Serve God and His people; ignore mere religious traditions

Wednesday, June 12


Devotions: Ps 72, 119:73-96; Eccles 9:11-18; Gal 5:1-15; Mt 16:1-12

Solomon wrote: God, give the king your justice and righteousness; may the king serve Your people justly, and care for the poor among them. May the land prosper Your people, Lord; and may Your appointed king defend the cause of the poor and give deliverance to the needy; may he crush the oppressor with Your power. Give the king long life; make him a blessing, like rain that softens the earth; let him be an agent of Your peace! May his dominion extend from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and put his enemies face-down before him, great God! Prosper Your king; encourage the people to pray for him. Let the fields bring bumper crops, and the land multiply Your people. Blessed be YHWH, God of Israel; blessed be Your glorious name forever; may Your glory fill the whole earth. Amen! Lord, You made me; give me understanding to learn Your commands. May my hope, faith and love encourage others; may my response in affliction build their confidence to cope with the trials they face. Have mercy on me, Lord, that I may live and delight in Your law. Put the godless to shame, as I persevere in study and obedience to Your word. I am brother and friend to all who love and serve You. I long for You, Lord, and for Your salvation. I languish as I wait upon Your move, Your initiative. In Your steadfast love, spare my life to keep Your testimonies. Your word, Your faithfulness endures forever; You sustain all You have created. I am Yours; save me! The wicked oppose me, but I stand by Your grace; there is no limit to the goodness of Your commandments, my God.

The Qoheleth observed: the race is not to the swift, nor victory to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the gifted and skilled—time and chance fall upon all alike. Mortals are snared by time ande circumstance, like fish in an evil net or birds in a cruel snare. I saw this, and remember it: a little city, with few residents, was besieged by superior forces. A resident, poor and exceedingly wise, devised means to deliver the city. But after the crisis passed, no one remember the poor man whose wisdom saved them. But I say this: though the poor man's wisdom is despised and unheeded, still wisdom is greater than weapons in the conflicts of humankind. And yet: one sinner destroys much good.

The Messiah has freed us for freedom! Don't submit again to slavery. If you choose submission to the traditions of men, you have no part in the power and liberty Christ offers you! Bow to one portion of the Law, and you must keep it all—and no one succeeds in that endeavor. You cut yourself off from Christ; you spurn grace and follow the futile path of self-righteousness; you can't keep the Law—only Jesus has done so. We await the hope of righteousness through the Spirit, and by means of faith. In the Messiah Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any effect; what works is faith directed by love. You had that pattern down, but then you veered from that path—what happened? God didn't influence that mistake; whoever did will face God's stern judgment for troubling you. If I preached circumcision, I'd be left alone; why, then, am I persecuted? For preaching the cross, a stumbling block to the enemies of Christ—and I wish they'd mutilate themselves and leave you and me in peace. Brothers and sisters, you have been called to freedom, not slavery; you are freed to love and serve one another, not to indulge the flesh. The whole law boils down to this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' If you bite and claw at one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another!
Scribes and Pharisees probed Jesus, seeking to discredit Him. They asked Him for a sign from heaven to validate His message and ministry. Jesus replied, 'You know how to read the weather: red sky at night, the next day, delight—fair weather; red sky at morning, storm approaches; take warning. So why can't you read the signs of the times? An evil, adulterous generation asks for a sign, but you'll get only the sign of Jonah.' And He departed from them. Jesus and His disciples reached the far side of the Sea of Galilee, and He said to them, 'Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' They misunderstood, and began to squabble over the fact that they had brought no bread on the outing. Aware of their mistake, Jesus said, 'Men of little faith: why are you discussing the lack of bread? You still don't get it, do you? Surely you can remember Me feeding the five thousand, with 12 baskets of leftovers remaining from five loaves, and feeding four thousand with seven loaves, and seven baskets left over. I wasn't speaking to you about bread. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' Then they understood: He was speaking about the ungodly teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees—that is what they were to avoid.