What Do You Mean, Turn the Other Cheek?!

Can we all agree that some things the Bible tells us to do are difficult at times, even for the most pious among us?  But when Jesus speaks, those red-letter-emphasized instructions direct from the Savior’s mouth seem to demand even more careful obedience.  So why is it that we all seem to choke on that most-famous command to “turn the other cheek”?  Here’s the verse in context:

You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.  As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well.  (Matthew 5:38-40)

Jesus obviously understands that when someone hurts you, you want to obtain some sort of revenge.  Yet His advice – no, His COMMAND – is that we respond to the ultimate insult by turning the other cheek.  Is that where the saying “adding insult to injury” came from?  It seems from the text that Jesus’ admonition covers not only our personal pride, but our material possessions, as well.  Does Jesus expect us to be doormats for the bullies of the world?  To just take whatever the “meanies” in our lives want to dish out and never respond in anger or vengeance?  The short answer is, “Yes”.  But here’s the rest of the story from a plea by King David 3,000 years ago:

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; Defend me from those who rise up against me.  Deliver me from the workers of iniquity…The mighty gather against me, Not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Lord.  They run and prepare themselves through no fault of mine…I will wait for You, O You his Strength; For God is my defense.  My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies…But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.  (Psalm 59)

I find it interesting that this same David stood against the giant, Goliath, and left him in a heap on the battlefield.  Goliath insulted God and David put him down.  THAT’S our kind of hero, right?  But Jesus tells us that if someone insults US, GOD will take care of it.  You see, David knew it was God that brought the victory over Goliath, not his skill with a sling and a stone.  David was simply fighting for God’s reputation; God directed the rock!  In the Psalm above, David is singing the same tune – God you protect me and I’ll sing your praises. 

Jesus wasn’t trying to convince us all to live like Timex watches that “take a licking and keep on ticking!”  God doesn’t expect that His children will be abused by the bad folks in the world.  He just wants to be the one to settle the account for us!  God doesn’t want us to have to figure out justice and to dole out mercy.  Only God is a fit judge.  What He asks from us is to trust HIM.  That’s what it’s always about in this life. 

So, the next time someone slaps you on your cheek or wants to bilk you out of your shirt, literally or figuratively, repeat the refrain of Psalm 59: “Deliver me…Defend me…and I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing of Your mercy.”  You do your job and let God do His.

Jacob

The King and I – a Look at Bible Translation

Part of overcoming the fear of reading the Bible for direction and insight is to find a translation that you can understand.  Typically, your church will have a favored translation – the one usually used by the pastor during preaching on Sunday or the translation found slipped into the rack on the back of the pew in front of you.  Churches might debate the validity of different translations, so I wanted to help you understand a bit more about where that Bible you hopefully read originated.

Let’s begin by looking at what the Bible says about itself:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.   2 Timothy 3:16-17

…When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.   1 Thessalonians 2:13

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  (2 Peter 1:20-21)

To summarize, God spoke through men by the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal His heart and will to us, so we can live the lives He intended.  Now that’s helpful, isn’t it?

But the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.  That would be עִברִית

and Ελληνικά, and Google translate can’t even do English to Aramaic!  Obviously, translation is critical for us to understand.  But God’s effort in bringing His Word to us was targeted first at His beloved Hebrews using their wonderful picture-language that showed us images of things to come.  The meaning-specific Greek that connected the whole world of Jesus and the Apostles brought the truths of Christ to the four corners of the earth.  It doesn’t matter to us that many of the Greek texts were written SOTHEYWOULDREADSOMETHINGLIKETHIS!  All caps and no spaces.  Many others were written in a kind-of lower case cursive.  But all in all, the Word of God was written, preserved, and now translated into a form that can make sense to all of us.  Especially if we speak English. 

But what about the rest?  While more than 1,300 languages have access to the New Testament and some portions of Scripture in their language, and more than 550 languages have the complete translated Bible, there are about 7,000 languages known to be in use today.  That means up to 180 million people still need Bible translation to begin in their language.  Just under 2,300 languages across 130 countries have active translation and linguistic development work happening right now.  But up to 1,800 languages still need a Bible translation project to begin. Maybe that’s YOUR calling?  If you’d like more information, or to make a difference in reaching out to our world with the Word of God, check this out:  https://www.wycliffe.org/about/why

Happy I can read my Bible in English!

Jacob

                                                                                                                                                           

Be Thou Not Afraid (of the Bible)

Let’s face it.  The Bible can be an intimidating book.  Forget about the fact that it speaks of itself in these ominous tones:

“…the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12

It’s as if the Holy Spirit is promising spiritual surgery to everyone who reads it.  That is, in fact, God’s guarantee!  Who among us can stand up to the discerning truths of Scripture?  No one.  But God promises forgiveness and salvation to all who believe the words of our sacred text.  So why do we shy away from reading it for ourselves??

Maybe we think there’s not much in the Bible except for boring stuff and names we can’t pronounce? 

“The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.  The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Diphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshishah, Kittim, and Rodanim.”  (1 Chronicles 1:5-7)

So yes, there ARE names we struggle to pronounce, but if you knew that at least one of the names listed is your direct ancestor, would you be MORE interested?  (Because that is almost certainly true.)  Trust me when I say that there is an abundance of riches found in the different chronologies and in the “person A begat person B” sections of Scripture.  Why in the world is all that stuff there?  Because there is a story behind each name and life lived, sometimes for God and sometimes not.  Those who followed God deserve the recognition and attention; those who failed serve as a warning to us.  Your life, no matter whether you follow Christ or not, will do the same for someone who follows you.

Do you have trouble understanding the words you read because the language used in the King James version is different from 21^st century English?  Compare these two passages from Philippians 2:2-4:

Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  (King James Version)

Fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal.  Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.  Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.  (Holman Christian Study Bible)

If you’d like to read different translations online or before buying a specific translation, try this website:  https://www.biblegateway.com/.  You can even look at two or three versions side-by-side in parallel translation if that helps you.

What’s most important?  READ YOUR BIBLE!  God penned a love-letter to you so you would know Him better.  If the Creator of the universe thought it was worth the time to write down what He believed was important, what is it that YOU think is MORE important? 

Jacob

I Can Clean That If You Want

Spot removal.  It can be a real bear sometimes!  We’ve all had it happen.  You wear your best outfit and manage to drop dinner in your lap.  No matter what you try, it seems like you can always see the defect, whether others can or not.  I’m still wearing a nice pair of dress pants that I inadvertently got paint on eight years ago!  I know, why am I wearing clothes that old?  I won’t even tell you how many seasons some of my unseen garments have been through.  But the point is that sometimes, a spot or stain stays no matter how hard we try to eliminate it.

Even Shakespeare wrote famously about that “darned spot” (with apologies to Will) that Lady Macbeth just couldn’t get out – the stain of her sin for her part in a murder plot (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1).  While you may not have sin stains as stubborn or heinous as Lady Macbeth’s, the reminders of your own failures might sometimes steal your sleep as well.  We all have personal stains – let’s just call them past sins to be completely honest – that don’t seem to go away no matter how hard we wish they would.  Oh, I know if you are a believer in Christ, the blood of Jesus has washed them away so no one else should comment on them.  I know even God Himself doesn’t see them.  But I still do.  It doesn’t seem to matter that whatever terrible things I’ve done in the past are forgiven and covered by Christ’s blood, I still struggle with seeing the stain. 

King David had lots of stains that might have kept him awake at night.  His story is just as lurid and ghastly as any Shakespeare tale.  But instead of wandering the halls of his palace lamenting his sin, it seems he discovered a way to get those spots out:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me…Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.       Psalm 51:1-7

If you’ve sought forgiveness like David, there is nothing else you can do.  No matter how dreadful the stain in your life, it doesn’t get any cleaner than when it’s been laundered by the Savior.  Your sin-stains are gone.  Your friends may remember where they were.  Your spouse might recall just how terrible the spot appeared when it was fresh.  You may still be able to visualize exactly what it looked like before it was washed away.  BUT IT IS GONE.   

In John 13, Jesus tried to give us a visual reminder of His ability to clean away sin by washing the feet of His disciples.  It was His very last act of ministry TO them before He died FOR them.  Max Lucado referenced Jesus’ act in these words from his book, Just Like Jesus:

“Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, "I can clean that if you want." And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes away our sin.”

Wow.  The sin-stains are gone.  Is it possible you still see where those marks were because they’ve been replaced by the tear-stains of gratitude?  Those are spots you can live with.

Jacob