Key Passage
They said, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a married man dies and he had no children, then his brother must marry the woman. Then they will have children for the dead brother. There were seven brothers. The first brother married but died. He had no children. So the second brother married the woman. But he also died and had no children. The same thing happened with the third brother. All seven brothers married the woman and died. None of the brothers had any children with the woman. The woman was last to die. But all seven brothers had married her. So at the time when people rise from death, whose wife will the woman be?” Jesus answered, “Why did you make this mistake? Is it because you don’t know what the Scriptures say? Or because you don’t know about God’s power?”
— Mark 12:19-24 ERV (Read Full Text)
Key Thought
Isn’t it refreshing to hear Jesus tell the simple truth to these manipulative schemers? “You don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” So often today, we sit in circles and ask different folks what they think about a passage from God’s Word. It’s almost like we’re leaving it up to the faulty and error-prone judges of an Olympic boxing, skating, or gymnastics event. They hold their signs to suggest what score the Scripture deserves. Instead, shouldn’t we be asking other questions like … What do I need to do to apply this Scripture in my life? What do I need to do to live in obedience to God’s Word? How is this truth going to change my behavior?
Rather than sitting in judgement over God’s Word, shouldn’t we in humility confess that we don’t know enough to critique it and we don’t understand God’s power fully enough to grasp how it can be fully accomplished? Even more, when someone pontificates on a subject trying to sound religious and yet espouses something counter to biblical truth, shouldn’t we gently remind them of Jesus’ warning? Perhaps we’re a little too infatuated with our opinions and not familiar enough with God’s truth? Perhaps we’re all a little afraid of the dissenting opinion of the conventional wisdom and not committed to obeying God’s heavenly wisdom
Prayer
O Father, forgive me when I live with an inflated view of my own understanding of your Word and find ways to rationalize away the sharp edges of your truth. Gently humble me and lead me to a deeper understanding and appreciation for your will. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Related Scriptures
Some slaves have masters who are believers. So those slaves and those masters are brothers. But the slaves should not show them any less respect. No! Those slaves should serve those believing masters even better. Why? Because those slaves are helping believers that they love. These are the things you must teach and tell the people to do. Some people will teach things that are false. Those people will not agree with the true teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And they will not accept the teaching that agrees with the true way to serve God. Those people are proud of what they know, but they understand nothing. Those people are sick with a love for arguing and fighting about words. And that brings jealousy, quarrels, insults, and evil mistrust. They are always making trouble, because they are people whose thinking has been confused. They have lost their understanding of the truth. They think that serving God is a way to get rich.
— 1 Timothy 6:2-5
Remember this! There will be many troubles in the last days. In those times people will love only themselves and money. They will be boastful and proud. They will say bad things against other people. They will not obey their parents. They will not be thankful. They will not be the kind of people God wants. People in those times will not have love for other people. They will refuse to forgive and will talk about other people to hurt them.
People will not control themselves. They will be angry and mean and will hate things that are good. In the last days people will turn against their friends. They will do foolish things without thinking. They will be conceited and proud. People will love pleasure—they will not love God. Those people will continue to act like they serve God. But the way they live shows that they don’t really serve God. Timothy, stay away from those people.
— 2 Timothy 3:1-5
All the believers have heard that you obey. So I am very happy because of you. But I want you to be wise about the things that are good. And I want you to know nothing about things that are evil.
— Romans 16:19
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