Text- Mark 4:16-17 – “Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”
Today is the third day in this series “Examine your roots”. I have mentioned to you that when troubles and persecutions arise, it is the strength of our root that will determine whether we will fall away or not, because in the day of trouble, excitement and zeal will not be enough to hang on to.
I mentioned also that that there are about four stages of progression in solidifying our commitments and building a strong root that cannot be shaken. We have talked about the first two: credulity and curiosity.
Today we will talk about the third – The stage of criticism
3. CRITICISM
Criticism is the act of analyzing a piece of information in order to judge its merits and faults. This is usually what people try to avoid when they discourage curiosity.
You see, when you come to the scriptures with an open mind and heart, and you begin to search through its pages, investigating the truths contained in it, and learning the doctrines taught by it, you will automatically begin to fault anything that does not align with it. This is what we refer to as criticism… it is very necessary in building a sustainable Christian life.
When some people read the Bible, they read to validate the doctrines they have held, not to obtain the doctrine that the Bible teaches. This way, they begin to twist scriptures, rather than use scriptures to analyze their existing doctrines in order to judge its merits and faults, so that what should be validated will be validated, and what ought to be discarded will be discarded.
See what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14-17:
“But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers — why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk (since you were a little child)!
There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another — showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way.
Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”
You see here that although Timothy learned by credulity from the time he was a child, Paul admonished him still to curiously ascertain the integrity of his teachers by subjecting what he has been taught to the authority of scriptures, which is able to show him truth, expose any form of rebellion, correct all mistakes, and train him to live God’s way… That’s what criticism is all about.
This was the same thing the Jews at Berea did. Bible says of them in Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
PRAYER
Lord, please help me to take roots deep in my walk with you so that I will not fall away when troubles and persecutions arise. From today, I will always subject all things to the authority of scripture. So help me Lord in Jesus Name.
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