helpforhomeschoolers
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2 Timothy 2:26 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
If we serve the Lord, we must be apt to teach, instructing those who oppose themselves.
We must do this gently and meekly and in patiently and not strive. Gentleness and meekness are fruits of the spirit; we each are at different places in our walk and bear different amounts of these, but one thing is sure and that is where ever you find God's servants teaching and instructing, you will also find the enemy trying to get them to strive.
3164 macomai machomai makh’-om-ahee
middle voice of an apparently root word; TDNT-4:527,573; v
AV-strive 3, fight 1; 4
1) to fight
1a) of armed combatants, or those who engage in a hand to hand struggle
1b) of those who engage in a war of words, to quarrel, wrangle, dispute
1c) of those who contend at law for property and privileges
The Bible says we must not strive.
It is interesting to note I think, that it is first God who must give repentance, that they can acknowledge THE TRUTH and then the one ensnared by the enemy that must recover themselves (return to soberness).
We who are servants teaching must know that our duty is only to teach that we not be tempted to strive. We are not responsible for the learner's learning. It is not us that they oppose but themselves the scripture says here.
Our opposition as teaching servants is the enemy that seeks to draw us into striving. The first rule of Battle is always to know your enemy. That applies to both the teacher and the learner. For it is the man - the flesh - of the learner that is the enemy that leads him to oppose himself - and it is the devil that tempts the teacher to strive. Once the teacher begins to strive, he has now walked into his flesh and has himself become en-snared. Now the teacher is in need of learning.
The last thing that I see in this text is that the devil ensnares whom he wills. We do not like to think that the devil has such power; in fact there is a whole plethora of people in the church that dont think that the devil has any power, but the truth is that Satan is the 2nd most powerful being in the universe. He is the most powerful of all the created beings and in this world he is god. He is not god over the Christian who is not of this world; but when the Christian walks in the flesh, he is walking under the authority of the devil. We must remain in the spirit else we relinquish, what Christ by HIS blood has bought us in this life.
The only way that we can keep the devil from ensnaring us is that we have put on the WHOLE armour of God which is Christ, and that includes the sword of the spirit which is the word. We cannot remain in the Spirit and only wear part of Christ.
The Sword of the Spirit is the ONLY offensive weapon that we have against HIM and he knows it better than most Christians and he unlike most Christians knows that man lives not by bread alone, but by EVERY word that preceedeth from the mouth of GOD the Father. Every single solitary jot and title is there by divine purpose and if we chose to take a cavalier attitude with regard to every detail, then we find ourselves with a sword full of holes that can slay nothing and we like eve have just become fair game for the devil's snare.
Every single time the devil tempted Jesus, and the devil by the way thought nothing of tempting God Almighty come in the Flesh! But EVERY SINGLE TIME without incident, Jesus responded in one single way and one way alone...." IT IS WRITTEN.
If we are to be followers of Jesus we are to do the things that he taught us to do by the example that he gave in HIS life and that includes how we respond to the devil. Not only that but we must teach men to do the same.
Amen?
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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