2009-01-02
Good Morning Dear Ones,
While appropriate judgments must be made, our Lord Jesus, in JN 13: 34-35 gave us the bottom line with regard to His will for us. “And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are My disciples.” Since this entire series has been about the Sermon on the Mount, we have other words to test this against, which will show us the continuity of Christ’s teaching in that message. MT 7: 2, “For God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and He will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.” In another part of that same Sermon on the Mount, MT 5: 44-45a, we see still another application of the same principle. “But I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the sons of your Father in heaven.” It is times like these when we have already studied precepts one at a time and can then hold them up to each other, that the exciting discovery of the consistency of God’s word can really be seen.
In a segment on duties toward one another, Paul, in RO 13: 8-10, brings our focus to the same point once again. “Be under obligation to no one-the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else’ –all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ If you love someone, you will never do him wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.” The words of Paul that follow in RO 13: 11 give further motivation to obey with love for others. “You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed.” What is meant here with the words “wake up from your sleep” is the time when we became spiritually alert and morally pure. We must realize that the age of grace is drawing to a close. The lateness of the hour demands that all lethargy and inactivity must be put away in favor of living “in Christ” and witnessing to others who might potentially do so.
The way to know if judgments being made are righteous or unrighteous is given to us in MT 7: 2. I have stood back from using the word “fear” and have often replaced it with “have reverence for” the Lord. My reason was so that it would never be confused with the other meaning, “fright”-the condition of being so scared that one backs away from, or is intimidated by something, enough to take negative action. This is an excellent example of why keeping things in context when working to understand the Scriptures is so important. Having said all of this, we come to a place where saying, we must “fear the Lord” is actually true in both senses of the word. My point here is that we must have reverence for the Lord and also fear the consequences of not loving our neighbor as ourselves. While we can’t always interpret the Scriptures in the reward/punishment mode, there are certainly times when we must be reminded that God alone has the power to punish unfaithfulness as no other entity. Never has this been more clear to me than in this recent election. Truthfully, I’ve been angry about it, and not because my favorite candidate was going to win or not. It has to do with the cruel nature of the attack ads and the horrifically large amount of money spent on them-money that could be put to better use helping this country with its problems. I raised this issue with someone I know well. His comment was, “It’s done because they work.” I beg to differ. I’ll put myself on the line here by saying that they encourage cynicism and feelings of hopelessness regarding the election process. This is using our right to make appropriate judgments and express freedom of the press to the point of abuse! We can’t go on like this, not appreciating the freedoms so many have died for us to have, using them this way.
I am not saying that there should be no debate between candidates or exchange of ideas in the course of making a decision, particularly one as important as which group of people will be this county’s leaders. We must decide between people who will themselves distribute our country’s wealth and those who give the people the power to do this. There are countries like Iraq under Saddam Hussein which had their wealth taken by their ruler, so that the only distribution of it was to his friends. We must pray that nothing like this ever happens in our country. RO 13: 1 is always true, “Everyone must obey state authorities, because no authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God.” He has larger reasons for allowing the “bad guys” to sometimes rule, ones that we are not allowed to know until whatever lesson he has for us has been learned. In other words, we can have 20/20 hindsight, but not the same foresight. And yet, God is giving us the opportunity to make our own judgments as to who is best to lead our country, and we must never forget Christ’s teaching, “love your neighbor as yourself. Love one another, as I love you.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before You with outright fear, both reverence and recognition of Your ultimate power and ultimate justice in using it. We are not afraid of You unless we have wronged You in heinous fashion. We know You are a forgiving God, Who gives us joy when our rebellion is forgiven [PS 32: 1]. The judgments You allow us to make are given to us to allow us to learn the full impact of Your teaching for us to show the love of Christ. We know that when a precept is important to You, You repeat it many times in the Scriptures. Two examples of this are “love your neighbor as yourself,” [LV 19: 18, MT 5: 44-45a; MT 22: 39; LK 10: 27b; JN 13: 34] and “Be holy because I am holy” [LV 11: 44-45; LV 19: 2; 1 PET 1: 16]. We take notice that the consistency of this teaching is in both the OT and the NT. It can be said to be a foundation for our beliefs. It also demonstrates that we must take the way of the Spirit, instead of the way of the flesh. The difference between these two opposites is defined in GA 5: 16-17 and its continuing impact on our lives is described by Paul in RO 7: 14-25-the conflict in man. Dearest Abba, we have such a vivid picture, given to us of love and Your will for us to love, given to us in 1 COR 13: 4-8a, 13. “Love is patient and kind; it is not zealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patience never fail. Love is eternal…Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.” What precious words and salient lessons You have for us. You have given us minds and hearts that can make apt judgments and can know when to leave a particular judgment up to You. We thank and praise You for these gifts and urge You to help us use them in a way which pleases You. These things we pray, in the holy and mighty name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Next week, we continue to ask ourselves the question: Am I teachable? We do this in examining the basis of the judgments we are making. This will expose problems we may have in making judgments. A hard, but cleansing look at our own lives is what God really wants us to take. This is not to engender guilt, but instead, to work with Him in our sanctification. He wants to gradually make us perfect enough to enter heaven. What He wants is in our best eternal interests. And He reminds us, in 2 COR 4: 18 to keep our thinking in His perspective. “For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.” We can be deeply encouraged by the words of 1 PET 1: 4, 6, “For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for His children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay…So, be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even through it is necessary for you to endure many trials for awhile.” Is it any wonder that our Lord is working so hard to see to it that we are purified and perfected enough to enter heaven? He wants us at His side for eternity, because that is His blessing for us and His pleasure [EPH 1: 4-5]. He has given His Son, Jesus Christ, the responsibility of opening the way by commanding Him to go to the cross for us [JN 3: 16], and Christ obeyed [HE 10: 10]. He has given Christ that mission to be our Redeemer [JN 6: 39-40]. How utterly blessed we are, because of Him! Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn