While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of
Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive
perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When
the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.
“This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the
poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman?
She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you,
but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she
did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is
preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory
of her.” [Matthew 26:6-13 NIV]
Alas,
the absolute truth of the matter truly is that far too many in the Christian
community use what Christ Jesus said to His disciples about the poor always
being with us to justify spending resources on everything but trying to help
those who find themselves in need. Be
assured that they do this to their detriment.
For it is also written: There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I
command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and
needy in your land. [Deuteronomy 15:11 NIV]
Just
in case there is some confusion over just what being openhanded means: If anyone is
poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your
God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be
openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor
this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,”
so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites
and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you
will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a
grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all
your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor
people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow
Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. [Deuteronomy 15:7-11 NIV]
Ah,
but are we not now commanded to take it even farther? For it is written: “As the Father has loved me, so have I
loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in
my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I
have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be
complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love
has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my
friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a
servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you
friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go
and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the
Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” [John 15:9-17 NIV]
No,
He was not referring to “Christian love,” which is far too often detached and
indifferent at best. For the kind of
love that is truly of our Heavenly Father is the same as the kind that good
parents should have for their own children—only in a much purer form, and
anyone who truly knows Him would know this.
For it is written: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God;
and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love
does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in
us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might
live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we
love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we
know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of
the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and
he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for
us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides
in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in
the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is
no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves
punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He
first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a
liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love
God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one
who loves God should love his brother also. [1 John 4:7-21 NAS]
Simply
put, all who are truly in Christ should want to love everyone as they should want
to love the members of their own immediate family. For who in their [right-mind] can truly
justify spending thousands of dollars on expanding the kitchen and pantry in their
own home while one of their loved ones does not have enough to eat, nor
adequate shelter from the elements?
Getting
back to Christ Jesus being anointed with that expensive perfume, be assured
that this was an isolated incident, and there are times when it is in
accordance to our Heavenly Father’s will for us to spend resources He has given
on constructing grand church buildings and other things. As with everything else, the key to truly understanding
when lies in getting to truly know Him.
For those who can truly hear His voice do not have to guess at which way
He would have them go.
Of
course, Satan and his horde of rogue angels are quite good at sounding just
like our Heavenly Father, and you think all who are truly in Christ are keep completely
safe from the wiles of the devil and his demons, the Apostle Peter would have a
thing or two to tell you. For it is
written: When
Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But
when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles
because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The
other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even
Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the
truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet
you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force
Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles
know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in
Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be
justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the
works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in seeking to be justified
in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean
that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I
really would be a lawbreaker. “For through the law I died to the law so that I
might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of
God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for
nothing!” [Galatians 2:11-21 NIV]
Therefore,
let us not take anything too much for granted.
For even a desire to truly care for the poor and the needy is of the
devil and his demons when it is done out of a sense of duty—be assured.
There is a way that seems right to a man
and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.
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2 comments:
Hi Jerry,
that is right. It has to be God who prepares the good works that we walk into, not good works prepared by ourselves.
Thanks for stopping by, my dear Brenda!!! Very well said.
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