29 November 2010
Psalms 1, 2, 3; Isaiah 1.10-20; 1 Thess. 1.1-10; Luke 20.1-8

What is more important to God, the sacrifices themselves or the heart motive of the one offering the sacrifice? Are we attempting to placate God in order that He continue to bless us or that He would bless us in general or are we honestly dealing with sin in our lives that requires sacrifice? Here it is clear that God is less interested in sacrifice and religion than relationship but on His terms. His terms are honestly acknowledging our sins and allowing Him to be righteous and holy. Religion isn’t a bad thing but when the practice becomes devoid of worship and becomes the thing in itself then it is no longer serving the purpose for which it was intended, leading us into the presence of God where we might be changed and where we might be filled with Him.

The question of authority posed to Jesus has to do with permission. Do you have permission to do and teach as you do and if so who gave it as we certainly did not. In Judaism it was important that training take place to ensure orthodoxy within certain boundaries. There were at least two important rabbinic schools at the time of Jesus and they differed in some respects in their approach but the boundaries of the teaching were clearly established around a core that was unchangeable. When Jesus began to teach it was outside of those schools. It is important that we have authority over us but when that authority becomes compromised and seeks to assert itself to justify itself then it becomes destructive of its purpose, it is no longer God-centered but self-centered. They couldn’t trip Him up in His teaching so they sought to discredit it on terms of whose authority it came from.

Paul boasts of the faith of the Thessalonians with statements that prove that their conversion was more than an intellectual conversion. They not only now thought differently they also lived different lives. They had turned away from idols and were practicing true religion, the worship of God and waiting for their deliverance in Jesus Christ. The result of their conversion is that the word about them had gone out in the region and others were making the same conversion. They imitated the ones who preached the word to them and they have themselves become examples to others. That is the way the Gospel is to be advanced, we come to faith, amend our thinking and our way of life and then others see and want what we have. That is only possible if our conversion and our faith becomes a matter and an affair of the heart

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.