September 3rd 2023
Is Jesus Just Ahead Of You On Your Salvation Path? Or Is Some Thing In Your Way?
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Does it bother you that Jesus made a statement like the one in the selected verse? It makes me wonder if we have figured out what is required to follow Jesus. Many modern-day Christians explain that the only requirement is to believe Jesus is who He says He is! I have used such terminology in previous Verse of the Week commentaries! Sometimes we hear people proclaiming their thanks for Jesus’ blessing on things they have done, or for His blessing on organizations or causes in which they participate or support. Some of these causes seem to be in opposition to God’s Word! We live in a time when some of the Churches that profess Christ also profess support for situations that the Bible says God hates!
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6: 7-8). We see churches that are condoning people cohabiting with others of the same or opposite sex! Some are even authorizing such people to be leaders in their church! All followers of Jesus must extend the love of Christ to such people and all other sinners. Let’s face it, if our church excludes sinner, then we will be left out too! However, followers of Jesus are supposed to try and emulate Jesus to the best of our ability in this life! Using that now often overused term, WWJD? Would He condone such actions in the people He calls His followers?
When Jesus was living on this earth, He often criticized the church leaders of that time. His criticisms were usually related to following the laws men have made instead of following the laws God revealed to them. We see that same type of decision making in our day in age! We have not learned from the mistakes of our ancestors! We have many excuses for not following the guidelines God has given us, some will say these rules or commands are outdated, and do not apply to life as lived today. This type of thought is usually a cop-out and allows the person to continue the lifestyle they know is wrong without feeling guilty. We all do this type of thought process to justify the sins we commit and feel okay about it.
Some people may say it is not our place to judge what our brother or sister does. They may say we should not criticize others since we are sinners too. To this type of comment, we need to think again about how Jesus may react. In Luke 6:42 Jesus tells us something about being critical of what we see other people doing. In a first read of this statement, we may think Jesus is telling us not to be critical of what we perceive, or we will be hypocritical, but then He tells us to straiten out our life first. He then tells us we can help our brother or sister! How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. This verse has been used to tell us to avoid judging others. It also tells us to clean up our life! Then we can help others who suffer from the same mistakes or sins we have committed.
Experience is a good teacher, and learning from mistakes is a method of improvement, as it adds to our experience. However, we should not try sinning as a method of improvement of our lives. We do not have to fail in order to learn! We can learn by seeing others fail. Then we can pass on the knowledge we obtained though this experience. We need to base our judgements upon what God reveals to us through His Word not by human standards. This is of course impossible if we are not grounded in His Word. This means we must be reading the Bible to have any chance of understanding what Jesus would do in any situations we encounter or that our brothers and sisters encounter. To help others we must first attend to our life improvements. We are not expected to be perfect but are commanded to endeavor to become more like Jesus every day.
Do your plans call for becoming perfect? If not, then you are not following Jesus! People of this world do not believe they can become perfect! If you do not believe you will become perfect, then you are not truly a disciple of His! The total perfection cannot be obtained in this life, but the striving for it can only be done in this lifetime! That is what Jesus knew, and that is what Jesus did! He knew His strength came from the Father, and He always worked toward doing His Fathers will, not His will! How about you are you trying to glorify the Father in everything you do? We have been placed on this earth to glorify the Father, and we were given our salvation opportunity through His Son. Jesus is our example, are we an example for others?
Our salvation is given so we can improve, not so we can sin! Are you concerned about sinning because it hurts Jesus? He had to suffer for our sins because He chose to do it for us. If you choose to follow Him your life must change in the direction of perfection. Following Him puts us on that narrow path, because that is the one, He chose! We do not choose the path He did! We just choose whether we will follow Him or not!
No other person can put you on the path to salvation, only Jesus was given that task. Only His path leads to the perfection that heaven offers! Where are you heading in this life? Only you can make that decision! Once you have truly decided to follow Him, then you can offer to help others find that elusive narrow path! Remember, however, you are not the leader!
If you look up your salvation path, can you see Jesus?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Does it bother you that Jesus made a statement like the one in the selected verse? It makes me wonder if we have figured out what is required to follow Jesus. Many modern-day Christians explain that the only requirement is to believe Jesus is who He says He is! I have used such terminology in previous Verse of the Week commentaries! Sometimes we hear people proclaiming their thanks for Jesus’ blessing on things they have done, or for His blessing on organizations or causes in which they participate or support. Some of these causes seem to be in opposition to God’s Word! We live in a time when some of the Churches that profess Christ also profess support for situations that the Bible says God hates!
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6: 7-8). We see churches that are condoning people cohabiting with others of the same or opposite sex! Some are even authorizing such people to be leaders in their church! All followers of Jesus must extend the love of Christ to such people and all other sinners. Let’s face it, if our church excludes sinner, then we will be left out too! However, followers of Jesus are supposed to try and emulate Jesus to the best of our ability in this life! Using that now often overused term, WWJD? Would He condone such actions in the people He calls His followers?
When Jesus was living on this earth, He often criticized the church leaders of that time. His criticisms were usually related to following the laws men have made instead of following the laws God revealed to them. We see that same type of decision making in our day in age! We have not learned from the mistakes of our ancestors! We have many excuses for not following the guidelines God has given us, some will say these rules or commands are outdated, and do not apply to life as lived today. This type of thought is usually a cop-out and allows the person to continue the lifestyle they know is wrong without feeling guilty. We all do this type of thought process to justify the sins we commit and feel okay about it.
Some people may say it is not our place to judge what our brother or sister does. They may say we should not criticize others since we are sinners too. To this type of comment, we need to think again about how Jesus may react. In Luke 6:42 Jesus tells us something about being critical of what we see other people doing. In a first read of this statement, we may think Jesus is telling us not to be critical of what we perceive, or we will be hypocritical, but then He tells us to straiten out our life first. He then tells us we can help our brother or sister! How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. This verse has been used to tell us to avoid judging others. It also tells us to clean up our life! Then we can help others who suffer from the same mistakes or sins we have committed.
Experience is a good teacher, and learning from mistakes is a method of improvement, as it adds to our experience. However, we should not try sinning as a method of improvement of our lives. We do not have to fail in order to learn! We can learn by seeing others fail. Then we can pass on the knowledge we obtained though this experience. We need to base our judgements upon what God reveals to us through His Word not by human standards. This is of course impossible if we are not grounded in His Word. This means we must be reading the Bible to have any chance of understanding what Jesus would do in any situations we encounter or that our brothers and sisters encounter. To help others we must first attend to our life improvements. We are not expected to be perfect but are commanded to endeavor to become more like Jesus every day.
Do your plans call for becoming perfect? If not, then you are not following Jesus! People of this world do not believe they can become perfect! If you do not believe you will become perfect, then you are not truly a disciple of His! The total perfection cannot be obtained in this life, but the striving for it can only be done in this lifetime! That is what Jesus knew, and that is what Jesus did! He knew His strength came from the Father, and He always worked toward doing His Fathers will, not His will! How about you are you trying to glorify the Father in everything you do? We have been placed on this earth to glorify the Father, and we were given our salvation opportunity through His Son. Jesus is our example, are we an example for others?
Our salvation is given so we can improve, not so we can sin! Are you concerned about sinning because it hurts Jesus? He had to suffer for our sins because He chose to do it for us. If you choose to follow Him your life must change in the direction of perfection. Following Him puts us on that narrow path, because that is the one, He chose! We do not choose the path He did! We just choose whether we will follow Him or not!
No other person can put you on the path to salvation, only Jesus was given that task. Only His path leads to the perfection that heaven offers! Where are you heading in this life? Only you can make that decision! Once you have truly decided to follow Him, then you can offer to help others find that elusive narrow path! Remember, however, you are not the leader!
If you look up your salvation path, can you see Jesus?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
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