My Daily Pause

“Why are you such a sinner?”

Judas might as well have just come out and said it like that. It is what he meant after all. His greed caused him to react inappropriately to Mary’s lavish gift of oil for Jesus. (John 12:1-8)

Mary Magdalene – 1530 – Jan van Scorel (1495–1552)

John comes right out and says that Judas didn’t care for the poor . In fact, John made it clear a few times that Judas had some problems. This day was nothing new. (John 12:6)

There is a couple of reasons why we don’t go around pointing out the sins and shortcomings of others:

1. There might be something they can say about us.
2. It is probably (or usually) more blatant than the thing we are pointing out.

This sounds a lot like the speck and the log problem in Matthew 7:3-4.

Jesus resolves this event by pointing out a condition that Judas was not taking into account. (John 12:8) In another situation what Mary did might have been less appropriate. For now though, it was the right thing to do.

There is a time and place to help others with their sins, but we typically need to pay more attention to ourselves.

So here’s how we can be better company:

• Mind our own shortcomings (sins)
• Assume uninvited criticism is unwanted

Our level of consistency is typically quite noticeable.

“He is consistent. ”

These are the words I want to hear about myself. When I read about Jesus from John’s viewpoint, I see consistency most of all.

I’m trying to be like that.

Jesus’ message never changed – not even when the Jews were ready to use the rocks in their hands. (John 10:31) That was the key to attracting new believers. Through the various discourses in John 8, 9 and 10 and beyond, we see new believers following Jesus despite the ones that wanted to kill him. If Jesus had ever made mistake, his entire ministry might have failed.

The believers saw the consistency in his message. That is powerful. We could do the same thing by remaining true to God’s word in our speech, our actions and our decisions. When we do, people notice.

But worse, when we don’t – people notice.

Many Christians are inconsistent in their message:

• They are doing questionable activities – TV show choices, immodest dress, social drinking …
• They are not reading their Bibles – yet they tell others they follow what the Bible says
• They are not in church – they are not doing things to help their faith grow

If we are to teach God’s word and expect it to spread, it would be a good idea to live God’s word.

Maybe we have made mistakes in the past, but the time is always right for starting over. We can always develop a reputation as a Christian by just taking the time to do the work.

• Let’s be diligent and read our Bibles
• Let’s talk more about why we believe
• Let’s root out questionable behaviors and habits in our lives

When someone notices you are consistent, you will know you are on the right track.

Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees – between 1886 and 1894 – James Tissot (1836–1902)

What would Jesus do?

Most of the time, we fall short of Jesus’ example. Especially in the department of making sure others have an opportunity to hear the truth, we do not deliver as expected.

If we are supposed to teach others the gospel, and we are supposed to follow his example, then we also have to teach the hard lessons too.

In John 8:21-30, Jesus is in the temple teaching and he makes some pretty direct statements to the Jews that were gathered around. For us, “You will die in your sins …” (John 8:24) is not exactly something we can work into every conversation. We might lose a few popularity contests over it, but it is a point that we need to teach.

Jesus never failed to tell someone what they needed to hear – even if it was a little uncomfortable. The climate for Christians today is not very favorable for telling others about Christ and their salvation. Just like in Jesus’ time, most will not believe, but it is still something that needs to be done.

And if we are going to do what Jesus did, we need to get started – because there are some that will believe! (John 8:30)

Bible Study. The way to find the truth (Acts 17:11)

They didn’t take time to find out where Jesus was born. (John 7:42)

They said no prophet ever came from Galilee. (John 7:52)

When I read about the crowd dividing over who Jesus was, (John 7:40-52) I can’t help but think how people are still the same. Why is it that so many choose sides on an issue without doing an actual investigation?

Since the Pharisees involved in this account knew that the Christ was supposed to come from Bethlehem, (Micah 5:2) we can tell they were only making an assumption that Jesus was born in Galilee. They also forgot that Jonah was from Galilee, (2 Kings 14:25) so we can see their logic was faulty from the beginning.

Using that faulty logic, they concluded that Jesus could not be the Christ.

We have hundreds of denominations of Christian churches. We have thousands of congregations within the denominations further dividing the Scriptures in incorrect ways. All of these based on incorrect conclusions from study or lack of study.

Christianity is not a religion we are born into. We have to hear it and believe it. (Romans 10:17) We have to study it diligently. (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV) We have to verify what we are taught. (Acts 17:11)

Yes, Christianity is a lot of work. The reason we have so many that are missing the mark, honestly or not, is because we have failed to give it the diligence required.

From Paul’s writing, we can see that division in the church was never intended. (Ephesians 4:1-6) If our task is to read and understand God’s word, why would we allow divisions among Christians to stand without proper and honest Bible study together?

Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–1890) – The Sermon On the Mount

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. – John 6:29

This is a key verse to debate those who teach the “faith only” doctrine. Those who have allowed themselves to believe that there is nothing one can do to be saved have overlooked this verse.

There is also a difference in believing “in him” and “believing him.” If we are to believe in Christ, we have to trust that what he said is the way of salvation. Finding ways around his teaching is contrary to the spirit of what Jesus was about. A number of the followers turned away in John 6 when they started figuring this out.

Jesus marveled at man’s disbelief. (Mark 6:6) His villagers even used the fact that he was born among them and therefore could not possibly be worthy of his claims.

• Not believing in God makes us equal to the animals
• Not believing is contrary to human nature
• Not believing leaves man without hope
• Not believing closes the mind to the evidence of God

Faith takes a lot of work. It is how we separate ourselves from the world. It is how we decide to set priorities for “spiritual bread” over the physical bread.

As we make our daily choices – let’s pay more attention to which bread we are working for by choosing to enrich our faith.