The book of 1 Thessalonians covers a lot. Shout out to the Wednesday night Bible study group at Jaynes Street in Omaha, NE and Pastor Isaac! Last Spring we took our time diving into all Paul had to say in his letter to the church in Thessalonica. This sparked some great discussions and I recommend a deeper study into this book. While reading through it this time around, I was struck by one theme in particular: unity. We live in a world with so much division. In this letter, Paul urges us to get along with everyone and gives us a few pointers on how to do so.
First, Paul advises us to “live a quiet life, minding your own business” (4:11 NLT). It’s interesting how this comes after his instructions for holy living. In yesterday’s reading we saw Paul correcting a group of people for their unholy idol worship and leading them in love towards the truth. Christians are given clear instructions to be ambassadors for Christ, sharing the good news. I believe there is a right way and a wrong way to go about doing that. Basically, avoid causing drama for drama’s sake. If you want to offer your opinion, make sure it is done with the right heart and mindset. Treat others with dignity and respect. Let that be the first thing people notice about you, rather than preachy words for holier living.
It is clear from this letter, and others, that a strong work ethic was important to Paul. Paul was proud of his ability to support himself through his tentmaking trade while he was a missionary. He urges believers to “work with their hands…then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others” (4:11 & 12 NLT). I believe Paul is wanting the church to take an active role in society, not a passive one. We can be a people set apart, holy, and chosen by God while still serving the unchurched.
How do we do this? How do we live transformed without shunning the world? It’s quite easy, actually. “Be patient with everyone” and “do good to each other and to all people” (5:14 & 15). I hope my sarcastic humor is coming through these typed words. It is certainly not easy to remain patient with all people. Simply put, there are a lot of idiots out there – ourselves included. God has remained faithful and patient with us. Give this patience to others. Even those with whom you disagree. Yesterday, Paul approached the Athens people with patience. He didn’t accuse them of pagan worship, but rather approached them as a group of misunderstood people whom he sought to lead towards truth. I wonder what it would be like if we treated those with differing ideas from us as toddlers who truly know no better.
Finally, there was one place where the theme of unity struck me the most, in reading Paul’s words for the hope of the resurrection. This might seem an odd place to find unity as there are differing end of life and end of time doctrine. Those in the church of God Conference know this especially all too well. While passages like this seem to support a sleep of the dead theology, Paul’s intentions for writing these words on the resurrection were not so much to teach as they were to encourage. The hope of the resurrection is not meant to cause division but to encourage us in the future glory we will share with Jesus. The timeline and order of events is not as important as the actual event. We know that there will be a day where we will be with the Lord forever. THAT is our hope. This is not to say that the when, the where, the how, are not also important, but they don’t seem to be Paul’s focus of his resurrection writings to the Thessalonians. More than once Paul mentions how he doesn’t need to write to the church about such things as they are already aware (5:1, 5:4). Rather Paul says he is writing about the resurrection to “encourage each other” and “build each other up” (4:18, 5:11 NLT). Until today, I had only looked at this resurrection passage as supporting a particular doctrine. When I read Paul’s closing statements as to why he wrote such things I was hit with the sad realization that we as Christians, myself included, have allowed the hope of the resurrection to be a dividing point in our faith rather than something that unites us.
Reflection Questions
I challenge you today to look for ways you have allowed divisions to occur between you and others. How can we take Paul’s instructions for unity and apply in our lives, today?
How do we live transformed without shunning the world?
Prior to the New Covenant, the Jews were like slaves to the law, in the sense that children are slaves to their parents’ rules until the time has come to set them free to do what they’ve learned is right without their parents’ involvement. This is what Paul is trying to reiterate regarding the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ/law of liberty to the Galatians.
When Jesus ratified a new covenant with them (and us), the Jews were set free from the Law of Moses in the same manner that a child is set free from her parents’ rules/laws once she becomes an adult. Because Jesus came, the Jews are now free to walk by faith like Abraham did, without a law to teach him what to do, but with God’s wisdom about what to do, having already learned what is good from their “childhood.”
To make this point clearer, think of the things you still do as an adult because your parents taught you well when you were a child, like holding the door for the person behind you, or waiting patiently for your turn while in line, etc. They’re not things that you’re doing because you’re still under your parents’ rules and will receive consequences from them if you don’t (or do). They’re things you’re doing because they’re ingrained in you to do from their discipline of you, and because you’ve learned that they are good practices to help you live well (to keep yourself and others from harm and to do good to others).
If you engage in the good things your parents taught you once a “free to do as you please” adult, you will probably do well in life. If not, you will understand that you’re not really free, you’re just not under your parents’ authority anymore. They’re not going to be the ones providing you with consequences for your actions because you’re not under their yoke. You’re under a free society’s yoke – one that obviously still expects you to do what’s right so that you won’t harm yourself or others.
And there will be some behaviors that you’re no longer expected to engage in in your free society, such as not talking to strangers. Though your parents may have taught you to heed this rule when you were under their yoke to keep you from harm, it no longer applies in your free society. The opposite is actually expected for love and respect’s sake.
If they (and we) now identify in Christ, they are free from the Laws of Moses (free from their “parent” Moses’s rules), its consequences, and its authority. They are adults, free to serve God without specific laws about how they must live, beyond what their new authority Jesus says to do, which is to love as Jesus loved, giving the world the royal treatment (love your neighbor as yourself).
What’s ingrained in a Christ follower is the Holy Spirit, not the laws from the Law of Moses. It is the Spirit that writes the law (of Christ) on our heart, urging us to do what pleases God. If we (both Jew and Gentile) listen to the urging of the Spirit, we are walking by the Spirit and pleasing God. If not, we’re walking by the flesh and pleasing ourselves (sinning/choosing our own will).
We will reap what our behavior sows in the end, either to the flesh, which leads to death, or to the Spirit, which leads to life. Jesus, our authority under the New Covenant, will be our judge.
So, how have you been doing in loving God and loving people?
If you don’t know how to love like Jesus, ask God for his wisdom about how to love your neighbor (and God), or what actions you should take to love them. His desire is to give you his wisdom about what to do when you ask.
First Corinthians 1:30 says that Jesus has become wisdom for us, so look to him for wisdom; look at his words to help you to know what God’s will is. Look at the people that Jesus entrusted God’s word with, like Paul. At the end of almost all of his letters, he gives those he’s writing to some practical application in how to love like Jesus. James gave us a lot too!
The more we follow the urging of the spirit to do God’s will, the more we become like Christ and will do God’s will. Becoming this type of person takes time, molding, and shaping. There will be times when we miss the mark and wander off the path. Isn’t it a blessing though to be under the law of liberty, free to make mistakes without the consequences from the Law of Moses when we do? What a burden that would be! Thank God that we won’t receive the consequences from the Law of Moses when we miss the mark on our race.
Under the New Covenant, God urges us to restore one who’s wandered off, gently, as consequence. We must help each other stay on the path of righteousness and bear each other’s burdens, like Paul is with the Galatians in his letter. This is how you fulfill the law of Christ/the law of liberty.
So, should we follow the Law of Moses to be sure we are living well? No. We should read and understand all scripture, as it is all God breathed, “profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate” (2 Tim. 3:16-17), but we should apply what we read and do in light of the New Covenant we are under with our new high priest and mediator Jesus. It is a better way to live, with a lighter yoke. Jesus teaches us how to do this (seek God’s wisdom through him).
For example, before Jesus was crucified, he shared in the Passover meal with his disciples. The Passover was a meal shared to remember what Yahweh God had done for the Jews, leading them out of slavery from the Egyptians, to serving him. But at the last supper Jesus has with them, he tells them to remember something new when they have Passover. He says to remember him, remembering what he did for them in shedding his blood and breaking his body.
Gentiles don’t celebrate Passover, because it doesn’t apply to them. But many Christians do share a meal together once a year that they call communion, remembering Jesus’s shed blood and his broken body for us. God didn’t give Gentiles a law telling them they must celebrate Communion under the New Covenant, but his son told his disciples to remember him. We must remember what Christ did for us too.
Communion is a good practice to help us remember, but it is not a law we must abide by to be in Christ (identified as a Christ follower). What we must abide by is what Jesus said, which is to remember what he did for us.
It is easy to forget what Jesus did for us when we don’t engage in practices that help us remember. However, if a Gentile chooses not to remember Jesus’s blood and body every year, he is not condemned to not enter the kingdom of God. But each year he forgets about Jesus’s sacrifice, the more off track he may get, which can put him in jeopardy of not entering the kingdom of God at the end of his race.
And Jewish Christians no longer need to celebrate Passover/Seder. But it is okay if they do, so long as they’re not doing it to separate themselves from Gentiles as righteous. But when they do, it would be good practice to primarily remember what Jesus did for them, which is much better than what Moses did for them. If they don’t, they are not condemned to not enter the kingdom of God in the end, but the more they forget about Jesus’s sacrifice for them, the more off track they may get, which can put them in jeopardy of not entering the kingdom at the end of their race.
The Galatians (and we) should understand that teaching anyone, even a Jew, to follow the Law of Moses for the purpose of being identified as righteous, is wrong. It is a false gospel. Doing what Christ says to do is the true gospel, and it identifies you as a child of God in Christ. Faith in Jesus, with the faith of Abraham/of Jesus, identifies you as a true child of God.
Paul emphasizes his point with an analogy of two women from the Old Testament. Hagar was a slave, Sarah was free. The enslaved woman will have no part of the inheritance of the free woman, so the Galatians need to get this right. Lives are at stake.
When Paul first preached the Gospel to the Galatians, they were fulfilling the Law of Christ because of their great love for Paul, not only listening to him and receiving his teachings, but also taking great care of him while he was sick. They treated him like he was a messenger from God, like Jesus himself. Paul said if it were possible, they would have torn out their eyes to give them to Paul if he needed them. That is loving like Jesus. It’s sacrificial love. It is giving their neighbor Paul the royal treatment.
There is no law about what exactly we must do to love like Jesus the way the Galatians did at first. But we know that to love like Jesus when we see a brother sick and in need means doing something to help that brother. Think on the wisdom we received from James to understand (James 2:15-17). Your faith is worthless if you don’t give a brother what he needs, and it makes you a sinner.
Again, 1 John 3:16 tells us what loving like Jesus is, and that we should follow suit. This is how we know what love is, Jesus the Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay our lives down for our brothers and sisters. What this verse is saying is that love is sacrifice. We are to sacrifice our lives to love someone else, in all of our doings under our new authority.
For Jesus, it looked like living a sinless life and dying on the cross to save us. For the Galatians when they first met Paul, it was to take care of him in his ill state. Paul is now loving them by urging them to remember their first love (acts of love towards him when he had a need) in the rest of their doings.
There are many things that we can do to love like Jesus. We are going to need to seek God’s wisdom to know the specifics and be led by the spirit in our various circumstances, but we can all heed this bit of wisdom at the end of Paul’s letter to the Galatians to remain on the path of righteousness under the New Covenant through Christ:
Instead of allowing someone to enslave you with their false teaching, a good practice is to serve one another through love, like the Galatians did at Paul’s first preaching. This is the freedom they have in Christ, to do good until Paul without a law that tells them so.
We are called to freedom, but we should not turn our freedom into an opportunity to sin just because there’s no law under the New Covenant. Remember, there’s wisdom! The whole Law (of Moses) is fulfilled in one word, the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Under the new Covenant, this is also wisdom from God. But if you bite and devour one another, you may just be consumed by one another. You won’t be entering the kingdom of God if you’re doing this because you’re not loving your brother like Jesus taught. Instead, walk by the Spirit so that you won’t carry out the desires of the flesh.
The desires of the flesh (not God’s will) are whatever is opposed to the desires of the Spirit of God (God’s will). The spirit he put inside you urges you to do his will, while the flesh urges you to do your own will, or what you think is good for you to do.
If you want to know if you’re walking by the spirit or walking by the flesh, Galatians 5:19-21 gives you a pretty clear list of things that people do when they’re walking by the flesh. These are things that are going to harm yourself or others and if practiced (meaning ongoing without repentance), they’re going to make you forfeit your entrance into the kingdom of God.
Instead, walk by the Spirit’s urging about what you should do, and the fruit of the Spirit will follow. They are things that are produced by people who love like Jesus. If you want to know if you’re a disciple of Jesus, they’re great identifiers: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). If these characteristics are yours, you’re not under a law (you can call it the law of liberty if you really want to be under a law). You’re in Jesus’s free society (free to love like Jesus based on the needs of those you’re serving, based on God’s wisdom about it, not by a law outlining specifics you must do to be righteous).
If you are a Christian, you crucified the flesh with its passions and desires when you entered the New Covenant. I think this means that since becoming a Christian, you have decided to live by the urging of the Spirit inside you, as opposed to your former ways following the desires of your flesh, just like Paul proclaimed of himself. But if one of you practices one of those things from the flesh list, then your brother who is spiritual should restore you gently. Be sure the restorer is spiritual though, being sure the one restoring the brother sinning doesn’t have a log in his own eye to clean out first, lest he also be tempted. And bear one another’s burdens. I love how Paul basically reiterated how to fulfill the law of Christ in this situation using the same wisdom that Jesus used when teaching his disciples how to live from the from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).
Some more wisdom to stay on track to the Kingdom of God include sharing good things with the one who teaches you the word. If the one teaching you God’s word took time away from doing other things to support their family, then in return you should support your teacher.
Remember, God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, he will also reap, whether to the flesh (ongoing sin/your own will) which leads to destruction or to the Spirit (God’s will), which leads to eternal life. The one preaching the false gospel will reap what he sows.
Don’t grow weary in doing good. This can be a hard one with all of life’s ups and downs. I remember when I knew I was growing weary, so I cried out to God to help me keep going. He simply reiterated it back to me through the prophetic word of a dear sister in Christ, and then told me what to prioritize.
In due time, if we don’t become weary, we will reap good things. While we have opportunity, let’s do good to all people, especially those who are of the household of the faith. Amen!
I find it hilarious that Paul says, “See what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!” It sounds like he’s saying that he’s using Caps Lock to shout out to the Galatians this point: All who want to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. In other words, they’re not trying to teach you their false gospel to help you, they’re teaching it to try to help themselves.
Wouldn’t we all like to be able to say this after trying to reprove a fellow Christian, “I boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Circumcision and uncircumcision is nothing. What’s something is a new creation in Christ.” If you think and behave in a way knowing this, then peace and mercy to you who are now the Israel of God.
Reflection Questions
1. Have you witnessed the cry, “Abba! Father!” since receiving the Spirit of God’s son into your heart?
2. How did the son who was born according to the flesh persecute the one who was born according to the Spirit (Gal. 5 29)?
3. Gal. 5:1 says, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. What do you think “freedom” means in this verse? Freedom from what and to what? (I think it means a little more to a Jew than to a Gentile).
When I began reading Paul’s letter to the Galatians, I noticed that this bold man had doubts and fear that he wasn’t preaching correctly at times after his initial conversion. It took him 14 years (after an initial 3 + years to talk to Peter for 15 days) to talk to those of repute about the Gospel. I can relate.
We are called to preach the Gospel, but we don’t want to teach something that’s inaccurate if it leads others down the wrong path because lives are at stake. But that’s exactly what was happening with the Galatians.
The once fearful Paul boldly asks the Galatians who bewitched them, attempting to enslave them to a different gospel, which was a distorted gospel of Christ. The distortion was in teaching others to follow certain laws from the Law of Moses (commandments they must follow to be identified as righteous), instead of having the freedom in Christ to follow Jesus through the urging of the Holy Spirit to do God’s will. Paul goes so far as to say that the ones doing this should be accursed!
*Note, I believe the issue is not about salvation. You were saved (rescued) from sin and death and placed on the path of righteousness for the purpose of serving God through Jesus when you first believed. And you can’t “lose” your salvation. Said another way, no one can stop what was already done for you when Jesus rescued you (when you believed). But you can decide if you’ll remain on that path of righteousness (doing what Jesus says is right to do under the New Covenant terms) or not before you reach the Kingdom of God, when you’ll be saved from this present evil age.
Someone(s) was trying to lead the Galatians to look back to what was already fulfilled in Christ by teaching the Galatians to follow the Law of Moses, particularly to follow the law to be circumcised for the purpose of being made righteous, or as a member of the Jewish community. Though some may have been teaching this practice to save the Gentiles from Roman persecution that Jews were exempt from, Paul teaches them that it’s better to be persecuted for the sake of Christ than to be enslaved to the Law of Moses or to look back at our former life before Christ. We should all do well to remember Lot’s wife.
Aside from the issue dealing with circumcision, Paul recounts a similar issue when Peter was hypocritical, separating himself from eating with Gentile Christians in the presence of other prominent Jews (called “from the circumcision”). I believe this all happened after the record we read in Acts when Peter boldly recounted his experience with Cornelius, proclaiming that he was not to call any person unholy or unclean, and that God is not one to show partiality (Acts 10). This was really bad, as the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, which led others astray.
Paul goes on to help clarify why the distorted version of the gospel was so devastating to the true gospel.
Jews by birth who now identify in Christ understand that they are not justified by the works of the law, but by faith (trusting) in Jesus the Christ (i.e., they do things that Christ says to do because they put their trust in him to tell them how to do what is good, not in Moses/the Law of Moses). But if the Jews sin under Christ, they are just as guilty as the “sinning Gentiles,” as such they defined them when under the Law of Moses (this statement makes me think that the main motive for teaching the Gentiles to become like Jews was pride).
When you entered the New Covenant with God through Jesus, you died to your old man/old ways of living (sinning). If you rebuild what you destroyed (the sinning person), you are quite the wrongdoer indeed! For Jews wanting to rebuild who they identify in via following laws from the Law of Moses, they’re sinning! They’re nullifying the work of Jesus, and even worse, teaching new Gentile Christians to do the same.
Through the Law of Moses, Paul died to the Law, so that he could live by letting Christ lead him via the Holy Spirit instead of the old man he was, who followed Moses.
The Law of Moses was beautiful, just read about what David says about it. But it should not be forced on anyone as necessary to be righteous or a child of God. If you are a Jewish Christian or a Gentile Christian who would like to engage in behaviors commanded from the Law of Moses (those that weren’t meant to separate Jew from Gentile regarding your identity in Christ) because you think if applied, they can help you live well in this age, you can, because they will, if you apply them as you would under the law of liberty/the New Covenant, like Jesus taught. But part of how to do that would be to first ask God for wisdom about them so that you’ll be led by the Spirit, and not your own will in doing them (especially so that in so doing, you won’t lead others astray with your behavior).
For example, under the New Covenant, Jesus applies a new way of thinking to many of the laws from the Law of Moses using the new commandment of love (as he loved) as motivation for all that a Christ follower should do. So, instead of abiding by a law that says don’t murder from the Old Covenant, Jesus teaches his followers not to have contempt in their hearts for their brother in the first place. If they can do that, they won’t even come close to murdering their brother.
But how does one really do that? Did Jesus just make a new law for us to follow that’s even harder to do than refraining from murder? No, he gave us wisdom about how not to murder, and that’s by not allowing contempt to be in your heart in the first place. You read about how to keep contempt out from the word, such as by acts of love towards your brother before contempt can grow, by prayer, by turning the other cheek, by gently correcting your brother, etc. Seek wisdom from God about how to keep contempt out by reading the Bible and asking him. Then don’t be surprised when you get an urging from the Holy Spirit to do what God wants you to do to keep contempt out. He is a good and faithful God who will give you the wisdom you desire when you ask.
Through Jesus, God always gets at the heart of the issues that led to the Law of Moses, to shape people into those who do good because of love for God and others. But doing good for love’s sake even under the New Covenant doesn’t save you. Christ’s works saved you. Doing good once saved keeps you on the path of righteousness.
So, we must be careful not to enslave someone with our preaching of a law from the Law of Moses that we must keep to be identified as righteous since we are under the New Covenant. We are righteous when we do what is right. What is right is what Jesus says is right to do (1 John 3:7), as opposed to what Moses said is right to do for his time, or what the other gods who the Gentiles formally served said was right to do, or what our own will desires for us to do. If you want to know what Jesus wants you to do, read his words and ask via the Holy Spirit.
A good question to ask someone who tries to enslave others to keep the Law of Moses for the purpose of identification as righteous is to ask them what Paul asks the Galatians, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” If the answer is the latter, don’t force a yoke on someone that Jesus carried for us.
Or ask them this, “Does he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by works of the Law or by hearing with faith?” The latter of course is the answer. The righteous one will live by faith, like Abraham did. Abraham did what God told him to do without a law to tell him.
The point of this letter is to overemphasize to the Galatians that identification as righteous comes by way of faith (trust) in Jesus, not by faith in Moses (via works from the Law of Moses).
*Note, under the Law of Moses, before Jesus came and inaugurated the New Covenant, the Law of Moses did keep an Israelite on the path of righteousness, because that was God’s will at the time. But it could never save. Belief in Jesus’s work on the cross saves.
We mustn’t confuse faith in Jesus with hearing only either. We know what Abraham did to receive his title as faithful, with promises to his faithful seed. He did all that God commanded him (Genesis 26:5). Jesus is that promised seed, who did all that God commanded him. God made him both Lord and Christ. If we identify as “in Christ,” because of the works he did, it follows that we who have made Jesus our Lord by definition, will do what he says. Those are the terms we entered into under the New Covenant.
Why the Law of Moses then if what God promised to Abraham was what would last forever, as opposed to what God gave to Moses? The Law of Moses was added on account of the violations of God’s commands by the Israelites, until the seed would come to whom the promise was made.
I take this to mean that the Israelites weren’t living by faith (i.e., they didn’t trust God to be faithful to them, so they weren’t faithful to do what he said). They were sinning. They needed help to get on the path of righteousness. They needed something to guide them so that they’d live in such a way that it would be well with them and they’d stop sinning. They needed God’s wisdom about how to represent him well as his children, as lights to the world, rather than allowing them to continue to rely on their own wisdom about how to live (which never ended well). Even so, they still failed to be who God wanted them to be by doing their own will, and the Law of Moses came with a heavy yoke.
But since the promised seed has come, they are no longer in need of a guide (or a guardian to keep them on track) that separates them from the rest of the world who have decided to do God’s will. Instead, both Jew and Gentile under the New Covenant receive a guide inside them, guided by Jesus via the Holy Spirit. And it’s a much easier yoke to bear.
We have something in us that urges us to do the will of God. It urges us to do God’s will when we seek wisdom about it. We seek God’s wisdom about what to do because we’ve read his book and witnessed that what God says is good for us is good. We’ve witnessed that when people chose to follow the urging of their flesh to do their own will, their fall was great.
We’ve witnessed that God’s wisdom is found in the man Jesus, not Moses, because Jesus always did our father’s will, because of his great love for everyone (even his enemies). We’ve learned that everyone who desires to be like Jesus, a person who desires God to be judge over our lives so that no harm will come to anyone, will be saved. We’ve learned that God made that man Jesus our Lord who will do the judging in the end. We learned that no one can enter who desires to do their own will because it will affect us all. See this current age as example.
We don’t want to preach something that’s inaccurate, and we don’t want to fear preaching because we may lead others astray. Let’s start by asking God for his wisdom about what we should do, look at Jesus’s words, and do the things that the word says to do to be filled with the spirit so that we can walk by it/let it lead us, just like our Lord Jesus, because we desire life for all. But don’t enslave someone with laws they must do to be righteous. Show them how to love through your good works. To do that, seek God’s wisdom (it’s found in Jesus) and follow the urging of the Holy Spirit to do his will.
Reflection Questions
1. Do you think those preaching a distorted gospel should be accursed?
2. What is right is what Jesus says is right. What is wrong?
3. How did Abraham know what was right to do without a law to tell him?
Acts chapter 14 ended with teaching us that God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. In chapter 15, the disciples are met with a conundrum because some men from Judea were teaching that, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
I think it is good to remember that post Jesus’s accomplishments on the cross, most of the Jewish Christians were still behaving like Jews – they were still going to synagogues on the Sabbath, they were still preaching from the Old Testament (because that’s the scripture they had), and were still engaging in many of the activities that they learned from their culture that were good.
I don’t think that the Jewish Christians were ever told to stop “being Jewish.” But they were told to follow Christ, not Moses, when it came to doing God’s will. In the book of James, we read that they were instructed to follow the law of liberty, which I believe is in applying (doing) the New Covenant commandment to ‘love as Jesus loved’ to all aspects of our lives. He taught us how using several Old Covenant commandments in light of the New Covenant command of love. He learned how to do this from Jesus. Jesus taught in this way in his Sermon on the Mount (e.g., instead of murdering your brother, don’t even get angry with him).
I don’t think this means that we are to keep the Old Covenant commandments, nor even to do the things Jesus said to do (hear me out), AS LAW, that we must keep in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Rather, we are to seek God’s wisdom about a matter (such as with being angry with a brother), with the motivation that Jesus had to love the brother, in order to do what God wants us to do in the situation (God’s will) to save him.
Jesus’s words are wisdom for us, not law.
For example, there will be times when we are angry with our brother, and it will be righteous anger. We need to seek God’s wisdom to know when that is the case and what to do about it to save the brother (or the enemy). There’s much wisdom throughout the Bible on this topic. But there’s no specific law outlined for us to do under the New Covenant. We have the freedom/liberty to seek God’s wisdom in the matter to know what to do to help, and then are commanded to do it. For the most part, it will be what Jesus said to do.
Jesus says that, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15) – but we must understand what they mean and how they will apply to the situations we get in in order to do them according to God’s will. We do this by reading scripture (OT) and the word (the gospel; NT) for God’s wisdom, and then by doing what he says by way of the urging of the Holy Spirit. You’ll see this in action throughout the book of Acts.
Read the rest of John 14 and remember from John 6 that the Spirit gives life. “If anyone loves me (Jesus), he will keep my word; and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). “But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26).
There’s no law in the New Covenant about what commandments we must keep from the Old Covenant, as we’re not under it, but there is much wisdom we can learn about why God wants us to obey many of them (look at Jesus’s words to understand what he wants us to know and do). They (the commandments God wants us to know and do) are the things we should know about Yahweh God, his son Jesus, and how to love like Jesus in order to compel others to want what we want – God’s will to be done for our own good, because it will save us. It’s the Gospel.
The new knowledge the early Jewish Christians were learning (that they were no longer to separate themselves from Gentiles) was unfolding in many of the books of the New Testament for us to gain wisdom about. We get to see how they worked out this new revelation. We also get to refer to scripture from the Old Testament that prophesied about this.
*The wisdom of God will be found in the Bible, but the understanding of it, wisdom, we must seek by asking, by way of the Holy Spirit, so that we can do God’s will and not our own, for the good of all to save them.
Paul and Barnabas had a heated argument and debate with the teachers of the “circumcision to be saved” message (meaning it is okay, and good for us to debate to get to the truth). It was determined that they should go to Jerusalem to consult with the apostles and elders concerning this issue. On their way, they witnessed Gentile Christians who were doing well and bringing great joy to all of the brethren.
However, when they arrived in Jerusalem, some of the apostles and elders who were Pharisees but believed in Jesus, also said that the new Gentile converts must follow the Law of Moses and be circumcised to be saved. All the apostles and elders then came together to discuss the matter. After much debate, Peter gave a speech that I think reiterates what is needed to be a Christ follower. He said that God wanted the Gentiles to hear the word of the gospel and believe.
Whoever does God’s will according to the gospel will get a heart cleanse and receive the Holy Spirit (a connection with God through Christ, urging us to do God’s will (life) instead of following the urges of our flesh’s desire to do our own will (sin)). The receiving of the Holy Spirit was a great witness to the Jewish Christians of the truth in this matter.
Peter told those who would teach the Gentiles that salvation came by way of the Law of Moses that they were testing God. Don’t do this! We saw how it ended in Massah and Meribah when they tested God. Teaching the Gentiles to follow Moses via the Law of Moses was placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither their fathers, nor they were able to bear. Instead, believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus – all of us who enter the New Covenant through him.
Everyone listened silently as Barnabas and Paul relayed all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.
James, the brother of Jesus, and now head of the council in Jerusalem, confirmed what Peter said, drawing on Peter’s revelation from what God had foretold his people in scripture long ago (Acts 15:16-18; Amos 9:11-12). Therefore, it is his judgement that they should not trouble the Gentiles to keep the Law of Moses, but to abstain from things contaminated by idols, from acts of sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood. For Moses has been preached since ancient times in every city every Sabbath.
What does that mean? I think it means that James’s judgement is not to force the Gentile converts to keep the Law of Moses. But they should give the Gentiles some ordinances to help them live well among their new Jewish brethren in peace and in love.
These seemingly strange to us ordinances he gave were about the Gentile eating habits that could cause tension with Jews who would find it hard to eat with someone who ate meat they historically thought dishonored God. Gentiles were in the habit of eating meat sacrificed to idols, in horrific ways (involving sexual immorality and inhumane animal killing). Jews who heard the Law of Moses prohibiting such practices preached every Sabbath would find it hard to accept eating with a person engaging in that eating habit, though they are no longer yoked to separating themselves from Gentiles.
The church council is not creating laws that the Gentiles must follow in order to be saved. They are creating guidelines for them to follow to love their Jewish brethren, who may find it hard to stop segregating because of the Gentile eating habits.
After becoming of one mind on the matter, Paul and Barnabus were sent to the Antioch church with a letter to tell them about their judgement, along with select men who had risked their lives for the name of the Lord to reiterate these things by word of mouth. They were taking great care to help the new converts and Jewish brethren to understand why they came up with this judgement, which is also said to have come about by way of the Holy Spirit’s urging (Acts 15:28). It’s about loving God and loving people, helping them to live well with this change of lifestyle to stop segregation between Jew and Gentile under the New Covenant. The people in Antioch rejoiced because of the letter’s encouragement.
Chapter 16
In chapter 16, we find Paul’s missionary journey continuing. He and his companions were letting their journey to spread the gospel be led by the Holy Spirit. He did something seemingly contradictory to Timothy, but I think it was done with the same intention that the council had when providing Gentiles with ordinances to keep the peace in love at mealtime without segregation.
Paul circumcised Timothy so that the Jews would initially accept him as the word of the Lord was preached, particularly the part of the good news that the council came up with to be sure the Jews wouldn’t put a heavy yoke on the Gentiles, while also helping the Gentiles to be loving with their eating practices to help the Jews stop segregation. It was likely a wise, loving thing to do to aid in the spreading of the gospel, urged by the spirit. As they did this, the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were growing daily.
They continued to let the Holy Spirit lead them on their journey. It prohibited them from speaking the word in Asia and a few other places. It led them through a night vision to Macedonia. As a result of doing this, they met a worshipper of God who opened her heart to respond to the things taught. Her response was to pay for their journey to continue spreading the gospel.
They ran into some hiccups along the way, like being beaten and thrown into prison in chains, but this unjust trial was a blessing in disguise. While in prison, they prayed and sang hymns of praise to God while all of the other prisoners listened. An earthquake threatened the life of a jailer, as it unchained all of the prisoners. He was about to commit suicide, assuming he had failed his job by allowing prisoners to escape, but none tried (likely urged to stay put by way of the Holy Spirit). Instead of committing suicide, he asked them how to be saved (I’m sure all of the other prisoners were saved that day too!).
This is what our lives should be about; Saving lives, no matter our circumstance, by following the urging of the Holy Spirit to do God’s will instead of our own, because we desire for them to enter the Kingdom of God.
Paul told the jailer that to be saved, he must believe in the Lord Jesus. He spoke the word of God to him and all who were in his house, and they were baptized. The jailer’s response was to take care of his new Christian brethren, inviting them into his home, washing their wounds, giving them food, and rejoicing because he and his whole household were now believers in God by way of Jesus. What a response!
When day came, the chief magistrates sent their officers to release Paul and his companions secretly. But Paul told them no because they were unlawfully beaten in public without due process, and they were Roman citizens, which frightened the magistrates (because they would have consequences for doing that to Roman citizens). They agreed to being led out of jail and followed their urging to leave the city. They went to Lydia’s home, where they were encouraged (likely with money for their journey), and then went on their way. I think all of this was orchestrated by the leading of the Holy Spirit to do God’s will. What do you think?
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Are Jesus’s words wisdom or law? What are Jesus’s commandments that we must keep?
2. When the church was planted in Antioch, the disciples went to great lengths to help them succeed. How can we be as proactive with the churches we plant?
3. How do you think the Holy Spirit led Paul and his companions? We know it was through a night vision to find Lydia. How else do you think the Holy Spirit led them?
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?
Acts chapters 13 and 14 are about the people of God continuing to do what Christ followers are supposed to do; to be led by the spirit to do God’s will.
The prophets and teachers in Antioch were ministering to the Lord and fasting. Because of this, they were given revelation by the spirit to “set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” They confirmed this revelation by fasting and praying. They then laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them on their way to do the Lord’s bidding.
They started their proclamation of the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews and spread the word of God throughout the whole island. The proconsul (similar to a governor) wanted to hear the word but his magician/false prophet companion opposed the word, attempting to keep the proconsul from the faith.
Paul, full of the holy spirit, rebuked the false prophet saying, “you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? 11 Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.”
The consequence for opposing the spreading of the word to the leader of the region was blindness for a time! The proconsul believed after witnessing this miracle, but it was the teaching of the Lord that had him amazed.
They continued their journey to Pisidian Antioch and on the Sabbath day, they were given the floor to preach the Gospel to the Jews in the synagogue. Read Paul’s words carefully, as the preaching of the gospel seems to highlight different aspects of it depending on Paul’s audience.
To the Jews, he begins with God’s choosing of their fathers to be his people and ends with the good news of the fulfillment of the promise to their fathers, by raising Jesus from the dead so that he wouldn’t undergo decay. And because of this fulfillment, through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed. And through Jesus, everyone who believes is freed from all things, which they could not be freed from through the Law of Moses.
The response to this was to beg them to return the next Sabbath day to preach about these things. When they did, an even bigger audience gathered to hear the word. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they became jealous and tried to persecute them. Take note that this may happen when you’re doing God’s will. Be prepared and do what the early Christians who did better did; pray, fast, preach, keep seeking the Lord’s guidance to do God’s will.
To them Paul and Barnabas said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us,
‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, That You may [ab]bring salvation to the end of the earth.’”
* I take note that these words were first spoken in the Old Testament, prophesying about Jesus. Here, the same words are applied to Paul and Barnabas. We should become comfortable understanding that this happens a lot in the Bible. It helps to cut through confusion.
The Gentiles responded to this by rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and it was spread throughout the whole region. But the jealous Jews incited the prominent women and men to persecute Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district.
The disciples shook off the dust of their feet and went to another city, continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
In the next region, both Jews and Greeks heard the word and believed. And as it happened in other cities, unbelieving Jews caused trouble. Here they “stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brothers.” Instead of dusting off their feet and moving on, they relied on the Lord to speak boldly, remaining there for a long time. Here they were granted signs and wonders to be performed by their hands.
It’s interesting to note, that even though we know they were filled with the Holy Spirit to do God’s will, here the Lord granted them the ability to do signs and wonders, indicating to me that just having the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean we can do signs and wonders whenever we think we should. It is for when the Lord has need of it.
Some believed, some did not. Some persecuted them. When they tried to kill them (by stoning), they moved on to another region to preach the gospel.
While preaching the gospel in the next place, Paul saw that a disabled man had faith to be made well so he healed him. Because of this, the Gentiles called Paul and Barnabas gods and attempted to make sacrifices to them. They tore their clothing and Paul preached the gospel, beginning with parts of the gospel that they could relate to from their culture. Paul told them that there was only one God, the God who created the heavens and earth, and everything in them, and that they must turn from their other gods to the one true God.
He said that God permitted all the nations to go their own ways; yet he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even so, it was hard for those stuck in their tradition to refrain from offering sacrifices to them.
Again, the Jews became jealous. They stoned Paul nearly to death and dragged him out of the city. He got up and went to another city to preach, continuing God’s work. He made many disciples. He was able to revisit a church to encourage them to keep the faith, saying that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” They ended back in Antioch and remained there awhile, reporting on what joyous events happened. They were primarily excited about the new revelation, how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Fasting and praying seem to be great starters for hearing from the Lord so that you can be led by him in the spirit. Have you heard from the Lord after fasting and praying?
When Paul preached the Gospel to the Jews, he talked about the fulfillment of the promise to their fathers, which was in raising Jesus from the dead so that he wouldn’t undergo decay. And because of this fulfillment, through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed. And through Jesus, everyone who believes is freed from all things, which they could not be freed from through the Law of Moses. Gentiles weren’t freed from the Law of Moses because they weren’t a part of that covenant with God. What did Jesus accomplish on the cross for Jews vs. both Jew and Gentile?
I love how Paul talks to the Gentiles about God’s goodness as a witness to them, even when they didn’t know him. How can we relate things like this to our friends who don’t know God?
Jealousy seems to be a primary driver of opposition to the word. How can we guard our hearts from becoming jealous of others preaching what they believe to be true who may be gaining followers?
Saul was hell-bent on getting rid of those pesky “little Christs” by any means necessary. But as he marched to Damascus to arrest any he could find, Saul was literally blindsided by Jesus. Ananias, aware that Saul was in the area to persecute The Way but willing to obey God’s call to reach out to Saul anyway, bravely befriended blind Saul, which ironically helped Saul to see more clearly than he ever had before. Just as Jesus spent three days physically dead and then was resurrected, Saul’s three days of visual darkness prepared him to be resurrected to a new kind of life as a bold follower of Jesus, one of the most prolific missionaries the world has ever known. Saul realized that though he followed the law and had an impressive resume, he was actually the worst of all sinners. It was this outpouring of God’s amazing grace that created such dramatic change.
I always assumed that Saul’s name was changed to Paul to represent this big change in his life, much like Abram to Abraham, but in reality the two names were just different versions of the same name: Saul (or “Sha’ul”) was a Hebrew name, and Paul was the equivalent name in Roman circles. As a Jewish Roman citizen, he would have been called both names. The fact that the New Testament increasingly refers to him as Paul probably indicates his growing involvement in the Gentile world.
Speaking of Gentiles… God gave Peter quite an obscure vision (Acts 10:9-16) which left him befuddled. Finally, in verse 28, he seemed to figure out the meaning: “God has shown me not to call any person common or unclean.” Jews had sometimes viewed Gentiles as unclean, but now Peter had confirmation from God that the hope of Jesus is for Gentiles too.
Some Jewish people still thought that Jesus had come only for their race, their “clean” kind. This might sound silly, but some today still try to discriminate against those who can go to a church or be saved based on how “clean” their lives are. We too can be prone to unconsciously judge people’s faith by the unnatural color of their hair, the number of tattoos or piercings, clothing choices, marital status, past mistakes, etc. It’s important to remember that “man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (I Samuel 16:7). I suspect that some churches wouldn’t recognize or welcome even Jesus himself if he came through their doors.
God had created Saul with such passion, and God knew if he could just channel that passion for saving Christians instead of killing them, the wonderful Gospel could spread. What a testimony! God brings Saul to my mind every time my finite, sinful, human, faith-lacking brain tries to label someone as unredeemable.
What if we took the time to hear the stories of people who look different from us, to listen to stories of how Jesus has changed their lives, to experience their excitement as they learn things about Jesus that we take for granted because we’ve heard it so many times? Jesus came for all of us. We all are in need of the saving grace of Jesus.
I love to hear 180 stories – people who were completely changed, “flipped turned upside down” – because of Jesus. Some of us were raised in Christian homes and grew up in church and don’t have a dramatic testimony, but that doesn’t make our faith any less valid! We as humans can tend to think that someone is too far gone, but God… God can change the unchangeable, love the unloveable, save the unsaveable – and all of those would be all of us, if not for His mercy.
Reflections:
Listen to this song and consider how we might overlook Jesus if he were here with us today.
Have you had a spiritual epiphany or eureka moment? It’s probably not quite as dramatic as that of Saul, but still very important. Write it down and share it with someone to show how your life has been changed by God!
These ominous lines commence the first stave of Charles Dicken’s classic novella, A Christmas Carol, which my children and I read together for the first time last year. Such chilling inaugural language sets the tone for the serious nature of the story. The tale delves deep into the meaning of life and Ebeneezer Scrooge’s radical transformation before concluding the final stave with these hopeful words: “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, everyone!”
As I read Acts 8, I was struck by the similarity between the forbidding opening phrases of A Christmas Carol and this sinister introduction to Saul:
“And Saul gave approval to his murder” (8:1).
Saul, a devout pharisee who kept every letter of the law and then some, was complicit in the death of the first martyr. But he didn’t stop there: Saul made it his mission to destroy the church by going house to house, imprisoning people who followed the ways of this Jesus guy. Saul thought he was working passionately for God by persecuting the followers of this heretic Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah.
I always wonder how such heinous acts can be justified in the name of God. Did pride take over his heart? Was Saul so wallowing in his prideful Pharisee ways that he could not understand the grace and love that Jesus had shown and that his people were demonstrating? Was he blind to the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus? (Spoiler: In Acts 26, Saul gives some insight into his thoughts during that time, but ultimately he realizes that he was for sure NOT doing the work of God by persecuting his church.)
This is a good reminder that just because we claim to follow God doesn’t mean that everything we feel so strongly about is correct or God’s way. We can be sincere and still be sincerely wrong. Since it can be difficult to distinguish God’s voice from the myriad of opinions we hear constantly, it is important to be regularly grounded in the Word and prayer, truly seeking God’s desires more than our own preconceived notions or cultural norms.
Just like with Scrooge’s interactions with the three spirits, all it took was one encounter with Jesus to turn everything on its head, transforming Saul’s heart and ultimately leaving us with many hopeful words in the New Testament. But you’ll just have to come back here tomorrow to read more of that story!
Reflections:
Think about your life before vs. after you decided to fully live for God. What would be the opening line to your “before” chapter?
What do you want the closing line of your chapter of life to be (like your epitaph)? Write it out as a guide and inspiration to keep you focused on what truly matters.
Abraham Lincoln (president), Charles Dickens (author), Steve Jobs (Apple creator), Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy’s), and Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA originator) seem like an unlikely bunch to be grouped into a similar category, but they all have this in common: each one either had little formal training or dropped out of school early, and yet became very successful. Our protagonists in Acts 4, Peter and John, also fit among this list.
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13, ESV) Though Peter and John lacked formal training, their time of hands-on learning with Jesus probably equated to an advanced doctorate degree! Their accusers probably recognized that they had been taught by Jesus because their teaching styles and tones so closely matched that of their Rabbi.
We, too, are disciples! We are called to share the gospel to a hurting world, following closely to the way of our Rabbi, Jesus. So remember your mission! Here are some tips from this text to help us be more like the early church.
Share Jesus Boldly and Without Shame
Word about Jesus’ resurrection power spread, people were healed in Jesus’ name, and the number of followers was growing exponentially. The jealous religious leaders, however, did not appreciate this threat to their authority. So the council – likely the same one that condemned Jesus to death – tried to silence the ragtag bunch and ordered them to keep quiet. The disciples’ bold response? “We can’t keep quiet about what we have seen and heard!” (Acts 4:20). Their lives had been totally changed, and they just had to spread the word!
Humans haven’t changed much – we still can’t keep quiet about the good stuff! If you compliment a woman’s new dress, she will tell you three things about it: where she purchased it, how inexpensive it was, and that it has pockets! She is just so excited that she can’t keep it to herself! Likewise, if you visit a fantastic new restaurant and they’re offering a ton of great deals, you’ll probably tell all your friends so that they can get in on it, too. We love to spread good news to other people, so why do we shy away from sharing Jesus with the same zeal? (I’m preaching to myself here. I long to have that kind of boldness that I just can’t keep quiet about all things Jesus, don’t you?) Pray for boldness to share with others how Jesus has changed your life.
Obey Only God
When the religious leaders tried to shut them up again, the disciples replied, “We must obey God, not men.” (Acts 5:29) It’s always been so easy for us to slowly assimilate to the culture around us and begin to obey the gods of this world or match the expectations of the people around us. The Israelites did this chapter after chapter in the Old Testament, and we still stray today. Romans 12:2 warns us about getting too conformed with the world. Though it would eventually cost many of them their very lives, the disciples in Acts were compelled to continue sharing the hope of Jesus with everyone. Jesus had cautioned: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) Pray that we – the global Church – would stay faithful until the end.
Maybe you’re like me – never been to Bible college, don’t know an ounce of Greek or Hebrew, just living an uneventful, mundane life. God can use us still! Even without special training, we can be bold lights in a dark world. God can, and will, use you right where you are to make a difference for Him!
Reflections:
Your prayer prompts are within the text. Take a moment to pray over those.
How do you spend time with Jesus? Can others tell that you do? What can you do to spend more quality time with Jesus?
How can you lovingly, humbly, courageously show the world (including, but not limited to your family, your church, your neighbors, your “enemies”, the disadvantaged, the other side of the world, etc…) what you have seen and heard and learned from Jesus?
When/how have you fallen into the trap of obeying men rather than God? What can that look like? What can you do to strengthen your resolve to Obey Only God?
What courageous task will you do today to obey God?
Seek Grow Love 