Proverbs 2:16-19

“You will be saved from the loose woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
who forsakes the partner of her youth
and forgets her sacred covenant;
for her way leads down to death,
and her paths to the shades;
those who go to her never come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.” NRSV

This reminds me a little of the last half of Romans 1, the passage where it leads from sin to sin to sin . . . to destruction. You see, for God all sin is the same. I’m not sure that’s true for us as human beings.

I used to teach youth at a former church. We did a series on sexual purity and one of the examples I used was a playground slide. Ever sit on a really good playground slide? The kind I’m talking about is the kind that really slick and slippery, so that once you start going, you build up speed and end up launching off the bottom. Most of them used to be like that (when I was growing) and you had to hang on like gangbusters at the top of the slide in order to get your balance before letting go and . . . wheee!

Most of the kids in the youth group immediately knew what I was talking about. There’s something about teens that are attracted back to playground equipment. So, I shared with them how sexual behavior is like being on a slide. That first holding-hands is at the top. You’re hanging on for dear life (to the slide) and haven’t started down yet. But once you let go (of your discipline), then it’s often simply the slide down and nothing you can do to stop (kissing, then petting, then . . . well, you get the picture). That example made sense to them and though many didn’t make the decision to “stay off the slide,” several did (including our son who chose to wait for that one right woman).

My point is this, though. We often make choices about “little” sins, think that they’re no big deal. After all, they’re little sins. Little lies. Little thefts. Little deceptions. Little gluttonies. But the fact is, we are teaching our bodies to respond to their lusts. And one sin can lead to another which leads to another which leads to another . . . and pretty soon, the sins aren’t little anymore and the consequences are far greater than simply going to the Father in prayer and confessing them.

This passage in Proverbs says, “for her way leads down to death.” It doesn’t cause death instantly; it leads us the way to death. There are points along the way we can stop and climb back to the top. But the further along we get, the harder the trip back. And for some sins, the consequences are long and arduous. There may also be the point of no return, the place where we are so entrenched in our sin that we no longer have the desire for the Lord: “nor do they regain the paths of life.” As Christians, we need to never get to the point where we take sin lightly or where we believe that a sin can be ignored. Even things that don’t seem like sins can add to our down fall. If the Spirit is speaking to our hearts, giving us wisdom and direction in any situation, we are prudent and wise to follow His leading.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 2:11-15

“prudence will watch over you;
and understanding will guard you.
It will save you from the way of evil,
from those who speak perversely,
who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil;
those whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.” NRSV

Anyone know a person who is simply evil? I’m sure we know those with whom we have butt heads, and if we are honest, we might admit that we are sometimes perverse in our own way. But I’m talking about someone who is really evil? who gets their kicks out of hating God and Jesus and Christians?

I knew someone like that once. And I was caused to think of him the other day when I got an email about a college student who’s receiving a failing grade from a philosophy professor because she refuses to denounce her Christian faith. Most of us aren’t going to have many encounters these days with truly evil people, mostly those who are either simply having a bad day or who disagree with our perception of a matter. But there are out there a few truly evil people, people who relish in sinfulness and rebellion against God’s commands.

What do you try to do about them?

Me, I’m a fixer. I like to fix things. I’m always attracted to quirky, eccentric, fixer-upper homes. Not that I have the time or the money to do what I’d like (and, after living in this fixer, I don’t know how much I want to tackle another one), but the idea of taking something that could be changed for the better is appealing to me.

Sometimes I’m like that with people. I see them as sort of my personal fixer-upper project. Bad idea! Most people don’t want me to come and change me. Thankfully, the Lord is there to protect me (if I’ll let Him).

This passage talks about prudence (sometimes translated “discretion”). We don’t talk much about prudence these days (except as a girl’s name), but it has a very interesting meaning: “the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason.” You know what I like about this? It’s about me, what I can do about me, not what I can do about someone else. Prudence is going to govern and disciple me and leave that someone else to God’s control. I’m way too concerned about trying to change everyone around me (usually to fit my idea of what would be perfect), rather than trusting God to take control. And this passage isn’t even talking about those around me who simply see things differently than I do. This is talking about those truly evil people! If prudence can watch over me when I’m dealing with them, then certainly it can watch over me when I’m butting heads with my neighbor.

I think that, as Americans, we are far too concerned about our rights and what we think is morally correct and less concerned about loving people and ministering to them. There are things that are obviously right and wrong (abortion, murder, abuse) and then there are things that are less clear (contracts and things). But at what point does the “stuff” become more important than the people involved? Are we intuitive enough about our own motives to ascertain whether or not we’re following the Lord’s will or protecting our own interests? I think these are important questions for us to ask ourselves all the time.

I think if we were honest, we would admit that often what we do in the name of “morals and justice” is really about our own fear in the situation, our desire to control. Prudence (the ability to govern and discipline ourselves) is a gift from God, a gift of wisdom. It’s certainly something I want and need in my own life.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 2:10

“for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul” (NRSV)

I read this and thought about how many times God had put wisdom into my heart . . . and I rejected it. I think about my kids at school. I teach 4th-6th graders who aren’t doing well. And I see them make such bad choices, even when making a good choice would be easy! They sometimes reject doing what’s right just for the personal control or power of doing what’s wrong.

I think I’m the same way. Sometimes I’m just so perverse in my own willfulness that I insist upon doing it my way even when the Holy Spirit is whispering to my heart that I need to make a different decision.

I can remember teaching a seminar on dealing with anger. One woman walked up to me and said, “What you’re saying is good, but it isn’t for me. I never get angry.” And she just walked away. Well, I would have loved for that to be true (for her), but I knew it wasn’t because I’d seen her react in anger. Not in rage, but in that kind of controlling passive anger that’s more difficult to identify. For some reason, it was more important for her to be considered without fault than to honestly deal with a problem in her life.

I’m exactly the same way. I hate being wrong and will sometimes refute someone telling me I am . . . even when I know what they are saying is true! (It’s a very bad habit.)

This verse says that “wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” It’s one thing to have the wisdom; it’s another thing to readily embrace it, particularly when it’s going to usually mean that we need to deny ourselves (our desires, our lusts, our personal dreams) in order to embrace what it is that God wants to teach us.

I referred to a blog by Pastor Wade Burleson (http://kerussocharis.blogsport.com) a few days ago. It’s a table on the differences between proud and broken people. I printed a copy and have been working through it box by box over the past week. I’m sure it will take me a long time to work through all of it. The sixth set of boxes compares proud and broken people like this:

Proud: Have to prove they are always right.
Broken: Are willing to yield to the possibility that they could be wrong, and thus, yield the need to always prove they are right.

The fact is, we can’t trust ourselves to have the right perceptions, the right memories, the right understandings. Our brains are fallible because they are part of the decaying flesh of our bodies. Each of our five senses—seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling—can deceive us. (Ever see an optical illusion?) And yet, our insistence upon being right is based on these imperfect physical body parts. Just as others can be wrong in their observations and conclusions, so can we. And it’s important that we realize that our conclusion about something just might be wrong.

I wrote yesterday about my own experience of believing a decision I made was right (I had all the right motives) only to discover that, rather than being part of the solution, I was actually part of the problem. While morality is always cut and dry, our interpretation of what is right in a situation may be wrong. Only the Spirit (and a consistent practice of listening to His voice) can help us to truly know in those iffy situations what we should be doing. Certainly, our thoughts should always be in service toward others, not for our own rights. If I had been self-searching in that situation, I would have realized that, ultimately, I was acting out of pride and control, rather than ministry to others. I wanted my way, my rights, my idea of what was right, rather than submitting and trusting God to make it right.

I want to get to the point where, when God gives me wisdom, it is pleasant to my soul. Where I want only what He wants and nothing else matters.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Psalm 19:12

“But who can detect their errors?
Clear me from hidden faults.” NRSV

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:14-18 NRSV)

I’ve been embroiled in a conflict with a fellow Christian, an angry, destructive conflict. One I didn’t start, but where I’ve been back and forth: Do I fight? Do I give in? I felt that it was a real issue of morality, and yet, it was tearing me up inside. I couldn’t decide whether I was upset because I simply hate to fight or because I needed to just bow out of the conflict.

I was wrong. Not about this, but about a decision I had made years ago that was the seed of all this. I certainly didn’t think I was wrong; it was one of the “hidden faults” (or hidden sins). But I was.

Verse 13 (of Psalm 19) talks about “presumptuous sins:”

“Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me” (NKJ)

Presumptuous. The NCV says “the sins of pride.” I think sometimes we don’t see that even our hidden sins (the sins we don’t see) can also be sins of pride. I know that mine was. And I saw it so clearly yesterday.

The thing is, I know that the Lord would have revealed this to me if I had been open to seeing it. I have all kinds of excuses, reasons even that seem legitimate. But the fact was, I refused to be open to any option except the one I wanted to choose. This is one reason why I think that Paul taught (in Romans 12) that we are to bless those who persecute us.

Most of us have grown up with Saturday mornings westerns. White hats (the good guys) and black hats (the bad guys). Now I’m not trying to water down the reality of sin and evil. But the fact is, that as righteous as we think we are, if we are in conflict with someone else, we may have some fault in it. Even if they are totally wrong in their participation, the Lord may be using the situation to try to teach us something, even (as with me) a lesson about a decision far in my past, a decision I refused to evaluate from any other view except my own.

I’m eternally grateful for a God Who looks past the reality of my sin to the intent of my heart, which was to do the right thing. I tried, but because I allowed my emotions (rather than my faith) to rule my decision, I erred. And I erred for a long time (when I could have made things right). I’m grateful that He is a God whose love reaches out in mercy and forgiveness:

“He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him” (Psalm 103:10-13 NRSV).

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 2:7b-8

“He is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of His faithful ones.” NRSV

God is our Protector. I think that is a fact that is known by most Christians. The thing is, I’m not sure we always understand what He is protecting. Yes, He protect us, but He doesn’t protect us from adversity. He protects us from falling away if we trust Him.

• He is a shield to those who walk blamelessly.” He isn’t a shield to everyone, but to those who persevere through temptation. James talks about this very thing:

“Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12 NRSV). The Greek translated here as “endures” is “hupomeno” and means lit., “to abide under (hupo, ‘under’), signifies ‘to remain in a place instead of leaving it, to stay behind,’ or ‘to persevere’” (Vine, W. E. 1996. Vine's complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words. T. Nelson: Nashville). I often think of temptation as something that hits quickly and then, if I resist it then, it disappears.

I think that ain’t so. Otherwise, James wouldn’t tell us that we have to “endure” it. I think we also know from experience that those struggles that we have in the Christian life are long and laborious and, when we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, can be true battles. Even when the Lord gives us victory, Satan will try again and again because he knows that was a weak area for us.

I think about the temptations that the Lord Jesus endured. Satan came to Him and said: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matthew 4:3 NRSV). The thing is, just because Jesus resisted and overcame the temptation doesn’t mean that He stopped being hungry. Rather, He changed His focus from satisfying this earthy body to satisfying the Father.

I know that, for myself, when I am having a struggle with temptation, to continually refocus myself (“What does God want me to do? How does He want me to be?”) becomes crucial. If I focus on the situation (or the people within it), I go back to my old, fleshly ways. But if I focus on trusting God and only pleasing Him, I begin to have victory through the temptation. It doesn’t mean that the situation goes away, but it does mean that I face it differently.

“He is a shield to those who walk blamelessly.” While we stand blameless before the Throne, not because of what we have done, but because of what the Lord Jesus has done, there is also the component of choice in how we walk (and I think that’s the key here). At any moment, we choose whether to obey the Lord or to go our own way. Vine’s says “In their daily walk they manifest that they are walking on the narrow road” (Vine, W. E. 1996. Vine's complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words. T. Nelson: Nashville). The Lord is a shield to us when we are obedient to Him. When we walk outside of His will, we open ourselves up to the injuries that come as a consequence of our own choices. I think our natural tendency is to ignore the way of the Word and to convince ourselves that we can protect ourselves. And so we build up defenses that are based on our own strength and then wonder why we are hurt in the process. The Lord is a Shield to those who trust Him:

“As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him” (Psalm 18:30 NKJ).

"He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him” (Proverbs 30;5 NKJ).

• Guarding the paths of justice

What is justice? Well, it certainly isn’t just making me happy. Because, unfortunately, sometimes what makes me happy is to have other people suffer (or at least for me to have the upper hand over them).

James tells us why we often don’t receive from our prayers:

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 2:3 NRSV).

The Lord guards the paths of justice, His justice! That means that His love pours out to everyone and whatever it takes to draw them to Him, that’s His goal:

“The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NRSV).

Thus, His justice may be different than our justice. Our justice is usually about getting what we are owed. His justice is about righteousness, about righting the sinful world back into a proper relationship with Him. The Lord guards these paths, the paths of love, the narrow path that leads to Him.

• Preserving the ways of His faithful ones

Again, we come to the idea that His preservation is linked to our faithfulness in following Him. It’s like the image of the Shepherd and the sheep. The sheep are safe as long as they follow the Shepherd. Yes, if they stray, He will go and search for them, but there is that time of separation when the sheep is away from the Shepherd and at risk of being harmed.

The Lord preserves us when we are faithful. He pursues us when we are not, bringing us back into the fold and binding our wounds. But we may have wounds. Our protection is under His wings, in His path. When we know we are straying, we need to stop and return to Him. That’s where our safety is, on the path of His righteousness.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 16:18-19

“Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
It is better to be of a lowly spirit among the poor
than to divide the spoil with the proud.” NRSV

Pride is one of my failing sins. I know people who don’t suffer from this, but I’m not one of them. And I can tell you, that my pride gets me into more messes than I care to talk about. The thing is, we don’t talk about pride—at least in a bad way—much anymore. We talk about self esteem and feeling good about yourself and that kind of stuff. And yet, we probably get ourselves into more scrapes because of our pride than we would like to admit.

Most of the time, I like to look at the negative definitions of “pride:” insolence, arrogance. I certainly don’t consider myself to be those things (though it’s likely that others do). I like to consider myself smart, competent, able.

“I like to consider myself . . .”

Looking at some other definitions of pride, I can see myself—finally—as prideful (and it’s not something I’m proud of . . . no pun intended):

The dictionary gives these two additional definitions of “pride:”

• a reasonable or justifiable self-respect
• delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship

I can tell you that I am often proud of myself, my abilities, and my relationships. It was the latter that got me in trouble this time. And, to be honest, I really didn’t see a lot of problems with how I viewed myself. I mean, I am who I am and shouldn’t I acknowledge that?

Well, that’s how I thought until this week when I read a very convicting blog. Written by Pastor Wayne Burleson (whom I’m coming to respect more and more), it was a list of the differences between proud people and broken people. And, in the quiet recesses of my own prayer closet, I had to admit that there were many attributes on the “proud” side that described me.

(You can read the blog here: http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/2008/04/differences-between-proud-and-broken.html)

I look at this passage in Proverbs and realize that I want to have a “lowly spirit,” I want to be a person who is broken before the Lord. I would challenge all of us to continue to keep Pastor Burleson’s blog close to our hearts that we might become a broken people before the Lord.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 2:6-7a

“For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;” NRSV

There’s an old saying: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” meaning that nothing in the world comes without a price. And yet, there are many things from the Lord that are gifts, are things that we don’t have to earn.

“The Lord gives wisdom.” Just for the asking, our Father is willing to give that wisdom that we so desperately want. We may be in the middle of the biggest mess anyone can imagine. And the Lord will give us wisdom in how to persevere through it without sinning. James confirms this in his epistle:

“If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you” (James 1:5 NRSV).

James goes onto say:

“But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (v. 6-7 NRSV).

This, then, is one of the “conditions” of asking. We must ask, believing that God will answer, that He will give us the wisdom we need.

But when we believe, sometimes it doesn’t happen. James goes on:

“You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures” (4:2b-3 NRSV)

I think, however, that we fail to do two things. We either don’t ask or we ask with the wrong intentions. I think that we often ask for wisdom, but don’t like the answer we get so we don’t do it. Father God tells us what to do, but it requires that we humble ourselves or give up something we love or turn away from a pet sin. And so, we ignore the wisdom. Sometimes we even deny that it is wisdom.

God has promised that He will always give good things to His children who ask:

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NRSV).

We see in this passage that God gives us three things: wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Wisdom, “chokmah, is the knowledge and the ability to make the right choices at the opportune time” (Vine’s, H2521). Knowledge, “da’at,” is the ability to know, to perceive. Understanding, “tebunah, represents the act, faculty, object, and personification of wisdom” (Vine’s, H8394). In other words, the Lord doesn’t just give us a bit of wisdom or a piece of knowledge or a little skill. He gives us everything that we need for that situation.

We can ask without hesitation and without worrying whether or not it will be enough or appropriate for the situation. The Lord doesn’t give just some and then expect us to make up the difference. He gives us everything that we need. What we need to do is to ask . . . and then accept (and act on it). Wisdom without action is simply useless.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 2:1-5

“My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.” NRSV

I was having a discussion with a woman online one day. She was explaining that she had this (sinful) compulsion and had dealt with it over and over again. She wasn’t really distressed about it, just simply saying that this was who she was.

I thought about it awhile and wrote back to her. The crux of my conversation was basically this: “Why aren’t you working on fixing or changing this sinful behavior? Why do you continue to choose to do this?” She spit back quickly: “God will change me when He wants me to change.”

To be honest, I was taken back by her reply. But then, when I began to think about it, I realized that a great many of us think this way. We think that we might as well continue in what we’re doing, in who we are, because until God flicks His wrist and miraculously changes us, we don’t have any other options. This is a fairly new belief within the Church. As I was growing up, there were a lot of teachings about striving to live a righteous life. Then things changed. Church got more casual and life got less serious. Suddenly all of that morphed into the idea that God will change us when He wants and, until that time, we might as well just settle back in our sin.

I do not believe that’s what the Bible teaches. Yes, we are changed through the power of the Holy Spirit, but we must participate in that process. There are so many verbs in this passage in Proverbs that speak to our participation, our “doing”:

• accept my words
• treasure up my commandments within you
• making your ear attentive to wisdom
• inclining your heart to understanding
• cry out for insight
• raise your voice for understanding
• seek it like silver
• search for it as for hidden treasure

This doesn’t seem to me like something passive, where we wait on God to change us and meanwhile practice our sin. This seems very deliberate, very all-encompassing. In fact, if I were practicing this in my life, it doesn’t seem that I’d have much time to do anything else!

• Accept my words, treasure up my commandments within you

You know, there is a lot more to “accepting” than simply acknowledging. Even in English, those two words are very different. The word in Hebrew is extremely active and requires that the person do something. If we accept the words, it’s more than reading them, more than saying we agree with them. It’s actually living them out in our lives. It’s making them a part of who we are.

The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary gave an interesting example that I think might fit here. “A surface that will not accept ink.” Marble surfaces are like that. You can write on them and, if you don’t touch it, the ink will stay there. But if you even gently wipe, the ink comes right off.

Scripture can be that way in our lives. It seems like it’s there—on the surface—but when adversity comes and rubs us the wrong way, the scripture just disappears. We need to “accept” the words. I think about Psalm 119: “I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you” (v. 11, NRSV). When I treasure something, I embrace it; I cling to it; I do everything not to lose it. That’s what I think of when “accepting” the Word.

• Making your ear attentive to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding

There definitely appears to be a choice here. The opposite would be allowing your ear not to be attentive. And, to be honest, if I have to make something do a task, then the automatic or natural thing would be to not do it. In other words, if I need to make my ear be attentive, then the natural inclination of my ear is to not be attentive.

I can’t trust my own desires, my own inclinations.

This is an active choice. I don’t feel like it, it doesn’t come naturally, but I need to decide to be attentive. Likely, being attentive to wisdom isn’t comfortable. It probably won’t, at least initially, be something I enjoy. But it is something I can choose to do.

• Cry out for insight, raise your voice for understanding

The only times I “cry out” are the times when I think the person I’m talking to can’t hear me. I certainly don’t “cry out” in a meeting when I want to speak to my husband. I lean over and quietly whisper to him. But, when he’s outside and I don’t know where he is, I “cry out.” When my students are all talking and laughing (and are on the verge of being out of control), I “cry out” to get their attention.

God always hears us. But there are times when we “cry out” to Him. And in these cases, I think it’s more about our efforts than His ability. In other words, are we serious about what we want from Him? Do we really want insight? Because, if we get it, very likely we’re going to have to change something in our lives.

• seek it like silver, search for it as for hidden treasure

One of my favorite movies is National Treasure. I just love the idea of a treasure hunt with clues hidden all over! What fun.

Obviously, there are things of God that we must truly work to find, truly dig deep for in order to understand. And there must be a desire, a drive, to find it. Our Lord Jesus taught about just this thing:

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:7-11 NRSV).

In this scripture, there is actually a sense of continuing. “Keep asking . . . keep searching . . . keep knocking.” It’s not a one time event, but something that we do over and over again. There is that same sense with hunting for hidden treasure. It’s something we continue to do. I think as Christians that we often become weary and discouraged from trying to do the right thing. Paul tells us specifically to guard against this: “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9 NSRV).

Obviously, it’s about our own choices. Are we motivated to become more and more what God wants us to be? Obviously, we can only do this in the power of the Holy Spirit. But He cannot change us without our participation, without our desire. We must seek. If we do, He will provide.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 1:20-23, 33

Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you. . . .
but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”

Throughout scripture, we are given glimpses of the character of our God. Here, we are shown the attribute of His wisdom.

“By whom God calls to us—by wisdom. It is wisdom that crieth without. The word is plural—wisdoms, for, as there is infinite wisdom in God, so there is the manifold wisdom of God, Eph. 3:10. God speaks to the children of men by all the kinds of wisdom, and, as in every will, so in every word, of God there is a counsel.” (Henry, M. 1996, c1991. Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume (Pr 1:20). Hendrickson: Peabody)

What’s particularly lovely about this for women is that this attribute or characteristic of God is denoted as being female. And I believe this isn’t a fluke or simply a cultural thing of the Jews. God Himself truly isn’t gendered. Rather, He is without gender and we—both men and women—are made in His image. It’s one of the wonderful things about having a relationship with our Creator (and now our Savior): that relationship is a natural outgrowth of who we are because we were made to be, in some ways, like Him (as much as a creation can be like the Creator). How glorious is that!

Notice there are two components of the giving of wisdom:

• It comes like a reproof, comparing wisdom to being simple
• There is the promise of living securely, without dread when we follow wisdom

This passage in Proverbs tells us that those who don’t have wisdom have three characteristics:

• They love being simple
• They delight in their scoffing
• They hate knowledge

I think about many Christians today. We have learned to rely upon others for our own Christian growth. Most Christians, I would guess (and based on conversations I’ve had with Christians all over the world) don’t study the Bible on their own on a daily basis, but rather rely on printed devotional books, internet studies, etc. And while this is all good, the fact is, you never really learn something until you dig into it on your own. One of the reasons I began writing these studies (years ago) was to reemphasize in my own life what I was reading and studying that day. Reading it was one thing; writing it down was another thing completely. It also gives me a measure to see if, from that time in the past until now, there has been any change, any growth in my life.

The fact is that just reading what someone else has written is rather easy unless we really meditate on it (ask ourselves questions, discuss it with another, etc.). And not having a study time is even easier.

We love being simple.

Another reason that people avoid Bible studies is that studying the Word confronts us with our own sin, our own failures. And, to be honest, that’s something we’d rather avoid. It’s one reason why waiting until church to pray is so much easier than praying while we’re alone, just us and God. We would probably like to avoid that knowledge and wish that we were better than we really are.

But when we live this way, in this kind of denial, we open ourselves up to anxiety, dread about the future, and plain ol’ simple worry. We haven’t taken the time to consult with God (“What’s the best thing to do?”) nor to lay our concerns at His feet. And so, life becomes more and more stressful and we don’t understand why.

The Holy Spirit is telling us here that gaining wisdom from Him is what will set us free from these things.

What’s interesting is that this passage doesn’t tell us that we will live free from disaster, but that we will live free from the dread of disaster (two far different things). God never promised to remove us from the trials of life, only that He would make everything work for our good if we trusted Him (Romans 8:28). When we seek God for wisdom, we gain insight and wisdom in how to approach situations. We are no longer afraid of the future because we know that “God and me are a majority.” It doesn’t get any better than that!

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 1:10-19

“My child, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us wantonly ambush the innocent;
like Sheol let us swallow them alive
and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.
We shall find all kinds of costly things;
we shall fill our houses with booty.
Throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse’—
my child, do not walk in their way,
keep your foot from their paths;
for their feet run to evil,
and they hurry to shed blood.
For in vain is the net baited
while the bird is looking on;
yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves!
and set an ambush—for their own lives!
Such is the end of all who are greedy for gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors.” NRSV

I think we often think of being enticed as the strong influence of peer pressure, And, perhaps for all of us, there is still the lure of that kind of temptation. However, I think that the “enticement of sinners” for adults is often very different. It’s more about our own expectations of what life should be, of how people should act, of how relationships should mesh, of how our plans should succeed.

Our expectations are developed inside us by our own experience, education, and culture. It is the filter through which we look at the world and at our future. It’s one of the heart attitudes that influences how we react to everything around us. And I believe it’s one of the things within us that we rarely challenged or question.

Our expectations are often highly cultural, often strongly influenced by our society. I think that we are more influenced by the society around us—particularly how we think society operates based on the examples found in media—than we know.

As Christians in affluent countries, I think we need to become very aware of our own desires and motivation, always analyzing them to see if what we are searching for is actually what scripture says or is rather what we want in the flesh. We can be “enticed” very subtly. And it may not be as obvious as some of the remaining verses are: “let us wantonly ambush the innocent.”

There is, in this passage, the phrase: “we will all have one purse.” There is a strong desire within each of us to belong. We want people to approve of us; we want to have friends, to have companions. For some of us, the desire for peer approval is even stronger than in others. But the fact is, we can make decisions based on “the common good” that can be against what God says. The pack mentality can be very strong and it takes someone who is regularly in prayer, regularly in the Word to discern that, rather than making a “good” decision, we are instead being unloving, that we are being enticed into sin.

The other thing that is important in this passage, I think, is the phrase “who are greedy for gain.” I don’t think we realize how influenced we are by the media (television, the Internet, etc.) in our expectations of life. Let’s just take the idea of buying a new (or another) car. Advertisements tell us, over and over again, that the minute a car begins to give us mechanical trouble, we need to replace it. More than that, we deserve to have a new car, to have the new toys, to have the luxury of a new car. Yet, the most serious financial analysts all agree that one must own a car for a number of years in order to recoup the cost of the car. Clark Howard (a finance guru) has maintained, since the mid 1990's, the financial advantage of keeping a new car for at least ten years (and a used car for at least four years or longer). And yet, even with the best evidence at hand, many of us find ways to justify that new car purchase.

That’s just one example. Think of all the “new” things we want to have . . . big screen TV’s, the latest cell phone, up-to-date fashions, more advanced technology. The list can go on and on. The question we need to ask ourselves is why we “want” these things and if this really is the way that the Lord wants us to live.

It’s easy to be enticed by greed. Greed is a very insidious sin, not easily identified (particularly if everyone around us is also greedy). It’s also become a caricature in our society—Scrooge in a Christmas movie. But the fact is, an unwillingness to give to others in need, competitiveness in the workplace, dishonesty in dealing with money . . . any of these (and many more things) could signify a greedy spirit. Ultimately, greed is identified by what we consider treasure, what we cherish. The Lord Jesus told us:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21 NRSV).

Do we store up treasure in heaven or treasure here? I think that is a good indication of whether or not we are greedy.

This passage is quick to admonish us to choose another path: “my child, do not walk in their way, keep your foot from their paths; for their feet run to evil . . .” We choose whether evil or good. We choose whether sin or obedience. We choose whether following our lusts or following God. Hopefully, at the end of the day, we can join the apostle Paul in saying:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8 NRSV).

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 1:8-9

"Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
for they are a fair garland for your head,
and pendants for your neck.” NRSV

I have a dear cousin who is looking to move to Argentina. In her pursuit, she has retained an Argentinian attorney, a young woman in her mid-20s. That, in itself, isn’t unusual, even in the United States. Here in the States, there are many young women who are beginning their careers as attorneys, doctors, nurses, teachers.

What is unusual is that this young woman, who is engaged to be married, is living at home (as is her fiancé) and has not yet set the date of her wedding . . . on the advice of her parents. In fact, at the order of her (and his) parents. Both parents, having gone through this very exciting, hormonal stage of life, know that emotions often jump ahead of sense and have told their children—their adult children—that they cannot marry until they have saved enough money for a house. So the two live at home, under their parents’ roof (and control), and obey.

Amazing!

Except, in Argentina, it is culturally acceptable for parents to remain as their adult children’s advisors. It’s culturally acceptable for younger adults to receive the advise, admonitions, and yes, even the orders of older adults. The “teenage rebellion thing” that is so common in America (and accepted as being developmental) doesn’t exist in Argentina . . . or in other countries (which means it’s not developmental, but rather cultural).

In Proverbs, we are told “hear your father’s instruction and do not reject your mother’s teaching.” And while this command begins as “my child,” it becomes clear from the context of Proverbs that the hearer is not a young (minor) child, but rather the adult child of elder parents. In other words, God’s command is that younger adults aren’t to simply become independent and headstrong, but are to remain respectful and submissive to their parents’ teaching.

One of the results of the western world accepting evolution as scientifically valid is that we have also begun, unconsciously even, to apply evolution to social development. Dr. Henry Morris, in The Long War against God, states that “the breakdown in society’s moral standards is directly related to its abandonment of creationism” (p. 135). One of the results of accepting evolution is the loss of absolute values and the embrace of moral relativity. “What’s right for me isn’t necessarily what’s right for you.” The logical next step of this that we can’t tell other adults what they should or shouldn’t do, including our own children.

Another aspect of accepting elder advice is that many of us have difficult relationships with our parents. Whether or not our parents actually abused their parenting rights, many of us look back on our childhoods as a time when we were thwarted or exploited at every turn and we have pledged not to treat our children in the same manner. However, as Christians, our parenting should be proactive rather than reactive. In other words, rather than using our own experience upon which to base our parenting, we should turn to the Word. And here the Word is saying that adult children listen to their elder parents and, in fact, are blessed by taking their advice.

Some of us are still young adults and need to listen to the wisdom of those older than us. Even if the wisdom doesn’t fit with what we want or seems silly to us, we should prayerfully and seriously consider it, only rejecting it if it is contrary to God’s Word. Often those who have been before us can see what we, in our youthful enthusiasm, cannot see. They can see the long term consequences of our decisions where we might be living only for the moment.

Some of us no longer have parents and may be, in fact, in that stage of going from being adult children to being elders. Those of us on the “other side of the fence” need to take our responsibility very seriously. Advice and instruction to younger adults needs to be given with much prayer and study of the Word. We also need to be aware of the strong influence of social evolution and independence upon younger adults and use godly wisdom to when giving advice. In everything, we need to be loving and merciful.

All in all, as Christians, we need to realize that the instructional bond that is inherent between parent and child (even spiritual parent and spiritual child) isn’t broken at a certain age of “maturity,” but rather exists over a lifetime. If we are wise (which is the purpose of Proverbs . . . to become wise), we will turn from the inclination of our society and embrace that which God has established for our own good.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 1:7

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.” NRSV

I grew up in the 60s and 70s, the age of Aquarius, the age of free love (and free sex), the age of letting your hair down. A lot of what happened in those two decades changed the American (and perhaps the world’s) landscape. We became more casual about a lot of things, about our relationships, about our dress, about our attitudes, and yes, . . . about our worship.

I can remember attending church in the early 60s. Ours was a smaller church in a tiny suburban community (near LA). It wasn’t a community of influence and the families that attended didn’t have much money. And yet, there wasn’t a problem for people to come to church with both minds and bodies “dressed for success,” as it were. Of course, many families (as did ours) had only one set of “Sunday clothes,” but we wore them cleaned and pressed every Sunday. Were there the one or two affluent families? Of course! Everyone knew that Mr. A made enough money for his wife to dress in designer threads (though she was a thrifty woman and sold each year’s closet to a resale shop to help finance her next year’s wardrobe). But, on the whole, unless your mom sewed (as did mine), your Sunday clothes were the same from week to week.

No one minded.

And no one would have ever thought of coming to church in their casual clothes. We wanted to give our best to the Lord, including what we had on. (Plus, don’t you know that what you wear affects how you act?)

One of the (many) reasons church looked like this was a very serious “fear” of the Lord. These days, you don’t hear that word discussed much in church. It distresses me that we want to take all these “extreme” words out of our worship vocabulary and substitute them for words that make us feel better. Christianity is what it is because it gives us free and unlimited access to the Almighty Creator of the universe. Think about that. While we, as Christians, are many things we are also creatures, creations. I think sometimes we forget that.

One of the repercussions of the casualness of the 60s was to water down the true meaning of who we are and Who Father God is. This (the 60s) was the era of the beginning of many modern translations (which I love). But we threw out the formal language (the thee’s and thou’s). We threw out the capitalizations (capitalizing all the pronouns and nouns that were related to God). We threw out the red letters (all the words spoken by our Lord).
Now, none of that essentially changes us as Christians. But I think it can be indicative of a lowering of our respect for God. In many cases, God has gone from being (also) our Sovereign to being (only) our Friend. And we, as a Church, are beginning to show the signs of it.

When I was growing up, one of the people I grew to admire (because my mom admired her first) was Queen Elizabeth II of England. In addition to reading biographies about her, my mom always talked about how we might entertain the queen if she ever came to our house to visit (a treat that never occurred). But, in my studies about the Queen, there was one thing I learned: The Queen was able to choose commoners (us) as her friends, but commoners were not free to choose the Queen as friends. In other words, there wasn’t the same freedom of friendship with royalty as I had with the kids who lived down the block from me.

It’s the same with God. God, Creator of the universe, can call us “friend,” but we don’t have the same freedom. We can’t simply pal up with God unless He takes that first move. We don’t have permission to enter the throne room without permission.

I think that, in some ways, we have so reduced friendship with Jesus to “being pals” that we have forgotten that our friendship is with the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Creator of the universe, not just with Joe down the street. In other words, while we are blessed to be called “His friends” that friendship is not the same as what we experience with other people.

Jesus is our Friend, but only because He chose to make us His friend. He isn’t our pal.

Proverbs talks about the “fear of the Lord.” I believe that, in an effort to make Christianity more palatable, we have lost that “fear.” We don’t want to be afraid of God, so we have explained that this word really means “respect” (which it does), but not “fear” (which is also means. In fact, this word also means “terror.”) And while context helps us determine specific meaning, there is also the sense that God is Creator and we, as creatures, do need to have a healthy fear of Him.

A. W. Tozer talks about this. In fact, I think it’s one of the motivations for this particular book:

“I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.

“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.

“With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit.” (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 1961. p. vii).

It’s not wrong to be afraid of God. What’s wrong is to have such a prideful fear that we turn away from Him. Personally, I think that most of us know, in our heart of hearts, that God is to be feared. But, when we sin, rather than immediately going to the Throne in humility and shame to receive forgiveness and restoration, we are so wrapped up in our own pride that we ignore our sin and lower God to our image so that we don’t have to confront who we really are or what we’ve done. We don’t want to be humble (or be humbled). We don’t want to be shown our sin in the light of His righteousness. So, we have stripped Jesus of His title (Lord) and position (Christ/Messiah) and made Him simply our pal. And in doing so, we have hurt ourselves. We have stepped outside of the presence of the true and only Almighty God of the universe and made instead a god in our own image.

It’s not wrong to fear God. He is both fearful and loving. If we truly want to love (and worship) Who He is, then we must learn to know Who He is (at least as much as a creature can know the Creator) in all of His fulness and glory.

There is a wonderful psalm that speaks, I think, to all this:

“The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:7-9 NRSV)

If we want the law to revive us, if we want His decrees to make us wise, if we want His law to enlighten us, then we need to embrace the true fear of the Lord; we need to see God as He is and trust Him to be and do what He has already promised.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 1:2-6

For learning about wisdom and instruction,
for understanding words of insight,
for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
righteousness, justice, and equity;
to teach shrewdness to the simple,
knowledge and prudence to the young—
let the wise also hear and gain in learning,
and the discerning acquire skill,
to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles. NRSV

I have a wonderful adopted aunt. She went home to be with the Lord two years ago, but prior to that, I had the privilege of spending at least four weeks a year with her for more than five years. Even though she was in her late 70s and early 80s during that time, her energy level was amazing. I often had difficulty simply keeping up with her. Even in the last two years, when her health was beginning to fade, her entire focus was on learning, on listening to those around her (even “young” folks like me), on finding out what Christian scholars had to say about things. When most older people were perfecting their golf swings (and yes, earlier in life, she was an avid golfer), she was trying to perfect her use of a computer. Together with her husband, she continued to read books about eschatology (the end times) and other Bible subjects.

I have another wonderful adopt aunt. She went home to be with the Lord over ten years ago. But I can remember her telling me, “Robin, as I grow older, I realize that the less I really know about being a Christian.” An amazing statement from a woman who was known around the world for her Christian music and her ministry to literally millions of people.

Proverbs 1:5 says “Let the wise also hear and gain in learning and [let] the discerning acquire skill.” One of the important things in being a Christian—whether you are a brand-new Christian or a Christian of many years—is understanding that this journey is one of always learning, one of always studying, one of always improving. If we were instantly changed into what we should be at the moment we were saved, then God might as well transport us into heaven. He doesn’t . . . and we aren’t!

The Lord Jesus said: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 NRSV).

Being a Christian is being a life-long learner. It is the willingness to look at each and every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow. A very wise (older) Christian man once told me that being a Christian is like that song “She’ll be comin’ around the mountain when she comes.” He said to me, “God brings us around to the same kind of experience over and over again until we learn what He wants us to learn.” I’ve found this to be true in my own life. If all I do is try to avoid the suffering or the embarrassment or the maturing, Father God brings me into a similar experience again. And again. And again. Rather than ask for a way out, there is a point where we need to ask for the wisdom to find a way through. And even those of us who’ve been Christians for a long time have much to learn about righteousness and obedience.

Thankfully, our learning isn’t alone. We aren’t set upon this path without a teacher. The Lord Jesus promised, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26 NRSV). If we are willing to learn, He is willing to teach.

I have been facing a very difficult and potentially embarrassing situation. Along the way, I’ve done nothing wrong, but the actions and cruelty of another have placed me in a circumstance where I am being accused by those I consider friends and family. Convicted without trial, disparaged without an opportunity to explain or defend myself, I am—to put it bluntly—scared. I’ve cried to the Lord, protested, prayed. Nothing. Until last night. The Lord said to me (when I finally got quiet enough to listen), “What do you need to learn from this? This is a learning situation.” And I know what I need to learn. I do. Interestingly enough, the Lord (this time) hasn’t quieted my fears nor miraculously changed my emotions. Rather, I’m having to learn how to trust in the turmoil. Well, I recently studied about need to be courageous as a Christian. Being brave means facing a situation even when you are afraid. Facing it and remaining loving toward those who are harming you.

The Lord Jesus forgave, from the cross, those who were killing Him. And He asked the Father also to forgive them (Luke 23:34). How can I do any less? My job isn’t to defend my innocence, but to love my persecutors. A very different perspective from me, but one that I need to learn if I am to become more like Christ, my example.

The purpose of scripture is to teach. One of the purposes of a Christian is to learn. Even if we think we are wise, we are mature in the Lord, there is always a lot that we can learn. We need to face each day remembering that.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

“Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” NRSV

In the middle of the conclusion of Paul’s letter, in between the “Timothy and Apollos may come to visit” and “Everyone here sends their love,” Paul writes these short two sentences. Perhaps they should have been written at the beginning as the title for this letter (if letters had titles). Certainly, they are important not only because they summarize what Paul has been saying, but because they summarize the Christian life.

Here, Paul tells the church in Corinth to do four things:

• Keep alert
• Stand firm in your faith
• Be courageous
• Be strong

He wouldn’t say any of this if (1) it wasn’t important as a Christian to do these things, and (2) if they weren’t necessary. In other words, the tendency is to do the opposite; the way of life is to do the opposite. As Christians, we need to be deliberate in choosing, not the easy or natural way, but the way of the Spirit.

• Keep alert.

The Greek actually means “to watch” or “wake.” Vine’s notes this:

“It is not used in the metaphorical sense of ‘to be alive’; here it is set in contrast with ‘katheudo,’ ‘to sleep,’ which is never used by the apostle with the meaning ‘to be dead’ (it has this meaning only in the case of Jairus’ daughter). Accordingly the meaning here is that of vigilance and expectancy as contrasted with laxity and indifference.”

It’s almost the sense of forgetting one’s a Christian during the normal course of the day.

Our son was stationed in Iraq for 15 months. Part of his duties was to, with his team members, patrol parts of Baghdad. They weren’t looking for anything in particular, but they needed to be on constant vigilance for possible dangers and attacks. If they forgot, for even a moment, why they were there or what they were supposed to look for (IED’s, snipers, etc.), they risked the possibility of being injured or even killed.

I think this is the same kind of thing Paul is saying. As Christians, we need to be constantly aware that we are Christians and that there are certain behaviors expected of us in order to protect us from sin and the destruction of the enemy. We need to be in prayer. We need to be concerned about our obedience to God’s Word.
We need to keep alert.

• Stand firm in your faith.

If Paul says that we are to stand firm, then there also exists the possibility that we can fail. Matthew Henry says this:

“He advises them to stand fast in the faith, to keep their ground, adhere to the revelation of God, and not give it up for the wisdom of the world, nor suffer it to be corrupted by it—stand for the faith of the gospel, and maintain it even to death; and stand in it, so as to abide in the profession of it, and feel and yield to its influence. Note, A Christian should be fixed in the faith of the gospel, and never desert nor renounce it. It is by this faith alone that he will be able to keep his ground in an hour of temptation; it is by faith that we stand (2 Co. 1:24); it is by this that we must overcome the world (1 Jn. 5:4), both when it fawns and when it frowns, when it tempts and when it terrifies. We must stand therefore in the faith of the gospel, if we would maintain our integrity.”

The “wisdom of the world” is very enticing. Unfortunately, it is well mixed into the teachings of the Church these days. The only way that we can tell the difference is to study and pray and trust the Holy Spirit to lead us rightly.

It is so easy to sin, so easy to give into temptation. Our natural inclination is toward sin, not toward the Lord. And we need to be on constant vigilance on how we react to things. If we find that we are getting angry or wanting to somehow reward or console ourselves, we need to realize that we are walking sin’s edge (if not falling right into sin). We need to stand in our faith by fixing our eyes upon the Author and Finisher of our faith:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

• Be courageous.

Paul wouldn’t tell us to be courageous, to be brave, if there weren’t many opportunities to be afraid. The fact is that Satan uses our circumstances to make us afraid of the future, afraid of others, even afraid of God. We don’t want to suffer, to be persecuted, to have to stand through trials. But the fact is, we will have to do those things. And standing faithful in them requires courage.

What is courage? Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, a WWI fighter ace and Medal of Honor winner, said this: “Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.” I agree with him. We are only brave when there is reason to be so. Courage is going ahead and facing whatever it is we are afraid of. And I’m not talking here just about facing things like a fear of heights or spiders or something. I talking about trusting someone who doesn’t deserve our trust, loving someone who doesn’t deserve to be loved, walking ahead in the darkness when all we see in front of us is suffering. The Lord Jesus was courageous when He prayed, “Not My will but Thine be done,” in the Garden.

Paul told us to be courageous because there are many things in life that will make us scared. The difference is that we are willing to face them because we trust Father God to work them for our good (whether immediately or eventually).

• Be strong

Lastly, Paul tells us to be strong. This is more than simply “being” strong. It is choosing to be strong. It is standing when it would be easier to fall, persevering when it would be easier to give up, trusting when it would be easier to doubt. It is a choice, not a natural attribute. Paul doesn’t tell us to be strong if we can. He says simply “be strong.”

The Greek has these connotations: be strengthened, be empowered. This isn’t a strength that comes from pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. This is a strength that comes from choosing to trust the Lord and resting in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a strength that comes from choosing to believe that God’s Word is true and knowing that we have the victory through the Lord Jesus. We are empowered as Christians and we can face whatever it is that looms in front of us. We only need to trust the Lord.

• Let all that you do be done in love.

Lastly, Paul reminds us that what we do here on earth is always to be done out of love for those around us. God is already taking care of us. It is our responsibility to live out our choices, our behavior, with the attributes of love.

1 Corinthians 15:56-58

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” NRSV

What is the “work of the Lord?” I think it’s so easy to get waylaid; the enemy is crafty. And yet, we are told to “excel” in the work of the Lord. I certainly want to do that; I don’t want my labor to be in vain.

For me, it goes back to 1 Corinthians 13, the description of love, and then to Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit. The fact is, what is my motivation? Am I loving those around me? Am I patient, kind? Am I refusing to be envious? or boastful? or arrogant? or rude? Am I refusing to insist on my own way? (That’s a huge one for me).

I think back to what the Lord Jesus said: “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile” (Matthew 5:39b-41 NRSV). This is so hard for me. I’m more worried about trying to make the other person do what’s right. When, in fact, what I need to be doing is loving them. Being patient (willing to suffer at their hand). Being kind (allowing them to learn righteousness at their own speed). I want to be right and, interestingly enough, that’s not part of the list.

I think that we often equate gentleness with tolerance or inability. And the fact is, Jesus was meek and yet He was willing to allow others to make their own choices. He was willing to trust God in the long scheme of things. (I think of His trial, conviction, and sentence.)

The “work of the Lord” is me being willing to allow God to take control of a seemingly hopeless situation and to understand that, in the long view of things, God always wins. I think we need to have that indelibly burned into our brains. We are so focused on trying to make things right here when, in fact, the only “making things right” isn’t really going to happen completely and absolutely until heaven. Until then, we need to excel in doing the work of the Lord by answering meanness with kindness, by giving to those who demand, by trusting God to take care of it, even if that means He does it in the long run.

The fact is, am I steadfast and immovable in all this? Or do I get angry (and angry at the Lord) and lash out with sinful choices? Boy, does that hurt when I write it . . . because it’s the truth! I don’t want to be obedient; I want to win! And in doing that, I lose. I already have the victory, given to me by the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t need to “win” the victory, to conquer those around me. The victory is already mine . . . if I persevere as a Christian by excelling in the work of the Lord.

Father, forgive me. I am so concerned about fighting, about defending myself and others. I’ve tried to take over Your job and I’m not very good at it. I surrender it all to You. Help me to be loving, to be kind, to be courteous in all I do. I ask this in the name of my Savior, Your Son, the Lord Jesus. Let it be so.

Galatians 5:16-21

“Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” NRSV

Most Americans are angry. I don’t know about other countries, but I do know that most Americans are angry. Perhaps it’s our mindset, that we have rights that are inalienable ours. Perhaps it’s our culture, which is self-indulgence at its finest. Perhaps it’s our huge amount of free time, which allows for fantasies gone wild.

It doesn’t matter, really. What matters is that we are an angry people, angry with each other, angry with our circumstances, angry with how life simply doesn’t work out the way we want. I think that for many of us we want life to exist in 60 minute segments that always work out in the end. The guys in the white hats (the ones on our team) win and the guys in the black hats (the other guys) lose. Life has become a Saturday morning cowboy western, set in hip-hop clothes with a rap background.

For many of us, we want life to exist in fast food restaurants, where we can have it our way in 60 seconds or less (Who cares whether or not it’s healthy for us?). Where the taste satisfies the tongue and ignores the body. Where individual choice of the moment overrides than long term consequences.

And when life isn’t this way, when the commercials don’t live up to their promises, we get angry. We’re angry at the moment (the “now”). We’re angry at the past. We’re angry at the future that looms just over the horizon.

Paul talks, in Galatians, aboutthe “works of the flesh”. What are “works of the flesh?” The “flesh” is that part of us that is sinful, completely and absolutely! It is the egocentric nature we were born with. It is that which takes us to eternal destruction without the saving grace of the Lord Jesus. And the “works” of the flesh are the things that we do because we choose sin instead of God.

What are the things we choose? What are the choices that are sin? Paul says that the desires within our bodies (our emotions, our cravings, our lusts) are sin, and that these include anger.

I grew up in the 70's. And something that began in the 60's and 70's and continues to permeate our society today is that emotions aren’t bad. Emotions are morally neutral. (For example, from http://www.theopengrove.com/dwnlds/news/newsv03i20.pdf: “An important step toward mental health is learning to accept your emotions. All human beings have emotions. Try to learn that there aren’t ‘bad’ emotions and ‘good’ emotions.”)

Obviously Paul wouldn’t agree with that because, in his list of “works of the flesh,” he includes emotions. The Lord Jesus taught this as well:

“For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander” (Matthew 15:19 NLT). The word translated here “heart” is “kardia” and means “thoughts or feelings.”

There are evil feelings, feelings that we are to deny, to avoid, to keep from our lives. And one of those is anger. But how do we do that?

In 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about our thoughts:

“We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4b-5 NRSV)

We can think righteously and that controls everything else: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7a KJV). We can obviously control our thoughts or Paul wouldn’t tell us that “we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Ever wonder why Paul also admonishes us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17)? If we are having a constant communication with Father God, we won’t sin. We won’t be thinking about sin, but rather about doing whatever it is God wants us to do. We won’t have cause to be angry because we will be trusting Him to lead us out of each and every painful situation.

We choose to be angry because it makes us feel better! It makes us feel righteous, justified, superior. And yet, it is a feeling for the moment, like a taste on the tongue that sours after the first bite. We can choose not to be angry, but rather to be self-controlled, to be trusting, to be in constant prayer with our Father.

One is the lust of the flesh and leads to death. The other is an outbreak of faith and leads to life. Which are we going to choose today?

1 Corinthians 15:35-43

“But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.” NRSV

I can’t wait for heaven!

Yesterday was just a horrible day. Do you ever have days like that? Everything that could go wrong, did. On top of it, I just didn’t seem to have the emotional or physical energy to meet any of it. It was a day full of “stuff” and by the end, I was glad the day was over.

I remember walking down the stairs, thinking, “Heaven’s got to be better than this” (and wishing that heaven was coming soon!).

I think that, as Christians, we often get our minds off what’s important, what’s really real, what’s ahead. We are so concerned about the minutiae that permeates this life that we become the “overwhelmed” rather than the “overcomers.” We forget that the victory in this life isn’t victory over this life but victory from this life. Sometimes in this life, we will lose. There’s nothing we can do. We will be accused of things we haven’t done; even convicted (whether legally or emotionally) by those who are more concerned about their own agendas than the truth.

That doesn’t change the fact that we have victory. Our victory was secured by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, our Christ. And that victory is experienced through death.

“What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable.”

How I long for the imperishable, for the day when I can see my Savior face to face, when I can put down the burdens of this life and take up the worship and joy of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” NRSV

I just finished reading an article about the difficulties that Mexican citizens, here illegally, have when one of their own dies. They are absorbed with the death rituals, wanting the body returned to Mexico for mourning, for burial. In America, the mortuary business is a multi-million dollar business. Did you know that you can have your body embalmed and placed in a casket where years from now there will be very little decay?

What’s the point?

Paul is right. Either Christ resurrected from the dead and we have hope, or there is no point. Either there is life after this (life that, as a Christian, is far better than the struggles we have here), or there is no point.

And if there is a resurrection, if there is a life in heaven, then we need to give up all of the “stuff” that we hang onto, particularly the unforgiveness, the bitterness, the desire for revenge. Either there is the hope of heaven (and the nothing else matters), or there is no heaven and we can try and even the score here on earth. Either we will one day see the face of our blessed Savior, or we can focus on trying to make this world right under our own power.

The only thing that matters is Him. And the reason it matters is because He loved us (and loves us) enough to die for us, to be resurrected, and to give us the hope of a future with Him.

Think about it. Everything hinges on whether or not we have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him! It makes everything else seem so small, so unimportant . . .

1 Corinthians 14:37-40

“If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. If any one does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So, my brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but all things should be done decently and in order.” RSV

There is, in 1 Corinthians, a sermon within a sermon. A portion of chapters 11-14 are parenthetical, related to each other. They deal with how to behave when the local congregation comes together. The beginning passage is:

“I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you. . . . Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.” (11:2, 17-21)

The ending passage are the verses in chapter 14 (above). These are, in essence, the bread of the sandwich, with the meat being chapter 13, the chapter on love.
In order to understand the essence of what Paul is saying, we need to continue to remember that everything we do as a Church is to be done in love, that this is the measure the world we use to determine whether or not we belong to Christ:

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (13:4-7).

Sadly, the Church doesn’t love very well. We promote well. We divide well. We identify the moats in others’ eyes well.

We don’t love well.

In fact, rather on working on whether or not we love well (particularly those among us who are unlovely), we are more concerned about trying to advance our own cause, trying to convince others that we are right and they are wrong. Most of us who’ve been involved in church doctrine for awhile know that these four chapters (11-14) are more often used to try to promote a certain agenda (complementarianism versus egalitarianism) rather than to promote the fact that first and foremost Christians need to love each other. We are more concerned about being right than being loving.

At what point do we stop being the world and start becoming the Church?

Do I believe that correct doctrine is important? Yes! Do I believe that doctrine has been used to oppress people wrongly? Yes! But arguing and insisting isn’t the way. Loving is the way.

The way of love is very different from the way of the world. Paul explicitly told us how to love our enemies:

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:14-21 RSV)

We cannot fight evil with demanding our rights (against their insisting upon taking them away). We can fight evil by doing good, by loving those who don’t love us, by continuing to do what we know is right (prophesying, speaking in tongues, ministering in the Spirit).