Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man …
Summary: The change in Paul that occurred on the road to Damascus is not all that different than what we commonly call a “wake up call.”
How does a person go from seeing himself as a virtuous defender of “All That Is Right” one day, and the next, find themselves believing that their whole life has been a horrible mistake?
Continue reading “1 Timothy 1:13a – A Single Blast of Light”
[… advancing God’s work] — which is by faith.
Summary: Advancing God’s work by faith might sound simple, but some aspects of this task can be incredibly hard.
When we talk about “God’s work,” we are talking about something very different from what we normally think of as “work.”
Continue reading “1 Timothy 1:4c – By Faith”
… with thanksgiving…
Summary: Thankfulness is a key ingredient to prayer.
Since it is Thanksgiving Day, let’s take a leap back to verse six and fill in a spot we glossed over earlier.
Continue reading “Philippians 4:6b(2) – Happy Thanksgiving!”
And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
Summary: Paul’s simple statement about his confidence in the Lord gives us a reason to have confidence in Jesus, too.
I have to admire Paul’s confidence.
Here he is, at least four years into an unjustified imprisonment, confident that he will be released soon.
Continue reading “Philippians 2:24 – God’s-Eye View”
… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
Summary: Examining Christ’s humility and obedience opens a fascinating line of inquiry into our Lord’s personality and the world we live in.
Arrogance is the opposite of humility.
Another way of putting it is that arrogance is “self-centered,” while humility is not.
Continue reading “Philippians 2:8b – Our Selfless God”
And being found in appearance as a man…
Summary: Paul is walking us through what it means to think like Jesus. His understanding of the Lord is reflected in the clarity of his description of what sets Jesus apart.
Paul is in the middle of describing the mindset of Jesus Christ.
Whatever you might think of Jesus, it seems obvious he was in a pickle. Here he was, the one through whom all things were made (John 1:3), reduced to being a social outcast in his own creation. (His disciple, Nathanael, when he found out Jesus was from Nazareth, said: “Can anything good come from there?” — John 1:46).
Continue reading “Philippians 2:8a – Two Things”
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
Summary: In this passage, Paul challenges us to see things as God sees them.
There is a theme that runs through the Bible that goes something like this:
Continue reading “Philippians 2:3b – Perspective”
[… filled with the fruit of righteousness] that comes through Jesus Christ…
Summary: Righteousness that comes through Jesus is different than human righteousness.
As we continue through this passage, we discover that Paul is referring to a specific kind of righteousness, the kind that comes through Jesus Christ.
The word Paul uses for “righteousness” is “dikaiosýnē,” in Greek, which Strong’s Concordance defines as “equity (of character or act)” (Strong’s G1343).
Continue reading “Philippians 1:11b – God’s Standard”
…[clothe yourselves with] … humility …
Summary: In the grand scheme of things, understanding a word like “humility” requires us to have an understanding of how we measure our own self-importance.
When I think of humility, I always think of Moses. The Bible says that Moses was “a very humble man.” It goes on to say that he was “more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Number 12:3).
At first glance, that statement sounds oxymoronic.
We assume the first five books of the Bible are written by Moses, so how could he claim to be “more humble than anyone else” and still be humble?
Continue reading “Colossians 3:12e – Something to Remember”[Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with] … their false humility …
Summary: Three little words set us to wonder about the ways some people try to manipulate the beliefs of others.
Why would Paul rail against false humility?
Let’s take a second look at his sentence structure. He wants us to know the “appearance of wisdom” is created by things like “self-imposed worship” and “false humility.”
On its own, false humility is offensive. For one thing, it is pretentious. The fact that it is “false” humility means it is not real.
Continue reading “Colossians 2:23c – Two Different Things”