“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Paul really gives one command here, although it is repeated for emphasis and expansion of the thought. We are to “seek” and to “set our minds” on Godly ideals, concepts, attitudes and goals. The condition and direction of our minds is a common theme with Paul. In Philippians 2:5 he writes “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, …”.

What are we to seek and set our minds upon? Paul says “things that are above, where Christ is”. Paul gives his answer to this in verses 12-17 of the same chapter. First, he describes his audience (us!) as “holy” and “beloved”. Think for a moment about these! If we are “holy”, we have been set apart, made special, reserved for special tasks and special times. We are God’s chosen ones, taken out of the realm of darkness and away from the power of the “prince of this world”. Why would God do this for us? Because we are also “beloved”. God loves you, and He loves me! If that’s not a jaw-dropping, amazing statement, you’re just not thinking it through. The eternal, all-powerful creator God of the universe, the source of all living, not only knows your name, address and phone number, but He loves you; wants to hang out with you, forever!

That in itself should be plenty to think about, but Paul gives us more. We should seek to put on …

* Compassionate hearts: caring, loving, serving, focused on the needs of others, not upon ourselves.

* Kindness: encompassing the characteristics of friendliness, generosity, thoughtfulness. We might think of this as an outgoing version of compassion.

* Humility: refraining from putting oneself above or before others, and putting their interests and needs ahead of one’s own. See Philippians chapter 2 regarding Christ’s humility.

* Meekness: the best definition I’ve ever heard for this is “power under control”. We can be powerful in many ways, but that power is never to be used in selfish ways, but rather directed to the achievement of God’s goals, not our own.

* Patience: The rest of the world will let us down, fail to come through sometimes, hurt us accidentally or sometimes even intentionally. Patience withholds judgement and gives grace.

* Forgiveness: the forgiving person is humbly aware of how much he himself has been forgiven, and seeks to share the blessing of forgiveness with others.

* Love: we could write a book on love; we certainly can’t do it justice in a paragraph! All of the previously-mentioned attributes would be a good start on love. It’s not possible to love without these.

* Peace: if we are compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient, forgiving and loving, we will have what we need to be at peace.

Paul warns us to focus on things above, not on things of this world. Verses 5 through 9 provide details of those things of this world (or examples thereof) to be avoided. If, however, we have set our minds on things of God, there won’t be any room left for the worldly things to be eschewed!

My prayer for the day: “Heavenly Father of Light and Love, please help me to remain focused on You each day, each hour of each day. I want to be totally yours! I want to have no space or time remaining for the things that Satan would use to distract me, to distort the truth, and to mislead me from You. Thank you for Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen”

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.“

These two verses bring us two commands, and two promises. Let’s take a closer look.

The commands are (1) “do not forget my teaching”, and (2) “keep my commandments”. We might think of these as words of a father to a son, and that’s not at all a bad application, but an even better application is to think of these as the words of God speaking to both father and son. Only God can reliably promise the two promises found here.

God’s promises are (1) “length of days and years of life”, and (2) “peace”.

“Do not forget my teaching” speaks to our human tendency to look in the mirror and forget what we saw as soon as we step away. We can read God’s word, but after a quick scan we go on to other things, and later in the day we usually cannot tell you what we read. “Do not forget” recognizes this, and entreats us to recognize this tendency within ourselves also, and to take specific measures to remember what we’ve read.

One of those is found in the second command: “let your heart keep my commandments“. It’s a common human characteristic to have our actions governed more by our emotions than by our thoughts. One who is normally self-controlled by wise thoughts instead of rampant emotions is considered to be wise and mature; one to be emulated.

This is what these quiet-time lessons are about; taking in what our eyes see and our brain processes, and making it part of our emotional response. If I’m obeying God because that’s what I know I should do, I can quickly find myself making excuses and finding justifications for different (sinful) behavior. However, if God’s Word is fully integrated into my heart, forming my core values and emotional response, I’m far less likely to step outside of God’s boundaries.

And what of the promises here? Most of the world has a strong desire for long life. That’s why our television programming is filled with ads from Bowflex and Peleton! Gyms are a growing and lucrative business. Much of the world around us wants to ensure a longer life through self-effort. God will give us that longer life if we will obey Him and live within His boundaries for our life. I cannot tell you exactly how that works, but I know that God is faithful and will keep His promises.

Inner peace is His second promise. This is a peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7). We don’t see many ads on TV for inner peace. God’s peace doesn’t make sense to people who don’t honor God. I can’t help but wonder whether some of the trials we endure in life happen because they give us the opportunity to demonstrate the effect of God’s inner peace to the world around us. God’s peace “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”; it cannot be received by unbelievers.

What will you do today to integrate God’s word into your heart? How will you encourage your children and grandchildren to do the same?

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (NIV)

Some thoughts are just too good not to share! This verse is one we’re studying in Lesson 2/5, and there’s an interesting tie-in to Hebrews 12:1, which we’ve just written about below.

Fathers are first warned not to “exasperate” their children. The ESV says “do not provoke your children to anger”. There is quite a lot to that, but remember that in Hebrews 12:1, we are commanded to “lay aside every weight”. One of the things we don’t want to do as fathers is to lay an extra weight upon our children, which we may be doing by exasperating, frustrating or provoking them.

As we strive to run the race of life with enduring faith, we want our children to do the same. Indeed, we have a God-given responsibility to teach them to do so!

As we “bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”, in addition to sharing our faith and building their own, we are also teaching them to “lay aside every weight” and “run with endurance”. It would be hardly fair to claim to be instructing them as God wants, and at the same time piling emotional burdens upon them which will be weights they will later need to lay aside.

This is not a complete study on this verse; I just had to share the tie-in to the previous verse which I discovered. I definitely want to circle back to this verse later and explore it’s depths.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Still working on Lesson 2/5, following the instruction to look for things we can learn about our fatherhood role in Hebrews chapter 12.

The primary command in this verse is to “run with endurance”. Paul would have connected well, I believe, with modern-day men; he seems to have been a fan of athletics, which in his day centered around foot races. Had he lived 2,000 years later, he might very well have been a football fan or a follower of basketball.

And what is the race he’s talking about that has been set before us? In the context of Paul’s writing this would be the Christian life. A significant part of that Christian life is the fulfillment of our role as fathers, and as any father can tell you, this often feels like a long-distance endurance race!

Looking back to the previous chapter, we find that the “great cloud of witnesses” is a long list of historical figures whom Paul has held up for us as examples and inspiration of faith, and particularly enduring faith in difficult circumstances. They’re cheering us on, but also inspiring us: “We did it! You can too!”

A runner would certainly want to lay aside anything which weighs him down. Running shoes are often advertised for their light weight. In life, we have things which weigh us down as well, and as in running, we do well to lay these aside so we can endure for the long haul. Note also the phrase “let us also lay aside every weight”. This laying aside is not something which is done for us; it is a chosen action which we must decide and then follow through.

The primary weight which is going to slow us down is sin. We all have sins which seem to “cling so closely”, sins which we find exceedingly difficult to lay aside and leave behind. But Paul reminds us here that we must make the choice to lay these sins aside, overcoming our tendency to allow these sins to cling to us, and following through with our choice to leave these sins behind us in the dust. Only then can we run the endurance race of fatherhood to the distant prize before us.

Fathers: you’re going to be a father for a long, long time. God wants you to do well. He’s giving you good advice. Identify that “clingy” sin which drags you down, choose to lay it aside and leave it behind. If you do, you can endure fatherhood and do well for the long term.

“For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”

In conjunction with Lesson 2/5, we’re looking deeper into Hebrews chapter 12 for things we can learn specifically about our role as fathers. I’ve chosen verse 10 as my “favorite verse” at this time; we will probably circle back around and select another verse to dig into at a later time.

This verse makes a bit more sense in context. Let’s repeat that verse with the context inserted before we begin our study.

“For they [earthly fathers, v. 9] disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he [God, v. 7] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”

This verse is essentially about an attribute of God. He is a God of discipline [training in both knowledge and attitudes, building of wisdom, setting examples to follow, rewarding good behavior as well as punishing bad, shaping our character to conform to His], which He exercises for our Good.

This brings up a second attribute of God: He is good. God is the very definition of goodness. He has only our best interests at heart all the time. James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above”.

Because God is good, completely and thoroughly, He wants only the best for us. This is His nature; He is unable to not want the best for us. That best includes what Hebrews 12:10 refers to as “discipline”.

I had an unusual experience in my high-school German class. We happened upon a phrase in a German book which we could understand quite well, but could not translate into English in less than a large paragraph! The Greek word used in Hebrews which translates to “discipline” is like that. It means so much more! “Discipline” was the best the translators could do.

God wants us to be shaped and molded into an image of His character. He wants us to be wise with His wisdom. He wants to train our minds with knowledge, but also to train our hearts with Godly attitudes.

Now when we circle back to the first phrase in that verse, “For they [earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time …” God’s revealing of His love in training and discipline should be modeled by our earthly fathers, and should be our model as fathers. No, we can’t do it like God can, but we can set His perfect example as our pattern to follow.

This is a verse which should be applied by all fathers! Will I set God’s loving example as my goal, and strive towards it each day in prayer with His guidance and help? Will you?

“Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins“

The eighteenth chapter of Revelation is about the fall of Babylon. I’m no scholar; I don’t know whether this is the literal city, or a metaphor for sin. I chose to write about just a fragment of verse four, which calls God’s people out of the city for their protection.

This is a great verse to remember, because the message is timeless. The context seems to be the Great Tribulation at the end of the present age, but the warning to stay away from sin has always been valid. In Genesis 19, God warned Abraham’s nephew Lot to flee from Sodom, as He (God) was about to destroy this ancient city because of the inhabitants’ sin.

What do you need to stay away from as a protection from sin? Is there music you listen to which the Holy Spirit is whispering to you “Stay away!”? Are there movies on your streaming service you just don’t need to be watching? Websites you don’t need to be visiting? DVDs on your bookshelf which ought not be there?

God wants us to enjoy the good things He has provided for us, but there are many things in this fallen, broken world which will lead us away from Him; those things He wants us to stay away from, to come out of. I believe His Holy Spirit works in our hearts to give us those warnings. I believe that because I’ve experienced it, and because it is consistent with the character of God.

Heed the warnings He sends to you. Come out!

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.“

There’s so much packed into just two verses! How can we gain a deeper understanding of what the apostle Paul is saying to us here?

In his first phrase, Paul establishes a pattern which we should be following today. Paul received an understanding (what’s in the remainder of these verses; we’ll get there in a moment), then passed on what he had received. This understanding had, for him, two purposes. First, to inspire and ultimately transform him, then also to be passed on to others who also need an understanding of the Christ and the significance of his resurrection.

And what is that understanding? There are two significant parts. First, that Jesus died for a specific purpose. Without that purpose, Jesus’ death is just news. The significance of his death is that he died for our sins. Not for his own; he had no sins and no guilt. He died in our place. He suffered the death that each of us should have suffered.

Paul also notes that Jesus’ death was “in accordance with the scriptures“. Jesus’ death was foretold (prophesied, but “foretold” is easier to spell!) Psalm 22:14-16: “My life is poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within Me. My strength has dried up like sun-baked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of My mouth. You have laid Me in the dust and left Me for dead. My enemies surround Me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on Me. They have pierced My hands and feet.” Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection fulfilled more than 300 prophecies, many of which were written at least 1,000 years before his birth.

Jesus’ death, however, would be meaningless to us had he not been raised again to life. If Jesus’ death pays the penalty for our sins, it is his resurrection that gives us hope, that gives us something to look forward to: an eternal life in the presence of the Father!

The death, burial, and particularly the resurrection of Jesus are so significant to the Christian, so crucial to our theology, that Paul describes this understanding “as of first importance“. Whatever was of first importance to Paul should also be of first importance to you and I.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (ESV)

First, the command: “be subject”. Paul sets forth a clear expectation for every Christian, to obey authorities, and to respect them. In the first century, Paul recognized that some would find it difficult to respect the governing authorities of the day, so he gave us a specific and excellent reason to do so: it is God who put these people in a position of governing authority.

Be subject means to obey the existing governing authority, so long as such obedience does not lead you to disobey God’s law. It does not mean forgoing any opportunity to work within the system to conform laws and regulations in closer alignment with Biblical truth!

Being subject to earthly authority is being subject to God; He allowed these authorities to gain a position of power. This does not mean that all earthly authorities are themselves subjecting themselves willfully to God; many do not. Many are woefully ignorant of God’s law. God allows such people to come into a position of authority for His purposes. We may never understand why, but we can fully trust the One who does.

“… no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”

There’s more to this verse, but I’ve chosen to focus attention today on only the last eleven words. In the broader context, Paul is writing about the characteristics of a truly Spirit-led Christian, in contrast to a pseudo-Christian attempting to appear or sound “spiritual”. This was in response to specific questions which the Corinthians had written to Paul, but the teachings are equally important for us today.

Paul’s point is that the involvement of the Holy Spirit is required to enable a person to proclaim that Jesus is Lord. We are by nature sinful people, and we cannot express faith in Jesus except by having received that faith as a gift from God (Eph. 2:8)

What does in mean to say that “Jesus is Lord”? That’s critical to think about and to understand, if we’re going to make such a proclamation.

During Jesus’ ministry, the title of lord was used as a sign of respect and honor to an earthly authority. A leper whom Jesus healed gives us this example in Matthew 8:2.

The title took on a much greater meaning, however, after Jesus’ resurrection. When he appeared to his apostles, “Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28). It was a declaration of Jesus’ deity. From then on, the apostles’ message was that Jesus is Lord, meaning “Jesus is God.”

Peter perhaps said it best in his sermon to the assembled crowd on the Day of Pentecost: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Peter declares Jesus to be Lord, that is to be divine, to be God. He also declares him to be Christ, that is, the Messiah, the Savior.

In more modern speech patterns, Peter might have said it like this: “This Jesus is divine. He is God, who became as one of us to also be our Savior. And you guys crucified him!”

As Lord, Jesus deserves all my worship, honor and praise. It should go without saying that we cannot honor Jesus without also obeying him. His commandments should be written on our hearts. As Christ, Jesus deserves my total love and devotion. He gave himself for me; there is nothing I can give for him that’s too much or going too far.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

It’s not difficult to find the commandment in this verse; Jesus is quite clear about that. This is, however, a more difficult command to follow than it would appear if we’re in our all-too-common “quick reading gloss-over” mode.

The first problem is that our Christian brothers and sisters aren’t always lovable people, or they don’t always act in a lovable way. In other words, they are fallen, broken people just like us!

Paul helps us out of that dilemma in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you read the chapter very carefully, you will find it says nothing about how you feel. It does say, however, that love is patient and kind, and not envious or boastful. Love avoids arrogance and rudeness, irritability and resentment.

Can you be patient with someone regardless of how you feel? Can you be kind to someone no matter how they treat you? Of course you can! It may not “feel natural” to do so, but you can do it.

If that were the only problem we have with this verse, we’d be challenged, but OK; we can overcome selfishness with kindness, at least on our good days. But it’s not the only problem we have to deal with. The verse ends with “…as I have loved you.” That’s when the commandment goes from difficult to extremely difficult, as we consider “how indeed did Christ love us?”

Back up to chapter 10, verse 11: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Jesus gave his life for us!! Now, think about “… as I have loved you.”

We were, as sinners and unbelievers, enemies of God. But then “We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” Now, think about “… as I have loved you.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.”

Philippians 2:8 reminds us that Jesus is the ultimate example of humility: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

If Jesus is our standard to measure how well we are loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, how well are we doing? Is there anything we can do for others that is “too much” or “going too far”? I read this verse, and am compelled to ask myself “How am I doing?”