Wow, I've been gone awhile. I don't know why but every time I opened up my blog site I just didn't have the urge to write anything meaningful. Does that mean that I didn't have anything meaningful to say? I'm not sure but I'm trying to learn not to say anything at all if I don't have something important to say. That reminds me of the greatest Teacher who ever lived and is still alive - Jesus of Nazareth. Now there is Someone who always had something important to say, but He chose his words wisely.
Jesus said during his Torah (or teaching) in what is known today as the Sermon on the Mount "Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’ More than this is from the evil one." (Matt. 5:37) How often has someone said to you - Yes, I will do that for you only to never follow through with their commitment. Your thoughts may have varied about their failure to follow through on their "yes." You may have wondered - Did they forget? Have they been delayed? Did they not mean what they said? Did their circumstances change? Do they not love me anymore? Were they trying to appease me and made a commitment that they had no intention to keep?
In this passage in Matthew, Jesus is reminding the Jewish people about certain commitments or promises that were made to them by their Jewish religious leaders. He uses the phrase "You have heard that the ancients were told" or "And it was said" and then he says in contrast "But I say to you." Jesus is using this teaching method to emphasize how the Jewish religious leaders were perverting the Law of Moses with their own interpretation of the Law. Their religious piety was a perversion of the Law and demonstrated their spiritual poverty. Unfortunately, the Jewish citizens were the recipients of their false teaching and were given a yoke that was impossible to carry. They were living under religious oppression from the very people who were supposed to help them grow closer to Yahweh. Rather than receiving Yahweh's grace, they were overwhelmed by spiritual bondage placed upon them by man's religious traditions.
Are you living in spiritual bondage? Are you bound by religious traditions that have no basis in the Scriptures? If so, this type of bondage is not from the God of the Bible but is from man who is under the influence of Satan. Today billions of people are under spiritual bondage. They are trying to merit their release from this bondage by "reaching up to God or a god or pantheon of gods" rather than receiving God's grace as "he reaches down to them from heaven."
If you are one of these people or if you suspect that you have these tendencies, I simply ask you to read and meditate on this Scripture.
"For by grace you have been saved by faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
As you meditate on these two verses, simply "Let your word be ‘Yes, yes' and respond to the words of Jesus. All you have to do is repent (turn from the way you're going) for your rebellion against God. Ask Him to save you from spiritual bondage. How? By trusting in Jesus finished work of salvation through the cross of Christ. He will hear your 'yes' and bring you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light.
Amen (so be it),
Mark, a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, by grace!
