Tag: Christian

Attn: Rome – An Introduction to Romans

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Follow this blog for daily bible commentary.

A brief introduction before we walk into the 433 verse journey that is Romans. Romans is the first book of the bible I have studied through from end to end. For the last eight months I have been studying the book of Romans, averaging around three verses a day. I have discovered things for my own faith that will impact the rest of my life. My purpose for doing this blog post-style commentary is to offer commentary not as a biblical scholar or theologian (because I’m not), but as an everyday working-class man building my own faith stronger.

“Sorry; Paul who?”

Imagine receiving a letter in the mail from a man you might have only of heard by name. This letter, over the course of 7000 words, includes multiple reprimands, admonishing, notes of praise of your conducts but with corrections for your life. If that was me, I would have at some point said “Who is this guy to tell me how to live my life? I’m living the exact way that God wants me to live.” It turns out this was the same attitude as the Jewish and Gentile Christian Romans around the mid-first century when they received this letter from Paul, and one of the reasons for Paul writing the letter. At the time in Rome there were Christians that were divided into Jews and Gentiles. Although populations and majority-minority is unknown for the two, the evidence from Romans shows that the groups did not do a good job of getting along, each believing emphatically that their own group’s way of living was right, the other group’s way of living was wrong, and that stopped them from working together for the gospel. Paul’s letter then comes with the overall idea that both Jews and Gentiles are looking at it all wrong. Instead of being picky with the traditions and details, Paul pleads with them to accept their Christian brothers and sisters, don’t get caught up on the insignificant differences, and keep going with the great commission (Matt 28:16-20) that Jesus called them to. But an even greater theme of Romans is that of justification by faith. Paul lays out the complete gospel in Romans, the main point being that I, as a sinner, will never achieve perfection with human works, and because perfection is what God requires of us, the only way I can be in a relationship with him is through faith.

My prayer is that readers who read this blog-style commentary look past the fallible human author and see the awesome grace of God. He is the same God that Paul was writing about to the people in Rome, and God has not changed since. Some topics that Paul writes about in Romans will be difficult to pull an application from, and we won’t squeeze and mold the verses for our agenda. Instead, all verses in Romans will be provide talking points for us living in the 21st Century. Let this be a place of respectful conversation. Comment on verses that baffle you, inspire you or even points that you disagree with.

I’ll be using the NIV version of the bible. The main commentaries I’ll be using in my explorations are Richard N. Longnecker’s The Epistle to The Romans, Douglas J. Moo’s The Epistle to the Romans and Thomas R. Schreiner’s Romans.

 

How to be successful and influential – Proverbs 16:3

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Proverbs 16:3

Commit your deeds to the Lord and your plans shall succeed.

The titles of self-help books are always eye catching; ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. The books are aiming to help the reader become something that the reader feels they’re not, for example ‘influential’ or ‘effective’. We learn in the bible, there’s no ‘self’ involved in being successful or influential. Yes, working really hard for yourself can make you successful or influential to the world’s standards, but that is fleeting and certainly the path to going further away from God, rather than towards (Matthew 19:23-24).

The Bible is a God-help book. The Bible offers up sound advice for how one can be successful and influential, and they all involve searching for help and support from God, not ourselves. Why would the bible not contain the phrase ‘God helps those who helps themselves’? That’s not what grace is all about. Grace is about God loving us because he knows we can’t help ourselves. Surely the fact that there are plethora of self-help books released every year shows that no one has truly worked out how to help them-self with every aspect of their life, or really what ‘success’ actually is. The whole point of the gospel is faith and trust alone in Jesus is all we need to be saved, and that is the success everyone is searching for. God doesn’t need our good works. He certainly requests that we work hard towards the furthering of his Love and the gospel (1 Corinthians 10:31), and doing so is evidence of a strong faith and trust and understanding .

I have plans to succeed. I have plans to live comfortably, provide for my family, have a good job in a good workplace and let others know about God. Which of those deeds should I commit to the Lord? All of them, certainly, but I feel that providing for my family and letting others know about God, the two plans that align with God’s desire for spreading his Love and the gospel, are going to do better at succeeding. Why? Because if I’m focused on providing for my family and letting others know about God, it might mean myself not living comfortably, and not having a good job in a good workplace. All four plans might succeed, by God’s grace, but there is no reason I should expect all four to, and God could take away my living comfortably so that I focus more on spreading the gospel. Being successful means choosing what you want to be successful in; we can’t be successful in everything. For me, I feel being successful in loving others holds so much more worth than being successful for myself.

ASK YOURSELF: What are your plans? Are your plans for comfort or the furthering of God’s Love to this broken world? Have you committed your deeds to the Lord?

 

Cut it off, Cut it off, Pluck it out – Mark 9:43

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Mark 9:43

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Jesus and his disciples escaped the crowds by going to a small fishing village called Capernaum, which sits on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. There, Jesus is giving some private lessons to his twelve disciples. Vv. 33-50 of chapter 9 change subject a number of times, leading one to believe that the writer of Mark is giving us just the highlights of the teaching. Vv. 43,45 and 47 follow the same teaching: ‘if x causes you to stumble, get rid of it. It is better to enter heaven impaired in some way than be thrown into hell.’

As usual in the interpretation of verses there is a range of extremes that interpreters see in verses. On the less extreme end, these verses could be interpreted as talking about the church, and that it is necessary to get rid of a member if they are causing other members to stumble. On the other extreme end, Jesus is telling everyone to chop their hands off and get rid of their eyes, as there is no one that has not used these parts of their body for sin. Verse 42 may offer us a clue for what the following verses are referring to:

Mark 9:42

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.

This is such passionate language from Jesus. He is passionately against people that cause believers to stumble, and one can imagine that if it is better that someone dies on earth rather that cause a believer to stumble, whatever is in store for them on the day of judgement is not going to be joyful. With this in mind, v. 43 and it’s companion verses would then be talking about the church, or the body of Christ. Two major points remain:

1. Can we apply vv. 43,45,47 to the context of our physical body causing us to sin?

Until a really studied this verse, I thought that it could apply to our literal eyes. I have sinned through my eyes. I don’t know you, but I’m guessing you could attest to the same issues, and so we should all have an ‘eye going away’ party. But notice that the verses say ‘Our x causes us to stumble.’ My eye doesn’t cause me to stumble. My sinful heart wants to sin, and I use my eyes to stumble. Blaming my eye or hand or foot for something I did wrong would not even stand up in an earthly court room, and there is no reason why an infinitely wise God is going to judge with lower standards. Cutting off a body part is not going to stop our sinful hearts. We stumble from the sinful heart; to only way to get rid of that is using God to transform our hearts.

2. Are we the body parts that should be cut off?

Although we have concluded that we shouldn’t cut off our physical body parts because that’s not going to stop us from sinning, what should we do with the body parts (people) in the church who are causing others to stumble. It’s not our place to kill people that are causing others to sin; the role of judgement is God and God’s alone, but it certainly is our place to approach that person in love and help them see what they’re doing is wrong. But what if I am the body part that is causing others to sin? That is the biggest question, and from the passion that God talks about this issue, it is a question that we should all be asking ourselves daily. Are we causing others to stumble? A really quick and easy solution to this problem is to know whether our actions are loving to other people. If you’re loving everyone around you to the standard that God calls us to, you can’t be causing them to sin. They may sin, but you can’t, and shouldn’t take the blame. You can rest easy knowing you have done all that is humanly possible. Of course, this is far easier said and done, but from this verse we can see that God holds a very high standard for us in our interactions with people around us. We are only to love others, and only cause them to see God’s goodness and glory, never stumble.

ASK YOURSELF: How are you causing others to stumble? What can you do within your power to stop them from stumbling and to instead see God’s glory through your actions?

How to see God – 1 John 4:12

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1 John 4:12

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

I will admit I am a skeptic when people, in the modern age, say they have seen angels, or been to heaven and back. I very much believe in the supernatural world, and I also believe it is within God’s power to take someone to heaven and back, or send angels to earth. All of that is to say we learn in the bible that we don’t need to see supernatural things to see supernatural things. And more importantly we don’t need to be a supernatural being to live supernaturally. When we are born again (that is accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour), we are endowed with the Holy Spirit (see the rest of 1 John 4). As verse 12 says, if we want to see a glimpse of God, we need to only look at Christians loving one another. We, as Christians, need to love non-Christians so that they have the opportunity to see only a morsel of God’s infinitely larger Love waiting for them.

At the end of verse 12, John writes that ‘his love is made complete in us’. Surely God’s love doesn’t end with us? Well in verse 17, John explains this point:

1 John 4:17

 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

We are not like Jesus, as in Jesus is part of the holy trinity and the Son of God. We are like Jesus in that we are going to suffer in this world. People are going to criticize and possibly even crucify us for what we do and preach in throughput of God’s love. But like Jesus, our earthly goal is to spread God’s love. That is how his love is made complete in us; the whole point of God’s love is to reach non-Christians and Christians alike, and a method in which he does that is through us fulfilling the command to love one another.

Isn’t it amazing that we can be the ones that show God to others? We can enable others to see God through our actions. If that doesn’t prove that our lives are not our own, I don’t know what does.

Stressings over Blessings – John 14:27

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John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

It’s funny the things that cause us stress.  Often times it can actually be good things that cause stress. For example choosing between two job offers, or having to decide between two holiday locations. The blessings of being able to have the opportunity to be employed, or have the savings and time to take a holiday are not things that we deserve. God didn’t need to allow us to be in the situations we’re in, and he has every right to take away everything that is good in our lives. So why do we sometimes stress even when we’re not in what would be considered a ‘stressful situation’?

Stress is most commonly rooted in worry and anxiety. If we are dropped in the middle of a crocodile infested river, we will start to stress out of fear of becoming a crocodile’s morning tea. If we have a project deadline coming up, we begin to stress that not completing it to a high standard could lead us to losing our jobs. There are legitimate situations, like being in a crocodile infested river, when stress is a good thing, it helps us to make wise decisions like get out of the river. But a lot of the time stress and worry is caused by imagined threats, or ‘the worst case scenario’. Circling back to why we stress over blessings, many times it’s because we are trying to find the ‘worst case scenario’ in the blessing. For example ‘If I take Job A over Job B, what if in a months time I find out Job A isn’t what I thought it would be?’ or ‘What if I don’t perform/fit in/be accepted in my new job?’ or ‘What if other people think we’re too excessive if we go on holiday?’ or ‘What if the location we choose is not what I thought it would be like?’

When we stress over good things in life, there’s always a much deeper trouble in our hearts. That core trouble or issue will vary from person to person, but examples can be not trusting in God’s provision, not trusting in God’s control, seeking comfort from the approval of others, having a love over worldly goods above God. And these core issues will pop up time and time again, no matter if the situation you are in is good or bad.

ASK YOURSELF: What’s the core issue in your heart causing you stress or anxiety? Is that really the core issue or is there an even deeper trouble?

Salt? – Matthew 5:13

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Matthew 5:13

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

This isn’t a bible passage that I’ve heard preached on recently. I don’t know if that is because it was preached on regularly in the 90’s, or coincidence (there is a lot of bible verses for sermons to be based on; 31,102 to be exact). But I saw this verse pop up this morning, and it actually caught me by surprise that I couldn’t, from the top of my head, translate what the bible verse is talking about. Time for some digging.

This verse comes from Jesus’ very famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’, where he taught a rapid-fire, wide-scoping sermon to crowds of followers on a mountain side. This sermon, which you can read more about in Matthew 5, contained topics such as murder, adultery,  the beatitudes, and v.13-16; the teaching of salt and light.

Matthew 5:13-16

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus explains the light metaphor very clearly in v.16 , but the salt metaphor is still in question. It would appear the explanation to this metaphor can go a number of ways, depending on what you use salt for, but they can all be summed up with ‘salt makes food better’. Some of the uses of salt are preserving foods and giving foods flavor. Christians, the church, and very specifically in the sermon, disciples, are the salt of the earth because they preserve God’s mission. Does this mean that if no Christian’s existed on earth that God’s mission would be stopped cold and ‘rot’ like unsalted food? I don’t think so. I think God’s power goes beyond that, and evidence for him can be seen around us in nature. But what if us, as Christians, begin to lose our saltiness? What if we, as Christians, begin to lose our keenness to actually be useful in God’s mission like salt is for food? What good use are we for then? Well, as Jesus said ‘You’re no longer good for anything, but to be trampled underfoot.” That’s a pretty brutal assessment if we fail to be useful.

The last question that v.13 asks is ‘But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?’ Salt doesn’t often lose its flavor, there are explanations for how salt from around Jesus’ area did lose its saltiness, but this metaphor wouldn’t really be applicable to the true Christian losing their Christianity, but could be applied, loosely, to the idea of the dilution of salt. Sea water is 3.5% salt. If you take sea water and add fresh water, the salt content decreases and becomes less prevalent. To continue the metaphor, if Christians are salt in a sea of fresh water, we’re hardly noticeable. Christians need to support other Christians. Christians need to work together to further God’s mission. It’s impossible to be on God’s mission without God. Us Christians need to work together to preserve this goodness in this rotting world; show non-Christians that their rottenness is not all there is, and there is amazing joy waiting for them, for which we can only get a hint of here on earth.

We are salt, we are light. Let’s shine for all to see and show them the goodness of God in everything we do.

The 2 step process for determining right and wrong – Romans 12:2

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Romans 12:2

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It’s almost like following Romans 12:2 gives us a superpower in a way; being able to determine what is right and wrong.  By being able to look at a situation or scenario and being able to test whether it is aligned with God’s will, ‘is it good, pleasing and perfect?’, we are able to not only make choices that will affect others in a positive, good and pleasing way, but our choices will affect ourselves in a good and pleasing way. As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, everything God wills is good, pleasing and perfect. Unfortunately, us humans are not able to truly master the ‘perfect’ part of the test, because we’re not perfect. We even struggle to understand practically what ‘perfect’ means when it comes to God’s will. We know in our hearts that God’s perfect will is everything he does is to lead us into a closer relationship with him, but practically when raging wars happen and millions of die of diseases, it’s very hard to see the ‘perfection’ in that all. Using Romans 12:2 as a guide, we can come up with two steps for looking at the world around us, the situations we are in at home, work and abroad, and determine if it is right or wrong.

Step 1: Renew your minds

‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’

A runner needs to train daily to win the Olympics. A scientist needs to study and research to write their dissertation. A manager needs to constantly refine their strategy to ensure the best outcomes for the company. A Christian is no different. If we want the ability to determine right and wrong, we need to train, and train smart. We need to train our minds to be renewed. But with most efficient training, it’s not about the quantity, it’s the quality of the training that builds strength and increases abilities. We want to renew our minds by being deep in God’s word and understanding who he is, what he stands for, and what the Gospel means for our everyday lives. Going to church once a week, bible study groups once a week isn’t going to cut it. I know I’ve had to make an incredibly conscious decision to study my bible daily and pray daily. It definitely started as a quantity thing; making sure I studied three verses a day and prayed for about two minutes in the morning. But over time, my heart has longed to learned more and more, and I find myself just start praying to God at the most random times, praising him for all he’s doing in my life, even when life is as fun as a bed of live chickens.

Step 2: Test and approve

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

While you’re renewing your mind, start practicing the testing and approving. Think about everything you do in your day. Choose one task and give it the test; ‘Would this activity be pleasing to God? Is it good for me and others? Would a perfect God approve of it?’ Chances are if there is even an inkling in your head and heart that something might not be pleasing to God, there’s a good chance you should explored further. Don’t just assume ‘it’s not any good or pleasing’, but determine why it’s not good and/or pleasing. If you just do the first half, you’ll probably replace the activity with something else that’s just as not good and just as unpleasing; satisfying the same desire you had before.

Even as I write this, it is a scary process for me. How many things in my life is just me either denying that they are unpleasing to God, and how many things do I not want to change because they bring me fleeting joy and satisfaction? But gaining this ability will enable you to stop future unpleasing activities before they even start, enabling you to focus more on things that will give you real peace, real joy and real strength; God’s got all that covered for you if you seek him out.

Eternity; a really, really, really long time – Romans 6:23

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Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Eternity is said to be a really, really, really long time. I am quite secure in my faith in God, and I believe that after I die, I will spend eternity with him, in heaven, and with my brothers and sisters in Christ. And for me, that is scary; eternity doesn’t end. After a hundred years of praise and worship, then a thousand years of praise and worship, and then a million years of praise and worship, and then a billion years of praise and worship… for my human mind, that just seems crazy to me. Surely at some point us Christians will get tired of singing ‘Amazing Grace’ for the trillionth time?

We can’t understand eternity. Not even the smartest mathematicians can fathom eternity. We can aim for really, really big numbers in equations, and printing out the numbers in pi, but eternity is not calculable. Therefore we must conclude that when Jesus talks about ‘eternal’ life, he is talking about the closest equivalent of time in heaven, in that it doesn’t exist. Time in heaven, I believe, and without any sources because no one has gone to heaven and come back with any information about it, does not work like how time here on earth works. Seconds and hours and days, constructs made originally by humans based on the earth’s rotation around the sun, probably won’t be how we look at time.

Why? Because our bodies will be different and perfect. We won’t have boredom that comes with time because the glory of God will be so captivating. Time on earth is counting down towards the day we die; it’s a morbid perspective but one that everyone is aware of. It’s a finite, measurable time and really, really, really short. You have to wonder what God is thinking as he looks upon what we do with this really, really, really short time, when he knows we will have a really, really, really long time very soon to satisfy all of our desires we could ever have.

Why do Denominations exist? – 1 Corinthians 12:14-20

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1 Corinthians 1:10

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

I have been a ‘baptist’ all my life. I put baptist in quotation marks because, although I have always gone to a ‘baptist’ church, I know the baptist churches here in Australia are quite different from the baptist churches in America. Whereas there are different religions that believe different things about God (or Gods) and some groups have distinct theological and doctrinal aspects to them, there are denominations of Protestant Christianity in which everyone believes that a faith in Jesus Christ and the grace of God is all you need to come into a relationship with God. And yet all these people house themselves under different denominations such as ‘Baptist’, ‘Lutheran’, ‘Anabaptist’, ‘Anglican’, ‘Methodist’, ‘Presbyterianism’, ‘Adventists’, ‘Pentecostal’, ‘Uniting Church’, and many, many, many more.

The big reason for the different denominations are the difference in opinions over theological matters. A lot of these differences are grey areas that don’t change the gospel-oriented purpose of the churches. Some are significant differences, and could be debated as whether they are grey matters at all, but those debates in the first place often distract from the gospel-orientated purpose of the church.

I have no problem with there being different denominations, to an extent. The aspect I think is great is denominations means that everyone is kept on their toes, finding out why they believe what they believe – occasionally challenges each other (hopefully in love), so that the church as a whole can fulfill its mission to the best of its ability. From reading the bible, however, I’d say there are big problems with there being so many denominations. In 1 Corinthians, Paul pleaded with the Christians in Corinth to be of the same mind and the same judgement; to get rid of the divisions between them.

1 Corinthians 12:14-20

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

I think the biggest problem is not when a denominations feels they are better than the rest of the denominations, but when they don’t feel a need to work together with the other denominations for God’s glory. Denominations, through culture and history, often come out with strengths. Ministry, outreach, worship and bible study strengths are all great on their own, but just imagine the power of the Christian church if all the denominations were to work together, with their strengths, to further God’s kingdom.

Next time you meet someone from a different denomination, don’t start comparing differences of theology, start comparing differences of strengths, and how you can use the different strengths together in pursuing the unsaved for God. In our Godless culture, now is not the time for Christians to divide. It’s time to unite.

Where’s my passion for God gone? – Colossians 3:14-17

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Colossians 3:14-17And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I walked into church on Sunday morning with my mind thinking about business, not God. I was thinking about writing ideas; how I would relax that afternoon. My mind was far away from worshiping God with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I came to this realization as I mindlessly sang along to the worship songs. That’s the thing about when you sing the same songs over and over; although they get stuck in your head, it makes it really easy to forget about what you’re actually singing. Therefore, the question comes: Where’s my passion for God gone, and how do I get it back? I do daily devotions, I write this blog, I do daily prayer, I’m involved in ministries at Church, and yet I don’t feel connected to God.

When do we feel most connected to God? For me it’s when I come to the heart-knowing fact that I am a sinner that falls so far short of God’s interest. That’s when I have meaningful prayer times, read good Christian books and listen to ear-opening good Christian podcasts. Often that heart-knowing fact that I’m a sinner comes after I’ve sinned, but I can’t recommend a diet of sinning to experience that. Instead, I’ll just stay on the diet of sin that I’m already on. I’m always a sinner, even at the moments I think I’m not sinning, I’m boastful in my own strength. I’ll always need Christ to rule in my heart. Colossians 3:14-17 is a fantastic guide to worship. We need to do all with thankfulness in our hearts to God. I have so much to be thankful to God for.

To answer my own question, I believe my passion for God goes when my mind is not constantly dwelling on God. Although I can very neatly go through the motions of prayer, bible study, worship and ministry, they are as helpful as sitting in a room and staring at a blank wall if my heart and mind are not on fire for God, throughout the day, every day of the week.