Week 6—Tuesday Matthew 15:32-38
Matthew 15:32-38
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS SECULAR
THROUGH AND THROUGH
Dr. John Oman says: “The test of a true religion is the extent to which that religion is secular.” Startling, but true. The Christian faith is secular without being secularized. It is the spiritual working in and through the material. The sacred is secular and the secular is sacred. Unless our religion functions in material terms, it does not function. We are not ghosts; we are embodied beings and we must function in and through the body or we do not function.
The two blend in Jesus: Even when Jesus insisted on the supremacy of the spiritual, he also insisted on the material as necessary. He said: “I bid you put away anxious thoughts about food to keep you alive and clothes to cover your body. Life is more than food, the body more than clothes. . . . For all these are things for the heathen to run after; but you have a Father who knows that you need them. No, set your mind upon his kingdom, and all the rest will come to you as well” (Luke 12:22-23, 30-31, NEB). While he endeavored to get his hearers to keep their values straight, saying that the spiritual was all-important, Jesus nevertheless put the material in its place as being important—the Father guarantees your physical needs if you seek first the kingdom of God.
The physical needs were met in the kingdom of God according to need—not too much, that will burden you; not too little, for that, too, will burden you. Two groups think too much about the material—those who have too much and those who have too little. We need according to our needs—we need just enough of the material so we can forget it and get on with this business of living.
And this is being verified in life. In a school system dealing with problem children, they found the problem children came out of two classes—one where the young people came out of the class which has more than it needs, and the other from the class which has less than it needs.
O heavenly Father, I thank you that you know my needs. Show me the difference, between my wants and my needs. And let me act upon that difference that I may be free to live and live unclogged. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Not wants, but needs shall determine my conduct today.