Tuesday August 12th, 2014
Luke 3:14 “Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, ‘what
shall we do?’ So he said to them, ‘do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely,
and be content with your wages.’”
In
this context soldiers are asking John what they should do so they can bear good
fruit. Being a soldier you have to be aggressive, so John is telling them to
not scare someone or jump to conclusions. Which is something that is true of
course, do not jump to conclusions. It’s just like the saying, don’t judge a
book by its cover. Or when someone tells you something about someone else. Not
only is that gossiping in a way, but that is giving someone a perception of
another person before they even got to know them themselves. It’s better to
find out information, before accusing someone or jumping to conclusions, which
as humans we tend to do. Or at least I can speak for myself here.
The
other part of this verse says, “Be content with your wages.” For the soldiers,
they may not get paid as much as they would like, but they need to be happy
with what they get. Like what your parents tell you, you get what you get and
you don’t throw a fit. Philippians 4:11-12 says, “Not that I speak in regard to
need, for I have learned in whatever state I am in, to be content: I know how
to be abased, and I know how to abound.” With whatever God places before me, I
need to be pleased. When I think of this as more general though, wages doesn’t
always mean money. God may have me do something and I may not get something in
return. I shouldn’t expect anything in return in the first place. I need to be
content with where God places me and what God gives me. I need to be doing
things in love and keeping in mind that I’m serving the Lord and that I don’t
need anything in return, as much as my flesh would like something because I am
selfish. The thing that I get in return is that I get to live for eternity with
my Lord in heaven! I get to serve my King (I know this is what I said in my last
IBS, but it’s important), I don’t need or deserve anything in return for that
matter.
Application: To remember that I don’t deserve
anything in return for my services, I will write undeserving on my hand.
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