Apparently one thing true about Elisha was that he drew
other prophets to himself. The company
of prophets had increased to the point that their lodgings were now
insufficient to house them all so they determined to add onto the complex. They were not seeking sumptuous palaces but
humble lodging such that they could provide for themselves. In the process one lost an axe head which
belonged to someone else and rather than return it with a plea of "Sorry
about that" they sought to retrieve it and Elisha is able to make it float
to the surface. Such small things seem
typically to immaterial to us but here we see an encouragement to pray about
all things. Remember the king of Syria
was the one who sent Naaman to the prophet when you read this story of Elisha
helping the king of Israel discern the raiding intentions of this same
king. He sends soldiers with murderous
intentions against Elisha to stop him warning his king and the prophet now has
a new assistant to replace Gehazi. The
assistant sees only in the natural but Elisha sees those things that are not
seen but are no less real and asks only that the man's eyes be opened to see
God's protection. Blindness comes upon
the soldiers but Elisha shows great mercy and grace to those who sought his
life. By doing so, he gained his enemy
and the raids ceased.
Jesus says we are to love our enemies and then He shows us
how to do that very thing, all the way to the end when He prayed that the
Father forgive those who taunted and crucified Him. We are called consistently through the Sermon
on the Mount and the entirety of His teachings to a higher moral and ethical
life than anyone truly imagined. If we
take the commandments only at their literal level we can miss out on true
righteousness. The literal meaning of
the commandments in the Old Testament is the minimal reading not the
maximal. Often people want to ignore the
literal meaning in favor of some supposed spiritual meaning that is deeper but
other. In these teachings I believe it
is clear that the commandments begin at the literal interpretation but go
beyond that as well, never doing away with the literal to get to the
spiritual. If we want God's
interpretation we must ask Him in all things what the fullness of the
commandment is just as we know that our "neighbor" whom we are to
love must include all mankind, not just those who love us as friends.
Paul is clear that there are standards in the church. He says that they aren't to associate with
notorious sinners, those whose sins are known in the community and who even the
outside world acknowledges to be sinful whether they use that terminology or not. Treating someone like a brother implies that
you accept them on God's terms and that changes things in what we tolerate in
behavior. He also calls on the church to
deal with its own problems rather than allowing the world to judge between
believers. We are to be known by our
love, charity, and reasonableness with one another, our fellowship should
insist on reconciliation rather than redress of grievances in the public
square. If we lived by love of neighbor
and showed grace and mercy to one another we would be a witness to the world.
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