by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
Paul had a three-part mission for his work as a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. He did that work so God’s elect would grow in faith, in knowledge of the truth, and in hope of eternal life. What a great rubric for our work as teachers in Christ’s kingdom today. What a great rubric for our relationships with one another in Christ today.<\/p>\n
May we help each other increase in faith. May we help deepen conviction in each other. May we help grow allegiance to Christ in each other. May we encourage one another to overcome doubt and fear-not ignoring doubts and fears, but addressing them and growing past them.<\/p>\n
May we help each other grow in knowledge of the truth. Truth will set us free. Truth accords with godliness and, recall from I Timothy, godliness provides benefit in this life and in the next. Godliness deepens our relationship with God Himself. May our relationships with one another deepen our relationship with God.<\/p>\n
May we help each other keep our hope in eternal life. Hope shift is so easy. Our hope can shift to education, to money, to family, to fame, to popularity, to health, to wealth. It can shift to so many things. But the real hope is eternal life, which God promised.<\/p>\n
May our faith in God and His promise grow as we learn the truth more deeply from one another so that our hope increasingly anchors in eternity instead of this life.<\/p>\n
Do your relationships help you with these things? Do you help others with these things in your relationships?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Edwin Crozier Paul had a three-part mission for his work as a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. He did that work so God’s elect would grow in faith, in knowledge of the truth, and in hope of eternal life. What a great rubric for our work as teachers in Christ’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,383,502,1093],"class_list":["post-96808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith","tag-growth","tag-hope","tag-knowledge"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55511,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-christians-growth-in-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":96808,"position":0},"title":"The Christian’s Growth in the Lord","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richard Thetford Once an individual puts on Christ in baptism, they should be determined to please God in all aspects of their life. But before one can begin to grow, one must first possess an attitude that says; \"I want to grow as a Christian in order to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/quietMoment.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":93642,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/prayer-for-our-nation\/","url_meta":{"origin":96808,"position":1},"title":"Prayer for Our Nation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68065,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-not-give-us-an-equal-amount-of-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":96808,"position":2},"title":"Does God not give us an equal amount of faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thanks for the excellent website. I hope and pray that it will continue for many years to come. My question is regarding: \"For by the grace given to me I bid every one among of not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80130,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-sort-of-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":96808,"position":3},"title":"What Sort of People? (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer At the end of Peter's second epistle, he writes that the Lord is returning in judgment (II Peter 3). While many mocked this as they followed their own sinful desires, they overlooked the fact that God always keeps His word and has judged the world before in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18734,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-partakers-of-the-divine-nature\/","url_meta":{"origin":96808,"position":4},"title":"What does it mean to be partakers of the divine nature?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What does it mean to be partakers of the divine nature in II Peter 1:4-11? Answer: \"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83126,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/working-together\/","url_meta":{"origin":96808,"position":5},"title":"Working Together","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer The people of God are characterized by work. This is not a drudgery but a blessing demonstrating God's fellowship with His people and His people with one another. Salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), yet God's grace teaches us to \"renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Men-Working-300x200.avif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}