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The Believer
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Friday, July 27, 2007
09:08
Who should we be afraid of? I came across these verses as I sat down for my morning read. I must have come across them dozens of times considering Matthew is one of the books in the bible that I like to run my fingers across and take my time strolling through the stories about my Lord Jesus Christ. But today, it was different. I don't know if it is because it is serving as a warning to me for something about to happen, is happening that I am not aware of, or if it is because of the books (okok, I'm juggling 2 books at once!) I am reading at the moment. If you'd just take a look at what it says in Matthew 10:28, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." First glance at this verse, rather, when I did my double-take on the verse, I thought, "oh gosh, who can destroy our souls? The evil one?" and indeed, the books by RT Kendall that I have been reading have been talking about taking guard against the devil who will exploit us, our flesh - hence this initial first thought. But as I was titling this entry, I wrote "who should we be afraid of?" and I thought, there is only one who is worth our fear, and it is God Himself, and because I was under the assumption that the verse was talking about the devil, I changed my title to "who should we protect ourselves against." However, as I carried on and proceeded to copy the verse from my bible onto this page, I got to "Rather, be afraid of the..." and I thought, cool, there is one thing that we should protect ourselves against, the devil... until I got to the next word. "...the One..." Now, this caused me to do a triple-take on the verse. It struck me as odd that the bible should capitalise the "one" when referring to the devil. I looked closely at the verse again for the 4th time, and I realised that there was a superscript on the word "One". As I thanked God for my mom who got me this study bible, I looked downwards at the reference and this was what it said: "(10:28) The reference is not to Satan, as many suppose, but to God who alone has to power to 'destroy both soul and body in hell'" Now, this entry has itself evolved as I typed it, from something that I intended as a warning against the devil and his evil schemes, to that of a warning that we should only fear the One and Only Living God. I'm amazed at how quickly my interpretation of His word has changed so dramatically in one post because it is going to be something that you will be reading and it has to be right because it is teaching about Him. The devil can only destroy our flesh, and if we allow him to enter our hearts and minds, he will proceed to eat away our soul. But it is Jesus who died on the cross to bring us close to our Father, and it is His blood that heals the wounds that the evil one has inflicted upon our lives, and it is only God Himself whom we should be afraid of because He has power and dominion over everything in this world, universe, heaven, hell and our lives. So in essence, if we only fear God, there is nothing else to be afraid of, because His perfect love will cast out all fear. So be on guard against the evil one, but remember he is under your feet because there is only the One who is worthy of our fear and praise, and He is our God. Our Loving God. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Matthew 10:28 |