Say It

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

SAY IT

 

Matt 10:32-33

32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

NIV

This is clear enough that we should not need to say anything about it, except this idea of acknowledging Jesus before men. What does that entail? What men must we acknowledge Jesus before for Him to acknowledge us before the Father? We wonder if it is sufficient to acknowledge Jesus while we are in church, or with other believers? After all, they are men and that should do the trick, or meet the rule. However, we fear that is not what Jesus was talking about. We think we have a responsibility to tell people who are not believers about Jesus, at least, about how Jesus is our lives. We must acknowledge Jesus before those who do not believe. It is not that we must go about preaching the good news, but our lives should reflect the glory of the Lord in ever-increasing amounts. Therefore, it only makes sense that if we are reflecting the Lord’s glory, everyone would be able to see Jesus when they look at us. If that is true, and it should be, then we would be acknowledging Jesus before men. But there may be more than just looking like a Christian or saying that we are a Christian and therefore mean we are acknowledging Jesus. Just saying we are Christian does not meet the criteria Jesus stated. There are many people who say they are Christian but have no idea of their need to be born again so they can see the kingdom of God. There are others who say they are Christian but do not reflect Jesus at all, or even attempt to reflect Jesus in their lives. It certainly appears that we must say the words, profess our faith in Jesus, telling people what Jesus has done and is continuing to do in our lives. This is acknowledging him before men. There are ever people who say they are Christians and prove it by their magical works of healing, prophecy, and even casting out demons. However, Jesus tells them that He never knew them, and tells them to get away because of doing evil things. It is not about our works, of how “Good” a Christian we think we are. It is about using our mouth to tell the story of Jesus. When our profession is about how much we do for Jesus, then we are giving ourselves the praise, as well as looking for praise from men, and in the purest sense, we are disowning Jesus. Therefore, let us speak up, speak out and tell everyone whenever we can, about how Jesus changed us, embraced us, and died for us.