That Pesky Context

Today's entry is from David. Enjoy. I did.
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We're familiar with Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We pull great ideas from that passage, like how His Word is able to pierce us and lay us bare before Him, how we are tripartite, not dipartite (we have body, soul, and spirit, not just body and spirit), how His Word helps us to understand our thoughts and intentions. And those are all great things, but we are missing something because we've taken it out of context. Just before verse 12, the author is describing the God's rest that has been promised and is to come. He says that Joshua was promised a rest that was not attained, which means that there is yet a Sabbath rest to come. Verse 11 says that because we have this promised rest to look forward to, we should strive to enter it so that we don't fall to the same disobedience as the Israelites.

As we're all familiar, when we see "for" or "therefore" or "because", we need to see how what follows is derived from what preceded it. And we have a "for" in verse 12. So how does the sharpness of the Word of God relate to the Sabbath rest promised by God? Because we are told to strive for the rest in verse 11, we must use God's Word to test our thinking and our hearts so that we know we are working toward that rest. The Word is able to pierce our hearts and minds to convict us or acquit us. And as we're still being sanctified, it will most often be convicting us.

Are we doing that? Do we use the Word to divide our actions from our intentions? Do we use the Word to strive for the rest that is to come in Christ? Are we ready to give account for our actions that did or didn't work toward entering His rest? I know I'm not, but I'm trying.

Too Heavenly Minded

My son, David, sent me this piece he wrote. "If it's any good, I thought maybe your readers might be interested." It's good. So here it is.
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Anyone that has spent any time in church knows someone that is just so theologically minded that they seem to do nothing but spout scripture verses for any situation. We often roll our eyes at that person and think they don’t do much that’s of use in this world because they are too concerned with their theology to actually apply it. Too heavenly minded to do any earthly good. Logically, it makes sense. What good is all that theology if it doesn’t do anything for those around them? But biblically, that’s exactly how we’re supposed to be.

In my NASB, 2 Peter 1 has a heading “Growth in Christian Virtue”. Starting in the second half of verse 1:

To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

Now, there is a lot of theology that is in there, but this is just the beginning of my argument that there is no such thing as “too heavenly minded”. Notice HOW grace and peace are multiplied to us, “…in the knowledge of God…”. Knowledge of God increases our grace and peace.

Chapter 1 goes on to list a sequence of actions that grow on each other when practiced: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Each one allows the next to grow. The more we know about God, the more we are able to control ourselves. The more we control ourselves, the more we are able to persevere through the trials in our lives. The more we persevere, the more we grow in godly living. The more we grow in godliness, the more we practice brotherly kindness because we are able to see our fellow believers as our family. As we demonstrate brotherly kindness we develop love.

The chapter goes on to say that if we practice these qualities we will not prove useless or unfruitful, but if we don’t practice them, we lose sight of where we were before Christ, and forget the cleansing work of His work. As we grow in them, we grow in our diligence to affirm our calling and election, and will stop stumbling. Ultimately, they will hold open the entrance to the Kingdom of God supplied by Jesus.

According to 2 Peter 1, there is no such thing as being too heavenly minded to do any earthly good because the more heavenly minded we are, the more we are able to do in God. The next time your brother or sister starts to talk about what they think about God, or what they found in the Bible, don’t roll your eyes and smile and nod. Remember that you were lost, but now are saved. You have been given the chance to know your Savior and learn more and more about Him, which in turn will make you a better person.