2009-09-25
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We have already looked at the vertical aspect of righteousness, which involves our relationship with God-looking up. Now, we need to continue the discussion with the horizontal aspect of righteousness, which involves our relationships with other people as influenced by God-looking to one side or another. Believe it or not, the Sermon on the Mount given by the Lord Jesus all those years ago encourages us in how we should approach our relationships with others. MT 7: 12, “Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.” This is known as the Golden Rule, because of its simplicity and powerfully important message. Let’s look at a real example from pro golfing history. A British pro golfing champ, Harry Vardon [’96, ’98, ’99, ’03, ’11, and ‘14] was to play in the 1913 British Open championship with a young amateur, Francis Oimet. Oimet’s caddy was a child, Eddie Lowdon (10). Many members of the pro team were class-conscious and confident in Vardon’s game. They negatively criticized Oimet and Lowdon. With all Vardon’s past wins of the British Open, they had reason to be confident in him. However, Oimet turned out to be the only amateur in history to win the British Open by one stroke. Vardon was a gracious loser. Oimet quietly and with dignity fended his critics off. Lowdon and Oimet were to become life-long friends, and little Eddie grew up to be a millionaire.
The Golden Rule has another name, the “Law of the Prophets.” When we jump to conclusions about people and openly criticize them, we are not bringing good attention to ourselves. It’s essential that we learn to live righteously and treat others with the kind of kindness the Lord Jesus demonstrated. We are told by God in both the OT and NT to “Be holy, because I am holy” [LV 1: 44-45; LV 19: 2, and 1 PET 1: 16]. At the root of sin is self-centeredness. A man living apart from the Spirit cannot please God. HE 11: 6, “No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek Him.” I have seen this happen with my own eyes. I know a lady who is very elderly and who has less than a year to live, after having been diagnosed with cancer. All her life, she has been very self-centered. She never gave of herself in the course of potential friendships. She expected everyone to cater to her every whim, and when she didn’t get her way, she had tantrums. Now, she is alone, except for the care-takers in her assisted-living senior facility. Her attitude toward them is distrusting, and she views them as intruders in her life. And yet, these people are helping to keep her going. There are no friends in her life, except a boy friend, from whom she gets one-sided companionship. Another person close to me commented, “she will be forgotten after she dies.” All of this breaks my heart, because I have no power to change it without the help of the Holy Spirit. And it is His choice as to whether or not He comes into her life at the eleventh hour. All I can do is to pray, and I do.
When we read the Ten Commandments [EX 20: 1-17], we can note that the first five deal with our “vertical” relationship with God (1-11). “I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. Worship no god but Me. Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord Your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate Me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show My love to thousands of generations of those who love Me and obey My laws. Do not use my name for evil purposes, because I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses My name. Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to Me. On that day no one is to work-neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.” However the last five commandments deal with our horizontal relationships with others (12-17). “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you. Do not commit murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not covet [desire another man’s house, or wife, or slaves, or cattle, or donkeys, or anything else that he owns.” How more clear can that be?
Interestingly enough, we can see the same pattern in Christ’s presentation of the Beatitudes. MT 5: 3-6 deal with our vertical relationship with God. “Blessed are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Blessed are those who mourn: God will comfort them! Blessed are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised! Blessed are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!” MT 5: 7-12 deal with our horizontal relationship with others. “Blessed are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them! Blessed are those who are pure in heart; they will see God. Blessed are those who work for peace; God will call them His children! Blessed are those Blessed are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are My followers. Be happy and glad for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.” Books have been written about the huge impact of each of these Commandments and Beatitudes. That might the subject of future devotions series. But for now, we can see that nothing is accidental in the way the Bible is written. Our God is wholly consistent and righteous.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have made it so very clear to us how we are to be in relationship with You and how we should be in relationships with other human beings. That is why it is such a paradox that we can know these things, but have such faulty ways of applying this knowledge. It is the destructive force of our natural selves that allows the adversary to creep into our relationships [GA 5: 16-17]. Sometimes, if we allow it, he destroys them with his carefully constructed strongholds on people’s lives. But because of the sacrifice of Christ’s physical life on the cross [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25], we are given the opportunity and the power to fend off the devil [EPH 1: 18-20; EPH 6: 10-18], preventing him from his destructive ways. We must have an active prayer life [MT 6: 6; PS 66: 19], study the Scriptures [2 TIM 3: 16-17], and believe that we have this power to vanquish the evil one in Christ’s holy name [EPH 1: 19-20]. Dearest Abba, I claim PS 145: 16-18 in the mighty and holy name of Jesus Christ. “You give them enough and satisfy the needs of all. The Lord is righteous in all He does, merciful in all His acts. He is near to those who call to Him, who call to Him with sincerity.” We thank and praise You in His name. Amen.
Next week, we will continue this examination of the horizontal aspects of righteousness in looking at the truth of being, rather than just doing. In the meanwhile, we need to examine the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes to see how they apply to our lives. They are great templates for us to comparison to our own thoughts and behaviors. They give us a measuring stick, one that will help us to expunge old, well-worn sins that we might still be committing. Some of those sins may be subtle; others may be blatant. Many of are convinced that we know the Ten Commandments by heart and the same with the Beatitudes. Such may not really be the case, and this is our opportunity to commit them to memory. Our senior pastor threw down the gauntlet to the congregation one summer, challenging us to memorize 100 verses [or passages] in 100 days. I was already in my sixties when I couldn’t resist taking up this challenge. Many older people claim they can no longer memorize things or even remember them. It’s like anything else, if we exercise the mind as we can exercise the body, most of us can actually achieve the goal of bringing them to better functioning. And yes, there were 235 of us [including myself] who met the pastor’s challenge successfully. We had a party afterward in which the pastor had devised a game to test our knowledge. That’s how I know that we met the challenge. You can too! I know this, because our God wants this and will make it possible for us. MK 10: 27, “Jesus looked straight at them [His disciples] and answered, ‘This is impossible for man but not for God; everything is possible for God.’” And, I must end with PHIL 4: 13, “I can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens me.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn