KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING

Can I pray for you in any way

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal.

2 Timothy 2:8-9a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Pay attention to what’s going on in the Christian church today and you will find an array of issues, issues that have served to divide and fragment. Ask twenty people where they worship and you’re likely to get twenty different responses as each identifies with their church. And while some of these twenty may worship in the same denomination, there is also a good chance you could end up with twenty different denominational affiliations.

A quick search on Google will show that there are in excess of 200 Christian denominations in the United States alone, each separated by their own doctrines and beliefs. Most of the doctrines and beliefs are not shaped by the scriptures as much as they are social and political norms, social and political norms that form as much of a battleground within the church of Jesus Christ as they do in society outside the church where people are forming their ideals on their own or allowing other non-Christian sources to shape their views.

In other words, the Christian church has largely placed its focus on the world and less on absolute compliance with the inerrant Word of God...and unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more this way. I often wonder how God feels about this as He sees what sinful man is doing to the church He established. It has to be extremely disappointing and angering to see how much things have gone astray and how Christian believers have willingly embraced disobedience to His Word and will.

With this, I believe we need a transformational revival in the Christian church today and we need it immediately. For it’s well past time to get back to basics and become the church God expects us to be, a church united under Jesus, His Son, who is not only the Savior of the world but the Head of the Christian church. Period. He is to be the sole focus of the church and its ultimate authority...and the church is to submit to His authority. It is to conform itself and the world to Him.

And so the way forward to get the Christian church where it needs to be is a return to basics where we make Jesus, the main thing, the main thing. It’s a point we find the Apostle Paul driving home in his second letter to his ministry partner Timothy in today’s verses. There he wrote:

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. Vv. 8-9a

We know Timothy was pastoring the church in Ephesus as Paul writes from the Roman prison he was incarcerated in. We need to note that there weren’t different denominations then even though there were Christian churches planted in different major cities in what we would say is the European region today. Every church was the church of Jesus Christ and He was the Head with the Gospel as the sole point of emphasis. And one of the main goals within all these original Christian churches was to stay true to the Gospel, maintaining and sustaining its purity and sanctity.

These churches were also to be different and distinct from the cultures they operated in. The sinful behaviors that existed outside of the church had no place within it because any sinful action would have been in conflict with the life of Jesus, who was the only human being to live a sinless life. This is what makes Him the ultimate role model for every single person who places their belief in Him and any collection of such believers within a church.

This is what Paul wanted to drive home as he writes these words to Timothy. He wanted the Ephesian believers and their pastor to “remember Jesus Christ” who was “raised from the dead” and “descended from David”. Full attention was to be given to Jesus and the church was to operate completely under His leading and guiding, defending the body of believers from any attempts by worldly ways to enter in and corrupt.

How far did Paul go to guard and shield the Gospel from compromise?

So far that he suffered greatly while standing up for Jesus and the Gospel, “even to the point of being chained like a criminal”. He was willing to surrender and sacrifice even his own freedom to keep the main thing, Jesus and the Gospel, the main thing.

Friends, we can’t continue to go down the road we’re on as a Christian church as a whole, divided by differences fueled by the things of the world. It’s time to cleanse and purify the body of Christ from within, driving out anything that is distracting our full focus on Jesus, recommitting ourselves to place Him first without compromise. It requires us to lay down our pride, humbly confessing and repenting of our wrongs while seeking God’s forgiveness for how we accepted and embraced behaviors and thoughts that were not of Christ and in disobedience to His Word.

When this happens and the church collective makes Jesus and the Gospel the main thing again, then we will return to our roots, the days when the Christian church was first established, a time when the sole attention was on Jesus and the Gospel as the church and its leaders strived to keep the main thing the main thing.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.