Shining Like the Sun

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

SHINING LIKE THE SUN

Matt 13:36-43

36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

37 He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

NIV

Jesus does not explain all His parables, but he does this one because His disciples asked for the explanation and they, like us, have been given the secret of the kingdom of heaven. Once again, we are the sons of the kingdom, we are the wheat and not the tares. We can be assured that because of not what we do and have done, except accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. If we could gain access to the kingdom through good deeds, then it would become a competition as to who could do the most “good deeds” in order the have a better place in the kingdom, or have more jewels in their crown, although there is no scriptural reference to any number of jewels in any crown. Zechariah does speak about all who are saved by the Lord will sparkle in his hand like jewels, but we do not gain more jewels in a crown based on anything we have or will do, as far as deeds or works. What we do know, because we are considered as sons of the kingdom is that one day we will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. The reason we know this is because we have accepted the Father’s Son, the Lord Jesus, as our Lord and Savior. We are the good seed, although we are not completely free of sin, we are not under the control or influence of the devil, for we have rejected him and turned to Jesus. It is a wonderful thought to keep in mind that we are going to shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. What a glorious day that will be when our Jesus we will see. When we look upon His face, the one who saved us by His grace. When He takes us by the hand and leads us to the promised land, what a day, glorious day that will be. Oh, yes, we have those ears to hear because Jesus has baptized us with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit has opened our ears so we can hear the truth. There is so much non-truth sown in the world and that is a lot of non-truths that have infiltrated the church by those silver-tongued purveyors of lies. It is sad that so many have been deceived by them and accepted the seed sown by the devil. We have to know the devil has deceptive schemes and may not come directly sowing pure evil, but he knows the scripture, he knows God because he once was one of the most beautiful of all the angels God made. Therefore, he could come as a preacher of light, with just enough of the truth mixed into the heinous evil that he spreads, in order to deceive even the elect. So many have itchy ears and what to hear things to suit their own desires. As Paul tells Timothy, there is a time, and it has already come, when men will not put us with sound doctrine. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths, or non-truths. They will not shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father, but rather be gathered and thrown into the flames. Let us always be keen to the truth, listening to the voice of the Spirit who leads us into all truth, and then and only then will we be able to endure until the end. Then the glories of heaven will be our reward. We will have a crown, but it will be the crown of life because Jesus has given it to us and we will be shining like the sun.