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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Wednesday, 6 March 2024:
Luke 12:1-3 – Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
The word “hypocrite” literally means “actor.” The Pharisees acted more righteous than they really were. Hidden sins will always grow and transform your life, and they aren’t really hidden anyway because God sees them all. It is important that we don’t “act” good outwardly while harboring sinful thoughts inwardly. We must confess the truth of our hearts. Jesus, once again, warned His followers not to act godly but rather to be godly from the heart.
“Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” Truth is self-evident – it reveals itself, and ultimately the truth cannot be hidden, the truth of a situation, or the truth of a person. The most important part of reality, of life, is the unseen, God and His power, purposes, will, ways, and word. All which is seen was created by the Creator from the unseen – “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3) Likewise, our external selves, our visible lives are the product of our inner lives, and all that we manifest, or make visible in this world, starts with our spirits, our hearts, our minds, our wills, and our subsequent attitudes and actions. Collectively, the characters of people have created cultures and conditions which are merely the manifestation of their hearts; so, the heart of mankind’s problems is the problem with our hearts. Jesus explained in so many ways that the most important part of us is the inner, unseen part of us, our hearts, our spirits, out of which comes the “fruit” of our lives, the produce, or product of our lives. Jesus said, we judge others by the fruit of their lives, but while we are fruit inspectors, God is a root inspector, seeing the most important part of us which is not visible to others, and only when we are rooted in Christ, abiding (connected) in Him, can we bear the fruit of life and truth into the world and have the inner strength to handle the storms of life. A tree can only grow as tall as it grows deep. How rooted are you in Christ today? To grow you must have faith, which is fully committed confidence in the unseen reality which defines the seen reality. The Bible also warns that we are, in our natural inclinations, terrible judges of reality – our eyes are deceiving as are our hearts. So, the Bible tells us, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) We must trust God’s word over our perceptions and feelings, and when we do, we see the evidence of the unseen reality which builds our confidence (faith) in it, until we change our minds (repent means change your mind) about what is really true and trustworthy. As we walk in faith, trusting what is unseen in order to manifest the truth in our lives, we will no longer be conformed by the bad thinking and ways of this world but will be “be transformed by the renewal of [our] minds, that we will then be able to “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Luke 12:4-7 – I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Don’t worry about what others think about you, only what God thinks about you.
Luke 12:13-15 — “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Most of what we worry about and fight about has nothing to do with what God wants us to be thinking about. God doesn’t want us building our personal kingdoms on earth, He wants us seeking the Kingdom of God. His goal for our lives is to be transformed into the image of His Son Jesus, having the character of Christ. He can take care of the resources you need. Often, people ask God to help them with matters that have nothing to do with His will, to take their side in meaningless struggles. God is not our servant, we are His.
Luke 12:18-21 – And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
This rich fool was following the typical retirement plan most people, middle-class and up, are following today: save up so you can retire at a reasonable age, enjoy life, and depend on no one. The fool’s plan was condemned by God. Today’s readings further reveal the difference between how God thinks and how we think – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8, 9) But what does God say? “’Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:20. 21) What is Jesus’ retirement advice:
“I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:22-34)
Have we replaced fidelity to God for the American dream?
Luke 12:21, 34 — So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God…. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
What a person truly treasures will define how they respond to everything else, to every other person, and to every circumstance. People guard and defend their treasure. They seek their security, joy, and hope from their treasure, and they are motivated by their treasure. They judge everything else based on how it effects their treasure – what threatens treasure is perceived as bad, and what promotes treasure is considered good. A person’s treasure defines his or her heart; and the heart defines the person’s outlook and guides the person’s decisions about everything. A person’s treasure is that person’s ultimate core value, what that person cares about more than anything else. A person’s treasure becomes the foundation of his or her life and sets the course of their life. If you know what a person’s true treasure is, you can predict how they will respond to any situation.
- Luke 12:32 — Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
- Matthew 7:24-27 — “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
- Jonah 2:8 — Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Jesus warns that if your treasure is anything other than God, you are placing your hope in something which is always in doubt and which will never last; you are building your house on shifting sands, rather than the immovable rock of Jesus. If your treasure is anything other than Jesus, your treasure is an idol — a lifeless, powerless, substitute for God in your life which can never bring you love, joy, peace, contentment, or security. When your treasure is unpredictable, unsustainable, or subject to change, so is your love, joy, peace, contentment, and security. You can tell whose treasure is really God and not an idol by how they respond to circumstances around them. If their treasure is in the unsearchable, immovable riches of Jesus, nothing can shake them, and they radiate a serenity which surpassed human understanding. On the other hand, the person who trusts in what is uncertain becomes a victim to circumstances.
- 1 Corinthians 15:58 — Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
- Psalm 112:6 — For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.
- Psalm 16:8 — I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Where is your treasure really? About what (or whom) do you care the most? Do you place your trust and hope in an idol? In our day and age, idols are not usually carved images but rather things God intended for good that we have prioritized over God, thereby turning blessings into curses. Career, family, even ministry can become destructive idols when we make them our true treasures rather than God. When the gifts of God become our gods (our core value and the greatest influence in our lives), we develop unhealthy, destructive relationships with the gifts, with the Giver, and with everything else.
Today when Jesus teaches about foolish treasures, he uses money as the example and describes the anxiety (or fear) this idolatry naturally produces, concluding with, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The person who trusts and hopes in money (finances) has good reason to have anxiety and fear – all hope can be gone tomorrow. And what does this false hope, instability, and fear do to a person’s ability to love. Of course, money can’t love you back, but beyond that, when money is a person’s treasure, God and other people are seen as either assets or liabilities, partners or competitors, benefactors or threats. So, love is contractual, subjective, and always in doubt. When the economy tanks, God is viewed as unloving or uncaring; when the kids break something valuable, they are treated as criminals; and when charities ask for money, they are viewed as undeserving or unprofitable drains on productivity. Ultimately, since people are generally risk averse and since all riches fade inevitably, God and people will be primarily viewed as threats to a person’s money idol – “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24) When Jesus asks, “Why are you anxious?” He knows the answer. Money is a god without love, without power, without hope. These things are only found in Christ. “There is no fear in love.” (1 John 4:18) It takes faith (assurance) which can only be found in Jesus to love, to give, and to forgive with true joy and no fear.
How could Jesus wash the feet of those who He knew would betray Him and abandon Him? The Bible tells us that His unshakable love and forgiveness rested on His confidence in the steadfast love and faithfulness of the Father – “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:3-5)
While Jesus uses money today to talk about the foolishness of treasuring and trusting something over God, we must remember that many things can become foolish treasures and idols in our lives, robbing us of the blessings God intended these things to be in our lives. Consider, for example, the “dedicated family man” who makes family his idol: Family becomes his identity, his measure of success, his security, his place for validation, his source of strength, his meaning for life, and his hope. Everything else is judged as good or bad based on its perceived impact on the family. If a person is perceived to be a threat to the family, that person treated poorly. Even God is judged based on what happens to the family. When the family suffers, God’s love and sovereignty is questioned. When the family becomes an idol, the family man turns to them for love that can only come from God (God is love), so the man takes love but has nothing to really give the family – the family suffers. If the family falls apart, the family-centered man’s entire world falls apart, and the family man has no place to turn. On the other hand, the God-centered family man, the man resting on the firm foundation of Jesus, the man connected to the Source of Love and Life as a branch is connected to a vine, offers stability and hope to His family, becomes a source of love to His family, bears fruit in His family, leads them along the path of Light and Life, and experiences the fullness of joy with His family through the inevitable trials of life.
When Jesus is your treasure, you have the right perspective on everything else, you can experience the fullness of joy in life regardless of circumstances, and you can be a light to others.
Luke 12:35 — Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning….
Jesus expected us to act as if He were returning at any minute. How should Jesus’ call for readiness change how we handle our possessions and how we treat others?
Luke 12:47-48 – And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
Those who know God’s word and don’t obey it are held more accountable than those who do not know God’s word.
Luke 12:51 — Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
Another statement of Jesus’ rarely quoted.
Nothing divides a room more than the name Jesus. You will either choose Him as your Lord and Savior and follow Him or you won’t. You will either live today within the kingdom of God or within the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of God is at hand, available to anyone who would enter into it and abide (live) in it day by day, subject to the Almighty King, safe within His kingdom. If you are living in the kingdom, don’t step outside of it to experience the treachery of the sinful, tyrannous kingdom of man.
Luke 12:56 — You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
How do you interpret current times? Is the Holy Spirit revealing to you through God’s word what cannot be understood through human observation? People who merely act religious really have no spiritual power and do not know what God is really doing or saying. Don’t be fooled by the self-centered Bible reciter.
Luke 12:58 – “…settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.”
Get right with God now.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 6 March 2024: Don’t hesitate to obey what you know God has told you to do. Delay no longer. Trust God with the outcomes. “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27) Pray that God will give you a heart that keeps Him your true treasure and your confidence. As an act of worship and as a good steward, dedicate to God your T.O.T.A.L. L.I.F.E. – time, opportunities, talents, assets, leisure, labor, influence, finances, and expertise.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 