What is Daily Devotion All About?

This is Daily Devotion. It comprises of Bible reading, a little explanation on the reading, a prayer to checkmate our life and attitude and the prayer afterward. This daily devotion needs to be done early in the morning and the lesson to be learned throughout the day and beyond for our life. So that we will always continue in the fear of the Lord.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022

TEXT: Philippians 3:1-11

1. Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.

2. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!

3. For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh-

4. even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:

5. circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

6. as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

7. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.

8. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

9. and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

10. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

11. if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

(New Revised Standard Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: DON’T TRUST YOUR GOOD WORKS

In today’s verses, Paul engages with a special group he calls “those dogs, those evil doers, those mutilators of the flesh” (v. 2). His response in verses 3-6 indicates he was talking to Jews who pride themselves as the “custodians” of eternal life and so reserve the right to dictate how anyone could be saved.

They depended too much on works and were referred to as “members of the circumcision club” who insisted that salvation could not be gotten outside keeping the law, especially circumcision! Their target must have been the Gentile believers.

Today, the church is replete with these types of “self-righteous” believers who feel that other believers must subscribe to their self-made doctrines in order to qualify for salvation and blessings from God.

Others feel that they can earn their salvation and so place full confidence in what they can do in the flesh. Paul thought so until he met Jesus. Then he discovered that all his good works amounted to zero without faith in Jesus Christ.

QUESTION: Do you still feel that it is your good works that will earn you the acceptance of God?

PRAYER: Thank You, Jesus, for the salvation You brought which is not based on good works but by grace on good works but by grace though faith, Amen.