Photo by Hanny Naibaho at Unsplash
The Lord in His grace has allowed me to serve for a long time in the men's group in our church and I have had the privilege of leading this ministry for some years now. In this time I have been able to be blessed and edified to be part of this group. A while back we had a ministry leadership meeting in which I shared about the surrender and true service to God. With this teaching I realized that many of us as men are very practical when serving (as well as in many other activities) and we do not focus on doing it with dedication and passion because we believe that it is more important to just do it well and get it done.
The Lord led me to be able to teach the text of Luke 7:36-50 where Luke tells the story of a religious who had invited Jesus Christ to his house to have dinner with him, and a woman that the text describes as a sinner. It is a well-known text due to the story of this woman who carried a perfume and poured it on the feet of Jesus and with her hair she wiped away her tears that fell on the feet of the Lord. Christ makes a contrast between Simon (the priest who had invited him to dinner at his house) and the woman who is only described as a sinner. In this comparison between Simon and the woman, Jesus condemns the host's actions and praises the woman's attitude despite the fact that moments before Simon had questioned the power of Jesus over the life of this woman and to this Jesus replied that because this woman had been forgiven she had a commitment to Jesus that many of us should have.
The message of the text of Luke that Jesus wanted to teach us literally is "he who is forgiven, loves little." Lc. 7:47 Many times we think that the more we do for Jesus, the more we will earn God's grace as if we were worthy of his forgiveness, but that is not what the text teaches because the Word says that our debt is unpayable and God is the one who decides to forgive. The womans understanding of her sin led her to understand that Christ had already forgiven her, then her dedication to God was as great as the forgiveness she had received.
This made me reflect on what my love for God is like, and that I can only give what I received from God Himself: My love for Him is the product of the understanding of the forgiveness He granted me. This woman whom the text mentions as a sinful woman was not invited to dinner, however when she realized that Jesus was going to be in this house she did not care about the labels that society or the religious authorities themselves had placed on her, but her main goal to be in the presence of her Lord. This woman did not estimate her own comfort or her own goods, but gave something that surely had great value such as the perfume that she poured on him who is worthy of all honor and all glory.
Many times we get discouraged because someone else does not recognize what I'm doing to serve God, but if I have really understood and valued God's forgiveness I will not want to pretend so that others look at me or think of me, but rather I will be delivered in such a way that I only care what God thinks of me and recognize that the only one I owe obedience to is Christ who is my Lord.
How is your knowledge of God's forgiveness for your life, a little or a lot? This will be consistent with the dedication you have for God not only to serve but to be in his presence every day delighting in Him and at the same time God pleasing you with your dedication and passion for Him.
.-Eduardo Barahona
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