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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.
5 And [de] the Lord [kurios] direct [kateuthuno] your [humon] hearts [kardia] into [eis] the love [agape] of God, [theos] and [kai] into [eis] the patient waiting [hupomone] for Christ. [Christos]KJV-Interlinear
5 And may the Lord direct your
hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. NASB
Anyone who has
leadership, command, or control over others, in any way shape or form, has an obligation
to do whatever is within their power or ability to provide others with whatever
is available through truth.To prevent,
to restrain, to keep any opportunity from those of whom you can control the
flow of information, is one of the most evil sins imaginable. You impact their
entire spiritual life potentially for all of eternity.
Why?Because when youare in a position to keep information
from people, then you are in a position to restrict their spiritual growth, and
that is something that none of us has the right to do.
Here Paul makes that
quite clear.It is God, who
directs.It is God who makes
available.If is God who presents truth
to every individual, not man. And anyone
who stands in the way is no better than the evil world in which we live.
And what is it that God
provides?
Doctrine.
This is not restricted
to prayer, not restricted to feeling good, not restricted to devotions, not
restricted to music, not restricted to whatever it is that someone decides
should be revealed.People must have the
right to decide for themselves, and in that they must have information made available
to them, freely and without restrictions or controls.
Lord, kurios, is a reference to Jesus Christ.He directs, kateuthuno,
meaning to make a clear and unbarricaded path.
Into the love of
God.And love is agape, which is the
content of the scriptures.And it is
directed, or guided into your heart.The
heart is the learning center, and activity center of your soul.Bible doctrine is from God, comes from God,
and is directed by God, into your soul.Faith
is not automatic nor an emotional whim, but is built up based on the facts, the
details of learned doctrine.
The learning process of
your spiritual growth, is controlled totally by God, within
the scope of the rules for learning doctrine, which He has made clear to
everyone who has even the slightest of interest in God and their spiritual
life.
Patience means
endurance, and Christ, in the last of this verse, is a reference to the written
Word (Christ, the written word).
Therefore it is God
from whom the source of doctrine is made available.God directs your heart, your soul, in the
learning and growing process of your spiritual life, such that you can become
complete through Christ (doctrine in the soul), and therefore complete within
yourself.
You do not grow up by
praying and nothing else.You do not grow
up by singing songs and nothing else.You do not grow up and have the completeness of the spiritual life, by
pretending or making yourself believe that you have no need to learn anything
more.You do not grow up by being lazy
in your daily studies.
Far too many Christians
live a pretended spiritual life, and they are fooling only themselves.
Far too many Christians
believe that when they impress others with the language of spirituality, with
prayer, with music alone, then they also impress God.They are wrong.
The Christian life is
not external, but internal, and is more than just ones thinking, it is the
edification of Gods work within your soul by means of your dedication and
devotion to a disciplined daily study.Without that, you have nothing.
Faith, prayer, your
spiritual life must be built up by the foundation of learned doctrine.Without doctrine, they are empty gestures.The Book of James is a good study in this
concept.
If you prevent yourself
from growing up, that is bad.If you
prevent others from having the opportunity to grow up, that is far worse, because
you are affecting or preventing the lives of many for all of eternity.Ponder that for just a bit, and see if you
really understand the implication of your actions on yourself and on others.
The objective of the
spiritual life, is to allow God to guide you and for you to pursue the completion
of your life, through a daily study (not just a daily reading), but a daily
study, of the Word of God.