Ideology matters; perhaps never more than today. What you believe will drive what you are willing to sacrifice for it. And more dangerously, what you believe may strongly influence how much you are willing to make others suffer because they do not share your beliefs. Belief underlies it all. And our enemy is quick to introduce fear into that equation. Combine fear and belief, and it is easy to believe others intend to persecute you for your own beliefs. When you believe you might be persecuted, you form a defense against this persecution. And a good offense is always a good defense, so belief and fear combine to drive violence into our world. Whether threats are real or perceived becomes irrelevant. The violence that ensues is measurable. Perhaps this is why whenever our Lord introduced the supernatural of His Kingdom to mankind he always opens the greeting with “Fear Not”.
Where your willingness to inflict violence over your beliefs, becomes more important to you than traditional bonds of friendship and family … belief transcends reasonable boundaries and becomes fanaticism. A fanatic puts his beliefs so high in importance, that even friendship and family must take a back seat. Friendships of many years can be dissolved in an instant over a slight change in shared beliefs. Churches split over them. Cain kills Able over them. Differences in our exact interpretation of beliefs cause us to cast aside friendships, a spirit of community, and even the blood bonds of family. And in the mind of the fanatic, all of these must be sacrificed for the sake of what is more important. Fanatics point to the words of Jesus on this matter, stating those who love parents or children more than they love Him are not worthy of Him. But Jesus did not offer the example of committing violence against non-believers. Rather Jesus offered us an example of redemptive love for ALL those who do not yet believe. Yet the fanatic ignores anything in the narrative of scripture that countermands his beliefs and violent intentions, and passionately embraces any tittle of scripture that might support them, and so builds his ‘doctrinal epoch of cause’ to inflict violence where he sees fit.
The fundamentalist is a brand that has emerged in the last 50 years. The fundamentalist is a unique and partial picture of the fanatic. They wish a “return” to basic doctrines and are extremely passionate about these ideas. However, their reactions range from pity & condemnation for those who do not share their beliefs; to outright violence against the unbeliever in order to prompt him to see the error of his ways. If the unbeliever dies in the process, that is left to the will of God. Islamic extremists tend to fall in the fundamentalist category. But so do many Christians who are willing to kill over their beliefs, whether to defend themselves, or to “defend the faith”. What separates the fundamentalist from the full-on-fanatic is the boundary of family-relationships. When the fundamentalist is willing to discard, or remove, a family member over a dispute about beliefs – they have entered the domain of the fanatic.
You can see ranges of this in your own life, if we begin by talking about politics first. Most solid friendships can endure a difference over presidential candidates and how they are doing. Good friends just come to a place where they agree to disagree. Or perhaps learn to enjoy a good round of debates where no one leaves angry. Families usually do better at this still … but only because ‘they have to’. The bonds of blood are way too important to lose over some idiot presidential candidate. So each family member agrees to “forgive” the one who is “mis-informed” and they either don’t talk about it at all (so as not to get angry), or they reach a maturity level that allows them open discourse without taking it personally. It is rare where a family is willing to break apart over a disagreement in politics. Frankly, politics is just not that worth it.
But where it comes to your salvation (in a spiritual context); people do the stupidest things, in the worst ways imaginable – and then claim what they do is the direct will of God, as if God spoke to them and dictated the series of events and actions they must go do. But God does not. God does not whisper in the inquisitor’s ear; that in order to change this infidel’s thinking about religion, you need to continue torturing him/her in more and more severe ways. If there is a voice in that ear, it is NOT the voice of the Lord. Nor does God whisper in the voice of the ear of a self-described Muslim Martyr; that murdering the innocent will somehow send a “bigger” statement to infidels about how wrong they are. Neither act accomplishes anything, but the degradation of the perpetrator. And to ascribe these acts to the will of God is to blaspheme the name of God; yet the crime continues on every day in assorted variations until blasphemy is common place.
Even where minds are so made up; even where opinions rarely change they only harden; the commission of the gospel lives on. The message of the arrival of the kingdom of God, and the entry through Jesus Christ lives on, remains relevant, and is still good news. To live a better life in the here-and-now is still an awesome concept no matter how badly I have screwed up doctrines, or how fanatically I am wrong about so so many things. That good news dwarfs the condemnation of my fundamentalism, and has the potential to restore the relationships with family and friends my craziness has broken apart. My entire life could be so exponentially better through Jesus Christ, and His gift is so easy to accept. Even though our internet jungle of ever hardening circles of judgement remain, the gospel is bigger, better, and more powerful than that.
Jesus knew the weird beliefs systems we would face. Jesus knew how beliefs devolve into fanaticism. Jesus knew even His own religion would fall victim to this horror. But the gospel had to go out still. Matthew continues the counsel of Christ resuming in chapter ten of his gospel picking up in verse 16 saying … “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” No matter what the level of violence raised against the follower of Christ, violence in return, is not the response. This text is very specific that the gospel is not spread on the point of sword. Inflicting violence does nothing to change hearts, only love does that. Responding to threats is not couched in excellent defensive postures and weapons of self-defense, it is couched only in love for the enemy who means us harm. Wisdom is a better method of avoiding problems, than violence. Being harmless makes us less of a threat than a posture of strength. Let the Lord be our strength instead.
Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; [verse 18] And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.” Jesus predicts the fury of organized religion against the pure message of saving grace. He does not assure us deliverance against these heinous crimes, rather that we will surely endure them for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the redemption of the man carrying the whip. His own religion, that is, the religion Jesus setup with Moses in the desert will be the first to unleash the satanic fury of fanaticism against the simple saving message of Jesus as the Messiah. But religious persecution is not the only brand His followers would suffer. Religion would unite with the power of the State to continue and expand persecution of the followers of Jesus. In the years to come, the corruption within the legacy Jewish religion would find its way into the Roman Catholic halls and extend the reach of persecution against groups like the Waldensians, and other smaller segments of people who believed in the saving message of Jesus Christ, not the absolute control of the organized church. “Who” saves you has always been the ultimate question, whether singularly Jesus Christ, or some version of people claiming to be His sole church.
Jesus then provides His followers with the ultimate defense attorney for the upcoming “trials” in which they will be accused falsely, picking up in verse 19 saying … “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. [verse 20] For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” We are nothing better than a conduit for the Spirit of God. And to be that, we must get out of the way. Preparation, is NOT required. In fact, it should be purposely avoided. That takes trust. That takes confidence that we will not be making a fool of ourselves when the time comes. But the fool in us will remain silent, while the Spirit that enters us will speak with a clarity, and emotional pull, that ONLY the Spirit of God can accomplish. It is the well prepared of us, that provides no outlet for His Spirit. We are too busy talking ourselves to let Him get a word in edgewise. And while we speak our own well prepared words, it is evident we are truly fools. For Satan can out debate us any day of the week, but against His Spirit, Satan is moot, and irrelevant.
The core of this counsel relies on a faith in Jesus Christ to save us. To save us from ourselves. To save us from situations well beyond our control. And in the process, to reach out to others, and point them to the salvation of Jesus Christ. The goal is not to be saved in a vacuum, but to spread out the witness of salvation, of what it means to be saved, in a community that is so desperate to see those effects in themselves. And we do it so poorly. So perhaps it is time now, to be still, to remain unprepared, and let our words become His words. And there is no audience who we would wish to reach more intensely than the members of our own families. Sadly, they will not always be willing to hear. And worse we may discover fanaticism in our own ranks against the concept of Jesus Christ and his gift of salvation.
Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. [verse 22] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Family will rise against family from the inside. The blood bonds that should bind us in tolerance and love, prove brittle in the face of salvation and the name of Jesus Christ. Our own families prefer agnosticism, they prefer methods of self-salvation, they prefer a nebulous god who can be reached through a variety of methods certainly not only through the Jesus Christ our silly scriptures describe. Sad to think, that one sect of purported Christians, would turn in another, over doctrinal disputes of the how the remainder of scripture (outside of Jesus) is interpreted. But that is our history, and will remain our future. Power carries great allure, and once intoxicated with it, fanaticism is easy to achieve, even if at the death of a family member. Keep in mind, the true followers of Jesus Christ are the victims our Lord describes … not the perpetrators. If “Christians” turn anyone over to be killed, they blaspheme the name they carry. Also keep in mind, our Lord does not promise us deliverance against the deaths our own families and the state and the corrupted churches would visit upon us. Not everyone will get away, or find escape. Some will die, perhaps many. But to endure until the end is to keep our faith grounded in Jesus for our salvation, if not in this world, then in the far more important next one.
Matthew continues in verse 23 saying … “But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.” Our response to persecution is to flee, not to confront it violently. But the second half of this verse always stirs up controversy in its interpretation. On the surface, it looks as though once the gospel is spread to all the cities of Israel (in the time of Christ), that the Son of Man will return in His second coming. But it does not say that. It says that He will “be come”. Keeping in the mind the timing of this commission, and the quickly spreading fame of Jesus Christ at the time. What may have been meant, is that the Son of Man will complete His mission for our salvation, and “be come” back to the throne of His Father. It is natural for us to read this from our own perspective, and want so bad for the words “be come” to mean “returned to take us home”. But the facts on the ground obviously dispute that, and we know Jesus is not a liar. Therefore our understanding must be off, and another meaning must have been intended.
Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. [verse 25] It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” Look at the history of reformation within the church, any church. When Jesus entered the house and religion of Israel, they called our God, Satan. When Luther stood up in the Catholic church, his reputation was the first thing to suffer. When the youth of our own churches rise, to embrace the homeless, or meet their peers where they are with the things they may be used to. We, the organized body, the elders, the established and traditional members of the church, ALWAYS shun what is new, or what is different, of what looks “unholy” to us. Just as the Pharisees of old did to Jesus. Just as the Catholic leadership did to Luther. Just as you and I do to our youth, fearing they bring the world into the church. Odd that the results of the Spirit of God are always condemned as the workings of Satan, by those who profess to follow Jesus, but seem to have no real idea who Jesus is.
But conspiracy is no match for the Holy Spirit. Matthew continues in verse 26 saying … “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. [verse 27] What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.” The quiet conspiracies to put Jesus to death are now revealed as part of our scriptures for all to see. The quiet betrayal of Judas revealed to everyone. The denials of Peter reprinted in the light of day. The hypocrisies of the Catholic church over the centuries, obsessed more with the power of popes, than the saving power of Jesus Christ. And in our day, the quiet conspiracies that take place in government halls, or church board meetings, where the interests of power or financial gains are the number one priority; they will again be revealed for all to see, in the failures that are sure to accompany them. Jesus is not interested in maintaining our earthly wealth, and even less in granting us power. Jesus is interested in developing our sense of humble service, and our hearts to be willing to part with everything we own, for the sake of another’s benefit. The former only distracts from the latter, and so it will be revealed for the folly it is.
Matthew continues in verse 28 saying … “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. [verse 29] Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. [verse 30] But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. [verse 31] Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” The message of the gospel is at war with the natural inclinations of the human heart. Our embrace of sin made this so, and continues to make this so. It is the power of Jesus, that can override what we would naturally want, and what we would naturally do. That is the power of salvation. What our opposition is prepared to do, the level of fundamentalism they will claim as justification for what violence they wish to inflict, is not a matter for us to fear. The tragedy that fanaticism is willing to impose is not a matter for us to fear. For our Lord sees all. He knows us so intimately that He knows how many hairs sit upon our heads (even when that number is in constant decline 😊). Our salvation rests in His hands not our own. It is that message that Satan wishes to cover up. He does not want the name of Jesus Christ spread he wants it silenced. Killing a messenger does not accomplish that. But altering a follower’s philosophy to be one of self does do the trick.
Satan has no need to silence a follower of Jesus who has no personal testimony to share. Satan has no need to torture a “Christian” who is already very busy attempting to drive the sin from themselves, and from their desires. They are already torturing themselves with their own failure. And one day, they will reach of point of repeated failures until they give up, and advise others to do the same. Satan could care less about the body, it is the permanence of the soul he is after. Directing us away from Jesus Christ gives him a chance at getting that ultimate prize. This is how the soul is destroyed. It is not the ultimate fires that will do the work of destruction. The destruction will happen long before, at the tips of our own fingers as we refuse to give Jesus our salvation, and hold on to it instead ourselves. It was always the introduction of self into Christianity that Satan has long sought. Do some amount of good deeds. Give away some amount of money. In effect, buy your salvation by the strength of your own hands and intentions. He sold the lie to Cain, and continues to sell it to us. And too many, who do not know Jesus personally yet, are avid consumers of this lie, to the destruction of their own souls. That is worth fearing.
But even then Jesus says we need not fear, for our salvation is based in Jesus Christ, and not ourselves. And the counsel for outreach was not concluded yet …
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