RW Blog

Speedy Philip - 8 March 2019

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I? unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb, before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”

And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus." Acts 8.30 - 35

The Eunich was working on his own. He had a place to go, had been to Jerusalem, and thought he could understand it on his own. Is this not similar to Adam and Eve who wanted to be like God, who when they found out they were, "naked." they attempted to make their own covers, but God said he has to make the coverings and it has to come from sacrifice.

I try to hide my failures and I try to look good before God, all on my own, but we are called to live in community. We are called to follow God together, not to forsake the gathering together, this is not merely going to church to sing a few songs, hear the pastor, drink some coffee and go home. Nor is it to get together occasionally for a dinner occasionally with others of like mind, but it is to be a community.

This community is to be together on the journey to be like Christ. This community is to study God's word together and apply it. This community is to be an agent of transformation in our lives and the world. This community is called to keep us from error and focused. Bible resources should always help to reinforce the community, but the community should never neglect the study of God's word. God's Community is to be focused on God's truth and how it applies to our word. We are not to impose our own interpretations or understanding on the Bible but to discover its message to us today. How do we keep on the narrow road? Hopefully, that community includes all the people who have journeyed it before us