Do Not Grow Weary In Doing Good

As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.
As I wrote about in my last blog titled, “Crisis: The Hysterics and The Gnostics,” God uses times of tribulation to squeeze mankind like a pimple. While the Word of God is the ultimate source of Truth, it’s not the only instrument God uses to impart wisdom to us. The most direct route is simply reading our Bibles, where it’s inevitable that we engage with truth designed to set us free. That process, as you may attest, can be painful. In addition to simply reading the Bible, God the Holy Spirit leads you to truth through ordained men of God, such as myself. We are gifts to His flock in the sense that our utility to Him is in our teaching. However, having another human being in the mix often introduces temptations that otherwise wouldn’t exist. To be blunt, we pastors (and, frankly, you if you’ve ever tried to give someone the Word of Truth) are often pummeled for being messengers of God. This is why encouragement is so very vital to our refreshment (ala 2 Thessalonians 3:13).

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Paul wrote to Timothy for encouragement’s sake. I am writing to you for the same reason. Do not grow weary in doing good, my friend. You will be persecuted for it - expect it. Jesus shared this wisdom with us:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
I want you to be encouraged. I want you to be bold when it matters most. I want you to share in Christ’s confidence from here on out - no more timidity about who you are; that is, a child of God, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord” (2 Timothy 1:7-8a). I want you to take the Gospel truth out to a world that will hate you for it. Why? Because not everyone will despise you in the end, and some may, by the grace and mercy of God, be saved! What’s a few bumps and bruises, I ask, when the stakes are so high?

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,
and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the LORD are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.
Be encouraged. You have purpose. Your life is not to be lived out in vain. Your faith is real and so is your love for the Lord. Do not doubt these things about yourself, ever! God, Himself, has put that light in you and it is meant to shine! “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). Don’t allow anything or anyone to disturb this fundamental truth in you. Satan is a thief, a liar, and a murderer of truth, such as I’m writing to you here. His demons hate that God’s using me this way. Let them. God loves me just like He loves you. I will not be torn away from Him, not by anyone or anything. Who are they who accuse us???

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You are an instrument that God uses for His own glory. Act the part. Stand firm in your faith, especially during times of persecution. Those are opportunities to shine. Let messages like this one polish you, refresh you, encourage you. Life is good because God says so! Doing good begins with being good.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Love in Christ,

Ed Collins