Title: Those Who Follow the Truth!
Contents
A few years ago, there was a time when a book called The Book became a hot topic and became a bestseller. The book was written by a man named Robert Fulgum, and the book that aroused the sympathy of many people was that the author was unaware of human unconscious abnormalities. Because they dug the castle sharply. In a nutshell, if you live according to what you learned in kindergarten, there will be no problems in this world.
Kindergarten teaches you to keep everything in order. Learn to take off your shoes properly and always dispose of garbage in the trash. But the earth is seriously polluted by people who have received such a basic training in kindergarten. Today, there are a lot of people who discharge wastewater or pollute the air in factories, is it because they didn't all go to kindergarten?
In kindergarten, we learn to share anything. But once they step out of kindergarten, they don't use any means or methods to monopolize even a little bit more. Kindergarten is taught not to lie. But outside kindergarten, you become the bearer of the false belief that being honest will never achieve anything. Are these people who live the opposite of what they teach in kindergarten and have never even stepped on the threshold of kindergarten? Perhaps such a person is from a famous kindergarten that offers so-called gifted education.
Why do people learn so important things from kindergarten, but don't live up to it in society? The first is because of human greed, and the second is because the society that humans, who are slaves to greed, constitute is completely abnormal. So, unlike what we learned in kindergarten, from the moment we step out of kindergarten, we become assimilated into an abnormal world.
I know it's been abolished now, but not so long ago, there was a blue sky statue. It was an award given to an honest public official. Isn't it common sense that public officials, who are public servants of the people, should be honest and innocent? Even so, wouldn't the government itself admit that the majority of public officials were abnormal, far from being honest, by finding and offering rewards to Cheongbaek-ri?
If you look at it with a little right mind, this world is definitely on-tone abnormal. But what's even worse is that all of these abnormalities are mistaken for normal. Those who regard and accept the abnormal as normal are already addicted to the abnormal, and the addict has no ability to get out of the addiction by themselves. Day by day, we become more and more addicted to abnormalities, and we are slowly dying.
“He who believes in him will not be judged, but he who does not believe is already judged because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
The original meaning of the Greek word for sin, 'hamartia', is to deviate from the target. Sin in the Bible does not mean wrongdoing legally, morally or ethically. To deviate from the mark of Jesus Christ, who is the truth, is itself already a sin. Therefore, no one can challenge the Lord's words that those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, have already been judged because they do not believe in His name.
So now am I in Christ or am I outside? In other words, is my life targeting Jesus Christ, or am I off the mark? How can I check my current status like this? The Lord has provided a simple way.
“And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (verse 19).
This joint translation of the Bible is translating the original text in an easier-to-understand way. “The light has come into the world, but men loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil. This tells us that he is already condemned as a sinner.”
So, if anyone is living an abnormal life outside the mark of Jesus Christ, no matter who he is, he is outside of Christ. Let's take a concrete example. I bought a new computer from a company, and the computer, which was an assembly rather than a finished product, started malfunctioning immediately after purchase. It wasn't working properly. It was very inconvenient to use because AS did not do it with sincerity. Finally, I asked an expert, and the expert came and tried to open the computer in question. Surprisingly, the new-looking assembly had all its interiors outdated, and two of its key components were waste-level. In general, Koreans are very tolerant of products that are different on the outside and inside. It is because we live in an abnormal society that we experience such things every time. The problem is that the person who sold the fake computer is a deacon who is reputed to be devout in a typical Korean church. If so, can the person who is living an abnormal life without any hesitation in the darkness of the world as if for granted is a true Christian who has made Jesus Christ his target? Today's text asserts that never.
On the other hand, verse 21 testifies like this. “He who follows the truth comes to the light, so that his works may show that they have been done in God.” The joint translation of this verse is as follows. “But those who live by the truth go where there is light. So it turns out that everything he did was done according to the will of God.”
Even if he makes less money, even if the world ridicules him for being foolish, if there is a person who dares to break the cycle of abnormal life and, even if he is clumsy, begins to walk toward the target of truth, regardless of his appearance, he will be in Christ. It is clear that he is a true Christian. In short, our present life itself reveals what kind of human we are.
Everyone! Don't forget. The life of truth is never directly proportional to the popularity or fashion of the world. Rather, it should be remembered that the world's popularity and fad can be concentrated where the truth no longer exists. The prophet Isaiah described Jesus Christ as follows 700 years before the Lord came to earth.
“There is no beauty in our sight, that we should admire” (Isaiah 53:2), as he clearly said, in terms of fashion and popularity in the world, the Lord is a humble and undeserving figure.
Solomon also defines faith as follows: “The fear of the Lord is the hating of evil” (Proverbs 8:13). To believe in God is to hate the darkness of the world, that is, to separate from evil. Then faith is courage. Faith is the courage to erase the evil of the world and boldly break the chain of abnormal life. How can we have the courage to cut the meat in a situation where our society has already become an abnormal addict to the point where it is impossible to restore a normal life? It is possible only through Jesus Christ, who is the target of truth and who showed the normal life of truth through His death and resurrection on the cross, through Him alone. When I make the Lord the target of my life, He Himself takes my hand and leads me to the life of truth.
“God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (verse 17).
There can be neither salvation nor eternal life except through the Lord, who is the life of truth. Adam and Eve overlooked this and ate the fruit of good and evil, which was only in appearance, and fell into Paradise Lost, that is, the abyss of death.
Dear saints,
How are we now standing here? Do you have your hopes in the things of this world that make you think that a life that seems glamorous and wonderful but is actually abnormal is beautiful? Please believe that the only mirror of life we should look at is the Lord. Please listen quietly to the voice of the Lord at this time.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Even though I became a slave to ugly desires and lived an abnormal life, thank you for not giving up on me, who mistakenly thought I was a normal Christian, and for calling me with the love of the Lord every day. Please recover and heal me from the abnormal state of addiction. Give me the courage to break the cycle of abnormal life. Let Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, be the target of my life. Be the teacher of my life and guide me to the normal life of truth. Even though we seem to be alive, we are not dead, but let us live forever even if we die in Christ. Through my life like that, let the life of the Lord flow to the addicts of abnormality who die today without knowing that abnormality is abnormal. I pray in Jesus name. Amen!