Tea or coke?
October 19, 2008
Matthew 15:17-20 ALT
(17) "Do you* not yet understand that every [thing] entering into the mouth goes into the stomach and is cast out into a latrine?
(18) "But the [things] coming out from the mouth come out from the heart, and these [things] defile the person.
(19) "For from the heart come out evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies:
(20) these are the [things] defiling the person, but to eat with ritually unwashed hands does not defile the person."
My dad was an interesting character. I have talked about here a few times. He had grown up having been taught that if you you could not sin if you did not have full control of the will. This teaching was introduced into his church to allow for people who were mentally challenged to not have to fully understand the teaching of the church to have salvation. If you are not in your right mind how can you sin?
This teaching however let him off the hook in his sin. See, he drank a lot. And if he sinned when he was drunk then obviously he was not a fault as he did not have full control of his will. It does not matter that he was the one that drank, he was off the hook. Of course I grew up believing that was true as well. Except that I did not drink. So my way of excusing myself was that if you pushed my buttons, and I got mad, then it was not me sinning, I was not in full control of my will.
Jesus shows us that the idea does not wash out for us. We have control over what comes out of us. It does not matter if it is anger or booze, we have the control.
Years ago, when I was a baby Christian, a pastor told me that, 'when you put a tea bag into hot water, you do not get Coca-Cola'. What he was trying to say was tea bags when under pressure produce tea, not something else. When under pressure, like someone getting angry at me, I should produce the fruits of the spirit in me, not anger and then an excuse. If I produce anger, then what was in me in the first place.
Jesus tells us today that what comes out of us, if it is normal or under pressure, is what defines us not only to others, but to Him as well.
When the pressure is on you, what comes out?
Today
Sorry this is so late.
