The Devotional – 1445 – Kinsman Redeemer
Proverbs 6:1-4 – My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my
commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind these on your
fingers; write these on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom… you are my
sister and call understanding your nearest kin.
Comments and challenges
John the Baptizer! What
do you think about him? Or do you ever think about him with the exception of
when you read passages in the Holy Word of God that speak of Him? I am like
that last sentence, I hardly think of the man as it seems that his role in the
Life of Christ was small compared to other men and women in the Bible.
In the parable of
the workers of the vineyard, men worked all day and received the same wages of
men who worked only a short time. Matthew 20:1-16 and I would suppose that if
we could document all the preaching and teaching from this parable we would be
able to fill at least two warehouses of material, one; of some very good teaching
and the other; otherwise!
These two events in
the Life of Christ have a lot in common as John the Baptizer had this to say to
his disciples when they questioned him about his younger cousin named Jesus.
John the apostle writes of this event in his gospel in John 3:22-36, note just
a couple of these verses; John 3:26 – and they (John’s disciples) came to John
and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you
have testified – behold He is baptizing and all are coming to him.
Then please note one
of the most all inspiring verses of scripture for me in the gospels is the
baptizer’s response to his disciples – He
must increase, but I must decrease, (There is no kinship rivalry here) He
who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks
of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all – John 3:30-31. John
understood that while they may share kinship from related mothers, that their Fathers
were as different as heaven is to earth.
How we need to
understand this; that our earthly responses to the kingdom of heaven have an
unbalanced reward equal only to the things of the earth. If our earth’s value in
God does not decrease in our lives, how would we ever know the truth that
rewards and increases our soul in matters pertaining to heaven? Or as the LORD
Jesus says in Matthew 6:19 – Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in and steal.
The apostle Paul has
this to say. “But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my LORD, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ – Philippians 3:8.
Now the apostle Paul
goes on to say that to count anything above the knowledge of Christ is
self-righteousness and self-righteousness is not a work of “faith in Christ”
but a work of “self-reward” so the righteousness that we all ought to strive
for is a reward from God, that is the reward which is through faith in Christ. Righteousness
is that reward from God through faith – Philippians 3:9-10 or as the apostle
continues to say… if, by any means, I may arrive at the resurrection from the
dead.
Shall I say… more on
this tomorrow? Okay… more tomorrow.
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