James 2:19-20 (The Message)
Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
*****Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-35) *****
Luke 10:25-35 (The Message)
25Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"
26He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?"
27He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."
28"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live."
29Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?"
30-32Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.'
I want to point out a few things in this passage.
First, notice how the “religious person is trying to get out of what Jesus is teaching. He is trying to find loopholes….
The biggest loophole Christians find is the scripture that says we are not saved by works and they go on to say by faith alone we are saved. But this is a misinterpretation of the scripture, the pharsees (religious people) thought highly of themselves because they did so much, their self-righteousness was as filthy rags to God, we have to have the grace of God to make heaven our home. However, woks will follow geuioun faith. BECAREFUL TO USE THIS SCRIPTURE…..loopholes can be found; but that is not Gods heart….that is religion.
Second, Jesus goes directly to the law. The law is there so we can identify our sin, if we are doing something wrong it will show us. Some Christians use this also, they say that we are “new testament believers” AND THAT WE DON’T LIVE UNDER THE LAW, (another loophole), this is also is correct; but the law is there as a tool to check ourselves. We aren’t supposed to just ignore the Old Testament!
Third, the religious person responds with the answer to Jesus’ question, he states that we need to love God with everything in us and love people (neighbors), the way we love ourselves.
We all think that we love people the way we love ourselves….but think with me, how many people have you seen just this week that have been broken, lost, hungry, hurting, ect…but you have just walked right by them; in the stores, driving around, at schools and even worse, people at the haunted house. We fail daily to love people, take the time for people and go out of our way for people the way we do for ourselves!
Forth, Jesus started to tell him a story, (because he was trying to get the man to see himself clearly) we already read the story, I want to draw a parallel. Let the robbers be pictured as this world and the devil. The Devil attaches people, takes everything they have, beats them and then leaves them to die! He drives them to addiction, depression, self-hatred, self-pity, angry and a lot of times suicidal!
Fifth, the religious person is the person that sees the issues, sees the hurt, the pain and people dying all around them….headed for a devils hell and does NOTHING ABOUT IT!
Sixth, this person is the person we should be like! Our hearts should be hurting for the people around us, we should be going out of our way to preach His message, reach out to the poor, proclaim His forgiveness- to all that would hear us, to bring sight to the blind, to help those that are burdened and abused and to heal the broken hearted!
Luke 4:18 God's Spirit is on me;
he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to
the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"
The Good Samaritan saw the need and met it. The religious person saw the need and turned his head, and ignored it! He came up with every excuse he could not to meet the need!
The calling that everyone has on his or her life is to meet the need!
Right now, our church needs to move towards the mark, who will ignore the need and who will meet the need?
This is the difference between being religious and being the Good Samaritan.
Faith without works is not faith at all. It is lip service.
Isaiah 29:13 (Amplified Bible) And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips but remove their hearts and minds far from Me, and their fear and reverence for Me are a commandment of men that is learned by repetition [without any thought as to the meaning].
Back to our original scripture:
James 2:19-20 (The Message)
Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
We sit complacently while others do the work….statistics state that 20% of the church does all the work.
Your body would not function correctly if it only was using 20%.... and the body of Christ (the church) is not functioning correctly!
1 Corinthians 12:12 (New Living Translation)
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.
I have been guilty of this very thing! I have repented and I am pressing for the mark! I am reaching for the goal…..we need to continue to help each other, encourage each other and support each other.
A few years ago, I remember Tony saying that the troops would get angry when people would say, “They do not support the war but they support our troops”. He said that the troops hated that, and said that it is impossible to support our troops without supporting the war!
We can apply that to the war we (Christians) are fighting! If we sit at home and say ya, we support the church (troops), but then do not go out with them to war….we aren’t supporting them at all. Once again, it is lip servive. Works is the "evidence" of our support.
I hope this has helped you; I have attached several scriptures for you to read at home. This study has brought me back to my first works. I believe this was the mind of God for us this morning. I really hope to see you all in the trenches with me! Together it is encouraging but alone it is hard!
Ecclesiastes 4:10 (The Message)
It's better to have a partner than go it alone.
Share the work, share the wealth.
And if one falls down, the other helps,
But if there's no one to help, tough!
Would Jesus say that you are steadfast, always abounding in His work?
Do you actively seek ways to be more involved in the work of the church, or do you seek to avoid work?
If every member were just as active and involved in the work of the church as you are, how much work would be accomplished?
1 Corinthians 15:58 (The Message)
With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.
1 Peter 1:17
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear;
Revelation 20:12
And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
Revelation 20:13
The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
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