Contemplative Bible Reading

Jude 1:24 (New Living Translation)

24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.

There is much in this short letter from a man named Jude. In this sentence, Jude praises God for some of God’s abilities. Listen to this one:

God is able to bring me into God’s presence without a single fault.

Me? Well, I’m a pretty good fella’, you know. I do lots of nice things for folks and so on. But, well, uh, I do have my faults. Just ask some people who know me. They’ll tell ya’.

God, however, takes away every one of my faults. Every single one. That includes that one over there that I don’t like to admit. And that includes that other one over in that other corner of my life. Every single one is taken way.

Faultless is the only way I can come into the presence of God. And this is what God does so I can come into God’s presence. How powerful is God? Move mountains? Conquer nations? Yes, all that, but requiring more power is to remove every single one of my faults. And God does that for me. Thank you God.

Philippians 2:13 (New Living Translation)

13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Paul and Timothy are writing to the Christians at Philippi. The writers are encouraging the Christians to do things that show they are Christians and to enjoy the blessings of Jesus Christ.

I believe God wants Christians in all places at all times to please God. Therefore, God gives Christians in all places at all times the desire to do so. What is more, God gives Christians the power to do so. God isn’t asking for something impossible. God makes it possible.

Wow! What a blessing. What a gift. Thank you God. Let’s go out and do it. God has given me the desire and the power. What more do I need?

Jude 1:22-23 (New Living Translation)

22 And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.

Jude writes an open letter to all Christians and others, too. Sort of like a blog from way back then.

Show mercy. Rescue others. Can’t argue with those two things.

And with it comes: do so with great caution. Hate the sins that contaminate the lives of these others. Okay, show mercy to others while hating sinful acts. Much of my life I have heard this paraphrased as, “Love the sinner; hate the sin.” And much of that time I have heard people say, “Sinners hear this as, ‘hate the sin and hate the sinner, too.'”

Sigh. The best of intentions with bumbling actions. That’s me. Bumble along with good intentions and harm others. Come on. I can do better. I should be close enough to people who have sinful actions so that I can show them mercy. At the same time, I shouldn’t take on their sinful acts (I’ll show mercy by getting drunk and carousing about with you—NOPE). Who is influencing whom? More cliches and such I’ve hear much of my life. Shall I live by the cliches or by the words of Jude the ancient blogger?

Please God, help me in my unbelief.

1 Corinthians 5:10 (New Living Translation)

10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.

Paul is writing to the Christians in the city of Corinth. Paul tells the Christians there are people with whom they should not associate. “Don’t even eat with such people,” is one thing Paul tells them.

In the middle of this, Paul reminds the readers of one caveat, “But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers.” Paul was talking about people who profess to believe in Jesus as savior and Lord, but engage in the usual list of ungodly things. Stay away from false believers.

Stay away from unbelievers? Well, to do that you would have to leave planet Earth and go somewhere else inhabited by only believers. Can’t do that.

Followers of Jesus live here on planet Earth. There are many unbelievers here on planet Earth. This is where we are and this is our situation. Live with it. Don’t imitate the unbelievers and don’t be surprised at how they live. Criticize the unbelievers daily? I don’t know about that one, but if that is what I did I wouldn’t have much time for anything else (including sleep).

This is where I live. God has blessed me with saving grace. God has blessed me with other believers and their examples of faith. Thanks be to God. The unbelievers? Yes, they are all around me. Perhaps I can show them the way of the believers. God, help me to do so.

3 John 1:11 (New Living Translation)

11 Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

John is writing to a dear friend named Gaius. A man named Diotrephes wasn’t welcoming traveling teachers. That was not right. That was setting a bad example of how to live.

John’s urging is simple: follow good examples and don’t follow bad examples.

Yes, that is simple. That should be easy to do, huh? Well, it must not be easy to do because I don’t do it enough. What is wrong with me? How can I be so foolish? I can excuse it as part of the failure of the human condition, but no, that is just an excuse. I should do better.

What is remarkable is that God still accepts me. God’s grace still covers my failings and keeps me clean so that I can be in God’s presence. Thanks be to God. And please God, help me in my unbelief.

1 Corinthians 1:23 (New Living Translation)

23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

Paul is writing to the Christians at Corinth. Paul is discussing what he and others have been saying and how people have reacted to it. Part of Paul’s message is simple: this fellow Jesus from that little town of Nazareth was the Son of God anointed to take away the sins of the world.

Many of the Gentiles who heard this message about a Jew simply said, “It’s all nonsense.”

It made no sense that some poor, uneducated guy from a conquered and occupied people was somehow a direct descendant of a deity. If anyone was sent by a god, it would be someone who was part of the ruling class or civilization. All nonsense.

Not much has changed in 20 centuries. This idea of Jesus the Son of God is pretty much dismissed as nonsense by most folks. Sure, there are hundreds of millions of persons all over the world who believe in the Christ. Still, the educated classes generally scoff.

Not much has changed in 20 centuries. And that is a big part of the good news. God is still God. The blood of Jesus still cleanses mankind from sin. Let’s celebrate that not much has changed.

Ezekiel 22:30 (New Living Translation)

30 “I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one.

God is talking to the people through the prophet Ezekiel. The political and religious leaders of the people have not done what God told them to do. They are stealing, lying, cheating, and not teaching the difference between right and wrong—the difference between righteousness and evil.

God searched for someone who would do what is right. God searched for someone who would “rebuild the wall of righteousness,” but found no one. Sigh. It is over. Doom is coming.

Sometimes life is complicated and sometimes life is simple—easy. There is right and there is wrong and I know what is right and what is wrong. But, but, but you have to understand. There are these many factors and there are all these different factions of people and there are … nope. There is still right and wrong and all my attempts to make the simple complicated are just excuses to make me feel better.

Leaders are to have a wall of righteousness about the people to protect the people and allow the people to live in what is right and good. It is the same as parents protecting small children from evil. It is simple. Please God, don’t let me make it sound complicated.

Romans 14:1 (New Living Translation)

1 Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.

There is something about much of the writings of the New Testament and how they are translated into English. This little something bothers me. This sentence is one example. There is a statement, “Accept other believers.” There is a little phrase that modifies the statement, “who are weak in faith.”

Folks seem to focus on these little phrases that modify the statements instead of the statements. Allow me to revise the sentence to:

Accept other believers, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.

The following sentences in scripture use the topic of food as something not worthy of argument of right and wrong. “You, fellow follower of Jesus, should cut the carbs!” Can you imagine arguing that?

And sometimes we focus on, “who are weak in faith.”

Oh, well, you have to understand that fella’ over there. His diet is all out of whack in opposition to what the Bible teaches. Our bodies are temples of God, and he abuses his body and tears down God’s temple because of his diet. Well, he is “weak in faith,” so we’ll just let him slide into whatever bad place the weak in faith slide and be done with him. We can’t expect the “weak in faith” to meet our standards of strong in faith.

Nope. Nope. And more nope. Other believers are believers. They eat other this, wear other that, live other there, and all sorts of other things. Argue about those things? Nope. Who wants to join the believers if all the believers do is argue about all those things? Let’s do much better. Please God, help me to do much better.

Ezekiel 20:26 (New Living Translation)

26 I let them pollute themselves with the very gifts I had given them, and I allowed them to give their firstborn children as offerings to their gods—so I might devastate them and remind them that I alone am the Lord.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Ezekiel. The prophet is reminding the people of the actions of their ancestors and telling them that they are repeating those actions. What did the ancestors do? Among other things, they threw away what God wanted and instead went to what other people practiced in the worship of their gods. They killed their firstborn children to gain favor with these other gods.

Stop and consider this. These people actually killed their first children in a religious ceremony. Does the God we know, the God of the Holy Bible, ever ask for something like that? Do followers of the Christ, i.e., us Christians, do anything like this? Why would anyone do anything like this? Yet, that is what the people did and continued to do. How far away from God can you go?

Us Christians today, us educated folks today, we would never go this far away from God. Or do we? Are there things we do today that are this far off the path? Perhaps. I have to look at myself and try to consider my life. What am I doing? What am I thinking? What am I saying? Where is my money? Where is my time? Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Romans 10:3-4 (New Living Translation)

3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

There is so much in these few sentences. Let’s discuss a phrase from the second sentence. People—us, me—cling to our own ways of getting right with God.

I want to be right with God (good). I want to be right with God my own way (bad). God provides a way (good). God’s way is simple (good). God provided God’s way (even better). God’s way is simply through belief in Christ (this gets even better).

Still, I want to do it my own way. What is wrong with me? And even better, God forgives me for my selfish and childish wishes to “do it myself.” What is wrong with me? Please God, help me in my unbelief. And, thank you God for providing a miraculous way be being right with you.