How God’s “Little Children,” Spirit-filled Fishermen Understand What Jesus Said
Examples of how God’s “Little Children,” Spirit-filled Fishermen Understand What Jesus Said
[OR, “How to read the Apostolic Writins like a fisherman, farmer, or carpenter!]
“Have this [same] MIND in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5; “mind” – “way of thinking” / “attitude” / “instincts”)
“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted AND become as little children, you will by NO means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4; Note well: “conversion” is not enough; it MUST be followed by a “becoming”!)
The purpose of this essay is to describe the necessary “little child” instinct toward the Spirit-inspired apostolic writings that Jesus expects of those who want learn to think and feel in the way that HE thought and felt.
The first section deals with the instincts and principles that He and His apostles taught and exemplified for us to follow: “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11)
In the second section I have selected a handful of specific passages to use as examples of how we are to receive ALL of the teachings, promises, and commands that He and His holy apostles have caused to be written down.
SECTION ONE – PRINCIPLES AND ATTITUDES:
Regarding that “mind” that was in Christ Jesus that is to be within us:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do NOTHING of Himself, but what He sees the Father do;” (John 5:19)
“I can of Myself do NOTHING. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do NOT seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (5:30)
“ I do NOTHING of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things” (John 8:28)
Apostle Paul: “…Paul, a SLAVE of Christ Jesus …” (Romans 1:1, NET)
“ Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s SLAVE” (1 Cor 7:22)
Apostle Peter: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like NEWBORN infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:1-3).
As the divine Son of God – “being in the form of God” – and as our very Creator (John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17), Jesus had his own inherent authority and power to impose upon us whatever He chose: and when He returns we will see Him using plenty of it (e.g., Revelation 19:11ff)! But when He came as one of us we are told that He “emptied Himself”:
“… who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but EMPTIED Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by BECOMING obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). [His “becoming” a “little child”?]
Having come as a NEW “Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45), He came to MODEL the path that Adam SHOULD have taken, and that WE are to follow after Him. And so He did nothing and taught nothing but what was revealed to Him by His Father: “I do NOTHING of Myself; but [ONLY] as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.” He was surrendered to what came from His Father without ANY conditions or qualifications. That surrender included matters of great importance, such as “Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?” (John 18:11). But it extended into seemingly trivial details, including fulfilling obscure prophesies, such as, “… behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt!” (John 12:15, from Zecheriah 9:9).
If our own Creator was willing to passionately embrace that attitude as a humbled human being, what do you think will be the fate of a human who claims to be a “Christian” but who does NOT passionately embrace the very same “mind that was in Christ,” an attitude adopted by Him for the very PURPOSE of modeling what WE were to follow? Tragically, however, Satan has become so successful at making our many denominations SO relaxed in our versions of His “passion” that we can read the following without feeling either guilt or enough motivation to change: “… work out your own salvation with FEAR AND TREMBLING; for it is GOD who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).
We also see from what they wrote and the way they behaved, that the same attitude that Jesus had toward His Father was embraced by His apostles toward HIM: “AS the Father has sent Me, I also send YOU” (John 20:21). Do you see the chain of authority and obedience that Jesus created? –
Father to Son è Son to Apostles è Apostles to you and me!
Therefore, OUR relationship to what His Spirit chose to be written by His apostles is quite clear: a simple “little child” trust to the point of relational and functional “slavery”! Slavery to Him AND to His “mind” (“attitudes”), AND to His and their written teachings! A trust and surrender without conditions or qualifications, no matter how “great” or “minor” we regard a Scriptural issue to be! That is what He offered to His Father and what He expects from any who hope to be where He is now.
ANY other attitude than that simple “little child” instinct has to be trained, stretched or even BURNED out of us by the Father who has adopted us as His little children and who is determined to not stop that stretching until we are successfully “conformed” to the image of His own Son: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be CONFORMED to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among MANY brethren!” (Romans 8:29).
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SECTION TWO – SAMPLE PASSAGES:
[If you do not have the time to read all eight examples, one or two will get the point across about the instinct to use when reading His apostolic writings!]
Let’s look at eight sample passages and think of the way that a surrendered “little child” who was a “slave” of His word would find in what His Spirit has caused to be written down. We will call that person “Sandy” (so that you can supply his/her gender!).
1. ABOUT JESUS:
One Sunday Sandy just happened to read the following: “IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ALL things were made through Him, and without Him NOTHING was made THAT WAS MADE” (John 1:1-3; see also Colossians 1:15-17 ).
From that passage, it was obvious to Sandy that we are to regard Jesus as our “Creator,” even though the role that His Father and Spirit may also have had is not revealed. But His role as our and as the universe’s Creator means that ANYTHING that you can eventually learn about the role of “scientific” things like gravity or about the sun’s nuclear fusion or about the chemistry and anatomy of the human body – ALL of that is what JESUS had invented! He designed and engineered everything in what we call “NATURE”! He turns out to be the ultimate scientist who became one of us, and exercised total control over nature!
As our Creator, He also invented our ABILITY to think and communicate with words, making Him the most consummate communicator with words who has ever been on planet Earth! If you wanted to be a scientist and were listening to someone like Albert Einstein, you would hang on each and every word and formula that he said or wrote! That is even more true regarding the words of Jesus! He did not get sloppy with words, any more than Einstein would have felt free to leave out a mathematical symbol in one of his equations! Do not try to “massage” His words into things more “reasonable” to hear!
Sandy then noticed that unusual way that the Spirit inspired John to word that one sentence: “without Him nothing was made THAT WAS MADE.” He COULD have just written something like, “He made everything that exists.” But if Jesus was the Creator/inventor of ALL “that WAS ‘made’” then it logically and necessarily follows that Jesus was NOT among those who WERE “made.” So, we are being told that Jesus never came INTO being, except so far as to becoming a HUMAN being! That particular and “peculiar” way of wording the passage provides the clear answer to the controversy that raged among churchmen in the fourth century, when Arius had heretically insisted that Jesus was the first act of creation by the Father. See what happens when you do – or do NOT – pay attention to EVERY word! The words Jesus and His Spirit-filled apostles are to be treated more like Albert Einstein than some San Francisco hippies of the 1960 who ran around saying “cool” things like, “Make love, not war”!
And think about how meticulous Jesus was about examining and reflecting upon what God’s own Spirit had caused to be written down:
“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, ‘What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The Son of David.” He said to them, ‘How then does David in the Spirit call Him “Lord,” saying: “‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’”’? If DAVID then calls Him “Lord,” how is He HIS Son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore” (Matthew 22:41-45)
If our Creator was so meticulous about exegeting and fulfilling ANY Spirit-inspired passage that applied to Him, how can we imagine Him letting us get sloppy about ANY Spirit-inspired passage that applies to us, whether to us individually or to us corporately as congregations? There is NO safety in numbers, when it comes to playing denominational games with the Word of GOD! Believe and fulfill every teaching, promise and command within the New Testament as if your LIFE depended upon it!
2. ABOUT MARITAL SEX:
On Tuesday, Sandy came upon this passage: “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does NOT have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does NOT have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do NOT deprive one another,” (1 Corinthians 7:3-5).
Sandy had never heard anyone in the church covering THIS passage! But it was immediately obvious that Paul was bringing up an attitude and a discipline that would PROFOUNDLY utterly revolutionize both the relationship and the physical satisfaction of godly marriage partners! If a Christian husband and wife surrendered to both the letter and the spirit in which Paul wrote this exhortation their mutual heartfelt submission to each other’s sexual desires transforms their sexual intercourse from something that is “desire-based” into a servant’s ministry to his or her physical “lord.”
And, being such a surrendered “little child,” it also became revolutionarily obvious to Sandy that the Creator who created our sexual organs also takes delight in OUR delight when we live within His good will!
Sandy found it hard to imagine why the churches rarely – if EVER – advertise this passage and its lifelong consequences for a Spirit-filled marriage! “And we know that for those who love God ALL things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Who could have IMAGINED that our “spiritual” Creator included our physical pleasure in His version of “ALL things”! You really have to surrender like a little child in order to fully appreciate ALL that He has caused to be written for us His apostolic writings! It seems as if a childlike surrender to Him and His Word does NOT lead to being a “Puritan prude” for whom what is “good” never FEELS good!
3. ABOUT CELIBACY:
On Tuesday, Sandy bumped into this passage: “His disciples said to Him, ‘If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better NOT to marry.’ But He said to them, ‘ALL cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made THEMSELVES eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is ABLE to accept it LET him accept it!” (Matthew 19:10-12).
Is Jesus encouraging self-castration? For clarification about what Jesus may have been implying, Sandy then checked out what Paul had said: “But the man who is firm in his commitment, and is under no necessity but has control over his will, and has decided in his own mind to keep his own virgin, does well. So then, the one who marries his own virgin does WELL, but the one who does not, does BETTER.” (1 Corinthians 7:37-38).
Being someone whose mind immediately gravitates to what is obvious, Sandy had this thought pop into the mind: “Since Jesus and Paul recommended this calling from God so highly, and since the original apostolically founded churches held their vowed celibates so highly, why does MY church not openly RECOMMEND celibacy? Have I sought His will about this vocation?”
4. ABOUT THE LORD’S SUPPER OR EUCHARIST:
Sandy found this passage on Wednesday: “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this IS my body.” And after taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this IS my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).
Sandy remembered that Paul had said something like that, and turned to read:
“So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I am speaking to thoughtful people. Consider what I say. Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a SHARING in the blood of Christ? Is not the BREAD that we break a SHARING in the body of Christ? BECAUSE there is one bread, we who are many are one body, FOR we all share the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:14-17).
All of Sandy’s church friends said that Jesus and Paul could not have really meant what they said because it sounds too much like cannibalism; so they MUST have been merely talking with the same kind of symbolic language that He used in His parables. Because “little child” Sandy did not feel free to correct the words that Jesus and Paul CHOSE to use, the idea came to mind, “How can I come up with an idea from God’s Word that supports what they ACTUALLY said but that also helps me more deeply understand what they meant.”
If JESUS is the one who invented the ability to think and communicate with words, and actually could think with the precision of one who designed each and every microscopically small bodily cell, by what authority do we or our churches refuse to believe that His phrase, “this IS my body” supposedly “must mean” “this is is A SYMBOL my body”? Why do we not agree with Paul that we are truly “SHARING” in the body and blood of the risen and transformed body and blood of Jesus. That word “sharing” is also rightfully translated as “participation in” or “have communion with” or “a yoking together” of people or things. That “sharing” (Greek: “koinos” / “ κοινός”) came from the same root word that had described them as having “all things in common” (“koinonia”/” “κοινονια”). So, Paul is clearly saying that it is the bread and the wine themselves that are “yoked to” or “have communion with.” Sandy did not know HOW God might be able to accomplish that amazing feat, or even what the IMPLICATIONS of that “communion” might be: but then, being that simple “little child” she did not NEED for it to be understandable before it became ‘true”!
Paul described what the post-resurrection glorification of Jesus involved in 1 Corinthians 15:42-45:
“It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, BECAME a living person’; the last Adam BECAME a life-giving spirit.”
After more prayerful study, several things became obvious to Sandy: At that last Passover meal, Jesus was establishing one of the ways in which He would be fulfilling promises that He had already made to them, promises that would be fulfilled for them AFTER He “BECAME a life-giving spirit.” Among those promises were:
“I will not leave you orphans; I will COME to you” (John 14:18).
“If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our DWELLING with him” (John 14:23)
“Christ IN you, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27).
So many supposedly “Bible believing Christians” refuse to believe what Jesus and Paul literally said because they cannot “understand” how those words actually being used make sense to them. Well, how about trusting that WHAT He promised is true, without needing to understand HOW it can be true, so that you can eventually come to EXPERIENCE what is true? That is how it happened to me! Godly trust leads to godly experience, but ungodly skepticism PREVENTS godly experience! For example, I don’t have to understand HOW it is true that, “ I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) before I believe that His statement was true – and the reason why that is the case is because I trust HIM as well as WHAT He chose to say! Do you have to know HOW it is true that sexual intercourse with your spouse is one of the ways that causes you to become “one flesh” with your spouse, before you decide to just believe what He said and engage in that “one flesh” cause?
5. ABOUT TRUE OBEDIENCE:
On Thursday Sandy read, “OBEY your leaders and SUBMIT to them — for they keep watch over your SOULS as those who will give an account — so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you” (Hebrew 13:17).
“Now brothers, you know that the household of Stephanas is the first fruits of Achaia and that they have really devoted themselves to ministering to the saints, so I urge you to SUBMIT to such people, to all the fellow-workers and laborers” (1 Corinthians 16:15-16).
We who know American history already have clear life images about words that described relationships such as “to obey” and “to submit” – images such “slaves” obeying their “masters,” or as being a soldier under orders, citizens under the authority of police and judges, children who are not yet mature being under the authority of their mature parents, and the like. Unfortunately, these apostolic words of “submission” and “obey” rarely describe any existing forms of Christianity for most Christians. Despite our American “PR” about how God Himself approves of our form of government, it is MAN who invented democracies, not God! And the kingdom of God that is incarnated in what Jesus called “MY church” is not a democracy, in either visible structure or in relational attitudes! So a true “little child” of God, will naturally have the instinct to ask themselves what they are missing by NOT having such TEAMS of congregational leaders whom you trust enough to let them function as your spiritual parents or “gurus,” and will also ask what their congregation is missing by not being able to provide them!
We have been SO ego-inflated by our secular democracies – in which one voter’s voting opinion is just as valid and powerful as ANY person’s voting opinion and we majority “voters” are never wrong in the eyes of politicians – that we can read the many things commanded by God about careful obedience and yet never feel that we have a serious problem! The New Testament that we read, and supposedly “believe” is inspired by God, is full of the specific commands and descriptions that pertain to those TEAMS of elders and their authority over us, and our “submission” to that authority. The WORDS are there, but we have been slowly trained to ignore what God Himself commands and expects of us!
Even such traditions that DO emphasize ruling authority – traditions like Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy – are not exercising the strong team authority that existed in the original congregations whose members survived together, had “all things in common,” and were FUNCTIONALLY separated from the cultures of “this world” so that they WERE actually described as GOD’s “ chosen RACE, … holy NATION, a PEOPLE for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9). Old covenant Israel actually fulfilled those mandated terms better than ANY post-Constantinian versions of the “Christian church” do today!
6. THAT “PENTECOSTAL EXPERIENCE”:
The next day, on Friday, Sandy read, “Now those who had been forced to scatter went around proclaiming the good news of the word. Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and began proclaiming the Christ to them. … But when they believed Philip as he was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized,… Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. These two went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. (For the Spirit had NOT yet come upon ANY of them, but they had ONLY been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then Peter and John placed their hands on the Samaritans, and they RECEIVED the Holy Spirit. Simon, … SAW that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands” (Acts 8:4…18).
Jesus Himself had distinguished between being under the INFLUENCE of His Holy Spirit and having His Spirit come INSIDE of you, spirit and soul and body!
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever– the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells [or, “is dwelling”] with you and WILL be IN you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-18).
The Book of Acts describes how and when His Holy Spirit came “IN you” – chapters 2 (the 120 disciples), 8 (the Samaritans), 9 (Paul), 10 (Cornelius & household), and 19 (the Ephesian “disciples”). If you have never examined them carefully and taken detailed notes, you really should!
Sandy’s denomination taught that as soon as you “accept Jesus as ‘Lord and Savior’ you have received the Holy Spirit. Sandy’s brother believed that you “always received” His Spirit when you were “baptized for the forgiveness of your sins”
But “little child” Sandy, could not DIS-believe what she had just read about those Samaritan disciples: that a thoroughly converted, true disciple of Jesus who HAD even been baptized for the forgiveness of their sins did NOT “of course” receive God’s Holy Spirit right away. We are not told WHY they did not, but it was obviously for some good reason that God had in mind. And given all of those other Spirit-inspired examples of people who did receive His Holy Spirit that I mentioned above, there clearly IS no “formula” that guarantees when you WILL “always receive” His Holy Spirit. But those examples do clearly show that when you DO experience His powerful entrance into you, you will remember that holy moment for the rest of your life! We live under the specific promise that Jesus gave:
“So I say to you, ASK, and it will be given to you; SEEK, and you will find; KNOCK, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who ASKS receives, and he who SEEKS finds, and to him who knocks it WILL be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, BEING EVIL, know how to give good gifts to YOUR children, how much more will your heavenly Father GIVE the Holy Spirit TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM!” (Luke 11:9-13).
So, being merely a “little child” believer who was hungry for God rather than a denominational apologist who liked to prove that they were right over their theories, Sandy started asking, seeking, and passionately knocking on His Heavenly Father’s door!
7. SHARING OF POSSESSIONS:
On Saturday, Sandy got into a discussion about what first-century Christians did with their possessions:
“ 32The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but EVERYTHING was held in common. … For there WAS NO one needy person among them because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them and bringing the proceeds from the sales and placing them at the apostles’ feet. The proceeds were distributed to each, as anyone had need” (Acts 4:32…35).
“8 I am not saying this as a command, but as proving, through the earnestness of others, the sincerity of your LOVE as well. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. … 13 For this is not for the relief of others and for your hardship, but by way of EQUALITY – 14 at this present time your abundance will serve as assistance for their need, so that their abundance also may serve as assistance for your need, SO THAT THERE MAY BE EQUALITY; as it is written: ‘the one who had gathered much did not have too much, and the one who had gathered little did not have too little’” (2 Corinthians 8:8-9,13-15, quoting WITH APPROVAL Exodus 16:18).
To “little child” Sandy, it seemed to “go without saying” that when people back then were truly surrendered to both the letter and the spirit of Jesus’s teaching, He then led them to receive the very same Holy Spirit that had come into Him at his baptism (Matthew 3:16). And when that Spirit came into THEM He filled their hearts with the kind of love for each other that Jesus had poured out upon them: “… that the love YOU have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them!” (John 17:26). And to simple Sandy, that meant that if you resisted the idea of living in the way that they did, it meant that your heart had not yet been filled with the same Spirit-derived “love” that they had experienced by His entry into them! And a truly “love-filled church” forms a society in which poverty has been eliminated! What a simple yet wonderful way of thinking! IS YOUR NAME “SANDY”?
But because Sandy had searched the Scriptures something else also became obvious: even though among the FIRST group of Christians in Jerusalem it was, “ALL who believed … held everything in common,” that was not a requirement to become an apostolic Christian. Out in the world there were a lot of converts to Jesus whom He loved to receive, but who were not ABLE to share their possessions, some for quite valid reasons (e.g., being married to an unbelieving spouse), or converts who possessed instincts that needed to be “matured” before they were DRAWN to love one another that way. That is what Sandy saw in these passages:
“But whoever HAS worldly goods and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him?” (1 John 3:17).
“Instruct those who ARE rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to SHARE” (1 Timothy 6:17-18).
8. ABOUT SELF-PRESERVATION:
On just last Sunday, Sandy heard a sermon in which the preacher had dealt with what is perhaps the most universally “massaged” (i.e., “adulterated”) teaching that Jesus ever uttered:
“You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, do NOT resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, LET him have your coat as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him TWO” (Matthew 5:38-41 CSB).
What Sandy was told was that Jesus was not speaking there as some kind of “LAW giver” to us, but merely intending to demolish those who were confident that they could “OBEY their way into heaven” by presenting a series of commands that are indeed impossible to be lived out AS STATED!
But “little child” Sandy was confident that anyone who had been transformed into what JESUS considered to be “converted and become as little children” would never treat one of His commands as something that He did not expect to be obeyed, or to not disbelieve any PROMISE that He had given! NO good parent acts that way! And the people to whom Jesus had been speaking were a people who had lived under centuries of very specific laws that were definitely INTENDED to be obeyed – indeed, they were punished when they were NOT obeyed! So the Godly among them simply did not POSSESS any instinct to “explain away” or “massage” such a clear and specific command.
In the string of commands given in that seemingly “suicidal” passage, Jesus was clearly insisting that in order to let Him take you to where He wanted you to go, you were going to have to let Him pry your fingers away from virtually every “normal” human instinct you possess: the instinct to keep on physically surviving or to defend ourselves, the instinct to “hold on to what is mine,” and the instinct to resent oppressive or unfair bullying! He is actually demanding a certain form of potential physical and emotional “suicide!
And the context for that going the “SECOND mile” was designed to eliminate any patriotic military fervor: it referred to the right that Roman law gave to its soldiers to require citizens of a conquered country to carry a Roman soldier’s load for up to one mile (“4,850 modern feet ”). In an American context that command would have been the same as if the Japanese and Germans had conquered the United States in World War Two and one of their soldiers had demanded it of YOU. According to the Son of God, whose words will judge our eternal destiny, you are to generously go one mile MORE than what that oppressive law demanded. And one does not have to wonder whether another of His teachings were intended to motivate your heart attitude during that second mile:”… LOVE your enemies, BLESS those who curse you, do GOOD to those who hate you” (Matthew 5:44). No wonder that we think that it is to our advantage if we can turn Jesus’s words into some form of “typical poetic exaggerations” or “hyperbole”!
Can it be any surprise that this is the most “massaged” passage in all of the New Testament by those churches claiming to be “Christian”? Can it be any surprise that He considers the definition of HIS way of salvation as, “DIFFICULT is the way which leads to life, and there are FEW who find it”? (Matthew 7:14).
And yet we Christians love to boast that ours is the most numerically POPULAR religion on the planet! What if e are boasting over something that may actually be a corrupted version of the “real thing”? If so, then WHAT could have gone wrong in our past, and WHEN did it start going wrong?
When you examine the history of Christianity in detail, it becomes clear that in the earliest centuries of the apostolically founded churches this “ego-cidal” teaching was very regularly and faithfully taught and lived out in a way that inspired others to join them: stories of brethren selling themselves into slavery in order to purchase the freedom of enslaved brethren; stories of Christians refusing to leave plague infested Rome in order to minister to their stricken fellow Christians AND to the pagan Romans; stories of wealthy converts giving away ALL that they possessed and taking vows of celibate consecration to God. If so, then WHAT could have gone wrong, and WHEN did it start going wrong? When did the Christian church leaders replace their original “carnal suicide” mind set, which can allow no physical harm to others, with their new “JUST war” theories of men like Augustine of Hippo, where it becomes quite easy to justify when a supposed follower of Jesus CAN destroy our “enemies” with God’s approval (and even have a form of “love” while doing so!)?
Given the revolutionary nature of real surrender to Jesus, it is no wonder that those who even YEARN to be faithful to Jesus keep needing His forgiveness for failing once again to “put self to death”! When you read the Gospels you see Jesus having a need to correct His own future apostles over that issue many times!
But for “little children” like Sandy, Jesus’s “hard to accept” COMMANDS were always blended together with His magnificent but “hard to believe” PROMISES:
“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground APART from your Father’s will. But the very HAIRS of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:27-31).
“ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He CARES for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).
“So do not be like them, because your Father KNOWS what you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8).
“And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work. Just as it is written, ‘He has scattered widely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.’ Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow. You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God…” (2 Corinthians 9:8-11).
There is also another assumption that “little children” like Sandy have: when you enter into the true covenant with the Lord that Jesus makes possible you also have a very specific destiny that He carves out for you. For example, Jesus said to Peter, “ ‘… but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will put your belt on you, and bring you where you do not want to go.’ Now He said this, indicating by what kind of death he would glorify God” (John 21:18-19). Peter knew that He had a temporarily unpleasant destiny waiting for him as his exit from his temporary “tent”: “…shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me” (2 Peter 1:14). You and I do not need to know HOW we will be separated from our tent, but the fact that it is being prepared by HIM ought to be more than sufficient for us! “He who ‘cares for’ me has already arranged it!”
And even Jesus had such a “destiny”:
“… but no one laid a hand on him because his TIME had not yet come” (John 7:30)
“… no one arrested Him, because His TIME had not yet come” (John 8:20)
You and I – hopefully his own contemporary children – also have a “destiny” prepared by Him! Our relationship with Him includes very specific divine “Fathering”:
“And we know that ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)
“For we are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
“ Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” (Romans 9:21).
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In conclusion, our fully “converted little child” Sandy only has ONE of her experiential feet planted in this dimension; as to the other experiential foot, she has the same eager yearning that Paul had:
“For our citizenship is in HEAVEN, from which we also EAGERLY wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
In the eyes of Jesus, is YOUR name “Sandy”?
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Reed K. Merino, M.Div.
ReedMerino.com
520-262-0475
Blueprint for a Revolution: Building Upon ALL of the New Testament
