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Numbers 1:20-21, Various

Head By Head

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 19, 2023

The world population clock tells us that there are 8 billion people in the world today. The growth rate is about 67 million every year. Living in a world with so many people, it is easy to get lost and feel very insignificant. The Bible gives us God’s perspective on people, which alleviates the idea that so many people make the individual insignificant. The first census that Moses takes in the wilderness begins with the clan of Reuben. Reuben was Leah’s son and the firstborn of the twelve patriarchs. Numbers 1:20-21 tells us, “The people of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: those listed of the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.” The first observation from the census’ directions is the focus on each individual. God cares for people. God cares for individuals, and just as He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, he knows the struggles and sufferings of every human being, in the womb and out! The message from the numbering and naming of the Israelites that came out of Egypt has another application also.

It is a vivid illustration that God is faithful to keep His promise to people. I know that 45 thousand isn’t a lot in comparison to the current population, but this number represents only the children of one man: Reuben. The number was also taken only as s census of men who have reached adulthood and are capable of going to war. This was important because Israel was about to go to war to secure the land that God had given them as an inheritance. I imagine that there were four times as many people in the tribe as there were men of that age. Also, remember that this count was done, in my estimation, about 4000 years ago.

Now, hundreds of years earlier, God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation and that there would have more descendants than there are grains of sand on the beach or stars in the sky. The estimated number of grains of sand on Earth is around 7.5 x 10^18 (7.5 quintillion). How many stars are there? The exact number of stars in the universe is impossible to know, but astronomers estimate that there are about 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. This number is so big that it is hard to imagine. In our own galaxy, the Milky Way, there are about 300 billion stars. Stars are the building blocks of galaxies, and there are billions of galaxies in the universe.

Censuses are important because it reveals God’s care for each human life.  God insists that Moses count the children of Reuben “head by head.” That means everyone counted. Rick Warren expresses how much you and I matter to God. If you want to know how much you matter to God, he directs our attention to Isaiah 44:2, which says, “I am your Creator. You were in My care even before you were born.” God scheduled each day of your life before you ever took a breath. Every day of your life is recorded in God’s book. “That’s how much you matter to God.  Do you matter? – Yes.  He made you.  He made you to love you, and the Bible says you do matter.  He sees everything in your life, the good, the bad, and everything in between.  You do matter to Him.”[1] God numbered them “head by head” to be sure to communicate that everyone mattered to God. After a major battle, Napoleon wrote to his wife, Marie Louise, that he had won a great victory. Then he added, “We lost no one of importance.” He lost hundreds, even thousands, of men—but they were of no importance to him. You can be assured they were important to God, however. He cared enough about them—and about you—to give the Son of His love so that all could be saved.[2]

[1] Warren, Rick. n.d. 40 Days of Purpose Series.

[2] Stone, Sam E. 1995. Sermon Outlines on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Edited by Sam E. Stone. Standard Sermon Starters. Cincinnati, OH: Standard.

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Leviticus 1:6-9, Ephesians 5:2

Sweet Smelling Savor!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 18, 2023

Blood was the main ingredient for the forgiveness of sin in the Jewish sacrificial system laid out in Leviticus. The picture of the throwing of the blood on the altar, along with other references to a sprinkling of the blood on the altar, picture man’s only process by which his sins can be atoned for. There is no forgiveness if there is no blood. So the blood was thrown on the altar to make atonement for the sins of the offerer. But one might walk away from that wondering if God had truly forgiven his sins. That’s what the next four verses deal with. Leviticus 1:6-9 tells us that after the blood was applied to the altar, “Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces,  and the sons of Aaron, the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.  And Aaron’s sons, the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”

The important words in this passage are “pleasing aroma to the Lord.” We saw this same idea spoken by God when Noah offered sacrifices after the flood. The ascent of the Aroma was called a sweet-smelling savor. I always think of my steaks cooking on the barbecue grill in my backyard on the 4th of July. It’s surely sweet smelling, but I agree with Zaspel, “The point here, of course, is not that God enjoys the smell of barbeque. The point is that the sacrifice was accepted by God, ‘pleasing’ to him in that sense. That is to say; the sacrifice satisfied God. Its leading purpose was to appease God with reference to sin. Here is how God could dwell with a sinful people: a substitute was offered who, standing in place of the people, bore the punishment of their sin, thus making satisfaction to God. Mercy through judgment. Now, of course, no mere animal could satisfactorily bear the sin of men and women created in God’s image. But these centuries of sacrifice were intended by God to establish the structure, a picture, by which we are made to think that if an adequate substitute could be found, sinful humanity would have hope.”[1]

An adequate substitute was found for us! Paul uses this same language when he speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In Ephesians 5:2, he says, “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Mathews rightly summarizes this idea, “Unlike the animal slain on behalf of the worshipper in Leviticus, the sacrifice offered up by our Lord was wholly voluntary. He ‘gave himself up.’ That the Father fully accepted the atonement of Jesus was proven by the resurrection of the Lord. We who have entrusted ourselves to Christ by faith can have the same assurance of acceptance with the Father.”[2] It’s the resurrection that proves God accepted the sacrifice for our sins. I think of Christ’s ascension as the final movement of Christ on earth. Jesus was the sweet-smelling “smoke” that ascended to God as the perfect symbol of God’s acceptance of His sacrifice for our sins.  The author of the book of Hebrews speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins as being a “once for all” event. He tells us that our sins will be remembered no more. Richards concludes, “Because we know our sins are forgiven, we can approach God with confidence (Heb. 10:22). We need never cringe from our Lord or try to hide from Him, for Jesus’ death has won a full and complete forgiveness for us. We no longer need to carry the burden of our past failures, for in Jesus, all our sins are forgiven and put away. Because of Jesus, we can forget the past and look forward with hope to the future.”[3]

[1] Zaspel, Fred G. 2015. “The Wrath of God and the Gospel.” Credo: The Forgotten God (April), 2015.

[2] Mathews, Kenneth A. 2009. Leviticus: Holy God, Holy People. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

[3] Richards, Larry. 2001. Every Name of God in the Bible. Everything in the Bible Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

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Exodus 1:11

Heavy Burdens

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 17, 2023

Dealing “shrewdly” with the Israelites in Egypt was the Egyptian plan installed by the Pharoah that didn’t know Joseph. There was no memory of how Joseph and his clan had blessed them in generations past. Joseph made Egypt the greatest nation in the world. Egypt supported the world during the seven years of famine. As is the case with just about everything, we soon forget the past and look to only the benefits that I might accrue in the present.  God blessed Israel over the centuries as they lived and prospered in the land of Goshen.  The new Pharaoh began to entertain bad thoughts about the Israelites and became afraid of them. He was also jealous of them and decided to use and abuse them for his own benefit. The “shrewd” dealing with them began by putting them to work on his projects. Exodus 1:11 says, “Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.” Regarding this situation, Hester writes, “They came to be regarded as foreigners, and because of the very rapid increase in their number, they were feared as a potential threat to the security of the government. The Pharaoh, now determined to reduce them to slavery, set cruel taskmasters over them and forced them to do the hardest kind of public work, that of making bricks. Under these conditions, the sons of Jacob were no longer a free people, welcome guests in another land, but were slaves whose lot was one of oppression and suffering.”[1] Stephen tells us in his sermon in Acts 7:6 that the Israelites lived like this for 400 years!

The Israelites were foreigners in a foreign land. When they were settling in their own lands, God reminded them of this fact and urged them to treat the foreigners who lived amongst them well. Pharoah, the man with the military might, afflicted the Israelite foreigner with heavy burdens and forced labor. I don’t see much of this from my secure home in West Omaha. Yet all over the world as well as in other places in my country, this still takes place in some ways. Merida says, “The injustice we read about here bears some resemblance to our day. People of power continue to abuse the weak for their own devilish reasons. Some report upwards of thirty million slaves in the world today (NotForSaleCampaign.org). Tragically, human trafficking is now the second-largest organized crime in the world. What motivates this atrocity? Two of the main roots of this evil include sexual perversion and financial greed. Despite the existence of injustice like this, we believe that God remains a God of justice standing on the side of the oppressed.”[2] As we watch the incredible influx of foreigners across our southern borders today, we’re aware that the migrants are not all innocent victims of society’s woes of the day. The modern “Pharaohs” that are enslaving and trafficking the innocent are the Cartels, not the American citizens. They turn their victims into drug mules, sex workers, and slave laborers. God is opposed to this as much as He was opposed to the Egyptians that enslaved the Israelites.

The Israelites bore the “heaven burdens” of slavery in Egypt. It’s somewhat shocking to learn that both England and the United States utilized slaves into the 19th Century. The plight of these slaves has been captured in many of the spiritual songs during the era. Old Man River is one of the best expressions of the life of a slave in the American South, “Dark people work on the Mississippi. Dark people work while de white people play. Pullin’ them boats from the dawn to sunset. Gettin’ no rest till the judgment day. Don’t look up, an’ don’t look down. You don’t dare make the white boss frown.  Bend your knees and bow your head an’ pull that rope until you’re dead. Let me go ‘way from the Mississippi. Let me go ‘way from the white man boss; Show me that stream called the river Jordan. That’s the ol’ stream that I long to cross.” Crossing the Jordan marked the freedom that Israel was to gain when God took them into the promised land.

[1] Hester, Hubert Inman. 1962. The Heart of Hebrew History: A Study of the Old Testament. Rev. ed. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[2] Merida, Tony. 2014. Exalting Jesus in Exodus. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference.

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Genesis 7:6, Psalm 90:10

The Human Life Expectancy

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 16, 2023

TGod looked down upon the earth (figuratively speaking) and saw that violence was the focus of man’s intentions. This grieved His heart, and He proclaimed a day of judgment coming.  He resolved to preserve mankind by providing a way of escaping the coming judgment. Noah believed God. Because he believed in God, he spent over a hundred years preparing for the coming flood waters as God instructed him. Noah was not a young man when the floods came. Genesis 7:6 tells us, “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.” Before the flood, people lived a long time. Many argue that in Genesis 6:3 we learn that God was about to reduce man’s lifespan to 120 years. There is still a lot of discussion about this. It could be referring to how long it will be before God sends the flood upon the earth. It says, “Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’” This did not happen all at once. Those born before the flood still lived long lives. The person who lived to be the oldest is  Methuselah. He lived to be 969 years.  Jared is said to have lived till he was 962 years old. Noah lived for about 950 years. Other similar lifespans are also recorded. But what we see following the flood is a gradual decline in human lifespans.

In later genealogies in the Bible, we notice a big change in the ages of people from Eber to Peleg. At that time, the lifespan of man was cut in half swiftly.  Some attribute this phenomenon to the “dividing” of the earth in Peleg’s lifetime. The argument might be that the flood caused cataclysmic events that removed the earth’s protective canopy of water, which caused a situation on Earth where our life spans declined. Genesis 10:25 tells us that it was in Peleg’s day that the “earth was divided.” Some argue that the receding waters created the continental shift, which made the continents as they are now. There was once one huge land mass, and during Peleg’s day, the cataclysmic event of a drastic continental shift did something to cause man’s lifespan to decrease.”

I was visiting a nursing home recently and saw a gentleman wearing a t-shirt that said 104 on it. I asked if that was his age. I was told that yes, it was, but the shirt is two years old! He was 106. He moved on his own. He was in the independent living section and seemed to be intelligent. The record for long life is in the 120s. I recently read that the oldest woman lived in Nebraska until last year (2022). She passed away at 122. You could say that the prophecy of Genesis 10 seems to work out to be true. However, in Psalm 90, we read that Moses limits man’s life even more. Psalm 90:10 says, “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.” But this has been recognized as the average, not the limit. When I looked this up on Google, I found that the average lifespan for people on the whole earth is 69.9 years. That includes some third-world countries that have a low life expectancy. The lifespan of those living in the United States is closer to 77 years. However, we’ve been seeing a decrease in our lifespans. One report says, “Life expectancy at birth in the United States declined nearly a year from 2020 to 2021, according to new provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). That decline – 77.0 to 76.1 years – took U.S. life expectancy at birth to its lowest level since 1996. The 0.9-year drop in life expectancy in 2021, along with a 1.8-year drop in 2020, was the biggest two-year decline in life expectancy since 1921-1923.”[1]

[1] Life Expectancy in the U.S. Dropped for the Second Year in a Row in 2021 (cdc.gov)

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Revelation 1:3

The Certainty of Christ’s Return

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 15, 2023

John promises a special blessing for those who read the Book of Revelation and those who hear the book read aloud. In the midst of great persecution, the new believers in Jesus were frequently threatened with death or torture if they refused to renounce their faith and offer incense to the gods of Rome. But John wants them to “keep” the faith because although they appear to be losers now, they will win in the end. He says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” I disagree with Osborne, who suggests that “The focus is not just on eschatology but on ethics. In other words, in light of the fact that ‘the time is near,’ we are called to live decisively and completely for God.”[1] No one lives decisively and completely for God. That’s something that’s not in the capacity of fallen human beings. When the Israelites decided to live completely for God, they promised to keep all of Moses’s laws. Then Moses tells them that they won’t do it. Again, Joshua charges the people to choose this day which God they will serve, and when the people say they will serve the one true God, Joshua says in Joshua 24:9, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.” The focus is on eschatology. In Jesus, we will have the ultimate victory!

The last phrase of this verse, “for the time is near,” has caused great confusion in every generation since it was written. Keener points out how every generation from the beginning has looked for the victory of Jesus to come during their lifetime or at a certain point in history. He spends several pages of his commentary on Revelation explaining each one of the prophecies of the past. Each of these prophecies has failed. Jesus made it clear that no one knows the time of his return to set up the kingdom. Only the father himself knows the “when.” At Jesus’ ascension, the apostles asked him if now was the time, and he instructed them not to focus on that but to focus on “keeping” the faith until he returned. Keener’s conclusion is right when he says, “Setting deadlines—or predicting the signs that suggest such deadlines—misses the point. With or without such signs, we should always be ready.”[2]

Richison rightly understands that the issue isn’t as much “nearness in time” as much as it is concerned with the imminency of Christ’s return. He writes, “The idea is that of imminence. Imminence does not necessarily mean near in time. The word ‘near’ means impending. No prophecy needs to be fulfilled before the Lord comes. He could come in the next few minutes or He might not come for another hundred years. This is the next event on God’s prophetic program.”[3] Wrapped up with the idea of imminency is the idea of certainty. It was John who told us about Jesus’ words assuring the disciples that he would go and prepare a place for them but would return to take them to be with Him. He assured them that he would not have told them so if it were not true. John is, again, in this last book of the bible, reminding his readers, as well as all throughout history who hear and read this prophecy concerning Christ’s return, that they can take this truth to the bank. This certainty is accompanied by the assurance that Jesus will take us to be with himself. He has already prepared a place for us. We might fail in life in many ways, but Jesus will not go back on His promise. The realization of this truth will affect how we live today. Underwood writes, “Yet the certainty of Christ’s return is to influence the entirety of our lives. As a result, we don’t cheat on exams, we don’t throw out our used motor oil in a way that pollutes God’s creation, and we demonstrate Christian patience (and maybe even evangelism) while in a long checkout line to pay for our new socks. Living life in view of Christ’s return is a lifelong discipline. It starts with being convinced of the certainty of that great event.”[4]

[1] Osborne, Grant R. 2002. Revelation. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

[2] Keener, Craig S. 1999. Revelation. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[3] Richison, Grant. 2006. Verse by Verse through the Book of Revelation. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems.

[4] Underwood, Jonathan, and Ronald L. Nickelson, eds. 2006. The NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2006–2007. Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing.

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Jude 1:5, John 3:16

Lack Of Faith

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 14, 2023

Jude wants to snuggle up with his fellow believers but feels compelled to contend with those who are teaching false doctrine that has led to licentiousness in the church. These false teachers have “crept in unnoticed.” Jude says they “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Verse 4).  The noted philosopher George Santayana penned one of the great truths about human history: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His observation echoes a somewhat more cynical version written earlier by the German philosopher Friedrich Hegel: “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”  Further, Aldous Huxley said, “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” What surprises me most about these three quotations is that all three come from men who are atheists or agnostics. They may think they have a market for their ideas, but they are merely saying something Jude told his readers thousands of years earlier. He reminds his readers of an important historical truth that some may have forgotten. Jude 5 says, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”

 The Old Testament is full of reminders to God’s people of God’s miraculous works in their lives in the past. The Exodus from Egypt is one of the more common historical events that proved to the world that the God of Israel was greater than all other gods. Whereas the pagan gods had their worshippers fight for them, feed them, carry them around, and protect them. The God of Israel carried His people through the Red Sea, fought and destroyed the Egyptian Army, fed them in the wilderness, and carried them from slavery to freedom in the promised land. The three wise men quoted above were not thinking of any Biblical lessons. But they knew that something had been forgotten that should have taught us a very important lesson. What Jude is reminding us of is that God is mighty to save. He did so in the past, and He can still save today.

Even after such a great deliverance, some came out of Egypt with them and did not believe that God could save them from the hands of the giants they saw dwelling in the land they were supposed to take as their own possession. Shaddix says, “Jude has in mind Numbers 14 when the twelve spies returned from their reconnaissance mission into the promised land. The majority report of ten said, ‘We can’t do this. They are giants, and we are grasshoppers.’ The minority report of two (Joshua and Caleb) said, ‘No problem. After all, grasshoppers plus God can beat any giants!’ However, the people who had seen God do so much, now in unbelief, said, ‘Well, he can’t do this.’ The result: every person twenty years old and over died. All of them! They missed the promised land. They missed God’s best. Forgetting God’s grace and greatness, they dug their graves in the wilderness within sight of the land God had promised, saying, ‘God did it before, but I cannot trust him to do it again.’”[1] Jude wants his readers to remember that “unbelief” leads to catastrophe. We are to remember God’s work and apply that to our lives, knowing that He is still able today. Those who were “destroyed” in Jude’s words were those who did not believe. Jude knows well that salvation is based on faith and not works. It wasn’t their failure to do something. It was their failure to believe something. It was Jesus, according to Jude, that saved the people from Egypt. It is Jesus who saves us today as well. John 3:16 makes it clear, “God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten Son so that whoever would believe (have faith) in Him, would not perish but have everlasting life.”

[1] Shaddix, James, and Daniel L. Akin. 2018. Exalting Jesus in 2 Peter, Jude. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference.

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3 John 1:6

Walking Worthy Of God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 13, 2023

Diotrephes was a church leader that rejected the authority of John, Paul, and most likely the other apostles. He caused a split in the Church that met at Gaius’ house. The problem could very well have been a theological one regarding the nature of Christ. John’s main conflicts involved the gnostic view that Jesus was just a man upon whom came the spirit of Christ, the Messiah. John and the others taught that Jesus came in the flesh and was born of a woman impregnated by the Holy Spirit. The two leaders of the division seem to be the divisive Diotrephes and the faithful follower of John, Gaius. We don’t know who this Gaius is, but according to one blogger, “According to tradition, this Gaius may be the one whom John appointed as bishop of Pergamum.”[1] Regardless, John commends Gaius for his faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, and John mentions that he has a great reputation among Christians all over the area. In 3 John 1:5-6, he says, “Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.”

They showed their hospitality and acceptance of those who were sent to the church by John rather than rejecting them and their message as Diotrephes did. John recommends that they continue such gracious hospitality even when the visitors move on. He tells them it will be good for them to send them off well. Most commentators like to relate the visitors John is writing about to modern missionaries traveling from church to church to raise support. Richison has an interesting comparison. He writes, “Motivation for ministry should be outgoing love that is self-giving and spontaneous. People who truly love God do not begrudge giving to the cause of Christ. They willingly invite speakers and missionaries into their homes, serve them a good meal, and get to know their specific needs. They also willingly help in practical ways, such as driving a visiting speaker to the airport and making sure he has something to eat.”[2] I don’t think John was recommending that Gaius “drive” his visitors to the “airport,” but I understand the principle that Richison thinks is being promoted here.

Whatever the specifics are in this case, John wants it done in a “manner worthy of God.” There are many comments about what it might mean for Gaius to send out the visitors “In a manner worthy of God.” I think Wright has the right idea. He says, “That means, in such a way, that one can look up to God and expect his approval. Or, in such a way, we would do it if it were Jesus himself whom we were sending on his way. What would we not do for him? Would such a perspective and such an ideal not transform the way we make provision for the sending out of mission partners, whether as churches or as mission agencies?” Wright then concludes, “Third John 6 should be written as a motto on the walls, desk calendars, or computer screens of all those with responsibility for the sending of people in mission, in churches or mission agencies, or in training institutions.”[3] Yet, it’s important to remember that one cannot merit God’s favor. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve God’s love. He gives that freely, and it comes to us through the channel of our faith in Jesus. After commenting on living a life “worthy of God,” John Piper says, “So think this way. Not: I must have faith and love so as to be worth God’s favor; But rather: God’s favor is free and it is infinitely worth trusting. Walking worthy of that favor means walking by faith because faith is the one thing that agrees with (and fits) our bankruptcy and God’s infinite ‘worth.’ Looking to God’s infinite worth for our help and satisfaction is ‘walking worthy of God.’[4] God is worthy. I am not. To walk worthy is to walk with a clear understanding and appreciation of God’s worth. I have faith, or believe, in the worthiness of Christ.

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/Gaius-in-the-Bible.html

[2] Richison, Grant. 2006. Verse by Verse through the Books of 1, 2 & 3 John. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems.

[3] Wright, Christopher J. H. 2010. The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission. Biblical Theology for Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] Piper, John. 2005. Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.

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2 John 1:6

In The Same Boat

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 12, 2023

John reminds us that walking in the truth means living our lives and realizing our culpability before God. As Isaiah says, and Paul agrees, no one is righteous and never sins. That person just doesn’t exist. The story of Diogenes and what most people remember about him is that he wandered around ancient Greece carrying a lantern, searching for an honest man, which he never found. He did this to prove his point that there was no such thing. I’m wondering if Diogenes had read the book of Isaiah. Instead of trying to look for someone righteous, John tells us to walk around in the truth of our own sinfulness. That will enable us to love even the other sinners around us. If you walk in love, you will keep the commandments from the heart, not from the works of the flesh. Thus, God will remove the heart of stone and replace it with a truly human heart with its flaws and failures. It’s a matter of love, not law. So, John continues this subject in 2 John 1:6 when he says, “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.”

The New Testament makes a big deal about understanding the importance of love for God and others. Jesus named these two as the most important of all the commandments. He said that all the rest of the laws either depend on them or are suspended from them.  In this verse, John wants us to understand that we shouldn’t walk around in life searching for righteousness in others. Like Diogenes, you’ll live a very disappointing life. But if you walk in the truth of your own sinfulness, understanding that God loves you anyway, you too will be able to love others in spite of their failures and frailties. God loves sinners. As both John the Baptist and Jesus preached, the first step in the Christian life is to repent. That doesn’t mean to say you are sorry for something you did wrong. That’s confession. We should confess to God for forgiveness of that sin and to others we have wronged to find healing in our relationships. Repentance is different. One blogger explained the idea pretty well. He said, “I am a sinner.  If you don’t know that about me, then you don’t really know me.  I am a sinner by birth (Rom. 5:12-18; Ps. 51:5), by nature (Rom. 7:19-21; Eph. 2:3), and by choice (1 Kings 8:46; Rom. 3:9-18).  You are a sinner.  Suppose you don’t know that about yourself, then you don’t really know yourself.  God loves sinners.  If you don’t know that about God, then you don’t really know God.”[1]

We are all sinners before we are saved and after we are saved. Johnny Cash once did an album called American Recordings. On the album cover is a picture of two dogs. One dog is black with a white stripe. The other dog is white with a black stripe. The two dogs are meant to say something about Johnny Cash. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Cash explains what the two dogs mean. “Their names are Sin and Redemption. Sin is the black one with the white stripe; Redemption is the white one with the black stripe.” Before salvation, sin has not totally destroyed the image of God in which we have been created. There’s still a white stripe to which the Gospel is always appealing. After redemption, a black stripe of sin remains, and we constantly battle it. We are all sinners who need to be redeemed. We all need Jesus.[2] If we fall prey to the false teaching that we no longer sin after coming to faith in Jesus, we will find it’s nearly impossible to love other sinners. We become the pharisee who looks down upon the sinner at the time of prayer at the temple. We become Diogenes looking for perfect people. We judge others in every part of their lives according to our victories or priorities while ignoring our own weaknesses. Only Jesus was perfect. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. When we both see ourselves as God sees us, we can have fellowship with each other. We are all in the same boat. A true Christian has two things in common that foster healthy relationships. First, he is a sinner. Second, he believes Jesus died for his sins. We are pulling on these two oars in our boat as we cruise through life.

[1] I am a sinner – Thinking on Scripture

[2] Larson, Craig Brian. 2002. 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

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sewa motor jogja
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