Ryan Hale

We frequently name Jesus as Savior. We frequently call him Lord, even if we don’t necessarily treat him that way. But we rarely call him Creator.

Instead, I think because he showed himself on the earth later in the form of a man, we don’t necessarily think of Jesus as our creator. Yet as we read the beginning of John 1, that is how we see him described:

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:3

And then a few verses later, it says this:

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

John 1:10-11

Jesus created us. Jesus gave form to all things. He is our author, he is our creator. But he is also our judge, and he is the one who will come to save those who have believed in him. And finally, he has all authority in heaven and on earth and he is the King over all kings.

Jesus is the one from whom all things were made. Jesus is the one for whom all things were made. And Jesus is the one from whom and through whom all things were made. Through him are all things.

Peter wraps up his second letter to the believers of his day by warning them that there will be scoffers. How right he was, both in his day as well as in ours.

Peter says that there will be people who will say that your faith is useless, based upon made up stories.

There will be people who will say that it is full of unmerited hope.

There will be people that will say that nothing has changed. Everything is continuing just as it always has. They will say that your belief in a God or a savior is ridiculous.

But then he reminds his readers that these people are thinking as humans think. They are not taking the perspective of God. God is patient. God is kind. He desires that people would come to repentance. He desires that people would leave behind their sins and their old way of life to come to him through Christ. And it is for this reason that Jesus has not yet returned. It is the grace, the mercy, and the kindness of God. Otherwise, instead of grace and mercy, the time of judgment and wrath would be upon us.

Peter explains that God is not being slow. God is being extremely patient.

But, he says, beyond the scoffing that we must endure, Peter also explains that there will be many distortions that people will apply to the Scriptures. He specifically referred to the writings of Paul, which he had clearly read because he says that Paul writes the same way in each of his letters. Peter says that people will distort that which Paul has written – which are the same letters that we have even today – just as they have distorted the other Scriptures, that of the law and the prophets:

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

2 Peter 3:15-16

This stuck out to me specifically today as I read these words after having read a letter from someone with whom we’ve been part of the same church, the same body of Christ, and yet have gone on to distort the scriptures. They’ve said that there are resources that will help us see a theology and justification for living a homosexual lifestyle. They’ve said that they have personal thoughts for a seemingly biblically justifiable reasons for divorce.

And they make it all sound OK. In doing these things, in admitting their homosexuality, in getting divorced, all of the present problems go away. Health problems: gone. Relational problems: much better. This is the right path. This is the way to go.

And yet, it is all an incredible distortion that may feel good either in the moment or over a period of time, but will do nothing more than eventually come to ruin.

Twisting the word of God to make it say what you want it to say? I’m sorry, that is a distortion.

Contorting yourself with your logic to come to a conclusion that you are in good standing with God to be able to divorce your husband or your wife? No doubt, it is a distortion.

These thought processes are rampant in our world today. It would be one thing if someone said that they are leaving their faith in Christ altogether because they no longer want to live the way in which we are called to live in God. But that isn’t what is happening. In this situation, and in many, many others, there is a desire to justify ourselves, distorting that which is written and is known to be true so that we can place ourselves and our opinions at the highest place of authority while continuing to say that we are justified before God. And that is a distortion of what is written.

We should instead read and understand the word of God clearly, submitting ourselves to God and what he has to say. Only in this way can we find the true life that he offers to us, without reservation, and without distortion.

And yet, I can’t finish writing my thoughts on the distortion of the word of God without saying that God remains patient. Even for those who are distorting the word of God; even for those who are leading others in the direction that will come to ruin; even with these people God is being patient. He desires that they will repent and that they will return back, that they will turn and come to Christ. God desires that everyone would be saved. God, we pray that even those who are distorting the word of God would return to you so that distortion and lies would no longer reign over each of their lives, but that the truth of Jesus would be the only way.

Sometimes, there is real money involved. Hard cash. Gold and silver.

That was the case with Balaam, a prophet who heard from God and was called by Balak, the king of Moab, to come and curse the Israelites who had been wandering in the wilderness and had now come into the Moabite territory. Balak was afraid for his people, and probably most of all for his rule as king over the Moabites, so he called for Balaam to come and curse the Israelites.

Yet when Balaam came in response to Balak’s invitation, instead of cursing the Israelites, he blessed them three times. He even gave a prophecy that the Messiah would come to crush the Moabites through these Israelite people.

God told Balaam that the Israelite people were blessed and that he could not curse them. They were blessed because they were God’s people. The very God that Balaam was calling upon to curse the Israelites was the God of the Israelites. God would not curse them.

Yet Balak was still holding out a great reward and Balaam wanted the money. If God wouldn’t curse these people, was there another way? Yes, of course there was and Balaam told the Moabites what to do:

They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people.

Numbers 31:16

Balaam, instead, advised Balak and the Moabites to use the women of the Moabites to entice the Israelite men to come and sleep with them.

And so that that is what they did. The Israelite men went with the Moabite women who had prostituted themselves to the Israelite men and lured them away from the blessing of God. The Israelites ignored the commandments of God and instead went with the Moabite women, not only sleeping with the prostitutes but also offering sacrifices to Baal Peor, the god of the Moabites. They no longer worshiped Yahweh, their God who had blessed them, but they also began to worship this Baal, this lord and master of the Moabites.

With all of this as background, we can now see why Peter, later, warned the believers that there would be false teachers and false prophets that would come in amongst the people and lure them away. Just as Balaam had given good advice on how the enemies of the Israelite people could lure the Israelites away from God, there are also people, even today, that love money and prefer to lure the people away from Biblical teachings so that they can receive a monetary reward.

They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

2 Peter 2:15

These “wages of wickedness” that Peter refers to are the monies that Balaam would have ultimately received for advising the Moabites in regard to how they could destroy the Israelites. Their destruction would come when they were separated from their God, from whom they would walk away to not only fall into sexual sin, but begin to worship Baal Peor instead of the one true God, Yahweh.

As Peter has warned the people in his time, we must watch for these people in our day as well. There is an evil, fueled by the desire for the things of this world, the riches and pleasures of our world today, that lurks around the church even today. There are teachers who wish to neuter the power of the Gospel, suggesting that we can “sprinkle in some Jesus” to our doctrines while continuing to strive for our own salvation, ultimately making ourselves our own gods. There are false prophets who tell us that, if we believe, we can become rich, enjoying even ourselves the wages of the evil of our world. We too can prosper if we follow them.

So we must continue to follow the path of Christ. We must maintain our faith in the grace and mercy offered to us by God through the sacrifice of his Son on the cross. The one sacrifice that has purchased us, that ransomed us, out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God. This is the way, and it is the only way. May we not look to the wages of wickedness of our world so that we would be lured away, but instead would be found to be faithful in Christ.

The disciples had a front row seat. Peter was there, not only when Jesus drove out demons, or preached the Sermon on the Mount, or when he was baptized, but Jesus also allowed him to be there when Jairus’s daughter was raised from the dead, during the gut-wrenching moments of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, or on the mountain at the transfiguration.

These were things that Peter saw. He heard Jesus speak. He sensed. He felt. He knew what he was seeing, and I can only imagine that he was having a hard time believing his own eyes, his own ears, or any of his other senses.

But the story was his. He could tell the story because he was there. Sometimes the story happened to him. Sometimes the story happened around him. And then he went on to tell the story, and that is Peter’s point now as he begins his second letter to the believers, those other people who had received the gift of having faith in Christ and were saved from the coming wrath of God. He was a witness:

For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

2 Peter 1:16-18

Peter and the rest of the disciples may have had a certain advantage. They were there when Jesus walked the earth. They experienced all of it. They saw it all.

But does that mean that we are underprivileged and that we are not able to experience Christ in a similar way to Peter and the disciples? Can we not also know Christ?

Yes, we can. If we want to.

Yes, we can. If our faith goes beyond words.

Yes, we can. If our experience of Christ exists within the community of Christ, but also goes beyond the community to the risen and living person of Jesus, to our Lord and Savior who is also called our friend, our brother, our co-heir of the inheritance from our heavenly Father.

Jesus promised his disciples that he would be with them. He is also with us. He walks with us. As we go, he is there. As we read his word each day, we receive him. We soak him in. We live a life with Christ, and we see him move and work within our daily experiences.

We are also his witnesses. Peter and the other disciples were there when Jesus was physically here on the earth. We also are here now because, in us, Jesus is spiritually here on the earth. Not in the metaphorical way. In a real way. Through the word of God and through his Spirit. We can also experience Jesus, and we can also tell the stories of how he has changed us, or how he has changed our circumstances, or how he has moved in people or in situations around us. We are eyewitnesses to these things as well. We have seen it, and we, like Peter, testify to his majesty so that he will receive glory for both who he is and what he has done.

Peter finishes his letter to the Christians all across present-day Turkey with a greeting from “She who is in Babylon…”:

She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

1 Peter 5:13-14

We don’t know precisely what Peter means by this. Was he literally in Babylon, the general area of present-day Baghdad in Iraq? Maybe, but probably not likely.

Was he in Jerusalem? Possibly in Rome? Again, maybe.

Does it precisely matter where he was? No, not necessarily. Peter is giving greetings to the rest of the church, the people of God and believers in Christ who were scattered throughout the various provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. And he was greeting them on behalf of “she”.

Who is “she”?

Peter was likely referring to the church where he was located. Yet Peter says that he is in Babylon. What is he talking about?

Babylon was a place that, Biblically, was in opposition to God and his people. Babylon was the kingdom that came, even as part of God’s plan, to destroy Jerusalem and from Jerusalem, the Israelite people were carried off into captivity.

But now, Peter finds himself in a place that stands in opposition to God and his people, and yet the church, God’s people, continue forward.

And so this is a lesson for us. The world is not the church’s friend. The world stands in direct opposition to the people of God. The world, like the kingdom of Babylon, seeks to destroy all that belongs to God. As far as the thinking of the world and its systems go, anyone that is in Christ, anyone that is worshiping him and not the systems of our world should be destroyed. We should not be confused about this. This is the nature of the kingdom of darkness. It wants no part of the kingdom of God and will not willingly for it to continue to move forward.

And yet, the people that find themselves within this kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, within “Babylon” itself, are not our physical enemies. They, along with each of us, are precisely the people for whom Jesus came to give his life. All of those who stand in opposition, who are enemies of God, are the people that Jesus loved and for whom he violently loved and sacrificed himself. Why? So that he could purchase them away from the kingdom of darkness and ransom them into the kingdom of God. For all that would come, their ransom has been paid.

Peter understands this and that is what he is working for. He is working to take that message to Babylon. So whether Peter finds himself in Jerusalem, in Rome, directly in the city of Babylon, or wherever else, the church is there and is seeking to give the message that Jesus gave himself for them. For Babylon. And this is the same message that Jesus is reminding each of the other churches as he finishes his letter.

These words, “in the same way”, struck me immediately as I read about husbands and wives at the beginning of chapter 3. Peter is referring back something else that he wrote, assuming that you understand what he meant, and now is saying that a wife, and subsequently a husband, should live “in the same way.”

So I thought it was important to look back and make sure I understood what Peter was saying. In the same way as what?

Given that Peter says “in the same way” immediately at the beginning of chapter 3, I looked back to the end of chapter 2. Here is the passage to which I think he is referring:

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake…

1 Peter 2:13

Peter has told us that Jesus is the cornerstone and we are the living stones that make up the rest of the spiritual “house” that God is building. Now, he goes on to explain to us what the “living” part of the living stone actually looks like. He explains how the life that we are living as living stones should look. He says that it should look like submission for the Lord’s sake.

Peter had told the people that they should submit themselves to every human authority…for the Lord’s sake. We don’t live for our own freedom. We live with freedom from sin, offering ourselves as slaves to God so that the Lord would be honored.

The slaves that lived at that time were told to submit themselves to their masters. Christ suffered for each of them so that they would be healed. In the same way, in a way that is difficult for our modern culture and modern ears to hear and understand, Peter calls these slaves to suffer so that the masters might be healed, that they might come to know Christ even through the suffering of their servants.

Now we come to wives and husbands. Peter says “in the same way” once again. He says that submission is the way. Wives are to be submitted to their husbands, but once again, for a reason. That reason is for the Lord’s sake. If their husbands can see the life of their wives in Christ, they may be won over even without words. They see that their wives have changed. They see that they live righteous lives and and will hopefully desire that life also for themselves.

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

1 Peter 3:1-2

And husbands also, “in the same way”, must live lives that are submitted to Christ for the Lord’s sake. Husbands must treat their wives with respect and be considerate so that their wives may be won over to Christ as well. Their wives are co-heirs in receiving eternal life. Just as they have received this life in Christ, so have their wives along with them. No additional benefits, but most certainly there are additional responsibilities for the husbands.

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

1 Peter 3:7

Jesus submitted himself to the will of the Father. He took on the pain, the suffering, and even death so that the Father’s will would be accomplished. He suffered for us, so in the same way, God calls each of us to submission to others so that not only we will inherit the gift of eternal life, but so will many others with whom we are in relationship.

Frequently, as I speak with both new and old Catholic friends, they ask me: “But what about the saints?” We speak of Jesus and our faith in him, but the first discussion that my Catholic friends want to have is with regard to the saints.

They are referring to Peter, James, John, Paul, and many more. And of course we honor them all. They are great examples for us – in the good and in the bad things that they did – but they were men like us. We can read about their successes, but very often we also read about their failures.

Peter both declared Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God and also denied him in the most public of ways of all of the disciples. John was the disciple that Jesus loved, but he also abandoned Jesus and he, along with his brother James and their mother, were strongly rebuked by Jesus for asking for the positions at Jesus’s right and left when he came into his kingdom. Paul planted and discipled churches all throughout present-day Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, and Lebanon, but he also took part in persecuting and killing Christians before Jesus entered his life.

But my Catholic friends will object: Jesus said that his church would be founded upon Peter, the rock. Isn’t he the foundation of our faith?

They are, of course, referring to the time that Peter correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Matthew 16:13-20

But of course, a few minutes later, after having his name changed so that he would be called Peter, he is then called Satan. Wow!

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Matthew 16:21-23

I hope this illustrates the sense in which we cannot place our faith in human beings. We cannot say that people are at the foundation of our faith. In fact, we cannot – we absolutely cannot – hold up a person, neither past nor present, as the one upon which we are building our faith. Neither can we do this upon an individual, nor a collection of individuals. The Catholic church itself, nor anyone who leads the Catholic church, has any authority over the word of God or the Holy Spirit. The Catholic church, despite its claims, cannot provide the meaning for the scripture. Why? Because like Peter, we can sometimes listen correctly to the word of God and the Holy Spirit, and at other times we can completely err in our judgment, just as Peter did when he was more interested in human concerns over the concerns of God. If that can happen to Peter, who himself walked with Jesus, then it can absolutely happen to any of us, or any leader of any church. No doubt whatsoever.

In fact, we should listen to Peter. He was the one that Jesus spoke to and was called the rock upon which Jesus would build his church. How did Peter understand the situation? How did he understand the way that our faith was to be built? Who is the foundation from Peter’s perspective? Let’s listen to him:

As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”

1 Peter 2:4-8

Who is Peter talking about? Peter is writing here and he is not talking about himself. He is talking about Jesus! Jesus is the cornerstone. Jesus is the one upon whom we are founded. Jesus is the foundation upon whom we are built, and we are living stones that are part of the house that God is building.

Is that “house” different from the church? No, the people of God are the church. There is no allowance in the scriptures for the idea that the church somehow sits outside of this collection of people, the people that are being formed into the “house” of living stones.

In fact, this is exactly the point that Peter himself is making. Those that believe are part of this house, and that house is founded upon one single cornerstone: Jesus Christ.

So, was Jesus lying when he said that Peter was the rock upon which he will build his church? No, of course not, but it certainly isn’t the way that the Catholic church has claimed. As we’ve said, Peter himself said that Jesus is the foundation. Jesus is the cornerstone upon which we are all built.

Peter, however, did found the church. How did that happen? Peter was the one who stood up on the day of Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the believers, and preached to the crowds so powerfully with the help of the Spirit that 3000 people came to faith that day.

Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off —for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Acts 2:36-41

Did Christ build his church upon Peter? Yes, absolutely! Was Peter the foundation? Absolutely not. Jesus was the foundation. Peter didn’t preach about himself. He spoke of Christ and the first church was founded in that day.

Then Peter had a vision from Christ in Acts 10 and was the first to go to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. As he was speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon all of the people in Cornelius’s house, and seeing that they had received the Spirit, Peter called for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Acts 10:34-48

Did Christ build his church upon Peter in this instance? Yes, absolutely! Was Peter the foundation? Absolutely not. Peter didn’t preach about himself. He spoke of Christ and the church added Gentiles to the “house”, to the church, as living stones also inserted into the house.

Peter said that Jesus is the cornerstone. Jesus is the foundation upon which the church is founded. Paul confirmed what Jesus said in Colossians 1…

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Colossians 1:17-18

…and in Ephesians 5…

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

Ephesians 5:23

Using the analogy of a body, Paul confirms Peter’s statement. There is one head, Jesus Christ. Not Peter. Not Paul. Nor any other “saint”. Jesus, and him only, supreme over all. He is the cornerstone of our faith and foundation of the church.

This is all temporary. It will come to an end. The world that we see around us and all of our lives, all that we have worked for, everything will come to and end.

James speaks to the rich people who have oppressed their workers when he says:

Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.

James 5:2

Very often, whether we are rich or we are poor, we find ourselves focusing on those things that are temporary. We focus on the things that are right now. More money. More power. More influence. More fame.

Yet those are all things that are simply destined to pass away. Everything that you can see around you today will one day soon be gone. In fact, you may be gone first, but then it will be gone shortly after.

That which follows and marks our time here on the earth will not be our stuff. Even if you are extremely rich, give it a little time – two or three generations, let’s say – and it will be gone. Wealth has never lasted very long. Companies have never lasted very long. Estates have never lasted very long. We can even look in the rearview mirror and see empires. Even the longest-lasting empires haven’t lasted that long. It is temporary.

So where will we invest? Will we invest in that which is temporary? Or will we invest in the eternal? Our investment in the temporary is nothing but foolishness. But our investment in the eternal is wise beyond our years.

Do you intend to praise God and yet quickly also open your mouth to rain down curses upon people? Do you constantly criticize? Do you routinely have negative things to say to others?

This may be the situation to which James is referring.

Here in Sicily, we have rivers that meet the seas. Here in Sicily, we have fig trees. We have olive trees. We also have many grapevines.

And so I could relate fairly easily to what James was saying as he spoke about the person who spoke both praises to God as well as curses to people from the same mouth:

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

James 3:9-12

Obviously, fig trees do not make olive trees. Obviously, grapevines do not produce figs. Obviously, salt springs cannot produce fresh water.

And yet we routinely see and hear curses for people come from the same people who praise God. Anger and bitterness come out of believers toward others. Jealousy and rage. And we somehow consider that to be OK.

No, if we are doing this, we are producing a fruit that shouldn’t be produced. It is the wrong fruit for the tree that is producing that fruit. It is the wrong type of water coming from the spring, and that must change. The plant must produce the fruit that it is intended to produce. The spring must produce the water that it is intended to produce.

We have been made new, having left behind the old person because we are in Christ. We have been united in Christ and we are now living, alive in him. And so we must live as new people, as new creations, as the people that we have been made to be. And we must produce the right kind of fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Is what we are saying full of love? Is what we say full of peace? Is it patient? Kind?

Is it controlled? Are you in control of what you are saying?

This is the type of speech that we, as followers of Christ, must produce. We must praise God in this way and we must speak with others in the same way, remaining consistent with the same Spirit of God in our praise to God and in how we speak with others.

Today, we might look at the stories of the Greek gods as being somewhat silly. Maybe we would consider the stories a type of literature, but that is probably about the end of it.

Yet at the time of Jesus and subsequently Peter, Paul, James, and the other apostles, the Greek gods, who were then also adopted in large part by the Romans, were the predominent religion of the time. There were temples built throughout the Greek and Roman world so that people could take their animals to go and perform sacrifices. The people worshiped these gods through sexual acts with temple prostitutes. And much more…

This was the context, then, for James to call the people into demonstrating their faith in Christ through what they do:

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that —and shudder.

James 2:19

The preaching of the Christians to believe in one God at that time stood sharply in contrast to the prevailing culture. Yes, the Jews also believed in the one, true God, Yahweh. But now, those that followed Christ also understood that God had come to them in the form of a man. Jesus himself was God. One God, yet showing himself in three different ways, as three different persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

James is trying to get his readers to understand: They can’t just believe and say that everything is fine. That isn’t how it works. No, instead, you must act on your beliefs. He, essentially, is saying:

You think that you are in good shape with God because you believe that there is just one God? Well, not so fast… No, don’t forget that the demon KNOW that there is just one God. And they shudder because that one God will wipe them out. That one God will destroy them.

Why? Because they don’t act like they believe. They won’t do what they are called to do. They say that they have faith, which is great, but you don’t see any evidence of their faith. Faith acts. Faith moves. Faith demonstrates itself in the form of specific actions.

That which we believe should change us to such an extent that we should see evidence of the change. There is one God and that God is one in whom we place our faith. And our faith moves us to be changed and to help others do the same.