Monthly Archives: December 2016

Daily Bible Study

December 12, 2016 Bible Study — The Anti-Christ and Christ’s Return

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 Thessalonians 1-3.

    It is clear from Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonian believers that there were disagreements in the Thessalonian Church about Christ’s Second Coming. I suspect that the same people were involved in this as had been denying the resurrection of the dead (which Paul addressed in the first letter). Paul wrote that Jesus’ will not return until after the “man of lawlessness” has been revealed. This is perhaps the most specific of all of the prophesies regarding the Second Coming. Paul seems to be saying that this “man of lawlessness” is a specific individual, the Anti-Christ (this passage is where the idea of a singular individual called “the Anti-Christ” comes from. Other references to anti-Christ refer to all who oppose Jesus as being anti-Christ’s). Paul refers to someone who will come and perform miracles, setting themselves up as God. Many people will accept this person’s teachings, which are contrary to the teachings from God. They will do so because they do not want to accept the truth which comes from God.
    It is certainly clear to me from reading this that Paul was referring to a singular individual who would come at some time in the future. However, it is possible that Paul was mistaken. It is possible to understand the words which he actually wrote to refer to a time when people in general do not accept lawful behavior and consider themselves to be gods. Certainly it is reference to a time when people reject God’s truth in favor of lies and deception. I believe that there will be a singular Anti-Christ before Christ’s return, but we should not become complacent because he has not yet appeared. Christ’s return will be sudden and unexpected by most. I will choose to believe that it could happen tomorrow.

Daily Bible Study

December 11, 2016 Bible Study — Do Not Be Surprised By Jesus’ Return

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 Thessalonians 1-5.

    Paul starts off his letter to the Thessalonian believers by reminding them of his first visit to them and praising them for their faith. He describes how he first preached the Good News to them. When he taught them he taught them with words and with power from the Holy Spirit. They came to believe what he preached in part because of the example he gave them in the way he lived. He did not use any deceit, or trickery. Paul, and those with him, were honest, devout, and caring towards those to whom they preached. They did not just pretend to care in order to get money, or goods, from the new believers. They demonstrated their caring through their actions and hard work. This is the model we should follow when we preach the Gospel to unbelievers.

    After spending much of this letter writing words of praise and encouragement Paul writes a few words of teaching. He reminds the Thessalonian believers to live holy lives, something he acknowledges that they are already doing. Nevertheless he thinks that it is important to reinforce that teaching. In particular that sexual sin is contradictory to living a holy life. Again and again in his writings Paul reminds us that sexual sin is the most pervasive, and debilitating, type of sin. It is the sin which most people will have the greatest difficulty overcoming.
    Paul goes on to speak about the resurrection of the dead. It appears that there were some who preached about Jesus who were denying that the dead would be raised. Paul makes it clear that the resurrection of the dead is an integral part of the Gospel, without the resurrection of the dead, the Good News is not good news. We should encourage each other in the face of the difficulties of this life with the knowledge that we will spend eternity with Christ. Paul tells us that the day of Jesus’ return, the day of resurrection for all believers, will be unexpected. No one will know what day that will be in advance. However, if we follow Paul’s advice to live a holy life, it will not come as a surprise.

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2016 Bible Study

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

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

    Paul starts off by declaring that the Good News changes lives. Each and every one of should think about and remember the ways in which our faith in Jesus has changed our lives from what they were. Once more I am challenged by Paul’s writing about how he has not stopped praying for the believers to whom he is writing. I do not pray as much as I should, nor about the things which I should. In addition to giving us an outline of the things we should pray for our fellow believers, Paul’s outline here provides us with a guide for our lives. Let us choose our actions so that they always honor and please God and bear fruit in all sorts of good works.

    Sometimes it can be difficult to reconcile Paul’s writings about not following human rules and rituals and his writings about the behaviors we should avoid. The hard part is in understanding how we distinguish between human rules and rituals and commands from God. However, if you read the beginning of chapter 3 and then come back to read the end of chapter 2 there is an insight to be found (or at least I found one). In the beginning of chapter 3 Paul tells us to put to death our sinful nature. He then gives us three categories of sin to get out of our lives. The first is sexual immorality and related sins. The second is greed. It is worth noting that almost every time (if not every time) Paul mentions sexual immorality he mentions greed. The final category consists of sins of attitude (anger, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language).
    When I then go back and read the end of chapter 2, I realize that the rules and rituals Paul is referring to are the ones that people use to excuse the sins he told us to avoid in chapter 3. “Oh, it’s OK that I defraud people as part of my week day business because I take Communion every Sunday.” Umm, no. “It’s OK that I use foul language because I go to Church every Sunday.” Umm, still no. We have been given a new nature, a new life. We are called to live differently. Whatever we do or say should be done as a representative of Jesus Christ. The question is not, “What would Jesus do?” although that is not a bad question to ask.

Daily Bible Study

December 9, 2016 Bible Study — Think About Such Things

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

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

    The first thing in this passage I want to write about is what Paul says about those who are preaching the Good News for base motives. Paul’s response about those who preach the Gospel out of selfish ambition in order to make him feel bad was the he did not care why they were preaching, so long as more people heard the Good News. I often turn that about. I do not care why someone chooses to come to a Church which preaches God’s Word, I have faith in the power of God’s Word to change people. This does not mean that it is OK to mislead people about what Church is about, or what some other program is about. If our purpose is to preach the Good News, let us be upfront about that.
    Whenever I think about this I think of a story from years ago. Some time back the Mennonite Church had an automobile insurance program. As a result of some of the beliefs of the Mennonite Church regarding lawsuits and other insurance related matters, the cost of this insurance was a lot cheaper than any other insurance that was available. However, one of the conditions of this insurance was that you had to be an active member of a Mennonite Church (active meant attending Sunday services on a regular basis, at the minimum). A man I know who was married to a woman who grew up in the Mennonite Church heard about this and said, “I can sit and be bored for two hours a week in order to save that much on insurance.” His Mother-In-Law said that was the wrong reason for going to Church. I agree with her in principle, you should go to Church services because of your faith in Christ, but I do not really care why you go to Church. I have faith in the power of God’s Word to transform people. On the other hand, if that insurance program had been set up in order to get people to go to Church, or if I had tried to convince the man to go to Church in order to get cheap insurance, that would have been wrong as well.

    The next thing I want to touch on is what Paul writes in the beginning of Chapter 2. I much prefer the NIV translation to the NLT here (although the NLT adds a nice twist to part of it). The NIV tells us to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. The NLT translates that as “Don’t be selfish and don’t try to impress others.” Let us do things because it is the right thing to do, not because we benefit from it or because others will think well of us for doing so. It is in the next phrase that I prefer the NIV. The NLT tells us to be humble, so far, so good (actually more than good, great), and think of others as better than ourselves. That last is where I disagree. I do not believe that God wants us to think of others as better than ourselves. He wants us to do as the NIV translates it and value others above ourselves. And the next sentence really sums that up. Rather than “looking out for Number 1, and Devil take the hindmost,” we are to look out for other people’s interests.

    For this last paragraph I am going to just quote from the passage:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Daily Bible Study

December 8, 2016 Bible Study — Be Renewed By The Spirit

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

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Ephesians 4-6.

    Paul discusses the importance of unity in the Church. There is only one Spirit, one Father, one faith, and one baptism. He calls for the Church to be united in the Spirit. However, this is not unity for the sake of unity. This is unity in Christ, unity in faith. As we grow into this unity we will not be tossed about by new teachings. God has given different gifts to different people in the Church in the service of obtaining that unity. Whatever gifts God has given us (spiritual or otherwise) were given to us to equip our fellow believers to do God’s work in building the Church. They were given to us so that we can build others up.

    In many ways the rest of the passage is about how to not be tossed around by every new belief. Or, to put it another way, it explains how to recognize beliefs which are consistent with the Good News taught by Paul and the other Apostles from the new beliefs we should stay away from. We are to throw off the life of lust and deception. We need to get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander. Instead, we are to be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving. Every time I read this passage I realize how much further I have to go to live my life as Christ desires.
    Paul tells us, “Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you.”
    And I go, “OK, I am tempted on those, but with God’s help I should be able to overcome.”
    Then he says, “Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you.”
    And I think, “Oh, that’s much harder, some of those stories and jokes are funny. I don’t want to be a prude.”
    However, as I have gotten older I have realized that I have a lot of respect for those people who behave as Paul instructs. The key difference between the people I respect and the “prudes” is that the people I respect do not talk that way, but never do anything to imply that they look down on those who do. That is what Paul is calling us to be like. Then he swings back around to recognizing false beliefs. They are those things taught by those who justify the above behavior.

    Yes, I desire to do what is good and right and true so that those around me may be inspired by my life. Not so that they admire me, but so that they glorify God. I am striving to be a person who lives a godly life without being a person who sinners, those who know that they sin and have no desire to change, are comfortable being around (I hope to inspire them to realize that one does not have to be boring to avoid sin). There is so much more in this passage, but I have run out of time.

Daily Bible Study

December 7, 2016 Bible Study — To Him Who Is Able to Do Immeasurably More Than We Can Ask Or Imagine

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

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Ephesians 1-3.

    Another passage with much more than I would try to cover in this daily blog. Paul starts off by writing that God has a plan to, in the fullness of time, unite everything under Christ. As part of that plan He has chosen us, not only did God choose us, He did so in advance. Further, God makes everything work together according to His plan.
    Paul then describes his reaction to learning about the believers in Ephesus. He immediately thanked God for them and started praying for them. I know that I fall far short on this one. From the time he first heard of them until the time he wrote this letter, and beyond, Paul prayed that God would give them wisdom and insight so that they would grow in their knowledge of God.

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    We were all dead because of our disobedience and sin. We followed the cravings, thoughts and desires of our sinful flesh which made us fully deserving of God’s wrath. However, as much as we deserved God’s wrath, He gave us life when He raised Jesus from the dead. We can take no credit for what God has done. We have been united with everyone who believes in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Let us remember that we were outsiders who God brought into His family. Now, all are invited into God’s family to live in unity in god’s love. God has chosen to use us to build a Temple for Himself with Jesus as the cornerstone.

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    As we embrace the unity which God has given us we can enter His presence with confidence, not because of our great worth but because of God’s grace. God will empower us through His Spirit to understand how all encompassing God’s love is, even though it is too great for us to fully understand. We can only begin to comprehend it by experiencing it. As Paul writes, God is not only able to do more than we can ask or imagine, He is able to do so by a magnitude that we cannot comprehend.

Daily Bible Study

December 6, 2016 Bible Study

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

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

    There are many lessons in the Letter to the Galatians and I am only going to touch on a few of them. Paul starts off by telling the Galatian believers that there is only one Gospel, there is only one way to be saved, to be reconciled with God. From this we learn that, while there are many paths to God, they all converge to faith in Jesus Christ. Different people come to this faith and realization in different ways. Paul tells us that he came to this understanding through direct revelation from God, but the conclusions he reached from that revelation were the same as those reached by those who had walked with Jesus and witnessed His ministry first hand.

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    One of Paul’s central themes throughout this letter is that one of us is not better than another. He repeatedly stressed how he was not impressed by the credentials of the apostles who preceded him, who had spoken with Jesus in this life. He points out how he even had to confront Peter when Peter was in the wrong. Paul does not point out this confrontation to build himself up, nor to tear Peter down. The point of the illustration was that even someone as respected in the Church as Peter could be held to account for his actions. The idea that no one of us is better, or worse, than another is the point Paul is making when he says that in Christ there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. He was not saying that those categories stopped existing, rather he was saying that, in Christ, they did not denote greater or lesser value.

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    Early in this letter, Paul emphasizes that our works do not save us. We will not be reconciled with God by obeying the Law of Moses (or any other system of regulations). However, towards the end of the letter he writes about living by the power of the Holy Spirit. He compares a life lived controlled by the Holy Spirit to one lived controlled by our sinful nature. He makes two important points here at the end. The first is that none of us are too good, or too important, to help another. The second is that we should focus on doing what God calls us to do and not get distracted by comparing what we do to what others do. What we do does not make us better than others, nor does it make us inferior to them. He reminds us that we will harvest what we plant. If we spend our time seeking to satisfy our sinful desires, we will harvest death and decay. If on the other hand we spend our time see please the Spirit, we will harvest blessings

Daily Bible Study

December 5, 2016 Bible Study

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

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 9-13.

    The passage begins with a reminder of the importance of giving, and of the blessings which God will give us when we do so. He reminds the Corinthians that the idea for a collection to help the believers in Jerusalem was their idea. If we enthusiastically promoted an idea to others we need to make sure that we follow through and do our part to make that idea happen. Paul goes on to remind us that the level of our reward will be commensurate with the level of our generosity. However, it is important that our giving be done willingly and happily, not because we fell obligated, or because someone embarrassed us into it.

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    Paul goes from encouraging the Corinthian believers to defending his authority as an apostle. I believe there is a connection between Paul’s reminder about giving and his defense of his authority. It seems to me that Paul was addressing those who claimed that his ministry in Corinth was designed to take advantage of the Corinthian believers. This passage is one where I do not like the NLT translation, it directs Paul’s towards disobedient individuals. Whereas the NIV and NASB translates what Paul says here as being directed at thoughts, ideas, arguments, and worldviews which are counter to those of God. Assuming that what Paul writes here is truly reflective of what the believers in Corinth thought of him, it shows us that Paul was, in person, a somewhat quiet man and makes me suspect that his sermons had a tendency to put people to sleep. If we are to take this passage at face value, and I think we should, Paul did not win converts on the basis of his powerful oratory.

Daily Bible Study

December 4, 2016 Bible Study — What Does It Mean To Be Christ’s Ambassador?

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

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 5-8.

    Paul tells us that we are Christ’s ambassadors in this world. An ambassador is someone sent on behalf of a sovereign to deliver that sovereign’s message to those who do not currently accept that sovereign’s rule. I want to bring up two important elements of an ambassador’s role. The first is that the ambassador is obligated by his sovereign to always act and speak in ways which bring honor to that sovereign. The second is that the sovereign will view anything said or done to the ambassador as if it was said or done to himself. So, as ambassador’s of Christ we are obligated to carefully consider ALL of our actions and words to determine if they bring honor and glory to Christ. And, when our actions do this, than anything which anyone says or does to us is directed at Christ, not us, and God will respond to it accordingly.

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    While Paul is explaining what it means to be ambassadors for Christ he writes some great lessons for us. We should act to bring glory to God even if that causes people to think we are crazy. Actually, the way I read it, if our actions are bringing glory to God there will be a large number of people who think we are crazy. However, there are times when we need to explain our actions and show people that we are not crazy. We do not do this for our benefit. Rather we do it for those to whom we are speaking. God has reconciled us to Himself. He has given us the task of showing other people how they can be reconciled to God. In order for them to accept this message they must see that we are not crazy. They must see that our actions which appear crazy are the logical consequence of the new people into whom Christ has transformed us. We no longer live for ourselves. Instead we live for Christ and our lives should reflect both the responsibility this entails and the joy that results from doing so..

Daily Bible Study

December 3, 2016 Bible Study — Our Competence Comes From God

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

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

    After his greetings Paul starts this second letter to the Corinthians (at least, the second that we have a record of) by telling us that God will comfort us in our troubles. I really want to unpack what Paul says here a bit. The first part is fairly basic. He assures us that when we face troubles, difficulty, and sadness God will comfort us. We have no need to fear the trouble we may see in our future because Paul assures us that God will be at our side through it all. However, Paul goes further than to tell us that we do not need to fear such troubles. He tells us that we should embrace such troubles as they come to us because once God has seen us through them we will be able to comfort and aid others who face such troubles. There is one more important point which Paul makes as he discusses the troubles he experienced. God allows trouble to come into our lives so that we learn that we must rely on Him. If we attempt to get through our troubles on our own, we will fail.

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    I like the wording chosen by the NIV better for the beginning of Chapter 3 (although the NLT’s phrasing is easier to follow). We are not competent to accomplish the tasks God has for us on our own. God did not choose us for the tasks He gave us because we had the skills He needed for them. It is only because of God’s grace that we are qualified to do the tasks to which He has called us. It is important for us to remember this. We are not going to convince anyone to come to God by our cleverness. We will only do so as the Holy Spirit moves in them. We are but weak vessels through which God delivers His power into this world. Again Paul makes another vital point. If we use tricks, deception, or cheats of any kind to get people to come to the Lord, we will fail. We need to remember that our goal is to benefit those to whom we preach (I am using the most general definition possible of the word “preach” here). Therefore we do not need to use trickery of any kind to get them to accept the message which God gives us for them. If and when God’s Spirit opens their eyes and ears, they will recognize the good that comes from turning to Him and allowing Him to transform them. On the other hand, if we use tricks and deception to convince them, when they see through out deception, as they will sooner or later, they are likely to believe that everything we have said was a lie. Let us trust in the plain, unadorned Word of God to convince people.