Sunday October 8, 2017

Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 2: 9-19

Gospel: Luke 11: 14-26

Psalm: Psalm 106/107

Friends,

In our epistle today we see that we are to walk worthily of God. Friends, this is not simply mere belief, our very life should reflect Jesus Christ. Everything that we say and do should reflect Jesus. What are we told? Avoid cursing, flee from fornication, do not lie, do not cheat, love God first and love our neighbor as our self. These things are necessary for us who claim to be a friend of Jesus. We also see in this epistle that even this great apostle, St. Paul, was hindered by Satan. We see that those who choose to follow the way will be persecuted; the world is becoming even more insane, slowly spiraling downhill into the pit.

This is a planned and a well executed strategy to bring mankind into complete degeneration of spirit, mind, and body. Far too many people simply close their eyes and continue to be concerned with comfort and games, excitement, the things that we somehow deserve and while we are doing this the world is destroying humanity while humanity is accepting this with open arms and an excited mind because of all of the great creature comforts that it will have and the completely free lifestyle that it may live without fear of chastisement or ridicule.

This wickedness is not new to the world; it has been around since the beginning. It shows itself in many different ways but always with the same goal in mind. Almost immediately after Paul preached the persecutors would arrive, the persecutors followed Jesus Himself around ridiculing and questioning. None of this is new. The church allowed the evil in even in the beginning; Paul’s letters are proof of this. The body of Christ is so split that it mocks Jesus simply by its existence. There are many who come to believe of course but there are many who refuse to believe and many who leave because the Body of Christ is so divided that there are those who will kill others simply because they have a different manner of worship.

In our gospel today Jesus is accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, can you imagine that the savior of the world who came to His own people who were expecting Him to come would be accused of using the power of darkness? This is still happening today and far too many people believe it. What are the words of the Lord in today’s gospel? Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?

Is this any different for the church? No it is not. We must destroy our pride, we must become humble and truly seek the truth, and we cannot simply determine that we already know all truth because obviously we do not. There are too many different doctrines taught, too many false prophets followed, too many accusations of heresy, yes there is true heresy; if one denies that Jesus is God then that one is a heretic but if one understands the Holy Trinity, if one believes that Jesus is from God and is God who came in the flesh and truly loves Jesus and is also making every attempt to live as Jesus would have him to live, how can this one be called a heretic.

We all have error in our understanding; the Body of Christ needs to begin acting like the Body of Christ. Far too many are concerned with riches in this world by making money on their attacks on another. Admire who you want but our every action and our every word will be held accountable. There will be no one to blame but ourselves for this.

It is good, as we learn in today’s Psalm; that God is good and merciful. He will forgive us of our sins if we repent of them and give thanks and glory to God. But this is what we must do. The idea of loving our neighbor is not simply a New Testament concept but something that is from the beginning. The so called Old Testament is full of the same teaching and understanding, one just has to simply read it to see and understand it. This is the true law of God, love. Until one understands this then one will always be in error.

If one does not have love for the soul of mankind and the desire that all come to the truth than one does not have Christ in them fully.

Little children, love one another; because this is our Lord’s command and if you fulfill this, nothing else is needed. Through love and because of love we will follow all of the commandments that we have been given. They are written on our hearts by the hand of Almighty God. We simply need to see them within us and follow.

Remember; if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.

In Christ.