JANUARY 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you… and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

 

JANUARY  29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

    JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you…

and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” 

(Matthew 5:46-47)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, each day is a special day if we start that day with You!

 Lord my prayer as I awake and start planning my day is that I 

“seek first the kingdom of God” and allow  Your Holy Spirit to direct me

 down paths of righteousness and then teach me Your Ways as only 

the Holy Spirit can! Lord, what a privilege to sit under Your Teaching 

and open Your Holy Bible and let Your Holy Spirit guide us through

 Your Holy Word — 

Your Eternal, Matchless, Life-giving Word! 

Lord, I pray now for all parents to see the importance of living their 

day-to-day lives in Christ and the impact and influence that living for Christ

 has in the lives of their children. Parents themselves living for Christ will

 be the greatest step they can take as parents to bring their children

 to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!  

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!!!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS used JQ#01 to get us to thinking about our responsibility

 towards others by using “salt” which must give up its “essence” to be

 flavor to the world, and “salt” is also universally known to contain healing

 properties as well but regardless of its use, it must be applied to the

 circumstance and in each case, the “salt” is consumed. Jesus used “salt” 

to focus our attention not on ourselves but on our responsibility to others!  

As we move from JQ#01 to JQ#02 please remember that “Context is king”.

 JQ#01 context for being “salt” & “light” is Matthew 5:1-16. The context

 for JQ#02 is Matthew 5:18 - 6:24 and Jesus continues His Lesson on looking

 first at ourselves to make sure that we are prepared to take care of others,

 this is what the airlines advise when they tell parents to first put on their

 oxygen mask in order to be able to assist others! It is imperative that we

 read the context around each question and in doing so it becomes obvious

 to even the most casual reader that Jesus is The Master Teacher and as

 such we must understand that when Jesus asks a Question He is not 

looking for knowledge for Himself but His Intent is to impart knowledge 

to the student.  When Jesus asks His Question, He is making a

 common sense statement that if one really wants to learn the 

TRUTH of GOD 

then one must answer honestly within themselves the Questions that are

 asked to see if we are seeking the TRUTH of GOD and are willing to listen

 to the Answer! Jesus never spoke without Teaching, His every breath, 

every step, every moment of silence — every action Jesus made were

 Lessons Jesus uses to Teach us how we are to live our lives by following 

His Perfect Example! Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us for a 

Divine Reason, and He had a Divine Purpose for being born in a manger

 and growing up as “one of us” yet 

He lived His Life without sin! How did He do it? 

Jesus accomplished this Miraculous Feat because He knew 

the Father’s Will for His Life and was Obedient to do that 

which the Father had Taught Him. 

Jesus told this to His disciples just before going into the upper room for His

 final earthly Passover with His disciples,

 

“For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who

 sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should

 speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. 

Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me,

 so I speak.” (John 12:49-50). 

Our study of the Questions that Jesus asked should be studied from 

this specific viewpoint: “Therefore if Jesus asks a Question then He 

is engaging us to dig deeper to learn the TRUTH of GOD because

 He is trying to Teach us what the Father Taught Him, and the result 

of our efforts will be everlasting life!!!”  We should never take anything

 Jesus said lightly because in His own Words, Jesus is speaking only

 the Words that the Father God in Heaven spoke to Him 

and then sent Him to earth to speak God’s Words to us! 

We should be in AWE of these Words spoken by Jesus and exclaim as

 even His enemies did who heard Him: “The officers answered, 

“No man ever spoke like this Man!” (John 7:46).

 Let us then consider the next Lesson/Question: 

JQ#02: “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …

and if you greet your brethren only, 

what do you do more than others?”   (Matthew 5:46-47) 

The context in which Jesus asked JQ#02 is in Matthew 5:43-48

 and we should dig deep because every Word spoken by Jesus

 is a Kingdom Treasure!!!