Sunday's One Another Commands
Submit to One Another
Ephesians 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
~ Apostle Paul
Pondering Point
Part of submitting to Jesus and picking up our cross is a willingness to submit to others around us for the sake of Jesus. This is not because the other person deserves it, but rather because Jesus asks for and deserves such compliance. This is where reverence for Christ becomes real – in practicing obedience to Christ in relationships with others. Paul didn’t say it would be easy, but it is godly.
Prayer
Father God, I commit to submit to You in all things. Lord Jesus, teach me how to practice complete submission as You did. Holy Spirit, grant me strength, wisdom and patience to follow through under Your leadership – in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
Like many of my fellow Americans, I did not believe the gospel of the kingdom. I didn’t yet trust (that's what it means to believe) that Jesus was a master teacher, an astute observer of the human condition, and that his teachings were not just right but were the best way to live. It wasn't until I started to dabble in minimalism …and it immediately unleashed a flood of joy and peace in my life that I started to take Jesus' teachings on money seriously. I can still remember the afternoon where it hit me like a freight train: Jesus was right. Daaaaang... There is actually a better, freer way to live.
~ J.M. Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, p. 194
For further contemplation during Holy Week, we suggest meditating on sections from the New testament letter to the Hebrews. Today’s piece is Hebrews 10:1-18.
Hebrews 10:1-18
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”[a]
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”[b]
17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”[c]
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Footnotes:
[a] Hebrews 10:7 Psalm 40:6-8 (see Septuagint)
[b] Hebrews 10:16 Jer. 31:33
[c] Hebrews 10:17 Jer. 31:34