Rubbish - Part 4

Garbage, trash, refuse, waste, or rubbish, we all have them in our lives. Some of the things are absolutely despicable, while others are normal and may seem appropriate. I am going to go through the list that Paul provides for us in Philippians 3:4-7 [T]hough I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
To the law and to zeal – Paul was a Pharisee who studied under Gamiliel, one of the most well known and respected Pharisees of the day. Paul was good at what he did, he was there when Stephen was stoned. His name was Saul at that time (remember, Jesus changed his name to Paul on the road to Damascus). To understand a little better of who Saul was, we should look at what a Pharisee is and when they came into existence. Scholars believe that the Pharisees came into existence somewhere around 400-300 BC. The purpose of the Pharisees was to help the people of Israel, the remnant that was left, to draw closer to the heart of God. They wanted people to know the law and to live righteously as God commanded them to. They started out with good intentions, stuck to the Torah, and things looked good for them. As time went on, the Pharisees thought that there were some areas of life that needed a little extra conviction. Areas where the law wasn’t too clear on. So they started to add to the law. Now, during the day of Jesus, the Pharisees were quite corrupt and had added hundreds of things to do and not to do on the list. A lot of these things they added they did so to make themselves look better. Not to God, but to others.
And that is where I want to come in and talk about how we can apply this to our lives. The Pharisees started with not just good intentions, but godly intentions. They wanted to help the people of Israel to live by the shema (Deut. 6:4-9). But as time went on, the Pharisees got in the way of themselves. Do we ever do that? Do we start with good intentions and find out later that we tripped over ourselves many times along the way? I know I do, and most likely if you don’t think you do, you are in denial. It is hard to help others in their relationship with God without making reference to some of your disciplines or convictions. And it isn’t wrong to do that necessarily, but it becomes wrong when you show them or tell them about what you do to make yourself feel good and puff yourself up a bit. The key is to do it with humility. Every time I hear the word “humble”, I think back to Numbers 12:3. The book of Numbers was written by Moses, and that passage refers to Moses as the most humble man on earth. Is it a contradiction? No, it is the inspired word of God. Moses was so humble that when God told him he was the most humble, he still was humble, he never got puffed up. My goal is to be like that, to not have an ego, to let my pride go and truly come before Christ in a humble manner. That is what Paul wanted as well. Paul was well known in the Pharisaic realm. But when Christ met him on the road to Damascus, Paul was humbled. Do you ever feel like you get knocked off you donkey when your pride level is a little to high? It hurts, doesn’t it? But it causes you to look around and see where you have gone wrong and which way you need to go. Paul considered his Jewish stature as loss for the sake of Christ. Let us do the same to our stature that hinders us from coming before God.

Rubbish - Part 2

Garbage, trash, refuse, waste, or rubbish, we all have them in our lives. Some of the things are absolutely despicable, while others are normal and may seem appropriate. I am going to go through the list that Paul provides for us in Philippians 3:4-7 [T]hough I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Circumcised – I will not go into the details of what circumcision is, but the main thrust of it was that it was a sign of a covenant between Abraham and God. A covenant that Paul explains in Romans when Abraham was set apart as righteous because of his faith, not because of his circumcision. The circumcision was an outward symbol of his faith. From then on, God commanded His people to be circumcised so that they would be set apart for Him. Over a period of many, many years, the reasons people got circumcised became more about themselves instead of because of who God is and what He did for them. It became a meaningless ritual for some, while others still kept doing it as an outward symbol of their faith.
Here are some passages where Paul tells us that the importance of cirumcision is not the outward physical action, but what is on the inside that counts.
Romans 2:28-29 - that circumcision should not be phyiscal, but rather a condition of your heart.
1 Corithians 7:18-19 - that it doesn’t matter if you are circumcised or not, but keeping the commandments of God is what counts.
Galatians 5:6 and 6:15 - circumcision or uncircumcision counts for nothing, but faith working through love counts, and that we are a new creation.
Colossians 3:11 - There is no Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free; but Christ is all, and is in all.
It is obvious that Paul doesn’t value the mere act of circumcision, but who we are in Christ.
So we can ask ourselves this question: What actions do I do on the outside to “represent” my faith or the condition of my soul? Do we do things on the outside in order to impress others or even ourselves? Maybe for some it is baptism, an outward symbol of your faith. But are you doing it because every 8th grader has always done it or because your parents made you? Maybe it is praying at a table in a restaurant, trying to get others attention rather than conversing with the Almighty. What are the reasons you do these outward acts? To build confidence in your self or to help you know Christ Jesus in a continous way? If it is the former, then I suggest you throw the towel in, because you will never make it. The only way we can make it through this life is with a desire to know Christ Jesus as our Lord in a ongoing way. We may fall, no, we will fall and it will hurt. But in a strange way, that is how we know God is helping us.