Friday, December 12, 2014

Romans 2:24

Copyright Ó 2014 J. Neely
Romans 2:24

24 For [gar] the name [onoma] of God [theos] is blasphemed [blasphemeo] among [en] the Gentiles [ethnos] through [dia] you [humas], as [kathos] it is written [grapho].   KJV-Interlinear

24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”   ESV

Too many do not learn correctly because they do not participate in a daily study as God commands.  Quoting from both Isa. 52:5 and Eze. 36:20-23, Paul now states the reason as to why Christians need to learn first, before they represent themselves to others.

The Israelites presented themselves as the people of God, but they violated their own laws and rules, and what's more, they violated the scriptures that they boasted that others should follow.

This hypocrisy, was seen by gentiles or unbelievers and thus the credibility of the Jewish people was tarnished and their faith was ignored as phony.

When God punished the Jews, all saw this punishment and the reasons for their punishment, namely their failure and duplicitous attitude.

The same principle applies to Christians today.  If you are not taught Christian principles then you are not qualified to state your own opinions to others.  And yet too many people make comments that are contrary to true Christian doctrine and that only muddies the waters for others who will look at Christianity as just another phony philosophy.

The Bible clearly states how one is to be saved.

The Bible clearly states how one is to learn.

The Bible clearly states how one is to conduct himself with God, with self, with family, with others and so forth.

And these things and more, are easily learned when you follow the spiritual process which God has laid out for us.

That process is easy to learn too.

But if you do not see the value in God, in Christ, in eternity, in your own life, then you probably are not reading this study.  And that is unfortunate.

But if you are one of the few who actually sees the value of the Christian life and the value of your own destiny, then you still have to make the choice, the daily choice and the commitment, a lifetime commitment, to stick with a daily study and continue in that daily study and grow and develop your life, which helps you now as well as in the next life.

Remember that this life will end, one way or another for each one of us.  That is something that we cannot prevent, and the next life is going to last much, much longer.  We are preparing for that next life.

Before we were born into this world, we had no say as to the nature and circumstance of our life, but uniquely we now have a great deal of control over how our next life will be.  And that control comes through our daily choice to pursue a daily study, and then the next life will be phenomenal, and more.