faith

The Name

/ Susan W. LaVelle / 1 Comment

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Colossians 3:17

What’s in a Name?

When Paul asks that our words and deeds be said and done in the Name of Jesus, what does he mean? What would it mean if you gave someone permission to say or do things in your name?

Today we actually do that all the time. Whenever we sign contracts, checks, tax forms, loans, and a host of other documents, we put the integrity and promise of our “name” behind the legal requirements we are committing to. In this case, “in our name” means “appeal to, reference to, or representative of an authority.”* The signature, words, and name represent the person, promise, and entirety of the person with authority: the person called by that name.

When given the authority to use the name of another person, we are their representative. It is as if they themselves are saying, signing, or doing the thing promised. If your boss sends you to get office supplies at a store in his name you are signing or paying for something on the boss’s behalf. The boss’s authorization to use his name puts your signature within the boss’s authority. If I authorize you to act for me “in my name,” you are fully able to act “as me” as I would. We actually understand this idea quite well and do it all the time without a thought.

What doesn’t it mean?

To sign in someone’s name doesn’t mean that the signer can perform, pay, or complete the requirements of the contract or proposition. The authorizing authority alone has those abilities and qualifications. The signer requires 1) authorization by the authority, and 2) permission to request or promise something within the authorizing authority’s desired expectations. In other words, the person whose name you are acting in must want you to do the thing and have given you permission to do it.

This is very pertinent to the verses that talk about Christ-followers praying, speaking, or doing things in the name of Jesus. There are many verses, many right out of the mouth of Jesus in the gospels, telling Christ-followers that they are within the authorized group to pray, to speak, or to act in His name. Those who are within His fold, His flock, His sheep, i.e., those who believe in Him, are the ones He has authorized to act and pray in His name and to see answers to prayer.

Some verses that relate:

  • “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” John 14:14
  • “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11
  • “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10
  • “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:18
  • “So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:10-11
  • “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20

However, the other part of this question is that signers must represent the authorizing authority and only sign for what the authority authorizes. In other words, the signer will not be authorized to request things not according to or even against the will of the authority. You don’t go to the office store to buy supplies for work and your boss and then decide, “Oh, I like that computer, I think I’d like one of those, too” and then sign for as if it were authorized. Obviously, doing that would be unlawful.

We need to realize that the same principle works for prayers and actions done in Jesus’ name. We can’t expect Him to answer prayers that are outside of what He would want or authorize just because we can speak as if we were saying a magic word. To expect Him to have to hear us if we say things in a certain way (or any other trick like that) is not understanding what it means to be under His authority. (See the post, “Naming Names“).

Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) As Jesus’ followers, we need to be listening to Him closely, learning of Him deeply, meditating, studying, hearing, reading, memorizing His words, so that we understand what He is saying to us. We want to live in His word, in His name. As we grow to hear Him better, we will be better at discerning between what He is saying to us and what we just want to hear. We will be better at living out lives that reflect His purposes for us.

What's in a Name? bracelet with words, You and me.

* Dictionary definition https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/in-the-name-of

Chew on it

/ Susan W. LaVelle / Leave a comment

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?”

Luke 12:25

Chew on this for worry or fear:

When you worry, you are running a thought over and over in your mind. What about putting a Bible verse there instead?

The things we worry about, the things we fear, the things we focus on too much can be used for both good or ill. Those things can fight against faith. What if we could find ways to use them instead to draw us closer to Jesus and build our faith? What if we can let those things prompt healthy thoughts for ourselves and those around us?

IN this blog, we’ve talked about meditating on the Word of God as one of the five ways to help us grow in our faith and Bible study. (See the related discussion on the blog, “Meditate on the Word” https://howshouldwethenlive.org/…/meditate-on-the-word…/)

Here is the tip:

Ask yourself, “What am I worried about? What am I afraid of?” You may not even know exactly, so it may take you some time to ascertain. However, if you ask it prayerfully, God will help you understand it.

Once you have identified what you are worried about or afraid of, get out a notebook, journal, scrap of paper, etc. and jot it down. Next, use a Concordance (or just google the thing + the phrase “Bible verse”) to find Bible verses that counter that worry or fear. Write down the verses. Study them. Meditate on them. Read them to yourself. Say them to others. Memorize them. Go back to those verses to fill the place that worry or fear has previously held in your heart and mind.

Worry is something that occupies a space in your mind and thoughts, even in your heart. When you worry you are running those thoughts over and over in your mind. Instead, replace those worry thoughts with Bible verses to run over and over in your mind. Go deep into what the verses mean and what they mean to you. This is a great way to “take captive your thoughts” as is found in 2 Corinthians 10:5.

Chewing on it's cud, close up of a cow in a field.

Mistaken Identity

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Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

John 21:20-24

Many people, including myself, have been a bit confused by the moniker that John gives himself as he is writing the gospel: “The disciple whom Jesus loved.” Does that mean that Jesus loved one disciple more than he did others? Does it mean that Jesus played favorites? Is it a comparison between them?

It wasn’t until sometime later that I realized that it was only in the Apostle John’s writings that this name for John appeared. When I realized this, I saw that rather than a comparison between disciples (which as we know, John and his brother James had earlier requested to be at the important right hand of Jesus when He came in His glory), but rather, as John’s way of seeing and knowing himself: he was loved by Jesus, despite all and overwhelmingly so.

This name that John gives himself in his writings shows up first at the Lord’s supper when John is sitting next to Jesus (it says reclining because they sat on the floor to eat) and he is asked by Peter to find out from Jesus who it is amongst them who will betray the Lord. John refers to himself from that point on as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Importantly, one must realize that the verses in Luke and Matthew that describe the request of James and John to a prominent place in Jesus’ kingdom (i.e., with or prompted by their mother), happened at an earlier point and most likely, the indignant feelings that the other disciples felt at this request (Mark 10:41-45; Matthew 20:20-28) for favoritism and the rebuke of Jesus at it, must have humbled John and James.

Jesus felt hurt and disappointment that John and James had so deeply misunderstood his message. He calls them all to remember that His kingdom is not like earthly kingdoms where the leaders “lord it over” people, but rather, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”  Jesus said basically that James and John were thinking the way the world works, the opposite of His Kingdom way. They were thinking in a way that opposes His kingdom.

One can imagine that continuing to follow Jesus after such moment of shame—note that John doesn’t mention the incident at all in his gospel—must have humbled John to the core and truly caused him to focus on the forgiveness and love that Jesus had for him, despite this and other failings. John shows in his writings that he thought of himself from then on only within the framework as one loved by Jesus.

“The one whom Jesus loved” had become his identity.

No Love Lost

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“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So he [Jesus] told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’”

Luke 15: 1-7

What does Jesus value, as shown in this parable?

In this section, Jesus is telling us the value He puts on looking for and finding lost sheep. He states that finding those who are lost is of the greatest value we can imagine: that of leaving the large majority behind and going after those who are lost. Does that make you feel unloved, if you are a follower of Jesus who hasn’t left the fold? I am betting that this idea has crossed a few of our minds. Why would the Shepherd leave 99 sheep behind in the open field where they might encounter wolves or other dangers, just so he might possibly find one that is lost? He has 99 good ones already, isn’t that enough or at least good enough?

A few points about this:

  • In Luke, you will notice that the context of this section follows some griping comments made by Pharisees and Sadducees about Jesus’ propensity to dine and associate with “tax-collectors” (i.e., traitors to their nation) and sinners (i.e., those who are not following or trying to follow the laws of Moses and the religious traditions of the Jews). These leaders of the religious mind of the nation of Israel were complaining about Jesus not following their laws and purification requirements, making Jesus unclean.
  • You will also notice that in his parable, you might think that Jesus is contrasting the lost sheep with the “righteous” or at least those who think of themselves as righteous. In actuality, we know from elsewhere in the New Testament, that Jesus died because no one was righteous and free from the need to repent. So He wouldn’t have been thinking that way; to think that way is to think in an earthly way, which we have been warned about. (For more on this, you might check out my posts, “Take a Turn” or “Our Citizenship”.) In other words, Jesus is not saying here that He doesn’t love those who are not lost or that He cares less about them. He focuses instead here on His feelings about those who need Him to find and rescue them.
  • The Greek word used for lost in Luke 12: 3 is not just describing something misplaced, but rather it means something being irretrievably lost, something or someone in danger of being destroyed, like a ship “lost” at sea. The Titanic was not just misplaced; it was ruined, shattered, smashed, wrecked, that kind of lost.
  • In the similar passage of this parable, Matthew 18: 12-13, the word in Greek is not lost as in Luke, but has to do with the idea of straying. The Greek word there (πλανηθῇ /planēthē/) has the same root as the Greek word from which we derive the English word, planet, which actually meant originally, wandering body. The word in Matthew, planáō properly means ” to go astray, get off-course; to deviate from the correct path (circuit, course), roaming into error, wandering; (passive) be misled.” All of that doesn’t have so much to do with righteousness before God but right thinking and acting. The focus in both verses is not about the “who” that Jesus loves more, but on His feelings of love toward those who need Him.

Therefore, this verse is not so much telling us to compare the 99 (or ourselves, for that matter) with the lost sheep, but rather to focus on Jesus’ reaction to someone who is wandering off in their thinking and acting out to the point where they are about to be lost irretrievably, shipwrecked, and sunk at sea.

So, how does this apply to me?

Well, two things are relevant here. 1) We are the kind of being who can be lost. And we are the kind of being who can be found. If you find yourself sinking into what seems like an irretrievable lostness, you are not misplaced by God, but you might be on a course that has taken you astray from the fold. If that is the case, you are still able to be found and carried gently on His shoulders back home. “Back home” might not actually be a place you’ve ever been before, since you may not really know or understand what kind of kingdom Jesus taught about. However, you are never too far from God’s grace and good intentions of help. Just ask Him to show Himself to you and rescue you. Then, when He speaks to you, listen and respond with a full heart.

2) And this is more for those who are wanting to know and live by Jesus’ kingdom and follow a “What Would Jesus Do” course of life: one must continually ask oneself if their heart and intention follows that love that Jesus has for those who have gone astray. How do I feel about the weak, the lonely, the powerless, the forgotten, the poor in spirit, the poor in provision? For those different from you in heritage, religion, gender, race, ethnicity, politics? Do you have the same heart as Jesus for all people, even if you think they are astray or lost? Even if you disagree on some things, important or unimportant?

These are very serious questions we must all ask ourselves continuously if we truly want people to see Jesus alive today. He lives in His people and so the world will only see Him alive in us. What do they see?

Take a Turn

/ Susan W. LaVelle / 1 Comment

As discussed in the previous post, “Making Disciples”, the first step in discipleship as Jesus taught, was to repent, or turn away from what what we were, to what He wants us to become. That would be in modern day terms, “to take a 180° turn” to travel in the opposite direction.

To start the Christ-following life, you must realize that you were going the wrong way and that you need to turn around and go the completely opposite way. To note here, one cannot just say, “Oh, I am pretty good already, not as bad as ‘those people’ so I don’t need to go quite the opposite way, I’ll just maybe add a bit of a difference to the way I already am.” No. That kind of thought is not Jesus’ teaching.

The whole point of starting a Jesus Kingdom walk (i.e., becoming a Christian) is realizing that no matter how “good” you think you are, you are not able to free yourself from the self-orientation of your life on your own. Everyone needs a savior. Being, seeming, or looking like a good person, like a religious person, a church-goer, or a Christian will not be the basis for actually being a Christ-follower or disciple. Being a Christ-follower has to do with knowing Christ in a personal way and accepting that he is worthy of following completely. “You must be born again” Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, and in Matthew 16:24, He said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Jesus took the cross to a hill and died on it. This is what it means to have a new life in Christ: you turn away from your old life and take up the new life Jesus gives you. That “being born again” thing which many people don’t understand has to do with dying to your old life and being made a new creature. (See the last post which discusses what it means to “Believe.”)

Being a new creature entails that you are different and new.

The really good news in this isn’t just that you are going to heaven when you die, but rather, that you have a new kind of life here to live on earth before you go to heaven. That new life reflects a mirror of who Jesus is: the new creature who speaks what Jesus would say, acts and thinks as He does today. Jesus does this through making you into a new person and through you being a disciple on the planet Earth who shows His Kingdom values through your actions and words. Through your choices, not those that you assume other people will make. Through your words, not the words that your pastor preaches on Sunday. Through your interactions with family, friends, co-workers, strangers, enemies. Even—and very much so—the intentions of your innermost being, your heart.

As Jesus said:

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45

To understand this is the beginning of understanding what it means to be a disciple, a Christ-follower. Jesus called disciples. As he said in the parable of the seeds, there are many who have some interactions with the seeds He sows, but not all of the seeds grow up and bear fruit. A disciple is not perfect, and sometimes the mirror image of Jesus is duller than it could be, but a disciple is the plant growing and bearing fruit in the soil in which Jesus has planted His seed and tends it lovingly every day.

Making Disciples

/ Susan W. LaVelle / 3 Comments

To make a disciple, you must be a disciple. What does that mean?

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

John 15: 5-8

In the “Great Commission” in MATTHEW 28: 16-20 discussed in the previous blog post, Jesus commanded His followers to:

  • make disciples of all nations,
  • baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 
  • and teach them to obey everything He commanded.

Notice that He didn’t command people to make converts or new believers. He commanded them to make disciples. Of course, conversion is the basic underlying foundation of becoming a disciple. So what does to convert or to believe mean?

What does it mean to “believe”?

Well, the first words Jesus preached in Matthew 4:17 were, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Greek word “Repent” used here (μετάνοια, metanoia) means “to change one’s mind; to have a transformative change of heart; to take on a completely different way of thinking; to have a conversion; to utterly repent.” Jesus went about speaking this message before He spoke the Sermon on the Mount, the verses in which we often think of as Him explanining how we are to live in a Christ-like way.

Yes, the Sermon on the Mount teaches how we are to live, but first came the message to “repent, change, convert, think completely differently.” Jesus wanted followers who were committed to turn away from the old patterns toward His Kingdom values, the new way to think, speak, and act, which He unfolded through His Sermon on the Mount. To believe means that we need to accept that we are first of all, putting behind us our old ways, doing this before we can put on that new life that Christ calls us to. Yes, you might call this conversion, because it means that there is a complete change of inner being for those who believe in Him as His followers.

But the word believe doesn’t mean the same thing today, as it did in when Jesus used it to His followers. Today, we think of believe as more like a wishful thought or whatever we happen to be thinking about. Something like, “I believe my sports team will win,” or “I believe that I am the best flute player here” or “I believe that Coke is better than Pepsi.” Those things are opinions or preferences.

What Jesus means by “to believe” is very different than an opinion or preference. The word believe (πιστεύω, pisteuo) in Greek, means “trusting in, relying on, and adhering to,” which is much more than just a casual acceptance of fact. This concept is much more like the Biblical meaning of faith, which would be the Greek word, πίστις, pistis. As you can see, the Greek words are related. Faith means a lot more than we think of it meaning today. Today, you might say, “Good job, I had faith that you would win the game,” but in that, we are really just expressing an opinion or preference or hope or wish.

Both believe and faith are more like the person who is willing to actually sit down in a chair, believing that it will hold them up or the person who is willing to personally jump-in to something, rather than just expound about it with their mouth. One might compare this to the difference between an aerialist walking a high wire hundreds of feet up in the sky vs the person standing on the sidelines watching. Both might believe in a modern sense that the aerialist can walk that tightrope, but only the person walking it believes it in a Biblical sense: that person is doing it, living it out, experiencing it, committing to it, knowing it is real, trusting it and knowing that all will turn out. Taking the risk, in other words, that what they are trusting is true and worthy of the trust.

Does this advocate for people to do crazy things like walk on tight ropes? No. But rather, it does mean that believing and having faith has to do with doing the things that Jesus commanded. If we believe in Him, we need to model ourselves on His thoughts, words, and deeds—and His motivations.

Sometimes we can do something that we think is what Jesus would do, but our inner motivations are nothing like those that motivate Jesus. This, too we must beware of! He is looking at our hearts, from which all our actions and words will flow. To be a disciple first and foremost means to focus on doing what Jesus would do and for His reasons, not our own.

Following Jesus and doing WWJD must start with a heart that is converted and turned to Him. We must do as He said in His first proclamation: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Happy Birthday, Church!

/ Susan W. LaVelle / 1 Comment

Pentecost Sunday! The birthday of the church!

You will find the Pentecost narrative in Acts 2, but let’s take a look at a couple verses before that, Jesus’ last words to the church before He ascended to heaven. He was making provision for his disciples for what they would do after He returned to the Father, and how they were to continue to walk out the Kingdom He had died and risen to start: for His followers, to be the people of God on the Earth, what would become “the Church.”

What was it that the disciples were to do?

The Great Commission

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28: 16-20

Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, He spoke these words to His disciples, some of whom harbored some doubts about what would happen next. Additionally, in chapter one of the book of Acts, you will also see that Jesus said to the disciples at that time:

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”

Acts 1: 5-9

So, the disciples were to “wait in Jerusalem until the gift, the Holy Spirit sent from the Father” would come upon them with the power to be His witnesses. They also were to “make disciples, teaching them to observe all that they were commanded” to by Him. Pentecost is the day in which the power to do that work was sent to Christ’s followers in the upper room in which they had gathered for prayer and waiting. In that day, Peter rose up and spoke a powerful sermon, tongues of fire appeared over their heads, and a mighty wind rushed through the room, not caused by earthly weather patterns. People spoke in languages they did not know and about three thousand people believed and became Christ-followers. This truly was the beginning of the church and the day which Jesus had commanded them to wait for before going out to make disciples.

Power came upon them for the mission and the tasks and change happened within the people so that they became new and filled with the Holy Spirit, which Jesus described as being “baptized” in the Holy Spirit, a term that meant “immersed in, waterlogged,” like a log that has sunk in a river and completely soaked up as much water as it could hold. This was the beginning of the church, that body of Christ-followers who believed in Him and filled with the power to do both the mission (“The Great Commission”) and all the tasks (whatever specific things they were commanded to observe from Jesus words and teachings as disciples).

You can look up Acts 2 and read all about that and the beginnings of the Church throughout the book of Acts, which I encourage you to do. Acts 2 speaks of the power whereby Christ-followers can accomplish the mission and tasks set before the Church. But this post is not just about that—the power—but about something else.

Christ-followers are to be disciples and make disciples.

The Great Commission is not so much about “Going” or where to be, but “Who” to be. It is framed in the context of Who Jesus is, His authority (vs 18), and His presence (vs 20). Authority—Jesus is Lord, and Presence—Jesus is always with us.

Jesus wants His disciples to “observe all that they have been commanded,” in other words, that which He has instructed them while He walked the Earth with them and what was written out in the four gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. His life is the model for how disciples are to live out the Kingdom of God. Actually, this life of disciples is synonymous, or should be, to what we mean when we say “the Church,” “Christ-followers,” or what later became the term, “Christians” or “Christianity.”

Note that Jesus says the primary goal is not to make converts, but disciples. In other words, while conversion is necessary it is not the same thing as becoming a disciple. Signing your name on the “Salvation” dotted line is merely the utter beginning, not an end in itself. People must encounter Jesus and want to follow Him, of course, and they won’t know everything to start, nor do they need to be “perfect” to become “Christians” but they are to become disciples, as are we who say we are Christians.

We have to be disciples (i.e., those who are observing the commandments of Jesus) in order to make disciples. We are not here to make people follow our image, but we all are committed to observing all that Christ commanded and live out our lives to be like Christ. He is the model. If we focus only on Jesus as our Savior, which He beautifully is, we miss what He wants for us and for the Church as a whole.

Just as we can’t save ourselves (and the law was there not because God thought we could follow it, but to show us that we can’t and that we need a savior), so too, do we need Him to accomplish the tasks and mission of discipleship. This is why Jesus told the disciples to wait until they received the Holy Spirit before they went out and tried to “do” anything for Christ. Doing it in the flesh is not going to accomplish the purposes of God.

What is my part in this?

Jesus is with us always in this work, in this great project of transforming our life and the lives of others. This is how we can make an impact upon the world around us. Fleshly wrangling and strife will not accomplish the purposes of God. Those things are just dust in the wind and a distraction from the Kingdom that so many around us need to see. Commit yourself anew to knowing and applying the things that Jesus said so that your life is reflective of His life. Be a disciple. Make disciples through that life wherever you go.

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.

What About Earthly Power?

/ Susan W. LaVelle / 2 Comments

The Apostle Paul, whose name started as Saul, was a sinful man full of pride and willing to see believers in Jesus killed; interestingly enough, though, he was extremely religious, and he had committed everything he had to follow a wrong thinking about the Old Testament law.

As a proud Pharisee, a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” he strictly followed the law in all its forms, and even persecuted to death those who stood in the way of that wrong belief. But Saul met Jesus on the Damascus road in Acts 9 and he become a Christ-follower. As Paul later wrote in Ephesians 3:8, he counted all his worldly and religious success as “dung” (yes, he used the sh** word). All his religiosity and superficial attempts to be holy and right were as dung. His worldly values—to be thought highly of, to be perfect in the eyes of men and God, the zeal for position, his rule-following prowess and commitment—all of it, became as low in value to him as excrement. (Yes, the word he used to describe his former ambitions, is sh** in Greek, but it often gets cleaned up in our English Bibles, translated as “nothing,” “loss,” or “rubbish,” “garbage,” “dirt,” or “trash.”)

Anyway, you should get the picture that he thought all that worldly ambition was as low as it could be and as far from what he wanted in his life when he became a Christ-follower. He was a different person, and eventually, he used a new name, Paul (see Acts 13:1-11).

Recently, someone tried to use Saul/Paul as an example to me of how God uses the worldly and powerful to get his work done on the earth. You can imagine the sort of political point this person was making. The person who said this seemed to think that Christians should emulate Paul because of his position of power. I feel that the words of Paul himself here show how wrong-headed that sort of thinking is. Paul called all his zeal and ambition to accomplish actions for God outside of God’s plan in Jesus as dung, excrement, valueless, something to repent of, something to shun, something to avoid as if you were touching manure.

Paul is only an example to us because he repented and completely submitted his all to God and followed Christ. He changed and became a new person, the old was past. The old was not excused. It was not an example. The heart of the “old religious Saul/Paul” was, as how Jesus described it:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

Matthew 23:27

As such did Jesus describe religious people who think themselves better than others and who thought that by their “activities for God” they were pleasing God, even though what God is interested in is a pure heart and our inside motivations.

Jesus’ showed His value system in His very strong diatribe against religious hypocrisy throughout what he said in Matthew 23. No doubt this made the religious crowd in charge and in power angrier at Him than they already were. He nonetheless spoke it out strongly for them to hear. We need to take this into account because He was not just speaking it out to the religious leaders—although, the power of our leaders to lead astray is judged more harshly because they bear responsibility for the truth and other souls—but all of us must take to heart the call away from religious pride, hypocrisy, and as Jesus put it,

“Woe to you…hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”

Matthew 23:25-26

In this day and age, like all ages before us, we must take it seriously to be following what Jesus said and doing what Jesus would have us do and say and think in the world we live in. We are called to be light and truth for Him and Him only, not for political persons or worldly ideas. Some of our worldly ideas might seem to be based on our faith or Christian teachings, but we must at all times examine ourselves to see if we really are in line with the truth, justice, and what Paul wrote to the Philippians:

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Philippians 4:8

A Living Sacrifice

/ Susan W. LaVelle / Leave a comment

“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.