Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 10-12.

Matthew recounts some very important, and basic, points of what Jesus taught in today’s passage.  I believe that many of them are linked together, but am not sure I will be able to express that link.  I am going to go through these various points and pray that the Holy Spirit guides my words to make it all come together.

When Jesus sent the Twelve Apostles to preach His message, He gave them the power to cast out impure spirits and cure disease and sickness.  Then He told them to be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  My father always said that meant that we should not be naïve, we should be fully aware of the ways in which people will try to trick, mislead, and cheat us, but we should act as if we did not.  That does not mean that we let them take advantage of us, but we should do what we can to help them.  Jesus goes on to tell the Apostles (and I believe us) that they will be arrested and hauled into court, but that they should not worry about what to say, or how to say it, that the Holy Spirit will speak through them (and us) in those situations.  I believe that applies to more than just situations when we are in front of the authorities.  In fact, I am convinced that there are days in which the Holy Spirit manages what I write here more than I do (I pray that the Holy Spirit do so every day, but I know that there are days my pride takes over).

Actually, Jesus tells us not to worry at all, a message which permeates much of the Gospels.  He tells us that God cares even for sparrows, which are of limited value.  We need not fear because God values us more than He values sparrows.  Jesus goes on to warn us that if we chose to follow Him, the world will treat us no better than they treated Him, and they accused Him of being a servant of Beelzebul.  If we acknowledge His lordship over us, people will think the same of us, but if we do not acknowledge His lordship, He will not acknowledge us.  Which brings me to the last point I wanted to touch on today.  When John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the One for which they were waiting, Jesus replied, “The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”  Let us strive to live so that a similar defense can be made of us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 7-9.

One of the most misused, and misunderstood, passages of the Bible starts off today’s passage when Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  That seems pretty straightforward.  Except a few verses further on, Jesus tells us, “Watch out for false prophets. … By their fruit you will recognize them.”  That latter instruction is much like what people often mean for us not to do when they tell us not to judge.  That being said, let’s go back to the verses immediately following the one in which Jesus said, “Do not judge…”  I am not going to quote it, you can read it for yourself.  But, Jesus is clearly telling us that we should be more concerned with correcting our own actions than with correcting the actions of others.  In fact, most of this passage is about evaluating our own actions and faithfully doing the Lord’s will.

Which brings me to where I want to focus my attention, although I am not quite sure how to tie this together.  Jesus gives us very strong warnings against following the crowds, against doing things because everybody else is doing it.  I believe that Jesus’ teachings on having strong faith here are part of the same teaching.  We often overlook what happened when Jesus called Matthew as to how it connects to the other teachings on faith in this passage.  When Jesus called him, Matthew immediately got up and followed Him.  Matthew did not spend any time settling his affairs and making arrangements.  He just began following Jesus.  All of the faith stories in this passage have a similar theme, those who received that for which they asked, asked even though they knew their request was ridiculous.  They all put themselves out there to look foolish (except possibly His disciples on the boat in the storm).

I am going to take one more stab at trying to get this to all come together in the way it felt in my head when I started writing.  Early in this passage Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Another passage which we often misunderstand and misuse.  Jesus expands on what He means when He says that and wraps it by giving us the Golden Rule, but we so often miss the connection the “Ask, Seek, Knock” quote and the Golden Rule.  We should treat others the way we would like them to treat us because God will give us good things when we ask Him. It is not enough to call Jesus Lord, we have to mean it and act accordingly.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 5-6.

In the Sermon on the Mount recounted here, Jesus touches on the theme I mentioned yesterday: those who seek to use the appearance of righteousness to further their agenda are hypocrites.  He sets that comment up by comparing His followers to salt and doing God’s will to being a lamp.  A little bit of salt changes the taste of a meal, a little bit of light allows people to see in an otherwise dark room.  In the same way, we should live our lives so as to change society around us.  I can illustrate this by something my parents both spoke of (and which I observed for myself).  Both of my parents worked in environments where their co-workers used foul language somewhat routinely.  Yet, when their co-workers were aware that they were present, they did not use such language, or did so only sparingly.  As I said, I observed this for myself, people who otherwise routinely used foul language did so less when they knew one of my parents was present.  This did not result from either of my parents expressing judgement of those who used such language (although in the appropriate circumstances they would ask people to refrain from doing so).

However, the above is qualified by something else Jesus says here: we should never do acts of righteousness in front of others.  When we give to charity, we should do so in a manner which makes it unlikely anyone else will notice.  When we pray or fast, the same should be the case.  In no case should we do things in order for others to notice that we have done good.  So, how do we reconcile these two things: living so righteously that it changes the behaviors of those around us and hiding our acts of righteousness from others?  I think what Jesus says in between those two things gives us the answer.  It is not enough not to murder anyone.  We should not even want to murder someone.  It is not enough to not commit sexual sins.  We need to not even think about doing so.  It is not enough not to break our oaths.  We should be so honest that we do not need to take an oath.  It is not enough to love our friends, we need to love those who hate us and wish us harm.  I want to be clear that I fail to meet this criteria, but I will continue to ask God’s Spirit to transform me into someone who does.

I think the final portion of this passage tells us the path which reconciles all of the above.  We should not worry: about meeting our material needs, or about what others will think of us, or about what others will do to us.  Instead, we should do God’s will and to do that which will further His kingdom.  He will take care of the rest.

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

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

So, we finally get to the New Testament on the 3rd day of the 10th month.  Make of that what you will.  Everything I have read about the Gospel of Matthew says that he appears to have been writing in order to keep Christianity grounded in Jewish tradition.  This suggests to me that even though I would not read the Old Testament prophecies they way he did that much of the Jewish community of the First Century did (even if they did not apply the prophecies to Jesus, they saw them as applying to the Messiah).

As I read this I was thinking about how I was going to write something tying together all of the important things in this passage.  Then I got to Matthew’s introduction of John The Baptist and decided that I was going to focus on that.  Many people came out to hear John’s preaching.  They heard his message and it struck them to the heart.  So, they confessed their sins and were baptized.  When the political leaders realized what was going on, they too went out to hear John.  Except they were not there to hear the word of God.  They were there to harness the popularity of John The Baptist for their own political ends.  John The Baptist was having none of it and he called them out for their hypocrisy.  He told them, and the rest of the people listening, that it was not enough to put on the appearance of righteousness.  We need to hear that message today.  We need to both make sure that we do not fall into the trap of trying to use the show of righteousness for our own ends and call out those who are doing so.  As Jesus is quoted later, we will be judged by the fruit which we produce.

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

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

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

I came across an Internet meme a few days ago which said that Christians identify with the heroes of the Bible and not with the villains.  They identify with Peter and not with Judas.  The meme had a point, but failed to truly comprehend the Bible.  Peter and Judas are in many ways two sides of the same thing.  Both betrayed Jesus and both felt remorse for their betrayal.  However, Judas punished himself for his failure, whereas Peter threw himself upon Jesus’ mercy.  Both felt terrible remorse for their sin, but Judas refused to live with the shame.  Yes, from a human perspective (and perhaps from God’s as well, but I won’t know that as long as I am on this earth), Judas’ sin was the greater sin, but it was also necessary for God’s plan.  I believe that if Judas had been willing to face others after his betrayal became obvious, Jesus would have forgiven him.  Neither Judas nor Peter could make their betrayal right, but Jesus could and did for Peter.  While Judas never heard Jesus say the final words Matthew recorded, I believe he was unwilling to live with their truth.  Are we?

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

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

This is another passage with many lessons for us, but today I want to focus on what we can learn about praying for things to happen.  When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed that He not have to go through the coming suffering.  However, He also surrendered Himself to God’s will in that prayer.  He desperately wanted to avoid the coming suffering, but He saw no way to avoid it if God’s plan was to be fulfilled.  In the same way, we should pray for that which we desire to happen, but accept that perhaps God’s plans require things to work out differently.  We should not be ashamed to pray for what we want, even when we believe God’s plan calls for something different.  We should just remain open to things not going as we desire.  We see more of this in Jesus’ second prayer.  In His second prayer, Jesus understood that He was going to need to suffer.  So, He referenced His desire that things go differently while surrendering completely to God’s will.

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

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

Jesus repeatedly criticized those who did things in order to be seen by others as righteous.  As He describes them here they were continually telling people how much more righteous than everyone else they were.  They were meticulous at the ritual aspects of righteousness, but could not be bothered with those things which occurred out of the public eye.  They were insistent on being called, Reverend, or Teacher, or Father.  They wanted to be seen as being superior to others, as being able to mediate between the common person and God.  However, Jesus made it clear that sometimes the common people were guilty of setting such people up as superior to themselves.  That was just as wrong.  We should not allow others to call us Reverend, or Teacher, or Father, or some other honorific which suggests that we are better than they, but we also should not call anyone those things.  It is not just the titles, they are an indication of something more basic which has gone wrong.  Instead of seeking to be exalted by others, let us seek to serve them.

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

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

When the religious leaders of Jerusalem challenged Jesus to declare by what authority He did the things which He did, He did not directly answer them.  Instead, He asked them if they thought that John the Baptist got his authority to baptize from Heaven, or merely from men.  They refused to answer.  We can learn a lot about having debates from this.  Jesus asked them this question because He knew that they were not asking because they wanted to know the answer.  They were asking in order to set up a narrative with those listening.  By asking His question, Jesus could establish the criteria by which His answer would be judged.  If they had said that John’s authority came from man, He would have established that they were merely looking for an excuse to demonize Him.  If they said that John’s authority came from Heaven, Jesus would have established a basis for making the case for His own authority.  By saying that they did not know the answer to Jesus’ question, they revealed that they were more interested in a “gotcha” moment than in an honest discussion.

A similar thing happened a little bit later when Jesus was asked about taxes and about marriage after the resurrection.  In both cases, those who asked the question were not interested in having an honest discussion.  They were looking for a “gotcha” moment.  In both cases, Jesus turned it around on them.  He showed that their questions looked at the situation they were about from the wrong direction.  This is something to which we need to pay careful attention.  Many of the conundrums we face in life result from looking at things the wrong way.

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

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

I love this passage, from beginning to end it contains teachings which should guide our lives.  Near the beginning is a verse which I have recently seen taken out of context to claim that followers of Christ do not need to concern themselves with dressing modestly.  People take the phrase, “And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.” And use it to say that it is OK for someone to dress in a manner which inspires lust in others.  Now, they make a point that is relevant: Jesus’ teachings are directed for us to apply to ourselves, not to others.  However, shortly before He says the phrase they like to quote, Jesus says, “Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.”   So, we should think carefully about how we dress and act so as to not tempt others into sin.

From there Jesus speaks about the lost sheep and what to do if a fellow believer sins.  These all tie together.  Let’s see if I can explain how in a way which makes sense.  The first bit discusses how we should take responsibility for our own actions and go to extreme measures to avoid sin, but also indicates that we, and others, will sin.  Then He tells us of the effort which God will go to in order to redeem those who do sin, and effort which we should also be willing to exert.  From there, Jesus speaks of how we should act when we observe our fellow believer sin.  It is a three step process, go privately, take one or two others with us, and only if we still believe they are sinning after that, take it to the Body of Believers.  I am convinced from Jesus’ choice of words that at each step of the process we should listen to the person’s explanation of their actions while being open to the possibility that they had not acted in the manner which we thought.  The one or two witnesses should not have decided in advance that the person had sinned.  The Body of Believers should not have decided in advance that the person had sinned.  They should listen to what both parties have to say and reach a judgement only after hearing the “sinners” explanation for their actions.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 15-17

There is a lot to be learned from this passage, but I want to focus on what Jesus says about following man-made traditions and rules instead of following the commands given by God.  I will first note that the traditions which Jesus calls out were not invented from whole cloth by the Pharisees.  They developed these traditions as an interpretation of certain instructions which had come from God,  However, we must keep in mind that doing this is a human tendency.  We all have a tendency to make complex rules that allow us to justify serving our own interests rather than obeying God.  We should be careful about listening to the guidance given by religious leaders who are willing to tell us what we want to hear.