Reflective Bible Study

Our passage for this episode begins with one of Jesus’ most famous verses, and this verse is one that Christians for centuries have claimed as a promise worth holding onto. However, sometimes what we receive after we claim this promise is not what we ask for, and this often confuses us into thinking God doesn’t care, He doesn’t exist, or perhaps that He dislikes us.

However, none of these thoughts are true. God does care, He does exist, and He does love us. Let’s read the passage for this episode and unpack how we can see each of these things present. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 7, Jesus continued teaching, saying:

⁷ Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. ⁹ Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? ¹⁰ Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? ¹¹ As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.

Let’s briefly pause here to draw our attention to a contrasting set of ideas that Jesus sets up. We are quick to claim the “Ask”, “Search”, and “Knock” promises, but look a little closer how Jesus says these will be answered. Yes, we will receive when we ask, we will find when we search, and we will have a door opened when we knock, but what often confuses us is that what we receive, what we find, and the door that is opened looks different than what we wanted.

Jesus explains this in the next verses and He summarizes it by saying, “your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.” (v. 11b) God answers our prayers with things that will help us from His “eternity” perspective, and they will almost always look different than what we were asking for from our “earthly” perspective. God does care for us – He wants to be with us forever!

Let’s continue our passage. In verse 13, Jesus says:

¹² Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about.

¹³ Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. ¹⁴ But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it.

We’ll pause here to address an idea that I see included in this portion. The metaphor of a narrow gate and a wide gate and a narrow road contrasted with a wide road are about as famous as the Ask-Seek-Knock set of promises we just read about in the previous section.

However, there is something that bothers me about this metaphor. If believing in Jesus is how we gain entrance into heaven, then it seems as though there is enough people on that path to make it less narrow and easier to find and follow.

Perhaps this is the case, but maybe Jesus is thinking a step deeper than just gaining salvation. He calls this gate the gate of life, so perhaps this gate and path have to with finding the life that God calls each of us to live. I’ve heard this interpretation alluded to, and it is contrasted with those who fall short of God’s plan for their lives.

But Jesus contrasts the “life” gate with the “destruction” gate, which makes me think that we still must look at a judgment-like context. While Christians for centuries believe that belief in Jesus is the only way of receiving a ticket into heaven, the very valid counter-argument-question is what about all those living before Jesus was alive. Is the first several thousand years or more of history doomed to destruction simply because Jesus was not alive and present?

As I look deeper into the theme and idea of Jesus’ sacrifice, I see it echo the first sacrifice that happened immediately following Adam and Eve’s exile from Eden. After being kicked out of the garden, God gives them a promise through the symbol of a sacrificed lamb, and this sets the contrast in place between a “do-it-myself” attitude, and a “let-God-help-lead-and-guide-me” attitude.

The symbol of a sacrificed lamb shows us God’s mercy while still bringing punishment. It shows us God’s mercy towards us by shifting the death we deserve onto something that did not deserve it. I think in many ways, this could have been an incredibly powerful metaphor for those living before Jesus arrived in history – and it helps us trust in God’s existence, even if we don’t always understand His methods.

Let’s continue our passage. In verse 15, Jesus says:

¹⁵ Watch out for false prophets! They dress up like sheep, but inside they are wolves who have come to attack you. ¹⁶ You can tell what they are by what they do. No one picks grapes or figs from thornbushes. ¹⁷ A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that produces bad fruit will be chopped down and burned. ²⁰ You can tell who the false prophets are by their deeds.

Many Christians will take this last section of our passage and apply it with a number of other passages to give the impression that moving forward, God will not send any more prophets. In other words, they say, Jesus was the culmination of the prophets, and there is nothing more for a prophet to predict or point forward to.

While in many ways this is true, another way to describe a prophet is by using the word messenger. The typical way of describing someone as a prophet is if they make a prediction, but if we look at the lives and ministries of the Old Testament prophets, we can see the theme running through all their ministries that they were called to share a message, or a series of messages, from God.

If we understand Jesus’ words about prophets to be forewarning us about upcoming messengers, then we can clearly understand the test Jesus gives to help us weed out the imposters. Jesus’ test is simply to look at their lives. Aside from Jesus, everyone in history has sinned, so simply seeing a sin in someone’s past should not disqualify someone from being a messenger, because then only angels could fill that role.

Instead, Jesus helps us understand that He still likes us, loves us, and wants to help us by promising to send messengers to help point us back to Him. And the easy way to tell if these messengers are from God is to look at how they live their lives. False prophets will have red flags in their actions and attitudes, while true messengers will display fruits of the Spirit and have a more Christ-like and Christ-focused character.

God cares, God exists, and God likes each of us, and our passage in this episode helps us reaffirm our faith and trust in Him.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Continue to place your hope, faith, and trust in Jesus, the One who gave His life to be our sacrifice.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself and keep your eyes open for examples of God’s love for His people. Through the Bible, we can learn how God has been present in the history of this world, and we can get an idea for what He is like and how we can see Him moving in the world today.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

If you have ever wondered about how important forgiveness is, or if you have ever had trouble forgiving someone, in this episode’s passage, we find one of the most bothersome, but strangely practical, warnings about this difficult, challenging subject.

In my own life, for a long time, forgiveness was something I struggled with, and it impacted my family, my friends, my co-workers, and every other area of my life. Forgiveness was something I struggled with because I didn’t really understand it all that well, and also because part of me simply did not want to extend forgiveness to people who, in my mind, clearly didn’t deserve it.

Thankfully, God brought some people into my life who helped me understand what forgiveness is and what it is not, and they helped me see why forgiveness is important.

Let’s read our passage for this episode, before unpacking a little more about what forgiveness is all about. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, and we will read it using the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 14, Jesus continued teaching, saying:

¹⁴ Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.

¹⁶ “When you go without eating, do not look gloomy like those who only pretend to be holy. They make their faces look very sad. They want to show people they are fasting. What I’m about to tell you is true. They have received their complete reward. ¹⁷ But when you go without eating, put olive oil on your head. Wash your face. ¹⁸ Then others will not know that you are fasting. Only your Father, who can’t be seen, will know it. Your Father will reward you, because he sees what you do secretly.

While the last portion of our passage doesn’t appear to focus on forgiveness, it is still important for us to pay attention to – and in several ways, it is relevant to our discussion about forgiveness. But before we get to how this relates to forgiveness, let’s focus in on how this passage opens.

Probably the biggest, most ominous comparison in this passage is Jesus warning about forgiveness in the first two verses of this passage. He directly says, “Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (v. 14-15)

This elevates the nature of forgiveness into looking dangerously close to a salvation issue. God forgiving our sins is necessary for us to be in heaven, and according to what Jesus says here, He will not forgive us when we choose to not forgive others.

So what is forgiveness?

The simplest way I know of to explain how I understand forgiveness is by using a money metaphor. If I owed you $50,000, we would say that I was in debt to you. If I could not pay the debt and you chose to forgive what was owed, then forgiveness simply means that we canceled the debt. If you refused to forgive the debt, then weeks, months, or even years might go by with my inability to pay the debt. With an open expectation of payment for this debt, we would have a huge strain on our relationship, if there was one to begin with, and the more you internalized that I owed you money, the debt would begin to change you, and eventually it would bleed over into the other areas of your life, even affecting your other relationships.

While I am not suggesting that I don’t pay my debts, I am suggesting that in many ways, forgiveness benefits the debtor more than the one in debt. By having my debt forgiven by you, I would be relieved and thankful, but you would also experience a release from the burden of trying to collect the debt from me.

In this money scenario, perhaps forgiveness might look like I pay a small percentage relative to what I have, while you forgive the rest. However, in every other area of life, forgiveness gets significantly more complicated and challenging. While forgiveness always involves releasing a debt of some type, when we look at non-monetary debts, repayment can never be full restoration.

In the Old Testament, the Jews had the saying, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” but even this concept, which stresses fair treatment and don’t do something to someone if you would not want them to return the favor, falls short of debt repayment. If someone literally poked out your eye, there is no way for them to restore your eye. Using this principle, you could injure them in the same way they injured you, but while that might make you feel satisfied, you both end up in a worse place than when you began.

In non-monetary areas, there is no way for debt repayment to happen, and if we look deeper at both monetary debts and non-monetary debts, there is no way to ever repay what was potentially lost. By not having that chunk of money, using our first example, there were ample investments that you missed out on. Losing out on other investments might not be significant in your mind, but in the non-monetary world, there is no way a parent, whether it is a father or mother, can repay for the time that was lost if they were gone for a while. A parent who has left for months or even years can return and choose to be more engaged and involved, but there is no way they can truly repay for the time that they missed while they were gone.

This is where forgiveness comes in. In many ways, it is like mentally and emotionally wiping the slate clean. It is saying something like, “I will not expect you to give me anything for how you hurt me.” It does not mean that both individuals must reconcile or restore their relationship. It is simply a release of expectation in the heart and mind of the one who feels cheated and/or like someone owes them something.

How does forgiveness and forgiving others relate to the last portion of our passage?

In the second portion of our passage, Jesus talks about doing some things for God in secret. While many people don’t often think this way, what Jesus describes in the second portion of this passage relates to forgiveness because forgiveness is mainly an internal decision. It is a point in time where one decides to cancel the debt they feel they are owed. They might tell the person who wronged them about it later, but that is less necessary.

In this way, forgiving others releases us to feel joy again. When I struggled with forgiveness, I also had anger issues. When someone irritated me, it rubbed on the hurts others had made and prompted me to react to all the pain that had added up in my past instead of to the issue at hand. Forgiveness helped me realize the extent of the past hurts, to release debts that could not be repaid, and to freely move forward with a new-found feeling of joy that I had not had in a long time.

We all are challenged and called to forgive others because God has offered us His forgiveness, and the debt we owe Him is far greater than the debt anyone owes us. While forgiving people who don’t deserve it is challenging from an emotional level, God offers us forgiveness through what Jesus did for us on the cross when we don’t deserve it. Jesus challenges us in this passage to do for others, what God has already done for us!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life. Accept God’s forgiveness for your sins by forgiving those who have hurt you. Choose to learn from the past, and aside from the lessons learned, leave everything from the past in the past, and release those who hurt you from your expectation that they will ever change. If they do, then great, but don’t let their lack of change infect your life moving forward.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue intentionally growing closer to God by praying and studying the Bible for yourself. As you study, look for examples of His love for you and the forgiveness He offers for your sins. Remember that because God has forgiven you when you don’t deserve it, He is more than happy to help you forgive others who don’t deserve it. God loves you too much to want you carrying the baggage of bitterness in your heart moving forward.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

If you ever wondered if Jesus said something that seemed to contradict Himself, perhaps in this passage, you may find the answer. Personally, I don’t think there is a contradiction here, but when talking to or watching how the majority of Christians live today, it makes me wonder how they understand Jesus’ words in our passage.

The passage we are focusing on in this episode, is found within the large portion of Matthew’s gospel that contains Jesus famous “Sermon on the Mount”, and the part of the sermon we will be focusing in on comes after the opening “blessings” section which is often called the Beatitudes.

Following the beatitudes, Jesus shares how He wants His followers to live as examples for Him, pointing people towards God the Father. Immediately following this, our passage begins. Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 5, and we will read it from the New International Version. Starting in verse 17, Jesus continues preaching, saying:

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

We’ll stop reading here, even though it is tempting to continue. Following this set of verses, Jesus takes several sections of the law and elevates them exponentially. Jesus tells us in the verses that follow that the intent of the law is to guard our thoughts and our minds from doing evil – and not just giving us the excuse that the law is only relevant for our external actions.

But in the portion of Jesus’ sermon I read, there are a number of things that stand out in my mind as being interesting. The first two verses we read bring out one big thing. In these two verses, which are verses 17 and 18, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

The reason these two verses stand out is the same reason that I opened today’s episode by wondering. If you ask most Christians living today what the role of the law is, they probably would answer towards something in the past. Many would even quote Paul from Romans 6:14 that we are not under the law but under grace. Unfortunately, most Christians stop there, not realizing the point Paul was making was not a license to sin, but that we are not destined to sin.

The paradox I see in Jesus’ words is that it seems as though many believers blend the result of abolishing and fulfilling, essentially making them the same thing, but reading Jesus’ words more closely, it is easy for us to see the difference.

Jesus says that He did not come to abolish the law. Jesus parallels abolishing by using the word disappear, saying that not even the smallest portion of the law will disappear until a certain thing happens. In a potentially confusing way, Jesus actually shares two things – one before the phrase about the law and one after. “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

Jesus gives a clear time for transition, and while some people might think Jesus is using an either/or approach, I see within this verse two parallel conditions that must happen: When heaven and earth disappear, everything will have been accomplished, and before this happens, nothing will change about the significance of God’s law. We can read briefly about this event near the end of Revelation where God will make all things new and “recreate” the heaven and earth – which will ultimately restore it to perfection like He had originally done in the beginning before sin infected humanity in Eden. Jesus’ words tell us that until this happens, not the tiniest portion of the law or prophets will disappear.

Then what does it mean to fulfill? Another word we might use here is “satisfy”, or we could easily say “accomplish” which would echo the parallel idea. To fulfill, satisfy, or accomplish the law means that Jesus came to live under the law’s requirements. As Jesus lived, He walked confidently within all of the law’s requirements which then tells us that He fulfilled them. This does not mean that He erased them, because that would invalidate the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

So then, is the law still the measure of entrance into heaven? Yes.

In verse 20, Jesus tells the people, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” The law still is a measure of entrance into heaven, but it would seem as though it is not the only one.

In verse 19, we read something interesting and challenging for many people living today to accept. Between these two emphases on obeying the law, Jesus shares a short phrase that we might miss if we are not paying attention to it. Jesus says, “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

There are two groups of teachers who are in the kingdom of heaven – and one group, while being called least, has still entered. This entrance into the kingdom of heaven is based on one thing: being under grace, which is another way of saying that we have accepted Jesus’ gift. The death Jesus faced for breaking the law when He had not done so allows Him to extend His righteous and perfect life to us. All we must do is accept the gift He gives us and we will be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus’ gift to us does not give us a license to sin. Jesus’ gift to us gives freedom from our past sins.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open up these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you have not already done so, accept the gift that Jesus offers to each of us. This one decision is the most important one you can ever make in your life, and it is the only decision you will not regret having made when looking back at your life while living with God for eternity.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself and choose to teach others about everything God has said and done for us. Don’t minimize the law’s relevance, but focus on the law through the lens of God and Jesus’ love for each of us, and share what you learn with those in your life in responsible and productive ways. At the very least, model what you learn in how you live your life so your life can be a witness for others.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or ignore where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Occasionally, an event comes around where two different gospels include details that I want to include. It is that way in this event. While the disciples were walking through some fields with Jesus on the Sabbath, they decided to pick some grain to snack on because they were hungry. While this seems insignificant to us today, it violated a clear boundary line of acceptable vs. not acceptable things that should be done in the minds of the Pharisees living in the first century.

Matthew’s gospel, which is our focus passage for this episode, shares in greater detail Jesus’ counter argument to the Pharisee’s challenge, but I also feel like it would be a mistake to exclude Mark’s punch-line for this event, because it neatly summarizes Jesus’ key point so well. Because of this, while we will primarily read from Matthew’s gospel, which includes more detail, at the end of the passage, we’ll jump over to Mark to include his big conclusion for this event.

With that said, let’s read what happened. Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ At that time Jesus was walking through some fields of grain on a Sabbath day. His followers were hungry, so they began to pick the grain and eat it. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, “Look! Your followers are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath day.”

³ Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and the people with him were hungry? ⁴ He went into God’s house, and he and those with him ate the holy bread, which was lawful only for priests to eat. ⁵ And have you not read in the law of Moses that on every Sabbath day the priests in the Temple break this law about the Sabbath day? But the priests are not wrong for doing that. ⁶ I tell you that there is something here that is greater than the Temple. ⁷ The Scripture says, ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ You don’t really know what those words mean. If you understood them, you would not judge those who have done nothing wrong.

What I find interesting is that Jesus almost completely changes the subject. When the Pharisees challenge Jesus because of what His followers were doing, Jesus responds by focusing their attention on events in the past: focusing first on David, before then focusing on the priests who minister in the temple on the Sabbath. If the Pharisees are going to bring a technical challenge to Jesus, it seems as though Jesus technically challenges them back.

Jesus summarizes the intent of the law nicely when He wraps up these two points by saying in verses 6 and 7, “I tell you that there is something here that is greater than the Temple. The Scripture says, ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ You don’t really know what those words mean. If you understood them, you would not judge those who have done nothing wrong.”

The point for us to grasp here is not that the law is irrelevant, because Jesus does not say that. Jesus says that in matters where the law stands in opposition of helping someone, the law takes second place in favor of helping the person needing help. That is what Jesus is saying in His quote. We could also summarize this by saying that kindness is more significant than ritual and symbolism.

Ritual and symbolism gain their meaning and value from looking at the past and looking into the future. The past brings value to these things when we look back and see how they helped those who came before us, and we look into the future and see what these things point towards.

In this passage, the Sabbath has been placed in the spotlight. Its significance comes from looking back and remembering creation, which the Exodus 4th commandment points us to do, and from looking at how God is a God who saves His people, as the Deuteronomy 4th commandment points us to do. The Sabbath as a symbol also gains value in the future because it reminds us each week that God is still present and working, and that He is preparing a place for us and will come again to bring us to Him.

For many living in the world today, the Sabbath has almost no value. While there are some people in the world today who look forward to taking a day each week to rest and focus on God, most people simply discount it as something that was pushed aside with Jesus dying on the cross.

However, while the Sabbath has value on the day itself, it also has value in orienting our lives throughout the week towards God. Every week, those who look forward to Sabbath experience the excitement and expectation of the Sabbath coming, and this is able to bring joy to the rest of the week. This would be similar to many people looking forward to the weekend when they are stuck in the middle of a difficult workweek. The Sabbath blessing extends both forward and backwards through time, both in the past as we have been able to rest and recharge, and into the future as we look forward to the next time we can rest, recharge, and remind ourselves of what God has done for us.

In contrast, kindness is only valuable in the present. Promising kindness in the future or remembering kindness that was done in the past is nice, and it may prompt us to change our actions in the present, but choosing to not be kind today in many ways invalidates the kindness that happened before.

All the kindness in the past means very little in light of the present moment’s opportunity for kindness.

I think this is what Jesus is trying to say here: in the present, God wants us to show kindness, but when remembering the past and planning for the future, we should focus on the truth of God’s teaching, and on the foundation He built for us.

The gospel of Mark nicely summarizes Jesus key wrap up statement for this event in chapter 2, verses 27 and 28:

²⁷ Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath day was made to help people; they were not made to be ruled by the Sabbath day. ²⁸ So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.”

The Sabbath was made to help people. The Sabbath was mean to be something that people could stand on as a foundation to help their lives. At that time, the Pharisees and religious leaders had set up so many rules surrounding the Sabbath that it was no longer looked forward to. A Sabbath full of rules is dreaded not longed for.

This is not what God intended. God wanted the last day each week to be the high day, where people focused in on Him, on being with their family, and on everything He had blessed them with. I see nothing in the scriptures to change this focus for God’s special day. Jesus’ words here don’t diminish the Sabbath, they point to its true intent.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you haven’t chosen to stop for a day each week to focus on God and spend time with your family, then choose to do so now. While in the Bible, the Sabbath meant a specific day of the week, if your life doesn’t allow you to take that day right now, don’t abandon the principle. Choose a different day, and if your life situation changes, then move towards aligning the principle found within this truth with the whole foundational truth of the fourth commandment.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, choose to take some time this week to pray and study the Bible for yourself. If you haven’t read or studied the Sabbath out before, choose this week to look for ways that Jesus interacted with the Sabbath. Our passage in this episode is one example, and there are many more throughout the gospels.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!