Unfaithful Servant: Salt and Light and Logs and Motes

But if that slave says in his heart, 'My master will be a long time in coming,' and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few." Luke 12: 45-48 NASB

We began our study of the unfaithful servant yesterday. If you missed it, I hope you'll follow the link (it opens in a new tab) and read it.

I expected to write today about the slave who knew his master's will and didn't do it. In a way, that's exactly what I'm writing about. In a way, I'm writing about the unfaithful servant who beats the other people. I hesitate, because I'm as guilty as anyone else of seeing motes in others' eyes while ignoring the log in my own, but this is a subject that has bothered me for months. It's so loud in my head that it must be written. 

We are talking today about the WORDS we choose to use. 

My life is chock-full of words because my days are spent writing and editing, correcting the wrong words and making them right. I was focused on words long before I started writing full-time, though. In my growing up years, my mother must have told me a thousand times, "You don't have to say everything that comes into your mind." (Well, maybe not those exact words, but that's what she meant.) I understand the importance of words and the difficulty with choosing good ones.

It has taken me a lifetime to get a filter on my mouth, and I'm the first one to say I'm not perfect with it, despite my effort. With that said, here we go.

Jesus called me (us) to be salt and light. He did not call me to rub a handful of salt into a wound.

I am called to be the amount of saltiness that adds flavor to food, not the amount that makes it impossible to swallow.  If my words spew forth and are filled with venom (in the name of "truth"), I am not adding flavor to the world around me. I am making my faith impossible to swallow.

I am to be light, but the warm light of a lamp that draws people in the darkness to Christ. I am not called to be a spotlight boring into the eyes of the unbeliever to the point that they are blinded by the glare. I am called to be a lamp, not a laser. 

I recently drove to a meeting late in the evening. When I rounded a curve, the sun was shining directly into my eyes. It was so bright that I was temporarily blinded and had to stop lest I run into a fence that was directly ahead of me. Progress toward the goal was completely halted by the glare. It didn't draw me to my destination. It prevented me from moving toward it.

As a disciple of Christ, I am called to obey the Word of God and to live righteously. I am called to share the Good News of a risen Savior with those who don't know Him. Christ died for me while I was a sinner, and He died for those who are also still sinners (which I am, t00).

How can people obey Christ if they do not know Him? Why would I expect the world to obey Him? Yes, Jonah preached a hard word to Nineveh and the people repented. His very effective prophetic proclamation was made only after a radical life-changing encounter with the Most High God had left him visibly changed. 

 If I want to be a modern-day Jonah to the world around me, I need to begin by having a life-altering encounter with God that leaves me so changed that all can see it.  I also need to remember the kind of message Jonah gave. He didn't spew venom. Not once did he say, "Your sin makes me sick." Jonah simply stated the truth. "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."

When I attack the world for acting like the world, but do not address the sin in my own life, in my own church, I appear not only hypocritical (which I am) but also foolish.

Can't I see the log in my own eye? 

Every mote looks like a log when it's in someone else's eye. Seeing a mote in someone else's eye does not mean I am without a log or two in my own eye.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am dedicated to truth, but I need to understand and live with all the truth. 

It is past time for the body of Christ to allow our Lord to clean the sin out of our own lives, out of our own churches. 

It is past time to let go of self-righteousness and see that we, like the world, are sinners in need of a redeeming, cleansing, forgiving Savior.

When I say "we", I include myself in that "we". Christ died for me while I was a sinner. He loves me even though I am still a sinner. His Spirit convicts me, presses me when I persist in sin, and draws me back to my Lord when I stray. 

For today, let's ask God to create in us clean hearts and clean mouths, to remove the venom and give us words that honor Him. (Yes, I'm praying that same thing.) Let's pray that the words of our mouths would be acceptable in His sight. 

Let's be the lamp, the flavor-enhancer He's called us to be, demonstrating Christ to the world in a way that is both filled with truth and also irresistible. 

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Our Father, forgive us for "log disease". Help us to see ourselves, our hearts, our words as You see them. Infuse us with the light of Your love and help us to shine in such a way that those who live in darkness are drawn to the light. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Tomorrow's topic is Christ and the constitution. I'm dreading it.

#disciple #JesusChrist #actlikewebelive #getthelogout

Beware of leaven.

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. (Luke 12:1-3 NASB)

"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," Jesus told the crowd. Leaven is a substance such as yeast that causes fermentation of dough or batter. When fermentation occurs, it causes the dough to expand (or rise). A tiny pinch of yeast will quickly spread through an entire bowl of dough. The word translated as hypocrisy is hypokrisis. It can also be translated as play acting or dissimilation (becoming unlike).

The Pharisees, Jesus was saying, were play-acting their faith and, as a result, they were becoming less like God instead of more like Him. As representatives of God to a lost world, the example they gave was worse than no example at all. Beware of their example, Jesus said. If you aren't paying attention, you will become just like them. 

The problem, of course, is that hypocrisy is much easier than living a life of faith. Being a disciple requires that I give up my desires to follow Christ, when I would rather do what I want. That's what had happened to the Pharisees. They had studied the law so long that they could quote it easily, and were experts at enforcing the law. When it came to obeying the law, they weren't so good. 

What they had done was pick and choose. They decided which laws they would follow. They tithed the mint in their garden, but didn't care about widows and orphans. Tithing mint is easily accomplished. Providing for widows and orphans requires an ongoing commitment to their care. Putting money in the offering boxes was easy to do. Having a heart that was humble and pure was much harder.

It's the same for us. At least it is for me. Giving money is much easier than loving my enemies and praying for those who despitefully use me, isn't it? Teaching what God says is much easier than having an humble, teachable spirit that gives God all the credit and leaves none for myself. It's easier to put on my "Sunday clothes" and go to church with the same attitude I have for going to the grocery store than to arrive with a heart eager to hear from God, willing to renounce my sin and embrace the purity only God can give.

I want to be done with hypocrisy. 

I don't like it in others and I don't want it in me. 

But I'm a Pharisee. 

I do what I don't want to do. I think what I don't want to think. I don't do what I know I should. Like Paul, I think woe is me. Who will separate me from this?

Only Christ. 

Paul said that, what the law could not do, God did in sending Jesus. Through Him, we are made clean and kept clean. It's a choice we must make every day. Will we allow Jesus to cleanse us? Will we follow Him? Will we walk the path of the Pharisees or will we walk the road of Calvary, where His will becomes ours and we become one with Him?

If we want to be real disciples, and not just Pharisees, we will follow the road Christ set before us, in the way He walked it, humbly, putting the will of God before our own. It's not always easy, but it's worth it. 

Bringing the ship of our minds safely to harbor

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. (Luke 12:1-3 NASB)

The Pharisees plotted in secret, but Jesus took the offensive into the open. Beware, He told the crowds. The word translated as "beware" is prosechō and is the same word used to describe the action of bringing a ship into dry land safely. In this instance, it means "to hold". What Jesus was saying to His listeners was, "Pay attention and protect your mind. Hold it as a treasure." 

Commentators expound their views on the news; celebrities voice their opinions on talk shows; popular "religious" leaders pronounce their brand of faith in the media. They all speak as if their platform makes what they say worth hearing. They are paid to talk. They have to say words. Sometimes their words are worth hearing. Most times, they're not. 

It is as easy for leaders to make false assumptions and go in a wrong direction as it is for you and me. Our lives were never meant to be patterned after those around us. Our lives are to be patterned after Christ. We have an instruction manual already, and it's called the Bible. 

Jesus was not saying that we should ignore wise counsel or that all those in leadership positions (no matter what kind of leadership they have) are to be disdained. What Jesus was saying is that we should pay attention to what is being said before we embrace it. Don't just embrace words, look at actions. Don't just embrace actions. Judge them by the plumb line of Scripture.

When charismatic speakers deliver lovely words in a touching manner, it is easy to be drawn in to their rhetoric. If the words evoke emotion, it is not uncommon to assume that the emotion has come because their words are truth. If we want to walk in truth, we must judge everything by the standard of truth. 

What is truth? Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me," He is truth. (John 14:6 NIV) If what a speaker says does not line up with what Jesus said, we must discard it, no matter how compelling the words may be. 

It sounds strict, doesn't it? Jesus was full of love and compassion for those of us, like me, who find sin so easy and obedience so hard. When it came to truth, however, He was deadly serious. So serious He died to give us His truth, His way, His life. He isn't being mean or trying to limit our access to the world. Jesus expects us to evaluate what we hear, what we see, and use the discernment God gives to decide if it is truth or not. 

The reason He was so firm about truth is so that we can guide the ship of our minds into the safe harbor of truth, avoiding all the dangers of false doctrine along the way.  Prosechō. Beware, lest we find ourselves docking where we never meant to be. 

Pursue truth. Hold it like a standard. Accept nothing less.

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Coming attraction: a look at an 1841 list of causes of shipwreck and how to avoid shipwrecks in our lives.