It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of knowing, believing and obeying the Word of God as recorded in the Holy Bible. Nothing is more important in that we will all be judged by those Words as Jesus tells us in John 12:48. Here He emphasizes the fact that neither He nor the Father will judge mankind, but that the Words They spoke, which the prophets and apostles recorded, will judge everyone who has ever lived. Not one Word is to be removed from or added to the Bible, not one jot or tittle is to be altered. God is deadly serious about His Words of life.

Let us listen in as the Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples about the Words he had heard from His Father, Words He identified as “Truth” in John 17:17. It is important to understand that Jesus only spoke what He heard from His Father in heaven as He stated in John 12:49: “… I have not spoken on my own power, but the Father Who sent Me has commanded Me what to speak.” Then in John 14:24 He reaffirms the Source of His Words: “… the Words you hear Me speak are not Mine; they were given to Me by My Father Who sent Me.” Obedience to His Words is based on one’s love for Him. He states in 14:24 that only those who Love Him will obey Him, a fact that is brought out many times in Scripture.

Note in John 17:17 that Jesus describes God’s Word as “Truth”–not a truth, or some of the truth, or a version of the truth–but as THE TRUTH. GOD’S WORD IS THE ONLY SPIRITUAL TRUTH AVAILABLE TO MANKIND. It was THIS TRUTH that His prophets and apostles taught the people and continue to teach the people today.

Now let us turn to Luke 10:1 where Jesus is speaking to His apostles about His Word and man’s attitude toward Him, the Father and what they said. One will note that the Lord’s Words sound very much like what Paul told the Israelites in the Acts 13 passage discussed in the previous posting. In both instances the words DESPISERS  and DESPISES are used relative to God’s Word and those who teach them: “He who hears you (speak My Words) hears Me; he who despises you (for speaking those Words) despises Me (for speaking those Words to you); and he who despises Me (for speaking those Words) despises Him Who sent Me (with those Words).”

Note that God equates His messengers (including Jesus) with His Word, saying that to despise one is to despise the other. His Word is His light. Jesus said of Himself that He was “… the light of the world.” He also told the disciples that they were “… the light of the world.” They all carried His light in their hearts and spoke it to the world. Jesus “walked” (lived) that light. In First John 2:6 we are told that all who call themselves by His name must “walk as He walked.” Jesus was God’s light in human form. His “walk” reflected that light. As God’s light we must do the same. Now let us examine the word the Lord uses to describe rejection of the Father’s Word in whole or in part.

DESPISE: Gr.- ATHETEO: to reject, to set aside, to bring to nothing, to cast off. Jesus said that to doubt even one of His and His Father’s Words is to despise not only Their Words, but both of them as well. This the Counterfeit Church does repeatedly as the next posting will prove. L.J.