IF YOU ARE ABLE TO GIVE UNTO GOD, YOU ARE LIKE HIM

“And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward”, Mat 10:42 

Evil ones feel well if among evil ones. Lions love lions, even though they are killers.

There is a “clan” fellowship among the people of this world which drives them to love because they love none but themselves, feeling well among the same kind. Selfishness can and may look like a teddy bear which everyone believes should be hugged and embraced promptly. There is always a symphony of feeling because people are alike. I believe demons feel well among none but themselves, for they work not only for the same purpose, but have the same greediness, bear the same bitterness from deep inside, uphold the same motives and fret themselves upon the same destructive issues. This is why you will find a legion possessing one single man, perhaps.

Because they feel loving and alike due to the search for love for self, there is always a group fellowship which is unquestionably able to feed the clan. Homosexuals state they love one another even though God, from whom they are separated, is the only fountain of love, even though God is hated among them if He is not presented unto them as supportive of their kind of enmity and greed against life. So, even if they group up and even so stand by themselves with all kinds of readiness and sweet wording, we know their heart is in a state of real, dormant enmity against God - and God is the only real fountain for love. If God was to appear unto them as He is (and not as they believe He is, somehow), hatred would suddenly emerge from within them all in unison just as locusts would be driven and heading towards one and the same green objective they spot ahead of them.

Hatred and Love is a state of heart, a life in itself. Hatred and enmity against God will love whoever loves or hates the same way. Jesus said “For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same?  (47)  And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so?” Mat 5:46-47.

The kind of love Jesus is after within man is not a clan-love – something which is often found among Christians themselves – but a state of heart, a life in itself from within which is love whether it gets to receive back or not. Just as hatred and enmity are found asleep if there emerges no opposite representation of it, in the same manner, love may be dormant until the opportunity to love appears, emerges and is made possible. There are loving people who believe they are not of the kind of giving some glass of cold water to a stranger. There are also people who have enmity in them who believe they will give that same cup of water to any stranger, because it loves to believe it is good. But once it happens that God's real love, and Himself as well, is manifest in the way He is, for real, unto them, “you shall again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God, and him who does not serve Him”, Mal 3:18; right there it will emerge what stuff people are really made of and of what not. This is also what Jesus means by "make a tree either bad or make it good".

Many Christians believe they should resist evil due to an idea-behavior due to a previous lifestyle – just like hatred learned to do against such as do not clock at the same tune as they; yet Jesus is not like that. Love needs not to resist since it will be resisted always if love is found in the way of the flesh. Jesus lives as He is, without planning a personality for Himself, for He is as He is: “God said, "I am who I am”, Ex.3:14. Humility is to be as you are and not to pretend to bow down before all. Now, Jesus is counting on His disciples to do and be the same (alike unto Him), to be of the same kind of outdoing as He. If they are changed from inside, if these little sheep hide not whatever they are, if they live a life which resists not evil but is loving always because it is love and cannot change, it will stir out of sleepiness and hibernation any kind of life that is not like it. And we know just how hatred reacts and acts towards any kind of people who are not like them – they will not grant such a cup of cold water not even if they are thirsty and tired out. One may find that those who suffer will help such as suffer as well. But, only if enmity comes into their town, thirsty and worn out, they would refresh it on the spot. Let holiness come and pay a visit to enmity and it will go back thirsty again.

Now, if we represent goodness alone, (without being it in fact), hatred might come out unto us and stand by us, even if we preach the gospel as it should be preached, for there is a match of hearts found, traced and detected, felt in the air. God expects us to be as He is and not to act as if we are as He is – we have got to be as He is for this promise to take place among such as come and grant us a cup of water!

Love does not pretend to be – it is. Therefore, it does not take time to print out it is good, for goodness is like a fragrant smell by itself, a perfume, a kind of life which is easily seen and manifested, which none will miss out upon if it is for real. Remember the ointment Mary poured down upon Jesus? Goodness and real love is like that if it is of the living kind. It is said of it “The sweet smell of the perfume filled the whole house”. Did she call upon people to smell it out? As far as we know, she was quite and her love would stay forever in the remembrance of all who smelled it there, who have been there, and even of such as would hear of Jesus in later years. What made her do that is a mystery, for it is not even a religious practice - hence the reason why people looked down upon whatever she had done, a breaking with sin and with a reward from sin.  Most of those people – with the exception of Jesus – agreed to the fact that it was a most valuable perfume as well. Yet, they did not like to hear of it being spent upon Jesus. It showed out what they would rather have done with it and they understood it not that the perfume poured down upon Jesus, had been a great bondage upon Mary which she chose to break down with, choosing Jesus to do it upon. The gain of a life of prostitution, the rewarded and fulfilled desire was broken down with, just as it had been done with the demons in her before; bondage had given way to a greater love and was sacrificed upon Him. The demons had left already and so did, at that point, the perfume she cared a whole lot about perhaps. She did not resist the perfume she had; she did not give it away by thinking it was valuable; she rather loved Jesus with it. (Do that with pop music you have bought – pour it upon Jesus and do not give it to anyone else when you want it not for the sake of Jesus – do not give it away, sell or offer, for if it is not good for you, it neither is for anyone else).

Mary was allowed in that house, even if she would be disagreed upon. (People may come to allow the Gospel after the same pattern). Nevertheless, her deed made manifest what was hiding within many a heart right there. It is what happens when an enemy comes into the presence, sight or thought of someone. Any person may be at peace, but once he sees the enemy, his heart is brought to change.

If you are able to bring the gospel as it is, there will be reactions for it, as well as against it, both of which must never be taken seriously by you at all. If these cry favorably by hearing it, it may never mean they are fully converted – and if they do not shed a tear, it does not mean they will have no feelings towards God either! People, who defend the gospel because you preach it, may not be Gospel-livers. If you care not about their feeling, and yet they love and come out to love you anyway, that is because they love not themselves and their love for God is genuine. On the other hand, people, who withstand you, might not be hating you, but rather fighting within themselves because they have taken consciousness of their own enmity against God upon the smell of that perfume you managed to bring upon them and they hate it to have it that way. They hate it and because they believe they cannot get rid of their hatred (not knowing what Jesus can do for them as yet), they start speaking out of bitterness. If you take notice of it, if it influences you, at least grasp the whys behind it – it might preserve you from falling yourself.

It is interesting to take notice that whenever genuine disciples come into a certain town, they are to announce that the Kingdom has come. Many such pray Jesus down because they are never able to be the Kingdom themselves! Now, if the Kingdom has really come once you have entered a house – whether they accept you or not – if you pretend not, feign not, please not people, and that Kingdom is really there, and you ask not for water and even so people on taking notice of your thirst reach out to grant you cold water, their reward is guaranteed, not because they have given you something, but rather because they are something like you  if you are like Jesus yourself – it has become manifest what they are! Any disciple will be able to feed his enemy, how much more his friend! But, you will never find enmity feeding love at all. Such are of the kind that Jesus stated “And I give to them eternal life, and they shall never ever perish, and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand.  (29)  My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand”, and therefore do they give unto you! John 10:28-29.

By this we may take notice that the devil may not come to grant a genuine disciple of God a cup of water and come to be rewarded because he has done so prompted by selfishness. If this was what it meant, you would see many a demon coming to the help of true lovers of God, for they would do anything to save their own skin. Jesus could never bind Himself to reward the proud through this promise. This means alone the gospel is able to separate the waters from below from those coming from above. Selfishness and enmity will stick to such as are like them, while Love will promptly manifest itself as well because of what it is within; hence the cup of cold water coming unto you or not. People are either like you to give it, or on the verge of becoming so, having God within them if they give once that Kingdom is there clearly (they may not give you if the kingdom is hidden by you). It is not serving you that will bring their reward down upon them, but rather their conversion which brings them to grant it. For this to happen you must, you have to be the Gospel yourself and not only preach about it. Jesus said not that “whoever gives you a cup of water will not loose his reward”, but rather “a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple”, if you are a disciple out of heart. Be a disciple and see what happens. God bless you.

José Mateus
zemateus@msn.com