Sunday Reading: Matthew 5:19-24
Key Verse: Matthew 5:22
22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to the judgment. And whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the Sanhedrin; but whoever shall say, Fool! shall be liable to be thrown into the fire of hell.
Devotion:
God’s Word is exactly that: God’s Word. If we think that we can change any one bit of it to suit our own needs then we are bigger fools than those who refuse to believe any of it! How can we take what God has given us and twist it thinking that what He has given us is not quite as right as we think it should be? Is that not the same as writing something ourselves and then worshipping what we write? Is it not the same as carving a statue and then bowing down to that statue saying that it will protect you when you have made it?
Yes it is very easy to sit back and say that we will believe the whole bible and it is also easy to say that we will obey it – but actually doing that can be quite a task. We do impose our own ways and we do think we know best so we do try and change things to suit ourselves forgetting the very essence of what God’s Word actually is! God has given us the whole truth so that we can know it as the truth. He has given us the wherewithal to challenge what people say and do to us through comparing it with His Word, the Truth. So why should we give in to those temptations and think that it is anything other than the truth?
Christ reminded us through His own words that we will come up against many people who will make things look rosier than they are. He warns us that we have to keep to the law in every aspect otherwise we will not know where our law stops and His law starts. We will always side with our own judgement in those cases so we cannot rely on that. We have been given His Word as the whole truth and we need to accept it is such and move on in that knowledge, upholding it as the truth and not lifting up man in God’s stead!
Points to Ponder:
What laws do you break?
What commandments do you change?