Take heed beware of covetousness for it will strip your mind of spiritual realities and spiritual priorities which, though very obvious, will cease to exert any meaningful influence on your will. Covetousness makes spiritual cripples--in droves ("an innumerable multitude" Luke 12:1). Jesus cut through the deep stupor that multitudes who craved a frankly carnal peace, and a Messiah who would fulfill their dreams of "bigger barns", a bigger cut of this world's goods, and the like. To such folk Jesus announced that He had come to "send a fire on the earth." When Christians spread the gospel they spread the gospel of peace, and peace it brings. We know this by repeated, increasingly deep, experience. When Christians spread the gospel they also spread the fire that Jesus lit. The fire is certainly not the fire of the Holy Spirit as some good brethren have taught. The "fire in the earth" is the excited spiritual activity--produced in opposite directions--by the first coming of Christ. Cain and Abel are an example of the same basic thing in the Old Testament, mentioned the New Testament: "and wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." So, First, fiery war is inevitable for Christian people despite our strong desire for true peace. Second, until Jesus died and rose again, the flame was very small--not yet "in the earth" as now. Third, signs of the times should compel us to spiritual urgency, not dawdling lethargy. Nothing is more urgent for people than being reconciled before they reach the great magistrate. Then it will be too late. Then the sinner will "have a baptism to be baptized with." |
