Today’s scripture: Matthew 12:33-37 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Mark Shoup):
This passage (and the one before it from Keith’s Be Still), are very hard for me to read. I should imagine that any person that takes the Bible seriously would find this to be true as well. The previous passage says that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, while today’s scripture says that we are going to have to give an account for “every careless word” we have ever spoken! I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much the master of careless words, and I just as soon not have to go through that embarrassment again, thankyouverymuch. What’s more, both these passages are red letter passages; that is, Jesus spoke them himself! That makes them even harder to ignore!
In consulting with a couple commentaries about today’s scripture, I found that it is suggested that Jesus was referring to the Pharisees of the time, who were so corrupt as to be approaching the point of never being able to change, and therefore being unforgivable. Ah yes, the Pharisees. Where would we be without them, making “good” Christians everywhere look better by comparison! How convenient that Jesus is clearly speaking to them and not to us rank-and-file followers who won’t be held to the same standard because we are forgiven.
Or is he?
Even by lay standards, I’m no theologian, and I make no claims that what I’m about to say is the way one should interpret the passages in question. But what if speaking against God actually were unforgivable and what if every stupid and hurtful thing I ever said will one day be played through again in the presence of The Almighty? Wouldn’t that make you want to “clean up” a few things in your life? Quite frankly, it makes me feel like I need to grab the Imodium!
I can’t change my past (or believe me, I would be sitting on a pile of Microsoft stock right now), and no matter how hard I try, I’ll probably make some of these same mistakes in the future whether I have to give an account for them or not. But wouldn’t earth be a better place if we all lived like we were going to have to defend our words? Maybe thinking of forgiveness as a file cabinet rather than an eraser might help us to be better people and make better choices?
Thought for the day: I’m going to continue to hope that God subscribes to the principal of “forgive and FORGET”, but in the meantime, I’m going to try to live like Lucy might have to e’splain herself one day!
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.