Old Sandals

I Corinthians 4:20
For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

The life that we live speaks volumes, and more powerfully than any words we might say.

For of what value, really, would even the words of Jesus himself be, if they were somehow divorced from his life, his death, and his glorious resurrection?

Although the words we say matter—indeed we will someday have to answer for them—it is the living that matters most.

We live out what we truly believe.

I Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

We are not expected to understand how this can be true, only that it is true. And as it is true, it is everything.

I Corinthians 2:9-10
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.

What has been revealed to us is beyond seeing; it is beyond knowing; it is beyond all imagination.

I Corinthians 1:30
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Every religion has its holy men with keen spiritual faculties.  Jesus of Nazareth is not to be counted among them. Jesus of Nazareth was, quite literally, God become man. This is the heart and soul of the Christian faith, and the great distinction setting it apart from all other religions.

I Corinthians 1:21
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

God is the Savior of mankind.  Not just some people.  All people. And yet, some people do not believe they need a Savior. Some people acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Savior, but live out their lives as if it were all just a nice idea. A good story. Some people truly believe in the message preached, as foolish as it may sound.

Romans 16:12-15
Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.

It ought to give us great pause to think that many, perhaps all, of these mentioned in this last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans were destined to be martyred under Nero Caesar’s terrible persecution of Christians in Rome.

Ordinary men and women with extraordinary faith. 

Lord give us grace that we…

Romans 15:1-2
We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

Imitating the Lord Jesus, we are to be all about the other’s good, the other’s edification. The shape of love is convex, not concave.

Romans 14:10-11
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

The judgement seat of Christ mentioned here, and the great white throne judgement pictured in the Book of the Revelation are the same thing. There are not two separate judgements.

Each of us—every last one of us—will give an account of himself before Christ, the God-man, to Whom all judgement has been committed.

One might think this judgement would take an awfully long time, but God is beyond time and space. Every soul—billions—will be judged at once.

Romans 13:2
Whoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they who resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

They who resist. O man, do not resist the grace of God. God will have mercy on whomever He has mercy—and that means all—except those who resist.

Romans 13:9
For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You  shall not murder , You shall not steal, You shall not  covet ,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your  neighbor as yourself .”

How do we reconcile the love of God with the wrath of God?  Both are talked about in sacred Scripture, as if to balance each other.

Does God the Father love us only because God the Son was punished for us—in our stead? Doesn’t that make His love conditional?  Isn’t true love unconditional by definition?

The love of God and the wrath of God are met in the cross of Christ, yet it should not be understood in a way that pits one member of the Godhead against another. We may even say that the Father Himself would have died on the cross, but for what the church fathers refer to as the “economy” of God. Since all things were made by the Word of God, it was necessary for the Word to become flesh and to bear the sins of the world.  For God so loved…