Bulletin
One Faith
One Faith
The Bible says, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” (Ephesians 4:5). If there is one faith, we should seek for the original faith, not originality. When the church at Corinth began to divide over different leaders or speakers, this was not a good thing. They were told to keep to the one true faith, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (1Corinthians 1:10). Today people follow Luther, Wesley, or some other denominational faith. But by doing so, they set themselves apart from the original.
In the first century there were no denominations. When a local church began to fall from the one faith, they often received a letter from one of the apostles who pointed out where they were straying from the faith. “I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.” (3John 9). So when you can’t read the Bible in church, you have left the one faith. Paul had a remedy for this, “For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.” (1Corinthians 4:17). That last part of verse 17, “everywhere in every church” means what? Simply that when Timothy comes, he is not going to teach them something different. Timothy is a younger preacher, and he will teach what Paul taught “everywhere in every church”.
Paul tells Timothy to do this very thing, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2Tim. 2:2). That is still going on today. But Paul saw the warning signs in his day, that “evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2Tim. 3:13). But Timothy had studied the scriptures from childhood (3:15). He is told to, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (2Tim. 4:2). “Faith only” is a myth, says (James 2:24, etc.). Homosexuality is acceptable to God is a myth (1Cor. 6:9-11, etc.). Jesus is a package deal, we must accept him and his teaching. “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory.” (Luke 9:26). The Bible says, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” Eph. 4:5 Dan Peters
- One_Faith_WORD.docx (9.29 kB)
