Good morning. Well, what happened in Samaria, did not stay
in Samaria 🙃 . When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria
had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John, who came down and
prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Two things here:
first, is it saying they did not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or
that they had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Unless someone has a
dramatic change in their lives, it is impossible to tell whether or not the
Holy Spirit dwells in them. The baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in
tongues would be evidence that they had received Holy Spirit. The second thing
is; why didn’t Philip pray for them to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit?
It is possible that at that time they did not realize that a “layman“ could
pray for people to receive. Remember that they were probably skeptical that
Samaritans could be saved. This way the apostles would see that it did happen.
For He had not fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they
were receiving the Holy Spirit. How would they know that they were receiving
the Holy Spirit – they were speaking in tongues. Next time we will see what
Simon the magician’s response was. Father go with the reader and his/her family.
Help everything to work out.
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...
Comments
Post a Comment