Luke 12:47-48 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Today's episode talks about why we are held to higher standards and how that is actually a good thing. It talks about the benefits of follow God and why we should be the example. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Are We Held To Higher Standards?
Luke 12:47-48 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
I thought this was really interesting when reading it this morning. I thought it was a great reminder that we are held accountable for the things we know. The more we come to know and believe about Jesus, the higher the standard we are held too. This verse is saying that if you know God’s will and yet you choose not to do it, you choose to ignore God’s will, you will be punished more than you would if you didn’t know God’s will and went against it. This probably doesn’t seem fair to some of us. I remember I was at a Bible study in England and we were talking about something in the Bible, I am not sure what, and we ended up talking about this very thing.
We were talking about sin, I think. One of the prerequisites for something being a sin, at least in the catholic church, is that you have to know it is a sin. If you eat meat on Friday during lent because no one ever told you that you couldn’t eat meat on Friday during lent, then it isn’t a sin for you. I remember someone else saying, what I was thinking. Wouldn’t it be better to not keep learning about the Bible, about God’s laws? Basically, can’t we just live in bliss in our ignorance? Why would we want to keep learning about God’s will and God’s laws if it is going to make our life harder? Someone else asked, “Why are we held to a higher standard? That doesn’t seem fair, we are the ones trying to do the right thing and yet we have to work all that much harder.” I totally understand what this woman was saying, it doesn’t seem fair. It seems like if we are trying to live life the right way, that should be good enough, we shouldn’t have to get it right all the time.
I agree, and I don’t think this verse is saying that we need to get it right all the time. It is not saying that we need to be perfect. That is what grace is for. What I believe it is saying is that we need to try to follow God’s laws and God’s will. I think it is also saying that we can’t hold those who don’t know the laws responsible for following the laws. Would you hold a one year accountable for not talking yet when they just don’t know how? No, it is the same concept with non believers. They don’t know how amazing God is, they don’t know Jesus died for their sins, they don’t know any of it so they can’t be held accountable for following God’s laws.
If this is how we are thinking then it makes sense to us to think that our life would be easier if we stopped learning more about God, if we stopped learning His laws and His ways. However, this verse does not say they won’t be held accountable, it says they won’t be held as accountable. Their punishment won’t be as severe because they didn’t know better but there will still be a punishment. This is because they are making a choice to stay ignorant. They are making a choice to not learn about God and His ways. There are opportunities every where you turn to learn more about God. There are lots of churches, there are countless online resources, from websites to podcasts and everything in between. There are so many more movies now that are religious in nature. There is a whole TV series about Jesus’ life called the Chosen. Even just watching that you would learn so much about Jesus and who he is and what He taught.
There is no excuse for not knowing about God. Every person has a responsibility to learn as much as they can about Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit. Walking around in ignorance is not a good option. I know on the surface level that seems like an easier way of living, maybe even a better way of living because it may seem like there aren’t so many rules. However, they may be living without the rules, but they are also living without the grace, they are living without the sacraments, they are living outside of a relationship with God. I wouldn’t trade my relationship with my heavenly father for anything, would you? Would you still want to be held at a lower standard if it meant you would be outside of a relationship with God? When we look at what is fair and what isn’t we should look at all they are missing out on.
The reason we are held to a higher standard is because God gives us what we need to rise to the occasion. He gives us the Holy Spirit to help us follow the laws, He gives us grace when we mess up. However, we also have others watching what we are doing. If we are Christian then we are representing God and all other Christians. People will look to us to see what a Christian is like. If we say we are Christian but we don’t live our lives like Jesus taught us to then we ruin the reputation of all Christians. We might have people who look to us to see how they should be living. They may say, she doesn’t go to church, so I don’t have to go to church. She is Christian and yet she gossips, so I guess gossiping isn’t so bad after all. Do you see how by saying you are Christian, but then not live according to how Jesus taught us, you could be inadvertently causing someone else to stray for God or to sin.
Matthew 18:6 says, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” God takes our role as role models and mentors seriously. If we are going to claim to be Christian than we should act like it, we should live our lives accordingly. We should be good representatives of Jesus so that if someone looks at us and how we are living they will see that we know Jesus and that He is directing how we are living our lives. We are held to a higher standard because we have been give the Holy Spirit to help us sin no more. We have been given the grace to get it wrong and yet repent and try again. Growing in our faith, growing in our knowledge of God and of our faith and of what God expects from us is so much better than living in ignorance just so we aren’t held as accountable. With more knowledge comes more grace, more fruit of the Spirit.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing and we love you. We ask that you help us to follow your ways. We ask you to help us be good role models. We ask you to help us continue down the path of learning all about you and how you want us to live. Lord, help us to release any feelings of unfairness. Help us to follow your ways filled with joy knowing you love us and shower us with your grace. We are so grateful for you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to bringing you another witness tomorrow. I would like to ask each one of you listening to consider giving a witness. If you are not sure what you would say try to answer one of these questions. What hard times have I been through and how did God help me through them? What things in my life worked out so perfectly I know it had to have been God arranging it? When have I been in a situation where I wasn’t sure I was going to make it but I did? When I look back over the years where can I see that things worked out perfectly even though at the time they seemed anything but perfect? These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. Your witness/testimony can be about anything you like it to be about. I know each and everyone of you has a story because God works in all of our lives. If you don’t really know what to say and would rather do an interview style witness, we can do that too. I am so passionate about Witness Wednesdays because I know how important testimony is to the building up of faith. Please consider stepping outside of your comfort zone and sharing your story. I will meet you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!