Be Aware
It’s been a tough week looking at Jesus’ words of warning in Luke 12, and it’s not going to get easier today, because listen to Jesus’ words again:
“But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.” (Luke 12:45–48 NIV11)
There are many people who reject this type of teaching. They talk about the love of God being so big that it can’t possibly exclude anybody, and so they write these words of Jesus off completely and focus on the gentle stuff only.
Confronting Jesus' Tough Teachings: Understanding Judgment and Faith
I was one of those, soon after I left school. I would read this and say “ridiculous! This was the early church trying to scare people, not Jesus – HE was all about love.” I was making a false god!
But the more I read the Gospels, the more I see Jesus being tough. And the more I see Jesus clearly talking about punishment for those who reject him.
I don’t believe that Jesus said these things with glee. I don’t believe He looked forward to punishing anybody. We know that each human being is created by God, and each human being has the breath of life in them from God alone. He longs for all to be saved and reconciled to Him. He doesn’t take any pleasure in the punishment of the wicked – He desires their salvation.
But God won’t override human free will. And the consequence of this is that many will reject him, and so will be punished because of the evil in their lives which has separated them from God.
But before we start pointing fingers at others, consider Jesus’ words today, because he was talking at first about one who was waiting for the master to return. A Christian, in other words, waiting for Jesus’ return, but losing faith and acting out in evil, will be beaten with many blows, cut into pieces and assigned a place in hell. Frightening.
Balancing Love and Warning: Embracing Jesus' Loving Caution
And friends, fear is not usually a good motivator to get people into the kingdom of God. Love is the supreme motivator, and so we should always be loving people into God’s arms, not scaring them.
But sometimes the most loving thing you can do for someone is to scare them a bit. The famous example of this is if somebody is driving towards a bridge that has collapsed but doesn’t know it, it would not be loving to tell them to just keep going. It would be loving to warn them and scare them and say “stop! Or else you’re going to drive right over the edge and crash!”
Perhaps Jesus here was giving such a warning. A loving warning, saying “be ready, because I don’t want to see you get cut into pieces!”
It’s a hard teaching but if Jesus said it, we can’t ignore it. Can we take his words to heart today, and get ourselves for when he comes?
It will be good when he comes, if we are ready. Let’s take his warning to heart.
