Basic Essentials

Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God's

people.  Warn them before God against pious nitpicking,

which chips away at the faith.  It just wear everyone out.

Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won't 

be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple.

Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk.  Words are not 

mere words, you know.  If they're not backed by a godly

life, they accumulate as poison in the soul.

2 Timothy 2:14-16 [The Message] 

I used to be married to a minister - someone who studied his Bible on a daily basis and gave a lot of thought to what he was going to say in his sermons.  Often, something in the Bible struck his fancy, and he would come to me, wanting to strike up a theological debate.  I was a stay-at-home mom with three active little girls, and I wasn't much interested in the finer points of any kind of theology, much less the historical-critical method or any other hot topic in the church world.  But I would hear him out, and if his subject matter was on a small, non-critical point that he had garnered from a group of scriptures, I would wait until he finished, and then ask, "OK - but what does that have to do with my salvation."  Often he would grin sheepishly, shrug, and return to his Bible to look for the "essentials."

I have taught many a Bible class in my lifetime, and I can tell you without a doubt that there is nothing a teacher hates worse than a participant who tries to hijack the discussion over a piece of minutia he/she has discovered while reading the week's scripture.  Worse, there are those who would yank the rug out from under the discussion over something that has absolute nothing to do with the lesson.   

Paul said to Timothy - here are the essentials:  Jesus loves you, Jesus died for your sins, Jesus wants to have a relationship with you, and Jesus will never leave you. [2 Timothy 2:11-13]  Arguments about little details do not enhance the big picture.  Make it simple, make it plain, and back up your mouth with a life lived according to what you say you believe.  Paul advised that pious, empty words were like poison to the soul. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all people unto me."  The simplicity of the Gospel, in word and in deed, will light the way to the Kingdom of God.