Recently, I had the pleasure of studying the book of Ephesians with my small group Bible study at Church at the Ridge. One of the exercises I regularly do when studying through a book of the Bible is to paraphrase the section I have just studied as a way of making sure I comprehended what I just read. I take into account all the background information and context when I do this to have a well-rounded understanding. I have done this with a few other books (James & Colossians).
Please make no mistake, I am not claiming to be a Bible translator or scholar, this is just my own paraphrase that came out of my personal study. However, it has not only proven helpful to me but to a few others I have shared it with. So I am making it available via this blog. I am not looking for critiques or to start doctrinal arguments. If you want to read it, then read it. If you don't then don't. If it's helpful, great. If not, forget it. If you disagree with my interpretation, let me encourage to not waste time arguing with me about it; make your own paraphrase. It's an excellent exercise for deeper comprehension of the text and the flow of them and though throughout. But be assured that if you go to the trouble of writing a lengthy commentary here, I will not bother to read it at all. I will in fact delete it unread. That is not the point here. The point here is to encourage and equip the family of God, not to quibble and quarrel.
So without further ado, follow this link to my Ephesians paraphrase. Grace and peace! -- Jerry
Showing posts with label Father. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Father. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
So I came across this in Proverbs...
"To do justice AND righteousness is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."
(Proverbs 21:3, ESV. Emphasis mine)
In scripture, righteousness and justice are always mentioned together. Like conjoined twins they are inseparable. They are two sides of a single coin; both are necessary for the coin to be of any worth.
Justice is big these days among young evangelicals. They are understandably sick of the apathy, sick of the lazy church sitting in pews and singing dry, dusty hymns while the world goes to hell all around them, sick of the hypocrisy of claiming the title: Jesus-follower" but not actually following Jesus into the world to heal the sick, care for the poor, touch the leper, and love the outcast. There is a lot to admire about the "social justice" movement in the church these days. The world is dying to see if there is an ounce of authenticity left in Western Christianity. But there is a caution to be taken if we are to follow Jesus into the world: Justice is never far from righteousness. Never. Ever.
Many want to cast off the holiness of God in the name of His justice. Some would feed hungry stomachs with bread, but starve their souls of the Bread of Life in the process. They want to reach out and embrace the marginalized and outcast, but not require repentance from sin. They cast off God's unflinching call to purity and holy living because, after all, who are we to tell anyone how they should live? Aren't we all sinners? Isn't everyone broken in one way or another? We imagine that enough efforts to promote justice will somehow excuse us from the demands of righteousness.
In fairness, the vast majority of American Christians have done the inverse: we have reduced the gospel to a set of doctrinal statements and a moral code of conduct: "If you agree to the truth of these statements, and can manage to avoid these particular sins (usually sexual in nature), then you are a Christian." Meanwhile, the cries of the oppressed and impoverished largely go unheeded. They can barely be heard above our state-of-the-art sound systems in our multi-million dollar facilities. Justice is re-labeled "Missions"and left to those who "feel called" to it. (BTW, you don't "feel called;" you ARE called. You either listen and obey or you don't.)
But the truth is that Jesus requires both. The Proverb above doesn't say, "Righteousness is acceptable to the Lord, but justice is optional." Nor does it say, "To do justice is better than righteousness." It says that both together were more acceptable to Yahweh than merely superficial religious ceremony. Why? Because they are the metric of our spiritual maturity. They are the barometer of our hearts -- where they are, what they desire, how we regard the Lord.
Righteousness is how we live before God. It measures our moral choices as they flow from the affections of our hearts. Like water that will seep through and rise to its own level, what -- and who -- we really love will be revealed by how we live. God is very concerned with what our hearts desire and how we go after it. There are ways to live that promote human flourishing in every area -- physically, materially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And there are ways to live that destroy us, sometimes quickly and obviously, but more often quietly over a lifetime, like a slow poison working its way through our bodies, shutting it down one system at a time until we stop living.
Morality is what we think of most when we talk about righteousness but it is actually much more than that. It's not rule-keeping; it's loving God more than we love ourselves and trusting that His commands are an expression of His love and protection towards us. Righteousness deals more with our relationship to God, while justice is more about how we treat other people because of our relationship to God.
Jesus said this was the sum of the whole Law and Prophets: "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (righteousness), and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (justice)." He told His followers to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.
You cannot claim a zeal for justice and embrace or accept something God calls sin. You are not being just towards those who are trapped in that self-destructive lifestyle, misleading them to believe they are safe from the wrath of God and penalty of their sin. Nor are you being just towards God by treating His Word and His holiness as something that can be casually dismissed whenever it's expedient or unpopular.
Conversely, you cannot claim a zeal for righteousness -- holding up your morality and doctrinal positions as evidence -- if that never results in action taken to oppose oppression, injustice, exploitation, corruption, or abuses of power. What kind of righteousness leaves the helpless undefended, the hungry unfed, the naked unclothed, the sick uncared for, and the captive left to rot in captivity?
The Proverb is saying, "Don't look at your religious service as the metric of how well your relationship with God is going. Rather, look at the interplay of both righteous living before a holy God and compassionate justice towards those made in His image. That's what God is really after." James affirms this in his letter:
Father, help me to live a life pleasing to You. I fear there are days when not only do I not do both, but some days that I do neither. God, make me more like Jesus, who loved You more than life itself and expressed it by loving others. In Jesus' name I ask these things. Amen!
(Proverbs 21:3, ESV. Emphasis mine)
In scripture, righteousness and justice are always mentioned together. Like conjoined twins they are inseparable. They are two sides of a single coin; both are necessary for the coin to be of any worth.
Justice is big these days among young evangelicals. They are understandably sick of the apathy, sick of the lazy church sitting in pews and singing dry, dusty hymns while the world goes to hell all around them, sick of the hypocrisy of claiming the title: Jesus-follower" but not actually following Jesus into the world to heal the sick, care for the poor, touch the leper, and love the outcast. There is a lot to admire about the "social justice" movement in the church these days. The world is dying to see if there is an ounce of authenticity left in Western Christianity. But there is a caution to be taken if we are to follow Jesus into the world: Justice is never far from righteousness. Never. Ever.
Many want to cast off the holiness of God in the name of His justice. Some would feed hungry stomachs with bread, but starve their souls of the Bread of Life in the process. They want to reach out and embrace the marginalized and outcast, but not require repentance from sin. They cast off God's unflinching call to purity and holy living because, after all, who are we to tell anyone how they should live? Aren't we all sinners? Isn't everyone broken in one way or another? We imagine that enough efforts to promote justice will somehow excuse us from the demands of righteousness.
In fairness, the vast majority of American Christians have done the inverse: we have reduced the gospel to a set of doctrinal statements and a moral code of conduct: "If you agree to the truth of these statements, and can manage to avoid these particular sins (usually sexual in nature), then you are a Christian." Meanwhile, the cries of the oppressed and impoverished largely go unheeded. They can barely be heard above our state-of-the-art sound systems in our multi-million dollar facilities. Justice is re-labeled "Missions"and left to those who "feel called" to it. (BTW, you don't "feel called;" you ARE called. You either listen and obey or you don't.)
But the truth is that Jesus requires both. The Proverb above doesn't say, "Righteousness is acceptable to the Lord, but justice is optional." Nor does it say, "To do justice is better than righteousness." It says that both together were more acceptable to Yahweh than merely superficial religious ceremony. Why? Because they are the metric of our spiritual maturity. They are the barometer of our hearts -- where they are, what they desire, how we regard the Lord.
Righteousness is how we live before God. It measures our moral choices as they flow from the affections of our hearts. Like water that will seep through and rise to its own level, what -- and who -- we really love will be revealed by how we live. God is very concerned with what our hearts desire and how we go after it. There are ways to live that promote human flourishing in every area -- physically, materially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And there are ways to live that destroy us, sometimes quickly and obviously, but more often quietly over a lifetime, like a slow poison working its way through our bodies, shutting it down one system at a time until we stop living.
Morality is what we think of most when we talk about righteousness but it is actually much more than that. It's not rule-keeping; it's loving God more than we love ourselves and trusting that His commands are an expression of His love and protection towards us. Righteousness deals more with our relationship to God, while justice is more about how we treat other people because of our relationship to God.
Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.
Jesus said this was the sum of the whole Law and Prophets: "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (righteousness), and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (justice)." He told His followers to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.
You cannot claim a zeal for justice and embrace or accept something God calls sin. You are not being just towards those who are trapped in that self-destructive lifestyle, misleading them to believe they are safe from the wrath of God and penalty of their sin. Nor are you being just towards God by treating His Word and His holiness as something that can be casually dismissed whenever it's expedient or unpopular.
Conversely, you cannot claim a zeal for righteousness -- holding up your morality and doctrinal positions as evidence -- if that never results in action taken to oppose oppression, injustice, exploitation, corruption, or abuses of power. What kind of righteousness leaves the helpless undefended, the hungry unfed, the naked unclothed, the sick uncared for, and the captive left to rot in captivity?
The Proverb is saying, "Don't look at your religious service as the metric of how well your relationship with God is going. Rather, look at the interplay of both righteous living before a holy God and compassionate justice towards those made in His image. That's what God is really after." James affirms this in his letter:
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27, ESV. Emphasis mine.)Justice AND righteousness. Never one without the other.
Father, help me to live a life pleasing to You. I fear there are days when not only do I not do both, but some days that I do neither. God, make me more like Jesus, who loved You more than life itself and expressed it by loving others. In Jesus' name I ask these things. Amen!
Monday, March 14, 2011
"When You Pray, Pray This Way..." Jerry's message from this past Sunday
Hey everyone!
This past Sunday I had the unbelievable privilege of sharing a message from Matthew 6:5-15 on Jesus' teaching on prayer. If you know Cheryl and me at all, you know this is a subject we are passionate about! The feedback was tremendous and it is so exciting to think that God is moving and working among our people to touch off a revival of prayer at The Ridge. The podcast is available here if you were unable to attend, or if you are one of our many out-of-state or out-of-country allies.
I also made a CD/MP3 guiding our people through how to have a daily prayer time based on the model that Jesus gave His disciples. You can download that here if you want to begin the discipline of daily prayer and need a jump start.
Please join us in praying for revival among God's people. It begins by us spending time with the Father and allowing our hearts to be "synced" with His.
This past Sunday I had the unbelievable privilege of sharing a message from Matthew 6:5-15 on Jesus' teaching on prayer. If you know Cheryl and me at all, you know this is a subject we are passionate about! The feedback was tremendous and it is so exciting to think that God is moving and working among our people to touch off a revival of prayer at The Ridge. The podcast is available here if you were unable to attend, or if you are one of our many out-of-state or out-of-country allies.
I also made a CD/MP3 guiding our people through how to have a daily prayer time based on the model that Jesus gave His disciples. You can download that here if you want to begin the discipline of daily prayer and need a jump start.
Please join us in praying for revival among God's people. It begins by us spending time with the Father and allowing our hearts to be "synced" with His.
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