Repent

matthew-25-40Living in the Spirit
October 14, 2016

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
–2 Timothy 4:3-5

Does it seem like the time of not putting up with sound doctrine is now? We want to hear what we want to hear and if what we want is not being spoken we tune out. What causes this moral decay in our society? Why are we so intent on worshipping empty vessels? At least part of the problem is the co-opting of voices of faith. Some by divide and conquer processes shredded the oneness for which Christ longed. Some did it by identifying righteousness with wealth rather than justice. Both practices, as old as time itself, stem from evil, not love.

People of faith do need to repent, turn around. Those of us who call ourselves Christian need to recognize that the answers to our issues are available to us in the life and example of Jesus Christ. We seem to leave him out of our paradigms of life. The gospels never record Jesus as even addressing the major issues that divide us. He does admonish us about greed and the misuse of power.

Perhaps if we simplified our purpose for the next several years limiting our work only to those items Jesus named in Matthew 25, we could find Christ’s way again.

  • Feed the hungry
  • Provide clean water for the thirsty
  • Welcome the stranger
  • Cloth the naked
  • Care for the sick
  • Restore those in prison to productive lives

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for our foolish ways. Guide us to be your Body active in this world today. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.