Moment to Moment (Bible blog)
Every once in a while, I’ll think I noticed something new in the Bible only to realize later that I’d noticed it before and actually blogged about it. This was one of those times.
But there were some new thoughts I had on the matter, and so I rewrote this article a bit.
I hope you’re as blessed as I was.
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another.
Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15)
Sometimes, our brothers and sisters in Christ can be frustrating.
But God reminded me of something this morning as I read this passage.
Yes, I am chosen by God, holy, and dearly loved by him.
But so are my brothers and sisters in Christ.
And that’s why he calls me to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience when dealing with them.
That’s why he asks me to bear with them and forgive them. To love them. And to let his peace rule in our relationships.
When we forget how God sees our brothers and sisters, it’s easy to slander them in our hearts.
In doing so, we indirectly blaspheme God, because we slander someone made in his image. (The word translated “slander” is generally translated “blaspheme” when used in reference to God).
And so God reminded me this morning, especially when I look at my wife and daughter, to remember that all his children are chosen, holy, and dearly loved by him. And I am to treat them that way.
How do you see your brothers and sisters in Christ?
God’s words here seem very harsh.
“Devote the nations in Canaan to complete destruction. Make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.”
Why so harsh? Because they hated God and were in rebellion against him, their Creator and rightful ruler. (10)
He had given them over 400 years to repent, and yet they had only gotten worse. (Deuteronomy 7:25, Genesis 15:16, Leviticus 18)
God is patient, but those who unrepentantly shake their fist at God will ultimately be judged.
The amazing thing, though, is that we were in rebellion against God too.
But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
And though there was nothing special about us, God set his love on us and chose us, making us his people. (1 Peter 2:9-10, Ephesians 2:11-22)
That is our motivation for holiness.
Not to earn God’s love and acceptance.
Not to become his child.
But because we already have God’s love and acceptance as a child of God.
So let us not be ensnared by the things God hates.
Let us not allow anything he hates into our houses. Not porn, nor sexual sin, nor anything else that leads to spiritual death.
Make no covenant with sin, but by the Spirit’s power, let us vanquish these things from our homes.
And out of gratefulness and love for God, let us live holy lives that are pleasing to him.
In Paul’s greetings, two things stood out to me today.
He says of a man named Apelles: “he is ‘approved in Christ.'”
And of a man named Rufus: “he is ‘chosen in the Lord.'”
The truth is, both things can be said of all of us. Why single these two men out?
Obviously, with as little information as we have on these men, anything we say is pure guesswork.
But perhaps both these men needed special encouragement that they were approved and chosen in the Lord.
The word “approved” often has the idea of “tested” in it. And so it’s possible that Apelles had faced some kind of testing in his life.
It might have been some kind of trial or persecution. And perhaps he sometimes wondered, “Why?”
But Paul lets him know, “Yes, you have faced trials, and it’s been tough for you. But you and your faith have come out like gold that has passed through the fire. Know that God says to you, “Well done!” (1 Peter 1:7)
As for Rufus, Paul says. “You are chosen in the Lord. Don’t forget who you are.”
But as Paul talked about earlier, Rufus was chosen not for how good he was, but because of God’s grace and mercy towards him. (Romans 9:11-17)
I say again, though: these words are not for them alone. They are for all of us who belong to Jesus.
So if you’re facing trials, keep trusting God and his goodness and love toward you. And you like Apelles will come out like gold. (Job 23:10)
And never forget who you are: You are chosen in the Lord.
I don’t always take so much time looking at the greeting section of these letters in the New Testament. But as much as any letter in the New Testament, and perhaps more, this greeting connects to everything else that is written in this letter.
Peter starts by identifying himself and who he is writing to, saying
Peter, and apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. (1 Peter 1:1)
Here we see two things about who we are and who we are called to be in this one verse.
Peter calls us, “God’s elect.” Not that we are somehow in ourselves more “elect” or special than others. But that God in his grace chose to save us and make us his own. Not because of who we are, but because of who he is.
He also calls us “strangers in the world.” That can also be translated, “exiles of the Dispersion.”
The “Dispersion” usually referred to the Jews who were scattered throughout the world, far away from their homeland.
But here Peter uses the word figuratively of all Christians. We are all citizens of a heavenly country, and yet we are scattered all over this world, like strangers in a foreign land. And this is a theme that comes up more than once in this letter.
Peter then says of us that we have been
…chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. (2)
Here again, we see how God in love chose us and through Christ’s blood purified us from all sin. But not only has he chosen us and purified us, he is constantly working in us. Day by day he is sanctifying us, and making us more like his Son.
And we were chosen not to live for ourselves, but for obedience to Jesus Christ. He is to be the Lord and King of our hearts, and we his servants.
That’s who we are and who we are called to be. And if you want to understand the rest of this letter, you need to understand these things.
But so often we don’t. Even many Christians fail to grasp this. They think of their Christianity as an upgrade to their lives in this world.
What they don’t understand is that God is not interested in upgrading our lives. He is interested in making us entirely new people. People who reflect his Son. People who no longer live as if this world is their home, but who remember that their true citizenship is in heaven.
And for this purpose, he sent his Son into the world to suffer and die to take the punishment for our sins. And for this purpose, Jesus sent his Spirit into the hearts of all who believe in him to transform us into his likeness.
How about you? Do you understand who you are and who you are called to be?
Or do you still live as a citizen of this world, acting as if you truly belong here?
If you’re a Christian, you don’t belong to this world.
You were created by God and for him. You were chosen by him and sanctified by the Holy Spirit for obedience to Christ. And until you understand that and live that way, you will never truly understand who you are and who you are called to be.
Do you understand this?
As I look at the first two chapters of Ephesians, I can’t help but marvel all over again at all that God has given you and me who have put our faith in Jesus.
Paul starts this letter to the Ephesians in worship, saying,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)
How have we been blessed?
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:4-8)
That’s a mouthful. Paul tells us that before this world was ever created God had a plan. He chose us to be a people that are holy and blameless in his sight.
This despite the fact that he knew we would be a sinful, rebellious people who would turn our backs on him.
But though he knew all this, he made a plan to save us and make us his own. He sent Jesus to die on the cross and take the punishment for our sins that we might be forgiven.
By his blood, he bought us out of slavery to sin and did not merely make us his own slaves, but adopted us as his beloved sons and daughters.
More, he has put his seal on us, guaranteeing our inheritance with him.
The Holy Spirit both protects us and holds us from anything that would tear us apart from God, and his presence and work in our lives is a foretaste of what we will have someday in heaven when we see God face to face.
All this was not because of anything we did, but rather it was entirely because of his own pleasure and will.
And when God chose us, this was by no means some random or capricious choosing of who to save and who not to save. Rather, Paul tells us that “in love” he chose us.
Though we were totally undeserving of it, he looked on us with love and lavished his grace upon us.
How and why he decided to choose us, we will never know. All we know is that for some reason, God chose to set his love upon us.
Because of this, the glory for our salvation does not at all go to us. Rather, Paul says three times that this is all for the praise of God’s glory (verses 6, 12, and 14).
In short, we are a part of God’s incredible plan, a plan to unite this rebellious, sinful, and dysfunctional world under Christ.
And while he could have done so by simply wiping us out as we deserved, he chose to set his love on us and make us a glorious part of his plan for this universe.
Honestly, I feel totally incompetent to express this all. All the superlatives in the world could adequately express how awesome God and his grace is.
So I think I’ll just stop here and take more time to wonder at it all.
And so we hit Romans, perhaps the most important book in the New Testament, because it so clearly sets out what the gospel is.
It was written by Paul to the church in Rome before he had had the chance to visit there.
And unlike many of his other letters, he is not addressing any church-specific problems or issues. Instead, all his focus is on the gospel God had set him apart from birth to preach.
In his greeting, Paul talks about how God had called him to be an apostle and set him apart to specifically reach out to the Gentiles.
It would be easy to take this almost as boasting. “God chose me! God loves me!”
But then Paul wrote,
And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. (Romans 1:6-7)
You also.
I love those words.
You also.
Paul told the Romans, “You also are called to belong to Jesus Christ. It’s not just us Jews. It’s not just us ‘special people.’
You too are special. You also are loved by God. You also are called to be his saints.”
Sometimes, we wonder how God could possibly love us. We’re nothing special. Why would God even bother with us?
And yet God looked down upon us, even before time began, and said, “I choose you. I love you.”
He saw all our faults, all our sins, all our weaknesses, and despite all that, said, “I set you apart for myself.”
And that’s actually what “saint” means. It means “people set apart for God.”
A lot of us look at the word, “saints,” and we think, “Me? A saint? I’m no saint?”
We think that because we picture saints as people with this halo over our heads who live perfect lives.
But you are a saint not because you are intrinsically better or purer than anyone else, but because God has loved you and chosen you.
That’s grace: the imparting of God’s love to you though you did nothing to earn it. Though you are no better than anyone else. And because God has bestowed his love upon us by grace, we have peace with God.
We don’t have to worry about whether God accepts us or not. We’d only have to worry about that if we had to earn God’s acceptance. But we don’t.
Before the creation of the world, he already chose you and accepted you. And if we could only understand that, how different would our lives be?
No longer striving, no longer fearful. But resting in the love, grace, and mercy of God.
I said yesterday there were two stories in Acts that shows both the election of God, man’s choice, and our need to go and spread the gospel.
Looking at today’s story, I think I should make that three stories. (The third is that of Cornelius in chapter 10).
Here is Saul, a Pharisee, totally hardened to Christ, and determined to wipe all Christians off the face of the earth. And had God simply let him be, he would have gone straight to hell.
But then God intervened. Why? Because he chose to save him. We see this in God’s conversation with Ananias.
When God told Ananias to go and help Saul, Ananias basically said, “God, are you serious? Don’t you know this guy is trying to kill us?”
God’s answer?
Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. (Acts 9:15)
I alluded to this yesterday, but God’s answer here again blows up the argument of, “If God has determined that certain people be saved, then we don’t have to do anything. We don’t have to go and evangelize others. God’s already chosen those who will be saved.”
Can you imagine Ananias using that type of reasoning with God?
“Well God, if you’ve already chosen him, there’s no reason for me to go.”
How would that line of reasoning flown with God? Not very well I suspect.
Why? Because God commanded Ananias to go. And he has commanded us to go as well.
Certainly, God could save people without our help. But for the most part, he has chosen to effect his salvation through us. He has put the keys of the kingdom in our hands. And if we don’t go, those gates will remain locked to those who don’t know him.
Note that particularly in this story and in the story of Cornelius, while Jesus appeared directly to Saul, and an angel appeared directly to Cornelius, still God required that his people go and talk to them.
He requires the same of us.
Ananias was chosen by God and told to go.
Phillip in chapter 8 was also chosen and told to go.
And we see here in this chapter that God called Saul also that he might go and preach the gospel to both Jew and Gentile.
You were chosen to go as well.
I heard someone say something once that I’ve already remembered. He asked, “What are the first two letters of the word ‘God?'”
Then he asked, “What are the first three letters of the word ‘Satan?'”
What will you do?
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 