SYSTEM UPDATE 1.0

Monday 21 April

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:17

There are three Greek words for perfect; telos, teleios and artios. All have different meanings. Telos means an end, fulfilment, completion, goal or aim. Teleios is completeness, maturity and wholeness. In our opening scripture however, Apostle Paul uses artios. Interestingly, this is the only usage of this particular word in the entirety of the epistles. Apsogos in Greek means to be flawless. If we’re being honest, this is what most people think about when they hear the word perfect. So what does Artios refer to?

Have you ever had a notification on your device to update your settings? How about hitting the refresh button on your computer or simply scrolling to the top of your phone to get the current feed? This analogy is an apt description of the word artios which means to be updated or refreshed. It’s time for a system update.

The question then becomes; updated and refreshed in what? The previous verse 2 Timothy 3:16 gives us the answer.

‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’

So scripture is classified as Genesis to Malachi. The gospels were the amending of certain scriptures by Jesus Himself, and the epistles from Romans to Jude are the revelation of scripture. Another way to say it is the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. What about the book of Acts? Acts is not a doctrinal book for the most part. Revelation is largely the same as it is predominantly based on visions given to Apostle John by angels. Don’t believe me? Good. Look into it for yourself.

Paul wrote the epistles to the early churches but when he was present with them he taught the New Testament truths from the Old Testament scriptures or from what Jesus said. Why? Because we are told there were no Matthew, Mark, Luke and John written at the time. Paul’s epistles actually predated the gospels.

Now we understand why in the epistles Paul is writing to Timothy to tell him to be updated and refreshed in the scriptures. The next question is how? The same way the Bereans did,

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

(Acts 17:11). Notice this was more observation than revelation. Coupled with this of course is the Spirit of God breathing new life into the scriptures and revealing New Testament truths concealed within the scriptures or Old Testament.

Coming back to the system update scenario, think about what happens when you complete the download of your updated information. You have all the knowledge you require to be able to operate at the highest possible capacity.

The same thing occurs when you take time to study and meditate on the Word of God. As revelation comes to your spirit you are refreshed and updated to function at an efficiency that was not possible before you received that wisdom which is the understanding and application of knowledge.

It is critical as a believer that you are given the ‘rightly divided word of truth’ which comes through ‘spoudazo’ which means in essence ‘diligence.’ If a minister is giving you their opinion or experiences rather than the accurate word of His grace, you are being shortchanged. Unfortunately will not be an environment conducive to being up to date or refreshed.

The good news is you can update and refresh your thinking by updating and refreshing your knowledge in the Word. This is not a Sunday only deal; it’s an everyday thing. Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:17 was speaking to all of us by the Spirit and the Spirit has given us all clear instruction on what God’s desire is for all of us. Let’s all continue to be updated and refreshed in the word of His grace.

APPLICATION

Make a decision to not be running on old system updates spiritually and recognise the Holy Spirit’s role to guide you into all truth through the scriptures and the revelation of the scriptures.