Author: Bryan Richardson

Bryan Richardson is the Associate Pastor for Counseling and Pastoral Ministries at FBCSA.

Words

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:33-48 (day three)

“But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”

It’s not easy to put your words out there unadorned with any kind of agenda. Even to declare, “I just say what I mean and mean what I say” is to use words to attempt to shape your image as a fearless straight shooter. You discovered very early in your life – we all did – that words have power. In the mouths of human beings, words can function as a means to gain influence over one’s neighbor – to bolster one’s own position, to confuse, to obfuscate, to distract. One human being, the divine son of God, showed a brilliant way to resist the temptation to use words to gain the upper hand: silence. Standing before Pilate, Jesus kept his yes, yes and his no, no by saying nothing.

Criminal

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32 (day three) 

“Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.”

It’s probably not uncommon to think of a typical person in hell as a ne’er-do-well. But it turns out that the population of the damned might well be able to build quite a safe, orderly city where the murder rate is low and sexual assault is rare. Jesus reveals that an outward display of good citizenship, though, is not the center of heaven’s moral vision. God’s command to refrain from murder, for instance, is intended to form in human beings a kind of heart that doesn’t merely avoid violence but reaches out with compassion. It is possible to hate a person without becoming a felon. Which is why it would ultimately take the “convicted criminal” Jesus Christ to lead us to follow the law of love.

Try

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:13-16 (day three)

“A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Jesus spoke these words to a society very familiar with overt attempts to appear pious and holy. But if you love God, you don’t need to come up with any proof — actions, words, or appearance. Those things are already happening in the life of one who loves God. Later, Jesus would say, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Again, love is self-evident. He wasn’t saying that commandment-keeping is the next step you need to master after proclaiming your love, but rather that if you love Jesus, you’re already keeping them. Who told you that you have to try really hard to shine? You’re shining. You can’t help it.

Seen

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:1-12 (day two)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

When few would ever want to know what you think about religious matters, when you’ve never been welcomed into the inner circle of the “lauded and applauded,” when you’ve wondered if anybody in the congregation really cares about you, when you can’t imagine ever having the confidence to voice your deepest questions in front of others, when you’ve doubted for years that God pays attention to someone like you, this is the place of spiritual poverty. Just as with economic poverty, the conventional wisdom blames spiritual poverty on those who live in it – as if a person chooses that circumstance. The biggest refutation of that belief is right here in the words of our Lord. “I see you,” Jesus says, “and you are beautiful to me.”

Close

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 6:11-18 (day three)

“See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.”

Could it be that Paul’s penmanship results from a visual impairment caused by an ocular malady? Yes. His earlier reference to the tender attention he received from the Galatians as they cared for him when he was ailing mentions their willingness to give him their own eyes to help him, were that possible. This offhand comment here as he closes his correspondence alludes to that shared history. They have a life together, Paul and the Galatians. Laughter, weeping, sickness, worries, hopes — they know each other in all these ways. They have seen each other in vulnerability and in strength. Perhaps the Holy Spirit would move through this dear life they hold in common to bring them close again in the fellowship and peace of the one true gospel.

Vision

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 6:1-10 (day three)

“If anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness…”

It’s easier to police behavior than to join the work of restoration. It doesn’t require curiosity, patience, or empathy, just good old-fashioned rule-making and forced conformity. But Paul presents a vision of the church as the one open door on earth inviting people into a vision of what they can be — in fact, what they’ve always wanted to be – but have given up on being because they got lost. When, on mission with Jesus, the church finds a person, that person needs all the Jesus-infused longsuffering the church can muster. It’s hard to be restorative toward someone when all the energy goes into being shocked at behavior. The church never loses sight of how beautiful a person can be.

Unnecessary

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:16-26 (day three)

“Against such things there is no law.”

The law turned on the light so Israel could see both the way God lives – goodness, beauty, righteousness, and love, which is the eternal kind of living – and their own patterns of not living that eternal way. Because God desires his creation to live eternally, his law is therefore against this non-eternal way of living, which is what sin actually is. Conversely, the law is not against anything that produces in human beings a desire for that eternal kind of living. When the Spirit’s movement produces such a desire in a person, the law is not against that desire, but for it. The law’s prescriptions for purity are then unnecessary for that person, because the Spirit is already producing what the law agrees with. The Spirit’s work is so good that the law’s work is done.

Cut

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:1-15 (day three)

“I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

Is Paul the one still writing this letter? Just a few sentences back, he spoke eloquently of faith making itself evident by way of love. Now, he’s envisioning a scenario in which the ones who’ve make so much of the saving power of circumcision get bonus points with God by doing some extra slicing. That goes way beyond what one normally associates with the legacy of the apostle Paul. But he gets your attention, doesn’t he? Paul’s jolting crudity is a marker that this isn’t some kind of ivory tower theologian’s debate. It’s either Christ’s sufficiency, or it’s Christ’s irrelevance. Paul unequivocally declares that the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate and died a criminal’s death did all the bleeding that will ever be necessary for the human race.

Done

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:21-31 (day three)

“Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?”

Paul’s question here presupposes a crucial point: it is not the law that is the enemy of the gospel, but rather an abuse of the law. The law is the word of God. It proceeds from the mouth of God. It is altogether lovely. It is God’s revelation to human beings. But what is the law’s rightful function? It takes us to Christ who fulfills it. There is then nothing left for the law to do because Christ has done all that the law requires —and he is the only one who could do so. The law’s magnificence and brilliance now emanate from its wonderful accomplishment of having heralded the Christ. To declare that it has any other purpose is to misread it. Its work is done.

One

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:12-20 (day three)

“I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.”

What Paul proposes here suggests something more beautiful than a meeting of the minds. He sets forth a vision of oneness, a knitting together of hearts that will open up a way to see the way of Christ together. Paul stands in a place of humility in conveying such a vision. He has no need to prevail if by prevailing one means winning the argument. Paul speaks against a false gospel, but he does not champion his perspective as if he’s battling the Galatians. Rather, his concern is that they become one. That’s how powerful Paul knows unity is. That’s why the Lord made it the centerpiece of his prayer in John 17. God is one, and when we are one, we will see God together.