The Truly Blessed Man
Summary: Jesus idea of "True Blessedness" is closely related if not equal to "True Righteousness along with the Consequences and Fruits" of it. True Blessedness is not the way the world views it. True Blessedness is not a set of acts, but a person will be truly blessed - true blessedness belongs to a person, not something obtainable on our part without God's prior deposit.
In Matthew 5:3-10, one might have the inkling that these blessedness stuff is something that we do in order to obtain something. For example, one might think: If I will be poor in spirit, I will have the kingdom of heaven. Or again: If I will be merciful and forgive that person which I ought to forgive, I will obtain mercy from God.
Yet, I have an inkling that 5:3-10 (and 11) is not something about doing, but something about being. It is blessed are those who are merciful, not blessed are those who shows mercy. It is blessed are the peacemakers - it shows that there is a blessedness about this person.
Before moving further, I would like to define what this "blessed" word mean, or at least what is implied when the word is used - divine favour. Some would define it as "God looking our direction and is pleased".
With that, I would like to continue by saying from 5:11-14 - You are the salt of the earth, light of the world. Not so much you can "do the things that makes you behave like salt or light" - but that you are.
One might say, how can one be "salt and light" except by doing things that presents himself as "salt and light"? Surely, "salt" is marked by saltiness and "light" is marked by brightness - but Scripture does not support that we can "do" the blessed things and therefore be blessed.
Therefore, to a very large extent, we can only verify if we are "salt and light" whether we are "blessed" or not. Are we poor in spirit? are we those who mourn? are we meek? Do we thirst and hunger for righteousness?
Note this, a living person - going without food for a while - he will be hungry. Suppose there is a person who needs not food, can the person be made hungry? He has to be made a "normal" person, and he will feel hunger after a while.
Likewise, we are either hungering and thirsting for righteousness or we are not. Are we merciful? Are we pure in heart?
The more interesting question is this -
Are we persecuted because of righteousness? A thing to be careful here, a "righteous man" in the sight of man will probably be well liked - but a man that God consider's righteous, the world will persecute that man, like the way they did to Jesus and the prophets who speak the truth. If we are not righteous, we would find no cause to be persecuted! We can't just find ways to be persecuted for righteousness.
If you become a member of the opposition party and stick your head too far out for your party (for some cause of the party), you may be persecuted - but you are not persecuted for righteousness in God's terms. You may be insulted and false things may be said about you - for the sake of your party, not Jesus.
What I am trying to get at is this - I am reinforcing the point that a person is either this "blessed man" or he is not - it is not within our domain to try to be that man. As we will soon see, it is up to God to reveal to us truth, and as God opens our eyes and we realize it, we will become the blessed man.
What we can do on our part is this: Pay attention to God's Word, God's Word points to Jesus, Jesus is the image of God. The Bible defines eternal life as knowing God. If you know Jesus, you know God, you have eternal life. If knowing Jesus means knowing God, then we better find out what it means to know Jesus.
As for now, we will keep reading from 5:13 onwards in a chronological manner. The argument is quite simple, if a salt is no longer salty (we know that cannot be the case, but suppose there is such a case), it is no longer qualified to be called salt. Whatever that new substance is called, as far as the purpose of giving flavour is concerned, it is very useless, except to be thrown away. Jesus adds something which I think is pretty wierd here, it is not only that the salt is thrown away, but it is to be trampled over by men.
Why trampled by men? If trampled by men means anything, it would mean something that is not only useless, but somethig quite harsh and bad. The closest thing I can think of is an image of some form of judgement. I dare not thread further into allegorizing Jesus sermon. To add the phrase "trampled by men" is then to suppose that the disciples who were hearing this sermon (5:1) to some extent that they are called to be the salt and light - but also verse 11 onwards when the disciples will be persecuted for Jesus' sake.
Also note that 5:3-10 is a "blessed are those", but 5:11 onwards, it is Jesus speaking to the disciples - "blessed are you when..." I am led to think that Jesus thought it important to create a framework of what is true "blessedness" - then only to identify His disciples into this "blessedness" circle from 5:11 onwards.
The reason for such an argument is 5:3 and 5:10 gives an idea that 5:3-5:10 is one section by itself - but we also see that 5:10 and 5:11 is quite the same thing. 5:10 does not mention Jesus, 5:11 does; 5:10 seems to be somebody else, 5:11 is Jesus' disciples. Look at 5:12, this would probably confirm that observation, Jesus compares his disciples (who will suffer persecution for His name) to the prophets of the old (i.e. 5:11 is compared to 5:10).
With that in place, Jesus indentifies his disciples as the blessed people which is only useful as long as they posses that quality that makes them blessed. Just as salt is only defined as salt when it is salty - the blessed man is only defined as the blessed man when he fits the criterias by which Jesus call that man blessed.
Note again, salt IS salty, salt doesn't BECOME salty. We will learn, spiritually dead people doesn't BECOME living people, but Jesus makes us a NEW Creation. We learn words like new birth, new creation - because we don't somehow "improve" from dead people into living people. God gives us life, we have life. "Dead Person Version 1.2" is still dead person.
In verse 14, Jesus introduces some pretty interesting idea though. Salt is salty just as light is bright. But there can be such a way that the bright light is hidden under a basket. The bright light is not dimmed, but it is hidden. Jesus continues that the disciples are to let their light shine that the world may see their good works and glorify our Father in heaven.
This is not to say the disciples blow their own trumpet shouting "I have done a good deed, come praise God!" - for this Jesus rebukes this idea in the next chapter - "Be careful not to do your deeds of righteousness before men, TO BE SEEN BY THEM".
5:14-15 in simple sense means: Let light be light and serve its purpose by being light - light is meant to show and reveal, hidden light is no light(to hide light is not the right thing to do). God's good deeds is meant to be done by His blessed people who will be doing it simply by staying the "blessed man"(salt) they are called to be(good deeds will flow from blessed people), they will be one that "gives light to everyone in the house".
Note: In Matthew 7:15 later, we will also see that a tree is characterized by its fruit. A good tree will naturally bear good fruit. In the same way, the blessed people will produce good fruit.
The next part 5:17 onwards troubles me, why does Jesus suddenly say "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets". Was it something Jesus said that might have implied this idea? Or is it something that Jesus will say that will imply the idea that He is going to abolish the law or the prophets? How does this "blessed man" idea destroy the law and the prophets?
The answer is this: Jesus is about to say something that will (to the eyes of His hearers), abolish the Law and the Prophets. I believe Jesus is somewhat like saying "Be patient, what you are about to hear is almost like blasphemy(what is more blasphemous than to abolish God's Law and deny His Words?) - but it is not, not only it is NOT abolishing, it is FULFILLING". Jesus says His arrival is to fulfill the Law and the Prophets - Jesus promises the fulfillment of everything by saying NOT THE LEAST shall disappear from the Law.
The Law and the Prophets are the Old Testament. Jesus comes to fulfill not only the prophets like some of us think - Some of us think Old Testament is pretty pointless since it is suppose to just predict Jesus' coming. Old Testament does a million things more than just predicting Jesus coming - Old Testament is a shadow of the thing to come(which has already come) - JESUS!
If we know anything about shadows, there is a measure of resemblence between the shadow and the object, certain things look the same - but the shadow is not to be mistaken as the real thing.
A very brief examples of waht shadows are in Old Testament:
Adam as Son of God who rules the earth - Jesus as Son of God who rules the earth
Adam and Eve's marriage - Christ and the Church's marriage
Mighty prophet of God who delivers God's people from slavery: Moses as a type of Jesus
Kings of Israel to rule over God's people: Jesus the true King
Sacrifices that costs blood of lambs and bulls: Jesus the Perfect Sacrifice
High priest as the mediator between God and man: Jesus the True High Priest
Prophets who suffered for righteousness: Jesus who suffered for righteousness
There are tons of other things within the Old Testament which teaches us who Christ is. If we know not the Old Testament, we will have this prevalent Christianity in the world today - the Christianity which we learn of popular songs, Christianity in the form of cliches. If we know not what Jesus came to fulfill (giving meaning to the shadows and fulfilling predictions and more), I fear that our view of God will be a very little one. Nowadays, when a Christian mention that Jesus is great(or God is great), they are saying:
God gave me good grades in class
God gave me lots of money
God gave me a place in heaven
God saved me from that disaster
God gave me a happy day
WHAT?! Whatever happened to the definition of blessedness a few verses before?
Christians rejoice in "being in power" and not those who suffer for persecution
Christians rejoice in material gains but not in being poor in spirit
What happened to being meek? pure in heart?
Listen! Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. A great deal of that meant being:
The TRULY rejected man of God ( as the older prophets were rejected)
The PERFECT Sacrifice
The TRULY persecuted man
The TRUE definition of man
The TRUE definition of God
If a Christian should desire to be like anybody - we shoudl desire to be like Christ. Did Christ not ask his disciples to rejoice (5:12) because they can come into the "blessed" category which Christ who suffered is part of?
Moving on - Jesus says raises the standard of righteousness. Jesus says unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees (which the people of their day would reckon as the HIGHEST possible level), we will all be doomed. Now consider this, if the Pharisees as attained the highest level, and Jesus says unless we attain higher - we are doomed. We are left with very few options:
1) This man speaks truth - it is impossible to enter God's Kingdom
2) This man is blaspheming, i.e. abolishing the Law and the Prophets
The first one is not the one that is favourable to us. The second option sounds better. This gives us reason to see why Jesus has to do some beforehand explaination. Since nobody objected Jesus between 5:20 and 5:21, we suppose that Jesus calling them to "not jump into conclusions but listen to my explaination" phrase in 5:17-19 did work!
Now verse 21 onwards, Jesus will explain His Words. Now that we know 5:1-20, we get an idea of where Jesus is getting at. A quick recap:
Jesus defines the blessed man and true blessedness
Jesus gives an inclusion of his disciples
Jesus calls the disciples to stay distinctly blessed
BUT, a big BUT:
Jesus disagrees with the traditional method of entering the Kingdom of God - or at least the way the most "righteous" people in the community think they can enter heaven. Jesus calls for righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees: So afterall, Jesus calls for righteousness! but Jesus calls for MORE righteousness! So... what is this MORE righteousness?
Before we move on, we are reminded Jesus says He did not come to abolish - He also says that the least of the commandments will be obeyed and taught. What are some examples of these commandments - what it means to be more righteous, or TRULY righteous?
5:21-22 Jesus reiterates the traditional way by which the hearers would have done things. Its wrong to murder, but the intentions of anger and hatred) is not so bad. But Jesus says the person will be subjected to judgement because of his intention. Traditionally, hateful speech is subjected to some form of judgement in their religious court; but Jesus says hateful speech is a matter of hellfires.
Reading on 5:23, Jesus says if we are to worship God, we are to be reconciled to our brother first. Taking a step back, what do we see? 5:23 is saying if we want to be reconciled to God, let us be reconciled to our brother first.
Should Jesus not say this, the people would still think that it is perfectly okay to hate and be seperated froma brother (murder) and be joined (reconciled) with God! Jesus raises the bar - NOT! Jesus didn't raise the bar, Jesus was merely revealing hypocrisy. Anyone who reads the Gospel will know the Pharisees are hypocrites (just like us). With this in mind, we go a few verses back up - what is this more righteousness that Pharisee?
Jesus is plainly saying this: One has to be righteous to enter the Kingdom of God. The hypocritical standard of righteousness that these Pharisees has is not going to make it.
In other words, knowing we are naturally hypocrites, we have no better hope than the Pharisees! One thing we could glean from here is also related to Jesus statement of coming to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. By Jesus admitting that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, He is saying:
You want to know what the whole Old Testament is about? Me
You want to know what those Laws are about? Me
You want to know what Old Testament is pointing to? Me
There are a million rules in Old Testament. Collectively speaking, all the laws (all laws) reveal a few things about God:
God is particular about how we worship Him (laws concerning temple building, what sacrifices to offer, etc)
God is Holy (Different admission levels within the Temple/Tabernacle, no mixing different seeds and different textiles in one clothing)
God is concerned with every area of our life (laws that concern from animals to harvest to festivals to politics)
Perhaps even more that I know not of -
But Jesus, being the revelation of God - is also a revelation of God's intentions. If we want to know what God's love is - look at Jesus on the Cross. If we want to know what God thinks of our sin - look at Jesus on the Cross. We want to know what is a blessed man is - look at Jesus on the Cross.
True Righteousness Part 2 (5:21-37)
Self Invented Righteousness - minimizing God's Law at the cost of Hellfire
Summary: Don't make the checkbox for righteousness so small so you can tick it of thinking you have fulfilled the minimum requirement of God's Law. That very act itself is not based on true righteousness - continuing in such attitude will land you into Judgement. Jesus explains that true righteousness is not merely one of outward appearance, but one of shunning evil in the heart. This self invented tiny checkbox (well, I didn't kill people, I pass the test of God's Laws), is more explicitly proved to be one without power - shown in 5:33-37... it is God's Law that has the power, and God's Law looks at the heart - not mere outward appearances. the "looking at the heart" idea was not only from the "murder" and "adultery" examples, but "integrity and faithful speech" example.
When Jesus speaks of anger and hatred being equivalent to murder - He is simply saying: God is not fooled by you, God is a God who looks at the heart and intentions. There is no such thing as a superficial righteousness. You might have the entry "superficial righteousness" in your dictionary, but there is no such semi-righteous level in God's eyes. You want to be reconciled with God? Reconcile with your brother - or else you fool yourself into thinking that God approves your hypocrisy.
Then Jesus gives a challenge here. Settle it now while you have time. The same way that you try to settle your case with your adversary before you reach the Sanhedrin (the court), you better settle your case before you meet God in the court. The same way that you will not get out from the human court until you pay the last penny, what makes you think you can get out of God's court until you pay the last penny.
Jesus was speaking to a whole group of hypocrites - which we would do well and honest as we identify ourselves with them. Notice as Jesus speaks 5:25-26, my assumption is that Jesus assumed that the people ought to understand the previous verses the way I explained it (which i hope you agree that it is only logical). If Jesus did not make that assumption, 5:25-26 would be out of place - a wierd verse in the middle of nowhere (where many popular pastors like to use to preach whatever they like). Let us be clear with this, Jesus did not make that assumption. JESUS knew what was in the people's heart.
Many times we read the Bible as though it was talking about some person somewhere - but we ought to realize as much as Jesus is really not talking to us... Jesus could be equally talking to us! It is God's Living Word we are reading, and God speaks to us through His Word. It is not as though God "somewhat" speaks to us through His Word... but God's voice that we "hear" is the REAL Word. Here is the bottom line, the Bible is God's Word spoken to us 100% of the time, the voice we claim to hear is subjected to the Bible.
Bottom line, Jesus sees our heart - 5:25-26, Jesus calls us to settle it before we meet God in the heavenly courts, where hellfire is an option ( not ours, but the Judge's). Do we have any intentions that are unrighteous? Confess it to God, confesses to the person you offended. You either settle it here and now, or you settle it in heaven. I am not speaking of legalistic righteousness, for the salvation that Jesus gave is not the superficial salvation - but Jesus clearly says that intention is important. If you are too proud to confess to the person, what is the difference between you and the person in 5:23-24?
If you mourn in repentance now, Jesus says in 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. But if you choose to remain in error and stay in comfort now, God will make sure that justice is done and nobody will escape the last penny they ought to pay. True righteousness and integrity goes hand in hand - Hypocritical righteousness is no righteousness... and righteousness matters to the point of heaven and hell.
5:27-30, Jesus continues on with the pattern : You have heard it was said; but I tell you. The hearers hardened hearts recognizes not the truth of God - Jesus equates lust with adultery. Lust is the intention, adultery is the deed. Jesus could have equally said your intention to commit adultery is already adultery. But we have to be careful not to just take the next 2 verses to mean something merely for adultery. If any part of your body causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away - if there could be such a thing: it is better to enter heaven blind rather than having both eyes and go to hell.
A few things to note here. A few more issues such as divorce, untruthfulness, revenge, and love is covered by Jesus as the chapter goes on - but this is definitely not an indication that Jesus is only concerned about these few areas as though it was an exhaustive list. What the text hammers in is this - righteousness matters even if it costs you an arm and a leg.
How often have we allowed ourselves to indulge in the object of temptation thinking that we are strong enough to not sin - only to find ourselves weak every time? In our idleness, we sit at a quiet place fantasizing about people in ways we ought not to be thinking about them - as we think more and more intently, our minds become pornography, but we still let our minds go on. Even though we knew that we should have stopped much earlier, we continue thinking to a point where we feel too guilty to continue - and we stop and say things like "Oh, I didn't (did) realize I sinned!"
Why do we even sound surprised? We could have spent our time for godly thinks and fill our minds with godly thoughts but we love sin. For all of us, we could have taken steps to prevent it, but we do not - since it will cost us too much. Quoting the previous post:
When I first heard this sermon preached (this is a summary of his sermon), the pastor speaking to a group of University students said this was addressing the issue that we face with Internet Pornography - the convenience of it and how we can easily delete our browsing history after that. Many of us struggle with the sin yet we are not willing to let it go.
He said:
" C'mon guys, you know this. If you need to, you can just throw your computer out of the window - you can always use the university computer labs to do your assignment. How much is your computer? 2000 dollars? 3000 thousand? What is a more important? 3000 dollars or righteousness before God?"
The issue of adultery (from the passage) continues on up till 5:32. There were people who lusted for the wives of others - yet in their self-invented righteousness did not want others to know that they were already committing adultery in their hearts. Its quite simple, the man and the woman gets divorced, and marry each other.
See - God is not as stupid as us. When we want something bad enough, we find it easy to fool ourselves. God is not fooled by our apparent obedience to the Law, when in our hearts - we are schemers and adulterers. Jesus continues to speak on True Righteousness, and the people could not say anything against it (but they all heard with amazement, for Jesus taught as one having authority)... Jesus exposed their hypocrisy, He spoke the truth - our "appear good religion" is torn down by the one who judges without partiality, the one who sees through our heart and know that we are wicked to the core.
After adultery, Jesus uses another illustration to show our shrewdness. Sometimes we hear people say: "I swear to God I am telling the truth". Do you have less responsibility to tell the truth then if you don't swear to God? What is this standard you are using which permits you to speak half the truth all the time except if you swear by God?
Or we hear (an say): "I swear that I am telling the truth or else I will die being struck by lightning" - really? Jesus says "You can't even make one hair black or white", "and you want to swear by heaven, by God's throne"? Let your "Yes" mean "Yes" and "No" mean "No" - have some integrity! Can righteousness be without integrity?
Want to see some examples of having no integrity?
Don't murder, but hate. Don't commit adultery, but lust. Don't lie, just don't tell the truth. At the end of this all, please do feel good about yourself - because you appear to be pretty righteous in the sight of everyone else.
NO! Jesus says: You hate? You are a murderer. You lust? You are an adulterer. You speak lies, you speak like the devil. In all this, unless you repent, you are in danger of hellfire.
True Righteousness Part 3 (5:38-48)
Why The Raise of Standard?
Jesus does not claim to raise the standard of true righteousness(as in righteous acts), but Jesus does claim that to live with self-invented righteousness and to merely play things "fair" is not quite who God really is. God is the one who turns the other cheek when He was struck, walks the extra mile to calvary, had himself robbed of his clothes, loved his enemies and died for them, prayed for those who persecuted Him to the point of death - was that not EVERYTHING Jesus did?
Jesus says, "Be perfect - as your Heavenly Father is perfect". How do we become perfect like the Heavenly Father? We have not seen Him; But the Bible says Jesus is the image of God, Jesus told Phillip that the person who has seen Jesus has seen the Father! Do Christians not say we ought to grow to become like Jesus more and more; Yes, that statement is a direct reference to Jesus. We have to be careful not to think of the whole "Sermon on the Mount" as a "Sermon of Good Suggestions". As much as Jesus is preaching to the people, we learn through His preaching that Jesus is one who embodies what He preaches.
A hypocrite seldom think they sin (if ever) - I believe many hypocrites in denial would somehow qualify themselves as righteous from 5:21-48. After you, you my dear Christian friend, and yes, myself - How often do we read the Sermon on The Mount thinking that Jesus is speaking to... SOMEBODY ELSE? Well, Jesus haven't explicitly stated that yet, though very soon we will see Jesus telling the people - YOU THINK I AM TALKING ABOUT SOMEBODY ELSE SINCE JUST NOW? I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU!
False Riches vs True Riches, False Security vs True Security
Summary: The climax is coming, but before that - Jesus now speaks something that is closer to the hearts of the hearers. By the way, please note:Much of church preaching have painted Pharisees in a bad light, they are the self-declared "self-righteous hypocrites", and in speaking so, much of the congregation feels better, since there is somebody who is worse off than them. This thought - thinking that we are better because there is somebody worse... is exactly the kind of hypocrites that lived during Jesus time and have been staying alive until today.
Now Jesus will speak of the things we so commonly do...
When was the last time we did a good deed and we wondered... "Hmm, I wonder if anyone will see this and think good of me?" That probably wasn't too long ago, unless you never did any good deed at all.
This is what the hypocrites are doing. They give so that others may know that they are generous. Just to pull of from the previous section, these are some words Christians use to justify themselves:
"I blow a trumpet when I give... so that other people may know that I am a generous person, so they will know Christians are generous people, and they will glorify God"
See, our hypocrisy runs so deep, it is so in our blood that we actually think that God is like that. 6:7 "and when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words"
If you are a hypocrite, Jesus seeks to persuade you otherwise with this argument:
The up side (of hypocrisy) is this, you will receive your reward from men.
The down side is this, God will having nothing to do with you.
God doesn't care what you give.
God doesn't care what you pray.
God doesn't care about your devotion.
Afterall, if God cared about this pretense - then how can He be just? How can he be fair? God will regard and reward the person who does it in secret - this person lives with God as his audience, not men. Jesus says "The Father who sees it in secret will reward you". If you ever wonder who saw you doing that good deed again, God did. God will reward you.
*The Lord's Prayer is left out intentionally. There are tons of other materials writtn on that prayer alone. Our focus here is to get the whole idea of the sermon, so we shall move on.
"Rewards" is one of those catchy words - whatmore "Rewards from God"! How thrilling can that be - Christians today are so happy to hear words like "God's Blessing" and "God's gift".
Hear Jesus words: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What is God's gift? God's rewards? God's Blessing? God's Treasures? We would like to think of it as a string of titles after our names, a bank account that overflows, a comfortable life, and distinguished position in society - for me I would like to think of it as good grades in university, a stable risk-free life, and one day a wonderful wife. Different people might have different "wants" in life, but really, it is quite similar in nature.
Surely, God can give us all the luxuries of life as mentioned above - but Jesus cautions us that what He meant by rewards is not the rewards that we are thinking about. If we are to take the apostles as an example: We can be quite sure that their rewards doesn't quite fit our idea of rewards. Jesus calls us to store up our treasures in heaven - not on earth. One thing I know for sure: Jesus is NOT talking about earthly and material rewards.
A few verses down, Jesus promises that God will provide for our needs - but here, Jesus is not talking about earthly rewards, He made it explicit that the rewards are heavenly in nature. Jesus continues on to say that if we set our eyes on that which is good - our lives will be illuminated (which I believe to be a figurative way of saying goodness). Yet if we set our eyes on that which is dark (which I believe to be a figurative way of saying badness), our lives will be dimmed and doomed. What is it that the eye is the lamp of the body?
Does it mean our physical eyes? If we watch violent movies our thoughts will be filled with violence - and if we watch too much wickedness, we will be influenced towards evil? Perhaps so - this is a very sound and logical argument.
Yet I do not think that it properly fits the context of Jesus words. 6:22-23 is smack in the middle 6:19-21 and 6:24 - surely Jesus suddenly remembered something He didn't say, went off topic for a while and then continues his sermon on rewards? What I think would fit the context is this.
We are not to set our expectations wrongly. We expected rewards on earth in terms of material things - Jesus calls us to be careful of what we set our expectations on. If we set our eyes on true rewards - that is if we expect true rewards which Jesus promised, we are on the right track. But if we set our eyes on the earthly rewards (which is contrasted in the verse before and after - materialism vs God), we will be filled with darkness. This might possibly mean we have misunderstood it all, we will be confused as to why "things are not as I expected", we will be darkened in our understanding, etc - whatever it may be - these false expectations will fill our souls with darkness, and we know darkness is not the preferred condition.
Jesus goes on: We can only have one Lord. Not God and Money. It is God or Money. Not both, but either one. We cannot have a divided heart that serves two Lords. Jesus says we will either Love serving God and hate serving money, or that we will love serving money and hate serving God. It is contrary. Many of us have ambitions to "be some great person" someday and we would be more than happy if being "that great person" means getting a "great salary".
Jesus warning is this - you cannot serve God and money at the same time. Is this not true? If we desire to serve God - we will shape our education, manage our time, spend our money, and even choose our spouses so that we can serve God best.
Otherwise, this is what we will do. Find the course that will enables to give us the highest pay when we start working. We slave our lives to obain the promotion. We constantly spend money to decorate ourselves, add accesories, and buy bigger and newer things. Our spouses? Choose the hottest girl you can get! Who do we serve? God? Give me a break.
Before we move on. Get this straight. You are either serving GOD or MONEY. It is a mutually exclusive category if you know what that means. That means: If you find out now that you are serving MONEY, it means you are NOT serving GOD. You are not to believe that "I am serving money in this scope of my life, and I serve God in the other scope of my life". If Money is your god on monday, it means that money is your god everyday - God is not the God of sundays and church evangelistic events. The God of the Bible is the God of everyday and every area. Money is not the only limit isn't it? Money paints a whole picture of materialism - which ties in well with a verses on top.
This question which I challenge you with, I challenge myself too.
Joel, is there an area in your life that you are not letting God be God? Is there an area in your life where you would just say "God, thanks but no thanks, I will take care of this area in my life and I will do things my way"? If God is not God of every area in my life - I have very good reasons to believe that I only serve God whenever it is convenient to me. My convenience is my God - not the God of the Bible then. Going to church is convenient, forking out time on Friday isn't that difficult too - how hard can singing Christian songs be? Be careful - we might just be serving our convenience. Such a person cannot endure trials. When trials come, we will see who is God in their life - and we know the man who serves his own convenience would just conclude:
"Truly truly, Jesus is not in my heart"
Careful, we might just be living in self-deception now. We have cheated ourselves once and justified our evil motives before God., and it is not surprising if we can do it again and again. Practice makes perfect. Do it more and you might just never recognize truth again even if it is right before your eyes.
The next few verses 6:25-34 are only relevant if the previous paragraphs have caused you are considering to live for Jesus. It is not "decided", but considering. If you are not even considering, it is my personal recommendation that you do not read the next few verses as you will probably misunderstand the whole thing. Of course, this is just my personal recommendation, neither Jesus nor the evangelist tells you "DO NOT READ THE BIBLE, YOU MIGHT JUST LOSE ALL YOU OWN". But if you are interested in knowing God's promises for those who follow Him, do read on - but know that you have been warned.
Jesus says: Don't worry. God takes care of the birds even. God feeds the birds, THEREFORE God will also feed you. God clothes the lilies, THEREFORE God will also feed you. Why does the first statement (God feeds the birds) imply the second statement (God will feed you)? Jesus answers: because you are of much more worth than the birds. In Jesus' classical gentleness, He questions their unfounded ideas (about God's provision, or for that matter... non-provision) useless worries (who of you can add a single hour to life by worrying?)
We have to note this. I really think that Jesus is speaking to people who are actually considering to follow Him. If they followed Jesus - what are they going ot wear? What are they going to eat? Jesus was a rabbi in his days - and if you know anything about that profession, it isn't a 9-5 job that has a fixed amoiunt of salary with a pension fund when you are 55 years old. In some sense, the fears and worries of these people are reasonable, following Jesus could mean losing all these security - to what extent? To the extent that you won't really know what you will be eating tomorrow.
A few lines later Jesus says - do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own. It must have been a real hard life Jesus lived. To follow Him is to find security (food, clothing, shelter, whatever other daily needs labeled as "all these things" in 6:33) in God alone.
The logic flows this way if they are to follow Jesus:
Tomorrow I will have food on my table, not so much because I have extra money in my bank account... but because the God who feed the birds will somehow feed me.
Tomorrow I will have clothing (protection and perhaps shelter), not so much because I have extra money in my bank... but because God who clothes the lilies will somehow clothe me.
The reason the above logic must make sense is because I am worth more than mere birds.
We ought not to worry, not so much because I have extra money in my bank account, but because God knows all these things and He has taken care of it.
Take God out of the picture - they are hopeless. No food, no clothing, no shelter and EVERYTHING to worry about. In our life today, we might think of them as standing on thin ice.
But Jesus counters that notion. Jesus says that we who hope in earthly treasures are the ones standing on thin ice. Moth and rust will destroy, thieves will steal. To Jesus, God's security is not the best security... it is the ONLY security.
If we remembered about Jesus temptation in by Satan - Jesus quotes the Old Testament. Maybe Jesus was quoting for Satan - but maybe Jesus was quoting Old Testament to remind Himself (being also fully human) of God's Word. In my personal opinion, the way Jesus phrase the words gives me a feeling that the words Jesus speaks to the hearers... are also the words He speak to Himself.
Jesus knows what it meant by "tomorrow will worry about itself. Today have enough troubles of its own".
Today Jesus is baptised, tomorrow He will fast for 40 days - and at the end He will be tempted by Satan.
Today Jesus hears Peter say "You are the Christ, Son of the Living God!" The very next moment, Jesus will have to tell Peter "Get behind me Satan".
Tonight Jesus eats with his 12 disciples, tonight He will be betrayed by Judas, tomorrow He will be crucified.
That is just my guess - but what is of more importance to us is the irony of these few verses.
The people that Jesus speaks to worry about their - what we call "basic necessities". What do we worry about when we consider the question "Will I follow Jesus?". Take some time to recall your worries. If you don't remember worrying, you are either:
a) So trusting in God that worrying is a rare thing for you
b) You have an imaginary Jesus that is rather convenient to follow
I think (b) would be what most people choose.
But if you are anything like me, I would have some worries.
I don't worry about having no food - but I do worry about not having the most delicious meal all the time.
I don't worry about having no clothes - but I do worry about having not so branded clothes.
I worry about driving a smaller car, living in a smaller house...
I worry about....
Ah, it is starting to sound idiotic isn't it? There in the Bible the peopl are fearing for their survival, here am I fearing that I will be less than comfortable. They worry about having no clothes, we worry about having less branded clothes.
The similarity of people 2000 years ago and people today is this:
Humans worry and are self-lovers
The difference is this:
We are much worse than them.
The thing that never did change for 2000 years is this:
Jesus
Jesus words which spoke to them 2000 years ago, speaks to us also. Consider it carefully.
I am talking about you! Decide!
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