Read the Times

February 1, 2011

Read 12:49-59

Luke 12:51
Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.

Following Jesus is not an easy task. Jesus warns his disciples and hearers that allegiance to Him may bring forth conflict and division rather than peace. Jesus’ disciples and hearers must put their faith and trust completely in Him because the time is coming when they will be persecuted and betrayed because of him.

So it is for us. Jesus’ message will bring us into situation where we may even have to be at odds with our family, loved ones and friends. The message of Christ forces us to take sides and at times upset the so-called harmony of the majority but total Lordship to Christ is necessary for us in following him.

Luke 12:56
Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

Jesus rebukes the people for not reading the signs of the time. The early church reads this passage as a warning to be alert, to read the signs of our own generation and interpret the national, social, political events with the lens of the gospel.

So the church, and every believer today, has a prophetic role in interpreting the events of our times. To see the world’s events in our generation and understand the issues through God’s lens is absolutely necessary for us who believe that God loves this world and is still working in our times. It is a call to diligently read our present challenges, decode the signs of our times, to decipher what God’s intention is for the world and then to bring about God’s ‘will on earth as it is in heaven’.

Clarifying God’s role and actions in today’s world may sometimes mean we speak up against those matters that break God’s heart. In doing so, we may indeed be bringing division and discord instead of peace.

But speaking up is a role that we must not cease to do. Being truthful in facing life’s questions and judging them through God’s word is something that we must not cease to do.