Ignorant & Mute Evangelism
Titus 3:8-9 NET
This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.
But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, quarrels, and fights about the law, because they are useless and empty.
So if I’m reading this right, good deeds win out over knowledge of a bunch of facts?
And am I also reading here that quarrels and fights about rules are useless and empty?
As I type this, 3 of my 4 sons are marching around the dinner table singing “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.” They don’t know the difference between the Decapolis or Smyrna. They can’t tell you what year Jeremiah hid the Ark of the covenant in Ethiopia. They would think that Calvinists and Armenians were other tribes in middle earth or somebody that Phineas and Ferb would encounter in another dimension (I would agree there).
But the Christianity they are growing up into has created an entire industry based on foolish controversies, genealogies, quarrels, fights about rules and more!
Deuteronomy 12:4
You must not worship the Lord your God the way they worship.
I know that when Moses said this, he was talking about the pagans in the land that they were taking over. He was talking about the people that would bow down to statues and sacrifice their children and stuff.
I just wonder how it applies to us today.
Are we worshipping with our logic and our convincing? Do guys ask me complicated and elaborate questions because that is so easy to do as a substitute for sincere and genuine obedience to Jesus?
What if I was mute, or didn’t speak the local language, would I be able to show people the gospel? Would I even have a gospel if I couldn’t use words?
Listen People, All of You!
Deuteronomy 6: 4-5
Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!
You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.
There are a lot of folks that go in to great detail about the soul. They try to make us a trinity like God by saying we are body, soul, and spirit. Honestly, that stuff always confuses me and seems like a word game.
There was a footnote I came across today that threw me for a loop, as so often happens when I’m reading the NET Bible http://net.bible.org.
The note came after that word being in Dt 6:5
10 tn Heb “soul”; “being.” Contrary to Hellenistic ideas of a soul that is discrete and separate from the body and spirit, OT anthropology equated the “soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) with the person himself. It is therefore best in most cases to translate נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) as “being” or the like. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 10-25; D. Fredericks, NIDOTTE 3:133-34.
I never even heard of this! That your soul is you! I’ve always heard everybody from priests to hallmark cards talk about your soul or your spirit being the you that’s not you. As in, it’s the you that’s going to leave and the you that’s you will be left behind to rot away.
The problem here, of course, is that camping out on fine meanings is a great way to hide from the truth and engage in some holy disobedience. The point of the sham (this section of Deuteronomy) is to love the one true and unique God with everything you’ve got. With all that you are, whatever you want to call it or however you want to theorize about it.
Grab hold of all of your life and point it towards God and love Him with it!