Friday September 24, 2021

Faith, maturity and stability

They (the Israelites) liked to wander here and there, they could not restrain their feet. Jeremiah 14:10

Thus, we will no longer be little children, tossed about and carried away by every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men and their skill in maneuvers of bewilderment. Ephesians 4:14

The people of Israel know that they are the chosen and loved people of God (Deuteronomy 7:8). He knows the blessings that flow from this relationship if, for his part, he is faithful and does not ally himself with the people whom God must chastise for their idolatry and immorality. However, despite priests, judges, prophets and pious kings, the carnal attraction that his idolatrous neighbors exert on him is so strong that he despises the blessings of God. The abundance and joy associated with the presence of God in the midst of his people (Deuteronomy 12:7-12), the resources of the country (Deuteronomy 8:7-13) and the deliverances of God have lost their price. The prophet Jeremiah announces to them that God will judge them for their sins. They refuse to listen to him, slander him, persecute him. Ungrateful, proud and gullible, the Israelites sought here and there from false prophets the assurance that they had nothing to fear (Jeremiah 14:10-16).

The Church, better than Israel, enjoys immense blessings. It possesses in Jesus Christ all the resources and all the gifts necessary for the improvement of each of those who compose it (Ephesians 4:7-16). The Ephesians, citizens of a city where all philosophies flourished, might have been tempted to neglect these gifts and risk being tossed about and carried to and fro by unscrupulous charlatans. But the apostle Paul reminds them that these gifts come from the dead and risen Jesus Christ. It thus shows their price, their origin, their virtue and the results they produce : maturity, spiritual growth of the believer. Today, when the gifts (evangelist, pastor, doctor) are exercised as God wants them to be, and their ministry is received, believers avoid three dangers : credulity, immaturity, and instability.

Let us apply ourselves to actively serving the Lord so that we do not remain "underdeveloped" for lack of exercise. Let us individually be founded and steadfast Christians (Colossians 1:23), confident in all of God's will (Colossians 4:12).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)