Jesus’s Most Misunderstood Sayings
Part 5
Many are called, few chosen
Matthew 22:11-14 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The garments worn on festival occasions were chiefly long white robes, and it was the custom of the person who made the feast to prepare such robes to be worn by the guests.
This renders the conduct of this man more inexcusable. He came in his common and ordinary dress, as he was taken from the highway: and though he had not a garment of his own suitable for the occasion, yet one had been provided for him, if he had applied for it.
His not doing it was expressive of the highest disrespect for the king. This beautifully represents the conduct of the hypocrite in the church. A garment of salvation might be his, performed by the hands of the Saviour, and dyed in his blood; but the hypocrite chooses the filthy rags of his own righteousness, and thus offers the highest contempt for that provided in the gospel.
He is to blame, not for being invited – not for coming, if he would come, for he is freely invited, but for offering the highest contempt to the King of Zion in presenting himself with all his filth and rags, and in refusing to be saved in the way provided in the gospel!
And then the difficult statement, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” This simply means that many are called to the feast, but few in comparison come with the necessary garments of genuine salvation. Only they will be allowed or chosen by God to enjoy the feast!
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The kingdom of God is within you
Luke 17:21 says, “Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Now, there is a teaching out there that is very prominent in New Age circles and certain parts of the church that God is in everyone, and that we should all learn how to tap into the god within us all for power, revelation, spiritual illumination, and that we are all actually “little gods.”
One New Age teacher said, “All you need is within you—with no defined order of sin, repentance or salvation! You will become your own god!”
So we hear the echo of Jesus’s words, “The kingdom of God is within you.”
Another person delivered from New Age described its beliefs like this: “Man is himself God, for he consists of and is the creator of “the forces.” Man already exercises the powers inherent in his divinity and needs only to awaken to this fact.”
But only God has a divine nature:
Galatians 4:8 “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”
Ezekiel 28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god.”
Yet the New Age message emphasizes that part of your journey in life is to discover the god within you!
New Ageism appeals to man’s ego and thirst for power, an appeal as old as the Garden of Eden. Satan promised Eve: “Ye shall be as gods.”
And some take this statement from Jesus to prove their point!
So what was Jesus actually saying?
He was surely not saying that the Kingdom of God resided within the Pharisees’ hearts. The Pharisees opposed Jesus and had no relationship with God. In fact, Jesus said to them, “You are of your father, the devil!”—John 8:44
The actual better Greek translation would be “in your midst” or “among you.” This is how most English translations phrase it.
Jesus was telling the Pharisees that He brought the Kingdom of God to earth. Jesus’ presence in their midst gave them a taste of the kingdom life, as attested by the miracles Jesus performed.
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Judge not
We all know the world’s favorite Jesus quote: “Judge not that you be not judged.”—Matt. 7:1
This is quoted immediately to anyone that would dare call out sin or point out that a person is living in sin. It has become the go-to verse, the scapegoat, the verse the world hides behind to avoid conviction and exposure.
But this is not at all what Jesus was teaching. Judging something or someone is not wrong. In fact, we’re commanded by the Bible to practice the right kind of judging in order to protect our soul and expose what is wrong.
Eph. 5:11 “Take no part in the worthless pleasures of evil and darkness, but instead, rebuke and expose them.”
How can you do that without passing a judgment?
Matt 7:15-16 “Beware of false teachers who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are wolves and will tear you apart. 16 You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit.”
How will you detect bad fruit if you don’t pass a judgment on what they’re teaching and how they’re living?
1 Cor. 5:1-3 “5 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.[a] 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship. 3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man.”
So Paul judged the sinful lifestyle of a professing believer. And then he asks the church at Corinth:
Vs. 12 “It certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.”
So Jesus can’t have meant we were to never judge! What then did He mean?
Matt 7:3-5 “And why do you look at the speck (splinter—a lesser sin) in your friend’s eye when you do not consider the log in your own eye (a far greater sin)?
The word “consider” means “to think carefully about.” In other words, instead of focusing on the minor faults of your brother or sister, carefully consider what’s going on with your own life.
4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
So this is the gist of what Jesus was saying. You can’t properly see to help your brother with a minor fault if you are blinded to the greater faults in yourself!
Jesus says, “5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”
People often take this verse to mean that Jesus says not to judge. This is usually in the context of someone committing some wrongdoing, and the person responding with “Who am I to judge?” We’re all sinners and God calls us to judge not, right? Not quite. Contrary to popular belief, Matthew 7:1-5 is not a prohibition against all judgment. These verses are a warning against hypocritical judgment, not judgment in itself. Jesus is saying we can’t judge others when we are guilty of the same sin. What people fail to realize is when they interoperate this verse in this way, they are declaring a judgment on the person who they are claiming is being judgmental. If you dive further into the passage, Matthew is not forbidding judgment but hypocrisy. This is why the context is so important. You have to read the surrounding text to understand the verse. What Jesus is doing in this full passage is passing judgment on those who improperly judge. We know from continuing to read the verses that we will all be judged by the same measure that we use. If we can’t apply this standard to our own lives, we can’t apply this standard to others.