Meaningless Talk

Wednesday, March 30, 2011, 7:17 p.m. – The Lord has this song in my mind:

Crucified With Christ / Phillips Craig and Dean

I will glory in the power of the cross
The things I thought were gain I count as loss
And with His suffering I identify
And by His resurrection power I am alive
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
Not I but Christ that lives within me
His Cross will never ask for more than I can give
For it’s not my strength but His
There's no greater sacrifice
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live

http://www.songlyrics.com/phillips-craig-dean/crucified-with-christ-lyrics/

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read I Timothy 1:1-11:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

2 To Timothy my true son in the faith:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Warning Against False Teachers of the Law
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

My Understanding: Paul wrote this letter to Timothy. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, so Paul is speaking under the command of God the Father and God the Son, and with the full authority of God behind his words to Timothy. Paul, in the authority of God, thus, urged Timothy to stay in Ephesus so that he could command certain men against being false teachers. Then, he went on to describe some of the characteristic traits of these false teachers:

• Teach false doctrines – doctrines other than was taught by the apostles
• Teach a man-made gospel of human traditions and/or human philosophies
• Promote controversies, rather than God’s work, i.e. more interested in arguing
• Wandered away from having pure hearts, good consciences and sincere faith
• Not motivated by love
• They want to be teachers of the law
• Have turned to meaningless talk
• They don’t know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm

Paul said that the goal of the command he was giving to Timothy was love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith, and this should always be our goal, too, whenever we must warn against false teaching or must confront false doctrine. There is no room for pride of one man over another. There is no room for conceit or of making sure we end up as the one on top or that we conquer everyone who disagrees with us or with whom we have concern over his or her doctrine. So, we should always do an attitude check and then make sure that God is in what we are doing and that truly our goal is one of love and comes from a pure heart and a good conscience, so that we are not guilty of just blowing smoke or of just showing off how much we know.

There are all kinds of false doctrines out there, so that is why we must know the word of God so that we can correctly handle the word of truth (See 2 Timothy 2:15). We must compare anything we hear against the word of God, compare scripture with scripture, and pray for the wisdom of God to give us discerning minds and hearts to know what is true and what is false. And, we must stay away from fights and quarrels about words or getting involved in the promotion of controversies, rather than God’s work.

So many people argue over so many things that, when all is said and done, don’t really matter for eternity and often they turn people away from faith in Jesus Christ, and they occupy the arguers to the point that they are ineffective for Jesus Christ in this world that is dying without faith in the only one who can save them. We need to be about doing the work of the Lord in loving people and in sharing the gospel, calling people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, teaching them to obey the commands of God, nurturing them in the Lord, encouraging, strengthening, and building them up in the faith so that they can lead obedient, faithful, loving, productive lives in Jesus Christ, their Lord, and can shine as stars in the universe as they hold out the word of Life for all to see.

These men, i.e. these false teachers, want to be teachers of the law, maybe because it gives them a sense of self-importance like the Pharisees and Sadducees who were proud of their knowledge and of their keeping of the laws (Jewish laws, mainly ceremonial laws) and of their self-righteousness, but they failed to show love to God and love to their fellow man, because the letter of the law was more important to them than human lives. I am not speaking here, though, of the kind of law that points to sin, which is the law that Paul is speaking of here. The Pharisees and Sadducees were concerned over Jewish ceremonial laws and traditions that did not affect the heart. Jesus was more concerned over the hearts of men, which takes us to the law Paul is talking about here.

Paul said the law is good if one uses it properly. Obviously the Pharisees and Sadducees did not use it properly, yet the law Paul is speaking of here is the law of God that points men to the fact that they are sinners in need of salvation and to point them to Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of the law. This law shows us what sin is so that we can recognize it as sin and so that we can see, too, how utterly sinful these things really are – murdering, adultery, lust, perversion, lying, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. Jesus summed the law up into two laws –

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:37-40 NIV).

If we truly love God like this and we truly love our neighbor like this is speaking of, then we won’t sin against God and we won’t sin against our neighbor because love does no harm to its neighbor. We do harm to ourselves and to others when self is on the throne of our lives instead of God, and when we are being driven by selfish desires that war against the Spirit of God in our hearts, if we are true believers in Jesus Christ. And, included in this sinning against our neighbor goes back to this idea of teaching false doctrine and promoting controversies and trying to “one-up” everyone else in order to make ourselves look superior in some respect. Instead, our goal in whatever we do or say should be motivated by love and with the goal of seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ and growing in their relationship with him through obedience to his commands, which are not burdensome.

I will glory in the power of the cross
The things I thought were gain I count as loss
And with His suffering I identify
And by His resurrection power I am alive
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
Not I but Christ that lives within me
His Cross will never ask for more than I can give
For it’s not my strength but His
There's no greater sacrifice
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live

If we want to be effective ministers for Jesus Christ in sharing the truths of God’s word with others that it may benefit those who listen, we need to be crucified with Christ so that “we,” i.e. our flesh and human and selfish natures, are not on the thrones of our lives, i.e. that we no longer live, but Christ lives within us, and he is truly the one on the throne as Lord and Master of our lives. Then, instead of glorying in our flesh and our knowledge that puffs up, we will glory in our crucifixion to our old lives and our death to sin and our resurrection with Christ to new lives where Christ Jesus is king and is the one who directs our steps and our words. We will count as loss, then, the things of this world that are sinful and that are prideful, which is also sinful, so that Christ can work his holiness in our lives in conforming us into his image, instead of us following our own flesh.

Lord Jesus, I pray that you will test my heart and the motivation of my heart always to see if I am being led by you, first of all, and if the goal of what I do and say is one of love and a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith, so that I can be an effective minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that lives can be transformed by you working in them and through them for your purposes and for your glory. Lord, I want to be just like you. I want to be a holy example for others to see. Make me, mold me, fill me and use me, Lord, for your purposes and your glory. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen!