Focus: Saving the Saved

Text: 1Tim.4:16

"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee."

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. The saved themselves need saving. Yes, you heard me - the saved need saving! They need saving from "the filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit." They need saving from sin-consciousness and lukewarmness.

A lot of us as saved people are very judgmental and negatively critical of others. We have this tendency of thinking that we are better, that we know better, and that we do better than others. 

We congratulate ourselves for our spiritual efforts while condemning others for not sacrificing as much as we do. 

We love that we do not indulge in overt sins, but ignore the fact that we are spiritually polluted with covert sins. 

We do our very best to abstain from the sins of the body, while we do nothing about our inward sins of envy, malice, jealousy, unforgiveness, hate, pride, etc. 

The evil we minimize in our own lives we magnify in the lives of others.

The saved need saving from self-righteousness, holier-than-thou mindset, judgmental attitudes, and hyper-spirituality.

The saved need saving from the spirit of the prodigal's elder brother, who saw himself as being a million times better than his wayward junior brother. 

We must save ourselves from ourselves and from spiritual rigidity. We need to stand in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free. Let the saved save themselves and those who hear or follow them. Let the saved know that salvation is of the Lord, not of man's.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter