For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Cheating others, no matter how we sell it to ourselves is wrong. I don’t think what I am about to write next is something the writer of this proverb would have said he meant, but I think he would have been pleased that someone took this lesson from what he wrote. God is unhappy when we treat different people differently in the marketplace. If your price is one thing for Joe, then it should be the same price for Judy, and vice versa. Do business with everyone fairly and honestly.

    In the first half of this psalm, which we read yesterday, the psalmist expresses his deep despair. He was calling on God for rescue and wondering when God would answer his cry. Yet here in the second half, he states what he will do as if God had already relieved him of his burden. The psalmist made his plans based on the assumption that God would rescue him. In the midst of his despair, he praised God for rescuing him. Let us follow his example.

    This passage has so much in it that I feel like I ought to to talk about that I am not going to get to all of it. It starts with something which the Mennonite Church has always emphasized. Paul warns us against conforming to this world. This is a constant battle for Christians because it is not enough not to get caught up in the dominant culture. I know Christians who have gotten caught up with the liberal culture around us, and others who have gotten caught up in the conservative culture (and these are just two examples of secular subcultures to which we can find ourselves conforming). Instead, of that, our minds should be transformed by the Holy Spirit as it renews us day in and day out. The key to understanding how to do this is when Paul refers to renewing our minds. We experience renewal when we go on a retreat, or take part in some other event which changes how we perceive everything in the world around us. We should take every opportunity for spiritual renewal which presents itself to us, but there are two opportunities which we can take every day: reading the scripture and spending disciplined time in prayer.
    Paul continues by warning us against arrogance. We are not to judge ourselves as more important than we are. However, Paul does not just warn against arrogance, he is also warning against false humility, against thinking we are inferior to others. Each and every person has an important place in the Kingdom of God, in the Body of Christ. When people choose to not exercise the gifts which God has given them we are all diminished. It is important to both be aware of our own importance to the Body of Christ and of the importance of those around us. Whatever gifts God has given us we should exert ourselves to use them to the fullest of our ability, not spend our time bemoaning the fact that we do not have some other gift. It is important that we recognize that our gift does not make us more important than others, nor does our lack of some particular gift make us less important.
    In the final section of today’s passage (Oh look, three parts, not just two) Paul talks about love. He calls us to sincerely love others and not just our fellow Christians (although he points out that that is where the loving should start). We are to bless those who persecute us and refuse to repay evil with evil. When we are wronged we are not to seek revenge. If we have indeed been wronged God will pay back those who have done so. Rather than seek revenge on those who have wronged us we should desire to see them transformed in the same way in which the Holy Spirit is transforming ourselves. As part of this Paul says something very important. We are to seek to live at peace with everyone, but he recognizes that it is not always within out ability to do so. There are people who will refuse to live in peace with us. We are not called to compromise our beliefs in order to live at peace.

    Joash was saved from the attempt by his grandmother, Athaliah, to wipe out the House of David. He was raised by the high priest, Jehoida, who put him on the throne when he was seven years old. Joash enthusiastically served God for as long as Jehoida lived. However, as soon as Jehoida died, Joash came under the influence of other men who sought to use their influence for their own advancement, not to better Joash or the kingdom. We see this happen over and over throughout history, a young man, or woman, strives to better themselves and those around them under the influence of a strong mentor. That mentor dies and the young man, or woman, comes under the influence of unsavory characters who encourage them down a path which wastes all of their youthful promise, or worse, encourages them to become actively evil. I am not sure how you avoid this, but if you are mentoring someone it is important to encourage them to stand up on their own two feet and not shelter them from the evil in this world.