1 Timothy Blog 2

“But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses….keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kinds and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; ho him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” 1 Timothy 6: 11-12; 14-16

In the reading of the whole New Testament in a squished amount of time with two blogs required for each, I am more convinced than ever that works will not do anything on Judgment day. This is not to say that I did not realize this prior to this semester. No, I am just way more aware of it. Again and again it is the same. Remember Galatians where it says that anyone who tries to follow the law is under a curse? That is Galatians 3:10. Well, here is another list of things that God wants us to do. We are to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Just this last Sunday at church the pastor talked about the order of the Christian faith.

1) Believe in Jesus
2) You’re saved
3) You work toward all these (because you love Jesus)

This is not allowed to go in any other order. Some churches today preach it differently, switching number two and number three. At church last Sunday the pastor explained a similar problem back during Paul’s time from the Churches of Galatia. The Judaizers believed that two and three were the other way around and that works came first before a person received salvation.