NORTHSHORE CHURCH OF CHRIST

“Characterized by a Love for the Word”

Monday, August 28, 2023

While of the world, we thought and acted like the world, but now that we know Christ (and are known by Him) our habits are changing. You must be "transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Romans 12.2), an inward change which results in a new lifestyle.

Take the apostle Paul for example. After fighting tooth-and-nail against the Christian "sect" (as he saw them), Christ knocked him into the dirt and showed him how much he would have to suffer for Christ. Immediately he reversed course and began to publicly proclaim Jesus as the Messiah, reasoning with any who would listen. One day he killed Christians; the next day he joined them.

So it is with all Christians—there is a definite change in our habits. One day we are of the "sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2.2); the next we are falling on our knees praying to Jesus as Lord and King. One day we wonder what "Christianity" is about; the next we cling tightly to our Bible, knowing it is the inspired and holy word of God.

Not everyone's conversion feels quite so dramatic, but we must understand the change involved in stepping from the world into the family of God.

One of the first signs of a changed heart is a converted mind. The proof of a reborn soul is an intense love for God's word as absolute, bedrock, divine truth. Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians:

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (Ephesians 1.15–19)

Paul wanted the Christians to know certain things about God and about their salvation. How would they come to know these things?

...by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3.3–10)

Through the Holy Spirit, God made known to Paul the mystery of the gospel. Paul wrote it down, and he preached and taught that gospel. That is how God chose to continue revealing the gospel of His Son—through the reading and teaching of Scripture.

God put the church together in great part to give us an environment which fosters growth in the word.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Ephesians 4.11–16)

All those gifts God gave the church in verse 11 have to do with teaching and preaching—the passing along of God's word. Notice the benefits of staying in the word and continuing in a steady teaching / learning environment:

• You will be built up in Christ
• You will attain the unity of the faith
• You will come to know the Son of God
• You will grow up in Christ
• You will take part in the growth of the whole body of Christ, the church

Every Christian should habitually be in the word, whether it's listening to the Bible read or taught (by a competent teacher!) or reading and studying for himself. Is your life characterized by a love for the word and a continual hungering and thirsting for righteousness?

STAY IN THE WORD!

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