LEARNING DAILY

 

Matthew 12:50, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

John 15:10, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

John 15:14, “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.”

 

The statements above were all said by Jesus. Notice the word, “do the will of My Father”, “follow Me”, “abide in My love”, “keep My commandments”, and “do whatever I command”. I mention often that each believer is to walk on a narrow way which is another way of saying we are to do what the Bible says, to follow Jesus by keeping His commandments. I write this today in reaction to those who say they are Christians but do not act like He tells us we must act.

 

The Bible tells us to walk the narrow way like Jesus tells us. We get on it by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. No one can make judgment on one’s salvation; that is between the individual and the Lord. However, the Bible tells us in Matthew 7 not to throw our pearls to the swine and to watch out for false Prophets. We are told we will know them by the fruit that is produced in their life; a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. My thought is that not everyone who states they are a Christian is. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Verse 23 continues, And then I will declare to them [those who have no relationship with Him], ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” They were not permitted into heaven because they did not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

I know I am in shaky territory when writing this. I want to make two points today. If you have asked Jesus to save you, act like it. Jesus said few would find the narrow way. The reason for this is that people do not follow Jesus and do not make Him Lord of their daily life. The two must go together! It is difficult to write this today. However, deception is getting ever stronger in our world. I would encourage you to reread again the parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13; study it and know what it says.

 

The other point to be made is to make sure you know that Jesus does not forbid spiritual discernment. When He says “Judge not” in Matthew 7:1, He is “condemning the kind of judgment that comes from a hypocritical and unkind spirit. Christians should never judge by appearances or in a manner by which they themselves would want to be judged” (DJSB). Jesus continued by telling us to judge ourselves and remove the plank from our own eye before making judgment on others.

 

Jesus told us that walking on the narrow way would be difficult, but it leads to life in His kingdom. Along the way, those on it will be faced with those who want to lead us away from God’s kingdom by trying to get us to believe false teachings. Be encouraged to “do the will of My Father”, “follow Me”, “abide in My love”, “keep My commandments”, and “do whatever I command”. Read/study God’s Word to draw close to Him and do what He desires. By doing so, you will not be misled as the days grow darker and deception grows in the days we live in.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.