The Daily Guide-The Daily Devotion grow. pray. study. from The Resurrection United Methodist Church in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Tuesday, 15 September 2015 - "The 'holy' church"
Daily Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:1 From: Sha’ul, called by God’s will to be an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua; and from brother Sosthenes
2 To: God’s Messianic community in Corinth, consisting of those who have been set apart by Yeshua the Messiah and called to be God’s holy people — along with everyone everywhere who calls on the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, their Lord as well as ours:
3 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.Ephesians 5:25 As for husbands, love your wives, just as the Messiah loved the Messianic Community, indeed, gave himself up on its behalf, 26 in order to set it apart for God, making it clean through immersion in the mikveh, so to speak, 27 in order to present the Messianic Community to himself as a bride to be proud of, without a spot, wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without defect. 28 This is how husbands ought to love their wives — like their own bodies; for the man who loves his wife is loving himself. 29 Why, no one ever hated his own flesh! On the contrary, he feeds it well and takes care of it, just as the Messiah does the Messianic Community, 30 because we are parts of his Body. 31 “Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and remain with his wife, and the two will become one.”[Ephesians 5:31 Genesis 2:24] 32 There is profound truth hidden here, which I say concerns the Messiah and the Messianic Community. 33 However, the text also applies to each of you individually: let each man love his wife as he does himself, and see that the wife respects her husband.Reflection Questions:
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
A lot of time is spent talking about the Greek word for holiness, which basically means set apart for a higher purpose. In both of today’s passages, the church is called to be holy, meaning set apart for God’s purposes. This is very important. But the English word for holiness tells a slightly different story.
The English word for holiness (which is, of course, holiness) comes from a root word meaning “whole.” This is the same root word from whence we derive wholesome and holistic. Another way of putting the English word is, simply, complete or finished, as if there is a piece of us that is reserved for a higher purpose.
This was recognized by the psychologist Abraham Maslow as he put together his hierarchy of human needs. For those unfamiliar with this concept, Maslow put together a list of human needs, ranging from the most basic (food and shelter) to mid-level needs (love and acceptance) all the way up to higher level needs (making something of yourself). But the highest-level need, the most sophisticated one on the list, was transcendence: getting outside of yourself for the sake of others. Maslow recognized that humans have an inborn need to serve something greater than themselves. This was also recognized by other psychologists such as Carl Jung, and an entire branch of philosophy and literature (Transcendentalism) is dedicated to this phenomenon.
What does this mean for us? We are called to that highest level of human need, and we are, by design, incomplete without it. And it’s not enough to simply claim a higher purpose. When we live by a higher purpose, there’s no need to proclaim it, as people will take notice. As people, we are called to be more loving, more accepting, and more blameless than the rest of the population–and the rest of the population will take notice when we do this. We are called to be a refuge, a group that fights for those with no fight left in them. We are called to be the kind of people that other people look at and say, “I want to do something more with my life.”
I can’t say I always live to this standard (and, let’s be honest, who could claim that?)–but it’s something I think of any time I’m inclined to throw someone’s opinion of me out the window, or treat someone in a way that would make them want to be anyone but me. I find that the times I’m most Christ-like are the times that others most want to be around me and be like me. That’s a good litmus test of holiness. People don’t hate holiness–people crave holiness, and they see it easily in others. Live your life to let the godliness in you inspire others.
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United StatesDaily Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:1 From: Sha’ul, called by God’s will to be an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua; and from brother Sosthenes
2 To: God’s Messianic community in Corinth, consisting of those who have been set apart by Yeshua the Messiah and called to be God’s holy people — along with everyone everywhere who calls on the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, their Lord as well as ours:
3 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.Ephesians 5:25 As for husbands, love your wives, just as the Messiah loved the Messianic Community, indeed, gave himself up on its behalf, 26 in order to set it apart for God, making it clean through immersion in the mikveh, so to speak, 27 in order to present the Messianic Community to himself as a bride to be proud of, without a spot, wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without defect. 28 This is how husbands ought to love their wives — like their own bodies; for the man who loves his wife is loving himself. 29 Why, no one ever hated his own flesh! On the contrary, he feeds it well and takes care of it, just as the Messiah does the Messianic Community, 30 because we are parts of his Body. 31 “Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and remain with his wife, and the two will become one.”[Ephesians 5:31 Genesis 2:24] 32 There is profound truth hidden here, which I say concerns the Messiah and the Messianic Community. 33 However, the text also applies to each of you individually: let each man love his wife as he does himself, and see that the wife respects her husband.Reflection Questions:
The Apostles’ Creed, like Paul, spoke of the church as “holy.” Sadly, for too many people, the word “holy” conjures images of stuffy, boring hypocrites. But Paul’s Greek words “express the idea that Christians ‘belong’ to God and are therefore set apart to serve God’s purposes alone….it is the idea of belonging to God, not that of sinlessness, that is important here” (Translator’s Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians).
- Paul called the members of the Corinthian church “Those who have been made holy to God in Christ Jesus” (verse 2). The rest of the letter showed clearly that these people still had lots of room to grow spiritually. How clearly do you sense that as you choose to follow Christ, you are “holy,” part of God’s family, even when you still have room to grow?
- We usually read Ephesians 5:25-33 as just instruction about marriage. But verse 32 shows that Paul was equally eager to use a really good marriage to show how Jesus cared about and cherished the church. Scholar William Barclay wrote, “Christ loved the Church, not that the Church might do things for him, but that he might do things for the Church.” How does Christ’s self-giving love help to define (or redefine) what it means to be “holy”?
Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you call me to be “holy,” to keep growing in my capacity to reflect your beautiful, self-giving love. Energize and motivate me to live into that kind of holiness today. Amen.
Insights from Brandon Gregory Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
A lot of time is spent talking about the Greek word for holiness, which basically means set apart for a higher purpose. In both of today’s passages, the church is called to be holy, meaning set apart for God’s purposes. This is very important. But the English word for holiness tells a slightly different story.
The English word for holiness (which is, of course, holiness) comes from a root word meaning “whole.” This is the same root word from whence we derive wholesome and holistic. Another way of putting the English word is, simply, complete or finished, as if there is a piece of us that is reserved for a higher purpose.
This was recognized by the psychologist Abraham Maslow as he put together his hierarchy of human needs. For those unfamiliar with this concept, Maslow put together a list of human needs, ranging from the most basic (food and shelter) to mid-level needs (love and acceptance) all the way up to higher level needs (making something of yourself). But the highest-level need, the most sophisticated one on the list, was transcendence: getting outside of yourself for the sake of others. Maslow recognized that humans have an inborn need to serve something greater than themselves. This was also recognized by other psychologists such as Carl Jung, and an entire branch of philosophy and literature (Transcendentalism) is dedicated to this phenomenon.
What does this mean for us? We are called to that highest level of human need, and we are, by design, incomplete without it. And it’s not enough to simply claim a higher purpose. When we live by a higher purpose, there’s no need to proclaim it, as people will take notice. As people, we are called to be more loving, more accepting, and more blameless than the rest of the population–and the rest of the population will take notice when we do this. We are called to be a refuge, a group that fights for those with no fight left in them. We are called to be the kind of people that other people look at and say, “I want to do something more with my life.”
I can’t say I always live to this standard (and, let’s be honest, who could claim that?)–but it’s something I think of any time I’m inclined to throw someone’s opinion of me out the window, or treat someone in a way that would make them want to be anyone but me. I find that the times I’m most Christ-like are the times that others most want to be around me and be like me. That’s a good litmus test of holiness. People don’t hate holiness–people crave holiness, and they see it easily in others. Live your life to let the godliness in you inspire others.
913.897.0120
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment