AVOID BEING MISLED

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In Christ, Mark

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

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

2 Peter 3:15-16

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

After Jesus ascended, He passed the torch onto others who He chose to carry on His Gospel work through the power of the Holy Spirit. Since the end of May, we have been studying through the two letters written by Peter, one of Jesus’ first four disciples and as we see in our verses for today, Peter pays homage to a fellow warrior for Christ, the Apostle Paul. Look again at his words here:

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:15-16

Peter was with Jesus in the flesh through most of His adult ministry and it was Peter who boldly delivered the first sermon after Pentecost, speaking with the power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that led to nearly 3,000 new believers joining the budding Christian movement on the spot (Acts 2:14-47).

Conversely, Paul was a bit of a late comer to Christianity, requiring direct intervention from the ascended Jesus after a long run of zealous service to the Jewish cause, a service that included the persecution and killing of Christians, those referred to as “followers of the Way” in the Bible (Galatians 1:13-14, Acts 9). After his Damascus moment, we know the rest of the story. Paul went onto being the primary key player in taking the Gospel “to the ends of the earth” just as Jesus has predicted it would (Acts 1:8).

During his missionary journeys, Paul established churches in many places throughout Europe and Asia, and after this, we find letters to several of these churches in the New Testament. In fact, outside of the Gospels, there are thirteen epistles credited to him, thirteen letters where he consistently “wrote with the wisdom that God” had given and sometimes that wisdom from the Lord was ‘hard to understand”.

Why do we see this happen within the scriptures that we read?

Because no person can perfectly comprehend the ways and words of God on their own. As in all other things in life, the Lord has made it so His created ones need to rely on Him for all things. In regard to comprehending the things of life, we read these words from God’s Word in the Book of Proverbs:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. 3:5-6

In the first century A.D., and through the ages to present, there have been false teachers of the Word, those Peter refers to as “ignorant and unstable people”, who have sought to distort the scriptures, the very Word of God. Unfortunately, the only reason this has happened over time and will continue to happen is that people allow themselves to be deceived through leaning on their own ability to gain understanding, whether through their own intellect or trusting in the words of others who are not speaking truth. Through this foolishness, they are ushered down the same road of destruction that the false teachers themselves are walking.

Friends, there is never any reason to not know the truth. The Lord has given every Christian believer His Word and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When used together as we submit to him with our fullest trust, then He will make our paths straight. He promises us this much. We will always avoid being misled when we allow the Lord to lead us.

My prayer is that you will do just that.

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.