Discipleship
February 11, 2021
Scripture Reading:
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The world’s gods seem to be blinding the minds of some who profess their faith in Jesus Christ and believe very strongly that what they perceive as Christlike is. I fear we all do that from time to time. Separating our image of God from God’s actual image at times is hard. It is even more challenging when we do it in a group with others who share the same vision of God that we create. We read Biblical history and world history and think, I cannot believe people did those acts in God’s name. It makes me wonder what the people who read our history in a couple of hundred years will say regarding what we sanctioned and practiced. Our ancestors did form a nation that practices the separation of church and state, which I support. I do not think there is anything in the Bible or Constitution of the United States that provides us the right to separate ourselves from God’s commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When I read that the two biggest spreaders of the COVID virus are houses of worship and bars, I cringe. We may have the right to disobey a government order to wear a mask to reduce the virus’s spread; we have the free will to break God’s commandments, but that does not make it right. We will face the consequences of that decision. We may find ourselves standing by the bedside or even graveside of someone we may have infected. We will stand before God in judgment.
Prayer: Lord, clear our soul vision to seek your image of what your love is like rather than conjuring up our own. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.