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November 18, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on Branches with Fruit

Branches with Fruit

In John 15 Jesus makes His famous speech about “I am the vine; you are the branches,” and when we studied the passage in Bible study at my church about a month ago the metaphor really stuck in my head as… fearsome.  The passage (vv 1-8, hcsb):

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper.  Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.  “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.  If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.

Jesus is the vine; the Father is the keeper and pruner.  Jesus tells us there are two kinds of branches: those that don’t produce fruit (and are a) removed, and b) thrown into the fire and burned), and those that do produce fruit (and are pruned so they produce even more fruit).  He also tells us the means of fruit, remaining in Him; and that the fruit glorifies God.  And that we can’t produce fruit without Christ, and that with Christ we can’t help but produce fruit.

So we see that:

  • True fruit comes from abiding in Christ (John 15:4).
  • God prunes the branches to lead to an increasing crop of fruit (John 15:2).
  • Abiding in Christ leads to “much” fruit (John 15:5).
  • Branches that don’t have fruit will be thrown into the fire (John 15:6).
  • True fruit glorifies God (John 15:8).

There is more to unpack here, but this is the crucial picture: there is a vine (Christ) and there are branches that are in Him (and bear fruit) and there are branches that aren’t in Him (and are burned).

What kind of branch am I?

First, What is fruit?

Jesus doesn’t say here a neat little laundry list of fruits.  In fact, He says very little about it, except that it is a consequence of remaining in Christ (v. 4) and that it glorifies the Father (v. 8).  The first is an important point; God isn’t going out and gathering fruitful branches and splicing them into Christ, rather, it is their abiding in Christ that causes the fruit to grow.  The second is an insightful point—we know that there are those who think they are in Christ but aren’t (Matthew 7:22) and those who proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition (Philippians 1:17), but as believers, we are told to do nothing out of selfish ambition (Philippians 2:3) but rather “whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17) and “whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory” (1 Corinthians 10:31).  Similarly, in 1 Peter 4:11, “If anyone speaks, it should be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, it should be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything.”

Real fruit is that which glorifies God.

A few months ago I read a little book called The Doctrine of Repentance which in a small description really helped me grasp the distinction.  Repentance is a biblical fruit, a necessary fruit even.  But there is a difference between repentance which comes from abiding in Christ and leads to glorifying God, versus what Watson intelligently refers to as “counterfeit repentance.”  Things like fear of temporal consequence, partial turning from sin, vows against sin with no actual follow-though, embarrassment of public humiliation, etc. are not true repentance: they are neither the result of abiding in Christ, nor following His word, nor do they lead to the glory of God—they glorify self.  This is not fruit of the Vine.  There are many such counterfeit fruits.

Second, what brings the fruit?

Jesus doesn’t mention the Spirit explicitly in John 15, but He does in the very next chapter.  He says the Spirit “will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment” (John 15:13-14), and “He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 15:13-14).  The Spirit declares to us the things of Christ.  The Spirit convicts us of sin.  The Spirit convicts us of righteousness.  In John 14, Jesus said the Spirit “will teach you all things” (14:26), and, importantly, “He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).  The Spirit, the Helper, the Counselor, abides in us and teaches us, which is why “it is to your advantage that I [Jesus] go away” (John 16:7).  We abide in Christ—and bear fruit—through the ministry of the Spirit.  “The Spirit is the One who gives life,” John 6:63.  Paul says in Romans 8:9, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

Third, the Spirit or the Flesh?

Okay, so now to get to the nitty-gritty: what is it that Scripture tells us is the kind of fruit hanging on Christian branches?  Galatians 5:22-23 is an obvious place to begin, but first, the context—verse 16-17: “walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.”  Paul begins with acknowledging that there’s a conflict here: the flesh versus the Spirit.  And then he will conclude (v. 24) by affirming that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.”  This fits perfectly with what Jesus had said in John: the branches have fruit (have crucified the flesh) but still need pruning (walk by the Spirit).  The fruit should increase and the flesh should continue to die.  Paul affirms this further in Romans 8:13: “But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  And also, Colossians 3:5, “put to death what belongs to your worldly nature.”  Those who are in Christ live by the Spirit and bear fruit according to the Spirit; those who live by the flesh must die (Romans 8:13).  Those who live by the Spirit and have no obligation to live by the flesh (Romans 8:12), although Paul is nevertheless clear that the flesh is still present and pushes us so that “you don’t do what you want” (Galatians 5:17) and, as he says of himself in Romans 7:14-24:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power.  For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.  So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.  For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.  Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me.  So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me.  For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law.  But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body?

This description—this battle—this imperfection fits well with Jesus’s metaphor.  We are not the branches with no fruit, and yet we still need pruning.  We still wrestle, we still have an internal war, an internal clash of good (Spirit) and evil (flesh).  God prunes us, and one day will rescue us entirely.  In the meantime, though, we have the comfort that we are released from our obligation to the flesh (Romans 8:12) and that our inner selves joyfully agrees with God’s law (Romans 7:22).  And that there is also a very real sense in which our flesh has been crucified (Galatians 5:24), we “have died to what held us” (Romans 7:6), we have been “liberated from sin” (Romans 6:18).  While we still wrestle we are free.  While we still need pruning, we bear fruit.  We are not captives of sin and the flesh, but slaves of righteousness.  We are not dead branches thrown on the fire but fruit-bearing abiders in Christ.   We do not yet know fully, but we have begun to see (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Foundational fruits

Scripture itself speaks of things that we are called to be (e.g. temperate) and things that we absolutely are (e.g. repentant).  It speaks of a “foundation” (Hebrews 6:1) and then it also speaks of “growth” (2 Peter 3:18).  Scripture also speaks recurrently of “mature” believers and “immature” believers.  At any rate, since my main purpose here is to make a list of “marks of the Spirit,” so to speak, I think it is good to begin with the things Scripture says not merely eventually come about in the lives of believers but the things Scripture says believers are, from the moment they are born again.

Repentance

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Acts 3:19: “Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,”

Luke 13:3, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well!”

Acts 17:30, “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,”

1 Corinthians 6:11, “And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

belief in Christ

Luke 12:8-9: ““And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God, but whoever denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”

John 3:16: ““For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 2:22-23: “Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.”

Love, Hope, joy, and trust in God

These can also clearly increase; as other verses describe, but there is the fundamental element of them even in the beginning:

1 Peter 1:8-9, “You love Him, though you have not seen Him. And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Romans 14:17-18, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men.”

Hebrews 11:6, “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.”

2 Corinthians 5:6-9: “So, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  For we walk by faith, not by sight, and we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord. Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him.”

Love for the people of God

1 John 4:20: “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.”

1 John 3:17: “If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?”

John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.””

1 Thessalonians 4:9: “About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.”

Testifying to the Gospel

Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.”

Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

1 John 5:10: “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.”

Worship (and prayer) by the Spirit

1 Peter 2:5: “you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 6:18: “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.”

Romans 8:26: “In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.”

Taught by and Discerning by the Spirit

John 14:26: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit—the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”

1 Corinthians 2:10-15: “Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.  We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.  But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.”

Galatians 5:7-10:“Who prevented you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from the One who called you.  A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in the Lord you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.”

2 Corinthians 10:1-5: “For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Fighting the flesh / Forsaking sin

1 John 2:3-6: “This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.  The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” yet doesn’t keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him: The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-15,17: “For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died.  And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”

Galatians 5:24: “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Romans 8:5-8: “For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit.  For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.  For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Romans 6:16: “Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

John 3:6: “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Ephesians 5:5, “For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.”

Ephesians 5:8-10, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth—discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.”

1 John 3:18-19: “Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.  This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence.”

Ephesians 4:20-24: “But that is not how you learned about the Messiah, assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus. You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”

Sober-mindedness

1 Thessalonians 5:4-6: “But you, brothers, are not in the dark, for this day to overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness.  So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be serious.”

Fruit of Sanctification

Beyond these things, Scripture describes many more things that we are told please God, or told to strive for by the Spirit.  These are also “fruit” of how we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).  It is beyond my ability to list them all, but here are some of the passages that come to mind which are such “lists” offered by Paul and the other apostles.

2 Peter 3:11, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness”

Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

1 Thessalonians 5:11-25: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing. Now we ask you, brothers, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.  And we exhort you, brothers: warn those who are irresponsible, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always!  Pray constantly.  Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  Don’t stifle the Spirit. Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good.  Stay away from every kind of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 4:7-11: “Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer.  Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins.  Be hospitable to one another without complaining.  Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God. ”

1 Thessalonians 4:3-4: “For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, so that each of you knows how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires, like the Gentiles who don’t know God.”

1 Thessalonians 4:10-12: “But we encourage you, brothers, to do so even more, to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, so that you may walk properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.”

Ephesians 4:1-3: “Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us.”

Ephesians 4:25-32: “Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the Devil an opportunity. The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by Him for the day of redemption.  All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”

Colossians 3:12-4:6: “Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,  accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.  Above all, put on love—the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, control your hearts. Be thankful.  Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and don’t be bitter toward them.  Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.  Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so they won’t become discouraged.  Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, in order to please men, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism. Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you too have a Master in heaven. Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the message, to speak the mystery of the Messiah, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it as I am required to speak.  Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.”

Ephesians 5:8-21: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth—discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.  Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret.  Everything exposed by the light is made clear, for what makes everything clear is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and the Messiah will shine on you. Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.  And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord,  giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,  submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.”

Ephesians 6:14-17: “Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.”

Philippians 2:14-15: “Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.”

Fruit of the Flesh

Similarly, in a number of places the Apostles list out things which are signs of living in the flesh.  Again, there are many more.  It is worth noting that while some of these are clearly in the context of “Christians, stop doing this,” others are in the context of “those who do this aren’t Christians.”

Galatians 5:19-21,26: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar… We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

1 Peter 4:3, “For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.”

Ephesians 4:14: “Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.”

Ephesians 4:31: “All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice.”

Colossians 3:5-9: “Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, God’s wrath comes on the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices.”

Ephesians 5:3-5: “But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. Coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.”

1 John 2:16-16: “Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.”

2 Timothy 3:2-7: “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!  For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions, always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

fruit as evidence: for Ourselves

The first thing to consider is whether or not we can really evaluate our own lives to see how they stack up to sanctification, to the work of the Spirit changing us.  Have we laid the foundation? Are we going on to complete sanctification, “with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18)?  Are these questions helpful? Is our conduct informative?

Galatians 5:16: “I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

1 John 1:6: “If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.”

1 John 1:10:  “If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Romans 8:13: “for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Philippians 2:12-13: “Just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.”

1 Peter 4:18: “And if a righteous person is saved with difficulty,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

1 John 2:3-6: “This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.  The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” yet doesn’t keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:  The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.”

Our good conduct is certainly not salvific (“all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment”, Isaiah 64:6); in 1 John, John, in the middle of explaining who is “not in”, stops to assure his readers that he is writing “so that you may not sin” (2:1) and that there is hope not because we can do better, but because “we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ…He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.”  But, John continues, “this is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands” (1 John 2:3).  Throughout the book John lays down three very specific dichotomies: 1) those who  believe Jesus is the Messiah vs. those who don’t; 2) those who obey God’s commands vs. those who continue in sin; and 3) those who love the brothers vs. those who hate the brothers.  And his stated purpose in writing is to discourage sin and assure believers of their faith, so he clearly intends these statements to be useful.

Fruit as Evidence: for Others

The second question of consequence, then, is whether or not we are called to evaluate others, whether such a thing is possible.

Titus 3:10-11: “Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning, knowing that such a person is perverted and sins, being self-condemned.”

Romans 16:17-18: “Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause dissensions and obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have learned. Avoid them, for such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.”

1 Corinthians 5:11-13: “But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer who is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person…Put away the evil person from among yourselves.”

It is worth noting that there is nothing here to suggest that the evaluation of someone as “evil” is prescriptive.  The hope (1 Corinthians 5:5) is that the disassociation will lead to their repentance and salvation, not that it will shut them out from the Gospel for their damnation.

Nevertheless, the language is that they are “condemned,” they are “evil,” they “do not serve our Lord Christ.”  And we are called to “know” this.  2 Timothy 3:9 says of those who resist the truth that “their lack of understanding will be clear to all.”

Summary

To conclude, then, we see that there are certain evidences which a Christian must have—some fruit on the vine!  And there are more fruit which grows from God’s pruning.  And there are certain evidences which a Christian cannot have—which are incompatible with saving faith.  Especially in a church context, we are encouraged to act upon these evidences even in others.  But much more immediately, we are called to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling;” Jesus warns of the fire that awaits fruitless branches.  Paul tells us “whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12) and “do not be arrogant, but tremble” (Romans 11:20). Peter says “be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stability” (2 Peter 3:17).

Scripture is verbose in describing fruit—and all of this is from the New Testament alone, to say nothing of the Psalms or Proverbs or anywhere else—and blatant in affirming its useful evaluation.

2 Peter 1:10: “Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.”

November 11, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on 1 Samuel: more broken people.

1 Samuel: more broken people.

Samuel starts out with a lovely little story about Hannah, which is pretty much the first Bible story I have memory of.  I was always rather overwhelmed thinking of “poor” Samuel sent away from his mother at such a young age, but also captivated by the idea of being able to spend all one’s time very directly serving God in the Temple.  And then, of course, Samuel starts hearing God’s audible voice—and I used to wish I would, like him.

Before long, though, the story of 1 Samuel turns to the people asking for a king, and Samuel warning them of what a king will do in this incredibly striking passage from chapter 8 (hcsb):

These are the rights of the king who will rule over you: He will take your sons and put them to his use in his chariots, on his horses, or running in front of his chariots.  He can appoint them for his use as commanders of thousands or commanders of fifties, to plow his ground or reap his harvest, or to make his weapons of war or the equipment for his chariots.  He can take your daughters to become perfumers, cooks, and bakers.  He can take your best fields, vineyards, and olive orchards and give them to his servants.  He can take a tenth of your grain and your vineyards and give them to his officials and servants.  He can take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys and use them for his work.  He can take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves can become his servants.  When that day comes, you will cry out because of the king you’ve chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you on that day.

God tells Samuel, “they have not rejected you; they have rejected Me as their king. They are doing the same thing to you that they have done to Me, since the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, abandoning Me and worshiping other gods” (vv 7-9).

Saul: The king They deserved

And so Samuel anoints Saul, who begins as a seemingly-decent fellow, and turns out to be one of the most complex characters in all of Scripture.  God sends an evil spirit to torment him, Saul occasionally breaks out into prophecy, and Saul does two big , bad things that have lasting consequences for him: 1) he offers a burnt offering himself rather than waiting for Samuel to do it (1 Samuel13), and 2) he consults a medium.  The former leads to his being rejected by God as king, and the latter leads to his death (1 Chronicles 10:14).  Saul does plenty of other foolish things during his reign (foolish vows, foolish battles, running away, trying to kill David, committing suicide), and yet it is insightful to see that these are the two things God found most dire—as evidence of Saul’s lack of trust in God, his lack of obedience, his lack of searching out God’s will.  It’s also insightful that his son Jonathan clearly loved David and loved God, and even Michal, while imperfect, serves David more than her father.  Saul’s family doesn’t seem as disjointed and wicked as David’s family will seem later in the story.

David: the King God loved

David’s story and Saul’s are bizarrely interwoven; two of the Lord’s anointed in the same place at the same time.  And yet, from the very beginning, we see David is an incredibly different person.  Specifically, he’s all the time sending off for “the ephod” to consult God, and asking the prophets for guidance.  David inspires loyalty; David is fearless; David is clever and wise.  David is also very kind to Saul, not only sparing his life (though Saul sought his), but helping Saul with the evil spirit by playing the lyre.  And David continually gives the glory for his victories to God.

In fact, only one big negative really stuck out about David, but it’s a doozy—he lies so many times I lost track!  He tells Jonathan to lie to Saul (which he does) in chapter 20.  He lies to Ahimelek the priest in chapter 21 (wherein  he also eats the showbread under false pretences), which leads to Saul slaughtering Ahimelek and eighty-four other priests in chapter 22.  Then he lies to Achish, the king of Gath, over a considerable period of time as he lives in his shelter while claiming to be fighting against Israel but really slaughtering neighboring Canaanites, a lie which comes to a head in chapter 28 as Achish suggests that he and David go to battle against Israel together.  God kindly spares David from that perplexion by having Achish uninvite him while praising David’s honesty (1 Samuel 29:6-9)!

We see that he has a temper in chapter 25 where he gets angry at the slight from Nabal and would have massacred Nabal and his men except for Abigail’s interference, and then he very promptly takes Abigail and another woman Ahinoam to wife, adding to Saul’s daughter Michal and getting a start on what will eventually be a sizable house of wives and source of unending trouble.

So, David, too, is surprisingly flawed.  As I read, I kept being struck by the thought that the difference between David and Saul was not so much what kind of men they were, but rather Whose men they were.  They both fell into sin and foolishness.  But where Saul was trying to hide from his calling, trying to figure things out on his own, trying to push God into his timeframe, giving up on God and seeking alternate answers, wishing for the praise of men… David was quietly accepting every command God sent him, seeking God in all his actions, waiting patiently for God to provide,  and glorifying God when He gave the victory.  And if we add the psalms—many of which were written in this same timeframe—we get an even fuller picture of the relationship David had with his Redeemer.  David had faith.  Saul was unfaithful.

2 Samuel has much more about David, and I’m eager to get to it. 🙂

November 8, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on A Holy Priesthood

A Holy Priesthood

The concept of believers as “a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5) as I have long understood it is very much the object of derision and scorn.  “The Bible isn’t clear!”  Whether it’s formal ordination by an approved apostolic body or a Th. D. and peer-reviewed papers, the ability of the simple Christian to understand Scripture effectively is in serious question.

Yet Scripture itself testifies, and the testimony of God is greater (1 John 5:9).

The sufficient teaching of the Spirit

Jesus said to the disciples in John 14:26, speaking of the coming ministry of the Spirit, that He will “will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you” (hcsb).  Jesus says a little bit later, “He will guide you into all the truth” (16:13).  This is affirmed by Paul, who says in 1 Corinthians 2:10-15, “God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God… The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.” and by John, who writes,

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know…The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.” (1 John 2:20,27)

And also, “the one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in himself” (1 John 5:9).  Solomon also said in Proverbs 28:5, “those who seek the Lord understand [what is right] fully.”  And Jeremiah prophesied it in 31:34, “they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 holds a really important point: how do we understand spiritual things?  By the Spirit.  Not by being taught them, not by man’s wisdom, not by advanced theological concepts… but by the Spirit.  And why?  2:5, “so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”  Our faith rests in the power of God.  Our discernment comes from that power, from the Spirit, which Jeremiah prophesied, Jesus promised, and Paul and John affirmed.

The sufficient evidence of Scripture

The second, tangential question, of course, is whether or not Scripture is adequate as a written text to go alongside the ministry of the Spirit.

The go-to verse is 2 Timothy 3:16, but I am struck even more strongly by the context (vv. 12-17, hcsb):

In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So, in the context of talking about persecution, Paul warns Timothy that deception is coming, exhorts him to continue in what he was already taught, affirms who taught him (his mother and grandmother, neither ordained nor seminary graduates), and then names what he already knew—the sacred Scriptures.  And then he makes this profound statement: “Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  I really don’t think he could possibly be any more clear about the sufficiency of Scripture (and the Old Testament alone, at that, as Timothy knew these Scriptures from childhood!) to lead to wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ.  It’s very precise and very adequate.   And it’s into this context that the famous verse 16 falls.  Is Scripture just useful and vaguely profitable?  Resoundingly not.  It’s sufficient for faith and salvation.  And then Paul elaborates, verse 17, “so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”  Scripture, taught by one’s own parents, is adequate protection against deceivers, and adequate teaching to for wisdom for salvation, for faith in Christ Jesus, and for completeness and readiness for everything.

And yet even more can we say!

Jude 3 reminds us that “the faith was once for all entrusted to the saints.”  It’s not an ongoing revelation.  The faith is established.  That’s why Paul warns “if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be anathema!” (Galatians 1:8) And John joins in, warning again against “many deceivers,” saying that “everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God… if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting” (2 John 7-10), again warning against adding to the basic, given teaching of Christ, which we are supposed to not add to, but rather “abide in.”  Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.”

In 2 Timothy 4:2-3 Paul tells Timothy to “preach the word… for the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new.”  Once again, the idea to stick to the word as opposed to “new” doctrine.

David also spoke of the beautiful adequacy of the words of the Lord (Psalm 19:7-8, hcsb):

The instruction of the Lord is perfect,
renewing one’s life;
the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy,
making the inexperienced wise.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
making the heart glad;
the command of the Lord is radiant,
making the eyes light up.

The instruction of the Lord is perfect.  It doesn’t need us to embellish or impose elaborate scholarship upon it.  The testimony of the Lord makes the inexperienced wise.

the priesthood of all believers

So, God is able by the Spirit to make us understand all spiritual things, without special teachers, and Scripture is an adequate collection of knowledge for salvation, faith, and wisdom.  The final piece falls into place very neatly: the temple veil was rent in two, and there is now “one mediator between God and men,” Christ (1 Timothy 2:5), who is the great high priest (Hebrews 4:14).  The Spirit of God no longer rests over the Ark of the Covenant, but indwells His people (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Christ was the sacrifice for sins once for all, and replaces the intermediary priests in that way (Hebrews 10:12) but now Christians also “offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).  By His blood our worship is acceptable.  Priests in the Old Testament had another function: the priests made the offerings, and they appealed to God on behalf of the people (e.g. Joel 2); they distinguished between the “holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean” (Lev. 10:10), they adjucated legal decisions (Deuteronomy 17), acted as judges and maintained the Sabbaths (Ezekiel 44), and settled all disputes (Deuteronomy 21).  All of this echoes in the New Testament descriptions of Christ as High Priest (Hebrews 9:11) of a more perfect tabernacle and believers as a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9) and “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). 

The wonderful working of grace here is that not only does the Spirit teach us, not only is Scripture able  for salvation, wisdom, and equipping, but we as believers are also adopted into a holy priesthood…

so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

(1 Peter 2:9-10)

This is what the priesthood of all believers is about; a people called to glorify God, for He alone is the source and instructor of their salvation.

Sufficiency in action

One of my favorite examples of this is in 2 Kings 22.  Josiah becomes king of Israel at eight years old, and “he did what was right in the Lord’s sight” (v.2).  One of the first things he does is turn to the repair of the temple, and in the process, Hilkiah the high priest finds… the book of the law.

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes…Go and inquire of the LORD for me, the people, and all Judah about the instruction in this book that has been found. (2 Kings 22:11-13)

Scripture led to repentance and, indeed, salvation (2 Kings 22:20).  The priests had lost it, but it was easily recovered from the book of the law.

The second major example is in Acts 17, where the Bereans are commended for not merely accepting the words of the apostles, but for comparing what the apostles taught to the Scriptures “to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).  So we see that even when the Apostles taught, it was still “noble-minded” to check their words against Scripture.  And the reward, the “therefore,” was that many of them believed.  Again, Scripture leads to repentance and salvation.

Biblical cautions about tradition

One final point worth noting is how tradition plays into the story, biblically speaking.  While we are exhorted to hold fast to the traditions that were already taught by the Apostles (2 Thesalonians 2:15), Colossians 2:8 warns against being taken “captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition.” In 2:23 Paul is even more specific, ascetic and additional “regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”  We are not to go beyond the bounds of Scripture.  Paul also tells Timothy, “guard what has been entrusted to your care.  Turn away from.. the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge” (1 Timothy 6:20).  This is in perfect alignment with the view of tradition in the Old Testament prophets and as taught by Christ.

Beginning in Isaiah 3:12 we see the caution of following the leaders’ teaching: “Those who guide you lead you astray and confuse the direction of your paths.”  Micah 3:5 also warns of “prophets who lead my people astray” and Jeremiah cautions “the lying pen of the scribes has made [the law of the Lord] into a lie.”  These are the same traditions, additions to Scripture, that Jesus questioned in Matthew 15:3, “why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” and 15:6, “for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” 

An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?
(Jeremiah 5:30-31)

Christ appeals to the authority of Scripture specifically, against the traditions that had developed after the law was given, and the disciples of Jesus did “not walk according to the tradition of the elders” (Mark 7:5).  Jesus rejected the authority of even the priests and elders to go beyond the teaching of Scripture.  Paul warned that this is how deceivers would lead the church astray, by adding to Scripture.  Peter exhorts us further, “remember the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles” (2 Peter 3:2).  And all throughout, the constant theme is that “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness”—and how?—”through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). 

What does Peter say God gave us by that glory and goodness?  Not the teachings of men, which he warns against again in the very same section (2 Peter 2:1), but “very great and precious promises,” (v 4), promises found in Scripture (the testimony of the prophets and apostles, 3:2) and taught through the Spirit (1:20-21).

October 17, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on Judges: God uses broken people.

Judges: God uses broken people.

I just finished my study of the book of Judges, and, wow, so many thoughts.

The stories that have stuck out to me: Deborah and Barak.  Gideon.  Abimelech.  Jephthah.  Samson,  Micah, Gibeah.  With a few others stuck in.  Every single story is about the failure of people to do the right thing. 

First we have Barak (Judges 4), who ought to have obeyed God’s command to go to Mount Tabor… but doesn’t, until Deborah summons him and reminds him of what God already commanded.  Then he still refuses until Deborah agrees to go with him, at the cost of losing all honor for the victory, and Jael kills Sisera.

Then we have Gideon, who is a pretty decent if highly-doubtful guy, who actually meets YHWH (Judges 6) in the flesh, continues asking God for extra confirmation at every step, but basically, fears God and does well… until the end, when he collects booty from everyone and makes an idol which leads his household astray.  He also has tons of wives and children.

This doesn’t bode well for Gideon’s son Abimelech (Judges 9), who kills every last one of his brothers except the youngest, Jotham, who manages to escape.  Abimelech names himself king after this mass slaughter, and various other atrocities and mass-murders ensue, until God “turns back” the evil Abimelech had done on his head.

Then we come to Jephthah, who fears God and judges pretty well, but does this awful hideous thing of promising to human-sacrifice something (which turns out to be his beloved daughter), and then… he follows through on his oath (Judges 11).

Then Samson (Judges 13), whose parents have an encouraging and unblemished testimony of fearing God, and who is himself filled with the Spirit incredibly constantly, but Samson himself makes a ton of foolish decisions, is vain, is a womanizing partier, is prone to fits of incredible temper, revenge, and wiping people out, breaks his vows, lies, gives into nagging women repeatedly… and dies.

Then Micah (Judges 17), who steals from his mother, then creates a completely invalid little shrine in the name of YHWH but with false gods abounding, bribes a Levite priest into lending it some legitimacy.  But along comes the tribe of Dan, which steals his little shrine, his priest, and his false gods, and carries them off to set up in Dan, where it remained for “as long as the house of God was in Shiloh” (18:31, hcsb).

Lastly, there’s Gibeah, which is really just… unspeakable.  Atrocity compounding atrocity, one after the other.  I’m not sure there are more revolting chapters anywhere in Scripture than Judges 19-21.

And yet, through all of this, God is accomplishing His ends.  Israel  has no king.  Joshua, the faithful leader, has died, and the tribes have continually (chapter 1) failed to take control of the land from the Canaanites.  A lot more of that is accomplished through these stories.  And the Israelites are disciplined again and again, and forced to return to God and beg for mercy and assistance, again and again.  One time God denies them—I’ve rescued you before, and you went away again, “cry out to the gods you have chosen” (Judges 10:14, hcsb), but they persist in their repentance and God “became weary of Israel’s misery” (10:16, hcsb), which is one of the most startlingly beautiful phrases in Scripture.  Another time—after Gibeah—the Israelites consult Him for help, and He tells them what to do… only to have them be considerably wiped out, beginning with Judah (Judges 20).  It is only after they come to God again with fasting and sacrifices and weeping that He delivers the rebelling tribe Benjamin into their hands.

So we see here, first of all, how remarkably God works.  This is both justice and mercy tempered together, love and discipline.  But what I found incredibly encouraging—and surprising—was how very screwed up the “good guys” are, and yet they are included in Hebrews 11 among the faithful and righteous.  We point to David as an example of how fallen Christians can be, but here we have Barak, who ignores God’s explicit calling; Gideon, who doubts God repeatedly and falters at the end; Jephthah, who murders his own daughter in the name of God; and Samson, who seems in many ways to live a really, really depraved lifestyle filled with women and drinking and hedonism and lawbreaking.  And yet these are the people God called, used, and justified.

It’s also scary the reality of God’s judgment here.  Barak loses the honor of the victory.  God repays Jephthah’s rash vow with the loss of his daughter.  Gideon’s whole family is massacred by his own son.  Samson loses everything he seems to strive after, and then his own life.  The nation of Israel as a whole loses many of their men in the skirmish with Benjamin (not to mention nearly the entire tribe of Benjamin itself), then because of their own rash vow-making, they end up losing another entire town of people, and basically inviting the remaining Benjaminites to come along and kidnap and rape innocent women in Shiloh with no consequences.

Judges is a really easy book to read.  But a very hard one to process.

October 7, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on Reading the Bible

Reading the Bible

I think, after almost thirty long years of trying to figure this Bible-reading thing out, that I finally have a plan that works for me. 🙂  I always struggle with knowing how much to read, where to read, and with feeling like I’m either not paying enough attention, or paying too much attention and not reading enough.

Anyway, this is obviously not the One True Way of reading the Bible, but I am posting it just because it has been such a struggle for me, and this is the first time in my entire life that I have really found a reading “plan” very effective and beneficial to me, rather than incidentally so.  Second caveat, I have only actually done this one year so far.  But already I am eager to both continue what I am doing now, and to start over again at the beginning, and it has maintained itself well through the months.  So I think it’s a good plan. 🙂

90 day rush

To begin with, I do the Bible in 90 Days plan.  This is good for at least three reasons: 1) it’s a very definite, regimented, dare-not-miss-a-day plan.  There’s no floundering around wondering what to read or how much.  It’s also very intimidating so there’s no doubting whether the intensity is adequate.  2) it takes (and builds) a lot of discipline.  Depending on how slowly I’m reading, it takes at least 30 minutes to an hour to read.  Even more if I get stuck or branch off into looking up something I run across. It’s not remotely unusual to end up spending two hours a day here—although, if I’m really busy, I don’t have to take that long.  Further, there’s no skipping the “boring” parts of the Bible.  There’s no reading just what feels comfortable or easy.  I am not sure how to describe the mental muscle it takes to read roughly 20 chapters of the Bible every day, but whatever it is, it gets a good workout this way.   Finally, 3) it goes through the entire Bible.  Haggai doesn’t get left out.  Numbers doesn’t get left out.  There’s not a section left without the pages crinkled.  You read it all, and moreover, you know you’ve read it all, and recently, which for me is a big deal for letting go of difficulty throughout the year.  I also was amazed at how much better grasp I got of the overall layout of Scripture, especially the history and the timelines, by reading it all at once so close together.  It was really helpful.  Next time I am going to try to read it in chronological order (the table of contents order is not chronological), I think, but otherwise the same pace.

look at it again

Now, the important thing is, coming right off the 90-day challenge, there’s all that time that now I’m used to setting aside for Bible study, without complaining about it to myself.  I found this a really useful time to go back to one of the sections that really jumped out at me in the 90-day overview and slow way, way, way down (to like, 10 verses a day) and try to really get a handle on some of the parts that are just impossible to parse well at the breakneck speed.  For me, this time ‘round, this was the gospels, particularly the teachings of Jesus, and I poured over them with commentaries and cross-references and some journalling.  Next time I would like to attack some of the epistles this way.  This has to be totally self-discipline, though, because I didn’t have a “plan” and certainly didn’t have any official calendar to keep me accountable to it.  Sooo, when the self-discipline began to lag (after maybe three months or so), I was happy to have accidentally fallen into another type of study…

do some homework

Bible studies!  I am in one at church and I found myself really enjoying the “homework.”  It made me read through the Bible chapter (one per week) pretty slowly, but was about the perfect size to finish out in 45 minutes to an hour, and I was pleasantly surprised how just writing down the answers to basic questions about the passage made me really stop and pay attention to what was going on.  Add a few suggestions about cross-references, and a couple of application questions, and I found it almost impossible to restrain myself from doing one of the “sessions” every day instead of once a week!

So… I picked up some of my own.  The ones our church does are from the Faith Alive series, which are pretty short and pretty cheap (if it takes me two-three weeks to do one, that’s about $10-15/month, which is well worth it imho, plus I’ll keep them and recycle).  There are many other studies like this and I am very anxious and excited to cover some more books before I get back around to the 90 day challenge (which I hope to start in January).

This is a really good way to parse some of the more historically complicated books, like Judges and some of the other Old Testament books, while still covering them in a reasonable amount of time.  It’s mostly questions to make sure you’re paying attention, and occasionally pointing out relevant historical information or the way that passage in Judges recounts the same events as this passage in Joshua, for example, which is obvious and verifiable, but easily missed by just casually reading through it by myself.

I don’t think this necessarily has to be Bible study “booklets,” but some kind of methodical study, like the Navigators, or something, along with some kind of scholarly insight on a broader level than detailed commentaries.  Having it all in one small book (even with space to write some answers!) is really useful to me.  I will say that I am happier with the leaders’ version of the books so that I can consult them for more information rather than getting on the computer and going to chase it down, if needed.

Conclusion

As I said, this isn’t One True Way. 🙂  But the changing combination of big picture / little picture, casual reading / deep study, heavily regimented / completely freeform has really helped me steer more efficiently away from complacency, while also giving me space to study the things I know I need to study, and still encounter new things that I didn’t even know I didn’t know!  I think it’s been the pattern of intensive overview –> deeper repetition that has been so specifically useful.

September 18, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on Jesus, Simon, and a Sinner.

Jesus, Simon, and a Sinner.

Well, that took me long enough, huh?  I feel like Martha, distracted by many things.  But back to Luke 7:36-50 tonight, at least!

So after Jesus gets finished rebuking the Pharisees and experts in the law, one of them invites Him over for dinner.  The Pharisee’s name is Simon (v. 40), which oddly I’d never noticed, despite the fact that “the woman” in this passage is often named Mary Magdalene (with no textual warrant whatsoever).

We talk a lot about how Jesus “hung out with sinners” but this passage is spectacular: Jesus is having dinner with an unregenerate sinner (who is a Pharisee) and visited by a saint (who is a prostitute).  God’s sovereign grace is on broad display here as the categories are all topsy-turvey.  We would expect the Bible teacher to be the regenerate one and the prostitute to be the lost one!

But we see the woman’s faith from the very beginning: she was weeping, enough to wash his feet.  That’s some serious crying.  Her whole soul is obviously very invested in this meeting.  Moreover, unlike Simon, who confidently (and deceitfully) invites Christ boldly to his house (in stark contrast to the humility of the centurion, for example), the woman won’t even stand in front of Jesus, but just at His feet.  This is all very self-abasing.

Simon, though, is worried about the Law (v 39, HCSB):

This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching Him–she’s a sinner!

The Pharisees forbade themselves from touching even the garments of the common people, and here this woman—this vile sinner!—is not only touching Jesus’s garments but His actual feet!  Simon doesn’t speak to Jesus about it, but Jesus knows Simon’s heart and answers him with a parable: who will love more, the debtor who is forgiven much, or the debtor who is forgiven only a little?

Jesus then explains: Simon didn’t even wash Jesus’s feet, but the woman washed them—with tears!  Simon didn’t give Him a kiss, but the woman kissed—His feet!  Simon didn’t give Him the usual respect at feasts of anointing His head with common oil, but the woman anointed His feet—with very costly oil!

The woman had many sins, the woman knew she was forgiven, hence she loved much (Luke 7:46).  Simon doesn’t appear to have been very worried about his sins, or have loved at all.  The woman was forgiven; Simon was trying to cause trouble (v 49) for the Man he should have fallen down and worshipped.  The woman exhibited a plain saving faith, despite her sinfulness; Simon exhibited straightforward animosity toward God, despite his religious status.

I don’t think I’ve found any of Jesus’s teachings thus far as terrifying as this one.  It is far too easy to be Simon, proud and secure in my own works and my own understanding of Scripture.  Far too hard to be the woman, with sin on full display and humble enough to come to the house of a respected member of the community—who wants nothing to do with me—just to do the right thing and honor a Savior.  And then to be so aware of my own sin to not even speak or have any boldness at all, but just to humbly serve, and give all I have, to face criticism and hatred, not to gain anything at all, but just to worship at His feet.

That’s what saving faith looks like.

September 7, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on We played the flute, but you didn’t dance.

We played the flute, but you didn’t dance.

The next thing in Luke 7 is Jesus addressing His relationship to John the Baptist.  First, John himself wants clarity: are You the Messiah?  Was Jesus the One prophesied, or just another prophet?  John asks this from his jail cell.

Jesus replies with a paraphrase of some prophecies from places like Isaiah 35, and then this little phrase: “anyone who is not offended because of Me is blessed” (v. 23, hcsb).  Then He turns and addresses the crowd, and starts talking about who John is: did they come to see someone swayed by every wind, someone wearing pretty clothes?  No, they came to see a prophet, a rough and tumble profit cut in the mold of Elijah.  And more than a prophet, but specifically the prophet, who would prepare the way for the Messiah.

Then another curious little passage: Luke says that even the tax collectors acknowledged John’s message of righteousness and were baptized.  And the Pharisees rejected John as a prophet, rejected the plan of God which he brought, and were not baptized.  This would seem a huge illumination on Acts 19:2-7, where Paul says in Acts 19:4 (hcsb), “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.”  And then they rebaptized the disciples of John.  So John told people Christ was coming, and prepare their hearts with repentance, and baptism as a sign of that, but then in Acts there is the baptism in the name of Jesus and accompanied by the Spirit.  At any rate, to return to Luke, we see here that “all the people” were baptized, which seems to not necessarily mean that they knew of Jesus or the full plan of salvation, but rather of repentance and the way that John was teaching.  And in Acts only 12 such are mentioned as coming forth again for baptism.   We also the important fact that the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected the prophet altogether.  So it would seem that some saw the wisdom of John was from God, but still rejected Christ; and some rejected both prophet and Messiah together.  And some—a very few—accepted both.

Which brings us to Christ’s description of “this generation” (v 32, hcsb):

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to each other:
We played the flute for you,
but you didn’t dance;
we sang a lament,
but you didn’t weep!

In other words, I think—both John and Christ defied the expectations of the teachers of the Law.  They neither danced on cue nor wept on cue.  The people accused John of being too ascetic (v 33) and Jesus of being too indulgent (v 34).  They were pleased at nothing, and very particular.  But, Christ says, “wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” (v 35).  It is worth pointing out that in Matthew 11, the parallel chapter to Luke 7, Jesus follows this speech by denouncing all the towns where He did miracles and yet the people did not repent, including Capernaum (Matt 11:23) which He says will be punished more severely than Sodom.  And He concludes by thanking God “because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants” (Matthew 11:25, hcsb).

The generation is happy with nothing, rejected God’s prophet, and now rejects God’s Son.

September 5, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on God has visited His people.

God has visited His people.

The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.  Then fear came over everyone, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited His people.”
[Luke 7:15-16, hcsb]

I’m not sure I’ve ever properly heard the story of Luke 7:11-17, despite it being the story that spread through Judea and brought Jesus’s fame to John the Baptist.  But the story itself is maybe less famous.

Jesus is on his way to Nain, and meets up with the funeral of a man who had been his widowed mother’s only son.  The mother and a large crowd is trailing along.  They don’t ask Jesus for anything.  This is really quite extraordinary.  These people didn’t come to Christ; He came to them.

Then, the text says, He looked at the widow and “had compassion on her and said, ‘Don’t cry.’”

Still no request for intervention from the widow or her friends.  Did they not know Who spoke to them?  They kept moving, in fact!  It wasn’t until Jesus came up and touched the coffin that they stopped carrying the man onward.

Then the simple words, “Young man, I tell you, get up!”  And the dead began to speak.

And once again, we see the right reaction to God’s presence in verse 16—“fear came over everyone.”  It is amazing to me how deliberately and consistently all of Jesus’s miracles led straight to the glorification of God.  It was apparently really recognizable to even the common people, and even the people knew how to respond—with fear, with trembling, with “I’m a sinner” and “I’m not worthy!”  Even in this case, where the people don’t seem to have known who Jesus was, and still seem a little confused, with some of them calling Him a “great prophet” (although Gill points out that the Messiah is called a “great prophet” in Deuteronomy 18:15, which may have been their reference); at any rate, recognizing this really incredible truth that after centuries of prophetless silence, God has visited His people.

And: fear.  And: the word would not be suppressed.  Jesus performs a miracle to strangers—out of compassion alone—and suddenly not just Capernaum but “all the vicinity” knew Him, with word reaching the disciples of John the Baptist.

(On a sidenote, I can’t help but notice how perfect a microcosm this is for salvation: the dead man going to his funeral, unable to ask for Christ’s help; his friends equally unable, by ignorance and distraction, to ask for Christ’s help; Christ looks at them, has compassion, interrupts their plans very abruptly, touches the man; and brings him to life; all for the glory of God the Father.)

September 4, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on Just say the word and I know…

Just say the word and I know…

Well, as it turns out… starting school puts a major damper in my writing time (not to mention brain energy).  HMM.

But, today, Luke 7:1-10: one of my favorite, favorite passages in the whole Bible.  I remember the first time I heard it, I didn’t even know what a centurion was, but the centurion was my earthly hero.  So much undoubting, unquestioning faith in Jesus Christ!

An unworthy man…

First off, we see Jesus is back in Capernaum.  I never noticed this before, but clearly Capernaum was the place to be!  Secondly, the object of healing is a slave.  The whole story hinges around this man who didn’t even own his own self, and yet was valued by his master, valued so greatly that the master, who clearly has a great respect for God, will bother Jesus.  Third, who did the centurion send?  Jewish elders.  This story is full of unexpected twists.

Now, if we back up a moment, we see down in verse 4 that this mysterious centurion loved Israel and even built them a synagogue!  And yet he didn’t convert.  And, further, he apparently knew right away that Jesus was the Messiah—he understood what was going on, knew enough of theology and the prophets to recognize that the Redeemer had come “to stand on the dust at last.”

But he was still a Gentile, and the Church was still a mystery.  And so he sent the elders, who themselves seem to recognize Jesus’s authority to grant healing, at the very least—another interesting thing about Capernaum here; the elders were also friendly to Christ.

So Jesus went to the man’s house.

And the centurion sent out people to meet him—“don’t trouble Yourself, since I am not worth to have you come under my roof.  That is why I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to You.”

It is notable that the elders had said that the man was worthy.  But the man knows he is not.  Gill has an interesting note here that it was a law of the Jews (verified in Acts 10:28) to not go into the house of a Gentile, which could have some bearing.  But also, I think, there’s this notion—because he could have come and met Jesus, at any rate—that is his simple words, I’m not worthy!  Again, like Peter, we see this response to Christ.  “I’m a sinner!”  I’m not worthy.  John the Baptist, as well; I’m not worthy to untie His sandals.

This Roman, Gentile centurion, in other words, gets it.

But the story doesn’t even end there.

…and an almighty God…

Then, with one little phrase, the centurion shows what faith is really about: “say the word, and my servant will be cured.  For I too am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command.  I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it” (hcsb).

So the centurion—who is very worried over his beloved slave—is so confident of Christ that at this point, all he’s asking Him for is a word.  Say one word, and it will be.  This is no man who sinks beneath the water while looking at his savior; no, he’s never even met Jesus, only just heard of him, and yet he understands that Jesus is mighty even beyond his presence, far beyond parlor tricks or mere prophecies—Jesus has at his beck and call all of heaven.  Just say the word.  And this from a Gentile, no heir to the promises, no expectation of the promises, just… faith.  And humility, for Jesus was coming, and truly the only purpose of the centurion’s messengers was to indeed spare Jesus from coming to his actual house.  He gave up his opportunity to meet Jesus.

His faith is so incredible that Jesus is amazed.  And says “I have not found so great a faith even in Israel!” (v 9, hcsb)   And He healed the slave from afar, as, in fact, he had studied the centurion’s own heart from afar.

…with a bigger plan.

That has always been the part of the passage that perplexed me: here is this man who has spent so much of his time and resources learning and fueling the way for others to learn about YHWH.  A man who impresses even the Son of God with his faith.  A man who further proves himself to be humble and self-effacing.  The fairy-tale ending of the story would be for Jesus to go to the man’s house and proclaim his sins forgiven, as He had done for so many of lesser faith in Israel.

But that isn’t the way it ends.  Jesus sends the friends back, where they find the man healed, and then we never hear more from the centurion, and if he ever met his Savior in person, it’s not written here.  (On a sidenote, if this is the same story told in Matthew 8, it is difficult to harmonize them; Gill takes the Matthew story as meaning the centurion was communicating via messengers, not actually present.  Verse 10 here in Luke would seem to make it absolutely clear that the centurion was not present.)

Why?  Because Jesus was sent “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mark 7:24, hcsb)?  The centurion’s objection was a true one.  And yet, it was only a handful of years later, in Caesarea, that a centurion—a centurion!—is given a message by an angel and sent to fetch Peter who has just had the vision that welcomes Gentiles into the fold in complete equality (Acts 10).  God wastes no time in actually informing the Gentile believers that they are welcome, calling the centurion to fetch Peter before Peter himself even has the vision.  The centurion’s prayer is answered, and the Gentiles are remembered, and welcomed.  As Peter puts it (Acts 10:34-35, hcsb):

God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him.

The day of the centurion’s joining the fold was coming, as God unfolded an even grander scheme of redemption that included not just Israel, but all the nations, even unworthy centurions and unworthy twenty-first century Gentiles like me.

August 31, 2014
by julie
Comments Off on Prayer by Form: Reflections on Bunyan

Prayer by Form: Reflections on Bunyan

I dislike where Bunyan’s exposition of Scripture leads me!

I remember my first encounter with written prayer—having grown up such that even the idea of “praying Scripture” seemed shady and questionable—and here, there was a church that called “prayer” this mysterious practice of reading manmade words off a page with our eyes open!

This was surely not prayer.  It was said by heathens, as their other words, outside of church service, quickly testified.  Further, it was too easy to say with insincerity, and indeed too hard to say with sincerity (I tried—reading words on a page can surely not be sinful, I reasoned).  And it was rapidly established to be too little: when the words of form were insufficient for the situation, these dear people found themselves literally unable to pray, without prewritten words to guide their mouths.

I was sad.

Then, some years later, I came to an understanding of this thing called Reformed Theology, and along with it, there was prayers by form.  It began with men reading Puritan prayers from the pulpit, and ends with congregations reading from the Book of Common Prayer—that very same book used to persecute Baptists and other Dissenters—and calling it “prayer,” and indeed whole orders of worship being dictated by the forms of men, and even the daily “prayer” lives of so many being ordered by these “Daily Offices” with special sections for “noon-day prayers” and “evening prayers” and “mealtime prayers” and “birthday prayers” and “anniversary prayers” and even—“opening sentences.”

It is strongly tempting, the idea of just breezing through these things by form, and not needing to peel open my heart and let the Spirit by prayer cut it open and implore God on behalf of my own self.

I have been wrong about so many things, and for years I have accepted that I was wrong about this business of reading prayers.  I have even accepted that perhaps Christ meant for us to recite “The Our Father.”  I’ve never entirely bought it, and yet, so many wiser folk than I advocate it wholeheartedly, and for their opinions I have the utmost respect.

But then there is Bunyan.

I think, fundamentally, that he’s right.  That, first, it is utterly wrong to carry along people by rote and not by Spirit; to prompt them to pray by seeing words on a page rather than Spirit in their hearts.  This invites deception of the heart and ultimately invites blasphemy of the Spirit.  Second, I think he’s entirely right that if Paul and the Apostles dared set no form—handed down none—then we should surely not go where Apostles feared to tread.  And lastly, the point which I am struggling the most over: I think he’s right that prayer is a Spirit-led activity, which no form can ever master.  That prayer has an innate flexibility, an inward groaning, that it is a ministry of the Spirit and by the Spirit and deeply reflective of our own situations and struggles.  Which, by comparison, a form of prayer would be like a broken clock: perhaps right twice a day, but in essence, useless, and not a clock.

Which is not to say that God cannot use forms.  I know I have found them convicting, all the moreso the closer they are to Scripture, and yet I have not found them more convicting that reading a good book, or reading Scripture.  I think it is easy to confuse inward agreement and thought-provocation with praying.  Yet this surely makes prayer into too small of a thing, unlike the descriptions we find of it in Psalms and Jesus’ words, Ephesians, James, all of it.

Prayer is huge.  Prayer is effective (James 5:16) not because it’s some magic words that we can wave at God, but because it is a work of the Spirit (Romans 8:26, Ephesians 6:18).  God promises over and over again to respond to our specific prayers—Philippians 4:6, John 15:7, Luke 11:9, Mark 11:24, Jeremiah 33:3, Psalm 34:17, Matthew 18:19, James 5:13, Proverbs 15:29, 1 John 3:22—we are called to bring our own selves to prayer, through the Spirit.  And God promises to answer according to what we have prayed—in the Spirit.

Prayer is a living ministry of the Spirit.  That’s an amazing idea.  Every time we open our hearts to pray, it is a miracle.  Every prayer is formed and winged by the Spirit.

A recitation, however well-meant and genuine, may be a good, God-glorifying recitation, but it isn’t what Scripture seems to call “prayer.”

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