Getting Clipped for the Cause of Christ

Suggested Reading: Acts 15:40-16:5

One of the things the apostle Paul was known for was fighting against those Jews who tried to insist that Gentile believers must be circumcised in order to really be saved. Throughout the entirety of the New Testament, Paul argued that God's grace, through a person's faith, is what saves a person.  In Galatians 6:15, Paul writes, "For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters is a new creation" (HCSB). In Galatians 3:28, Paul again wrote, "There is no Jew or Geek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (HCSB).  Very consistently, Paul argued that there is no need for Gentile believers to be circumcised in order to be saved, in some places going so far as to say that if a person got circumcised then grace became useless because the person was trying to earn salvation.  So, Acts 16:3 might get a little confusing because we discover that Paul "wanted Timothy to go with him, so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek" (HCSB).

Why would Paul, a man who argued so passionately and so consistently against the need for Gentile believers to be circumcised take a young Gentile believer and have him circumcised? Isn't that hypocritical? Doesn't Paul betray everything that he has been fighting for?

No.

You see, Paul argued against having to be circumcised in order to be saved, but Paul didn't circumcise Timothy so that Timothy could be saved. Paul circumcised Timothy so that other people could be saved. Paul wanted Timothy to travel with him in his missionary work because Timothy was a great asset to Paul. But if you are familiar with Paul's ministry, then you know that Paul's first stop in any new city was the Jewish synagogue where he would share the good news that the long awaited Messiah had finally arrived in the person of Jesus. For Timothy to minister effectively, Timothy had to be circumcised so that Timothy's uncircumcised condition would not be a hindrance to the initial Gospel message to Jewish audiences. If Paul were to bring an uncircumcised man into the synagogue and then allow him to speak to law-abiding Jews, those Jews would immediately stop listening to Paul's message because of the lack of respect Paul and Timothy were showing for Jewish tradition and law.  So, to cut off any problems before they arose, Paul had Timothy circumcised. Paul and Timothy, together, were living out Paul's missionary motto:

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.  (1 Corinthians 9:20-22, NIV).

What about us? Sometimes, we avoid witnessing to people because the effort will require too much time. Paul regularly changed his entire way of living in to more effectively communicate the message of the Gospel. Timothy, apparently, did so as well. Meanwhile, we keep our mouths closed because the thought of sharing the Gospel makes us uncomfortable. The efforts we do make are often hampered because we don't want to take the time to translate the Gospel into an understandable format for those who have never heard.

We cannot all become heroic, world-traveling missionaries, but we can make sure that our lives do not hinder the message of the Gospel for those who are watching us. We can make sure that, when we share the Gospel, people don't immediately disqualify the message because of our own lifestyles. We can live in such a way that our lives make the Gospel message attractive rather than remove any motivation to listen.

When people look at your life, does it make the message of the Gospel more attractive, or does it reinforce the idea that the Bible is just a bunch of stories? Does your behavior and attitude give people a reason to want what you have, or do they convince people that Jesus was just some good teacher whose teachings have no real power in the lives of his followers?

Paul and Timothy were willing to do whatever it took so that their lives reinforced the Gospel message rather than distracted from it. Are we willing to do the same?

Being an Angry Tattle-Tale

Suggested Reading: James 1:12-21

Something I've noticed since having children is how often kids are eager to run and tattle on someone for doing the very thing they were doing just few minutes before. Children universally have the attitude, "It's ok for me to do it to you but you better not do it to me." The younger children just don't grasp the concept that they do the same thing they are mad at someone else for. The older children come up with reasons to justify their behavior, reasons why it's ok for them to behave badly, reasons they deserve to behave badly. Unfortunately, many of us never grow out of that attitude, especially when it comes to anger.

As we get older, we get better and better at coming up with ways to justify our anger. What that person did was wrong, I have the right to lose my temper. I've had a really hard day at work and I don't deserve to be harassed as soon as I walk in the door. And my personal downfall, I had to yell because it's the only way to get you to listen. We each have our own excuses and justifications for mishandling our anger. And we each tend to believe we are justified, even while we judge someone else for the same thing. Jesus's brother James, however, had this to say, Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20, ESV).

Anger itself is not a sin. But anger tends to retard our judgment, cloud our reasoning, and blind us to rational thought. As a result, anger very often leads us into sin. Quite often, we are justified in our anger and have legitimate reasons to be upset with someone. But acting in our anger does not produce the righteousness of God. Anger can be a wonderful motivator for correcting injustices, but only when we have allowed the heat of our anger to die down so that our good judgment can reassert itself.

You may be dealing with anger today. Perhaps someone has hurt you or hurt someone you love. Perhaps you have been confronted with an injustice that leaves you seething. You are allowed to be angry, even furious. But you must remain quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. You never know when you have misunderstood the situation or when acting in your anger will only make things worse. So before you do anything, take a breather, listen, and think. Allow the heat of the moment to dissipate. You might just save yourself from doing something you'll regret

Not Having a Child With Your Brother's Wife

Suggested Reading: Genesis 38:1-10

There is an odd story in the Old Testament that I have pondered since I was a child. The story is located in Genesis, during a section that tells us about Jacob's twelve sons and how they conducted themselves. Judah had two grown sons. One of them married but died without children. According to the Old Testament laws of levirite marriage, his brother, Onan, was supposed to marry the dead brother's wife and have a child with her that would then be considered the child of the dead brother. But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother (Genesis 38:9, NLT).

I've often wondered what the moral of the story was, what exactly was the rationale for Levirite marriage (the Old Testament does explain it to a degree), and how in the world a story about a man who refused to have a child for his brother applies to people who don't practice Levirite marriage. But this last time I read the passage, I noticed something I've never caught before. Something that was so obvious you almost don't consider it. Read that verse again. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother's wife... Now, if Onan wasn't going to have children for his brother, wouldn't it have been simpler to just not sleep with the woman?

But Onan was like most of us. He was willing to use the law for his own benefit (pleasure through his brother's wife) but he didn't want the law to apply when it demanded something he didn't want to give. How often do we insist on following the letter of the law in church business meetings or in local elections or in our community when it benefits us, only to turn around and take the law much less seriously when it requires something of us? We like a progressive tax code when we get money from it but when we have money taken from us, it's suddenly not so appealing. We think codes of conduct are great for those other people who need them because they have to behave the way we want. But when following those codes is inconvenient for us, the codes suddenly become just a suggestion. "No cutting in line" is the law of the land when it keeps us from having to wait longer but just a guideline when the rule makes us wait longer.

Do you use rules differently based on whether they benefit or hinder you? Are you legalistic when the rules keep other people in line but "under grace" when those same rules suddenly apply to you?  Being children of God means we live consistent, holy lives. Hypocrites only like rules when they benefit themselves. Let's avoid the hypocrisy.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Sister-Wife

Suggested Reading: Genesis 12:10-20

Growing up, one of my favorite books was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The first time I read it, as Edmund accidentally stumbled into Narnia while following his sister Lucy, and then as he encountered the White Witch who wooed him with Turkish Delights, I remember thinking, Don't trust her Edmund, she's lying to you. She spoke to him in a very sweet, reassuring way while promising him the chance to be king of Narnia with her as his queen. But you knew, reading that scene, that when he came back with his brother and sisters she would turn on him and kill them all. You just knew that her actions would not match her words.

I had a similar experience the other morning reading through the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 12, Abram (not yet Abraham) was taking his wife Sarai to Egypt to survive a famine. On the way there he said, "Look, you are a very beautiful woman" (Genesis 12:11, NLT). I remember thinking, I wonder if that is why she goes along with Abram's plan to call her his sister. I mean, a lot of women would want to cooperate with a man who starts off that way, especially if you are already in love with him. Abram went on to explain that Sarai was so beautiful that she put his life in danger because the Egyptians would kill him in order to have her for themselves. So, saying she was his sister was the only way to keep him alive.  But just a few verses later, Abram had given up his beautiful wife in order to keep up the charade and save his own skin.

The story reminded me that even the "best" of us can find it difficult at times to make our actions match up with our words. We talk a good game, telling people how much we care about them, promising them that we will care for them in one way or another, but we find it much harder to follow through and match up our actions with our beautiful sounding words. We say we love someone but we never actually express interest in their lives. We tell someone how important they are to us but then never make any time for them in our lives. But we also do the same thing in our relationship with God. We insist that we love God but aren't willing to spend 20 minutes in prayer. We talk about how important it is to share the Gospel with people but we never actually open our mouths when we have the chance. We argue about how it is the church's job to care for the poor rather than the government's, but then we never make plans to fulfill that purpose.

Rather than being discouraged at our own lack of consistency or using our "hypocrisy" as a reason to keep our mouths shut, let's work on making our actions match our words. Go visit that person you claim to care about. Set aside some money to provide for someone in need. Whatever your problem area in matching your actions with your words, don't back down from saying the right things; just make a plan to do the right things, too.

My Evil Twin Did It, I Swear!

Suggested Reading: 2 Chronicles 22:10-23:15

I don't know how many times I have seen the scene repeated in different sci-fi television shows. Somehow, one of the main characters ends up with an evil duplicate.  Sometimes it starts with a transporter accident. Sometimes the bad guy creates a clone. Sometimes there is some alien intelligence trying to communicate. But every time one of the main characters ends up with a duplicate, they end up in a fight, both trying to convince a confused third party that they are the "real one."

"He's the fake, shoot him!"

"No, he's the fake! Shoot him!"

Somehow, the fake one always sounds more convincing but gets shot anyway. Those duplicates just never learn that it doesn't pay to accuse someone of doing exactly what you yourself are doing.

In 2 Chronicles, a woman named Athaliah had committed treason by killing all of the heirs to the throne (except one who was hidden from her) so that she could take control of the nation. When the surviving child was old enough, those loyal to the royal family set him in his rightful place as king. 2 Chronicles 23:13 tells us, "When Athaliah saw all this, she tore her clothes in despair and shouted, “Treason! Treason!" (NLT). Apparently, it did not occur to her that she was falsely accusing these people of the very crime she had been committing for years.

Unfortunately, human nature lends itself to falsely accusing other people of the very things that we ourselves are guilty of. By accusing other people we don't have to face our own shortcomings. We can accuse family members of abandoning us when we are the ones who did the leaving. We can complain about a lack of communication when we are the one failing to share information. As human beings we find it very easy to accuse others when we should be looking in the mirror.

What have you been complaining about in someone else that you are guilty of yourself? Whom do you owe an apology because you should have been looking at yourself?