Through the Bible - Jeremiah 42-43, Hebrews 3
Good morning,
Part of Obama's platform in this election has been the "redistribution of wealth" which he also referred to as "social justice".
The men's small group that I'm in has been going through a book "The Jesus Creed" by Scot McKnight. In the chapter we covered this week he wrote about this "justice".
"When civil liberty spokespersons talk about "justice" they tend to think in terms of Robin Hood: dismantling systemic exploitation and redistributing money and power. They often tend to be the beneficiaries of this "justice".
He noted that in the Bible "justice" describes "making something right, and for something to be right there needs to be a standard.... The standard of justice for Jesus is the Jesus Creed. What is right is determined by the twin exhortation to love God (by following Jesus) and to love others. For Jesus, justice is about restoring people and society to the love of God and the love of others. This vision of restorative justice clobbers, with a padded stick of love, any retributive sense of justice."
Powerful words. Jesus demonstrated His plan when He began His ministry as we find written in the book of Luke, chapter 4 where we go for today's verse. It was quoted from the book of Isaiah. Jesus picked up "the book" and read these words:
Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." NKJV
Notice where Jesus starts, to preach the gospel to the poor. It starts with God, Jesus, not government. It starts with a relationship, we are as adopted children, whom He will love and care for. He speaks of true liberty, healing, and recovery.
No matter what happens in this election, know this, "social justice" will not come about by acts of the government from one side of the aisle or the other, rather it can only be accomplished by the "Spirit of God" living in His people, obediently following His example of "loving God and loving each other" in the way that He has outlined above.
Loving God and Loving Each Other
(Bill Gaither)
Loving God, loving each other,
Making music with my friends;
Loving God, loving each other,
And the music never ends.
They pushed back from the table
To listen to His words,
His secret plan before He had to go.
It's not complicated;
Don't need a lot of rules,
This is all you'll need to know.
Loving God, loving each other,
Making music with my friends;
Loving God, loving each other,
And the music never ends.
We tend to make it harder,
Build steeples out of stone,
Fill with explanations of The Way,
But if we'd stop and listen
And break a little bread,
We would hear the Master say
Loving God, loving each other,
Making music with my friends;
Loving God, loving each other,
And the music never ends.
Matt 22:37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' NKJV
Don't expect a government that will continually try to "take God out of it" to love and care for people as He would, rather, invest in God.
Read the passage below. The people wanted to throw Jesus, the one who could bring healing and true justice, out of the city.
In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
Luke 4:16-31
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
(Matt 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6)
16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said,"Is this not Joseph's son?"
23 He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'" 24 Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."
28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.
NKJV
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