Saturday of 24th week in Course
Today St. Paul, in his letter to his friend and protégé, Timothy, shares with all Christian eras what can be called a little creed or catechism. We should pay close attention to the words, because here we have a summary of the whole Christian story, masterfully told by the greatest Christian writer of all time.
Paul tells us to keep the commandment without stain or reproach. We know that “the” commandment must be the distillation of all God’s commandments: Love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves. Without stain means wholeheartedly, without cutting corners. Without reproach means that in our love, for God and other humans, we cannot do anything that might cause non-Christians to call us hypocrites. We need to so act that they are attracted to right worship and right living, just as in the time of the earliest apostles.
We see the testimony that where there is life, there is the work of almighty God. This God, our Father, and His Son, Christ Jesus, see and hear our witness, a witness in both word and deed. We see the original faith of Christians in the ultimate reappearance of Our Lord, and that He is also King of all kings, the king that cannot die, who lives and reigns in a region of unimaginable light, invisible to merely human eyes and worthy of every honor, and all power. May He be blessed forever.
We may strain against the explanation Jesus gives here about His parables. He essentially tells us that His close disciples are granted knowledge of God’s mysteries, but that the common hearer of Christ’s words don’t “get it.” They look but don’t see; they hear but don’t understand. It’s easy to see that those who don’t understand are among the poor soil and rocks where the seed is sowed. Everyone gets the opportunity to hear and see the Gospel. The means of communication today are more pervasive than ever before. But it takes work to understand, and to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our innately rebellious soul so that we are receptive to the Word of God. Some folks simply refuse either to see the personal advantage of faith in Christ, or to do the work needed to change their minds and their lifestyles. Remember that 8% of Christ’s apostles didn’t love Him enough to follow Him all the way to the end. But we have control over our own response, so let’s follow Him–even up to the mount of Calvary.
