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Deal with deeper concerns – The issue of unrighteous anger

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Series: How to overcome sin

Our focus is, ‘How to overcome sin in our lives.’ We have been looking at five key steps in this process, that we learn from the example of Jesus as he overcame his test of the cross. And tonight I want us to move into looking at some deeper concerns that can trip us up in our quest to overcome sin.

But first, here’s a very brief review of the five steps, using the example of unrighteous anger.

Step #1: Understanding what God’s will is, acknowledge your weakness to do what God says. The Word says in James 1:20, “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” This is anger that is according to the flesh which hurts and tears down others. Jesus likens this to murder in Matthew 5, or verbal murder, when our words destroy others.

God gives us anger to stir us up to act when a wrong has been done. But so often, once stirred up, we act in the flesh and not according to God’s will. We return harm for harm and tear down those who have wronged us or those we love. Rather than this, we are to trust God with our grievances and desire for justice, so that we can be free to focus on being Christ-like as we address the wrongs that have been done –  with love and gentleness (Matthew 5:44; Galatians 6:1). If you struggle with unrighteous anger, you need to humbly admit this, so that God can help you.

Step #2: Remain alert in prayer for testing and temptation in this area. Since Satan will seek to pressure you in your area of weakness, pray to be spared people and situations that might trigger your wrongful anger. Maybe that someone won’t slander you so that you become enraged. Or maybe that someone doesn’t start an argument with you on a particular topic that would trigger your anger. But if God allows you to be tested, at least you will be ready and know what is going on. It’s not that this person is trying to start an argument with me – this is a test from Satan!

Step #3: In a time of testing – Keep your mind focused on God’s truth. Rebuke Satan as he tempts you and offers up rationalizations to give in to your anger. “Hey that person who wants to argue with you – he needs to be put in his place!” Tell him to go away. You can respond by countering with the Scriptures – “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” And “the fruit of the Spirit is love . . .patience . . . gentleness . . . and self-control.” – Galatians 5:22-23.

Step #4: In a time of testing – Receive strength from the Spirit to do God’s will. Pray for the Spirit to fill you and help you. In this way you can put to death your desires to engage in wrongful anger and respond to every situation with love for others.

Step #5: Endure the test. Continue on until the testing and temptation passes – keeping your mind focused; receiving strength from the Spirit.

My point this evening is that sometimes, we work hard at all this and still consistently fail. And when this happens we need to look at some deeper concerns in our lives.

Here are six things to check:

1. Are you double-minded?

To be double minded means you are torn between two things; you have two minds on an issue. You know, you want God to help you with one problem in your life, but not others. For instance, “God help me overcome my anger issue, its destroying all of my relationships!” But you don’t mention your sexual immorality, because you happen to like this sin.

We have to stop playing games. If you’re only trying to stop sinning in one area of your life, while knowingly continuing in sin in other areas, God can’t help you. James 1:7-8 tells us that a double-minded person “must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

We find God and his help when we seek God with our whole heart, not part of it. Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “you will find the Lord, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

So if you are struggling with anger and calling out to God for help and no help seems to be coming, check your heart. Be rid of any double-mindedness and give your whole life over to God. Then you will seek and find the help that you need.

2. Are you the cause of broken relationships?

If we don’t act to deal with relationships that are broken by our sin, this will break our relationship with God and cut us off from God’s help. Our horizontal relationships with others affects our vertical relationship with God. These can’t be separated.

So, if you have sinned against someone, make it right. Jesus said, “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, (that is, you have sinned against him) leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” – Matthew 5:23-24. The broken relationship with the brother or sister must be dealt with before we come to God in worship. Why? Because this affects our relationship to God. Now, we can’t control whether they are willing to reconcile with us, even if we come in repentance seeking to make things right, but the rule is ‘do what you can from your end’ to restore the relationship and then you will be free to come before God in worship and to receive his help and grace.

Also, if someone has sinned against you and seeks forgiveness, forgive. Don’t keep the relationship broken through the choice to withhold forgiveness. Jesus said, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” – Matthew 6:14-15. If we don’t forgive, this breaks our relationship with God.

With both of these situations, if you have caused broken relationships, seek to make things right. And then your relationship with God will be right, and God can help you, for instance with your weakness in the area of anger.

3. Do you expose yourself to stumbling blocks?

According to Scripture we are not only to stop sinning, we are to separate from what leads us to sin. This is what a stumbling block means – something that trips you up and gets you off the path. It is not a sin in itself, but something that leads you to sin.

Jesus says in Mark 9:43, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.” What this means is that we are to create righteous boundaries that keep us away from sin. And we must do this even if what is cut off is precious to us, like a hand.

Now these boundaries are different for each of us, since we all have different weaknesses and triggers that can lead us to sin. For instance, if debating certain topics triggers your wrongful anger response, you need to avoid these for the sake of righteousness. Or if working in a certain job environment causes you to give in to sinful anger regularly, seek a new job. This job might not be a problem for someone else, but for you it is.

The rule is – ‘separate from whatever encourages you to sin’ – relationships, activities, jobs, personal freedoms, whatever. Even if the item isn’t a problem for others, if it causes you to stumble, cut it off.

4. Are you dealing with an ingrained sin?

By ingrained I mean something that is firmly fixed; a sin that is deeply rooted in your life. We practice some sins for so long that they become a part of us as negative character traits. You say, ‘Yeah, I’m a hot-head,’ because you have made a practice of outbursts of anger for so long. It’s a part of how you think of yourself now. And some sins even create physiological addictions, like drug and alcohol abuse.

These kinds of sins are difficult to break. You may well need to take drastic measures, and in the case of addictions seek medical help.

One thing that can really help is intense accountability from other disciples – who can check with us on a regular basis. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” We all need this kind of fellowship to be strong. But this is especially needed with ingrained sins.

If you know that at any time someone will be asking how you are doing in your area of struggle, it can make a real difference. Both to encourage you and certainly to keep you accountable.

5. Are demonic powers involved?

When we allow sin in our life, we open up our lives to Satan and his demonic powers. They can gain a foothold, as it were. Sometimes this is just a general influence, but sometimes we can come into bondage to demonic powers in areas of our life. Our sin is energized by a supernatural evil power.

If this is the case, the demonic power must be sent away by the authority of Jesus. Say something like, “Evil spirit, I break your power over me in the name of Jesus. Leave now!” Jesus tells us, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy . . .” – Luke 10:19. Then submit that area of your life to God, so that the Spirit of God is filling every part of your life.

I’m not saying this is a common thing, but if this is a part of your struggle, for instance, with anger then you need to act. I would just add here that it might be wise to seek the help of a mature believer or a Pastor as you work at this.

6. Is your sin connected to inner brokenness?

By inner brokenness I am thinking of mental illness or just the inner woundedness that comes from life experiences of pain, heartache and tragedy. And inner brokenness can make it much harder for us to do God’s will. For instance if you want to overcome anger, but have borderline personality disorder that leads to expressions of intense anger, this is a much more complicated situation.

If you are struggling with these kinds of weaknesses, pray for God’s healing so that you can do God’s will. But if there is no relief (I Timothy 5:23), learn to manage these issues through treatment so that you can do God’s will.

Once again Jesus’ words in Mark 9:43 are relevant. Our inner brokenness is not itself a sin. But if it leads us to sin, we must cut it off by seeking reasonable treatment – counseling or medication. In either case, through miraculous healing or treatment, seek healing for your inner brokenness so that you can do God’s will. This is a matter of Christian faithfulness.

So these are six additional factors that you may well have to sort through as you seek to overcome sinful habits and areas of failure in your life:

  • Are you double-minded?
  • Are you the cause of broken relationships?
  • Do you expose yourself to stumbling blocks?
  • Are you dealing with an ingrained sin?
  • Are demonic powers involved?
  • Is your sin connected to inner brokenness?

My point tonight and the underlying theme of all of this is that we leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of doing God’s will. We must do whatever it takes.

William Higgins

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Getting serious about good relationships. Mark 9:43-50

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Series: Be at peace with one another!

We are wrapping up our series on being at peace with one another, based on Jesus’ teaching in Mark 9:33-50. So far we have looked at three different relationship problems that can happen in the church:

1. Competing with each other for status – the disciples were arguing over who’s the greatest.

2. Excluding those who are different than you – the disciples tried to stop someone working for the kingdom because he was not a part of their group.

3. Causing little ones to stumble – acting in ways that would cause those who are weak in faith to fall into sin or lose their faith in Jesus.

Today we look at the last part of this passage – vs. 43-50, a section that brings home this point – we need to get serious and work hard at having good relationships with one another.

Jesus begins by giving –

Three amputation sayings

They are all quite similar, one concerning the hand, the foot and the eye. (Just a note, in case you are wondering. vs. 44 and 46 are not in the oldest manuscripts, so they are not included in most Bibles today. They say the same thing as v. 48, however.)

v. 43-48 – “And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the un-quenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”

First, a couple of observations. Jesus talks about the resurrection in several different ways here, twice as “to enter life,” as in eternal life, and also “to enter the kingdom of God.”

But he talks even more about the opposite of eternal life, which is hell. Now this is not Hades, the place of the dead. This is “Gehenna,” the final place of punishment for the wicked. Gehenna literally means the “valley of Hinnom,” which was southwest of Jerusalem. It was once a place of idol worship, including human sacrifice, but later was made into a garbage dump. As such, it became an image of the final punishment of the wicked.

In v. 43 Jesus describes hell as the “unquenchable fire.” In v. 48 he quotes Isaiah 66:24 as a description of hell (via the Isaiah Targum) – “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” This comes from the original garbage dump imagery where there would be worms and fire. The idea is that the worms will always be eating away and the fire will always be burning. A gruesome picture.

There also seems to be a progression from v. 43, that simply says, “to go to hell,” to vs. 45 and 47 that says, “to be thrown into hell,” a more forceful phrase.

The focal point of these verses, however is Jesus’ concern about stumbling. We talked about stumbling last week in connection to how our words or actions can cause someone else who is weak in faith to stumble. Here the concern is what might lead you to stumble, not someone else. There is a shift of focus.

A stumbling block is what causes someone’s downfall, or what trips someone up so that they fall. Again, there is a metaphor here of the Christian life as walking on a path. And so you are walking with Jesus, but something trips you up and you fall into sin and stop following Jesus. So we certainly need to beware of such stumbling blocks.

But what is Jesus telling us to do?! Well, he’s not suggesting that we literally cut off our hand or foot or tear out our eye. After all, this wouldn’t help us keep from falling into sin. No, these are proverbial sayings that warn about the dangers of stumbling blocks to sin, in rather drastic terms.

What they mean is simple, get rid of anything that might lead you to sin.

And this is so serious that you should get rid of the stumbling block even if it is as precious to you as your hand or your foot or your eye; even if it is as painful as cutting off your hand or foot or tearing out your eye. Better to come to the resurrection having made painful sacrifices in this life, than to have stumbled and fallen into sin, so that you are thrown into hell, the place of unending worms and fire.

So this is a strong admonition to separate from whatever might cause you to trip up and fall into sin. Don’t just get rid of the sin, get rid of what might lead you to sin. And notice that Jesus wants us to get this point. That’s why he says it three times.

Now, this warning can refer to stumbling blocks that lead to any kind of sin. (Jesus uses this language in reference to adultery in Matthew 5:29-30). But in context, the point here is more specific. Cut off anything that might lead you to tear apart the peace of the church. Deal with any issues you have that might lead you to damage relationships and people in the church.

He is talking about getting rid of anything that would lead you to do what he has already talked about in this passage:

  • competing with others for status
  • unnecessarily rejecting others just because they are from another group or are different
  • or causing little ones to stumble

And the warning part applies to this as well. And it is clearly stated. If we don’t do this, and tear apart the church, we will be thrown into Gehenna. (See 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 for a similar warning about what will happen to those who tear apart the church.)

In Luke 17:3 these amputation sayings are paraphrased like this, “Pay attention to yourselves.” Jesus is saying, look at your own life to see what might cause you to do one of these things – and get rid of it.

Well, this raises the question –

What do you need to amputate?

What leads you to sin in general? What causes you to give in to your weaknesses? Here are some examples of such stumbling blocks:

  • If you struggle with alcohol addiction, this could be a person or a place that encourages you to give in to your weakness.
  • If you struggle with pornography, unfiltered access to the internet could be a stumbling block.
  • If you are a new Christian, hanging out with old friends who pressure you to forsake Jesus would be a stumbling block

Let’s get more specific – what might lead you to damage the peace of the church? Being too competitive? Always wanting your own way? Allowing yourself to hold on to some bitterness? Not dealing with conflicts, because you don’t like to do this? Being so comfortable with the way things are, that when someone new comes who is different, you get upset. Feeling superior to those who don’t know as much as you? Any of these things might well lead you to damage relationships in the church, and so if they lead you to this you need to separate from them.

In relation to all these stumbling blocks, there may be sacrifices, but the reward is more than worth it. We will enter eternal life in the kingdom of God.

Next Jesus gives us –

Three salt sayings

The first is in v. 49 – “For everyone will be salted with fire.” This is difficult to make sense of. There’s not much to go with. Our help comes from the context just before. It is connected to verse 48 by the theme of fire and judgment.

The point is that everyone will be judged. Just as salt is sprinkled or poured out, so will the fire of judgment come upon all, even if you are one of the twelve. So the amputation warnings apply to them and to all disciples.

Now, the righteous will not experience the fire of Gehenna. But a refining fire is connected to what the righteous will experience on the last day in Malachi 3:2-3. So both the righteous and the wicked will experience fire at the final judgment. (On salt and judgment – Genesis 19:24-26; Deuteronomy 29:23; On fire judging the work of Christians – 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. This text is also connected to breaking apart the church – 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.)

v. 50a – “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?” Salt had many uses: preservation, seasoning, fertilizer and more. It had real value. As Jesus says, “Salt is good.”

Here the disciples are the salt, who have been made salty by living out Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 5:13). But there is a warning. If you lose your saltiness, that is, you are unfaithful to my teaching – how will you be made salty again? If we don’t practice Jesus’ teaching we aren’t worth anything as disciples. Salt is good, but un-salty salt isn’t.

In Matthew 5:13 this saying is coupled with a clear statement of judgment. For such salt “is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

The application of this can be broad, to any teaching of Jesus (Matthew 5, Luke 14), but here it is focused on whether we are living in peace with one another in the church.

9:50b – “Have salt in yourselves . . .” Here the salt is simply Jesus’ teaching. He is saying, take to heart my teaching. Put it into practice. Again, specifically focusing on relationships in the church.

And then finally, 9:50c – “. . . and be at peace with one another.” This is the summary message of the whole of Mark 9:33-50, which begins with arguing and ends with this exhortation to peace.

Let me end with a question –

How salty are you?

Are you putting this teaching of Jesus into practice?

  • Lowering yourself to serve others?
  • Accepting others from groups that are different than yours?
  • Helping little ones who are weak and susceptible to falling?
  • And in general, living at peace with one another?

If you are putting Jesus’ teaching into practice, you are salty salt and you are useful for all kinds of good things in the kingdom. Let us all put this teaching into practice.

William Higgins

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Causing “little ones” to stumble. Mark 9:42

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 22, 2012| 6 Comments »

Series: Be at peace with one another!

We are continuing on in our series from Mark 9:33-50 on relationships among disciples in the church, and Jesus’ instruction to us to “be at peace with one another” in v. 50.

First, we learned that we are not to seek out status, you know, arguing over who is the greatest, or competing with each other in various subtle ways. Rather we are to lower ourselves to serve. We are to give up status to help others.

Last week we learned that we are not to reject other Christians who are doing work for the kingdom, just because they are from another group or just because they are different than us. Jesus taught us that if they are not against us, we are to see them as for us. We are on the same team.

Today we learn about how to treat “little ones” in our community. If in our previous two lessons there was something the disciples did or said that Jesus responds to as a way of teaching them something important about relationships, our lesson today has no such prompting. Jesus simply takes the initiative here to give us –

A word about causing “little ones” to stumble

(In the other two examples Jesus concludes by giving a “whoever” saying. Here we only have a “whoever” saying.)

v. 42 – “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

This short verse raises three very specific questions. And the first is who are these “little ones”? The full phrase is, “one of these little ones” and Jesus uses this several times. [Although the “these” does not always have an antecedent (Luke 17:2)]. In line with its use in Zechariah 13:7, where “little ones” refers to God’s people, Jesus uses this as a way of talking about his disciples. (And Jesus alludes to this verse in Mark 14:27, making the 12 the “little ones.”)

Jesus calls his disciples children in other places (Mark 10:24, Matthew 11:25) and this is another, similar way a referring to them.

As we see in our verse, these “little ones” are people “who believe in” Jesus. Again, he is talking about disciples. [More: The phrase “who believe in me” points toward disciples, not simply children. In Matthew 10:42 they are called disciples. Matthew 18 points to a disciple who has joined the community and made commitments of accountability. It is a church discipline context.]

But this phrase also seems to focus on a certain subset of disciples – those who are new, weak, immature or unlearned, and thus vulnerable. That’s why there’s such a concern about their well-being in our verse, that they not stumble. (The 12 are seen in this light as they scatter when Jesus is arrested – Mark 14:27/ Zechariah 13:7)

This same special concern is found in Matthew 18:10 where Jesus tells the apostles, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” God has a special concern for them.

In our Scripture today, the phrase most likely refers to the one who gives the 12 a cup of water to drink. Jesus had just talked about this person in v. 41. This person is “little” because he only gives assistance to those who are out proclaiming the Kingdom, as opposed to being an apostle, following Jesus around, knowing more or being more gifted.

The second question is what does it mean to stumble? Some translations today render it as “cause to sin.” But the word does literally mean “to cause to stumble.” It can also be translated to cause someone’s downfall or to trip someone up so that they fall.

The picture is of someone who is walking along and then trips over an obstacle and falls. It is seen metaphorically as applying to the Christian life. You are walking with Jesus on the path, but something trips you up and fall – and stop following Jesus. [Perhaps this is rooted in the literal command about stumbling blocks in Leviticus 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:18.]

The end result is that the person falls into sin or gives up their faith in Jesus. In Matthew 18, where Jesus talks about this, it is connected to a little one “going astray” or “perishing.”

The third question is how do you cause someone to stumble? Let’s take the hypothetical situation that I think Jesus is working with – someone offers an Apostle a glass of water because they want to support their ministry of preaching and healing.

But the apostle, because he thinks he is so important, and this person so insignificant, communicates condescension and contempt through his words and actions and makes the person feel inadequate, discouraged and shamed. The little one is crushed. He thinks, “One of the 12 thinks I’m not good enough to be a disciple of Jesus. The best I can do isn’t good enough.” And so the little one gives up following Jesus. The apostle has caused this little one to stumble.

You can see the core issue here, a disregard for the well-being of those who are not as mature or knowledgeable or gifted, or experienced as you are. You aren’t concerned with how your words and actions affect them. And this comes from a sense that you are better than these little ones.

This is why Jesus tells the 12 in Matthew 18, “do not despise one of these little ones.” Don’t look down on them, don’t treat them like they are worthless or expendable. [Not only are we not to cause them to stumble, when they do go astray for whatever reason, we are to go after them Matthew 18:10-14.]

Just because you are an apostle, or whoever, does not mean that you are more important than one of these little ones.

The last part of our verse shows us that this is really serious! This is a stern warning to the disciples and to everyone, to be careful how they treat little ones. If you cause one of these little ones to stumble, Jesus is saying, “. . . it would be better for you if a great millstone were put around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”

A millstone is a rock that was used to grind grain, so that you can make bread. There were two of them together and they grind against each other. There was the hand-held kind and then there was the much larger kind that required a donkey harnessed to it to make it work. Here, Jesus is referring to this second kind. One of these stones could easily weigh several thousand pounds. It would be similar to having “cement shoes” as we say today. You would go straight to the bottom of the sea. Not a pretty way to die.

But the point here is that this would be better than the judgment you will receive, if you cause a little one to stumble. This is how important “little ones” are to God.

Now let’s shift the focus to us and how this applies to us –

Who are “little ones” among us?

It certainly applies to new Christians who have just begun walking with Jesus. Also immature Christians, who are older in years, but haven’t grown much. Also to unlearned Christians, who still don’t know much about the Bible and the Christian life. And it applies to weak Christians. We can all fit under this category because we all have specific weaknesses and under the right pressure might stumble.

But let’s also stretch this out a bit to cover Christians with mental health issues, who because of this are more fragile and thus vulnerable. And perhaps we can also include here Christians with developmental disabilities, whose faith is sometimes more elementary, and children with childhood faith, who are still coming to an adult faith.

This category really covers everyone whose faith is more weak and thus more susceptible to being tripped up.

How can we cause little ones to stumble?

This can happen in many ways, here are just two examples.

1) Use of alcohol. You feel comfortable drinking wine in moderation. You know that people drank wine in the Bible and that the line the Bible draws is drunkenness.

But there’s a new Christian in your church who has struggled with alcohol addiction. And you have him over for dinner. And even though you have heard of his struggle, you serve him wine to drink. Why not, you are free to drink it? And God can help anyone overcome temptation.

Well, he sees you drinking and even though he knows it is very dangerous for him to drink, he thinks, “Well you are a mature Christian who knows the bible well so it’s probably all right.” And so he partakes.

And sure enough his resolve is weakened by this and he begins once again a pattern of alcohol abuse. For you drinking wine is not an issue of sin. But for this person drinking any alcohol leads to sin. Instead of thinking of his need, his weakness, instead you are focused on your freedom and strength in this area. But you have caused him to stumble into sin. What is the obstacle that tripped him up? You, your words and actions.

2) Church snobbery. A new believer comes to church and is eager to learn. She is full of questions and is curious about a lot. Well, you are the Sunday School teacher and are get annoyed after a while. She never seems to shut up. And she don’t understand the most basic things. You are frustrated because you can’t get through your lesson plan.

One day you complain to a friend at church, “Did you hear that she asked today? She wondered where they put the 10 commandments on Noah’s ark! Can you believe it? She doesn’t know the differenced between Noah’s ark and the ark of the covenant! She’s so ignorant she should just keep her mouth shut. How embarrassing!”

Well the woman overheard this and she was crushed. She looked up to you as the teacher and thought you liked her curiosity as a new believer. She thought Sunday school was where you come to learn about the Bible. But she clearly heard your contempt and condescension. She was so upset that she never came back to church. And when others later tried to get her to return she said that she would never go to a place that would say something like that. She stopped following Jesus. What is the impediment that tripped her up? You, your words and your actions.

Again, this kind of thing can happen in many different ways. Anytime the weak and vulnerable are looked down on, instead of being helped there is an environment where this kind of thing can happen.

Let’s listen now to –

Jesus’ word to us

“Be at peace with one another – Mark 9:50. If you are strong, mature or a leader, don’t see this as an opportunity to look down on little ones and act in ways that have no regard for their well-being; that cause them to stumble. See it as an invitation to care for the weak, the fragile and the vulnerable. If you are strong, if you are gifted, if you are knowledgeable use these things to help the weak to grow and be strong. This is why God has given you these things.

An important part of what Jesus is teaching us in this verse is that every disciple of his is important. The 12 are important, but so is the one with the cup of water. Leaders are important, but so are those who are brand new Christians. Those who have much knowledge are important, but so are those who barely know anything yet. Those who are gifted are important, but so are those who don’t have flashy gifts.

All disciples of Jesus are important and we all need to live in peace with one another acting in each other’s best interests. We need to love and care for one another.

William Higgins

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