Contemplative Bible Reading

Ephesians 4:26-27 (New Living Translation)

26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

This is a famous passage. One paraphrase that applies strongly to me:

Get over it so you can sleep at night.

I don’t sleep well when ideas and incidents are spinning around in my head. I wake the next morning more tired than when I went to bed. Being tired is not conducive to loving God and my neighbor.

Once again, God knows what He is saying when He tells us to settle the matter now. If I can just get past myself and follow His advice.

1 Corinthians 1:10-11 (New Living Translation)

10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. 11 For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters.

Paul is admonishing members of the church in Corinth about their divisions. Paul cites “members of Chloe’s household” as the source of his information.

Questions:

1. Were members of Chloe’s household a bunch of ill-intention gossipers?
2. Who appointed members of Chloe’s household to tell Paul about the congregation’s problems?
3. Did members of Chloe’s household give Paul permission to identify them by name as the source of his information?
4. Should Paul have mentioned this source of information?
5. Are all these questions the type of thing 21st persons ask and were never asked in the 1st century?
6. Are lists of questions irrelevant?

Today, if a household told an outsider of my congregation’s problems, and that led to such a public admonishment, well, I would have a talk with that household right now and straighten them out and… I don’t find this to be gossip as Paul identifies the household by name. Paul didn’t write, “I’ve heard through the grapevine that…”

Still, who appointed Chloe’s household as being correct in their assessment and correct in spreading the bad news?

Go to question 5. Perhaps the culture then and the culture now are so different that this “incident” was not an incident in the 1st century.

Lesson for today: bad news does indeed travel fast and far. Good news—including The Good News—doesn’t seem to travel the same way. God, help us in our unbelief.

2 Timothy 2:16 (New Living Translation)

May the Lord show special kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family because he often visited and encouraged me. He was never ashamed of me because I was in chains.

Paul is writing about the love of a friend Onesiphorus. Paul was in prison, but his friend visited him regardless of his situation.

Consider the shame of Paul being in prison. First, Jews didn’t have prisons. Consider the laws and penalties given to the Jews in the Old Testament law. There were no jails or prisons. If you wronged another person, you paid that person money to correct the wrong. If you didn’t have money, you worked for them as an equivalent payment. Being in a prison was a shame to a Jew.

Second, Paul is in a Gentile jail. The Gentiles had been despised by the Jews before the appearance of the Christ. To be in a despised place operated by a despised people was just about as bad as you could be.

Paul’s friend, however, didn’t let all the shamefulness of his situation deter him. He went through all the social conventions of the day because of the love of Christ. This short mention of that in this verse can go past our notice.

What is keeping me from going to a person? Am I embarrassed? Is it “just the kind of thing you don’t do?” Shame on me for not living the love of Christ. God, please help me in my unbelief.

Joel 3:13a (New Living Translation)

Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead.

I love the how the message is worded in this phrase.

In the day of Joel the prophet, people would literally tear their clothes to express grief. I suppose what some people do today is punch or kick a hole in the wall. That is quite demonstrative. It doesn’t do much for your clothing or the walls of your house, but it sure shows the people around you that you are upset.

Then again, it might just be that—a show, a public demonstration of, “Hey, look at me. I’m upset about all this, see?”

The prophet Joel passes along the LORD’s admonition:

Don’t give me a show, give me your hearts.

Oh, something important instead of something showy.

John 17:25 (New Living Translation)

25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

Except for accounts of the crucifixion, these are the last-recorded words of Jesus. He summarizes His earthly ministry with these sentences.

• the world doesn’t know God
• the followers of Jesus know that God sent Jesus to earth
• Jesus revealed God to the followers
• God’s love for Jesus will be in the followers
• Jesus will be in the followers

Is it any wonder that this small group of followers were able to change the world? From the outside, at least, it looks like they changed the world. It was really God working through them that changed everything.

I suppose little has changed since then. God works through the followers of Jesus today, and, when we allow it, we change the world. As the poet once wrote,

praise God from whom all blessings flow

God, help me to continue the work of the followers.

Luke 1:37 (New Living Tranlsation)

For the word of God will never fail.

Many translations of this verse state:

For nothing is impossible with God

Nothing is impossible with God. Of course not. I believe that. I guess I believe that.

Take a look at the paragraphs preceding verse 37.

• an old, old woman named Elizabeth is having a baby
• the angel Gabriel visits a young woman named Mary

We could stop here with the unbelievable and impossible things God is doing, but there is more.

• Mary will give birth to the Messiah as a virgin

Oh, that one. Uh, pretty much impossible. It is also easy to forget because I’ve heard the (hi)story so many times. So, lest we all forget,

nothing is impossible with God.

No, not that one either. It too is possible with God.

Daniel 10:10-14 (New Living Translation)

10 Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. 11 And the man said to me, “Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling.

12 Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. 14 Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.”

Notice the (hi)story:

1. Daniel prayed humbly
2. An angel was dispatched to meet Daniel
3. The spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia intercepted that angel
4. Michael, an archangel, battled this spirit prince
5. This freed the first angel to come to Daniel

Allow me to shrink and cringe at the thought of my puny prayers. Have I ever prayed in a manner that caused anything like this?

Matthew 23:1-4 (New Living Translation)

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.

Note the final damnation that Jesus renders to the “teachers of religious law and the Pharisees” in verse 4. Ouch.

What are “religious demands?” I suppose if I had a wonderful answer to that I could make a lot of money, have lots of followers, and then crush people with my own unbearable religious demands. Perhaps it is best if I remain as I am. Perhaps it is best if I simply rely on the grace of God and trust in Him.

Relying on God is not so simple for smart people like me. We tend to think of great things we should be doing, and requiring ourselves to do those great things, and encouraging (requiring) others to do those great things. ooops.

John 5:39-40 (New Living Translation)

39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

Jesus was chastising a crowd of people. In verse 39, He points to the shortcoming of the scriptures—they don’t give eternal life.

There are many things I could discuss now about the first sentence of verse 39. Allow me to mention just one small thing:

salvation is through Jesus Christ, nothing else.

The Bible—the words saved to us through history and, I believe, the divine intervention and direction of God—tells us of the Christ. I believe we should read it regularly and take it to heart. That shouldn’t be a surprise given I read it often and write a blog about bits and pieces of it.

Nevertheless, let’s not fall into worshiping the Bible. That is easy to do.

1 John 4:18 (New Living Translation)

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

Take note, as I did, of the second sentence—particularly the last phrase.

I believe this sentence is about the grace of God. His perfect love is that he loves us completely and without any hesitation. I pray that I could love in that way, but my human-ness (my sin) gets in the way. I have to hesitate a bit and put some little, tiny but understandable (from a human perspective) conditions on my love. (Please God, forgive me of this and help me in my unbelief.)

I don’t quite 100% believe in the unbelievable grace of God. (I suppose I should add that to the list of things I can neither believe nor understand about God.) Therefore, I am afraid or punishment.

Again, God, please help me in my unbelief.