Monday, November 9, 2009

2 Thessalonians 3:5

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2 Thessalonians 3:5

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5 And [de] the Lord [kurios] direct [kateuthuno] your [humon] hearts [kardia] into [eis] the love [agape] of God, [theos] and [kai] into [eis] the patient waiting [hupomone] for Christ. [Christos] KJV-Interlinear


5 And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. NASB


Anyone who has leadership, command, or control over others, in any way shape or form, has an obligation to do whatever is within their power or ability to provide others with whatever is available through truth. To prevent, to restrain, to keep any opportunity from those of whom you can control the flow of information, is one of the most evil sins imaginable. You impact their entire spiritual life potentially for all of eternity.

Why? Because when you are in a position to keep information from people, then you are in a position to restrict their spiritual growth, and that is something that none of us has the right to do.

Here Paul makes that quite clear. It is God, who directs. It is God who makes available. If is God who presents truth to every individual, not man. And anyone who stands in the way is no better than the evil world in which we live.

And what is it that God provides?

Doctrine.

This is not restricted to prayer, not restricted to feeling good, not restricted to devotions, not restricted to music, not restricted to whatever it is that someone decides should be revealed. People must have the right to decide for themselves, and in that they must have information made available to them, freely and without restrictions or controls.

Lord, ‘kurios,’ is a reference to Jesus Christ. He directs, ‘kateuthuno,’ meaning to make a clear and unbarricaded path.

Into the love of God. And love is ‘agape,’ which is the content of the scriptures. And it is directed, or guided into your heart. The heart is the learning center, and activity center of your soul. Bible doctrine is from God, comes from God, and is directed by God, into your soul. Faith is not automatic nor an emotional whim, but is built up based on the facts, the details of learned doctrine.

The learning process of your spiritual growth, is controlled totally by God, within the scope of the rules for learning doctrine, which He has made clear to everyone who has even the slightest of interest in God and their spiritual life.

Patience means endurance, and Christ, in the last of this verse, is a reference to the written Word (Christ, the written word).

Therefore it is God from whom the source of doctrine is made available. God directs your heart, your soul, in the learning and growing process of your spiritual life, such that you can become complete through Christ (doctrine in the soul), and therefore complete within yourself.

You do not grow up by praying and nothing else. You do not grow up by singing songs and nothing else. You do not grow up and have the completeness of the spiritual life, by pretending or making yourself believe that you have no need to learn anything more. You do not grow up by being lazy in your daily studies.

Far too many Christians live a pretended spiritual life, and they are fooling only themselves.

Far too many Christians believe that when they impress others with the language of spirituality, with prayer, with music alone, then they also impress God. They are wrong.

The Christian life is not external, but internal, and is more than just ones thinking, it is the edification of Gods work within your soul by means of your dedication and devotion to a disciplined daily study. Without that, you have nothing.

Faith, prayer, your spiritual life must be built up by the foundation of learned doctrine. Without doctrine, they are empty gestures. The Book of James is a good study in this concept.

If you prevent yourself from growing up, that is bad. If you prevent others from having the opportunity to grow up, that is far worse, because you are affecting or preventing the lives of many for all of eternity. Ponder that for just a bit, and see if you really understand the implication of your actions on yourself and on others.

The objective of the spiritual life, is to allow God to guide you and for you to pursue the completion of your life, through a daily study (not just a daily reading), but a daily study, of the Word of God.


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