Words of Truth

In Matthew 22:36 an expert in the Mosaic law asks Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And Jesus replies “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

“The Law and the Prophets” was a euphemism the Jews used for what Christians call the Old Testament. The Law was the first five books (the “Pentateuch”), and the prophets were Joshua through 2 Kings except for Ruth, and Isaiah through Malachi except Lamentations and Daniel. The third division of the Old Testament is called “the Writings” which is Ruth, and 1 Chronicles through Song of Solomon plus Lamentations and Daniel.

The first letter of each of the three words for Law, Prophets, and Writings (Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim) are used (TNK) to form the word “Tanakh” which is the Hebrew word for what we would call “The Old Testament.”

The entire Old Testament can be summed up in the ten commandments, and the ten can be summed up in two commandments: Love God (commandments 1-4), and Love your neighbor (commandments 5-10). That is what Jesus meant.

So in essence, a Mosaic legal scholar asked Jesus, “What’s the greatest commandment,” and Jesus’ answer was, “Yes.”

“Jesus hung out with sinners, so why can’t you accept gay people?” I’ve heard this statement in various forms over the past few decades and there’s a glaring error in it that I need to point out. Let’s look at what the Bible says.

Matthew 9:10-13 “Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.””

So the first part of the introductory statement is indeed correct. Jesus did spend significant time with sinners. Actually, if we got technical about it, Jesus spent His whole earthly life surrounded by people who deserved to go to hell for their sin. Because that’s all of us. But if we set that aside for a moment and use the conventional 1st century understanding of the word “sinner” as it was used to describe someone who rejected God’s rules (prostitutes, adulterers, thieves, etc) then yes, even with that distinction, Jesus did spend significant time with these people.

But the key here is WHY He spent significant time with these people. Was it to affirm their choices? No. Was it to tell them they were acceptable to God “just as they were”? No. Was it to make them feel “loved and accepted for who God made them to be”? No.

“But how can you say that,” I hear you asking me. “Why are you so hateful?” I’m not being hateful. I’m reading what Christ said and applying it as I believe He intended. Our culture today demands to know why we won’t accept sinners as they are. The Pharisees came from the opposite direction. They asked Christ why He didn’t automatically reject these people.

The answer to both parties is to look at what Jesus said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” He tells the Pharisees that these sinners were sick. Doctors spend time with sick people for the express purpose of moving them from sickness to health.

What would you say about a doctor who goes onto a cancer ward and spends all day there telling these patients that having cancer is amazing and they should be happy that God made them with a body that is sick? That’s horrible, I hope you agree. Doctors don’t spend time with sick people to celebrate their illness, but to help them no longer BE sick.

Jesus Christ didn’t “hang out with sinners” because He thought they were fine the way they were, but because they were the ones who needed His healing touch so they could repent, walk away from their lives of sin, and turn to God, trusting in Him for salvation.

If you are living a life of willing, open sin right now, you are rejecting the God of the Bible, and setting yourself up in opposition to Him. That is a very dangerous place to be, and I appeal to you, please read the Word of God, study it, and let God show you that there is a better way: HIS way! Don’t give in to your sickness, because there are consequences for rejecting God. I Corinthians 6:9-10 tells us that “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” That means if you are choosing sin over God and have no intention of fighting against your sin, you are not saved. But the good news is that it’s not too late for you, because Paul writes in I Cor 6:11 “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Such were some of you. In other words, some of you believers in Corinth WERE homosexuals, thieves, adulterers, etc, but you trusted in Christ and have now rejected your sin.

Repent while you still can.

Exodus 4:1-3 says “Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’” The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.“

Moses ran from it.

Think about that. I have often wondered why Moses thought so little of the Hebrews that he assumed they would reject him out of hand. But I think I understand now.

Moses ran from it.

That’s the key. God was telling Moses that he was God’s man. Moses was being asked to trust in God’s leading, and it made no sense to him. He struggled to trust. There he stands in the wilderness next to a bush burning with a supernatural fire that did not consume. The disembodied voice of God that accompanied the sign of the miraculous fire gave promises to Moses and told him “they will listen to your voice” which means “they will believe you.” God promised that Moses would lead the Hebrews out of Egypt after the plagues, and they would even be given valuables on their way out. And Moses stood there hearing God speak to him directly, promising all these things. And Moses’ response was “what if they don’t believe me?” God responded by miraculously turning Moses’ stick into a snake.

And Moses ran from it. In other words, God made a snake, and Moses did not believe that God could protect him from the snake. And here’s the key:

Moses didn’t think the people would believe that God had sent him because HE didn’t believe that God was sending him. But then God told him to pick up the snake, and he did. So Moses had faith, but his faith needed to grow.

We all can echo the words of the father of a demon-possessed son in Mark 9, “I believe; help my unbelief.” Lord, help our faith in You to grow each day!

I dunk my cookies in milk. 

That is a statement and it means something. 

If you watched a video of me “dunking” a cookie, and in the video I simply sprinkle some milk on the cookie, you would rightly say that I did not dunk my cookie. 

If you watched a video of me “dunking” a cookie, and in the video I pour milk over the cookie, you would rightly say that I did not dunk my cookie.

Or if you watched a video of me “dunking a cookie”, and in the video I sprinkled some milk on some cookie dough, you would rightly say that I did not “dunk my cookie.” Even if I submerged the dough, it’s still not “Dunking a cookie” because dough isn’t a cookie yet.

Only when I take a baked cookie and submerge it in milk is it truly “dunked.” 

Baptism is the same thing.  The word “baptize” comes from the Greek word “baptizo” which means “to dip, to immerse, to submerge.”  The Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon says “The clearest example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making pickles and is helpful because it uses both words. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’ (bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptised’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change.” 

And just like how dunking cookie dough isn’t “dunking a cookie”, putting water to a person who is not a believer does not “baptize” them.  Even if they were immersed. In a church. By a pastor. It doesn’t matter how young they are or how old they are.  It doesn’t matter, because biblical baptism is the act when a believer is immersed in water as a public demonstration of their professed faith in Christ.

Anything else? You’re just getting wet.