Throughout man’s sordid history, people have mocked, rejected, and forsaken the Lord. They have chosen to look to gods that cannot save or help.
People in the world are generally quite self-centered. Even saved people are often lovers of their own selves instead of preferring one another.
Everything in the Christian life is dependent upon prayer. Thankfully, we serve a God who hears, answers, and has respect unto prayer.
In establishing His covenant with Israel, God promised them He would have respect unto them, make them fruitful, and multiply them.
Although there are times where God respects some while rejecting others, God’s acceptance of one and rejection of another is never a baseless respect.
Men tend to fret over the motives behind others’ actions. Instead, men should trust the Lord to deal with the motives at the judgment seat of Christ.
The world is driven by self-preservation and self-promotion. Individually, the natural man is guided by self-serving motives. This should not be true of saints.
One must choose his reward for actions taken. Would he rather receive eternal reward from God the Father, or temporary praise and recognition from his peers?
A man’s conscience is likened to a muscle. When a man exercises his conscience, it becomes strong and increasingly useful. It can protect when the enemy attacks and keep that man from being taken captive. When the conscience is ignored, it deteriorates and becomes weak and less dependable. The apostle Paul warned the believers at Corinth about defiling the weak conscience of others who might not be as strong in the faith. It was so important that they were to be willing to refuse to eat meat, a perfectly acceptable food, if eating it meant someone else’s conscience was going to be harmed. According to Paul, damaging someone’s conscience was to sin against that brother.
A man’s conscience resides within, yet its expression can be witnessed by others. Because of the testimony of his conscience, Paul rejoiced. According to scripture, that testimony was manifest to the world but especially among the people of God. Those who knew Paul knew that he served the Lord “in simplicity and godly sincerity.” He did not do everything right, but he exhibited a passion of heart to do right in all that he did. No doubt, this was a wonderful example to other believers who looked to Paul for guidance. They saw a man who sincerely loved the Lord and others and also gave every effort possible not to offend either.
