Theme: What a true worshipper and disciple looks like
From these Bible readings as set for Sunday, February 5 in the interdenominational scheme widely used by most of the main-line denominations
Isaiah 58:1-10 — Not lip-service! Heart-felt worship and obedience
Matthew 5:13-20 — Disciples of Jesus are called to be salt and light
1 Corinthians 2:1-16 — God’s wisdom perplexes human understanding
Psalm 112:1, 4-8
1 Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in His commands.
4 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.
5 Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.
6 Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.
7 They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
8 Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
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Isaiah 58:1-10 — Not lip-service! Heart-felt worship and obedience
The hypocrisy of ritual without relationship cuts Israel off from God
1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to My people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
“Voice like a trumpet” — grave instruction like Moses’ dialogue with God, Exodus 19:19; 20:18; Hosea 8:1; 1 Cor. 14:8
2 “For day after day they seek Me out; they seem eager to know My ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask Me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
“Seek Me out… seem eager” — hypocrisy: the people seek God, but insincerely (below).
3 “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
“Fasted… and You have not seen it” — God has not responded because the fast was not God’s idea but theirs, and the rest-day Sabbath (His idea) was being defiled by their harsh, unfair treatment.
4-5 “Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
“Only a day” — with a show of religious observance together with violence, and not honouring God on the other six.
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
“The kind of fasting” — if Israel was going to give something up, better to prioritise exploitation and the “yoke” of social oppression.
7-8 “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
“Light break forth” — salvation, bringing joy and prosperity in the Lord. This light would dawn with the coming of Christ.
“Righteousness… rear guard” — righteous relationships clear the way (vanguard) for God’s presence, and glory like the pillar of cloud and fire would protect it (rearguard), Exodus 13:21, 14:20 and Isaiah 4:5-6.
• Further study: compare v.10; Isaiah 9:2, 10:17, 59:9, 60:1—3; Luke 1:78, 79.
9-10 “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: ‘Here am I.’ If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
“The LORD will answer” — similar to Isaiah 30:19 where the context is Yahweh longing to show Himself gracious, when the people turn to Him from their stand of independence. The turn here must be a change from false accusation and oppression to compassionate heart.
Reflection
SUMMARY The Israelites were giving God a mixed message — keeping the fasts but also the friction, upholding their rituals but not their relationships. And they were not reflecting God’s justice and generosity to those with the most pressing needs.
APPLICATION This sets out starkly an enduring truth — our hypocrisy will not bring God’s favour or answered prayer. There’s a way out: by renouncing accusation and regaining a generous heart towards those with the least.
QUESTION Church routines or our Christian relationships — where does our priority need to change?
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Matthew 5:13-20 — Disciples of Jesus are to be salt and light
Worshipping God is respecting His Word, in the way that Jesus did
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“Salt of the earth” — disciples of Jesus are the presence of Jesus to guard against the world’s corruption, like salt preserving food. Salt that “has lost its saltiness” is a similar-looking mineral deposit only good for making paths.
14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
“You are the light of the world” — because Jesus is the light of the world, while He is in the world, John 8:12 and 9:5, and Jesus’ disciples embody the Spirit of Jesus and new life of His kingdom.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
“Not… to abolish but to fulfil” — Jesus was accused of overturning the Law. His antagonists couldn’t understand His answer, that He came to fulfil it, right down to the tiniest single-stroke letter, the yod.
19 “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“These commands” — all the commands in the OT, although many have been fulfilled in Christ and others will be applied differently. This teaches us to receive the word of God in its entirety, as Jesus did, while thinking of how He taught its meaning and intention.
Reflection
SUMMARY Jesus tells His followers He wants them to be disciples like salt that preserves against corruption, and light in all that is truthful and transparent. Far from abolishing the law (as some of His detractors claimed) He encouraged the fulfilling of all of it, by living by God’s values.
APPLICATION The religious leaders of Jesus’ time over-emphasised rule-keeping at the expense of living to show God’s rule. Jesus encourages disciples in whom God’s truth, love and kingdom rule will stand out to others.
QUESTION Why do we find living by values difficult and fall back on rules?
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1 Corinthians 2:1-16 — God’s wisdom perplexes human understanding
The mystery of the Cross is revealed to believers by the Holy Spirit
1-2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
“Eloquence” — or the “lofty words and impressive wisdom”, NLT, by which Corinthians judged a speaker. Paul ignored this expectation and delivered the uncomfortable but powerful message of the Cross and Christ’s self-sacrifice for them.
3-5 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
“Fear and trembling” — Paul was facing his audience in Corinth in his inadequacy, but the power of God that came when He spoke was unmistakable.
6-8 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
“Wisdom among the mature” — spiritual wisdom from God is spiritually discerned by those who are spiritually aware. When the religious hierarchy sentenced Christ they could not see that Jesus’ death on the Cross was God’s plan — for His glory and ours.
9-10 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love Him — these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
“What no eye has seen” — Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4 and 65:17 to show that by regular seeing, hearing, or reckoning, we cannot grasp the good things God has in store for those who trust Him; until we invite the Holy Spirit to reveal what we could not otherwise know.
11-13 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
“Who knows” — only we know our own mind, and the mind of God is known only by God’s Spirit. God makes Himself known through Jesus, and through Word and Spirit revealing spiritual realities to believers.
14-16 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
“Judgments” — the Holy Spirit-influenced person can make spiritual discernments, but should not entertain an unspiritual human judgment.
“The mind of Christ” — keeping close to the Lord, we receive insight by Word and Spirit of what He is saying and thinking.
Reflection
SUMMARY Paul when speaking or writing offers an uncomfortable but powerful message — it’s all about Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected and known spiritually in new life. Some of his hearers expected oratory and were judging him in an unspiritual way. They should have discerned how the Holy Spirit was working through his words and was revealing God’s purpose in the way that only He can.
APPLICATION These few verses bring no less than ten mentions of the Spirit of God. Paul is emphasising our utter reliance on being filled and led by the Spirit, to live as those receiving understanding of what God has freely given. We must guard against relying on cerebral “human wisdom” because faith is lived by spiritual realities that are discerned only through the Spirit.
QUESTION What would Paul write to us about our spiritual life?
PRAYER Lord, how easily we slip into church politics and empty church ritual — and find we are not talking about Jesus and His priorities.
Forgive us for being less than salt and light to the world around us, unspiritual and undiscerning. Meet with us, Jesus, fill us afresh with Your Spirit, Your wisdom and Your love — to flow out and transform those around us. With the realisation of the peace Your death has purchased for them. Amen
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• See also this week’s article post, video and podcast episode (to follow)
