My brothers and sisters, let us remember that the Resurrection is not merely an event that happened 2,000 years ago, but rather is an event that happens every day, every moment, of our lives, that we are active participants in.

I say this because during this Lent season, it is so easy to watch all of the re-enactments, the dramas, the period piece movies, and feel so disconnected from it all. And yet, each moment, when you arise from bed; when you stand from prostration; whatever you do; allow it to be a type of Christ, ascending unto the heavens, to be seated at the right hand with the Father. A reminder of His real and current presence in your life.

This is the day of Resurrection, not just the celebration of the Holy-Day; but everyday of our lives. Our Lord rises every day, every moment of our lives. The Resurrection is not merely an event that we remember, but one that we participate in; one that we celebrate every moment. Our Lord is not measured in time, but time in Him; and He redeemed not only humanity, but time itself by filling it with Himself. Thus, every moment He is present, and every moment He is risen. He Himself told us, “Behold, I am with you always, even unto the ages of ages” (Matthew 28:20). Allow us no longer to place His memory on the timeline and feel the disconnect of thousands of years between us and Him, since time does not exist without Him; but let us rejoice, as the apostle says, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Let us celebrate our Holy feasts and celebrate our risen Lord, but let us be careful that we not allow our hearts to wander into despondency as we feel that disconnect of time and space; but let us instead remember that when we proclaim the Resurrection, we proclaim His presence, and that presence is very real and very now. Time itself is a vacuum until it is validated by His presence in it; thus all that we experience is a distortion of the truth of His presence. When we face anything difficult, we must remember that He has not abandoned us, we have merely allowed our vision of Him to become distorted by the world, and when we are able to focus our eyes on the solution instead of the problem; our vision becomes clear and we are able to see things as they truly are.

Our hope is now; our faith is now; our love is now. It is not held captive by the constraints of what we know as time. Today is the day of our salvation; not two thousand years ago, not two weeks ago, not happily ever after in Heaven, not when we finally manage to “work through things,” but today. Ten days, ten months, ten years from now, it will still be today. This present moment is a gift bestowed upon us from our Lord, not thousands of years ago, but every moment that we are here is a gift. When we allow the world to bring us down, to make us lose hope, to make us “remember” His Resurrection as though we missed it because of our place on it’s timeline; we allow the world to blind us to His presence.

Our Lord was crucified on the cross for our sins, and with that sacrifice, He took the bloodguilt due for our iniquities. But our hope lies not on the cross, but in the empty tomb. In His promise to be with us always. In the forgiveness of the Father. In the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Father is our hope; the Son our refuge; the Holy Spirit our protector; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Christ is in our midst. May the grace of the Lord be upon you all, my beloved family.

Romans 2:10-11

While this seems like a weird starting point for a study, Paul introduces a very strong recurring theme here for the Romans, especially as we see echoed throughout this epistle, and I really wanted to focus on it here.

“Glory, honor, and peace for everyone who works good…the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”

Allow me to begin with stating that Paul is by no means teaching a merit system based on works in this passage. He is explaining that to be walking in the faith means that those deeds will accompany that faith. Jesus expressly stated that “the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind: and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39) and John taught us, “my children, let us no longer love in tongue or word, but in action and deed.” (1 John 3:18). To fulfill the greatest commandment is to put our faith in action; it is the unity of faith and deeds. And those deeds not for our own glory or honor, but for the glory and honor of the Lord. Jesus addressed this fact when He taught us that, “when you give, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing.” (Matthew 6:3). When we trumpet our almsgiving, then we are no longer giving out of love, but rather out of pride. An example of this is giving to the poor. When you truly give to the poor out of compassion, then you are displaying the love of Jesus to the world, you are displaying your faith through your deeds. As James exhorts us, “show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” (James 2:18). Yet, when we give to the poor and publicly announce it, what are we doing that any star in Hollywood hasn’t done? When we announce our almsgiving, it is no longer compassion, but rather public relations.

But, rather than retread the topic of the foundation of grace through faith which leads to works, what I wish to focus on here is Paul’s recurring theme throughout the letter to the Romans.

As we see throughout the course of Paul’s ministry, there were Judaizers who were basically following Paul, constantly trying to undermine the apostle’s teachings. We read in the Book of Acts that “certain men came down from Judea teaching that ‘unless you are circumcised…you cannot be saved.'” (Acts 15:1). Basically, what the Jews were teaching was that they alone were the favored race of the Lord, and that unless the Gentiles became what they were, Jews, then they would never be saved.

Paul’s statement here has such strong ramifications, because, as he so often taught, the physical lineage of the Jews gave them no predisposed right to the salvation of the Lord. No, rather, what he taught was that unless they also walked in obedience to the faith, in the same manner as the Gentiles, then they would also be condemned, as the Gentiles. It echoes John the Baptist’s warning, “do not say, ‘we have Abraham for our father,’ for God is able to raise children to Abraham from these stones.” (Luke 3:8). This was similarly Paul’s warning to the Jews that they were not “God’s elect” by any means, nor did they have any special privilege, but rather that they too must “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” (Matthew 3:8). And we see this fact all throughout the New Testament. In his letter to Colossae, Paul writes, “he who does wrong will receive the consequence of that wrong, and that without partiality.” (Colossians 3:25). Peter warns us that “if you address as Father the One who judges impartially according to one’s works, conduct yourself in fear while you are on the earth.” (1 Peter 1:13). In Acts, Peter decrees directly, “God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is acceptable to Him.” (Acts 10:34-35).

I wanted to focus on this theme, because it’s so important to understand what Paul was dealing with when he was writing this epistle. In absentia of this knowledge, it’s so easy to misunderstand other statements made during the course of this letter. When Paul, quoting the Lord speaking to Moses, writes, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” (Romans 9:15), it is so easy to misunderstand that as being God randomly choosing who He will save and who He won’t. It’s easy to take that statement to mean that unless you remember that this is being addressed to a group of people who are claiming that “we are the elect people of God, and the Lord will not punish us.” But, once you recognize that fact, then Paul’s statement comes to light. They claim that the Lord can’t punish them because they are God’s elect, and the response is “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” which would be those who, of their own will, have decided to walk in the faith. Those He has chosen are those who have chosen Him; those who “work righteousness” (to quote Peter) unlike those like Simeon and Levi, about whom it is written, “they accomplished their injustice from their choice…in their anger they slew a man, and in their will, they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was self-willed; and their wrath for it was hardened.” (Genesis 49:5-7).

When we make the decision to turn to the Lord in righteousness, He shows no partiality. There is no elect group to whom He shows favor or offers special provision for; the same salvation is available to all, regardless of any human label that we place on a particular group. Regardless of ethnicity, wealth, past sin. The recovering addict, the lawyer, the doctor, the shoplifter, the prostitute, the murderer, the police officer; all have the same offer of salvation, and the same means of accepting it. None of those titles means anything once we decide to accept the gift of His grace, once we receive this true repentance; then we become “a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a nation set apart for Him.” (1 Peter 2:9). Once we were all separate, all different in our human labels; however, we all become one nation in Christ, equal. “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians 3:11).

Our beloved Lord stands at the door knocking, we need only make the decision to arise and allow Him in. To open the door and allow Him to free us from the bondage that holds us captive to our fleshly desires. To be able to become “partakers of the divine nature,” (2 Peter 1:4) and become co-workers with Christ, laboring for the kingdom; to put our past ways behind us and have the power, the conviction, the guidance, to “go and sin no more.” (John 8:11). This is the free gift that is offered to everyone, this gift of freedom; we need only reach out to Him and accept it.

Paul here offers this same offer to us in his epistle to the Romans, along with the grave warning, do not think that we have some special privilege that makes us more worthy of salvation than anyone else. Just because we grew up in the Church, or because of who our parents are, or any other reason; we are no more worthy of the salvation that the Lord offers than anyone else. Let us not be led into the mistaken belief that the Lord has chosen a select few people to be His “elect” people and therefore not strive towards the kingdom, but let us all accept His offer and walk in the faith, abiding in His commandments, and become His holy nation, His royal priesthood.

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my beloved family.

Sola Scriptura. It is a Latin term which translates to “by Scripture alone.” It is defined as: a theological doctrine held by some Christian denominations that the Christian Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice. It was adopted predominantly during the course of the Reformation of 1517, and has been accepted by a majority of protestants. It is considered the utmost of the five Solas of the Reformation, conceived by Martin Luther in contrast to the tradition of the Catholic Church. While I don’t want to dwell too much on the history here, I do want to make it very clear that this is in no way an argument against the integrity of Scripture, neither is it in any way meant to discourage anyone from the study of Holy Scripture. What I am writing, what my study is, is a Biblical look at whether or not Scripture is to be the only authority in the Church. Sola Scriptura is not just the doctrine that Scripture is perfect, nor that it is the word of God; rather it is the doctrine that proclaims that Scripture is the only authority that we should look to, that it is not only the source of authority in the Church, but that it alone is the authority of the Church.

See, one of the greatest follies of the Reformation in general, and of Luther specifically, was this idea that Scripture alone was the penultimate authority in manners of the Church. They rejected the authority of the Church, they rejected the teachings of the fathers of the Church, they rejected any and everything that was already in place as far as the Church itself went, proclaiming that it was the written word of God alone that had authority over all matters. That this was such a folly was immediately displayed when two prominent figures of the Reformation itself, Luther and Ulrich Zwingli (in Zurich), were unable to agree on the teachings of Scripture concerning the Eucharist. This occurred at the Marburg Coloquy in 1529 in Germany. I find it very interesting to consider that Luther taught that the body and blood of Christ were truly present during the taking of communion, whilst Zwingli taught, as most Protestants believe, that the bread and wine were merely symbolic of what had already happened. While what each of them believed is irrelevant to this thesis, it is important to note that something as revered as the Lord’s Supper, until the time of the Reformation considered one of the most important sacraments of the Church, was now, under the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, reduced to nothing more than a “grey matter” about which agreement was no longer considered even important. It reduced the Lord’s Supper to a distant faded memory in the eyes of many believers, rather than a real and present Sacrament in which believers are active participants in.

However, while the theology of each is irrelevant in light of this topic, what is of the utmost importance is this; when Scripture alone is considered the ultimate authority in all matters, it is not the Scripture itself which becomes the ultimate authority, but rather each individual’s interpretation of Scripture. When we eschew the traditions of the Church in lieu of Scripture, and yet here, even two of the founders of the Reformation, cannot agree on something as vital to the Church as communion, what does that say about the doctrine itself? If it is Scripture which is the sole authority, then why do we have teachers to explain to us what different passages mean, why do we have an entire science dedicated to “properly interpreting Scripture?” See, when I look at a passage in Scripture that declares, “if any among you is sick, bring him before the elders that they may pray and lay hands on him, and the prayer of faith will make him well.” (James 5:15), and then consider that the Reformation teaches us that “Scripture alone is the sole authority,” the last thing I would ever expect to see in the “Reformation Study Bible” (written by men) commentary is, “There is no special ‘prayer of faith’ that has healing power.” To the contrary, I would expect them, more than any other group claiming the name of Christ, to be arguing for it, not standing against the very words of Scripture.

See, the very Evangelicals who claim aloud the five Solas, arguing against any Church tradition, don’t even realize that they have embraced a tradition all their own, and their’s not even Biblical, ironically, considering that Sola Scriptura is the very tradition that they use to disallow any other tradition to have a foothold in their theology. It’s the irony of our faith that to live by Sola Scriptura means to understand that Scripture itself never claims itself to be the sole authority. To the contrary, the majority of what we see in the text applies the traditions of the Church held up to Scripture to be tested, and once they are found to be of God, then adhered to. Scripture itself can never be the authority, because it’s so open to a multitude of interpretations. Mark the Ascetic teaches us to “read the words of Scripture by putting them into action, not spinning out subtle interpretations, becoming puffed up with conceit.”

And yet, so often, this is exactly what we do. We’ve taken this doctrine, created 1500 years into the history of the Church, and used it to justify every sort of heresy imaginable. And we’ve done that by removing the governing power of the Church, reducing every single verse to what we “feel” it means; or what it “means to us,” arrogantly claiming that our own wisdom exceeds that of 2000 years of Church history. Peter warns us against this very thought, warning us that “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for no prophecy of Scripture came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21). Removing the “subtle interpretations” that Mark warns us against, what does this passage say? No prophecy comes by personal interpretation, but was given by holy men of God moved by the Holy Spirit. If we truly embrace Sola Scriptura, then there is no interpretation that could change what the word of God says, except that the word of God says that we rely on holy men of God and not our own interpretation. And yet, when we claim “Sola Scriptura,” we contradict the very word of God that we claim to be our sole source of authority, because we argue against the Scripture itself. When we claim Sola Scriptura, every prophecy becomes personal interpretation and no one can ever be wrong. Love or hate Joel Osteen, he quotes Scripture and no one has the right to tell him he’s wrong, because he is quoting Scripture and there is no authority beyond Scripture to tell him he’s wrong. To proclaim him as wrong is to accept the teachings of the Church and it’s interpretations, which flies in the face of Sola Scriptura. We end up with Zwingli stating that, during communion, there is no blood or flesh and Luther teaching that there is blood and flesh and have to proclaim both of them as right even though they are diametrically opposed in their stances, we create a theological relativism for which there is no cure.

In the Book of Acts, we learn of Philip finding an Ethopian eunuch reading from the prophet Isaiah. And Philip asks him if he understands what he is reading, to which the eunuch replies, “how can I unless someone teaches me.” (Acts 8:26-40). That is the very image of us and the authoritative Church. We see in this parable the Scripture, the prophet Isaiah; the Church, Philip; and us, the Eunuch. If Isaiah is the sole authority, then how does Philip have the ability to explain it to the Ethopian. This is us, we are the Ethopian, only instead of saying “how can I unless someone explains it to me,” we are standing in the darkness of our own pride saying, “no, the Church can’t tell us what this means, my own interpretation is sufficient.”

Consider this fact for a moment. For one thousand years, there was one Church, the Church of God. In 1054, the great Schism happened and the one Church split into two. Then, for nearly 500 years, there were two churches. Then, in the 501 years since the Reformation, there have formed nearly 40,000 various denominations. Consider that fact, 40,000 different variations, different denominations, different beliefs; each teaching different truths, and each based on different interpretations of the exact same Scripture. Each one being led by someone who, like Luther, being “wise in their own eyes” (Proverbs 3:7), puffed up with arrogance and pride, thought that they knew better than 1500+ years of these “holy annointed men of God,” the wisest of theologians, the most devout of monks. These men, laboring in their own arrogance, truly believed that they had found the secret things which had been missed by over a thousand years of people whose entire lives had been dedicated to nothing more than seeking after the Lord.

While none of the apostles warn against this idea of “Sola Scriptura” quite as bluntly as Peter did, it must be remembered that the idea was unfathomable during the time of the apostles. None of them would ever have considered the idea that someone would trust their own belief, their own mind, over the teachings of those who actually walked with the Lord. However, it must also be noted that each of these apostles did warn against similar circumstances, which would have been more realistic in their era. In Acts, we see the apostolic counsel, perhaps the best image in all of Scripture about the authority of the Church in contrast to what we see in Scripture. It displays for us the Church in meeting, using the Holy Scriptures as their foundation, determining doctrine which all new believers must adhere to. In his letter to the Thessalonians, we see Paul teaching the believers to “stand fast and hold the traditions which have been handed down, whether by word or by epistle.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15), further affirming the authority of the traditions, whether they are oral tradition or they are written.

Through the application of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, we find that it is itself unbiblical at best, and heretical at worst, leading multitudes away from the authoritative system which the Lord has set in place. We find a tradition of man, set in place 1500 years after the foundation of the Church for the purpose of removing the governing power from the Church, and a heresy openly embraced by so many who found the constraints of the Church too harsh. It was the fleshly response to our beloved Lord’s demand to “deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24). We embrace this concept that the word of God is the only authority and that the Church has no power to govern, and then question when churches begin to embrace the sins of the world. When we begin to see Christians embracing those things which the Scripture and Church call sin, we have no room to complain that deny that the Church has the power to interpret the Scripture. Though drunkenness, sexual immorality, and the like were rampant throughout the history of the world, and even present in the history of the Church, they were never embraced by the Church when the Church had the power to govern, they were only accepted by those in power once the Church was divided into a multitude, the root become a branch shattered to splinters; by a doctrine which said that the Church should have no power to govern.

Lastly, on the topic, I would like to add that in various places in Scripture, we find references oral tradition being prevalent in terms of the theology of the believers. In the Book of Acts, Paul references words spoken by our beloved Lord Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35). Though he here affirms these words of our beloved Lord, nowhere in any Gospel are these words recorded. To the contrary, John closes his Gospel by stating that “there are many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25). In Matthew 2:23, it is written that “it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene,'” which was never written in the Old Testament, though it was “spoken by the prophets.” In his epistle, Jude writes of a fight over the body of Moses, which there appears for the first time in all of Scripture. The moral being that, though these things were not written of, they were passed down by oral tradition.

My brothers and sisters, Paul writes of refusing to use “excellence of wisdom or speech” when teaching the Gospel, but not all have his integrity. We must be especially careful, as were the Bereans, to test the spirits against the Scripture, to see that they are in fact of God. The doctrine, the tradition, if you will, of Sola Scriptura, defeats itself when held against the Scriptures themselves; it is a tradition created by man which states that tradition created by man has no authority, only the Scriptures. And, it serves the purpose of causing divisiveness in the body of Christ by appealing to the same sinful desires the serpent used in the garden; it tells us that we can individually determine what the Lord meant, that we have the freedom to interpret the words of Scripture rather than obey them. And, even worse than the serpent in the garden, it has convinced us that even the very Church itself can not correct us on the meaning of Scripture.

Luther was right in his diagnosis of the Church. The Roman Catholic Church, through the weakness of man, had allowed corruption to seep in. Much as Jude had warned us about, “certain men have crept in unnoticed…ungodly men…who turn the grace of our God into lewdness” (Jude 1:4). But, as is so often the case, he was wrong in his treatment. As GK Chesterton said, “the reformer is always right about what’s wrong, however he’s seldom right about what’s right.” To gaze upon the Church and see the direction it is going, to see the corruption that has gained entrance, it seems that the correct reformation would have been to go back before the corruption and see what had changed since and correct that, not to abandon the concept of the Church and begin anew. The answer to corruption is correction, not to make the corruption the new norm.

We must not be mistaken, Scripture alone is infallible. but we are not. And to leave all of Scripture open to our own personal interpretations doesn’t make Scripture the authority, but rather it makes us the authority. We must cling to God’s word, and we must cling to the teachings of the Church and it’s fathers, always testing the teachings, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, to assure that those teachings are in fact of God, lest we be led astray, wandering off into myths, fairytales, and our own personal desires, justified by our own twisted interpretation of Scripture. I can find a verse here or a passage there that could suit any sinful desire, but when I look to all of Scripture and to the fathers of the Church, then I find the truth that I had chosen to blind myself to because of my own desire.

May the grace of the Lord be with you all, my beloved brothers and sisters.

Romans 2:5-9

A hard heart despises God’s goodness. It is self-serving, self-seeking. It desires only what it desires and will go to whatever lengths it can to obtain those things. Theologically, a hardened heart is the heart that will view the cross as “what can I get from this,” or, more frequently, “what can I get away with and still cling to this for salvation.” It’s important to recognize these things, because it is a very obviously willful decision that one makes to seek after these desires. Note how Paul explains this to the believers, that those whose hearts are hard are “treasuring up” for themselves wrath. It’s this idea that, though they know the repercussions of seeking to satiate these desires, they still continue to do so; thus in seeking diligently these fleshly desires, they are willingly “treasuring up” the due punishment. Treasuring up for themselves the “wrath on the day of wrath and judgment in the day of judgment.” Paul is stressing here that it is not the Lord who is condemning them, but they themselves are doing so. Knowing the punishments due to them because of their disobedience, they are knowingly continuing in that disobedience, thus it is they who are heaping this condemnation upon themselves. A man commits murder, is caught, tried, and sentenced. Who do we blame for the man’s sentencing? Do we blame the victim for being present to be murdered? Do we blame the judge, who pronounced the sentence? Do we blame the court who created the sentence for that indiscretion? Or do we blame the man who committed the crime? In earthly, legal affairs, we would obviously proclaim that it is the man who is to blame for his own punishment; yet, so often, we blame God when we apply this theologically. It becomes so easy to question, “how can a loving God sentence a man to eternal damnation?” It becomes almost a default for a lot of people to say that a “loving God would never punish anyone,” because “punishment isn’t loving.” And yet, what we so often overlook is that not only has our loving God given us these laws and commandments to obey, but He has also given us a very easy way to escape from this judgment. To walk with Him, to obey His commands, to be His children. We need only accept these ways. He has even offered to forgive us all of our previous trangressions, and even forgive us our future transgressions, so long as we truly repent of them, turning away from the ways of the flesh and walking in the Holy Spirit. As the beloved apostle admonishes us, “Let us walk properly, as in day, not in revelry and drunkeness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill it’s lusts.” (Romans 13:13-14).

Paul also goes on to curtail this thought of the wrath of God being an exuberant, emotional punishment and response. Paul reiterates that it is the “righteous judgment of God,” lest we equate this to our own personal, impulsive, emotional reactions when someone wrongs us. See, over and over in the Scripture, we read that “God desires that no man should perish but that all should turn to Him in repentance.” Through Ezekiel, He tells us that “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked would turn back from his ways and live.” (Ezekiel 18:23;33:11) and Paul teaches us that God “desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). See, He isn’t sitting upon the throne rejoicing each time that someone falls from the path and into sin, but rather, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7). It’s this idea that more than anything else, the Lord wants, desires, longs for each and every person to turn to Him in true repentance, because He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked; however, we must make this decision to turn to Him in obedience, to walk with Him, abiding in Him, obeying His commands and denying ourselves. Turning away from our previous way of life. As He explained to Nicodemus, “unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” (John 3:3). To be born again implies that one must first die. As Paul explains, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; behold the old things have passed away and the new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). St Mark the Ascetic puts it this way, “we who have been considered worthy to receive the washing of regeneration ‘offer’ good works not as repayment, but as a means of preserving the purity that has been given to us.

And, this is what we see Paul stressing here. This idea that we have to put away this old man, to become this new creation in Christ. I love that he goes directly from warning about the “righteous judgment of God” to stating that “God will render to each according to their deeds.” See, while our salvation does in fact come through the grace of God, and that through our faith in Him, it is a faith that must be accompanied by works, a faith which must be displayed by our deeds. I think about a married couple. If a man and woman are married and the man constantly says to his wife, “I love you,” but never displays this love at all, what does that love actually mean? If there is no intimacy, no kissing, no anniversary celebrations or any other show of love, then is there truly love? Similarly, if we claim to love the Lord and yet our lives are a showcase of disobedience to His commandments, and through our actions we show that we actually despise Him, then what are we truly saying to our beloved Lord? Jesus warns us against those who “honor (Him) with their lips, but (their) hearts are far from (Him).” (Matthew 15:8), meanwhile explaining that to love Him is to obey His commandments (John 14:15). Having just explained the punishment due those who have hardened their hearts, however, Paul begins on the other side of the fence. He begins by detailing the amazing reward of those who, instead, choose to obey.

“Eternal life to those who by doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality” he writes. He shows exactly how incorrect it is to trust in faith alone, by teaching that these rewards come to those who “by doing good.” As a disciple of Christ, our lives must be characterized by love, and that love displayed through our deeds and actions, as John teaches. John, in his letter, teaches us, “let us no longer love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18). Our love must be characterized by actual deeds that display that love. James asks us to consider, if we find someone naked and hungry, and bid them to depart and be warm and fed, but don’t actually give them what is needed for that, then what have we done? Have we displayed the love of Christ by acknowledging someone’s need and providing nothing to help them beyond mere words? Thus, James teaches us that our faith, in absentia of works, is dead. When we find someone in need and do nothing beyond wishing them well, we have done nothing to display the love of our neighbor, much less the love of Christ, to them. Jesus taught us that to love Him is to obey His commandments, the greatest of which being to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might; thus to fulfill that commandment, we must obey all that He commanded. To choose anything else over His commands is to display that we love those other things more than Him. We must always ask ourselves, who are we serving? If I choose my pride or my desires over the Lord, and I loving the Lord or am I loving myself? If I choose to obey the world over obeying the Lord, who am I loving then? The Lord or the world? If I choose to feed my greed over the Lord, am I loving the Lord or my greed? A man is a slave to whatever he obeys, and thus we choose our own master; to which the Lord speaks when He says, “you can not serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24).

“But to those that are self-seeking, who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness.” Look at how the apostle weaves this statement together. So as to remove any excuse, whether intentional or unintentional, he states that to those who are self-seeking and “obey unrighteousness.” Exactly what defense can one offer when put to the stone? When one chooses to flee the light and walk in darkness. Notice what he DOESN’T say. He doesn’t say to those who are forced into unrighteousness, or in any way compelled by it, but rather, for those who obey it. For those who choose obedience to unrighteousness over obedience to the Lord.

This is so important for us to understand, because our generation seems convinced that we have no control over these impulses, no power to resist them; that every person still walking the earth is totally depraved and thus unable to combat these sinful urges. And, this ideology is so detrimental to us, because it convinces us that we are incapable of making the right decision, thus removing any accountability that we would have concerning those actions. See, if we have no power to choose correctly, then how could a just God judge our actions as right or wrong? How could Abraham be rewarded for being willing to sacrifice Isaac if he were not the one to make the decision; likewise, how could a sinner be punished for sinning if they had no power to choose to do otherwise? How could the nation of Israel be punished in every book of the Old Testament for turning away from God if they had no ability to walk with Him? If there is no decision, no free will, then for God to punish those whom He chooses to punish is unjust and truly cruel. If, however, those people had the free will to choose, then those who choose disobedience are deserving of righteous judgment and those who choose to walk with Him are deserving of righteous rewards. The doctrines of election and predestination remove the ability to choose, and thus make the punishment of the guilty unjust, and the rewards of the righteous unjust, because there is no will to choose the opposing path. And this theology is so detrimental because we, convinced that we will never make the right decision, seldom even try. The heroin addict that believes that he is saved because he made a confession of faith has no reason to ever try to leave that life behind, because even if he were to perish from his drug abuse, he still believes that he is “saved.” The adulterer that feels that his lifestyle will have no effect on his eternity will never feel the need to leave that lifestyle, and I am very fearful of the eternal consequences of that mindset.

All of our lives must be characterized by the love of Christ, given by us to others as it was received by us from Him. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes that “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13). To the Colossians, he writes of himself, “to this end, I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” (Colossians 1:29). Our lives must be the unity of intentions and actions, faith with works. We can not work our way to salvation, but to attain to salvation requires work. It requires work, discernment, sacrifice, holiness, charity; in a word, love. His love. We must stop thinking about salvation as being about us, and what we can gain out of it. We must stop asking what the barriers are and how far we can push them before we “lose” our salvation. It is for Him. Paul says that we are “doing good seeking for honor and glory,” and I ask, whose glory do we think that the humble apostle was thinking about when he wrote this? His glory and honor? The glory and honor of the believers? Or was it the glory and honor of the Lord? His love, His grace, His mercy, displayed through His children for the sake of His world. He likens our faith to a lamp, put atop a hill, lighting the way for all to find Him.

My brothers and sisters, when we do good works, when we display His amazing mercy, grace, love, and compassion to the world, we become that light that He spoke of. Paul tells us that “we are God’s fellow workers,” doing His work in the world, working in unity with Him. In Ephesians, he tells us that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we think or ask, “according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20). In the Gospel of John, Jesus Himself tells us that “whoever believes in Me will do the same works that I do, and even greater works than these.” (John 14:12). Notice that it is through faith that we receive grace, and through grace that we receive the Holy Spirit. But, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is not so that we can say that we believe, but rather, that we can do “the works that I do, and greater works than these.”

We must be warned of this spiritual slothfullness which has infiltrated our church culture. We are neither saved nor made righteous through our deeds, however, through our deeds we will display the love of Christ which is the assurance of our faith. These deeds are not the goal of our walk towards the kingdom, however, if we are truly walking towards the kingdom, these holy deeds will happen. The asceticism that we are called to is nothing more than our turning away from sin. To fast leads us away from gluttony; to reject earthly possessions leads us away from greed; to be chaste is to turn away from sexual immorality. If our goal as believers is anything other than the love of Christ, or to become like Christ, then are we truly following Him? Are we truly His disciples? If all we are doing is studying about God, are we truly His disciples? I pose this one question, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples at Pentecost, what does it say that they did? How many Bible studies does the Book of Acts detail for us that the apostles held? The Book of Acts is the one book of Scripture that sort of lays out a blueprint for the Church; and the very name itself implies that there must be action and movement in the Church. The apostles went out, they fed the poor, they healed the sick, they taught the Gospel. They loved people, spoke no evil, held no protests; and they turned the world upside down. Is that not our goal as well? Are we content to go and study, read and learn, and not do?

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my beloved brothers and sisters.

Romans 2:4

This passage begins with such a powerful statement from the apostle. Note that he leaves no room for indifference in this statement. It’s a reminder that there are two powers at work in the world, there is Jesus and there is Satan, and to whichever one you are a slave to, the other stands as your opposition. Justin Popovich teaches us that “a man in this world must solve a problem, to be with Christ or against Him. And every man will decide this, whether he wants to or not. He will either be a lover of Christ or a fighter of Christ, there is no third option.” This is the exact point that Paul is making in this first statement.

In our culture, we have adopted this mentality, this term, the “casual Christian,” and applied it to our own Church. We act as though one could maintain their faith as though it were a nice suit, something that they can don for special occasions, but otherwise leaving it hanging in their closet, their lives unaffected by it’s presence there. But then, when we look into Scripture, where do we see this mentality? Where do we see this half-hearted “casual Christianity?” Where exactly do we see an example of half-hearted worship and lukewarm faith? See, I believe completely in the truthfulness and accuracy of Scripture. And I believe that when we read about the lives of the saints, that the reason that the Lord has left us these stories is so that we could look to them and imitate their lives. And, yet, none of them were very “casual” about their faith.

In the Book of Malachi, we do, in fact, see one such example. This was near the end of the Old Testament, and the people had been hearing the promises of the coming messiah for centuries, and it had become sort of cliche to hear about it. Thus, they had grown pretty complacent and lazy in their faith. They would hear the Lord’s demand for sacrifices, but, not being zealous for their faith, they would choose what they wanted to keep for themselves, the best of the best, and then sort of give God the leftovers. Of the sacrifices that they had, they would choose the lame, the blind, to give to the Lord in sacrifice, though being demanded to bring the firstfruits. And, through the prophet, we learn the Lord’s response to this; “when you offer a blind sacrifice to the Lord, is this not evil…but now earnestly entreat the face of God and pray to Him…for this reason the doors will be shut and you will not burn an offering on My altar. I have no pleasure in you, now will I accept an offering from your hands.” (Malachi 1:8-10). See, it’s absolutely this idea that the people were evoking the name of the Lord, praying to the Lord, asking supplications of the Lord; but refusing to fully follow the Lord. They weren’t willing to fully devote their lives to the Lord. They were “lukewarm” in their faith. We see the same warning in the Lord’s warning to the church in Laodicea. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus warns the church, “I could wish you were either hot or cold, but since you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16). And it’s so easy to fall into that, to become as the people in Malachi’s time, or the people in the church of Laodicea. It’s so easy to become so caught up in life that we sort of offer to the Lord this half-hearted devotion. There are very few people that would admit that they don’t want God in their life at all. Most people do want God in their lives, He makes their lives easier. It gives them a fall-back plan if they don’t understand something. It can help instill morality into their lives and the lives of their children. It’s so easy to look at God as this book, and to read the rules and do whatever we can to obey them, and when we fall short just remember that He is faithful to forgive.

But, is that what Scripture really is to us? Is it “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth?” Is it a “how to be a good person,” the teacher’s edition? See, that’s what we equate it to when we look at the rules and regulations more than we look at the source of the rules. When we ignore the relationship and focus on the doctrine, it’s easy to forget that God loves us and wants us to turn to Him in repentance. And when God becomes these moral guidelines instead of an actual presence in our lives, it’s easy to just add Him into our pre-existing lives. I consider this fact, when you get married, your life changes drastically. You admit to the fact that you are no longer living for yourself any longer, you are now living for someone else. And when you get married, there’s parts of your life that MUST change. There are certain things that you must be willing to surrender when you get married. So, why would we assume that our marriage, our adoption into the family of Christ, is any different? You can’t marry someone and say to your bride, “hey, I know that this offends you more than anything in the world, so I’ll try to stop, and you can forgive me every time I do it.” And neither can we do that with the Lord.

That’s Paul’s warning here. There is no middle ground when it comes to the Lord. There is no room for adding our faith onto the life we already have, but rather, we must be willing to die to ourselves, to completely surrender everything that makes us who we are, and instead live to Him. That’s why Paul could say, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” One of the pitfalls of our contemporary theology of baptism is that we consider it a public show, a declaration, that we are “under new management.” But, in Scripture, it was our actual death. Anyone who says otherwise has interpreted away the words of the Lord Himself. And Paul’s warning is that there is no room for interpretation, no room for half-heartedness or lukewarm faith. Either you obey the Lord or you don’t. That’s why he asks the believers, “do you despise the riches of His goodness?” Notice the strength of the wording there, not do you dislike, or do you only partly “feel,” but do you despise. In the letter to Laodicea, the cold would be those who didn’t believe, who outright denied the Lord. The hot would be, as the saints, those who were on fire. Those whose every thought, word, action, breath, praised the Lord and His goodness. Then there’s everyone else. The lukewarm are those who know the words of Scripture, who know and understand the ways and commands of the Lord, but, by their actions, show that they just don’t care about them. They are the ones who can quote the Scriptures, who can make a show of their piety, but aren’t willing to surrender their lives to the Lord. They put Him on once a week and make their public appearance of piety in a church building, and then argue, twisting Scripture, that they are saved because they made a profession of faith at a revivalist tent one summer day. Paul here is warning that those people, in their hearts, truly despise the Lord, because they love themselves more than they love Him.

Paul here adds a powerful addendum to this statement. “The goodness of God leads you to repentance.” So often I hear people discuss the grace of God as though reception of it is the once and forever cleansing that leads to the kingdom. Once we mentally acknowledge Jesus as Lord, then there is never anything further that we need to do to attain to the kingdom of heaven. And, based on Scripture, this is a heresy that has been spread since the very foundation of the Church. Isn’t it a nice thought though? That you could one time in your life proclaim that you believe that Jesus is Lord and from that point on you could commit whatever transgressions that you desire and still be able to attain heaven? It’d be like living in paradise before you enter into paradise. There’s one problem with this though, it’s not Biblical. See, from the very beginning, people having been twisting the doctrine of grace into a license to continue to sin. From the very beginning they have been saying that to demand holiness, or to demand obedience, would detract from grace. That to attach any sort of action on our behalf to grace makes it no longer a gift and therefore not grace. What seems to be missed from that is that it is grace alone that allows us to attain to this holiness and righteousness, the “righteousness of God,” to quote the apostle. There is a stance that every one of the apostles defends in the New Testament, and that stance is this; grace allows us to be freed from our sins, not add to them. When we continue to chase our sin, regardless of what passage of Scripture we choose to twist to justify it, we make a mockery of the sacrifice of our Lord. In the Book of Sirach, we read the admonishment, “Do not be so confident of atonement that you add sin to sin, and do not say, ‘His compassion is great, He will atone for the multitude of my sins,’ for both mercy and wrath come from Him, and His anger rests on sinners.” (Sirach 5:5-6). It may be this very passage that Hebrews refers to when it states, “it is impossible for those once enlightened and become partakers of the Holy Spirit…if they fall away, to renew them to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” (Hebrews 6:4,6). Jude also warns us against those who pervert the grace of God into licentiousness, and reminds us that even after the Lord rescued those in Egypt, He still destroyed those who did not believe. Consider that for a moment; those that the Lord brought out of bondage, He destroyed because of their disobedience.

God is loving, God is merciful and God is gracious. And praise God for that. But, God is also just and has “eyes too pure to look upon sin.” (Habakkuk 1:13), and we must remember that as well. Our Lord offers us grace and mercy, and promises that should we begin to fall we will always be welcomed back. Countless times the nation of Israel turned away from Him and then returned to Him. But, return to Him we must. He offers us this grace and mercy for the purpose of bringing us to repentance, to “turn now from our evil ways.” (Jeremiah 25:5, 2 Chronicles 7:14); but for those who continue to walk in sin, He promises that He will “by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” (Exodus 34:7, Nahum 1:3, Daniel 12:10) and will “render each according to their deeds.” (Romans 2:6, Psalm 61:13, Proverbs 24:12, Ecclesiastes 9:2).

My brothers and sisters, it’s so easy to fall victim to this teaching. In fact, I have this great fear that so many in our generation have already fallen victim to this theology which teaches that God should be happy that we can make any time for Him at all. I have this amazing fear that so many have accepted as truth this teaching that a single confession of faith is all that is necessary to enter into the kingdom, with no change, no deeds, no holiness, no obedience to our Lord as Lord. I have this eternal fear that many have grasped onto this teaching that they make a once for all confession and at that moment they are eternally guaranteed a place at the heavenly supper. Yet, if that be so, then why are we warned so strongly to “count the cost,” to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling,” to “evaluate ourselves to see that we are walking in the faith.” If our faith is the finish line, then how do we finish the race? If there is no action required, then how do we walk in our faith? Evaluation itself is an action, thus Paul’s warning becomes self-defeating, for if any action on our part is heresy, then there can be no evaluation, thus to obey him shows that we are not in the faith.

Jesus warned us that the gate was narrow and the way was hard that leads to life. This passage has hit me harder and harder lately, as I have meditated on the Church in our generation. One of the things that I’ve noticed is that our theologians work harder and harder to complicate Scripture through interpretations and double-talking, and each time there is a new theological breakthrough, the path to life becomes easier and the gate becomes broader.

The Lord revealed the coming of the Messiah to shepherds mainly because they, like little children, maintained a simple faith. Hear, obey, do, follow. He snubbed the priests, the Pharisees, and the Scribes because they overly convoluted the faith and in doing so lost the truth of the Scriptures. “Always learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7). See, a child’s faith is simple, yet, because of our nature, it’s hard. We don’t want to obey. We don’t want to obey the Scriptures, we don’t want to obey the Church, we don’t want to obey the Commandments. We want everything exactly the way we want it and will cling to whatever doctrine allows our own interpretations of these commands to reign supreme. We don’t want to sacrifice the things that we enjoy. Thus, it is hard, though simple. Within our “adult” wisdom though, with each new theological breakthrough, each new layer of seminary hermeneutics, it becomes more complex, but easier. Not simpler, easier. Suddenly, the words of Jesus get changed as we dig deep to determine what each phrase could possibly mean and then pick the one that we prefer. Surely when He said “deny yourself,” He couldn’t possibly have meant deny yourself, what else could He mean. How do we deny ourselves? What are we denying ourselves of?

Jesus tells us that unless we become like little children, we will never inherit the kingdom, and I think that we should cling to that teaching. A simple faith may mean that we have to sacrifice things that we enjoy for the kingdom, that we may have to actually give the creator of the universe our very best to be His disciples, but isn’t that what He demands from the beginning? The fall itself happened because man questioned God and didn’t trust what He had told them, should we truly aspire to repeat the same mistake over and over again? We must remember the words of the Lord, and remember that He tells us over and over again that our lives on earth are not meant to be easy, or full of pleasure; but we must not despise those demands and go our own way, as Israel did constantly during the time of the judges. And we must be very cautious of any teaching which teaches otherwise. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is; and the teaching that we can continue to chase earthly pleasures and gratify the flesh while still attaining to the heavens seems far too good to be true. Far too good to be the “narrow road and the hard way.”

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my beloved family.

Romans 2:1-3

Here, Paul reminds the believers of the teaching of the Lord. Jesus had warned us before, “judge not, that you be not judged. For with the same judgment that you judge, you will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1-2). While so often misquoted, this passage is a powerful passage in context as well. See, while it is not forbidding discernment, it is forbidding hypocrisy, a pit which so many have fallen into. It’s this idea that; if you condemn someone for committing adultery, then you have displayed the knowledge of the iniquity of that, therefore you no longer have any excuse if you should also fall victim to it.

This is exactly what Paul is warning against here in Rome, this endless hypocrisy that so many had fallen into. Having already proclaimed that judgment is for the ungodly and the unrighteous, here he extends this judgment to also be for those self-righteous, the hypocrite who proclaims one man to be a sinner while practicing the same, or even other, sins. See, it’s so easy for us to compare ourselves to another person and declare ourselves “more righteous than them.” We begin to say things like, “I watch pornography, but that man is a homosexual” or “I got angry with my brother, but the guy that shot those kids in school was worse, HE needs to be punished.” We prioritize our sins based on what’s acceptable to us versus what isn’t. Ultimately, it becomes this self-righteousness derived from pridefully comparing our sins to the sins of others, and seeing our sins as being more forgivable than another’s sins. And James warns us so strongly against this, when he warns us that “whoever keeps the whole law, yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘do not commit adultery’ also said ‘do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder someone, you have become a transgressor of the law.” (James 2:10-11).

Again, we like to “rank” things, prioritize them, even our sins. And we rank it in terms of what we consider the worse offenses. We think of something like a lie to be this minor sin, whereas something like murder is a major sin. And yet, when we look to Scripture, we never once see that. To the contrary, we learn of the Lord that He has “eyes too pure to look upon sin.” (Habakkuk 1:13), and thus any sin becomes equally sinful in God’s eyes. When we consider that Jesus further explained that it is not merely the actions which indict us, but the intentions of the heart (Matthew 5:22,28), then we begin to recognize the gravity with which these warnings are issued. And Paul issues this as the gravest of warnings, stating that when we judge someone according to the commandments of the Lord, then we too shall be judged according to those same commandments. To judge someone as a transgressor of the law shows our own knowledge of the law, and we shall be judged based on the measure with which we judge others. To judge someone as being a sinner, we display our knowledge of sin, thus we shall be judged based on the same law, and considering the intentions of the heart, that is a frightening thought.

Paul goes on even further to explain this. “We know that the judgment of God is according to the truth of those who practice such things.” This is such a powerful admonishment to them, and to us as well. See, we live in this culture where the mentality is, “it’s only wrong if you get caught,” thus we feel as though if we hide something well enough then we are safe. The Lord warns us through the prophet Isaiah, “woe to those who take counsel in secret and work in darkness. They say ‘who sees us?’ and ‘who knows us or what we do?'” (Isaiah 29:15). And He answers through the prophet Jeremiah, “I the Lord examine hearts and test minds, to give each man according to his ways and the fruits of his practices.” (Jeremiah 17:6). Jesus commanded us to pray in secret, and our Father, who hears in secret, will reward us; similarly, however, we must bear in mind that He who sees our obedience in secret will also see our secret trangressions. We must be careful to never make the mistake of thinking that because our boss, the police, our spouse, anyone on earth doesn’t catch us, that we have gotten away with something. The Lord knows all things, and we can be assured that if there is a sin that we think that we have gotten away with, we must still repent of it and be cleansed. Our Lord is faithful to forgive us our sins, if we repent. As St Mark the Ascetic teaches us, however, “there is a sin that leads unto death, the unrepentant sin, for which if even a saint shall pray, he shall not be heard.”

My brethern, I am not writing this from the view of constantly striving and yet never being able to attain. My purpose for explaining this is that we may focus on our own holiness, as the Scripture commands, while not judging others sins. Too often, we focus on the sins of others, which are easy to find, and then fall into a complacency when evaluating our own lives. We seek those who are “worse” than we are, and in doing so, lull ourselves into a false sense of security. Mark the Ascetic teaches us that “he who seeks the forgiveness of his sins loves humility. But he who judges another strengthens his own evil deeds against himself.” When we focus on our own holiness, our own walk with the Lord, then we see one another as people each equally in need of the Grace of the Lord. When we see someone in sin, rather than judging them, we fall on our face and pray for their eternal souls. We warn them of their sin, but lovingly, never ceasing to build them up, as the beloved apostle does all throughout Scripture. Paul, you note, never once condemns any in his letters, but he does strongly warn them of the consequences, while constantly expressing heartfelt concern for their eternal souls. And we must be ever mindful of this spirit of hypocrisy that the apostle is warning against here.

In our culture, we have a tendency to be very deeply superficial. We live in a world that has replaced intimacy with connection, and as such, it is ever so easy to create an image for ourselves, to sell a “selfie” to the world. And, because of that, we often fool others so convincingly that we begin to fool ourselves. We create this perfect image of holy perfection and utter piety, which is dangerous in itself, but that danger increases exponentially when we begin to believe that very image. We begin to see this image that would make the fathers of the desert seem godless, and then begin to focus on the flaws of others, comparing them to our own lives, which is tempered by this image and by our own sense of self-worth. Thus, we begin to overlook our own iniquities and instead cast judgments on all others for theirs. St Mark teaches us that “a humble man, when he reads the Holy Scriptures, will relate all things to himself and not to others.” The more holy we become, the more aware of our sinfulness we become. And John Chrysostom reminds us that the Church is a hospital, not a courtroom. Our Lord knows our hearts better than we ever will, and thus we must be ever cautious and always pray, as did David, “test me, O God, and know my heart, examine me and know my paths, and see if there is a lawless way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 138:23-24). We all too often see ourselves as God’s inquisitor, as though He would need us to punish those who have sinned against Him. Rather, we should see the fault in ourselves and pray to Him daily for His grace and mercy, that we be granted the grace to attain to the “righteousness of God.”

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my beloved family.

Romans 1:28-32

Lest Paul place the punishment for sin solely on sexual immorality, he here moves on the other manners of unrighteousness and ungodliness. Though sexual sin is often more destructive in our lives than other manners of sin, all sin causes separation from God, thus all sin leads to our inevitable destruction. And notice that it is not merely the physical sins which the apostle lays blame upon, but the mind itself. He states that they “did not like to retain the knowledge of God in their mind,” displaying that this was derived from a conscious decision. He doesn’t say that they were unable to, or that they were directed not to, but rather that they did not like to. It’s important that we understand this concept that is plainly written all through Scripture, that it is a conscious decision to follow the Lord’s teaching, and that because there are many who teach otherwise. There are many who teach that we have no control, no choice, no free will in the manner at all. And that’s a dangerous thought, because then they will make no decision to do so; in fact, they may undermine that very decision by determining that they are unable to make it, thus not even attempt to “set their minds on things that are above, not the things of the earth.” (Colossians 3:2). And once they’ve been taught that they have no power to do that, combined with our natural predilection towards the flesh, ultimately, many make the decision to “follow their heart,” which without fail leads to a decision to place earthly desires, physical pleasures and gratification of the flesh before the Lord. If we teach that a human has no ability to choose correctly, then we teach instead to bury the conscience beneath waves of vice, as a seafarer during a storm determining that, since the ship may sink, he would be better off to throw himself into the sea instead. This doctrine that teaches that we are totally depraved becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, for in teaching that we are unable to resist depravity, we teach one to become depraved, to never truly seek after the righteousness of God.

Much as the apostle writes when he pens “being filled with all unrighteousness,” displaying the depths to which the Romans had given themselves over to. This wasn’t an incidental type of rebellion, but rather a full blown determination to rebel against the will of the Lord. Notice the intensity with which Paul writes here, “being filled with all unrighteousness.” Not merely with the underlying desire to rebel, but being filled with it fully. Completely filled with this rebellion, and not even merely seeking to sate one or two fleshly longings, but being filled with all unrighteousness. Once you make the decision to give in to one sin, soon, other sins become easier. Sin’s job in our lives is to destroy, and so it can never be satisfied, nor can it ever bring true satisfaction; rather it brings temporary pleasure that quickly falls flat, and thus once we’ve given ourselves over to one sin, that sin quickly becomes not enough, thus it requires more and greater sins to bring the same degree of pleasure. Consider aberrant sexuality, the porn addict can very quickly no longer find enjoyment in porn, thus he begins seeking extramarital affairs to bring about the same enjoyment that he once attained from pornography. Or consider the way we develop a “tolerance” to alcohol. In the first, one or two drinks was sufficient to bring us to a point of enjoyment, quickly that one or two becomes three, four, six, ten; until eventually one could spend nearly his entire day imbibing and still not feel the same effects. All of sin is like this, one sin is never enough to sustain, thus it rapidly multiplies in our lives until it has completely taken it over. That’s why so many in the world who shun the discipline that our Lord requires so often become so despondent, because they have forsaken the one means through which they could attain true joy and contentment.

Paul goes on to detail some of the ways in which they had given themselves over to this sin. Full of envy, he writes. In opposition to gratitude, envy is the sin which teaches us to focus on what others have and what we don’t have. The way of the Lord is to be thankful for everything, regardless of our circumstances. The way of the world is the exact opposite, to constantly seek after what others have and to covet their lives, regardless of how well off we already are. Consider our economy versus the economy of the world. Consider that the median household income globally is less than 10,000 dollars, and compare that with the median income in the US of 59,000 dollars, and yet, you’ll constantly meet people in America who are dissatisfied with what they have. India still operates under the caste system with the Dalits being lower than low class, and yet an American with a home, a car, a television, electricity, a blu-ray player, etc will still complain about not having something. “Full of envy, murder…” continues the apostle, bearing in mind the teachings of the Lord wherein anger and hatred are considered murder (Matthew 5:21-22); whisperers, those who gossip; backbiters, haters of God. Those who invent new ways and means to rebel against God. We constantly do that, and I don’t just mean the atheist scientist who claims that God doesn’t exist, though they are included. But so too would be those who twist and contort the words of Scripture to come up with ways to ignore His commands and live in our own vices and sins. Those who, according to Jude, “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Those who pervert the doctrines of grace to allow for sinfulness and licentiousness.

He continues by going into things that our generation especially would be indifferent, possibly even supportive of. Proud, he writes. Pride so often is considered a highly coveted virtue in our generation. Love of self, narcissism; how often do we find people saying things like “you’ve got to love yourself more, all of the answers are within you.” Consider this, in 1986, one of the most popular songs in America was “The Greatest Love of All,” and what was the lesson of that song? “Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.” See, in our culture, we consider a lack of pride to be a root of all sorts of evil, and yet, Scripture says the exact opposite. Scripture says that we must love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might; and love our neighbor as ourselves. I had a statement recently that if you ever want to find joy, you need to remember that joy is an acronym, Jesus, Others, Yourself. Compare that to the world, and to our philosophy in the Church. Do we truly follow that, or do we follow the wisdom of the age? See, what psychiatry considers to be the greatest, the most important virtue, pride, is the very trait that led to Satan’s fall from Heaven. Let that sink in for a moment, what psychiatry says we need more of is the very pride that led to Satan’s fall. “Disobedient to parents,” Paul writes. In our generation, we’ve placed so much emphasis on a child’s right to choose what they do and don’t want that we’re surprised when a child actually obeys their parents. We let them dictate to us what they’re eating for dinner, when they are attending the liturgy, what they’re watching on television; and then we’re surprised when they grow up and injure others when they don’t get their way. In Proverbs we read that if we “raise a child in the way he should go, then when he is older he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). Is it any wonder that the world tells us that children should be allowed to go whatever way they want, considering who is the ruler of the world? If we don’t guide a child, we don’t give him direction, and then we teach him that the most important thing in life is that he love himself and do whatever he wants, then he will almost never make the right decisions. Especially in a world that has stated that whatever is right for you is right for you and no one is allowed to tell you otherwise.

Paul concludes this by stating that they are undiscerning, unable to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Through the prophet Isaiah, we read, “woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are intelligent in their own eyes and expert in their own sight.” (Isaiah 5:20-21). See, when we remove the foundational understanding of the ways of the Lord from our lives, there no longer remains any boundaries to judge an action as being either good or evil, right or wrong. Thus, we turn to other people to determine for us, and suddenly, our morals become based on our laws instead of our laws being based on our morals. The laws of the Lord no longer stand as our basis for life, but rather the laws of man. Suddenly, we begin changing our beliefs based on what is popular in civil government; each new law passed in congress becomes a new Church doctrine. That’s why it’s so important that we cling to the doctrines of the Church that have been there since the New Testament. When we abandon the “traditions that have been handed down” (2 Thessalonians 2:15), we lose the teachings that have been defended by annointed men of God for thousands of years, and suddenly our Church begins to look much more like the world.

Paul warns us that people have become very unloving. Jesus warned us that “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12). It’s this idea that as people grow more and more lawless, seeking after their own desires and wants; they grow to love themselves more and more, and thus there is less and less room to love others. And ultimately, there is less room to love the Lord. The more we seek after earthly riches, the more we separate ourselves from the Lord and then, filled with avarice, we turn further and further away from Him and look to ourselves and to the world more and more for our joy, for our pleasure. We seek after our own passions, proclaiming how much we “deserve it,” and in choosing ourselves first, we harden our hearts to everything else. Consider how often you’ve heard someone say, “I never do anything for myself, I really deserve this.” Now, consider what they are usually doing at that point. So often, that statement is made as a justification to suit some worldly desire in the search for earthly pleasure, and so often it’s made to justify not using those resources (time, money, etc) to do something with eternal value. It’s taking an extravagant trip to Disney instead of donating the money to the poor; it’s sleeping in for a week straight instead of using that time to volunteer, or to evangelize. And it’s always that same mentality, “I deserve this.” Eventually, the more we seek after ourselves and our own desires, the less we see this distinct line that the Lord has given us of good and evil, and we redefine those two terms to equate to what we do and don’t like; what suits our earthly desires.

Paul ends this passage with a very strong warning that all of us must hold very closely. See, on the one hand, as followers and disciples of Christ, we know the righteousness of God. If we claim that we do not know it, then the apostle has already blamed us for leaving God in the first place. We all know His commands, what He expects, and so to not be walking in that is to not be walking with Him. The Scriptures are very clear, Jesus’ teachings are very clear, the doctrines of the Church are very clear, on what it costs to be a disciple of Christ; the sacrifices He accepts, the works that He expects. If we claim not to know those, then we have abandoned Him already, or have invented new ways to rebel against Him by twisting the words that He so plainly taught. As a guideline, consider how hard you have to work to explain the “meaning” of a passage; if it requires too much work, then you are probably working really hard at changing His words. I.E. Jesus tells us that “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21). Jesus also teaches that “If you forgive men their sins, your Father will also forgive your sins, but if you do not forgive men their sins, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15). When we read those passages, how hard do we work to remove obedience to the commandments or forgiveness of sins from our beliefs? When we do that, aren’t we “inventing new ways” (though not so new anymore) to rebel against the commands of our Lord? See, when we read passages like that, and still chase after the passions of the flesh, then we show that we have chosen ourselves and our own passions over Him. And to do that is to break the greatest commandment, to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and might.

On the other side of that, however, is that if we acknowledge that a behavior is wrong, that a behavior is opposed to the Lord, and still cooperate with those who do it, we are equally guilty with those who do them. To drive my brother to a bar so that he can become drunken, or to drive them to meet someone with whom they are indecently involved, is still to sin on my part. To cheer someone on while they are participating in sin is to share their guilt with them. If that person is of the world, not the Church, it is not our place to judge them, we can never judge the world for acting like the world. At the same time, however, we cannot participate in that sinfulness, as those who have no hope would do. See, the biggest mistake that we make is to judge the world for acting like the world and yet allow the church to do the same things, usually under the pretense of, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” And we’re not, we’re not perfect; however, that can never be our excuse to continue in sin. Not our excuse, nor can we allow it to be the excuse of anyone else who bears the name of Christ. As the apostle warns us, “I have written you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner-not even to eat with such a person.” (1 Corinthians 5:11) and John tells us “do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” (2 John 1:10-11).

See, we have to be mindful of the actions and behaviors of those in the Church, understanding that those outside the Church will not uphold the moral integrity that believers are called to. That’s the whole reason that the Lord admonishes us that we should be holy, as He is holy. It’s the very reason that the Lord’s will for our lives is our sanctification. It’s the very reason that Jesus tells us, “Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). It”s not that we can ever attain full sinfulness in this life, but rather, that our striving should be this completedness, this fullness that comes through Him, seeking Him and His ways, and finding our joy and comfort in Him, not in the world. To condemn the world for living like the world while condoning the same behavior in the Church is utter hypocrisy. It’d be better that we had never known the commands of the Lord at all than to have known them and disobeyed them. No, when we allow sin, we are guilty of that sin as if we were committing it ourselves. And we have to be very careful that we don’t allow our personal preferences overcome the ways of the Lord. Just because we like a sin, doesn’t make it right. And, yes, I can find a random verse to justify any sin that I am partial to; but finding a verse and twisting it to justify iniquity doesn’t make it righteous, it makes me hypocritical. We have to be very cautious not to do that; not to read so deeply into something that we can change the meaning completely.

So often, I hear people proclaim that the word of God is the ultimate authority in all matters, and yet, so often their lives lack the fruit of that conviction. If the Holy Scriptures are to be revered as the true, unerring word of God, consider this question for me. If Jesus Himself were standing in front of you dictating Scripture, would you be so caught up in re-interpreting His words to mean anything other than what He is plainly saying to you? The biggest problem with a hermeneutical approach to the word of God is that you are so busy trying to figure out what He could possibly mean and how you can make it fit into your life that you don’t actually hear most of what He says. It’s the equivalent to having a conversation with someone and, instead of listening, you stand silently awaiting your turn to speak.

We must never allow this to happen my brothers and sisters. We must never be so concerned with finding what we want Jesus to say that we don’t listen to what He actually does say.  It’s so often, so common of a mistake to read something in the Scripture that we don’t like and begin immediately searching for some form of comfort, some justification as to how we can change the meaning of the word of God to suit our own desires. We must remember that the word of God is just that, it is as though the creator of the heavens and the earth, of all things, is actually speaking directly to us; we must reverence the Scriptures as the living breathing word of God, not a science textbook full of formulas that we must decipher. When Scripture states something or commands something, we must trust that the Lord has given us that for a reason and obey, not look for ways to justify disobedience; regardless of what the greatest minds of our time say, they are still of the age, thus to heed them over Jesus is to heed the “wisdom of the age” over the wisdom that comes from the Truth. When we read the Scripture, let us heed His words, being guided by the Holy Spirit to understanding, and should there be something that we still can’t grasp, rather than trusting our own minds to understand and interpret, let us turn to the Church, which for millenia has been entrusted by the Lord to guard the integrity of His Holy Scripture. Let millenia of annointed men of God be our earthly guides, as the Holy Spirit is our spiritual guide, and let us seek their wisdom that we may attain His.

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my beloved family.

Have you ever noticed that, in our life, when we consider worldly gains like money, success, etc., we always compare our lives to certain icons of our culture. When we aspire to great business sense, we compare ourselves to the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates degree of business sense and financial wealth. When we aspire to sports athleticism, we compare ourselves to the Steph Currys and the Alex Rodriguezes of the world. It’s fully logical, it makes perfect sense that you would compare yourself to someone that you would aspire to be like. An acting student would choose a Gary Oldman type of actor to aspire to be. As a musician, I have seen many guitarists compare themselves to the plethora of virtuosoes, seeking to imitate their style and training regiments.

Yet, when it comes to our theology and righteousness, we always compare ourselves to those who are “less righteous” in our eyes. I’ve heard so many times in my life that “I’m bad, but I’m not as bad as _______.” Or, “hey, at least I don’t do _______.”

I find it grievous that when it comes to accomplishing worldly goals, we tend to focus on those who are exponentially better than we are, but when it comes to righteousness, we focus on those who make us feel better about who we already are. I have never heard someone say, “I want to be as compassionate as Mother Theresa,” or “I want to know more theology than _______ (insert random theologian here).

To me, it says a lot about our character that we can aspire to greatness in things that mean nothing, but aspire to mediocrity in the things that actually matter. And this just a generalization, obviously there are exceptions to it, but it was something that was placed on my heart the other day.

Our role models in this life so often tend to be those who have “succeeded” in this life, but our role models for eternity tend to be those who make us feel like we have nothing to worry about. It seems as though it should be the opposite. When we consider our lives and our finances, we should first bring to mind the homeless beggar down the street, the Dalits of India, the Christians in the Middle East or China. And our focus on our righteousness should be to attain to the level of the saints. We should aspire to be the John Chrysostoms, the Basil the Greats, the Mother Theresas of this generation.

When we are able to reverse the trend of comparison in our lives, we will truly be able to recognize how abundantly we have been given, and how little we truly need, and thus be able to bless others with the same grace, mercy, compassion, love that we have been shown. As St Basil teaches us, “If you begin to guard your wealth, it will not be yours. But, if you begin to distribute it, you will not lose it.” and as St Isaac the Syrian teaches us, “A cruel and merciless heart is never purified. A merciful man is the doctor of his own soul, because as it were by a strong wind from his heart, he drives out the darkness of the passions.”

Romans 1:24-27

Ever so often, when we consider the judgment of the Lord, the very judgment we consider is anger, wrath, turmoil. We look to the Scriptures of old and see Sodom and Gomorrah having fire rained upon it, we see the entire world being flooded, we see all of these “end of the world” types of judgment being cast upon the world, and we seem to fail to recognize that there is a type of judgment that is even worse than all of these combined. See, sometimes the Lord punishes us by making His presence abundantly known, but the harsher punishment is His absence. And that’s the warning that Paul is giving us in this passage. We see it multiple times in the Scripture. In reference to King Saul, we read that “the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul.” (1 Kingdoms 16:14). In the prophet Ezekiel, we read that “the glory of the Lord departed form the house and went upon the cherubim.” (Ezekiel 10:17). See, the Lord sometimes will turn an entire nation over to it’s enemies, sometimes He will just lay to waste an entire peoples, but sometimes, He will just leave.

The latter of these warnings is the warning that we see here from the humble apostle. The city of Rome, so in love with it’s sin, and Paul warning the Church against that very fact. And yet, look at how the apostle does it. Not merely that the Romans had fallen victim to sin, as though it were some sort of trap set by the enemy, nor that they had been attacked, as though by some foreign enemy come to lay waste to their very souls, but rather, that they not only accepted, but actually burned in their very hearts for it. And, so that ignorance of the will of the Lord could be claimed as excuse, he rather states that they not only disobeyed the laws of the Lord, but that they had disobeyed the very laws of nature. This vile corruption of God’s plan for creation not only was an assault on the plans of God, but it was an assault on the very laws of nature. Even those who had no knowledge of the ways of the Lord would recognize the natural order of things, and yet, they still disobeyed. What’s more, for those who did understand the laws of the Lord, this was even worse. To affirm these actions was to deny the very order of creation, wherein it is written, “for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24). But the Romans, worshiping the flesh, refused to heed the command of the Lord to deny themselves, even though the very nature of these acts was against all forms of nature as well as against God Himself.

So often, we do the same thing, though not necessarily in the same way. In the name of the “grace of the Lord” we place our own earthly wants and desires ahead of the commands of the Lord. We determine that whatever “feels good” must be right, and no one can tell us otherwise. Even worse than this, we search the Scripture and pick and choose, “cherry pick,” which commands we believe to be relevant and which aren’t “that big of a deal.” As it is the topic of the passage at hand, consider the Biblical defintion of “sexual immorality.” Sexual immorality (pornos, as is so often translated “sexually immoral,” literally means a man who indulges in unlawful sexual intercourse) is any sexual conduct which occurs outside of the convenant relationship of marriage. By that standard; affairs, homosexuality, premarital sex; any sexual relations between two people who are not married is sin. Jesus further advances this charge when He states that “whoever divorces his wife for any reason except for sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.” (Matthew 5:32). Further, He goes on to tell us that “whoever looks after a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28). Consider these passages in relation to your own life, as they are truly in the Scripture. Now, consider this in relation to some of the “hot topics” in evangelical Christianity.

See, I’m not trying to discourage anyone. To the contrary, I am doing the exact opposite here. I want everyone to be fully aware of what the Scripture states concerning sexual immorality. And the reason for this is that I want everyone to recognize one thing, same sex marriage wasn’t the end of traditional marriage and morals in America. It’s so easy to use that as a scapegoat, but the reality is that Biblical marriage in America (as the evangelicals love to refer to “traditional marriage as) died generations ago. And it didn’t die in the name of the sexual revolution, or in the name of same sex marriage, it died because we got so focused on what other people were doing in America that we didn’t pay attention to our own walk of holiness. It died because we decided that what we liked was right and what we didn’t like was wrong. Premarital sex became “not a big deal” because we liked it, and divorce became “not a big deal” because we liked it. Those things didn’t die because same sex couples wanted to get married, those things died well before that. Those things died because instead of focusing on our own personal holiness in the Church, we decided to focus on the things that were happening outside of the Church. Those things happened because we began to judge the world based on the Scriptures, while excusing our own behavior in the “name of the grace of God.” And, my brothers and sisters, we have GOT to stop. We look at the world and compare ourselves to the world and determine that our behavior isn’t “that bad,” and do so hypocritically. We become the divorced porn addict telling the same sex couple that they are the reason that marriage has become a mockery. We become the wife cheating on her husband judging the prostitute for being promiscious. We become the Pharisees standing before the adulteress ready to throw stones at her, while Jesus sits next to her saying, “I do not condemn you, now go, and sin no more.” forgetting that “so were some of you, but you were cleansed, you were sanctified, justified.” (1 Corinthians 6:11). If we focus more on our own walk of faith, to the degree that Jesus commands us to, then we wouldn’t have time to judge the rest of the world. We would be able to approach the world with the philosophy of the beloved apostle, who states, “for what have I to judge those outside the Church, is it not those within who we are to judge? Those who are outside, God judges.” (1 Corinthians 5:12).

See, we followers of Christ, we believers, we know the commands of the Lord. And we can never fall from them. We must adhere to “every jit and toddle” of the words of the Lord. But, when we focus on those commands, on walking with Him in holiness, we won’t be concerned with judging those who are not of the faith. Should we be concerned about their well being? Of course, we must love our neighbor, and therefore be concerned about their well being. But, knowing that no deeds that a person can commit on their own can make them righteous before God, our concern must not be on their weaknesses, but on the One who can rescue them from their iniquity. The Lord commands us to love our neighbor, not condemn him. We must seek those moments wherein we can find the opportunity to display the grace, the mercy, the compassion, that the Lord has shown to us. On any street corner in America, you can find someone in need. Regardless of their situations, what situation did the Lord rescue you out of? Now, ask yourself, when you see that child of God, that man made in the image of God, what is your first reaction? Do you desire to help them, or do you consider the circumstances that brought them to the point that they are at? Do you give them the aid that they are seeking, or do you immediately judge them based on the fact that they need it?

Sometimes, the Lord punishes entire nations by burning them with fire from the sky, as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. Sometimes, the Lord hands nations over to their enemies, as He did with the Chaldeans. But, for those who place the most distance between themselves and Him, oftentimes He will just leave them. He will leave them to wallow in their own desires. And that is Paul’s warning to the Roman Church here, and to us as well. Sin is anything that separates us from the love of God, and one of the greatest sins that He warns us against is hypocrisy. How much time do we spend focusing on the sins of the world, and how much time do we spend focusing on our own personal sins against the Lord? How often do we pray, “thank you God that I am not like…” versus how much time we spend saying, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I would warn each of us; a question, how often do we feel called to deny ourselves; how often do we feel called to this personal holiness? Now consider, how often do we feel as though we can continue doing whatever “feels right?” And then I’d ask, which voice do we heed? It’s so easy and tempting to find verses that will allow us to continue in what “feels right” versus what we know the Scriptures so plainly say. It’s so easy to cry forgiveness in a theology that screams eternal salvation, regardless of our actions. But, Paul’s warning here is very clear. God’s punishment is sometimes leaving us to make our own choices, and reaping the consequences of whatever we happen to choose. When you hear that you can do whatever you want, but without the glory of the Lord in your life, what is your decision? I pray that it is the same as Moses, “Lord, if You Yourself do not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” (Exodus 33:15).

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my brothers and sisters.

In the Gospel of Luke, there is a very powerful image that stood out to me, a premise which I fear has been all but lost on we of the “information age.” See, in the Gospel, we read that “there were shepherds in the same country living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.” (Luke 2:8-9). It’s such a powerful image, such an important message, and yet one that we sadly so often overlook.

Picture in your time this age that we are talking about. Think about what the culture was like and what the people did. See, it’s so easy for us to consider this passage and consider that the shepherds were the commonplace sight in the nation. We think of the shepherds in Biblical time as being as ubiquitous as fast food workers in our age. But the fact that we so often neglect is that the shepherds weren’t the Lord’s only choice for this revelation. No, there were the sages, the Scribes, the priests, the prophets; translated to contemporary terms, there were the teachers, the authors, the pastors, the theologians. There were men of great knowledge who had dedicated their entire lives to studying the Scriptures and interpreting them, there were those who had come up with meanings and formulas that had never been written into the Scriptures, but taught them as though they were plainly visible; there were men who had dedicated their entire lives to deep, in-depth study, having grown up in the temples and studied under the wisest and most highly esteemed of teachers.

Yet, for all of their wisdom and knowledge, for all of their years of study and dedication to the Lord, the Holy Spirit chose not them, but common shepherds to reveal the coming of the Messiah to. It begs the question of why He would choose them. Consider in our day and age; to whom would you expect the Lord to reveal the second coming to? Which top named theologian that has divided the Scriptures, which seminary founder and president? See, the Lord chose the shepherds over the leaders of the synagogues or the “founders of the seminaries” for a very simple reason, which is revealed over and over again in Scripture. The greatest theologians of any age are able to look at the simplest message and completely miss it; because they dig deeper and deeper until they’ve missed what was plainly being said. The Pharisees has received the Law and, rather than obeying it, they argued and debated over what the Law meant. Concerning the Sabbath, they argued over what was considered work and what wasn’t. Concerning the resurrection, they argued over whether it was a physical or a spiritual resurrection. Rather than accepting the truths that they were given, guarding the treasures which had been entrusted to them, they chose to argue over the details. No wonder there has always been an adage that “the devil’s in the details.” They argued that “when God told Adam and Eve that they would die, surely He didn’t mean that they would truly die.” The greatest theologians of any time are knowledgeable enough concerning the Scriptures that they can twist and contort any passage of Scripture to mean whatever they want it to mean, and filled with the wisdom of the age, this is a very dangerous thing. I think of our age, where filled with the wisdom of the age, the theologians have declared that for 1900 years of Church history, the Church was wrong, and only in our age have we determined what is true and what is false. The sheer arrogance is astounding to me, to think that we know better than Athanasius, that we understand Scripture better than Basil the Great, to think that we can divide the word better than John Chrysostom, to think that we understand God’s will better than Polycarp, the disciple of the Apostle John himself.

See, the shepherds, on the other hand, were possessors of a very simple faith. They had a very simple faith, fully without guile or “wise words,” choosing instead the words of Scripture as they are stated and never taking it into their own hands to try to twist and contort their meaning. The shepherds were of a faith that could be taught “repent and be baptized,” and would respond with repentance and baptism; not debates over whether “baptism is necessary for salvation.” They weren’t interested in cross references and theological formulas that would allow them to analyze the faith, but rather in hearing the word of God and doing it. Jesus Himself said, “Whoever hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock…whoever hears these words of mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” (Matthew 7:24,26). And again, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word…he who does not love Me does not keep My words.” (John 14:23-24). And again, “why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you.” (Luke 6:46). See, this was the faith of the shepherds. When the Lord commanded something, they obeyed. When the Lord spoke, they listened. When the Lord walked, they followed. When they were told to not work on the Sabbath, they took that to mean, don’t work on the Sabbath, rather than debating with the Lord Himself over what was considered work.

In the Scripture, we read of a lawyer who challenged Jesus over the command to love your neighbor. The lawyer asked him, “who is my neighbor?” This hit me really hard recently, because, in a discussion over the command to “feed the poor, clothe the naked, care for the hungry,” it was pointed out to me that in the passage, Jesus says, “inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethern, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:40). It was explained to me that this passage was about caring for fellow believers when they are in need, not caring for all of the hungry and the poor. And my first thought when that was explained to me was, “so, who is my neighbor.” And yet, so often in our generation, we don’t even allow it to get that far. We don’t ask who our neighbor is, we actually argue over the word love. We argue that to love our neighbor is the demand to works, that obedience is works, that repentance is works. We’ve actually gone so far as to twist the Scripture to say that even faith is something that we don’t do, because to believe is to attach our own decision and thus our own work to our salvation. Think about that. There is a growing number of believers who believe that we have no control over our very decision to believe, in fact, we are not even given that decision, because to do so would mean that we have any control whatsoever over our belief. And then we wonder why our church looks so utterly chaotic and lawless. We’ve told everyone that no matter what we do, whether we seek holiness or live in utter debauchery, it’s irrelevant, because nothing we can possibly do, even our thoughts about whether we believe or not, matters, since it is all of God. He has created marionettes in their theology, rather than free willed people who must choose to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read, “Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘unless you are converted and become as these little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom.'” (Matthew 18:2-3). Consider what this means for our faith. A little child with his father. He trusts his father, looks up to him, imitates him, loves him, and obeys him without question. A little child trusts that whatever his father tells him is for his own good, even when he doesn’t necessarily like what he is being told. Thus he obeys him. Now, consider how children interact with others. They don’t hate anyone, until they are taught to. They don’t see ethnicity, patriotism, social class; showing neither judgment nor partiality, they openly accept everyone, until they are taught otherwise. Look at how children view the world. Free from the cynicism of the age, free from the despondency that we allow to overtake our lives; they look upon the world with a sense of awe and wonder. They see the sunrise and only appreciate it’s beauty, never feeling the days slowly creeping away from them. Consider this, think of the wide-eyed excitement with which a child greets “take your children to work day.” Rather than viewing life as a series of chores and obligations, they view life as a series of adventures, a source of beauty; until they are taught otherwise. They are filled with wonder and amazement and acceptance and love, until they see us dreading Monday and hating traffic and complaining about the smog and watching us hate one another based on whatever prejudices we have, arguing, rioting.

Jesus used the example of a child because that is what our faith should be like. Our faith in Him should mirror this image of a child. Obedient, trusting, loving, loyal, complete. Our belief should not be a believe that says we believe, but rather a belief that shows that we believe. As James says, “show my your faith without your works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18). See, that’s the faith that Jesus expects from us, not questioning His words or His meanings, not using our own wisdom, which without fail, becomes the wisdom of the age, but rather leaning on Him and His Church and His word for everything. That’s the danger with removing the traditions and history of the Church from our theology, is that we then become focused on our current events rather than the theology which has survived so long. It’s hard to admit that our theology has become shaped by the age, but when you compare the teachings of today with the teachings of 200 years ago, even the most conservative teacher today looks pretty liberal compared to a teacher from the same denomination 200 years ago. Whereas the teachings which cling to the tradition of the Church look the exact same as they did 200 years ago, 400 years ago, 1600 years ago.

See, we are on this endless quest for knowledge. And the downside to that is that since we are on an endless quest for it, we can never be satisfied with what we find. We feel as though we must constantly complicate things more and more, creating more mysteries that we must use our theological lockpicks to open. And, each time we think we find something, we immediately put it into our theology, so much so that by the end, the theology looks nothing like what we began with. How you can take a passage that states “hold fast the traditions passed down to you” (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and dig so deeply that you can still get “ignore tradition, if it’s not in Scripture then it’s wrong,” is beyond me. How you can read, “I was hungry and you did not feed Me, thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me…depart from Me into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:42-43,41) and read “this is about taking care of those in the Church is equally beyond me. How we can read “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17) and come to the conclusion that there must be no demand of works during the path of salvation, is beyond me. Jesus said, “whoever believes in Me shall have eternal life.” (John 3:16), and also “whoever believes in Me (same word for whoever believes) shall do the same works that I do.” (John 14:12). See, we always go deeper, starting with our own agenda, with our own “denominational guidelines” which have been ingrained into our minds for years, and then go to Scripture to justify it. We take the Scripture and read and dig and dig deeper until we can make it logically make sense, and thereby remove the necessity of faith from our faith, otherwise we wouldn’t need it to logically make sense. Paul warns very strongly about this in his letter to his son in the faith, Timothy, when he writes, “always learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7). Like little children, we begin, we learn the truth, we have a simple faith; but then, as the times dictate, like adults, we want to complicate it, because the more complex we are able to make it, the higher the accolades we can receive for discerning it. And yet, the deeper we dig, the more convoluted we make it, and the further we fall from the truth. Solomon warns us against this very thing, “I gave my heart to know wisdom and knowledge, to learn proverbs and understanding. And this, too, was waywardness of spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 1:17).

I am not saying that we should never mature in our faith, merely that we must be guarded against overcomplicating it. We must grow in a simple faith, but it must remain a simple faith. Our maturity must come from a relationship with God, not merely our knowledge of His scripture. The two must be in tandem. From a conversation about William Tyndale, the statement was made that he acknowledged that in giving the Scripture to the people, he was creating thousands of heresies, and he responded “better to have 10,000 heresies that the truth might prevail.” And I agree with that statement, however, the answer was somewhere in the middle. The answer was not to keep the Scripture out of the hands of people, neither was it to give it to everyone and allow them to do whatever they chose with it. Rather, the right path would have been to have given the Scripture to everyone while still clinging to the traditions of the Church for the interpretation, and allowing the people to check the Scripture, to “test the spirits to see that they are of God.” (1 John 4:1). The purpose of Scripture is to learn about God, to learn His commands and expectations, but not to study it to the point of thinking that knowledge of Scripture is holiness. No, rather, the purpose is to develop a relationship with God, through the Holy Spirit, through the liturgy and through prayer; and through use of the Holy Scripture to test the spirits to make sure that they are truly of God, and to evaluate that you are walking in the faith. So many have mistaken knowledge of God with knowing God, and have mistaken knowledge for maturity. If I can quote Scripture but not apply it, I have become a very well educated pagan. We must remember that Satan himself can quote Scripture better than the most knowledgeable theologian and that, as for faith alone, “even the demons believe and tremble.” (James 2:19).

We need to be like those shepherds in the Gospel of Luke. We need to return to this simple faith, this faith that hears the word of God and obeys it; this faith that trusts the Lord, hears the Lord, and obeys the Lord. We need to look to the Holy Spirit for His guidance, and the Holy Scripture; but also, like the eunuch in his encounter with Philip, we must admit to ourselves that there are things in Scripture that we can not understand without the aid of the Church. The Lord has given us each of the three to aid us in maturing, but in maturing in this simple faith that never evolves into us questioning and arguing over what the Lord “means.” I personally would never be so arrogant as to think that my mind is capable of reading beyond what the Lord says to understand what He “really meant.” And on the day of judgment, as I stand before the Lord, I would much rather say, “Lord, I’m sorry, I took your word too literally,” rather than, “well, y’see, I thought you meant this. Oh, you actually meant it when said I should ‘deny myself?’ I was taught that was a metaphor…”

I heard a teacher recently say, “so I did this talk the other day, and afterwards some guy came up to me and said, ‘man, I could do your job, all you do is read Scripture and then say, “now let’s do it.”‘ and I was like “thank you.”‘” When Jesus calls us to a simple faith, when He tells us that we must become as children, He means, we must become as children, we must have a simple faith. Not overburdened with hermeneutics, not convoluted with theological doctrines; just a faith that hears the word of God and does it, the faith that He tells us is like a man who built His house upon the rock. Study Scripture, learn Scripture, but don’t get so lost in looking at these “deep theological meanings” that you lose sight of what is actually being said. Sometimes, the Lord’s warning that “if you don’t forgive a man who sins against you, then neither will your Father in heaven forgive you your sins,” means that if you don’t forgive the sins of a man who sins against you then the Father won’t forgive you your sins.

Be warned of those who profit from selling theology, for “money is a root of all sorts of evil” and there are so many who see “godliness as a means of gain.” Solomon warns us against this very strongly, “My son, guard yourself, for there is no end to the making of many books, and much study is weariness of the flesh.” We must be ever so careful about those who have acquired wealth teaching theology, because they will recognize that the moment that they get it right, their career is over, and oftentimes they give themselves over to that desire. Consider the self-help industry, thousands of books stating, “the answer is within you, you don’t need anyone else to help you.” If that were true, then there would need be only one such book. Similarly, how many “amazing new insight into the book of Job” books should there be? If one be correct, then all others are idle busyness that could best be used in prayer or in the Holy Scripture. And we must be cautious of forsaking the Church, prayer, communion with God; in the name of expanding knowledge and mistaking it for maturity. To write 100 books on the beatitudes means to find 100 meanings for the beatitudes, but Jesus only had one; the other 99 therefore must be wrong.

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my beloved family.