Jesus Christ – Page 35 – Like An Anchor

Crash-Course In James: Pre-Reqs for Paul, Part One

3 July, 20212 July, 2021Marissa

There’s evidence that when the books of the New Testament were first put together, they were in a different order than we’re familiar with today. Most notably, James, Peter, John, and Jude’s letters that we call the “general epistles” or “catholic epistles” used to be located between Acts and Romans (click here to learn more). At one time, if you read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation you’d read the general epistles before getting to Paul’s letters. This makes a great deal of sense because the general epistles are phrased in simpler language and provide a foundation for linking Jesus’s teachings, the Old Testament, and our lives as New Covenant believers. They’re sort of like a pre-requisite course to help us with understanding Paul, much like you should take an intro to biology class before you try to tackle advanced genetics.

James’s epistle/letter is the first of these general epistles. While there’s controversy about which James wrote this letter, he has typically been accepted as an apostle who could write authoritatively on the Christian faith. He addresses his letter “to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad” (James 1:1, NET), and the focus of this letter remains on those people. Adam Clarke’s commentary says, “The epistle itself is entirely different in its complexion from all those in the sacred canon; the style and manner are more that of a Jewish prophet than a Christian apostle. … It may be considered a sort of connecting link between Judaism and Christianity, as the ministry of John Baptist was between the old covenant and the new” (see Clarke’s introduction to James). This emphasis on the Jewish people shouldn’t be shocking–Jesus and all His first followers (including the many people named James mentioned in scripture) were Jewish or from another Israelitish background (e.g. the Samaritans).

The fact that James spends time bridging the gap between Old and New Testaments and that he speaks generally about a variety of Christian-living topics makes this letter great background reading for Paul. In books like Romans and Galatians, Paul deep-dives into the relationships between Jews, Gentiles, Law, and Covenants. It’s hard to understand what he’s talking about in those letters if we aren’t already familiar with the law and covenants that Paul references or if we’re not clear on how Jesus’s coming updated/changed that law and covenants for modern believers (both Jew and Gentile). James and the other general epistles talk about the sort of foundational things of our faith that we need to understand before moving forward into the deeper things God teaches, and which we need to keep reinforcing so that we can stay aligned with truth.

Active, Living Faith

James begins his letter by jumping right into this: “My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials” (1:2, NET). No preamble or introductions–we’re right into talking about joy and trials. It’s a message we need to hear today as well, and it leads-in to one of the strongest themes of James’s letter: faith. We’re to consider the trials a joy “because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (1:3, NET) and that this testing proves the genuineness of your faith (1:12). After that, endurance’s effect is that we become “perfect and complete, not deficient in anything” (1:4). That’s another key theme to James’s letter: faith is meant to have a tangible effect.

But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out—he will be blessed in what he does
James 1:22-25, NET

We’re supposed to “do” the law–to live it out–rather than violate or ignore it. James emphasizes for his readers that the law they’d been familiar with for so long isn’t gone, and the same God who gave that Law is still sovereign. James does not, however, promote legalistic application of the law. Rather, he provides groundwork for Paul’s teachings about how the law operates on a spiritual level today. James also assures his readers that “mercy triumphs over judgement” (2:8-13). We don’t need to freak-out about trying to make others do what’s right or worry that God will cut us off the moment we slip up. Rather, we ought to focus on living out “the royal law as expressed in this scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (2:8, NET). That will make our faith genuine.

So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that—and tremble with fear. … For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:17-19, 26, NET

This is part of a longer section on faith and works (click here to read the whole thing). James seems to be confronting the idea that faith is the only thing we need now that Jesus has come. This is an idea we can find in some churches today as well, where people teach grace as if it means we have license to sin because God is willing to forgive. James counters that sort of idea by saying belief which does not result in action is as useless as the sort of “faith” that demons have. It seems a bit harsh to compare a person’s profession of faith to a demon’s belief in God, but I assume that indicates how serious James believed this problem is. Faith without works is dead. If we want living faith, then it needs to produce something good.

Life-Changing Faith

In the early New Testament church, as in many places today, there were those who believed that Jesus did away with all God’s laws and made it so Christians could have a relationship with Him but still go on and live however they wanted. That idea horrified the apostles. It’s one of the things James combats by saying that “faith without works is useless” (2:20, NET). Only foolish people would think that God’s grace should be used as an excuse not to live a godly life.

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct he should show his works done in the gentleness that wisdom brings. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and not hypocritical. And the fruit that consists of righteousness is planted in peace among those who make peace.
James 3:13-18, NET

Good and evil are very real things, and God cares deeply about which one we practice. Becoming friends with the world and giving into the baser “passions that battle inside you” makes you a hostile enemy of God (4:1, 4). We must “resist the devil,” make our hearts pure, and humble ourselves” before the Lord” (4:7-10). We cannot maintain a good relationship with God while also giving into whatever we desire. Trying to live according to our lusts and according to God’s way at the same time is one of the things that makes someone “a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways” (1:8, NET, see also 4:8). We need to be committed to our faith, and participate in God’s work as He makes us more and more like Him. Once God teaches us what “good” is, then we ought to do what is good. And we also need to recognize that if we’re not doing what is good we are guilty of sin. If we don’t recognize that, then we won’t know to repent, ask for forgiveness, and keep coming back to God when we “miss the mark” (a Hebrew idiom for sin). God is eager to give grace, mercy, and forgiveness but we also play a role in that since we need to know to ask for it as part of our participation in His covenant.

So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin.
James 4:17, NET

Our Responsibilities

Once of the main things that holds people back from truly living in faith is pride. Again and again James warns against this tendency. He tells us to never let our own successes make us proud (1:9-11), not to base our judgements of a person’s value on anything external, nor on what we might get from them (2:1-9), not to be ruled by our own lusts (4:1-7), and never to exploit others or prioritize ourselves over them (5:1-6). We’re not even supposed to “speak against one another,” for that makes us “not a doer of the law but its judge” (4:11-12, NET). The Lawgiver is the only qualified judge; our job is to do what is right, not to arbitrate God’s law (though there are a few exceptions where believers are expected to pass certain types of judgements within the church, such as Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians).

It’s challenging enough trying to control the use of our own tongues (3:1-12) and to live within the Lord’s will (4:13-17). Policing others is outside our responsibilities. Rather, our relationships should be based on fulfilling “the royal law as expressed in this scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (2:8, NET). In that spirit, if we see someone wandering from the truth we can help them back to God in a humble, loving way without becoming a judge in the way James condemns (5:19-20). Basically, our primary responsibility is to live a godly life that produces fruitful faith.

So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s return. Think of how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient for it until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near. Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates! As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
James 5:7-11, NET

These lines near the close of James’s letter bring us full-circle. We’re back to the idea of patient endurance while going through trails. And I don’t think it just means the sort of major trials alluded to by referencing a story like Job; it also includes the “smaller,” ongoing struggle of living a godly life every day in a world that’s hostile to godly things. We need the sort of patience and strength that James talks about here so that we can endure to the end. This is also something Peter is going to talk about in the next general epistle, which (if everything goes well with writing that) we’ll be talking about in next week’s post.

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“Instead, I am single-minded”: Learning from Paul’s Focus on Jesus

26 June, 202125 June, 2021Marissa

This is a bit shorter than most of the Bible Study posts I share on Saturdays. I’ve been working on a study of James and it’s just not ready yet (an understatement, since I’m guessing I’ve only written about 1/3 of it so far). So for today, I want to share some thoughts about yet another scripture that relates to that double-minded study that we started back in January and which I wrote more about in May when my scripture writing group at church was writing out double-minded scriptures. Here’s the scripture:

Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.
Philippians 3:12-15, NET

There are only two or three (depending on the translation) scriptures that directly talk about double-mindedness. Similarly, there aren’t many that talk about the opposite: single-mindedness. Once again, how often “single-minded” appears (if at all) depends on translation. The NET version of Philippians 3:13 is one that does talk about being single-minded, though a footnote on that verse says a more literal translation of the Greek phrase here is “But this one thing (I do).”

As you might know if you’ve been reading for a while, I love Philippians 3 (you can click here to read a whole post on it). This is where Paul shares his thoughts on following Jesus. He talks about everything he gave up and the terrible things he as suffered since his conversion, and boldly proclaims that it was all worth it because following Jesus is worth so, so much more than anything he lost.

But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:7-11, NET

Paul’s wording here stirs something in me every time I read it. What a high level of commitment and engagement, and what an expression of love and joy! This is one passage I go to if I’m feeling discouraged or if I ever catch myself wondering if this way of life is worth it. Paul went through a lot more severe trials than I have, and he thought following Christ was well worth any suffering or loss. More than that, Paul was eager to keep going and to know Christ more deeply. For him, even suffering could be a joyful thing because it was shared with Christ. Though “single-minded” might not be a direct translation of the Greek words Paul used in verse 13, it is an accurate representation of his level of focus. Let’s look at those verses one more time.

Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.
Philippians 3:12-15, NET

Here, Paul calls on all who are “perfect” to share his single-minded focus on God. He wants us to “embrace this point of view” or, in other words, to “have this mind” that’s wholly focused on God (Phil. 3:15, NKJV). This is something we can all work on even if we don’t feel “perfect.” The really encouraging thing about how the Bible talks about people who are “perfect” is that God applies that title to anyone who is on the path toward perfection. For example, God describes Job as “perfect” at the beginning of the book, before Job grows and deepens his relationship with God during the course of the story. As long as we’re trying to become perfect and following God with our whole hearts, souls, and minds then He considers us “perfect.”

Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we have already attained. Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example.
Philippians 3:16-17, NET

Today, let’s follow Paul’s example of being single-minded in following God. There are so many ways we can distract ourselves in today’s world but one thing is worth focusing on more than all the other stuff. Rather than letting ourselves excessively dwell on things that aren’t nearly as important as our relationship with God, let’s have the same mind that Paul models and be whole-hearted in our devotion to God.

Do You Want To Become Well?

19 June, 202125 June, 2021Marissa

How would you answer if Jesus asked, “Do you want to become well?”

For most, if not all, of us, I think our first instinctive response would be something like, “Yes! Of course I want to be well.” But let’s ponder this a little more. The man Jesus addressed this question to in John 5 “had been disabled for 38 years” (5:5, NET). We don’t know how old he was, but I’m guessing that was at least half his life. Healing would have been a major change to his status-quo. I don’t have experience being physically disabled, but the idea that healing involves a huge change is something I talked about years ago with my first counselor. I was there to overcome and manage anxiety and depression, but the idea of living without those things made me anxious. They’d been such a big part of me for so long that I didn’t know who I’d be without them. My answer to, “Do you want to be made well?” was “I think so?”

What if the question was specifically about spiritual healing? As Chris Tiegreen says in 365 Pocket Devotions, “Jesus knows that sometimes, as much as we think we want to change, we’re comfortable with the status quo. We say we want to be delivered of our sins, but we still look for ways to be tempted by them. … we must be prepared for radical change if we want a real encounter with him” (p. 160). Being healed by Jesus involves a significant change in our lives. The analogy C.S. Lewis uses is that we’re not a field that Jesus needs to mow to get the overgrown grass under control; we’re one that needs to be plowed up and re-sown to produce wheat. Truly becoming well involves a radical, whole-life alteration of our status quo.

We need to be healed

Jesus preached repentance and forgiveness of sins to the world. This message wasn’t received well by those who thought they didn’t need to repent. In fact, those people judged Jesus for spending time “with tax collectors and sinners” (Matt. 9:11, WEB). That attitude didn’t impress Jesus, though. He wasn’t there just to focus on people who thought they didn’t need Him. He came to heal people.

Behold, they brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you.”
Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.”
Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—” (then he said to the paralytic), “Get up, and take up your mat, and go to your house.”
He arose and departed to his house.
Matthew 9:2-7, WEB

With this miracle, Jesus dramatically changed a man’s life. He proved He could heal both physically and spiritually, and He taught that His power to heal physically pointed to His power to heal spiritually. Right after this healing, Jesus called Matthew (a tax collector) to follow Him, then overheard the Pharisees asking His disciples why their rabbi would associate with tax collectors and sinners.

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Matthew 9:12-13, WEB

When Jesus looks at sinners (a group we’re all part of), He sees people who need healing. When we resist repentance or don’t recognize our need for His forgiveness, it’s as crazy as running away from someone who could stop you from having a heart attack or falling prey to a nasty virus.

Jesus’s healing is able to save us

Jesus is willing to heal and cleanse us. He invites all of us to come to Him, repent, ask for His help, and receive forgiveness and renewed spiritual health. Sometimes (and for a whole host of reasons) we may not receive the physical healings we ask for, but He always grants forgiveness to repentant sinners. Some sins may still have consequences (e.g. when God forgives someone for breaking “thou shalt not steal” it may not stop them from facing fines or prison time) but when Jesus heals us spiritually, He ensures that those consequences will not include us dying for our own sins.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed. For you were going astray like sheep but now you have turned back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2:24-25, NET

Even when God disciplines us, it’s for the purpose of healing (Heb. 12:11-13). We should also work alongside God to “be healthy in the faith” (Tit. 1:13, NET). In that verse from Titus, the word for “healthy” is the same word used in Luke’s version of “Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do” (Luke 5:31, NET). In Greek, it’s hugiainō, which means “to be sound, to be well, to be in good health” (Thayer’s dictionary entry G5198). Interestingly, this word is also used of “sound doctrine/words” (1 Tim. 1:10; 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Tit. 1:9; 2:1). In order to stay sound and healthy after we’re initially healed, we need to keep doing things related to good spiritual health. That includes taking in the “sound words” of God and asking Jesus for continued healing/forgiveness as we make mistakes.

Accepting Jesus’s offer of healing means a radical change in our lives. It means admitting we need healing and wanting it enough to ask for forgiveness and let Him heal us. It means putting off the “old man” (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9) and following Jesus, being remade in His image. It means learning from God’s correction and discipline as we hold on to sound, healthy doctrine and do our best to follow Him. And it means joy, peace, and spiritual health like we can’t find anywhere else. There’s so much to look forward to about the changes that happen as Jesus continues to work with, heal, and befriend us.

So, do you want to become well?

Holding on to Our Joy in the Lord

12 June, 202125 June, 2021Marissa

We don’t often give the minor prophets much attention, beyond telling the story of Jonah or studying some sections if you’re curious about future and fulfilled prophecies. I find, though, that when I do study them or run across a verse from one in word searches that their messages are often surprisingly relevant for today. The section of a minor prophet’s book to most recently catch my eye is a verse at the end of Habakkuk.

The short book of Habakkuk records an exchange between the prophet and God, then ends with a psalm/prayer. At the beginning, Habakkuk looked at the nation around him and cried out to the Lord about how “the law lacks power, and justice is never carried out” (Hab. 1:4, NET). He wants God to intervene and make things right, as so many of us want today. However, when God answers it is not the way Habakkuk hoped or expected. God says He’s going to “empower the Babylonians” (Hab. 1:6) to take over Israel.

Habakkuk is so horrified that he argues with God (Hab. 1:12-2:1). God is not obligated to explain Himself to people, yet in this case he does. He talks about how people of integrity ought to live (“the righteous will live by his faith,” see Hab 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38), and contrasts how He relates to those people with what awaits the wicked. He proclaims, “Woe!” to those who’ve rejected Him and promises that “recognition of the Lord’s sovereign majesty will fill the earth” (Hab. 2:14, NET). It’s quite a lengthy response (Hab. 2:2-20), and Habakkuk seems satisfied with it since the next part of the book is a prayer, likely set to music, praising God. That’s where we’ll focus today.

Receiving Good and Evil from the Lord

Earlier, Habakkuk protested the Lord’s plan to punish His people, but now after talking with God the prophet’s perspective changed. In the prayer recorded at the end of this short book, there’s an odd mix of talking about destruction and salvation. People today often struggle to reconcile the idea of a God that would allow suffering with a God that is salvation, deliverance, and love. Habakkuk doesn’t seem to have that trouble.

Yahweh, I have heard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh.
Renew your work in the middle of the years.
In the middle of the years make it known.
In wrath, you remember mercy. …
Plague went before him,
and pestilence followed his feet.
He stood, and shook the earth.
He looked, and made the nations tremble. …
You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the land of wickedness.
You stripped them head to foot. Selah.
Habakkuk 3:2, 5-6, 13, WEB

This reminds me of a question Job asked his wife: “Should we not receive what is good from God and not also receive what is evil?” (Job 2:10, NET). If we believe God is sovereign and that He is responsible for all the good things that happen in our lives, then we ought to trust Him through the bad things as well. There could be something going on that we don’t know about, such as Job suffering as part of God showing that one man’s faith, tested by fire, could make a cosmic difference. Or maybe God is punishing an unfaithful nation and we get caught up in that even though we’re faithful, as happened here with Habakkuk. Or maybe He’s allowing suffering in order to test, refine, and strengthen us (which is the context that the New Testament writers usually mean when they talk about God testing or trying us. See, for example, 1 Pet. 1:6-8; 4:12-13). Whatever the reason for the suffering, the message Habakkuk holds onto is that God is still worthy of trust. He has a plan. He will take salvation action. The timing for that might not make sense to us (yet), but that does not cancel-out the fact that we can have faith in the Lord’s plan and His goodness.

Holding on to Joy

At the end of the prayer, Habakkuk voices some very understandable nervousness. He talks of trembling, knowing that he “must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming of the people who will invade us” (Hab. 3:17, WEB). He has talked with God about what will happen in the future, accepted the Lord’s response, and decided to trust. He is still nervous, but then he makes a very powerful statement of radical faith.

For though the fig tree doesn’t flourish,
nor fruit be in the vines;
the labor of the olive fails,
the fields yield no food;
the flocks are cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls:
yet I will rejoice in Yahweh.
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength.
He makes my feet like deer’s feet,
and enables me to go in high places.
Habakkuk 3:17-19, WEB

Even if the food supply collapses and the country is overrun by invaders, Habakkuk intends to rejoice. He is not rejoicing because those bad things happen, but because they have no power to take away the true cause of Habakkuk’s joy. God is sovereign! He is salvation and strength! That’s not going to change, and holding on to that truth lets us rejoice in Him and claim Him as our savior. No matter what comes, we can imitate Habakkuk’s faith and boldly say, “I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

What Is Real?

5 June, 202125 June, 2021Marissa

I’ve been thinking about reality lately, for several reason. I recently started a new job where I’m tutoring younger kids than I’ve worked with before, and one of the things taught alongside reading skills is how to identify clues that let you know whether a story is realistic or fantasy. As a writer and avid reader, though, I know how easy it can be to blur those lines. You might do tons of research to write a very accurate, realistic setting (for example) then throw a dragon or werewolves into the story. Also, people can define “realistic” differently. A flood covering the world or a dead man coming back to life seem like fantasy to many, but for Christians the Bible is realistic and it’s non-fiction.

The question, “What’s really going on here?” is one that the Bible asks and answers, mostly indirectly. Satan started out his attacks on both Eve and Jesus by questioning the nature of reality. To Eve, he said, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” ( Gen. 3:1, WEB, emphasis added). To Jesus, he called the reality of who He is into question by saying, “If you are the Son of God…” (Matt. 4:3, 6, WEB, emphasis added). In sharp contrast to the adversary’s scheming and questioning, God is very open with us about the nature of reality. He tells us how things are, what will happen in the future, what the consequences are for different choices, and which things will endure forever so we know where to put our focus and energy. In other words, God shares truth with us about what is real.

The Best Place to Find Real Truth

Truth, and along with it the notion of an objective reality, has largely been rejected by modern society. Faced with the realization that there are an infinite number of perspectives and ideas, the world has made the terrible decision to try and act as if they were all equally valuable no matter how contradictory or crazy they seem. We can’t even agree on a “fact” anymore. There’s no need for such confusion, though. There is such a thing as reality and truth and the Bible, along with the holy spirit, is the key to figuring out what that is.

This notion doesn’t sit well with many people. Even some believers might balk at the idea at times. We all want so badly to be right. We want our take on things to be real. We’ve been told for years to follow our hearts and trust ourselves. And yet, “the human mind is more deceitful than anything else” (Jer. 17:9, NET). The inside of our own heads is a terrible place to look for truth. According to psychological studies, we can’t even trust that our own memories are accurate. Spiritually speaking, we might even be dead, “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” without realizing it! (Rev. 3:1, 17, NET). If we want to know how things really are and what truth is, we need to look to God.

Focusing on What is Most Important

I feel like I’ve been spending a lot of time in 1 Corinthians 2 over the past few months (both in blog posts and for the double-minded scripture writing theme), and we’re back here again today. In this section of scripture, Paul talks about the difference between worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom, showing us how God transforms our spirits, minds, and hearts with His Spirit. Much like the spirit (G4151, pneuma, spirit, soul, life, breath) inside us understands us better than we understand other people, the Spirit in God knows “the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:9-11).

But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. … Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. … “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
1 Corinthians 2:14, 16, 18, WEB

We can only understand the Truth behind perceived reality through God’s spirit in us. Specifically, what we see physically only hints at what is the most real. This creation will pass away, replaced by a new, more enduring creation. The battles we fight today are not as they appear; they are really “against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12, WEB). Even the Law possesses only “a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself” (Heb. 10:1, NET)–“The reality is Christ!” (Col. 2:17, NET).

The physical seems very real, and in many ways it is. We’re not living in a fake world, but one that God created and gave to us. And yet, when we start to perceive things with the mind of Christ it changes how we look at reality. We start to understand why it makes sense for Jesus to tell us we shouldn’t worry about things like food and clothing and should instead focus on seeking “God’s kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:25-34). It’s not the things we can see and touch that are most important, but the spiritual things which God invites us to take part of.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18, NET

Making Time for Our Real Lives With God

The Bible never tells us that this physical life doesn’t matter or that God doesn’t care about how we choose to live these lives. God’s word does, however, tell us the physical matters less than the spiritual. We must not let temporary things distract us from the true riches that can be found eternally with God.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21, NET

Investing in the spiritual ensures that our hearts are in the right place (i.e. with God) and that the things we spend our time on are real, true, and lasting. In today’s world, there are many possible distractions. We might be distracted worrying about bad news or the threat of future troubles. We might loose ourselves in entertainment like movies, books, and video games (something I personally find very tempting). Or we could just be so busy with our daily lives that we push spending time on the spiritual off until later. But we need to commit ourselves to prioritizing our relationship with God and investing in what will really, truly last beyond this physical life.

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Featured image by Anggie from Lightstock

Grain, Vines, and Olives: Becoming Part of God’s Fruitful People

29 May, 202125 June, 2021Marissa

The Bible uses a lot of agricultural imagery. You’re probably most familiar with this from Jesus’s parables about sowers and fields, or His statement “I am the vine.” These sorts of analogies are rooted both in the culture of Jesus’s day and in the Old Testament writings, and they focus on three types of plants: grain, vines, and olive trees. Those plants are also the three main agricultural products of Palestinian farming: “grain, new wine, and oil” (Theological Wordbook: Old Testament, entry 1040a). These three things figured prominently in scripture, mostly in tithes and offerings (Lev. 23:13; Deut. 14:23; 18:4; 2 Chr. 31:5; Neh. 10:39; 13-12) and promised blessings (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 31:12; Hos. 2:8, 22; Joel 2:19, 24).

Grain, vines, and olive trees were a key part of culture in Bible times and they’re used in teachings that are a key part of our faith. The study I’m sharing today started out with the question, “How can we bear fruit for God?” and the more I looked into it the more fascinated I became with the way God and the writers He inspired use these three plants to tell us about His plan, kingdom, and relationship with people. At first, I planned to divide this up into three posts (one for each type of plant), but the way the Bible talks about them is so intertwined I don’t think that would be useful. That means today’s post is a little on the long side, but I hope you’ll find this study as interesting as I do 🙂

A Brief History of God’s Vineyard

Obviously, grain, vines, and olives are useful for physical things. They were key to food production, they were used extensively for tithes and offerings, and olive wood played an important role in construction. In addition to these uses (and perhaps because these plants were so well-known and widely used), the Bible also talks about metaphors and spiritual parallels for us using these three types of plants and their produce. Hosea offers a great example of this.

Near the beginning of Hosea’s book, God brings a complaint against Israel, His unfaithful wife who “has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil” (2:8, NET). God’s punishment for her idolatry was to “take back my grain … and my new wine,” turning the cultivated land for food production into an “uncultivated thicket” (2:12, 15). That’s not the end of the story, though.

I will commit myself to you in faithfulness;
then you will acknowledge the Lord.
“At that time, I will willingly respond,” declares the Lord.
“I will respond to the sky,
and the sky will respond to the ground;
then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;
and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)!
Then I will plant her as my own in the land.
Hosea 2:20-23, NET

When a new covenant is restored with God’s people Israel, the agricultural blessings return. God’s people are compared to “a fertile vine that yielded fruit” (Hos. 10:1, NET). In this passage, Israel is also counseled to plow up the ground of their lives and bear new crop–righteousness and love rather than wickedness and injustice (10:11-13). Here in Hosea, we see the fruit of grain, grape, and olive plants used to speak of blessings, punishment, and (most relevant to today’s topic) the state of human hearts. Are we planted by God, or growing wild? Are we sowing with a good harvest in mind, or investing in bearing bad fruit?

Cultivating a Faithful People

In the Old Testament, Israel is often compared to a vine. Typically, it’s in a negative context. Israel was a vine that betrayed God and so He withdrew His protection from them (Psalm 80:8-16). It was a vineyard where the grapes went sour, rotten, and foul (Is. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:21). It was a fruitful vine that used its fruit to worship a false god (Hos. 10:1). The consequences of all this unfaithfulness was to be punished, burned like a dried-out vine cut away from a plant (Ezk. 15:1-7; 19:10-14). There is, however, a promise of restoration. The Lord will protect and water His vineyard, and Israel will blossom and thrive (Is. 27:1-6; Hos. 14:4-8).

The way the prophets talked about Israel as a vine would have been very familiar to the Jewish people of Jesus’s day. When He taught parables which compared the kingdom of God to a vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16; 21:33-46), His listeners would have connected it to what they heard read in the temple about Israel as God’s vineyard. And when Jesus spoke of a vineyard where the people tending it betrayed the owner, the “chief priests and the Pharisees … realized that he was speaking about them” when Jesus said, “for this reason I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce it’s fruit” (Matt. 21:43-46, NET).

Jesus–as the Word who delivered God’s message to the prophets–knew exactly what He was doing when He compared the kingdom of God to a vineyard, showed that the Lord is the only one with the right to decide how that vineyard is managed, and warned that the unfaithful would not be allowed to grow in the kingdom/vineyard forever (Matt. 15:12-13). Much like the parables where Jesus compares His people and people’s reactions to His word to grain (Matt. 13:18-30), the way Jesus talks about vines shows that the kingdom’s inhabitants are not a group which automatically includes any one type of people based on their background. He’s specifically cultivating a field/vineyard full of faithful people, regardless of where they started out “growing.”

All Nations Grafted In

We’ll come back to the idea of fruitfulness, but this last point about a change in the composition of the field/vineyard also connects to an olive tree analogy that Paul uses in Romans. Like vines and grain, olives figure prominently in scripture. Olive oil was used to anoint kings and priests, and as part of the offerings. Olive wood was used to build sukkas (Neh. 8:15) and in the temple construction (1 Kings 6:23, 31-33). Someone who trusts “in God’s loyal love” is “like a flourishing olive tree” (Ps. 52:8, NET). Much like the vine imagery, Israel was also called a once fruitful and “thriving olive tree” that became “good for nothing” through unfaithfulness and was set on fire (Jer. 11:16, NET).

It’s with that background that Paul uses olive trees imagery to show his gentile readers how they relate to the Jews (which represented one tribe of Israel, Judah, though Paul uses them to stand-in for all of physical Israel). Even in the Old Testament, the name “Israel” referred to both a physical nation and to a smaller group of spiritual, faithful believers (Rom. 11:1-4). A similar thing is happening today, only now this faithful remnant doesn’t just include descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It includes those who were once outside Israel as well and who’ve responded to God’s call (Rom. 11:5-16).

To illustrate this, Paul compares Israel to a cultivated olive tree and the Gentiles (ethnos in Greek; tribes, peoples, nations) to a wild olive tree. Both groups are olives–people made in the image of God–but one has a longer history of being chosen, tended, and cultivated by God for a specific purpose. Now, the Master Gardener is expanding His cultivation project. He’s pruning out those who do not believe and grafting in those who have faith. Which olive tree you came from doesn’t matter; only the state of your heart (Rom. 11:17-24). In other words, God is still working in the same vineyard/field/orchard that He has always had, cultivating a kingdom people, but He is bringing new vines and branches in and grafting them all onto one Root.

How to Bear Fruit for God

Jesus is the holy root which makes the branches grafted into Him holy (Is. 11:1-10; 53:1-5; Rom. 11:16; 15:8-13; Eph. 3:16-19; Col. 2:6-7; Rev. 5:5; 22:16). Remember all those verses about Israel as an unfaithful, fruitless vineyard and the prophecy about future growth? Jesus is how that prophecy is fulfilled.

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.”
John 15:1-8, NET

See how this echoes so many of the prophecies we’ve looked at? Jesus reveals that He is the one we need to have a relationship with in order to be fruitful. Without Him, we wither away like ancient Israel so often did as they strayed into unbelief. The emphasis on being rooted also echoes other prophresies that talk of God’s people being rooted (Is. 27:6; 37:31-21; Jer. 17:7-8). The closer we are to God, the more firmly we’re rooted and the more we thrive. And the more we study what the whole Bible says about the way God’s people are like grain, vines, and olives the better we understand what Jesus is teaching us in passages like this one where He says, “I am the vine.”

God is looking for fruit from the people growing in His vineyard. He exercises patience, encouraging us to grow, but if we refuse to keep abiding in Him, He won’t force us to stay and bear fruit (Luke 13:6-9). We can’t grow and fruit without Him (1 Cor. 3:6-9), but we are also active participants in this fruitfulness and we are free to disconnect from the root and be unfruitful if we choose (as so many Jewish people of Jesus’s day chose to do when they rejected Him as the Messiah). When we choose to abide in Jesus, though, we will abound in the fruits of His spirit (Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:8-11; 2 Pet. 1:5-8). In His grace, goodness, and love, God has opened the way through Jesus’s sacrifice for all people everywhere to become part of His kingdom-garden. Let’s stay close to Him, rooted with faith and trusting Him to supply all we need to grow and thrive and bear fruit that glorifies our Father.

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