A couple Sundays back, Pastor Kyle started a new sermon series through the book of 2 Peter. To kick off the series, he gave us the major themes of the book. There are three main topics that we find in 2 Peter. First, the Apostle Peter talks a lot about living out the basics of Christianity. Those who have the knowledge of these basics, may be in need of a refresher on the basics that they already know but have drifted to the back of their mind. Many people state that they do not know enough about the Bible in order to figure out God’s will for them. We all do not know the Word of God as we should and need to spend more time in the Holy Bible, Bible Study and Commentaries on the Word. We live in a day and age when we literally have an entire Seminary of resources available at our fingertips to utilize. But, our Theology ultimately means nothing if it does not change our lives. Biblical illiteracy and lack of Bible knowledge is a serious issue today, but in addition, most Christians have a “living out the Bible” problem.
In Luke 6:46, Jesus says, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? We need to continually grow in the Word of God because we don’t dig into the Scriptures nearly enough as we should. The more we open. read and study the Word of God, the more and more we learn. The basics of Christianity are simple and plain for us to see. God’s Will can be summed up in two words: Worship and Obedience. Can we improve in our understanding of these two critical core Christian disciplines and what they are for everyday life? Absolutely, and we should be doing that every day. In John 8:31, Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. In John 14:15, Jesus said to his disciples: If you love me, you will do as I command. Know them and do them.
Acts 17:10-11 states, “Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
Secondly, the Apostle warns about false teachers. Check out the podcast titled “Coffee, Cults and Conversation, which combats false teachings. It’s very important for every Christian to know what they believe and why they believe it. It is also important to identify false teachings and call them out from a biblical perspective. You check the authentic by measuring things by the plan model. You identify a forgery by comparing what is given to the real deal. Same is true about verifying biblical teaching. We are not talking about denominational differences and non-essential Christian issues. As flawed human beings, all of us have some bad Theology that God is going to correct when we get to Heaven.
We tend to think that we understand things perfectly, but we don’t. In the body of Christ, our goal should be to lovingly guide others back towards the truth. False teaching is speaking to issues that makes a difference between someone being in Heaven and someone being in Hell for eternity at the end of their life. False teachings is that someone has such a distorted view of Christ that they would literally be eternally separated from God and His kingdom for believing that very thing. What do we do when someone starts going down that path towards believing in a false teaching that is not Christ-spoken or Bible-centered? We are to passionately help those brothers and sisters get back on track. Don’t chastise them and drive them away, but reach out to them and have a conversation, listen to them and pray for them. God will open a door for truth to enter, but love and care have to come first. The object is to restore them to an upright position before the Lord through repentance and realigning their mind, will and emotions towards walking in the Spirit. Love opens the heart to hear the truth of God.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on having what y9u need to succeed as a Christian in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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