In a secular sphere my
political enemy and I keep our distance. However, this man and I attend the same
church and although we don’t come close to greeting one another with a holy
kiss, as fellow believers we've always been cordial. Well, at least we were
cordial until last Sunday when I tried to make eye contact and say “good
morning.” He brushed past me with a look of disdain and even though I turned
around and followed him for a few steps calling out his name, he would not
respond. Jesus said, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and
there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your
gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother;
then come and offer your gift” (Matt 5:23-24).
I get what the Lord is saying, but reconciliation takes two.
3 comments:
Gail;
-----You’re right. Reconciliation takes two. But you can only do your half. You can’t do his half. Jesus said loving your enemies and doing good to them will stack coals on their heads. Although He is right about that, stacking coals isn’t the objective. Doing good is. You’ve done reconciliation.
-----But of course your reconciliation is not complete, because he has not done his reconciliation. Christ did His part in reconciling us to His Father. And we’ve returned to God doing our part through faith. He did His part through action. Why do we do our part through faith? Because we are unable to do enough right action to do our part through action as well. So we can only do our part through faith. So, have we completely reconciled if we really don’t totally do right? Although we certainly have reconciliation with God by our faith joining Christ’s work, we do not have reconciliation in our works being perfect, or in our actions, minds, and emotions being perfect. The actual completeness of reconciliation which will involve the perfection of our thoughts and deeds, too, must await the resurrection or rapture of our faulty bodies. Yet we are reconciled.
-----Through your faith you are reconciled to him. That the reconciliation is not actually complete is his doing, or rather, it is his not doing. It is this odd situation of your having been reconciled but his having not been reconciled. You are reconciled by your obedience to God’s Word in response to your faith; he is not reconciled by his disobedient response to God’s Word for who cares what reason. You are reconciled.
-----You made your choice. He has his choice to make. He can either validate his judgment of God by refusing to reconcile because “he knows better then God’s Word knows.” Or he can validate God’s Word by realizing that he has a part to play in reconciliation that is yet to be done, and then doing as much of it as he is able to do. So although you both are part of the same physical situation that is your relationship in the Lord, you are not sharing the same spiritual situation. Your spiritual situation is of reconciliation validating obedience to God. I will stop now so I do not have to describe his spiritual situation. I just hope that he is being inconclusive at this branch of his spiritual road rather than having concluded to take a badly wrong turn.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
I always enjoy your daily devotionals, just wanted to thank you! Oh, and my wife and I are incredibly jealous because you live in the area we just love since back in the 70's. Good day to you ma'm!
Hey Chris,
Thank you for participating. This is a great area. I grew up here and after high school you almost had to leave because there were no jobs. Those who left then spent an enormous amount of time and energy trying to “come back home.”
You are invited back any time!
Gail
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