Dead Fish Stink
There is so much advice, so much wisdom, and so many people out there telling you to listen to what they have to say. How are you going to decide what you are going to spend your time listening too? Which advice are you going to follow? How are you going to decide what is good to fill your head with, and set your life to?
Watch Out!
When Paul was writing his letter to the Colossians, he realised that they were going through pretty much the exact same thing that we are all dealing with today. There were some people trying to teach the Colossians things that weren’t completely true, they were mixing a little bit of error with the truth. They were trying to add something to the Gospel of Jesus, “It’s good that you worship Jesus” they might have said, “…but you need to make sure that you keep all these festivals too!” So Paul wanted the Colossians to try and spot the error and avoid it, remember Paul’s desire (and God’s) was that the Colossians would build there lives upon the solid foundation of Christ (Colossians 2v6+7). The same is true for us!
You can subscribe to RSS feeds, podcasts, email lists, and a thousand other ways for people to get their advice into your hands. This is a great opportunity for us to grow in Christ, but it is also a great opportunity for anyone to mix in some error with the truth, and lead us astray. So how do we watch out for this? What do we need to do to ensure we aren’t lead astray? Paul answers this in Colossians 2v8.
Check it out.
Paul said to the Colossians that they must avoid, make a decision not to listen to, hollow and deceptive philosophy. This should be the first thing that we do, we have to realise that not everything with the label “Christian” is really of God, not every item that refers to the Bible is holy, and not everything in the Christian bookstore is good. Some of it is hollow and deceptive!
Paul then gives the Colossians, and us, the filter by which to detect this. He says that the things that are hollow and deceptive are like this. They depend on the traditions (or teachings) of men and the basic principles of this world. So, here’s the test; how much of the thing that you are taking in is saturated with Scripture, and does the Scripture actually mean what the author, speaker, etc says that it means?
Hard Work…
Here is the place that it takes effort on our side; how do you know what the Bible says? You need to be spending time in the Word, you have to saturate your life with Scripture, otherwise the world will saturate you with their theories, and beliefs, and you will not be able to spot the error. In Acts 17v11 the believers in Berea were complimented for checking out the truth of Paul’s teachings. If they were complimented for making sure that the Apostle Paul was speaking the truth, how much more should we make sure that, the people we listen to are speaking the truth! Although this does take effort on our side, and we need to put in the work, unless we do spend good amounts of time in the Bible, we will be swept away with what the culture, and the world says. Remember, only dead fish go with the flow…
Related Posts
No related posts.
