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Bible Study: Guidelines for Handling Attention

Here are some thoughts I derived from spending time with Luke 12: 1-15. As you will see, I’m just pulling some general principles here, not applying them to specific situations around us. I think some of the applications are obvious, others need to be more tailored.

This passage starts with a very large crowd gathering. It’s an exciting time, and maybe even a somewhat dangerous time. So what does Jesus do? He pulls the 12 disciples apart for a warning. Under those circumstances, this warning would carry some special weight. Everybody is a bit UP for the occasion. So a pause for a warning here would be significant and would be remembered.

The warning? “Be on your guard against … hypocrisy.”

My paraphrase: “The Pharisees usually get the bulk of people’s attention in matters of God and religion. Now you guys are getting a great deal of that kind of attention. Be careful. We cannot imitate or fall into the trap of deceit and fraud that they fall into. Watch out; guard yourselves!”

Given that context, this selection’s five paragraphs became a series of

five guidelines for how to stay morally and spiritually healthy

even when you are attracting more attention than you are used to.

TITLE: Comfort and Straight Talk from Jesus on How To Stay On Track When You Are Attracting Attention

1. INTEGRITY

You have to be what you are, and your presentation of yourself in words must correspond to what you really are. Be on your guard about this.

2. FEARLESSNESS

How do you handle threats, explicit or implied? You remember who really can hurt you and who can only seem to hurt you. And you remember that to God “you are worth more�! It reminds me of that strange remark of Socrates, AFTER he had been sentenced to death. “I know that no harm can befall a good man.� Sounds like he knew something, as Jesus obviously did, about what is ultimately dangerous and what only seems dangerous.

3. LOYALTY TO GOD

The only explanation for “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” that I find which fits what I know from the rest of Scripture goes something like this.

  1. Jesus is a concrete, physical, local manifestation of the good God.
    1. It’s possible for limited, finite humans like we are to see Ultimate Goodness in a concrete instance, and misunderstand it. Even John the Baptist had his doubts.
    2. Many people today are attracted to or interested in God, but for one reason or another cannot stand going into the institutions that claim to represent Jesus in this world. So Jesus says, “everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.”  That is, if you truly misunderstand or misjudge a particular case – well, that’s understandable.
  2. But there is a more profound choice facing every human. Will I pursue Goodness, Goodness because it’s Goodness! or will I turn aside – because Goodness itself, whatever the circumstances, is just not something I’m all that interested in?
    1. And what IS Goodness, but the Holy Spirit? God is Spirit. God is Holy. God is Good – and God is not Good because God measures up! God is Good because that IS what God IS. So to see GOOD, and call it evil, is not a matter of misunderstanding.  It’s the most fundamental moral selection.
    2. SO If you choose in your life (and thus probably also in your words) to reject, discount, revile, walk away from Goodness, with or without “good reasons,” then you ARE rejecting, blaspheming against, the Holy Spirit. As long as you are doing that, there is no way for healing or forgiveness to come.

SO the lesson from this for when you are attracting attention: stay carefully and deep-in-your-heart loyal to that ultimate Goodness. Stay loyal to God. If you’ve been learning from Jesus, then that will mean maintaining your loyalty to Jesus and His word to you.

4. CONFIDENCE

Fearlessness (above) has to do with how you handle threats. Confidence is a part of that, of course, and threat is implied in this situation, but confidence is also an issue. It focuses more on the responsibilities and opportunities that present themselves than on the threats involved.

How do you handle the increased responsibility or opportunity that comes with increased attention? Keep trusting God. Keep practicing the other 4 of these guidelines. Don’t freak out and imagine that you can – or need to – control every aspect of what’s coming down. You can’t.

I am very sure Jesus is NOT promoting disconnection, irresponsibility, or refusal to think ahead. That would contradict how he lived and much of the rest of his teaching.

He’s counseling calm and confidence in the care of God for you in this new situation. Which, by the way, frees the inner channels for the Spirit to guide us much more effectively than would otherwise be the case. As “the wrath of man does not achieve the righteousness of God”, so also “the freaking-out of men does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

5. VALUES

Jesus makes a very strong statement – as he does a number of times in his career – that money is not the ultimate value, and greed is NOT a virtue. Be on your guard against that just as much as against hypocrisy.[click_to_tweet tweet=”He’s counseling calm and confidence in the care of God for you in this new situation. Which, by the way, frees the inner channels for the Spirit to guide us much more effectively than would otherwise be the case.” quote=”He’s counseling calm and confidence in the care of God for you in this new situation. Which, by the way, frees the inner channels for the Spirit to guide us much more effectively than would otherwise be the case.”]

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