Luke 20:8–And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Though it’s not funny to her, sometimes my wife and I will be discussing something and she will make a counter point, and in a playful way I will disagree with her though she is completely right!  Now I do this in a playful way just to be annoying and she hates it, and I know she does!  But to get a laugh and see her worked up and I will playfully laugh at how annoyed I’ll make her at my stubbornness to be right.  Needless to say she just quips back, “I’m done talking to you!”  Very immature I must admit….

But this is what Jesus is dealing with from this passage when some religious people don’t want to admit the truth about Jesus’ authority coming from God.  They would rather deny the blatant truth than admit they are wrong in their pride and stubbornness.  In doing so they cancel out receiving the answer they want, but realize it would prove them wrong!

Being narrow minded is not what some people say about Christians who believe in Christ and the gospel as the only way to God and salvation.  Being narrow minded is the inability to lay down our own ideas of what is right and wrong in the face of Jesus Christ and His Word.  So rather than humble ourselves to the truth and be corrected, we, just like these stubborn religious people, cling to our ideas and never come to the reality of the truth God is trying to reveal to us.

Test whether God has your heart to be open to His Word, and whatever He may be convicting you to change and submit to.  When we are too stubborn to receive revealed truth, more truth is something we should not expect to be revealed to us about God and ourselves.  So we never grow in Christ and experience more of the joy He has for us in Christ.  Safe to say, believing what is not beneficial to us and the glory of God reveals the futility of being stubborn.

In His Love, Ld