Sigh of Relief

On February 3, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 9: 13

“But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This should come as very good news today. We are relieved from worrying about our Christian performance before God. Breathe a sigh of relief.

In today’s verse, Jesus referred to a passage in Hosea where God told His people that He was looking for devotion rather than offerings. Clearly Jesus did not think that the Pharisees had yet learned what God was saying to them. He witnessed those trying to earn their way through works and their perception of righteousness. The point, though, is that God is not impressed by pharisaical offerings and service. He wants us to love with a pure heart. Godly love will reveal itself through compassion.

Jesus had once again been accosted and criticized by the Pharisees. Knowing what they were thinking and saying he tried to lead them into understanding. Jesus drew a distinction here. The sacrifice represents all of the works of the flesh and all of the ritualistic service of the Pharisees. Jesus, however, was, and is, looking to the condition of the heart. He those within hearing that God is more interested in them having a kind, loving and compassionate heart than to do Him ritualistic service. God is more concerned with our heart than our works. God would rather that we are kind and loving than that we show ourselves as religious perfectionists.
This is stereotypical God. He is much less concerned about our performance in church as our expression outside of church. The Pharisees’ approach is very self-oriented while God was, and is, trying to get people to be others centered. Service to our God is not about getting our cards punched. This is no longer Vacation Bible School. It’s not about getting a gold star for attendance and another one for reciting a Bible verse perfectly. That was our training when we were children. Now that training and our faith are supposed to have an outward expression. Much was sown into us by pastors and teachers. Those seeds were supposed to grow into a heart of compassion whereby we are not judgmental, or self-concerned. Instead, we embrace and bless the broken. We pray for and feed the needy. We can learn to show compassion to the sinner who at least has the excuse that they don’t know Jesus.

Further, the Pharisees would have done well to keep their criticism to themselves. This is another important lesson that we can learn from this passage. They were critical of Jesus because He was doing all the things they were not. It was much easier to criticize someone else than to clean up their own shortcomings.

So, let us pray, and let us ask Father for forgiveness because this is an easy trap to fall into, most of us having fallen short in this area at some time. Thank God we have the right to repent and begin anew. Let us show the compassion of the Father to all we meet and refuse to criticize and judge others. Let us focus on compassion rather than sacrifice. By this we will bring joy to the heart of Father and show people the real meaning of Christianity.

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Land Mines

On November 21, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 9: 13                  KJV

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

This is part of the Lord’s prayer; you probably recognize it. Many people can quote this passage and many of us learned it in the poetic King James Version. For myself, learning it as a child, it took years for me to untangle the meaning from the pretty prose. The Lord’s prayer was a saying, almost a slogan but it didn’t have a lot of meaning for me for many years.

This, the Lord’s Prayer has been taught on extensively. Knowledgeable preachers break it down into its constituent parts and teach us how the individual parts combine to outline a form of prayer. Today I would like for us to think about this one little section and consider what it means and also what it means to our lives individually.

There are some passages of scripture that are hard to read in any version other the King James when you were brought up with it. I still hear this passage in King James language though I have used the New American Standard Bible for forty years. Let’s explore a couple of other versions though. The Names of God version reads, “Don’t allow us to be tempted. Instead, rescue us from the evil one.” The New American Standard says, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Can you see a difference from our traditional understanding.

Here is the question which frames comprehension of this verse, “Would Jesus pray asking God, the Father, not to lead us into temptation as if sometimes He does lead people into temptation?” “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (James 1: 13). Father God never leads people into the way of temptation, so, what was Jesus asking the Father?

Jesus taught that upon his exit from the earth, the Father would give us another helper and that helper, the Holy Spirit, would guide us. So, it is perfectly correct to think in terms of allowing ourselves to be led by God. This is how I would phrase today’s verse in modern English as I think about the Holy Spirit guiding my steps, “Father, lead me away from temptation.” I may, under my own power, be headed right for trouble but we can enable the Godhead to intervene and lead us away from the path of destruction.

I want you to notice also the second part of the verse. Here is the Names of God version again, “Don’t allow us to be tempted. Instead, rescue us from the evil one.” Jesus recognized from where temptation comes, the evil one. So he petitioned the Father to lead us away from the evil one, so as to rescue us from his temptations. Remember who tempted Jesus in the wilderness. It was the devil. Jesus’ prayer asks the Father to steer us away from the traps the devil has laid so that we will not be tripped up.
When you see this passage of scripture in modern language and in context with other scriptures, it takes on entirely new meaning. Sometimes it seems like the world has been sown with land mines. Jesus constantly intercedes for us asking the Father to navigate the mine field for us. That is good news, isn’t it?

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