Though I am lowly and despised,
I do not forget your precepts.
Psalm 119:141
Which precepts do you forget? Which of God's truths do you so easily ignore?
On one Monday evening on the way to Vandalia, Missouri, for the weekly prison ministry, Roy Weece told me he had accepted a speaking invitation. He had been assigned to speak five times on the theme "That's in the Bible?" The idea was to speak about five things that people tend to ignore or forget that are taught in the Word.
So we brainstormed possible topics.
The first one came quickly, considering our destination that evening. Matthew 25:31-46 lists several groups of needy people and the consequences of ignoring them.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Matthew 25:41-46Christians will sometimes say they're aware of scriptures like this one, but they'll add, "That's just not one of my spiritual gifts."
But Jesus doesn't qualify his statements as applying only to those who are gifted or called to help needy people. In truth, he says all who ignore the least of these will go away to eternal punishment.
Probably don't want to forget that precept.
Which precepts of God do you tend to forget or ignore?
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