Let them see the Lord
We wrap up our study of Hebrews with a lesson in being Christ-like
Verse of the Day: “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” - Hebrews 12:14
“Work at living in peace with everyone”........It seems simple, but this can be a very difficult task in our divisive world. Living in peace with everyone is the essence of Jesus’ greatest commandment: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we follow these commandments and put them into practice, we will find ourselves living in peace with everyone. When we love God well, we will love people well.
“And work at living a holy life”..........Following Jesus is a process of consistently dying to ourselves and denying our flesh. Our flesh wants the opposite of what the Holy Spirit wants. God desires for us to live the life that He has designed for us to live. This is a life of peace, love, kindness, joy and constant renewal of the hope that only He can provide. This is a life that has can overcome any adversity, any setback and any struggle. We have to work at this. We have to be intentional in denying our flesh. If there are behaviors that create distance between us and the Lord, we must work to rectify those behaviors. If there are things that lead us into sin, we must cut off the pathway to destruction.
Jesus paints this clearly in Matthew 18:9 - “And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”
What Jesus is telling us, is that when we sacrifice the things that cause us to sin, we are not losing anything at all. In fact, we are gaining eternal life. The holy life is the only life to live.
“For those who are not holy will not see the Lord”........I really love this part of the verse because it can be received in multiple ways. From the surface level, it sounds simple. If you are unholy, you will not see the Lord. You will not get to the Father if you do not go to Jesus and those who are unholy likely aren’t following Jesus. However, I receive it in a different way. I see it as this:
If I claim to have fellowship with Jesus, I must walk in the Light. I must live a holy, blameless life. If then people view me as ‘holy’ my life should reflect that. I should have a peaceful life. The darkness in me should be dying more and more daily. I should be a person that is not afraid to apologize. I should be someone who has a repentant heart. I should be actively at war with the sin in my life that causes me to stumble. I should not be getting into conflict. I should not be leading people into sin. I should have a healthy marriage and healthy relationship with my child. I should have all the fruits of the Spirit that are promised to those who faithfully follow the Lord.
Now if I claim to be holy, but do not do these things, it will cause those who are unholy and unbelieving to not see an accurate depiction of Christ. They won’t see Christ if people who claim to be Christ-like are anything but. If we model Jesus in the way we live, for those who are unholy, they will see the Lord when they see our loving kindness, our patience, our resistance to temptation, our denial of sin, our love for strangers, our desire to give, our inner peace and everlasting joy. That’s how people ‘see’ the Lord. If they do not listen to the message, we must then become the message!
If you want people to see Jesus, then you must live like Jesus. That’s how unholy people can see the Lord.