God has given many blessings to His
people, not only for their benefit but for the benefit of those around
them. Earlier this week I wrote of how
both the Jewish nation and Christians had an identical purpose in God’s plan:
to be a light to those around them.
We can see from Old Testament
scripture that God did mighty works in order to display to the surrounding
nations not only that He was God, but that He had chosen Israel as His
people. Besides working miracles, the Lord
blessed Israel as a people, and their herds and crops, and He gave them victory
over their enemies. In like manner, the
Lord blessed Christians, bestowing His Holy Spirit on them and equipping them
to overcome. He made His Word come alive
in a people who were destined to become the Word of God in the flesh, just like
Jesus, Whose Spirit they were born of.
To the extent that God blesses, we
see that there is a correlating responsibility towards God’s purposes. The Jewish nation did not put God first and
saw His blessings as things they were due, or had deserved because of their
place in God’s kingdom. Eventually their
city Jerusalem became known as the city that shed innocent blood (Ezekiel
24:9). Jesus told the Jewish people “And
so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berekiah, whom
you murdered between the temple and the altar.”
The blame of the failure of salvation fell on the people who had the
light to save their nation, and the nations surrounding them. Further, the Lord blamed Jerusalem for
killing prophets and others He had sent to them (Mathew 23:37). Because she (Jerusalem) was stuck in her
ways, and stuck on herself, she did not listen to the Lord’s prophets, but went
the way of the world.
Interestingly, in Revelation we see
a very similar discourse. Just as in
Ezekiel 16, where God calls Jerusalem a whore, the unfaithful church is also
called a whore, and the Lord tells her that she had the blood of the saints and
prophets in her (Rev 16:6; 17:6). After
the Lord takes the voice of the bridegroom and bride from her, these charges
are made against this whore; “By your magic spell all the nations were led
astray. In her was found the blood of
prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth. (Rev
18:23-24)” Though she (the unfaithful) had been blessed with the Word of God to
share with the world, instead she wanted the world’s friendship. Not wanting to offend those of the world who
would love her, she hid God’s true gift of salvation and led the unsaved to
believe they were accepted by God when they were not. Having begun as His beloved, this whore is also
cast off because she too rejected the voice of God sent to her, preferring to
love the world more than God.
Jesus puts it this way; “From
everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who
has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48). Perhaps we are failing to see that our faith
is not for our personal benefit alone.
If we neglect our salvation (Hebrews 2:3), which is great, and we
receive blessings but are not a light to those around us, we also will be seen
as unfaithful to God’s purposes in our own lives. When Christians fail, wrongs continue on the
earth. Murders and rapes, kidnappings
and thefts are not prevented, but rather, evil men continue in their evil. Because we have the potential for so much
good, our failures allow evil to reign on the earth. And, if we call evil good (Is 5:20), then we
shut the door of salvation on those to whom we are sent as a witness.
God looks at our potential to be
overcomers, and if we fall short of that potential, we will be held
accountable. Brothers and sister in
Christ, let us overcome our selfishness and seek to do good to others and
fulfill our callings on the earth. God
has given us much; let us apply faith to our works for the benefit of all
around us. Amen.
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