This is The Living Word Bible Study for Sunday, February 12, 2023.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 — Choosing to love God is to prosper in life
Matthew 5:21-37— Jesus shows and fulfils the spirit of the law
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 — Live by the Spirit, not by your preferences
Theme: Loving God is living a transformed life in Jesus
Psalm 119:1-8
1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.
2-3 Blessed are those who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart—they do no wrong but follow His ways.
4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
5-6 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying Your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all Your commands.
7-8 I will praise You with an upright heart as I learn Your righteous laws. I will obey Your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.
///////
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 — Choosing to love God is to prosper in life
The way of life that works is a relationship that amounts to worship of God
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
“I set before you today” — about to enter the Promised Land, Moses reminds the Israelites to choose obedience to God which will bring success, Deut. 30:9-14.
“Life and… death” — opposites of God’s blessings of life; or divine blessing withheld, Psalm 1:6, 23:6. The way we choose life is through Jesus’ offer, Matt. 7:13-14, John 5:24, John 14:6.
16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
“To love the LORD your God” — paraphrasing the familiar Shema saying, Deut. 6:5, Matt. 22:37. The order is significant: loving God results in walking in obedience.
17-18 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
“This day” — now; it is dangerous to assume that there will be another chance.
19-20 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
“Now choose life” — instruction for the Israelites successfully settling their new land, also echoing through Jesus’s words and to us today.
For study: Psalm 36:9; Micah 6:6-8; John 11:25-26, John 17:3; Gal. 2:20.
Reflection
SUMMARY First of three perspectives of living by the law; the spirit of the law in Jesus’ teaching; and the new life of the Holy Spirit. Here Moses summarises obedience to the law that will give the people a successful start on entering the Promised Land.
APPLICATION As Christians who have made Jesus our Lord and Saviour, we are not under law, but the teaching and example of Jesus, and new life of the Spirit, keep us in alignment with God and His decrees.
QUESTION Loving the Lord your God… is this church life, or the rest of life? Discuss.
///////
Matthew 5:21-37— Jesus shows and fulfils the spirit of the law
Disciples will want to uphold God’s law without looking for ways around it
21-22 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
“You have heard… it… said” — Jewish teachers would continue, “But I say…”, and then add some rules of their own. Jesus does not correct the OT, but addresses common misunderstandings, showing that the true spirit of the law needs more than external obedience. The Pharisees agreed that “You shall not murder”, yet were angry enough to plot Jesus’ death.
“Anyone who murders… anyone who is angry” — taking the sixth commandment, Jesus says that unresolved hatred and murder of reputation, are just as serious.
“Raca” — empty-headed and immoral, an Aramaic curse word.
23-24 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
“First… be reconciled” — God welcomes offerings from those who act justly; reconciliation is a priority.
• For further study,Genesis 4:4-7; Proverbs 15:8; Isaiah 1:11-17; Jeremiah 6:20; Amos 5:21-24.
25-26 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
“Settle matters quickly” — “Make friends quickly” (NASB), “Don’t lose a minute — make the first move, make things right with him (The Message). Jesus emphasises being proactive.
“The judge… prison” — someone unable to settle a debt could be imprisoned for life. It is an allusion to the heavenly Judge, and to hell, v.30 below.
27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“Anyone who looks… lustfully” — Jesus uses the word from the tenth commandment, about coveting a neighbour’s wife, linking this with the seventh, which prohibited adultery. The intention, adultery of the heart, is equivalent to the action.
29-30 “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
“Right hand… right eye” — graphic overstatement makes the point: the hand represents an immoral action and the eye, an immoral intention.
“Hell” — the place of eternal punishment, for the Devil and for those who die without receiving Christ, a banishment associated with the final judgment. Hell is characterised by despair and anguish, and awareness of the total absence of God. Jesus was clear about the reality of not “choosing life” in Him, Deut. 30:19 above.
• For further study,Matt. 25:30; Psalm 88:3-5.
31-32 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Divorce” — the rabbis of Jesus’ day permitted divorce either for sexual infidelity or for ‘a good cause’. Here and in Matt. 19:3-9, Jesus reflects God’s intention that marriage should be a permanent union of a man and woman as “one flesh”, Mark 10:8.
33-35 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfil to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
“Do not swear an oath” — the OT recognised oaths as guarantees. Jesus wanted His disciples to have integrity: their word was to be their assurance.
36-37 “And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
“Do not swear by” — anything God has made, and so risk being like the Devil who tried to usurp authority that is God’s alone.
Reflection
SUMMARY Here Jesus picks up instances where traditions had added to the original teaching of the law. Jesus puts the focus on God’s original intentions and explains how truly loving God results in keeping them.
APPLICATION The traditions we should protect are the ones Jesus taught, not others created to suit times and temperaments. Without being narrowly literalistic, we need to hold up the Word and base our lives on it.
QUESTIONS What traditions do we emphasise although the Bible doesn’t?
///////
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 — Live by the Spirit, not by your preferences
New life in Jesus is making the main thing being part of God’s plan
1-2 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
“As people who live by the Spirit” — literally “as spiritual people”. We might say: “Right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God” (The Message).
“As people who are still worldly” — “you are still carnal” (NKJV), “people of the flesh”, ESV. Not to be confused with “the person without the Spirit”, 1 Cor. 2:14; they had given their lives to Christ and were in-dwelt by His Spirit, but had not grown and were spiritually immature, slipping back into the old pre-Christian selfish nature.
“Milk, not solid food” — Paul had given them the Good News of Jesus: who He is, what He has done through His death and resurrection. He questions whether they have grasped these fundamentals enough to receive more doctrinal teaching about the kingdom of God.
3-4 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
“Worldly… acting like… humans” — a rebuke: they had made a commitment to Christ; Paul asserts that no one could tell the difference. The evidence is in the rivalries and conflicts and the following of personalities instead of allegiance to Christ alone.
5-6 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe — as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
“Only servants” — Paul, the church planter apostle, had started the church; later Apollos exercised a significant ministry. But, says Paul, we’re just servants who the Lord has assigned to our task. Which implies, answerable to the Lord, not to critics.
7-8 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour.
“One purpose” — apostles and teachers share the aim of teaching the gospel and equipping people to mature. But “only God… makes things grow” — all salvation and growth is God’s work of grace, so no servant takes any glory, but only Him.
9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
“God’s field, God’s building” — faithful farmers recognise God’s hand in crop growth, and reliable builders follow the architect’s specification.
Reflection
SUMMARY These Greek converts had found new life in Jesus and were excited to discover the empowering of the Spirit. But their progress was limited while they still carried the rivalry and rhetoric of the old ways, and wanted to put leaders on pedestals instead of exalting Jesus as Lord of His church.
APPLICATION When we give our lives to the Lord and become Christians, we bring baggage from the old life with us. Spiritual maturity is recognising what it is and deciding to renounce it and let it go.
QUESTION What do you find helps you to grow and mature spiritually?
PRAYER Praise You, Jesus, that You came to be the fulfilment of the Law.
Thank You for giving us a much better way to live for God — by belonging to You.
Empower us by Your Spirit to show how much we love God by living in His way of love — and drawing others to Your light. Amen.
///////
LINKS
Read this week’s post Learn What Being Spiritual Really Means
Watch the video which uses excerpts of the readings as part of the storytelling encouragement for this week
Link to the Facebook TLW page: https://fb.com/TLWbiblestudy
Leave a Reply