01/29/2023
Yesterday we gave thought to wounding Jesus, but today we will look at this in a different light by asking the question... “Do we persecute Him?” On the road to Damascus, Saul didn't understand what was happening to him. He didn’t recognize the voice that was speaking to him; so He asked...
“And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”
Acts 26:15 KJV
Do we know who speaks to us? What are our motives in serving God? Is our desire to solely elevate Him, or to gain some of the praise of others for ourselves? As we read the following scripture let's ask ourselves... do we have love? Do we serve with the motivation of God's love first?
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV
If we are haughty towards those who have not met Jesus, what chance have they of seeing Christ in us? Have we promoted the gospel, or just our own desire to be better than those we wish to proselytize? Are we wanting others to join us in Christ, or for them to see us as holier than they are? Oswald Chambers puts it this way...
"Have I been persecuting Jesus by a zealous determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty and yet have hurt Him in doing it, I may be sure it was not my duty, because it has not fostered the meek and quiet spirit, but the spirit of self-satisfaction." - Oswald Chambers
Our mission in spreading the gospel, the realization of God's love for man, is to speak and demonstrate His love and character to those who haven't, can't, or don't, see Him. To reveal Him through our walk with Him is by far the most wonderful and fulfilling vocation in this life... it is His will manifest in us.
“I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.”
Psalms 40:8-10 KJV
We should teach the gospel openly, and in love. When we deliver it through bitter lips and past an unloving heart, we persecute the very one whose life, death, resurrection, and teaching we intended to reveal. When we look down on the sinner as though he were undeserving of redemption or didn't possess the ability to walk in faith as we do... we persecute Jesus. When we work in jobs of faith and yet live beneath our aspirations of righteousness, unable to embrace the unconverted that wait just outside redemption's door, we persecute Christ. How can we do these things and not hear the voice of Christ as He says this about conviction...
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds."”
Matthew 11:19 ESV
If we feel above the sinner that we seek to lead to Christ we have failed Jesus. If we can't hold the hands that once sinned and pray them clean in love, we have fallen. If we harm a brother in Christ in our attempt to appear pious, we have lost all righteousness. In all of these things and more we have persecuted Jesus, and although we feel right and uplifted, Jesus will one day say of us...
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Matthew 7:23 KJV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for calling me to Jesus, lift my heart towards those who need your compassion most, and teach me to show the mercy that you give to me in your Son. Lord, don't let a pretense of piety rise in me to veil your call for my delivery of the Gospel to those who need it desperately. Lead me Father to an open heart and an expression of the same love and mercy that you show me every day. Lord God, I pray that my actions of faith be pure and never persecute your Son Jesus in their insincerity. Give me always the warmth and kindness that will encourage the seeker to open himself to you, and teach me to place my hand atop the dirty hands of sin as the sinner confesses and asks your forgiveness and cleansing touch. Jesus, fill me with your loving kindness, lead me, and may you never say of me... I never knew you.
Rich Forbes