Forgiveness is firmly integrated in the inner workings of love.
1 Corinthians 13:5 – “[Love] is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs.”
As an artist, I enjoy how each layer of a painting can modify the overall image, and enhance the original idea to the point of sometimes changing the picture completely. Typically, this is something that is controlled through the use of various shading and highlighting to bring out the intended emphasis. As a painting is nearing completion, I enjoy the highlighting aspect most of all because it begins to bring focus to the whole image.
On occasion, I have attempted to paint multiple paintings at once based on the same theme to see if I could duplicate an idea. No matter how hard I tried, even using the same colors and brushes, each finished painting would have a slightly different “feel” than the others.
I recently had a dream where I was commissioned to paint four similar paintings of a cabin in a snowstorm. In this dream, I was using the same colors and brushes, but I was purposely changing the brush technique to see how each painting’s emphasis would shift. All of the paintings were very dark and dreary, showing the intensity of the snowstorm.
Then, in an unintentional movement of my hand in the fourth painting, I had inadvertently created a shadow behind the roof of the cabin. It was a simple and quick move of the brush, and suddenly the entire character of the painting was transformed. Instead of the harsh, dreary, and hopeless nature of the the other three paintings, there was suddenly the sense of light breaking through the storm and creating this inadvertent shadow. The contrast of the single shadow changed the emotion of the painting from one of hopelessness into one of hope. The sun had broken through the snowy maelstrom in one small area of light, hinting that the storm would pass.
The reason this type of contrast is significant is because in art, contrast creates depth and meaning. A painting that is uniformly and methodically structured, even if done with great skill, lacks emotional impact and appears washed-out.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he has, in my estimation, penned the most comprehensive practical definition of love that exists. Most English versions will convey verse 5 as “[love] does not keep a record of wrongs.” In the original Greek, the sentiment conveys a harsher tone, more literally rendered as “[love] takes no accounting of the evil.”
In taking no accounting of the evil in others, we will need to operate within the principle of forgiveness. To forgive others is the only way that we can not take into account some evil that they may have done toward us. Just like in the painting process, forgiveness provides the contrast where all other natural responses of anger and resentment paint a washed-out picture of hopelessness. Forgiveness is the spark, the singular, powerful stroke of contrast that imbues a relationship with the depth and emotion that provides hope. It’s the sunlight through the snowstorm.
Matthew 18:21-22 – “Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times? ” “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Yeshua replied, “but seventy times seven.”
We may not be able to control the way others choose to interact with us, but we can control our reaction to their influence in our lives. As believers, we are urged to provide forgiveness which contrasts with the world’s way of dealing with resentment. This single, powerful stroke of contrast makes us stand out from others and honors the One who desires us to be the catalyst of restorative and hope-filled relationships, just as He has been with us.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Romans 14:4 – Who are you to judge another’s household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand.
I really dislike commenting on Romans 14 because I believe it is such a widely misunderstood passage. The root of Paul’s teaching, while true, unfortunately seems to get painted as a “live and let live” philosophy about any and all doctrinal differences that believers may have about what they believe, and yet that is not actually the case.
I believe that what Paul is commenting on is the unforgiving spirit between believers who have differences of opinion about man-made tradition and practice, some things having value, but not all. These man-made traditions are not necessary for all to believe like the cornerstone doctrines of the faith.
Here Paul lists some of those differences of opinions:
Romans 14:5-6 – One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and he gives thanks to God.
These issues are discussing the man-made traditions, specifically fasting on days that were considered special days that had arisen among the Jews and some believers. Some even included multiple days each week, as illustrated by the parable of Yeshua:
Luke 18:11-12 – “The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people – greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.'”
Why was he fasting twice a week? There is no command within the Torah to do so. The only fast that is commanded is that of the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. There was no other honoring of other days for fasting, whether for personal self-righteousness (as this Pharisee represents) or communal observance.
Additionally, Luke represents that the disciples of John the baptizer also fasted regularly, along with those restrictive practices of the Pharisees.
Luke 5:33 – “Then they said to him, “John’s disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but yours eat and drink.”
It would seem that many Jewish believers who had been raised with these traditions, along with disciples who had come to Messiah under the ministry of John the baptizer began to carry them over into their New Covenant practices, and were encouraging others to do so, as well. Even today orthodox Jews have three other annual fast days on their traditional annual calendar that are not commanded within the Torah. This demonstrates how hard it is to kill these types of traditions.
The Jews had many restrictions and designations for honoring days that arose far above the holy calendar that God had provided in Torah. In this passage, Paul is trying to create a sense of unity between the believers. There were plenty of different traditions they had been raised in, but he was encouraging them not to judge one another about issues that were not clearly commanded in Torah.
Romans 14:1 – “Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters.”
According to Strong’s definitions, “arguing” about these “disputed matters” is a phrase which literally means “passing judgment on discussions, considerations, or debates.” It would have been illogical and quite honestly heretical for Paul to consider legitimate commands within the Torah as being “debatable” opinions. He himself kept the Fast of Yom Kippur and the commands of the Torah (see Acts 18:21; 21:24). These have never been in question among believers in the one true God.
I believe Romans 14 is about Paul trying to minimize the unjust judgment that was going on among believers in the congregation. Those who were mistreating or arguing with others who were disagreeing over points of opinion rather than true doctrinal issues.
Romans 14:10 – But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
Paul is encouraging some latitude among the believers because they were all subservient to the one true God. There should not be disputes over opinions and preferences; Paul implies those things may have been helpful to those immature believers in their new-found faith. Those who relied on these traditional practices were to be shown grace by the more mature believers for the sake of the unity of the congregations. As they were to grow in the faith, God could change their hearts as they began to recognize the futility of the man-made traditions, and that would take time.
Unfortunately, we see the same thing today among believing congregations. People will argue vehemently over how to dress when meeting together, or what time of day the meeting should take place, or what type of music should be performed. I have seen disputes over whether chairs or pews should be used or if children should be included in the meetings or separated out. ALL of these issues are non-essential to the faith and have caused strife and unnecessary divisions within the kingdom of God today.
However, if we can take Paul’s advice and learn rather to accept one another’s misunderstandings about these “debatable” issues, we can exhibit forgiveness that creates unity among God’s people that others will be able to recognize, to God’s glory and honor.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Acts 26:16-18 – “But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your people and from the nations. I am sending you to them to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
As Paul makes his defense before King Agrippa, he reveals the purpose for which Messiah had called him. He was to be a witness and a catalyst of deliverance for both Jews and the nations.
There has been much ink spilled over the centuries in Christian theological circles regarding how the “Gentiles” were to receive salvation through the preaching of Paul. But if we understand the overall context of Paul’s mission, I believe those of us who are non-Jews will have a deeper understanding and respect for our position in Messiah.
Those to whom Paul was sent were not just “Gentiles” anywhere and everywhere he could get to. Paul was specifically sent to reach out to both the Jews (those of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin) along with the ten tribes that had been scattered throughout the known world by that time. This is why he would always begin in the synagogue in the community, and only afterwards reach out to others in the area. When it says Paul was commissioned to the nations, these are the ones he is commissioned to call to Messiah: the former ten tribes who had become assimilated into the surrounding nations and absorbed into the wider Roman empire of Paul’s day.
This was the “good news” that Paul was bringing! Even though they had been lost to the nations, God was calling them back to be re-grafted into the original “holy root” of the forefathers through the work of Messiah!
Romans 11:16-18 – Now if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, do not boast that you are better than those branches…
This is why the gospel had to be of faith and not of blood lineage anymore, because their bloodlines had become mixed among the nations and they had, from the strict Jewish orthodoxy perspective of the day, become “Gentiles.” This is also why the Jews who heard the message of the gospel were so enraged at Paul’s teaching, because they feared that their self-identification as God’s “chosen people” was being cheapened in offering it to those whom they did not consider worthy.
Through faith in the true Messiah of Israel, the scattered ten tribes were to be reunited with their believing brothers and sisters in Judah and Benjamin, fulfilling the ancient prophecies that all of the tribes of Israel would be reunited.
Ezekiel 37:19, 21-24 – “tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and put them together with the stick of Judah. I will make them into a single stick so that they become one in my hand.’ … “tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I am going to take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land. “I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. They will no longer be two nations and will no longer be divided into two kingdoms. “They will not defile themselves anymore with their idols, their abhorrent things, and all their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. “My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my ordinances, and keep my statutes and obey them.
And this was the key to God reaching out to the rest of the world, and how he would get past the nation of Israel alone being his chosen people. By making the condition of the New Covenant by faith in Messiah, then ANYONE who believed in the Messiah of Israel would also be brough into the commonwealth of Israel, even if they had no genealogical connection whatsoever! This is not only good news, but GREAT news for everyone else in the world who would come to recognize Yahweh as the God of all creation. God’s forgiveness would be available through repentance to anyone in the world who would come to him, and so it is to this day.
This is the GREAT news of the gospel: forgiveness is available to all who repent of their rebellious ways. Those of us called by his grace and mercy can now and always “have a share among those who are sanctified” by faith in Messiah Yeshua.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
Matthew 5:44-48 – “But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
We have looked at this passage in several different articles regarding different aspects of meaning that are present here. But one of the key questions that can be brought up is this, does God expect more of us than he expects of himself? Yeshua instructs us to love our enemies. Has God really demonstrated love for his enemies?
Romans 5:6, 8, 10 – “For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Messiah died for the ungodly. … But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Messiah died for us. … For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”
I remember a preacher once teaching on this topic and saying, “If your salvation depended on my only son dying in your place, then I’m sorry, you would not be saved.” This tongue-in-cheek statement drove home the point of how much love God demonstrated for those who could be considered his enemies due to their rebellion and sinfulness. And yet God was willing to have his own Son die for them.
Romans 10:20-21 – “And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me. But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.”
Does Yeshua exhort us to love our enemies? Yes, so that we might become “children of God.” As we have seen from the apostle Paul, God indeed demonstrated love for those who had made themselves his enemies, enough to have his own Son die for them. If in this fashion we become his children, then we must exhibit the same characteristic of our Father. All day long, we must hold our hands out to the disobedient and defiant people of our generation.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
When we act disobediently, God appears to reciprocate in kind by providing negative experiences, or what can be called his curses.
Core of the Bible podcast #49 – Is there a biblical curse in withholding forgiveness?
Today we will be exploring the topic of forgiveness, and how the forgiveness we extend, or don’t extend, toward others will likely be evidenced within our own relationship with God.
John 20:23 – “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
The context of this passage is the day of Yeshua’s resurrection, in the evening of that very day. The disciples were still trying to understand what had happened since their Teacher had been crucified a few days before. A strange report of Messiah’s appearance had come from Mary, and Peter and John had both been to the tomb and found it was empty.
Suddenly, Yeshua is among them all, proclaiming peace and wholeness (shalom), and providing an admonition to remain receptive to the holy Spirit of God and to exercise the privilege of forgiveness with others.
Most commentators view this as a special privilege, anointing, or commissioning of the twelve disciples (or, in this case, the ten disciples, since Thomas and Judas were not among them). However, there is no indication this admonition was just to Yeshua’s closest circle, but it was conveyed to all of those present.
How much value should we place on these words? Let’s put this in perspective. If you were to die and then to be raised back to life and to visit once again with your closest friends and confidants, what words would you say? Do you think those words would be considered important words by those who were were seeing you alive again? I believe wholeheartedly, yes, they would be extremely important words!
And this is why I believe the significance of what Yeshua is teaching here cannot be minimized: the first collective teaching Yeshua provides his followers after being resurrected is to remain receptive to God’s Spirit and to be mindful of how they exercise forgiveness, because to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then the state of unforgiveness remains.
In reality, this should not be surprising to us, since Messiah consistently taught of the importance of forgiving others, and how the believer’s use of forgiveness with others will be an indicator of God’s forgiveness with them.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. “But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
Mark 11:25 – “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
Luke 17:4 – “And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Therefore if we withhold forgiveness from someone, for whatever reason we may have, we may in a very real sense be creating a situation where God withholds his forgiveness from us. It is not that our actions can restrict the workings of the all-powerful God, but only that he has chosen to align himself with the human ideals as a means of communicating his love and mercy to us.
Charles Ellicott has the following to say in regards to this idea of forgiveness and unforgiveness:
“In the very act of prayer we are taught to remind ourselves of the conditions of forgiveness. Even here, in the region of the free grace of God, there is a law of retribution. The temper that does not forgive cannot be forgiven, because it is ipso facto a proof that we do not realise the amount of the debt we owe. We forget the ten thousand talents as we exact the hundred pence, and in the act of exacting we bring back that burden of the greater debt upon ourselves.”
I believe this is a critical, yet often-overlooked aspect to the forgiveness of God. In all things God desires us to be true and honest, and he abhors dishonesty and hypocrisy. If we are withholding forgiveness from someone for some offense they have committed against us, what should be God’s logical reason for continuing to provide us forgiveness that comes from him?
This seems to create a bit of a paradox for us. Yeshua appears to be teaching us that we hold within our grasp the key of forgiveness or the lock of unforgiveness toward others, and our experience with God will mirror how we apply this privilege.
God, it seems, desires that we model ourselves after his characteristics, such as holiness, mercy or compassion, and forgiveness.
Leviticus 19:2 – “Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
Psalm 145:8-9 – Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. Yahweh is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.
Colossians 4:6 – Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
1 Peter 3:8-9 – Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.
He has made us in his image, and yet when that image becomes marred through our own selfish ambition and disobedience God appears to reciprocate in kind by providing negative experiences, or what can be called his curses.
Here’s an example of how this principle is exhibited with personified Wisdom in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 1:22, 25-26 – “How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge? … “since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction, “I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you…”
Notice, the mockers who rejected the knowledge of God would be mocked by personified Wisdom as their own calamity would befall them due to their rejection of God’s instruction.
In the apocryphal book of the Wisdom of Solomon, there is a passage which identifies this type of thinking of the Hebrew culture in the time of 2nd temple Judaism. Speaking in the narrative about the Israelites wandering in the desert, it says:
Wisdom 11:15-16 – “In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, so that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which one sins.”
This is the state of those who live in rebellion against God. It becomes a natural course of events due to their unwillingness to abide by God’s righteous ways, and the things through which they sin against God become the very things that plague them later on.
This idea of retributive justice is all through the Bible. The apostle Paul also presents a view of the fleshly life vs. the spiritual life as he encourages the Galatian believers to be sure they are sowing seed in the appropriate place:
Galatians 6:7-8 – Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
I tend to believe this retributive justice of God is this ancient biblical principle from which the Eastern concept of karma has been derived. That’s certainly my opinion and one that would require a whole other group of research to fully substantiate, but I believe the biblical principles were at one point understood by all mankind and other religions have since become corruptions of these truths over the millennia.
Let’s take a closer look at this idea of the retributive justice of God in some of the final words of Moses to the Israelites.
One of the most glaring passages to illustrate this concept of retributive justice is in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Moses is reminding the people of all that God has done for them from Egypt up until the eve of their entering into the promised land. In this chapter he lays out blessings that would be evident for their obedience, and also curses for their disobedience. When viewed together, we can see that the curses are essentially the opposite of the blessings.
28:3 – “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.”
28:16 – “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.”
28:4 – “Your offspring will be blessed, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:18 – “Your offspring will be cursed, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:5 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.”
28:17 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.”
28:6 – “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
28:19 – “You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”
28:7 – “Yahweh will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions.”
28:20 – “Yahweh will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.”
On and on it goes through the whole chapter. It would appear that curses for disobedience are essentially corrupted and inverted blessings for obedience. This implies that God desires our obedience in righteous actions. When we do so, he demonstrates we are acting in accord with his purposes by providing certain blessings towards us. However, when we choose not to do so, then he matches his actions towards us by our actions towards him. And those actions meant to be blessings then become inverted and appear to us as curses.
Here’s another example from the book of Daniel. Daniel appears to be well aware of how they were living out the very warnings and curses that Moses had provided 700 years earlier:
Daniel 9:11 – All Israel has broken your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him.
Yes, Daniel is lamenting the curse that Moses warned them about had come to pass! Specifically, here again from Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 49-52 – “Yahweh will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone. “You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh will drive you. … “Yahweh will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you won’t understand, “a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young. “They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish. “They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land Yahweh your God has given you.”
Daniel has these warnings in mind as he continues his admonition to the people of God in captivity.
Daniel 9:12-14 – He has carried out his words that he spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us a disaster that is so great that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of Yahweh our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to your truth. So Yahweh kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for Yahweh our God is righteous in all he has done. But we have not obeyed him.”
Daniel recognized that the Israelites were experiencing the fruit of that which they had sown. They rebelled against God and he responded in the way that he told them he would. This resulted in a horrific overthrow of the city of Jerusalem, and the final remaining Israelites to be carried off to Babylon. Daniel connects the two concepts in no uncertain terms, and this is a clear demonstration of how God’s curse, the opposite of the blessing in the land, came to pass.
It seems to me that people today enjoy talking about blessings and how much God has blessed them, but curses are viewed as medieval superstitions. While there is in truth a measure of superstition to the idea of people placing curses on other people, if we understand that biblical curses are essentially blessings of God that have been inverted due to disobedience, it helps to make sense of some of the struggles non-believers face as they live lives in rebellion against God.
If, for example, we choose to live lives of treachery and deceit for our own pride and selfish gain, there is a good likelihood that our lives will be filled with not knowing who to trust, and being fearful of being taken advantage of at every turn. This is the natural result or consequences of those decisions. Yet if we choose to live humbly with integrity and honesty, it is more likely people will interact with us in similar ways, and we will have friends we can trust and experience less stress overall.
Proverbs 3:33-34 – Yahweh’s curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous; He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble.
Now I’ve kind of gone off into the weeds in regards to retributive justice of God, but if you’ll remember, it was not without reason in light of Yeshua’s teaching on forgiveness.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. “But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.
If we truly believed this was the case, then we would never remain unforgiving toward anyone. If we desired God to be forgiving toward us, we would do everything we could to ensure there was no form of outstanding unforgiveness among any of our relationships.
We saw that when Yeshua returned from death, he exhorted his disciples to receive the holy Spirit, and to extend forgiveness to others, otherwise, unforgiveness would remain. If we can cautiously peel back the prejudice of our religious orthodoxy regarding the historical commentary of John 20 and simply consider the Messiah’s words for what they say, the importance of forgiveness in the teaching of Yeshua cannot be understated.
So, is there a biblical curse in withholding forgiveness? I think a case can be made to demonstrate that God actively resists those who resist his will, and I’ve included a few examples here to illustrate this idea. If we are allowing the Spirit of God to guide our lives, then we need to always be mindful of how important the role of forgiveness plays in our interactions with others. For to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then a state of unforgiveness remains. And if we are to maintain a consistent view within the larger context of Yeshua’s teaching during his life and ministry, that state of unforgiveness can be measured against our own standing with God.
The fact that the operation of the Spirit and forgiveness are knit together so closely should cause us to evaluate how recep
Today we will be exploring the topic of forgiveness, and how the forgiveness we extend, or don’t extend, toward others will likely be evidenced within our own relationship with God.
John 20:23 – “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
The context of this passage is the day of Yeshua’s resurrection, in the evening of that very day. The disciples were still trying to understand what had happened since their Teacher had been crucified a few days before. A strange report of Messiah’s appearance had come from Mary, and Peter and John had both been to the tomb and found it was empty.
Suddenly, Yeshua is among them all, proclaiming peace and wholeness (shalom), and providing an admonition to remain receptive to the holy Spirit of God and to exercise the privilege of forgiveness with others.
Most commentators view this as a special privilege, anointing, or commissioning of the twelve disciples (or, in this case, the ten disciples, since Thomas and Judas were not among them). However, there is no indication this admonition was just to Yeshua’s closest circle, but it was conveyed to all of those present.
How much value should we place on these words? Let’s put this in perspective. If you were to die and then to be raised back to life and to visit once again with your closest friends and confidants, what words would you say? Do you think those words would be considered important words by those who were were seeing you alive again? I believe wholeheartedly, yes, they would be extremely important words!
And this is why I believe the significance of what Yeshua is teaching here cannot be minimized: the first collective teaching Yeshua provides his followers after being resurrected is to remain receptive to God’s Spirit and to be mindful of how they exercise forgiveness, because to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then the state of unforgiveness remains.
In reality, this should not be surprising to us, since Messiah consistently taught of the importance of forgiving others, and how the believer’s use of forgiveness with others will be an indicator of God’s forgiveness with them.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. “But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
Mark 11:25 – “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
Luke 17:4 – “And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Therefore if we withhold forgiveness from someone, for whatever reason we may have, we may in a very real sense be creating a situation where God withholds his forgiveness from us. It is not that our actions can restrict the workings of the all-powerful God, but only that he has chosen to align himself with the human ideals as a means of communicating his love and mercy to us.
Charles Ellicott has the following to say in regards to this idea of forgiveness and unforgiveness:
“In the very act of prayer we are taught to remind ourselves of the conditions of forgiveness. Even here, in the region of the free grace of God, there is a law of retribution. The temper that does not forgive cannot be forgiven, because it is ipso facto a proof that we do not realise the amount of the debt we owe. We forget the ten thousand talents as we exact the hundred pence, and in the act of exacting we bring back that burden of the greater debt upon ourselves.”
I believe this is a critical, yet often-overlooked aspect to the forgiveness of God. In all things God desires us to be true and honest, and he abhors dishonesty and hypocrisy. If we are withholding forgiveness from someone for some offense they have committed against us, what should be God’s logical reason for continuing to provide us forgiveness that comes from him?
This seems to create a bit of a paradox for us. Yeshua appears to be teaching us that we hold within our grasp the key of forgiveness or the lock of unforgiveness toward others, and our experience with God will mirror how we apply this privilege.
God, it seems, desires that we model ourselves after his characteristics, such as holiness, mercy or compassion, and forgiveness.
Leviticus 19:2 – “Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
Psalm 145:8-9 – Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. Yahweh is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.
Colossians 4:6 – Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
1 Peter 3:8-9 – Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.
He has made us in his image, and yet when that image becomes marred through our own selfish ambition and disobedience God appears to reciprocate in kind by providing negative experiences, or what can be called his curses.
Here’s an example of how this principle is exhibited with personified Wisdom in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 1:22, 25-26 – “How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge? … “since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction, “I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you…”
Notice, the mockers who rejected the knowledge of God would be mocked by personified Wisdom as their own calamity would befall them due to their rejection of God’s instruction.
In the apocryphal book of the Wisdom of Solomon, there is a passage which identifies this type of thinking of the Hebrew culture in the time of 2nd temple Judaism. Speaking in the narrative about the Israelites wandering in the desert, it says:
Wisdom 11:15-16 – “In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, so that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which one sins.”
This is the state of those who live in rebellion against God. It becomes a natural course of events due to their unwillingness to abide by God’s righteous ways, and the things through which they sin against God become the very things that plague them later on.
This idea of retributive justice is all through the Bible. The apostle Paul also presents a view of the fleshly life vs. the spiritual life as he encourages the Galatian believers to be sure they are sowing seed in the appropriate place:
Galatians 6:7-8 – Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
I tend to believe this retributive justice of God is this ancient biblical principle from which the Eastern concept of karma has been derived. That’s certainly my opinion and one that would require a whole other group of research to fully substantiate, but I believe the biblical principles were at one point understood by all mankind and other religions have since become corruptions of these truths over the millennia.
Let’s take a closer look at this idea of the retributive justice of God in some of the final words of Moses to the Israelites.
One of the most glaring passages to illustrate this concept of retributive justice is in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Moses is reminding the people of all that God has done for them from Egypt up until the eve of their entering into the promised land. In this chapter he lays out blessings that would be evident for their obedience, and also curses for their disobedience. When viewed together, we can see that the curses are essentially the opposite of the blessings.
28:3 – “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.”
28:16 – “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.”
28:4 – “Your offspring will be blessed, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:18 – “Your offspring will be cursed, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:5 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.”
28:17 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.”
28:6 – “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
28:19 – “You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”
28:7 – “Yahweh will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions.”
28:20 – “Yahweh will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.”
On and on it goes through the whole chapter. It would appear that curses for disobedience are essentially corrupted and inverted blessings for obedience. This implies that God desires our obedience in righteous actions. When we do so, he demonstrates we are acting in accord with his purposes by providing certain blessings towards us. However, when we choose not to do so, then he matches his actions towards us by our actions towards him. And those actions meant to be blessings then become inverted and appear to us as curses.
Here’s another example from the book of Daniel. Daniel appears to be well aware of how they were living out the very warnings and curses that Moses had provided 700 years earlier:
Daniel 9:11 – All Israel has broken your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him.
Yes, Daniel is lamenting the curse that Moses warned them about had come to pass! Specifically, here again from Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 49-52 – “Yahweh will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone. “You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh will drive you. … “Yahweh will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you won’t understand, “a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young. “They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish. “They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land Yahweh your God has given you.”
Daniel has these warnings in mind as he continues his admonition to the people of God in captivity.
Daniel 9:12-14 – He has carried out his words that he spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us a disaster that is so great that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of Yahweh our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to your truth. So Yahweh kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for Yahweh our God is righteous in all he has done. But we have not obeyed him.”
Daniel recognized that the Israelites were experiencing the fruit of that which they had sown. They rebelled against God and he responded in the way that he told them he would. This resulted in a horrific overthrow of the city of Jerusalem, and the final remaining Israelites to be carried off to Babylon. Daniel connects the two concepts in no uncertain terms, and this is a clear demonstration of how God’s curse, the opposite of the blessing in the land, came to pass.
It seems to me that people today enjoy talking about blessings and how much God has blessed them, but curses are viewed as medieval superstitions. While there is in truth a measure of superstition to the idea of people placing curses on other people, if we understand that biblical curses are essentially blessings of God that have been inverted due to disobedience, it helps to make sense of some of the struggles non-believers face as they live lives in rebellion against God.
If, for example, we choose to live lives of treachery and deceit for our own pride and selfish gain, there is a good likelihood that our lives will be filled with not knowing who to trust, and being fearful of being taken advantage of at every turn. This is the natural result or consequences of those decisions. Yet if we choose to live humbly with integrity and honesty, it is more likely people will interact with us in similar ways, and we will have friends we can trust and experience less stress overall.
Proverbs 3:33-34 – “Yahweh’s curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous; He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble.”
Now, let me be quick to add that Yeshua provides additional perspective on what a blessing from God may look like. Based on what we have seen so far, blessings are good things and curses would be bad things. However, Yeshua also mentions how some things that can look bad can actually be blessings when based on the truth of God and viewed from his perspective:
Matthew 5:3-4 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Being poor in spirit doesn’t appear to be a blessing, yet Yeshua says it is. Mourning in and of itself does not appear to provide a blessing, yet Yeshua says there is a certain type of mourning that does. For those who are of humble heart and circumstance (poor in spirit) and who mourn for righteousness to be expressed will have those yearnings fulfilled.
Matthew 5:10-12 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Certainly, being insulted and persecuted and having false and evil things said against you cannot possibly be considered a blessing, could it? Yeshua confirms that they are, but ONLY IF those things are being conducted against you specifically because of your expressed faith in Messiah, who is the truth of God revealed.
Psalm 5:11-12 – “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them shout for joy forever. May you shelter them, and may those who love your name boast about you. For you, Yahweh, bless the righteous one; you surround him with favor like a shield.”
Consistent with all blessing is that those who exhibit righteousness are blessed by God. To have faith in Yeshua was to have many negative consequences for the believers, and may still to this day; however, those negative consequences could be considered as blessings because they were and are based on the truth of God.
So returning in summary to our topic of forgiveness, you may have noticed I have kind of gone off into the weeds in regards to retributive justice of God. But if you’ll remember, it was not without reason in light of Yeshua’s teaching on forgiveness.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
If we truly believed this was the case, then we would never remain unforgiving toward anyone. If we desired God to be forgiving toward us, we would do everything we could to ensure there was no form of outstanding unforgiveness among any of our relationships.
We saw that when Yeshua returned from death, he exhorted his disciples to receive the holy Spirit, and to extend forgiveness to others, otherwise, unforgiveness would remain. If we can cautiously peel back the prejudice of our religious orthodoxy regarding the historical commentary of John 20 and simply consider the Messiah’s words for what they say, the importance of forgiveness in the teaching of Yeshua cannot be understated.
So, is there a biblical curse in withholding forgiveness? I think a case can be made in the affirmative to at least demonstrate that God actively resists those who resist his will, and I’ve included a few examples here to illustrate this idea. If we are allowing the Spirit of God to guide our lives, then we need to always be mindful of how important the role of forgiveness plays in our interactions with others. For to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then a state of unforgiveness remains. And if we are to maintain a consistent view within the larger context of Yeshua’s teaching during his life and ministry, that state of unforgiveness can be measured against our own standing with God.
The fact that the operation of the Spirit and forgiveness are knit together so closely should cause us to evaluate how receptive we are to the influence of the God’s Spirit in our lives. In my estimation, a life guided by the Spirit is, by default, a life of forgiveness. And forgiveness always brings a blessing.
tive we are to the influence of the God’s Spirit in our lives. In my estimation, a life guided by the Spirit is, by default, a life of forgiveness. And forgiveness always brings a blessing.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
The fruit of righteousness is borne of peaceful actions.
James 3:18 – And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
James writes that peace is a necessity among the believers. Taken in the context of to whom this letter was written, this is bold exhortation, indeed. These were the twelve tribes scattered among the nations, and believers who were currently undergoing persecution for their faith in Messiah.
James 1:2-3 – Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
To these believers undergoing harsh testing and being judged and challenged by their brothers and their families, James encourages peace. It was not the believer’s place to reflexively react to oppression and disunity around them. James encourages calmness at every turn as a demonstration of the righteous actions of God.
James 1:19-20 – My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
The righteousness of God, according to James, is based on the wisdom of God.
James 3:13-14, 17 – Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. … But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense.
James is encouraging gentleness in the pursuit of righteousness. God’s wisdom is “pure and peace-loving.” This is an echo of the words of Yeshua when he pronounced how the peacemakers would be considered children of God (Matthew 5:9). Contextually, Yeshua’s teaching on peacemaking is also in the context of persecution:
Matthew 5:10-12 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. “Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
As believers, we can only exhibit true peace and gentleness when confronted with their opposites. When all is peaceful and calm, there is no admonition needed to peacemaking. However, when all is chaos, bitterness and unforgiveness, to remain a peacemaker in these environments becomes a testimony to the inward righteousness one has from God. This is where the believer becomes a witness to the truth of God’s wisdom. This is why James can say that “fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.”
To be able to sow peace in tumultuous circumstances, one must be a cultivator of peace. This is a bedrock of the believing life, since there is no need to exacerbate chaos further. If we are looking for ways to bear fruit for God, we should be looking for ways to sow seeds of peace into the fray of the daily culture we live in. Thereby, God’s wisdom is shown to be the pure truth that it is, and he will be glorified in those cultivators of peace that obey his word.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
All who claim to be believers in Messiah should be exhibiting these lofty qualities.
2 Peter 1:10-11 – Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah will be richly provided for you.
Peter here speaks of the eternal kingdom, and how one “enters” this kingdom. He mentions entrance into the kingdom is evidenced “in this way,” and “if you do these things.” What things is he speaking of?
2 Peter 1:8-9 – For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua Messiah. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.
Peter expresses that some specific qualities provide fruitfulness and usefulness in fulfilling our understanding of Messiah. These qualities are based on “cleansing from past sins,” the forgiveness extended to those believers in Messiah. Once one believes in Messiah and is cleansed from past sins, a new set of qualities should be evident in their lives.
2 Peter 1:5-7 – For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
These qualities that are based on past forgiveness include supplements or contributions to the faith which has brought forgiveness. He says these qualities, “these things,” should be evident in the believers’ lives: goodness (or virtue), knowledge (or wisdom/understanding), self-control (self-mastery or restraint), endurance (steadfastness), godliness (devotion/piety toward God), brotherly affection (love for the brethren), and love (affection and benevolence towards all). These are the qualities of the eternal kingdom. All who claim to be believers in Messiah should be exhibiting these lofty qualities.
This should provide us pause for reflection. Are these qualities evident in our lives? If not, why not? Have we truly recognized our forgiveness from past sins, or are we “blind” and “short-sighted” as Peter lays out?
If we are truly desiring God’s kingdom to come and his will to done on earth, then we must repent of those things that hinder the realization and achievement of these Spirit-driven characteristics in our lives. Yeshua’s admonition is to “seek first the kingdom.” The kingdom should be first over all other demands and desires in our lives, which Peter says is possible when we rely on the “divine power,” the Spirit of God, who has “given us everything required for life and godliness.”
2 Peter 1:3 – His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
If we are not evidencing these qualities, then we must renew our knowledge in the glory of God revealed in his Messiah. According to the apostle Paul, Yeshua is the good news, the gospel of the fulfillment of the promises made to the ancestors.
Acts 13:32-33 – “And we ourselves proclaim to you the good news of the promise that was made to our ancestors. “God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising up Yeshua, as it is written in the second Psalm: You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
Relying on the Spirit of God provided through the resurrection of Yeshua allows believers to live as godly people in this world, true sons of God, representing him faithfully in his kingdom.
Romans 8:12-14 – So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
Let us always remember to seek first the kingdom, living as his people through the power he has provided us. According to Peter, if we do so, we will confirm our calling and “never stumble.” Through our faithful actions, the eternal kingdom will be evidenced to those who need to hear its message, paving the way for others to also be drawn to God through faith in his Son.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
We need to respond to the prodding of God within our hearts.
Psalm 32:1-2 – How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is a person whom Yahweh does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!
This psalm carries an important message that may be lost upon us in our current day and age. As believers in Messiah, we may freely (and maybe a bit too freely) acknowledge that we recognize the blessedness of one whose sins are forgiven. However, in our ongoing walk of faith we many times tend to overlook an important step that was responsible for bringing us to this point in the first place: confession.
Psalm 32:3-4 – When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat.
An unconfessed life is one that can feel like a burden, where issues arise that continually assault our sensibilities and make us feel as if we have no bearing or foundation. The psalmist here uses the language of God’s hand being “heavy” on him, to where his strength evaporates. It’s as if no matter what we try to do, the wrong results come of all of our actions. Everything we intend for good ends up going sideways.
Psalm 32:5 – Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
The turnaround (literally) comes when we become honest about our rebellious hearts toward God. When we finally reach a point where the struggle has become so exhausting that we simply cannot go on under the burden of resisting God’s prodding within our hearts.
When it comes to confession, we tend to think that when we initially came to Messiah, we acknowledged our sinful lives and confessed our wayward actions before him. But God’s word encourages us to not only confess our sin when coming to him, but on a regular basis as part of an ongoing, healthy and sin-free relationship.
The apostle John writes:
1 John 1:6 – If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.
The psalm says that the person who is truly joyful is the one whom not only is forgiven, but “in whose spirit is no deceit.” How many multitudes of believers have fallen into the trap of false security because of an initial repentance when coming to the faith, and yet stumble in their walk because of ongoing unconfessed sin before God? John says when we do that, we are walking in darkness, not in the light; “we are lying, and not practicing the truth.”
Psalm 32:6 – Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately. When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him.
We should pray to him immediately and constantly when we slip. The longer wrong actions and wrong intentions remain, the further “under his hand” we place ourselves. We begin to drown in the floodwaters that inevitably surround us.
Psalm 32:7 – You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance.
Instead, a life of constant repentance is one that is without sin, not because sin never occurs, but because it is constantly being purged in the ongoing vital relationship between the individual and their Creator. Then, deliverance, joy, and light become the living environment of the faithful confessor.
1 John 1:7-9 – If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Yeshua his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
To live cleansed from all unrighteousness is to acknowledge before God our faults when they occur, as they occur. In this way, we can walk in unburdened fellowship with other believers, and in a living and vital lifestyle of obedience before God.
While confession may be good for the soul, ongoing confession is even better.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
There is a reciprocal and regenerative nature to being generous and compassionate.
Matthew 5:7 – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
When Yeshua taught that the merciful shall be blessed, the term he used for mercy was exemplified in a parable he was to tell later on in the book of Matthew. It is known variously as the parable of the unforgiving or unmerciful servant. I won’t recount the entire passage here, but it is found in Matthew 18:21-35. In brief, it explains how, after receiving forgiveness of a large debt from his master, a servant then goes out and begins demanding repayment of others who owed him small amounts of money. When his master finds out, he brings him back and scolds him for being unmerciful.
Matthew 18:32-33 – “Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. “Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? ‘
This word for mercy is the same word Yeshua used in Matthew 5 regarding those who are blessed. It implies that one who is demonstrating mercy has a right to perform a measure of judgment on someone and yet refrains due to a granting or bestowing of favor.
In context, the whole parable was told in answer to Peter’s question of how many times must he forgive someone who repeatedly comes to him. In fact, Yeshua ends the parable with a lesson in forgiveness:
Matthew 18:35 – “So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”
From this we can see how closely this mercy and forgiveness are. When we forgive, it is because we are exercising mercy, that is, granting or bestowing favor on someone with whom we have a legitimate right to hold to account for something.
The broader lesson in Yeshua’s teaching in Matthew 5 indicates that mercy begets mercy; there is a reciprocal and regenerative nature to being generous and compassionate. This is why the servant in the parable was ultimately held to account: he was not regenerating mercy after receiving mercy himself.
1 Peter 2:10 – Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The apostle Peter writes that as God’s people we have received mercy from God. The regenerative nature of mercy then demands that we show mercy to others, and when we do so, we will be blessed in reciprocation. This mercy can be demonstrated not only in forgiveness of others, but in acts of compassion toward those who cannot help themselves.
When we live in this way, we begin to generate ripples of mercy that flow outward from us into the lives of others, and we open ourselves to reciprocal acts of mercy from others and from God. This is the true blessing in being merciful and compassionate.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
If we recognize that only God is truly able to judge others, we relieve ourselves of that burden and responsibility.
Matthew 5:39 – “But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
While many people claim that Yeshua began a revolutionary concept of non-retaliation in his day, it was actually a godly principle from ancient times, evidenced by the narrative of Scripture.
1 Samuel 24:12-13 – “May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. “As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people.’ My hand will never be against you.
As David was confronted with the continuing persecution of Saul, he makes the commitment that he would never do Saul harm as Saul was attempting to do to him, since Saul is God’s anointed ruler. David fulfilled that commitment.
What I find fascinating from an historical perspective is that David quoted “an old proverb” regarding how wickedness in action stems from those who are wicked. As far as we know, this is not a quote from Moses or any biblical writer prior to David, but it was a quote that had become common enough to be routinely mentioned as proverbial within that culture. This idea of non-retaliation appears to be very ancient, indeed.
Ironically, or perhaps because of David’s parenting influence, his son Solomon would become associated with thousands of proverbs. Likely influenced by that same godly motivation of his father, Solomon would ultimately pen the following proverb:
Proverbs 24:29 – Don’t say, “I’ll do to him what he did to me; I’ll repay the man for what he has done.”
This is a line of thinking carried all the way down to New Testament writers. Even beyond the life and teaching of Yeshua, the apostle Paul expands on this perspective that was modeled by his Lord and Master and the ancient forefathers.
Romans 12:17-19 – Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says Yahweh.
That vengeance belongs to God is a statement that is an echo of David’s words to Saul. If we recognize that only God is truly able to judge others, we relieve ourselves of that burden and responsibility, and allow him to do whatever is appropriate in regard to our situation. This takes a strong measure of faith on our part, as we may have an opportunity to “right” a wrong, or provide a retaliatory measure of what we would consider justice.
By staying our hand and allowing God to work, we may endure injustice for the moment but in the process God can be glorified. When others see that we are willing to suffer an injustice at the hands of others and yet not retaliate, we provide a strong witness to our faith that God is in control and that only he is the true judge.
When we choose to forego those opportunities and instead trust God for ultimate judgment, we also demonstrate our like-minded discipleship and faithfulness to our Lord and Messiah and can rightfully assume our place in a long line of historical and spiritual ancestors before us.
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