My favorite homeschooling outfit is a warm pair of long blue socks, pulled up to my knees, where they joyfully meet my short sweatpants, combining for an overall effect that my husband calls, \u201cThe Francis Schaeffer Look.\u201d If your beauty doesn\u2019t spark in your husband\u2019s mind a comparison to modern Christian apologist and enthusiastic knicker-wearer Francis Schaeffer, is the flame even still burning in your marriage? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Really, I\u2019m not in bad company. Schaeffer famously argued, \u201cRegardless of a man\u2019s system, he has to live in God\u2019s world.\u201d It can be a tricky thing, living in this world, don\u2019t you think? We are tempted to act like we\u2019re in charge here\u2014like we\u2019re running the show and the whole world belongs to us. It doesn\u2019t. This is God\u2019s world, and we are here to glorify Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This world tells us to work harder and be smarter, to say all the right things at just the right time, to wear fashionable hosiery (something other than, say, blue knee-high socks). We can attempt to apply this system to our faith, to try to do more to make ourselves just a little more worthy of God. But this is treating the world as ours, to be managed and regulated as we humans think it ought to be run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the lie some Colossians were being persuaded to believe. Paul\u2019s rebuke in this letter against legalism, righteousness by works, self-made religion and asceticism was speaking against the false teachers in Colossae who had forgotten the true gospel, that Christ alone is our justifier (Colossians 1:12\u201323, Romans 3:26). \u201cTherefore,\u201d Paul instructs, \u201cdon\u2019t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day,\u201d or any other regulation (Colossians 2:16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can almost hear Paul\u2019s frustration, \u201cIf you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: \u2018Don\u2019t handle, don\u2019t taste, don\u2019t touch\u2019?\u201d (vv.20\u201321). Instead of trying to follow the world\u2019s instructions, we are called to pursue the Lord, and seek what He loves. Jesus promises wisdom from above, and the fruit of His wisdom \u201cis first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace\u201d (James 3:17\u201318).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul reminds us there is true freedom in this: We belong to Christ. While we live in this fallen world in need of grace, we belong to another King and His kingdom. We can be free of the tyranny of the rules of this world, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My favorite homeschooling outfit is a warm pair of long blue socks, pulled up to my knees, where they joyfully meet my short sweatpants, combining for an overall effect that my husband calls, \u201cThe Francis Schaeffer Look.\u201d If your beauty doesn\u2019t spark in your husband\u2019s mind a comparison to modern Christian apologist and enthusiastic knicker-wearer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":71281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philippiansandcolossians"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"related_plans":[71272],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"WARNING AGAINST FALSE TEACHING<\/b>
\r\nby Rebecca Faires<\/i>
\r\n
My favorite homeschooling outfit is a warm pair of long blue socks, pulled up to my knees, where they joyfully meet my short sweatpants, combining for an overall effect that my husband calls, \u201cThe Francis Schaeffer Look.\u201d If your beauty doesn\u2019t spark in your husband\u2019s mind a comparison to modern Christian apologist and enthusiastic knicker-wearer Francis Schaeffer, is the flame even still burning in your marriage?<\/p>
\r\n
Really, I\u2019m not in bad company. Schaeffer famously argued, \u201cRegardless of a man\u2019s system, he has to live in God\u2019s world.\u201d It can be a tricky thing, living in this world, don\u2019t you think? We are tempted to act like we\u2019re in charge here\u2014like we\u2019re running the show and the whole world belongs to us. It doesn\u2019t. This is God\u2019s world, and we are here to glorify Him.<\/p>\u00a0
\r\n
This world tells us to work harder and be smarter, to say all the right things at just the right time, to wear fashionable hosiery (something other than, say, blue knee-high socks). We can attempt to apply this system to our faith, to try to do more to make ourselves just a little more worthy of God. But this is treating the world as ours, to be managed and regulated as we humans think it ought to be run.<\/p>
\r\n
This is the lie some Colossians were being persuaded to believe. Paul\u2019s rebuke in this letter against legalism, righteousness by works, self-made religion and asceticism was speaking against the false teachers in Colossae who had forgotten the true gospel, that Christ alone is our justifier (Colossians 1:12\u201323, Romans 3:26). \u201cTherefore,\u201d Paul instructs, \u201cdon\u2019t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day,\u201d or any other regulation (Colossians 2:16).<\/p>
\r\n
You can almost hear Paul\u2019s frustration, \u201cIf you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: \u2018Don\u2019t handle, don\u2019t taste, don\u2019t touch\u2019?\u201d (vv.20\u201321). Instead of trying to follow the world\u2019s instructions, we are called to pursue the Lord, and seek what He loves. Jesus promises wisdom from above, and the fruit of His wisdom \u201cis first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace\u201d (James 3:17\u201318).<\/p>
\r\n
Paul reminds us there is true freedom in this: We belong to Christ. While we live in this fallen world in need of grace, we belong to another King and His kingdom. We can be free of the tyranny of the rules of this world, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"19","scripture":"Colossians 2:16-23, Romans 14:1-23, James 3:13-18","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}