I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
Jesus isn't so interested in peace that he'll let us have it at the expense of truth.
This is important for us who live in exile in Egypt. We are the children of Israel living in a land with foreign customers and foreign idols. It would be possible for us to take up these practices and worship these same idols and blend in. But we must not. We must remain true to who we are even if the Egyptians who surround us hate us for it and oppression and persecution to try to change us.
The Egyptians, then, dreaded the children of Israel
and reduced them to cruel slavery,
making life bitter for them with hard work in mortar and brick
and all kinds of field work—the whole cruel fate of slaves.
Indeed, our identity in Jesus must mean more to us than even our own family. If it comes to a choice between father or mother and being true to who we are in Christ we must love Christ more. Hopefully such choices will not tear our families apart. But all of us will have to face a choice between this world and Jesus, between idols and the one true God.
whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
So let us give to prophets, righteous men, and the little ones of the LORD. In Egypt they truly need our support. They too are our family in Jesus Christ and so he promises reward for honoring those bonds. This is investing in the coming kingdom. This is something we can do which truly lasts.
Let us give what we can to the family of Jesus. Let us trust him above all else in this world. Let us not acquiese to the demands of a pagan world. Let us be faithful to the King of kings and trust him for the deliverance which we surely need.
We were rescued like a bird
from the fowlers’ snare;
Broken was the snare,
and we were freed.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment