The Apostles and the Betrayer
In John 13:20,
after affirming His deity,
Jesus,
still speaking of
His imminent betrayal,
says,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives
whomever I send receives Me;
and he who
receives Me receives Him who sent Me."
Initially,
that statement doesn't
seem
to fit the context of
what
Jesus is saying.
But a
closer look reveals that it fits beautifully.
We don't know what went on in the gap between verses 19 and 20.
But you can imagine that when the disciples
found out about the betrayal,
they might have all assumed that because of the
failure of one of them,
credibility would be destroyed for the rest.
They might have assumed that a traitor among the
disciples would lower the standing of them all.
If Jesus went to the cross,
they must have thought, the Messianic hope would be gone.
Their ministry would be over.
They might as well forget about the Kingdom.
And, remember, Jesus had just been stressing the importance of humility.
Perhaps
they were beginning to think that He was
telling them to forget about their
high calling.
So what Jesus was saying is this:
"No matter what happens, it doesn't
lower your commission,
and
it doesn't alter your calling.
You are still my representatives.
Although there's a traitor among you,
that doesn't affect your high calling.
The treachery of Judas
must never lower your estimate
of
apostolic responsibility."
It's a tremendous lesson. He's saying
, "When you go out there
and preach,
if they receive you they are
receiving Me.
And if they receive Me, they're receiving
the Father who
sent Me.
Your commission is
that high.
You represent God in the world."
When Christ was crucified,
Judas turned out to be a rotten hypocrite,
and the whole world seemed to be collapsing,
it was easy to hit bottom spiritually and emotionally.
So Jesus took the opportunity
to elevate them and encourage them to keep
their eyes on their
calling
and on their ministry,
where they belonged.
We need
to be aware of that truth
as well.
No matter what Satanic opposition we run into,
no matter how frustrating the work becomes,
nothing can lower our commission.
I recently talked to a discouraged man who is in the
Lord's service.
He was facing so much opposition that he was
beginning to wonder if he was
in the right place.
Opposition is to be expected, I told him.
Anything we do for God is going
to meet with opposition.
If every missionary looked at a mission field and said,
"Oh, they might not believe me over there;"
we'd never get anything done. Just because it's going to be difficult,
and just because there's going to be opposition
doesn't lower your calling.
We are Christ's ambassadors
in the world
Those who reject us reject Christ,
so regardless of what happens, we
stand with Him.
That's as high as you can get.
When a believer moves out into this world,
he represents Jesus Christ.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20,
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God
were entreating through us;
we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God."
In Galatians 4:14, the apostle Paul says,
"You received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself."
And that's the way everybody ought to receive a believer.
When a man rejects our
witness for Christ,
he rejects Jesus and he rejects God.
That's how strategically important believers are.
And that is Jesus' point in John 13:20.
Notice that He uses the word "whomever."
That refers to ambassadors of Jesus Christ
in every age,
including those of us who represent Him today.
Have you ever heard someone use hypocrites as an
excuse for not following Christ?
People often say,
"There are too many hypocrites in the church for me."
Or,
"Well, we don't go to church, because we went when I was nine and we saw a hypocrite. Haven't been back in forty-two years!"
That will be a pathetic excuse when they rattle it off
to God in the day of judgment.
But it is true that there are too many hypocrites in the church.
They're everywhere. And one hypocrite is one too many.
But the fact that some are hypocrites does not diminish
the glory of God or lower the high calling
of every true child of God.
One betrayer among the apostles did
not tarnish the commission of the rest.
Wheat and Tares
In Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus gave this parable:
The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?"
And he said to them, "An enemy has done this!" The slaves said to him, "Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?" But he said, "No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
In other words, it was hard to tell the difference between wheat and tares before they were ready for harvest. And while there may be some telltale signs, we can't always tell the difference between the true people of God and the hypocrites. If we knew which was which, we could go to every hypocrite individually and warn him of the danger of his hypocrisy. But we can't read people's hearts. But someday Jesus is going to reveal who is true and who is false, and He will divide accordingly.
The Troubled Heart and the Hardened Heart
Unmasking Judas betrayal must have caused deep anguish
within the heart of Jesus.
"
When Jesus had said this,
He became troubled in spirit,
and testified and said,
'Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will
betray Me'"
(v. 21).
What troubled Him?
Possibly a number of things:
He was troubled because of the
unrequited love of Judas;
He was troubled because of
the
ingratitude in Judas's heart;
He was troubled because He had a deep hatred of sin, and sitting at the same table with Him was sin incarnate;
He was troubled because of the hypocrisy of the
one about to betray Him;
He was troubled because He knew Judas faced an eternal destiny in hell;
He was troubled because He could see with His omnipotent eye Satan moving around Judas; He was troubled because He sensed all that sin and death meant. But perhaps most of all He was troubled because He had an awareness that Judas was a classic illustration of the wretchedness of sin, which He would have to bear in His own body on the next day.
In His anguish,
He says, "One of you will betray Me."
Imagine the shock that must have rattled
through the disciples.
Their hearts must have raced.
One of those at the table;
one whose feet Jesus had just washed; one of their own,
close group was about to betray the Master.
One of them was plotting to use his intimacy with Christ to guide the enemy to Him so that they might kill Him.
It must have been difficult for them to
fathom that one of their own group
could have such
hardened treachery in his heart.
In fact, the disciples couldn't imagine whom He could be talking about. John says they "began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking" (v. 22). Matthew says they all said, "Is it I? Is it I?" And Judas, the hypocrite, even said,
"Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" (Matthew 26:25).
Love and Treachery
It is noteworthy that the disciples were so perplexed.
It shows that Jesus
had shown love to Judas for three years,
even though He knew Judas would
betray Him in the end.
If Jesus
had ever treated Judas any differently
from the way He treated the other disciples--
if He had been more distant, or
shown resentment—they
would have known
immediately that Judas was the betrayer.
If Jesus had harbored any bitterness for what
He knew Judas would ultimately do,
it would have come out in the way He talked to him.
But, evidently,
for three years He had been gentle, loving, and kind to Judas,
treating Him in exactly the same manner
He treated the other eleven.
They thought of him as one of the group,
and no one suspected him.
In fact, they must have had a great deal of trust in him.
Judas was treasurer of the group.
And hard-hearted Judas had just played his game, all the way along.
He had the behavior of a saint but the heart of a sinner.
He must have come to
hate Christ deeply.
The hatred of Judas
and the love of John make an
interesting contrast.
Try to picture the scene around the
table.
The table itself would have been U-shaped. In accordance
with the customs of that time,
the disciples were not seated on chairs, but rather reclining on couches.
The table
would have been a low, solid block with the couches around it,
and the host would sit at the center.
On each side of him would be
guests of honor,
and others would be positioned
all around the table.
They would lie on their left sides, resting on their left elbows, using their right hands to eat. Thus the one who was on the right of Jesus would have his head very close to the heart of Christ. From a distance, it would appear that he was reclining on the breast of Christ. John, who wrote this account, often referred to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (21:20; cf. 21:24). It was not that Jesus loved him more than He loved the others, but rather that John was completely overwhelmed with the concept that Jesus loved him at all. Also, John was consumed with love for the Lord. He loved Jesus as much as Judas hated Him.
John was reclining next to Jesus: "There was reclining on Jesus' breast one of
His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore gestured to him,
and said to him, '
Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking'"
(John 13:23-24)
. Peter silently motioned to John to ask Jesus who the betrayer would be.
So John leaned up and whispered,
"Lord, who is it?"
When he turned to speak with Him, Christ would be very close.
"Jesus then answered, '
That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.'
So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" (v. 26). Jesus' answer to Peter and John was really a final appeal of love to Judas. "The morsel" was a piece broken from some of the unleavened cakes that would be on the table as a part of the Passover feast. Also on the table would be a dish called cheshireth, filled with bitter herbs; vinegar; salt; and mashed fruit, consisting of dates, figs, raisins, and water—all mixed together into a pasty substance. They would eat it with the unleavened bread like a dip.
It was very special for the host to dip a morsel into the cheshireth and give it to the guest of honor. And Jesus, kindly, in a gesture of love toward Judas, dipped the morsel and gave it to Judas, as if Judas were the guest of honor. One would think that all Jesus had done for Judas that night would have broken his heart, but it didn't. Judas was an apostate. His heart was hardened, and nothing Jesus could do for him would break it. Salvation for him was now impossible. He had become the classic example of the kind of person spoken of in Hebrews 6, who has "once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away" (Hebrews 6:4-6). He had seen and experienced and tasted all those things, but he had never embraced them with true faith.
The writer to the Hebrews says of those like Judas, "It is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame" (v. 6).
Judas was so confirmed in his apostasy that he literally became possessed by Satan. Verse 27 says, "And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.'" Judas had been duped by Satan; he'd been flirting with Satan. The enemy had already put it in his heart to betray Christ, and now, the devil simply moved in and took over. In that awful moment, the evil will of Judas overcame the last and most powerful offer of Jesus Christ's love, and the sin against the Holy Spirit was finalized. In that moment, Judas was damned to hell forever. He had spurned the love of Christ for the last time and his eternity was sealed.
Day and Night
Jesus' attitude toward Judas
immediately changed.
He was through with Judas.
Judas had crossed the line of grace,
and
no more could Jesus reach out to him.
The difference was immediate,
radical—like day and night.
Jesus had been reaching out to Judas
in love,
but Judas was confirmed in his
stubborn apostasy.
All Jesus wanted now was to get rid of him.
Notice that Satan and Jesus were now giving Judas the same direction.
Satan said, "Betray Him." Christ said, "Do it quickly."
Judas was clearly determined to betray Christ, Satan was determined to try to destroy Him, and Christ was determined to die for the sins of the world. But Jesus would shatter Satan's plan by rising from the grave.
None of the disciples caught the significance of what was occurring.
"Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, 'Buy the things we have need of for the feast'; or else, that he should give something to the poor" (vv. 28-29). They thought he was going shopping, or out to dispense some charity at the Passover season.
"And so after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night"
(v. 30).
There he went, a solitary figure, leaving the room, to enter into the eternity of hell.
The Bible doesn't say where he went, but evidently
he went to finalize his deal with the Sanhedrin.
And when he went out, it was night.
For Judas,
who had walked with Jesus and
yet stayed in darkness,
the hours of daylight and opportunity
were over.
It was more than mere physical night,
it was eternal night in the soul of Judas.
It is always night
when a man goes out of the
presence of Jesus Christ.
There are Judases in every age. Perhaps they are more common than ever today. The professing church is full of people who are selling out Jesus Christ, "crucify[ing] to themselves the Son of God and put[ting] Him to open shame" (Hebrews 6:6). There are many who have eaten at His table, and then lifted their heel against Him. And the greatest tragedy still is only their own ultimate disaster. A poem I once read includes these few poignant words:
Still as of old,
By himself is priced.
For thirty pieces Judas sold
Himself, not Christ.
Be sure that you make the most of your opportunities. Be sure you're not a hypocrite. If we learn anything from the life of Judas it is that the greatest spiritual privileges might be neutralized by illicit passion. A life that is lived in the face of the unclouded sun may yet end in a night of despair.
In John 13:20,
after affirming His deity,
Jesus,
still speaking of
His imminent betrayal,
says,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives
whomever I send receives Me;
and he who
receives Me receives Him who sent Me."
Initially,
that statement doesn't
seem
to fit the context of
what
Jesus is saying.
But a
closer look reveals that it fits beautifully.
We don't know what went on in the gap between verses 19 and 20.
But you can imagine that when the disciples
found out about the betrayal,
they might have all assumed that because of the
failure of one of them,
credibility would be destroyed for the rest.
They might have assumed that a traitor among the
disciples would lower the standing of them all.
If Jesus went to the cross,
they must have thought, the Messianic hope would be gone.
Their ministry would be over.
They might as well forget about the Kingdom.
And, remember, Jesus had just been stressing the importance of humility.
Perhaps
they were beginning to think that He was
telling them to forget about their
high calling.
So what Jesus was saying is this:
"No matter what happens, it doesn't
lower your commission,
and
it doesn't alter your calling.
You are still my representatives.
Although there's a traitor among you,
that doesn't affect your high calling.
The treachery of Judas
must never lower your estimate
of
apostolic responsibility."
It's a tremendous lesson. He's saying
, "When you go out there
and preach,
if they receive you they are
receiving Me.
And if they receive Me, they're receiving
the Father who
sent Me.
Your commission is
that high.
You represent God in the world."
When Christ was crucified,
Judas turned out to be a rotten hypocrite,
and the whole world seemed to be collapsing,
it was easy to hit bottom spiritually and emotionally.
So Jesus took the opportunity
to elevate them and encourage them to keep
their eyes on their
calling
and on their ministry,
where they belonged.
We need
to be aware of that truth
as well.
No matter what Satanic opposition we run into,
no matter how frustrating the work becomes,
nothing can lower our commission.
I recently talked to a discouraged man who is in the
Lord's service.
He was facing so much opposition that he was
beginning to wonder if he was
in the right place.
Opposition is to be expected, I told him.
Anything we do for God is going
to meet with opposition.
If every missionary looked at a mission field and said,
"Oh, they might not believe me over there;"
we'd never get anything done. Just because it's going to be difficult,
and just because there's going to be opposition
doesn't lower your calling.
We are Christ's ambassadors
in the world
Those who reject us reject Christ,
so regardless of what happens, we
stand with Him.
That's as high as you can get.
When a believer moves out into this world,
he represents Jesus Christ.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20,
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God
were entreating through us;
we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God."
In Galatians 4:14, the apostle Paul says,
"You received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself."
And that's the way everybody ought to receive a believer.
When a man rejects our
witness for Christ,
he rejects Jesus and he rejects God.
That's how strategically important believers are.
And that is Jesus' point in John 13:20.
Notice that He uses the word "whomever."
That refers to ambassadors of Jesus Christ
in every age,
including those of us who represent Him today.
Have you ever heard someone use hypocrites as an
excuse for not following Christ?
People often say,
"There are too many hypocrites in the church for me."
Or,
"Well, we don't go to church, because we went when I was nine and we saw a hypocrite. Haven't been back in forty-two years!"
That will be a pathetic excuse when they rattle it off
to God in the day of judgment.
But it is true that there are too many hypocrites in the church.
They're everywhere. And one hypocrite is one too many.
But the fact that some are hypocrites does not diminish
the glory of God or lower the high calling
of every true child of God.
One betrayer among the apostles did
not tarnish the commission of the rest.
Wheat and Tares
In Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus gave this parable:
The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?"
And he said to them, "An enemy has done this!" The slaves said to him, "Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?" But he said, "No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
In other words, it was hard to tell the difference between wheat and tares before they were ready for harvest. And while there may be some telltale signs, we can't always tell the difference between the true people of God and the hypocrites. If we knew which was which, we could go to every hypocrite individually and warn him of the danger of his hypocrisy. But we can't read people's hearts. But someday Jesus is going to reveal who is true and who is false, and He will divide accordingly.
The Troubled Heart and the Hardened Heart
Unmasking Judas betrayal must have caused deep anguish
within the heart of Jesus.
"
When Jesus had said this,
He became troubled in spirit,
and testified and said,
'Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will
betray Me'"
(v. 21).
What troubled Him?
Possibly a number of things:
He was troubled because of the
unrequited love of Judas;
He was troubled because of
the
ingratitude in Judas's heart;
He was troubled because He had a deep hatred of sin, and sitting at the same table with Him was sin incarnate;
He was troubled because of the hypocrisy of the
one about to betray Him;
He was troubled because He knew Judas faced an eternal destiny in hell;
He was troubled because He could see with His omnipotent eye Satan moving around Judas; He was troubled because He sensed all that sin and death meant. But perhaps most of all He was troubled because He had an awareness that Judas was a classic illustration of the wretchedness of sin, which He would have to bear in His own body on the next day.
In His anguish,
He says, "One of you will betray Me."
Imagine the shock that must have rattled
through the disciples.
Their hearts must have raced.
One of those at the table;
one whose feet Jesus had just washed; one of their own,
close group was about to betray the Master.
One of them was plotting to use his intimacy with Christ to guide the enemy to Him so that they might kill Him.
It must have been difficult for them to
fathom that one of their own group
could have such
hardened treachery in his heart.
In fact, the disciples couldn't imagine whom He could be talking about. John says they "began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking" (v. 22). Matthew says they all said, "Is it I? Is it I?" And Judas, the hypocrite, even said,
"Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" (Matthew 26:25).
Love and Treachery
It is noteworthy that the disciples were so perplexed.
It shows that Jesus
had shown love to Judas for three years,
even though He knew Judas would
betray Him in the end.
If Jesus
had ever treated Judas any differently
from the way He treated the other disciples--
if He had been more distant, or
shown resentment—they
would have known
immediately that Judas was the betrayer.
If Jesus had harbored any bitterness for what
He knew Judas would ultimately do,
it would have come out in the way He talked to him.
But, evidently,
for three years He had been gentle, loving, and kind to Judas,
treating Him in exactly the same manner
He treated the other eleven.
They thought of him as one of the group,
and no one suspected him.
In fact, they must have had a great deal of trust in him.
Judas was treasurer of the group.
And hard-hearted Judas had just played his game, all the way along.
He had the behavior of a saint but the heart of a sinner.
He must have come to
hate Christ deeply.
The hatred of Judas
and the love of John make an
interesting contrast.
Try to picture the scene around the
table.
The table itself would have been U-shaped. In accordance
with the customs of that time,
the disciples were not seated on chairs, but rather reclining on couches.
The table
would have been a low, solid block with the couches around it,
and the host would sit at the center.
On each side of him would be
guests of honor,
and others would be positioned
all around the table.
They would lie on their left sides, resting on their left elbows, using their right hands to eat. Thus the one who was on the right of Jesus would have his head very close to the heart of Christ. From a distance, it would appear that he was reclining on the breast of Christ. John, who wrote this account, often referred to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (21:20; cf. 21:24). It was not that Jesus loved him more than He loved the others, but rather that John was completely overwhelmed with the concept that Jesus loved him at all. Also, John was consumed with love for the Lord. He loved Jesus as much as Judas hated Him.
John was reclining next to Jesus: "There was reclining on Jesus' breast one of
His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore gestured to him,
and said to him, '
Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking'"
(John 13:23-24)
. Peter silently motioned to John to ask Jesus who the betrayer would be.
So John leaned up and whispered,
"Lord, who is it?"
When he turned to speak with Him, Christ would be very close.
"Jesus then answered, '
That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.'
So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" (v. 26). Jesus' answer to Peter and John was really a final appeal of love to Judas. "The morsel" was a piece broken from some of the unleavened cakes that would be on the table as a part of the Passover feast. Also on the table would be a dish called cheshireth, filled with bitter herbs; vinegar; salt; and mashed fruit, consisting of dates, figs, raisins, and water—all mixed together into a pasty substance. They would eat it with the unleavened bread like a dip.
It was very special for the host to dip a morsel into the cheshireth and give it to the guest of honor. And Jesus, kindly, in a gesture of love toward Judas, dipped the morsel and gave it to Judas, as if Judas were the guest of honor. One would think that all Jesus had done for Judas that night would have broken his heart, but it didn't. Judas was an apostate. His heart was hardened, and nothing Jesus could do for him would break it. Salvation for him was now impossible. He had become the classic example of the kind of person spoken of in Hebrews 6, who has "once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away" (Hebrews 6:4-6). He had seen and experienced and tasted all those things, but he had never embraced them with true faith.
The writer to the Hebrews says of those like Judas, "It is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame" (v. 6).
Judas was so confirmed in his apostasy that he literally became possessed by Satan. Verse 27 says, "And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.'" Judas had been duped by Satan; he'd been flirting with Satan. The enemy had already put it in his heart to betray Christ, and now, the devil simply moved in and took over. In that awful moment, the evil will of Judas overcame the last and most powerful offer of Jesus Christ's love, and the sin against the Holy Spirit was finalized. In that moment, Judas was damned to hell forever. He had spurned the love of Christ for the last time and his eternity was sealed.
Day and Night
Jesus' attitude toward Judas
immediately changed.
He was through with Judas.
Judas had crossed the line of grace,
and
no more could Jesus reach out to him.
The difference was immediate,
radical—like day and night.
Jesus had been reaching out to Judas
in love,
but Judas was confirmed in his
stubborn apostasy.
All Jesus wanted now was to get rid of him.
Notice that Satan and Jesus were now giving Judas the same direction.
Satan said, "Betray Him." Christ said, "Do it quickly."
Judas was clearly determined to betray Christ, Satan was determined to try to destroy Him, and Christ was determined to die for the sins of the world. But Jesus would shatter Satan's plan by rising from the grave.
None of the disciples caught the significance of what was occurring.
"Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, 'Buy the things we have need of for the feast'; or else, that he should give something to the poor" (vv. 28-29). They thought he was going shopping, or out to dispense some charity at the Passover season.
"And so after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night"
(v. 30).
There he went, a solitary figure, leaving the room, to enter into the eternity of hell.
The Bible doesn't say where he went, but evidently
he went to finalize his deal with the Sanhedrin.
And when he went out, it was night.
For Judas,
who had walked with Jesus and
yet stayed in darkness,
the hours of daylight and opportunity
were over.
It was more than mere physical night,
it was eternal night in the soul of Judas.
It is always night
when a man goes out of the
presence of Jesus Christ.
There are Judases in every age. Perhaps they are more common than ever today. The professing church is full of people who are selling out Jesus Christ, "crucify[ing] to themselves the Son of God and put[ting] Him to open shame" (Hebrews 6:6). There are many who have eaten at His table, and then lifted their heel against Him. And the greatest tragedy still is only their own ultimate disaster. A poem I once read includes these few poignant words:
Still as of old,
By himself is priced.
For thirty pieces Judas sold
Himself, not Christ.
Be sure that you make the most of your opportunities. Be sure you're not a hypocrite. If we learn anything from the life of Judas it is that the greatest spiritual privileges might be neutralized by illicit passion. A life that is lived in the face of the unclouded sun may yet end in a night of despair.
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