Success = Envy and Ambition?
"But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth." (James 3:14)How do you define success in life? That's the giant question James is trying to get his readers to wrestle with. Yesterday, he set up one version of success: wisdom and understanding. Not many people reach it, but it is obvious in those that do from their good lives, from their humility, from their great choices.
His other definition of success is the one we're all more familiar with. It goes like this: "Look around. Notice what you really want out of life. Get hungry for it. Then make a plan and go out there and get what you want!" Wow, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
The problem is that what sounds good to us is just a nice way of saying "bitter envy" (decide what you want by looking at what other people have) and "selfish ambition" (making a plan to make yourself happy by getting what you want).
James said if you're like almost everyone else in the world defining success by getting all the money, fame, and power you can -- don't pretend you're not doing that and don't brag about it like it's a good thing. Admit it -- and then be willing to hear why that version of success fails. every. time.
Think: Why do you think it sounds almost healthy to us to make a plan to try to work to get everything we really want out of life? Do you believe that version of success if flawed? Why or why not?
Pray: Ask God to help you to be willing to understand what His version of success would mean for your life.
Do: Make a quick list of 3 people you know who seem to have been successful at deciding what they wanted out of life in terms of money, fame, or power -- and getting it. Notice whether it seems to have made them happy or not.
Wisdom Shows
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." (James 3:13)Are you a wise person? According to James, if I knew you I wouldn't have to ask that question. Having a high wisdom quotient (WQ?) isn't something that comes from filling in the right ovals on a multiple choice test. Wisdom shows.
Wisdom stands out in our world in the same way that having purple hair or being eight feet tall stands out. What we're going to see in this week's devo's is that living wisely -- with the "wisdom of heaven" -- is not the norm in this zip code. It's weird, even.
So if you're a wise person, people will notice. They'll see you living a good life. They'll see you making choices like a humble person, like someone who knows the story isn't about him.
Come back tomorrow to see what wisdom ain't.
Think: If "wisdom is as wisdom does," do you think many people would describe you as a wise person? Do you know any smart people who are not very wise? How about the reverse of that -- people who live wisely without being very "book smart"?
Pray: Ask God to help you to be a wise and understanding person so that it becomes obvious by your good life and deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
Do: Make a quick list of the 5 wisest-living people you know.
All the Way Full
"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." (Colossians 2:9-10)Do you feel full? Do you feel filled up? In focusing on our need to keep Jesus at the center of our lives this week, Paul wants urgently for us to understand we're not missing anything. Spiritually speaking, we don't have any empty spots. We don't have any lost pieces that would finally make the puzzle of our lives makes sense.
Jesus, Paul insists, was also filled up all the way. He was completely full of God. He was all of God all the way through -- in a physical, flesh-and-blood human body. And if that's not wild enough, when we became Christians through faith in Jesus we got filled up with Him.
That doesn't mean we have become little gods. It does mean that we have enough, all we need, to do what God wants us to.
Think: Are you sometimes tempted to think you're missing something you need -- gifts, age, money, experience, faith, education -- to live for God right now, today? Do you understand that you'll never have any more of Jesus than you do right now, that you have all you need to start serving Him this moment?
Pray: Thank God that as a Christian you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
Do: Read the rest of Colossians 2 to keep following Paul's train of thought.
Don’t Get Caught
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." (Colossians 2:8)Does it really matter what someone believes? Do we have to get so picky about the specifics? Isn't it enough if someone just believes in the same God we do? Do we have to make a big deal about believing the right things about Jesus?
Yes, it matters! Paul's fantastic word picture describes false ideas as traps and those tricked into believing them as captives. That's not inclusive language. Paul is clearly saying some beliefs are right and others are dangerously wrong. The wrong ones are those that don't keep faith in Jesus at the dead center of a person's worldview.
Paul refuses to say, "Who knows what the truth is? You believe your thing; I'll believe my thing. We'll both be okay, right?" Nope. He says, "I love you too much not to tell you I think you've been trapped by a nice-sounding lie. Unless you change your mind and put all of your hope in Jesus, you will stay in that prison of false belief. Get out now."
Think: Do you ever feel pressured by your culture to not sound so convinced that Jesus is the only hope of being in heaven with the Father forever? How do you respond to that pressure? Is it more loving to pretend not to be certain or to tell the truth as you believe it?
Pray: Ask God to help you not to be taken captive by false philosophies that depend on human tradition and the basic principles of the world rather than on Christ.
Do: Make a quick list of two or three human philosophies that do not depend on Christ.
Dig In Deep Get Stronger
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Colossians 2:6-7)What does it mean to "live in Christ"? Even if you've been convinced by Paul's urgent message this week that all of life should be consumed with Jesus, how do we do that?
Send your roots deep into Christ. The tree doesn't have a back-up plan to keep it upright; it expects to get all of its stability from the ground it's planted in. God wants us to dump all of our back-up plans to Jesus and trust Him alone to give us everything we need.
Then grow. Work hard to get what Scripture teaches. Work hard to talk to God every day. Work hard to serve people He loves. Growth comes from sweat and sore muscles. Indulge in sports metaphors: Plan on the pain and learn to love the payoff of walking closely with God.
One result: The stronger you get, the more thanks you'll feel -- and then give. When we've got no backup plan to Jesus and we see Him provide for us over and over -- and over -- we can't shut up with the "thank you's."
Think: Do you have a back-up plan to Jesus in your life, something else you're holding on to in case being a Christian doesn't really cut it? What would it take to lose your hope in that option and grow your roots deeper into Jesus?
Pray: Ask God to help you to be rooted and built up in Jesus, strengthened in your faith, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Do: Plan some spiritual workouts for this summer that involve study, service and prayer.
I’m a Christian; Now What?
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him." (Colossians 2:6)The idea in this verse is both simple and profound. In delivering to his readers -- and us -- what we need to know about Jesus, Paul answers the question we often ask: I'm a Christian; now what?
At least, it's the question we should be asking. Instead, I think a lot of us unconsciously think, "I'm a Christian. Now let me get on with my life." Paul will tell us today and tomorrow that God intends that "getting on with your life" be just as much about Jesus as becoming a Christian was in the first place.
My pastor puts it this way: The wedding isn't the end of the relationship; it's only the first day. Becoming a Christian is the start of living in Christ, not just the end of our search for God. If your life isn't all about growing in Christ, it's not all it could be.
Think: Why do you think so many Christians see Jesus as the gate to eternal life but not the path through this one?
Pray: Ask God to help you to live in Christ just as you received Him.
Do: Challenge your youth leader to define what it means to "live in Christ" in 25 words or less.
Fine-Sounding Arguments
"I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is." (Colossians 2:4-5)A great argument between two skilled debaters can be mesmerizing and disorienting. If it's a subject you're not sure about, you can find yourself agreeing with one debater one minute only to be won over to the other side a few moments later by the other guy. Sometimes, a skilled debater can make it harder to see the truth.
Paul knew his readers needed to be convinced that all of life comes down to knowing and following Jesus. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Why? Because skilled debaters then and now work against Christians to persuade us that faith in Jesus isn't enough or that following Jesus in obedience to God isn't important. These "fine-sounding arguments" are persuasive to those who are not convinced.
Think: Are you convinced that all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom are found in Christ? Are you convinced that faith in Him is enough to give you a right relationship with God and that following His path is the only life worth leading?
Pray: Ask God to help you not to be deceived by fine-sounding arguments that distort who Jesus is and/or how much you need Him.
Do: Read and think about 2 Timothy 1:12.
What We Need
"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:2-3)Why does Paul struggle for these people he has not met? What do they need so desperately? That's what we'll be discovering for the next several days -- the urgent answer Paul felt compelled to risk his life to make known to them (and to us).
The first two items on our needs list are courageous hearts and love-saturated unity with other believers. If our hearts are cowardly, if we are many things instead of one thing together in Christ, then we are missing out. We are missing what it means to belong to God, to be in Christ, to be fully Christian.
Paul knows we should be loaded, rich, wealthy, fully funded in our understanding of Jesus. If we don't really know Jesus, we are broke. We are missing the point. We may be believing that He is a piece of our puzzle instead of the picture on the box. He is the final answer. He is the point.
All the facts and what to do with them are waiting to be found in Jesus.
Think: Would you say that your heart is courageous in Christ? Would you say you have experienced unity with other Christians? Would you say that you are hoping Jesus will solve your problems or that you are hoping to know more of Jesus?
Pray: Ask God to help you to be encouraged in heart and united in love. Ask Him to help you to have the full riches of complete understanding to know Christ, the mystery of God. Thank Him that by faith and through His grace you do know Christ.
Do: Read and think about Colossians 1:15-20 to know Jesus better.
Struggling for Strangers
"I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally." (Colossians 2:1)We're parachuting into the middle of Paul's letter to the Christians in a town called Colosse. He'd never been there. The church was started by someone else. But Paul cared deeply about these people.
Why? Why is Paul struggling, sweating, risking his life to deliver his message to people he's never seen, people whose stories he doesn't know? Because that was his job, given by God. And because they need it.
Why does the Marine go into combat for strangers back home? Why does the air traffic control guy work so hard to land those planes in the right order? Why does the nurse show such compassion for someone she's never met?
They've decided their mission in life is to meet the needs of strangers by providing something needed, something essential. It was Paul's job and our need to hear the message he's going to deliver this week.
Think: Do you provide for the needs of strangers in any way? Why? Do any strangers provide for your needs?
Pray: Thank God for Paul's effort to get the needed message to strangers in Christ. Thank God also for getting that message to you in this letter to the Colossians.
Do: Make a quick list of three needed things strangers have done for you that you couldn't have likely done for yourself.
See Your Power Do Your Work
"May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands." (Psalm 90:16-17)We've already seen in our study of Psalm 90 that we find meaning in our short, difficult lives by seeking wise hearts -- and by receiving His love through Jesus. God's loves changes the story of our lives from a tragic, futile quest to a great adventure.
Moses begs God to allow his people to see evidence of God's greatness in their short lives, to be firsthand witnesses to the everlasting God's enormous power. As other psalmists and Romans 1 explain, God reveals that power in what He has created. He also reveals it in the change he brings to our previously stone-cold hearts.
Finally, Moses asks that God would bring meaning to their too-brief lives by allowing their work to matter long after this life is over for them. Jesus said we have the choice to invest our lives now in work with forever rewards. All work that promotes God's glory will matter long after we've laid down our hammers and shovels.
Think: Have you ever seen evidence of God's great power in your life? What form did it take? What work are you involved in for God's glory? How are you investing in eternal rewards?
Pray: Ask God to help you to see the evidence of His great power in your life. Thank Him for his favor to you through Jesus. Ask Him to establish the work you do for His glory.
Do: Read in Romans 1:18-32 about God's wrath for those who refuse to acknowledge Him, even with the the evidence of His power in creation.
Satisfy Us with Your Love
"Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble." (Psalm 90:13-15)Moses is asking God to do for the Israelites what He has now done for us through Jesus. God's anger has been satisfied by the death of Jesus. Through our faith in the Son's substitution for us on the cross, the Father has flooded our souls with His love.
Do you hear the change in Moses' tone now? He recognizes that God has the power to turn our short, meaningless, momentary lives into days lived with wisdom and packed with joy. He can even make us feel like singing!
What is the difference between night and day? Between suffocating darkness and the fresh light morning? God's love. The love that sacrificed a Son to bring us home, to turn us from needles lost in the haystack of humanity into sons and daughters in the arms of the King.
Think: Most of us believe that God loves us, but do you take those words personally? Have you thought much about what difference it makes to be loved by God?
Pray: Thank God that He loves you. Ask Him to help you to be satisfied with His love and glad because of it today.
Do: Read Paul's description in Colossians 1:12-13 of how God saved us from the dark kingdom.
Teach Us to Count
"Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:11-12)Living under the Law, Moses was terrified by God's anger. He saw it firsthand, as God punished faithless or idol-worshipping Israelites and even talked about wiping out the nation completely. God is unlimited power in a Person who loves people but punishes sin.
He has poured out His anger for our sin, as well. As Christians, that anger was unleashed on Jesus, who was crushed to pay the price we owed. We don't have to be afraid of God's anger any longer, forgiven by His grace for our faith in Jesus, but we had better not take His power or our sin lightly. We're still fragile, momentary beings on this earth.
So how should we live now? Step 1: We need God's help to remember that the clock is ticking. Fools spend time like they will never die. We can't live wise lives without understanding there's a deadline, a real one.
Notice, though, that Moses' prayer is hopeful. Life may be hard, but with God's help we can be wise. Our choices can make a difference. More hope for this hard life in tomorrow's devo.
Think: What are some ways we might live foolishly, as if time was something that never runs out? What is the consequence of forgetting that our days will quickly fly away?
Pray: Ask God to help you to remember your days are limited so you can gain a heart of wisdom.
Do: Ask an older friend or one of your parents how they feel about time, death, and wisdom. Do they wish they'd lived more wisely when they were younger -- or not? Do they feel like the years are going by more and more quickly?
This is Not Good Enough
"All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years -- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away." (Psalm 90:9-10)Today we face one last, unpleasant dose of hard reality before we turn the corner tomorrow into Moses' hopeful pleading with our good God. Bottom line: If this life is all there is, that's not good enough. Or as Woody Allen put it: "Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering -- and it's all over much too soon."
But that's not the story we tell each other very often. Instead, the world is mostly full of hopeful stories urging you to believe a different message: "Look at all of life's beauty! Look at the brotherhood of man! Look at all the progress we've made!" But any story that offers hope without Jesus -- meaning without the intervention of a grace-giving God -- is telling a lie.
It's not that every moment of life here sucks. God made the place, after all. There is beauty! There is goodness. Some moments do bring gladness, pleasure, joy, and friendship, even for those far from God. But that's still not good enough. As Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes, God has put "eternity in our hearts." We know deep inside that we were meant for so much more than this.
We need God. He built us to need Him.
Think: Do you think it would make sense to be a hopeful, positive person without a relationship with God through faith in Jesus? Why or why not?
Pray: Thank God for building you to need Him -- and then making a way for you to be with Him.
Do: Read Romans 8:22-25 to hear Paul describe this groaning we all feel now, even those of us who are in Christ.
Consumed and Terrified
"We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence." (Psalm 90:7-8)I had friends as a kid who would go a little cold when their moms' said, "Your dad is going to give you a spanking when he gets home from work." They had done something so wrong that a "mom spanking" would not be enough of a punishment. They had a dad spanking coming, and they knew it.
The result? The rest of their day was ruined, spent in dread of the wrath of dad to be administered when he got home from work, tired, hungry, and cranky. Even if they were allowed to keep playing, they were "consumed" by the prospect of their punishment.
Magnify that a billion times and it's exactly what Moses describes here. How can you possibly enjoy the few short, difficult years of this life knowing that God is angry about your sins (even the secret ones) -- and that your punishment is coming?
What would we do without Jesus? "Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved." (Ephesians 2:4-5)
Think: How often do you think about God's anger toward sin? Do you think God has a right to be angry about sin and to punish people for it? Why doesn't He punish Christians for our sin?
Pray: Thank God that through your faith in Christ your sins are forgiven and you are no longer an "object of wrath."
Do: Read Ephesians 2:1-10 all the way through to be reminded how God's grace works in our lives.
Return to Dust
"You turn men back to dust, saying, 'Return to dust, O sons of men.' For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.""You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning - though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered." (Psalm 90:3-6)
Here is a foundational principle of life that everyone agrees on -- Christians, atheists, protestants, Catholics, democrats, republicans -- doesn't matter. We all believe that this life ends, that everyone dies. (What happens after that is more controversial.)
Those of us who believe in God also believe that He doesn't die. He never ends. From His perspective of forever, our 80 or so years is just a moment. Here and gone again as a single day or night is to us. He brushes away the remains of another generation and the next one takes its place.
Why dwell on that humbling reality we all agree on? Because we cannot be wise people without first admitting that God's view of everything is as far above ours as ours is above a blade of grass. If He doesn't include us in His plan, His family, we have no hope for anything better than this short, hard life.
Think: Are you connected to God and eternity? If someone asked you to explain how your single life is more than just another one to be swept away in the sleep of death, what would you tell him?
Pray: Thank God that He is everlasting and that He offers you an opportunity to live with Him forever through faith in Jesus.
Do: With this is mind, read Colossians 3:1-4 and think about why it matters what we think about during our few short years on this side of eternity.
God is Forever
"Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." (Psalm 90:1-2)Life is short and hard, and God is angry with us. Have a good week!
Okay, there's more to it than that, but those are the messages that come through the loudest in the first half of Psalm 90. We're going to camp out with this depressing, motivating, and inspiring (really!) psalm of Moses (yes, that Moses) this week.
For starters, though, Moses points out that God has been around for a really long time. As each new generation of humans is born, lives, and then dies, God remains -- an unchanged and unchanging home for His people.
The first step to seeing ourselves for what we are -- temporary, fragile, minute -- is to see God for who He is -- endless, indestructible, expansive. And available to His people.
Think: What does it mean to have God as your dwelling place as a Christian? Do you think of yourself as living "in Him"?
Pray: Thank God that He is everlasting and an unchanging home for His people.
Do: Up for some math? If we think of a generation as 40 years or so, about how many generations of humans has God seen come and go since the time of Moses in about 1500 B.C.?
You Believe in God
"Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God." (1 Peter 1:21)We started out this week-long study of 1 Peter 1:13-21 by asking, "Who are you?" The reason for the question is because our choices often follow our sense of identity. In other words, we tend to act like the person we think we are.
If I think of myself as a baseball fan, it makes sense to me to say "yes" when invited to go catch a game with someone. If I think of myself as "good student," I'll usually choose to study for tests instead of just blowing them off. If I think of myself as the kind of person who hates country music, I'll turn it off (or complain about it) every time I hear it.
As Christians, we must place one part of our identity above all the others. We are Christians. That is, we are children of God who believe in Him, obey Him, and live for Him. When we remember that is who we are, we are more likely to choose to live like it. When we forget -- or want to forget -- that is who we are, we make choices to do the opposite of what someone who is God's child would do.
Think: Would you say that your faith and hope are ultimately in God because you have trusted in Jesus for your salvation? If you were watching your own life from the outside, would you say your choices line up with your identity as a child of God?
Pray: Assuming that you are a Christian, thank God for helping you to believe in Him through faith in Jesus. Ask Him to help you to live like someone who believes in Him this week.
Do: Read 1 Peter 1:22-25 to follow Peter's train of thought through to the end of the chapter.
Mystery Revealed
"He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake." (1 Peter 1:20)I love a good mystery. You probably do, too. But a good mystery has rules. For one, it has to keep us guessing right up until the truth is revealed. But it also has to make sense; we have to be able to think back over the story and see how the answer was in there all along. It's not a satisfying story if the writer didn't plant real clues along the way.
God's story of humanity was built on a mystery: How would He ever be able to bring His sinful, willful, stubborn characters (humans) back into relationship with Himself, the Holy, sinless God who loves them so much? It seemed impossible, but He kept promising it would happen.
Like all the great writers, He built the solution right into the story. All the clues were there from the beginning right through the Old Testament. The Hero was even chosen before the first word was written. And when He was revealed, those reading the story said, "Of course! What a great story. What a great God! How much He loves us!"
But this is no fairy tale. The solution to the mystery demands a response from the readers. Come back tomorrow.
Think: If someone asked you to briefly describe God's story of time and humanity, how would you do it? How would you describe the great mystery in the middle of the story and its resolution?
Pray: Thank God for revealing the mystery of Jesus in these last times for your sake.
Do: Next time you watch or read a good mystery, notice how the storyteller plants the clues to the answer along the way -- and think about how God did the same with Jesus in His story.
Stuck on Empty
"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18-19)Peter packs giant ideas into small spaces. You've got to read these verses two or three times to really catch what he's saying.
First: You were stuck on empty. Your only option was to relive the futile lives of all those who came and went before you. You could not escape into a life of meaning with God. Then He bought your way out. He paid to free you from the emptiness -- and it was expensive.
Second: God didn't write a check to get you out of emptiness and into fullness with Him. He didn't drop a million gold bars to pay the way. He paid in blood, lifeblood. That was the price.
Third: Jesus lived a perfect life. He was spotless, sinless, guiltless. He didn't earn a parking ticket, let alone the electric chair. But that was the price. His blood for your life. And God paid it.
Think: Does being reminded that the cost of our salvation was the blood of Jesus make you feel guilty or grateful? Does it motivate you to want to live for God, to live in the freedom He purchased for you?
Pray: Thank God for paying the blood of Jesus to buy you out of emptiness and into His family.
Do: Notice today how you are using the freedom that comes with your new life in Christ.
Fearful Strangers
"Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear." (1 Peter 1:17)Have you spent any time in foreign countries? I remember being in Italy once and feeling very "American." After a few days, my wife and I bought some Italian clothes, worked on our accents and a few Italian phrases, and tried to blend in a little. But we couldn't hide; it was obvious we weren't locals.
The day after you became a Christian, you woke up in a foreign country. You might not have felt it, and probably nobody could tell, at first. But your citizenship had been transferred to heaven, the kingdom of light. You had become a stranger here.
Peter wants us to live like we're from somewhere else. He wants us to stop trying to blend in to our worldly culture. He wants us to stand out, trying harder to honor our King back home than the customs of this land. He wants us to remember that the King is watching, and He is a fair judge of our choices.
Think: Do you ever feel like a stranger in your world because of your commitment to God through Jesus? How can that be a good thing?
Pray: Ask God to help you live your life here in reverent fear for Him.
Do: Listen to how the writer of Hebrews 11:13-16 expresses this same idea.
Are Holy Be Holy
"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.' " (1 Peter 1:15-16)I think lots of people read this verse and just check out. "I can't be holy. God is holy. He is perfect. He has never done or said a single sinful thing in all of eternity. He doesn't even have sinful thoughts. That's not me. I can't do that."
Here's what we miss: That is us. That's the point. God is not saying to us, "Be holy, and then you can be my child." He's saying, "You are my child. Now be holy like me."
Still think it's impossible? Listen to these words from Paul in Colossians 1: "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation."
In His eyes, you are holy. Now, Peter says, start using His power to live up to who you already are. You won't live perfectly free from sin before you see Him in person, but you can make choices that reflect His holiness in your life today. You are holy. Be holy.
Think: Does understanding that God sees you as holy right now motivate you to try harder to live up to your new identity? Where does the power come from to live that way?
Pray: Ask God to help you to understand what it means to be holy in your everyday life. Ask Him to help you to be holy in all you do.
Do: Ask your pastor or youth pastor or a Christian teacher what it means for a Christian to live a holy life. How do they practice that from day to day?
Rebel Against Yourself
"As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance." (1 Peter 1:14)Peter continues to answer the "what now?" question with this verse. After describing all God has done to bring us into His family, to secure our future with Him in eternity, to reveal to us the mystery of Jesus, what should a child of God do with the years we have left on Earth before we get to heaven?
Peter says the next step for us is to learn to say to ourselves one of the most powerful words in any language: "No." Before we knew Jesus, he says, we were ignorant -- not stupid, but literally clueless. We didn't know any better than to do what we wanted to do.
Now, he says, learn to be who you are -- a child of the King -- by learning to say "no" to your want for wrong things. You might still want to do evil -- satisfying your legitimate desire for pleasure, glory, and security in illegitimate ways like having sex outside of marriage, hurting others for revenge, and living for money.
Instead, Peter says, don't conform to yourself. Rebel. Do what doesn't come naturally. Say no to sin.
Think: Have you ever thought about rebelling against your own desire to do wrong? How can exercising your power in the Holy Spirit NOT to sin feel like freedom?
Pray: Ask God to help you to not conform to your evil desires.
Do: Make a list of 2-3 "evil desires" you can intentionally say no to this week with God's power in you.
Become Who Your Are
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:13)Who are you? I'm not asking how you described yourself in your Facebook profile or yearbook bio. I mean, who are you really? Could I figure it out from looking closely at how you live your life?
In the verses leading up to today's verse, Peter has just finished describing our salvation -- how God brought it about and how it has changed our destiny with Him forever. We have been shown the mystery of Jesus. We have believed and become children of God.
What now?
This week, we'll listen as Peter tells us to "become who we are." Start with this very efficient verse:
Prepare your mind for action: Unplug from anything that makes it hard for you to think and focus on God's Word and His will for you.
Be self-controlled: Exercise the power of "no" so that you can say "yes" to the best things.
Set your hope on grace: Stop living for dead-end pleasures, possessions, or statuses; live for the heaven you could never earn -- the heaven you belong in because you are God's kid through faith in Jesus.
Think: Is your mind prepared for whatever action God has in store for you? Are you controlling your desires -- or visa-versa? What are you most hopeful for today?
Pray: Ask God to help you to have a mind prepared for action, self-control, and your hope set fully on His grace.
Do: Read 1 Peter 1:1-12 to get into Peter's train of thought for this week.
The Evil Within
"What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' " (Mark 7:20-23)We were concerned yesterday when we read about Jesus asking if the disciples were "dull." After this list, I'd take being called dull any time.
In essence, Jesus' response to the Pharisees was, "You're worried about hand-washing and food when your hearts are full of all of this. These things are constantly erupting out of human beings every day -- and the thing on the top of your list is what a guy had for lunch?"
Jesus' point was that human beings are sinful from the inside out -- and we give evidence of it every day. We need saving inside, not more polishing on the outside. We need to be born again and made new, not to pretend that following a few extra rules are going to fix our problem.
Washing our hands won't change our evil hearts.
Think: Do you think people are basically good or basically evil? After you read this statement from Jesus, do you think He believes people to naturally be pretty good or naturally -- without God transforming them -- pretty evil?
Pray: Ask God to help you to understand the truth about the reality of human hearts with and without Christ.
Do: Read another analysis of the human heart on Jeremiah 17:9.
Are You So Dull?
"After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 'Are you so dull?' he asked. 'Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him "unclean"? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.' (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods 'clean.')" (Mark 7:17-19)Ouch! I've had moments in my life where I might have imagined that Jesus thought I was pretty thick-headed, but it must have stung a little to hear Him actually say out loud, "Are you so dull?"
Part of the problem was that Jesus' teaching about food not being able to make you unclean was radically different from what the disciples had grown up believing. It was built into their worldview about both God and food. Jesus' declaration that all foods were now clean was so startling they had to ask what, exactly, He meant.
Does Jesus sound too harsh to you, given what seems to us like the disciples' understandable confusion? It might feel that way through the ears of our culture, but Jesus was a teacher, a rabbi, and challenging students with stern questions is often an effective teaching method. It wakes us up, tells us "this is serious," and helps us to realize that we are NOT too dull. We can get this.
Jesus was never NOT loving or patient or kind. Even His harsh-sounding questions were intended for the disciples' good.
Think: Do you ever feel a little dull when it comes to understanding some of the hard-to-get words of Jesus? Does that motivate you to work a little harder to figure them out through prayers, research, or asking someone you trust?
Pray: Ask God to help you to keep growing in your understanding of Jesus' words in the Bible.
Do: Think about Jesus and his disciples next time one of your teachers or coaches asks you a stern or abrupt question.
Food is Not the Problem
"Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, 'Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him "unclean" by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him "unclean." ' " (Mark 7:14-15)If you're the kind of person who is careful about what you eat, you might wince at Jesus' words here. Some of us are so concerned with healthy and unhealthy food that we might really feel "unclean" after eating a drive-thru burger or an entire sleeve of Girl Scout cookies in one sitting.
But to those who heard this in person, Jesus' words were revolutionary. For them, it wasn't about being fat or feeling gross, it was about being acceptable to God, about becoming spiritually unclean in their community. They had grown up with the idea that eating the wrong foods could change your spiritual status as a person.
Jesus demanded a radical shift in His followers' thinking: God cares more about what lives in your heart than what passes through your digestive track. And what lives in our hearts is revealed by our sinful words, actions, thoughts, and attitudes. Sin comes from in there, not from the outside when we forget to wash our hands before having lunch.
Think: Our culture puts a huge emphasis on what we eat and don't eat. Do you ever feel guilty about your food choices? Do you think you sometimes care more about healthy eating than whether your heart and mind is right with God?
Pray: Thank God that you will not be declared unclean for eating certain foods. Ask Him to help you care more about honoring Him with your heart, mind, and actions than you do about what you eat.
Do: Read Colossians 2:20-22.
Good Reasons to Disobey God?
"You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother.' . . .""But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition." (Mark 7:9-13)
I wonder if the Pharisees regretted bringing up the issue of Jesus' disciples not following the "traditions" by washing their hands before they ate. Jesus turned their own smug question against them, demonstrating here how they had elevated good intentions into traditions with the force of Law -- and ended up missing God's heart by a mile.
Even if we don't think of ourselves as legalists, we're all capable of hiding behind "the good" to keep from doing what God really wants for us. We can use the good idea of protecting our character by not associating with people of low character to avoid ever having to make relationships with unbelievers and tell them about Jesus. And we can do the same in reverse, using the good idea of evangelism as an excuse to lower our standards for personal holiness.
That's just one example. It takes brutal self-honesty to avoid falling in line with the Pharisees by using "good" rules to serve ourselves instead of God.
Think: Can you think of other ways in which we use good-sounding, well-intentioned, man-made rules to avoid doing what God really wants for us, to avoid obeying Him, even?
Pray: Ask God to give you the courage to be brutally honest with yourself about your real motives for doing "good" things. Ask Him to help you to never come up with good reasons to disobey Him.
Do: Notice this week what reasons people in your life (or in your media consumption) give for doing wrong things. How often do they point to their good intentions?
Clean Hands Empty Hearts
"He replied, 'Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ' "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.' " (Mark 7:6-7)To catch up: The Pharisees, threatened by Jesus' power and popularity as a rabbi, try to bring Him down to their size by pointing out that His disciples are breaking an important "tradition" about hand-washing. Jesus cannot be diminished and responds with this quote from Isaiah to their ancestors.
Two big things to notice:
Jesus' point is NOT that it doesn't matter if we obey God. Jesus obeyed the Law. This issue was about a man-made rule that had been given the weight of God's own commands. In fact, these "bonus rules" not given by God had become more important than what God actually said.
The larger point Jesus makes here is that we can keep following the rules long after we've stopped following God. Our worship of Him is not about everything we do together on Sunday morning; it's about Him. We obey Him because He is God, not because we are good.
Think: Have you ever caught yourself honoring God with your lips even though your heart was far from Him? Why does that happen? How can we keep it from happening?
Pray: Ask God to help you to be real in your worship of Him. Ask Him to help you to avoid making your worship and obedience more about you than Him.
Do: Next time you actively participate in singing praise and worship songs to God with a group of people, get ready ahead of time by moving closer to God in your heart.
Why Not Wash?
"So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, 'Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with "unclean" hands?' " (Mark 7:5)If you read the first 5 verses of Mark 7 from our cultural perspective of "CSI" and swine flu, you might at first glance agree with the Pharisees. Why didn't Jesus' disciples wash their hands before they ate? Gross.
But this is bigger than a little bacteria on your baloney. This was a showdown between the Pharisees and Jesus over their requirement that people obey all the rules of "tradition." These were a list of man-made rules added on top of God's Law. The Pharisees used them to measure holiness -- and to give themselves power over people.
We'll see over the next few days that Jesus used their criticism as an opportunity to point out their hypocrisy. The Pharisees has made the rules the point of their whole religion and lost their focus on God in the process.
Think: We live in a different time and place. Do you think we still tend to put too much emphasis on man-made rules -- or do we more often put too little emphasis on obeying God's direction for our lives?
Pray: Thank God for Jesus' courage to stand up to the legalism of the Pharisees. Ask Him to help you never to make following human rules the point of your relationship with Him.
Do: Make a quick list of a few man-made rules that are sometimes attached to following Jesus?
Looking for Flaws
"The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were 'unclean,' that is, unwashed." (Mark 7:1-2)This week, we're going to try to learn some things from a quick conversation between Jesus and some Pharisees. The Pharisees were starting to get tired of everyone talking about how great this new rabbi Jesus was. But after the miracles people had seen Him do, how could they not talk?
You would think the Jewish religious leaders would be excited about a rabbi that could do such powerful things, right? I mean, people were saying that Jesus could heal anyone of anything, that He could cast out demons without even breaking a sweat, that He could feed a stadium full of people with a sack lunch.
Instead, the Pharisees seem to have felt threatened. They did what some of your friends do when they feel insecure; they started to look for things about Jesus to criticize, to show that He was not that big of a deal
But Jesus pulled the curtain and showed everyone what was in their hearts.
Think: Have you ever heard someone mock Jesus or the idea of Jesus? Do you think sometimes people do that because they're a little worried He might really be God?
Pray: Ask God to help you to learn this week both from Jesus' words and the Pharisee's negative example.
Do: Read Mark 5 to hear some of the reasons Jesus was becoming so well known.
