Tag: the heart

It’s About Love (1 Corinthians 8:1-13)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Now concerning meat that has been sacrificed to a false god: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up. If anyone thinks they know something, they don’t yet know as much as they should know. But if someone loves God, then they are known by God.

So concerning the actual food involved in these sacrifices to false gods, we know that a false god isn’t anything in this world, and that there is no God except for the one God. Granted, there are so-called “gods,” in heaven and on the earth, as there are many gods and many lords. However, for us believers,

There is one God the Father.
        All things come from him, and we belong to him.
And there is one Lord Jesus Christ.
        All things exist through him, and we live through him.

But not everybody knows this. Some are eating this food as though it really is food sacrificed to a real idol, because they were used to idol worship until now. Their conscience is weak because it has been damaged. Food won’t bring us close to God. We’re not missing out if we don’t eat, and we don’t have any advantage if we do eat.But watch out or else this freedom of yours might be a problem for those who are weak. 

Suppose someone sees you (the person who has knowledge) eating in an idol’s temple. Won’t the person with a weak conscience be encouraged to eat the meat sacrificed to false gods? The weak brother or sister for whom Christ died is destroyed by your knowledge. You sin against Christ if you sin against your brothers and sisters and hurt their weak consciences this way. This is why, if food causes the downfall of my brother or sister, I won’t eat meat ever again, or else I may cause my brother or sister to fall. (Common English Bible)

Consider an issue you care about… 

Likely, one of the big reasons you care is that you either see some abuse, neglect, inattention, or lack of love applied toward someone or a group of people. So, you want to see it be different. 

Now, here comes the interesting part: We are motivated by love, but we often end up addressing the problem or issue in the realm of thought and/or belief. We may rely on the political, theoretical, and intellectual to solve the problem.

Our hearts might be open and attuned, and yet we may turn to knowledge and rules to achieve the change we deeply desire.

The Apostle Paul knew that we are primarily lovers – not thinkers or believers. Thinkers and believers traffic in knowledge and belief systems. Although these are important, they are not the primary or ultimate ends for the Apostle. 

Instead of leading with the head, Paul led with the heart. He tackled the divisive issue in the Corinthian Church about whether one can eat food sourced from a pagan temple and originally sacrificed to idols by saying:

“Knowledge makes us proud of ourselves, while love makes us helpful to others.”

Paul began with love and ended with love. The issue of particular kinds of food was neither an intellectual nor a faith issue – it was a love issue. 

Paul’s answer to the problem dividing the Christian believers on food was that food is a secondary issue. Rather, to look at the food issue through the lenses of love, makes it clear what you ought to, or ought not to do. In coming at the issue from this angle, it doesn’t make our thinking and our believing somehow irrelevant; it just places it in its proper place, and supports love.

Whenever our opinions and thoughts, and our faith and beliefs are handled without love, then special interest groups begin to form. A division occurs based upon what we think and believe about certain things. But when love is supreme, knowledge is no longer the tail wagging the dog.

Love is meant to enlighten us. Love illumines not only to the problems among us, but love is also the answer to those issues we care about most. And if we will keep this in both our minds and in our hearts, then we have both added to our knowledge so that we can encourage and build-up others, without discouraging others and tearing them down. 

It really is all about love.

Love rejoices in the truth,
    but not in evil.
Love is always supportive,
loyal, hopeful,
    and trusting.
Love never fails! (1 Corinthians 13:6-8a, CEV)

Loving God, you demonstrated your own love for us through sending us your Son, the Lord Jesus, who is the perfect embodiment of love. May Christ be so manifested within me that love becomes not only the motivator to change, but also the answer to change; through the power and help of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Idea of Spiritual Separation (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them
    and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.”

Therefore,

“Come out from them
    and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
    and I will receive you.”

And,

“I will be a Father to you,
    and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (New International Version)

There are entire Protestant denominations built upon verses such as today’s. They take the admonition to be separate as a cornerstone value. Ever since the Reformation, various Christian groups have struggled to maintain their witness in the world through, essentially, having nothing to do with the world whatsoever.

The dogma of separation inevitably leads to defining precisely what is “worldly” and what isn’t. This is where the idea of creating lists of what’s not acceptable come from. Each group or denomination has it’s own teaching about how to identify oneself as a Christian, and what sorts of behaviors communicate one isn’t a Christian. And the lists often vary quite a bit.

The Puritans had detailed lists and laws of what must be done and not done in order to remain in the community and be pure without spiritually contaminating oneself. For example, here are just a few of the many puritanical laws in Massachusetts in the 1600’s:

Sunday was a holy day. Trade and business were not allowed. No other public meetings could be held (except church services). No travel, except for walking to and from church and for emergencies. No entertainment. Church attendance was required. If a person missed church, they had to go to court (on Monday) and pay a fine.

All the other days were holy, too. Immodest and ostentatious clothes was illegal. Long hair for men was illegal. Smoking was illegal in the street. Courting a girl without her parents’ consent was illegal. Kissing in public was illegal. The following behaviors were illegal: using bad words, drinking too much alcohol, laziness, gluttony, fighting, poorly made products, having a bad attitude, and gossip.

Any violation, in Puritan thought, put the entire community at risk of raising the ire of God – who may punish them with various natural disasters. With all of these laws and lists, there was no opportunity for anyone to ever marry an unbeliever or be in business with a non-Christian, simply because it was illegal to be anything but a Christian!

None of this is meant to pick on the Puritans. It’s commendable that a group of people would want to be holy in all that they do and say. Yet, attempting to legislate every facet of another’s life isn’t so admirable – especially against their own Christian convictions.

Because, the reality of it all is that, in such systems, the few (usually old white guys) make the laws and decisions for everyone else – whether everyone likes it, or not. And worse, the old guys would couch their laws in the pious language of maintaining the common good of all persons (that is, themselves).

That sort of practice is still done today, in every system and every institution; the few call the shots for everyone else. And yes, even in a stated democracy like the United States of America.

So, if that isn’t what the Apostle Paul was getting at with the Corinthian Church, what then did he mean when he talked of separating from unbelievers, not being contaminated, and maintaining purity amongst the community?

Paul was speaking about the reality that the Corinthians – who had been ardent pagan worshipers before their conversion to Christianity – were still making significant accommodations to their surrounding pagan environment. Like a pair of ox yoked together, it just did not work. The two were greatly mismatched; they would not be able to go anywhere or get anything done.

In a series of rhetorical questions, Paul sought to illustrate the incompatibility of being a spiritual square peg trying to fit into a round hole. To be holy means to be set apart for the specific purpose of and devotion to God.

Rather than making holiness be the avoidance of dancing, drinking, playing cards, and dressing up, holiness and purity is to be characterized by righteous humility and gentleness; warm and compelling light; peace and peacemaking, like Christ did; love for fellow believers; and commitment to Christian community.

Put another way, avoiding spiritual contamination means to work on separating from sinful pride; giving into the shadows and the darkness of one’s heart; fostering arguments and division; and being unmerciful.

If the Apostle were to write to us today, on this topic of separation, what would he say to us? Maybe his rhetorical questions would be something like this:

What are you doing, failing to make a distinction between good and bad, right and wrong? How can you partner up with people who have ethics which are opposed to Christ? Can the light of justice ever be best friends with unjust darkness? Do Jesus and Satan ever have a midnight stroll holding hands with each other? Would anyone ever set up a worship altar to the wealthy or powerful in a church building?

Paul may argue, even today, that we contaminate ourselves in rather creative ways by employing illegitimate means to try and accomplish a legitimate need.

The truth is that anything that hinders us from doing God’s will; anyone who draws us away from a good relationship with Jesus; and whatever causes us to put the Christian life on the back burner of life, needs to be jettisoned. It will make us impure, ineffective, and eventually bite us in the backside.

We can always look at other groups of people whom we believe didn’t get things quite right. Yet, we really must deal with ourselves in this moment and for this time. Comparative holiness will get us nowhere (except maybe hell). Instead, let us contend with God and God’s people in ways that are redemptive, life-giving, and helpful for us and for our salvation.

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may love you completely,
and rightly magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The All-Sufficient One (Genesis 17:1-13)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. (New International Version)

There were 13 years between the events of chapters 16 and 17 of Genesis. God’s servant, Abram, did not hear from God in those years. Then, all of a sudden, the Lord showed up, with a new self-reference as “God Almighty.”

“God Almighty” (“El Shaddai,” the all-sufficient God) appeared to Abram. The Lord brought a self-revelation to Abram as the all-competent God, the adequate God, the God who has the big picture and knows what to do with it.

Within those 13 years before El Shaddai showed up, Abram tried his own plan for acquiring an heir to God’s covenant promises. It didn’t go quite as designed. Along with Abram, people in every age need to discover or recover the presence of God Almighty, El Shaddai, the Lord who is completely sufficient for anything and everything in life.

Our role, much like Abram’s, is to bring a wholehearted devotion to our walk with God – not looking for some extra supplement to the Lord, as if divine resources and help is inadequate or untrustworthy. We are to have a sincere and obedient stance toward God Almighty.

Too many people seek to serve two masters, as if this will help cover all the bases of what we need. But Jesus was savvy to this, understanding that it only complicates things:

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

Jesus (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13, NIV)

God Almighty wanted Abram to know and believe that El Shaddai doesn’t allow any dual allegiances – mainly because all of us can only really serve one master.

This realization and determination to serve God Almighty alone elicits El Shaddai giving Abram a new name: Abraham. Knowing God in a new or different way always changes us, as if we are new people with new names. For Abram, now Abraham, the change is one of moving from the “exalted father” who had his own ideas, to the “father of many nations” who will bless all those with the same discovery and determination to let God be God, without all the puny human interference.

And You Shall Circumcise the Flesh of Your Foreskin, by Gerard Hoet (1648-1733)

With any seminal change of life, a very real and tangible sign is important, in order to never forget who God is, and who we as people are. For Abraham and those born to him, circumcision was that sign.

And what a sign it was! God actually told Abraham that all the males in his household were to have their foreskin removed. If anything, this was a sign given which could never get lost! It was enduring, always there, and unforgettable. It is a constant reminder that the people of Abraham, the Hebrews, are to be different and singularly devoted to El Shaddai.

In Christianity, we are to have a circumcision of the heart, and not necessarily the flesh. It is the heart, which is to be completely devoted to God Almighty, that is, the entirety of a person’s life. The whole person is to be oriented to one master who rules both body and soul.

A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God. (Romans 2:28-29, NIV)

The one devoted to God Almighty in Jesus Christ is to use body, mind, emotions, and spirit for good divine purposes. Christians are meant to rely solely and completely upon Christ. They are to take every action, every thought, every feeling, every imagination and make it captive to Christ.

To be circumcised is to be set apart for good and noble purposes, to have a heart fully devoted to God Almighty as the ever-living, ever-loving, all-sufficient Sovereign of the universe.

God Almighty, open our eyes that we may see; incline our hearts that we may desire; and order our steps that we may follow the way of your commandments, now and forever, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, for all time. Amen.

Turning the Hearts of Parents and Children (Malachi 3:16-4:6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Then those who honored the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened and heard them. The names of those who honored the Lord and respected him were written in his presence in a book to be remembered.

The Lord All-Powerful says, “They belong to me; on that day they will be my very own. As a parent shows mercy to his child who serves him, I will show mercy to my people. You will again see the difference between good and evil people, between those who serve God and those who don’t.

“There is a day coming that will burn like a hot furnace, and all the proud and evil people will be like straw. On that day they will be completely burned up so that not a root or branch will be left,” says the Lord All-Powerful. “But for you who honor me, goodness will shine on you like the sun, with healing in its rays. You will jump around, like well-fed calves. Then you will crush the wicked like ashes under your feet on the day I will do this,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

“Remember the teaching of Moses my servant, those laws and rules I gave to him on Mount Sinai for all the Israelites.

“But I will send you Elijah the prophet before that great and terrifying day of the Lord’s judging. Elijah will help parents love their children and children love their parents. Otherwise, I will come and put a curse on the land.” (New Century Version)

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, twenty-five million children in America — one out of every three — live in biological father-absent homes. The National Fatherhood Initiative reports that nine in ten American parents agree this is a “crisis.”  Consequently, there is a “father factor” in many social issues today. Children with involved fathers do better across every measure of child well-being than their peers in father-absent homes.

From a biblical perspective, the relationship between fathers and children is hugely important not only for the well-being of family and society, but for God’s people. Fathers in ancient Israel were the primary instructors of God’s covenant to their children. This responsibility was critical to ensuring success in Israel and in obeying their God. 

The fact of the matter in the prophet Malachi’s day was that, for the most part, the fathers blew it. The last verse of the Old Testament ends on a note of coming judgment. However, that’s not the end of the story because the prophet Elijah will come to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and vice versa.

John the Baptist, Jesus said, was the Elijah to come:

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 11:12-15, NIV)

In the Christian tradition, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to the people. Therefore, fathers who follow Jesus have a sacred responsibility to gently guide their kids to Christ. It’s important for Christian dads to take up the mantle of teaching children the ways of God, especially as expressed by Jesus.  

God is on a mission of restoration; and a good place to begin is with restoring relationships between fathers and children. In fact, it behooves all fathers to step back and slow down enough to consider what the nature of their family relationships are really like – taking action to instruct kids in both word and deed.

The word catechism derives from the Greek language and means “instruction.” Ever since the start of the Protestant Reformation, learning about God has often taken the form of catechetical teaching. Catechisms vary in length with a pedagogical question-and-answer format. Typically included are explanations on the Apostle’s Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer.

Question and answer 104 of the Reformed Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, says this:

Q. What is God’s will for you in the fifth commandment?

A. That I honor, love, and be loyal to my father and mother and all those in authority over me; that I submit myself with proper obedience to all their good teaching and discipline; and also that I be patient with their failings – for through them God chooses to rule us.

A simple observation: Children cannot obey what they have not been taught. Underpinning all submission and obedience of both divine and human authority is the basic assumption that parents will instruct their children in the way of sound theology, biblical ethics, and religious piety.

What’s more, we are all spiritual fathers and mothers to a host of children in our sphere of influence. This is a foundational way of relating to one another, and so, deliberate intention and effort needs to be placed here. Otherwise, there is religious decline with neither social nor familial cohesion.

This planet has quite enough curses upon it; we need not add to it by having constant friction and estrangement between parents and children. So, let us love one another through careful training, effective teaching, and gracious tutoring so that righteousness will shine like a cloudless dawn and rise to warm the world with the love of God.

Gracious God, thank you for the gift of children. Teach me your ways of grace so that I might pass them on to children, in the merciful name of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.