Rewriting Jesus

The more I see and hear the news, the more I think many Christians must be using Bibles that have certain passages rewritten to accommodate their own personal or political worldviews and preferences:

Matthew 10:18 has got to be one of those passages: "You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are more righteous than other people. But this will be your opportunity to stand up for your rights."

And then there's Matthew 10:22-23. "And all nations will hate you because they are depraved. But everyone who fights to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one town, stay there and don't back down. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man will return before you have reached all the states of America."

Our actions, or the actions of many of those who do things in the name of "Christian values" tend to reflect a set of pseudo-Biblical principles that are often patriotic or self-focused more than they are Christ-exalting.

Here's what Jesus actually said in those two passages:

"You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me." - Matthew 10:18 (NLT)

"And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel." - Matthew 10:22-23 (NLT)

Sometimes I wonder what "Jesus" we're following.

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Good Deeds, Righteousness, or Alms?

A few days ago I talked about the differences in a few English Bible translations. Not the standard kind of "thee" versus "you" differences, and not the bigger, deep theological sorts of differences. Something in between, really. This post will follow up where I left off and is a little longer than usual.

In Matthew 6:1, Jesus says that we shouldn't be making a showy spectacle of ourselves as we do good stuff. We should not help people so that we'll get attention and credit for doing something good. (At the same time, we should be an example to people around us; our motivation is the key.)

In that verse the New Living Translation quotes Jesus as saying, "Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others..." The phrase "good deeds" is also used in Matthew 5:16: "Let your good deeds shine out for all to see..."

I thought it odd that Jesus would speak of exactly the same acts twice within five minutes of each other, once saying to do them publicly and next saying to do them privately, so I looked at the English Standard Version for a different perspective. Sure enough, while in 5:16 the ESV says "let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works," it says in 6:1 "beware of practicing your righteousness before other people..." Must be a different Greek word(s) in the two verses, I reasoned. This proved to be correct.

In my Blue Letter Bible app for iPhone (which I tend to use more than YouVersion because it has a Greek interlinear feature), looking at the Greek text, "good works" (καλός ἔργον - kalos ergon) mentioned in 5:16 are specific works. "Kalos" means beautiful or good, and "ergon" means to work, toil, or labor. "Righteousness" (δικαιοσύνη - dikaiosunē) in 6:1 focuses more along the lines of a person's good character (equity of character or action), meaning to me that the latter was saying, "Don't try to get people to think that you're all pious and stuff. Be humble."

Good enough to give clarity the two passages. And then I looked at the King James Version.

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them..." Zoiks! That's different. I saw no way of rendering "dikaiosunē" to mean alms or money, so I checked another interlinear Bible at Scripture4All.org. Imagine my surprise when I noted that Matthew 6:1 used the Greek word "ἐλεημοσύνη" -- eleēmosunē. This means "compassionateness" (is that even a word?) or alms, as exercised toward the poor. This made Jesus' words in 6:1 have a much more focused point. He was literally talking about giving to the poor; a specific kind of work that we shouldn't trumpet so people will see us being all philanthropic and what-not.

But why the differences in the Greek text? It's easy to understand the variances in English translations, but could be a big deal if someone's using a different Greek manuscript.

Ever notice the footnotes in your Bible that say things like, "Some manuscripts add Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you."? I'll bet you have. Have you seen the footnote at Mark 16:8? "The most reliable early manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark end at verse 8. The majority of manuscripts include the 'longer ending' immediately after verse 8."

Here's the tip of the iceberg: the King James Version was translated from a manuscript called Textus Receptus, meaning "the received text." Almost all modern translations rely primarily on other manuscripts, notably Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus (interestingly, Sinaiticus was discovered in St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai in 1844, supposedly in a wastebasket about to be burned to help heat the monestary). The latter two, dating to about the 4th century A.D., are older than the most recent copies of Textus Receptus by a few hundred years, so one line of reasoning says these must, then, be more accurate manuscripts. But not so fast! You'll find that many phrases from Textus Receptus that are omitted in Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are quoted by sources within 50 years of Jesus' resurrection.

Here we have the source of a debate that has remained strong (heck, it's raged) for several hundred years now, though it is much less visible than many other debates in the Church.

My point is not to fan the flames of that debate. I'm not saying that the KJV, translated in 1611, is superior to modern translations. I'm not even arguing for one ancient manuscript over another. What I'm saying is that we live in a fantastically wonderful time in history. Do you realize the breadth of ancient study materials available to the average person? How on earth could we squander these things? If we truly believe that we have in our possession a divine book that the Creator of the universe wrote/breathed so that we can know Him and know more about Him, why in the universe do we leave it sitting on the table, on a shelf, in a car floorboard, or in a drawer?

Why don't we take advantage of the amazing resources at our fingertips? Here are just a handful of online tools that you need to be taking advantage of:

The Blue Letter Bible -- Great site. The mobile app is only for iPad, iPod, and iPhone.

E-Sword -- A program rather than an online tool, and an absolute must-download. Not available in a mobile version.

BibleGateway.com -- What Chick-Fil-A is to southern Baptist churches, BibleGateway is to Christian internet users.

Online Interlinear Hebrew Old Testament -- Awesome but not optimized for mobile devices. Search results are in PDF files.

Online Interlinear Greek New Testament -- Again, awesome but not optimized for mobile devices. Search results are in PDF files.

BibleStudyTools.com -- This site comes highly recommended by many friends, but I haven't gotten too much mileage out of it. Looks good but a little cluttered.

Interlinear Bible -- Guess what this is.

Here are some links that will help you research the differences between the various ancient manuscript sources for the Bible. You'll find that the debate can be quite heated. Most who embrace the KJV-only view have no room to tolerate anyone who disagrees. In their defense, this is the Word of God that we are discussing; not Beowulf.

GotQuestions.org -- What are Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus?

Textus Receptus

Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Vaticanus

NLT Frequently Asked Questions

KJV Today

Codex Sinaiticus: It Is Old But Is It The Best?

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Good Deeds and Contradictions

When reading or studying the Bible there is danger in grabbing a verse here and a verse there to support a desired conclusion. There's also danger in getting one's primary (or only) dose of Scripture and teaching via topical sermons delivered by an eloquent speaker (or worse, a bad one). When we're challenged or confronted with an argument about contradiction in Scripture, we can be taken completely off-guard.

One of the worst responses in this kind of situation is simply to say, "I just take the Bible on faith," and dismiss the challenge as being made by an ignorant Christian-hater. The fact is, most of the time it's not the Bible we're taking on faith. Often it's the teaching of someone who pieced together some verses to bolster a themed speech. One of the most familiar examples of this is Jesus' statement, "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." Jesus was not talking about Church services. He was addressing confrontation of sin among believers.

This morning my Scripture reading included Matthew 5 and 6. In those chapters there are two quotes spoken by Jesus in a single sitting -- the Sermon on the Mount. They're interesting when considered together (emphases mine):

"No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." (Matthew 5:15-16, NLT)

“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you." (Matthew 6:1-4, NLT)

Following up on these passages, I read what I consider to be some rather poor commentaries trying to justify what seems to be a set of contradictory statements. One, for instance, took a few other verses and attempted to say that Jesus was not talking about works in 5:15-16 (you know, where He says "works"), but about His words. Voilà! No contradiction! I would be embarrassed to deliver that as a rebuttal to someone claiming the passages are contradictory.

There are several ways to explain the seeming contradiction, and some are fairly solid.

One way is to note that Jesus added the critical phrase "to be admired by others" in Matthew 6:1. This shows that our motivation is at least as important as the resulting deeds, if not more important.

Another explanation comes by looking at the Greek text and noting that in Matthew 5:16 Jesus said "good deeds" (καλὰ ἔργα) but in 6:1 He actually said "righteousness" (δικαιοσύνην). (The NLT unfortunately renders both as "good deeds," so this line of thinking is less obvious.) At this point we could draw a distinction between "good deeds" as something good to seen by others and "righteousness" as something we shouldn't try to show off in an arrogant and pious way.

But most wouldn't get as far as that last explanation, because Greek and Hebrew are thought of as the sole domain of scholars, teachers, and pastors, but not the ordinary layperson. However, given the absolutely amazing tools at our disposal in the modern world we can peer back into the original languages and study some specifics. A word of warning, though: it is very important to realize that, among other things, the average person is not a cultural expert on the ancient middle east, and therefore some points will simply not be clear without drawing on the knowledge and wisdom of others who have studied for years. However, we can find answers to many questions this way more often than not.

Considering that, going a little further into Matthew 5:15-16 and 6:1-4, I noted that the King James Version doesn't use "good deeds" or "righteousness" in 6:1. Rather, the KJV says "do not your alms before men," making this verse a statement about giving money. Now, that is decidedly different from -- and more specific than -- the other readings. It also happens to wrap up nicely with Jesus talking about giving to the poor in 6:4.

If you've read this far, I applaud you. I honestly might be bored by now if I were you. Are you interested in knowing the reason for the difference between the reading in the KJV and the NLT (and ESV, NASB, and most other translations)? If not, I shall move on to another topic next time.

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A Crash Course In Hermeneutics - Explicit Content!

Today we move on to Great Rule-of-Thumb number three. This one's a bit more of a hard-and-fast rule than the others. It's led to some of the most well-known differences of opinion in Christian theological circles, like the question of whether a person can come to Christ of his own will or if he must be specifically drawn by the Holy Spirit, the dispute over eternal security of the believer, etc. (Most of the time I believe this happens because people grab onto what someone has taught them rather than learning from their own careful study of Scripture.)

With that in mind, I'll be using a much less-controversial illustration of the use of this "rule" than did R. C. Sproul in his book Knowing Scripture, from which these 11 principles were taken.

Rule #3 - Interpret the implicit by the explicit

Merriam-Webster.com defines implicit this way: "capable of being understood from something else though unexpressed." Explicit is defined like this: "fully revealed or expressed without vagueness, implication, or ambiguity : leaving no question as to meaning or intent."

Therefore implicit = not directly stated in Scripture but strongly (or mildly) suggested. Explicit = specifically and clearly stated in Scripture. This rule says that when the Bible seems to imply something that goes against something else that is clearly stated, we go with what Scripture clearly states.

This rule obviously makes a lot of sense. We can get some crazy ideas from any piece of literature if we try to read things into it rather than read what it plainly says. That's very true for the Bible, as well.

For starters, there are a couple of Christmas implications in the Bible -- ones that have been thoroughly debunked many times. Tradition says that there were three wise men who visited baby Jesus. Further tradition puts them at the manger. Neither is stated in the Bible (and to tell the truth, neither is really implied, and that's why I'm not using these for illustrations). There were three gifts given to Jesus by the magi, and the same verse states that the wise men visited Jesus at His house, not the inn where He was born.

So here's Rule #3's official illustration from Scripture. It's an easy one. In Galatians 4:13-14 Paul makes a statement which some say implies that Jesus was an angel: "but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself." (NASB)

If we had only that verse to read between the lines to determine Jesus' origin, it might be possible to suppose that He was an angel. However, it's easy to establish that this weak implication is incorrect.

Colossians 3:9 (NLT): "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body."

John 1:1, 14 (NLT): "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God... So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son."

John 10:30 (NLT): "The Father and I are one."

All three of the passages immediately above make it clear without doubt that Jesus was not an angel; not a created being. They clearly and explicitly state that Jesus was God in human form, shattering any implication that might otherwise be drawn from Paul's thanks to the church at Galatia.

If this rule is applied without grace for other believers when studying deeper theological issues, it can lead to some serious disagreements and even nasty arguments. This is, for example, the basic reason we have two groups that serve the same God but are opposed to one another (or one another's teaching), sometimes angrily so: Calvinism and Arminianism.

As I stated in previous posts, your Bible study should always be accompanied by prayer and by expectation that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes and your heart. It should never be done to try to make the Word "prove" what you already want to believe, and it should never be used as a club to beat someone else over the head.

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A Crash Course In Hermeneutics - The Clint Black Rule

Today (a day late) we'll get at rule two of the hermeneutics crash course. Again, Biblical hermeneutics is the process or methodology of accurately interpreting the Bible. Your Bible study should always be accompanied by prayer and by expectation that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes and your heart. What I give here are helpful procedural or common sense tips, not hard-and-fast "rules."

With that, let's dig into the new one: The Clint Black Rule.

Rule #2: Read the Bible existentially

Rule 2 probably sounds odd if you're familiar with the philosophy of existentialism, and it's even more odd that Clint isn't even mentioned in the rule. Don't worry. We're not talking about a potentially atheistic philosophy here, and I'll get to the the Clint Black tie-in in the next paragraph. In his book Existentialism, author John Macquarrie says it is "the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual." The key word is "existence."

Here's why Rule #2 can be thought of as "The Clint Black Rule." Think about his album and song 22 years ago: "Put Yourself In My Shoes" (I don't know the song but I'm familiar with the album name). Get inside the person or people you're reading about. Crawl into his or her skin, as repulsive as that may sound. Put yourself into the life of the person in the story. Be passionately involved in what you read.

When you read Matthew 23, imagine what it would be like if you were a Pharisee -- one of the super-religious people, whom everyone looked up to -- and Jesus told you in front of a crowd that you were like a tomb that was painted nicely on the outside but actually contained dead men's bones. How would you feel? Remember that they "knew" they were in the right. Or how would you feel if you were Jesus speaking to that crowd? Think His heart was beating quickly when He made such a huge statement?

To be sure, there may be statements that sound insulting to us (like Jesus saying, "Woman, what does this have to do with me?" to His mom) that wouldn't necessarily have had that intent in Israel 2,000 years ago. That's why it's good to remember that Rule #2 is a helpful guideline; not a procedure that's essential to correct interpretation of the text.

Trying to think of a catchy tie-in for tomorrow's rule: instructional Scriptures provide the perspective for historical Scriptures. I wonder if Shania Twain made an album about that...

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A Crash Course In Hermeneutics

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the word "hermeneutics." From BibleStudyTools.com comes this brief origin and definition of the word:

The word "hermeneutics" is ultimately derived from Hermes the Greek god who brought the messages of the gods to the mortals, and was the god of science, invention, eloquence, speech, writing, and art. As a theological discipline [Biblical] hermeneutics is the science of the correct interpretation of the Bible.

With that we'll kick off a multi-part series! I anticipate that it will be five posts. Our house church group has begun to go over a basic outline of Scripture Interpretation that I put together and called "A Crash Course In Hermeneutics." In preparing to teach, I found that there are very few available resources geared for small group discussion and teaching of fundamental Biblical hermeneutics. That's crazy because it's such an important area -- one in which every believer needs to grounded. It isn't just for "professional" Christians.

I used R. C. Sproul's book Knowing Scripture (Second Edition, InterVarsity Press, © 2009 by R. C. Sproul) as a foundation because it's quite solid, easy to read, and there's a section that gives 11 general "rules" that are a great starting point.

These guidelines don't cover everything, don't make the mistake of thinking they do. But they'll get us well on our way. I'm not sure if I'll lay out one or two "rules" in each post after this. Just one today, though, because I've already written so much, and the first one will sound controversial.

Feel free to chime in with your comments!

Rule #1: Read the Bible like any other book.

"Whoa there, Dean! The Bible isn't just 'any other book!'" Of course it isn't. I'm not saying it is. I stand behind what 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says; the Bible is divinely inspired -- God-breathed. I believe it is infallible. But the upshot of this rule is that in the Bible, a noun is a noun, a verb is a verb, etc.

The Bible doesn’t take on some special magic that changes basic patterns of literary interpretation. There's a Latin phrase, sensus literalis, that means "literal sense." "The literal sense is the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning which the writer expressed." (from Article 15 of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics).

Questions in Scripture do not suddenly become exclamations just because we want to read them that way, historical narratives don't become allegories or parables. Read the Bible with that knowledge. Sounds obvious, but it's a big "rule" that is violated regularly.

So there we have it; one "rule" down, ten to go!

Image credit: Squidoo.com

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5 Things Jesus Taught... (Part 5)

Finally (for this series, anyway)...

5) "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you." (Matthew 7:12, NLT)

If we wanted to over-analyze it (something I tend to do), we could get into a pitcher-verses-batter scenario: the pitcher reasons, "He's going to expect me to throw a fastball here, so I can't throw a fastball. I could use my slider, but he knows that's my second-best pitch, therefore I can't throw the slider. Realizing that, since we
both know I can't throw the slider in this situation, I'll throw the curve..." and so forth. (Check out "The Princess Bride" for more on this scenario.)

That is, as followers of Jesus, we know we're supposed to look out others before we look out for ourselves. Understanding that, if we're supposed to treat others the way we want to be treated (and we don't want to be treated better than anyone else), we can treat others worse than we treat ourselves. And so the endless cycle could continue for the too-deep-thinker. But the obvious meaning is that we should have grace toward everyone. Treat them better than they have a right to be treated. This is the way that God has treated us. I heard a fantastic quote today:

"You can't demontrate grace to someone until the other person doesn't deserve it."

Ow. Really?? (Yes, peeps. I'm afraid that's basically the definition of "grace.")

Honestly, I probably deserve to be humiliated, degraded, and punished publicly for any number of things that I've done. But God sees me as righteous -- as good, and worthy of knowing Him as Father -- not becaue of anything good I've done to make up for the bad things, but because Jesus Christ has given me that status.

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had:" (Philippians 2:5, NLT)

Jesus willingly died a criminal's death at the hands of the dirty, rebellious beings He Himself created. It's a tall order to think that He might expect the same of us, isn't it?

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5 Things Jesus Taught That We Apparently Ought Not Take Literally (Part 4)

Day four: does Jesus' instruction on giving stand up to real-life scrutiny?

But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you." (Matthew 6:3-4, NLT)

Right off the bat, you'll probably realize that your left hand doesn't have eyes or a brain and neither does your right hand. Therefore we can know that this whole statement is intended as simply an emblematic thought. We can confidently deduce that Jesus didn't literally mean, "Give your gifts in private" when He said ,"Give your gifts in private."

Further, if we actually did give our gifts to the needy in private without letting anyone know about it, I wonder if we'd still be able to declare it on our income tax. In modern society, that's just what we do. And we're not actually doing it to get a return on our money; we're just keeping a good, solid record of our contributions (to be non-caustic for a moment, it's a very good thing to keep solid financial records and I am not suggesting otherwise). We always need to make sure we cover our own interests in case God drops the ball and doesn't reward us as Jesus said He would. You see, it might not be a monetary reward, and when we give money we should logically expect money back.

Another question: if we lived this way, would we still be able to get the occasional awesome free gift in exchange for our donation to such-and-such a ministry or charity? After all, human nature is such that in order for us to be reminded to give to needy people, we have to be given something in return. If we can't let anyone know about our gift, they won't know where to send the miracle spring water.

Finally, I don't think this applies at all to church building programs, although they're probably just as good as "giving to the needy." We should give with the expectation of a plaque with our name on it in order to be a good example of stewardship for other believers to see so that they, too will give to people in need the building program. Jesus may have forgotten about our giving being a good example to other people.

In case you didn't pick up on it for some reason, I'll close with a reminder that this post is delivered with sarcasm. This is not done to belittle anyone or throw stones; sometimes seeing ourselves through ridiculous lenses can point us toward truth.

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5 Things Jesus Taught That We Apparently Ought Not Take Literally (Part 3)

Welcome to number three! I've thought about this for a while and I may retroactively change the title of this series to "5 Things Jesus Taught That He Apparently Didn't Really Mean," because these really aren't literal-vs-figurative issues.

That being said, let's move along and have a look at another important thing Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount that He didn't really mean for us to do (therefore it may not be so important):

(Obligatory note that this is intended to communicate a point by using irony.)

3) "You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" (Matthew 5:43-44, NLT)

I'm not sure I really need to elaborate on this one. But I will, otherwise I wouldn't really have much of a post here, would I?

Who in his right mind would do this? Oh, I know some of us can muster up a prayer for our enemies, but it's probably often something along the lines of, "Father God, I just want to ask You, Father God, to just please make it clear to Aunt Mabel, Father God, that she is dead-wrong and I am right," or "Lord, I pray You'll give Joe Bob the smack-down for the way he treated me last week. Vengeance is Yours, as Scripture saith. Any may it be sweet."

To be sure, some people claim that Stephen in the first-century Church seemed to think that Jesus meant this to be acted upon: "As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' He fell to his knees, shouting, 'Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!' And with that, he died." (Acts 7:59-60, NLT) However, this can easily be dismissed by noting the cultural differences between our society and society 2,000 years ago.

I anticipate that the majority of Christians reading this don't particularly love their enemies or pray for blessings on them. I say this because I've been in that boat, and probably only 2% or so of the Christians I've ever known actually put this into practice. No, I don't know every Christian, but I'm confident that I know a healthy representative sampling of them.

Therefore it's glaringly obvious that we should consider this teaching of Jesus to be something that isn't really meant to be put into practice, but rather an unattainable spiritual concept that is always to be thought of in a good way. If we dwell on this idea long enough, we will start to think it's actually true of us (though in fact it may not be representative of us at all). And that makes Jesus proud of us.

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5 Things Jesus Taught That We Apparently Ought Not Take Literally (Part 2)

The honor, respect, and obedience due Jesus Christ and what He taught is often sadly lacking among those who claim to be His followers. We seem to be incredibly hard of (spiritual) hearing, or maybe we're just too thick-headed to really understand sometimes.

I'm reminded of a scene in Monty Python's film The Life of Brian (a movie which many understandably find shockingly sacrilegious). Jesus, standing on a hill far away as He teaches a large crowd, says, "Blessed are the peacemakers..." The little group in the scene has been arguing and as a result others can't hear, so an agitated man asks, "Could you be quiet, please? What was that?" He's told by another man, "I think He said, 'Blessed are the cheese-makers.'" A woman expresses her puzzlement, "Ah. What's so special about the cheese-makers?" A man attempts to clear things up by saying, "Well obviously it's not meant to be taken literally, it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."

Too close for comfort. We try to listen but Jesus' voice is drowned out by everything else going on around us and we just pick up little bits we hear from others, often far afield from what Jesus really said. Often we honestly don't care to listen (and Jesus' teachings seem to fit quite nicely into two hours on Sunday, anyway). On that note that we will commence with the second teaching of Jesus that is apparently not meant to be taken literally.

(I didn't want to spell it out, but if this all sounds like I've gone a bit crazy, please put on your Irony Glasses and read it again.)

2) "So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God." (Matthew 5:23-24, NLT)

Why shouldn't we take this literally? What I see first is that most of us don't go to a temple to offer a sacrifice, so that automatically puts this passage in "good example" territory, sort of like a witty sermon illustration.

And as with yesterday's point number one, we have tradition on our side. Not many Christians actually do this, right? If someone harbors resentment toward us and we know we're in the right, that's the other person's problem. I probably don't need to mention that grudges are apparently okay, otherwise followers of Jesus would not hold them.

So as with yesterday's non-literal teaching, since we have so little evidence of this happening in the Church, we can safely file this one away in the "good thing to keep in mind" category, as well. Jesus must have meant that if this is what we aspire to do in our hearts, that's good enough, whether or not we actually follow through with it.

(Finishing on a serious note, one thing to notice is that Jesus said that I shouldn't offer my sacrifice if someone has something against me; He doesn't say it the other way around. Of course I must not let my own ill feelings linger, but here Jesus is talking about going to those people who have something against me, have mocked me, persecuted me, or lied about me -- whether they have absolutely no reason or a very good reason.)

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5 Things Jesus Taught That We Apparently Ought Not Take Literally (Part 1)

Welcome, kids! A fabulous multi-part series begins today. Each day we'll take a teaching of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, and I'll explain why each one was probably not meant to be taken literally. Let's jump right in, shall we?

1) "God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way." (Matthew 5:11-12, NLT)

Why shouldn't we take this literally? First of all, when people mock us, persecute us, and lie about us, it's usually not because we're following Jesus. Typically people do things like this to us because of things like our really bad hair, because we may have a more cushy job than the next person, or maybe we have a terrible attitude about whatever seems to be bothering us at any given moment.

Second, when people do act like this toward us, we Christians most frequently react in a variety of ways, none of which is "getting happy" (though there are the rare exceptions). Rather, we get angry or depressed, we might decide to stop talking to the offending person (or worse, we may un-friend them on Facebook), and if someone lies about us we'll make every effort to clear our good name, usually by degrading the other person.

I can't think of too many people I know who've been glad in the face of persecution. Unfortunately, I don't have a great record, either.

So it's obvious from the way most of we Christ-followers behave that Jesus didn't mean for us to take Him literally here; just look at the evidence. I'd say that tradition and history are on the side of Jesus being figurative with the "joy in trials" statement. What He probably meant is that if you consider yourself the type of person who might hold up well under such circumstances, everything is just fine and you will be blessed.

Stay tuned as we present another eye-opening exposition tomorrow!

Please note that while there is truth to much of what I've written above, I was going for thick irony in the conclusion.

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80 Proof-Texting

You've probably heard the term "proof text" before. This is the practice of having a broad position that is supposedly supported by a small phrase in the Bible. Usually it's a single verse, but sometimes the proof text will be a group of verses, and less often a verse fragment. This is typically a bad thing because it includes mistakes like ignoring the larger context of the Word, disregarding the original language, turning a blind eye (intentionally or not) to the setting of the verse -- its intended audience and its situational context -- etc.

I think the phrase "bad hermeneutics" should almost always be a part of the definition of "proof-texting."

I've found that there's a way to employ solid hermeneutics and to avoid proof-texting, yet still wind up with results that are just as bad. For better or worse, I was one of those people who went through the Bible to try to find evidence that it was okay for a believer to drink alcohol. For many Christians this is just a no-brainer. The denomination I was a part of? Not so much. Actually, it was almost heresy for most in that group, part of a long-standing tradition/guidelines that had essentially become on par with the Bible in many people's minds.

Now, to be quite clear, this post is not written to take a position about the rightness or wrongness of consuming alcohol. It's not to condemn one denomination and give kudos to another. Don't try to read between the lines, because I didn't put anything between the lines.

Back to the stance on alcohol, I'm not happy accepting statements as fact without investigation, particularly when the edict is from the church and the Word doesn't seem to be the source. And to be honest, I wanted to be able to drink and be guilt-free about it. So I dug in. I easily found Scripture passages and situations that strongly hinted or directly stated that "wine" was not non-fermented grape juice as I've heard several times from various pulpits, but was actually the buzz-inducing stuff. Whether the drink was weaker or not was beside the point, though I've found arguments for the former to be uncompelling and unsubstantiated.

An excellent first passage in my quest was the time Jesus pointed out the hyper-legalism of the Pharisees in Luke 7:33-35 (NASB): "For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by all her children."

Obviously, there was something in the wine that had the self-righteous Pharisees up in arms. When Jesus said the word "drunkard" here, it meant "one who imbibes wine." And hey, if Jesus "imbibed," that's license for His followers to do so. Heck, it could even be a mandate if we wanted it to be! That way we could really hang out with "tax collectors and sinners."

Then there's the wedding at Cana -- the kickoff miracle. The ill-prepared groom ran out of wine, which was probably at least somewhat expensive, because after Jesus turned jars of water into wine, the guests were surprised at how much better it was than the wine in the first kegs... er... jars. There was no reason for the groom to bring out bad wine later unless the guests' tastes or perceptions had been dulled by that time ("A host always serves the best wine first," he said. "Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine..." John 2:10, NLT)

It wasn't proof texting, because in every case I endeavored to make sure I explored all those things I initially mentioned that proof texting usually ignores: comparing Scripture against Scripture, considering context, audience, language, setting, etc. And I think I came up with a pretty good argument on my own; no need to use Google to find out how someone else had justified their Biblical alcohol quest.

But after it was all said and done and I had my good, strong argument ready for battle, and my glee ready to enjoy wine (even taking passages like Proverbs 20:1 and Genesis 9:20-23 into account -- both of which speak of drunkenness; not drinking), I looked back and realized that I hadn't gone on a quest to find out what would honor Jesus the most. Instead, I'd gone looking for a loophole in His system for my own personal gratification.

This is what I like to call 80 Proof-Texting (although wine is more like 28-proof), though it doesn't apply only to alcohol consumption. It's exactly the opposite of what God intends for His people to do; the focus is on me or you as the center of the universe.

(In case you aren't aware, in really simple terms, the "proof" number is the percentage of alcohol in a drink multiplied by two. This is usually used for liquors rather than beers and wines. Here's a great little article at AskDaveTaylor.com in case you've always wanted to know about this: "What does 'proof' mean on alcohol?")

While 80-Proof Texting involves inductive Bible study and a thorough understanding of Scripture, I would contend that its effects are similar to those of regular ol' proof texting. It may be equally as dishonoring to Christ. It just typically doesn't make you look quite as bad to other people, but God will still say the same thing: "What are you doing to my Word?" -- a situation where we can technically honor "the law" but miss the intent by, like, infinity miles.

Big thanks to my friend Leroy for pointing out some wording issues and helping me to clarify some thoughts.

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When Deep Spiritual Truth Attacks

When I was very young, my mom pointed out that Proverbs has 31 chapters -- one for every day of the month (yes, Martha, even those months with 30 or 28 days). I've been in the New Testament for the past long time, so today I decided to add a chapter of Proverbs to what I was reading in Philippians.

When I got to the end of Proverbs 5 (which is not really a G-rated chapter) this morning, I read this:

For the Lord sees clearly what a man does,

examining every path he takes.
An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.
(Proverbs 5:21-23, NLT)

I imagined what it would've been like under the old covenant; before Jesus had come and before believers had received the Holy Spirit. There is the fact that a believer is to resist the devil, and to run away from temptation, but because we have the Holy Spirit living in us, those of us post-Christ really had an advantage. We have the same choices to make as those who lived under the old covenant, but with an Ace in the hole, and I thought about what a great blog post that would make.

I began to ponder other Scripture that would address this kind of situation, and I thought about common objections that might come up. Had to be prepared for contingencies, you know.

Before very long, the Holy Spirit pointed out to me what it was that God wanted to tell me this morning. And here's what He said:

For the Lord sees clearly what a man does,
examining every path he takes.
An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.
(Proverbs 5:21-23, NLT)

Sometimes going for "deeper" truth is a worthy and excellent thing. However, sometimes that urge is a tool the enemy uses to obscure the plan and simple meaning of Scripture.

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Romans 2 - A Paraphrase

I hope you'll forgive me for parphrasing some Scripture here (from the NLT, at that). I was reading Romans 2 yesterday and found that it really jumped out at me when I changed a few words to put it into a modern perspective. This is the second half of the chapter (Romans 2:17-29). There will be some places that are not an exact fit, and you may scratch your head and say, "Wait, that's not quite right." You're probably correct. Don't let that derail your thought processes; I'm not trying to give new theology here, just to give a fresh perspective.

You who call yourselves Christians are relying on God’s law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. You know what he wants; you know what is right because you have been taught his law. You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that Christianity gives you complete knowledge and truth.

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The Teaser Trailer Gospel

DreamWorks' Megamind was released on DVD an BluRay a week ago. It may not appeal to you for one reason or another, but hopefully it'll work for an illustration. When I saw this trailer, I really wanted to see the movie:



In just a few minutes we get the whole story laid out for us, from the birth of the "anti-hero" through the climax of the story. If you liked the trailer, there's a good chance that you decided to either see the movie in theaters or buy the DVD/BluRay when it was released. You wanted to see the whole thing.

Would anyone realistically watch only the trailer and then claim that they loved the movie? Would anyone buy the DVD and fast-forward through it, watching only the scenes they thought would be funny or action-packed, and think that they knew everything about the movie?

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Biblical Principles

I'll jump back in with part 3 of the series after this post; the break has been longer than I intended.

I was listening to a radio program which had the theme of pastors "teaching Biblical principles." I listened for a pretty good while before the speaker actually used any Scripture, and this question struck me (and I tweeted it): if we constantly teach/preach Biblical principles, when will we teach/preach what the Bible actually says?

The preacher actually taught some good things; I have nothing against that. What I was listening to, however -- the amount of "sermon" vs. amount of Scripture -- was pretty lopsided. This is unfortunately very normal. And I believe that this is how the average, everday Christian gets his intake of Bible. He'll just wait for a preacher or teacher or devotional book to distill it all into little chunks that he can absorb without havin to think too much; a good lesson or thought for the day.

This is no substitute for studying the Word, and it's not even a substitute for reading the Word. We were not set apart for the work of the Lord to ask someone else to love the Lord for us!

Here are a couple of passages that stuck out to me this morning. We actually have the very words of God Almighty in our hands! Why wouldn't we want to read it over and over and over? If we don't, we simply can't live it out moment by moment, plugging its truth into every situation as we live to honor Jesus Christ:

(This is David speaking to his son Solomon as David charges him with building the temple): And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. So take this seriously. The Lord has chosen you to build a Temple as his sanctuary. Be strong, and do the work.
- 1 Chronicles 28:9-10 (NLT)

And then...

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Peter 2:4-5 (NLT)

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being like a lamb

This morning I read 2 Samuel 15 (as part of a daily Scripture reading plan), in which David's son Absolom, after being reconciled to his dad, begins to stir up rebellion in Israel in order to take over the throne.

For a warrior king, as he is so often thought of, David had a tremendous soft spot for his family and for his close friends. As Absolom put the conspiracy into motion and much of Israel began to follow him, David made the decision to leave Jerusalem, essentially abdicating the throne to his son so that they and the city would be spared from the disaster of civil war.

In the long run, Absolom's plans are squashed and Absolom is killed, by the way. David returns to the throne.

It was interesting that today's passage from the New Testament was John 18, which bears the subject heading "Jesus is Betrayed and Arrested." It's one of the Gospel accounts of the entourage of Roman soldiers and temple guards arresting Jesus.

Both accounts immediately brought to mind the passage from Isaiah 53:7, "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth." (NLT)

I believe that this kind of thing is one of the reasons that David was called "a man after God's own heart," even though we read that David had some remarkably low points in his life. In almost a prophetic way, King David lived out the principles Paul wrote about in Philippians 2:3-5: "Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had." (NLT)

It's a grim realization that I stand up for myself -- my own interests and opinions -- far often than I turn the other cheek. If this becomes our modus operandi, there's a good chance that we're undermining our own own faith in the power of our Father. "No thanks, God, I'd better handle this one. Looks like a pretty big job..."

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some Scripture for the day

The Psalms give me encouragement in a ton of different situations, whether I'm up, down, or strangely in between. I've pulled together a few verses that I was reminded of after reading the first bit of Psalm 119 today.

As I learn your righteous regulations,
I will thank you by living as I should!
- Psalm 119:7 (NLT)

Not everyone who calls out to me, "Lord! Lord!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
- Matthew 7:21 (NLT)

Then [Jesus] pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”
- Matthew 12:49-50 (NLT)

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
- James 1:22 (NLT)

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
- Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

When you come to worship me,
who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?

Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;
the incense of your offerings disgusts me!
As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath
and your special days for fasting—
they are all sinful and false.
I want no more of your pious meetings.
. . .
Wash yourselves and be clean!
Get your sins out of my sight.
Give up your evil ways.

Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.
- Isaiah 1:12-13, 16-17

Isaiah 58:1-9 (read this passage via the link)

But at the end of the day, sometimes I realize that I've messed up. I hate to admit that there are times I intentionally move off of this path of righteousness that God has designated for me. And when I take all of those passages, and many others, into account, a very heavy weight winds up on my shoulders.

But the very next verse in Psalm 119 (along with many others, stating that if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins) makes me realize that even those who put Scripture into ink weren't immune to sin:

I will obey your decrees.
Please don’t give up on me!
- Psalm 119:8

"Please don't give up on me." Wow, I identify with that sometimes!

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does jesus have a eula?

The EULA... For some, the End User License Agreement included in almost all legal software installations is just a bunch of meaningless hoo-hah, but others are diligent to actually read it before installing a new program. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, a few dialog boxes after you start to install a new piece of software, you'll see some text that begins something like this:

END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR [INSERT PRODUCT NAME] IMPORTANT PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THIS PROGRAM INSTALL: [INSERT COMPANY NAME's ] End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or a single entity) and [INSERT COMPANY NAME]. for the [INSERT COMPANY NAME] software product(s) identified above...

Even those who are determined to adhere to all software piracy laws rarely read all that text. So when time comes to install the same program on a laptop or a new computer, that person will have to 1) make an "educated" guess about whether or not it's legal to install it a second time (some software will be locked from doing this), 2) re-read the EULA to see if they're allowed to do so, or 3) totally not give it a second thought and install the software.

I fall into the second category. I rarely read the EULA before installing a program.

This can actually be dangerous, because I really have no idea about the intricacies of the agreement to which I'm committing.

This means I could be hit with a toolbar installed in Internet Explorer, a third party tracking my keystrokes, etc. (though this sort of thing typically only happens with less than aboveboard software).

Parallel time: do you think that before a person takes the big step to follow Christ, he or she should be made more aware of the EULA -- some of the specific things that are actually being committed to? I don't think that believers are diligent in making most of the EULA known to new converts. Now, if we tried to teach every single spiritual truth or insight to every person before they make this decision, they probably wouldn't get it (the Holy Spirit reveals things in time, and without that I believe we're dealing with a 1 Corinthians 1:18 thing), or we'd mess it up by interjecting our own understanding, or we'd simply never get done.

From all evidence in Scripture, our relationship with Christ is more about the journey (in this life, anyway) than it is about the destination (I'm speaking of our daily goals, things we want to accomplish, etc. rather than heaven). It's during the process of life that God refines us, teaches us, and draws us to Himself. (See Romans 8:28)

But don't you think it would be good to let people know that they're committing everything about themselves to this new life? That they must intentionally lose their identity in order to find it in Christ? "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (2 Corinthians 517, NLT)

If we look at the way we usually present this commitment, we make people think that it's pretty easy to follow Christ. Honestly, it often isn't. I can't help thinking that this is why so many believers struggle to even take baby steps and wind up staying in the spiritual nursery for most of their lives. If we're actually witnesses -- people who tell others what they've seen, heard, and experienced ourselves -- I believe that the hardships of life will be a natural part of what we'll tell. The problem is, not enough of us are living, vocal witnesses, and when we are we tend to avoid things that might sound messy. The great thing is that each hardship has the result of bringing us closer to our Creator.

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waking the dawn

I love this Psalm, but it's rare that I put it into action, even though I'm generally a morning person:

My heart is confident in you, O God;
     no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
Wake up, lyre and harp!
     I will wake the dawn with my song.
I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
     I will sing your praises among the nations.
- Psalm 108:1-3 (NLT)

Do you ever wake up and have one-on-one time with God and wind up singing to Him?

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