For this reason …
Summary: As Paul begins this next part of his letter, he casts a glance back over his shoulder at where we have been. The picture he has painted for us is one that is very much like what God probably sees from his point of view.
Have you ever been to the top of a tall building and looked down on the rest of the world? Everyone and everything far below looks small and insignificant. Yet, when we take the elevator back to the street level and walk out of the building, the top of the building looks distant, and all of the small things we saw from up there are suddenly quite large.
In his last paragraph, Paul had taken us to the top of the building. As we looked down at God’s creation, we can see all our “small” concerns melt away in the light of our Lord’s love for us. We see Jew and Gentile brought together in Christ.
Think about that for a moment.
Two groups that are diametrically opposed in almost every way. The Jews have a history of isolating themselves from the cultures around them. They have special rules for their food and special days they eat (and don’t eat) certain things. They consider themselves God’s chosen people and believe that everyone else is … well … not chosen by God.
And then along comes Jesus.
Jesus, the man from Nazareth! (“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” – John 1:46) He was the man who was called a Samaritan by the priests (John 8:48). This man, who seemed to be a nobody, kept doing things that all the somebodies couldn’t do. He healed people. He preached with authority. He fed thousands upon thousands, and then … he raised people from the dead.
Back in the days of Moses, before the Israelites had been freed from slavery, Moses had a contest of wills between himself and Pharaoh. Moses would bring a plague on Egypt by the power of God, and then Pharaoh’s magicians would do the same thing “by their secret arts.” (Genesis 7:11) Eventually, God did things through Moses that even the magicians couldn’t do and they slowly began to realize what they were up against.
Centuries later, the Levitical priests began to realize that they, too, were up against something unusual. Like Pharaoh, they refused to consider the idea that maybe they were going up against their Creator. Also, like Pharaoh, they chose to wage war against God. Just as in the days of Moses, God won.
For this reason, Jew and Gentile, found themselves standing side by side before God, blinking into the blinding light of the Gospel message. The love of God was not just for a chosen few but for all of God’s creation.
Application: Keep the view from the top of the building in mind as we deal with the people we meet face to face.
Food for Thought: How does understanding God’s perspective change our perspective?
How does understanding God’s perspective change our perspective?
What a thought that is! God”s perspective. I don”t have the capacity to fully understand His perspective. What I do understand is that He created us to love Him and be loved by Him. Connected to Him and to each other in love and by His will. That changes the perspective of my place in the universe and the purpose of my existance. Instead of “feasting on the marrow” which can only come from something dying, we are “given manna” that brings life. I can hear in my mind people knawing on the bones, in their words, what they say and post online. How can they recieve the manna if we don’t share? Jesus calls us to make disciples of the world. Looking at it through God’s perspetive it is to help as many of His children connect to Him and to each other in love. To be gifted the very life that we all ultimately are seeking.
1 Corinthians 2:15-16 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
Chris,
Amen! Well said! 🙂
Thank you Jeff and Chris. While I am sure I cannot see or know everything the Lord does (Romans 11: 33 – 36), having a biblical world view and embracing the truth of Scripture allows me to know and do His will and have the lies of the world revealed. That way, with His help, I can avoid the land mines the world has placed that intend to do myself and others harm (2 Timothy 3: 16 – 17).
Thanks Rich!
I love the Romans 11 passage you reference. Who has known the mind of the Lord indeed! Yet as Paul points out to Timothy, all Scripture is “God-breathed.” We are blessed to be able to glimpse our world from God’s perspective, even if we can’t fully grasp what we are seeing.
05-02-2023, How does understanding God’s perspective change our perspective?
Our human attitudes are formed by our feelings. Our feelings from our experiences. Our perspective on anything, at any given time, is based solely on our own personal experiences, what we have been and are being taught by this world.
I believe a Godly perspective just might be “the capacity to view things in their true relations.”
Seeing and living life God’s way, is to fulfill His highest aim for our lives as we allow Him to change our view from one influenced and shaped by this worlds view, to His view which is free of all human influence. Many would call this a change of perspective. Actually it is more than that.
IT MEANS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, WE GAIN A REAL, TRUE PERSPECTIVE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. AS TRUTH IS REVEALED TO EACH BY THE POWER OF GOD.
Ephesians 1:18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
Isaiah 32:3, Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, and the ears of those who hear will listen.
John 8:12, 9:39, Luke 4:18, Mathew 9:27-31, 11:5, 2 Corinthians 4:6
Ron,
It is interesting to think of ourselves being “blind.” Would a person born blind ever know they were blind if no one ever told them? Perhaps that is the situation we find ourselves in spiritually.
Excellent Point!
The Bible teaches that every human has a conscience which has been placed the heart’s by God. It is the sense of right and wrong that we all have. The Bible contains God’s standard for right and wrong, but even those who have never even heard of the Bible still know the difference and are without excuse!
Romans 2:15 So they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and THEIR THOUGHTS SOMETIMES ACCUSING AND AT OTHER TIMES EVEN DEFENDING THEM.
John 3:1-21, speaks to our blindness and God’s provision. Then in John 16:8-14, Jesus explains how the Holy Spirit will come to convict all of sin, righteousness, and judgement to come. AND cure our blindness as He teach’s each believer the spiritual truths of God. What truths we apply to our lives is our choice.