Repentance and Faith

I believe that if anyone could want to know the answer to one question in their life for absolute certainty, it would be this: "Whose heart is really with me?" Of course if we are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, we know by experience that the heart of Jesus is with us at all times. He has never let anyone down. He has "never left or forsaken" any who put their trust in him (Heb. 13:5). In fact he hasn't forsaken those who are his even when they have failed to trust him. Seeing that we are called to be "conformed to [his] image," we should be like minded with him, especially in this most important of all arenas of our faith (Rom. 8:29). Those who have walked closely with God throughout history have experienced the painful dilemma of not finding that kind of quality among those who were their peers, families, and brethren. I suppose David may have put it in the words that describe it best: "Help , LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men" (Psm. 12:1). There it is, that word that describes the heart of those who are most like Jesus - 'faithful.' Faithfulness is the word that describes the godly quality of having the heart to "bear all things," and to "endure all things," when it comes to our relationships with one another (I Cor. 13:7). You may note that the quoted and referenced scripture comes from the chapter that most defines the divine quality of the love of God. Both Jesus and his father are utterly complete in that faithful love, and that is why Jesus is called "Faithful and True," as John described in the vision he saw of his second coming (Rev. 19:11). A lot of folks are all over the whole 'faith' thing, but Jesus is looking for those who love and focus on the 'faithful' thing more than anything else. John also described in the Revelation those who will be with Jesus at his coming: "for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful" (Rev. 17:14). I can assure you that if we are not faithful in our relationships with those whom we can see, we are not being faithful to Christ whom we cannot see (I Jn. 4:20). I can equally assure you that there is no pain like being failed in a great time of need by those who should be and are most responsible to be helpful to us. That is what motivated the same David that I quoted above to called on the Lord with this desperate cry: "Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted" (Psm. 25:16). So the moral of that story is that we do not want to be those who contribute to and promote that desolation and affliction by overlooking it.

I can't help but think back to the parable of the 'Good Samaritan' in Luke 10 which I did a couple of posts on around six weeks ago. A Jewish man was injured and in much jeopardy, and there were both a priest and a Levite who passed by him at separate times, and neither of them did anything to help the man who was hurt. Of course we know that the Samaritan, who was despised of all the Jews, did stop and take care of the man. Well, God bless the Samaritan, and I know he did; but it's the priest and the Levite that lend more light to the story. These were the two most highly anointed offices in Israel, and these men were the ones who were responsible to represent God to the rest of God's people of Israel. Now one can look at this parable and just quickly come to the conclusion that the priest and the Levite were just wicked, heinous men. But we don't actually know exactly how bad they were, or where they were going when they passed the injured man by. We do know that they were guilty of being unconcerned, and they were guilty of serious neglect. But it could be that the priest was on his way to offer sacrifice or do the service of the temple, and he felt that his service for God in that capacity was more important than anything else could be. After all we should always prefer God over everyone and everything else. It could also be that the Levite was on his way to teach the law of God to a group of people, or to assist the priests with the duties of the temple. That is what Levites did, and it was indeed a very important job for the Lord; and again God and his ministry should be preferred above all. The problem was that if indeed these things were the case, and that is why neither of these 'important' men had time to stop and help the man who was in jeopardy of his life; they were guilty of the greatest of all hypocrisies. The very law of God that they were supposedly doing the service of, was and is ALL ABOUT the man whom they both passed by! Jesus raked the religious Pharisees over the coals for that very hypocrisy: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Mat. 23:23). These people had taken the stated error to the extreme, and they refused to relinquish that error.

The Pharisees that Jesus rebuked were particularly wicked, but we don't know that the priest and the Levite in that parable were as bad as them. The reason I say this is because I know by experience that one doesn't need to be particularly wicked, or even wicked at all for that matter, to be guilty of what they were guilty of. All one need do is have his priorities somewhat misplaced, and be overboard on 'ministry' and lacking on faithfulness at the same time. As far as 'preferring the Lord' over everyone else, we need to be certain that we aren't going too far in that direction either. How can we do that, you might ask? Like this: "I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying , Lord, when saw we thee an hungred , or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying , Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (Mat. 25:43-46). We cannot separate our relationships with one another from our relationship with Jesus. They are the same, and Jesus is the one who told us so: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is LIKE UNTO IT, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Mat. 22:37-39). In the parable of the Good Samaritan the wounded man's injuries were openly evident to any who saw him. But There are many who have spiritual injuries that are not so evident except to those who are conditioning their hearts continually in the love of God. Those who are doing so are the 'Good Samaritans' of the here and now, and they show that by what they do. Unfortunately I find that there are more who are like the priest and the Levite, and just don't seem to 'get' what this Gospel is really all about. Do you seek to have more faith, maybe for spiritual gifts and miracles so that you can be more prolific in ministry? Let me tell you this if you will: Seek faithfulness with greater fervor, and don't leave the other undone. If you aspire to great things in 'ministry' as it were, be aware of the hurt of those in your sphere of living, and 'minister' to that. It doesn't really take a whole lot to make a whole lot of difference in the life and spirit of someone who has been injured by whatever hardships or adversities that have come. Not only so, but God will be pleased with your ministry in that circumstance more than any other you can offer him. May God be with us all to do so. Amen.