Perspective
October 16, 2024
Reading the Gospel of Luke early yesterday morning, I hadn’t gotten far — only to verse 15 of his very first chapter — when I became aware of God’s unique perspective. Here the Bible verse is talking about John the Baptist: “…he will be great in the sight of the Lord…” — Luke 1:15. That reminded me of this: “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” — Matthew 3:4. That doesn’t seem such a great life, does it? I mean, that is hardly our picture of an important, great and successful person. We would look down on John as just another homeless bum.
So, what stuck out to me is the vastly different way people look at people as opposed to the way God looks at people.
This also tells us something about the people who flocked to John’s preaching and baptism services, doesn’t it? Weren’t they hungry for what John had to say? It wasn’t for materialistic gains, now, was it? It was about gaining understanding about gaining with God, that is to say, gaining the right perspective and right relationship with God.
Regardless of Society’s opinion and what the measure of a man is, I say that Jesus’ is the only measure that counts, and here it is: “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John…” — Luke 7:24–30, excerpt.
So, again, what stuck out to me is the vastly different way people look at people as opposed to the way God looks at people.
Again, this leads me to another verse I have quoted a few times recently: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” — 1 Corinthians 1:21.
So, there’s that.
Through these several Bible verses, I hope you can see clearly the distinct difference between God’s view as opposed to ours… and how different is that view!
Shouldn’t we then consider changing our views about people, not to mention changing our views of God, Jesus, and the Bible?
Have our materialistic pursuits brought us “..,love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?” — which the apostle Paul wrote about in Galatians 5, or is it more like we’re stuck in stupid, leaning towards the baser human elements Paul wrote about of characteristics like continuous pleasure-seeking, following made up religion, doing drugs, hostility towards others, constant quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, and the like. (These examples are from Galatians 5:19–21).
No matter what we do to suppress those types of unpleasantries, it is hard if not impossible to subdue them completely. They are pesky things that keep trying to control our lives and are quite active. It should become obvious by just looking at the tumultuous world around us. Yet, we all too often seem to fall back on them as our default actions.
Wouldn’t it be better to find a way to get off this not-very-merry-go-round?
Here is the start of God’s solution to this conundrum: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
So there’s that.
So, we can either choose to live a life in continuous tumult, or we can choose to turn to God and Jesus and the Bible for a new life of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” By the way, all this is given as a free gift from God and Jesus to each and every one of us.
All we have to do is accept it, unravel the ribbons, and take out the gift!
Your choice,
Time’s a-wastin.
