Monthly Archives: November 2023

Daily Bible Study

December 1, 2023 Bible Study –The Spirit of God Will Manifest Itself in Followers of Christ So as to Display God’s Love

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 12-14.

In today’s passage Paul writes about gifts of the Spirit.  He starts by telling us that no one speaking in the Spirit will curse or condemn Jesus, and no one will praise Jesus except by the Spirit.  Or to put that another way, only through the power of the Holy Spirit will anyone bring honor to Jesus and no one who brings disgrace to the name of Jesus has the Spirit working through them.  Paul writes that while there are different gifts, thee is only one Spirit.  He follows this up with something interesting.  He goes on to say that there are also different kinds of service and different kinds of working, both of which come from the same, singular Spirit.   Then he writes that each of us will receive a manifestation of the Spirit for the purpose of promoting the common good of the Body of Christ.  I draw two conclusions from what Paul writes here.  First, the Spirit will manifest in each and every follower of Christ in a way which will build up others in the Body of Christ.  Second, some of those manifestations will be in the performing of miracles and signs.  Others will have a manifestation of the Spirit which appears more mundane to those around them.

Paul writes that not everyone has the same gifts, not everyone has the same manifestation of the Spirit.  And that we should not think that we are better than others because we have a more glamorous gift of the Spirit, nor that we are inferior to others because we have a more mundane manifestation of the Spirit.   Paul applies the metaphor of the human body to the Church, the Body of Christ in order to make this point.  Paul writes that we should desire and seek the greater gifts (the way he writes this suggests that our desire for certain gifts may make it more likely that we get those gifts).  He then makes the point that the greatest gift of the Spirit is love for others.  Every thing else Paul writes about the gifts of the Spirit follow from what he writes about love.  If we utilize whatever gifts the Spirit gives us out of love for others, we will use them to build others up, not to gain honor and recognition for ourselves.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 30, 2023 Bible Study — Using Our Freedom in Christ for the Wellbeing of Others

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 9-11.

Paul continues to write about our freedom in Christ and our obligation to use our freedom in a responsible way.   He uses himself as an example by teaching that those who preach the Gospel have a right to receive financial support from those to whom they preach.  However, Paul chose not to exercise that right.  In fact, he chose not to exercise that right because, for him, his reward for preaching the Gospel was doing so free of charge (there is a fairly important but complex message in that which I am not going to go into today).  In fact, Paul tried, to the best of his ability, to put himself into the circumstances of those to whom he preached.  When Paul said that he became all things to all people, he does not mean that he pandered to them the way that some politicians do today (and probably always have).  I don’t believe that he means that he pretended to not be a Jew, or that he pretended to be a Corinthian when in Corinth.  Instead, I think it means that he made sure that he did not act in a way which would make those to whom he preached think that he thought he was better than they.

Which brings us to Paul writing about our freedom in Christ.  He started writing about this subject in yesterday’s passage, but has gone onto other subjects a few times.  He gets back on the subject by writing about the idea of taking part in the religious rituals dedicated to idols.  Paul points out that while the idols which idolaters worship are not real things, the people in these ceremonies and rituals are worshiping demons.  I believe Paul was addressing those who sought to take part in the idol worship which was a part of civic life in Corinth in an attempt to hide how being a Christian made them different from the people around them.  His discussion here serves as a counterpoint to his statement about being all things to all people.  Paul goes on to explain that while we have freedom in Christ to do anything, we should avoid those things which are not beneficial.  He makes clear that he does not mean that we should evaluate whether the things we do our beneficial for ourselves, although that should also play a role in our decisions about in what activities we will take part.  No,  we should decide based on what will be best for those around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 29, 2023 Bible Study — Judging Our Fellow Believers, and Being Judged by Them

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 5-8.

In today’s passage Paul teaches on how we should deal with human sexuality.  He begins with an example of a situation going on within the congregation in Corinth.  Paul writes that we should have nothing to do with those who actively sin while claiming to be followers of Christ.  Paul tells us that we should do this in order that these people might turn from their sin and enter back into fellowship with Christ.  And even though the proximate cause of Paul writing about this was a case of sexual immorality, Paul points out that the same principle applies to those who allow themselves to be consumed by greed, or who slander others, or swindle people, or who allow themselves to become controlled by alcohol (or other substances).  From the context, I believe Paul is speaking about those who embrace these behaviors to the point of believing that it is OK to do any of these.  I want to point out that while Paul tells us to completely avoid those who claim to be Believers who practice these things, he makes clear that he is not talking about those who make no profession of faith.  Even the judgement he calls us to make against Believers is merely to treat them as one who does not believe.

In discussing passing judgement on Believers who embrace sin, Paul suggests that, as Believers, we should turn to someone in the Church to judge between us and fellow Believers when we have a dispute.  In fact, he suggests that we should allow ourselves to be wronged, we should allow ourselves to be cheated, before we take our disputes with fellow Believers to the judicial system outside of the Church.  I think that we do not put enough focus on Paul’s teachings regarding keeping our disputes out of the courts.  If we have a disagreement with those who claim to be followers of Christ, we should take that disagreement to another member of the Church for resolution.  If the party with whom we have the disagreement will not accept such a resolution we should allow the wrong we think they have done us to stand rather than take it before the civil authorities.  I want to note that it is not clear to me that Paul tells us not to defend ourselves before the civil authorities should a fellow Believer take us to court.

 

 

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 28, 2023 Bible Study — Preach Not With Wisdom and Eloquence, but With the Power of the Cross

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 1-4.

I am always amused by Paul writing about not baptizing anyone in Corinth, except for a couple of people.  I imagine him dictating the letter to someone in a room with several other people and one of them interjecting about someone else he baptized and Paul going, “Oh yeah, them too, better say that I don’t remember baptizing anyone else in case someone comes back with, ‘what about so-and-so, didn’t you baptize them?'”  It is not really important. It just amuses me.  However, the point which Paul was making is important.  Paul did not baptize anyone in his own name, and would have objected to anyone else baptizing someone in his name.  His point was that we should follow Jesus in unity.  We should not allow ourselves to become divided by differences between the ways in which different people preach the Gospel.

Paul points out that he was not sent out to baptize, but rather to preach the Gospel.  Further he writes that he did not preach the Gospel with wisdom or eloquence because doing so might have diminished the power of the cross.  Paul explains that the cross is foolishness to those wise in the ways which humans call wisdom and common sense.  I recently heard Tom Holland (the historian, not the actor) expound on what Paul meant by what he writes here.  I want to note that Tom Holland is an atheist, but I think he got it pretty close.  Mr. Holland explained that to the Romans and Greeks, the strong ruled over and dominated the weak and did what they pleased.  Not only did they view that as “the way things are”, but the “way things ought to be”.  In behaving in that manner, the Greeks and Romans (and for that matter, Tom Holland says, so do all other non-Christian belief systems) felt that the strong were merely imitating the gods.  Paul said that, yes indeed we should imitate God, but that’s not how God behaves.  Rather, Paul tells us that God came down and served the poor and powerless, allowing Himself to be killed in order to model the behavior He wishes us to follow.  So, Paul teaches that the strong should serve the weak, not the other way around.  Paul tells us that this is the point of Jesus’ life.  This idea that individuals had value and that the purpose of being strong, of having power, was to serve those who were weak and powerless transformed the world, and that is at least part of the power to which Paul is referring when he writes about the power of the cross.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 27, 2023 Bible Study — If You Think You Are Spiritually Strong, You Are Obligated to Bear With the Failings of the Weak

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 15-16.

Today’s passage starts with Paul wrapping up his teaching that those who are strong in faith and in spirit should bear with the failings of the weak.  We should seek to please our neighbors in ways which build them up in faith in Christ.  Just as Christ accepted us and died serving us, so we should accept our fellow believers and be willing to die to bring salvation to our neighbors (and when Paul refers to our neighbors he is using the definition which Jesus gave us in the Parable of the Good Samaritan).

Paul then concludes his letter with a few more points worth remembering.  He writes that he will speak of nothing except what Christ has accomplished through Him.  In the same way, we should seek to give glory and credit to God for everything positive which has happened in our lives.  If you think that I have done something praiseworthy, even in writing this blog, the credit goes to God, Whose Spirit should be given credit for anything of value which might be contained in my writings (or other actions).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2023 Bible Study — God Still Has Plans for the People of Israel

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 11-14.

Today’s passage starts out with Paul warning Christians against holding animosity towards Jews, with feeling superior to Jews.  Paul describes how God grafted us into His family while cutting off those Jews who refused to put their faith in Christ.  He then makes the point that we were grafted onto the olive tree which is God’s family through no merit of our own, which means that we can be cut off just as easily if we make ourselves a barrier to others being added.  In many ways, his argument against anti-Jewish sentiment is really just a specific case of Paul’s point that our salvation does not make us better than anyone else.  Paul completes this by prophesying that at some point all Jews will come to know the Lord.  Although when he says that “all Israel will be saved” he may mean that those who are not saved at that point are no longer Israel.  If this is indeed the case, I would suggest that when the day arrives that Paul’s prophecy is fulfilled, Jews who are not Christians will cease to be a distinct people.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 25, 2023 Bible Study — If God Justifies Us, Who Can Condemn Us?

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 8-10.

Today’s passage contains a lot of things to which we should give careful thought.  It also contains a thread of thought which I want to follow.  Paul continues his thoughts about what it means to saved by faith in Christ.  He writes that those who have faith in Christ have been set free from the law of sin and death by the Spirit.  Some might interpret this to mean that we can act in anyway which we choose because the Law which specifies how we should act has been nullified.  However, Paul says that those who interpret what he said in that way are still living according to the flesh.  He writes that now that we have been saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ we should no longer live according to the flesh but instead live according to the Spirit.

Which brings us back once more to questioning if we are truly saved when we sin again after having accepted Christ as our Savior.  Once again, Paul addresses this by telling us that we struggle in our weakness, but that the Spirit will help us.  After telling us that we should live according to the Spirit and be dead to the flesh, he reminds us that this is what our faith is about.  Our faith gives us hope that the Spirit will transform us into beings who live according to the Spirit.  Then he reminds us that hope is about what we look forward to, not what we already have.  So, we strive to be brought into the freedom and glory of God, living according to His Spirit.

Paul goes on to quote Joel who said that everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.  From there Paul goes on to make some points which should influence the way we practice “Church” today.

  • People can only call on the Lord if they believe in Him
  • People can only believe in the Lord if they have hear about Him
  • People will only hear about the Lord if someone tells them about Him
  • People will only tell others about the Lord if someone sends them to do so

So, each and every congregation of those who worship Jesus Christ should be sending people out to tell others about Him.  Church is not about getting our spiritual needs met.  It is about preparing ourselves or someone else to preach the good news about Jesus Christ to those who have not yet heard it.

There are many other things which Paul wrote in this passage that each of us should hear, but that is all I am going to write on today.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 24, 2023 Bible Study — We Cannot Serve Two Masters

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 4-7.

Today’s passage is perhaps one of the more convoluted passages in Scripture.  This happens because Paul starts out to make what should be a few fairly basic statements about salvation, but then goes on to address the ways in which he knows that people will attempt to distort and misuse these basic principles.  So, the first basic principle which Paul speaks about is that we receive righteousness, not through what we do, but through our faith in Christ.  Paul points out that we all deserve death because of our sin, that none of us have lived lives where we have acted with righteousness.

However, if we cannot be saved, if we cannot obtain righteousness, by observing the law which God gave us, what purpose does that law serve?  Paul points out that the law makes us aware of our sin, and thus brings glory to God by showing the wonder of His grace to us.  Paul then addresses those who say that if our sin brings glory to God, then we should sin more so as to bring even more glory to God.  Paul disagrees with that conclusion, pointing out that we have died to sin through Christ.  Further, he echoes what Jesus said about serving two masters by saying that we must choose if we will be slaves to sin, or slaves to righteousness.  He tells us that Christ died and has been raised to life and now that He has been raised to life, He cannot die again.  In the same way, we have died with Christ, and been raised with Him.  We have died to sin and must not once more make ourselves subject to its mastery.

That last paragraph scares me, because I still sin from time to time.  Fortunately, Paul addresses this as well.  He says that he desires to do what is good, but fails to do so.  Instead of doing the good which he desires to do, he does evil.  Since he does not desire to do the wrong which he does, nor does he do the good which he does desire to do, this demonstrates that it is not he, but the sin living within him which does these things.  Paul tells us that if we desire to do good and to not do evil, doing as we desire is beyond our power.  However, it is not beyond God’s power.  We must seek in our minds to be slaves to righteousness, slaves to God while knowing that in our bodies, in our natural ,sinful selves, we are slaves to sin.  In our desire to do good we must trust, we must have faith, that God is willing and able to transform us, to release us from our slavery to sin.  When we do good, it is not because we are good and righteous people.  Rather, it is because God has exercised His power within us.  Credit for any good we doo does not belong to us.  Rather let us give credit to where it is due, to God’s wonderful power and grace.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 23, 2023 Bible Study — The Righteous Live by Faith

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 1-3.

Today’s passage contains a lot which I would like to write about, probably more than I can fit into one entry.  So, I will start at the beginning and work through as far as I can get.  I will start with something which Paul says which we should feel the same way.  He was not ashamed of the Gospel, because by it God gives salvation to everyone who believes.  What Paul writes here can easily become just jargon which only communicates anything to those who already know what it means.  That is not Paul’s intention.  So, to understand this I want to go back to what Jesus said the Gospel was, what good news He instructed His disciples to preach.  Jesus told us that the good news is that the Kingdom of God is near, and that the righteous can enter into it.  Paul is expanding on that point by telling us that the Kingdom of God is here and we may enter into it now, if we choose to be righteous.  He then tells us that righteousness only comes from faith (Paul expands on this later).

Paul goes on to tell us why we must urgently speak God’s Gospel to those around us: God’s wrath against those who choose wickedness and evil is about to be revealed.  He then answers the arguments of those who say God’s wrath is not fair.  He makes the point that God created the world in such a way as to make His power and characteristics clear to anyone who chose to understand.  That only by deliberately choosing to misunderstand could people fail to understand God’s nature.  Paul then points out that most people have chosen to reject knowledge of God in order to embrace wickedness.  Further Paul tells us that rejecting the knowledge of God results in having a depraved mind and doing things that ought not to be done.  Those who reject God degrade their bodies and themselves.  However, Paul does not allow for us to look down upon others as wicked while viewing ourselves as righteous because  he points out that all have sinned.  We are all guilty of, at some point, of denying our knowledge of God in order to embrace some sort of wickedness.  So, none of us are better than anyone else.  I cannot boast of being better than anyone else because I am just as guilty before God as anyone else.  In order to enter the Kingdom of God, we must have faith that God can and will make us righteous.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 22, 2023 Bible Study — Let Us Pray That All May Turn to God and Be Healed

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 26-28.

I am always struck fairly hard by what Paul said to Agrippa towards the beginning of this passage when Agrippa asked him if he thought he could persuade him so quickly to become a Christian. “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”  The sentiment which Paul expresses there should be at the heart of our thoughts and motivations whenever we speak to people, or even interact with them in any other way.  We should desire that somehow, someway, the Spirit would move the hearts of those we interact with such that they will come to know Christ Jesus.  However, today I was struck by the juxtaposition of those words of hope which Paul spoke to Agrippa with the words with which he parted from the local Jewish leaders in Rome.

I want to first emphasize that I do not take what Paul said in Rome as being just about Jews.  Rather, I interpret it as applying to anyone brought up to be religious, or who strives to be religious for other reasons.  So, what did Paul say?  He told them that these words applied to them:

“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.”

Despite saying this to these people, we know from Paul’s letters that he felt about them just as he had felt about those he spoke to in front of King Agrippa, that all listening to him would become as he was: a disciple of Christ.  Further, I want to point out that he made that depressing statement to a group of which some had been convinced.  That quote was a statement of how things are, of the choices people have made, not a statement of how God desires it to be.  So, when we see things like the acts of Hamas on October 7th, let us weep, not just for the victims, but also for the perpetrators.  Because if they, the perpetrators, would truly look with their eyes and hear with their ears what God is saying to them, they would understand with their hearts and turn to God.  And He would heal them.  Let us pray with all that we are that God’s Spirit will find reception among them so that they will allow Him to heal them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.