Today’s Verse
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
-1 Peter 4:17
Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
This verse is the prophecy of God doing the work of judgment in the last days. Concerning the work of the judgment in the last days, Jesus Christ also prophesied, “He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). From these prophecies we can see when Jesus Christ comes in the last days, He will return to express the truth and do the work of judgment beginning from the house of God.
So then, why will Jesus Christ express the truth to do the work of judgment in the last days? It is because our sins have been forgiven and we are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ when we believe in Him, but it cannot be denied: In our following Jesus Christ, we still often go against the Lord’s teachings, follow the desires of our flesh to lie and deceive others; we still love vanity and money, scheme and fight against each other for the sake of fame and gain, and follow the wicked trends of the world; when encountering trials of hardship, we still misunderstand God, complain against God, and even stray away from God, and betray God; while following God we still follow man and worship man. All these are our true state that we are bound by sin, live in a cycle of sinning and confessing, and cannot extricate ourselves from it. We still have so much corruption within us and our sinful nature has not yet been resolved. We cannot fear God and shun evil, and also cannot obey God absolutely to be compatible with God. People like these have not yet been truly gained by God. We all know God is righteous and holy, and that without holiness man cannot see Jesus Christ. God will never allow those who still often commit sins to enter His kingdom. So, according to His management plan of saving man, God expresses the truth and does the work of judgment beginning from the house of God in the last days to resolve man’s sinful nature and save man from the bond and control of sin, so that man can be purified and saved, and finally be brought into God’s kingdom. Just as God’s words say, “Before man was redeemed, many of Satan’s poisons had already been planted within him and, after thousands of years of being corrupted by Satan, he has within him an established nature that resists God. Therefore, when man has been redeemed, it is nothing more than a case of redemption in which man is bought at a high price, but the poisonous nature within him has not been eliminated. Man that is so defiled must undergo a change before becoming worthy to serve God. By means of this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within his own self, and he will be able to change completely and become clean. Only in this way can man become worthy to return before the throne of God. ”
