Peace and Crushing

January 30, 2012 in Pauline Epistles with 0 Comments

I finished reading through Romans again last week, and paused at this paragraph:

17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. 19 For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

It’s in the midst of Paul’s signing off. He’s greeting a bunch of specific people, and then he’s inspired to include this one last piece of instruction. Something about that made it interesting to me, and as I read it over and over a couple things stuck out:

Avoid Divisive People

He tells the Roman Christians to avoid people who cause division and offense. Not to patiently coddle them, or try to coax them into the truth. Not even to bear with them until they feel more cooperative. Just avoid them.

He doesn’t go so far as to say they should be excluded, or written off, as he does in other circumstances, but just to steer clear.

We don’t generally do that in a lot of local churches today. Sometimes we do the opposite. Sometimes that human attraction to controversy and drama take over, and we lean in to the division and offense instead of away from it.

Interesting.

Peace and Crushing

Scripture doesn’t appear to have an issue with the “God of peace” “crushing” His enemy. Peace and crushing.

Here, it could be said that the enemy is not a person, and that’s true. But in Revelation, the Prince of Peace does some crushing of His own, and those are people.

Maybe our society thinks of “peace” differently than God does.

Thoughts?

Allow Me To Explain (48 of 439) – Leadership 101

January 27, 2012 in TheyReasoned with 0 Comments

The back-story is here. The collection is here. You can subscribe over there. >>>

48. Did Jesus baptize anyone? John 3:22 vs. John 4:2

No. (They really think we’re stupid.)

John 3:22
After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized.

John 4:2
(though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),

So … no. Does it necessitate explanation?

Jesus and His disciples were at the river, and His disciples were baptizing people under His supervision and authority.

Shorter way of saying that? “Jesus baptized.” He was, via His disciples.

When we talk about John 6, we say that Jesus fed 5000 men (plus women and children). But Jesus didn’t really do much. Scripture tells us that He had the disciples organize the crowd. The disciples distributed food, and the disciples cleaned up the left-overs.

Why?

I don’t know, but I can think of a few good reasons:

  • Jesus is the best leader ever. He was teaching His disciples how to do the ministry they were going to have to do when He left.
  • God always has, and always will, use people to do His work.
  • No one would have wanted Peter to baptize him, if Jesus was also baptizing people. The line would have been unending, and He would eventually have to turn people away when it was time to go, and how would those people feel?

In Chapter 3, John takes the short-cut of saying that Jesus baptized because it was enough to introduce the conversation, which was really about John the Baptism turning people over to Jesus’ leadership. In Chapter 4, John clarified the point.

Again:

Clarification is not contradiction.

Poetry and Theology, With A Side of Real Spoken Word

January 26, 2012 in Theology with 0 Comments

You’ve probably seen this Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus … poem. Well. He’s been answered. And not awfully.

Allow me to digress for just a moment.

*pulls soap box out of Mary Poppins carpet bag*

I love that this is garnering attention for spoken word. And, fine, loosely defined, it could be spoken word, but if you’ve never really listened to spoken word, don’t let this be your plum line.

It’s a fine poem, and the kid is a fine orator. But a lot of spoken word artists and enthusiasts would tell you that spoken word often mixes poetry and prose, weighs heavily on alliteration, messes with meter and internal rhyme scheme, and is more of a performance than a recital. It’s a good poem, and I’m sure the guy is genuine and passionate. I’m just … gonna continue to call it “a poem.”

On to business.

First, if you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen the whole thing, start here:

Now, a Catholic priest responds. And he’s a little sassy about it. In a fun way.  Continue Reading…

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