Amen to everything you said, especially those last couple of sentences. That's my goal...focus on being a light by focusing on His light!!! It's the only way to truly live in love. Focus on His love, not on the problem, and His love grows in our life. I hear a line a lot here at Bethel: Whatever you focus on grows!
Father, You know our time to spend together is short each day, and I thank you for every precious moment of it. May the few minutes we spend in Your Presence and Your Word each day grow beyond the borders of our little Bible study and extend into light into our homes. May Your light follow us into each project, the ones we love doing and the ones that seem to take all our time and energy away from the things we love. Give us Your perspective on all that we are doing, and show us how to do everything with peace, hope, joy, and love. Amen.
2:5 "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed."
The first thing I think of is the verse in Matthew about storing up for yourself treasure in heaven. That verse says the way we do that is by seeking His kingdom. I have really been giving a lot of thought to what it means to seek the kingdom. They teach it very differently here than I've heard it other places, and as I read the Scriptures through this new lens, I see that the kingdom is LOVE. His love for me, and His love for others. Obviously, this verse here is inseparable from all we've already been talking about. That what we focus on will grow, and we want His kingdom to grow: His kingdom of light, love, peace, life, joy. Joy. Joy. That's what I'm focused on. Living in laughter, laughing at my problems instead of thinking they are insurmountable. I have found so much healing just in laughter. One night, I laughed super hard at church. Like really hard, and a whole lot. I went to bed that night with a smile on my face, and I woke up with a smile on my face. AND Bonus: NO PAIN and no sinus congestion either (the first time my sinuses were clear since we moved here). Seriously, I didn't receive prayer for my body that day. Just laughed in His Presence, hearing the truths of God's goodness in the earth. Testimonies of healing and of His perpetual good mood toward mankind. I focused on the kingdom, and I experienced a breakthrough in my physical body. Though the pain returned, I also noticed that I was not laughing and had gotten a little serious that next day. I know I've discovered a key for myself, and I must remember that I don't want to store up wrath for myself by continually focusing on the problems of the world around me and the sins of myself or my husband. I want to focus on His grace...His unmerited favor...His smile pointed directly at me. His delight in me, in my hubby, in my kids. When I get my eyes fixed on that, the laughter and joy bubbles out more quickly!
2:6 "God 'will give to each person according to what he has done.'"
This verse has long inspired a fear in me of sorts. A fear that if I'm not producing, then I'm not accepted. God has been slowly helping me see that "doing" is not always necessarily productive. Sometimes, doing is resting. God has called me to be. I believe I am going to be rewarded for the times I've truly been myself, times when I've allowed myself to shine forth in the way that only I can shine forth. In the context of the previous verse, I think Paul is talking not so much about what is done, but why and how it's done...whether we are doing things out of a religious mindset of judgment, or whether we are doing things out a faith-based mindset of God's favor toward us and others.
2:7 "To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life."
What??? Seriously!!! This is an astounding nugget tucked into a very dark place. In verse after verse, Paul has been talking about the ill effects of living in darkness. And here, tucked in passages about judgment, He's talking about a seriously amazing reward for those who SEEK glory, honor, and immortality. SEEK...Seek ye first the kingdom...the kingdom of glory, honor, and immortality. We are going to be known forever for something, no matter how small or large our contribution has been AND no matter whether our contribution has had a positive or negative impact on the earth and on mankind. He contrasts in the next verse, so I'll finish my thoughts there...
2:8 "But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger."
So, it's all right to seek glory. It's all right to seek honor. It's all right to seek immortality, and maybe even fame on some levels. But it's not all right to be self-seeking, to reject the truth. What truth? That Jesus is alive? Sure, that's gotta be part of it, but that's not the only truth we're not supposed to reject. Paul is talking here about people who are living in judgment of others...people who have forgotten not that Jesus was raised from the dead, but the reason He died in the first place. He died to restore all of mankind and the earth to God...to reconcile God to man and make the kingdoms of earth the kingdoms of our God and King. (Revelation 11:15). So we can seek glory and fame (immortality) for selfish reasons, and we will be judged harshly for that. Or we can seek glory and immortality as well as honor, so that we will see Jesus get his full reward...the nations are His inheritance (Psalm 82:8). So the truth that Paul is saying some have rejected is the truth of the Gospel...the Good News. That God's wrath is turned against us. We are no longer under the law. We are free to shine and be all that we were made to be, and when we shine Jesus receives His reward...because we will reproduce. We will reproduce His government in all spheres of our lives...our families, our workplaces, our nation, and possibly even into the governments of other nations. But for those who believe His wrath is still towards us, that is what they will receive...wrath. Because they remain under the law and not under grace. Judging our brothers and sisters according to the Law subjects us to the same law. You see, we are going to judge. (1 Corinthians 6:2). The question is how are we judging? Are we judging according to the righteousness of faith, or are we judging according to the righteousness established by the law? Whatever measure we use to judge others, that is the measure (standard) that God will use to judge us (Mark 4:24). It's our choice, but the choice Jesus died to give us is to judge according to the standard of Grace, where every person is endowed with the unmerited favor of God towards them to embolden them, strengthen them, and encourage them to shine in ever way!
2:9-11 "There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism."
He's just summing it up again and also highlighting that God sees no difference between the saved and unsaved. He calls them Jew and Gentile, because in other places He has called any Gentile believer a grafted in Jew. I believe when he says Gentile here, he really means the unsaved one!! If they act according to the Law of Grace in their lives, they will be rewarded according to the measure they use, whether they have full knowledge of Jesus' payment for their sin. I know this sounds heretical, but think about it. What I think he's saying here is that God does not see a difference between someone in ignorance acting in accordance with the Spirit of Jesus with someone who is acting in acknowledgement of Jesus' sacrifice. We in our Christian circles show favoritism to brothers and sisters who have checked off all the steps in their lives, but Paul says God does not show favoritism. He's not looking for a list of steps checked off. He's looking for the motivation behind a person's actions. I happen to know a man right now who is after the heart of God, but He doesn't yet have a personal relationship with Jesus. I intend to help him find one, but in the meantime I do not judge him according to his sinfulness. I judge him (call out in him) the things he does in accordance with the Spirit of God...he looks after widows and orphans and has a genuine desire to help the poor and will do so at any cost. He loves God, and God loves him. He just doesn't have the language yet to express it, and He has not yet had a full encounter with the Love of Jesus for him. He has yet to be transformed by the truth of how much Jesus loves him, but when he does he's going to be a powerhouse for Jesus! God does not show favoritism. He looks at us as equal...all of us are sons and daughters. That we are all covered by the blood of Jesus, and He needs His people operating under that revelation so that we will call those out who do not yet know what they have received from God. It makes it so much easier to share my faith when I see it this way. It's not something I have that they don't have. It's something I have recognized that I have, and I see that they have it to, so I'm just trying to help them see it! Truly revolutionary!!!
Thank you, God, for your word. Thank you for the truth of Your kindness toward me and toward others. Show us more about how good You are. Increase our capacity to see Your goodness everywhere and to celebrate it with laughter and joy. Right now, I laugh over our physical bodies. Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! You have made all things new, including our bodies. The schemes of the enemy shall not prevail against us. He will no longer rob of us full life by weighing our bodies down with oppression. Hahahahahaha! You have made us clean in Your site. Everything our hands touch is increased by Your Presence and love for us. You are so good to us. Thank you, Papa God.
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