The Periodically

In the Sermon on the Mount we read, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” We are helped in our understanding of our Lord’s words here by remembering two ways that salt functions. First, salt seasons. Think about the food you ate recently. Did you shake a little salt on it? Why? Because salt adds some season to the food! Second, salt preserves. Before the days of refrigeration salt was used to preserve food. It was rubbed into meat, for example, as a means of preserving the meat for later consumption. We could elaborate on why it is that salt adds savor or how it actually functions as a preserving agent, but the main point of the two uses of salt cited above is this: salt is different from the thing it comes in contact with. [1] Therefore, at the most rudimentary level, to be the salt of the earth is to be different from th...

In the Christian life there are times where we each fall and go back to our sin… This weird thing we hate and yet pursue (see Rom 7:1-20). The question that many ask themselves in those times though is, "What do I do after I've sinned yet again?" From my own life and that of others I've talked with it often seems our first instinct and common tendency is that of "wallowing" for lack of a better term. We tend to have this self pity-party consisting of faux-sorrow and leading to statements like, "I can't believe I did that again," or "how could God still love me and forgive me again for this," or other such things. What I've come to recognize is this reaction is in itself sin. It's my pride that I failed again. It's my pride thinking I ever could meet God's perfect and holy standard on my own. It's my pride thinking I had actually been acting good enough in such a way as to have earned God's forgiveness and ...

In first century letter writing, the author always included near the beginning of the letter what is called the thanksgiving or the prayer section.  It is in this section of the letter that the purpose of the letter was found.  This is important to know when we read the epistles in the New Testament, for the authors of the New Testament were, in some ways, a product of their culture. When Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, he discussed much in this introduction portion of the letter.  This has caused scholars to debate what motivation was behind Paul’s letter to this church that he loved dearly.  The following are themes found in the thanksgiving/prayer section, as well as in the body of the letter: Christ and the gospel, the language of servanthood and ‘fellowship,’ the relational basis of this ‘fellowship’ (this section shows Paul’s deep love and affection for the Philippian Christians), Paul’s ‘chains’ (thus the motif of ‘suffering’), the future orientat...