Monthly Archives: December 2016

Daily Bible Study

December 22, 2016 Bible Study — We Have Been Saved, Now We Need To Live Like It

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Peter 1-5.

    I never noticed before how often the various writers in the New Testament say something along the lines of, “You have been saved by your faith in God’s grace, now go and act upon that faith.” Here at the beginning of his letter Peter writes that we should prepare our minds our minds and exercise self control because God has given us His salvation. God does not play favorites. He judges each person according to that person’s actions, not by who their parents are, or the color of their skin, or any of the other criteria by which we so often judge people. Therefore we should love each other with the same kind of love which God displayed when He sent Jesus to die on the cross.

    Peter mixes metaphors here a bit. He writes that God is using us to build His Temple and that we are the royal priests in that very Temple. As priests before God we are called upon to live pure and holy lives. Only the High Priest, who the writer of Hebrews identified as Jesus, stands closer to God than we do. By writing that we are all priests Peter is telling us, just as Paul and the writer of Hebrews did, that the distinction between the clergy and the laity we have in our society has no place in the Body of Christ. We cannot look at certain people and say, “They need to be held to this standard, but I do not have to live up to it.”

    Peter writes something which I find addressing something I have been challenged by as I read through the New Testament this year. I have been challenged in how I deal with confrontations with whom I disagree (both believers and unbelievers). Here Peter lays ground rules for arguing with others, rules that should apply to all of our disagreements.

  • Lover each other like siblings.
  • be tenderhearted and humble.
  • Do not repay evil for evil.
  • Do not respond to insults with insults.

If we truly live the way Peter is advocating people will be surprised. I think it is worth noting that Peter writes that the sins we are to avoid (which is all sins) are destructive. As a result of our failure to join with them in their self-destructive behavior people will slander us. We realize that people are eager to find something wrong with those who live holy lives because they feel condemned by the contrast to their own lives. So, as God calls us to ever more greater challenges in serving Him we need to be sure to maintain ever greater self-control.

Daily Bible Study

December 21, 2016 Bible Study — Faith Without Works Is Dead

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on James 1-5.

    Today’s passage is the entire letter from James. I love this book of the Bible, perhaps in part because it has been so often misunderstood. I do not think I am going to be able to write about all of the things that James has to say that I think we need to hear. (I am sure there are a few of you saying, “So, why are you wasting time and space to tell us that? Get to it already.”) There are two points upon which all of the rest hang. First, James insists that if you have faith, it will be demonstrated in your actions. Second, if we have faith which is reflected in our actions, if we need anything all that we need do is ask God and He will provide for those needs.

    The one thing we can be sure that we need is wisdom and James promises us that all we need do to obtain wisdom is ask God. God will never hold it against us for asking for more wisdom. However, in this as in all things, we need to truly believe that God is the only source of wisdom. God will not answer our prayers for wisdom, if at the same time we are asking Him for wisdom we are seeking wisdom from the ungodly that we are going to balance against the wisdom we receive from God. James even tells us how to tell if the advice we have received is truly wise or not. In order to save space to comment on other things I am not going to rephrase chapter 3 verses 13 through 19. You can read them for yourself.

    James tells us that the key to lining our actions up with our professions of faith is to start by controlling what we say and how we say it. If we learn to control our tongues we can learn to control all of our other actions. However, if we refuse to control our tongues we will fail to control ourselves in any other way as well. The key to gaining control of our tongues is controlling our desires. If we allow ourselves to desire the things of this world over the things of Heaven, evil things will come out of our mouths sooner or later. Those earthly desires will lead us to be jealous and bitter because we will never be able to fill them, no matter how much stuff we gather. On the other hand, if we focus on the things of Heaven and on wanting those things which will allow us to serve God, all we need do is ask God for them and we will have them in more abundance than we can imagine.

Daily Bible Study

December 20, 2016 Bible Study — Running The Race

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 12-13.

    Just like when running a race, we need to put aside those things which do not help us serve the Lord. This includes sin, but not just sin. If there are things in our life which do not help us do God’s work, we need to cut them out of our lives. If we do not, God will do so for us. Like any good father, or coach, God will discipline us so that we become more disciplined (see what I did there?). When we become tired and are tempted to give up we need to keep our eyes on Christ and remember the suffering He experienced before He received His glory from God. We have not yet given our lives in service to God, we can “run” a little longer, we can carry the burden a little further. God is like an experienced coach. He knows exactly how much training we need to put in. He knows what we need to be eating (both physically and spiritually). He knows when we need to take some time to rest and recuperate from our training (both physically and mentally). When we do not do as He instructs, He will punish us with exercises which will make us better able to win the “race” for which He is preparing us.

    As the writer concludes his letter he makes a series of small points which are not directly connected, but which in a way form a coherent whole. I am not quite sure how I am going to get these various statements into a single thought. We are instructed to work at living in peace with everyone and to work at living a holy life. Further the writer tells us to not let bitterness grow up within us, or among us. These three are pretty easy to put together. Bitterness will lead us into conflict with others, and conflict can engender bitterness, either in ourselves or in those with whom we have conflict (or both). However, the writer is not just telling us to not be bitter, he is telling us to root out bitterness among our fellow believers. If we see bitterness taking hold among our fellow believers we need to work at getting rid of it.
    As I wrote that last sentence I realized how all of these fit together because much of the rest of what he writes here amount to instructions about how to keep our fellowship clear of bitterness. If we look after each other, love one another, and show hospitality to strangers we will nip bitterness in the bud whenever it starts to crop up. If we are satisfied with what we have we will not become bitter about those who have more. If we remember those who are in prison or being mistreated as if we were suffering the same, we will not take actions which will cause others to be bitter. If all of our interactions with those around us are rooted in love, we will help them to not be bitter about those who may have failed to act out of love.

Daily Bible Study

December 19, 2016 Bible Study — Inspired To Acts of Love and Good Works Through Faith

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 10-11.

    As a consequence of Jesus offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sins we can boldly enter into God’s presence. This confidence should inspire us to acts of love and good works, performed both for their own sake and to motivate our fellow believers to such acts as well. In order to motivate other believers, and to be motivated by them, we need to meet regularly with them. Regularly meeting with our fellow believers will both encourage us to perform acts of love and good works and inspire us in new ways in which we can do such things. The more we do such things, the less time we will have to be susceptible to temptation.

    I am always inspired by this writer’s compendium of the people of faith from before Christ. He lists out many of the people of faith whose accounts we find in the Old Testament and how their faith inspired their actions and brought them miraculous results. He reminds us that the number of people who accomplished great things through faith is too long to list them all. He also reminds us that some faced terrible trials and persecutions because of their faith (usually because of the good works to which their faith inspired them). The faith of these people to whom he refers earned them a good reputation, whether they overcame mighty foes through their faith, or were persecuted by mighty foes. Those who gained great victories did not do so from their own might, neither did those whose faith stood firm in the face of persecution. Let us be inspired to have a similar faith in God’s great power.

Daily Bible Study

December 18, 2016 Bible Study — Jesus, Our High Priest

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 6-9.

    The writer tells us that those who once knew God’s salvation through Christ and have turned away can never be brought back to repentance. He is not talking about those who gradually fell back into sin after coming to know the Lord. I do not even think he was talking about those who came to know Christ at a young age and were later talked out of it by someone they respected. No, he is talking about those who, of their own volition, made a conscious decision to reject God. Those who rejected God because continuing to accept God meant accepting that there was someone they answered to for their actions. The thing about such people is that, once they have made such a decision, they will never be willing to consider the possibility that they were wrong to do so. I will say that we have to be careful not to assume that someone falls into this category because I have known people who I thought did who turned to the Lord.

    The rest of this passage is very intellectual (just like yesterday’s passage). One of the key things I get from this passage is that we no longer need any priest aside from Jesus. Jesus is our High Priest, who offered Himself, once and for all, as a sacrifice for sin. There is no longer a need for priests to offer sacrifices on our behalf, nor to act as intermediaries between ourselves and God. This means that the distinction we often make between the clergy and the laity is a false one. The creation of clergy is serves two purposes. It allows some people to lift themselves up as superior to others. And it allows many people to not hold themselves to the standard which Christ sets for us. We are all called to live by the standard of “priests” and if you think that you are better than others, you have missed the point.

Daily Bible Study

December 17, 2016 Bible Study — Jesus, Intermediary Between God and Man (and Between Man and God)

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 1-5.

    The writer of Hebrews starts off by addressing a false teaching which exists to this day, that Jesus is just the first of the angels. Actually, this passage contains the most detailed Christology in the Bible and is the primary basis for the doctrine of the Trinity (although there are other New Testament passages which point in that direction).
    What does the writer tell us about Jesus?

  1. He has the same character as God
  2. Everything is sustained by the power of His command (compare with John 1:1-3)
  3. He is greater than the angels
  4. He became flesh and blood (note “became”, not “was”)
  5. He was greater than Moses

When we take points one and two and combine them with the beginning of the Gospel of John, we get that Jesus was one with God. Point three tells us that angels are a different category of being from Christ, and the arguments the author makes to support this point show us that angles are a different category of being from mankind. The fourth point indicates that, while Jesus was truly human, He was not a human who was elevated to Godhood. Point five follows from the previous points, but needed to be stressed in order to show that, where we see conflict, Jesus’ teachings superseded those of Moses.

    If all of that seems rather cerebral to you (and it does to me), the writer explains at the end of this passage why these characteristics of Jesus are important. Jesus faced the same temptations which we did but did not sin. Because He did not sin, He is able to counsel us on how to resist temptation and put sin behind us. Because He faced the same temptations and struggles which we dace, He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses and failings. We know that God will have mercy for us because of Christ, and that we will receive grace to face temptation from Christ. The writer describes Jesus’ role as Intermediary between God and man (and between man and God) as being that of heavenly High Priest, but not a priest of the order of Aaron rather a priest of the order of Melchizedek.
    The Book of Hebrews is probably the most intellectual of the books of the Bible. It can be hard to understand and the temptation is always there to just gloss over it and move on. However, the writer reminds us that there comes a time when we need to think about the more involved aspects of our faith. As we start to teach others how to be followers of Christ, some of them are going to ask questions which are more difficult. We need to be prepared to answer them. We need to be prepared to deal with questions such as “What makes Jesus different from the angels?”

Daily Bible Study

December 16, 2016 Bible Study — Church Leaders Need to Be Managers

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Titus and Philemon.

    Paul writes to Titus with clear instructions about installing elders in each of the congregations on Crete. The characteristics Paul describes are ones which we should all aspire to uphold (except for the husband part, not everyone should aspire to being married and women have no need to aspire to being men). Often times when people look at this they fail to see Paul’s focus. Those chosen to be elders in the Church must have shown that they have the ability to manage their own household. That is the reason behind being the husband of one wife and having children who are believers without a reputation for wildness and rebellion. I think there are two parts of Paul’s instructions which are critical. The first is one I have seldom heard anyone talk about when discussing this passage: Church leaders are to be good managers. The second is something to which I think we do pay attention: Church leaders should enjoy hosting others. They should not be people who prefer to be alone most of the time. People who possess both of these, and the rest of the characteristics Paul describes for Church leaders, are not as common as we might like.

    In his letter to Philemon, Paul asks Philemon to forgive Onesimus for any damage which Onesimus may have caused by running away. Overall, it appears that Onesimus ran away because he was a rebellious slave who did not do as he was commanded (me reading between the lines). We do not know why Onesimus was a slave in the first place, but it appears that, after he came to know the Lord he felt that he should return to Philemon (perhaps encouraged in that belief by Paul and others, since Philemon was a fellow believer). When I have heard others comment on this letter they have always emphasized how Paul was willing to make good any loss which Philemon had suffered because of Onesimus. While I think that Paul was willing to do so, I also think that Paul makes it clear that he does not expect Philemon to take him up on it. As he writes this to Philemon, and reminds Philemon that he owes his very soul to Paul, I believe that Paul is alluding to teachings of the Church which derive from Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant from Matthew 18:23-35. Paul is quite clear that he expects Philemon to forgive Onesimus for any wrong which Onesimus had done him and for any damages which Onesimus may have caused him. Paul’s offer to pay for those damages was along the lines of, “But if you are such a poor Christian as to be unwilling to do so, I will pay you for it so that Onesimus need not suffer any more because of his previous mistakes.”

Daily Bible Study

December 15, 2016 Bible Study — Do Not Be Ashamed To Tell Others About The Lord

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Timothy 1-4.

    The first thing I want to point out is that there is value to being the child of parents who were faithful. Paul does not go into detail about that value. I can say from personal experience that having been raised by faithful parents has given me a deep-seated trust in God. It has certainly helped me to be less ashamed to tell others about Christ than I might otherwise have been. I do not believe that it can be emphasized too much that we need to not be ashamed to tell others about our faith in Christ, not even when doing so may result on our suffering.

    Paul encourages Timothy (and us) to flee lust of all kinds and instead pursue righteous living. One of the points on which he challenges Timothy is a challenge to me as well. He tells Timothy to avoid foolish, ignorant arguments. However, he does not clearly define what makes a foolish argument and tells us to instruct those who oppose the truth. Yes, he tells us to do the latter gently, but it is oh so easy to go from gently instructing someone to arguing strenuously, especially when they fall into Paul’s description of what many people will be like in the last days. As I look around me today, I have to conclude that we are in the last days that Paul spoke of. Our society is filled with people who love only themselves and their money.

    I could write more about Paul’s description of those people, but you can read that for yourself. Paul writes how we can counter such people and their teachings. We counter those things by remaining faithful to what we have been taught and by immersing ourselves in Scripture, which will teach us what is true and point out to us what is wrong in our lives. We must preach the word of God whether times are favorable or not. The time is coming, and for many people has already come, when people will not be willing to listen to wholesome teaching and will instead seek out those who tell them what they want to hear. We are to patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage those around us. The key word in that being “patiently”. I need to keep a clear mind and not let anger, or any other emotion, overcome the logic and sense which God’s Spirit has given me.

Daily Bible Study

December 14, 2013 Bible Study — Caring For Widows

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 5-6.

    Paul gives Timothy instructions about caring for widows. I think that these instructions give us an idea about how we should care for all who are in need. The first step in caring for those in need is that we should care for those in our own family who fall into need to the best of our ability. The second aspect of Paul’s instructions on caring for those in need is that they should do everything in their power to care for themselves. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul said that those who are unwilling to work will not eat. I am a firm believer that we as a Church should seek to provide meaningful work for those who otherwise have difficulty supporting themselves.
    As I read this, Paul is saying that those who have a personal relationship with those in need should coordinate the efforts to provide for their needs, providing from their own resources as much as they are able to do so. We should only turn to the Church as a whole when the needs exceed our ability to care for them ourselves. Another point Paul makes is that those who receive assistance from the Church should, to the best of their ability, demonstrate the characteristics of Christ. If we want the Church to care for us when we are no longer able to care for ourselves we should use our talents to serve others in the Church while we are able.

Daily Bible Study

December 13, 2016 Bible Study — Lift Your Hands In Prayer, Not In Anger

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 1-4.

    Paul instructs Timothy to stop those who teach things contrary to the truth and who waste their time on meaningless speculation. We should not spend out time debating things which do not us, or others, to live a life of faith. Instead, let us spend our time discussing things which help us, and others, have a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. The result will be that we will be filled with love for others and for God. To some degree, the sort of thing Paul is talking about is what rules, what law, we should follow. Rules of behavior, the Law, are not for those who do right. They are is intended for those who are ungodly and sinful. The Law, rules of behavior, is intended for those who do anything which contradicts wholesome teaching.

    At the end of chapter 2 Paul has instructions for Timothy regarding the role of women in the Church. He goes from there to discussing in the beginning of chapter 3 the qualifications for leadership in the Church. These two discussions are clearly linked. Paul writes that women should dress modestly. They should attract attention to themselves, not by jewelry, nor by elaborate hairstyles, nor by the clothing they wear, but by the good things they do. As I read this and started to write about it, I realized that Paul actually started this section with instructions regarding men. In verse 8 of chapter 2 (just before he writes what I just commented on about women) Paul writes that men should be in prayer, lifting up their hands without anger and argumentativeness. I believe that what Paul writes here as instruction for men and for women applies to the other sex as well. Women should be in prayer without lifting up their hands in anger and argumentativeness and men should dress modestly.