Summary

2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Each vessel has a function. Each Believer has a mission. Each pilgrim has a journey. The words of GOD are given to make us adequate for that journey. This is precisely the meaning of the word rendered "perfect" in the above verse; artios, when a ship is fully equipped for its journey. Only that which is given by GOD can fully equip us. Faith, which is our obedience to GOD's guidance, molds each of us into the vessels we need to be, that we may "prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God".

First GOD reveals some portion of HIS way and then inspires us to move in that direction. That revelation and inspiration is grace. Faith is our continued obedience to GOD's grace, which is the journey of our transformation. That journey we have been called to make, just as Abraham was, many ages ago.

HEBREWS 11:8-9 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country...

By faith we also sojourn in a strange country, "for our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven" (PHILIPPIANS 3:20). Though we live in the flesh, we endeavor to walk by the spirit. That is our enduring struggle. That is the task always before us as we endeavor to turn from the wide way of the world unto the narrow way of GOD so as to realize our transformation.

Even Paul agonized within himself concerning this struggle; "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (ROMANS 7:24). There is an allusion here to a form of capital punishment we find referred to in "Manners and Customs of the Bible", about which one was chained to a dead body. The decaying corpse eventually decays the unfortunate person chained to it. So with us. Our new man is chained to our old man. We are chained to a dead body, our old man, a putrefying corpse! Will it corrupt us as itself corrupts? Paul revealed the answer.

ROMANS 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace reigns! How? Through righteousness. Righteousness is obtained by us through "doing what is just and right". Howbeit, we are not able to do what is just and right apart from GOD's grace. Only as we hear and obey HIS words offered by grace can we be delivered from the body of this death.

Our obedience to GOD's guidance, which is offered by grace, is all that is required. We were called by grace. By grace we are accepted. By grace we are freely justified. In grace we stand. By grace we are sufficient. Through grace we may abound to every good work. Through grace we are given an everlasting consolation and good hope. By grace we are saved. And in the grace of Yeshua we are strong.

GOD didn't call us to convert just to sit idly by awaiting Christ's return. Beyond our conversion GOD's grace equips us to do good works. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit", producing the fruit of the spirit. It's a life long process of learning obedience by walking HIS way.

Three times in his epistles, Paul exhorts the Believer to walk worthy of this calling. The response is ours. It's a continual process of either obeying the lusts of the flesh or the spirit of GOD. We either are carnally minded or spiritually minded. We are either risen or we remain dead. We are either transformed or we continue to be conformed.

How much guidance we are given is determined by how much we require to accomplish the good works GOD has called us to. Unto every one of us is given some measure of grace (EPHESIANS 4:7). Not a grace that closes its eyes to our sins, but a grace that helps us achieve the will of GOD. GOD's calling and our response to that calling determines how much.

EPHESIANS 4:11-13 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting [katartismos, the equipping] of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Each saint is equipped by GOD's grace to work. That work is for the edifying of the body of Christ unto a perfect (complete) man. How perfect? How complete? How full? As perfect and full and complete as was Christ!

EPHESIANS 4:14-16 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

We are called to "grow up into Him"! Continuous growth is what our Lord expects. That is our calling. That is our purpose. That is our fulfillment. We are given guiding grace that we might grow and mature and then produce fruit.

Paul then sets the two ways before us. First the world's way.

EPHESIANS 4:17-19 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Being alienated from life, they are dead. Why? "Through the ignorance that is in them"! Giving themselves over to the lusts of the flesh, the world conforms them to its way. They yielded when they should have resisted. They obeyed the "spirit of the world" instead of the spirit of GOD. HIS word enlightens while the world blinds. We are to choose HIS path of life. Paul points the way.

EPHESIANS 4:20-24 But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation [life style] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

If we are to find the narrow way of GOD amidst all the ways of the world, we must "hear Him", we must be "taught by Him". Not by our Sunday School teacher, but Him. And what would He teach us?

To "... hear the word of God, and do it" (LUKE 8:21).