Excellence

Nick Saban, the football coach at the University of Alabama, has coached two American college football teams (Alabama and the Louisiana State University) to national championships and is currently one win away from another national championship game.  Speaking about the fact that many of his former players have gone on to professional football careers and that many of his current players probably will do so, he gave his players this advice: “Don’t save yourself for something that won’t happen if you don’t spend yourself now.” This is very good advice.

Very good advice indeed. It can be applied to any endeavor. Never accept mediocrity when you can display excellence by the full application of your abilities.

Jesus said this exact thing in Revelation 3:16.  “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

This is not expecting excellence. It is demanding excellence. It is disgust with half-hearted, nominal Christianity. Jesus is worthy and deserves our best.

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Paul's Letter to the Laodiceans

Paul's letter to the Laodiceans is obviously a lost letter.

"And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." Colossians 4:16


There have been numerous guesses (and that is all that they are) as to the identity of this letter.

It is a totally lost letter.

It is the book known as 1 Timothy.

http://www.godshew.org/PaulsEpistles.html 

It is the book known as Philemon   

http://columbusbiblechurch.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:colossiand-416&catid=37:articles&Itemid=59 

http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVanswers/2003/2003-10-29.htm 

It is the book known as Ephesians

http://www.lookinguntojesus.net/20100808.htm 

http://www.onenesspentecostal.com/colossians.htm 

Some consider the sixth century letter mentioned on this web page to be the Letter to the Laodiceans, others insist that it is totally spurious.  No copy of this letter can be proven to have existed before 546 AD/CE, much later than any other biblical book.

http://reluctant-messenger.com/epistle-laodiceans.htm 

A Mormon perspective saying that the mention of this letter proves that the canon of Scripture is not closed.  The majority of Christians reject this as heretical.

http://www.gospeldoctrine.com/NewTestament/Colossians4.htm 

Christian Heresies: Apollinarianism

Apollinaris of Laodicea (aka: Apollinaris the Younger, d. 390) was the Bishop of Laodicea (in modern Syria) and an ardent anti-Arian.  In his attacks on Arius' teachings he went completely in the other direction, stressing the divinity of Jesus to the exclusion of His humanity.  He taught that Jesus did not have a human soul but was instead a body inhabited by the pre-existent Logos (Greek = "Word"); in effect, this rendered Jesus neither fully human nor fully divine.  The teachings of Apollinaris were condemned by the Council of Constantinople in 381.   Some say that Apollinarianism survives as Monophysitism.