So kind, I'm sharing

Greetings!
A short while ago this post was written on a certain blog I follow, and I thought I'd share. I found it interesting because of how it pertains to what I would call "intellectual Christianity" - handling Christian doctrine merely as another intellectual endeavor, often seemingly void of any kind of, you know, brokenness or humility, or other similar minor details. It's as if Christianity is just a select flavor of philosophy, and is something to be played with by the mentally elite. The root? Faith in intellect, not God's word. However, in this case, faith in intellect results in saying that faith in God's word is good. That is, after all, the right thing to believe. Long story short, such a mindset can be quite subtle. 1 Timothy addresses this subject, particularly in 1:3-7, 6:3-5, and 6:20-21. For what it's worth, I find it interesting that 1 Corinthians 1:21b says "God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." not "God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who intellectually convinced."
Maybe I'll write a post making mention of how intellectually disappointing the gospel is. Oh wait, I think I did.
In case you missed the (first) link above, here it is in plain language: blog post
Until next time,
Joshua

Modern Phariseeism

Hey all!
Although I need to take the time to actually write a post of my own, that time is not today. However, I do feel that I should at least post something. So, I have something I would like to share with you all.

In my Bible studying recently, I've been looking at the Pharisees more in depth. So today as I was surfing the web for relevant information, I came across this article on modern day Phariseeism. I was surprised by the insight the author had, and his ability to show me one of the many areas where I have fallen short of God's will for my own life. I hope you all will take the time to read though it, and that it will challenge you just as it has challenged me.

God Bless.                                    

Modern Day Pharisee

A Foolish Wisdom

In our culture, being a Christian is a shameful thing. Actually believing the words on the pages of the Bible the way they were written and submitting to and teaching them is…weird. It is not a popular trend to acknowledge God as Creator and Savior, and it is not the majority who would believe the cross itself in what it really was. This makes Christianity a shameful belief. It doesn’t help that there are a myriad of pseudo-Christian flavors plaguing this generation, with a reputation for corny, shallow beliefs and the songs to match, designed for the emotionally unstable who need a crutch. “Weak ” and “shallow” describe this common form of Christianity well. One good example is the Charismatic movement, which was accurately described by one individual as “the professional wrestling of Christianity”.

                              But moving right along, from the unsaved world’s point of view, believing the cross is a strange thing. How odd to believe in a crucified Jew, and that He was raised from the dead. It doesn’t have intellectual significance or special super-natural signs. It’s just…silly.     

                              But I want to remind us today that this is by design. The cross in and of itself was designed to appear a foolish thing to the world. It is repulsive to those who acknowledge only what their mind can comprehend. It isn’t accepted by those who put faith in their intellect, faith in what makes sense to them. In summary, it is foolishness.

                              Why is this? Why has God designed the cross of Jesus to be void of human wisdom? Why doesn’t it ‘make sense’ to the unbeliever? Don’t we want to win people here?

                              Simple: it was designed to be a shame not to those who believe, but to those who don’t believe. We must know that it is God’s wisdom seen in the cross, not man’s. God cannot be accessed by human intellect. Truth cannot be obtained by human cognition  or brain-power. Given that, God has designed to shame those trusting in their own ability by saving not them, but the weak, the foolish of this world by a seemingly ridiculous message. Further, those saved ‘foolish’ people now become ambassadors of their ‘foolish’ message. The world’s wisdom, knowledge and reason we now see benefit it none, as they contribute nothing to their salvation.

                              Perhaps we might find it tempting, when explaining the gospel, to adjust it to make sense. We are, after all, trying to win this person, and we don’t want to come across as strange to him or her, thus losing credibility in their eyes. So, we capitalize on certain aspects of the gospel to make it less embarrassing. We attempt to make the gospel more palatable by implementing reason and try  to make the gospel fit for our audience.

                              However, when we try to make the message of the cross acceptable by means of our cleverness of speech, we actually make the cross void, empty, and useless. We have just compromised the very power of the message, and replaced it with our own. The cross itself is the wisdom of God – it doesn’t need our help. You should expect it to come across odd; expect to be seen as strange - but don’t tamper with the message. It’s not yours anyway. You, as a Christian have been entrusted with the gospel to simply preach it, not manipulate results. Let God do His work with His word, and don’t replace it with yours.

                              This is what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 1:17ff. When Paul preached the gospel to the Corinthians, he purposefully left out his own “cleverness of speech” in order to fully expose the cross.  Why? Because it was and is by this foolish message that God has chosen to save his children. Verses 23 and 24 of the same chapter read “but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

                              Once you tamper with the gospel to make it more appealing, you have done two things: 1) compromised the power of the message, and 2) exchanged the target audience of the message. If you preach something that makes sense to the world, they’ll hear that. However, they won’t be saved by it. Further, don’t forget that, as Paul said, it is those who are the called who will believe this message and are  saved by it. This is the only message by which they will be saved. They are your target audience – preach their message so that they might be saved . (I am obviously not saying that those who will be saved own the gospel, but merely associating it with them in that it is only by the gospel that they are saved.) You don’t know who the called are. Your job is simply to preach and let God be concerned with who believe and those who don’t. Your faithfulness to the Word of God will result in the hardening of some. You can’t help that. Their death sentence is their intellect, because it excludes them from believing in the foolish message of the gospel, which is also the only message that rescues sinners from eternal judgment. This is not a trite thing, and I do not want to come across as heartless. But this is reality. The unloving, cold, heartless, and downright hateful thing to do would be to not explain the actual gospel to them, remembering that you have no idea as to whether or not God will use it to save them or harden them. This is not an arrogant in-your-face approach, as that itself compromises the gospel by introducing pride. You want you to get out of the way and simply be a mouthpiece for the Word of God. The example we have of this is Christ Himself, Who was gentle, humble in heart, giving rest to those who came to Him – not a burden. And, it was for the sake of those whom would receive that rest that He aggressively attacked the Jewish religious leaders, refuting them and their teaching as publicly as they had asserted themselves and their teaching (Matthew 23).

                              So I challenge you, fellow Christian; do you understand the gospel well enough to teach it clearly so that the gospel, and only the gospel, may be the content of your evangelism? Are you tempted to assist the gospel, making mention of only certain parts of it, leaving the more ‘embarrassing’ and ‘strange’ aspects out for later? If you do so, I ask this: what are you really preaching? Is it the gospel anymore? Be faithful, knowing that it is not your message you have been entrusted with. Follow Paul’s example in Acts 20:26-27, and do not “shrink from declaring…the whole purpose of God ”.

Sincerely,

Joshua

Love Your Enemies

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

Good day to you all, Brethren. For quite some time, I have wanted to write upon one of the most important subjects of all time. This subject lies at the foundation of Christianity, being not only the  summation of the way in which the Children of God must walk, not only the breath and life of believers, but it is also the foundational element of God and the great gravity which binds together the Holy Trinity. Love is the basis of all that God does, has done, and will do. Therefore, we can rightly say that love is not merely a description of God, but rather that God is love (1 John 4:7-8). 


This reality is arguably the most important reality for us to grasp, and a full discussion of love would last for an eternity, since our God is eternal and unfathomable. However, in this post, I wish to discuss a specific aspect of love, one which is beyond us: love of our enemies.


Out of all types of love, this is probably the most difficult of all. Honestly, it is difficult to love someone who is always attempting to put you down or undermine your faith, or even kill you for believing Christ and obeying Him. It is difficult (to say the least) to do good to those who do evil to you (Romans 12:17-21, cf. 1 Peter 3:8-12). Nevertheless, it is commanded.


So, if we are to understand how we are to treat our enemies, the first question we must ask is: what is love?


Well, I can tell you that love is not a wonderful fluttering in one's heart over, or an infatuation with, someone, although those can be outward signs of love under certain circumstances. How do I know this? God, who is in a very real sense the essence of love itself, does not love in this manner.


"God is a righteous judge,
And a God who has indignation every day.

If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;
He has bent His bow and made it ready.
He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons;
He makes His arrows fiery shafts.
Behold, he travails with wickedness,
And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood.
He has dug a pit and hollowed it out,
And has fallen into the hole which he made.
His mischief will return upon his own head,
And his violence will descend upon his own pate." (Psalm 7:11-16)

Therefore, God’s love for man does not necessitate giddy infatuation over them. Now, one may look at this passage and say that it shows a god of hate, not love. However, we in the modern church have been emphasizing the word love for so long that it has actually lost its original meaning and power. God is not giddy over sinners (or even us who are saved), nor is He romantically in love with anyone (the Song of Solomon was not a picture of the love Christ has for His Church, quite frankly that idea is absolutely revolting and blasphemous on so many levels). Nevertheless, God does love all men, even those whom He has righteously decreed to be created as hell-bound vessels of wrath. 

 

How is it that the Lord still loves those whom He is sharpening His sword against to slay? How is it possible to be absolutely furious with those who refuse to repent (Psalm 2:4-6), so furious that you command your Son to dash them to pieces with an iron rod (Psalm 2:9) and ultimately cast them into untold, eternal torment and yet love them? Honestly, I do not know. I firmly believe that this is a reality too deep for mortal man to understand, but it is true nonetheless.     

However, I will admit that this still does not seem like love to our modern minds. Honestly, few will look at these truths and see love behind them. Nevertheless, love is there. First of all, the Father does this out of love for the Son (since it was love that motivated Him to give all things into the hand of Christ) (John 5:20-23) and the Son then obeys the Father out of love (John 14:31), destroying the unrighteous and then giving the Kingdom back to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24-28). Thus, all this is done in an ultimate sense as a result of the love within the Trinity.

Secondly, God also does this in spite of the love He has for the perishing ones.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

 

This passage is found in the well-known Sermon on the Mount. Here we find a powerful declaration of God’s love even for those who hate Him. Firstly, Christ repeats a statement popular among the unsaved-yet-super-spiritual persons of all time: namely, love those that love you and hate everyone else. However, Christ declared that this idea is completely false. In fact, one must love not only his brothers, but also those who are enemies of yourself and God. Why? Because God does the same thing. In spite of the hatred of unbelievers, God showers innumerable blessings upon them. He grants them rain, sun, snow, food and happiness (Acts 14:17), and all other blessings (such as the sending of Grace and Truth incarnate, Christ Jesus, to proclaim the truth).

Yet, is this love, or is this mere concern for them? Well, we must look at this passage in further detail to determine this.

First, Christ states that we must be perfect just as our Father is perfect. Moreover, we are to be sons of our Father, and sons are called to become images of the Son (Romans 8:29), and Christ merely does what His Father does (John 5:19). Therefore, whatever we are commanded in this passage to do is what our Trinitarian God does.  

So, what are we commanded to do? Agape our enemies. In this text, Christ uses the word agape (ἀγαπᾶτε specifically) to denote what kind of love we must have for our enemies (those who hate us and thus hate God). This is not merely being nice to the other person, rather it is true love.

 

Yet, what is this love? Well, I would argue that the best summation of agape love is found in 1 Corinthians 13.

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

This love, agape love, is the love which we must have for all men, not merely fellow believers. This is not to say that we love those outside of the Church in the same exact way as we love those inside the body, for we are commanded to give especial love to the Church (Galatians 6:10). Nevertheless, we must be patient, kind, selfless, humble, gentle, enduring, hopeful, unfailing, never keeping a record of how they have wronged us. 

 

This has huge implications for us. For example, this is one of the reasons why we Christian workers are called to do good to our unsaved masters (Eph. 6:5, 1 Peter 2:18, Titus 2:9-10). In all of this, we are to work hard, as for the Lord (Colossians 3:22-24). Why would we do so? Well, we love both God and man, and we long for all men to escape the wrath to come. Like our Lord, we do not take pleasure in the destruction of the wicked, but rather long for them to turn from their evil ways and live (Ezekiel 18:23). We realize that living a holy life will make an impression upon those who are outside of the faith, and thus our hard work may lead to the repentance of our unsaved bosses. This is love, and this is what motivates us in all our dealings with the unsaved, even those who hate us.

Again, we are called to love those outside of the Church. This is key, since if we love only those inside the Church, what reward do we have? It is easy to love those in the Church, because they will love you back. However, it is so much harder to truly love those outside of the Church because they will often hate us in return. Nevertheless, it is still commanded of us, and is a demonstration that our love for God and man is far greater than the “love” which the unsaved have for one another.

Now, does love always bring peace? No, for Christ came to bring a sword, not peace (Matthew 10:34-36), and our love will inevitably stir up hatred, even possibly amongst those closest to us. This is not because we are unloving, rather our patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control, etc., is of the Spirit, and God is light. As I have said before, men love darkness and hate light (John 3:19-21), and therefore will hate our love. Moreover, they will really hate the message which we lovingly preach (Eph. 4:15), which is Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 1:23), and this reveals their sins, which is something they fear (John 3:20). Therefore, it is the very love we have for them and the message it compels us to preach that will both draw some and repel others. As wise men have said, love hurts.

Because of what we originally declared about this passage (from Matthew 5) being based upon a command to be like our Heavenly Father, loving whom He loves and in the same way, we must also conclude that God has this same required love for those who hate Him and will hate Him eternally. God must love all men with agape love, otherwise He would be no better than the unsaved. It is this love for all, coupled with His justice, fury, holiness, faithfulness, kindness, mercy, gentleness, goodness, and all of His other attributes that sets Him above all men. Moreover, the degree to which we imitate this love is the degree to which we are set apart (sanctified) from those who hate the Lord.

God’s love for all men is the type of love described in 1 Cor. 13. Look throughout the Bible (especially in the life of Christ), and we see God’s patience, kindness, humility, selflessness, lack of swift provocation, forgiveness and passing over the times of ignorance, not retaliating against those who spat on Him, hatred and sadness over evil but joy over truth, bearing all things, full of hope, and enduring even the worst of trials unscathed. Overall, His love never failed, and never will fail. What love is this!

One could go for an eternity about this subject, but I must close sometime. So, let me close with this. We must love all men, even those that would kill us. We must never cease to do good to all men (Galatians 6:10), not only through teaching them the truth, but also through doing general good things for them (Romans 12:19-21). We must be like the Good Samaritan, showing mercy to and loving your neighbors, even those who are of a nation which collectively hates you, in our case, those who are citizens of the kingdom of Satan (Luke 10:25-37). Ultimately, it is not enough to love those within the Church. We must also love those who hate us, for that is a love beyond humanity: the agape of God.

Grace and peace to you all.

A Basic Introduction to the Source of Wisdom.

We know that it is necessary that a person gains wisdom, and there are several reasons why this is (not including common sense, which some seem to be lacking anyways).
The first would be to preserve his own life. (Pr. 21: 16; 1:32; 19:8; 12:13 ). The second is for the sake of others - in that he would take care of his own household (Pr. 27:23-27), wisely aid others (Pr. 29:7), and the simple cause-and-effect benefits of wise behavior that those around the wise man enjoy(Pr. 28:2) .
Thirdly, a man must be wise in order to glorify God and reflect His image, as he was designed to do when God created him. Genesis 1:26 says “Then God said ,‘Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’” Being His image, it is natural that we should be like Him. Note also Adam’s responsibilities for which God made Him “Then God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, and every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Gen. 1:28) May you observe that these responsibilities (which were given to the man and His wife, the man being God‘s direct image bearer and responsible for the command not to eat of the tree of life, and woman as his helper) are things that God Himself did and does. He rules, and He made man in His Own image.

So then, it being so critical that one gain wisdom, the questions arises: How do I gain wisdom?

This question I will attempt to answer in very short form in this post.

I would like to look at Proverbs chapter 2. The author, whom we know to be Solomon, addresses this chapter to his son, whom we know to be Rehoboam. This is wisdom, however, and goes for everyone.

In brief observation, it should noted in verse 3 the conditional situation in which the son must “cry for wisdom“, and “lift up” or give his voice for her. He must plead for her. Think about were a person must be in order to do  this. They must be desperate. They must know their hopeless condition, and want earnestly the cure. Then, in verse 4, continuing the condition of verse 3, the son must get up and search for her. This isn’t a cursory glance or a brief inquiry for wisdom. The search that the son must have for her is compared to a person’s search for “silver” and “hidden treasures”. The searcher is putting their whole energy into their quest, and their whole heart is in it. Nobody half-heartedly looks for concealed treasures when they know it is there. They put all they have into it. This is their priority because they understand what they will benefit from discovering it.
It must be recognized that this is a lesser comparison. Proverbs 3:14-15 says of wisdom “For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire compares with her.” When found, even unlimited gold renders only temporal benefits to her possessor, and brings a lot of baggage along with it. However, wisdom gives not only temporal benefits, but primarily eternal ones.
Now it must be asked “Where do I look”. Let me ask you, where does wisdom come from? Look at verse 6. The Lord is the source of wisdom, specifically “From His mouth”.  So it is the things that God speaks that grants us wisdom. Where, now, do we have a given (note that) record of God’s words? So then where must we turn in order to gain wisdom, where do we dig? The inspired Scripture, the Word of God - the Bible. Also, note that at this time the New Testament was not existent. All people had were certain books of what we call the Old Testament, specifically the Law. This can be looked at more in the future, but just know that for now.
So, you are in a situation and you don’t know what exactly you should do. You need wisdom. What do you do? Roll your eyes in the back of your head and mutter a prayer to God, asking for guidance, hoping that the right answer will just pop into your mind? You must rely on what you have been taught form Scripture, not your own “Scriptural” ideas, but actual truth”. You need to be in a place where you are being taught the word of God so you can depend on what you know.

“Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth” ~ John 17:17

"Jussive in Meaning": What is Proverbs?

      The book of Proverbs is a very interesting book and, by definition, deserves and demands our attention. It is an often neglected book or, worse, misinterpreted book. I would like to record a few facts that I have been learning of this book. This post can be considered a part of my Old Testament series.
       When talking to people about Proverbs with someone, or reading writing of the book of Proverbs, one statement I here a lot is that the teachings in Proverbs is "Jussive in meaning". Now you might not have heard that before, and in case you haven't I will explain it to you.
        Proverbs was written in Hebrew, and in Hebrew grammar there is a type of imperative known as a Jussive. A jussive is nothing more than a heart felt plea, example: "I really wish you would let me in." That sentence is an example of a Hebrew jussive. So, that means that there are no commands in Proverbs so you can take it or leave it, and Proverbs is nothing more than a bunch of good ideas that may or may not apply to you.
          Now, that, personally, would bother me because that means that there is no authority behind Proverbs and that it is nothing more than pithy sayings that have no more meaning than Aesop's fables, and do nothing more than help you live skillfully. But there has to be more in Proverbs, and what is the history of the book and how would the Hebrews understand the book. and also where did the good ideas in Proverbs come from?
         Now Proverbs, by itself, really isn't a very hard book to understand just to read it at face value. Much of it is somewhat easy to understand, example: "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge but he who hates reproof is stupid." Proverbs 12:1, that is pretty straight forward but like all the books in the Bible, Proverbs is an inexhaustible well that needs to be laboured over to mine out its jewels, Proverbs 2:4-5. That is what we need to do.
        So let us consider the history of this book. Who was it written by? Solomon, Agur, and Lemual. The last two authors are unknown but we all know who Solomon is. Some say that this book is merely a compilation of wise sayings of wise men from before, and it is possible that a certain section of the book was such, but some have even said, lo, many teach that the proverbs are of Egyptian origin! Now that is absolutely ludicrous, that wicked pagan gentiles would be the origin of such a jewel in our own Bibles. Further more it makes little sense from what the book itself says, chapter 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; Fools despise wisdom and instruction." Now no one that knows anything of the Bible wouldn't doubt that the Egyptians feared God, although they had good reason to (one of these days I would like to write on the Exodus and its affect on Egypt), so then they could not have been the originators of the book of Proverbs. Also, it makes perfect sense that Solomon himself would write the book and that he personally thought of the proverbs by what I will write below.
          Think through what you know of Solomon. He was the son of David that inherited the throne of Israel. From early on he was characterized by wisdom, I Kings 2:9. Now there is certain event in his life that is very significant. I Kings 3:3-15, Solomon was at Gibeon which was where the tabernacle was thus he was worshipping and one night, while he was there, God told Solomon that He would give him anything that he wanted. Solomon, an example of showing some early signs of wisdom, Proverbs 2:1-6, asks for wisdom. God is pleased with Solomon for that requests and grants it and promises more. Solomon soon afterwards became internationally well known for his wisdom, I Kings 5:7. Now, how did God give that wisdom and is it possible for us to receive such wisdom?
        Now here is one of the most exciting things about Proverbs, I think, that is its origin. The origin will give us depth to the book and will answer our jussive in meaning predicament. So please turn to your Bibles to Deuteronomy 17:18-20. According to that section, what was the king to do with the Law, why was he to do that, and what is the beginning of wisdom? I will let you make the logical conclusions. Now, read Deut. 4:5-8.  The Law was to tutor men to understand wisdom, and to convict of sins, both of which happened to Solomon, Proverbs 20:9. This is why the imperetives in Proverbs is Jussive, because all the commands have already been given in the Law!
         Do you also want to know what is amazing about this book Proverbs. It leads those who read it to salvation, II Timothy 3:14-17! In verse 15, the word "writings" is what was used to explain the wisdom literature, mainly Proverbs. Then Paul continues to say "In fact, not only the Writings but all of God's Word is beneficial".
        Well this is an over view of the book of Proverbs, and again much more can be said. As you can see there is much more to Proverbs than just a bunch of pithy saying that the Hebrews learned from the Egyptian and reorded by Solomon, but is originated from the Word of God.