And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
My conviction for this has been the role of the pastor in the life of the church. We are called to be shepherds under the headship of Christ. First and foremost, however, we have to realize this is His bride. The church has been purchased by the blood of Christ in order to be presented before Him as blameless and above reproach. The "if" is a huge if. If you see the flow of this Paul says you have been reconciled "if" you continue in the faith. So pastors, it is our jobs to preach in such a way that they continue in the faith (as opposed to continuing to have a great life in this life). We are preparing our people for eternity with the groom, Jesus. So I'm calling out all pastors to go before the Lord and repent of our lack of seriousness in our ministry, especially our preaching of the Word. May we all labor to preach the Word in season and out of season. And may we pray that God would use feeble men to proclaim His Word to prepare the bride that Christ has purchased for Himself.
3 comments:
Thank you for the reminder of this sacred task, Randy.
Hey Dan, how are you brother? I hope things are still going well. Thanks for commenting.
Things are going good here. Hope it is the same with you.
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