Friday, July 23, 2010

Don't Tell!

Matthew 8:4
And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

As He was coming down from preaching His Sermon on the Mount there came a leper to Christ who believed Christ, if only he were willing, could make him clean. Christ was willing and he was healed. And then Christ gives this man a remarkable commandment, don't tell. He had received such a miracle in his body. The change was
• Immediate
• Complete and
• Thoroughly life changing.
Yet Jesus' command to him was not to tell anyone what Jesus had done. He was supposed to obey the Mosaic instructions for a leper who had been healed and everyone who knew him would immediately see he was healed. But he was not to set out to purposely tell.

I have wondered at these many times in the Word where Jesus told men not to tell. There are some other times, as in the case of the possessed man of Gadera, that he was specifically instructed to go and tell. We have our explanations of course, but all of them are speculations because the Bible doesn't tell us why some were to tell and others were not (with the exception of when the reason was that Christ's time was not yet come).

It seems to me that the lesson is that
Everyone telling is not Christ's will.
Some should not tell because the Lord has some other purpose for them. Others should not tell because their testimony is not right. I know some so called Christians I wished would not call themselves such.

The one who has been truly converted will need no command to tell.
His very life will be a more powerful testimony than any words could ever be. Others speaking about what Christ has done in him will be much more effective than anything he can personally say. No doubt there is a Bible mandate to be witnesses. But the sort of witness we are in these days is to be called into question. We have changed witnessing into a science that needs neither the filling of the Holy Spirit upon the witness or the calling of God upon the "witnessee" to be successful and it has turned Christianity into one of the biggest sources of derision in the world today.

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