Daily Liturgy and Scripture

If we are in Christ, we are under a different standard. No longer are we following the rules for the sake of the rules, but for the sake of Christ. Living in harmony with others isn't about looking like a good person, it's about recognizing the life of Christ and aligning ours with the help of the Holy Spirit. This is the reason that sin cannot live in us. Not because we should be flawless, but be cause the moving of the Spirit and the example of Christ should make it unfit to live in us.

John talks pretty freely about Antichrists in this passage, but he's not talking about world rulers who rally massive armies. He's talking about people who claim to speak for God, but don't include the Lordship of Jesus in their teaching. This is critical. Without Jesus, there is no path to God. Jesus is God, and he cannot be subtracted from the picture.

This book, written by one of Jesus's apostles, is addressed to believers who were in the area of Asia Minor. Today, this area is the heart of the Eastern Orthodox Church. At this point in history, however, the church was young. It wasn't wildly popular, and it was still growing. We open the book with the basics of evangelism: what we have been given from God, we have given to others. This is the way the church grew in the beginning, and it's the way it grows today.

The little book of Jude kind of comes out of nowhere. Landing right before Revelation, it is thought to have been written by one of the biological brothers of Jesus, and he seems pretty concerned about false teachers who had found their way into groups of believers. They sow seeds of discord instead of harmony. They are arrogant instead of humble. They ridicule instead of trying to understand. These are pretty good standards for us today. If we look like any of those false teachers, we may be one ourselves.

The "Day of the Lord" talk in this verse is certainly apocalyptic. There are a lot of different takes on this verse, but the kernel we need to keep our eyes on is consistent: God will judge the world, and God will purify the world. The world was his, always has been, and always will be. If we are obedient and following our Saviour, the Day of the Lord will be a reason for rejoicing, because we are people of the Lord.

The easiest way to keep from being judgmental? Leave the judgement to God. Certainly, that's far easier said than done, but the judgement of God is far better than our own. It's kind of appropriate that we have this verse from Job today, paired with the section from 2 Peter. God has been setting things in motion since the beginning, it's certainly not asking him too much to set things right in our lives.

2 Peter is written with a slightly different message in mind. Persecution from without isn’t so much the them as false teaching from within. It must have been a crazy time in the history of the church: spreading the Gospel of this man who rose from the dead, who was apparently God? It’s no wonder that others tried to capitalize on that wild story and expand on it in their own ways. Peter leads into this discussion by encouraging faith and obedience, as well as a firm establishment of where the Word of God comes from.

As Peter's epistle concludes, the focus turns to leadership. Being humble and alert are his dominant themes, and we must wonder which of the two was more prominent. If this letter was written to persecuted Christians, being humble may have been easier. Being alert would probably be critical, especially if believers may have been tempted to walk away from their faith in the face of trials. At all times, we should submit to one another as well as God, and walk the path as a true body.

Is it even possible to rejoice in the midst of suffering? It's certainly not easy, and it's not our natural first reaction. That kind of thinking takes a pretty major overhaul of our worldview. But we have that resource available, and it travels with us. The Spirit is always near, and we can be part of the work God is already doing if we're listening.

Yesterday was about replacing power with submission, and today is about replacing our attitude toward suffering. Remembering that this letter was probably written to people who were directly experiencing persecution, and Peter reminded them that they need not be frightened when their hope was in Christ. Carrying this truth is difficult in the face of pain, but it is always an option available to us.