The importance of free will – Jesus’ love and peace, Part 1

In the first century when Jesus was alive, the land of Israel was controlled by the Roman Empire.  Rome was the superpower of the day, and they had an ideology called the Pax Romana.  Roman Peace.  They wanted peace in their empire. And largely they achieved peace. 

Do you know how the Romans achieved peace?  Peace through strength.  They had military bases all over the Empire, including in other nations they conquered. Roman soldiers policed all those lands. If you were walking the streets of Jerusalem or Capernaum with Jesus, you would notice the Roman military everywhere.  And when there were uprisings, what did the Roman military do?  They acted swiftly with overwhelming force to bring peace.  Peace through strength.

That ideology is commonplace in our nation and in our world, and what we will discover this week is that the way of Jesus is very different. 

It is another quarterly current events and question and answer week.  During these weeks my goal is apply biblical theological teaching to the issues of the day or to answer questions people in my congregation ask.  I received the following question:

What would it take to allow the love of Jesus to bring peace to America?

There is a lot to that question.  First, the world “allow”.  I appreciate that the question mentions the word “allow” because it recognizes the importance of free will. 

Jesus himself is not going to force his will on the people of America, let alone any other country in the world.  Jesus preserves free will.  He does not coerce.  He will entice, he will woo, he will interact and speak, but he will not make us choose against our own will.  I am very, very glad for that, because that is what love looks like.  Love welcomes and pursues.  It does not coerce or force.  Jesus is love.

When it comes to allowing the love of Jesus to bring peace to America, or any other place in the world, it is the human beings who must choose to allow the love of Jesus to be primary.  And because we are talking about the love of Jesus in particular, that means we are talking about people who believe in the love of Jesus as a real and important thing. 

Who are the people who believe in the love of Jesus as a real an important thing?  His followers.  Christians.  Christians are people who not only believe in Jesus and his ways, such as his love, Christians are also people who are actively involved in a relationship with Jesus, desiring to become more like him in their thinking and actions, inwardly and outwardly, and they are striving toward that end.

Because this question is asking what we can do to allow the love of Jesus to bring peace, this question is talking to Christians, primarily.  Certainly, Christians do not have a corner on the market when it comes to love.  Any human can express love, as it is part of the image of God.  God is love, and we humans are made in the image of God, so therefore, any human can express love, Christian or not.  I believe that nearly every human who has ever lived has expressed love in some form.  But this question mentions the love of Jesus.  That is a particular kind of love.  The love of Jesus is something that we Christians should encounter and demonstrate extremely lavishly, precisely because we are followers of Jesus. 

Jesus is God, and God is love, so it follows that Jesus is love.  Because we have four books of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) that relay the stories of Jesus, we can observe Jesus’ expression of love in action quite clearly.  Also, Jesus himself talked about love often.  Furthermore, the writers of the New Testament go to great lengths to comment on the love of Jesus.  So in the New Testament we have a lot to go on if we want to learn and live the love of Jesus.

Before we begin to look at one of those New Testament passages, in the next post I’m going to talk about how answering this question is uniquely challenging in my American context.

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What can we do to allow Jesus’ love to bring peace to America? Post the Ten Commandments in all school classrooms? – Preview

Next week is another Q & A week. Once per quarter I ask people in my congregation for questions or current events suggestions that they would like me to preach about. My goal is to bring biblical theology to bear on that subject to help us think Christianly about the headlines of the day.  I received a very interesting question: “What can we do to allow Jesus’ love to bring peace to America?”  

How would you answer that question?  

Some in America have answered that question by suggesting that public schools need to post copies of the Ten Commandments in their classrooms.  A year ago, June 20, 2024, Louisiana passed a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in all Louisiana public school instructional classrooms, regardless of the subject taught in that room.  

Last Friday, June 20, 2025, though, the US 5th Circuit of Appeals rejected that notion, blocking the law.  The very next day, June 21, 2025, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a law defying the appellate court decision, requiring all Texas public schools to post the Ten Commandments anyway.  Now some Texas parents are suing the state.

It seems the opposite of peace has resulted from the idea of posting the Ten Commandments.  

If it is so controversial, why do some people believe that posting the Ten Commandments is a good thing?  Their rationale is that the ethical statements in the Ten Commandments are the foundation of the Judeo-Christian heritage of the Founding Fathers, and that it would benefit children in our country to have a regular reminder of those ethical statements, whether they are studying math, science, or English.  Continue following the logic of that rationale, and the hope is that posting ethical statements will lead to children becoming ethical people, and that will bring peace to America.  Also, the proponents suggest, it is just a good thing for children to learn about the ethical heritage of our country.

How do you feel about that?  I disagree with the logic undergirding the Ten Commandment Posters.  Please hear my heart.  I do not disagree with the ethical content of the Ten Commandments.  In my view, all but one of the ten are repeated in the New Testament.  Guess which one is not repeated?  Answer is at the conclusion of the post below!  What I disagree with is simply the logic that individual and cultural change flows from posting ethical statements in public school classrooms.  Jesus clearly chose not to disciple his disciples that way.  There are far better, more scripturally sound ways to disciple people.

Therefore, on the blog this coming week, I’ll try to present what I believe is a superior answer to the question “What can we do to allow Jesus’ love to bring peace to America?”  As I’ve thought about this question this week, I was drawn to Philippians 2:1–11.  In that teaching, Paul’s approach to peace is radically different from just posting the Ten Commandments.  As a faithful Jew, Paul was far more familiar with the Ten Commandments than just about all of us.  Yet, he doesn’t mention them when he talks about peace.  He could have, especially because the Mosaic Law says something that could be construed as “Post the Ten Commandments” (see Deuteronomy 6). What Paul does mention, however, is an idea that I believe is exactly what we American Christians need to apply to our lives to bring the kind of peace that God desires in our communities.

Check back here on Monday!

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The answer to which of the Ten Commandments is not repeated in the New Testament?  #4 about the Sabbath.  Christians, no longer under the Old Covenant, are not required to follow the Sabbath law.  We can, however, follow the sabbath principle, and that is what my sermon mini-series in July will be about.

Behind the scenes serving is just as important as up-front serving – 1 Corinthians 12:12–31, Part 5

Some people might think that because they aren’t public speakers and don’t teach a class or lead a ministry team, they are not as valuable to the mission of Jesus. 

But think about people who come in during the week and clean the toys in the church nursery?  Those people are just as important as the people who teach the kids.  Think about people who show up unannounced and pull weeds around the church property?  We need those people just as much as we need the people whose names are listed on the staff page on the church website.  Think about people who regularly visit homebound members?  Those people are just as important as the people who are up front singing or playing instruments.  All are important!  All are needed.  Let us support and encourage one another.  Care for one another equally!!!

Paul’s illustration of the body reminds us that while some gifts were greater, all are important.

Hands could easily start to go around acting like they are more important because of the unique elements of their role.  They could argue, “Well, we put food in the mouth, and without us, none of you would get the energy you need to keep going.   So we are best.  You better start seeing things our way, and you better accommodate our needs first of all.” 

This happens in the church too.  We can start to think like that about our gifts, our role, our importance.  This passage is a clear teaching that it is not about me.  It is about putting Jesus in the position of pre-eminence.

I am so encouraged how I see people using their gifts at Faith Church.  I hear about people paying for other people’s bills in a time of need.  They are using the gift of giving.  Some keep the use of their gifts very private.  I greatly respect that. 

From my viewpoint it is so cool to see how people of all shapes and sizes, hands, feet, eyes, and ears are using their gifts for the Lord! 

If you don’t know your gifts, one of the best ways to start learning how the Spirit has gifted you is to start serving.  Try out many different areas of service.  Even ones that seem a bit scary.  Serve in a church ministry for a year.  Help out behind the scenes.  As you serve, ask God to reveal to you more about your gifts.  Ask for input from others around you. 

All are gifted, all are important.  Let’s use our gifts to glorify God, to bring unity to the church, and to care for one another in need.

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What does the Apostle Paul mean when he says there are “greater” gifts – 1 Corinthians 12:12–31, Part 4

As we continue studying 1 Corinthians 12:12–31, in verse 28 Paul puts the gifts of the Spirit in an order appointed by God.

                  FIRST – Apostles

                  SECOND – Prophets

                  THIRD – Teachers

Then, workers of miracles, gifts of healing, help others, administration, speaking in tongues.

If you’re reading that thinking “Time out, Joel.  In the previous posts in the series, you said all spiritual gifts are important, but here Paul is clearly saying that God appointed some to be greater gifts?” 

I, too, see how that could seem contradictory.  But remember the original situation that Paul is addressing?  Disunity, because some in the churches were wrongly placing a premium on the gift of tongues.  Take a look at where the gift of tongues falls in that list?  Dead Last. 

Paul is saying that God did appoint some gifts as greater, but not the ones the Corinthian Christians were focusing on.  In chapter 14, the gift of tongues, Paul says, has an important role, but the gift of tongues should be seen as far inferior to other gifts.

So is Paul saying that the first three are better?  No.  Remember he said that all the gifts are important and needed.  But he does teach that God appointed some gifts that will serve in a leadership role.  Let’s look at each of those three.

Apostles are one who fulfills the role of being a special messenger (generally restricted to the immediate followers of Jesus Christ, but also extended, as in the case of Paul himself, to other early Christians active in proclaiming the message of the gospel)[1].

The original 12 apostles were all chosen by Jesus.  Then Judas had his issues.  But then in Acts 1 we read the story of when God chose Matthias to fill the spot vacated by Judas.  Then lastly, in Acts 9, Jesus chose Paul in a very special manner.  Finally it does seem that people like Barnabas and Jesus’ brother James came along later and very much filled an apostolic role.  Throughout the ages, apostles are those who extend the kingdom of God in new ways and regions. They are missionary entrepreneurs.

Prophets are people who speak for God, most often for the purpose of pointing to injustice and sin and calling people repent. Rarely do prophets predict the future. Instead the prophetic message is usually “if–then.” “If you continue rebelling against God, then you will face the consequences of separation from God, so repent and return to him.”

Teachers, are pretty easy to describe… “one who provides instruction.”  In the church there is to be a primary focus on the teaching of the Word of God.

To make sure that there is no question about how the Spirit of God distributes the gifts, verses 29-30 are a list of seven questions and the form of each question is better translated: “Not are all apostles, are they?  Not are all prophets, are they?”  And so on, each with the obvious answer…NO! 

Paul says that not everyone has all the gifts, and not everyone is gifted in the ways that people consider to be the best gifts, and not all are gifted in the top three gifts.

Yet that is okay!  Why?  Because of what Paul spent so much time on already!  All the gifts of the body of Christ are important and needed. 

Do you hear that?  All are important and all are needed.  You are important and you are needed.

The Lord needs you, the church needs you, the mission of God’s Kingdom needs you.

We need you to use your gifts! 

It is okay to desire the greater gifts.  That’s how Paul finishes this section: eagerly desire the greater gifts.  What does that mean, I think, when I read it?  That everyone should desire those top three gifts?  The word that Paul uses is where we get our English word zealous.  Be zealous for the greater gifts.  It could be translated “to be deeply committed to something, with the implication of accompanying desire—‘to be earnest, to set one’s heart on, to be completely intent upon.’“[2]  Or translated “set your hearts, then, on the more important gifts”. 

Though we might not know precisely how the Spirit gives out gifts, Paul is saying that it is okay to desire these greater ones, but that desire must be held in check by all the things that he already said.  That all the gifts are important.  That no matter what gift you have, you using your gift is vital to the functioning of the body.  We shouldn’t be jealous.  We shouldn’t be angry at God because he didn’t give us a different gift.  We should learn to be content with the gifts we’ve been given, and we should joyously use them. 

You might notice that the NIV stops this section right in the middle of a sentence, something it rarely does. There is a reason for that.  Paul is finishing a main idea, unity in diversity of gifts, but he has also set the stage for making one of the most significant points of the entire letter.  That though there are a few gifts that are more important, there is something even more excellent than the more important gifts, something more excellent that applies to them all.

That is Paul’s focus in the next chapter, love.  The diversity of the gifts works so well together in a church family when the people that make up the church family love one another.

Today let us focus on the idea that gifts are to promote unity in diversity.

[1] Louw & Nida, 541.

[2] Ibid, 297.

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Corrective lenses and the church – 1 Corinthians 12:12–31, Part 3

I first got glasses in 3rd grade, and then contacts since I was 16 yrs old.  My eyes are terribly near-sighted.  If I don’t have my contacts in or my glasses on, it feels like my entire world is out of focus, a blur.

For the last couple years I’ve also needed reading glasses.  Contacts for distance, reading glasses for up close. 

Without either contacts or reading glasses, my eyes are only good super close up.  And that’s not so good for living in our world. 

Because of my need for corrective lenses, I have felt for many years how important eyes are.  When something doesn’t work right, you realize how important it is.  And that principle is related to the body metaphor Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul writes that the body is analogous to a local church.

It could be very easy for one person to start getting all high and mighty thinking that it doesn’t need the other people.  I could be very tempted to think, just like Paul says in verse 21 that the eye doesn’t need the hand. 

Yet, doesn’t it seem that some parts of the body are more important than others?

But look at Paul’s corrective in verse 22: those seemingly weaker parts are also indispensable.  Take my contacts out, for example, and I am in bad shape.  One time while running, I wiped the sweat off my head by rubbing my shoulder against my eye socket. The pressure of my shoulder popped my contact out.  It rarely happens, but it did that day, and for the remaining few miles, I had blurry vision in one eye.  I didn’t like it at all. It reminded me that eyes, while extremely delicate, are indispensable.

Paul continues this theme in verses 23-24, and he spices it up with some humor:  Less honorable parts we treat with special honor.  Unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty.  But presentable parts need no special treatment.

You read that right, Paul talking about private parts of the body!  I think there must have been a snicker in the room when the church at Corinth read that passage.  Again, Paul’s point is clear.  Certain parts of the body are covered up, treated with a special modesty, meaning that they are important. So if you think your gift, your role is inferior or not important, you are wrong.  You are all important! Even if you are serving behind the scenes, hidden.

In verses 24b–26 Paul makes more correlation between the human body and the church. God put the body together and God has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it. There should be no division in the body, and all parts should have equal concern for one another!  Suffer and rejoice together!

Next Paul describes how the body metaphor relates to giftedness in the church.

Look at verse 27: Paul reviews how the human body is a metaphor for the church—the church is the body of Christ, each of you are a part of it.  Every single one! 

Then in verse 28, just like the body has different parts, eyes, ears, hands, feet, etc, so the people in the church, the body of Christ, have different gifts.  The parallel is clear:

Human body – different parts

Christ’s body – different gifts

All are important!  All should care for one another.  There should be no division.  All are needed! 

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What you can learn from that part of your body you don’t like – 1 Corinthians 12:12–31, Part 2

Do you have a part of your body that you don’t like? Some people don’t like feet. Another famously disdained part of the body is the nose. I suspect that nearly all humans have a part of their body they don’t like. That fact is what Paul talks about in 1st Corinthians 12:12.

First, Paul points out that the body is a unit.  It is one body, but it has so many different parts to it.  Inside and out.  The amazing thing is how these parts work together.

When we think about our body, do we think of our bodies as a unit?  Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We might want to change that part of our body we don’t like. While I am aware of all those different parts, I identify myself as one person.  As Paul said, a unit.  This is the word for the number ONE.  The body is one.  We don’t see ourselves as divided up into two or three.  We generally see ourselves as one.  Count how often in this passage Paul uses the number “one”. In just a moment, he will explain what that observation about the oneness of the body is so vital for Christians. 

But, next, within that one body, there is a great amount of diversity, which we clearly see both on the outside, “head and shoulders knees and toes” and on the inside: heart, brain, muscles, bones, etc.  Our bodies are comprised of so many unique parts.

Put these two concepts together and we see that the body is unity in diversity.   Paul is using common human anatomy to describe the church.  In verse 13, he explains how the human body is like the church.

  1. We were baptized by one Spirit, into one body.
  2. Jews, Greeks, slave, free, are the main social categories present in their society.  He could have added rich and poor as well.  But despite that diversity…
  3. All were given one Spirit to drink.

Interesting the mention of liquid.  Baptism and drink, both in connection with the Spirit.  Baptism here refers not to water baptism, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that moment when the Spirit fills us, when we accept Christ.

Here in 1st Corinthians 12:13, Paul wants to remind the Corinthians of the Spirit who is the unifying presence among them.  They might look very different in terms of their ethnicity or position in society, which are the world’s categories, but in God’s eyes they are one, the body of Christ.

As we continue in verses 14-20, Paul illustrates this further.  What happens if the parts of the body start thinking that they are less important?  Are they actually less important?  Not a chance.  But they can seem to be.

A foot may start thinking, “Geez…the hands always get to hold stuff.  Look how cool that is.  The hands are constantly shaking other hands, meeting new people, interacting with the world.  We feet rarely meet new people, and we suck at picking stuff up.  And we stink!  Feet get sweaty and smelly.  The hands are constantly getting cleaned, but we get washed maybe once a day.  I even hear people say they hate feet!  No one says that about hands. Maybe that’s why they cover us up so much with socks and shoes!!!!  I hate being a foot.  I do not belong to this body.”

Paul’s point is that no matter how disconnected it feels, it still belongs, and the foot is important.

Paul humorously depicts the eyes talking too, and why?  He wants to show how the individual parts can feel less important, but actually each part has a super important role!  Just lose your feet in an accident, and all of a sudden you’ll find out how drastically your life will change.

Many parts, he says in verse 20, make up one body.  All are important. But he goes on in verse 21.  It could be very easy for one part to start getting all high and mighty thinking that it doesn’t need the other parts. We’ll talk about that in the next post.

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Do you feel the Holy Spirit passed you by when handing out gifts? – 1 Corinthians 12:12–31, Part 1

A person once told me they felt they didn’t have any spiritual gifts.  I wonder if you have ever felt that way?  You look around church on a Sunday morning, and it is easy to just see teachers, worship leaders, singers, musicians, and preachers.  Did God pass you by?

Are some gifts more important than others?

What about the pastor?  What about the teacher?  What about the leaders?  What about the Bishop?

Our world is accustomed to seeing certain abilities as better than others.  Just look around and who gets the most attention?  Surgeons.  Athletes.  Entertainers.  Politicians. We value them.  Interview them.  Want to hear their opinion. 

I have an idea for a No Name Pastor Podcast.  Not only would the podcast not interview the big name famous pastors who you can watch on TV or online or read their books.  The podcast wouldn’t mention any names at all.  It would be entirely anonymous.  Even the hosts of the podcasts would never share their names. 

My guess is that the podcast wouldn’t work.  Wouldn’t gain traction.  People want to attach a name to a face, and also there are many ways in which anonymity means avoiding accountability.  On a No Name podcast, you could say all manner of craziness and never have any accountability for it. Not good.  But there is something in me that still wants to try a fully No Name podcast, precisely because just about everything else in our world, including in our Christian world, is about glorying the Big Name preachers.  Even in a small church, a pastor or leader can believe that they are somebody special. 

It seems the Christians in the house churches in the Roman city of Corinth were elevating some gifts above others.  During a worship service, people who had the gift of tongues were given a high place of prestige.  It could easily have left some people feeling like they were missed when the Spirit was handing out gifts. Have you ever felt “I’m not a good public speaker,” or “I’m not gifted musically,” or “I’m really shy”? When we think those thoughts, we can believe we are less than.  Though our culture prizes and platforms that kind of thinking, in the church that is faulty thinking.  Understandable, but faulty. 

Paul comes up with an insightful metaphor to help this church realize their faulty perspective.  The body.

When we hear Paul mention the body, especially for people that have been around church terminology for many years, it is very familiar.  The church is the Body of Christ.  Or we call a certain church a local body of believers.  Or sometimes just “the body.”  We get this from Paul.

When he first wrote this, he saw the human body as a great analogy for the church.  There is much about our bodies and the way they work that is very helpful for churches to think about. 

In the next post, we’ll begin to read how Paul’s analogy of the body relates to Christians and churches.

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Off the field practices to help you experience flourishing – 1 Thessalonians 5:23–28, Part 5

I played soccer in college. Admittedly, it was not high quality college soccer. In fact, with the exception of my very good freshman year college team, I have a feeling my high school team could have beaten my college team every other year. Still, just about all of the players on that college team, all four years, had played soccer for a long time. I had been playing since 6th grade. I knew the basic skills of soccer, like trapping, passing, and even some ball control tricks. Some of the members of my college team were more advanced than me.

Yet, our coach started every practice with 15-30 minutes of fundamental ball control drills. Back and forth we would cross the field with a partner, heading the ball, trapping, passing, using our chest, thighs, and of course feet. Over and over and over we practiced. For players that had pretty much all been playing for years and had mastered those basic soccer skills, it would seem our coach was wasting time.

I think his approach was excellent. Even professionals do well to keep working on the basics. On the field flourishing requires lots of off the field practice. Same goes for our practice of faith. What is the work, the practice, that will help us experience the flourishing God desires for us?

There are the classic answers are “go to church and pray.”  But what I have found is that we need to learn how to go to church, and we need to learn how to pray.  There is a vast difference between attendance and participation.  There is a vast difference between praying a brief to-do list for God and actually having a vibrant conversation with God. 

Church attendance only, often results in a shallow faith.  Praying only to-do lists for God often results in a shallow faith.

Church attendance is not much different from going to the movies or a show.  Praying to-do lists is not much different than viewing God as your own ChatGPT. 

Make a step toward something new.  Break out of the mold.  In my church, I encourage people to participate on the prison worship team, or help teach ESL with SEEDS.  Show the love of Jesus to real live people. 

But there are more ways we can practice toward transformation, knowing the God is at work, desiring us to experience flourishing. 

Get counseling, therapy, see a spiritual director, meet with a spiritual mentor, an accountability partner.  Confess your life to them.  I don’t want to limit it to “confess your sins,” because our lives are so much more than sins.  We need to confess everything to one another.

Remember how Paul wrote (see post here) that God wants to transform us complete, body, soul, and spirit.  Who in your world knows you body, soul, and spirit?  Your spouse?  Maybe. Maybe not.  And frankly, for some people, confessing that deeply to their spouse might not be the right next step.  It might be.  But it might not be.  There is nothing wrong with confessing life to someone other than your spouse. 

There is a practice called Rule of Life that you might consider.  A workbook like this Crafting a Rule of Life, can help you not only understand what a rule of life is, but also how to make one.  A rule of life is like a set of practices that can help you pursue holiness, knowing that God is at work in your throughout.  I encourage you and your Bible study or small group to consider using this book as a guide.

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Easy Off and the grace of God – 1 Thessalonians 5:23–28, Part 4

In my first post this week, I mentioned that I received a used grill, but it was dirty and some parts were broken. It needed rehab, and rehab takes work.  I wish I could snap my fingers and the grill would be magically repaired.  But instead, I had to do the work. And that brings us to the end of 1st Thessalonians. Paul concludes the letter in verse 28, writing, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

God is not only a God of peace (which I talked about in the first post this week), not only interactive (second post this week), not only faithful (third post this week), God is gracious.  We need his grace, all the time.  He is a God who is lavish with his grace in our lives.

If wonder why change seems so difficult, that you aren’t making progress, you might think God is upset with you.  Remember God is a God of grace.  There will never be a time when God is not gracious to you.  There is nothing you can do to void yourself from God being gracious to you.  He is gracious in the reality that he is always willing and ready and actively pouring grace into our lives. 

As I set to work rehabbing the grill, I found numerous parallels to God’s grace and his work changing us.

First, fixing the grill’s sawn-off side tray ended up being easy.  I was able to fit it back into place with the remaining grill frame screws. Sometimes personal sanctification is not as difficult as we make it out to be. When I went on sabbatical in 2018, I didn’t want to spend my sabbatical scrolling on social media. I thought it would be very difficult, however, to break the habit. I had spent so much time in the previous ten years on social media. When I hit the “deactivate account” button on the eve of sabbatical day one, though, it was the simplest matter, and I did go back until fall 2024 when I wanted to publicize my book. If only all matters of sanctification were that easy…

Next, the grill’s cover handle was more difficult.  When it snapped off, the small spot welds broke. Those spot welds secured the handle’s end caps in place.  You need those end caps to screw the handle to the cover. And I needed help. Sometimes when you are going through personal change, you can’t go it alone. I asked a friend from church if he could weld the end caps to the handle. Sure enough he could and he did.  In my own journey of becoming more like Jesus, twice I’ve needed to go to therapy, and since 2020, I’ve had a near monthly one-hour session with a spiritual director. Not to mention the vast input from my wife and other friends and family, for decades.

Third, rust had severely damage the grill’s cooking grates, so they will need to be replaced.  I don’t know if there is a parallel here to God’s work of sanctification in our lives. But I do know that he can redeem even what seems totally broken and irreparable in our hearts, minds, and relationships. His grace is easily powerful enough.

Finally, the grill needed cleaning, as all grills do from time to time. Black carbon deposits covered numerous stainless steel surfaces. So I got Easy Off oven cleaner. Easy Off is powerful stuff. You really should wear gloves when you use it, and preferably use it in well-ventilated spot, or outside. Spray it on the affected area, then wait. At least 30 minutes. Maybe more. Then scrub, and watch the carbon come off. For more persistent or thicker coatings, spray, wait, and repeat until the grill is clean.

What I’m getting at is that the work of change can require sweat.  Patience.  More work. Change is not always easy.  Often change only comes after a very difficult experience.  Or after a long periods of basic fundamental practice.  Yes, I believe God can change us rapidly, but he often doesn’t.  In fact, his work is often so slow, it is imperceptible.  Which we usually do not like.  Especially in our fast food culture. 

Frequently change is the result of practice, work, repeat.  Like Easy Off on my grill: spray, wait, scrub, repeat. 

Easy Off works on the grill, but what is the work of spiritual formation? What is the practice? I’ll talk about that in the next post.

How thoroughly God wants us to be changed – 1 Thessalonians 5:23–28, Part 3

In our study this week through 1 Thessalonians 5:23–28, Paul writes that God desires to thoroughly our whole being: spirit, soul, and body.  God wants all of it to be blameless. 

There have long been debates among Christian theologians about what the writers of Scripture meant by spirit and soul.  Body we get. We engage our bodies through the five senses.  But spirit and soul are that invisible inner part of our lives.  Paul two distinct words to refer to spirit and soul.

Spirit is pneuma, which is where we get our English words like “pneumatic drill” or “pneumatic piston” which refer to the fact that air is involved in the functioning of the device. In the Greek concenption, pneuma referred to literally to “wind, breath, air” and figuratively to spirit.

Soul is psyche, which is where we get our English words like “psychosis” and “psychology,” referring to the functioning of the brain.

Both pneuma and psyche were used by ancient people to refer to the inner life of humans.

What is uncertain is if they refer to two different inner aspects of that human inner life.  Theologians, philosophers, and scientists have rightly made much of this, because the issue of human inner life is extremely important, yet mysterious. For our purposes in studying Paul’s teaching, we don’t need to engage those deep debates. Instead, what Paul is saying is that God created humanity to have an inward spiritual part joined together with an outward physical part.  They are not separate. 

God wants both our inner parts and our outward parts to be changed, to be blameless.  God desires that our entire being experiences his shalom, his flourishing, in the here and now.  As Jesus taught in Matthew 22:34–40, the most important teaching in the Mosaic Law is “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” (Which is a quote from Deuteronomy 6.)

Paul says that God desires that complete transformation in our lives until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The early Christians in Paul’s day believed that Jesus would return in their lifetime.  Thus Paul is simply saying that Jesus is at work in you, wanting you to experience flourishing, and he will keep that going until he returns. 

Of course, Jesus did not return in Paul’s lifetime.  That was 2000 years ago.  Yet Paul’s point stands for us.  God is at work in our lives, and he will keep working until Jesus returns. 

We know this, Paul says in verse 24, because God is the one who has called us, and he is faithful, he will do it.  That statement in verse 24 is now the third description of God that Paul has written in these two verses:  First, God is the God of peace/shalom/flourishing; second, God is very involved in helping us experience his shalom; and third, God is faithful. 

That brings me back to the frustrating questions I asked in the previous post.  What if we don’t feel God working in our lives?  What if we are struggling?  What if it seems we are not experiencing peace, but distress?  What if God doesn’t seem faithful?

Again, those are good questions.  Important questions.  Let’s keep them on the table. 

First I want to finish up the passage, and see if Paul says anything else that might help us.  Debbie Marks covered verse 25 weeks ago when she looked at a number of Paul’s teachings about prayer (starting here).  We covered verse 26 “Greet one another with a holy kiss” when we talked about relationships in the church (read post here). 

So let’s look at verse 27.  Paul is basically saying, “Swear to me that you will read this letter to everyone in the church.”  Not a threatening “swear to me!”  Paul wants them to take this seriously. Likely they had numerous house churches in the city of Thessalonica, and Paul wanted all the house churches and all the Christians to hear his letter.  Paul’s writings are circular letters.  They would even get passed on to Christians in other cities.  It is fascinating to see Paul utilize this ancient technology of handwriting letters to help people learn about flourishing. 

After those final instructions about praying, kissing, and reading, Paul concludes the letter in verse 28, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” Just as when Paul referred to God as the God of peace in verse 23 (see post here), Paul’s mention of grace is not just cursory. Grace is vital. We learn how in the next post.

Photo by Arunmehar Gangaraju Kavikondala on Unsplash