Stones in the Temple – written Wednesday October 27, 2021, by Tim Nabors.
In John 8 Jesus, in the temple, conversed with the scribes and Pharisees, on whether to stone an adulterous woman, by sinners that had also sinned; therefore, Jesus in agreement with Numbers 5, especially verses 11-23, proving Jesus is God’s Priest, whose death and resurrection forgives all sin; thus, Jesus “God’s High Priest” (Hebrews 7:11-24), forgave her sins, for these “sinners accusing her planned for her to be caught in the act, so they could trap Jesus, and kill Him.
Then came the conversing about who Jesus was and what authority He had, by which those unbelieving sinners revealed their hatred for Jesus, refusing to believe “the Son of Man” was “God in the flesh”, “the I AM”, “Eternal Life”; thus, Jesus told them the difference in truth and lie, saying Truth is from God and lies are from the devil; those who believe and speak truth are from God—God is their Father, and those who believe and speak lies are from the devil—the devil is their father, but then Jesus, in John 8:48-59, tells His accusers “they do not place any value in God, His word of truth, or Jesus, His Son; thus, they picked up stones to throw at Jesus, but He hid Himself, and passing right through the crowd, walked out of the temple, which is an amazingly awesome “spiritual warning to every true Christian, every true member of Christ’s body, the church, to understand what God is saying, so we know if we are a true Christian.
To fully understand this “spiritual warning” we must first understand two scriptural passages: 1) 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, the explanation that a Christian, though inside a human body of dirt, is a member of Christ’s body, the church. And 2) Romans 8:12-17 explaining only those Christians the Holy Spirit has “witnessed acceptance of them being God’s legal child, heir, and Christ’s joint heir”, are members of Christ’s body, the church worldwide.
Now we are ready to closely examine “God’s warning from John 8:49-59 of “Stones in the Temple, Stones in the body of Christ”, we throw at Christ (Matthew 25:31-46), the Head of His body, the church”, and by throwing stones at Christ, we throw stones at His body members.
Are we, the body of Christ, accused of having a pile of stones sitting beside us in church? Do we throw the stones of anger, bitterness, envy, jealousy, grudges, hurts of the past, attitudes, and religiosity, by our not seeing Christ’s value in the other members of His body, the church?
Are we quick to throw stones when someone hurts us, makes a mistake., says something foolish, when we do not trust others, make irreverent jokes about them, or when we refuse to place the same value in these people Christ places in them?
Do we use our stones of arrogance, pride, and “more holy than you”, to belittle and defame others to elevate us, demote others to prideful reveal our giftings, to feel superior and worthy of honor, revealing our value above the value of others Christ puts in them?
God is telling legally true Christians, His legal heirs, and Christ’s legal joint heirs, to drop all our stones at Christ Jesus’ feet, place an exceedingly high value on God, Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the word, and people, by revealing His love, compassion, kindness, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to others, looking past their faults, hurts, and sins, and as the moon reflects the sun, make our lives reflect “the humble Son of Man”, our Lord Jesus Christ, asking Him to forgive us for having stones to throw at other body members, His body, His temple, to throw at Him and others that represent Him, our Pure Love and Truth.
In agreement with 1 Corinthians 12:26, sometimes an ache, pain, sickness, or disease in our personal body, might be God’s way of telling us someone else in Christ’s body, might be suffering even more than us with those same things, and He wants us to value them enough to diligently pray for their healing and health, so when they are healed (honored), all the members of Christ’s body will be healed and healthy, “for everything that happens to us personally, is an entire Christ’s body problem and not simply a personal problem”.
Chaplain Tim Nabors
