Being Sensitive To Another's Conscience

I Corinthians 8

“I am allowed to do that, and nobody can tell me no!”  Have you ever heard someone say that, or something similar?  Someone wants to do something, and true, there is no law or regulation prohibiting it, and then someone suggests to them that maybe they shouldn’t do that, at least not in certain circumstances.  The first person, however, stubbornly proclaims that they will do whatever they feel like doing.  They don’t even care if it might hurt someone else, their freedom is what matters, not other people.  Rather selfish, don’t you think?  We’d never act like that!  Or would we?  Our Scripture today discusses circumstances like that, and the Apostle Paul’s admonition to avoid acting in this manner with regards to other believers.

The city of Corinth was a large, important port city at the time of Paul, with a multitude of pagan gods and goddesses worshiped there.  One practice done here was that when an animal was sacrificed to one of the many pagan gods on their altars, the meat was then frequently taken to the local butcher shop and sold.  This, naturally, didn’t bother any pagan.  It didn’t bother some Christians, either, as they knew that these pagan gods didn’t really even exist.  However, there were some Christians who felt strongly against eating such food as it had been offered to a pagan god, making it sinful, as if one were then partaking in such worship.  This became a big enough controversy in the Corinthian church that Paul had to address it.

The first thing that Paul did was to explain that these pagan deities do not really exist (vs. 4-6).  There is no other deity apart from Yahweh.  We do not serve one God among many.  We serve the only God.   We are not saved by the food we eat or avoid.  Paul stated that there was nothing wrong with eating the meat that had been previously offered in sacrifice.  Jesus said something similar when He said that it is not what goes in the mouth that defiles a person, but that which comes out of the mouth (Matthew 15:11).  God also revealed to Peter that if He calls a food clean, it is clean to eat (Acts 10:9-16).

Paul continued to explain that there are always some spiritually immature believers, those who don’t understand that what one eats or does not eat does not affect them spiritually.  Rather than get all proud and puffed up with our more spiritually advanced knowledge, Paul admonishes the spiritually stronger believers to be considerate of the immature and weaker believer, the ones who might be offended.  We should avoid anything that would weaken their faith.  If a weaker believer saw a stronger believer eating such food, it might weaken or defile their conscience, possibly leading them to do something that they believed was a sin (vs. 7-8).  Paul was saying that even though they had the “right” to eat whatever they wanted, sometimes they needed to abstain out of love and concern for others.

This is sometimes an issue in some churches today.  What one might consider wrong, another might feel is okay - alcohol, being a vegetarian or vegan or not, watching TV or movies, tattoos, dresses vs. slacks for women, make-up, etc.  It is destructive to disregard the sensitivities of another’s conscience.  It is not enough to be convinced that we have the liberty to do something, we must consider others, as well.  Where truth grants us the freedom to partake in some things that a weaker believer might be offended by, love sometimes demands that we exercise our freedom to abstain.

The spiritually stronger one, though, may complain that they have the right to eat this, drink that, wear this or that, and that the Bible does not say it is a sin.  Let’s look at a similar example.  Let's say I go to an archery field.  I pay the price, have my equipment, know how to shoot, and know the rules.  I have all legal right to shoot the arrows at the target across the field.  However, if a “weaker” child steps onto the field, I am required to stop.  What I am doing is not wrong. I have the right to practice archery, but the presence of the “weaker” one requires me to stop, to abstain.  I don’t want to hurt the child, even if he is in the wrong by being there.

Everything we do must be done with the idea of how it affects others.  Paul was willing to give up all of his rights if it meant bringing the lost to Jesus, or helping a believer grow in the faith.  Are we willing to practice some self-denial so that others may come to know salvation through the Lord Jesus?

The Works Of The Lord

Psalm 111

When a young man falls in love with a woman, or a young woman with a man, one of the first things that they do is to try and find out all they can about their beloved.  They want to know what foods they like, what music they listen to.  They want to know all about their job, their hobbies, etc.  They want to dig deep, just as if they were studying for an important exam.  It is only natural to want to know about someone you are interested in.  The same should hold true about the Lord.  Our psalm for this week gives us encouragement to pursue our knowledge of the Lord just as these young couples would.

Psalm 111 is one nine acrostic psalms in the Book of Psalms, where each line or verse begins with a different letter of the alphabet.  You might remember back when you were a young child, learning the alphabet, and had a picture book to help you - A is for apple, B is for bear, etc.  Psalm 111 has 22 lines (not verses, but lines), each beginning with a letter of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Our unknown psalmist dearly loved the Lord, and just like the young man in my example at the beginning, who wants to know all he can about the woman he loves, this psalmist wanted to learn everything he could about the Lord.  He studied everything he could to learn about His works, the great things the Lord has done in the world (vs. 2).  Do you and I really love the Lord?  If we do, then we should love to study the works of God recorded in the Bible.

When we look into all that the Lord has done for us, and all of His mighty works, we can’t help but bring Him praise (vs. 1).  The psalmist wanted to praise the Lord with his whole heart.  This goes hand in hand with statements made in the Gospels, when Jesus taught us to love the Lord with all of our heart (Matthew 22:37).  Believers should be both praising the Lord with all of our heart, and loving Him with all our heart, too.

As we look further into this psalm, examining all of God’s works, and things we can be thankful and praise Him for, we see that God is mindful of His covenant (vs. 5).  A covenant is a binding, legal agreement between two or more people.  When God makes a covenant, we can be certain that He will keep His end of the agreement.  Man consistently has broken the covenants that were made with God, but not the Lord.  The viability of the covenants the Lord makes rests in the Lord Jesus, not in man.  The Lord is always able to carry out what He has promised.  Because God has been faithful, we can trust His Word.  He can be trusted!

God’s many works especially include that of redemption (vs. 9).  Jesus paid the price to free us from sin’s power, giving His life as a perfect sacrifice.  Now all believers can freely approach God’s throne in prayer (Hebrews 4:14-16).  Our redemption, in addition to all of God’s works, is eternal because it is accomplished through Him (vs. 8).

Our author wraps up his psalm with a verse familiar to many, and that is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (vs. 10).  The only way to become truly wise is not by experience or academic knowledge, but it is found in fearing God.  Fear of the Lord is having a reverential awe and a worshipful submission to Him.  Without God, all of our decision-making is shaky.  We are then prone to mistakes and foolish choices.  A healthy fear of the Lord will lead to respect for His commands, precepts, and principles.  When we fear the Lord, we will find it a joy to obey Him.

As we look through our own life, and the world around us, we can make our own list of all the works of the Lord that we have seen and experienced.  Perhaps we could even make our own acrostic, our own alphabetical list. I know for myself, it would take way more than just one go-through from A-Z.   Mere words can never plumb the depths nor scale the heights of the works which God has done!

The Great Prophet

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Who can we trust to bring us the Word of God?  God has had his servants all through the ages who have proclaimed His message.  As long as they remain faithful and true to Him and the Bible, their message could be trusted.  Moses was just such a servant of the Lord, who faithfully brought God’s Word.  In our brief Scripture from the Book of Deuteronomy, we read of Someone who Moses promised, who would also come to bring God’s Word to us.  Let’s read who that Person is.

Most of us know of Moses, how he grew up in the royal courts of Egypt, and then spent years in the land of Midian.  Later he returned to Egypt and led the people of Israel out of slavery, crossing the Red Sea, and on to Mt. Sinai where he received the Law from the hands of God.  While at Mt Sinai the people feared hearing from God, and the display of His glory, and pleaded that God would speak only to Moses (vs. 16), and that he would transmit His messages (Exodus 20:18-21).  Our Scripture passage relates how God, through Moses, promised the people that one day coming He would raise up a Prophet for the people, like Moses (vs. 15, 18).  God told Moses that this coming Prophet would be from among the people, and he would be “like you”, like Moses.

The Bible clearly lets us know that this Prophet is the Lord Jesus Christ.  There are several ways that Moses and Jesus were similar.  Both Moses and Jesus were full of compassion and love for the people.  Moses had compassion on the people of Israel, knowing that they were like sheep without a shepherd (Numbers 27:17).  Jesus, also, looked out onto the multitudes, seeing their needs, both physical and spiritual, and saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).

Both were intercessors for the people.  Throughout the years in the wilderness, the people of Israel continually fell into sin, and Moses continually prayed for them (Deuteronomy 9:18).  The Lord Jesus is in heaven today, continually praying for us (Hebrews 7:25).  Moses spoke with God, and his face reflected God’s glory (Exodus 34:29-30; II Corinthians 3:7).   Jesus, the Son of God, came from His presence to earth, and returned there after His resurrection, and is seated at God’s right hand (Hebrews 10:12-13).

Jesus is a mighty Prophet in word and deed (Luke 24:19).  He is a Revealer of God’s will and purpose (Ephesians 1:11).  Jesus is a Mediator of the covenant (Hebrews 8:6-7).  He is a Teacher of the people (Isaiah 55:4).  Moses was all of these, as well, and Jesus fulfilled these positions even more.

Moses was rescued as a baby from death, when his mother made a basket and put him in the Nile to save him from Pharaoh's edict, where later a royal princess found him (Exodus 2:3-6).  Jesus was also rescued as a baby when His family fled Bethlehem and Herod had all babies in Bethlehem killed (Matthew 2:13-16).  Moses turned away from a royal throne to serve God (Hebrews 11:24-26).  Jesus also turned away from His heavenly throne to redeem mankind (Philippians 2:5-8).

A true prophet, such as Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, will faithfully bring God’s full message truthfully.  Jesus is more than a mere prophet.  He both gave God’s Word faithfully and truthfully, He also fulfilled all of the Messianic prophecies.  Right prior to our Scripture passage God warned not to follow those who use the occult to find one’s future (Deuteronomy 18:9-14).  The will of God is found through His messengers, the true prophets, not through fortune tellers, tarot cards, or horoscopes.

Today’s Scripture ends with two warnings - one for those who neglect the message of the true Prophet of God, and the other for those who give false messages from God (vs. 19-20).  Every person who hears the Gospel and turns away from Jesus will one day answer at the Great White Throne for what they have heard.  The Lord has also very strong judgment for false prophets who claim they have God’s message, but it is not His true Word, and who also mix the worship of God with those of false, pagan gods.

Let us look only to those who speak the true message of the Lord, through His Word, the Bible, and to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Follow Me

Mark 1:14-20

Do you follow anyone?  That term has come to have a new meaning in the last 20 or so years.  If you ask that question to someone today, they will most likely think that you are referring to Social Media, where you can decide to follow someone’s Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or other Social Media site.  Most of us follow one or more people, keeping up-to-date with everything they have to say.  Perhaps after a while, for whatever reason, we might choose to “unfollow” them, and we no longer receive their information in our inboxes.  Before the days of the Internet, the term “follow” meant to go or come after or behind someone or something.  It still has that meaning today, but when most people hear the word “follow” today, they think of the Internet meaning.  In our Scripture for today from Mark’s Gospel, we see where several fishermen were called away from their jobs to follow another.  What did that mean to them?  Let’s see.

As our Scripture begins, we read that John the Baptist had been put in prison, and Jesus had returned to Galilee to begin His ministry there.  There He began to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God (vs. 14).  The word “gospel” basically means “good news”.  Jesus has good news for us.  Don’t we all want and need to hear that, especially in this day and age?  It’s important, though, that the news we hear is trustworthy, that it is something we can believe.  Over the last few years we have heard the term “fake news” thrown around a lot, often with one politician or political party accusing the other of putting out “fake news”.  Who can you believe?  Jesus gives us good news, words, and a message that we can trust.  The message from God’s Word, the Bible, is not “fake news”!

The first message that Jesus gave upon returning to Galilee was one of repentance and faith (vs. 15).  Repentance and faith are the required response to God’s offer of salvation.  We might not think that repentance is very good news, however, having a genuine remorse and contrition for our sins against God will bring us to a point where we will believe in salvation through the shed Blood and death of Jesus for us.  Everyone needs to repent, to turn from their sins, and turn instead to righteousness, not just outwardly, but with the heart.  Along with repentance must come believing, putting your trust in Jesus and His message.

It was at this point that the Lord Jesus saw four men, all fishermen along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Andrew and his brother Simon Peter, and James and his brother John (vs. 16-20).  Andrew had been a follower of John the Baptist before, but had returned to Galilee to resume his job as a fisherman.  Jesus called each of these men to follow Him.  This calling to follow wasn’t to just tune in and listen to a few of His messages and teachings now and then, like when we check in online with someone we “follow” on Twitter or YouTube to see what they are saying.  Plenty of people throughout Galilee and Judea would catch a teaching or parable of Jesus now and then.  If there would have been such a thing back in those days, they would have hit the “like” button, but they weren’t real followers.  A number of these folks may very well have made a further commitment later and gotten saved.

The “follow Me” request that Jesus called out to these four men was a lot more than that.  Jesus was calling for these men to leave their former way of life and to become His disciples, those who would learn from Him, learn His message and teachings, and then go out and teach others.  This was following with a major commitment.  Following someone online has no real commitment.  We can check on them and what they say today or not, depending on if we feel like it, or have the time.  The only effort given is a few clicks on our computer, and that’s it.  Jesus wants more than a few clicks from us.

Evangelism was the primary purpose for which Jesus called the apostles, and it remains the central mission for believers today.  We are all called to be fishers of men.  Jesus calls you and I to follow Him.  Following someone online doesn’t cost us anything.  There is a price, though, to follow Jesus.  It can cost us our friends, our family, sometimes a job, or even our life.  Are we willing to pay the cost of discipleship?  Are we willing to follow Jesus?

Live As You Are Called

I Corinthians 7:17-23

Our Scripture for today may seem a little odd, talking about a subject that we don’t usually think about, much less talk about.  In order to understand what the Apostle Paul was writing about to the church in Corinth, we really need to have a bit of historical and cultural context for the subject to make any sense.  Let’s take a look at this rather unusual or different subject in our Scripture.

On the Day of Pentecost, what is traditionally considered the birthday of the Church, the believers, those early Christians, were almost exclusively from a Jewish background.  Jesus’ last instructions to His followers, on the day when He was taken back up into heaven, was to go into all the world and spread the Gospel, telling everyone about Him (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).  However, for several years, these earliest believers only witnessed to fellow Jews, and on a rare occasion to a Samaritan, but never to Gentiles.  As a matter of fact, when Peter, the chief of the apostles, finally did witness to a Gentile man, Cornelius and his family, he was strongly criticized by his fellow believers, not just for witnessing to them, but for even eating with them (Acts 11:1-3).

Slowly the Gospel began to be spread among the Gentiles.  However, there remained a strong faction among the Jewish believers that felt quite strongly that if the Gentiles were witnessed to, and they came to saving faith in Jesus, they had to be circumcised and adhere to the Old Testament Law.  This became a very contentious argument in the early Church.  There was one side which said that the Jewish Law must be followed, including by Gentiles.  This group came to be known as the Judaizers.   On the other side were those who said that was not the case.  Paul was very much in the latter camp, and he addressed this issue quite strongly in several of his epistles.

This became such an issue that after churches were started in predominantly Greek/Gentile areas, with a mostly Gentile congregation, Judaizers came in and demanded that all Gentile believers be circumcised (Galatians 5:1-6).  These Judaizers were telling the new believers that they couldn’t really be saved unless they were circumcised first, and also kept the other Mosaic Laws, such as with diet and other regulations.

The Council of Jerusalem was convened to address these issues, where it was decided by the leaders of the Church that the Law of Moses, the Old Testament Law, did not need to be followed, including the act of circumcision (Acts 15:6-29).  That didn’t sit well with some of the Jewish believers, and they continued to insist that Gentiles follow the Law, for all practical purposes to become Jews first, and then they can be saved and become a Christian.

Scripture teaches that after Christ’s death, circumcision is no longer necessary (Romans 4:9-11; Galatians 5:2-4; Colossians 2:11).  Pleasing God and obeying Him is more important than observing traditional ceremonies.  Rituals help us only insofar as they move us towards God.  In and of themselves they have no intrinsic value.  God values obedience far more than adherence to religious regulations (I Samuel 15:22; Philippians 3:3).

Jesus has fulfilled all of the old Levitical Law, so it is no longer binding. Abraham, the Father of Faith, was not justified or made righteous by circumcision, but instead, it was through his faith (Genesis 15:6).   When we trust and obey God, like Abraham did, we please Him more than just keeping a ritual.  We can keep every last ritual and tradition, but if we do not love God and our neighbor, it is nothing, as Jesus summarized in Matthew 22:36-40.  Culture, social standing, and external ceremonies have no bearing on spiritual life.  What matters is faith and obedience.

Paul told the Corinthian Church that what they needed to do was to remain in the same state that they were in when they got saved (vs. 20-22).  If they were an uncircumcised Gentile, remain that way. If they were a circumcised Jew, remain that way.  If they were a slave or they were free, remain that way, as we all are to be servants of the Lord.  People are slaves to sin until they commit their lives to Jesus, who alone can conquer sin’s power.  No bondage is as terrible as that of sin, from which Jesus frees the believer.  Sin no longer has any claim over us.

In closing, Paul ends this section of Scripture by reminding us that we were bought with a price.  What was that price?  Our ransom price was the Precious Blood of the Lord Jesus, which He shed on the Cross.  It was the Blood that was shed when He died for our sins, to redeem us from the power of sin.  Don’t become slaves to the ways of men and the world.

Down In The Pit

Psalm 130

Problems can sometimes overwhelm us so much that we feel like we are in a deep and sinking pit.  This happens to everyone now and again.  There is even a figure of speech, that of “being in deep trouble”, or we are “over our head in trouble”, that describes just how we feel when these things happen.  Whether we are literally in a pit, or whether it is a deep and overwhelming problem, we often can’t get out on our own.  We need help.  Who can we call upon who will hear us, be there, and have the strength and ability to give aid, whether it is our fault it happened, or not?   Our psalm for today will tell us that answer.

The author of today’s psalm was deep in some sort of trouble and distress.  We don’t know who the author of this psalm is, nor what his trouble was, but he felt quite overwhelmed (vs. 1).  The “depths” spoke of any place that felt desperate.  This was a time of severe distress.  Problems and despair can make us feel isolated and distant from God.  This is precisely when we need Him the most.  Our psalmist knew this, and that is Who he called upon.

Was this a “pit”, whether literal or figurative, that he fell into by accident, or was it a result of some sinful behavior he got involved in?  The psalmist’s words seem to hint that it might have been the latter.  The psalmist prayed to God, reminding Him that no one is without any sins, and that if God kept a record of everything everyone did (and He does keep just such a record), no one could stand and face Him (vs. 3).  However, he also knew that God is a forgiving God (vs. 4).

Though it isn’t always the case, some suffering is the result of sin.  We need to be careful not to judge others in their sufferings, and immediately assume that they are sinners because of what they are going through.  But there are times when it is because of sin, and this psalm seems to indicate it was with the psalmist.  Despair over sin should not cause us to turn from the Lord.  It should lead us to confess, and then turn to Him for mercy, forgiveness, and redemption.  In his time of need, our author turned to God and asked for His mercy.  When we turn to the Lord and confess what we have done, God delights to forgive.  He gives never-ending forgiveness to those who come to Him.

The psalmist reminds us that often we have to wait on the Lord for His answer (vs. 5-6).  God does not jump into action on our timetable.  When we are in despair we get impatient with God, and often try to do something on our own to solve the problem.  However, often the best thing we can do is wait on God.  Remember that He is in control.  The Lord waits for the best moment to intervene.  Waiting is the Lord’s training ground for building strong faith.  As we wait we learn to trust more deeply and surely in Him.

In closing, this psalm reminds us that many times we find ourselves deep in the depths, caught in a problem that is sometimes of our own making, but also sometimes not.  We live in a fallen world.  Panic never leads to anything good.  Instead, we need to stay calm and wait for the Lord to be attentive to our cries for mercy.  We need to put our hope in God’s Word, which will never fail (vs. 5).  When you find yourself in danger, put your hope in God.  Trust completely by faith that God will come to your rescue, as He has promised.  We can have that certain hope, because God’s Word, the Bible, cannot fail.

The High Places

Jeremiah 3:21 - 4:2

Living in the Chicago area as I do, we are in the Great Lakes region, a rather flat part of the country.  No mountains here!  Fortunately when I was younger I had the opportunity to visit both the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.  Mountains are very beautiful and majestic.  In some cultures, though, mountains have been worshiped, or have been the focus for worship of various false, pagan gods.  Mount Olympus, associated with the ancient Greek religion, is a prime example.  The people of Israel and Judah had a tendency to fall into that trap, too, as we shall see in our Scripture today from the Book of Jeremiah.

From the final days of Joshua on through to the Babylonian captivity, the people of Israel and Judah had a strong tendency to turn to the worship of the pagan gods and goddesses of the surrounding Canaanite tribes.  Often part of the worship of these false gods took place in “high places”, on the tops of hills and mountains, where they would erect shrines and altars.  Worship in these high places, along with the worship in groves, were specifically forbidden by Yahweh (Deuteronomy 12:2-3, 13-14).  However, the people went running after the ways of their pagan neighbors, and the worship on high places and groves became entrenched in their culture.  By the days of the prophet Jeremiah it was a very common practice, though it still greatly angered the Lord God.

As our Scripture opens, Jeremiah described the sound of weeping and prayers being heard from up in the heights, up in the hills, where the pagan shrines frequently were.  The people were up their pleading in prayer for the help of pagan deities, or even Yahweh, to help in the desperate troubles they were in.  However, God said that they have perverted their ways and have forgotten Him (vs. 21).  This was not the way God said to worship Him.

The worship of false gods was wrong, along with the combining of worship of Yahweh with a pagan deity.  He would not share the altar in the high places, nor in groves.  He would only be worshiped upon the specific altar in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jeremiah, on behalf of God, called the people back from their backsliding, from their sins, and then He would forgive them (vs. 22).

Sin should be seen for what it is.  All too often, either back in Biblical days, and certainly today, sin is whitewashed.  Too many people don’t even believe in sin today.  Everything is considered okay.  Anything goes.  If it feels good, do it.  It's all okay.  Those are the mantras today.  The world glorifies sin, and does not see it for how vile it is.

The prophet Jeremiah continued on by telling the people that trying to find help and deliverance from the hills and mountains is useless (vs. 23).  As surely as deliverance is vainly hoped for from the multitude of idols placed on the hills and mountains, so surely is salvation a certainty when sought from Yahweh.  No salvation can be obtained from hill or mountain gods.  Jeremiah pleaded with the people, and us today, to turn to the Lord God (Psalm 121:1-2).

The people had been crying out to these false deities for help and deliverance.  Instead, the Lord called to them, reminding them that if only they would return to Him, and put away their sins and abominations, He would hold them steadfast against their enemies and their troubles (vs. 1-2).  If we do the same, if we get rid of the sin in our own life, get the obscenities and evil out of God’s sight, and if we will not wander away from Him, but instead worshiping only the Lord Jesus sincerely, justly, and righteously, we will not be moved.  We will bless ourselves in Him, and He will be our glory.