God wants us to be more like Him. This daily devotion looks at what we learn from Scriptures and what happens when we don’t.
Nuggets
Disciples can expect persecution while non-believers embrace worldliness even more.
We are to consistently study Scriptures to learn of God.
God authored Scriptures to show mankind how to be godly.
Devotions in Living Out God’s Word series
For the last two devotions, we have been looking at, mainly, the characteristics people will exhibit in the last days. The verse we didn’t get to was that they would be giving the appearance of godliness.
It was just an appearance because they will be denying God’s power. The way I see it is they will think having an outward expression of godliness is enough. In other words, being a good person is enough to gain salvation.
An outward expression of godliness without an inward transformation will not gain us salvation.
But gaining salvation does not mean we will have an easy road ahead of us. Let’s see what Paul told Timothy.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (II Tim. 3: 12-13 ESV)
Disciples can expect persecution while non-believers embrace worldliness even more.
Jesus warned us that we would experience persecution. “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will kill you” (Mt. 24: 9 CSB).
At least Jesus warned us.
But isn’t that what Scripture is all about? It is warning us what will happen. It is telling us what will happen if we don’t submit to God.
That is much better than if it would just tell us about the rainbows and unicorns. We would expect it would be smooth sailing if the difficult times were not included.
Jay reminded us that what is expected is not just our being a good person. We are expected to be both: moral and godly.
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Paul told Timothy that we have to be in Christ. We use Jesus as our model. We live out His revelation.
Glossary
We also have to remember that, once we become a disciple, Satan is going to come after us with guns blazing. He is going to want to try to get us to deny God – like Peter did (Mt. 26: 69-75).
What can we expect to be happening to non-believers while this is going on? They are getting sucked further and further into worldliness.
Non-believers, as Hall said, are strongly bent toward apostasy – and they grow worse day by day. Apostasy means not believing in the state religion or not being a Christian.
Resource
Glossary
Disciples are becoming godlier as we navigate the Sanctification Road. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
When we become godlier, we gain a firm foundation. Non-believers don’t have that foundation. That is why they slide further and further away from what God wants for us.
This is helped along by Satan, who is a great deceiver. He encourages us to not believe God’s truth.
Learning from Scriptures
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 3: 14-15 ESV)
We are to consistently study Scriptures to learn of God.
God doesn’t call us to be hit and miss in studying His Word. He was us to be in it daily.
Why? We have to know what we believe. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (I Thess. 5: 21 KJV).
Our being buried in the Word shows the sincerity of our salvation. We know God’s promises and His expectations.
This knowledge will prove invaluable when temptations start.
Read again the verses. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 3: 14-15 ESV).
Continue. We’re already doing this. If we aren’t, we should be.
Oh, yeah. It is going to be work. The good part is we learn it from others.
We know who Timothy’s teachers were. “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (II Tim. 1: 5 ESV).
We also know that Paul was Timothy’s mentor/teacher. What better teacher to have?
God expects parents to teach their children. “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deut. 4: 9 ESV).
Why is this important? It gives them a foundation if they stray. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22: 6 ESV).
The Scriptures make us wise when we believe them. They show us God’s Plan of Salvation.
Jesus is the focal point of all Scriptures, even the Old Testament. Everything points to His coming, His ministry, and His return.
Notice it is more than just head knowledge. It has to be what we believe — we have to get it to the heart level. That knowledge has to transform our character.
We have to know what we believe is God’s truth. We can’t rewrite the Scriptures so that it fits in line with our opinions.
God will judge us on His laws and commandments, interpreted His way.
Another reason we have to be buried in God’s Word is so that we will be able to withstand the persecutions.
Hall told us the five ways in which the Scriptures are holy.
- God is the author.
- The humans He used to actually put the words on paper were holy men.
- Scriptures contain pure doctrine.
- Hearing, reading, and meditating on Scriptures cause our sanctification.
- Their being holy show they were not of human composition.
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Scriptures give us what we need to know God as Sovereign Lord.
The Origin and Purpose of Scriptures
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (II Tim. 3: 16-17 ESV)
God authored Scriptures to show mankind how to be godly.
A group of men didn’t just sit down one day and decide to write the Scriptures. They were prompted to do so by the Holy Spirit.
Muir gave us some insight on how that happened. He wrote, “The Word in Holy Scripture results from that miraculous operation of the Spirit of God, whereby He did so communicate Himself to the writers of these Scriptures for the revelation of His will to man, as to secure the infallible truth and Divine authority of what is written in the Bible. Of the manner of that miraculous operation of the Spirit of God we know nothing.”
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No. We don’t need to understand everything involved in making that happen. All we need to do is believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, caused men to write an account of His revelations.
The King James Version says that the Scriptures were given by the inspiration of God. Vaughan addressed that. He wrote, “The only true view of Inspiration will be that which is the net result of a lifelong study of Scripture itself, with all freedom in registering its phenomena, and all candour in pondering the question, ‘What saith it concerning itself?’”
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What is that telling us?
- It is not going to be a quick learn. We should commit to life-long learning.
- Learning Scriptures is the only way to gain true freedom.
- Scriptures are the best resource regarding Scriptures.
We cannot take God out of Scriptures. We do that when we allow compromise of God’s laws and commandments. We cannot say salvation can be obtained through works.
Vaughan made another interesting observation. He said that each writer was allowed his own writing style.
That is why Paul’s books are so different from Peter’s. We can tell which ones the highly educated person wrote, and which ones were penned by the fisherman.
Okay. I have to process something Hunter said. He wrote, “What is inspiration? It is not revelation, but the infallible record of an infallible revelation.”
Resource
Scriptures aren’t the actual act of God making Himself known. They are the transcript of that revelation.
So, in Deuteronomy, Moses didn’t write the book and let the Israelites learn of God’s Will that way. He gave the speech, then wrote the book.
“These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizaha” (Deut. 1: 1 ESV).
Do we learn about God in Scriptures and, therefore, have Him revealed to us? Absolutely.
But we aren’t the first. We don’t all get this revelation at the same time.
What do we gain from Scriptures?
- It gives us the knowledge we need to know.
- It teaches us right from wrong.
- It shows us how we are to live like God wants of us.
God convicts us when we sin. We are sanctified and perfected. This occurs through the good works that we do.
No, we don’t gain perfection by what we do. The good works mean the service to which God calls us.
While we serve God in the way in which He calls us, He sanctifies us until we get His character. We truly get His character when we are perfected.
This all happens through God’s grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
Glossary
Making the Connections #1
Jay made a good point. He wrote, “Suffering is necessary for [a Christian’s] trial and his triumph. Without this how could he prove that he loves God better than friendship, reputation, wealth, or life? … It is warfare that makes a good soldier.”
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We would really prefer to have a smoother life – but that wouldn’t be what is best for us.
I know. Think about someone – maybe you – who is railing against God because of the current trial. We don’t see how it could ever be termed as good for us.
But it is. It is transforming us to be who God wants us to be. It is proving our faith in Him.
Part of the problem is we can’t see the difference between our trials and those of non-believers. We all lose jobs, loved ones, and reputation.
It is what we do with those trials that count? Are we depending on God to see us through or ourselves? Is it growing us to be close to Him?
Making the Connections #2
Hook what Paul is saying in verses 12 through 17 to what he said in verses 1 through 5. God is telling us that we need to read His Word in the last days. We need to go back to the teachings of our youth — those who grew up in the church — to get back to being men and women after God’s own heart.
Muir called it an objective reality. It is an impartial account of the way things truly exist.
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Everything that God says in His Word is true. That means the earth will be no more (Rev. 20: 11), and those who have not ABCDed will be judged (Rev. 20: 12) and sentenced (Rev. 20: 15).
How Do We Apply This?
- Honor God through our trials and persecutions.
- Be in God’s Word daily.
- Believe at the heart level that God’s Word is true.
- Know how God wants us to live.
- Know God’s promises.
- Know where we have to work on the Sanctification Road.
- Correctly know ourselves.
- Adapt ourselves to situations and the people with whom we come into contact in these situations.
- Don’t live selfish lives.
Submit to God. - Hall said that we are to “love the Scriptures for their purity …”
- Live out the Scriptures.
- Use Scriptures as a guide to show us the way to God.
Resource
Father God. Thank You for having godly men write down the accounts of Your revelations to us. Help us to dig deep into Your Word and to understand what You would have us know. Amen.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
What do you think?
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