Matthew 6:22-23 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light; But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
It is very easy to say that you love Jesus but serve another master.
Consider the following verses:
Matt. 15:8-9 “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart stays far away from Me; But in vain do they worship Me...
The Lord is clearly pointing out that mere lip-service worship means nothing. We have to be single-eyed for Jesus. Think of a bride that has eyes for no other man other than her bridegroom - her husband to be.
Not every Christian can honestly say that they have eyes only for Jesus. It is because of this, they will not be allowed to enter the marriage dinner of the Lamb - the wedding day (Matt. 22:2, 11-13).
Would you share your husband or your wife with others? Neither will the Lord Jesus share you with others. This is one of His attributes in the most positive sense - He is a jealous God. He only has eyes for you and wants to share you with no one else. Praise Him that He is jealous over us (Deut. 4:24).
Only these Christians in the following verses qualify by the Lord’s grace to be at the wedding day. Please note what qualified them:
𝟭) they were single-eyed for Jesus only (Matt. 5:8).
𝟮) they made themselves ready by getting washed in the water of the word of God, which purified their souls. The word of God sanctified them which renewed their mind and it lead to their transformation - Ephesians 5; Romans 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18.
the above corresponds to the oil in the vessels of the wise virgins in Matthew 25. The foolish virgins had oil but not enough - that is why they are called foolish and their fate... - the Lord shuts the door on them. They were not allowed to enter and be part of the wedding feast that the Father prepared for the Son.
𝟯) These Christians were also faithful to the call of discipling and baptizing the nations as seen in Matt. 28:19. Every Christian must be functioning as a priest to God. Not one is exempt. Matthew 25 consists of two parables. The first parable shows us the ten virgins - which we covered above. The second parable regards the talents and the exchange of these talents. Please note what happens to the evil slave. That slave - Christian - didn’t multiply their talents by gaining others for the kingdom of God (Matt. 28:19). The Lord comes back as a business man. He expects a return on His investment in you. If you don’t give Him a return on His investment - He will call you an evil slave and subsequently, you also will not be able to be part of the Bride.
Have you lead someone to the Lord? Start today - start with your family. Then keep feeding them as a mother would nourish her child with milk. They become children of God when they believe into the Lord Jesus (John 1:12-13, 3:16). But they are only children. They need to grow spiritually. They need the pure milk of the word of God and you need to feed it to them.
You may wonder why the Lord calls these Christians evil slaves in point three above. A slave works for their master. We are all slaves and the Lord Jesus is our Master. Evil slaves did not work when the Lord explicitly asked them to work. How can they receive a reward or wages if they lived to themselves and did what pleased themselves and did not do the will of the Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21-23; Romans 6:11; Matthew 25:14-30).
Please take the time to read every scripture reference here in this post.
In an upcoming post we will see what happens to the disobedient believers. Those who did not do the will of the Father. They get cast into a place called the 'outer darkness' - a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth
- Luke 13:28.
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