Romans 2:21-23:
21 Thou therefore which teachest another,
teachest thou not thyself?
thou that preachest a man should not steal,
dost thou steal?
22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit
adultery, dost thou commit
adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost
thou commit sacrilege?
23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law,
through breaking the law
dishonourest thou God?
One Moral of this passage: Practice what
you preach.
What if you tell a friend not to steal
something from a store and are
in jail a week later for stealing a golf
club? What kind of testimony
would that be to them? We need to follow
through on obeying what we
already know from Scriptures and take
responsibility in learning new
lessons in life through the Bible.
You may then ask the question: since Paul
wrote the epistle Romans to
the Christians in Rome, did he practice
what he preached?
Let's look at one big category Paul talked
about: Prayer.
Just a few examples of Paul Praying:
What Paul wrote/preached to the church
of the Thessalonians (while he
was in Athens):
"Pray without ceasing" - 1
Thessalonians 5:17
What Paul did:
"For God is my witness, whom
I serve with my spirit in the gospel of
his Son, that without ceasing I make mention
of you always in my
prayers;" - Romans 1:9
"Wherefore I also, after I
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, Cease not to
give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers;" - Ephesians
1:15-16
"I thank my God upon every
remembrance of you, Always in every
prayer of mine for you all making request
with joy," - Philippians 1:3-4
So Paul had a major weapon against the
devil, and that was Prayer. He
sharpened up his knees and kneed some
damage in Jesus' Name to the
devil's kingdom. We should, too!
Praying without ceasing means be in persistent
prayer, not just once a
week or month or year, but be in a state
of prayer all the time. If you
stay pent up in a closet all day (unless
God really told you to) and
don't come out, you are not witnessing
and sharing Your Faith to others.
I think that there is a definite balance,
and notice that Jesus didn't
sit in the temple all day and pray. He
taught in the temple, preached
on the mount, healed others, "did His
Thing" - and that was a God Thing,
too!
Prayer is a powerful gift from God, though.
He who guards you will
never slumber nor sleep, and you can be
sure because God's Word is
infallible and Psalm 121 is the
chapter reference :). We will discuss
later on how Paul asked for prayer, too.
He wasn't 'above' prayer, but
relied on it instead. Interesting.....