Who do I owe my thankfulness?

The New Testament book of Philemon isn't the longest of the Bible. It has just one short chapter. But reading it this morning as part of my 5 by 5 by 5 devotion time gave me plenty of material for consideration and prayer.

Philemon was a wealthy leader of the first-century church, probably in Colossae. His slave, Onesimus, also a Christian, ran away from Philemon and ended up helping the apostle Paul, then being held prisoner in Rome for his faith in Christ. Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon accompanied by this short letter.

Paul is very shrewd here (and elsewhere). He never overtly advocates the end of the Roman slavery system, but he asks Philemon to no longer treat Onesimus as he would a slave, but as a brother in Christ, an equal in the eyes of God, differing from Philemon not in status but only in function.

Paul even offers to compensate Philemon for any financial damage caused by Onesimus running away. Then, he takes the extraordinary step--taken in only a few of his letters--of actually taking the pen from his amanuensis (the secretary to whom he was dictating this correspondence) to write the pledge himself:

I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. [Then this amazing statement:] I say nothing about you owing me even your own self. (v. 19)

Christians believe that they have been saved from sin and death and given new and everlasting life by the grace of God given to all who trust in Jesus Christ as God, the only One Who can give forgiveness of sins and life from God. We're right to give thanks and praise to God alone for this great gift.

But no one comes to faith in Christ or to a growing, consoling, empowering faith in Christ, in a vacuum. No one wakes up one morning and says, "I believe in Christ." And no one's faith deepens without the help of mentors and friends in Christ.

There has to be someone--usually many someones--who share Christ with us. Otherwise, the human default mode, being to go it alone and to be our own gods without accountability to anyone else, we would never know about Christ and the forgiveness of sin and new life given to all who trust in this crucified and risen Savior.

As Paul puts it elsewhere:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14)

God saves people for eternal life with God through their faith in Christ. But God commissions people--people who gave perfect witness to Him on the pages of Scripture, Christians who share their imperfect lives and the perfect good news about Jesus with friends and family, and others--to "preach," proclaim, teach, and give away their best friend and Lord Jesus to others.

This morning, I'm taking Paul's words to Philemon as words to me.

I'm taking the time to think about all of the people to whom I owe my eternal life because, in the power of God's Holy Spirit, they took and they take the time to share the life of Jesus with me. This includes people from my past and people from my present.

I'm taking the time to name each one before the Lord and to thank Him for their witness.

I'm offering a special prayer for those who are witnesses for Christ in my life right now, asking God to bless and protect them and their families and to help them sense His loving arms around them today.

I'm also offering prayers of thanksgiving for those now with the Lord in eternity, the sainted dead, whose witness for Christ has built up my faith in Christ--people like Martha S, Bruce S, Ron C, Karen H, Great Grandma Henry,  Uncle Carl and Aunt Betty, and Sarah S, to name just a few. I'm asking God, as I pray, to give them special embraces symbolic of my thankfulness to them and to remind them that I so look forward to seeing them again soon. My hope for eternity is one I possess because they and others have faithfully shared Christ with me and prayed to God the Father in Christ's name for me. How can I not be filled with thanksgiving?

It's not a bad idea to thank God for the people to whom we owe our connection to Christ, the life-giver. You may want to do so sometime today too.

A Verse to Remember

For my 5 by 5 by 5 devotion time (and yes, I am way behind schedule) this morning, I read Colossians, chapter 2. I was so struck my Colossians 2:6-7 that I decided to commit to memorizing it. Now, I pray God will help me to live it.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Now I need to check if I got it right. This is from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation. 

I mentioned this passage today on Facebook and explained my motivation for memorizing Scripture: "...I've decided that if my memory ever goes, I want some of God's Word to be lodged in [what's left]..."

Philippians 4:13 (a 5 by 5 by 5 Reflection)

Today’s 5 by 5 by 5 reading was Philippians 4. Philippians 4:13 is an obvious focus: “I can do all things through Him [the Lord] Who strengthens me.”

I have often used this verse and heard this verse used to encourage Christians, including myself, that Christ can take us through adversity. I still think that’s an appropriate reading and one that’s true to the context in which it falls.

But it’s interesting to consider that context. Paul is writing to the Christian church at Philippi. This church seems to have its spiritual/faith life act together and Paul thanks them and rejoices in the Lord for what he sees as a revived concern and material support for him by the Philippian Christians.

But then, he says: “Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.” Then he presents these couplets:

“I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.

“...I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.”

That’s when he says: “I can do all things through Him [the Lord] Who strengthens me.”

Paul says that there’s a secret not only in knowing how to get through circumstances like having little and being hungry, but also a secret to knowing how to get through having plenty and being well-fed.

And, it seems to be the same secret: trusting in the Lord to help us endure “in all things.”

It seems to me that Paul is saying that there are peculiar spiritual dangers both in plenty and in  poverty. Each circumstance and every other in between have the potential to lure us away from dependence on the God Who “is the giver of every good and perfect gift,” tempting us to go our own way (James 1:17; Judges 17:6; 21:25).

In poverty, we may be tempted to give up on God’s will to provide and be prone to pursuing other gods.

In wealth, we may be tempted to give up on God because our plenty deludes us into thinking that it’s all ours by birthright or because we’ve worked so hard for it. We or our achievements or our money can become our gods.

This can probably also apply to the other ways in life in which we can experience plenty or need: happiness or its lack in our relationships; fulfillment or its lack in our careers; good or poor health; anger or acceptance toward our physical health; and so on.

At times, I seem to fluctuate between resentment and smugness toward God, life, and other people. And, in it all, God can be forgotten, blamed, or consigned to spectator status.

But Paul says that he has “learned to be content with whatever I have.” This isn’t resignation or fatalism. In verse 8, he tells the Philippian Christians: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

I love the way that entire verse is phrased! Being content wherever you are at a particular moment does not mean resignation to the circumstance always remaining the same. Instead, Paul says not to worry about it. Don’t stew. Don’t obsess over what you perceive yourself to lack. (In fact, we’re to occupy our minds with other thoughts and occupy our lives with the activities of disciples, he says in verses 8-9.) Instead, take all your requests to God, take your vision of how your life or the lives of those for whom you pray could be better…”let your requests be made known to God.” Do this with “thanksgiving,” with thankfulness for how God has already blessed believers, especially in the forgiveness of our sins and in the promise of our resurrection through our faith in Christ. Paul says that when we do this, even as we still lack the the things for which we pray, God’s peace, a state of being that is insusceptible to scientific analysis, will fill us and keep us close to Christ, through Whom we have life and peace and hope.

There are many things for which I pray. I find that as I pray for them with an attitude of thankfulness and praise, I can live with their lack. Maybe God will one day teach me that some of the things I pray for are things that I don’t need; He’s done that with me in the past. But maybe, as I learn to be content with the incredible blessings God has already given to me, I will be spiritually ready to handle the things for which I pray. I can receive them with thankfulness, knowing Who has given them and that these blessings aren’t mine because I deserve them, or because I’ve earned them, or because I’ve acquired them by the force of my effort or my personality. They are gifts from God alone.

In the meantime, I can be content and thankful for being a child of God, happy to be set free from sin and death through Christ, thankful that in all circumstances, God empowers me to do all things, including loving God, loving and serving my neighbor, and sharing Christ with those who need Him as much as I do.

God, even as I make my requests known to You, help me to be content in the circumstance in which I find myself and to be about the mission You have given all who trust in Christ: loving God, loving others, serving in Christ’s Name, making disciples. In Christ I pray. Amen

Matthew 7:1, 15 (A 5 by 5 by 5 Reflection)

In Matthew 7:1, Jesus says: "Do not juge that you may not be judged."

He goes on to illustrate His point by warning us about seeing the speck in our neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in our own. Before you dare remove the speck from someone else, remove the log that's obscuring your own vision, Jesus is telling us.

This passage is often seen as a command from Jesus for His followers to remain placidly indifferent to the behaviors of others. (Or even of ourselves.) When we try to warn friends or family members of the destructiveness of their behaviors--behaviors destructive either to themselves, to others, or to their relationship with God--the first line of defense is usually, "Don't judge me" or, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."

Some Christians clearly have a bad habit of being judgmental, harshly judging the behaviors or motives of others while regarding themselves as models of purity for whom sin is a past reality. In doing so, they disregard the Bible they claim is important to them. Jesus' words here have direct application to them...and to me, when I fall into such judgmental patterns.

But does Jesus want us to avoid making any judgments?

Here, the interpretive principle of letting Scripture interpret Scripture becomes important.

In Matthew 7:15, Jesus warns Christians about false prophets, people who come to us "in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Inherent in that admonition is the call on Christians to make some judgments about questions like:

• Does this person speaking in Christ's name seem to be speaking the truth based on God's truth source, the Bible?
• Though no human being not conceived by the Holy Spirit (everyone but Jesus, in other words) is sinless or perfectly consistent in matching their words and values with their actions and lives, do the differences between this person's words and actions scream hypocrisy?
• Is this person advocating teachings or actions that are at odds with the Bible, God's revealed Word?

Later, in Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus lays out a process for conflict resolution within His Church for those who feel that another Christian believer has sinned against them. Is the person who forms the opinion that another has sinned against them always wrong? Are they always being judgmental? Apparently not. Otherwise, Jesus wouldn't have established this process.

And so long as the person who deems themselves sinned against is willing to be told they've made a wrong judgment by submitting to the judgment of the Church, Jesus doesn't condemn their judging the fellow believer's behavior as sin.

So, is Jesus talking out of both sides of His mouth? Is He saying, "Don't judge, but judge"?

As I thought about these questions, my mind was drawn to 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

In other words, God's Word is the yardstick by which God calls us to match our walk with our talk.

The first and the main person whose life we need to measure against the teachings of Scripture is ourselves, daily submitting ourselves to the daily judgments of the gracious God we know in Jesus Christ. Like David, we pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24).

We also need to judge whether the behaviors to which our own inner voices are calling us are the right way, right not only in terms of what seems pleasing to God, but also in accord with the wisdom of God.

And there may be times when we sense God calling us to discuss with fellow believers who we sense are walking away from God, speaking to them with Christian compassion and concern. Such discussions will be preceded by "judgments."

The footnote in the Life Application Bible is helpful as it explains Matthew 7:1-5:

Jesus' statement 'Do not judge' is against the kind of hypercritical, judgmental attitude that tears others down in order to build oneself up. It is not a blanket statement against all critical thinking, but a call to be discerning rather than negative...

I think that has it right. There is a difference between judging and discerning. As is usually the case in the Christian life, the key issue is motive:

Is the critical thing I'm about to say or that I feel toward another rooted in God's Word and the concern God calls me to have for others? Or is it born more of my critical attitude, my own desire to feel important or superior?

The key question to ask ourselves before we make a critical statement or harbor a critical attitude may be this:

Is this from God or is this from me?

God teach me to ask these questions before I open my trap or entertain judgmental thoughts about others. In Jesus' name. Amen

Matthew 2:12, 13, 19-20, 22 (A 5 by 5 by 5 Reflection)

This morning for my time with God, using the Navigators' 5 by 5 by 5 Reading Plan, I've read Matthew 2.

In this chapter, Matthew provides us with the infancy account of Jesus, how, several years after the birth of Jesus, the "wise men" came to worship the new King and how the holy family--Jesus, Mary, and Joseph--fled to Egypt for fear of King Herod and then settled in Galilee following the tyrant's death.

Joseph, like his Old Testament namesake, several times hears from God in dreams.

In this chapter, dreams play an important part in five verses.

First, a dream from God plays a part in the story of the wise men, who had initially told Herod about their quest to follow a star, which they saw as an announcement of the birth of the King promised in Old Testament, thinking that Herod would be as overjoyed by the birth as they apparently were. (He wasn't.) After seeing the child and presenting him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, verse 12 says:

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

We don't know how many wise men traveled in this party. (Or how many servants came with them.) Traditionally, we've said that there were three, but that's only because of the three gifts they left for the baby King at the house in which He and His family were then living in Bethlehem.

But verse 12 makes me wish that Matthew had told us how many wise men there were and if only one of them had the dream or if more than one did. Of course, it's ultimately not important. But I wonder, were they all convinced by the dream of one person or, at breakfast the day after seeing Jesus, did several of them compare notes, then call a meeting of the entire group, and decide that multiple dreams were too much of a coincidence?

We'll never know this side of heaven, of course. But the decision to flee Herod is interesting in that the earlier part of chapter 2 seems to show the wise men to be blind to how Herod's murderous jealousy was aroused by their quest to find the new King. In fact, Herod seems to see the wise men's naiveté and credulity in his instructions to the wise men, telling them duplicitously: "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage" (verse 8).

The dream mentioned in verse 12 changed the wise men's minds about Herod.

Joseph often relied on dreams to get direction from God. And we see that exemplified several times in Matthew 2:

Now after they [the wise men] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." (verse 13) 

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." (verses 19-20) 

"But when he [Joseph] heard that Archelaus [an heir of Herod, who was at least as murderous as his father had been] was ruling over Judea [where Bethlehem is located] of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. (verse 22)

I believe God uses all sorts of methods to communicate with us. And though it's only happened to me, and not to warn me, but to reassure me, I believe that God can and does still communicate with believers today through dreams.

I think that those who are gifted in the area of dreams--like the Joseph in the Old Testament and the Joseph of Matthew 2--hear from God through dreams more frequently than happens with other believers who don't possess this gift.

That's the way spiritual gifts work. Romans 12:1-2, for example, identifies giving as a spiritual gift. This doesn't mean that other believers are exempted from giving; it means that those with this gift are to do so with greater generosity and are able to do so with greater facility. Just the same, some believers may be gifted with a dream once in their lifetimes, while others, as part of their spiritual gifts, receive dreams from God all the time. Joseph was a dreamer.

The wise men weren't even believers, though one can surmise that at least some of them became believers after their trip to Bethlehem. They were superstitious astrologers and God somehow used their superstitions to lead them to His Son. But, in this chapter thick with dreams from God, the wise men too, are warned by God in a dream.

A few observations about the dreams of Matthew 2:

First, all of the dreams in this chapter are designed to protect the child. The child, Jesus, has a particular role to play in salvation history. But God in the flesh needed protection until He was able, on God's time to fulfill that role. 

Second, the dreams come unbidden, so far as we know. Neither the wise men nor Joseph ask God for dreams. In fact, except for the dream in verse 22, the dreams come to the wise men and Joseph when they themselves seem not to have expected that danger was looming. They had no idea that they needed to receive the warnings that come to them in these dreams. 

So, I wondered, what about us, when can we know that a dream is from God and not just something we ate the night before? A few thoughts, not to be taken as definitive truth from God, but only observations based on Scripture. (As always, I could be wrong.)

• First, a dream from God will never tell you to destroy, only to protect or preserve and so, pursue God's plans in history. The dreams received by Joseph and the wise men were designed to protect the child.
• Second, a dream from God will always conform to the revealed purposes of God, as seen in His Word, the Bible. This is of central importance. When the wise men set off from the East--possibly Persia--to follow the star, they did so with some awareness of the Old Testament prophecy of a King who would set the world right. Joseph, as a pious Jew, knew these prophecies well. So, when the dreams came to these men, they knew that their directives were designed to make the revealed will of God come to being through this baby King. He must be preserved until the time came for Him to do His ministry.
• Third, dreams from God come unbidden. God is sovereign. If God sends you a dream, it almost certainly won't be because you wanted it. The dreams in Matthew 2 roused the men to action in order to further the purposes of God, not the desires of the dreamers.
• Fourth, when dreams from God call believers to action, it will likely bring them inconvenience or danger or ever worse. Dreams from God will often, it seems, tell us to do things we hadn't even thought of doing or wouldn't, if we were asked in advance, want to do. There's no self-aggrandizing in dreams from God. The wise men were forced to go back to their homes by a less direct route in order to avoid telling Herod where they had found the child. That was inconvenient. Joseph had to pull up stakes and go to places he'd had no intention of going, all to protect a child that was genetically, neither his nor Mary's. 

Just a few thoughts. Thank You, God, for Your Word. Amen

James 2:18 (A 5 by 5 by 5 Reflection)

Historically, we Lutherans have cringed a bit when we read the New Testament letter of James. Martin Luther called it "the epistle of straw" and wished it removed from the Biblical canon. (But it's telling that in his translations of Scripture, he never presumed to remove James and, it seems, in later years, gained something of an appreciation for it.)

I find that I, personally, even though I've come to love this letter, I really have to bear down and think when I read James. It's as though he speaks a language foreign to me or, more accurately maybe, that he speaks a language I know but in an accent and with idioms I don't readily understand.

For Lutherans, it has often seemed that while the rest of Scripture teaches that human beings are made right with God (justified) as an act of God's grace (charity) through faith (trust) in the God definitively disclosed in Jesus, while James is saying that you need good works to be saved. It can seem when one reads James that he is salvation as a gift on the shelf in favor of salvation by works, the latter of which is heresy.

But that's not what James is saying at all. One early clue to that fact is what James writes about the Christian praying for wisdom: "But ask in faith..." (James 1:6). Faith is as much a cornerstone for James as for Paul.

Today, the assigned reading for the 5 by 5 by 5 New Testament reading plan is James 2.

In James 2:18, James writes:

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith."

It's simple, I realize, what James is saying. If we have faith in Jesus--if, in another words, we are surrendered to Him as God and King over our lives, it will have an impact on the things we do.

If, on the other hand, we compartmentalize Jesus with a Christian compartment here, a professional compartment here, a relationship compartment there, and so on, our fragmented life will demonstrate that we have little or no faith in Christ, that we lack a saving relationship with Christ.

When Christ is Lord over us, often without our even seeing it, His presence active within us and our trust in Him, will issue in works of love and compassion.

Jesus once warned His followers against "false prophets," preachers and teachers who spoke falsely on God's behalf. (The antidote for this, of course, is for us to get to know God and His Word in Scripture for ourselves so that no wolf is ever able to pull the wool over the eyes of we sheep.) But in doing so, Jesus enunciated a principle that can clarify things as we look at our own lives: "You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16).

If we believe in Jesus Christ, it will show in acts of love and selflessness.

If we truly trust in Christ, it will be demonstrated--however imperfectly, however it may sometimes get obscured by our selfishness and shortsightedness, in the things we do. If we believe in Jesus Christ, it will show in acts of love and selflessness.

We can't be made right with God--saved from sin and death, by the good things we do. Christ on His cross has already done everything needed for us to be saved. We need only trust in Him.

But trust in Him will erase our fears over our worthiness or our capacity to help others without denigrating ourselves. We won't mind being servants of all, just as Jesus was a servant of all, even our servant when He went to the cross. We're set free "to be the people of God," free to love God completely and love others as we love ourselves. That's why James closes chapter 2, with a simple and powerful observation: "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead" (James 2:26).

When we trust Jesus, He comes to live in us. Then He starts to do things within us we never would do apart from faith in Him:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

"Faith" that doesn't result in works of love demonstrates that there is no faith, that the confessions of compartmentalized Christians (counterfeit Christians) are so much hot air. Good works without faith are done by human effort, with no reference to God, without the hand of God, devoid of the power of God.

Good works empowered by, inspired by, directed by God demonstrates authenticity of faith in the doer and has God's power for transformational good in them.

Lord Jesus, fill me with reckless abandon. Help me to love others unstintingly, knowing that's how You love me. Help me to know that when I come to the end of me, my fears are conquered and your love can spill from me onto a thirsty world. Empower me to live the faith in You I confess in every part of my life. In Your Name I pray. Amen

Galatians 3:24 (A 5 by 5 by 5 Reflection)

Today is a reflection day for those using the Navigators' 5 by 5 by 5 Bible Reading Plan. This morning, I read Galatians, trying to more fully glean and assimilate this tremendous section of the New Testament.

The verse on which I perched was Galatians 3:24:

Therefore the law [God's law] was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.

In this chapter, Paul, himself a Jew, is explaining to Gentile Christians how they could be heirs of God's promises to Abraham, the founding patriarch of the Jewish people.

He asserts here, and elsewhere, that Abraham was God's choice to found a people to save and to bring His salvation to others, was made not because Abraham obeyed God's law. (Which wasn't formally given until hundreds of years later, through Moses at Mount Sinai, anyway.)

Abraham became the heir to God's promises by believing in or trusting his life to the promises of God, however imperfectly he did so. "Abraham believed and God reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:24).

God's law, holy though it is, cannot make us right with God.

We can't be made right with God by obeying the law and our inborn impulse to sin and "go our own ways." Our sinful nature makes it impossible for us to keep the law in its entirety over the course of our lifetimes or even over the course of a nanosecond.

It's true in all of our lives, as Paul demonstrates in this chapter, that  until we meet Jesus Christ, the One Who brings God's promise of a right relationship with God and with others (in other words, peace or shalom with God, with others, with God's creation, and with ourselves), the law serves to curb us from the full expression of our sinful natures.

The Bible says that God's law is written on our hearts. We're born with a sense, however imperfect or fuzzy, of right and wrong. (Read the first few chapters of C.S. Lewis' book, Mere Christianity for a fuller and intriguing exploration of this topic.) God's law is a bridle, a hedge against our sin.

And when we do sin, we offer reasons at least partly rooted in the law of God written on our hearts, to demonstrate to ourselves or others that we're justified in committing the sins we love.

The law is a whip commanding our submission until...relief, Christ comes to us and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe in Him.

The law keeps our sin tamped down and teaches us the foolishness and futility of self-reliance until, like cool water to a person dying of thirst, Christ comes to us.

Christ may come to us in a Sunday School class, through the witness of a friend, in the loving service Christians render in Christ's name, or in a Bible study or a sermon, or in other ways Christ might choose.

But however He comes to us, He teaches us that we cannot be made right (made righteous or justified in taking up space in the universe) by our performance of God's rules, by doing good works, but solely by faith, simple moment to moment trust, in Christ and what He has done for us in dying on a cross and rising from the dead on the first Easter.

I am justified by my faith in Christ's perfect goodness, not by trusting my imperfect and always failed attempts to be good.

That is really good news. The best I'll read or hear about all day, every day, for all eternity.

Therefore the law [God's law] was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.