Today’s reading is Matthew 13:1-14:36.

Jesus’ example really hit me where I needed it today. In Matthew 14:1-12, Jesus’ cousin John was beheaded, humiliated, and buried. In Matthew 14:13, Jesus was withdrawing to be by Himself because of this. Yet, when He arrived at the “desolate place” the crowds had beat Him. There they were in need of a shepherd.

I certainly believe Jesus had every right to say, “Not right now.” In fact, later that day, Jesus does take care of Himself  while letting others endure some hardship for a while (Matthew 14:22-25). But that is not what Jesus did here. Though Jesus was mourning and wanting to connect with His Father, He saw the crowds and had compassion. He healed their sick. 

I need to remember this. I can sometimes take caring for myself into selfishness and self-centeredness. I can get so caught up in me that I simply can’t be bothered with other people, no matter their connection to me or their needs. I can do this in my family, in my neighborhood, and even in the congregation.

In fact, it strikes me that my struggle with just reaching out to folks I meet simply through conversation and hopefully turning to spiritual matters is bound up in this. I can get so bound up in my fear of rejection that I don’t try to talk to folks and that means never sharing the good news with them. 

I need to work on this. Too often I want to stay in my own desolate place instead of having compassion on the crowds. I need to work on this today.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is John 7:1-8:59.

Once again, the Scripture humbles me and plots a correction course for me. Jesus said, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood” (John 7:16-18).

I love to preach. I love to teach. I love teaching classes. I love teaching one on one. I love to write. I enjoy this blog, my personal blog, and the blog for the congregation with which I work. I love to write articles when asked. I love writing books or participating in the books others are putting together. The problem is with all this teaching, whether verbal or written, there is a huge temptation. I want to say something new. I want to say something profound. I want to say something for which others will look at me and say, “Wow, Edwin, you are amazing.” Jesus explains that when my motivation is glorifying me, I’m not helping anyone. When I’m glorifying God, I avoid falsehood. 

Today’s reading reminds me of my job in Christ’s kingdom. It is not my job to be a profound preacher, a witty writer, a talented teacher. My job is to learn God’s will and pass it on. Why? Because God’s way works and mine doesn’t.

Please forgive me for the arrogant pride that sometimes creeps in as I try to be of help. Hold me accountable and let’s work together to glorify God instead of ourselves.

***Question: What do you do to get rid of pride and instead glorify God?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Matthew 7:1-8:34.

Okay, I’ll admit it. Today’s Give Attention to Reading is a shameless plug for my book The Gospel of the Kingdom: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. What we call the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12 always stands out to me as I read these chapters. I thought I’d share with you one of the sections in Chapter 23: The Golden Rule.

“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (NASB).

Summing Up

Admittedly, on the surface, this statement, though profound and deep, seems to be just thrown into the mix of the Sermons conclusion. However, the use of “therefore” denotes some kind of connection with what has preceded.

D. Martin Lloyd Jones suggests it connects back to Christ’s teaching on judgment in Matthew 7:1-5. Thus saying, if we wish to judge others properly we should treat them as we want to be treated. Paul Earnhart suggest it is the logical follow through of Matthew 7:6-11. As God treats His children, we ought to treat others. He gives good gifts. We should also, treating others the way we want to be treated. Both make decent arguments. In fact, the Golden Rule fits in both places.

Instead of making a direct connection back to the most recent statements in the Sermon, this is a summary of the entire treatise. The reason the Golden Rule flows from both sections in this final chapter is because it flows from every section.

As stated in the last chapter, Earnhart demonstrated a magnificent structure between Jesus’ section on judgment and His section on the Father’s love and gifts. The first section warned kingdom citizens who might ten toward Pharisaic application of the kingdom principles. The second section flowed to those who might be paralyzed by fear they cannot fulfill the kingdom principles. This Golden Rule summarizes those kingdom principles, providing a rule of thumb for how to live up to their standards–treat others how you want to be treated.

The “therefore” of the Golden Rule links back to the Beatitudes. We sinned. We are destitute. We blow it all the time in our relationship with God and God’s creation. Therefore, we are poor in spirit, mourning our condition, meekly submitting to God and before others, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. As we look around at those who have sinned against us, we do not see enemies. We see people in our same boat. We see people just like us. Therefore we treat them the way we want to be treated, with mercy, striving to make peace.

The “therefore” of the Golden Rule links back to the principles of salt and light. Do we want people to hide the strait and narrow way from us? Do we want them to simply become just like us or hide the truth from us so we continue to wallow in sinful misery? Of course not. We want their salt and light. We want their help along the path of righteousness. Therefore, we strive to be the salt and light in our world to help others come to God’s kingdom and righteousness.

The “therefore” of the Golden Rule links back to Jesus’ “you have heard…but I say to you” statements. When we have messed up and angered people, do we want them to call us names, hating us and plotting evil against us even if it falls short of murder? Of course not. We want them to come to us, helping us overcome the tempter and forgiving us. Therefore, we do the same for them. When someone has sinned against us, do we want them to hang on to their sin, putting up a barrier between us? Of course not. We want them to apologize and make things right. Therefore, when we have sinned against others, we do not let th esun go down on the problem. Instead we go to them and reconcile quickly.

Do we want others coveting our wives or husbands, lusting after them? Of course not. Therefore we do not covet the husbands and wives of our neighbors. Do we want our spouse to lay a stumbling block before us, sending us out into the world even if it is with a certificate of divorce? Of course not. Therefore we do not do the same to our spouse, but strive to make our marriage work. Do we want others laying a stumbling block before us sending their spouse out into the world causing those who might marry the divorced spouse to commit adultery? Of course not. Therefore, we do not lay that stumbling block.

Do we want people to lie to us because they developed an elaborate system of verbal finger crossing? Of course not. We want them to tell us the truth and honor their commitments no matter how they were verbalized. Therefore, our yes means yes and our no means no.

Do we want people to take advantage of us or retaliate whenever we have messed up and done something wrong? Of course not. Therefore, we bend over backwards to endure the wrong ourselves instead of retaliating against others.

Do we want people to hate us because we are the enemy? …because we are a different nationality, skin color, socio-economic class or because we have messed up in the past against them? Of course not. We want them to love us, seeking our best interests even when we have not always sought theirs. Therefore, we treat them in the same way, loving them, doing good for them at all times.

The “therefore” of the Golden Rule links back to Jesus’ teaching on judgment. Do we want people to judge us hypercritically or hypocritically? Do we want them to take every opportunity to castigate us into hell? Of course not. We want them to seek our eternal welfare, helping remove the speck in our eye, not hindering us because of the log in theirs. We want them to extend mercy, helping us, not to extend judgment cutting us loose and letting us go into God’s judgment. Therefore, we treat others with mercy, striving to help them overcome instead of merely judging them as awful sinners worthy of hell.

The “therefore” of the Golden Rule most definitely links back to Jesus’ teaching on our Father’s love. Do we want to receive stones and serpents from our Father or anyone for that matter? Of course not. We want the good gifts of loaves and fish. Therefore, we strive to give those good gifts to others as well.

When we fear that we cannot actually live up to the deep theological teaching of the Sermon and we wonder exactly how a particular principle applies to real life, we can follow this practical rule of thumb. However we want others to treat us; we should treat them.

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***Question: What is your favorite part of the Sermon on the Mount? Why?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. Warning, more shameless plugging ahead. If you want to learn more about the Golden Rule or the Sermon on the Mount. Feel free to purchase The Gospel of the Kingdom: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount from my web store or you can order it from your local bookstore.

I’m back. Sorry for the break. I had a great little vacation with the family in Crossville, TN last week, but our apartment did not have internet access. I hope you kept up with your reading even if you weren’t able to discuss it here. Let’s get back into the swing of things here.

Matthew 13 has a collection of kingdom parables. Of course, there is the parable of the sower. But then there are five parables, which all set forth similes about the kingdom.

1. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
2. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
3. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.
4. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of a fine pearl.
5. The kingdom of heaven is like a fishing net which gathers every kind of fish.

The first and last parables seem to make the same point. Not everyone who is “in the kingdom” is of the kingdom. Satan, sadly, influences some who have entered the kingdom and on the day of judgment, they will be sifted out and cast into the torment of fire. This encourages us to make sure we are not submitting to the influence of the Satan and simply thinking “going to church” means all that other stuff we do doesn’t matter.

The second parable of the mustard seed is pretty easily understood. The kingdom of heaven began extremely small, but it would grow to be huge. That is exactly what happened. Prior to pentecost, the seed for the kingdom was only 120. But on Pentecost, it immediately grew to about 3000 (still not a very large number in comparison to the world population). In time, however it grew and grew and grew. Multitudes and multitudes entered. This all happened despite constant warring against Christ’s kingdom.

It is the other two parables that give me a bit of trouble. I know that may sound odd because they seem so easy to grasp. On the surface, most just view them as repetitions of the same point. The kingdom is worth so much we should sell everything. But these connected parables always give me some trouble. The parable of the hidden treasure I get. The man, seeing the field and finding the hidden treasure sold everything he had because that was the purchase price of the land. However, upon gaining the land, he actually had something more valuable than all his earlier possessions. That is the kingdom of heaven. We should be willing to give up everything because when we gain Christ’s kingdom, we gain it all.

Perhaps the parable to the pearl of great price is making the same point and I’m just thinking too hard. But this parable always causes me a problem because once the guy gets the pearl, the only way it will be of any real benefit to him is to sell it again. Otherwise he has a very costly trinket and that is it. Some suggest this is because he knew he could turn around and sell it again for even more than he paid. I guess that might be right, but then that leaves us buying the kingdom and selling it to get the value. Maybe I’m over analyzing, but, I just don’t think this is the point.

A brother once pointed out to me a major difference in these two parables. In the parable of the treasure, the kingdom is compared to the treasure. However, in the parable of the pearl, the kingdom is not compared to the pearl but to the merchant. When that very simple point was made, the parable suddenly was turned on its head. The parable of the treasure is about how I should value the kingdom. The parable of the pearl, however, is making the opposite point.

The kingdom is a merchant in search of valuable pearls. The picture is about Christ and his looking for the lost sheep. We are the pearl. Christ, in His kingdom, valued us so much He gave up everything to purchase us. He gave up the glories of heaven, the fellowship with the Father and then even gave up His life so I might be in His kingdom. WOW! How powerful is that.

If Jesus and His kingdom valued me that much, how much more should I value Jesus and His kingdom? It truly is a treasure. I guess it’s time for me to start selling things.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC