Stewarding the Word--We need to enlarge on the subject broached yesterday, namely, that of understanding, teaching, and practicing sound doctrine according to the teaching of the Apostles. Paul told the elders at Ephesus that he had been careful among them to teach them everything that was useful, all the counsel of God in Scripture and its bearing on the task of seeking the Kingdom of God (Acts 20.20, 25, 26). In these brief comments lies a wealth of guidance in the practice of Biblical interpretation.

Uses of the Law: To Promote Sound Doctrine (2)

T. M. Moore

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 1 Timothy. 1.3, 4

We need to enlarge on the subject broached yesterday, namely, that of understanding, teaching, and practicing sound doctrine according to the teaching of the Apostles. Paul told the elders at Ephesus that he had been careful among them to teach them everything that was useful, all the counsel of God in Scripture and its bearing on the task of seeking the Kingdom of God (Acts 20.20, 25, 26). In these brief comments lies a wealth of guidance in the practice of Biblical interpretation.

The cornerstone of Scripture is the Law of God. That is, the shape of the Law – its content, purpose, themes, thrusts, and principles of interpretation – provide the shape of all the rest of Scripture. Trying to understand Scripture apart from a clear understanding of the law of God is like trying to build a house with setting a solid and reliable cornerstone in place.

What kind of interpretive guidance does the Law provide? It tells us many things concerning how we must understand the rest of Scripture and its doctrines. Primarily, as we have seen, the Law reveals God and His will. All of Scripture is about God, His will, and how we may glorify Him by knowing Him and obeying His will. Anything that swerves from this is not sound doctrine.

Second, the Law teaches our need for grace. We are sinners, as we have seen, and we are unable to please God apart from His gracious, redeeming work on our behalf. We do not look to ourselves for salvation and righteousness, but to God only, and to His Law.

Third, the Law points to the saving work of Jesus Christ and of the coming of His Kingdom. From the beginning of the Law, in the book of Genesis, through all its detailed outworking, in the laws concerning religious practices and those guiding us in how to love our neighbors, the character of Christ is revealed and the work of Christ is foreshadowed. All the Law, as all the Scriptures, point to Jesus, and must be read in this light (Jn. 5.39).

Finally, the Law establishes the path of good works – as we will see in a subsequent series. Without the Law, those “before ordained works of God,” we cannot fulfill the purpose of our redemption, for we will not be able to discern which works are truly good.

So we are being good stewards of the Word of God, and thus, less likely to swerve into unsound teaching, when, grounded in the Law of God, we allow its themes and content to guide us in understanding all the rest of the Scripture as the Apostles did, and as God intends.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

Biblical and Apostolic--We are continuing to examine the proper use of the Law of God in the life of faith. Paul says that “the law is good, if one uses it lawfully” (v. 8), and our desire is to consider just what such lawful uses of the Law might involve.

Seeking the Kingdom is to be the driving force of everything we do.

A Framework for Faith/Spiritual Disciplines

We should strive then for the kingdom of heaven...It is a bright flower in its great purity, it is an open sea in its great beauty, it a heaven full of candles in its true brilliance, it is the eye's delight in its great loveliness and pleasantness, it is a flame in its fairness, it is a harp in its melodiousness, it is a feast in its abundance of wine, it is a true radiance.

  - Anonymous, An Old Irish Homily (Irish, 9th century)

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

  - Romans 14.17, 18

Doubtless every Christian knows that the Lord Jesus has assigned to us, as our highest priority, seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6.33). We know this. But we are only blessed if we do it.

Seeking the Kingdom is not simply the first thing we should do each day, before we get on with all the other things we have to do. Seeking the Kingdom is to be the driving force, the goal, and the purpose of everything we do at every moment. We want the rule of Jesus Christ to become the dominant presence in all our relationships, roles, and responsibilities.

That's right, isn't it? We do want that? Or do we just know that this is what we're supposed to want?

We will not seek the Kingdom in this way - striving after it, laying hold of it with violence, as it were (Matt. 11.12) - until we see the Kingdom in all its magnificence, beauty, power, goodness, and uprightness and desire it as our highest goal. This is the way Celtic Christians saw the Kingdom, and it was this understanding, this vision, of the Kingdom that led them to strive by every means, often at great sacrifice, to attain it.

But I rather suspect that most of us don't really understand the Kingdom of God. And, if we don't understand it, it's going to be hard to make it the driving force of all our lives. We cannot seek what we do not know.

The parables of Jesus, together with the teaching of the Psalms and prophets, are rich resources for understanding the Kingdom of God. Meditate on what you see there. Believe it to be as Jesus says - a pearl of great price, a seed fraught with fruit-bearing potential - then go to serve Christ in every aspect of your life, that His Kingdom might prevail and He might reign there through you.

Seeking the Kingdom is the Lord's calling to us, every day, in everything we do. How will you strive to attain this glorious objective today?

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Increase in me, O Lord!

How shall we reach the lost in our generation?

The situation in Libya is a perfect illustration of the futility of a foreign policy based on money and power.

A Framework for Faith/Spiritual Disciplines

Cherish every practice of devotion greatly.

  - Anonymous, A Rule for Hermits (Irish, 9th century)

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

  - Psalm 42.1,2

Consider how much is bound up in that word, "cherish." What we cherish we delight in and enjoy. Things cherished are precious treasures, to be cared for diligently and shared proudly. Cherished things occupy our minds, thrill our hearts, and never fail to satisfy. We tend to spend a good deal of time and invest much in the way of attention in the things we cherish most.

Do we cherish prayer? Time in God's Word? Moments of solitude or of quiet reflection on the Lord's presence in created things? Does our heart yearn with the yearning of the psalmist, "When shall I come and appear before the Lord?"

Wouldn't that be wonderful? What can make it so? Well, it would help us to cherish our devotional practices if through them we actually engaged the Lord in His glory, partook of His presence, and knew His Spirit working within us to will and do of God's good pleasure. In the presence of the Lord, when we know we're there and we're seeing His beauty and experiencing His glory, then we know fullness of joy and pleasures forever more (Ps. 16.11). Whatever brings us to such a heightened sense of the knowledge of the Lord we will surely cherish, and resort there again and again.

But if our devotions are perfunctory, dutiful, or merely intellectual and academic, we will not cherish them much. We might continue to do them, but not with the kind of joy and intensity of focus that comes from actually meeting the Lord in prayer and in His Word.

In your times of devotions, seek the Lord.Wait patiently and expectantly on Him. Strive to know His presence and to engage His glory. Don't let Him go until He blesses you. If your disciplines and devotions don't yield this, then get some help revamping and retooling them. Because this is what they're for.

God longs for us to know Him and to experience His glory in transforming ways. Spiritual disciplines are the arena for this, and, when they yield that sweet and awesome encounter with the glory of God, we will know joy and pleasure, and we will cherish those times more and more.

Today at The Fellowship

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T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

God is speaking through the things He has made.

Can we depend on a view of ethics based solely on passion and the will to compromise?

A Work of God’s Law--The Spirit of God is the Father’s great promise to His children, as Jesus explained. He gives us new life; he works in us unto sanctification and for the Kingdom; He will keep us unto the Day of Redemption. He is our great Treasure, Resource, and Deposit.

A Work of Power--We scarcely ever scratch the surface of what God by His Spirit is able to do in and through us. One reason this is so is a kind of naïve humility: we don’t want to think too highly of ourselves.

A Work of Warning--The Holy Spirit works with the Law of God from within His residence in our souls, illuminating and renewing our minds, cleansing our hearts, and fortifying our consciences to will what is upright and good.