The Selfish Virgin

Over the last few weeks, one of the things God has pressed upon my spirit to pray is, "Father, burden me with your will."  One of the things He has burdened me with is that although our salvation is free, ("For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God..." Eph 2:8), He expects us to do something with it.  We are sealed by His Spirit at the moment of salvation, but He expects us to use this gift to bear Him fruit.  Jesus conveys this to us throughout the Gospel.  Read Matthew Chaper 25, in which He tells the parable of the foolish and wise virgins, the parable of the talents and the parable of the sheep and the goats.  What do you think Christ is trying to convey?  Are you a foolish virgin or a wise virgin?  Have you hidden the treasure Christ has given you in the ground or have you invested it and made an increase?  Are you a sheep or a goat?  Although I believe that once you are saved you are always saved, Jesus said those who are truly saved would bear Him fruit, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5).   

God wants to remind His people why we are here.  God created us for His glory (Is 43:7), for His purposes (Eph 2:10), His delight (Is 62:3,4) and His kingdom (Rev 1:6).  When we spend more time on our own pursuits than we do for God's purposes, we commit adultery against God. Far too many of those who claim to follow Jesus are whoring their time, their talents and their resources that were meant to be used for Him. 

 

We whore ourselves to the world, but God desires us to be like a virgin bride:  "For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.  But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." (2 Cor 11:2,3).

God desires a pure, chaste and holy people whose hearts and minds are set about their Father's business:  "..just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless." (Eph 5:25-27). 

When we whore ourselves to the world, we are not holy and blameless.  If we don't serve God while we are here, why should we think we will serve Him in heaven? "So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" (Luke 16:11).

Far too many people say, "Well, there is more to life than going to church."  Really?  That is a lie that the world wants you to believe.  If you truly believe there is "more to life" than serving God, you have been deceived.  You are on the wrong side of the fence because Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matt 22:46).  By Jesus' very own words, our lives are to be consumed with dedication to God.  Jesus said we are to consume Him, "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.... He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:27,54). 

We cannot serve two masters, we will either live lives consumed with ourselves or we will live lives consumed with Christ.  Jesus told the Pharisees the kingdom would be taken away from those who did not produce fruit (Matt 21:43).  That alone should make us take heed to bear Him fruit, not out of obligation, but out of reverence and devotion.  Jesus said, "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (Matt 7:19).  These things are hard to bear, but they are the words of our Lord.  I'm not passing judgment, I'm telling an ignorant church what God's word says because they are "too busy" to read it for themselves.  I am not talking about salvation by works, I am talking about works because of salvation.  "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph 2:10).   

We have all fallen short. We are all sinners who seek our own way.  We are all cursed with the disease of "self" running through our veins.  But praise God!  In His infinite mercy, He died to save us from the curse, so that we might have life the way it was meant to be.  The life Christ died to give us was a life free from the curses of self, sin and death.   Galatians 3:13 says that Jesus became the curse for us and 2 Cor 5:21 says, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."  So that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of our self.  There is no righteousness in living for our self, there is only sin, temptation, distraction, delusion and deception.