Tag Jesus

“If Necessary”

Todd R 2 Comments

All Christians face trials for following Jesus.  These can range from being disregarded or ignored, all the way to physical persecution and even death.  In the face of these trials, Christians can feel targeted or that their trials are unfair.  However, Peter assures us that all the trials we face for Jesus have a purpose.

In 1 Peter 1:6-7, he wrote: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Note the words “if necessary.”  Those words beg the question of what is necessary and who decides that it is necessary?  Do we get to pick and choose our own trials, or would we probably choose to avoid them altogether?  Should we trust ourselves to choose wisely?  If we chose for ourselves, we might pick only trials we’ve already overcome or ones we are sure we can handle, but as Warren Wiersbe wrote: “We must not think that because we have overcome one kind of trial that we will automatically ‘win them all.’ Trials are varied, and God matches the trial to our strengths and needs.”[1]

Fortunately for all of us, God is the one who decides if, when, and why trials are “necessary.”  He decides whether we have trials, and only He knows all of the flaws in our faith and the best way for us to overcome them and grow in faith.  He ensures we face only “necessary” trials that test the “genuineness” of our faith and turn it into something “more precious than gold.”  These trials expose our impurities so that they may be removed.  Because of the words “if necessary,” we can rejoice in our salvation even when going through trials of all kinds.  They aren’t random or meaningless.

Therefore, we can rejoice even in our trials knowing they will “result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Any time we feel “grieved by various trials” we know they are temporary, and they serve God’s purpose for us.

Amen.

[1] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Hopeful (1 Peter) (1982).  P. 35.

Jesus’ Missing 30 Years

Todd R 2 Comments

The four Gospels are not biographies of Jesus, written to tell us all about His life, but they are summaries of His life designed to make the case that Jesus was truly the Son of God who died for our sins and rose again.  Unlike a biography, the Gospels skip over most of Jesus’ life, most notably the 30 years or so between Matthew 2:23 and 3:13.  In one verse He’s a toddler and in the next He’s an adult beginning His public ministry.

What happened in the meantime?  We don’t know much because the Bible doesn’t say much.  Jesus most likely worked as a carpenter[1] in Nazareth most of that time.  But, while we don’t know what He did, we get a sense of how He did it.

At the end of Matthew 3, Jesus goes to John the Baptist to be baptized, and when He comes up from the water, “the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”[2]  In this revelation of the Trinity, the Father says He is “well pleased” with the Son, Jesus, and the Spirit confirms.

Note that the Father said He was “well pleased” before Jesus had done anything in His public ministry.  Since God knows the future, He may have been saying He was “well pleased” with Jesus’ whole life, but those there would take it to mean His life to that point.  The period of Jesus’ life that we know so little about.  What Jesus did in those 30 or so years was pleasing to God the Father.

Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

What does this mean for us?  Most of us don’t have a full-time ministry, but spend most of our time doing other, sometimes mundane, things.  Most, or all, of our lives are more like the 30 years missing from the Gospels than they are like Jesus’ 3 or so years of ministry.  But since the Father was pleased with the first 30 years of Jesus’ life, we also can fully please God without dedicating ourselves to a full-time ministry.  Lay people aren’t second-class citizens in the kingdom of heaven.

But also, if Jesus pleased God at all times, including His work as a carpenter, to be like Jesus we need to please the Father in not just our acts of ministry, but in all of life.  In how we do our jobs, in how we treat our family and neighbors, in how we do everything.

If we want our Lord to say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant,”[3] we must follow Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”  All of our activities can please the Father, even the most mundane things.

[1] Mark 6:3
[2] Matthew 3:16b-17
[3] Matthew 25:21

God Cares About Your Pots and Pans

Todd R 1 Comment

The book of Zechariah, one of the “minor prophets”, contains many puzzling visions and predictions of the then-coming (and now coming-again) Messiah, Jesus.  Zechariah prophesied after the Babylonian exile and God’s purpose through him was to give hope to His people in the form of a glorious future under a perfect King.  The book ends with these verses:

“And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, ‘Holy to the LORD.’ And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar.  And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.” – Zechariah 14:20-21

Photo by Scott Umstattd on Unsplash

While this seems a very strange ending for a book about Jesus, Zechariah’s words give us an amazing expectation of what Paradise will be like.  The phrase “Holy to the LORD” references Exodus 28:36-38, where the words were inscribed on the high priest’s turban.  The idea is that only very rarely are items recognized as set aside for only Godly use.  However, Zechariah is telling us that this was only the beginning.  When the King comes again in glory, He will establish a kingdom where even the most mundane household items will put to perfect use.  There is nothing He does not care about.

And this concept is not just about bells and pots.  While the Old Testament high priest was a sign of the way back to God, eventually the way encompasses every aspect of us.  Zechariah promises us that every bit of our lives, even those we may give no thought to – our proverbial bells and pots – are to be perfected in glory.  By caring about even these common items, God is telling us He leaves nothing undone.  Nothing will be left in us that is set apart for other “gods.”

In Paradise we will be perfected, fully set apart for His glory, and His work in us has already begun.  “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” – Philippians 1:6

Minding Our Own Business

Todd R 1 Comment

Have you heard the term “virtue signaling”?  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “the act or practice of conspicuously displaying one’s awareness of and attentiveness to political issues, matters of social and racial justice, etc., especially instead of taking effective action.”  The phrase seems like it’s been around a long time, but the first use of it may have been as recent as 2013.[1]

Maybe the words “virtue signaling” are new, but the idea is at least as old as the Bible.  In chapter 26, verses 6-13 of Matthew’s gospel, he tells the story of a woman who came to Jesus with “an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment” which she poured on Jesus’ head in front of the disciples.  In Jesus’ view “she has done a beautiful thing to me…to prepare me for burial.”  But the disciples didn’t see it the same way Jesus did.  They indignantly said “Why this waste?  For this [ointment] could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”

Jesus responded how it was “a beautiful thing”, but also made another comment that made it clear the disciples were virtue signaling.  He told them not to “trouble the woman.”  “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”  I think Jesus had at least 3 points in this phrase, related to virtue signaling.

The first is that knowing what to do isn’t enough.  In fact, it just increases our responsibility.  James 4:17 says: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”  Although the disciples knew that giving to the poor was good, in this case were more concerned about sharing that knowledge than about using it.  Today, we might call such people virtue signalers, but the Bible calls them “busybodies” and “meddlers”[2]  People who go from person to person evaluating and criticizing their work instead of minding their own responsibilities.  These people are common on social media.

Second, that there is always an opportunity to help the poor – they always will exist and aren’t hard to find – and each disciple surely missed opportunities every day.  On what basis could they pick on someone else’s failure to help the poor?  By criticizing the woman, they revealed that virtue signaling was more important to them than actually being virtuous.

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

The last point is that service flows from worship, not the other way around.  When we worship Jesus, the ultimate servant, our own ability to sincerely serve others increases as a result.  The woman with the ointment knew this may be the only opportunity to anoint Jesus for burial, and knew she shouldn’t miss it.  On the other hand, the disciples wanted Jesus to punish the woman when they should have been minding their own business.  An internal posture of worship may be the best antidote to hypocrisy and the temptation to merely signal virtue.

The phrase “mind your own business” usually is said to someone we want to leave us alone, but the words actually mean that we should consider our own activities and motives more important than the policing of other people’s activities and motives.  We “always have the poor” with us and fall far short of the standard we need to meet to judge other people’s use of resources.

When we all stand before God in judgment, Jesus will tell the blessed: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’”  In other words, the blessed minded their own business instead of just criticizing others (virtue signaling).  Jesus notices when we take effective action and doesn’t care much about our opinions of others’ effectiveness.

Therefore, pray that we can all mind our own business, in worshipful service, “for you always have the poor with you,” and thank God for His forgiveness, because I know I don’t mind my own business nearly as often as I should.  Sometimes I just blog about it.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/virtue signaling
[2] 1 Timothy 5:13; 1 Peter 4:15

The Commission to Disciple

Todd R 2 Comments

Many of you are familiar with the Great Commission, given to followers of Jesus at the end of the gospel of Matthew.  Its place at the end of the book suggests this Commission represents Jesus’ final instructions to His followers:

“Go therefore and share the gospel with all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

However, that’s not the Great Commission.  I changed some words.  “Share the gospel with” isn’t in the ESV translation of this verse.  Matthew 28:19 actually says:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

This illustrates a common idea that the Great Commission is mostly, or even all, about evangelism (sharing the good news of Jesus with people, in order to convert them to Christianity).  The verse appears so often in the context of evangelism that, even though it says “make disciples,” it is often thought of the first way I wrote it.

Making disciples is a much bigger subject than evangelism and takes place in a much broader context, suggested by adding verse 20 to the quote:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Photo by Florian Weichert on Unsplash

Yes, evangelism is crucially important in the mission of the church (you can’t disciple if you don’t have Christians to disciple), but the Commission covers so much more that the church needs to do.  It’s not just about accumulating converts, but about making disciples who follow Jesus.  It covers anything involved with “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” and God equips each member of His church to contribute.  As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:4-7:

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

And in verses 8-10 he lists some of the gifts:

“For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.”

These gifts are for “the common good”, and Paul says in chapters 13 and 14 that these gifts are useless unless used in love to build up the church, to make it (both as a total body, and as individual members) more like Christ.  In other words, to disciple all nations since the church includes people from everywhere!

“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.” – 1 Corinthians 14:12

Paul also makes a point to warn about emphasizing or exalting some gifts above others:

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”  On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable”[1]

Limiting the Great Commission to evangelistic efforts also risks raising evangelists above those with other gifts.  Maybe the teachers, helpers, and others will feel like the foot, which in Paul’s illustration, said:

“Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body”[2]

Every time Paul wrote about the spiritual gifts, in 1 Corinthians 12-14, in Romans 12, and in Ephesians 4, he stresses the unity of the church, founded on love among its members.  All gifts are part of the Great Commission when we know we are not making converts but making disciples.  Every Christian has a part to play, specific to their own gifts, passions, and opportunities, and no Christian should feel like a second-class citizen of the church.  Paul’s teaching on gifts is an encouragement to embrace diversity in the church – of gifts, of ministries, and of personalities – but not diversity of motive.  The only good motive is self-sacrificial agape love, and each gift is only effective to the degree that the one using it uses it in service to the growth of the church.

Perhaps the Great Commission should be renamed as the Commission to Disciple? What a difference a couple of words make.

[1] 1 Corinthians 12:21-22
[2] From 1 Corinthians 12:15