A Wise Person
Matthew 7:24-25 ESV
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
Jesus always taught faith in action. He taught against false
professions of faith which were words only but were not followed up with
obedience. He said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take
up his cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him.
For, he said, if we hold on to our old lives of living for
sin and self, we will lose them for eternity. But, if we lose our lives for his
sake, i.e., if we die with Christ to sin and live to Christ and to his
righteousness, then we will have eternal life with God (See: Lu 9:23-26; Rom
8:1-17; 1 Jn 1:5-9).
Jesus said that if we love our family members more than we
love him, and if we do not take up our cross (die with him to sin) and follow (obey)
him, that we are not worthy of him. And he said that no one who puts his hand
to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
And we are urged in the New Testament to walk (in conduct)
in a manner worthy of the calling we have received from God. And our manner of
life is to be worthy of the gospel of Christ. And we are to walk in a manner worthy
of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, etc.
And then we are taught not to be those who only hear the
word of God, but that we are to be doers of the word. And we are taught that we
must obey the word, and that love for God is to obey him. And we are given all
sorts of instructions in the New Testament that we are to obey, too.
And we are taught that if we say that we are walking in
fellowship with our Lord but that we are still walking in darkness (still living
in sin), that we are liars who don’t live by the truth. And we are taught that
if we say we know God, but we don’t do what he says, that we don’t know him.
And we are taught, too, that if we keep on deliberately making
sin our practice, and if righteousness is not what we practice, and if we do
not love our fellow humans, that we are of the devil, not of God, and that we
are not born of God, for those born of God cannot keep practicing sin.
So, wisdom teaches us to obey the Lord, to do what he says,
to go where he sends us, and to say what he commands us to say. If we want to
be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God, we must walk (in
conduct) no longer according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
[Matt 10:37-38; Lu 9:62; Eph 4:1; Php 1:27; Col 1:10; 1
Thess 2:12; Jas 1:22-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 6:1-23; Rom
8:1-17]
A Foolish (Unwise) Person
Matthew 7:26-27 ESV
“And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
There are many unwise people today professing faith in Jesus
Christ who are convinced that they do not have to obey the Lord. Someone has
told them that faith in Jesus Christ requires nothing of them, for Jesus does
it all. It is true that our faith comes from Jesus, and he is the perfecter of
our faith, but he does require faith in action. He requires we do what he says.
But he is not asking us to perform good deeds in the flesh
in order to earn our own salvation. What he is teaching us is that faith isn’t
just words we say, but it is what we do, and that our faith is realized by what
we do. He is teaching us that to come after him means we deny self and that we
die daily with him to sin, and that we live to him and to his righteousness.
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, it is a lot like the
old Jewish marriage contracts. The couple is considered man and wife, but the
marriage has not yet been consummated. So, it is a lot like an engagement
period before marriage, one that is taken seriously where the two are faithful
to each other, and they are committed to that marriage relationship.
Jesus, like the groom, is preparing a place for us, and one
day he is going to come back for us, and he is going to take us to be with him.
But while we are waiting for him, we are to be living holy lives, pleasing to
God, faithful to Christ as our only Lord (husband). We are to be committed to
our marriage to the Lord, and we are not to be playing around.
But the foolish play around, and they act as though they are
still single and as though they are not married to Christ, because they aren’t.
They believe and they follow a lie, instead, and so heaven is not what awaits
them. They will die in their sins. They will not inherit eternal life with God,
because they continued making sin their practice and they didn’t obey the Lord.
Jesus, Lead Me
An Original Work / July 22, 2011
Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead always.
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.
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