WRONG CONCEPTS CAN BE DANGEROUS

WRONG CONCEPTIONS ARE DANGEROUS

Matt. 9:13 “But go ye and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Religion can be hazardous to your eternal well-being.

If any man refuses to be reckoned among sinners, then according to the declaration of the Lord, that man stands outside the circle of people to which His appeal is made. He plainly declared He had no message for the righteous. Christ sat with those who admitted to being sinners and He wished to speak to any who desired to take their seat. See Rom 3:10. "There is none righteous, no, not one."

These words are the more arresting when we remember that they were addressed to the teachers of men. The ones who supposedly had it right and were teaching the people their views. The Pharisees were amazed when they saw the Lord eating with publicans and sinners. Their astonishment was due to their conception of God.

They thought of Him as aloof and distant in His holiness from men who neglected the ceremonial observances of religion, and so considered that all teachers of religion should observe the same attitude. The rebuke of Christ showed that they did not know God, and He told them go and learn the meaning of their own Scriptures.

        Herein is revealed a constant peril. It is terribly possible to be zealous for a wrong conception of God, and of Truth, and so to fail to co-operate with Him in the very enterprise which is dearest to His heart.

Nothing is more important, especially in the case of those who are in any way called upon to represent God to men, than that we should go and learn for ourselves the truth about Him. For us there need be no difficulty in this matter, for He has revealed Himself completely in the Son of His love. The hard morality of Pharisaism is impossible to those who have learned the truth as it is in Jesus. It follows necessarily that there is nothing of greater importance to all who are called to the service of God in the service of men than that they should go and learn. Time and strength of mind and heart and will must be given to the cultivation of that fellowship in which we always grow to fuller knowledge

See CONCEPTIONS OF GOD.