Living in the Spirit
July 8, 2018
Scripture Reading: Mark 6:1-13
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. –Mark 6:7-13
Jesus obviously taught that his disciples have a responsibility to share his way with those not acquainted with his love. People’s lives would be better if they changed from the harmful things they were doing to themselves and perhaps others and turn around and follow Jesus’ example of loving. The term, repent, used in the above scripture is a translation from Greek of a word that means to change: change our minds, change our inner being particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God*. We are conduits of the Good News, the Gospel, not the Savior. Jesus Christ is the source of salvation.
Our culture has rather gotten this message muddled. Some seem to think that we not only must define the change needed, decide what the message is, tell the people whom we judge to need the message and condemn them if they do not follow the change we desire. We become so frustrated with our failure to make people change, we try to force the change by writing it into our civil laws. We forget to let Jesus be the Savior. God knows everyone’s hearts and minds and exactly what each of us needs and is working God’s will through relationships with all God’s children. God only asks us to model his love by loving one another.
Jesus is very specific about not trying to force people to follow him. That is bondage, and bondage often results in very negative reactions to the source of the bondage. In the case of spreading the good news of Jesus such enforcement literally turns people off to knowing the God of love.
We are blessed to live in a country that protects our freedom to exercise our faith or no faith at all. Many of our ancestors fled their home countries because their governments were trying to force them to follow religion as defined by the government. We cannot emulate that behavior and be true to the foundation of the USA.
Prayer: Lord, we recognize that repentance is not a one-time experience but a part of our daily walk with you. Forgive us when we lose sight of our proper roles as your disciples and let your love flow through us when we find it difficult to love another, all others. Amen.
*http://biblehub.com/greek/3340.htm