Luke 20:1

Luke 20:1–18

5/1/2012

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Something a little different today since we've covered the content of today's reading in one way or another in either Matthew or Mark.

This morning I've been replying to comments from the weekend and my heart has continued to be burdened by our readings from the past few days: the rich ruler that decides his money is worth more than Jesus vs. Zacchaeus who willingly gives away his money because his heart has been changed. As I wrote before, we don't see a whole lot of "Zacchaeus's" in suburban churches. I also don't think we see a whole lot of "rich rulers" either. We see a lot of "middle path" people.

I wrote about some of this in the comments for the past few days, but I want to let Francis Chan challenge us on this one. Please take the time and watch both videos. What do you think? Questions about what he says? Comments?

Andrei

5/1/2012 09:10:32 pm

I think some of us read 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan and I remember him talking about the lukewarm stuff in that book. I remember not being sure how to react to his talking about being lukewarm, because he talked about lukewarmness in the context of not being saved. I guess though, that he isn't preaching a message of us judging someone for being lukewarm, but people admitting and identifying themselves as lukewarm. Even with that said, it still seemed like he was perhaps leaving room for misinterpretation, like if you're not doing x and y, you're not saved. I see what he's saying about being on fire for Jesus though.

Not sure... what do you guys think?

Greg

5/2/2012 03:37:03 am

We've talked about this in other ways before, and it's a thin but very important line. I think he IS saying "if you're not doing x and y, you're not saved". That doesn't mean that you attain your salvation through x and y, but that if you saved by grace you WILL do x and y. Can we ever tell for sure if someone else is saved? No. Should we judge them? No. But if we ourselves know that we should be doing x and y if we are followers of Jesus and we aren't, we need to start asking some very serious questions about ourselves and our "faith". James 2 says that faith that doesn't produce works/fruit isn't true faith. I think that's what he's saying here. Our works don't save us, but they are an indicator of our salvation. Revelation 3 (Letter to Laodicea) that he references in the second video I think is pretty clear on that: God says he wants to spit them out of his mouth because they are lukewarm. Does that sound like something God would do to a Christian? Grace is not an excuse do to whatever we want, it's the motivation to do what God commands and desires.

Comments are closed.

Luke 20:1–18

Archives