Luke, the author of Acts, could have brought a lot of things to our attention about the early church. After all, first-century believers were vibrant and joyful, and the church was rapidly expanding. But he made a point of reminding us that they studied God’s Word together. In chapter 2 he wrote, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer” ( verse 42 NLT). It could have been a temptation for the first-century believers to look back with great fondness on Pentecost and say, “Why can’t every service be like Pentecost? Remember the Spirit coming upon us and the divided flames of fire? Remember all the languages we spoke in?” Though Pentecost was the explosion that started the engine, it was time to drive the car. And the early church reveled in the Word of God. What is true of the church should be true of us as individuals. If you have no interest in the Bible, if you find it boring, then maybe you should ask yourself whether you know God as you really ought to. The Bible is alive and powerful. Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (NLT). Martin Luther said, “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.” A trend in the church today is to disregard or marginalize the study of Scripture. The first-century church, however, studied doctrine. And if we’re not careful with our doctrine, we might end up loving the wrong Jesus or believing the wrong things. The early church loved the Word of God. And so should we. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment