DEAD RIGHT

“Anyone who does not agree and believe in our program, doctrine, denomination, politics or our policy is certainly not worthy of us. And furthermore, they deserve revenge, wrath, judgment and destruction. I mean, after all, do you know who you are dealing with here?” The zealous heart will always want to defend truth rather than allowing truth to defend itself.

“When the disciples James and John (the sons of Thunder,” a name given to them by Jesus, (Mark 3:17), saw that the Samaritans did not receive Jesus, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them (as Elijah did)?” This is the same group who had been with Jesus from the beginning, they had heard blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the gentle, blessed are those who have been persecuted, and blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me (Matthew 5:5-11). No matter, when we are convinced we are ‘right’ and have received offense; we can easily justify the destruction of the offender. The ‘Sons of Thunder’ wanted to bring down fire from heaven. They waned to fry the lips off the offending faces of these people. They literally wanted them destroyed. Someone had offended truth, as they knew it and perceived it, and therefore they deserved destruction.

Jesus responded, “He turned and rebuked them” (Luke 9:55), and later manuscripts read, “you do not know what kind of spirit you are of. For the Son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” This is really difficult for the self-righteous heart to hear and digest. As a friend once told me, ‘It’s one thing to be right and another thing to be dead right.’ The disciples were dead right. The offense was real but the reaction was wrong. Dead wrong.

“The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Jesus