2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
This morning, I am directed to write about the reward for keeping one’s commitment to a covenant relationship with God and the judgment that comes for not doing so. It is a fact that enemies of Christ will eventually suffer negative judgment at the time of His second coming, if they persist in remaining His enemies. Of course, the way to avoid this is to accept Christ as one’s personal Savior and to obey God’s commands. This concept is supported in 2 THESS 1: 3-10 in which Paul begins by acknowledging that faith and love for others is growing in Thessalonica. He also acknowledges that this church is suffering and persecuted, so that is why it is okay to boast in other churches about the way their faith is enduring in the face of this (1-4). Remember that boasting about oneself or human accomplishments is a breach of humility, but boasting about the things of God isn’t [1 COR 1: 31]. Now, savor the words of 2 THESS 1: 5-10, “All of this proves that God’s judgment is just and as a result you will become worthy of His Kingdom for which you are suffering. God will do what is right: He will bring suffering on those who make you suffer, and He will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with His mighty angels, with a flaming fire, to punish those who reject God and who do not obey Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from His glorious might, when He comes on that Day to receive glory from all His people and honor from all who believe. You too will be among them, because you have believed the message that we told you.”
If we delve into the Scriptures that deal with things that happened in our past, we see the ultimate righteousness in God’s judgments. All through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah and in many other places, we have seen God inspiring the prophets to foretell the coming destruction of Israel’s enemies. With the hindsight that history gives us, we can see places like Assyria, Edom, and Moab gone off the scene for that reason. We already know about the punishment that Egypt suffered at God’s hand in the story of the ten plagues in Exodus. In the same way, God has promised to reward those who endure in faith. Some examples of this are ZECH 13: 9 in which God promises to put the Jews still alive at the time of Jacob’s Trouble (the Tribulation) through the refiner’s fire and that the one third remnant who endure in faith will be saved. The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus at the time of the transfiguration in MT 17: 3 is another example. A third example is a most comforting passage found in REV 6: 9-11, “Then the Lamb broke open the fifth seal. I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been martyred because they had proclaimed God’s word and had been faithful in their witnessing. They shouted in a loud voice, ‘Almighty Lord, holy and true! How long will it be until You judge the people on earth and punish them for killing us?’ Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest a l little while longer, until the complete number of their fellow servants and brothers were killed, as they had been.” Now, you may ask why that is comforting. It’s because, our just and true Lord will then exact righteous revenge on those who martyred them, and these martyrs will then receive their reward in heaven. Their deaths will not have been in vain.
These verses demand that we take up the question of exacting righteous revenge. That is because so many humans have the propensity to take this into their own hands. But, that is not God’s way, despite how strong the temptation to do this may be. RO 12: 14, 17-21, “Ask God to bless those who persecute you-yes, ask Him to bless, not to curse…If someone has done you wrong, do not repay Him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good. Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody. Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God’s anger do it. For the Scripture [DT 32: 35] says, ‘I will take revenge, I will pay back, says the Lord.’ Instead, as the Scripture [PR 25: 21-22] says, ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for by doing this you will make him burn with shame’ Do not let evil defeat you; instead conquer evil with good.” The KJV succinctly puts it this way, “’Vengeance is mine,’ saith the Lord” [RO 12: 19]. This is not easy for us to do, because when someone has wronged us, our initial emotion is to get back at him. Often God’s perspective is the opposite of the world’s, as it is in this case. A recent example of just such a situation comes to mind. An employee of a company that had sponsored him to come here from another country suddenly fired him when he uncovered some of their fraudulent activity. If this man obeys God, he will pray for his former employer and leave the action against them for their crimes and injustice in God’s hands. That won’t be easy, but it will obey God’s commands if he does that.
Seeing injustice and ungodliness around us is a fact of life in this world. I know in my heart things won’t be that way in the next. How we respond to the things that make us angry in this life is very important to us, to people around us who are influenced by us, and especially, to God. God wants to know that we have the courage of faith to take Him at his word and to obey His commandments-even when we are sorely tempted to do otherwise. We need to examine our lives to see what makes us angry and how we deal with that anger. We also need to ask ourselves how willing we are to take the path that isn’t easy in these situations and to obey our loving Abba’s direction. As I have said so many times before, holding grudges is never constructive. Imagine the relief one feels which he takes the burden of judging off his own shoulders and leaves it to God Who is best equipped to handle it.
PRAYER: O Lord, You know that every coin has two sides. You want us to know that there will be rich reward for those who endure in their faith and are obedient even in the face of great provocation to be otherwise. You also want us to know that if one persists in disobedience and rejection of You, he will suffer great and eternal negative judgment. You have taken the time to give us Your commands and have sent Your Son to show us how they should be carried out. The sacrifice of his physical life and the purity of His spirit should be seared into our consciousness and a model for how we should live our lives. Without the Atonement, we would be wallowing in our sin and headed for sure destruction. Instead, we are loved, guided, encouraged, and equipped by You as You prepare us for eternal joy and fellowship with You in heaven. There were times when Christ got angry, for example the day he threw the moneychangers out of Your Temple [MT 21: 12-13; LK 19: 45-46; JN 2: 13-22]. But, He never acted unjustly or without Your direction. You will give us peace when we obey You and choose not to exact revenge on our enemies or judge them. We acknowledge that lesson and leave Your Son to be the Judge. Instead, we dedicate ourselves to focusing on Your loving presence in our lives, trusting You, and being obedient. Dearest Jehovah, we humbly offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, the Lord directs me to write about loving our enemies. Each time He takes me back to this subject, He has something else to reveal to us. All of these actions He directs us to take are designed to make us better participants in keeping up our end of the Covenant of Grace. What a great gift this covenant is in our lives, a gift freely given by the grace, love and generosity of our Lord. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn