From the desk of Pastor Ben
Unbelief Focuses on the Irrelevant
“Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”     (Matthew 13:55-56)
Jesus was simply an average carpenter’s son to those friends and relatives who knew Him while He grew up. This commonness of Jesus and His family contributed to the people’s’ stumbling over His true identity. It was difficult for them to accept Him as a great teacher, much less as the Messiah.
Like people throughout church history, residents of Nazareth found many excuses and irrelevant facts to distract them from the real issues and prevent them from believing. People today don’t like the personality of the evangelist, claim all church members are hypocrites, and dislike the details and order of a worship service. There is always a rationalization for them to reject the clear message of Jesus Christ. The genuine seeker, on the other hand, may have a lot of questions about the Bible and the gospel before turning in faith, but they prove their sincerity by eventually accepting the truth.
True skeptics are easily offended by the most trivial things Christians do, and they often allow those matters to be all-important and the center of their perspective. As for most citizens of Nazareth, they allowed pride, envy, resentment, embarrassment,and dozens of other sinful factors to fill their hearts and prevent them from coming to salvation. We dare not do likewise, or allow others to hide behind irrelevant obstacles to saving faith.
Ask Yourself:
Beyond the smokescreens that hinder people from receiving salvation, we believers can still be quite adept at using all kinds of excuses to keep us from taking Christ’s claims seriously enough to live by them. What are some reasons you’re using to justify less-than-biblical living?