Everyone, Every time, Every place

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

EVERYONE EVERY TIME, EVERY PLACE

Mark 8:34-38

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." 

NIV

Page three, now it is the end of the story. As we have considered taking up our cross, crucifying our old self, and this idea of trying to gain the world and follow Jesus at the same time, we now need to take a look at this adulterous generation and how that fits into whether we are ashamed of Jesus and his words, in the least little bit, or we are bold outspoken followers of Him. First, we should try to define what he meant by an adulterous generation. What we should remember is that all the people in the world are the creation of God. He created mankind to have fellowship with him. That is our first and foremost responsibility here on earth during our lives. Our purpose is designed to bring honor and glory to God. Out of all He created, we are his crowning glory, for we have been created in His image, and Jesus came to earth to die on the cross, taking all our sins, that is all of all man’s sins upon himself and redeeming all of mankind. However, when any one particular person refuses to accept this and is carrying on an affair with the world instead of being the bride of Christ, they are committing adultery. Here, again it comes back to us who say we have decided to follow Jesus and yet we might well, in some sense, have a love affair with the things of the world. We may not endorse the ideologies of the world, or accept other world religions who worship false gods, but the things, the stuff this life has to offer, our infatuation with sports, and its stars, or entertainment and its stars, or all the material goods that we can collect may be considered having some affection for them, when we are to love the Lord our God with all our mind, all our soul, all our spirit, and all our strength, or body. Is our attention to all those things being ashamed of Jesus in any sense? We have to live our daily lives and do the daily stuff in life and go about being in this world, carrying on the affairs of the living, which have to include certain stuff. But what Jesus was talking about is those, especially those, who seem religious, such as the Pharisees did, and look to their form of beliefs, their form of ideologies, and refuse to see the truth about Jesus and His word. Therein lies that adultery and, being a sinful generation. So when we go back to those traditions that we have established, and that could be how so many different denominations have evolved, we might be coming up with our own form of religion, or traditional thoughts about Jesus and his word. Why so many different ideas, or interpretations of what is supposed to be the truth? Who of us could be that adulterous generation? We all, at least most, accept Jesus is the Lord and Savior of the world, so then is all that other stuff, other particular beliefs matter? Jesus had to be talking about those who refuse to accept Him or His word. We are sure that we do not fall into that category, as we do accept Him and His word and we are not ashamed to admit that to everyone, every time, every place.