just and unjust
The Rain falls on the just and the unjust. I have always had trouble understanding the meaning of that phrase in the Bible. Like a lot of the portions I read it is not always immediately understood. I have probably read that section about 10 or more times, but that is the beauty of the Bible. It is dynamic and living and it also involves the spirit within us. Sometimes the truth is not immediately grasped, sometimes it hits you like a brick wall. As it happens this section was given a new meaning to me yesterday morning as a paused to view another glorious sunrise.
At times we must unpack the truth and it involves some deep studying at others it simply reveals it self. I sometimes feel like I am solving a puzzle that has many pieces and when I finally get a section finished things seem to fall into place. This same “got it” feeling happened to me. Now for those reading this blog the truth revealed to me, may not be the one revealed to you, that is the beauty of the living word. Just like Our Lord Jesus, it too is alive and well and revealing to us new truths daily. That is also one of the reasons why the Bible is everlasting; it does change in the sense that it dynamically speaks to the reader in what times and situations we might find ourselves.
As with most of the truths in the Bible we as people are given a fundamental choice; to believe or not to believe. When I searched the just and unjust statement online through Biblegateway.com I was looking for a pattern to help me understand what I was thinking and reading about the just and unjust. Here are the results of that search.
Matthew 5:44-46
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[a] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
Acts 24:14-16
14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. 15 I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead,[a] both of the just and the unjust. 16 This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.
1 Peter 3:17-19
17 For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us[a] to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us[a] to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
So my original thoughts were about why would the Bible mention the “just and unjust alike.” And after re-reading the above context I have confirmed my thinking. We as a created being have always had a choice, one, which allows us to choose to follow God, or not. What I also gleaned from this was that circumstances or “rain” happen to all the inhabitants on the Earth what defines the Christian or believer is finding in those circumstances God and his glory and the opportunity to praise his name. So for me I will continue to strive to find God in all circumstances, in both the sunny times and the rainy times.
No comments:
Post a Comment