A worthless person, a wicked man,

                goes about with crooked speech,

winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,

                points with his finger,

with perverted heart devises evil,

                continually sowing discord…

(Proverbs 6.12-14)

The book of Proverbs is full of warnings like this. On the surface, it’s an admonition to be on the lookout for such people, so as to avoid being harmed by their evil deeds. But it’s also a caution against becoming “a wicked man” yourself! Clearly, if you’re telling lies and deliberately sabotaging the people around you, you’ve crossed the line; however, the person who avoids telling outright lies, but makes use of half-truths and innuendo can easily convince himself he’s doing nothing wrong. This is a bigger problem, because a confessed sinner will usually stop short of whatever he considers to be going too far; whereas the one who claims the moral high ground and invests his deeds with the weight of God’s judgment, will never impose a conscientious limit on his own sin.

The wise father of Proverbs also warns his son about this sort of behavior in women.

For at the window of my house

                I have looked out through my lattice,

and I have seen among the simple,

                I have perceived among the youths,

                a young man lacking sense,

passing along the street near her corner,

                taking the road to her house

in the twilight, in the evening,

                at the time of night and darkness.

(Proverbs 7.6-9)

“The adulteress” is a running theme throughout the book, and that particular sin is a great danger; but if you take note of the way this woman gets what she wants, you’ll see that it’s the same sort of perverse heart and “crooked speech” that the cynical, manipulative man of chapter 6 employed.

And behold, the woman meets him,

                dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.

(Proverbs 7.10)

This is not pure foolishness; she understands subtlety and enticement. We often explain away sinful behavior as being born of stupidity. This is sometimes really the case, but it often isn’t, and the crafty sinner is more dangerous than the dumb brute!

With much seductive speech she persuades him;

                with her smooth talk she compels him.

All at once he follows her,

                as an ox goes to the slaughter,

or as a stag is caught fast

                till an arrow pierces its liver;

as a bird rushes into a snare;

                he does not know that it will cost him his life.

(Proverbs 7.21-23)

In such an encounter, the man is obviously pursuing his own lusts—there’s a reason he was loitering in her neighborhood. At the same time, however, the woman envisioned here does more than simply allow the man to satisfy his desire. On the contrary, his rational will tries to restrain him, but “she persuades him,” and “compels him.” The picture is not one of a lustful man taking advantage of a naïve or defenseless girl; it’s not even one of forbidden lovers mutually rejecting self-control. She is manipulating him into doing what she wants! That doesn’t excuse him, or make him any less dead, in the end.

And now, O sons, listen to me,

                and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;

                do not stray into her paths,

for many a victim has she laid low,

                and all her slain are a mighty throng.

Her house is the way to Sheol,

                going down to the chambers of death.

(Proverbs 7.24-27)

The point is to avoid not only the sin itself, but also to avoid the people who tempt you to sin. As Paul later wrote, “Bad company ruins good morals” (1Co 15.33).

Of course, as we observed in the first passage quoted above, women aren’t the only ones who act like this, and men aren’t the only ones who should beware. The Proverbs personify this spirit as a seductive woman, for the same reasons that led to the stock character known as the femme fatale in stories all over the world since the beginning of stories. One way to get what you want is to take it by force. That is a stereotypically masculine tactic, and is also well represented in art. But the use of more devious means to beguile others into willingly doing what you want, even contrary to their own interests, is a stereotypically feminine tactic, owing to the wide disparity in size and strength between most men and most women. The simplest way for many men to get what they want is simply to take it, or to get it through credible threats of violence. Most women have to learn more wily methods. Since most men’s primary desire is to have women, a wide array of tools are available. Both approaches are sinful, but while the masculine method doesn’t bother to obscure itself, the feminine method relies heavily on a façade of virtue.

God tells us to shun both. Dynamic sins like theft, rape, and murder are simple and, in most cases, rather easy to distinguish.  More artful ones like deception, hypocrisy, and double-dealing are harder to detect, because they deal so much with the heart, which we are unable to see clearly. But God sees!

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

(Hebrews 4.13)

You can’t always tell when someone is being insincere or manipulating you. Proverbs tells us that it’s good to be on guard against this, and provides many hints to help us discern. But being cheated is not the worst thing that could happen. Far worse is to become a cheat, following the femme fatale playbook to get what you want through sinful means. We do have the power to prevent this.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart…

(1 Peter 1.22)

Jeremy Nettles

“Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.”

(Malachi 3.8-12)

These verses are often used to encourage generous giving to the church. This is a valid application of the Old Testament principle at work, but there’s another layer to it, which can be discovered through an examination of the context. Malachi prophesied roughly a century after the exiled Jews returned from captivity and rebuilt the temple and the city of Jerusalem. This seemed like the beginning of fulfillment for most of God’s grand promises, and yet the Jews struggled economically and barely held a tenth of the territory God had pledged to them. This was confusing and frustrating, but they plodded along, trying to eke out a living and to observe the rituals passed down by their fathers and codified in the Law of Moses. One of these was the tithe—a tenth portion of their crops. The law said,

Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.

 (Leviticus 27.30)

But God’s people were skimping on this offering in Malachi’s time. Their reasoning is explained by God’s promise to “open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (Mal 3.10)—they couldn’t spare it! Why? An answer is found earlier in the book.

You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

(Malachi 2.13-14)

How did the Jews know that God wasn’t accepting their offerings? Well, he had been withholding “favor” from them, in much the same way they’d been withholding what they promised to their wives. This sort of thing is also why they asked God even earlier in the book, “How have you loved us?” (1.1). They’d entered a cycle, complaining that God wasn’t blessing them, which was because they weren’t obeying him; and to justify their disobedience, they pointed to God’s failure to bless them. The answer was simple—start obeying, in faith that God would do what he said, providing for their needs.

But we haven’t reached the next layer. Who benefited from the tithes?

“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting…”

(Numbers 19.21)

The tithe wasn’t to be sent up in smoke, it was to help provide for the Levites—the priestly tribe. But in this very book, God took the priests to task for offering unacceptable sacrifices (Mal 1.6-8), and for showing partiality in teaching God’s law to the people (2.1-9)—that is, twisting the teaching to suit the audience, if the audience showed the teacher generosity. Considering that these priests had been lowering God’s standards for sacrifice, and lying to the people about God’s commandments, why in the world would God turn around and tell the people that they needed a pay raise?

Well, it wasn’t really a raise; rather, it was the law! The priests and their families had to eat, too. And now, we begin to peer beneath these two angry judgments from God. If the people weren’t paying the priests adequately to take care of their material needs, the priests would be tempted to bend and break some rules—just the minor ones, obviously—in order to alleviate their own poverty. Of course, this doesn’t come close to excusing their behavior, but it does implicate the ones who pushed them toward the sin, as Jesus said.

“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!”

(Matthew 18.7)

The priests were not a collection of independently wealthy, childless, fat cats too lazy to earn a living; they had plenty of work to do, and families who depended on them for daily sustenance! If the rest of the nation didn’t value their role enough to follow God’s law and take good care of them, then in the first place it shows a seriously warped and selfish mindset, hateful toward spiritual things; and in the second place, it put the people tasked with teaching God’s will to the masses in a position where they knew saying something to offend their audience would take food from their own children’s mouths.

That still does not excuse the priests who allowed such earthly pressures to supersede their heavenly duty—they, too, needed to obey in faith that God would provide for them. But the priests’ guilt is shared by those who put them in that difficult position in the first place. There are modern parallels. How highly do you value the work of teaching God’s word to his people? If you don’t value it, what do you tempt those teachers to do?

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions…

(2 Timothy 4.3)

Jeremy Nettles

Considering that God made his plans for man’s redemption and eternal life “before the foundation of the world” (Ep 1.4), it should be no surprise that he built into this creation some physical analogies for spiritual truths. One of these is the process of human aging, moving seamlessly from stage to stage and progressing toward the next step. Life in the spirit is the same. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3.3). When babies are born, they are pure, innocent, and entirely dependent on others to feed them, protect them, and keep them warm. A new life in the spirit is the same, in spiritual terms. It’s worth noting also that newborn babies tend to scream incessantly and sometimes unaccountably, regularly soil themselves, and are totally incapable of properly using their hands, feet, and even eyes. They’re not only helpless, they’re extremely annoying, and it seems virtually certain God designed us to find them cute, to discourage us from killing or abandoning them in frustration. Should we expect the newborn Christian to be terribly different?

But Jesus wasn’t done with the analogy. On a later occasion when his disciples were vying for status, he told them,

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

(Matthew 18.3-4)

Healthy, properly nurtured babies naturally grow into children. Jesus tells us humility is an aspect of childhood worth imitating. Like babies, children also have some bad qualities, including selfishness, foolishness, and stubbornness; but in general kids instinctively have some fear and respect for adults, and especially their parents. They trust that their parents have the situation under control, mostly believe what they’re told, and maintain a great sense of wonder at the newness of each day’s experiences. Young Christians are, and ought to be, the same.

However, if a child never grows up, his behavior ceases to be described as childlike, and instead is termed childish—emphasizing the bad qualities, rather than the good. Paul writes that the different roles in the church are designed to foster growth

to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

(Ephesians 4.13-14)

If a child never grew up, we’d know there was something deeply wrong. The same applies to the Christian who fails to mature. This has always been a common problem; in addition to Paul’s exhortation above, the author of Hebrews tells his audience that they “ought to be teachers” by now, but that they still “need milk, not solid food,” since they are still children (He 5.12). He then urges them, “let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity” (6.1). What are the marks of this spiritual adulthood? For one thing, having a thorough, comfortable understanding of the “elementary doctrine of Christ,” like repentance, faith, baptism, the church, resurrection, and eternal judgment (cf. vv2-3). For another, having your “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (5.14).

John singles out these spiritual adults, telling them “you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1Jn 2.14). The emphasis on strength gives us a hint about their relationship and duty toward the body of believers; and Paul gives a multitude of essential instructions to Timothy and Titus, two men in this category. But again, they’re not done growing. Sure,  physical growth ends at adulthood; but there’s another stage in life—those whom, in the same passage, John calls, “fathers.”

Just like we’d know something was wrong, if a child stopped physically maturing, we know it is disorderly for a 40-year-old to hang out primarily with teenagers. He’s supposed to have matured in less visible ways since that stage of life, and his pretense of perpetual youth is foolish and undignified. Christians, likewise, need to continue growing spiritually as they age. When discussing the church’s earthly leaders, the Apostles use the term, elder, interchangeably with bishop (overseer) and pastor (shepherd). The special value and usefulness of these older Christians comes from their vast accumulation of experience, and even though they increasingly lack the strength to do some of the serving that they did in the prior stage of life, they are far more capable at advising and directing those who have the ability but lack the wisdom.

But this paternal stage is still not the endpoint in spiritual life. Even the “fathers” are to progress toward one more stage.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

(2 Timothy 4.6-8)

You must not stop growing and maturing, until you reach that final goal. It’s a long process, and it’s fine to be at any stage along the path we’ve mapped out here, even if it doesn’t match up with your physical stage in life. What’s not acceptable, is to stay where you are. Wherever we are, at whatever stage in life, we must all “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Php 3.14).

Jeremy Nettles

Throughout 2024 we gave an increased focus to the city of Jerusalem and how God used it in various parts of the Bible. The point was never to prepare for some upcoming quiz; rather, it was because God continued to use Jerusalem as a spiritual archetype, even after the city’s destruction in AD 70. In fact, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that its destruction—which served in some ways as the back cover of the metaphorical book of the Israelite covenant—actually added to its usefulness in this New Testament role.

It shall come to pass in the latter days

        that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

        and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

        and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

        to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

        and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

        and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

(Isaiah 2.2-3)

Consider all the hints contained in these two verses, which God delivered more than seven centuries before his Son’s death, burial, and resurrection. First we have “in the latter days,” pointing to some far-off period, in a new age. Then, there’s a prediction that the temple mount will become the highest of all mountains. It’s obvious that this either would require some drastic reforming of the earth’s surface, or else it has a figurative meaning; either way, we’re in that same, New Testament territory of the cataclysmic shifting of heaven and earth. But he’s not done, and we haven’t even exhausted verse 2! He says “the nations” will gather to that same mountain. This is one of many predictions that God would bring gentiles into his coming kingdom. And it wouldn’t just be to recognize God as the creator of all the earth and give him his due worship, either. That would be something in itself, but Isaiah tells us that these gentiles would be eager to learn God’s ways, not just as an academic curiosity, but in order to “walk in his paths.” A transformation of these unrighteous, idolatrous nations was afoot! Finally, he caps off this portion of the prophecy by saying that “the law” and “the word of the Lord” would proceed from Jerusalem.

But after Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70, you can imagine how difficult it became to mentally reconcile these predictions to the circumstances observed in the world. One way would be to predict another rebuilding of the city and temple, the abovementioned terraforming, and a literal confluence of gentiles to those same latitude and longitude coordinates, even though it would surely be unrecognizable at that point. Another way to understand it would be to realize that it was never really about the city of stone.

After Israel’s return from exile, while they were rebuilding the city Nebuchadnezzar’s army had destroyed, God told them,

“I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.”

(Zechariah 8.3)

He had, he did, and it was; but notice how God picks up these same elements in a later revelation.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God…

(Revelation 21.10)

It’s the same city; yet this time it appears in heaven—and not ascending to heaven, but descending from there to earth! In the same prophecy of Zechariah, he’d also said,

Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.

(Zechariah 8.22)

And again in Revelation we’re told, “the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” (Re 21.25), and “They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (v26). It’s the same picture! Further, Zechariah tells us,

And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.

(Zechariah 14.7)

This reappears in Revelation: “there will be no night there” (21.25) and “night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light” (22.5).

Even the landscape matches! Zechariah says,

“On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem” (14.8), enough for a continual river in all seasons; in John’s vision,

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

(Revelation 22.1-2)

We could keep going like this for a while, but those are the most obvious markers that “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” in Revelation (21.10) is the same entity as the “Zion” often mentioned by Israel’s prophets. It’s a picture of heaven, in many ways; but it also came down to earth. In what form? John’s visions tell us, just before the point where we picked up!

Then came one of the seven angels …and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he … showed me the holy city Jerusalem…”

(Revelation 21.9-10)

It doesn’t seem like heaven on earth, to our eyes. But God intends for the church to be a taste of the peace and joy of heaven; of fellowship with God’s chosen people; and with God himself—in Spirit, but not yet in body. Are you seeking these things? God has told you where to find them.

Jeremy Nettles

In a press briefing in 2002, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked about a foreign policy dilemma with respect to the danger posed by Iraq. He pointed out that they simply didn’t have all the facts. Far from it—he said they didn’t even know what sort of things they didn’t know. “There are unknown unknowns.” He was not the first person to describe a complex problem in this way. It’s part of a matrix of knowledge and oblivion. There are things we know, and know that we know them (known knowns); things that we know at a deeper level than thinking, but do not consciously acknowledge them (unknown knowns); things that we don’t know, but at least we are aware that we don’t know them (known unknowns); and finally, pertinent details, of which we are totally unaware, not even realizing that there is anything to know (unknown unknowns). This is enough to give anyone a headache, but it’s rather important, not only in matters of national defense, but also in the spiritual realm.

Paul wrote to the Christians of Colossae,

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God…

(Colossians 1.9-10)

That’s a lot to take in; but let’s notice one particular detail. He writes that he constantly prays for the Colossian Christians to be “filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will” (v9). What will be the result of having this knowledge? Several things, but the last one on the list is “increasing in the knowledge of God” (v10). Obviously, Paul thinks knowledge is rather important, and it’s not for utilitarian purposes, either. In every earthly matter, knowledge is futile unless it is put into practice; but in heavenly matters, there is no question of usefulness. Of course, knowledge of God is to be put into practice; but it is also its own pursuit, and its own reward.

But as Christians increase in knowledge, a problem arises—pride.

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

(1 Corinthians 8.1)

Some of the Christians at Corinth were very pleased with themselves, reflecting a culture that valued knowledge and especially wisdom highly, leading not only to increased demand for these commodities, but also plenty of counterfeit product on the market. It’s not that their conclusions about idols were wrong; it’s that they failed to consider what they did not know. Paul continues,

If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

(1 Corinthians 8.2)

And Paul isn’t just putting the Corinthians down for failing to reach his own high standard of knowledge; he confesses his own limits later in the letter, writing, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (13.12). But the puffed-up, knowledgeable Corinthians managed to neglect the fact that “not all possess this knowledge” (8.7). As a result, they caused a crisis of faith and behavior for their brothers in Christ. Paul agrees that these brothers were weak in knowledge, and we saw him hold up knowledge as both a tool and a goal in and of itself in another letter. They ought to keep learning and growing! But they’re still your brothers, aren’t they? One bit of knowledge does not excuse bad behavior, or make up for a lack of knowledge in all sorts of arenas you can’t even imagine.

While knowledge is wonderful and necessary, it’s not the most important. Later in the letter Paul writes that, among other things, “if I … understand all mysteries and all knowledge, … but have not love, I am nothing” (13.2). And back in chapter 8 he continued,

But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

(1 Corinthians 8.3)

Love covers a multitude of errors and shortcomings. Paul’s point is that knowing a few things is great and all, but being known by God—being recognized as one of his people—is far more important! That privilege goes, not to those who know many things about God, but to those who love God.

People often think they’ve got it all figured out—the world, the spiritual realm, the moral framework, the exact timeline of the end of this age, and the who’s-who of the final judgment. Not only is this more destructive arrogance of the same sort discussed above, but it also leads in the direction of the first major heresy in the church, called Gnosticism. The name comes—unsurprisingly—from the Greek word for “knowledge,” and it centered around a mindset of superiority and self-assurance. It’s bad enough that individuals hamstrung themselves with this proud foolishness; but others with relatively weak minds and faith were often sucked in by the charisma of overconfidence, and deceived into following these false teachers farther and farther away from Christ.

It’s easy to admit that you don’t know everything. It’s harder to admit that the things you don’t know, might be important. Yet, in the great categorization of knowable things, the list of unknown unknowns is, by far, the longest one for each of us. Embracing that simple truth is part of turning and becoming like a child (Mt 18.3), ready to put your complete trust in your wise and powerful Father, as well as your oldest brother. They’ve been there, done that, and know all of the answers, even though you’re not ready to hear them all, yet. Seek the knowledge; but love and trust in God.

Jeremy Nettles