JANUARY 31 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  31  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, there is a “Peace” as I start my morning and write the Name “JESUS”!

 Lord I thank You for asking me two simple questions when I started my Journey

 to You — (1) “What is TRUTH?” and (2) “Who do you say I am?”. 

Just two simple questions that when I truly answer them I know that 

God’s WORD is TRUTH

 and that 

YOU ARE THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!  

These “honest” answers have been a Guiding Light 

Your word is a lamp

 for my feet, a light on my path. 

(Psalm 119:105) 

and a Shelter in the Time of Storm. 

Lord, I do believe that You are the Son of God, the Savior, the Christ 

and I have supreme confidence that the Power that has been given

 by the Father to the Son is the same Power that surrounds

 even the spoken Name of Jesus! 

Lord Jesus, I feel Your Mercy and Grace when I speak or write the Name of Jesus

 and I praise You that You so freely bestow Your Grace on

 “whosoever” calls upon the Name of the Lord! 

JESUS, JESUS, JESUS.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS with His JQ#01 got us to thinking about how we treat others and

 how to use those “natural” abilities God endowed us with to better mankind 

and the JQ#01 Lesson was that we should give of ourselves “physically”

 since we “are salt” and to give of ourselves “spiritually” because we 

“are light”. We are to do these things because we are made in the image

 of God and Lesson #1 foreshadows Jesus “giving” Himself “physically”

 on the cross for the atonement of our sins and that He lived His Life 

“Spiritually” as “the LIGHT of the world”. 

Now with JQ#02 we hear an echo of, 

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; 

but the greatest of these is love.” 

(1 Corinthians 13:13) 

as Jesus draws our attention to the 

Truth of Love — 

Love is not what you get from others, 

“True Love is measured by how much you GIVE AWAY”!! 

Jesus is telling us simply to live our lives from the inside out 

and the more you give away, the more you will have! 

We certainly tend to measure the

 amount of “love” in our life by listing the number of people that “love us” 

but Jesus is saying your “reward” will be given to you because of 

“the number of people you have loved”!!! 

I know this is TRUE because the Greatest Love known to mankind came

 from God which He bestowed on an undeserving world —

 “For God so loved the world 

that He gave His only begotten Son

 that whoever believes on Him shall not perish 

but have everlasting life.” 

(John 3:16) 

I would say that God set a pretty good “example” in “loving the undeserving”

 and Jesus showed He “loved” the Father by obeying the commands

 of the Father, even to the “giving of Himself for the sins of the world” — 

So the Greatest Examples of “LOVE” come from those that GAVE LOVE —

 and we should appreciate the fact that it was “LOVE” that motivated 

God’s decision to Sacrifice His Only Begotten Son for “undeserving sinners”

 and we should try to learn Lesson #2 from JQ#02 that Jesus 

is trying to Teach us about “love”. 

We are not “Holy” because others “love” us with worldly “love” — 

we become “Holy” when we “Love” others with a “Godly Love”,

 and we are to give God’s Love to those God Gave His Love to —

 the unloveable and the undeserving; 

then and only then will we know real “LOVE”!!! 

To introduce JQ#02 the Holy Spirit brought to my mind Romans 8:37 

where Paul had declared one of the Gospel’s main TRUTHS that Christians 

are “more than conquerors” when we “Love” as God Loves and we

 trust “all things” to Jesus Christ who demonstrated the Great Love of God

 by being Obedient to the Father’s command in “all things” as He suffered

 the Cross for our unloveable-sakes. Paul also reminded Christians that this

 “Victory” over “all things” including the powers of this world comes 

only through Jesus Christ and we should also understand that Jesus was

 motivated by the “Love of God”. How can we claim to have any “Victory”

 in our lives apart from God? 

God has established the “Right Way” (following God) and the “Wrong Way”

 (disobeying and denying God) and they are as constant and unchanging

 as God Himself. We see that as man “progresses” through time that the 

only constant of man is that each generation and even the greatest of men

 in each generation all “fall short of the Glory of God” 

and that God and His Laws are as Eternal and Unchanging as the rising

 and the setting of the sun that God has placed in His Universe to remind us

 daily that we are just a small planet in the midst of more stars than even

 our greatest scientists can count! 

Surely with all our intelligence it should be simple for man to see that the 

best efforts of all our most brilliant minds put together cannot unravel even

 the smallest detail of God’s Infinite Unchanging Glory. Yet we are arrogant

 enough to want to declare God as irrelevant and we insist on going it alone?

 Why our selfishness drives us to such self-inflicted agony cannot be

 explained aside from the reality of our world that we all “want” all “things”

 to be all “ours” and we ignore God and His TRUTH, who from the 

very beginning established all the Laws of the Physical Universe. God also 

established all the Spiritual Laws of the Universe as well! 

It can be observed by mankind that the Spiritual Realm does exist. We seem

 to ignore the fact that the Spiritual Realm has a greater effect on the

 Physical Realm than vice versa. It is a part of observational science to 

conclude that unhappy, dissatisfied, and angry people cause more harm

 to themselves and others around them than do happy, content, and loving

 people. All these “motivators” are “spiritual” emotions and even our courts

 express the consequence of expressing ourselves physically

 relative to our spiritual states.  Realize that God is the Creator of all things

 and that there are Spiritual Laws and Physical Laws that are undeniably

 interwoven into the fabric of Life by the Creator. There is a reason God

 continuously commands us “to love” and “not to fear”. Think on your “emotions” 

as you try to answer 

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) 

and God will guide you in your thinking about “loving others” and I’m betting

 you’re going to find that 

the more you give away the more you have

 and you are simply going to “love” it! 

After all — everlasting life 

is a pretty good “reward”!!!

JANUARY 30 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  30  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, the Eternal Unchanging God of my Salvation. Lord I praise You

 for Your Faithfulness and Unfailing Grace You extend to all who call upon 

Your Name, Jesus. Lord, I pray today the same prayer I prayed in 2004: 

“Jesus, praise Your Holy Precious Name for You 

are Worthy of our praise. All glory we give to Thee and to Thee alone. 

Lord may we do nothing in our lives that is not a praise to You 

and may all that we do bring Honor to Your Death on the Cross, 

that man may know that the Father God loved mankind enough that

 He would provide Salvation to a sinful world through the 

DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION

 of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, 

who for our sakes suffered greatly for our sins. 

He was Innocent before the Father, yet as He bore our sins on the cross,

 He also had to suffer the rejection of a Holy Father who cannot look on sin —

 all this suffering of the Innocent so that the guilty world can live 

the Victorious Forgiven-life through the Victor Himself, Jesus Christ!”     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS used JQ#01 to remind us that it is not about what we can take 

from the world but what we give to the world that gives us worth by 

stating very plainly that we “are salt” and that we “are light” and we

 must stop and think about the Truth of God contained in “salt” and “light” 

from God’s Viewpoint in order to grasp the Lesson Jesus Teaches and why

 He would start His 33 JESUS Questions by using “salt” and “light” and

 to State a Truth of God about who we “are” in God’s Plan — 

“You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world…” 

(Matthew 5:13a & 5:14a) 

Jesus does not command us to become “salt” and “light” but Jesus

 makes His Divine Point by first stating that we

 “are salt” and we “are light”

and then Jesus asks the Question JQ#01

 “…but if salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?”

 (Matthew 5:13b)

 Jesus immediately gives us the Answer in the form of “Consequences” 

as He says, {about tasteless salt} 

“…it is good for nothing but to be thrown out 

and trampled underfoot by men” 

(Matthew 5:13c) 

and {about light} 

“A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

 Nor do they light a lamp

 and put it under a basket…” 

(Matthew 5:14, 15a). 

Jesus sums up the Truth of God using common logic but we must first

 focus on what is TRUE or we will miss the TRUTH of God. Jesus

 illustrates this by JQ#01 and lays out the “FORMAT for HIS TEACHING” —

 (T1) 

We are to look for the OBVIOUS TRUTH that the

 Question will focus us on then 

(T2) 

Jesus will give us the Answer if we will Listen. 

(T3) 

Jesus uses God’s Law of Choice and Consequence to

 make His Divine Point. 

God’s Law of Choice and Consequence 

can be found throughout the Holy Bible and its importance

 is verified by the OBVIOUS TRUTH that it was applied 

to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. 

To emphasize His Divine Point, 

God spoke everything but mankind into existence!

 However, after God had created everything else we read in Genesis that

 God made man with His own Hands 

and God used His own Breath

 to breathe life into man and then God again used His own Hands to remove

 a rib from Adam’s side which God used to make Eve, the woman which

 God presented to man to be a helpmate! God then “planted a garden” 

 and placed the man into the Garden of Eden to 

“tend {work} and to keep it {treasure it}” (Genesis 2:7-15) 

and as God places Adam in the Garden of Eden, 

He established the

 

Divine Law of Choice and Consequence

 

“And the LORD God commanded the man saying, 

{TRUTH — GOD PROVIDES} 

‘Of every tree of the garden

 you may freely eat; 

{The LAW} 

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 

you shall not eat, 

{of CHOICE} 

for in the day you eat of it, 

{and CONSEQUENCE} 

you shall surely die.’” 

(Genesis 2:16-17) 

The LORD God established with the 1st Law of Choice and Consequence 

that the “penalty for disobeying God {sin} is death” but the reward

 for obeying God is “eternal life”. 

God gave us a “CHOICE” in the form of FREEWILL and therefore we

 are under obligation to look at God’s Holy Word for the 

TRUTH OF GOD 

to guide us in making “Choices” but we should keep in mind

 that the “Rewards” and “Penalties” have already been laid out before

 the foundations of the world and 

God applies them fairly and equally to all mankind! 

Therefore with that TRUTH of GOD in mind, let us apply that to JQ#01 —

 Truth: 

God made us and expects us in our “natural” state to be “salt and light”.

 “Law”:

 Salt and Light are used to add taste to those that use salt which

 must be consumed to get the salt flavor out of it and

 Light makes things visible to those who use the light to find their way.

 Rewards for a Good “Choice”: 

Using salt adds flavor to our lives 

and being in the light, we can see to find our way. 

Consequence (penalty) of a Bad “Choice”: 

without salt, life is bland and 

tasteless and without light we will stumble and fall and get off the path

 and lose our way in life. 

These “Truths” are common to man and when common logic is applied

 to each situation it will reveal these “Truths” — 

but once we see the Truth, then we are faced with a “Choice” 

and our responsibility to God is to use our God-given intellect 

to use His Word to make good “Choices”! 

If we stop and think, we can see the rewards and penalties but we must look

 through “Spiritual” eyes because our worldly eyes are tied to the 

“physical” world which contains the same

 3 “TEMPTATIONS” Jesus faced 

after His baptism by John in the Jordan that is

 COMMON to ALL MEN: 

 >>1<<“lust of the flesh, 

>>2<<the lust of the eyes, and 

>>3<< the boastful pride of life” 

(1 John 2:16) 

— the 3 Worldly Temptations that are common to all mankind!

 JQ#01 teaches us about God, Jesus, ourselves, and about our attitude

 toward others, and keep in mind that this is JQ#01 and God thought it

 important enough to make it the first Question/Lesson! 

So it will behoove us to consider that “salt” and “light”

 are worthless unless they are used to help others — 

my observation is that “salt” is a natural 

occurrence and can be considered of being “physical” but “light” is still

 an unknown quantity and one of the mysteries of God and in my opinion

 falls into the “spiritual realm” because the first “Words” that God spoke

 came when God looked at the world and saw darkness and chaos,

 “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” 

Genesis 1:3. 

God’s Holy Word is given to all mankind 

to give us understanding and God has 

demonstrated that He Will Provide for ALL our NEEDS — 

the TRUTH OF GOD is the WORD OF GOD 

and since we are made in God’s image, He declares our likeness to Him

 when He states His Truth that we 

“ARE SALT” (physical) and we “ARE LIGHT” (spiritual)!!!

 With the Lessons of JQ#01 fresh in our mind, let us then look at 

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) 

and consider both the Lesson Truth of JQ#01 

and this general truth statement about God 

(that is “TRUE” because of His Great Love for us), 

and it goes like this:

 “There is nothing that we can do to deserve the Love of God 

but the Good News is that God’s love is not dependent on 

who we are or what we do. 

God Loves us because He chooses within Himself to Love us 

and His Love is totally dependent on who God IS, therefore,

 there is nothing we can do to lose His Love!” 

This idea of God choosing to love us in spite of our sins

 because of 

who He IS 

could possibly be (in my opinion) 

the Root Cause of Grace itself 

and makes a really good place to start looking at JQ#02 — 

(Context: Matthew 5:18 - 6:24) and the Question(s) 

contained in Matthew 5:45,46, & 47. 

For JQ#02 we will look at the context of the Questions and also consider

 “In all these things we are more than conquerors 

through Him who loved us.” 

(Romans 8:37) 

and the fact that we cannot be separated from the love of God! 

Then we should also consider why Jesus concludes JQ#02 

(4 questions asking the same thing, I think) with this command:

 “Therefore you shall be perfect, 

just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  

(Matthew 5:48).

 If you have as much trouble being “perfect” as I do

 then JQ#02 is a great Lesson 

from the Master Teacher to help us improve!!!