Tag Archives: hate

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS -4b

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Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

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So, in one of Jesus’ teachings about money, its use and abuse, which we examined yesterday, His second principle gets to the heart of the matter…you will serve who or what you love! It’s as simple as that!

In order to determine where your love lies, you will need to take the long look. It all depends on in which direction you are looking when you make decisions and choices about the use of your money. 

Jesus used a colourful and commonly-understood word picture to explain what He meant. Just as one’s physical eyes allow light to enter the body to see, or dysfunctional eyes prevent the body from seeing, so one’s spiritual vision depends on the “light” that enters or doesn’t enter the heart. 

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What “light” would Jesus be referring to, do you think?

In the Bible, “light” often refers to God’s Word. For example…

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭105‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…and…

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭130‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If we add verses like these to the mix, we begin to understand that, when we allow the light of God’s Word to enter us through our our spiritual “eyes”, we will view life and our attitude towards people and our money from God’s perspective. If we are blind to the needs of others, we will hoard and use our resources for ourselves. If we see, through Jesus’ eyes, the opportunity to share our resources with others in need, and we do so because we love Him, it become clear whom we serve because of whom we love. 

Paul takes these principles and weaves them into an instruction to Timothy. In a world corrupted by greed and the love of money, Paul urges Timothy to understand and teach the truth about the use of money and wealth. Some of God’s people were already entangled in the powerful pull of money, drawing them away from loving God to a life of greed and eventual destruction. 

“If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.”

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How many, in our day, have fallen into this trap! The “prosperity gospel” is a case in point… a corruption of the truth. 

There is a philosophy that God’s people need to embrace… 

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”

…and a warning…

“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬-‭7‬, ‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Therefore, Timothy, and all God’s servants, tying together the teachings of Jesus, must…

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6‬:‭17‬-‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STAY WITH IT

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STAY WITH IT

“‘You’ll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, friends. Some of you will be killed. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul – even the hairs of your head! – is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it – that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, you’ll be saved.'” Luke 21:16-19.

How terrible, that a parent will betray a child and siblings each other for the sake of an ideology that has no foundation in truth! Such is the power of deception that it even overrides family loyalties.

There are countless stories of these kinds of betrayals from the Communist era, for example, that ripped family and friends apart. There are devotees of other religions today that are equally ruthless in the name of their god and teach that anyone who is not one of them must be destroyed.

But, unlike the gods who ‘require’ this kind of behaviour to protect them, Jesus assured His followers that He was in charge and would protect them, even down to the hairs on their head! Herein is the difference between lies and truth. If a god cannot take care of himself and demands that his followers go on the rampage, and riot and murder to guard his name, does he sound like the sort of god that attracts both trust and security?

What if you did something to annoy him? If he requires you to kill even your own family for him, what guarantee do you have that he won’t take you out for some infringement? How much security is there in a god who is capricious and unpredictable?

Once again, Jesus was utterly truthful. He faithfully warned His followers that there was trouble ahead for them if they remained loyal to Him. He gave no guarantee of physical safety if they followed Him but He did assure them that no part of them would be eternally lost. How many times have we already seen that He always viewed life from the perspective of eternity? Life did not end at the grave. It was only a part of the whole, a preparation for what lay ahead beyond death.

Persecution would not destroy them, however tough it was, but it would weed out those who were only in it for what they could get out of it. It would be part of a refining process by which faith in Him would be stripped of props and false expectations and would be anchored in His trustworthiness alone.

Jesus wanted His followers to trust Him so completely, in His character and His promises, that they would stake their very lives on what He had said. And they did! History reveals the story of many thousands during the first three centuries of the church who gave their lives rather than deny Jesus, and they did it joyfully because they believed His promises.

People foolishly follow the words of someone who claimed to speak for their god with no proof of their authenticity. Jesus Himself spoke these words, “‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'” John 11:25-26 (NIV).

Once again we are left with a choice – to believe and follow the teachings of a god who never speaks for himself, who offers no infallible proof or his existence, and has to rely on fallible humans to speak for him, or to believe in the one who said He would die and rise again and did it, not for Himself but for us, so that we can entrust ourselves to His proven trustworthiness.

Like Father, Like Son

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LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON 

“‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.'” John 15:18-25 NIV.

It was time. Jesus knew that the frenzied mob were almost on Him. A few more hurried instructions to His frightened disciples before they came, and He would be ripped from their side and they would be on their own.

He needed to warn them of the chasm that existed between them and a hostile world system because of Him. They had to be very clear about whose side they were on. Their association with Him meant that they had taken a public stand for the kingdom of God and had automatically become friends of God and enemies of the state.

Jesus warned them not to be surprised by the treatment they would receive from the “world”, the human system represented by its authorities that had no mind to obey God and uphold His laws and His disposition. Humankind had declared war on Him in the Garden of Eden; the battle lines were drawn and the final showdown was about to begin. There was no time now to be undecided. They were to know on whose side they stood and were to recognise the source of the hatred and enmity that was arraigned against them.

This was not about them. It was about Him. The devil had declared war on God from the beginning. Human beings were the players in this battle. God had already evicted Satan and his minions from His immediate presence because of his arrogance and rebellion. Satan had no power over the Almighty, but he was determined to do as much damage as he could to the race of humans whom God passionately loved, and to go down fighting.

The war into which all mankind had been drawn, was reaching its crescendo in Jesus, the God-man who came to earth as the last Adam. Although the world did not know or acknowledge Him, the hope of rescue lay in Him alone. If He failed, He and all mankind were doomed to eternal separation from God.

How important it was for these few men to realise that they must resolutely stand on His side no matter how the world treated them! Jesus had invested everything He had and was in them. “Because of my name” was the reason for the world’s antagonism and they must know it. This was not a personal struggle, but a cosmic war and they were to stand for their King and their heavenly country, no matter what the cost.

As long as they understood the issues and the stakes, it would strengthen them resolutely to take their stand because they were not alone. Jesus was confident of the outcome because His victory was assured from before the foundation of the world. What was now being played out in history was already accomplished in eternity, hence they could have confidence in Him and in the final outcome.

Although His words seemed incomprehensible then, just like everything else He had taught them, the Holy Spirit would remind them at the appropriate moment and they would draw strength and direction from them to stand in the battle because their Master had already overcome the world.

For these men, and all who come after them, the operative word is “stand”. The war has already been won; the enemy has been vanquished; the struggle is over. Just as they were to know on whose side they were then, so we too must know that we are “in” the one who won the war. Ours is not to fight but to stand, secure in Him because His fight was ours, His victory ours and the enemy is only a loser who tries to unseat us with his lies.

Whatever the enemy tries to do to us reflects right back to the Father because, what they do to us, they do to Jesus; what they do to Jesus, they do to the Father because the Father and the Son are one, and we are “in Him”.