Waters of Life

Biblical Studies in Multiple Languages

Search in "English":
Home -- English -- Mark - 025 (Spiritual Growth and Fading Away)
This page in: -- Arabic -- ENGLISH -- Indonesian -- Tamil -- Turkish

Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson

Mark - Who is Christ?
A Bible Study Course on the Gospel of Christ according to MARK
PART 4 - Jesus' Great Miracles in Galilee and its Surroundings (Mark 3:7 - 8:26)
5. Jesus Preaches on a Boat the Multitudes Who Sat by the Seaside (Mark 4:1-34)

b) The Rule of Spiritual Growth and Fading Away (Mark 4:10-12)


MARK 4:10-12
10 When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, 12 that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’”

Christ’s disciples heard his word, but they did not understand it completely. This is the case with us, for we are not god in nature. We cannot know or examine the word of God with our human minds. Our human mind is limited. It has become rather difficult to hear the voice and message of the Holy Spirit.

However, the disciples were wise, having admitted their ignorance and incomplete knowledge, they came to Jesus, the source of wisdom, asking him the meaning, power, and the design of his word.

Come to Christ in your secret prayers, and ask him about the meaning of his words. Do not read the gospel, as if by your own means you were able to study the person of God, but pray humbly that he may enlighten you, and clarify his will to you. Keep his word within yourself that it may bear much fruit.

Jesus said to his inquiring disciples: “You have the right and ability to hear the mystery of the kingdom of God, for you live near to the Son of God. His love, purity, power, and authority explain the word of God to you deeply and clearly. Those who come near Christ and stay with him become enlightened and worthy of seeing the glory of God. They show that they know God, that they have received the Spirit of God, and that the divine image is stamped upon their souls.

But he who does not trust or love Jesus, refuses God himself, and becomes hardened. This man who had already been outside the kingdom of Christ, and came near to him, without entrusting himself, in fact, to Christ, but remained far away, will gradually fade away and lose the possibility of repentance. In the end, he will not be able to enter the kingdom of his Lord. Such people hear the word of the gospel in their own language. It rings in their ears as a strange code, but they do not understand it, nor does the spirit of the gospel enter into their minds.

Though Jesus spoke to them with parables, and produced the truth before their eyes, they did not want to be converted, but loved themselves, hated God, and did not ask forgiveness.

There is a sad fact of spiritual life. Whoever accepts the divine life, and holds fast to Christ, grows and receives in his self-denial, more blessing, services, and knowledge in the kingdom of God. But whoever closes his heart against the powerful word of God, and neglects it, loses the remaining vitality of his conscience. He strangles his conscience, and becomes spiritually dead. So, examine yourself. Are you spiritually growing or withering?

PRAYER: O merciful Lord, the God of all wisdom, we confess before you our foolishness, superficiality in knowledge, and incomplete repentance. Open our hearts, our minds, and the ears of our hearts to your word, and help us to recognize the ways of your love. Give us power to obey the faith at all times. We thank you for your fatherly forgiveness, and for your warning words to us. Do not leave us, but save us in the end. Amen.

QUESTION:

  1. What is the rule of spiritual growth and decline?

www.Waters-of-Life.net

Page last modified on August 14, 2021, at 07:28 AM | powered by PmWiki (pmwiki-2.3.3)