Charitable Conviction
“But they said, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, you nor your sons, forever. You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.’”
Jeremiah 35:6-7 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/jer.35.6-7.nkjv
The doctrine of Jonadab provides the similarity between brain-washed and blood-washed convictions: they are built and motivated by love (charity). While a brain-washed conviction is built on fake love, a blood-washed conviction is motivated by true love. However, if the doctrine was referenced by God in His relationship with the whole house of ISRAEL in the days of prophet Jeremiah, it is no doubt resourceful to the present-day homes and fellowship. Those who truly struggle with the challenge of extending a biblical conviction to others within their spheres of influence understand the importance of promoting conviction before commandment. Before the Rechabites accepted the commandments ‘You shall drink no wine, you nor your sons, forever. You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents’, they must have been fully-convinced of the reason: that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners. Anyone must give it (a model of charitable conviction) to Jonadab, knowing that it requires a strong character of charity in order to influence people into righteousness, against the strong and corrupt affluence of worldliness and unrighteousness. Whereas the world teaches a licentious living on material affluence, true living in the land entails an undeniable access to peace of mind or peace from the Giver of life, even in adverse situations. It does pays to personally demonstrate how to live forever with conviction, compared to a precise description of how to live today with commandments.
Comments
Post a Comment