Year 6, Day 275: Malachi 3-4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Malachi 3 brings me to one of my favorite quotes in the whole of the Old Testament.  “Who can endure His coming?”  This quote is spoken with respect to the coming of the Lord’s Messenger.  Ultimately, then, this quote is spoken most substantively of Jesus.

I think this is an idea that the modern church likes to forget.  We paint a picture where Jesus loves everyone just as they are.  To be clear, God does love everyone.  John 3:16 tells us that God loved the whole world.  What we forget, though, it that while God loves us in our current condition, He does not desire that we stay in our current condition.  Jesus comes to call us into relationship with the Father so that we might be changed.  That is why the prophet says, “Who can endure the day of His coming?”  When the messenger of the Lord comes, he comes because he has a message from God not just about how much he loves us but also about how God desires to challenge us out of our sinfulness.

I love this concept and I think that it is unfortunate that it gets lost in the modern world.  This concept combines love, forgiveness, and challenge all into one big package.  I believe that this is the way that true religion works; I believe it is the point of the end of Malachi 3 and the whole of Malachi 4.  We are first loved by God.  When we turn to Him, He forgives us.  As He forgives us, He desires to change us and turn us away from those things for which He needed to forgive.

<><