Most everyone has done something that gives us some kind of security or safe guard in the event of a time of need or for an emergency. Financial experts recommend that we should have at least three months of our monthly income set aside as emergency funds in savings. They also recommended to include with your emergency funds the amount of your health insurance deductible.
We do these things and others to ensure that we are ready for a “rainy day”. We purchase multiple types of insurance policies and extended warranties for that just in case situation. Did you ever wonder, why do we have a spare tire and a jack in our vehicles and not in our garage?
Why do we have all these precautions? Depending who you ask, some will say because we are living in fear, that we have adapted our life styles to a paranoid society. And if you are a Christian, some will accuse you of worrying and not having faith and even quote scripture.
Matthew 6:26-27 (NIV), 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Others will answer, it is out of wisdom and prudence that we prepare as best as we can for that an unanticipated event.
Proverbs 6:6-8 (NLT), 6 Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! 7 Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, 8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
Do you know and have you practiced what Jesus said about how we as believers in Him can be prepared for those unanticipated events that we call storms? The storms that we experience in our lives most of the time we do not know when it will happen, but we all know they will happen. Jesus teaches us about these storms in Matthew 7:24-27, 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” NIV
Jesus was a master teacher; he knew how to capture His listeners attention using parables, allegories and metaphors. This method of teaching was not only effective in helping them to clearly understand but also to apply what he was teaching to everyday life. In this short allegory of Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus also uses another effective teaching tool of comparison.
The comparison that Jesus makes is between two types of persons, “a wise man” and “a foolish man”. There are some points in this allegory that are the same between each of them, however there are also some distinctive differences which under certain situations have distinct consequences.
What is wonderful about all of God’s Word is that it is understandable and applicable to each one of us today no matter what culture we live in and what language we speak.
In this spiritual allegory there are two main characters, the wise man and the foolish man. The Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest distinguishes them as the “intelligent man” and the “imprudent man without forethought or wisdom”.
Jesus very clearly divides His teaching into two distinct halves, one for each man or type of person. However, He starts out each half saying the same thing about each person, “…everyone who hears these words of mine…”. This is the first point that both types persons have in common, they both heard Jesus’ words.
The “words” that Jesus was referring to, was what he had just finished saying in His sermon on the mount, Matthew 5:1 to 7:29. Of course this also applies to everything Jesus said before that time and after. What are we intentionally doing to continually hear Jesus’ words?
The next point that Jesus makes is the first point of the differences between the two type of persons, what they do and do not do about what they have both heard or know what Jesus said. Verse 24b, “and puts them into practice” and verse 26b, “and does not put them into practice”
What does it mean to put Jesus’ words into practice? The New International Version translated the original Greek the best using “practice”. When we practice something, it is not just a onetime thing we do, it is something done in a habitual or routine manner. The answer to the question is easily understood by looking at the synonyms for the word “practice”. Synonyms: application, exercise, use, operation, implementation, execution, enactment, action, doing, make use of, put to use, utilize, apply, engagement. However, we also must understand a simple “no-brainer” fact. We cannot put into practice Jesus’ words if we haven’t heard or don’t know what He said. How much time daily are we dedicating to expose, read, and listen to Jesus’ words?
Among many aspects about putting Jesus’ words into practice in our relationship with Him is that it requires trusting in Jesus that He will do what He said, in other words faith. A good example of this is in Matthew 14:25-31. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?
As Christians we say that we do not practice religion but we have a relationship with Jesus, which is correct. But is the relationship we have with Jesus demonstrated in our lives by what we say, do and how we live? In other words, by our testimony, which is the result of our knowledge and trust in His Words? James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
What does it mean and or look like not to put Jesus’ words into practice? James says it clearly, we “deceive yourselves”. No one likes to be cheated or lied to by someone else, but why do we short change ourselves and even become complacent with less than what is ours by not trusting and putting Jesus words into practice? When we do not put Jesus words into practice, Jesus says we are “foolish” (“imprudent …without forethought or wisdom”).
Living a life of faith and trusting in Jesus’ words is acting on them and also an indication of our sincere relationship with Him. As we spend the time studying Jesus’ words, our relationship with Him grows deeper, matures and will be noticed especially in the storm.
Pastor John
