Year 3, Day 243: Micah 3

A Fun Set of Verses

Well, aren’t the first four verses in Micah rather pleasant?  As a pastor, sometimes I worry that I am being too blunt or direct.  I don’t think Micah ever had that concern.  And since these words are from God, it doesn’t look like God had that concern, either.  Truth is what it is.

So what is Micah saying here?  Micah is chastising the leadership of the Hebrew people.  He is saying that the people who are charged by God with being just have grown to hate good and love evil.  They are leading – if you can call it that – in such a way that the focus is upon themselves.  They are treating the people of their kingdom as though it is their duty to support the luxurious lifestyle of the leader.  The people are literally working their fingers to the bone – a modern analogy for the last two-third of Micah 3:2.  And for what?  The people work insanely hard so that the leaders can have a comfortable life.

Yeah.  God has an issue with this.  God did not create leaders to live in the lap of luxury.  God created leaders to lead … wait for it … by example.  Remember Moses in the wilderness?  He was so swamped with being busy that he needed help.  Moses wasn’t living in the lap of luxury, he was out slaving around with all the other people trying to eke out some kind of lifestyle with everyone else.  It was hard work!  Or maybe you’ve heard of this guy named Elijah who wore camel’s hair and ate locusts while the kings sat in their posh surroundings.  Perhaps you’ve heard of a guy named Jesus who was born into a simple carpenter’s family, who lived a simple life, and who died on a cross for the sake of the people!  God doesn’t call leaders to sit in luxury while everyone else slaves through life.  God calls leaders to get in the trenches with people and work themselves just as much to the bone as everyone else.

Leaders are supposed to care about the people they are leading.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that leaders are supposed to do everything for the people.  But they are supposed to care for them.  They are supposed to set up a society that makes sense and is beneficial to the people.  They are supposed to set up a society that enables people to be productive.  But so often this is not the case.  Often leaders assume that power and privilege makes them superior and different.  Often leaders begin to feel entitled and better than everyone else.  They began to see other people as pawns, not people.

I’m reminded of a famous quote.  “Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  This quote is often attributed to Lord Acton.  But have you ever heard the other half of that quote?  “Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Great men are almost always bad men.”  Wow.  That’s powerful.  And I daresay not only powerful, but true.   It is what Micah finds so irritatingly irreprehensible. 

These people who are blessed at the very hand of God are turning and using that blessing as an advantage and an opportunity to oppress people.  No wonder God is angry.  Talk about talking good and turning it around for evil!

False Prophets

The rest of this chapter deals with proclamations of judgment upon the leaders.  The judgment is divided up into two sections.  First comes the judgment upon the prophets – the spiritual leaders of the community.

Micah forecasts that they will experience a darkness – a night.  They will be without divination.  I cannot imagine what a prophet feels like when their vision has been taken away from them.  Imagine a writer in perpetual writer’s block.  Imagine an army sharpshooter who suddenly wakes up blind.  Imagine a professional musician with a quick onset case of rheumatoid arthritis.  Imagine going through life unable to accomplish what you feel absolutely called to do.  That is the judgment upon those who use their gifts in ways unintended by God.  That is the judgment of those who take their incredible giftedness and turn it into a means to oppress others.

Ungodly Kings

The second group to be judged is the kings.  These are the political leaders.  Here are the policy makers and the figurehead role models.  It is their turn to see what the Lord will bring upon them.

God says that Zion shall be plowed like a field.  That which they have forced others to work hard for their own enjoyment shall be taken away.  Imagine an investor the day after a stock market crash.  Imagine a business owner who wakes up to find their employees on strike and nobody is willing to cross the picket line.  Imagine a singer who suddenly finds their audience is no longer interested in listening to them and buying their records.  This is what God promises to the kings.  Their pride and joy and luxurious life – build upon the effort of the hard work of others – is taken from them.  They are cast down from the mountain they built upon others.  That is the judgment of those who take their incredible giftedness and turn it into a means to oppress others.

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Year 3, Day 242: Micah 2

Conceiving Wickedness Upon Their Bed

I think that this is my new favorite phrase of the day.  I enjoy this phrase because it has nothing to do with what it originally sounds like.  Micah begins chapter 2 with a judgment of people who lay awake at night thinking up schemes for them to do evil the next day.  But let’s be careful and make sure we understand what Micah looks upon as evil.  In the verses that follow this judgment he talks about people who figure out ways to “attain” things simply because they want them.  Evil is lusting after the desires of your heart.

Micah is laying out a judgment against the people in his day who have a “looking out for number one” attitude.  These are the people who are attempting to increase their fame or power or stature simply for the sake of increasing it.  They aren’t taking the time to discern if it is God’s will.  They aren’t approaching life or business with a mindset of community.  It is about them, their prosperity, their success, and their fame.  The evil that Micah is denouncing in these opening verses is self-centeredness in life and business.

People in Micah’s day were conceiving plans to take over the homes and livelihoods of their neighbor simply to increase their land.  It honestly sounds like people in Micah’s day were simply thinking of ways to separate a person from their wealth so that they could have it for themselves.  In many respects, what I fear is that this sounds like modern business practice.  Many businesses today simply want me to spend my money with them.  They don’t honestly care what happens to me.  So long as they get my money, that’s their bottom line.  {We won’t even speak about illegal practices like stealing, embezzling, etc}

When a society is founded upon the principles of economic gain as opposed to combining concerns for both prosperity and community there will be trouble from God’s perspective.  When we as a people stop looking towards the community, we can expect the same to be done to us as we do to ourselves.  The people of Israel and Judah would have their land taken away by Assyria and Babylon in the same manner as the Hebrew people of Micah’s day took land and livelihood away from each other.

Yes, there is nothing wrong with good business.  But godly business is business that looks to make a profit by providing a legitimate service or product in a manner that is beneficial to the further livelihood of the consumer.  Godly business is business that shows a balance between profit and health of the community at large.

Religious Dialogue

Isn’t it interesting to hear how people respond to the prophet’s voice?  In verse 6 we hear Micah talk about what is said to him when he utters a judgment such as he offered at the beginning of this chapter.  He is told, “Don’t say that to us.  God’s spirit would never oppose and disgrace us.”

Ha!  We know from history which voice is correct.  You see, we like to believe that we’re okay.  We like to believe that our problems aren’t that bad.  We like to believe that we won’t be the generation that falls.  But we know that eventually every nation has fallen.  Every nation has a gradual slide into decline until we fall into the judgment of our own making.  It is tempting to bury our heads in the sand and say, “We’ll be okay while I’m alive.”  While tempting, it is foolish.  God takes up issue with those who think that the problems of society “aren’t that bad.”  God’s Word is good to those whose ways are upright.

You see, this is the difference between a nation with vision and a nation suffering from instant gratification.  The nation with vision listens to the warnings of the prophets and corrects course to avoid not just the short-term problems but the long-term problems.  The nation with a policy of instant gratification only thinks about living in the bliss of today and eventually ends up unable to avoid the long-term problems and even many of the short-term problems!

Hope

However, as bleak as the middle of this chapter is with respect to judgment the passage ends on a note of hope.  Although Micah says, “this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction,” he does end with a prophecy that “I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture.”  Yes, there will be judgment.  Yes, the judgment will be deserved.  But to the faithful who persevere through judgment there is a promise of being re-gathered.  There is a promise of being shepherded once more.

This is one of my favorite characteristics about God.  Even though an entire nation might genuinely deserve judgment – even deserve utter destruction – God still finds those faithful few.  He pulls them out, raises them up, and starts again.  God’s patience is astounding.

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Year 3: Day 241: Micah 1

A Great Little Book

We are about to begin a great little book.  The author is Micah, and we believe that he was a prophet in Judah (Southern Kingdom) approximately the same time as Isaiah: 750 – 700 BC.  He saw the northern kingdom fall.  He saw the Assyrians march right up to the front door of Jerusalem and then turn around and go home after God send a plague among them.  His book is filled with many popular verses – although most of them are verses we wouldn’t have thought to put in Micah.

Worship

Micah brings us right back into the false worship practices of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Remember that they had set up their own altars so that they wouldn’t have to go and worship God in Jerusalem, which was in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  Those false altars led to even more altars being established in Israel.  These altars led to religious corruption and the introduction of foreign gods.  Soon all of Israel had this mish-mash of worship where it was possible to say that there were some kind of roots in the worship of God but it had twisted and corrupted so as to no longer be about the worship of God.  Canaanite, Philistine, Assyrian, Phoenician, and other gods were all being worship by the people that not too long before had been called out of Egypt and given the Promised Land.

Micah says that he sees the Lord coming in judgment.  All the hills – the high places of this corrupt worship – melt before His coming.  The valleys – typically the places where communities settled and dwelled – split before Him.  God comes in judgment because they are breaking the covenant they had with God.  God comes because they are not in any way faithful and obedient to His will.

I find this to be an interesting comparison to the New Testament – especially after the apostles went out and the early church began to be established.  So often we hear people speak about the New Testament out of the perspective of the Old Testament.  But I think here we can actually speak about the Old Testament out of the perspective of the New Testament.  As Christianity began to become established – one of the biggest threats to the faith were apostate teachers.  These were teachers who had originally walked in the faith but who had become corrupted along the way and they began to teach things that just weren’t right.  As the church became established, corruption set it.  Things began to be twisted away from Christ and the salvation that comes only through His blood.

This same human element of corruption is exactly what we see Micah lamenting in the opening verses of this first chapter.  God brought His people into the Promised Land under Joshua and the judges that followed him.  There was relative peace and faithfulness under David.  The Hebrew people became established.  No sooner are the Hebrew people established and it all begins to slip away under Solomon.  After Solomon the kingdom splits.  Israel (Northern Kingdom) sets up their own places of worship.  I’ve already recounted what happened after that.

When it comes to religion, we need to be careful.  It is difficult moving a mass of people to the point of being “established.”  But many of us assume that with “establishment” comes peace and productivity.  No.  I believe that with establishment comes even more trial.  Instead of the trial being persecution from outside, with establishment the trials come inside.  We fight recidivism.  We fight complacency.  We fight “holier-than-thou-ness.”  We fight internal corruption.  We fight slipping, backsliding, and loss of focus.  This is the lesson we can learn from the early church.  It is the same lesson we can learn here from Micah.

And what is the Lord’s response when in our establishment we find ourselves in corruption?  Judgment.  Well, first there is the call to repent.  When we don’t heed that call there is judgment.  The Lord comes, treads upon the mountains and they melt before Him.  The valleys split before Him.  He exposes us for who we are.  Who among us can stand when God comes and exposes our failing?

Lament

In the last half of this opening chapter, Micah turns from looking to Israel to looking to Judah.  He laments because he sees the same faults in Judah (Jerusalem) as he saw in Israel.  They are likewise battling corruption.  They are battling establishment.  They are battling people turning away from what is true.  Micah laments.

In fact, Micah laments and invites others to lament.  The people of Beth-le-aphrah (House of Dust) are to roll in dust.  The people of Shaphir (Beautiful or Pleasant) are to pass by in nakedness and shame.  The people of Zanan (Come out) won’t be able to come out.  The people of Beth Ezel (House of Nearness) will bring their lament to those near.  The people of Maroth (Bitterness) will wait anxiously because disaster has come.  Lacish (known for its horses) is encouraged to harness their horses to flee.  I could go on, but I think you get my point.  When corruption sets in, there is cause to mourn.

What is especially sad is how Micah ends this chapter.  Even the children shall be led away into captivity.  How true is this!  When one generation is weak, they teach the next generation to be weak.  Eventually, weakness is passed on as is corruption.  Often the coming generations have no chance.  The ground that one generation gives to corruption is ground that the next generation doesn’t even see as corrupt.  So they give more ground and the generation that follows no longer sees that ground given as corrupt.  Generation after generation slips slowly into the captivity of sin without even realizing the error and darkness of their ways.

There’s a bleak thought, isn’t it?

What hope is there?  Micah doesn’t say it here, but I will answer that.  The hope comes when enough ground has been given that a faithful generation can rise up and motivate people to action.  Eventually enough ground is lost to sin and corruption that revival can happen.  We’ve seen it in religion (Great Awakening in the Americas, Reformation in Europe, etc).  We’ve seen it politically (Democracy in America, French Revolution, etc).  The hope is in revival; but revival typically only comes when enough ground has been sufficiently surrendered by prior generations to decadence. 

In fact, this is what happened in the Bible.  The Hebrew people went to Egypt, lost ground, and after many generations came out and a faithful generation claimed the Promised Land after the unfaithful generation had all died.  Then over the next few centuries the Hebrew people lost ground again and fell to the Assyrians and Babylonians before a faithful generation could return and rebuild the Promised Land.  Then the people fell, lost ground, and a new faithful generation fought for ground under the teachings of Jesus the Messiah.  It is our history.  Establishment, corruption, falling, giving ground, revival, resurgence, establishment.  It’s a vicious cycle – a cycle that one day will end when Christ returns.  But I am getting ahead of myself here. 

For now, we must understand what Micah sees.  Corruption, establishment, and lost ground will lead to judgment.  It always does without the intervention of repentance.

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Year 3, Day 240: 2 & 3 John

2 Books!

The day has come!  Today we shall read and reflect on two whole books of the Bible!  LOL.  In total, we’ll cover 28 verses.  The letters of 2 John and 3 John are short, but they have several very significant points within them.

As for authorship, date, and audience we don’t have many answers.  Church tradition asserts that the author is John the apostle, but that position is fairly tenuous.  As for audience, the first letter seems to be addressed to a certain woman and her children.  However, just as the word “kyrios” in Greek means “lord” but with many meanings, so the word “kyria” in the Greek means “lady” but with many meanings.  Is it a single lady?  Is it a governing body that is ruling over the church?  Is it a congregation that is leading a larger group of collected believers?  We don’t really know.  The second letter appears to be addressed to Gaius, which is a proper name.  We don’t know anything about Gaius, however.  As to the date, most people believe these letters were written in the late first century – but that is admittedly a large window of time.  The truth is that we honestly don’t know too much about the authorship of these letters.

Abiding in Love

John’s first point in 2 John is quick and easy.  Walk in love.  In other words, let love rule your actions, thoughts, and speech.  We are a people who are rooted in love.  God’s love was showered upon us in the person of Jesus Christ; we then should respond by showering God’s love into the world.

John also speaks of truth.  Living out our love is truth.  The world is self-centered and in many places self-consumed.  The world is living a lie.  On the other hand, love is selfless.  Love puts others before the self – as seen in Jesus Christ.  This is the truth that counters the lie of the world.  Live in selfless love and you live in truth.

False Teachers

Here we pick up another theme that was actually quite important in 1 John.  False teachers abounded in the early church.  Who am I kidding?  False teachers abound in the modern church!  False teaching is an ever-present danger.  Where there are humans, there is the possibility for corruption.  Even well-meaning followers of God can stray from the path once and a while.

How do we spot a false teacher?  False teachers twist the Word of God.  False teachers find a way to say, “Here’s what the Word says, but this is really what it meant to say.”  {Note the fundamental difference between this and explaining the text through historical context.  It is one thing to put the text in context.  It is another thing to imply what the text meant to say.}  False teachers find a way to make that claim in a way that you sit back and think that what they are saying just might actually make sense.  That’s the danger of false teaching.

So what is the danger of the false teacher?  The danger is very real.  The danger is that we follow the teacher out of the realm of salvation.  When we stray from the Word of God, we could actually find ourselves straying from God’s grace.  We could find ourselves preaching a Gospel different than the one that humbly calls us in repentance to the throne of God.  We could find ourselves proclaiming something other than our need to always turn to the blood of Christ for salvation.  The danger is very real.

Gaius

In 3 John, we have a letter written largely to support a faithful person named Gaius.  There are two things that seem to make Gaius worthy of praise.  He is hospitable; he is discerning.

These two things go hand in hand.  In order to discern, you must know it fully.  In order to discern the truth about others, you must know them fully.  In order to know them fully, you must give of your time and yourself.  In other words, in order to truly discern you typically have to invite them into your life.  Hospitality and discernment often go hand in hand together.

Of course, as we discern we are led back to hospitality.  Those whom we discern as being true we should want to invite even more deeply into our lives.  As we discern, our relationship should grow towards those who are true.  Discernment helps bring about greater hospitality.

Two Warnings

John then adds a pair of warnings.  The first warning is to be cautious of those who oppose genuine authority.  In fact, John gives us a glimpse of why people like to oppose genuine authority: self-centeredness.  Diotrephes likes to put himself first and thus is missing the authority of John.  Here we find a truthful warning about leadership.  True leadership will bow to genuine authority – especially the Word of God.  Be careful when you find someone who doesn’t like to bow to truth and those who speak it.

The second warning is about doing evil.  This is a perpetual warning.  When we live in the world there is temptation to do evil.  It’s just human nature.  But when we discern where goodness is, we should embrace it and imitate it.  The more time we spend imitating good we have naturally less time to spend embracing evil.

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Year 3, Day 239: 1 John 5

The Result of Love

In this passage we hear about the natural consequence of love: obedience.  I love this about Christianity.  In the last chapter, John spent much time talking about why our foundation rests upon Jesus as being both fully human and divine.  Then he talked about love.  Now he talks about obedience.  This is the natural progression of how God works in our life.

You see, we have no ability to love God without the Holy Spirit.  We have no ability to obey God without the Holy Spirit, either.  Until Jesus Christ came, we had no realistic ability to consistently either love or obey!  Christ must be first – the foundation.

Once we see Christ, our natural response should be love.  What is the proper reaction to experiencing love but to love in return?  Yes, we love because we have first been loved by God.  We can display our love because it is rooted in God’s love.

Once we love God, then we can obey.  Obedience is always best when it is obedience that we desire!  Obedience that is forced is always tense.  Obedience that is out of love is freeing and joyful!  So we see that the natural progression is Christ, love, obedience.

Once we hit true and genuine obedience we have victory over the world.  As I am obedient, my values and goals shift to God.  My agenda shifts to God.  I become less of a citizen of this world and more of a citizen of God’s kingdom.  Victory comes as the things of God become more important than the things of this world.  Through this chain of Christ, love, and obedience we can overcome the world.

What Does Victory Look Like?

I think this is a great question.  I often feel like victory in God looks like defeat to the world.  It is tough being the humble one.  It is tough taming the tongue and not being able to say whatever I want to say.  It is tough doing for others whether they appreciate it or not – much less whether they reciprocate or not!  There are many days when I feel like my obedience in Christ looks like defeat and weakness to the eyes of the world.  To be honest, it probably does!

However, John reminds us here to make sure we see through the proper perspective.  Victory in God is eternal life.  Victory in God is being with God forever.  Victory in God is being raised to life after death comes!  Who cares about winning for a few decades when you can win forever!

Yes, I again acknowledge that this is a difficult line to walk.  It is hard keeping that eternal focus.  It is hard to always live in the “delayed gratification” that comes by always thinking about storing up treasure in heaven and not here on earth.  It is hard; but it is true.  And it will be worth it in the end.

Difficulty in the End

John concludes this first letter with a fairly difficult set of verses.  John talks about sin, sin that leads to death, and sin that does not lead to death.  What on earth is John discussing in this last section?  John is stressing the importance of three things: prayer, instruction, and repentance.

John encourages us to speak to God about those who sin but do not die.  Those people still have time to repent.  They still have time to make things right with God.  They still have time to respond to the love of God.  We should be regular in our prayers for them.  If anyone needs our prayers it is those who do not yet know the love of God!

Second, John speaks about our need to instruct.  When we pray for people, it attunes our heart to the will of God.  We can then go to those people and rather than speak out of our own voice we can speak out of the voice and will of the Father.  In fact, I would say that we cannot ever go to someone and genuinely speak truth into their life unless we have taken the time to go to God in prayer and attune our will to His!

Finally, John is speaking of repentance.  Sin that does not lead to death is sin that is atoned.  We all have that in our life.  We all know what it is like to mess up heavily and not have to live out the full consequences of our actions.  We all know what it is like to live with sin that does not lead to death.  How grateful I am that my sin has not yet led to death and I have found forgiveness in the blood of Christ who was sent from the Father!

So we turn.  We repent.  We walk away from the ways of the world and the empty promises of the Devil.  We walk away from the idols of our life.  We turn and embrace God because He restores us from our sin that does not lead to death!

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Year 3, Day 238: 1 John 4

Care to Not Read too Deeply

In 1 John 4 we must take care to not read too deeply into these words.  It is easy to read this section and think that John is saying, “So long as a person says, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ then they are from God.  Trust me, that is a very dangerous conclusion to reach.  I have met more than a few people who would say to me that “Jesus is Lord” but who had little in common with the Jesus that they seemed to be proclaiming as Lord.  Of course I cannot ever judge their hearts and I would not presuppose that they were not “saved” any more that I would presuppose that people I liked are “saved.”  Who am I to look that deeply in their heart and make that kind of decision?  But I can say that in my own judgment I would not – and did not – follow them.

So what Is John saying in these verses?  Notice what John says.  Verse 2 says, “Confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”  Notice the emphasis of the flesh?  John isn’t saying, “confess Jesus Christ” or even “confess that Jesus Christ came.”  John’s argument is that “Jesus Christ came in the flesh.”  In other words, John is battling a theological battle against people who are teaching that Jesus was only a spiritual being.  John is battling those people who teach that Jesus was not both fully human and fully divine.  John was battling those who say that Jesus was only fully divine.  In short, John was battling the early stages of a heresy called Gnosticism.

Let me tell you why this is a danger.  First, if Jesus was not fully human, how can He be any sort of example for us?  If He was only fully divine, then how can we even hope to aspire to His model?  Second, if Jesus was not truly flesh and blood, then how can we possibly hope in the resurrection?  If there was no real body to raise, then what hope do we who are only flesh and blood have in the resurrection?  Third, if Jesus was not fully human and fully divine, then what hope do we have at all that God and human can ever meet much less coexist?  If Jesus couldn’t come and be both fully human and fully divine, what makes us think that God can take us fully human folks and make us live spiritually with Him forever?

No, Jesus had to have come as fully God and fully human.  To remove the humanity of Jesus Christ is to make the message of hope impotent.  {For the record, to remove the divinity of Christ makes it equally impotent.}  John is not saying that we should trust anyone and everyone who verbalizes that “Jesus Christ is Lord.”  What John is saying is that anyone who does confess Jesus’ divinity and humanity should not be listened to.  Our hope of eternal life rests completely in the fact that Jesus was fully human and fully divine.

Love

Now we come to one of the more famous passages in 1 John.  “God is Love.”  “In this we know that God loved us …”  “Beloved, if God loved us, we should love one another.”  “If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected within us.”  What an incredible set of verses.

At the very least, these verses should inspire us to love.  If we desire God to abide in us, we should love each other.  If we are at all grateful that God’s love can reach us, we should love one another.  If we have any hope in Christ, we also know the love of God.  If we know the love of God, we can share the love of God.  Yes, it is that simple.  Yes, it gets far messier in practice than on paper.

So how do we know that the love of God is within us?  We have the Spirit.  Jesus loved us enough to send the Holy Spirit to dwell with us.  What’s cool about this is that we not only have the testimony of Christ – who lived external to each of us – but we also have the testimony of the Holy Spirit – who lives within!  How awesome is that?

What is the purpose of God’s love?  That answer is two-fold.  First, we are to share that love with others.  That’s how this chapter ends.  We should love our brothers and sisters in Christ.  That is without question.

But that love within us also gives us confidence in the coming judgment.  You see, every single one of us deserves to hear a “guilty” verdict coming from God.  Every last one of us does not deserve to escape judgment.  Without God’s love, God’s judgment would be a horrible day of fear and wrath!  But because we have God’s love – and the Holy Spirit as evidence of God’s love – we can look to that day with anticipation.  God has removed something horrible and turned it into a day to which we can look forward.  Yes, it will still be a difficult day.  But because of God’s love we know that on that day we will hear words of forgiveness through Jesus Christ rather than words of condemnation through our sin.

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Year 3, Day 237: 1 John 3

Children of God

John opens this third chapter with a line of thinking that always evokes amazement in me.  How incredible is it that we are children of God!  It shouldn’t have happened that way, but it did.  God has every right to turn away, but He doesn’t.  He has every right to condemn me where I stand and let me fall into the worldliness that my flesh craves, but He refuses to abandon me.

I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to fathom the depth of the love of God.  I can say all the right things.  I can say that God voluntarily risks rejection by all to find the freely received love of the few.  I can say that God knew that human freewill would lead to sin but He created us knowing that He could save us anyway.  I can say all these things and even understand them on some level.  But to truly fathom the depth of God’s love?  No.  I don’t think I can understand what it means to be a child of God as God understands it.  I don’t think I can fathom what He knows regarding the forgiveness of my sins.  I can simply accept it, receive it, and try to live a life based upon it.

How blessed we are to be children of God.  We don’t deserve it.  We cannot understand it fully.  Yet here we are in it.

Sin

As I read through 1 John 3:4-10 I couldn’t help but feel that lump rising in my throat.  It felt like the noose was closing in tighter and tighter.  After all, how does “whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the Devil” not apply to me – or any of us?  What about “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning?”  Ouch.  Or what about “He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God?”  Yeah, when I look into my life it isn’t really all that pretty there, either.  How can a person read any of those questions and not feel condemned?

In truth, it is actually that rising feeling of condemnation that is evidence of hope.  It is a good thing that guilt and fear come when reading through these verses.  Let me explain that here, because this is a very important piece of theology.

In this passage, John only uses the word “sin” in the plural in one single place: the first clause in 1 John 3:5.  This makes sense, because the cross dealt with the need for atonement for each act of sin.  All the other times that John uses the word “sin” he uses it in the singular.  I those cases, John isn’t speaking to the multitude of sins in our life but to the state of sin.  If you will, John is speaking about the human condition of original sin everywhere else in this passage.  So when John says:

• “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the Devil,” John is really saying, “Whoever makes a practice of remaining in original sin is of the Devil.”
• “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning,” John is really saying, “No one born of God makes a practice of remaining in original sin.”
• “He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God,” John is really saying, “He cannot remain in the state of original sin because he has been born of God.

That is incredibly powerful.  For you see, we all sin.  Until Christ returns and we are remade, the corruption of sin will taint us all.  But we do not need to remain in the state of original sin.  We can live in a state of repentance from our original sin.  This means that while we do sin, we can come before God and confess our humanity.  We can bow humbly before Him and submit to the reality that He and He only can take away our sin.  Just because I sin doesn’t mean that I live in the state of original sin.  Jesus Christ changed that on the cross.  The fact that I feel, know, and confess my sin when confronted with it is actually evidence that I’m living in a state of repentance rather than a state of original sin.

This leads me back to a saying that I am becoming more and more confident in.  God doesn’t require perfection; He asks for repentance instead.  God knows we will not be perfect.  He knows we will have sin in our life.  If perfection – a sin-free life – was attainable, then Christ came for nothing.  No.  We will all have sin in our lives.  But we don’t need to live in the state of original sin.  Turn to God.  Humbly come before your Maker.  Throw yourself at His feet and turn from the original sin into which you were born.

Love of the World

John ends this third chapter with a discussion of love.  How interesting that immediately after speaking about sin and rebellion John talks about living in love?  Of course, this is the natural conclusion.  Why can we be called the children of God?  Because God loves us.  Why can we move beyond living in the state of original sin?  Because God loves us.  As God sent His Son because He loved us, so we should love one another whether they deserve it or not.

But we can go further than that.  Jesus did not merely make an appearance, do some miracles, and say as if at some evening performance declare, “God loves you, your sins are forgiven, I’ll be here all night, try the veal!”  No.  Jesus came, taught, lived, discipled, and died.  Jesus gave His life pursuing ours.  Go.  Do likewise. You want to be like God?  Go, give up your life in the pursuit of finding others.  Instead of pursuing the desires of your flesh, pursue the desires of God – namely, the world that does not yet know Him.

Believe in Him.  Abide in Him.  Receive His Spirit.  If you have the Spirit, what need do you have of the world?  Go in love, serve the Lord.  Whatever you do, do it for the sake of reaching people in the name of God so that they might be children of God.

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Year 3, Day 236: 1 John 2

Balancing Law and Grace

The goal of following Jesus is to conform to Him.  As we become like Christ, our lives should take on less and less characteristics of sinfulness.  Yet as we learned in the last chapter, sin is still a part of our life.  If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves.  So as we conform our lives to His life, we should experience less influence of sin; but we should never think that we are free of it.

In those moments that we do encounter sinfulness, we have Christ.  We have repentance and Jesus Christ.  We have Him as an advocate before the Father.  He – and only He – is the cure for our sinfulness.  This is grace at its greatest.

However, we also have expectations.  Jesus does not call us to know grace so that we can continue to wallow in sin.  If He is the model of the godly life, then we should be about following that model.  We don’t follow the model to be saved; Jesus already accomplished that feat on the cross.  We follow because we are saved.  We follow as a demonstration of our salvation.  We follow because we know that as we truly follow Him God’s love is perfected within us.  That doesn’t mean we are perfect.  It means that God’s love – relationship with undeserving sinners – is perfected as we turn from our sin and turn to God.

Walk as a Child of the Light

As John writes this next section, he sets up an enormous parallel.  John equates love with light and hate with darkness.  He says something rather bold and very refreshing.  If you hate your brother, you are in darkness.  There is no escape clause.  There are no conditions.  If you hate your brother, you are not in the light.  Period.

The question is, “who is my brother?”  Or, to make it modern, I should also ask, “Who is my sister?”  I believe it is fair to quote Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, and Luke 8:19-21.  Those are all retellings of the same story with slightly different nuances in each.  The point of each, though, is that Jesus’ family – brothers and sisters – are those who hear the will of God and who do it.  So in answering the question, “Who are my brothers and sisters,” I would have to say that it is those who are truly in Christ.

Of course, this is no easy answer.  If you hate anyone who is truly in Christ, you are in darkness.  That’s really a high bar.  But again, it makes sense if you think about it.  If someone is truly in Christ, then they have Christ within them.  If they have Christ within them and you hate them, then you are at some level hating Christ.  What greater definition is there for spiritual darkness than hating Christ?  We see that John is correct here, even if he is rather challenging.  If Christ is truly in someone, I must love them.  At the very least, I can love the Christ that is in them!

Love of the World

In the next section we get the argument flipped on its head.  John specifically tells us that if we love the world, then we do not have the love of the Father within us!  That’s pretty challenging as well.  Are there things in this world that I love and shouldn’t?  Yes.   That’s called sin.  And I humbly come before God right now and confess that in those areas of my life God’s Word is right.  In those areas the love of God is not within me.  It is not God who desires for me to love the things of this world.  It is my corrupt flesh within me that causes me to love the things of this world.

Why do I love it?  Why do I waste my time pursuing the things of this world?  Why do I love things that prevent me from being good – much less great?

The simple answer is that the desires of the flesh are great.  That’s it.  Nuts and bolts right there.  The desires of the flesh are great and my will to resist the desires of the flesh is small.  That is precisely why I need God.

Antichrist

I have no doubt that putting that word as a subheading will increase readership for this post by about 10%.  The word antichrist is a hot button issue.  Everyone wants to figure out, “Who is the Antichrist?”

Let’s get a few things straight.  First, John tells us that many antichrists have come and there are still more yet to come.  So it’s not a matter of speaking about “The Antichrist.”  Second, the word antichrist is really only predominant in 1 & 2 John in the whole of the Bible.

Let’s look at what John has to say.  An antichrist is someone who denies Jesus.  Period.  Deny Jesus as Lord, and you are in the very broad category of antichrist.  In fact, if you flip ahead to 1 John 4:3 you see that it might actually be more proper to refer to such people as having the spirit of the antichrist.  But John makes a very distinct claim here as the chapter ends.  Abide in the Son and you abide in the Father.  Don’t abide in the Son, and you abide in the category of the antichrist.

Second, we must remember that the prefix “anti” can have two meanings in the Greek.  The first meaning is “against.”  The second meaning is “instead of.”  An antichrist is not just someone opposed to Christ.  It is someone who chooses something instead of Christ.  This caused me to go back and realize a deeper meaning in verses 15-17.  When I choose the things and the ways of the world instead of the ways of Christ, I am technically being an antichrist!  That’s pretty powerful.

What I find even more striking is that the antichrist(s) John is most concerned with in this chapter are those who no longer confess Christ but who used to be among them.  John is concerned about people who used to be with them but who are now out proclaiming something other than Jesus as the means to salvation!  How dangerous such a testimony is to Christ!  Oh how we have failed Christ when people can come into His fellowship but not see Him clearly through us!  Oh how we fail when we let the testimony of those who have chosen something instead of Christ to ring louder in the world than our own testimony!

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Year 3, Day 235: 1 John 1

1 John Introduction

I love this quote from the ESV Bible’s introduction to the epistle of 1 John:

It reaffirms the core of Christianity, saying that either we exhibit the sound doctrine, obedience, and love that characterize all Christians, or else we are not true Christians.

Talk about high challenge!  Either you are or you aren’t.  It’s pretty black and white.  Either we’re working towards Christ or we’re not with Him.  Not that we don’t make mistakes along the way, mind you.  This quote isn’t saying we do anything perfectly.  It is saying that either we have the doctrine, obedience, and love as the goal or we don’t.  That’s powerful stuff – and I haven’t even gotten to the official letter yet!

So long as I’m doing introduction, let’s talk author, date, and circumstance.  The author is traditionally believed to be John the Apostle.  It is likewise presumed to be written sometime in the late first century.  It is also likely assumed to written to the churches in Asia Minor (Turkey) – probably many of the same churches to whom the book of Revelation was written.  It is written because the “first generation” of Christians were beginning to die and the second and third generation of Christians needed to be reminded to keep the faith while continuing to declare it to the world.

Confidence in the Faith

From the very beginning of this letter we hear about the importance of keeping the faith.  God has been faithful since the beginning.  His promised Messiah has finally come.  There are witnesses to this fact – although admittedly more and more of the faithful witnesses have died.  The testimony is true.  It was not only heard but seen and witnessed in the flesh.

This paragraph caused me to stop and think for a second.  One of the things that I love about Christianity is that it really has stood the test of time.  Yes, there have been ups and downs.  But there have been Christians ever since Christ came.  This is no passing fad.  This is not something dreamed up by twelve entrepreneurs in the early first century who looked to “sell Jesus to the world.”  {If it was, then they gave their lives up for a creation of their own mind … that just doesn’t make any sense.}  No, the truth is that Christianity has stood the test of time.  People continue to believe in the incredible claims of God even 2,000 years later.

What does John tell us is the first goal of the testimony?  Why, fellowship, of course!  New believers have fellowship with the mature believers who have fellowship with the believers are now dead who – follow the chain back far enough – had fellowship with Jesus Christ Himself who had fellowship with the Father.  This is the same idea that the author of Hebrews speaks about with respect to the “Great Cloud of Witnesses.”  {Hebrews 12:1}  The goal is fellowship with God and all the people of God along the way.

Again, stop and think about that for a moment.  Let this question sink in: Do you deserve to be in fellowship with God?  How awesome is God that He wants to be in fellowship with us who do not deserve such a circumstance!

Confession

The second half of this introductory chapter really lays it out there.  Of course, those of us in a liturgical setting recognize verse 8.  “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”  That’s powerful.  We are in bondage to sin – even while being free in Christ!  To confess otherwise is like burying your head in the sand.  We do sin.  We need to confess and repent.  We need God to fix our mistakes, fix our being, and fix the world we mess up.  We need to humbly come before Him.

Let’s not forget verse 6.  “If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie…”  That’s a pretty powerful verse as well.  How many times have I proclaimed I was in fellowship with God when really God was the furthest thing from my mind!  How many times have I considered myself a full card-carrying disciple of Jesus Christ when in truth I wasn’t following anyone but myself!

No wonder I couldn’t effectively make disciples in my youth.  I could say all the right words, but there was absolutely no fruit being born out in my life.  Who wants to listen to someone who can say all the right words but show absolutely no evidence of their words in their own life?  {By the way, that’s true about adults, too.}

No.  Truth is that unless we are actively “producing fruit of faith” we aren’t honestly walking with Christ.  Unless there is evidence in our life of change, there isn’t actually any fellowship with Christ happening.  If we say we have fellowship when really we are walking in darkness, we lie.  It’s hard to get around that verse without either having evidence of our fellowship or recognizing the desire to turn and confess our sin.

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Year 3, Day 234: Jonah 3-4

Jonah, Revisited

In his disobedience, Jonah is given a second chance by God.  I think this is one of the most ironic things about the book of Jonah.  Here God clearly doesn’t turn away from Jonah but rather gives him a second chance.  But Jonah is not grateful for the opportunity.  He is obedient; but we have nothing in the rest of the story to indicate that he receives this second opportunity well.  In fact, we have the whole end of the story to indicate that he receives this opportunity poorly.

Yet, the Ninevites receive Jonah’s message brilliantly!  As soon as they hear Jonah’s prophecy in their midst they call for repentance.  They call for sackcloth to be worn.  They call out for a fast.  The king even sits in ashes!  We see Jonah nearly despise the fact that God gives him an opportunity while the Ninevites seem to be willing to grasp at any chance they can get!

Isn’t it interesting how the people of God struggle with sin as much – perhaps even more – than the rest of the world?  There is no reason for those who are in God to adopt a holier-than-thou approach to life.  We wrestle with sin and an ungrateful attitude towards God just as much with the next guy.  And we should know better!

Ninevites

Of course, I don’t want to over-glorify the Ninevites, either.  Yes, they repent.  Yes, they call a solemn fast.  But we know from history and the rest of God’s Word that the repentance isn’t lasting.  They continue to be cruel.  They continue to oppress beyond what is reasonable for conquering nations.  We know the Assyrians invade Israel and God’s beckoning but go way too far with their power.  We know that God brings up Babylon to be the judge against Assyria because of their corruption.  The repentance we see here appears genuine at the time, but it is fleeting.

The other part of the story that I love is the comment of the king with respect to God.  “Who knows?” says the king.  “God may turn and relent so that we may not perish.”  This is almost word for word the reaction to God that we see in Joel 2:14 and 2 Samuel 12:22.  None of us can know the mind of God.  None of us can know for certain what God has purposed – especially when it comes to the consequences for our own sinfulness.  But one thing we can say is that the only proper response once we are convicted of our sinfulness is to repent.

God may see our repentance and remove all of the consequence.  God may see our repentance and know for our own good that we have to deal with some of our consequence.  God may know that we have to deal with all of the consequence.  But the proper response to God is always in repentance.

Jonah is Displeased

When God does turn, Jonah is displeased.   As a child, I always assumed that Jonah was displeased because he thought God made him out to be a liar.  I thought Jonah was concerned about his image and the fact that what he prophesied didn’t actually happen.  Oh, how I didn’t grasp the depth of the darkness that lies within the human heart!

Yes, Jonah is upset that the judgment didn’t happen.  But it has nothing to do with his reputation.  Jonah is angry because he knew God would spare them if the Ninevites repented.  As the Lord turns from anger Jonah turns to it.  As he says with his own mouth, Jonah is angry because the Lord is gracious.  Jonah is angry because God shows mercy on the enemy. 

That last sentence struck me when I wrote it.  Clearly, Jonah has failed to remember how God defines “enemy.”  We are all sinful.  We are all in need of God’s grace.  We are all enemies of God.  If Jonah got his wish and God only gave punishment to His enemies we would all be in trouble!  This is why God asks Jonah if his anger is well served.

Notice that Jonah does not reply to God.  Instead of answering God, Jonah goes out and pouts.  He is the one who walks away.  How sad it is that Jonah came all this way to see the Ninevites turn towards God while he turns away from God {even if both of these turnings are probably temporary}.

So God appoints a plant to grow that Jonah might have shade.  Jonah enjoys the shade, but the next day a worm attacks the plant and the plant dies.  Jonah curses life and asks God to die.  Again God talks to Jonah, and this time Jonah responds.  Jonah makes it clear that he has every right to be concerned about this plant that had no knowledge of his own existence.  Jonah did nothing for the plant except to enjoy the shade that it provided.

God then turns the tables on Jonah.  Essentially, God says to Jonah, “If you can be concerned about a plant that knew nothing of your existence, then I can be concerned about a city of 120,000 people who know nothing of my existence.”  This is absolutely powerful.

I wonder, how might God be concerned about the many cities around the world that know nothing of Him?  Am I any more concerned about those cities than Jonah was concerned about Nineveh?  How often am I like Jonah: worried about the small and miniscule blessings in my life when God is worried about the scope and breadth of a world that doesn’t even know Him?

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Year 3, Day 233: Jonah 1-2

Jonah

I think Jonah is probably one of the stories in the Bible that has a history of just being taught wrong.  Jonah is considered a negative prophet.  Most prophets receive the word of the Lord, take it to their audience, the audience does not receive it, but the prophet and God are still in a great relationship in spite of the rejection.  In Jonah, Jonah does everything he can to not receive God’s Word, but eventually takes it to the people, they do listen, and Jonah’s relationship with God suffers for it!  In our culture we have a tendency to turn Jonah into a cute little children’s tale but it is really a deep story about the darkness that dwells within the depth of the hearts of humanity – even God’s own people and called prophets!

History

Jonah is referred to in 2 Kings 14:25.  This means that Jonah lived during the reign of Jeroboam II, who reigned from 793 B.C. to 753 B.C.  Since Assyria, whose capitol was Nineveh, fell to the Babylonians in 612 B.C. there is no reason to believe that Jonah didn’t live when the Bible claims that he lived.  We know from historical records that Nineveh suffered from two plagues: 765 B.C. and 759 B.C.  We also know that they experienced an eclipse of the sun on June 15^th, 763.  {Isn’t science so cool?}  What this means is that the people of Nineveh were likely ripe for a prophet’s message sometime after 759 B.C.  Many think that it is around 759 B.C. that Jonah arrives in Nineveh and the people heed his message.  Many believe that Jonah’s stubbornness is because he doesn’t want to be seen as the guy who helped out the enemy so they could eventually come and take Israel into captivity.  From a human perspective, I can certainly understand this point of view.  After all, this dating would make Jonah a contemporary of Amos and Hosea – both of which were making it clear that Israel was headed for exile under Assyria.

The Sin of Nineveh

Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria.  As such, they worshipped foreign gods.  Chief among the gods were Nabu, Asshur, Adad, and Ishtar.  Certainly God would have an issue with the worship of things that are not Him.

The Assyrians were also a people who were known for their violent nature.  They were cruel in military warfare.  Rather than taking captives, they often chose to butcher the innocents.  They would often bring the heads of opposing militaries back to the towns from which the soldiers came so the people could see the faces of their slain kin.  They would intentionally take young virgins and burn them alive.  They would also take captives and flay them to such a point that they would never recover but then leave them so as to experience a slow and excruciating death as nature finished the process.  It was not uncommon for Assyrian armies to skin their conquered foes and then decorate the walls of their own city with the skins of their victims.  They were an incredibly ruthless and cruel people.  It is one thing to be violent – ancient warfare was a very violent process.  But it was another thing to be cruel in their violence.

Jonah

It is to this city that God says to Jonah, “Go and announce their sins.”  I’ve already spoken Jonah’s fear of being seen as a guy who brings aid to the enemy.  But take this Assyrian reputation and consider what Jonah must think will happen to him if they don’t listen.  If they don’t listen, he’ll likely be killed and brought back to Israel and put on display.  So Jonah truly sees this as a lose-lose proposition for him.  Either the Ninevites listen and Jonah aids the enemy or they don’t listen and he likely dies a painful death.  No wonder he ran to Tarshish!

I’m not trying to give Jonah a pass here.  Clearly he is disobedient.  But it isn’t like this is outright rebellion for rebellion’s sake.  I’m willing to bet that Jonah is merely trying to convince God that there is someone “closer” to Nineveh who would be better off handling this task.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is absolutely disobedience.  But if I were in Jonah’s shoes, I have to confess that running away would be an option I would consider, too.

On the Boat

God is none-too-pleased.  A storm overtakes the boat to Tarshish.  The people of the boat all pray to their gods and start throwing cargo into the sea in hopes that their sacrifice would appease whoever is mad.  So, not unlike Jesus who fell asleep in a boat during a storm, we see Jonah is asleep in the middle of this storm.  {This is not the only comparison between Jonah and Jesus, interestingly enough.}  The captain comes to Jonah and urges him to pray.  At this point, you’ve got to know that Jonah really knows what’s going on.

However, Jonah doesn’t say anything.  Jonah is willing to let the crew do what they think needs to be done.  Rather than solving the problem and confessing, he is willing to let it come to casting lots.  Of course, the lot falls onto him.  Jonah might be willing to hide his sin from the people around him, but he cannot hide it from God. He refused the chance to repent; God has him found out anyway.

Jonah does confess.  The sailors try to avoid throwing Jonah into the sea.  They try to save Jonah from the wrath of the Lord, but they are unable to save Jonah.  The only one who can save Jonah is God.  For the record, the only one who can save the sailors on the ship is God, too.  So when the sailors realize all hope is lost they hurl Jonah into the sea.  The sea immediately calms down and the sailors realize the power of Jonah’s God.  They worship Him.  Isn’t it interesting how God can even use Jonah’s rebellion to spread the glory of His name?

Belly of the Great Fish

A fish swallows Jonah.  Here is another comparison to Jesus.  As Jonah spends three days captive within the belly of the fish, so Jesus spends three days captive to death in the belly of the tomb.  Both will be freed from their captivity to do the work of the Lord!

While in the fish, Jonah prays to God.  Notice something about this prayer, however.  There are no petitions for deliverance within it.  Nor is there any recognition of guilt within it.  This is not a penitent prayer.  This is simply a prayer acknowledging the great and majestic power of God.  This is a prayer recounting the experience.  There is a small confession of God being Jonah’s God in verse 6, but that was never in question. 

Jonah simply turns to God and without repenting he says, “Listen, God, I know You are more powerful than me or anything in creation.  You can do what you want.  You can save me if You want.  I resign myself to do what I vowed as Your prophet.”

This is no prayer of repentance.  There is no sorrow or grief here.  Jonah is resigned to God.  Jonah is simply saying that he won’t resist.  He is saying that he will do the will of the Lord, but that doesn’t mean that he has to enjoy it, like it, or even feel sorrow for trying to run away.

This is one of the saddest and depressing parts of the story.  In fact, both even chapters of this book show us the darkness of Jonah’s heart.  Rather than repent and genuinely make the will of the Lord his own, Jonah resigns himself to God and does what God asks without any great inherent love for the work.  How sad it is when the work of the Lord is done through a feeling of resignation rather than joy!

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