A Shortage of Good Women?

A Shortage of Good Women?

by | Nov 17, 2019 | Difficult Scriptures

Scripture in Focus: Ecclesiastes 7:28
 
“while I was still searching but not finding – I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all” (Ecclesiastes 7:28).
 
On the surface of it, the author of the biblical book of wisdom called Ecclesiastes seems to give women a pretty bad rap. While this writer – probably the wise King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:12) –  admits there are few good men to be found (“I found one upright man in a thousand”), he seems to have been unable to find a good woman at all!

But is that what this verse is really saying?  There are actually a number of possibilities that the verse is not putting women down at all, and we will look at three of these individually.

First, we should notice that the writer is referring to himself in the first person in saying “While I was searching … I found …” This is important as the book is giving the writer’s personal experience from its  introduction almost to its conclusion. He continually stresses his own personal reactions and feelings – as when he writes: “I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me” (Ecclesiastes 9:13).  As a result, it is perfectly possible that the writer is simply talking about his own experience rather than making a statement about all women everywhere.  The fact that he was a king might make this more likely, as we will see next.

Second, the Hebrew word translated “woman” (ishah) can mean wife as well as woman and the phrase “to find a woman” can mean to look for and find a wife. If that is the meaning in this verse, the king evidently could find an occasional man who made a good friend, but was unable to find a good wife. 1 Kings 11:3 tells us that Solomon had one thousand wives and concubines, but it is entirely possible that most of these women were striving to win position or favor for themselves or their families.  As someone who admittedly was primarily seeking pleasure in life (Ecclesiastes 2:1, etc.), he may have cut himself off from women who he would have respected more. From this perspective Ecclesiastes 7:28 is simply applying the fact that money  (even kingly riches) cannot buy happiness in the realm of marriage.

Yet another possibility can be seen in the fact that the Hebrew word translated man in this verse (adam) can often mean “human.” If that was the intended meaning, the writer could simply have been stressing that his experience was that only one in a thousand people were good individuals – though admitting that his “sample” consisted entirely of men and no women.

There are even other possibilities for the original meaning of this verse, but we can see from the three mentioned here that whatever the writer of Ecclesiastes meant specifically, he need not have been putting down all women.  It is more likely that he was complaining of his own sad experience based on his own particular circumstances.  Additionally, if the author of Ecclesiastes was indeed Solomon, we should also compare this verse with the many proverbs of Solomon that do show a high regard for women (Proverbs 12:4; 18:22; 19:14; 31:10; etc.). 

How Do We Please God?

How Do We Please God?

by | Nov 3, 2019 | Discipleship

​The more we grow spiritually, the more we desire to please God; but how do we most effectively do that?  The New Testament mentions a number of ways in which we should please God – that we cannot please him without faith (Hebrews 10:38), without “walking in the Spirit” (Romans 8:8), etc. But in his letter to the Colossians, the apostle Paul makes a statement that summarizes the many answers to that question (Colossians 1:9-12).  Paul tells us he prayed that believers “… may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way…” (vs. 10, emphasis added), and he then follows this thought by speaking of four specific ways that, taken together, please God in “every way.”

Paul’s statement is almost startling in both its reach and its simplicity. No other passage in the New Testament claims to tell us how to be completely pleasing to God, so we should look very closely at the characteristics the apostle tells us fulfill this goal.  The four things are:

1. Bearing fruit in every good work (vs. 10). Paul makes it clear throughout his epistles that although good works do not save us, God expects us to produce good works as a result of being saved (Titus 3:8, 14, etc.).  Throughout the New Testament the expression “good works” primarily refers to works done to help others (Hebrews 13:16, etc.), but it also includes our obedience to God (1 Thessalonians 4:1, Hebrews 13:20-21, etc.). We should also notice Paul’s stress in Colossians 1 is not that “some” good works will please God, but that we are urged to “every good work” – to as many good works as possible! 

2. Growing in the knowledge of God (vs. 10).  Paul next cites our ongoing growing in the knowledge of God and his ways as being central to our ability to please God. It is only as we come to know God that we can learn to properly love, fear, trust, and obey him (Psalm 147:11). Knowledge itself is of no use without application (1 Corinthians 13:1-2), but growing in knowledge can enable us to better grow in good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The first two points  Paul gives for how to please God correspond directly with the apostle Peter’s summary admonition that we should “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18, emphasis added). Paul also stresses these same two characteristics elsewhere in his writing (Philippians 1:9), but in Colossians 1 he goes further to add two more points that we need in order to fully please God:

3. Being strengthened by God (vs. 11).  This is not strength for its own sake, of course, rather  “… that you may have great endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11, Ephesians 3:16, etc.). Given what Paul says in this verse, there is no question that this strengthening is actually something God must do in us: “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might,” yet we must make this possible by asking God’s help and trusting him in faith to supply his strength. In that sense, this characteristic includes the quality of faith itself, as the basis of our strength, endurance and patience (Hebrews 11:6).

4. Giving thanks to God (vs. 12). The final characteristic that Paul tells us is pleasing to God is deep gratitude on our part: “… giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” In fact, thankfulness is a theme to which the apostle returns numerous times in this short epistle (Colossians 2:7; 3:15, 17; 4:2) – in this way reinforcing our understanding of its importance in God’s eyes.

So Paul’s four summary characteristics of believers who truly please God are not what many of us might guess. Humanly, we might suppose that never-failing obedience, great sacrifice, frequent or long periods of prayer, or any number of other things that relate to our own lives might be what please God. But Paul’s four characteristics do not focus on our lives – they are all primarily outward looking toward others and God himself.    
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Perhaps we should not be surprised that the things Paul says greatly please God are all expressions of our love for others and love for God.  That is basic enough, but the four specific characteristics Paul enumerates are worthy of our careful study – if we want to please God, they are among the highest goals for which we can aim.

First Responders vs. First Responses

First Responders vs. First Responses

by | Oct 27, 2019 | Overcoming

The men and women who constitute our first responders – the police, fire, paramedics and other public servants –  selflessly accomplish an untold amount of good for which we all can be grateful. The majority of those first responders have answered a call in which they put others before themselves and they are often the most trustworthy people we can find.

But this blog post is not about our societies’ first responders, but our personal “first responses.”  It is a fact of human psychology that our first responses in many situations are often anything but trustworthy. Think about this for a moment. If someone were to suddenly insult you, throw a rock at you, or to kick your new car, what would your first response be –  to immediately retaliate verbally or in some other way?  For most of us the answer is probably yes – whether we would eventually calm down and restrain ourselves or not.  Perhaps there are a few people whose first responses to negative or provocative stimuli are always calm and rational, but I have not personally had the honor of meeting any of them.

What I do know, and what you probably have found as well, is that in all too many situations in life, no matter what our level of sincerity or dedication to our beliefs, our first responses are often not our best responses. People often talk about “trusting our first instincts,” but like it or not, our first reactions to problematic situations and stimuli are usually those hardwired into our human nature and almost always wrong.  Anger, denial, justification of our behavior, shifting of blame, and countless other negative first responses are the stock-in-trade of human psychology.

So whenever the potential for a problem occurs or some kind of interpersonal difficulty actually arises, we do need to focus on our responses and not just let them happen.  There are several things we can do in this regard.  Consider the right responses involved in a physical emergency situation. First response organizations advocate three essential steps at such times:  (A)ssess the situation, (C)all for help, (T)alk to people who have been affected, calm them, and address their needs.  These three “A.C.T.” steps can be utilized spiritually in our interpersonal relations just as much as they can be used in physical situations –  a fact we see frequently in the wisdom found in the Bible’s book of Proverbs.

(A)ssess the situation: Our first responses are often the wrong ones because we follow human impulses without considering their outcome.  Many statements found in Proverbs urge us to avoid that.  For example, “the one who acts hastily sins”  (Proverbs 19:2 Holman) refers to the need to assess situations carefully before acting, and “do not answer a fool … answer a fool” (Proverbs 26:4-5) likewise counsels us to remember that different responses are needed in different situations. We must assess first, but once it is clear that we have a problem, we should move to the next step.

(C)all for help:  First responders urge people to call 911 or their local emergency number to get help as soon as they see what the problem is and confirm the seriousness of its nature.  When it comes to getting our spiritual responses right, as soon as we realize we have a problem, prayer should likewise be our first call. Proverbs assures us that “The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29), and this especially applies in any spiritual emergency situation where we need help to respond in the way we should. God is the ultimate first responder and as Christians we should make it a habit to seek his help in quick silent prayer, whenever possible  before our interpersonal problems escalate.

(T)alk to people who have been affected, calm them, and address their needs: This emergency situation technique can certainly be utilized when we are faced with difficult interpersonal situations. Being aware of the natural prevalence of wrong first reactions in our own lives can help us to be mindful of the need to help others through their own first reactions.  We do this by first working to calm them rather than reacting in such a way as to make the situation worse.  Proverbs makes this point very clearly: “A gentle response diverts anger, but a harsh statement incites fury. The wise speak, presenting knowledge appropriately…” (Proverbs 15:1 ISV).  Just as a first responder will work to help with people’s needs in a physical emergency, we can also focus on the needs of the other person with whom a problem has developed rather than concentrating on our own hurts and  perceived needs.
  
These may all be basic approaches to working with situations such as arguments, accidents, misunderstandings, and other problems that may occur in our lives, but their simplicity makes them all the more effective if we can learn to utilize them.  First responders urge us to “A.C.T.” when physical problems occur that are of an emergency nature.  In the sphere of everyday interpersonal problems, remembering the  acronym “A.C.T” can also help us –  before our problem circumstances get to the level of a spiritual emergency!

Which Biblical Laws Still Apply Today?

Which Biblical Laws Still Apply Today?

by | Sep 29, 2019 | Obedience


The subject of which Biblical laws apply today can be confusing for many Christians. This is because some claim a great many of the laws given to ancient Israel still apply today while others claim none of them do and that under the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33) believers are only responsible for fulling the “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2) or the “law of love” (Matthew 22:37-40; James 2:8).

To come to a sound biblical answer to this question we must first understand that the laws given to ancient Israel were of different types (Jeremiah 7:22-23; Hebrews 8:13):

1. The ritual or sacrificial laws.  Of the more than 600 laws found in the Old Testament, the great majority are the ritual laws pertaining to the temple, its priesthood, and sacrifices (see Leviticus 16:18-19, for example). This is the easiest category to deal with as the New Testament unequivocally shows that these laws foreshadowed the work and death of Jesus Christ and were fulfilled by him as the ultimate sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11-14).

That is why the apostle Paul draws a clear distinction between the ritual laws of the Old Testament and the spiritual or moral laws (see below) in verses such as this: “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.” (1 Corinthians 7:19).

2. The civil or governmental laws. These laws were given for the civil administration of the physical nation of ancient Israel (see Deuteronomy 24:10-11, for example). The purpose of many of these laws was to provide an identity for Israel as the people of God and to separate them from the pagan nations around them. Because we do not live under the government of ancient Israel, these laws do not directly apply to us today. In fact, rather than being called to be separate from the nations, Christians are called to carry the gospel “into all the world” (Matthew 28:19).  Yet the principles behind many of these laws can still be applied today in keeping ourselves separate from the sinful aspects of the societies in which we live (2 Corinthians 6:17) and in other ways.

For example, the Old Testament civil law states that the people of God were not to muzzle an ox, but must allow it to eat as it was used to thresh the grain (Deuteronomy 25:4).  In the New Testament, Paul uses the principle behind this law to show that it is not wrong for a minister of the Gospel to be supported by the work he does.  Here, and in other cases, Paul argues from an old civil law to a modern application of its principle.

3. The spiritual or moral laws.  These are actually a minority of the laws of the Old Testament, yet they are the most important (see Exodus 20, for example). The Ten Commandments are particularly vital because they summarize the moral or spiritual laws given to Israel, and many scholars feel that there is clear biblical evidence of all ten commandments being understood before the nation of Israel came into existence. We certainly find them being followed in the later writings of the New Testament, which shows that they were not like the sacrificial or governmental laws pertaining to Israel alone and that they continued beyond the death of Christ (see Ephesians 6:1-2, for example). As a result, we can say that the spiritual or moral laws found in the Old Testament transcend time and space and are perfectly applicable today. 

We may have heard that all we have to do as Christians is to love God and our fellow humans, but the spiritual or moral laws show us how we do that.  That is why the apostle John (the “apostle of love” himself) tells us “this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,” (1 John 5:3).

Although the ritual laws of the Old Testament were fulfilled by Christ’s sacrifice, and the civil laws of Israel are no longer applicable because the church is not a separate physical nation, the basic moral laws of the Old Testament are clearly reflected in the New Testament (Romans 13:8-10; Colossians 3:5-10, etc.).

In many cases we can also learn valuable principles from the other types of laws found in the Old Testament – which is why Paul tells us that “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 NKJV).  But Paul is equally clear in showing that the Christian should not become enslaved to laws that were fulfilled or no longer apply (Galatians 5:1-3).

So the Bible shows that the moral principles found in the Old Testament and reaffirmed in the New Testament are valid for us today and guide us in living out the new life to which God calls us (Galatians 5:16-26).

The Fight for Freedom

The Fight for Freedom

by | Sep 22, 2019 | The Church & the World

Today, Sunday September 22, is widely observed as Freedom Sunday – a day dedicated to stopping the human trafficking and slavery that is rampant in the world in which we live. 

Many people think of slavery as something of the past, but the problem is far greater than is often realized in our own age.  It is estimated that there are now over 45 million people enslaved throughout the world – actually more than at any other time in history! 

Modern slavery is also incredibly widespread.  Slavery or human trafficking for the purposes of slavery has been detected in 167 countries of the world.  This includes Western nations such as the United States and Great Britain, but 58 percent of people in slavery are living in just five countries: India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. The International Justice Mission, which organizes the annual Freedom Sunday efforts, also lists Guatemala, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines as being particularly problematic.  Even this long list does not include totalitarian regimes such as North Korea where virtual slavery as political punishment and repression is also a fact of life.

Slavery can take many forms.  Although modern slavery includes people literally being owned by other people – just as in the past – it more often takes the form of people being exploited and completely controlled by others, without the possibility of escape. But in all cases it involves the use of kidnapping, trickery, lies or violence to force a person to work for little or no pay – often in demeaning and destructive circumstances.  Even apart from the physical dangers involved for those who are kidnapped or manipulated by traffickers, the psychological and emotional problems suffered by those enslaved are often devastating.

As a result of the horrendous nature and extent of the problem, many governments are acting to curb human trafficking and slavery, but the sad truth is that nowhere near enough is being done to truly eradicate this curse.  In countries where the problem is most pronounced, the governments themselves often turn a blind eye toward what is happening. Yet there is much we can do as individuals. 

Four Ways to Fight

Consider the following four possibilities for involvement in the fight against slavery:

Educate Yourself:  It is hard to successfully fight an enemy we know little about. But educating ourselves about modern trafficking and slavery is relatively simple and can supercharge our own desire to fight these evils.  Take a few minutes to read about the basic facts of slavery today by looking at the Wikipedia article on Slavery in the 21st Century  or at the information on websites such as those of Anti-Slavery International or International Justice Mission.

Spread the Word:  This weekend, thousands of churches around the world will dedicate part or all of their services to share stories and facts about the reality of slavery and to urge congregants to get involved in the fight.  If we have educated ourselves in relation to the problem, there are various ways (using social media, for example) in which we too can spread the word as individuals.
  
Support Organized Efforts:    Anti-Slavery International  and the International Justice Mission are leading the fight internationally against slavery, though there are other organizations also doing valuable work in this area.  Checking out their websites may give you ideas for ways you can support this kind of organized effort.

Pray:  Even if we do nothing else in the fight against slavery, we certainly can, and should, pray for those actively working to stop the problem at different levels, especially those working in law enforcement and international justice.  We can also pray for the eyes of those in positions of authority around the world to be opened to see the evil of slavery and what must be done to end it. 

Free the Oppressed

As Christians we should take seriously the many biblical injunctions to help those who are oppressed.  Isaiah 1:17  tells us: “Seek justice and defend the oppressed” and Isaiah 58:6 shows us that even our spiritual activity can be meaningless if we do not do what we can in this fight: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”  The fight for freedom is ongoing and applies just as much to us today as it did to those who fought to curb slavery in the past.