I wish I’d started this sooner, but I’ve decided to share what I’m seeing and learning as I read the Bible. If something jumps out at me, or impacts me, I’ll try to write at least a short post.
Up first…
John 9: 46-56 –
An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest. But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My Name, receives Me, and whoever receives Me, receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”
John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your Name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.”
But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.”
When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.
When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
But He turned and rebuked them, “You do not know what kind of Spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went to another village.
This is a long passage, and initially it was the last portion (v 51-56) that caught my attention, but when I read over the entire chapter again, these two events are directly related to each other.
In the first section, it wasn’t so much Jesus’s reminder about who was important that grabbed me, but the way John responded to it. The word ‘answered’ in verse 49 means “To begin to speak but always where something has preceded (either said or done) to which the remarks refer.” That means John’s remarks directly correlate to what Jesus was teaching them.
He wanted to let Jesus know he was following that rule – as he understood it – by preventing someone outside the twelve from acting in Jesus name. At first glance, this makes sense. Jesus just told them that those who were sent from Him had the same authority He did, and the person the disciples tried to stop was not part of the ‘sent’ group. Jesus isn’t concerned in the least, and in fact, He affirms the other person for not being against Him. The principle Jesus is teaching here is that we are all on the same side. Jesus’s side!
The second part of this passage addresses how to handle it when our attempts to reach out to someone are rejected simply because we are Christ Followers. James and John wanted to condemn them for turning Jesus away. They wanted the unbelievers burned up!
Jesus very sternly reminded them that kind of reaction was not from God. (v55b) “You don’t know what kind of spirit you are of, for The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (v55b – 56a)
This reaffirms Jesus statement in John 3:17 – “For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
This tells me that the church needs to stop ranting and condemning those who refuse to accept us. Our condemnation just confirms to them that we are against them! If God is sending us out in Jesus name (vs 46-50) and God didn’t send His Son to condemn them but to save them (John 3:17), and Jesus personally rebuked His disciples for thinking He would want to condemn those rejecting Him (vs 51-56), then we need to heed His command today.
We must stop condemning and judging people and groups of people who want nothing to do with Jesus. To be honest, they probably have good reasons for why they don’t want to hear it. Our job isn’t to make it worse, our job is to remember why Jesus came in the first place.
John 3:16,17 – For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.