(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh. “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed. Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth!’? “‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.””
(Jeremiah 2:1-3)
“For this cause we also thank God without ceasing that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, God’s word, which also works in you who believe. For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.”
(1 Thessalonians 2:13-16)
The Israelites and Judeans had chosen to engage with idolatry as practised by the nations around them. That included setting up places to worship and at those places having sacred prostitutes – male and female – who engaged in sexual intercourse with people coming to worship as a form of worship to these idols. So God is calling them out not only for their spiritual adultery, but their physical adultery in their worship of other gods. In their choice to trust in idols for what they felt they needed. They were doing it again and again while also coming to the Temple of Yahweh to sacrifice to Him. Looking to Him to save them from coming storms even as they were asking their idols for the same thing. They were not putting God first place. They were not worshipping Him with their whole hearts. They were straying again and again and hoping that He either wouldn’t notice, or that He’d overlook it, or that He’d forget about it and move on their behalf. It was insanity.
The Thessalonians heard the message of the Good News from Paul and his other ministers and took it to heart. They walked away from their old lifestyles and embraced the message of Jesus. They forsook the idols and old practices and leaned into what God said was right and good and just. They – these saved Jews – also embraced the Gentile believers. They didn’t hinder their coming to God as some of the Judean Jews did (the same groups that had opposed Jesus in His earthly ministry). They accepted that God loved EVERYONE and had made a way for salvation to come to EVERYONE and they did not stand in God’s way. They submitted to His will. They rejected messages that did not conform to His moral character and because of that, they were saved. Rescued. On the side that would NOT receive judgment when it came. The side that would enjoy the fellowship with God that God had always intended for humanity.
Summary
Humanity likes to gatekeep. God opens His arms to everyone. We need to make sure we’re not shooting ourselves in the foot by going back to our old habits. Making sure we’re not putting something else in the place that He should be occupying in our lives. At the same time, we need to get out of His way and let whomever He calls come to Him. We have NO RIGHT to judge ANYONE. We were lost too. We were in rebellion too. We don’t have to have been deceived in the same way. We don’t have to have rebelled the same way. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that EVERYONE falls short and EVERYONE can come to God in Jesus. We need to embrace that message and spread that message with compassion to everyone just as it was spread to us. God wants everyone saved. We should prioritize helping Him with that. Starting with our own attitudes and our own example to everyone around us. Us being disciples of Jesus should be the worst kept secret ever. It should surprise no one. It should be obvious to all.
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