I urge you, brothers
and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in
your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from
them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.
By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
The text above is yet another example of why we each need to
personally take time to read God’s Word. If we do not know what is written in
the Bible, then how can we possibly determine if God views something as right
or wrong? How can we possibly know, as mentioned above, if a division has been
planted? If we don’t know God’s Word, then we tend to “shoot from the hip”,
hoping that we get it right based on some morale compass that the world deems
as right and wrong. Our knowledge of God’s Word is an ongoing, never-ending
journey. We don’t reach a point where we have completed the “course” and we
move onto a new subject. And we can’t reach a point where we have become fully
saturated in the Word. We believe that God’s Word is a Living Word, and therefore
it speaks a different message to us in each new day. What God spoke to us through
his Word yesterday may be spoken to us in a much different way today or
tomorrow. The world we live in is constantly changing and the devil is crafty fella…he
looks for new positions of attack and opportunities to find a chink in our armor.
When we are away from God’s Word and don’t take time to fortify ourselves in it
daily, the weak spots in the armor become larger and more common…and the devil
has an easier time sinking his teeth into our lives. We can’t afford to have just
a cursory understanding of God’s Word from what we glean from a sermon, social media,
or general conversations…the force against us is simply to great and our individual
defenses are simply too small. But when we truly live in God’s Word, reading it
daily and allowing it to dwell in our hearts and minds throughout the day, we find
the strength of the Holy Spirit that was first imparted on us through the
waters of Holy Baptism. When we take a day off from God’s Word… when we get
lazy, too busy, or simply disinterested,
we will see that things start to get loose…things start to come apart at the seams
and sin starts to make itself at home in our lives. But when we live in God’s
Word, we find it much easier to pinpoint the ways of satan and kick sin out the
front door, making no time for it in our lives. So with each day, let’s make it
a priority to actually read God’s Word, allowing it to guide our lives,
strengthen our defenses, and deepen our relationship with the Lord! To God
alone be the glory!
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