The Litmus Test weblog

The people of the nations must struggle to live according to the voice of their conscience. Yahshua spoke about them in Matthew 6:31-32 saying,

Do not be anxious then, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “With what shall we clothe ourselves?” For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

He was not condemning the Gentiles for their anxiety. Isn’t it normal that people would be concerned about how to get those necessary things for themselves and their families? They have no choice but to consume themselves with getting what they need. The issue for them is how they go about it, not the fact that they do.

However, Yahshua was speaking to those who wanted to follow Him. They were those who heard the “voice of the Son of God.” To them He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” They were called to a higher dimension of righteousness than those locked in the struggle of working for what they need to live. They were called to His righteousness, to partake of it by trusting and obeying Him. It was a new dimension of righteousness that would cause those who followed Him to escape the chains of self-life and actually attain to
bearing the fruit of His kingdom.

Such was the life recorded in the early chapters of Acts. The life of serving one another to meet each other’s needs rather than one’s own expresses His righteousness. This love between them was the sign that they belonged to Him. After all isn’t that why He died?

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised… For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15,21)

Those who have become His righteousness are His holy people, who will rule together with Messiah eternally over those who did not abandon the natural righteousness of their conscience. For all eternity, God will dwell in His holy ones, who are His temple, and through them He will dwell with men - the restored men and women who were raised from the first death to stand in the Last Judgment and were not found worthy of the second death. Redeemed Man (having the righteousness of God) will rule over Restored Man (having the righteousness of man), and those who hated all righteousness will have their part in the lake of fire, which is the second death. These are the Three Eternal Destinies of Man.

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