For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I am well along in reading through the Bible for the third time in as many years. I want to express what a blessing this has been to me. I want to encourage everyone to try to read through the Bible each year.
Do not use information given to you in confidence to win an argument, let alone revealing it for some other reason. If you get a reputation for revealing confidential information, no one will ever share such information with you again.
God presides over all rulers, both secular and spiritual, those in the physical world and those in the spiritual world. He will bring judgement against those ruler who favor the wicked and hand down unjust decisions. Any ruler who wishes God’s favor must give justice to the poor and weak (such as the fatherless). They will uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. They will rescue the poor and the helpless from the hands of the wicked. God will judge the nations whose rulers fail to do these things. If we wish God’s favor, we will do these things to the best of our ability and strength.
In yesterday’s passage Paul told us that Jesus’ return would come unexpectedly. Here he continues to tell us that if we stay alert and clearheaded we will not be surprised by that day. Night time, when it is dark, is when people sleep and get drunk. Since we live in the light of Christ, we should remain clearheaded and sober. Paul is using the contrast between drunkenness and sobriety here for the way we should live. He is not speaking just about the effects of too much alcohol, but other things which will distort our judgement if we let them. However, when Paul uses the word that the NIV translates as “sober” and the NLT translates as “clearheaded”, he does not mean serious and stern. Instead he means moderate and controlled.
Paul’s final advice in this letter is a series of instructions that fit together to help us build Christ’s Body. Let us work to encourage one another and build each other up. This involves warning those who are lazy to work harder for Christ, and encouraging the timid to step out in faith. It involves caring for and supporting the weak. Perhaps most importantly, it involves being patient with everyone. I know that out of this list my two areas I most need work is laziness and patience.
He goes on to tell us to always be joyful and to never stop praying (there’s that prayer thing again, God is not going to stop pushing me on this). He tells us not to stifle the Holy Spirit. However, let’s remember that just a few verses earlier he told us to be sober and clearheaded. As an example of how we should deal with this we have his instructions on prophecy. We should never scoff, or be contemptuous, when someone presents a prophecy. However, we should carefully test each prophecy, and everything else that is said, before we take it to heart. Does it match up with Scripture? Is it consistent with the will of God so revealed? As we listen to what is said, and in every other part of our lives, let us hold on firmly to anything and everything that is good, but keep our distance from any sort of evil.
When I read this and similar Old Testament passages condemning the people of Israel for sacrificing their children to idols I cannot help but think of abortion in this country. I cannot but help think of those who readily sacrifice their children on the altar of their ideology and encourage others to do so as well. Do they not know how God condemns the murder of innocents? And none are more innocent than a child not yet born. Time is running out for people to turn away from such sins and back to God. Just as Jeremiah smashed the clay jar in this passage, so will God smash this nation if its people do not repent of their sins and turn to following Him. There are those who will persecute us for calling people to obey God, they will suffer greatly when God brings His judgement. Rather than feel anger at them, let us pity them for the suffering they will experience.
