Saturday, July 27, 2013

Jesus Never Sinned: Part One - The 10 Commandments

I think we don't completely appreciate the sinless life that Jesus lived. He never committed those "little" sins that we don't really think about or we may not even consider to be a "real" sin. Think about the most menial, tiniest, expected, common, "least-damning" (sarcastically speaking) sin you could imagine, and realize that Jesus never did it or even came close.

I was going to try and make a mini-series out of this and post in detail about one particular sin he never committed every day for one week, but that causes me to, dare I say, dive so deep into scripture that I would not come out on a timely basis. Because then I have to define each sin, find the Greek and Hebrew meaning of words and what they translate into today, find out what is and is not included in certain sins, etc. So I may not give each act he never committed its proper spotlight, but I think a list will suffice in getting my point across.

Let's start with the 10 Commandments:
No, that's not Jesus...that's Moses. But you know all those Bible characters look alike....

1. Jesus never put anything before God. Yes that sounds weird since he is God. But remember, the Bible says even when he was 12 years old, he was always "about His Father's business". (Luke 2:49). We are a long way off from this. A very long way off. The first thing I do in the morning is check my Facebook and Instagram...

2. Jesus never worshiped an idol/graven image. I wasn't sure what to say about this one, but it just occurred to me. Jesus has seen the Father. He is the only person who knows what he looks like who lived on Earth and could, in theory, erect an accurate statue or some sort of depiction of God the Father while He was here on Earth. But he didn't.

3. Jesus never misued God's name in vain. Yes, also a weird one because He is God. But if you think about it, he was human and did not give into the many temptations he dealt with. If he did, the name of Jesus would have no significance because he would have had sin in him, thereby making all of his efforts to save mankind in vain. So, by staying true to who he was and what he came to do, everything he did was not in vain. (kind of a stretch on describing this one)

4. Jesus kept the Sabbath holy. This one is interesting because the Pharisees gave Jesus grief for healing on the Sabbath, which was considered "work", but Jesus challenged their views on it and showed mercy to people any day of the week. Not much else for me to say on this one. If you want more explanation, check out http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~cmadd01/healsabb.html

5. Jesus honored his father and mother. Both his earthly father and mother, and his Heavenly Father. He never made his parents look bad. Most children begin a rebellious phase around their pre-teen years but he was in the temple teaching the teachers. That's the only written record we have of Jesus' youth, but we still know he never dishonored his parents. I wonder if he ever corrected his parents on what they thought was good advice for Him. In fact, I wonder if Mary and Joseph just stopped trying to teach him how to live because He already had his life in order.

6. Jesus never murdered anyone. Moving on...just kidding. Jesus said himself that anger with someone without cause is the equivalent of murder in God's eyes. That without cause part is important, because the first thought that came to my head was "Hey! Jesus flipped those tables in the temple because he was angry! Why can he do that?". He, of course, had proper cause to be angry. They turned His Father's house into a market. He even flipped over the money table! I'd be scared of angry Jesus...he was a carpenter! People who build things are usually pretty strong...Could you imagine? You just pissed off the creator of the universe! And he can beat you up! But He didn't...

So he was never angry at anyone without proper cause. Again, we cannot relate. If anything, we can probably instantly think of people we dislike for no apparent reason. I know I can.

The more I type all of this, the more I realize how bad we really are...

7. Jesus never committed adultery. Ahh...good old adultery. The sin that all churchgoers say "well...yeah I've done that. I think everyone has" as if that makes it any less sinful. And I'm not talking about cheating on your spouse. Of course Jesus never did that, he was never married. Im referring to "looking with lust". We know he dealt with "sinners" on a regular basis and interacted with prostitutes a few times. We can assume at least some of them were good-looking. And although its not said specifically, I doubt when Jesus told them, "go and sin no more", he was staring at their backside as they left, thinking to himself "check her out, I want me some of that...". I can safely assume this never happened because if we know that Jesus never sinned, these thoughts could have never entered his mind. Plus, would it make sense for the creator of the universe to be tempted by his own creation?

8. Jesus never stole anything. 12-year-old Jesus never stole a piece of fruit from the open-air markets. (I'm picturing Disney's Aladdin right now). We also know that we can "steal" from our employers by not doing our jobs while on the clock. So while Jesus was a carpenter, its safe to assume that he was the best employee anyone could ask for. He probably showed up on time every single day, worked his butt off, and never complained about work.

9. Jesus never lied. Every single thing that came out of his mouth was true. He made some big claims and bold statements.

10. Jesus never coveted. He never coveted the fact that maybe another carpenter in his city might be getting more business than he is. He never coveted another man's wife; he was happy being single and serving God. He knew His life was going to end in agonizing pain, separation from God and ultimately spending time in Hell. With all of this, he never coveted someone else's comparatively easy life. He did ask that there could be some other, less painful way, but in the end dealt with what he came to do.

Another way to think of this is almost the inverse. Jesus never did the things he wasn't supposed to do. But he also did everything he was supposed to do. He said that the commandments are summed up into "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself." By not doing these, we are sinning. And since Jesus never sinned, he never stopped doing these; he never stopped loving God or his fellow man/woman. Everything He did was a reflection of His love for God and a reflection of His love for us.   

I'm going to have to stop there because this could go on forever. I will do a part 2 to this topic at a later date because honestly it's kind of fun. This may have been discouraging to some because most of us have committed all of these sins, but the good news about Jesus' perfection is that he represents us when God judges us, making us perfect. But we must follow Him. More on what it means to follow Him (God-willing) in my next post. Who knows, I might feel like talking about something else, again. Just be ready to read the next post!

And please, if you enjoy this at all, let me know! Leave a comment, give me some positive/negative criticism, and share it with your friends.

Also, feel free to suggest a topic!


Until next time. Keep on keepin' on, readers. 

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Christianity and Sports


It happened already. 3 posts in and I've already veered off of what I was going to talk about. Right Living will come, don't worry. But for now, I wanted to talk about something that I've been thinking about for a long time that no one seems to say when it comes to sports and the outcomes of competition. 

If you ask someone if God cares about who wins a sporting event (lets use football), you generally get one of two answers:

"God doesn't care about who wins a football game! He is concerned about more important things! Football doesn't really matter." 

"God wanted that team to win because (insert player here) is a Christian."


You knew I was talking about this guy...

Remember Tim Tebow? Remember when every single success on his part was attributed to divine intervention? That seemed to make sense considering how bad he is/was at the quarterback position. People credited God for his successes (partially because there really was no other explanation...he could barely throw a spiral), but what about now? He spent a season on the bench with the New York Jets, and then they released him. Sports commentators were discussing whether Tebow would ever play NFL football again. I'm sure some football fans sarcastically said, "Hey Tebow! Where is your God now?" (Yes, I know he just got picked up by the Patriots.)

So what happened? Was God a fan of the Broncos for one year and jumped off the bandwagon? What about all of the other teams with Christians? If Adrian Peterson and the Vikings plays against Tim Tebow and the Broncos, who does God pick? They can't both win. (yes, Adrian Peterson is a Christian too). Is God on a team's side when they lose? Does God even care about the result of a sports competition anyways?


Does God favor Adrian Peterson over Tim Tebow? That's only if stat sheets are indicative of God's favor
God's plan definitely uses the scoreboard, but I don't think He has a favorite team. I highly doubt that Jesus is sitting in Heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, wearing a Baltimore Ravens jersey right now. (Or a Miami Heat jersey...btw go Lakers)

Let's be real. God has a grand plan for humanity. His plan spans every single event that takes place on this Earth. And that plan does not include Christians winning every sporting event they participate in. Just because you say a prayer before the game does not mean you're guaranteed the victory. I cannot stand hearing coaches tell their players "they may be tough, but we have God on our side" like he is the invisible man on the field ready to help you win the game. Because I'm sure there are plenty of games where both teams are praying that same prayer. What if God's plan is that you lose the game? No one ever says that. Its always either "God gave so-and-so the victory and rightfully so because so-and-so is a true Christian!" or the Christian community goes silent on the topic of sports. 

It's like we think we deserve the victory, but what if there is a greater, more important victory waiting for us on the other side of that loss, such as an opportunity to share the gospel with someone who would not have heard it if you won the game because you would have occupied with other things due to winning? Don't get me wrong, its great to see the winners get down on one knee, point to the sky, and thank God on camera after the victory - there's no doubt that God gets the glory there.

But what if Tebow's new "position" on the bench gave him the opportunity to share the gospel to his teammates in ways he could not have before because he would have been too busy as a starter? God still gets the glory, just in a different way that isn't in front of any cameras. And which is better? Thanking God in front of millions on live TV, or leading a teammate to Christ? During one, Christians around the world are vibing with you, and you can bravely say that you are not ashamed of your beliefs on while secular TV (Romans 1:16 -  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes) For the Hypotehical Tebow situation, the angels in heaven rejoice over the new believer (Luke 15:10 - there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents...). God has legions of angels, so technically, the second situation will bring on a bigger "cheer from the crowd" if that's what we are going for. Regardless, both are equally importantmoments and a Christian in either situation should always remember to put God first and/or thank Him for the victory.

By the way, I'm not saying that backup football players are just sitting around all day with time to talk, I'm just making a point.

What if while I was playing golf this weekend, instead of doing great and reminiscing on all of my great shots on my way back to the car, I instead hit all of my golf balls in the water hazard (which I sadly almost did on the first hole). That causes me to end my round early and run into a staff member on the way back to my car. We get into a conversation because I have some extra time on my hands due to my short round of golf, and we end up talking about Christianity, and that leads him to read the Bible on his own and eventually come to faith. My horrible score on the course is now the reason that I got to interact with this person. While I understand that this too is a big hypothetical situation, I can guarantee that a similar story is behind hundreds of thousands of conversions. How many people did Jesus "run into" on his way somewhere?

1 Corinthians compares athletes to Christians, stating that "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever" (1 Corinthians 9:25). Keep in mind, God did not put us on this Earth to win trophies or "crowns" as the verse says. Our victory is not always reflected by numbers on the scoreboard. However, our attempts to win these trophies are divinely intertwined with His will. We don't know His plan, but "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

So whether our favorite teams, our favorite athletes, or we ourselves win or lose a game, realize that there is something much bigger and much more important happening. God's will - His good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2) - is taking place, and it includes so much more than sports victories. It uses sports victories, and He can use a win or a loss to forward his plan.