Read: 2 Timothy 2:8-15
“But the word of God is not chained” (v. 9)
How have I tried to chain the word of God? Where have I made it to say what I’d like instead of a more challenging word I’d like to ignore? What are those things that I believe scripture absolutely says or does not say? How open am I to interpretations of scripture that do not match my own?
A key aspect of Christ, and of the Trinity more broadly, is the breaking of chains and crossing of barriers. God heard the cry of the Hebrew people and liberated them from slavery, Christ self-consciously breached the boundaries of class, race, gender, nation, and of religious purity (among many others). The Holy Spirit guided the Apostles to cross all of those barriers in spreading the Gospel and literally knocked down prison walls. The resurrection is the destruction of the most ominous barrier in mortal life.
This is a question to first ask ourselves: what barriers have we built up? What are the barriers to entry in our church? This may not just mean politics or theology. For example, except for a select few of us many require a vehicle or a ride to attend our church. We have an obvious language barrier, and a barrier of experience. I imagine church is very strange to one who has never been in one before. We can’t necessarily remedy all of these, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for ways we may have chained the Word. When God is at work the last place we want to be is in the way.
“If we have died with him, we will reign with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful–for he cannot deny himself.” (v. 13)
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