It is a fact of life, people do not like standards, laws, and rules and whenever anyone tells them that whatever they are doing is wrong based on those standards, laws, and rules, they throw a hissy fit and ask, “Who are you to be telling me it is wrong?” Or, “Who are you to be judging me or others or that group?” Generally, those who reply in that manner don’t understand the Bible and rarely ever know anything about God’s way. Jesus had the same problem with the Pharisees who twisted the law to suit themselves and created new rules that not even they could follow, enjoying the public acclaim. (See Matthew 23:1-7)

When Jesus uttered those words he was judging those whom he castigated. In other words, his observation of their conduct led him to a conclusion. Their conduct and his consequent statements about them were based on a standard that he knew came from God and God knew the world was lost in sin and needed redemption. As Paul told the Galatians (4: 3-5), the Jews who had obeyed the gospel and who were now trying to go back the law as their standard: 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.  God knew that mankind wasn’t right with him and made a decision to send Jesus to earth to redeem his creation.

In modern parlance, God judged mankind to be in need of salvation, and as such, the standard he used then and uses now is a result of his unchanging nature. James wrote in 1:17: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. That which God gives (act of giving the gift) and that which is received (the gift given with benefit attendant to the gift receiver) comes from the father of both physical light and spiritual light.

Whereas the physical light of the world, the sun, earth, moon and other planets cast shadows due to their turning (a variation), God is the same no matter the conditions. He casts no shadow and is the constant light, an unchanging standard. As Jesus said, in John 8:12: I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. This is the contrast for life that Jesus offers to that of the darkness which man continues to want to see. Jesus said of darkness Luke11:34-35: The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. 35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. Here is the son of God saying he is the light, as John said of God in I John 1:5: This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Long before those words were written, Jesus asked a question: Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?  The standard for all humans was right before them and they had trouble seeing him due to the darkness of their mind. As John wrote in 1:4-5: In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.  The hostile mind of man refused to grasp the truth of God’s way but could not then, and cannot now prevail over the light of Christ.

In every instance cited in this article for the references to God, Christ, and the apostles, they made decisions based on the facts and the reality of sin they saw in the world. They made those decisions and judgments according to the unchanging standard of God. Yet today, men and women cry foul when God’s message of salvation is proclaimed. The words of Jesus on this matter are clear: 46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. 47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. (John 12:46-50) Those words declared the unchanging standard of truth in that day and they remain unchanged to this day and beyond.

09-08-2007 DEC

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