peace to live by

Paul's Encouragement for the Church, Part 1 (TMF:2609)

Thursday, May 08, 2025
Peace to Live By: Paul's Encouragement for the Church, Part 1 (TMF:2609) - Daniel Litton
(Tap to play feature or right-click to download)

       Continuing in verse 2: “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ” (ESV). The first goal of the struggle can be realized as seeking to encourage. To encourage. That’s a good goal. That’s a noble goal. Everyone needs encouragement. Back then. Even now. But the kind of encouragement being discussed, that which is being focused on, isn’t just a general encouragement to make people feel better. It certainly is going to make people feel better—but the encouragement in and of itself has a specific goal. And what’s interesting is that we are taken roundabout back to the mind—to “understanding” and “knowledge.” Paul talked about this at the end of chapter 1, about knowledge. We noted that he mentioned it a couple times. Well, here it is again. The understanding and knowledge though are geared toward Christ. Paul says Christ is God’s mystery. That’s peculiar because we don’t often seem to think of Christ as a mystery.