2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The practical approach to God’s teachings has always seemed sensible to me. There are times when learning to apply what we have learned isn’t easy; but since those teachings come to us from God via the authors of the Scriptures, it is always in our best interests to make the effort. Today’s passage, 1JN 4: 19-21, fits into this construct. “We love because God first loved us. If someone says he loves God, but hates his brother, he is a liar. For he cannot love God, Whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother, whom he has seen. The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love his brother also.”
Self-righteousness and hypocrisy are two evils that have a direct relationship to the problem brought out in this passage. When we look at human history, we see plenty of examples of these barriers to eternal life. Christ came face to face with it when He argued with the Pharisees. One such example was their objection to his healing the paralyzed man in MK 2: 1-12 and telling him that his sins were forgiven. Christ was accused of blasphemy for saying that. Another confrontation with the Pharisees happened in MK 7: 1-8, when the latter noticed some of Christ’s disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean-that is they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should. When they questioned Him, Christ answered, “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote [in IS 29: 13], ‘These people, says God , honor Me with their words; but the heart is really far away from Me. It is no use for them to worship Me, because they teach man-made rules as though they were My laws!’ You put aside God’s command and obey the teachings of men.” It happened again in MT 12: 9-14 when some people questioned Christ about healing on the Sabbath when He came across a man with a paralyzed hand. Christ answered in (11-12), “What if one of you has a sheep and it falls into a deep hole on the Sabbath? Will he not take hold of it and lift it out? And a man is worth much more than a sheep! So then, our Law does allow us to help someone on the Sabbath.” Afterward, Christ healed the man’s hand. The Pharisees that had seen this left and made plans to kill Jesus. One such example came in the last week of Christ’s life after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He chased the moneychangers out of the temple and had His authority questioned by the Pharisees [see MK 11: 27-33 & LK 20: 1-8]. The meat of the problem here was the Pharisees insistence on form over content in God’s law. They just didn’t get it. They were too full of themselves to appreciate the value of Christ’s teachings, must less that they were actually in the presence of God’s very own Son!
Paul wrote RO 2 directing it specifically at the hypocrisy of the Jews who were insisting that if a male wasn’t circumcised, he will not be acceptable to God. These traditional Jews were claiming that their direct genetic link to Abraham made what they were teaching acceptable. This was written at a time when the church was a combination of formerly pagan and formerly traditionally Jewish converts to Christ. They were having arguments over issues like what food was acceptable to eat and which day the Sabbath should be celebrated on. God’s wisdom comes through Paul’s teaching in RO 2: 28-29, “After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. Rather the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God’s Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives his praise from God, not from man.”
Hypocrisy and self-righteousness is not limited to traditional Jews. These evils can be found in any group of people. They are the actions that keep us from loving our brothers and from obeying the message of today’s 1JN passage. I believe that God invites us to join Him in His work, knowing that we must examine our lives and make whatever adjustments are necessary for us to conform to the model set for us by Jesus Christ. I further believe that God knows we will never attain full perfection as Christ had, but that He wants us to come as close as is possible. He wants us to understand the nature of faith which HE 11: 1 describes. “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.” I love Les Feldick’s slant on this. He calls faith, “taking God at His Word.” (The capital “W” is not a typo-see JN 1: 1-4). It is only logical that the author of 1JN would imply the question: how can a person love God who he has not seen, if he doesn’t love his brother who he has seen? So, we are asked to examine our lives for any self-righteousness and hypocrisy in them. We are also asked to examine the content of our hearts in dealing with our fellow man and the state of our faith in God through Christ. God’s love for us is unconditional and consistent. When we attempt to make the changes He asks us to make, He is there rooting for us to be successful and giving us the equipment (the Holy Spirit, Scriptures, opportunities for prayer, encouragement from other believers, and lessons from our circumstances) to be victorious in our efforts. When we do succeed, he gives us the peace which we can’t understand [see PHIL 4: 7] and reminds us of the hope of the resurrection which all believers share.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have given us Your Son Who showed us through His obedience to You how to live without self-righteousness and hypocrisy. As if that wasn’t enough, You sacrificed Him on the cross, so that a way could be opened for our salvation. While we are too imperfect to ever be an exact copy of Him, we can make huge improvements in our lives in conforming to Your expectations for us by following the example He set as closely as possible. We have been given stories of Christ’s confrontations with the Pharisees and Paul’s revelation of what it means to be “circumcised in one’s heart” to help us recognize sins that bar people who continue in them from eternal life and fellowship with You. You want our attitudes and actions to mirror the kind of love You have for us. You ask us to examine our lives to get rid of even subtle sin in them, because You love us enough to want us to enjoy eternal joy and fellowship with You. We hear You and dedicate ourselves in humility to make You the Lord of our lives and Your will our first priority. We praise, adore, glorify, magnify, and worship You. We offer You our thanks for the love You continually show us. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the teaching on our victory over the world that is in 1JN 5: 1-5. Know that we are blessed abundantly when we trust and obey the Father. The Holy Spirit convicts us to examine our lives to see how they compare with the ideal set by Jesus Christ. Guilt is not the point when we do this; instead, good hard work in making the necessary changes and putting the fleshliness of this world behind us is. When we listen and do this work, we are richly rewarded and will automatically demonstrate the kind of love toward God and each other that the Father desires. Know that while this work is going on, we are deeply loved by the Creator Who made us. Peter and I send our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn