Day by Day

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"Who is Your Model?"

Join with others in following my example, brothers. Philippians 3:17
   

The 18th century English author, Oliver Goldsmith, wrote, “People seldom improve when they have no other model than themselves to copy after.”

This is true for spiritual growth as well. Saint Paul writes to the Philippians: “Join with others in following My example.” It was hard for people who recently had come out of paganism to lead Christian lives. So let them copy the example of the apostle. He showed the converts how to exercise love, patience, and courage under difficult conditions. And Saint Paul adds, “Take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you” (Philippians 3:17). Members of the group can encourage one another as they walk together in the footsteps of their spiritual leader.

If early Christians followed the example of the apostles, who was the model for the apostles? It was Jesus Christ, their teacher and exemplar. After our Lord had washed the disciples’ feet as an object lesson in humble service, He said: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15).

What the disciples learned from their Master, they passed on to others, especially how Christians should conduct themselves when they must suffer for the faith Saint Peter writes: “Christ suffered for you leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). With great forbearance He bore our sins in His body on the cross. He replied to curses and abuses with blessings and intercessions.

Early Christians had the apostles as models, and they in turn followed the example of Jesus Christ. We can go back one more step: The example for the Son of God was the heavenly Father, whose will Jesus followed and whose will He wants us to obey. He says: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Again, be loving to all, for that is how God is, who lets His sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust. How blessed we are to have all this guidance!

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"Amazing Grace"

It is by grace you have been saved, through faith. Ephesians 2:8
   

“The last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16), said Jesus at the close of His parable of laborers in a vineyard. He said this to correct a misconception about the kingdom of heaven. Many Israelites expected God to reward them for their good deeds according to divine and human laws. Even the disciples were merit-conscious. Peter asked Jesus what their reward would be for having sacrificed more than others – for having “left everything to follow You!” (Matthew 19:27).

In the parable of vineyard workers, two things stand out: (1) The men hired last were paid first, and (2) all workers, even those who had labored for only one hour, received the same pay: a denarius, the usual day’s wages. This is not the usual way of doing things in employer-employee relations.

Jesus did not intend to prescribe work schedules and wage scales for everyday life. He Himself subscribed to the principle that “the worker deserves his wages’ (Luke 10:7). What He had in mind here was to underscore the terms God has ordained in the kingdom of grace. God is gracious, and when Jesus has the vineyard owner say “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” (Matthew 20:15), He is asserting God’s right to be gracious.

Long-term Christians and veterans of the cross – those who have labored long for their Lord – and latecomers like the penitent thief on the cross are saved by grace alone. The former do not begrudge God’s generosity to last-minute converts, for they too are saved by grace. And the latecomers? They join the hymn writer in saying: “Alas! That I so late have known Thee.”

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"Forgiving Another: It Lifts a Burden"

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
   

In Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son the father forgives his son. In Harold Bell Wright’s “The Shepherd of the Hills,” which is the fourth most-read book in our country, it is a father who forgives his son-in-law. The father was long bitter because his daughter had died in childbirth. In the end, however, as the young man lay dying, old Matt found it in his heart to forgive.

Forgiveness is often a long time coming. Before it comes, hatred or a grievance corrodes the heart like an acid. Think of the feud between Isaac’s twin sons, Esau and Jacob. After a 20-year absence because of Esau’s jealousy, Jacob dared to come home with his family. The reunion was cordial. The brothers embraced.

Many people take their grudges with them through life, all the way to the grave. They refuse to forgive another for wrongdoing, even when forgiveness is asked for. Or they will say reluctantly: “Okay, I’ll forgive, but I’ll never forget,” which comes close to being a contradiction in terms. An anger daily nursed and rehearsed can become a cancer of the soul. That’s why Saint Paul tells us to treat it early: “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” (Ephesians 4:26).

Forgiveness, thought often hard, is possible because God in Christ forgave us. Again, the apostle: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”: (Ephesians 4:32). We came to God, confessing: “Great is our debt, and many are our trespasses of Your holy will.” And He said to us: “Because My Son, Jesus Christ, whom you accept in faith as your Lord and Savior, died for your wrong-doing and set things straight, I forgive you – I forgive you the entire burden of your debt.”

Shouldn’t we then also forgive our neighbor the paltry debt he owes us?

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"The Wealth We Have in Christ"

In [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3
   

Chapter 13 in Saint Matthew’s gospel contains nuggets of truth in its seven parables, and one of them does deal with a treasure: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44).

The noun in the Greek text for “treasure” is thesaurus, a term commonly applied to a book containing a wealth of information on words, as in the case of “Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases.” In Greek a thesaurus meant, first, the place where valuables were kept: a treasure box or chest. Second, it meant the treasure itself.

According to Jesus’ parable a man, quite by accident, found a cache in a plot of ground. He didn’t abscond with the treasure. That would have been theft, and besides, it may have been too heavy to carry. So he hid it again, then went to great effort to obtain it legally by scraping together all his money and buying the field.

The purpose of the parable is not to instruct us on procedure when we find an earthly treasure. Nor is it an investor’s guide on how to reconvert one’s assets. The lesson is spiritual. The heavenly treasure some people find – unexpectedly, as it seems to them, but surely by God’s guidance – is salvation in Jesus Christ. It is the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, the inheritance of eternal life. This treasure is so great that we gladly surrender everything else so that we might have and keep it. Christ is that valuable to us.

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"Translating the Word of God"

Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22
   

More than 600 years ago John Wycliffe issued the first English Bible. Since then many translations have been published, not only in English but in more than 1,000 languages. Thanks to these translations, people everywhere in the world can read the Word of God in their own tongues and come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.

There is another kind of translation of God’s Word, that is, the translating of it into everyday Christian Life. Several steps precede this. The first is hearing the word, or reading it – making ear and eye contact with it. Then comes believing it. Saint Paul, whose conversion the Christian church observes today, tells us that faith comes from hearing the message that comes from the Word of God.

From hearing the Word we go on to the doing of it, as Saint James tells us. Only a believer can be a doer of works that God desires. The Bible states: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith in what? It is better to ask, Faith in whom? Saint Paul gave a clear answer to the converted jailer of Philippi: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’ (Acts 16:31). Believe in Him as the one who gave His life to redeem you from sin and to enable you to be His follower.

Given hearing and believing, the translating of the Word into Christian action can begin. It began immediately for the jailer when he washed the wounds he himself had inflicted on Paul and Silas. Early Christians translated the Word of God when, to the astonishment of their heathen neighbors, they practiced love, also in their relation with enemies. Those who reveal the fruit of the Spirit in their lives are translators of the Word in terms of Christian virtues, and these are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Practice this in the home, in the community, in school, and at work, and you are translating the Word of God.

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"Communicating the Word"

We write this to make our joy complete. 1 John 1:4
   

It is estimated that 26 million English-speaking people in the United States are illiterate, that is, they can’t read the newspaper, address an envelope, write a check, or read a public notice.

When people are unable to read and write, it is much harder to get word to them – to communicate the Word of God. Of course, there is still the avenue of hearing and the use of visual material. But reading the Word – and writing it, as Christian authors do – is essential to the fulfillment of our Christian mission to share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today, as in the past, missionaries have opened schools to teach the native tribes how to read and write. These skills open a new world to these people. They give them access to God’s message in the Holy Scriptures. Of course, one can say, we can by word of mouth and over the radio tell the Gospel to the illiterate, and this is being done. But it is important, too, that the hearers of the Word become readers of it, so that they can learn firsthand what God has to say to them. Of the early Christians in Berea it is said: “They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

While the ability to read and write is of great hope to people in everyday life, it is especially important in one’s relationship to Jesus Christ. He is the essence of the Holy Scriptures. They testify of Him as the Word through whom God made known His saving love. Jesus the Word not only spoke of and for the Father, He also did what the Father wanted Him to do: to give His life as a ransom for the redemption of all people.

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"Keeping the Gospel Pure"

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" Galatians 2:21
   

On the rock-bound coast north of Boston one can see the beautiful home once belonging to Lydia Pinkham. Her company made a popular remedy that many regarded as patent medicine. Perhaps some found “relief” from it because it was 20 percent alcohol.

Jesus is our good Physician, and what He and His apostles dispensed was the pure Gospel, the only cure for sinful man. Our Lord spoke the words of life, warning His hearers about false prophets, that is, quacks, peddlers of useless spiritual medicines. Sometimes these false teachers offered remedies that were a mixture of truths and untruths. But true doctrine, when mixed with error, is no longer the truth.

This fact becomes especially evident when the way of salvation by faith is watered down, even poisoned, by claims of salvation by good works or human merit. If, even to the smallest degree, we are made to believe that we become right with God by our own goodness or good deeds, the principle of divine grace is set aside.

Saint Paul encountered this attempted mixture of God’s mercy with human merit among the Galatian Christians, many of whom were led to believe that the deeds of the Law must still be done to gain God’s favor. The apostle calls this a gospel different from the one he had preached. It was in fact no longer the Gospel. The Gospel that he preached was that Christians lived by faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who loved them and gave Himself on the cross for them. The idea of salvation by works, he says, sets aside the grace of God, "for if righteousness could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing."

The “alcohol” of human merit can make people feel good, but only the Gospel brings them peace with God.

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"First Down, then Up"

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
   

Our Lord used a correct expression in saying at the beginning of His parable of the Good Samaritan: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:30). Jerusalem is 2,400 feet above sea level, while Jericho is 825 feet below sea level – a descent of nearly two thirds of a mile.

The man of Jesus’ parable went down in another sense: “He fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead” (Luke 10:30). The priest and the Levite who passed that way let him stay down.

But the Good Samaritan raised him up and ministered to him. He took the victim to the inn, cared for him for a day, and then engaged the innkeeper to attend him during the rest of his convalescence.

The man who was down came up again because somebody cared, somebody had compassion, somebody considered even a hostile racist to be his neighbor. And that is the point in the parable. “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) the scribe had asked. The reply of Jesus showed that it is anyone who is in need of our help.

Thank God, Jesus Christ was no respecter of persons. He disregarded race, color, social status, even moral self-achievement. While we were yet sinners – all of us – He died for us. We were all down, but now we are up. We are all one in Christ Jesus.

Let us then be up and doing. The mother of James and John asked Jesus whether her sons could sit on seats of honor in His kingdom. Yes, there is a time to sit and listen to Jesus’ words, as did Mary of Bethany. All the while, whether we sit or stand, we remain up in our Christian living so that we may walk in God’s ways and render service where it is needed.

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"Speaking and Doing the Truth"

Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Ephesians 4:25
   

A national liar’s organization is located in Burlington, Wisconsin. Obviously it is a tongue-in-cheek group, featuring fishing stories and other tall tales. People know what is involved: a form of entertainment.

All people, also Christians, lack perfect truthfulness. That comes out not only in what they say and do, but also in what they don’t say and do. Take, for example, Ananias and Sapphira, members of the first Christian church in Jerusalem. They were liars, not only because of their lies but also their pretense, namely, that they had given all their money to the poor when they had kept some of it for themselves. Hypocrites are liars and dishonest persons.

Sometimes traces of untruthfulness are found among church people today, with some members trying to outdo one another by practicing a false liberality or a pretended holiness. Saint Paul was aware of this tendency, writing to the Ephesians: "Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body."

Jesus gives us the perfect example of truthfulness. Saint Peter writes of Him, quoting the words of Isaiah: “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

It is one thing to admire an example, and another to follow it. A man in a wheelchair may admire one who can walk, but that doesn’t mean that he can get up and do likewise. Jesus not only gives us the example of perfect truthfulness, but He also enables us to follow it. In giving His life for us, in rising from the dead, and in sending His Holy Spirit into our hearts, He made us His own – made us to be like Him. We have no reason to lie about ourselves. We are acceptable in the sight of God.

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"The Higher Loyalty"

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.” John 14:27
   

Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). Yet He also said to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.” Some consider these statements contradictory.

We have to bear in mind: the peace of Christ – the peace we have with God through His reconciling death – is one thing; the peace of the world is another.

At the same time, as people who live both in Christ’s kingdom and in the world, we often find ourselves in strange situations – in situations in which the greater loyalty to Christ supersedes personal relationships and friendships.

In our secular lives as well there may be conflicts. In the 1840s two young men were cadets at West Point Military Academy: Ulysses S. Grant and Simon B. Buckner. They were friends. In 1854, when Grant found himself without funds in New York City, Buckner made him a loan. Later the Civil War broke out, dividing not only states but also family members and friends. In the battle of Fort Donelson, Grant and Buckner were officers on opposite sides. Officially they were enemies, for their greater loyalty lay with their respective governments. When Buckner surrendered, Grant offered him financial assistance. In such situations we, too, may find ourselves.

What it boils down to is this: Christians and non-Christians must live together and share this one world. We deal with one another. We have many likes and dislikes in common. We are good neighbors. We work for the good of the community and country. However, in the final analysis – when it gets down to a spiritual crisis – our higher loyalty and love go to Jesus Christ. Not only our eternal well-being but also our peace of conscience lies with Him.

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"Searching for the Treasure"

Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4
   

A treasure hunter in Florida searched for 16 years for the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a Spanish galleon that sank in 1622 with a cargo of precious metals. In 1985 the ship was located, and 40 million dollars worth of gold and silver was salvaged. The approximate location of the ship was determined by searching ancient records.

The Word of God contains great spiritual treasures. These, declares the psalmist, “are more precious than gold, than much pure gold” (Psalm 19:10). The wisdom of the Holy Scriptures, which make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, “cannot be bought with the finest gold” (Job 28:15) says Job. The Word of God exceeds every earthly treasure, for only it can comfort people when they, like Job, have experienced afflictions and heavy losses. Only it enables a person to say with Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25).

Granted that the Holy Scriptures hold treasures to enrich and strengthen us spiritually, but how do we come into their possession? Jesus has the answer: Search the Scriptures! When we read, study, discuss, and apply the truths of God’s Word, we “through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures … we have hope,” writes Saint Paul.

Our growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ comes through the medium of God’s written Word, but it does so only if we do persistent digging, exploring, and searching. Then, like the man in Florida who discovered the treasures of the Spanish galleon, we too will find a treasure, our Highest Good, and that is Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Have you been treasure hunting in the Bible?

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"Names that Honor Christians"

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. 1 Peter 2:9
   

Sometimes people seek to enhance their position and the kind of work they do by inventing high-sounding titles. A barber becomes a tonsorial artist; an elevator operator, an engineer in charge of vertical transportation; and a bit on the humorous side, a soda jerk, a fizzicist.

People outside Christendom may wonder about the names and titles by which God honors His people. Christ’s enemies may have wondered about His title: the Son of God. When Pontius Pilate had the lowly, beaten Jesus before him, he may have smiled when he hard Him affirm His divine kingship. But our Lord was indeed the King of heaven and earth, for He was the Son of the Highest.

Christians are called kings and priests in the Bible. These are not empty, pretentious titles. The exalted, enthroned Christ has truly made them rulers with Him in heavenly places. Saint Peter tells all Christians: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” They came to be God’s people because Jesus Christ purchased them with His blood and set them free so that they might declare God’s praises, who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. These God-given titles deal with reality.

So it is with every other name by which God honors Christians. They are truly His children – by adoption, yes, but truly His sons and daughters and the heirs of eternal life. The very name “Christian,” although originally given them by the enemies of the Gospel, is an honorable designation, for it connects them with Christ.

Kings, priests, God’s offspring, children of light, Christians – these are faith-implying, faith-strengthening titles. We are honored to bear them. What remains is that we live up to them by glorifying God.

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"Peace in the Home"

May you live to see your children’s children. Psalm 128:6
   

“He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.” So declared the poet Goethe.

Peace in the home cannot be bought. We can purchase comfortable furniture, wall-to-wall carpeting, and television sets, but peace is not obtainable in the marketplace at any price. There are no substitutes for the happiness that peace brings. Lustful pleasure is no replacement. Alcohol and drugs may be relaxing for awhile – they may take the users into a world of fantasy and dreams, but that is not peace.

Many who in anger, frustration, or false expectations leave home to look for peace elsewhere usually don’t find it. How many times has the sad experience of the Prodigal Son been repeated by young people today! The bright lights of the city, especially of its amusement area, spell out many words, but peace of mind and soul is not one of them.

Peace in the home – between husbands and wives, parents and children – is no accident. It is God’s gift to us, in keeping with the directives and promises of His Word. Those who do the will of God, honoring father and mother and loving one another, have found the road to peace. The willingness and ability to let God’s will prevail in all domestic relationships is not the result of some human philosophy but is a fruit of faith. Faith is the foundation of peace – faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked the way of the cross to effect reconciliation and peace with God for all humanity. Peace in the home is a piece of the peace we have with God.

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"Using Our Talents"

I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God. 2 Timothy 1:6
   

Edison, the inventor, had more than 1,000 patents. Picasso averaged more than 200 paintings a year. Mozart wrote more than 600 great musical compositions, and all this before he died at age 35. “Great talents, these, but I don’t have any,” you say.

Not true! In most of us there is not this great capacity. Perhaps, too, most of us don’t have the concentration and 98 percent perspiration.

However true that may be, we know that all people have some talents, endowments, and abilities – some more than others. You, too, have a talent. It may be a diamond in the rough, but it’s there. Let’s mention a few, and you can perhaps identify with one or more: a cheerful disposition, the ability to make friends, a readiness to listen when people present personal problems, skills in homemaking, a patience that goes with trying to help one who struggles, the giving of advice based on knowledge and experience, a good memory, a receptive mind. A compassionate heart. Little talents? No. They become big ones when rightly used.

When enhanced by the Christian faith, our gifts are profitably used in the service of Christ. And that is what makes our personal endowments so precious – with them we can glorify God and bring help into the lives of troubled and deprived people.

What a joy it is to our Savior Jesus Christ when He sees that He redeemed us not only from something – from the guilt of sin and the fear of death – but also for something – for serving Him and His brothers and sisters with our talents!

A deed of love done in His name can mean more than an invention by Edison, a painting by Picasso, a motet by Mozart. This is not to minimize great talent; it is to maximize what Christian love can do with even so small a personal talent.

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"How Old are You?"

Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:14
   

The Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw once expressed the opinion that people could get to be 300 years old if they could avoid accidents. Ironically, he died at age 92 when he fell from a ladder while trimming a tree.

Age is not entirely a matter of calendar years. Much depends on how we guard our health. A dissolute actor who died at age 50 was said to have had the worn-out body of a 90-year-old man. Conversely, some people at age 80 are in better shape than those half their age. When Moses died at the age of 120, “his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone” (Deuteronomy 34:7).

How old are you? It could well be that you are younger than you think. You are young in body if you keep fit through daily exercise. You are young in mind if you keep on learning, maintain an interest in life around you, can adjust to changing conditions, and stay hopeful about the future.

Above all, we need to measure our age in the spiritual dimension of life – in our Christian faith. Here the emphasis is on growth. We don’t want to remain what Saint Paul calls “mere infants in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1) when we have the opportunity to be mature men and women. God has given us the means for spiritual development: His Word and the sacraments. He desires that we, in the words of Saint Peter, may “grow up” in our salvation. To discover every day how wonderful is the love of God, who sent His Son to give us life and peace and pardon, is to stay spiritually young – in the psalmist’s words, to renew our youth “like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:5). At the close of his second epistle Saint Peter urges us: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

The Post-Epiphany season offers many opportunities and incentives to let Christ’s light of the Gospel shine in and through our lives.