Good morning. All flesh is like grass, and all its glory
like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the
word of the Lord abides forever. Wow – kind of makes you feel worthless,
doesn't it? And yes the fleshly part is worthless. But we were born again of
the word - this is the word that lasts
forever. As a result, what should we do? Therefore, putting aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long
for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. First we've got to put away stuff.
And all of that stuff either involves words or quickly leads to bad words. We
should have as great a desire for the milk of the word of God as a baby does
for pure milk. Sadly, unlike babies, too many times we don't put up a fuss if
we don't get the milk of the word. Eventually we don't care whether we get it
or not; in fact we would rather not because it points out how we've been doing
wrong things. And we are to grow in respect to salvation. The baby will shrivel
up and die without milk, and so will we. Father thank You that the reader has
put away all of that bad stuff and longs for the pure milk of the word. He/she
grows daily in respect to salvation.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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