Fresh Look at Matthew: Matthew 25:31-45
While this portion is about judgment, I find it comforting.
1.
Jesus in judgment cares about
the plight, the lives of the poor, imprisoned (for debt and unjustly; in that time
serious criminals were usually executed), those in real need. Our treatment of them comes into judgment as
one of the standards. We see this in
Daniel 4; Nebuchadnezzar is judged with insanity because of his treatment of
the poor.
2.
Jesus identifies with his
brethren. How wonderful.
3.
Jesus identifies with his
brethren who are the least of these.
4.
We don’t have an option to
ignore these people.
So, with the certainty of that
foundation, the first of two remaining issues is this point is the how. How can we best use our resources to free
these folks from the chains of poverty, honor God in it, and avoid enslaving
them in dependence on us? I am a firm
believer in stewardship with the biggest bang for the buck in terms of those
three things. I do advocate for child
sponsorship, and am thinking about taking on a second child. The money is less a problem than devoting the
time to writing them and keeping up with them, but that is a small thing.
The other issue is our inner heart
attitude. I don’t fear judgment but I do fear box checking and legalism and
self-righteous action. While I advocate
for this, I do not want to talk about my own giving.
Which brings us to the
soteriological and eschatological problem here. I have heard it taught that
this judgment is of the nations and how they treat God’s people, not of
individuals. Perhaps. I think we want to cling to grace so much
that we overlook that grace makes us different people, or it’s not grace. If accepting the grace of God in salvation
through Jesus Christ does not make us more compassionate, what good was
it? This foolish 20th century
evangelical idea of “once saved, always saved, make a profession and walk an
aisle and click a few boxes and you’ll be ok” is so unbiblical that I can’t
deal with it. The problem is that
legalists want to add to the foundation of Christ and traditions build up over
time that confuse believers with works.
As our pastor says, each generation has to fight for the purity of the
gospel.
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