1 Corinthians 1-4

1

I thank God that He gave You spiritual gifts so abundantly.

Don't follow earthly teachers and baptizers and wind up divided as a body.

It may seem foolish not to follow savvy speakers, but we have been called to believe in Christ crucified.  He is our wisdom.

2

I didn't come to you with savvy eloquence, but just focused on Jesus Christ.

The natural man can't understand this godly wisdom, but by the Spirit we can and do accept the Lord.

3

You're acting like babies when you brag about the earthly leaders you follow.  They are all workers in God's field.  Jesus is the foundation; everyone else builds on Him, well or poorly.  God has a way of confounding the wise in their own eyes, so avoid boasting in men.

4

Think of us as God's stewards.  We are poor and persecuted and distressed, while you brag about how great you have it!  I'm your spiritual father - a deeper relationship than these earthly teachers you eagerly follow.  I want to come to you with gentleness, but I'll beat back these imposters if I have to.

How this is about Jesus

Paul makes clear that Jesus is the foundation of every church.  Whoever else we follow is under Him and evaluated by Him.  Our admiration of people's abilities may not rise above our adoration of the Lord.

Acts 18

Paul goes from Athens to Corinth, and meets a Jewish tentmaker Aquila there.  After trying the synagogue for a few weeks, he goes to the Gentiles, and the Lord speaks to Paul telling him to stay a while.  He stays a year and a half, and the church grows.  The Jews try to get them in trouble, but the Roman judge dismisses the case as a dispute within Judaism; the citizens in an outbreak of anti-Semitism beat up the Jewish leader and drive them away.

After staying there a while, Paul went on to Ephesus, Jerusalem, Antioch, then through the church he had already planted.

Priscilla and Aquila settled in Ephesus, and they come across a strong preacher Apollos, but he only knows John's baptism, nothing more.  They teach him more fully, and he refutes the Jews well.


How this is about Jesus
He knows who are His before they are converted, and tells Paul to stay in Corinth to gather them into His church.


Application
1. Sometimes you don't have to do much to let the Gospel advance, like Paul watching Gallio dismiss the Jews' case against him.  Other times, we should invest heavily in equipping men who can powerfully persuade men.

2. Companionship is important along the way - Paul meets Aquila and his wife, and they are a great help to him.

Frankenstein - Book Review

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Doctor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with creating life from dead matter.  But when he succeeds, he flees in horror from his monstrous creation, and much misery and destruction follows.

Mary Shelley, wife of the famed poet Percy Shelley, was raised in the center of the Romantic movement, which asserted that natural human feelings remained important in spite of Rationalism's mechanistic view of life.  Shelley assumes the truth of both schools of thought - that we can create life by mechanical and materialistic means, and that an individual's feelings are of greater importance than the science.  Both schools reject the existence of God, as does Shelley.  Frankenstein (who is the doctor, not the monster) is the only creator: flawed and weak, at that.

Which leads to Shelley's reservations with the prevailing intellectual winds of her time (notably of her own husband!).  She portrays the great misery that comes from going against nature.  Sin and the results of our sin are monstrous and ugly.  The unnamed monster asserts the Romantic ideal that if only men would accept and love him, he wouldn't be driven to rage and murder.  Men are good, but made bad by their environment, is the idea.  Shelley doesn't outright reject this godless and unbiblical idea, but she does show the tormenting consequences that come from crossing natural boundaries that shouldn't be crossed.  It certainly fits a Biblical worldview to that extent, especially the poetic justice theme, that if you violate nature it'll come back to bite you.

Recent children's movies have gone further with the Romantic ideal above.  The evil genius is not defeated but redeemed, by others loving him again.  If only they were loved instead of hated, they wouldn't have to be evil.  Shelley didn't go to this extreme - she never faults people for their revulsion at the monster.  Evil and ugliness remain what they are.  We cannot call evil good, nor say that our wickedness is forced upon us solely by others.

Another theme of Frankenstein that fits well with Scripture is human companionship.  The monster's creator flees him immediately, and much of the book is taken up with the monster observing human fellowship (family) and wishing to be part of it.  He asks Dr. Frankenstein for a bride.  He describes his torment using Milton's Paradise Lost's description of Satan in hell.  At least Satan had companions - this monster is totally alone.  This is arguably the worst consequence of sin - how it separates us from God and from others.

And in the end, the consequences of our sin, like the monster in the book, are stronger than ourselves, unstoppable (the source of the popular horror theme).  Sin takes dominion of us, if the Spirit of God is not working against it.  Sin leads to death - there is nothing for the monster to do, once he has taken vengeance and his creator is dead.  Suicide is the only real option left both for the Rationalist and the Romantic, since they are now isolated from God and man.  Though they extol the sublimity of nature, they themselves have twisted nature by rejecting their Creator, and so are at a dead end.


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Psalm 133-135

133

Unity among brothers is good and pleasant, like oil on the body and dew on the fields.  It is life itself.

134

You ministers who have night shift at the temple:

Bless Yahweh by lifting your hands to Him; He will bless you.

135

Praise God, for He chose us to be His own people!

He brings the clouds, lightning and wind.

He struck down our enemies in the past: Egypt's firstborn and Canaanites.  You vindicate us!

Idols see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing; their worshipers wind up like that.

But we bless Yahweh from His Mount Zion, His city of Jerusalem.

How this is about Jesus

He restores unity, reconciling God to man, and man with man, in the forgiveness of our sins.

He struck down our greatest enemies: Satan the accuser, and our own sinfulness and guilt.

Instead of idolatry leading to a life of being deaf, dumb and mute, Jesus is the path of life, pleasure and joy (Psalm 16:11).

Psalm 130-132

130

I cry to you from a low point in my life.

I can't stand before You because of sin, but You promise to forgive.

I wait and hope upon God and His Word.  He promises mercy and redemption.

131

I try to stay out of great matters.

Instead I look to God as a toddler to his mother.

Hope in Yahweh!

132

Remember David's resolve to build You a house.

We are going there to worship now.  Meet us there, and cloth Your people with righteousness and joy

God promised David a descendant on his throne forever.

He promises to live with us on Zion and provide for us forever.

How this is about Jesus

During His life and ministry here, He trusted His Father fully at every point.

He is the descendant of David who will be forever on the throne at God's right hand.

Psalm 127-129

127
If God doesn't build your house, you might as well not have it.
There's no point to working your butt off if God doesn't bless you with rest.
Faithful children are a reward and blessing from God.

128
God blesses the man who fears him with
- the fruit of his labor
- a fruitful wife in the heart of his home
- children around the table
- seeing Jerusalem prosper
- seeing your children's children

129
They have afflicted me deeply, but not prevailed.  God turned them back.
May they be like tiny grass that withers, is useless and ignored.


How this is about Jesus
The blessing of God is essential.  Without it nothing else will satisfy.  And God promised His blessing to the world through Abraham and his seed, Jesus Christ (Genesis 12:1-3; Galatians 3:16).  Faith in Him is essential to God's blessing (Galatians 3:26-29).

The Person of Jesus Christ

Part 8 - The Doctrine of Christ

Chapter 37 - The Person of Christ

We should be "Christ-centered," but not in a way that reduces every theological answer to "Jesus," as Karl Barth tends to do.

Deity of Christ

Jesus is Lord" is a fundamental NT assertion.  The New Testament also assumes His deity.

He didn't remove His deity when He humbled Himself to become one of us (Philippians 2:7).  This was an ethical act, not a metaphysical one.

Humanity of Christ

It was harder for first century people to accept that God became physical, due to the influence of Gnosticism, which assumed that physical matter is evil.  1 John 4:2-3 and John 20:26-29 assert His humanity forcefully, though.

Incarnation

Jesus "underwent a major change" (883), taking on our humanity in a fallen world to redeem us from that sinful condition.  This is an example to us to lay down our lives for each other, but that example is based on an atonement that pays for sin with blood.

Virgin conception and birth

Jesus' birth was normal; His conception was supernatural!  It:

• signals redemptive work to come in His life.
• asserts His humanity and deity, both.
• shows our salvation is apart from our effort (or Joseph's!)
• shows God kept Jesus from our inherited sinful condition.

Hypostatic union

The Council of Chalcedon put this in words in 451 A.D.  Christ has two natures, human and divine, in one person.  They are distinct but undivided.  The doctrine of the Trinity says God is 3 persons in one divine nature, but here we use the word nature differently: Jesus is 1 of the 3 persons, and 2 natures co-exist (subsist?) in that 1 person.  How does this work?  Generally, Jesus limited His divine attributes while on earth.

Communication of Attributes

But do His divine attributes affect His human attributes (or the other way around) or not?  If we say not, we are prone to divide the two natures.  If we say they do (Luther said Jesus' humanity is omnipresent, so "This is My body" could be literally true) we are prone to confuse the two natures.

Christ the Image of God

He is the exact image, where we only had dimmer pictures in the Old Testament (Hebrews 1:1-4).

As King, He controls (situational perspective).

As Prophet, He has authority (normative perspective).

As Priest, He is present (existential perspective).

Each of these is true in His being, and also works out in history

John Frame on Sin

Only God, angels and humans are (or can be) morally and ethically good.

God did NOT create Adam and Eve in a morally neutral state - they reflected His image, which is good.

They knew the law and could keep it, but could also choose not to.  Yet their nature was good.  This is a bit of a mystery, and we should leave it as such, instead of try to explain the fall philosophically.

Part 7 - The Doctrine of Man
Chapter 36 - Sin

The Roman view basically says we had the potential to sin from bodily desires overriding the limits of reason.  This assumes a dualism between body and soul, and between nature and grace.

Sin is not a metaphysical problem, that we have a design flaw in how we are made.  The problem isn't that we aren't smart enough or aware enough, or that our bodily desires overwhelm our more righteous reason.  Sin is ethical - it is one person disobeying Another.

Defining Sin according to Frame's Tri-Perspective View

Normative - sin is disobeying commands.

Situational - sin is glorifying yourself instead of God, pursuing your kingdom instead of His.

Existential - sin is unbelief and hatred of God, instead of loving and trusting Him.

[Would have liked more on Gen 3:6 here]

Origin of Sin

The angels fell first, and Satan tempted Adam and Eve.

His approach is to question God's Word and get Eve to make judgments for herself apart from God's Word.  Creation order is reversed: man submits to woman and woman to beast, instead of beast to men/women and woman to man.

Sin is not a natural part of who we are as humans, or we have no hope.  No, sin was introduced after creation, so it can be undone.

God's Response to the Fall

His curses are mixed with blessings.  Enmity with serpent will be overcome.  Pain in childbirth, but there will be more life.  Frustrating work, but it will still yield fruit.  Adam believes, and names his wife "life."

Effects of the Fall
Sin brings guilt (normative perspective), punishment (situational) and corruption (existential).

Our guilt is inherited as a sinful condition from Adam.  This doesn't seem fair, but we are also given righteousness not our own from Christ.
Our punishment also affects the creation, which groans for redemption (Rom. 8:19-22; Col 1:19-20).
Our corruption is a heart condition, dead or enslaved to sin.  Not that we are as bad as we could be, but that we are unable to please God.

Temptation
Temptation is not itself sin, but gives birth to it (James 1:13-15).
The world, the flesh and the devil tempt us - both Genesis 3:6 and 1 John 2:16 teach this, in parallel.

Believers should not count themselves totally depraved anymore, since the Spirit is at work in us.  Though Westminster asserts that the works of regenerate believers are still mixed with sin and not able to please God in themselves, still, our "corruption is overcome by God's grace" (869).  We should be careful stating that "there is no health in us," since the redemptive work of Christ and His Spirit are active within us.

Psalms 123-125

123

We've had enough of scorn and contempt from others.

We wait on You to help as a servant does her mistress, with no one else to help, and You able to give mercy.

124

If God hadn't helped us we would have drowned - they would have wiped us out.

Blessed be God, who helped us!

125

You abide forever unmoved if you trust Yahweh.

Wickedness will not rule, but God will protect you, as mountains surround and protect Jerusalem. 

Psalms 120-122

120
I cried to God, distressed by the liars and war-mongers around me.
They'll get arrows and fire.  I've lived too long with those who love violence.

121
Help comes from Yahweh, and security.  I look to Him for it.
He keeps me from harm and always watches over my coming and going.

122
I am glad when it is time for God's people to gather and worship in Jerusalem.
It is the place of judgment, and we pursue peace there for one another.


How this is about Jesus
120 - He is the prince of peace - only He can bring an end to the violence of man.
121 - He wants us to ascend  to be with Him, where there is complete safety.
122 - He is the center of worship on Zion (Rev. 5) and brings peace (Eph. 2:14).

Psalm 119:89-176

Lamed - Your Word is fixed, and my attention is focused on it.

Mem - I love Your law!  It gives me understanding and is sweet.

Nun - I aim to remember and keep Your rules and let them guide me.

Samek - the wicked do not keep Your Word; I hate them and You discard them.

Ayin - I am doing and seeking good, longing for Your salvation and Word.

Pe - I am panting for Your commandments, and weeping that men don't keep them.

Tsadhe - Your rules are right; they delight me even when I am in trouble.

Qoph - I seek Your testimonies with my whole heart.

Resh - the faithless do not keep Your rules and ways - they will not be saved.

Sin/Shin - Rulers persecute me, but I have joy and peace in Your laws.

Tav - Though I have strayed, hear my cry and deliver me according to Your Word.

It's striking to me that throughout this Psalm the singer constantly resolves and asserts his righteousness or desire to follow God's Word.  Only in the last verse is there an acknowledgement that he has strayed.  This doesn't contradict his assertions, for our hearts are divided and at war.

Lively emotions dance about on center stage.  There are certainly pious resolutions here, but also joy and delight.

2 Thessalonians

1

We thank God that your faith is growing as you are persecuted.

Jesus will avenge and relieve you when He returns with His angels and punishes them.

He will glorify Himself in your life now for Him.

2

Don't think Jesus has already come.  Rebellion and the lawless man must come first.  Lawlessness is already at work, but God restrains its full force for now.  That man will claim to be higher than anything and sit in the temple as God.  He will deceive and delude many, but God will kill him and bring his work to nothing.

For yourselves, be thankful that God chose you for salvation so early.  He will comfort and establish you, as He has already graciously given comfort and hope.

3

Pray for us to keep bringing the Gospel to a hostile world.
Don't be idle or keep company with the idle - meet your own needs by working hard.
God grant you peace through Jesus Christ.


How this is about Jesus
He hasn't come yet, but will come and set right all the wrongs you face from men hostile to Christ and His Gospel.


Application

• Part of being a Christian is knowing that many not only don't have faith, but some are very hostile and angry against the Gospel of Christ.  It is a threat to them, and they might take it out on us.
• Some people use religion as an excuse for being passive or lazy (it's really up to God, anyway), or for being interfering and nosy (busybody trying to be the Holy Spirit for everyone).

Psalm 119:1-88

Here is the first half of this longest chapter of the Bible.

The crazy words at the beginning of each line are the written-out letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  This chapter is an acrostic.  Each verse in the first 8 verses starts with Aleph, each verse in the next 8 verses starts with Beth, and so on.

Almost every one of the 176 verses mentions the word of God in some way.  It's an extended meditation on how important the Word is to the Psalmist, and the many ways it helps us.


Aleph - You have given your commandments to guide the upright in Your ways.

Beth - I will keep my way pure by attending to Your Word.

Gimel - You give me delight, and sight, and security by reading Your Word.

Daleth - Make me understand Your precepts, and I will live and love.
He - Turn me from worthless and to Your paths.
Vav - Your Word helps me answer those who taunt me.
Zayin - Your rules comfort me, but I'm indignant remembering the wicked who don't keep them.
Heth - I don't forget Your law, and promise to keep it.
Teth - Affliction has helped me keep Your Word.
Yod - save me, so I can delight in and keep Your statutes.
Kaph - I pine for Your word, because the wicked have almost made an end of me.

Psalm 113-118

113

Praise God from sunrise to sunset.

He is high and glorious, but reaches down to our lowly selves and raises us up.

He gives to the desolate and alone, companionship and children.

114

When Israel left Egypt, the sea and Jordan fled, the mountains skipped.

How could that be?  God was there, that's how.

He gave water from rocks, too.

115

Glorify Yourself, Lord, not us.

When they mock us and You, we remember that their idols do nothing.

Israel, trust the Lord!  He has remembered us and will bless us.

116

I love God because He heard and helped me.  He literally saved my life.

What can I give Him in return?  Worship: the cup of salvation, prayer, and vows.

117

Gentiles, praise Yahweh!

All nations, He is faithful to us.

Praise Yahweh!

118

God's faithful mercy is forever, so praise Him!

God helped me when the nations surrounded me.

God is the strength and song of the righteous.
Let me enter God's gates and thank Him.

What the leaders rejected has become the key to God's plan: this was His doing and His day.
Save us, as we bless the One coming in Your name.

Bind the sacrifice to the altar!

God's faithful mercy endures forever!


How this is about Jesus

113 - He came down to us incarnate as a child of Mary.

114 - He was the rock that gave water to Israel in the desert.

116 - He gave us a cup of salvation to remember Him and thank Him.

117 - He came to bring the Gentiles to God, too.

118 - He is the stone the builders rejected, the one who came in God's name, called upon by us to save (Hosanna).  He is the sacrifice that keeps God's covenant mercy with us.

Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous - Psalm 118:15

1 Thessalonians 3-5

3
We've had lots of trouble, but wanted to send and see how you were doing.
Now that Timothy has reported that you stand fast in the faith, we are immensely relieved and rejoicing.
May God send us to you soon, and may He establish you in holiness before Him.

4
Keep doing what you're doing.
Keep away from sexual immorality, and control your body;  God's will is purity, not uncleanness.
Love the brothers by minding your own business and working hard, so you aren't dependent on anyone.
Don't get the wrong idea about the end of time.  Those who have already died aren't going to miss out.  They rise first, and we will meet the Lord with them, together.  Comfort each other with this.

5
That day will come as a surprise, so live ready to meet Him all the time.
Respect and love your church elders because of their work - be at peace with each other.
Help each other as needed: encouragement, warning - but all with patience.
Rejoice, pray and give thanks all the time.
Look for the Spirit's work, and test every prophecy and spiritual claim.
May God sanctify you completely.
Read this letter to all the believers.


How this is about Jesus
The Thessalonians needed to know how to live before Christ returned, to honor Him.


Application
The spiritual welfare of one another is a huge factor in our own.
Sexual purity and work, encouraging others and prayer - these are the basics of Christian living.
New believers often have a strong sense of Christ's imminent return, and will focus on that to the detriment of these other basics.