{"id":22904,"date":"2022-08-28T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-2_12-16-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-08-09T20:44:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T03:44:45","slug":"romans-2_17-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-2_17-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Look in the Mirror before You Preach to Your Neighbor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans 2:17-24 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Romans 2:17-24.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Romans 2:17-24 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth–
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 17-24:\u00a0 To paraphrase Paul\u2019s warning to the Christians in Rome, if you want to be a teacher of God’s laws, you must make sure that you yourself are keeping them.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll be a hypocrite.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s warning wasn\u2019t just for those who formally preach and teach God\u2019s Word in church, but for all those who saw themselves as mature believers or who had been exposed to the Scriptures for a long time.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0The primary measure of spiritual maturity is not how much of God\u2019s Word you know, but how much of God\u2019s Word you live out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we talk a lot about what right living looks like but don\u2019t live it out ourselves, we cause God\u2019s name to be \u201cblasphemed\u201d (v24) \u2013 that is, spoken of dishonorably \u2013 especially among people who don\u2019t know Jesus personally.\u00a0 In other words, hypocritical living doesn\u2019t just make us look bad; it makes our God and His church look bad too.\u00a0 That\u2019s why\u00a0it is important that we look in the mirror before we presume to tell others how they should live<\/strong>\u00a0(see Matthew 7:3-5).<\/p>\n

As Jesus says in Matthew 7:3-5:
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before we can use God\u2019s Word as a sword, we need to use it as a mirror.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, I pray that I would be careful to take out the plank in my own eye before I try to take out the splinter that I think is in other people\u2019s eyes.\u00a0 Thank You that before I use Your Word as a sword, I first need to use it as a mirror.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Romans 2:17-24.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Romans 2:17-24 (NIV)
\n17\u00a0\u00a0Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
\n18\u00a0\u00a0if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
\n19\u00a0\u00a0if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
\n20\u00a0\u00a0an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth–
\n21\u00a0\u00a0you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
\n22\u00a0\u00a0You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
\n23\u00a0\u00a0You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
\n24\u00a0\u00a0As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”<\/p>\n

On verses 17-24:\u00a0 To paraphrase Paul\u2019s warning to the Christians in Rome, if you want to be a teacher of God’s laws, you must make sure that you yourself are keeping them.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll be a hypocrite.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s warning wasn\u2019t just for those who formally preach and teach God\u2019s Word in church, but for all those who saw themselves as mature believers or who had been exposed to the Scriptures for a long time.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0The primary measure of spiritual maturity is not how much of God\u2019s Word you know, but how much of God\u2019s Word you live out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22907,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22904\/revisions\/22907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}