Friday after the Third Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 8, 2022 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 16:16-17 (NKJV)
16:16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.
Devotion
Here we have another example of the false teaching Pharisees trying to justify themselves according to laws and appearances. Our Lord makes clear, again, that the Law of God is good, in spite of their sinful distortion of it. Some false teachers fail in the other extreme, disparaging the Law and the Old Testament as “dated” and no longer relevant. Yet, these remain important facets of God’s Word and revelation to us: the Law and the Prophets have not failed or passed away, but they have been fulfilled!
Any failure associated with any component of our Lord’s Word is not His failure, but the failure of man.
In conversion and throughout the Christian life, God’s Holy Spirit makes us humble and discerning so that we hear what Christ teaches, understanding that there is history and context that came before us. There are experiences and perspectives that are different from what our senses have encountered in our few short decades of earthly life: God is eternal! Our Lord is above all, so His divine perspective is more important than our assumptions. He blesses us by preserving His Law and Prophets for our learning (1 Cor.10:11). Through these, He reminds us that His Church is indeed catholic and universal, existing beyond our experiences and culture—an affirmation that He truly does love the world and has been working ceaselessly from the beginning of time to bless us and save us from sin, death, and the devil.
Prayer: O God, the Protector of all that trust in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy; that Thou being our Ruler and Guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
