Titus 1:9–A Call to Bible Study

Titus 1:9–"He must hold firm to the trustworthy Word as it has been taught, so that He may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it."

Paul's entire letter to Titus is about leadership in the Church, in particular, qualifications and responsibilities for leaders.  This passage, from the first chapter, gives us a distinct and certain exhortation about the need for sound biblical knowledge.  The necessity of the Bible cannot be overstated.  Aside from prayer and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is the single most vital resource for Christians in regards to learning who God is and who we are in Him.  We must not ever lose sight of this.

Recognizing the utter importance of sound biblical knowledge in the life of the believer prompts me to ask some simple, contemplative questions:

• Have you read the Bible today?
• Have you read every book?
• When was the last time you read an entire book of the Bible in one sitting?
• Are there parts of the Bible you don't know well?
• have you memorized any verses lately?

Ultimately, the Bible is our toolbox and our weapon.  We must become totally acquainted with so that we could wield it expertly and appropriately.  I don't ask these questions to convict but if you are convicted, then...you know what needs to be done.

No Substitute for Scripture

The Holy Bible is the authority for the life of God's people.  It is the rule for life, for theology, and for guidance in the life of the believer.  There is nothing more important for the believer than a regular, committed Bible study.

Holy Scripture is God's message to mankind.  It is how God communicates to us by the Holy Spirit.  When we read the Scripture, the Holy Spirit uses the text to transform our hearts and our lives.  Because of this, there is no substitute for Scripture.

Committing to a daily discipline of studying the Bible, then, is an essential component to the Christian life.  If we are not engaging His Word, we will not see the fruit that He has intended for us.  Only in prayerful Bible study do we grow the way God would have for us.

Let us then never forget to read the Bible for it is life for the believer.

What Do You Think This Says?

Have you ever been in a situation like this: a group of Christians get together for a Bible study.  A passage is chosen somewhere in the New Testament.  Someone in the group steps into the role of leader (usually the one who likes to talk).  The leader prays and gets the study going.  Every person turns to the passage and it is read aloud.  Then the leader asks: "What do you think this says?  What does this passage mean to you?"

Unfortunately, this is an all-too familiar scenario.  Many of us have experienced more of these sorts of Bible studies than any other, where the focus is on what the Bible is saying to me personally.  In this way, the Bible is seen as something that needs to be applied to the individual.  The interpretive method of this kind would say that interpretation is 'up for grabs' in the sense that it is only as relevant as my imaginative interpretations can make.

This methodology, however clever the interpretations it garners may be, betrays two fundamental truths about Scripture.

In the first place, all Scripture is about God.  Let me say this again: Scripture is not about what we can get out of it; it is about Christ Jesus.  This means that any time we read ourselves into Scripture we are, in fact, not meeting Scripture on Scripture's terms.  We are trying to make Scripture fit our terms.  This, clearly, is not biblical.  The Bible interprets itself and changes us, we should not try to change it to get it to interpret us.

Secondly, the Bible is a message from God.  It is self-revelation to mankind.  It is redemptive, meaning that it serves the purposes that God has laid out.  This means, fundamentally, that the Bible meets humans from God's perspective with God's thoughts, and it is our duty, as interpreters, to think those thoughts and to see that perspective.  The Bible is not about what we see it is about what God has put there for us to see.

Quickly, it can be seen that interpreting the Word of God is no small activity and it demands no small amount of effort.  Striving to garner the most accurate interpretation is not about trying to make every verse fit our lives personally wherever we are; it is about trying our best to understand why God has put this verse there at that point in history, written that way, for that purpose as it relates to Christ Jesus.  This is how Scripture works and we need to meet it on its own terms.

John 3:14 and the Old Testament

John 3:16-17, perhaps the most known verse in all of Scripture, is often amputated from its preface: 3:14-15.  The whole sequence in its entirety reads as such:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.  For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world may be saved through Him." (John 3:14-17).

The striking thing about this passage is that taken as a whole, it is clear that Jesus is intimately tied to the Old Testament Scripture.  In a real sense, John is clear that understanding who Jesus is and what He has done requires that we know the Old Testament.

Unfortunately, many Christians woefully neglect this fact.  There is a tragic tendency in modern Christianity to sever the New Testament from the Old; just think of all the Bibles printed with just the New Testament and Psalms.

In truth, much of the New Testament will be enigmatic if not outright incomprehensible apart from an understanding of the Old Testament.  Matthew, Romans, John, Ephesians, Hebrews, Revelation demand that we read them with Old-Testament-tinted lenses in order that we understand what these writers were really saying.  Think of the aforementioned passage and antecedent precursor that it alludes to:

"And the people spoke against God and against Moses, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loather this worthless food.'  then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.  And teh people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.  Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.' So Moses prayed for the people.  And the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.'  So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole.  And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live."  (Num 21:5-9).

Therefore, if ever we feel as if understanding the New Testament is hindered, one may need to turn the book several hundred years into the past in order to see the richness of Scripture more fully.  Also, let us make a concerted effort to read the Old Testament for this very reason so as to be prepared to engage the New.

Jesus Reads from Isaiah

Immediately after Jesus was baptized the Gospels remark that He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for forty days of fasting in which He was tempted thrice by Satan.  At the end of those forty days, after being nourished by the ministering angels, Jesus returned home from the wilderness.

Luke records that upon returning home to His hometown of Nazareth, Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and picked up the scroll of Isaiah and began to read:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  (Luke 4:18-19; Jesus quoting Isaiah 61:1-2).

After reading this passage, Jesus then rolls up the scroll and says: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus was pretty bold.  When He read this passage and then told the people that it was about Himself, we can be certain that it ruffled more than a few feathers.

Jesus could never be accused of pulling punches to cater to diplomacy or political correctness.  He was unabashedly concerned with His mission, which was to live a perfect, sinless life, to teach about God's Word, and to die a horrendous death, all for the purpose of glorifying God and saving mankind from sin.  He never swerved nor did He ever deviate from that path.

But, to be sure, He was not always the most popular among the religious folk because He had a nasty habit of making a scene and challenging the status quo.  He hated religious hypocrisy, He despised religious pride, and He could not stand flippant apathy towards the things of God.  We should never forget this!

David, Bathsheba, and Sin

The story of David and Bathsheba is chronicled in 2 Samuel 11.  Although many people remember David for his faith in facing Goliath, or his steadfast integrity in submission to Saul, or his strong and faithful leadership in administrating Israel, but his great shame comes when he, enticed by the beauty of another man's wife, commits adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah.

Much can be said about this episode, but suffice to say that the narration has profound implications for how we should live and handle desire when we are tempted to commit sin.

A short synopsis: David, although he should have been at war for Israel, was up on his roof in the day's heat.  He gazes across the city to see the beautiful Bathsheba, whom he decides is too beautiful not to take for himself.  He sends for her, she comes to him, and they know each other.  However, Bathsheba is a married woman, wed to one of David's chief military general.  David, still overcome with ravenous passion, executes a plan to have Bathsheba's husband killed.

Much has been said in the past about David's great sin, both in committing adultery but even more so in his devious plot to have Uriah killed.  And although David is the main character of this story, the role of Bathsheba in the adultery and sin should not be downplayed or overlooked.  Bathsheba was equally sinful for her part.

The point of this story, beyond the value of historical narration, is to exhort God's children to be mindful of desire when it entices us to transgress the righteousness of God.  We need to be on guard, not so much against the external locus of sin, but the internal one.  Let us then take heed to the story of David so that we might not be led astray by our own desires.

The Christ of Christianity

Colossian 1:15-17: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Hm.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

Hebrews 1:3: "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of HIs nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power."

Philippians 2:6-8: "[Christ Jesus], who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbles Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

1 Timothy 2:5-6: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave HImself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time."

John 1:1-5, 14: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it....And 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."

The whole of Christianity rests upon the person of Christ Jesus.  He was an actual, historical person who lived a perfect, sinless life, who was put on trial and murdered for His lack of crime, but on the third day after His death, He rose from the grave, as the resurrected Lord and Savior, King over all creation.  The last sentence, while being full of true theological assertions, is rooted in the theology of Scripture.  So, in an effort to always affirm that the Scripture is the authority, today seems a good day to let the Scripture speak for itself so that we could think about such important things as this.  This has been, admittedly, an all-too-abbreviated survey of Christological passages, but they are at least sufficient to get the ball rolling in our hearts and our heads.  And always: thanks be to God that He has revealed Himself in His Son so that we could know Him in redemption!

The Word of God on the Word of God

Romans 15:4: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might hope."

2 Peter 1:21: "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

Hebrews 4:12: "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirits, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the hearts."

2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All Scripture is breathed-out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good word."

Throughout the New Testament, the Word of God, the Holy Scripture, is exalted for its source and for its worth.  In fact, because Christianity is based on the truth and the authority of the Scripture.  Because of this reality, sometimes its good to be reminded of what the Bible says about itself, and we know this testimony to be true because it is carried by the Holy Spirit for our benefit in faith and in wisdom.  Today, let these verse sink and seep into the depths, every nook and every cranny of our beings as we meditate upon them.  And praise be to God that He has revealed Himself to us by giving us His Word!

Overcoming Seasonal Thankfulness

As fall comes and the colors of the world change from green and blue to browns and gray, summer warmth is covered with a blanket of cooler air, and the season turns from frolic and play to a time of weekly rhythms and winter preparations.  This time of year always stirs up memories and contemplations.  And on one single American day in November, people gather around the dinner table to offer prayers and thanksgiving for the past year.

However, as this year turns towards the next and we prepare a single day of thanksgiving I am reminded of what Paul says about thankfulness and prayer.  While reading Colossians today, I was struck by this verse: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col 3:17).

I'd read this verse before.  Colossians 3 is probably my favorite chapter in all of Scripture.  But what struck me today was that this seemed like I had read it before in other Pauline writings.  Paul exhorts believers to give thanks at every circumstance and at all times.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Ephesians 5:20: "giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Clearly, Paul, and the Holy Spirit who inspired his writings, care that we would give thanks unceasingly and without end.  Therefore, as we enter in on this colder season, may we take a posture of thankfulness in ourselves.  To do this we should make a habit of giving thanks to God in the morning and throughout the day.  Thankfulness does not come by happenstance but needs to be made a priority in our every day.  Let us then praise God by offering thankfulness to Him through His Son Christ Jesus all the moments of every day of our lives!

Judges Concluded

The book of Judges can be simply summarized by the book's final sentence: "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25).  Throughout the book, we see Israel, God's chosen people, fall more and more into unbelief, disobedience, and apostasy.  Once Samson dies the descent away from God becomes complete.

First we see Micah, an Israelite of Ephraim, try to set up his own pagan religion.  He makes an idol, hires some Levites(!) to be the priests.  To which we see the tribe of Dan steal the idol and kidnap the priests in order to "own" the religion.

Then there is the issue with the Levite and the concubine, which culminates in the story of Gibeah, in which there is an old man whose concubine is viciously raped by the drunken townsfolk of Gibeah, to which he responds by taking her home, cutting her into twelve pieces, and sending those pieces throughout all Israel.

Israel then responds by riling up the eleven tribes to commit genocide against the tribe of Benjamin.  They are so effective in their attempt that by the time the tribes realize their sin, they had killed over 18,000 Benjaminites.  There response is to kidnap the daughter of Mizpah, their pagan neighbors.

In the end, the book of Judges represents a gritty and dark time in the history of Israel, but it is a necessary history because it informs much of what comes in Samuel and Kings.  And the stories of the judges reveal profound truths about people.  More so, though, the book of Judges reveals a God who is faithful to His promises despite the unfaithfulness and disobedience of His people.  This, in and of itself, is enough reason to spend some time studying this rich though challenging book.  Praise God that He is always true and always faithful!

Samson Pt. 3

The conclusion of Samson's story revolves around the famous vixen who renders him powerless.  Delilah is the third Philistine woman who enthralls Samson's heart and hands him over to her Philistine brethren.  Clearly, Samson fatal flaw is his passion for forbidden women.

More than that, though, Delilah reveals that Samson so misunderstood God that, except for in his death, Samson never truly knew where his strength actually came from.  Samson's strength did not come from the length of his hair or that they never touched a razor.  To miss this point would be to  miss the major point of his story.  Samson's strength came always and only from the Lord.

In regards to Delilah, she is a Philistine woman who exposes Samson's heart as unbelieving and unfaithful to the Lord.  When Delilah tricks Samson into, finally, telling her that his hair is the source of his strength, Samson unveils his heart that is far from the Lord.  God, then, removes Samson's strength when the Philistines cut his hair.  Know this: his hair never was the source of Samson's strength, but God removed his strength at the cutting of his hair because of his lack of faith.

In the end, Delilah betrays Samson over to the Philistines who gouge his eyes out, bind him in shackles, and bring him out to entertain them at their leisure.  The Philistines stand Samson between the two main pillars of the compound and laugh at him and his sorry state.  Samson cries out to God for one last bit of miraculous strength.  God grants Samson his dying request and Samson pulls down the pillars, crushing himself and everyone else under the rubble: "So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life." (Judges 16:30).

Samson exemplifies how utterly declined the best of Israel had become and, in the end, was worth more dead than he was alive.  He did his greatest good in dying.  This should tell us all we need to know about Samson.  He is far from a tragic hero but represents the apostasy and unfaithfulness of a whole nation.  But praise be to God who is faithful to save in spite of our least efforts!

Samson Pt. 2

The second major part of the Samson story deals with Samson's marriage to a Philistine, a repulsive thing for an Israelite to do.  However, God used the incident as an opportunity for Samson to wage war on the Philistines.  This part of Samson's narrative has Samson disobeying God in marrying a Philistine and disobeying his Nazirite oath in eating honey from the carcass of the slain lion.

Additionally, this section reveals Samson's fatal flaw: his lusting for untrustworthy women.  In this case, he marries a Philistine woman who betrays him to her Philistine brethren.  Basically, Samson tries to trick the Philistines into giving him some clothing and other resources by asking them a riddle that they cannot solve.  His new wife, having been threatened by the other Philistines, betrays Samson.

Samson responds to his wife's betrayal by killing everyone and then leaves the area, apparently leaving his wife behind.  When he goes back to retrieve his wife he finds out that she has been given to other men.  Samson responds by tying 300 foxes into 150 pairs, ties a lit torch to their bound tails, and releases them into the Philistine camp.  Needless to say, the whole camp is utterly consumed in fire.

Finally, the Philistines encircle the Judeans, in which the Judeans respond by finding Samson hidden in the cleft of a rock, they ask him to deliver them from the Philistines and he refuses.  In a turn of events, the Judeans bind Samson and deliver him over to the Philistines themselves.  This shows just how little the Israelites thought of Samson.  However, upon Samson's arriving at the Philistine camp, the Spirit of the Lord descends upon him and he kills 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey.

This brings us to the famous story of Delilah and Samson's fatal end, to be discussed tomorrow.  However, up to this point Samson is clearly to be seen as a despicable man who, in spite of his putrid character and complete disregard for the things of the Lord, was used by God to deliver the Israelites.  But to be sure, he is not to be emulated for his flaws.  Rather, God is to be exalted and praised for His unyielding faithfulness to His people and His covenant promises.

Samson Pt.1

The story of Samson, certainly the most well-known of the judges, is a testimony of the utter depravity of Israel that has come as a result of generations failing to teach and train their children in the way of the Lord.  Samson exemplifies this disconnect between what the Lord had commanded Israel and what they actually did.  Samson's story is longer than any of the other judge narratives, indicating his importance in history.  Because of this, Samson's life will be examined in two brief articles.

Samson's story begins in the same context as the other judges: an entire generation did evil in the sight of the Lord, who gives them over to the hand of their oppressive enemies, in this case ht Philistines.  The people then cry out to the Lord for deliverance and God provides for them Samson.  However, Samson's story is unique in that, before he was born, he was prophesied to be born to a barren woman and dedicated to the Lord as a strick Nazirite.

The vow of the Nazirite, as told in Numbers 6, involved three basic things: it was a voluntary vow of intense faithful pursuit of God, it was to last a set amount of time, and the person was to have absolutely no contact whatsoever with the dead.  Additionally, the Nazirite vow of Samson prohibited any consumption of alcohol and any razor touching his hair.

Interestingly, Samson did not volunteer as he was dedicated before he was born, and there was no set time as he was to be a Nazirite the whole length of his life.  Additionally, in regards to the prohibitive requirements of the vow, to never come into contact with death of any sort, to not imbibe, and to never have his locks cut, he disobeyed each of those.

Although Samson was to be the picturesque example of obedience and faithfulness to God, and his Nazirite vow was to form the very core of who he was as a person, but yet he failed in every single area that he was required to be faithful.  In this way, Samson represents a nation that was so disinterested in the things of God that they treated their vows as petty peripheries.  Samson is an example of everything wrong with Israel during the time of the judges.  But praise be to God that the story does not end with Samson!

Ibzan, Elon, Abdan: More Bad Judges

We are getting near the conclusion of our study of the book of Judges.  And the narrative pace is quickening in preparation for the book's final, and arguably worst, judge, Samson.  But before we get to the long-haired brute, there are three seemingly negligible judges: Ibzan, Elon, and Abdan.  The whole of their narratives combined is seven verses, Judges 12:8-15.

The first, Ibzan, is noted for marrying all 60 of his children to foreigners and judging Israel for a meager 7 years.  He did what was expressly forbidden in the Law, which was to intermarry at all.  His judgeship was marred by continued disobedience to the covenants of God and blatant disregard for the things of the Lord.

The second, Elon, has far less.  The only information to be discerned about Elon is that he was a Zebulunite that judged Israel for ten years and, upon his death, was buried at Aijalon.  This is it.  What it implies, however, is that Elon was not remarkable enough, good or bad, to make any real difference or impact during his tenure as judge.

As for the third, Abdan, there is nothing told us about his judgeship, only that he had forty sons and thirty grandsons and each rode a donkey.  While this may seem of little consequence, what it implies is that Abdan was a man whose position as judge was used to garner wealth for himself and his family.  Again, not a great example of leadership.

These three judges, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdan, all represent a dark time in history.  As Israel continued in their decline, nothing good could be said about their would-be leaders aside from their burial grounds and offspring.  To be sure, this is an indictment upon entire generations who lack faith and leadership, which is a recipe for obsolescence and debauchery.  Let us then heed to the examples of what happens when generations fail to teach the next in the ways of the Lord.  Faithlessness and sin grow exponentially with each passing age.  Is it, then, any wonder why the world is in the disorder that it is?

9th Judge: Jephthah

Continuing with our study of the judges of Israel, today we take a look at Jephthah, the mighty warrior who desired to be king.  His story is an interesting one because it shows that Israel had ceased to cry out to God for His deliverance, but tried to prop Jephthah up as their judge without consulting the Lord in faith.

Additionally, Jephthah is a character of some interest because he was the illegitimate son of a prostitute, rendering him unfit to judge.  Yet, because of his apparent skill as a warrior, the country turns to him to be their judge.  He acquiesces to their request and determines to save the Israelites from the Ammonites.

Jephthah is canonized, though, for his tragic, ill-conceived vow to the Lord that cost him the life of his only child, his daughter.  Essentially, Jephthah vowed that if the Lord gave the Ammonites into his hand in victory, then whatever comes out of the door of his house to meet him when he returns will be offered as a burnt offering to God.  Yet, when Jephthah returns from victorious battle, his beautiful, only daughter runs out of the door to greet him and, because of his vow, he determined to offer her as a burnt offering.

The point of this story is to highlight, or lowlight, the necessity of seeking God and His counsel at every step.  Also, one should never make vows to the Lord that are not sanctioned or desired by His will.  These two principles from the story of Jephthah have immediate application for the life of Christians.  Let us then always look to God and seek after His will for every decision that we make so as to not trap ourselves by our own idiocy!

7th & 8th Judges:Tola & Jair

The stories of Tola and Jair, the seventh and eighth judges of Israel, are both brief and shallow.  In fact, the whole breadth of their lives is chronicled in a mere five verses (Judges 10:1-5).  To be sure, the apparent absence of information about these two judges points as much to their periphery status in canon as it speaks to their insufficiency in delivering Israel from their growing inclinations to pagan worship and immorality.

In fact, the most striking thing about their narratives is the depth, or lack there of.  God is not mentioned in their narratives, and the only thing that marks them as judges is that the Scripture tells us that they did judge Israel, Tola for thirty years and Jair for twenty two.  The pace of the narrative rapidly moves on past these two judges to the ever-growing apostasy, corruption, and disbelief of Israel that is presented throughout the rest of chapter ten.

The apex of this section actually occurs when, as the people have already grown in their disobedient apostasy and have cried out to God for deliverance, the Lord replies: "Have I not already saved you!" Essentially, God says, "Why should I save you when all you do is turn to foreign gods?"  To which the Israelites respond by putting away all the foreign gods and idols, in order to repent in faith to the Lord Almighty, thus bringing us to the story of the next judge, Jephthah.

At the final analysis, the story of Tola and Jair is, basically, inconsequential in that it is narrative "filler" to explain how, historically, Israel had been constantly descending in a downward spiral of disobedience and apostasy.  Over and again, the story of Judges is one in which each generation fails to teach and train the next in the ways of the Lord, that results in growing faithlessness and sin.  This is what we need to learn from this story as well as the rest of the book.  But praise be to God who is always faithful to those who seek after Him!

No Substitutions for the Truth of God

Mister Rogers, one of the most well-known people to ever grace the television screen, says this about  the world: "Life is deep and simple, and what our society gives us is shallow and complicated."

For a man who made a career of entertaining and teaching simple life truths to children, this is such a great way to describe a simple but profound truth.  With the widening spread of the internet and the growing-by-the-moment access to the global network of the world's information, the person is becoming less personal and ever more shallow.

This being a true assessment of the state of the world, it is essential to note that when the world continually seems like a swirling whirlwind of data and stuff that spins vertiginously like a billowing tornado that sweeps away humanity into meaninglessness, reality, in its utterly truest sense, stems from a different source altogether: God.

The Holy Lord Almighty, the giver of life and source of all wisdom, is ultimate reality.  Thus, ultimate truth and ultimate reality stem from God.  And, apart from God, reality is but a vale, a mist compared to the solidity and certainty of God Himself.  Because of this basic and fundamental truth, any attempt by the world at large to make or create any semblance of reality outside of God's is counterfeit and, quite frankly, sin.

As Christians, we need to be on guard against the potential snares of the world which attempt to replace the reality and truth of God with forgeries.  The world is an ocean of information that is an inch deep, while the truth of God is infinitely vast and infinitely deep.  This, God, should always be the truth that we rely upon as it is, ultimately, the truth.  Not a truth but the truth.  Let us then always keep this at the center, always.

We Have Been Made Holy in Christ

Holiness has a two-fold definition encompassing, in the very least, the concepts of moral purity and utter uniqueness.  In the latter, which will be under examination today, this uniqueness is not to be thought of as a uniqueness of a different degree, as in, one is holy when they do something more, better, etc.  Instead, holiness in this sense is best thought of a difference in kind, akin to, say the difference between water and sand.

It is this form of holiness that has particular importance for believers, for we are called to be holy as He is holy.  And, while it is certainly true that this exhortation refers to moral purity, it simultaneously speaks to the fact that believers are to be set apart and of a different kind of human from unbelievers.

This is in no way to seem elitist or arrogant, instead it is a reality.  Much like a dead person is different from a live person, due to his/her absence of life, so is the unbeliever different in kind from the Christian due to his/her lack of life in Christ, who is the One who is and gives life.  In this sense, holiness is not something that needs to be sought out, but claimed and accepted as an already-evident truth: the Christian, by confession, repentance, and belief in Christ Jesus, is made alive from death, reborn into holiness that sets them apart from who they were before.  This is what is meant by the idiom, in the world but not of the world.

Scripture speaks substantially to this effect.  One such passage that struck me today was Psalm 4:3, "But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself."  Or consider the words of Paul, who writes about his calling, "But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace (Gal. 1:15)."  Although these are two seemingly dissimilar verses, they both point out that it is, in fact, God who sets apart those whom He has been pleased to love and bestow His grace upon and make holy by the washing of His Word, which is the blood of His Son, Christ Jesus.  This is, among many exclaiming adjectives, amazing.  Let us then claim the holiness that God has given us in His Son!  Praise God!

Training in the Word of God

Imagine you were a soldier ordered into battle by your commanding officer.  However, amidst the orders being given and the tussle to grab supplies, your base is fired upon and attacked.  During the scuffle, you realize that your weapon has gone missing and, apart from terrifying you due to your apparent impotence, you find your self defense-less and without any weapon to handle the oncoming attacks.

Or imagine that you were a doctor entering the emergency room to perform surgery.  Yet after you wash your hands, put on your cap, and pull the rubber gloves over your wrists you find that not only are their no scalpels to be found but you do not even remember how to do the surgery either.

Needless to say, both of these scenarios would be terrifying and are to be avoided at all cost.  But for some Christians, this is exactly how they live their lives.  Scripture states explicitly that the Word of God is the a two-edged sword, the offensive weapon of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12).  Therefore, when Christians neglect reading and studying the Holy Scriptures, they are like a soldier going into war without a gun or a doctor trying to perform surgery without a scalpel.

It might be most accurate to say that the Christian who does not study the Word of God is like a headlining professional musician who has never learned how to play a single note: an utterly preposterous proposition.  Instead, Christians should fulfill the exhortations of the apostle Paul, who writes, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...(Col. 3:16)."  To conclude, let us look to the word of Paul again in his first letter to his friend Timothy:

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17)."

Let us then treat the Word with all the respect and reverence that it deserves, acknowledging that it is the very power and truth of God Himself, and the authority for our very lives.

God who Reveals Himself

There is a clear and present difference between that which is wicked and that which is holy.  In Scripture, this is often described as the difference between sin and defilement, wickedness and righteousness, or darkness and light.  But the most clear and challenging of these distinctions is the one between the world and heaven, or the difference between the natural and God.

However, although the distinction between the things of God and that which is not of God is a sharp one, Scripture is clear to indicate that, due to the effects of sin, the unregenerate sinner will be utterly unable to assess the difference (1 Cor. 2:14).  As a result, there is limited amount of contact between the believers and unbelievers when it comes to discussions of sin, holiness, and wickedness.

Because there exists this gulf between believers and unbelievers in these fundamental matters, a point of contact needs to be assessed and put forth.  But, to be sure, there is such a common point of discussion for believers and non-believers.  The point of contact, not surprisingly, is God Himself.  However, the surprising thing is that it is in humanity and in creation that the knowledge of God is to be known, if even in a foundational sense, in the fact that man has been made in the image of God.

The implications of this is that man and the creation around him is a revelation of God unto himself, meaning that no human is either not to be accountable to God and that no one is capable to escape from the presence of God in His creation (Rom. 1).  However, as evidenced by the passage in Romans, the revelation of creation and humanity is insufficient to save.  Thus, it pleased God in history to reveal Himself in more specific revelation.

This more specific revelation that is purposed for redemption and restoration from the effects of sin comes in two closely related forms: the Word and in Christ.  The natural, unbelieving man may not, in and of his fleshly self, be able to know God in the salvific sense.  But God has not left that man to his own finite devices and damned him without grace,  Instead, God has given humanity His perfect Word.  Additionally, His Word became incarnate in His son, Christ Jesus, which is the revelation needed for salvation and redemption.  Praise be to God who has revealed Himself so that we could know Him in relationship!