“…that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”
by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus
The more a person acknowledges what he has in Christ, the more active and effective he becomes in sharing his faith. The word “acknowledge” includes both understanding the facts and the experience of those facts. The more we grasp our faith, the more eager we are to share it.
Php 1:3-11, 3 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge [same word as “acknowledge” in our verse] and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Whatever we have in the Christian faith, Christ put it there. “Every good thing” comes through Christ and is in
Christ Jesus. People saw Philemon manifest genuine Christian living, but they gave all the credit for this to Christ.
This communication of faith results in power that, in turn, results in full knowledge (Greek) of the good things that we have in Christ.
PRINCIPLE:
A sign of spiritual maturity is the desire to share Christ with others.
APPLICATION:
Sharing our faith with others is an outgrowth of our understanding of God’s provisions. If we are going to build a computer, we have to know some things about computers before attempting to do the job.
God effectually works in us when we apprehend His truth and when we identify with His will for this world. This is a full-orbed spiritual maturity. The more mature we become, the more passion we have for the world.
