A Promise of a Generally Pleasant Life? Jeremiah 29:11--Twisters Series, Part 2

            I imagine we are all pretty careful about making promises. We want to be people of our word, so if we make a promise, we want to make sure we can follow through on it. But have you ever faced a situation when someone took your words to be a promise even though you really didn’t mean them that way? It can be really awkward when another person thinks you failed to come through on a promise, when all the while you’re thinking that you never made them a promise in the first place!

            In those situations, we want people to give us the benefit of the doubt. We like for them to show us a little grace rather than accuse us of breaking a promise—especially since the misunderstanding may be largely their fault!

            Well, in our spiritual lives, we should take a similar kind of care and caution when we encounter a promise in the Bible. The Bible contains many promises, yet not all of them can be applied directly to us. That fact often goes overlooked, however, and instead people often think that every promise in the Bible has somehow been made to them. Its not uncommon to find people who are upset with God because they think that He has failed to come through on a promise, when in reality they have simply applied to themselves a promise that was never meant for them in the first place.

            Today, we’re going to take a look at a promise that is frequently misused and misunderstood. Its found in Jeremiah 29:11. I suspect you’re rather familiar with it; it states, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

            Those are beautiful words. Its not surprising that everyone who reads them would be drawn to them, but how we handle them next is where the problem comes in.

A Common Interpretation

            People often rush to apply these words to their own lives today, and in doing so, it has become very common for people to take these words to mean that God has promised me that I will have a generally pleasant life. On the basis of these words, I can expect to have generally good health and a stable job—or if I do happen to lose my job, I can expect God to have another job lined up right away that actually pays more than my previous job and makes me happier, too. I can expect God to bless me with 2.5 kids (or whatever the national average is today), and I can expect my kids to be decently athletic and good-looking so that they will be somewhat popular at school.

            In short, a lot of people, in America at least, take these words to be a promise that God will allow us to live the American Dream—things will always get a little better for us as the days go by, and good times will be coming my way around every corner. But is this an appropriate way to handle this statement from God? To whom were these words actually spoken, and why did God speak them?

A Trip Back in Time

            To answer those questions, let me take you on a little trip back in time. Imagine yourself as a Jewish person from the kingdom of Judah living in the year 597 B. C. At that point in time, you’re actually not living in your homeland around Jerusalem, but rather you’re living in the kingdom of Babylon (which covered roughly the same territory as modern-day Iraq).

            You see, you and several thousand of your Jewish countrymen had been taken captive in war by King Nebuchadnezzar and forcibly relocated to his kingdom. Now, you are likely struggling to understand what’s going on. How could God have allowed your nation to be defeated? He had said through His prophets that He had great plans for the Jewish people and for Jerusalem, but now the people were under the thumb of a foreign king who worshipped idols, and Jerusalem was under his control. As you’re trying to sort all of that out, some of your countrymen in Babylon are saying that God told them not to worry. They were saying your exile wouldn’t last long—God was going to crush the Babylonians and send you home again soon.

            Well, Jeremiah, a true prophet of God, was still living in Jerusalem at this time, and he got word of the messages that some of the Jews in Babylon were preaching in the name of the Lord. He knew their messages were false, and so he penned a letter to the exiles in Babylon to clear the air and to offer some encouragement. That letter is recorded here in Jeremiah 29, and it contains the promise of verse 11. Let’s read this letter from the beginning and continue just a few verses past the promise of v. 11 [READ vv. 4-14].

The Correct Interpretation

            Now that we’ve read this promise in its context, we’ve got it in the proper setting to understand it. Perhaps the most important detail to notice is that when God spoke those words in v. 11, He was speaking to this group of exiles as a whole. This doesn’t come through very well in English, but the word “you” in v. 11 is plural in the original Hebrew.

            This is one of the tricky parts about studying the Bible in English. Our word “you” can be either singular or plural depending on the context, but we often forget that, and in our desire to personalize everything we read in the Bible, we often treat the word “you” as a singular, when in fact it is plural in the original languages.

            So God was saying, “I know the plans I have for you all—for all of you as a whole, as representatives of my chosen people.” It would be like God telling us today that He has great plans for the United States. That would be very encouraging to hear, but it wouldn’t necessarily tell me what’s in store for me as an individual, or for my family.

            So it was for these Jewish exiles. Jeremiah 29:11 was not a promise about how their individual lives were going to play out. In fact, since the exile was going to last 70 years, most of the adults who first heard Jeremiah 29:11 would die before it was fulfilled.

            Based on the context, then, the correct interpretation of Jeremiah 29:11 is that God was re-affirming His promise to re-establish the Jewish people in Jerusalem. Despite the depressing outlook at that moment for God’s chosen people, His plans for them were not thwarted, and Jeremiah 29:11 was His guarantee that His plans for the nation would be fulfilled.

Now, if that’s the correct interpretation of this promise, how have we so often gone wrong in interpreting it? Let me address two errors that we have made.

Interpretive Errors

1. Failing to take note of the original recipients of a promise

            As we read the Bible, we must keep in mind that God has made many different promises to many different people for many different reasons. Some of those reasons—and thus some of those promises—may not apply directly to us today. It is a big mistake, then, for us to read a promise in Scripture and apply it directly to ourselves without considering the people who first received the promise and why God made that promise to them.

            And yet, this is one of the ways that people today commonly mishandle the Bible. In our modern culture, where we are all infatuated with me, myself, and I, we like to think that even the Bible is all about me. We are sometimes told to think of the Bible as God’s love letter to me—never mind the fact that God actually chose to write the Bible to people who lived thousands of years ago!

            But why should I let that stop me from making every statement in Scripture about me? My friends, God had his reasons for giving His Holy Word to the Jewish people of Old Testament times, and to Christians living in the first century in places like Israel, Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, and Thessalonica. Now, can I still learn from those words? You bet your life that I can! Is the truth of those words still relevant for me today? You better believe it is! But as we study that truth, we must remember that our wise God chose to give it first to them, then to us.

            And yet, the temptation remains for us to make the Bible all about me. This week, I found a website where you can order a copy of the Bible that has your name inserted into the text in 7,000 different places. Now, reading the Bible in such a personal way would be okay in some passages, because there are promises in Scripture that we can apply directly to ourselves—particularly in the New Testament. But I guarantee that many of those 7,000 places probably commit the very error that we’re talking about here.

            Now, why am I making such a big deal out of this? Simply because of the potential for terrible harm in your life when you use the Bible this way. Consider a couple who may be struggling to have children. They read the Scriptures together for encouragement, and suppose they read these words that God spoke to Abraham about Sarah in Genesis 17:16: "I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."

            What if this couple reads those words, and decides to claim that promise for themselves, as though God had given to them? What if they now believe they have a sure-fire promise from God that they will have a child—and yet it never happens? My friends, I imagine we all know people who are bitter toward God right now, all because they feel that God failed to come through on a promise that He never truly made to them.

            One pastor, writing about Jeremiah 29:11, put it very well: “We have no right to hold God hostage to a promise that we have misunderstood.” Yet so many people do, and their lives are harmed because of it.

A second interpretive error that we make with this verse is…

2. Taking a statement out of context

            Many people have never read the verses that surround Jeremiah 29:11. They have only heard it all by itself. But when we treat the words in that way, we suddenly have big gaps in our understanding. What did God mean by the word “welfare?” What did He mean by the phrase “a future and a hope?” When we take a statement out of context, we no longer have the resources of the context to help us answer questions like that.

            Instead, since we’ve also applied this promise directly to ourselves, we end up filling in the gaps in our understanding with details from the context of our own lives. What does “welfare” look like to me today? Well, it looks like generally good health and a steady job and 2.5 kids and the whole American dream!

            And so, by making these two interpretive errors, we end up reading Jeremiah 29:11 as a statement in which we think God is promising us a generally pleasant life in this world. What should learn today from our mistake? First, whenever we read a promise in Scripture, we should take careful note of the original recipients of that promise. God may have given them a promise that He has not extended to us. Normally, we can determine whether or not that’s the case by carefully examining the context of the promise—which is the second lesson we should learn.

            I realize that with my sermon today, I may have just pulled the rug out from under a verse that may be one of your favorites. Jeremiah 29:11 is a beautiful statement of God’s commitment to be faithful to His promises. You may need to look at it a bit differently than you used to, and yet I don’t want today to be a downer for you, so let me remind you of some other beautiful promises in Scripture that can stir our souls.

            These promises, of course, were not first spoken to us, either, but their original setting was such that it allows us to apply these promises very directly to ourselves today. Here a just a few of these promises for your encouragement:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24).”

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:1-3).”

“So we do not lost heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1).”

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (2 Peter 1:3-5).”

Sounding the Warning Siren About Twisted Scriptures--Twisters Series Part 1

            Around here, we know all about the devastating power of tornados, or “twisters” as they are occasionally called. Many of you lived here when Greensburg was nearly wiped off the map by a powerful tornado. Vernon and Shirley had their own close encounter with a tornado this Summer, and we still praise God that they are okay.

            Tornados can bring unimaginable havoc and ruin into your life. Likewise, twisted Scriptures have a similar power to hurt you. When the Bible is misunderstood, misinterpreted, or misapplied, the results can ravage your well-being in every way—spiritually, emotionally, and in some cases, even physically.

            Some misunderstandings of Scripture may leave you relatively unscathed. They are like the funnel cloud that forms but perhaps never even touches the ground. But other twisted Scriptures may have eternal consequences. They are like the EF-5 that destroys everything in its path and leaves the landscape permanently changed.

            Today, we’re beginning a series that will take us to some passages of Scripture that are commonly misunderstood, misinterpreted, or misapplied. We may end up talking about a couple of your favorite verses, and if that’s the case, I’ll ask you to simply be patient with me and hear me out. But before we take a look at some specific verses, today I’d like to deal with a few general questions that will set the stage for the rest of this series to play out.

Why are twisted Scriptures so dangerous?

            Remember that, as I said a moment ago, not all twisted Scriptures are created equal—they don’t all have the same potential to wreak havoc in your life. For example, if you get two Bible characters confused with each other while you’re reading through a genealogy in 1 Chronicles, that’s probably not going to be a very big deal. But other misunderstandings could have terrible consequences.

            Why do they have such power? Its because of the high trust that we give to Scripture. As Christians, we correctly believe that the Bible is a message from God, and therefore, it is true. In general, then, our thinking is, “If the Bible says it, that’s good enough for me! I choose to believe it.”

            We are strongly inclined to believe whatever we think the Bible teaches. Perhaps you can see the subtle danger that lurks just under the surface of our trust. What happens if we get an idea in our heads that is actually wrong, but we’re convinced that the Bible teaches it? Well, we are very likely going to believe it, and when we do, we become vulnerable to its destructive power in our lives.

            Twisted Scriptures are so dangerous because they’re like a Trojan Horse that Satan uses to smuggle lies into our minds. Since we think these lies are actually truths from the Bible, we welcome them into our minds. And once we have, they can begin to destroy us.

We should acknowledge, though, that not all misunderstandings of Scripture necessarily come from Satan. So what are the possible sources of misunderstanding?

Sources of Misunderstanding

1. Human mistakes and errors

            Sometimes, as we try to interpret the Bible, we simply make an honest mistake and get it wrong—like the child who thought God’s name was “Howard” because he thought The Lord’s Prayer said, “Howard be thy name.” There’s no malicious intent behind an innocent mistake like that—we can simply chalk that up to being human.

            A long-time professor of Greek at Dallas Theological Seminary liked to tell the story of a pastor who misunderstood Matthew 26:27. That passage is a record of The Last Supper, and in the King James translation which the pastor used, v. 27 says, “Drink ye all of it.” Now, as you read through that passage, its clear that Jesus was telling the disciples that each one of them should drink some of the wine from the cup that He was going to pass around, but this pastor understood it as a command that all of the wine should be consumed.

            This misunderstanding created a problem for the pastor. He served in a denomination that used real wine during Communion, and even though he had a rather small church, their tradition called for a full pitcher of wine to be prepared for the observance. So each Sunday, after the congregation left, this pastor would drink all the leftover wine and get drunk—all because he misunderstood this statement in Scripture!

            So sometimes, despite our best intentions and our best efforts, we simply make a mistake and get it wrong. But other times, there’s more to it than that. Sometimes, we encounter distortions of Scripture that are much more deliberate.

2. Human deception and distortion

            Since the Bible occupies such a place of honor and influence in our world, people often want to use it to justify their own thoughts or to gain power over other people. And so, they come to the Bible with a particular agenda, then distort the teaching of Scripture to match their agenda. Thus, these distortions are much more intentional than mere mistakes or errors.

            Let me read a quote from a man who believed that he found support in the Bible for his personal hatred of Jewish people: “My feelings as a Christian point me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them…. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in his might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and of adders. How terrific was his fight for the world against the Jewish poison!”

            Who was this man who called himself a Christian and called Jesus his Lord and Savior? It was Adolf Hitler, perhaps the last person that you might expect to hear quoting stories from the Bible! Yet Hitler made these kinds of appeals to the Bible throughout his rise to power. Its possible that he never could have gained power in a historically Christian country like Germany without making appeals to the Bible.

            A little closer to home and to our own day, we see other people using the Bible in an effort to advance a particular agenda. The gay rights movement in our country would be one such example. From the time that the Bible began to be written, Jews and Christians have interpreted its commands to be saying that homosexual behavior is sinful. But in just the last few decades, people from within the gay rights movement have told us that they’ve suddenly discovered we’ve been wrong all along. Its almost impossible to see their efforts as anything but an attempt to make the Bible say what they want it to say.

            Now, I suspect that some people who have distorted the teaching of the Bible have done so with their eyes wide open. They knew full well that they were simply using the Bible as a tool to try to achieve their own ends. But others who have twisted Scripture were very likely deceived themselves by an even more sinister personality.

3. Satanic deception and distortion

            At first, it may seem surprising to us that Satan would want to have anything to do with the Bible. We might think he would melt in its presence the way that the Wicked Witch of the West melted when she was doused by water. But in fact, it may not be inaccurate to say that the Bible is actually Satan’s favorite book—not because he agrees with its teachings, but because he can do so much damage by distorting it.

            Fortunately for us, we get a pretty clear picture of Satan’s strategy for distorting Scripture by looking at his temptation of Eve in Genesis 3. We can learn some lessons from that conversation that will help us be on guard against Satan’s schemes. So what is the first step of his strategy?

A. Satan wants to get us confused about the content of God’s Word

            Look at Satan’s first question to Eve [READ Gen 3:1]. Now that was a whopper of a distortion, because its almost the opposite of what God actually said. Here’s the actual command that God gave to Adam in 2:16: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

            So Satan’s first statement grossly distorted the Word of God. Eve didn’t really take that bait, but notice that in her reply, she didn’t get God’s Word quite right, either [READ 3:2-3]. Notice how Eve added the words “neither shall you touch it,” which God had never said. Now, we don’t know precisely why Eve said that. Some people have speculated that Adam may have added those words to God’s command to simply encourage Eve to avoid the tree altogether.

            So Satan deliberately twisted God’s Word, but in her reply, Eve didn’t get it quite right either. Who knows what kind of difference that small distortion made in her mind? Perhaps she thought, “You know, that does sound kind of restrictive. Why can’t we at least touch the tree?” When Satan told her next that God was essentially depriving them of something good, perhaps this misunderstanding put her in a frame of mind where she was more willing to consider that thought.

            The important thing to recognize is that at this point, the conversation between Satan and Eve was now revolving around a misrepresentation of God’s Word rather than its exact teaching. When we find ourselves on that playing field, we are on Satan’s turf.

            Satan cannot topple the truth of God’s Word when it is properly understood and applied. What he wants to do instead is create what we call in logic a “straw man.” He wants to set up a weaker imitation of God’s Word and attack that rather than deal with the unfiltered truth of Scripture. This observation just underscores once again why twisted Scriptures are so dangerous. It is much easier for Satan to attack us when we have a misunderstanding of Scripture.

So once Satan has us confused about the content of God’s Word, then he goes in for the kill.

B. Satan wants to convince us that God’s Word is not true

            Now that Satan had created some confusion for Eve regarding the content of God’s Word, he then took the step of making an outright denial of its truth [READ vv. 4-5]. There is no “beating around the bush” in that statement. Satan openly accused God of lying by saying that God’s Word is not true.

            When Satan is trying to tempt us, he knows better than to make that suggestion right out of the gate. He knows that we’re confident that God’s Word is true, so he’s not going to get very far if he calls it a lie right out of the gate. That’s why the first step in his strategy is so crucial, and that is where we must fight the battle against him. If Satan can get us to buy into a misinterpretation of Scripture, we become easy pickings for him to knock off.

            One clear example of Satan’s two-step strategy today would be in his attacks on the Bible’s teaching about leadership and submission between husband and wife. Many people today think the Bible’s teaching on family roles is old fashioned and out of date, or even sexist and demeaning to women. But when you press further, what you find is that so many people are rejecting not the Bible’s real teaching on the matter, but a distortion of it. They think of leadership in terms that the Bible actually rejects, and they think of submission in terms that the Bible never actually calls for.

            But Satan knows that the real picture of love and respect between a husband and wife is so beautiful and so powerful that he can’t defeat it when its clearly understood. He has to distort it before he attacks it, because that is his only hope for victory.

            Now that we are privy to Satan’s schemes, we are ready to prepare ourselves to withstand them. We are ready to clear up some common misunderstandings of Scripture that Satan has successfully used to attack people time and time again.

            Along the way, I hope to teach you also about how to spot twisted Scriptures—whether they stem simply from a human mistake, or whether they come from something more sinister, like an intentional deception or a Satanic distortion. As you learn how to spot these errors, you’ll also be learning how to avoid making the same errors yourself as you study the Bible. All in all, I hope that you’ll become more confident in your ability to understand God’s Word and in your skill to interpret it correctly.

Stepping Down From the Bench--Sermon on the Mount Series

            During my senior year of high school, I worked at a Mr. Goodcents restaurant for several months, and one day I had an experience that helped me learn a good lesson. I was standing at the counter waiting on some customers, and I had one of those moments when I just knew I was about to be robbed (if you’ve ever worked at a place with a cash register, you know what I’m talking about).

            I looked out in the parking lot, and a man was coming in to the store, and he was huge! He had tattoos all over his arms and several piercings, and I was sure he was going to rob the store. After he came in, he placed his order and I started making his sandwich, and at that time I used to wear a gold cross on a necklace. When I started making his sandwich, he said to me, “Hey, I like your cross.” I was thinking, “Here! You can have it—just don’t kill me!”

            But after he said that, he turned and walked down to the other end of the counter, and on the back of his shirt was Matthew 7:1—“Judge not, that you be not judged.” He started talking to one of my co-workers who was a Christian and I found out that this guy was a new Christian and actually attended my co-worker’s church!

            Now, I am quite certain that every person in this room knows Matthew 7:1—even if you didn’t know it was Matthew 7:1, you’ve heard the verse, “judge not, that you be not judged.” Surveys have shown that in our country this verse is the most widely-known verse of the entire Bible. However, I don’t think its any exaggeration to say that this verse is also the most widely misunderstood verse of the entire Bible.

            Today, we’re going to learn what Jesus actually meant when He said, “judge not, that you be not judged.” It turns out that if we simply read the verses that come after Matthew 7:1, we get a great commentary on what Jesus is trying to tell us (imagine that—if we keep a statement in context, it helps us make sense of it!). The points of my outline are going to serve as a paraphrase or commentary on these words, so hopefully these points themselves will give you a better idea of what Jesus is telling us. Let’s first read the whole section for today so we can get a sense of where we are going [READ Matt 7:1-6].

I. There is a Judge, and you are not Him. (v. 1)

            Verse one contains the famous statement, “judge not, that you be not judged.” When most people in our country today hear those words, they hear them in light of the popular idea that standards of what is right and what is wrong are simply matters of opinion. I may have very strong opinions about right and wrong, but according to this popular idea, they are nothing more than just my opinion—they are not standards that other people are obligated to live by.

            So with that idea in the background, when people in our country today hear these words from Jesus, they interpret Him to be saying, “Don’t evaluate the behavior of others, and certainly don’t ever tell them that they are wrong.” If there is one universal standard of right and wrong that our society buys in to, it is “don’t ever tell others that they are wrong.” Of course, no one ever stops to think about how that could always be wrong if there are no such things as universal standards of right and wrong!

            Jesus certainly did not buy in to this idea that statements about right and wrong are simply matters of opinion. Somehow, it escapes people’s notice that Jesus is giving us a command with these words—in other words, He is presuming to tell us what is right and what is wrong. In Jesus’ worldview, standards of right and wrong come from God. His commands show us the dividing line between right and wrong.

            With that idea in mind, we’re “getting warmer” in our search for what Jesus is talking about. God is the final judge of right and wrong, and ultimately, the only perfect judge of right and wrong. That is His position, His role, so Jesus is telling us not to take upon ourselves a role that rightfully belongs to God. We see this same thought expressed in commands that tell us not to take revenge.

            For example, Romans 12:19 says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” When I take revenge against someone else, I am trying to administer justice, but that is not my role. That is not the proper part for me to play in this world—that role belongs to God.

            That thought also helps us clarify what Jesus means when He says, “do not judge.” It is very important to realize that Jesus is not saying, “do not evaluate someone else’s behavior.” If that were the case, there would be many other biblical commands that we couldn’t possibly carry out—including the command of v. 6, as we’ll see in a moment.

            I think the illustration of a trial-by-jury is very helpful for us in clarifying what Jesus is saying here. In a trial-by-jury, the jury’s role is to consider all the evidence presented in a case and then determine if the defendant broke the law. It is the judge’s role, then, to administer justice—to determine the appropriate sentence and see that it is carried out.

            In our lives, the Bible does call us to play the role of the jury. We can observe behavior, look at the evidence of God’s word, and determine whether the behavior violates the standards of God’s Word. What Jesus does not leave open to us is trying to play the role of the judge—in others words, acting like we know what someone else deserves and trying to make sure that they get it. We are to have a different response, as we’ll see in a moment.

The Lord then goes on in v. 2 to mention a strong deterrent against judging others.

II. If you try to be the Judge, He will use your own standards against you. (v. 2)

            Let’s read v. 2 again [READ v. 2]. It seems that God’s attitude toward us is, “Okay, if you think you are fit to be a judge, then let’s see how you measure up to your own standards.” I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we really don’t want God to deal with us in the same way that we often deal with other people.

            When we try to act like we know what other people deserve, we do so with such a pitifully small amount of information. We may not know how hard someone fought against a temptation, or what the circumstances were that made a temptation look so appealing. It is far better for us to extend mercy to other people than attempt to take justice into our own hands. As Jesus had already stated that day, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy (Matt 5:7).” And after giving us His model prayer, the Lord said, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt 6:14-15).”

            So this is the third time that Jesus has mentioned this same idea in this sermon—and He’s not bluffing about this. When we stand before Jesus to answer for our lives, He will adopt the same posture toward us that we adopted toward others. If that’s the case, my friends, then I don’t know about you, but I want to be very merciful and forgiving rather than judgmental.

Jesus then goes on to criticize the hypocrisy that feeds a critical, judgmental spirit.

III. Focus on and deal with your own sins first, then help your brother (vv. 3-5)

            We really get a glimpse of Jesus’ sense-of-humor in these next verses [READ vv. 3-5]. Let’s allow the full weight of this comparison to sink in. Think about how invasive you have to be to find a speck of dust or a tiny splinter in someone else’s eye. You really have to invade their personal space! The point is that you really have to put out effort to see a speck in someone else’s eye; you have to be looking for it.

            I hate to say it, but we’ve all known people like that—people who are always on the lookout to find fault with others. Their life verse is Luke 17:3—“if your brother sins, rebuke him!” They’re the self-appointed fruit inspectors who are always looking for tiny bruises on everyone else’s spiritual fruit.

            To them and us all Jesus says, “Why do you look so closely for a tiny fault in someone else and look right past the log that’s in your own eye? And what makes you think you’re qualified to help someone else with their minor problem when you have a major problem that you’re not paying any attention to?” That’s the irony of a judgmental spirit—it puts our attention on everyone’s business but our own. We also end up applying standards to everyone else that we do not apply to ourselves. That’s why Jesus calls this attitude hypocrisy.

            We’re supposed to attend to our own business first. We should root out our own faults and be on the lookout for our own failures. Notice the situation that results if we will do that: “then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Remember—Jesus is not telling us that its wrong to assess the behavior of others. If I notice a fault in someone else, after I have assessed myself, then I will be in a position to help them. Notice that Jesus is talking about help, not condemnation.

            This is where we find an unusual twist on the trial-by-jury illustration that I used earlier. We can play the part of the jury, but after we’ve determined guilt or innocence, we’re supposed to step out of the jury box and offer help to the defendant. We’re like a brother or sister helping a sibling fix something before Mom and Dad get home.

As v. 6 tells us however, we do have to use wisdom when we seek to help others.

IV. Use wisdom when deciding how to interact with others (v. 6)

            Let’s read v. 6 again [READ v. 6]. Let’s get a few things straight as we think about this verse. First of all, Jesus wasn’t hurling insults at anyone—he wasn’t calling a particular person or group of people “dogs” and “pigs.” He was simply using those animals as an illustration to teach a lesson.

            Second, when you hear the word “dog,” don’t think of a cute, cuddly house pet. Dogs were not common house pets in Israel at that time—they were wild animals. When Jesus said, “do not give dogs what is holy,” he was probably making a reference to the meat that the Jewish people received from their sacrifices in the Temple. With certain sacrifices, the person who offered it would receive some of the meat and take it home to eat it. This was very special meat; it wasn’t something you would just give to a wild dog roaming around the streets—it wasn’t appropriate for them.

            Likewise, no one would think about tossing pearls out to pigs (this is probably another example of humor from Jesus). Pearls are not appropriate for pigs, and they might be angry that you tossed them something they couldn’t eat.

            When we consider this statement in its context, its clear that Jesus is telling us that we have to use some wisdom when we consider how to help others. He has just told us that after we remove the log from our own eye, then we are in a position to help others—but even then we must not rush into a situation without using wisdom. I love what one commentator had to say about this verse: “Since we’ve just been told to love our enemies and not to judge, we might fail to consider the subtleties of the argument and become undiscerning simpletons. This verse guards against such a possibility.”¹

            Many verses of Scripture tell us about the need to exercise wisdom as we seek to help others. For example, Proverbs 9:7-8 says, “He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” Before we approach someone with the intent to help them, we have to consider if they are likely to receive it graciously. We might be wasting our efforts and inviting trouble for ourselves if the person has given a clear indication that they don’t want to hear what we have to say.

            In the New Testament, we find verses like 1 Thessalonians 5:14—“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” Before we can carry out those commands, we have to determine which of those categories a person falls in. Are they idle—are they not doing someone they can do and know they should do? Are they fainthearted—are they capable of overcoming something, but just wearied by the struggle? Are they weak—are they incapable at the moment of bearing some burden by themselves? You can see that this requires wisdom; otherwise we might help someone who is just being idle or we might admonish someone who truly is weak.

            As Jesus once told His disciples before He sent them along to minister without Him, we must be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).” Our passage today has taught the same lesson in reverse order. Verses 1-5 tell us to be innocent as doves. We must not take upon ourselves a role that rightfully belongs to God. When it comes to obeying God, our attention must be given to rooting out the sins from our own lives. Then, if we happen to notice an opportunity to help a brother, we can pursue that opportunity.

            Verse 6 then tells us to be wise as serpents. Jesus is not calling us to be naïve or careless about our interactions with other people. Instead, they should be properly motivated and properly thought out—then we will be prepared to act with wisdom and innocence.

Notes:

1. Paraphrase from a statement by D. A. Carson in Matthew, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 185.

Walking Away From Worry--Sermon on the Mount Series

            By the grace of God, human beings have accomplished some amazing things during our history. We have explored outer space and put a man on the moon. We have developed techniques and tools that allow us to operate on the heart and the brain. We have found ingenious ways to combat belly fat. We have created useful inventions like the light bulb, the computer, and the Snuggie.

            But despite all that we’ve achieved, no one has ever found a way to turn worry into something productive. Like the people of old who labored to find ways to turn lead into gold, people all over the world have indulged in worrying in a vain effort to improve or sort out their circumstances. As far as Scripture is concerned, we will probably find a way to turn lead into gold before we ever find a way to make worry a useful or beneficial thing.

            Today we’re going to take a look at a very familiar passage of Scripture that contains some very precious words from the Lord. The lesson will be nothing new for most of us—we know we’re not supposed to worry—but perhaps we can gain some fresh insights today that will help us gain the upper hand when we face the temptation to worry.

Why does the Lord tell us not to worry?

1. Worry blows things out of proportion (Matthew 6:25)

            As we start to look at v. 25, notice that it begins with the word “therefore.” That word tells us that the Lord is about to make a point based on what he had just talked about. Jesus had just told us in v. 18 not to lay up treasures here on earth, and now He’s going to make this point about anxiety because it is one of the main factors that make us tempted to lay up treasures on earth. If we indulge the temptation to worry, then we will be tempted to lay up treasures on earth, and that will affect our ability to serve God with the kind of freedom that Jesus calls for here.

            The first reason we shouldn’t worry is that worry blows things out of proportion, and it does so in two ways:

            1. It turns healthy attention into harmful distraction

            Jesus states, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.” Its important to note that the Greek word translated “anxious” in this verse is used elsewhere in the Bible to describe an appropriate degree of concern about something. For example, in Philippians 2:20, Paul told the Philippians that he was planning to send Timothy to them, and here’s why: “For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.” Those words “genuinely concerned” translate the same Greek verb that we find in Matthew 6:25. Paul was obviously talking about a good trait in that verse—he wasn’t going to send Timothy because Timothy was a worry wort!

            So that Greek verb can describe an appropriate concern about something, and that’s important to understand. There is an appropriate degree of attention that we should give to questions like, “What will I eat?” Worry, then, seems to simply be a good thing gone bad. It is observation that has become obsession; it is forward-thinking that has turned into fear, so our healthy attention actually becomes a harmful distraction.

            2. It turns lesser things into ultimate concerns

            Jesus goes on to say this at the end of v. 25, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” The answer of course is, “yes.” Getting dressed is just one part of caring for the body; eating and drinking are just one segment of life. But when we indulge in worry, all of life starts to revolve around something that is only supposed to be one segment of life.

            I’m sure we’ve all experienced how this works. When you give in to worry about one detail of life, it starts to dominate everything else. When you’re worried about basic needs like getting food, for example, it dominates your thinking even when you need to be thinking about other things. It consumes your energy and leaves you with no energy for the other things that you need to be doing.

            To borrow an old saying, its like the tail begins to wag the dog. One area that’s really just a portion of your whole life begins to dominate your whole life in a way that its not supposed to.

2. Worry is unobservant (v. 26)

            Worrying causes you to overlook the way that God works in the world every single day. Let’s read v. 26 [READ v. 26]. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say that birds don’t work for their food—He just emphasizes that they don’t work for it in the same way that we do. They don’t produce lots of food all at once and then store it up and try to preserve it. Birds go out day by day and look for their food for that day, and God is faithful to make sure that they get it.

            This is a process that repeats itself every single day—for who knows how many birds, not to mention other animals—and yet we often look right past it. Worry gets us distracted with other concerns, and we fail to see the obvious—that God provides for His creatures. And notice how Jesus makes an argument from the lesser to the greater. The birds are simply God’s creatures, yet He is faithful to feed them. We, on the other hand, are His adopted children; we are of more value than they are, so we can be even more confident about God’s faithfulness to provide for us.

3. Worry is unproductive (v. 27)

            Let’s read v. 27 [READ v. 27]. Jesus could have used a lot of comparisons to remind us that worry doesn’t accomplish anything, but I think its fascinating that He chose to talk about our health and well-being. I think he may have been giving us a clue about the power that worry has to actually damage our health and well-being.

            Worrying leads to the release of certain hormones in the body, and when we get an excess of those hormones, it can lead to a weakening of the immune system, digestive disorders, muscle tension, short-term memory loss, coronary artery disease and heart attacks. Worrying will never add an hour to your life, but it just might take some away!

            Worrying accomplishes nothing, and on top of that it drains our ability to accomplish other things. So when we invest our minds and our energy in worrying, we get no good returns from it, and its more than likely that we will get bad returns from it.

4. Worry reveals a faith in need of growth (vv. 28-30)

            Look at vv. 28-30 [READ vv. 28-30]. Once again, Jesus points us to nature as our school teacher to give us a lesson that should be quite clear if we would just pause and “consider” the world around us, as Jesus says in v. 28. Again, Jesus uses an argument from the lesser to the greater—God delights to adorn plants with beauty that cannot even be matched by the wealthiest man in the history of Israel, yet they are such temporary things. Should we not then be confident that God will clothe us, since we are so much greater than flowers and grass?

            The Lord gives us a gentle rebuke when He calls us people of “little faith.” I picture Jesus speaking those words with a bit of amazement. These lessons that Jesus draws from nature are around us all the time. The natural world is constantly reminding us, constantly teaching us about God’s loving care, yet its as if we’re walking through the world in a trance because we fail to consider—we fail to observe—all that happens around us on a daily basis. If we are ignorant about these things, it is a self-imposed ignorance, because our professors—the birds and the flowers—are constantly teaching us their lessons. If our faith is small, it is because we are not feeding our faith with insight into what happens all around us every day.

5. Worry imitates a bad example (vv. 31-32)

            Follow with me in vv. 31-32 [READ vv. 31-32]. Remember that the word “Gentiles” refers to all non-Jewish people. In a religious sense, it means that these people do not know the one true God, the God who spoke through Moses and revealed Himself to the Jewish people. You may remember that when we talked about prayer a few weeks ago, I mentioned that the Gentiles had no concept of having a personal relationship with the gods that they worshiped. They had no reason to think that their gods cared about them or even paid attention to their lives.

            Its understandable, then, why they would be consumed with worry about their basic needs—they had no expectation of help from their gods. In light of those beliefs, the grace and goodness of our God shines out all the more. God has adopted us into His own family, which means that He has committed Himself to do all of the things that a Father should do for his children—love us, teach us, protect us, discipline us, and yes, provide for us.

            When Carmen and I were going through the process of getting approval to adopt, we had to show that we were as prepared as we possibly could be to take care of a child. We had to go through a physical exam, a review of our finances, background checks, an interview about our family background and our emotional well-being. Now do we think that God would adopt us and then fail to follow through on what He has committed to do? Would He say, “Wow, I didn’t realize how hard this was going to be! I really wasn’t prepared to take care of all of these children. I just can’t do it!” Of course not.

            Do you see, then, how unbecoming it is for us to worry about these things just like people who have no relationship with God? That is not at all the kind of example we should follow.

The remedy: Give your attention and effort to obeying God (vv. 33-34)

            Look at vv. 33-34 [READ vv. 33-34]. Notice the exchange that Jesus is calling us to make. In v. 32, He said that the Gentiles “seek” after the basic necessities of life. Their attention and energy are given over to pursuing those things because they have no promise of help from their gods.

            So instead of seeking those things, Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We have to exchange one focal point for another. Its like the illustration that speakers use at times when they tell you not to picture a pink elephant in your mind. You can’t help but picture a pink elephant unless you get your mind wrapped up in something else.

            When we confront worry, we can’t just put off worrying—we have to put on something else in order to keep that worry at bay. Its similar to what Jesus said about God and money in that we have two distinct choices before us: are we going to give our energy and attention to shoring up our basic needs, or are we going to give our energy and attention to obeying God and trust Him to shore up our basic needs?

            Don’t you see, my friends? God has our basic needs covered, so we are set free to focus on other things. We are empowered to live like no one else because everyone else is held back by worries about their basic needs. Without the knowledge of the promises that we have from God, it only makes sense that others are consumed with obsessing over food and drink and clothing, but armed with these promises, we are at liberty to invest our energy and effort in greater pursuits.

            But, worry does remain a strong temptation for us. All that we have learned about worry today will help us form a strategy for walking away from worry and pursuing obedience to God instead. If worry blows things out of proportion, we can walk away from worry by keeping things in proportion. For one thing, we can kick some false guilt out the door by remembering that there is an appropriate degree of attention that we must give to our basic needs or to working through problems that we encounter. We don’t need to think that such things shouldn’t occupy our attention and energy at all, but when they start to dominate our attention and energy at the expense of other things, then we can know that we’ve crossed the line.

            If worry is unobservant about God’s work in the world, then we can walk away from worry by being more observant about God’s work. We should consider God’s work in nature, as Jesus tells us here. We should remember what God has done for us in the past. Frequently, when we worry, its because we’ve just plain forgotten how God got us out of a similar jam in the past. Write these things down; find some way to remind yourself about them.

            If worry is unproductive, then invest your attention in something that is productive. Prayer is an obvious choice, especially when we make sure to give thanks for everything we can think of. Also, we sometimes worry about a situation simply because we don’t have much information about it. If we will take the steps we can to just gain some more information, we might gain some insight that will put our worries to rest.

            If worry reveals a faith in need of growth, then do things that will help your faith grow. For one thing, we can’t very well trust God to keep His promises if we don’t know what he has promised to do for us. We have to feed our faith with the Word of God and then exercise our faith by obeying what we read. If you want to make your muscles stronger, what do you do? Give them the proper food and then put them to work. If you want to make your faith stronger, what do you do? Give it the proper food and then put it to work.

            If worry imitates a bad example, then imitate a good example. Sit down with that godly person you know who just radiates peace of mind and talk to them. Be like Jacob wrestling with God, and tell that person, “I won’t let you go until you bless me! I want to know how you do it.”

            Praise God that we don’t have to be imprisoned by worry. We can walk away from it to give our energy and attention to greater things.

Serve the Master, Not His Tools--Sermon on the Mount Series

            There was once a man who worked for a wealthy landowner, and one day the landowner came to him and said, “I’m going to be away for a few months, and while I’m gone I want you to clear the trees off of this portion of my property.” Then the landowner gave the man an axe and left to go on his trip.

            The next day the man woke up and started to get to work. He took the axe and went out to the edge of the trees and began to decide which one to cut down first. He also began to look at the axe, and he noticed that it was a very fine piece of craftsmanship. The blade was perfectly sharpened, and it really had a nice shine to it when you held it in the sunlight. The handle was perfectly carved to fit in a man’s hands.

            The man began to think, “If I use this axe to cut down all of these trees, the blade will grow dull and lose its shine. The handle may get rough and start to splinter.” So instead of getting to work, he went back home, and each day he would think about cutting down the trees, but he couldn’t bear to think of the wear-and-tear that the axe would endure, so he would just stay at home and polish the blade and sand down the handle.

            After a few days, it dawned on him that others might realize what a beautiful axe he had, and he began to worry constantly about robbers. He would lay awake at night to keep watch, and pretty soon he was too tired each morning to even think about cutting down the trees.

            Then one day, the landowner returned and was very upset to see that the land had not been cleared. He went to the man to ask him about it, and the man said, “Sir, this axe you gave me is so beautiful that I couldn’t bear to put it through that kind of wear-and-tear.” The landowner was irate, and said, “You fool! I was planning to use this land and all of that wood to build new homes for all my workers—including you!” And the landowner left in a rage.

            The man was left alone to think about what he had missed out on, but he thought to himself instead, “At least I still have my axe!” But when he looked at it, he realized that his daily sanding on the handle had made it so thin that it couldn’t support the weight of the axe head any more. If he tried to use it, it would have snapped like a twig! Not only had the man missed out on the good plans of his master, but now even his beloved axe was useless.

            This little story of mine describes a temptation that we all face with the tools that God gives us to do His work, but in particular it describes the temptation that we face with our money and possessions. Money and possessions have a very seductive power to them, and it is very easy for us to fall in love with and begin to serve these tools rather than God, the master who gives them. Today, we’re going to receive a strong challenge from the Lord Jesus to remember to serve the Master, not His tools.

            As we jump back into our study of the Sermon on the Mount at Matthew 6:19-24, we’re going to read about some teaching from the Lord on money and possessions. Just prior to this section, the Lord had been discussing the proper way to fast, and it may seem odd that Jesus would move from a discussion of fasting to a discussion about money, but remember that from the beginning of chapter 6, Jesus has been encouraging us to not to prize the fleeting praise of other people, but to seek the far more valuable and lasting rewards that come from obeying God from a sincere heart. It is along those same lines that Jesus is going to command us to think about our money. As we go through this section, I want you to remember our overriding lesson to serve the Master, not His tools.

1. Pursue the things that have lasting value (vv. 19-20)

            In vv. 19-20, Jesus reiterates the lesson that He has been stressing since the beginning of chapter 6—we should pursue those things that truly have superior value, such as praise from God rather than praise from other people. Now he challenges us to consider the lasting value of the things we treasure [READ vv. 19-20].

            Here Jesus draws upon the common-sense principle that it’s better to invest in things that have lasting value rather than things that wear out or are insecure. When you buy a house, for example, it’s better to buy a home that is likely to keep its value, or even increase in value. When you buy a car, it’s wise to purchase one that has a good re-sale value. With any purchase you make, it’s always wise to buy something of good quality that it will last.

            So here Jesus commands us—and notice that it is a command—to lay up treasures in heaven, which will last, rather than treasures on earth, which are subject to decay or robbery, as He mentions. Rather than stockpile the treasures of this world, like money and possessions, we should invest in a greater share of the treasures of heaven, such as praise from God and the chance to occupy an honored position of service under King Jesus.

            Now in just a moment, we’ll wrestle with the question, “How do I know if I’m laying up treasures on earth?” Where is the line, for example, between saving and doing what Jesus warns us about here? We’ll deal with that in a moment, but first, notice that it is not only wise to invest in heavenly treasure because it is lasting, but also because there is a profound moral principle at work in this discussion.

2. Remember that what you value will own your heart (v. 21)

            Jesus simply says in v. 21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The heart can be used as a metaphor for everything that goes on inside of us—thinking, feeling, worshiping, aspiring. Here we might simply paraphrase Jesus’ words by saying that your whole life will get wrapped up in whatever it is that you treasure. It will occupy your thoughts and squeeze out thoughts of other things. It will shape your goals and aspirations and tug at your emotions.

            So when we consider what we will treasure, we are really considering what it is that will form the core of our lives. It is obvious, then, why this is such a monumental decision. If we treasure those things that are considered valuable in this life, then those are the things that we will pursue; but if we treasure those things that are valuable from a heavenly perspective—again, things like praise from God and a greater opportunity to serve Him—then those are the things that we will pursue.

            We often try to kid ourselves, however, by attempting to have our heart in two places at once, thinking that we can somehow treasure the things of this world and the things of heaven in an equal balance. But Jesus is about to warn us that such a case of divided loyalties really results in no loyalty to one master or the other.

3. Beware of a faulty perspective (vv. 22-24)

            In vv. 22-23, Jesus uses a metaphor to warn us about having a faulty outlook when it comes to serving God or serving money [READ vv. 22-23]. The idea of this metaphor is that our outlook gives us a proper insight on things so that we see them clearly. If our outlook on a matter is faulty, then we will not see the matter clearly or correctly. We will be in the dark, so to speak, and if we do not see one matter clearly, that can produce a snowball effect that clouds our insight on other matters. That’s why the Lord says, “If the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” A faulty outlook can quickly expand.

            The Lord then plainly and bluntly tells us in v. 24 what our outlook on serving God and serving money should be [READ v. 24]. Notice that Jesus did not say, “It is hard to serve two masters,” or “its pretty tricky to serve two masters, so be careful how you do it.” No—he simply says that it is impossible to serve two masters. It simply cannot be done.

            Jesus was speaking during a time when slavery was still commonly practiced, and that’s the picture that he’s drawing on. If you are a slave to some master, that’s not an 8-to-5 sort of thing. You don’t clock in and clock out with the idea that some of your time is your own. You are at the beck-and-call of your master at all times, so how could you possibly be at the beck-and-call of two masters? If you’re serving one at the moment, then you are not available to serve the other—but that’s not how the master/slave relationship works.

            So here, Jesus portrays our money and possessions as being a rival master to God, and He tells us that we must make our choice. They cannot both be number one; we cannot be at the beck-and-call of both. Remember—the choice is really between serving God or serving the tools that He has given us to do His work. We are in the same position as the woodsman who was given the axe. Will we use the tool to serve our true master, or will we fall in love with the tool and begin to serve it?

            Now in our society—which is, on the whole, the most affluent society that the world has ever seen—a passage of Scripture like this should make us pause. It should make you pause no matter what your economic standing is, because as Jesus makes clear, this is a heart issue—it is not about how much money you may or may not have.

            So how might we diagnose these problems within ourselves? How do we know if we’re “laying up treasures” on earth? How do we know if we’re serving money rather than God? Let’s deal with each of those questions in turn.

How do I know if I am “laying up treasures on earth?”

            We might wish that there were simply a dollar amount we could appeal to that would make the answer to this question very cut-and-dry, but that simply is not the case. There are some questions we can ask ourselves, however, that will begin to help us draw a conclusion.

1. What is your goal for the money you save (or the possessions that you hang on to)?

            Are you holding on to these things in order to use them for some kind of biblically-permissible purpose, like taking care of your family or having something on hand to give to people in need? Or, are you saving for biblically unacceptable reasons, like winning the envy and admiration of others or trying to find a sense of security in life?

2. How tight is your grip on the things you have?

            Are you obsessing over them? Are you constantly thinking about them? When you become aware of a legitimate need, does it take the “jaws of life” to get your wallet open, or do you have a ready willingness to give? We don’t cling tightly to things that we don’t value, so this idea of clinging to something can be a helpful gauge. The tighter you cling to something, the more value you place upon it.

How do I know if I am serving money as my master?

1. What are you willing to do to make money?

            If you are willing to do something unethical or illegal, then you are clearly serving money rather than God because you’re breaking God’s commands. We also need to consider this question not only in the light of one-time decisions, but patterns of behavior as well. I once heard it put like this—if someone came up to you and offered you $100,000 for your children, you would be furious and insulted. But that is precisely the kind of deal that many people make when they work so hard to make money that they leave no time, no energy, and no attention for their kids. Now of course, I’m talking about the person who is working that way to gain excess, not the single parent who may have to work two jobs just to keep the electricity on. If you are willing to put your family on the back-burner in pursuit of excess, you are serving money.

2. Where do you find comfort when you think about the future?

            Do you find comfort in your nest egg, in the FDIC, or in the promises of God? Do you have a sense of peace because you’re in good hands with Allstate, or because, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there? I think we can only find comfort when we believe that our master will take care of us, but who or what are you trusting to take care of you?

            In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul writes, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”

3. Are you content in your current financial state?

            First Timothy 6:6-10 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

            Contentment is a very helpful gauge in this area. Now this doesn’t mean that we can’t seek to improve our financial situation—we must simply ask ourselves again about our motives for doing so. Those who are serving God as their master should be able to be content with the most basic of life’s necessities. If a gnawing desire for more is present in your heart, that is a sign of a lack of contentment. If our souls feel unsettled until we get the latest version of our cell phones, that is a bad sign.

4. Are you thankful for what you have?

            Contentment and gratitude are like two peas in a pod. If you are not thankful for what you currently have, that is a bad sign.

5. Do you find yourself looking for ways to spend your money on yourself or to meet the needs of others?

            When you dream about what you’re going to do with your money, who plays the starring role in your dreams? Is it only and always—you? Is your financial planning all about how to make your life more comfortable? Do other people fail to even enter your plans? If so, then you are likely serving money rather than God, because here is our master’s command for those who have excess: “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life (1 Tim 6:18-19).”

            Possessions are to be a pathway, never a destination. They are to be a means, never an end. They are a tool, not the final product. They must take their proper place in line rather than becoming the bottom line. Your possessions should be at your service, not the other way around. Ultimately, they are to be at God’s service, since they are simply His tools that He gives us to carry out His work.

A Review of "A Reasonable Response" by William Lane Craig

“A Reasonable Response” is a very intriguing, insightful, and instructional book on apologetics. Those who are already familiar with Dr. Craig’s work—and especially his website reasonablefaith.org—may have already encountered some of these topics and Dr. Craig’s responses to them, but this book is not meant to simply give you Dr. Craig’s answers to the questions presented—it is also designed to teach you how he answers questions, which is perhaps the most useful aspect of the book. In some of Dr. Craig’s responses, a highlighted box can be found that pulls back the curtain on Dr. Craig’s strategy for answering that particular question. That feature alone makes this a valuable book, even if one is already familiar with the answers that Dr. Craig offers.

The book is in a similar format to Lee Strobel’s “Case for…” series in that it is organized around specific questions and answers. The content of “Response” tends to be on a higher philosophical plane than the “Case for…” books, and thus it will likely appeal to a slightly different audience. Anyone who is brand new to the study of apologetics may find this book to be tough sledding in some places, particularly since the questioners may refer to arguments made by others without any further explanation of those arguments. Those who are more familiar with the subject, however, will find this book to be a very welcome and valuable addition to their library.

Though the subject matter is challenging, the book itself is very user-friendly. A long introductory section discusses such matters as the usefulness of questions in spiritual growth and practical matters regarding how to derive the most benefit from the book. Each major division in the book contains its own brief introduction that functions like an abstract in a scholarly paper—it allows you to get the gist of what you’re about to read before you read it.

The book covers a wide range of philosophical and theological topics, all of which Dr. Craig is well-equipped to address. But lest one think that the discussions are all theoretical with little practical application, the book also includes questions on such imminently practical concerns as protecting oneself from spiritual failure, facing rejection as a follower of Christ, preparing for marriage, and maintaining physical stamina (Dr. Craig writes from personal experience as one who suffers from a chronic disease which affects his muscles).  Those who are interested in questions about God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility will be particularly interested in the questions addressing Molinism and its concept of middle knowledge.

All in all, this book is a valuable resource for those who are actively engaged in Christian apologetics or those who are seeking philosophically rigorous answers to intellectual doubts about Christianity. Whether one agrees with Dr. Craig’s answers or not, he will leave an impression with you like that of C. S. Lewis—“he makes you sure, whatever you believe, that religion accepted or rejected means something extremely serious, demanding the entire energy of mind (Harper’s, quoted on the cover of “The Problem of Pain,” HarperCollins edition 2001.)

This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.

Not So Fast--Sermon on the Mount Series

            Today, on this Sunday after Thanksgiving, we’re going to talk about something that we all might feel like doing right about now—fasting. Our study of the Sermon on the Mount has brought us to Jesus’ words about fasting at a rather ironic time since this is also a First Sunday, and we normally eat pretty well on these days, but I’ll give the Lord credit for this timing, and we’ll just “dig in” to this subject of fasting.

            I think its pretty interesting to look at the variety of opinions among Christians today on the subject of fasting. We can see a very diverse range of opinions on this subject. On the one hand, some Christians promote fasting as a virtual “cure-all” for the spiritual life. At christianbook.com, you’ll find books with titles like, “Fasting: Opening the Door to a Deeper, More Intimate, More Powerful Relationship with God,” and “The Power of Prayer and Fasting: God’s Gateway to Spiritual Breakthroughs.” Its also very interesting that you can’t “pigeonhole” this enthusiasm for fasting to any particular denomination or theological background.

            On the other side of the spectrum, there are Christians who only think about fasting on the day before a colonoscopy. Whether this is intentional or not, they just never really talk about fasting and don’t assign any particular value to it.

            So what should we think about fasting? Today, we’re going to begin with this passage from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:16-18, and then we’ll branch out to a more general discussion of fasting—because as we’ll see, the Lord’s warning about fasting here is the same warning that He has already given us about giving to the needy and prayer. Let’s read His words here in Matthew 6:16-18 [READ 6:16-18].

The Warning: Don’t use fasting as a tool to seek praise from others.

            As with giving and praying, Jesus warns his audience not to follow the example of those whom He calls “the hypocrites”—in other words, the actors or pretenders. We know from the context of this sermon that Jesus is talking about the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Jewish people at that time. As part of their system of worship, the Pharisees fasted twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays. That was not commanded by God, but apparently the Pharisees did it as a show of their great piety—and apparently they put on quite a show! Jesus said that they would disfigure their faces so that it would be obvious to everyone that they were fasting.

            And again, as with giving and praying, Jesus stated that any praise they received from others would be all the reward that they would receive. He then encouraged His audience to choose a different route when they fasted.

The Solution: Do your fasting privately.

            Jesus told the people that when they fasted, they should take all the normal steps of personal hygiene for that day so as to conceal the fact that they were fasting. Such actions would reveal that they weren’t trying to impress other people—they truly were fasting as an act of devotion to God. And for their sincere act of worship, God would reward them. And so we have another illustration of the Lord’s words in Matthew 6:1—“Beware of practicing your righteousness before others people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

            Jesus mentioned fasting here—along with giving and praying—because it was a common part of Jewish religion at that time. It is not so common among Christians today, and that should cause us to ask some questions. Are we neglecting something that God wants us to do? Does Jesus expect His disciples to fast—perhaps even command us to in some way, shape, or form? I’d like to spend the rest of our time talking about these questions and discussing some potential dangers and potential benefits of fasting.

Does the Bible ever command us to fast?

            In the Old Testament law, God commanded the people of Israel to fast once a year on the day known as the Day of Atonement. That day was a very solemn and somber holiday on the Jewish calendar, a day in which special animal sacrifices were offered for the sins of the nation. The Lord told them in Leviticus 16:29 to “afflict themselves” on that day, and they—apparently correctly—interpreted that statement as a command to fast.

            And so they did, but that was the only commanded fast that the people had to observe. Over time, however, it became common for the people to fast more often—in fact, some of the prophets called the people to fast as a sign of repentance for certain sins. Fasting also became a common way to grieve the death of a loved one or to prepare for a particularly difficult or important task.

            Slowly, then, fasting became a part of Jewish worship, so much so that the Pharisees (as I mentioned earlier) fasted twice a week during the time of Christ. But in the New Testament, we do not find any commands to fast. Since we are no longer required to follow the Old Testament legal code, we don’t have to observe the annual fast that was mentioned there. In fact, fasting isn’t even mentioned in the New Testament after the Book of Acts. That would certainly explain why fasting is not a universal practice among Christians today.

So the Bible doesn’t contain a command for Christians to fast today. However, we should wrestle with the question…

Does Jesus simply assume that we will fast, so that we are violating His will for us if we don’t?

            As many Bible teachers have pointed out, Jesus does say “when you fast” in vv. 16-17 rather than “if you fast.” He used the same words earlier when He talked about giving and praying, so it seems that Jesus does assume that those who heard Him on that day would do all three of these activities—giving, praying, and fasting.

            But we are not the people who heard Jesus on that day, so we still have to sort this out a little bit. The people in Jesus’ audience that day already had regular habits of fasting as part of their culture, so it makes sense that He would speak to them with the assumption that they would continue to fast. But does Jesus still have that expectation of us today?

            I don’t think God has any expectation or requirement for us to fast today. We know that He wants us to continue giving to the needy and praying, but we know that because we have clear commands throughout the New Testament that tell us to keep doing that. We just don’t have a clear command or a clear expectation that Christians today should continue to fast.

However, that certainly does not mean that we cannot choose to fast as a spiritual exercise, and there could be some very real benefits to doing so.

What are some possible benefits of fasting?

            As we consider this question, I’m going to expand the concept of fasting just a bit beyond the thought of merely going without food. I think other forms of self-denial can work in much the same way as going without food, and thus can have very similar benefits.

1. It may foster humility

            Humility is the character trait that is most closely associated with fasting in the Bible. When we choose to fast out of proper motivations, it is a way to express humility before God and foster greater humility in our lives. It becomes a very tangible reminder of what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4—“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

            But how can an act like denying yourself food build a spiritual trait like humility? Its because of the connection between body and soul. We all know that spiritual issues can take a toll on our physical health. If a person deals with extreme guilt, stress, or anxiety for instance, those spiritual issues can create physical problems like ulcers or high blood pressure.

            That same connection between body and soul can work the other way as well. What we do with and to our bodies can shape our soul. Just think about all the things we do at times to our environment to change our frame of mind. Perhaps we put on some quiet music when we want to relax—or we put on some loud, upbeat music when we’re getting ready for a game. Maybe we turn on some mood lighting or light a particular candle to have a certain fragrance in the house. Perhaps we dress up for a special occasion. All of these actions can put us in a certain frame of mind and express or reinforce certain attitudes.

            Likewise, when we choose to go without something like food, we’re quickly reminded of our physical weakness. We remember again how frail we truly are, which drives us back to God as the source of our strength in all things—even our physical energy for the day at hand.

2. It may build self-discipline

            Choosing to say “no” for a time to a physical craving like eating can help you learn the self-control that you need to properly handle all of your physical urges. For example, sometimes our emotions may feel uncontrollable. We can get into such a rage from anger that we feel like we just have to scream or throw something. But self-discipline in one area tends to spread into other areas. Fasting can then become like something of a practice session for dealing with all of your physical urges and keeping them under control.

            Self-control is certainly a virtue in God’s eyes. In 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul wrote about the way that he sought to control himself so as not to cause offense to anyone else or to fall into sin against God [READ 1 Cor. 9:24-27]. It is quite possible that Paul’s efforts to maintain self-control included fasting; he was formerly a Pharisee after all, so fasting certainly had been a common part of life for him, and he may have continued that habit to some degree after he became a Christian. So for this benefit, fasting could be a worthwhile practice for us to consider as well.

3. It may help us avoid or battle addictions

            As we go over and over through the daily routine, its not always obvious to us when we’ve actually become addicted to something—whether it’s a certain food, a medication, a hobby, or some form of entertainment. So if we take a step such as fasting from these things to intentionally change up our routine, it can alert us to something that has actually become an unhealthy addiction.

            We’ve probably all had the experience of discovering an addiction after something that we didn’t anticipate threw our schedule out of whack. Perhaps something prevents us from having a favorite food or drink or we’re kept from pursuing our hobby for a while and we start to feel that irrational attraction to that object or activity. When that happens, we find ourselves thinking, “Wow! I didn’t realize how bad this was,” and then we choose to make some positive changes.

            Well, why don’t we just choose to mix things up from time to time? Why not intentionally fast from certain foods, or fast from the TV or the Internet or all kinds of other things? Such changes may alert us to a problem we didn’t know we had.

And following closely with this benefit is another benefit…

4. It may help us re-gain perspective in our lives

            Denying ourselves various things can help us truly sort out needs from wants. We’ve probably all had that experience where circumstances have deprived us of something, and we’ve come to think, “You know, that wasn’t so bad! I thought it would be terrible to go without that certain thing, but it turns out that I really don’t miss it.”

            Unexpected events can teach us those kinds of lessons, but once again, why do we have to wait for unexpected events? We can choose to go without all kinds of things almost any time we want, so why not do that every so often and see what you discover?

So there are some definite benefits that we might gain from the practice of fasting. We should also be aware, however, of some potential dangers that we must avoid.

What are some possible dangers of fasting?

1. The physical danger of going without food

            Before you might choose to fast, you should have a good understanding of your own health to ensure that you’re not making a decision that could actually be dangerous for you. Certain health conditions can be aggravated if you don’t eat regularly, and that could lead to complications, so you want to make sure that fasting would be okay for you.

2. Using the practice as a tool to manipulate God

            It is so easy for us to fall into that pagan mindset of thinking that certain rituals we perform or certain words we say will influence God to answer our prayers, and we can slip into that mindset when we think about fasting. Fasting feels like a rather extreme step to us, so we might think that by fasting, we’ll show God how serious we are about something and He’ll be more inclined to answer our prayers. When we think along those lines, we’ve simply turned fasting into a tool to manipulate God, which is improper.

            But as we learned today from Matthew 6:16-18, we can fast with proper motives, and that kind of fasting will be rewarded by God. I think we embrace the proper motives when we fast in order to devote ourselves to God, not to manipulate Him. If we are fasting to devote extra time to prayer or to cultivate humility and self-control or a renewed perspective, I believe those are desires that God will honor and which will thus receive His reward.