SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/22/2020 7:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The
Negative Consequences”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 5:19
Message of the verse: “19 “Whoever then
annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall
be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them,
he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Here
is the following negative results that Jesus mentions in this verse, as He
mentions them first: “Whoever then
annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be
called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
MacArthur
explains “Luo (annuls) is a common
word in the New Testament and can mean to break, set loose, release, dissolve,
or even to melt. The idea here is that
of annulling God’s law, or making it void, by loosing ourselves from its
requirements and standards. Jesus used a
compound and stronger form of that term (kataluo)
in verse 17 in asserting that He had not come ‘to abolish the Law or the
Prophets.’”
The
problem goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden where we see mankind first
sin, and thus all who are born from a man and a woman have a fallen human
nature. Think about this, those who have
children, did you ever have to teach any of your children to do wrong. When a baby is born everyone always makes a
fuss over such a cute little baby, and how innocent that they are. Judas was born a cute little baby, and we see
what happened to him, and I could give other examples but I believe the point
is well made that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and because
they have this sinful nature they sin.
And because we all have this fallen human nature, we resent prohibitions
and demands. I read a story of a hotel
that was built right along a beautiful lake and the owners of the hotel decided
to put “no fishing” signs on all the balconies so that the windows would not
get broken from the heavy weights attached to the fishing lines. Sure enough many windows were getting broken
from the heavy weights attached to the fishing lines. They did not know what to do. Someone suggested taking down the “no fishing”
signs and then the problem stopped.
Romans 5:20 states “The Law came in so that the transgression would
increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”
Christians,
those born again are tempted to modify and weaken God’s standards. Believers do this perhaps because of
ignorance, misunderstanding, or outright disregard find reasons to make God’s
commands less demanding than they really are.
However when a Christian ceases to revere and obey God’s Word in even
the slightest degree, to that degree he is being un-Christlike, because that is
something Christ refused to do.
MacArthur
writes “The Jews of Jesus’ day had divided the Old Testament laws into two
categories. Two hundred forty-eight were
positive commands, and three hundred sixty-five—one for each day of the year—were
negative. The scribes and Pharisees
would have long, heated debates about which laws in each category were the most
important and which were the least.”
The
Scriptures themselves makes clear that all of God’s commands are not of equal
importance. There is an example found in
the book of Matthew: “34 But when the
Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves
together. 35 One of them, a
lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is
the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, "’YOU SHALL
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH
ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second
is like it, ’YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two
commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets’” (Matt. 22:37-39). MacArthur adds “Jesus acknowledged that one
commandment is supreme above all others and that another is second in
importance. It follows that all the
other commandments fall somewhere below those two and that, like them, they
vary in importance.
“In
His series of woes Jesus gives another indication of the relative importance of
God’s commands ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe
mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the
law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should
have done without neglecting the others’ Matthew 23:23).’ The tithing of herbs was required; but being
just, merciful, and faithful are much more spiritually important.
“Jesus’
point here, however, is that it is not permissible to ‘annul’—by ignoring,
modifying, or disobeying—even ‘one of the least of these commandments.’ Some commands are greater than others, but
note are to be disregarded.”
One
of my favorite sections of the book of Acts comes in chapter 20 where we see
that the Apostle Paul speaks to the Ephesian elders, and as one reads this
section it is like reading a letter that Paul has written. Paul states in Acts 20:27 “For I did not
shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” We can see here that the Apostle did not pick
and choose what he would teach and exhort as He stressed some things more than
others, but he left nothing out.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Loving the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
and mind certainly seems to be the most important thing that I can do. Loving my neighbor as myself is something
else very important. I surely see the
cross in these two laws, the vertical loving the Lord, and the horizontal
loving my neighbor. I also see the Ten
Commandments come out of these two laws, the first four have to do with God and
the last six with “your neighbor.”
7/22/2020 8:39 AM
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