JULY 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 

JULY 25  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, may this day which You have blessed me with 

be used for a single purpose — to Glorify God. 

Lord I know that You have been leading me on my Journey to Truth 

for Your Light has illuminated my path and I pray that this day

 will be a day in which Your Love that You have poured into my life 

will be used to be a Light to dispel the darkness in someone else’s life,

 that this day will be a day that I give totally of myself for someone else

 that they will truly see You living in me and that they will start on their

 own journey to find the Peace, the Joy, and the Salvation that 

comes only from knowing Jesus.        

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus, being the Master Teacher and the Perfect Example for us to follow,

 covers all bases and nuances of each Truth of God that He Teaches. 

This Lesson from JQ#22 is about knowing the difference between 

“obeying the commands of God” and “following the doctrines of men”,

 Jesus Teaches us to also be aware of not only “traditions” that 

previous generations have mistakenly fallen into that is contrary to 

God’s Law 

but we should be aware that in this world in which we all live that

 there are certain “desires of men” that have become totally acceptable

 lifestyles for a society — but even though these “desires of men” 

are legal by man’s law they are still in conflict with the

 True Law which is derived from the Commands of God!

 Jesus Teaches in this next section that we sometimes live our lives 

trying to achieve a worldly goal that can actually keep us from entering 

the kingdom of heaven if we adhere to worldly standards that is socially

 acceptable to men, and sadly these worldly standards based on the 

desires of men are even considered “successful” behavior by the 

majority of men. Jesus had just used little children as an example

 and had Taught His disciples,

 “Let the little children come to Me…for such

 is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)

 Matthew then records an encounter Jesus had with a rich young man who

 “had great possessions” approached Jesus “and said to Him, 

Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 

(Matthew 19:16) 

The answer Jesus gave the rich young man who was seeking to

 “do good things” to “[earn] eternal life” is an important “Wake Up!” 

call to everyone that is absorbed with “possessions” and “gaining wealth”!

 Jesus made it very clear that no one can “buy” their way into heaven,

 neither can anyone “work” their way into heaven by doing “good things”.

 The response Jesus gave the rich young man laid out the only path

 to “enter into life” so that there could be no mistake what is required

 by God if someone wished to have eternal life. Jesus laid out 

the Pathway as He spoke to the rich young ruler; 

 “[Jesus] said to [the rich young man], ‘Why do you 

call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 

But if you want to enter into [eternal] life,

 keep [God’s] commandments.’” (Matthew 19:17) 

The rich young man had fallen victim to the “doctrines of men”

 that are still prevalent in our society today as we are taught to believe

 that “success” is measured by our “possessions” and proportional 

to the size of our “bank accounts”. Jesus really burst the rich young 

man’s bubble when He complemented the young man when the 

young man said that he already was following the commandments 

of God but then Jesus said to him, 

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have

 and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven;

 and come follow Me.” (Matthew 19:20-21) 

Wow ! Here the rich young man had to make a choice between

 having his “great possessions" here on earth or having 

“treasure in heaven” !!!

 The rich young man’s response was recorded by Matthew as we read,

 “But when the young man heard that saying, 

he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” 

(Matthew 19:22) 

Jesus had completely exposed the “doctrine of men” that says that 

success lies in possessions and worldly treasures for with 

His answer to the rich young man

 Jesus is Teaching that the only requirement to 

having “treasure in heaven” and “eternal life” 

is to “obey the commands of God and follow Jesus” !!! 

The disciples were “astonished” when they saw a rich young

 man with great possessions who had kept all the commandments turn

 and walk away from Jesus and they asked Jesus,

 “Who then can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25) 

Jesus now had their full attention and

 He drove home to His disciples another 

Truth of God —

 “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, 

‘With [the doctrines of] men this is impossible, 

but with God all things are possible.’” 

(Matthew 19:26) 

It cannot be Taught any better that entry into the kingdom of heaven

 “cannot be bought nor can eternal life be earned by good works” 

——— simply put; success with men is worthless in the sight of God 

— so now each of us is faced with the same deal, are you willing

 to trade all your worldly possessions and the praise of men 

to take up your “cross” and “follow Jesus” 

into the Promised Land and Life Everlasting?!?!?!

JULY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 

JULY 24  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, I have failed You in so many ways but Lord, I turn to You 

and to You alone for Forgiveness of my weakness of mind and my desire

 to satisfy my selfish desires. I know that “wanting” anything but Your purpose

 in my life is wrong. How can I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill me when I hold

 a memory of my old sin-ways locked deep in a special treasure box

 covered with selfishness and hid in the dark recesses of my soul? 

There is nothing I think or do that God cannot see and yet I think I can

 hold back a part of my old sinful self and hide it from God?  NO! 

I yield it ALL to God, and pray not my will but THY Will be done in my life. 

I can make no decisions for myself any longer that is outside the Will of God,

 I can only work to achieve His purpose with whatever condition I find myself in.

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is always directing His Questions to a specific detail of 

God’s Truth 

such as JQ#21 drew our attention to the problem of sin 

which drew our attention to the great extent that God Himself has gone 

to in order to resolve our sin issue and now in JQ#22 Jesus is using

 a parable to summarize another problem that we encounter in living our

 daily lives - that problem being that if we are not fully aware of the issue

 then we will be unwillingly obeying the “doctrines of men” instead of the

 “commandments of God”! 

For example, Jesus begins this section with another encounter with 

the Pharisees who were the religious legalists of His time on earth and 

specifically the subject of divorce. Jesus rebutted the arguments the 

Pharisees were making by going back to God’s original intent 

for marriage by stating the Genesis account of the original creation:

 “So God created man in His own image; 

in the image of God He created him; 

male and female He created them.” 

(Genesis 1:27) 

Jesus continued from the original account in the Holy Scriptures with

 the original intent of God regarding marriage as He referred to this passage:

 “…But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. 

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, 

and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the 

flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from 

man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 

And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;

 she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ 

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother 

and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” 

(Genesis 2:20-24) 

By going back and referring to the account of the original creation of man

 by God from the same Holy Scriptures the Pharisees were trying 

to make their argument from and reminding the Pharisees 

how God Himself instituted the first marriage between the first man 

and the first woman, the Pharisees could not argue against the 

Truth of God 

and God’s own actions and thereby Jesus completely nullified any

 argument the Pharisees tried to make about Moses allowing the 

Israelites to divorce “legally”. It is most important to note that the Pharisees

 were trying to use the argument that because a prophet of God 

from a previous generation had said divorce was “legal” so then 

it should be “legal” for this generation because of “legal precedence” 

established by Moses. “Legal precedence” is the main legalist argument 

of our present generation. However, Jesus reminded them of the 

Truth of God

 that even the prophets of God, even one with the stature of Moses, 

is not above the 

Law of God, 

for Moses, even though he had been chosen by God to lead Israel 

to the “Promised Land”, Moses himself was not allowed into 

the “Promised Land” because Moses had disobeyed God’s instruction 

to “speak to the rock” (Numbers 20:8) and thereby Jesus had nullified

 the Pharisees argument that it was “legal” to divorce their wives 

because Moses, being the representative of God, 

had said divorce was “legal”, 

and Jesus by pointing out that God, not Moses, 

is the final “Judge” and this lesson proved the 

TRUTH OF GOD

that only those things that are “legal” in God’s Judgment

 is the only basis for establishing a Moral Standard

 and declaring that which is truly “legal”.

 Jesus summed up this important 

TRUTH OF GOD 

as Jesus shut down the Pharisee’s argument that Moses said it 

was “OK” to divorce when Jesus concluded with this statement: 

“Therefore what God has joined together, 

let not man separate.” 

(Matthew 19:6b) 

Jesus continues this Lesson on the problem of “following the doctrines of men”

 verses “obeying the commandments of God” by using “children” to show the

 TRUTH OF GOD !  

Jesus confirmed this

 TRUTH OF GOD 

when the disciples were arguing about “who is the greatest in heaven”

 and Jesus set a young child in their midst and said that they 

“must become as little children 

to even enter the kingdom of heaven” 

and here again the disciples were making a human mistake 

of trying to interpret what they mistakenly thought that God would do

 by rebuking those that were bringing their little children to Jesus for healing.

 However, Jesus once again demonstrated that what they “thought” 

was the “proper” behavior for children was not what God intended,

 “Jesus said, Let the little children come to Me, 

and do not forbid them; for such is the kingdom of heaven.” 

(Matthew 19:14) 

Don’t you think if the disciples that were 24/7 listening to Jesus could be wrong

 about living their daily lives and the way they treated others 

that we who only occasionally listen to God could also be mistaken 

about how we interact with those in our daily world? 

If the disciples of Jesus had to be reminded that they must not live according

 to what they “supposed they knew what God had intended” but 

live their daily lives and interact with each other by studying and knowing

 what God has already demonstrated and declared Himself!!! 

Don’t you think we would be wise to re-evaluate our “traditions” 

and to weed out those things that we do that are the “doctrine of men” 

and make sure that we are “following the commands of God”

 in our daily lives?!?!?