Good morning. Paul now goes back to Israel‘s
experience during and right after the exodus. Our fathers were all under the
cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the
same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which
followed them; and that rock was Christ. All of those things were symbolizing
what Christians go through. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well
pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Even though they had what
they had dreamed of all of their lives in Egypt, they were still not satisfied
with what God gave them. Too many Christians are the same way. At the time they
get saved, they rejoice greatly because of what they were brought out of. But
after a relatively short time, they go back to behaving the way they did before
they got saved and complain about “what God has done to them”. They got zapped
in the wilderness. Would we want God to do the same kind of thing to us because
of the way we act? Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we
would not crave evil things as they also craved. We should take those things as
warnings to us to not do like they did and go back to the way we were before
being saved. Father help us to realize what we have come out of, and to not
desire to go back to the way we were before being saved
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