Tuesday,
November 2, 2021
The Lord rewarded me for doing right; he restored
me because of my innocence. Psalm 18:20
For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ
suffered for you. He is your example,
and you must follow in his steps. He
never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.
He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he
suffered. He left his case in the hands
of God, who always judges fairly. He
personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to
sin and live for what is right. By his
wounds you are healed. 1 Peter 2:21-24
There are many ways to misunderstand (and mis-use) God’s Word. One of the chief offenses is to read-into Scripture
that which you want to see, rather than checking the context of what’s written
so you can accurately understand. The
case in point is in full view in both the Psalmist and Peter.
In the Psalm it’s common to take an absolutist position, that God will
always immediately correct what seems like injustice. If you’re injured by another’s words or
actions, God’s going to cream your enemy like a steam roller crushing a poached
egg. What’s often missed in the equation
is how truly “innocent” we are in anything.
The injustice may be a correct assumption; whether or not we have other
lessons to learn may corrupt our assumption.
In Peter’s letter he is helping his flock understand the meaning of
suffering not only AS Jesus suffered, but FOR the cause of Christ’s redemptive
purposes. There are times when the
suffering of those who are being abused and oppressed serve the purpose of God’s
just judgment. The cross is the prime
example. Christ, the wholly-righteous
one, died a criminal’s punishment to bring redemption. It was the stripes on Christ’s back that
brought our salvation. A terribly misguided
way to weaponize that verse is to apply the stripes to the mere healing of our
bodily infirmities; that is using an elephant gun to wipe out a mosquito. Christ’s stripes were for the healing of our
sinful souls…much bigger game than healing a hangnail or a case of lumbago.
For You Today
The largest sense for either of the two
Scriptures today is keeping our minds, hearts, and lives humble before God to do
the judging. Praying as Jesus did, that
God’s will be done[1], is still the center of the target.
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title and Other Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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