“ARE WE THE JUST OR THE UNJUST?”

Matthew 5:43-45 ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

            Are we the just or the unjust?  The answer has to be yes.  We are the unjust because we are not perfect, we sin daily and if you are like me maybe even twice a day… or more.  If we examine ourselves and the way we live our lives, we would see that we do not always live our lives for God.  Most of the time we live our lives for ourselves, maybe sometimes we live our lives for someone else, but even in this we are not always living for God. 

            Do not misinterpret what I am saying, we do need to live for others and even ourselves but we should do it for and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It is easy to live your life for yourself; you are the only one you have to worry about pleasing and caring for.  It is even easy to live for others whom you love because you get to see their gratitude instantly.  It is always nice to receive a thank you, a smile, or even a sense that others appreciated what you did.  Maybe that is why we don’t try so hard to please our God.  With God we do not always see His gratitude, or feel it.

            Again do not misinterpret what I am saying; God certainly wants you to live your life for others, but that you should do it through Him.  When you live your life for the one who saves us, though you do not see His gratitude, it is a greater and most pleasing way to share God’s love for all.

            Now, is living your life for others whom you love through Christ easier to do than living your life for your enemy too?  Most assured we look at our enemies as those who deserve little to none.  And what might be worse is if we ourselves are enemies to others.  Unfortunately I can’t say I do not have enemies, but I can say I am not anyone’s enemy.  However, like Paul used to be, my actions of sin are an enemy of God’s.

Galatians 1:11–13 ¹¹For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. ¹²For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

            We think we are not enemies of God, however our actions no matter how innocent we might think they are, go against the very fabric of God’s good and faithful will.  Paul persecuted, and even had those who tried to follow Christ Jesus stoned to death.  Not that those who tried to follow Christ did not sin, for they too are the unjust that God shines the sun on, and pours the rain on.  Because of our sinful nature we are all the unjust.

            Paul tried to put an end to Christ and His followers at any chance He could get.  And our sin does the same for it too persecutes us and others who follow Christ.  We do not think of our sin in that way and probably don’t want to admit our poultry little sin persecutes us and Christ’s followers, but what is sin if it is not against God’s will.  Our sin cannot be justified, but…

Galatians 1:18–24 ¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. ²⁰(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) ²¹Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

            I almost forgot, we answered yes to the question “Are we the just or the unjust?”  And, we answered, “yes.”  Christ took a bad situation and turned it around and made something good out of it.  Paul persecuted the church of God, and Christ came and changed His life to glorify Christ to the Gentiles and to bring glory to God the Father.  Why?  Paul was Jesus Christ’s enemy by choice.  And, Christ turned Paul around to stop him from persecuting the church and then to promote the Gospel to those who faced other gods.  I say faced other gods because they looked at gods they made not knowing the real one and only God was always before them no matter which way they faced.  Christ is all about showing the great merciful and gracious love of God.

            Seems like a strange way to say that God is always before us no matter which way we face, however it is true.  Whether we face God in our actions of good through Him, or face away from God in our actions of sin; God is always before us and with us.  God was with the Jews who because of their sinful actions lost all their earthly possessions that God had promised and given them. 

God constantly showed the Jews grace and mercy bringing them out of their sinful captivities and giving them back what He had promised and what they had lost.  It is true with all whom God has justified, including Paul the persecutor of Christians and we the persecutors of God’s will.  God has justified Paul to teach the gospel by letting him see the gospel first hand, and by the hand of Christ.  We find ourselves to be no wiser to our predicament than those Jews whom God had justified through the covenant He made with Abraham.  But, like God’s first chosen He continues to pour out His mercy, grace and love.

Now those who saw Paul’s conversion glorified God, as they know it is only through Christ that we are all justified and also turned to be numbered as the just.  We are made just only through the mercy and grace bought for us through our Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Our Lord did not die on the cross and rise from the dead in vain, but He instead died on the cross and rose from the dead to bring us to the Father in everlasting life and eternal relationship with Him.  Let us give the glory to God, glory to Christ, glory to the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Written by: Pastor Curtis A. May

Let us go forth in the Peace of our Lord and Serve the Lord who loved us first.