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Bible Study Malachi

Malachi | Chapter 4

Where the last chapter ended on a positive note, with the identification that there are indeed groups of people who do fear the Lord, the end of Malachi carries that out with a final reminder to be faithful to what God had commanded and to anticipate the justice that they are asking for (although without a timeline given as to when).

The imagery at the beginning of this chapter is one of anticipation, an oven heating up that will eventually consume the evil. Conversely, a “heat” image of the sun is also used to deal with the righteous, as this sun will risk and bring healing and God’s people will be like excited baby cows leaping out of their stall (who, whilst leaping and making merry, also trample the wicked). All this for the day when the Lord will act.

Now, the New Testament seems to imply that Malachi’s prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus, and in general that seems right. However, only if we are to accept a very figurative interpretation of the beginning of chapter 4, for example, can that be the whole story. Because although it is certain that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus created finality to the judgment situation and, by his example, all those who are not like him are not part of His kingdom, we don’t literally see evildoers turned into stubble and people in an oven. We also don’t see God’s people turned into calves, so it’s probably best to think of this as figuratively dealt with by Jesus yet likely something more physical and tangible at Christ’s final return.

Israel is reminded to remember the laws of Moses, they are good and result in good for his people. Their faithlessness to God by failing to honor these commandments is the root of their issues anyway. He also tells that Elijah the prophet will be sent prior to the great day of the Lord. In their minds, this might actually have been Elijah given that he didn’t die and was just taken up into heaven. However, Jesus says this is John the Baptizer. The next time Moses and Elijah will be paired like this is on the Mount of Transfiguration.

All seems like it will be well and good to end Malachi until the final sentence. The first half is good, father and sons will return to each other (this image likely should be extrapolated to the relationship between God and his people). But if they don’t, God will come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. And there you have it.

One of the interesting things about reading Malachi and some of the other minor prophets while being on our side of history where Jesus has already done what He does, is that our understanding of covenant is very similar. Where previous God’s people (or his kingdom if you want to think of it that way) was governed by his commandments and his relationship with the people that serve him. We actually do the same thing, it’s just that our “law” if you will is the living example of the life of Jesus himself. And it’s our relationship with him, which is kept healthy by what Jesus has done as our High Priest, sacrificial lamb, etc. instead of what we do.

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1 John

1 John | Chapter 1

John is a bit of a meandering, fanciful character. If you’re going to read along on this one I’d recommend taking it slow and re-reading a few times.

The first part really spends time laying out the reality of Jesus coming and being among His creation. John says multiple times that they heard him, looked upon him, touched him, saw him, etc. Of course, he’s tied this earthly Jesus to the “word of life” and “that which was from the beginning”, which has a lofty, Greek feel to it. Broad point is that something, eternal, major and awesome has come into the world and John and the boys saw it and they be telling everyone.

The reasons John gives for telling everyone is so that they can have fellowship with John and the other Jesus folk which then leads to the whole party having fellowship with Jesus and God the Father. And everyone gets joy. Seems like a plan.

Also sounds a lot like following Jesus and taking someone with you, but I kind of have a thing for that phrase so pardon if I overstep the application.

In the second half of the first chapter, John relays that one of the things Jesus wanted made known is that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Best to think of this as God being pure and altogether good. So if someone proclaims that they have fellowship with God but that person doesn’t reflect the characteristics of God, they lie, they aren’t walking with God.

But as we walk with God, reflect his characteristics to the world, we get fellowship with one another and Jesus’ sacrifice clears up where we fall short. That’s Kingdom living. We fellowship with one another under the identity, relationship, and mission Jesus died for.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Just like James, John ties together our freedom with Jesus and ability to walk in his ways with confession, truth telling. It’s just a thing, fellas. Truthy truth truthburger. Gotta do it. Hiding things isn’t protecting how you live, it’s picking how to die.

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Bible Study 1 John

1 John | Chapter 2

Mercy, for a fanciful character, John cuts it to the cloth in this chapter.

He open up with “My little children…”, that sounds nice. John says we shouldn’t sin, but that if we do (and we know we will because he said in chapter 1 that anyone who says they have no sin is lying) that we have Jesus who advocates on our behalf, who has appeased the justice of the Father. This is good news (and it’s not just us, it’s available for the sins of the whole world.)

And then the hammer drops. We know that we have come to know Jesus if we keep his commandments. “Believe” must bring obedience and action, otherwise our belief is shallow (sounds like our man James, yes? Faith without works is dead.) If we say we know Jesus and we don’t keep his commandments John says we are lying (he’s quick to call out liars in this section). “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked”. John was the last living direct apostle, he likely knew everything written before him. Apparently at the end of the 1st century they’re having issues with people saying they believe in and follow Jesus who aren’t actually following him with their lives. John is having none of it.

Remember, though, that this doesn’t mean we can live a sinless life, John already made that clear. What he’s saying is, this ain’t no show. If you say you’re going to follow Jesus, you have to be doing what he did, doing what he tells you. If not, you might be hanging around the bros and wearing the clothes and reading the books but you’re not actually submitting to Jesus, which means your life as a Christian is a lie.

Then John breaks into talking about the “new” commandment being the same as the “old” commandment. This almost has to be love God with all your heart mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says that sums up the law and the prophets and that continues to guide what we do today. That’s why John says here that if you hate your brother you are still in darkness, where those who love your brothers abide in the light (again, light and dark have connotations of the characteristics of God and us faithfully living those out.)

There’s kind of a neat little poem in the middle, pretty easy to get, though.

Then he moves into some stuff that sounds a lot like Galatians and James. He says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.” We have to pick who to serve, we can’t chase what the world honors because we know that Jesus didn’t chase that (in fact his life was a collection of shaming in the world’s perspective.) Ultimately, the world will pass away, but if we abide in God, He is faithful and we will be protected forever.

And then the antichrist(s) show up. That’s not capitalized because it’s not a specific person, the word basically means “those who oppose the Messiah”. Note John says there are many of them, they are around in John’s day and they are characterized as those who deny Jesus as the Messiah, or Jesus as the son and God as the father. And they apparently try to deceive others into denying those things as well (I’m looking at you, Jehovah’s Witnesses.) Even so, John says we don’t have to worry, stick with Jesus and the things we know about Him and we will be protected by the Son and the Father eternally. Stick with Jesus and it’ll be fine.

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Bible Study 1 John

1 John | Chapter 3

John is kind of erratic in this section, bouncing from idea to idea and back again. There may be some sinews that connect all of it but, at least at the moment, I’ve having trouble finding them.

We are reminded that God loves us so much that he is willing to call us children. That’s not a God who is simply pacified or tolerant that you made it into heaven, it’s a God who did whatever it took to adopt you into His family. And as children of God, we shouldn’t be surprised that the world doesn’t understand us because they didn’t get Jesus either. And beyond that, there’s even more to come, we’ve not yet fully realized what it’s like to live as God’s children, that will come to fruition when Jesus returns.

Then a digression: whoever sins acts as if there are no laws, no right way to live. But Jesus comes and sets that right and also provides an example so that we indeed may know how to live (in effect, Jesus is the law). But you can’t keep on acting as if that example didn’t exist. We must follow Jesus and do as he did. To not do so is to ignore what he has done as if it is not real or binding. That is lawlessness, and a rejection of Jesus, and comes from his opponent.

Let’s just note here that John is kind of difficult to parse at times in this section. He moves between what seems very broad (“…everyone who hopes in [Jesus] purifies himself…) and very specific and direct (…whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil…). In general, it seems safe to assume that his reaction to sinful behavior is habitual, consistent sinning since earlier in the letter we are told that anyone who thinks he doesn’t sin is a liar. Nonetheless, John continues to affirm that there is righteousness in what we do and that are deeds can indeed be righteous. (It is at least passingly curious that the two verses in 1 John so far that deal with works themselves being considered righteous pass without any verse commentary in the ESV Study Bible notes, which bend Reformed. I do wonder how Calvinism would comment on this association.)

John continues to tie this together with our understanding of the greatest commandments, loving and being obedient to God and loving others. If you aren’t practicing righteousness or you don’t love your brother, you’re not a child of God. He uses Cain as an example of someone who was murdered his brother because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s were righteous. [Squirrel!] Then he jumps to the reminder that we shouldn’t be surprised that the world hates us (just talked about that a few verses ago). I suppose the connection probably is Cain’s jealousy and worldly reaction vs. what Abel was doing.

Regardless, we know that we have passed from death to life when we love others like God has loved us. This is tough one: “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.”

Finally, we come back to loving God and keeping his commandments. Which is kind of baked into the previous thing because we are told that God commands us to believe in his Son and to love one another. And we know God abides in us because He has provided the Spirit.

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Bible Study 1 John

1 John | Chapter 4

John introduced the fact that we know God is with us because he gives us in the Spirit at the end of chapter 3, which opens the conversation about the spiritual world. He confirms that there are spirits that are not from God, those who would claim to be from God or would influence people to speak falsely as if it is on God’s behalf. They can be made known by whether they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Unfortunately, this keeps us from being able to label any ol’ person who we disagree with theologically as having an evil Spirit because most folk actually still claim Jesus as the Messiah who came in the flesh; it’s why we can work with folk if we can agree on Jesus.

We get a drop on the antichrist again, which retains the context of being a person or spirit who opposes the Messiah (in this case by telling lies). That said, it’s a worldly issue, and because the Spirit who is in us is greater than any other spirits that are in the world, we don’t worry about those spirits.

John then hops back to loving one another. Love is from God, it shows we love and serve God, and God is indeed love. That phrase doesn’t negate everything else John has said (meaning, yes God is love, but you still can’t be a liar who claims to love God but doesn’t obey his commands). God’s love is demonstrated through sending Jesus, the ultimate example and act of love in sacrifice. And because God loved us, we are to love one another.

Ooh, don’t miss this. “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” John understands that will have difficulty knowing what is is like to “love” God given that we’ve not actually seen him and our interactions with him aren’t quite the same as with our brothers. Don’t worry, God is aware of that. Love your brothers, obey God, love will show

Now back to who has the Spirit and who does not and how to know.

Now back to loving again. We love because He showed us how to love. What God has done for us is the context for our understanding of what love actually is. (Let that sink in. Mercy.)

Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

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Bible Study 1 John

1 John | Chapter 5

John now transfers that we don’t only love God but love the children of God by loving God and obeying His commandments. So we love God and love people in the same way, by obeying God. And his commandments are not burdensome (maybe we’re doing it wrong? Yes. We’re doing it wrong if it’s burdensome.) Generally, I think it’s burdensome when we don’t keep the perspective in place (it might take effort to escape from someone who has kidnapped you but I can’t imagine someone would describe that as burdensome). And John reminds us of that perspective, that we are overcoming the world by faith. But again, you gotta believe in Jesus, that’s how it’s done.

John then switches to describing what testimony exists to confirm that Jesus is able to bear the weight of this belief. Kind of answering the question, “How can we trust Jesus as the linchpin in this thing?” Well, the work of the Spirit, the validation of Jesus’ identity through baptism (“this is my son…”), and His death. God Himself validates who Jesus is, which is stronger than the testimony of the world. And because we get the Spirit, we have internally the testimony of Jesus’ ability to deliver on the Biblical promises when we have faith. You want to live, you need Jesus. (And, you know, it’s best not to call God a liar.)

We are told that he writes all this that we may be assured of our eternal life. We believe Jesus is who He says he is and keeps his promises. And because our eternity depends on Jesus, not us, we can have assurance. No reason to doubt here. Then John says scary things like, “If we ask anything according to his will he hears us and…we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” Well dang, that seems rough. We know he doesn’t give us everything we ask for, even if we think it’s good. Question is, what is in his will? Maybe John’s next section helps with that.

“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life.” Hmm, that kind of helps. But I have a lot more questions. Does this mean I can ask forgiveness on another’s behalf? (cough, cough, Catholic last rites, cough, cough.) What sins lead to death, don’t all sins lead to death (Paul? Like, Paul from Romans? Help?) And is this really the only thing that John was getting at when he said that if we ask anything He will hear us? This section needs more study.

Whoa! Wait, John says there is sin that leads to death and we shouldn’t bother praying for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that doesn’t lead to death. Hmm, all sins are not equal. John does not care to elaborate. Helpful.

If you’re born of God, you don’t keep sinning (again, I think this is habitual sin. Not that that’s any better, really.) God protects us and the evil one does not touch him. (Difficult. Very difficult. We’ve seen many a good person tempted into their own destruction.) Even so, John reminds us that the world lies in the power of evil, even though we are from God. It’s always going to be a fight. We’re in enemy territory. That’s why we’re tempted. That’s why it’s persistent. That’s why we must resist.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” It’s like John got tired with his elaboration in earlier letters and just kind of dropped an idol-bomb and left the conversation.

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2 John

2 John

John’s greeting is interesting, we seem to be dropping in on a conversation between John and some woman. However, it’s hypothesized that the “elect lady” is actually a church body. Tough to be certain. And John, as in his first letter, uses pronouns in such a way that it is difficult to understand who it refers to.

The contents of this letter are familiar to those who have read 1st John. He kicks off with a reminder to love one another and that to love is to walk according to his commandments. And, as we have heard before, there are deceivers out there who don’t walk in truth and we are to be careful to not be deceived by them. They are the antichrists, again, because they are against the Messiah.

In fact, John goes so far as to say that you shouldn’t even receive someone into your house or give him a greeting. By doing so, you’re taking part in the “wicked works”. Tricky. We are here on the King’s business, and although that means loving people, loving people is defined by John as following God’s commandments. So we probably need to be careful that we don’t stray from the Biblical understanding of love (which obviously goes beyond John’s definition to include sacrifice and mercy and forgiveness and grace, but it can’t include sacrificing fealty to Jesus in the process.)

John ends with talking about coming to visit face to face. Letter ends with, “the children of your elect sister greet you”, which makes a strong case for “lady” and “sister” being churches, as John is obviously speaking on behalf of the latter group. Makes more sense as a church.

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3 John

3 John

John describes himself as the “elder” – This makes sense. At this point he’s likely the only apostle still alive. For some reason I have in my head that he is pretty heavy at this point and wears a black cloak but that isn’t supported by any historical record. It’s kind of a cross between the man in the painting who prays with the Bible and the bread and a monk.

Gauis is likely a close friend. Sometimes we’re concerned that praying for “shallow” things like good health and soul wellness is bad because we could be praying for ways to die for Jesus or go broke. I’m not against the latter half, but John seems to think it’s not an issue to pray for the former. So, you know, don’t beat yourself up about it, it’s cool to pray for good health. I do like the thought of praying that someone’s soul might be well, we should probably do that more.

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth.” I hear that, brother. Gaius seems to be up to good things, training fellas up for the work of the good news, spreading it to the Gentiles. When he says that they accept nothing from the Gentiles, it’s not a bad thing, he’s basically saying that the church is providing for them so they don’t ask for anything from those they are trying to serve. Further, John encourages that Jesus people should support fellow workers that are up to such things.

Sounds like Diotrephes is a trouble maker, a selfish dude who does what he wants, talks badly about others, and is an inhospitable jackanapes to travelling Jesus fellas. Worse still, he tries to chuck hospitable folks who want to help the travelling bros out of the church. No wonder John wants to reckon with him. It’s interesting that this guy even retains any authority at all. John has more patience for him at this point than I do.

That said, he reminds them to not imitate evil but good and we hear echoes of his first two letters in “Whoever does good is from God…” In light of which, Demetrius seems to be doing a good job and everyone is saying so. (Hey man, are we telling folks they are doing good work? Encouraging them? Let’s do better at that.)

Finally, John still wants face to face time, better than a letter. He ends with some simple commands: Have peace, accept the greetings from all your friends, and greet them back, all of them. Seems easy enough.

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Hebrews

Hebrews | Introduction

A couple major things on this one. First, we’re not sure on the author. Could be Paul, but Hebrews man argues a bit differently than Paul (although he’s verbose and knows his OT, so I ain’t saying it ain’t Paul either.) Other thoughts are guys like Barnabas or some such similar dude or potentially even Priscilla (of Priscilla and Aquila fame).

Although generally titled as a letter to the Hebrews, a letter usually has a greeting with the name of the author, which would’ve cleared up the matter. That said, like a letter, there is exhortation and encouragement towards the end as well as parting thoughts that end in a personal appeal, greetings from other folks, and the extension of grace. It’s a weird combination.

For timing, it was most likely written prior to AD 70 given the references to the sacrificial system with no reference to the fall of the Temple (if you’re trying to dissuade someone from going back to a no longer needed atonement system, mentioning that you can’t even do it anymore because the Temple is destroyed would seem like a must-use argument. The absence of it is telling.) So, think 60-70 AD for context.

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Bible Study Hebrews

Hebrews | Chapter 1

We get a sense of the audience by the opening, where the author refers to the prophets as “our fathers”. So by Hebrews we should be thinking Jewish Christians. This will make more and more sense as the letter progresses as one of the core points in here is how Jesus is superior to that which came before him, and the only group who particularly cares about that distinction are Jews. Note the point of the opening is making a case for the shift; God once spoke through the process, now he communicates to his people through Jesus. These arguments that will be made are arguments of both contrast but also continuance and fulfillment. God has always talked to His people, however the method has changed.

The communication aspect of this is interesting, because you have God speaking to the fathers by the prophets where the Hebrews (and us) receive communication through the Word (John 1), his Son, Jesus. The life of Jesus has the force of prophecy, He is the ultimate word from God, not just through what he says but what he does. God is communicating to His people through the example of Jesus as well as the words. He is the new law, the fulfilled identity, the heir of all things, the revelation of the Glory of God. (Holy cats, our calling is to follow and imitate the revelation of the Glory of God! Time to step up your game and put on some clean drawers, that’s a high calling).

Now enters the first foil: angels. We don’t have angel issues (we barely get the Holy Spirit, let alone getting caught up in the thoughts of the powers and influence of angels. Except that part in Jude when the archangel is tussling over Moses’ body, I still dig on that.) However, the persistence of the argument seems to imply that the Hebrews might be willing to think that perhaps Jesus is on par with them (or maybe was one? Seems possible given how much the author makes a case to persuade them from thinking so.) But he can’t be on par with the angels, because unlike them Jesus has “inherited” (is the imprint of) the very nature (name, essence) of God (because he is God!). The language here around Jesus is not without controversy as it leaves room for belief that he was created (inherited a name, imprint of God’s nature, later described as “firstborn”), all of this has a connotation of God acting upon Jesus vs. being around the whole time. But let’s let the letter breathe and see if that gets resolved. The trinitarian concept is a tough one, anyway, and I suppose it might have been even more difficult to get for Jewish Christians.

The argument continues. God did not call the angels “Son”, as in the quoted reference from Psalm 2 (read the whole Psalm, it’s certainly talking of a Messiah, not David’s earthly son, Solomon, who doesn’t consistently act in the way the Psalm describes this “son”.) “I will be to him a father…” is a quote from 2 Samuel 7. I struggle with this being applied to Jesus as 2 Samuel 7: 14 says [14] I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, (ESV). What’s with the iniquity? I’ve not found this resolved in a way I’m confident in yet so it remains a question as to how we should apply this to Jesus given the context of the original verse.

Even though the goal is to show how superior Jesus is to the angels, it’s not angels aren’t cool. They were created cool and glorious, but since Jesus the creator they are inherently reflecting more of Jesus’ awesomeness. And look at the rebuttal, the description attributed to the Son is directed to God (ok, we get that connection we were missing earlier). And then the next reference “You, Lord, laid the foundation…”is from Psalm 102, which reinforces the eternality of Jesus, His role in creation. These are big things the author is trying to communicate and it’s a bit of a heady argument, but it seems necessary if there is any doubt now that these folks are 30 years out of Jesus’ death and resurrection and likely facing persecution. They need the big picture to sustain their identities being fully committed and formed by Jesus instead of the remnants of the Jewish culture.

Ultimately, the angels are ministering spirits to those who have benefited from the work that Jesus has done. Without the work of Jesus (think both creation and securing of salvation), the work of the angels either doesn’t exist or means nothing. There’s a point to all this, and the author will start getting to it in chapter 2.