Love Petrified
John 13:21-30
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In today’s teaching from John 13, we see the cold heart of Judas Iscariot. We wonder how Judas could have been so close to Jesus and yet so far away. We ask the same question about the Pharisees; how could they see all Jesus did and want Him to kill him because of it? Unfortunately, Judas and the Pharisees were not the first ones to respond this way. Since the fall, we see people coming face to face with the truth and rejecting it. David shows us the opposite, a soft heart. Confronted with truth he said, “I have sinned.” May God help us have a heart that is soft and open to truth.
Picture a burning candle. When you hold a piece of bread above the flame, it becomes hard and brittle. Now picture holding another candle above the flame. It immediately begins to soften and drip. The flame is like the truth. The truth does not change; the basis of truth is the nature of God. Thankfully there is no chance that will ever change. The effect of the flame on one object is to harden, and another object is softened. Our hearts are similar.
Some people hear the truth and are convicted and repent; others will hear the truth and become bitter and cold. We wonder how Judas and the Pharisees could have missed Him, yet according to Romans 1, all of us are “without excuse.” We all can see God in His creation. No one has good reasons to reject God.
Yet there are still those who do. Some insist there is no God, and we are here by chance. They say we came from nothing, and we return to nothing. They hold to this line despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. Science is showing us incredible things about His intricate creation. The evidence points to a creator and a master plan. How can someone see and know this and still walk away from Him? This is like the bread in the flame; their hearts are hard and brittle.
This makes us ask, how can we make sure this is not us? What must we do to have a soft heart? How can we be like the candle and be soft toward truth? I believe II Thessalonians 2:10 gives us the answer. We must have a love for truth. Truth, in this case, is so much more than rules or written documents. To love the truth is to love Jesus; he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Loving the truth is loving Jesus. Loving Jesus is saying yes to Him.
Those who are saying “Yes” to Jesus will not reject Him. You cannot love Him and ignore what He says. Saying “Yes” to Him is living for and with Him every day. If Judas and the Pharisees would have loved Jesus, the story could have been much different. Instead, their interaction with the truth caused their hearts to become cold. Today when you hear truth, don’t harden your heart. Instead, love the truth and grow in your relationship with Him.
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