July 9

Paul was sold out for the Gospel. He asks the Corinthians if he was not worthy of their financial support. In fact, he spends twenty-four verses covering reasons that he has given up so much in order to win the lost. But he never put anyone on the spot, begging for their financial support for his ministry. J. Hudson Taylor, Missionary to China, famously said, “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”

If that is true, what does that say about the frequent support letters that show up in your mailbox (or your email box)? Could it be that those individuals and ministries that constantly beg for money either aren’t doing God’s work, or they aren’t doing it God’s way? Yes, money is necessary to accomplish God’s work. And God provides those funds so that His work can be done. He provides those funds by moving in the hearts of His people. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:10) Sometimes, we just need to ask Him to slaughter one. But we know that God’s children don’t need to beg for bread. (Psalm 37:25) God promises to supply all of our needs according to His riches and glory. (Philippians 4:19)

Early Nineteenth-century evangelist, George Mueller cared for 10,024 orphans during his lifetime, however, he never asked anyone for support. Whenever he had a ministry need, he prayed. And miraculously, God provided everything he needed when it was needed, sometimes only a few hours ahead of time. For example, one day a milk cart broke down right by the orphanage, and the orphans were given the milk, lest it spoil and be wasted.

Paul says that he had become all things to all people so that by all possible means he might save some. (1 Corinthians 9:22)

Rather than posting a banner stating, “Come and hear!” Paul clearly followed Jesus’ commission to “go and tell”. (Matthew 28:18–20) All too often, churches have taken a “come and hear” approach, expecting the world to come to us and become like us. However, Paul turned this idea on its head. Paul was not only an Apostle, he was also an evangelist. And he was willing to do whatever it took to reach lost people. Paul was willing to change his methods, but never his message so that he could accommodate everyone with the life-changing Gospel.

Application

Do you have a “whatever it takes” attitude toward reaching the lost? What changes in your methods would it take to reach people in your circle of influence? What changes in your church’s methods would it take to reach people in your community? Perhaps you could pray about it, and involve your church’s leadership to join you in praying about how you could partner with God in answering that prayer.

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June 15

Paul feared that the church in Thessalonica might have wavered in their faith, so he sent Timothy to them to check on their spiritual health. Paul was greatly encouraged by what Timothy reported. So, in the first two chapters, Paul praised the church for how they had responded to the Gospel; here in chapter three, he learned that their participation in the Gospel was not just something in the distant past. They continued to embrace the Gospel message!

The final paragraph of chapter three (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13) reads like the end of the letter, but it’s not. He prays that he would be able to travel back to the church again. He prays that God would continue to increase in their love, and they would overflow in love. The word “overflow” is used of a flower going from a bud to full bloom.^[1] Elsewhere, Paul speaks of growing to maturity, emphasizing the same idea.  

Application

God doesn’t want us to mature. He wants us to grow in our faith until we are fully developed in our faith. To get there, (not that we will ever “arrive” on this side of glory) we must actively pursue God for the long haul. Our experience with God was never intended to be a flash in the pan. (Philippians 1:6) We were designed to have an ever-growing, ever-active walk with Him.

Paul was greatly encouraged that the Thessalonians’ faith was still active and alive, and not just something that happened years earlier.

What about your faith? When you look back at your conversion, does your current walk with Jesus look like it did back then? Have you walked away from your faith? The fact that you’re reading this gives some indication that you are interested in growing spiritually. Are you still actively growing in your walk with Jesus? Are you spending time with God in prayer and Bible engagement? Do you regularly practice the Spiritual Disciplines to help keep your spiritual edge sharp?

^[1] Strong, James. Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, Woodside Bible Fellowship, 1995.

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June 7

In Galatians 4, we see a new dynamic in the relationship between God and His people. Under the Old Covenant, God’s people only knew God as an “out there” God. But in today’s Bible reading, we see that God is not “out there”. God’s people saw themselves as servants of God. However, under the New Covenant, God’s people can have a real relationship with God. Here.

God’s people are sons and daughters of God. And not just orphaned children, but intimate children. God never treats His children as “red-headed step-children”. God has put His own Holy Spirit in us so that we can cry out and call God with a very intimate term of endearment: daddy. (Galatians 4:6)

Paul warns the Galatians that if they embrace the old way of their relationship with God, they are going back to being servants instead of sons. (Galatians 4:7–9)

Paul recalls that Abraham had two wives: Sarah and Hagar. Hagar bore Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. Sarah bore Abraham’s second son, Isaac. Hagar was Sarah’s slave. Her son became a great nation: the Arabs, and to this day, Muslims look back to Abraham as their father, just as the Jews do. However, there’s a difference. God said that Abraham’s lineage would be traced through Isaac, not Ishmael, because Isaac was the son of the promise. (Genesis 21:12–13)

The promise to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed through him. The seed that Paul referred to was for those who are “in Christ”. The book of Ephesians goes into great detail about those who are “in Christ”, which we will see in our Bible readings in September.

Application

Because we believe, as Abraham did, we are the heirs of the promise. (Genesis 21:12–13) As heirs, we receive the blessings of our father (by faith), Abraham.

It’s critical to see the difference between being a physical descendant of Abraham and being a spiritual heir. You may remember one of the encounters Jesus had with the Jewish leaders in John 8:39, where they claimed that Abraham was their father. But Jesus countered that if they were really Abraham’s sons, they would do the things that Abraham did: take God at His word and believe.

And it’s also critical to see that as sons and daughters of God, we are not simply servants. The relationship is different. Very different. And because the relationship is different, relate differently to God. (1 John 3:1)

So live as free children of God, not as servants of God!

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June 6

Paul drives home a point in today’s passage of Galatians 3 that we saw previously. Paul asks the Galatians how they came to receive the Holy Spirit: was it by works of the Law, or did they receive the Spirit by faith? (Galatians 3:2)

We saw on May 15 from Acts 8 that when someone comes to faith in Jesus, they are baptized and indwelt with the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13) So, Paul is asking if they did anything to be indwelt with the Spirit. He wants them to realize that they came to faith in Jesus by grace, not by works. And he asks if, having been saved by faith (i.e., justified by faith), were they now turning to works of the Law in order to stay saved? (Galatians 3:3)

Paul’s point is that living the Christian life starts by faith and continues by faith. At no point does obedience to the Law enter into becoming a Christian, nor staying a Christian. Being justified (having a right standing before God) by faith works its way out by the Holy Spirit’s empowering to make believers holy. In other words, doing good works is a byproduct of coming to Jesus by faith and living by faith. Paul says that believers are justified in the same way Abraham was: he believed, and God credited his belief as righteousness. (Galatians 3:11) And Paul added that those who believe are the sons of Abraham, as opposed to those who were merely Abraham’s physical descendants.

We saw in yesterday’s Bible reading and devotional that if we could be justified by obeying the Law, then Jesus didn’t need to die. In today’s reading, Paul tells us that the Law was unable to justify us before God. It didn’t have the power to give life to spiritually dead people. Elsewhere, Paul says that everyone was dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1) but that Jesus gave believers life through Jesus. (Ephesians 2:5)

Application

Paul said that the purpose of the Law was never to justify us. Instead, the Law was given to show us that we could never measure up to God’s standard of righteousness. The Law showed us that we were guilty, but it had no way to make us righteous. The Jewish people were able to make sacrifices and be forgiven. But they had to offer sacrifices again, and again, and again. Forgiveness was never permanent.

Paul’s point is that our greatest need wasn’t just forgiveness, but life! And the Law didn’t have the ability to give life. Praise God that in Jesus, believers have forgiveness and life!

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May 25

Everyone is guilty of favoritism. We like to be with people who are like us. We want to spend time together with people who are like us. We even want to spend time with people who we want to be like.

We don’t care to get to know, and spend time with, some people. We don’t particularly care to rub elbows with people who don’t look like us, act like us, talk like us, or smell like us. But James warns us against giving preferential treatment to some people over others. He highlights the fact that the rich people whom his readers preferred didn’t care about them, and even mistreated them. He also pointed out that showing preferential treatment violated the second Great Commandment. (Matthew 22:39)

Then James drives home a crucial principle: “For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.” (James 2:10, CSB) If we think we are “all that”, we need to compare ourselves with the whole counsel of Scripture. None of us measures up to the righteousness of God as He revealed Himself in His Word. James says that if we were able to fulfill the entire old covenant law, but miss one small part, then we would still be lawbreakers and subject to punishment by the Righteous Judge. James didn’t spell it out this way, but if someone could measure up, then Jesus wasted His perfect life and sacrificial death.

Many people have suggested that James and Paul contradict each other on the relationship of faith and works. They think that Paul talks about salvation by grace through faith alone, with no works at all. And they think that James says that salvation comes from works. But is this correct?

Both James and Paul would agree that faith and works are crucial in the Christian walk. Paul says in Ephesians 2:8–9 that “We are saved by grace through faith alone, but not faith that is alone.” In the very next verse, Paul talks about works following faith. James simply says, “someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.” (James 2:18, CSB) James and Paul would agree that “a faith that saves also obeys.”

Application

Paul urges the Philippians in 2:12 to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” He doesn’t say work for your salvation, but work out your salvation. In other words, work your faith from the inside out. If you have a genuine faith, it will show up in the way you live. Genuine faith affects beliefs, attitudes, and actions.

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