Scripture
Our verse for today comes from John 13:11, ” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, ‘You are not all clean.’ “
Background
God said in Jeremiah that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? And if you’re alive and reading this, that means you have the fatal condition that God described in His Word. Jeremiah wrote much of his prophecy about the judgment of Judah as they had become deeply involved in idol worship and perversion. For years, Jeremiah preached against the sin of the nation. One outline of his proclamations lists fourteen different messages that he delivered concerning the condemnation of Judah. For nearly five decades, Jeremiah stood in the gap and cried out to God’s people that they would keep His commands and respond to His pleas. And in the midst of the desperation, God describes the human heart and says, ” I the Lord search the heart and test the mind. ” He alone is tasked with wading through our filth and debauchery, our insolence and pride, our hypocrisy and idolatry, to give according as He chooses. And when He looked inside the heart of Judas, did He see an especially dark, maligned heart? Was his more grotesque than the eleven others in the upper room? Was his doubly deformed? I think not.
Application
God said in Jeremiah that blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and cursed is he who trusts in man. One heart, and two options. With that deceitful, sick heart, where will you put your trust? We should be supremely thankful that we don’t know what’s in the hearts of others, for if we did, the appalling reality of man’s sin nature would sicken us beyond comprehension. And that’s why our only focus should be on the heart within us. In all its blackness and disease, it needs a Savior more than can be expressed. And having found One, its only desire should be to walk closer with Him, to emulate Him, and to know His very mind.
If you are clean through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, then set your affections on Him and Him alone. A sick and dying heart could hope for nothing more.
Charge
As we seek Him today, receive the cleansing that He has for you, and do not concern yourself with the filthiness of others.
Author – Rich Holt | BCWorldview.org
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