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!

Gentiles and Jews to become God's Holy People

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]

Most Jews have missed Messiah, sadly. Does that mean God is done with Israel and the Jews? Of course not. Don't forget that I, Paul, am a Jew myself! I'm a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. It's nothing I'm ashamed of. All those promises to Israel, all the prophecies by the prophets in the Tenakh (Old Testament), even the Torah (Law)--none of that is thrown away! God is by no means done with Israel. So if you think Jesus came to throw away these things, you're badly mistaken!

Remember the old story about how Elijah was crying out to God, praying to God about this same Israel:

God, they murdered your prophets,

They trashed your altars;

Now they're after me, the only one left!

God replied to Elijah,

I still have 7000 who haven't quit,

7000 who are loyal to the finish.

That's how it is today, my friends. There's still a zealous few, a group of unbudging hold-outs for God. They're holding out not because of some doom held over their heads, but because of this unique gift of forgiveness even when you don't deserve it--sheer grace.

It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still--not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago.

And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried its own ways and went into rebellion. Only the elect remained! Only the remnant kept God close. The rest hardened their hearts, as it's written in Isaiah,

Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways,

God blinded their eyes and dulled their ears,

Shut them in on themselves, confusing them,

and they're there to this day.

And David was saying the same thing, even back then:

Let the table they eat on trap them,

a retribution the makes them trip up and fall.

Let their eyes be darkened so they can't see,

let their backs be eternally bent.

Gentile believers are not the root

The next question is, "Are Israel and the Jews out of God's plans for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut no. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and you outsider gentiles walked in. But the next thing you know, Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing, this Messiah. Now, if Israel rejecting Messiah triggered this worldwide coming of gentile outsiders to God's kingdom, making non-Israelites serve the God of Israel, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming that will be!

But I don't want to go on about Jews, after all, I'm writing this letter to you gentiles in Rome. It's you, the gentiles, that I'm concerned with right now. Because my personal assignment is focused on non-Jews, I make as much of this as I can when I'm among my Jewish kin, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If this thing Jews did by rejecting Messiah, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right and see Messiah!

In essence, what happened was that many Jews, being the natural branches as descendants of Jacob, were broken off the tree so that you gentiles could be grafted-in as a wild olive shoot to this Israel-Promises Tree, a sheer gift of God to you. Now that you've seen it in this context, be sure you don't boast over Jews because you have Messiah and they don't. Don't think you're special just because God grafted you in: remember, this grace given by grafting you into the Israel Tree was not done by human hands -- not by your own doing! -- but was and is God-enacted.

Read this carefully and understand: it is not you gentile believers in Messiah who are the root of the tree, after all, you're in-grafted olive shoots; branches do not support a tree. It is the root -- which is God, and the promises given to Abraham and passed down to Israel -- which supports the branches, Jew and gentile alike.

So don't be arrogant and self-righteous! Some natural branches fell for that, and look what happened: they were so focused on their own interests, they lost faith and missed Messiah right in front of them! If God didn't hesitate to prune those faithless natural branches, he certainly wouldn't hesitate to do the same to you grafted-in branches. If there's only one thing in this letter you understand, make sure it is this: that you remain humble with your grafted-in status, mindful of the root, which is God and the promises to Abraham, passed down to Israel.

A Complete Israel

I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what's going on and arrogantly assume that you gentile believers in Messiah are royalty and the Jews are just rabble, out of God's plans for good. But that's not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is only temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the gentiles so that we end up with a full house. Before it's all over, there will be a complete Israel, Jews and gentiles together making up a holy people for God. As it is written,

A champion will stride down from Mt. Zion;

he'll clean up the unrighteousness in Israel.

Here's my commitment to my people Israel:

removal of their sins.

From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Messiah and suffer through persecution, it almost looks like Jews are God's enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God's overall purpose, they remain God's oldest friends. God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty--never canceled, never rescinded.

There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God: living rebelliously, doing whatever felt good, living for yourself. But then Jews slammed the door on Messiah and things opened up for you. Now Jews are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. That's what's going to happen with Israel -- they are temporarily in rebellion to God by rejection of the Messiah, but God will use this as an opportunity to show kindness and welcome them back in.

What amazing wisdom! Giving discipline to those who rebel and generous grace to those who are lost, making us all come back to Him, one way or another.

Is there anyone around who can explain God?

Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?

Anyone who has done him such a huge favor

that God has to ask his advice?

Everything comes from him;

Everything happens through him;

Everything ends up in him.

Always glory! Always praise!

Yes!

God setting things right: a sheer gift!

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 how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."

If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it--you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked--well, that trusting-him--to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off,

whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.

Fortunate the person against

whom the Lord does not keep score.

This gift is to Jew and non-Jew alike

Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?

Now think: Was that declaration made before or after he was marked by the covenant rite of circumcision? That's right, before he was marked. That means that he underwent circumcision as evidence and confirmation of what God had done long before to bring him into this acceptable standing with himself, an act of God he had embraced with his whole life.

And it means further that Abraham is father of all people who embrace what God does for them while they are still on the "outs" with God, as yet unidentified as God's, in an "uncircumcised" condition. It is precisely these people in this condition who are called "set right by God and with God"! Abraham is also, of course, father of those who have undergone the religious rite of circumcision not just because of the ritual but because they were willing to live in the risky faith-embrace of God's action for them, the way Abraham lived long before he was marked by circumcision.

Trusting God accepts the gift

That famous promise God gave Abraham--that he and his children would possess the earth--was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise--and God's promise at that--you can't break it.

This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father--that's reading the story backwards. He is our faith father.

Abraham's secret -- being a good saint? No! It was trust!

We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"

Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

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.

Religious people: stop judging and condemning!

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]

Those humanistic people I talked about are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn't so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you've done.

You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.

You're not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it's going to blaze hot and high, God's fiery and righteous judgment. Make no mistake: In the end you get what's coming to you-- Real Life for those who work on God's side, but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!

God's way goes against the world's way

If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you're from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won't give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.

God's rights and wrongs are ingrained into us

If you sin without knowing what you're doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you're doing, that's a different story entirely. Merely hearing God's law is a waste of your time if you don't do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.

When outsiders who have never heard of God's law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God's law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God's yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God's yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.

Being religious doesn't mean you're following God!

If you're brought up Jewish, don't assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you're an insider to God's revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God's revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I'm quite serious. While preaching "Don't steal!" are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, "It's because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God," shows it's an old problem that isn't going to go away.

Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew, is great if you live in accord with the Law. But if you don't, it's worse than not being circumcised. The reverse is also true: The uncircumcised who keep God's ways are as good as the circumcised-- in fact, better. Better to keep God's law uncircumcised than break it circumcised. Don't you see: It's not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It's the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.