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In Luke 18 Jesus tells the very rich Ruler of the Jews to sell everything he had and give it to the poor and “follow me”.
The rich ruler turned away in sorrow and Jesus said these very famous and troubling words…
“it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”
By definition, in the scriptures, the “poor” are identified as not having the daily necessities of life; food, clothing and shelter. Therefore, compared to the poor, those who have those necessities are rich.
I personally do not know anyone who fits that definition of being poor. Everyone I know is rich.
You might develop the idea that it’s best to be poor that God doesn’t want us to be rich… not true,
The promises of the Mosaic Law were that those who obeyed it would be prosperous on earth.
On the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that those who put the kingdom first would have all the necessities that they needed in life.
In fact when someone comes into the church building begging I tell them I know what their problem is… they haven’t put God first.
So how are we going to get that camel through that needle?
1 Timothy 6:17-19, identifies several things rich Christians are to do.
- Be not high minded or arrogant
- Have hope set on God, not personal wealth
- Do good and be rich in good works
- Be ready to distribute or share their wealth
- Be sympathetic to the needs of other
An example or two might be handy.
Zaccheus dedicated 50% of his paycheck to help the poor. If he wronged anyone financially he not only returned their money but gave them 4X back.
Righteous Job instructed many, steadied the weak and braced up tired knees.
So how do we get that camel through the needle?
Easy… don’t make it your goal in life to become wealthy. Our goal should be to serve God with the totality of our being and if God wants us to be wealthy he will make us wealthy.
I don’t know where I went wrong with Caleb. Maybe I was too hard on him or maybe I was too soft… I just don’t know. His mother Abigail died when he was just a toddler and I just couldn’t bring myself to remarry. Every time I looked at Caleb as he grew up I could see more and more of his mother in him and I don’t know… it kind of hurt.
Seth wasn’t anything like Caleb, he was big and strong and I could count on him to do the work we needed on the farm… he loved farm life and I loved him for loving what I loved.
Every time we went into town on the Sabbath Caleb was always hanging around with kids his age who were a little on the wild side and Caleb seemed to like to hang around the Gentile boys too.
I knew that sooner or later I was going to lose him and then one day he came up to me and said… Dad, I’m of age and since I’m not going to inherit this farm anyway I just want my inheritance to try something different.
I didn’t really trust what Caleb was telling me but I knew if I didn’t give him the money he would resent it and I would probably never see him again. I watched him gather his things and watched him walk down that road until he disappeared. Oh Jehovah God what have I done? Where is Abigail when I need her the most? Please protect Caleb for me!
I remember when I got that money from my Dad that I was finally going to do things my way. I was tired of Seth being the favorite son… Mr Goody Two Shoes.
The Gentile boys had told me what life was like in Ammon… drinking and dancing and girls who knew how to do things that I couldn’t even imagine. I had a great time for a while until the money began to run out. Once the money was gone my drinking buddies were gone too.
The girls quit smiling at me and flirting with their eyes. I lost all my money, I lost all my friends, I lost a place to stay and now I was stuck sleeping with these unclean hogs doing a job no one else wanted to do for pennies. I was always hungry and had nothing to eat but hog food.
Dad could never forgive me… I had slept with unclean gentile girls and now with unclean hogs. But maybe Dad would let me be a servant… they had beds to sleep in and ate three meals a day and lived happy lives.
I’ll go back home and be a servant in my father’s house. Every step I took on the way back home I rehearsed what I would say… I’m sorry Dad, you were right and I was wrong. You were so right that I am not even worthy to carry your name. Please let me be the least of all servants in your home.
Ever since Caleb had left the first thing I would do every morning when I got out of bed was get on my knees and pray to Jehovah God to bring mine and Abigail’s son back. Then in the afternoon I would sit on the porch of the house and watch the road to see if my prayers were answered.
I knew right where Caleb was. I knew he was in Ammon and I knew what he was doing there. I had heard that he had run out of money and was down on his luck.
I also knew that if I wanted him back forever I couldn’t go after him. He had to make up his own mind to come back.
One day I was watching the road and I saw a solitary figure approaching. I didn’t want to get my hopes up just to be dashed like had happened so many times before. But as the figure got closer and closer something about him seemed familiar… the way he walked… the way he held himself. Could it be?
As he got closer and closer… it had to be Caleb… it had to him. I jumped up and ran to him. It was him! It was him! He started to say something about not being worthy but I didn’t let him finish… I couldn’t. I hugged his neck and started crying and then an amazing thing happened Caleb hugged my neck and started crying too.
We held each other for a little while and I realized all the servants were watching. I told them… get these filthy clothes off him, bathe him and dress him like he deserves to be dressed… like my son… because Jehovah has done a great thing… he has returned my lost son.
A little later Seth came in from the fields and when he heard the news he was angry and said Dad I have worked side by side with you all my life. Caleb wasted your money and disgraced our family name. How could you honor him this way when you have never even thrown a party for me?
Seth, Seth… I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life but you are not one of them. You are everything to me. I couldn’t do anything without you by my side but Caleb is your brother and the second son of your own mother. Yes he wasted the money and yes he behaved in a disgraceful way but doesn’t sorrow and repentance count for anything?
Jehovah God brought your brother back and unless I miss my guess he’ll be twice the brother and twice the son he was before.
If Jehovah can forgive so can we and so should we.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
We read a verse like this and understand that Jesus is directly talking to his disciples about the tribulation/persecution they would personally suffer and then we correctly try to make application to whatever tribulation/persecution we might suffer.
The first thing to realize is that whatever tribulation we experience it is nothing like what Jesus’ disciples experienced.
In addition, this verse is not about the tribulation we might experience that is common to all mankind. This type of tribulation only relates to our faith in Jesus Christ. If we say or do something stupid and are persecuted for it that’s on us… it is not relevant in this discussion.
But say we are persecuted for the right reasons… there are some things to understand. First of all we shouldn’t moan and groan about it and advertise it in a pitiful way to everyone. Rather we should be happy about it… after all that is an experience that we can share with Jesus Christ.
The other thing is to remember who is persecuting us. The persecutors are either spiritually ignorant or they are evil. So knowing that, we can respond out of knowledge.
Something like this…
“I know you can’t see this but I am wearing the full armor of God and those insults you just directed at me just fell right off”
“You have a problem and I know what it is… you are spiritually ignorant and you are following the commands of your father Satan. So I’m going to pray for you and ask the father to open your eyes so you can see the truth and develop understanding”
Or you can just ignore it and walk away because generally there’s not much use in talking to ignorant or evil people.
I can’t remember if anyone has spoken against me because of my faith or not but remember… don’t let anyone push you around… because you have God and his people on your side and the armor thing.
Ephesians 6:10-20 concludes a section of the Ephesian letter that begins in Ephesians 4:1.
Ephesians 6:10-20 contains a well known section of scripture that not only encourages a Christian to stand and be strong but also tells the Christian how to do it… by putting on the whole armor of God. Not just some of the armor but all of it.
Things like…
loins girded with truth
breastplate of righteousness
footwear that is associated with the gospel of peace
the shield of faith
the helmet of salvation
the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God
Okay that’s how we become strong but how do we put on that armor? Note that God doesn’t put the armor on us… we do that, but he does provide the mechanism for acquiring the armor.
Ephesians 4:1- 6:9 describes in great detail the “walk” of a Christian so that he can acquire truth, become righteous, proclaim the gospel of peace, build strong faith, be saved and learn to accurately wield the word of God.
Don’t expect God just to pour all those attributes on you… they have to be developed by conquering sin in our lives, learning humility in the service of others, the continual study of God’s word and sallying forth to meet and conquer our enemies who are the “principalities, the powers, the world rulers of darkness and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”
Don’t think you can do that by yourselves. Discipline yourselves to be completely armored soldiers of Christ in an army waging war with Satan!
Sometimes you hear folks justify not attending church be saying something like… “nature is my church” or “I can get closer to God on a mountain top than in a church building”.
Certainly God created nature and it testifies to his existence but does God really want people substituting nature for church? I think not.
Jesus after all in Matthew 16 said that he himself would “build the church”. What kind of sense does it make that Jesus would build a church and make attendance or congregation optional? Here… let me answer that… it makes no sense.
The church is somewhat analogous to the jewish synagogue. Did Jesus attend the synagogue services? Of course he did and so did the apostles.
Those folks who want to go out in nature by themselves to worship God fail to consider what the purpose of the church is.
The church was designed by Jesus Christ to help Christians reach spiritual maturity. Which begs the question… can Christians reach spiritual maturity without the church? If they could then why did Jesus Christ die to establish the church? Why didn’t he just say climb up on that mountain, or look at the stars or watch a bird sing a song and that’s your spiritual service to me?
We can go and observe nature and think about God and his majesty and in fact I recommend it. But on Sundays, Christians need to be in church being encouraged and being built up, serving each other and practicing love towards each other. That’s what Jesus Christ expects of us and is what makes him happy.
A famous college football coach once said… “your actions speak so loud that I can’t hear what you are saying”
He said that in reference to what his young players would say at team meetings or in the locker room and what he saw on the field. In other words they could talk the talk but when it came to the actual walking they came up short.
So too Christians…
we can say we don’t love money until someone asks us for some of it
we can say to our new wife I’ll love you forever and never disappoint you until some rough times come and you meet a more desirable woman
we can say that we attend church every time the saints meet until we have a headache or we’re a little tired or we decide to stay at home and watch services on line.
we can say that we welcome any kind of criticism until some one says our kids aren’t acting appropriately or like when an Elder calls us and says we haven’t seen you in a while and the defenses come up.
We can say we always tell the truth unless we need to cover up some little embarrassing fault
We might say all those noble spiritual things but they’re awfully hard to hear when our actions are making so much noise to the contrary.
In fact, let’s let our righteous actions be so loud that they drown out our speech.
There is a sales technique that is commonly employed by sales people that is a huge key to their business.
They have learned that if you give something to someone that it is in human nature for the receiver to want to give something back.
Hence you will find drug reps. taking doctors to dinner or taking them on free trips or bringing lunch into your clinic. All in the hopes that you will give them a drug order and they can meet the quota that their corporation has placed upon them.
Thats concept works in Christianity as well. Let’s say you identify an individual that you would like to convert to Jesus Christ. What should you do?
First of all one of the greatest testimonies about Jesus Christ is how he has changed your life. They don’t necessarily need to hear that but they do need to see it. How do they see that? By you sharing your life with them so that you can create a seam and insert into that seam the good news of salvation.
That might mean you invite them into your home, you help them with whatever they need. If you hear they have illness in their family you pray with them. You friend them on Facebook. You remember their birthdays, etc. etc. etc.
Like the salesman you are giving up something… you are giving up yourself (just like Jesus did) so that they by human nature will want to give something back. It’s simple human chemistry and it is entirely scriptural.
Sacrifice yourself for the benefit of others. Once their eyes are opened they will thank you for that great gift
Someone once said… “How you treat someone is what they become”
It’s probably not 100% true but most of the time it’s going to be true. Let’s think about this. What if we treated someone in a loving fashion? Would that make them lovable?
If we were patient with them would that make them also patient?
If we treated them with complete trust would they become trustworthy?
If we treated them like we really appreciated them would they have their self esteem lifted up?
If we sought after the other persons well being more than our own would they recognize that and adopt the same trait?
If we refused to become angry even if we are intentionally baited to become angry… would the one provoking us learn to appreciate that quality?
If someone treated us badly could we put that behind us and treated the other person like it never happened… would they recognize that? Would they see the the moral superiority in that type of behavior and work to be the same kind of person? Would they?
The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 seemed to think so because he said the exact same thing.
Here’s the thing… not only can we help transform some one else by the way that we treat them but we are also transformed from “faith unto faith”
Don’t treat someone so horribly that they become horrible people… treat them with love as you yourself were treated by Jesus Christ himself and were washed and made clean and made acceptable to God.
Pass the love down.
Sometimes in congregations the question comes up… “what should we do about members who have quit attending?”
S
Some would recommend disfellowshipping them in accordance with what is taught in 1 Corinthians 5.
In my opinion our scenario would not fit 1 Corinthians 5. The fellow was actively involved in a sin that everyone knew about and continued to attend. Paul instructed the congregation to not associate with him in any form or fashion. Taking away that association would cause the fellow to lament what he had lost due to his willful sin.
See the difference? The one who has left the congregation doesn’t care about his association with other Christians so taking that away when he has already disposed of it won’t have the desired affect.
Some would recommend sending a letter to the fellow alerting him that he is no longer a member of the congregation. I’m not sure what the purpose of that would be because he has already given that up by walking away from it.
For these sorts of issues I think about the father and the Prodigal son. The Prodigal son gave up on his family to live a life style that he knew his family would not approve of.
Did the father send him a letter stating… “you are no longer my son”? of course not he continually thought of his lost son and looked earnestly for a change of heart.
Did the father “disfellowship” him? no, again, because the son had already removed his fellowship.
Those weak sheep who stray away need to be searched for and encouraged and not treated in such a way as to drive them away even further.
There’s a difference between a weak sheep and a rebellious sheep.
