Plymothian

In his commentary on Genesis 1:14-31, John H. Walton writes:

Our capacity to be godlike impacts our view of ourselves and of what should characterize our lives as we seek to deepen our relationship with God.  While an ethical system that is above reproach should typify Christians, it cannot represent the sum total of the faith.  In the end, our Christianity can not be defined by a a set of rules that we live by.  Nor can we punch in and punch out by the clock.  Our aspiration is to be godlike, and in that goal we find our purpose.

We live in a goal-oriented society that attempt to delineate everything, reducing it to a list so that we can assess the achievement of our goals.  Employees are anxious to know precisely by what criteria their job performance will be evaluated.  Education is encumbered with outcome assessments and the setting and meeting of measurable objectives.  Students want to know what they will be tested on so they can target particular skills or knowledge.  College applicants know that attractiveness to the institution of their choice is going to be encapsulated in their performance on standardized tests.  Teachers know that principals are going to evaluate them on the basis of the scores of their students, so they teach with an eye toward those tests.  Principals know their school is going to be judged by the state on the basis of the scores of the students, so they pressure the teachers.  This is the reductionism that drives every aspect of our society, and it has become part and parcel of Christianity.  The good news is that we are free from the law and its potential for reductionism.

When educators talk about measurable outcomes, I get a knot in my stomach, for I firmly believe that there are many important outcomes that can not be measured. But if they can not be measured, they get left off the list of targeted outcomes. just as being educated means more than acquiring certain skills and knowledge, being Christian means more than living by a certain set of rules.  God tells his people Israel, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2).  Paul encourages the Philippians, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), and admonishes the Ephesians “to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:23-24) and to be “imitators of God” (5:1).

The laws of Israel gave them illustrations of what their faith should look like, but their faith was not circumscribed by the law.  Lists like the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12) and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) illustrate some of the outcomes of our faith, but no list is comprehensive. we aspire to attain the godlikeness that the image of God has made possible in us.

Genesis 1:26-31

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”²⁹ And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. ³⁰ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. ³¹ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Prayer

Let us be an outworking of who you are.  Let us be so united with you that we live out your life on the face of this planet.  May people see you when they look closely at us.

Questions

1. How many times is the image of God emphasized in Genesis 1:26-31?
2. What is mankind’s relationship to the rest of creation?
3. How does John H. Walton challenge common Christian rule-keeping in light of people being image-bearers?
4. How does being an image-bearer apply to the field of education?
5. How might you need to change your attitude to more fully reflect God?

My wife and I drive in to work together.  She forgot that I can sleep in and woke me up at 4:30 a.m. as per usual.  It was advantageous because we are meant to be preparing for a marriage retreat at Conference Point, William’s Bay, Wisconsin on October 9-11.  I read Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 with her and she began to fall asleep.  That wasn’t the best thing, because she was the one driving.  So we discussed what I had been reading.  I had read from multiple versions, but they had all been paraphrases.  The hard hitters like the ESV or the NASB might have sent Kelli to sleep even more quickly.  However, the Amplified Version, was really helpful.  I don’t read it much because it usually seems overly repetitious.  I can even find it annoying.  However, this morning it really helped.

In our discussion, Kelli and I thought about a lot of things.  What really struck us though was how well we were working together.  That is the reason that God brought us together.  It was to work toward a common goal.  In the original story Man (Adam) is working alone to complete the tasks that God has assigned to Man (Mankind).  Adam is the caretaker of Creation.  He is a gardener, zoo-keeper and arable farmer all rolled into one.  He does not go out to work in the morning, he does not even get dressed up for work.  He doesn’t get dressed at all.  He works at home because Eden is his home.  In this home/work environment it is not good for Adam to be alone.  He needs an ally/helper to complete the work that God has assigned with him.

Woman is taken from the side of man.  She is part of him.  Together they make a whole.  They will complete God’s task of ruling the world and filling it as a pair.  The description of the alliance is a description of two people who have equal standing and intertwined lives.  They do life together and form the basic unit of a healthy community.  This challenges some of our ideas of marriage that we have developed today.

Firstly, it challenges the separate spheres ideology that developed through industrialization.  Before industrialization people worked the land around their homes, they engaged in cottage industries, or they sometimes served the master of the home in which they lived.  As factories and offices became more prevalent, the man left the domestic sphere and entered the ‘workforce’.  The role of breadwinner was assigned to the man and the role of ‘homemaker’ was assigned to the woman.  In Genesis, the agrarian ideals question whether these assignments of roles are ideal.  Some in Christian circles have even sanctioned the industrial roles as Christian.  A woman is meant to stay at home, wear a skirt, and make babies, we are told.  A man is meant to wear trousers, go to work, provide for his family, and make decisions.  The reality of Genesis definitely celebrates difference.  Adam and Eve are different from each other.  However, the roles assigned to them do not resemble the roles that were assigned in the 19th century.  They do life together and complete the work that God assigned both of them.

Secondly, the Genesis account challenges our views on vulnerability.  To be vulnerable, we think, empowers the oppressor.  Male power has been sanctioned by the positive presentation of the image of the helpless, vulnerable, submissive woman.  The remedy often presented is for the woman to guard her heart or take power back that has been ripped from her.  Images of violence now prevail in some feminist discussion through aggressive words assigned to male power like ‘violate’, ‘dominate’, or ‘abuse’.  In many cases around the world, these words might be appropriate, but the solution is not to fight violent power with violent power.  The solution to violence is not to combat physical domination with emotional domination, or vice versa.  The solution is to end the game.  The solution is to find a way to both be naked and without shame.  To be naked is to be defenseless.  Flight is an option, but fighting will just lead to deep wounds.  Negotiation and debate can lead to more peace, but those who wound others in an attempt to win in a conflict, only have one guaranteed outcome:  They will damage themselves and alienate themselves from their spouse and from God.

There is much more here in Genesis 1.  However, as Kelli and I discussed how to approach the Marriage Retreat we found that we were working for a common goal, given to us by God.  In working for him we connected with each other.  In the limited sphere of a Mini Clubman we were allies fighting for the same cause.

Genesis 1:26-31

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.” ²⁹ So God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;³⁰ and to all the animals on the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that moves on the ground—to everything in which there is the breath of life—I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so [because He commanded it]. ³¹ God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Prayer

God, may we cease seeking power, control and safety.  May we seek to serve your purposes together.  May we find a partner with whom to work most closely.  May we not create independent ways of meeting our goals, but may we do life together in ways that are interdependent and healthy.

Questions

1. What work does God give mankind in Genesis 1?
2. How is mankind described?
3. What roles do men and women have in fulfilling their calling?
4. How have we changed our roles compared to those we were given?
5. How do men and women work best as a close-knit team in today’s economic realities?

Real Life is where a passage from the Bible is meant to be applied.  People can be quite arrogant or ignorant in their use of the phrase ‘real life’.  For example, when I was a student at college, those who were working in careers would often look down their noses at me and say, “Wait to you get out into the real world,”  or “Wait to see if that works in ‘real life.’  The truth is that they defined their own lives as real and were decidedly egocentric.  The problems of depression, alcohol abuse, or sexual promiscuity are real problems whether they are experienced in a dorm room or a new apartment.  Real life happens in many locations and has many ways it plays out.

We also tend to look at the past like it was less real than the present.  Of course, ‘Once upon a time …’ usually means the story that follows is not real life in one sense.  If we know that a series of events happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away the following battles are not real.  However, as Jorge Santayana said that those who do not remember the past are destined to repeat it.  We look to those who lived real life in the past to help us understand how to live real life in the present.  The stories of the Bible are dismissed as myth or fable by some.  However, those who accept the historicity of the Bible accept that it teaches us most about a real life lived before a real God.  We need to draw principles from lives lived millennia ago so that our present millennium is lived well.  However, I get the impression that Millennials are living more and more rooted in the present.  YOLO (you only live once) and Carpe Diem (seize the day) are slogans that have an element of truth to them.  Ecclesiastes includes similar advice.  However, eyes that see beyond time to eternity are becoming less.  The material realities of a frenzied world with multiple tasks performed simultaneously overwhelms the senses and dulls reflection.  Existential wisdom is shelved for the immediate gains of practical wisdom.  Appearing wise we have become fools.  There are less people in the west who have minds capable of embracing God.  More young men let the imaginations of others lead them into gaming vistas.  More young ladies let the movies transport them to a romantic fantasy.  More old people are dying alienated and alone with white knuckles clinging to a 401k for security.  Somehow we call this absurd degradation real life.  These are a shadow of the real. Reality is found in Christ.

The Christ-centered plan for God’s salvation was laid in ages past.  Abraham had a hope given to him that his offspring would be a blessing to the nations.  Abraham was to bless the nations.  However, he was a real man with real fears.  When those around him did not share his faith, he decided that silence about God was the best way to avoid conflict.  Gerar, his new home, had no fear of God as far as he could tell.  His own fears led him to hold loosely to religion and to take practical steps to ensure his own safety.  He lied.  It was a half-truth, but half-truths are the most effective lies.  We have all been wounded by truths told with spite or half-truths where the sting in the tale is revealed only in its later telling.  Outright lies tend to be more obvious.  It takes God to expose a half-truth – at least it did for Abimelech.

Sexual intrigue, religious pluralism, fear of reprisal, half truths.  This is real life.  The lessons learned by Abraham are lessons which applied to the original recipients of Genesis.  These lessons also apply to us.  Freud suggested sexual liberty as a healing for the nations.  For centuries the primacy of Christianity as the religion in the west has been crumbling.  Now the fastest rising position of faith is to have faith in no faith.  Apathetic atheism has seeped into private life from public silence about God.  Like Abraham, our fears encourage us to keep our distinctive beliefs to ourselves.  Attempts to coexist or tolerate have resulted in a new creed which is post-Christian moralistic, therapeutic, and deistic.  In Sunday school children are taught that Jesus is The Way, The Truth, The Life.  However, by the end of their assimilation Jesus has become an inoffensive way, a truth, a life.  When the faith revealed by God is emptied of its distinctives it ceases to reveal the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

However, the passage teaches us that God will not be silenced.  Even half-hearted evangelists will be prophets to a pluralist society.  God brings affliction when the world wanders along its own sweet path.  God brings healing when the hearts of the humble bow low.  My heart is divided and my will is weak because my flesh is fatigued.  However, I belong to Jehovah, the God who used Abraham.  The God who took Abraham’s story and transformed it into a destiny with promise can take my life lived in 21st century commerce.  He does not promise the blessing of a car, a swimming pool, or a plane.  He promises the blessing of significance.  Our lives will be a path walked by the divine even as our flesh wastes away.  Our words will carry a wisdom that transcends our textbooks because it will reflect the life of the Spirit.  As the world fades to darkness the light of the faith shines brighter and with more distinction.  Even through Abraham’s folly he is shown to be a servant of the God who closes and opens wombs.

Give us ears to hear and eyes to see the God who has created life.  Give us courage to apply God’s world to the real life that we are living.  Help us to learn from ages past and apply the word to reveal the Way.  May we fix our eyes on Scripture’s Truth.  May we lead others from the falsehood of technologically enhanced consumerism into the arms of the one who is Real Life.

Prayer

May we remember that you are real.  May we take our eyes off of our material obsessions and live for something bigger than ourselves.

Questions

1. What events in Genesis 20 are most like real life today?
2. What events or details in Genesis 20 seem farthest from life today?
3. What do people mean when they talk about real life as opposed to simply ‘life’?
4. How is the life portrayed in fiction still helpful in facing real life?
5. How can we make sure that biblical truth connects with real life?

There are all kinds of details in Genesis 20 that someone can choose to talk about.  You could talk about the difference in the opening verses about where Abraham settled and where he did his shepherding.  You could talk about Abimelech’s jibe at Sarah about paying her brother rather than her husband after the king had been told that Abraham was  really her husband.  You could talk about the probable nature of the disease that affected Abimelech and his household.  However, all these details are merely that – details.  The question remains, “Why was this story written in the first place?”  To understand that, it is important to go back to the ‘first place’ and ask, “Who received this letter?”  Knowing the world of the original audience helps us to limit the possible range of what the passage could mean.  For example, the original recipients were not going to think of the story as directives on how to behave on a holiday/vacation with your spouse.  In this context, the original audience were people getting ready to enter the Promised Land after a long trek through the wilderness.

The original audience would not have looked to Abraham’s behavior as a moral guide.  Too many times we look to biblical characters as the heroes of the narratives and we decide the passages were written to tell us how to act.  However, the human characters are players living out scenes in the larger story.  The whole Bible is the story of God.  He is the hero and the human characters act out his plan.  In Genesis 20 the promise God has made to Abraham is on the line.  Abraham’s poor decision making means that Abimelech might sleep with his wife and become the father of the promised son.  God needs to overcome the obstacles to his plans, and he does.  God reprimands and blesses Abraham in spite of his behaviour.  God reaches graciously into the life of a polytheistic king.  God moves his plans forward.

The big idea of the passage is what must drive our teaching and preaching.  The details can be communicated as support.  In this case the big idea is, “When God’s plans for blessing are thwarted by bad decisions, God will sovereignly intervene to bring his plans to fruition.”  The details inform this idea.  They add colour to the canvas.  However, the forest can not be hidden by the trees.  The lack of a fear of God, the fear of man, God’s miracles – they are all details.  That God intervenes for his people is front and centre.  People about to enter the Promised Land will be encouraged that in spite of their failings God’s sovereign choice of them to be a light to all people will be realised.

Prayer

Help us to see clearly why a passage is written.  Help us to apply that insight before we get lost in details.

Questions

1. What do you think the main idea of Genesis 20 is?
2. How do you arrive at the main idea?
3. What other main ideas do you think people could gain by looking at the human characters?
4. Why is it important to remember the biblical truth that the Bible is primarily a story about God?
5. How well do you do at communicating the main ideas of scripture to others?

In Genesis 20, Abraham’s excuse for pretending that Sarah is his wife is because he thought there was no fear of God in that country.  He modified his actions because he thought there was no appeal to God.  Without appeal to God, he assumed there would be some kind of lawlessness.  The irony is that, by the end of the story, the working of God in the life of Abraham leads to the fear of God spreading through the region.  The fear is based on the potential of judgement and death.  King Abimelech would have entertained the existence of Abraham’s God along with others in his personal panoply.  He would have believed that any god, no matter how supreme, could have threatened his life.  However, God is benevolent because he warns Abimelech and also heals him.  The disease or uncleanness that had visited Abimelech’s household  may have seemed unpleasant, but even that may have been a blessing because it stopped Abimelech from incurring God’s wrath.

God does as he wills and he has the power to do so.  He is not tame, but he is good (cf. Lewis).  It is right to fear him.  It is not a fear of chaos and disorder but it is a fear of good and right.  I fear the police in the USA.  They seek to do what is good and right in most cases.  They uphold the law in their villages and towns.  Because of the power and authority they carry I always speak to them politely, with reverence, when they walk up to the window of my car.  The lack of a fear of God, though, means the lack of ultimate authority.  As God has been marginalised from public life more and more, I am less confident that society has the motivation to police itself.  Recently the police have been questioned about their treatment of different races.  Many movies show the police as crooked and out to make a buck.  This corrodes trust in the authorities.  Paul once wrote of Caesar that Christians should submit to the governing authorities because they have been placed there by God.  However, when God is removed as the ultimate authority, our reasons for submitting become increasingly relative and experiential.

When the fear of the Lord is intact but the police are absent obedience to law and order still occurs.  This is one reason why getting Roe versus Wade or recent Supreme Court decisions reversed is not the primary focus for people of faith.  If we submit to God we will deal with these issues as part of our quest for holiness.  Our values will be communicated by our lives and not our politics.  I am also skeptical of our prioritizing of issues in such a way that neatly lines up with Republican or Democrat.  For my close friends who focus on abortion, is social justice and caring for the poor a secondary issue to abortion?  Perhaps these issues are connected in ways that we deal with by categorization.  Does the environment take second place to same-sex marriage?  Perhaps the destruction of God’s creation needs to be reversed and people will have open hearts to hear the message when we help preserve the planet.

The fear of God disappearing can be connected with an increased fear of man.  As we seek first the Kingdom of God, all other seems seem to fall into their right place.

Prayer

Teach us today the Fear of the Lord.  Let us bow the knee and proclaim that you are holy.

Questions

1. How have you cultivated the fear of the Lord?
2. How does schooling cultivate the fear of the Lord or its opposite?
3. Why do people today seem to deemphasize the fear of the Lord?
4. How are children best raised in the fear of the Lord?
5. What would happen to the USA if the fear of the Lord were increased?

From there Abraham journeyed towards the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. ² And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. ³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” ⁴ Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said,“Lord, will you kill an innocent people? ⁵ Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” ⁶ Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. ⁷ Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸ So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” ¹⁰ And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” ¹¹ Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. ¹² Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. ¹³ And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come,say of me, He is my brother.’”

¹⁴ Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.¹⁵ And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” ¹⁶ To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of allwho are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” ¹⁷ Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. ¹⁸ For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Prophets

I have been called a prophet.  I can’t say it sits comfortably with me.  It sounds pretentious. After all a prophet has a large beard.  I no longer have one of those.   Fat and Frantic, a Christian group from the 80’s said that prophets are completely bald.  They ‘prophesy here.  Prophesy there.  I know I’m a prophet ’cause I got no hair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EWWI4ikV6g).”  However, silliness aside, what constitutes a prophet?  It is one who speaks God’s truth into a situation.  It may be God’s truth about the future, but it is often God’s truth about the present and the past.  What, then, is truth?  It is speaking the way things really are.

Our generation has a decline in prophets because to speak God’s truth means to speak in absolutes.  As Obi-Wan Kenobi reminded us in Star Wars Episode III, only Sith believe in absolutes.  Yes, apparently that is absolutely true.  Believing in absolutes is imperialistic, dark, and harmful.  Ironically, this has become a cultural absolute in some circles.  We may speak small truths which we have all found on our own little journeys, we may apply the Bible as a personal story without offending anyone else.  However, the only prophets who can speak absolute truths into the public domain are scientists, movie-makers, and musicians.  The religious prophets are fanatics, their followers are lunatics and the religious motivations of social reformers like MLK are silenced.

The passage above is the first time that the word for prophet is used in the Bible.  Araham knows God and he knows how God sees the world.  This is not with omniscience, but it is with accuracy.  Abraham is not God, he does not think he is God, but he can speak for God.  In the same way, when we communicate the thoughts of scripture we are prophets.  We are not God.  We do not think we are God.  But we speak the word of God.

Prayer

Like Abraham, let us be prophets.  Let us speak your truth into the world that is floundering all around us.  First speak it into our lives and let us be pliable and authentic with you.  Show us more truth of our depravity and then bring your healing.  As we are healed let us bring healing to others and to be bold even when healing involves pain.

Questions

1. What is the problem in the passage?
2. How do people seek to solve the problem?
3. What is a prophet?
4. When do you prophecy?
5. What is the purpose of your prophetic ministry to others?

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Bible Memory

I stood with sweaty hands trying to remember the verse.  It wouldn’t come to me.  I didn’t exactly want the bookmark or pencil or whatever incentive I was being offered for remembering the verse.  I didn’t want the embarrassment of not knowing either.  I looked at my shoes and the teacher pitied me.  They gave me clues.  Even at a young age I knew that the number of clues I was being given showed that I didn’t know the verse.  I blundered through the memory verse, was given a pencil or a bookmark and then sat down hoping I never had to do that again.  Of course.  I did.  Week after week as I went through Sunday School.  Memorize, rinse, and repeat.

The verses I remember are few.  I can’t recite them verbatim.  I had the same problem memorizing lines.  I would hear a line from a play and in my own words I would express exactly the same principle.  In Bible memory it was the same.  I understood the Bible but I couldn’t memorize it.  Compare that to the child with the photographic memory who can tell you what a verse says, but who does not understand it.  Neither extreme is what would really help a child.

Bloom’s taxonomy says that learning starts with knowing the facts.  A child begins their journey towards truly understanding an idea by being able to restate it in the way they received it.  They go through stages of putting it into their own words and then synthesizing it with their own understanding of the world.  Do you know a Bible curriculum which really does that well?  To be able to accept the raw information and be able to recall it we might apply to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.  Children can have multiple ways in which they learn.  Some children are musical.  Some children are kinesthetic.  Some children are logical and mathematical.  Some are interpersonal.  Some are intrapersonal. And the list keeps expanding.  Children are a combination of intelligences in varying measure.  We can reach them in multiple ways.

So the question is, “How does the Bible verse listed above become best memorized by you?”  Over Labour Day weekend I will be the speaker at  Lake Geneva Youth Camp and it will be family camp.  We will memorize the above verse.  Why don’t you try it?  It won’t be for a pencil or bookmark.  It’ll be for the goodness that it grows in your own soul.

Questions

How would you memorize the above verse?

Will you do it?

² Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. ³ At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— ⁴ that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

⁵ Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time. ⁶ Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

⁷ Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant^[b] in the Lord. ⁸ I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, ⁹ and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

¹⁰ Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), ¹¹ and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. ¹² Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. ¹³ For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. ¹⁴ Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. ¹⁵ Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. ¹⁶ And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. ¹⁷ And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfil the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”

¹⁸ I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

Continuous Prayer

I walk down the busy streets of Chicago with one thing on my mind.  It is not the world-class architecture from the city full of skyscrapers.  It is not the traffic that races to beat the lights at the intersections.  And unfortunately, it is not the God who holds all of reality together and orchestrates mankind’s destiny.  I think of one problem in my world and I obsess on it.  Day by day it varies.  Today it was the problem of recording an audio book.  The question was whether the book would sound good.  I was worrying whether the spirit of the book would carry on as well as it did last Thursday when we recorded chapters 1-17 (they are short chapters).  I was ready to launch into the task without a thought for God, when suddenly Jon Gauger, who was running the session, suggested we should pray.

That changed everything.

My mind became aware of the God who had always been in the room and whose message we hoped to communicate.  My stress levels lowered as though God was sliding down the knob on his sound board.  When we noticed that there was a typo in chapter 20 which will not be addressed unless there is a reprint, it didn’t seem to matter.  I saw the flaw as a reminder that we are not in control, we are not perfect, and with our flaws  we are accepted by God.

Continuous prayer focuses the mind on God.  A mind focused on God prays continuously.  What will often bring my mind to God is letting myself assess my emotions. There are usually signs that all is not quite right in the world and so this then pushes me toward God.  He listens to my cares and worries and he starts to wash them away with his provision and compassion.  After removing the obstacles to his will, I see his direction more clearly.  I become less conscious of self.  I leave behind shame and pride.  I can function with confidence in him and I can begin forgetting myself.

A life of continuous prayer is a life in the presence of God.  We are aligned with him and peace comes for a visit.  Reminding the mind to focus on things above, not on earthly things, is a discipline that can be helped by turning on God-focused music, listening to Moody Radio, or leaving an open Bible by the bathroom mirror.  Remembering that this is not a cognitive exercise, but a dynamic relationship, a conversation should start.  We cry out to God and the heavens pour forth speech.  Jon reminded me to pray today.  I am reminding you.  God is waiting for all of us to share the details of life with him.

Prayer

Father, I thank you that you brought my mind back to you when I was focused on my to-do-list.

Question

1. What directives does Paul give in this passage?
2. Which people does Paul mention?
3. Why does Paul list people?
4. How continuously do you pray?
5. How could your life reflect the faithfulness of Paul’s companions more?

¹⁸ Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. ¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. ²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. ²¹ Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. ²² Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. ²³ Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. ²⁵ For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Viv Blows a Raspberry

When my mother, Viv, was in her mid-twenties she became a Christian.  She immediately joined a Bible-study group in order to grow in her new-found faith and this passage was the topic of discussion.  When my mother read about wives submitting to their husbands she blew a raspberry.  “I am not submitting to him.”  However, the passage began to work on her and she saw that in submitting to my non-Christian father, she was submitting to Jesus.  One night, when the two of them had almost gone to bed, my father remarked that he could really do with a curry.  Seeing an opportunity to serve Jesus, my mother stayed quietly downstairs.  She cooked up a late-night curry and brought it up to her husband.  He could see that something had changed.

My mother was always my father’s equal.  However, the commands of Paul give men, women, and children different roles to play in the household.  If we are all equal, should’t our roles be indistinct or even the same?  Paul wrote his directions to a society which gave absolute power to the head of the family, or patrafamilia.  He could have members of his household killed and could often rule with a rod of iron.  Paul neither affirms or discredits the Roman way of life, but he does promote harmony in the home.  If his directives were followed a mutual love, respect and teamwork would break out in the home.  This is the primary concern.  The household was seen as the basic building block of society.  If the home lacked harmony, all of life would lack harmony.  So, the supremacy of Christ was first to be applied to the home.  If the members of the household focused on Jesus, their own agendas would be submitted to his.

There are many reasons people fight for power and control in the home.  Many times the wars are fought because of fear.  However, one of the great questions a member of a household can ask is, “How do I help remove fear?  How can I help to make the house a self place?”  One person in the house needs to take the first step toward selfless love, servant leadership and sacrifice.  So, the emphasis is not on who gets to rule and who gets to serve.  The emphasis is on whether the home is aligned with God and functions in a smooth way which shows God’s glory.

Prayer

In all of our roles in our households, help us to bring peace.  Let us love, submit, lead, and respect as you require of us.  May our homes shine as beacons in a dark world.

Questions

1. What is the role of the man of the house?
2. What is the role of the woman?
3. Is a person’s role in the house dependent on them fulfilling their own role first?
4. What is your role in the house or room that you share with others?
5. How has your family been an example of peace to those in the neighbourhood?

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity,passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ On account of these the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. ⁸ But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice,slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.¹¹ Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts,kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Focusing on Things Above

It seems that Paul is asking us to look outside of this world and leave the reality of the world behind us.  That is not the case.  He is asking us to see this world in perspective.  He is asking for Christians to see this world in light of the fact that the higher, grander reality is the reality that Jesus sits on the throne at the right hand of the father.  We often get consumed with solving problems and dealing with the details.  We move through the material world as though it is all that exists.  Paul is asking us to see the material world as a Creation that reflects its Creator.  He has said that the forms of this world are a shadow of ultimate reality.  This does not mean that they are pointless or negative.  It means that they are incomplete and fall short.  Everything finds its origin and its completion in Christ.

This also is true of the life of the believer.  A life lived in a zone of problem solving, material obsession, and worldly desire leads to decay on the part of the believer.  This is shown by the corruption of God’s desires for sex, emotions, and other behaviours.  The heart which is fixed on Jesus and his desires for his followers naturally moves toward a true love for God and for his Creation.  Love is wrapped around a whole series of virtues which sound something like the fruit of the Spirit.  The list of vices and the list of virtues are not exhaustive.  The vices are a sample to reflect the kind of dark acts that drag a person further away from true life.  The virtues are also examples which will flourish when the believer is connected to Christ.

Some read these lists like they are a moral code.  In other words they believe that we live out the code in order to focus on things above.  Some success might come with that approach, but it is not the full measure of what God desires.  God desires that we start by aligning our hearts with his.  It is when we choose to focus on God and seek his presence that our behaviours change.   The direction in the second paragraph is to ‘let’.  This echoes the sound of God’s voice in Creation.  He said on each day, “Let there be …”  In the same way God wants to speak truth into our lives and to let there be a life of light. What causes us to work against God?  Why do we not allow him to do his work?  It is often that we are living for something or someone else and deep down we actually feel like God is getting in the way.

Prayer

father, may your face be what we seek.  May we look to Jesus as he sits enthroned above.  May we see this Creation in its right place.  May we take time to see through the crises and the details in order to see the way that even the problems we face point beyond themselves to you as the solution.

Questions

1. On what should the Colossians hearts be set?
2. What should the Colossians put on over all the virtues, which binds them together?
3. What does ‘heart’mean to people in the 21st century?  What did heart mean to the ancient writers?
4. On what is your heart set?
5. How would you help those with whom you worship to set their hearts or minds on things above?