Held Captive

Isaiah 5:13" Therefore my people are gone into captivity,because they have no knowledge:and their honorable men are famished,and their multitude dried up with thirst".

Many people have no knowledge of what it takes to walk with the Lord in perfect peace. This lack of knowledge tends to cause many to be held captive in the lies of the evil one.See we walk by the faith of God's word and not by the sight of the things which the world trys to show us. But because of a lack of knowledge of God's word many don’t have the faith described in the Bible,and they are held captive in a wilderness of unbelief,trapped in the bondage of lies and thus they do not believe or practice what Jesus said.Most people can’t even name the Ten Commandments. Some assume Jesus lived the Commandments for us so we wouldn’t  have to. Others believe what we do doesn’t matter that much as long as we have feelings of love toward every one. Many people cling to misconceptions about Jesus’ message, the gospel. Our Savior, who came preaching “the gospel of the kingdom of God,”instructs us to “repent,and believe the gospel”. Yet many have never understood the true gospel Jesus taught. A flawed understanding produces a faulty faith. Since faith involves diligently seeking God (Heb.1:6), we must base our faith on a correct understanding of God’s Word.

Simply saying“Ibelieve”without making life altering changes is not sufficient.Acknowledging God’s existence does not magically produce a right relationship with Him. As already noted, Jesus commands us to repent. Repentance doesn’t just happen.It requires effort and commitment. Living faith must be nurtured and spiritually fed and built. Jesus cautions us against the danger of false faith,faith that is immature and incomplete:“Not everyone who says to Me,‘Lord,Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,but he who does the will of My Father in heaven”.But what about Paul’s statement,“For by grace you have been saved through faith,and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God”? Did Paul preach a faith that did not involve a need for obedience? Not at all. This passage shows us that God’s grace,His undeserved favor toward us,is a gift. It is simply wrong to assume that, since grace is a gift, no actions or good works demonstrating a repentant heart and faith in action are needed (James 2:14-26).

We must have living faith,not an empty,inactive faith.Our salvations comes from God's grace and faith in our lives .The Bible tells us salvation is by God’s grace and is not earned by good works “lest any man should boast”(Eph.2:9) But we are saved by grace through faith.The danger we face is that our faith will die if we neglect our salvation by not living a life of obedience to God.That is why the apostle Paul wrote,“I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest,when I have preached to others,I myself should become disqualified”.Of themselves,works will not earn us salvation. But the book of James makes it clear that faith, without works, is dead, utterly useless (James2:17,20,26);Let us take the time to learn the word ,will and way of the Lord and free ourselves from the captivity of the evil one.