We live in an age of instant information. You can find out about most things with a few key strokes. But not all information is good. Not all sources are reliable. Along with it being the age of information it is also the age of misinformation. Not only do we have access to more of the truth, we also have access to much fault-filled thinking. So how do we judge the truth?
It will not surprise you if I say the only way to judge the truth in all this noise is the Word of God. Of course there is a huge move to discredit the Christian Scriptures because if it can be removed then there will be nothing to stop human faulty wisdom. But for those who call Jesus Lord the Bible is our only measuring rod. It is fine if science and other sources of knowledge confirm the Scriptures but we don't need such confirmation because the Spirit confirms it in us.
Of course there will be many who will not accept the testimony of the Spirit because they reject him too. So if they reject everything of Yahweh how can they expect to see him? They don't and they don't want to, so I have no interest in their opinion of God's Word. Here is the value of the Scriptures:
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16)
Don't read it too quickly. Look at the order. First we use it for teaching. We have to tell people who Jesus is and what he has done for us. They need to discover the wonder of his person and his actions. We don't teach people from our opinion or what we think but according to what Yahweh has revealed of himself through the Word. We teach the Jesus of the Bible not of popular culture.
Then we use it for rebuking false teachings that are based on the self-important wisdom of man. To rebuke something is to sternly disapprove. So we use the Word to understand what is disapproved by Yahweh. It is not based on our opinion or wisdom but on Yahweh's definition of what is not approved. But we don't leave it there.
We also use the Word to correct. We don't just disapprove but we set it right with the truth. We don't just criticize but also show what is right, what is approved, what Yahweh says is his will and desire for us. It is setting aside the old "wineskin" to put in place the new "wineskin". Those who are interested in truth are not trying to defend what they have accepted as truth but instead desire what Yahweh has revealed as truth.
Then there is the training. There are specific trainers in the Body of Christ as taught in Ephesians 4:
"And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints in ministry ..." (Ephesians 4:11-12)
These trainers use the Word to train us how to live in Jesus. We do not live for ourselves but for the will of Father. However, our flesh has not given up and continues to fight for dominance. These trainers help us to learn to keep the flesh in place to allow the Spirit of Christ to have authority over us.
If we are trying to serve Jesus without the Word then we have nothing to measure what we are doing, whether it is right or wrong. approved or disapproved, truth or false. The Christian must understand that the Word is the game plan, the battle orders, the thing that reveals who Father is, who we are, what he has done for us, and how we are to live for him. So don't try to live your day without out it or you may end up in some very wrong places.
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