The Fifth Mark of a True Disciple of Jesus

True disciples bear the fruit of love

True disciples bear the fruit of love

Love is the inevitable fruit of true, living faith in Jesus Christ.

The apostle John says this unequivocally: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7–8, ESV)

Thus, the person who lacks love does not have living faith in Jesus, is not a disciple of Jesus, and is not a Christian, no matter what he claims.

Christian stalwarts?

This is so even if people show many other signs of faith. Notice the impressive list of qualifications of church members in the ancient city of Ephesus, who nevertheless were on the verge of being rejected by Christ. In Revelation 2:2–5, Jesus warns them:

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

Hatred

On the other end of the scale, the sin of persistently hating another Christian is a sign of being a person who is in the darkness rather than the light:

First John 2:9–11 says, “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

This is a level of darkness incompatible with a true Christian.

The apostle John confirms this in 1 John 3:14–15: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

The sinner’s ultimate question

A Bible expert once asked Jesus the most important question pointblank: What must I do to be saved? Luke 10:25–28 says:

“Behold, a lawyer stood up to put [Jesus] to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’”

Does this mean a person can be saved by obeying the two most important commands of the Law without receiving Jesus? No, the rest of the New Testament makes that clear. No one can perfectly keep these commandments, and therefore everyone needs the salvation that comes through faith in Christ (Romans 3:10–26).

Nevertheless, Jesus’ response to the man’s question reveals the sure mark of having eternal life: love for both God and people.

As the apostle John confirms: “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3–4, ESV)

Further confirmation

If you need further confirmation that love is the essential sign of true and living faith in Jesus, read on:

The apostle John writes: “(10) By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (11) For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. … (16) By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. … (23) And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. (24) Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him.” (1 John 3:10–11, 16, 23–24 ESV)

In John 15:8–17, Jesus said: “(8) By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (9) As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (10) If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love…. (12) “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (13) Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (14) You are my friends if you do what I command you…. (17) These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

In John 13:34–35, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Conclusion

Without question, love is the inevitable fruit of true, living faith in Jesus Christ—faith that receives him as Lord, Savior, and ultimate treasure.

If your love is lacking, what you need to do is not to try harder to love others; rather, you need to truly receive Christ as Lord, Savior, and ultimate treasure. Repent of your sins. Then give yourself to loving him. Ask him to pour his love into your heart through the Holy Spirit. And out of love for him, obey his command to love your neighbors and your fellow believers as yourself.

November 20, 2023November 18, 2023

Will Lawlessness Keep “Christians” out of Heaven?

Better to face the truth now than to be bewildered on the Day of the Lord.

Many people who assume they are genuine Christians will be astonished on the Day of the Lord to learn they are not. On Judgment Day they will be shocked to discover they are rejected from heaven because they are not true disciples of Jesus Christ.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke of this.

“I never knew you”

Jesus said, “(21) Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (22) On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ (23) And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21–23)

Lord, Lord

In verse 21–23, Jesus says some people who call him Lord will be rejected by him. Let that sink in deeply. These people not only acknowledge certain beliefs about Jesus, they actually call him Lord. They use the title for him that represents his authority, suggesting that they are obedient and surrendered to him.

Nevertheless, Jesus refers to them in verse 23 as “workers of lawlessness.” They were regularly and deliberately disobedient to the laws of God. They rebelled against God’s words. Therefore, they were also hypocrites because they called Jesus Lord but habitually and unrepentantly disobeyed him.

Jesus says to them: “I never knew you.” It was not as though they had started well and then drifted back into the world of sin. Jesus never knew them, not at the start of their “Christianity” nor in the middle nor at the end. They never made the decision to become a true disciple of Jesus, learning from him, confessing and repenting of sin, following him.

They assumed because they made a verbal show of following Jesus and did religious things that they were right with God and on their way to heaven. They were bewildered to find rejection in the presence of Jesus.

Jesus says in verse 21 that the one who will be accepted by him on the day of the Lord is “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” These people obey the enduring moral laws of God the Father. They are true disciples of Jesus, meaning they learn from him and obey him.

Building a house

Immediately after this teaching, Jesus tells the parable of building a house on the rock.

“(24) Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (25) And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. (26) And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. (27) And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24–27 ESV)

What distinguishes the house that stands in the storm from the house that is destroyed is, one person hears the Lord’s words and puts them into practice and the other person hears the words but ignores them.

One person becomes a true disciple of Jesus and the other does not. In the storm of Judgment Day, the true disciple stands the test and is received into heaven. The lawless, unrepentantly immoral person sees his life swept away.

This makes it clear that when Jesus tells the parable of the two builders, he is elaborating on the teaching of verses 21–23, where he says that some people will be shocked to find on the day of the Lord that though they call Jesus the Lord of their lives they have in fact been living in lawlessness; they have been disobeying his words; and therefore they are rejected. That is why verse 24 begins, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine….” The word then indicates that Jesus intends for verses 24–27 to build on what he said in verses 21–23.

The rejected man in verses 21–23 is the same person in verses 26–27, the “foolish man who built his house on the sand.” He never was a genuine disciple of Jesus. Only true disciples are true Christians who in the end will enter the kingdom of heaven.

October 30, 2023November 13, 2023

Can You Be a Christian and Not a Disciple?

A disciple knows that God is jealous

For all who seek to Know God and His Ways, it is essential to understand one thing well: he requires first place in your life.

We see this in the Old Covenant in the 10 Commandments (see Exodus 20). God begins the 10 Commandments by insisting that Israel not have any other gods. He explains, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5).

In fact, elsewhere God says his very name is Jealous: “You shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14 ESV).

So, this is fundamental to God’s relationship with human beings and with you; he requires primacy of place, he requires that he be first in your life without any competitors (such as family members, money, possessions, the world in general, and so on).

Is Jesus Jealous?

We see Jesus has the same jealousy when he insists on being first in our lives and that we be fully surrendered to him as true disciples.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24–25)

And, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37)

Most people who call themselves Christians in America do not understand this. I was speaking recently with a woman whom I had just met while doing sidewalk outreach, and I asked her if she was a Christian. She answered yes. Then I asked, Are you a disciple of Jesus? She answered no.

Notice her assumption. She believed someone could be a Christian without being a disciple of Jesus. She knew she was not obeying Jesus, and she knew she was not truly following him. She believed in him, she gave assent to truths about Jesus such as that he is the son of God, that he died for our sins and rose from the dead. But she knew well she was following the world instead of Jesus. Nevertheless, she felt she could be a real Christian on the way to heaven.

A Christian but not a disciple?

That clearly is not true. Jesus makes numerous statements that should destroy the hope of anyone who claims to be a Christian but is not living as a true disciple of the Lord.

For example, Jesus said:

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

“Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

“But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46–49 ESV)

Notice the common feature of the two people in this parable. They both listen to the words of Jesus. They both hear his words. However, one person hears the Lord’s words and does them, and the other person hears them and does not do them.

The flood

There is another common element in the story for both people. That is the flood that rises and breaks against their houses. This is where the common features end. When the stream breaks against the one man’s house his house stands because it was built on heeding the words of Jesus. The other man’s house collapses when the stream strikes it because though he listened to the words of Jesus he ignored them.

Notice how the result is described in the disobedient man’s life: his house “fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” That is a description that Jesus would never use to describe someone whose soul is saved. No true Christian ends up with the collapse of her life. No true Christian ends up with his house in great ruin.

The house, of course, represents one’s life. Everyone is building a house. Your house is made of beliefs, values, behaviors, thoughts, priorities, habits, actions, words, relationships, goals, accomplishments, failures, sins, good works.

The flood and stream that sooner or later break against it is Judgement Day, when every person must stand before God and give an account.

Your foundation

How well are you building? Are you digging deep and building on the Rock? Or are you building on the ground without a foundation—the world system which is indifferent to Christ and rebels against him?

So, this is God’s nature, and these are his ways. He must have first place in your life, and if he has that place then there will be obedience in you. You will be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. If you have never settled that with the Lord, do it now. And then write me about your decision.

October 10, 2022September 27, 2022

We Are Tested by God’s Call to Surrender

In Genesis 22, God tests Abraham to see if he has truly surrendered.

Looking on the world from a great height does wonders for your soul. Living for years on the 20th floor of a Chicago high-rise, I get to watch massive cloud formations come and go, to marvel at pulsing bolts of lightning and fierce storms near and far, to gaze thirty miles on a sunny day, to enjoy colorful sunsets of endless variety. To see far and wide even on a normal day feels epic.

In this new series of posts on divine testing we will see far and wide, for we come now to one of the great tests of every soul. We see the shape of this test in the paradigmatic story of God’s testing Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering.

God tests Abraham

The writer of Genesis leaves no doubt about God’s purpose in the event, beginning the narrative, “After these things God tested Abraham” (22:1). The test begins with one short command. Abraham suddenly, unmistakably, hears God call his name and say, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (v. 2).

The Lord does not tell Abraham why to do this or much about how. Instead he makes clear he knows how precious Isaac is to Abraham, tenderly describing Isaac as “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” God knows what he is asking of Abraham. He understands emotion, relationship, love. He is not an impersonal force making heartless demands. The Lord understands the bond between father and son, for God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is love, and as we will see, because he is love he gives this command.

Abraham responds promptly. He awakes early the next morning to do what God said. He does not delay a few days to think over whether he will obey.

Abraham is hands-on. Instead of delegating preparations to servants, the old man (approximately age 110–115) does them himself. He saddles the donkey. He cuts wood for the sacrifice, for this is not ordinary wood but sacred wood on which he will offer to God his precious son. Five times this short narrative calls attention to the wood.

Abraham acts decisively. Five times the narrative uses some form of the word take to describe his actions. He is not suffering from shock at God’s request, not bewildered or immobilized. He knows and trusts the Lord and thus acts with forceful resolution. So he takes the wood, two servants, fire, knife, and Isaac—the son whom God promised to him, whom God called Abraham’s “only son” (v. 2)—and they depart.

Continued next week.

April 25, 2022July 26, 2022

Truth #11 (part a) – Faith Can Grow

On our own we have zero capacity for faith in the true God revealed in the Bible. Therefore to grow in faith we need the God-given means of faith.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus admonished his disciples for their lack of faith in situations that would have tested even people of much faith?

The most surprising example of this was when a violent storm had nearly swamped the boat they were in, as Jesus slept peacefully on pillow. When the panicked disciples woke him, “he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm” (Matthew 8:26).

We naturally think that it would take enormous faith not to be afraid in that situation. But Jesus faulted them for their fear, for their “little faith.” He did the same on other occasions. When the disciples could not cast out one particularly stubborn demon and the disciples asked him why, he pulled no punches, explaining, “Because of your little faith” (Matthew 17:20).

He said if they had faith only as small as a mustard seed they could move mountains. Yet the disciples did show faith when they left everything to follow him. So why did he fault them on other occasions?

The answer must be they had failed to rightly and fully employ the means of grace God had provided. They had neglected to use the ways God has given us all to grow in faith, and as a result they were men of little faith.

One of those means of growing in faith is reason.

1. Reason

Contrast the twelve disciples with the centurion—a gentile, no less—who rightly employed one of the means of faith, so much so that Jesus marveled. He asked Jesus to come and heal his servant and told him not to bother coming to his home but merely speak a word of command and the servant would be healed.

He explained, “For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” (Matthew 8:9).

Jesus remarked that he had never seen such great faith with anyone in Israel. On what did the centurion’s faith rest? On the foundation of reason. He had reasoned that if soldiers under his authority had to obey his words, then nature, including the disease in his servant’s body, had to obey the words of someone as manifestly authoritative as Jesus.

Although no one can come to saving faith in God by using unaided human wisdom and philosophy, God has ordained that human reason does play an important role in faith. That is why observing nature, for example, can lead to faith. It is obvious to any sane person without a sinful bias that a world of such amazing beauty, design, wisdom, and glory could not have come about except by an all-powerful and all-wise Creator. That is the right use of reason, and it leads to faith.

Let’s look at more God-given means to great faith.

2. The natural world

In the paragraph above we saw that reason can learn things about God from the natural world, and that is because it also is one of the most important means of faith.

Romans 1:19–20 says, “What can be known about God is plain to [unrighteous people], because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

The natural world shouts, There is a God! He has eternal power! He is divine!

Psalm 19:1–2 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”

Contemplating God’s role in the natural world can not only cause people to believe that God exists, it increases the faith of those who already believe. Ponder the complex design of the human body, for example, and you can grow in faith as you realize how great is the wisdom required to create and sustain life (see Psalm 139). And then you reason, If God can do that, he can do this.

3. Obedience

In large measure, faith is an act of obedience. We humbly choose to believe what God says, whether we understand it or not, whether we like it or not.

Romans 16:26 speaks of “the obedience of faith.”

Second Thessalonians 2:10 speaks of “those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” Such refusal is an act of the will. It is a choice. Such refusal is an act of intellectual disobedience.

Jesus told a group of people who raised questions about his credentials for teaching: “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” (John 7:17).

In other words, the reason many people do not believe Jesus is they do not want to do God’s will. They attempt to hide their disobedient hearts by raising an unending list of questions and objections to this and that about God and the Bible, which they claim causes them not to believe. But Jesus says the real issue is they do not believe because they do not want to believe. They want to sin; they are in rebellion; and they rationalize it with unbelief.

Christians too can disobey intellectually

So how does this principle affect a sincere follower of Jesus? Even after we become Christians, pride and intellectual disobedience can be a problem. Thinking we know better than the Bible in certain issues is common even for Christians, especially when in those issues the Scriptures go against the grain of the wider culture. If we regularly find ourselves questioning, even challenging, the Bible, whether it is true and inerrant in all it maintains, we need to humble ourselves and accept the authority of Scripture over our minds and beliefs.

Faith is an act of obedience. I choose to believe what the Scripture says whether I understand it or not, whether I like it or not, whether our current culture approves or not. Why? Because Jesus always treated the written Scriptures as the inspired, inerrant, Word of God, and I believe that his life and ministry and resurrection from the dead validate his claim to be the Son of God. He knows what he is talking about.

I do not. I am a limited, erring human trying to figure out what is real. Proverbs 28:26 says, “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool.” I therefore have chosen to obey the one who I am convinced knows the truth. And so I obey him by believing what he says. Faith is a matter of obedience to one who has shown he knows what he is talking about.

The mindset I have just described would be disastrous if I have chosen to follow a person or philosophy that is false. That would be “drinking the Kool-Aid.” But having surveyed the field, there is no doubt in my mind that only one person and one book have stood the tests of time, reason, history, proven wisdom, science, conscience, and cogency concerning every aspect of life from family to finances to mental health. No one else holds a candle to the blazing light manifest in Jesus and the Bible.

It is the willingness to obey and believe that determines whether other means of faith given by God—such as nature and the Bible and reason and miracles—result in increased faith.

Next week we will continue looking at further God-given means of faith.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

October 29, 2018December 29, 2020

How to Show Others That God’s Name Is Holy

“Hallowed be your name” is more than a prayer. The most important way you show others that God’s name is holy is by believing you can do what he says and following directions.

If you pray the Lord’s Prayer regularly, you are familiar with these words: “Hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9). Have you thought about what you are asking God to do in that request? What does it mean to hallow? And, connecting elsewhere in the Bible, what does this have to do with God’s not allowing Moses to enter the Promised Land? Could it also have something to do with what God allows you to do?

Hallowed be your name

To hallow means to honor as holy. In other words, Jesus taught us to pray: “Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be honored as holy.” What a powerful and important prayer that is! Your great desire and first request of God is that he would cause his name to be honored as holy in your life, family, church, city, nation, and world—not just honored, but honored as holy.

This agrees with what we saw last week, that God is jealous for the honor of his name, that he vindicates the honor of his name. So once again, we see the crucial importance of God’s holiness, how important it is to God and how important it should be to you.

And that brings us now to Moses and his failure at the waters of Meribah, which we’ll see in a moment. For a long time this story puzzled me for two reasons. First, the punishment for Moses’s failure seems out of proportion to his wrongdoing, especially because Moses had been faithful to God in most ways and was his right-hand man. And second, I could only vaguely grasp what Moses’s mistake had to do with a failure to honor the holiness of God.

How Moses failed to hallow God’s name

Here’s the story. After Israel’s 40-year journey in the wilderness, which followed their season at Mount Sinai and after their failure to trust God and enter the Promised Land, Israel came to a place where they could not find water, and as usual they complained against Moses. Numbers 20:6–13 says:

“⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, ⁷ and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ ‘Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.’

“⁹ And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him. ¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

“¹² And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’ ¹³ These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.” (ESV)

Relevance

This story is relevant to your life because you also face situations where you are tempted not to uphold God as holy in the eyes of others. So, let’s try to understand what that means because God today is no less jealous for his holy name, and you don’t want to grieve him or miss entering your promised land, as Moses did.

Careful obedience matters

Moses actually brought water from two rocks in the wilderness to meet Israel’s need, and this story is the second occasion (for the first, see Exodus 17:1–7). There is a critical difference between the two situations. The first time, God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff in order to bring forth water; in the story above, however, God told Moses merely to speak to the rock (v. 8).

But Moses didn’t follow orders. Like the first time, he decided to strike the rock rather than speak to it. He disobeyed God. That is always serious no matter what the action is, as Adam and Eve discovered when they ate the wrong fruit. And it is especially serious for leaders, who are supposed to know better.

And Moses knew better. Aside from Jesus, he probably understood God’s holiness better than any person who has ever lived, having met directly with God and spoken with him many times.

Why Moses disobeyed

God tells us why Moses disobeyed: “Because you did not believe in me” (v. 12). Another translation says, “because you did not trust in me” (NIV). This apparently means Moses doubted that merely talking to the rock could bring the water. He had success once before using his staff to strike the rock to bring water, and he had used his staff many times before to work miracles before Pharaoh and then to part the Red Sea. The staff was physical; he could see it and feel it.

Apparently he trusted that material staff at that moment more than he trusted God’s immaterial word and his own immaterial word. For he raised that staff and struck the rock and felt the need to strike the rock a second time (v. 11). Moses got physical with the rock. And it worked, with water gushing forth.

But it didn’t work to accomplish God’s higher purpose, which I think was to show God as the holy Rock from whom comes water in the desert. God had brought waters from the Rock some 40 years earlier for their parents (Exodus 17), and now God would do the same for the children, who certainly had heard the story of what happened in Exodus 17. Moses knew God as “the Rock” (Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31). Centuries later, the apostle Paul refers to these events: “All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).

That is one core meaning of the holiness of God: there is no one else like him. He is the only Rock.

Misplaced trust

Moses not only trusted his material staff more than God’s immaterial word, it appears that he also trusted himself and Aaron more than he trusted God. Before raising the staff to strike the rock, he angrily said to the people, “Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” (v. 10). We—Aaron and I—we will bring you water; not, God will bring you water. At this moment, Moses did not trust God to bring water from a rock; he trusted himself and his stick. Moses failed to uphold God as holy because Moses, in unbelief, took credit for the miracle.

God specifically told Moses to do this miracle in public (v. 7), to speak to the rock with the entire congregation gathered before him and Aaron. God didn’t want him to do the miracle in private, where no one could see them bring forth water. That would have been safer for Moses, because if the miracle didn’t happen, Moses wouldn’t have had a public failure, embarrassment, and lost credibility to recover from. No, God wanted this public because he wanted to show his holiness to the people through the miracle.

How God vindicated his holiness

God punished Moses by determining that he would not enter the Promised Land with the people at the end of the 40 years. This stung Moses; he mentions it later when writing Deuteronomy (in 3:23–26). And it stung God, for he mentions it again as the day came for Moses to die (Deut. 32:49–52; see also Psalm 106:32–33). Failing to uphold the holiness of God is not a passing foible.

Under such circumstances, how did God show himself holy through the Israelites (v. 13)? He performed a miracle; in his goodness and faithfulness he met their need for water. That is God’s holiness, for holy means good. And he showed himself holy by giving Moses consequences for disobedience while in mercy forgiving him, keeping him as his servant, and ultimately bringing him to heaven. Holy means good, and good means both just and merciful.

Application

Perhaps you know that you are not showing the holiness of God in some area of your life. You should repent without delay.

Perhaps you’re not sure if you are failing to show his holiness in some area. Pray with persistence that God will make this known to you (see James 1:5).

And daily pray: Father, may your name be honored as holy in me today.

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name….

What do you think about this story? How would you interpret it? Please comment below.