a man stands condemned, even stripped of his position in the church, for giving more to God than to his own family. more time, more love, more focus toward the things of God (Heb 13.16). his very own life verse defined his character:
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common."
-Acts 2.42-44
glory to God in the highest! we should have more men of this caliber, who see that nothing comes before God. that we should not bend to the envy of the world when it believes that people are more deserving of our admiration and gift-giving, that even those whom we have, by God's own grace, brought into being should not receive excess at the expense of one who has none. granted, God does just that in a purely spiritual sense (Mt 13.12, 25.29), but again, that is God doing it. He accepts of us at the expense of the poor (Mk 14.7), and therein we see the problem that the world has with us. they will say that we preach equality (Eph 2.14-16), but omit the clause "under God" (Php 2.6, I Cor 15.27), because "god" is a figment to them, a word and nothing more; a concept, perhaps, like morality, but not a Person deserving of more devotion.
"'They will put you out of the [assembly]; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me.'"
-John 16.2-3
though we are equal in Christ--neither even male nor female (Gal 3.28)--still, this life is divided into two boats. Christ Himself is the dividing line. the world itself acknowledges that this is the case, but the "Christian" who has befriended the world (Ja 4.4-5) is the one cast into confusion. their love for the world does not come from God; it seeks to exalt people above God rather than to lift them up beneath Him. these become our false teachers, who claim to have the "knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven," but to whom such has not been given (Mt 13.11), and thus the knowledge and wisdom that they do possess will not stand for them before God.
"For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share in the faith of those who obeyed."
-Hebrews 4.2
"They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."
-I John 2.19
"If you are not disciplined..., then you are illegitimate children and not true sons."
-Hebrews 12.8, abridged
if Jesus denied His own blood relatives the right to remove Him from speaking among His spiritual kin (Mt 12.46-48), should we not see the importance of why? God does not commend anyone for a status one bears, else we could not have equality among each other. but it is those who wish that their station have some privilege attached to it--in the body of the church (I Cor 12.25-26)--who prove that Jesus is not the embodiment of "peace on earth" (Lk 12.51-53).
"He replied, 'My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.'"
-Luke 8.21
"'I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.'"
-Luke 6.47-48
"'For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of Me.'"
-Luke 21.15-17
post-script: i must apologize. this post has been left incomplete for nearly 14 months. surely, the crisis of my faith was hardly beginning at the time. strange as that is, i'll be detailing that in another post in the coming year, but i just felt it necessary to share this one "as is" in its virgin state, to preserve the thought process i had at the time. though, it does not include views that i no longer hold. rather, it is important--for myself--to compare my heart back then with how i feel about this issue today. again, nothing has changed, but sometimes drought leads to abscission so that the Root can regrow. if you needed a Christmas connection, there it is (Is 11).
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