Many seek to use him for their own cause, but few want to embrace his total commitment to Christ. Previous Christian Faith Articles Next Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Discipleship, Responsibility, Transformation Many seek to use him for their own cause, but few want to embrace his total commitment to Christ. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer Stained Glass.” St Johannes Basilikum, Berlin, Germany. Sludge G. Photo taken 30 Aug. 2009, https://www.flickr.com/photos/sludgeulper/3904027037 . Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dietrich_Bonhoeffer_.jpg . Tom Faletti December 26, 2024 What does it mean to be a fully committed follower of Jesus Christ? Dietrich Bonhoeffer devoted his life to that question. Although his answer shifted over time, his devotion to Christ never wavered and he ultimately gave up his life because of his faith. A new movie, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. (Angel Studios, 2024), tells a gripping tale of Bonhoeffer’s life and execution in a Nazi concentration camp on April 9, 1945, but it provides little illumination of the faith this German pastor expressed so powerfully in his writings and his teaching. At the core of Bonhoeffer’s life was a commitment to the whole gospel and a radical desire to live fully for Christ. Who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran minister in Germany when the Nazi dictatorship took power in the 1930s and began to eliminate those it hated. Hitler wanted total allegiance, and that demand is necessarily a problem for Christians, for whom only God is worthy of total allegiance. Most Christians in Germany at the time did not recognize how incompatible the Christian faith was with Hitler’s hatreds, goals, and methods. Bonhoeffer saw the problem from the start and sought to keep Christ at the core of the church’s identity. Bonhoeffer’s life and teachings come in three parts: discipleship, responsibility, and transformation. In each phase of his story, he challenges us to put our faith at the center of our lives. Part 1 Discipleship: Total commitment to every word of Christ Bonhoeffer started out as a pastor, theologian, and college professor, but he shifted course when the Nazis launched their brutal dictatorship in 1933. He left Germany and worked through ecumenical circles to try to warn the church around the world that Hitler was not just a political or military threat; he was a spiritual threat because his demands raised him up as an idol in opposition to God. Bonhoeffer argued that the Nazi regime’s insistence on allegiance to Hitler’s agenda even over conscience and faith was a threat to the very existence of genuine Christianity. In 1935, Bonhoeffer returned to Germany to begin training pastors in what was called the Confessing Church – those who resisted the Nazi regime’s efforts to unite all Protestant churches behind its persecution of Jews and pursuit of transnational domination. His seminary was eventually declared illegal and shut down by the Nazi government. In 1937, he published a book that captured the content of the lectures he gave as he prepared pastors to serve in the Confessing Church. The book never specifically mentions Hitler or what was going on in Germany at the time, but it speaks clearly of the coming persecution and explains what living a life that is fully committed to Christ must look like. The book was titled Nachfolge , German for “Discipleship,” but the English translation was called The Cost of Discipleship . It is most famous for its analysis of the difference between “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Cheap grace is the belief that, because Jesus died for our sins, it doesn’t matter whether we obey His commandments since we have already been forgiven and justified by His death. Cheap grace is “grace without discipleship, grace without the cross” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship , originally published in 1937 in German as Nachfolge ; English revised and unabridged edition published by The Macmillan Company, 1963, p. 47). Costly grace calls us to take up our cross and follow in the way of Christ. Costly grace means we accept and embrace a “single-minded obedience to the word of Christ” (p. 88). Costly grace places the teachings of Jesus first in every aspect of life. When any part of the Church expects little of its members other than an hour on Sunday and a statement of faith — whether that statement is a creed or a “sinner’s prayer” – it has fallen sway to “cheap grace.” But there is far more in Bonhoeffer’s book, and even people who take their faith seriously might be uncomfortable with the severity and absolutism of his approach. For example, according to Bonhoeffer, Jesus’s directive to the rich young man to sell everything and give the money to the poor applies to all of us. When Jesus says that the person who calls someone a fool is in danger of going to hell (Matthew 5:22), Bonhoeffer says Jesus means it literally. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, that means we must do good to them, not just pray for them, because love is not love if it does not take action. When we are mistreated, Bonhoeffer echoes Jesus in saying we are to relinquish our personal rights by turning the other cheek and must never respond to violence with violence. All of Jesus’s teachings are to be taken literally, Bonhoeffer tells us. If we take Jesus’s commands figuratively – as commands intended only for a limited number of people or as aspirational goals that we don’t think God expects us to fully obey – we risk falling into the cheap grace that is no real commitment to Jesus at all. Bonhoeffer argues that, since Christ became one with us in the Incarnation, He is intimately involved in every aspect of our lives. In every interaction we have with other people, Christ is there. He “stands in the center between my neighbor and myself” (p. 112). Since all of our dealings with other people also include Christ, we must embrace the way of the cross, the way of reconciliation, the way of love even for our enemy, in every interaction. That is what it means to love others as He loves us. That is why “any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own Person, restored the image of God in all that bears a human form” (p. 341). Since every person is made in the image of God, we must treat every person with love. We “recover our true humanity” when we “retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race” (p. 341). We are called to recognize the connection we have with all other people because that is what Christ did. This call to be like Christ does not apply only to saints or pastors. This discipleship, Bonhoeffer insists, is for all of us. All are called to obey. Reflecting on Bonhoeffer’s call to discipleship Bonhoeffer’s teachings raise many challenging questions. We might ask ourselves: Is the church too willing to let people slide by with cheap grace rather than confronting them with a gospel that demands total commitment? When are the teachings of Jesus (for example, to sell all you have, don’t insult others, turn the other cheek, love your enemy, etc.) meant to be taken literally as absolute commands? Does Jesus want all of us to do all of these things all the time? How are we to respond to these teachings of Jesus? How would our lives be different if we lived them in “solidarity with the whole human race,” as Jesus chose to live in solidarity with us? Who would we need to embrace or include as one of “us” if we were to adopt this solidarity with others as a guiding principle? Part 2 The movie Bonhoeffer (Angel Studios, 2024) tells us that the pacifist Dietrich Bonhoeffer chose to get involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler, but it does little to explore the conflicting feelings Bonhoeffer had. He saw clear spiritual risks in this decision and sought to stay true to the suffering Christ. Responsibility: Free people face difficult choices in this world Bonhoeffer sought to train pastors in an underground seminary as Hitler was consolidating and extending his power in the 1930s. Bonhoeffer’s book The Cost of Discipleship , which is based on his lectures at that time, insists that a life of total dedication to Christ will be resisted by those opposed to Christ and will be met with persecution. To be persecuted is to share in the cross of Christ. Those who suffer martyrdom enter fully into the cross of Christ and live with Him forever in glory. When Bonhoeffer’s safety appeared to be in jeopardy, his friends abroad convinced him to leave Germany. But he soon decided that if he did not join in the suffering of his fellow Christians in Germany, he could not legitimately be part of the rebuilding that he knew would be necessary once Hitler was gone. So he returned to Germany. He was arrested in 1943, imprisoned for two years, and ultimately was hanged shortly before the Allies defeated the Third Reich. The reason why Bonhoeffer was arrested is surprising. For a while, Bonhoeffer worked as a double agent, ostensibly working for German intelligence while also working for the German Resistance. Some of his family members were part of a unit in the Resistance that developed a plot to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer supported that effort. The plot failed, but Bonhoeffer’s role in the Resistance was discovered and he was arrested on April 5, 1943. In 1937, Bonhoeffer had taught that violence was never acceptable for a Christian. He had written: “If I am assailed, I am not to condone or justify aggression. . . . Suffering willingly endured is stronger than evil. . . . There is no deed on earth so outrageous as to justify a different attitude. The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer; he must let the evil person fall into Jesus’ hands [i.e., leave the response to Jesus and not take matters into one’s own hands]” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship , originally published in 1937 in German as Nachfolge ; English revised and unabridged edition published by The Macmillan Company, 1963, p. 158-159). But as he saw the enormity of the evil being done under the Third Reich – which was killing millions of Jews and other innocent people and undermining the basic tenets of Christianity by not allowing seminaries or churches to operate if they resisted Hitler’s program – he gradually became convinced that violence was necessary in order to rid Germany of Hitler. I asked Kurt Kreibohm, a retired pastor and tour guide at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer House in Berlin about this seeming contradiction. He acknowledged the contradiction and said that Bonhoeffer agonized over it. Bonhoeffer struggled with the idea that what he was doing was a sin (indicating that he still believed what he had written previously); yet he believed the assassination attempt was necessary to prevent the killing of millions of additional people. He put himself in the hands of God, believing that his participation in the plot was worthy of God’s judgment against him even though he believed it was necessary. In 1942, a few months before he was arrested, Bonhoeffer wrote a Christmas letter to his co-conspirators. In that letter, he discusses the need for Germans to exercise “the free responsibility of the free man,” a responsibility that is “founded in a God who calls for the free venture of faith to responsible action and who promises forgiveness and consolation to the one who on account of such action becomes a sinner” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison , Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works – Reader’s Edition, Fortress Press, 2015, pp. 7-8). Bonhoeffer’s thinking has evolved in the five years since he wrote The Cost of Discipleship . Now, he sees that the need to make concrete decisions in difficult situations presents ethical challenges, and he underscores our responsibility for the actions we choose. He does not take lightly the possibility that he will make wrong choices as he exercises the free responsibility God has given him. At the same time, he believes that God will extend forgiveness and grace to him when he falls short. But it is not cheap grace. The hope of grace comes with an understanding that we are not making decisions merely to suit our own desires; we are accountable to God because God has made us “co-responsible for the shaping of history” (p. 8). He goes on to say: “I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings are not in vain and that it is no more difficult for God to deal with them than with our supposedly good deeds. I believe that God . . . waits for and responds to simple prayer and responsible actions” (p. 13). We are still called to live our lives fully for God. While he is in prison, Bonhoeffer writes to his best friend Eberhard Bethge about “the profound this-worldliness of Christianity” ( Letters and Papers from Prison , p. 471). Looking back on his life, he writes: I thought I myself could learn to have faith by trying to live something like a saintly life. I suppose I wrote Discipleship at the end of this path. Today I clearly see the dangers of that book, though I stand by it. Later on I discovered, and am still discovering to this day, that one only learns to have faith by living in the full this-worldliness of life. . . . [O]ne throws oneself completely into the arms of God, and this is what I call this-worldliness: living fully in the midst of life’s tasks, questions, successes and failures, experiences, and perplexities – then one takes seriously no longer one’s own sufferings but rather the suffering of God in the world. Then one stays awake with Christ in Gethsemane. And I think this is faith; this is metanoia. ( Letters and Papers from Prison , p. 472) Bonhoeffer’s understanding of faith shifted over time, from seeking to avoid evil to seeking to embrace Christ in the complexities of life in the real world. But he remained focused on pursuing a life wholly identified with the suffering Christ. Reflecting on Bonhoeffer’s call to take the risk of engaging in this world Bonhoeffer is not the only person of faith who has sensed a call to move from saintly separation to a riskier involvement in the world. The challenges Bonhoeffer faced remain relevant to us today: In what ways are we called to embrace difficult choices in a messy world, rather than staying in our safe and saintly enclaves? How can we maintain our commitment to total discipleship to the suffering Christ – to a life lived wholly for God – as we grapple with difficult situations that challenge our previous understandings of how to live the life of faith? How do we embrace the “this-worldliness” of life, as Jesus did while He was on earth, yet stay focused on God? Part 3 The movie Bonhoeffer (Angel Studios, 2024) fails to capture the depth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s faith. His commitment to live fully for Christ is much clearer in his real life than in the film. Transformation: Living “as Christ” in all circumstances Dietrich Bonhoeffer began his pastoral life with zeal in the 1930s, calling all people to a severe adherence to every word of Christ – the life of “costly grace.” Confronted with the enormity of evil in the agenda of Hitler and the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer joined the German Resistance, which led to his arrest and the final phase of his remarkable life. In prison, Bonhoeffer was an enormous force for good. Fellow prisoners found strength and hope because of his encouragement. Even prison guards were impressed by him and helped in the effort to smuggle his prison writings out to the world. Some of the prayers he wrote in prison have circulated widely in the decades since then. Bonhoeffer’s 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship spells out his rigorous commitment to following every teaching of Christ: sell all, turn the other cheek, love your enemy. He urges us to recognize that in every interaction with every other person, Christ is standing between us and them, so we must love every other person. This is what it means to live as a disciple of Christ. Late in the book, Bonhoeffer takes another step. He suggests that in Romans 8:29, where Saint Paul calls us to be “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son,” he is calling us to become “as Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship , originally published in 1937 in German as Nachfolge ; English revised and unabridged edition published by The Macmillan Company, 1963, p. 337). “That image,” Bonhoeffer explains, “has the power to transform our lives, and if we surrender ourselves utterly to him, we cannot help bearing his image ourselves. We become sons of God, we stand side by side with Christ, our unseen Brother, bearing like him the image of God” (p. 337). In prison, Bonhoeffer presented a living example of what he had taught in his book. To those around him, he became a living image of Christ. He had called us to live “as Christ.” He had tried to live wholly for Christ in the jaws of the Third Reich. Now, he brought the presence of Christ into each of the four prisons and concentration camps he was detained in before his execution. In his 1942 Christmas letter to members of the Resistance with whom he worked, Bonhoeffer had described the perspective he had gained as he worked to put his faith into action in the real world: “It remains an experience of incomparable value that we have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short from the perspective of the suffering” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison , Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works – Reader’s Edition, Fortress Press, 2015, pp. 20). He asserts that “personal suffering is a more useful key, a more fruitful principle than personal happiness for exploring the meaning of the world in contemplation and action” (p.20). That solidarity with those who suffer prepared him to be a light of grace and hope to those in prison. Bonhoeffer ends The Cost of Discipleship with a description of the goal of discipleship. The goal, he says, is not to be a perfect rule-follower, even though obeying Christ is a primary mark of a disciple. Discipleship is not about rules for their own sake; it is about living in an intimate relationship with the One who showed us how to live. Bonhoeffer ends his book this way: “If we are conformed to his image in his Incarnation and crucifixion, we shall also share the glory of His resurrection. . . . “We shall be drawn into his image, and identified with his form, and become a reflection of him. That reflection of his glory will shine forth in us even in this life, even as we share his agony and bear his cross. . . . “This is what we mean when we speak of Christ dwelling in our hearts. His life is not finished yet, for he continues to live in the lives of his followers. . . . “The Holy Trinity himself has made his dwelling in the Christian heart, filling his whole being, and transforming him into the divine image” ( The Cost of Discipleship , p. 343). Discipleship means allowing God to live in us, fill us with Himself, and transform us into His image, an image that was placed in each of us before we were born. God gives us freedom and the responsibility to use it to the best of our ability to lives as images of Christ. We do this by embracing the cross of Christ and extending the love of Christ to all, including those who are maltreated and rejected by others – loving all as Jesus did. Our calling is to become wholly like Him. In his writings and in his life, Dietrich Bonhoeffer sought to present a life of total devotion to Christ. The same invitation is made to all of us, because Christ came so that He might dwell in the heart of every person who embraces Him. Reflecting on Bonhoeffer’s call to be transformed into the image of Christ Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not the first person to recognize God’s grand plan: to transform us into the image of Christ. We find his story valuable partly because the times in which he lived were not ideal for trying to live a life wholly devoted to Christ. He faced difficult choices. We honor him not because he necessarily always made the “right” choices, but because he always sought to put God first. How he responded to his times raises provocative questions for us in our own faith lives: If we live “as Christ,” who loves everyone else with the same love with which He loves us, how might that change how we view and interact with other people? In what ways does the idea of becoming a living image of Christ attract you? . . . intrigue you? . . . scare you? To what extent are you willing to say yes to becoming a living image of Christ? How might seeing events from below, from the perspective of those who are outcasts or suffering, help you live as a reflection of Christ in the world? What is the next step God is calling you to take, to help you be transformed into His image and to be a clearer reflection of Christ in your world? In every phase of his life, Dietrich Bonhoeffer sought to live in a manner that was totally committed to the suffering Christ and filled with concern for all who suffer. He encouraged everyone else to do the same. May his desire to fully live “as Christ” be our goal as well. Copyright © 2024, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Christian Faith Articles Next

Paul’s basic rules for Christian living: sexual purity, love for others, and an orderly lifestyle. [1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; 4:9-12] Previous 1 Thess. List Next 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 Paul’s basic rules for Christian living: sexual purity, love for others, and an orderly lifestyle. Image by Jim Strasma, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti January 31, 2025 1 Thess. 4:1-8 General conduct and sexual conduct Earlier, we saw that, in Paul’s time, the general form for a letter was to begin with who the letter was from and to, offer a greeting that might include an expression of thanks, and then move to the main points of the letter. In a sense, the first 3 chapters of this letter have been an extended thanksgiving. Paul now turns to some specific issues he wants to address. What is the general rule of conduct that Paul sets forth in verse 1? Paul says: Conduct yourselves (literally, “walk”) the way we taught you to, to please God. If Paul’s basic principle is that your conduct should “please God,” what would that kind of conduct look like? Paul tells them that they are doing what they were taught and should do it even more. In what ways is that an appropriate exhortation to all of us at all times in our lives? What is something you are doing, for which it might be good to encourage yourself to do it even more? In verse 3, Paul says that the will of God is “your holiness” (NABRE) or “your sanctification” (NRSV). The two translations evoke different aspects of the same point: the goal is both a process and a result. What is “holiness” or “sanctification”? To what extent do you want to be “holy” or “sanctified”? Paul elaborates by focusing on the issue of sexual morality. This was appropriate to his time (and our time today) because sexual morals were extraordinarily loose in his time (as in ours). Sexual promiscuity was considered normal. Divorce was common. Paul is speaking to men in this passage. Men often had a wife and a mistress and also spent time with prostitutes. We can extrapolate from what he says to find principles that apply to women as well as men. Verse 3 ends with the general principle for sexual morality, stated in the negative. What are they to refrain from, and what does it mean? How might you apply this verse to your own situation or to the sexual attitudes among your friends and colleagues? Verse 4 is unclear. Paul says that each man should know how to ( verb) his (noun) . The verb used in the Greek can mean control or possess or acquire. Different translations make different choices from among those options. The noun is literally “vessel.” What does that vague word mean? Theologians and scholars down through the centuries have disagreed about whether Paul is talking about the man’s “body” or his “wife” or the male sex organ. Most modern translations interpret it as referring to the man’s “body” or his “wife.” If in verses 4-5, Paul is talking about obtaining a wife, what is his point as he talks about doing so in “holiness and honor” and not with “lustful passion”? What is he telling them to do? If in verses 4-5, Paul is talking about controlling one’s body, what is Paul’s point as he talks about doing so in “holiness and honor” and not with “lustful passion”? What is he telling them to do? In verse 6, Paul directs them not to exploit their brother (and this could apply to women as well as men). How does sexual immortality mistreat other people besides the people involved in the sexual relationship? Paul tells them not to be like the Gentiles who do not know God. In what ways do Christians have a better understanding than nonbelievers of what God seeks in our sexual relationships? In verse 6, Paul says that the Lord is an avenger in these things. Is his point that there is judgment on those who do not follow God’s teaching on sexual morality? Or is his point that if you suffered because someone else did wrong, you need to leave it to God to avenge the wrong? Paul restates his point in a different way in verse 7. What does he say? In verse 8, Paul brings the Holy Spirit into this consideration of sexual immorality. What is the connection between what we do with our bodies and the fact that God is giving his Holy Spirit to us? Paul elaborates on this connection to the Holy Spirit a few years later in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 6:16-20), where he describes our body as a temple of the Holy Spirit that should not be profaned by sexual immorality. Paul began in verse 1 by saying that he was speaking “in the Lord.” Now he ends in verse 8 by saying that anyone who disregards this teaching is not disregarding a human being (Paul), but God. The Church throughout its existence has taken a similarly strong stand with regard to sexual sin. Why does God take sexual morality so seriously? How would you explain to a new Christian why sexual behavior matters? 1 Thess. 4:9-12 Brotherly love The Greek word in verse 9 translated as “mutual charity” (NABRE) or “love of the brothers and sisters” (NRSV) is the word philadelphias , which means brotherly love. The word comes from two Greek words: phileō , which was the word used for the kind of love one might have for members of one’s family, and adelphoi , the word for brothers. From early on, the Christian church referred to the members of the Christian community as “brothers” ( adelphoi ); so philadelphias meant love for one’s fellow Christians – for those who are brothers and sisters in Christ. In verse 9, what does Paul say about their love for one another? In verse 9, Paul says they have already been “taught by God” to love one another. What does God teach us about love? And how might they already have learned and been showing that kind of love? When Paul says that they have been taught by God to love one another, he uses the word agape instead of the word phileō . The word agape was rarely used in ancient Greece. Jesus and Christians used it for the kind of selfless, unconditional love that God has for us. Christians believe that God empowers us to have that kind of love for each other. In what ways might God be calling us and our community to show greater unconditional love? In verses 11-12, Paul identifies other characteristics that he would like to see in the Thessalonian church community. Consider what each one means and how it might manifest itself in your life and the life of your community: What does it mean to “aspire to live a tranquil life” (NABRE)? How might you or your community do this? What does it mean to “mind your own affairs” (NABRE)? How might you or your community do this? What does it mean to “work with your hands” (NABRE)? How might you or your community do this? What does it mean to “conduct yourself properly toward outsiders” (NABRE)? How might you or your community do this? Where the NABRE says Paul would like them to “not depend on anyone,” a more literal translation might be “not have any need.” What does it mean to live in such a way that you do not have any need, and how might you or your community do this? Note: Verse 12 should not be used as a hammer to attack people who are in need. We do not always have a choice as to whether we are “in need” – health, societal, and economic factors can interfere with that goal. And Paul has called us just 3 verses earlier to love one another (4:9). It would be a misuse of Paul’s letter to apply verse 12 in a way that violates verse 9. Looking over this list of characteristics Paul would like to see in the local church, how would you describe Paul’s ideal vision of a Christian community? What could your church do to more fully foster these traits? What actions could you take to apply one or more of these traits more fully in your life? Looking back over the entire section from 4:1 through 4:12, which verse stands out to you as something where God might be speaking to your heart right now? What might God be calling you to do? Take a step back and consider this: If we were to try to summarize verses 1-12, we might say that God is calling us to a life of sexual purity, godly love for others, and an orderly lifestyle. God does not give us rules because of some domineering obsession with having rules for the sake of rules. He gives us rules so that we can be free to be all he is calling us to be as people made in his own image. How do these instructions calling for sexual purity, godly love for others, and an orderly lifestyle allow us to live like Christ? Which of these is currently easiest for you? Which is hardest? Why is that one hard, and what can you do to grow in it? When God tells us to love others, who are the people you find hardest to love? How can you take a step this week toward loving them more? Bibliography See 1 Thessalonians - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/1-thessalonians/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous 1 Thess. List Next

A young woman living in obscurity receives a visit from an angel of God and says “Yes” to God’s plan. How can we be like her? [Luke 1:5-25; 1:26-38; 1:39-45; 1:46-56] Previous Mary List Next Session 1: What Mary was, we are called to be A young woman living in obscurity receives a visit from an angel of God and says “Yes” to God’s plan. How can we be like her? [Luke 1:5-25; 1:26-38; 1:39-45; 1:46-56] Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). The Annunciation . 1657. Cropped. The National Gallery, London, UK. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%27Annonciation,_vers_1655,_Londres,_National_Gallery.jpg . Tom Faletti July 11, 2025 The Theme The theme of this study is: What Mary was, we are called to be. What Mary did, we are called to do. When we say, “What Mary was, we are called to be” we mean that we are called to be the kind of person Mary was. She is an example of what the character of a person of faith looks like. When we say, “What Mary did, we are called to do,” we mean that we are called to put our faith into action the way she did. She is a role model for how to live the kind of life where our faith permeates everything we do. Who is this study for? This study is intended for anyone who is interested in exploring how to live a life of faith. It can be used by Catholics and Protestants, evangelicals and Orthodox believers. While the study acknowledges that Catholics and Protestants have a long history of disagreement about some Catholic teachings about Mary, the study keeps its focus on what the Bible says and does not address Catholic doctrines that developed later. Where there are disagreements about how to interpret the Scriptures, the differences are noted and explored. For this reason, Catholics and Protestants can all be comfortable with this study – and could even use it to study together. It is also worth noting that many Protestants find much to admire in Mary – see, for example, Timothy Keller’s “God’s Call to Mary and to Us” (published by Focus on the Family) and Jacob Prahlow’s “A Protestant Thinks about the Blessed Virgin Mary” . Everyone who values the Word of God will find this study useful. IF YOU ARE STUDYING WITH A SMALL GROUP This study material can be very enriching either for small-group Bible Study or for individual study and growth. If you are studying with a small group, please take some time to build community, beginning with ensuring that everyone knows everyone else’s name. Here are some questions you could invite everyone in the group to answer: What is your name? What is your connection to this church/parish/group? Why were you attracted to be part of this study of Mary? From what you already know about the mother of Jesus, what stands out to you? What questions do you have? What would you like to know more about, with regard to Mary? Where you see a Scripture passage in bold and underlined (like Luke 1: 5-25 below), it means you should read that passage before proceeding. Let’s dive in. Luke 1: 5-25 What happens before Mary appears in Luke’s Gospel Some helpful background Mary’s story in the Bible begins when she was probably a teenager, possibly as young as 14 years old although we are not told what her age was. She was suddenly catapulted from living a normal, obscure teenage life to living an heroic though still obscure life. But before that happened, some extraordinary things were already happening in her extended family. Before mentioning Mary, Luke tells us about what leads to the birth of John the Baptist, who was born into Mary’s extended family. Mary’s relative Elizabeth (Luke 1:36) was childless (1:7) and advanced in years (1:18), but now she has become pregnant. Before she becomes pregnant, Elizabeth’s husband, a priest (1:5), has a vision of an angel while he is serving alone in the holiest inner sanctuary of the Temple. The angel tells him that Elizabeth will have a son, who is to be named John (1:10-14). The angel informs him that this son will be filled with the Holy Spirit like Elijah and will turn people to God to prepare them for the Lord (1:15-17). When Zechariah questions this message because he and Elizabeth are fairly old, he is rendered unable to speak (1:18-20), and when he comes out of the sanctuary, everyone knows that he has seen a vision. Mary is likely to have heard about this event. Note: Although some older translations such as the King James Version and some simplified translations call Elizabeth Mary’s “cousin,” the Greek word is a more generic word used for relatives of all kinds, close and distant, so most modern translations say “relative,” not “cousin.” We do not know if Elizabeth was an aunt, a cousin, or a more distant relative. We also do not know if Mary came from the lineage of priests as Zechariah did. Similarly, we do not know if Mary was descended from the line of David. Matthew presents Joseph’s genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17), which shows that Joseph was from the line of David, i.e., a direct descendant of David. Luke also tells us that Joseph was a descendant of David (Luke 1:27 and 2:4). Some scholars through the centuries have suggested that Luke presents Mary’s genealogy, but many other scholars have rejected that idea because Luke 4:23. For Jews of Jesus’s time, the father’s lineage was all that mattered. Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father, as Matthew tells us in his account of the virgin birth (Matt. 1:18-25), but Joseph essentially adopted Jesus as his own son by raising him. So, Joseph’s ancestry is Jesus’s ancestry for Jewish legal purposes even though Jesus was the Son of God. Does Mary’s relative obscurity trouble you, or draw you to her, or not matter to you? Why? What do you think of a God who chooses to enter the human race by being born of an obscure woman whose pedigree is unclear? What does this tell you about God? What does Mary’s obscure background tell you about Mary? Does this tell you anything about yourself? Can you be from obscure roots and still fulfill God’s purposes for you? How does Mary’s background speak to you? Elizabeth conceives, and roughly 6 months later, Mary enters Luke’s story. Luke 1:26-38 An angel tells Mary she will have a son from God (the “Annunciation”) Let’s start by walking through the conversation between Mary and the angel. In verses 26-27, what does Luke tell us about Mary (what kind of person is she, where is she, what is her marital status, etc.)? To be “betrothed” was far more than what we call being “engaged.” After betrothal, the couple was considered married even though it would be months before the marriage was consummated. If a person was betrothed and had sex with someone other than their intended, it was considered adultery (see New American Bible , Luke 1:18 fn.). In verse 28, how does the angel greet Mary? In verse 29, how does Mary respond? In verses 30-33, what does the angel prophesy to Mary about what is to come? In verse 34, Mary questions the angel. What is her question? When the angel had appeared to Zechariah, Zechariah had asked, “How will I know this, for I’m an old man and my wife is old too?” His question was, in essence, a demand for proof. How is Mary’s question different? How is her question appropriate, whereas Zechariah’s was not? Mary is not challenging what will happen or asking for proof; she is merely asking the process by which it will happen. Her question is, literally, in the Greek, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” – i.e., How will this be since I do not have sex? In verses 35-37, how does the angel explain to Mary how she will become pregnant? In verse 38, how does Mary respond to this announcement? Look over the passage and focus on the things the angel says. What do the angel’s words tell us about Mary? What do the angel’s words tell us about God? Look over the passage again, focusing on the things Mary says. What do Mary’s words tell us about Mary? What does this passage tell us about Mary’s attitude or approach toward her faith? One of our themes for this study is: What Mary was (the kind of person Mary was), we are called to be. What can we learn from Mary? All of us can, like Mary, say, “I am the servant of the Lord.” How can you take that approach to your own faith more consistently? What does this passage tell us about Mary’s use of her whole being: her mind, her will, and her spirit/faith? What Mary did, we are called to do. Mary accepted the coming of the Holy Spirit to her to enable her to fulfill her God-given role in God’s plan of salvation. How can you welcome or say yes to the Holy Spirit to fulfill your particular God-given role in your life? Mary is now the second woman in her extended family to have an unusual pregnancy after an unusual encounter with God. Mary decides to go visit her relative Elizabeth. In the next scene of our story, we see two women, both chosen by God for something special, having a chance to have some woman-to-woman time together. Luke 1:39-45 Mary visits Elizabeth (the “Visitation”) What happens? Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as a result of her encounter with Mary and the response of the child in her womb. How can we become more open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as Elizabeth was? When Elizabeth has this special, spirit-filled moment, her response is praise. How can we become more confident in giving praise to God when we are touched by his Spirit? Luke 1:46-56 Mary sings God’s praises (the “Magnificat” or “Canticle of Mary”) What Mary says here is called the “Magnificat” because in Latin, the first word of Mary’s prayer is the word Magnificat , which means “praises,” as in “my soul praises.” What is your overall impression of Mary’s “song”? What is your favorite line or phrase or word from Mary’s song, and why? What does this song tell us about God? What does this song tell us about Mary? Mary could have praised God in many different ways. We can learn a lot about her from the subjects she chooses to focus on and what she says about them. What does Mary’s choice of topics about God tell us about her and what kind of person she is? Notice that one of the themes Mary focuses on is that some people are rich and mighty, and some people are poor and lowly, and God has here taken decisive action on behalf of the poor and lowly. One of the themes for this study is: What Mary did, we are called to do. Mary praises God energetically and expansively. What can we learn from this for ourselves, regarding our prayer life or interactions with others? The other theme for our study is: The kind of person Mary was, we are called to be. What does this prayer tell you about what kind of person Mary was, and what does it encourage you to be? Here is a brief summary of how Elizabeth’s story ends, so that you are not left hanging: ( Luke 1:57-80 John is born and Zechariah’s mouth is opened to sing God’s praise) Elizabeth gives birth to a son (1:57), and when Elizabeth says he will be named “John” (1:60), the neighbors and relatives object, thinking that he should be named for Zechariah or some other relative. Zechariah indicates that the child is to be named “John” (1:63), and at that moment his tongue is freed so that he can speak (1:64). He responds with his own canticle of praise to God (1:67-80). Take a step back and consider this: One of the things we see in Mary’s prayer is that she sees the world from the perspective of the lowly, not from the top of the social ladder. In the Gospels we see that Jesus has a similar perspective. I have summarized how both the New Testament and the Old Testament present God’s downside-up view of the world here: God Takes a Downside-Up View of the World . Some examples are: blessed are the poor, God cares for the one as much as the 99, wealth is an impediment to salvation rather than a sign of God’s favor, what you did to the least of these you did to me, the Lord hears the cry of the poor, etc. Do you think Jesus learned to see through the eyes of the have-nots from his mother Mary, who proclaimed God’s concern for the lowly and hungry, as well as learning it from his heavenly Father? What might this suggest about how Mary raised her child? How are we called to imitate Jesus and Mary in viewing things from the perspective of the lowly? Bibliography See Mary - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/mary/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Mary List Next

Jesus gathers disciples and followers. Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 4:18-25 Jesus gathers disciples and followers. Image provided by Wix. Tom Faletti March 22, 2024 Matthew 4:18-22 Jesus gathers disciples As we saw in the previous passage, something significant is happening. Jesus went to the wilderness where John was baptizing and then returned home. But now he has moved from his more rural village to a commercial town on the Sea of Galilee. He has taken up John’s message: to repent for the kingdom of heaven is here. But he is not preaching that message out in the desert, far from towns, as John was. Instead, he is preaching it in an important commercial town in his region, and soon he will be going from town to town. Whereas John waited for the people to come away to him, Jesus is taking the message to the people where they live and work. Why is this significant? Who does Jesus call? Fishing is not a job for everyone. It takes a person of a special character to handle the challenges faced by fishers. What do you see in the character of successful fishermen that might be useful for more than just fishing? Barclay suggests these attributes: patience, perseverance, courage, an eye for the right moment, and keeping oneself out of sight – see Barclay, Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1 , p. 73-74). How might these be good attributes for people called to the task of evangelization –called to share a controversial message about God with people who might not yet be interested? What does Jesus say to these fishermen? Why do you think they followed him? John 1:35-42 tells us that their decision to follow Jesus was not as abrupt as it sounds. Andrew had been a follower of John the Baptist and had had a previous encounter with Jesus. Have you had experiences where God prepared you before asking you to do something significant? Explain. What would it have taken for you to follow Jesus? Matthew 4: 23-25 Jesus preaches, heals, and attracts large crowds After gathering a few disciples, what does Jesus do next? Verse 23 tells us that Jesus was both “teaching” and “proclaiming” (sometimes translated as “preaching”). How is teaching different from proclaiming/preaching? How are both valuable? What kind of audiences would Jesus have found in synagogues? Why might that have been a good place to start? Besides teaching and preaching, what else does Jesus do? Why do you think he heals – especially after resisting the temptation to do things for show? What does Jesus’s desire to heal people tell us about him? These activities bring him a great following. Where do the people come from? Are the crowds only from Jewish areas, or also from Gentile areas? What does this tell us about Jesus’s early effect on people? Jesus is attracting the attention of people from both Jewish and Gentile areas around Galilee. Verse 24 says Jesus’s fame spread in Syria , which was Gentile territory to the northwest of Galilee. Verse 25 says that crowds followed him from Galilee itself which was primarily Jewish but with some non-Jewish populations. The Decapolis was the group of largely Gentile Greek cities east and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Jerusalem and Judea were Jewish territory to the south. Beyond the Jordan was Jewish territory east of the Jordan River, south of the Decapolis, east of Samaria and running south to the area across the river east of Jerusalem and Judea. Jesus will eventually visit all of these territories. If you were in Galilee at this time, would you have been attracted to Jesus? If so, what would have attracted you? What attracts you about Jesus now in your life? Take a step back and consider this: In 4:24, Matthew tells us of the vast array of diseases and illnesses that Jesus cured. Jesus is easing those kinds of suffering wherever he can. At the same time, Jesus is trying to gather a core group of disciples whom he will put through an extended process of formation to prepare them to be leaders when he is no longer with them. What do you think is going through Jesus’s mind as he heals people? What do you think is going through Jesus’s mind as he gathers disciples? What do you think is going through Jesus’s mind as he hears our prayers asking for healing and relief from various kinds of sufferings today? Other people are praying to Jesus too. What might Jesus be saying to you as you think about what other people are praying to him? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew List Next

Bibliography of major sources and additional sources used in this study of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Previous Mary List Next Mary - Bibliography Bibliography of major sources and additional sources used in this study of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some of the resources on the author's bookshelf. Tom Faletti July 16, 2025 Major Sources Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The New Testament, Revised Standard Edition, Second Catholic Edition . Ignatius Press, 2010. Interlinear Bible. Bible Hub , https://biblehub.com/interlinear/ . Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott . An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Founded Upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899. Perseus Digital Library , Tufts University, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0058 . For the full Lexicon from 1940 available online, see A Greek-English Lexicon , Furman Classics Editions, http://folio2.furman.edu/lsj/ or A Greek-English Lexicon , Internet Archive , Volume I: https://archive.org/details/b31364949_0001/mode/2up and Volume II: https://archive.org/details/b31364949_0002/mode/2up . New American Bible, revised edition (NABRE) . Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2010. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary . Edited by Raymond E. Brown, et al. Prentice Hall, 1990. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible . Eds. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2010. New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Payne, David. F. “Isaiah.” The International Bible Commentary: With the New International Version . F.F. Bruce, General Editor. Marshall Pickering/Zondervan, 1986. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance . Bible Hub , https://biblehub.com/greek/21.htm . Vine, William E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary , 1940, StudyLight.org , https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/ved.html . Additional Sources Keller, Timothy. “God’s Call to Mary and to Us.” Focus on the Family , 15 Nov. 2021, https://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/gods-call-to-mary-and-to-us/ . Prahlow, Jacob. “A Protestant Thinks about the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Conciliar Post , 21 Nov. 2018, https://conciliarpost.com/theology-spirituality/a-protestant-thinks-about-the-blessed-virgin-mary/ . “What is the difference between a refugee and a migrant?” USA for UNHCR , 15 Dec. 2022, https://www.unrefugees.org/news/what-is-the-difference-between-a-refugee-and-a-migrant/ . “Which church father first taught the perpetual virginity of Mary?” Christianity Stack Exchange , 3 Dec. 2018, https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/56526/which-church-father-first-taught-the-perpetual-virginity-of-mary . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Mary List Next

Paul is writing not just to individuals, but to a church that is standing together and living the Christian life together in faith, hope, and love. Previous 1 Thess. List Next 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Paul is writing not just to individuals, but to a church that is standing together and living the Christian life together in faith, hope, and love. Image by Pedro Lima, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti January 26, 2025 1 Thess. 1:1 Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica This letter begins in the typical form of letters in the Greek and Roman world at that time: with who it is from, who it is to, and some sort of greeting. It is somewhat like the format of many of our emails: Introduction: From: ___, To: ___, and a greeting, which may include words of thanks. The body or “meat” of the email. Personal comments and/or final greetings. Who is the letter from? See Introduction to 1 Thessalonians for a discussion of who the letter is from. Who is the letter to? The letter is to the church of the Thessalonians. The Greek word for “church” is ekklésia , which means an assembly or gathering. It is used in the New Testament to refer both to a local assembly of God’s people (the church at ___) and to the whole of God’s people (the Church). Here, it means the body of Christians in Thessalonica. This means Paul is writing to the Christians there as a group, not just to the leaders or some other specific individuals. It is quite possible that he expected his letter would be read out loud to the whole assembly of gathered Christians on the next Sunday after his letter arrived. How does Paul describe the Thessalonians? Who are they “in”? Think about what it means to be “in” something – to be in a pool of water, in the ocean, in the rain, in the dark. When you are “in” something, you are in some sense surrounded. What does it mean to be in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 1:1)? In what ways do you experience being in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? We are not in God alone, as isolated individuals. Paul is speaking to the church as a group. How might we be more faithful followers of Christ if we remembered more fully that we are all together, collectively, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? In his greeting, Paul makes changes to the standard secular greeting of the time. His word “grace” in Greek sounds a little bit like the word for “greetings” that Greeks or Romans would have used in his time ( New American Bible, revised edition , Rom. 1:1-7, fn.). He then adds the Greek word for the traditional Hebrew greeting shalom , which means “peace.” Thus, Paul has packed a lot of nuance into a simple five-word greeting. What would it mean to you, if someone wished you “grace” and “peace”? If you were among the Thessalonians to whom this letter was being read on a Sunday, what would Paul’s greeting say to you? 1 Thess. 1:2-10 Paul is thankful for the Thessalonians When Paul thinks of the Thessalonians, his primary reaction is thanksgiving. Why? Verses 2-4 Looking at verses 2-4, does Paul think about the Thessalonians very often? In verse 2, how does Paul put his thinking about them into action? What does he do? He prays for them. How often does he pray for them? Is there a hidden secret here? How might our lives be different if, when we think about people and the situations they face, our “thinking” takes the form of praying for them? What difference might that make (for them, but also for us)? In verse 3, what comes to mind about them when he thinks about them? Notice that in verse 3 we see, for the very first time in Christian writing, these three virtues together – faith, love (or charity), and hope – which later become known as the “theological virtues.” Most Christians are more familiar with them as they appear in Paul’s later letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 13:13),where love is listed last and identified as the greatest. The Church eventually joined these “theological” virtues with the four “cardinal” virtues that go back to Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers: prudence (or wisdom), justice, fortitude (or courage), and temperance (or moderation). Together, they are known as the 7 virtues. Although Paul refers to the virtues of faith, love, and hope, he does not refer to them in the abstract. He describes each one as an active force as he refers to their work of faith, their labor of love, and their endurance in hope (NABRE) or steadfastness of hope (NRSV). Let’s look at each one separately: What is the work of faith? One possibility is that this refers to the works we do because we believe: “the works resulting from faith (James 2:14-26)” (Peter E. Cousins, The International Bible Commentary , p. 1461). Our faith governs what we do in the present – if it doesn’t, is it really our faith? What does the work of faith look like in practice? What are you doing when you are doing it? What is the labor of love? What does the labor of love look like? How are you “laboring” when you are exhibiting the virtue of love? What is the point of emphasizing their endurance or steadfastness in hope? Why is endurance or the ability to be steadfast so important for hope? Hope is forward-looking. It involves having expectations about the future. Since we haven’t reached that future yet, we need endurance in the present to keep going, to “keep the faith,” in the expectation or hope that what we believe will come really will come. Paul says their hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. How are each of these three words important in their own way for giving us hope: “Lord,” “Jesus,” and “Christ” (Christ = Messiah)? What do you think about the Thessalonians as you view them through the eyes of Paul? How can we be more like the Thessalonians in the virtues we embrace? As you think about these virtues the Thessalonians exhibited, what particular trait or virtue might God be inviting you to grow in right now? What might be a step you could take to embrace that growth? Paul had not spent much time with the Thessalonians – perhaps as little as three weeks if Luke’s compressed narrative is to be taken literally, but certainly not more than a few months. Yet in verse 4 he calls them “brothers.” What does this signal? How would you feel, to have the Apostle Paul call you a brother or sister? Actually, you are his brother or sister in Christ. How does being counted among the brothers and sisters in Christ make you want to live your life? In verse 4 Paul also tells the Thessalonians that they are loved, or beloved, by God. What does this tell you about your own relationship with God? Finally in verse 4, Paul calls them “chosen.” Who chose them, and what does that tell you about them or about God? In what ways are you chosen by God? Is there something you would like to be doing more, or more effectively, because you know you were chosen by God and are loved by God? How might you respond more fully? Verses 5-10 In verse 5, Paul says that it wasn’t his fancy words that made the gospel he preached effective. What are the three things he identifies as the marks or characteristics of his presentation of the gospel? How might the preaching of the gospel be presented “in power and in the Holy Spirit”? How can we allow the power of the Holy Spirit to come through as we tell others about our faith? In verse 6, Paul says that the Thessalonians became imitators of him and of the Lord. In what ways did they become imitators of Paul and the Lord? They imitated Paul and Jesus in adopting a life of faith and in taking on the sufferings (and joy) that Paul and Jesus experienced because of their faith. Paul says the Thessalonians not only imitated Paul and Jesus, they became a “model” (NABRE) or “example” (NRSV) for other believers. How is that so? Notice in verse 6 how they received the word of God with joy in the Holy Spirit. How and why is joy central to the Christian experience? Pope Francis said, “Christian joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit: it is having one’s heart ever joyful because the Lord has triumphed, the Lord reigns, the Lord is at the right hand of the Father, the Lord has looked at me and sent me and has given me his grace and has made me a child of the Father…. a Christian without joy isn’t Christian; a Christian who lives continuously in sadness is not a Christian ” (Pope Francis, “No Fear: Morning Meditation in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae” , 15 May 2015). How can we embrace the joy of the Holy Spirit more fully in our lives? In verse 8, Paul says that what has happened in Thessalonica has “sounded forth” across the entire Greek peninsula and beyond. If the word were to be spread abroad about what is happening in your church, what would the message be? How would your parish or church be described? In verse 9, where Paul describes what the Thessalonians did, he is describing what repentance looks like. Repentance always involves a turning “from” and a turning “to.” What did they turn from and what did they turn to? Note: The “living and true God” echoes Old Testament verses that distinguish the one God from the multitude of dead idols. Paul’s description here can be seen as another set of 3 elements: turning from (the past), turning to (the present), and waiting for the return of Jesus and his deliverance (the future). The third element reinforces his reference to hope earlier. Is this kind of “turning” a one-time thing, or should we regularly look for how we can “turn” to God? In what way might God be calling you to turn “from” or “to” something right now? In verse 10, Paul refers to the “wrath” that is coming. The word “wrath” was used by Jews in Paul’s time as a shorthand for the coming of the Lord at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. The word “wrath” can be misunderstood in our time, because we associate it with human emotions such as uncontrolled fury that do not reflect the nature our divine God (Jesus talked about God’s judgment but never used the word “wrath” to describe it). Paul is saying that if we have made the turn toward God, we can wait for Jesus’s return without fear because he “delivers us” (NABRE) or “rescues us” (NRSV) from final judgment. Scholars point out that in verse 10, the word “delivers” or “rescues” is a present participle, not a future tense, meaning that Jesus has already begun the process and is already, now, in the process of delivering or rescuing us from final judgment. How is that so? Is there something about the Thessalonians that attracts you? How might they be an example for you or your local church? How might you emulate them? Take a step back and consider this: The words Paul uses to describe faith, hope, and love show that these virtues are active and practical. They make a difference in our daily lives. We work out our faith. We labor in love. We stick to it with endurance and perseverance in the present because we have a hope in the future that God is preparing. As the gospel of Christ takes root in our lives, these virtues are infused into us by God. But they are not solitary characteristics. They manifest themselves in, and shine forth in, the community – in us and others acting together as Christ’s Body. How does your work of faith support the church and community of which you are a part? How does your labor of love build up the church and community of which you are a part? How does your endurance in hope strength the church and community of which you are a part? What is God calling you to do in manifesting these virtues that He is working into you? Bibliography See 1 Thessalonians - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/1-thessalonians/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous 1 Thess. List Next

The idea that God abandoned or withdrew from Jesus, or hid his face from Jesus, contradicts the Bible and Christian doctrine about the Trinity. God was there to the end and will never abandon humans. Previous Christian Faith Articles Next God Did Not Abandon Jesus on the Cross The idea that God abandoned or withdrew from Jesus, or hid his face from Jesus, contradicts the Bible and Christian doctrine about the Trinity. God was there to the end and will never abandon humans. God the Father supports the cross of Jesus (the Son of God), while the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove hovers between their heads. Masaccio (1401-1428). Holy Trinity . Circa 1426 to 1428. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masaccio_-_Trinity_-_WGA14208.jpg . (This fresco is painted on the wall in a way that gives the impression of a vaulted space.) Tom Faletti September 22, 2025 Did God the Father abandon Jesus, the Son of God, on the cross because of our sins? Did he withdraw from Jesus or hide his face from Jesus? There are some intense views on this subject. Going back to Calvin, some Christians have argued that Jesus was actually abandoned by his Father when he was on the cross. Why do some people think God abandoned Jesus? When Jesus is dying on the cross, he prays, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) Jesus is quoting the first verse of Psalm 22. More accurately, he is praying Psalm 22. However, some preachers take this statement of verse as the starting point for an argument that Jesus was literally abandoned by God – that he not only experienced what it felt like to be abandoned, but that he actually was abandoned by God. In support of this interpretation, they draw upon a very literal reading of 2 Corinthians 5:21, which says that God “made him [i.e., Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” In their view, it was necessary for Jesus to actually be abandoned by God on the cross so that he could take the punishment of sin for us. They then argue, based on Old Testament passages such as Habakkuk 1:13, that God cannot tolerate the presence of evil and therefore that sin cannot stand in the presence of a holy and righteous God. Based on these premises, they conclude that God had to abandon Jesus when Jesus took on our sins for us. The idea that God abandoned Jesus is seriously flawed This notion that God abandoned Jesus is not consistent with Scripture and the nature of God. Here are some of its flaws: It splits the one Triune God. The idea that God the First Person of the Trinity could abandon God the Second Person of the Trinity would seem to split the one God into multiple gods. Proponents of the argument can’t solve this problem by saying that God only abandoned the human part of Christ, because that would split Christ into a God-part and a human-part rather than the fully human, fully divine, undivided single person he is. They also can’t solve the problem by saying that God only temporarily abandoned Jesus. God cannot abandon himself. Jesus was God. He could not abandon himself. It misinterprets Paul. The argument that God abandoned Jesus is based in part on an overly literal misreading of 2 Corinthians 5:21 (“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”, NRSV). In that verse, Paul is saying that Jesus took the place of sinful humanity and at the same time became the sacrificial sin offering that allowed us to take on his righteousness. Both halves of the sentence are metaphors that identify Jesus’s status and our status, not Jesus’s nature or our nature. We are not literally “the righteousness of God,” we merely take on Jesus’s righteousness. Similarly, Jesus was not literally “sin,” he took on the burden of our sin in relation to God and offered himself in sacrifice for us. It misunderstands the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. In the words of Isaiah, he “bore” the sin of many (Isaiah 53:12) and made his life the “offering” for sin (Is. 53:12). The sin itself cannot be the offering for the sin. He was the offering. He was the priest making the offering. He was not the sin. The book of Hebrews makes clear that he was sinless (Heb. 4:15) and that he offered himself without blemish (Heb. 9:14). This further establishes that he was the offering for sin, not the sin itself. It makes an argument supposedly from Habakkuk that Habakkuk rejects. In Habakkuk 1:13, the prophet says to God, “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, / and you cannot look on wrongdoing” (NRSV). Habakkuk is making this argument to God to try to convince God not to use the evil Babylonians to exact God’s judgment on Judah. It is Habakkuk’s opinion, not a statement from God, that God is too holy to be able to look upon evil. God rejects Habakkuk’s feeble attempt to deter God, as the rest of the book of Habakkuk shows. God is quite capable of working through evil people when necessary, and those evil people through whom he works will also face their own judgment. God never says in Habakkuk that he cannot look upon evil; that is merely a flawed human argument that God ignores. The argument for the abandonment of God is based on a misreading of Habakkuk that is so flawed that it actually turns the message of Habakkuk on its head. It ignores the Bible’s many examples of God directly interacting with sinners. The Bible clearly refutes the idea that God cannot look upon evil. Throughout the Bible, God explicitly looks upon evil and appears in the presence of sinners. For example, he seeks out and meets face to face with Adam and Eve after they have sinned in the Garden of Eden. He allows Satan to come into his presence and speak with him in the book of Job. In the story of the Prodigal Son, where the father stands for God, God welcomes the prodigal son and interacts directly with the unforgiving older son. God is not bound by our legalistic idea that he cannot look upon sin or be in the presence of evil. It ignores the Incarnation. God – God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity – came to Earth and lived 33 years with sinful people. Far from needing to shield his eyes from sinners or avoid being in the presence of sinful humanity, Jesus, who is God, embraced sinners, dined with them, taught them, touched them, spent every moment he could with them, and looked at them with love. God does not have to run away from sin or hide his eyes from it. He is so far superior to our sin that no sin, no matter how great, can force him to turn away or prevent him from entering into our presence. (Our sin may make it hard for us to be in his presence, but that is a different matter.) It totally misunderstands Psalm 22. Psalm 22 does not show God abandoning Jesus; it shows the opposite: that God was present with him to the end. Jesus pointedly rejected their claim by praying Psalm 22. Matthew only records Jesus reciting the first verse of Psalm 22, but Jesus would have known the entire psalm by heart and would have prayed the entire psalm. As he did so, he would have reached the verse that says that God “did not hide his face from me,” but instead that God “heard when I cried to him” (Psalm 22:24, NRSV; Psalm 22:25 in the NABRE). In praying the first verse, Jesus would have been expressing the feeling of abandonment. But as he continued it would have been clear that the entire psalm is about him, not just the first verse. He would have recited the verses describing how he was being mocked. He would have prayed the verses that described explicitly what he was experiencing on the cross; for example, “they have pierced by hands and my feet”(22:16; 22:17 in the NABRE). After praying verse 24, which explicitly says that God did not hide his face from Jesus (showing that the abandonment claim is wrong), he would have continued and reached the part where it says that he will (future tense) offer praise in the assembly and fulfill his vows (22:25/26), that the poor will eat and be satisfied, (22:26/27), and ending with the people proclaiming the deliverance God brought. Psalm 22 is not a psalm of abandonment; it is a psalm of victory in the presence of God. God did not abandon Jesus In conclusion, God never abandoned Jesus. Jesus, as a fully human person, endured the human experience of feeling abandoned by God, as any human being might feel while dying on a cross. But there is a difference between feelings and reality . Jesus was also fully God: God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity. The one Triune God cannot be divided. The Father was with the Son on the cross, for they are always, eternally, One. Our God does not win our salvation by removing himself from the presence of sin but by overcoming it with self-sacrificial love. When Jesus was on the cross, God was on the cross, pouring forth that love for us. God was not absent; he was the central figure in the act of our salvation. God never abandoned Jesus, and he will never abandon you or me or anyone else. Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Christian Faith Articles Next

Mary and Joseph follow God’s guidance one step at a time, not knowing what each new step will be but trusting that he will show them what to do. Can we, too, trust God to guide us one step at a time? [Luke 2:25-40; Matthew 2:1-12; 2:13-18; 2:19-23] Previous Mary List Next Session 3: When life gets complicated Mary and Joseph follow God’s guidance one step at a time, not knowing what each new step will be but trusting that he will show them what to do. Can we, too, trust God to guide us one step at a time? [Luke 2:25-40; Matthew 2:1-12; 2:13-18; 2:19-23] Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973). The Holy Family Resting - The Flight into Egypt . Original Bronze Sculpture. 1963. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC. Photo by Tom Faletti, 21 Jan. 2025. Tom Faletti July 13, 2025 Luke 2:25-40 Mary receives a surprise prophecy about herself In verse 25 and verse 26, how is Simeon described? What does Simeon do in verse 28, and what does he say in the verses that follow? How does Simeon describe Jesus in verse 32? Is this an accurate description of what Jesus ends up being? Explain. Simeon’s statement about the Gentiles in verse 32 builds on a statement in Isaiah 42:6 and Isaiah 49:6 that Israel will be a light to the nations (i.e., the Gentile nations). What is significant in Simeon’s interpretation that this claim applies to Jesus? In verse 33, how do Mary and Joseph react? Now Simeon turns his attention to Mary. What does he say to her in verses 34-35? How does the prophetess Anna add to the story? When we make ourselves available to God, as Mary and Joseph did by going to the Temple and as we do when we go to church, we open ourselves up to the possibility for interactions and blessings that we might miss if we weren’t there. How has your participation in your church’s rituals and activities opened the door to blessings for you? Now look at this incident through Mary’s eyes. What happened, from her perspective? What do you think the phrase in verse 35 meant to Mary, when Simeon said, “and you yourself a sword will pierce” (Luke 2:35, NABRE) or “a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35, NRSV)? What do you think this experience with Simeon meant to Mary later, when Jesus was an adult? Are there times when we must accept the pain of a figurative sword that accompanies the blessing of doing God’s will? What can we learn from Mary here? How is Mary a role model for the kind of person we are called to be? How is Mary an example for how to actively live out our faith? Now we are going to read the story of the “wise men.” We usually look at this story from the perspective of the wise men or “magi,” because that is how Luke tells the story. However, we are going to look at it from Mary’s perspective. From Mary’s perspective, the story begins in this way: While she and Joseph and Jesus are staying in a house in Bethlehem (Matthew tells us in verse 10 that they were in a house when the wise men arrive), the Holy Family receives a surprise visit from some well-to-do wise men from far away in the East. Consider Mary’s perspective as you read the story: Matthew 2:1-12 The magi find Jesus We do not know where in the “East” these men came from. We do know this: Matthew does not use a Greek word to describe them. Our word “magi” is a transliteration of the Greek word that Matthew uses, and that word is a Greek transliteration of the plural Persian word magi (the singular is magus ), which referred to a caste of Persian priests of the Zoroastrian religion. Zoroastrian priests were astrologers in the sense that they carefully studied the stars. Priests of that caste were also at times associated with magic, and our word for magic comes from the same root word as magi , but it would be misleading to think of them as magicians or as astrologers. In their time, the movements of the stars were thought to affect the fortunes of people and nations, so at a time of limited knowledge of the natural world, they were trying to be wise observers of nature. We might think of them as the wise or scholarly practical philosopher-scientists of their time, in addition to being priests of their religion. Since we are focusing on Mary in this study, go back and read verse 11 carefully. What happens from Mary’s perspective? What does she observe happening? What do you think she thought when these wealthy, probably well-dressed, knowledgeable men came into the house and prostrated themselves before the baby Jesus? Mary has now seen three very different groups of people approach the baby Jesus: the local, rough, lower-class shepherds; the very old, holy man of God; and the foreign, refined, upper-class magi. How might Mary have reacted to the fact that all these very different people had important things to say about Jesus? Throughout history, Mary has been seen as a saint who is accessible to everyone. How might her experiences as a young mother have shaped her as an accessible and welcoming person? Do you see Mary as the kind of role model who is accessible to people of all social classes, all nationalities, all levels of education and economic status? Explain. What can you learn from Mary here in the story of the wise men? Matthew 2:13-18 The escape to Egypt and massacre of innocent children The wonderment of the magi’s visit doesn’t last long. Soon, an angel appears to Joseph with a dire message. What does the angel tell Joseph? How do you think Mary reacted to this? What is our term, in English, for someone who has to flee their homeland and go to a different country because they are in danger? Our term for people in this situation is “refugee,” which is a specific kind of migrant – see “What is the difference between a refugee and a migrant?” ( USA for UNHCR ). How do you think Mary felt about being a refugee? Note: There were Jewish communities in Egypt, so they might not have been totally alone (just as refugees who come to Western countries in our time often have communities they can connect with), but because of their religious and cultural differences, they would have been seen as outsiders in the broader Egyptian culture. How do you think Mary’s experiences as a refugee shaped her as a person? Looking at this part of Mary’s life, how can we be like Mary? Matthew 2:19-23 They return to Israel Throughout this set of passages, Matthew is making subtle connections between Jesus and the ancient Israelites who were brought out of Egypt by God in the experience we call the Exodus. In verse 15, he quotes Hosea 11:1, where the prophet refers to Israel as God’s son but Matthew sees a new application to God’s Son Jesus. In verse 20, Matthew makes a connection to Moses. An angel tells Joseph that he can return to Israel, “for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” This echoes the experience of Moses. In Exodus 2:15, Moses had fled Egypt because Pharaoh wanted to kill him. In Exodus 4:19, Moses is told that he can return, “for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” How might Mary have seen parallels between Jesus and Moses and between Jesus and the nation of Israel as she journeyed to Egypt and back to Israel? As Mary and her fellow Jews celebrated their faith, they constantly recalled the story of God’s action that brought salvation to the Israelites in the event known as the Exodus where they escaped from Egypt. How might that story have been an encouragement to Mary in her ordeal of escape from and return to Israel? Where do Mary and Joseph settle, and why? Matthew and Luke focus on different stories related to Jesus’s birth and infancy, with Luke presenting Mary’s story while Matthew focuses on Joseph. Luke 1:36-37 indicates that Mary’s hometown was Nazareth. Matthew does not tell us where Joseph lived before Jesus was born; he says only that Joseph’s ancestral home was Bethlehem. When they return from Egypt, they settle in Nazareth, which Luke tells us is Mary’s hometown, whereas custom would have had a bride move into her husband’s home. How do you think Mary felt as she returned to Israel? What would it have been like, raising your child, knowing that powerful people might again someday decide he is a danger and should be killed? Do you think that Mary told Jesus about the dangers, or kept them to herself, and why? When you face ongoing dangers in life, how do you find a balance between ignoring them and obsessing over them? How might Mary be a role model for how to deal with the risks we take in life? Take a step back and consider this: In these passages, Jesus is honored, Mary receives a troubling prophecy, and then Jesus is targeted for execution. What a complicated start to motherhood, for Mary! Mary and Joseph did not realize what an adventure their marriage would be, and they did not have all the answers for what to do. The angel who first visited them did not tell them about Herod, or the magi, or that they would become refugees in order to escape Herod’s murderous plan. They did not need to know those things in the beginning, nor did they need God to spell out solutions in advance. God revealed what they needed to know, when they needed to know it. Notice what this means: Following God was not, for them, just one big leap of faith. It was a series of smaller steps, where they trusted God each time for what they needed to know and do at that moment, in order to get to the next step. The same is true in our lives. We don’t need to know everything about our future. We only need to know what we need to know for the present moment – and then we need to do it, in order to get to the next step. It’s an important lesson: We don’t always need to know what is coming. God sees the whole picture, and that is enough. When in your life have you had to trust God through a series of steps where you did not know where things were going, but God ultimately led you to a good outcome? What are you facing right now, where you would like to know more about what is coming than God has revealed to you, and you just have to trust God and take one step at a time? What are the best things for you to remember as you face times of uncertainty? How might Mary be a role model for you in these times of uncertainty? Bibliography See Mary - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/mary/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Mary List Next

Are you serving others and helping to lift their burdens, or seeking attention and honor for yourself? Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 23:1-12 Are you serving others and helping to lift their burdens, or seeking attention and honor for yourself? Image by Sai Madhav, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti August 19, 2025 Matthew 23:1-12 Don’t follow the example of the scribes and the Pharisees In the previous passages, Jesus dealt with challenges from the various leadership factions in Jerusalem. Now he turns to the crowds and his disciples. In this chapter, Jesus severely criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy and their heartless indifference to the burdens of others. But these groups did not come into existence for nefarious reasons. They started from a sincere desire to follow God’s Law completely, which is a cautionary tale for us. The scribes were the experts regarding the Old Testament scriptures – what they mean and how to apply them to life. We might compare them to the scholars and theologians of our time: people who have theology degrees or other forms of lengthy training in religious matters. Most scribes had a deep reverence for the Law and believed that it was the highest of all callings to spend one’s life studying the Law. They worked very hard to identify the 613 commands they found in the Law of Moses and to apply the God’s commands to every minute detail of life, because they loved the Law so much. The Pharisees were a deeply dedicated group of Jews who sought to follow every detail of those 613 commands in the most rigorous way possible. They sought to live every part of their lives, as fully as possible, according to their strict interpretation of the Scriptures. We might compare them in our time to the most devoted members of ecclesial organizations such as Opus Dei or Third Order Franciscans. Just as not all theologians are members of Opus Dei and not all members of Opus Dei are theologians, but some people are both, so too there was an overlap but also a distinction between the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus zeroes in on the ways that they have obstinately resisted his good news and have remained stuck in narrow and often self-serving approaches to faith. In verse 2, the reference to Moses’s “seat” may be metaphorical or it may refer to the seat of honor reserved for the people who taught in the synagogues. Synagogues did not have ordained “ministers,” so many people were invited to teach and interpret the Scriptures. In verse 3, what does Jesus instruct the crowds and his followers to do? There are two halves to what Jesus says here: Do whatever they teach you, but don’t do as they do. The first half – to do what they teach you – doesn’t seem to fit, given that Jesus has pointed out so many errors in their teaching throughout this entire Gospel. He is implying that sometimes they get it right. What do you think are some of the things they taught that he wants the crowds to follow? What do you think Jesus means in the second half of his statement, when he says: Don’t do the things they do? He might be saying that when they start focusing on their extreme and sometimes heartless interpretations of the Law, emphasizing little details that maybe even they don’t always follow, and when they make an ostentatious production of their faith, then you should not follow their example. How might we apply this in our day? What might Jesus suggest in our day that we should not do? What do you think verse 4 means when Jesus makes a metaphorical reference to “heavy burdens”? How are they imposing “heavy burdens” on the people who follow them? Their endless multiplication of detailed laws makes life very hard for everyday people. Their laws are burdensome and don’t benefit people’s faith life. Are there ways that people today pile rules and laws onto ordinary Christians unnecessarily, and perhaps miss the core of the gospel? Jesus adds that they don’t lift a finger to help the people who are struggling under the burdens they have created. Read Matthew 11:28-30 . How does their indifference compare to how Jesus deals with our burdens? Beginning in verse 5, Jesus focuses on the ways they do things for show. He has already warned the disciples about this in Matthew 6:1-18 with regard to almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. What is wrong with wanting to be seen when you do things that follow God’s Law? In verse 6, Jesus says they wear bigger phylacteries and longer tassels. Here is an explanation: Phylacteries are small leather boxes containing a little scroll with Scripture verses on it, that Jews would strap to their arm or forehead . This practice was based on Exodus 13:9. It was intended to remind them to keep God’s teachings on their lips and to remember God’s saving hand that delivered them from Egypt. The command is repeated in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, right after the famous command to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and might, implying that this practice would help them do that. It is also repeated in Deuteronomy 11:18-21, where this practice is linked with keeping God’s commands in their heart and soul. Tassels were pieces of string that were sewn onto the four corners of a person’s cloak to fulfill the command prescribed in Numbers 15:37-41. They were meant to be a reminder to follow God’s commandments. (The command is repeated in Deuteronomy 22:12 without the explanation.) When the woman with a hemorrhage touched the “hem” or “fringe” of Jesus’s garment in Luke 8:44, she was probably touching the tassel on his cloak. Do you think we would be more likely to remember to follow God’s commands if we went through our day with a reminder strapped to our foreheads or arms? Explain. What were the Pharisees doing wrong with regard to their phylacteries? What were they doing wrong with their tassels? In verses 6 and 7, Jesus denounces more of their practices. What were they doing wrong at banquets, in the synagogues, and in the marketplaces? What ungodly attitudes were being shown by these Pharisees? Where are the temptations for you to become a “scribe” or “Pharisee” in this way? Where might you have to be careful to avoid these kinds of attitudes? Verses 8-10 talk about titles to avoid. It is probably not useful to apply this too simplistically or literally. Even the apostle Paul referred to himself as the “father” of other Christians in 1 Corinthians 4:15 and Philemon 10. What is the ungodly attitude that Jesus is challenging? Jesus is challenging the pride that wants to be honored and treated as greater or more important than others. Almost every Christian denomination identifies the people who are allowed to teach the truths of their faith in colleges and seminaries as “teachers” (or “doctors,” which is just a title for a high-level teacher). The Catholic Church and some other denominations call their ministers “Father,” and many denominations make a big deal about who gets to be called “Pastor” (which means “shepherd”) or Bishop (which means “overseer”). Do we handle these titles appropriately, or do they run afoul of Jesus’s teaching to reserve the honorifics for God? If we dropped all honorifics for our church leaders, would it still be possible for them to fall into the pride that wants to be honored and treated as greater than others? And if so, what is the deeper point here? In verses 11-12, Jesus sums up what he is saying by making a bigger point. What does he say? This statement echoes what Jesus said in Matthew 20:26-27. How do verses 11-12 apply to Christian leaders, regardless of what we call them? How do verses 11-12 apply to you personally, as you live your own life? What do you need to do to honor Jesus’s teaching here? It is easy to try to put myself ahead of others without even realizing it, and to exalt myself in big or small ways. How can I keep from falling into that trap? There is also a risk that we might find ourselves trying to call attention to how humble we are. How do we sometimes do that? And how can we avoid it? Take a step back and consider this: For every scribe or Pharisee who was strutting around, flaunting his phylacteries and tossing his tassels, there were probably 2 or 4 or 9 others who were simply trying to live their faith with all the devotion they could muster. The same is true in our day. It is easy to point our finger at the TV evangelist with gold rings and a Mercedes. It is harder to recognize the subtle ways we are tempted to buy into a culture that tells us, “You need more ‘likes.’ It’s your time. You deserve the best. Everyone needs a little bling. Bigger is better. You earned it; now flaunt it.” If I listen to the ads and the social media culture, I’ll start to think that I need all kinds of things, and a lot of attention, in order to be important, or fulfilled, or happy. Jesus says, “No. Stop thinking about yourself. Stop wasting time on what does not matter. God has much bigger purposes for you than this. Focus on what God is trying to do.” What are the messages embedded in our culture that are most likely to steer you off track or knock you off your game? What are the distractions that can take your eyes off of Jesus? What can you do to stay focused, so that when people see you, they say, “There is a servant of God who makes life a little bit easier for the people around them”? In your life as a servant, what can you do to help lift the burdens of others? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew List Next

Bibliography of major sources and additional sources used in this study of Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess.). Previous 1 Thess. List Next 1 Thessalonians - Bibliography Bibliography of major sources and additional sources used in this study of Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess.). Some of the resources on the author's bookshelf. Tom Faletti January 26, 2025 Major Sources Barclay, William. The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians . The Westminster Press, Revised Edition, 1975. Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997. Collins, Raymond F. “The First Letter to the Thessalonians.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary . Edited by Raymond E. Brown, et al. Prentice Hall, 1990. Cousins, Peter E. “1 Thessalonians.” The International Bible Commentary: With the New International Version . F.F. Bruce, General Editor. Marshall Pickering/Zondervan, 1986. Demarest, Gary W. 1, 2 Thessalonians; 1, 2 Timothy; and Titus . The Communicator’s Commentary (Mastering the New Testament) , Lloyd J. Ogilvie, general editor. Word Books, 1984. Havener, Ivan, OSB. First Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon, Second Thessalonians, Colossians, Ephesians . Collegeville Bible Commentary, The Liturgical Press, 1983. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The New Testament, Revised Standard Edition, Second Catholic Edition . Ignatius Press, 2010. Interlinear Bible. Bible Hub , https://biblehub.com/interlinear/ . Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott . An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Founded Upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899. Perseus Digital Library , Tufts University, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0058 . For the full Lexicon from 1940 available online, see A Greek-English Lexicon , Furman Classics Editions, http://folio2.furman.edu/lsj/ or A Greek-English Lexicon , Internet Archive , Volume I: https://archive.org/details/b31364949_0001/mode/2up and Volume II: https://archive.org/details/b31364949_0002/mode/2up . New American Bible, revised edition (NABRE) . Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2010. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary . Edited by Raymond E. Brown, et al. Prentice Hall, 1990. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible . Eds. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2010. New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance . Bible Hub , https://biblehub.com/greek/21.htm . Vine, William E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary , 1940, StudyLight.org , https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/ved.html . Additional Sources Bandy, Alan S. “Views of the Millennium.” The Gospel Coalition , https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/views-of-the-millennium/ , accessed 2 Dec. 2024. Broussard, Karlo. “Meeting the Rapture Challenge.” Catholic Answers , 14 Sept. 2022, https://www.catholic.com/audio/caf/meeting-the-rapture-challenge . Catechism of the Catholic Church. Second Edition. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica . United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 1997. https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/ . Commission on Theology and Church Relations of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. “The ‘End Times’: A Study on Eschatology and Millennialism.” Sept. 1989. The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod , https://files.lcms.org/file/preview/xpajTThI2GXvV6Z53A1KZfZjWhkR00CS . Francis, Pope. “No Fear: Morning Meditation in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae,” 15 May 2015. L’Osservatore Romano , Weekly ed. in English, n. 21, 22 May 2015. The Vatican , http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2015/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20150515_no-fear.html . Horn, Trent. “‘Should Catholics Believe in “the Rapture’?” Catholic Answers , 4 Aug. 2021, https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/should-catholics-believe-in-the-rapture . Martin, George. “Paul: Apostle of the Cities.” God’s Word Today , February 1981 (Vol. 3, No. 2), pp. 47-49. “Where does the Rapture fit into UM beliefs?” Produced by Ask The UMC, a ministry of United Methodist Communications. United Methodist Church , 8 Aug. 2019, https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-where-does-the-rapture-fit-into-united-methodists-beliefs . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous 1 Thess. List Next

You provide the salt and light of Jesus to the world. Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 5:13-16 You provide the salt and light of Jesus to the world. Image provided by Wix. Tom Faletti April 21, 2024 Matthew 5:13-16 You are the salt and light of the world Salt has many useful properties. What is salt good for? In this passage, what good property of salt is Jesus focusing on (verse 13)? The Greek word for “earth” in verse 13 is the same as the word for “earth” in verse 5. It can mean soil, or a particular territory on the Earth, or the physical realm of existence (as in references to “heaven and earth”). In this case, it can’t mean “soil” since salt is not generally a good thing for soil. When Jesus says we are the salt of the “earth,” what do you think he means by “earth”? Metaphorically speaking, in what ways can Christians be the kind of good “salt” that flavors the world around us or improves the taste of life? Jesus says that salt that has lost its flavor is thrown out because it is not good for anything. Since he is talking metaphorically about Christians, what is he saying about such Christians? What do you need to do to keep being good salt in the world around you? What adjustments in your Christian life might help you be the kind of person who is the kind of “salt” the world needs? In verse 14, Jesus shifts to a different metaphor: light. What does he say that we are? In what ways are we meant to be like the light of a city that is built on a hill? In this metaphor about light, what kind of light are we supposed to be shining? According to Jesus in verse 16, what will people see in us when our light is shining properly? What do you think he means when he says that when our light is shining, people will see our “good works”? What do you think he means by “good works”? What are some ways that Christians might put their light under a bushel? What are some ways that we might put our light on a lampstand? According to verse 16, why will people give glory to God when our light is shining properly? Jesus says that when our light is shining properly, they will see our good works. In our world today, many people who do not believe in Jesus do not think Christians are a light and don't see a reason to give glory to God. It would be easy to blame this entirely on them. Turn your focus toward ourselves for a minute. How might Christians be interacting with the world in ways that do not shine a light – that are not seen as good works? What can we do to be better lights in the world? Take a step back and consider this: Sometimes we assume that if non-Christians fail to see the light of Christ, it is because of their own obstinacy. But we know that we are not perfect, so surely there are also times when the fault lies with how we are living out our faith or how we are representing Jesus to the world. There is no light where there is no truth. But sometimes we obscure the truth by pretending that things are simpler than they are. When Christians claim that following Jesus is simple – “all you have to do is have faith” – people think we are saying that if they just believe, all their problems will go away. They know that is not true, since Christians also have problems, so that message obscures the light. Many young people find it hard to see the light of Christ in us because of the inadequate attention many of our churches give to the injustices that weigh heavily on the hearts of young people (and people of every age who hear the cry of oppressed peoples for justice). When Christians uncritically support one political approach even though every political organization focuses on only some of God’s concerns for justice, or fail to address flaws in the churches themselves, people whose hearts cry for justice find it hard to see us as salt or light. Our light can also be obscured by our lack of holiness. If we only honor some of God’s commands, if we look like we mainly care about ourselves and people like us, if we fail to be engaged consistently in good works as our Lord told us to, then we should not be surprised that the world does not see us as salt and light. Think about a time when you were not the kind of salt or light that effectively represented Jesus to the world. What went wrong? Think about a time when you were particularly effective at being the kind of salt or light that Jesus calls us to be. What happened that allowed you to be salt or light? How can you build habits that will allow the salt and light of Jesus to be communicated to the world around you more consistently? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew List Next

The 7 themes of Catholic Social Teaching, with Scripture passages that support those themes. Previous Justice Articles Next The Bible and Catholic Social Teaching Examples of how the Bible supports Catholic social teaching. “Separation of Sheep and Goats.” Byzantine mosaic reproduction. Early 20th century (original dated early 6th century). Metropolitan Museum of Art , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Separation_of_Sheep_and_Goats_MET_cdi24-144-4s1.jpg . Tom Faletti December 9, 2024 The Bible and Catholic Social Teaching “Catholic social teaching is a central and essential element of our faith.” – United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Catholic Social Teaching,” USCCB , https://www.usccb.org/offices/justice-and-peace/catholic-social-teaching . Catholic social teaching draws on 4 streams of knowledge: The Bible , including specific passages and overarching themes. (All of Catholic social teaching is based on Scripture, starting with Genesis: We are made in the image of God.) Church documents , including encyclicals and other documents written by the popes, documents of Church councils, pastoral letters from conferences of bishops, etc. The 7 themes of Catholic Social Teaching identified by the U.S. Catholic bishops. Facts and analysis , including an examination of root causes that underlie specific issues. Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 1. Life and Dignity of the Human Person - All people are made in the image and likeness of God, so we must protect life and preserve human dignity from the beginning of human life to the end. Scriptural Support: Genesis 1:26-31 ; Luke 10:25-37 ; Romans 12: 9-18 . For more, see Life and Dignity of the Human Person | USCCB . Examples of relevant issues: Abortion; euthanasia; the death penalty; terrorism; war; immigration; racism. 2. Call to Family, Community, and Participation - All humans are social beings and are called, and must be welcomed, to participate in community. Scriptural Support: Romans 12:4-8 ; 1 Peter 4:8-11 ; Leviticus 25:23-28,35-43 . For more, see Call to Family Community and Participation | USCCB . Examples of relevant issues: Government support for families; education; homelessness; new immigrants in your community; people with disabilities; people on the fringes of society; the role of Christians in politics/government. 3. Rights and Responsibilities - Everyone has human rights and a duty to care for and share with those who lack what is required for human decency . Scriptural Support: Isaiah 1:16-17 ; Luke 16:19-31 ; Psalm 72:1-14 . For more, see Rights and Responsibilities | USCCB . Examples of relevant issues: Protection of life; access to food and water; access to shelter and basic health care; education; employment; equal treatment; protection from discrimination, injustice, and oppression; rights of conscience and religion. 4. Option for the Poor and Vulnerable – We must put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first. Scriptural Support: Zechariah 7:8-11 ; Isaiah 58:6-10 ; Matthew 25: 31-46 . For more, see Option for the Poor and Vulnerable | USCCB . Examples of relevant issues: Poverty; safety net programs; support for people with disabilities; refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants; people threatened by violence; orphans and children in foster care. 5. The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers – We must ensure that workers are treated fairly and that their rights are respected. Scriptural Support: Deuteronomy 24:14-15 ; Matthew 20:1-16 ; James 5:1-6 . For more, see The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers | USCCB . Examples of relevant issues: A just/living wage; basic benefits; time off (sick/vacation/family leave); employment training/assistance; fair treatment/equal employment; unions/collective bargaining. 6. Solidarity – We must stand with others in their struggle for justice and work for the common good of all people. Scriptural Support: Proverbs 31:8-9 ; Psalm 82:3-4 ; Leviticus 19:33-34 ; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 . For more, see Solidarity | USCCB . Examples of relevant issues: Advocating for the oppressed, needy, voiceless, migrant, disabled, ill, abused, etc.; humanitarian aid to poor people in other countries; supporting people whose human rights are violated; weighing private interests vs. the common good in society. 7. Care for God’s Creation – We must be good stewards of creation and protect the environment. Scriptural Support: Genesis 2:15 ; Leviticus 25:18-24 ; Matthew 6:25-34 . For more, see Care for Creation | USCCB . Examples of relevant issues: Air and water pollution; conservation; climate change; location of sites with toxic substances/environmental hazards; contamination of soil and groundwater; waste management; deforestation; surface mining. For a summary of the 7 themes, see Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching Handout from Catholic Relief Services. For more information about the 7 themes of Catholic Social Teaching, see Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching | USCCB , which has a separate page on each of the 7 themes, with relevant Scripture passages and excerpts from Church teachings and documents. Copyright © 2024, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Justice Articles Next