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.

A Sandwich with Money in the Gospel of Mark

A Sandwich with Money in the Gospel of Mark

by | Sep 30, 2018 | Bible Study, The Life of Jesus

If you have read the Gospel of Mark, you may well have noticed examples of what scholars call “interpolations” or, more playfully, Markan “sandwiches.” These are sections of the narrative where a story is broken into two parts and a second, seemingly unrelated story is inserted in the middle – thus resembling two literary slices of bread with the sandwich filling in the middle.
  
Mark uses this technique frequently. For example, in the story of Jesus cursing a fig tree (Mark 11:12-14) he splits the story and inserts his account of the cleansing of the temple directly into the middle of the narrative (vs. 15-19). When we compare the parallel story in Matthew 21:18-22, where the same story of the cursed fig tree occurs, we find that it is not split in two as Mark does in his account.
 
We may be aware that Mark is making these narrative “sandwiches,” but we may not always realize what his point is in doing this.  There is, however, a clear pattern in what the Evangelist was doing. Time and again we see that Mark inserts material that may seem different, but which compares or contrasts with the outer story and in this way teaches additional lessons we might not have thought about otherwise. Take, for example, the story of Jesus being anointed at Bethany which is inserted into the middle of the story of Judas’ betrayal, as we see in the following three paragraphs from Mark 14:

Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.” 

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly … .

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over (Mark 14:1-11).

We may not immediately see the direct connection between these two stories – or any reason to insert the one inside the other – until we notice the common denominator, which is money.  In both stories Mark shows individuals going to extraordinary lengths either to get or to give money (or that which was of a great value specified in a monetary amount).  Mark’s juxtaposition of the two stories makes it impossible to miss the difference between the attitudes of get and give exhibited by Judas and the unnamed woman, along with other details. 

Even the small fact that the woman’s generosity was met with self-righteous scorn compared to Judas’ greed which was met with approval (Mark tells us the priests were “delighted” to hear his offer) adds another layer to the story.  We see the depths of Judas’ hateful attitude and grasping actions precisely because they are shown in contrast with the loving attitude and generous actions of the woman who anointed Christ.

The contrasting details are easy to see in this example, but each Markan sandwich has its own reasons for the insertion of one story into another. It is our job as readers of the Word to read carefully in order to see what the lessons are that Mark is showing us in each case.