Jesus fasted to focus on God’s will and prepare for the mission for which he had been sent. As Jesus began his ministry Satan was right there misusing scripture, trying to advance his own kingdom by diverting Jesus from his Father’s business which could subsequently divert many others from the mission that God would lay out for them through Christ. In the same way many Christians use the truth in the Bible as license to do as they please in “the name of the Lord”, making others leery of the real truth of the Gospel.
A great example can be found in Huckleberry Finn. Huck was writing a letter to turn in his friend Jim because he thought he would burn in hell for hiding a runaway slave. Where do you imagine he got that idea? As he thought about the situation and their friendship, he thought, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” He tore up the letter. And then, what do you think fueled the creation of the quote “don’t let your religion get in the way of doing what’s right”? For our own sake and the sake of others, we need to look hard at our own motives to determine whether we’re using Scripture to advance our own kingdom.
Matthew 4
After I Think About It... 