Truth in Prayer
The church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of truth. (I Timothy 3:15)
I Tim. 3:1-7 and 14-15; Mt. 15:18; Acts 20:24, 28; I Cor. 3:20-22; Eph. 1:22-23 and 2:21-22
What Is God Saying?
Paul set forth the standards for church leaders. Both letters to Timothy and the one to Titus are known as the Pastoral Letters. The main focus is the qualifications and behavior to be expected from anyone who aspires to or is called on for Christian leadership. The burden of these letters is the care of the churches and the quality of their leadership.
Thus there are specific guidelines for Bishops (or Pastors), and for Deacons, and their families. Pastors have a noble calling and their personal lives should be judged and honored based on their nobility of character. People inside and outside the church have reason to expect their lives to be consistent with the message they proclaim. Pastors and Deacons must be ‘above reproach’ (3:2), and ‘well-spoken of’ by those outside the church (3:7, 8).
How Does This Apply To Us?
In the middle of these straightforward and necessary instructions comes the affirmation of the divine origin and the purpose of the church. The whole reason for the high standards in Christian leaders rises from the fact that ‘the church of the living God is the pillar and bulwark of truth.’ It is the church of the living God. It is God's institution and must therefore be according to His design and follow His rules. Properly understood the church is a pillar to uphold the truth and a bulwark to defend the truth. The church gives support and protection to the saints who are its members. The believers and leaders of the Church in turn being the church must uphold as pillars and defend as bulwarks the truth, the love, the holiness and the mercy of God. The demands are high. Failure is an ever-present possibility. Satan is at work How can anyone succeed in carrying out these mandates? The answer is in Christ. He is the Head of the church, the Guide of the Christian, the Shepherd of the weak and wandering, and the strength that is made perfect in our weakness.
Pray With Me
O Living God, in Your church I have felt the warmth of Christ-like love. In Your church, I have seen the lights of home when, in the night of the soul, everything else was hostile and confusing. In Your church, I have found friends at the foot of the Cross with the same yearnings as mine and my heart has been lifted in the stillness of Communion. Now, Lord, in a world that boasts of being free and yet is so enslaved and in a world that is bewildered by the swiftness of material change, I thank You for the truth which sets men free and always abides the same.
In Your Church, O Lord, I have found that truth. In Your church, I will cling to that truth. It is no visionary dream. It is no flight of fancy. It is no wishful thinking. It is truth once delivered and ever preserved. Your church, O Christ, is the pillar and bulwark of truth that never changes and always satisfies. Let Your truth be the bulwark of my life. When I am tempted to surrender in a mood of discouragement, let me feel beneath me the pillar of truth which can never be shaken. When I am on the verge of faltering for fear, let me feel around me the bulwark of truth which can never be broken. Strengthened beneath and shielded around, I would live in fearless trust and joyous hope.
To the glory of Him who is the Living Way, the Living Truth, and the Living God. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
Truth is the key word in prayer. God Who knows us so well and loves us so much is only waiting for us to see ourselves as we truly are and to believe what we may become. There is no point in hiding the truth from God. There is no sense in avoiding the truth of God. The truth will be out. The term so often heard in legal circles- truth in advertising, truth in lending, or truth on the witness stand, is never more profound or needed than when it is applied to truth in praying. We fool only ourselves when truth is not the pillar and the bulwark of all our praying.
