Tag Archives: Bible Commentary

Daily Bible Study

October 18, 2024 Bible Study — If Only God is Good, Then Jesus, the “Good Teacher,” must be God

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 10-11.

It is interesting the things which we almost never notice.  In today’s passage I have never before noticed that the rich man in today’s passage fell to his knees before he asked Jesus his question.  For that matter, I don’t think I have ever heard anyone comment upon that fact.  It adds a bit of nuance to several elements of the story.  My first thought was that it makes his walking away from Jesus even more stark.  But, it also puts a new look on Jesus’ response about being called “good”.  There are two possible explanations for the man falling to his knees before Jesus.  First, it could have been an expression of sincere supplication.  Second, it could have been an effort to put on a show of sincere supplication.  In the first case, it makes it much sadder that the man was unwilling to give up his wealth and follow Jesus.  In the second case, it suggests that the man came to Jesus to ask the question in order to appear righteous.  The more I think about this incident the more I am convinced that the man was posturing more than he was truly seeking guidance.  In which case, it makes more clear the point which Jesus was making when He asked why the man called Him good.  The man approached Jesus with an appearance of worshipful supplication.  Jesus points out that only God deserves such a worshipful approach.  I want to highlight one other thing about this because Muslims often use this exchange as evidence that Jesus denied that He was God.  In fact, I think this passage does the exact opposite.  By asking why the man called Him good, Jesus is highlighting that when people called Him good they were acknowledging His divinity.  This same reasoning applies to those today who want to say that Jesus was a good teacher but not divine.  Jesus said that only God is good.  Therefore if you call Him a good teacher you cannot also say that He is not God.

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

Daily Bible Study

October 17, 2024 Bible Study — We Need Jesus’ Touch if We Wish to See

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 8-9.

Whenever I read Mark’s account of Jesus healing the blind man at Bethsaida I wonder why he felt the need to include the part about Jesus having to touch the man’s eyes twice.  Today it occurred to me that while this actually happened it is also a metaphor for how so many of us come to know God.  Sometimes we are blind to God’s will for us until we ask Jesus to touch us, or, more likely, until someone asks for us.  However, sometimes we still only see blurrily, such that people look like trees walking.  In those cases, we need Jesus to touch us again, so that we might clearly see God’s will.  I was reading the passage again to see what else I wanted to write about today when I realized that Peter’s proclamation that Jesus was the Messiah immediately followed this story.  Mark’s account of that sort of reflects the above lesson.  First, Jesus asks His disciples who people say that He is, then He asks them who they say that He is.  The answers they gave to the first question reflected what those who had been touched once saw, but they, who had been touched repeatedly by Jesus, saw more clearly.  Let’s not settle for blurred vision.  Instead, let us walk with Jesus daily so that He may make our vision clear.

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

Daily Bible Study

October 16, 2024 Bible Study — Are We Ready for God to Show His Power Through Us?

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 6-7.

I want to start by commenting on an interesting literary trick which Mark uses here.  I have noticed it before, but nevertheless it still works on my every time.  He tells us that Jesus sent the Twelve out two by two to preach, heal the sick, and drive out demons.  Then he writes about how, some time earlier, Herod had beheaded John the Baptist before writing about how Jesus debriefed the Twelve upon their return leading into the account of feeding the five thousand.  By interjecting the account of Herod beheading John, Mark causes us to feel that a significant amount  of time passed between Jesus’ time in Nazareth and the feeding of the five thousand.  Of course the thing we also miss with this is that the Twelve had just returned from performing miracles which amazed them when they were reluctant to feed the five thousand.  They failed to make the connection between the wonders they had just performed over the course of many days by the power of the God who had given the Israelites manna in the wilderness and feeding a crowd of people.  How often do we fail to make the connection between the power God has demonstrated in our lives and His ability to address the need in front of us?

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

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2024 Bible Study — Listen Carefully to God’s Teaching

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

I want to comment today on something Mark quoted Jesus as saying early in this passage.  He told His disciples that He taught using parables because they had been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but that those on the outside would “be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”  Then a little later He told them that whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed.  Which He followed by telling them to consider what they hear carefully because whoever has will be given more, and whoever does not have even what they have will be taken.  So, we need to listen carefully to what Jesus teaches.  Those who choose to misconstrue what He teaches will find it ever harder to understand later.  Yet, if we strive to understand His teaching, we will be able to learn it ever more clearly.  

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

Daily Bible Study

October 14, 2024 Bible Study — Are We Jesus’ Family?

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

When the man with leprosy came to Jesus he said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Mark writes that Jesus was indignant when the man said that to Him.  Later, when Jesus saw the man with the withered hand in the synagogue, Mark writes that He looked around angry.  In the first case, why was Jesus indignant?  I believe He was indignant because He knew that the man was unsure if Jesus was willing to heal him because he knew many people who would have been unwilling to heal him if they were able.  In the synagogue Jesus was angry because of those who were present who were more interested in finding cause to accuse Jesus than they were in helping relieve the suffering of their fellow man.  Finally, the passage ends with Jesus telling the crowd around Him that whoever does God’s will is His brother and sister and mother, whoever does God’s will is His family.  So, those who wish to be part of Jesus’ family seek ways in which to alleviate the sufferings of others.  If those who know me do not know that I would risk myself to help others, I have either failed to understand Jesus’ message, or have failed to communicate that message.  If others who know me think I might judge them for helping others, no matter the circumstances, I have either failed to understand Jesus’ message, or failed to communicate that message.  Those things hold true for you as well.

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

Daily Bible Study

October 13, 2024 Bible Study — His Blood Is on Us and on Our Children

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 27-28.

Traditionally, when the crowd responded to Pilate during Jesus’ trial, “His blood is on us and on our children!” it has been interpreted as the Jews taking responsibility for Jesus’ death.  From that many Christians have interpreted the suffering of the Jews over the centuries as being God’s judgement upon them for His death.  Some have even gone so far as to interpret it as justification for hating Jews and doing horrible things to them.  However, it struck me that nowhere does Matthew identify the crowd as Jews.  Yes, I know that a crowd gathered in Jerusalem in the First Century right before Passover would have been overwhelmingly made up of Jews, but that’s not the point.  Throughout his Gospel, Matthew repeatedly refers to “Jews” opposing Jesus.  So, it occurred to me that when Matthew refers to the crowd here he intends for us to view ourselves as part of that body.  When the crowd cried out “His blood is on us and on our children!” we were part of that crowd.  The guilt for Jesus’ unjust crucifixion lies not on the Jews, nor on the Romans, not even on Pilate or the Sanhedrin.  It lies on all of us.  If not for my sins, if not for your sins, Jesus would not have died on that cross.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

October 12, 2024 Bible Study — Don’t Miss Out On an Opportunity to Serve God

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 25-26.

Chapter 25 contains three parables.  I am going to look at how these three interact to teach us a lesson.  Each of the three has its own lesson, but those three lessons combine for a larger lesson, or maybe it’s just that the three lessons fit into each other.  The first parable teaches us that we cannot wait until just before judgement to begin serving God because we do not know when our time will be up.  The second parable teaches us that we must make use of the gifts which God has given us.  The final parable actually teaches us two lessons.  The first, and most obvious, one is that what we do for the most unfortunate members of our society are the things we have done, or not done, for Christ.  Second, it teaches that we will not know when we have, or have not, taken advantage of our opportunities to serve Christ.    The middle parable is the one which scares me the most because I feel like I was the one given five bags of gold, but have only produced the results of the one given a single bag.  I do want to look closely at what the one given a single bag did wrong.  His failure was not in that he did not make the most of his opportunity.  His failure was that he failed to do anything with it.  This is the same failure which the goats in the third parable made.  When given the opportunity to serve Christ by serving others, they passed.  Going back to the second parable, the man given five bags of gold was rewarded because he made the most of the opportunities which God gave him.  So, the lesson we learn is that we should take advantage of every opportunity we see where we might have the opportunity to serve God.  Perhaps it is not an opportunity which God has sent our way, but better to do good for someone where God was not directing us than to miss an opportunity which God directed to us.

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

Daily Bible Study

October 11, 2024 Bible Study — Jesus is Our Only Mediator

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 23-24.

Today’s passage begins with Jesus warning us against lifting some people up as more righteous than ourselves, from giving titles to people which imply that they are intermediaries between God and ourselves.  He warns us that such people do everything for people to see so that they might be admired for their apparent righteousness and that they do not practice what they preach.  Jesus further warns that elevating people by giving them titles which suggest their understanding of God supersedes what we are capable of is a form of idolatry.  We cannot surrender our responsibility to use our abilities to understand what God desires of us to someone else.  We are to neither hold ourselves up as exemplars of righteousness whom others should follow nor should we hold someone else up as more righteous than ourselves for us to follow.  When Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they should imitate him, he made clear they were to do so only insomuch as he imitated Christ.  When  we hold someone up as a model to follow it should be because we see Christ through their actions, but we are still responsible to study Scripture for ourselves, and listen the the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

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

Daily Bible Study

October 10, 2024 Bible Study — Being Inspired to Repent by the Repentance of Others

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 21-22.

When I started to read this passage I thought I might write about the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the clearing of the temple, but I was really struck by what Jesus said after He told the parable of the two sons.  First, there is the outright message of the parable that it better to initially reject God and then later reconsider and do His will are better than to verbally acknowledge God but do not do His will.   However, what really struck me was when Jesus condemned the religious leaders who did not repent and turn to God even after seeing the impact doing so had on “lowlifes”.  I have usually hear this interpreted, not incorrectly, as Jesus telling us yet again that those we as a society view as reprobates and losers are more open to God’s word than those we view as upright and models of behavior.  As I said, that is not incorrect, but I realized today that Jesus was also saying that we should be inspired to do better by the way they respond to God’s love.  Those of us who have been transformed by the Holy Spirit should be inspired by the transformation those who are society’s “losers” go through when the Holy Spirit touches their hearts.  When we see what God has done for them, we should see how far we still are from His ideal and be inspired to allow the Holy Spirit to do even more work in our lives.

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

Daily Bible Study

October 9, 2024 Bible Study — Jesus Instructs Us to Confront Those Who Sin Against Us, But Only AFTER We Have Forgiven Them

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 18-20.

As I first read through today’s passage I was going to write about what Jesus says about being like a child in order to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  But as I went back through the passage I was struck by the fact that Matthew transitioned from Jesus talking about how we should confront our fellow Believers when they sin to talking about forgiving those who have sinned against us.  I am not sure that I have ever heard someone connect the two to each other.  When you consider that in many manuscripts verse fifteen in chapter eighteen reads, “If your fellow believer sins against you,…” the fact that Matthew immediately follows Jesus’ teachings about confronting them with His teaching about unlimited forgiveness gives Jesus’ instructions much greater depth.  When we go to the one who we believe to have sinned against us we need to make sure that we are not being the servant who is the prime subject in the parable Jesus told to illustrate how we should forgive (or to be more precise, how we should not not forgive).

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