Harmony #84: Eternal Life (John 12:20-32)

When I was growing up, I got a lot of really good teaching about the life to come. I read books on Heaven; I read accounts of people who claimed to have visited. The hope of eternal life in Heaven was something to sustain and encourage us as we slogged through life, and rightfully so. The Bible’s image of the New Heaven and New Earth is glorious.

What I don’t remember hearing as much about was how God intended to have us participate in eternal life right now. We would sing, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through,” which suggested life was a frustrating annoyance until we got to the good stuff after we died.

It turns out we are not “just passing through.” Jesus invites us to enter into and experience the life of the Kingdom now in very tangible ways. Life isn’t just an inconvenient means to an end. Jesus invites us to flourish in God’s good creation, filled with His Spirit, invited to become part of the “body” of Christ for the nourishing of the world with the lived out good news that God is love, and His love is for you.

I wish I had heard that more. I wish we had talked more about what that looked like. So, here we go.

Here is today’s text with commentary added to provide the context and subtext. I encourage you to read this passage on your own in its uninterrupted form just to be clear on the distinction J

Now there were some God-fearing Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast of Passover. They came to Philip, who was from the Greek are of  Bethsaida in Galilee[1], with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to observe Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus about the request.

 Jesus granted permission, then spoke to them all. “This is what’s happening. Listen carefully: truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

 Anyone who delights in his life in this world more than in God will lose it, while anyone who thinks so little of his life, and so much of God, that he is willing to sacrifice it all for God, will keep it for eternal life.[2] Whoever serves me must follow me to where I am going; and where I am, my servant also will be.

 My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. This is the fulfillment of the Father’s plan. Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified my name, and will glorify it again.” Some in the crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.[3]

Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine: to confirm you in this great truth, that I am the Son of God, he whom God the Father has sent into the world, by and in whom he designs to bring glory to His name.[4] 

 Now is the time for judgment and condemnation on the power of sin in this world[5]; now the prince of this world will be driven out and decisively defeated for all to see[6]. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will, like a fisherman dragging in his net, drag all the  people[7] of the world to me.”[8] (He said this to show that he would be lifted up by dying on a cross lifted up from the earth.)

* * * * *

Let’s pause for a Biblical Words Nerd Corner Moment.  This isn’t trivia; it’s clarity about the subject matter. The Bible has an interesting way of talking about things that last forever, or things that have ‘eternal life’ or are ‘everlasting’.

·  Animal sacrifices were to be offered “forever”- until the sacrifice of Jesus Christ ended the need for animal sacrifices (2 Chronicles 2:4; Hebrews 7:11-10:18).

·  God planned to dwell in Solomon’s temple “forever” - but it was destroyed (2 Chronicles 7:16).

·  The old covenant of the law is referred to as the "everlasting covenant" (Leviticus 24:8), yet 2 Corinthians 3 tells us it was transitory and has been replaced, and Hebrews 8:13 says, “In speaking of a new covenant, [Jesus] makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

Were the biblical writers confused? I don’t think so. I believe they were inspired to choose even their individual words in a way that captured what God wanted to reveal. So if we assume this was not a mistake, there must be something going on with the language that is important.

In Hebrew, the word translated in 2 Chronicles as “forever” is olam. It's all over the Old Testament. It can mean an ancient time, a future time, a lifetime, a span of time with an uncertain end, an age of the world, a dynasty, an eternity… It’s a very flexible word.

When the Hebrew was translated into Greek in the Septuagint, the (still inspired) writers had to make a choice about how to translate olam. They chose the word aionios.[9] You will usually see this translated in English as ‘eternal,’ ‘everlasting,’ or forever just like olam is in the Old Testament. However, it’s more complex than that.

Its primary meaning is that the end is not known. While in the belly of the big fish, Jonah said the earth bound him forever (olam/aionios), but it was only three days. It was a time span with an unknown end. The end is there; you just can’t see it until its there -– like when you look out over Lake Michigan at the dunes and can’t see an end to the water. It’s a mystery. We might say it goes on forever. A bored child might say, “We’ve been here for ages. When are we going to leave?” Think of the disciples’ question in our passage today:

Matthew 24:3 “Tell us, when these things will be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age (aion)?”[10]

When is this age – this ‘forever’ age? this ‘eternal’ age? – going to end and the next one begin? Clearly the disciples meant something other than ‘eternal’ when used a word often translated as ‘eternal’. They aren’t the only ones.

Hebrews 1:1-2  “…in these last days [God] did speak to us in a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He did make the ages (aion).[11]

Hebrews 9:26 ”…But now He has appeared… at the consumation of the ages (aion),[12] for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

Ephesians 3:8-9 To me…this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages (aionon) has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:19-20, 26 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross…the mystery which has been hidden from ages (aionon) and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

So there have been ages in world history (not eternities in world history) –and we aren’t done yet.

Ephesians 1:20-21 “…when He raised [Jesus] from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age (aion) but also in that age which is to come.”

Ephesians 2:6-8 “…raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages (aion) he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

So, there have been a few ages; there will be more. The writers aren’t babbling incoherently about one endless eternity after another. They clearly mean something different. Meanwhile, both John and Paul show us what it looks like to talk about something being everlasting, covering all ages.

Revelation 1: 17-18  “I am the First and the Last, and I am the living One[13]. I entered the realm of the dead; but see, I am alive now and to the ages (aion) of the ages (aion) .”[14]

Revelation 22:5  “God’s servants will continually serve and worship Him… by His light, they will reign throughout the ages (aion) of the ages (aion).”[15]

Ephesians 3:21  “..to Him is the glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus, to all the generations of the age (aion) of the ages (aion).”

Clearly, John and Paul write of eternal life in the way we think of it, endless life in the ages of ages to come. But in today’s text, when Jesus said his disciples would get and keep eternal life, he was saying something about aionios life – life in this age, something we have now. How so?

It turns out that this word also describe a quality of life. It’s about who we are and what we do. HELPS Word Studies describes it like this:

An "age-characteristic"…the unique quality reality of God's life at work in the believer… Eternal (aiṓnios) life gives time its everlasting meaning for the believer through faith…thus believers live in "eternal (aiṓnios) life" right now, experiencing this quality of God's life now as a present possession.” (HELPS Word-studies)

When the rich ruler asked Jesus what he needed to do to have “eternal life,” and when Jesus talked to his disciples about eternal life, the phrase is aionios zoe[16], literally: “age life/life in the age,” the kind of life that comes from relationship with God beginning now and enduring throughout the age. They weren’t asking about where they were going to go when they died (though they had questions about that other places). Here, Jesus is talking about the life “more abundant” that Jesus offers us beginning now (John 10:10). A little later in the book of John, Jesus explained:

This is eternal life (zoe aionios): that they may know You, the only true God.”(John 17:3)

Earlier in the gospel, Jesus said:

“He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life (zoe aionios), and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. (John 5:24)

Zoe aionios (“eternal life”) begins now with Christ in us, the hope of glory.[17] Back to the text we read this morning.

 “Anyone who serves Me must follow My path; anyone who serves Me will want to be where I am, and he will be honored by the Father…”

Those who are willing to sacrifice their life to follow Jesus will live in the aionios life God has given to them.

Bottom line: Though spiritual life or death, destruction or reward of the ages to come is always in our spiritual line of sight, we will live in and experience life or death, destruction or reward in this age as well. Jesus told his disciples to follow him now, embrace eternal life now, walk in the light now, in the midst of the darkness of this age.

Okay, we are out of the Biblical Words Nerd Corner.

How do we live in this life? As a response to the love God has shown us through Jesus, we are like the seed that falls to the ground: that which brings death and destruction – sin – must die if we are to rise into aionios life by following the person, teaching and the path of Jesus above all else. 

Dying sounds hard because it is. But we all have to let some things in out life die so that other things can live.

·   If I want to live healthy, I need to let my desire for fried chicken and mac and cheese die.

·   If I want to be a violin virtuoso, I will need to let my desire for 10,000 hours worth of other activities die.

·   If I want to really be known and loved, I need to let my desire to hide die.

 Maybe another way of saying it is that I am going to need to know which things need to be dead to me so that I might live.

If I am going to follow Jesus, my desire for things that compete for my allegiance and worship must die; my desire to be lord of my life must die; my sight must be fixed on that which brings and builds eternal life so that I can taste and see that the Lord and His Kingdom are good.

This dying to self is not simply the way for us to experience the fullness of zoe aionios, the life of heaven in this age.  It’s how we spread it to everyone around us.

Whenever we worship, somebody dies, and it will be either us or others.

If I worship my comfort, I will sacrifice my wife and kids. They will pay the cost of my comfort. “Stop bothering me. We will talk when I’m good and ready. No, you adjust your hopes and dreams and priorities because they don’t match mine.” I will sacrifice my friends. “I need you to show up on my terms.” I remain dead in my selfishness and sin, and I drag down those close to me.

If I worship my reputation, I will sacrifice any of you who don’t make me look good. “You think I’m wrong? You’re an idiot. You are winning an argument with me? I will lash out and try to humiliate you or keep beating this argument to death because I can’t be wrong.”  And I will remain dead in myself selfishness and sin and drag down those around me.

If I worship money, I will choose work time over relationship time and I will choose profit over people.  If I worship my health, I will make everyone else take second place to my diet and workout schedule. If I worship sex, all that will matter is my fulfillment and my happiness, and I will sacrifice the dignity and autonomy of people around me as I manipulate and pressure and use… And I will remain dead in my selfishness and sin and drag down those around me.

You want to know what you worship? Ask yourself whom you are willing to sacrifice; then ask yourself why.

So what do we do if we are caught in this trap? We must become that seed that falls to the ground and dies so it can be brought back to life and bear good fruit. Or, as Paul wrote, we present our bodies as living sacrifices, wholly acceptable unto God (Romans 12:1). Watch for a very important two words to show up J

In the same way you gave your bodily members away as servants to corrupt and lawless living and found yourselves deeper in your unruly lives, now devote your members as servants to right and reconciled lives so you will find yourselves deeper in holy living.  In the days when you lived as slaves to sin, you had no obligation to do the right thing. In that regard, you were free.But what do you have to show from your former lives besides shame? The outcome of that life is death, guaranteed.

But now that you have been emancipated from the death grip of sin and are God’s slave, you have a different sort of life, a growing holiness. The outcome of that life is eternal life (zoe aionios). The payoff for a life of sin is death, but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. (Romans 6: 19-23)

It begins with a commitment to Jesus. We acknowledge the reality of who Jesus is; we surrender the lordship of our life to Him; we commit to following his path rather than ours. Holy living leads to growing holiness, which leads to experiencing the gift of zoe aionios God has given us.

I remember thinking as a young man that I wanted to make a difference in the Kingdom of God. I really wanted my life to count. I saw some older folks who were godly and whose presence had really impacted my life. I knew it was because of Jesus at work in them, and I wanted that!

I took me years to realize I couldn't just want that. We rest in Christ, but we don’t lounge in zoe aionios; we are invited to participate. A call to follow Jesus will require putting one foot in front of the other in the same direction as Jesus if we want to go with Jesus where Jesus is going.

·  If I wanted the wisdom of aionios life, I had to prioritize certain things in my life that would lead to wisdom, like listening to and reading wise voices instead of entertaining but dumb ones.

·  If I wanted the self-control of aionios life, I had to demonstrate the fruit of self-control that the Holy Spirit was growing on my branches.

·  If I wanted the patience of aionios life instead of the anger that filled me, I had to follow Jesus deeper into understanding myself and maybe to a good counselor who helps me discover God’s healing.

·  If I wanted to move from lustful thoughts to the pure thoughts of aionios life, I had to change what was filling my mind and bring in some righteous material the helped me view people as God sees them.

·  If I wanted my marriage to embody spousal relationships in aionios life, I needed to increasingly learn and do biblical habits of loving and honoring and partnering with my wife.

There was no amount of wishful thinking that was going to change me in those areas.  There was, however, the power of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit as the absolute foundation. Then, participation in aionios life: praying, studying the Bible, seeking counsel both casual and professional that steadied me in the path of righteousness, becoming accountable to others…and putting into practice what I learned.  Holy living, leading to holy maturity, leading me deeper into eternal life.

That is still my challenge and my goal. Every day I need to drop seeds of sin to the ground to die so that I might produce life and not death. Every day, even in small ways, I must willing reject that which brings aionios death and embrace that which brings aionios life.

It is in this path that we begin to truly see how the Kingdom of God, right here and now, is meant for our good and God’s glory. N.T. Wright gets the final word.

“Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven…The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless…God has a great future in store for it.

What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God's future.

These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly…They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom.

Our task as image-bearing, God-loving, Christ-shaped, Spirit-filled Christians, following Christ and shaping our world, is to announce redemption to a world that has discovered its fallenness, to announce healing to a world that has discovered its brokenness, to proclaim love and trust to a world that knows only exploitation, fear and suspicion...

The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.” 
― N. T. Wright

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[1] “Philip’s name is Greek; he came from the region governed by Herod Philip… with connections to the Decapolis, which consisted of ten cities that were Greek in character.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[2] Loves his life means “delights in his life in this world more than in God.” Hates his life in this world means “thinks so little of his life, and so much of God, that he is willing to sacrifice it all for God.” (ESV Global Study Bible)

[3] Think of a similar scenario at Paul’s conversion (Acts 9:7; 22:9).

[4] Matthew Poole Commentary

[5]  “By His coming death, Jesus will end the power of sin over Adam’s race, judging and condemning it.” (ESV Reformation Study bible)

[6] “At the cross, the devil will be cast out, that is, decisively defeated (see Luke 10:18; Heb. 2:14–15; Rev. 20:10).” (ESV Global Study Bible)

[7] HELPS Word-studies  3956 pás – each, every; each "part(s) of a totality…each (every) part that applies." The emphasis is on "one piece at a time."  

[8] “There is an allusion here to the ensigns or colors of commanders of regiments, elevated on high places, that the people might flock to his standard.” (Adam Clarke)

[9] There could have chosen a Greek word that only means eternal or everlasting in a way that matches what we think of when we use the English words. That word is aidos. However, it’s only used twice in Scripture, and never in the phrase we translate as “eternal life.”

[10] Some translations say “end of the world.” That makes it sound like the end of time, but aionios points toward a time with an end, not the end of all time.

[11] Some translations say universe, world or worlds. That just…not what it means.

[12] The CEV says “at the end of time”; Webster’s says “world.” That’s not what it means.

[13] Daniel 4:34

[14] This is often translated “forever and ever” captures the intent of “ages” plural. The Aramaic Bible says “eternity of eternities,” which nails the intent,

[15] That’s how a Greek writer described forever and ever. They doubled down.

[16] “All life (2222 /zōḗ), throughout the universe, is derived – i.e. it always (only) comes from and is sustained by God's self-existent life. The Lord intimately shares His gift of life with people, creating each in His image which gives all the capacity to know His eternal life.” (HELPS Word Studies)

[17] “Eternal life is having the kind of life that God has… It isn’t just lasting forever. It’s a quality of life that we come to have by participating in the Kingdom of God.” (Dallas Williard)

Harmony #26: Building On The Rock (Matthew 7:13-29; Luke 6:43-49)

“Enter through this narrow gate [doing unto others as you would have done unto you, thus fulfilling the Law and the Prophets], because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction/waste, and there are many who enter through it.[1] But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to the life[2] [of blessedness described at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount],[3] and there are few who find it.[4]

“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing[5] but inwardly are voracious wolves.[6]  You will recognize them by their fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?[7] In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 

 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. The good person out of the good treasury of his heart[8] produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit. 

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you (bear good fruit)? [9] Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?’[10]  Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you/approved of you. Go away from me, you law breakers!’ “

“Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and puts them into practice is  like a wise man building his house, who dug down deep, and laid the foundation on bedrock.[11] The rain fell, the winds beat against that house, a flood came and the river burst against it but could not shake it. It did not collapse because it had been founded on rock and had been well built.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand without a foundation. The rain fell, the flood came and the winds beat against that house. When the river burst against that house it collapsed immediately and was utterly destroyed!”[12]

Let’s summarize:

• There’s a particular and hard path of the blessed life described in the Beatitudes. (vv.13-14)

• If you are on that path, you will bear the good fruit of righteous obedience.[13] (vv.15-20)

• It is the fruit that comes from a lifestyle of obedience, not displays of power, that reveal who is walking this path. (vv.21-23).

• The person who “hears” and “does” is building the house of their life on a firm foundation, and will be able to stand strong amidst the storms of life. (vv.24-27)

I want to talk today about obedience. It shows up over and over in Jesus’ summary of the Sermon on the Mount that we read today.

• Enter the narrow gate and walk the narrow, hard path.

• Bear the good fruit that follows from living righteously.

• Do the will of the Father.

• Hear Jesus’ teaching and put them into practice.

 Let’s start with this observation: When we reject obedience, we will tend to avoid the one who rightly demands obedience from us. When we embrace obedience, we can relax in and even embrace their presence.

• As children, we eat the stolen candy in our room and hide the wrappers – or so I’ve heard.

• If I were to ever drive over the speed limit, I would want a back road so I can avoid being seen.

• If we cut corners at work, it’s not in front of our employer.

• If we don’t have a license, we are probably not going to hunt close to the DNR.

 All of these have to do with avoiding someone because there were rules or laws we broke. There were agreed upon expectations that we each knew about, and we failed to live in a way that honored them, and we knew it. The easiest thing to do was hide.

On the other hand, if we are good in those situations, no problem. We have nothing to hide, so we don’t. We are at peace in the presence of the one who has authority in our lives.

When Sheila and I got married, we entered a covenant in which we pledged our lives to each other. We now owe each other an allegiance we did not have before. There are now ‘rules of engagement.’ So, what are the “rules” of godly covenant? 

• Self-sacrificial love

• Mutual respect

• Shared responsibilities

• Repentance and forgiveness

• Purity and faithfulness

When we ‘break the rules,’ it will effect our communion with each other. We will hide or avoid in a variety of ways.

• We could be physically or emotionally distant (If I’m not there, or if I stay busy, I can avoid talking face-to-face about my lack of respect or responsibility.)

• We could lie (“I was just, uh, playing games on my computer!”)

• We could shift the blame. (“If you weren’t so….”)

• We could lash out and hide behind resentment and anger.

When we break the rules, we will tend to avoid or hide from the one to whom we owe it. When we embrace the rules, we can relax in and even embrace their presence.

Second observation: when we devalue what we rightly owe others, we will devalue them as well. But when we value what we owe others, we offer value to them as well. 

All was well with Adam and Eve and God  - they communed; they walked and talked. They were in what the Bible calls shalom: peace between God and themselves. That peace was transparent, honest, and free – what the Bible describes as “naked and unashamed,” a term that covers their physical reality as well as the relational dynamic. Then, when their obedience crumbled, their community crumbled between God and themselves.[14] They hid from God; they covered themselves up so they could hide more of themselves from God. When God asked, “Where are you?” it was another way of asking, “Do you know what have you done?”

As already noted, when we choose disobedience, we usually choose a longing for distance as well, because we hate accountability, repentance and humility. Our natural tendency will be to demonstrate why the story of Adam and Eve is the story of us all: we will cover up, we will hide, we will put up barriers between ourselves and God as well as others. But there’s more.

• If we resent what God rightly demands from us as covenantal partners, we will resent God.

• If we resent His path, we will resent the One who made the path.

• When we devalue what we rightly owe God, we will devalue God as well.

If we demand freedom from our covenant with God and the expectations on our life that accompany it, we must know what the relational fallout will be. God is faithful when we are faithless (2 Timothy 2:13), but we will respond a certain way toward God if we are living in disobedience we have chosen.

We will try to hide; we will pull away; we will not want to be too much in His presence lest the light of His holiness reveal those secret, sinful places we are keeping to ourselves (Luke 8:17). We will not go to God ‘naked and unashamed’ emotionally and spiritually when we know we are in an active state of rebellion. As time  goes on, we will increasingly resent the one from whom we are hiding.

Many of us go through times of life where we think, “I just don’t feel near to God. I don’t sense His presence.” There can be many reasons for this, and I can’t go into all of them this morning. But since our focus this morning is obedience, it’s worth noting that at times the solution is to identify where we have strayed (or sprinted) off the path, and begin with repentance.

You may have heard the verse, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. “ (James 4:8)  Here’s the context in James 4: 1– 8. James says: 

• you crave what you do not have, so you murder, sue and fight…

• you continually focus on self-indulgence…

• you align with the world system and declare war against God.  

 His conclusion:

Submit yourselves to the one true God and fight against the devil and his schemes... Draw near God, and He will draw near to you. Wash your hands; you have dirtied them in sin. Cleanse your heart, because your mind is split down the middle, your love for God on one side and selfish pursuits on the other.

 God doesn’t move. “God will come close to you” isn’t meant to be read as a literal description of God’s location. It has to do with communing (to go back to Adam and Eve). When God says, “Where are you?” and we answer, “Right here,” we will realize how close he was all along.

We restore broken communion with God through repentance; we enter into and build communion through obedience, which is the highest form of worship.

“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work.”  - A.W. Tozer 

“A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.” Charles Grandison Finney

“If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship.”  - Richard Foster 

“Worship has been misunderstood as something that arises from a feeling which ‘comes upon you,’ but it is vital that we understand that it is rooted in a conscious act of the will, to serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Graham Kendrick

 Over and over, the Bible stresses that God is pleased with our obedience as an ultimate display of worship and love.

• John 15:14  “You are my friends – if you do what I command you.”

• Luke 11:28   “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

• Romans 12:1  “I plead with you to give your bodies… as a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Kay Arthur puts it bluntly:  

“If you do not plan to live the Christian life totally committed to knowing your God and to walking in obedience to Him, then don't begin, for this is what Christianity is all about. It is a change of citizenship, a change of governments, a change of allegiance. If you have no intention of letting Christ rule your life, then forget Christianity; it is not for you.”

Love and obedience are inseperable. If we love Jesus, we will want to obey Him, because following the path of life increasingly forms us into His image.[15] When we obey God, we show our love to Him, demonstrating how serious we are about wanting to be like Him.[16]

“When obedience to God contradicts what I believe will bring me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love him.” Elisabeth Elliot

We must obey God – we must walk the narrow path - if we want to deeply worship and genuinely display our love for God. That in itself is sufficient reason to do it. But God has designed obedience with a natural benefit: it will open up a path to communing with God in a way that nothing else does.

Isaiah 48:17–19   “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.” 

James 1:22–25   “But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says….But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”

 I think the blessing to which James refers is Isaiah’s peace and righteousness, which is peace with God though the death of Jesus, and the goodness of living in this “right standing” with God. Then, no more hiding. No more avoiding the One who has laid claim to our lives.

So, when we commit to obedience, we will commune openly and freely with the one to whom we have given it.  But there’s more. When we commit to obedience, it will point us toward the goodness of the one to whom we are obedient. Following a coach’s instruction reveals a coach’s good plan. ‘Buying in’ to the coach’s system is often the same as ‘buying in’ to the coach. Following the directions and creating a tasty dish – especially when I am skeptical about the combination of ingredients - points me toward the creative wonder of a good chef.

There is something about the process of obedience that points us to the one who gave the commands. Walking in the path of Jesus helps us to appreciate the person of Jesus. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8). I want to finish with what I read when we participated in Communion this morning. [17]

The bread is intended for us to live on; that is the symbolism. Thus when we gather and take the bread of the Lord's Table, break it and pass it among ourselves, we are reminding ourselves that Jesus is our life: He is the One by whom we live. As Paul says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live… I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). 

This is what the bread symbolizes — that he is to be our power by which we obey the demands of God, the Word of God, to love one another, to forgive one another, to be tender and merciful, kind and courteous to one another, to not return evil for evil but to pray for those who persecute us and mistrust us and misuse us. His life in us enables us to be what God asks us to be. We live by means of Christ. 

The cup symbolizes his blood which he said is the blood of the New Covenant, the new arrangement for living that God has made, by which the old life is ended. This is then end of the old life in which we were dependent upon ourselves, and lived for ourselves, and wanted only to be the center of attention is over.  

The cup means we are no longer to live for ourselves. We do not have final rights to our life, and the price is the blood of Jesus. Therefore, when we take that cup and drink it, we are publicly proclaiming that we agree with that sentence of death upon our old life, and believe that the Christian life is a continual experience of life coming out of death.

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[1] The words in the original are very emphatic: Enter in (to the kingdom of heaven) through THIS strait gate, i.e. of doing to every one as you would he should do unto you; for this alone seems to be the strait gate which our Lord alludes to.” (Adam Clarke)

[2] “If we choose forgiveness, we will avoid the destruction bitterness brings. If we exercise…mercy, we avoid the destruction that being judgmental brings... If we exercise the Golden Rule, we bring life  to all those we touch.”(Matthew 7:13-14 Meaning.”) https://thebiblesays.com/commentary/matt/matt-7/matthew-713-14/

[3] “A remarkable parallel to this passage occurs in the Tablet of Cebes, a contemporary with Socrates. "Seest thou not, then, a little door, and a way before the door, which is not much crowded, but very few travel it? This is the way which leadeth into true culture." (Vincent’s Word Studies)

[4] “The Jews talk of the gate of repentance, the gate of prayers, and the gate of tears.” (Adam Clarke)

[5] “A garment which reached to the feet, and was made of the wool of sheep. The garment Achan saw and stole, Rab says, was , a garment called "melotes": which is the Greek word the author of Hebrews uses for sheep skins, persecuted saints wandered about in (Hebrews 11:37)… the Talmud referred to… "a talith", or "garment of pure wool"; and Jarchi (s) says, that "it was the way of deceivers, and profane men, to cover themselves, "with their talith", or long garment, "as if they were righteous men", that persons might receive their lies.'' (Gill’s Exposition)

[6] Warnings against false prophets are necessarily based on the conviction that not all prophets are true, that truth can be violated, and that the Gospel's enemies usually conceal their hostility and try to pass themselves off as fellow believers… the flow of the Sermon on the Mount as well as its OT background suggest that they do not acknowledge or teach the narrow way to life subject to persecution (vv.13-14; cf. Jer 8:11; Eze 13). (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[7] From a distance the little black berries on the buckthorn could be mistaken for grapes, and the flowers on certain thistles might deceive one into thinking figs were growing.

[8] “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Remember that from earlier in the same Sermon on the Mount?

[9] “Jesus subordinates the gifts of the Spirit to the fruit of the Spirit (compare 1 Cor 13) and submission to Jesus' lordship (1 Cor 12:1-3). Jesus' words about fruit thus refer to repentant works (Mt 7:21; 3:8, 10).” (IVP New Testament Commentary)

[10] This is not the fruit of righteousness. Lifestyle is.

[11] “The sand ringing the seashore on the Sea of Galilee was hard on the surface during the hot summer months. But a wise builder would dig down sometimes ten feet below the surface sand to the bedrock below, and there establish the foundation for his house. When the winter rains came, overflowing the banks of the Jordan River flowing into the sea, houses built on bedrock would be able to withstand the floods. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament)

[12] Elisha, the son of Abuja, said, "The man who studies much in the law, and maintains good works, is like to a man who built a house, laying stones at the foundation, and building brick upon them; and, though many waters come against it, they cannot move it from its place. But the man who studies much in the law, and does not maintain good words, is like to a man who, in building his house, put brick at the foundation, and laid stones upon them, so that even gentle waters shall overthrow that house."  (quoted by Adam Clarke)

[13] “The one who does the will of my Father…”

[14] “If you do not obey him, you will not know him… let me die insisting upon it, for my Lord insists upon it.”  - George McDonald

[15] Romans 8:29-30; 2 Corinthians 3:13-18

[16] “Without the gospel, we may obey the law, but we will learn to hate it. We will use it, but we will not truly love it. Only if we obey the law because we are saved, rather than to be saved, will we do so ‘for God’ (Galatians 2:19). Once we understand salvation-by-promise, we do not obey God any longer for our sake, by using the law-salvation-system to get things from God. Rather, we now obey God for His sake, using the law’s content to please and delight our Father.”  - Tim Keller

[17] Ray Stedman, https://www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/1-corinthians/the-lords-supper

Harmony #16: The Sabbath Was Made For Us (Matthew 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5)

At that time Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick some heads of wheat, rub them in their hands, and eat them.[1] But when some of the Pharisees saw this they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath.”

To be clear, the Old Testament does not prohibit this; the disciples were not farmers doing a harvest on the Sabbath. The Pharisees’ objections were based on an oral tradition that had grown in complexity over time.[2] Here we are, back to the old wineskins of tradition. This suggests we are going to learn something new about the Sabbath as opposed to how the Pharisees understood it.

Mark 2:25-26; Matthew 12:4-5 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry— how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, took and ate the sacred bread,[3] which is against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?  Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty?”

Jesus is using a Jewish hero to highlight a clear precedent in the Old Testament:  God’s laws were never meant to stop us from doing good or necessary things. In addition, the priests technically violated the Sabbath by working as they offered sacrifices and did other duties on the Sabbath (Num. 28:9, 10), yet they were considered blameless.[4]

At minimum, Jesus is pointing out that the Pharisees are not consistent with how they understand the Law. At maximum, they have badly missed the point and turned Sabbath observance into something God never intended for it to be.

Matthew 12:6-7; Mark 2:27-28” I tell you that something greater than the temple [Jesus and His Kingdom] [5] is here.If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

There was active debate in Judaism concerning how much a person was willing to sacrifice to give honor to God and his holy day. This went beyond the actual act animal sacrifice; this included how much one was willing to hurt: financially, emotionally, physically, etc. It was as if the most holy were the most self-deprived; the ones who were hurt the most by the Sabbath must understand it the best.

The Qumran community was more rigorous than most: “No one should help an animal give birth on the Sabbath day. And if he makes it fall into a well or a pit, he should not take it out on the Sabbath” (CD 11:13–14). Even if people fell into water, others were not to take them out by using a ladder or a rope or a utensil (CD 11:16–17).[6]

Jesus does not challenge the institution of the Sabbath; Jesus points out the actual intent of the Sabbath—to bring rest and well-being in the context of valuing mercy.[7] The Sabbath was given by God as a gift to us, but the Pharisees had made it a burden at best and a contest at worst.

Luke 6:6-11; Mark 3:1-7a; Matthew 12:9-15a On another Sabbath, after Jesus left that place, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. Now a man was there whose right hand was withered. The experts in the law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely, and asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so they could find a reason to accuse him.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Get up and stand here among all these people.” So he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good and heal on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?” But they were silent.

Jesus said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out?[8] How much more valuable is a person than a sheep![9] So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

After looking around at them all in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.[10] But the Pharisees, filled with mindless rage, went out immediately and began debating with one another, plotting with the Herodians against him, as to how they could assassinate him.

Jesus contends that the higher principle on the Sabbath is not abstaining from activity but doing good.[11] The Law has always been for our good and the good of others, to the glory of God. Should our understanding of the commands of God prevent us from flourishing as human beings bearing God’s image, or if our understanding of the Law hinders us from loving God or others well, we are misunderstanding his commands.

I want to take time today to talk about the implications of the Sabbath being made for us. I think the principle Jesus explains here holds true of all of God’s laws that describe righteous living. They are for us. They are intended to help us flourish as God designed us to flourish. The Old Wineskin of the Pharisees was that the yoke of the Law was a harsh burden; the New Wineskin is that the yoke of righteous living is a gift. 

Matthew places the two stories about the Sabbath immediately after Jesus told his disciples,

“My yoke is easy (xrestos,[12] “usefully kind”); my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)

Following Jesus means we are yoked with him into his service. It’s an image that a farming community would have understood. We are yoked with Jesus into the Law of Love that, when lived out, looks (in many ways) an awful lot like the moral[13] Law revealed in the Old Testament. While Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial and purity laws, he actually upped the expectations in the moral law[14] while simultaneously stressing it would be kind and easy. So, how does that work?

The Law was given within the context of the overall story of God’s work in the world. The story in which the Law appears begins with Creation, with a God of power and care and personality who pulls order from chaos, light from darkness, mankind from dust, who created a world and called it good.  Part of the goodness was seen in a world of boundaries:  the sea and land had their place; there was a difference between the plant and animal kingdom; there was another division between people and the rest of Creation.  God placed Adam and Eve in garden of paradise, but even that garden had boundaries. 

The goodness became corrupted, however, and the father and mother of humanity learned quickly what we all learn at some point in our lives:  Like everything else in God’s creation, we need boundaries, or we will destroy what is good within and around us.  

Jump ahead in the story of God to the Exodus of God’s chosen people from the land of bondage in Egypt.  It’s almost another creation event: a new nation arises from a land of bondage and spiritual darkness and moral chaos.  And once again, God gives boundaries. 

The story is not taking a new path.  The Old Testament laws given at Mount Sinai were an integral part of the ongoing revelation of a God who specializes in taking things that seem chaotic, and frightening, and oppressive, and making something new.  And that new thing always involves boundaries.

We see in Exodus the echoing of the a similar story line begun in Genesis: order from chaos; light from darkness; a good thing from a bad thing; a story that has continued throughout history, from the biggest of world events to the smallest of individual lives.  God does this over, and over, and over again. 

At Mount Sinai, he offered them a covenant as a groom to a bride. Exodus 24: 7 specifically says the Law was the “Book of the Covenant.”  This Covenant has been compared to a Hebrew marriage ceremony, like a prenuptial agreement that clarifies what our obligations are to God if we choose to covenant with him. The Hebrews would have recognized this as the ketubah, a legal document agreed upon and signed by both parties.  It was a comprehensive summary of the expectations of this covenant relationship explaining the kind of behavior that was consistent with covenant membership. The bride and groom were to be clear about what they were agreeing to enter into, and what it would take for this relationship to work. 

Some translations phrase this God-given ketubah, the Ten Commandments, as, “You will not recognize any other gods….you will not take the name of the Lord in vain…you will not kill. “  Future tense.  God seemed to be saying,  “If you want to covenant with me, this is what this covenant will look like.”  It was as if God, the groom, was saying,  “Do you, Israel, take me, to have and to hold, from the day on, for better…worse… rich…poor... in sickness and in health…”  And Israel responded, “We do.”

The Law was not given as a means of salvation, but as a gift from a gracious God to allow His people to know Him better and to flourish in their design and their relationship with God.

The Hebrew people embraced this revelation. It put ethical, Godly living directly within reach of the most ordinary of people. David places the law alongside Creation as one of the great declarations of God:

“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. 
The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. They are more precious than gold, they are sweeter than honey…” (Psalm 19:7-10)

Think of this maybe as an instruction manual. They come with almost everything you buy if it has any complexity at all. “Use it this way and things will go well; use it that way and you will break it and probably whatever it is you are working on.”                                                              

The Israelites were called to live a particular way that, when understood and lived rightly, would bring wisdom, joy, and insight. In addition to this individual benefit, keeping Law was a means of showing the character of God to the rest of the world (Duet. 4:5-8):

“ See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."  What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?”

Jesus himself made clear in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) the power of obedient living as a means of evangelism. Jesus told his audience:

“You are the light of the world… let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.”

Immediately, he follows that up with this:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place… 19  whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

When righteous deeds follow transformed hearts, people will see those good works and glorify God. Love-inspired obedience is a fantastic witness to the goodness and wisdom of God. God’s revelation of Himself and His way was always meant to benefit the world, not just the individuals who love and follow Him.

• Because God was compassionate, they were to show compassion.

• Because God was generous, they were to be generous.

• Because God forgave them, they were to forgive others.

• Because God loved them, they were to love their spouse or kids or neighbors.

Righteous actions and godly living was never reduced merely to what one person’s life looked like; it was always understood in the context of community and the world. How will our Godly or ungodly decisions effect the world around us? Will it bring order or chaos? Life or death?

Time after time, the Old Testament showed that if the people forgot God and went after other gods, their society would be characterized by injustice, oppression, cruelty and excess. The principle is one that transcends times and cultures: If you choose the wrong God, you get the wrong society. This pattern seems clear in world history.

• When our gods are constantly at war, we generally turn to  violence for problem-solving; we see those who have the ability to be effectively and proficiently violent as heroes.

• When our gods are all about sex, we tend to associate “the good life” with good sex and base our identity/worth in our sexiness (the degree to which others desire us).

• When we worship gods of wealth, the only “good life” is the rich life, and greed and exploitation flourish as we willingly sacrifice those around us in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

• When we worship gods of luxury, we associate comfort and pleasure with the “good life,” and we demand these things as a right as we order our lives around them.

• When we worship gods of power, we will loved manipulation and control above all else and see the acquisition of power as the answer to the world’s problems as well as our own.

• When we worship gods of freedom/independence, we eventually demanded radical unaccountability to anyone but ourselves so that we can “do that which is right in our own eyes.”[15]

  The god you choose will be reflected in the culture, because the people’s priorities always reflect the priorities of their gods. Here are a few examples to make my point.

1. In many of the cultures surrounding the Hebrews, possessions were of more worth than human life. One’s life was forfeit for theft or property damage; if the people wanted a good crop harvest, they killed other people. Gods of corn and stone idols required the elevation of corn and stone, not the people around them.  Not in Israel.  Possessions never were more important than life, because one of those things was created in the image of God, and it wasn’t the property.  So theft required restitution, not death; bad crops were never cause to kill people (or anything). If you choose the wrong God, you get the wrong set of cultural priorities.

2. The French Revolution was a decidedly atheistic, humanistic attempt to change the world.  Voltaire, one of the fathers of the movement, had a statue of Diana, the Goddess of Reason in his home.  The results were disastrous. When Madame Roland was brought to the guillotine in 1792 on false charges, she bowed mockingly toward the statue of liberty in Place de la Revolution and said, “Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name.”[16] If you choose the wrong God, you destroy liberty and freedom.

3. Hitler, ironically, referred to the law given to the Jewish nation as the “life-denying 10 Commandments.”  In the process of trying to eradicate the chosen people of the “tyrannical God” whose commands robbed people of life, he experimented on and slaughtered millions of people he considered sub-human. The legacy of Nazi eugenics and racism has lived on around the world in many terrible ways over the decades since, always at the expense of the value, dignity and too often the life of people. If you choose the wrong God, you get a false view of the value of human life.

4. Alfred Kinsey, who has set the tone of sexual discussion in the 1950’s, viewed humans not as people who bore God’s image, but as little more than animals. When he researched human sexuality, he expected to find that people behaved like animals, and (surprise!) he did. Perhaps that is why the closing credits in the 2004 film “Kinsey,” a film meant to celebrate the man who liberated us from all the old-fashioned Jude-Christian prudishness about sex, show nature films of animals copulating in the background. If you choose the wrong God, you get a false view of sexuality.

This list could go on and on. How we feel about God has implications far beyond living a personally ethical life and feeling good about our decisions.  Worship has a ripple effect. Nothing exists in a vacuum, especially our moral choices. 

Perhaps that is why there is an order to the commands:  The first four are about God, the last six about people. If you begin with a correct view of God, you end with a correct view of people. It’s the same order Jesus gave:  “Love the Lord…love your neighbors.” As Lauren Winner notes inReal Sex:

“The Mosaic law does…protective work, pointing to, guarding, and returning God’s people to the created order, the world as God meant it to be…To see the Biblical witness as an attempt to direct us to the created order…is to recognize the true goodness of God’s creation…the law cares for us and protects us, written by a lawgiver who understands that life outside of God’s created intent destroys us.  Life lived inside the contours of God’s law harmonizes us and makes us beautiful.  It makes us creatures living well in the created order.  It gives us the opportunity to become who we are meant to be.”

Just as the Sabbath was made to serve us, God’s righteous boundaries serve us as an instruction manual from the Creator that shows what is good. It gives us the opportunity to become, with God’s help, the kind of faithfully present image bearers He intends for us to be.

If I would call you to something this morning, it’s this: Remember that the Creator’s ‘owners manual’ about who you are and how you are designed to live is for our good. It is for us.  Obedience does not in itself bring us salvation; that work was done by Jesus on the cross. Being yoked with Jesus into living out the Law of Love is God’s design for us to find and to bring flourishing life to the world, for our good and the glory of the One who has shown us what it means to truly live.

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[1] At least one Galilean, Rabbi Yehuda, was in agreement with Jesus and permitted rubbing grain in the hands on the Sabbath. This may be an example of a rift between Galilean rabbis and Jerusalem rabbis. (NIV First Century Study Bible)

[2] ESV Reformation Study Bible

[3] Twelve loaves of bread were baked and placed in the tabernacle each Sabbath as an offering. The bread was to be eaten by the priests (Lev. 24:5–9). (ESV Global Study Bible)

[4] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[5] So what is the “something  greater than the temple”?

· It’s Jesus, Immanuel (“God with us”), is the true temple, to whom the symbol pointed (John 1:14; 2:21).. Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath fulfills all aspects of the meaning of the Sabbath (Col. 2:16, 17).[5]

·The kingdom of God.[5] The Sabbath is a symbol of God’s sovereignty over the whole created universe (Ex. 20:8). It is a reminder of His redemption of His people (Deut. 5:12), and it is a representation of the hope of eternal rest that begins spiritually now and extends into eternity

· Both. It’s the kingdom Jesus is inaugurating as the one who ushers in the Messianic Age.  (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[6] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament

[7] ESV Global Study Bible

[8] The Dead Sea Scrolls community specifically prohibited removing an animal from a pit on the Sabbath. It’s possible Jesus was directly challenging their interpretation. (NIV First Century Study Bible)

[9] Jesus seems to have been employing a rabbinic teaching technique called qal v’homer (“light then heavy”). This system of logic pitted one idea against another by using the phrase “how much more.” (Ibid)

[10] It is worthy of remark, that as the man was healed with a word, without even a touch, the Sabbath was unbroken, even according to their most rigid interpretation of the letter of the law. (Adam Clarke)

[11] NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible

[12] Fun fact: It "appears as a spelling variant for the unfamiliar Christus (Xristos).” (HELPS Word Studies) 

[13] Largely distinct from ceremonial and purity laws….sermon for another time.

[14] From Matthew 5: 21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment… 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart….38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person... 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighborand hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

[15] Judges 21:25

[16] Peter had to warn the new church pretty quickly: “Don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.” (1 Peter 2:16)

Approach God Boldly (1 John 3:18-24)

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth.

 Our obedience will reassure our hearts whenever our hearts condemn us. Because God is greater than our heart, we therefore (in the consciousness that we are of the truth) shall calm our hearts before God, however much our heart may accuse us.[1] (Remember that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything including everything in our hearts). 

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and can approach him with boldness; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 

 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. (1 John 3:18-24) 

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This is a notoriously confusing passage of Scripture when it comes to understanding a) how and why our hearts condemn us (false guilt or real guilt), b) what it means that God is bigger than our hearts (should this worry us or comfort us?), and c) what it means that we can ask for anything and get it. So, here we go.  

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. By this[2] we shall know that we are of the truth, and our obedience will reassure our hearts[3] before him whenever our hearts condemn us.[4] Because God is greater than our hearts[5], we therefore (in the consciousness that we are of the truth) shall calm our hearts before God, however much our heart may accuse us. (Remember that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything, including our hearts)[6]. 

When John wrote earlier (2:28-4:6) about how we can be confident, he said to "continue in Jesus" and "do what is right" (2:29; 3:7, 10), which is shown primarily by our love for others. Now he addresses what to do when our hearts (conscience) condemn us.  There are at least two possibilities for what John means.[7]  

#1. We could read this as our conscience is highlighting our genuinely wrong actions or inactions.[8] If that’s the case, our commitment to (not our perfection of) living in obedience to God’s truth is meant to reassure us. 

“A Christian’s heart burdened with a sense of its own unworthiness forms an unfavourable opinion of the state of the soul, pronounces against its salvation. If we are conscious of practically loving the brethren, we can [see] this as evidence of the contrary, and give the heart ground to change its opinion, and to reassure itself.”[9]

This usage suggests our hearts are telling us we did something wrong, but the pattern of our life (not all the particulars), is intended to reassure us of our commitment (not our perfection).

#2. Other commentaries see it as closer to the idea of us beating ourselves up unfairly when we fail. Self-condemnation can be brutal. If that is the case, then John is talking about that insidious voice of despair and condemnation that keeps whispering, “God doesn’t want you. You failed again. You just aren’t good enough to deserve love or respect. Why keep trying? Maybe you should quit.”  Even though imperfection is to be expected on this side of heaven, it’s easy to run with the fact that we have fallen short of it and run ourselves into the ground. 

Either way, we must remember that God knows everything.

Because God is superior to our consciences in being omniscient, we may (when our love is sincere and fruitful), persuade our consciences before Him to acquit us. Our consciences through imperfect knowledge may be either too strict[10] or too easy[11] with us: God cannot be either, for He knows and weighs all… He is a more perfect judge than our heart can be.[12]

When John writes that God knows our hearts, he doesn’t just mean the good parts even we don’t see. He means even the bad parts we don’t see. I mean, our proper sense of guilt and/or our self-condemnation probably only scratches the surface. 

I believe John intends it to be both sobering and comforting in that the worst that is in us is known to God, and still He cares for us and loves us as His children. Our discovery has been an open secret to Him all along. But God sees more: God sees into depths even we have not dared to explore. 

I was talking with a guy who works in surgery, and he was telling me how people under certain kinds of anesthesiology will act out in a way that shows the real them. It’s like the drugs take away all the veils, and the real them emerges. They may swear like sailors, or flirt with the nurses, or just be chill.  ‘The deep’ emerges. 

I came out of the anesthesia of knee surgery once fighting with everyone. They had to restrain me. When they told me, the doctor said, “Have you been under stress?” Yep. That’s apparently a typical response. I have never been in a fight in my life, but something violent was nesting inside of me.

Perhaps it is that kind of image John is tapping into when he reminds us that God knows everything about our hearts - and he still loves us and calls us His child. We beat ourselves up for the failures that lie on the surface; God sees what is deep down in his soul and does not beat us up for it. He works to clean us up as an act of love, not condemnation.[13] He bore upon himself the weight of our condemnation so we don’t have to.

As the guys at Southside Rabbi pointed out in their last episode,[14] Jesus experienced what we experience in life, but there is one thing he experienced that his followers will never have to: the wrath of God falling on a person for their sin.[15] We partly know ourselves and loathe ourselves; God fully knows us and fully loves us.

“He knows all things; on the one hand the light and grace against which we have sinned, on the other the reality of our repentance and our love. It was to this infallible omniscience that S. Peter appealed, in humble distrust of his own feeling and judgment; ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you’ (John 21:17).[16]

I think this translation from the Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges captures all of this discussion well. 

‘By loving our brethren in deed and truth we come to know that we are God’s children and have His presence within us, and are enabled to meet the disquieting charges of conscience. For, if conscience condemns us, its verdict is neither infallible nor final. We may still appeal to the omniscient God, whose love implanted within us is a sign that we are not condemned and rejected by Him.’

* * * * * 

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and can approach him with boldness; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 

This is the goal: to approach the throne of God with boldness. When we believe we are under the cloud of condemnation from ourselves or from God, we will not be bold. We will want to hide.

 As a kid, I remember that when I disobeyed my parents, I would hide. When my disobedience was known and dealt with, I didn’t. In fact, it was often freeing. A weight was gone. I think this might be the idea. 

What if we lived every moment in the freedom of knowing that nothing is hidden from God? There is no reason to try to hide something on the way to the cross. There is no reason not to be honest about our sins as a child of God. God already knows. He still loves us.  

How is it possible that we can approach God with this kind of boldness? 

• First, believing in Jesus Christ, that the death of God incarnate has saved us from the punishment we deserve, and that by committing our lives to him we can have eternal life that begins now and carries on (John 3:16-18). This is characterized by becoming more and more like Jesus.

• Second, committing to keeping his commands: Love God and love others. Love is the expression of true faith.[17] This is not about perfection; it’s about direction. What is our trajectory?

• Third, if our hearts (rightly) bring us godly sorrow or (unfairly) condemn us, we remember that God knows even worse things about us than we do; He anticipated it; He took care of it; He loves us more strongly than we can imagine. 

Now, he’s going to deal with us as a loving Father, which means a) there might be practical consequences we can’t avoid, and b) he’s going to love us too much to let us stay untransformed in that sin. But we didn’t surprise him. We didn’t suddenly go, “God, I don’t think you know this about me, but…” Nope. He brought us into His family knowing we would be at this point before we did. Be bold before God.

Now, about that “getting what you want.” 

This isn’t a formula for God becoming a cosmic Pez dispenser for our every whim. John is clear: if our will aligns with God’s will, when we ask what we will we are asking God to do what He already wills.  

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” (Romans 8:5)

"Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

So, let’s say we are at a place where we approach God boldly. And let’s say we request something that is just not what God has in mind. We know what follows thanks to the disciples. Mark records the following story (Mark 10: 35-45).

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.  They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”  “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”  

“We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.  

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Okay, kudos to the disciples for boldness. Notice Jesus doesn’t smack them down. He patiently explains that (like so many things we pray) they have no idea what they are asking. There is lot that will happen on the way to fulfilling that prayer request that is beyond their ability to know. As one country song notes, sometimes we should thank God for unanswered prayer. More importantly, that request did not align with God’s will.  

And then he teaches them how to ask for something in his will: Don’t ask for power and prestige in the eyes of people. Ask to be a servant. Ask how you might give your life for others. THAT’S a prayer that’s always in God’s will. This is the secret to powerful prayer: praying what is in God’s will to grant.

“To keep His commandments is to abide in Him. It is to live in close, vital intimacy with the Savior. When we are thus in fellowship with Him, we make His will our own will. By the Holy Spirit, He fills us with the knowledge of His will. In such a condition, we would not ask for anything outside the will of God. When we ask according to His will, we receive from Him the things we ask for.”[18] 

* * * * *  

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. (1 John 3:18-24)

While the Jewish community tended to think of the presence of the  Spirit as rare; Christians began teaching that God gave his Spirit as an indwelling presence to all of his children (Acts 2.17–18; Romans 5:5; 8:14-16).[19] Whereas before, God’s people would have asked the Holy Spirit to show up, now they simply thanked him for being present within them.  

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave [us] the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”

Ephesians 1:13-14  “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.”

 John 14:15-18 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

Romans 8:15-16  “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

 Acts 5:32 “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him."[20] 

Meanwhile the Old Testament told us what the Spirit of God would do (and this brings us back to what John has been writing about for this entire chapter):

"And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:27)

Bede paraphrases with a phrase I really like: “Let God be a home to thee, and be thou a home of God.”[21]

 That’s a fine goal for 2021.

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[1] Translation suggested by Meyer’s NT Commentary

[2] “The construction and punctuation of what follows is doubtful; also the reading in the first and second clauses of 1 John 3:20. Certainty is not attainable, and to give all possible variations of reading and rendering would take up too much space. The conclusions adopted here are given as good and tenable, but not as demonstrably right.” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Theology) 

[3] kardía – heart; "the affective center of our being" and the capacity of moral preference (volitional desire, choice); "desire-producer that makes us tick" i.e our "desire-decisions" that establish who we really are. (HELPS Word Studies)

[4] “Accuse us with unfavorable prejudice.” (Vincent’s Word Studies)

[5] “A more perfect judge of our hearts than we are.”  (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[6] See 1 Chronicles 28:9. “He knows all things; on the one hand the light and grace against which we have sinned, on the other the reality of our repentance and our love. It was to this infallible omniscience that S. Peter appealed, in humble distrust of his own feeling and judgment; ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee’ (John 21:17). It is the reality and activity of our love (1 John 3:18-19) which gives us assurance under the accusations of conscience.” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)  “God is greater than our heart. It is asked whether this means that he is more merciful or more rigorous. Neither the one nor the other. It means that, although our conscience is not infallible, God is. Our hearts may be deceived; he cannot be. He knoweth all things. An awful thought for the impenitent, a blessed and encouraging thought for the penitent, He knows our sins; but he also knows our temptations, our struggles, our sorrow, and our love. 1 John 3:20”  (Pulpit Commentary)

[7] “The old controversy is, whether God is called greater than our heart as forgiving or as judging; the former is the view of Thomas Angl., Luther, Bengel, Morus, Russmeyer, Spener, Noesselt, Steinhofer, Rickli, Baumgarten-Crusius, Sander, Besser, Düsterdieck, Erdmann, Myrberg, Ewald, Brückner, Braune, etc.; the latter is the view of Calvin, Beza, Socinus, Grotius, a Lapide, Castalio, Hornejus, Estius, Calovius, Semler, Lücke, Neander, Gerlach, de Wette, Ebrard, etc.”  (Meyer’s NT Commentary)

[8] If that’s the case “condemnation” is another way of saying “godly sorrow that leads to repentance.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) The only other time this word is used outside of this passage is by Paul in Galatians 2, where he “condemns” Peter in Antioch because of something Peter did wrong. This is a different word than we Paul uses in Romans when he talks about “no condemnation” for those in Christ (Romans 8:1). That has to do with the results of doing something wrong, not if someone did something wrong or not.

[9] Quoted in Cambridge Bible Commentary

[10] The danger of Option B. It is sooo easy to see ourselves more severely than we should.

[11] The danger of Option A. It is sooo easy to give ourselves a pass and see ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3). 

[12] Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges 

[13] Good insights from the Expositor’s Greek New Testament reflected in this section.

[14] Season 2 Episode 12: “Floyd, Chauvin, and the War On Empathy.”

[15] 2 Corinthians 5 - 19 It is central to our good news that God was in the Anointed making things right between Himself and the world. This means He does not hold their sins against them….21 He orchestrated this: the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God.”

[16] Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges

[17] HT Believer’s Bible Commentary

[18] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[19] NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

[20] I understand this to mean that the act of obedience which inaugurates the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is surrendering our lives to the lordship of Jesus and acknowledging the saving nature of his death on the cross (salvation); this verse and others seem to at least suggest that the expression of the Holy Spirit’s power (not presence!) and the abundance of fruit in our lives is in some sense associated with our commitment to obedience.

[21] The sign what we have arrived at this divine housing arrangement is a commitment to obedience (1 John 1:6, 1 John 2:4; 1 John 2:6; 1 John 2:29, 1 John 3:6-7; 1 John 3:9). And that obedience is made possible by the Holy Spirit, the ‘life’ of God dwelling in us, His children.

Keeping Yourselves In The Love Of God (Jude 1:14-19)

Jude’s been warning about false teachers and describing how to recognize them. Here is his summary – and the turn toward a hope-filled ending to a letter that has been pretty sobering so far. 

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others with empty words[1] for their own advantage.[2]

 We are getting to a summary: notice Jude’s reference again to both words and acts that characterize false teachers.

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

 So, we have been in the “last times” for 2,000 years, and all this time we have had to resist being divided in the church by those in the church whose words and action do not reflect the indwelling and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in the object of your most holy faith[3] and praying in the Holy Spirit,21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

 Here’s the turn: after a letter filled with dire warning about the disease in their midst, Jude offers the cure. 

·      We use different, holy words -  truth that build on the foundation of Jesus.

·      We follow different, holy paths -  righteousness that unite us.

·      We have a different, holy hope – the mercy of Christ stretching into eternity

How to keep yourself in God’s love. 

In this passage, Jude is not telling the believers that they have to keep themselves saved. He begins and ends this letter with a reminder that God is our keeper: 

“Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus the Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus the Christ.” (Jude 1:1)[4] 

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy…” (Jude 1:24)

A translator named Wuest translates verse 21 a follows: "With watchful care keep yourselves within the sphere of God's love." In other words, Jude seems to be saying, "keep yourself in the place where you experience in this life the blessing that God's love brings." I’ve talked before about we invest sweat equity so that we experience the fullness of life in the Kingdom. I think this is the idea here. William MacDonald writes, 

"The love of God can be compared to sunshine. The sun is always shining. But when something comes between us and the sun, we are no longer in the sunshine." [5]

It’s as if we have our own cloud generating machine. Calvin is famous for saying that the human heart is a “perpetual idol factory.” Maybe we leave perpetual chem trails too. The sun won’t stop shining, but we can put something between us and it’s warmth and light. If you have ever flown when it’s cloudy, it’s the difference between life under the cloud cover vs. breaking into the sunlight that was always there. 

So, how do we experience the fullness of blessings in the sphere of the warmth of the love of God? How do we stay in the sunlight of the Son? We walk in obedience to His revealed will. The writers of Scripture tell us this over and over again. 

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” 1 John 5:3 

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) 

"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me… and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (John 14:21) 

"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:10)

 When we remain obedient, we not only demonstrate our love for God, we abide in the love of God. We live in the love of God, and God discloses or reveals himself to us. I don’t think this means the kind of revelation Paul had on the road to Damascus, because Paul was not living in obedience to God. I think it means we begin to understand the heart of God when we order our lives in alignment with the heart of God. 

• My wife and I didn’t understand the joy of tithing until we started to tithe. It was counterintuitive to think that giving  away money that was already tight was going to feel like abundant life, and yet it does. Now we understand more why God loves generosity, and why he wants His children to be generous. 

• “Do not forsake gathering together.” The more I have watched and experienced that in this church both in person and virtually, the more I understand why it’s so important to God for His children to do life together even when it’s really hard. When honesty, transparency, truth, boldness, love, grace, repentance, forgiveness, humility, and service all “click”, it brings tears to my eyes. I remember how Ted would tear up when talk about how much he loved the church. I thought at the time, “I mean, I love the church and all, but you are really emotional.” Now I get it. God is disclosing his heart to me through obedience.  

•  Jesus said the following in Matthew 5: 44-48 -  “Love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you— in so doing, you become children of your Father in heaven. He, after all, loves each of us—good and evil, kind and cruel. He causes the sun to rise and shine on evil and good alike. He causes the rain to water the fields of the righteous and the fields of the sinner.  It is easy to love those who love you—even a tax collector can love those who love him. And it is easy to greet your friends—even outsiders do that! But you are called to something higher…” What happens if I do that???? God discloses Himself to me. I begin to understand his heart for the fallen, broken people for whom He gave his life. 

Obedience clears the cloud cover so we live in the full warmth and light of the “sunshine” of His love.

1. Build your foundation in/on the object of your faith. I’m not going to go into detail on this point this morning. We spent 8 weeks last fall going through our statement of faith, which began by focusing on the object of our faith: the triune God –Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I encourage you to revisit that.

 I will note this: Jude is pointing us toward the object of our faith, not our feelings of faith. We often hear conversation about how strong our faith is, or how to build our faith, and it’s often us-centered. By that, I mean it focuses on how we can alter ourselves to have more faith. Jude is pointing us toward the object of our faith. If I am understanding his point correctly, strong faith follows from appreciating the strength of the One in whom we have put our faith.

I was working on a house this week with someone else’s ladder. I’ll be honest - I wasn’t sure about this ladder. It was really light-weight, and well traveled. Plus, when I leaned it against the house, I was on a hill, so one side of the top didn’t even touch the house when I started up. My faith was not strong. The good news – it was fine. However, trying to “drum up” faith in that ladder would have been a little foolish. It just wasn’t the kind of ladder that deserved too much faith. However, I’ve used ladders I could barely move because they were built so solidly. I put them on level ground. My faith was strong. My anxiety was low. It’s a whole different experience.  

This is why, when we struggle of feel spiritually faint, we always look to Jesus. The more we see Him for who He is, the more our faith grows. 

2. Pray with the help of the Holy Spirit. The false teachers “follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit,” which suggests to me a contrast in the next paragraph: Don’t be like that. Pray with and for holy instincts guided by the Holy Spirit. (By the way, this language in Jude is different from other places where the Bible mentions praying in a prayer language. Think of Jude’s discussion here as being about prayer as a fruit of the Spirit rather than a gift of the Spirit. Two different discussions).  

“Only inasmuch as you know that God is your Father can you pray with intimacy rather than with religious ritual. Part of what it means to pray in the Spirit, therefore, is to pray with the help of the Holy Spirit who is constantly reminding you of your position as heir of God. You’re God’s child and, as such, you’re a co-heir with Christ. You can pray with the power of a child of God to a perfect Father.” – Alan Wright 

“To pray in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and worship in the Spirit (‘in Spirit and in truth,’ John 4:24) is to come before the Lord according to His appointed means—that is through the One whom the Spirit magnifies, the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:26-27), depending on His revealed Word and pleading as a lesser creature to our glorious Creator.” (Michael Milton, “What Is Praying In The Spirit?” christianity.com) 

“By a principle of grace derived from him, and by his enlightening, quickening, sanctifying, and comforting influences, showing you what blessings you may and ought to pray for, inspiring you with sincere and fervent desires after those blessings, and enabling you to offer these desires to God in faith, with gratitude for the blessings which you have already received.” – Benson Commentary 

“‘Praying in the Holy Ghost’-that is to say, prayer which is not mere utterance of my own petulant desires which a great deal of our ‘ prayer’ is, but which is breathed into us by that Divine Spirit that will brood over our chaos, and bring order out of confusion, and light and beauty out of darkness, and weltering sea.” – MacLaren’s Expositions

It’s prayer…

·      confident in my identity as a child approaching a perfect Father

·      focused on Jesus

·      inspired to pray for what God desires rather than what I want

·      remembering that the one whose Spirit moved over the chaos of Genesis 1 will move over the chaos of this world and bring light, beauty and life.

3. Wait/look for the fulfillment of the mercy of Jesus Christ. This is a future of eternal life, not eternal death.  

·      "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."– 1 John 5:11

·      " He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."– John 5:24

·      “We rest in this hope we’ve been given—the hope that we will live forever with our God—the hope that He proclaimed ages and ages ago (even before time began).” Titus 1:1-2 

Keep yourself in God’s love – clear the cloud cover so that you can live in the unwavering light and warmth of God’s love, mercy and salvation.  

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

Pray in tune with the heart of God, and walk in the path of righteousness revealed in 

Scripture with the help of the inspiration and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit.

Never forget the New Heaven and Earth that awaits those who are covered in His mercy.

THREE QUESTIONS

1. So, God keeps us in His love even as we keep ourselves in God’s love. Hmmm. It seems like we could become overly passive or overly driven if we embrace one side without the other. Talk about living in this tension.

2. The idea that obedience keeps us in the love of God can sound like legalism. How do we offer obedience as an act of loving worship without being caught up in thinking we are earning God’s love or salvation? .

3. In a practical sense, how might “praying in the Spirit” as described here change how you approach prayer? If you are already taking this approach, how have you noticed it reorienting your life or your walk with God?
   _________________________________________________________________________

[1] This parallels a passage in 2 Peter: “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness…” (2:18).” 

[2] Like the false teachers in the Corinthian church who called themselves “super-apostles” and were just ridiculously full of themselves (2 Corinthians 11:5; 12:11; 3:1; 10:13-18; 11:12,18; 4:5; 5:12; 11:20). 

[3] “Both the adjective and the verb show that πίστις is here meant not in a subjective (the demeanour of faith…) but in an objective sense (… “appropriated by them indeed as their personal possession, yet according to its contents…” - Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

[4] " Holy Father, keep them in Your name...” (John 17:11)

[5] Thanks to David Curtis, at bereanbiblechurch.org, for a helpful article.