Saturday after the Third Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 1, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. John 8:42-47 (NKJV)
8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
Devotion
Many people say that “we are all God’s children.” But many have rebelled against the Maker and despise the Lord and Savior. They have chosen to act and believe as children of the devil, which also makes them liars when they say they are God’s children. One cannot honestly pray “Our Father…” or cry out “Abba, Father” if they reject God’s Son or His commandments.
Our Lord asks, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” None of them had the right or true evidence to condemn Jesus, which is also the work of the devil. He encourages us to take to ourselves works and vocations that are not commanded by our merciful Lord.
To call someone a child of the devil is not just ‘name calling’. It is strong language, and most sinners hate to hear it, but Christians are not automatically unloving if they speak in this same way as their Lord did. Sometimes love and mercy requires that we confront sinners with this truth. Demonic forces and sinful hearts might cause us to writhe and seethe, but those who have the right to call us to repentance are doing so because they seek mercy for us. Even with such faithful efforts at discipline, our Savior comes according to His Word and Spirit, working among us to call sinners to humble repentance and build up His faithful people in proper works of love and mercy.
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, 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.
