Eveready

Posted on March 25, 2025 by salooper57

If I asked you to list five traits that should characterize a Christian, which ones would you choose? I actually have done that, and these were the most common responses I received: Loving, joyful, hopeful, loyal, unafraid, kind, faithful, holy, compassionate, trustworthy, sacrificial.

Those are good answers, but I’d like to add one that no one ever mentions because people don’t think of it as a Christian trait. But Peter did and, what’s more, he got the idea from Jesus himself. So, while the answers I relayed to you are good and right and biblical, I’d like to add one more. Christians need to be ready.

Jesus said it himself. “…you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”(Matthew 24:44). “What I say to you I say to all: ‘Stay alert!’” (Mark 13:37). Or the warning in the parable, “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows” (Luke 12:47).

Jesus wants his followers to be ready. Ready for what? Ready for him. What does that look like? Peter mention three things. It looks like (3:14-16) being ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us the reason for our hope. It looks like (3:17-4:4) being ready to suffer. It looks like (4:5-6) being ready for judgment. We’ll take each in turn. The sermon is titled Eveready and we will be looking at 1 Peter 3:14-4:6.

First, we need to be ready to give an answer (1 Peter 3:15). Some Christians spend a great deal of time preparing, refining, and polishing their answer. They take apologetics courses, read books, and learn the lingo, but no one is asking them questions.

That’s why what we looked at last week is so important. We not only need to prepare an answer; we need to prompt the question. And the way we do that is by living differently from our neighbors. We spend time and money differently. We think differently. We focus on different things. We will never prompt questions by being like everyone else, only by being different.

One of the ways we are different, verse 14, is that we don’t fear the things other people fear. People have real fears right now about Ukraine and the U.S. involvement there. At the same time, our country is on the brink of a tariff war, and some economists are predicting it will lead to higher inflation, a rise in unemployment, and a stalled economy. If it does, will I lose my job? Will the stock market tank? What will happen to my retirement?

These are pertinent questions and Christians are asking them just like everyone else. But Christians must not be afraid of the answer! Peter says, “Do not fear what they fear.” If you fear the same things your non-Christian relative or friend or coworker fears, you won’t need to be ready with an answer because no one will be asking you questions. But if you live like Peter instructed, you’d better get your answer ready because people will be asking.

But there is more to getting your answer ready that working on content. How we present that content is crucial. We can work for years, perfecting our answer and then present it in a way that turns people off. That’s why Peter counsels us to answer with gentleness and respect.

There was a woman in a church I previously pastored whose husband never came with her. So, I went to him. I would visit at their home every once in a while, and, since we both enjoyed fishing in Canada, we hit it off pretty well. But there was no talking to him about spiritual things. A previous pastor had spoiled that.

Instead of being gentle, he had come into this man’s home and insisted that he get down on his knees, confess his sins, and accept Jesus. The pastor was promptly invited to leave, and the man closed himself off to any further talk about Jesus.

Peter wants us to answer with respect, but respect is now on the endangered virtues list. What does it look like to show respect to a person with whom you are sharing the good news of Jesus? It looks a lot like handing that other person the power over the conversation. They are allowed to disagree. They have the right to terminate the conversation or change the subject. We won’t disrespect them by forcing them to listen or by maneuvering them into a decision. We are so confident in Jesus that we don’t need to do that.

To sum up what we’ve seen so far, we prepare to give an answer by getting free of fear. (God will help us with that.) We think through a reasonable and clear answer to the question of our hope and we practice gentleness and respect (practice being the operative word). We can’t turn gentleness and respect on and off when we choose. We must work on in all our relationships.

Finally, we prepare by keeping a clear conscience (verse 16). No hypocrisy. No hiding our sins. Our answers, no matter how polished, are bound to ring false if we are false—if we are acting hypocritically.

So, what steps do you need to take to be ready to give an answer? If you are controlled by fear, start working with God to change that. If you need to better understand the content of our hope, start where Peter did: with the resurrection of Jesus. “We have been given new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3). That will happen at the glorious appearing of our great Savior Jesus Christ—our blessed hope (Titus 2:13).

At his appearance, things will be set right. We will be set right. At the resurrection, we will be given bodies that are like his glorious body (Philippians 3:21), bodies suited to the new age, bodies that will never deteriorate. The earth will have its own kind of resurrection. Jesus calls this the palingenesis – Genesis again – the beginning of a new heaven and new earth, where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). In this new heaven and earth, we will live with God in our midst, as he always intended (Rev. 21:3-4).

You could sum it up this way: We are destined for glory (Romans 8:18). What Adam lost – loving, wise dominion over the earth – will be restored to us when the One seated on the throne declares: “Behold, I make all things new.”

This is our hope. Every other hope in humanity’s history, whether religious (think Islam or Buddhism), humanistic (think socialism or communism), or scientific (think Peter Thiel and Elon Musk) pales before the grand hope that is ours.

What other steps must we take to be ready to give an answer? If you talk too much, if you try to control the conversation, or come across as proud, practice treating everyone with respect. If there are things on your conscience that prevent you from talking to people about Jesus, confess those things to God, to another person, and get serious about change. We need to do what it takes to be ever ready to give an answer.

But that is not all there is to being ready. If we live as Peter instructed, we will find ourselves on a collision course with suffering. Being ready to give an answer is not enough; we must also be ready to suffer. This is chapter 4, verse 1: “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude” –of mindset – “because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.”

We are to arm ourselves with the attitude of Christ. How do we do that? What does it mean to arm yourself with a mindset?

This verse has generated a great many opinions among scholars. There are four main views of what Peter means by, “because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” It seems to me that scholars are in such a rush to explain the second part of this verse (the explanation), that they don’t take time to understand the first part of the verse (the instruction itself). Just what is this mindset that Peter sees as a kind of protective armor?

It is clear to me that he had something specific in mind, something he had seen displayed in Jesus himself. Peter had seen that something again and again: when Jesus “set his face” toward Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there. When Jesus went to help Lazarus over the disciples’ objections that it was a suicide mission. When Jesus prayed in the garden, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup [of suffering] from me…” Peter heard that. He knew that Jesus did not want to suffer. But he also heard him pray, “yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

What is this mindset that Peter saw in Jesus, that he himself had adopted, and was now requiring of Jesus’s followers? Put briefly, it is this: “I will suffer, if need be, but I will not disobey God.” Jesus knew that in this broken and disordered world, it will sometimes be impossible to obey God and yet avoid suffering. Jesus had made up his mind that on such occasions he would obey God and suffer. The right and natural desire to avoid suffering would not determine his actions. Obedience to God would.

We have seen repeatedly how following Peter’s instructions will make Jesus’s people different. Doing good deeds is a higher priority for them. Submitting to others is a lifestyle. Refusing to fear what everyone else fears is an identifying mark. But here is another one. Jesus’s people reject the “avoid suffering at all costs” mentality that pervades our culture. They have already made up their minds that when doing God’s will requires suffering – and they know that there will be times when it does – then they will suffer. They will hurt. They will experience loss. But they will not disobey God.

To live this way is to be radically different from almost everyone else. The ancient philosopher Epictetus used the same word Peter uses here to speak of society’s “common mindset.” The common mindset in our society is characterized by an unconditional commitment to avoiding suffering. That commitment is not only in place; it is continually growing stronger. The day will come when society’s commitment to avoiding suffering will be inviolable.

When that day comes, we will not be able to defend our nation because not enough people will be enlisting in the armed forces, where the possibility of suffering is high. Businesses will not be able to find workers because work is too much like suffering. People will demand that the government make their lives easy and free of pain. But when you think about it, these are things that are already happening.

Addictions will rage, for in the heart of every addict is a commitment not to suffer. Marriages will fail. Life-long friendships will be few. Love itself will grow cold because the possibility of suffering is inherent in love. But we will love.

Let others avoid suffering at all costs. We will not. We will suffer when faithfulness to Christ requires it. And we know that it will sometimes require it. This is what Paul told the Philippian church: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,” (Philippians 1:29).

The first step in arming oneself with this mindset is the choice to suffer rather than disobey or dishonor God. That choice is the foundation of this mindset. But a mindset is more than a choice, just as a building is more than a foundation. A mindset is constructed from ideas and thoughts, which are the boards nails with which every mindset is built.

So how do I construct a mindset that won’t collapse as soon as real suffering comes? I will build it from ideas and thoughts that I’ve learned from Jesus. I just said, “I will build it,” but it is important to understand that I am not the architect nor the general contractor of this mindset; God’s Spirit is. But I need to give the Spirit materials to work with – ideas, thoughts, and knowledge.

Those quality materials can be obtained from the Bible. I know that some people think that reading the Bible is a kind of suffering in itself. If you are one of those folks, then, my friend, suffer for Jesus! If you won’t suffer the loss of a little time and the taxing of your concentration, how can you expect to suffer real pain when faithfulness to Jesus requires it?

Now, it is important to understand that a mindset shaped by the Bible will not relieve you from suffering. It may even lead you into it. But you will endure it and you won’t do what so many others do: you won’t suffer over your suffering. You won’t cry, “I can’t believe this is happening to me!” You won’t keep repeating, parrot-like, “This is so unfair!” Once we have made the choice to suffer rather than be faithless to God, once we have a mind that is filled with the kinds of thoughts and ideas that filled Jesus’s mind, suffering won’t be able to break us, and sin won’t be able to hold us.

Being ready means being ready to give an answer and being ready to suffer. When we are, we will be ready for judgment. And that is a good thing because God is ready to judge (1 Peter 4:5): “they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

Judgment is the missing doctrine of our time, which is odd because in the Bible judgment is hard to miss. It is found from Genesis to Revelation, in the Psalms, and the prophets, the epistles and the Gospels. One hears it from the lips of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul. A Christian faith without judgment is like an algebra equation without an equal sign. It doesn’t add up. Algebra needs an equal sign to make sense, and Christianity needs a judgment for the same reason.

Many people want a God who doesn’t judge, but they wouldn’t like it if they got one. Without a judgment, the battle between good and evil ends in a draw—or rather, it never ends. Without a judgment, the girl who was sexually abused through her childhood will remain a victim through eternity. The harm done to the earth will never be healed. Evil will never end; it will always remain an option.

The judgment is creation’s restore point. The judgment sets everything – us included – right. The judgment is full of hope. That sounds odd to our ears but listen to the psalmist exulting over the judgment. “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.” (Psalm 96:11-12b)

What is the reason for all this jubilation? Why will “all the trees of the forest sing for joy?” “They will sing before the Lord, for [here is thereason] he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.” (Psalm 96:12-13)

Thank God that the world will be judged! Thank God that we shall be judged. We want there to be a judgment, not because we will be proved right but because we will be put right. I am grateful for Frederick Buechner’s words: “God will ring down the final curtain on history, and … The judge will be Christ. In other words, the one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully.”[1]

I resonate with Andrew Peterson’s song, The Reckoning, which includes the lines, “Mighty God, how I fear you. How I long to be near you, O Lord. How long, how long until the burden is lifted? How long is this the song that we sing? How long until the reckoning? And I know – I know – that I don’t know what I’m asking. But I long to look you full in the face—I am ready for the reckoning.”

We won’t get ready for the reckoning by getting religion. We’ll get ready by giving ourselves to Jesus. Those who long for the judge don’t fear the judgment. And if we live the way Peter has been describing to us, we will long for the judge. We will be ready.

[1] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC (Harper Collins, 1993), p. 58

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Is Your Gospel Missing Something?

Posted on March 22, 2025 by salooper57

Some years ago, I was surprised and a little unsettled by a Bible verse I had read many times. I’ve been surprised and unsettled in this way many times, so often, in fact, that I have learned to see it as the preface to fresh insight and a more robust understanding. Instead of worrying that these surprises mean I’ve missed something in the past – of course I have – they leave me expectant for the future.

The particular verse that left me surprised and unsettled was Romans 2:16. Paul had been describing how a person’s own conscience will defend or accuse them on the Day of Judgment. He then located this process of defense and recrimination in time (verse 16): “This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ…”

That was not what surprised me. The Bible teaches a judgment from Genesis to Revelation. We hear about it from the lips of Jesus and from the letters of Peter, Paul, the author of Hebrews, Jude, and many others. It wasn’t Paul’s description of judgment, but what he said next, that grabbed my attention. Paul wrote, “This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.”

It struck me for the first time that Paul included the Day of Judgment as an element in his gospel—his good news. I had thought – had been led to think – of the judgment as bad news. It was the bad news that people needed to hear before they were ready for the good news. But Paul saw the Judgment as good news. How could that be?

I was afraid of the Judgment. I don’t need to search far to find things that I have said, thought, and done that exposed me as a sinner—and sometimes a fool. The idea that all that will be revealed—how could anyone speak of that as good news?

Hence, the surprise and the feeling of being unsettled. There must be, I realized, more to the Judgment than I have previously understood. The fact that Paul included it in his good news means that it must either be good in itself or it must result in something good.

I came across these words from the pastor and novelist Frederick Buechner: “God will ring down the final curtain on history, and … The judge will be Christ. In other words, the one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully.”

Yes, that is good news. But did Paul have something more than that in mind when he was writing Romans? I was coming to think so.

For years, I have spent the first hours of my morning reading the Scriptures and praying, and my habit has been to read the texts from the Daily Office in the Book of Common Prayer. That kind of reading schedule takes me through the psalms repeatedly. And guess what I found there? The idea that the judgment is good news – more than that – that the judgment is great news.

In Psalm 96, the psalmist calls creation to rejoice. “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes…”

Why is this coming something to celebrate? Why should the earth be so jubilant? Because “he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.” Creation eagerly awaits that judgment.

There is something very similar in Psalm 98. There, the entire creation – inanimate and animate, humans and other animals, seas and mountains – sing, clap, and shout for joy because, once again, YHWH comes to judge the earth.

Judgment is seen as the occasion for setting everything right. I am sure that humans, at least, will not rejoice at the Judgment because they will be proved right, but rather because they will be put right. All that is wrong – physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally – will be set right. Death will be destroyed. The old order of things – dominated as it has been by the Second Law of Thermodynamics with its repetitive story of failure and corruption – will pass away. Reconciliation, between God and man, man and man, God and creation, man and creation, even creation and creation will be complete.

The entire creation celebrates the coming of judgment, knowing that afterward the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, and humans will finally take dominion over the earth. Instead of torturing it with toxins and destroying its creatures for personal gain, humans will rule it with love and faithfulness.

This fresh insight into judgment led me to a broader understanding of the gospel. It is not the good news of something I might do (accept Jesus into my heart) so that I might avoid hell and receive a ticket to heaven (as important as that is). It is the good news of something God has already done through Jesus Christ to bring a cosmic end to evil and set all things right. In Colossians 1:15-23 we find that all things were created by and for Jesus Christ, all things are sustained by him, and all things have been reconciled to God by him. All things. The scope of what God has accomplished through Jesus is breathtaking.

This isn’t just about me or even you. The gospel’s scope takes in all creation, and it includes the Judgment—the kick-off event of abundant life and everlasting joy for everyone and everything that belongs to God.

When we turn the gospel into a sales pitch to individuals rather than an announcement of what God has accomplished and will accomplish through Jesus, we give people a gospel they might accept (which is crucial) but will probably not celebrate (which is also crucial). They need to see, as Paul makes clear in Colossians, that Jesus is good news for the world – for the universe – and that the good news includes them (Colossians 1:21-23).

Perhaps we need to turn our evangelism presentations backwards, as Paul did in Colossians, and start with Jesus’s victory rather than our sinfulness (as is usually done). Then, like Paul, we need to paint a picture of universal deliverance, the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth. Then, after we have filled out this cosmic vision (Romans 8:18-23 is perfect for this), we can tell people that they too (Colossians 1:21-23) qualify for reconciliation. They can be renewed, restored, complete – it’s their choice. They can take part in “the renewal of all things” (Matthew 19:28, the palingenesis – creation again).  They can trust Jesus, the Savior of souls and the Restorer/Beautifier/Reconciler of all things in heaven and on earth, and confess him as Lord.

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Encouragement, Faith, Peace with God, Spiritual life, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Submission Is for the Mission

Posted on March 20, 2025 by salooper57

A Sermon about the S-Word (“submission”) from 1 Peter 3:1-7

When some people talk about the “biblical teaching on submission,” they leave out a great deal of what the Bible says about submission. Peter’s teaching on a wife’s submission (1 Peter 3:1-7) is often lifted out of its context, which begins in the previous chapter. This sermon helps us understand submission in its biblical context.

If you would prefer to read the text rather than watch/listen to the sermon, click here.

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Church, Family, Marriage and Family, Mission, relationships, Sermons, Worldview and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Submission Is for the Mission

Posted on March 18, 2025 by salooper57

Understanding why the Bible speaks about submission. (It is not just for wives.)

“Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear” (1 Peter 3:1-6)

Imagine a pastor standing behind a pulpit that has been armored so that it is like a fortress. He speaks to the congregation through something like a gun turret. His sermon begins: “My text today is 1 Peter 3:1, ‘Wives submit to your husbands.’”[1]

That’s how many pastors feel when they come to this text. This passage has caused non-Christians – and even other Christians – to accuse us of being misogynistic and sexist. They call us patriarchal, primitive, and obsolete.

And are they right? Doesn’t this passage imply that women are inferior? And isn’t that what Christians believe? Fearing that it is, some people avoid this passage like the plague.

Others leverage it to force women to do what they want. In an extensive study of battered Christian women, Christianity Today found that two-thirds of them believed that obedience to God required them to endure their husbands’ violence. Fifty-five percent said that their husbands told them the violence would stop when they became more submissive, and one-third of those women believed they were to blame for their husband’s abuse.[2]

Maybe that’s why the Revised Common Lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer simply skips this passage. It’s been used to prop up a system of oppression and bias by sinful men who have weaponized it. It provides non-Christians with ammunition to disparage and ridicule the church.

To the people who revised the lectionary, I say: “Yes, there are men who exploit this teaching to justify their sins, but you’re ignoring it to avoid your fears. And neither you nor they are taking seriously what the apostle said.

To take this instruction seriously, we need to pay attention to the context of the submission Peter enjoins, its content, and its contrast to the husbands’ role in verse 7. I say “contrast” but that may be misleading. Peter takes, as it were, side by side pictures of the marriage relationship because together they bring out a depth and richness that neither can produce alone. We’ll go into that further in a few minutes.

First, we need to look at context, to which there are two aspects: social context and biblical context. Social context has to do with what the world was like when these instructions were given. How did these instructions fit into the lives of the people who first received them?

Then, there is biblical context. How do these instructions fit into the purpose of this letter? Are there similar statements made in other parts of the letter? Other parts of the Bible?

We’ll start with the social context. When this letter was written, societies were considerably different from what they are now and, even in Peter’s day, the situation could differ from region to region. In Israel, women had very few rights. They could not under normal circumstances inherit property. They were not permitted an education. They had little choice in the matter of who they would marry and no veto power if the choice displeased them. They could not initiate a divorce. The law considered them to be the property of their husband.

In the Roman world to which this letter was written – and especially in the area in Asia to which it was sent – things were different. Women could own their own businesses and property. They had more say in their marriages. In some regions they could vote and hold public office. In that sense, they were more like western women today. They enjoyed greater freedom.

But freedom, in the absence of love, leads to conflict, and religion can become one more area of conflict. Unlike most of the ancient world, where a woman’s religion was chosen for her by her father (and, later, her husband), the women who read Peter’s letter had a choice. They chose to abandoned their husband’s faith and had come over to Israel’s God and his messiah Jesus.

Many husbands didn’t care what God their wives worshiped as long as it didn’t complicate their lives. But if her religion was a threat to his guild membership or damaged his social standing, that was another thing altogether.

That was the social context. What about the biblical context? Look at that first verse: “Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands…” The words, “in the same way” put us on notice that we must take the context into account. In the same way as what? As whom?

In the immediate context, “in the same way” clearly means, “in the same way that Jesus submitted,” as described by Peter in the previous paragraph. Jesus submitted for a greater purpose. So should these wives. Jesus submitted silently, without complaining or condemning. So should wives. Jesus was able to submit because he entrusted himself to God, knowing that he will right all wrongs. That is also how a wife will be able to submit.

If we go beyond the immediate context, will we find that submission is required of anyone besides wives? We will. In 2:13, Peter tells both men and women to submit to every human authority – that is, to government leaders – for the Lord’s sake. (And just to be clear, it is impossible to submit to anyone for the Lord’s sake when doing so means disobeying the Lord himself.)

But that is not all. In verse 18, slaves (who comprised the greatest part of the empire’s workforce) are instructed to submit to their masters. Further, in chapter 5, younger men are to submit to the church’s elders. The biblical context makes it clear that wives are not the only ones instructed to submit. This submission cannot be about male superiority since three of the four times Peter instructs people to submit, men are the ones submitting.

But if submission isn’t about male superiority, what is it about? Peter makes that easy for us: each time he directs people to submit, he gives a reason for it. It is for the Lord’s sake (2:13); it is because one is conscious of God (2:19); it is to win unbelievers over to God’s side (3:1). You see, submission is part of a larger strategy to fulfill the mission we read about in 2:9-12: to declare God’s praises and bring the unpersuaded over to his side.

Christians are to live such good lives that non-Christians see and end up glorifying God. They lead beautiful, exceptional lives – lives that are obviously different from the lives their non-Christian family, friends, and bosses lead. Submission is a primary (but not a solitary) way that Christians are different.

The purpose behind submission is most clearly stated in the case of wives. Look at 3:1 and notice the purpose statement: “…so that, if any of them do not believe [or are unpersuaded by] the word, they may be won over …” Won over to what – being nicer guys, more considerate husbands? That would be a good thing, but it’s not what Peter had in mind. He is talking about winning them over to Christ. Peter is still working from chapter 2, verses 9-12; this whole section flows from there. In that passage, Peter outlined the mission: declare God’s praises while living lives that persuade the unpersuaded to come over to God’s side before the day he visits us. Submission is for the mission.

That is the context of submission, but what is its content – what does submission entail? How do we do it? First, we submit without being preachy. I doubt that preachiness has ever won anyone to Christ – preaching, yes; but not preachiness. So, Peter says, “they may be won over without words.”

How can you win someone without words? You do it by the way you live – or as the NIV has it, “by the behavior of their wives.” The word translated “behavior” is a favorite of Peter’s. Of its thirteen New Testament uses, eight are Peter’s. He knows that changed lives are powerful. Your claims can be debated; your example cannot.

Peter does not want wives talking their husbands to death. He wants them leading them to life by their example.

CNN once reported on a couple from Berlin. When they disagreed, the wife would get louder and louder and go on longer and longer. That’s when the man would use an old WWII air raid siren to stun his wife into submission.

“My wife never lets me get a word in edgeways,” he told police. “So I crank up the siren and let it rip for a few minutes. It works every time. Afterwards, it’s real quiet again.”

The police confiscated the 73-year-old man’s rooftop siren after neighbors complained. As for his wife of 32 years, she said: “My husband is a stubborn mule, so I have to get loud.”[3] How much better their lives would have been had they followed Peter’s instruction.

That word translated “behavior” was translated “way of life” back in chapter 1. There Peter was speaking of the aimless way of life that characterizes many non-Christians. But Christians’ lives are not aimless; they have a purpose, a mission, and because of it they do things other people can’t or won’t do.

Just what is it about a wife’s example – or, for that matter, any Christian’s – that will win people over? It is (v. 2) their purity and reverence. Another way of translating that phrase is “by the reverence-inspired holiness of your life.” In other words, a Christian wife lives in a way that makes her belief in God obvious; she organizes her life around him. Her husband realizes his wife submits to him because she submits to the Lord Jesus. He knows that she is more concerned about what Jesus thinks of her than what he thinks of her. The life she leads is inexplicable apart from God.

It’s not that she tells him all this. She lives it. And he sees it. The Greek of verse 2, which the NIV translates, “When they see the purity and reverence of your lives” is really, “when they oversee.” The wife is not putting on a show. She has been overseen arranging her life around God. That is not something the average non-Christian spouse sees; but they should.

There is something else the spouse oversees: His wife puts more time into inward beauty than into outward appearance (verse 3). That is not normal in society. It’s not normal, but it is Christian.

Peter says her beauty comes (verse 4) “from the inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” A woman once told me that she didn’t have that gentle and quiet spirit. It just wasn’t her personality. And, truthfully, she didn’t want that spirit because she was afraid of being pushed around. But she was mistaken in at least four ways.

First, she was letting her fears veto God’s word! She’ll never see that God can be trusted until she obeys him.

Second, she had completely forgotten the mission and was acting like it was all about her. Submission is for the mission.

Third, she assumed that the gentle and quiet spirit is a personality type. Any personality type can display a gentle and quiet spirit when it is shaped by trust in God.

Fourth, she thought that a gentle and quiet spirit makes a person a pushover. But she didn’t realize it was Jesus’s gentle and quiet spirit that Peter wants us to emulate—and the Lion of Judah is no pushover! In their relationship to their husbands (as in our relationships to bosses, government officials, and fellow church members), Christians are meant to be a picture of Jesus.

We have seen how submission is one element in a larger strategy to fulfill the mission of 2:9-12 and win people over to God’s side. But the picture is not complete. It lacks depth. So, Peter gives us a second picture of Christian marriage, this time angled a little differently, bringing the Christian husband into focus. Without this contrast, the picture of the wife’s submission looks flat.

Verse 7: Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Let me give you a literal translation of the first part of verse 7: “Husbands, in the same way live together according to knowledge.” The Christian husband is to know his wife: what she likes and dislikes; what she wants out of life and what she fears; her strengths (which he celebrates); her weaknesses (of which he is considerate).

There are many husbands who know more about the NFL than they know about their wives. They know who is likely to go first in the draft – and second, third, fourth and fifth. They know the average number of interceptions their quarterback throws per game. They know that their defensive line coach has taken a job as defensive coordinator for another team and can talk on and on about what that means for next season. But they don’t know their wives’ favorite color. They don’t know what they do that irritates their wives. They don’t live together according to knowledge.

In a Christian marriage, a husband knows his wife. His knowledge of her is not neutral and objective but passionate and personal. He treats her with respect. Ancient moralists routinely told wives to respect their husbands, but the Christian insistence that husbands respect their wives was shockingly countercultural. It stood out. God wants his people to stand out.

Husbands are to relate to their wives as fellow-heirs of the gift of life. I mentioned earlier that in the ancient world, many women (the great majority, I believe) did not inherit property (or anything else). But among Christians, women were respected. They were co-heirs with their husbands.

Think of how Christian marriages stood out in society. Husbands who loved and respected their wives. Wives who submitted to their husband without talking behind their backs, or complaining, or nagging. Theirs were marriages that other people envied.

We need both aspects of this picture: A husband who knows, loves, and respect his wife. A wife who is for her husband and chooses to submit to him. They may disagree (as any two people will), but they will not stop honoring each other.

In the other great passage on submission in marriage, Ephesians 5, we have the same kind of thing. First a picture of a wife who submits to her husband out of reverence for Christ, then a picture of a husband who, like Christ, loves his wife and is ready to sacrifice himself for her.

Do you know why the apostles give us two pictures of marriage, one that focuses on the woman and the other on the man? I think they are giving us a stereoscopic image of marriage in the Christian life.

Do you know how a stereoscopic picture differs from a regular picture? A stereoscopic picture combines two images of the same thing – in this case, Christian marriage – taken at slightly different angles, to reveal depth. In other words, they are 3-D pictures. Separate the images and each looks flat. Put them together in the right way, and they jump off the page.

If we separate the images of the husband and wife in a Christian marriage, what remains are difficult duties, rules to follow, and a life that looks flat and undesirable. But when we put them together as the biblical writers always do, we have a vibrant, attention-grabbing 3-D image.

And here is the amazing thing: when you look at that image – the Christian wife and husband in a marriage of love – what you see pictured is Christ, which is why Paul, in a long passage about Christian marriage, suddenly and unexpectedly says, “But I am talking about Christ…” Christ submitting. Christ honoring. Christ loving.

We thought marriage was just about making people happy, but it’s more than that. It is about making Christ known. When Christians marry, their marriages is taken up into the mission.

But don’t think this kind of marriage is for sissies.

[1] Robert L. Russell, “God’s Design for Marriage,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 166.

[2] Marlin Vis, “Battered into Submission,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 134.

[3] “Man Uses Air Raid Siren to Quiet Wife,” CNN.com (4-19-03)

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Living in an Imported Culture

Posted on March 15, 2025 by salooper57

I was sitting in the dorm’s only TV lounge during my freshman or sophomore year. There was a cluster of couches, all facing the television, with over a dozen guys scattered around the room. The couch I was on was full. My new friend George Ashok Kumar Das, recently arrived from Bangladesh, was sitting next to me.

Bengali men. Wikimedia Commons

At some point during the movie we were watching, Taupu (that was his nickname) took my left hand in his right. I stiffened. I had no idea that in his culture, as in some African and the Middle Eastern cultures, heterosexual men held hands as a sign of friendship and trust.

Every culture has its own customs. In Thailand, if a coin slips from your hand and you stop it from rolling under your car with your foot, you might cause great offense. The image of the king’s head is on that coin, and to step on his face is a gross insult.

In Vietnam, if you signal to a restaurant server to come to your table, she may pour the soup in your lap because you’ve treated her as if she were a dog. If you are caught selling chewing gum in Singapore, you could be incarcerated for up to two years and be fined $100,000.[1] Kingdoms and countries have their own codes regarding what it means to be a good citizen.

Those codes are sometimes exported. For example, if you were in the Bangladeshi embassy in Washington D.C. and saw two men holding hands, it might signify close friendship. If you stepped outside the embassy onto International Drive and saw the same thing, it might signify something quite different. The culture inside the embassy has been imported from another place with different social codes and values.

Imported cultures are hardly new. The biblical letter to the Philippians was sent to people who lived, worked, and played in a culture that had been imported from Rome. Though Philippi was about 800 miles away by the commonest land-sea route, it had been a Roman colony since the time of Octavius and Marc Antony. Philippi was subject to Roman law, followed Roman customs, and was home to Roman citizens.

Imported cultures have been a reality in America for a very long time. If you had come to Manhattan in 1640, you would have found people living by Dutch laws, following Dutch customs, and eating Dutch foods, even though Amsterdam was almost 4,000 miles away. Had you traveled northeast, you would have found people speaking French, following French customs, and flying the French flag. After the English defeated the Dutch 24-years later, New Amsterdam was renamed New York, and the Union Jack floated over the city. Dutch culture faded and was gradually replaced by English culture.

Imported cultures have something to teach the church, which we can think of as a colony, a culturally distinct pocket within mainstream society. As a colony of the kingdom of God, the church is subject to its rules (the commands of Jesus), speaks its language (the language of love), and trades in its currency (faith, hope, and love).

To enter the church from the majority culture is like walking into the Bangladeshi Embassy from International Drive in D.C. Here people speak differently, have different customs, hold different values, and engage in different practices. The church may feel strange to people coming in from the outside, but it is (or should be) an exciting and inviting strangeness.

It is strange because people show respect to each other. People in a Kingdom of God culture are interested in others and not just in what others can do for them. They go out of their way to help each other and expect nothing in return. Here, the usual status markers – clothing, cars, education, income – are insignificant compared to faith, hope, and love.

It is also (and chiefly) strange because people love their leader and are fiercely loyal to him. They talk about him, talk to him, and regularly praise him. Their leader is Jesus. He is at the center of everything that people in this culture do and care about.

All this is bound to feel strange to outsiders but, when they see the quality of life and the richness of relationships in the church, they might conclude that preoccupation with Jesus is a good thing. They might realize that Kingdom of God culture is not just an alternative to the culture they have known but an extraordinary improvement upon it.

[1] Illustrations from https://www.adventureinyou.com/travel-tips/cultural-differences/

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Is Jesus Our Savior or Our Example?

Posted on March 14, 2025 by salooper57

It wasn’t long after I came over to Jesus’s side that I discovered that not all Christians think alike. The larger church is divided into smaller camps. At college, I began to learn more about these camps. There were of course the Catholics. From the snatches I heard said about Catholics, I assumed that few (if any) were Christians in any meaningful sense. There were also the liberals, who were really only humanists (that was the derision de jour at the time) in Christian’s clothing. And then there was “us,” the real Christians.

But even among us, there were camps. There were the Calvinists (who weren’t any fun), the fundamentalists (who didn’t want anyone to have any fun), and the Pentecostals (who were having all the fun, speaking in tongues and getting slain in the Spirit).

Somehow, I learned these things without ever talking to a Catholic, a liberal, or a Pentecostal. In the years since, I’ve spoken to all these folks and many at length. I’ve learned that talking about people reinforces stereotypes while talking to people tears them down.

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Example, Savior, Shepherd

Posted on March 13, 2025 by salooper57

It wasn’t long after I came over to Jesus’s side that I discovered that not all Christians think alike. The larger church is divided into smaller camps. At college, I began to learn more about these camps. There were of course the Catholics. From the snatches I heard said about Catholics, I assumed that few (if any) were Christians in any meaningful sense. There were also the liberals, who were really only humanists (that was the derision de jour at the time) in Christian’s clothing. And then there was “us,” the real Christians.

But even among us, there were camps. There were the Calvinists (who weren’t any fun), the fundamentalists (who didn’t want anyone to have any fun), and the Pentecostals (who were having all the fun, speaking in tongues and getting slain in the Spirit).

Somehow, I learned these things without ever talking to a Catholic, a liberal, or a Pentecostal. In the years since, I’ve spoken to all these folks and many at length. I’ve learned that talking about people reinforces stereotypes while talking to people tears them down.

Even after the stereotypes are gone, differences remain. My answer, the Catholic’s answer, and the mainline church member’s answer are not all the same. That’s alright. Neither I, the Catholic, or the mainline church member are saved by having the right answers. If we’re saved at all, it’s because the Answerer has us – Jesus who died for us and rose again.

One continuing difference between conservative Christians and liberal ones is more a difference of emphasis than anything else. When liberals speak of Jesus, they are more likely to speak of his example than are conservatives. Conservatives are more likely to speak of Jesus’s saving death than are liberals. Most liberals believe that Jesus is our savior and most conservatives believe that Jesus is our example, but there are people within these movements who completely ignore one or the other.

Because that is true, when conservatives hear a liberal talking about Jesus’s example, they can jump to the conclusion that she thinks that Jesus wasn’t the son of God, that eternity doesn’t matter, and that the world will be saved by just laws and not by Jesus’s death and resurrection.

And because there are conservatives who belittle Jesus’s example (I’m thinking now of a well-known evangelical leader of about 30 years ago who said, “If Christ is an example, nobody needs him; but if he’s a sacrifice, everyone does”[1]), liberal Christians think that conservatives only care about getting to heaven when they die. If the earth falls apart in the meantime, so what?

So, is Jesus our example or is Jesus our savior? According to St. Peter – who ought to know – he is both, and more! Let’s read our text, 1 Peter 2:21-25, and see for ourselves.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

I learned to play guitar about 30 years ago. I started on a borrowed children’s guitar, then a borrowed nylon-string guitar, and finally bought an $85 beast of a guitar I picked up at a garage sale. I taught myself chord shapes from a book (this was in the days before YouTube), picked up a finger-picking technique from by brother-in-law, and a friend taught me to play one three-chord chorus. Other than that, I taught myself.

I wrote a song within six months of learning to play. And then another, and another. But I never really played with people. 99% of my playing time has been spent alone. And the result, after 30 years of playing guitar, is that I’m not very good at it. I really needed an example.

I don’t understand the man who said, “If Christ is an example, nobody needs him.” What does he mean by “needs him”? If he means that people don’t need his example to live rich, fruitful, loving, purposeful, God-honoring lives, I am sure he is wrong.

There are of course people – even some who identify as Christians – who think we don’t need Jesus as a savior. If by that they mean that just laws and economic policies will transform the world into a utopia where people never die but live forever, free of sin and saved from every evil, I am sure they are wrong.

We need a savior, and we need an example. Let’s expand on my guitar illustration. Imagine some poor teenager, living in the Kara-Kum desert. He doesn’t even know what a guitar is; and even if he did, he could never afford one; and, even if he could, there are no guitars to buy. The only way he will ever play is if someone gives him a guitar – some musical savior.

And let’s say that happens. Someone from far away comes to Kara-Kum and gives our teenager a guitar. But what is he going to do with it? He has never seen anyone play a guitar. He has no idea of notes and triads and suspended fourth chords. He needs an example.

It’s a little like that for us. We could not live the eternal kind of life because we didn’t have it and had no way of getting it. But someone came from far away to give us this life, and had to sacrifice his own to do it. That someone is Jesus. He is our savior. Without him, the eternal kind of life would be eternally out of reach, but we are not without him.

We who have believed in Jesus have received the eternal kind of life. Now we need an example; otherwise, we won’t know what to do with it. Jesus shows us how to live this life, by his example in Scripture and by his Spirit in us. Without the life he died to give us, his example would have little meaning—like showing chord charts to a teenager who has never seen a guitar. But without his example, that life would have little consequence, like a guitar in the hands of someone who doesn’t know what to do with it.

Peter clearly sees that Jesus is our example (verse 21): “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” When Peter wrote, “Christ suffered,” he knew what he was talking about. He had seen Christ suffer, not just on the cross, but during the years that led up to it. Peter had seen him “endure opposition from sinners” (Hebrews 12:3) – from people who hated him, told lies about him, tried to manipulate him, and on and on.

The word translated “example” (ὑπογραμμὸν in Greek) comes from the schoolrooms of the ancient world. When a child was learning to read and write, he would follow the lines of the large letters (the ὑπογραμμὸi) at the top of the “page” until he had learned how make his own letters. Peter wants us to follow Jesus, follow his lines, “follow in his steps.”

That raises the question: Do you know enough about Jesus to do that? For example, do you know what he did when people tried to manipulate him so that you will know what to do when they try to manipulate you? Do you know what steps he took when life was so busy that he didn’t have time to sit down and eat a meal? What about when his brothers mocked him? What steps did he take when he began to succeed, and his popularity grew? You need to know what path he took if we are going to follow in his steps. If you call yourself a Christian and do not know the life of Jesus, you’ve got some catching up to do. His path is marked out for us in the Bible. Learn it.

He is our example, according to Peter, of how to suffer. Everyone suffers, but most of us don’t know how to do it the Jesus way. We haven’t learned to follow his example.

How did Jesus suffer? First, Peter tells us that he suffered for others – “for you” – not for himself. He did not suffer for the sake of suffering – that would be pathetic – but for the sake of helping. There is nothing meritorious about suffering. Avoid it when you can. But endure it when you must, especially when it is for someone else.

Secondly, Peter tells us that Jesus didn’t suffer (this is verse 22) because he had done wrong or because he got caught in an untruth. “He committed no sin and deceit was not found in his mouth.” He suffered unjustly. Better to suffer unjustly than justly.

Thirdly, Jesus suffered quietly. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats” (v. 23).  Jesus didn’t complain. He didn’t lash out. Is that how we suffer?

Today we have very different examples. Politicians and celebrities have made an art form of attacking anyone who speaks against them. They mock, insult, and threaten—and ordinary people (even Christians!) are following their example. We need to decide whose example are we going to follow.

Fourthly, when Jesus suffered (v. 23), he “entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” The word the NIV translates “entrusted” usually has a different meaning. It is the word repeatedly used of Judas “handing” Jesus over to the people who killed him. Judas handed him over to evil men, but Jesus handed himself over to God.

Are you able to do that when people mistreat you? Do you have any idea how Jesus did it? He has given us an example. His story is like one of those letters at the top of the page. Are you learning to follow it?

Jesus knows how to navigate life. How important it is for us to follow his example! But Jesus is not only our example; he is also our savior! Look at verse 24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Thinking about Jesus our Example has taken Peter’s mind to Jesus our Substitute and Savior.

Many Christians seem to think that Jesus’s death is a kind of magic sin eraser. (I’m borrowing language from my son Kevin here.) It’s not that they think about it very deeply. They don’t know how Jesus’s death fits into God’s one great plan to bless humanity. They are unfamiliar with its biblical antecedents. And because they haven’t thought about it, it seems magical.

Peter, however, had thought deeply about it. He had listened to Jesus himself explain it—an explanation that came wrapped in Old Testament language. So, when Peter thought about Jesus’s death, his mind naturally went to the Old Testament, and especially to Isaiah 53, that great chapter where (to borrow again from Kevin) Law and Gospel converge.

Isaiah 53 does not treat the atoning death of God’s servant as a magic sin eraser but as a covenant sacrifice that makes possible a relationship with God. The magic eraser view removes salvation from the context of relationship and slips it into the context of religion (or even superstition), which is disastrous to faith.

When we talk about the context of a relationship with God, we are talking about covenant. God chose to make covenant the entry point to a close and enduring relationship between himself and humans. The idea should be familiar to us, for we also make covenant the entry point to our most enduring and productive human relationship. We call it “the covenant of marriage.”

You will recognize some of the elements of covenant in the marriage ceremony: it contains covenant promises (we call them wedding vows). There are covenant witnesses: usually, but not always, the best man and maid of honor, who sign the marriage license. There is a covenant symbol: we call it a wedding ring – “I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow…” There is a covenant meal: we call it the wedding reception. All these things have their origin in the ancient practice of covenant.

There are notable covenants in the Bible. God entered covenant with Noah and his descendants. He famously struck a covenant with Abraham. At Sinai, the Lord and the people of Israel entered covenant together. Through Jeremiah, God promised to institute a new covenant with people.

Covenant is about relationship and relationship requires sacrifice. In Bible times, every covenant was instituted with a sacrifice. The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the covenant parties to symbolize their purification from past sins. Later they sat at table together and ate the sacrificed animal; to eat together was in ancient societies a sign of acceptance and fellowship.

Sacrifice is always a part of biblical covenants. In Isaiah 53, from which Peter repeatedly quotes, we read, “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him” (Isaiah 53:5). That is covenant language. Verse 10 says, “the Lord made his life an offering for sin.” More covenant language. Peter likewise speaks of Jesus bearing our sins in his body. More covenant talk.

In earlier covenants, people brought the sacrifice. But in the new covenant, God does. It was the Lord who laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:6). Jesus understood that he was the covenant sacrifice, the entry point for a relationship between humans and God. So, on the night he was betrayed, he took the cup and – what did he say? “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20).

Jesus’s death was not a magic eraser. It brought us into relationship with God, with whom we had been separated. Apart from that relationship – what St. Paul calls “peace with God” – there is no salvation. Jesus died, Peter says in chapter 3, “to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The Bible never says Jesus died to get us into heaven – as if that were salvation. It says that Jesus died to bring us to God. If we don’t enter a relationship with God, we are not saved, whatever we say we believe.

Once we have been reconciled to God by a savior, we need an example to show us how to live as God’s people. We also need a shepherd who leads guides, protects, and cares for us. We have one (verse 25): “…you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Even after we have been saved, even after we have been given an example, we need a shepherd and overseer. We still wander. There are threats to our souls. We need real-time help, correction, direction, and sometimes rebuke. We need a shepherd. In Jesus, we have one—a good one.

Now a word about order. Experiencing Jesus as savior comes first, then comes our experience of Jesus as example and shepherd. Go back to my illustration of the Turkman teen in the Kara-Kum desert. Elon Musk’s Starlink brings internet to the desert and this boy becomes addicted to watching guitar instruction videos. He learns the shape of every chord, memorizes the notes up and down the neck. He watches his favorite guitarist, Billy Strings, on YouTube and tries to imitate his every move. He looks great. The only problem is: he plays on an air guitar. He doesn’t have a real one. It is imaginary.

If we take Jesus for our example but not our savior, our spiritual life will be imaginary. We need the life that a relationship with God brings. When we have it, Jesus’s example becomes priceless.

We can also get things out of order when we want Jesus to be our shepherd but not our example. The testimony of Christians throughout the ages is that they experience the reality of the good shepherd’s guidance, protection, and provision when they are trying to follow his example. If they ignore his example – live like people who are not in relationship with God – they probably won’t experience, or realize they have experienced, his guidance, provision, correction, and protection.

Next Sunday, we will remember and affirm our covenant at the Lord’s Table, the Communion meal. Before you do that, would you ask yourself three questions? Ask yourself: Have I entered into a relationship with God through Jesus so that he is my savior? Am I actively trying to follow his example? Am I experiencing his correction, guidance, provision, and protection?

If the answer to any of these is no or is “I don’t know,” and you would like to change that, please talk with me. Then follow up by finding someone who is living this kind of life and ask them how they do it. Decide right now that you are going to do that. And if I can be of help, please talk to me.

Blessing/Sending (1 Peter 2; Matthew 16 & 28)

Christ has left an example for us, that we should follow in His steps. So, let us take up our crosses and follow Jesus. He is worthy of our trust and obedience, and He is with us always

[1] Fred Smith, Leadership, Vol. 4, no.3.

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Are Some Sins Worse Than Others?

Posted on March 8, 2025 by salooper57
Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

The Bible uses a variety of terms for wrongdoing, wrongful not doing, and wrong thinking. There is the umbrella word “sin,” which includes intentional sins (Hebrew, with a high hand) and unintentional ones (not with a high hand), along with terms like “transgression,” “trespass,” and “iniquity.” In Psalm 51, we find the words “transgressions,” “iniquity,” and “sin” in consecutive verses.

Are all sins (transgressions, trespasses, and iniquity) equally serious? It has often been suggested that this is true, based on James 2:10 (“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it”) and on Jesus’s statement “that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). However, Jesus himself distinguishes one sin from another, and refers to one as “greater” than the other (John 19:11), and confirms that there are degrees of punishment (Mark 12:40; Luke 12:47-48).

What started me thinking about this (again – I’ve wondered about it before) was my time in prayer and scripture this morning. I read Psalm 19 and spent a few minutes thinking and praying about it. In verses 12-13, the psalmist writes, “But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.”

David mentions errors, faults, and willful sins. He acknowledges the difficulty humans have in perceiving their own errors. Perhaps I can see your errors, but I can no more see mine than I can see my own eye. Without a mirror – but you could be my mirror – I will not discern my own errors.

I have hidden faults. I did not hide them – or if I did, it was so long ago that I have forgotten about them – and I do not know what they are. But my ignorance is not the same thing as my innocence. These faults are hidden from me, yet they can still cause harm—sometimes serious harm. It is possible that these faults were hidden in me by my parents, or my upbringing, or by Adam’s rebellion. How they were hidden is not the important thing. That they be forgiven, exposed, and eliminated is.

The Psalmist asks God to keep him from “willful” sins. Other versions translate that as “presumptuous,” “flagrant,” and “insolent.” Unlike the faults mentioned in the previous verse, these sins are not hidden from me; they are hidden by me. Nevertheless, though these sins are known by me, and I choose to do them, that does not mean that I approve of them. Sins that result from addiction are a good example. A person may choose to purchase an illegal narcotic, look at a pornographic picture in order to lust, or use filthy language (verbal habits are among the toughest to break) and yet hate himself for doing so. What David feared has come to pass in that person’s life: the willful sin has come to “rule over” them.

Regardless of whether we are dealing with faults that are hidden from us or sins that are hidden by us, our hope of getting free from them hinges on our willingness to humble ourselves. A humble person can discover a hidden fault through the help of a loving friend (or the malice of a hateful enemy), do something about it, and be released from its control. But a proud person will turn to denial and excuses. When it comes to willful sins, humility is of the utmost importance. God alone can break the power of willful sin over us, but without our humble cooperation that work will only be performed by death or disaster.

So, are all sins equally bad? No. The biblical evidence, from the types of Levitical sacrifices to the teaching of Jesus, suggest that some sins are worse than others since some sins cause greater harm and call forth greater punishment. To acknowledge that all sins are not equally bad, does not mean that some sins are good, or even tolerable. Every sin, whether great or small, creates a barrier between us and God, and separation from God is the essence of spiritual death. St. Paul put it this way: “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

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What Christians Need to Know in Times of Trial

Posted on March 1, 2025 by salooper57

Advice I had to give myself.

I frequently say to people going through some kind of trouble, “You’re being tested. But it is not a test of your worth. You are priceless; that has already been determined. It is not a test of how smart you are, or how strong, or how well you respond under pressure. It is a test of your faith.”

This idea is found throughout Scripture, but never is it more clearly stated than in James 1:3: “…the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” The difficulties we experience are a test of our faith, not our intelligence or our proficiency. Will we trust the Lord in this new difficulty, or will we trust ourselves, or will we put our trust in the cultural gods de jour?

I have said something like this to many people. This week, I needed to say it to myself.

It’s not that I endured some earth-shaking, soul-disturbing trial. I’ve not been diagnosed with some terrible disease, my wife hasn’t left me (or threatened to), and I don’t need to worry about where my next meal is coming from. The tests that came my way are smaller, everyday kinds of trials—the kinds all of us face.

Trials do not need to be big ones to be a test of faith. Any trial can reveal faith, as a calculus test reveals math proficiency. In the test, do I look to God and entrust myself and my situation to him, or do I look to myself or to some other source of help?

Over the weekend, my laptop began shutting off without warning, as if the battery was depleted, though it was still half-charged. This had happened before, and I had replaced the battery. Now it was happening again.

Windows offered an error message and I followed the QR code to suggested fixes. Atop the list was, “Reset the BIOS.” I did this almost without thinking, though I took care to save my personal files. But because I was using an old, local version of Microsoft Office rather than the 365 subscription the church offers, I (temporarily) lost 1,000 email addresses and many thousand emails. I also lost (temporarily) a very expensive Bible scholar’s software package and my wireless connection to our very obstinate printer. It took me days to get this worked out.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com

Before my computer was fully functional, my car suddenly began running roughly. Gas mileage dropped drastically. I took it to the dealer, who informed me that the car needed a ring job. The car they would offer $7,000 for as a trade-in (if it were in excellent condition) would cost $5,100 to repair. What was I supposed to do? What would be the wise move? The money didn’t worry me. Making a foolish decision did.

When the computer lost (permanently, for all I knew) important programs and data, I started wracking my brain for how I could fix the problem. Did I need a specialist to look at it? When the car repair estimate came back – once I got over the shock – my mind began racing around, looking for a solution. What I did not do in either case, at least right away, was look to God and entrust myself and my situation to him.

I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t practice what I preach—at least, not immediately. Instead, my mind raced, I went searching for solutions, and I got stressed out. But the next morning, it dawned on me that these run-of-the-mill, everyday kinds of hardships were a test of faith. I almost laughed. Would I trust God and give him thanks? I would.

You don’t need to be tried like Abraham – told to sacrifice your own son – to have your faith tested. All you need to do is lose 1,000 email addresses or face a difficult decision without enough information to make a wise choice.

Whether we find ourselves in ordinary situations like those, or extraordinary situations like Abraham’s, it is important to remember that it is our faith that is being tested, not our worth or strength, or any such thing. Will we trust God? That is the question.

If we pass the test, whether in small or great things, we will reap immediate benefit. Our faith will be strengthened, and we will find it easier to trust God in the next trial. Each time we pass such a test, our faith (which is worth more than gold, according to St. Peter) is attested, and we become more confident and joyful—even in challenging times. The payoff for passing the test of faith truly is worth more than gold.

The songwriter Michael Card captured something of this in his song, In the Wilderness. He wrote of God, “He calls His sons and daughters to the wilderness. But He gives grace sufficient to survive any test. And that’s the painful purpose of the wilderness. And that’s the painful promise
of the wilderness.”

When Christians are in the wilderness, whether the wilds of illness, financial challenge, or relational struggle, it is faith that is being tested. If we will look to God and entrust ourselves and our situations to him, we will pass the test. That will bring God glory, but it will make us stronger and will open the door to joy.

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Guys, Where Are We?

Posted on February 22, 2025 by salooper57

In the summer of 2016, Karen and I were on a 70,000-acre lake in Quebec we’d never been to before. On our third or fourth day there, I went out one morning by myself. The sun had not yet broken the horizon, but the east was turning colors and steam was rising everywhere off the lake.

It was so beautiful that I fumbled around for my camera and started taking pictures. Because I wanted to reach a particular spot before the sun got up, I didn’t want to stop the boat. So, with the outboard at full throttle, I’d take a picture, look at it in the view screen, then take another one, look at it, then take another.

After about five minutes of this, I looked up from my camera and saw through the mist that I was traversing a straight that opened into a much larger arm of the lake. I suddenly realized I didn’t know where I was. The landscape was completely unfamiliar. I was lost.

William Starky on Wikimedia Commons

When you don’t know where you are, you will not know how to get where you’re going. I immediately stopped the boat and sat still on the glassy water. I got out the rudimentary map the camp owner gave us – it was more like a restaurant placemat than a real map – and tried to figure out where I was. I needed one of those maps you see at highway rest areas, the ones with an arrow that states, “You are here.”

If there were a map with an arrow helping 21st century Christians know where they are at, where would it point? One biblical answer is that it would point to a location behind enemy lines. “The whole world,” according to St. John, “is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). We are in this challenging place to carry out a planning and preparation operation – one could call it a propaganda campaign, in the positive sense of the term – in advance of the king’s arrival. We do this by declaring the king’s praises against the backdrop of changed lives that are full of good deeds (see 1 Peter 2:9-12).

(For a biblical illustration of how this works, read the wonderful story in Mark 5:1-20. Jesus finds a man in Gentile-controlled territory who is under the domination of dark powers and sets him free. The man pleads with Jesus to take him out of this dark place. But Jesus tells him to stay and gives him an assignment: to announce to his own people how much the Lord had done for him. He carries out this mission – this propaganda campaign – which forces people to think. The result is that when Jesus returns to the area (Mark 7:31-37), the people who previously wanted nothing to do with him now say about him, “He has done everything well.” This is 1 Peter 2:9-12 played out before our eyes.)

To say that we are behind enemy lines is not the only way to answer the question of where we are. For the Christian, the “You are here” arrow points to a fortress named, “In Christ.” That phrase is theologically rich and nuanced, but in one basic sense it is like saying we are in Company C, Third Battalion, Reconciliation Brigade. We’re not here to get rich. We’re not here get comfortable. We’re not here to get respect. We’re here to serve the king.

People who know where they are can get to where they are going. But there is more to it than knowing where we are. It also helps to know when we are. In the arc of God’s great story, when are we?

We are between D-Day and VJ Day. Gettysburg is past, but Appomattox is still in the future. In case these historical references are unclear, we live between the turning point and the victory, between the decisive battle and the usurper’s final defeat. We live between the triumph of the cross (see Colossians 2:15) and the return of the King.

This way of describing the where and when of our situation may be a little unnerving. Who wants to live in a war zone? And what if we fail at our mission? The stakes are frighteningly high. Wouldn’t it be better to forget these alarming realities and retreat into the comforting illusion in which most people live?

It would not be better. Our situation is more secure than we may think. It is true that we are in enemy territory, but we are also in God’s hands. Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28).

Yes, we are in a war zone, working behind enemy lines. But even here we are secure in the hand of God. And though we will someday leave the war zone, we will never leave the security of his hand.

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