Tag: Travis Peterson

Sometimes we forget the amazing things that God is doing in the small parts of the big stories of the Bible. Notice what happens as God wraps up the book of Genesis. Earlier, we have seen God make a promise in the Garden of Eden that a descendant of the woman would come into the world and crush the devil, thus setting things right in a world gone wrong. Then, centuries later, God made a promise to Abram (Abraham) that he would have a family through whom God would bring someone to bless all nations on earth. Then we saw Isaac and Jacob begin the nation-making process, but it was slow. And, finally, we watched Joseph sold to Egypt, preparing the way for the family to move.

 

In chapter 46, we see that God moved the family to Egypt, a total of 70 people in all. Joseph, because of his position in Pharaoh’s court, had the knowledge and influence to see to it that his family would live in the land of Goshen. And Joseph had the savvy to tell his family exactly what to say to the king to get things to happen the right way.

 

Genesis 46:33 – When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

 

All this seems neat. Joseph has landed a pasture for his family to keep sheep. They will survive the famine. That is nice.

 

But, God is doing something more, something quite special. Of all the places this family could have moved, Egypt was interesting. Egypt is not part of the promised land. Egypt is not the land flowing with milk and honey. Egypt is not where God promised Abraham that his family would live. So, why Egypt?

 

Only in Egypt was there a place that Israel and his family could move and be kept separate from the locals. The Egyptians had that interesting aversion to shepherds. So, Israel could move his family there, work, live, and be left alone.

 

One thing that God was doing was sovereignly moving things to allow the family of Israel to grow into the nation of Israel. God put them in a place where they could grow for hundreds of years without being noticed on the world stage. The family could grow, and be separated from the influences of the Canaanite religions and even from the Egyptian polytheism. As I once heard a teacher say, God placed the nation in an incubator where they could grow, free from pagan infection, for the centuries needed to become the nation of Israel we have come to know. God acted to preserve his promise, to keep the family alive, and to make it possible to bring the promised one into the world.

 

God is doing more in Scripture than we sometimes see. And we should learn from it to trust him and to know that he is on his throne. No, Jacob never planned to move to Egypt. He probably was not a big fan of leaving his homeland. But God used that move to build the nation. God used that move to keep his promise. And God can use our circumstances to work his will in our lives too, regardless of how well we realize what he is up to.

The honesty of the Scriptures is lovely to behold. God, in the inspiration of his holy word, did not remove from the lips or the pens of the authors of the various books the pain, hardships, foibles, and failures they faced. It is good, very good, that we see that they did not all have it easy. It is good, very good, that we understand that they had fear, doubt, frustrations, and all the rest.

 

In Psalm 17, as a simple example, the psalmist is praying to God for deliverance. Early in the psalm, the singer declares to God that he is asking for rescue because he has been faithful to the ways of the Lord. I think it fair to say that the psalmist, in declaring his uprightness, did not consider himself perfect, but simply understood that he had obeyed God’s laws in his dealings with those who are trying to wrong him and to kill him. The psalmist cries out to God for protection, knowing that he has never treated people in the wicked way the people are responding to him.

 

Now, a false religion, at this point, would have done a few things. First, the false religion may well have pretended that followers of God never face frustrations like the psalmist faced. But God’s word is honest, telling us that pain is a part of living in this fallen world.

 

Another thing that a false religion may have done is put in the psalm a perfect promise of absolute vengeance, restoration, and vindication. If I were making up a religion and shaping it to my whim, I would make sure that my poor, wronged psalmist could say that soon, very soon, all the bad guys will get theirs and my hero will ride off into the sunset victorious.   

 

But notice that, unlike the false religion of the prosperity gospel or the violent self-vindication of other religions, the Bible takes the psalmist down a different road.

 

Psalm 17:13-16

 

13 Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!

Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,

14 from men by your hand, O Lord,

from men of the world whose portion is in this life.

You fill their womb with treasure;

they are satisfied with children,

and they leave their abundance to their infants.

15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;

when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

 

The prayer of the psalmist makes sense. He cries out to god to arise, fight, beat down the bad guys, and show that the psalmist has been right all along. That prayer is not a surprise. Nor is such a prayer wrong.

 

Then the psalmist points out how much ease the bad guys have. They have kids. They have money. They seem to be passing wealth down from generation to generation as they continue to have things their way.

 

And one expects the psalmist to see the tables turn and get his way. But, this is not what God has to teach us in this song of worship. No, God wants to show us something better, and it is not the false, worldly success promoted by man-made religion.

 

At the end of his prayer, the psalmist says, “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (v. 15). Do you see what happened? The psalmist does not, at the end of the day, expect an earthly reversal of fortune. Instead, the psalmist stops, takes a breath, puts on an eternal perspective, and expresses a greater hope than money and kids and earthly success. The psalmist expresses that his soul will actually be satisfied, not in the stuff that the world sees as success, but in the sight of the face, the majesty, the glory of God. Seeing God in his glory satisfies. Having riches in this life does not.

 

I wonder how well we sing this truth today. I wonder how honest our songs are about the pain and hardships of life. I wonder how often, when we present the truth of the faith, we include for people that there is no guarantee of success before the return of Jesus and the ultimate resurrection. I wonder how well we show people that a glimpse of the glory of God is worth more than power, prosperity, or progeny. May we learn to sing songs like Psalm 17 and focus our joy, not on the here and now, but on eternal truth.

There is, among many well-meaning Christians, a common practice of creating commands, rules, and standards that the Lord did not make. If you have ever been in any church for any period of time, you will probably know of some of them. Years ago, church leaders railed against the playing of cards. In other settings, ministers taught against dancing. Still today, many Christians declare any drinking of alcohol to be a sin, or those who do not declare it to be sin will still passively affirm that view by only allowing non-drinkers to serve in leadership in their churches. When I was in a youth group years ago, I remember being taught that any listening to secular—read not intentionally Christian—music was a sin. Or some churches will apply very specific rules for what constitutes appropriately modest dress for ladies.

 

Why do we do these things/? Why do we make rules that God did not make? In all of the things listed above, the ones who made those standards for their churches almost always did so because they wanted to help. Church leaders saw the potential dangers in each area, and they wanted to set up road blocks to prevent their people from falling into sin. Ministers opposed dancing, not because dance is evil, but because, in dance halls of their time, dance had become sexually charged and lust inducing. My youth minister opposed secular music, not because of a desire to do any harm, but out of a desire to call his students to think on righteous things—a good desire. We all know that drunkenness is a sin, and some decided to say that any drink takes a step toward sin, a step that is better not taken.

 

There are two problems, however, with our tendency toward making extra commands. One is that they do not work. Another is that they dishonor the Lord.

 

Hear how the apostle Paul responded to a people who were trying to apply strict dietary standards to help prevent people from sinning against the Lord.

 

Colossians 2:23 – These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

 

Paul says that the rules people were making up in Colossae had an appearance of wisdom. These did not look like stupid commands. But, Paul also said that they lack any power to turn a person from sin.

 

In an encounter in Matthew 15, Jesus was approached by the religious leaders of his day and confronted on not following their particular rules on ceremonial hand-washing. Jesus actually turned the tables on the religious folks, asking them in verse 3, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”  “ It seems that the religious guys of his day had changed God’s laws to fit things that they thought were wise. Look at how Jesus described where they ended up.

 

Matthew 15:6b-9 – 6b … So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

 

Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13, , a strong condemnation in the Old Testament, which clearly says that God is not honored by people who teach the commands of men as if they are the word of God. This should lead us to a right conclusion that, whether from false or true motivation, to create rules and commands that God did not make is dishonoring to the Lord.

 

Allow me, at this point, to check the glee of the lawless among us looking for license to sin and to declare that nobody has any right to bind their consciences. To obey the Lord does not require a specific biblical prooftext. For example, while I would argue that no person has the right to tell another Christian that no Christian may watch a movie, I do believe that we can apply other biblical principles to call people to account for what they watch. If you are watching something full of sin and which leads to lust, if you are watching something that someone had to sin to make, you are probably violating principles of the word of God. This is not me making a rule, it is simply me applying Scripture to life. So, let us not pretend that there are no standards for modern living to be derived from the word of God.

 

However, and this should slow down the moralistic legalists among us, we make a major mistake the moment we start teaching as commands things that the Lord did not command. Man-made rules do not restrain sin. Man-made rules that are not clearly biblical commands or clearly and directly derived from Scripture dishonor God.

 

Am I saying that authorities will not develop and apply standards for their businesses or their homes that are not commands found in Scripture? Of course I am not. We have rules in our house about when bedtime is or what time a child needs to get home. Those rules are not Scripture. But, they are ours to make as parents. However, we are not foolish enough to pretend that our rules are God-given commands that must apply to all believers.

 

One more caveat: God commands us to obey our authorities. If, then, you are a child under parents with particular rules or an employee who is willingly employed by a boss with a certain standard, obey that standard so long as you are not violating Scripture to do so. To avoid drinking alcohol, for example, is not a violation of a biblical command even if a command to avoid alcohol for an adult is not biblical. If a parent has made a rule for the ladies of the house about what clothes are acceptable, a child must obey that command to dress modestly, even if it cramps her style. We obey authorities, and sometimes give up our rights to do so, and we honor God in the process.

 

Friends, love the word of God. Do not compromise Scripture. Obey the word with great faithfulness. Do not set for other, adult Christians standards that are not in the word. At the same time, do not pretend that we can disobey the things and principles the Lord has taught. The bottom line is this: Don’t play with the word of God. Fear the Lord and take his commands seriously. Love the Lord, and do not try to do his job by creating law.

The word Christian, perhaps first mockingly coined, is a word that means “little Christ.” The idea of the word is that those who are followers of Jesus are little models or imitators of the Savior. Of course that is not intended to call believers divine or to suggest that we take part in the work of saving people from their sins. But it does mean that our lives, as followers of Jesus, should mimic his character as we obey his teachings and model his values. We are not, of course saved by such obedience, but if we are saved, such obedience becomes part of our lives.

 

That concept, the concept of looking like Jesus, came to my mind as I read the little transition section between two particular stories in Matthew’s gospel. At the beginning of Matthew 14, Matthew tells of the murder of John the Baptist, a good man, at the hands of Herod. Then, Matthew tells of Jesus crossing the sea, meeting a crowd, and feeding the 5,000.

 

What we often miss is the little section about why Jesus crossed the sea. I think it is significant as we consider modeling our lives after the Savior.

 

Matthew 14:13-14 – 13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

 

Matthew says that, when Jesus heard about the unjust execution of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat. This news was sad news. It seems that Jesus and his disciples got in to the boat to get away for a little while. It is fair to say that they needed a rest. It is fair to say that they needed some time to grieve.

 

But, the crowds figured out where Jesus was going, and they raced around the lake to be there before the boat. Thus, when Jesus got off the boat, aiming for a place of solitude, he found a clamoring crowd of thousands. The crowd was full of hurting and needy people.

 

What did Jesus do? He did not tell the people to go away. He did not declare that he had a right to some down time. He did not tell them that his disciples were his priority, they needed a rest, so the crowd would have to go away. No, Jesus taught and healed those who desperately sought him.

 

I wonder, then, how much we who call ourselves Christian really want to model the Savior? If we do, modeling his character will include giving up our comforts and our rights for the good of others in the name of God. It will mean letting go of a well-deserved vacation from time-to-time to love others in need. It will mean letting go of our rights and even our perceived needs for the honor of the name of the Lord.

 

This is not all about things we must do outside the church, by the way, as if this attribute of Jesus is all about mission trips or soup kitchens. We also need to model the self-sacrificial commitment of Jesus to the good of others in our church lives. God has commanded us to be a part of the formal worship of the Lord. When we attend church, we display that God is number one and we encourage other believers simply by being there with them—not to mention how great it is for us to get into each other’s lives for prayer and encouragement. But how many of us will blow off that commitment the moment we think we need a little down time or that we think some other priority presses? Modeling Jesus’s character would have us giving up our rest and even our convenience to invest in the lives of others, even other believers.

 

No, this is not a call to legalistic rules about church attendance. Neither is it a radical outcry against taking a vacation. Rather, the point here is that we must become a people who model Jesus by being faithful to the commands of the Lord and compassionate toward others, even when we have the desire to be left alone or to do our own thing. We must ask if we look like Jesus with the decisions we make.

How hard is it to be a part of congregational worship when you hurt? Stop and think about it. If you have not gone through deep pain as an adult believer, perhaps you have not experienced this. But, the truth is, when you really hurt, when the pain is real and sharp, it is hard, very hard, to join with the congregation.

 

Of course, part of this is a problem and even a sin on our part. When we hurt, we tend to want to hide. When we hurt, we want to go inward. Whether we think this way or not, we tend to soak in our misery, and we compound our sorrow with the loneliness that comes with grief.

 

But it would also be good for us to recognize, Christians, that we do not always make it easy for the hurting to join us in worship. We especially make it hard when we make our worship gatherings full of false cheerfulness. When people who hurt walk into a service full of vapid smiles, of vain sentimentality, of people declaring that every day with Jesus is truly better than the last, the hurting must wonder how they fit in. When we pretend that every Christian has great kids, happy homes, and blessed marriages, I wonder what those who are barely getting by in their sorrow feel?

 

Part of the problem is in modern music. We sing, and for the most part, we only sing songs of happiness. How often are our songs of worship aimed at helping us walk through the valley of the shadow of death?

 

Now, before you say to me that worship songs cannot focus on the valley of the shadow of death, remember this: the phrase, “the valley of the shadow of death,” comes from Psalm 23, an Old Testament worship song. So, obviously, there is room in worship for singing sorrow that looks forward to the dawning of hope.

 

Read the following Psalm, think about it as a worship song, and consider what it is saying.

 

Psalm 13

 

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the Lord,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

Hear the pain. “How long, O Lord?” The psalmist is hurting. He hurts at a level that makes him fear his own death. And he begs God to let him know how long it will feel like God is turned away from him, not hearing him, not answering him. The psalmist fears that God will let his enemies triumph, and it really, genuinely, honestly hurts.

 

But then the psalmist proclaims hope.  He says, “I have trusted,” and he declares, “my heart shall rejoice.” The hurting psalmist has not experienced a change in circumstances. But, after asking God about his situational pain, something has helped him to remember the good news of God’s salvation. The psalmist is reminded that he has trusted in the Lord, and that he can trust in the Lord’s ultimate protection. So, at the end, he can sing. Now, I doubt that singing in verse 6 is overly peppy. It is not false and grinning vapidly. But it is the song of a person who, with tears in his eyes, says that he knows that his God will be faithful regardless of whether or not he feels that faithfulness right now.

 

Church, how desperately do we need songs like Psalm 13? How desperately do we need songs that admit our sorrow, our pain, our fear, and our desperation? How greatly do we need to sing our pain with the reminder of the gospel in order to lead us to the hopeful strength of trusting the Lord from the midst of the cloud of our sorrow?

 

Imagine how much better it would be for a hurting person to know that his or her church has realistically thought about pain like we see in Psalm 13? How great would it be to know that, though there will be celebration in worship services from those whose lives are flush, there will also be a place for those whose lives are thin.

 

Christians, let’s learn from the psalm a few things. Let’s learn not to hide pain. God knows about our hurting enough to put it into the Bible’s song book. Let’s also learn to let the gospel give us ultimate hope and trust in our pain, even if our hearts are breaking at present. And, let’s make sure that, when we are doing well, we rejoice, but we rejoice with the sort of kindness and understanding that had to be in place among a people who could sing songs of sorrow and hope as an act of worship to the Lord.

What does it mean to repent of sin? If you are not careful, you will give a definition that only includes about one-third of what the word means. So, check your understanding to see if your definition includes the following three things;:

• A change of mind about your sin
• A sorrow over your sin
• A turning away from sin and toward righteousness.

 

At times, I have tried to help people understand that to repent is to recognize, reject, and replace sin. We recognize our sin, seeing it as actually sinful and not OK behavior. We reject sin, declaring that we hate it and do not want it in our life any longer. Then we replace sin, turning to a righteous opposite alternative.

 

Often, when you hear people talk about repentance, you will see them get the concept of recognizing their sin and rejecting it. But often people miss the key of replacing sin. People will get the concept of putting off their sin like dirty clothes, but they will fail to remember that we need to be dressed in righteousness (cf. Col. 3:5-17).

 

In an interesting illustration, I believe that Jesus shows us the importance of replacing sin with righteousness. He shows us that it is not enough to get rid of something bad for a while. You have to replace evil with good.

 

Matthew 12:43-45 – 43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

 

This odd-sounding passage comes as a part of a fairly intense discourse between Jesus and some Jewish religious teachers. The teachers saw Jesus cast out a demon, and they accused him of doing so by the power of the devil rather than by the power of God. For his part, Jesus told those teachers that they were failing to see the genuine power and compassion of God and they were missing that the kingdom of God was at hand. They were generally embracing laws and regulations, but they were failing to embrace the Lord himself.

 

In the odd little illustration, Jesus showed the Jews the danger they were in. As miracles were happening, it was as if God was cleaning up their house. God was freeing people from dreadful, spiritual calamities. But, if the people did not embrace the Lord, they would be leaving their lives empty. Without allowing the Lord Jesus to be at the center of their hearts, their hearts were in great danger of being reoccupied by evil, and even worse evil than they had in there already.

 

To make the application to our repentance, consider what happens when you have an evil in your heart. It will sometimes happen that you will try to turn from it. You will make a personal, moral decision. You are going to clean things up. You are going to repent. You are going to cut out your evil.

 

That is all good. In fact, it may work for a time. But, if you do not fill your life with the things of God, with righteousness, you will find that your life quite quickly slides back into your sinful habits. And, in fact, you will often find that your habits are worse than before because they are the old habits amplified by the discouragement of being back there again and again.

 

The only way to defeat our sin, to truly repent, is to find a righteousness to replace our sinfulness. So, for example, it is not enough for a man to stop being harsh toward his wife. For repentance to take place, the man must put on genuine kindness and love. It is not enough for a man to stop thinking lustful thoughts. He must seek out genuine purity—to see women as people made in the image of God and not to be exploited. A husband does not put off sin when he stops watching dirty movies. He has repented when he also starts delighting in his wife. Otherwise, he will find his heart drawn down the same old road, but it will go further each time.

 

In his illustration, Jesus was showing the Jewish teachers that they had a season of opportunity to embrace the Lord. They could turn to him, allow him to be central in their lives, and experience the blessing of God. Or, they could like the work he was doing in general, leave their hearts empty, and find themselves in a far darker place in the future.

 

For us, we can see our sin and work to clean it up. That is good. But, if we do not replace our sin, living to the glory of God, we will find that our sin comes back on us harder than before. So, in repentance, recognize, reject and replace.

It seems that many people declare that they would like a religion of love and grace and kindness with no judgment. In our modern world, it seems that many people want a God who gives to all and who could never, not ever, send anyone to hell. We want a spirituality of softness without consequences for wrongdoing.

 

But, do we? Do we really? The idea of a soft religion feels good to people who are living in soft circumstances. When life is easy, when our greatest hardships include trying to figure out what to stream on Netflix, we do not like justice. But what happens when the tide turns and life gets hard? What do we do when evil rears its head?

 

Psalm 10:1-2

 

1 Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;

let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

 

The psalmist writing here asks the question that we often ask when we see human cruelty. Though our world so often demands a deity without wrath, when the wicked crushes the helpless, we then turn and ask God why. How could you do this?

 

Psalm 10:12-15

 

12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;

forget not the afflicted.

13 Why does the wicked renounce God

and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?

14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,

that you may take it into your hands;

to you the helpless commits himself;

you have been the helper of the fatherless.

15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;

call his wickedness to account till you find none.

 

Look what the psalmist goes on to pray. Rise up, God! Go get them! Put a stop to their evil! Don’t let them think you are not there or that you cannot act! Break their arms so they can’t hurt people anymore!

 

The next time you find yourself tempted to wish that God would not be a judge too, consider a psalm like this one. You do not want a God who lacks justice. You want a God who acts, who moves, who has a response to the wickedness of human evil.

 

The big problem is that we want a God who judges evil, just not our evil. We want, in our sin nature, a God who will let us make up our own morality until we do not like others making up their own morality. We want to be the determiners of morality—to be our own little gods. That is the problem with a throwing off of the idea of God as judge.

 

So, learn from the psalm. God is good. God is just. We want him to be just. So, it is wise and right to get under his rule and to embrace his judgment. Surrender to him as Lord. He is the one who defines morality by his own character. He is the one who sets our limits. He is the one who will rightly judge. We should bow to him, call him Lord, and trust that his justice will reign.

 

And, we also must recognize that, though I say that we want a certain kind of God, that really does not matter. We do not pick the attributes of holiness. We are not makers of God; God is the Maker of mankind. So, be sure, what we want in a deity is irrelevant when faced with the reality that God is. Thankfully, he also is good.

Have you ever noticed that we respond differently to warnings depending on the topic? For example, if you are about to cross the street, and you do not notice a car coming, you are pretty happy to be warned to watch out. But, when you are about to have a piece of your favorite dessert, and your spouse reminds you that you should be watching your health, the warning is less appreciated. Something about our desire, our love of what we are about to do, impacts how we respond to a warning.

 

In our modern society, warning people against sin is certainly not in favor. It is as if the world around us has decided that it is completely unloving to speak out against sin. The world loves rebellion against God like a man might love ice cream. And the world is upset if a warning is raised against the beloved activity.

 

Strangely, the world has decided, and some Christians seem to agree, that to tell people that what they are doing is destructive is an unloving act. The world would have us believe that to warn against sin is to lack grace, love, and kindness. But, is this true?

 

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is one of the most grace-oriented books in the New Testament. The apostle writes to oppose those who would make a submission to ritualistic law a part of Christianity. Paul points out time and time again in the book that we are saved by God’s grace and not at all through submission to law.

 

In our modern context, many in the world and many in more liberal churches would expect that Paul would not include any sort of sin list. How, after all, could he have a vice list in a book on grace? Aren’t we supposed to just love and accept each other?

 

But see the warning that Paul includes as he approaches the ending of his letter.

 

Galatians 5:19-21 – 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

Paul lists some sins that, honestly, many in our culture love. Yet, in verse 21, this apostle who is writing about grace after grace is telling people that those who participate in the activities in this list will not inherit the kingdom of God. Unrepentant participation in the sins in this list is a mark that a person is not saved.

 

What gives? Where is the love? Where is the grace? Is Paul undoing all the grace over law stuff of the previous chapters?

 

Paul is not opposing grace. Paul loves grace as much as any New Testament writer. But Paul knows something very important: true love warns. To love a person is not to allow them to continue in sin with no warning.

 

It would be unloving and unkind to allow a person to step in front of an oncoming bus without a warning. It would be unloving of a spouse to take no concern for their partner’s health. It would be unloving for a parent to allow their children unchecked freedom. It is unloving to let a person walk toward hell without a warning.

 

Grace warns. When the world embraces what opposes God, we must be honest enough to tell them that they are putting themselves in danger. This is not to be mean. This is not to be judgmental. This is not to be unloving. The most loving thing we can do is tell them the truth, even if we have to oppose the things they think they love. We have to be honest, even if we have to go against what the world decides is good. If we love, we will warn.

Though I don’t think the phrase is popular anymore, many of us grew up with the little phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That phrase has fallen out of favor, and in some ways rightly so, because people have learned that, of course, words can be damaging.

 

But we should not lose all use of the sticks and stones rhyme, because it also has something in it that we need to remember. Whether children or adults, we will face those who say nasty things about us. That is sadly a part of life in this fallen world. And we have to make a decision as to how we will respond. The big point of “sticks and stones” is to help a little one learn that every insult does not have to be responded to, that every nasty little taunt does not deserve tears.

 

I wonder how well we in the Christian community realize that we are destined for harshness in the world. Consider what Jesus said to his disciples about the kinds of things people would say about them.

 

Matthew 10:24-25 24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.”

 

As Jesus prepared to send his disciples out on their first mission trip, he warned them that they would face opposition. If people said of Jesus that he did his works by the power of the devil, how much more would the people call Jesus’ disciples devils? He warned them to prepare for nasty words and even threats of physical persecution as they carried the life-transforming message of Jesus through Israel.

 

It is funny, then, that we modern, American Christians often get so upset when the world around us speaks evil of the church. Why is it that we freak out when Christians are portrayed in a false fashion on a movie screen as Hollywood almost always does? Why do we get so upset when people call us out-of-touch or on the wrong side of history? Why do we find ourselves surprised?

 

If you do not know, let me be clear: Genuine Christianity will not be a popular thing to a lost community. We are never going to be the cool people. We are never going to be the people that the world respects. While the world will benefit from the presence of Christians, people who care for the hurting, build hospitals, and dig clean wells, the world will not remain our friends the moment we present a genuine gospel message. Why? The world hated Jesus. The people succeeded in having Jesus put to death once he allowed it. No matter how much healing Jesus had done, no matter how many storms he calmed, no matter how many crowds he fed, no matter how much the crowds cheered when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, it did not take a week for the city to scream, “Crucify him!” And we, dear Christian friends, must grasp that the gospel message is and always will be offensive to those who have not come to Jesus in faith.

 

We should, of course, oppose it when false things are said about the faith or about Christians in general. We should be kind and loving to our communities. We should continue to share the gospel. But, we should not be silly enough to believe that we will ever be the hip place to be in our community. The only way that we will draw crowds to ourselves and be what the world wants around is if we compromise the exclusive message that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone who is our Lord alone. We cannot compromise the exclusivity or the lordship of Christ without ceasing being the church. So, let us be honest. Let us be bold. Let us trust God. And let us have a thick skin, because the world will not say nice things about the church when the world genuinely sees who Jesus is and what he demands. 

Many times I have heard questions that begin with the phrase, “How can God…” Typically those questions are accusatory. How could God allow bad things to happen to good people? How could God make only one way to heaven? How could God command this or that?

 

With the growth of questions like those we see a massive change in human attitudes. In so many ways, people of our generation believe that we have the ability and the right to sit in judgment over God, his principles, and his commands. We think that we have the intellect to examine how the universe is governed and point out flaws and inconsistencies.

 

Years ago, however, people understood something different. People did not ask things like, “How could a loving God send anyone to hell?” Instead, years ago, they asked questions that marveled at the fact that God might be gracious to anyone at all.

 

Psalm 8:3-4

 

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

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

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

 

In Psalm 8, we see a glorious question being asked. As the psalmist considers the majesty of God, the vastness of space, the beauty of the heavens, and wonders of creation, he is stunned. He recognizes, as we see in Psalm 16:1, that the creation displays for us to see the power and glory of God. Clearly, a God who can create such a universe with the sun, moon, and stars is amazing. Clearly a God who can create our planet with the mountains and the oceans and the deserts and the forests and the rivers and the canyons and the rest must be holy, above and beyond us.

 

As the psalmist considers the obvious greatness and supremacy of God, the right question comes to his mind. With God being so great, who are we? Why would God give us a second thought? Why Would God care? How could God possibly be kind to rebels like us?

 

The psalmist had the right question. The right question is not, “How could God not save everybody?” The right question is, “How could God save anybody?” We should never marvel that anybody is lost. We should be absolutely dumbstruck that God would ever save any one of us. We are rebels. We deserve judgment. That God would consider saving us is beyond our imagining. That God would save us by his grace through faith is astounding. That God would save us by sending his own Son to be the sacrificial substitute who paid our penalty in our place, that is mind-blowing.

 

As you and I consider the questions that our hearts bring up, let us take thought. As we consider the questions that the world asks around us, let us be careful. Let us be sure that we are asking the right question. We do not have the ability or the right to sit in judgment over God or his ways. We should instead look at creation, see the majesty of God, and ask God the simple question, “How could you consider me?” Let this lead us to wonder and worship.