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Sound Teaching

             What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. (II Timothy 1:13-14)

I suspect that most of us have things we add to, or subtract from, Scripture. We might not realize it, but they’re probably there. This is the starting point from which Dallas Willard describes the reformation of the soul. We need to examine ourselves in comparison to what Scripture teaches, and where we don’t match it, we need to pray about changing our minds.

 The professor suggests that—especially for those who grew up with less-than-ideal parents—this should begin with the idea that God loves us. God loves YOU, and He loves me. This needs to go beyond the “God doesn’t have a choice; it’s part of His character!” (Or His job description.)” It must also go beyond the so-called love that rubber stamps our  every whim and deed. His loving us doesn’t make us His gods.

And where we must look to discover that love is not in our lives. That leads us to “God loves me!” when He does what we want, and “God loves me not” when He does what we don’t want. We need to discover what the evidence of God’s love looks like in Scripture first and foremost and in the lives of other Christians after that. And once we find it, we must hold onto it - to keep it as our pattern of sound teaching and respond to it. Then, we should prayerfully examine other areas in our lives and work on where our ideas disagree with Scripture. 

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