@FirstChurchofJerusalem
Today's Early Church Wisdom
“I shall not hesitate also to put into ordered form for you, along with the interpretations, everything I learned carefully in the past from the elders and noted down carefully, for the truth of which I vouch. For unlike most people, I took no pleasure in those who told many different stories, but only in those who taught the truth. Nor did I take pleasure in those who reported their memory of someone else’s commandments, but only in those who reported their memory of the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and proceeding from the Truth itself. And if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders arrived, I made enquiries about the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip or Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and John the Elder, the Lord’s disciples, were saying. For I did not think that information from the books would profit me as much as information from a living and surviving voice.
~ Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60–130 AD) From the Preface to his lost ‘Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord’
This week's Psalm is Psalm 31 'My Rock, My Shield, My Song'

Recognise & Resist the Tempter

Yesterday we were reminded of Jesus’ words to Satan, as He faced him down in the Judean wilderness: “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (Matthew 4:10). The Greek text intensifies this truth of God’s absolute and exclusive claim upon the human heart. For the verb προσκυνήσεις (proskynēseis) means “to bow down in reverence and adoration,” while λατρεύσεις (latreuseis) refers to sacred service or worshipful devotion reserved for God alone. This clearly shows that Jesus rejected not only outward allegiance to Satan but every divided loyalty of soul and life. By quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, Christ answered deception with Scripture, demonstrating that victory over temptation flows from communion with God and submission to His Word rather than from human strength. There is only one foundation upon which we may eternally stand: the truth.