Matthew 10:40-42
“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
Matthew 25:43
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
Matthew 10:14
If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
You Must Welcome the One Who Is Sent
God had a purpose for sending Jesus. It was for people to know the Messiah who would save the world, listen to his Word, and believe in God who sent him. It was to believe in God, serve God, and love both Him and Jesus.
In Matthew 10:40-42, Jesus sent out his twelve disciples to preach the gospel. If people listened to that Word and welcomed his disciples, Jesus considered it as welcoming him. And so he would go there to teach and preach the Word himself. If people welcomed Jesus, he regarded it as welcoming God, so he kept appearing closely before them to speak and teach about God.
Before Jesus came, the Old Testament Jews fervently believed in God and waited for His coming as their greatest wish. But contrary to their expectations, God did not come directly as a divine being. Instead, He came through the body of Jesus. From the Old Testament to this time period, God has always fulfilled His Will through the people He has sent.
God wanted to fulfill His promise through Jesus, so when the Jews were unable to welcome Jesus, God could not fulfill the wish that both He and they wanted. On the other hand, the Gentiles who did not even believe in God were the ones who ended up welcoming Jesus after listening to his words. So God Almighty, using Jesus’ body, appeared before them, spoke to them, taught them, and saved them.
God is always with those who believe in and follow the words of the one He sends. He helps them, loves them, and accompanies them until the end. Therefore, you need to welcome and believe in the one sent by God.
History Is Gradually Made Through the Word
You must listen to the words of the one sent perfectly and in detail. God gives him the Word to save people, and God appears while preaching that Word.
Through that Word, you can realize and thus welcome the one God sent. Through that Word, you are able to establish a faith that’s firm. And with that firm faith, your love for God can also be established.
When people listen to His Word and welcome it, it is the same as welcoming the one whom God sent. That, in turn, is equivalent to welcoming the Trinity, and so God fulfills His Will.
Although God fulfills His Will through the one He sent, He cannot do it all at once. Just as your life experience accumulates, your faith strengthens, and your love grows with time, God’s history also becomes perfect by gradually rising in level with time.
The Importance of Perceiving Properly
Only the Absolute Deity, the Trinity, are perfect and complete beings. However, just as you would proofread and edit a piece of writing to make it more polished, we can gradually make ourselves more perfect and complete as we listen to the Word, learn, take action, and fix in ourselves whatever needs to be fixed.
In particular, your perceptions must be clear and proper as you learn and listen to God’s Word. The things you haven’t integrated into your life completely are the things that you haven’t learned properly yet.
You need to learn and perceive things correctly. Then you will not ignorantly act in ways that will lead you to death. So learn to perceive yourself properly; perceive God, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Son Jesus properly; and treat Them properly. Then we will be able to receive the one God sent and fulfill God’s Will for this time period.
