Category: Bible

Let Your Light Shine

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by Nicholas Drendel
by Nicholas Drendel

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain. The disciples followed and gathered around Him when He sat down. So began the Sermon on the Mount.

Though the text does not clearly say, I believe it was just Jesus and the disciples on the mountain. Jesus was sitting, and the disciples were around Him. there was no room for the crowds to gather, and they could not hear Him as He sat with the disciples around Him.

The Sermon on the Mount, therefore, was not for the crowds, but for the followers of Jesus.

Continue reading “Let Your Light Shine” →

Living Under a Nuclear Cloud

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[B]y His word the present heavens[1] and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 2 Peter 3:7

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works[2] will be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10

I had a poster in my room of a nuclear explosion with a classic mushroom cloud when I was a teenager. I am not sure why I had that poster, other than it was my reality. I lived in the days of the cold war. I was a teenager in the ‘70’s, and the possibility of a nuclear strike or nuclear holocaust was real to me.

Those days seem like long ago now. I had forgotten about that poster until reading this passage recently. It strikes me that the possibility of nuclear catastrophe is even more “real” now than ever before. The Soviet Union has splintered into disparate countries, and who knows where all the nuclear bombs have ended up. Many of those countries have unstable governments, with people who have cowboy mentalities and segments of radical Muslim populations. The exposure to capitalism and destabilization after the Soviet demise have produced black markets for many things that may include nuclear weapons

Those black market weapons may find ready buyers in the various radical Muslim groups like the Taliban, ISIS and others who would certainly not hesitate to use them on the West. The Middle East has been a hornet’s nest of for more than a generation, and the fighting seems to be escalating. Israel, with nuclear capability, is in the middle of that hornet’s nest. Add in North Korea and Iran which may have nuclear capability.

Yet, people no longer talk about nuclear annihilation like they did when I was young. I no longer think much about it.

I am reminded of the frog in the boiling pot. If the frog is tossed cold into the pot of boiling water, it will immediately be alarmed and leap to safety. But, if the frog is put into a pot of cold water that is slowly heated up to boiling temperature, it will not be alarmed; it will remain until it is boiled to death.

The threat of nuclear holocaust is not something we can escape like a frog in a pot of boiling water, but we have gotten used to it. At least, we have learned to ignore it.

The passage in 2 Peter 3 referenced above is a reminder that, not only is nuclear holocaust a possibility, the end of the earth as we know it is inevitable. Whether by nuclear holocaust, or a large asteroid, or global warming, or simply by long, steady degeneration, this world will not last forever.

We may not die in a nuclear holocaust, but we will surely die.

The dichotomous uses of the Greek word for heaven (or heavens) remind us that there is more to reality and existence than this physical world. The present heavens (and earth) that will pass away mean the universe that we live in and know. In verse 13 of the same chapter, Peter says “But, according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth….” The reference to “heavens” in verse 13 is figurative, corresponding to something that is more than this physical space, time and matter existence that we know.

This is nothing new. Peter actually alludes to the prophet Isaiah who speaks of new heavens and a new earth. (Is. 65:17; 66:23) “Heavens” (plural) for both the Jew and the Greek meant possibilities that we cannot imagine, spiritual reality in which God dwells outside of this space, time continuum that we know. John also describes the new heavens and a new earth that he saw in his encounter with God described in Revelation 21.

We may be closer than ever to this new heavens and a new earth. When Peter spoke the following prophetic verse, he had no idea about the power of nuclear energy or the destructive possibility of nuclear holocaust:

The heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 1 Peter 3:12

The “heavens” here is the literal, physical universe that we see. How could Peter have even imagined the sky, the planets and the stars burning and melting? We might not even imagine nuclear capability that could do that; Peter certainly could not imagine the nuclear capability that could ow destroy our earth.

The point of all this is not that we should live in fear of nuclear holocaust, like living under a nuclear cloud. But, we should not be unmindful of the fact that we are temporal, and this life we live is passing. What do with this life, however, has eternal significance. When that Day of Judgment comes, will the work we have done in this world survive? Or will it all burn off like impurities in the fire?

“The earth and its works” will be burned up. What, then are the works that will last? The word of God (Is. 40:8: Matt. 24:35; 1 Peter 1:25), and the work of God will last forever. The work of God, however, is not something we do.  The work of God is the work God does, especially the work He does in us. We do the work of God when we believe the word of God (John 6:28-29) and obey (James 1:22-27). The work of God in us bears fruit in what we do in trust in Jesus and His word.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:10-15)

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[1] Ouranós – heaven (singular), and used as a plural (heavens) nearly as often. The OT backdrop for creation indicates the plural (“heavens”) refers to the sky, atmosphere, stars, planets, outer space, etc. (See also 2 Peter 3:10); whereas 2 Peter 3:13 conveys the typical meaning of ouranós (plural) in the NT – corresponding to the infinite levels of the Lord manifesting His presence (glory).

[2] Literally, the text reads: “the works in it”.

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I use The Discovery Bible to gain a deeper, richer and more complete understanding of the Scripture. If you want ready understanding of the original Greek, the original word emphasis and Greek tenses that do not exist in English, definitions of Greek words and more to make your reading of the New Testament deeper and richer, check out The Discovery Bible. The Discovery Bible opens up knowledge of the original New Testament text in Greek to you in your everyday Bible reading. It shows the words emphasized in the Greek text, the tenses and the meanings that do not always translate well into English or English sentence structure. If you are ready to dig deeper in your Bible reading, try a free 30-day trial download of The Discovery Bible.

Finding the Narrow Path

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“Enter by the narrow[1] gate. For the gate[2] is wide and the way is easy[3] that leads to destruction[4], and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow[5] and the way is hard[6] that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

The tendencies of the self work within us and the forces of the world in which we live press upon us to move us along the broad and wide way. This way is easy and feels familiar. It is the milieu into which we are born and operates according to the customary and usual ways of the familiar world in which we are born.

The easy and familiar way is not free of conflict or hardship. On the contrary, the boulevards on which the masses travel are pocked with the damage of conflict and strewn with victims of the hardships of life, not the least of which are the lusts, greed, envy, jealousy, hatred, violence and destructive natures of our very selves and fellow travelers on this way.

It is easy because it is the flow of the world. It is familiar because it is the world into which we are born. We become accustomed to the hardships, as we are accustomed to gravity. We hardly notice the strength of the current that carries us … unless we attempt to resist it.

In fact, we might even think that the current that carries us empowers us on our own, unique way, when the reality is that we are just being carried along with everyone else. We don’t even realize it until we try to stand our own ground and feel the powerful current sucking us along with everyone else.

Jesus says that the narrow way leads to life, while the broad, easy and familiar way leads to destruction. As both ways have their hardships and difficulties, we might be unable to determine the way that Jesus beckons us to go but for the example and the guidance Jesus gives us.

Simply judging by the number of the travelers on the path we travel is not a good measure. The fact that few are on our chosen path is no assurance we are entering through the gate of which Jesus spoke. We should not go where Jesus does not lead.

On the other hand, if we find ourselves moving in the same direction as the traveling throng, we should be rightfully alarmed that we have missed the narrow gate. The gate to which Jesus points is not so much an entrance into something, but an exit out of something else.

The narrow path leads us out of the “world” into which we were born. Jesus said as much when he said we must be born again. John 3:3.

We must enter into a relationship with God, and that relationship with God is a deviation, a change of paths, an exit from the world in which we were first born. We must leave the familiar behind and take hold of the unfamiliar way of following Jesus.

Jesus, the one who points to the narrow way, is the one we must follow through that gate. We dare not trust ourselves or the common travelers around us like the blind leading the blind; rather we must fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer[7] (founder, author and source) of the faith that is the narrow way to life. (Hebrews 12:2 (NIV))

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[1] The Greek word is 4728/stenos, meaning, literally, narrow; (figuratively) it means the closely-defined pathway God ordains for us to travel on to gain His approval (used three times in the NT). God’s gate is “narrow” in the sense it restricts all unneeded (unfruitful) things from getting through!  The “broad way” is followed by the masses and is undiscriminating, preferring the path of self-government. “The way that leads to life involves straits and afflictions.” (McNeile) Going through the “narrow gate” (God’s will) excludes “everything that is not from faith” (Ro 14:23 – whatever is not of faith is sin.)

[2] 4439/pýlē (a feminine noun) means a large door; an entrance-gate to a city or fortress; a door-gate, typically an exit for people to go out of. Pýlē (“a door-gate”) suggests then what proceeds out of it. The masculine noun (4440/pylōn, “gate”) however suggests entrance through a door-gate – the “opportunity to go into (something).”

[3] The NASB Bible uses the word “broad”. The emphasis in the original Greek text is on the words “wide” and “broad” and the contrasting words, “narrow” and “small”.

[4] 684/apōleia (from 622/apóllymi, “cut off”) means destruction, where someone (something) is completely severed in the sense of cut off (entirely) from what could or should have been. Apōleia (“perdition”) does not imply “annihilation” (see the meaning of the root-verb, 622/apóllymi, “cut off”) but instead “loss of well-being” rather than being (Vine’s Expository Dictionary, 165; cf. Jn 11:50; Ac 5:37; 1 Cor 10:9-10; Jude 11)

[5] The NASB uses the word, “small”, but it is the same word stenos used in the first phrase of the passage (see 1 above).

[6] The NASB uses the word, “narrow”. The Greek word is 2346/thlíbō (the root of 2347/thlípsis, reflecting an original “b”/bēta) meaning, literally, to rub together, constrict (compress), i.e. press together; (figuratively) oppressively afflict (cause distress), like when circumstances “rub us the wrong way” and make us feel confined (hemmed in, restricted to a “narrow” place).

Reflection: The very situations that “restrict” movement ironically enlarge our spiritual opportunity to know the Lord’s unlimited power.  God purposefully designs the physical scenes of life to offer maximum spiritual transformation (cf. Ro 5:1-5 with Jn 1:3 and Eph 1:11) God uses the “irritations of life” with the same result of His work in the oyster: transforming the irritations of life (grain of sand) into precious pearls!  What constricts us (presses hard upon us) also ironically opens God’s limitless power as He takes us through “limiting” circumstances – and not merely out of them!

[7] 747/arxēgós(from 746/arxē, “the first” and 71/ágō, “to lead”) means, literally, first in a long procession; a file-leader, pioneering the way for others to follow.  747 (arxēgos) literally means “one who leads from the beginning,” i.e. the file-leader (chief, founder) who is the first in succession of many who follow.  This trailblazer (pioneer) arrives at the destination (end) where others must also go. Arxēgos does not strictly mean “author,” but rather “a person who is originator or founder of a movement and continues as the leader – i.e. ‘pioneer leader, founding leader'”.

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I use The Discovery Bible to gain a deeper, richer and more complete understanding of the Scripture. If you want ready understanding of the original Greek, the original word emphasis and Greek tenses that do not exist in English, definitions of Greek words and more to make your reading of the New Testament deeper and richer, check out The Discovery Bible. The Discovery Bible opens up knowledge of the original New Testament text in Greek to you in your everyday Bible reading. It shows the words emphasized in the Greek text, the tenses and the meanings that do not always translate well into English or English sentence structure. If you are ready to dig deeper in your Bible reading, try a free 30-day trial download of The Discovery Bible.

The Sign of Jonah

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The Sign of Jonah by George Redgrave
The Sign of Jonah by George Redgrave

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign[i]; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” (Matthew 16:4)

Jesus spoke of the sign of Jonah twice. The ironic thing is that everywhere Jesus went, he performed signs and wonders. What were those people looking for?!!

The “problem” for the religious leaders was that Jesus challenged their religious dogmas, and He did it on purpose! Continue reading “The Sign of Jonah” →