Arcing

Bible study this past week was rather relaxed. We did not really dig into a specific topic, rather we discussed the importance of comprehending Scripture. Personally, I find it quite easy to gloss over text and not retain anything. This seems to be especially true in early morning quiet times when I am still half-asleep. Obviously, this does us no good. We need a systematic way of reading Scripture to extract the meaning.

I shared one such method on Tuesday, Bible arcing. This method breaks text down into propositions, or phrases. A proposition is defined as a complete thought; a subject and verb are present. One common way of identifying propositions is to pay careful attention to the punctuation. Commas, semicolons, and periods give clues as to where ideas end and begin.

Once a passage is broken down into separate propositions, one must figure out how the propositions are related to one another. There are several logical ways propositions can be related: grounds, idea & explanation, comparison, action & purpose, etc. It takes practice to get accustomed to identifying such relationships; however, once one becomes proficient in doing so, it becomes much easier to comprehend text.

Here is an example of someone doing an arc of John 3:16-17. Don't worry if it seems confusing, this arc uses several different logical relationships. If it seems interesting, I suggest you check out the website. They have an online tutorial to walk you through the process of arcing.

I realize this might seem tedious to some. Picking apart grammar might seem too nit-picky. However, when one comes across difficult or complex passages, having a methodical way of interpreting Scripture will most certainly be beneficial.

I desire that you would be equipped to dig into Scripture. If arcing does not work for you, that is fine. Just know that it is imperative to find something. It's not worth wasting countless quiet times simply giving Scripture a cursory overview rather than deeply engaging with it.

Do Christians Need to Love God?

We’re busy people. Between jobs, school, sports, volunteer positions, and whatever else may be going on we seem to have a shortage of time. Some of us try to maintain a certain level of orderliness to our lives by creating schedules to manage our time better. As we invariably take on more projects, duties, or responsibilities we simply fill them into whatever free time we have left until our planners can no longer hold any more scribbles. Enter sticky notes.

Nonetheless, we have a habit of treating things as another “to-do” on our list, another item to check off by the end of the day. Is this a bad thing? After all, it keeps us organized and structures our lives. Efficiency is not bad. The danger is treating God like just another item to be checked off our to-do list.

Do Christians need to love God? The Bible makes it quite clear. "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40). Loving God is our foremost responsibility.

If we are to love God, how am I suppose to know what that looks like? The apostle John tells us “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And His commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). So obeying God is loving Him? Simple enough! Go to church, read your Bible, don’t be an egregious law-breaker, be nice. That’s it, right? Unfortunately, I think that’s the mentality of some people. Christianity somehow gets boiled down to a checklist of things to do or be (or not do and not be). Be sure to check off everything from the list and you’re a good Christian. This isn’t what John is teaching, is it?

Let’s take a closer look at what some of these commands we are to obey actually are. “Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matt. 5:21-22a). “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32). “Do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks lustfully at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). We are to not be angry, bitter, slanderous, and malicious, but kind, compassionate, and forgiving. We are to not commit adultery. Simple enough, but Jesus said that even looking at a woman lustfully is committing adultery with her.

If we are honest with ourselves just trying to uphold these things is incredibly difficult. These are but a few of the commands we are to obey. You might notice that this has yet to resolve the issue of love being simple obedience. The key is found in 1 John 5:3b “And His commands are not burdensome.” What?! So John is saying it is not burdensome to never look lustfully at a woman in skimpy clothes in the middle of the summer? It isn’t burdensome to not become angry and hostile when someone “pushes our buttons” and provokes a heated argument? Seriously John, it’s not burdensome? What world are you living in?

John is not crazy. He’s absolutely right, these things should not be burdensome. It should not be a burden to not lust to not become angry or bitter. It should not be a burden to pour over the Bible every day. It should not be a burden to go to church on Sunday. Rather, it should be our joy to do these things! It has to do with our heart! If Jesus Christ is your supreme joy, why would it be a burden to read the Bible? It's His love letter to you! Seeing Jesus as precious is not possible unless you’ve experienced the new birth. Everybody is born with a veil over their eyes. As we grow up, there might be people who try to tell us how marvelous creation is, that God is good. However, that blindfold keeps us from seeing anything but darkness. “God is good? All I see is darkness.” This idea of God seems foolish. Our senses tell us there is no great, magnificent God, only the blackness of existence. If this is where you are, I pray Jesus Christ would come and remove that blindfold so that your eyes might open and truly see. I pray that you’d perceive and experience the glory of God, and see His beauty. Taste and see that God is good (Psalm 34:8)! When someone sees the glory of God, their heart becomes inclined toward Him, and their affections are made full in Him. Life change happens (2 Corinthians 3:14-18).

Are you struggling with something in your life? Pornography? Anger? Jealousy? Bitterness? Whatever it may be, know that “...everyone born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4). The power to overcome is through having your eyes opened to the beauty of Jesus by faith (v. 5) and seeing Him as infinitely valuable. Treasure Him above all else, and those areas you struggle in will begin to seem less appealing. When we see Christ for who He is, we see the world for what it is.

Itching Ears

Postmodernism has become a very fashionable phrase as of late, but what does it mean? It is a mind-set determined on questioning the validity of any body of knowledge which claims to be absolute. "Can there be such an entity? Is not everything dependent upon one’s background and individuality?" This “belief system” is characterized by utter tolerance.

As you might imagine, such views have spread into religion. Postmodernism’s reach has extended into Christianity, and is evidenced by movements such as the emerging/emergent church. What has resulted is a diluting of Biblical truth. What is designed to be deeply penetrating, capable of splitting bone and marrow, soul and spirit, has become softened in fear of offending anyone. Here are two examples of softened truth coming from a prominent figure in the emerging church:

“I can’t find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identify ourselves first and foremost as sinners. Now this doesn’t mean we don’t sin; that’s obvious. In the book of James it’s written like this: ‘We all stumble in many ways.’ Once again, the greatest truth of the story of Adam and Even isn’t that it happened, but that it happens. We all make choices to live outside of how God created us to live. We have all come up short.”

“Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust. Ours or God’s.”

Before we continue further, we must first clarify as to what truth is. John 17:17 is the Lord’s prayer in which He lifts up His apostles and future believers. He asks the Father to “Sanctify them in truth; Your Word is truth.” Jesus states that God’s Word is truth. Not only this, but it has a purpose. Truth is not merely sought after to be acquired, but should be sought to bring about change (sanctification). Truth is important not in that we know it, but that it has changed us. These ultimately go hand-in-hand. If one has actually encountered truth, he must be changed. Oswald Chambers has stated that when a man is faced with truth, he only has two paths to choose from. He can either yield and humbly obey it and grow closer to God, or he rejects it and falls further away. This rejection might be an explicit act, or it might manifest itself in a passive attitude toward the truth. Either form is characterized by disobedience or inaction.

Earlier in the Gospel of John, we find out that “…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This is perhaps one of the biggest news stories of all time: the eternal Son of God took on flesh and dwelt among us! Know that Jesus did not empty Himself of His divine nature to take on flesh. He was fully God and perfectly human. Paul reassures us that “…in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). Jesus’ divine nature includes His infinitude. Recall the final phrase of John 1:14: “full of grace and truth” (emphasis mine). How unfathomable it is that an infinite being be made full! And that He is full of grace and truth. If ever there be any doubt as to what truth looks like, one need only look to the Son of God!

How is this viewed through the contemporary postmodern lens? “It is divisive, hurtful, nonsensical, fallacious, and scientifically ignorant. Jesus Christ is truth? Are you joking?”

There is a war for truth going on all around us and within us. This world would have us concede ground and compromise truth for the sake of getting along with one another, but to do so would be to compromise the very foundation of our salvation. There are many things that try to persuade us to abandon Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul warns us in Colossians 2:8,

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8

This passage characterizes the methods of those who try to lead the followers of Christ astray. They use philosophy and empty deceit, tradition (ritualism), and elemental principles (also translated “spirits”) of the world. What are these things?

• Philosophy and empty deceit: in the times this passage was originally penned, philosophy was thought of highly. The Greeks valued knowledge greatly, and therefore constantly sought it. They believed philosophy to be the ultimate effort of our intellect, and hence a worthy endeavor. It is tempting to separate “philosophy” and “empty deceit,” but I think we must be careful not to. In doing so, we might think philosophy inherently bad. We should take note Paul combines it with empty deceit. What can we gather from this? Philosophy in-and-of itself is not necessarily bad. However, when it is used for the purpose of leading someone away from Christ, it most certainly is.
• Human tradition: ritualism, legalism. The focus here is on works which takes the focus away from Christ and places it on man’s ability to perform “good” works.
• Elemental spirits/principles: science. Of all the methods in which people choose to explain their rejection of Christ, I believe science and philosophy are the most popular. “It seems so basic; how can anyone possibly have faith in Jesus Christ and His teaching when science so clearly contradicts it?” This is persuasive to people in that it inherently assumes the sovereignty of man’s intellect. If it does not make sense to us, it must not be. This mind-set gets bloated with each new scientific discovery, every advance in technology. Each new occurrence only feeds man’s self-assuredness and belief in his own capabilities. Man has assumed the role of supreme being in his own little world; no problem is too great for the mighty intellect of man. This has become ridiculously prominent in our age. The apostle Paul saw it in his day too, and had this to say: “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).

We have not only been given a list of methods people use to persuade us away from Christ, but we’ve been warned about the characteristics of those who go astray:

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:3-5).

Here Paul tell us about those who sway from truth. They…

• Have already heard the truth.
• Willfully reject it (“...turn away from listening to the truth").
• Do not “hold up” the truth (“…people will not endure sound teaching”).
• “Wander off into myths.” Note that the original Greek word for “myth” is μυ̃θος. This word “primarily signifies speech, conversation” (it is often translated as “fable”). As an aside, turn again to the emerging church. “Proponents of this movement call it a ‘conversation’ to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature.” Weird.
  

This begs the question: “Why have they rejected the truth?” The answer is four-fold.

1. The truth is piercing. It hits soft spots in our lives that we’ve tried covering up. “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

2. Because the truth pierces, it causes discomfort. Living and fighting for truth results in having people around you in discomfort because they are forced to address the problems and their own lives. People have a tendency to fight such discomfort.

3. This results in one having to endure people’s attacks on one’s beliefs. There is certainly hardship associated with living and fighting for the truth.

4. In response, these people have crumbled under the pressure. Instead of holding up the truth, they seek “softer” teachings that will not offend others. These teachings are easier to hear and digest.

At the heart of it, these people who turn away desire to hear things they want to hear. They want to hear a message that is less offensive, less divisive. All they want is something to give them warm-fuzzies. The truth isn’t like that. The truth is offensive and divisive. A clear line is drawn in the sand: you obey Christ or you don’t, you have eternal life or you don’t. It can be hard for people to hear it, but that does not mean they do not need to hear it.

Lastly, Paul shows us how to endure, or hold up, sound teaching. Be “sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). Be morally alert, watchful. Know the truth so you can detect falsities when they bombard you. Endure suffering; it will come. People will call you intolerant or divisive. Endure. You must, you will if you belong to Christ. Do the work of an evangelist; live the Gospel, spread it to everyone around you. Fulfill your ministry. Persevere to the end, be faithful to the One who chose you.

Truth is worth fighting for.