EPIPHANY • 13

Will You Be My Valentine?

In the 3rd Century CE, Saint Valentine was a priest of Rome who came from the town of Umbria, in central Italy. Legend has it that while under house arrest of Judge Asterius, Valentine talked with him about Jesus. The judge put Valentine to the test and brought to him his blind adopted daughter for healing. God healed the girl and after destroying all the idols in his house, the judge, together with his entire his family and servants, were all baptised. Valentine was later arrested again for continuing to evangelize and was sent to the emperor Claudius II himself. He tried to convince Claudius to follow Jesus. Instead, the emperor refused and challenged Valentine to either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs and beheaded. Valentine refused and was executed for Christ outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14, 269, Valentine’s Day. Valentine, much like many other Christians throughout Church history, was unwavering in his faith and love for Christ, no matter the cost or sacrifice. What would it mean for us, and how would we respond if Our Lord Himself asked you and me today to be His Valentine? This week we focus on loving Christ by bearing his image, carrying his heart, walking by the Spirit and living in the tension between what we see and what God says.

reading for: 16 Feb

Luke 6:27-38

Being Generous, the visible Image of Our Heavenly Father

  • READ

In this part of his Sermon on the Plain, Jesus describes generosity of heart as the main posture for Christians who want to honour God while living in a hostile world. We are called to love our enemies, to bless and give even to those who curse us and take from us. We are instructed to behave in a way considered stupid by many, sowing generosity where nothing is expected to grow. Jesus challenges us to follow Him and be ‘perfect’ as our Heavenly Father is ‘perfect’, and be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful, by living generously towards God and others.

Some people might insist that this way of living, encourages a ‘passive response to violence and evil. The violent person might hurt or abuse you again if you turn the other cheek, the thief might steal again.

Jesus sets before disciples the goal and the gaze. The goal is to become like God and respond to evil like He does. It is based not on what we think is fair or just. It is to trust him for fairness and justice in appropriate measure. James reminds us of the danger of human anger and responding out of it. He says, in James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” It is very hard if not impossible for us to purely act out of Spirit-led anger that is motivated completely by love and mete out a controlled and measured level of correction or discipline without our sinful-nature entering into the mix and tainting our actions with our hurt pride. That’s why the goal must be to love and respond in love, which could include discipline that is free from malice or retribution.

The gaze is with our eyes fixed on God and Christ, the Father’s Representative. Every action and attribute described is connected to God and how he responds to evil and brokenness. It is in the context of being representatives of God & Christ ourselves (v.20, 22) that we can respond to evil with generosity of heart. It’s our constant gaze upon Christ that frees us from look at others, the situation or ourselves.

  • REFLECT

    Read the passage first as a description of how Our Lord, Jesus, clothed in humanity, ‘loved his enemies’, ‘did good to those who hated Him’, ‘blessed those who cursed Him’, ‘prayed for those who abused him’. This was how the Son of Man chose to live in a hostile and violent world that returns good for good, bad for bad, in a never-ending cycle of retribution. God the Father affirmed Jesus’ way of living as the one that was ‘righteous’ before Him by raising Christ from the dead and giving him rulership over all creation.

    Read the passage again, this time as a blessed child of God, with whom Jesus has chosen and to share in his kingdom rule. Hear each command as an invitation to rule with Christ and an empowerment from Him to distribute his grace and mercy to lost and broken people around you.

    Respond in prayer.

reading for: 17 Feb

Gen 45:3-11, 15

Carrying God’s Heart for True Reconciliation for Others

  • READ

    Our passage begins with perhaps the most beautiful biblical scenes of forgiveness and reconciliation. Here in the climax of the Joseph story, where he reveals his identity to his brothers, “I am Joseph” (45:4), everything changes. Everything bad that happened to Joseph is now understood in the light of God’s larger and greater purpose. God has been doing in the whole succession of events in Joseph’s life in order to save both Jacob’s family as well as the people of Egypt from famine.

    The key verse for that purpose might be verse 5, “and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”

    God has been acting in these events for life. The revelation here, incorporated in and carried by Joseph’s self-disclosure, is a revelation of the God of life. Joseph was betrayed, mistreated, handed over to death; unexpectedly revealing himself as alive, he offers forgiveness and a new beginning. What his brothers had intended as an end to Joseph, God has turned into the salvation and life of Egypt and of the whole world.

    True reconciliation is demanding. Joseph’s hard efforts begin with creating a safe space for the work to be done (v. 1). Attentive to his brothers’ dismay at his revelation before them (v. 3), he responds patiently to each of their hesitations and fears. He makes repeat moves to bridge his family’s estrangement, twice identifying himself (v. 3 and 4), twice weeping before his brothers (v. 2 and 16). He draws his siblings near to him; he recalls their common story (v. 4). Joseph sets aside his trappings to meet his brothers where they are. He proves willing to let go of the past and share a new perspective from God with his kin. The brothers respond with fellowship and intimate conversation (v. 15). The alienation of Genesis 37:4 is finally reversed.

  • REFLECT

    How can your love for Christ empower you to reconcile or be an instrument of reconciliation in your family or among friends? Ask the Lord for courage and strength like Joseph to see his larger purposes and calling in your life.

reading for: 18 Feb

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Overcoming the Flesh with Spirit-led Living

  • READ

    In this passage the Apostle Paul addresses two groups of people in the Corinthian church. Group 1 were abusing their bodies through debauchery (6:12), gluttony (6:13), and sexual immorality (6:15–20). This group of Christians were claiming that because they were already justified by grace what they did in their temporal bodily state did not matter. Group 2 were questioning whether the physical human body was raised back to life because they (wrongly) believed that the body was evil whereas the spirit inside was good.

    Using the metaphor of a ‘seed’ he addresses these two misconceptions that continue today. First, he says that because of sin, this earthly body is weak and dishonorable and therefore doomed to perish. The rotting corpse in the grave is certainly not the resurrected body. However, Paul clearly does not see the body as inherently evil. That’s why he can encourage in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 “may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And to the Corinthians he can insist that they “glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20).

    How then do we understand verse 42-50, especially his statement that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom” (15:50)? Here the Apostle is making a big distinction between life according to the flesh and life according to the spirit.

    In Romans 8:13 he tells them, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Our physical bodies are not evil. What is evil is life according to the flesh/sinful nature, a life in opposition to God’s will, one that places confidence in earthly things and human achievements. (See Galatians 5:19-26 for Paul’s clearest teaching on living according to the flesh vs. living according to the Spirit.)

    So, when Paul says that “flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom,” he is saying that living a life that is under the control of sinful nature has no place in the presence of a holy and righteous God and Christ is the model for us to live in the Spirit, which is to live the resurrected life.

    Christ’s resurrected body is both like and unlike his earthly body, recognizable to believers but also transformed. Similarly, the resurrected bodies of believers will be identifiable but transformed, from the image of Adam to the image of Christ. Christ is “from heaven”; Adam is “from the dust.” This is not a contrast between embodiment and disembodied spirituality, but really between two ways of living life. Just as Adam represents a life lived according to the flesh, Christ models the fruits of the Spirit. Believers simply partake of Christ’s resurrection. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (v. 49). We “put on” Christ (Rom. 13:14) and God will transform our lowly body to be like his (Christ’s) glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). Just as we are the body of Christ on earth, at death we shall put on the imperishable and immortal body of Christ.

  • REFLECT

    What is one area of your life the Holy Spirit might be revealing to you as Spirit-led or flesh-controlled? How can you further facilitate the good work that the Holy Spirit is doing in & revealing to you? How can you break free from the control of our sinful nature? (Consider getting 3 other prayer companions and signing up for one morning of Guided Group Prayer offered this coming Lent season)

    Labrador Park (Friday AM) 22 Feb, 11 Mar, 25 Mar or 8 Apr

    Jurong Lake (Saturday AM) 26 Feb, 12 Mar, 26 Mar or 9 Apr

    Register individually or in groups or 4 and appoint a leader for communication. ce@cnl.org.sg.

reading for: 19 Feb

Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40

Living Faithfully in the Tension between Two realities

  • READ

    This Psalm discusses the tensions between the reality of life experiences and God’s proclaimed intentions toward the righteous. As we read it, we feel this great disparity between our struggles as believers and those who commit acts of wrongdoing against us. That’s probably why the psalmist begins the psalm with an instruction to let go of pain and anxiety caused by evildoers. “Fret not yourself because of evildoers.” It is also a reminder to God’s people that they may fall victim to the temptation of not trusting in God’s faithfulness.

    Verses 3 and 4 invite the believer to a multitude of responses: trust, doing good, enjoyment of God’s security, and delighting in the certainty of God’s blessings. The well-being of God’s people have both an eternal as well as present dimension in which the goodness of the earth itself serves as affirmation of God’s faithfulness.

    In verses 5–7, we are remined of the promise of God’s faithfulness. The faithful will experience God’s justifying actions on their behalf in a public and significant way so that their “righteousness (will shine) as the light” (v. 6). Furthermore, believers will also have their actions justified in terms of their intentionality and motives, since “your justice” will be revealed to all. Here we hear echoes of the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20–26). If God’s people encounter life as unjust or under assault from those who commit wrongful actions against them, God’s faithfulness will prevail. Like both New Testament texts, these verses encourage us not to trust in the evidence of daily life, however tragic or difficult, but in the faithfulness of God’s future forms of vindication.

    From verses 8–11, the psalmist addresses the effects of the fretting of the faithful, which he has mentioned twice in verse 1 and 7. Allowing the wrongful acts of others to eat away at one can lead to “anger” and “wrath.” Such responses are not only fruitless, but believers could potentially fall into the same ways as evildoers. Being upset over the actions of others leads only to evil.

    In verses 39 & 40, the wording summarizes all that has gone before. God is the source of salvation, the faithful are rescued from the wicked, and God is the ultimate refuge. The words of assurance stand against the fact that advising the faithful to wait for a better day is one of the most difficult things to do.

    God’s power shows itself in great reversals. If the righteous experience the loss of peace of mind, justice, and land, God will finally restore everything to them no matter what daily experience says to the contrary. Certainly, this is what Christians confess in the reality and triumph of the cross.

  • REFLECT

    Share in your LG an experience you had of trusting in God amidst challenging circumstances that tempted you to take things into your own hands. Pray for one another.

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