning of the text. Without understanding of the meaning of scripture, one will misappropriate scripture in their lives.

Paul tells Timothy to accurately handle the word of truth. Without understanding the truth one is tempted to twist the scripture to justify their own selfish desire or justify a sinful behavior.

Believers are incredibly blessed to have a written copy of God’s Holy Word. We must go beyond surface level reading of the Word and work for the truth. The only way this can happen is engaging with the Holy Spirit for clarity. He will reveal truth.

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

If you want to understand the Word of God beyond intellectual knowledge, ask the Holy Spirit to use the scripture to speak into your soul!

Live the Scripture

Once a person reads and understands the scripture, they are expected to live out what they know to be true. Living the Scripture is how you grow intimate with the Lord. You will see His promises come to life in your life. This is how you grow to love Jesus!

Avoid False Teaching

Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching a false gospel. They were teaching that the resurrection had already occurred. We do not know what brand of this false doctrine they were teaching, but we do know that there were two prevalent doctrines during this time. The first was that resurrection occurs through your kids. You are not raised from the dead but you live on through the life of your kids. The second an more likely taught was that the resurrection occurs when you are saved. You do not have life after death, but your knowledge of God through salvation is your resurrection. This is in direct opposition to what Paul taught.

12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified [a]against God that He raised [b]Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

These two false teachers were upsetting the believers at Ephesus, because they were preaching a false message that has no hope. It dismisses the promise of Eternal Life.

We too need to avoid false teaching. Today the prosperity gospel and feel good messages destroy the true faith. Prosperity teaches that God will give you health, wealth, and popularity if you follow Jesus. This is not found in scripture. This feeds our worldly desires. The second is pastors that preach feel good messages. They do this for fear that they will run people off. The fallacy of this is that they never get to the heart problem that exists in all of us.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

So how would you be able to discern a false teacher from a teacher of the truth?

Abstain From Wickedness

The key to abstaining from wickedness is a firm foundation of God. The closer you are to God, the less you will desire the wicked things of the world. Just modifying your behavior so you do not sin is not enough because you have not gotten rid of the “want to”. Drawing close to the Lord changes your “want to”. You no longer have the unsatiable desire to sin, but do have the desire to walk in Holiness.

7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Submit to God

How do we Submit to God? Jesus Tells us in Matthew.

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his [a]life will lose it; but whoever loses his [b]life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Deny yourself - Make a choice not to follow the passions of the flesh

Take up your cross - Fulfill God’s Calling in your life. The Cross was Jesus’s. What is yours?

Follow Me - Trust in Jesus for the strength and power to fulfill His calling in your life!

Cleanse your hands and purify your heart.

This is called repentance. Calling upon the Lord for the necessary change in your life.

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When we confess our sin, we are agreeing with God that what we are doing is wrong. We are also saying that we want to change.

God gives us mercy by forgiving us of our sin. This means that he does not hold our sin against us at the time of judgement. This does not mean that he will take away the consequences of our sin. Those remain as an act of mercy, to teach us not to engage further in sin.

God cleanses us from all unrighteousness. This is an act of grace. This is a perpetual promise that is encompassed by grace. It is God’s power in our lives breaking down the strongholds of sin in our lives and conforming us into the image of His son.

This is a life-long process. Do not be discouraged if you struggle in sin after you are saved. Draw upon the grace of God and be transformed!

Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord.

Pride is perhaps the greatest sin that will prevent people from receiving eternal life. They live their lives pretending everything is okay between them and God because they live good lives and do religious things. They fail to address the heart issues that keep them from growing in intimacy with Jesus.

Pride is perhaps the greatest sin that will prevent people from receiving eternal life. They live their lives pretending everything is okay between them and God because they live good lives and do religious things. They fail to address the heart issues that keep them from growing in intimacy with Jesus.

The key to humbleness is acknowledging your struggle and trusting Jesus with it. You must be willing to have faith that He desires to heal and forgive you, not condemn and punish you.

When you trust Jesus this way, you will find intimacy with him much more easy.