REFLECTION
I find it interesting that Scripture written two millennia ago can be as relevant in a different context today. When this passage was recorded, Jesus was talking to and talking about the teaching and practices of the Pharisees. Pointing out that the Pharisees’ teaching, and rituals were bringing bondage and false hope to the people while bringing financial advantage and prestige to them.

Jesus declared his words would bring life in abundance, not temporal life as with the Pharisees but Zoe life. Zoe life refers to an active, authentic spiritual life focussed on God. The life that following Jesus wholeheartedly would bring.

When this was written there were far less influences on the culture of the times. In Jewish life in that region there were the Romans, the Jewish religious leaders, Jewish culture, and the odd political radical. That is not the case now, so what could this mean today?

For me a clue came when I was doing a little research on the passage and looked up the word thief on my Yahoo web browser. I was then informed that there were around 164 MILLION references to the word thief. You see, with the original Jewish context there were basically two choices as outlined in the text. However, we don’t have just two choices; we have access to information on any belief system, any cultural reference at the touch of a button.

This diversity is probably not the major problem. The major problem is we are distracted very easily because of a plethora of entertainment and information available to us. It is so easy to lose our focus on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith. We can then be lied to, have our time and focus stolen away in the guise of points of interest, research and entertainment. This is a more subtle and heavily disguised ploy of the enemy but no less effective.

The question becomes how do we keep the main thing, the main thing? Our focus must remain on our Lord and His activity in our lives. When was the last time you heard from God?