Today’s readings:
Romans 14:7-12
Psalm 27:1,4,13-14
Luke 15:1-10
God wants no one to be lost. Who are those who are lost? The sinners. Thus Jesus reached out to sinners. This was his very mission. “But the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” (Lk 15:2). The Pharisees were self-righteous. They did not want to relate to so-called sinners, but they were themselves sinners and blind hypocrites. They are wrong.
Today, there are those on the opposite end of the spectrum. These are the modernists. Like Jesus, they welcome sinners and eat with them. They accept, accompany and embrace sinners. This is right and good. This is the way to reach them. But modernists stop there. They do not try to help get sinners out of their sin. They too are wrong.
What is the right way? It is the way of Jesus. It is reaching the sinner and bringing him out of his sin. Thus Jesus searches for the lost sheep and brings it back to the sheepfold. He rejoices and heaven rejoices. Over what? Just finding the sheep? No. The joy is for the “sinner who repents” (Lk 15:7).
The focus of modernists is the well-being of man, and in looking to this, sacrifices the righteousness of God. But is the ultimate good our material, physical and emotional well-being? Is it acceptance by man? No. It is our spiritual well-being. It is acceptance by God. We look not to self but to God, who in turn is the one who looks to us. “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Rom 14:7-8). With modernist thought and values, sinners are unrepentant and so die in their sin, and thus are separated from God.
We are pilgrims on earth, on our way to heaven. Our desire should not be to just be happy here on earth, but to look to what is beyond. “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple.” (Ps 27:4).
Modernists, who present a false gospel and false mercy, will keep us away from God and our eternal home.
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