This is The Living Word Bible Study for Groups and Individuals, for Sunday, October 2, 2022
Theme: Trusting God by exercising an active faith
We’re using five fairly short OT + NT Bible readings this week — the second OT reading from Habakkuk is the alternative OT reading in the Revised Common Lectionary, and it helps to tell the story,
Lamentations 1:1-6 — The cost of proudly continuing the way we like
Luke 17:5-10 — Jesus tells us to take our faith and put it to work
2 Timothy 1:1-14 — Know the power of the Spirit and stay true
• Read this week’s linked article Jesus Tells Us To Exercise Our Lazy Faith
• Watch this week’s video in desktop wide format or tall format for mobiles
Psalm 137:1-6
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
2-3 There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
5-6 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
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Lamentations 1:1-6 — The cost of proudly continuing the way we like
A picture of a community left struggling with God’s glory having departed
1 How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!
“How” — a stronger word in Hebrew expressing shock as well as sorrow.
“Like a widow” — Lamentations depicts the remaining southern kingdom, Judah, as an abandoned, desolate woman.
2 She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
“Queen… become a slave” — from queen to widow, to slave; a vivid picture as once-thriving Jerusalem now seems deserted.
“All her lovers… friends have betrayed” — Judeans had turned to fertility gods Baal and Asherah and the nation threatened by Babylon failed to find help from Egypt, Tyre or Sidon.
3 After affliction and harsh labour, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed festivals. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she is in bitter anguish.
“The roads to Zion” — exile has depopulated the city, the temple is in ruins, the priests are out of a job and there is no throng of worshippers for the festivals.
5 Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe.
“The Lord has brought her grief” — now it is made plain that the downfall is deserved.
6 All the splendour has departed from Daughter Zion. Her princes are like deer in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.
“Splendour… departed” — or God’s glory departed, 1 Samuel 4:21, Ezekiel 10:18-19.
Habakkuk 1:2-4; 2:1-4
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen? Or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save?
“Violence!” — King Jehoiakin’s cruel and corrupt reign.
3-4 Why do You make me look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
“Tolerate wrongdoing” — it appears to the prophet that God is letting sin go unpunished, so there is no justice.
2:1 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
“Station myself” — Habakkuk positions himself as a spiritual watchman, like being a look-out on the ramparts.
2 Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
“Write down” — like a royal messenger he is to write the vision on a clay tablet to share it accurately, Isa. 30:8.
3 “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
4 “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright — but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.”
“Live by… faithfulness” — or live by his faith, much quoted in this form in the NT; meaning to hold firmly on to God’s promises.
• For further study, Hebrews 10:38-39.
Reflection
SUMMARY These two prophetic passages speak of how God’s people, persisting in abandoning their God-given teaching and covenant, and rejecting the prophetic voices sent by God, face the inevitable outcome.
APPLICATION Complacency in believing that we are God’s holy people, entitled to His protection, sets us up for the ‘ichabod’ moment when we discover that God’s presence has departed. This is the reality in churches that have lost both their message of personal salvation and new life in Jesus, and most of their congregation.
QUESTION What are biblical preachers preachers saying about living as people of personal faith, and how do we respond?
Luke 17:5-10 — Jesus tells us to take our faith and put it to work
We want Him to increase our faith, but He is telling us to use what we have
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
“Increase our faith” — the request of every aspiring disciple of every age, trying to live up to Jesus’ standards.
• For further study: what genuine faith is, John 15:7, James 1:6-8, 1 John 5:21.
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
“Faith… as a mustard seed” — Jesus’ classic answer compares active, effectual faith with the smallest kind of seed, tiny but living and active.
“Mulberry tree… uprooted” — a near-permanent tree with a vast and deep root system giving a lifespan of several hundred years.
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?
“A servant ploughing” — the idea is of putting faith to work, to do what faith is meant to do. In that culture, bond-servants existed to serve their masters.
8-9 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?
“Won’t he rather say” — a master would address as bond-servant commandingly and would expect duties fulfilled. This describes a robust approach to speaking words of faith which relates to verse 6.
• For further study, read Matthew 17:20; Matt. 21:18-22; Mark 11:22-24.
10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
“Only done our duty” — without expectation of reward, because in the kingdom of God, grace is given which by definition is undeserved and received without any sense of merit.
Reflection
SUMMARY This passage depicts the disciples asking for an increase of faith as an abstract, God-given attribute. Jesus explains that faith, whether great or small, is to be like a bond-servant to be put to work. Even ‘tiny’ faith, put to work in a robust declaration of the Lord’s purpose, achieves what is humanly impossible,
APPLICATION The faith spoken of by Jesus is different from a general or prevailing religious belief, and is distinct from a passive mental assent to Scriptural teaching. Rather it is active and practical, able to speak creative words of power as words which Jesus Himself is speaking. Even the most deeply rooted ‘tree of difficulty’ cannot withstand this. Faith is personal to you and God, working with Him in the confidence (i.e. hope) of Him working with you — and it comes with practice.
QUESTION What is a situation where you might have asked for more faith? How would you now exercise the faith you have, in line with v.6?
2 Timothy 1:1-14 — Know the power of the Spirit and stay true
Timothy’s mentor is showing him the way of demonstrating courageous faith
1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
“To Timothy, my dear son” — travelling companion and apprentice of Paul, left to build up the Ephesus house churches which were being set back by false Jewish ritualistic teaching.
3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.
“As my ancestors did” — Paul sets out his heritage in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Christian faith was not a new religion, or even a new take on an old religion, but bore grateful witness to godly people of the past.
4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.
“Tears” — probably when Paul was taken to Rome under arrest.
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
“Your sincere faith” — in this mixed Gentile and Jewish church it was significant that Timothy’s mother and grandmother were both Christians of Jewish origin, while his father was a Greek.
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
“Fan… the gift of God” — the impartation given at Paul’s hand at the time of his public commissioning, an anointing for spiritual leadership assuming and recognising other specific spiritual gifts, 1 Cor. 12:1-14:40.
“Fan into flame” — the Holy Spirit’s empowering of us must be cultivated by exercising faith in using the gifts.
7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
“Not… timid, but gives us power” — the Spirit-filled person has a confidence from beyond themselves. Jesus’ challenging teaching becomes more accessible in the post-resurrection church which operates in the empowering of the Spirit.
8 So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.
“The testimony about our Lord” — our word ‘martyr’ comes from the Greek word for testimony. Witness and adversity go hand in hand and most of the apostles died for their faith.
9-10 He has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
“Saved… because of His own purpose and grace” — a succinct summary of the Good News which emphasises Christ’s saving action for us in destroying death and bringing life.
11-12 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
“No cause for shame” — although Paul is chained up and facing imminent death, he looks forward to his reward in eternity, Luke 19:15, 1 Cor. 3:10-15, Rev. 11:15, 18.
13-14 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you — guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
“Keep… the pattern of sound teaching” — which Timothy is holding in trust against the attempts of false teachers to turn it into a religion. The gospel in every age is undermined by man’s attempts to water it down or subtly change it.
Reflection
SUMMARY Timothy’s situation in Ephesus requires him to show fearless faith in confronting opposition from older and politically more adept false teachers who, bound up with their own legalism, are burdening new converts with their own lack of spiritual maturity.
APPLICATION That same tension between religious form and spiritual freedom is experienced today across the spectrum of Christian expression. In all of these teachings there is the sense of God wanting to work with us, His Holy Spirit empowering us, to help us do what is just, right and good — if we will let go of our desire to control and trust Him in the unseen partnership.
QUESTION If we recognise the devil’s spoiling force in these kinds of difficult situations, what will we now seek to do differently?
PRAYER Lord, we realise we always ask You to be strong for us without asking whether You require us to be strong for You!
Forgive us for our times of passivity and put a new spirit within us to stand firm in faith, be wise to the spiritual battle and speak out what You are saying.
For Jesus and His Lordship. Amen
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There’s a printed version to print A4 as a Bible-sized folder which can be copied for Bible study groups etc.
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