Morning Moments

1 Timothy 3
14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:
15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

After having dealt with servants, Paul moves to saints in general by focusing upon two things
1. Behavior of Saints
2. Belief in Mysteries

PAUL'S DESIRE - "to come shortly"
Paul's letters were strong, but he was a face to face kind of man. He asked the Corinthians if they wanted him to come to them in love and gentleness or with a rod. He sounds like Nehemiah of whom it is written that he said to those who were intermarrying and committing idolatry - If you do it again I will lay hands on you; and he smote them and cursed them. Can you imagine the response of Christians today with that kind of warning?

PAUL'S DIRECTIVE - "behave"
He not only wanted to see these believers, but he wanted to see them behaving in a ways that is consistent with the sound doctrine they were to believe. It really doesn't matter much what we say we believe; how we behave proves whether or not we really believe it anyway. If you are in a theatre and someone screams "fire", your behavior will demonstrate whether on not you believe it.

Peter says regarding saints behavior in the last days, "Seeing that we look for such things, let us be careful to be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless". It was the message of all the servants for all the saints. IT IS STILL THE MESSAGE TODAY!

PAUL'S DESCRIPTION - "house...church...pillar and ground"
Again Paul uses metaphorical language. The church is as a household, a body, a pillar and a ground of truth.

A pillar is used for two things, support and decoration. The ground is the basis, foundation, bulwark or buttress. So the church, which is Christ's body is to offer to all sound doctrine which is the basis for Christian belief and support for life.

Finally, what are the mysteries to believe?

We had better wait until tomorrow to consider this.

BLESSINGS!