“Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”
“But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.”
Matthew 12:25 & 36
Sometimes Scripture speaks to us in a way that seems particularly prescient to our current circumstances. It is hard to read these words of Jesus this week and not think of the political situation in the United States. But that is precisely what I endeavor to do today.
Sometimes our sense that we know exactly what God is talking about is actually just a diversion from that which God is actually directing us. In Matthew 7:3, Jesus gives us not only good general wisdom but an excellent hermeneutic tool:
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
In Matthew 12, Jesus takes a broad spiritual principle and focuses in to the personal plane. God is uniformly good. Those that want to participate in His kingdom will display a congruency to His goodness in their life. So what’s the deal with all those empty words you speak?
My words display the conflicted nature of my own heart. I cannot decide what I want, often much to the frustration of those around me. My wife once told me, “I am tired of your opinion always being that of the last person with whom you have spoken.” While some have a steel core at their centre that must be bridled and directed carefully, others like myself find ambivalence.
Either way, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks” Luke 6:45
The truth is I am the house divided against itself. At one moment, usually sometime in the morning, between 9am and 11am, I deeply desire a life that glorifies God in every conceivable way. But between 9pm and 11pm, I am usually more interested in watching TV.
So what is the work of God here? It is to set our house in order. In some ways, it is a never ending task. Like the good housekeeper who lives beside a wide and busy dirt road, you will always cleaning and dusting. It is the stuff of life. But we ever work today that day when we see Jesus face to face. And we can welcome Him fully and finally into this place we call ourselves.
Lord, make straight a highway in the dusty desert of my heart for you.
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