World's wisdom or God's foolishness - pick one

You are reading my open letter to Corinth, part: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Greetings to all of you at Corinth! I'm here with my friend Sosthenes, and I'm sending you this letter in response to Messiah's call on my life. Jesus the Messiah sent me to you, Messiah's followers who have been cleaned up and set apart for God, you folks who call on God's name everywhere you go. Grace and shalom to you from our Father and our common master, the Messiah!

I'm constantly thanking God for the grace he gave to you folks in Corinth, the grace given in the form of the Messiah, Jesus. From what we hear and know about you, God made your lives deeper and richer. From this, we know Messiah is in you. I see all God's gifts evident in you as you wait for Messiah to be revealed once again. This same Messiah will see you through to the end. I'm entirely convinced that when the Day of the Lord comes, you'll be seen spotless and blameless because of God's faithfulness in Messiah Jesus.

Stop fighting amongst yourselves!

I have a serious matter to bring up, however, and I want to call you to action on one thing, my brothers and friends: unity. I've heard some disturbing reports from my friend Chloe that some of you folks have divided yourself into camps: a group that follows my teachings, another group that follows Peter, one that follows Apollos, and finally another that follows only Messiah's teachings.

Don't do that. Listen, Messiah wasn't split between me, Peter, and Apollos. I wasn't crucified for you. You weren't baptized in my name, were you?

After hearing about this nonsense going on, thank God I didn't baptize you all! As far as I can remember, I only baptized Crispus, Gaius, and Stephanas's family. So at least no one can go around saying, "I was baptized into Paul."

God didn't send me to immerse you in water or make a following for myself. He sent me to speak with plain boldness the Good News of Messiah, so that the death of the sacrifice lamb, the Messiah himself, wouldn't be rendered pointless. This powerful, central act God did for us should be the focus.

God has picked the foolish things of this world

That statement about his sacrificial death is foolishness and silliness to the folks dying of ignorance or unbelief, those folks hellbent on doing it their own way. But to us, that statement makes perfect sense; it's the most powerful work God's ever done on our behalf.

You know the world thinks lowly of us. We're the dumb ones, the unintelligent ones who believe foolish rubbish, they'll tell you. It's ironic that this is exactly what God planned - remember when he spoke hundreds of years ago to Israel,

I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nothing.

God has indeed chosen the foolish things of this world in order to confound and confuse those who think so highly of themselves. It's no wonder it's always the lowly and the broken-hearted folks who turn to God! Rarely do we see those who think themselves intelligent and higher than others turn to God. No, only after God breaks something in the core of their being and brings them to a humble place do we ever see them turn back to God.

In this masterful plan, God's made the wisdom and intelligence of the world into true foolishness, and folded man's supposed foolishness into his plan.

In this so-called enlightened day and age, is there really wisdom? Where is it? Is there really anyone truly intelligent? I considered myself such a man once, having studied under the great Rabbi Gamaliel and learned man's latest doctrines; an intellectual by all means.

Yet God exposed man's intelligence -- even my own! -- as pretentious nonsense. The world in all its wisdom and knowledge remains clueless when it comes to knowing God. God's delighted in choosing what the world considers foolish -- preaching, of all things! -- in order that the high and mighty be laid low, and the low and humble be made righteous and upstanding before God. Thus, the world does not understand God.

As I write this, religious Jews ask for miracles, whereas you gentiles look for understanding and logic. So, when we preach Messiah's sacrificial death, it's a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks! But we preach the power of God through Messiah to both Jews and gentiles anyways, because God's "foolishness" is wiser the world's wisdom and intelligence. God's "weakness" is greater than the world's strength.

I look at you and I don't see many of the "best and brightest", not many influential, not many high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women the culture overlooks and discards, exploits and abuses? God picked such "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies". He picks the ones who are broken, suffering, lowly, humble. In doing this, God shatters the self-importance of the pompous "high and mighty" folks. The first will be last, and the last will be first.

The world will call you weak, unintelligent, and foolish for following God. Don't worry about them. God's picked the foolish things in order to put the world's wisdom to shame. The things the world hates and despises and has contempt for -- these are the things God chooses, as if to laugh in the face of those who think themselves so great.

If there are any who are great, let them be great not for the world, but great for God.

Jew & gentile, praising God together

You are reading my open letter to Rome, part: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][[10][[11]][12][13][14][15][16]

If you've got strong faith, give a helping hand to those struggling. Do it even if it's inconvenient for you. Build each other up. Messiah did this very thing for us. Scripture put it this way:

I took on the troubles of the troubled.

Even though this Scripture was written long ago, it's still applicable to us today; teaching us and encouraging us, helping us endure to the end.

I hope that God -- the same one who gives endurance and encouragement -- will unify you with his Spirit, becoming one in Messiah, so that we can give our Father the glory from our hearts and from our lips.

Messiah of Israel,
Messiah of the whole world

So, accept each other just like Messiah accepted you. Jesus the Messiah held true to the old covenants and promises given to Abraham and Israel, confirming their truths as he became a servant to the Jewish people. And out of this came an amazing reality: you non-Jews spread all over the world came to know the God of Israel through Messiah, glorifying the Father in the process. Amazing! Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true by what you gentiles do:

Then I'll join gentiles in a hymn-sing;
I'll sing to your name!

And this one:

Gentiles, rejoice with God's people!

And again:

Praise the Lord, all you gentiles,
and sing His praises, all peoples, all nations!

And Isaiah's word:

The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
the gentiles will put their hope in him.

God is awesome! Oh, let the God of hope make you break forth in joy, filling you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of His Spirit, will brim over with hope!

Well done!

It seems to me you Roman believers in Messiah are currently filled with goodness, knowledgeable and competent, able to instruct each other. So, just because I've been bold and blunt with you doesn't mean I'm criticizing. I'm just walking out this assignment God's given me to teach His ways to you gentiles, so that you'll be acceptable as an offering to God through His Spirit.

Such teaching is part of my servant status to the Master. I'm not bragging; I don't boast about anything other than what Messiah has accomplished by my obedience! And what boasting we can do: all the signs and wonders God's done right in front of our eyes, through the power of his Spirit. From Jerusalem to Illyricum, Israel to Greece, I've spoke what God's led me to speak: this good news of Messiah. It's has been my desire to blaze a new trail outside of Israel, outside of Greece, somewhere where Messiah has never been heard of. This is why it's difficult for me to journey to you personally. Take comfort in the Scripture that is being fulfilled,

Those who were never told about him--they'll see him!
Those who've never heard of Him--they'll understand him!

There's little left for me to cover in this region; since I've looked forward to visiting you for so many years now, I'm planning to visit. I plan to visit you on my way to Spain, you can help me on my journey as I enjoy your company. Right now, however, I'm headed back to Jerusalem, to help out the poor people there who love Messiah. This is possible thanks to the contributions made by those in believers in Greece, who donated happily. It makes sense though, gentiles owe it to Jews: gentiles have shared in Jews' spiritual blessings, gentiles can at least share in material blessings.

So, after I personally see to it the Jewish poor receive the donations by the gentiles, I'll make my way over to you. I'm hoping this visit with you will be one of Messiah's more extravagant blessings!

I need to ask one more thing of you, my friends: pray for me. There are a lot of people who hate Messiah in Israel, so I ask you to pray God's protection and deliverance for me. Also, pray that the relief offering to the impoverished Messiah-followers in Jerusalem will be accepted in the spirit in which it is given. Then, God willing, I'll be on my way to you with a light and eager heart, looking forward to being refreshed by your company. God's peace be with all of you. Oh, yes!

Living the right way

You are reading my open letter to Rome, part: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][[10][[11]][12][13][14][15][16]

My friends, all I want for Israel is salvation through Messiah, nothing less. Yes, they already love God. But they miss what makes people acceptable to God--it isn't the Law alone! There's nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God; only God can set us right with him. This setting-things-right is already in place! He's done it through the one who makes the Law complete, Jesus the Messiah! We get in the acceptable state before God not solely by following the Law and doing good works; no, there's only so much we can do. At some point, God has to take over. And he has! This faith, this trust in Messiah, is what sets us right before God.

The Law gets us only so far in this right way of living!

The Law got us ready for the Messiah, who then gave life to those who trust him to set us right before God. Moses writes that the Law gives life too; anyone following the Law lives. By the same standard, anyone who breaks the Law, then, dies. The Law gives life, it's true. Ah, but there is a catch: we know that no person can keep the Law perfectly! That means the Law can only get us so far. On the other hand, trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story--no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into the grave to rescue the Messiah. This right way of living was predicted:

The word that saves is right here,

as near as the tongue in your mouth,

as close as the heart in your chest.

It's this trusting God to set a right way of living we are telling everyone about. This is the core of what we're saying!

How can someone get this right way of living?

Our part in getting this right way of living is simple: we just initiate it with a willing heart. If you just believe in your heart that this Messiah I speak of is the Master, you are saved from what's coming to you under the Law. That's it; you're saved from the end result of sin; you're saved from death! Just like it had been predicted all along.

It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a non-Jew, or if you've got an extensive religious background or you've never said a single prayer before: we know that anyone who trusts God with his heart will not regret it. God's the same incredibly generous and forgiving God--no matter your background--helping anyone who calls out for help.

Tell people about it!

That is why we need to get the message out; without it, how can people call out for help when they don't know who will help them? Who can they trust if they don't know the trustworthy Messiah? How can they hear if no one shouts it aloud? How can it be shouted without someone there to shout it?! That's why Scripture says,

A sight to take your breath away!

Grand processions of people

telling all the good things of God!

It's true, many people aren't ready for this. They aren't ready to see it, hear it, or act on it. Some people have hard hearts; their narrow minds are already made up, they are like Pharaoh in Egypt, where no matter what God did, he kept shutting out the truth even to his own downfall. When we encounter people like this, it's easy to ask that inevitable question that Isaiah had to ask,

Does anyone care, God?

Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?

Before there can ever be a trusting in God and a right way of living, there has to be an ear to hear and an open heart. But unless we're the ones telling of Messiah, those ears will have nothing to listen to.

How can it be that Israel missed Messiah?

You might be wondering, "What about Israel? Weren't they listening? Didn't they have ears to hear the truth? Why didn't they see this Messiah you're talking about?" Yes, it's true, they were listening:

Preachers' voices have gone around the world,

Their message to earth's seven seas.

We also know Israel's punishment was coming. Moses himself said it:

I'll make you envious by those who aren't a nation

I'll make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.

God gave the same word to Isaiah, hinting at what was coming:

People found and welcomed me

who never so much as looked for me.

And I found and welcomed people

who had never even asked about me.

So why did Israel, who were looking and listening for the Messiah, miss him? God gives us the answer:

All day long I have spread out My hands to a rebellious people

Doing whatever they please, never listening to My heart.

What a sad and terrible thing to miss out on the Messiah! If that weren't tragic enough, they were looking for him all along! It's sad, but what choice did they leave to God, except correction by punishment? Fortunately, this punishment is only temporary.

The legitimate Torah

You are reading my open letter to Rome, part: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][[10][[11]][12][13][14][15][16]

You shouldn't have any trouble understanding this, my friends, for you know all the ins and outs of the Law of Moses [Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy]--how it works and how its power touches the living. For instance, a wife is legally tied to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, she's free. If she lives with another man while her husband is living, she's obviously an adulteress. But if he dies, she is quite free to marry another man in good conscience, with no one's disapproval.

So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When the Messiah died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to "marry" a resurrection life and bear "offspring" of faith for God. As long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we're no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under the rule-dominated life, we're free to live a new life in the freedom of God.

Then what's the point of the Law?

But I can hear you say, "If the Law was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The Law has a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

Don't you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The Law started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert commands into temptations, making pieces of "forbidden fruit" out of it. The Law, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the Law, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the Law and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the Law itself is God's good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.

Should we distrust the Law?

I can already hear your next question: "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good, the Law? Is good just as dangerous as evil?" No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God's good commandments, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.

Like all humanity, I am torn between good and evil

I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands in the Law are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself--after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing the very things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command, the Law, is necessary.

But I need something more! For if I know the Law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in the Law, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

The Messiah: a completion of the Law

I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus the Messiah can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

I, Paul, a proud Jewish insider...

You are reading my open letter to Rome, part: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][[10][[11]][12][13][14][15][16]

So what difference does it make who's a Jew and who isn't, who has been trained in God's ways and who hasn't? As it turns out, it makes a lot of difference--but not the difference so many have assumed.

First, there's the matter of being put in charge of writing down and caring for God's revelation, these Holy Scriptures. So, what if, in the course of doing that, some of those Jews abandoned their post? God didn't abandon them. Do you think because some of us have been faithless that God's faithfulness is cancelled out? Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same:

Your words stand fast and true;

Rejection doesn't faze you.

God is good, but that doesn't mean we've got a free pass to sin

But if our wrongdoing only underlines and confirms God's rightdoing, shouldn't we be commended for helping out? Since our bad words don't even make a dent in his good words, isn't it wrong of God to back us to the wall and hold us to our word? These questions come up. The answer to such questions is no, a most emphatic No! How else would things ever get straightened out if God didn't do the straightening?

It's simply perverse to say, "If my lies serve to show off God's truth all the more gloriously, why blame me? I'm doing God a favor." Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, "The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let's just do it!" That's pure slander, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Jew or not, we're all in the same sinking boat

So where does that put us? Do Jews like myself get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

There's nobody living right, not even one,

nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.

They've all taken the wrong turn;

they've all wandered down blind alleys.

No one's living right;

I can't find a single one.

Their throats are gaping graves,

their tongues slick as mud slides.

Every word they speak is tinged with poison.

They open their mouths and pollute the air.

They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,

litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,

Don't know the first thing about living with others.

They never give God the time of day.

This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin.

God is setting things right!

But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus--setting-things-right for us. And not only for Jews like me, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both Jews and non-Jews) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

God sacrificed the Passover lamb --Jesus-- on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public--to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now--this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

I, Paul, the proud Jewish insider...

So where does that leave our proud Jewish insider claims and counterclaims? Canceled? Yes, canceled. What we've learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

And where does that leave my proud Jewish claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled. God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews like myself. How could it be otherwise since there is only one God? God sets right all who welcome his action and enter into it, both those who follow Judaism and those who have never heard of it.

But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don't we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.

Greetings, thanks, and a heads-up on humanism

You are reading my open letter to Rome, part: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][[10][[11]][12][13][14][15][16]

I, Paul, am a devoted slave of Jesus Christ on assignment, authorized as an follower of God to proclaim God's words and acts. I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God's friends.

Jesus is the Son of God!

Scripture contains preliminary reports by the prophets on God's Son. His descent from David roots him in history; his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, setting him apart as the Messiah, our Master. Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ! And I greet you now with all the generosity of God our Father and our Master Jesus, the Messiah.

Thanks for your service!

I thank God through Jesus for every one of you. That's first. People everywhere keep telling me about your lives of faith, and every time I hear them, I thank him. And God, whom I so love to worship and serve by spreading the good news of his Son--the Message!-knows that every time I think of you in my prayers, which is practically all the time, I ask him to clear the way for me to come and see you. The longer this waiting goes on, the deeper the ache. I so want to be there to deliver God's gift in person and watch you grow stronger right before my eyes! But don't think I'm not expecting to get something out of this, too! You have as much to give me as I do to you.

Please don't misinterpret my failure to visit you, friends. You have no idea how many times I've made plans for Rome. I've been determined to get some personal enjoyment out of God's work among you, as I have in so many other non-Jewish towns and communities. But something has always come up and prevented it. Everyone I meet--it matters little whether they're mannered or rude, smart or simple--deepens my sense of interdependence and obligation. And that's why I can't wait to get to you in Rome, preaching this wonderful good news of God.

It's news I'm most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God's powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews like myself and then right on to everyone else! God's way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: "The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives."

Watch out for humanism

But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

So God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them--the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

Humanism's end result

Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either--women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men--all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it--emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care--worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!