Bible study

Measuring Up

/ Susan W. LaVelle / 2 Comments

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Luke 6: 37

I know that when I have thought of this verse, it has been in the context of giving a tithe to the church. The idea that when you give something, you will have it returned to you in abundance is appealing. There is nothing to say that it doesn’t also apply to giving, but the context of this is all about measuring other people, not our own good deeds.

This verse is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, following after the Beatitudes and the “Woes to you” section. In the preceding section, Jesus is talking about “Loving our enemies,” “Turning the other cheek,” even lending to our enemies “without expecting to get anything back.” “Be kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.”

All of that sounds pretty different from the discourse of our day, at least in the USA, when it comes to the church calling out in the political sphere. Doesn’t it?

What is that about? Why does the church call out against helping others, the weak, or those in need? Why is it the church that most stands faithfully against showing love or mercy to its supposed enemies? Why do people in the world associate Christians with ideas of isolation, self-protection, me-ism, and anger toward those that disagree with them? Why are Christians seen as judgmental, lacking in compassion, and expecting to be paid back in full? Is this not an affront to what Jesus taught in His most important sermon?

If we want to ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do in this world today?” we need to take a hard look at how we measure ourselves up to these verses. In fact, following the above verse 37, in verse 40 Jesus said, “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” How much more WWJD could that command and promise be?

Additionally, following, in verse 42, He says, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (See my previous post, “Log-in, Log-out”) and then, in verse 42, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.”

For those who call themselves Christians—for true Christ-followers, anyway—the Sermon on the Mount and these verses are cornerstones of our living out the Kingdom of Christ on this earth. We must go back to examine ourselves—our actions, words, and thoughts—in the light of this, so that our witness to the truth (which we say is so important to us) measures up to what Christ is telling us here. Only then will changes happen in the people and world around us.

A Living Sacrifice

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“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 12:1-2

These verses in Romans are a picture to us of what it means to become a Christ-follower. What Paul is talking about when he refers to a “living sacrifice” is those animals placed on the altars of the Old Testament temple in Jerusalem, offered as a dutiful sacrifice to God. Here, in Romans 12, we are commanded to place our own selves on the altar of sacrifice in worship to God, similarly to how the sheep or doves were placed on the temple altar. The animals were no longer “their own,” so to speak—no longer doves flying freely in the sky or lambs frolicking in the grassy meadow. The lives that those animals had lived were no more. They were dead: dead to those things. Dead to that life. Their lives were no longer their own.

In a similar way, we are told to think of our duty to worship God as leaving behind ownership for the life we knew, to take up a different kind of life. We must present ourselves to God’s altar just like the sheep and doves were presented by the faithful worshippers at the Temple. We are not killed, but live. And we don’t atone for sin in this sacrifice. In fact, the atonement for sin of the animal sacrifice in the Old Testament Temple was God painting a picture in advance of Jesus’s atonement for sin. Jesus accomplished the real atonement on the cross.

This picture of atonement and sacrifice was also a picture to help us understand our own worship. Here, we are told clearly what constitutes worship for Christ-followers: worship is not about how often we go to church, pray, read the Bible, sing hymns, or talk about our faith. We are not physically dying like Jesus or the lambs and doves, but rather, we are to live continually as if we were laying on His altar at all times, dead to self, a “Living” sacrifice, alive, but dead to self. The life we knew is no more, if we want to follow Christ.

Additionally, we are told that it is by the “mercies of God” that we can and should offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. The sacrifice is not a punishment or deprivation, but rather, our response to what Jesus has done for us. God has allowed us to be on his altar, offering ourselves to Him, and that is how we worship Him. This privilege is also a command. We do this daily, continually, living it out.

Now, many people don’t think of the Christian life like that. Too often, people think that following Jesus is a wonderful way to fulfill ourselves and feel good, to lose that “Guilty feeling.” Other people think that becoming a Christian is a way to punch our ticket out of hell to free ourselves from the condemnation of sin. One of these views make us feel like God “owes” us a nice happy and comfortable life; the other, might lead to us thinking of ourselves as better than all those who don’t follow Him.

But, if our emphasis on the Christian life is on experiencing miracles, financial provision, answered prayer, or blessings of some kind, or on being part of the exclusive “in-crowd” of God, we are missing the point here and actually, according to this, not really worshipping Him in a holy or acceptable way. True, it sounds unpleasant to realize that worshipping God has to do with crawling onto an altar and not getting off, but that is what is said here. Christ-followers are to stay there and live there, belonging no longer to ourselves, but to God.

If we find that we have been thinking of the Christian life mostly as something to benefit from, a way to answer our prayers, provide health or financial favor, or just basically to keep us out of hell when we die, then we need to come back to this verse. And the good news about presenting yourself as a living sacrifice is that you can start now to do it. Present yourself to God right now and always. Take the next verse seriously: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

How do we test this? By seeking our the answers in the Bible, by becoming more and more familiar with the teachings of the New Testament, particularly, the things that Jesus said and did in the four gospels, and by asking God to help us become more and more open to hearing correction and repentance, as shown through the Word and Holy Spirit.

Log-in, Log-out

/ Susan W. LaVelle / 1 Comment

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Matthew 7: 1-5

An amazing fact that happens when someone mentions following Jesus to Christians, the first thought often is on how other people don’t. We look at “all their sin” and bad actions, attitudes, and problems, then start judging them. You will notice that in the above verses, which by the way are preceded by Jesus telling the crowd at the Sermon on the Mount (including all his disciples and followers): “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

The “who” he is speaking to here—beyond everybody else—is you and me! He wants us not to judge others and specifically came up with a truly clear and understandable, no-excuses sort of analogy. Log in the eye; speck in the eye.

I have heard this explained like this: a speck in your own eye will make you see specks everywhere.

Jesus wants us to apply His words to ourselves. Yes, He does make the point that we are then to help others with the specks in their eyes, but how many of us simply brush off that point? It is very easy to think to oneself, “Yes, I have looked at my life already and know myself quite well. I don’t really have any logs there. I would know it.” A thought like that is the core of what makes up our blind spots in life.

We all know what a blind spot is when driving alongside a semi-truck, right? There are certain spots alongside a truck that will hide your car from the truck driver’s mirrors. This is why they have special mirrors to help them see everything on the side, including your car. They are called among other things, “Blind spot convex safety mirrors” which you have to add on extra to your truck or car to see the blind spots. I think Jesus is adding here such an accessory for us to use to see our own blind spots.

Jesus says that the measure we use to judge others is the measure that will be used to judge us. Perhaps a useful tool here would be to keep track and attentive to ways that you yourself respond in judgement of others around you, both the non-Christians and Christians, so that you can firstly see how (i.e., “how” not “if”) you are being like that yourself. Applying the Word to ourselves is likely to keep us so busy we will not have as much time to be judgmental to others.

Perhaps we will then have more time to pray, have compassion, and do, think, and speak like Jesus did, in a world that definitely needs more WWJD.

What’s the Context?

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Although the “Whatever Happened to WWJD?” FB page posts one or two verses every M-F, it is very important for us to look at the verse’s context, in other words, the rest of what is said surrounding a particular verse as well as the whole book and Bible. Obviously, a simple blue square can only hold so much text that can be seen and read by you! Reading, studying, and memorizing single verses is a great practice and really helps the words of Jesus stick in our memory to be used by the Holy Spirit as needed to speak to our innermost thoughts—or to be spoken to someone else.

Nevertheless, when you only look at one verse at a time, separated from the context of the rest of the chapter, you might miss some important issues or even misunderstand the verse itself. A case in point was one of the verses that was shared this last week, Revelation 3:20. Probably all of us have heard that verse before used to speak to people who are not yet Christians to encourage them to come to Christ. However, the context of the verse is much different than that. (Not to say it is wrong to use it to encourage people to come to Christ, because the verse is true for everyone.) Revelations 3:20 is the warning/promise part of the angel’s letter to the 7th church, Laodicea, starting with verse 3:14 

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 3: 14-22

The seven letters in Revelation are from God to seven churches that an angel brought to the Apostle John while he was exiled to the island of Patmos. The churches are local congregations in far western Turkey, relatively nearby to where John was. 

Everyone wants to be thought of as being in the Church of Philadelphia, where the congregation is commended for being patient, enduring tribulation, and completely faithful, with nothing to rebuke. However, the verses of 3:20 are part of the letter to the church that is called “lukewarm, wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Yet, that church was told to “buy gold refined from fire” and to “cover their shameful nakedness” and to buy salve for their unseeing eyes. Even that church was offered the “knock on their door” to come in and sup with the Lord. It seems that they have a choice to change and the offer is there for them.

As is often noted, in the famous picture by William Holman Hunt of this verse, the doorknob is on the inside of that door, waiting to be turned by those inside. Christ doesn’t force His way in, He knocks and asks. What will we do? Those who want to walk the way that Jesus would have them, will do as the letter to the angel of Laedicia says, “Be earnest and repent.”

Mirror

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When you first wake up in the morning, you glance at yourself in the bathroom mirror on your way to do “other things” and maybe don’t look at yourself too hard. Maybe you aren’t even wearing your glasses yet and can’t see yourself very well. By the time you are getting ready for work, school, or your day-to-day stuff, however, you look more closely. It’s time to put on your contacts, brush your teeth, deal with the mess of your hair, button that shirt, tie that tie. Mirrors are how we see where the lost contact lens went, whether our faces are clean or not, whether our part is crooked, whether we have missed a button or our zip is undone. Mirrors—very important!

Reading the Bible and applying what we read is the mirror for our soul. No matter how many times you have heard or read James 1: 23-24, if you don’t pay attention to what it says, you are still not applying it.

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

James 1: 23-24

There is a way in which we fool ourselves—or to be kind, we are fooled by familiarity—into thinking, “Oh, I know that verse about mirrors and I have that down. I am a good Christian who knows that verse and lots of verses, so I don’t need to think about that.” That sort of thinking (or non-thinking) goes on all the time and is why we often appear hypocritical to people around us, maybe our children, our parents, neighbors, co-workers, friends, fellow church friends, strangers. We can think we are one way, but those who look at us see us differently—the way we really are.

It certainly can be scary to be willing to take a look at ourselves the way other people see us, but isn’t it for the best? It certainly is Jesus’ best for us. Which is why this verse appears in James, who by the way, tradition tells us, was Jesus’ brother from none other than the family of Joseph and Mary. Just think of that! The man who lived and grew up in the same home as Jesus, wrote this about self-examination through the word of God. Examine yourselves and apply His words to your life! I wonder what that meant to James, who would have grown up hearing Jesus’ words. Even James, Jesus’ brother, had to deal with the idea that we often think we are applying the words of Jesus, but aren’t. Doesn’t that make it clear how important it is for us, we who didn’t have that experience of personally hearing those words, to take the care and time to apply them to our lives?

It’s back to our Hear. Read. Study. Meditate. Memorize. Apply.

The Wise Builder

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Jesus pointed out several ways to discern if we are actually applying His word to our lives or not.

Here we see His test for the outcome of putting His word into practice versus the outcome of only fooling ourselves. The difference is clearly shown by His example of the Wise and Foolish Builders in Matthew 7: 24-27. The “Therefore” here (which we want to make a practice of looking for why the “there” is there, whenever Jesus says “Therefore”) refers to the previous chapters, Matthew chapters 5-7.

These are the concluding verses to the Sermon of the Mount:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 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. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Matthew 7: 24-27

You will notice that both types of people—those who build their lives on His word solidly and those who do not—will face the same dangers, difficulties, and decisions. The storms, winds, and waters will be there for everyone. However, Jesus points out that in this life, those who put His words into practice and are consistent and serious about it (in other words, you have to actually build your house on the rock, not just go for a visit to look at the scenery), will be wise and have a house that doesn’t fall.

These verses are about how we live out the Kingdom life and live out WWJD every day in our lives here on this planet where Jesus walked.

Wise builders versus those who build on the sand. These houses collapsed against the winds and storms of the sand.

What is a human being?

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Psalm 8: 1, 3-4

“O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?”

In this Psalm, David asks the question: Who is a human being, that the great Creator God would take notice? Why is mankind important in the great wide universe?

We see here that we are made by God, that we are a certain kind of being. We have gifts and responsibilities. Our actions have consequences. Our choices matter. Let us make the choices that bring us into alignment with this great God and get to know Him through the revelation of His son, Jesus. That is what being a Christ-follower is all about. That is why it matters that we know what Jesus would do today.

Hear, read, study, meditate, memorize His word to become more like Him.

Become more and more like Him!

The Incarnation

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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1, 14

When we think about the coming of the baby Jesus to earth, too often we are thinking only of the cute little baby, the gentle mother Mary, the faithful father Joseph, the animals in the barn, the hay, the star, the angels. But do we think about it as the incarnation, the coming of God into the physical realm of the body and the earth, to bring His deity into a place and time, to walk among them as they walk in history, sharing the physical world with the very creatures He had made?

That angel choir at Jesus’ birth sang one performance in all the history of the earth, and who was the audience? Sheep and simple shepherds, not musical elites. God’s highest values are to the lowly and humble, and He paid attention to the individuals of that particular moment in space and time. This shows God’s sense of values and His character more than we like to think.

Through the specifics of the incarnation, we can feel invited in, from our own specifics and our own locality, into the flesh and blood specifics and the locality of the manger of Bethlehem. God started His walk on earth as a man, in a place that was not one of perfect genetical ancestors, nor godly governmental institutions, nor perfect circumstances, according to anyone’s ideas of what that might mean. The DNA of Jesus’ genealogy was full of badly behaving and weak people, just as much as it was full of kings and leaders. Yet, the God of the universe chose to become man in that DNA, in that family, in that place in time. Despite that humble beginning—or because of it—He accomplished His purposes.

From all of this we can be sure that as we walk out our lives on the earth in our space and time, we can follow Jesus, the God who went before us. In following Him, we can walk like He walked, do what He would have us do, speak and think as He did. Why can I say that?

Because He came and put aside His riches of glory and walked in the most humble and not-perfect of circumstances, in a specific locality in space and time—a real place, with real people. Childhood playmates, family, friends, tasks. Someone sat in chair he made as “the carpenter’s son.” He ate food: some He liked, some He did not. Some of the girls He grew up with probably hoped that someday they might become Mrs Jesus.

He lived out a life for 30 years in a body that was just like ours, but He had a divine purpose for doing it. The wonder of it, is that God wanted to come and be like us in our weakness so that He could serve our sentence for us before the justice of God.

Live the Walk

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Have you ever heard the statement, “Preach the gospel all the time and if needed, use words”?

There are two things to remember about this: 1) St. Francis of Assisi never said it, even though he is often claimed to have; and 2) the main point of the statement is that too often we only talk about the gospel, but don’t live the gospel.

No one will ever be able to know about Jesus and the good news of His saving work on the cross without us telling them in words about it. We need to use salt and grace to always be able to speak the good news to others; we also need to listen to what they have to say and in love and conviction tell them about Jesus. Jesus offers forgiveness of sin to redeem our lives in the here and now, as well as to provide for our future resurrection life in heaven with Him. As Paul wrote using words in his Letter to the Romans, 10:14: “How can they believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear unless someone proclaims him? And who will go to tell them unless he is sent?” We must be able to use words to explain the gospel (and listen to the words of those to whom we are explaining it).

But a very clear point of the misquoted statement above is that we must not only speak and tell with words but must live it out through our deeds and lives. This is very clear throughout the New Testament, James makes this very clear and succinct:

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Living out Jesus’ Kingdom every day and in every way is what this is all about. The statement we started with resonates to us and it’s worth seeing how this applies to the way we all each live out our faith.

Do we merely tell or talk—or do we live and walk?

Meditate on the Word—Psalm 1: 2-3

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The last in this series of “Five ways to get the Bible into your heart and life” to discuss is “Meditate.” “Meditate” in this sense does not mean “a mind-body, deep state of relaxation” but rather “to think deeply or carefully, to consider, focus.” The highlighted verses from Psalms 1 show the focus of the chapter is not really on those who do not walk in the way of the Lord, but rather, on those who do and how that happens. Therefore this holds an important clue in how to more closely follow Jesus’ teaching on how to live as a Christian with the Bible genuinely in the heart and life.

“Blessed is the one

who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither—

whatever they do prospers.

For one thing, taking delight in the Lord and meditating on His words brings fruitfulness.

Another thing to notice here is the contrast between absorbing and meditating on the ways and thoughts and words of the world—walking in the steps of the wicked, standing in the place of the sinners, sitting in the seat of the mockers, scoffers—versus taking delight in and meditating on the words of the Lord. The contrast here is between people who absorb or are fed by the world around them, and of those being fed by the words of the Lord: which way is actually feeding the soul of the person? Which one prospers the person? Which way brings fruitfulness and life? Meditating on the word of God.

Jesus said to His disciples: “I have food to eat that you do not know about” (John 4:32). After being asked by the disciples what food that was, Jesus replied,“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” This is Jesus speaking about being nourished by the word of God and by His relationship with the Father through prayer. This nourishment from the Word and prayer is how He was able to know and do the will of the Father. Don’t forget, that when Jesus walked the earth, although He was God and came from heaven, He had set aside His Godhood and lived as a man, needing to pray and hear from the Holy Spirit and live out what He read and meditated on in the Scriptures, just as we are to do today. (Phil 2:6-8)

He modeled that for us and that is what we must do.

We live in a world in step with the wicked and filled with mockers and scoffers, all of which are calling out loudly for us to join in with them. Instead, to follow Jesus better we need to “delight” in the word of the Lord and meditate on it, day and night.

Even if we don’t actually know what all is meant in Phil 2 when Paul writes that Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself,” we do know that the section starts out with the instruction that we “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus “ (Phil. 2:5). Let us follow that model we find in Jesus of being filled and nourished by the Word and taking delight there, rather than taking delight and nourishment from the world system and its ways.