Tag: Bible

Did Jesus So Judge the World that He Came into the World to Condemn It?

When Jesus called us to follow him, he called us to adopt his posture toward the world.

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I am writing today about something I have written before, but I think it bears repeating. I have not stopped thinking about it since these words from Paul virtually leapt off the page when I read them a few years ago:

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.”

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (emphasis added)

How many times had I glossed over those words without really seeing them? Did he really mean that? We are not to judge people outside the church? Isn’t that exactly what we do?

I have kept going back to Paul’s admonition often since that day. I didn’t see it right away, but I eventually noticed that Paul echoed the very words of Jesus in that statement: Jesus said,

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”

JOhn 12:47-48 (emphasis added)

Elsewhere, Jesus said, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

If Jesus bids us to follow him, should we not adopt the same posture toward the world? It is the same posture Paul admonished the Corinthians to model toward those outside the Church: Do not judge them because they have a judge! (And it isn’t us!)

Paul

1 Corinthians 5:12-13

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

God will judge those outside

Jesus

John 12:47-48

I have not come to judge the world.

There is a judge for the one who rejects me.

When adopt the posture Jesus had toward the world and the posture Paul tells the church to adopt, we are freed up from the responsibility to judge so that we can love. Even if the world goes its own way, which it will, we can love the world. Even if the world hates us, we can still love the world.

We are free to preach good news to the poor, to give sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the favor of God to all who will receive Him. This was how Jesus characterized what he came to do when he read from the Isaiah scroll in his hometown synagogue, sat down, and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4: 21) This is our ministry also, if we will follow him.

We don’t have to be in the business of judging the world because the world has a Judge. We can leave that to God. In fact, it isn’t an option. It is God’s rightful place to judge, and it isn’t our place.

That means it isn’t up to us to make the world conform to the law of God. We are not responsible to require godly behavior and biblical morality from the world, and it isn’t our business to do that.

Rather, we are to love the world, though people in the world are yet sinners. We can do that because Jesus loved us and died for us while we were yet sinners.

“Are you not to judge those inside?” says Paul. The world has not subscribed to Jesus, but we have. Judgment begins in the house of God because Jesus counts on us to be the light and salt of the world. If we lose our flavor, we cannot be who God calls us to be.

Who among us were able to conform to the Law before Jesus? None of us! Which is why we needed him. We are saved by grace through faith, and not by anything we could do. The world, likewise, cannot conform to God’s law apart from Jesus. This is why the world needs a Savior: because it has a Judge.

Why, then, would we try to impose godly behavior and biblical morality on the world through human, legal means when the world is incapable of conforming to God’s law apart from Jesus?

Jesus sends us into the world as his ambassadors just as he came into the world: not to judge the world, because the world already has a judge. He sends us out as ambassadors not to condemn the world, but but to save it.

If we can adopt this posture toward the world that Jesus adopted and that Paul admonished, we can be unified in that purpose and calling of Jesus even in our own differences about how the world ought to operate. We can love each other as fellow ambassadors of Christ and give each other grace in the areas in which we disagree.

Our primary focus should be the purpose and focus of Jesus – not to condemn the world, but to save it by proclaiming good news to the poor, sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and the favor of God’s love toward all who will receive Him. Everything else fades in light of that purpose and calling.

Jesus said, the world will know us by our love for each other. (John 13:35) Let us so live, then, that the world knows us for our love for one another and our love for the world that Jesus loved!

Who Are the “Least of These” Jesus Describes in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats?

Jesus considers “the least of these” his brothers and sisters

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I have discussed in two blog posts the odd qualification in the key statement of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: [W]hatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)(NIV) Who are Christians to love? is the topic of the first blog article I wrote, addressing the question whether the “brothers and sisters of mine” limits the people we are to care for.

Elsewhere, Jesus tells his disciples that the world will know they are his followers by the love they have for one another (John 13:35), and John says, “[W]hoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20) When Jesus learns from someone in a crowd that his mother and brothers are looking for him, Jesus says, “[W]hoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:50)

These qualifiers on who the followers of Jesus should love have prompted some scholars to conclude that we are only called to love fellow believers. They conclude that only the care we show to fellow believers who are hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, or a prisoner is showing care for Jesus in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.

This, however, is a minority view. Most of the early church fathers and theologians do not hold that view because of the many Bible passages that instruct us to love our neighbors and even our enemies. The Parable of the Good Samaritan makes this point rather clearly, as I show in the blog article linked in the opening paragraph.

In my second article, I tackled the question, Why, then, does Jesus repeatedly prioritize Christians loving one another? It seems that Jesus does prioritize our love for fellow believers. Paul also prioritizes Christian love for fellow believers when he says, “[A]s we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10)

In short summary of the previous article, we should recognize that Jesus emphasized loving each other as he was preparing his disciples for the imminent reality of his death. In that context, he was encouraging them to stick together and to love each other.

In other contexts, Jesus told his disciples to love their neighbors and their enemies. Thus, Christian love is not exclusive to loving Christians, yet Jesus does seem to prioritize love for fellow followers of Christ.

Perhaps, he was also letting them know that they need to love each other, first, before then can love their neighbors (and then their enemies). If we cannot even love those who love us and think like us, how can we love our neighbors, and how in the world can we love our enemies?

I encourage you to read the previous two blog articles if you want a more compete analysis on the subject. In this blog article, I want to explore a different way of reading “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Continue reading “Who Are the “Least of These” Jesus Describes in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats?” →

Why Does Jesus Repeatedly Prioritize Christians Loving One Another?

Loving each other, our neighbors, and even our enemies

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Jesus shocked his followers one day with the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in which Jesus likened the love and care we show to people in need – the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the people lacking clothes, the sick, and the prisoner – to showing love and care for him. Jesus said, “[W]hatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)(NIV)

Until recently, I had glossed over the qualifier to this statement: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. When someone pointed out to me that the statement is qualified, it nagged at me.

What did Jesus mean when he said “these brothers and sisters of mine”? Did he mean only his biological family? Did he mean his followers? Or did he mean something else?

In another passage while Jesus was talking to a crowd, someone told him his mother and brothers were outside wanting to speak with him. He responded by pointing to his disciples, saying, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:49-50)

Does this mean that we only apply the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats to followers of Christ who are hungry, thirsty, in need of clothing, strangers, sick, and imprisoned? Does it mean that we have no divine obligation to love and care for other people (even in our own family)?

Along the same line, I previously noticed that Jesus qualified his prediction that the world would know his followers by their love. He said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) That qualifier has nagged me for sometime, and for the same reasons as the qualifier in Matthew 25 was now nagging me. I knew I needed to dig into this and develop a better understanding of what Jesus is saying in these passages.

After meditating on these things and considering other Bible passages, I worked out my analysis in Who Are Christians to Love? Matthew 25 and John 13. I determined that we need to understand the bigger picture, and we need to understand context.

Many passages exist throughout Scripture from the Old Testament through the New Testament that convey God’s intention that we love all people. The Bible is rich with passages clearly and emphatically stating that we should love all people, just as God loves all people.

The second greatest commandment – to love your neighbor as you love yourself – is not qualified. The Parable of the Good Samaritan makes clear that our neighbors include people regardless of their ethnic, national, and religious identity – even people we are strongly tempted to despise.

Jesus eliminated all guesswork when he told us that loving our neighbors extends even to our enemies. The example Jesus gives is that God causes sun to shine on the good and the evil and rain to fall for the benefit of the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:44-45) God doesn’t withhold good things like sun and rain from the evil and the unrighteous, and neither should we. We are to be like Him in showing basic love and care for all people.

Jesus added that even pagans love those who love them. We would be no different than a pagan if all we did was to love those who love us back. (Matthew 5:43-48) Rather, we are to “be perfect as God is perfect” and love all people like God loves people, the good and the evil, the righteous and the unrighteous.

When Jesus healed the sick, drove out demons, gave sight to the blind, and showed compassion to people, he did not distinguish between Jews and Gentiles or believers and unbelievers. Of the ten lepers that he healed, only one of them came back to thank him and give glory to God (Luke 17:11-19), but He healed them all anyway.

When Jesus announced his ministry in his hometown synagogue he recalled two stories that triggered the people to want to kill him. These stories demonstrate how God loves not just the Jews (and how the Jews had a hard time accepting that reality). These are the words that provoked his hometown people to want to kill him:

“I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

Luke 4:25-27

The Sidonians were Phoenicians, descendants of the Canaanites who constantly battled the Jews, and Sidon was the hometown of Jezebel, the foreign queen who led King Ahab and the nation of Israel astray. Naaman was a Syrian General who had attacked the Israelites. He was a foreigner, an outsider, from Samaria, which was despised by the Jews Jesus spoke to. Jesus was conveying to his people that he came not just for them; he came even for their enemies.

Just as the people in that synagogue, we struggle to love people we despise. We struggle to love people who have wronged us and don’t believe as we do. We struggle to love people who do not believe as we do. Frankly, we difficult actually loving people in the family of God, too.

The difficulty we have in loving people, even fellow believers, does not excuse us from taking the commandments Jesus gave us to heart. The greatest commandment – to love God – is ultimately inextricably intertwined with the second greatest commandment – to love our neighbors as ourselves. John makes this clear:

“For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

1 John 4:20-21

There is that qualifier again – brother and sister. But, we know from other passages of Scripture that the divine obligation to love extends beyond our spiritual family to our neighbors and to our enemies also. Why, then, do those pesky qualifiers keep appearing? I have some thoughts that I will share.

Continue reading “Why Does Jesus Repeatedly Prioritize Christians Loving One Another?” →

How Do We Know When a Person Is a False Messiah or False Prophet?

Jesus told us what to look for

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“[I]f anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

Matthew 24:23-24

This is a significant warning from Jesus about future times – our times. It’s easy to call out false messiahs and false prophets, and many have done that, but we should be cautious and careful in our understanding of what a false messiah or false prophet and, more importantly, how to spot one.

The Greek word translated a “false” in this passage is ψευδή (pseudés) meaning “false, untrue”, and “(by extension) erroneous, deceitful, wicked.” The word comes from the root verb ψεύδομα (pseudomai) meaning “to utter a lie or attempt to deceive by falsehood.”

The Greek word Χριστός (Christos), of course, means Christ – the Christ – as in Jesus Christ, but, it could mean more than that. Christos derives from the verb chrio (χρίω), which literally means “to smear or rub with oil.” It also means “to anoint” (especially for a divine purpose” and “(by implication) to consecrate to an office or religious service.”

Jesus used chrio when he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18) In more modern terminology, we might say that Jesus was appointed to proclaim good news to the poor. The “anointing” (the pouring of oil on a person) was symbolic of a person’s appointment to a position. In religious circles, we might use the word, “calling,” today.

The idea of anointing a person appointed by God for a particular office was practiced in the Old Testament as well. Samuel “took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head”, and he said, “Has not the LORD anointed you ruler over his inheritance?” (1 Samuel 10:1)

Christos has a counterpart in the Hebrew word, מָשַׁח (mashach), meaning “to rub with oil, i.e. to anoint,” and “(by implication) to consecrate.” Hebrew kings, priests, and prophets were anointed in this manner as a way of recognizing their position (appointment). Thus, מָשִׁיחַ (Messiah), literally “Anointed One,” emerged from this practice.

The Greek word, Christos, is the equivalent of the Hebrew word, Messiah, of course. We tend to think only of Jesus Christ, “the” Messiah, when we use those terms, but anointing men for their offices was common practice in the Old Testament and New Testament times by Hebrews and by Greeks. Anyone who was anointed (appointed) for an office was an “anointed one.”

A false Messiah is one who falsely claims or acts as if he is anointed (appointed) for a particular role. The Hebrew word for Prophet (προφήτης (prophétés)) means speaking forth by the inspiration of God, so a false prophet would be one who falsely speaks as if by the inspiration of God.

Jesus uses the terms, false messiahs and false prophets (plural), to signify that many people would come claiming (or claimed) to be messiahs or prophets. He says, they will deceive many people and even the elect, if possible. Elsewhere, Jesus says they “will come to you in sheep’s clothing” and warns us to “Watch out!” (Matt. 7:15)

Is it possible for God’s children to be deceived? I would like to think not, but then why does Jesus warn us to “Watch out!”? Why does Jesus say false messiahs and false prophets might even deceive “the very elect”?

I don’t know if God’s children – the sheep who hear His voice – can ultimately be deceived by false messiahs and false prophets, but that doesn’t mean we could not be deceived at some point or for a time. It’s safe to say, I think, that Jesus would not have warned us at all if it wasn’t at all possible to be deceived to some extent.

At a minimum, Matthew 24:24 highlights the extreme danger and the potential for even believers to be swayed or confused by the powerful deceptions of false messiahs and false prophets. Peter warns us soberly that “there will be false teachers among you” (1 Peter 2:1), so we need to beware. But, how?

So far, we can say from the descriptor of false messiahs and false prophets that they are deceivers; they are not truly anointed for the purposes they or others claim; and they do not truly speak under inspiration from God. They deceive and lie, and that is what makes them dangerous. But, again, how will we know?

When God became man and came to His own people, they didn’t even recognize Him or receive Him. (John 1: 9-11) If God came in the flesh to people with whom God had a covenant for many hundreds of years, and they didn’t recognize Him, we should have the humility to admit that we might not recognize God always when He is active in our world, and for the same reason we might be fooled by false messiahs and false prophets.

What, then, are the clues that a messiah (one who seems to be anointed for a purpose, calling, position) or a prophet (one who purports or who is purported to speak by the inspiration of God) is false? Fortunately, the Bible gives us more information to go on.

Continue reading “How Do We Know When a Person Is a False Messiah or False Prophet?” →

What Was the Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?

A clue is that people cried out in distress

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It is probably not exactly what you think

I have wanted to dig into the story of Sodom and Gomorrah for a while now, ever since someone suggested to me that the story isn’t what I think it is. Everyone knows the reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, right? God smote those villages with fire and brimstone because of homosexuality.

That’s what I was taught. At least, that is what I always believed, but I have learned there may be more to the story. The truth is right where we should expect to find it: in the Bible. If you are intrigued as I was, then read on.

First, let’s review the story in Genesis 13. Abram and Lot flourished, and their clans and flocks grew in size in the land God promised Abram. There was tension among their entourages, though, so they decided to separate and spread out. (Gen. 13:5-9)

“Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.” (Gen. 13:10) Lot, therefore, chose move to Sodom and Gomorrah in the plain of Jordon, while Abram remained in Canaan.

Although the land was like a well watered garden, “the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.” (Gen. 13:13) Thus, we shouldn’t be surprised when that sin catches up to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Before we move on, though, we should acknowledge that Sodom and Gomorrah was a lush, fertile place. It was inhabited with “wicked” people, yet Lot moved there anyway because it was a desirable place to live. Perhaps, the allure of the things of this world and the temptation to associate with people who have accumulated wealth, position, and influence was great, in spite of any misgivings Lot may have had.

This may provide some explanation for why Lot’s wife looked back in defiance of the angel’s warning. She may have regretted leaving.

She may have wanted to return to the abundance and comfort that drew them there, and that desire to hold on to abundance and comfort may have been her undoing.

We should also understand the backstory in Genesis 18 before we get to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the next chapter. Before some angles visited Sodom, they visited Abram. Abram saw the three “angels of the Lord” from his tent. He went out to meet them, bowed in respect, and insisted they come to his tent to be refreshed. Abram and Sarai spared no expense to show them hospitality, and the angels returned the favor by affirming God’s promise to the elderly couple: promising that Sarai would bear a child within a year. (Gen. 18:1-15)

Before the angels left, the angels told Abram the reason they came: to investigate Sodom and Gomorrah because “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah [was] so great and their sin so grievous.” (Gen. 18:20) This “outcry” that reached the LORD is the first clue to what was going on there. (Gen. 18:21)

The Hebrew word that is translated “outcry” in this verse is za’aq. It mean a shriek, cry for help, cry of distress, lamentation. Thus, something was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah that was causing people to cry out in distress.

The word, outcry, in Genesis 18 should bring Exodus 2:23 to mind where God heard the Israelites cry out. In both cases, in Egypt and in Sodom & Gomorrah, God responds to an outcry of the people living there.

They same word, za’aq, is used in both passages. God responded to the Hebrews cry for deliverance by sending Moses, and God miraculously rescued them from the land of Egypt. In Genesis 18, God similarly responded to a cry for deliverance by sending His angels.

The parallel nature of these stories is important to recognize. The people cried out in distress, and God responded. Parallel stories and themes run throughout the Bible, and we should pay attention to the when they appear, because they usually mean something.

We know why the people cried out in Egypt – because Pharaoh enslaved and mistreated them. The Bible is relatively silent, however, on the circumstances in Sodom and Gomorrah.

If we pay close attention, though, we can find some clues!

In Genesis 19. Lot repeats the pattern of Abram’s hospitality: Lot saw two angels at the city gate, and he went out to meet them, like Abram did. Lot greeted them with respect the same way Abram did, and Lot insisted they come to his home where he prepared a feast for them, just as Abram did. (Gen. 19:1-3) These stories appear one after the other in the biblical narrative, and the parallel symmetry signals that we should pay attention.

Abram and Sarai, by the way, are known for generous hospitality. The generous hospitality of Abram is legendary in Jewish and even Muslim lore. Generous hospitality was a key distinctive of God’s man of faith.

Lot, who was Abram’s kin, demonstrated the same kind of generous hospitality, but the story takes a bad turn. Everything seems great until the men of Sodom surround Lot’s house and demand that Lot bring the angels out to them, “So that we can have sex with them.” (Gen. 19-4-5) When Lot refused, they turned on Lot, This is what they said:

“This fellow [Lot] came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.”

genesis 19:9

Most of us, I think, assume the sin of Sodom was primarily sexual in nature. The story certainly seems to suggest that if we miss the clues to what was really going on. The symmetry of the parallel stories leading up to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah suggest that something else is going on. The people crying out in distress, like the Jews in Egypt is another clue, and what the townspeople say to Lot is still another clue.

The clues are in the context and more specifically in the contrast between the way Abram and Lot treated the foreigners/angels and the way the townspeople in Sodom & Gomorrah treat them. Abram and Lot go out of their way to greet the angels, bow to them in respect, make them feel welcome, and show them generous hospitality. The men of Sodom react the opposite way: they respond with hostility. They are angry that the foreigner in their midst (Lot) invited foreign guests into his home, and they they came to punish and humiliate those guests by violating them sexually.

I never noticed these clues in the text before. They cast a different light on the story. It seems that the story is less about men wanting to have sex with the foreigners than it is about brutish inhospitality.

This was a lynch mob. They came to run the foreign guests out of town and to demonstrate their extreme displeasure with Lot for inviting them in to his home. The men wanted to humiliate, violate, and punish Lot’s foreign guests in the worst possible way, and they wanted Lot to understand why: because Lot was a foreigner, and these men were foreigners, who were not welcome in their town.

As side note, I would not likely have noticed all this but for the book I am reading by James K. Hoffmeier, The Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible. He cites to the Sodom and Gomorrah story as an example of the way people in the Old Testament control their borders and their cities. (See also Judges 19-21 in which a similar scene plays out in Gibeah where the sons of Benjamin treat the Levites passing through in exactly the same way.)

This was the last straw for God. The angels returned the favor Lot showed them by protecting him and his family and by warning them to get out of town quick. As soon as Lot and his family were out of town, “the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah….” and reduced it to smoke and ash (Gen. 19:10-28)

Aside from some other details that do not seem directly relevant at the moment, that is the story of Sodom & Gomorrah. Most of the references to Sodom & Gomorrah in the rest of the Bible are used as warnings without much commentary, except for three passages. These passages tell the rest of the story.

Continue reading “What Was the Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?” →