Guarding The Truth

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

GUARDING THE TRUTH

Acts 20:25-31

 25 "Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men.   27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

 NIV

Having considered the first part about proclaiming and being innocent of the blood of all men, we now must deal with what Paul says strictly to the overseers. Our first responsibility is to keep watch over ourselves. Then, secondly, it is to keep watch, over the flock of which God has made us overseers. There are two parts to that statement. The first is that we must keep watch over the flock of God, the people of God, the local church of whom the Lord has called and made us to be its overseer.  This can only mean that we cannot make ourselves the overseers of the local church, that we can only become an overseer, a shepherd of the flock by the calling and making of God. This then is the command of God that because he has made us to be shepherds of the flock we must therefore serve as the shepherds, the pastors of the local church. This also gives us the insight to see those who only serve themselves by deceiving believers, so as to build a large following to support their lavish lifestyle as nothing more than savage wolves that do not spare the flock. The truth about these savage wolves is that they were once Godly men, who betrayed the truth they once knew for the love of money, or to build themselves up or they might have been deceived by Satan who is the enemy of our souls. Either way, we must be on guard against them, as well as guard ourselves and the flock God has made us overseers of from that same deception. There will always be those who will twist the truth just enough so that it appears as the truth, but it is nothing more than lies. Let us always be on guard against such lies, and always be faithful to the truth, always guarding the truth.