YOU DON’T KNOW
Luke 9:51-56 NKJV
51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Some people ascribe some horrible things to God and make Him out to be the one causing misery in the lives of people. But that is not what we see from Jesus. In all four gospel accounts, we never see Jesus killing little children, breaking up homes, and destroying the livelihood of people struggling to survive. Jesus did not sink Peter’s fishing boat. He filled it with fish to the point that it was sinking, but that is a totally different matter.
Here is Jesus going through Samaria and these Samaritans rejected Him. The rejection was because He was Jewish, and His direction. He was facing toward Jerusalem. That’s a pretty ridiculous reason to reject someone. Particularly if that someone can potentially make a huge difference in your life. Just think if this village had welcomed Jesus with open arms. They could have seen miracles. They could have helped the sick and hurting, but no, they rejected Jesus.
If God was as harsh as some make Him out to be, this would have been a good time to teach these Samaritans a lesson. After all, Samaritans did not even have their theology straight. Most were half Jewish, and they bought into some ideas not found in the scriptures. So this group needed to learn a few things. That’s what James and John thought. So the brothers were asking Jesus if they could call down fire and consume the whole village. That’s what Elijah did. But they took Elijah’s story out of context. Elijah was protecting himself from soldiers who would have killed him, so he called down fire. But Elijah did not call down fire on people who rejected him or threatened him. James and John were out of line. And Jesus called them on it.
When Jesus said, “you do not know what manner of spirit you are of,” this was indicating that the spirit the brothers were operating in was not of God. God does not destroy the lives of those who reject Him. Jesus clearly stated that He came to save lives, not destroy them. God sent Jesus to save, not harm those who mock Him. The Spirit Jesus operated in was being led by the Holy Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. Notice not just power. Not just soundness or discipline. The Holy Spirit is also a Spirit of love, the divine God kind of love.
Jesus did not come against the village that rejected Him. He simply moved on. That’s the right spirit.
APPLICATION
There will always be people who don’t like us or reject us, and some of their reasonings for the slights are absurd. The wrong spirit wants to take them out. Not to burn down their house or wreck their car, but to gain revenge and cause them some level of hurt.
But we know what spirit that is, and it sure ain’t the Holy Spirit. So we commit it to God and give the care over to Him. We take Jesus as our example, and we don’t lash out verbally or online. We commit ourselves to God, who is the only righteous judge.
The more we operate this way, the more we develop spiritually and the stronger we become. We know better. We know what Spirit we are supposed to be of.
PRAYER
Thank You, Jesus, for Your example. You did not come to hurt. You came to save, and I am following You.