What arrogance drips
from this question! Are you a smug pseudo-saint? Our
SAVIOR is a Shepherd WHO wears no wool ... thus how vain
to seek to pull that which is not there over HIS eyes.
"I have written to him
the great things of MY law, but they were counted as a strange
thing." This
"lawyer" knew the commandments,
he was just next in line to try his hand at worsting GOD.
JESUS, in HIS classic style of dealing with scoffers, answers
the question and then poses a couple of HIS own:
"What think ye of
CHRIST? WHOSE SON is HE?" Has the LORD ever
enrolled you in one of HIS teaching moments like this one?
Have you ever been cornered in your hubris by HIS holiness?
If the answer to these is no, chances are then that 'yes'
is your answer to the smugness poll at the beginning of today's
devotional.
"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to
him it is sin." Is it any less contemptible when we know HIS laws and probe for
loopholes ... even in the prayer closet? Is it not the height
of spiritual brutishness to calculate the overthrow of HIS will
in our lives while feigning Biblical ignorance? Admit it,
you do know what HE commands and expects from you.
James states that to be a hearer of the Word and not a doer is
to deceive no one but yourself. Though it is axiomatic to
say that GOD is not fooled by our haughty and prim attempts to
trap HIM in our hypocrisy; the line of they who will try has not
shortened since the days of this lawyer. In spite of the
contempt of this scene, our LORD answers:
" ... Thou shalt love
the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment." If this is
true, it would naturally follow that the first and great sin
must be to neglect the obligation of this love! The lawyer
erred, asking what he might do to please GOD; when before HIM, humility would dictate
the real question:
... MASTER, am I guilty of the first and great sin?
" And the publican, standing afar off,
would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, GOD be merciful to me a sinner."