Ok, first off - I am gonna start posting these on my MySpace page and my band new "BlogSpot" page - so if you are reading this on my BlogSpot page - you may want to head over to my MySpace page to see the rest of my blogs to date - and if you are reading this on my MySpace page, be sure to keep tabs on my BlogSpot page - as that is where my new blogs will always show up first.
Cool - now on to THIS blog.
More and more these days, I am hearing about what is becoming known as the "social gospel". This gospel is almost completely focused on social causes (i.e.. feeding the homeless, taking are of the needy, the environment, etc). Now these are all good things. Christians should be concerned with them, and actively involved in these issues - but they are NOT the gospel. You can do all of these things, and still be on your way to hell. None of these things will save you. For this blog, I would like to focus on the issue of the poor.
There is a passage in the Bible that is beginning to get some attention from odd places. It is quoted verbatim, or paraphrased by such people as Michael Moore, Oprah, Senator Jonathan Edwards, etc. It is also frequently mentioned by people like Brian Mclaren and Tony Campolo (people like this should, frankly, know better!). What passage am I talking about? This one:
"And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' "
(Mat 25:33-40)
I have underlined the parts that they want us to focus on. Now, just an aside, but an important one - the next passage has Jesus sending those who didn't obey this principal to hell.... the religious left doesn't like hell, but they like this passage.... what's a odd spot they must find themselves in here! Ok, anyway, on to this passage. A common problem that we can run into is the "Sunday School Jesus". The Jesus who healed people, kissed the babies, fed the hungry and told everyone to love each other. Now, Jesus did these things (I assume He kissed babies, but the Bible doesn't actually mention that...), but He said and did other things as well. You can't just take part of Jesus - He's not a salad bar or a buffet. For instance, Jesus spoke of hell more then He spoke of heaven - but people tend to shy away from that.
Lets focus on a phrase in the last part of our passage: "least of these My brethren." Who are the "brethren"" that He is talking about. Well, I would submit that there are only two possibilities here. The liberal theologians will want you to believe that it's everyone... but the text in no way implies that.
Ok, first possibility: Who is Jesus talking to? Jews! Jesus was a Jew - it is simply not that much of a stretch to think that Jesus was talking about people who were nice to the Jews. But I don't think that's it, I tend to think it's the second possibility - so lets take a look:
Possibility 2: Lets take a quick look at another verse -
"For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."
(Mat 12:50)
Hmm... interesting. Here we have Jesus saying exactly who His "brethren" (and uh.... sisteren?) are. They are the people who do the will of the Father - they are Christians!! So far from meaning that Jesus is going to ask us how we treated the poor before He lets us into heaven (the thought alone is nearing blasphemy!) - this text show us that how we treat Christians will have an effect on whether we enter heaven or not. Not that it will get us into heaven - but if we are truly saved, we will treat Christians well.... because we will love them! So no one who treats Christians bad will be going to heaven - for the simple reason that people who treat Christians bad are not Christians themselves. Christians will take care of other Christians - we will sacrifice for each other - we will die for each other.
The Bible does expand on this - for example:
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
(1Jn 3:14)
So back to the Matthew 25 passage. John Gill said this passage "is to be understood, not in so limited a sense, as to regard only the apostles, and the least of them, for these were not the only brethren of Christ; nor in so large a sense, as to include all in human nature; but the saints only, the children of God, and household of faith."
Look - if taking care of the poor was of such paramount importance - why don't we have a record of Jesus doing it more often? We have Him healing a few people, He raised some people from the dead and fed large groups of people twice. Now I am in no way belittling these miracles - they are indeed amazing! But, when you consider that Jesus ministry lasted 3 years - it seems that the poor were not His primary concern... at least not in the way that Brian Mclaren would like. What was Jesus' primary concern regarding the poor?
"The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. "
(Mat 11:5)
"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR;
(Luk 4:18)
And exactly what is the gospel?
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures
(1Co 15:3-4)
Thanks for readin!
Rob
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