A little buffing and polishing, and this post from Philippians is ready to read again! Click for a “one-verse wonder” analysis.
Tag Archives: bible
How to Love Like God
Matthew 5:46-48
46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In these three verses, Jesus knocks down every excuse we could ever invent about our human prejudice and hate. Using the examples of tax collectors and pagans, two of the most hated people groups in Jesus’ day, He demonstrates that if we are to represent God, we must love better. If we only love those who are like us, or only love those who are nice to us, we leave out a large chunk of the global population, and Jesus’ Great Commission doesn’t leave out anybody.
But what does “love” mean in this context? It means to see past petty differences and problems, to show God’s forgiveness to those who are lost, to offer comfort to those who are ashamed or in pain. We are called by Jesus in this passage to strive toward “perfect” love–God’s love, which is unconditional and given without hesitation. (We won’t ever quite match up to God, but we can still aim for the ideal.) This takes both humility and patience, realizing that we are no better than anyone else, and that others still deserve to be loved like God loves them, even if they don’t know He exists yet.
This is not an easy practice; it requires breaking down our own prejudices (even the ones we think we don’t have), but it is necessary if we are to be witnesses of God’s love to others.
Redo: Seek Out Ways to Revive Your Faith
This post about reviving your faith just got sorted out! Click and enjoy both the verses and the application to modern Christian life!
Let God Correct You
Proverbs 12:1
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.
When we talk about discipline and correction, we’re usually referencing public schooling and parenting tactics–in short, how we raise our kids. But this verse of Proverbs has no such age restriction: this is meant for ALL people, young and old. No matter how old we get, God is still shaping us, sculpting us through the people and events He brings into our lives.
This is a hard verse to read, especially the bit about “hating correction,” because I’m a perfectionist and hate to admit I need correction–correction means I’ve failed. After all, adulthood is often championed as the time in our lives when we finally have everything together, when we are self-sufficient and wise and don’t need anybody to correct us. But here, we see that we cannot invest ourselves with so much importance (read: pride) as to disregard God altogether. Divine discipline (both punishment and training) brings us knowledge and wisdom we can never possess on our own, and divine correction, even as humiliating as it can be sometimes, brings us closer to God when we finally allow Him to work in us. (Found that out during my ill-fated teaching career, LOL)
This verse forces us to think: “What is God trying to correct in me? What is He training me for?” These are important and powerful questions for any point in a Christian’s life–in fact, they can be daily questions!
Redo: Submission Is Not Docile Silence
Redo Week is rollin’ along, with this much-improved Bible post about a passage from Ephesians. Yay for better explanations with fewer words!
Quit Ignoring Jesus!
John 5:1-8; 14
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie–the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
On First Reading: Wait, Jesus Said WHAT?!
Admittedly, this Bible story used to bother me when I was younger and read the Bible more shallowly. First off, Jesus’ final words to the man sound harsh, especially when you think about how long the man had been disabled (38 years). Secondly, it always seemed like Jesus was actually blaming the man for being disabled, because of his sin (mentioned in the second half of verse 14), as well as threatening him with “worse” punishment. As a younger reader, I didn’t understand why Jesus was saying this when the man had obviously had a hard life already.
Reading Again: The Invalid Needed This Wake-Up Call
But as I read over this Bible story again for this post, I realized something: this man had been disabled a long time. In all that time, he had never once reached out to God for help; Jesus even asks him in verse 6, “Do you want to get well?” Jesus didn’t really need to know the answer, but He asked because it would make the man think differently about his problem. For all those years, the disabled man had been focusing on self-pity (“oh, poor me, nobody around me will help me”), and he had forgotten (or ignored) God, Who stands ready to help when we finally quit trying to do it all ourselves.
Now, when Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?”, the man realizes Jesus is reaching out to him for help, and he finally defines in verse 7 exactly what he needs help with. He has finally asked the right person! He has finally quit ignoring Jesus and quit wallowing in self-pity long enough to actually ask for help.
Ignoring Jesus and choosing to wallow in self-pity are both sins, which Jesus addresses in verse 14. When we sin, we cut ourselves off from God, either consciously or unconsciously, and it makes it much more frustrating for God to try to communicate with us. Jesus’ final words, then, are a firm disciplinary admonishment for the man to keep in better contact with God from here on out. He has been shown, personally and powerfully, what God can do in his life; it’s now up to him to turn to God and stop living in a mental prison of his own making.
We Need This Wake-Up Call, Too!
We often do the same thing to God, especially these days when we think we have our lives completely together and we are perfectly fine without God helping. Fact is, we all need God, and for some of us, God has been waiting a very long time for us to realize that. God even allows struggles to happen to us, to teach us that we do need Him when our own strength fails (and actually, we need Him every hour, as the old hymn goes). It’s not that God is doing evil things to us, but that He uses the bad things in our lives as teachable moments, to show us that we can’t do it all alone, and we don’t have to, because He is there. We just have to stop pridefully ignoring Him first!
Redo: Don’t Get Desperate, Trust God
An extra paragraph, an explanatory link, and better wording overall–that’s what this Bible post received for Redo Week. Much, MUCH better post; click and see for yourself! 🙂
Restoration is Coming
Ezekiel 36:8-10
8 “‘But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. 9 I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, 10 and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.'”
These verses promise restoration to the land of Israel and its people, who have seen their fair share of devastation and ruin. Being conquered by other countries, being captured and taken into exile…let’s just say the Israelites have had a very difficult time of it!
But Ezekiel brings words of hope from God, Who has not been idle during all this suffering; in fact, God has brought them through and is planning to return His people to their homeland, newly abundant with plenty. The time of exile and conquest will soon be over, and Israel restored to its proper place, where they may begin to thrive again.
Why Did Israel Have to Be Restored in the First Place?
One might ask, “Well, if God is so faithful and loving, why were the Israelites allowed to suffer?” The simple answer was that Israel had become famously unfaithful and ungrateful to God, worshipping any other deities but Him, acting as if they alone had done the work to deserve all that they had. In earlier Old Testament books (Judges especially), we see this dynamic illustrated over and over again so many times, it’s ridiculous.
Finally God just lets them see what their lives would be like without His blessing; He does not turn away from His people entirely, but He does allow the surrounding countries to do as they will with Israel. Like a parent with a disobedient child, God allows Israel to fall on its proverbial backside for a while, so that they understand how dependent they truly are on Him (and not other deities) for protection. But this punishment is not forever, as these verses promise!
We Can Be Restored, Too!
We can trust in the same restorative power in our own lives. We may not be conquered by other countries and taken into exile, but we can encounter major career setbacks, endure strife and long-term struggles with loved ones, and suffer illness and despair. During hard times, it can be very difficult to see God working, but just as He did for Israel, He can do for us. We, like the Israelites, must learn to be faithful to Him and trust in Him, and know that He will “look on us with favor,” too.
Redo: Be Ready to Share Your Experience of God
Today, we go back to 1 Peter, revisiting an older post on witnessing. (It’s much simpler with less rambling now! YAY!) Click and find out how witnessing ought to be done.
Support Your Church Leaders
17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those who work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”**
In these two verses, Paul emphasizes how a leader’s good work in the church should be rewarded. Whatever duties the person performs, he or she should be treated with respect while fulfilling it (1st quoted verse), and should be compensated for time and effort afterward (2nd quoted verse).
Why does Paul stop and make this point about church elders/leaders? Because often church leaders get critiqued rather than supported, even in our modern church. When too many people start wanting the church to cater specifically to them, pleasing everyone while still serving God can be an impossible task. The truth is, leading even a small ministry is difficult, but often we regular members forget just how hard others are working behind the scenes to make each Sunday morning and Wednesday night happen. Hearing only criticism and getting no support from the church body can thus make ministry service a thankless task.
Paul’s advice here, then, is for church members to consciously remember to praise and reward their leaders, rather than ignore and/or chastise them. It’s not that regular members need to go out and buy their church leaders a new car every month, and for certain the congregation should not start praising and worshipping a human instead of God. But kind words of appreciation and a little monetary support can be more of a blessing to ministry leaders than we’ll ever know.
**(Side note: the first Scripture quote in verse 18 comes from Deuteronomy and the second comes from Luke–by this time, the New Testament writings were as trusted by Christians as the Old Testament.)