<\/p>\n\n\n\n
August 22, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by Rick Combs<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the next 2 or 3 articles, I am going to discuss each of Paul\u2019s important phrase, \u201caccording to\u201d. To begin this topic, here is a reprint of my article from July 5th<\/sup> 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early 1980\u2019s while pastoring in a small community just west of Vinita, I had the privilege of traveling with a good friend who was the pilot for Pastor Bob Yandian. He was the Senior Pastor of Grace Fellowship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The plane was a single engine Cessna. On one of our many trips, we were flying to Oklahoma City to pick up an evangelist holding a revival meeting and take him home to Tulsa. I know\u2026 a one-and-a-half-hour drive requires that he be picked up and flown home. Tell that to Jesus and the twelve in ancient Israel who had to walk. But I digress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the flight, I inquired as to what other types of aircraft he flew. He mentioned that he was certified for this current plane as well as another twin-engine plane. He then proceeded to tell me that he was in the process of obtaining his certification for a Beechcraft 400 jet plane. In my ignorance I quipped, \u201cyou mean that you can\u2019t fly any plane you want?\u201d He replied, \u201cNo! you have to learn to fly each particular plane according to<\/strong> the specifications and procedures of that aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought, \u201chow interesting that each aircraft type has specific requirements and procedures, and you have to fly them according to<\/strong> those procedures.\u201d You can\u2019t just jump in any plane and fly it without putting yourself and your passengers in great peril. Amazing what you can learn from your friend who is a pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Case in point; I cannot drive a 1955 Chevy the same way I drive my new 2020 Toyota Highlander (yes, I love it by the way). Although I could get down the road, I would be using a tenth of the Highlander capabilities if I didn\u2019t drive it according to <\/strong>its\u2019 current procedures and function. Example: the ignition key function to start the car is completely different. If I try jamming a key in somewhere, I\u2019m guaranteed problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what does all this have to do with following Jesus. EVERYTHING! We don\u2019t \u201cfollow Jesus\u201d any old way. We follow Him \u201caccording to\u201d<\/strong> something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Romans 16:25-26 says; \u201c25<\/strong> Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to<\/strong> my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to<\/strong> the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, <\/em>26<\/strong> But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to<\/strong> the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The phrase \u201caccording to\u201d is used three times in these two verses. This indicates a specific gospel which establishes us\u2026 the preaching of Jesus Christ that is specific to the \u201crevelation of the mystery\u201d<\/em>. This mystery was \u201ckept secret since the world began\u201d<\/em>, \u201cbut now is made manifest\u201d<\/em> or revealed through the scriptures of the New Testament prophets and is \u201daccording to\u201d the commandment of God. This is the command which God expects us to follow today \u201cfor the obedience of faith\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you want to obey God in His commandment? Then follow Paul\u2019s gospel and his preaching of Jesus Christ according to the mystery that is now revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ephesians 3:3-5 3<\/strong> \u201cHow that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4<\/strong> Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5<\/strong> Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This verse basically says the same thing as Romans 16:25-26. By revelation God made known unto the Apostle Paul the mystery that was not made know in other ages but is now revealed by the Spirit. It was then proclaimed and taught by apostles and prophets in the early churches that Paul established. This mystery was not known by Peter, James, or John\u2026 not known by the Old Testament prophets\u2026 Moses or Abraham. This new revelation was given specifically to Paul so that we may follow the Lord in this way. It is our pattern and example today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Corinthians 11:1 \u201c<\/em>Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Philippians 3:17 \u201c<\/em>Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you want to be a follower of Jesus? Then do it according to the revelation of the mystery as outlined in detail in Paul\u2019s epistles. Follow his example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will begin going through the many \u201caccording to\u201d passages of Paul\u2019s epistles next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grace and peace unto you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" August 22, 2023 by Rick Combs For the next 2 or 3 articles, I am going to discuss each of Paul\u2019s important phrase, \u201caccording to\u201d. To begin this topic, here is a reprint of my article from July 5th 2021. In the early 1980\u2019s while pastoring in a small community just west of Vinita, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-right-division"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1",960,960,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?fit=768%2C768&ssl=1",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1",960,960,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1",960,960,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1",960,960,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Rickcombs","author_link":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"August 22, 2023 by Rick Combs For the next 2 or 3 articles, I am going to discuss each of Paul\u2019s important phrase, \u201caccording to\u201d. To begin this topic, here is a reprint of my article from July 5th 2021. In the early 1980\u2019s while pastoring in a small community just west of Vinita, I…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/My-gospel.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2626,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions\/2626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalchristianity101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}