Galatians 5: 7-15
You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth? This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough. I myself am persuaded in the Lord that you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. Now brothers and sisters, If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated! For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
Paul here is talking about those who are getting influenced by those around them and are starting to stray from the original truth. The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes in life we can get distracted or swayed based on what we hear on the news or the bad reports around us. Verse 9 says “A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough. The teachers of that day were trying to infuse false doctrine to their congregations which was obliterating the true gospel. Those teachers are who Paul was referring to. This leaven/ false doctrine was trying to put innocent souls back in bondage through legalism. We do have to be careful with what we let into our minds, into our hearts and into our spirits.
Galatians 5:1 says, For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then, and don’t submit again to yoke of slavery.” We apply this to standing firm in what we let in and what we allow to influence us.
What are you allowing to influence you that goes against the word of God?
1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV
Do not be deceived: “Bad Company ruins good morals.”
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Here we can see how powerful the influence of unchallenged information can affect us if we let it grow and fester in our minds. We have to challenge everything and filter it through what the word of God says. We have to use discernment and the wisdom that comes from above in all things.
1 Peter 5:8 ESV
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
The enemy will use anything and everything to try and deceive us because he is a liar. The devil will even use a good thing and try to distort it. The importance of seeing the difference of what is good versus God is key so we can really stand. The devil is always looking for ways to get God's children off balance.
Genesis 3:1 ESV
Now the serpent was craftier than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
The devil will try. The key word is TRY. He will try and get us to question everything which is why we have to stand firm in what God has said in His word.
Truth trumps reality every single time.
And what is truth?
Jesus Christ and His word. He is the way, the truth and the life and no one can get to the Father except through Jesus. If Jesus is truth, then everything that comes from Him is truth.
John 7:24 ESV
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
So we have to judge rightly what we see and what we hear by the word of God.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Ephesians 6:11 ESV
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
So we have to stay alert and not allow social media or the things of this world to distract us from what God wants us to do and how He wants us to live. He has given us tools to discern between what is of God and what isn’t. We have the Holy Spirit in us which means we are empowered by His grace to rightly discern what is of Him. We don’t have to fear and we don’t have to give the enemy any type of hold on our lives. We have Jesus and we have His word. His word is life. The more we can sit in His presence, the more we can receive His love. We become what we behold. So the more we behold Jesus, the more we become like Him. The truth is able to permeate our hearts. It stops becoming head knowledge and starts becoming the truth that we live and breath and were created to fully receive all along.
John 8:31-32 ESV
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
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