"...to all who have loved his appearing."

The title comes from the end of 2 Timothy 4:8. The whole verse is "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will reward to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing."

This verse is an echo of what Paul has already talked about in 1:8-12. Second Timothy 1:10 explains the appearing of Jesus. His appearance manifest grace, which he gave to believers before the beginning of the world. Paul also mentions "that Day" in 1:12. He tells Timothy that he believes that God will guard what has been entrusted to Paul until the end.

So Paul ends his commands to Timothy by telling him about the crown he will receive when he dies. Paul is not the only one that will receive this crown, everyone who loved the appearance of Christ will also receive this crown. The crown is only giving to those that believe. Jesus is the Savior of the world, and those who believe in Him will be saved. Paul is very upfront about salvation being from eternally past because of His own purpose.

Paul also shows that it those that make it the end. The preceding verses explain that he is about to die. He has finished this course of life believing. He was faithful like a soldier and his reward is this crown. Now, he was saved by God's own pleasure and grace (1:19) but Paul seemingly was actively involved with maintain his salvation. Paul understands that this work is done by grace.

This is a call for us to remain faithful like Paul. Like Paul, we have a crown awaiting us when we see God when we die. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us to throw off all hindrance and look towards Jesus who is the one will finish our salvation in glorification.  

The Calling of the Weak and Powerless.

1 Corinthians 1:26–31

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  

God calls the weak and powerless for His glory. This passage continues as Paul compares the world to God. In 1 Cor. 1:20-25, the world has its wisdom but God's is better. The world has its strength but when compared to God's weakness, it still can not be compared. This passage compares the calling of God with what the world calls on. Paul invites us to consider the calling of God in salvation. God chooses or elects people who are considered disgrace and weak, foolish and lowly. Paul shows that not everyone that God saves is the best and greatest in the world. In fact, most of the people are not in those position. The point is to see that God chooses people so that humans cannot boast in God.

This itself is against the wisdom of the world. The world seeks people that have power and people want power. We put on pedestals, people that we think are wise. We actively search for the people that will get things done. God, instead, picks people that are weak and foolish to shame the world from searching for wisdom outside of God. The boast is boasting that you have made yourself great. Instead, God uses the foolish and weak in this world to shame the strong and wise so that we can boast in God. Christ is the ultimate example because of the cross (1 Cor. 1:18-25). God used a tool to humiliating death to save those that He has called.

1 Corinthians 1:7-9

There is a strange connection between knowledge and lacking in gifts. This connection will be examined more within the letter but having full knowledge is connected to not lacking in any gift. Here is the verses starting in 4:

I give thanks to my God always, concerning you, for the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus, that in all, You are made rich in Him, in all words and all knowledge, as the testimony of Christ confirmed to you, so that you may not be lacking in anything gift, waiting on the revelation of our Lord, Jesus Christ; who also will strengthen you until the end, blameless in the day of the our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by you were called out into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord.(My Translation)

 Being made rich is connected to knowledge. This knowledge is about Jesus, as seen in the "testimony of Christ." So the argument is "You are made rich in Him... so that you may not be lacking in anything gift." God has richly provide knowledge of Christ so that we do not lack in any gifts while we wait for Jesus. Knowledge thus is connected to being ready for the Lord's return. He richly provides what we need to be blameless for His coming. We seek this knowledge by reading and meditating on God's word as it provides sufficient knowledge of Him. God does not disconnect knowledge with faith, Our faith is rooted in a knowledge of God. It is Jesus who strengthen with the this knowledge so that we may be presented blameless before God. As we look for growth, we should not forget that God is the one that gives knowledge richly so that we can be sustained till the end by never lacking in his glorious gifts.

A Relfection on The Tree of Life from Genesis and Revelation.

Most of the time when people talk about Genesis 2 and 3, the focus, which is what the author intended, is on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yet tucked away within this narrative is another tree. This tree represents the eternal life that God desired humans to have with Him. In fact, it is only mentioned in two places in the narrative, 2:9 and 3:22-24. It bookends the narrative and also shows the chose that Adam and Eve had. Out of all the trees mention in this narrative, only these two trees are mentioned by name. They represent life and death. The narrative focuses on the Tree of Knowledge because that is what happened in the history. Adam and Eve never was able to eat of the tree that would have given them eternal life.

Now, the only other places that the tree of life is mentioned is in Proverbs and Revelation. Now, Proverbs describes general principles that people within the covenant of God should follow based on God's law. In general, they are work out better than sinning. The results that are found with Proverbs shows some actions lead to life. The qualities or actions in Proverb do not lead to eternal life but allows the person to experience a fuller life in this sin-soaked world.

Revelation, on the other had, gives us a great projection of the future where the people of God will partake of the tree of life without any guards. The Bible bookends itself with this tree for it is with God. In fact, Revelation 22:2 also mentions a river in the a similar way to Genesis next to the tree of life.

This comes with great application. God has always desired for humans to dwell with Him forever. The Bible shows that only pure and righteous humans can dwell with Him. That is why Adam and Eve were sent away from the Garden. The rest of the Bible describes how bad the world is, even thought it was good before the fall. The Bible becomes clear that a savior is needed and Jesus is that savior. Those that are saved by Jesus will be able to partake of the Tree of  Life in Heaven when they dwell with God. Before those that are saved get to Heaven, we eager wait and desire the Lord and long for our resurrected bodies in glory.

Covenant with David

I was doing my morning devotional through Table Talk today and it was on Jeremiah 33:14-26. This passage explained that God was going to establish David's throne forever. This was a time when Jerusalem was being attacked before they were sent into exile because of disobedience. Four times in this passage, God stress that He will have a descended from David on the throne forever. He also adds that priests will be offering sacrifices forever. The only way that this is to be broken is if someone can stop the sun and moon from shining at their appointed times.

This passage demonstrates the faithfulness of God because Jesus is the king that will rule forever. Understanding God faithfulness helps us to remain steadfast to God's promises. 2 Peter 3:9 says that we should count human slowness to God. God will do what he has promised. 2 Peter is context of future judgment, yet we know that God has promised believers now. Verses like Romans 8:28-30 show that Christians have promises now that God will be faithful to give. We can have faith in God when bad happens because He uses bad for our good. Trials and suffering happen to make us more like Jesus.

Seeing that God is faithful, live in this knowledge that God will give what He promise because He gave the ultimate promise of salvation through His Son, Jesus. 

1 Peter 1:1-2

I am changing what I am doing on this blog in order that I may kept going better. I will keep this blog strictly for posts about what I reading or studying for papers and sermons that deal with the Bible. I am hoping to blog more often than I have currently been doing. I will try to post meditations here without getting to personal. Meditations may come from the Greek text (they will be taged as "Greek"), even so, I will never assume you know Greek and will provide translations. I also hope to start some different series.  School may delay these posts. I will try to stick with less technical language.

1 Peter 1:1-2

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

 This salutation brings a lot of theological important right from the start. Particularly to the people that Peter is addressing. Peter calls them "elect," "foreknew," "set apart." All three members of the Trinity are present in this. The term elect has overtones from the OT where God called certain people to select a particular nation called Israel. These people are elected based on God's foreknowledge1

and in setting them apart (sanctification) with Spirit. These elect called for obedience to and being cleanse by Christ.
I want to camp out at obedience and cleansing in relation to God's foreknowledge and the setting apart by the Spirit. There is a relation to these actions, that is, God's foreknowledge and "sanctification of the Spirit" procede obedience and cleansing. Dr. Thomas Schreiener notes in the NAC commentary of 1 Peter that sanctification here means a setting part.

1:Here foreknowledge means that God knows who is elect. Add predestination to this would be incorrect though predestination includes God's foreknowledge.

What does it mean to deny yourself and pick up your cross? Part 2

Here is part 2 of my study on just 16:24. This part will only deal with the imperative portion of the text. You can read part 1 here. Remember, I am not a scholar by any means although I am in school learning to become a biblical scholar. This is using the tools that I have learned in Greek class and inductive Bible Study class to open the Scriptures more. There could be errors that I have made.

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

In the last post, I looked at some context surrounding the text and also looked at the conditional part of the If-Then statement.

Starting with "let him deny." It is in the Aorist tense and middle deponent voice. A middle deponent voice is translated as an active voice. This shows an ambiguous past action of denying. The word for "let him deny" is ἀπαρνέομαι and means "to forget one's self" or give up one's self and interests. In this case, the interests are the person who wants to follow Christ. Christ requires that you do not get and interest that are of your thinking. He does not answer that interest you should have but that will be answered later. Not only interest does Christ required but one also must give up his life. Remember, Jesus has just rebuked Peter for not having the interest of God (Matt. 16:23). So that is one thing that Peter did not understand that he was required to do to follow Jesus. Peter had is own interests in mind when he rebuked Jesus for saying that he will not die.

The next verb is take up. It is αἴρω and means "to take upon one's self and carry what has been raised up". It is also in the aorist tense and it is actually in the active voice. The person is to bear the cross. That is what Jesus was talking about throughout this passage. He is telling His disciples that He will bear the cross and now He is telling them that they must also bore the cross. This shows the denying one's self. The cross was the Roman execution tool for non-Romans. Jesus is saying that they must be willing to lose their life.

The final verb is follow, or ἀκολουθείτω. It is in the present active imperative. This is a current action. The person that wishes or intends to follow Christ, they must be currently following Jesus. This is not just tagging along. The Greek actually means "to cleave steadfastly to one, conform wholly to his example, in living and if need be in also death." This would be like becoming a disciple of Christ and willing to give your desires and be willing to die. This verb answers whose interests we should and the reason for laying down are life.

This is huge and needs to be understood. Jesus wants you to desires what he wants and to become like him. John talks about this is 1 John 2:9, "whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." There is this growing to be walking like him. This is so big in this church culture that appeals to the what we want. This may seem radical, and it is, but this what a Christian following Christ should be doing. This become like Christ shows what Christ really was like. This shows that Christianity is different and then opens the door to witnessing to people. What a way to live so God is honored.

Note: all Greek letters and quotes are from BlueLetterBible.com.