Confess Jesus… (Matthew 10:32) 061008
Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)
Confession is good for the soul. I am not too sure if this statement is found in the Bible, but certainly, this is a good biblical principle. Confession is more than telling others about your sins and wrongdoing; it is also a verbal declaration of your stand and being truthful to what you believe. Jesus says in today’s verse: If we confess Him before others, He will confess us before His Father (Abel’s paraphrase).
To confess Jesus seems to be an easy task. It is easy to tell others that we are a Christian, we go to church every Sunday, some of us go to church even on Saturday, many of us will also tell our friends that we have small groups meeting on Friday or some other weekday or weekend evening, and some of us either wear a cross to indicate that we are a Christian or pray before we eat or have a bumper sticker on our car saying: Christ lives in us. We have many ways to let people know that we are Christians. When we fill up forms, in the section which asks for our religion, we will write down: Christian; and some who want to be more precise will write either Protestant or Presbyterian or Methodist or whatever denomination we belong to.
Wikipedia tells us that Christians in Singapore constitute approximately 14.6% of the country’s population; 4.8% (32.9% of Christians) being Catholics and the remaining 9.8% (67.1% of Christians) being of other mostly Protestant denominations and traditions (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Singapore). Given the population of Singapore is about 4.6 million, this implies that we have about 672 000 of Christians in Singapore. Wow! That’s a lot of people.
But to confess Jesus is more than just a number or a figure among the 672 000 people in Singapore, it is about living a life which reflect and declare a stand about Jesus. Yes, confessing Jesus is to be a distinct representative of Jesus. It is not a declaration of our religion or denomination. Unless we truly confess Jesus with our lives, then Jesus will also confess us before His Father, declaring us to be His children too. What right do we have to be God’s children? Absolutely no rights. If not because of Jesus, we have no rights in God’s kingdom. If not because of what Jesus had done of us on the Cross, we have no rights to salvation. How do you confess Jesus?
I have been preaching about truth lately. And truth is not merely an abstract idea of sincerity or being real or genuine; truth is the word of God, truth is Jesus Himself. Unless we know the truth and live out the truth, we have disobeyed Him. I am also re-reading a book: Choose the Life by Bill Hull, the guy who comes out with disciple-making process, T-Net. He reckoned that being a Christian is to be a disciple; we cannot be a Christian without being a disciple. And Bonhoeffer is quoted again and again: Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. In other words, if we are not willing to be a true disciple of Jesus and live a life which reflects the love of Christ and keep on doing things which is only convenient to ourselves, we are not exactly confessing Jesus, and I wonder if Jesus will confess us before His Father.
If you reading this and think that I am being too harsh, I am not going to apologize. I not saying that you have to immediately give up everything and join full time ministry, but I am asking that we examine our attitude and way of life, and see if we are living in accordance to the Word of God and will other see Christ through us; especially if we have been Christians for more than three years.
I am not invoking us to be extreme radical, but at least being kind to the people around you whom we don’t even like; it is easy to reflect Christlikeness before people who are nice to you, but really a challenge to those whom you really hated for whatever reason. Maybe we should reflect why we have such negative feelings towards other people. Does having such negative feelings and even hatred, reflect Christ?
Confess Jesus with your life, because Jesus has confessed us before His Father by going to the Cross for us. Confession is indeed good for our souls. May your soul go well as you confess Christ by giving a tip to the taxi driver even you sense that he has intentionally cheated you by going a longer way, and you confess to him: Jesus loves you and blesses you. May your soul be well as you confess Christ by helping the colleague or superior who has been very mean to you, and you confess to him: Jesus loves you and blesses you. May your soul be well as you confess Christ by cheerfully buy a cake or some fruits to give it to your neighbor who you have not spoken to ever since you have been living in that neighborhood, and confess to them: Jesus loves you and blesses you.
May your soul be well as you confess Jesus.
HHS…
Abel…
