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NASB | 2 Timothy 2:23 But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Timothy 2:23 But have nothing to do with foolish and ignorant speculations [useless disputes over unedifying, stupid controversies], since you know that they produce strife and give birth to quarrels. |
Subject: What To Shut Your Mind Against |
Bible Note: Dear Brother Mark, You wrote, "I do wonder, though, what this forum would be like without any sarcasm, derision, condemnation, ulterior motives and agendas, criticism, and insults." To see this happen today is a simple matter: just remove the human ingredient. In glory, though, that won't be necessary, Praise God! All of these things originate in man's fallen heart (Galatians 5:19-21, cf Mark 7:20-23). I see comments like this and I sometimes wonder about them. Isn't there an incredible richness that has grown from this forum? Aren't there Godly friendships and fellowships that have formed as a result of this forum? Haven't we learned things from one another? Have we not encouraged and exhorted one another to greater study of the Word and a closer walk with our Lord? Yes, there is a lot of junk out there... but try to find something in which fallen men are involved in that doesn't have a lot of junk in it! Let's encourage one another a la Philippians 4:8 to spot the things that the Holy Spirit is doing. After all, God alone is able to break down the walls of partition that stem from the Fall (Ephesians 2:14-15). Truth will always divide. It divides the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the elect from the reprobate. Its a fact... Christ was quite explicit about it (Matthew 10:34). That doesn't mean we have to hyper-focus on it. It also doesn't mean that we have to be happy-go-lucky, pie-in-the-sky, sickly sweet, eternally cheerful people either. (The world sure sees through that! I wonder why most of our churches still pump it out as normative behavior?) Contrary to popular belief, that is NOT evidence of being filled with the Spirit. Striving to mortify the flesh and to be like Christ is hard, painful work! Our joy is nothing like the world's! Sarcasm is a tool used by the prophets, apostles, and Christ Himself. Our Lord received infinitely more undeserved derision than we will ever experience. If others knew us as God knows us, their criticisms could have far better grounding than anything they can otherwise come up with. Every time we are hurt by some insult (real or imagined) it simply means we're practicing self-idolatry, and misappropriating rights for which we have no authority to assume. In other words, the fact that we even notice this stuff is indicative of something wrong inside us rather than something wrong "out there." The answer to all of this is really simple, at least in apprehension. Let's love the truth, not amicability (2 Timothy 4:2). Let's love the Word, not our own knowledge (1 Corinthians 8:1). Let's love one another more than we love ourselves (Philippians 2:3). Let's turn our eyes on Jesus instead of on ourselves (Matthew 10:37). If we do those things, all that other junk will fade to the point of being unnoticeable. In Him, Doc |