JULY 30 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 

JULY 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do 

what I wish with my own things?” 

(Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, again I find myself adrift in the world, 

having taken my eyes off the

 prize of the high calling of God 

and without Your Mercy and Grace 

putting wind to my sail, I find myself dead-in-the-water. 

Lord forgive me of even the slightest turning to the right or to the left

 for all paths back to self must go through shadows and darkness. 

Lord only You are the Eternal Shining Light 

that will lead us beside the still waters 

where our souls are daily refreshed in Your green pastures 

and most importantly we can hear Your voice 

and know that the paths

 that You lead us down are paths of righteousness. 

Lord, You alone have the words of Eternal Life 

and You alone have the Power to Save,

 and You and only You can Wash us Clean with Your Precious Blood

 so that at times when we know 

we have fallen short of Your Glory again 

that You are there and will again reach down and pull us 

back into the fold and create in us a clean heart!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus summed up His Lesson on our proclivity 

of following the doctrines of men instead of staying steadfast

 and faithful in obeying the commandments of God 

with the final statements in His parable of the landowner 

that Jesus Taught His disciples. 

Jesus had begun the Lesson as He addressed the subject of divorce

 and pointed out that man has a doctrine that supports divorce but 

Jesus reminded us that man’s doctrines are not God’s doctrines. 

The doctrine of men caters to the desires of men and what men 

think is “best” for themselves and 

because of their selfishness they write

 the “laws of men” and declare them “legal” 

and impose those manmade laws on other men! 

Jesus showed the Pharisees the error of the 

doctrines of men by reminding them that 

God created both male and female and that 

God Himself gave the woman to the man as his wife

 and joined them into “one flesh” through the 

Spiritual Union of Holy Matrimony. 

Jesus then stated that the reality of marriage 

is that it is in the eyes of God

 that when a man and woman enter together into 

Holy Matrimony 

that 

“they are no longer two but one flesh. 

Therefore what God has joined together, 

let not man separate.”

 (Matthew 19:4-6) 

The Pharisees quickly shot back using Moses as their champion for 

the doctrines of men and the “legality” of divorce but Jesus 

shut them down by exposing that the basis of their “law of divorce”

 was based on the

 “hardness of [their] hearts” 

(Matthew 19:8) 

because they did not want to obey the

 

“Intent and Command of God” 

thereby showing them that the doctrines of men
 carry no weight in the

 Final Judgement!  

Jesus concludes the Lesson with the parable of the landowner 

by illustrating that it is the landowner that owns the land,

 it is the landowner that both seeks and hires the laborers,

 it is the landowner that decides what work needs to be done, 

and it is the landowner that establishes the terms of the 

landowner/laborer relationship! 

Of most importance though, it is the landowner alone 

that has the supreme authority to declare what is

 “lawful” for the landowner to do with his own land 

when the 

[landowner asks]: “Is it not lawful for me to do 

what I wish with my own things?” 

(Matthew 20:15) 

Since Jesus had started the parable of the landowner stating

 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner 

who went out…” 

(Matthew 20:1)

 then 

the only conclusion we can make 

is that the “land” is God’s Creation 

and that God Himself is the “owner” 

of everything He Created. 

The biggest problem in our modern-day society

 is that man is still trying to write laws 

based on the desires of men instead of the moral reality

 that this is still God’s world 

and since God is Eternal 

then we are eternally bound to the reality

 that God has created the world,

 God has promised Good Things for our life 

that He has planned for us and

 “whatever is right [He] will give [us]” 

(Matthew 20:4) 

but we must “obey” His commands 

and live by the Moral Standards

 God Himself has established to give us a hope and a future! 

Jesus concludes with this final statement 

that is so applicable to our world today 

and all the Godless laws that man has passed to satisfy

 man’s desire for self gratification: 

“Or is your eye evil because [God is so] good?

 So the last [to enter into God’s labors] will be first,

 and the first, last. 

For many are called, but few are chosen.” 

(Matthew 20:16) 

The final question on this Lesson could be: 

“Could God be calling you but you cannot hear God 

because we no longer know His Still Small Voice 

because we have been listening to the shouting

 of men and their endless screams

 of what their doctrines try to establish as “lawful”?!?!? 

The problem is that God will only choose those 

who volunteer to obey His commands ——— 

It is your choice: 

(Choice 1) 

You may choose the doctrines of men and self gratification

 and be forever separated from God or 

(Choice 2) 

you may choose obedience to God and trust Him

 to give you “whatever is right and necessary” 

and enter into the “kingdom of heaven” 

and have eternal fellowship with the Good Shepherd?   

JULY 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 

JULY 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do 

what I wish with my own things?” 

(Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, O the Glory of Your perfect Love shown by Your Sacrifice

 of Self, and Obedience to the Father’s Will. You created the earth 

and then You left Your Glory in heaven to be born of a virgin to 

experience an earthly life which You created! Truly You are God, for 

no graven images nor carved idols has ever dwelt among their 

subjects and took the form of their created as the lowest and most

 humble, but Jesus, we can’t be too young or too old or too poor or 

too weak to receive Your Grace ——— 

You paid it ALL, You lived it ALL, You covered it ALL ——— 

ALL to You I owe!!! Lead and direct me hour by hour.   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus used this section of scripture to bring our attention to the fact that

 God in His Sovereignty has the Right to do

 whatever God desires with His Creation 

(Indeed, is it not lawful for the Law Giver 

to do whatever He wishes 

with His creation?!?!?!?!)! 

There are those that fail to see that this is a very good thing

 for all of creation for God is Merciful and Compassionate! 

When men get involved with controlling other men 

there is always a problem! 

Because God can create with “infinite” limits, 

God is never selfish 

— but men cannot create so they try to use whatever advantage

 they have to take a larger share of what they see as “finite” resources 

— God being Sovereign and unlimited in His Power needs not 

to take from others to gain any advantage, what greater 

advantage can there be than being the

 One True Creator God? 

There is much wisdom in what Jesus Teaches us about God

 through this section on God’s Sovereign Right to do 

whatever He pleases with His Creation, 

especially in this parable of the landowner. 

The Truth of God is that God is Fair, Just, Compassionate,

 and that God desires to have a personal relationship with everyone!

 For those that will receive Him,

 He gives and gives and gives some more!!

 When we read phrases like 

(P1) “[we] shall receive a hundredfold” 

(which is a large return on any investment), 

(P2) “inherit eternal life” 

(eternal life is the best life available at any cost), 

(P3) “and about the eleventh hour he went out and found others” 

we see an attribute of the Creator God that demonstrates that God

 is seeking to do good to His Creation and He will continue to do so

 until the very last soul is added to His Kingdom 

— but the phrase that is most revealing in my opinion is

 “whatever is right I will give you” 

(Matthew 20:1-6) 

which is the best wage anyone could possibly hope for. 

God makes it simple to please Him as demonstrated by the fact that He declares

 “Let the little children come to Me…

for such is the kingdom of heaven” 

(Matthew 19:14) 

and for entry into heaven we do not need to accumulate earthly wealth

 but instead God makes it easy for us as He tells us to

 “sell what you have and give to the poor, 

and you will have treasures in heaven” 

and then God commands us simply

 “…come follow Me” 

(Matthew 19:21) !!!

 When I stop and think about all the demands that earthly men 

in positions of power have placed on our society 

and the despair caused by greed, 

then I get a glimpse of their lostness and we can then understand

 why men use phrases like 

“it’s a dog-eat-dog world” and “only the strong survive” 

and why in every society and generation since the beginning of 

man’s dominance over other men that there has always 

been “death and taxes” and why Jesus Taught 

“Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s 

and render unto God that which is God’s” 

(Matthew 22:21).

 There are more laws passed by men usurping the Power of God 

than can be counted and the laws of the politically motivated men

 in an attempt to attain worldly power are supposedly written for

 society’s “safety” but the truth of these “power mongers” intent

 is revealed not in the law itself but in the “enforcement” of the law. 

When one man “lords” his power over another, 

the resulting circumstance, it is sad to say, 

always ends up to the advantage of the strong and powerful 

who are cursed with the greed for “more power” which in turn

 gives rise to the old adage

 “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”!!! 

God always uses His Strength to uphold the weak, 

and God gives believers an abundant life here on earth 

and JESUS promises that if we trust Him that we will 

“pass from death into everlasting life” 

(John 5:24) 

furthermore, God does not require any payment or taxes,

 just “faith” in His promise that 

“whatever is right [God] will give us” !!! 

(Matthew 20:4) 

It is to our advantage to become as 

“little children” in our lives and

 “trust” that indeed it is “lawful”

 for God to do 

whatever He desires

 with His own Creation!!!