Thursday Reading: Luke 9:51-56
Key Verse: Luke 9:56
56 For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And they went to another village.
Devotion:
It is refreshing to see the humanity of the disciples as they followed Christ. They took in the gospel as spoken by Christ and continued to make of it what they would, just as we make up our own minds when we hear God's word. Some of them were convinced that Christ was within His right to destroy any place that would not accept Him. In this passage as they started to work their way back to Jerusalem, they would send out messengers ahead of them to sound out the villages to see if there was anyone who would give them board and lodging for the night. Most places rejected Christ and the disciples and would not give them space.
Key Verse: Luke 9:56
56 For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And they went to another village.
Devotion:
It is refreshing to see the humanity of the disciples as they followed Christ. They took in the gospel as spoken by Christ and continued to make of it what they would, just as we make up our own minds when we hear God's word. Some of them were convinced that Christ was within His right to destroy any place that would not accept Him. In this passage as they started to work their way back to Jerusalem, they would send out messengers ahead of them to sound out the villages to see if there was anyone who would give them board and lodging for the night. Most places rejected Christ and the disciples and would not give them space.
Our human reaction to someone who rejects us to to reject them back. We often reject them in a more certain way than they reject us, exaggerating the rejection in some manner. This passage recalls how they asked Christ if they should pray for fire to come down from heaven and consume the unbelievers just as Elijah had done in the past. But the difference between these people and those that Elijah faced are so many.
The big difference is that these people may have been rejecting Christ the human this time round, but they were not working against God. They may not have had the chance to hear the gospel and so may have not been rejecting Christ the Son of God. Jesus knew this difference and knew that some may yet come to believe as the apostles went out to preach later on. He reminds them that He did not come to destroy all unbelievers, but to save those that would want to listen and repent. Destroying your own people just because they have done something wrong is not the way to create a community. God wants us to have the chance of repentance right up until it is too late, but He would rather that we made a choice now and showed others than to leave it and trip others up!
Points to Ponder:
Do you lead by example or just tell everyone off all the time?
Do you lead by example or just tell everyone off all the time?
Do you work for God or against Him in your actions?