Psalm 78:1-39; 2 Kings 5:19-27; 1 Cor. 5:1-8; Matt. 5:27-37
Gehazi’s character is revealed. As I noted earlier, Jewish tradition holds that Gehazi was a good bit less than a noble character and here we see it in chasing after Naaman and presuming on the man’s gratitude for healing his leprosy. He would have done nearly anything for Elisha and Gehazi asks not for his master but for the benefit of two men from “Ephraim” who have dropped by for a visit. Certainly a talent of silver each was overly generous as a present for these guests but such was Naaman’s character and gratitude that he provided lavishly at this request. Apparently Gehazi didn’t think much of his master’s prophetic power, believing that he would get away with this scheme. He was quite wrong.
Those who would argue that certain sins are not truly important on the basis that Jesus never said anything about them have apparently not read this passage. Jesus raised the bar on sin to an impossible standard with respect to anger, adultery, divorce and oaths. He never lowered the bar on righteousness, always held up a higher standard than anyone imagined or aspired to reach. If adultery is defined as lusting after a woman in your heart I would dare say there is not a man alive who could say they have not committed this sin. Holiness is not a possibility in this life, the fall has been complete. I don’t think we have any idea how much of our lives have the nature of sin because we have never seen true holiness, we only have the rest of the world to go by as a measuring device. When the only righteous man lived they crucified Him, they couldn’t accept it.
The fact that we are all sinners in no way indicates that we should tolerate sin within the body of Christ, particularly sin for which there is no repentance. In this case there was sexual sin that was tolerated and the man apparently was engaging in this behavior openly and without intention of change. Within the church today there are various movements to garner acceptance for behaviors which are clearly wrong biblically and this passage makes it quite clear how Paul as an apostle would deal with the issue. In addition to the sexual issues we face, we also need to deal with questions like justice and greed in the same way. To the extent that we know other Christians are unjust, unethical or immoral in their business or personal life we should confront those sins in the same way. Sin must always be dealt with by exposing it and turning away from it, the church can never tolerate sin on any basis.
Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.
No comments:
Post a Comment