Timothy’s Woman Problem

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1 Timothy talks about many issues, relevant but at times difficult. Here I refer particularly to what Paul has to say about women in leadership in Chapter 2. Some churches and organisations today would not allow women to pastor or teach citing this scripture as authority:

“Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.”

1 Timothy 2:11-12 NKJV

So what do we make of it?

Let us try to piece together what happened at the church in Ephesus that warranted Paul’s strong statement before we come to any conclusion. 

Timothy had written to Paul to report on the situation at Ephesus. False teachers had infiltrated the church and were teaching a kind of Jewish proto-gnosticism. Among other things, they taught that:

-Eve is both a mediator and redeemer figure who pre-existed Adam.

-Man came into existence because of a woman, and he was given enlightenment through the woman. Since Eve was the first to take a bite from the Tree of Knowledge, she is the bearer of special spiritual knowledge (called gnosis).

-Women are called to lead people to the illuminating gnosis which was represented by the Tree of Knowledge. Redemption completely reversed the effects of the Fall so that men are no longer subject to earthly authorities and women are no longer subject to their husbands.

This teaching originated from male teachers but was quickly taken over by women in the church. Hardly surprising; feminism had a new name. Those who believed prefer female leaders to male. Some of the women were teaching the heresy in the church meetings and were lording it over the men. As a result men had become lesser beings in the church!

Under such circumstances, it is not hard to conceive why Paul instructed Timothy to forbid women to teach and lead. This was the strategy for the hour. If it was a solution to a particular problem at a specific time and location we should have reservation as to whether this particular instruction from Paul is to be taken as a command for churches everywhere every time. We might risk generalising too much.

In general, men are to be leaders and teachers in church but women are not to be shunned for holding positions in church leadership. Paul himself commended at various occasions women coworkers of his whom he held at high esteem, like Phoebe, Junia and Priscilla (see Rom 1:1, 7 and Acts 18:26). Clearly Paul considered them worthy leaders and teachers.

So how could we say that Paul forbid women to lead or teach in church at all times across the board? We can rest assured that this is not the case.

References:

1. The Untold Story of the New Testament Church, Frank Viola

2. TheBibleProject.com

The Thought Behind 1 John 1:9

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:8-9. NKJV.

Believers are well-versed with 1 John 1: 9. It is often quoted to encourage Christians to confess their sins with the assurance of God’s forgiveness. But such admonition implies this: if believers don’t confess their sins they won’t be forgiven. Too many today hold this view citing 1 John 1: 9 as the authority. So, confessing sins become a prevalent “Christian” practice, whether at the table of The Lord’s Supper or at an individual’s private prayer time. Many have been taught to start their prayer with confessing sins. They become sin-conscious. But is this what the verse is trying to tell us? Not necessary so. Let us examine briefly.

The main contention is whether 1 John 1:9 is for believers. The problem is that unlike most letters in the New Testament the author did not name the intended recipients. So are we to accept that all that’s written is to us and for us as believers? If we don’t know who the original audience was and for what purpose the letter was written we cannot be sure how to apply the words in the epistle to our life. Some exegesis is in order.

Notable Bible scholars hold the view that 1 John was addressed to Gnostics, or to believers who were confused as a result of the infiltration of Gnostic beliefs into the church. Here I quote Professor F.F. Bruce (in bold):

What 1 John is all about? In form and content it is a message of encouragement and reassurance, sent to a group of Christians who were perplexed and bewildered by recent happenings in their midst.

What happenings?  … their most talented brethren had left them in order to form a new community or communities devoted to a specially attractive line of teaching which was represented as an advance on anything that Christians had been taught thus far.

What teaching? In its theory it closely resembled the docetic brand of Gnosticism; in particular, it denied that Christ had ‘come in the flesh’. …On the practical level these new teachers claimed to have reached such an advanced stage in spiritual experience that they were ‘beyond good and evil”. They maintained that they had no sin, not in the sense that they had attained moral perfection but in the sense that what might be sin for people at a less mature state of inner development was no longer sin for the completely ‘spiritual’ man. For him ethical distinctions had ceased to be relevant.

What was the result of the divergence in understanding? In such a situation it was impossible for those who propagated and embraced the new teaching to continue with those who believed that the old was better. So they left the fellowship.

The Christians who remained in their former fellowship were hard hit and shaken by the secession of these others, and needed to be assured.

To Christians in this perplexity, then, the First Epistle of John was written.

This is a most logical and reasonable reconstruction of the situation that led to the writing of 1 John. It helps make sense of many passages in the epistle. For instant, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us …’ (1 John 2:19, NKJV). Also, ‘every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God’. (1 John 4:3, NKJV).  And most importantly for our case at hand, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8, NKJV).

We don’t want to go into too much detail about Gnostic teachings here, but from what we have learned, we can reconstruct 1 John 1:8-9 this way: ‘If we, like the Gnostics, insist that we are beyond good and evil and have no sin – for sin holds no meaning to us - we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we, unlike the Gnostics, accept and agree with God that we of ourselves have fallen short of His glory and have need to be saved from our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’  

From the simple exegesis, we know that verse 9 must be read together with verse 8, it is not stand-alone. Although the “we” in verse 9 could refer to or include believers, the “we” in verse 8 alludes to people holding the Gnostic view. The author is not saying that believers must own up to what they have done wrong before they can be forgiven. Such rendering is far-fetched and is no different from taking the verse out of its context. The author is talking about people whom he doubted were true believers in the first place! This is wrong application!

Reference

F.F. Bruce, The Epistles of John. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Have Faith Like Little Children

My eight-year-old daughter attended Vacation Bible School at CGBC last week, five days in all. She relished the time there, had fun playing and learning. Kids are impressionable and teachable. But here’s something I didn’t expect she would pick up:

“Hey, would you believe it, God just answered my prayer!” Charissa reported out of the blue, sounding rather excited. We were on the road from Ipoh to Klang. I was driving, Mei Wan was seated next to me with our little girl at the back.

“What is it?” I asked, wondering what led to such proclamation.

“He took away the pain in my head,” Charissa answered.

“You had a headache?”

“Yes, when I woke up from sleep just now, but it’s now gone. I asked God to take it away and He did what I asked!”

We were more than pleased. Even though we had taught her about God’s healing before, I reckoned the last few days of VBS must have reinforced something to that effect. So I probed, “Did they teach you on healing at the VBS?”

“Yeah, teacher showed us a video of a pastor praying for people. He prayed for a kid blind in the left eye and then he could see!”

Teaching kids on healing at VBS! I never expected this. The church has done a good job.

But after journeying a further half hour, Charissa said, “Aiya, I think the headache has come back.”

“You can pray again,” said Mei Wan.

So Charissa blurted out, “O God please take away my pain... heal me please, I don’t want to have this pain. Please, please quickly do that...I don’t want it... please, please take it away!”

She went on and on, begging God. Not looking like in much pain, she nevertheless sounded earnest appealing to God. But as she continued pleading I decided to correct her. “You don’t have to ask God like that, as if begging Him do something He is not keen doing. No need to talk to God, talk to the pain, ask it to go away. By His stripe you are healed.”

“Just talk to the pain?” she asked.

“Yes, God has given you the authority,” I answered.

“Ok, ok daddy. Pain, you go away. Go far, far away from me....Don’t come near me anymore. I don’t want you, you go to other people....Stay there, don’t come back....Go to other people, don’t come to me....”

Hearing this, I looked at my wife and we both started laughing.

“Why must you send the pain to other people? You can command the pain to go away, it need not go to other people. Okay, send it to hell.”

She stopped for a moment, staring at both of us who couldn’t stop laughing. Then, in a matter-of-fact manner she commanded, “Go to hell you pain, I don’t want you. Stay there and don’t ever come back!”

I tried to stop laughing but couldn’t contain myself.  Charissa must have been healed amidst our laughter.

No wonder Jesus said those who come to him must be like little children. They had the capacity to simply believe. Our heavenly Father would be very pleased if we would believe Him simply like our children believe us. That would bring Him great joy.

On the other hand, as parents we are in the best position to instil in our children the right belief. They learn not only from what we taught them, but also what they see what they hear and what they observe from us.

Coming back to our trip. The next day we went shopping at KLCC for Christmas presents. We spent almost the whole day there, so at the car park auto-pay machine I already anticipated a hefty sum. After I slotted in the ticket, the machine read “RM33.00”. More used to the RM2.00 that we pay at Kinta City Ipoh, Mei Wan exclaimed, “Wow, so expensive!”

Immediately the little fellow chipped in, “All because of Najib! Everything is so expensive because of him. He is to be blamed.”

My wife and I burst out laughing.

Righteous Desire

The fear of the wicked will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted. ...Proverbs 10:24 NKJV

Reading this verse, it is clear that the wicked are preoccupied with fears whereas the righteous with desires.

Both fear and desire require faith. What is fear? Fear believes that something bad is going to happen. To fear is to focus our thought on what we don't want happen. What is desire? It is to hope that something good will happen. To desire is to focus our thought on what we want happen.

The scary thing is that both can happen, depending on our choice. Job said the thing I greatly feared has come upon me. Jesus said whatsoever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.

We better get a hold of ourselves how we think. Paul gave young Timothy a priceless tip how to conduct life. He says God has not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power of love and of a sound mind. The Amplified Bible translates a “disciplined” mind. Yes, we have been given a spirit of disciplined mind to focus on thinking what we want happen, not what we don’t want happen.

The choice is simple, isn’t it? But you will be surprised how many choose fear over desire. Some may even think that it is being responsible to fear or worry, like Job did. Some may think it sinful to desire much.

But you know better, just as you know that I didn't try to take things out of context because I read this verse from the perspective of the New Testament. Who is righteous according to the NT? God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So you are righteous, whatever others would have you believe, whatever you feel about how Solomon defined righteousness and wickedness in the whole chapter of Proverbs 10.

So righteous one, you know what to choose.

Congratulation! Your desire will be granted.

You Saved the Best for Last

For the past few days I have had to keep my emotions in check.

I didn’t expect the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew would have affected me so much. I tried to analyze, but it is all futile. I have lived long enough to know that when it is time to feel I should just feel, don’t try to understand.

Singapore holds a very special place in my heart. I had the privilege to live much of my life in Singapore, it is a wonderful country. I studied and worked there for close to fifteen years, and made some lifelong friends. Today I know many of them are mourning a great loss.

I saw the queues of people to pay their last respect to their great leader. I called a friend, no I whatsupped her, a cool-headed PhD and she couldn’t contain her emotions. I would have envied her and her fellow countrymen, that they could have a leader they so adore, if not for the fact that I myself had been privileged to live under the influence of the great man for a long time.

A great loss indeed. On his stage, he was peerless. But I am sure that Singapore will move on to greater heights, even without their founding prime minister. Let’s not forget that Mr Lee’s legacy started with a loss. It was so to him, so much so he cried on television.

Kicked out of the Federation, with a million mouths to feed, on an island state practically with no resources. And those who kicked him out must have thought: good riddance of a troublesome people.

But God is a father to the orphans the needy the oppressed. He will make sure that they have the last laugh.

I read in John 2, the morning of the passing of Mr Lee but not yet hearing the news, a verse that captivated me:

Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now! (John 2:10, MSG)

Look at the country Mr Lee built. Success is an understatement.

I don’t want to argue about Mr Lee’s religious inclination, but it couldn’t be clearer to me: he is God’s gift to Singapore, the Moses of his generation.

As in 1965, so in 2015, the Redeemer can turn a loss to gain.

The end of a chapter for Singapore? Maybe, but their Joshua is already here.

Jesus Came to Put the World Right Again

At the heart of Christmas is the reason why God sent Jesus.

John the Apostle wrote in his Gospel:

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. (John 3:16-17, MSG)

Did Jesus come to tell you how bad you are? Did He come to accuse mankind of making a mess of the world He created? No, not if we believe what God’s word says. Apparently people already have a good understanding how bad the world is.

He came to help, to put the world right again.

This is the posture He takes, since the beginning. He has not changed, and is not going to change. His heart has always been the same, He wants our good. He always comes on the scene for us when something turns bad. Always.

If you look at the world around us, there seems to be economic uncertainty, political instability and even religious extremism and persecution. When we send our hymnals to the photocopy shop they may be referred to the police. When you go for fine Christmas dining at the hotel, they may have no turkey. But take heart, He came to help, to put OUR WORLD right again.

When you look at your own world, is there anything amiss? Has anything turned bad? A bad report from the doctor? A business opportunity missed? A relationship turned sour? It is not His idea. Take heart, He came to help, to put YOUR WORLD right again.

So long as I remember and believe He came to help, to put MY WORLD right again, I cannot help but rejoice. I sense the spirit of Christmas in the air, and this year it is especially beautiful.

Merry Christmas!

Life Power and Dead Behavior

Jesus travelled all over to preach God’s kingdom and one time came to Jericho. There was a very rich man named Zacchaeus who was supervisor over all the tax collectors in town (Tax collectors were generally thought to be crooks serving the Romans fattening their own pockets with tax money). As Jesus was passing by he tried to get a glimpse of Him. But because he was very short and Jesus was thronged by a huge crowd he couldn’t see Him over the crowd. So he climbed up a big tree to try to see Jesus.

Zacchaeus had never seen Jesus before. But when Jesus noticed him He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come on down, I am going to stay at your place tonight.” Overjoyed, he scrambled out of the tree and led Jesus away to his home. Zacchaeus must have been astounded by the fact that Jesus could call out his name even though they had never met before. But many in the crowd were not impressed, and they said, “Look at this! Of all the people to have dinner with, He’s going to eat in the house of a crook!” (Luke 19:7 TPT)

In calling out Zacchaeus’ name Jesus demonstrated supernatural power – a word of knowledge. Imagine how you would react if you were Zacchaeus. Anyone who has his name called out by a stranger would stop to think. I believe this has a huge impact on Zacchaeus that finally led to his salvation (Read Here). The power brought life to Zacchaeus and his household.

But that’s not all to the story. I am amazed by the reaction of the religious crowd. Here they were witnessing God’s supernatural power on display, yet all they could think of was Jesus shouldn’t associate Himself with a sinner. They were very concerned about right and wrong, and that’s what they lived by. It didn’t matter to them that life has been served. They couldn’t care less if God has come on the scene. They just wanted to live by their principles and to look good.

That is how those who want to live by the Law live. In trying to fulfill God’s Law by their own effort, they found themselves estranged from God. It was like this in the Garden of Eden: Adam and Eve chose knowledge of right and wrong instead of life; they wanted to live independent from God. It was like this at Mt Sinai: Israel chose a set of laws instead of the presence of God. They didn’t want to go near God but instead asked Moses to get them a set of rules to live by. To me this is a big joke.

Paul told the Romans that he was not ashamed of the Gospel, and he said the Gospel is the power unto salvation for those who believe (Rom 1:16, NKJV). Let us not be offended by the power of the Gospel. It will surely bring life to many. It is Jesus’ method.

Scripture Link : BibleGateway.com

Power Indispensable

You cannot live the normal Christian life without a demonstration of power.

“Normal” as in being right. I recently learned a powerful paradigm: right is right if nobody is doing it; wrong is wrong if everybody is doing it.

Consider the following words form the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth:

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor 2:4, NKJV)

He is saying that you shouldn’t believe me if all I have is mere talk, but you should believe me when my message is backed up by a demonstration of God’s power – power to know of your problem before you tell me, power to heal you when you are sick, power to work miracle when you need one, power to differentiate if you are bothered by evil spirits or led by God’s Spirit, and power to prophesy into your future – speaking great things into being while they are not yet.

What is good for the great apostle is good enough for me. That’s why I insist that the gospel we preach must be backed up by a demonstration of God’s power.

What if we haven’t got it?

Then there’s only one thing to do: ask until you get it. You have not because you asked not.

The worst thing we can do is to make excuses. Paul couldn’t have meant what we read. The days of power is past with the apostles all dead. Because I don’t have it, it cannot be true. We don’t have to emphasize healing as we have good doctors now and good medicine. The supernatural only appeals to the simple and superstitious but today folks are knowledgeable and educated.

But does God’s word tell us that a day will come when our standard will be different from that of the Apostle Paul? Who gives us the right to demand faith without demonstrating God when even Paul dared not?

We are called believers, not doubters. Doubters doubt; believers believe. Every word God said. Plainly. Simply.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Cor 4:20, NIV)

So if we want to preach the Gospel, we must back up with power. It is that simple.

The Power of Righteousness

The Old Testament emphasizes on the power of sin, whereas the New Testament stresses on the power of righteousness. Believers ought to differentiate between the two, else they will be confused while reading their Bible and not be able to reap the full benefit for their lives.

One powerful illustration to bring across the point is this: in the Old Testament, touching a leper makes one unclean; in the New Testament, touching a leper makes the leper clean. In fact Jesus authorized his disciples to cleanse the lepers (Matt 10:8).

Have you ever thought about this: in asking them to touch the leper Jesus is asking His disciples to break the Law! Why could his disciples now break the Law? Because it is no more about right and wrong, it is about Life. Law defines what is right and what is wrong, but it cannot give life.

Remember what happened in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve chose to know right and wrong instead of choosing Life. And so began mankind’s downward spiral until the Redeemer comes.

The Old Testament’s emphasis is the power of sin. Again and again it tells us that we are unable to overcome the power of sin (and it is sin that causes all human misery). All that passing laws against sin did was to produce more lawbreakers (Rom 5:20, MSG). That is exactly why we need a savior. After the Savior has done His job saving, sin has no more hold over us. We have been made righteous by His work and now have His Life living in us and out of us!

It is a beautiful thing that we can now expect the Life of God to flow out of us. When it does, it will overcome all forms of darkness surrounding us. Sin, sickness, oppression, fear, poverty and you name it; they have no fight with this Life. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10, NKJV).

So for believers the focus now is the power of righteousness, not the power of sin. Christians are New Testament believers!

If we fail to grasp this we will be looking for the power of sin even in the New Testament. If we insist on trying to be right on our own, it is like trying to be like Adam and Eve, doing it all over again. This is reading the Bible backwards.

The Blinding Power of the Law

The Law has a power that blinds people, as evident in Paul’s statement: But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart (2 Cor 3:15, NKJV). No one is exempt, not even great men of God.

John the Baptist, son of Zechariah, lived in exciting time. More so for him than for anyone else because he was the man tasked to usher in a new era – the era of Grace. The era started with Jesus, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17, NKJV)

But the fact is that although John helped to usher in the era of Grace, he was very much steeped in the Law. All he knew was the Old Testament.

The pinnacle of John’s career was his pointing out Jesus. Afterwards it wasn’t up and up for him. At his low point he wavered as to whether Jesus was the right one. He was in jail, and about to be executed by Herod. So he sent his disciples to verify with Jesus. He wanted to die knowing that he’s done his job.

Why did John doubt at the last moment? I think his vision was blurred as a result of trying to see through the Law. “Hey,” John was thinking, “the behavior of this Jesus sure doesn’t fit someone who upholds the Law.” Jesus loved to mingle among sinners and break rules of the Sabbath. John was fervent in upholding the Law and seeing through the Law. There was nothing wrong with that, except he couldn’t see God clearly.

Perhaps some might think it harsh to judge John like that, for it was none other than him who pointed out Jesus. If he could have seen clearly then, why could not he later?

The reason is that Law has an expiry date. Just like the milk in your fridge, you shouldn’t drink it once it expires its fit-for-use date. Paul defined in Galatians Law’s expiry date as followed:

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Gal 3:24-25, NKJV)

So after the Son of God was revealed, John should have no business dealing with the Law. Have you ever wondered why John did not become a follower of Jesus like his own disciples did? If he had, he would have understood and experienced grace: And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace (John 1:16, NKJV). Also, his vision would not have been impaired.

Likewise for us, if we don’t want our vision to be blurred that we can’t see God clearly, don’t meddle with the Law after we have come into God’s Grace.

Image courtesy of jscreationzs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Names that Speak Grace

Names are never incidental, especially names in the Bible.

Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, had a name which means “God has remembered” or “God’s memory”. When he became old and had all but given up hope of having a child, an angel appeared before him to announce that God has not forgotten his long-ago prayer for a baby and that his wife would soon bore him a child. We could say he literally experienced the meaning of his own name!

But that’s not all. The angel even told him what name he was to give his soon-to-be-borne son. He was to call him John.

Somehow the same was also communicated to his wife, Elizabeth. It was not recorded if an angel appeared to tell her so.  But it seems she was a woman of faith and would not tend to argue with God’s announcement like her husband did. She had a good opinion of God and of what He said. The name Elizabeth means “oath” or “covenant of God”.

As the story goes, Zechariah was put into mute mode by the angel as a result of his unbelief. Even until the baby was born he couldn’t speak. When the day came for the baby to be circumcised all the family and friends wanted to call him Zechariah after his father. But Elizabeth insisted that he should be named John. They consulted the mute father and he asked for a tablet and wrote: “His name is John!” There and then Zechariah regained speech.

What’s the big deal about the name of the baby, so much so that Zechariah was anxious to follow what God said?

The name is John, which means “God’s gift,” or “God is gracious.”  

Zechariah had seen God’s word came to pass in giving him a son. He was now determined that he should name the baby what God had told him to. Blessing flows when we believe and heed God’s word.  But more than that, he saw the big picture. When we put the three names of the family together, it goes like this:

God has remembered His covenant with His people, a Covenant of Grace.

When I think of it, it is amazing that the Lord would go to such extent arranging the names of a family to bring across a message. How much is His love for us!

The Lord always remembers His covenant with you, and it is a covenant of Grace and Favor.

That’s why you can expect His favor at every turn.

God Has Remembered

There are some hilarious episodes in the Bible, and one of my favorite is about Zechariah the father of John the Baptist.

This bloke was a priest. As the story goes, they cast lots and it fell on him to burn incense in the sanctuary of God. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a great honor!  But the good Lord decreed that this was not enough blessing and wanted to give him even more. So as Zechariah was doing his job in the sanctuary He had the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared before him announcing some super good news:

God is gracious to you! For I have come to tell you that your prayer for a child, a prayer you don’t even pray anymore, has been answered! Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to name him John!...Lk 1:12-13, TPT

When Gabriel was done speaking, this was how Zechariah answered:

How do you expect me to believe this? I’m an old man and my wife is too old to give me a child. What sign can you give me to prove this will happen?...Lk 1:18, TPT

I can’t help laughing every time I read this. It is clear that he had forgotten what he had prayed and had long since stopped praying about it. Not only did he have not any sense of regret of his lack of faith and perseverance, he had the audacity to ask for a sign! I think even Gabriel was taken by surprise at such response.

Zechariah might have forgotten about what he had prayed, but God had not.

I wonder how often we are like Zechariah. But take heart, God remembers. More often than not, He still wants to bless us – more than we want to believe. So don’t be surprised if out of the blue your long-ago forgotten prayer got answered. Make no mistake then, it is the Lord.

Let’s have one last dig at Zechariah. Do you know what his name means? Zechariah means “God has remembered”!

The Lord sure has a sense of humor.

We've Been Offered Glory

He taught in the meeting places and He offered everyone glory!...Lk 4 :14, TPT

You read it right: Jesus offers everyone glory. That was The Passion Translation’s rendering of the later part of the 14^th  verse of Luke chapter 4. In the footnote the translator states that this is a literal translation from the Aramaic text.

I was stunned when I first read it. Never read it this way; I bet you too.

Jesus went about teaching in the synagogues, and He offered everyone glory! But what exactly does He mean by “glory”? Perhaps the following verse would shed some light on the matter:

But Jesus said, “Don’t you know there are other places I must go so I can offer to them the hope of God’s kingdom-realm? This is what I have been sent to do.”…Lk 4:43, TPT

So by “glory” Jesus meant “the hope of God’s kingdom-realm”.

How things go in the realm of God’s Kingdom?

In God’s kingdom there can be no shame, no sickness, no strife, no oppression, no bondage, no poverty and no lack of any kind. And Jesus offers us the hope of being in such a state - a state of shalom peace. Instead of shame we could have honor; instead of sickness we could have health; instead of strife we could have peace; instead of oppression we could have liberty; instead of poverty we could have wealth and instead of lack we could have abundance.

This is glory!

There are two more things about this glory.

Firstly, it has been offered to us by Jesus. We are not called to attain it.

Secondly, the glory is here and now. If it were not so, Jesus would not have asked us to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Too many believers are waiting to get to heaven, whereas the Lord wants them to usher in heaven on earth now.

Glory! Glory! Glory!

You have been offered GLORY! Take it.

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick at FreeDigitalPhotos.net