Lost and Found

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

LOST AND FOUND

Matt 18:12-14

12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

NIV

Again, Jesus is talking about those believers who have changed to become like a child in their faith. He also could be referring to those believers who some would say are feeble, that is they do not have the great understanding of the things of God.  But that does not fit the overall context. However, this Christian who lives by faith, the simple believer who does not go beyond accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior and believes they are saved through faith in Jesus and Jesus alone, that there is nothing more to add for their salvation is most likely the ones who Jesus is still speaking about. Yet, here he talks more about the fact that some believers who have not been thoroughly grounded in the word of God, but merely were saved and then seem to fade in their walk, not completely turning their back in Jesus, but simply waning in their walk, wandering into the things of the world, getting distracted by the yearnings for those worldly ideas, that could be a variety of things. It could be this self-reliance concept, or the idea of being successful in the eyes of the world, or whatever the world has to offer. Whatever the reason a believer wanders off, straying from the purity of their faith, Jesus pursues them, searches after them, as should we, as stronger Christians. We should not be content to let any of our fellow believers wander off into strange new worlds where no man has traveled before. Yet, there are men who have traveled there before and they are beckoning those who are not well-grounded in the word, those who only have their child-like faith and have not grown in understanding. Because Jesus says we need to change and become like a child, that is humble ourselves and depend on God for every aspect of our lives, does not mean that we should not grow in our understanding of the word, or learn from the scriptures as to how we should walk worthy of our calling. But if there are those who never grow and have no understanding and wander off, or are distracted by those purveyors of false doctrines, God is extremely pleased when they are brought back into the fold of the faith. God does not desire any are lost, but all are saved. This could then also apply to all peoples of every tribe and nation, every tongue, every race. Those are sheep also, as all people are the creation of God. They have indeed wandered off from any resemblance of being part of the flock of God. When we share the gospel and one person responds, there is rejoicing in heaven, a sinner has come home. The one who was lost has been found.