Run With It: That the Word of God May Be Honored

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

That the Word of God May Be Honored

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 ESV)

When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in him, we die with Christ to sin that we might live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to the Lord and in surrender to his will and purposes for our lives. And when we do that, we automatically become an enemy of Satan and of all who serve him with their lives. But we can also become enemies of all who profess faith in Jesus Christ but who are living worldly lives, some of them still in slavery to sin. And we’ll be persecuted.

This is especially true if we are those who take the word of God seriously, who are walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, and who are sharing the truth of the gospel of our salvation with the people of this world. And the people of the world include all those professing faith in Jesus Christ, some of whom are not of genuine faith. For not everyone has genuine God-provided and God-persuaded faith in the Lord, but their faith is of the flesh and they define it themselves so that they can live however they want and not in walks of surrender to God in obedience to his commands.

So those who are wicked and evil are all who are living in sin against the Lord Jesus, who willfully, deliberately, habitually, and premeditatedly choose to do what they know is evil and that will hurt others, but for their own sinful pleasure, and sometimes out of hate and spite against those who are living righteously and who are following the Lord in obedience. And sadly, this includes many who profess faith in Jesus Christ, even some of those in positions of spiritual authority over the church, who are still living in sin.

So the evil and wicked people we need delivered from so that we can share the truth of the gospel with the people of the world may be members of our own households or other family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and others professing faith in Jesus Christ, and pastors and elders of what are called “churches.” For not all have genuine biblical faith in Jesus Christ, even if they profess to believe in Jesus. And “delivered” may not be physical, but it may be about overcoming the opposition in our own emotions.

I know that for me, the opposition that I have come up against as I have been following the Lord in obedience to his commands has pretty much all come from others who profess faith in Jesus Christ, including from pastors and elders of “church” congregations. And this was not due to any wrong on my part or due to lack of submission to authority. I submitted to every authority unless they required that I sin against the Lord, which some of them did. And then I had to come out from underneath their authority for their authority was not biblical but of the flesh and of marketing schemes.

Anyway, since so much of what is called “church” today are businesses created in the minds of human beings following marketing goals and schemes for how to grow their “churches,” they are following the marketing goals of businesspeople rather than the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Scriptures to guide them in how to conduct “church.” And so most of them, it seems, have also altered the gospel message to make it more attractive and acceptable to the ungodly and to human flesh.

So if you, like me, are following the Lord wholeheartedly, and you are following what the Scriptures teach, and not the marketing plans of these institutions of human origin, you may find that many “church people” will not be supportive of you and may even oppose you or will cast you aside as though you are worthless because you don’t fit in with their marketing schemes and goals for how to grow their “churches,” and because you are still holding to the truth of the gospel and not the altered version.

So, in my case, the Lord encouraged me to come out of “Babylon” and to not partner with the “ungodly” and to not participate in this turning of God’s church into a marketplace to be marketed to the people of the world. And he sent me out into the world on the internet where I have had the freedom in some places to share the truth of the gospel of Christ, at least for now, though I know that is due to change in the not so far off future, I believe. And that is what this is about, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, and it is not being honored in much of what’s called church.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

So if you are being hindered from being able to serve the Lord in the calling that you have received from him, because you are in a “church” environment where the gospel is being altered to appease human flesh, and where the focus is on entertaining the people of the world in order to “draw in large crowds of people into your gatherings,” and where marketing books are the true “bible” that they are following in place of the Scriptures, then I pray that you may be delivered from all that and that you will have the freedom to share the truth of the gospel and to follow God where he leads you.

The Battle for Truth

An Original Work / May 18, 2013

Based off Malachi 1-4