Tag: Christian Action

What Now?: Love is Born from Faith

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Faith and love are intimately connected in the Christian’s life. To have faith in God is to love God; to love God is to have faith in God. How could one have faith in God and not also love God and what God loves? There’s really no argument about the deep and abiding correlation between the two. However, in this intimate connection a confusion occurs between the two, making them synonyms, one able to replace the other. If this is so then one can love God first prior to faith, making faith a product of love. While this seems a rather logical and benign claim, it ignores human history with God and what all of scripture tells us.

The truth of it is this: we don’t inherently love God, at least not the God who self-discloses as God. We do love the god we make up in our heads and hearts, the one we wallpaper on to God. But do we, apart from faith, really love God for the sake of God? No. We don’t. God in God’s own self is too full of awe, God’s love for us is beyond comprehension, God’s actions and mission collide with and contradict much of what we consider reasonable. Jesus, God’s own son, God of very God, the Word of God incarnate, was rejected by his own people because of these characteristics of divine love flowing in and through him to the people. We like to think we’d be different; I promise you, we wouldn’t be.

However, there’s good news here, and Romans highlights it for us: love is born from faith; to love is faith manifesting itself. And, according to Romans, faith is a gift that is given to us by God in the hearing (however one “hears”) the proclamation of Christ crucified and raised so that we may be justified and made righteous by faith and sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is this basis that Paul works from in the last 1/3 of the letter when he shifts to exhortations of right and good Christian praxis in the world.[ii] It is faith established first that affords Paul the space and foundation to exhort the Romans to love with their whole mind, heart, strength, and soul. It is faith, for Paul, that informs and causes loving deeds that are truly about the beloved and not about the one who does the deeds; it is this faith inspiring love that fulfills the law.

Romans 13:8-14

Halfway through Chapter 13, Paul exhorts the Roman Christians,

Owe nothing to no one, except to love one another. For the one who loves has made full the other law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not kill,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love works not evil for the neighbor; therefore, love is the fullness of the law (vv8-10).

Paul has already anchored the Roman Christians in their justification with God by their faith in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit apart from any work, thus fulfilling the entire first tablet of the Big Ten. Now, he turns to the second tablet, the ethical portion, the commands concerning neighbor. First, the Roman Christians were to avoid being in debt to anyone: temporally and spiritually. They were to pay off what was owed to anyone and avoid participating in the obligations of patronage where one’s existence was dependent on another’s wealth and power, potentially bringing the Roman Christian into conflict with their new community of the body of Christ.[iii] According to Paul, the only thing that the Roman Christian should have as debt is the debt of love and corresponding loving deeds toward and for the neighbor.[iv]

For the Roman Christians, to have faith and, consequently, declare that God is trustworthy and truthful means that those whom God loves the Christian loves, too. One cannot declare God truthful and trustworthy, receive divine grace and mercy, and then deprive those things to the objects of God’s love, the neighbor, “your” neighbor. This is so because faith in God produces love of God, to love God means to love that which and those whom God loves; therefore, if the logic is logicing, then to love God is to love the neighbor and to love the neighbor is to love God.[v] This is why Paul can exhort the Roman Christian to be in debt to others in love, because love born of faith is always looking to serve the beloved. This is also why Paul can boldly declare that love both does not do evil and—all by itself—is the fulfilling of the law, it is how the law is made full (not just once but everyday).[vi]

Why?

Because who, in their right mind, would do anything (intentionally) to harm the one whom they loved? Would one betray one they loved? Would one take the life breath of the one they loved? Would one deprive the one they loved of material goods necessary to live? Would one reduce the one they loved to their possessions? Would one do anything directly or indirectly evil to the one whom they loved? While accidents happen in the life of the Christian and these accidents can impact the ones the Christian loves, what is being addressed here is the intention and impact of the Christian’s actions toward the neighbor, toward the other who is also the apple of God’s eye. Therefore, love cannot intentionally do evil to the neighbor, and, more than the absence of doing evil it proactively provides for the well-being of the neighbor.[vii] (Because there is evil in not acting when and where one can.)

This is why Paul then beseeches the Roman Christians to wake up and lay aside works of darkness and put on the armor of the light. He writes,

Also this, having considered the season, that [it is] already the hour for you to wake up out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we [first] believed. The night is almost gone, but the day has come near. Therefore, let us throw off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of the light. Let us walk decently as in days, not in wasteful celebration and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the coveting of the flesh (vv11-14).

Both knowing and being made aware of the impact of their actions toward the neighbor should (and must!) awaken the Roman Christian into the light of exposure and cause them to change their ways, to repent, to turn, and to press more into their faith[viii] that justifies, eager to be molded into those who are like and represent Christ in word and deed, to the glory of God. Paul is eager for Christians to WAKE UP,[ix] act (at all times[x]) as if they are in the light[xi] seen by all,[xii] and to see how important it is, in their present moment, to act according to the reign of God and resist the impulses of the kingdom of humanity privileging status and power at the expense of the livelihood of the neighbor.[xiii] For when the neighbor is thought of and considered, is prioritized, when their needs are met (in whatever form those needs manifest) then surely God is and will be praised and everything comes full circle: loving deeds born of faith return and nourish the very faith from which they come as the one who believes witnesses and participates in the mission of God going forward to bless the people of the earth, the continued fulfillment of the promise given to Israel through Abraham and Sarah. For Paul, the love born from faith curtails selfish desires[xiv] that thrust the Christian further into indebtedness and/to darkness and prioritizes another’s life, love, and liberation.[xv] It is through faith manifesting as loving deeds for the well-being of the neighbor to the glory of God that the Christian’s allegiance to God and God’s reign is displayed, an allegiance that cannot be shared with the kingdom of humanity.[xvi]

Conclusion

When Paul exhorts the Roman Christians toward love, it is not an exhortation to be nice or kind. It is not about offering a smile or being polite, as great as those things are for human well-being. It is not even an exhortation to the absence of doing harm (even though that is clearly pictured). What Paul is exhorting the Roman Christians toward is a love that actively seeks and brings to fruition the well-being of the neighbor, a love born of faith that brings the very good to those who have not the very good. And by the “very good” I don’t strictly mean the proclamation of Christ (although this is a very good thing). I mean to reach back further to a time when God created everything and called it very good (Gen 1), I mean to bring (in deed) the goodness of the mission of God that results in the robust provision for the neighbor. Thus, to love, according to Paul, is not easy. It’s hard; this is why he speaks of putting on the armor of the light.[xvii] To love the way God loves will square us off and bring us face to face with the anger and resentment of the kingdom of humanity that thrives off death, indifference, and captivity, the kingdom that hates the light preferring the darkness instead (Jn 1). We need the armor of the light as we participate in the divine mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world for the well-being of the neighbor to the glory of God.[xviii] We need faith by which love and all else is added to us.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 224. “From the concern about one’s obligations to external authorities, Paul moves to a discussion about obligations within the community of followers.”

[iii] Lancaster, Romans, 224. “To tell the followers of Rome not to owe anything may have partly meant to make sure they paid what was due (financially and socially), but it may also have discouraged participation in patronage that would saddle them with obligations outside the community of followers.”

[iv] Lancaster, Romans, 224. “Instead of taking on obligations outside the community, the one obligation to which they should commit themselves is to love one another (13:8).”

[v] Lancaster, Romans, 225. “It may also be said that one of the ways we honor God is by treating well the ones that God has created, so the two commandments that Jesus named are not unrelated, and Paul understood that.”

[vi] Lancaster, Romans, 224. “We are under obligation to others, and we do need to obey the law, but the obligation and obedience are both carried out by loving one another. This is what God’s authority requires of us and how we are subject to it.”

[vii] Lancaster, Romans, 226. “Many have seen, then, that the kind of love that fulfills the law is not simply a sentimental emotion, nor is it even simply not doing harm; a proper understanding of this commandment calls us to active caring toward those around us.”

[viii] LW 25:480 “Therefore the works of darkness are the works of those who are asleep in the spirit, in the bad sense, that is, those who are snoring away in the desires of the world—not only those works which are popularly thought to be evil but also those which are considered good, and yet are evil because of the inner evil, for men do them without the watchfulness of faith.”

[ix] Lancaster, Romans, 227. Acts of darkness, things done at night, “For people in Rome, excessive behavior at evening feasts was common practice, and excessive behavior often leads to quarrels and strife. Such behavior was common in the order of the empire as it is in other times, and places, but this order is passing away.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 228. “Knowing the time, then, does not mean having in mind a date of a future occurrence but rather becoming aware of how our history is relativized by the eternal God. In every. Moment, we must be mindful of the Day.”

[xi] Lancaster, Romans, 227. “The passing of the old order means that we no longer have the cover of darkness and secrecy, so we should live at all times with the honor and integrity that can bear the scrutiny of day.”

[xii] Lancaster, Romans, 227. “Even in the twilight, they must live as if they day were fully light.”

[xiii] Lancaster, Romans, 226. “Paul is telling the followers of Jesus in Rome that the time in which they are living is a critical time, so they should be alert.”

[xiv] LW 25:111fn11 “But it does more good to the one loved, because this is the nature of love, that it favors in a good way and does good, even if it suffers evil and is hated.”

[xv] Lancaster, Romans, 228. “Paul’s point is not about hurtful self-denial. Rather, they say it is about excess and letting the desires rules us so that our aim in life is to gratify them. The desires of the former way of life—and they include mor than physical desires (for instance, desiring honor)—should not rule us. This Lord overturns the expectations and gratifications of the old order.”

[xvi] Lancaster, Romans, 229. “The constancy of this demand requires us to ask in every moment where our allegiance lies, and whether or not we are displaying our allegiance to Jesus Christ in our thoughts and actions.”

[xvii] Lancaster, Romans, 227. “The idea that what one needs to wear for the coming day is weaponry suggests that the dawning of a new day with a new order will bring struggle.”

[xviii] LW 25:112fn14 “He creates a remarkable antithesis whereby the places ‘light’ and ‘darkness,’ ‘works’ and ‘armor’ in juxtaposition. And this is surely true, because the life of the new law is a battle and a war, and therefore we need armor.”

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Faith Fuels Audacity (sermon for St. Luke’s)

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

When I was first Christian, I had this (mis)understanding that faith would be this thing that added flavor to my regular day in and day out, that I’d be even more fine with life (whatever it was before I had faith). Fatih returned me to my life and just made me more easy going about it all. It was embedded in the evangelical culture that surrounded me, texts, discussions with peers over coffee, and littered throughout the youth material I was exposed to while helping to lead youth group. Faith wasn’t about changing anything around me, it was about changing my attitude and posture towards the things around me. Essentially, “having faith” was synonymous with “actively choosing” to be always happy even when things turned toward not-so-happy. I had to be always happy and always clappy. To be anything short was a lack of faith. Faith had nothing to do with activity of justice in the world.

But that’s a very wrong idea of faith. It’s wrong for wo reasons: 1. faith is dynamic and not static; and 2. Faith has nothing to do with choice but with trust that seems to be born from the void. In no way, shape, or form does faith return you to the status quo in which it encountered you. Faith isn’t an affirmation of your current experiences. To have faith means to encounter God and to encounter God necessarily means to be moved from something old and dead into something new and alive. And this faith isn’t something we do but something that is done to us; thus, when we encounter God and hear our names called by this God in God’s incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, faith comes to us from the outside and finds home in our hearts and minds by the power of the Holy Spirit, much like mercy, grace, and forgiveness do.

This is the point of Lent (or one of the points of Lent). Lent is a moment in liturgical time that asks us to come to the end of ourselves and find ourselves flung upon God and God’s mercy and grace. Lent, week by week, pries one finger at a time off the rope we are clinging to justify ourselves and make ourselves important in our own eyes (and the eyes of others) until the couple of fingers that are left cannot hold our weight, and we are forced to let go and fall into the void we are terrified to fall into. But in that darkness lives not a leviathan eager to consume us, but God ready to catch us and consecrate us into a new life on new ground participating in the mission of God by faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 12:1-4a

“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

Chapter 12 in Genesis follows a colorful series of events: A loving God’s creation of everything from nothing, from the biggest to the smallest and everything in between (Gen 1), the establishment that community—with all of its similarities and diversities—is the best representation of God’s being in the world (Gen 2), fierce cherubim and seraphim blocking off all access and reentrance to the Garden of Eden after the rather fateful “applegate” and subsequent curses (Gen 3), the first murder (Gen 4), various human civilizations being established (Gen 5), the appearance of the Nehphilim (the byproduct of the Sons of God knowing the Daughters of Humanity) (Gen 6:1-6), a massive and destructive flood (Gen 6:7-8:22), a rainbow of divine promise (Gen 9), and the Tower of Babel (Gen 11). It’s here, at this point in the story, where God (once again) begins anew, moving from a general approach to a specific approach: God will call one person, not for any other reason than God’s love for the whole world.[ii] Promise eclipses condemnation; salvation triumphs over judgment.[iii]

God’s promises and blessing to Abram suggests a reversal of the curses uttered just chapters earlier.[iv] These blessings and promises highlight that Abram has done nothing to receive them; they come as a “bolt from the blue.”[v] The idea that God cannot be with God’s beloved as a result of the fall back in Genesis 3 is rendered myth. God calls Abram and blesses him; where Adam, Eve, and the serpent leave behind paradise, Abram is invited into it: paradise is union with God. Herein is the foundation for the claim that the curses are being reversed: by God’s love, Abram will be a great nation (many children, one of whom will be the Messiah, the promised child of Genesis 3) and this nation will be a blessing to the rest of the world.[vi],[vii]

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.

In this moment of hearing the divine summons, Abram goes from a childless old man to the parent of many; here Abram becomes a new person, a new being by the Word of God summoning him to God’s self and thus into new life.[viii] And not a new self for his own sake. In hearing of the divine summons, Abram is ushered into a new life for others.[ix] This other-orientated characteristic of his new life will become part of his new identity in God and with God as he becomes a conduit for God to bless other nations.[x] And in our context, the overflow of blessing and promise has already started: as Abram responds to God and finds his new life in God, Lot goes with him into this new thing.[xi]

Abram’s encounter with God in the event of faith sent him on the way; it moved him from his old life defined by his old patterns and actions into a new life defined by new patterns and actions. God’s promise and good word called him out of and moved him from the ways of the kingdom of humanity into new life defined by the reign of God.[xii] Through no work of his own or deservedness, Abram is called out of death into life, [xiii] and receives all righteousness by faith[xiv] alone (sola fides).[xv] The bareness that once defined Abram’s (and Sarai’s) life—a bareness that symbolized not only a lack of promise[xvi] but a lack of lively living and the absence of hope—is now replaced with faith clinging to the promise of God resulting in the active fruit born of faith trusting in God’s action toward Abram and Sarai.[xvii] And it is this faith on the move with the God who seeks after the beloved that will provoke God’s glory to be hallowed by the neighbor who is so loved[xviii] by those who, like Abram and Sarai, live and act by faith and participate in God’s mission of justice[xix] and the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation.[xx]

Conclusion

Faith is not a return to or affirmation of what was; it can’t be because it is born of God and not of humanity. (Humanity prefers the known and old; God is always on the move, doing something new.) When we acquire faith, we acquire all of God and that means (definitively) we acquire something new, something different, something (even at times) strange from what we have known. Faith is not our own work that brings us up into the light where everything becomes clear and discernable. Faith is the work of God summoning us down into the dark, into the void, into the depths of trust. Faith renders us fools and stumbling blocks to those who dominate by the wisdom and reason of the kingdom of humanity. Faith beckons us (always) into something new…not a new God but a new encounter with God that moves us and provokes us to new life that is bedazzled by the new fruit of the reign of God. Faith moved Abram into being a blessing to the nations (and not only for his own). Thus, while the one who receives faith is passive in the reception, they do not stay passive; they become active because faith does not know stillness and idleness and is eager to work itself out in loving deeds for the neighbor’s well-being (being blessed) and to the glory of God (God being blessed by the neighbor).

To have faith isn’t always about having confidence and certainty about events and situations in the world. Even if by faith we can be certain of God’s disposition and posture toward us, we cannot be certain that things of the world will go our way or the way we want. (And often they won’t.) What faith does do, though, is give us the daring energy and praxis in the world to call forth and pull into the kingdom of humanity the reign of God—whenever and wherever it is needed and demanded. It fuels the audacity of our participation in the mission of God which is the bringing forth of divine justice in the world. Faith is the bedrock and foundation of our active pursuit of love where there is indifference, of liberation where there is captivity, and life where there is death.

(Portions of the middle were edited versions from this sermon: https://laurenrelarkin.com/2023/03/05/nothing-seems-to-satisfy-craving-identity/)

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Levenson, “Genesis” The Jewish Study Bible: Featuring the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation. Eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 30.    “The universalism that marked Gen. chs 1-11 having now failed, the Lord begins anew, singling out one Mesopotamian—in no way distinguished from his peers as yet—and promising to make of him a great nation, not numbered in the seventy nations of ch. 10.”

[iii] Miguel A. De La Torre, Genesis, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 142. “This biblical passage….bridges the story of human rebellion with the story of human promise, the story of God’s judgment with the story of God’s salvation.”

[iv] Levenson, “Genesis” The Jewish Study Bible, 30. “What the Lord promises Abram (his name is changed to ‘Abraham’ only in ch 17)—land, numerous offspring, and blessing—constitutes to an extent a reversal of some of the curses on Adam and Eve—exile, pain in childbirth, and uncooperative soil…”

[v] Levenson, “Genesis” The Jewish Study Bible, 30. “The twin themes of land and progeny inform the rest of the Torah. In Gen. ch 12, these extraordinary promises come like a bolt from the blue, an act of God’s grace alone; no indication has been given as to why or even whether Abram merits them.”

[vi] LW 2 (Luther’s Works Vol 2 “Lectures on Genesis Chapters 6-14” Ed. Jaroslav Pelikan. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia, 1960.) 246. “…Moses reminds his people that they were chosen by the Lord, not because they had deserved this but because the Lord had loved them and was keeping the oath that had been given to their fathers? In this passage we see that the beginnings are in agreement with the end. For what is Abraham except a man who nears God when He calls him, that is, a merely passive person and merely the material on which divine mercy acts?”

[vii] De la Torre, Genesis, 145-146. “Because Abram obeys, God promises to make him (not Sarai) a great nation, blessing him and making his name so famous that future generations will use it as a blessing. Unlike those who solely rely on their own abilities, set out to make a name for themselves (Babel), and fail (1:4), Abram discovers that obedience to God is what makes on famous.”

[viii] LW 2 247. “Thus, as I said above, Abraham is merely the material that the Divine Majesty seizes through the Word and forms into a new human being and into a patriarch, And so this rule is universally true, that of himself man is nothing, is capable of nothing, and has nothing except sin, death, and damnation; but through His mercy Almighty God brings it about that he is something and is freed from sin, death…”

[ix] De La Torre, Genesis, 142. “Even though God chooses one people, the promise made to God’s chosen exhibits caring for all of humanity, for they too can partake in the blessing. The God of Abram is not limited to this one family, this one clan, this one tribe. Abram’s God is the God through which all nations can find a blessing because Abram’s God is the God of all nations.”

[x] LW 2 258-259. “Here is presented the amazing promise that this people will not only be increased among itself and be blessed materially and spiritually, but that the blessing will also overflow to the neighboring nations and peoples. This happened to the Pharaoh in Egypt.”

[xi] LW 2 275. “Behold God’s marvelous counsel! The promise pertained to Abraham only, not to Lot. Nevertheless, God attaches Lot, like a proselyte, to Abraham as his companion and moves his heart so that he wants to go into exile with his uncle rather than remain in his native country among the idolaters. This is because the promise given to Abraham be blessed with his descendants, it him others would become partakers of the blessing, even though the promise did not properly pertain to them.”

[xii] De la Torre, Genesis, 145. “The call of Abram becomes the call of all who choose to follow God. All who are to follow the Divine must leave their old life behind and follow toward a new creation.”

[xiii] De la Torre, Genesis, 145. “Abram’s hand was on the plow, and he did not look back. He obeyed and left, breaking with tradition and the past. There were no preconditions before God called or chose Abram. Unlike Noah, we are not told that God chose Abram because he was righteous or just. Indeed, as Abram’s life unfolds, we discover a very flawed man. Nevertheless, God chose him.”

[xiv] LW 2:267. “Therefore faith is an active, difficult, and powerful thing. If we want to consider what it really is, it is something that is done to us rather than something that we do; for it changes the heart and mind. And while reason is wont to concern itself with the things that are present, faith apprehends the things that are not present and, contrary to reason, regards them as being present.”

[xv] De la Torre, Genesis, 145. “Abram did not need to first change his life or become more acceptable to God before being chosen. All he did to make himself worthy of God was obey. Abram’s obedience becomes the foundation of faith.”

[xvi] De la Torre, Genesis, 143. Ref. Walter Brueggemann “…[Sarai’s] barrenness symbolizes a people without promise.”

[xvii] De la Torre, Genesis, 143-144. “As Bruegemann states, barrenness is the way of human history, an effective metaphor for hopelessness; but in the arena of barrenness, God’s life-giving action takes place.”

[xviii] De la Torre, Genesis, 146. “God’s purpose for the world will rely on this one man and his descendants, a difficult task since he and Sarai are advanced in years and she is barren. Any hope of fulfilling the promise will only be attributed to a miracle from God.”

[xix] De la Torre, Genesis, 147. “If God is a God of justice, then all who are committed to justice are a blessing to the one who God chooses to exemplify justice, even if at times they fall short. Only when we practice justice can we call Abram our spiritual father and be grafted onto the vine.”

[xx] De la Torre, Genesis, 146-147. “We bless Abram, and God, by doing what God requires of us. And what does God requires or us? He requires us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Mic. 6:8). Justice cannot take place on an individual basis. Community is needed if justice is to occur, if loving mercy is to happen. Hence the call of God for Abram to be an example of God’s justice requires the establishment of a people, of a nation; thus Abram must have descendants.”

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A Disciple or One of the Crowd?

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Matthew 5:1-12

Matthew begins by telling us that Jesus after seeing crowd went up/ascended up the mountain; after he sat down his disciples came to him. And after opening his mouth he was teaching them saying… (v1-2). Jesus pulls back a bit. Matthew doesn’t tell us why he creates distance between himself and the crowd, but only that he does. Most likely, Jesus aims to teach something (pointed and specific) to his disciples about what is expected of them. So, Jesus ascends a mountain to give himself (and thus his disciples) some distance from the crowd. What follows is primarily for the disciples of Christ (his own who came to him) and only then, secondarily, for the overhearing crowd who followed the disciples and overheard the teaching.[ii] Thus, what Jesus teaches his disciples must be understood as an expected characteristic of their life in the world; Matthew is intentionally drawing Jesus and the disciples up and out to focus the narrative spotlight on them. This teaching isn’t for the average passerby or casually interested; it’s for those who are called to be disciples, the ones empowered by faith and the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s representatives in the world to the glory of God and well-being of the neighbor.

So, what does Jesus teach his disciples that the crowd overhears?

  1. Blessed [are] the beggarly poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven (v3).

Who are the “beggarly poor in spirit”? Matthew is not setting up a dichotomy between those who have materially naught and those who have spiritually naught. Matthew has in mind the very same people Luke does, the poor. These are the “‘anawim’”; translated from the Hebrew, these are “‘the poor of Yahweh,’” those who find themselves captive to sin (in themselves) and the sin of the kingdom of humanity holding them hostage (in other words these are the “oppressed”; there is no Greek word that neatly translates the Hebrew).[iii] The blessed here are the ones who cry out to God for liberation and long for the kingdom of heaven, exhausted and fatigued by dehumanizing rules and demands of the kingdom of humanity. The “beggarly poor in spirit” are the ones who Jesus then mentions in the following “blessed” statements: the mourners, the gentle, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the merciful, the clear of heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and his representatives who will live in the world as he did and who will suffer like he did.[iv] To these “beggarly poor in spirit” will be given the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God that will liberate them from death, indifference, and captivity. Jesus exhorts his disciples to see that around them are those who do not fit into the status quo, those who are rejected and pushed out, those who are scapegoated by the powerful and mighty, those who are exiled and deported; it is these, Jesus tells his disciples, who will be heard and answered by God through Christ’s representatives inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit.

  • Blessed [are] the ones who mourn, because they, they will be comforted (v4).

This one is straight forward: those who mourn for loss and in grief and sorrow will be comforted. The mourners are the widows who find themselves afraid and scared, thrust into a situation of precarious dependency on agencies and institutions for their well-being. They are the children who do not know what has happened to their parents. They are the ones who carry the burden of remembering a life cut short too soon and too early, life lost in the wake of impulsive and deadly actions of the kingdom of humanity. Those who lose in the game of health and wealth; their deaths are mourned for. Jesus promises that these who mourn will be comforted; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, that which is to come, that which is being born through Christ’s disciples and representatives, those who are eager to see life, love, and liberation reign.[v]

  • Blessed [are] the gentle/humble, because they, they will inherit the earth (v5).

In our understanding of the world (the ideologies that are resonant with the kingdom of humanity) it is the powerful and mighty who take ownership of the land, those who initiate and win wars dedicated to taking lands and nations unto themselves, causing their empire to grow in presence and stature. But Jesus says something different: it is not the powerful and mighty who inherit the earth, but the gentle, the humble, or we could say “the beggarly poor in spirit.”[vi] Why? Why does Jesus flip the expectation? Because it is not the powerful and mighty who are the trustworthy, but those who put themselves aside to take up the cause of the earth—flora, fauna, humanity, and creation.

  • Blessed [are] the ones who hunger and thirst for justice; [vii] because they, they will be filled (v6).

Jesus then promises that the ones who hunger and thirst for justice will be filled. God is on the side of the hungry and thirsty, for those who are hungry and thirsty desire and call out for justice which is God’s justice.[viii] It is also those who advocate (in word and deed) on behalf of the hungry and thirsty and strive for justice to be done in the world who find God on their side. The disciples of Christ are to be driven by a hermeneutic of hunger for God and God’s justice to be done on earth as it is in heaven for the well-being of the neighbor.

  • Blessed [are] the merciful/compassionate, because they, they will be shown mercy/will have mercy by God’s grace (v7).

A trademark characteristic of the disciples of Christ is connected to the pursuit of justice: mercy, compassion. It is not a blind reverence and obedience to the law, executing harsh judgment and deadly punishment for noncompliance. Those who dare to wear the name of Christ, those who have faith, those who are participants in the grace of God are those so called to be patient, discerning, calm, and (most of all) merciful. Just like justice, mercy does not set out to harm but to cause to flourish. For in showing mercy they receive mercy from God.

  • Blessed [are] the clear of heart, because they, they will see God (v8).

One may expect this to come first. But it doesn’t. For only the clear of heart are those who do not carry internal burdens of dissonance, shame, and guilt; these ones are aligned—inner to the outer and with God and God’s will. Thus, why they will (and do) see God. Only those who attempt to find a compromise or live according to the tenets of the kingdom of humanity while claiming Christ are considered the “unclear of heart” who, then, cannot see God.

  • Blessed [are] the peacemakers/peaceable, because they, they will be called [children] of God (v9).

To be a maker of peace is to be one who causes peace to happen amid conflict and tension. It is not done by threat or condemnation, it is not obtaining security by means of might and power, it is not done by being the biggest and the strongest. It is done through humility seeking justice; it is done through mercy and patience; it is done through vulnerability and risk. No military of the kingdom of humanity will ever be able to bring peace; security maybe—but only temporarily—but not peace and real safety. It is the ones who strive for peace and unity by means of love, mercy, humility, and justice that can expect to be the children of God.[ix] Like children do, they carry with them (inside and out) the genetic traits of their parents. And in this instance that parent is Abba God and to make peace is to bring divine justice into the world.

  • Blessed [are] the ones who have been persecuted on account of justice, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven (v10).

To pursue the justice of the reign of God as children of God will pit the disciples of Christ against the forces of the kingdom of humanity. [x] This is not persecution because one sides with traditional ideologies or the status-quo of the kingdom of humanity; this is persecution because you dare to be a midwife for the divine reign of God being born into the world. These ones who are so persecuted are already in the kingdom of heaven.[xi]

  • Blessed are you when they might insult you and they might persecute [you] and they might say all evil against you, lying on account of me. Be glad and exult, because much is your reward in the heavens; for in this way they persecuted the prophets those before you (v11-12).

This statement targets the disciples directly (moving it to a direct address with “you”). If they weren’t paying attention before, they are now. Jesus prophesies that they will be persecuted as they pursue God’s justice in the world in the name of Christ and just as Christ will be persecuted for the very same thing.[xii] Those who are persecuted for pursuing justice, for thirsting and hungering after God’s justice are those who follow Christ and will be persecuted because of his name and this pursuit. They are, by default, guilty of bearing into the world the collision of the reign of God with the kingdom of humanity in the name of Jesus and will be treated like he was treated and as the prophets before were treated. Jesus is linking—through himself—those who follow Christ in Christ’s name are the same as the prophets who came before. It is these prophets (past, present, and future) who declare the reign of God comes and who denounce the present controlled by the kingdom of humanity.[xiii] They will be persecuted. But they are to take heart, their reward is the kingdom of heaven because the kingdom of heaven is for the “beggarly poor of spirit.”

Conclusion

We are faced with a question in this moment: are we the disciples of Christ or just the crowd? Are we being addressed by Jesus’s sermon here, or are we overhearing? Discern your answer because how you answer will determine how you walk away from this sermon and what you do with the commands therein and the grace so promised by God and received by faith.[xiv],[xv]

To be a follower of Christ, a disciple and representative, offers not ease and comfort but blessedness. [xvi] The life of faith is not a solitary endeavor, one relegated to isolated mountaintops and singular experiences of worship one hour each Sunday. The life of faith is not meant to take the believer up and out but to push that believer down and in, it is an incarnated faith that is active in love, that is eager to show itself in loving deeds to benefit the neighbor and bring glory to God, it is to be the body broken bearing into the world the reign of God. To be a follower of Christ, a disciple and representative, is to be left without recourse to compromise with this world and it’s fractured and misdirected human rule; to follow Christ out of the Jordan—to be baptized into his baptism (both of water and Spirit)—is to be positioned—forever—at odds with the way things are because they know, by the Word, what should and could be. The disciples and representatives of Christ—not the crowd in general—are called to a higher level of righteousness of the reign of God that is in opposition to the errant righteousness celebrated by the kingdom of humanity.[xvii]

This is both very good news and very hard news.

While our faith does bring us assurance—all who believe are saved and all are the beloved of God—those daring to live out that faith—those “foolish” enough to follow Christ out of the Jordan—will find themselves in the paradox of blessedness and persecution.[xviii] For, “[t]he gospel of the love of God is…good news for sinners, but it is not nice news without any confrontation with human sinfulness for what it really is, a nothing.”[xx] There is absolutely no way for the disciple and representative of Christ to see the pain of the world, to feel the pain of the world and not speak up and not act even if it means being brought to our own end. The life of faith brings discontent and confrontation with the kingdom of humanity; the life of faith—eyes and ears, and hands and heart set on the bringing forth of the reign of God—will cause us to “quarrel” with and “chaff against” the current reality under the rule of the kingdom of humanity.[xix]

But the good, good word, Beloved, is that in all this heaviness of being called to be a disciple of Christ means that God is with us; we labor not alone but with Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. And if God is for us, then who, I ask, can be against us?

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Anna Case-Winters, Matthew Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible Eds Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 76.

[iii] Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname, translated by Donald D. Walsh (Eugene: Wipf&Stock, 2010), 82. “I said that in the Bible the poor are often called anawim, which in Hebrew means ‘the poor of Yahweh.’ They are so called because they are the poor of the liberation of Yahweh, those that God is going to liberate by means of the Messiah. It’s like what we now understand as the ’oppressed,’ but in the Bible those poor people are also considered to be good people, honorable, kindly and holy, while their opposites are the oppressors, the rich, the proud, the impious. This word anawim was probably the one that Jesus used. In Greek there was no word like that, and when the Gospel of Matthew was translated into Greek that word was translated as ‘poor in spirit,’ whereas Luke in his Beatitudes as simply ‘the poor.’ This phrase of Matthew, ‘poor in spirit,’ has created confusion, and many have believed that it deals with spiritual poverty. And I said that I met a priest who said that the ‘poor in spirit’ were the good rich people.”

[iv] Cardenal, Solentiname, 85. “I said: ‘The other Beatitudes seem to be only other ways of saying the same thing. In all of them the same poor people are spoken of by other names, and what they promise is the same thing.’”

[v] Cardenal, Solentiname, 86. “…Felipe…: ‘We can be happy about the news that the Kingdom is coming, but we can’t be satisfied until it comes.’”

[vi] Cardenal, Solentiname, 86. “Rebecca: ‘And he blesses those of humble heart. It seems to me that these are the poor in heart or the humbled. Maybe they were even humbler before (that’s my idea anyway) and yet for God they were the most worthy. People shouldn’t feel sad, then, even though they are poor, poor in spirit or humbled, because God will bring them into the Promised Land, which is the kingdom. But those of proud heart will not enter.’”

[vii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 76. “The righteousness to which the Sermon on the mount calls people is not a sinless perfection but a calling to do justice and love mercy (tsedaqah). Matthew is the only synoptic Gospel that uses the word dikaiosynē, or justice. Five of his seven uses are here in the Sermon on the mount. Clearly it is an important theme for him tin understanding Jesus’ central message. To ‘know God’ is to do Justice (Jer. 22:15-16).”

[viii] Cardenal, Solentiname, 86. “Marcelino: ‘He blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice. Hunger and injustice amount to the same thing. Anyone who hungers for good also hungers for justice. They are the ones who are going to make social change, not the satisfied ones. And then they’ll be filled with bread and social justice.’”

[ix] Cardenal, Solentiname, 88. “Oscar: ‘If I’m trying to have one person not exploit the other, I am one who is looking for peace. He says that people who look for peace will be the children of God, because they look for unity, that we should all be brothers and sisters. It’s clear that the kingdom of God belongs only to the children of God.’”

[x] Cardenal, Solentiname, 88. “Alejandro: ‘And he says that they are going to be persecuted because they seek justice, and for that also he blesses them.’”

[xi] Case-Winters, Matthew, 77. “The blessings are directed toward those who have certain disposition and inclination to act in ways consistent with God’s will rather than toward those who have a particular circumstance or status. Matthew is taking an ethical perspective.”

[xii] Cardenal, Solentiname, 89. “Olivia: ‘Before he talked of people persecuted for looking for justice and now he says ‘because of me.’ He wants to point out that it’s the same thing. Everyone who is persecuted in the cause of justice is persecuted in his cause.’”

[xiii] Cardenal, Solentiname, 89. William: ‘And Jesus compares us with the prophets. The prophets in the Bible were not so much people who predicted the future as people who denounced the present.’”

[xiv] Case-Winters, Matthew, 74. “Perhaps the Sermon on the mount strikes a better balance between God’s grace and human action than this question suggests. It is true that it is full of commands to do God’s will and ‘bear fruit,’ but right alongside these are promise of divine mercy and blessing along the way. These are intertwined throughout.”

[xv] Case-Winters, Matthew, 75-76. “In the Sermon on the Mount, this twofold grace is exemplified. Grace and calling to obedience intertwine. They are not a before and after. The law is not primarily a judge that convicts us of sin; it is primarily a guide for life in relation to God and neighbor. It is already an expression of God’s grace to us. … The law is a good gift of God in its role as a guide for living. To live in this way is to already experience the hoped for reign of God. The new relationship with God that Jesus exemplifies is open now for all who would follow him.”

[xvi] Case-Winters, Matthew, 77-78. “Those who have ‘crossed over’ to radical commitment do not find a life of ease and luxury; they find a life of blessedness instead.”

[xvii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 78. “The phrases of the beatitudes may well have reference not only to discipleship attitudes but to minority social position (those who are meek, poor in spirit, hungering and thirsting for righteousness/justice). That would be consistent with the warnings elsewhere in Matthew (6:19-21) concerning the danger that wealth and power present to the higher righteousness which the disciples are called.”

[xviii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 76-77. “The first four beatitudes declare blessing for those who were traditionally understood as being defended by God: the poor, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness/justice. The second set blesses those who do what is right by being merciful and pure in heart, making peace and enduring the persecution that attends following in the way of Jesus Christ. When one’s life is characterized by the attributes highlighted in the beatitudes, two things are assured: blessedness on the one hand and persecution on the other.”

[xix] Case-Winters, Matthew, 78. “If we would—even now—live under the reign of God, there are implications. The alternative reality will chaff against the present reality. To love as God loves is to be discontented with the present reality…In our discontent, we may pray with William Sloane Coffin, ‘Because we love the world…we pray now…for grace to quarrel with it, O Thou Whose lover’s quarrel with the world is the history of the world…’”

[xx] Paul Hinlicky, “A Synopsis of Theodor Dieter, Der june Luther und Aristotle: Eine historisch-systematische Untersuchung zum Verhältnis von Theologie und Philosophie (Berlin & NY: Walter de Gruyter, 2001), 19. online article; page number based on printout.

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It’s Both/And

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]

Introduction

Our spirituality often gets forced into a binary: it’s completely earthly or it’s totally otherworldly. Either we’re completely consumed with the things and events of this world bearing the burden that it’s our responsibility to fix and mend, or we turn two blind eyes to the fires and tumults burning and occurring around us and stare heavenward convinced that one day God will suddenly make everything right.

I think human beings love binaries because they seem easy to navigate. Isn’t it just easier to live as if all of this is right and all of that is wrong? If everything is determined in its substance to be 100% good or 100% bad, then our choices will be clear, and we’ll (always) know what to choose and when to choose it (or not). The thing is that this line and way of thinking is exhausting because it removes us from having any control over ourselves and the things presenting to us asking for our action. It’s exhausting because we aren’t the ones in control but are being controlled. It’s exhausting because we’re under the subjection of toil, of the “shoulds”, of the “having to prove our righteousness through our works” or the lack thereof.

But human beings don’t work this way and certainly don’t work best this way. We thrive when we ourselves in distinction from our temporal or spiritual allegiances, when we have a bit more alterity regarding our self-expression and self-determination, when we take a moment, catch our breath, and see and hear what’s needed in the moment. Rarely are moments in life demanding my response so crystal clear, black and white, good or bad; often, there are too many factors needing to be considered, most importantly considering any other person in the mix beside myself.

This is why I think Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, is exceptionally helpful here; even if passages such as the one below are used to affirm radical departures from the temporal realm to the spiritual life; that’s not what Paul is advocating for. Rather, the Christian is the epicenter of both the spiritual and temporal realms, working out their spirituality in the temporal realm while bringing the temporal needs of their neighbor into the spiritual realm through prayer. And all of it is about looking to and keeping our eyes fixed on Christ.

Colossians 3:1-11

Paul begins chapter 3 with, Since it is the case that you were raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Keep setting your mind on the things above, not on the things upon the earth… (vv.1-2). In the previous chapter, Paul mentioned that the Colossians identifed with Christ in his death; now, he balances the equation: if you have died with Christ then you can identify with Christ in Christ’s resurrection. For Paul, the Christian journey by faith and deeds is not only about dying to the old self and to the world and its deeds, but it’s fundamentally about taking hold of—orienting oneself toward—the resurrected life because those who identify with Christ in his death also identify with Christ in his resurrection. The Christian life is not merely a set of do-nots, but a big, robust set of do-pleases![2] Paul expects the Christians he teaches to be those who have one foot in the death of Christ and one in the resurrection of Christ. It is the Christian, for Paul, who operates by and through divine grace: she’s not the one who rejects the world or finds herself consumed by it; rather, she’s the one who is oriented toward Christ[3] and infused with God’s grace[4] that she’s compelled to walk in the steps of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in the world.[5] What this entails is a new perspective, one that is informed by the things above most of which/whom is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ sitting at the right hand of God.[6] With this new perspective so inspired by the death and resurrection (and ascension) of Christ, it’s the Christian (having died and continually dying to the old self) who is the one who can navigate the treacherous way through the world avoiding all those ideologies of the kingdom of humanity demanding complete devotion and manipulating through fear and anger.[7],[8] Thus why Paul then says, …for you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. Whenever Christ, your life, might appear at that time you, you will be revealed in glory with him (vv.3-4). Their identification with Christ will cause the Colossians to walk differently in the world, but their reward lay not in popularity within the kingdom of humanity (which will probably hate them for moving against the status-quo), but in the glory they’ll receive when they’re revealed as God’s own through Christ and by the Holy Spirit.[9]

Having spiritually and theologically described the way the Colossians now identify with Christ in his death and resurrection while living in the world,[10] Paul spells it out for them. He writes, Therefore, you put to death the members that are of the earth: fornication, impurity, inordinate affection, coveting evil, and covetousness which is idolatry, through these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (vv.5-6). What Paul wants the Colossians to consider is that they’re now representatives of Christ and in being such, certain actions must be refused.[11] To (intentionally) persist in such activities is to incur the wrath of God, says Paul, which is none other than earning the rewards of such chosen behaviors.[12] (Keep in mind that all of the listed actions to avoid are all actions causing violence against someone else and the self, actions that cause oneself to degrade its dignity of humanity and that of another.[13] ,[14]) These “taboo” actions may have defined and described their lives before their encounter and identification with Christ by faith and God’s gift of grace, but now they are antithetical to the new life of the representative of Christ; the Colossians must, even if it takes a while, work against that old Adam who is such a good swimmer.[15] Thus why Paul writes, In which things you, you also once walked when you were living in that [life]. But now you, you take off all these things: wrath, rage, wickedness, blaspheming, abusive language out of your mouth, not lying to one another; stripping off from oneself the old person with its practices and put on [oneself] the new, the one who is being renovated into knowledge according to the image of the one who created them… (vv.7-10).

What does this new, renovated life walking in the identification with and representation of Christ look like for the Colossians in the positive sense of their being raised with Christ? Unity in distinction. [16] Paul writes, where there cannot be “Greek and Jewish”, “circumcision and uncircumcision”, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but all things and in all things Christ (v.11). For those who are yoked to Christ through faith and by God’s grace, there must be no hierarchies and divisions of human beings that relegate some to dignity and others not.[17] Paul has exhorted the Colossian Christians to live in the world in a new way reflecting the economy and politics of their God who so loved the whole world that God became incarnate in Jesus the Christ the one who is the power of all powers and in whom all things of the earth find their life.[18] It’s this incarnated experience that the Colossian Christians are to emulate in their new life[19] oriented toward Christ[20] and empowered by the Holy Spirit. These are to be in the world as Christ was and now is through their witness.[21]

Conclusion

We, like the Colossians, must be reminded that our faith and deeds as Christians in the world are beautiful and messy mixes of the spiritual and temporal; we, like the Colossians, have one foot in the spiritual realm and one in the temporal realm. Where we pray doesn’t mean we won’t act; it just means that our prayers shape and form our actions in the world, in that moment, toward that need. Where we act doesn’t mean we don’t pray, but that we must so that we keep Christ as our goal. Where the world is burning doesn’t mean we should let it because we know that Christ is in control and will one day redeem the whole kit and kaboodle. Rather, knowing that Christ is all in all, we should be that much more motivated to take up our part in the healing and nurturing of our world and the lives of our neighbors.

Do you know what the neatest thing about our faith in Christ is? It’s that it’s eager to work itself out in loving deeds toward the world and for the well-being of our neighbors to the glory of God. Why is this? Because our faith is in the incarnate Word of God, God’s own Son who came as God to be in the world in human flesh to bring God and humanity and the world closer together. Therefore, we get to participate in this mission of God and bring the spiritual realm into the temporal realm by our actions in the world while bringing the temporal realm into the spiritual through our actions by faith in worship and prayer. It is not either/or; it is both/and.

[1] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[2] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Commentary on the Greek Text, TNIGTC, eds., I. Howard Marshall, W. Ward Gasque, Donald A. Hagner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 203. “The event of death-and-resurrection was two-sided for Christ himself (2:15); a message of the cross without the resurrection would not be gospel, and a call to embrace the implications of the cross without a call also to embrace the implications of the resurrection would be poor teaching. So here: it was not enough to remind the Colossian recipients of the lifestyle and religious praxis that they no longer do or need follow out; that would have been too much like the ‘Do not’s characteristic of the Colossian Jews’ praxis (2:21). The message of the resurrection has equally positive corollaries for the believer’s daily life, which have to be spelled out to provide a sufficient counterweight to the evident attractiveness of the more traditional Jeish lifestyle…”

[3] Dunn, Colossians, 205. “The consequences for the Christian perspective are thus also clear. If Jesus, the Christ, is so highly favored and acknowledged to be God’s ‘right hand man,’ with all the power and authority to effect God’s will and to protect his own which is implicit in that claim, then Christian life should be entirely oriented by reference to this Christ.”

[4] Dunn, Colossians, 203. 3.1 Change of perspective, “It is the sort of change which follows form complete identification with another person or cause, when the service of that person or cause becomes all-consuming the basic determiner of all priorities, the bubbling spring of a motivation, resolution, and application which perseveres despite even repeated setbacks….What the Pauline gospel offered and emphasized by means of its passive formulations was the promise that the change was not self-contrived but rather enabled and brought about by divine grace, the same divine grace which had raised Jesus form the dead…”

[5] Dunn, Colossians, 205. What is commended here is “…a cast of mind, a settled way of looking at things, a sustained devotion to and enactment of a life cause.”

[6] Dunn, Colossians, 203. “The key factor in this new perspective is the fact that Christ has been raised and exalted…to sit on God’s right in heaven.”

[7] Dunn, Colossians, 206. “They key, once again then, is recognition of the crucial turn of events and transformation of perception of reality effected by Christ’s death and resurrection; it is this Christ-perspective which should mark out the Colossian Christians’ heavenly spirituality and enable them to see through the alternative spirituality of the Colossian philosophy.”

[8] Dunn, Colossians, 206. “The aorist is simply a powerful metaphor for the fact that when they believed in Christ in baptism they were putting their previous way of life to death and having it buried out of sight. Consequently, it should no longer be a factor in their new way of life. They have been freed by that one act to live a quite different kind of life, determined not by their old fears and loyalties but by their new and primary loyalty to Christ and by the enabling which comes from on high…”

[9] Dunn, Colossians, 208. “Despite the present hiddenness of their ‘life,’ which might make their attitudes and actions in their present living somewhat bewildering to onlookers, they could nevertheless be confident that Christ, the focus of their life, would demonstrate to all the rightness of the choice they had made in baptism”

[10] Dunn, Colossians, 207. It’s a real, tangible life, and not a spiritually conceived life disconnected from earth.

[11] Dunn, Colossians, 212. “…the person’s interaction with the wider world as through organs and limbs is what is in view. It was precisely the interaction which had characterized the Colossians’ old way of life which now targeted…”

[12] Dunn, Colossians, 216. “…the wrath take the form of God giving or allowing his human creatures what they want, leaving them to their own devise—the continuing avarice and abuse of sexual relations being its own reward.”

[13] McKnight, Colossians, 293. “…flesh mindedness leads to flesh living, while Spirit mindedness leads to spirit-drenched living…This second group becomes Spiritually wise in their relations of humility and love and harmony…the opposite is the way of discord, violence, and fractures relationships…”

[14] McKnight, Colossians, 304. “If the Roman world’s sexuality as shaped by themes of dominance, status, and indulgence (in all directions), for Paul it was shaped by holiness, love, and fidelity.”

[15] Dunn, Colossians, 213. “Paul and Timoty clearly did not harbor any illusions regarding tie converts. They did not attempt to promote a Christian perspective which was unrelated to the hard realities of daily life. On the contrary, they were all too aware of the pressures which shaped people like the Colossian Christians and which still held a seductive attraction for them. They were concerned that the Colossian believers’ death with Christ, the atrophy of old habits of evil, had not yet worked through the full extent of their bodily relationships.”

[16] Dunn, Colossians, 223. “…it is not so much that the individual categories ‘Greek,’ ‘Jew,’ ‘circumcision,’ and ‘uncircumcision’ are discounted as no longer meaningful; rather it is the way of categorizing humankind into two classes, ‘Greek and Jew,’ ‘circumcision an uncircumcision,’ is no longer appropriate. In contrast, the last to items (‘slave, free’) do not cover the complete range of human status, so we do not have ‘slave and free,’ breaking a parallelism which is a feature of the other two versions.”

[17] Dunn, Colossians, 227. “The point here, then, is once again that Christ has relativized all such distinctions, however fundamental to society, its structure, and its ongoing existence.”

[18] McKnight, Colossians, 299. “This section articulates what the gospel does to the moral life of a believer; participation in the death with Christ slays the flesh and sins that destroy and divide; in fact, it brings the Gentiles—all people (3:11)—into the one family of God alongside Isreal so that Christ ’is all and is in all.’”

[19] Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, TNICNT, ed. Joel B Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 290. “Far from a summons to an un- or other worldliness, these exhortation calls the Colossians to live in the world on the basis of the rule of Christ over all the powers.”

[20] McKnight, Colossians, 29292-293. “To back up now: on the basis of their co-resurrection with Christ, the Colossians are to seek to participate in new-creation life by directing their faith and lordship toward the Christ, who rules all of creation. That rule is not yet visible to all but someday will be…To seek the thing above, then, means to live a life on earth under the resurrected King Jesus as the Lord of all creation, with the implication that Caesar is not their true lord.”

[21] McKnight, Colossians, 291. “…by ‘things above,’ Paul means a way of living constituted not by the stoicheia and skia but by the rule of Christ above, whose rule will become a reality on earth in the future.”

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