Saturday 27 May 2023

May 27: John 21:20-23

Key Verse: John 21:22
Jesus answered, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.’

Devotion:
When Jesus started talking about someone betraying Him, the disciples were on edge; which one of their group would be the one! This was a moment when many of them could have doubted things and brought on confusion amongst them. Jesus tried to stem that by reminding them they had a personal relationship with Him and it was not up to them to judge each other – simply to love Him.

When anything untoward happens in our church we start to chatter about things and people and we often go too far and place blame where there should be none. But it is a fine line between ignoring things which are clearly wrong and allowing people to have their sins forgiven by Christ: a line which we should always be aware of and one we need to protect each other with too.

Any language has it’s complications where people can say one thing and mean another without realising it. I’m not talking about the spelling mistakes we all make or the auto-correction mistakes due to ‘intelligent’ devices we use, but the verbal mistakes we make. Saying something out of turn or agreeing with something you think you heard can be awkward when another person is involved.

Christ wants each of us to try and do our best for and with Him, this means we should be focusing on the things we do and the things we say. If we focus on the things others do and say we will get annoyed at times because each of us is different and we cannot see inside people’s minds or hearts like God can. There is nothing wrong with pointing things out to the person involved, but there is pointing it out to everyone else when you are not sure!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you talk about others?

How often do you admit yourself to Christ?