Tag Archives: example

JUST GET THE JOB DONE

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JUST GET THE JOB DONE

“When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ He asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.'” John 3:12-17 NIV.

What did the disciples feel as they watched their Master go from one to the other, kneeling on the floor; washing the grime from their feet and wiping them dry with a towel? How they must have winced when He untied their sandals, one by one and lifted their dirty feet into the water, each one’s conscience stabbing him because he should have been doing what Jesus was doing!

This was much more than a visual or verbal lesson. This was a mental picture that played like a movie clip in their minds, over and over again — royalty bowing before commoners! It was not only what He did that plagued their minds but the way He did it, without a fanfare or in an attitude of “Look what I’m doing!” He simply did it as a matter of course, as though it were His duty to wash feet!

Yes, He did have a motive for doing the work of a slave. He did it because He loved them and because their feet were dirty and needed washing. He also did it as a visual aid so that they would clearly remember what it meant to follow Him. He did it because He was God…and that’s what God does. He washes the feet of His children because He is a good Father.

Following Him as loyal disciples meant much more than doing great things like preaching and healing the sick — the things that gathered the crowds and made them ooh and aah in wonder. There were also the little things; the behind-the-scenes things that no-one else saw; that drew no crowds; that received no accolades; that were humble ministries that a slave was obliged to do, like washing His disciples’ feet or cooking breakfast for them on the beach.

Jesus did both kinds, not to draw attention to Himself but because they needed to be done to see to the needs of others and make their lives more comfortable. Isn’t that what following Jesus is all about? It’s not about office or position or recognition or rewards. It’s about doing the job because it needs to be done and someone has to do it. The accolades and rewards will come later, and from God, not from men.

Jesus’ plea that they do for one another what He did for them had nothing to do with setting up another ceremony for them to add to their religious rituals. He certainly did not come to earth to wash feet! He wanted them to look beyond the end of their own selfish noses and to be alert to the needs of others. Whatever form that need took, whether it was for money or food or shelter or for dirty feet to be washed was of no consequence. “Just get on and do it,” was His instruction.

Isn’t that what following Jesus is all about? We all have gifts, talents and skills we can use to ease the burden that others carry. “Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 NIV. No one can meet the needs of the whole world but each one can help someone else by carrying his load.

Jesus’ instruction was simple. It’s not our job literally to wash the feet of everyone we come across and certainly not to perform a ceremony in the church. What would be the purpose of that? The really meaningful thing to do would be to cook a meal for a sick friend, to take an old lady shopping because she cannot go on her own, to take care of the children when a harassed mother needs time out or to take a house-bound family to the beach when their vehicle is out of order.

It does not take much imagination to “wash” someone else’s “feet”, just a little observation and a little time given unselfishly to ease the load someone else is called to carry. However, the boomerang rewards are amazing. The burden of selfish living becomes lighter and one has tiny glimpses of the heart of Jesus as He whispers, “Well done, son, daughter.”

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

CHRIST SUFFERED FOR YOU

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CHRIST SUFFERED FOR YOU

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. ‘He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:21-23)

Slavery was an accepted part of life in those times. People were enslaved for many different reasons. Some had to sell themselves and their families when they fell on hard times. Others were enslaved through conquest. Many were the offspring of slaves who were sold off by slave owners, often as young children. There is no doubt that slavery brought terrible misery and suffering to a large part of the population. At least 40% of the Roman Empire at that time were slaves.

All slaves and their families were the property of their owners who could sell or rent them out at any time. Their lives were harsh. Slaves were often whipped, branded or cruelly mistreated. Their owners could also kill them for any reason, and would face no punishment. http://www.crystalinks.com/romeslavery.html

Although Peter was particularly addressing the slave community in the church at this point, what he taught has relevance for all God’s people. What he wrote was revolutionary. Not only was he encouraging his readers to submit to cruel treatment without resisting, but he also explained that their suffering was not just circumstantial but a calling from God! How on earth could the kind of suffering they had to endure be a calling? Had Peter somehow lost the plot? No, he was quite serious about what he wrote.

The majority of people in the world are in the grip of their ungodly nature – living for self and making their own rules. In the background is the ‘god of this world’, using his subtle influence to cause as much misery and destruction as he can. Some people even acknowledge him and willingly participate in his plan while others inadvertently carry out his evil design through the worship of false gods and the wicked ways their beliefs spawn.

There is only one way to overcome evil in the world – not by retaliating because this only contributes to more evil. Jesus revealed the answer by the way He conducted Himself throughout the ordeal of His unjust arrest, trials and crucifixion. Before He faced the cross, He came to terms with what lay ahead of Him, in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We know that a part of His mission was to be the sacrificial lamb for the sin of the world.  To be the perfect and unblemished lamb, He had to be sinless which meant far more than not committing the gross deeds we reckon as sin. To be without blemish meant that He had to be in perfect harmony with the Father in every aspect of His life – thoughts, attitudes, and motives, as well as words and actions. Everything He was and did was to reflect the Father’s nature – love and light.

Since it was the Father’s will that He die, He submitted not only to death but to the manner in which He would die, by the agony of the cross and all its implications. Day by day He submitted and obeyed the Father and in Gethsemane, where He fought His greatest inward battle, He overcame all the evil that His enemies could throw at Him by submitting to the Father’s will.

No matter what they did to Him, they could not break His will to obey the Father. He not only became our Saviour but also our example. By submitting to the worst His enemies could do to Him without resistance or retaliation, He absorbed all the evil in Himself and left them guilty and without excuse for what they had done.

‘Now,’ said Peter, ‘you do that as well.’ When we leave the judgment to the Father in the face of cruelty or injustice instead of trying to take it on our own shoulders, we know we will not have to suffer the consequences of our own sin. We also know that God will be perfectly just in the end.

Although we do not suffer the indignities of slavery, there are many occasions when we are at the receiving end of unscrupulous people, employers, lawyers, and people in places of authority. When, like Jesus, we entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly, we put them to silence and bring them to shame and force them to be accountable for what they have done.

This is how the kingdom of God functions.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

BE IMITATORS OF GOD

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BE IMITATORS OF GOD

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:1-2).

Every word in these two verses is loaded with significance. In the earlier NIV versions, Paul’s words are translated as be imitators of God as dearly loved children. One of the requirements of a disciple in 1st century Israel was that he learn to imitate his rabbi. ‘Imitation’ in this context did not mean ‘a fake’ but rather a replica of his master. A disciple has to live in such close proximity to his rabbi that he learned to think, speak and act just like him.

A rabbi chose disciples in whom he had the confidence that they would become just like him. They were to walk behind him as he moved from place to place. He was essentially a roving teacher, instructing the people who gathered around him in the correct interpretation of the Torah – the 5 books of Moses. He also debated current issues in the light of what other rabbis taught whose authority to interpret and apply his interpretation of the Torah according to what he believed to be God’s original intention was recognised. This interpretation and application was called the rabbi’s ‘yoke’.

The concept of a yoke had special significance in Israel. The Israelites were agricultural people – they worked and lived off the land. Their word of God, made up of two letters, e and l, el, was derived from two pictures in the original paleo-Hebrew script. The ‘e’ was the picture of an ox head, meaning ‘strength’ and the ‘l’ was a picture of a shepherd’s staff, meaning ‘authority’. They understood God to be one who had strength and authority.

The same two letters, e and l appear in the word aleph meaning to learn by association. To a Hebrew person, a yoke was ‘a staff of the shoulder’. In order to train a young ox to plough a straight furrow, the farmer would place a yoke across its shoulder and yoke it with an older, experienced ox so that it became a replica of his ‘teacher’.

Now does not Jesus’ invitation have new meaning for you?

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).

Jesus, as a rabbi with authority from God, invited those who were tired of the demanding yoke of the religious leaders with its petty rules and rituals, to take His yoke. By learning to live the way He taught them, He would change their hearts and free them from the fear and guilt which drove them to seek God’s approval by obeying laws and rules.

In order to be imitators of God, we must live in close association with Jesus and learn from Him. Paul called this “putting on Christ”. God has freed us from bondage to Satan and to slavery to sin. However, change is not automatic. In close association with Jesus, we learn to think like Him and to behave like Him. It is a slow, life-long process which comes through practice. Let me illustrate.

Brick-makers use a mould into which they pour concrete which they must allow to dry before they take away the form. Once the concrete or clay is dry, the brick will retain its shape when they remove the form.

In a similar way, when we imitate Jesus by acting with humility and gentleness, even if we don’t feel it, we are creating a ‘form’ which will eventually become a way of life. Paul used another metaphor, that of getting dressed.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col. 3: 12).

The more we act like Jesus, the more we will become like Him. We are to ‘walk’ in the way of love. The Bible pictures life as a journey through a dangerous and unknown way. If we are to reach our destination, we must follow the one who knows the way lest we wander from the path and die in the desert. Jesus said, “I am the way.” He is the ‘light’ – He walks in the light of God’s Word and is, therefore, qualified to lead us to the Father.

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life (John 8:12).

Jesus came to fulfil the Torah – God’s directions for reaching our destination. He insisted that He had not come to do away with God’s instructions but to ‘fulfil’ them – to show His people how to live as God intended. He wanted them to be examples to the surrounding pagan nations of His best way of living. He fulfilled and made the Old Covenant obsolete but the principle of the Old Covenant, the law of love, remains enshrined in the way He taught us to live in the New Covenant,

Our role as His disciples is to stick close to Him and to learn by association with Him, imitating Him in every detail of our lives until we become replicas of our Master in this world.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com

Christ Suffered For You

Bible Study, , , ,

CHRIST SUFFERED FOR YOU

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. ‘He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:21-23)

Slavery was an accepted part of life in those times. People were enslaved for many different reasons. Some had to sell themselves and their families when they fell on hard times. Others were enslaved through conquest. Many were the offspring of slaves who were sold off by slave owners, often as young children. There is no doubt that slavery brought terrible misery and suffering to a large part of the population. At least 40% of the Roman Empire at that time were slaves.

All slaves and their families were the property of their owners who could sell or rent them out at any time. Their lives were harsh. Slaves were often whipped, branded or cruelly mistreated. Their owners could also kill them for any reason, and would face no punishment. http://www.crystalinks.com/romeslavery.html

Although Peter was particularly addressing the slave community in the church at this point, what he taught has relevance for all God’s people. What he wrote was revolutionary. Not only was he encouraging his readers to submit to cruel treatment without resisting, but he also explained that their suffering was not just circumstantial but a calling from God! How on earth could the kind of suffering they had to endure be a calling? Had Peter somehow lost the plot? No, he was quite serious about what he wrote.

The majority of people in the world are in the grip of their ungodly nature – living for self and making their own rules. In the background is the ‘god of this world’, using his subtle influence to cause as much misery and destruction as he can. Some people even acknowledge him and willingly participate in his plan while others inadvertently carry out his evil design through the worship of false gods and the wicked ways their beliefs spawn.

There is only one way to overcome evil in the world – not by retaliating because this only contributes to more evil. Jesus revealed the answer by the way He conducted Himself throughout the ordeal of His unjust arrest, trials and crucifixion. Before He faced the cross, He came to terms with what lay ahead of Him, in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We know that a part of His mission was to be the sacrificial lamb for the sin of the world.  To be the perfect and unblemished lamb, He had to be sinless which meant far more than not committing the gross deeds we reckon as sin. To be without blemish meant that He had to be in perfect harmony with the Father in every aspect of His life – thoughts, attitudes, and motives, as well as words and actions. Everything He was and did was to reflect the Father’s nature – love and light.

Since it was the Father’s will that He die, He submitted not only to death but to the manner in which He would die, by the agony of the cross and all its implications. Day by day He submitted and obeyed the Father and in Gethsemane, where He fought His greatest inward battle, He overcame all the evil that His enemies could throw at Him by submitting to the Father’s will.

No matter what they did to Him, they could not break His will to obey the Father. He not only became our Saviour but also our example. By submitting to the worst His enemies could do to Him without resistance or retaliation, He absorbed all the evil in Himself and left them guilty and without excuse for what they had done.

‘Now,’ said Peter, ‘you do that as well.’ When we leave the judgment to the Father in the face of cruelty or injustice instead of trying to take it on our own shoulders, we know we will not have to face the music for our own sin. We also know that God will be perfectly just in the end.

Although we do not suffer the indignities of slavery, there are many occasions when we are at the receiving end of unscrupulous people, employers, lawyers, and people in places of authority. When, like Jesus, we entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly, we put them to silence and bring them to shame and force them to be accountable for what they have done.

This is how the kingdom of God functions.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Follow My Example

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FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE

“All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

“Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.” Philippians 3:15-17.

Paul sounds rather arrogant, doesn’t he? Follow my example! What right did he have to set himself up as an example? Didn’t Jesus say that, if we judge others, the same measure we use to judge will be used against us? What do we use to measure other people? Usually ourselves. So how Paul could set himself up as an example for other people to follow?

Paul was not being self-righteous or arrogant, as we would suppose. He was acting like a true rabbi. A rabbi’s job was to model his “yoke”, his teachings based on the way he understood the Torah – the Law of Moses – and the way he put his teachings into practice in his own life, and to “bind” his yoke on his disciples – those whom he called to follow him.

“Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1.

On the Damascus road, Paul had become a follower of his rabbi, Jesus. As he had learned his rabbi’s yoke and put it into practice in his life, being “loosed” from the yoke of Pharisaism which he had followed from his youth, so it was his duty to bind his yoke on his followers. In no way did Paul set himself up as the measure of righteousness. Jesus was the standard and, just as Jesus modelled the life of a son and invited people to follow him, so Paul followed Jesus as his pattern, and called people to follow him. He was simply making visible to the next generation what Jesus had made visible to His disciples.

It is reassuring to know that, at the same time, Paul did not expect perfection from his followers. He knew that maturing was a process which took a lifetime to work out. All he could do was to be the model and urge believers to follow him and put it into practice in their daily lives. He also depended on the Holy Spirit to reveal the way to them and to enable them to obey as they understood and believed what Paul had taught them.

The main hindrance which Paul understood very well, was translating their understanding into everyday living. It was no use having the knowledge in their heads, but not doing what they knew and believed.

“…Everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Romans 14:32b.

This opens us a truth we need to understand. It is possible to have two opposing beliefs at the same time. Let me explain. You may believe that God will provide everything you need because He is your Father. That belief will work for you as long as you are earning a steady income. But what would happen if you were to lose your job? You would go into a tailspin of anxiety and worry. Why? Your experience and the emotions it has produced has cancelled out your trust unless your previous experience has been of God’s provision in times of crisis.

Your mind will tell you one thing; your emotions will tell you another, and usually your emotions win. You will believe what feels true, not what is true and respond to that belief instead of to God’s promise.

“So,” Paul said, “let’s not go backwards by failing to live up to the measure of maturity we have already attained.” Life is a journey. As believers in Jesus, we are all going somewhere. Paul called it “maturity”. What is maturity? According to him, maturity has to do with becoming one in Christ.

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13.

Paul’s counsel was, “Keep moving. If you stop, you’ll start going backwards.” Now that’s good advice, don’t you think?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.