SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/17/2022 9:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Rule”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:10a
Message of the verse: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones;”
First of all I want to explain again what the Lord is
talking about when He says “little ones,” as we have gone over this in an
earlier SD. Little ones does not refer
to physical children but to Christians, those who believe in Christ as seen in
verse 6 “but whoever causes one of these little ones
who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be
hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.” The young toddler whom Jesus perhaps still
held in His Arms as seen in verse two, was a visual illustration of God’s
spiritual children.
As we look at that, seen that you do
not despise, we understand it is a warning, a
negative command that strongly implies God’s displeasure with disobedience of
it. MacArthur writes “The Greek use of
the negative with a subjunctive verb intensifies the prohibition. Jesus had already made clear the seriousness
of mistreating any of God’s little ones:
It would be better for a person who commits such an offense to have ‘a
heavy millstone…hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of
the sea’ (v. 6).”
MacArthur goes on:
“Despise is from kataphroneo,
which has the literal meaning of thinking down on. To despise one of these little ones is
therefore to treat one of God’s own precious and beloved children with distain
and contempt.” Now remember that we have been learning as we go through this 17th
and 18th chapter of Matthew that when a person does harm to one of
God’s children that he is doing harm to Jesus Christ who died to save that
person.
“Little ones included the Twelve themselves. And in the context of what had just happened,
Jesus was telling them that their bickering about who was greatest in the
kingdom was a form of despising God’s little ones, in this case each other. When one of them pushed himself
up, it was as the expense of pushing the others down. Instead of their proud, self-seeking
attitudes that created jealously, envy, and resentment, they should have been
showing concern for each others’ welfare.
They should have been building others up rather than themselves.”
We will conclude this SD by looking at
what Paul wrote to the Philippian believers as he exhorted the Philippian
believers:
“2 make my joy complete by being of the same
mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or
empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important
than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal
interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also
in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being
found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross.”
I
have to say that I have a lot of favorite verses, but this section from
Philippians ranks close to the top.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The verses from Philippians 2:2-8 have great
meaning to me for my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to cause me to be more like
Jesus Christ as seen in the Philippian 2:2-8 verses.
12/17/2022 10:17 AM
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