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You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
2 Peter 2:20
20 For [gar] if [ei] after they have escaped [apopheugo] the pollutions [miasma] of
the world [kosmos] through [en] the knowledge [epignosis]
of the Lord [kurios] and [kai] Saviour [soter] Jesus [Iesous] Christ [Christos], they are
[empleko] again [palin] entangled [empleko] therein
[toutois], and [de] overcome [ginomai][hettao], the latter end [eschatos]
is worse [cheiron] with them [autos] than the beginning [protos].
KJV-Interlinear
20 For if after they have escaped
the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has
become worse for them than the first. NASB
To sin or not to sin?That is the question.
But what of the
repercussions of sin, of turning to God, and then back to sin.Here Peter is going to lay out exactly what
you can expect when you turn to God, then turn back to sin.Your life, and more specifically your
destiny, will be worse off, than if you had not turned to Christ in the first
place.
Now that needs some
explanation, before you get all upset.
The repercussion study will
not come until tomorrows study in the next verse, but for now we need to
understand the description of the world, as explained by Peter.
The word for pollutions,
miasma, refers to the unpleasant fumes, odors, ooze and such that are given
off by rotting or infectious disease.This is a reference to the yuk that comes with a badly infected wound,
or from a rotten decaying human body.
It is not only
disgusting, but contagious.And if
anyone gets near such a thing, they too can become ill, disease ridden and die
from it.
That is the description
of evil.Which, as we already know, is the
opposite of good. Good is life and health. Evil is the putrid decay and rot of
death.Nothing good ever comes from
evil.
Evil comes to us in two
forms sin and human good.These being
the weaker and stronger production aspects of the sin nature.
The world here is
described as one huge open and putrid wound, in which we all must live.
There is only one way
to survive such disease and that is by our intake of the perfect medicine for
disease. Bible doctrine and the development of ones spiritual life is that
medicine.
Think of taking the
medicine as your learning process.You
confess your sins, in order to get in the doctors office (fellowship), you take
the medicine (you listen to doctrine), your metabolism absorbs this medicine
into your body (your learning and understanding of doctrinal principles), and
then you exercise right (your application of doctrine to your daily life).Your repetition of all of this (analogy)
makes you healthier, stronger, wiser and so forth in your spiritual life.
When you are ill, and
then get some medicine such that you recover to some extent, and then get off
the medicine, and go back to your illness, then your condition simply gets
worse.
That is what awaits
anyone who turns to doctrine, and then turns away from doctrine.Their life becomes inconsistent, confusing, disappointing,
and certainly disillusioned. All kinds
of emotions, from hate to frustration, enter into the picture. Instability simply takes over ones life, and
getting back on track with doctrine, gets more and more difficult.
A person who turns to
God, gets frustrated, as will happen to new believers, and then turns back to
the easy prospects of the world, then turning back to God again, requires
greater decisional power, than before.Or, as in most cases, the circumstances of ones life, must necessarily
get far worse.This means a more
difficult life lay ahead.
With some folks,
believing in the instruction from the Bible comes easy. They see it, comprehend
it, and are patient.
With some folks, the
instruction from the Bible requires more mental energy, so to speak.They need proof.They need documentation.They need credentials.They demand results from their learning.
Their faith is not
achieved until they have jumped many more hurdles in their life, before they
come to realize its truth.And needless
to say, their life is usually filled with many more demonstrations from God,
but those demonstrations usually come in the form of suffering.And that is a hard way to learn.
Now is the time to post a prayer.
End Of Lesson
Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.
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