NIV: For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a law-breaker.
The Message: The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period.
How many times do we each look around at our friends, relatives, neighbours, people we pass in the street, or perhaps we read in the newspapers of what people have done, hear the news reports in the TV or radio. It is easy to be critical of other people, to see their faults and flaws, see their wrongdoings, their crimes, their sins. After all, when you hear the news of one of Jamie Bulger's murderers committing some other offence and having to be taken back into custody, you know that is because he is a murderer, beyond the pale and his crimes are too heinous to even mention.
It is easy to sit and say you would never murder a young child like that (Jamie Bulger was around two years old when he was brutally killed by two ten year old boys, probably some 17 years ago now and the things those boys did to James were really horrific, the stuff of horror stories). Thou shalt not commit murder obviously doesn't apply to you, to me as we would never do anything like that……but what about the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:21-22?
You're familiar with the command to the ancients, 'Do not murder.' I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother 'idiot!' and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell 'stupid!' at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. (The Message)
The simple moral fact is that words kill. So when we get angry, we are guilty of murder in our hearts.
James talks about the idea that because we do not commit one sin, because we don't break one commandment, that will cancel out or balance the commandment we do break. So if, for instance, there are five commandments we never break, then they will balance the five we do break and we will be sin free.
Well, reading James and the other books in the bible, it is obvious it does not work that way. Take a good long h
ard look at the ten commandments in Exodus 20:
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honour your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour's.'
What about when we choose to stay in bed on a Sunday instead of going to church, or when we read our emails, go out with friends, or watch TV instead of spending a quiet time with God? Then there are the images we put before us to help us worship, to focus our thoughts on God - are they not graven images? Then the times something happens and we just automatically say "Oh God", taking the name of God in vain, using it as a swear word. The name of Christ here in the west is in common use as a swear word. As for honouring our father and mother, who hasn't argued with their parents at some tine or other? Then getting angry with your brother or sister is as bad as committing actual murder. As for adultery, this includes the thought as well as the deed, so looking at a beautiful women as she passes by and letting your imagination run riot is as bad in God's eyes as actually committing adultery. Then stealing. Have you ever taken a pen from work, used office paper to write personal notes, taken something belonging to your brother or sister, borrowed something and forgotten to take it back? Then you have stolen. False witness is lying. You may have just stretched the truth on occasion, told a little white lie to get out of trouble, but it is still a lie and therefore a sin. Finally, coveting your neighbour's house, seeing something someone else has and wanting it for yourself. Someone has a new car, new clothes, new baby, new husband, whatever it may be, and you want one too. Your greed, jealousy and lust get the better of you.
Each one of us has probably broken the ten commandments umpteen times, too numerous to count. We may not have kept track of each and every occasion but God knows and I am so thankful that he has cast my sins from his memory as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), that he no longer has a list probably several miles long of all the times I have sinned.
Because God does not grade sin according to how severe it is. There is no colour coded chart with deeper colours at one end for the more serious sins, murder, rape, and so on, and lighter colours at the other end for the less serious sins, for maybe telling a little white lie, not doing something when we should, etc. Just because we have not gone out and brutally killed a little child as Jamie Bulger's murderers did does not mean that God looks more favourably on us than he does on them. We are all sinners, each and every one of us. It doesn't matter how serious (or not) in man's eyes are the sins we have committed, or how commonplace, any sin removes us from God, any sin at all.
That's why what Jesus has done is so amazing. He took on his shoulders the sins of each one of us. So every snide remark, every dig at others, the anger, the greed, the lust, the murder, the lies, the rape, the adultery, the stealing. Each and every sin he bore on his shoulders, carried the weight of them and was punished for each and every one of them. The brutal torture he faced at the hands of the Romans, the stripes on his back, when the skin was torn from his body by the whip, was because of the things we have done, the things I have done. The nails through his hands and feet are because of my sins, the spear in his side is because of what I have done. He paid the price to set me free, to set each one of use free. There is no one who is so bad, or who has committed such awful acts that Jesus' sacrifice does not cover the cost. Each one of us has had the punishment for our sins paid for by Jesus, the slate has been wiped clean and God sees each one of us as dressed in white robes of righteousness. He doesn't see the stain of sin on our souls, the dirt, the grime.
Whether we choose to receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour or not, he paid the price to set us free. If we reject Him, if we refuse to accept the price he paid for us, if we turn our back on this free gift given in love, then we are doomed to spend eternity apart from God. We will face the wrath of God, the judgement, and the eternal damnation that follows. Take a look at Revelation 7 and 9 and see the seal judgements the trumpet judgements, what will happen in the tribulation. There is no neat and tidy ending, no promise of good things to come, if we reject God. Our hardened hearts will be such that even though we know the catastrophes we are facing are from God, we will end up cursing God instead of being in awe at his power and might.
So take a good look at your life today, the things you do and where you are going. Is God at the centre of your life? Is Jesus your Lord and Saviour? Because if not, the bible is only too clear on what will happen. There are so many people who do not know God, or who think they do but are in reality following a false religion. Jesus Christ is the only way to God and any other path is a lie from the devil.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment