Bible Study Sunday | The Hard Work of Living Like Jesus

There are passage of the Bible that are comforting while others are convicting. Matthew 18 is a little of both.

As we continue our journey through the Gospel of Matthew, we come to a chapter where Jesus talks about what it actually looks like to live together as His people. And honestly, it’s not always easy.

Jesus begins with humility. His disciples want to know who is greatest in the kingdom, and Jesus points them toward a child.

In God’s kingdom, greatness doesn’t look like having the most influence, the loudest voice, or the highest position.

Greatness looks like humility.

Then Jesus talks about the lost sheep. One sheep wanders away, and the shepherd goes looking for it.

One matters.

That’s easy to say until the one who wanders is difficult, frustrating, or simply someone we don’t understand.

Jesus doesn’t tell us to write them off. He tells us to care.

Then Matthew 18 gets even more practical.

What do we do when someone hurts us? Jesus says, Go to them. Not around them. Not to everyone else first.

To them.

And then Peter asks the question I suspect many of us have asked in one form or another:

How many times do I have to forgive?

Jesus’ answer essentially destroys the idea of keeping score. Forgiveness isn’t a spiritual spreadsheet.

Jesus follows that teaching with the story of the servant who has been forgiven an enormous debt but refuses to forgive someone else a much smaller one. And that’s where Matthew 18 gets uncomfortably personal.

Because we can be remarkably grateful for the grace we’ve received from God while being surprisingly stingy with the grace we extend to someone else.

We want mercy for ourselves and justice for everybody who has hurt us.

We can talk about following Jesus while still holding tightly to our list of offenses.

Matthew 18 reminds us that the grace we receive from Jesus is meant to change the way we treat other people.

Following Jesus is about becoming the kind of person who lives differently because we have encountered Him.

So as you read Matthew 18 this week, don’t just ask, “What does this chapter say?”

Ask:

“Where is Jesus inviting me to live differently?”

That might be where the real Bible study begins.

What part of Matthew 18 challenges you the most?

Until my next post…

Be salty, stay lit.

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™

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