A Window and a Mirror

A Window and a Mirror

by | Nov 11, 2018 | Bible Study

We take glass for granted –  it’s everywhere in our lives, in windows, windshields, mirrors, bottles and so many other things. But glass is one of the very few solid substances that have the ability to both reflect and transmit light.  We all discover this at an early age, of course, when we catch a glimpse of ourselves or some reflected object in the window we are looking through –  because glass can function both as a window and as a mirror.

The word of God has both those abilities, too.  We can see things “through” it – the stories, lessons, and events it records –  and we can also catch occasional glimpses of ourselves in the way it describes our own human natures and tendencies. 

This dual nature of the Bible –  as both spiritual window and mirror –  is something the Scriptures themselves describe.   The well-known words of the apostle James speak directly about the Bible’s ability to act reflectively as a spiritual mirror, of course: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:23-24).

Many other scriptures talk about our ability to see things through the word of God, as well.  Paul’s words regarding his own letter to the Ephesians are an example of this: “In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:4). Elsewhere Paul speaks even more specifically about the things we are able to see through the Spirit-inspired word of God:  “… these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).

So it is clear that the two great purposes of the word of God are to teach us about God and what he has done for humanity, and to teach us what we need to know about ourselves.  And that, of course, is why we study the Bible.   But that is also where we sometimes fall down in not studying as effectively as we could. Often, even devoted Christians fall into the habit of either looking at or through the word, but not both.

For example, if we are not careful it’s easy to just read through the Bible by reading its stories and focusing on them, but not seeing the reflections of ourselves that we frequently need to see.  To do that we have to keep “two hats” on at once, so to speak –  to  be able to read about events, stories and descriptions while constantly watching for aspects that “reflect” on us –  things that are condemned or encouraged that we need to change or to develop.

On the other hand, it is just as possible to focus too much on ourselves in our Bible reading, to mainly think about scriptures that encourage, guide, or even correct us, but at the same time to not focus on the real subject of God’s word – God himself.  God certainly desires to speak to us through his word, but his message is not primarily about us, it’s about him and his plan for his whole creation. 

So if we are mainly looking at our own reflection in our study of the Bible, we are not seeing a major part of its message; though on the other hand, if we are only looking “through the glass” we are missing something very important, too. Effective Bible study consists of a careful balance of these two ways of looking.  If at the end of a session of Bible reading we have only been personally encouraged or corrected but have not learned or been reminded about some aspect of the nature of God, we may have missed seeing something or may need to read a little further.  If we feel we came to better understand some aspect of God’s nature and his dealing with humanity but missed any application in our own lives, we may have missed something, too.

As the apostle Paul wrote: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Scripture gives us both doctrine – things to know – and instruction – things to do.  In order to get both those intended results we need to continually remind ourselves to look both at the glass and through it.

The Apostle Who Didn’t Come to Dinner

The Apostle Who Didn’t Come to Dinner

by | Nov 4, 2018 | Fellowship

​He had been invited, of course – not that he needed an invitation! – and we had saved a place for him.  But he had not come to dinner for the past week, and it was beginning to look as though he would not be coming to dinner again any time soon.  He may just have been busy, of course; any apostle – and especially the chief apostle – must have so many responsibilities. But it was strange, nonetheless. Some were even beginning to wonder if they had offended him, or if fellowship with the Gentile converts was not  a pressing issue just now.  But surely, it couldn’t be, as some had even suggested, that Peter named Cephas viewed us –  the Gentiles – as somehow less than equal in the fellowship of Christ … could it?

In the second  chapter of Galatians  Paul tells the amazing story:

“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face … For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray” (Galatians 2:11-13).

Paul’s stand against Peter’s hypocrisy must have been a legendary event in the early Church. Paul certainly did not skirt the issue:

“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” (Galatians 2:14).

Fortunately, Peter had the humility to accept Paul’s reprimand (something worth thinking about in itself) and changed his behavior – fellowshipping again with the Gentile believers.  Clearly, he learned a valuable lesson, one which lies behind the words written in one of his own epistles years later: “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers…” (1 Peter 2:17).

But this story is given in the Bible for our admonition, not Peter’s.  Do we avoid certain people in the faith for any reason? Do we not fully accept other believers because of some difference in doctrine or belief?  The apostle Peter made this mistake – are we above it? 

We know that we are to “keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching …” (2 Thessalonians 3:6), but that does not apply to believers who are sincerely trying to do God’s will.  The writings of Paul as well as Luke in the book of Acts make it abundantly clear that Gentile believers were to be fully accepted as brothers and sisters in the faith – even though they may not have had complete doctrinal understanding (Acts 15:28).  

​This principle also applies directly to us, of course, in dealing with fellow believers of other doctrinal persuasions.  We may not agree with each other on things that we consider to be important, but that does not preclude our fellowship and helping one another in the faith.  Even though we may understand that principle intellectually, we must all ask ourselves whether there is some reason we are not showing up for dinner.

* Extracted from our e-book Lessons in Christian Living from the Early Church –  Download a free copy from our sister site, here. 

Flight School

Flight School

by | Oct 21, 2018 | Encouragement

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft” (Deuteronomy 32:11).
 
A good deal of “urban legend” has grown up around this verse from Deuteronomy. Many who have not had the opportunity to observe eagles have thought that the verse talks of parent eagles teaching their offspring to fly by either dropping them and catching them up on their backs or wings before the young hit the ground, or just carrying them through the sky to “teach” them the mechanics of flight. 

In reality, eagles don’t do either of these things, and the verse doesn’t really say they do. It seems to refer to the parent eagle using its wings to keep the eaglets away from the edge of the nest when they are still very small. “Carries them aloft” is better translated “bearing them on its pinion [feathers]” (as in the ESV and other translations), and the whole verse is simply talking about the eagle protecting its young in the nest.

But interestingly, this is not to say that the adult eagles do not help their young in learning to fly.  The help the parent eagles give is not of the hand- (wing-) holding type, but of encouragement.  Once the young eaglets have grown flight feathers and are getting ready to fly, the young birds usually begin to jump up and down in the nest, flapping their wings in “baby steps.”  The adult birds encourage the young to leave the nest and to begin flight in various ways. They often stop feeding the young or cut down feeding to give the young incentive to find food themselves. They will also fly around the nest repeatedly, again encouraging the young, and even sometimes visibly carrying food in their talons. It is this ongoing encouragement that helps the young eagle learn to fly.

So if there is an analogy for Christian life to be found in eagle flight school, it is simply the lesson of encouragement.  Eaglets, like children, and like those new in the faith, profit from encouragement; and it is certainly a part of Christian responsibility and opportunity to help those who are only beginning to come into the truth.  There are many ways we can “encourage the young” – and encourage one another at any stage in our growth (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
 
There is both a positive and a negative aspect to this encouragement. If you will permit one more detail regarding eagles, it is this. Adult eagles, while feeding and caring for their young in the nest, often ball their feet to prevent the young from being skewered by the parent birds’ talons. So it is with us.  Encouraging others can take the form of treating them with concern instead of unwarranted criticism and can also take the form of positive encouragement by what we say and do that helps them along the way. Think of it as flight school – it’s certainly an important part of Christian living.

Fulfilling Three Goals at one Time

Fulfilling Three Goals at one Time

by | Oct 14, 2018 | Great Commission, Positive Living

​One of the primary laws of success is not to try to pursue too many goals at one time. When we attempt many goals at once, we tend to stretch our efforts too thin – and if we are not careful we can become mediocre in everything we do.  As a result, many leadership experts stress that it is best to focus on one major goal at a time, and to put most of our efforts into that single, primary, goal.

So how does this fact balance with what we are called to do in our Christian lives?  The apostle Paul actually gives us at least three major goals for which we should be aiming – and we are not given the luxury of tackling one goal at a time!  But let’s look at those biblical goals and then consider how we can fulfill them without lessoning our success with any one of them.

Goal One: Perhaps the primary goal Paul gives every warrior of the Way is to glorify God. The apostle made it clear when he wrote: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).    In context Paul is talking primarily about food and drink, but the words “whatever you do” add a breadth of application that clearly means we are to glorify God in everything we do – and of, course, everything we think or say.  That’s a huge goal, but it meshes perfectly with what Jesus himself said about the greatest commandment being to love God (Matthew 22:36-38).  If we truly love God, we will be seeking to glorify him in every aspect of our lives.

Goal Two:  Although the first goal of the Christian life we looked at is already incredibly broad, we can now add on a second goal: helping and strengthening others.  Just as Jesus taught that in addition to love of God we must love our neighbor (Matthew 22:39), so Paul stresses the importance of loving others through helping them in whatever way we can: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10).   We should note that Paul urges us not only to apply love in our dealings with everyone – but also especially to do what we can to help fellow believers.

Goal Three: We already have two major goals to contemplate, but Paul adds a third one: being a light to unbelievers.  This is fulfilling the “Great Commission” Jesus gave his disciples before his ascension (Matthew 28:18-20), and it is called a “great” commission or goal for good reason. As Paul wrote: “For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth”  (Acts 13:47 and see also Acts 26:18, Philippians 2:14-16).  In a figurative sense, of course, “Gentiles” includes all who are not part of “spiritual Israel” (Romans 2:28-29, 1 Peter 2:9, Galatians 6:16) – in other words, all unbelievers – which is another huge goal.

So the biblical evidence is clear. As Christians, we are given not one, but at least three major goals, and we are expected to fulfill them all! But given what we said at the beginning of this article, how can we possibly fulfill three such massive goals without diluting our efforts and producing only mediocre results in what we accomplish?  Fortunately, the Bible answers this question in a very encouraging way.  Unlike physical goals which usually require focused attention and effort that can be applied in only one area or another, the New Testament makes it clear that if we are diligently working toward one of the three goals we have been given, we will, in effect, be working toward them all.

Consider a small example of this.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his disciples: “… In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 ESV).   Did you see it?  If we are fulfilling the goal of letting our light shine before others, we will also be fulfilling the goal of bringing glory to God!  Paul made exactly this same point when he wrote that through the spreading of the word: “… the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:15).

Putting this example in a practical context means that helping a stranger or a fellow believer in some way not only fulfills the goal of serving and helping others, but our action also glorifies God – whether the person we help knows we are a Christian or not.  A little reflection on the three goals we have been given will show that every one of them overlaps and interacts with the others in the same way.
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This does not mean that we need only attempt to do one of the things we have been given to do in our Christian lives, but it helps us to see that unlike attempting physical goals, we can successfully accomplish multiple spiritual goals at once.  That is one of the most encouraging things we can know about the Way to which we have been called, and it is a powerful antidote to feeling that we are responsible for managing long lists of spiritual goals.  We are given multiple goals, but when we strive to fulfill any one of them, very often we are working on fulfilling them all.

Puah and Shiprah: Pro-Life Heroes of Old

Puah and Shiprah: Pro-Life Heroes of Old

by | Oct 7, 2018 | Women of Strength

​Puah and Shiprah were the two women mentioned in the Book of Exodus who were in charge of the midwives who delivered the Israelite children in Egypt.  Exodus tells us:

“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives … “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live” (Exodus 1:15-17).
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Because the two women placed their fear of God before their fear of the Egyptian king, Jewish tradition presumed that they were Hebrew-born women, but the traditions disagree.  While one links Puah with Miriam, Moses’ sister, and Shiprah with Jochebed, the mother of Moses,  another tradition viewed the women as Jewish proselytes who were not related to Moses at all.
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The fact that they are said to be “Hebrew midwives” could mean  that they were Hebrew or that they were “midwives to the Hebrews.”  The names of the two women also seem to reflect underlying Egyptian names, and it is possible that they were indeed Egyptian converts.  This possibility seems all the more likely as we continue to read the story:

“Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”  The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own” (Exodus 1:18-21).

The fact that Puah and Shiprah could contrast Hebrew with Egyptian births suggests that they may have acted as midwives for both, and their excuse would be all the more believable if that were the case.  The ancient Jewish historian, Iben Ezra, states that the two women were in charge of “more than 500” midwives; if this was true, the  women were likely appointed by the Egyptian government and would almost certainly have been Egyptian women.

In any event, these women  acted with faithfulness to the law of God and demonstrated a measure of faith in doing so.  It is clear that  their faith was rewarded.   We are told not only that “God was kind to the midwives”  in the sense that they were spared the anger of the Egyptian king, but also we are told “the people increased…” (vs. 20), and “…because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own” (vs. 21). 
 
This last blessing may have been a particularly kind one, as scholars believe that midwives in that era were often women who could not have children of their own.  In the Hebrew of the Old Testament the expression “families” is literally “houses,” however, and Jewish tradition has it that these were “distinguished” houses from which many Hebrew civil and religious leaders descended. 

Whatever the case regarding the various traditions about them, it is clear that God did bless the two chief midwives, and the positive outcome of the story should not obscure the extent of their faith and faithfulness.

Historically, this is the earliest known example of civil disobedience in the face of a specific command by a powerful regime to disobey the law of God.  Even today it remains as a wonderful example of the power of faith in difficult circumstances.  The two courageous women did what they could to protect themselves, and others.  And in doing what they did Puah and Shiprah saved not a few, but a generation.