Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.  And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.  Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.  (2 Tim 2:25) Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men. (Tit 3:2 )  Brothers, if one of you is caught in a sin, you should restore him gently. (Ga 6:1).

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matt 5:5)  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matt 11:29).

1. In 2 Timothy, when faced with foolish or stupid arguments, how are Christians instructed to respond?

2. In 2 Timothy, how is a leader to instruct those who oppose him/her?

3. Have you ever received – or given – gentle correction?

4. How does Jesus describe Himself in the passage from Matthew above?

Remembering the expanse of the universe, the majesty of creation and Jesus the God-man who spoke with the Father and the Spirit everything into existence as you ready yourself to read the following passage from Luke 4:14-28.  Invite the Spirit to soften your heart and speak to you through this scene from Jesus’ life as you envision yourself there using all your senses.

What stood out to you in this passage?

Today, let’s meditate upon gentleness by looking at the most true gentleness the world has ever known: Jesus. 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light.”  And there was light.  (Genesis 1:1-3).  He spoke the vast expanse of the universe into existence. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines on the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  (John 1:1-5).  He is light and life. 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  – For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.  (Colossians 1:15-19).  He is God clothed in flesh.  Physical, tangible and infinite.  The life-force made known to humankind.

Think of the most majestic thing you have ever seen – what is it?

Now, think that Jesus is the creator of it.

Fixing in mind what you can of the awesomeness of His power, greatness of His might, open your Bible (or Bible app to listen!) to Luke 2:1-40.  Employing your imagination and all your senses, invite yourself into the scenes of Jesus’ birth.
What did the Spirit impress upon you?

But the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness.  Galations 5:23

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love endurance and gentleness.  (1 Tim 6:11).  As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Eph 4:1-3) Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Col 3:12-14).

1. How does the world define gentleness?

2. What does the verse in Timothy exhort the man of God to pursue?

3. In Ephesians, how does a Christian live a life worthy of the calling they have received?

4. In Colossians, how are God’s chosen people to clothe themselves?

5. Based on these verses – and other Biblical references the Lord brings to mind – how would you define gentleness?

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints – the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.  (Col. 1:3-5).  Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.   But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.  (Col 1:21-23).

We always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers.  We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes. 1:2-3).

1. In Colossions 1:3-5, where did the people’s faith and love spring from?

2. In what or who is your hope – where do your faith and love spring from?

3. In the later verses of Colossians, how were the people to continue in their faith?

4. In Thessalonians:
          What did their faith produce?
          What did their love prompt?
          What did their hope inspire?

I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart.

How steadily all through the Old and New Testament God calls us to stand on the watch and wait for His indications, and how often God’s answers to our prayers have been squandered because we do not watch and wait.  Are you throughly perplexed over God’s way?  Are you unable to reconcile God’s clear way as revealed in His book with the way He is leading you?  Take the line of this prophet during his perplexity.  Stand and watch to see what God will say –watch in the right place.

***

The first thing to remember is to watch at the right place, the place where God has put us.  Watch, that is, for God’s answer to our prayers, and not only watch, but wait…The meaning of waiting in both the Old and New Testament is “standing under,” actively enduring.  It is not standing with folded arms doing nothing.  It is not saying, “In God’s good time it will come to pass.”  By that we often mean, “In my abominably lazy time I let God work.”  Waiting means standing under, an active strength, enduring till the answer comes.

We must never make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer our prayer.  When God made a tremendous promise to Abraham, Abraham thought of the best way to help God … But God refused to speak to him for thirteen years, until every possibility of his relying on his own intelligent understanding was at an end.  Then Go came to him and said, “I am Almighty God” … 

***

I do not think we have enough of the wondering spirit that the Holy Spirit gives.  It is the child-spirit…When through Jesus Christ we are rightly related to God, we learn to watch and wait, and wait wonderingly.  “I wonder how God will answer this prayer.”  “I wonder how God will answer the prayer the Holy Spirit is praying in me.”  “I wonder what glory God will bring to Himself out of the strange perplexities I am in.”  “I wonder what new turn His providence will take in manifesting Himself in my ways.” … I wonder how many of us have been getting our ideas and convictions and notions twisted.  Thank God for the confusion if it is going to drive us straight to the watchtower with God.  There our doctrines and creeds are going to be God’s, not doctrines and creeds out of God’s Book twisted to suit our preconceived ideas, but the doctrines of God woven into the flesh and blood tissues of our lives by the indwelling Holy Spirit–watching, waiting, wondering and witnessing.

(Oswald Chambers, If You Will Ask, Reflections on the Power of Prayer)

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.  (1 Cor. 13:13).
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trial.  These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  (1 Peter 1:3-8).  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.  (Romans 5:1-5).  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work in you so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.  (James 1:2-8).

1. How does the world explain or define “faith”?  What things does the world encourage faith in?

2. What virtues appear together in these passages?  Why do you think that is?

3. Why do the verses in 1 Peter say we face trials?

4. According to the Romans verses, what do our sufferings produce?

5. What does the James passage say about “trials of many kinds,” why do they occur and what should our response be?

6. What kinds of challenges have you been facing in this season of your life?  Are you considering them a test and refinement of your faith?

But the fruit of the Spirit is … faithfulness. (Gal.  5:22-23).

Sweet friends, I can’t help it.  I used my concordance again.  “Faithfulness” is 4102 “pistis” which is translated as, simply, faith in the King James version and defined in Strong’s as “persuasion, i.e. credence; mor. Conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), espec. Reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstr. Constancy in such profession; by extens. The system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: – assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.”

This exact same word is what the writer of Hebrews dives into defining, explaining and exhorting his readers about.  Below I have typed a large, but excerpted, portion of Hebrews 10:35-12:3.  It was really hard for me to asterisks-out numerous of the faith examples, but my poor fingers couldn’t take typing the entire passage – so please, grab your Bibles as well to read the passage in its entirety, too.

Here goes:

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.  But my righteous one will live by faith.  And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  This is what The ancients were commended for.   By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.  By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.  And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found because God had taken him away.  For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.  And without faith it is impossible to please god, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
***
All these people were still living by faith when the died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.  And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.   People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
***
And what more shall I say?  I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.  Women received back their dead, raised to life again.  Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained a put in prison.  They were stones; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.  They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated– the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.  God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinds and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  (Hebrews 10:35-11:6, 11:13-16, 32-12:2).

1. In what ways does this passage define and describe faith?

2. What acts did the faith-filled (faithful) people mentioned in this passage conduct?

3. Did the faith-filled people in this passage (other than Jesus) receive the promises before they died?

4. What is hindering your faith now?  What sin easily entangles you?  If you have a trusted friend, confess these things to them.

5. How does this passage tell us we will be able to run with perseverance the race marked out for us?

Bonus question 😉 if you had time to read the entire passage, which Old Testament person stuck out to on this reading?  Why?