Monday | 16 May 2022
A believer is rejecting the agape meal, as the ongoing source of their expression as a son of God, when they seek to validate their identity through any means other than obedience to God’s word in the fellowship of Yahweh. This principle was exemplified in Jesus’ parable of the great feast. He identified various people who did not partake of the supper because they were pursuing identity verification elsewhere.
Jesus said, ‘They all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.” And another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.” Still another said, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come”.’ Luk 14:18‑20. He described these ones as ‘not worthy’. Mat 22:8.
The excuses that were given by those who disregarded the great agape feast, prepared by the Father, need to be considered and applied in many situations. Heb 11:24-26. As one example, it is helpful to recognise that the implications of ‘marrying a wife’ are not limited to the confounding effects of a fallen marriage culture on one’s connection to the agape meal. It also includes young people who forsake the communion in pursuit of romantic attachments outside the church communities in which the Father has placed them.
Driven by lust, and emboldened by alternative ‘gospels’, these young people relinquish their eternal inheritance for the passing pleasure of a carnal liaison. Isa 47:8-9. They are spiritually short‑sighted, and are unable to perceive the true romance that belongs to marriage in the image and likeness of God. The apostle Paul warned of this wantonness, writing, ‘But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith’. 1Ti 5:11‑12.
Further Study:
LUKE 14
Daily Proverb:
References:
Luk 14:18-20
But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
Mat 22:8
Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.’
Heb 11:24-26
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
Isa 47:8-9
Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children’; But these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.
1Ti 5:11-12
But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith.