Medicine Hat Joe

Week 50  James 1

A woman once told me she thought that James 1:27 was a summary of the NT (pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world). She said that single verse had become her NT.
I figured then (and still figure now) that the NT is a pretty complex set of ideas. Boiling them down to a simpler set of components seems like a great idea. I start with a big batch of bible maximals and end up with a single (manageable) minimal.
I thought about the desirability of the scheme.
I wondered: does reducing a whole bunch of fragmentary bible elements into a dense singularity help me? I figured: ‘Yes’.
I also wondered: will losing all of the fragmentary elements be detrimental? I figured: ‘Yes it will be’.
Realistically I can’t have both. It’s either reduce & trim-down or else accept & try managing a forest of complexity.
At the end-of-the-day the choice wasn’t that hard for me. I can’t get completely on board with a seriously downsized NT. Can’t get rid of my concern about what I’ve I traded away to get the condensed version.
Decluttering the NT is a very tempting goal. But streamlining comes with a pretty high price-tag.

Note: quote from James 1:27 (CSB). Technically-speaking James 1:27 has two items: a) look after orphans and widows and b) keep (myself) unstained from the world. But that’s a minor point.

Week 49  Hebrews 2

Right from the beginning Hebrews makes a big point about Jesus’ superiority. It starts in chapter one: Jesus is superior to the angels. And by chapter ten it’s clear he’s superior to everything and everyone else in the entire scheme of OT religion – prophets & great OT characters & tabernacle & temple & sacrifices & priesthood & covenant.
The writer is emphatic about Jesus’ superiority: in subjecting everything to him (Jesus), he (God) left nothing that is not subject to him (Jesus). Everything is subject to the Lord. Nothing isn’t subject to him.
But even though that’s the main point I notice the writer’s little add-on in the same verse. It’s almost an afterthought: as it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. There’s no debating the fact that everything is subjected to Jesus. But as it is there’s lots of times it doesn’t look like everything is subjected to him. I like that the writer added that comment. It’s a nice reminder that there are two things going on.
First there’s the Reality: everything actually is subject to the Lord. And then secondly there’s the Appearances: it doesn’t look like everything is subject to the Lord.
Reality: how things are. Appearance: how things look.
I like having that extra sentence. Glad the writer admits that Reality is competing with Appearances. Glad for the acknowledgement that lots of times illusion is pretty potent. So it’s a nice reminder.

Note: quote from Hebrews 2:8 (CSB)

Week 49  Hebrews

It’s pretty safe to say that the Letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish people who were following Jesus. But one of the knotty concerns the writer had to deal with was that – now that Jesus had actually come – OT religious views had to be reformulated to take him into consideration.
The writer was pretty straightforward about where things stood now. Jesus is the Greatest. He made-no-bones-about-it:
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses 
Moses was faithful as a servant…but Christ is faithful as the Son…
...Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant
As a high priest [Jesus]…is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners…Unlike other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day 
…the covenant of which (Jesus) is mediator is superior to the old one 
Christ is the mediator of a new covenant 
We…enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus…a new and living way.
If I was a Jewish convert to Christ and I heard this kind of messaging I think I’d be experiencing some anxiety. Uncertainty. Perplexity. Skepticism.
A better way?
Superior to Moses?
Superior to high priests?
A covenant that replaces the existing one?
It was a hard-pill-to-swallow and a real sticking-point for Jewish people who a) wanted to follow Jesus but b) were disinclined to let go of their traditional faith.

Note: quotes from Hebrews 3:3  3:5-6 7:22 7:26-28 8:6 9:15 10:19-20 (NIV)

Week 49  Hebrews

Today I read through the whole letter at once. To make things easier I galloped through all the quoted passages (56 of the 303 verses are OT quotes – about 18%. So my reading-time was reduced marginally.) Hebrews  is an OT-dense environment – familiar for a Jewish reader but not so comfortable for everyone else.
One thing I noticed was a repeater-message – stay strong and committed to the Lord:
Pay careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away
See to it…that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God
Be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short
Make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience (the reference is to Israel in the wilderness)
Hold firmly to the faith we profess
Show diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess
Persevere so that you will receive what he has promised
We do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Hebrews has other things to say but I think almost anyone reading the letter is going to be impressed by this message: Hold Fast!

Note: quotes from Hebrews 2:1 3:12 4:1 4:11 4:14 6:11 10:23 10:36 10:39 (NIV) (I omitted some words but kept the meaning).

Week 49  2 Timothy

Back in 1 Timothy I saw that Paul had warned Timothy about false teaching. So I was wondering if things had changed in the second letter. Apparently they hadn’t.
I found more warnings:
1. don’t quarrel about words
2. avoid irreverent babble
3. have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.
The problem for me – just like it was in 1 Timothy – is that Paul doesn’t pin-down what exactly the words & babblings & controversies are. Which is unfortunate.
Another thing Paul did – just like back in 1 Timothy – is to point out that fake teaching had negative repercussions:
1. Nit-picking over words does no good, but only ruins the hearers
2. Irreverent babble leads people into more and more ungodliness
3. Ignorant controversies breed quarrels.
Near the end of the letter I see what looks to me like a helpful summary:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Adopting nonsensical myths isn’t the starting point. It only comes after a couple of other criteria are in place:
First I’ve decided that sound doctrine is intolerable
Second (or maybe at about the same time) I’ve quit listening to truth
Third I’ve started picking-and-choosing my own preferences
Finally when those are settled I’m in the market for myths.

Note: quotes from 2 Timothy 2:13-17 23 1:13 4:3-4 (ESV)

Week 48  1 Timothy 5

The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden forever.
The big picture Paul draws here is that people fall into one of two categories: Group A (Bad People) & Group B (Good People). Paul then goes on to subdivide each group.
In Group A (Bad People) there are two cohorts. The first cohort is made up of bad people who are clearly & obviously bad. The second cohort is made up of bad people who are bad – but not obviously-bad (from all appearances  they live fairly good-looking bad lives).
In Group B (Good People) there’s one cohort that live identifiably & outstandingly good-looking good lives. Then there’s a second cohort that live less-detectibly good lives (subtly-good lives).
There might be some trouble distinguishing the second cohorts in Group A and Group B. That second cohort in Group A is not showing obviously-bad actions and they might be mistaken for Group B people who are living ambiguously  good lives.
I think Paul’s main point in the paragraph is that the life I live will eventually be evaluated.
But this other idea is pretty interesting too. There’s a guy who doesn’t look too bad on the surface…but in reality is. Whereas a guy who seems pretty ho-hum turns out not to be.

Note: quote from 1 Timothy 5:24-25 (NIV). Reading report: 95% completed.

Week 48  1 Timothy 1

Here’s the very first thing Paul told Timothy: command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer.
What I wondered was: what were the false doctrines Paul was talking about?
I decided to quick-read the letter from-beginning-to-end and find those unorthodox beliefs. Sad to say but I didn’t find what I was after. But I did find three things.
1. Paul mostly didn’t name specific false teachings. He stuck with generic expressions:
myths and endless genealogies
controversial speculations
godless myths
godless chatter
falsely called knowledge
The only specific examples of false teaching I found were:
forbidding people to marry
ordering people to abstain from certain kinds of food.
2. I was surprised to see that one of the repercussions of bad teaching is that people who buy into it will eventually abandon the faith (a bit later Paul reaffirms this. They have: departed from the faith).
3. And if #2 (abandoning the faith) isn’t bad enough there’s another problem. People who make a switch to false doctrine have started to follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. They’ve turned away to follow Satan.
I initially figured that the “false doctrines” Paul was thinking about were garden-variety errors. Minor misunderstandings. But it looks like there’s more to them. Directionally-speaking false doctrines seem to be aiming me straight into the danger zone.
So two Useful Personal Questions: a) how far off-the-beaten-path is this idea going to take me? And b) is it worth the risk?

Note: quotes from 1 Timothy 1:3-4 4:7 6:20 4:3 4:1 6:21 5:15 (NIV)

 

Week 48  2 Thessalonians 2

Paul says up-front what chapter 2 is about: the coming of our Lord.
He names two specific things that have to happen before the Lord comes back to earth: that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
So first there has to be a rebellion.
Then secondly a person called the man-of-lawlessness has to appear. Paul describes him:
• he will oppose & exalt himself over everything that is called God
• he will oppose & exalt himself over everything that is worshiped
• he will set himself up in God’s temple
• he will proclaim himself to be God.
(This sounds like a pretty sobering development and I feel relieved when Paul says that in spite of all his self-aggrandizing power-grabbing the man-of-lawlessness is doomed to destruction.)
If I drew a line graph representing the trend of the man-of-lawlessness’ life it would zoom right to the very top of the graph. But then moving left-to-right across the graph the line would drop-like-a-stone and not stop until it hit the bottom.

Notes: quotes from 2 Thessalonians 2:1 3-4 (NIV). Like some other forecasts in the bible I wish this one was a bit more definitive. One takeaway: the man-of-lawlessness is a pathologically arrogant and dangerously malign character.

 

Week 48  Colossians 2

Before long I see that this is a pretty complex chapter and since one of my goals in reading is understandability I’m wondering how I can decomplexify the section.
I check for paragraph divisions. One version has 7 paragraphs and another had 5. I need finer divisions. I look for independent phrases – short ideas with something to say. I find ~36 of them. Here’s a for instance:
Paul is concerned about his readers: that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
A single sentence made up of several connected – but different – phrases or ideas. I see that:
• Paul wants reader’s hearts to be encouraged
• He wants them to love each other
• If they love each other they’ll gain understanding
• They’ll also start to know God’s “mystery”
• God’s mystery – Paul says – is Christ
• And the mystery that Christ can offer people is wisdom & knowledge.
One complicated sentence. Breaking it down helps a little.
When I’m reading there’s a principle I come back to: if something is too unmanageably big for me in-the-aggregate then I can try disaggregating it.
The goal of disaggregating isn’t disaggregation. It’s goal is to help me understand what Paul’s saying – finessing things to catch-his-drift. (But keeping in mind that I have to let Paul say what he’s actually saying.)

Note: quote from Colossians 2:2-3 (ESV)

Week 47  Colossians 1

Paul says this about the Lord: he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son.
When people believe in the Lord they’re “rescued” (some other versions use delivered or transferred). In one way it sounds a bit like being an immigrant – moving from one country to another. But not exactly. It’s true to say that I’m a natural-born citizen of Darkness and that I leave there and relocate to the Kingdom of God. But immigration implies that I was free to leave. Paul is saying that I was not free to leave. I needed to be “rescued”. So I’m more like a refugee.
I wondered if Paul said anything more about me being like a refugee and so I decided to speed-read through Colossians. But it looks like Paul didn’t use the refugee idea again. I did see that he mentioned a couple of similar ideas (once-you-were-one-thing but now-you’re-another):
• Once you were far away. Now you’re near
• Once you were an enemy. Now you’re a friend
• Once dead. Now alive
• Once preoccupied with earth. Now interested in heaven
• Once having an old nature. Now having a new one.
The examples are different but the ideas are pretty much the same. Coming into faith means change. Adjustment. Evolution. Development. Process. Metamorphosis.
Statis doesn’t seem to be part of the agenda.

Note: quote from Colossians 1:13 (NIV). References to 1:21-22 2:13 3:1-2 & 9-10