| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
An Examination of Current Teaching, #38
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
All the gifts and ministries of the Body of Christ have been given for the purpose of getting souls saved.
All of the gifts and ministries given to His Body by the ascended Christ are for the purpose of bringing the believers to maturity in Christ maturity as measured by the fullness of Christ.
We need more operation of the gifts and ministries today. We who are pastors must pray continually that the Holy Spirit will help us stir up the gifts that are in the believers. We must exhort the members of the congregation to covet earnestly what appear to them to be the greater gifts.
The saints cannot possibly come to maturity while the pastor of the church is the only person exercising the gifts given by the Spirit.
Until we grow to maturity in Christ, in the ability to discern between good and evil and in the willingness and strength to reject the evil and choose the good, we are unfit to be raised from the dead and caught up to meet the Lord when He appears. The Lord Jesus has no intention of attempting to install His Kingdom on the earth with an army of baby Christians.
When we emphasize "getting souls saved" we should include the idea of bringing souls to the stature of the fullness of Christ. The Kingdom of God is not established when people merely make a profession of theological truth.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (I Corinthians 12:7)
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. (Hebrews 2:11)
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14)
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. (James 5:19,20)
To be continued.