Jesus once rebuked His followers VERY harshly for failing to "discern this present time" (Luke 12:56). It seems a good question, then, for His followers today, if WE "discern" this present time.
It seems Jesus expected His followers to perceive the Spiritual reality and significance of what was taking place in front of them. Probably the same kind of thing He meant when He admonished those with ears (/eyes) to hear (/see), to hear (/see).
Jesus' point is clear: His followers, then and now, must perceive the "times" the way He does.
A few scriptures help me "discern" how Jesus sees "this present time."
In the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus defined “murder” as angry, hate-filled contempt for others (Matthew 5:21-2). And it's always a good theological rule of thumb that whatever Jesus says something is, it IS.
His definition is key to understanding what He meant that some of His followers were actually “children of the devil,” doing the lies and "murder" that are satan's desires and very nature (John 8:44).
With that identification of the enemy and his forces, Jesus also grounds us in His view of spiritual warfare. Is anything more critical in a morally-murky world and time, than knowing where Jesus authoritatively draws the battle-line ?
Matthew 23:15 has long been one of my "HUH !?!" scriptures: those verses or passages that seize your attention because you're not quite sure how to take them. Most of us probably have a few in our mental grab-bag, waiting for God to put His light on them.
My "HUH !?!" is that we usually hear "evangelism" preached as a Christian absolute, Jesus' command incumbent on every Christian, in every situation, every day. Indeed, we often hear evangelism preached as Jesus' greatest command...The Great Commission.
But in Matthew 23:15, Jesus proclaims "woe" to "hypocrites" who (He says) "...cross sea and land to make one convert; and make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."
Clearly Jesus isn't down-grading evangelism per se: rather people (probably not "scribes and Pharisees only) who evangelize from evil motive. My best guess is that He means those who "win souls to Christ" for their own glory, rather than God's. Self-glorification (like that of the spiritual personage addressed in Isaiah 14) would certainly be somewhere near the top of the Hit Parade of Sins: and doing so in the pretence of glorifying God is probably correspondingly high on the hypocrisy-scale.
The most we can say for certain is that Jesus didn't consider evangelism inherently, or unquestionably, righteous. (I'd question too that He considered it His premier command to His followers, since He specifically designated another as "first.")
But God brought that scripture back to mind this past week, on a different consideration: that Jesus' calling hypocritical evangelizers "sons of hell" is very similar to His characterization of "murder"-ous liars as "children of the devil." I have to think Jesus views those two kinds of people alike, as His spiritual enemies. *
Certainly in our "present time” they are allied in a major attack on Christ and His followers.
Self-described “Evangelical Christians” today are the single biggest “demographic” supporting politicians whose manifest, and complete, character is lies and hateful contempt for others (“murder"). In the last two U.S. elections "Evangelicals" overwhelmiingly wanted (voting 81% and 75%) to follow (and want our country to follow) a "child of the devil."
(Those numbers also undoubtedly show that some "Evangelicals" who truly love Jesus, and desire to follow Him. We know that was similarly true even among the Pharisees whom Jesus denounced so harshly, and so often.)
I consider these words of Jesus tell us how He Spiritually views our "present time," and how His followers must.
If so, the inescapable prophetic question for Christians in our time is this: how long will Jesus allow His Name to be used by false "followers" to endorse the works of satan ?
My guess is "not much longer." Amen.
* Strengthening that identification, Jesus only ever used a similar phrase one other time, of Judas, a "son of perdition," John 17:12.
