Good morning!
Reading what Paul went through this morning:
2Corinthians 11:
- Five times I received forty lashes, minus one, at the hands of the Jews;
- three times, I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a day and a night I have spent in the deep;
- on frequent journeys, in dangers on rivers, in dangers from bandits, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers on the sea, in dangers among false brothers,
- through toil and hardship, through frequent sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and nakedness.
That is the same hate-filled spirit that mocked Jesus. I tried to even imagine being so cruel to any hurting or broken human. They didn’t know he was God’s Son, but where was just the normal compassion? I often think about the hardening of the hearts in the world today, but it is not new. That spirit has been around a long time, designing a way to kill people that ensures the most suffering. What kind of hearts can do that?
Then I read this: “The Jews in Paul’s time feared that they would face eternal damnation if they attempted to live without that dear old guardian [the law]. After all, had not God commanded them to obey the law, on penalty of death? They could not imagine God considering them righteous if they did not keep the law’s rules for conduct and worship. Everyone in Israel, to that point in history, who had disobeyed the law had been condemned and cursed by God, while all who had kept it had been blessed. Who, then, except a fool or a madman, would think that someone could be righteous without observing the law’s rites and rules? God did.”
Amen!
Whew! It’s like a tug of war on the heart, until I go back over everything you have taught me. The truth really does save you. I thought, “Paul wasn’t asking the Jews to stop following the law. Paul was telling the Jews that the Gentiles did not have to follow the law and its ceremonies. God had written the law on their hearts.” God had done something new and wonderful for us Gentiles, the dogs of this world. But the Jews were too proud to admit it.
Pride! What a dangerous and heart-hardening spirit pride is. When we look at those lost in Christianity or just those without God, our hearts do not want to throw heavy stones at them or whip the flesh from them. Our hearts want them to have God’s spirit. We want them to have what God gave to us. We want that because God changed our hearts and made them like His. Look at the difference of the hearts, God’s heart and man’s heart. I think of God commanding Israel to get rid of all the Amalekites, but I feel like even that would have been done with a different heart.
And God is going to change the Jew’s hearts, too, in the end. Just to understand that touches me.
I hate pride. I feel like Jesus has been talking to me a lot about pride lately. Maybe that is why I feel this way, reading this. I pray for a pure heart from my Father. A pure heart is the answer. I want a pure heart.
Beth D.