Issued: 9/19/23

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh of hosts [later Jesus] and Yahweh the Most High God, lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the One and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from God the Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

Sorrows…

   Last time we discussed how suffering is an intrinsic part of preaching; for following the first Adam/last Adam model, ‘planting’ the seed of God’s word (Luke 8:11-15) was one way of atoning for past transgressions.  This suffering is implicit in a variety of Scriptures.  Psalms 126:6, “He [please note the male article] who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing,” clearly implies suffering.  If preaching requires God’s “hidden wisdom” (Deuteronomy 29:29; Jeremiah 33:3; 1Corinthians 2:10-16), “in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18).    And because God’s wisdom via His Holy Spirit ‘opens’ our understanding¹ to the great evil which is mankind’s lot (Ecclesiastes 8:6), reflecting on it and being called to denounce it are heavy burdens “that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with” (Ecclesiastes 1:13).

   Yet if God exhorts us to acquire wisdom above everything else (Proverbs 4:7), He expects us to embrace suffering as we grope for salvation; which means that the Christian life entails some degree of inevitable suffering.  Indeed Jesus said “in the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33); and Paul made it clear that those wishing to live piously in Jesus would face persecution (2Timothy 3:12).  Peter’s perspective on Christian suffering was inspirational:  It strengthened faith; it was joyful in the sense one suffered for Jesus as he had suffered for us; and though reviled, sufferers were blessed while Jesus was glorified (1Peter 1:5-7, 4:12-14↔Matthew 5:11-12).  James and Paul were more pragmatic.  James argued that misery, mourning, and weeping led to divine exaltation (James 4:9-10↔Ezekiel 21:26); for Paul submitting to God’s “scourges” conferred spiritual legitimacy (Hebrews 12:5-8).

   That submission had to be not only voluntary but with the understanding of the purpose it served: “If their uncircumcised heart² becomes humbled [and they] accept the punishment of their iniquity (Leviticus 26:41,43; Isaiah 51:23)…I’ll discipline you justly, but I certainly won’t leave you unpunished” (Jeremiah 30:11).  Thus Micah’s informed, voluntary choice:  “I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against Him” (Micah 7:9).

   Anyway one looks at it, God expects us to atone by suffering willingly.  Jesus did for our sakes:  Having given up his divine prerogatives to become human (Philippians 2:5-9), his ministry became an unremitting ordeal of personal privations, self-denials, hostility from sinners and death by crucifixion—as God required him to (Isaiah 53:3-12; John 18:11, 19:11).  Consequently, his preaching was radical:  Unless you give up relatives, assets, or even your life for me, you are unworthy of me; I expect you to sacrifice for me everything as I have done for you; so that by following my example, you might be worthy of sharing my inheritance (Matthew 16:25, 19:29; John 13:15; Romans 8:17).

   Jesus led by example—to put it in the vernacular, he did the talk and walked the walk; so that his faith in action should inspire and mold the way we conduct our lives.  James gave us some perspective:  ^“Anyone who listens to the word³ but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom (↔John 8:31-32), and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it (↔Matthew 7:24-27)—they will be blessed in what they do [for] faith without works is dead” (James 1:23-25, 2:17).

   What, then, does God expect from us?  Everything that Jesus exemplified in his approach to human affairs (1John 2:6)—in a nutshell, doing exactly the opposite of what people normally do.  Jesus was not into raising families, though in his ‘eunuch’ argument (Matthew 19:12), he left marriage, the obligatory step to having sex (1Corinthians 7:9), open to individuals’ choices.⁴  Jesus neither sought nor had material assets (Matthew 8:20).  He eschewed world acclaim (John 5:41); political involvement (John 6:15); was never mired in social causes [poverty was here to stay (Mark 14:7)]; and had no part in organized religion.  Jesus was a pilgrim on his way to a Heavenly City; so that in this world—Satan’s realm (Isaiah 14:16-17,20; 2Corinthians 4:4↔John 14:30; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 6:8)—there was nothing to hold him back.  If by “camp” we understand Christendom, then as Paul put it, Jesus suffered outside the gates of Jerusalem, the earthly city shadow to the heavenly ‘camp’ of the saints (Hebrews 11:16; Revelation 21:3,27) for us to follow him, bearing the selfsame insults, abuse, shame and disgrace that were heaped on him (Hebrews 13:12-13).  Which again means what?  An exhortation to embrace personal grief for love of him.

   If Jesus’ doctrine is God’s (John 7:16), then God sees enjoying and partaking of worldly delights as conducts unbecoming sincere repentance.   “Therefore this day the Lord Yahweh of hosts [the pre-existent Jesus] called you to weeping, to wailing, to shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.⁵  Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine (Luke 17:26-30), saying:  “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die⁶…Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die” (Isaiah 22:12-14↔Deuteronomy 29:19-20).  Furthermore, acceptance of things as they are rejects His solutions to human problems (Isaiah 2:4, 11:6-12; Jeremiah 29:11; Revelation 21:4).  Even most galling is the hypocritical mindset of professed Judeo-Christians living it up before Jesus comes to ‘rapture’ them like some Hollywood cliffhanger rescue.

   [There is of course no ‘rapture’ as preached from today’s pulpits:  It is one of those faith-numbing bromides congregations wish to hear instead of Jesus’ and the Apostles’ messages of inescapable and collective gloom and doom on earth.  Scripture makes it all too clear that no human beings living at end times—including the elect and the 144,000 ‘first fruits’—will be plucked away from the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:22; Revelation 7:1-3);⁷ and that only after it, following Jesus’ coming and the first resurrection, will there be a ‘harvesting’ of redeemed souls (Matthew 24:29-31; 1Thessalonians 4:13-17)].

   Please note that in Luke 17:26-29, Jesus reiterated Isaiah’s condemnations, but this time from the perspective of generations which faced obliteration; so that in Luke 17:30 Jesus foresaw the same mindset being widespread prior to his second coming.  Revelation 9:20-21 confirms his prediction:  Even during the Great Tribulation, as corroborated by Daniel 12:10, “the wicked will continue to act wickedly.”  What were the righteous expected to do?  To pursue “the holiness without which no one will see the God” (Hebrews 12:14), expressed in a new way of living diametrically opposed to human norms (1Peter 1:17-18, 4:3↔Jeremiah 9:14, 16:19).  And ‘holy’ in the Scriptural sense of the word:  “Consecrated people who made a covenant with [God] by sacrifice” (Psalms 50:5)—i.e., set apart from others.

   Thus rejection of worldly pursuits became a defining, Christian tenet.   “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul” (Matthew 16:26)?  “Whoever [befriends/loves] the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).  “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him [or her]. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from [Satan’s] world” (1John 2:15-16).  And that rejection extended to devaluing the things men cherished most:  Possessions (Philippians 3:8) and their lives (Revelation 12:11).

   Elisha was hip to these truths (2Kings 5:26); not so his servant Gehazi, who milking money out of Naaman for cure rendered was punished with Naaman’s leprosy for putting lucre above spiritual objectives (2Kings 5:15-16,21-27).  In Acts 5:1-10 Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead after having kept some of the money earmarked for the early Christian church.  Theirs was a common human frailty:  Doing the godly bit while keeping their bases covered, or as we now say it, wanting to have their cake and eat it too.  Though Peter identified Satan as their ‘influencer’ (Acts 5:3), Satan can only insinuate but not push; so that Ananias and Sapphira, who acted by choice and agreement (Acts 5:1-2), were punished for holding back on God (Matthew 6:24↔Ecclesiastes 5:4-6).

   In the Old Testament prioritizing God could bring immediate rewards.  Rahab risked the safety of her entire family by helping Joshua escape (Joshua 2:1-21, 6:22-23); and the widow of Sarepta was rewarded with enough foodstuffs after feeding Elijah with the last bit of food she had to feed her son (1Kings 17:8-16).⁸  But Jesus upped the ante, so that henceforth faith would not be rewarded on a ‘tit-for-tat’ basis but on the promise that God would reward the faithful collectively at some future time (Philippians 3:12-14; Hebrews 11:39-40).  This is an important reminder for those of us who believe that God automatically rewards good deeds with unexpected windfalls.

   Now, Mark 10:29-30 reads as follows:  “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for my sake and for the Gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”  Yet this does not mean exchanging kin and possessions for better prospects; what Jesus meant was that every personal sacrifice for his sake stood to gain surrogate relatives and places to call family and homes amongst the faithful worldwide.

   Therefore the Apostles, though not all related by blood like Peter and Andrew or James and John (Matthew 10:2), were deemed brothers; John was son to Mary as she was mother to him (John 19:26-27); Paul was taken care of when ill as if he were family (Galatians 4:13-14); hospitality became an article of faith (Luke 10:7-8; Hebrews 13:2); and the true reward, eternal life, was to be had in God’s Kingdom after immortality was granted collectively to all the redeemed during the first resurrection (1Corinthians 15:52).  No righteous since Abel will be rewarded ahead of any other faithful (1Thessalonians 4:15-17).  No matter what pious bromides you hear from religious leaders, except for Enoch, Moses and Elijah, no human being who has ever lived is conscious and interceding on our behalf ‘up there’ (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6).

   Beginning with Jesus until end times, the calling was not to amass but to downsize (Matthew 6:19-20); not to prioritize loved ones over others as sinners did but to do for them and others equitably (Luke 6:32; 2Corinthians 8:12-14); and not to strive for public recognition but to do everything under the radar to please God (Matthew 6:1-4).  It is true that Jesus sounded extreme at times.  Surely there were more productive and targeted ways for the rich young man to dispose of his wealth than by giving it away all at once—though giving it away he had to, for hoarders of wealth are barred from citizenship in God’s Kingdom (Matthew 19:23).

   But Jesus was talking from his own perspective; his example was the ideal surpassing human limitations, though he was not unmindful of them.  His original exhortation to preach without worrying about daily necessities (Matthew 25:31-33) was later amended to securing essentials before undertaking world evangelization (Luke 22:35-36).  Thus we find Paul working to support himself and others (Acts 20:34; 1Thessalonians 2:9); asking for a cape left behind rather than buying a new one (2Timothy 4:13); and arguing that anyone failing to do his part in the Christian endeavor had no right to eat from the labors of others (2Thessalonians 3:10).  Christianity may sound like a welfare system; but if you do not contribute to the general effort, you are not entitled to any benefits.

   Still with all this talk of participation and involvement, the effort was not towards transforming the world but appealing to people to transform themselves (Luke 4:23; Romans 8:29).  How did the Apostles express the rejection of worldly pursuits?  In terms of being “crucified” (Romans 6:6; Galatians 5:24); not living for ourselves but for Jesus (2Corinthians 5:14-15); “dead to the world’s ways of doing things…for your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 2:20, 3:3).  “Hidden” in what way?  Not safely ensconced away in some parallel dimension or ‘rapture hideout,’ but in the only way Jesus knew was possible with God:  Under His protection because they could not be taken out of the world (John 17:15).

   Just because Enoch and Elijah were transposed alive into Heaven (Genesis 5:24; 2Kings 2:11) the same did not apply to any other being—including Mary, as Catholic dogma would have us believe.  Moses, for example, was bodily reawakened in Heaven after having died on earth (Deuteronomy 34:5-6; Zechariah 3:1-5↔Jude 1:9):  Both he and Elijah were physically present during Jesus’ transfiguration (Luke 9:30).  Jesus’ first (John 20:17) and second (Acts 1:9) ascents into Heaven were not ‘raptures’ in any sense of the term:  He managed on his own getting up there.

   The concept, then, is to be in the world yet not part of it; living in it yet not putting roots in it; beset by worldly delights yet repudiating them; and attuned to the voice of the Shepherd of souls rather than to Satan’s ‘fun and games’ enticements—in short going against the grain of human nature.  Needless to say, this creates a lifelong tug-of-war between the desires of the flesh and what the Holy Spirit would have us do as He reshapes us into Christ’s image, though as Paul puts it, our instinctive inclination is to follow our human urges (Galatians 5:17).  Were it not for the Holy Spirit pleading for us before God, we would not know how to proceed (Romans 8:26-27); and only in His response to the Spirit’s pleas does God create in us the need to do what is right (Philippians 2:13).

   Let us not beat around the bush or sugarcoat a truth that is most unpalatable to sinful us:  We would rather partake of everything an unrighteous world has to offer.  Though the Patriarchs left us an example living in tents as they did (Hebrews 11:8-10), we prefer to own homes and property; and if we could, hoard as much real estate as the wealthy do (Isaiah 5:8).  We all love to be acclaimed for our accomplishments, receive awards and honorary titles so that others will admire us—not the anonymity Jesus strove for (Matthew 9:30, 16:20; Mark 7:36, Luke 5:14, 8:56, 9:21; John 5:41; Galatians 1:10).  Ditto when it came to works of charity.  Be not like ‘Christian’ philanthropists who bring camera crews along or announce setting up funds to broadcast their generosity; but rejoice in the knowledge that help without fanfare is given in order to secretly please God while accomplishing Christian objectives (Matthew 6:1-4).  ‘Philanthropists’ do exactly as Jesus remarked in Mark 12:41-44: Giving of their surplus without compromising real capital, which added to acclaim and charitable tax breaks is a win-win scheme.

   You get the picture.  There is no time here to go over every human sin; suffice it to say that if the world approves of it, it is wrong for Christians (1John 4:5-6).  Since we cannot leave the world, the only option is to manage as best we can without falling prey to its snares.  Solomon said that “there is no one on earth so just as to do good and never sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20); and Jesus reminded us that when it came to absolute goodness, even he was off the mark:  Only God, Who is not on earth, was good (Luke 18:19↔Romans 3:12)—which suggests that even His angels somehow fall short of His standards.

   Psalms 146:3 sounds deceptively simple; not only do ‘princes’ refer both to political and religious leaders (Acts 23:5), but that ‘sons of men’ excludes Jesus, who was not born of man.  Thus Psalms 146:3 is an early guide to Christian doctrine, not the Judaism dependent on a priestly class for religious instruction; and 1John 2:27 bears witness to that fact:  “The anointing [Holy Spirit] you received from Christ lives in you.  You don’t need anyone to teach you something else; instead, Christ’s anointing teaches you about everything.  His anointing is true and contains no lie. So live in Christ as he taught you to do.”

   And this too contributes to difficulties inherent in Christian living; because given the ways of the world, most people get their inspiration and guidance from human role models regardless of how un-Christianly those role models behave.  Thus unable to follow the herd mentality, disciples of Jesus share the sense of alienation he endured; and are at loggerheads with those who want them to play ball while resenting being reminded of their own spiritual failings.  Ecclesiastes 4:4 argues that the excellence of any man’s accomplishments makes others envy him:  The operant word here is ‘envy,’ the way Joseph’s brothers envied him for his superior gifts (Genesis 37:11), or the priests envied Jesus for confronting them with their hypocritical stances (Matthew 5:20, 23:2-35; Mark 15:10; Luke 12:1).  The underlying animosity against anyone or anything that challenges self-image spews resentment if not downright hatred.  We find examples of this in the men who stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:54,57); in Jews wanting to kill Paul and Silas at Thessalonica (Acts 17:5-6); and amongst Galatian converts who were upset at Paul for pointing out the error of their ways (Galatians 4:8-11,16-17).

   No Christian should presume to be anybody’s role model (Romans 2:1; 2Corinthians 10:12); no one is allowed to dictate terms to anyone (Matthew 20:25-27, 23:8; Romans 14:4); and we should resist any attempt to be seduced by doctrines not rooted on Scripture (Ephesians 4:14) no matter who utters them.  Still if the cost of persevering in the imitation of Christ leads to suffering, so be it.  In 1Thessalonians 2:14-16, 3:3, Paul made the point that followers of Jesus were “destined” to be beset by men opposed to Christian evangelization; and while we must presume Satan plays a crucial role behind the scenes, Paul, like Jesus before him (John 8:44), put the blame squarely on human beings.  Except for the fact that evildoing is to humans what electricity is to the Frankenstein monster, there is absolutely no logical reason to oppose a doctrine which if practiced as conceived is to everybody’s benefit.  The paramount problem with organized religion, of course, is the human middle-man, though in Christianity at least, the Holy Spirit has cut them off God’s loop; yet we continue to resist the freedom Jesus gave us (John 8:32,36, 14:26, 16:13; James 1:5-8; 1John 2:27) in order to shackle ourselves to godless men pied-piping us towards incineration (Galatians 5:1; Ephesians 4:14-24).

   Furthermore, Solomon gave us an important insight:  “Don’t be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise.  Why should you destroy yourself” (Ecclesiastes 7:16)?  This is a crucial piece of advice Christians have not taken to heart; instead they have fallen prey to the ‘dos and don’ts’ by which religious leaders attempt to hold sway over their congregants.  Amongst these are prohibitions that in no way contaminate souls, like eating certain foods (Matthew 15:17-19; Romans 14:14) or partaking of social activities which ‘holier-than-thou’ zealots deem un-Christian.  These people place unnecessary burdens on lives facing enough challenges, which if obeyed do not enhance individual righteousness but definitely do make some slaves of others (Romans 6:16; 2Peter 2:19).  So ignore and resist these tyrants, instead being guided by the dictates of your Christian conscience.

   Once more we see that loyalty to God sets followers of Jesus apart from men.  Yet what was Yahweh’s advice to outsider Jeremiah?   “It is they who must turn to you, but you must not turn to them,” an advice accompanied with rewards:  If you listen to Me, you shall be in My presence and serve as My mouth, able to separate the precious from the vile (Jeremiah 15:19).  As always, Paul extrapolated in his own way:  There must be divisions throughout churches in order that those approved by God may be made manifest (1Corinthians 11:18-19).  Yet still more grief from members of our own congregations.

   What then is the purpose of churches?  Places to gather, support, exhort and bond with others in faith.  Problem is that not everybody shares the same degree of faith (2Thessalonians 3:2), or is irrevocably convinced that Jesus teaches us through the Holy Spirit and not through men.  Sure, a true Christian evangelist might lend a hand clarifying points of doctrine (Acts 18:26); or reinforcing faith with written Scripture to help the less enlightened/weak in faith escape Satan’s wiles (Matthew 18:16↔Deuteronomy 19:15; 2Corinthians 13:1; 2Timothy 2:24-26), but never ever can any evangelist presume to become anyone’s exclusive guru.

   Acts 19:1-6 illustrates God’s teaching dynamics; so that once enlightened, the Holy Spirit came upon the Ephesians.  And while even Peter admitted Paul’s teachings were hard to comprehend (2Peter 3:15-16), in his letters Paul preached  to value others above oneself (Philippians 2:3); always crediting Jesus/the Holy Spirit as his and every believer’s source of wisdom (John 14:16,26, 16:7; 1Corinthians 2:10-16; Galatians 1:11-12).  On top of that he called attention to the fact that even he, despite his interactions with Jesus (Acts 27:23; 2Corinthians 12:8-9), had to be kept humble (2Corinthians 12:7) so as not to overstep his teaching duties and undermine Jesus’ role as the Church’s exclusive Teacher—which is the MO of modern, interdenominational  evangelism.

   Verily, the Christian life is our version of Jesus’ crown of thorns.

…and Joys

   Having said all this, there is joy in Christian living; though truth be told, it is more of an inner state of mind than the physical highs we associate with pleasure.  For example, knowing that our generosity lessens the suffering of others; that our companionship eases the despair of the sick and imprisoned; that our profession of faith inspires others are all inwardly rewarding, yet different from the effects of gratifying the flesh.

   Jesus’ preaching was mostly about self-denial; though he left it up to individuals to follow him or not (John 6:60,66-68) and never sugarcoated anything, he was mindful that his doctrine entailed difficulties to be incrementally mastered throughout disciples’ lifetimes (John 16:12-13).  The Apostles followed suit:  Peter with his progression from faith to love (2Peter 1:5-7); and Paul with his admission that “no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, for those who have been trained by it, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace” (Hebrews 12:11).  To get from alpha to omega, one had figuratively to go through hell on earth.

   There are ‘perks’ of a more pragmatic nature (Psalms 34:19, 37:3-5,25; Proverbs 28:1; Ecclesiastes 7:18; Hebrews 11:6); but we do a disservice to God and even to ourselves if we focus on what we stand to gain materially rather than spiritually.  The overriding Christian objective is to gather all things in God through Jesus (Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 1:9-10, 4:6), which means reintegrating back into Him what sin fragmented away.  This breach is what evil is all about:  the resistance that prevents God’s peace (Ephesians 4:7) from overriding our general dissatisfaction with life.

   Human beings are always harping on happiness, which if we are honest with ourselves, does not exist except in occasional snatches.  We crave for and enjoy happy moments as addicts crave for immediate fixes; but as with drug addiction, the highs are short-lived and the crashes the stuff of everyday living.  If we were to find some Scripture explaining why this is so, we find an answer of sorts in Ecclesiastes 7:14:  “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider:  God has made the one as well as the other, so that man should not find out anything after Him.”

   That “Him,” which is seldom capitalized in translations, does not refer to man, who is neither responsible for the prosperity nor adversity that may befall him; instead it means God, so that what Solomon is essentially saying is that God has stacked the cards against men to make them realize there is no enduring happiness alienated from Him.  Proof of this “stacking” is found in Isaiah 45:7, 46:10; Daniel 4:35, 5:21 and many others; all of which provide one of the reasons behind human suffering:  If not driven to despair one way or another, men would never truly search wholeheartedly for God never to achieve on their own what they hope for.

   This may sound heavy-handed but not really:  It is God’s version of the human concept of ‘tough love.’  Given the intrinsic evil of human nature (Ecclesiastes 7:29, 8:1, 9:3↔Genesis 6:5), radical measures need to be implemented to elicit behaviors conducive to spiritual healing.  These corrections are non-negotiable:  One submits to them or else!  Where sin rules, no implorations or appeals to reason will solve anything (Deuteronomy 30:11-20; Psalms 78:17,40; Isaiah 63:10; Jeremiah 4:1-4; Ezekiel 33:11; Amos 4:9; Acts 7:51), but punishment invariably will, either through despair or a return to reason.  If God’s means justify His ends (Jeremiah 29:11,13), which happen to benefit us, what is our problem?

   We always forget that though Father in the sense all Creation emanated from Him, God is no human parent one can run circles around.  Worship and reverence of Him must be tempered with fear that He will do as He has stated (Numbers 23:19); even Jesus encouraged such fear, because only with God rested man’s chance of redemption or certainty of destruction (Matthew 10:28).  Only with Him the reality of a Kingdom to come was possible, the kind of world where humanity’s aspirations from day one could come to pass and endure eternally.  Only He could wipe every tear shed in life for love of Him (Revelation 21:4↔Isaiah 25:8); and make up for every past suffering with unimaginable wonders yet to come (1Corinthians 2:9).

  It is a testament to His loving nature that in claiming to be a jealous God (Exodus 20:5), He is not admitting to the petty emotion men experience, but to His need to be loved by us with the same totality He loves us; the way we expect our loved ones to prioritize us in their affections; the same loving zeal Paul claimed to share with God in his ministerial work amongst the Corinthians (2Corinthians 11:2).  Men misuse the word ‘love’ so deplorably that perhaps we are not in tune with God’s absolute conception of it, so that we do not grasp the significance of a Deity yearning for His creatures so much that separation from them becomes intolerable and must end.

   It is difficult for all of us to reconcile a loving God with the punishments He is duty-bound to inflict upon us (Jeremiah 46:28); but on this issue, Paul gave us his perspective:  “We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.  All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:9-10).  Loving them as we do, parents are fallible human beings oftentimes responsible for all the psychological traumas they inflict on us and un-Christian behaviors they teach us, none of which makes us happy and fulfilled in the fullest sense of those terms.  Our lives are roller-coasters of expectations and disappointments we accept and adjust to; but no matter how desperate we are to make others believe we are truly happy, we fool no one but ourselves.  There is always some void in us that no human being, fame, wealth, or pretense can fill, because that void is the space God has delimited to merge with us.

   In the final analysis, the enduring joy of Christian living is not in our pilgrimage through this world but in arriving at the destination God has prepared for His people.  Paul put it best in Hebrews 11:13:  “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”  And what these faithful ‘saw and embraced from afar’ were not actual sightings, as were accorded to Moses (Deuteronomy 34:1-4); but the idea of them; the conception of them; the promise of new heavens and a new earth where the family of faith would gather; see each other face to face; meet at last every Biblical righteous person who had toiled, suffered, and even died for a collective endeavor benefitting unborn generations irrespective of blood, class, race, gender, or nationality.

   And finally the joy of meeting Jesus face to face, sharing his immortality, seeing him as he truly is (Isaiah 53:2; 1John 3:2); the time when he, the Desire of Ages (Haggai 2:7), will no longer be yearned for but our companion for eternity (John 14:3).

¹ As Jesus taught (John 16:13) and illustrated (John 20:21-22).

² See Jeremiah 4:4, but note that the appeal is not to the whole of Israel, but to the men of Judah, Jesus’ tribe (Hebrews 7:14) and to the earthly Jerusalem which is shadow of the Heavenly City mother of all Judeo-Christians (Galatians 4:26): Like much of Jeremiah, his message was intended for future Christians. Also refer to Romans 2:29.

³ A play on words?  While ‘word’ refers to God’s word, Jesus is called “the Word/Verb” in John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13, implying he puts God’s will into action.  Therefore, whether by chance or design, James exhorts us to listen to Jesus, the speaker of God’s word (↔John 7:16).

⁴ Paul and Barnaby chose celibacy (1Corinthians 9:5-6) to remain faithful to Jesus by avoiding marital snares (1Corinthians 32-33; 2Timothy 2:4).  That being said, there is no prohibition against marriage; and those who do prohibit it in some fashion or another, the bulk of which are to be found in Satan’s church (Revelation 2:13), are preaching doctrines of demons (1Timothy 4:1-3).

⁵ The last part need not to be taken literally but as an expression of true repentance, which in Jesus is practiced by imitating his works (Luke 3:8; John 13:15).

⁶ Which Paul quoted as an indication of faithlessness (1Corinthians 15:14,32).

⁷ As was done with the righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem prior to its fall, those who grieved over and lamented the sins of their compatriots (Ezekiel 9:4-6).  They were not spirited away, or in Jeremiah’s case, not even allowed to escape the coming destruction (2Kings 25:4-12; Jeremiah 37:11-15, 38:28).  For a God Who plays no favorites, everybody had to submit to the fate He had decreed (Jeremiah 38:2-3).

   Most importantly, please note that God’s judgments begin with transgressors within His sanctuary (9:6)—a fact Peter was very much aware of (1Peter 4:17↔Jeremiah 25:29); and meaning not the Jerusalem Temple He never inhabited (Acts 7:48, 17:24) but the body of Christ He indwells:  We, the human-bricked Church (Colossians 2:9; Ephesians 2:19-22; Hebrews 3:6; 1Peter 2:5).  So here again Judeo-Christian punishment by way of atonement is implied.

⁸ While it is true that both women as well as Naaman had to do something in faith before being rewarded, none of them were worshippers of Yahweh.  Rahab had heard about Yahweh’s exploits, but she called Yahweh Joshua’s God, not hers (Joshua 2:10-11).  Likewise the Sarepta widow knew Yahweh to be Elijah’s God, not hers (1Kings 17:12).  After his cure, Naaman became Yahweh’s worshipper (2Kings 5:17-18), though he wanted to be forgiven for bowing before an alien god in violation of the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:5).

   It is significant that Jesus singled out the widow and Naaman as deserving the grace denied Israelites (Luke 4:25-27); the implication perhaps being that the former’s modicum of faith deserved the rewards denied unbelieving Jews.