Month: November 2024

Week 48 Philippians & Acts 16

Since I was ahead of schedule I decided to re-read Acts 16 before starting the Philippian letter (last year I made a reminder note to do that – if I had time).
Acts 16 is the backstory to the letter. I wondered if reading it would help me understand Philippians a bit better (unfortunately it didn’t).
Luke described three main events that happened with Paul & Silas:
First there’s Lydia. She already believed in God but when she heard the story of Jesus she came to faith.
Second is the story of a demon-possessed slave girl. She made money for her handlers by telling fortunes and they got angry when Paul exorcised the demon. So Paul & Silas were jailed.
Finally there’s the episode of Paul & Silas in jail:
a) the Lord intervened by sending an earthquake
b) the jailer came to faith in the Lord
c) Paul & Silas were released the next day (and soon after they left town).
So with that background I tried to track Lydia & the slave girl & the jailer in the letter. But I didn’t find any mention of them.
They might have been included in Paul’s final words – give my greetings to all the Christians there – but not by name.

Note: quote from Philippians 4:21 (NLT). The backstory is in Acts 16:11-40. End of the month reading report: 93% finished in 92% of the year (still ahead but cutting it a bit fine).

 

Week 48  2 Corinthians 10

Verses three-four-five seemed pretty important. I re-read them. Copied them. Added a couple of notes:
3 For though I live in the world, I do not wage war as the world does (so destructive industrial-scale physical combat & death-dealing isn’t my approach)
4 The weapons I fight with are not the weapons of the world (no rockets drones tanks bombs missiles)
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (Paul says here that these divinely-powered weapons  can demolish strongholds. In the next verse it looks like strongholds are arguments and pretensions)
5 I demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (arguments & pretensions are Strongholds of the Idea & Thought-World. I’m up against intangibles – lies deceptions false-appearances fakeries inaccuracies & make-believes. The war is a conflict between Knowledge-About-God & Deceptions-About-God).
and I take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (where do I go from here? I take a look at the thoughts that are swirling around in my own head. And it looks like I have two kinds of thoughts: a) the pretend-fake ones (that need to be captured) and b) the ones that are legitimate (and can be left free)).
So my thoughts in category (a) – the lying non-truths about the Lord – have to be identified and arrested.
That sounds like my take-away today: focus on getting-hold of my erroneous & deceptive thoughts.

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV). Where Paul used ‘we’ I personalized it – changed it to ‘I’.

Week 48  2 Corinthians 9

I was thinking about charitable giving so went back and re-read 2 Corinthians 9:8-14.
To try to clarify the paragraph for myself I worked it over a bit.
I deleted a couple of things. Changed some of the wording. Did some reformatting. Revised & personalized it. But I tried hard to retain what I figured Paul actually meant. Here’s what I got (the MHJ Version):

God will generously provide all of my needs
That means that:
• I’ll have everything that I need
• I’ll have plenty left over to share with others
• God will produce a great harvest of generosity in me
Since I’ll always have what I need I can always be generous
Two good things will result if I give:
• people in-need will have some of their needs met
• people will thank the Lord (Paul also says they’ll give glory to God)
Being generous means I’m being obedient to the Lord
The people I give to will (hopefully) pray for me.

So after my revising exercise I come away with an obvious reminder that if I give to someone who needs help he’ll be in less need.
I get a reassuring reminder that giving won’t leave me bankrupt.
I see that there’s also a religious side to charity – helped-people will thank the Lord.
And there’s this idea that I’ll be “harvesting righteousness” by giving – which sounds like a good thing for me (even if I’m not sure specifically what it is).

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 9:10 13 (NIV)

Week 47  2 Corinthians 9

Paul endorses voluntary financial contributions to my church & charities but he adds: I want it to be a willing gift, not one given under pressure.
So do I have to give to my church? I don’t think so. Not if I really don’t want to. I might feel like giving from time-to-time…but not being forced to give fits with my normal tendency to a) Keep Everything I Have for Myself and b) Not Give to Other People.
Anyway Paul talks about giving in terms of a Planter’s Principle – he says the Planter’s Principle (which is an absolute rule in agriculture) is a rule that works in charitable giving too. It goes like this:
a) if I plant a few seeds I’ll get a small crop
b) if I put a lot of seed into the ground I’ll get a big harvest.
Paul doesn’t actually say that the Planter’s Principle in the natural & real-world agricultural sector carries over exactly into the charitable-giving dimension. But he says there’s a correspondence. With charity there’s the Part a) (me giving money) and there’s a Part b) (some kind of harvestable crop – a payback).
Paul doesn’t spell out exactly what the payback will be (one thing I noticed is that the Lord won’t forget my good deeds (which sounds like something has been put-on-hold for me).
This makes charity look less like an outright financial loss & more like a long-term investment.

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 9:5 9 (NL T)

Week 47  2 Corinthians 6

Yesterday I was thinking about Paul’s advice about not teaming-up with people who don’t like the Lord.
I figured a simple breakdown was to divide interpersonal connections into: 1) First Level Connections and 2) Second Level Connections.
It’s totally possible for me to have a personal connection with a person who disliked – maybe even hated – the Lord. But Paul said that Second Level Connections had limitations.
For instance he said that between righteousness (First Level) and lawlessness (Second Level) there couldn’t be a partnership
Between light and darkness there was no fellowship
Between Christ and Satan no harmony
Between a believer and an unbeliever no common ground.
A believer can fraternize in any number of regular & day-to-day ways with a not-believer. I’m following the Lord and at the same time having a lot of Second Level Connections with people who don’t follow the Lord.
I can have pretty decent Second Level Connections but when it comes to the fundamental level of my renewed spiritual life connections (my First Level Connections) I don’t have anything in common with an unbeliever. That’s just the way things are.
At some point I accept that my Second Level Connections and my First Level Connections are different. So I have to differentiate between them. It’s possible for me to have both connections. But it’s a balancing act. They don’t mix. They’re compartmentalized connections. Friendships with fences.

Note: quotes  2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (NASB)

Week 47  2 Corinthians 6

Paul told church-people in Corinth do not be yoked together with unbelievers (other versions say things like don’t be bound together or don’t team up or don’t make mismatched alliances).
So I’m wondering: “who are my real friends?”
For one thing Paul isn’t saying I have to totally isolate yourself from every person who does not believe in the Lord. Social connections with people who couldn’t care less about the Lord are normal (they’re unavoidable). I could not not have those contact even if I wanted to. So Paul’s advice here can’t really be about connections like working at the plant or eating lunch or playing ball or helping a guy stain his deck. But it does have to do with being paired-up.
I figure the verse is telling me I have a) a bunch of First Level Connections and b) a bunch of Second Level Connections.
My First Level Connections are with people who follow the Lord. They think like he did.  Act like him. Share his values. Endorse & promote him.
My Second Level Connections are people I work with & live next door to & am friends with. But they don’t follow the Lord.
In a lot of ways my First Level Connections and my Second Level Connections share common ground.
The big question – the one that makes all the difference when it comes to First & Second Level Connections – is: does this person follow the Lord?

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV NASB NLT & Amplified)

Week 47  2 Corinthians

I thought about post-mortem outcomes when I read this verse: we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies.
I wondered about after-the-end-of-living:  #1. when I die is getting to heaven my reward? #2. when I die and go to heaven will I get add-on rewards for good deeds that I did when I was still on earth? (for instance: will I get rewarded for giving food to a person who was hungry?) Is it #1 or #2?
With #1 the sequence would look like this:
I’m living my life heading in a direction away from heaven
Then I meet the Lord and now he’s my master
I change direction – now I’m headed for heaven
I live the rest of my life
Then I die and get to heaven.
With #2 the sequence factors-in an extra decision/ choice:
I’m walking along heading away from heaven
Then Jesus becomes my master
I change directions. Now I’m headed for heaven
I have however much life I have left and I have a decision to make. Going forward I can a) keep walking along just living the rest of my life or b) I can start making deliberately good-quality choices about trying to live more like my new master
Then I die and go to heaven.
Reading this verse today sounds a lot like #2b is the preferred choice.

Note: quote from 2 Corinthians 5:9 (NLT)

Week 46  1 Corinthians 11

Paul said that communion is a time of remembering & proclaiming / showing & honouring the Lord.
Then he added a couple of related issues. Advisories.
1. He gave a warning about not taking communion unworthily. The unworthiness Paul’s talking about could relate to what he’d already criticized: some of you hurry to eat without sharing with others. People in the church in Corinth needed to ask: is this worthy behaviour? (2000 years later the church might be doing different kinds of unworthinesses.)
2. Paul offered advice about dealing with communion-unworthiness: examine yourself before eating. Self-assess looking for unworthy actions.
3. He also (worryingly) said that unworthy behaviour at communion is a kind of magnet for divine judgment: for if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. So…not a distant-future / post-mortem judgment. Here-and-now physical weaknesses or sicknesses or maybe even death.
Paul ended with a do-able tip on taking communion the right way (and avoiding judgment): so…when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other. If you are really hungry, eat at home.
Communion is a church-community meal. It’s not an eating free-for-all.
Communion is a church-community meal with two aims: a) to remember & demonstrate & honour the Lord and b) to enjoy a meal together.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 11:27 21 28 30 33 (NLT)

Week 46  1 Corinthians 11

The sacrament of communion was a bit different in the church in Corinth than in the church that I go to. From the look of it a Corinthian Lord’s Supper was a full church-community meal.
It’s hard to know for sure if the community meal was the actual sacramental celebration or if the meal was a pre-event – a preliminary – that was followed by a more religiously-focused gathering that emphasized the Lord’s death.
Either way one of the problems in Corinth was that what was supposed to be a share-and-share-alike meal had turned into a bit of an every-man-for-himself type of gathering where some go hungry while others get drunk.
So Paul spelled out a couple of things that were part of the communion meal.
First there was a remembering function in communion: do this in remembrance of me (a kind of Remembrance Day for the Lord).
Along with remembering there was also an announcing function: for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes. Other versions say proclaiming or showing. So maybe a demonstration symbolizing that a) the Lord had died and b) that would also be coming back again.
And one other feature of communion was honoring the body of Christ.
So none of these basic parts of communion – remembering & proclaiming & honouring the Lord – would likely have been highlighted in Corinth’s eating & drinking free-for-all.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 11:21b 24-25 26 & 29 (NLT)

Week 44  Romans 16

Paul ends his letter to the Romans with a dense & fairly complicated passage. But by simplifying the complexities I found a pretty helpful synopsis of the bible.
I counted 9 clauses that Paul combined in an intricate mix (but I figured that a few perplexing elements didn’t necessarily mean that I couldn’t make any sense of any of it).
I itemized the verses like this:
1. Now to Him who has the power to establish you
2. according to my Gospel
3. and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
4. according to the revelation of the mystery
5. which was kept secret since the world began
6. but now is made manifest,
7. and by the Scriptures of the prophets,
8. according to the commandment of the everlasting God,
9. made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
So now I had these 9 linked-statements that together are pretty complicated.
Q #1: could I uncomplicate them? A #1: I thought so.
Q #2: what did my simplified version look like? A #2: (something like this): the Lord had a plan from the beginning. But he kept it quiet. It was a mystery. Even though the Lord tipped off OT prophets about the mystery – gave them some hints – he didn’t comprehensively divulge the specifics of the plan. But now (in the NT) the plan is fully revealed.
So getting down to the basics one very simple bible reader’s condensed version is: the OT is fairly mysterious. But the NT demystifies things considerably.

Note: quote from Romans 16:25-26 (21st Century KJV)