Welcome to Day 1411 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Mastering the Bible – Truth from the Epistles and the Apostles – Worldview Wednesday

Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. Today is Day 1411 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is essential to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical Worldview, you must have a proper understanding of God and His Word. Our focus for the next several months on Worldview Wednesday is Mastering the Bible, through a series of brief insights. These insights are extracted from a book of the same title from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars, Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. This book is a collection of insights designed to help you understand the Bible better. When we let the Bible be what it is, we can understand it as the original readers did, and as its writers intended. Each week we will explore two insights.

Mastering The Bible – Truth From The Epistles and Apostles

Insight Seventy-Three: The Epistles Are the Antidote to the Idea That the Righteous Invariably Prosper

Perhaps the notion will be foreign to you, but I have met Christians who presume that material wealth and personal success are proof of God’s blessing. There are whole ministries that play on people’s emotions that support this unbiblical philosophy.  It doesn’t take much thought to realize how unbiblical that proposition is. Many unbelievers are financially prosperous and quite successful. Conversely, many believers have next to nothing. They aren’t poor or persecuted because they don’t have enough faith or because they haven’t sent money to a ‘television ministry.’ They are poor for a plethora of reasons, some of them quite complex and systemic to their political and cultural situation. But if they are faithful, they are also blessed.

Frankly, the poor and persecuted believers across the world resemble the early church more than believers in the American church. The Epistles don’t portray early believers and their fledgling congregations as unusually prosperous, influential, and relatively carefree. It’s precisely the opposite.

It is hard to miss the early believer’s social status if one invests any time reading the New Testament. Paul started numerous churches. Poverty and personal need was not unusual in them (2 Corinthians 8:1-2: Romans 16:2; Philippians 4:19; Titus 3:14). Paul and the apostles themselves were poor (2 Corinthians 6:10; Philippians 4:11-12). James’s words indicate that poverty was prevalent (James 2:2-6). The church at Jerusalem—surely loved deeply by God—was notoriously poor, so much so that Paul collected offerings for Jerusalem almost everywhere he went (Acts 2:42-47; 3:6; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; Galatians 2:7-10; cf. Rom. 15:26-28; Acts 24:17).

First-century believers also suffered severe persecution. The New Testament is filled with such descriptions. Despite the claims of modern religious hucksters, the apostles suffered, even though they were the very people one might suppose to be the most prosperous if God’s blessing leads to a life without hardship. The apostles were beaten (Acts 5:27-42), and the godly were martyred (Acts 7:54-60). Paul suffered with almost unbelievable regularity (Philippians 3:8-10; 2 Corinthians 5:21-29). Most of Peter’s first epistle is about enduring suffering for faith in Jesus (1 Peter 2:19-23; 3:14-18; 4:1-19:5:9-10). Perhaps the most poignant contradiction to the notion that wealth and prosperity defines the blessing of God is Jesus himself. Jesus was homeless and dependent on the support of others (Matthew 8:20; Mark 15:40-41). His torture and crucifixion for crimes he did not commit is the highest example of suffering for believers (1 Peter 2:19-23; 4:1; 5:1).

The message is simple but direct: believers can, do, and will suffer for no just cause. Such suffering is no more a reflection of divine disdain than the suffering of Jesus. And an ultimate blessing and reward awaits those who follow in Jesus’s steps.

Insight Seventy-Four: The Apostles Taught That Unrepentant Christians Openly Living in Sin Should Be Expelled from Local Churches

Many Christians will no doubt be surprised, and perhaps disturbed, by this assertion. Yet it is something taught quite clearly in the Epistles. But from the outset of our brief look at the subject, we must be clear that “church discipline“ (as it has come to be called) had restoration of a sinning believer in view, not jaded shunning.

The most obvious instance of this apostolic teaching is found in l Corinthians 5:1-5: I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.  You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.  Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in Spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

The idea of “hand him over to Satan” reflects the ancient Worldview that God’s people occupied sacred space, and everywhere else was under the control of evil. Sin belonged outside the believing community, not in it. Though sin leads to self- destruction, the goal was still that the person’s soul would be saved and that genuine repentance would come. In this case, there was a good resolution (2 Corinthians 7:7-10). Though this warning by Paul occurs in l Corinthians, it is actually his second admonition about this problem. In l Corinthians 5:9, Paul says, “When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin.” Paul had written an earlier letter to the Corinthians that has been lost.

This ‘‘double warning” is actually part of a significant pattern in the New Testament. We see it elsewhere in passages relating to sin problems in churches.

In his letter to Titus, Paul said in Titus 3:10,  If people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with them. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul admonished believers who were “idle” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). By the time of his second epistle to the Thessalonians, the problem had not been resolved. Believers who could work to meet their own needs were still mooching off others in the church. Paul gave a second warning and an ultimatum 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10:

And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us. For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night, so we would not be a burden to any of you. We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

Church discipline was not conducted flippantly. It was for the good of all concerned. Believers in sin won’t repent if no one tells the truth about their conduct.

That will conclude this week’s lesson on another two insights from Dr. Heiser’s book “Mastering The Bible.” Next Worldview Wednesday, we will continue with two additional insights. I believe you will find each Worldview Wednesday an interesting topic to consider as we build our Biblical Worldview.

Tomorrow we will continue with our 3-minute Humor nugget that will provide you with a bit of cheer, which will help you to lighten up and live a rich and satisfying life. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’If you would like to listen to any of our past 1410 treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most of all, your friend as I serve you in through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you Tomorrow!