TO BE GRATEFUL WITH A PURE HEART IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
by Lay Pastor Wahyu Widodo
Johor, Sunday, February 17, 2019
Shalom,
Noticing the growing faith of the congregation based on the truth of the gospel of Christ brings gratitude for the ministries by fellow servants of God. Besides, it encourages us to build a fellowship between the servants of God and the congregants.
We can see how the Holy Spirit works through the servants of God with various cultural backgrounds and guide them toward unity. What did the Apostle Paul write in his Epistle to the Colossians? Colossians 1:3-8 write, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in the truth. You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow slave. He is a faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.”
Here are some things that brought out gratitude surpassing the difficulties and sufferings that Paul and his fellow ministers went through:
The growing faith of the congregation by their preaching of the gospel. The congregation experienced healthy faith-growth thanks to the role of the Holy Spirit who gave them understanding instead of their own strength.
It is worth noting that faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17), but not everyone hears it. Even if they have heard it, do they all respond to it? To hear the Word of God is a matter of grace. The Lord gives the “seed of faith” and a good chance to hear the Word of Christ. That way, our faith will grow and bear the fruits of faith manifested in deeds.
Growing faith empowers us to receive the promises of God according to the truth of the gospel and to do His commands as well. By faith, the congregation has the firm foundation to hope for things they do not see (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith springs from the true Gospel that typically unites us to be God’s big family sharing the same perspective and hope in Jesus Christ.
Love for all saints. This is the action of faith that shows intense care for holiness so as to reach the hope for obtaining everything provided in heaven.
The holistic knowledge of God’s grace which helps boost the quality of life for the Lord. In this way, our lives will please the Lord with every ministry we do for His glory.
The growth of faith, hope and love takes shape conforming to the preaching of pure gospel of Christ. Epaphras faithfully preached the truth of the gospel to upgrade the spiritual level of the congregation so that they will be able to endure sufferings and to stay faithful to Christ.
Children of God who love Him live up to His commands. They typically put their faith and love into action. These two have power to defeat the world and its desires.
The world’s challenges today along with misleading teachings cannot be stemmed just like that. Only the power of faith rooted and growing in the pure gospel can damp them up. By faith, believers born of God are able to survive the falsehood and deception in this world (1 John 5:1-5).
The existence of the true gospel provides the congregation with in-depth knowledge of Jesus Christ; on the contrary, another gospel that is against the true righteousness leads no one to Christ but to destruction and deadly curse. The Apostle Paul was very disappointed in the Galatians who had turned to another gospel. It was not the real gospel for it was meant to distort the gospel of Christ. Paul cursed anyone who preached a gospel different from the one he had preached with his fellow workers (Galatians 1:6-7). This kind of gospel will not do anyone much good and not even reach hope in Christ.
Paul’ attitude came to light more obviously as to why he gave thanks and why he cursed. Paul and his fellow workers shared the same attitude in regard to their firm actions against things that hampered faith progress.
The faith that defeats this world brings the congregation closer to the entire hope of dwelling with Christ. Indeed, nothing in this world can ignite gratitude out of a pure heart before the Lord Jesus Christ, except faith growing by the preaching of the gospel that reaches hope in love beyond any suffering on earth. Amen.