Watch Out

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

WATCH OUT

Mark 13:3-8

3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?" 5 Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

NIV

This is only the beginning of a very long answer Jesus gave to the question asked by Peter, James, John and Andrew. Of course their question was in response to what Jesus had said about the stones of the temple. Certainly some of the response Jesus is about what we now know as a historical fact, was a little disconcerting to those four. We can read this response and think Jesus is predicting the future of those four men, as well as what will still come to be yet in our future, in fact the future of all mankind, and there are truths within which we can certainly apply to our lives, such as watching out that no one deceives us. Perhaps Jesus was saying that many would come claiming to be the Christ, but the original text does not clarify that, so we might also think he was warning that many would come in his name claiming to have the truth about the salvation, that they were he, the one who knows the truth. It is doubtful that we can find in history anyone who actually claimed that he was Jesus Christ returned from the resurrection, except perhaps a few crazy people that no one would have taken seriously or been deceived by. But someone coming in the name of the Lord seemingly being either very spiritual or very intellectual, could deceive many with their fine sounding words. Later on in his response he does tell about false prophets and even false Christs and the fact they will deceive many. But we could determine neither those four nor us have seen those the days of the false prophets and false Christs, for it seems we have not yet seen the days of distress. But we certainly can be sure that many have come in an attempt to deceive us for their own personal gain. As far as the wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes and famines, we have had all this since the time of Jesus and it is still going on today and most likely will continue until the designated time God has determined to send Jesus back for us. We cannot point to any of these things as predictions of Jesus return now, for they have been happening since he left. Jerusalem was crushed, Rome was crushed in those times, and we certainly can point to many historical wars and rumors of wars, such as  the crusades, the hundred years was between the Catholic and protestant church and many as well as many others. But what we can be sure of is that all throughout time men have been trying to deceive other men for their own personal gain, and especially in the matter of controlling another man’s spiritual life. Our faith is something especially personal and it runs deep and determines the course of our life.  If someone can deceive us and manipulate our faith, our beliefs then that person can control the course of our lives, and if that course is changed from the true path of Christ, then we are in extreme danger. Jesus has given us all the truth we need, and he has sent the Holy Spirit to lead us into all the truth, to give us the understanding of that truth, as thus we cannot afford to be drawn in by those who would deceive us. So we must be alert, we must not grow dim or lazy, we must watch out.