Think of this as a road map, a guideline, or even a relational GPS…
9-10Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11-13Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
17-19Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. ROMANS 12.9-21
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end. 8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.11When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
1 Corinthians 13 –> that’s right…the whole chapter
Alright… this is our journey folks… I will see you on FRIDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2009 @ People’s Church … starting at 9.30 Pm..
Come ready for the journey of a lifetime….
blessings—-pastorbrett
5 Comments
February 6, 2009 at 10:39 pm
It seems to me that the message bible is greatly expanding scripture here to make love unrealistic and unobtainable; which is good if you theorize – “shoot for the stars and you’ll land on the moon”, but which is bad if you want things straight.
=Love is patient – greek – far feeling
-doesn’t indicate it NEVER gives up
=Love is kind – greek – mild or kind (present tense)
-a feature of how love comes across, without any reference to how much others are valued. The message in fact violates the second commandment here
=Love is not jealous – greek – does not boil, does not pursue
-it’s alright to want something you don’t have, as long as you don’t focus on it. God doesn’t command our emotions, He commands our thoughts and actions
=Love does not act unbecomingly – greek – indecently
-seems to be more here than just being pushy
=Love doesn’t seek its own
-it means loving those who don’t love you, but loving yourself sometimes means putting yourself first; seems off base
Class starts in 20 minutes, so I’m going to love my students by being prepared. Looking forward to tonight and irked as always by the Message’s slant.
February 7, 2009 at 4:20 am
Okay so I understand how some skeptics can have a fairly harsh opinion of the Message Bible as it is the most contemporary of all the modern translations. But I think there are a few things that need to be understood about The Message, specifically its author Eugene Peterson and the Greek language.
The ancient Greek that needs to be analyzed for a proper word study is Hellenistic Greek. There is classic Greek, which was the language used before 300B.C. Then came Hellenistic Greek, which was used between 300 B.C.-500A.D. Which is also called Koine Greek, the trade language in the day of Jesus. This is the Greek pastors will reference when they preach on the ‘fullness of time’ in which Jesus came. After Hellenistic Greek it went to Byzantine Greek and finally it settle into Modern Greek, which is the language as we know it today. This is important because we must know which kind of Greek we are looking into before we go to a lexicon.
Another issue that must be consider is that a single word of Hellenistic Greek can have a very broad application when translated to English. Take for example the word sarx, used commonly in the greek manuscripts of the Bible. It can be translated as flesh, illness, human effort, sinful nature, man, no one, outwardly, that nature and ordinary way. Translators have to use the cardinal rule of hermeneutics when trying to choose which word they will choose to translate it into. CONTEXT! CONTEXT! CONTEXT!
The problems with some lexicons (Strongs) is that they will give only one meaning of the word when really it can have a far broader application in the English language. To actually study a chapter of the Bible in the original Greek and interpret it appropriately, takes years of studying Greek and knowing the proper lexicons to use as sources. Which brings me to our author of the message, Eugene Peterson.
Eugene is a Professor at Regent College(GO CANADA) as is one of the mostly highly acclaimed biblical scholars of our day. Not only is he radically fluent in the flow and themes of the Biblical narrative he can also understand Hellenistic Greek better then most Americans can understand English. While some critics would argue that ‘The Message’ is not credible because he translated it himself we must also realize he is on the general editors team of The NIV Application Commentary Series. Which is an commentary series so wide spread that some version of it can usually be found in the libraries of pastors all over North America(including People’s Church)
I’m sorry this response was so long. First off there is a lot of work that goes into translating the bible and I needed to address a few bases. I also find it frustrating when critics outside of their field choose to argue with a man that has dedicated his entire life to communicating the truths of the Bible with the up most accuracy.
Grace and Peace.
Kyle Robberstad
February 7, 2009 at 11:55 pm
It’s good to know there are better lexicons than Strongs; I’ve often found definitions in it that seem limited. Given that I don’t have years of training in Greek, I have to made do with the meager resources available. What would be a good alternative to use?
The biggest issue I have with commentaries and paraphrases is the inherent bias they always have. God inspired His Word to have many, many levels of meaning to reach out to the variety of His followers, but I find commentaries to strip away all these levels and focus on the items in tune with the writer’s (conscious or unconscious) theological slant.
Personally, I prefer reading the raw Bible text and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me along the level He wants me to go along at that time. I find with commentaries I spend most of my time trying to figure out the bias to go back to the wholeness of the Word.
The Message strikes me as having a strong bias, some passages being strengthened and others limited. What makes this bias better than the Good News’ bias, or the Mormon’s claim that their translation is the most accurate?
Furthermore, if this is a “better” translation, then where does that leave all the translations for the past 1000 years? Are they flawed? Did God allow us to go without an accurate translation for all that time? Was the Holy Spirit guiding us along the lines of the traditional translations not authentic? Do we have 1000 years of Christians thinking they were saved but actually fooled? (I know this may be a little exaggerated but there does seem to be a slippery slope.)
I appreciate Peterson’s contribution to understanding scripture and I think the Message is very valuable when read the same as any other Christian book – read it, go back to scripture, pray, and then decide whether to accept it or not. I think the danger arises in a wave of new Christians accepting the Message as THE authoritative Christian commentary, and never thinking or praying about the inherent slant.
In truth, my excessive criticism of the Message is probably just a knee-jerk reaction to the excessive acceptance I see all around me.
God bless,
Lorne
February 8, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Strong’s is a fairly good lexicon. For personal use and for a quick reference, I enjoy blueletterbible.org as a source, Its fast and easy. I wouldn’t use it for a legitimate study in a paper though.
When it comes to commentaries its important to never resort to just one. I always use at least 2 or 3 when going through a passage, trying see what are reoccurring themes as well as finding unique observations being made relative to the author of the commentary.
The Message Bible is great for what it was written to do, communicate the principle message of the biblical narrative in the contemporary language of the modern reader. This is our friend Eugnes thesis for writing what he did(the message), as he would make this thesis because the N.T. was written in Hellenistic Greek, which was a very intentional choice for the writers to make, as most of them were Jewish. When it comes to translations there will never be a supreme translation. The quality of the translation is subject to its purpose. For a serious scholarly study, a persons best tool would be a interlinear. For a grade 9 student just learning about a God of Grace, or a person that enjoys a more personable/modern writing style The Message is what I would recommend.
Please don’t get me started on the Mormon Bible though. That text is such a Sh!t Storm when you start to look at what it did to the Greek manuscripts. This is why a team like the one involved in the NIV used atheists to proof read their work to ensure the integrity of their translation(with the exception of some gender issues in the NIVtext, but these have been addressed).
As for the translations in the last 1000 years, we’re fine. The message of the Bible has been well preserved (as one who believes in Holy Spirit should expect). The main problem is what people have done with the gospel over 2000 years of church history. Just look over a history of the Popes, some got it and some didn’t.
Also its true, Eugene’s biases do surface in his work, but surprise surprise he’s human. I’ve read of translation committee’s finding out that they have wasted 300$ dollars in a one hour argument(sum of the hourly wages being earned in that hour) over a MINOR grammatical opinion in one translation. At the end of the day I’m glad Eugene made his contribution to the faith in the way he felt led. He was honest and therefore we should be encouraged to do the same…be honest with the way we see the Faith.
Grace and Peace,
Kyle R.
March 24, 2009 at 3:07 am
Hi. My name is Daniel (as stated above, lol). I was baptized at People’s Church by Ian. And enjoyed fellowship there. Through my faith (and lack-thereof) one thing has remained consistent. The will to do great things, that Our Father would approve of. Not only approved of. But desired. I suppose this is an oxymoron when coupled with the fact that I don’t flee from evil, and remain indifferent to it, if it fulfills my carnal desires. Of course, later, only to be regretted and to hit myself for remaining a “friend of this world”. I just read the book of Hebrews for the first time, as well as Jeremiah. Both these books (along with personal experiences of late) have really re-inspired me to regain my life and take it back from the snares of the Devil. However, I find myself looking at all I have left, with an urgent need to cling to it, like the silly captain of a sinking ship.
I would much rather find something with bouyancy in this drowning world, even if only to cling to, to barely make it out of here alive. I believe that to be Jesus. No. I know that to be Jesus. I suppose what I am going on about, is what if I do the things I feel as though he wants me to do, and I have the same situation then, as I do now, only minus the worldly joy? What if God doesn’t have room for me anymore? In Hebrews it said that it was impossible for a man to regain salvation, after he allows the flame of Christ to burn out inside of him. I want to do right. And to know what IS right.
thank you for your time. God bless.