“I was in prison and you came to Me” – Matt. 25:36c
On an imperfect earth, people get imprisoned both legitimately and illegitimately. Yes, the prison has both guilty and innocent people.
These are all limited or restricted in the normal life that humans should lead, by secured doors and high walls. Now, according to our dearest Jesus, both categories of prison inmates need to be visited and attended to.
Restricted Israel
Our Lord Jesus’ earthly siblings are physically or geo-politically hemmed in by ‘unfriendly’ Arabic countries, as in a prison. They are surrounded by the State of Palestine, specifically West Bank and Gaza Strip, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
As believers, we should not let them feel isolated, but to literally visit the Holy Land. This will give them the needed ‘strength’ against anyone of these nations and others in the world who decides to be a threat to them. Yes, our dearest Jesus wants us to visit His ‘siblings’, the Jewish nation.
You know, everyone wants to be accepted by others, especially those close by.Even in the world, many nations have stood against the interest of Israel as a nation. This is not good enough because every nation has a right to statehood, sovereignty and to determine what their capital city is.
Beloved, the State of Israel should not be isolated by other nations for deciding what their capital city is. This is the Kingdom-perspective, which we should seek on earth – Col. 3:1-3.
Caring for the incarcerated
The prison is one place that is to be a correctional center to help inmates to reform their bad behavior. But it can rather make people degenerate further in conduct.
For this reason, we need to visit the imprisoned to give them ‘a breath of fresh air’ from the monotony of people and situations that they have to cope with. This will help both innocent and guilty inmates to see themselves as prisoners of hope whose lives are not over yet.
Beloved, the Kingdom of God is for all including prisoners, and all those tagged as socially dysfunctional. So, God wants His children outside prison to show love to all prisoners, whether it was their fault for being put behind bars or not. My friend, God will make you inherit Kingdom-life now for the future, if you attend to those in prison.
May you send the Gospel of the Kingdom to all prisoners so that, although they may be restricted physically, they will believe in the Lord Jesus who took away their sins and its punishment!– Is. 53:6, 8.
Then they will have the inner fortitude to endure the outer shame and afflictions that are imposed by the legal systems of mankind which are only temporary.
