Read Matthew 7:1-5.
These few verses consist of only about one hundred words, and yet it is hardly too much to say that at their simple face value they comprise the most staggering document ever presented to mankind. In these five verses we are told more about the nature of man and the meaning of life, and the importance of conduct, and the art of living, and the secret of happiness and success, and the way out of trouble, and the approach of God, and the emancipation of the soul, and the salvation of the world, than all the philosophers and the theologians and the savants put together have told us—for it explains the Great Law. “Burn the rest of the books, for it is all in this one,” would hold in reference to those words.
People are very apt to think, especially when they are strongly tempted, that they can probably escape the clutches of authority in some other way. If, however, they understood that the law of retribution is a cosmic law, impersonal and unchanging as the law of gravity, they would think twice before they treated other people unjustly. The law of gravity is never off duty, and no one would ever dream of trying to evade it, or coax it, or bribe it, or intimidate it. People accept it as being inevitable and shape their conduct accordingly—and the law of retribution is even as the law of gravity.
You may like or dislike the law, and if you wish, you may try to ignore it; but you cannot deny that Jesus Christ taught it, and in the most direct and emphatic way when he said:
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged (Matthew 7:1-2).
Dear brothers and sisters,
As we have celebrated the arrival of Jesus during this Christmas season, let us now honor his words as we prepare for a new year. Just imagine a year in which we are judged kindly by all, given the benefit of the doubt by all, shown mercy and understanding by all and are forgiven by all. If we practice the words quoted above, we will live in that world this year.
It is easy to sing “Joy To The World”. Now is the time to put those lyrics to work as the bearers and practitioners of that joy so that we all may “sleep in heavenly peace”, each night.
Peace,
Z gardener
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