Ephesians 6:19
19 And [kai] for [huper] me, [emou] that [hina] utterance [logos] may be
given [didomi] unto me, [moi] that I may open [en] [anoixis] my [mou] mouth [stoma] boldly [en], [parrhesia] to make known [gnorizo] the
mystery [musterion] of the gospel, [euaggelion] KJV-Interlinear
19 and pray on my behalf, that
utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with
boldness the mystery of the gospel, NASB
Our subject is the armor of God, which in the last
several verses we have studied, is how the entire realm of doctrine serves as
the front line protection for the individual believer in Christ.
And in order that we may have this doctrine made available
to us, we need to pray for the people and methods that bring the study of the
scriptures to us, in addition to supporting them in any way that is possible or
practical for you.
Paul was in prison and obviously was under stress
simply because of that situation. And
yet even while under that stress, God allowed him ample time and support, to
process and write several books that we now have in our Bibles.
And here, Paul states that prayer was necessary in
order to help him to write, and to speak and to otherwise communicate the
gospel or the good news, which is the entire content of the book which he was
writing.
When most folks hear the term, gospel, they think
only of the message related to Christ and the Cross. But, the gospel in a
general sense includes the entire content of the Bible, and all scriptures and
principles and mandates and so forth, that relate to ones entire spiritual
life.
Thus we have the armor or covering of ourselves,
that certainly begins with salvation, but the spiritual life does not stop
there. Your entire life after salvation
opens up the greatest aspect of your life and prepares you for the completion
of yourself as a believer in Christ, not only for this life, but forever.
Without God, nothing would exist. Without doctrine,
truth would not be known. Without the
mechanism for learning and growing up in the spiritual life, then completion of
oneself would not be possible.
Then we are therefore dependent on the availability
of the communication of doctrine, which if it were not available, none of us
would have a chance for any form of life in this world.
Therefore, support for the teaching of the word of
God is important. An indifferent society
fails to support the teaching mechanisms and therefore that society falls on
hard times. An individual who presumes
that someone else will provide support, rejects his own individual obligation
for that support, and he loses.
And the greatest threat of losing out, comes from
the attitude that doctrine will always be there. And then one day it is not available or is
not so easily accessible, and the scramble to find it ends up with great
frustration.
Doctrine comes at a price. Doctrine has to be developed. Paul wrote for many years. The Old Testament
was written over the course of many centuries.
Instructors do not appear instantly.
And when they are gone, then it takes time to prepare another, if they
are developed at all.
And here, the word for mystery, ‘musterion,’ stands
for that which is closed and known only to those who are given privileged
access. In some instances various religions
or clubs would have secret sayings or secret handshakes or something secret
that only the members could know.
And so it is for believers. No unbeliever can or will ever understand the
secrets of doctrine.
Anyone can learn the academics of the
scriptures. They can even quote
scripture. But understanding and wisdom
and certainly the spiritual benefits will never be available to unbelievers.
Likewise, spiritually negative believers will never
gain access to the deep things of God, because they do not comply with Gods
mandates, and part of those mandates are to support, even in prayer, the
sources from which they receive their spiritual instruction.
Life is a serious business. If you do not take God serious, then your own
life becomes frivolous and without meaning.
And when you care nothing for supporting that which will develop your
entire essence, then you are not committed to the spiritual life for yourself
or even for Gods plan for all.
We live in an interesting time. We know that this dispensation has been
ongoing for almost two-thousand years, and that, as we near the end of our
dispensation, that a great apostasy will begin to develop, wherein doctrine and
the spiritual resources for everyone will become less and less available. That is not because they simply disappear,
but because the support for and interest in, Christianity, will fade leaving
fewer and fewer outlets available for learning.
In times past, when society became negative, God eventually
raised prophets or instructors, or He allowed great catastrophes to occur in
order to rekindle a spiritual interest.
But as our dispensation advances to its end, and we
do not know when that end will be, God will not raise up instructors, but will
bring the Rapture to shock the world in to realizing that they have missed out
on the greatest dispensation ever, and will then be exposed to the greatest and
most terrible period in all of human history.
With that principle, then your interest determines
what will be available to you, or what will not be available to you. If you want a plant, a job, a career or
whatever, to feed you, then you have to care for it. If you do not, then you will lose. Doctrine is no different.
