In His Study

The Word is authoritative

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, you shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.” Matt 4: 8-10

I have become increasingly concerned over the lack of authority of God’s Word in the lives of Christian people today. You can expect those who don’t attend church, or who do not believe there is even a God, to discount any Biblical authority over them.

But when people who say they are a Christian, and even attend church semiregularly, do not consider the Word of God to be the last word on any subject, then the church, the body of Christ, is in trouble.

A reading through the book of Acts, the fifth book of the New Testament, reveals the authority the Word of God held over the First Century church.

If the Word of God said something was true, then there was no question, that truth was accepted as the final word. Today, we get numerous answers in response to a Biblical truth, that begin with words like, “Yeah, but in my case...” In other words, our reasoning supersedes the authority of the Word of God.

That reasoning is often aided by an old enemy of Christ Jesus. “All these things I will give You if...” This was spoken in the ears of Jesus by his enemy, Satan. And that statement stills falls on the ears of Christ Jesus’ disciples today. As the devil tried to entice Jesus then, he tries to entice us today, and the statement varies with who we are. He observes our daily lives and determines what would be a real temptation to us. And, when we are the most vulnerable, he appears without our observance of him and whispers, “All these things you canhave if you overlook this moral issue, or whatever the moment before seems to demand.”

You can count on the fact that if the Word of God says something to be true, he will tell us the exact opposite. And, he is such a slick character we don’t often realize it was him that voiced the compromise, or the reasoning we are considering.

But Jesus gives us the answer to these statements. “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.”

To consider any compromise with the world (which is under the devil’s influence) is to turn our worship from God to Satan himself. Thus, we must KNOW what is written in God’s Word, know it and give answer to every statement with all is written and include the Word that answers the compromise before us. You see, Satan knows the authority of the Word of God, even when we do not. And, Jesus knew that the Word of God, already written at the time He walked the earth, was absolute authority. Jesus knew the authority of the Word of God was more powerful than any human reasoning. And Satan had, and has, no answer for the Word. The Word is our true defense, and from THE WORD Satan will flee. But, remember Satan loves, “Yeah, but in my case...”

Church, Pages 2 on 02/01/2012