Created in Christ Jesus for Good Works

  

Most true Christians in Ethiopia can worship freely and openly, but those who leave Islam or the traditional Ethiopian church (Orthodox) to follow Christ face opposition.  Multiple large-scale attacks during the last few years have devastated Christian communities.  Many church buildings have been destroyed.  Here is an example:  From Voice of the Martyrs, November 2021. 

Negasi grew up in a traditional Orthodox church in Ethiopia (northeast corner of Africa; it borders Sudan, just south of Egypt), but he also attended a special school to learn how to cast demons, curses, and cause people to lose their minds.  He became so proficient at witchcraft that he was honored with a title reserved for the best students.  Later, after moving to the spiritual capital of Ethiopia, he opened a pharmacy to supplement his income.  One day a customer asked him if he would heal his sister, who was seriously mentally ill—she had become a penti—a derogatory term for a biblical Christian.  Negasi could only cast his spell if she were present, but when the customer finally arrived with her. he had forgotten.  Since he had already been given half the money, the customer filed charges against him, and after a trial, he was sent to almost 4 years in prison.

As a police officer escorted Negasi to jail, they passed a group of young boys playing games with some strange coins.  Out of curiosity, Negasi asked the boys if he could have one of the coins.  When they obliged, he put their gift in his pocket.  He didn’t know it, but it would one day become a treasured keepsake. 

Negasi began to think God was punishing him for practicing witchcraft; he feared the consequences of his sins more than he feared death.  Too miserable even to eat, he went 20 days without food. Then one day he cried out to God with a broken spirit.  “I know that I am a sinner, and I don’t deserve to be in Your home with You in heaven; but if there is any place that is outside Your home for me, please allow me to go there.”

Burdened by the weight of his sins, Negasi confessed to an Ethiopian Orthodox priest at the prison, believing that confession to a priest was required for forgiveness. But he still didn’t feel any comfort. Seeking some kind of penance for his misdeeds, Negasi devoted himself to the central church teachings.  He celebrated a different saint each day, just as the church does, and checked out an Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, in the ancient language of Ge-ez.  Every time he tried to study one of its 81 books, he fell asleep—even when he wasn’t tired.  He also borrowed another Bible, with 66 books, that he found in the prison library.  That was in the native Tigrinya language, and it captivated him, and he soon noticed passages that contradicted many things that he had believed. 

Then one night, Negsi had a dream in which he was told that the salvation he was seeking is found in the Gospels.  And after a deeper study of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ (which he had never read or heard anything about), he concluded that salvation is found in faith in Christ alone.  Overcome with joy, Negasi began to share this revelation with everyone he could.  During times when he was allowed to leave his cell, he walked cell to cell telling other prisoners about Christ.  He would explain as much as he could before the inmates or guards grew angry and forced him to move on.  (Note:  Ethiopia is 50% Muslim, 40% mostly Orthodox/Coptic, and 10% Animism.  “I couldn’t understand why this message was not being taught,” he said.  Negasi had no idea the Tigrinya Bible was the same one used by penti, from biblical churches in Ethiopia.  And he didn’t realize the gospel that had suddenly changed his life was the principal message of biblical churches worldwide. “I thought I was sharing something that was completely new to the world.  I became passionate about telling this message, even to the point that I forgot about my years in prison.“

Each month, some prisoners gathered to worship depictions of the angel Gabriel.  But after coming to understand the gospel, Negasi refused to join them, explaining that only God is worthy of worship.  As a result, many of the inmates threatened him, calling him a penti and a heretic.  When guards had learned that Negasi had been sharing the gospel, they ordered him to stop.  And when he refused, they transferred him to a maximum-security cell and placed shackles on his legs. 

Shortly after he was released from maximum, he met a fellow prisoner, Ephrem, who had the same religious upbringing that he had before.  But now Negasi led him to the Lord.  But when authorities learned that a second prisoner had begun sharing the gospel, they decided to take action. He was back in solitary confinement.  They sent another prisoner, named Dinaw, to check on him and bring his daily rations.  Dinaw was serving a three-year sentence for assaulting a neighbor. 

Fellow prisoners had warned Dinaw about the gospel message being shared by Negasi and Ephrem.  But as Dinaw brought his daily meals to solitary, he became friends with Negasi and Ephrem.  Although Dinaw wanted to follow Jesus, he feared the repercussions.  “When persecution comes, I will not stand with you; we are all suffering in prison, but you are suffering even more.”  Negasi encouraged Dinaw with passages from Romans 8 and John 16, explaining that trials, tribulation, and persecution are part of following Jesus Christ.  And after gaining a better understanding of what it means to be His disciple, Dinaw placed his faith in Him. 

Some of Dinaw’s relatives who worked as local police
officers soon reported his “heretical” faith to his father, who decided to gather his brothers and friends and go have a talk with him.  “Did you become a penti?” they asked Dinaw.  He replied, “I have given my life to Jesus.”  His father was so angry that he wrote a letter to the police chief, urging him to keep his son behind bars beyond his eligibility for release.  When guards told Dinaw about his father’s letter, his response surprised them. “I like prison; I can read my Bible every day here, so don’t worry about that.” 

Some local biblical pastors came to visit, and opened Negasi’s eyes that his beliefs were biblical Christian, and there were many more believers like him.  The pastors discipled the three, and before long, 15 prisoners came to faith in Christ. 

After release, the three men soon found out that following Christ is more difficult outside prison than behind bars.  When Negasi’s wife learned of his faithfulness to God, she divorced him and took their daughter with her.  And Dinaw, from a small village, had no one to share his faith with, and couldn’t fit in.  He returned to his home village, where he faced continual threats.  They found out that as biblical Christians have shared the gospel and planted churches in the north of Ethiopia, some members of the Ethiopian Orthodox church carried out violent attacks against them.  And in some cases, traditional Orthodox have sided with Muslims against the biblical Christians, considering them a common enemy. 

About 18 months after Dinaw returned home, the threats turned to violent persecution against his family.  One night when he was sleeping in a field near his house, to care for one of his cows, a group of villagers came to his home.  They tied the door shut from the outside with rope, trapping Dinaw’s wife and children inside as they slept.  Dinaw awoke to the smell of smoke and the sight of his house burning a few hundred yards away.  After running home, he untied the rope, and got his family out just in time.  They lived in a wood wall and a tarp, with no money, until Voice of the Martyrs heard of them and arrived, and rebuilt their home two years ago. 

Despite the challenges, all three men have remained firm in faith.  And Dinaw, who once resisted following Christ, now accepts persecution as integral to the Christian faith.  As he says, “I knew the Lord led me to sleep next to my cows, to be able to save my family. As I watched my house burned, the story of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego came to my mind.  They were asked like me, to worship another god, and I said no.  So they tried to convince me with fire.  But our real home is in heaven. They burned my earthly house, but my heart is not full of hatred, and I pray for them.” When asked why he has stayed in his village, under continual threat of death, Dinaw explained that he has no fear of death.  “My life belongs to God, and I believe He put me here where He is working.  If He allows me to be killed, I am ready to die.” When Negasi reflects on the past few years, he, too, sees how God has worked in his life.  Upon his release from prison, the guards returned all of his original belongings.  And in the pocket of his clothing, he found the coin that the boys had given him on his way to jail.  On one side of the coin was printed “John 3:16,” and the words “Those who have the Lord Jesus have eternal life.”  On the other side of the coin was the question, “Where is your eternal home?”   He says, “I thank God that He put me in prison for a purpose.”  Negasi is at a Bible college and hopes to become a full-time pastor.  He has paid back all the money he owed the man who filed charges against him, and they are now good friends.  Negasi hopes that he will become a believer soon. “You are my everlasting good person because you put me in prison; I will not forget you, because you helped me find eternal life.”

Losing Heaven (Part 3 of 3)

 To explain this blog, you really need to read "Losing Heaven" (parts 1 and 2). Here's how it started:

As some of you already know from my prior blogs, from carefully reading what Jesus said in the Gospels, once a person is initially born again, it is necessary that he goes on in godliness. Jesus requires what He called fruit for us to achieve heaven. We cannot call ourselves “Christian,” yet desecrate our Lord by sinful behavior and by ignoring God 6 days a week, after publicly claiming Him as Lord of our lives.

I have taken on a big task in these three blogs: I will provide all verses from the Gospels that our great Teacher gave as fruit—both bad and good.  In EVERY ONE, is mentioned life if you do it, or eternal death if you don’t. Most of those 100 verses make it clear that even if you lack that particular fruit--you are excluded from heaven.

I have devoted the first blog to 10 of the 17 areas I cover. Please read on for 7 more "danger" areas.

Next, a more severe one: DO NOT BLASPHEME THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS.

Mark 3:22, 29:…the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”… ²⁹  (Jesus said) but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— ³⁰ because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

They said Jesus had power from demons. This is blasphemy, a serious false charge. Their judgment has been so corrupted that they can’t tell the works of God. They are therefore beyond repentance, they have lost any possibility of forgiveness; they are doomed for hell. Does this have any application today? There are still those cults that say that about Jesus, though few of those are in the U.S. They are most prevalent in lands where the majority are ruled by pagan demons. I do have to say this: We need to be Very careful how we speak of charismatic groups in the U.S. Many are fake; perhaps some even demon-ruled. But some have been, or are, experiencing an occasional miracle of God. But we don’t know who is who, so we cannot judge. Jesus told us not try to separate tares from wheat (except in obvious cases of church discipline). So says Matthew 13:30.

OTHER REFERENCES: Matthew 12:24-31 and Luke 12:10.

Next, DENIAL OR BEING ASHAMED OF CHRIST OR HIS WORDS will result in His denial of us for heaven.

We’ll start with Matthew 10:33:

…whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

This is straightforward, yet why do pastors refuse to talk about this? A slightly different requirement is in Mark 8:38:

³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

This life vs death statement about denying our Lord, also adds being ashamed of His Words. If we know a Bible quote that would be relevant in a conversation, we should not hesitate to use it. If you have extra time waiting at the doctor’s office, what would be wrong with bringing a Bible and reading while you wait? You might actually get into a good conversation, and please the Lord by not being ashamed of His Word. If folks at the job only use our Lord’s name for profanity, we should speak up against hearing it. If they don’t, we should spend time with other folks instead. If TV programs inure us to that profanity, we need to shake up our sensitivities and watch a different program. I remember a guy who, in casual conversation no less, spoke of Jesus getting hooked up with Mary Magdalene. I spoke to him in disbelief, like “how can you say that? That’s dangerous; you could be in trouble before God by saying that.” He never thought that God would be listening or offended. He was speechless. Few care about defending our Lord against scandalous charges, or against blaspheming His name. The day might come, in End Times, that we are facing martyrdom if we say that our respect for the dictator will never mean we place him above our Lord Christ. In those days, we cannot deny our Lord; the penalty for so doing is forever in hell, no matter what the pressure you feel to “chicken out.” Let them take your life; there are many, many, more years in heaven that you will be so, so glad you made the right choice. If it means the kids die, you should prepare them for the possibility ahead of time. Remember, Jesus says we MUST love Him above our own family. (We can offer to trade: we will give our life so a family member can gain theirs). God will not accept any excuses or weakening out in that time of evangelistic crisis. The effect on any crowd watching us stand up for our Lord like that will be explosive. It could, if enough people do it, break the back of the persecutor’s aims; and it could save many people. The church always grew in number when fed by the blood of its martyrs. Don’t deny our Lord that glory.

Please look at Matthew 12:30:

³⁰ He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

Jesus is offering no middle ground, no way to procrastinate; it’s either “all the way” with Him, or it’s not abiding in Him. He says He is God; the Word claims He was born of a virgin, He was resurrected, He ascended into heaven. He will not abide with you if you just call Him a “prophet,” or a “greatest teacher who ever lived” We must make our choice now. If we don’t, what happens if we die unexpectantly? We are on our way to hell

OTHER REFERENCE: Luke 9:26

Next, we consider a warning, not quite a “heaven or hell:” IT IS HARD FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER HEAVEN

We’ll start with Matthew 19:23:

²³ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The fact is, I have talked with several guys that I knew were well off; none of them were worried about this verse, which clearly says that the odds are much higher for a rich person to end up in hell. It’s true that there are many distracting phrases, to keep us off what the Scripture is saying here. Such as, a camel going through a needle makes some people feel that this verse is not relevant to real life. Plus, Jesus says “with God all things are possible.” After reading that, my rich “Christian” friends feel no self-examination is necessary. But I see them with beach lots, several cars, so if I were them, I would rethink my purchases. They are happy giving 10%. The fact is, Jesus’ teachings on not accumulating assets overrides the Old Testament 10%. The point is, Jesus knows how complacent and involved in the world that being rich tends to make us. He wants to warn rich people that He is first in our lives if we want to make heaven, not money, or reputation, or power. Money has no intrinsic value for the long run. When we die, what can we take with us? Nothing.  All these things are like a monopoly game. When the game is over, when this life on earth ends, the game leaves us with nothing meaningful, and then real life comes, with a huge issue—eternity in heaven or hell? Importantly, the choice was yours, and you already decided which place you end up.

OTHER REFERENCES: Mark 10:23 and Luke 18:24

Next, it is important that WE MUST SEEK THE NARROW WAY THAT LEADS TO LIFE.

There are two relevant Scriptures: Matthew 7:14:

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Many Christians will be fooled on Judgment Day, as Scripture indicates (Matthew 7:22). I have to question a frequent doctrine: Many pastors tell us there are two seats that Jesus takes to judge. One, the so-called “bema” seat, He says nice things to Christians and passes out reward crowns. The other, the “official” Judgment seat, is for the unsaved. Presumably the Christians get complimented in a separate seat because they are supposedly there before the Tribulation, but the bad guys get judged after the tribulation. Well, I’m sorry to interrupt all these sweet thoughts, but I don’t buy the pre-Tribulation rapture (other blogs).  And there is no “bema” seat anywhere in Scripture. I buy what Paul says in Romans 14:12 (GW) All of us will have to give an account of ourselves to God.

Back to my point: Many people will be deceived, Scripture says. Perhaps that’s because they have no idea of Christ as Judge, who does not give heaven because of a one-day turnaround that you did 20 years ago and have not changed since. As we are seeing in His commandments, He will restrict who enters heaven. It will be narrow, it will be difficult, and few will find it. They will fail, not because God hid it away; it is blazoned on His Word for all to see. But you have to have a discriminating eye. “Oh, yeah, we must love God for real. We must live in public for godliness, that’s hard these days.” Many “Christians,” especially in the U.S., are on the broad path. Lots of distractions, lots of reasons to be complacent, life is fun. “Hey, I thought the reason I was so well off economically was because God loved me, so I figured heaven would therefore be a sure thing.” We are a rich nation, so you have to believe when I conclude the Bible says, not too many in our country will end up in heaven. Satan’s job relative to churches in the U.S. is easier. What we think is a church ‘on fire’ means a church growing its numbers rapidly. Preaching ‘easy-believism’ will do that; and I think that is a path too frequently done. So Satan doesn’t have to worry much about us REALLY being on fire. He can “let sleeping dogs lie.” He’s just fine with how we’re so sure that we can just “go through the motions,” and get the grand prize.

Luke 13:23-24 has a slightly different wording:

²³ Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

“Not be able” to enter through the narrow gate is a different wording than “few who find it.” Though they both comprehend the same thought. If you “fail to find it,” or are “not able,” you might have the same blockage—read the Sower parable again and determine what soil you present to the Lord’s teachings. Do you separate from the world’s lusts? Do you not go on and dig further and find the rock foundation? Are you so lost in the world that you haven’t time for God? Do you hate Christianity so much that any seed someone tries to deposit, your mind immediately throws it away? Are you thinking Science, or Rationality, will defeat the primitive Bible? So, you have never given it a chance.

Next, WE MUST ENDURE TO THE END TO BE SAVED

Of course, we don’t know when our “end” comes. So we need to “endure” all the time. As you can guess, “endure” suggests that in times of hard persecution, or if you have severe tragedy, it’s not time to blow off steam against God—or to abandon Him. Our natural tendency would give in to the pressure, but if we are abiding with Christ, we have put aside our “natural” tendency. It is insulting to Him for us berating in public how our life has gone, because He could come back and say, “How do you think I had it? The most excruciating pain-inducing death that men could offer, being classed as a criminal, naked on the Cross, all done just for healing people—and I knew all this ahead of time. Did I fold? No. And neither can you, if you are Mine. Do not be a coward at the mention of My name. Abide with me, stick with me. You know heaven awaits.” Two Scriptures:

Matthew 10:21-22:

²¹ “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. ²² And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

Having your child tell the state, let’s say, that we turned to the illegal doctrine of fundamentalist Christian, and then the child wanting us to die for “treason” against the dictator who wanted worship—I can’t imagine anything worse. Not wanting to be “hated by all” will make many people become apostate, deserting our Lord.

Matthew 13:21 agrees with this turning apostate:

²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 

This verse was covered in the Sower. For some reason there is no root to keep you abiding in Him. You’re likely to wilt and fail under the heat of trials. In such cases, you will not endure to the end, but only for awhile. This is a failed crop in the Sower; it does not have much fruit; that is, you would be back on hell’s membership list.

I’ve got verses that are just for the End Times. Because I think we might be close, I’ll include them. They’re in Revelation 14:9-10:

⁹ Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb

Since taking the Mark of the beast will give you access to food, you would want desperately to “fake worship” the beast and take the mark, and hope God will understand that you still love Him, you just want to feed your family. But these verses allow for none of that thinking. Taking the mark is the same thing as worship. This is one of those “one mistake, you’re done.” The beast has been blaspheming God, trashing Him, and you think you are going to basically cave when challenged by this son of perdition by taking his mark? No way. You have let Satan win. You have to stand up for God’s Name and deny, even at the cost of your life, any idea that you agree with his blasphemy. You have to be on the Right Side the day you die. All your service for Him will be wiped away if you do this single treason from Revelation against your Master. Christ gave His life for us, He loves us, He owns us. The price for staying with Him will be steep, but we must pay. You will be so glad in heaven of your right choice.

Last, we have Luke 21:36:

³⁶ Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Jesus spoke these words while talking of the End Times. If we are worried so much about meals and whether we can all just “stay alive,” we are operating in the world’s game. If we are “watching,” or looking for the Lord’s coming near the end of the Great Tribulation (no, we don’t get raptured out of it); and if we are praying to God, we are showing faith that heaven is more important than our body hanging on to life on a dead-end planet. We thus show we are determined to endure in Him—then we can stand before Him, and say, we stayed with Him all the way. Those stuck in the “world’s game,” however, have dishonored Jesus’ Words, and may not be counted worthy to escape God’s wrath and judgment.

Another verse in the Gospels that bear risks of hell is on the subject DO NOT HARM A CHILD

This does not mean that we can’t discipline our children. The Bible encourages doing that if they misbehave.

The verses are Mark 9:37, 42:

³⁷ “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” ⁴² “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.

Harming a child like the Hamas does—using them as shields, so they are in the middle of a bomb or a gunfight—this will earn them a bad circle of hell. Telling a child “we will not teach you the Bible; we want you to decide on your religion yourself” is another bad choice. God’s Word says we should train up a child in the way they should go. Do we believe that Scripture is the way to go? Then teach it.

Matthew 18:6, 10 says:

⁶ “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea…¹⁰ “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

Here’s one that gets one mention in the Gospels: THOSE WHO PURSUE CONTINUAL COMMISSION OF SERIOUS SIN cannot enter heaven.

It’s in John 8:34-35. (But it’s a big part of John’s letters). Let me do it in the Pure Word translation. Pure Word gives you the most accurate definition of each Greek word. It upsets the flow of reading, but is for those who want the real meaning of what the author is trying to say:

“…whoever is continuously by his choice doing sin nature and sin is a slave of sin nature and sin. And moreover, the slave is definitely not continuing in the house forever but a son abides forever”

It says the slave does not stay in the house forever, but a son does. The one who finally ends up as a slave (to sin) may be initially saved, and have at that time the potential of entering the house, or heaven, forever; but if he stays a slave of sin—continually doing it—then he loses that status. An adopted son (like saved people are) gets to go to there.

So, in summary, these are the things that we must—or must not do—to attain heaven. Note again, these are AFTER the initial salvation, defined as the realization of our great sin offending God, our sorrow and repentance, our belief that Christ is God, and had supernatural events proving that. So this is after the initial faith; these are showing godliness, showing fruit, showing works—all necessary to continue salvation to the end. Here is my list again.

1. We must abide in Christ
2. We must have continuing fruit
3. We must be humble, recognizing our sinful self
4. We must separate from the world
5. We must love God with everything in us, and our neighbor as ourselves
6. We must give to the poor
7. We must forgive
8. We cannot accumulate wealth in this life; we must accumulate it in heaven—by selling/giving away excess assets
9. We must do the will of God
10. We must leave family members who abuse and even threaten to kill us as an infidel
11. We cannot blaspheme the work of the Holy Spirit; there is no forgiveness
12. We cannot deny, or be ashamed of Christ or His Words
13. We must heed the warning, as needed, that it is hard for a rich person to enter heaven
14. We must seek the narrow way that leads to life
15. We must endure to the end to be saved
16. We must not harm a child
17. We must avoid the continual commission of a serious sin

There are exactly 101 verse/verses that Jesus spoke in the four Gospels, that each place a certain activity on a heaven vs hell warning. Please, do not dismiss 101 items in God’s Word as “legalism” and live your life free and easy with no spiritual obligation. All 17 major themes have a “heaven or hell” designation by Jesus. Life goes to those who avoid these sins.

Let us end with Romans 12, which touches on many of the themes in these blogs:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. ³ For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. ⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. ⁶ Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…⁹ Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; ¹¹ not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ¹² rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; ¹³ distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. ¹⁹ Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Dishonest Steward

 

This is about the Parable of the Dishonest Steward in Luke 16: Here it is below:

He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

⁵ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

⁹ “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous money/wealth, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. ¹⁰ He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous money/wealth, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

¹³ “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

The steward was accused of ‘wasting’ the master’s goods, and was asked to present details of his stewardship to the master. We know that the accusation was right, since the steward was not prepared to defend himself, but sought another way out. So he resorts to undercharging the debtors, hoping to gain favor enough with them that they will either help him as friends, or maybe hire him.

The problem that I always had, listening or reading of others who commented on this admittedly difficult parable, was how the master commended him. Thinking of this in today’s business dealings, it seemed obvious that the steward, after he began undercharging the debtors, would have necessarily handed over the shrunken amount to the master. Thus he would have cheated his master again. Instead of ‘wasting’ the master’s goods, he would be cheating the master out of revenues previously determined by contact. A simple example: If a customer owed the master $100, how would you feel, as master, if the steward took an underpayment from the customer, and only handed over $50 in full payment of the debt? You would feel cheated, right? So how can the master commend the servant, who has found another way to disrespect him? No previous commentary that I knew of had an adequate explanation to get past that difficulty.

But I am indebted to “119Ministries” for an answer. It turns out, we need to put a first-century context on business dealings of Jews and Romans onto our thinking. Here’s how it worked: The master has wheat to sell, and a customer wants to buy a hundred measures of wheat from him. The customer negotiates with the steward. Say the master has indicated to the steward that a fair revenue figure for him would be $80.  But the master only tells the steward that amount. It is up to the steward to determine the exact amount to charge the customer. Let’s say the steward is in the practice of charging customers $120. Say the customer agrees to the $120, he gets the wheat and pays the steward. The steward pockets $40 for himself and gives the master $80. (The customer is never told how much of his $120 goes to the steward or the master.) The master is happy to get what he asked, $80, and the steward gets $40. Why does the customer agree to the higher figure of $120? Because the only other steward offering wheat in town down the road charges the same. The only restraint upon this steward from upping the final charge to the moon, is that if he is too high, a customer can get a better deal from the steward down the street. But, let’s say that all the stewards in town wanted to get rich; the steward down the street charges an exorbitant amount too—so all the stewards can continue to charge their high prices and get rich together. And the customers in town who want to feed their families get poorer together.

 The reason for this misalignment is: the master never paid the steward a wage, so charging customers a fee above what the master demanded was the only way for the steward to survive. But he typically overdid it—charging more for his cut than what he needed to live on. If the masters were usually Romans and the stewards were Jews, there would be tension and hatred among regular working Jews for the Jewish stewards, who were getting rich by shafting their fellow Jews. The Romans loved that idea, which is probably the reason for the practice being originally set up. Let’s keep the Jews blaming each other, the Romans figured; if some Jews are rich and others are poor, the Jews will hate each other as much as they hated the Romans. That lack of unity helps keep them under our thumb.

The same practice went on for tax collectors too. The Romans made sure they “hired” Jews to be tax collectors from other Jews. The Jews couldn’t believe that Jesus took on a tax collector, Matthew, as one of His 12. In order for Matthew to follow Jesus, though, he had to quit his job. A brave thing.  I’m sure that he still was not acceptable to many Jews because of his past.

Let’s go back to the $80 figure the master wanted for a hundred measures of wheat. And let’s deal with the steward who is about to lose his job. So the steward, under his new “friend” plan, only charged the customer, say, $80 instead of the past charge of $120. The customer, knowing the usual going rate here and down the street, was super happy he suddenly got a great deal from this steward. It’s possible the steward could be his friend after all, because of his generosity in thinking of the customer’s welfare instead of his own. The master was happy, since the steward forked over the entire $80 to him. The steward got nothing, so in order to feed his own family, he needed to dip into his past savings—of which I’m sure he had a huge quantity. But the steward knows he will lose his job, and one of these guys he has benefited—maybe more than one—will hopefully see that his kindness to them will be remembered by offering to help the steward’s family in lean times, or even offer the steward another job.

 In summarizing: with this important adjustment to first-century business practices among the Jews, the difficulty understanding why  the master commends the steward is swept aside, and we have an easier road for applying this parable to our lives. The master is the Master, God. The typical steward, in benefitting himself by charging the customer $120, is more interested in loving his money than in loving the welfare of his Jewish brothers and neighbors. What was unique about the turnaround in this steward is, he began taking a “longer-range” view—namely, by benefitting his customers and taking less graft for himself, he acquires friends that he would never have had under his previous business method. Those friends would help him if he ever needed help. Stewards (and us, in stewarding our Master’s wealth and income that He gives us) always have a choice:  Shall we be “faithful to God,” or shall we be “unjust” in how we allocate those earnings or wealth we get? “Faithful” would be to share by charging less and loving our neighbor. “Unjust” means our policy is greed and not loving our neighbor, and charging as much as we can.

For us who are not self-employed, the application goes like this: what do we do with the excess income over truly necessary expenses that we earn, or could earn? If we earn $5000 a month, but necessities cost us $4000, can we give a big chunk of that to our poorer neighbors, or friends, in the world? Or do we just spend it on the “good life,” or add to our “retirement fund?” (Current analysts of late say we need $2-3 million for a “great” retirement, so if you went this way, you’d never stop piling cash into the fund—and never help the poor).  Since Jesus has always been a promoter of helping the poor, He is implying that the stewards should make a habit of charging the customer less than other stewards, because he loves his poorer neighbors, and is thinking of their family’s benefit, not the steward’s greediness to get rich. We should not strive to keep for ourselves all of what God gives us in wealth and earnings, IF those earnings are above our family’s NECESSITIES to live. For us to live in wealth with income above our necessities, and never to love our neighbor enough to share with the poor, is not ”faithful” to God. Let’s repeat verse 11, part of Jesus’ speech:

  ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous money/wealth, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 

In the first phrase, Jesus is not saying that all incomes or wealth are unrighteous. But in the context of the stewards, it is. There is a special warning in Jesus’ words “not been faithful.”  God requires our faith to achieve heaven. (see my latest blog). We are not talking about a one-timer faith, but an ongoing faith.  IF we have enough faith in God, we will share to the utmost with our poorer neighbors. Because we love them and we know they are hurting. Here’s how it should work: Sharing says to God, “I am helping my neighbor because I believe, Lord, that if I do not keep all my excess income, I could more quickly get into trouble if the economy unwinds, where I might not be able to provide for my family. That may seem to be foolish, not having a large savings backup. But I am not foolish, because YOU are my backup. You are better than savings. I have faith that You will, under Your great power, get me out of a fix.”  (Jesus talked a lot about that in the Sermon on the Mount, see Matthew 6:25ff).

Secondly, sharing is a love of neighbor (also a requirement to achieve heaven. (See my previous blogs). For me to call this “long-range,” as I called it earlier, means if we, too, change the course of our lives to helping the poor, this is, what Jesus calls, in verse 9 above, earning an “everlasting home.” That’s definitely hinting of heaven.

So, reader, sacrificing current dollars to share with poorer neighbors is helping you on a path to heaven in two “eternal life vs eternal death” ways.  After all, what can we take with us when we die? All that money we might acquire could be Monopoly money; it’s worthless, if you’re thinking about wanting to get to heaven. Didn’t Jesus say, in Matthew 16:26:

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 

We may be showing our love for neighbors and our faith in God by sharing, and thereby keep on abiding in Christ, who commanded those qualities for heaven. This truth also goes the opposite. If we take our earnings and burn them on acquiring the nice things in life (verses the necessary ones), that disservice shows a lack of love for our poorer neighbors, and a lack of faith in God (since, if we’re building up savings, means we depend on them when things get tough, and not depending on God for help). (There is a separate argument against going into credit card debt: first, doing it means you are assuming that you will have sufficient income in the future to pay the debt—such an assumption about your lifespan is up to God, not you. You are not making allowance for the possibility that if you die early, the debt might not get paid off; thus you will have stolen from those creditor retailers. (With a mortgage, it’s different—the creditor is the bank, and you aren’t requiring them to take much risk since your home will likely sell for more than your debt, so the bank will be satisfied).  If you live but lose your job, and your future income can’t pay a credit card debt, then you will have effectively stolen from retail stores or services. Secondly, assuming you do not pay the debt off each month, you will build up a higher and higher INTEREST payment on your bills—an extraordinary waste of your Master’s assets.)

Any time I give to charitable organizations (not necessarily churches), I know nearly all the money (using MinistryWatch as a trusty agent), will be expensed for the poor in other nations, which have it far worse than we do in the U.S. I figure this treasure in heaven (I have another blog on that) that I am building up will mean that when I go to heaven, I will be hugged by everybody that I benefitted. God will make sure that we all know our beneficiaries, our new friends’ names. I will have lots of new friends, people that due to my contribution finally had a chance to get a leg up and sought God and got heaven. Maybe my money bought a Bible, maybe it helped them to medically recover from sickness, and they got saved later. Heaven is my desired “everlasting home,” I know. It’s so sinful to waste money on myself, seeing I’m on earth for only 80 years or so, but I’m taking a chance on heaven or hell-- an eternity. Is greed worth that risk? We must think how we can build treasures in heaven.

Even worse, based on other parables (that I have blogged), heaven could actually be denied me if I don’t share when it was possible.  I might have obtained initial salvation—but it is meaningless if I don’t endure and fail to follow Jesus’ commands. Doing that, I am not abiding in Jesus, and my destiny is to be burned (John 15:1-6).

Thank the Lord for the opportunity His Spirit gives to ignore greed and sacrificially give instead.

Losing Heaven (part 2 of 3)

 To explain this blog, you really need to read "Losing Heaven" (which is part 1). Here's how it started:

As some of you already know from my prior blogs, from carefully reading what Jesus said in the Gospels, once a person is initially born again, it is necessary that he goes on in godliness. Jesus requires what He called fruit for us to achieve heaven. We cannot call ourselves “Christian,” yet desecrate our Lord by sinful behavior and by ignoring God 6 days a week, after publicly claiming Him as Lord of our lives.

I have taken on a big task in these three blogs, beginning today: I will provide all verses from the Gospels that our great Teacher gave as fruit—both bad and good.  In EVERY ONE, is mentioned life if you do it, or eternal death if you don’t. Most of those 100 verses make it clear that even if you lack that particular fruit--you are excluded from heaven.

I have devoted the first blog to 5 of the 17 areas I cover. Please read on for 5 more "danger" areas.

Next we have to GIVE TO THE POOR. Let’s start out with something controversial, like Matthew 25:31ff:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

First, this is about our Lord’s second coming--as Judge. But not to judge “nations,” but people.  Verse 32 is the key: Is he only addressing this to nations? So we individuals are not judged on this basis? Or is He talking to people, so we ARE judged on this basis? The ESV translation has v.32 right: “Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. There is no way that entire nations will be noted for visiting the sick or visiting people in prison. No, PEOPLE do those loving visits. Doing those kindnesses for the underclass make us sheep, on our Lord’s right hand. Secondly, note how the sheep are blessed with life in heaven (the kingdom) because of a WORK, namely their loving actions for the dispossessed. That is, after all, what Jesus did—and what we should do. Not doing it makes us a goat. Bound for hell. Continuing in the verses above:

⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Not caring for the poor and disabled means you lose heaven.

Luke 16:19-23 is pretty blunt, too (another one ruined by the commentators):

¹⁹ “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. ²⁰ But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹ desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

We learn, in verses later than this, the futility of the efforts of the man in hades, to get a second chance for someone. Fact: you have to decide while you are alive and still have a thinking brain, to make the most important decision of your life and act it out. It takes faith, because you are dealing with the unknown. I think of my old-age friends; they never think about how to stay out of hell. First, their optimistic view of God is wrong—fact is, God will be forced to send the majority of people to hell (I’ll comment on “the Narrow way” soon). Secondly, many assume there’s no way we CAN know, for sure, which way we go. That belief is a mix of not believing the Bible is God’s Word, not getting proper sermons, and not studying the Word. Thirdly, many assume since they haven’t killed someone, they’re “good enough” for heaven. But they don’t know that God demands perfection in the Law, if that’s the path you choose, since you decided not to abide in Jesus. Well, perfection is impossible for us mortal creatures.

But let’s get to the point that’s relevant: why is the rich guy on the flame-side of hades? Well, let’s do away with prejudices first. We will assume his riches were legitimately obtained. Jesus did not imply such a charge. Simply being rich is not a sin. Then why? There is only one answer, assuming Christ has a point here (He always had a point). He was there because he did nothing for the poor beggar. He is a goat (that’s NOT the “greatest of all time.”) because he “performed” as the ones who are thrown into everlasting punishment do. Namely, not loving, not even a bit, the poor and the underclass people. Not even the one that he passed by every day.

You may feel that this helping-the-poor requirement for heaven, this fruit, is moot because you’re ensconced in a suburb where you never see someone poor, so how are you going to fulfill this?  Well, the news flashes plenty of these people from all over the globe. And we see blown-up rocks instead of homes in Gaza or Ukraine, we see riots because of governments who don’t know how to govern, or we see people living in eastern Europe and Turkey in fenced-in and ghettoed areas. So there are many needs, and actually, many ways to help. Sending money directly to a Christian agency would be step one. Demographically, I wish there were a way to keep many of these immigrant families, assuming we “vet” them and find them innocent of criminal past, in the U.S. We desperately need a growing population for the economy to leap ahead, increasing the middle class. Social Security and Medicare’s funding are financed from working-population growth. Those retirement programs will be broke if we have to depend on our native population, who refuses to have a decent number of children, or can’t because of strange vaccines. So there is no working class growth, without immigrants. So, our population needs immigrants to grow. Helping the immigrants will help us--those are the facts. But there are now too many, and they are politicized. We still must find a way to step up and help these families.

A rather surprising quote by Jesus happens when He visits Zacchaeus, a height-challenged tax collector who was short on friends. In Luke 19:8-9, Zacchaeus makes a statement on helping the poor, and a generous repentance for cheating people:

⁸ Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. ⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; ¹⁰ for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

It’s shocking for those of us whose theology is “faith only,” that Jesus pronounces salvation for Zaccheus. Where was his faith in Christ expressed in this? Calling Him Lord does not necessarily mean worship; it was a greeting for a master or a rabbi. His announcement is simply that he will restore what he took from the poor—with generous interest. Yes, he was very happy to meet Jesus. Looking at all this, we should have seen by now that Jesus’ theology is not boxed up like we assume. But He does place Zaccheus as a member of the sheep—because he helps the poor and underclass. As He required in Scripture. So some of us will see Zacchaeus again, taller and happier, and long on friends.

OTHER REFERENCES: Luke 3:7-11, Luke 11:41, Luke 14:13, 14.

Next, let’s look at how heaven requires that  YOU MUST FORGIVE.

Yet another one in the life vs death series. Matthew 6:14-15 makes it black or white:

¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Search your brain: If there is someone you don’t like, is it because of one thing they did that you are still upset about? Then we must forgive them, for our eternal life. We ask God’s help doing it, we say it out loud (to them, ideally, if they are still alive). That doesn’t wipe out the bad memory, but it doesn’t leave us with a bad taste thinking about that person anymore. Maybe we end up with, at least, a neutral feeling about them. It might help if you search for anything you did that caused the split, or anything in their background that led them to respond that way. It’s not always their sin. Remember, this is heaven vs. hell stuff. God is faithful to His Word. No way can you slide by without forgiveness.

Let’s study Matthew 18:21ff:

²¹ Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. ²³ Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants… 

Jesus spins this tale masterfully, as only the greatest Teacher could. A servant owed the Master 10,000 “talents,” a huge pile of money. He forgave that servant; so the servant owed him nothing. Nothing is said as to his thankfulness. However, that servant found another servant who owed him chump change, couldn’t pay, and here is what he did: and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ ³⁰ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 

You can only imagine what the Master did to him when he heard: ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. ³³ Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ ³⁴ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. ³⁵ “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

I can’t miss a doctrinal point here: This is a proof verse that we can lose our salvation. This servant was saved (free of debt) until he did not forgive another; then the Master retracted his salvation. Then he lost it; he was unsaved.

Note how Christ sees us as potentially saved people, IF we’re obedient to the end. Carefully observe the application:  Christ’s death on the Cross freed us from debt to God, if we have proper faith in Him. That debt was huge because our sins are huge. HOWEVER, if we cannot forgive another the sin they have done to us (Jesus considers it small compared to our sin to God), then God can put us back on the track for hell. By un-forgiving us our sin.

Don’t start on me about how that seems that God is “unfaithful,” or how it breaks the “unbreakable” law of unconditional security. This guy broke a rule, a rule that is in Scripture but no one likes to talk about. God is faithful if He applies that rule. Why should a just God overlook what’s clearly pointed out in Scripture that the servant has chosen to ignore? The price is steep for disobedience, but he should have known. And now YOU know. Once again, you can’t box God in like you think.

We all know the “Lord’s Prayer,” right? Then have we thought about this in Luke 11:4 (NLT)?

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

The word “as” requires a joining, or a same activity. So it says that God will forgive us as we do the same thing, forgiving others. It suggests that without the joining activity, the forgiveness won’t stick.

OTHER REFERENCES: Mark 11:26, Luke 6:37, Luke 17:4

Next let’s consider NOT ACCUMULATING WEALTH ON EARTH, BUT ACCUMULATE IT IN HEAVEN

Wait, wait, you say, I don’t even have to read the verses: this title immediately grinds against the joys of building a fat fund so we can enjoy retirement. No fun! Well, here’s some verses that you won’t like. We begin in Luke 12:16ff:

¹⁶ Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. ¹⁷ And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

When you think about it, you might ask, “what was so bad here? The man knew how to save, a good trait, and all he wanted was to store up against any possible future tragedy. Well, look at the detail: His storehouses were already full, which would cover any tragedy already, and still he wanted to have more. This exudes covetousness. No word about his neighbors, some of which might need help. So we can assume he will do nothing for them, and just take it easy himself. His life’s goals were all in the world. Jesus calls him a fool for that.

I have seen many “financial helps” that advise us that because of the many uncertainties in the world, we should accumulate at least $3 million for retirement. Many people do that and more, and thank God on occasion for blessing them. They’re actually suggesting you need $3 million, plus pension and Social Security to avoid starving to death. No, of course not. You need $3 million to have a GREAT retirement. Cruises (where you get sick), traveling to foreign lands (where there are criminals waiting to rob you). Or, if you are headed for “tropical” places, you pick up a strange bug (from their “exotic” foods or unsanitary water), and get violently ill. Just kidding (not). Let’s pay attention to Jesus’ exact words from Matthew 6:19-21:

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“Treasures on earth” is wealth, plain and simple. Sorry to say, I don’t know how many pastors muff these verses. Applying logic, it says “where your treasure is (first), then that is where your heart is. Not the reverse. It says just by accumulating wealth, we are in trouble—because it shows our heart is here, or worldly. So it really says it’s hard for those who have a huge wad of assets in the world, to get their heart anywhere else—like on God. Therefore, if your treasure is in the world, your heart is in the world. Don’t let that happen, because it will put you in danger of eternal death. So let’s say you have the world’s luxurious and unnecessary goods—namely, super house, nice schools (whatever that is), attention-getting recent car, nice fat 401, with stocks that never stop going up, and ultimately nice retirement. The kids have been to great colleges (whatever that is), so they think the same way we do; i.e., they don’t need us. And maybe we don’t need them---but that’s a brave assumption—what happens if you develop a chronic illness when you get old? (Elderly people who are not too sharp should NEVER be left alone in today’s hospitals. Work in shifts to avoid that.) Speaking bluntly, too many people have no goals in retirement; so what’s to live for? Hey, they might say, my wife and I are doing all this to kill time, since we just have each other, and we spend more time on the cellphones or TV than having meaningful conversations. So the big pileup of assets may not help you have a satisfactory time in retirement.

But your treasure is in heaven, if you’ve actually been thinking about God’s plan for making you useful in your elderly days. If you want to do things for the Lord ALL your life, then you will do His will—namely, your goal does NOT mean accumulating a $3 million retirement plan. Just plan keeping what’s necessary and giving the rest away. Those of you that are young, plan on eliminating credit card debt as soon as possible in your working career, stick to the same job with a good company long enough that pays good benefits, pay the mortgage off, play it safe in stocks or bonds (nowadays, it’s gold or silver), and give generously to Christian charity. You will then have the magic in retirement—namely, netting extra cash every month from what’s coming in from Social Security and/or 401, and having moderate expenses. (Not having debt or mortgage does that). So when “retirement” comes, you don’t need that hoard of backup cash, since your income is greater than the expenses with extra dollars left over every month. Forget the annual $10,000 trip, just visit the family. Hug the grandkids; pass on a little of your wisdom, including a good word about the Lord. Hopefully you’re not a workaholic, and have instead spent a lot of time developing a good relationship with the kids. Doing these things shows you have been thinking of heavenly treasures, not worldly ones. If you can give to charity while working, you can if you keep the expenses moderate, you might be able to give to charity while “retired,” too. All that giving should not be regretted. It is probably saving people, and you were a part of that. In heaven, there will be friends that you never imagined looking for you to hug and say “thanks” when you get there someday. Luke 16’s parable of the unjust steward could very well have an application for us like that.

Let’s look at Matthew 19:16ff:

¹⁶ Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”… ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” ²² But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

So the rich man wanted to hang onto his riches; not new. But Jesus did not like rules the world imagines for heaven. He makes a requirement to having eternal life, that he should “sell what he has.” It certainly seems extreme.

But, hey, you say, not to worry, that’s only spoken to a rich guy, not me. Wrong! Luke 12:33-34 has the same theme, but as v. 22 says, He was speaking all this to His disciples. And these are not rich guys. Here is the command He gave them:

³³ Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So, another unassailable logic slaps us: For our heart to truly be in heaven, and not the world (which would possibly lose eternal life, as we pointed out in verses above) we need to “sell what we have,” if we want to be His disciples. This does not mean sell necessary assets and enter poverty. It means sell luxury assets, those above moderation—and we should buy in moderation all our life. By doing that, there would be more to give to charity and make more treasures in heaven.

Face it: Jesus does not want us to pile up wealth when there are so many in the world who desperately need help. Totally contrary to the world’s “wisdom.” But that’s not new. Part of His “upside down” rules. We need to give more to charity. Don’t complain: You want to be sure of heaven? Are you one of His disciples (anybody that follows and obeys Him, not just the 12)? Then these words are for you. All I can add is, God will bless you in ways “over the top” in heaven. He is rich for those who lend to Him. He pays back with very high interest (Proverbs 19:17).

OTHER REFERENCES: Matthew 19:16ff, Mark 10:17ff, Luke 18:18ff.

Next, Jesus requires us to DO THE WILL OF GOD to enter heaven. We can assume that not being interested in God’s will buys us a ticket to hell.

Let’s start with Matthew 7:21-23:

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Many people are in service for the Lord for their own benefit. They may do mighty things; some are fake, and some God allows to be real. But they have some serious sin, which they keep unconfessed and continuing. Doing “the will of My Father” means having the traits that we are talking about in this paper. We should regularly confess our sins to God and work on them, and we pray God’s help in defeating them. We frequently ask His forgiveness. He is not tired of forgiving us many times, if we run to Him for help—and not run away and feeling ashamed, and are unable to work for Him for awile. We are humble, and only seek the spotlight to show the glory of God. At no time should we even consider that WE are performing service to God to obtain glory for ourselves. So doing God’s will is obeying His commands to mature in the faith, to give all glory to Him. To do the opposite, to steal credit for what He has done and calling it “ours,” or to do as little as we can for God, is defying God, it is lawlessness. It will not earn heaven.

Let’s look at Luke 6:46-49:

⁴⁶ “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? ⁴⁷ Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. ⁴⁹ But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

We call Jesus Lord, or Master of our lives, as required—yet we too often ignore His commands, His will. To do His will is like building a house on a rock. It will hold up in the most severe storms in our lives. To hear His commands and do nothing is like a man who builds a house without a foundation (how ridiculous is that). The house, or our faith, fails in a storm. We might lose our faith. It was easier not to dig down deep, just build on sand. But God wants you to deepen your relationship, do whatever to get close to Him, and be truly founded on the Rock of our faith.

One more to talk about: Luke 12:45-48

⁴⁵ But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, ⁴⁶ the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷ And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. ⁴⁸ But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

This harks back to a previous discussion, but we have one more nugget of wisdom to apply. Our hearts should be anxious to get out of this sin-sick world to our true home, heaven, where we can be with our loving Lord. Instead of looking up to heaven and Jesus, choosing to follow the world means, ultimately, not doing God’s will—and our reward is hell and destruction.

I added v. 48 as an extra treasure. When you look at that verse, you realize that hell has grades; it has suffering throughout, but some are not as bad as others. There are some people that never heard the Word because they were deaf, and didn’t have help available. Or they never got a Bible because they lived in the outposts of humanity. Their suffering will not be as great—but they will be in hell if they never thought about God, who is evident in Creation and in our conscience—as Romans tells us. IF they were, upon that realization, seeking God, then He would show them a way to Jesus and salvation. Many people in Muslim countries speak of having dreams pointing the way to Jesus when they were truly seeking for Him.

The last sentence is sobering to pastors and preachers; to whom much is given, from him much will be required. God will expect more faith from them. To fail and desert His will is to expect a deeper pain in hell.

OTHER REFERENCES: Matthew 21:28-31, Mark 3:32-35, Luke 11:27-28 (where “keep” is defined as “keep doing.”

Next, God promises heaven to those whose sacrifice includes LEAVING FAMILY MEMBERS WHO ABUSE AND EVEN THREATEN TO KILL YOU AS AN INFIDEL.

We’ll start with Mark 10:29-30:

²⁹ So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, ³⁰ who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

This is not a category allowing divorce, unless your spouse has the desire, and made it plain, that he might kill you in anger, and he has shown that trait. Yet he does not apologize for such an explosive anger, since getting him angry is “your fault.” Do not buy into his assessment of fault.

In some false religions, living among them as a Christian for a long time is not a problem; you can pay the extra tax, be treated as a low-class person. When you’ve been with them as a Muslim, say, and then convert to Christianity, however, that’s a problem. Also, evangelization is a problem. They actually have the feeling, given to them by their “god,” that you no longer deserve life for becoming an infidel. You are mentally unbalanced. You are unfit. Your only way out is to run. Start a new life, under a “God’s Witness Protection Program.” Despite your prayers to open their eyes, trying to tell some of these people the truth about Jesus will only make them so infuriated that they will kill you. If you die, you are assured that, as a martyr, your soul, and your resurrection, would be protected by our Lord.

In Luke 14:25-26, Jesus has the same theme, only this time He uses hyperbole:

²⁵ Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

He means that our love for Him should be so great that our love for relatives seems mild—even hate—in comparison. Our love for Him should be deep enough that if He wants us to leave a murderous family, we should not let our love for our innocent sister, say, stop us. (Evangelize her and invite her to escape with you). Speaking to husbands and wives, our love for Him should mean His commandment to ‘leave father and mother, and cleave to your spouse” should be obeyed—even if a woman’s husband wants to live several thousand miles away. We have vowed our life to them now.

OTHER REFERENCES: Matthew 19:29, Luke 18:29-30.

Losing Heaven (Part 1)

 

As some of you already know from my prior blogs, from carefully reading what Jesus said in the Gospels, once a person is initially born again, it is necessary that he goes on in godliness. Jesus requires what He called fruit for us to achieve heaven. We cannot call ourselves “Christian,” yet desecrate our Lord by sinful behavior and by ignoring God 6 days a week, after publicly claiming Him as Lord of our lives.

I have taken on a big task in these three blogs, beginning today: I will provide all verses from the Gospels that our great Teacher gave as fruit—both bad and good.  In EVERY ONE, is mentioned life if you do it, or eternal death if you don’t. Most of those 100 verses make it clear that even if you lack that particular fruit--you are excluded from heaven. Jesus would not lie to us, to scare us into good behavior. But these are the facts that few people “get.” We are uneducated; that is partly our fault, and partly our pastor’s fault. Most pastors nowadays seem to teach us, if they teach this at all, that initial salvation is all that’s required for heaven, and you are eternally fixed; any fruit you give afterwards are just an “option.” Other pastors simply do not want to use the word “hell” or “sin” (some even avoid the word “Cross.”) Those are ”downers,” they say, and their sermons are directed to  just making us happy. If we are happy, we stay there, the tithes keep up, and our pleasantries will draw people to us, and they will ask serious questions (?), and then we can evangelize, and help to save others. So they think. But fact: Jesus talked more of hell than heaven. Any other view that your pastor, or your selective Bible readings give you, is deception. So many of these verses will be “new” to you, that you may doubt the inerrant truth of the Bible. That’s going around a lot nowadays. I have many blogs addressing many of these issues, but none like this one—listing ALL Scripture that Jesus spoke of that indicates fruit, good or bad, that may put you in danger of hell, or the joys of heaven. Don’t even think this to be a half-interesting proposition. You should want to KNOW if there is anything that would exclude you from heaven, and put you in hell.

These are listed, after the first one, in pretty much “most frequent” reference to “least frequent.” Do not assume least frequent means nothing to worry about, as you will see. Please devote prayerful hours of self-examination. “Do I have any of these qualities that are bad fruit, vs good fruit?”

The first requirement, on how to gain or lose heaven based on what we do after initially being saved, is WE MUST ABIDE IN CHRIST

 If we do not stay in His commands, and live for Him, we lose our salvation. The key verses are in John 15:5-6:

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 

It is logically clear: Abide in Christ, bear much fruit. Do not abide in Christ, and you wind up in hell. Not abiding means it is impossible to bear fruit for God. Your purpose in producing fruit is not self-glorification, to try to earn heaven, but to give glory to Him—and continue in salvation, once

initially obtained. This phrase is defined as the following: belief in Jesus as the Son of God, through a virgin birth, that He is eternal God, that He rose from the dead, and promises the same resurrection for us who believe. Hell awaits the rest, for He is the only way to heaven. Repentance of our sin, or changing our behaviors, is required: separation from the lusts and desires of the world as well. Some verses also say adult baptism is required, presumably as a public vow that we desire to die to sin, and turn to have new life in Christ.

Obviously, you should examine yourself to see if you have initial salvation to begin with. Doing works, or fruit, without being saved, is effectively trying to ‘earn’ salvation, an impossibility. It’s the cart before the horse.

Thus, I am maintaining a “two-stage” salvation from hell: Initial salvation, and then moving into godliness, or producing fruit, through our lives. (I have a blog that explains the two phases more). I am maintaining that the evidences of fruit, as will follow, will finally determine our eternal life or death, even if we are “initially saved.”  

To continue on the theme of abiding in Christ, look at John 8:31. It says if we study and meditate in His Word (part of the meaning of abiding in Christ), then we are true disciples, a good sign for heaven:

³¹ Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed:

A controversial passage is John 6:51,56. There, we have the basis for sharing communion. This is taken too lightly in many churches; for some it is rote, for others, to avoid rote, they have it once a month—and even on Sunday night, no less. These next verses say that communion is a symbol of abiding in Christ. Thereby we obtain heaven. Avoiding communion shows we are not on a good basis with our Lord, not a good sign for heaven:

 ⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world…⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 

Our second most frequent single reference is, well, Jesus’ requirement THAT WE HAVE FRUIT.

John the Baptist doesn’t say too much; he had little “showtime.” But he didn’t miss saying this, in Matthew 3:10:

¹⁰ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

For the next verse, one could argue that Jesus’ whole point of the famous Sower parable, was about fruit. He points out that even when people “see the light,” they may nevertheless refuse to carry it out. So, in three of four cases of sowing, there is no fruit. But there is fruit, finally, in “good ground” that we may possess. Matthew 13:23:

²³ But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Related to that is John 8:51, where we are urged to “keep (obey) His Word” to see heaven. Obeying His Word is surefire good fruit:

⁵¹ Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

The opposite would apply: If we read His Word and do not apply it, or if we simply don’t read His Word, we will indeed see death.

Salt has, I think, two main functions: One, as a preservative, to prevent valuable food from rotting quickly. Second, it adds zest to taste. Jesus applies this illustration for us. Are we slowing the rotting of society, at least within our family, as a testimony of Him? Secondly, are we joyful in Him, and present ourselves as such before society? There is danger in not having positive answers to these questions. This is in Luke 14:34, 35:

³⁴ “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? ³⁵ It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out

In Luke 13:6-9 we see God’s patience in waiting for us to generate some fruit. Caution: His patience has an end; destruction will follow those who can’t seem to tear themselves away from the world, and thus have no fruit. The Old Testament failures of the Jews, and what God did upon their failures, are examples of that too:

⁶ He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷ Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ ⁸ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

Luke 19:20ff has an interesting parable about a Master who gives his three slaves money (a “mina”) to invest (this is speaking of either “use your gifts” or “bear fruit for Him”) while He is gone. This is speaking of our Lord in heaven. The first two slaves are successful in bearing fruit (symbolized by increasing beyond the mina by investments or by interest), but the third is a failure. Part of his problem is how he perceives his Master:

²⁰ “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. ²¹ For I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ ²² And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant…²³ Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ ²⁴ “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas…’ and from him who does not have (i.e., not having fruit or gifts for the Lord), even what he has will be taken away from him. ²⁷ But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’ ”

One could only conclude that the lazy man, who was “afraid” of the Lord, yet did not bear fruit (or use his gifts), is one of the enemies, bound for destruction. OTHER REFERENCES TO FRUIT: Matthew 25:27, Mark 4:20, Luke 3:8,9, Luke 3:11 (which has some good examples of what fruits are), Luke 8:14,15, Luke 19:23-27.

We must be willing to be SELF-SACRIFICIAL. In Matthew 16:24-27

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. 

What is “desires to save his life?” I think it’s activities that are not self-sacrificial, that you push yourself selfishly in front of others to keep living. “Myself first” suggests a lack of love, which is another fruit I will speak of later. Continually done, especially in crises, that person will be in hell—he will “lose” his (eternal) life. This is most relevant in the area of giving to the poor and disabled. Sacrifice involves buying only necessities for ourselves, and giving the cash saved to the poor. Sacrifice could also mean setting aside valuable time to dedicate to those in need.

There is also the idea that “loses his life,” could refer to martyrdom. Or it could mean simply giving service for others, rather than ourselves, for the glory of our Lord. Desiring to “save” our life

The controversial phrase is v. 27b, how God will reward each according to our WORKS. Reformed theology hates works in connection with salvation; they will twist this verse into pretzels to say what it does not say. You could argue that the meaning of “rewards” could just mean crowns in heaven, which, you allege, that is all our works do for us; but I think certain works are necessary to obtain heaven—which is what this blog is all about. Let’s not lose sight of James 2:14’s rhetorical question:

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can (that) faith save him?

James clearly says faith without a show of works (or fruits), will not get us into heaven. So, yes, initial salvation is not enough (unless you get killed immediately  afterwards). The point he is making is that the rest of your activities in life counts in salvation.  We should believe in Lordship salvation, folks. After you are initially saved, you must sacrifice your desire for the world. If you pursue continual “backsliding,” or you have some addiction that you have not spiritually attacked, odds are high that you end up in hell. The great need to cast off the world is evident from Matthew 5:29-30:

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Let’s really talk about losing ourselves. Jesus is using hyperbole here. He is saying, GO TO EXTREMES of self-sacrifice to get rid of any sin that blocks our ability to be close to Him. Continually being lazy, failing and feeling like a loser, or feeling remorse, does not earn credits with our Lord. Such feelings inhibit our testimony further anyhow.

Another example of self-sacrifice is serving our Lord, not ourselves. In His Cross, He sacrificed for us, saved us from a deserved hell. Now He owns us. He is our Lord and Master, thinking of the feudal days. He provides us food, shelter, a wonderful future in heaven. Thus, all our assets are His, not ours; our job is caretaking His assets; it is called “fiduciary trust” in business. We are only His managers. All our behavior as managers is in the interest of the master. We need to seek His will before moving or expending His assets. It is insulting to God if we go into credit card theft, because it says God did not provide sufficiently for me. Good managers will also set aside a reserve for a sizable down payment on a house or for buying a moderate car. Going into deeper debt rolling over cars, means someday the debt will be greater than what the car will be worth. Then you will see people abandoning the car and trying to avoid paying the debt. This is stealing, plain and simple, like writing bouncing checks and not paying off credit cards. This is not honoring to God. God will honor us with heaven by serving Him and being honest. Thinking this way will fulfill John 12:26:

²⁶ If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

I have to mention John 14:21. If any of you have difficulty, as I do, with “loving Christ,” since He is not physically here, we need to know that one definition of loving is keeping (obeying) His commandments; this is one of our forms of self-sacrifice. There is great joy in being touched by Him in some supernatural way. Something impossible happens that you know is Him smiling on you. That’s today’s manifestation. There will be another great manifestation day coming:

²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Another verse on that theme is in John 15:10; this time it helps explain what fulfills our need to hear we are abiding in Christ:

¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

One more set of verses on self-sacrifice; Matthew 16:29:

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

Many families in Muslim territories will threaten their parent’s life, or their children’s life, or even kill their spouse, if they are “infidel” enough to follow Jesus. You could lose a job, your reputation, and could be physically kicked out of the house, and lose ownership of it, and you are no longer claimed as related. In the 1600s, when the Catholics would do battle with the Protestants, your family would be kicked out of the whole country if you went Protestant; you would lose your land, only going away with the shirt on your back. This kind of rejection is as bad as what Jesus experienced; of course how can we, His servants, expect to be treated any better? It is only through God’s grace that anybody escapes this persecution, sin being so wicked as it is these days.

The verse above, by implication, suggests the opposite: If we attempt to avoid heavy persecution by lying and denying Christ (even our behavior may deny Christ, you don’t have to announce it), we will not inherit eternal life. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been “saved” before. OTHER REFERENCES: Matthew 10:38, Mark 8:34, 35, Mark 10:29, 30, Luke 9:23.

NEXT IS HUMBLENESS. I think of it as being so aware of our sin that we see no good in ourselves, but only as God works through us. Our greatest weakness is our certainty that we can handle a problem ourselves, because, let’s say, we have the degree for it. (This is getting very personal). We cannot be so sure of our smarts that anybody’s advice we perceive as a threat, they are “talking down” to us. We cannot be so sure of our ‘doctrinal correctness’ that we dismiss anyone who has uncommon experiences, or has a seemingly unlikely doctrine that we prefer to avoid even thinking about. We are resistant to any new ideas, and no one can teach an old dog new tricks, right? Let’s see what Jesus has to say. Caution: Let’s not always think of the Pharisees as the bad guys—some Scripture could apply to you, couldn’t it? Matthew 18:3,4:

“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

Becoming like ”little children” is humbling ourselves, He says. He also implies, not humbling ourselves means we will not enter heaven. Why not, when we are told that pride is our greatest downfall? Well, what are the traits of a small child that indicates he/she is humble? I think of two things: (1) the child trusts mom and dad implicitly. They will protect me, they will not deliberately hurt me or will do anything to keep me from being hurt. In applying to us, Mom and dad, that’s God. We trust God. There is no substitute for His protection. (How many guns did you say you need? Do you have trust issues?) We don’t have to worry about starvation. We may be homeless, we may be out of cash, but neither of those will end our lives. God will provide necessities. An especially good verse to memorize when persecution comes our way is Psalm 37:25, the words of David: 

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread

The second trait of a child denoting humbleness is him saying, “some things I can’t do, so I trust mom and dad to lead the way and show me, or do it themselves if it’s too much for me. They’re bigger and stronger than I am, and much more capable.” Would that we would think that about God. Instead, we have men and women who think they are better than others, they make negative statements about how God is treating them, or they think “I can do this; I will only call on God if I get into trouble.“ It’s true also, that lack of humility breeds prejudice, which means mistreating people, treating them as sub-human, and hating them as the  “enemy.” The real enemy, as Pogo wisely quoted, is “We have met the enemy, and they are us.” On another point, if someone wounds you, it is a sin in thinking someone should say they are sorry to me before I will forgive them; they are ”too good” for that, we say. No, WE are thinking we are too good to forgive and express God’s love. Ours is the problem.

Matthew 9:12-13 is partly on humbleness:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Interpretation of these verses can be a challenge. Since Jesus was speaking of the Pharisees, He has to couch His words. He is at the beginning of His ministry, so if He makes a series of obvious negative remark about them, they have the capacity to see He is killed early, and no chance to finish His ministry. Thus, “those who are well” really means “those who think they are well”—that’s the Pharisees. They think that they have no need of a physician, so their prideful stubbornness means, they won’t be called to repentance. They had their chance to repent with John the Baptist—they gave it a hard pass. Later they will attribute His miracles to the devil, a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit so serious that there will be no possibility of salvation for them. Jesus is saying He can work with those who realize that they are sinners. They perceive that their tendency to sin has overtaken them again and again, and they fear that they are left with no way to God. Jesus will show them that way, bit by bit, if they follow Him.

One surefire act of humbleness is the ability to show mercy. Jesus rejects rituals given by the hardhearted—it is hypocrisy. Hell is the pathway for those who are not able to show mercy. They have already judged and condemned and decided they are better than some people, who are not worthy of help.

Matthew 5:3 has different words for humbleness:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

A commentary on “poor in spirit” clearly shows its connection to humbleness: Those who are “poor in spirit” acknowledge our need for God; we grow in dependence on Him; we realize we are nothing without Him; we realize our own sin and our spiritual emptiness and poverty; we are not be self-satisfied or proud in our hearts; we know we cannot rely on ourselves, that we are not self-sufficient, and we live as “beggars before God;” we feel our need for God and recognize every good that comes from him as a gift, as a grace; we treasure what we receive; we have no worthiness to claim God's blessing; we are to be reliant on God.

Frankly, self-inspection may make you, as I, score poorly on many of these points of humbleness. I remind you what I said before: humbleness, or being poor in spirit, is necessary to attain heaven. Without it, we attain hell.

This sin is an epidemic among Americans, and why fewer of us attain heaven than people assume.  I don’t know what’s the cause. Perhaps it’s a desire to be litigious, or perhaps it’s class division (helped by our politicians and judges), or perhaps how some are hugely rich and others clearly don’t even have a home (we have to think up an excuse why we should dislike those homeless people, or else we might actually break out some charitable cash, or otherwise we will feel guilty). Finally, perhaps our wealth enables us to get along without any need for God. This feeling of independence and having everything under our control is a perfect example of non-humbleness. In any case, we have this sin bad. But as the verse above suggests the other side, an absence of humbleness could mean eternal death. What would cause us to become humble? A total economic reversal; a war; persecution; or any tragedy. Some will curse God, but some will find new life in Him. OTHER REFERENCES Mark 2:17, Mark 10:15, Luke 5:32, Luke 18:9-14

The next fruit we should learn to apply is SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD makes it POSSIBLE to abide with Christ. Related to that is the doctrine that YOU CAN’T GRASP THE WORLD AND ABIDE WITH CHRIST AT THE SAME TIME.

Matthew 13:22 is in the Sower parable. This is one of the three failed crops out of four sown:

Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

This seed failed (i.e., people would be bound for hell) because this person became “distracted” away from God by the “cares” of the world and the “deceitfulness” of their wealth. There was a time when I asked God to make me rich (I was not like Solomon), but later I realized that would make me farther away from Him—and I wasn’t too close to Him in the first place. It didn’t matter to God that if I were rich, I could give more away for charity. God wanted my love, and I was more interested in a position that would take me away from His love. Not smart. I didn’t even imagine that God would want my love.

The time we spend thinking about the cares of the world, and getting worried, prevents us from getting closer to God. The solution is, in part, don’t worry about where our next dollar is coming from. (This does not mean “don’t budget.”) Jesus has many wonderful words about that in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25ff). The problem in America is different and deeper; we are dissatisfied with “just” having necessities; we have to have the latest. It will increase our reputation, and we can run with people we like to run with. Many of us spend $150,000 of income a year, yet go into debt—so we conclude we are not rich. Well, we are, in the eyes of the world. About 7.2 billion people wish they could wish for that.

Separation from the world is a big part of self-sacrifice. And it’s critical to being saved. In America, though, we have little separation—and fewer people saved than they assume. Pastors won’t speak of separation—they call it “legalistic.” We think of the Amish. We think of perverse stuff like cults that wouldn’t let you marry, wouldn’t let you eat certain foods certain days. We think of stoics, never a cheer-hearted lot. Or the Puritans (we have been misinformed on those folks).

John 12:25 says:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. ²⁵ He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

What is Jesus saying with the phrase, “if it dies, it produces much grain?” He means for us, dying to the world is the way to producing much fruit. The phrase “hates his life in this world” suggests that our separation from the world is so complete that we realize we would get no joy from plunging ourselves into the world—we would feel treasonous to our Lord, after what He has done for us. We would suffer such guilt and remorse that we would not derive any pleasure to repeat it. He who loves his life on earth will lose it for eternity. Therefore we hate the worldly temptations that the devil continually bombards us with.

Matthew 24:48-51 urges us to look for Christ’s coming, realizing that this world, so perverted from sin, is not our home. Our home is heaven, to be with our Lord. The verses begin with a servant put in charge of the household while the Master is gone. But the servant has deserted his calling and is plunging into the world. His end is hell:

But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, ⁵¹ and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

OTHER REFERENCES: Matthew 12:33, Matthew 18:8, Mark 9:43, Luke 9:62, Luke 12:37-45.

Next, we look at the necessity TO LOVE GOD WITH EVERYTHING IN US, and LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELF

Let’s start with Luke 10:25-29:

²⁵ And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”…²⁷ So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” ²⁸ And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Loving a non-physical Entity (God) that much--an impossible goal, right? But that doesn’t mean we don’t adopt practices that will attain as much of that as is possible—since Jesus feels it’s possible. For me personally, the goal is to meditate on knowing God from His Word; how can God love us rebellious little creatures that He has placed us in His vast universe? Given His magnificence, why then would our God take on painful flesh to be so horribly treated that we kill him, even though He spent His physical time on earth healing us, and teaching us wonderful truths? He has made us adopted children, and has given us an inheritance.  With that kind of love, how do we develop a relationship with Him more? We must spend time for this, we must learn His Word, we must discipline ourselves to break the grasp of flesh and be more like Him. For instance, He has rules for developing families that, if we are brave enough to be radical, if we follow them, make for happy kids, happy spouses, and a joy of family life that is so much the opposite of most. We also recognize, looking back, on when His Spirit strangely interrupts our lives; we recognize how He provides our needs through miraculous deeds on occasion. We could make lists of how God has especially touched us, and belatedly thank Him. We don’t deserve any of this. If He had judged us for hell, there was no argument that we could have given—or could now give—to dispute that. Some of us, even as men, get choked up, He is so worthy.

Don’t miss the implication of “Do this, and you will live.” (Don’t do this, and you will not be in heaven).

“And who is my neighbor?” That was the question a lawyer asked. A neighbor could be someone close by that you may dislike. Or it could be someone that is several thousand miles away who needs our help. With outfits like Ministry Watch checking out charitable organization’s legitimacy, what would be the harm of giving to Muslim families that are peace-loving, that are trying to live a life in a hell of violence and death all around? Or giving to Venezuelan families, where helping has to be on the sly because the totalitarian government refuses aid? They are the current top of the list of wrecked economies. Many will die of hunger or disease. Perhaps we do not know what’s happening in the rest of the world; perhaps we do not care (a dangerous situation to be in).  Do we, who are so rich, stack guns to defend our possessions, and do we not understand how they hate us, and hate Christianity, because we do not give to those that desperately need help? Or our neighbor could be the guy next door. Think how God loves us, despite our sinfulness. Just so, we look past the neighbor’s evil habits and find a mindset to love them anyhow. After all, for many, this is their best life, because they are bound for hell in the afterlife. We look past what we see, and we do nice things for them, unexpected things. We surprise them by telling our feelings, we get personal, we want to evangelize them. Giving them the gospel is the greatest love we can give them, but we build up a relationship first. If we are sincere throughout, they know we just want to help.

Speaking of “do this, and you will live,” above, take a look at Luke 6:35, where Jesus again speaks of loving those who don’t love us:

³⁵ But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

For the suggestion to “lend, hoping for nothing in return,” you might just as well just give it to the person in need, rather than hanging a debt over their head (a tendency it’s too easy to fall into). Note the pointed remark Jesus makes, that God is kind to the “unthankful and evil”—in other words, us. God broke barriers to love us--you can’t miss the connection to Romans 5:8, But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If we want to be like God, it is necessary that we work on loving people who don’t like us.

Matthew 5:39-46 has examples of how we express love even for our enemies:

³⁹ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. ⁴⁰ If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. ⁴¹ And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. ⁴² Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 

About not resisting evil, this does not say that we cannot defend our family or ourselves against physical harm. I take the phrase “slaps you on your right cheek” to mean that we do not have to respond aggressively to someone’s insult. But more than that, we should not have fits about some government persecutor confiscating our property, even if they do it by breaking our Constitutional rights (which they have been doing for some time now).  During the End Times, if we’re there, we don’t throw away God’s commands to love our enemies because we are treated unjustly. People will see our hypocrisy if we scream and keen because we have been denied just treatment. They will not recognize that they are working for Satan becaause they will be propagandized. John 16:1-2 says:

“These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. ² They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

We are to “not stumble;” do not hang onto your property so hard that you cannot love these people when they take it away, if those days should come. Feel for them; they will suffer an eternity in hell unless you can, with the Holy Spirit, find a way to love them. That’s the best evangelization you can do. The Bible is full of people who are not upset when horrible things are happening to them—look at what happened to Joseph. Despite repeated injustice, he was calm as a cucumber; he had trust that whatever happened was in God’s plan. The fact that his family were welcomed into the best of pagan farmland, instead of starving to death, is proof that he got respect from pagan Egyptians for showing over-the-top integrity.  Plus, his brothers learned to love him and his faith in God, instead of wanting to kill him anymore. There is a good side to tragedy; look for it.

OTHER REFERENCES: Matthew 22:36-39, Matthew 25:35, Mark 12:28-31