There is an important truth that we all need to understand, and that is the fact that we can not earn salvation by doing good works.. Being a good servant of Jesus is not what saves us, instead the works we perform validates our faith in Him. The works we do bear witness to the fact that we have spent time with Jesus and understand who He is and what He requires of us as His children. The works we do validates our faith, showing we are genuine and because we are shown to be faithful to the end, we are welcomed to enter the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul wrote this in his letter to the Ephesians in Chapter 2, verses 8-10;
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that NOT OF
YOURSELVES; it is the GIFT OF GOD, not of works, lest anyone can boast."
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God has before ordained that we should walk in them"
Once we are created anew into Christ Jesus, then He can use us as vessels, through whom He can work in, as we walk according to where He leads us. The apostle Paul wrote this to the Colossians in his 1st Chapter, verse 10;
"Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all aspects, bearing
fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."
The works that a good servant of Jesus performs is not to earn anything, but to give evidence to the fact that as believer (Saint) you desire to spend time with Jesus, to get to know Him better and to yield to Jesus' desire in what He wants to do through you. If you know Jesus, you will naturally bear fruit.
As far as works, there is only one work that is required of man. Jesus says what that is, as recorded by the apostle John in his gospel, Chapter 6, verse 28-29;
"Then they said to Him, 'What shall we do, that we may work the works of
God?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the WORK of God, that you
BELIEVE IN HIM WHO HE HAS SENT.'"
Not much labor required there. That is as easy as it is. Any other requirement put on someone, telling them that there are other things they to do to earn eternal life, is just religion. Believing in Jesus and what He did on the cross, to give us the FREE GIFT of eternal life, is the only work that is required of us. The apostle Paul wrote this in his letter to the Romans, in the 10th Chapter, verses 9-10;
"that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart
one BELIEVES unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation."
When you do that, all your work requirements are fulfilled. You have now become a New Creation with the capability of being a good servant of Jesus. All you have to do now is to let Him live through you. Jesus will equip you with all you need to bear the fruits of good works. These will be works that will give glory to Him and validate your belief and faith in Him.
The apostle Paul gave an example of what you can do to be a good servant of Jesus, when he wrote this in his 1st letter to Timothy, in Chapter 4, verses 1-6;
"But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from
the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by
means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding
iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which
God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the
truth. For EVERYTHING created by God is GOOD, and NOTHING is to be
rejected, IF IT IS RECIEVED WITH GRATITUDE; for it is sanctified by
means of the word of God and prayer (Giving Thanks). In pointing out these
things to the brethren, you will be a GOOD SERVANT of Christ Jesus,
constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of SOUND DOCTRINE
which you have been following."
So we can be good servants by helping to keep one another free from the teachings of deceitful spirits who try to put us back into bondage with doctrines of demons. "He who the Son sets FREE is FREE indeed." Stay free. Learn the word, keep the word, live the word and share the word. In sharing the word, there is nothing that you could share that would not be freeing. The word is easy and joyful, while religion puts burdens on people that can cause them to turn from the faith. Religion, in most cases, will lead to shutting off people from the kingdom of God, with burdensome do's and don'ts, and unrequired requirements. "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free".
We can't go without learning what Jesus says is required for us to be considered a faithful servant. Jesus best illustrates this in Matthews gospel, Chapter 25, verses 31-46;
"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,
then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered
together before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on
His right, and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His
right, 'Come, you are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me
something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was
a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and
you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will
answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed you, or
thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger,
and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?' And the King will answer and
say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these
Brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' Then He will say
to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which
has been prepared for THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS;
It is very important to stop here and notice that the eternal fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. It was never intended for human beings and the souls of man. Jesus creates eternal things, because He is the Eternal Living God. Every human being was born into this world with a eternal soul. That soul can not be destroyed. Until a person accepts Jesus into their hearts, their souls, though eternal, are in darkness without eternal LIFE.
The eternal fire was never intended for the souls of men. Unfortunately, there will be those who will never receive, "the love of the truth as to be saved". There will be those who will just refuse to receive the eternal life that is free to them in Jesus. They will choose their destiny. So sad.
Jesus continues;
"for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you
gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in;
naked, and you did not clothed Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not
visit Me.' Then they themselves will also answer, 'Lord, when did we see
You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did
not take care of You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you,
to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do
it to Me.' But these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life."
I wrote in a prior blog (Part 2) about the two commands that Jesus gave us. The second one was to "love your neighbors as you love yourselves". I wrote of the parable of the Good Samaritan, who proved himself to be a neighbor to the stranger. The Samaritan man was the only one of the three men that came upon the stranger, hurt and in need, that went out of his way to care for the stranger. When we serve and meet the needs of someone with a need, notice who we are serving, it is Jesus we serve. If we really want to serve Jesus, we must be willing to go out of our way to help the needs of others.
My last blog on prayer was very important as to the power of prayer and what we can accomplish with prayer, but when it comes to taking care of the pressing needs of others, we can not just pray for them and really believe that we did the servant thing. I have seen this done too much in my walk as a believer. The half brother of Jesus, James, wrote about this in his epistle, Chapter 2, verses 14-19;
"What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works?
Can that faith save you? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need
of daily food, and one of you say to them, 'Go in peace , be warmed and be
filled', and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what
use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But
someone may well say, 'You have faith, and I have works; show me your
faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.'
James was saying that the works that we do give validation to our faith and what we believe. This is what I explained above. The works we do and how we respond to the needs of others is what shows the reality of our faith. It shows that we did receive Jesus into our hearts and that He is working through us. These type of works in no way earn us salvation, they only give witness to it.
Jesus explained this in a different perspective, when He said this in Matthews gospel, Chapter 7, verses 19-23;
"Every tree that does not bears good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says,
'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me on that
day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in you name cast out
demons, and in you name perform many miracles?' and then I will declare
to them, 'I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'"
Prophesying, casting out demons, and miracles, Are those bad things? Absolutely not. I wish that there were more of these things taking place. They performed them in Jesus name. That is a good thing. So what is so wrong with that, that Jesus would tell them, "depart from Me"? Did not Jesus Himself tell His disciples this, as written in Mark's gospel, Chapter 16, verse 15-18;
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who
believes and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved
shall be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who have
believed; in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new
tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink and deadly poison,
it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover."
It pretty much sounds like what these people were doing. Why does Jesus say, "I never knew you"? When Jesus said, "You who practice lawlessness", what lawlessness was He referring to? First we have to understand that we are just dust. Apart from Jesus, we have no life. Apart from what Jesus did on the cross, we have no eternal life. Apart from Jesus putting His power in us, when we receive Him, we have no power. No person can prophesy, cast out demons, and perform miracles, apart from Jesus or the name of Jesus. It is only Jesus in us, working trough us, that allows us the honor and power to be able to do those things. Only when we summon Jesus to do those things, though us, can these things happen. It is not us who does it, but His Spirit in us, and to Jesus be all the glory.
Jesus name is powerful. These people who He never knew, were using that powerful name and power was coming from the name of Jesus to cast out demons and perform miracles. It is no credit to them or evidence of their own personal faith in Jesus. Doing those things alone, does not validate a persons faith.
Jesus told us what that lawlessness was. They did not bear fruit. I am going to write a blog in this series on the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of salvation must not have been evident in these people's lives. The lawlessness was the breaking of one of the 2 commands that Jesus gave us. That command was to "love your neighbor as yourself". For these people it must have been all about the show of the power, but that power was not of them. When Jesus was hungry, they never fed Him. When He was thirsty, they never gave Him something to drink. When He was naked, they didn't give Him something to wear. When he was sick or in prison, they did not visit Him. They ignored the least and those who were in need. They never did anything to bear witness to the faith that comes with knowing and loving Jesus.
Each one of us is responsible for making sure that we are doing our part to serve Jesus by serving others. No one will have the excuse that they thought that their church was doing those things in their giving. With sorrow in my heart, I can tell you most churches probably don't. Ask your church if they have a ministry within the church that resolves the needs of those who go there, or even those who don't. If they don't, suggest to them that it would be a good thing to do and why, for their own benefit. If they don't respond, give your support elsewhere. Seek out ministries that will fulfill this command in your place as you give. Whether it be your church or an outside ministry. Always make sure that they are doing their work in the name of Jesus. The apostle Paul wrote this in his letter to the Colossians, in Chapter 3, verse 17;
"And whatever you do in word and deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father."
Ministries can't do the work without your financial support and you might not be able to personally meet peoples needs because you are working in a different stage of life. You are being just as helpful and giving when you support the ministry that meets the needs. In this way, all of you are bearing fruit.
We are not all thumbs but many parts. When it is within our ability and we see someone in need, we should not just pray that someone else would come along to help them. Fulfill that law. Love your neighbor as yourself. In doing this, you will be a good servant of Jesus. First meet their need, then pray for them.
May Jesus peace be with all of you.
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