Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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Trusting Jesus’ Credentials

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We’ve seen wisdom’s credentials in Proverbs 8:22-31. Despite the historical controversy over whether Proverbs 8 is about Jesus, the New Testament clearly states that Jesus shares wisdom’s credentials.

  1. Seeking Jesus is seeking the Lord (John 14:9).
  2. Life without Jesus isn’t truly life (1 John 5:11-13).
  3. The way of Jesus is tried and true. Knowing Jesus makes the most sense of how the world works (Acts 17:22-31).
  4. Jesus gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy (Mark 8:22-9:1).
Dale Calder (2009), Creative Commons

Dale Calder (2009), Creative Commons

But do you believe it? What does your life communicate about whose credentials you’re willing to trust?

Seeking the Lord

In a day when spirituality is cool, we must be careful to remember that not every spirit is from God (1 John 4:1-6). If a spirit doesn’t confess that Jesus is the Christ, that spirit is not from God but is the spirit of the antichrist. Notice that false spirits do not always attack Jesus’ Messiahship; they prove to be in error even if they simply ignore Jesus or treat him as irrelevant.

So when the CEO of Starbucks returns to his post to return the company to its core values, this rescue from “spiritual” crisis is not done in true wisdom, regardless of what Oprah would have us think.

Do you want to know God? You must know Jesus. Do you want to speak of God? If you don’t speak of Jesus, you may actually have the wrong god.

Living Life

What can’t you live without? What thing, if you had it, would finally help you to stop worrying? What would cut your stress or give you rest and energy? What turns a bad day into a good day? What motivates you to do what you do?

The answers to these questions show what your life is. And though the answer should be Jesus, it usually is not.

Knowing Jesus is eternal life. Eternal = never ending. Everything else will come to an end some day. When it does, will you have any life left? Now is your chance to practice for that Day.

Making Sense

We’re always trying to make sense of things. We want to make sense of our suffering. We want to make sense of our work. We want to make sense of our relationships.

The teenage girl looks for sense when she asks, “Are we dating?” The middle-aged professional looks for sense when he wonders what he’s doing with his life. The common citizen looks for sense when he considers whether the nation’s highest leaders have even read the Constitution.

The ways of Jesus make the most sense. Of course, we’re wise when we obey them because they give him glory. But we’re also wise when we obey them because they’re the best ways. “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3, ESV). The one who loves both God and neighbor is no idiot.

Seeing Happiness

Please don’t misunderstand this one. The Bible does not promise that God will always make us happy, nor that God’s chief end is to serve our happiness. No, sometimes God must make us markedly unhappy in order to show us true happiness. Or more specifically, he must show us that the things that make us happy cannot always make us happy. This produces unhappiness.

But as he strips such things away time and again, he clears the way to the one thing that will never run out, shut down, move on, or empty up: Himself.

Thus, for example, while we grieve the loss of those who have died in Christ (1 Thess 4:13), our grief gains hope only when we remember that in the end “we will always be,” not with our loved ones, but “with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17).

May the Lord Jesus Christ ever grant us more of this wisdom.

Same Truth, Different Audience

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Yesterday I worked on a Bible study I’m supposed to lead on Monday. The preparation took longer than I expected, even though I’ve led this Bible study before. In fact, I’ve already led this study 3 times in the last 3 months, and I plan to convert this study into a sermon for my church in a few more weeks. This is my 4th time in the same text with the same main points.

It’s taking a while, though, because my context and audience changes each time. I must reconsider the passage for each one.

My text is 2 Timothy 3:10-17. The text’s main point is that we must learn from Scripture and continue in the things we’ve learned from Scripture (observe the only imperative in the paragraph – 2 Tim 3:14). The sub-points have likewise remained constant; Scripture matters because:

  1. It makes us wise for salvation (2 Tim 3:15).
  2. It makes us competent and equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17).
  3. It enables us to recognize and resist deception (2 Tim 3:10-13).

What complicates my preparation is that different audiences need different applications of these same truths. For that reason, I want to frame each Bible study differently to get the most mileage with participants.

Vern Hart (2007), Creative Commons

Vern Hart (2007), Creative Commons

Here’s how I’ve pitched it each time. This “pitch” dictates how I advertise, introduce, and conduct the study. It’s given me a different title for each discussion. The pitch also drives which questions I ask and how we arrive at our application.

  • At a homeschooling convention, I pitched the study as “Teach your children how and why to study the Bible.”
  • In an article for broad consumption, I pitched it as “My love-hate relationship with Bible study tools (and why we must learn to study the Bible itself).”
  • For the orientation of our ministry’s summer interns, I pitched it as “Why our organization focuses on studying the Bible.”
  • [On Monday] To help train our ministry’s new staff in fundraising, I’ll pitch it as “How the Scriptures direct our fundraising.”
  • In a few weeks at my church, I’ll pitch it as “What our church believes about the Bible.”

In all 5 cases, I’m using the same text, the same main point, and the same outline of sub-points. But the flavor of the study changes dramatically with the audience.

The 4th practice for preparing effective Bible studies is to decide how to lead your group toward what God has said. This step must come after relying on the Lord, figuring out what God has said, and allowing the message to change you. Practicing those first 3 steps doesn’t yet mean you’re ready to lead your Bible study. You must consider your group and how they’ll best hear the truth.

I didn’t invent this idea of “framing” or “pitching” a text differently to different people. Notice how two apostles can take the same text in very different directions for different audiences.

And [Abram] believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Gen 15:6, ESV)

  • In Romans 4:1-12, Paul expects Roman believers not to boast in religious experiences like circumcision.
  • In Galatians 3:1-14, Paul calls Asian Gentiles to grow in Christ—and not merely come to Christ—through faith.
  • In James 2:20-26, James commands Hellenistic Jews not to grow complacent in proving their faith through good deeds.

The main point of Genesis 15 remains intact—God promises protection and great reward to those who take him at his word; none of these New Testament passages violate the original intent. But they re-frame the point to reach new audiences.

So should we.

Proverbs 8 and Jesus

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Last week, I drew these four “credentials” for wisdom from Proverbs 8:22-31:

  1. Seeking wisdom is seeking the Lord.
  2. Life without wisdom isn’t truly life.
  3. The way of wisdom is tried and true. God’s wisdom makes the most sense of how the world works.
  4. Wisdom gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy.

In this chapter, Solomon praises God’s wisdom to motivate us to pursue it. Since wisdom can deliver what it promises, we’d be foolish not to chase it.

Before I move into more specific application from these points, I’d like to reflect on the connection between this wisdom and the Lord Jesus. This case presents a helpful example of how to see Jesus in any passage.

A Little History

Proverbs 8 provides a mine field for Christ-centered interpretation because it’s been so often misused. Because of the potential for misuse, many interpreters try to distance Jesus from this passage altogether.

"Baptistery.Arians06" by Georges Jansoone

“Baptistery.Arians06” by Georges Jansoone

Here’s the problem: In the third century, a heretic named Arius came to prominence with his teaching that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did not always exist. According to Arius, Jesus was subordinate to God the Father because God had created him. Arius and his followers put much stock in verses like “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) and in biblical phrases like “the only begotten Son” (John 3:16) or “the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15). If he was begotten—the thinking goes—there must have been a time before he was begotten.

Arianism saw clear parallels between Jesus and Proverbs 8, since “all things were made through him” (John 1:3) and “when he established the heavens I was there” (Prov 8:27). If God created everything by his Word, and the Word is Jesus, and Jesus made everything—then Solomon’s declarations about wisdom’s creative work in Proverbs 8 must be about Jesus.

And so Prov 8:22 became a key verse for the Arian cause: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work.” Some early Bible manuscripts use a word for possessed that could be translated as created, and the Arians had a field day with it. Proverbs 8 is about Jesus→Proverbs 8 says wisdom was created→Jesus must have been created. The links in the chain appear to hold tight.

Ramifications for Today

Far from being an obscure 3rd century problem, Arianism remains alive and well. Some of its most populous adherents include many Unitarians and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Leland Ryken also cites a tract from the Jehovah’s Witnesses that make this very argument from Proverbs 8.

Thus Christian interpreters, careful to guard against the dangers of Arianism, sometimes hesitate to acknowledge any connection between Proverbs 8 and Jesus. Proverbs 8 speaks of wisdom→The New Testament speaks of Jesus→Reading Jesus back into Proverbs 8 does violence to the text. By separating the person of Jesus from the personification of wisdom, they avoid the potential Arian problem.

How to See Jesus

However, there is a problem with making too sharp of a distinction between Proverbs and Jesus: We can’t deny that Jesus believed all the Old Testament was about him (Luke 24:44-46). Paul considered Jesus our wisdom from God (1 Cor 1:30). And, well, Jesus was present at the creation as a master workman, just like wisdom (John 1:1-3).

In addition, if you review the four conclusions with which I began this post, connections to Jesus should pop out.

  1. Seeking Jesus is seeking the Lord (John 14:9).
  2. Life without Jesus isn’t truly life (1 John 5:11-13).
  3. The way of Jesus is tried and true. Knowing Jesus makes the most sense of how the world works (Acts 17:22-31).
  4. Jesus gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy (Mark 8:22-9:1).

We could support all four of these statements from the New Testament. That doesn’t mean, however, that we must say Jesus was created (Prov 8:22 – even if “created” is the best translation).

My point is this: Proverbs 8 doesn’t have to be an exact, direct prediction about Jesus in order for it to be about Jesus. If you want to see Jesus in the Old Testament, first discover the author’s main point (in this case, wisdom’s four credentials). Then connect the main point to Jesus. It’s okay if not all the details match up exactly.

Leading with Influence Live Show

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Join me this Tuesday, August 5, (11 PDT / 2 EDT) for a live show on Innovate 4 Jesus as I join Chris Hogan, Joshua Reich, and host Justin Blaney to discuss leading with influence.

Do you have questions about leadership and influence? Tweet your questions with #I4JLIVE or comment on the blog post here: www.i4j.org/lead. We’ll be taking questions from right now until Tuesday’s show!

To jog your thinking, you may want to check out the article I wrote for The Gospel Coalition about 1 Thessalonians and how Paul led with influence.

Why Vulnerability is So Hard

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Yesterday I arrived at one of those small but significant decision points that threaten my composure and test the limits of my willingness to be known. It came when my coworker greeted me with his usual, “How are you today?”

I earnestly sought a perfunctory “Fine, how are you?” so I could move on from the greeting and get on with my day, but it eluded me. The truth was that I was not fine. Twice in the last week I had pled with dear friends who were departing from the faith, one into false doctrine and another into immorality. Both cases of apostasy hit me hard, and I had mourned and prayed over them, wondering what on earth God was doing.

So I cracked open the door—”I’m pretty sad today”—and it was costly to do so. It cost me a measure of self-confidence and self-respect. It cost me a few minutes of my life to explain what I was sad about. It reopened the wound and renewed the pain. It sucked more energy out of me, as I tried to balance openness with self-control (to avoid gossip, venting, or speaking other words that wouldn’t edify).

But such vulnerability is Christlike, and by faith I trust it was worth it.

J (2008), Creative Commons

J (2008), Creative Commons

Why is it so hard for us to be vulnerable with one another? Why do we struggle to lead and to teach the Scripture with transparency? Why are we more attracted to a pretense of perfection or a veneer of imperturbability? I can think of at least 3 reasons.

Theological Reasons

I have heard pastors say they won’t tell personal stories from the pulpit because it would get in the way of representing Christ. They believe that for Christ to shine brightly, they must completely get out of the way. So in private they’re happy to share of their need for grace, but their preaching focuses much more on proclaiming the truth than on incarnating it.

This same sort of thinking shows up when Bible study leaders think only about how to apply the text to the group members and not about how to apply it to themselves. One sign of this struggle is when their preparation time doesn’t feel devotional and they need to schedule separate personal time with the Lord.

I greatly respect those who want to “get out of the way” so people can see Christ. This desire to serve others at great cost to oneself is a noble one.

But I think the attempt misfires, for we miss the fact that God shows people himself by showing himself to people. He doesn’t merely declare truth; he demonstrates the truth and lives it out. He became a man and perfected his power in weakness. He demonstrates his love by dying for sinners. He exposed and disgraced himself that he might lead us to glory.

And so John can say that while no-one has seen God, Jesus has made him known (John 1:18). But at the same time, while no-one has seen God, they will see him if we love one another (1 John 4:12). For them to see, we must give them something to see.

Personal Reasons

Some brave souls like Eric, who commented on last week’s post, perceive pride and fear as the greatest enemies to vulnerability.

  • We don’t want people to think less of us.
  • We fear losing our position or influence.
  • We don’t want to be a burden.
  • We don’t want to be laughed at or seen as mistaken or needy.

Perhaps we even feel like our reputation—or at least our self-perception of it—signifies our standing with God, such that God’s pleasure is shown through others’ pleasure and people’s displeasure betrays God’s displeasure.

Whatever the exact issue, we find our identity in something other than the finished work of Christ. We must not forget the guttural cry of him who bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:30).

Practical Reasons

My biggest struggle, as I mentioned above, is that vulnerability is hard work. It’s costly, and I’m often unwilling to pay that cost.

Many in the “theological reason” camp react rightly against those who see their leadership as an opportunity for dealing with their personal demons. If I’m vulnerable for my sake—to cleanse my conscience or even to get people to feel sorry for me—I have missed the point. There’s a foolish sort of vulnerability that serves nobody but myself, but there’s also a wise sort of vulnerability that serves others deeply (for example, see 2 Corinthians 11-12).

This wise vulnerability takes an effort. It requires forethought and godly character. It demands unwavering confidence in Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:10).

When you teach the Scripture, beware sanitized hypocrisy.

John Piper’s Look at the Book Preview

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John Piper is preparing to launch his “Look at the Book” initiative to teach people how to study the Bible. If this first video is an accurate sign of what’s to come, then we’re in for quite a treat.

If you have any question about what it looks like to sit down with nothing but the text of Scripture and simply observe, interpret, and apply—I could not recommend this 10-minute video any more highly.

http://vimeo.com/101339957

Wisdom’s Credentials

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Rowan WickEven if you like baseball, you probably haven’t heard of Rowan Wick, but someday you might. He rocked our town earlier this summer, but now he’s gone.

The State College Spikes are a Single-A short season minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Our family goes to enough games that we feel like we get to know the players. This season, Rowan Wick needed only 19 games to break the Spikes’ single-season home run record. After Wick’s 14 homers, 38 RBIs, and a .378 batting average, the Cardinals decided it was time to move him up the chain, and they relocated him to the Peoria Chiefs in Illinois.

We miss Wick and the high-strung energy that rippled through the stadium when he was at the plate. But he was well-qualified for the next level of baseball, and his credentials earned him a place of honor and advancement in the Cardinals franchise.

Similarly, Proverbs 8:22-31 describes wisdom’s qualifications for honor and advancement. In this chapter, Solomon has already promised wisdom’s surprising availability and unimaginable fruit. Now he backs up his assertions with some particular credentials.

Wisdom is the Lord’s Possession

The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old. (Prov 8:22, ESV)

Wisdom is an affiliate, not an independent. Because wisdom belongs to the Lord, those who find wisdom find God’s favor (Prov 8:35). And because godly wisdom provides a pipeline to the God of wisdom, becoming wise and drawing near to God are the same. You can’t know God without receiving his instruction and becoming more like him.

The point is this: Seeking wisdom is seeking the Lord.

Wisdom was brought forth before God made the world

Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first dust of the world. (Prov 8:23-26)

Observe the fourfold “before” and the double repetition of “I was brought forth.” There’s a sense in which wisdom is passive; it exists because God chose to bring it out. Before the Lord made anything tangible—before his work of shaping the earth—he brought forth wisdom and paraded it around.

In other words, wisdom is more fundamental and central to existence than any other created thing. That’s why wisdom is better than jewels (Prov 8:11) and gold (Prov 8:19). Wisdom is more intimate and satisfying than sexual activity (Prov 7:4-5). Nothing we desire compares with wisdom (Prov 3:15). If we get anything at all on earth, it should be wisdom and insight (Prov 4:7).

The point is this: Life without wisdom isn’t truly life.

Wisdom was present when God made the world

When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him,
like a master workman. (Prov 8:27-30a)

Notice how “I was brought forth” in the previous stanza (Prov 8:24-25) has shifted to “I was there” (Prov 8:27) and “I was beside him” (Prov 8:30). Wisdom was present in the world from Day 1. When God created the heavens and the earth, wisdom saw what God did and how he did it. Wisdom saw what worked and gained experience as a “master workman” (Prov 8:30).

The point is this: The way of wisdom is tried and true. God’s wisdom makes the most sense of how the world works.

Wisdom delights

I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man. (Prov 8:30b-31)

In this stanza, wisdom finally gets active. It goes from being possessed, being brought forth, and being present to delighting and rejoicing.

Wisdom delights in two ways: It is both delightful to God and delighting in others. Note the progression:

  1. God delights in wisdom.
  2. Wisdom rejoices before God.
  3. Wisdom rejoices in the world.
  4. Wisdom delights in humanity.

God didn’t implant the world with wisdom because it would kill joy. No, quite the opposite. He knew wisdom’s delight would go viral. He understood that his world would be dull without wisdom. What use would sex and money and music and sports and hiking and productivity all be if we couldn’t know the fear of the Lord, receive instruction about how life works best, find satisfaction in God’s ways, and have hope that anything can change? “Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness” (Eccl 2:13-14).

And joy will be joyful only when we know the joy God has in us.

The point is this: Wisdom gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy.

Beware Sanitized Hypocrisy

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The third practice for preparing effective Bible studies is to allow the message to change you. The fact should be obvious, but so often it’s not: We can’t teach what we haven’t learned. Our words are just words if we can’t show them by our lives. Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1, ESV), but his exhortation would have fallen flat if he hadn’t opened his life for them to see (1 Cor 9:1-7, 15-23; 10:32-33).

I’ve been really challenged by this point lately, especially when I feel pressed for time in my teaching preparation. It’s so hard to deal with the log in my eye before I try to remove the speck from others’ eyes!

But the biblical word for leaders who say one thing but do another is “hypocrite.” Of course, I might successfully avoid aggressive forms of hypocrisy: preaching integrity while robbing the church, promoting purity while secretly indulging immorality, etc. But how often do I sanitize my hypocrisy, justifying my sins of omission while passionately promoting their opposite? For example:

  • Do I exhort people to confess their sins, but I never confess mine?
  • Do I oppose pride and promote humility, but I’m afraid to let anyone see me when I’m weak?
  • Do I preach about how much people need the grace of Christ, but I don’t reveal an inch of my own need for the grace of Christ?
  • Do I urge people to love one another, but I believe my leadership position prevents me from having any close friends?
  • Do I want people to be open to feedback, but I never ask for it myself?

Shepherds shepherd, and leaders lead. This means they go out in front and don’t ask people to do anything they haven’t done first. So before Jesus asked Peter to feed his lambs and die (John 21:15-19), he was the Good Shepherd who laid down his own life for the sheep (John 10:11). So also Paul can beg the Corinthians to open wide their hearts to him after his heart was opened wide to them (2 Cor 6:11-13). And Jonathan can call his armor bearer to come up after him; Jonathan goes first to make them fall, and the armor bearer simply mops up after him (1 Sam 14:12-13).

This kind of leadership requires two kinds of vulnerability:

  1. When preparing to lead a study, we must allow the text to change us.
  2. When leading the study, we must explain how the text has changed us.
rikdom (2007), Creative Commons

rikdom (2007), Creative Commons

This means that I must apply the Scripture to myself before I try to apply it to anyone else. And when appropriate, I must be willing to share these lessons to give people a model for how the text can change them. After practicing these things, I’ll be in a position to suggest further applications for others.

Hear Jesus’ warning against those who wouldn’t do what they asked others to do:

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you – but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matt 23:2-12)

I have some ideas about why such vulnerability is so difficult, and I’ll write about them next week. But in the meantime, I’d like to hear what you think. Question: Why do you think it’s hard for us to be vulnerable in our leadership?

Why I Write

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My goal on this site is to help ordinary people learn to study the Bible. I pursue that aim through a few practices:

  • On Mondays, I demonstrate Bible study skills on a particular text of Scripture.
  • On Wednesdays, I link to other pages on the Internet that either demonstrate good Bible study skills or lay the ground work for good Bible study skills.
  • On Fridays, I usually back away from the text to reflect on the skills themselves. Currently, I’m explaining methods for leading effective Bible studies.

All three practices fit into a larger model for teaching people how to study the Bible. But as each post comes and goes, and we focus on very specific skills, we can easily lose sight of the model.

That’s why I occasionally write brief posts like this by way of reminder.

And that’s also why I created a table of contents page for my series on Proverbs 1-9. It’s gone so long that the forest has been long since overgrown with trees. This table of contents will let you know all the main topics I’ve hit so far, and it will let you know what remains before the series finishes. I didn’t link to every post but only to the first post for each segment of text. From that post, you should be able to click through to the next post and the next if you’d like to read through a particular section.

I’ll activate the last few links as I finish those posts over the next few months. Please let me know if you have any ideas for making this page more useful!