1 Tim. 1:15–Jesus Came To Save Sinners

1 Tim. 1:15–"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of who I am the foremost."

This is a great verse, revealing Paul's deep understanding of why Christ came or, rather, who He came for.  Furthermore, this "saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance–that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."  I assure you that I could say so much more about this but, to be quite honest, this verse pretty much speaks for itself so I'll just re-state and ask that you take some tome to consider its truth for your life today.

1 Tim. 1:15–"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of who I am the foremost."

Philippians 1:21–For Me To Live Is Christ

Philippians 1:21: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

This verse lends itself to easy misinterpretations but it is still one of my favorites.  The basic context of this verse is that Paul is telling the readers that there is nothing, not a single thing that is more powerful or more important than Christ.  In fact, everything is but vainly worthless compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing and loving Christ.  Not even our own life is more valuable than knowing God and being known by Him.

But we sin hinders our ability to see this profoundly affective truth.  It is no wonder that we have a skewed system of evaluation.  We rank and file everything in life but we do so comparing and contrasting rubbish to other rubbish.  It all, then, comes into proper light and perspective when we begin to see the Holy Lord of the universe.  We are privileged to receive a revelation of what life was meant to be: that is, devoted in faith to God for every fiber of our being to be sustained moment-to-moment by His powerful Word.

Recognizing how foundational this assertion becomes is thus necessary for us to say in faith and in truth: "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

2 Corinthians 5:15: Dead to Self to Live to God

2 Corinthians 5:15: "And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again."

It is an odd thought to think that we must die in order that we may live.  To think that true life comes from upon the brink of death is what nature continually confirms.  Think of the strange wonder that the soil is enriched with the biological compost of what has come and died before.  However, it is a much odder thing to think that a dead man could do anything at all other than die.  But this is exactly what Christianity asserts.

It is on the cusp of death that life is born.  In the case of eternal life, it is met through faith.  When we offer ourselves up to Christ in faith and we accept the reality that we are, in fact, already deceased, then we are able to begin life anew.  Only once the obituary of our life is written can we begin to live the life that is everlasting.  However, and this cannot be overstated, we should be warned that there is a time limit, an expiration to this opportunity to live.

When our bodies do perish we have missed the date.  No longer will we be able to be slain by faith because we have already been murdered by disbelief.  This is the rub: either we will live by faith or we will die by non-faith.  There is no middle ground, no DMZ, no neutral forking road by which we can safely choose faith in God.  We are either already dead or we will accept our dead state and seek to be made alive in Christ.

It is by God's grace through Christ that we have been made alive, but we do not live that life until we accept that we are dead in sin.  By accept that death we put sin to death in ourselves through Christ.  It is thus Christ who causes us to be made alive but He also assists us in putting sin to death utterly so that we truly can live without sin in Him.  Amen that God has done all this for us and let us never lose sight that we are alive in Him and in Him alone!

Philippians 1:29-30: The Joy of Suffering

Philippians 1:29-30: "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had now and how hear that I still have."

In case you misread, pardon me to paraphrase in context of Paul's theology: not only has God graced you with faith, but even more so He has graced you with the reality of suffering.  Suffering is, in fact, a gift of God on par with the gifts of faith and repentance.  But, you may ask, how is suffering a gift?  Why would God love us so much to have us suffer for His sake?

This is a difficult question and to understand it pushes the bounds of language.  Two analogies will thus be employed to answer this difficult question.  Neither of them is perfect but thought of together they may, hopefully, serve to help us understand how and why Paul could say that God grants us to suffer for the sake of Christ.

The first is a pearl.  A pearl begins as an irritant; a small grain of sand.  In the shell of the oyster, the pearl is formed through the overwhelming pressure applied by the oyster.  Imagine for a second the extreme irritation and conceivable suffering endured by the oyster during that process.  Yet it is because of that suffering, as a result of that pain that a pearl is formed.

The second analogy is that of weight lifting.  Imagine you went to the gym and saw a man standing before the mirror with doing basic bicep curls.  In one arm he was lifting a 40 lbs. weight while in the other he was lifting a 5 lbs. weight.  Now which arm would you assume to be the stronger?  We understand that it is the muscle that is forced to lift the heavier weight that becomes stronger by virtue of  of the suffering endured during exercise.  In fact, it is the weight itself that causes the muscular growth.

Taken together perhaps we can begin to see the reason Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, can say that God has granted us the gift of suffering for the sake of Christ.  The pearl of character, the muscles of virtue are formed using the resources of suffering for the sake of Christ.  Let us then find great joy that God has blessed us in this most wonderful way: that He would build character in us through the suffering akin to His Son!

A Call to Comfort whilst being Comforted

In the introduction to Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth, he writes: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." (2 Cor 1:3-4).

There is a dynamic union between God and His people that we rarely talk about but the reality is that God has chosen in His divine wisdom to use us, His children, as His instruments of compassion and grace in this world.  Jesus has not only redeemed us from our sin, He has also saved us to be His hands and feet.  Think of the profundity of that!

God, in His will and design, uses human instruments to enact His grace, to live out His compassion, and to extend His mercy to the weary and downtrodden of this world.  This has within it a twofold commandment.  Not only are we to depend wholeheartedly upon God alone for our comfort but, even more so, we are to be that comfort for others whom God has placed in our lives.

This is no mean feat, no small task.  It takes an incredible amount of courage to be comforted and it takes an equally large degree of bravery to be the comforter.  It demands sincerity and vulnerabilty to fulfill this highest form of loving charity: to truly care for those who are careless while recognizing our utter feebleness to care for ourselves. 

Yet this is the manner that God has ordained and we would do well to commit in obedience to this call.  He desires to comfort the world in the love of Christ Jesus through His people.  And praise be to God who has in His good pleasure chosen us to be those vessels of love!  Amen!

Phil. 4:11-13: Contentment found in Christ

One of my favorite verses penned by the apostle Paul reads: "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Phil 4:11-13).

Life full of undulations, waves both of plenty and of little, of happiness and of sadness, and of health and of sickness.  Solomon writes that there is a time for everything in the introduction to Ecclesiastes. This reality can lead to a sense of vertigo, to be sure, but God has provided us the ultimate source of stability regardless of circumstance: Himself.

Believers have been given the ultimate gift of grace that is access to the presence of God through faith in Christ.  His presence is an ever-present comfort, a constant stabilizing companionship, and the only source of true contentment under any condition.  This is more than a nice sentiment; it is a reality that should compel how we live and handle the tempests and deserts of the human life.  Let us always take joy and comfort from this reality and let it seep into the depth of our hearts!

Philippians and Pressing On to the Prize

Philippians 3:13-14: "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it known.  But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

By the time Paul had wrote this, he had been stoned, beaten, imprisoned, slandered, shipwrecked, and been hurt by countless other ailments and infirmities.  But even through all of this, Paul was committed to staying the path that he had been called to and commissioned for.  That is to say that no matter the circumstance, Paul would not let himself be derailed from his purpose.

Today, as in the day before, I woke up to a full-bodied ache paired with a lovely fever.  Having had to call into work for the second day in a row, I crawled back to my bed and tried my best to fall asleep  past the cold sweats and hacking coughs.  The day was spent basically in and out of sleep and coughing fits.  And though my thoughts were, admittedly, quite hazy, I did manage to utter some simple praises and prayers for the gifts that He has and continually bestows.

To be certain, I do not mean to compare my flu-like health situation with Paul's struggles.  But I am trying to show how the principle applies to me personally in practical ways.  My earnest prayer is to always take time to praise the Lord no matter the circumstance.

Trained by Grace

Titus 2:11-14: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce all ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works."

This passage is, admittedly, more than a mere mouthful.  But beyond its density is an acute truth worth contemplating.  Paul is saying that God's grace actually trains us.  It is the grace of God that sanctifies and purifies.  This flies in the face of our human propensity towards meritorious Christianity, i.e. the harder one tries at devotion the more grace they will receive applied to his/her life.

The aforementioned passage warrants some meditative contemplation.  It would serve us well to spend some time with it, chew it, and, when we feel we can see its depth, we should read the whole chapter again for the richness of context.  This simple practice is the path for the Word of God taking root in our hearts so that it becomes the very core of our very lives.  It would behoove us all to take heed.

Sweet, Precious Time

Time is the most precious commodity.  It cannot be saved.  It cannot be purchased or bartered.  It cannot be kept.  Above all else, though, time is not an inherent right; it is a gift, the most precious of gifts.  Time is immaterial, yet real.  It is a passage of moments, a sequence of successive events.  Time is, at its heart, how we measure and quantify this phenomena.  Yet to think of time as merely a ruler for gauge the length of sequential moments would be to betray the fundamental nature of time: namely, that we only have so much of it.

Every human being is allotted the same 24-hour day.  We take this profound truth without much thought and little philosophizing.  In reality, we only ever consider the passage of time when its scarcity conflicts with our own convenience, or when our schedules seem "overstuffed" like pouring water into a full glass as it continues to overflow.

There is a rarity to time.  Because there will never be more now that there is.  No one can ever have two minutes in a single second or a year saved up for later use.  This is a simple and deep truth.  However, despite this reality, many people neglect the ramifications: if a person has only so much priceless time at his/her disposal, how he/she chooses to use that time is of the utmost importance.

This is what Paul means: "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." (Eph 5:15-16).

Pair that with the psalmist: "O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!" (Psa 39:4).  And again, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." (Psa 90:12).

In the end, there is no greater resource to any person than the resource of time.  It is necessary for all growth, for all healing, for all learning, for all relationships.  It could be said, with certainty, that without time--one of the great gracious gifts of God--no life could be, for it is in the confines of time that life occurs and is experienced.  Let us then never forget this startling truth, but let it burn within us an urgency to our devotion to the will of God!

Call to Godly Life

Titus 2:11-14: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works."

The book of Titus is one of Paul's pastoral letters written to a personal friend, exhorting him in matters of church leadership.  There are two central issues of this letter: a warning against false teachers, and instruction for how Christians should live, particularly in matters of training the church.

This passage is smack-dab in the middle of this short book and it is dense, but it is also beautiful in its conviction and its point.  In a real way, Paul is telling believers two very important things.  The first, and most important, is that God has redeemed and saved us through Jesus and He is the active initiator  for godly living in Christians.  And secondly, that the individual believer is to live with a conduct and ethic that is instep with the hope of Christ that has been deposited within his or her heart.

In the end, God does the work of salvation and sanctification but individuals due have a responsible role to play in the process.  Additionally, believers are called to live a certain lifestyle that coheres to the Word of God and to the commands of Christ.  Let us then take heed in joy at the path before us!

Soldiers Who Don't Know That They're in a War

Imagine for a moment that one morning you awoke from your slumber far away from your bed.  As you open your groggy, sleep-filled eyes you look around to find yourself in the middle of a dark and shaded wood.  Although this is a wholly unfamiliar location you find yourself cal with an unatural sense of peace.  You start to survey the area further, peering around tree limbs and gazing over downed boughs, when suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your shoulder.  You reach across your body to feel the warm wetness, which you know to be blood, on your sleeve and you can feel the protruding arrow that has caused the wound. 

You see a man running toward you screaming and you strain to hear him as the wood becomes bombarded by the strikes of cannon balls and more arrows, where they are coming from you cannot say but you are sure that they are targeting you.  The man running toward you and yelling finally gets within a distance so that you can hear him.  He screams, "Soldier, where is your helmet, your weapon, your armor?!  Don't you know that you're on the battlefield in the middle of a war?!"

How ridiculous would it be for a military officer to not equip and train his/her soldiers before shipping them off to war.  Or consider the preposterousness of sitting in the middle of a battlefield without even recognizing that you were at war.  But, for some reason, Christians continually find themselves in this lopsided predicament.

The reality is that Christians are at war and we are on a battlefield but Christians neglect this reality and lack the necessary training and equipping for success in this dire plight.  But we should take heed to the words of Paul, granted this is a long passion but read it in its entirety with an earnest posture of worship:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak." (Ephesians 6:10-20).

The Book of Philemon

Paul's epistle to Philemon is a curious book in the canon of Scripture.  It is only a single chapter written by Paul for a very specific purpose, which lacks much of the theological weight and length of Paul's other writings, it can easily be read in a single sitting.  However, understanding why this unique work was included in the canon is an odd discussion in itself.

The letter has Paul pleading with Philemon, a wealthy Christian slave owner, for the well-being and status of Philemon's runaway slave, Onesimus.  Onesimus, having run away, ended up imprisoned with Paul (v. 10), and has since converted to Christianity.  Because it was illegal for a Roman citizen to harbor another citizen's runaway slave, Paul resolves to address Philemon, one of Paul's Christian brothers, directly.

Paul appeals for the sake of Onesimus that, as Paul is returning Onesimus to Philemon, Philemon might see to it in his heart to free Onesimus from the bonds of slavery that he might return to Paul (vv. 12-16).  Paul goes so far as to declare that he will personally cover any costs incurred because of Onesimus' fleeing (vv. 18-19).

The strength of Paul's plea coupled with the reality of the letter's content, forms a definite argument for Christian slave masters to free their slaves.  Add to this the implication of the book's canonization: because this letter has survived, reason stands that Philemon did free Onesimus.  This is a radical argument for the ancient world, when slavery was so widespread that approximately 30-40% of the Roman population was comprised of slaves.

It is even reasonable to think that the Onesimus, the Bishop of Ephesus, mentioned by Ignatius in his Letter to the Ephesians (written c. A.D. 100) is the same person discussed in Philemon.  Therefore, this book was supported in its canonization by a primary source, and reveals how Christians should deal with slavery.

The book of Philemon is intimately tied to a specific historical context and addresses a particular scenario.  That being said, Philemon also has a broader application, namely the necessity of reconciliation.  In fact, the primary theme of this book is Paul's plea for Philemon to initiate reconciliation with Onesimus, even though Onesimus had unlawfully wronged him.

Paul thus acts as a mediating force, mediating reconciliation and restoration in brotherly love.  Let us then not overlook the value of such a small and odd book as Philemon, recognizing that it is the Word of God, meant for our benefit and growth, even today!