spiritual capability

Delegated responsibility

The Bible doesn’t tell us why God created the heavens and the earth, but it does explain the reason why God created the first man, Adam. It says in Genesis 2:5-15, “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature…The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” The Hebrew word that is translated work, ‘abad (aw-badˊ) means “to work, to serve. This labour may be focused on things, other people, or God. When it is used in reference to things, that item is usually expressed: to till the ground (Genesis 2:5; 3:23; 4:2); to work in a garden (Genesis 2:15); or to dress a vineyard” (H5647). Jesus’ parable of the tenants reveals to us God’s intention when he delegated the responsibility of working the land to mankind. Jesus said:

And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. (Mark 12:1-12)

Jesus described the people who had been delegated responsibility for working in the man’s vineyard as tenants. A tenant is “a land-worker” (G1092), as opposed to a land owner. The land was given to the tenants on a temporary basis in exchange for “some of the fruit of the vineyard” (Mark 12:2), but the tenants didn’t fulfill their end of the bargain. Jesus’ parable made it clear that the tenants wanted to own the land themselves. When the man sent his son to collect the fruit that was owed to him, “those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours’” (Mark 12:7).

Isaiah 5:1-7 provides additional insight into Jesus’ parable of the tenants. “The imagery used in this song to describe Israel as God’s vineyard was used by Jesus in his ‘parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:33-41)” (note on Isaiah 5:1-7). Isaiah began his song with a declaration of the LORD’s love for his vineyard (Isaiah 5:1), and then, he stated, “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (Isaiah 5:1-2). Isaiah concluded, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!” (Isaiah 5:7). With this statement in mind, it makes sense that the tenants in Jesus’ parable wanted to kill the heir in order to obtain his inheritance, but the tenants were operating based on faulty logic. Jesus pointed this out when he quoted the scripture, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Mark 12:10).

Peter explained Jesus’ quotation of Psalm 118:22 in the context of a spiritual house that is being built out of living stones and reminded the elect exiles of the Dispersion (1 Peter 1:1) of God’s conditional promise to the Israelites (Exodus 19:5-6). Peter said:

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
    a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

and

“A stone of stumbling,
    and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:1-10)

Peter differentiated between believers and unbelievers and said of those who rejected Jesus, “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do” (1 Peter 2:8). The Greek word that is translated destined, tithemi (tithˊ-ay-mee) means “To place or ordain someone in a position, to make somebody something; e.g., to make Abraham the father of many nations (Romans 4:17), to make the Son heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2). You might say that the Israelites were set up for failure in that they had the delegated responsibility of establishing God’s kingdom on earth, but they did not have the spiritual capability of doing it.

Jesus’ identified the problem that the Israelites had in his conversation with a man named Nicodemus. John 3:1-6 states:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Jesus used the term born again to describe what happens when a person is spiritually regenerated; “that free act of God’s mercy and power by which he removes the sinner from the kingdom of darkness and places him in the kingdom of light” (G3824). The Holy Spirit enables this to take place. “In the New Testament, referred to as ‘the Spirit of God,’ ‘the Holy Spirit,’ in an absolute sense as ‘the Spirit’; the Spirit of Christ as being communicated by Him after His resurrection and ascension…The Holy Spirit is everywhere represented as being in intimate union with God the Father and God the Son…As coming to and acting upon Christians, illuminating and empowering them, and remaining with them, imparting to them spiritual knowledge, aid, consolation, sanctification, and making intercession with and for them” (G4151). Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17). Jesus went on to say, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:25-26), and then, Jesus concluded, “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go away, I will send him to you” (John 16:

Jesus told his disciples that it would be beneficial for them if he went away because, “If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you” (John 16:7). On the day of Pentecost, believers were filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time. Afterward, Peter preached his first sermon “and there were added that day about three thousand souls” to the fellowship of the believers “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:41, 47). In his letter to the Galatians, Paul talked about the fulfillment of the law and the believer’s need to walk by the Spirit. Paul said:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love…For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:1-18)

Paul said that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counted for anything, “but only faith working through love” Galatians 5:6). Faith is necessary for spiritual work to be accomplished and love is the fruit or output of that work. Paul indicated that the whole law could be fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14). Paul went on to identify the fruit of the Spirit and he put love at the top of his list. Paul said, “Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Jesus’ parable of the tenants does not mention why the tenants did not want to give the owner some of the fruit from his vineyard. It is possible that there was no fruit or that the fruit was bad and the tenants didn’t want the owner to know about it. Isaiah’s song tells us that the vineyard, the house of Israel, yielded wild grapes (Isaiah 5:2). The Hebrew word that is translated wild, be’ushiym (be-oo-sheemˊ) refers to “poison berries” (H891). Jesus likened bad fruit to the teaching of false prophets and said, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Jesus concluded his parable of the tenants by asking his listeners the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do?” and then, told them, “He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.” (Mark 12:9). Peter’s identification of believers as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9; Exodus 19:6) suggests that the delegated responsibility of working in the vineyard had shifted from the nation of Israel to the body of Christ. One of the key indicators of this shift is the emphasis Paul placed on believers producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:21-26). Paul encouraged the Ephesians to walk in love and instructed them to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:1, 18). Luke is the only gospel writer who referred to people being filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke indicated that John the Baptist was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15), and that his parents, Elizabeth and Zachariah were also filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41, 67). Luke tells us that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit when he was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1-2). The Greek word that is translated full, pleres (playˊ-race) speaks “of the effects of spiritual life and qualities, seen in good works” (G4134). The connection between being filled with the Holy Spirit and the production of good fruit is evident not only in Jesus’ ministry, but also in that of the Apostle Paul.

Paul identified himself with believers who were taking their delegated responsibility seriously and were embracing the inner working of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:4-6). Paul talked about the way of love in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13) and encouraged the Ephesians to walk on love (Ephesians 5). Paul also explained in his letter to the Philippians that the way of love meant that you look not only to your own interests, but to the interest of others (Philippians 2:4). Paul instructed the Philippian believers to, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). Paul concluded his argument by stating, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

The ungodly

Peter’s second letter was written from a very practical standpoint in that Peter zeroed in on what he most likely considered to be the three most important aspects of successful Christian living: spiritual growth, awareness of false teaching, and the Lord’s return. Peter’s discussion of false teaching in the second chapter of his book, focused in on a particular group of people he referred to as the ungodly. According to Peter, the ungodly have known the way of righteousness, but have turned back “from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Peter 2:21). The Apostle Paul explained in his letter to the Romans that knowing what sin is makes us accountable to its effect. Paul said, “I was once alive. That was when I did not know what the Law said I had to do. Then I found that I had broken the Law. I knew I was a sinner. Death was mine because of the Law. The Law was supposed to give me new life. Instead, it gave me death. Sin found a way to trap me by working through the Law. Then sin killed me by using the Law. The Law is holy. Each one of the Laws is holy and right and good” (Romans 7:9-12, NLV). Paul’s conclusion that the Law is holy meant that the effect of knowing the Law was an awareness of right and wrong. When Paul didn’t know what he was supposed to do, he wasn’t accountable for doing it, but after he did know, he was held accountable for his sin. James concluded in his letter, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).

One prominent feature of the book of Ezekiel is the declaration of individual responsibility (Ezekiel 3:16-21; 14:12-20; 18:1-32; 33:1-20). In Ezekiel 18:1-32, the Lord was setting aside an old proverb in Israel (Ezekiel 18:2, cf. Jeremiah 31:29, 30) and replacing it with one of his own: ‘The soul who sins shall die’ (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). In the Old Testament, God’s people were treated as a national unit, and their sustenance and material prosperity were often affected by the sins of the minority (cf. Joshua 7:1, 4-11, 16-26). Consequently, God was just when he spoke of ‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children’ (Exodus 20:5). Ezekiel 18:1-32, however, looks beyond material ramifications and considers the eternal results of sin. This is implied by the use of the term ‘soul’ (Ezekiel 18:4) and the command to ‘make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit’ (Ezekiel 8:31). Many righteous people were going to die in the siege, and many would be carried to Babylon (as Ezekiel and Daniel were). The eternal fate of each person, however, was determined by his or her individual relationship to God” (note on Ezekiel 18:1-32). Speaking through Ezekiel, God said:

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:21-24)

Hebrews 6:4-6 expands on the topic of individual responsibility by including the result of redemption that was made available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It states:

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

“This much debated passage likely discusses unbelievers who have ‘fallen away’ (v. 6) by consciously rejecting the spiritual enlightenment they have received (v. 4). They had experienced a taste of God’s goodness (v. 5) and may even have been part of the assembly. They had given intellectual assent to the truth of Christianity, but their apostasy demonstrated that their professed faith was not genuine. In turning away from the sacrifice of Christ, perhaps to return to the Judaism they previously espoused, they rejected the only means of salvation that God has provided. Their deliberate apostasy was so severe that they could not be ‘restored’ (anakainizein [G344]) to repentance. Judas Iscariot is an example of one who, although outwardly associated with the things of the Lord, ultimately chose to turn away” (note on Hebrews 6:4-6). Hebrews 10:26-27 adds, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”

Peter received instruction from the Lord about the importance of doing God’s will once it has been made known to us. Luke 12:35-48 states:

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Jesus used the role of a servant to emphasize the absolute obedience that was required of those in his ministry.  The harsh treatment that the servant received from his master, he cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful, showed that he could not be restored to his former state of grace.

Peter argued that the ungodly were being kept under punishment until the day of judgment because they despised authority. He said, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. The Greek word that is translated authority, kuriotes (koo-ree-otˊ-ace) “denotes ‘lordship’ (kurios, ‘a lord’)” (G2963). In the King James Version of the Bible, kuriotes is translated government, suggesting that the ungodly are anti-government. It says in Judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Doing what is right in ones’ own eyes does not necessarily mean that a person is anti-government. The ungodly are irreverent toward God and therefore, see themselves as the supreme authority.

An example of irreverence toward God can be found in Judges 17:7-13, which states:

Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.” And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”

Micah’s ordination of the Levite wasn’t prescribed by the Mosaic Law and his assumption that God would prosper him because he had a Levite as a priest was unfounded.

The Hebrew word that is translated prosper in Judges 17:13, yatab (yaw-tabˊ) appears throughout the book of Deuteronomy in connection with keeping God’s commandments. After reciting the Ten Commandments, Moses said to the people of Israel, “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well (yatab) with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.” Peter described the ungodly as “bold and willful” and said that “they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones” (2 Peter 2:10). Blaspheme is the use of speech to bring down another’s value, honor, due-respect or to injure another’s reputation in the eyes of others (G987). Micah’s claim that the LORD would prosper him because he had a Levite as a priest (Judges 17:13) was blaspheme not only because it devalued the office of priest, but also because it dishonored God’s intention of blessing his people through their obedience to the Ten Commandments. Micah lowered God’s standing to that of a pagan god who was worshipped because of his supposed ability to control the seasons, weather, and grain (note on Judges 2:13).

Micah’s irreverence toward God was most likely rooted in his practice of idolatry. It says in Judges 17:4-5 that Micah had a carved image and a metal image in his house. “And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods.” Later, when the images, the ephod, and the household gods, along with the priest that he had ordained were taken from his home, Micah said to the men who stole them, “You take my gods that I made and the priest, and go away, and what have I left?” (Judges 18:24). Micah’s response implied that he had lost all of his spiritual capability as a result of the images and the priest being taken from him. Judges 18:30-31 tells us, “And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves and Jonathon the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah’s carved image that he made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.” The sons of Moses were not authorized to serve as priests. The priesthood was initially reserved for Aaron and all his descendants, but “God entered into a special covenant with Phinehas’ descendants (Numbers 25:13) following his zeal for God’s honor” (note on Numbers 25:6-13). God’s covenant with Phinehas was “an unconditional divine promise to maintain the family of Phinehas in an ‘everlasting priesthood’ (implicitly a pledge to Israel to provide her forever with a faithful priesthood)” (Major Covenants in the Old Testament, KJSB, p. 16). Along with that, the second commandment explicitly stated, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6). The mention of the carved image and the priests being set up until the captivity was probably meant to draw attention to the fact that the Danites’ idolatry was a contributing factor in Israel being expelled from the Promised Land.

Peter described the ungodly as being “like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed” (2 Peter 2:12) and then, went on to say, “They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of darkness has been reserved” (2 Peter 2:14-17). The debauchery of the Israelites was evident not long after they took possession of the Promised Land and is clearly portrayed in the account of the Levite whose concubine was sexually abused while they were traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the hill country of Ephraim. The men of Ephraim were from the tribe of Benjamin. An old man who saw the traveler in the open square of the city was concerned about his safety and invited the Levite to spend the night in his home. Judges 19:21-30 tells us:

So he brought him into his house and gave the donkeys feed. And they washed their feet, and ate and drank. As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.” And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man do not do this outrageous thing.” But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light. And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up, let us be going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home. And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak.”

The Israelites’ decline in morality after they entered the Promised Land was considered to be equal to their spiritual growth during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness at this point in time. Peter’s summarization of ungodly people’s behavior captures the essence of the Israelites’ situation. Peter said, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire’” (2 Peter 2:20-22).

Following the LORD

A little more than a year after the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt they left Mount Sinai where Moses had received the Ten Commandments and traveled toward the land of Canaan. Numbers 10:11-13 tells us, “In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. They set out for the first time at the command of the LORD by Moses.” The King James Version of the Bible translates the phrase set out as took their journey. The Hebrew word naça (naw-sah´) implies a change in location, but the word journey gives us a clearer picture of what the Israelites experienced when they left the wilderness of Sinai. Naça “has the basic meaning of ‘pulling up’ tent pegs (Isaiah 33:20) in preparation for ‘moving’ one’s tent and property to another place; thus it lends itself naturally to the general term of ‘traveling’ or ‘journeying’” (H5265). In the case of the Israelites, the people weren’t traveling to a designated location, they were following the LORD who “went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night” (Exodus 13:21). The pillars of cloud and fire were manifestations of the LORD’s presence and were intended to guide the Israelites to the place that God wanted them to go. Exodus 13:22 states, “The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”

The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire were not the only means the LORD used to communicate his will to the people of Israel. Moses was considered to be God’s personal representative. “Moses was a type of Christ (Hebrews 3:2-6). He was chosen by God to be a deliverer (Exodus 3:1-10), functioned as a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15), and was faithful as God’s servant (Hebrews 3:5). Moses was a mediator between God and the Israelites (Exodus 17:1-7; 32:30-35), as Christ is for his church (1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 2:1, 2)” (note on Numbers 12:7). In Numbers 12:6-7, the LORD made it clear that he was communicating with Moses directly. He said, “’Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself know to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD.’” You might think that having direct access to God would make it possible for you to know and do everything that God wants you to, but even Moses failed in his obedience to the LORD. It says in Numbers 27:12-14, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. When you have seen it you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.’ (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin).”

The LORD stated that Moses had rebelled against his word and had failed to uphold him as holy before the eyes of the people. The Hebrew word that is translated uphold as holy, qadash (kaw-dashˊ) “is used in some form or another to represent being set apart for the work of God. Qadesh, or qadash, as verbs, mean ‘to be holy; to sanctify’” (H6942). Qadash is translated consecrate in Exodus 19 which focuses on the LORD coming down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. When Israel first encamped at Mount Sinai, the LORD called to Moses out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:3-6). John’s greeting to the seven churches in the book of Revelation eludes to the fact that the kingdom of priests that God intended to make of the nation of Israel was accomplished through the establishment of these seven churches. John wrote:

John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:3-8)

John’s synopsis of Jesus’ completed work of redemption mentions only the fact that believers in Jesus Christ have been freed from their sins by his blood (Revelation 1:5). The King James Version of the Bible states that Jesus washed us from our sins. The Greek word louo (looˊ-o) means “to bathe (the whole person)…Metaphorically: to cleanse and purify from sin, as in being washed in Christ’s blood (Revelation 1:5)” (G3068). Jesus talked about this cleansing when he washed his disciples feet. John wrote in his gospel message:

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” (John 13:5-11)

Jesus distinguished between the new birth and regeneration when he said, “the one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10). The difference that Jesus pointed out between being bathed and washed was what he referred to as being completely clean or sanctified. The Greek word hagiazo (hag-ee-adˊ-zo) “means to make holy and signifies to set apart for God, to sanctify” (G37). “Christians need constant cleansing and renewal if they are to remain in fellowship with God” (note on John 13:8).

The Geek word anakainosis (an-ak-ahˊ-ee-no-sis) stresses the process of sanctification and the continual operation of the indwelling of the Spirit of God. “Anakainosis means ‘a renewal’ and is used in Romans 12:2 ‘the renewing (of your mind),’ i.e. the adjustment of the moral and spiritual vision and thinking to the mind of God, which is designed to have a transforming effect upon the life; and stresses the willing response on the part of the believer” (G342). Paul said in his letter to the Romans, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). Being conformed to this world means that you are making yourself like everyone else, you are trying to fit in and to be accepted by your peers. Paul encouraged Roman believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice. What Paul meant by a living sacrifice was that followers of Christ were expected to use their physical capabilities and resources to accomplish God’s will instead of their own.

The Israelites were told that they were delivered from slavery in Egypt and taken to the land that had been promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because of God’s faithfulness (Deuteronomy 7:9) and were warned to not think of themselves as being responsible for their success (Deuteronomy 9:5). It was the LORD’s will for the Israelites to drive out the nations that occupied the land of Canaan “because of the wickedness of these nations” (Deuteronomy 9:4). Moses told the people of Israel, “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD” (Deuteronomy 9:6-7). The Hebrew word that is translated rebellious, marah (maw-rawˊ) means “to be (causative make) bitter (or unpleasant)…Marah signifies an opposition to someone motivated by pride…More particularly, the word generally connotes a rebellious attitude against God” (H4784). God noted that the Israelites had repeatedly tested him and would not obey his voice (Numbers 14:22) and said to Moses:

“None of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it” (Numbers 14:22-24).

God said that Caleb had a different spirit and that he had followed him fully. Caleb went against the rest of the men that gave a bad report after spying out the land of Canaan. Numbers 13:30 states, “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”  The Hebrew word that is translated well able, towb (tobe) “naturally expresses the idea of being loved or enjoying the favour of someone” (H2895). Rather than looking at the size of their enemies or the rough terrain of the country, Caleb saw the blessing that God wanted him to experience and believed that he was able to do what God expected him to in order to receive it.

The individual inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan were determined by lot (Joshua 14:1-2), except for Joshua and Caleb. Joshua tells us:

Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.” (Joshua 14:6-12)

Caleb gave God the credit for keeping him alive for forty-five years and said that he was as strong at the age of eighty-five as he had been when he was forty. The strength that Caleb was talking about was more than likely divine power, spiritual capability that came from God, but physical strength was also necessary for Caleb to be successful because he would have to actually go on the battlefield and face the Anakim, the people of great height who made the spies seem like grasshoppers to them (Numbers 13:32-33). Caleb knew that his success wasn’t dependent on his fighting capability, but on his relationship with the LORD. He declared, “If the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said” (Joshua 14:12, NLT).

Caleb’s statement, “If the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land” (Joshua 14:12) was in part an acknowledgement that God was not obligated to be with him. The Hebrew word that was used to communicate the idea of God being with Caleb was ʾeth (ayth). ʾEth is properly translated as “nearness” (H854). When Jesus’ birth was announced to Joseph, he was told:

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:20-23)

Jesus’ mission to save his people from their sins and the name that he was called, Immanuel, which means God with us, convey an important point about the way that God works in people’s lives. We have to be near God in order for his power to save us to be effective.

Jesus used the words “follow me” when he wanted someone to be a part of his ministry (Matthew 4:19; 9:9 John 1:43). The Greek word akoloutheo (ak-ol-oo-thehˊ-o), which is translated follow, is properly translated as “to be in the same way with, i.e. to accompany” (G190). Jesus made it clear to his disciples that they would have to disconnect themselves from the things that they were used to in order to be with him. Luke tells us, “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Yet another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’” (Luke 9:57-62). Jesus associated his followers with the kingdom of God and indicated that there was nothing more important to them than accomplishing God’s will on earth. Rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, Jesus said of his Father’s will, “’I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise, and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it’” (Luke 10:21-24).

The Apostle Paul talked about the end result of following the Lord in his letter to the Philippians. Paul said that he counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus and that he had suffered the loss of all things and counted them as rubbish (Philippians 3:8), so “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11). Paul considered the resurrection from the dead to be ultimate goal of being a follower of Christ. Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own” (Philippians 3:12). Paul thought of the resurrection from the dead as a possession, something that he had to press on to make his own. The Greek word that is translated press on, dioko (dee-oˊ-ko) means “to follow” or “to follow after” (G1377). In order to make the resurrection from the dead his own, Paul compared his life to a race and said, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Paul emphasized that effort was required to attain his goal and indicated that he had to strain forward to what lies ahead. The Greek word that Paul used had to do with stretching oneself in the sense of reaching beyond one’s grasp. Paul may have been thinking of heaven as a place that he couldn’t quite grasp, a place or state that was beyond his comprehension or imagination. Paul concluded with the statement, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved” (Philippians 3:20-4:1).

The body of Christ

Paul talked about spiritual gifts in the context of supernatural regeneration or what Jesus referred to as being born again (John 3:3). Paul wanted the Corinthian believers to understand that being identified with Christ meant you would receive a particular spiritual capability that was different than your natural capability in order to facilitate the effective functioning of the body of Christ. Paul said:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7, ESV)

Paul described all believers collectively as the body of Christ and explained that in the same way that a human body has many parts that enable it to function effectively, so all believers are expected to function as a collective unit. Paul referred to both diversity and unity in his description of the spiritual capabilities that every believer is given and stated, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12).

The point I believe Paul was trying to make was that spiritual gifts are only useful in a collective sense. Paul used the expression tempered together (1 Corinthians 12:24) to describe the process God uses to unify the body of Christ. The Greek word sugkerannumi (soong-ker-an’-noo-mee) means “to commingle” (G4786). Figuratively, sugkerannumi can mean to assimilate. Paul was most likely talking about Christians being joined together culturally. One of the Old Testament uses of the phrase tempered together had to do with the creation of a perfume that was placed before the ark in the most holy place of God’s temple (Exodus 30:34-36). The individual elements of this holy anointing oil were beaten together until they dissolved and became an aromatic fragrance comparable to a priceless perfume. When Paul said there should be “no schism” in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:25), he was probably referring to an expensive garment that had been sewn together in such a way that it was impossible to tell that it wasn’t a single piece of cloth. Together, these illustrations suggest that the body of Christ is like an Olympic athlete that is able to accomplish superhuman feats through its collective efforts.

Preaching the gospel

The arrival of the Holy Spirit was marked by an unusual display of spiritual capability. Luke said, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4). Luke’s phrase “as the Spirit gave them utterance” meant that their spirits were completely under the control of the Holy Spirit; the words they spoke were His words, not their own (note on Acts 2:4). The fact that the Holy Spirit enabled these men to speak in languages they had not previously learned might not seem all that impressive, but it had particular relevance here because as a result of this miracle there were numerous people of different nationalities and languages that gathered together afterward who were able to pass on the gospel message they heard more effectively (Acts 2:5-12).

Peter’s Pentecostal sermon was the first instance of anyone preaching the gospel after Jesus’s death and resurrection. His message, which was probably delivered to an audience of at least ten thousand people, focused on the fulfillment of prophecy and the bold declaration that “Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:32). Peter concluded his sermon with this statement, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Although Peter’s cutting remarks may have been offensive to some of the people that were gathered together to listen to him preach, his message resulted in about three thousand people accepting Jesus as their savior (Acts 2:41) and a remarkable transformation began to take place in Jerusalem. Luke described what was happening with a simple formula that is still followed today by some fundamentalist churches. Luke indicated the body of believers “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). In other words, they gathered together regularly to hear the gospel preached to them, they celebrated communion, and collectively prayed for each other.

An unusual aspect of the early church’s behavior was their communal living. Luke said, “all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need” (Acts 2:44-45). The purpose of this type of living arrangement may have been to facilitate the preaching of the gospel. Since men were typically the only members of the household to earn a living and they had the primary responsibility of preaching the gospel in the early days of the church, sharing resources enabled more families to survive with less income coming in. Even though people weren’t forced to sell their homes and give the money to the church (Acts 5:4), there may have been a collective movement that made it seem like everyone was expected to. Luke’s account of the situation pointed out that everyone “did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,” meaning one of the side effects or end results of preaching the gospel was thankfulness and unity among believers.