December 8 - Ransom for All

 Read today’s texts first: 1 Timothy 1-4

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

There is a time and a need to take a stand
for the purity and simplicity of the gospel. 

Timothy, Paul’s young protégé, was facing disruptive and, possibly, destructive, false teachers infiltrating the church of Ephesus. Paul urged him to instruct his church in sound doctrine, and to boldly correct those who were pursuing “strange doctrines” and “mere speculation” (1:3,4).  As a born diplomat, my inclination is to downplay doctrinal differences and encourage everyone to just get along. But as Paul and Timothy learned, there is a time and a need to take a stand for the purity and simplicity of the gospel.

One example jumped out at me in the reading today. It seems clear to me that our Saviour “desires all men to be saved” and, because of that, “gave Himself as a ransom for all” (2:4,6). These Scriptures, and many others, are obvious in describing God’s impartial love and sacrifice, which is available to all. But there are some who speculate that God has predetermined some for salvation, and by logical extension, others for damnation. There are others, especially today, who take the opposite extreme and interpret these verses to mean all will be saved (universalism). 

There are deliberate tensions in Scripture that help us understand how much greater God is than our limited thinking. We must find a balance in understanding God’s sovereignty and man’s free choice, God’s justice and His mercy. And we must be quick to correct false, or at least misguided, teachings which can flow out of proof-texts and not the “whole counsel of God.”

“Lord, the love and sacrifice You have made available to all of us is far too wonderful not to defend against mere speculation. While You have called me to work together interdenominationally, You have also asked me, like Paul, to encourage my protégés toward sound doctrine.”