Daily Meditations on the Bible
These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—
What is a “love feast?” Who eats there? Why should anyone have qualms about it?
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, is a great resource on this question. He describes in detail what the love feast is, who and how to eat it, and why it should be taken very seriously.
What is it?
Continue reading “Jude 1: 12A — Food”
They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
As Jude dives into the topic of his letter, we immediately understand that there are three groups of people involved.
The first group, the group that James is part of, are “loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.”
The second group, not mentioned by name but implied, are the people of the world who do not know Jesus but need Him. These people are not “lost” to Christ, but neither are they yet “found.” The one thing about this group that applies to all of them is that none of them claim to be Christians.
Continue reading “Jude 1: 7b — The Third Group”
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.
Jude is talking about ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality. This passage is EXHIBIT “A” in the world’s case against Christianity. The world’s point of view is that everything is okay unless everyone agrees that it is not okay. The judge of what is okay and not okay is the imaginary collective conscience of the entire world.
What has the entire world ever agreed on? Can you think of one thing? No, I can’t either. This argument assures than nobody will ever be able to accuse anyone else of doing what is wrong.
Wait! That’s not right! People tell Christians that they are wrong all the time.
Continue reading “Jude 1: 7a — The Undiscovered Country”
And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
In verse 5, Jude begins, “Though you already know all this…” and then tells me this thing about angels that I didn’t know. Maybe there is information about angels that was common knowledge in Jude’s day that didn’t make it into the Bible.
In some respects, this information should not surprise us. We know that God created all things (Colossians 1: 16), and we know about Satan (Job 1:6). What we don’t know is why a created angelic being would turn against God.
Continue reading “Jude 1: 6 — Wayward Angels”
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
Having introduced himself in his letter and explained his topic, Jude begins a short review of history.
In Sunday school, I learned that Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. I was also told it took forty years to get there. One day it dawned on me that forty years is a really long time. How is it possible that a trip could take that long? (Even if you only walked one mile each day, a trip of forty years would cover 14,600 miles!)
Of course, there is a lot more to the story.
Continue reading “Jude 1: 5 — A Change of Residence”
If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.
Today’s post happens to land on April 12, 2020. This day is special because it is Easter Sunday. It is unique because this year is the year of the COVIC-19 pandemic. This makes an odd backdrop to this year’s Easter. The pandemic has thrown the world into a panic. Thanks largely to a strategy of isolating people from each other, the Coronavirus has failed to reach what might be called critical mass in our country. Instead of being overwhelmed, many hospitals are empty.
Unfortunately, the isolation that has slowed the spread of the virus has also kept us away from church. So when Easter morning dawns today, there will be an eerie silence in most, if not all, of America’s churches.
What does this mean?
Continue reading “James 5: 15b — Artwork Redeemed”
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.
The title for our meditation is the Greek word, “sōzō.” It is the word that the NIV translates as made “well” in today’s verse. In English, we generally expect that if someone is made well, they are restored to complete health. After looking into the meaning of the Greek, sōzō, I am not entirely sure that is exactly what James meant.
Forgive me, I don’t mean to be questioning the fine minds that did the translation for NIV. Instead, I am questioning our understanding of what it means to be made well. Once again the challenge is discerning who’s point of view we should look at the word through; God’s or ours.
Continue reading “James 5: 15a — Sōzō”
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Note: Somehow I skipped over verses 13-17 in chapter 4. I’m not sure why, but as I started preparing for James 5: 12 I was reminded of the passage I had skipped over. So, let’s rewind for a few days and visit these words of James.
As I write this the world is embroiled in a war against an unseen enemy. A virus known as “Covid-19” has been unleashed and is running rampant. Wherever it goes, it lashes out at everyone around it. What sets it apart from other viruses is its speed and the potential nastiness of its effect on a person’s lungs. Within a matter of weeks beginning last December, the virus has infected most of the rest of the world. Slowly (it seemed) more information has become available. Suddenly, it seems, the country was shut down and we are all sitting at home.
Today we wonder how this happened. How did we become virtual prisoners in our own homes?
Continue reading “James 4: 13-14 — Stage Fright”
See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.
I want to continue the thought that we started yesterday in, “Two Sides.” In short, we contrasted what Paul writes in Ephesians 2: 8-9 with what James writes in James 2: 24. Paul tells us that we are saved by faith, not by works. James writes, “…a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” Are these two statements contradictory?
The key here is in Paul’s use of the word, “works.” The word “work” comes from the Greek, ergon. It describes the kind of work one does for pay. In other words, a job. At the end of the day, one who works at a job is paid in coin or currency. Both parties have what they bargained for. But salvation is not something any of us can afford. The price for our salvation is so far out of reach that we might as well believe that we could jump over the moon by using our own two legs.
Continue reading “James 5: 7b-8 — Job or Joy?”
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.
At the beginning of his letter, James encourages his readers to face trials with joy. The goal, he says, is to produce perseverance. Now he says to be patient. I wonder, aren’t perseverance and patience two sides of the same coin?
James’ letter is sometimes disparaged because he ties what we do to what we believe. Martin Luther, in particular, was critical of James’ letter. Luther had broken free of the legalism imposed by the Catholic Church. His means of breaking free was Paul’s assertion that we are saved by faith alone. Paul writes:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2: 8-9)
Continue reading “James 5: 7a — Two Sides”