“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
“Orthodoxy” by G.K. Chesterton
The way of meaty maturity is discovered and experienced along the childlike path of always remembering the main things. To receive the same things over and over is the recipe for robust godly growth (Philippians 3:1). Those who attempt to entice us away from this regular remembering, are evildoers who have been ensnared by the devil, and captured by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26; Titus 3:10).
We must be incessantly reminded to receive the grace/strength that is in Christ Jesus. We must ordain and appoint faithful men who will insist on feeding, leading, and protecting us with a single-minded – and relentlessly repetitious – resolution to anchor our attention to Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:2). We must incessantly receive this invitation from our leaders so that we might experientially share in suffering as good soldiers, disciplined athletes, and hard-working farmers of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:3-7). We are stewards of no ordinary hope or suburban life …we are stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1), and we are the recipients of resurrection life (2 Timothy 2:8). We are FREE! We are free from self-protectionism, self-pamperingism, and self-sufficiencyism. We are free to be imprisoned and persecuted because our citizenship is supernatural (2 Timothy 2:9-13).
We must be reminded again and again of the main things (1 Corinthians 2:2; Hebrews 12:1-2), exulting in the reminders even though they might feel monotonous. We must always be receptive to the church-discipline/admonition (before God) not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers (2 Timothy 2:14). We must shame those men who would “lead” us to transcend the main, monotonous, reminders and critical re-occurring resolutions (1 Corinthians 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:15); we must tell such men that they are irreverent babblers, leading people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene (2 Timothy 2:16-17). These men promote by-sightism rather than living by faith (2 Timothy 2:18). These men must cleanse themselves from what is dishonorable, and only then will they be vessels for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the Master of the house, ready for every good work (2 Timothy 2:20-21).
The main, monotonous, resolution and fixation (1 Corinthians 2:2; Hebrews 12:1-2) is the only way to avoid the pitfalls of self-righteousness, ignorant controversies, and recurrent quarrels (2 Timothy 2:22-23). As servants of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:1), we must NOT be quarrelsome, but we must be kind to everyone, able to teach (1 Corinthians 2:2), patiently enduring evil, correcting the opponents of the Gospel/living by-faith with gentleness; believing that God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
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