To Encourage You

Luke 3:10-11 “And the crowds asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’ And he answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.’”

You do realize, don’t you, that in the end, every person on the face of the earth must give an account of his or her life to God?  Jesus spoke of this multiple times.  For example, in Matthew 25 we have recorded Jesus’ parable of the talents. There He informs His listeners that everyone has been given certain things of which he or she is responsible before God as a steward.  There are varying amounts given, each “according to his ability” (Matthew 25:15), but everyone is given something.  The truth is, everything we have, be it money, possessions, experiences, even our heritage, has been given to us by God.  Every ability we have is, likewise, a gift.  1 Corinthians 4:7 puts it this way: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”  In other words, there are no “self-made men.”  The wealth of any kind that we possess, and the ability to acquire that wealth has come directly to each and every person from God, for “it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18). 

And so, we come to the passage above from Luke 3. It is a message of repentance being preached by John the Baptist.  John was preparing the world for the coming of the Messiah, urging people to repent. To “repent” means to turn around. It means to stop going in the direction you have been going, which, in our natural condition, is a path away from God, and to turn around and begin to walk toward Him.  It is a message that whatever path we may be on, it will eventually lead to God, but not in the way so many think.

I’m sure you’ve heard the thought that “all religions are basically the same,” and “there are many paths to God.”  Well, in one sense that is very true, for in the end, all of us, no matter what religion, nationality, or any other characteristic that separates people, will stand before God. It’s where the path of every life will lead. It is there that each person will face the fact that they have either been following the true God, i.e., “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Acts 3:13), also identified as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:16), or they have not. It is at that time that all the gifts, all the abilities, and all the opportunities we’ve been given by our Creator will be evaluated for what we’ve done with them.  For those who have never put their faith in Christ, nothing they possess has been recognized by them as a gift of the only true God, and nothing they’ve ever done will have been done for the glory of God.  The fact is that those who have never been born again have never loved the true God and they’ve never been motivated to live their life “as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23).

But for those who do know God, for those who have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, there have been new desires planted in their hearts and they’ve received a new understanding of everything in their lives.  They all (to varying degrees, mind you), are now living their live as servants of Christ, and they realize that “whether (they) eat or drink, or whatever (they) do, (they are commanded to) do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).  They’ve come to realize the command of God that “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  They realize that so much of what God is at work doing in this world, He is doing through those who love Him and are serving Him. And as John the Baptist informed those to whom he preached, their possessions, e.g.,  their clothing and their food, is not for them to do with as they please, but as God directs. 

So, does this describe you?  Is this life of repentance from a former way of life, what the Bible calls “repentance from dead works” (Hebrews 6:1), your greatest desire?  Well, if we truly know and love God, it should be, for that’s what life on this earth is all about for the Christian. May God help us to live a life of repentance, a life that is bucking the tide of this world that is leading to judgment from the God they’ve spurned. May He lead us “in paths of righteousness for his names sake” (Psalm 23:3), i.e., the true righteousness of Christ which produces a life lived to the glory of God.