Matthew 13:11-12 He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

This passage is one of the reasons some people claim the Bible, and the Gospel, are unfair. Paul dealt with the issue on the basis of the sovereignty of God in Romans 9, and that feeds into the glorious passage on salvation in Romans 10. From the human perspective it sometimes does seem that God plays favorites, but the truth of the matter is, He makes His salvation equally available to all. We don’t know what goes on in people’s hearts. To be honest, we hardly know what goes on in our own. However, God knows, and He acts accordingly. Those who are disciples of Jesus Christ have made the choice not to depend on their own non-existent wisdom and righteousness but on God’s, poured out through the cross of Christ. As long as we are depending on ourselves, we are unable to receive what God has for us. As Jesus said, what understanding we have is taken from us. It is when we recognize our own inability and cry out for the grace of God that He opens the floodgates of heaven and pours more out on us than we could ever have imagined. The “secrets of the Kingdom” aren’t so much hidden as they are incomprehensible to anyone who isn’t willing to repent of their pride and rebellion against God. As the Bible says again and again, the ticket for entrance is repentance and faith.

It’s odd, really, how slow I was to grasp this myself, but now I need to do all I can to communicate it to as many as possible. There are those who don’t understand that the Kingdom is worth having, and for them I need to make clear the alternative. That’s not to say that the focus of my evangelism is to be the fear of hell, but it is to say that I am to be unflinching in presenting the truth. A major problem in my ministry is that with my background, I often fail to understand what it is my hearers don’t know. That’s why I need people who are younger in faith but fully committed to tell me what I’m missing in my teaching. I am not to be defensive, but rather grateful to God for such faithful ones.

Father, thank You indeed for how You have designed the Body of Christ so that we all need each other. Help me express what You know my hearers need to receive, and help them indeed take it in. May we all recognize and operate in Your grace, with great gratitude and joy, so that all of Your purposes for us may be fulfilled, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!