Reality of God

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

REALITY OF GOD

Luke 16:13-15

13 "No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money."  14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

NIV

Although we have already consider this serving two masters as it was the concluding statement to a much longer teaching of Jesus, we need to include it here in order to deal with his response to the Pharisees who loved money and were sneering at Jesus. He tells them they justify themselves before men, but God knows their hearts. He also includes the fact that what is regarded as valuable among men is detestable in the sight of God. This is a lesson we need to take to heart as well. First off we cannot love money, as if we do then we do not and cannot love God. But there is another truth which Jesus makes about these Pharisees which can also apply to us. This justification before men is a simple fact and perhaps it applies to those who love money. They claim certain scriptures that would justify their accumulation of wealth, particularly the one about ants who gather for the winter. But this justification is not limited to the gathering of wealth. We try our hardest to justify many of our behaviors or actions before men. If we desire something in a human way, we might simply justify our desires by telling others God told us to do this, or buy that. Some would claim that they can claim whatever they name, using that verse in Mark’s gospel as their justification. The point is we should not ever be trying to justify ourselves before other men, but only be concerned as to how we appear in the sight of God. God knows our heart. He knows the struggles we have with certain sins. He knows our weaknesses and he knows our strengths, if we have any that is. He knows exactly how and when we fail him. We cannot justify any of our actions or behaviors to him, but he has already justified himself to us through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. We are already justified in the sight of God if we are in Christ and therefore there is no need to justify ourselves before men. That even applies to why we believe. We do not need to justify our faith before men, God knows our heart and that is all that counts. Yet this lesson is also about what we value as men. In the case of the Pharisees it was money. In the case of some Christians it is money as well. It seems rather odd that there are Christian investment counselors. That is almost an oxymoron. Even if we are investing in faith based businesses, or businesses that are owned by believers, the point of the investment is to gain a profit, investing to increase our wealth, which is in that sense having the desire or love for more money. If the point is to invest in faith based businesses for their benefit than why wouldn’t we just give them money expecting nothing in return? But by saying we invest in only believer owned businesses could be seen as justifying ourselves before men. No, it comes down to being concerned as to how we are seen in the sight of God. Nothing else matters in life. Being in Christ, trusting in Jesus is the only way to live. Knowing we are already justified should have a profound effect on our lives. What is a reality in the realm of God should be a reality in the realm of man. We need to live in the reality of God.