Home
28th June 2025
SaturdayReflection
************************
Casey Gray
"Saraland Christians"
"Stand For The Truth"
1 Timothy 3:15
Are you ready and willing to share the truth with others?
If we want to be what God has called us to be, we must be willing and ready to stand firm in what we know is true.
To the world around us, it sounds very unloving to hold to one truth at the expense of all other beliefs.
But love demands we continue to hold onto what is true.
This is also part of our purpose as the body of Christ.
To help us understand this, I want us to start by thinking about 1 Tim 3 v 15.
As the church, we are called to be "a pillar and ground of the truth."
If I delay, this letter will let you know how we should conduct ourselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support (buttress) of the truth. GNT
I like the way the ESV terms it as a "buttress."
Buttresses are supports that keep a wall from being pushed over.
If you were building a wall around your city, you wouldn't want a wall that is just one foot wide and twenty feet tall.
You would want a mound of earth or rock backing it up.
That's what Paul says the church is.
We are the rock that helps keep the truth held up.
If we let the world change the truth around us, that truth is a matter of one's own opinion; we have essentially let that wall fall.
But is that what we do?
Are we the buttress of the truth?
When someone says or does something foreign to the gospel's truth, are we willing to help them understand it?
Don't you wish it was just as simple as that?
We've all heard the generalities where people claim to stand for and fight for the truth.
The problem is that in our day, truth is a complicated subject.
Too many people claim to know the truth.
Who is right?
What makes your truth God's truth?
Will you say, "The scriptures?"
So do others.
We need to hear the gospel repeatedly because the world around us tries to twist it, and we tend to forget it.
To help us with our study, we will study 1 Corinthians 15:1--2 (ESV)
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you --- unless you believed in vain.
If we hold fast to it, we have hope of salvation.
But if we let go of the gospel, our initial belief was in vain!
Think about what this means.
The gospel is what we are standing in.
Without the gospel, we do not stand at all.
Letting someone come in and distort the gospel means we lose salvation.
So what is the gospel?
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures
After we have developed a firm grasp of this truth, we are called to stand in it, meaning we must stop moving away from it.
There is no further revelation about salvation.
Don't seek it.
There are many different distortions men create.
Paul says our salvation depends on holding firm to the truth of the gospel.
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article, and Bible references, is avaiable on request
Scroll down for the continuation of this discussion.
'Saraland Christians'
We are simply Christians who love the Lord and want to worship him without distractions.
There are no financial ties to any denomination or institution.
We each devote our time and money to the building up of souls around us.
We all want to be servants of each other and out-do one another in showing honour.
More
As the body of Christ, we know the truth, but we must constantly be reminded of it.
After Paul reminds them to stand in the gospel and hold fast to their salvation in Christ, he reveals how men have failed to do this.
1 Corinthians 15:12 (ESV)
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Do you see what some people at the church in Corinth are saying?
They claim that the dead are not going to be raised.
What?
How could any Christian believe that?
Paul begins to explain how the resurrection is an essential element of the gospel's truth.
Those who are in Christ will be resurrected.
If not, there is no salvation.
Nor is there a good reason to suffer and struggle through this life.
We might as well do all we can to have the best life, because this is it.
But the truth is that there will be a resurrection to eternal life for those who put their trust in God.
Paul stood for the truth, he wanted the Corinthians to stand for the truth, and he also wanted us to stand for the truth.
This is of first importance for us as the buttress of truth.
An attack on the gospel of Jesus' death and resurrection for our salvation is a battering ram against the wall.
We must stand firm in this truth.
During the Interregnum
March 2025 to ....
Contact the Benefice Office
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Contact the Benefice Office
Sunday School Rooms, Church Lane,
BUGBROOKE, Northampton, NN7 3PB
Land Line: 01604 830373
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Mon., Tues., Wed., Thur.
9:00am to 11:30am
For Baptism bookings (Christenings)
to arrange an appointment please contact
the Benefice Office.
For Wedding bookings:
please contact the Benefice Office to arrange
an appointment.
Who Made This?
Seeing as you asked, if you can give helpful
advice or report factual corrections and
'deliberate mistakes',email:-
regparker3 at gmail dot com
Email addresses shown using words in an
attempt to avoid 'spam',
Type the email address replacing 'at' with '@',
and 'dot' with '.'