SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT FOR TODAY (October 27, 2013) GALATIANS 5:7-12 DON’T LET ANYTHING STOP YOU! Memory Verse: GALATIANS 5:7 (NIV) YOU WERE RUNNING A GOOD RACE. WHO CUT IN ON YOU AND KEPT YOU FROM OBEYING THE TRUTH? The goal of every athlete is to win a medal. For this reason athletes train very hard continuously in order to be in shape for impending competitions. They are also happy when they eventually win medals. One person who is also very happy when an athlete wins a competition is the trainer of the athlete. This is because not only do the athletes train hard before competitions; the trainer also does everything possible to sharpen them up for the competitions. Because trainers have big stake when their athletes win, they are not happy to see their trainees doing anything that will not help them win competitions. Such trainers will also not be glad to see anybody trying to prevent his athletes from winning their competitions. They will do everything possible to stop any body from bringing their trainers down. In Galatians 5:7-12, Paul paints a similar picture for us concerning the Galatian believers and those who were trying to sway them from the truth. According to Apostle Paul, the Galatians started their Christian race very well and had very good prospects of reaching the goal. This is because they believed the truth of the gospel as shared with them by Paul. Paul was certainly happy at the rate of their growth and expected much more fruit from them after his departure. Unfortunately, what he heard from them was the opposite of his expectations. They had begun to wander from the truth because of the false teachings they received from the Judaizers. Paul questioned who had caused them to stumble, but he certainly knew it was not from the Lord who had called them, justified them and saved them expecting to glorify them. Paul knew very well that some false teachers had caused them to stumble even though he did not know them by name. The situation of the Galatian church is common among Christians of today. Many are those who started with the Spirit but are ending up in the flesh. Many have fallen away from the faith because they began to rely on their own strengths instead of putting their trust in the Lord. More so, many have fallen off because they believed the lies that were told them. People can only believe lies if they do not know the truth or are not sure of the truth. It is probable that the Galatian Christians had ceased to pray or study their Bible as they used to do when they first heard the gospel. Consequently they lost touch with the truth. It thus became easier for them to embrace the lies which were sold to them by the Judaizers. This can happen to us as well. If we fail to study God’s word, or do not allow the Holy Spirit to teach us into the truth, we shall become victims of the many false teachers and prophets of our generation. If we fail to study God’s word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we shall accept anything anyone comes to tell us. It is therefore not surprising that many people believe the false teachings and prophecies of this generation. I wish we shall all live like the Berean Christians who made time to search through the scriptures after they had heard it to ascertain the truth or otherwise of it. Unfortunately, many Christians of our day have become either too busy with their personal lives and careers or too lazy to study God’s word. No wonder many have been deceived and many more are being deceived. Paul showed from verse 8 that the condition of the Galatian church did not occur all of a sudden. It was a gradual process. They accepted the false teachers and gave them the platform to teach. They imbibed their teachings from time to time and eventually bought into their lies. It might have started by compromising on certain issues as though they did not matter much. And then gradually sank deep into buying the lies of the Judaizers. This situation is prevalent in Christianity today-COMPROMISE. Many Christians have compromised on many issues and have gradually affected Christianity by making some Christians accept what is false as truth. For instance, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is now advocating for Ecumenism, which is the integration of all religious beliefs. It started as a way of bringing peaceful co-existence and harmony among people of different religious faiths. It is not evil in itself to seek for peace in the world. However, this has degenerated into acceptance among many WCC members that people of other religious faiths could also be saved. Is that not heretic? The Bible makes it clear that THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO HEAVEN, AND THAT IS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! WHY SHOULD WE STOOP SO LOW IN THE NAME OF PEACE? Is it not shameful for any Christian to come to this point because of worldly peace? But who told us Jesus brought us peace of the world? Beloved, let us be careful with the way we handle the gospel. We should not compromise with the truth no matter what because if we compromise on one truth, we shall end up accepting everything as truth. Not all the lies come from outside of Christendom; most of them come from within the Christian circle. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth and ask for his grace to stand by the truth without any compromises. It is true that many Christians are ignorant, lazy or are more concerned with earthly things than spending time to study and understand God’s word and are thus vulnerable as far as false teachers are concerned. But it is very important to remind those false teachers and prophets that God will not watch them unconcerned. The God whom we serve is a just judge and will bring judgment on anyone who tries to persuade his people from the truth. Paul expressed the wish that those who teach falsely in order to lead God’s people astray will pay the penalty for their sins. Do you think God will just look on while you tell lies and mislead God’s people? Don’t you ever think that you will go unpunished by God when you prophesy falsely and tell the people “thus says the Lord?” Remember what Paul said in Galatians 1:8: “BUT EVEN IF WE OR AN ANGEL PREACH A GOSPEL OTHER THAN THE ONE WE PREACHED TO YOU, LET HIM BE ETERNALLY CONDEMNED!” Therefore men and women of God, let us be diligent and study and teach God’s undiluted word because if we do otherwise, we shall incur the wrath of God. We need to remind ourselves as believers that even though there could be many hindrances from outside seeking to frustrate our walk with the Lord such as false teachings and prophecies, the greatest stumbling block to our walk with Christ is ourselves. If we study God’s word, no one can deceive us. If we are diligent, we shall be able to stop false teachings from spreading among us. But the sins which have become our burdens should also be taken off. Sin prevents us from knowing what truth is and living according to the truth. Let us therefore remove all obstacles that impede our walk with the Lord (Hebrews 12:1). Those of us who started the RACE well MUST persevere to FINISH it well. Those of us who have veered off the truth are being reminded to come back to the ancient paths. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO COME TO JESUS! THE WORD OF THE LORD!
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 11:35:59 +0000
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