IN THESE END TIMES, LET'S NOT FORGET THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."
(Matthew 23:23-24)
While the world is plunging into total chaos, you will hear more and more news about conflicts, violence, terror, rumors of wars and invasions.
Now that Israel has entered a new full blown conflict, many governments and news outlets will be focusing on the new conflict. Furthermore, there will be more wars coming in the next few months. Though those conflicts will impact even the church sermons and the attention of the Church, we should not forget to keep preaching and meditating on the weightier matters of the Scriptures: ‘Mercy, Justice and Faithfulness’
I am not saying that we should be numb towards the bad events we are witnessing. On the contrary, we should all be alert on the current global events because those events are pure signs of the end times. Furthermore, we should all preach about the end times in our churches. I am grateful for all the preachers and independent Christian media who are sounding the alerts on the end times events. I believe that they play a great role in preparing the Church.
However, added to the end times messages and to the end times alerts, we must not forget to keep preaching and meditating on ‘mercy, justice and faithfulness’ because those three topics bear strong influence on our Christian lifestyle. And on Judgement Day, God will require an account from us on the way that we would have lived.
It is possible to know everything about the end times (e.g: Gog and Magog, Armageddon, Ezekiel 39, the Mark of the Beast, the Antichrist,ect…) while not even living the life that God has called you to live.
There is a difference between ‘End times knowledge’ and ‘living Christianity. Both are important, but we should not prioritize the latter while neglecting the former. We must preach and meditate on both.
I said this because there are now churches and independent online Christian media with large following (in the range of 100 000 in some cases) which are solely focused on: ‘end times’, rapture, the Antichrist, the pope, Benjamin Nethanyou, Israel,Ezekiel 39, aliens…’
I am not saying that those subjects are not important. I believe that we should share, preach and meditate on them but it does not that we would forget teachings related to Christian living included in mercy,justice and faith.
Why am I writing this?
I write this because I believe that many people have garnered great platforms and serious attention by solely focusing on the end times. However, the same garnered attention should be an opportunity to slide in messages related to Christian living.
What is the meaning of the weightier matters of the Scriptures?
Mercy is about love, compassion, honor,charity and the treatment we give others . We cannot call ourselves Christians if we have no mercy in us. What is the point of knowing everything about Ezekiel 39 or Revelation 13, if you live like a monster in your private circle?
Justice is about making things right as God sees it. Justice is about implementing God’s righteousness on Earth. Justice will make you protect orphans, widows and the elderly(Psalms 82). Justice will influence a leader to create an environment livable for all while excluding sin. What is the point of knowing everything about the aliens and Armageddon, if you sow injustice and unrighteousness in your environment?
Faith is too important. Without faith it is impossible to please God (ref. Hebrews 11:6). Faith comes from Hearing the message based on the Word of Christ ( ref. Romans 10:17). Faith is alive through actions (ref. James 2:26). It is important to say this because there are Christians who know everything about the end times, yet they spend their whole life without living their purpose. Some Christians know everything about all raptures dreams and nothing about faith principles which could help them navigate life. The Bible is clear: ‘Only those who do the will of God shall enter Heaven”. It is possible to know everything about the ‘blood moon, the 666, Ezekiel 39, Tubal and Meschek, Rosch ,but if you don’t do the will of God, you will not enter Heaven.
All those people who are filled with End times knowledge while neglecting the weightier matters of the Scripture, are similar to the foolish virgins in the parable of the virgins (ref. Matthew 25:1-13). The foolish virgins knew that the Master was coming, the wise virgins also knew that the Master was coming. However, the foolish virgins had no oil with them. In other words, the foolish virgins had nothing to show for their lives when the Master would arrive and they missed the party.
In the parable of the talents (ref. Matthew 25:14-30), there is one servant who decides to do nothing with the talents the Master gave him. The lazy servant knew that the Master was coming just like many people know that Jesus is coming back. Yet, he did nothing and he was unfaithful. As a result, he was kicked out in a dark world representing Hell. If you remove faith and faithfulness towards God’s will in your life, you will end up in a very somber place called ‘Hell’.
As much as we should and must spend time on sharing discussions related to End times, let us not forget to also share and meditate on ‘Mercy, Justice and Faithfulness’- matters related to Christian living.
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