FEBRUARY 06 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)

 

FEBRUARY 06  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, Thank You Lord for closed doors and for those times when I stand

 and knock on the wrong door until my knuckles bleed and then Your Peace

 fills my soul and I know that I have drifted into the stormy waters on the

 Great Sea of “I-Want”. Lord Jesus, Your Grace is sufficient for me and I beg

 for Your Mercy as I take that deep calm breath and KNOW that 

YOU ARE GOD and that YOU KNOW ALL MY NEEDS and then YOUR PEACE

 will descend upon me! 

Lord, LORD — forgive me, for I let the dark shadows take my attention away

 from the Bright Rays of Hope that break through all my clouds. You, Lord, 

control ALL circumstances and I trust You for the outcome and pray that I grow

 in Your Grace as I face each trial that You allow in my life. There is no

 circumstance greater than Your Love therefore I pray to keep focused on

 Your Solution and not the circumstance itself!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS takes us to the self-realization that we are “salt” and “light” and

 that the purpose God intended for “salt” is to add flavor to other’s lives and

 then we should use our “light to shine” in such a way as to help others 

avoid the dangers lurking in the darkness. Then Jesus shows us that we 

are made in the image of God and that 

the Greatest Gift ever Given mankind was God’s Giving of His Son 

at Great Cost and Sacrifice of Himself for the Good of all mankind

 thereby demonstrating His Great “LOVE” for all His Creation! 

Jesus continues the Lesson on the “giving-of-ourselves” to help others by 

giving us a Standard of Perfection to focus our attention on and then 

Jesus Teaches us to do “charitable deeds” but avoid seeking glory for ourselves  —

 for “charitable deeds”” done for the wrong reason is the sin of “hypocrisy”

 which completely nullifies our “charitable deeds” — all our “deeds” 

should be done with a single motivation which is to “glorify 

our Father in heaven” thereby making all our deeds “charitable”.

God’s Logic in doing things for “His Glory” is that by doing our “good works” 

for Him we avoid the temptation of selfish vain-glory for our own 

petty selves, our selfishness being a convenient basket we have to put 

our “light” under in order that we can puff ourselves up before men! 

Jesus commanded 

“you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”

 (Matthew 5:48) 

then Jesus told us to perform “charitable deeds” but avoid the “hypocrisy”

 of desiring personal glory for “charitable deeds” but instead do

 the “charitable deeds” trusting God for any reward that He chooses 

to bestow on our efforts to achieve perfection. (Matthew 6:1-4) 

Jesus immediately commands us

 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they

 love to pray standing in the synagogue and on the corners of the streets,

 that they may be seen by men.” (Matthew 6:5)

 It should jump out at us that Jesus says that in order to “be perfect” we 

must “do … charitable deeds” but severely warns us “do not do

 your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.”(Matthew 6:1) 

Those doing “charitable deeds” to receive honor from other men, 

Jesus called “hypocrites”!! 

 After doing “charitable deeds…in secret” we are to “pray” but Jesus

 gives the same warning about “praying” that He did about “charitable deeds”

 and that same warning came with the same condemnation for those 

doing their “praying” to gain attention for themselves as again Jesus

 labeled those motivated by “self-glorification” as “hypocrites”! Jesus has

 given us “charitable deeds” and “praying” as the first two steps to “perfection”

 but both steps come with a warning to avoid “hypocrisy”!!! — 2 out of 2 

times is 100% — since Jesus preaches 100% against hypocrisy

 we should realize that “why” we do anything is more important 

than “what” we do! 

Jesus has given us two Lessons on “Helping Others” and in both Lessons

 Jesus has listed in clear detail the “attitude” we should have as we live 

our life in order to show respect for others in order to give Honor to God! 

Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 5:13-14 we are “salt” and “light” and then for 

the rest of chapter 5 Matthew documents Jesus Teaching us to respect 

others to “glorify your Father in heaven”. 

Starting with Matthew 5:17 until Jesus stops and asks us His JQ#02 

in Matthew 5:46-47 we are given “Spiritual Guidelines” to correcting

 ourselves to benefit others as the way we are to honor God as Jesus Teaches

 us to honor the Law, reconcile ourselves before God and then make our

 sacrifices to Him, avoid lust, adultery, and divorce in our private lives. Jesus

 continues with details on our life styles as He addresses our relationship

 with others by discussing perjury and retaliation and then Jesus sums up the Lesson

 on the “giving-of-ourselves” by telling us 

“love your enemies, bless those who curse you,

 do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who 

spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)   

And then to add emphasis to His instructions He says not only does He

 expect us to accomplish all these “selfless deeds of charity” but we should 

strive to do them “perfectly” and that perfection can only be achieved by avoiding “hypocrisy” 

in our journey to “perfection” — it is a TALL SPIRITUAL ORDER  but 

the ONE giving the LESSONS has “BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT” and is giving us

 advice from “Personal Experience” that points us to “Heavenly Resources”

 to help us attain our “Heavenly Goals” — 

the Truth of God is that He WILL PROVIDE for ALL OUR NEEDS 

so if you realize your NEED to “journey to perfection” then you can 

TRUST (that) GOD WILL PROVIDE the WAY 

and LIGHT YOUR PATH!!!