Ps. 133-135
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Ps 133:1). We just read Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthian church for this very thing yesterday. But unity is hard, isn’t it? I’ll even go so far as to say that, apart from God, it is impossible. So how do we do it? The message I got from Paul yesterday was to keep Jesus, the Christ, at the center of everything. As Psalm 134 says in the first verse, “Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD”. Perhaps if we focus on doing that, the rest will take care of itself.
I like the series, “The Chosen”, and I have mentioned it before. It really brings home the likely probability that the disciples were a very mixed bag of personalities and characters. I never even thought about it just reading through the Bible stories, but seeing this television production made me realize that many of these people would never have been caught dead in the same room with each other apart from following Jesus. What was it that got them to lay their differences aside and work in unity toward a common goal? Jesus was at the center. All of them came to “bless the LORD”, if you will, and suddenly the rest found a way of working itself out.
I think that Psalm 135:5-6 is worth remembering, too. “For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” Not only is God sovereign, He is truly the only being in existence with true sovereignty. This knowledge should invoke both fear and comfort in those of us who belong to Him. Fear because, as we noted yesterday, we are not even worthy to worship such a great God but for His grace and mercy. And comfort because if such a God is for us – and He most certainly is – then who can stand against us?
1 Cor. 2
This is an interesting passage. I know I am not alone in feeling like I need to be eloquent and well-versed in the Bible message to be able to witness to somebody. I fear that I will not know what to say or have the answers to people’s questions. But Paul’s words here should put that concern to rest. In fact, Paul says that spouting off the deeper knowledge of God won’t make any sense to someone unless God’s Spirit is already dwelling in them. Not only is it not essential for somebody to understand such things to be saved, it is not possible. That kind of understanding is “taught by the Spirit,” Paul says (vs 13), and the Spirit comes after salvation.
Instead, it is enough to do as Paul did and simply proclaim the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is the basic Gospel message that even young children can grasp. It is good to note, however, that he also mentions the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” as part of his message. Perhaps he performed signs and wonders as Jesus did, but for us I think the bigger part of that statement is that we live visibly changed or different lives. If we are truly living out our faith, people should be able to see that there is something different about us. God does not by any means need our lives to be perfect. Remember, it is God who does the work of salvation, not us. But we don’t want to stand as a road block because the message of our words and our lives are in conflict.
One last comment I want to make on this passage concerns the very last verse. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:16) That is an incredibly awesome statement to me! This entire passage not only makes the point that, when it comes to witnessing, a simple message is all we need, but it also reveals the deeper understanding of God that is available to us who love Him.