Judged

17     But,
if you call yourself a Jew;
if you rely on the Law;
if you brag about your relationship to God;
18 if you know the will of God;
if you are taught by the Law so that you can figure out the things that really matter;
19 if you have persuaded yourself that you are:
        a guide for the blind;
        a light to those who are in darkness;
20         an educator of the foolish;
        a teacher of infants (since you have the full content of knowledge and truth in the Law);
21 then why don’t you who are teaching others teach yourself?
If you preach, “No stealing,” do you steal?
22 If you say, “No adultery,” do you commit adultery?
If you hate idols, do you rob temples?
23 If you brag about the Law, do you shame God by breaking the Law? 24 As it is written: The name of God is discredited by the Gentiles because of you. 25 Circumcision is an advantage if you do what the Law says. But if you are a person who breaks the Law, your status of being circumcised has changed into not being circumcised.26 So if the person who isn’t circumcised keeps the Law, won’t his status of not being circumcised be counted as if he were circumcised? 27 The one who isn’t physically circumcised but keeps the Law will judge you. You became a lawbreaker after you had the written Law and circumcision. 28 It isn’t the Jew who maintains outward appearances who will receive praise from God, and it isn’t people who are outwardly circumcised on their bodies. 29 Instead, it is the person who is a Jew inside, who is circumcised in spirit, not literally. That person’s praise doesn’t come from people but from God. (Romans 2:17-29, CEB)

It really isn’t about who we say we are. It is about who we are in our actions.

White washed tombs look good on the outside but are rotting on the inside.

Our true self is how we are from the inside out. Who are we in our hearts?

Are we people who seek the approval and praise of others, or do we do things that will seek the approval and praise of God?

Be circumcised in your heart and work to make God happy. Not because you have to, but because you can, and that praise is far better than anything man can give you!

a rich man’s question

16 A man approached him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?” 17 Jesus said, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There’s only one who is good. If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments.” 18 The man said, “Which ones?” Then Jesus said, “Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. 19 Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” 20 The young man replied, “I’ve kept all these. What am I still missing?” 21 Jesus said, “If you want to be complete, go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come follow me.” 22 But when the young man heard this, he went away saddened, because he had many possessions. (Matthew 19:16-22, CEB)

We can not love our possessions more than we love living for the Lord. We must use what we have been given to help others. If we can not give it away, then it means more to us than God does.

What do you love more than God?

Showing faith

14 My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? 15 Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. 16 What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? 17 In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. 18 Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action.19 It’s good that you believe that God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear. 20 Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? 21 What about Abraham, our father? Wasn’t he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. 23 So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and God regarded him as righteous. What is more, Abraham was called God’s friend. 24 So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. 25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guests and then sent them on by another road? 26 As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead. (James 2:14-26, CEB)

We can not say we have faith if our actions prove that we do not believe what we say. The old saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” is very true. This passage points to the statement that is atributed to St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.” St. Francis never said this, but point to this. We need to live in such a way that our faith is shown through our actions.

Because James says, “Faith without action is dead.”

Love

8 You do well when you really fulfill the royal law found in scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself. 9 But when you show favoritism, you are committing a sin, and by that same law you are exposed as a lawbreaker. 10 Anyone who tries to keep all of the Law but fails at one point is guilty of failing to keep all of it. 11 The one who said, Don’t commit adultery, also said, Don’t commit murder. So if you don’t commit adultery but do commit murder, you are a lawbreaker.12 In every way, then, speak and act as people who will be judged by the law of freedom.13 There will be no mercy in judgment for anyone who hasn’t shown mercy. Mercy overrules judgment. (James 2:8-13, CEB)

Mercy overrules judgment!

Show mercy, for all have fallen short. And anyone who breaks one of the laws has broken all of the law.

So unless you love everyone then you are loving no one and have broken all of the laws.

And since all of us fall short, we need to show mercy, just like God did to us.

Show mercy. Mercy overrules judgment.

Greatest Commandment

34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had left the Sadducees speechless, they met together.35 One of them, a legal expert, tested him. 36 “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” 41 Now as the Pharisees were gathering, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “David’s son,” they replied. 43 He said, “Then how is it that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, called him Lord when he said,44 The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side until I turn your enemies into your footstool’? 45 If David calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son?” 46 Nobody was able to answer him. And from that day forward nobody dared to ask him anything. (Matthew 22:34-46, CEB)

All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.

All the Law and the Prophets…

There are three sections to the Hebrew Scriptures.

TORAH
NEVI’IM
KETHUVIM

Law
Prophets
Writings

All the Law and the Prophets…

Jesus was literally saying to the Pharisees, All of your scripture hangs on these 2 commandments. Everything you have written down points to these two things, love God, Love neighbor.

If you get this, then you get the rest and everything else is meant to help you do these two.

Simple. Yet the hardest thing you will ever do.

believe

39 Examine the scriptures, since you think that in them you have eternal life. They also testify about me, 40 yet you don’t want to come to me so that you can have life. 41 “I don’t accept praise from people, 42 but I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in you.43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If others come in their own name, you receive them. 44 How can you believe when you receive praise from each other but don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God? 45 “Don’t think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, the one in whom your hope rests. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because Moses wrote about me. 47 If you don’t believe the writings of Moses, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:39-47, CEB)

What do we believe?

People read the Bible every day and they read the same passage, how do they get different interpretations? Well we all read the Bible through our own lenses. We have learned things through our lives and been told things that influence everything we read. We see things through our lenses. Some might say we reflect what we have learned in what we read. And it is hard for us to let go of those preconceived notions and ideas, because in some ways it is saying what we have learned is wrong, and that then is saying our upbringing is wrong, and that is hard. And it doesn’t mean that what we learned is wrong, it was based on the best information at the time, so it could have been right, but information and things change, so we need to allow things to move forward, and that holds true for our beliefs also.

The people here were unable to accept Jesus as the Messiah because they did not see him fulfilling what they were taught the messiah would be.

How do we get caught up in the faith or our fathers, and not allow the faith that God wants us to have now come in?

role model

7 in every way. Offer yourself as a role model of good actions. Show integrity, seriousness,8 and a sound message that is above criticism when you teach, so that any opponent will be ashamed because they won’t find anything bad to say about us. 11 The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. 12 It educates us so that we can live sensible, ethical, and godly lives right now by rejecting ungodly lives and the desires of this world. 13 At the same time we wait for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us in order to rescue us from every kind of lawless behavior, and cleanse a special people for himself who are eager to do good actions. 15 Talk about these things. Encourage and correct with complete authority. Don’t let anyone disrespect you. (Titus 2:7-8, 11-15, CEB)

We need to live our lives in such a way that people see we are genuine.

This doesn’t mean we don’t mess up, but when we do we say we are sorry and work to correct injustices. We are to be models of Christ’s love to us and the world.

Are we really doing this as the church though?

How can you do this, to help others see God?

clean or unclean

5 The reason I left you behind in Crete was to organize whatever needs to be done and to appoint elders in each city, as I told you. 6 Elders should be without fault. They should be faithful to their spouse, and have faithful children who can’t be accused of self-indulgence or rebelliousness. 7 This is because supervisors should be without fault as God’s managers: they shouldn’t be stubborn, irritable, addicted to alcohol, a bully, or greedy. 8 Instead, they should show hospitality, love what is good, and be reasonable, ethical, godly, and self-controlled. 9 They must pay attention to the reliable message as it has been taught to them so that they can encourage people with healthy instruction and refute those who speak against it. 10 In fact, there are many who are rebellious people, loudmouths, and deceivers, especially some of those who are Jewish believers. 11 They must be silenced because they upset entire households. They teach what they shouldn’t to make money dishonestly. 12 Someone who is one of their own prophets said, “People from Crete are always liars, wild animals, and lazy gluttons.” 13 This statement is true. Because of this, correct them firmly, so that they can be healthy in their faith. 14 They shouldn’t pay attention to Jewish myths and commands from people who reject the truth. 15 Everything is clean to those who are clean, but nothing is clean to those who are corrupt and without faith. Instead, their mind and conscience are corrupted.16 They claim to know God, but they deny God by the things that they do. They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified to do anything good. (Titus 1:5-16. CEB)

Everything is clean to those who are clean, but nothing is clean to those who are corrupt and without faith.

So who decides who has faith or who is corrupt?

Because truly who can live up to the guidelines for elders?

Be without fault? I mean only Jesus was without fault, and that really depends on who you ask.

Faithful to their spouse. Ok, for this one we might find a few…

Have faithful children who can’t be accused of self-indulgence or rebelliousness. In some ways a father can control their children, but we are each our own creation of God and no one person can truly control another and to judge a person based on their family is not what God would do, so why should we?

They shouldn’t be stubborn, irritable, addicted to alcohol, a bully, or greedy. At all or what? I mean aren’t we all stubborn in something, and irritable at times? Seems a little like we want these people to be perfect, and as far as I know there was only 1 perfect person and he was also God.

High expectations?

And we wonder why church leaders fail…

Taxes

22 When the disciples came together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Human One is about to be delivered over into human hands. 23 They will kill him. But he will be raised on the third day.” And they were heartbroken. 24 When they came to Capernaum, the people who collected the half-shekel temple tax came to Peter and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” 25 “Yes,” he said. But when they came into the house, Jesus spoke to Peter first. “What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly kings collect taxes, from their children or from strangers?” 26 “From strangers,” he said. Jesus said to him, “Then the children don’t have to pay. 27 But just so we don’t offend them, go to the lake, throw out a fishing line and hook, and take the first fish you catch. When you open its mouth, you will find a shekel coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.” (Matthew 17:22-27, CEB)

Who pays taxes, strangers or the kings offspring?

Of course the royal family doesn’t pay taxes, so why would Jesus have to pay tax? Especially in the temple, which is his Father’s house?

But to show that they do not want to offend they will pay the tax, with money they get from the Father.

This could be seen as Judas was seen in the gospel of John, as one who was stealing money, they wanted Jesus to pay so that their pockets would be lined rather than being worried about the money going to God.

Why do we give money to the church?

no more music…

21 Then a powerful angel picked up a stone that was like a huge millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “With such violent force the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, and it won’t be found anymore. 22 The sound of harpists and musicians, of pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard among you again. No craftsman of any kind will ever be found among you again. The sound of the hand mill will never be heard among you again. 23 The light of a lamp will never shine among you again. The sound of a bridegroom and bride will never be heard among you again because your merchants ran the world, because all the nations were deceived by the spell you cast, and because 24 the blood of prophets, of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on the earth was found among you.” (Revelation 18:21-24, CEB)

Can you imagine a world with no art?

No crafts?

No music?

Nothing…

Well if there wasn’t God there would be none of these things. For God created us to be in community with each other and God.

So give thanks to God for music and art and crafts! Celebrate God’s wonder through these things very day!