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Jesus And The No Spin Zone
by Jack Earl Jesus told it like it was. He did not hide behind the quotes of others, as was the common practice among the rabbis and scholars. It was the common practice of the prophets to preface their words with "Thus sayeth the Lord." Jesus never once used that phrase. Instead his most common preface was "I tell you the truth," a phrase used by him 30 times in Matthew, 11 times in Mark, 6 times in Luke, and 26 times in John. I could find no instance where the prophets or apostles ever used this phrase. This is the same phrase that is translated "Verily, Verily I say unto you," in the King James Version of the Bible. He would use this phrase when introducing some important teaching that He wanted His listeners to pay attention to and to remember. It was as Jesus was saying, "Now get this, and get this good, because this is coming straight from Me." When Jesus spoke, He spoke with authority. And it was noticeable to His listeners: "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." (Matthew 7:28,29) Jesus did not spend much time arguing His case. He simply laid out the facts and left it up to the listeners to choose whether they would believe Him or not. He never used any strong arm tactics to force his listeners to follow Him or His teachings. He never used any emotional gimmicks or psychological tricks to elicit a response. He just spoke the truth. At the end of His famous Sermon On The Mount Jesus did conclude with an illustration, He said that those who heard His words and obeyed them would be like a wise man who built his house on a rock. But those who had heard His words and did not obey them would be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. That little closing illustration was the extent of His invitation. Jack Earl is a retired Christian Bookstore manager, a graduate of Moody Bible Institute. He now lives in the Seirra Nevada Mountains in central California. He may be reached at [email protected] Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |