This will be one of my shorter posts, as I do not have the answer to it and I hope anyone who does have advice or wisdom to share is able to comment or email me and let me know their thoughts. But until I have answers, I will continue to serve God to the best of my ability with His help and give Him the glory for all things.
Does Jesus give advice to the flesh rather than the spirit? Or to the unsaved and not the saved? Jesus tells many parables that seem to have advice that is only beneficial to the unsaved, to those without the transforming Holy Spirit inside them.
For example when Jesus speaks the many parables of the master returning at an unknown hour, so the servant is to always be prepared. It is almost like the servant is living under the motivation of being caught, and never wanted to get caught doing the wrong thing, so they live a life motivated by fear and obedience rather than a transformed heart. Shouldn’t the servant with a transformed heart want the will of the master and the success of the master’s business be their motivation? The have the same mind (being transformed) of the master, and just as the master is in the “business” of sharing the love of God with the world, the servant wants the same. The servant doesn’t care if the master is coming back today or after they die, they aren’t living to appease the master potential wrath of not doing the masters work, rather they want to help in the masters work.
If you were a boss and you had an employee that did everything the job description required perfectly (though clearly we can’t, but even if we could) but their heart wasn’t there. They only did the job description because they wanted the raise or they wanted to take over your job when you left or any selfish ambition. And at the end of the day, they would ask you “is there anything else you need before I leave” and in their heart, they said “man I hope this guy says nothing needs done and I can go home, I hate this job”. Or, you had an employee who messed up fairly often, and didn’t complete al items on the job description. But at the end of the day, he would also ask “is there anything else you need before I leave”. And in their heart, they were thinking “I really want this business to succeed, the boss is a great leader and this business is helping so many people, I am so lucky to have the opportunity to work for him, I hope he says there is more work needed so I can have the honor of helping him more”. Which employee would you rather have?
Does the latter servant need a reminder that the boss could come back at any time? Or does the former need that reminder? Why does Jesus seem to speak advice to the untransformed? I hate to denounce the wisdom of Jesus, but doesn’t this seem like needless advice to those with the Holy Spirit transforming them? Why give advice to those who don’t have the Spirit? Is it help they need, and will advice help them live well? This almost seems like an advocate of works based salvation/advice? Once we are saved, can we ignore this advice or does it have any benefit for us?
Or the parable of sitting at the dinner table. We are told not to sit at the seat of honor, rather sit at the lowest seat. That is advice I can understand. But then further, we are told because the one who takes the highest seat will be made a fool in front of others and placed lower, and the one who seats lowly will be exulted in front of others. This is wise advice to the worldly or unsaved. But shouldn’t we want to sit at the lowest because we genuinely believe that God created us all of great value equal to another and showed us one way to show the love of God is to not only treat others as valued equals, rather higher than ourselves. The motivation for sitting low should be to love others and have them valued over us, not to be exulted in front of others and placed higher?
I don’t know the answer to these, but I am just sharing some thoughts I have that I can’t figure out. Why does Jesus seemingly give us fleshly advice or advice to those who haven’t been transformed by the Holy Spirit? I am aware that the God I call King and choose to serve is the One I am kind of questioning here. I know Jacob was blessed when he decided to wrestle with God, and I guess I am doing the same. I am not doing it for a blessing though, just to know God more, which I guess would be a blessing. I assure you my faith is not shaken or weakened in any way because I don’t have the answers, and I might not ever on this earth.
Seeking God 
Hello, we may go back and forth on this one, I’ll try to point to you what Jesus meant, my name is Dave, so I’ll try my best to help, the unknown hour you brought up, in the time of Jesus, when the groom went away to prepare a place for his bride to be, the bride and the guests didn’t know when he’ll be done, so they were always ready, to meet him, so when the groom was ready he would give a command that everything is ready, and they went with him ( the foolish and wise servants are those who serve the Lord, being about the work of the Lord and foolish, living in sin ) the point of all this to obey the Lord and look for His return, I hope this helps a little, God Bless, Dave
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Thanks for your comments Dave. I can see what you are saying there. Much like in Mark 13:33 “Be alert”. I guess I can understand it from the context of a temple or palace guard is always ready. Not so much for fear of the master/king finding them not alert. Rather the guard values the place/things they are guarding and doesn’t want them damaged/taken. It seems like more a reminder/encouragement than a warning.
So I happened to use a bad example there. But what are you thoughts on other wisdom from Jesus that seems to be advise for the flesh and not the spirit? The shrewd manager comes to mind too. Wouldn’t that be bad to exploit your bosses assets for your gain? Or like I said in sitting at the bottom to be exalted. Just like we should want to be humble to glorify God, not so to be exalted in front of man? Actually see others as more valuable than ourselves and want them to be higher up?
Your thoughts?
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Lol, I have to tell you I’ve heard a lot about that example of Jesus, but I think the point is, the world ( that is the system that’s seek only things here and not of God ) the unjust steward is an example how the world knows how to take care of themselves with the world resources ( see Luke 16:8 ) the bottom line is that Jesus wants His church to act the same way with Spiritual resources, to reach the world with the Good News of salvation, what will you use?, what are you willing to give up?…how important is reaching people ? etc..is this making sense ? Jesus isn’t wanting us to steal that’s a sin and God never leads us into sin or temptation ( See James 1: 13-14 ) anyway praying all is good with you and your family, need any prayer, let me know, God Bless, Dave
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Thanks, that is a fair enough interpretation of the shrewd manager. But could you address why Jesus would tell us to sit at the bottom to be exulted in front of man? Should we be humble so to manipulate others and actually be exulted in front of them? Or should we be humble because we truly know we are dust and anything we have is from God, and like Jesus truly value others above ourselves. Why would Jesus preach such a fleshly seeming advice? It is great wisdom, and I can see it benefiting many in the flesh. People who are humble are liked more, they aren’t seen as arrogant and they will quite possibly be exulted way above where they place themselves. It is great advice to the world/flesh. But aren’t we supposed to live by the Spirit and truth? Again being humble because God is humble and we are being transformed into the character of God? I understand the wisdom and truth behind “those who exult themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exulted”. But that almost seems like that is the only reason to humble oneself, is to be exulted. When we should humble ourselves, because it glorifies God.
Why did Jesus not say “When you go to a banquet, sit at the least honorable spot, and do that last, after you washed all of their feet, because your Father created you to honor Him by serving others. It is probably true that some might even refuse to allow you do do this ‘lowly’ task because of the great person they see you to be and they might even offer you the most honorable seat. But that is not why you are washing feet, you are doing that to honor God.”
Jesus did this very thing, He took the lowlyest of jobs, and washed the feet when He should have been placed in the seat of the most honor, and He did it to glorify the Father. And He was offered the most honorable seat, but again, I don’t think He did it to be given that seat, rather to honor the Father.
So is this a do as I do, not as I say? Why would Jesus give that advice to His disciples? Speaking of Luke 14:10
This is just one example, there are plenty examples of great advice given in the Bible, that seems to benefit the flesh greatly, but doesn’t seem to be geared to benefiting the spirit, or honoring God.
Thank you for your prayers, myself and family are well. And thank you for taking your time to share your insights with me and hopefully edify all who read.
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Hi again, I’m glad you and your family are doing well, since the last time I wrote you and our volley back and forth about questions about this incredible relationship with God our creator and we can know Him and know we have eternal life ( 1 John 5:13 ) is the most important question to be answered… do you know Jesus ? in Romans 3:10 the Bible tells us no one is righteous before God, to to humble ourselves, is to admit that God is right, and literally throwing ourselves at the mercy and grace of God by placing our faith in Jesus ( Romans 5:1 and 6:23 ). Ok, now about our lives as a living sacrifice…friend who is Jesus ? ( see Col. 1:15-18 ) for Jesus to come to earth as a human ? Here is Almighty God ( Isaiah 9:6 ) the creator of everything ( Genesis 1:1 ) and the one who will suffer a criminals death for a very few who would believe…for me to do what my Savior did for me is an honor ! What’s the honor? because God freed me to do so when Jesus made me alive ( Eph.2:1-10 ) and also ( Gal. 5:13-14 ) we get to serve Jesus, we are freed to do so, by love, and only by the Holy Spirit can we love others ( humbling ourselves…even to the point that we are taken advantage of ) ( Gal. 5:22-23 ) here’s my conclusion, apart from Jesus…I’m looking out for me and what’s best for me and I’ll use whom ever to get it, so if Jesus acted liked a human, we are all lost in our sins, that’s why He’s Immanuel ( God with us ) so if I’m to serve by clean a dirty toilet, raking leaves, children nursery, or take verbal, or even physical abuse…then praise the Lord ! for I’m counted worthy to suffer for the name of my Savior Jesus, but more than that, I get to shout the words of the Apostle Paul…”I have been crucified with Christ…” ( Gal. 2:20 ) I pray you and your family cling and trust in our Mighty savior Jesus, God Bless, Dave
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