January 23: BLAMELESS, FAULTLESS

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

The preservation of life is the ultimate purpose of our Savior. As our Creator, to be given the breath of life is an act of love. As His followers, we are meant to be set apart—sanctified—from the ways of the world. It is God alone who does this divine work on our behalf, but we are to enter into the process through cooperation. His wise and loving counsel is of no effect apart from an obedient attitude.

Many are teaching today a partial concept, saying “it is impossible to keep the commandments of God.” That is certainly true if one looks only to human strength. But Jesus made it abundantly clear that our dependence upon the power of God is essential. This is the interlocking piece to accompany the fact that we cannot do it in our own strength: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26 – see also Mark 10:27, Luke 18:27) The grave danger in learning only a partial truth, like the one quoted above, is that it inevitably leads to throwing aside God’s Law altogether: exactly what our archenemy wants to accomplish.

The parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30) brilliantly illustrates that a lack of awareness—“while men slept”—can leave all of us vulnerable to misleading concepts and teachings that could potentially rob us of eternal life. It is Jesus who sows the good seed of saving knowledge, but the devil’s influence has mixed in false teachings along with purveyors who spread them (tares) among the wheat. Our merciful God, in His perfect omniscience and wisdom, has delayed the destruction of sin and sinners, because He can see that the roots of the wheat and tares have become intertwined. To uproot the tares before the harvest could harm the wheat.

As the wheat matures, it will become ripe for harvest. The wheat will be distinguishable from those who are branded as tares, who will also be ripe at the time of harvest. In the judgement, there are only two groups. While none of us may know “all there is to know,” the difference in the two groups is attitude toward the Lord and His word. In this life, there are those whose love for Him brings a cheerful obedience to all that they understand of Him, along with an eager willingness to grow in the knowledge of Him. Others, indeed many others, deliberately choose to continue in error even after encountering the truth on any given point (see James 2:10). The tares are those who practice lawlessness (Matthew 13:41). Submit yourself to the dominion and power of the only wise God and not to the usurped dominion and power of the deceiver who wants you to be lost. The enemy will continue to exercise his power through those who boldly claim God’s law is impossible to obey. It is this same enemy who has attempted to alter divine law (see Daniel 7:25).

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Jude 24-25