Keep you from falling….
John 16:1:"I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”
Jesus is aware that you would be blitzed with temptations all day! He knows the avalanche of worldly things that would throttle and choke you! When I asked a mother of a young man, why she did not ask for a receipt when she paid ‘money’ for the Engineering college admission, she said, ‘everybody is paying that way.’ This is what you call as deception of the enemy! Everybody may pay and live the wrong way, but we are commanded to go the ‘Jesus way!’ Proverbs 2:20 ’So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.’ Are you listening?
When I asked a young Christian girl, who was also involved in serving the Lord in a small way in her church, ‘why is she dating a man of hindu faith’, she replied, ‘I will change him.’ Eventually, he changed her and she got married to him and now lives a dual life going to the temple and the church. This is what I call as compromising with the world! Yoking with idol worshippers is an abomination for the Lord and He said:
• 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
• 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
• 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
• 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
• 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."
Warnings are plentiful in the Bible! Observe the words, ‘I have said these things to you’! Repeatedly we see this phrase in the Bible:
John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
John 16:33” I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."
Jesus keeps telling/warning us the things that would happen to drag us away from faith and Jesus! It may be in the form of a beautiful girl, handsome boy, trendy electronic item, foreign assignment and much more…..The enemy’s stratagem is to take you away from a good Christian fellowship, good church, good internet fellowship, strong preaching so that you may fall from your faith; however, our Dad Jesus keeps talking and warning, so that you hold on to Him and His Word!
