The answer to this question is, of course, yes. Jesus is the true “man’s man;” he is the model for how all men should live. But then again, Jesus is also the model for how all women should live. Jesus is the perfect image of God! Why, then, are some men hijacking Jesus to make him into the picture of gruff, John Wayne masculinity?
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I am continuing to read Ellul’s Meaning of the City. In chapter four, he is talking about how Jesus relates to crowds by referencing the feeding of 5000 in Mark 6. As he discusses their relationship, he describes the crowd with a beautiful statement about how it and Jesus relate:
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The Bible commands us to be hospitable in several places (particlulary elders), and I have always assumed I knew what that meant. You know, have people over for dinner, put visiting missionaries up overnight, things like that. But in the NT context, I’m not sure I’ve seen it correctly.
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The amazing claim in Genesis 1:26-27 that man and woman are created in the image of God is absolutely foundational to the Christian. To understand “image of God” is to understand the meaning of life. However, according to Jacob Neusner’s Judaism When Christianity Began, rabbinic Judaism takes a slightly different approach.
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A common exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) concludes that first-century Israelites valued tradition as much as Scripture. I imagine that this, like a common exegesis of Galatians and Romans, is a carry-over from Luther’s encounter with Roman Catholicism. But Rabbi Jacob Neusner describes a Judaism that is solely focused on Scripture.
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For months I’ve been looking for a good introduction to Judaism and I think I’ve found it in Jacob Neusner’s Judaism When Christianity Began: A Survey of Belief and Practice. Neusner boasts an Ivy League education, Rabbinic ordination, and nearly 1,000 books or scholarly contributions. His definition of Judaism is wonderful.
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Peter exhorts his readers to “be subject to every human institution for the Lord’s sake, whether to a king as supreme or to governors as those he commissions to punish wrongdoers and praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:13-14). But what does this mean for today? Specifically, what does this mean for our roles and responsibilities in the political arena of the U.S.?
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There is no question that Peter calls his readers to live a holy life. This is directly stated in Peter’s quotation of Leviticus 19:2 in 1 Peter 1:16: “You shall be holy because I am holy.” But what exactly does it mean to live a holy life? How does a Christian live a holy life in a culture hostile to Jesus Christ?
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Scot McKnight, author of the excellent book The Jesus Creed and the excellent blog by the same name, is beginning a series on the Kingdom of God. This blog series is titled, Keys of the Kingdom. I strongly encourage you to engage this series with an open Bible and an open mind. It should be stimulating. I won’t link to it everyday, but may occasionally expand upon some thoughts here.
One of the most revolutionary moments in my Christian life is when I encountered Reformed theology. For the first time in my Christian life I found real meaning for my life today: meaning in my non-Christian vocation (I was an engineer), meaning in enjoying God’s creation, meaning in sitting on the floor and playing with my kids. Because of Reformed theology (especially Mike Wittmer’s Heaven is a Place on Earth), I’ve become a better Christian. But, at times, I have forgotten one important aspect of being a Christian: the future.
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