When Marcia initially asked me to write the devotions for this week, I briefly glanced at what the daily passages would be. When I saw some Corinthians, I remember thinking, Cool, I like Corinthians – it’s got some good stuff like the love chapter and resurrection chapter. Oh golly, did I underestimate the book of 1 Corinthians. I mean, I know Paul wrote some “hard to understand” things (2 Peter 3:16 NLT). I just didn’t realize, until today, I would have to write a response to some of these things.
Teaching, wisdom, and humility are some overarching themes in today’s text from 1 Corinthians chapters 1-4. Upon my first read through, I was stumped, and really wishing someone smarter than me had these chapters. I longed to search through my old notes from Bible college to see what my professor had to say. I have all my old notes – and Bob Jones, if you’re reading this, I have my handouts organized by theme in TWO collapsible file portfolios. 🙂 Unfortunately, everything is labeled somewhere in a box that has yet to be unearthed since my getting married and moving from Nebraska to Missouri. It then occurred to me I could spend hours diving deeper into the complexity of these four chapters with the aid of the internet. Seeing as it was 2pm Wednesday afternoon, Marcia needs my devotion tonight, and I’ve got a Thanksgiving Bible Study dinner at 5:30, I decided that wasn’t the way to go. So, I got out my interlinear Greek New Testament and started reading again, this time briefly summarizing the main ideas as I went. What I came up with was the Emilee Christian Simplified Version of 1 Corinthians 1-4. Doing this helped me better understand what Paul meant. I will share with you what I came up with, in hopes it does the same for you. This may be more informal than what you are used to reading – bear with me, please!
1:1-3: Paul and Sosthenes are writing a letter to the Corinthian church.
1:4-9: Speaking as Paul: I thank God for you. God loves you. God wants to use your church.
1:10-17: I hear you’ve been fighting – knock it off!
1:18-20: Earthly wisdom has no power against the cross.
1:21-31: God likes to use the weak and unexpected things of this world to further show His power. Side note – I particularly like this section and immediately thought of these four seemingly unexpected things God has used: a manger, shepherds, fishermen, and women as first witnesses to the resurrection.
2:1-5: When I came to you, I spoke in plain simple terms so you would understand that Gospel message.
2:6-11: I use more complex language while speaking to spiritually mature believers. This is different from worldly wisdom. Perhaps people were accusing Paul of using worldly ideas to explain the Gospel and this is his defense.
2:12-15: I’m talking about spiritual matters that do not make sense to those attempting to understand with worldly wisdom.
3: 1-3: Remember when I came to you I simplified things. I am still having to simplify things because your arguing and disagreeing is preventing you from understanding more complex spiritual thought.
3: 4-9: Summarizes what they’ve been arguing about. Explains that it doesn’t matter who brought you to the faith in Christ, what’s important is that you now have faith in Christ.
3:10-15: Christ is the foundation of our faith. Anyone may build upon this foundation by spreading the Good News. God’s judgment will reveal if one has done a good or bad job at expanding the foundation. We mere humans don’t need to burden ourselves with making those judgments.
3:16-17: The Church is God’s holy temple so behave and be holy – get your act together Corinthians!
3:18: Sounds like Paul saying he hopes the proud get knocked down a few pegs so they will in turn learn true wisdom.
3:19-20: Again there is a difference between God’s wisdom and the world’s understanding.
3:21-22: Don’t be boastful, don’t be prideful – all things belong to Christ who belongs to God.
4:1-5: It’s God’s place to judge.
4:6-7: So quit arguing about who is better – it’s not your job, it’s God’s.
4:8-13: Seriously, quit bickering over us Apostles! It’s rough enough out here spreading the Gospel we don’t need to deal with your infighting, too.
4:14:I’m not trying to shame you in saying these things, but you need to be disciplined because you are acting like children.
4:15-16:I feel responsible for your faith because I was the one who first told you about Christ – so I’ve got a right to call you out when you’re acting like children. Shape up. Do better.
4:17: I’m sending Timothy to help you.
4:18-21: I hear you want me to come visit, but is that what you really want? Because if I came to visit you now I would be mad and disappointed. Get your act together so that when I do come, we can have a good visit.
Food for Thought: I have to wonder if writing in lengthy complex statements was sort of Paul’s point. In trying to put spiritual things into the context and words of men, it seemed to me to make less sense. Is that a part of Paul’s argument? Perhaps Paul is demonstrating that to have complete understanding of God is foolish and what we should seek is to have faith.
Reflection Questions
What are some examples of what the world says is wise that God says is foolishness? When have you found yourself switching over from worldly wisdom to Godly wisdom?
If Paul came to your church, or wrote a letter to you, what might he say?
What arguments have you allowed to come between you and your brothers and sisters at church? What can you do to fix the problem?
The wisdom James is giving his readers sounds a lot like the wisdom given in the law of Moses (Leviticus 19), from the book of Proverbs, and from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7). I can’t think of a better devotional than to review it and what I believe it means so I can apply it:
Let not many of you be teachers, because teachers will be more harshly judged. Teachers have a responsibility to seek God’s wisdom about what they are teaching others so that they will not lead others astray. They are influencers. If you’re going to influence someone to follow God’s word, take care that you are seeking God’s wisdom about how to interpret it so that you can lead by example, like Jesus did.
We all stumble in many ways. But if we can learn to control our tongue, we can be a perfect person, able to control how we behave. Jesus did this. He only spoke what the father told him, and then did what his father said to do.
Like a ship’s rudder directs the whole ship, or a bit in a horse’s mouth directs the whole horse, so the tongue bridled can direct the person’s behavior. The tongue speaks what’s in the heart of the person; the person’s own will. If the tongue can be tamed, by seeking God for his wisdom about what to speak and then do, the person is letting God lead, or letting God’s will direct her, or walking by the spirit.
Practice using caution when you speak, seeking God’s wisdom about what you should say and what you should do like Jesus did, so that what you say is what you do, and what you do is what God says is good.
Again, just as a small flame can set a whole forest on fire, so the tongue is a small thing, that can send a person to the grave. If what you speak is not of God, you’re speaking of your own wisdom and doing your own will. When you do this, death is the end result if you do not get back on the right path.
Man has tamed all of God’s creation, and yet he cannot tame his own tongue. With it he blesses his father but then curses men who were made in the likeness of God. Let’s not let it be this way, friends.
Who among you is wise and understanding? If you are, prove it through your good deeds. Notice that it doesn’t say the wise and understanding should become a teacher, though that should be a prerequisite, I think.
If you are wise and understanding, it will be evidenced by your bridled tongue. You will be a gentle person, who does the will of God.
Deeds that are not good, or not wisdom from above, include bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. The behaviors involved with these characteristics are earthly, or demonic, and they create disorder and evil. They are deeds done with the motivation of loving oneself without a care for others.
Deeds that are good, from above, will be produced from people who are first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. These are deeds that are done for the good of others, for love’s sake.
The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. In other words, our goal is to sow the word of God in others peacefully, so that they too will bear righteous fruit; they’ll become people who also become righteous and are peaceful.
How many times do you see the opposite happen, especially online? I work from home, with fewer opportunities to spread the gospel face to face, but I enjoy doing it online. Others use this tool as well. Unfortunately, I think many keyboard warriors have missed the mark on this one. There seems to be a motivation of pride – to win an argument, with much quarrelling and name calling, rather than peaceful planting for love’s sake. If someone doesn’t want to hear your argument, shake the dust off and move on peacefully.
Chapter 4.
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? It’s your desire to please yourself, or for your own will to be done. For example, you lust and do not have, so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain what someone else has, so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have what you want because you do not ask. If you do ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you can spend it on your own pleasures.
You are supposed to ask to receive things for your own good and for the good of others, that is, God’s wisdom about whatever God says is good for you.
If you don’t, you’re like an adulteress, envious of something not meant for you, but you take it anyway to please yourself. When you do this, you’re a friend of the world, and an enemy of God, because you do the things opposed to his will and will therefore hurt yourself or others in the process with your own will/judgment.
He jealously desires his spirit to dwell in us, which prompts us to desire to do his will, not our own. Therefore, he gives greater grace to the humble, that is, to those who seek God’s help in making decisions (and then act on his wisdom about what to do).
So, submit to God for his wisdom. Resist the devil by resisting the urge to walk by the flesh (your own will) rather than the spirit’s urging, and the devil will flee. Remember that he fled from Jesus after his temptation because Jesus met him with this resistance. He told him he will do God’s will. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
Be humble people. Humble people cleanse their hands (stop sinning). They aren’t double-minded, they are seekers of one will, God’s. If they were sinning or seeking to please both God and man, they need to mourn and weep their sin and circumstance. Humble people will be exalted.
Don’t speak evil about your neighbor. This means do not slander; don’t charge someone falsely with malicious intent by attacking their reputation. When you do this, you have judged your neighbor as unworthy of receiving the royal treatment of love. When you do this, you have spoken against the law (of Moses (Exodus 20:16), but as it should be applied under the law of liberty) and become a judge of it, rather than a doer of it.
Instead of seeking God’s wisdom about your neighbor and what to do, you used your own wisdom to judge him falsely according to your own will. You will be put to shame, for there is only one judge, who is able to save and destroy.
We do this when we rely on our own will to make a profit as well. When you make your own decisions about what you’ll do to make a profit, or an abundance beyond what you need, and succeed, you become boastful. When you boast in relying on your own wisdom and will to make a profit, rather than relying on God for your provision and what to do with it, you’re being arrogant. Instead, seek God’s will in the matter, and do it. You don’t know what tomorrow holds for you.
If you know the right thing to do according to God’s will but do not do it, that is sin.
Chapter 5.
If you’re rich and store up treasures for yourself on earth without regard for reliance on God for your provision, nor using your abundant excess for those in need, your wasted rotting possessions will testify against you in the end (because you’ve decided to be the judge of how you’ll behave instead of relying on God’s wisdom to teach you what to do in various matters of this life).
The context here is about the rich who have been wicked, withholding the pay to those who served them in making their abundance. Like Abel crying out to God, the cries of those you’ve mistreated will reach the ears of the Lord, whom God appointed judge.
While you were enjoying your luxuries, those who worked hard but were treated badly were dying. You didn’t save them with your wealth by helping them with it. Instead, you condemned the righteous to death by withholding what could have helped them. They died without fighting against you for help.
Instead of being like this rich man, be like the righteous laborers. Be patient until the coming of the Lord, just as the farmer is patient in waiting for the precious produce of the soil to be ready. If you can be patient in thinking on the coming of the Lord whose time is near, it can strengthen your heart, and you can endure.
Don’t complain against brothers and sisters in Christ, so that you won’t be judged. The judge is standing at the door! I tie much of what I read about unrighteous complaining to the Israelite children in Massah and Meribah. They were judged for grumbling against Moses (and in turn, God) for bringing them out of slavery only to suffer in the wilderness, with no regard for the good God had done for them. They looked back at their life as a slave and thought it better than being free in the wilderness. This showed a lack of faith/trust and disobedience to God, as it was testing God.
As examples, this wisdom from God mentions the prophets of old, how they endured suffering for doing what was right in God’s eyes with patience and were counted blessed, especially the prophet Job. Those closest to him urged him to grumble against God for his poor circumstances. He never did. We know how it turned out for him in the end, full of God’s mercy and compassion. Take him as an example to follow if you are suffering.
Above all, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes and your no, no, so that you do not fall under judgement. I think this comes from Matthew 6:33. The Law of Moses says, “Do not make false vows, fulfill them to the Lord.” But Jesus says don’t make a vow at all. Let your word be good enough.
So why would this be above all? Because oaths in Jesus’s time were used to manipulate or test God. People would use vows or oaths in the name of God to get someone to do what they wanted them to do because they’d swear by God’s name. Don’t do this!!! I believe it is also part of taking God’s name in vain (e.g., “I swear to God I’ll do what I say”).
What’s in the heart of the person who swears by God’s name? It’s not to honor their commitment but to get what they want using God. Just let your word be good enough. Don’t test/use/manipulate God. He can’t be tempted anyway so you’re just condemning yourself.
If you are suffering, pray.
If you are cheerful, sing praises to God.
If you are sick, call for the elders of the church and they will pray for you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up.
Notice that if you are suffering, you are to pray, but if you are sick, you are to have someone else pray for you. I think this is because the sick person may not be able to pray as he would when well. But what follows should follow all who are righteous who pray; it should be a prayer like the Lord’s prayer, including asking for forgiveness of sins.
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. I don’t think this is strictly in context with someone who is sick needing prayers for sin. It should be a part of our everyday life as Christians, as we pray the Lord’s prayer together. The prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought before God, can accomplish much, just like it did for Elijah when he earnestly prayed for no rain.
If anyone among you strays from the truth and someone turns him back, know that the one who has turned a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Turning someone from sin is loving them. But be sure to be gentle when you do it. And be sure you don’t have a log in your own eye first (Prov 10:12; Matt 18:15-17; 1 Peter 4:8).
Our daily lives should involve helping each other be the people God wants us to be, working together to know and do God’s will. It will involve praising God together, serving each other, praying for one another, and helping each other abstain from sin or turning away from it. Lives are at stake.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Chapter 3 places a lot of emphasis on taming the tongue. I think this has to do with stopping ourselves to seek God’s wisdom before we speak and proceed to act on our own wisdom/with our own will. What do you think?
2. Chapter 4 seems to lump things we do that don’t seem too harmful (like quarreling) with things we deem very harmful, like murder. Jesus seems to do this too when he applies the New Covenant command of love to Old Covenant laws (i.e., don’t just refrain from murder, refrain from being angry with your brother). I think he does this to show us how to stop sin from “growing”. If you can cut off anger and love your brother, you won’t murder him. What do you think?
3. Chapter 5 made me think a lot. God is for the protection of his people. His laws are for our good and the good of others, yet he calls us to sacrifice our rights in order to save others. Others in turn are to sacrifice for us. How do you decipher when to speak up and act for justices’ sake verses staying silent and suffering unrighteousness done to you by others, knowing God will judge through Jesus in the end?
How do you want to be known? James calls himself, “a slave to God and to the Lord Jesus the Christ.” Though we’re no longer slaves, but friends of Christ, it is a great grand opening to talking about how to be perfect, which is in doing the will of God until the end of our lives (because we’ve become people who really want to)!
James is writing to the 12 tribes dispersed abroad, so in other words, he’s writing to Jewish Christians in various lands. I’m not sure what persecution was going on at the time of James’s writing, but we have seen in other books of the Bible that spreading the Gospel put a target on Christians. James gives his brethren what they need to endure whatever happens to them to the end of their lives. He gives them God’s wisdom.
James encourages his brethren to consider various trials with joy, as a testing of their faith, as it produces endurance, which results in perfection. These words point my thoughts to Jesus in the garden. What was about to happen to him was happening because others hated him for what he spoke and did, and they wanted his influence to stop. They were jealous.
Jesus was in agony thinking about the cross and thinking about the disciples and early Christians who were about to be scattered for his sake, that James may be writing to now. He endured the cross by thinking about what would be accomplished because of this final trial.
This is how you endure hardships for the Lord; you think about all of the people you will influence by following Jesus’s example so that they too can desire to love like Jesus and be saved. This perspective can bring you joy. Changing your mind to have this perspective during various trials is wisdom from God.
But if we lack wisdom about what to do, especially during hardships, all we need do is ask and God will be generous to teach us his ways. But we must ask in faith, without doubting.
We shouldn’t doubt that he’ll give us wisdom about what to do when we ask because he’s proven that he’s a good God and father, who teaches us his ways for our own good. A good father won’t give his children something that’s going to harm them when they ask for something they desire, right (Luke 11:11-13)? Of course not. He’s going to give them what they need (though it may not always seem like it, such as in the case of Jesus going to the cross).
If you doubt that God is going to give you wisdom for your own good, and instead will give you wisdom that will harm you or make your situation worse (e.g., Massah & Meribah), you’re showing him that you don’t trust him. You’re like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. You’re not going to get anything from him if you don’t trust him.
James goes on to teach the dispersed brethren a bit of wisdom that we can all heed. I think it is the wisdom of God that’s of utmost importance for us to follow as his disciples. We’re not given a set of laws we must follow in the New Covenant, but we are given wisdom. Let’s desire it like Solomon did and do it like Jesus did:
A poor man knows that God is his provider. He can glory in his humility (glory in that he seeks God’s wisdom for his survival). But a rich man that does not rely on God for his means and pursues what he wants for his own personal gain can glory in his humiliation. He’s not going to make it to the Kingdom of God without seeking the father’s wisdom about his provisions (or his abundance).
Know that this life comes with trials. Trust in God’s wisdom to get through it and let it shape you into the kingdom citizen God wants you to be, so that you won’t be a person that desires harm to come to anyone, rather, you’ll be a person who loves like his son. In the end, your crown of life will be waiting.
Understand that when temptation comes, it didn’t come from God. It came because our world has been shaped by people who didn’t always choose God’s will. It came because there is a devil lurking about, persuading people to choose to eat of the tree that’s choosing their own wisdom about what’s good and evil, and then they do evil, which affects everyone. It came because we ourselves don’t always choose God’s will. Our own lust breeds sin that will always lead to death. But choosing God’s wisdom about what we should do to overcome our lust (our own will) approves us as one who wants God as our judge when we do what God says is good.
Every good and perfect gift given comes down from the father above (meaning, it was given by God, and it was his will). It was his will that he brought us forth by the word of truth (his wisdom about creating us new in Christ), that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creation. So be the first fruits you were meant to be, as lights to the world like his son.
You already know God’s word, so put away what remains of filthiness in your life that will prevent you from seeking God’s wisdom and doing his will. Be quick to hear from God, slow to speak, and slow to anger so that you will be a person prepared to receive the word implanted, which is his wisdom about what you should do to save your soul (and your neighbor’s soul).
If you hear the word of God (God’s wisdom about what you should do) but then fail to do it, you’re like someone who looks at himself in a mirror (hearing the word only), but then walks away, forgetting what he looks like. I equate this with going to church, getting filled with the Holy Spirit to do God’s will, then forgetting that you are a child of God throughout the week, and that you were meant to shine for others to see through your works. We need to actually do what we hear. That’s the word implanted. It’s continually being filled by the holy spirit so that we can walk by it (action).
Instead of looking at yourself in the mirror, look intently at the perfect law of liberty, to love as Jesus loved, so that you won’t be an effectual hearer only of the word, but a doer. Notice in this example that there’s no walking away, in contrast to the mirror. You look intently at it so that you won’t walk away and forget. Your eyes are continually fixed upon the law that says to do something, for loves sake, to save others, just like Jesus did.
Bridle your tongue to let God’s wisdom about what you should do prevail and guide you (by being quick to hear when you ask, slow to speak so that you’re sure you’re speaking God’s will and not your own, and slow to anger – God’s will about what you should do isn’t going to be to tell you to get angry, for the most part, because anger does not bring about the righteousness of God). Your own tongue can deceive you into thinking that you’re doing God’s will, but it’s just lip service if you’re not doing what God says to do.
Pure and undefiled religion is in the doing of God’s will continually, instead of our own (which is sinning). Doing God’s will will keep us unstained by the world. For Jesus, pure and undefiled religion was laying down his life for us. For us, it may be to love orphans and widows in their distress by visiting them and giving them what they need. It can be loving anyone in distress by visiting them to help them, especially the brethren.
Don’t just do good for those who society favors. If you do, you’ve chosen to be the judge of who’s deserving of God’s royal treatment, rather than relying on his wisdom about it. God favors those who favor him, who are generally the poor, because they’re humble (they rely on God for his wisdom instead of the rich, who generally rely on their wealth).
If you show partiality by way of how you treat the poor compared to the rich, then you’ve dishonored the poor. And for what? The favor you show to the rich goes to people who oppress you. They are those who have no problem dragging you into court when an issue arises, and will there blaspheme your name to win a case against you.
If you are fulfilling the royal law from scripture (Lev 19:18), “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well, because that’s God’s will (and in so doing, you fulfill all the Law of Moses and the prophets (Mat. 7:12; 22:40 with the Shema)).
If you show partiality however, that is sin. It is sin because you’re using your own wisdom/being the judge of who’s deserving of God’s royal treatment (who gets your love and who doesn’t?). It is better to be merciful to the poor than to judge them unworthy of your mercy by way of how you treat them.
And if you sin in this way, you are guilty of sin and are convicted as a violator of the Law (of Moses, I think; but also of the law of liberty). Not showing partiality is a moral law we should still “follow” under the law of liberty because we want all people to enter the kingdom of God. Treating the poor as well as we treat the rich just may show them the love of Christ, planting a seed of faith/trust that will bring them to the kingdom.
Jesus explained how to do this with some of the laws from the Law of Moses in his Sermon on the Mount. Here it looks like James is doing it with the law against showing partiality. The wisdom from God then, is the same wisdom from God under the New Covenant regarding how to fulfill this commandment. It’s in loving your neighbor as yourself – not just the rich and influential.
Under the New Covenant, we are to speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty, serving all with God’s royal treatment (treat them how you’d want to be treated because you are motivated by love to get them into the kingdom).
If you committed the sin of showing partiality under the Old Covenant, you would have to repent by making a sacrifice to cover the sin. Under the New Covenant, you need to repent to your high priest Jesus (a much easier yoke), and stop showing partiality because you realize that you want the poor to know the love of Jesus and enter the Kingdom of God as much as you want to. If you don’t show them mercy, God will not show mercy to you on the day of judgment.
You can’t rightly say you have faith without works that are evident of your faith. Your works are how you treat people based on whose will you decide to follow. If someone says he has faith but no works, it is like telling the cold and hungry person who asked you for food to, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” without actually giving him anything. This is worthless if you don’t give him what he needs when you are able.
Belief that something is true is not enough for justification’s sake. Take the belief that God is one for example. The demons believe this to be true, but shudder. They know the truth, but their actions reveal that they follow their own will and oppose the preaching of faith in Jesus. They shudder because they know they are guilty before a powerful God and will face destruction soon.
Abraham (a Jew) had faith, and so did Rahab (a Gentile). They believed that God was able to fulfill his promises to them for their good (or that God’s people would fulfill their promise because of who their God was in Rahab’s case), and so they acted based on their belief. They are included in the promises of God because of this. Likewise, let’s prove that we have faith by our works, which are acts of love, proving that we are becoming a person like Jesus, who chooses to do God’s will for the good of all; for loves sake.
QUESTIONS
1. Do you think that the sins of others in times past have affected your walk with God? If so, how can you change that so that you will affect others with the good you do?
2. Do you think the Royal law is the same as the law of liberty/freedom?
3. If we are guilty of a sin (like showing partiality) under the law of liberty/freedom, how does our high priest Jesus differ in how our sin is handled from the high priest under the Old Covenant?
I have never been mechanically minded. I really don’t have a clue how engines or electronics work. I know gas goes into a car and electricity goes to a TV, but I don’t really know what happens after that. Inevitably, as a lower middle class family, something is bound to stop, break, and make a questionable noise. In these moments, I really don’t have a clue on where to begin. Thankfully, I live in the information age. Some saints out there have encountered the same problem and recorded a video of him/herself repairing it. Time and time again, I follow their instructions step by step, and, with a pretty good success rate, I make the repair without truly understanding every element along the way.
“He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.” – Job 9:10
“How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him? Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy.” – Job 9:14-15
God makes it clear that we neither have the capacity nor the clearance to know all the inner workings of what is to come. Job comes to this realization turned revelation that he isn’t, nor can he be, on the same level as God. God not only created the universe and its governances, but also actively works in it, ordaining His will upon man. His work is endless, infinite, and interconnected through the story of salvation. So when we are faced with trials, decisions, and repair, He alone is the expert that we turn to. Through His scriptures or through petition in prayer, God offers insight into a wisdom that transcends all others.If we want to know more, we, the branches, must stay connected to the vine, Jesus Christ. He has already given us revelation in the Gospels and through John, detailing the events leading up to the return of Christ.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5
“So my soul shall rejoice in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation. All my bones will say, “Lord, who is like You, who rescues the afflicted from one who is too strong for him, and the afflicted and the poor from one who robs him?” – Psalm 35:9-10
Conversely, we don’t have to understand it all. We can’t, at least not right now on this side of the Kingdom of God. We have to follow the Fixer in faith, knowing that picking up the correct part number and knowing the specific function are less important than the repair that needs to take place in our hearts to get us back up and running. In Psalm 35, David demonstrates this to us by calling upon the promises of God to sustain him and defeat his enemy. He doesn’t ask to know how to move the pieces, He only wants to know the Mover better.
He knows what is on the other side of the mountain, therefore the steps He chooses for us lead us to His Kingdom. If we never received a new revelation and if God never revealed His specific will for us, we already have access to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, alongside the prescription to live a life for Him. This is eternal, transcendental wisdom, and thank you God for revealing it to us.
-Aaron Winner
Reflection Questions
Do you spend enough time contemplating the majesty and greatness of God? What wonders and miracles can you thank Him for today?
How often do you try to raise yourself to God’s level – or lower God to yours? What are the dangers of each?
What wisdom has God already shared with you and how? What is currently beyond your capacity and clearance? Praise God for being who He alone is.
Today I want to focus on what is often called the “prologue” or “preamble” of John, or John 1:1-18.
Read any modern translation of this passage, and it will sound like the Word (Logos) is a person. If it is read this way, then it seems to be communicating that this person was with God from the very beginning, and was actually God. This person created everything and was active in the world and with his people. Finally, in verse 14, this person became flesh and was among us as Jesus. It certainly sounds like this passage is saying God became flesh.
If that is the way you understand this passage, you are definitely not alone. Most Christians for a very long time have read it this way, and would probably say that Jesus is as much God as the Father (co-equal) and has always existed with him (co-eternal). The understanding is that they share a divine essence but are distinct persons. If you throw the Holy Spirit into the mix and hash out a few more considerations (possibly over centuries of bloody dispute), you have a Trinity doctrine.
If you’re reading this, then it’s likely you come from a Biblical Unitarian perspective, meaning you believe that God is one person (the Father), not three. But these words exist on the internet, so virtually anyone on earth or in space can read them. There is a chance you have a Trinitarian understanding of God. If that’s you, please know I am not here to criticize your beliefs. The times and places for that are few and seldom fruitful.
Let’s do an interpretation experiment. By making a very small shift in perspective, the passage reads quite differently. What if we thought of the Word not as a person, but as a personification? Or, in this context, a literary device that imbues a non-person with qualities or abilities of a person. You know, like when opportunity knocks, fear grips, or sin crouches.
If we think of the Word as a thing that is being personified, what is the thing? We could spend lifetimes diving into this question, but for the purposes of our experiment, let’s approximate it to the wisdom of God.
Is this too far of a leap? I’ll leave that up to you, but I want to mention that there is scriptural precedent for personifying God’s wisdom. Proverbs is a hotbed for this kind of language (see 1:20-33, 8:22-31, 9:1-6). Also, the adventurous and curious (nerds!) can find many examples of personification of God’s wisdom in the deuterocanonical writing called Wisdom of Solomon. It is likely not in your Bible, but if you have Catholic friends, it might be in theirs.
So, what does the passage look like if, when we encounter “Word” in the text, we think of the wisdom of God? It might be understood something like this:
God’s wisdom was right there with God from the beginning. The wisdom of God is God, since you wouldn’t think of his wisdom as something separate from him, but as a quality or extension of him. God created everything through his wisdom. God’s wisdom is life and light to his people. John the baptizer came to testify to this wisdom and prepare the way for it to come in a new and powerful way. God’s wisdom was in the world, and not everyone recognized or accepted it, yet those who did became children of God. And now God’s wisdom has been “made flesh” in Jesus.
If we look at the passage from this angle, we are less likely to come away with the conclusion that God somehow became human, and more likely see Jesus as the human who uniquely embodies divine wisdom. Jesus is the culmination of the entire Hebrew wisdom tradition, the target of the arrow passing through the Pentateuch, the Prophets and the Writings. He is close to the Father’s heart, making Him (Jesus’ Father and his God) known to us, and representing him more closely than anyone ever could. Some would call this Wisdom Christology.
When I encountered this interpretation, it clicked for me, and I found it helpful for making sense of the passage. I offer it not as the one true interpretation that you should also adopt, but as one of many possible interpretive options. I’m very glad if it is as helpful to you as it was to me, but if not, thanks for considering it.
-Jay Laurent
Reflection Questions:
1. John’s gospel begins very differently than the other gospels. What do you think was John’s motive behind beginning his gospel with the Word?
2. God reveals his wisdom in many ways, but most notably through Jesus. What are some other ways?
3. From later in the chapter in verse 45, what do you think Philip means when he says they’ve found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about?
4. What are some issues/problems created by having a human God?
I struggle with the book of Job. I come to the end of it anticipating answers. I’ve read it before, and I didn’t find answers then, so why would I expect answers this time? Maybe I will read it enough times that the key to all of it will suddenly spark into my understanding. But I could be asking the wrong questions. What if the author of Job wasn’t trying to answer the questions I care about? Is it still fair for me to excavate it for the answers I want?
If I was going to judge the book of Job like I would a television series, I would say it got canceled and they had to scramble to figure out a way to end it in the last episode. But there were too many details and connections to squeeze into one episode. There are only so many options in that situation, and none of them are good. So the producers of The Job Show, driven by the fans’ need for closure, opted for the fairy tale ending where some magical element swooped in out of left field and restored Job to his former glory. Then nothing really had to be explained. It was tied up with a bow without the need to craft all the right connections.
Somehow having two Ferraris to replace the first and getting a replacement family doesn’t feel like closure or justice to me. Really, I’m happy that Job had a great life after all of that, but that doesn’t wipe away the lingering questions.
Probably the biggest question everyone has about the book of Job is how a good and loving God can allow such terrible suffering. In Job, it is even more problematic, because God is making some kind of wager with the accuser and giving him permission to take everything from him. It doesn’t really take God off the hook to say that technically he didn’t do anything to Job. It sure sounds like Job was a chip being pushed out into the middle of the table during a divine poker game.
Another uncomfortable question is about the satan/accuser. The assumption might be that he is the bad guy, and that if justice is done, he should be dealt with. But he isn’t dealt with. He’s not important enough to even mention as the story comes to a close. It isn’t clear at all from the text that he is supposed to be understood as being evil. It sounds like he is just fulfilling a role of someone on God’s staff responsible for playing devil’s advocate, to enact checks and balances against God’s policies.
Short of having good answers for these questions, the next best thing I can do is suggest that they were probably not on the radar of Job’s author. The book of Job is not really about why we suffer or where suffering comes from, although Job’s suffering is like the emotional setting of the story. It isn’t about who or what the satan is, nor about his relationship to God. Not that these are not important questions! It’s just that the author of Job didn’t set out to address them. I think the real questions on the table are more about God’s wisdom and justice, and that the events at the beginning of Job serve to propel us into a hypothetical situation where we can sandbox the questions with Job and his friends.
In all the haste to bring the series to a close, there was time for a good bit about Leviathan. He’s a chaos water-dragon type of creature that we are apparently completely powerless against. You could take him to be a representation of our deepest fears and unknowns. How do we face such absolute terror? And if God is his creator, how much more terrifying must God be? Just imagine that we are like ants to Leviathan, but Leviathan is just a tadpole to God. Just a tadpole in a drop of water on a rock orbiting a star, somewhere within a galaxy of billions of stars, somewhere among billions of other galaxies. Do you feel insignificant?
After reading Job, we are left feeling small and with more questions than we had before reading it. Our status is upset from expert to beginner. This is a good place to be. This is humility that can lead to wisdom. God didn’t inspire the author of Job to answer all of our questions or connect all the dots for us. God is prompting us to ask bigger and better questions.
God trusted that Job would endure the most severe unrest and still serve him. Job was somehow able to trust that God was a God of justice even though he didn’t have the evidence we’d all require to do the same. Can I really trust that ultimately God will set everything right? Am I willing to accept that I most likely will not see all of this happen in this lifetime? Can I accept that God has the wisdom to enact true justice in his time, to his standards?
Little did Job know that having his riches restored was only a small taste of God’s restorative justice. Our ideas of what justice, goodness, and love look like are so tiny compared to the true versions of these that come from God.
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.” (Psalm 89:14)
-Jay Laurent
Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway at Job 41-42 and Psalm 89
These two short chapters make me very glad for the American political system. Before I talk about what makes our system so good, I need to talk about the system in place in the passage that we read. Chapter 20 marks the end of the reign of a good king, Hezekiah, who accomplished many good deeds in the name of God. He was an iconoclast, one who destroys religious images (as an aside, archaeological evidence confirms the iconoclasm of Hezekiah’s age, very cool). He also increased the size of the Judahite kingdom and made it into a power on par with that of the Assyrians and Babylonians. Of course, all of this was made possible by the God who went before them in battle. Of all the kings of Judah, Hezekiah can be counted among the best, and under the guidance of a king such as he, a monarchy isn’t such a bad deal.
But when your good king is replaced by a 12-year-old tyrant, things aren’t so good. Manasseh reversed all the progress that Hezekiah made toward ridding Israel of idols and images of foreign gods. Manasseh turned away from God and brought Judah down with him. This is the power of a king. If he is good, then he can accomplish great things! But if he is evil, then he can accomplish even worse things. Somehow, Manasseh survived for fifty-five years as the king of Judah. Being a murderous beast of a man can certainly turn people away from the idea of overthrowing you. Luckily for the people of Judah, his son Amon was a bit more of a weakling, giving his advisors the opportunity to assassinate him.
This is the problem with monarchies. Everyone loves a prosperous generation under a king who does good, but if you are unfortunate enough to have a bad king (and there were a lot of them in Judah and Israel’s history), then the only way to get back on the right track is to murder the guy. Luckily for the Judahites, the next in line to the throne was an 8-year-old boy who ended up becoming arguably the greatest king of Judah. I wish I could talk more about how impressive Josiah is, but our passage cuts off just before his reign begins.
To summarize: a good king is great, but a bad king can only end in bloodshed, in the form of his people’s lives or his own. God knew this when he told Samuel that establishing a kingship was a bad idea. But God let the people have what they wanted. John Locke, a 17th century political philosopher whose thoughts helped lay the groundwork for the American system, knew this and argued against it in his treatises. The American system is designed to move slow, to never be controlled by one person long enough to do lasting damage. In America, you don’t have to wait a generation just to see political reform. Maybe if you are terribly concerned with nominal tax rates and zoning laws, then you can be frustrated with the snail’s pace at which the American political system moves, but the great advantage that we have in America is the lack of despotism and regicide. This alone gives you great reason to be happy to be alive in 2020 and not in the 8th century B.C. Let us thank God that the founders of this country were men of God who believed that each person is endowed with the spark of the Divine which is the source of our authority over our own lives, thus freeing us from the whims of tyrants like Manasseh.
Disease, murder, rioting, losing your job. There is a lot happening in our country right now that weighs on the heart. Those are a few things that are affecting the whole country, but don’t forget about loved ones dying, car accidents, fights, floods, financial strife, break-ups, and a whole host of other bad things that happen to people every day. How can we possibly stay happy when so many lousy things are happening in our lives?
Proverbs 15:15 says that a miserable heart means a miserable life, but a cheerful heart fills the day with song. You might think that the verse is only stating the obvious; if I feel sad, I am going to live a sad life, and if I feel happy, I am going to live a cheerful life. However, this is a proverb meant to teach us, and it is trying to tell us that we have a choice as to how our heart feels. You get to choose if you have a miserable heart or a happy heart. You still might be thinking, dude, how in the world do you expect me to choose to be happy when my mother just died, or my best friend was just diagnosed with cancer? That is some heavy stuff for a person to deal with, especially when it involves someone you love so dearly.
I was having a bad day some time ago because of something happening with someone I love, and then it hit me. God loves this person even more than I do so I wonder what His day is like? Then it hit me some more. God knows and loves every person in the world and there are many millions of them dealing with bad stuff every day. I was down in the dumps because of the one person in my life, so God must have been super-duper down in the dumps because of all the people He loves so dearly that were suffering in some way. However, I knew that couldn’t be true. I just don’t picture God moping around up in heaven.
So how does He keep a cheerful heart? I know, I know, He’s God so He can do anything, and we don’t begin to have the capabilities He has. Though, I think there are two main reasons He is not overcome with sadness and these are reasons we can also be happy when bad things happen. First, He focuses on all the good things that are happening. His heart is made glad when He sees someone feed the poor, go to church for the first time, be baptized, or when someone praises Him for all that He is. In the same way, we can also choose to focus on the good things in life. Second, He knows what is coming, a Kingdom on earth where there is no more pain and suffering. There is not one bad thing that can happen to you that can take away your chance to be in the Kingdom if you have made the choice to accept the gift of eternal life. That reward FAR outweighs anything that can happen during this very short lifetime. All that bad stuff becomes quite insignificant when you realize it has no effect on your salvation.
Will you be sad if your mother dies? Of course, but it is your choice if you want to mope around for months or years and continually dwell on her death. Or you can appreciate the great memories you had with your mother and focus on what is good in your world. Hopefully, you can also look forward to seeing her again in the Kingdom after she gets done with her long nap. Those twenty or fifty years without her in this life may seem like forever, but that amount of time is insignificant when you consider you will get to spend infinity years with her in the future.
You may be thinking, what if my mother was not a Christian and will not be in the Kingdom? There is more sadness when that hope for her is gone. It seems like we will be sad when we reach the Kingdom and some of our loved ones are not there with us, but we know that there will be no sadness in the Kingdom. How can that be? My guess is that we will understand that justice needed to occur, and we will be ok with the punishment they received because they deserved it.
Bad things are going to happen to you and those you love, but you have a choice to be happy or not. Don’t dwell on what makes you sad, think about what makes you happy. Moreover, don’t let the bad parts of life rob you of the joy you can feel knowing that Jesus will soon return to establish the Kingdom for us for an eternity.
This chapter is very poetic and filled with a personification of wisdom. It is used to draw people in and make the writing more personal, and to have greater impact. I think this is a way of showing how important Godly wisdom is, and how important it should be to each of us. The idea that wisdom is calling out at the entrance of the city so that we can each hear “her” is an interesting idea. Obviously, wisdom is a virtue that we should aspire to, not a being. However, it is so important, and so beneficial to each of us, something that God desires each of us to have, it is as if wisdom is crying out to us, and we need to listen.
If wisdom is something that we aspire to, why do we need this chapter showing all the strengths of wisdom? Why do we need to hear wisdom calling out to us? Why do we need to be told again to heed instruction? This has already been stated multiple times in the first 7 chapters of proverbs.
Verses 4 and 5 say:
To you, O men, I call,
And my voice is to the sons of men. 5 “O naive ones, understand prudence;
And, O fools, understand wisdom.
Maybe this isn’t for all of us. We are all “men” (or people) and sons (or children) of men, but verse 5 specifically talks to naïve ones and fools? So, maybe this is just for people who aren’t getting it yet. But, maybe if we are thinking it is just for the naïve or fools, we are being naïve and foolish.
Verses 7 and 8 say:
“For my mouth will utter truth;
And wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8 “All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness;
There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.
When I look at this, I have to admit that not everything I say is done in righteousness. I say things out of anger at times. I say things at times when I should jut keep my mouth shut. So, I still need help with wisdom.
I can read through this chapter and point out things in nearly every verse that shows how important wisdom is. We obviously need to be reminded of this often, based on how often it is written about. I encourage you to read through this and pick out each of these items. The end of the chapter summarizes why we should do this:
“Now therefore, O sons, listen to me,
For blessed are they who keep my ways. 33 “Heed instruction and be wise,
And do not neglect it. 34 “Blessed is the man who listens to me,
Watching daily at my gates,
Waiting at my doorposts. 35 “For he who finds me finds life
And obtains favor from the Lord. 36 “But he who sins against me injures himself;
All those who hate me love death.”
Wisdom comes from God and will only be gained when following God. This will lead to eternal life. If we turn away from wisdom, we are turning away from God, and that leads to death.
Have you ever read or watched a news feed of any kind and thought to yourself, “Wow, why is the world such a messed-up place?” Odds are you have had these thoughts or said this not just once but many, many times! Unfortunately; we live in a world that is covered in disgrace, selfishness, and unkindness. These things become evident as we look at the world around us and wonder at just how far some have fallen. When we ask how the world got this way it is not a new question and it does not require a new answer. It is an answer that James wrote about a long time ago on a continent far far away (sorry, back on target).
In James 4:1 he asks the question, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” Why are you fighting all the time?!? When he wrote this it wasn’t in the time of instant communication that we have today. He couldn’t use snapchat, private messenger, or even email. Because it would take weeks or even months for responses to go back and forth, he asks the question and immediately supplies the answer. Isn’t it the pleasures that wage war in your members? Have you ever thought of your pleasures as waging war within yourself? If not just think how much you long for the latest and greatest, even when what you already have works just fine. Even more when you go to replace something that is broken.
My phone broke about a month ago (completely stopped working) and I was faced with the question do I replace it with a new model, attempt to repair the old one, or get a refurbished replacement of the currently broken phone at a fraction of the cost of a newer model. There is a part of me that has always been fascinated with the newest electronics and the new features (after all – I want my phone to be the best, right?). As I was weighing my options I continued to see the latest models waging war against my budget. I reasoned with myself, “It will get updates longer if I get the newer phone, it will have better features.” The fact of the matter is my phone that had just died served me quite well for nearly three years, I know all of its settings and have cases, chargers, and screen protectors that I have already purchased sitting at home. I also get all of these benefits for a quarter to a third of the price. After attempting to have the old phone repaired I finally received the refurbed phone and am quite happy with my decision. All of that to say that I am quite familiar with my desires waging war within me.
He says you lust and envy and it leads you to strife and disagreements, even to murder. He then goes on to say that the only reason you don’t have is that you don’t ask. Jesus said if you seek you will find, we merely have to ask. In verse three we find that just because we ask does not mean we will instantly have the desires of our hearts. If I ask with self-serving motives I will not receive, but if I am needing wisdom to better serve God it will be granted. If I focus my desires and friendship on the world and its pleasures I show myself to be serving stuff, NOT God.
In verses 6 and 7 we find that God gives grace to the humble and we are to submit to Him and His desires because of His mercy and grace. James then says the devil will flee from us if we resist him. That is a magnificent piece of information if you have ever felt tempted to serve your own desires instead of God’s desires!
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8
Do NOT let yourself fall into the trappings of this world that say you can be a slave to the latest and greatest and still serve God, we can have but one master. Do not be double-minded, only serve the things of God. Philippians 2:3, 4 tell us to treat others as if they are a higher priority to us than ourselves, and verse 5 tells us to have the attitude that was in Christ. It is amazing how much this spirit can set us free from the struggles this world consistently brings about. After all, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
James also warns us of the arrogance that comes from assuming we know what is going to happen. He reminds us that our lives are in the hands of God. What better place is there to rest?
Let’s rest in His hands and find the freedom that only He can provide!
Seek Grow Love 