Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
I left you yesterday with the questions about how we see others and how we see ourselves. This morning as I thought about it, the word authentic came to mind. That word does not exist in the bible but doing that word search came up with a suggested reading. This from Jeremiah is that suggestion.
Failing to be authentic misleads people. We cannot see who others are clearly if they are not authentic and the same goes for us. Scatter and destroy seem to be serious results for a lack of authenticity but being a pastor is serious business, hence the serious results.
Another search at bible.org refers us to these verses.
Colossians 1:4-8 English Standard Version
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
What did Jesus mean by that?
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Perhaps we should know each other in the same manner in which we know Christ.
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do we see Christ in each other? Or do we only know each other by our flesh?