Meet the need…

Now, about what you wrote: “It’s good for a man not to have sex with a woman.” Each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband because of sexual immorality. The husband should meet his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should do the same for her husband. The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Don’t refuse to meet each other’s needs unless you both agree for a short period of time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I’m saying this to give you permission; it’s not a command. I wish all people were like me, but each has a particular gift from God: one has this gift, and another has that one. I’m telling those who are single and widows that it’s good for them to stay single like me. But if they can’t control themselves, they should get married, because it’s better to marry than to burn with passion. (1 Corinthians 7:1-9, CEB)

“It’s good for a man not to have sex with a woman.” This was written from the Corinthians to Paul.

Paul is telling them that they should have one partner and that partner should take care of the sexual needs of the other unless they are able to be like Paul and can control their desires and do not need to have sexual release.

But I find it interesting that the wording the Corinthians sent to Paul. “It’s good for a man not to have sex with a woman.” Does that mean that the Corinthians were saying something else? No sex?

God created everything we know as a gift to us and we should partake in God’s good creations. Controlling our needs and desires, but also enjoying what God has given us.

Meet the needs of your partner.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Divorce

Some Pharisees came and, trying to test him, they asked, “Does the Law allow a man to divorce his wife?” Jesus answered, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a divorce certificate and to divorce his wife.” Jesus said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your unyielding hearts. At the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Because of this, a man should leave his father and mother and be joined together with his wife, and the two will be one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, humans must not pull apart what God has put together.” Inside the house, the disciples asked him again about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them. When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.” Then he hugged the children and blessed them. (Mark 10:2-16, CEB)

You know Jesus plainly says here is you are divorced and remarried you commit adultery. You know you sin and can own it.

I have preached that. Because it is there in black and white. We are all sinners and honestly, we don’t want anyone else to know our sins, but if you are divorced and remarried you know and the world knows you are an adulterer. So own it.

Notice Jesus doesn’t say divorce is a sin. Divorce is allowable to get out of abusive relationships. God doesn’t want you to be in an abusive relationship. So get out. God also doesn’t want you to be alone. So own the sin of adultery. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe in God’s grace even more boldly.

I know several people who are divorced and remarried more than once. It took them a few tries to find the right person. And that is ok. Everyone needs access to God and us saying that they messed up too many times is keeping them from God. We need to step back and work on our separation from God and help everyone see God’s love.

Show love in all you do.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Nothing will change

The Pharisees, who were money-lovers, heard all this and sneered at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before other people, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued by people is deeply offensive to God. Until John, there was only the Law and the Prophets. Since then, the good news of God’s kingdom is preached, and everyone is urged to enter it. It’s easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest stroke of a pen in the Law to drop out. Any man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and a man who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. (Luke 16:14-18, CEB)

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the pen of the Law to drop out.

Jesus didn’t abandon or get rid of the Law.

In other translations it is not one jot or tittle will be changed. Those are the vowel points in Hebrew, meaning the Law doesn’t change until the Kingdom comes.

Know Jesus came to show us how to love, not undo anything.

Loving People. Loving God.

think about

So now there isn’t any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. God has done what was impossible for the Law, since it was weak because of selfishness. God condemned sin in the body by sending his own Son to deal with sin in the same body as humans, who are controlled by sin. He did this so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us. Now the way we live is based on the Spirit, not based on selfishness. People whose lives are based on selfishness think about selfish things, but people whose lives are based on the Spirit think about things that are related to the Spirit. The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t. People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God. But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you. (Romans 8:1-11, CEB)

What do you think about?

If you only think about yourself, you do not live in the Spirit.

If you think about others and what can be best for them, that is living in the Spirit.

If you only think about yourself that leads to death, but seeing others’ needs and thinking about how to help is living in the Spirit and leads to life.

When God’s Spirit lives in you, you will be focused on others.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Level…

Before faith came, we were guarded under the Law, locked up until faith that was coming would be revealed, so that the Law became our custodian until Christ so that we might be made righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian. You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:23-29, CEB)

For those who don’t know, I am working on a Doctor of Ministry and I am currently writing my dissertation on the verse we have here.

Some scholars say that Paul is quoting an early creed here. Even with that I was always fascinated with the use of the different conjunctions in the 3 pairs of items in verse 28. Paul uses ‘nor’ and ‘and’ for the joining of the pairs. I always wondered why.

As I was writing a part of the dissertation I looked up ‘and’ in the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, and I found the meaning “used as a function word to indicate connection or addition, especially of items within the same class or type.” I was struck by that last part of the meaning, “especially of items within the same class or type.”

So maybe the reason for the different conjunctions is Jew/Greek and slave/free really are different things, but male and female are the same class, they are the same type. In the eyes of God there is no distinction but in our eyes we set male and female to be different, but Paul is saying they are not different. They are the same type, the same class. Jews are not Greeks and slaves are not free but men and women aren’t different.

Paul is reminding the Galatians and all of us, the things we see that set differences among us don’t mean a thing to God. There is no nationality, no social status, no gender that makes us different. We are all equal in God’s eyes.

Love like Jesus, and don’t separate!

Loving People. Loving God.

Millstone…

“As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and be drowned in the bottom of the lake. How terrible it is for the world because of the things that cause people to trip and fall into sin! Such things have to happen, but how terrible it is for the person who causes those things to happen! If your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter into life crippled or lame than to be thrown into the eternal fire with two hands or two feet. If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter into life with one eye than to be cast into a burning hell with two eyes. (Matthew 18:6-9, CEB)

This verse is my nemesis. I worry about this. If you lead one of these little ones astray, it is better for you to tie a millstone around your neck and throw yourself into the sea. You should kill yourself if you lead a little one astray.

If you cause another to fall away it is terrible for you.

This is why I try to live love every day.

Love like Jesus.

Lead others in the way of love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Denies…

Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But by going out from us, they showed they all are not part of us. But you have an anointing from the holy one, and all of you know the truth. I don’t write to you because you don’t know the truth but because you know it. You know that no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? Isn’t it the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This person is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, what you heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in relationship to the Son and in the Father. This is the promise that he himself gave us: eternal life. (1 John 2:18-25, CEB)

How does one deny Jesus is the Christ?

One can say that Jesus isn’t the Christ. That is simply denying that Jesus is Christ.

But how else?

If you say you follow Jesus and yet:

Don’t love your brothers and sisters. That is denying Christ.
Don’t look out for the last, least, little, lost. That is denying Christ.
Don’t live the truth the scriptures state. That is denying Christ.
Don’t stand for those that the world says don’t belong. That is denying Christ.

There are many ways to show you are denying Christ.

But we know the truth and need to uphold that truth regardless of what society says.

All are children of God. All are welcome at the table.

To deny anyone access to the table and to God is denying Christ.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

more precious

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you. Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time. You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine. (Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation. (1 Peter 1:3-9, CEB)

Your faith is more precious than gold.

Faith is πίστις.

πίστις is faith. It is trust. it is belief.

Your unwavering trust in God is more valuable than gold.

Your belief in the face of doubt is more precious than gold.

Your faith in the promise God has given in the face of the world is more precious than gold.

You have something everyone should want.

Tell the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

struggle bus…

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone throwing demons out in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.” Jesus replied, “Don’t stop him. No one who does powerful acts in my name can quickly turn around and curse me. Whoever isn’t against us is for us. I assure you that whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will certainly be rewarded. “As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and to be thrown into the lake. If your hand causes you to fall into sin, chop it off. It’s better for you to enter into life crippled than to go away with two hands into the fire of hell, which can’t be put out. If your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off. It’s better for you to enter life lame than to be thrown into hell with two feet. If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out. It’s better for you to enter God’s kingdom with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two. That’s a place where worms don’t die and the fire never goes out. Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? Maintain salt among yourselves and keep peace with each other.” (Mark 9:38-50, CEB)

I always have issues with this verse and it’s parallels, “As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and to be thrown into the lake.”

In all of my preaching and teaching, if I lead one astray it would be better to have a huge stone tied around my neck and thrown into a lake. I would be better dead than to lead someone astray.

I wonder about this as I engage with people who say that my LGBTQIA2S+ siblings are sinful and not a part of the kingdom because that is how some committee translated words that don’t mean that. I wonder about this as I profess love love all and the rest of this verse talks about cutting off hands, and plucking out eyes. But notice that the hands, feet, and eyes part is about you. Now these yous are all plural, 2nd person plural, but being from Texas that’s All Y’all. But is that about me telling someone else to cut off a hand, foot, or pluck an eye or is it for me to do to myself? And if this is happening why do I not see one-handed people and no-eyed people? We don’t police ourselves and look to do it for others.

And in all honesty, I do not believe I have ever led someone astray by telling people to love like Jesus. Telling people how they are living wrong and not right with God when I am unwilling to police my own life would be leading people astray.

Get your life right with God and let that be your concern.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

What?!?

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven. “Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them. I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality. Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps these commands and teaches people to keep them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I say to you that unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:13-20, CEB)

“I say to you that unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Excuss me, Jesus, what does this mean?

So according to this unless we are more righteous than the Pharisees and the legal experts we will not see the kingdom of Heaven. So how can we be more righteous than them?

The law is not done away with until the end of times and heaven and earth are done away with and the new heaven and the new earth comes, that is what is meant by “neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality.” So it isn’t that we aren’t doing away with the law.

But what does the law tell us? And is this all of the Law, all 613 laws? or is it the 10 commandments?

Well, either way, the law helps us know when we are looking at our own lives and not the lives of others. The commandments point us in the direction of living in loving relationships with God and with others.

So to be more righteous than others, look to others and see their needs and love them. Lift them up and build relationships that show forth love and understanding, grace and mercy. That is how we see the kingdom of heaven, and it won’t be something we wait for, we will see it now.

Love. Unconditionally, like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.