“if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
Contrary belief systems constantly try to move us away from the “hope of the gospel.” Stability in the gospel is essential for solid Christian living.
“and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel “
The “hope of the gospel” (Col 1:5) is our ultimate salvation, where all aspects of salvation will become complete (Tit. 1:2; 3:7; Heb. 6:19; 1 Pet 1:3).
“Moved away” means to change location. Some people are chronically unstable. Any wind of doctrine blows them away. They shift from one doctrine to another like the wind (Eph. 4:14). The Colossian heresy taught that their salvation needed to be supplemented by further spirituality to be saved.
Principle:
Stability in the gospel is a core Christian value.
Application:
We move away from the gospel when it no longer grips our hearts. When our hearts grow cold, we are in serious trouble. Once we lose interest in the Bible, there is not much that can touch the hardened heart. Everything that God does for us comes either directly or indirectly from the Bible. There is no substitute for the Bible in our personal growth.
It is easy to drift when we row a boat or paddle a canoe. It is hard work to make progress, especially if we are going against the stream. The only thing we have to do to drift is to do nothing. If we take a little rest, we will go back, and we will drift from the things of God. When the church is popular, the church is weak. The church popular has always been the church polluted. The church persecuted has always been the church powerful.
I’m not sure if I entirely agree with some of your statements in this devo. . it would seem a little too subjective. . how do you measure something “gripping the heart”. . to me the issue if a drifting away from the nuts and bolts of the gospel–the hope that is contained in the true gospel–I have written you before with gratitude for other of your devotions. . and I acknowledged a friend of mine who died this past year at 98. . He would tell me that in terms of knowing truth–you can’t go by feelings . . what God’s word says is true even if it makes me have strong feelings in a given moment or not. And perhaps it’s just semantics but everything that comes to us as believers comes, to me from, Him. . and of course will always be consistent with His word. For me to not move from the hope of the gospel is to continue to respond to God’s finished work at Calvary. . that is spoken of in Romans 5:8,9 and not move from this hope when other ideas contrary to this are expressed as “gospel truth”. . even if some of them would evoke strong emotion.
deb
Deb, I agree with you that the basis of all Christian living rests on the facts of truth and the gospel. In biblical parlance, emotions are always the appreciator of the soul. There can be no true emotions without objective truth. It is also possible to be sterile in our grasp of truth. What I am saying is that it is necessary to engage with truth as truth.