¹⁷The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” ¹⁸He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ¹⁹See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

²¹At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²²All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²³Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Now this is one of those difficult statements where Jesus hints about the fall of Satan, and about having the ability to do miracles and withstand the venom of poisonous creatures.  Many people have speculated on what this means. Many have speculated into the silence of what the remainder of his teaching is.

Jesus reminds us this is all rubbish. What matters is our salvation. All else is secondary: our salvation is primary and it is greater.

And this is not demonstrated by signs of power or by having secular authority. You see it in the results of a person’s actions, not in the words they say. As BF said:

Integrity is a learned behavior. While I’m an optimist that believes human beings are biologically equipped with some-form of internal moral compass [psychopaths have a malfunctioning moral compass]; let’s not ignore society’s influence on human behavior.

Actions have consequences; if someone makes a mistake, society should expect them to own up to it. “Biology made me do it” isn’t an excuse. Toddlers misbehave – should we disregard their temper tantrums/coloring on the walls/biting/etc. just because they are biologically inclined towards said behavior? No – parents correct their behavior, teach them right from wrong. Or at least that’s what my parents did when I was coloring on the walls, or that one time I stuck play dough in my Dad’s fax machine and blamed it on the cat.

Promiscuity is so common among Christians, because churches completely disregard promiscuous behavior. They’ll form a Pro-Life commission to ban the over-the-counter morning after pill. But when it comes to preventing the circumstances that lead to the morning after pill? Meh.

Christian: “It was a mistake, I didn’t know any better, the devil made me do it”
Priest/Pastor: Okay.

I think a lot of devout Christians are living in sin, because when they sought Christ’s forgiveness, they never actually repented. Like that post from last week; about the Christian woman who slept around and admitted to not regretting it. “I sinned, Jesus forgives me – but I don’t regret my sins” If you don’t regret sinning, than why ask Jesus to forgive you?

(Hat tip SSM:).

Our actions lead to our habits and our habits to our character and our character to our life. If we are human: if we take responsibility for our sins: if we regret when we do wrong, if we are protective to the weak and confronting the evil powers of this world, there will be fruit in our lives.

For in ourselves we can do nothing. Our motives are too mixed: we are never disinterested. And if we see that in fact we sin habitually, regularly, and this is damaging not only us but those around us… and spitting on that gift of salvation that Jesus gave at great cost — we should indeed feel regret. And we will need to change and then confess. As our Catholic friends remind us, confession without contrition is of no worth.

So yes, we are to be judgmental. We need clear eyes, and to see our weakness clearly (as our strengths). We should not distort reality. For reality does not distort us. We can either live in this truth, which will be painful, or live a lie.

But that lie will lead to us distorting reality and shunning those who do not fit within our justifications. Those who confront or challenge us will be called hypocrites, Pharisees, Racist Fascists, and intolerant. We will live a lie, and lie will shut down our relationships. Instead of building friendships and interests, we will trapped into a small circle of habitual activities. We will shut others off.

And when we then reach out in desperation, we will find ourselves without succor. For we have not only shut out our families and relatives, we will have shut out God.

So let us pray that we heed the harsh words of correction from a friend. The alternative is to build not Jerusalem but idolatrous Samaria in this life and this land. and see our nation (and ourselves) slide into perdition.