Wicked and Adulterous

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

WICKED AND ADULTEROUS

Matt 12:38-42

38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."

39 He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. 42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

NIV

Give us a sign. We want proof. Show us a miracle and then maybe we might believe, depending on how great the miraculous sign is. It is interesting many people today want proof before they will believe in anything. Of course, many believe in things without any proof at all. There is absolutely no science to prove the theory of evolution and the world is crazy about believing anything that opposes the seven days of creation by God. There was a rather famous character who once became a governor, who said that Christianity is a crutch for weak-minded people. Where is the proof that Jesus is divine? Jesus tells those Pharisees and all like them, who want proof, that they are a wicked and adulterous generation. There doesn’t seem to be a difficulty in understanding what wicked means in this case, at least in an ethical sense. This seems to be the way in which Jesus used this word, however, the Greek word can also be used to mean diseased or blind, which could apply to the Pharisees as well. Anyone with an ounce of reasoning would see that Jesus is the Son of God and therefore the Messiah, the Savior of mankind. But the Pharisees were blinded, at least in the spiritual sense. It may be the same today. We are so thankful that Jesus was able to take our blinders off and show us the truth. Did He perform a miracle to get our attention? On a personal note, we have to say that God did show us a sign, but our belief was not that like the Pharisees who wanted to trick Jesus in an effort to find a way to kill him. We just did not believe period; however, we were still His creation and He wants us to be in an intimate relationship with Him.  As believers are considered the bride of Christ, which relates to a marriage, when we are having an affair with the world, we are committing adultery against the Lord. Turning from the Lord to idols is adultery, or we could also say that being with the Lord and having an affair with the world is still adultery. Jesus made it clear that we cannot serve both God and money, which represents the world or the things in the world, the material possessions we so eagerly desire. All we have to do is look at how hard, or how much effort we put into making our lives secure through the accumulation of wealth or material gain, to see whether we are living right with God, or if we are slipping into adultery. Yes, we must work. Yes, we need money simply to buy the necessities of life. However, we think maybe we could get a little distracted by all the things of the world, wanting more and more, better and bigger things. It seems as we observe some of our believing friends show off all their newer, bigger, better things that have on various social media platforms, they have become more interested in a prideful display of their material gains, than their relationship with our Lord. We must be careful not to become distracted, not to become enthralled with the things of the world, but stay the course, focusing our attention on our relationship with our Lord and Savior. Are we human?  Sure, and there are always human needs, and we must engage in the actions of daily life, and in our relationships with others, but we need to see of faith is what brings us into the presence of God. So then, if something interferes with our life in Christ, we must forfeit it.