• ‘Success doesn’t come through grumbling and complaining.’
• ‘Browbeating will not produce positive results.’
• ‘Gossip solves nothing, but only imbitters the heart and soul.’
• ‘The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.’ James 1:20

The Scriptures are replete with this same concept—our biting and devouring of one another leads to destruction. “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” (Galatians 5:15, ESV) From grumbling against a neighbor in our hearts, to the slander whispered against one another, to the out and out tongues of fire we unleash, there is a consuming of our fellow man that happens with our mouths, which is reprehensible. Take the time to read James 3 regarding the power of our words.

The Word of God has much to say about how to deal with such a deadly poison. By Faith in Christ, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth. For from the abundance of the heart man speaks. True faith leads one to be careful with their tongue. This is not an effort to keep from getting caught, but to avoid setting things on fire with the tongue which is a restless evil.

My purpose here is not to lead us to fakeness. Rather, it is to a heartfelt place where we seek to do good to one another with our mouths. This can only come by faith. This can only happen by the power of the Holy Spirit. This comes from the heart that has been stricken by its own sinfulness and then is reshaped by our Savior Jesus Christ. 

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Colossians 4:6, ESV)

PBJ

(Acts 6:7, ESV)

Religion begets more religion. Religious deeds, ideas, and actions that accomplish the purposes of fulfillment and completion in the life of a person. Notably there is a desire for more tomes of self-satisfaction, and a discourse more suited to the palate of ‘give me what I want’. But when the gospel comes it changes the religious heart. 

A notable point in Acts 6:7 is the great number of priests that became obedient to the faith. They had radical shifts in their concepts of God. They had radical movement in how they think and even in how they practice. A priest would have an entire daily routine that would be set aside so that they might walk in the obedience of faith. 

It wasn’t stated that they just believed. There was no room for modern cultural misapprehensions of true belief. Rather they, it states, in accord with what true belief is, became obedient to the faith. These men had to put aside religion and even what they thought was best for something that was far better. They began to walk in the obedience of faith. 

They were no longer religious for its own sake. They became obedient to the faith. Not a religion, not a subset of personal desires affixed to cultural mores. Rather, they trusted in Christ and His Word, and they began to walk in obedience to the truth. 

Becoming obedient to the faith is not a novel concept. The letter to the church in Romans has as book ends the idea of bringing about the obedience of the faith. In almost the center of the same letter Paul rejoices that they have become obedient to the teaching which they’ve been given. In other words, expounding on the obedience of faith, the faith is something far more than simple religion.

Let’s not give way to our cultural misapprehension of religion and what a consumer driven environment demands. Instead let’s pursue being obedient to the faith and seek to make God’s Word increase all the more. 

It wasn’t long ago that this very passage was the subject of a Pastor’s Corner. Yet here we are looking at Acts 6:7 again. It is a wonderful passage regarding God’s Word and its increase. 

Some might think that the Word of God has reached a ceiling on its increase. As though scholarship has been exhausted, all books have been written, all translations have been made, and anything else is a redundancy; which is far from the truth. So then, what does it mean to have the Word of God increase?

It seems obvious that the increase of the Word of God is much more than publishing and academia, translations and information. The increase of God’s Word is the Word gaining greater prominence among the people. It is God’s Word being believed and obeyed. Reckoning the fact that there has been a great deal of scholarship, software, and print versions of the Word of God, and yet that isn’t the same thing as the Word of God increasing. 

Conjoin the reality of God’s Word increasing along with the increase of disciples in Jerusalem. It would seem then that the increase of the Word of God is distinctly connected to the conversions. People come to the place where they see the truth and beauty of God’s Word, and the prominence it has in their life and community increases.

The increase is also measured by the effect. The Word of God radically shifts the view of the person who believes it, and they walk in the obedience of faith. The increase of the Word, and the obedience of faith is played out in the changing of belief and becoming obedient in action to what is believed. That’s what the Word of God does, it has been sent by God to effect change in the hearts and minds of mankind. Lord, may your Word do that which You sent it to accomplish.

I was once told by a pastor how he avoids the controversy of the book of Acts. His solution to the problem presented by Acts was to keep from preaching Acts if at all possible. His position is understandable. It is easy to grasp why he might choose this tactic, but in the end it is tacitly flawed. Even is Acts tends to stir controversy, as people grossly misunderstand and twist it to fit particular religious ends; there is still a responsibility to preach the whole counsel of God’s Word, including the Acts of the Apostles.

The importance of God’s Word on the whole cannot be overstated, and preaching the entirety of God’s Word is equally as significant. By God’s grace we are given His Word as a light and a lamp. Because Acts is God’s gift to light the way it would serve the body of Christ to explore it regularly. 

Acts is a book that describes an important time in the life of God’s people. Within the descriptive work of the author of Acts it is clear the importance of God’s Word in the very formation of the church. God’s Word increased, and the number of disciples increased as a result. This is telling of what should be important to the church today. 

It is amazing that so many will take from the book of Acts and form some sort of prescription about performing miracles, or seeking to produce some supernatural happening. When reading Acts it is clear that supernatural things happened, but what is even more clear is that God’s Word was at the center of the formation of the church and not the miracles. 

Because the Word of God was esteemed so highly, shouldn’t we esteem it the same  today? Because the Word of God increased amongst them, shouldn’t we seek for the same? Let the lessons and descriptive prose of Acts serve its purpose of exalting Christ and displaying the work of God’s Word amongst His people. 

There are ideas about what to do, sure. However there is more thought about when we should act on these ideas. If you are reading this, that may mean you have some interest in blogs. If that is true, please contact Brian on any given Sunday to discuss potential ways to serve. We may have to wait until we get ourselves some writers who want to present their own idea ;)