1 Thessalonians 3:11-12
11 Now [de] God [theos]
himself [autos] and [kai] our [hemon] Father, [pater] and [kai] our [hemon] Lord [kurios] Jesus [Iesous] Christ, [Christos] direct [kateuthuno] our [hemon] way [hodos] unto [pros] you. [humas]
12 And [de] the Lord [kurios] make [pleonazo] you [humas] to increase [pleonazo] and [kai] abound [perisseuo] in love [agape] one [allelon] toward [eis] another, [allelon] and [kai] toward [eis] all [pas] men, even [kai] as [kathaper] we [hemeis] do toward [eis] you: [humas] KJV-Interlinear
11 Now may our God and Father
Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; 12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and
abound in love for one another, and for all men, just as we also do for you; NASB
The means of a good
life, even a great life, even a successful life, comes through God and from no
other source.
Paul offers a prayer to
the Father, who is the author of the divine plan and the recipient of all
prayer, through Christ, who is the one who executes the plan, by means of love
(which is the content of the scriptures or Bible doctrine), from which you grow
through your daily studies and learning and experiential processes of life, and
by that means develop an orientation to God, to people, to life and to
yourself.
Throughout these three
chapters, Paul has reminded us all that reliance on people yields nothing. There is only one person to whom you may look
to with total and complete trust and confidence, and that is Jesus Christ.
And, you gain that
trust and develop that confidence with knowledge and growth by means of your
daily studies.
There is no other way
for you to grow up in your spiritual life.
People have the sin
nature within them. People without doctrine have only their sin natures with
which to draw from in order to function in life. The sin nature lacks truth, and therefore
cannot approach life with any semblance of proper orientation. Evil is the result. And whether the evil is relatively modest or extreme, is irrelevant.
All evil goes but one direction and that is toward more evil.
Only truth can cancel
out evil and truth comes only from Bible doctrine, and that is learned only
through pursuing a daily study.
How many folks
throughout the world actually participate in a daily study of the Bible, and
how many pursue a genuine and legitimate study, and not some twisted approach
to the Bible?Not many.
In order to have or
achieve a full and complete life, you must, repeat, must, grow up in your
spiritual life.And that process is
available to you courtesy of Gods grace (favor), to
those who have a genuine unbiased desire to learn and grow.
The world will turn on
you, even those who are closest to you, will turn on you, sooner or later. The world will try to isolate you, ostracize you,
smother you in its innumerable approaches and compromises and enticements for
life, for only one reason, and that is to get you away from God, from Christ,
from doctrine, and definitely from your spiritual life.
Your best example of
this in this world is to observe politicians or leaders or tyrants of contemporary
or past history.All leaders who lack doctrine, will tell you things you want to hear. They will use convincing arguments concerning
subjects that seem reasonable and honest.
They do these things in order to gain your trust and place themselves in
power, then they stick the knife in your back and
twist it, as you have now served your purpose.
Satan is the best
leader example of this.Satan wants God
to fail, and Satan or his policies of evil, attempt to lead people away from God,
not because Satan wants to help people, but because Satan wants to defeat God
and will use anyone and anything to promote his cause. That includes the genocide of the entire
human race if need be, and that attempt will actually occur when the Tribulation
begins.
Na ve people will never
figure it out, because they lack truth in their soul. The lack of truth means the inability to
discern or see things clearly.A na ve person
will never understand that he or she has been conned, until it is to late.
Love is the primary
ingredient for building and maintaining relationships, and love does not mean
some mushy emotion, but represents the content of thought which resides in Bible
doctrine.That study is found in 1, 2,
and 3 John.
Therefore, for you to
have the best and fullest and most complete life possible, you must advance
(increase and abound) in your spiritual life.
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