Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
In II Corinthians 6:14-7:1, Jesus continues to invite us to a closer and deeper relationship with Him. Against the background of inexplicable and negative relationships (verses 14-16), verses 17-18 considerately command, “ ‘wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,’ saith the Lord, ‘and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters,’ saith the Lord Almighty.” Literally, “be ye separate” means “set boundaries.” We want to interact with all kinds of people in hopes of helping to draw them to Jesus, but we cannot permit these interactions to influence us; we must set definite boundaries. I remember hearing a gifted preacher exhort, “What are we doing running with the turkeys when we should be soaring with the eagles?!” People, even bad people, are not turkeys, of course, but we all understand that preacher’s point: we cannot let non-Christians dictate how we live. Instead of passively permitting pagan people to pervade and permeate our lives, we are to take action to set boundaries and to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (7:1). We have been invited into the family of God (6:18); let us respond to that invitation with seriousness of purpose and hearty rejoicing.