Christ Church

The Scandal of Forgiveness & Feasting (The Inescapable Story of Jesus #2) (CCD)

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INTRODUCTION

The glad tidings which Jesus proclaimed were met with severe opposition. In this chapter we see that the scandalous nature of His ministry consisted of two things: He forgave sins, and He feasted with sinners. This is just the first sign that Jesus Kingdom is going to be met with stiff resistance from Israel’s religious leaders. But Jesus doesn’t skirt the scandals. Instead, He is setting the stage for the greatest scandal of all, the death of Christ for sinners.

THE TEXT

And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. […]

Mark 2:1

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Mark doesn’t let off the gas in telling the story of Jesus. After Jesus’ escapades in surrounding towns (Cf. 1:38), He now returns to Capernaum, His home base for much of His ministry (v1). The news of His return causes a stir (v2), while He preaches to the people, four friends bring a paralyzed man to the house; being thwarted in getting their friend to Jesus due to the crowd, they hop on the roof, dig through it, and lower their pal down in front of Jesus (vv3-4). Jesus sees their faith and extends forgiveness to their friend (v5). This offer of forgiveness sparks spiritual heartburn for certain religious scribes, as they are angered by what they perceive as blasphemy (vv6-7). After all, only God can forgive, right? Jesus perceives their incredulity and doubles down on His divine prerogative to forgive sins (v8). He exposes their inner thoughts (v9) and then confirms His divine office as a new Son of Man (Adam) and commands the paralytic to rise up and walk home with his mat (vv10-11). Immediately, the man did as Jesus commanded, and the people glorified God for this marvelous thing (v12).

The next episode in this chapter is the calling of Levi (Matthew) by the seaside (v13); and Levi leaves his money-grubbing and obeys Christ’s call to follow (v14). He welcomes Jesus into his home to feast with him and his unsavory friends (v15). This feasting with sinners elicits more opposition from the scribes & Pharisees (v16). Jesus leans into the controversy. Our Lord likens Himself a doctor, but a doctor for sin-sick souls; as such a doctor He will not leave sinners in the misery of their sin, but He calls such sinners to repentance (v17, Cf. Mk. 1:15).

John’s disciples join in the Q&A to raise another objection. The Pharisees & John’s disciples fast, so why don’t Jesus’ disciples (v18)? Jesus answers with a series of riddles. Do wedding guests fast when the bridegroom is present (vv19-20)? Do you patch up tattered garments with luxurious new fabric (v21)? Do you put bubbly new wine into well-worn casks (v22)? No, no, and no again. Jesus is asserting here that He is bringing about a new order of things. The old order is like a husk, which must fall aside in order for the new life to burst through. The sorrow of exile is on its way out, and the joy of the Messianic Kingdom is upon them.

This new order which Jesus is bringing is one in which Yahweh, by His Messiah, will dwell with His people, feast with them, and rule them personally. Mark shows us that Jesus has the authority to rearrange the order of things by recounting a story of Jesus defending His disciples from the Pharisees’ accusations of Sabbath breaking. The disciples plucked grain on the Sabbath (v23), and the Pharisees, like snitches, accuse them of breaking the law (v24). Jesus puts Himself forward as a New David, and likens His situation with David’s eating the holy bread in the days of Abiathar (vv25-26). The Sabbath breaking controversy carries over into the next chapter, but this section ends with Jesus’ strongest claim yet for being the Messiah: He is the Son of Man, and thus, He is Lord of the Sabbath (vv27-28).

WHICH IS EASIER?

The first episode in this chapter addresses the pride found in the heart of the self-righteous. Jesus’ question “Which is easier?” still provokes the self-righteous. As we saw in Mark 1, Jesus has been cleansing the land of demons and diseases; but now He takes it a step too far for the Pharisees: He forgives the paralytic’s sins. Prophets of old had performed healings (Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, etc.). But Jesus has taken up not only the prophetic mantle but the priestly one: forgiving sins.

The self-righteous want forgiveness to be something that is kept locked away, unavailable, out of stock, to be dripped out like an IV. And the self-righteous always want to be in charge of how forgiveness is administered. But when Jesus comes forgiveness comes too. When God brings our nation to its senses, there will be an avalanche of forgiveness. Forgiveness for abortionists, transgender doctors, market manipulators, porn stars, pedophiles, angry dads, manipulative moms, slothful sons, and unchaste daughters.

Jesus uses some deep irony here. It is easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” than to say “Rise up, paralytic, and walk.” But Jesus tells them that He is healing the paralytic so that they would know that Son of Man has power on the earth to forgive sins. The greater work of forgiving sins is demonstrated in the lesser work of healing the body. This is a Messianic claim to universal power and dominion (Dan. 7:13-14, Cf. Ps. 80), accompanied with a  Messianic sign to validate the claim (Is. 35:6).

ACCUSATION AND ASSURANCE

Throughout this chapter, Jesus and His disciples are on the receiving end of a series of accusations. The Scribes, Pharisees, and even John’s disciples get in on the action of accusation. Accusation is the Serpent’s work. And accusation works. It causes your heart to race, your mind to swirl, your will to quail. The police lights in your review mirror cause a hot flush to rise to your face, because they are accusation in flashing red and blue. You are a lawbreaker. The voice of the Accuser keeps men in fear, keeps them cowards, keeps them from being free. 

This is seen in a number of ways in our own tangled legal code. Some legal experts argue  that the average American commits three felonies a day. A cheery thought. This is not due to the moral purity of our legal code. Rather, this is because we have forsaken God’s law and entered the labyrinth of man’s unstable preferences. Jesus breaks the spell of accusation. He doesn’t say we haven’t sinned, but He offers forgiveness for our sins, and fellowship at His table. 

The stinging word of accusation can hang over your head for a lifetime. Bad student. Loudmouth. Failure. Cult member. Right-wing extremist. Little brat. Terrible friend. Not cool enough. Criminal. Jesus shows that the Accuser is about to be cast down, and He offers assurance of welcome. Your sins are forgiven. David’s Greater Son has come, and invites you to His sabbath feast. The end of Satan’s empire of accusation should not be met with gloomy fasting, but with exuberant feasting.

THE GOD WHO FEASTS

The action doesn’t slow down at all as this chapter closes. Mark shows us Jesus as a New David, and thus has authority to rearrange the order of things. The Sabbath follows His rules. The Sabbath was a blessing from God to His people, to indicate the leisurely feast He invites His people to. The Pharisees wanted the Sabbath to be an intricate web of uncertainty, Jesus declares it to be the domain of David’s Son. These elders of Israel call Jesus a glutton, but Jesus, as one commentator puts it, “is continuing God’s behavior from the Old Testament”.

Jesus’ Gospel is that sinners can not only be forgiven but also feast with God. There is no asterisk on this invite to dine with Yahweh. Jesus the Messiah, like His ancestor David, has a troop of misfits whom He names mighty men. They can partake of the Holy Bread, because He has recruited them into His army. The Pharisees called the disciples lawbreakers, Jesus, in effect, calls them Mighty Men. The Pharisees say you should be morose and fast, Jesus says rejoice for the Kingdom has come. The Pharisees say sinners shouldn’t be seated at Yahweh’s table; Jesus says, “Come and welcome.”

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Make Way (The Inescapable Story of Jesus #1) (CCD)

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INTRODUCTION

The Gospel of Mark is a flurry of action. It grips us with the activity of this Jesus. Mark does not spend as much time on what Jesus taught, but rather forces us to look intently on all Jesus did. And all His doing was to confirm the opening thesis of Mark’s Gospel: Jesus is the Son of God, and has brought the Kingdom of God unto us.

THE TEXT

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost […]

Mark 1:1-8

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Mark’s Gospel starts with a bang and continues throughout the entire Gospel at a frenzied pace. Christ leaps off the page. This is no passive narration. We are invited to sit on the front row of this story of the ministry of the Messiah, the Son of God. The narrative is in the historic present, which is intended to make the action vivid and close. And indeed it is. This message of the Gospel of the Kingdom presses in upon us.

Mark blends two prophetic citations (from Isaiah and Malachi) in order to jar us to attention. The Living God is on His way. In order to get people ready, He has sent a messenger ahead of Him to summon both Jews and Gentiles to prepare themselves to meet Yahweh (vv2-3). That messenger is John; his ministry of baptism in the wilderness caused crowds to swarm to submit themselves to his summons to cleanse themselves in order to ready themselves to meet their God (vv4-5). John is figured as a new Elijah (v6) and he informs them that a new Elisha is soon following who is greater and whose baptism will be that of fire, not water (vv7-8).

Isaiah said the way must be made straight (εὐθείας) and throughout the rest of the Gospel a variation of that word (or close synonym) is used 67 times. Ironically, we see this right away. Jesus Himself comes out to be baptized by John, and straightway after coming out of the water the Spirit descends upon Him and the Father’s publicly declares His love for His Son (vv9-11). And immediately the Spirit sends Him to a forty day combat with Satan amongst wild beasts, and ministered to by angels (vv12-13).

After this, John was imprisoned, but this does not contain the Kingdom of God which had come upon them; Jesus’ message is that God’s Kingdom had come, and He commands all men to repent and believe this news (vv14-15). The Lord Jesus, by the sea of Galilee, calls fishermen to be His disciples; these men straightway follow him (vv16-20). This calling is followed by an exercise of Christ’s authority. He straightway teaches with authority (vv21-22). To confirm this authority of word with authority in deed Mark relates that a man with an unclean spirit raved against Jesus in the synagogue. Jesus commands the unclean spirit to depart and it does. The powers that be are left astonished (vv21-27). Immediately, Jesus’ fame spreads in Galilee (v28).

Jesus hastens to Simon’s house, heals his mother and raises her up, enabling her to service (vv29-31). The crowds begin swarming around the house, bringing those unclean of body and of mind to be made clean by Jesus (vv32-34); but the devils were not permitted to speak, because they knew Him. Jesus is found in prayer in the early morning, and then He takes His ministry to the next town; and His preaching and cleansing continued in those towns as well (vv35-39). Devils are cast out of the synagogues (v39). A leper comes to Jesus for cleansing, which Jesus, in compassion, gives immediately (vv40-42). The leper is sent away straightway by Jesus with the instructions to not declare his healing until he had fulfilled the righteous requirements of Moses’ law (vv43-44). But the leper had loose lips; and Jesus’ ministry only grew in fame and renown (v45).

CHRIST CAME TO CALL

Mark’s Gospel traces a steady pattern of callings followed by commands to unclean spirits and  cleansings of fleshly infirmities. In this opening chapter we have a few callings. Mark begins with an assertion that Jesus is to be called the Son of God. John calls out to Israel to make ready for Yahweh to come in their midst. Then Jesus is called the Son of God by His Father. This is the first of three times that Jesus is confirmed to be the Son of God in Mark’s biography of Jesus (Mk. 9:7 & 15:39). So then, Jesus’ refusal to allow the demons to name Him has at least two purposes. First, it is not their prerogative to identify the Messiah of God. Secondly, Mark wants to paint Jesus as a new David, anointed, but not yet exalted to the throne; thus Saul’s enmity must be dealt with shrewdly. 

But we also see Jesus calling His first four disciples. God had promised by Jeremiah that in restoring Israel he would use fishermen to fish for men: “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them (Jer. 16:16a).” He calls the four disciples, by the sea, and they drop everything to follow Jesus. The call of Jesus is not to be ignored. For He has come to remake the world.

CHRIST CAME TO COMMAND

There are parallels to David in how Mark presents this commencement of Jesus’ ministry: both are anointed (David by Samuel; Jesus by John’s baptism/Spirit’s descent) and after each of these anointing they must deal with someone plagued with evil spirits (Saul & the demoniac). Both act with humility, despite being the rightful king of Israel. Both begin to drive out the enemies (the Philistines for David and the demons for Jesus)

We see Jesus commanding the demons, and teaching the Word of God with authority. The modern indulgent Jesus is a false Christ. Yes, we find in Christ an ocean of love. But His love is not syrupy sweet, it is potent wine. Jesus came to command, not wring His hands pleading for you to open your heart. The evil must go, that the land may be fit for Yahweh’s presence.

CHRIST CAME TO CLEANSE

And this leads us to the third event in the cycle: Jesus came to cleanse. This won’t be the first time that Mark pairs the commanding of unclean spirits with the cleansing of bodily ailments. This is because Jesus came to restore man fully. The leprous man is made whole. He is restored to the fellowship of the commonwealth. 

Mark also emphasizes Jesus as the New Elisha (2 Ki. 7); four lepers discover that God has driven out the Syrians according to the prophetic word of Elisha. These lepers are the first to discover the good news of Yahweh’s miraculous cleansing of the land, and then they make it known to the king of Israel in order that all of Israel might partake of this cleansing. But the unbeliever is trampled in the gate and does not partake of this bountiful deliverance.

The cleansing of the leper, the raising up of Peter’s mother-in-law, and the driving out demons all make one thing clear: Christ is cleansing the land in order that the holy God might dwell in fellowship with His people.

JESUS IN YOUR FACE

As we progress through Mark’s Gospel there is one thing which Mark insists upon: you must not look away from Jesus. Mark writes so as to “get in your face.” He writes so that you hear clearly that Jesus calls out to you to follow Him. He commands the unclean spirits to begone. He cleanses you.

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A Marriage Tune Up (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

As we begin a new year, it’s worth reviewing some of the most basic assignments we have in our marriages. The central paradigm is the gospel, and the central duties are love and respect. But as with many of these things that we hear often, it is incredibly important that we determine by God’s grace not to be merely hearers of the Word but doers.

The Text: “Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Savior of the Body…” (Eph. 5:22-33).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Bible teaches that marriage is one of the central pictures of the gospel (Eph. 5:23-25, 32), and therefore generally speaking, the state of marriage in a land will tell you a lot about the state of the gospel in that land. This gospel is embodied by a wife submitting to her own husband as to the Lord Jesus (Eph. 5:22), and each husband taking responsibility for his wife just as Christ does as the head of the church (Eph. 5:23). This means that a wife is to obey her husband as the church obeys Christ in everything (Eph. 5:24). And husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, laying down his life for her efficaciously, making her pure and holy (Eph. 5:25-27). This love is exemplified in the way a man cares for his own body, nourishing and cherishing, again, just as the Lord does the Church (Eph. 5:28-30). A man leaves his father and mother to become one flesh with his wife, and this is all a great mystery that proclaims Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31-32). Therefore, a man must love his wife, and a wife must reverence her husband (Eph. 5:33).

HUSBANDS LOVE

The command is for husbands to love because men need to be reminded to do this and because it is what a wife particularly needs. A man more naturally tends to respect, but that is not the particular command given. Christ is the model of this love, and what the Bible particularly points out is the duty of taking responsibility for her as her head and sacrificing for her good (Eph. 5:23, 25-27). This requires you to understand the difference between responsibility and guilt: you may not be personally guilty for some sin of your wife, but you are responsible for all of it, just as you may not be guilty for some injuries in your body but you are responsible (Eph. 5:28).

This love also requires thoughtfulness about your wife’s needs. You are not to love her aimlessly. You are to love like Christ, which is to say efficaciously. You are to give yourself for her to make her more holy and pure (Eph. 5:25-26). And you are to do this in order to present her to yourself more glorious and lovely, just like Jesus does (Eph. 5:27). Loving your wife well doesn’t mean doing whatever she wants; it means doing whatever it takes to make her a better woman.

WIVES RESPECT

The command is for wives to respect because women need to be reminded to do this and because it is what a man particularly needs. Women tend to more naturally love, and while that is certainly good (Tit. 2:4), the particular command is for wives to respect (Eph. 5:33). And this is also word for single ladies: your standard for a man needs to be not whether you do or could love him; your standard needs to be: do you respect him?

What is respect? Respect is honor, looking up to, thinking highly of, including the kind of trust that willingly submits to and obeys (Eph. 5:22, 24). Just as we live in a world that despises fathers; we live in a world that despises true husbands. And unfortunately many Christian women feel free to dishonor their husbands openly, making fun of them, talking them down, complaining about them, or simply being difficult for them, and it is often all dismissed with the hand-waving excuse, “but I love him.” However, the example a woman is given is the obedience of the church to Christ. How would you have the Christian Church submit to Christ? Then show the world in your submissive respect for your husband.

FELLOWSHIP MULTIPLIED

This love and respect is designed by God to result in a glorious unity and fellowship. But sin has twisted every son and daughter of Adam, and the curse has particularly attacked marriage, creating tension and hurt where there was none before (Gen. 3:16). This is why the only way for a marriage to have true Christian fellowship is by the blood of the Lamb: “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:7). If this is true of Christian fellowship in general, it is most certainly true of Christian marriage in particular. But the thing to underline here is that marriage fellowship is one of the primary contributors to all fellowship. What you are sharing with one another is either true Christian fellowship (koinonia) (1 Cor. 10:16, 1 Jn. 1:3) or else it is some kind of Satanic, pharisaical cancer. You are one with your spouse, and when you come here, you are sharing that with one another (1 Cor. 11).

CONCLUSIONS

Never forget that these instructions come as part of the great “therefore” of Ephesians 4:1. We love because He loved us first. We work because we are His workmanship (Eph. 2:10). Which is to say that all of this is only possible by God’s grace. But grace is not something vague, like a Christian version of “luck” or “good vibes” or random windfalls. Grace is the personal favor and blessing of God in Jesus Christ. It begins with His personal forgiveness, but it also includes the wisdom and power to obey all of His commands: we stand in His grace (Rom. 5:1-2).

There are particular strengths and glories that men and women bring to the world, and they take shape as men take responsibility and love their wives and as women submit to their husbands and respect them. Harmony is not the result of everyone singing the same music. Harmony happens when each part sings the part assigned to them.

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State of the Church 2024

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INTRODUCTION

As you might know by now, the tone coming out of Moscow has gained a little bit of notoriety. For good or ill, this reputation shows no signs of going away, and because you are likely to be fielding questions about it, I thought that it would be good to use our annual “state of the church” message to help you sort through the relevant issues. 

THE TEXTS

“And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village” (Luke 9:52–56). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXTS

The basic lesson we should take from our text is this. Just because it is biblical . . . doesn’t make it biblical. As I learned from my father, there is always a deeper right than being right. James and John were nicknamed “sons of thunder” by the Lord (Mark 3:17), meaning that they were almost certainly hot-blooded. When a Samaritan village denied lodging because they were Jews on the way to Jerusalem, the two brothers appealed to the example of Elijah. When he had sent a message to King Ahaziah that he was not going to recover from a fall, the king sent an armed guard of fifty men to arrest Elijah, and Elijah called down fire from heaven and consumed them all (2 Kings 1:10). The king dispatched a second troop, and the same thing happened (2 Kings 1:12). The third captain was a great deal more polite—having seen what happened to the first two bands. This is the same Elijah who had summoned fire from heaven to consume the sacrificial altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38), followed up by executing all the priests of Baal. So the prophet Elijah was no buttercup, and James and John had a biblical example to point to. But Jesus said that they had wildly misjudged the two circumstances—and they had particularly misjudged the nature of the mission that Christ was on. Christ had come to save, not destroy. It is not enough to “have a verse.” 

THIS KNIFE CUTS BOTH WAYS

If there is always a deeper right than being right, then this must apply to every kind of “right.” Not just the right that has hard lines and straight edges. This also applies to the right of being kind, or generous, or sacrificial. C.S. Lewis once commented on a woman who was the sort of woman who lived for others, and you could tell the others by their hunted expression. Maybe he was afflicted by this sort of thing himself because he even wrote a poem in the form of an epitaph about it:

Erected by her sorrowing brothers

In memory of Martha Clay.

Here lies one who lived for others;

Now she has peace. And so have they.

Is it possible to bestow all your worldly goods to feed the poor, and have no love, no charity (1 Cor. 13:3)? It certainly is, and that profits nothing. Was Judas concerned about the poor when Mary anointed the Lord’s feet with spikenard? Judas was the treasurer, and was concerned about the extravagance (John 13:29). And he said that it was for the poor (John 12:5), but his motives were clearly mixed (John 12:6). It is the White Witch who is concerned about conspicuous consumption, remember. “What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this waste, this self-indulgence? Where did you get all these things?”

And there have eras when the saints were prone to miss the deeper right through a zeal to be hard line. That really is true. But to assume that this is the error of our age is to waver on the threshold of a serious delusion.

BUT WE MUST RESIST OUR OWN TEMPTATIONS, NOT THOSE OF OTHERS

Godly satire should come from within a worshiping community of orthodox and faithful Christians, only some of whom are called to it (Eph. 5:21). The satire should arise from the language and categories of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Those exercising these gifts should warm and affectionate relationships with family. No close member of his family should flinch when he walks into the room (Col. 3:19, 21). The practice should continue a long and worthy tradition, and there should be broad acquaintance with that literature. There needs to be an instinctive knowledge of the quantitative difference between satire and scurrility. There may not seem to be a logical difference between 37 lashes and 42 lashes, but Scriptures say there is (Dt. 25:1-3).

There is a qualitative difference between the two also. This is a matter of timbre and tone. No mechanical rules can be set down for it, but it is a very important distinction to make (Heb. 5:14). These weapons should not be entrusted to anyone too young (1 Tim. 3:6). The whole point is to target lack of proportion, not to exhibit lack of proportion (Matt. 23:24). What effect is all of this having on those who aspire to fighting Amalekites with a chain saw (2 Cor. 11:1)? Is the satire coming from a community that has long experience in letting love cover a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). 

This requires a courageous disposition, not a bullying one. Lawful satire is leveled at targets that know how to defend themselves, and that will defend themselves. As King Lune of Archenland put it, “Never taunt a man save when he is stronger than you: then, as you please.” And if a man is too proud to humble himself when he has sinned (Jas. 5:16), then he is too proud for this calling. Man’s anger does not advance God’s righteousness (Jas. 1:20). Anger, even when it is righteous (Eph. 4:26), is like manna and goes bad overnight (Eph. 4:27). This should never proceed from “little man syndrome,” where a man has something deep inside to prove, usually to his father. We must be free, completely free, of envy (Jas. 4:1-6). Envious satire is brittle satire, and not very effective.

The target should always be arrogance, not weakness, and, as far as possible, reserve his arrows for the former. There must be a general knowledge of church history, which will dislodge the very provincial notion that the current rules of academic etiquette are somehow binding on all generations of the Church. Scripture is the norm, not our current traditions. We must love to sing all the psalms that God has given us (Eph. 5:19). Nothing serves like the psalms if the goal is to nurture and restore a vertebrate church. We must never get stuck on one speed (Ecc. 3:1-8). All satire, all the time, would be tolerable for about forty-five minutes. We must learn as a community to really hate what is evil. The fear of God is not only the beginning of knowledge, but it is also defined as the hatred of evil. “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:14). And last, we must all grow in our love for what is good (Tit. 2:14), motivated by a love that yearns to defend what is noble and right, or weak and defenseless, and never be motivated by a bitterness that seeks to bite and tear (Gal. 5:13-15).

A BODY LIFE THING

Some people assume that if you move to Moscow, you are committing yourself to making fun of everybody, all the time. Not a bit of it. We are the body of Christ, and here, as with everything, each part of the body does what it was fashioned to do. So the eye doesn’t have to do what the ear does. But the eye needs to be committed to the ear, and should expect the ear to have a completely different outlook. But the whole body is Christ.

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