Kory's Random Thoughts

NT Journey--Mark 2

2010-07-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

More Thoughts on Our Calling

Mark 2 contains Pastor Randy's favorite story in the Bible, I think. The story of the four friends who lower the crippled man through the roof is exciting and great example of the lengths people would go to get a glimpse of Jesus. The reason these guys would have the audacity to cut a hole in some poor guys' roof is because they believed that Jesus really cared for the man and He could bring healing to the man. But what they found was even more than they imagined.

In the last post, we talked about what it means for us to follow Jesus. Following Jesus means repenting of our satisfaction with just living the way we've been living. To turn from the sin that holds us back and walking with Him, doing what He does, and taking on Jesus' perspective. In Mark 2:13-17, Jesus gives some clarification to His mission.

This section chronicles the calling of Levi (Matthew). Levi was a tax collector. When you think of tax collector in Bible times, however, don't just think about an IRS agent--it's much different. I was sitting the other day talking with some friends from India about the differences in our cultures. One thing that stands out to them as they adjust to life in the United States is the order. India is chaos. In the US, we have single-file lines and people generally wait their turn. In India, there are only mobs.

In the US, when a policeman pulls us over for speeding and we hand him a 20 to let us go, we get in even more trouble. In India, the police routinely ask for bribes. As we talked, I couldn't help but think that they probably have a much better understanding of the biblical culture than we ever will. When Mark explained that Levi was a tax collector who was called by Jesus, it would have raised the hair on the first-century Christian's neck.

Tax collectors were hated by any self-respecting Jew. Tax collectors in the Roman Empire were people who contracted with the Romans to extort money from the masses. When a tax collector would with the contract with the government, they were obligated to pay to the Emperor what they said they would. If they could collect more on top of that it would go directly in their pocket. They were given the authority to collect the taxes in any way necessary.

The whole system lent itself to corruption and in the Jewish world tax collectors were seen as traitors in bed with the Emperor--the lowest of the low. Tax collectors were especially hated by the religious establishment--people like the Pharisees. Yet Jesus calls Levi and Levi answers the call to follow Jesus.

Immediately, Levi invites Jesus over to his house for a party with all his friends. Of course, Jesus was always under the scrutiny of the Pharisees, who I can see peeking in the windows seeing Jesus hanging out with all the notorious "sinners" in town.

The Pharisees' religion was based on separation. They separated themselves from sin (or so they thought). They separated themselves from the masses and not wanting to be corrupted, certainly separated themselves from the "sinners." But we learn a lot about what it means to really follow Jesus in the interaction He has with the Pharisees.

Being people of separation, the Pharisees couldn't understand why Jesus would be in the company of sinners and traitors. Pharisees only associated with other righteous people, so they confronted Him on it. Jesus' answer is prescriptive for anyone who wants to truly follow Him. He answers, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." In order for Jesus to be on mission, He had to be in the middle of people who needed Him and knew it.

In the church, we'll often see this as a nice story that applies only to Jesus. Jesus had His mission and that's great, but we're not Jesus so we've taken on the mentality of the Pharisees--to separate ourselves from the "sinners" of the world. In fact, we often judge the spiritual life of Christians by the events they attend, the music they listen to, and the friends they keep. The more "Christian" we are, the further from the world we are. That's great if we are "saved" and safe. But we're not called to be saved and safe. The Church is the body of Christ, so we should be where Jesus would be.

Statistics show that the longer someone is a Christian, the less non-Christian friends they have. We have made it habit when people come to faith in Jesus, to pull them out of the world into the safety of the church. But following Jesus is not safe, it's dangerous. The parties Jesus' attended were not filled with religious people, they were filled with sinners.

When did the church become the place where healthy people sit around and talk about how healthy we are? When did we start believing it was OK just to sit around and complain about all the sick people in the world? The irony of this story is that as much as Jesus put "sinners" in quotes, He also put quotes around "healthy" and "righteous" when referring to the Pharisees. They weren't healthy and they weren't righteous and if we think that we are healthy and righteous because we only hang out with other Christians and do all the right "Christian things" we're only covering up our sickness.

When we truly follow Jesus, we gain an understanding of His mission. When we understand His mission, we understand our mission. The only question now is, will we really follow?

NT Journey--Mark 1

2010-07-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

Our Calling

Keeping up with the New Testament journey has proved difficult during our move to Minnesota. I've managed to keep up fairly well, but according to the schedule, I'm a few chapters behind. Please be patient with me. Things will slow down at some point and I'll be able to better keep up on a daily basis. In any case, try to stay on the regular reading schedule so you don't have to read too much on any given day. With that in mind, let's talk about Mark 1.

We learned in the intro to Mark that this book has a lot of short, to-the-point stories. This is one reason why scholars believe Matthew and Luke might have used Mark for source material for their Gospels. What it means for me on the New Testament Journey is that I either have to look closely to see how the short stories relate to each other, flow from one to the next, or just pick one of the short sections and focus on that. Today, I'll do that latter. I would like to focus today on verse 14-20--the calling of the disciples.

This section first tells us that Jesus' message was that the Kingdom of God was near. We've seen this over and over in the gospels. That was the message of Jesus. It was not first of all that people can go to heaven, but that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming to earth and it was very near. Of course, the reason it was near was because Jesus was near. Jesus was sent as the Jewish Messiah who would free people from what oppressed them. He was the promise God gave to Abraham that "all the nations of the earth would be blessed through you." So the Kingdom was near because Jesus was near.

Jesus then goes on to teach about what it takes to become a part of that Kingdom. He says, "repent and believe the good news." When we looked at John 3, we saw what that repentance looks like. Repentance is a turning. For us, it means to completely renounce the thinking and perspective of the world and begin to think like Jesus; to give up our sinful desires and take on God's desires. When we do, we participate in the Kingdom. We don't have to wait until we die and go to heaven, we can experience Kingdom life right here and now, but the way to do it is to repent.

This brings us to our focus for today. In our society today, we often think about our relationship with Jesus in terms of salvation--we get to go to heaven when we die. Although the Bible does talk of people being "saved" when they have faith in Jesus, that's not the primary terminology Jesus used when calling people. The primary calling of Jesus was not to just be saved, but it was "follow me."

Now some might say that this calling was only for Jesus' twelve disciples, but we see other instances in the Gospels where Jesus calls other people to follow Him. For instance, when the rich young man came and asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved, Jesus told him, "Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor...then come follow me." (Mark 10:21)

Our mindset is often that what Jesus wants from us is to be saved, but when Jesus was calling people--average everyday people--His call was to follow Him. How many people over the years have come to believe that Jesus is satisfied with people simply being "saved."

The second part of Jesus' call in this passage is that He will make them "fishers of men." Oftentimes we'll continue the metaphor Jesus uses and we think we should be called "fishers of men." However, Jesus used this metaphor only with Simon and Andrew, who were fishermen. I don't think it's wrong to continue to use the metaphor today, but when we do, I think we lose the significance of what Jesus was saying to them.

What Jesus was saying was that when they come and follow Him their life will take on a much bigger purpose than just catching fish. Simon and Andrew were used to the daily grind of getting up early in the morning, preparing their nets, rowing out into the lake and casting nets all day. It's not that what they did was insignificant. It was a living for them and sustenance for others. What Jesus was saying to them was that at present they are devoting themselves to the mundane, everyday part of life, but if they're willing to follow Him, their lives can take on a cosmic and eternal significance.

What Jesus was calling them to was not just to be "saved" or even safe, but to be significant. They weren't impressive people, but Jesus rarely called impressive people. The only requirement to be a disciple was to be willing to leave everything. Jesus' call to them was far more than the minimal standard we often hold. His call was for them to leave everything they knew to gain something they never though they could. Jesus called them to partnership with the God of the universe.

That is also our call. If we want to see the Kingdom in all its power, we have to repent of our satisfaction with just being saved and safe. The call is not just for the pastors or missionaries, it's for everyone who hears the voice of Jesus. When we follow Him our greatest goal in life ceases to be making money or gaining more prestige for ourselves, but to enter into the lives of people and partner with Jesus in His mission.

NT Journey--Intro to Mark

2010-06-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Intro to Mark
The Gospel of Mark is probably the Gospel I'm least familiar with. I resonate very much with Matthew because of his emphasis on the Kingdom of Heaven. I love John for its advanced and deep theology. I'm sympathetic to Luke and his understanding that the Gospel is good news to the poor and oppressed. But I haven't spent nearly as much time in Mark as I have the other Gospels. I'm looking forward to a closer look at this gospel.

Mark is said to be a reflection of the teachings of the Apostle Peter. John Mark, who was a relative of Barnabas was also very close to Peter. Early church fathers seem to indicate that the Gospel of Mark was written in Rome in the late 50's or early 60's. It is also widely believed that Mark was the first of the Gospels written and that Matthew and Luke rely, to some degree on the book of Mark as a source for the stories and teachings of Jesus. (Remember that Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the "synoptic Gospels" because of their similarities in content).

The book of Mark is short and to the point. A unique characteristic of the book is the "Messianic Secret." We'll often see in Mark that when people realize who Jesus is, He warns them not to tell anyone, which at first seems strange. On reason may be that Jesus was very careful about the timing, not wanting to bring about his execution before He had accomplished what He wanted to accomplish.

NT Journey--James 5

2010-06-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Healing Power of Connection

If you know me or have read any part of my blog over the past 6 months, you'll know that I'm convinced that spiritual growth is relational. When the religious leaders asked Jesus what was most important, He simply said, "Love God and love others." Love is a relational term.

In the book of James, we've seen that the problems we have in our behavior and life in general can be fixed by "drawing near to God." Chapter 5 is no different. In fact, James even takes it a step further. Not only does he say we should draw near to God, but that we should also draw near to each other. I want to focus on verses 13-20.

Verse 13 is essentially another way of saying "go to God." If you're in trouble, go to God in prayer. If you're happy, sing songs to God that thank Him for His goodness. If you're sick, pray with the elders of the church. The first two things we might expect the Bible to say. It seems natural for us to think the answer to our problems are to pray. And it may even be natural for us to give praise to God when things are going well. But we often don't think to go to other people in those circumstances. After all, our spiritual life is our own right? It's just between me and God, right? Wrong.

As we read this section, it becomes very clear to us that other believers play a very important part in our spiritual life. If we're sick, James doesn't instruct us to just pray, but to pray together with the elders of the church. I've seen it time and again that when people get into trouble, their tendency is to only go to God, but not to other believers. When we are sick or have relationship problems or sin in our lives, our natural tendency is not to go to other people, but to isolate from them. I can't tell you how many times couples who are having marital problems, disappear from the church. Most often, people disappear when sin is involved.

Since causes a great deal of shame. We think that because we're in the church we shouldn't sin. Well, we shouldn't sin, but sometimes we do. But when we run from each other we only compound the problem. Sin is separation--from God and from other people. So when we try to hide our sin from people, sin gets its way. So in the middle of this passage we read, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

Now I don't know what kind of healing James is talking about here. Is it physical healing? Might be. Is it relational, emotional, or spiritual healing? Possibly. Probably all of the above. But the key is that we find healing from all these things when we don't run from God and other, but when we run toward God and others. Confession leads to healing. It's counter-intuitive, but it's true.

So why don't we do it? Why would we rather run away? In a word; shame. We all make a living projecting a certain image for other people. In fact, it's quite possible that Christians do this more than anyone. But when we do that, when we cover up our faults and fail to engage in appropriate confession, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to be healed and forgiven.

My encouragement to you out of this passage is to find someone with whom you can be completely honest. Find someone who you can trust with your deepest desires and hidden sin. Confess to each other and pray for each other. It's really the only way to find true healing. You might think that you're the only one who has the problems and sins you have. But what you'll find is that you're not alone. You're not strange. You're perfectly normal.

On the other side, be someone who can bring healing and forgiveness to others. Don't allow yourself to become so busy with your own agenda that you don't have time to invest in others. Understand and embrace the power you have to offer forgiveness and healing to others through God and use it liberally. I think when you do, you'll find that you will also receive healing and forgiveness in the process.

NT Journey--James 4

2010-06-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Seeing the Connection

When we read scripture, it's very important to keep context in mind. Remember that the original writer didn't include chapters and verses when he wrote his book. So as helpful as the chapter and verses are, sometimes they can cause us to break up a thought when it shouldn't be broken up. Then we think that James is moving from one topic to another and we don't necessarily see the connection between two verses in different chapter. James 4 is a good example of this.

The editors of the NIV translation put the title, "Submit Yourselves to God" at the beginning of chapter four. I think that's certainly an appropriate title for chapter four, but the bad thing about it is that we are then tempted to think the James wrote about taming the tongue in chapter 3 and moved on to a completely different topic in chapter 4. But chapter 4 is actually a continuation of the thought in chapter 3.

Remember that chapter 3 doesn't encourage us to tame our tongue, but instead encourages us to tame our hearts. We shouldn't focus on fixing our actions, we should focus on developing our inner life. When we do that, our tongue and our actions will follow. With that in mind, chapter 4 tells us how and even gives us a good example.

James starts by referring to the fights the people are having. He's essentially saying that the reason people fight so much is because their inner life--their heart--desires selfish things. When your heart must have something, you become myopic in trying to get it. You don't think of the needs of others, you only think of your own needs. The solution is not to stop wanting things, the solution is to go to God.

I think the whole key to the book of James is in verse 7 to 10.

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Submit to God. Come near to God. Resist the temptation of the devil to give in to the things of the world. Get rid of "double-mindedness" and seek purity of heart. All of the trials and broken relationships in life are the result of worldly desires in our hearts. But if we draw near to God and have our heart set on the things God desires, our actions, our words, and our relationships will all come into their proper place.

I think the section on slander (verses 11-12) is worthy of note as well. When we slander someone, we judge them. When we judge people, we put ourselves in the position of the Lawgiver. When we put ourselves in the position of Lawgiver, we are essentially putting ourselves in the position of God--hardly submitting to God. Such pride is opposed to submission to God. But when we put ourselves in our rightful place and put God and others in theirs--ahead of ourselves, everything comes in line and life and relationships are more peaceful and holy.

NT Journey--James 3

2010-06-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Problem of the Tongue

I think James 3 is a very misunderstood chapter. When we read it at a surface level, we often come away thinking that the message of James 3 is that we should tame our tongue. However, in verse 8, James writes, "but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." Why would James be telling us to tame our tongue when even he admits it's impossible? So if this isn't the message of James 3, what is?

The answer lies in his analogy of the springs. Our words are like the water that comes from a flowing spring. Whatever kind of water is in the spring is what comes out. If the source of the spring is salt water, salt water will flow. If the source of the spring is fresh water, fresh water will flow.

In the same way, the words that come out of our mouth are a natural outflow of what's in our hearts. It's impossible to "tame the tongue." What is possible is to tame our hearts. If your heart is full of bitterness, hatred, envy, and pride that's what will come out of your mouth. If your heart is full of love and encouragement and compassion, loving words will flow from your mouth.

So the key is to work on your heart. If your heart is duplicitous (nice word, huh?) then you'll sometimes say encouraging things and other times gossip. If your heart is pure (meaning that it wills only one thing) then your words will always be full of grace. Instead of the problem, your tongue is an indicator of your inner life. Get your inner life in order and your tongue will naturally follow.

This is why James moves on to talk about wisdom. In verses 13 to 18, James expands to other things that indicate what's in your heart. If in the first 12 verses, James says your tongue reflects what's in your heart, he expands that idea by essentially saying that your actions also reflect what's in your heart. He says that if you think you're wise, prove it by what you do.

The central message of James 3 is that it's essential to get your inner life straight. When that happens all the actions and words will follow. So the solution to continually sticking your foot in your mouth is not to try harder to hold your tongue, but to draw closer to God. When your heart reflects God's heart, your actions will reflect Jesus' actions.

NT Journey--James 2

2010-06-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

Mercy MIA

"wash and make yourselves clean.
       Take your evil deeds
       out of my sight!
       Stop doing wrong,
     learn to do right!
       Seek justice,
       encourage the oppressed.
       Defend the cause of the fatherless,
       plead the case of the widow." (Isaiah 1:16-17)

"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' [ Hosea 6:6] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:13)

"Let the children come to me, for the Kingdom belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14)

""Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." (Matthew 23:23)

In life, some people are in power and others are not. That's just the fact of life. And sometimes people who are in power exploit people who are not. Rich get richer at the cost of the poor. The haves prey on the "have-nots." Of course, any believer should know enough that this is not proper conduct for a believer. A believer should never use his power for personal gain. But when we look at scripture and our passage today, we see that the Bible takes it even further. Not only are we to not exploit people in a less fortunate position, but whatever position we're in, we shouldn't even show favoritism toward people of higher stature.

Why is that? What's the big deal? We make judgment calls every day on the basis of small things. We give preference to good-looking people, smart people, more athletic people. The people on the top of the heap continually benefit from being on the top of the heap. So why should we care?

In a word: mercy. God is a God of mercy. What is mercy? The dictionary defines mercy as "compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power." According to the definition of the word, you cannot show mercy to someone who has power over you. Why? Because if you do something kind for someone who has power, you might do it to receive something in return. Why are we so quick to befriend rich people? Because they might pay for our dinner. Why do we want to be around good-looking people? Because they will enhance our reputation.

When we favor people with money, power, or good-looks we have the temptation to benefit from them and ultimately we're not thinking about the other person, we're thinking only of ourselves. But mercy is showing kindness to people we cannot benefit from; people who we cannot see will ever be able to repay us. We have a God of mercy. What could He benefit from forgiving us?

Many churches are afraid of their reputation. They worry a lot about what other people will think. That's why even though we will often say everyone is welcome, we won't make "lowly" people feel very welcome. We want to have a good reputation in the community and if we become known as the church that has poor people, or homeless people, or people with mental problems, we'll lose our appearance of respectability. We want to look religious, but according the James we aren't truly religious if we try to gain from the money or power or looks of people who walk through our doors.

And James says we should work this out practically. Not only should we not welcome rich people and more (or less) warmly than poor people, but we should be active in being merciful toward people in need. If we only say nice things to them, but never try to meet their material and physical needs, what good is faith really?

At the end of this chapter, James uses the example of Rahab the prostitute. When Rahab found the Israelite spies, she had power over them. She could have ratted them out and handed them over to the king of Jericho. But instead, Rahab had mercy on the spies, hid them and gave them a way of escape. Now think about this; despite the fact that this woman made her living through sin, God declared her righteous because she showed mercy to the spies. Though Rahab deserved judgment for her life, the fact that she showed mercy to the spies, trumped God's judgment and she was declared righteous.

Think about that for a moment. In our circles, very seldom would we ever say that someone living a sinful lifestyle like a prostitute would be righteous just because they showed mercy to someone. Look also at the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan worshiped in a half-true religion, yet was seen as the righteous hero over the priest and the Levite who did everything right in their religious ritual, yet did nothing to care for people who were in need.

In the short passage above from Matthew 23, Jesus chastises the Pharisees for thinking that their religious purity was more important than "the more important matters of the law."

This is not to say that our personal purity isn't important--it most certainly is. But how often do we read Scripture and miss the emphasis it places our care and concern for powerless people.? Mercy is very much a part of what it means to follow Jesus so don't let your mercy be MIA.

NT Journey--James 1

2010-06-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Persevering to Do Good

As you can see, I'm desperately trying to catch up with my blogging today. Many of you know that my life has become crazy between moving and helping out with camp--it's been difficult to keep up. So today, I'm blasting you with many posts and hopefully I'll catch all the way up. I'm sure this isn't the first time it'll happen, so be patient with me! Now back to the journey....

James 1 is divided into two distinct sections, both of which are pure teaching "gold." In the New Testament journey, I have often just chosen one small section to focus on, but both sections in James 1 are so valuable, they both deserve mention.

Pain: An Opportunity to Grow
In our society, we don't like pain. Well, actually no one likes pain in any society, but our society makes it a centerpiece to avoid it at all costs and we do it pretty well. One thing that helps us avoid pain is options and we have millions of them. We can buy pain relieving pills, caplets, "liquigels", and patches. We can see a doctor or chiropractor at an time to relieve back or neck pain. If someone at work is being a pain, we can transfer to another department or just find another job. Really, only our society has so much ability to run from pain.

But the problem is that the Bible teaches us that pain is not just something to run from, it's something pay attention to. When we feel pain in our bodies, it's a sign that something is wrong. If all I do is ignore the pain or numb the pain, what's causing the pain will only get worse. For instance, if I ignore chest pain or if I drug myself so heavily I can't feel it, chances are I will experience a heart-attack. If every time I get into a painful spot in a relationship, I run or anesthetize it through drugs or alcohol, the relationship will not get better, it will get worse.

This is essential what James is saying in the first half of chapter one. He even says that we should be joyful that we experience pain and trials, because we are being presented an opportunity to grow. Now the trials of the people James was writing to was most likely persecution by the religious and civic leaders. They had be displaced from their homes and in many way ostracized from society because of their faith. But James doesn't instruct them to fight the powers or defend their rights. Instead he instructs them to look at the persecution as a time to grow their faith.

In verse 4, he then instructs them to ask (pray) for wisdom. Wisdom is more than knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to see things from God's perspective. When we see things from God's perspective, we look at pain and trials differently than if we only see them from our own (modern Western) perspective that views pain as something to be avoided at all costs. James says that when we move toward pain and embrace our trials, we receive the "crown of life that God promises to all who love Him." The "crown of life" is not just talking about heaven, but it's talking about becoming who God created you to be. We experience full life when we are fully ourselves. Of course, the completion of that will happen in heaven, but we can experience more and more of it in this life. And pain isn't an obstacle to that life, but it's the path to it.

Listening and Doing
James must have listened very carefully to Jesus and His teachings, because verses 19 thought 26 sound like them come straight from Jesus' mouth. If you look closely at the teachings of Jesus (and we have when we've studied the Gospels), you'll see that Jesus makes a strong connection between faith and action. If you don't have action you don't really have faith. Remember, for instance, Matthew 7 where Jesus tells the story of the wise and the foolish builders.

We often present the story as if Jesus is saying that the wise builder builds his house on the foundation of Jesus, but the foolish builder builds on something else. But that's not really what Jesus says. Instead, Jesus says that the wise builder is the one who hears Jesus' words and does what He says. The foolish builder is the one who hears His words but does not do what He says. So the difference between wise and foolish is in the practice.

This is exactly what James says in this section. The key to a deep spiritual life--the key to growth--is in practicing what Jesus preaches. People who only have a knowledge of Scripture, but can't be bothered to live it out are not really building on the foundation of Jesus. People who constantly clamor for deeper preaching or teaching most likely aren't practicing what they hear. What they usually mean is that they want to pick apart scriptures and learn more knowledge in their head, but the reality is this doesn't make them deeper Christians. In fact, if we learned anything from Paul's letters to the Corinthians, we learned that head knowledge sometimes makes us less mature if we never allow it to grow into love for God and people. But if we only seek more knowledge without practice, we will inevitably become proud of what we know and look down on others who don't know as much. But when we put into practice what we learn, we learn to love, which is the center of God's desire for us.

At the end of chapter one, James seems to give us practical instructions for what it means to have true faith. James is warring against the idea that going to church and doing all the religious stuff is what God wants. Instead, he tells us that religion that is "pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Here, he ties the second section in to the first. When we have pure "religion" we are more concerned about alleviating the pain of others that we are about alleviating our own pain. We should fight for justice and the rights of others, but allow God to fight for our own. The more we grow, the less we are concerned about our own pain and the more we turn our attention on the suffering of others.

That's what Jesus did. He was willing to suffer and die to we could live. He did that as an example for us to follow. When we are willing to suffer and give up our own life, that's when we will find God's life.

NT Journey--Intro to James

2010-06-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

Intro to James

James' letter is often one of the first books new believers are encouraged to read because it's so practical. It addresses the seeming tension between faith and works. Are we saved by faith or do works play a part in faith? Because of James' focus on works, some people try to create a false rift between he and Paul who focuses a great deal on faith. ("It is by grace you are saved through faith, not by works so that no one can boast...") But the reality is that both authors understand that "faith without works is dead."

James, the author of this book is widely believed to be the brother of Jesus. James was not a believer at first. And who could blame him? Would you believe it if your sibling claimed to be God incarnate? But eventually he came to believe and became the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

The book of James is written to "the twelve tribes scattered among the nations." This, of course, mean that it was written to Jewish Christians, who most likely had been a part of the church in Jerusalem, but because of the persecution that broke out after the martyrdom of Stephen, fled for their lives to other parts of the empire.

As mentioned earlier, James focuses a great deal of attention on living out our faith through good works. We always have that tension between receiving the gift of God as a free gift and performing acts of good. Our good works are the result of our salvation, not the other way around, but both are vital part of who we are. We see a great deal of similarity between Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and James' teaching in this book.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 13

2010-06-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Fearing God

In general, I like the way the gospel is presented these days. The message of the Gospel is the same through all ages--that God loves us so much that He gave His Son (Jesus) as a gift to teach us about God's way and to die for us so we could start with a clean slate and not have to worry about punishment for sin.

How this is stated is different through different ages, but the message is the same. You see the Gospel stated in different ways even in Scripture. In some places, you see it stated in legal terms--we were guilty and Jesus took the punishment we deserved. In some places you see it in monetary terms--because of sin, humans owed a debt that was paid by Jesus. In others places, you see the Gospel in relational terms--Jesus' life and death reconciled our broken relationship with God and others.

None of these ways to describe what Jesus did is wrong, they're all valid ways to explain the Gospel message. Each one has come to prominence at different times in history. At this point in history, the model that works best seems to be the relational/reconciliation model. I think the reason it works to well in our society is because of the prevalence of broken relationships. Childhood abuse and neglect runs rampant. Our mobile society leaves people without long-term, close friendships and even divides family members from each other.

My wife and I just came to the point where we have lived at least five hours from our parents longer than we lived with them. That's life today, but it leaves holes in our souls. We were created by God as relational creatures, but everything in our society works to separate us from each other and we feel the effects of it. So when we speak of the Gospel in terms of reconciliation, it truly is "good news" to people who are devoid of significant relationships.

That's why we also don't hear much about "fearing God" these days. If God wants to have a relationship with us, why should be "fear" God? Isn't it better to have a loving, mushy relationship with God? Why would we risk having people fear God if our goal is for them to have a close relationship with Him?

Well, maybe the reason is because no significant relationship can survive without a healthy does of fear. Seems strange to say, but a relationship without any fear is co-dependent. In any healthy relationship, there has to be fear of consequences for destructive behavior. If a husband could have an affair and come home and have nothing change, would that be a healthy relationship? If a girl could consistently insult and devalue a friend and have that friend keep coming back for more, what kind of relationship would that be? There are guidelines that govern every relationship, even if they're unwritten.

In 2 Corinthians 13, even though Paul is concerned about the relationship between he and the Corinthians and between the church and God, he isn't afraid to use threat of discipline against them. Even more, the threat he gives is not on his own authority, but with God's authority. He is essentially saying that when he comes, he will come with the authority of Christ Himself.

We've learned over the course of 1 and 2 Corinthians that the church's relationship with God (and with Paul) was hot and cold. Even though God desired to have relationship with them, He will not do it on their terms. God is the one who sets the terms for the relationship and rightly so. In order for the church to be in right relationship with God, there are certain guidelines for them to follow and Paul was given authority to enforce those guidelines so they could maintain right relationship with God.

Paul writes in verse 5, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith." This is an interesting phrase to me, but it makes sense when we look at it in terms of relationship. For all of us, there are times when we have to examine our part in any relationship, whether marriage or friendship or whatever. Relationships can ebb and flow depending on our behavior. When I take the time to spend time with my wife, our relationship is closer. When I am neglectful and do my own thing, our relationship suffers. From time to time, I have to examine my part in our relationship and own up to my part if we've drifted.

When I examine myself and find that my relationship with Christ is suffering, I have to ask myself what part I've played in relationship drift. There are consequences to how I act in relationship. God will always do His part, but I have to continually examine my part. God won't reject me, but there may be some natural drift even to the point where you could say I'm not "in the faith." If I'm married, but simply neglect to come home for a year, it's not much of a relationship--you could barely say we're married.

Chapter 13 is Paul's way of telling the Church to examine what part they're playing in their relationship with Christ and to fear the consequences of not doing their part to cultivate the relationship with God. Even though rules and expectations aren't the center or purpose, they're important for the overall health of any relationship.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 12

2010-06-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

The Strength in Weakness

I think 2 Corinthians 12 is very fascinating, counter-intuitive and a great attitude adjustment for us. Paul continues his boasting about how great he is from chapter 11 (although we actually find he's being facetious). From chapter 11 we understand that the things we boast about as Kingdom people are not the things we're proud of if we're Kingdom people. The reality is that it's very silly for us to brag about anything. Even the greatest human accomplishments pale in comparison to what God can and does do.

My 8-year-old son is quite an athlete. He loves sports, especially basketball and soccer. But as I play with him, I've found there are some things he has to learn. Probably the greatest lesson he needs to learn is to be realistic about his abilities. For his age, he's a good, skilled player. I have little doubt at school that he's probably one of the better soccer players at recess--maybe not the best, but I'm sure he's up there. But if you were to listen to him talk about it, he should be playing in the World Cup right now--the first 8-year-old to play for team USA.

The problem is not with his skill. The problem is that he doesn't have a realistic picture of the world. He constantly challenges me to soccer and basketball one-on-one games and actually thinks he can win. He actually thinks he could beat me in a race. (I may be getting older, but I'm not THAT old). So from time to time, I have to remind him that he has a way to go. It's not that he's deficient, it's just that because of his age (and consequently, his size) he's still pretty limited.

As I think about Duncan, I see a lot of similarities to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12. Paul had a great life. He grew up as a Roman citizen, but also as a prominent Jew. He followed the Law to a "T." He was educated at the finest institutions and could debate with the best in the Empire. These are all great accomplishments, but for Paul to be proud of them would be akin to Duncan thinking he could beat me in a game of one-on-one. (The difference being that some day Duncan WILL be able to beat me).

Paul's attitude is instructive for us. Paul says he was given some type of "thorn" to keep him humble. Now ultimately no one knows what this thorn was--some say it was a physical ailment like poor hearing or eyesight. Others think it may be people who continually opposed him. I've even heard one say it was his mother-in-law! We just don't know, but what we do know is that the thorn was something that limited him in some way.

Most of us lament thorns and pray--like Paul--that God will take them away. But how many of us actually come to grips with our limitations? I would dare say not many. We want everything to be fixed. We are the country of "manifest destiny" and the American dream where we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. Yet too often when we achieve something we lose sight of the fact that even our greatest accomplishment pales in comparison to God's ability. Like Duncan celebrating a 10-foot shot, when there are some people in the world who can routinely make 30-footers.

But when we have the attitude of Paul, we can actually celebrate our limitations because they make us more dependent upon God. The help us keep a realistic picture of who we are and who God is. And the great thing about that is when we rely on God, we can accomplish far more than we can by our own feeble attempts.

So what area of your have you failed to be humble? Where have you thought that your success or failure depends completely on you? In what ways have you failed to embrace your own limitations? What is your "thorn?" How can you embrace it and allow to show His strength in your life?

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 11

2010-06-17T15:35:00.001-07:00

Boasting in the Kingdom

2 Corinthians 11 is a strange chapter to me. It took me a few reads through it to really understand what Paul was saying. At first glance, it looks like Paul is defending himself by “one-upping” the “super-apostles” who were apparently eloquent speakers that came in after Paul preaching a different gospel. But when we read the chapter carefully, Paul isn’t one-upping them, he is completely changing the criteria for greatness.

Many people, if they want to impress someone, will talk about their achievements—how much money they make, how many people answer to them at work, or their impressive education. Apparently, people like this were impressive to the Corinthians. But Paul sees value in something completely different. Paul is consistent with the teachings of Jesus.

Remember back to the book of Matthew or John and you’ll understand that the Kingdom Jesus preached is an upside-down kingdom, where the first is last and the last is first and the greatest is the servant. So Paul says to the Corinthians that his boasting is of a different sort.

When we take a cursory glance at all the things Paul suffered, we might think that he is being self-righteous about the things he went through for the Gospel. However, I don’t think this is the way Paul intends it. The Corinthians might not have seen Paul’s sufferings as a badge of honor. People who were of greater status weren’t flogged. People in prestigious position were not stoned. Paul would not have been very effective if he was trying to convince the Corinthians of His status as an Apostle.

Paul can boast about all the things he suffered only because that’s the nature of the Kingdom—when we are willing to suffer and die with Christ, we live consistently with the upside-down mindset.

I think Paul’s attitude is worthy to be followed as an example. Although the willingness to suffer can become a religious badge of honor, suffering really is the way of Jesus. In Luke, Jesus says, “Anyone who does not carry his cross cannot be my disciple.” When we follow Christ, we follow Him to the cross. We give up our rights. We give up our will to do His. We surrender everything we have, including our reputation.

When we remain weak, it allows us to see God at work. When we work out of our strength, we might be tempted to believe that we are powerful enough to accomplish something great. But when we understand and accept our weakness and short-comings, we also understand God’s power. When we understand that it is God who works the good in us, we understand our place and come to appreciate God’s power.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 10

2010-06-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

A Different Fight

The tone of 2 Corinthians changes in chapter 10. Up to this point, Paul has been very conciliatory about his relationship with the Corinthians. Even though things were still not great, over the first 9 chapters, he takes a pretty gentle approach. As mentioned earlier and as you can see as you read this chapter, Paul's tone changes greatly here. Perhaps he receives new information after writing the rest of the letter or it's also possible that the last three chapters are the letter written in the time between 1 and 2 Corinthians. In any case, Paul says something in chapter 10 that I'd like to highlight.

Verses 3-5 say,

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

In these verses Paul acknowledges that the way we "fight" is different than the way the world fights. For one, as Paul writes in Ephesians 6, "our struggle is not against flesh and blood." The world might see us as enemies, but we are not to look at them in that way. We are not opposed to unbelievers--we are for them. Our desire is not that they are destroyed, but instead that God will bring them life.

Because of that, "we don't wage war the way the world does." The world's weapons are geared for destruction and separation, for drawing fine lines and keep the sides in order. But the weapons we have been given do the opposite. Their intent is not to destroy people, but instead to destroy arguments and strongholds.

First arguments. Paul was a master of teaching and debating. His goal was truth. Christians should not be afraid of truth. If what we believe is true, then it should stand up to scrutiny and all the arguments formed against it. Therefore, it's actually good to be open-minded, to seriously consider ideas even if they seem contrary. We shouldn't be afraid if we believe God is real and His Truth is really true.

Second, Paul mentions destroying strongholds. Strongholds are where people hide. Whether someone is a "sinner" or a religious person, we all have these strongholds where we dig in our heels to hide from reality--the reality of our sinfulness and our brokenness. For unbelievers, their stronghold might be things like not wanting to change a lifestyle they've grown accustomed to. If they acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, it means they'll have to change the way they live. For religious people, it means having to admit their own brokenness and admitting they don't have all the answers.

God has a way of breaking our belief that we are in control. Truth is something much bigger than us and when we submit to it, we submit to God. That's why we always approach truth with humility. While the world fights with rhetoric and bravado, we "fight" with humility with Truth on our side.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 9

2010-06-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

Being Epic Failures

In chapter 9, Paul continues his conversation about giving and makes a point that I think extends far beyond money. His point is that "whoever sows sparingly, reaps sparingly. But whoever sows generously will reap generously."

Do you ever wonder why you never see God work in amazing ways? Have you ever heard stories of God changing lives in powerful ways and wonder why you're never a part of those stories? Could it be that the reason you never get to reap the rewards of amazing things is because you reap what you sow.

Some people are more natural risk-takers. They can go into a room and strike up a conversation with anyone. They can make the "ask" when some of us have a hard time putting others out. They can inject themselves into another person's life, introduce them to Jesus. They always seem to get a great amount of joy when they are a part of someone's changed life. But not you. Your life seems dull and dry and you don't often get to see God work.

Have you thought that the reason this is the case is because you reap what you sow. These people, while they often get to see amazing things and great successes, they also experience a good amount of failure. People who do great things, don't ALWAYS do great things. In the case of almost everyone who does something great, there are many stories of ideas they had that were epic failures. People who study church leadership say that churches that succeed and do great things for the Kingdom try many things that fail. Whether it's a new program or initiative, over 60% of the time, the initiative fails. Effective churches are not afraid to fail.

There will be many seeds that never take root, so if you plant few seeds, chances are you'll get little fruit. How often to do take a risk to plant the seed of the Gospel in a person's heart? How often do you intentionally enter into the life of a hurting person? If you do, chances are, there are many times you'll be a great failure, but you'll also get to tell those stories we all love to hear--of God showing up in a very powerful way--and you'll get to see it first-hand. That in itself is a great reward.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 8

2010-06-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Some Truths about Giving

In chapter 8, Paul uses the Macedonian Churches as an example of generous giving. Evidently, when Paul was taking up the collection for the poorer churches, even though the churches in Macedonia were themselves poor, they still saw fit to take up a collection and give out of their poverty.

I think this is a great example the first simple truth--generosity has nothing to do with how much you have, on the state of your heart. Stingy people are stingy whether they have money or not. Generous people are generous, no matter how little they have. Even if generous people can't give money, they will always find some way to give. It all has to do with the trajectory of the heart. If the trajectory of someone's heart is inward, the money will flow that way. If the trajectory of a person's heart is toward others, his resources will naturally move that way.

Many people say, "If I just had a lot of money, I would give so much of it away." But the truth of the matter is that no matter how much money a person has, if they're not generous with it now, no amount of money will make them generous. If a person isn't faithful with what they have now, why would we expect them to change their priorities just because they came into more money? In fact, usually more money only reveals the depth of a person's attitude.

The second truth about giving in 2 Corinthians 8 is that you can't force or command generosity. Paul says in verse 8, "I am not commanding you..." I think Paul knows that you can't force someone to be generous. But instead, what he does is to try to inspire them to be generous by giving them an example of people who are generous and how much they were blessed even in their poverty. Sincere generous giving always brings a blessing on the giver.

The third truth we see here is that if we're looking for inspiration toward generosity, we only need to look as far as God. Paul reminds them of the grace of Jesus. He didn't have to give what He did, but he showed us all a better way. Think about it--Jesus could have stayed in heaven and never experienced the sorrow and pain of life, but instead, He came as an example for us. When He came to earth, He didn't even live in luxury as a king, but lived in poverty to show us that luxury is not all it's cracked up to be.

Finally, Paul makes a pitch for justice. People who make a lot of money, should not be content hoarding it and living in luxury when others are barely surviving. With the resources in the world today, we could ensure that everyone in the world is fed. Everyone could have their basic needs met, but the distribution of wealth in the world is very unequal. Sure some people are lazy and are poor because of that, but there are many in the world who would and do work very hard each day, yet because of circumstances, barely make it by. It is the responsibility of those of us who have to care for those who don't have. It's not just a societal issue, it's a spiritual and moral issue.

When we fail to give generously, it's because the trajectory of our heart is inward. We ask ourselves first and foremost what we need and if there's something left over, we ask what others need. But as believers, we must ask the question of how we can meet the needs of others first and once we've done everything we can to take care of others' needs, we move on to our wants.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 7

2010-06-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

Applying Pain to Life

I just want to point out something very quickly from chapter 7. We all like to be comfortable. We like to be affirmed for who we are and what we do. Very seldom do we desire criticism and even less often do we ask for it. In fact, many of us have a hard time with any correction at all.

Even though we know deep down that we're not perfect, we want other people to think we are. It's natural for us to put on the facade that we are better, stronger, faster, smarter, better-looking than we really are. And even though we know we're just deceiving people, we're still hurt when people know the truth.

Some people react well when they realize they've been exposed. A good reaction is when we are able to accept the criticism with grace, take a step back from our emotions and defensiveness, and see the truth in what another is saying. Often, in order for us to accept criticism this way, it has to come from the right person.

Some people don't respond to criticism well at all. There are two poor responses to criticism that are common. The first is to be defensive. When we're defensive, we might refuse to consider that there might be some truth in what the person is saying. Or we might make excuses for why we acted or reacted the way we did in a particular situation, blaming it on someone else or on circumstances.

The second response is to be overly burdened with hurt or guilt. Hurt and guilt are very seldom good long-term motivators. They might result in some immediate change of behavior, but eventually the pain will wear off or we'll become calloused to guilt. If the sting of criticism is not handled properly the guilt might lead to despair or a sense that you're a complete failure. This type of response is not helpful.

But in chapter 7, Paul is thrilled because the Corinthians seemed to handle his criticism well. At first, he felt a little bad and thought he might have been too harsh, but when he heard that the mental and emotional anguish he caused them resulted in repentance (verse 9). The difference, Paul says is "godly sorrow" vs. "worldly sorrow." The difference is in the way the criticism is accepted.

When someone offers criticism, whether asked-for or not, it's always best to receive it with humility. It might be that their criticism isn't valid at all. But there may be truth to what they say. You cannot control the attitude in which they present the information. You can only control your own response. When you are secure in your standing with Christ, and you've bought in to the idea that the only thing that really matters is living a life that pleases God, then humility will go before you. But if you're concerned about your image and are dead-set on maintaining the squeaky-clean reputation, seldom will you be able to take criticism well. And the sad part is that when you can't deal with the emotional pain that comes with others recognizing you're not perfect, it will be impossible for you to grow.

But if you are able to accept it with humility and grace and embrace the fact that you're not fooling anyone with your perfect facade, then you won't have to wear the mask to pretend you're better than you are--you'll actually become it.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 6

2010-06-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Working with the Right Partner

At first glance, there's a confusing section in chapter 6. The confusion revolves around the phrase, "do not be yoked together with unbelievers." I've spent a lot of time on the NT Journey pointing out Jesus' love for unbelievers. Jesus' preferred group to spend time with was the "sinners." We are the body of Christ, so we carry on the mission of Christ--to seek and to save that which is lost. So it might be a little confusing when we get to 2 Corinthians 6:14ff to read about Paul telling the Corinthian people to stay away from unbelievers.

But the key here is verse one. Notice how Paul starts the chapter.

¹ As God's co-workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. ² For he says,
       "In the time of my favor I heard you,
       and in the day of salvation I helped you."
       I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

First, I want to point out that Paul calls the Corinthians "God's co-workers." Paul and his crew were co-workers with the Church and the Church with Christ. So there's a job that has to be done. Later in verse 14, Paul uses the work "yoked." We don't have much of a frame of reference for the word yoked today, but the yoke was the apparatus that allowed two oxen to work together. The yoke meant that the two animals had one purpose. One job. One mission.

Jesus uses this term in Matthew 11 where He says, "Take my yoke upon you for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." What Jesus means is that we are to form a working partnership with Jesus in His mission.

So when Paul uses the same term in 6:14, he's urging the Corinthians, who live in the middle of one of the most godless and immoral cities in the ancient world, not to take on the mission of unbelievers, by yoking themselves together with them. As believers, the mission of Jesus is the mission of every believer (or it should be). But we can easily become side-tracked and distracted from what is important--the mission of Christ. Paul's advice is a warning not to take on the character or mission of the world.

This doesn't mean we should try to avoid unbelievers and make up our own Christian "club." What it means is that when we are with unbelievers we recognize, like we read in chapter 5 that worldly people are trying to satisfy spiritual longings with physical things. They think thing like money, or fame, or success will give them what they're searching for. If we are yoked to unbelievers, we begin to believe those lies as well. But when we "buy in" to Jesus' way of thinking, we yoke ourselves together with Christ and seek to bring reconciliation to the world.

2 Corinthians 6 is not saying we should wall ourselves off so we can remain pure. What Paul is saying is that we should remain pure so that when we get out with unbelievers, they see what's different about us. They see that even in times of trial; even when things don't go our way, we still have peace and joy. Our purity--our refusal to resort to inappropriate or sinful patterns to get by will allow us to continue on the mission of Jesus. We we keep our purity in the middle of the pressure and temptations of the world, we live out, just like Jesus, what it means to be children of God.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 5

2010-06-07T22:08:00.001-07:00

What is Your Problem?

Doesn’t take much to figure out there’s something wrong with the world these day. Of course, the world is made of people, which means there’s something wrong with people—you included. OK, me too.

What’s amazing to me is that in a society as “advanced” as ours, there is greater psychological dysfunction than we see from other societies now and throughout history. We seem to have greater sexual dysfunction, family and general relationship dysfunction. In such an advanced and wealthy society, you would think that we would be getting better, not worse.

Now there are some things that are better. We tend to live longer. We are wealthier and more comfortable than just about any other society in history. We have great technology that solves many of our problems. Yet despite all these great things, still there’s something wrong.

Well, I think Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 pinpoints the problem. The problem is that we look at things through the wrong eyes. We look through physical eyes when we should be looking through spiritual eyes. What we tend to focus on in life tends to be the physical things rather than the spiritual. Notice that all the improvements I talked about earlier are technological and physical. But the problems with our world tend to have a spiritual component whether it’s dysfunctional relationships or psychology.

Paul begins 2 Corinthians 5 by talking about the difference between our physical state and our spiritual state. He recognizes that our physical body is not all there is to life. He says our physical bodies groan for our “heavenly body.” In other words, our very body knows there’s something more and longs for it. It’s like we’re in a society that constantly tells us that we are home, but deep down, we know it’s not true. The dysfunction comes because we’re trying to convince ourselves of something that’s just not true and our spirit wars against.

The world tells us we can find satisfaction in wealth, but when we strive for that, we feel empty. It tells us that we should just live for ourselves and gain all the pleasure we can out of life, but that too leaves us longing for more. The dysfunction we experience in life is a result of buying into the lie that this is all there is. We were made for more.

The last section (verse 16 and following) is the key for us. Paul says that as he does his ministry, he doesn’t look at people in a worldly way. People are first of all spiritual. All of the physical and material strivings are just ways people try to find fulfillment. When people try to find fulfillment in physical things, we shouldn’t be surprised when they feel empty. But instead of looking at people from a “worldly point of view” we see that they are—and the solution to what ails them is—spiritual. What people need is not more stuff, but it is to realize who they are.

So Paul’s ministry and our ministry is the “ministry of reconciliation.” Our job is to help people be reconciled to God. As people come to the realization they’ve been seeking life in the wrong things, they’ll often mistakenly believe that God holds a grudge against them because they’ve neglected Him. But we know that God doesn’t hold people’s sins against them, but is ready to forgive. Because of Christ, we are all “new creations.” When people realize they were created for more and live accordingly, not only will their life be better spiritually, but physically. So ours is the ministry of reconciliation. When people are reconciled to God, they will be reconciled to others as well.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 4

2010-06-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

Dying to Self

In chapter four, Paul talks about the vessels that carry the Gospel. Since we are also to carry the Gospel to our generation, Paul's example is instructive for us. In chapter three, Paul explained the glory of the Gospel--that it's something so valuable that it gives life to everyone who believes.

Even Paul finds it amazing that he is entrusted to carry such a valuable message. He uses what has become a pretty popular phrase, "but we have this treasure in jars of clay." One thing that is amazing is that fallible, weak beings like us are entrusted with this Life. But what may be even more amazing is the message itself.

Right now, we're trying to sell our house. It's a very nice house, but it's not a perfect house. No house is. So the rule that you go by when you try to sell a house is to accentuate the positive and hide or at least minimize the negative. For us, I believe that it's not too hard to accentuate the positives and there really isn't much for negatives. There's nothing glaringly wrong with the house--it's in good condition, everything works right and all. The bathroom's a little small, but you can't have everything, right?

But some houses have some pretty major deficiencies and when they do, the seller has to do a great job of marketing the house. When marketing it, they might oversell the positives and maybe even fudge on the details about the negatives. If they're really desperate to sell, they might even tell some untruths.

In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul is essentially telling the Corinthians that the Gospel doesn't need any marketing--he doesn't have to oversell anything because the truth is so great. In fact, he's so convinced that the Gospel is such good news, that he's very up-front about the "negatives." Jesus did this, too. Jesus said, essentially that we anyone wants to follow Him, he has to be willing to die--but it's worth it. This is just what Paul is saying, "We're not glamorizing the Gospel or making it look better than it is so you will buy it. There's a high price to pay, but the price is worth it." Paul endures suffering and hardships for the sake of the Gospel, but it's worth it all.

In fact, the way to access the Gospel is to die. As long as we're still striving to hold on to a certain image to impress people, we will not be carrying the Gospel. As long as it's our life's goal to avoid pain, we won't be carrying the Gospel. But when we are willing to lose all for the sake of Christ, that's when the Gospel really takes hold in our lives. And when it does, while we may look like ordinary clay jars on the outside, on the inside, we hold the most valuable thing in the universe.

NT Journey-- 2 Corinthians 3

2010-06-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Paul's Take on Religion: Letter vs. Spirit

Paul understood that though Jesus was Jewish, Jesus brought about a new way of doing things. The God of the Jews was doing a new thing through Jesus and it changed the way all of us can live. Chapter 3 gives us a good explanation of the difference.

In verse 6, Paul writes, "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." When rules are the motivating force in life, it's not much of a life.

Let's say you're a parent. You want your children to grow up to be successful and well-adjusted human beings. If they can make a positive difference in the world, that would be your ideal goal. You're a smart person and so you know what they need to do in order to become just that. So you set up a list of rules: get up early, brush your teeth, go to school, study hard every day, each a well-balanced, healthy diet, etc. You give them the list and then go out of town--for their entire childhood. They have the list of rule so they should be able to grow up to be successful and all that. Would such a scenario work? Will they become productive members of society because they have the instructions for how to do it? No way.

That's sort of like the Old Covenant Paul talks about. After the kids follow the rules for so long, they will begin to get discouraged. Why? Because we weren't intended to draw life from rules or words on a page. We were created for relationship. Very seldom (probably never) has someone been successful at anything without some relationship to motivate them. Maybe it was a parent or grandparent that walk by their side as they struggled their way through school. It might have been a teacher or coach that continually drove them to practice and reach their potential. Or it might have been a friend who stuck with them through all the storms of life and gave them a reason to carry on. Rules, words, and ideas don't have that power.

But when we have a relationship with Jesus, the Spirit lives in us and we are convicted, encouraged, strengthened and supported to be what we were created to be. In verses 7 and following, Paul writes about Moses getting the Law on Mt. Sinai and how his face glowed so brightly when he came back the people couldn't look directly at him. But the reason he glowed was not because he had the Law--it was because he had just met with God. It wasn't because of the words written on the tablets. If it was, don't you think they would have glowed, too?

Moses had life from the Spirit, not from the Law. We get life from the Spirit, not from the Law. In any relationship, it's a good thing to have certain rules we follow. In my marriage, it's an unwritten rule that I don't fool around with other women. It's important that I follow that rule, but just because I follow that rule, does it make me a good husband? No. I could follow every rule to a "t" and still not be a good husband. Relationship includes rules, but it's so much more than that. But when we have those relationships, they give us life--especially a relationship with Jesus.

When we're secure in that relationship, we have the ability to become what God created us to become. That's the Spirit. Paul's last line in chapter 3 is absolutely priceless to me.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

What a great goal to shoot for!

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 2

2010-06-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

The Purpose of Discipline

Today, I want to take you on a little tangent. In the chapter today, Paul addresses a situation where the church had to discipline one of its members. It might be the "sexually immoral brother" from 1 Corinthians 5 or someone else in the church, but it's clear that Paul had told them to discipline him. If you remember from 1 Corinthians 5, in the end if he didn't receive the correction, Paul told them to expel him or "treat him as an unbeliever."

In many of our relationships, whether in the church or with our children, it's easy for us to get caught up thinking that the purpose of discipline is punishment. Someone did something wrong so he has to pay the price to make up for what he did. This may be the case in the world's economy, but not in the Kingdom.

We've seen all along that the center of spiritual growth life is love. Love is a relational term. You can't love someone you don't have a relationship with. So our goal, our mission is the mission of Christ--the ministry of reconciliation as we'll see in 2 Corinthians 5. The goal them, of discipline is not punishment, it's restoration. When Christians discipline a person, the ultimate goal HAS to be restoration--to bring them back into a state of right relationship.

When someone sins, it's always an offense against someone, whether people or God or both. Sinful behavior is ultimately sinful because it hurts relationship somewhere. When a person continues on unchecked in harmful behavior, the loving thing is to find a way to get them to think about what they're doing and ultimately stop. So for instance, drinking becomes sinful behavior when it hinders or destroys relationship. Involvement in sports becomes sinful behavior when it hinders relationship. We were created for community, so when we engage in behaviors that are detrimental to relationship, we are sinning.

What discipline does is apply "pain" to a person's life. We we experience bodily pain, we know something is wrong and we should do something to fix it. We might go to the doctor or stop doing whatever activity that's causing the pain. The ultimate goal is to restore the ability to physically do what we need to do--to restore our body to wholeness.

When we apply the pain of discipline to another's life, we also have to help provide the means of healing and restoration, and when the discipline does it's job, we must be ready and willing to accept that person back into the fellowship with grace--leaving the past behind.

This is the instruction Paul gives to the Corinthians. In verses 5-11, Paul urges the church to forgive and accept the person who was disciplined so he might understand that the discipline happened out of love and not just anger. That's great advice in all our relationships--to stop punishing people and work for restoration.

NT Journey--2 Corinthians 1

2010-06-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

Why We Discipline

Paul has been very frustrated with the Corinthian church. It seems from it's inception there has been division and discord present. Paul understands that unity is probably the foundational characteristic of a good local church. Everyone needs to be headed in the same direction. If there's disunity and in-fighting in the church it cannot be an effective church.

Paul begins chapter one by giving an update on their situation. They had just been run out of Ephesus (you may remember that situation from the book of Acts) and the Corinthians had most likely received word of the riots. Paul was, of course, pleased to be able to tell them they made it out alive. He uses the opportunity to sort of defend themselves, essentially saying their willingness to suffer proves their sincerity in the Gospel.

The church that fulfills Jesus' mission on earth is the one where the whole body of believers understands their purpose and their place and each person does his or her part. That was not the case with the church at Corinth. In between 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Paul visited the church there and wrote them a harsh letter. But at the beginning of 2 Corinthians, the tone seems to be much different.

It seems at the beginning of 2 Corinthians Paul feels the need to explain himself and his harsh words for the Corinthians. What he's saying here is that the reason he's been so strong with them is because he loves them. Just a parent disciplines her child out of love, so Paul disciplined the church. Everything he did and said was for their good because he loves them and wants them to be an effective church. The reason he continues to care is because he has hope that some day they'll reach their potential.

I think the Corinthians would have reason to be concerned if Paul stopped writing them or coming to them--it would mean he had written them off. But as long as that potential is still there, he will continue to ride them to be all they can be for the Gospel. Sometimes leader have to do things that are unpopular and even seems unloving at the time, but in order for anyone or any group to reach its potential, there has to be some pushing.

NT Journey--Intro to 2 Corinthians

2010-06-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

The letter of 2 Corinthians is our clue that 1 Corinthians didn't do much good. It seems as though the church at Corinth was doomed from the start. It also shows how dangerous division is in the church. Scholars believe Paul wrote as many as four letters to the Corinthian church. 1 Corinthians is actually the second letter. 2 Corinthians is either the third or fourth letter.

2 Corinthians was written within a few months of the writing of 1 Corinthians and it was written because 1 Corinthians apparently went in one ear and out the other. Division still reigned in the church. There was even a new group that came into the church from the outside and attacked Paul's credibility and teaching. The dire state of the church prompted another visit from Paul to Corinth. This visit did not go well. By the time Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, he was either feeling remorseful about his anger (or the harsh letter he wrote between 1 and 2 Corinthians) or things had improved in the church.

Chapters 1 through 9 are very warm and conciliatory, but chapters in 10-13, the tone become harsh once again. Commentators have different theories. One theory is that chapters 10 through 13 are actually the "harsh letter" (or part of the harsh letter) written between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. Others think chapters 10-13 were written later, after Paul received some disturbing news. He may have tacked the last part onto the first and sent it with the messenger together.

Ultimately we don't know, but the book of 2 Corinthians highlights the frustration and ups and downs of ministry.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 16

2010-06-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

Parting Thoughts

Chapter 16 is a collection of parting thoughts from Paul. He has some business to take care and some things to remind the Corinthians of before he signs off. The first order of business is to remind them that he is taking up a collection for the church in Jerusalem which is experiencing some financial and other difficulties. On thing that stands out is that Paul is very systematic about his request. He doesn't guilt them into giving an amount they aren't able to give. Instead, he simply tells them to regularly set aside what they can afford to give and have it ready when he gets it.

The second thing that stands out here is Paul's comments about Apollos. Things might have gone a little sour for Apollos in Corinth. It may be that while he was there, he didn't intend to create the division that happened in the church. It also may be that he was discouraged by the state of the church in Corinth or that the people there turned on him as well (which often happens where there's a great deal of disunity). One commentator also suggests that Apollos was still at odds with Paul and didn't want to go back to Corinth under Paul's authority. In the end, we really don't know exactly what happened with Apollos.

The book of 1 Corinthians is a lesson on division in the church. If you want your church to be fragmented, find a way to see yourself as spiritually superior to others. There are many ways to do that--through your intellectual prowess, your devotional dedication, your spiritual giftedness--there's really no end.

But there's only one way to be unified--LOVE. Love puts others ahead of us. It stops the cycle of competition that drives disunity. When we imitate Christ in love, that's when we find unity in the church. We don't know if the Corinthian church ever became unified, but in the end it really doesn't matter. The book of 1 Corinthians gives us a blueprint for how to come together as a church. If we follow that blueprint, we'll have an effective church that is very much like what God intended.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 15

2010-05-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

What Separates Jesus

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul addresses an internal debate about resurrection. If you remember back to the book of Matthew and the book of Acts, there were different schools of thought in the ancient world and even within Judaism itself as to whether there is such a thing as life after death-- or resurrection. The Sadduccees didn't believe in resurrection, the Pharisees did and, of course Jesus would side with the Pharisees on that point (and proved it later). Paul, of course, also sides with the Pharisees who believed in the resurrection.

In the middle of the debate, Paul says something very bold and risky. In verse 14, Paul writes, "If Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless and so is your faith." What Paul says to them and to us is that everything in Christianity hinges on the Resurrection. If the resurrection is not a true, historical event, then we should just abandon faith in Christ and do something more productive with our lives. This, of course, puts Jesus in a unique place among religious leaders.

For Paul, it all goes back to the resurrection. The thing we have to believe in order to accurately be called a Christian is that Christ has been raised. Someone who likes the teachings of Jesus but doesn't believe in the resurrection, according to Paul should just stop wasting his time. Belief in Jesus is not just a philosophy that was made up by a good person. Belief in Jesus is belief that God proved His power and message through the resurrection of Jesus.

And because Jesus was resurrected, we also have the hope of resurrection.

Resurrection makes a difference. First, if living on earth is all there is, we should just seek as much pleasure as possible. Why try to live a moral life if when it's all said and done, we just go back to the earth. Resurrection is the great equalizer. Resurrection is the only thing that can insure justice.

We all have a sense that there is something not right with the world. We all know intuitively that evil is bad. When children die of cancer, something tells us this is not the way things are supposed to be. Well, if there is no resurrection then our sense that something is wrong makes no sense. Suffering is pointless and unredeemed. But because of resurrection, we can know that everything will be made right some day. That evil will be punished and suffering will be accounted for. All of this because of the resurrection of Jesus.

No other founder of a religion makes that claim. All others teach about the nature of God and the way they think we should live. But only one makes such bold claims about Himself and only one asks us to believe in an actual historic event that we can study and discount or affirm. It makes Jesus very easy to check out--if He was raised, then He is who He says He is and is worthy of our praise and emulation. But if He wasn't, we should figure out something better to do with the limited time we have here on earth.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 14

2010-05-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

The Value of Community

One of the most difficult aspects of church is life is how to maintain unity. Even when the whole church has a heart for the mission of Jesus--to seek and to save that which is lost--there can still be disagreement about how to accomplish that mission. What is most difficult is that we all have the temptation to trust our own judgment. I've heard many people who believed they heard God tell them to do this or that. Sometimes it's obviously the case that God didn't tell them what they thought they heard and sometimes you just don't know.

Sometimes people will say that God told them something, just to give their own opinion more weight. There are times when they are intentionally deceptive, but sometimes people genuinely do think that God spoke to them. I do believe God still speaks to people today. Of course, the most common way He speaks to us is through the Bible (common, that is if it's common for you to read it).

But 1 Corinthians 14 also deals with another way God speaks--through prophecy. Now, first I must say that the prophecy that Paul is talking about here is not necessarily the kind where people tell the future. Basically, the prophecy just means a word from the Lord. It seems from the context that Paul is specifically talking about a word of prophecy that it directed at another person in the church, but I don't think Paul's advice here is limited to just that situation.

Here's where I think we often go wrong in the church. Notice in verse 29 that even when people speak prophetically, others in the church should "weigh carefully what is said." In other words, just because someone claims to speak for God doesn't mean everyone else should automatically accept it as a word from God. Claiming to speak for God is a serious thing we ought not to take lightly. In fact, we should take it so seriously that we cannot just automatically accept that someone is speaking the words of God.

If you think God has told you something, before you go around telling people as if it's actually the case, first test the message with trusted, mature believers. It's not as though God is a bad communicator, it's just that we're often very bad at listening. We have many hidden motives, both conscious and subconscious that skew our ability to hear. But when we seek the counsel of others in the church who don't have our biases and distractions, we will better be able to know if it's God speaking or our own mind.

That also means that if someone comes to you claiming to speak for God, don't just automatically accept it as that, but judge whether it might be true. If it is, take it very seriously. Speak the truth.

Paul's main concern in this chapter is to have orderly worship. Order comes when people humbly submit themselves to each other for the sake of the Church.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 13

2010-05-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Bullseye

I think 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the least respected chapters in the entire Bible. It's not that people don't like it, people love it! They just always relegate it to a certain context--weddings. And when we do that, I think we miss just how profound and ultimately important this chapter is to our faith. I would argue that 1 Corinthians 13 should be central to our understanding of spiritual growth.

People have different ideas of what it means to be a mature Christian. For some people, it's the ability to master complicated theological concepts. Some believe that because they can perfectly explain the doctrine of the Trinity or the substitutional theory of the atonement they are mature.

For others, they feel they're mature when they can easily and boldly preach the gospel and get many people "saved."

Others believe their knowledge of the Bible makes them a mature Christian. They can quote scripture forward and backward and if you ask them where a particular verse is found, they can tell you instantly.

For others it's the exercise of spiritual gifts--maybe they speak in tongues or they prophesy. And because of this they are a greater class of Christian.

But in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul blows all of these ideas out of the water. In it, He lists all the different ways the Corinthians found to feel superior to each other. In earlier chapters, we saw many examples of this--all of them which had the effect of separating and bringing disunity in the church. But Paul says that all of those external markers mean nothing if a person doesn't have love.

Love is the bullseye of spiritual growth. If all your spiritual disciplines, church attendance and Bible reading don't result in more love for people, it's futile. If you are one who knows the Bible forward and backward, just so you can use it as a weapon in a debate or argument, you're missing the mark. If you speak in tongues and use it as a source of pride in your life, you've missed it. If you can understand the theology of Jesus and explain it in a way that amazes people, but you're selfish and mistreat others, all your knowledge is worthless.

Paul goes on to explain to them what love is. It's patient because it gives people the grace to not have to get things right the first time. It's kind because when we love people, we always wish them the best. It doesn't envy because love doesn't allow us to be in competition with each other. It doesn't boast because when I love it's my desire to build YOU up, not me. It's not rude because we're only rude when we see people as obstacles.

Love is the thing that will last. God is love. And the point of 1 Corinthians 13 is that when we love, we are most like God.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 12

2010-05-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Best Church Advice

1 Corinthians 12 might be the best advice for existing in the church. If you remember from previous chapters in 1 Corinthians there were many factions in the church. They seemed to always find reasons to feel superior to the other Christians in the church. Whether it was their intellectual exploits, their restraint in becoming celibate, or exploiting their freedom in eating meat sacrificed to idols, the competition was fierce.

We find out that in 1 Corinthians 12, there were some in the church who felt they were superior because of the particular spiritual gift they had. A spiritual gift is a gift every believer has that is expressly given to build up the church and build the Kingdom. Here, Paul mentions a few gifts--wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, speaking in tongues, etc. There are other passages where other gifts are listed, but I don't believe that the spiritual gifts are limited to the gifts mentioned in the various passages of scripture. As culture changes, the church needs different changing gifts.

The problem in Corinth was that some people were elevating certain gifts above other gifts. Gifts like speaking in tongues tends to be a more "spectacular" gift and one that a lot of people would like to have. But Paul doesn't buy in to this kind of thinking. Here is where we see Paul's greatest explanation of the church as the body of Christ.

Each member of the church is a part of the body and Paul's answer to the Corinthians was that every part of the body is important. He says, "the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you.'" While the eye and the hand have different functions, each are important in their own right. So it is in the church. Even though some gifts may be more "flashy," like preaching or other "up front" gifts, they are no more important than "behind the scenes" gifts like service and generous giving.

Paul ends chapter 12 by encouraging the Corinthians to "eagerly desire the greater gifts," the perfect lead in to 1 Corinthians 13.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 11

2010-05-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

Women: A Lesser Class of Christian?

1 Corinthians 11 brings up many questions for us. In many ways, this chapter is one of the most difficult we will read in our walk through the New Testament. It raises questions about how we take the Lord's Supper. For instance, apparently when the Corinthian church took it, they didn't just have little wafers and teeny little communion cups, but they served enough that the people were getting drunk! Also, later in the chapter Paul mentions people "falling asleep" because they ate and drank judgment on themselves. I don't know what they were doing in Corinth, but I have never heard of a tragic communion death today.

But what I'd like to focus on today is more likely a hot-button issue for the church--women in the church. Many groups use this passage and others like to forbid women in positions of ministry and maintain old cultural expressions of male-female relationships. I think 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 is one of those passages that look like one thing on the surface, but when you dive in, you find something completely different. To explain the chapter I've enlisted the help of N.T. Wright, the Archbishop of Durham and one of the leading New Testament scholars of our day.

First, a lesson in Biblical doctrine. There are really two principles that we need to remember as we read this chapter. First, we always read from clear to unclear. A lot of times, groups will take an obscure and confusing passage of scripture and come up with a doctrine. That group will often form a new denomination or sometimes even a cult because of their belief that other Christians don't have the depth of understanding they do. But when we're interpreting scripture and determining doctrine and practice, on any particular topic, we must give most weight to the passages that are clear and read the unclear passages in light of the clear ones.

Second, we should give weight to the whole of scripture rather than any particular verse, even if it seems at face value to contradict scripture as a whole. In the case of 1 Corinthians 11, we should take note of the fact that Jesus was completely counter-cultural when it came to the role of women in society. Though all His 12 disciples were men (which we can easily explain through cultural eyes), many of Jesus' main followers were women. Not only this, but women play a huge role in the resurrection accounts despite the fact that their testimony would have been invalid in those times. The early church clearly had women in leadership positions. The weight of the New Testament suggests women were not seen, even by Paul as second-class citizens.

Finally, the cardinal rule in Biblical interpretation is "context is everything." Going back to the original language is often useful in helping us determine the meaning of a particular passage, but the first thing we have to do is to understand both the cultural context and the context of the particular passage in the book. In the case of 1 Corinthians 11, this is most instructive for us. So let's take a look at the context, then see what we can determine about what Paul is saying.

Book Context: First, we have to remember that Corinth was the San Francisco or maybe Vegas of the Roman Empire (and that's saying a lot). It was known, most of all for its rampant sexual promiscuity and deviance. Pagan religions were more or less ambivalent to ethical concerns and in the case of religious rites, even provided temple prostitutes for worship. Paul was very concerned that when the Corinthians became Christians, they would continue the same lifestyle the pagans would. But Christians are called to be different.

At the same time, Paul preached the freedom that Christ brings. So he agreed that Christians could eat meat sacrificed to idols as long as it didn't offend the conscience of a "weaker believer." In chapter 7, remember that Paul addresses the issue of marital roles. Like our society today, there were certain expectations for the behavior of each spouse. Despite the fact that Christ brings freedom, believers should always have others in mind when it comes of expressing that freedom. So for instance, even if we know it's OK in our society to drink alcohol, it may not be the most loving action to have a beer in front of a young believer who has a drinking problem.

So as a whole, Paul spends a great amount of time addressing the delicate balance between living in freedom and a Christian's concern for the Gospel. Keep this in mind as we approach this passage. Now on to cultural context.

Cultural Context: Roman society was very much a male-dominated society. In marriage, men had all the rights. While there was some progress in terms of women's rights at the time, women were still seen as inferior and in some cases, even property. Women were to remain silent in mixed assemblies. While both women and men were discouraged from having affairs, women were generally instructed to look the other way from her husband's affairs. Women of different standings also dressed differently from each other. In general, married women wore head coverings, while unmarried women didn't. All women were to dress modestly so as not to draw attention to themselves when in public. Of course, the exception to this was prostitutes, who would of course, dress more provocatively.

So how does the context affect our understanding of 1 Corinthians 11? First, we have to understand the tension between the new order of equality provided women in Christ and the need to be sensitive to cultural expressions. Our freedom can often be a barrier to people responding to the Gospel. Just like the weaker believer in 1 Corinthians 8, but Christian women broke all the cultural customs of Roman society, it could never be taken seriously. For instance, if married Christian women started going without head coverings because they were free in Christ, society might think they were involved in some kind of prostitution or that Christianity was a religion of sexually loose women. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul says things like, "to those under the Law, I became as one under the Law to win those under the Law." In other words, I conformed to their cultural expressions to gain a hearing of the Gospel. The same principle applies here in regard to women.

Second, though the Gospel afforded men and women equal standing before God (which was not the case in pagan religions), Christian women should still conform to cultural expressions of male headship in society. N.T. Wright believes that Paul's point in this passage is that men and women should continue to be men and women in worship. Men and women look at the world in different ways. We express faith in different ways. God does not intent that men and women express their faith the same, but according to their own gender differences. He says,

The underlying point then seems to be that in worship it is important for both men and women to be their truly created selves, to honour God by being what they are and not blurring the lines by pretending to be something else. One of the unspoken clues to this passage may be Paul's assumption that in worship the creation is being restored, or perhaps that in worship we are anticipating its eventual restoration. God made humans male and female, and gave the 'authority' over the wor.d, as Ben-Sirach 17.3 puts it, summarizing Genesis 1.26-28 and echoing Psalm 8.4-8 (Ben-Sirach was written around 200 BC). And if humans are to reclaim this authority over the world, this will come about as they worship the true God, as they pray and prophesy in his name, and are renewed in his image, in being what they were made to be, in celebration the genders God has given them.

If this is Paul's meaning, the critical move he makes is to argue that a man dishonours his head by covernig it in worship and that a woman dishonours hers by not covering it. He argues this mainly from the basis that creation itself tends to give men shorter hair and women longer (verses 5-6, 13-15); the fact that some cultures, and some people, offer apparent exceptions would probably not have worried him. His main point is that in worship men should follow the dress and hair codes which proclaim them to be male, and women the codes which proclaim them to be female.

All in all, in worship, we don't set aside proper cultural norms. In fact, when worshiping in a given culture, we should follow their cultural customs in order to not be a barrier to their worship. Now, it's impossible to go into all the issues brought up in this passage and others like it in a blog post, but I will end with this passage from The Message paraphrase that I think will give you a good sense of how to read it in context.

^{1 -2}It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ. ^{3 -9}In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God. Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ. In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband. Worse, she dishonors herself—an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts, men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their "heads" to the Head: God.
^{10 -12}Don't, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women. Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God—that is true. But the head on a woman's body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her "head," her husband. The first woman came from man, true—but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let's quit going through these "who's first" routines.
^{13 -16}Don't you agree there is something naturally powerful in the symbolism—a woman, her beautiful hair reminiscent of angels, praying in adoration; a man, his head bared in reverence, praying in submission? I hope you're not going to be argumentative about this. All God's churches see it this way; I don't want you standing out as an exception.

When we look at this passage in light of the overall Biblical picture and the context of the day, we see that Paul's message is something very different than what we would see if we took it out of both contexts. Instead of treating women as second-class Christians, it values the distinct role women play in the church and keeps us aware of the sensitivities of those outside the church. Both worthy goals.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 10

2010-05-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm the Exception

"I am the exception. Everyone else needs to heed good advice, but for some reason I've got it all figured out. I can text while driving. I can run with scissors. I have the emotional fortitude to be able to handle anything that comes my way. There is no one else like me."

If we were honest with ourselves, we might all this way feel deep-down. I think that the only reason people failed in the past was because they weren't as smart, keen, talented, or strong as I am. I can hardly stand to see someone else struggle to open a jar of pickles, because I just know I can get it open. I can put myself in compromising positions without it having a negative impact on my life. Have you ever felt this way?

This is the warning Paul gives the Corinthians in chapter 10. In it, he looks back to the history of Israel, which if you know anything about that history is the classic example of learning the hard way. We've been spending our time in the New Testament, but the Old Testament has much to offer us as well and in this chapter Paul tells us why.

I have to admit that I haven't spent as much time in the Old Testament as I have in the New. I do feel I know it pretty well, but my focus has always been on the New--and rightly so. In many ways, the Old Testament is the opening acts of the Bible. It tells us where we come from. It gives us insight into the human condition. It spells out in law-form what we all have written on our hearts. It foretells God's plan to save the world through Jesus. In that respect it's essential.

But the New Testament goes beyond the Old Testament. What the Old Testament hinted at, the New Testament says outright. What the Law could not do, grace completes. You see this in the book of Hebrews as well as other places in the writings of the Apostle Paul. We're not called to live by the Old Testament, but to learn from it. While we're not in the same situation as the Israelites, we are of the same human nature.

In our chapter today, Paul mentions a number of sins of Israel. First idolatry. One of the great sins of Israel was worshiping other gods. God knew this was likely for the Israelites, so He gave strict warnings against mingling with other ethnic groups. At their stage of development, the Israelites as a whole were not strong enough to resist the pressure to worship other gods. Like the Romans who came thousands of years later, "just in case" was a strong pull. But God always called them to trust Him alone.

Our situation is different today. Our "gods" are no longer images made out of stone, but famous people, possessions, money and the desire to make ourselves gods. God doesn't call us to isolate from people who are different from us, but to build bridges. That's the power of grace--it gives us the freedom to be "all grown up."

Paul also mentions sins like sexual immorality and "grumbling." How often to we lump these two together. Many pastors and leaders have lost their ministry to sexual sin, but how many have been disciplined for complaining? Not many, for sure.

The point Paul makes in this chapter is to remind the Corinthians that even though they are in a different situation, they are not the exception. Even though they are free ("everything is permissible") not everything will move them in the right direction. Even though God may not punish them, the natural consequences of their sin will be separation from God and keep them from becoming who God created them to be.

With this in mind, what Paul is getting at is that the real question to ask is not, "Am I alright doing this?" but "How will my action and decision effect the people around me?" Learn from history that you are not your own. Your choices effect the people who are watching you or come after you. Don't be that history lesson of what NOT to do.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 9

2010-05-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Free to Grow

In today's blog (which is actually should have been 2 days ago), I want to focus on verse 19-27. If you've been reading through the New Testament Journey from the beginning and following my blog, you've learned that I believe one of Jesus' main focuses in His teaching was to free people from the bounds of rules and religion. Some people may take this to mean that I am anti-church (I'm not), or anti-Bible (I'm not), or that I'm all for some vague spirituality (I'm definitely not). I just want my faith to be based on Jesus and free from so much baggage Christianity has picked up along the way--the forms of religion rather than the heart of life in God.

Now we are all products of our society and I recognize that there is a movement in today's world, probably due to the tendency of postmodern thought to "deconstruct" everything. I admit that am a party to that, though my goal is not to deconstruct religion and leave it laying there in pieces so I can create my own individualized faith. My goal is much different than that.

I don't believe we should follow a system of belief. When God wanted to perfectly reveal Himself to us, He did so not in a "system of though" or philosophy, but in a person--Jesus. This person happened to be the perfect representation of the image of God we were created in as well as the representation of God on earth. So when Jesus says things like, "I am the truth," He's not say that his philosophy or individual interpretation of the world is truth. He's not saying He reflects the truth closer than anyone up to that point has reflected it. He is saying that He knows exactly how God created the world and ordered the universe, so if we want to know that truth, we only need to look to Him. When we believe that Jesus is truth, we will be set free from human interpretations of truth. So in my own personal quest for faith, I've come to the point where I try to deconstruct everything but Jesus. I know I can't do this perfectly, but if I want to be like Christ, I want to be a perfect representation of Him--an original source kind of guy.

Well that was Paul's goal as well. Paul talks a lot about freedom. In his context, it was mostly about two freedoms--freedom from sin and freedom from the Law. Paul wasn't governed by either piece, but as we learn in 1 Corinthians 9, he could converse in both worlds. He says essentially, "I'll operate in the world of the Law, but I'm not a slave to the Law." He also says, "I'm not a slave to sin, but I'm not afraid of those who are. I will associate with them, too." But the reason Paul says He does this is because he wants those people to be free like he is. He wants people to know the truth of the Gospel.

This is a very freeing thing for churches as well. Churches need to hear the Gospel, too. We often think that in order to be the church God wants us to be, we have to have all the elements churches have "always had." If we don't have Sunday School, we won't be a good church. If we don't have small groups, we're doing something wrong. "What if we don't have (insert your favorite ministry here)? How can call ourselves a church?" Paul says his strategy is that he's not going to be a slave to all the forms--he's going to take the form of whatever it takes to be effective and I think churches need to have that attitude as well.

The idea of using our freedom for the Gospel is an important one, but it's just as important for spiritual growth. People might think that because I think Jesus was anti-religion that I would advocate a sort of laissez faire spirituality, but this is also not true. In verses 24-27, Paul highlights the need for discipline in our spiritual growth. I don't believe that any of us currently is what God intended us to be--we're all on a journey. True faith is a faith of movement where, if we cooperate, God never leaves us where we were.

Just like getting into physical shape or preparing for an athletic competition means stripping off the fat and building the muscle, the spiritual life does the same thing. But it doesn't happen automatically. We have to work at it. I'm a big believer in spiritual disciplines like prayer, fasting, solitude, corporate worship, giving generously, service, Bible study, etc. These are all ways we can "work out" our faith. They are all part of the process of getting rid of "self" and allowing Christ to take control of our lives.

So how purposeful are you about your growth? Do you think it's just going to happen? If so, you're probably frustrated that you're not where you want to be in your faith. Though I don't have time to talk about it here, what I would suggest is getting a book like Richard Foster's "A Celebration of Discipline" and learning to practice the spiritual disciplines. Practicing spiritual disciplines doesn't mean you're a better Christian, but practicing them can be the means to become a better one. Whether we're talking about a church or an individual, growth is intentional, not accidental.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 8

2010-05-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Knowledge, Love and Alcohol

As we're learning, the theme of spiritual superiority is probably the central focus of the book of 1 Corinthians. People are in the church are finding many different ways to be proud of their spiritual state. First, one group thought the ability to wax eloquent about complex theological concepts made them spiritually superior to the more simple minds. In chapter 7, we read about the group who believed they were spiritually superior because they were celibate and pushed others to leave their marriages so they could "devote more time to Jesus."

In chapter 8 it comes down to food. It's not secret in those day that there was a great many idols around. The centerpiece of Roman society was the pantheon of gods. There wasn't a god the Romans didn't worship or make idols or temples for. It was pervasive in the society. So when a person would go to the market, the food sold in the market was most likely sacrificed to one of the gods.

Now remember that Christianity comes out of Judaism, a religion where the prohibition against "other gods" and idols is a central tenet. Jews did not take that issue lightly and neither did Christians. But since idols were everyone, it was difficult to avoid. No doubt there were places where you could buy food that was not sacrificed to idols. Judaism was prominent enough in the Roman Empire that there would be "kosher" markets around, especially in a city the size of Corinth. But if a person wanted to eat at the house of a Gentile, it would be difficult to avoid eating the sacrificed meat.

Such an environment provided lots of opportunity for the Corinthian Christians to feel superior. On one side is the people who would try to avoid that meat at all costs. They would take pride in the fact that they don't eat that meat because they are so devoted God. On the other side are the Christians who are so confident that there is only one God that the meat sacrificed to gods are really sacrificed to nothing and so there is nothing wrong with it.

For the record, Paul agrees with the group who believe that since the meat is sacrificed to nothing, it's OK to eat it. But Paul also knows that this is not the most important issue. The more important issue is that of the love and unity of the Corinthian church.

In an earlier post, I talked about how you can be technically right, but actually wrong. That was the case with the Corinthians. While their position was correct, their disposition was not Christlike. (now I'm sounding like an old-time preacher). One catchy phrase in verse one sums up the whole chapter, and really the entire book of 1 Corinthians, "knowledge puffs up while love builds up."

Knowledge tends to make us arrogant. A simple fact of life is that some people just don't have the mental capacity others do. So when a person achieves a certain level of knowledge, insight, brilliance, genius-- whatever you want to call it--it puts them in an exclusive club.   But if you remember back to the first couple of chapters, Paul says that God intentionally made the Gospel "simple." It may look like foolishness to the wise, but God wanted to make it simple because He wanted to make it accessible to everyone, not just the intellectual elite.

So all the issues associated with food sacrificed to idols are fine as long as they are secondary to the desire to love. Love is when we think about others before ourselves. So in this chapter, while the people who feel free to eat the meat are actually right, when the "weaker" Christians are around, the loving thing would be to abstain. The hope is that eventually the weaker members could come to the same understanding and live in the freedom Christ provides, but love dictates patience. Freedom does no good if love is not at the core of who we are. All of this is leading up to 1 Corinthians 13--the love chapter.

At the beginning of the New Testament journey, we talked about how we can get the most out of our Bible reading. The Bible was written for us, but it wasn't written to us. So our job is not just to take what we read and apply it directly to our lives. In our day, we don't think too much about food sacrificed to idols--it's not an issue for us. Since that's the case, 1 Corinthians 8 would be pointless for us. But what we do is we work to find the transcendent truth represented in that particular situation and apply that truth to our situation.

In this case, I think there is a modern-day issue relevant to those of us in the Wesleyan church--the issue of alcohol. This is a big issue for us because it was Wesleyans (or at least our foremothers) who spearheaded much of the prohibition movement in America. Abstinence from alcohol is still a part of the Wesleyan church's membership covenant.

Now I'm not a drinker and never have been, but this is one area of the discipline I do not agree with. Although I understand the reasoning behind it--alcohol is the center of many of our societal ills like drunk driving, alcoholism, broken homes, promiscuity, etc.--I think this prohibition is legalistic. It's one of those things we make a big deal out of that we can't point to scripture and say, "thus saith the Lord." I have known a great many saints who were known to have a drink from time to time. I believe those people are right to feel free to do that. In fact, I would take it a step further to say that our complete prohibition against alcohol has actually been a stumbling block to people coming to joining our church and ultimately coming to Christ. We've seen this a number of times in our church over the years.

I believe Paul would say that to drink or not to drink is really not the issue. The real issue is love. For people who don't know Jesus and for whom drinking is not a problem, is it loving to place a barrier to faith in front of them? At the same time what about the Christian who believes they are free to consume an adult beverage?   Are there any warnings for them? Sure. Some "weaker" believers don't feel so free and would have their faith tested if they drank a beer in front of them. In that case, the loving thing to do would be to not flaunt their freedom. There may be times when the loving thing to do would be to confront a person about their drinking, but to make a blanket statement, I believe does little good.

The issue is not freedom or alcohol, but love. It's the center of everything as we'll see in a few chapters.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 7

2010-05-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

This Post is Rated "R"

When I was growing up, sex was a topic we just didn't talk about much and when we did, it was pretty much, "don't do it." Of course, this is good advice for a teenager, but when you grow up and get married, that just won't do anymore. As I've gotten older, I've seen the value in talking about sex in a healthy way.

In fact, when I was youth pastor that was one thing I was determined to do--not just to talk about sex two or three times a year when the youth group lesson dictated, but also to model a healthy sexual attitude. It's a fine line to walk being open about sex, yet not making women out to be only sex objects. What often annoys me is when Christians are prudes. God gave sex as a gift and we ought not to avoid.

In fact, that's actually the message of 1 Corinthians 7. The chapter is a little cryptic if you don't understand the situation. Remember that the church in Corinth is trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus in one of the most sexually deviant societies we've known. There are different ways Christians can respond to such a situation.

First, you can just "go with it" and allow your own sexual ethics to be shaped by the society at large. We saw and example of this in 1 Corinthians 5 in which there was a man in the church who even went further than society having sex with his step-mom. Obviously, this is not an acceptable solution. As Paul says in chapter 6, not everything is beneficial. The price of the lack of sexual restraint in our society is very high--unwanted pregnancy, abortion, divorce, STIs (or whatever they're calling them these days), pain, loneliness, crimes against women, etc. There's a reason God prescribes sexual restraint.

The second option is to view sex as evil. This was the option for a party in the Corinthian church and the very topic Paul was addressing in 1 Corinthians 7. If you remember, there were great divisions within the Corinthian church, one group thinking they were spiritually superior to the others because of their great knowledge. Well, we don't know if it was the same group, but there was a faction within the Corinthian church that took pride in the fact that the way they dealt with the problem of sexual ethics by preaching that sex was evil altogether and ought not be practiced. Again, they used their celibacy as proof of their spiritual superiority.

So the first verse of 1 Corinthians 7 Paul quotes the celibacy group--"It is good for a man not to have sex with a woman." Though the NIV says "It is good for a man not to marry" that's not a good translation (maybe the translators of the original NIV were prudes). The celibacy group was encouraging everyone in the church to dispense with their familial relations in order to "devote more time to Jesus." Paul agrees that when you're married, you do have a certain distraction from following Jesus.

Paul acknowledges that he's in an enviable situation since he's single. Could you imagine Paul doing the things he did if he were married? Would his wife come with him and endure the opposition and beatings he did on a regular basis? If she didn't come with him, could she handle him being away for months and years at time and then when he does come home, show the bruises and scars from his persecution. Clearly it was an advantage for Paul to be single.

On the other hand, not everyone was single. The celibacy group was teaching that if a person wasn't single, they should leave their marriage so they can be free to devote their time to Jesus. But Paul says no way for two reasons.

First, people who are married have taken vow to remain married until death and God expects us to keep that vow. Not only that, but when we take that vow, we vow to actively car for our spouse. In other words, we're not called to lifeless marriages of co-existence. We are called to fulfill our marital duties to our spouse (both sexually and otherwise). Those who are married should not divorce so they can devote more time to Jesus, they should determine how they can best serve Jesus in the place they are.

Second, some people just can't handle being single. If they were single, their lack of sex would be more of a distraction than being married. I know people like this. They are overcome by their sex drive and feel guilty because of sexual sin and lack of restraint, giving in to their desires. The sex drive is strong, but since sex is not evil in itself, marriage is much preferred to immorality.

In the end, this chapter is not just about sex. The idea of Paul in this chapter is that we can be spiritually mature whatever situation we're in. If we're married we should be Christlike in our marriage. If we're not, we should be a Christlike single. We should always seek to live out our situation in a Christlike fashion rather than lament our place in life. We can spend our entire life wishing we were someone or somewhere else, but Paul's message is that we can follow Jesus whatever our lot in life--that and sex is good (whew!)

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 6

2010-05-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

More Signs of Immaturity

Now I don't believe that Paul ever regretted going to Corinth to start the church there, but it must have been very frustrating for him to hear the reports coming back to him about the church. Now we don't know if all the problems came from the same people. My guess is that there was enough blame to go around.

The first problem Paul deals with is the Apollos group who thought that because of their intellectual exploits they were somehow superior to the other believers in the Corinthian church. Spiritual superiority was an attitude that didn't sit well with Paul. On top of that, there was blatant immorality. It seems as though the Corinthians were very much a product of their society.

Then we find out in chapter six that people in the church are even going to court against each other--another sign of their immaturity. It seems as though another sign of an immature church is that they don't handle conflict well. Let me make this very clear--there is always great potential for conflict in a church. The church is made up of people who have certain desires, preferences and feelings. Wherever you have those things, you have great potential for conflict.

Disagreements in the church is not a sign of spiritual immaturity. Not being able to resolve those conflicts in a Christlike manner is. In the case of the Corinthians, they were taking their disputes to the secular courts rather than calling in another church member to mediate. Paul says that because of the wisdom given to believers and because they should understand the values of the Kingdom, they should be the best place to resolve issues. But apparently the Corinthians--despite their high opinion of themselves--weren't in a position to make those judgments. Immature.

The second issue of immaturity had to do with their attitude toward sin. One of the themes you'll find in Paul's writing is the mess that grace causes and it's a real problem. Because of grace given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we don't have to worry about the penalty for sin any more--we are forgiven and sin is of no account to us anymore. That's a radical idea and one that's subject to a great deal of misunderstanding and abuse.

Now you might think, "Well, that's overstating it. It's not true that sin is of no account in our lives." But Paul recognizes that this is the case and tried to head off the arguments people make. For instance in Romans 6, Paul deals with those who would say that the more we sin, the more grace we get. He says, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" Obviously, grace is prone to abuse. This is essentially the same argument the Corinthians are making. Since we are forgiven and grace has given us victory over the metaphysical effects of sin, let's just do whatever we want.

But this is abuse and it is a misunderstanding of the nature of sin. Let me make an analogy. We've begun giving our kids a weekly allowance (in true Dave Ramsey fashion, we call it "commission" because they have to earn it). But we give it to them and it's theirs to spend. They are free to use their money in that they know they won't be punished if they use it unwisely. On the other hand, if they use their money unwisely it's gone and they have nothing to show for it--they've squandered it.

In the same way--sin squanders your life. You might think living any way you'd like and having no sexual boundaries is living in freedom, but the reality is you will quickly become a slave of sin. The reason sin is sin is because it operates contrary to the way God set up the world. It's not that God will punish us believers for their sin, it's that when we continue in sin we become less of what God created us to be. We actually become less free. On the surface it seems counter-intuitive, but that's the way it works. When we do things God's way, we reap the benefits and the satisfaction of operating the way we were created.

Once the kids' money is gone, so is their freedom. For the momentary thrill of buying ten pounds of candy, they get a stomach ache and don't have the money to buy something that is longer-lasting. In chapter 6, Paul essentially poses the question, "Do you think it's better to be one with a prostitute or with God?" When we look at sin this way, it's not nearly as attractive.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 5

2010-05-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Judging the Brothers (and Sisters)

Chapter 5 I find to be very interesting and a great test for the church's attitude toward discipline. Church discipline is an area that churches can fall on very extreme sides of the pendulum. On the one hand, we have fundamentalist churches whose pastor keeps everyone under his thumb so much that they will be disciplined for reading the wrong book in their spare time. On the other side is churches that won't discipline anyone fearing it will upset unity in the church (and cause their attendance numbers to fall (which is the ultimate sin).

But in between those extremes we find 1 Corinthians 5. The first issue we should address here is that Paul is speaking specifically of sexual sin--the immoral brother was sleeping with "his father's wife." The way Paul phrases this, it probably refers to his step-mom, rather than his biological mom, otherwise, why would Paul state it this way. In any case, the guy is messed up. Roman society and especially Corinthian society had a reputation for their sexual laxity and deviation, but this guy, who claimed to be a believer even topped that!

I think the first question we have to ask is if Paul's instruction to expel immoral people is limited to sexual sin. I think it's clear from other passages this isn't the case. Matthew 18, for instance only talks about someone who "sins against you." After the process of gentle correction, Jesus tells us to "treat him as a pagan or tax collector." Jesus doesn't limit it to sexual sin.

However, in the context of Corinth, where sexual deviation is the norm, it might be (this is speculation on my part) that the issue of sexual sin is heightened and has to be dealt with more clearly in the church. I think Paul's comments about yeast working through the dough indicate this. If the church accepts such behavior, people will think it's normal even for Christians and the church loses its distinctiveness. So it's important that the church has high expectations of its members.

The second issue here is the difference between how we treat believers and unbelievers as it relates to sin. In this case, I think the church often responds opposite to what Paul prescribes here. We are quick to make excuses or give grace to those inside the church who sin, but are very quick to judge or make pronouncements toward those outside the church. Paul's attitude toward unbelievers is, "Why should we expect them to act any different than they do?" We don't judge those outside the church, but when someone claims to be a follower of Jesus, yet doesn't live the way Jesus does, they are subject to church discipline. We have higher expectations for people who know better.

This is what Paul is trying to get across to the Corinthians. I think this principle is directly applicable to the church today. It's not that we should be overly harsh with our own, but we should hold each other to high standards. Our goal is Christ-likeness and it does us no good to sweep sin under the table because when we do this we lose our witness. However, we should do so with grace. When a brother (or sister) is willfully and continually sinning, we should treat them as a pagan or tax collector.

How was the church to treat a pagan or tax collector? To love them, of course. To seek to redeem them. Certainly not to have them be leaders in the church. In fact, Paul's instruction is to expel this particular man from the church. I'm not sure if that's a blanket statement or not--it might be. We certainly still love him, but as a believer, the church has the right and responsibility to expect Christ-like behavior from him.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 4

2010-05-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

The Downside of Certainty (or The Effective Use of Sarcasm)

If you don't get sarcasm, you'll never understand 1 Corinthians 4. Generally, I counsel people to keep sarcasm at a minimum because it's very easy to get the wrong idea, especially if you don't really know the person who is using it. I know this from experience. I think I can still be prone to too much sarcasm and it often leaves me feeling bad.

But Paul makes very effective use of it in chapter 4. Remember earlier in 1 Corinthians we talked about the "Apollos party" who seemed to think that because of their intellectual prowess, they were superior Christians to the "followers of Paul." In addition, they judged Apollos to be superior to Paul because he was a better teachers, better educated, better looking or for whatever reason. But Paul isn't that concerned with the comparisons. His only concern is that he is faithful to the Gospel.

The great iron here is that it seems that even the new believers at Corinth believed themselves to be superior even to Paul because they were wrestling through the complicated theological constructs. But back in chapter 2, Paul said, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." It's not that Paul couldn't operate on that level, but because of the nature of the Gospel, He chose to preach "the foolishness of the cross." Then comes the sarcasm.

At the beginning of the chapter, Paul says he want's only to be know as a servant of Christ, demonstrating that the Kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. In verse 8, Paul starts a little diatribe against the Apollos people. "Oh, wow! You guys are so smart! You're sooo strong and intelligent. How can we even be in the same room with you? You're like KINGS, but we can barely feed ourselves and we get beaten regularly. I wish I could be like YOU." This is a very strong way to say that what the Corinthians think is strength and spiritual maturity is actually the ultimate in spiritual immaturity.

Just like the Pharisees, the Corinthians were absolutely sure of what they believed. They worked out their complicated theologies and were positive they understood the way the world spins and how God operates. "but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise." (1 Cor 1:27) So what's the greater accomplishment; that we have all our theological "i's" dotted and "t's" crossed or that we're willing to give up everything for the sake of the Gospel?

Now I have to say that I do find theology to be pretty interesting, but I would not describe myself as a systematic theologian (systematic theology tries to extrapolate systems out of Biblical ideas about God), but I would consider myself to be a Biblical theologian. I prefer to stay away from arguments about things like omniscience, the Augustinian view of God's foreknowledge, transubstantiation, etc. and instead want to stay focused on Jesus' teachings and as Paul says "Christ crucified." I think there is probably a place for systematic theology somewhere, but the young couple struggling to keep their marriage alive is not too interested in superlapsarianism, they just want to know how Jesus can help them keep their marriage together.

And that is essentially what Paul is saying in this chapter. It's not our knowledge that makes a difference, it's simply the power of God. It's not our understanding of every detail of theology that gives Christianity its power. It's Christ, living the Gospel in us. As we'll ready Paul saying later in 1 Corinthians, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up."

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 3

2010-05-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

A Few Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 3

Lot's of interesting things to point out in chapter 3:

Paul addresses spiritual maturity very directly here. What is it that he identifies as the obvious sign of the Corinthians spiritual immaturity? Divisions. This makes sense if what we've said before is true, all spiritual growth is relational. The ultimate barometer of our relationship with God is our relationship with people. If we refuse to get along with people, our relationship with God is deficient. When our relationship with God grows, so does our ability to overlook faults and hurts, to forgive, and to love others. The Corinthians were having a hard time with this and to Paul, it was a sign of their immaturity.
The divisions in the church are caused by allegiance to the leaders. Remember in chapter one the quarrels were, "One says, 'I follow Paul,' another, 'I follow Apollos,' another, 'I follow Cephas,' etc. We can do that today, whether it's following different denominations, a historical figure like John Wesley, or Calvin, or Luther, or even leaders within a local church as was the case with the Corinthians.
Paul addresses our very human tendency to put more stock in leaders than what we really should. It's not that leaders aren't important, but none of us are irreplaceable. Ultimately it's God who grows us.
That being said, in verse 16, Paul talks about the great responsibility we leaders have. It is so important for us to be faithful to the message of the Gospel that if leaders lead anyone astray, we are subject to severe judgment. If you are in church leadership, do your very best to accurately represent God to people who are God's temple. Jesus says the same thing when he says, "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." (Mt 18:6)
Finally, Paul gives one more warning (presumably to the Apollos group) that they shouldn't think they are "all that" because of their great wisdom. Their ability to parse words and haggle over meanings is ultimately foolishness to God. The simplicity of the Gospel and the state of their relationships is what really matters to God.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 2

2010-05-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

Downward Mobility

What I like about 1 Corinthians 2 is that Paul clearly points out that the Gospel is available to everyone. Remember in the introduction to 1 Corinthians 2, we talked about Apollos, who was very eloquent and used complex teachings and arguments. Although Paul is no stranger to eloquent or complex arguments, He understands that the Gospel is simple. In chapter one he said "we preach Christ crucified," and he repeats it again in chapter 2.

The secret knowledge that humans searched for for years is now accessible even to children. Because of that, anyone can be saved. People don't have to understand all the fine points of theology, in fact Paul says the simplicity of the Gospel is even a stumbling block to the learned--it can't be that simple. I don't think Paul is saying that you have to be stupid to be saved, what he's saying is that the good news of the Gospel is simple at its core. That God so loved the world, He so much wants for people to be saved, He was willing to bring salvation to a child's level to make that happen.

Baseball can be a hard sport for little kids. Soccer is a great game for them because they can just run around and kick a pretty big ball all around the field. But baseball requires a great deal of hand-eye coordination. I think one of the hardest things to do in sports is to hit a little ball with a little round bat. That's why when kids are learning to play baseball, they actually just play tee ball. It's much easier to hit the ball when it's sitting still.

Could God have made salvation complicated? Of course--so complicated we could never understand it or achieve it. But because of His love for us he "teed it up" for us. Although understanding God and the universe can be very complicated, salvation is not. God became flesh and sacrificed Himself for us. Because of that we don't have anything to earn and we have nothing to brag about.

This puts everyone at a common level. People can understand the Gospel whether they're children or adults, educated or uneducated, western world or third-world. None of it matters. We're all playing the same game--tee ball.

NT Journey--1 Corinthians 1

2010-05-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Importance of Being Foolish

I love 1 Corinthians 1. I think this chapter, especially verses 18-31, is a great synopsis of the Gospel. In it, Paul reminds us that the Gospel is very simple.

We love people who are eloquent. Many people love to get into great theological debates about the exact nature of the work of Jesus on the cross or explaining how Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time. We'll nit-pick every little Scripture that seems to hint at one side or another. Some will view spiritual growth as simply having a deeper understanding of all the find points of theology. But 1 Corinthians 1 is a sledge-hammer to knock down those misunderstandings of faith.

It's not that studying theology isn't fun and even interesting (for some people anyway). But the Gospel itself flies in the face of all the complicated arguments and debate we sometimes hold. Apollos was a fairly young Christian compared to Paul. When Apollos became a believer, he was mentored in the faith by Priscilla and Aquilla, friends of Paul who were expelled from Rome with the rest of the Jews.

Apollos was apparently educated in the institutions of Alexandria (Egypt) and was a sharp guy. After he was saved, he took to teaching. We can glean from the situation that Apollos taught with well thought out and complicated arguments, much to the delight of many of the Corinthian believers. But this kind of teaching began to create divisions in the church. Maybe some of the believers that loved to study all the intricacies of theology looked down upon those who didn't or couldn't. Some became followers of Apollos, some claimed to be followers of Paul and some smarty-pants just said, "I'm not a Baptist or a Wesleyan, I'm a Christian."

Paul was not happy with those divisions, saying Christ is not divided, then brings it down to its lowest (best) common denominator. The Gospel is intended to be for everyone, so if people were required to be able to expound on the fine points of theology to know Jesus, only a limited number of people could be saved. Think of it this way, if there was a concert that you wanted everyone in the world to attend, you wouldn't and couldn't charge a high price for it. If you only want the elite, then you would charge thousands or millions of dollars to attend. That cost would effectively weed out the lower class of society.

That's the Gospel. In order for it to be accessible to everyone, the price must be affordable to everyone. Of course it's second nature for us to want to earn things. If we don't work for it, we treat it as less valuable. But the Gospel is contrary to earning. In order for the Gospel to be accessible to all, God chose the "foolishness of the cross." If the Gospel were attained by perfect understanding of some philosophical truth, much of humanity would be ineligible. But God intentionally made the Gospel simple to allow for the maximum number of people.

The Kingdom of God is the upside-down Kingdom. God chose a "weak" act or an act of powerlessness to be the greatest power in the universe--the power of salvation. Paul says that this is actually a demonstration of God's power. It's like God lifted our heaviest possible weight with His little finger. The cross shows the power of God. His strength is found in our weakness and inability to achieve salvation. What we couldn't do, God did through the cross.

Apollos' teachings helped to create division in the church, it was the simplicity of the Gospel that solved it and brought everyone back together.

NT Journey--Intro to 1 Corinthians

2010-05-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

No Rest for the Weary

Well, we just finished with the Gospel of John and without rest, we now move on to Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. Actually, 1 Corinthians is not the first letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Paul refers to "an earlier letter" in the book of 1 Corinthians.

If you remember when we studies Acts, Paul left Corinth after a pretty good stay there--"good"meaning length off time. He did experience a great deal of persecution during his stay in Corinth. However, in the middle of it, God told him to stay and assured him he would be safe. Eventually, he left for Ephesus and eventually back to Antioch--his "home base." After a short stay in Antioch, Paul traveled back to Ephesus and stayed there for around three years. He wrote both 1 & 2nd Corinthians during his stay in Ephesus, probably around 54-55 AD.

If you had to compare the city of Corinth to any modern-day American city, you might choose LasVegas. Historically, Corinth was know for its diversity and it immorality. Corinth housed the temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty and sex. At one time, there was said to be 1000 temple prostitutes ready to help the ancients "worship." While the wildest days of Corinth were long behind it in Paul's day, there's no doubt that Corinth was still a city filled with debauchery and this culture was reflected in the church there.

The purpose of the writing of 1 Corinthians was in response to rumors Paul heard as well as some direct reports about how the church was getting along in his absence. One such situation was the influence of Apollos. Apollos was a well-educated Jew from Alexandria (perhaps the greatest center of learning at the time) who became a believer. There's no indication that Apollos was a bad guy, but his captivating personality and skilled teaching led many in the church to favor him over Paul, creating divisions in the church that we'll see in chapter 1.

Early church tradition (Jerome) suggests that Apollos was so distraught over the divisions in the church that he left for a time until the divisions were healed, then came back and served as the Bishop of Corinth. Some scholars even think it may be Apollos who wrote the book of Hebrews.

Paul's letter addressing the division in the church became a great occasion to deal with a number of other problems reported in the church. In fact, most of the letters of Paul to churches are to address certain issues that came up in the various churches. It helps to try to get a handle on what the problems were to help us know how to interpret the letters.

The highlight of the book of 1 Corinthians is the famous chapter 13--the one that's read at the majority of weddings today. Ultimately chapter 13 is Paul's ultimate answer to the divisions in the church--love each other. Love is the most important thing and when we love each other, it solves our relationship problems.

NT Journey--John 21

2010-05-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

The Power of Failure...and Grace

The story of Peter's denial of Jesus is one of the most powerful examples of failure and disappointment in the Bible. Peter was always quick to speak up, always quick to answer questions even before he really thought about the answer. He also had an overblown confidence in himself, at least when Jesus was around. If you remember back to John 13, Peter assured Jesus he would die for him. That's when Jesus predicted that Peter would deny Him three times.

For all of his life and certainly up to the point of his denial of Jesus, Peter was a people-pleaser. He was always the first to speak up in the same way a teacher's pet will be the first to raise her hand when asked a question.

Peter always had the right answer. When Jesus asked the disciples if they knew who he was, it was Peter who responded with "the Christ (Messiah)." Peter knew the right answer in his mind, but as we've seen before in the New Testament, faith for Jesus is not just in the mind, it's in the soul, it's in the gut, it's in our actions. While Peter had it in his mind, he didn't yet have it in his gut and he was exposed in the courtyard when he denied Jesus.

Imagine what Peter must have been feeling when Jesus went to the cross. While Peter spent his whole life showing people how much he "loved" and "believed in" Jesus, his last action before Jesus went to the cross was a complete failure and denial.

In John 21, it's so like Jesus to spend some time with Peter--to restore him. Peter denied Jesus three times and Jesus gave Peter the chance to redeem himself three times, asking him, "Do you really love me?" But that wasn't the whole question Jesus asked. The question He asked was, "Do you love me more than these?" We can assume Jesus was pointing or gesturing at the time, but we don't know exactly what he was point to.

I think, while not conclusive, it's a pretty safe bet to think Jesus was motioning toward the other disciples. Now I don't think Jesus was comparing Peter's love for Jesus to the love of the other disciples for Jesus, but what's happening is that Jesus knows Peter's tendency to do things for the show. Peter was a chameleon. In one circumstance he would say one thing, but in another circumstance he would say what that crowd wanted to hear.

Jesus knew that in order for the disciples to be effective in continuing His ministry (to feed His sheep), they couldn't be wishy-washy. Peter's failure in denying Jesus and Jesus' time in the grave gave Peter a lot of time to think, to reflect and to change. I would guess that Peter was much slower to speak in John 21, but as we'll see in the book of Acts, his boldness is unparalleled by all but maybe the Apostle Paul. That's what failure and grace will do.

Jesus never showed or even hinted that He would leave Peter because of His denial. Was He disappointed? I'm sure He was. But ultimately, the grace Jesus gave to Peter turned his failure into a learning moment. His failure was the way Peter's intellectual belief became believe in his gut--the fortitude to go out and die for Jesus, which tradition says he did.

What do you do with failure? Do you allow it to fester inside and incapacitate you? That's our natural reaction when we don't understand grace. Without grace, failure leads to shame and despair. With grace, failure becomes a turning point in our lives that strengthens our resolve and our gratitude toward God. So, what DO you do with failure?

Well, that's the book of John. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the book as a whole.

NT Journey--John 20

2010-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Power of the Church

It's been in vogue lately to discount the church. So many people talk about being "spiritual," and might even claim to be a follower of Jesus in the process. They think the church is just an institution that humans concocted to get control over people. In some ways, we can see why people think this.

Over the years, the combination of religion (which is a powerful force) and power itself has done great evil in the world. From killing heretics, to the Crusades, to the inquisition, to the Salem witch trials, the church has been digging its own grave for years. It's easy to see why people are disillusioned with the church. I am not.

I talk a great deal about how Jesus was against religion, but that doesn't mean Jesus was against the church. In fact, Jesus instituted the church (Matthew 18) and in John 20 infuses it with power, but not the kind of power the Pope used for centuries. Like the Kingdom itself, the power of the church is the power of grace and self-sacrifice. The church today is to be the representation of Jesus in the world and we are given the Holy Spirit to guide us in that task.

There's an interesting section of John 20 I would like to focus on. It's verses 21-23, where Jesus says,

²¹Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

The first thing we see here is that the task of Jesus' followers is the same task that Jesus had, "As the Father sent me, I am sending you." We are called to the same task as Jesus Himself. While we could delve a little more into this, it's pretty straight-forward.

The second part is a little more confusing. He says to the disciples, "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven, if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." What do we do with this?

Well there are some different options.

Jesus is speaking literally to all of his followers. So what he means is that the church has the same authority as Jesus to actually and metaphysically grant forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is speaking literally, but only to the disciples. Jesus' authority to forgive sins was only given to the disciples. (The Catholic church would also extend this out to those in "apostolic succession" like the pope, priests, etc.)
Jesus is speaking figuratively for all the church.

Now, let me preface this discussion by telling you first off I really don't know for sure. I can give my best educated guess.

Option 1--I'm certainly open to this one, although it's humbling that we would have so much power. This option could be bolstered by Jesus' comments in Matthew 16 when He talks about the keys of the Kingdom. He says, "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven..." This would seem to indicate some kind of actual authority for salvation. The argument against this is that you don't really see the Apostles or the general church doing this in Acts. They heal. They, they preach the Gospel, but I can't think of an instance where they just say, "Your sins are forgiven."

Option 2--I could also be open to this one, but not draw it out the way the Catholic church does. The Apostles certainly had some status the rest of us do not have. I believe the Apostles had a special power of healing, for instance. There are still people with the gift of healing today, but not necessarily in the same way as the Apostles. In the same way, they could have had that ability to actually forgive sins. But again, you really don't see the Apostles use this kind of authority in the book of Acts.

This view would be very similar to the Catholic view. The Apostles (especially Peter) had a special status and thus it was Peter who had the "keys to the Kingdom." Today, it is the hierarchy of the church that has the keys and the keys are passed down through Apostolic succession to future popes and conferred to priests. This is why Catholics say confession to priests, because priests then confer forgiveness on them. But as we've seen earlier, Jesus is our mediator. We don't need priests as a go-between God and us.

Option 3--I would be most inclined to go with this one. I think God alone has the power to forgive sins, but we can speak forgiveness into people's lives. Often when people ask God for forgiveness, they don't necessarily feel forgiven. They need to hear those words audibly spoken to them to truly sense that they are really forgiven. They are some of the most precious words we can hear. When we speak those words to each other, the Holy Spirit testifies with their spirit that the words are true and they can gain freedom from the past in ways they often can't when they simply pray for forgiveness.

In any case, it shows us how important it is to be attached to the church. We can help people know the grace and forgiveness of Jesus. This is a far cry from religion which requires something to make up for sins. God is a God who wants to forgive and because of Jesus, all we need to do is ask and it will be given.

NT Journey--John 19

2010-05-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Carrying His Own Cross

It seems to me that John 19 is the crisis point in the book of John. Everything Jesus was doing up to this point was to prepare for this moment. I'm sure Jesus wasn't looking forward to it, but He was willing. You can tell this by the fact that in every situation, He was completely in charge.

In His conversations with Pilate, you can see that Pilate, even though he was the one with all the earthly power, he was completely powerless in this situation. As we talked about in the book of Acts, the Emperor wasn't all that concerned about how each governor ruled his province as long as they paid taxes and kept order. So Pilate in this case was very concerned about the riot about to break out if they didn't get what they wanted. Jerusalem was a powder-keg and the fact that there were so many Jews there because of the Passover only made the situation more intense.

So Pilate was at a loss for what to do. On the one hand, he had some sense of justice--that you don't crucify an innocent man. On the other hand, he feared for his position. The Jews knew it and played on his fears. In the end, his fear won out.

From the Jews perspective, they completely sold out to kill Jesus and Jesus places the greater blame on them (vs. 11). I think their low point comes in verse 15 when the chief priests said, "We have no king but Caesar." If you know anything about the political situation during this time, you'll catch the irony here. The Jews never claimed Caesar to be their king. In fact, they were completely resentful of being ruled by the Romans and sought every way imaginable to get from under that power. But now it's incredibly ironic and disingenuous to claim Caesar as their king. It reminds me of the many times in Judges where it says, "at that time, Israel had no king, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes." It's very clear in John 19 that Israel had no king and they were out of control.

But Jesus was in complete control. The only thing that happened was what He allowed to happen. In fact, it's easy to miss, but in verses 16 and 17, it says this, "So the soldiers took charge of Jesus..." Well, they didn't really take charge. Then John says, "...carrying His own cross..." That really typifies the life of Jesus right there. No one crucified Jesus without His permission.

One of the great things about Jesus is that not only did He teach about love and self-sacrifice, He demonstrated it. If self-sacrifice is the power of the Kingdom, we believers should be following His lead. We grow when we give up on ourselves and our idea of what it means to have value. True followers of Jesus willingly give up their lives for the sake of others. People don't take it from us, we give it willingly.

In verse 30, Jesus utters His final words, "It is finished." So it's fair to ask the question of what was finished. It wasn't just Jesus' life. It wasn't just the process, but Jesus had finished what He had set out to do--to break down the whole system of sacrifice and the idea that people could be saved by religion. Religion became of no significance. Adam and Eve didn't have religion in the garden, they didn't need it, because they had perfect relationship with God. What Jesus finished was the restoration of the ability for people to have that relationship with God with no mediator in between--no priest, no sacrifice, just relationship.

NT Journey--John 18

2010-05-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

The Beginning of the...Beginning

Lot's of stuff here in John 18. The narrative switches scenes often, but essentially the whole chapter covers the events of Jesus' arrest and trial before both the high priest (Jews) and Pilate (Romans).

The first section (vss. 1-11) is the account of Jesus' arrest in the garden. What we see here is Jesus putting his money where his mouth is. All through his ministry, Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek and love our enemies. For Jesus, violence is not the answer. The power of the Kingdom of the power of the cross and self-sacrifice.

Peter didn't get this. When the Romans came to arrest Jesus, he immediately resorted to violence and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers. But to Jesus, the soldiers were not the enemy. He had work to do, Scripture to fulfill and the soldiers were only playing their part. As Jesus said on the cross, "they don't know what they're doing." Instead of violence, Jesus actually brings healing to what the world would consider to be His enemy. That's the way of the Kingdom.

Throughout this chapter, Jesus is really the one in charge and you can see that in the way He conducts Himself. What happens, happens only because He allows it. Peter, on the other hand, is out of control and a slave to his fear. Even when he's questioned by a slave girl, he cowers under the pressure. Despite Peter's bravado and determination to die for Jesus when he's around Him, when he's separated from Jesus he's not so tough anymore.

But you can see complete control and peace with Jesus. Even when He's being question by people who have His fate in their hands, He is secure in what He was called to accomplish. He knew His life was not His own--that He came for the sake of the world and willingly gave Himself up for that.

I think it's interesting in chapter 18 how Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom comes full-circle. Pilate asks Him if He's a king. At first, He just doesn't deny it, but later states it explicitly, but tells him His kingdom is "not of this world." The funny thing is that Pilate seems to get the "spiritual" talk better than the Jews (remember Nicodemas?) If Pilate would have understood Jesus to be a threat to the Emperor, he would have had Him executed immediately. But instead, he said he didn't find anything wrong with Jesus.

What's funny to me in this passage is when the Jews bring Jesus to Pilate. Ceremonial law said that they weren't allowed to enter the Roman palace (vs 28). They were very concerned about being ceremonially clean, but at the same time, they were about to kill an innocent man. Ironic, isn't it.

We actually talked about this chapter in Sunday school this week and when we read it, it reminded me of a funniest home video. The mom is holding the video at the front door and taping her 8 year-old boy who is running away from home. The only problem is that he's not allowed to cross the street by himself. So he's standing there with his backpack on his shoulder demanding his mom come help him cross the street so he can run away. It seems he's worried about the wrong thing.

As always in Jesus' story, the religious people are worried about the wrong thing. In the end, they were unwittingly helping to fulfill God's plan in the first place, but you can't deny their willingness to accuse an innocent man. And Pilate was complicit in it only because he was also not in control. He couldn't stand up to the Jews, so he ended up placating them by crucifying Jesus. Amazing that the only one really in control was the guy who was crucified. It wasn't power, it was self-sacrifice. That's the power of the Kingdom.

NT Journey--John 17

2010-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Purpose of Unity

If you've been in the church for any length of time, you've heard about the importance of unity within the body. Unfortunately, unity is not always a reality in the church. I'm not really talking about all the denominations because, for the most part, 99% of Christian denominations would recognize the other denominations as believers as well. Each denomination has its distinctives and the parts of Scripture it focuses on. As long as those "lesser parts" of doctrine are kept in their place, I don't really have a problem with denominations. I've seen enough people of different denominations work together for the cause of Christ that I don't have a big problem with them.

That being said, unity within the church is a problem. I've been through two major church splits and probably several smaller church splits. Very seldom do these church splits have anything to do with methods of reaching people for Jesus. In just about every case, the splits have to do with the preferences we individuals have in the church or have some selfish motive behind them. In other words, disunity in the church happens when we spend too much time staring at ourselves and focusing on what makes us happy.

So to fight this, some churches just try to play nice all the time. Under the guise of unity, they don't really do anything, they don't change, they don't take risks and the don't make any kind of difference in the world. Their "unity" might be peaceful, but it's not really useful.

In John 17, Jesus talks about the purpose of unity. Unity is not just an end, but it's also a means to an end. He prays for unity for everyone who believes in Jesus (the church) and He says what the purpose of their unity is. "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." Our unity is a witness to the world that we belong to Jesus.

Now just because we're unified doesn't mean they will automatically know Jesus. There are lots of groups that are unified that have nothing to do with Jesus. But our goal is to be unified in the movement. We are to be unified and rally together around the cause of proclaiming Jesus to people.

And the great things about this kind of unity is that when we are looking outward rather than inward, it makes it much easier for us to remain unified. When we spend too much time staring at each other, that's when we see each other's faults and we start to get annoyed with them. But when we stand side-by-side unified for the cause of Christ, our unity grows.

This is why a mission trip will always be more effective at creating camaraderie than small groups. In fact, when we do small groups in our church, we require that they get out and serve because we know that when they spend too much time staring at each other, they'll soon get tired of each other. But serving together for the cause of Christ, will create bonds that can't be formed just sitting around in a circle. Unity is important, but unity is for a cause.

In Jesus monologue and prayer in the last few chapters, we can see that this is the end for Him. He is preparing Himself and the disciples for what's to come.

NT Journey--John 16

2010-05-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

The Work of Jesus

When theologians talk about Jesus, they tend to talk about two different things; the teachings of Jesus and the work of Jesus. To a great degree evangelicals talk more about the work of Jesus than they do about His teachings, but both are essential aspects of Jesus' life. Up to this point, we have talked a lot about the teachings of Jesus. Of course, we've learned that the center of Jesus' teachings was the Kingdom of God. That the Kingdom is an upside-down kingdom where the first is last and the last is first and whoever wants to be the greatest must become the least.

We've also learned about Jesus' resistance to empty religion. Even though Jesus himself worshiped at the Temple (although I can't think of any record of Jesus offering sacrifices) and celebrated the Jewish festivals, his primary opposition to the Pharisees was that they made the rules and rituals more important than relationships. So we've focused a lot on the teachings of Jesus.

But evangelicals typically focus more on the "work" of Jesus and that's what we're doing today as we look at John 16.

First, as it pertains to John 16, the work of Jesus ushered in the Holy Spirit. Up to this point, the Holy Spirit was and external influence on people. The spirit of God would "come over" people in the Old Testament, but it doesn't speak of the Spirit taking residence inside people. In verse 7, Jesus says, "Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." I don't know if it's a Clark Kent/Superman thing, but somehow, the absence or more specifically, the death and resurrection of Jesus opened the door for the Holy Spirit to reside in people and guide them from the inside. We see more evidence of this in the book of Acts in places like 2:38, ""Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Paul also asks the Galatians in chapter 2, "I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?" So faith in Jesus allows us to receive the Holy Spirit in a way the Law didn't. That's part of the work of Jesus. When He died, He paved the way for the Holy Spirit to live in us.

But the question is; what does the Spirit do? In chapter 16, we can see the Spirit will do two things--convict and teach. When we have the Spirit in us, we should be more sensitive to sin. In fact, Jesus even says that the Spirit will convict "the world" of sin, which shows me that the Spirit is even at work in unbelievers. Though He may not live in them, He can still influence them and give them a sense of right and wrong. This may be why even people who have never heard of Jesus will often have a sense of right and wrong that is very similar to what is spelled out specifically in the Old Testament law. It should be no surprise that the ethical systems of the world's religions today are fairly similar even the overall belief systems are very different.

In verses 25-28 we see another thing the work of Jesus did for us--He opened the door for us to have a direct relationship with God. Up to the point of Jesus' death, religion and sacrifice were the way to connect with God. Because of sin, only people with a special status had direct access to God and even their access was limited. But because of the forgiveness we receive from Jesus, we can go directly to the Father. We don't need an earthly mediator, so we don't need to pray to the saints or to Mary because Jesus was the mediator.

Jesus does say to ask in His name, but he also says that when we pray, we should pray directly to God (vs 26). That's the work of Jesus for us. His death and resurrection did something "metaphysically" to change our status in the universe. What we did in "the Fall" in Genesis 3, Jesus undid and restored the perfect relationship we have with God. What Jesus spent His entire ministry talking about (the inadequacy of religion), He fulfilled in dying on the cross. The purpose of religion was to bridge the gap between God and us, but because of Jesus' work of reconciliation our relationship with God is restored and we are returned to His image.

NT Journey--John 15

2010-04-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Fine in the Vine

OK, cheesy title. Sorry, but I think it's a pretty good summary of John 15. I'll do this one a little different. Although Jesus' words here are all on the same topic, there are a lot of little nuggets to point out--so I'll do it bullet-style.

The context here is Jesus' parting words. He just told the disciples that He's going to be leaving them. He is clear that things are not going to always be peachy for them, but intends for His words to be encouragement for them.
In verse 4, "no branch can bear fruit by itself." Jesus speaks of our source of life. Our relationship with Jesus isn't a mechanical (strictly cause and effect), contractual (goods and services exchanged) or legal (if party A does X, party B agrees to provide Y) relationship, it's organic. The vine provides life and nourishment for the branches and the branches grow the vine. Think about that: Does this mean we can actually add-to God? Just asking. (vs 8--God is glorified (i.e. increased) when we bear fruit.)
Branches that don't "bear fruit" are pruned. Jesus here is talking about people who actually claim to be "in Christ" connected to the vine. So even "Christians" are pruned by God when they don't bear fruit. That doesn't mean unbelievers are safe--if they're not in the vine, they have no source of life and just die naturally. But believers beware--you are eligible for pruning!
What does it mean to "bear fruit?" Some would say it means bringing others to Christ. While that may be part of it, I think if you look in context, you have to say it has something to do with increasing in love. When our love for others increases, we bear fruit. Notice that fruit-bearing happens yearly. We can't just live off our past fruit. If a branch hasn't produced an apple in 4 years, it's probably going to be pruned. No matter how old we are, love can still increase in our lives.
Love=obedience=joy. Think about it.
The greatest love is when a person "lays down his life."
Pastor Bill reminded me of an important point in John. When Jesus uses the word "world" in John, he's referring to the world under the influence of Satan. So when we get to verse 18 and Jesus says, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." I've seen many churches use this as an excuse to be offensive, but the interesting thing about what Jesus is saying here is that sinners actually LOVED Jesus. It was the religious establishment that hated him the most, followed by the political system (Roman Empire). What does that say about who will hate us?
Don't forget about the Holy Spirit. More on this in the next chapter.

NT Journey--John 14

2010-04-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Lord and Savior

There is more to Christianity than just the cross. I know it sounds sacrilegious, but hear me out. I'm not diminishing what Jesus did on the cross. It was a metaphysical necessity for us to be reconciled to God. It is certainly central to our faith. In fact, the resurrection is equally necessary when it comes to our faith. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says this in so many words, "If Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless and so is your faith." The cross means Jesus is our savior.

But I have come to see in scripture that we cannot claim Jesus as savior without first making Him Lord. As we've seen before--in John 3, "belief" in the Bible is more than just an intellectual proposition. The kind of belief Jesus talks about is done with more than just our brain, it's done with our lives. In the gospels, when Jesus called people to be His disciples, He said, "Come follow me."

Now I don't know about you, but I think when Jesus says "follow me" He doesn't just mean to believe certain things about Him, He means something else entirely. I don't know if kids still do this, but when I was young we used to play a game called "follow the leader." In that game, you would have one person who was the leader, who would walk around the playground doing different things. Everyone else playing the game would have to do exactly what he did.

In John 14, Jesus talks about what it means to follow Him. He is preparing to go to the cross--He knows the time is coming, so He is now giving His parting thoughts to the disciples. It's in this chapter that Jesus makes His famous statement, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Now in one sense, Jesus is talking about the cross. His sacrificial death opened the door for us to be reconciled to God. Because of that act of obedience and sacrifice, all of humanity was given a new lease on life. It is the central event of history for every man, woman and child, whether they know it or not.

But when Jesus makes this statement in John 14, He means even more than this. While the cross opens the door to salvation, we are responsible to walk through that door. I don't believe we walk through that door just by praying a prayer. The prayer may be the first step, but the real test of faith is the walk. The "walk" is to walk like Jesus.

All throughout John, Jesus spiritualizes things and people don't get it. Now the table is turned. Jesus begins to speak in more material terms, but the disciples are thinking more spiritually. In verse 8, Philip says, "show us the Father and that will be enough for us." He's hoping for some spiritual manifestation of God. But Jesus tells him that if he wants to see God, he only needs to look at Jesus.

Jesus is the convergence of God and humanity. Remember that Genesis tells us that we are made in the "image of God." Because of sin, that image was stained. It's kind of like a Picasso that's covered in mud. On the surface it doesn't look like much, but at its heart, its invaluable. When we are what we were created to be, we look like God and Jesus is our example. Jesus is what God intended for us to be. When Jesus died and was resurrected, He returned to us the potential that we lost because of our sin.

So as Jesus is ready to go to the cross, it's no coincidence He talks to the disciples about following Him.

He is the "way." He doesn't just show us the path, He is the path. When we our thoughts, attitudes, and actions are like Him, we are on the path.
He is the "truth." He is not just some philosophy someone came up with, but He is the true representation of reality, both spiritual and physical.
He is the "life." We sometimes think that we know what it means to have real and full life. But instead, Jesus says, "whoever wants to save that life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake and the sake of the Gospel will find out what it really means to live."

The cross opens the door for us to live this life, but it's Jesus' example that shows us how to live that life. And when Jesus' went to heaven, He left us with the Holy Spirit. We haven't talked much about the Holy Spirit up to this point, but the job of the Holy Spirit is to remind us of Jesus' teaching and to guide us along the "way."

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to obey. So the proof of whether we really love Jesus is if we obey. Jesus says this twice (once in verse 15 and once in verse 23). Obedience is an active word. It's more than just intellect, it's what we do with our lives.

John 14 makes it pretty clear that you can't have Jesus as savior is you're not willing to first take Him as Lord. So how's your following? It's easy to get caught up in just going to church, but does your "faith" in Jesus make any perceivable difference in the way you live your life? The cross made this life possible--it opened the door, but now you have to walk through it by obedience.

NT Journey--John 13

2010-04-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Low Man

What Jesus symbolize in the "Triumphal Entry" in John 12, He teaches directly in John 13. This is a very memorable chapter in the Bible, but one that seems a little strange if you don't know the background. Of course, it may not be that hard to figure out.

Palestine in New Testament times was a dusty place and most people didn't have enclosed shoes--they essentially wore sandals or nothing. So as you can imagine, feet tended to get pretty dusty. In their society, just like most societies, there was a "pecking order." In a typical household, the father was most important, then mother, then children, then slaves if the family had any. When guests would come, they would receive the place of honor and whoever in the house had the highest social standing would have the place of honor.

When people would arrive at the house, it was customary that the person of the lowest standing, usually a slave or a child would wash the others' feet. Now I don't know if it's something you would get used to, but my wife, for instance won't come near anyone else's feet. I don't have a big problem with feet, but I imagine being require to wash everyone's feet would be a very humbling experience.

(By the way, that reminds me of a story. One year when I was youth pastor, we did a foot-washing ceremony at youth camp. I was on staff at that particular youth camp and what we decided to do was have the staff members wash the counselor's feet and the counselors would wash the kid's feet. Staff went first. I was making my way around the circle when I came to a college girl. She was dressed up and had some dress sandals on. I took her sandals off and then was trying to remove her stockings, but I couldn't get them off her feet. It was at that point that I realized that she wasn't wearing any. She just hadn't shaved for a few days! I probably could have been arrested (and in big trouble with my wife) for the time I spent rubbing my hand up and down her leg trying to get her stockings off!)

Anyway, Jesus once again turns society on its head. As the "rabbi," Jesus had the highest social standing of anyone in the room. Yet He immediately grabbed the bucket and began washing people's feet. As usual, Peter speaks up and refuses to let Jesus wash His feet, but Jesus insists and says that unless Peter allows Jesus to wash his feet, he has no part with Him.

In the end, Jesus tells them that He is setting an example for them and He is setting an example for us as well. Now this doesn't mean that we should go around washing each others feet. In fact, I think foot-washing ceremonies are a little awkward myself and I'm not sure its really what Jesus is asking of us anyway. But what He means is to have this attitude toward others.

I teach all the time that spiritual growth is best measured relationally. In other words, how well we love people is the only real sign of how much we love God. When we get to 1 John, you'll see this very clearly. And love is measured by how well we put the needs of other ahead of our own needs. We all have the temptation to live as though we are the center of the universe. But the extent to which we are able to take ourselves out of the center is the extent to which we love. Jesus' example is a strong image for us and a high standard to live up to.

NT Journey--John 12

2010-04-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

A Different Kind of King

Jesus' life was filled with statements. So much of what he did was to intentionally send a message that the way God looks at the world is different than we do. As we saw in the book of Matthew, Jesus taught a lot about the Kingdom of God. Later in the book of John we'll see some "king" imagery and even direct references to Jesus being a king. In this chapter, we get the ultimate example of what God thinks is fitting for a king.

Theologians refer to the Kingdom of God as the "upside-down Kingdom." The first will be last, the last will be first. Whoever wants to be the greatest, must be the servant of all. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. All these things are contrary to what the world would call common sense, but they make perfect sense in the Kingdom.

When Jesus rides into Jerusalem, He is very purposeful about it. Remember back in chapter 2 when Jesus' mother essentially forces Him to do a miracle, He told her, "my time has not yet come." Well, in this chapter, Jesus' time has finally come. He knows when He goes riding into Jerusalem, He will receive a king's welcome, and rightfully so--He is a king. But kings would typically ride in on the best-looking, fastest, strongest horse. The king deserves only the best.

But when Jesus rides into Jerusalem, he does so on a donkey. John quotes Zechariah 9:9 to indicate that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. But riding on a donkey was more than just the fulfillment of Scripture, it was a symbol of the character of the King and the way of the Kingdom.

Donkeys were not war horses. They were not powerful nor swift. They were not suited for anything but carrying burdens. Donkeys are the quiet servants. The symbolism is obvious--the only fitting vehicle for the king of the upside-down kingdom is the humble donkey.

As Jesus speaks to the crowd, He speak another paradox--the paradox of the seed. In order for the seed to give life, it first must die. In telling this, Jesus predicts His death, but also gives another example of the way of the Kingdom. Whoever will save His life will lose it and whoever will lose His life for Jesus' sake, will find it.

As citizens of the Kingdom of God, when we die, we live. We aren't forced to die, we give up our lives willingly. That's why Jesus' statement in John 3 about being born again or "born from above" is so important, yet so difficult. We can either buy in to the world's way of doing things, or we can buy into Jesus' way. We can't have both because they are mutually exclusive. When we truly are "born again" we see things from a different perspective and we do things that would seem silly to the word, but in the Kingdom make perfect sense. Jesus is our perfect example of this. He seldom did what people expected of Him because He didn't operate by the world's standards, but by the principles of the Kingdom.

NT Journey--John 11

2010-04-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

A Contrast in Health

OK, I bet you've never thought about this before, but one of the great things about Jesus was just how psychologically and emotionally healthy Jesus was. We've talked about this before, but Jesus came to show us what it means to be restored to the image of God. Jesus is what humans were meant to be.

When we read John 11, we tend to focus on Lazarus and the miracle Jesus performed, and rightly so. It's an amazing thing! I wonder what it would have been like to be there.

But when I read it this time, what I noticed was how "in-control" Jesus was. He wasn't panicked. He knew what He could control and what He couldn't. He stayed on task until he could make it over to see Mary, Martha and Lazarus. At first, He seems almost callous to what's going on. People are telling him it's an emergency, but really seems unfazed by the immanent death of his friend.

But then when he arrives, it becomes apparent Jesus isn't a heartless, emotionless machine. In verse 35, Jesus cried and I don't think He just putting on a show. When we see the people around us hurting or when you go into a situation and see a mother sobbing while holding her dead child, it tugs at our heart. Jesus' heart was also tugged. Three times it mentioned Jesus was moved with compassion or cried openly. Being psychologically doesn't mean being unaffected by life, it means being able to respond appropriately to what life brings us.

We might be tempted to think that Jesus was in control because He was God. It's true that He was God, but we learn in Philippians 2, that when Jesus came to earth, He "emptied Himself" of the God-like qualities and characteristics that would give Him and unfair advantage (if that makes any sense). Jesus makes it very clear in the book of John, that He doesn't do miracles or really anything by His own power, but only by the power of the Father. So even though God worked through Jesus in a unique way, Jesus experienced the same emotions of life we do.

But what made Jesus so healthy? He knew who He was and knew what God was capable of and that's all He needed. Faith can be a very healthy, powerful force in our life. And I'm not just talking about some vague faith that Oprah would push, but a real faith that we have a loving Father who knows what's best and want's what's best for us. Not only that, but that loving Father happens to be the all-powerful creator of the universe, so there's nothing too big for Him to handle in life.

It's when we feel like we're missing something or we feel like we have something to prove that our emotional health gets out of whack. But when we know and experience who God is and how much He loves us, we might be moved with compassion, but we never feel like a situation is too dire. Certainly Mary had the ultimate faith that Lazarus would be raised again at the final resurrection (and since he died again, he will have to be raised again), but was pleasantly surprised when she didn't have to wait for that resurrection to see him again.

But of course, again we see the religious leaders with an agenda. They're so intent on being right that they can't even celebrate the fact that they just witnessed one of the greatest miracles anyone has ever seen. Instead of giving glory to God (or even being happy for Lazarus), the resurrection made them even more intent upon killing Jesus. It was their religion that wouldn't allow them to celebrate a true good.

How many times are we guarded or suspicious when something great happens in a way we didn't expect? A friend told me the story of a troubled teenager who found Jesus and got up to give his testimony in front of a group of peers and started his testimony with, "I f__________ love God!" For many of us, our religion wouldn't allow us to accept the miracle of a kid who once was lost, but now is found, focusing instead on the "unacceptable" language. This was the focus of the religious leaders and it all goes down hill from here.

NT Journey--John 10

2010-04-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hearing God's Voice

I think there's probably as much misunderstanding about Jesus' teachings in this chapter as there is in just about any chapter in the Bible. As we've been reading through the Gospels, it may not seem like it, but I can certainly understand people's dilemma with Jesus back then. To them, it must have seemed like Jesus was teaching something completely different than the Old Testament teachings. For people who were taught one thing all their life and had dedicated their lives to it, Jesus' teachings would have certainly seemed like a complete paradigm shift. To go from focusing on the rules to focusing on the heart behind the rules is a HUGE shift, even for us.

When we grow up, at some point we realize that there's nothing inherently wrong about staying out until 2 am. But when we're kids and we have a curfew (a rule) that says come home by midnight, it's quite a shift to understand the intent of the rule. When we live by the "spirit" rather than the "letter," we feel like we're getting away with something. But the law of Christ is the Law of freedom (read Galatians again). When you grow up learning that holiness is following the rules, it's hard to get that out of your head. That's why, even today, we have a hard time really living in the freedom of Jesus. In my conservative Christian circle, we still have a hard time breaking free from the rules.

But John 10 is a reminder that we still don't have it all figured out yet. In this famous passage, Jesus talks about his "sheep" and his "voice." Some people interpret Jesus' teaching here to refers to how we "hear" God speaking to us. Some interpret this to be proof of predestination and once-saved-always-saved. But to immediately apply Jesus' teaching to our concerns today is to miss Jesus' point. Remember that the first rule of Biblical interpretation is to figure out how the people hearing it for the first time might have understood it, or at least how Jesus intended it since it's apparent that the people didn't always understand what Jesus was saying.

The key to understanding John 10, I believe is in verse 8 where Jesus says, "All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them." So who is Jesus talking about--those who have come before Him. Is Jesus talking about the Old Testament prophets? It doesn't seem like it since Jesus indicates that the false shepherds have bad motivations and bad intentions--to steal, kill and destroy. I don't think Jesus would characterize the Old Testament prophets that way.

It seems apparent Jesus was talking here about the Pharisees and religious leaders. In other places in the New Testament, like Matthew 23, we see Jesus talking about the Pharisees in this way, calling them things like "blind guides." Blind guides lead people astray. But in this passage, Jesus refers to the large crowds that are following Him, "They hear my voice and recognize me." In other words, there's something in Jesus' words that ring true for people and that's why so many people are drawn to Him.

But Jesus indicates that the Pharisees don't really care about the people, which was evident in John 9 when they were more concerned about their theology than they were with the man who was healed of blindness. And Jesus says, "I will prove how much I care for the sheep by giving up my life for them." The thieves and even caretakers wouldn't do that--they would run at any sign of trouble because they're only doing it to get paid. But when the sheep belong to you, you have a different attitude about them.

Jesus also said he has "other sheep." Jehovah's Witnesses would have you believe that the other sheep are people in America at a different time. But Jesus is very clearly talking about the Gentiles. Jesus first went to the Jews and when He commanded the church to make disciples, He told them to begin in Jerusalem (the "headquarters" of Judaism) and then work their way out to the rest of the world. What Jesus is saying is that people don't have to be Jewish to recognize that what's He's saying is true.

Of course, the Pharisees didn't get it and despite the fact that Jesus did claim to be the Messiah and backed it up with miracles, they still didn't understand. They didn't understand because they were too focused on their own agendas to even try to understand. They were not His sheep, they were only thieves. They prove it because they don't enter through "the gate" (Jesus).

NT Journey--John 9

2010-04-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hardened Hearts and Open Eyes

John 9 is a great study in the futility of religious systems when they're not accompanied by open minds and true compassion. In Jesus' day, the blind, lame, and lepers blended into the scenery. In our society, there are many less of these infirmed people and we tend to hide them from view. But in 1st century Palestine they were everywhere--especially at the busiest areas of town because this is the place where they could receive alms from the religious people. Giving to the poor was commanded in the Torah, so the lame took great advantage.

But they even blended into the background for the disciples of Jesus. When they saw him, they treated him as the subject of a conversation--they were looking for a lesson. But Jesus didn't see the man as just an object of conversation. He could have continued to walk along, talking theology with His disciples, but Jesus refused to treat people as objects. Instead, He always saw the value in them, no matter how useless they might be to society as a whole.

Their question was, "who sinned that this man was born blind" reflects the religious teaching of the time--that anything bad that happened was the direct result of something someone did wrong. But Jesus rejects this idea and actually indicates that it happened "so that the works of God might be displayed in Him."

Some people might take this to mean that God made this man suffer all his life so that he could later be used for God's glory when Jesus healed him. On the surface, you could certainly read it that way. God can do whatever He wants. But I think when we look at the character of God, it's very hard for me to accept this interpretation. God does allow a certain amount of evil to happen in the world. In fact, most of us would be inclined to think that there's more than enough evil in the world.

Instead, I think what Jesus is doing here is showing that there is no situation in life that God can't get a hold of and heal. I think it's more consistent scripturally to attribute the man's blindness to the influence of Satan and the fallenness of the world. Romans 8 says:

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Jesus has the perspective that it does little good to pass blame for a situation, but instead we should always look to see how the people can be healed. While we might be quick to blame or complain in our situation, Jesus knows that God is the master of taking a bad situation and making good from it. That's the beauty of God.

When we see lost and broken people, what is our attitude toward them? Do we pass blame on the alcoholic or to the man who lost his home to a gambling addiction, or do we look for ways for God to be glorified in that situation. Do we look for ways to find evil and redeem it.

When the Pharisees come into the picture, we can see that they go back to treating the man like an object. In fact, you could say that they see their rules and their religious expectations as being more important than the fact that there was a man who was blind but now can see. The man was healed and they were angry!

Verse 16 sums up their attitude, "Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." Can you imagine? They're so focused on their particular markers of godliness that the miss the fact that there was a guy that had been blind all his life, but now can see!

But before I get too judgmental, let's suppose Jesus came to us like He did back then, found a man in a wheelchair and healed him and after healing him, He took a swig of His beer and used some salty language. How would we feel about Him? Would we believe Him? I think it would be hard for us to get beyond our idea of what it means to be holy. At least the Pharisees were focused on one of the Ten Commandments. What's our excuse?

But only Jesus and the blind man were able to see what was really important in the story. "All I know is that I once was blind but now I see." He didn't know all the correct theology or how to explain Jesus' divine-human nature, but he had an experience with Jesus that changed his life. I'm not advocating for some type of anti-intellectualism, but the Gospel is GOOD NEWS not good theology. (I mean it IS good theology, too, but you get what I mean.) The man has time to get his theology straight, but right now he was too busy celebrating the fact that for the first time in his life, he was whole.

In the end, Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisees. It's precisely because they claim to be able to see that they are sinful. He says, " ⁴¹ Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." It would be better for them if they didn't know any better, but since they claim to have it all figured out, their sin convicts them.

NT Journey--John 8

2010-04-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Not to belabor a point, but I just find it fascinating that we "religious people" continue to be religious despite the overwhelming evidence that it's the religious people who gave Jesus the most trouble in the New Testament. John 8 is certainly no exception.

Jesus continues the theme John introduced in chapter 3 saying, "I am the light of the world." Light helps people find their way. The Bible (and especially John) makes no mistake that the world can be a dark place. According to John, it's sin that brings darkness. People who continue in sin are "darkened in their understanding" and can't see things realistically. But when people get to know Jesus, they can suddenly see.

But what's interesting to me is that the conversation Jesus has in this chapter is not with the tax collectors or prostitutes, but with the religious leaders. The religious leaders (Jews in this case) have the Law, so they are the ones who should be "in the light," they should be able to see more clearly that there was something unique about Jesus. Yet, all the religious leaders did was ask for more proof--in this case the testimony of one more person because their Law requires it.

Jesus' accusation against the Jews is that they don't really know God. They think they know God because they are experts on the Law. In fact, they think that by following the Law, it makes God their "father." But what Jesus is saying is that they only prove that they don't really know God because they don't recognize Jesus as the Son. If they really knew God, they would know Jesus.

But "sinners' didn't seem to have much trouble recognizing Jesus. They were the ones that didn't have the hang-ups and man-made criterion for what God is like. Sinners allowed God to be who He was, but the religious people put God in the proverbial box. To them, God has to be predictable. He has to be what they expect and He has to be on their side. But Jesus was anything but predictable. He didn't side with the self-righteous and went out of His way to be with the sinners. This was unbecoming of the Son of God.

Jesus' conversation with the religious people centers around sin. The religious people thought they were the ones in the light. They thought they were the ones free of sin. Yet Jesus warns them of sin and informs them of their own blindness. Of course, they can't understand what He's saying because of their sin. So I guess the big question is what is their sin that keeps them from really seeing Jesus.

I think we can gather from the chapter that its self-righteousness. Religion finds its foundation in self-righteousness. Think about what that word means--that I can be righteous by my own effort. If that's the right definition, then religion would be a synonym for self-righteousness. But the Jesus makes it clear (and Paul later makes it clear) that it's impossible for us to be righteous on our own. It's impossible for us to earn our righteousness. We are only righteous by association.

Salvation is a relational term. We are saved, we are righteous only by our association with--our relationship with Jesus. It's like trying to get into a club without a pass. But if we go with Jesus, we'll get in. Religious people stand at the door and try to convince the bouncer to let them in on their merit, but to no avail.

But in verse 36, Jesus offers to set them free from their sin--to set them free from their incessant need to prove themselves to God and to other people. But pride gets in the way. We all have a streak in us that makes us want to earn our way in. But in the middle of all that is Jesus saying, "Just come to me and I will set you free. Don't be blinded by your religion. Come to ME and you will be free!"

NT Journey--John 7

2010-04-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Thrown into Confusion

In the church, we have a way of making things black and white. When I was growing up all I heard was, "there's no such thing as gray. Everything is black and white." To me, that's a Pharisaical way to look at things. It's not that there's no right and wrong, but very seldom are situation as clear-cut as we make them out to be.

So when Jesus healed on the Sabbath, it everything were black and white, Jesus clearly would have been in the wrong because the Law said not to do anything on the Sabbath. In general, people aren't completely evil, nor are they completely good. The truth is that people move back and forth along the continuum all their lives.

It used to be that superheros were completely good. In the beginning, batman was completely virtuous. If he found a penny on the street, he probably would have tried to find who the rightful owner was. Today's batman is different. On the one hand, he's on the side of good and does very courageous things to stand up for truth and justice. Yet he's now portrayed as a flawed and sometimes conflicted womanizer whose heroic exploits arise from his painful background. While we'd all like the old batman, we all know deep down--especially in today's world--the new batman probably resonates more with the way things are today.

John 7 is like that, too. It doesn't seem like any group of people is really sure of anything. The Pharisees are probably the closest--after all they were intent on killing Jesus. But everyone else seemed to just be confused. They searched their memory for what they were taught about the Messiah to see if Jesus matched up with it. So when they thought Jesus came from Galilee, they thought He couldn't be the Messiah.

What I'm saying is that for most of the people around Jesus, things just weren't black and white for them. There was enough evidence for them to check Jesus out more, but enough doubt for them not to make a firm commitment. What I find interesting is that Jesus wasn't about to just tell people what they wanted to hear in order for them to follow Him. he was never interested in making things easy for people. Following Jesus is simple, but not easy.

But for people who make the decision to have faith, their perspective changes. They see Jesus with different eyes, but only after they act on the evidence they have. It's the same way for us today. We have enough evidence to believe in just, but also enough room for doubt. But when we decide to act on our faith, things begin to make more sense. That's what it means to "see the Kingdom of God."

A Piece Missing
Depending on what translation you have, you may or may not have John 7:53-8:11--the story of the woman caught in the "very act of adultery." In most cases, you'll see a note that says something to the effect of, "The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11." This might be confusing for some, so let me explain a little about how we got the Bible we have today.

As of right now, we don't have any entire copies of the New Testament within three centuries of the original writing. The NT is a collection of different books by different authors written at different times so we don't have that complete copy until later. What we have right now is a collection of different fragments we've found that date anywhere from about 10 to 50 years after the writing of the book. We don't have complete books either--we have thousands of fragments that we've pieced together to give us the complete text of the New Testament. To help us in the process, it is said that we can reconstruct the New Testament just from the quotes of the Apostolic Fathers--church leaders who wrote within a century or two after the writing of the New Testament.

There are some small variations in the manuscripts that can usually be reconciled by looking at the evidence (I don't have time to explain the whole thing there.) None of the variations brings into doubt a significant Christian doctrine--most of the variations are things like typos and misspellings that can be easily corrected. The variation dealing with John 7 and 8 is probably the most significant variation and leaves scholars wondering what to do with it.

On the one hand, the story of the woman caught in adultery is a great story that is true to the spirit of Jesus, so it's deserving of being included in our NT. But since the story isn't included in the earliest and most reliable fragments, it's worth noting. So we keep that in mind. There is another such variation in Mark 16:9-20.

I suppose some day we'll find more fragments that might determine with certainty the reliability of these stories. Until then, if they are consistent with what we see of the character of Christ, we'll continue to use the stories.

NT Journey--John 6

2010-04-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

John 6 has got to be one of the longest chapters in the Bible. Like I mentioned in the intro to the New Testament Journey back in December, when the Bible was written, there were no chapter and verse divisions. That was added much later and we thank God for that because references are helpful. That being said, sometimes the chapter and verse delineations seem almost arbitrary. John 6 is one of those chapters that didn't really have to be as long as it is.

In some ways, the chapter is tied together by subject. It starts out with Jesus feeding the five-thousand with five loaves and two fish. Then it moves to Jesus walking on the water, then it moves back to the subject of eating, though in a much different sense.

As with the story of Nicodemas and chapter 3, Nicodemas had a difficult time understanding spiritual things, but it seems that he wasn't alone. The Hebrew culture was a very "concrete" and practical culture. But Jesus acknowledged that there is spirit and there is "flesh" (the physical world) and while the physical world is not evil, it's the spiritual world that is more significant--thus we must be "born from above." (John 3)

When Jesus feeds the five-thousand he is performing a miracle that puts him at least on par with the prophets who went before Him, particularly Moses. When Moses was leading the Israelites through the desert, God provide manna for them. But when God provided manna, there was only enough for the day--there was never any left over. But when Jesus fed the five thousand, everyone ate and had their fill and there was a lot left over. So Jesus was showing He was greater than Moses, but the people failed to really understand.

In fact, Jesus later indicates to them that the only reason they continued to follow Him was not because they saw a miracle, but because he filled their stomach. So when they find Him on the other side of the lake, He actually tries to "weed" some of them out. The ones who aren't truly trying to understand, just won't get it, so they might as well leave.

That's when He starts talking about cannibalism, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life!" Of course, He wasn't talking literally. He was talking spiritually, but many of them didn't even try to understand. They had not yet begun to look at things through spiritual eyes, so they couldn't really see what Jesus saw.

This passage seems to indicate that there were three groups of people with Jesus. First, the crowd. These were the people who were along for the ride. Second was the totality of Jesus' disciples--more than just the twelve. There was a group much larger than twelve that would travel with Jesus. Finally, the Twelve disciples. Of course, the twelve, even after this event continued to follow Him, but the crowd and even some of His larger group of disciples abandoned Him when they heard the hard teaching.

Following Jesus is much more than just a one-time decision, but it's a continual response to the truth revealed in Jesus. As your life goes on, you will be continually confronted with more and more of Jesus asking you to take greater steps of faith to follow Him. Each of those decisions you make shapes your faith and the direction you take will give life or take it away.

Many of Jesus' disciples had a hard time accepting the hard teaching of Jesus and it seemed like even the twelve were left a little shaken by the event. But they stuck with Him and their faith would pay off in the end.

NT Journey--John 5

2010-04-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

Seeing but Not Believing

Remember in the intro to John, we learned that the purpose of the Gospel of John was that people might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the unique Son of God and they might have life in His name. John, chapter 5 is centered around the proofs of Jesus' divinity. But as always, the religious leaders couldn't see it.

The first proof is Jesus healing the man who had been an invalid for 38 years. In the Jewish culture, signs and wonders would accompany true prophets. These signs were seen as validation of the authority of the prophet or preacher. Jesus provided such a sign, even though He didn't stick around afterward. But instead of believing Jesus' message, the religious leaders were too bend out of shape about the Sabbath Law.

The law about keeping the Sabbath holy was a legitimate law in the Law of Moses--it's even in the Ten Commandments. But as we've learned earlier, laws are intended to support a great principle. People need rest, people need to stop and set aside time to acknowledge God. The religious leaders forgot this. After all, what acknowledges God and brings Him glory more than for someone to be healed in His name? But they were more concerned about the Law than they were about the man.

The second proof is John the Baptist. Jesus mentions that John testified about Jesus, but they didn't accept an acknowledged prophet's testimony. They accepted His testimony until he started talking about Jesus. For some reason, they just couldn't get past Jesus' claims.

The third proof is in the Scriptures. In verse 39-40, Jesus says, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." Once again, they accept the Law that they find in the Scriptures but they don't accept the very one to whom the Scriptures point. There are hundreds of different scriptures that point to Jesus as the Messiah, but the Jews are short-sighted and refuse to see them.

In chapter 5, Jesus never claims to be able to do anything on His own. It's only His unique relationship with His Father that allows Him to be able to do the signs and wonders He does. The Jews know that Jesus is claiming divinity, which is blasphemy--the greatest possible offense against the Law. Yet, while they are looking for the Messiah, they never even consider that Jesus might be the one. They can't think outside the box they've created for the Messiah.

What happens when God doesn't work the way we expect Him to? Do we always think that God is going to work the same way He always has? Sure, God is consistent, but He has a much greater imagination than we give Him credit for. I think this is why we have to make sure we stay grounded in the Scriptures--so we can recognize when God is really at work. Look beyond just the words of Scripture and seek to find the meaning behind it. Read it by the spirit, not the letter. If you do, you'll have a much better chance at recognizing Jesus for who He is.

NT Journey--John 4

2010-04-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Breaking Down Barriers

In both Matthew and Galatians, we talked in great depth about how Jesus' essential ministry was the "ministry of reconciliation" (as Paul writes in 2 Cor 5). If we define sin as separation, then the work of Jesus was to reconcile (the opposite of sin). Through His teaching and work, he reconciles people to God and people to each other.

John, chapter 4, while it may seem pretty benign on the surface would have actually been a scandalous story to the original hearers. Through His actions as much as anything, Jesus breaks down many barriers.

First, it says in verse 4 that Jesus "had to go through Samaria." Well, no one had to go through Samaria. In fact, no self-respecting Jew would go through Samaria. To understand this, it's helpful to know who the Samaritans are. Back when Israel was about to settle in the promised land, God gave them strict instructions not to associate with any other races of people. Jewish religion was concerned about purity. If the Jews associated with people of other races, they might start to worship their gods or at least be double-minded about their religion.

Well as it turns out, God was right. When the Israelites began to associate with the Canaanites, they did begin to worship other gods and their religion became corrupt. The Samaritans were the result of Israelites who disobeyed and married Canaanites. So the Samaritans were half-bloods with a rival religion that had some similarities to Judaism, but was different. They had a different temple, for instance when the Jews saw that the only true place of worship was the Temple in Jerusalem. Because of this, Jews looked down their nose at Samaritans and avoided them at all costs. For Jesus to go through Samaria was a major threat to the system.

Second, not only did Jesus go through Samaria, he actually talked to one. What's more, it was a Samaritan woman. Jewish men would not talk to a woman in public that wasn't his wife, let alone a Samaritan woman.

Third, this woman was at the well at the hottest part of the day. The reason she was there at that time is because that's when everyone else would not be there. She was trying to avoid the other women of the town. Why? As we later find out, she's a castoff--a sinner. Jesus was a rabbi and rabbis would never be seen with a sinner, especially a sinner of her caliber. So Jesus was already breaking down many different barriers, just by being there and talking with the woman.

When they strike up a conversation, Jesus tells the woman about "living water." His goal, as in every situation was to bring "life" to the woman. The woman was ostracized from a race of people who was already ostracized. Her life was nothing special, but to Jesus she was special.

Immediately, she wanted to turn the conversation into a debate about religion. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." She was used to separation, but Jesus was only interested in reconciliation. First the reconciliation happened between she and Jesus because He refused to get into a debate with her about which of their religions was right. Then, when she accepted His message, she became reconciled to God. Immediately, when she realized who Jesus was (the Messiah) she went back into town and found everyone she knew to bring them to Jesus.

When Jesus talked to the woman, He didn't see their differences or even focus on her sin. She knew what she was. What Jesus did was to show her that through Him, she could be accepted and to her and to many Samaritans it made all the difference in the world.

NT Journey--John 3

2010-04-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

The Evangelical Misunderstanding

I grew up in the evangelical church and I'm still a part of it. I'm not even exactly sure how to describe the "evangelical church." It's not a denomination--it encompasses many denominations. It's not entirely homogeneous--there is a pretty good variety of beliefs and practices within evangelical Christianity. It's not even a very old movement as far as Christian movements go. But it is a powerful force in American society today. As best I can explain, I would describe an evangelical as a Christian who believes that salvation comes through "a personal relationship with Jesus." I think pretty much all evangelicals would believe that Jesus was an actual historical figure who also was actually the unique Son of God and perfect representation of humanity, and was actually, literally crucified and raised again. That's pretty basic, but not all people who are part of Christian denominations believe that.

There are a lot of good things the evangelical church has brought to our culture, most notably it has stressed the importance of faith in people's day to day life. We evangelicals believe that having Jesus in your life makes a real difference and should make a real difference. We are called to "make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Many people have come to belief in Jesus because of the efforts of the evangelical church.

But today's passage is one that I think the evangelical church has really missed the boat on. In the teachings of most evangelical churches, the goal of sharing Jesus with someone is to get them to "pray the prayer." When the Wesleyan church asks for statistics from its churches, one of the statistics is the number of people "saved" as indicated by praying the prayer of salvation. The problem I have with this is that I don't think it's an entirely Biblical paradigm and I think much of the misunderstanding comes from a misunderstanding or misapplication of John, chapter 3.

In John 3, Jesus is talking to Nicodemas, who is a Pharisee. Remember that the Pharisees were the most common religious leaders of the day. While Jesus would have held many beliefs in common with the Pharisees, they often ended up on opposite sides of debate. I believe Nicodemas was a rogue Pharisee. Most of the time, the Pharisees asked Jesus questions in order to trap Him, but I think when Nicodemas came to Jesus at night (in order not to be seen), he was sincerely seeking.

Nicodemas immediately tried to butter up Jesus, but Jesus cut right to it. He said, "Anyone who wants to see the Kingdom of God has to be born again." This is a phrase we evangelicals pick up very quickly--be "born again." This is what has become known as praying the prayer of salvation. Somehow, I don't think this is what Jesus really means. But it's probably more accurate to say it like this...

We are all born into a family, into a particular city in a particular society. Where we are born and how we are raised affects how we look at the world. If we are born into an Iranian family, most likely we will see through Muslim eyes and see the United States as a great evil. If we are born into a wealthy American family, we will most likely take for granted having nice things and not having to worry about where our next meal is coming from. There are all kinds of examples I could come up with, but I think you understand.

Regardless of where we are born or who our parents are, every one of us is born with a "worldly" mindset. We all naturally think of ourselves first. We all naturally judge others' sin and make excuses for our own. We all desire to be served and in essence want to be our own god.

But what Jesus is saying to Nicodemas is that in order to really see and understand what He's talking about, in order to really experience the Kingdom of God, we have to repent of those beliefs and actions and begin to look at things through Jesus' eyes. We need to stop looking at the world through the eyes of our parents--no matter how good or bad they are--and begin to look at things through the eyes of our heavenly father. In doing this, we are "reborn" or "born from above" as Jesus says. When we look at the world through the eyes of Jesus, we begin to understand the world of the Spirit. When we try to understand spiritual things, but only look through the eyes of the world, we'll just get confused and never really understand how God works.

But when we submit ourselves to God and truly seek to look at and interact with the world on Jesus' terms, then we understand. That's salvation for us--putting off the worldly way of living and living the way God intended for us. That's what it means to be "born again."

So how is that different than the evangelical view? Well, it's just this; when we look at it this way, being born again is more than just something you do at one point and you're in. Certainly there's value to making that decision to follow Jesus, but the real value in repentance is actually walking the other direction--actually living as Jesus calls us to live. Belief in the Bible is more than just an intellectual thing, we "believe" with our whole lives. A belief is not Biblical belief if we don't change our lives according to that belief.

One other thing I'd like to point out about salvation according to Jesus is that salvation is not just what happens when we die, but it starts from the moment we begin to follow Jesus. We experience new and exciting life here and now. We find peace and satisfaction in all circumstances and we are able to love people the way they should be loved regardless of how they treat us.

I get a little skeptical of people who try to boil down faith and salvation to a formulaic prayer. When I see the teachings of Jesus all through the Gospels, I see someone who called people to follow Him, even if it meant death on a cross. "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." That sounds like more than just praying a prayer to me.

NT Journey--John 2

2010-04-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Heaven is a Party, Not Mass

John 2 is a great look at the irreligious nature of Jesus. Sometimes we get so caught up in the fact that Jesus does his first public miracle and turns water into wine that we don't realize just how significant this miracle was. Jesus was truly making a statement by doing it how He did it.

Now, let's just get this out of the way first--the story and the party reference is not necessarily about alcohol per se, although I think it's pretty clear that the wine Jesus made was alcohol. (gasp!) Some commentators would have us believe that Jesus just made grape juice, but I think this interpretation is only necessary if you have a prohibitionist agenda. Actually, I think the "burden of proof" (pun intended) is on the person who would say Jesus didn't make real, bona fide wine. Don't you think that when the master of the banquet tasted the wine, instead of saying, "This is the BEST wine ever!" he would have said, "What's with the grape juice?!" Now I am not a drinker myself and I believe there are plenty of good reasons to stay away from alcohol, but neither am I a legalist.

What's more important about this story is the fact that Jesus could have taken the empty wine jars, filled them with water and made wine in them. But he did something much more sinister. He had the servants grab the jars used for ceremonial washing. The jars were set aside for religious ceremony, instead Jesus used them to make wine for a party. All of this is not to say that Jesus hates ritual or that there is no room for it in life, it's just that sometimes there is just some business that's more important.

In the last 5 years, I've had the privilege of performing somewhere around 15 to 20 wedding ceremonies. In many cases, I've been able to attend the reception or dance afterward. I have to say that these have been the most satisfying and joyful events I've had in my years as a pastor. I don't do a lot of dancing (and you wouldn't want to see that anyway!), but as I look around the room and I see people celebrating life and marriage and being with friends and family, I often think about what an amazing privilege it is to be able to share these important events in life with them. At these events, I don't see the evils of alcohol (although they certainly do exist in their many forms) or of dancing. But what I see is the joy of human relationships that I think is a little foretaste of heaven--the benefits of relationships governed by love and grace.

In this event in John 2, Jesus began His "crusade" to replace empty ritual with full relationship. Ritual is fine, it has some value, but relationships are always more important. As we read the next section, when Jesus went into the Temple and made a whip and drove out money-changers, we see Jesus was not completely opposed to ritual worship. He was very much for the Temple rather than against it. But ritual worship should be done with sincerity and not to be taken lightly, which it seemed to be at the time. He didn't drive out the worshipers, He drove out the people who were making worship empty and distracting.

In chapter 4 we'll see more about what Jesus expects of our worship.

NT Journey--John 1

2010-04-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

Deep Thoughts

John 1 contains some of the deepest theology about Jesus you will find anywhere in scripture. Although the Bible never states explicitly the doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), John 1 is perhaps our clearest hint at the nature of Jesus.

First, notice how John starts his Gospel with three words, "in the beginning." Do you know of another book that begins with those words? Of course, it's Genesis. ("In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." What John is doing here is going back to that same time when everything was created billions of years ago (or thousands of years ago, if that's your flavor) and telling us that Jesus was there.

John calls Jesus "the Word." In the Greek language, the word is "logos." The idea of logos carries with it a couple of significant characteristics. First, logos is communication. We communicate by words, so if we want to be technically correct, the Bible is not the Word of God, Jesus is the "Word of God." It is safe for us to say and believe that the Bible is the Word of God because we believe it's true in every respect and that it points to Jesus, who is the greatest manifestation of the Word of God, but Bible itself tells us that it's Jesus who is the true Word of God. When God wanted to communicate His character so humans could understand, He did so in Jesus.

The second characteristic of "logos" is power. When God created the heaven and the earth, he did so by speaking it into existence. The idea that words carry power go back through all of history. If you look at Assyran or Babylonian histories, for instance, you won't find record of them losing battles or bad things happening because they believed that by saying those things, you could more or less speak them into existence. So when John says Jesus is the word of God, He is also the "power" of God. Deep stuff, huh?

John is very clearly telling us that Jesus was not created, He was there with God at creation, so Jesus has the qualities of divinity. He doesn't really unpack this idea a lot further, but we are left to figure out some of the details through other passages.

But while John 1 shows us that Jesus is God, it also clearly shows us that He is human. In verse 14, John says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, from the Father, full of grace and truth." John is saying that God became human.

What I think is cool is that the Bible says we are made in the "image of God." We have God's DNA, if you will. That doesn't mean we are gods ourselves, but it does mean we were created with certain qualities of God that transcend the rest of nature. Through going our own way (sin) that image of God was tarnished and those qualities became much more difficult to see.

When Jesus came in the flesh, He came to restore that image to fallen humanity. We'll talk about Jesus' work on the cross later, but right now, just the fact that Jesus came gave us the example of what we are intended to be. If you're looking for the best version of yourself, take a good, long look at Jesus and you can find some pretty good clues.

Finally, John says in "Jesus is life" and that life "is the light of men." It seems like I can remember some old beer commercials where a bunch of guys were sitting around watching the game drinking beer when someone says, "Now this is the life!" In other words, this is the way things ought to be. Well, John says that true about Jesus--that in Him we can live the life that we ought to live. Before Jesus we weren't able to see that because we were stumbling around in the dark. But now that Jesus, the light of the world came, we are able to see clearly again. Everything looked brighter when Jesus came. Now if that doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will. We'll see much more of this light vs. dark imagery in the Gospel of John.

Well, there's a somewhat disjointed look at the first chapter of John. Some very rich theology that we can hang our hats on.

NT Journey--Intro to John

2010-04-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Back to the Gospels

I mentioned at the beginning of our journey that we would be coming back to the Gospels from time to time. The reason we're doing this is because the New Testament is all about Jesus. Coming back to the Gospels, reminds us and gives us first-hand knowledge of Jesus' life and teachings. If you remember back to the intro to the New Testament (if you don't, you can click here to read it) you'll remember we have four Gospels. The reason we have four Gospels is that each writer wrote from a different perspective.

We've already been through the book of Matthew, so you should remember that Matthew was written to Jews to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. So we saw in Matthew, many references to the Old Testament scriptures that showed where Jesus fit.

John writes from a different perspective. Most people believe the Gospel of John was one of the latest New Testament books written, usually dated anywhere from 80 to 100 AD. (I won't even try to be more specific than that because most of you probably don't really care that much). I was written by the Apostle John--one of Jesus' twelve disciples, who only refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

The Gospel is written to new believers and some non-believers as well. The purpose is stated very clearly in John 20:31, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name." So the entire Gospel is intended to be proof that Jesus is first of all, the Jewish Messiah and second the "Son of God." Because of this, in John we will see many miracles as well as Jesus making bold statements about Himself.

Look for the themes of light and darkness, belief, as well as many references to "the world." John's Gospel is substantially different than the other Gospels. The others (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are called the "synoptic Gospels" because they contain a lot of similarities. They tell many of the same stories, have much the same chronology and are generally very similar to each other. But John is much different. There are many stories found in John that are not found in the other Gospels. Since John was written so much later than the other Gospels, this causes many commentators to believe that John was written as a supplement to the other Gospels. To some degree, John figured he would fill in some of the blanks left by the other Gospel writers.

Right off the bat, we'll see the great theology in John. There are some very deep insights to be gained from studying John's Gospel. So let's get to it.

NT Journey--2 Thessalonians 3

2010-04-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

Fiddling around in the Garage

Paul certainly must be responding to something in chapter 3 when he warns people about "idleness." I think the question we can ask here is, "why is idleness such a big deal?" Shouldn't people just be able to mess around when they want to.

When Paul was writing about idleness and the difference between being busy and being a "busybody," it reminded me of a common scene. Oftentimes you'll see a man hanging out in a garage. Sometimes he'll have the hood of the car open, sometimes he'll be facing his tool bench looking at his tools. They're actually not really doing anything, although if you walked into the garage and asked them what they were doing, he would probably tell you he was cleaning the garage or fixing the car or something. The reality is, though that he's not doing anything. He's just out there wasting time--not accomplishing much. He may look busy, but he's really a busybody.

I think what Paul is warning against is having this busybody attitude in life and in faith. We all want to look good for others. Many times if we can look good without actually being good, that's even better. That's what busybody is--it's trying to make yourself look better and more productive than you really are. It's an attempt to get something for nothing.

If the church in Thessalonica was anything like we read about the church in Jerusalem in Acts 2, they shared a lot of stuff. This was also a pretty common thing in that culture as well. Most likely, while each church member had his own stuff, there was also a great amount of common things, including meals and such. Each church made sure they would take care of the poor, for instance. So it's not hard to imaging that someone would come along and see that they could get free meals and join the church. (Whether they were willing to go through the persecution is another matter entirely.)

People who live this way are the antithesis of Christlikeness. Jesus was all about serving and giving Himself up for the sake of others. A busybody want to receive the benefits of someone thinking he's a good worker without actually being one. She wants to get paid without putting in the work. But the way of Christ is the opposite. Someone who is Christlike will work hard and not care who gets the credit. The true follower of Christ will work for the benefit of others, not seek to reap the benefits of someone else's hard work.

Someone who continues to show a lack of ambition through life is not acting in a Christ-like manner. Paul recognizes this and knows that if they allow people to come in and freeload and pretend to work, others will follow--where there's a free lunch, there's always a crowd. So may you've never thought of your performance at work being a spiritual issue. What about pulling your weight at home? We could go on and on with application, but when it comes to studying the Bible, if we read carefully, we can often find some very helpful application for our lives--even in unexpected places.

NT Journey--2 Thessalonians 2

2010-04-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

More End-Times Speculation

2 Thessalonians 2 just begs for greater explanation than I can adequately give here, but I will at least get you started understanding what's going on here.

If you've read the Left Behind books or any other modern-day explanations of Biblical prophecy, this chapter will contain some pretty familiar stuff. In this chapter, Paul refers to some things he apparently taught the Thessalonian people. We don't know exactly what he taught them, but we can certainly take a guess by looking at the subject matter of this chapter as well as some other Biblical passages that seem to be talking about the same thing.

Any time we read scripture, we must be sure not to skip to the question, "What does this mean to me?' In other words, we must first as the questions, "What did this mean to them?" Understand that Paul was writing to specific people at a specific time in a specific situation. When we forget that, we immediately ask the question, "What is going on in our world today that might correlate with what Paul is writing in 2 Thessalonians?" Then we start speculating: "Is Obama the 'man of lawnessness?'" (as many conservative Christians might lead you to believe). But to ask this question is to miss the point. First look at the situation going on at that time to see what Paul might be talking about.

It's apparent that someone was telling the people that Christ had already come. Paul dismisses this speculation by referring to his previous teaching about the "man of lawlessness." The man of lawlessness had to come first before Christ would come. We can see some pretty tight parallels between this teaching and what Jesus says in Matthew 24. If you remember in Matthew 24, the disciples as a question about the Temple and Jesus answers them by prophesying about the destruction of the Temple (which happened in 70 AD). In fact, Jesus even talks about "the abomination that causes desolation" which is really the same event that Paul is talking about when speaking of the man of lawlessness.

When Paul is writing to the people in Thessalonica, he seems to be referring to events that are going to happen within their lifetime, not things that will happen at least 2000 years later. When we study history, we find that in 66 AD (with about 15 years of Paul's writing) the Jews revolted against the Romans. As we've mentioned many times, Jerusalem was always a powder-keg and it was only a matter of time before it exploded. The Romans responded with a 42-month siege of Jerusalem followed by the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Paul is describing these events to the people and telling them that Christ certainly won't return until after that happens.

When it comes to "the man of lawlessness" it's no stretch to interpret this as the Roman Emperor. For instance, Roman Emperors even established emperor worship, setting themselves up as gods. They are also known in Scripture as "the destroyer." Paul may not be talking about a specific Emperor, but instead of the title of Caesar, who all fit well the descriptions given in scripture.

What I would say is to do some research into these things. Most likely, we will discuss them in more detail when we get to Revelation. Then we get an entire book focused on prophecy.

NT Journey--2 Thessalonians 1

2010-04-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Punishing Evil-doers

I won't do an intro to 2 Thessalonians. Suffice it to say that most scholars see 2 Thessalonians as a follow-up letter to the first one, probably written only 6 months after the first. It seems as though Paul wanted to expand on much of the teachings in the first letter. So, with that--on to 2 Thessalonians.

What I want to focus on in chapter one is Paul's attitude toward opposition. We often think of Paul as a guy who will fly off the hand quickly and become irrational, but the reality is that considering what Paul endured on his missionary journeys, he had a remarkably healthy attitude toward the circumstances surrounding him. We'll see this especially clearly when we get to Philippians. But for now, let's take a look at this chapter and see what we can learn from him.

Paul knows that the Thessalonian church has been undergoing intense persecution pretty much since the beginning. I think most of us would be very quick to complain about it. Who knows, maybe Paul did, too, but he doesn't complain here. Instead, he interprets the perseverance of the church as proof that God is working. Think about that for a minute. How often do we interpret opposition as proof that something is not meant to be or that God doesn't have His hand in it? Instead, Paul's encouragement to the people is to be persistent in their faith, because when they do that, they prove the power of God.

There isn't a hint in Paul's letter that the people of the church should fight back or try to exact any kind of revenge on those who are persecuting them. The ones who persevere will be counted "worthy of His calling." This idea of being worthy of His calling is a common one to Paul and suffering is a great part of it. Since Christ suffered, we should also expect that we will suffer as well. The implication is that those who are not willing to suffer for Christ are not worthy to be called by His name.

Being willing to suffer shows the world that there is something out there worth giving up everything for. It also requires that we trust in God's way rather than the world's way. We commit to God. We commit to living a life of love--even for our enemies--even when it doesn't seem to be working--even when it seems like evil is prevailing. If we buy into God's way, eventually as Paul says, God will take care of things, justice will come and God will make things right. That's where faith comes in.

NT Journey--1 Thessalonians 5

2010-04-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Misusing the Bible

(In this post, I'm actually going to include the last section of chapter four in our discussion of chapter five because that's probably where it belongs anyway.)

Growing up in the 70's, my childhood was subject to a great deal of talk about "end times" events. In fact, I first "prayed the prayer" when I was a young child after watching the film "Thief in the Night," a 70's film about the rapture and being left behind. I spent the rest of my childhood fearing that I would be left behind. I can also remember my pastor doing a series on the revelation and how all the events were going to shake out. Countless TV preachers have made a living out of projecting different events and fitting them into the events in Revelation, Daniel, and even 1 Thessalonians.

Now for a confession: I don't think much about end times these days, not because I don't believe they're important, but in a lot of ways I'm kind of burned out and it's just not where I'm at these days. In fact, I don't think it's where any of us are these days. Let me explain.

I John 5, Jesus addressed the Pharisees, saying they are experts on the Scriptures, but just being experts on the Scriptures doesn't mean anything. The Pharisees used the Scriptures to figure out all the details of the Law and be God's personal Law enforcement officers. Jesus said, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to me to have life." Though the Pharisees studied Scripture more than anyone else, they pretty much missed the point.

When it comes to end-times speculation, I think we often miss the point as well. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the times and the dates and all the speculative things because I don't think we're supposed to. To spend to much time trying to figure out what's the "mark of the beast" and if the locusts in Revelation represent Blackhawk helecopters is missing the point. So what IS the point? you might ask.

Well, Paul actually states the "point" very clearly and concisely twice in this passage. Don't see it? Let me give you a hint. You can find the point in 4:18 and 5:11.

Remember that the church in Thessalonica was undergoing a great deal of persecution at the time. In many ways, it was not good be a believer at that time in that place. It was easy to get discouraged and wonder if things would ever improve. For us, attending church service or small group is the way we get relief from stress in our lives--for the church in Thessalonica, it WAS their stress.

When people in the church were killed for their belief it could be a pretty discouraging thing. But Paul writes to the Thessalonian to encourage them. While the pagans might believe that death is the end (they didn't believe in resurrection) followers of Jesus don't "grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope." There is a better day ahead, so even if things don't go any better here on earth, you know that some day Christ will make things right. For those who die, they are with Christ, for those who are still here suffering, you can look forward to the day when Christ returns and sets things straight.

At the beginning of chapter 5, Paul warns against the idle speculation that went on all through my childhood. He says, "we don't need to try to tell you when this is going to happen because we don't know--no one knows, so don't even worry about. Just be ready. Live in the light and encourage each other with the fact that there are better days ahead.

The point of end-times teaching is not to speculate about when this will happen and how this will happen, the point is encouragement that while it may seem like satan has control of the world today and always will that a day is coming when faith will become sight and God will set things straight.

I don't find that I need a lot of this kind of encouragement. I don't suffer much for my faith. Although it seems the tide of culture is increasingly against faith in Jesus, we have it pretty good here. I think Paul's message to us would be much different than the people in Thessalonica. I suspect his message would be more along the lines of getting us out of our complacency and stop wasting our time speculating about end times theory and get to work building the Kingdom.

NT Journey--1 Thessalonians 4

2010-04-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

Products of our Culture

After Paul communicates his relief that the church in Thessalonica is still going strong, he takes the opportunity to encourage them and give them some instruction. The instructions he gives to them seems to be common sense for followers of Jesus. But the reality is that the instructions he gives to them is by no stretch of the imagination common sense to the people in Thessalonica.

Thessalonica was primarily a pagan city. They were products of the Greco-Roman religion. My 4th grade daughter is currently learning Greek mythology and is loving every minute of it. For her, it's a very interesting past-time and it also helps that she's reading the Percy Jackson books as well. I learned about Greek mythology when I was in 6th grade and I thought is was fascinating as well. But the people in Thessalonica didn't just find it fascinating, they thought it was truth.

I think we've talked about this before, but the Greco-Roman pagan religion of the day incorporated hundreds of gods, most of whom were really more like humans with a super-human power of some sort. These gods were not holy and didn't expect humans to be holy either. All the gods required was worship. So the people would go and worship at the appropriate temple mostly to keep the gods off their back.

Belief in the gods and ethical behavior didn't have anything to do with each other. The connection between religion and morality really only came about with Judaism. If you know anything about Greco-Roman culture, you know that sexual morals were lacking to say the least. In fact, many temples even had ritual prostitutes that could be used as acts of worship.

With this in mind, it's not hard to imagine that Paul would have to give some instruction to the church in Thessalonica (as he did with the church in Corinth as well) about appropriate sexual practices. When Paul writes in verse 3, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; ⁴that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable..." it may have been revolutionary teaching for the people there. For us, it's a reminder to those who have fallen into sin, but to many the Thessalonica, this was new information--the had not yet made the connection between worship of God and behavior.

What I like about Paul's instruction is that he doesn't seem to get worked up about the fact that the people still have some work to do. He isn't frustrated that they aren't further along than what they are. Paul recognizes that holiness is a journey and so he simply encourages them on their journey. He doesn't expect them to be instantly holy, but to continually make progress toward that goal.

I think that's a good lesson for us as well. Of course, we shouldn't use it as an excuse, but we shouldn't get too frustrated when we're not where we want to be spiritually. Of course, we have the goal to strive for and hopefully we work toward that goal with great determination, but understanding that we may disappoint ourselves from time to time. As long as we keep making progress toward that goal, that's what God asks of us.

NT Journey--1 Thessalonians 3

2010-04-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

A Sigh of Relief

Have you ever been worried about something and had to wait to find out if your suspicions were founded? I think all of us at one time or another have gotten wind of someone who is disappointed or angry with us and we didn't really know why. When we have a situation like that, it's human nature for us to think the worst. We go to the TIVO in our mind and run through all the scenarios where we might have unwittingly hurt that person. Not only that, but we start to come up with a defense of our actions. What often happens with me is that I get myself worked up over the hypotheticals and then find out that it was really no big deal or the information I received was wrong.

That's what Paul explains in 1 Thessalonians 3. While there may have been some people in Thessalonica who thought Paul's trip there was in vain for various reasons, Paul takes a deep breath that this is not the prevailing attitude among the people in the church.

Paul had moved on to Athens and had either received reports from people or just caught wind that the church in Thessalonica wasn't doing well and it just about killed him to hear it. So rather than continue to wonder about it, he sent Timothy to get a first-hand account of what was happening with the church there. When Timothy came back with his report, Paul was thrilled to hear that the church was alive and well despite the persecution.

In verse 10, Paul let's them in on his prayer for the people: "Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith." Remember that Paul didn't spend a lot of time with the people there, so they wouldn't have received a great deal of instruction on how to live out their lives of faith. In chapter 4 we see that Paul decides to be a partial answer to his own prayer.

NT Journey--1 Thessalonians 2

2010-04-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

What is Failure?

I have a lot of catching up to do. As I've received responses from many of you about keeping up with the New Testament Journey, many of you have mentioned that you fell behind, but always make sure you catch up. Well, now it's my turn. I hope my writing delay hasn't thrown your reading schedule off. (You can read the the chapter without the blog as well). In any case, you'll get a pretty good blitz of commentary today.

I wanted to pick up on something from 1 Thessalonians 2. If you remember from the intro to 1 Thess, you can read about Paul's stay in Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-19. The passage in Acts is short because Paul's stay there was also short and contentious. In 1 Thess 2, Paul writes, "You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure." That's a pretty interesting thing to write, I think. It seems to me that for Paul to write that, there must have been some sentiment that the idea of having a church in Thessalonica was a nice thought, but ill conceived. Paul had to leave because of opposition and even after Paul left, the church continued to face difficulties of all kinds.

When any project has so many problems just getting off the ground, we're often tempted to just take the attitude that maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Some in Thessalonica, may have held the opinion that bringing the Gospel to Thessalonica just wasn't meant to be. There may have been others who thought, "Paul and his crew came in here trying to make a name for themselves, then when things got tough, they ditched us." In chapter 2, Paul addresses both of these attitudes.

He reminds them that his visit was not ill-conceived. It was not a mistake, nor was it just to increase their prestige. Instead, he says they came in and genuinely cared for the people as parents care for their children. Bringing the Gospel and starting a church in Thessalonica was not their idea, it was God's idea. If it was Paul's idea, then they would be open to those criticisms, but when God is behind it those criticisms vanish.

Ultimately that makes a difference. Is it God's thing or is it mine? I can come up with different ideas that may or may not be good. Some of my ideas are worth fighting for and worth enduring opposition for and some are not. But if the idea is God's doing, it's worth fighting to the death for.

Now this can be both good and bad. It can be bad because there have been a lot of people throughout history who thought they were doing God's will and did a lot of damage to the name of Christ because of it. Think about the Crusades, for instance. When the pope was rallying people to go and take back Jerusalem from the Muslims, he did so with the the rallying cry "Deus Vult!" (God wills it!) When the people believed it was God's will to go in by any means necessary and take back Jerusalem, they could (and did) justify any behavior. Though we may not act with the misguided fervor of the crusaders, we can still do this same thing.

I think that's why we always have to be careful and humble when we declare something to be God's will. When it really is God's will, it can give us hope and lead us to supernatural perseverance in difficult circumstances, just like we see with the people in Thessalonica. Paul's letter was certainly a welcome reminder to them to stick with.

NT Journey--1 Thessalonians 1

2010-03-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

A Proper Salutation

1 Thessalonians 1 is a short chapter that contains only the greeting from Paul to the Thessalonian church. As you can see, Paul was very pleased to hear the church is doing well. Paul was a bitter worried, when he left under persecution that the church would be crushed under the weight of opposition, but the church was strong and their faith became an example to the other churches around the area.

I want to focus on verses 2 and 3 today. Notice Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians. He mentions three characteristics of the people there and what produced each of those things. We are all familiar with 1 Corinthians 13 at the end where Paul says, "These three remain, faith, hope, and love..." Notice in these two verses that Paul mentions all three. They are the three things that produce the characteristics of the Thessalonians.

1) Faith produced their work. Here Paul is talking about the initial acceptance of the message by the Thessalonian people. There was no particular reason why they might believe Paul other than the fact that they recognized the power of God behind it. But at some point there was a "leap of faith" that needed to happen. Even though they didn't know everything about Jesus, they knew enough to make the commitment to Him and learn the rest on the fly.

2) Love prompted their labor. Labor sounds hard. It's more than just "work." Labor is striving to move things forward--to make progress even when the work is hard. Love is the motivation for that. Some people will work hard for money, but money is not the best motivator. But love--that's the greatest motivator. People will endure endless hardship and heartache for love.

3) Endurance inspired by hope. Hope is the perfect inspiration for endurance. Endurance is the willingness to stick to something under opposition. Labor is hard work at a singular time, but endurance is continuing that labor for an extended amount of time. Only future hope can motivate endurance. If we think our efforts are in vain and we lose hope, we will give up. Hope says there's something better awaiting us around the corner.

Later in the book of 1 Thessalonians, Paul will talk about the coming of Jesus and our own resurrection. It's that hope that sustained the people in Thessalonica. Remember, at that time the idea of life after death was something that was hotly debated, even among the Jews. (Remember the Pharisees believed in resurrection and the Sadducees didn't.) Resurrection was not a common thought among the pagans, either. So when Paul came to them with the hope of resurrection and a better life after life, it made it much easier for them to risk their lives with the Gospel than if the believed this was all there is to life and they you die.

That's why the resurrection of Jesus is so important in the writings of Paul--because of Jesus' resurrection, we can know that resurrection will happen. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." Jesus' resurrection is the proof of our own future resurrection. That our hope and that is why we endure in this life, even to death.

NT Journey--Intro to 1 Thessalonians

2010-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians very early in his ministry. Most believe around 50-51 AD. Wrote the letter while he was in Corinth, shortly after his trip to Thessalonica where he founded the church. You can read about his short stay in Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-9. It was a short and eventful stay with a riot forming shortly after he began preaching there. Since he moved along so hastily after that, the let is intended to encourage and instruct the new Thessalonian believers in the middle of the trials they were facing.

If you can imagine the scene in those days, there were many pagans in the city of Thessalonica, since it was a Roman city. There was a synagogue there, so there was a contingent of Jews around, but primarily the new believers there would have been Gentiles. At the time Paul was starting new churches, they didn't have the New Testament. The Gentiles would most likely not have been familiar with what we call the Old Testament (what the Jews used as their Bible at the time) and for the Jews, the message of Jesus was brand-new as well. So imagine how lost they must have felt when Paul left them abruptly.

Not only this, but he left them in the middle of a riot. It seems as though the city was against them and even the bulk of Jews were against these new believers. Yet they continued on in the faith. They were dedicated, but needed instruction. For having no technology to speak of, Paul was able to do a good amount of communication with the various churches. He would hear news from messengers and either send them back to the church or he would send one of his guys (Silas, Timothy, etc.) to deliver the letters.

1 Thessalonians is Paul's response to a report delivered by Timothy. Although they were undergoing a great deal of persecution, they were holding firm in their faith and acting as examples to the churches everywhere. The tone of 1 Thessalonians is much different that what we found in Galatians.

NT Journey--Galatians 6

2010-03-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

Kissing Cousins

Though Paul doesn't state it explicitly in chapter 6, Paul draws an interesting comparison between the two types of slavery he mentions in chapter 5--slavery to sin and slavery to the law. Neither is appropriate for the believer (or anyone for that matter). The person who continues to allow himself to be a slave to sin has given up. We all have a conscience and we know the basic difference between right and wrong because it's written on our hearts. When we know we are a slave to sin and we do nothing about it, we have resigned ourselves to less than what we were created for.

He says that when someone is caught in sin, others should "restore him gently." Let's pick out a couple of things here.

First, he implies that we should take action. We can often times be very passive when we know someone is in sin. We can also pick and choose which sins we act upon and which we don't. We often see sexual sins as being the worst sins. Actually, you could make a case that while sexual sins are clearly sin, other sins like greed, gossip, and divisive behavior are actually more damaging to the church. But we tend to let those go and reluctantly confront the sexual sinner.

Second, when we do act on a brother's (or sister's) sin, we do so with the intent of restoration, not condemnation. This is where it's helpful to look at sin from a relational, rather than legal perspective. When we see sin from a legal perspective, the sinner needs to be punished, so we'll see it as our job to punish them. But when we see sin as broken relationship, then the goal is to restore relationship. In 2 Corinthians we'll see that Christ came for reconciliation and that Paul says Jesus gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God is "not counting men's sins against them." There a difference in the way we approach things when we seek to restore rather than punish.

Finally, it's a process that requires a great deal of gentleness. You never know how someone is going to respond when you approach them about there sin, but one thing is for sure. If you go to someone in an accusative, judgmental manner, your conversation will be counter-productive. Instead of reconciliation you'll on succeed in driving a wedge further between yourself and the person or the person and God. One thing that helps with gentleness is to always be aware of your own sin. When we are aware that we, too are sinners, it's much more difficult to accuse others.

I heard Tony Campolo say something interesting. He said something to this effect: We all think Jesus taught us to "love the sinner and hate the sin" but really what Jesus taught us is to love the sinner and hate our own sin." It's hard to be judgmental when we are aware of our own need of grace. That doesn't mean that we can't deal with sin. It does mean that we deal with sin in a different way.

That's why churches need to communicate about this issue often. People in the church need to learn how to restore relationships and to be able to accept when someone else comes to them with their sin.

Well, that was the book of Galatians...quick and painless--well, almost. What are your thoughts on the book of Galatians? Anything stick out to you? Did you learn something that you didn't understand before?

NT Journey--Galatians 5

2010-03-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

What is Freedom?

To me, Galatians 5 is the highlight of the book of Galatians. Usually when people think of Christianity, they don't think of freedom. In fact, usually that's the last thing on their mind. More often they see it as strict and stifling or dull. I think Christians have earned this reputation because too often, that's the way we live out our faith. But when we really understand Galatians 5, it's hard to see why we got to be the way we are.

Paul starts the chapter by writing, "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free!" Freedom, of course, is the opposite of slavery. According to Paul there are two different kinds of slavery.

The first kind of slavery is the kind we're very familiar with--slavery to sin. We love to talk about this in the church. We love to speak against "those people" who are slaves to sin. But not us. Because we're in the church, we don't think of ourselves as slaves to sin. Now there is some truth to that. The Bible does tell us, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." When we come to know and trust Jesus, that becomes true of us. Whether we actually live that way is another question entirely. Even though we are forgiven, we can still live with a nagging sense of guilt and shame. We say we are free, but many Christians don't really live lives of freedom.

The other kind of slavery is slavery to the Law. Slavery to the Law can manifest itself in the same way slavery to sin does--feelings of guilt, shame and regret and the urge to try to make up for our sin. People who are slaves to the Law will work very hard to always to "the right thing." The "right thing" in this case is following the rules. Let's take this as example:

You're living in Germany while Hitler is rounding up Jews. Being the good Christian you are, you decide you will hide some Jews in your basement. The Nazi's get word of this and they knock on your door. You answer the door and when they ask you if you're hiding some Jews, you have a dilemma. On the one hand, you very much want to save the lives of the Jewish family you're hiding. On the other hand, you know very well that one of the Ten Commandments is "thou shalt not bear false witness..." Someone who is a slave to the Law will have a dilemma, someone who has freedom in Christ will not.

The slave to the Law would be inclined to tell the truth because he wants to make sure he is pure before the Law. Even if that person does lie to save the Jews' lives, he will feel guilty or sad about it. But the person who has freedom in Christ will not think twice about it--he will lie through his teeth and rejoice that he has saved lives from unthinkable evil.

Why no dilemma? How can someone who has freedom in Christ be so cavalier about the Law? Well, it's because the person who is free in Christ really understands what the Law is all about. The Law is all about LOVE. Remember in Matthew 22 when Jesus was asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" He answered, "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. If you do these things, you've fulfilled the Law."

So the person who has freedom in Christ understands that the prohibition against lying is not to keep you technically righteous, but it's to keep people from lying to cheat another person out of something or to save your own skin when you do something wrong. Clearly, hiding Jews during the Holocaust at great personal risk is the most loving thing you could do, so that action even if you have to technically lie is the righteous thing to do. I would much rather be technically wrong and lovingly right.

In verse 6, Paul writes, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." What he's saying is that whether you technically obey the Law or night is really missing the point. The point--the only point that counts--is faith expressing itself through love.

So we are not slaves to sin or to the Law, but instead Paul urges Christians to "live by the Spirit." The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ. So when we stay in tune with the Spirit, Paul says we naturally won't "gratify the desires of the sinful nature." He also says that people who live by the Spirit are not under the Law--they really don't think about it. They don't have to because when we're in touch with the Spirit, we will almost automatically do the loving thing. We don't need "the Law" because it's written on our hearts.

So the freedom we have is not to indulge the sinful nature--Paul says those things are obvious. But living by the Spirit will result in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There's no law against those things!

NT Journey--Galatians 4

2010-03-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Growing Up

In Galatians 4, Paul continues the conversation about the Law and the promise. I'll try to explain it further with an example I think you'll understand.

When we go on long trips and bring our kids with us, there will inevitably be a "situation" arise. We have three kids and inevitably, two of them will have to sit next to each other. On a long car-ride, they will eventually get bored so the pastime of choice is "pick on your sister." So the boy will just start touching his sister and of course, she will scream like she's dying. When I figure out what's going on, I'll say to the boy, "stop touching your sister!"...and he will agree.

But then the girl will start screaming again and I'll look back to find him putting his hand as close to her face as humanly possible without actually touching her. Of course, this is twice as annoying and even though it's technically obeying what I said, he's not actually obeying. Some day, these are the people that will inherit everything I have. Whether I can trust them with what I have at this point is doubtful. When they grow up, however, I hope it'll be different.

This is why with children, we have to be very specific with our rules, they don't necessarily understand the "spirit of the law." Children have to be under the Law. Paul is saying that the Law was there because the Israelites were still children. They had to live by the letter of the Law, but what God desired was the Spirit. Even though people are heirs to God's inheritance, they needed to grow up before they can fully realize it. Faith is Law all grown up.

In Paul's day, slaves and children were treated the same way. The difference is that some day the children would receive the inheritance--slaves never would. Paul was saying that the Jews who wanted to continue to follow the Law, didn't understand they were children, not slaves.

Some day, I hope my kids will understand the spirit of the law is to care about and respect each other, not just technically follow the rules. That's why Jesus spent so much time in His ministry teaching people how to get beyond the Law and to the spirit. When they get this, I can be confident they will handle their inheritance in the way I would--a way that honors God and helps others.

The same thing had to happen with Israel (and Gentiles, too). God has an inheritance he wants to give--freedom and abundant life. But before it could be realized He needed to know that people would be able to handle it the way He does.

I think this same principle applies not just to Jews, but also to Christians. Sometimes we can get so caught up being religious that we miss the spirit of Jesus. As children of the promise, we should understand that the Gospel is the blessing God promised through Abraham. We can help fulfill that blessing when we live like Jesus and spread the Word. Freedom! Real abundant live! What more could anyone want?

NT Journey--Galatians 3

2010-03-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

About Covenants

When you read in Galatians, it's helpful to understand covenants. In Old Testament times, covenants were a regular part of daily life. We have covenants today. The covenant that is most similar to what they had back then is the marriage covenant. In fact, some of the traditions we and ritual we have are similar to the rituals they used in the Ancient near east.

The Bible itself is divided into the Old Covenant (Testament) and the New Covenant (Testament). The God of the Bible is a God who makes covenants. Why? Love. God certainly didn't NEED to make covenants, but a covenant was the way people could understand love because when you make a covenant with someone, you make yourself subject to them. What advantage could God gain by making a covenant with any person? Nothing, of course. God doesn't need anything from us, but He did it anyway, which makes His covenants one-sided--He gives up a lot, we give up very little.

Here, Paul is talking about two different covenants--the Mosaic Covenant (or the one given to Moses with the Ten Commandments) and the Abrahamic Covenant (or the one given to Abraham in Genesis 18:18). What Paul is doing here is explaining the two different covenants.

In Galatians, we've talked a lot about "the Law." What we're talking about is the Law of Moses or the "Mosaic Covenant." When God made a covenant with Israel through Moses, it was a two-sided covenant. In essence, God said, "IF you do this, I will do this." In Moses' case, God said, "I will protect you and Israel and you will be my people IF you follow the Law I give you." That Law was only for the Jews--only for the nation of Israel.

430 years earlier, God had made a covenant with Abraham. In the middle of the book of Genesis, God tells Abraham to leave his home town of Ur (in modern-day Iraq) and move to Palestine (modern-day Israel). Because Abraham obeyed, God made his covenant with Abram. All Abraham had to do is to circumcise all male children in his clan as a sign of the covenant. God's part of the bargain comes in Genesis 18:18 where He says, "Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him."

So here's the difference between the two covenants. The covenant with Moses was for the protection of Israel and was dependent on Israel's obedience). The covenant with Abraham was given so that "all the nations of the earth will be blessed," and does not depend on Israel's obedience, but was made as a result of Abraham's obedience and given as a promise. The blessing, God is talking about is Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham and all the earth is blessed because of Jesus.

Paul continues the discussion in chapter 4 and I think it will begin to make more sense once we get there. For now, it's helpful to understand the difference Paul is making between the two covenants. More to come...

NT Journey--Galatians 2

2010-03-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

Read Carefully

In Galatians 2, Paul continues to defend himself against the accusations of the Judaizers. As he does, he talks about his interactions with the Disciples (I'll use capital "D" when I'm talking about Jesus' 12 Disciples because besides Paul, they are the ones who were entrusted with Jesus' teachings, so they carry a lot of weight in the church). Essentially, Paul is saying he's "running with the big dogs."

What I want to point out today, however is the importance of really studying something you don't quite understand. When Paul writes, he can tend to use a lot of words and see to tie up literary knots. I think we see an example in chapter 2 of this. It took me a few readings to try to figure out what Paul was saying. We will definitely run into more passages like this in Paul's letter, so let's take a look at it and hopefully this exercise will help you when you come to another difficult passage.

What I'm referring to is verse 19 where Paul says, "through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God." Strange and difficult use of words here, but let's break it down. "Through the law, I died to the law..." The Law is about earning. So let's take high school as an example. Let's say you want to get into Harvard and in order to get into Harvard, you have to get straight "A"s all through high school. If you get even one B, Harvard is no longer an option.

If it's your great desire to get into Harvard and no other school will do, you will make yourself a slave to studying. You'll do anything you can to achieve those "A"s. Most likely, it'll make the rest of your life pretty much non-existent because you'll spend so much time studying to make sure you get those grades. The problem is that if at any point you get a "B", you die to Harvard--it's no longer an option. Then everything you've worked for is down the drain. Those were the requirements of Harvard and you didn't match up.

But what if someone told you that Harvard wasn't the pinnacle--that there are greater things to attain to than getting into Harvard? What's more, the greater, more fulfilling thing isn't predicated on studying all the time and always getting the right answer. What's this more fulfilling goal? It's having great relationships, it's being who God created you to be! Sure getting good grades is nice, but when you always have to get straight "A"s it becomes the sole focus of your life. But when you "die to Harvard," you gain freedom to do what you should have been doing all along.

That Paul describing grace. The Law is set up so that if you break any of it, you're guilty. It doesn't matter what the sin is, you're guilty and deserve punishment. But Paul says that the Law was never really intended to save people, it was only intended to show us all that it's impossible to live up to God's standards. It's only when we give up on working for those impossible standards and live in the grace of Jesus that we can really be who we are created to be.

Then it comes to one of my favorite verses, Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." When I follow Jesus, the Law takes on no significance for me. I no longer have to worry about all the details, but I can focus on what's more fulfilling--reconciliation. First, God and me, then others and me. And as a bonus, I get the privilege of helping others get free of the law and free to live for God.

Now, you might anticipate a problem with this idea of freedom and being dead to the Law. If we don't have to follow the Law, can't we just do anything we want? If sin is of no account, then why not make the rest of life a party? Paul knew grace could easily be misunderstood this way, and we'll see how he addresses it later in the book of Galatians.

NT Journey--Galatians 1

2010-03-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Power of Character

The book of Galatians has a different greeting than all of Paul's other letters. Typically, when Paul writes to a church or a group of churches, he will send warm greetings and let them know, first of all how he's praying for them and how he thanks God for them. In Galatians we see no such greeting--Paul gets right down to business.

He does introduce himself, but then goes right into the subject at hand. If you were writing a letter, what kind of mood would make you most likely to skip the kind greeting? Anger, of course. Paul is steaming mad. Paul had been at the different churches in the province of Galatia, preaching the Gospel of grace--that it's not by human effort or following the Law that people are saved, but it's through faith in Jesus Christ, who died so the we can live.

But when Paul left the various churches, he received word that there were some "Judaizers" (Jewish Christians who believed you had to follow the Jewish Law even when you have faith in Christ.) coming in behind him and undoing all the work he had done.

It seems that one of the first things the Judaizers do is to question Paul's character and credentials. We know this because of the great deal of time Paul spends defending himself. In verse 1, he defends himself by telling them he was sent by Jesus Himself, not by men. He then spends verses 11-24 explaining his story and why they should accept his authority to preach this Gospel of grace. He tells the story of his conversion as well as his interaction with Jesus' disciples, who would automatically have authority in the church.

In other places in the New Testament, Paul does acknowledge that the path he took to be an Apostle was different than the other Apostles (Peter, James, John, etc.) His path was different because he wasn't actually on of Jesus' twelve disciples. He was only called to be an Apostle after Jesus had already ascended, so it would carry weight with the Galatian believers that he did, at some point go and spend some time with Peter. Paul wants to make it clear, however that he was preaching long before he spent any time with Peter. Peter only acknowledged that Paul was an apostle, he didn't tell him to go preach, making him a "junior apostle." He was a full-on Apostle with a capital "A."

Paul is angry with the Galatians because they seem to be buying in to the Judaizers "other gospel." Paul figures that they should have known that the message the Judaizers were preaching was contrary to the Gospel of Jesus that Paul preached to them. The tone of the letter will stay quite stern and Paul will continue to defend himself against the charges of the Judaizers as we continue through Galatians. It won't take long, so work hard to understand what's going on here.

NT Journey--Acts 28

2010-03-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

An Abrupt Ending

As we come to the end of the book of Acts, I'm interested to hear what you thought of it. I'm sure many of you had never read through the book of Acts or had known anything about the culture behind the stories. As you read Acts in that light, what are your thoughts?

The book of Acts ends rather abruptly. We never hear what happens to Paul. You may wonder why. Ultimately, we don't really know why Acts doesn't chronicle the rest of the story. We might guess that Theophilus, to whom the book of Acts is addressed already knows the rest of the story. Maybe, he was wondering why Paul was executed. In any case, we do know from Christian tradition that Paul was eventually executed--most believe under the reign of Nero.

I am continually amazed at Paul's attitude throughout his entire ministry. Despite the fact that he faced incredible trials and opposition, he stayed the course and never failed to preach the Gospel when given the opportunity. Most of us never preach the Gospel even when facing no persecution or opposition. We can learn a great deal from Paul and the way he carried himself in difficult situations. We'll learn more about this when we read through Philippians. Even when in prison accused of stirring up riots because of the Gospel, he continues to preach with abandon, and finishes the race in a fitting manner.

NT Journey--Preparing for Galatians

2010-03-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

Preparing for Galatians

I hope you've enjoyed the book of Acts. I find it to be very exhilarating to read and learn how the church first began. I can very easily be drawn in to the story of how the Gospel spread to the whole world! Most of what we read from now on will be letters that were written during the time the book of Acts chronicles. As we read these letters, try to remember back to what you read in Acts and what you know of the different cities Peter and Paul visited. There are many things you'll see in these letters that find a correlation in Acts.

It's always helpful to learn a bit about any book of the Bible you're about to study. Every study Bible will provide you with details about the author, the date, the situation, and the audience. It's always helpful to know the situation, but the book of Galatians might be the epitome of situational writing. In order to understand what Paul is writing, it's essential that we understand what's going on and the themes involved.

The book of Galatians was the earliest book written by the Apostle Paul. In fact, most scholars believe it was the earliest book in the New Testament, written somewhere between 48 and 53 A.D. The themes Galatians deals with are the themes you would expect for a book written while the new Church, which was mostly Jews.

What's happening is that as Paul starts or visits existing churches and preaches the Gospel of grace through faith, some Jewish Christians (called Judaizers) are coming in behind Paul and preaching a different message. Paul's message was that people didn't need to follow the Jewish Law in order to follow Jesus. If they had faith in Jesus, circumcision, sacrifices, and dietary laws are not necessary. It is by grace we have been saved, not through works. In Galatians 5, Paul writes, "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free, so do not let yourselves be burdened by a yoke of slavery..."

The tone of the book is very stern. It's the only letter Paul writes that doesn't include a friendly greeting. Paul is MAD and it shows.

In the letter, Paul talks a great deal about circumcision. For people who aren't familiar with the Old Testament, this may be a bit confusing. For us, circumcision is a health issue. For the Jews it was an issue of obedience. Every Jewish boy (and male Jewish converts) had to be circumcised as a sign of their obedience to God's laws. This is why in the New Testament, we find a great deal of "God fearers." These are men that believed the message of the Jews, but for obvious reasons were hesitant to go all the way to observe the Law. So circumcision in Galatians represents following the Law.

In Galatians we hear a lot about freedom. Paul knew that the Gospel of grace would be easy to pervert and be used to justify sinful behavior. Yet grace is so valuable, it's worth the risk.

NT Journey--Acts 27

2010-03-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

Mutual Respect

What's most interesting to me about Acts 27 is the respect that everyone has for each other, even in the middle of difficult circumstances. Paul is being taken to Rome as a prisoner of the Empire, yet the centurion, Julius who is in charge of Paul, has such respect for him that he gives him a great amount of freedom. When they go to territory familiar to Paul, they allow his friends to come and attend to his needs. For all Julius knows, Paul's friends are thugs that will take him into hiding, but Julius doesn't seem concerned about that, despite the fact that the Roman Empire didn't have a network of computers that would put Paul's face all over the Empire before he could get ten miles down the road. What was it about Paul that made Julius trust him?

Paul didn't disappoint. In fact, as they were traveling, he showed a great amount of care and concern for the people who were taking him to prison. When he had the chance to escape, he stayed. When he had the opportunity to give false advice, he told the truth. He encouraged the crew even though he knew they would end up shipwrecked. What kind of prisoner looks out for the well-being of his captors? One who knew Jesus very well, that's who.

Isn't this the very thing Jesus would have done? When Paul gets to Rome, he will sit under house arrest for at least a couple of years. During that time, he will pen his letter to the Philippians, where he will write:

¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold outthe word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. ¹⁷But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. ¹⁸So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

Paul knew his circumstances were dire, yet was single-mindedly focused on his goal--sharing Jesus with the Gentiles. So no matter his situation, he saw it as an opportunity to represent Christ, even when the people around him were his captors.

I was at the drive-thru yesterday and was just pulling up to the window, when a young woman, who had just been in the drive-thru, threw her car in reverse and rolled down her window and proceeded to yell at the window attendant. The workers got her order wrong and she was not happy. They asked her to pull into a parking spot and they would bring out her correct order. She tore into the spot and I soon saw, what I assume to be the incorrect order fly out the window and scatter all over the parking lot.

While we might not react with such venom, how often do we have the same attitude about the small things in life that go wrong? How quick are we to complain and behave in unChristlike ways because we think we deserve more than what we received? Paul, in Acts 27 is a great example for us to follow when things are not going our way.

NT Journey--Acts 26

2010-03-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

This Guy is Crazy!

In Acts 26, Paul is still in the "system." Festus has heard Paul's appeal to Caesar and decides to consult King Agrippa as long as he's in town. Unlike Felix and Festus, Agrippa was a Jew. He was part of the Herodians who were chosen by Rome to rule the Jews. So Agrippa was familiar with Jewish teachings, but who knows how much he actually practiced Jewish religion. Most likely, though Agrippa was Jewish by birth, he lived more like a Roman.

But Paul is still able to appeal to him as a Jew. In fact, Paul really takes less time defending himself and more time telling Agrippa the Gospel. At one point, Festus interrupts saying Paul is crazy. The thought of life after death is silly to Festus. Agrippa knows what Paul is doing and so mocks him in a sense, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?"

In any case, both Festus and Agrippa know that Paul really hasn't done anything wrong, but since he has appealed to Caesar, he has to go there. His trip to Rome turns out to be quite an adventure.