How important is it that God's people are not led
astray? Important enough to Him that the
person responsible for leading them astray should be killed. In the Gospels, Jesus doesn't advocate
killing the person who teaches another to sin but He certainly doesn't hold
much hope out for them. He said that it
would be better for one who teaches a child to sin to have a millstone tied
round their neck and thrown into the sea.
The Lord is a jealous God but does that mean He has human emotions about
rejection? No, the issue is His great
love for us and the knowledge that if we follow after other gods we are lost
eternally and it is certainly not His will that this happen. While He may have perfect knowledge of who
will be saved, that doesn't mean we have no responsibility for leading people
astray. His sovereignty doesn't void our
responsibility. We are to have a zero
tolerance policy for those who would entice the people of God away from
Him. Not only pastors have that responsibility,
it is incumbent on all of us, but in order to do so we must know the truth so
as not to be led away from it.
I had someone recently tell me that someone was clearly
giving the message for the last days based solely on the number of people that
worship at the man's church. Jesus says
that the kingdom of God "is not coming in ways that can be observed." He said the kingdom of God was in their
midst. Wherever Jesus is present, either
bodily as here or spiritually by the Holy Spirit, there is the kingdom
regardless of how many are present with Him.
The kingdom of God is a reality wherever two or more are gathered in His
Name. The problem with the statement the
person made to me is that in the last days we are told many will be led astray
so numbers aren't reliable in identifying the kingdom. Jesus had twelve disciples and occasionally a
large crowd would gather but He never cared about numbers, never did a single
thing designed to attract or keep a crowd, simply always preached truth,
popular or not.
The goal of telling the truth is repentance. Paul speaks about repentance in terms of
"godly grief." The Prayer Book
uses ideas like, "We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and
wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed…"
and "We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we
from time to time most grievously have committed…" That really should describe the way we deal
with sin in our lives, that is godly grief, a proper and godly understanding of
the reality of sin from God's perspective that causes us anguish to have done
such things. The good news of the Gospel
is that there is forgiveness for sins if we are contrite and have this godly
grief over them. We confront sin in
ourselves and others in order to allow for repentance, forgiveness,
reconciliation and restoration with God and one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment