Fitting a camel through the eye of a needle

A while back I had someone ask me if I was going to be stranded on a deserted island and could take only one book what that book would be. My answer came quickly and easily without any thought whatsoever...the Bible.

It also happened to be the exact same answer my husband gave at the exact same moment.

My answer would be the same today as it was then and it would come just as quickly. I sit here now, many months after being asked that question, I have thought of it many times since it was posed to me. Not because I think it will ever be an issue in my life, after all, one must actually cross the sea, or at least a lake or large river, to ever face such a possibility. I'm not saying I couldn't find myself in that situation, I'm just saying it doesn't seem probable considering the life the Lord has set me in. But I have thought many times of that question even though such a happening does not seem logical for my life.

The reason I have pondered that thought so many, many times is because of what it would mean for me if I were to find myself in such a situation. I have considered what it would be like to have nothing but Scripture. Not only that but I've thought of what it might be like if one was raised on an island with no outside influence and then at some point began to read Scripture, approaching it with no preconceived ideas, no teachings of men.

I was recently pointed to Matthew 19:24:

And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (KJV)

When I was pointed to that verse, I was told that the history behind it was fascinating. 

I am aware of the various ideas of what that verse MIGHT mean and the two main understandings, the first one being to take it literally, the second being a theory that the eye of a needle was actually the name of a narrow gate in a wall through which camels must be unloaded and made to kneel down and crawl in order to get through it. 

I prefer the literal translation, that Christ was speaking of rich men, that he meant a real live camel, and that the eye of a needle was actually the little hole at the end of a sewing needle. And I much prefer the understanding that Christ was speaking clearly, that the black and white of His words in Scripture are exactly what He meant. 

But...I can understand why those that put stock in their own ability...or responsibility...to gain their salvation would grab onto the explanation that the eye of the needle was a gate that the camel must kneel down to crawl through. I can understand how that belief in that verse supports their belief that they must choose Christ, coming to Him out of their own free will. 

What I don't understand is what happens if we follow the rest of chapter 19 through that subject. 

When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (vs 25-26)

With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Oh, the comfort that comes from that. God can do what man cannot. Why need we worry over trying to squeeze into a tiny opening that we do not fit through, although I must admit that I am not a rich man, when I need only realize that, rich man or no, the Lord will yank me through the eye of the needle at His will and not at any works I do to try and fit through it. 

But my intent today isn't to disect that verse but to think of how the differing theory's lead themselves to only one explanation. At least they do so far as I can see. That explanation is that one must approach Scripture with preconceived ideas, or earthly teachings, to take that verse as anything but what it says in Scripture. 

Assuming a person was raised with zero outside influence and they read that verse, also assuming they knew what a camel and a needle were, they would have no other idea of any understanding of that verse except the literal. 

When the Lord first drew me out of Arminianism I had to unlearn everything I ever knew about what Scripture supposedly said and I had to relearn what it really said straight from the pages of Scripture. I wasn't lucky enough to start my first taste of Scripture knowing nothing of man taught understandings of it. I had to weigh what it really says against what I was taught it says. 

It truly is not my intention today to oppose anyone's understanding of Matthew 19:24. I leave each person to their own understanding, hoping only that they read that verse and the handful of verses that come after it, so that they can form their own conclusions. I do not even see that verse as being the most important out of that passage but the one that follows it:

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 

But then again, one's perspective on what's most important there, not that any part of Scripture is unimportant, may depend on their interpretation of Matthew 19:24. 

And even as I write that last paragraph, I can't help thinking of what it would be like to be able to simply approach Scripture with no more foreknowledge of what it says than the understanding that a newly born baby has. 

My husband and I discussed this passage, both agreeing that the main point here is that what is impossible for man, is possible for God. But we also discussed something else...

How would one come by the other interpretations of Matthew 19:24? How would a person know to equate the eye of a needle to a gate in a wall in Jerusalem? How would they know that camel has been speculated to be cable or that the needle spoken of has been theorized to be a much larger needle than what we are accustomed to? The only way one could possibly know any of that is if they had some sort of extra-biblical teaching on the verse. 

As we discussed that, I couldn't help thinking of what insight I gained during our deep study of Scripture last summer and on all the many things that the teachings of men have done to man's understanding of Scripture. And as I thought of those lessons, and applied them to this topic, I realized something else. 

When the New Testament was recorded it wasn't written down as a single book. It wasn't handed into the hands of people that generally held the same knowledge no matter where they lived. There was no standardized curriculum for school kids. There was no internet to give the same description of a topic to each person that looked it up. 

As my husband recently said, 'in biblical times people generally lived and died within about 25 miles of where they were born'. 

In those days the world really was a very small place. Travel took days at the least and often months or more should one want, or need, to travel to far off countries. There were no airplanes to take one across thousands of miles in a matter of hours. There were no cars, trains or any other modes of modern transportation that takes our giant world and shrinks it to something so easily traveled whether we are simply going to the grocery store or around the globe.

When the book of Matthew was written and distributed, how did it get into the hands of men? How did it reach people in different places? It sure didn't come to them through an internet search. It didn't even reach them as a printed book. It may have come to them through spoken words or it may have reached them through handwritten words on parchment or papyrus, maybe on a scroll, possibly in full, possibly in part. 

However it reached them...for anyone outside Jerusalem, can we assume they even knew of the theorized eye of the needle gate? Did every city have such a gate, and if so did it go by the same exact name? 

Again, it is not my intent to disect that verse. I hold to a literal understanding of it, meaning I think a needle is a needle and a camel is a camel but I am not trying to teach that understanding to others, nor am I trying to dispute the gate in the wall theory, although I do not agree with it. What I'm trying to do is share my thoughts that even the theory of a gate in a wall would be approached differently by people in biblical times based on where they lived and whether or not they knew of the theorized eye of the needle gate, assuming it was a real gate. 

If the book of Matthew reached a village some 30, 50, 500 miles from Jerusalem and the people in that village knew nothing of the eye of the needle gate (if it existed)...what would they think Matthew 19:24 meant? 

It's an honest question. Not something I am trying to teach anyone. It's just that for anyone, even those in biblical times to apply the understanding of the eye of the needle being a gate in the wall of Jerusalem, those people would have to know about that gate and understand what it was and how it was used. Therefore they would have to approach Scripture with their own understandings of something firmly in place to reach the conclusion that Christ was speaking of a gate in a wall and not a sewing needle. We must do the same today. One must know the theories behind that verse to be able to come to any conclusion beyond a literal one. 

I fall into the take Scripture literal category. I choose to look at the words written on paper, the black ink on the white background, rather than to interpret Scripture through whatever man conceived understandings one might apply to it. 

And so once again, I find myself thinking of how nice it would be if we could simply pick up the Bible and read it with a blank slate of understanding. 

A question about when I became 'elect'

I recently received a letter in which the writer asked me some questions about my faith. As I wrote out my response I couldn't help thinking that what I was writing to a friend was something that others might wonder too. I also knew that my husband had more than a passing interest in the conversation, flowing through letters mailed back and forth, between my friend and I but his interest rarely holds to sitting long enough to hear my word for word answers, and even less rarely her word for word questions (or statements). So here I sit, with my written letter in hand, ready to mail it out but unable to do so because I feel the need to share bits of what I wrote here.

 But first a bit of background information. This is a friend I have known for many years. When we first met I was still very much 'churchinized' as my husband puts it and I saw in Scripture the things I had been taught to see. That was the person my friend came to know and love. And as I write this I hope she will forgive me sharing her questions here because without her questions my answers will make little sense.

I was asked: "I thought back over the years of knowing you and some of our early talks...Then I was thinking of the phone call where you told me about your change in...belief. So, what made you, at that point, become 'elect' as you put it?

I must admit that her question is a very good one. I think if I did not understand regeneration and election as I do I might be asking the same question of someone that I had watched go from a free will believer to what I now believe.

And so I began my answer, not at the question but years ago when we first met. I shared much personal information that I won't go into here but I would like to summarize a small portion of that for just a moment. There was a time that I experienced something that left me begging the Lord for a break in my circumstances. It was one of those situations where the needed break was due to physical pain and every prayer for relief came when I reached the point that I could not stand the pain anymore. And everytime I asked the Lord for relief...relief was granted. The pain just vanished. Those breaks never lasted long but they lasted just long enough to let me regroup and rest before the pain returned. At this point my faith, though deeper than it had once been was still very much a 'church' taught kind of faith. I knew only what I had been taught through my years in Baptist and Pentecostal 'churches' and through growing up the great-granddaughter of a Baptist preacher.

And now I will switch to copying down the answer I gave my friend.

"Even then, though, I knew there was something off with the way I had been taught one attained salvation. Way back..."(years before) "...I questioned whether the salvation prayer attained one salvation. I couldn't see how it possibly could but I knew no other way. And so I prayed out my doubts, begging the Lord to save me, and I said the salvation prayer SO many times.

That was still my mindset when I..."(experienced the time of great pain)"...But I had no idea how hard..." (that pain) "...would be. I prayed all the way through..." (it).

"And for the first time in my life I saw immediate answer to prayer- to my prayers. When the pain would become too much I would pray-beg God-for a break from the pain. And like a miracle...(the pain) would stop. Just like that...and I would get...a reprieve....while I just rested. These breaks came without fail in answer to every prayed request...

And so I came out of...(that painful situation)...different than I went into it. Nothing I had ever been taught about the Bible, God, or Jesus explained what I had experienced. Still, life...kept me busy...there was little time to do more than think, remember those instantly answered prayers, and keep praying. I don't remember what I prayed in those days but gradually I began to seek for something...understanding, I guess, and I prayed for it too.

It was sometime...(later)...that I bought a book from a Mennonite company titled, 'The Kingdom that turned the world upside down'. That book taught me something I had never been told before-if you keep my commandments. It introduced me to the understanding that true Christianity wasn't just about a salvation prayer and going to 'church' on Sundays while living for the world.

Still, something was missing. I was missing something. I had this feeling there had to be more but where to find it? How to find it?

...I was seeking for answers, searching for-I guess the best way to say it is-more. More of Christ. More of what it meant to be a Christian. Searching for answers. It was like my soul knew there was more but my mind didn't know how to find it.

So I searched. I visited the Amish. Read their books. I searched out Mennonite communitities. Read their books. Researched different 'churches'. Visited a few. Learned the beliefs of different denomintations, talked to people from some of them. I'm sad to say that in all that searching my Bible reading was only sporadic. I was looking for 'real' Christians but I was also looking in the wrong places.

Somehow I guess I still studied enough Scripture to be learning from it.

And in all that searching and learning-although my Scripture learning was more along the lines of seeking out 'thou shalt nots' than anything else, even when those 'thou shalt nots' weren't even in Scripture.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out if Scripture required women to wear dresses or not so I eventually decided it didn't matter. If there was any chance it might require it I was going to do it. So I spent 6 months wearing dresses only. I value those memories but dresses got me no closer to Christ.

It was during that time I struggled over headcoverings. I never found my ansers on that back then either...

All of this was going on in my heart and mind during those early years of our friendship, some of it I shared with you, a lot of it I didn't.

The searching, my searching, even extended to which Bible was the 'right' Bible. I did talk to you about that. Back then I was reading an NIV Bible. I came to the conclusion it was a bad Bible. didn't like what I read about the ESV, and eventually settled on the KJV even though I didn't like the history of it.

Eventually, i got it in my head/heart that I needed to have read the entire Bible so I set out to do that. I set aside an hour every night for Bible reading. My only goal was to be able to say I had read the whole Bible and so I read, sometimes not even understanding what I was reading. I worked through Scripture like a checklist, checking off first chapters then whole books until I accomplished my goal. I read the entire Bible.

I picked up parts of Scripture I had been unaware of. I learned things but mostly I gained the ability to say I had read the entire Bible all the way through.

But I gained something else too, something i had no idea I gained. I gained the understanding that God is in control. I have read over some things I wrote back then. I see those references to this still unkown to me understanding of Scripture and God. Only that new knowledge was still pretty much swallowed up in all that I had been taught in 'church'.

...That was still quite some time before I met...(my husband)...but all of that was going on in me while I knew you. I only told you snippets of all that.

And so there I was, seeing things in Scripture but seeing them through the things I had been taught in 'church'.

It was into this that...(my husband)...walked.He never once told me 'Scripture says this'. At first we talked just a bit of this and that. Then he asked me to go read Ephesians 1 and tell him what I thought.

I'll be TOTALLY honest with you. I thought I was imagining things. I read Eph 1 over and over and over again. I didn't believe I could be seeing what I was seeing. Surely I was wrong. I read it in multiple Bible translations. I read the commentary in the only Study Bible I had, and NIV study Bible. I finally resigned myself that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I DID NOT want to tell...(my future husband)...what I saw but he was waiting for my answer. So I told him, explaining that I read it in multiple, that my study Bible confirmed what I read. I was certain he would think I was crazy.

Only he didn't think I was crazy. And so you see...(my husband)...didn't brainwash me into this "...belief" as you put it. I searched and prayed myself into it. I begged the Lord, sometimes on my knees, sometimes in tears, always with a desperate, seeking heart for it. ...(my husband)...kind of nudged me toward the one set of verses that were the catalist for making the scales, the blinders, fall from my eyes but he NEVER told me what Scripture said.

You asked, "what made you, at that point, become 'elect' as you put it?" Honestly, I don't know for ccertain when I would have become 'elect'. If you've read anything of my ealry blog posts, I wrote often of how my conversion came slowly, so slowly that I have no idea when it happened.

It was after I read Eph 1 that I could clearly see the verses that spoke of God's soveriegnty, his choosing His people, election, predestination, etc. but seeing the Truths in Scripture wasn't what made me elect. Somewhere along the way the Lord changed me, changed my heart. I know when the final changes happened but I don't know when the 'elect' as you put it happened.

I know for...(my husband)...it literally happened overnight. He went to bed crying out for the Lord to save him and he woke up changed the next morning. I know another man that went to bed hating God and woke up the next morning loving him, longing for Him.

But it's not always so instantaneous. I once heard a testimony of a woman I have never met. She was drawn so slowly that she had no idea when her conversion happened either.

For some there is that "boom" moment but for others it happens so gradually that, for me, at least, I can't pinpoint the exact moment. I could make a guess as to when it happened if I had to but it would be a guess."

I am going to end this post here even though there is more to the questions my friend asked and there is more of my response that I wish to share. Since the next question takes more of a general tone and less of a personal tone I will split my reply into two posts.

A question about how one becomes 'elect'

In my last post I wrote of a question I was asked by a friend in regards to my regeneration, or what she called being 'elect'. Her letter contained more than one question, although her questions all centered on the same subject. Now I'd like to share her next question and my response to it.

She said, "At the point of believing that God predestines a group to hell-then boom! I am 'elect'."

Here is my response:

"Yes and no. Yes, there does come the moment of regeneration-of the new birth-but NEVER at any point in their life was anyone predestined for salvation headed to hell. The Lord ALWAYS knew that person was His. There just comes that moment when He regenerates them-resulting in a BOOM! moment even if they don't know when it happened.

Next you said, "as we have seen, people who believe in that tend to think free will believers are devilish and almost 'hate' them-as the lady on your blog." Some do feel that way, yes, but not all of them. As I've stated before the belief or lack of belief in free will is a dividing line between people that believe in Christ. Both sides can't be right. One side has to be wrong. As I've also stated before-most people are CERTAIN that what they believe is right...

You said, "Why don't you hate Arminians?...that has been the tone since the reformation." ...Some people get so stuck in their 'I am right' stance that they cannot accept anothers faith or extend grace to them...

'Forgive them Father for they know not what they do'. I believe those lost in the free will deception are blinded to the Truth because God has blinded them. I believe (they) cannot see these Truths because God has blinded (them) to them and nothing you or I do can change that, only the Lord can open (their) eyes to these Truths.

And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. 2 Thessalonians 2:11

I believe free will to be the strong delusion, the LIE, spoken of in that verse.

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 2 Corinthians 4:3 KJV

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ESV

And so I don't try to convert (them)...because I see in Scripture that (they) believe God's great delusion. (They) CAN'T see what I see in Scripture so what's the point of me badgering (anyone) about it?...I truly don't think (they) can do anything but hold to (their) works based salvation. (They're) doing all that (they) can to attain salvation for (them) and (their) children and there is no fault in that. Christ said,

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30

It is man's works that make burdens of the Gospel but again "...they know not what they do." So I don't try to convert (them) to my way of believing because I can't convert (them) even if I try my hardest.

...And so you went on to say, "yet it is the free will group that respond in love-as Jesus taught us to do." I can only agree with that to a point. Arminians do hold to a loving acceptance on the surface. They generally welcome anyone into their groups and are not usually openly hostile but that love is also only at a surface level. Push them on their free will belief and they will pretty much all lose the facade of love REAL QUICK...They love so long as you embrace their 'Jesus loves you god' and share their faith in their free will...

Toward the end of your letter you wrote, 'anyway, it's reallys just one question- if someone who believes in free will just all of a sudden starts believing that God is as Calvin stated-then that person automatically becomes 'elect' or no?"

Let me just start by saying...The belief that God controls all and man is depraved without a free will is not the teaching of Calvin. It is the teaching of the Apostles. Of Christ. Of God. It's all through Scripture but it's only there to those that have had the scales removed from their eyes so that they can see the Truth. It is veiled or hidden to the rest. It's not Calvin's teachings. It's Christ's teachings. Calvin is just the man given credit for summarizing it all and so many attribute true Christianity as being Calvinist, removing Christ from it entirely.

Forget Calvin ever existed...wipe thoughts of him and his teachings from your mind...you have accused me time and again of following him despite the fact that I know only his name, who he was (sort of) and a vague notion of what he taught. I DO NOT follow Calvin. I follow Christ. Period.

But back to your question, I think I partly answered it when I summarized how I came to believe this way but that summary did not really answer the base of this question, "If someone who believes in free will just all of a sudden starts believing that God is as Calvin stated-then that person automatically becomes 'elect' or no?"

I do not believe so, no. And here's why I say that. I once showed (4 people) Ephesians 1 and asked them to tell me exactly what they saw in it. I did exactly what (my husband) did to me. I only asked each of (them) to tell me what they saw. I gave no explanations. Before I tell you what happened let me tell you what each of (them) believe.

(person 1- believes in free will. Has anabaptist leanings)

(person 2)- Believes (themselves) a christian...(free will belief)

(person 3) typical Baptist 'church', easy believism, free will, faith

(person 4)- Pagan

And here were the results:

(Person 1)- asked me what I wanted (them) to see, would not tell me what (they) saw.

(Person 2)- gave me some mumbo jumbo answer that made no sense

(Person 3)- said it says we must choose to believe in Jesus

(Person 4)- told me all about how it speaks of predestination.

Of all of (them) (the pagan) was the only one that approached it without man's teachings, or (their) own preconceived ideas of what it said. And (they) were the only one that spoke of, that saw, predestination in those verses...

And so I say, no. The ability to see these Truths in Scripture does not make one 'elect' as you put it or better, it does not mean one is regenerated in the new birth.

I know Presbytarian 'churches' teach these Truths as do Reformed 'churches'. It's possible for one to be taught these things-giving them a head knowledge- so that they understand them, can read them in Scripture, can even teach them to others, but that knowledge stays only in their heads, their hearts have not been changed. They are not born again.

I tend to believe that this is the problem with most people that do not believe in free will yet show hate and I believe it explains how they might almost 'hate' Arminians or anyone holding to different beliefs than they do. Their heads are puffed up in knowledge, believing 'I'm right' but their hearts are hard as stone, as dead man's bones. They have cleaned the outside of their cup but inside they are filthy and no different than every other lost soul.

But that is merely my theory since Scripture doesn't actually tell us what to make of those that profess Truths but show no fruit. I choose to simply take them as I do those that profess Christ but believe in free will- their profession in Christ is enough for me. I will let the Lord sort it out. He knows who are His. It is enough that I should see to my own soul and those entrusted to me, as much as I can. I would not , however want to spend much time with those putting their faith in men's teachings and lacking fruit no matter what they see in Scripture.

...The thing is though, that there is comfort in that great delusion of free will. (Those that believe in it) have the comfort of believing that (they) can gain their children's salvation if (they) can just teach them to 'chose' Christ. Once your eyes are opened to the Truth that man's free will IS a delusion than you're left with the knowledge that teaching anyone to 'chose' Christ is non-Scriptural and gains nothing but a false sense of security. And so it gets hard.

It gets hard because I know that it doesn't matter how much I teach (anyone) of Christ, no matter how much Scripture they know, I CANNOT attain their salvation. Salvation is of God, not of man. It is His will that gives salvation not our will that gains it. "

And here is where I will quit sharing the contents of my letter to a beloved friend, a personal letter that I have chosen to make public because the questions were wonderful questions and because I felt led to share my answers lest anyone, at any time, ever has the same questions.

Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

Last night I was enjoying a bit of Scripture reading. I wasn't doing it to learn anything or to study anything but simply to soak up a bit of the Lord's word. Lately my chosen Scriptures are the book of John. I don't know why I have chosen that book, I just felt the need to read a bit in it.

And so there I sat. Slowly reading my way through chapter five when I came to a stop. Christ had gone to the pool that the angel would sometimes stir up the water in Bethesda and He had encountered there a man who Scripture says had been diseased ''thirty and eight years'' (1599 Geneva edition).

There is Scripture was a man that for all intents and purposes seems to have little bearing on anything. We aren't told who he is, what disease he had, or much of anything about him except a brief glimpse into his infirmities-a long disease that left him unable to get himself into the water to benefit from its healing powers. Then along comes Christ and after just a brief conversation with this man He heals him of whatever disease plagued him.

But it was the next part that made me stop and think. A very short comment in a lot of Scripture.

...Jesus...said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. John 5:14

And that brought me to the end of my Scripture reading for a bit. I found myself contemplating on that single verse.

Here Christ has healed a man of a physical disease and he tells him...sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. My mind just got stuck on that. For a time I set my Bible aside so I could think on that and even later, when I read a bit more Scripture, I still found myself thinking of that verse. In fact I thought of it even after I went to bed. It was still playing on my mind until I fell asleep and it was there again this morning when I awoke.

In this earthly life there is little we humans consider worse than physical infirmities. Our own or our dearest loved ones illnesses or injuries have the ability to grab hold of us like little else does. I once knew someone that would lie in bed over the mildest cold and wail about how he was dying. This person was not a small child but a grown man. A grown man that made everyone around roll their eyes and leave the house to escape his dramatic wails. I've known others that pushed right through an illness never seeming to slow down.

We all respond to our own illnesses in different ways. If those illnesses should be diseases instead they have an even greater impact on us. We may do little more than take note of a strangers infirmity but let that infirmity befall us or our loved ones and it becomes a different story. Even when we sympathize greatly to that stranger, it is still a much bigger issue when those infirmities hit close to home.

But...

There Christ was, having healed a man of a disease that plagued him 38 years. A disease that took such a toll on him that it sent him to a pool known for miracle healings. It had him attempting to gain healing time and again, it would seem from his statement, '...I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me." And what does Christ do? He heals him, yes, but he tells him, 'sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'

Several years ago I wrote a post titled Spiritual Prisoners. I haven't read that post in years even though it is one of the few things I have written that I actually have in a physical copy, in the form of a printed book. I should reread it just to reaquaint myself with what I wrote. At the time it was one of the hardest things I ever wrote. I struggled through it, not because the writing of it was hard but because I was learning as I went and it was a very big time of learning for me.

In that learning (and writing), I remember writing of how the Lord is not interested in the physical but in the Spiritual. He came not to save man from physical difficulties or trials but to save him from Spiritual death.

And so there I was, reading the book of John and I got stuck on verse 14. Here Christ has performed probably the greatest miracle in this man's life. With nothing more than an order to arise and 'take up your bed'. Poof. Just like that this poor man, diseased with who knows what for 38 years was able to do something he probably considered impossible. But Christ pays that part little attention. It isn't this wonderful physical healing that Christ shows the least attention to, a physical healing that probably meant the world to that poor diseased man. Instead Christ tells him to 'sin no more' and then he gives him a dire warning...'lest a worse thing come unto thee'.

I have to wonder, and Scripture doesn't say, how much this diseased man, now healed, understood about spiritual things. Did he know anything of them? Did he understand to what Christ was referring? Assuming that Christ was referring to the spiritual.

I can only imagine that after being diseased for 38 years that poor man might have thought there was little 'worse' that could come his way. What would be worse? Death? Sometimes death is seen as an improvement on one's physical condition. We aren't told if this diseased man suffered with pain or other debilitating maladies. We aren't told how bad his disease was, only that it lasted 38 years. That's a LONG time for a disease to linger. Whatever this poor man had, it was bad enough to send him searching for a cure. And once he got it Christ told him, 'sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'

My thoughts go two directions here. First, if I were told such a thing my mind would automatically jump to the implied statement and I would wonder...was I diseased because of some sin I committed? And if so...what sin was it that had me punished so severely that I suffered through this disease for 38 years? That's the nature of the human mind. At least it's the nature of my human mind. From there my mind would jump to a second thing, I would begin to wonder just what 'worse' thing Christ is referring to.

I know I would think these things because those are the things I thought after reading that verse last night. They are the things I am still thinking this morning. I can only assume that the 'worse' Christ referred to was spiritual and not physical but I really don't know. Maybe the answer is deeper in Scripture, something I have not yet studied on or something I have not yet put two and two together on. Whatever it is, it isn't my intention to study this verse deeper to make anything more out of it than what is here before me and what my mind got stuck on. It isn't my intention to teach anyone anything or even for myself to learn anything.

I did not sit down with my Bible last night because I wanted to study it or to learn something. I sat down with it because I wished to soak in it, to simply enjoy it and absorb whatever of it the Lord saw fit to let sink in. It was comfort reading. It was reading for entertainment. It was...just reading for no reason other than I wanted to read my Lord's word.

And read I did. Only I didn't get to read very much because I found myself soaking not in many verses but in one. I found myself pondering not the entire context of a chapter or even a whole book but a single verse.

'sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'