In Love with the Bible

Learning to love God's Word

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meditation

Lessons from Galatians and Titus

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I recently finished studying the books of Galatians and Titus. Both are books written by Paul, but each has a completely different focus. I would not call them polar opposites, but studying Titus after Galatians gave me pause. The Galatians had bought into the concept that being a good Christian meant keeping the law. Paul wonders what happened to their sense of blessing and why they think they can finish by their own efforts what was begun in the Spirit. Titus was dealing with Christians who seem to think it’s okay to do whatever they want. He is told to make certain the Cretans devote themselves to good works. (Using two different words for good—what is beneficial and what is innately good.) On one hand, it’s pretty easy to see that the messages were different because the audience was different. But I am one person. The question for me was how to apply both books to my life.

When I finished Galatians I found myself particularly drawn to Galatians 2:19b-20, which says, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me.” What does my everyday life look like if, in faith, I am living life both as crucified and with Christ living in me? I was still pondering this when I began studying Titus.

When I finished Titus my take away was a prayer that God would give me wisdom to accurately evaluate the benefit or value of the way I use my time. I was still regularly reflecting on the question from Galatians: how to live the reality that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” In considering both the call in Titus to good works and the call in Galatians to live in faith I had these thoughts:

  • Part of living in faith is trusting that God will lead me to the particular good works he desires me to do.
  • The good works are not to be a work of human effort, but God’s work through me.
  • God alone can correctly evaluate the benefit and value of any work—it’s good to pray about any undertaking I’m considering.

To me, this lessened the contrast between the messages in Galatians and in Titus. But I was still asking God what it looks like to live the life Paul referred to in Galatians.

One day, as I was thinking about Galatians, I found my mind wandering to a book, Resilience, which is based on letters a Navy Seal sent to a fellow Seal who was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The Seal with PTSD had become an alcoholic and the author asked him, “What kind of alcoholic do you want to be?” I thought that was an excellent question. Being an alcoholic means you have a problem with alcohol, but it doesn’t say anything about the response to it. And then I sensed God saying to me, “So, what kind of sinner do you want to be?” I think my difficulty with Galatians was that I know I am a sinner. And while I would like to say that Jesus has full control of my life, I know it is not the truth. I have a sin problem—just like an alcoholic has an alcohol problem. The question is, “What am I going to do about it?”

I want to be the kind of sinner who is repentant, who makes restitution, and who looks to Jesus when faced with temptation. I want to be the kind of sinner who does not have confidence in myself, but in Christ and his completed work on the cross. I want to be the kind of sinner who relies on God’s grace to love and serve. I want to be the kind of sinner who loves Jesus and welcomes him into my life—inviting him to reign whenever I recognize that I’ve been living for myself again. I want to be the kind of sinner who walks humbly with God; the kind of sinner God can use.

Considering the question, “What kind of sinner do you want to be?” enabled me to change my focus. It is true that I sin—sometimes by choice—but things happen when Jesus is at work in the life of a sinner. Christ does live in me. It makes a difference.

One take away about meditation from this experience is that it is not always a negative thing when one’s mind wanders while meditating on scripture. Instead of just trying to focus back on scripture, in the future I’d like to remember to first ask God if there is something he wants me to learn from my wandering mind. It just might be the Holy Spirit.

A Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

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For me, 1 Thessalonians 5:15 underscores the reality that God asks more of us than we can do on our own. It reads like this in the Christian Standard Bible, “See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.” What? Pursue what is good for someone who has done evil to me? Isn’t it enough to refrain from taking revenge? Apparently not.

Some translations use the word “seek” instead of “pursue,” but the Greek word really does mean pursue. There is an active element to this word—in some contexts it is translated “persecute.” God does not just desire that I refrain from returning evil for evil. He wants me actively engaged benefiting those who have done evil to me.

On the cross, Jesus was able to say, “Father, forgive them.” I don’t think I could—at least not apart from his grace. God has often convicted me of my attitude when I’ve been merely irritated or inconvenienced. I’m not a person who would be naturally forgiving when faced with significant pain. His word, however, is unchanging. He doesn’t say, “Pursue what is good, unless someone has treated you wrongly.” How can I obey this call?

Corrie ten Boom tells the story of meeting a prison guard after World War II. She recognized him from the prison camp she had been in during the war. The guard thanked her for her message about God’s forgiveness and wanted to shake her hand. She realized she had no love for this person and no desire to shake his hand. She confessed it to God, and as she shook the guard’s hand she experienced God’s love flowing through her for this man. This story illustrates one way God can empower us to desire the welfare of someone who has wronged us—we confess; he provides.

1 Thessalonians 5:15 appears in a context, and I think that context can also aid us in knowing how to obey God’s call. The next three verses say this: “Rejoice always! Pray constantly. Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” These verses say we are to rejoice and give thanks—regardless of life’s circumstances. My ability to rejoice and give thanks is directly related to my perspective on my circumstances. If I cannot rejoice and give thanks, I need to remember there is a verse between these two calls: “pray constantly.” I can ask God how he wants me to view the way someone has treated me. Until I can rejoice and give thanks, I am not seeing what God wants me to see. James says if we lack wisdom we can ask of God—who gives it generously. The context for these words is seeking God’s wisdom as we “consider it all joy when faced with various trials.” God’s wisdom can be an antidote to my anger when I am treated wrongly.

God’s sufficiency and God’s wisdom make all the difference in my being able to obey his call. There are Christians who are currently facing significant persecution—who are being called to pursue good for those who are continually doing evil toward them. While this is not my regular experience, I believe God calls me to take this message to heart—there are plenty of people who irritate or annoy me. I can practice blessing those who bug me and let God use it to help me be prepared to rely on him if I’m personally faced with evil.

A Look at Ezekiel 6:9b

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Perhaps someone who is writing a blog titled “inlovewiththeBible” should not admit this. There are books in the Bible I only read if I’m going through the whole Bible. They’re unavoidable then. Ezekiel is that kind of book for me, but the last time I read it, a portion of one verse struck me. I wrote it down and added it to the 3×5 cards of scriptures I try to mediate on regularly. (I think it was the first time I had read the passage in the Christian Standard Bible, and it was that translation that made me really notice the verse. There’s a plug for reading in different translations!) It reads this way, “…I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols…” I knew that God was not always pleased by my behavior, but crushed? I had to think on that possibility.

In Psalm 103 we are told our days are like grass. That sounds pretty insignificant. How can we, who are so small in the scope of history or in the vastness of the universe, crush God? Here are some thoughts I had as I pondered this question:

  • God’s love is extravagant; if my heart is promiscuous I have rejected His love.
  • God desires what is best for me; no idol provides the best.
  • Any parent will be brokenhearted when seeing his child make destructive choices in life. Turning from God is choosing death over life. He grieves for me when I do that.

There is also the question of why my heart is promiscuous and lusts after idols. What do I think God lacks that I would turn elsewhere? What do I think is better than what he offers me in Jesus? The answers to these kinds of questions will vary from person to person, but at the heart of idolatry is a belief that God is not enough, or not trustworthy—someone or something has a better offer. A right view of God goes a long way toward living a life that makes God central and avoiding a path toward spiritual adultery.

A Topical Meditation

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Sometimes I want to ponder a truth that is broader than any one scripture can capture. Last year I really felt called to take some time to meditate on God’s love. [Doubting his love has been a recurring issue in my life. He speaks to it; I accept the truth; I forget it. I think I never gave enough time to pondering the truth for it to become a heart-felt reality.] I could have chosen a number of scriptures to meditate on to do this, but instead I chose a topical approach: I began with the truth that God is love. This means that God’s attributes are also the attributes of his love. Here are some attributes of God I looked at, considering how they express his love.

  • Infinite: This one is key for me. I have six children and it is clear to me that, on a human level, the more people there are to love, the less time I have to give to the individuals I love. God does not have this issue. He exists outside of time and space, hence he can give me the full attention I need at any given time—all the while doing the same for everyone else, in addition to running the universe and keeping time moving toward his desired end. When he has fully given his love to everyone, the amount of love he has left over is infinite. His love will never fall short.
  • Omniscient: God, who knows all, knows me better than I know myself. He will never be mistaken about what is best for me. He knows every joy and every sorrow I face or have faced. He knows the truths I have hidden from myself, the hurts I have buried, and the dreams I have not yet dreamed. His love is a knowledge-filled love. He understands what lies at the root of my sins, failures, and weaknesses. He knows the parts of me that yearn for him and truly desire to live for the praise of his glory. I need not fear that if God really knew me, he would not love me.
  • Eternal: My personal experience is that even the people I most treasure sometimes irritate me and I do not truly love them in that particular moment. God’s love does not ebb and flow but is consistent. While the way he shows his love for me varies based on my need—loving encouragement will look different than loving rebuke, for example—it is always love. It is a love I can be confident will last.
  • Faithful: God always acts with integrity. As he already has all knowledge and is already fully mature, he is unchanging—and so is his love. God’s love is not a response to who I am, it is the expression of who he is. I do not have to worry about what kind of mood he’s in today or if he will feel like making time for me today. His love is faithful because he is faithful.

Of course, since God is infinite, there are many more qualities that can be looked at. It’s worthwhile to take a look at any of God’s attributes and ask ourselves the question, “Is there something here that would help me to trust God’s love more if I took the time to ponder how this attribute expresses his love?”

One side note: Something I did not plan, but I think God did, is that while I was meditating on God’s love I was also doing a scripture study in Matthew. It was a study where I divided the book up into four-chapter segments and read through one segment daily until I completed a word study on that segment. During the time I was meditating on God’s love I was reading the last four chapters of Matthew daily. Reading every single day about his time in the garden and his experience after his arrest gave an added emphasis to the truth that God loves me. I have never been so profoundly moved by the knowledge that I do not deserve his gift. The good news is that Jesus did not consider my merit; he acted out of his love.

A Look at Jeremiah 29:11-13

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I first began to think about this passage after reading through the Bible looking for God’s promises. This is how it reads: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

After reviewing this scripture for a while, the word “then” particularly struck me. The second part of this passage is what I will do when I believe the first part of the passage. Seeking God wholeheartedly, calling on him, and praying with an expectation that he will hear are the fruit of believing that God’s plans for me are for my welfare, a certainty that there is a hopeful future for me.

These words were not spoken to people experiencing a life that met their expectations. These are words to exiles in Babylon—people who would prefer to be back in Judah. Jeremiah tells them the exile will last 70 years. They are to build homes, marry, and multiply in this foreign land—to actually seek the welfare of the cities they are living in. It may have been challenging to believe that God’s plans were for their welfare and to give them hope.

When life’s circumstances do not lend themselves to believing that my future is hopeful and God is working for my welfare, what do I need to ponder? As I considered this question, three things came to mind that I believe God wants me to be confident of:

  1. God’s love: Difficult circumstances are not proof that I have been abandoned. If God’s love surrounds me (Psalm 32:10) I should be able to trust that he is working for my benefit in everything I face.
  2. God’s sovereignty: God is not wringing his hands over my plight, wondering what can be done. In this particular case, God was actively at work to bring about the exile. Am I willing to believe that God can orchestrate the details of my life to work out his plans for me?
  3. God’s actions are right: As Abraham said to the Lord, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25) An assurance that God does the right thing can help me seek his wisdom for my circumstances instead of complaining about them.

When I am confident in God it is easier to call on him, to pray to him, and to seek him with all my heart, despite my circumstances. God, who created me for this time and this place, knows what is best for my life.

A Look at Romans 8:32

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Sometimes when I look at definitions in a Greek or Hebrew dictionary, I am really struck by one of the synonyms for a word in the passage I am studying. What is probably more often true is that none of definitions is particularly striking, but together they provide an aid for thinking about the passage. I’m going to use Romans 8:32 as an example of a scripture where looking at the Greek simply enriched my understanding of the passage a bit. It says: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things.”

There are two places in this passage where the Greek includes the word “indeed” and it does not show up in the English translation. This is what the passage would look like if we inserted this word: Who indeed did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not indeed also with him graciously give us all things.” The meaning is not changed, but it is a bit more emphatic.

The word “spare” means to treat leniently or to abstain from using or doing anything. In other words, God was not lenient with Jesus, he used him—with Jesus’ permission!

There’s more than one word in Greek that gets translated “but.” The word used here is a strong word; I usually think of it as “contrariwise.” God did not treat his own son leniently, on the contrary, he gave him up for us.

The word “for” found in the phrase “for us all” is a word that means “for the benefit of,” or “in place of.”

“How will he not also with him…” There are two words in Greek that are translated “with”. One of the words would be equivalent to me asking, “Do you want to go to the store with me?” I’m merely asking if you want to accompany me. But the other word, the one used here, would be more like me getting ready to risk something significant and asking “Are you with me on this?” I don’t want someone who will just come along for the ride. I want someone who is one with me. This word conveys a sense of unity—the gift of Jesus includes the gift of “all things.”

The term, “graciously give,” is a word that has “grace” at its root. It refers to giving as a favor—in kindness. It is sometimes used to express pardon, rescue, forgiveness, or deliverance.

After looking at the Greek, I usually write my own paraphrase of the passage. This way I can include any insights I see from the words as a part of the passage. There are no “right” answers in this, and what I notice will vary over time depending on what is happening in my life.

Here is an example of this passage paraphrased: Indeed, he was not lenient with his own son; on the contrary, he gave up Jesus to benefit all of us. How indeed could God fail to favor us with all we need in Jesus?

You will notice that the paraphrase is not a word by word translation. It is not meant to be one. It is an expression of what the passage says to me at the time I write it. When I do this, I may or may not meditate on the passage using the paraphrase. With this particular passage the main thing I have meditated on is the whole concept that if God has given me Jesus, the most costly and best possible gift of all, how can I think he would be tight-fisted with anything else I might need?