• Believe that we, or our pastor/denomination/spiritual leader cannot be fooled.
• Attribute every personal testimony and “sign” as being of or from God.
• Take Bible verses out of context.
• Believe that we, as Christians, are not to judge anything or any one. Not necessarily in that order.

Suzuki told his friends that he was going to search for Lt. Onoda. Where so many others had failed, Suzuki succeeded. He found Lt. Onoda and tried to convince him that the war was over. Onoda explained that he would only surrender if his commander ordered him to do so.

Suzuki traveled back to Japan and found Onoda’s former commander, Major Taniguchi, who had become a bookseller. On March 9, 1974, Suzuki and Taniguchi met Onoda at a preappointed place and Major Taniguchi read the orders that stated all combat activity was to be ceased. Onoda was shocked and, at first, disbelieving, but he finally emerged from the dark recesses of the island on March 19, 1972, 29 years after the 2nd World War had ended.

For many Christians, the war still isn’t over. We still fight the battles and skirmishes against this world, and the evil forces that control it, we hid in the jungle of this world conducting a guerilla warfare against our enemies, often hurting innocent bystanders who are not our enemies.

Today it is time to emerge from the jungle and meet our commanding officer, the Lord Jesus, so He can tell us “the War is over…please come out, for I have won the victory for you, 2000 years ago on Calvary!”

Why do we insist on fighting and battling in our own strength?

That seems to me to sum up beautifully what a Christian life is. This verse comes but a few verses after those which tell us how Paul went through a terrible experience in Asia when he was utterly, unbearably crushed so that he despaired of life itself. Out of that time of terrible pressure that came upon him, that awful sense of conflict that was his, he writes these marvelous words. The verse spotlights the truth that victory is the normal life for a believer.

I have heard the following controversial subject debated, “Was Jesus crucified on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?” There is some evidence for a day other than the traditional Friday. But what difference does it make, even if it is settled? To be devisive and separate oneself from other believers because of that, is ridiculous, yet there are people, even within our own small congregation who do that.

Another example is the debate going on today about whether the Shroud of Turin was the burial robe of Jesus or not. Again, it is an interesting question and it merits some discussion. But it does not merit controversy or argument or heated debate, because even if it proves to be the genuine burial robe of Jesus, how are we better off because of that? Those are what Paul calls foolish, moronic debates. Have nothing to do with them!

But what the apostle is saying to Timothy is that there are certain kinds of controversies he must never get involved in. “Have nothing to do with them,” Paul says. There are two kinds particularly - foolish controversies, and senseless controversies.

The word that is translated “foolish” in this passage here is the word moros, from which we get our word, moron. Paul is talking about moronic controversies, foolish, trivial matters which, even when they are settled after long and loud debate, do nothing for you. They do not advance the Christian cause in the smallest degree. They should never be allowed to become controversies and have people divide over them.

Then the second word is translated “ignorant.” This word really means unlearned, arising out of ignorance.

As such it refers to questions that are basically insoluble; we do not know enough to answer the questions that are being asked. Take, for example, the mode of baptism in the early church. Many people have angrily debated that. They are sure they are right and can prove that the early Christians immersed people. But another crowd says, “No, they sprinkled them,” or “poured water over them.” That has been hotly debated, even to the point of trying to determine whether they put them face down forward, or three times backward. I have heard ministers declare from the pulpit that unless a person does not go through total immersion they cannot be saved, and they are going to Hell! (I ask this then: What about the thief on the cross? He wasn’t baptised and Jesus declared that this unfortunate man would, that same day, be with Him in Paradise!)

I am of the opinion that you cannot prove from the Greek text of the New Testament what was the mode of baptism employed, although you can do so from various versions because they are translated with a bias. But when you get back to the original language there is no way of knowing. I think that is deliberate, because it is not important! We put too much stress on symbols and on carrying through a certain ritual, meanwhile forgetting the great reality behind it which God wants us to know.

Just the other day I was listening to a sermon preached by Ray Stedman back in 1985. What Ray brought to my attention was surely one of the most astounding promises in the Scriptures…

I have always read this passage, and thought that we ordinary humans are somehow so capable that we can actually do greater things than the Son of God Himself did, when He was here in the flesh, but what I learned was that Jesus was really saying here is that as the risen Lord, who dwells in us by means of the Spirit, He will do greater things through us than He did when He was here in the days of His flesh.

But what precisely are these “greater things”? Obviously these can’t be greater miracles. Can you think of anything greater than opening the eyes of those born blind or speaking a word and enabling a lame man to walk or raising the dead? Definitely not! Then what are these greater things?

The only answer that makes any sense at all is that they are greater in their significance and importance. They are spiritual accomplishments rather than physical. Anything done to the spirit of a person is far more significant than something done to the body.

If you read the account of Jesus’ ministry, the crowds followed Him when He did those amazing wonders, yet when you come to the end of His life, where are all the crowds? Where are the hundreds He healed? They are gone. Only a handful of people stood at the foot of the cross. His miracles did not change people -  they merely touched the surface of their lives!

Isn’t it distubing how the ones whom Jesus healed, would not stand with Him through the agony of the cross, but that when the disciples went out and preached in the power of the Spirit, on and after Pentacost, they won converts by the thousands? When the testing came, these men and women were willing to be devoured by wild animals, to be tortured, and to be burned alive rather than deny Jesus?

Those are “greater things”. Anything done to the spirit of a person is permanent; that which is done to the flesh is merely temporary. All those whom Jesus healed or raised from the dead died again. So what is done to the spirit of a person is far greater, and this is what Jesus means by “greater works.”

Here Paul is answering the question that every Christian asks at one time or another: “Can believers go on sinning?” Paul’s answer is an emphatic, “Absolutely not!”

We cannot go on sinning because we have died, have been buried, and have risen again with Jesus, and therefore we too may live a new life. If we are true Christians, there will be a noticeable change of our behavior, because of a radical change of government. Paul is saying that if we continue to go on living as we were before we became Christians, then our profession of Christianity is false!

There must be a change, and there will be, if there has been a change in the heart. In verses 5-10 Paul uses the metaphor of grafting to explain the deeper revelation of what has happened to us. “For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].” [Amplified]

In other words Paul is telling us that we cannot pick and choose! We cannot die with Christ and not be raised with Him! If we have died with Him, you must be risen with Him as well!

Paul uses a gardening term here. The word “becoming one” means “to graft a branch into another.” Fruit farmers take a branch from a nectarine tree and graft it into a peach tree. The branch is tied together in such a way that the life from the trunk of the tree flows into the branch and they grow together until finally you can’t tell the difference between the graft and the natural branch. The life is fully shared. This is the figure Paul is using here to describe our tie with the Lord Jesus. His life becomes our life. We are no longer in Adam. The tie with the life of Adam is totally broken. We are now in Christ, and He is our life from now on.

There is a trap in traditional language. “No room in the inn” has taken on the meaning of “the inn had a number of rooms and all were occupied” in other words, the “no vacancy sign” was already “switched on” when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem. But the Greek word does not refer to “a room in an inn” but rather to “space” (topos) as in “there is no room my desk for my new computer”. It is important to keep this correction in mind as we turn to the word we have told was an “inn”.

The Greek word in Luke 2:7, that is commonly translated “inn” is katalyma. This is not the ordinary word for a commercial inn. In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) the Samaritan takes the wounded man to an inn. The Greek word in that text is pandocheion, namely a commercial inn.

If Luke expected his readers to think Joseph was turned away from an “inn”, he would have used the word pandocheion, which meant a commercial inn, but in Luke 2:7 it is a katalyma that is crowded!

What then does this word mean?

Literally, katalyma is simply “a place to stay” and refers to many types of shelters. There are three choices: An inn (the English translation tradition), house (Arabic tradition of more than 1000 years,) and guest room (Luke’s choice)

Luke uses katalyma on one other occasion in his Gospel, in Luke 22, Jesus tells his disciples:

Here, the keyword, katalyma, is defined; it is “an upper room,” which is clearly a guest room in a private home. This precise meaning makes perfect sense when applied to the birth story. In Luke 2:7, Luke tells his readers that Jesus was placed in a manger (in the family room) because in that home the guest room was already full.

If at the end of Luke’s Gospel the word katalyma means guestroom attached to the private room (Luke 22:11), why would it not have the same meaning in the beginning of his gospel? It is a little doubtful whether the familiar translation “in the inn” is correct. It is possible that Joseph had relied upon the hospitality of some friend in Bethlehem, whose guestroom however was already full when he and Mary arrived.

Jesus through Middle-Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey

In Chapters 4 and 5 of Ephesians, we see that the Apostle Paul comes to grips with our constant urge to lie, to steal, to gossip, to be hateful and bitter with one another. He deals at length, frankly and forthrightly, and every way, he brings Christian truth right down into life, and shows us how to live in a sick society,  dealing with such matters as climbing divorce rates, spreading teenage rebelion, the political squabbles within the government,  and all the pressing issues of our day. This passage brings us right to grips with these very conflicts.

What does Scripture have to say on these matters? Well, the amazing thing is, that what the inspired apostle has to say as to the solution of all conflicts between individuals can be put into one brief sentence. That is exactly what he does:

Here Paul is dealing with the basic remedy for all the conflicts in our day.

What approaches do we noramlly use to solve the social issues of our day? First, we must somehow gain the attention of the public to this problem. Then we must get an appropriation from some funding body, private or governmental. Then a committee must be appointed to go into the matter and to study it thoroughly. Then the committee must publish its report. After the report is out, and we have all studied it, then we proceed to organize pressure blocks and boycotts and pickets and other methods of bringing pressure on the right people to correct the abuses which exist.

But this is in direct contrast that with what Paul says in Ephesians: The solution is always addressed to individuals. Start where you are by doing one simple thing: “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

When I am at odds with another person, no matter where it is – or who it is – to be aware that Christ is there too will make me aware of what He has shown me and what He has taught me.  It is only when I forget myself and devote myself to another’s fulfillment, that I will find my own heart running over with grace and glory and satisfaction.

This is exactly what Paul means: “Subject yourselves to one another, out of reverence for Christ.” The world is waiting to see a demonstration of this. They do not understand this kind of action, and they cannot grasp its importance until they see it in action among Christians.

Excerpts from “Christian Relationships” by Ray C. Stedman

• First, can you tell the difference between right and wrong, especially when right looks wrong, and wrong looks right? Have you learned how to use Scripture so as to tell the difference?
• Second, can you translate Scripture into right conduct? Have you learned how to apply what you read to your own life, so that it changes you and you end up doing the right instead of the wrong? Or do you constantly find yourself thinking you are doing the right thing and end up by looking back and finding that you have made a mistake again. That shows you do not know the Word of God.
• The third test is: Can you teach others? Are you able to help someone else? Or have you been a Christian all these years and you still do not know how to teach anyone else, but you need yourself to be taught the first principles of the Word of God.

(from “What to do while waiting” By Ray C. Stedman May 1969)