Life without God is not Life: Mark 13:3-8
In our quest to be godly, we must not allow ourselves to be led astray. The world is full of distractors. The world wants our attention. It wants us to follow its path. It wants to pull us along its agenda. We must be vigilant in our pursuit of the Lord.
Peter, James, John, and Andrew ask Jesus when the destruction will take place. This has a feel of a very private conversation between just these four disciples and Jesus. Jesus doesn’t feel the need to include everyone all the time. There are times and places for intimate questions. There are times and places for intimate answers. Sometimes, a mentor needs a small audience to minimize the rabbit trails in the conversation. We are told to not play favorites – and I agree we shouldn’t. But that doesn’t mean everyone gets equal time all the time, either.
Jesus responds to their query by deflecting the question. For Jesus, telling His disciples when the end will occur is simply not a priority. He doesn’t want His disciples knowing how long they have. God is not in the business of making seers. Instead, Jesus warns them to not be led astray. When the destruction happens is not nearly as important as making sure the disciples don’t get caught up in the destruction whenever it happens.
This point is still important today. The end is coming. If nothing else, the end is a couple thousand years closer than it was when the disciples asked their question. Still, though, knowledge of the timing of the end is not our focus. The reason the end is the end is because the world will be falling more and more away from God. Thus, the closer we get to the end the more deception will make sense. The closer we get to the end, the more the thoughts of the world around us will be pointed away from God’s ways. The world will naturally think contrary to God’s ways. It will be harder and harder to align with God because the world will naturally be aligned another way.
This is why Jesus is concerned with being led astray. The more the world’s thinking diverges from God’s ways, the more people will come and claim to have the answer. This is what Jesus means when He says they will claim “I am he.” Jesus is the answer; He points us to God. The deceivers will think they are the answer, but their answers will point away from God. They will claim to have truth, peace, justice, and other aspects but they will have them in ways that are apart from God.
In the end, God is the only answer. He is the only place to find what we’re looking for. Peace without God is hardly peace. Truth without God is not really truth. Love without God is certainly not love. In our quest to be godly, we must not allow ourselves to be led astray.
