To help us understand today’s study, the entire chapter of 1 Timothy 3 should be read for context. But in 1 Timothy 3:16. we’re going to zoom in on the phrase, “the mystery of godliness” and understand what it means. We often think of godliness as a character trait, a state of being godly, but here, this definition doesn’t seem to make sense. We tend to think of godliness in the realm of pastoral care and career guidance, a form of character development.
But, what is the role of pursuing godliness in your life? What does your pursuit of godliness look like? What’s the connection between your behaviour and belief?
In this series, we have been looking at creeds, key truths that make up our faith, and the passages that support them. We have seen that creeds benefit us because they give us clarity about our faith and allow us to understand the foundations of what we believe. Today, we are looking at Christ’s humiliation and exaltation. The truths which we uncover today will challenge us, encourage us and cause us to worship too.
Creeds are defining statements that express core Christian truths and this has been our focus in this series. Important to be clear about doctrine. Doctrine doesn’t divide, and we know that some of us have experienced church splits over doctrine. But tonight, let us consider how doctrine is essential for unity.
In this passage, Paul writes to the church in Colossae. He did not plant this church, and this letter is a way of him encouraging the church that faces some doctrinal attacks. The focus of this passage is who Christ is, and, there is also no more important thing than the person of Christ!
This is our series called “Truth for trusting” or “Creeds”. We’ll take a look at passages in the New Testament that are an expression of our faith, almost like formulas, which are always handy because formulas express profound truths in a compact, simple, easy way.
This week we are in 1 Corinthians 15, a well-known passage. We’ll look at the first five verses, and we’ll see another formula, especially in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
What is the greatest commandment? How would you answer this? Many of us begin by reaching for memory, trying to recall what we’ve been taught. Then we begin to reason to make sense of what we remember.
In this series, we’re going to look at a number of creeds in the New Testament. A creed is a basic faith structure that we’ve learnt from memory.
