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in the arena, part 4 (or things to fight for: full assurance of understanding)
By Amber | September 22, 2008
I have to apologize for my deficiency in posting lately. I was thinking I was just a couple of weeks behind, when today I realized it had been a full month since my last post! Since it’s been a while, let’s review what we’re doing.
In the first post of this series, I explained the discovery I had made of the concept of striving in the Christian life and of the goal of our striving: to present every man complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28-29). In the following posts, I have given examples of things to strive for in prayer so that you and your small group will grow to completion in Christ. These come from Paul’s prayer in Colossians 2:2-3. The first was “encouragement,” the second was “hearts knit together.” This third one is “the full assurance of understanding,” and the final one will be “a true knowledge of Christ.”
Paul prays that his disciples’ “hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself.”
What we want for our small groups is that each person will understand the truth of the Gospel clearly, without confusion or distortion, and be fully assured that he does understand it clearly. Each Christian has the opportunity to understand the Gospel definitely, distinctly, and clearly. Each one has the opportunity to be fully assured and settled in his convictions. Many today will tell you that this is not the case. They may tell you that the truth is relative. Or that it is vague: we see dimly and therefore cannot hold any definite convictions. But Andrew Bonar says firmly:
…the true preacher will stand with Paul upon this question, that is, he will endure a great conflict before God rather than surrender the cause of that definite, clear assured understanding among his people. Love never compromises the truth.
Though Mr. Bonar is speaking of preachers, the same applies to small group leaders. Endure that conflict before God rather than surrendering the cause of the full assurance of understanding among your small group.
He goes on to explain the connection between the first two things to fight for and this one:
Now if a sense of God’s love in Christ be cultivated and enjoyed, if the comfort of the gospel abounds in our hearts, we cannot but attain to the full assurance of understanding. In such a path there are no insuperable obstacles. It is simply to fleshly pride of opinion, the duskiness of worldly thinking that makes difficult the full reception of the truth. Love is itself intelligence, divine intelligence. … In other words, it is as we live up to the truth we now have that we receive more truth.
This full assurance of understanding comes with great wealth. This is the basis of the assurance of faith, and the assurance of faith is the basis for the assurance of hope. Bonar exclaims, “In this combination of assurances, what ineffable blessedness there is!” This assurance of understanding keeps its owner immovable int eh midst of false teaching (see verse 4), and is also connected with genuine humility.
Topics: Inspire, Small Groups |