Luke 7:34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

They said that of Jesus. Imagine what they are saying about me? People talk and there is nothing you can do to change that. Better behavior on our part will be met with words like self-righteous and hypocrite. Jesus warned us of that during His teachings.

Matthew 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

We are the Lord’s servants and all they do and say has nothing to do with who you are or what you have done. They have done this to our Lord.

Matthew 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Some of my disciples have tried to come to my defense and I asked them not to do that. The Holy Spirit does not need our help in dealing with the enemies of Christ. We tend to get defensive but stop and think about that. That is a response in the flesh of the person we were before we came to Christ.

Romans 8:36-37 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

When people talk about us it might not feel like we are victorious but in Christ we are victorious.

Take shelter in this and do not strike back. The words of their own lips will someday convict them.

Proverbs 6:2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

Let us not get caught up in that ourselves.

2 Kings 17:27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.

Just one priest was returned to Samaria to teach the inhabitants of the land about the God of Israel. This is the beginning of the conversion of non-Jews from pagan to God worshippers. The end result was a class of worshipers the Jews would call Samaritans.

All these Samaritans had was the first five books, the Pentateuch. They did not have the books relating to the history of Israel, Kings and Chronicle or the Psalms. Any books of wisdom or prophesy were absent from their libraries.

The inhabitants of the displaced lands where pagans from many nations forced to live there by the Assyrian Kings. In less than one hundred years the people gave up pagan worship and worshiped Yahweh alone.

What a stark contrast this was from the twelve tribes of Israel who were saved out of Egypt by God and then time and time again turned their back on Yahweh and worshipped pagan gods. This practice led to the dividing of Israel into two kingdom both of which tried to buy their way out of trouble rather than returning to God.

2 Kings 18:16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

While this worked to save Judah from the Assyrian Kings, Judah fell to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. These actions bring to mind the harsh warning issued by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 65:5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

The pagans worshiped Yahweh more faithfully than the divided kingdoms.