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" Abiding
in the Word"
"If you abide in My word,
You are My disciples Indeed..."
- John 8:31
"What You Don't Know WILL Hurt You"
“And
the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his
master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of
food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so
doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler
over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master
is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female
servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the
master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for
him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and
appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew
his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his
will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet
committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For
everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to
whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more,” (Luke
12:42-48).
Regardless of how
we try to reason it some other way, the truth stands. All human beings
are answerable to God. We are responsible and accountable to Him not
only for what we have said and done, but for these things in light of
what HE has said and done.
In the preceding text, Jesus assures us that NOT
knowing the Lord’s will did not excuse the person who did things “worthy
of stripes.” His punishment will be proportionately less than those who
DID know but refused to do. However, he will nonetheless be punished
with “stripes.” Whatever the Lord means in this metaphor, any punishment
from the Lord is something we should seek to avoid at all cost.
In Ephesians 5:17, the
Bible says, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of
the Lord is.” This statement is both a command, and an assumption that
we are ABLE to understand what the will of the Lord is. Therefore, if we
fail to comply with the command, it cannot be because we are incapable
of understanding and doing the Lord’s will.
Further, in James 1:21-25, we read, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness
and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted
word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and
not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his
natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and
immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the
perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful
hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he
does.” Knowing the Lord’s will is good. Doing it is the highest
application of knowing it.
On
the Day of Judgment, we will evidently be judged regarding what we have
been told to do by God, and how well we have attempted to do it (2
Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:12; Romans 14:12; Matthew 25:14-30).
There is no substitute, therefore, for knowing and attempting as best we
can to do the Lord’s will.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and
done many wonders in Your name?’ And
then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!”
(Matthew 7:21-23). Substituting our will
for God’s in the things we do will not gain us acceptance before the
Lord. Striking the rock a second time failed to gain Moses entrance into
Canaan.
God had specifically told him to do something else (Numbers 20:8-12).
Offering a “different” fire on the altar to God was a profane gesture by
Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-ff). God not only took their lives for
this, but forbade their family from grieving over them (Leviticus
10:1-7).
What we
don’t know CAN hurt us. This is undeniably so in the fact that, what
we DON’T know CAN’T SAVE US. It is only when we know the Lord’s will
and do it, that God will freely give us the eternal life that He has
promised and purchased through the blood of Jesus. Knowing and doing the
will of the Lord can also help keep us from falling once we have obeyed
from the heart the saving Gospel (2 Peter 1:10).
David Decker
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