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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
August 29
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Today's Pathway:
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We concluded yesterday with Paul's injunction in verse 29 that when a prophet spoke, the others who had the gift of prophecy were to judge whether or not what the man was saying was correct. We know that the gift of prophecy has been done away with because we have the completed canon of Scripture. However, the principle still holds true today. If a pastor stands up in the pulpit and preaches a message, the congregation has the responsibility to check what he says against the Bible to find out if what he is saying is accurate. The church members may not all be preachers or teachers, but they all hold in their hands the revelation of God, and they can read it and study it and see whether or not the preacher is telling them the truth. Acts 17:10-11 gives an example of this. It reads,
"And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.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."
Matthew Henry commented,
"Their readiness of mind to receive the word was not such as that they took things upon trust and swallowed them upon an implicit faith: no; but since Paul reasoned out of the scriptures, and referred them to the Old Testament for the proof of what he said, they had recourse to their Bibles, turned to the places to which he referred them, read the context, considered the scope and drift of them, compared them with other places of scripture, examined whether Paul's inferences from them were natural and genuine and his arguments upon them cogent, and determined accordingly."
This is a wise thing to do. There are men who would willfully change the meaning of the Bible so as to advance their own cause. In II Peter 3:16, Peter warns about those who would "wrest" ("wrench", "torture", "pervert") the Scriptures, and do so "unto their own destruction". Sometimes the errors are not malicious, but all of us, as fallible humans, are capable of saying the wrong thing. The Bible is never wrong, and it must be our ultimate authority. By the way, do you notice who the teacher is that the Berean are checking up on? It is the Apostle Paul himself. If it is noble to search the Scriptures about what Paul is preaching, it is certainly noble to check the Scriptures when someone else is preaching.
Verse 30 is interesting. Paul writes that if one prophet is speaking, and a second prophet receives a revelation from God, then the first prophet is to stop talking. This is different from the command for those speaking in tongues (verse 27). However, there is a principle that applies to both that is found in verse 32, which says,
"And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets".
We have commented on this verse before, but I want us to notice it again. William MacDonald put it this way:
"This means that he is not carried away without his consent, or against his will. He cannot evade the instructions of this chapter on the pretense that he just couldn't help it. He himself can determine when or how long he should speak."
Many in the Pentecostal movement teach that they have no control over what comes out of their mouths. I have even heard the occasional Baptist say something similar. But God says that the prophet must remain in control, and if he is not in control then what is occurring is not of God, for "God is not the author of confusion" (vs 33) . Remember back in I Corinthians 12:2 we noted that Paul wrote that before the Corinthians were saved they were "carried away unto these dumb idols". Various commentators defined the expression "carried away" this way:
they were "caught up in a whirlwind"; "out of control in paganism"; "controlled by a force they could not understand nor resist."
The pagans functioned that way. Christians never do.
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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