Regarding Others as Our Betters

Let's pray and we'll get started Lord Jesus again as we open up your word.

We ask that you would send your spirit We recognize that your word says that we cannot understand your word apart from your spirit

So, please let your Holy Spirit guide us direct us so that we may understand it rightly Understand what we are to believe confess and do we ask all this in the name of our crucified and risen

Savior Jesus Christ. Amen All right before we get started into the lesson were there any questions that percolated up as a result of the sermon

You know that we talked about today. You'll note I took the the story of the Transfiguration a slightly different direction

Let the the other texts help us understand where the glory of God is. I'm sorry. Sorry.

It's the glory where the glory is and You'll note that the glory of God is in the forgiveness of sins and that the glory of God in in our

Context now in this life is synonymous with the gospel because the gospel is the proclamation of the forgiveness of our sins

Because of what Christ has done for us. So were there any questions that anybody might have had as a result of that?

Uh -huh Yes Now so that's an interesting question

So you take us to the Shroud of Turin which the okay there it is not Definitive as to whether or not that is a legitimate artifact

I am of I am of the opinion after actually spent quite a bit of time just researching it

That I think there's a probability a pretty decent probability that might be legitimate however, the

Shroud of Turin I would say technically doesn't have it isn't part of The type and shadow work done in there.

The burial shroud is a little bit different. Although I will say this not only the burial shroud mentioned in scripture, but also there was

There was a face wrapping also that Christ had there was years ago The History Channel did a special where they were trying to take the data that's on the

Shroud of Turin That's the best way to describe it It's actual data because it's not like any other painting out there because when you when you take it into a scanner the you can literally extrude the

The body from it. So what they did is they gave all of that information to a fellow in New York who?

Went into it and he's a specialist in 3d renderings and stuff like that. He Extrapolated the data and created a model of what the person looked like from the data from the

Shroud of Turin Interesting program. I actually talked with a fellow a few months after that Documentary aired and I think the name of it was the face of Jesus or something like that It was on the

History Channel that fellow is his theology is completely wackerdoodle He's a Gnostic but in talking to him about the details of what he went through and stuff like that He actually created a 3d print model up from the data that he got from the

Shroud Very fascinating worth it worth the watch But again, technically the Shroud of Turin is not going to be part of that the veil that's referred to then

So the type and shadow is the veil of that Moses had to put over his face the glory still is actually working in type and shadow and Then what what

Paul does writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? He takes the glory that's on Moses his face and he

Transports that into the gospel itself and then the veil then represents unbelief and So those whom the

God of this world has blinded their eyes the veil remains over it and until somebody has penitent faith in Christ The glory of the gospel is veiled but to us who believe

Paul was saying we are Presently beholding the glory of God Presently now, which is really good news

So again, the glory of God as defined by God in Exodus 34 is

The Lord the Lord slow to anger. I mentioned this before worth mentioning again The Hebrew is actually quite hilarious in that proclamation because here you've got this

Procession of the glory of God Moses is being hidden in the cleft of the rock and the Hebrew literally says Yahweh Yahweh long of knows

I Am NOT making that up. That's the idiom Long of knows it gets translated into slow to anger but the

Hebrew idiom for slow to anger it depicts God with this ginormous nose who can take in a lot of the stench of our sin before he gets

But I let and he it's kind of funny because you think of it this way our sin reeks and Yet God is slow to anger

He has a long nose, which means he has a slow fuse, which we're very thankful for but slow to anger abounding in steadfast love

Pardoning iniquity forgiving sin. This is the glory of God. This is his glory. All right any other questions?

If not, we're going to continue then with our study We began a study last week on the seventh commandment, which says you shall not steal

We noted last week that question that Cain asked am I my brother's keeper the answer for us

Christians is Yes, you are your brother's keepers and you're gonna note last week

I gave two big plugs for the government Two huge plugs for the government because one of the ways we as Christians Fulfill this commandment is with good government supporting good government even

Christians saying I'm going to put my my name forward for government positions a

Well -ordered government with leaders who recognize the law of God is a blessing for us the worst thing the curse is

Like Chicago politics where the criminals are running the show and the dead are voting.

It's the weirdest thing You know Yeah, you know I I heard years ago that that they were trying to strip the dead of their right to vote and there was a whole political action committee

Created for those who are vertically challenged Can't take away their rights.

Any that's just a bad joke. Anyway, I Should give up that just right now

Yeah No, that's bad so you're gonna note again then here as we look at this seventh commandment that There are more aspects of it that also will

Talk to the need for good government when it says you shall not steal do not think it is merely

Don't take things from other people It's far more than that because there are so many different ways in which we take away from people their ability to care for their bodily needs and so we'll look at kind of it in its totality as we continue with this the question before us is

When we fear and love God by looking after our neighbors well -being by helping and protecting improve our neighbors, you know

Different things what are those things? Well, we need to protect our neighbors earthly possessions consider this text in Exodus 2214 if a man borrows anything of his neighbor and it is injured or dies

The owner not being with it. He shall make full restitution Now I've never borrowed farm animals from anybody

But that still happens to this day people borrowing horses or beast of burdens or things like that.

I've borrowed power tools before So if I were to borrow

Dwayne's Skillsaw and I decided I was going to be doing a project and I was working the skillsaw and smoke came out of it

And it caught fire This text says it's my job to pay for a new skillsaw

That's what it makes perfect sense. You sit there and go but you'll note that our sinful nature would say

How long has he had this skillsaw, I mean he's owned this thing for ten years How many projects has he used it on he goes ahead and wears it out?

I use it once and it catches fire and now I'm the guy who's got to pay for this thing That's right, he delivered his horse over for me

I was gonna have it plow help him plow my field that was already coughing when it got there But this text says if you borrow anything and it dies or is injured

You shall make full restitution if the owner was with it That's a different story.

He shall not make restitution if it was hired It came for its hiring fee so you get the idea

So the idea that think about this way not stealing also involves when you borrow stuff from people Have you ever

I'm one of these guys. I own a lot of books I don't know if you've noticed noticed this but I own a lot of books There are there are people who all over this country have some of my books, you know

And if you're listening to this podcast, please send them to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church Yeah, I in fact

I've got so many books missing I don't I don't even remember who has them it's just the weirdest thing anyway We also take care of our neighbor by actually caring about their income and their livelihood

I would consider Philippians 2 in this particular case Philippians 2

Verse 3 says do nothing from selfish ambition or Vain conceit.

I think the NIV has it a little stronger there. And I think that's right Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility count others as more significant than your self

Tell me that's not easy to do right? You want me to think of everybody is more significant than me?

Yes. Well, what about me? Well, their job is to consider you more significant than them You see you see how that works

We're all it's Christians. We're diving for the bottom and By considering other people as more important than ourselves.

The idea then is this I got your back you got mine I'm looking out for your needs.

You're looking out for mine when everybody considers others is more important than themselves Everybody's taken care of Nobody falls to the cracks

But when you consider yourself better than everybody else, then of course, you would never get your hands dirty or touch the

Unwashed masses and let their ick get on you because after all you are amazing and is this not what our celebrity culture is our celebrity culture takes human beings and exalts them to little deities and They have all the money

They have all the prestige and all the news is about the things that they are

Doing and of course, nobody cares about you because you're nobody but there's somebody why are they somebody because they're good at pretending

Is that not what makes a celebrity somebody who's good at pretending to be somebody else?

Since when did becoming good at pretending make you better than anybody else? But you don't understand

She is beautiful he Ha just makes my heart flutter. I Just love the way he depicted such and such a cowboy or yeah

They're great at pretending that's what they do and We thank them for entertaining us and looking so sparkly and shiny and clean

While the rest of us, well, we're nobody's But as Christians, that's not our what we do We consider others as better than ourselves

Everybody is better than us verse 4 So let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others

I need to make a note here and that is not looking at the interest of others the way a gossip does like mrs

Kravitz from you know, you know, you're spying on your neighbors and being a busybody and reporting to everybody via gossip

That's not what this is talking about this is talking about looking after the interests of others like actually physically being concerned mentally psychologically being concerned and Doing something to make sure your neighbor is okay

End of story and this is talking about in their income in their livelihood That's the idea and then the ultimate example of this that is held up for us is

Christ and the cross So, you know that not only does the glory of God tell us that we're forgiven

The glory of God in the forgiveness of sins in Christ and his humiliation And his incarnation and going to the cross then is held up for us

As the pattern that we as Christians follow in this own in this life.

We deny ourselves We take up our cross we follow christ

I would argue that considering others as better than yourself is a great way to deny

Yourself Well, if I did that i'd be really busy caring for everybody else's needs bingo

Right That's the point i'm going to give you a example of this

From genesis if you turn with me to genesis chapter 13 Genesis chapter 13 you're going to note

We have a great example of this in abram This is before he was renamed by god as abraham

And if you remember when abram traveled to the land that god told him to travel to that he brought his

Nephew lot with him abram's the uncle lot's the nephew One is the elder the other is the younger but watch what abram does abram's very

I mean this very christ -like in this account Genesis 13 verse 2 reads now abram was very rich in livestock in silver and gold every

Prosperity heretic knows this verse and they would argue see Abram was rich god wants you to be rich, too

No Jesus said do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth

Do not although abram's rich That does not mean that god wants you to be rich You may be poor you may have to struggle.

You may have to work and toil like the rest of us in order to pay your bills that's all part of the curse so he journeyed from On from the negev as far as bethel to the place where his tent had been at the place between bethel and ai

To the place where he had made an altar at the first and there abraham called upon the name of yahweh

And lot who went with abram was Also had flocks and herds and tents so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together

For the possessions were so great that they could not dwell together And there was strife between the herdsmen of abram's livestock and the herdsmen of lot's livestock

At that time the canaanites and the perizzites were dwelling in the land So their possessions are so great their livestock is so great that the land itself cannot sustain both herds

Abrams the older Lots the younger But watch what abram does he exemplifies this characteristic of christ as considering others as better than yourself rather than Exerting his right as the elder in the family.

Here's what he says verse 8 abram said to lot Let there be no strife between you and me between your herdsmen and my herdsmen.

We're kinsmen Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me.

If you take the left hand i'll go to the right or if you take the right hand I'll go to the left

Note abram gives the choice to lot Wherever you want to go i'll go in a different direction you get to pick not me you

Wow Wow So lot lifted up his eyes we saw the jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the lord

Like the land of egypt in the direction of zohar. This was before the lord destroyed sodom and gomorrah And so we learned something about that area this is in the dead sea region

South part of the dead sea that prior to the destruction of sodom gomorrah. This was a lush place

Very lush. This was a high rent district This was some primo real estate here and so lot

Chose the primo real estate, but unfortunately It's in a bad neighborhood if morals are important to you

So lot chose for himself the jordan valley lot journeyed east thus they separated from each other Abram settled in the land of canaan while lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as sodom

And now the men of sodom were wicked great sinners against the lord. Does that sound like lot kind of snubbed his uncle?

Yeah, it does But not only did he snub his uncle. He actually is snubbing god, too Because it says that the men of sodom were wicked and they were great sinners against yahweh

I'm, pretty sure lot would have known about that Already that didn't matter to him Let me ask you this question.

Have any of you ever had a relative or maybe you've been that relative where you have made some really?

dumb decisions in your life some really immoral decisions in your life

And your life or that life of that person that you know went from here into the tank straight into blah

And their life blows up Our inclination when they hit that rock bottom is basically to say you made your bed

Lie in it You see your chickens have come home to roost I don't know why chickens do this when it comes to people's lives

But when chickens come home to roost in somebody's life our general attitude towards them is

You got what's coming to you. You sow some wild oats and now look what's happened to you

Uh -huh, you feel vindicated and all this kind of stuff and you're very Cautious in offering help to somebody like that Well, lots chickens came home to roost in the next chapter.

They really did and things didn't go so hot for him They didn't and abram rather than basically saying you made your bed lie in it

Keeps the seventh commandment even before it's given. Let's take a look at chapter 14 We're specifically going to be looking at verses 12 through 16, but I like to get the context here verse 8

The king of sodom the king of gomorrah the king of adma the king of zeboim

The king of bella that is zoar went out they joined battle in the valley of sedim

With kheh dolah amr the king of ilam tidal king of goyim amrafel king of shanar

Eriak king of elisar four kings against five The valley of sedim was full of bitumen pits

By the way Those bitumen pits are still there to this day And as the kings of sodom and gomorrah fled some fell into them and the rest fled to the hill country

So the enemy took all the possessions of sodom and gomorrah all their provisions and went their way

They also took lot the son of abram's brother who was dwelling in sodom and his possessions and went their way

Note that the text does not say And lot got what was coming to him that little upstart snot -nosed kid

Who snubbed his uncle and took the best place for his flocks and made him move out in the middle of nowheresville

Finally, you know, he got god judged him and thus perished lot no

Doesn't say that you're gonna note abram is extremely christ -like

Watch what happens then one who had escaped came and told abram the hebrew Who was living by the oaks of mamre the amorite?

brother of eshkol and of aner These were allies of abram when abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive He led forth his trained men born in the house 318 of them and went in pursuit as far as dan

He divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them to hoboff north of damascus

Then he brought back all the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen lot with his possessions

And the women and the people wow War is a pretty iffy thing

Going into battle against a group of kings who had just defeated A bunch of other kings that's an iffy proposition but The lord gave abram the victory and with a smaller force

And a little bit of cunning and some good strategery. That's right. He had battle plans That with that god gave him the victory

And he rescued lot Did lot deserve it? No Not at all.

And this is kind of the interesting thing about all of these commandments You are not commanded to only not steal from people you like You are explicitly commanded by god to not steal from and care for The income well -being and livelihood of even your enemies

Even people who have snubbed you mistreated you hate your guts or even want you dead

I know You have that look on your face like no way It's true. It's true It's absolutely true

And that's exactly what we see happening here this idea

And we'll get into some more specific text so I would like to also kind of point out in this context

Let me kind of take it from a small example like this and kind of expand it out a little bit another plug for good government

Right now the winter olympics are going on Yes I love the olympics.

I really do. So the winter olympics are going on and they're taking place in south korea South korea has been an ally of ours for quite a while Now you are aware that the korean people

They were occupied by japan long before world war ii started And they were not set free from being under the boot of japan until we defeated japan in 1945

And then no sooner were they freed from the japanese that the threat of the communists came in And we stood up for these people

And sent our boys to bleed and to die to keep them from being put under the regime of the communists

Now we didn't fully win that war And north korea Right now is languishing

Under a terrible terrible dictatorship while south korea a country of 50 million people

They are our allies And you think about the fact that if it hadn't been for us

And our blood sweat tears ammo and sons

Bleeding and dying for them. Where would they be today? same With europe from nazi germany.

So the question is are you your brother's keeper? Yes, and sometimes being your brother's keeper means that your nation

Comes to the assistance of those who are being threatened and oppressed By horrible dictators

Ideologies or aggressive nations And so we have helped the south koreans to in fulfilling this commandment by being allies to them and standing up for them and helping them and I'm positive had that regime fallen to The communists we'd be watching the winter olympics being played out somewhere else this these next couple of weeks every time you see these olympics

And they take you on these little travelogues throughout pungchang and different parts of korea understand this that Those people have freedom today

Because we helped them To keep it and it cost us something for that And this is a good work.

We oftentimes as americans Sit there and go. How is it that we've become the police force for the whole world?

Well in part a lot of that has to do with the fact that we have been a very heavily christian influenced nation

And part of bearing fruit in keeping with repentance is caring about our neighbors Even when our neighbors are another nation state or a smaller country we can sit there and say who are these koreans?

Anyway, we don't know any of them. Why should we help them? Because they're our brothers Whether they're brothers in christ or just human brothers.

They are the same flesh and blood that we are That's why we help That's why and this is how you keep this commandment and I think this from genesis kind of shows that again abram

This it's more than just an abram thing. It's like a geopolitical thing going on here Let's take a look at some more passages

So we're going to take a look at some of the connections then Question is what else is considered to be our neighbor's possessions or property today?

You know as we kind of consider what scripture teaches in this regard So our neighbor's property Listen to this

May include intellectual property such as ideas Writings which can be stolen by copyright violation patent infringements plagiarism

And also music software movies personal information, which might be stolen by online piracy computer hacking or identity theft

So you sit there and you go well, you know Remember that that site was it called napster?

That was just organized theft Of people's intellectual property I remember the days back when computers worked using floppy disks

And I remember seeing some of my friends having computer applications that I really wanted on my computer

And oh so badly. I just wanted to borrow their floppy disk just for like an hour stealing software movies music intellectual property via piracy

Is a breaking of the seventh commandment Those things are not made by the people who make them

To be consumed or used or enjoyed for free If you want that application on your computer

Buy it You want to watch that movie? Rent it or purchase it

You want to listen to that song go to places on the internet where you can legally listen to it

So they'll be reimbursed via ad revenue Or go on itunes or something else and buy the song

Most songs are a buck something apiece. I'm sure you can afford one But there are a whole lot of people and even christians

Who do not have any pangs of guilt when they are openly stealing these things from others

And when you confront them on it, they'll say things like well those money -grubbing Hollywood executives, they don't need the money

They're all immoral. Anyway, they promote homosexuality Well, yeah, they do and yes, they are money grubbers, but you do not have the right to steal their stuff period

See that's deflecting by the way. Have you yet that have you noticed how the technique works? I'm gonna nail you to the wall because you are sinning and then they come up with all kinds of deflections

It's their fault. They don't deserve it. I'm in the right. No, you're not You're stealing repent

So consider those implications So question before us then is how does god provide us and others with our earthly goods?

Listen to the question. How does god provide us? and others with our earthly goods

I'm gonna ask a question There's a guy who owns a plantation a banana plantation down in south america

Hey, mr. Tali man, telly me banana There's a guy down there. He's he owns a plantation.

I want you to tell me how Many people does it take from to make it so the bananas growing in his plantation?

End up on your cheerios in the morning From there to your your cereal bowl.

How many people does it take? a lot Bunches I like what you did there.

I I yeah, that's that's really good. Yeah It takes bunches

From the guy who plants the bananas to the guy who harvests the bananas to the guy who drives the truck to the dock to the people who own the boat companies that put them on the boat or the airplane and then they

Ship out to here they get to a place and then somebody's got to pick them up and distribute them over there

And finally they make it onto the grocery stand, right? There's a lot of people involved I don't know where you buy your bananas clip, but mine are okay

Yeah, we have you considered hugos i'm just saying okay But you get the idea how many it takes a ton

And you're gonna note god does not cause bananas to fall out of the sky

That would probably cause property damage He doesn't cause them to fall out of the sky.

They just don't magically appear on the ground like manna So you're gonna know when you have a banana

There were a lot of people involved in getting that banana to you and each and every one of them have

Served you in giving you that banana And they deserve their day's wages

For the work that they've done to make it so that you can put a banana on your cheerios So everything along the supply chain

Is big in this commandment Now you're going to note all of this begins with god psalm 65

Psalm 65 verse 9 in particular And consider what the psalmist writes speaking of god

You visit the earth You water it You greatly enrich it the river of god is full of water.

You provide their grain for so you have prepared it The first person in the supply chain for everything that's on your table is god himself

Who made the seeds and the plants? Who sends the rain created the soil gave us the sun?

First person is always god You see it

And god intends to feed you Now with him initiating it the work then is done by us

In fulfilling it. So since he's the beginner God is always the one that feeds you always

This is why we give thanks We thank you lord for the food that you have given us To sustain us since he has begun the supply chain

Everybody else along the supply chain are people that god has put in place to feed you even if you don't know their names next

Deuteronomy Chapter 8 we're going to get our context the whole commandment that I command you today

You shall keep carefully to do So that you may live multiply Go in and possess the land that Yahweh swore to give to your fathers

You shall remember the whole way That Yahweh your god has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you testing you to know

What was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not? He humbled you let you hunger and fed you with manna

Which you did not know nor your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live

By bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of god Your clothing while you were in the wilderness did not wear out

Your foot did not swell these 40 years. No then In your heart as a man disciplines his son

Yahweh your god disciplines you So you shall keep the commandment of the lord your god by walking in his ways and by fearing him

For Yahweh your god is bringing you into a good land a land of brooks water of fountains of springs flowing out in the valleys

And hills a land of wheat and barley of vines and fig trees Pomegranates a land of olive trees and honey

It's clearly not north dakota or minnesota a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you lack nothing a land

Whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper And you shall eat and be full and you shall bless

Yahweh your god for the good land that he has Given you so again working off this theme scripture is clear that all of these things come from god

He provides the raw materials if you would the plants the sun the water And then he continues to feed us through the vocations of other people

Who serve us by growing these things or harvesting them or digging them out of the earth?

That's the idea Now another thing Important to note we've mentioned this already

But the fourth commandment comes into play here And that is is that god provides through us through family members through family members

So fourth commandment honor your father and mother god has placed each and every one of us into family units and so there's there's an aspect to this that we have to consider and that is is that We look after each other

Because we are family Now the other thing that god does is he gives us jobs and careers

He gives us jobs and careers and these are the means by which we're able to afford the food to put on our table

So whether it's working In some place like walmart or working at the university or working as a homemaker

These are all important things that god has given us And it's all part of the ways in which we help each other and keep this commandment second thessalonians chapter three

Is a good place to look in this regard as well second thessalonians chapter three particularly verses 10 through 12

When we were with you We would give you this command If anyone is not willing to work let him not eat

Now my grandma used to quote this to me when I would dilly -dally and procrastinate in him and ha about doing my chores

And she was visiting and she would do it with a thick german accent. I can't even begin to impersonate it but Me and chores didn't get along When I was a younger fellow, you know

I had lots more important things to do than clean my room or mow the grass or things like that And it would always upset my grandmother when she would come to visit

That my mom would tell me to do something and I wasn't just johnny on the spot get to it My grandma would tell me the bible says

If you do not work you shall not eat and I thought she was a loon

And then god gave me children Now it's kind of a funny way of approaching this but I want you to consider this

The expectation is because we are forgiven penitent sinners in christ That we are created in christ jesus for good works

Our good works are done in our vocations and in the labor and the toil that we do in our vocations

That being the case the text does not say the person who cannot work shall not eat No, the person who cannot work they are our responsibility but the person who can work and won't

Is somebody who? As a christian you sit there and go really? You're decided you're going to spend your day doing what?

Reading facebook and playing video games And you need me to help you eat That's kind of the only exception

The person who is a christian brother or sister who can work and won't That person is poor because they are lazy and they are selfish and in that case

They're not a charity case. They're not somebody we're to care for the way we care for them and say You go right ahead and you're gonna not eat tonight

We'll see how long it takes for hunger to motivate you to get off your keister Hunger becomes a big motivator in that sense.

It's it's not because they're not poor because of circumstances They're poor because they don't want to do nothing

Now I want you to consider then the implications regarding the fact that our society

Has set up A safety net financial safety net. There are those people who

Literally are abusing that system who can work and won't there are people who are

Living off of the generosity of others who are capable of working and refuse to and they are cheaters

They are evildoers and our posture And our demand for our government to not permit people to abuse the system people who are capable of working and who won't

That is different than somebody who can't work That's a different situation altogether

And so you consider the implications politically This is this is natural law moral law, right?

And we all have the law of god in our hearts and you're going to notice You don't have to be a christian to say it's wrong for people to cheat the welfare system

Everybody knows that that's theft because it is because the law of god's written on our hearts So you're going to know this this has huge implications.

You didn't realize there was that much in there in the phrase thou shalt not steal The implications are ginormous

And again, I keep coming back to the government because the government is a big part of how this is properly

Worked out the job of the government is to punish the evildoer the person who is taking advantage of our christian generosity

Who refuses to work Is somebody that we're not to help that person should be punished and cut off and once hunger has set in long enough

They might be motivated to get off the couch turn off the television to actually go and get a job Or show up at work

And actually do something You get the idea Ephesians 4 28

Again, the thief should no longer steal but rather let him do labor honest labor work with his own hands

So that he may have something to share with anyone who is in Need I want to show you this another piece of this then

Talking about our families coming back to that topic. Let's take a look at first timothy chapter 5 Talking about christian charity and talking about christian good works.

Let me show you the context And then I and we'll drill down into the bigger issue so First timothy do not rebuke an older man encourage him as you would a father

Younger men as brothers older women as mothers younger women as sisters in all purity

Honor widows who are truly widows But if a widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn how to show godliness to their own household

And to make some return to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of god She who is truly a widow left all alone has set her hope on god and continues in supplications and prayers night and day

But she who is self -indulgent is dead even while she lives Command these things as well so that they may be without reproach

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for the members of his household

He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever

Worse Now let me explain kind of a context here that will make sense if you look at mark 7

One of the passages I come to with some regularity Talking about how the pharisees are heretics again

The pharisees believed that god had not only given the written torah the first five books of the bible

But that on mount sinai god had secretly given to moses what was referred to as the oral torah

Called the tradition of the elders and it was not written down And so they claimed equal authority for both bodies of work

But the tradition of the elders the oral torah was totally man -made doctrine and jesus himself literally refuses to obey anything in the oral torah

Refuses to recognize it as authoritative And that's really the spark point of the conflict that we see in mark 7

And there's an example given in here that is related to what we saw in first timothy 5

So let me read mark 7 1 the pharisees gathered to christ with some of the scribes who had come from jerusalem

They saw that some of jesus's disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed the oral torah

Of the pharisees was the body of work that had the command that if you go out into the marketplace

And you are in the presence of gentiles and unbelievers That their sinful ick would get on you

And so you were required upon entering your home to perform a little religious rite that they had established

And basically I've the way it works is you have a little basin and a pitcher you take your left hand

Palm down pour water on it spritz the water off Switch hands right hand palm down water on it change hands left hand palm up water on it

Switch again right hand palm up water on it Put the pitcher down and say this prayer

Lord god maker of heaven and earth. We thank you that you have given us the command to wash our hands amen

Amen now my mom would have loved this ceremony You're gonna note it was a ceremonial washing

To make it so that the uncleanness of the gentiles wasn't brought into your house You will not find this ceremony mentioned or subscribed proscribed in the written word of god

It was in the tradition of the elders So here's what happened Jesus his disciples come into the house

Every single one of them at the command and teaching of jesus skips the little wash bowl

They go right into the dining room and you can see peter saying hey john, would you pass me a chicken wing?

None of them have washed their hands in the sense and the pharisees lose their minds

And the reason why they're losing their mind is because jesus is not recognizing at all the authority of the tradition of the elders

He's not recognizing at all and by not recognizing it He's not recognizing their authority because all of their authority is found in the tradition of the elders

It's not found in the written by in the written word of god. So here's now the spark point So they saw that some of jesus's disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed the pharisees and all the jews

Do not eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to Here's my quip with the esv tradition of the elders should be capitalized.

That's an official title for a body of work Holding to the tradition of the elders when they come from the marketplace

They do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions. They observe such as the washing Of cups pots copper vessels and dining couches in order to important note here.

The word for washing is the greek word Baptizo You'll note so they baptize cops

Pots copper vessels and dining couches. I would argue if you think the baptism The baptizo means fully immersed.

That would be a strange ceremony to fully immerse a dining couch And the pharisees and the scribes asked jesus

Why do your disciples not eat according to this should be capitalized tradition of the elders, but they eat with defiled hands

Jesus mixes no words. He doesn't punch Pull any punches. He says.

Well, did isaiah prophesy of you? Hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips.

Their heart is far from me in vain Do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men?

And you can hear the literally all of the oxygen leaving the room Jesus just threw down And he continues

You leave the commandment of god and you hold the tradition of men You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of god in order to establish your tradition moses said

Honor your father and mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die

The greek is must die the death. I love it But you say if a man tells his father or mother whatever you would have gained from me is corban

That is a gift that is given to god Then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother

Thus making void the word of god by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do

So according to the tradition of the elders Mom and dad are getting up in age

And we all know how poorly mom and dad treated us They're getting up in age and the last thing

I want to do is have to take care of them Who were so awful to me when

I was growing up? So the pharisees come along and say, you know the tradition of the elders says

You don't have to take care of your parents All that money that you just kind of figure out what it would take

They they look like they're going to live for another five ten years Two of them no problem.

That'll come to this amount of money. Go ahead and just give that to god It's corban give it as a gift to god

And and when you give it to god since it's a gift to him You won't have anything and you don't need to take care of your parents.

They're on their own Isn't that wonderful? So the guy tallies it up pays the money to the temple.

It's now corban. I'm gonna give this money to god You see it's a gift to god i'm sorry mom and dad

You're just gonna have to live on the streets, you know It's evil It's evil beyond all reason

And this is really what's kind of at the heart then of what's going on in first timothy 5

Where it says if anyone does not provide for his relatives, especially for the members of his household

He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever So your parents are getting up in age

And they can't afford To take care of themselves Guess whose responsibility it is to make sure they're taken care of yours

But it's gonna You know how much that's going to cost It's going to cost you your soul if you don't repent

And take care of their needs you're worse than an unbeliever if you won't care for them That's that job falls on you and that job is explicitly given to you by god

Now get out of that You see what i'm saying That's how strong this is

That's how huge the implications are Obeying this commandment

Means recognizing Recognizing your neighbor your relative is your responsibility

We consider others better than ourselves We meet their need

Because they have a need It affects the community.

It affects your family. It affects global political politics