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Be On Your Guard!

Sue J Love

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Mar 27, 2015
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“But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:13-18 NASB1995)

If we are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ, and so by faith we have died with him to sin, denied self, and are now walking in obedience to his commands, in practice, we are also those who are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. And that is awesome to think of, too. For here we are living on this earth where corruption, evil, hate, and the murdering of innocents is everywhere, and where immorality, lies, and trickery abound! So a place where righteousness dwells is so welcome!

And since we are those who are awaiting the time of Christ’s return, to when he will take us to be with him for eternity, and the time in which we will experience the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness dwells, then we are to be those who are living in holy conduct and godliness, and who are living lives which are righteous and above reproach, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, all in the power of God, by his grace, through God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ.

Now Peter made reference to the apostle Paul and to his letters, that Paul had written the same kinds of things as Peter was writing to the church, which Paul did. Paul wrote much on the subjects of repentance, obedience, submission to Christ, and holy living, as necessary components of faith which saves and which promises us eternal life with God. Yet many people today teach Paul’s words out of context, and they twist them to infer that Paul taught a grace which was permissive of habitual sin, not against it.

So this serves as a warning to us to be on our guard against those who teach the Scriptures out of context and who twist them to say what they do not say if taught in the appropriate context. We are to be on our guard so that we are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men (or women) and fall from our steadfastness of faith in the Lord Jesus. For so many liars abound these days who serve as preachers, pastors, and evangelists, but who are teaching lies and not the truth of the gospel of our salvation.

So, in order to not fall prey to their lies and their deceptions, we must be students of the Scriptures who study them in the correct context, who then apply the teachings on Christian living to our everyday lives, in the power of God at work in our lives. And then we are to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus by obeying his teachings, and the teachings of the New Testament apostles on what it means to be saved from our sins and to have the promise and the hope of eternal life with God when we die.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907
Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907


Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!


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Be On Your Guard!
An Original Work / June 28, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
 
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