Good morning. Do you not
know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever
wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. It's like
Jesus said about trying to serve God and mammon. You will hold to one despise
the other. And yet you see many Christians trying to appease the people of the
world. And not only that, too many times you cannot tell the difference between
the way they act and the way the people of the world act. He jealously desires
the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us. God is opposed to the proud, but
gives grace to the humble. You heard about the man that his church gave him
this big button that said most humble on it. They took it back because he wore
it. Moses was called the meekest man on earth, but there were times when he did
not seem like it; at least not what we would call meek. He knew where his
authority and power came from – God. As long as he did not think that it came
from himself, he was fine. As a result we are to: submit therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. We have to realize where our power
and authority comes from. It comes from God. If you resist the devil in your
own power and strength, he will stomp all over you. You have to first submit
yourself to God, and then resist the devil. He will flee from God's authority in
you. Father thank You that the reader is no friend of the world. He/she submits
himself/herself to You and resists the devil. He flees from him/her!
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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