John the Baptist’s life was fueled by one burning passion – to point others to Jesus Christ and to the coming of his kingdom. Who is John the Baptist and what is the significance of his message for our lives? Scripture tells us that John was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15, 41) by Christ himself, whom Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit. When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth John lept in her womb as they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41). Like the prophets of the Old Testament, John devoted his entire life to prayer and the word of God. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he was tested and grew in the word of God. John’s clothing was reminiscent of the prophet Elijah (see Kings 1:8).
The Holy Spirit prepared John for the mission entrusted to him as forerunner of the Messiah, Jesus Christ – the Word of God who became man for our salvation (John 1:1,14). John pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world by offering his life on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins and the sin of the world (John 1:29).
John The Baptist was a light pointing to Jesus. Do you point the way to Jesus?
This doesn’t mean that we need to be perfect all the time, but we do need to be aware that people are taking their cue from us. When they see how serious we are about our faith and how it impacts every area of our lives, they’re more apt to take it seriously themselves.
The Christian life is both caught and taught.
There’s a reason why Jesus said the second greatest commandment is like the first: if we love God with all our heart, we will love our neighbor as ourselves. It functions like faith and works; if we truly have the first, the second naturally follow.
God is very good at designing things this way: our faith is revealed by our works, our creeds are revealed by our deeds, and our love for him is revealed by our love for others. He makes it very hard for us to fake it.
Since the greatest and second greatest commandments are involved in these things, we know they are important to God.
Let’s make them important to us this week
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