Why the Protestant Reformation failed?
Response to comment [from a Christian]: "...So who is Gods 'church'..."
Those who continue in his doctrine.
If thou
put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good
minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good
doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained [1 Tim. 4:6].
"“If
thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things.” Paul has warned
Timothy of the apostasy and false teachings that were to come into the
church. There will be men who profess to the faith and then come to the
place where they deny it. In turn, Timothy is to warn the believers about
these things.
“Thou shalt
be a good minister of Jesus Christ.” Every believer is a minister, but here
Paul has in mind Timothy as a teacher
of the Word of God. That is a gift that some men have and some don’t. But
all believers are ministers.
“Nourished
up in the words of faith and of good doctrine”—this is how the believer is
to grow in the Word of God. We are not to go off on tangents about diet or
some other aesthetic program as if it would commend us to God. Instead our
diet is to be “nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine.”
“Whereunto
thou hast attained.” Some interpreters think that there was a danger in
Ephesus in the midst of so much false religion and work of Satan that
Timothy would go off into it all, but Paul said that Timothy had attained
unto the things he has mentioned and commends him for it..."
McGee, J. Vernon, 1 Ti 4:6
Take heed
unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this
thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee [1 Tim. 4:16].
"May I say
this kindly, but I must say it: God have mercy on the minister who is not
giving out the Word of God! That is a frightful sin. It would be better to
be a gangster than to be a man who is supposed to give out the Word of God
and fails to do so."
