Finding Truth in the Middle of Extremes

Good morning/afternoon/evening! I know I saw this a lot but I REALLY am glad you stopped by again. Sometimes I wish I could be there next to you as you read the day's chapters from the Bible--just in case you had a question or wanted to talk about something. But alas, this is the closest I'm going to get, so I'll try to make stopping by here as worth your while as I can!


Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Fri, Mar 20: What will happen if the Israelites turn away and worship and bow down to other gods? (Dt 11)
Deuteronomy 11:16-17 6 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.

And here's the question of the day:
Sat, Mar 21: Romans 2:6 6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done." What do you think this means?


And here's the reflection of the day:
As we've been reading through the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Old Testament), we've seen the theme of God's righteousness over and over again. Leviticus tells us, "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy." Hence, all the rules and the regulations given to the Israelites in order to help them be just as holy as they can possibly be.

Believers are called to live according to a higher standard--morally, ethically, and in faithful obedience to God's commandments. It is even the duty of believers to share those standards with others and encourage them to live up to said standards. And sometimes, we can get a little carried away with our good intentions. Pretty easily, we can get so wrapped up in the importance of moral standards that we're imposing on others that we lose sight of whether we ourselves are living up to those very same standards.

In Romans 2, Paul has a discussion on moralizing. We might prefer a more relaxed attitude toward moral and ethical behavior and this, as Wright points out, makes us "all too eager to read Romans 2 as a denunciation of moralism and then to feel self-righteous because we are not self-righteous" (Wright, NIB Commentary on Romans).

Paul believed that morals mattered to both corporate society and to the individual. Disregarding these morals is sure to lead to disaster. He does not object to people having high moral standards; only when one failed to practice what one preached did Paul have an objection. Wright points out that Paul's point "was the hypocrisy of denouncing faults while secretly practicing them oneself."

And it all comes down to the final judgment, which Wright calls "excellent news for millions in our world, as it was in Paul's." He says this because judgment is "a promise that wrongs will be put to rights, offering a strong and sure hope that can sustain those who suffer oppression and injustice. But in Jesus the Messiah this hope has come forward into the present."

The final judgment has been warped in many ways over the years of reading and preaching. It has been watered down into "vague hopes for a better life hereafter and vague warnings about possible unpleasant consequences of wrongdoing" (Wright, NIB Commentary on Romans). But it also has been "artificially pumped up into shrill hell-fire denunciations and casual self-satisfied salvation-assurance" (Wright, NIB Commentary on Romans).

The truth of the final judgment lies somewhere in between these two extremes. Wrongs will be righted, and hope will be offered to the hopeless. God's perfection righteousness will be extended to those who sought, all the days of their lives, to be holy, because the Lord God Almighty is holy--doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

Have a great day!
Allison