"A Perfect Picture"

"This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them." (John 10:6 KJV)

  "When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means." (1 Corinthians 2:13-14 NLT)

 Hope you found something to take away from what I said yesterday; I would really hate to think I wasted a good testimony on a bad way of living! But that's life! We live to learn, and sometimes, it actually means something good enough to leave behind.

As I started off this chapter, I tried to illustrate that it meant something for John to mention that this was a parable, or an illustration of a spiritual truth. We learn from the other Gospels that Jesus spoke about a lot of spiritual truths using parables, because what He spoke about was sometimes not intended for all that heard it, to understand. 

 To those of you who might think that seems unfair, as if God is not giving everyone the same chance, or is only speaking to a certain audience, that is not what Jesus meant; nor is it God's intention. God is not going to show respect to anyone over another; but He does completely and thoroughly know what is in everyone's heart! 

 Besides that, this is something that is an actual spiritual truth, which required that those who heard it would have the Holy Spirit to show them what it meant. As with most of the parables Jesus used, even His disciples did not understand what He said. It was not until after His resurrection that they received the Holy Spirit, and then everything became perfectly clear...

"Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, "Who can know the LORD'S thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?" But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:15-16 NLT)