March 13, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor… be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4.25a, 32)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD

And here is the crux of the matter as it pertained to the Ephesian fellowship of faith that Jesus was and is indeed the Christ of God and Lord of all: “…just as in Christ, God forgave you.” I wonder if we do not have a tendency to forget that our salvation still depends on us. I do not mean that we can save ourselves. God has saved us from our sins through His greatest demonstration of sacrificial love with His Son, Jesus born of Mary the betrothed of Joseph. His life in this world from conception to birth to life to ministry to crucifixion to resurrection to commissioning and to ascension is all about “making salvation from our sins who penalty is eternally inescapable and undeniable dying.” The promise of that salvation, which cannot be created by human hands nor secured by human words and works, stands in stark contrast to the eternally bountiful and worshipful living. Still, just because salvation exists and is presented to all of us does not mean that all of us believe it exists and it is a gift worthy of claiming for oneself. This remains a tragic truth which should greatly trouble all believers to seek the instruction of the Holy Spirit as to how to make the invitation to “faith, hope and love” as we know best in Christ Jesus convincing to the unbeliever, if possible, but more especially to the “almost believer,” which a generation of the Church’s leadership have called “seeker.”

Let me present today’s scripture directive again at this point: “Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor… be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4.25a, 32) We ought to be compelled to investigate within our own testimony of “faith, hope and love as we know best in Christ Jesus our Lord” what may be construed as false and thus a stumbling block to the opportunity for “almost believers” who are seeking Him and unbelievers “who are committed to denying Him.” How is it that we may “speak truthfully” to our neighbor within the confines of our faith fellowship community and to those beyond it to whom we have been sent to make disciples in and of all nations? The radical obedience and its accountability statement to which we are called and held to might be in our belief and ability to “…forgive others as in Christ, God has forgiven you, me and others.” We cannot surrender the central understanding that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth and the Life by which we gain entry into Heaven and that eternally bountiful and worshipful living and as such is the “ONLY” way, truth and life that is sufficient and needed. There is no other way. The world wants to believe in a universal salvation which encourages and tolerates sin and sinfulness without regard to pain and suffering experienced or caused. There are no “Get Out of Jail Free” cards in spiritual life as the mighty ones of God in Jesus Christ truly ought to know. Such thinking creates an allowance of sin for which there is no need for forgivenss nor repentance. Their watchword for such thinking might sound more like “Just get over it so you can just get passed it” than “forgive others as in Christ God has forgiven you.”

As mighty ones in Christ we must remember our chief aim is to fulfill God’s will on earth as do all those who abide in Heaven. The summation of God’s will might be in the Shema, the recitation of the Greatest of Commandments. We might also see it then as what God purposed in creation on the “seventh” day which He called Sabbath. It ought to be significant to us that “on the Sabbath no work shall be done.” God was not speaking of our industry as wage-earners only. Jesus showed that when He confronted the Temple leadership with the scenario of “pulling one’s ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath.” It was allowed because it rendered aid to the ox as well as preserved the industry of the ox owner. Yes, we should set aside our “daily labor of the previous six days” but we must do so in order to allow our focus to be on “worshipping and praising God together.” It is a time to worship and praise God not for the purpose of earning our salvation or proving our worth as a people to be saved. Sabbath ought to be a time when we recognize “…that save for the grace of God, a people will not only fall into the ditch but without divine intervention they may well die apart from the good promise of God.” Can you see now the message of “The Good Samaritan” as it speaks to the “ox,” the man beset by robbers, in the ditch? Those who believed their religion was not about relationships passed by on the other side. The one who believe that true religion was about right relationships climbed into the ditch and saved a life. My friends, that is exactly what God did in Jesus Christ. He pulled our “ox and ….” out of the ditch. So, then, should we do the same for one another.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.