33 Weeks before Easter 2022

Sun Lk 8:19-25
Mon Lk 8:26-36 (through day 125/365)
Tues Mt 12:33-42
Wed Mt 12:43-13:2 (through day 136/365)
Thu Jn 6:52-65
Fri Jn 6:66-71 (through day 119/365)
Sat Mk 6:30-46 (through day 131/365)

34 Weeks before Easter 2022

Sun Lk 7:36-50
Mon Lk 8:1-18 (through day 118/365)
Tues Mt 12:9-21
Wed Mt 12:22-32 (through day 129/365)
Thu Jn 6:35-40
Fri Jn 6:41-51 (through day 112/365)
Sat Mk 6:17-29 (through day 124/365)

35 Weeks before Easter 2022

Sun Lk 7:24-30
Mon Lk 7:31-35 (through day 111/365)
Tues Mt 11:20-30
Wed Mt 12:1-8 (through day 122/365)
Thu Jn 6:22-27
Fri Jn 6:28-34 (through day 105/365)
Sat Mk 6:6b-16 (through day 117/365)

36 Weeks before Easter 2022

Sun Lk 7:2-17
Mon Lk 7:18-23 (through day 104/365)
Tues Mt 11:2-6
Wed Mt 11:7-19 (through day 115/365)
Thu Jn 6:1-14
Fri Jn 6:15-21 (through day 98/365)
Sat Mk 5:35-6:6a (through day 110/365)

37 Weeks before Easter 2022

Sun Lk 6:27-38
Mon Lk 6:39-7:1 (through day 97)
Tues Mt 10:24-33
Wed Mt 10:34-11:1 (through day 108)
Thu Jn 5:31-38
Fri Jn 5:39-47 (through day 91)
Sat Mk 5:25-34 (through day 103)

38 Weeks Before Easter 2022 Reading Schedule for the Four Gospels

Sun Lk 6:6-16
Mon Lk 6:17-26 (through day 90)
Tues Mt 10:2-15
Wed Mt 10:16-23 (through day 101)
Thu Jn 5:19-23
Fri Jn 5:24-30 (through day 84)
Sat Mk 5:14-24 (through day 96)

In honor of Mark, cont., pt 2

In  the management of our relationship to God, it is God who manages, and He manages our choice-making without being in any way the author of our sin.  The "cost" of believing that is that we don't always know -- especially in the case of others -- what mix of sinfulness and virtue there exists in particular deeds or failures to act.  

For example, we can't measure what the Lord actually uses quantity-language to describe: the size of gifts.  In Luke 21:1-4, Jesus uses quantity-language to praise the giving of a very small amount: "And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, 'Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.'”

This continues the perception of the doing of good (and sinning) that we brought up in looking at Mt 12:35 in the previous post.  In both cases, the "good man" case, and the "evil man" case, we can see, at least some, of  the "what" --  "what is good" and "what is evil" -- but we don't see the treasure, or which treasure it is. 

Does everyone sin?  Due to 1 Jn 1:8, we must all say we have sin, and (1 Jn 2:1), must also say the possibility of sinning still exists for us in this life. But Mt 12:35 leads to the conclusion that the good man does not have evil treasure, and the evil man does not have good treasure, but vice versa: the good man has good treasure, and the evil man has evil treasure. If the good man still sins (Eccl. 7:20), then not all our acts come from our treasure.  

Depending on what we are looking for -- complete predictability by ourselves being the common, but mistaken (1 Cor 4:4-5) goal -- we would have to say that that the hiddenness of  heart motive and the hiddenness of heart treasure prevent us from using behavior alone to assess the good of what looks fine on the outside.  That takes care of assigning any degree of eternal good to our actions or others' based on behavior alone.  What about the "what is evil" side?  We certainly can identify at least some of the evil in what is evil.  What we can't see is the treasure the person is holding inside, specifically, if a particular evil act (or evil aspect of any act) came from an evil treasure inside.   

Another way of saying this is (using the language of Jesus about all sin Mt 15:19; Mk 7:21) that sin comes "out of the heart," but that the heart WILL go with what the treasure is (Mt 6:21; Lk 12:34) -- notice, future tense.  So both Paul (Rm 7:14-25; Eph 4:13) and Jesus put the lining up of heart and treasure, as future.

In honor of Mark (cont.)

In Mt 12:33-37, Jesus says “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.  The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.  But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.  For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

 

At first read, this paragraph does not seem to help with the problem brought up by Mt 7:19 and being anxious about tomorrow, even given the advice in Mt 6:34.  However, to whom does Mt 7:19 apply?  To all “trees” in the illustration, that is, every human being.  To whom does Mt 6:34 apply?  To those who are worried about tomorrow.  Again, nothing prevents the condition – worrying about tomorrow – from occurring in good trees or bad trees.  What is necessary is to also know that God takes the individual bad tree and creates it anew, with the result of it becoming a good tree.

 

So, at “second read,” Mt 12:33-37 still seems not to help the anxiety about Mt 7:19.  Unless a good tree can know that it has been made, from a bad tree, into a good tree.  If a good tree can know that it is a good tree, then Mt 12:33 applies: all that the tree being good implies, including that its fruit is made good.  Only the bad tree is associated with bad fruit.  Then a way has been found to use Mt 6:34 to help with anxiety about Mt 7:19.

 

This puts exegetical emphasis on the understanding that what a tree is MADE as overwhelms, controls, and produces in every case – the quality of its fruit.   

What a tree is known as, follows from that.  The second exegetical emphasis is the understanding that what a tree is actually and truly finally known as: this overwhelms, overrules, produces correctly and corrects whatever is incorrect until the harvest, in the providence of God, eventually and eternally – what a tree seems to be during its pre-harvest.

 

 

 

 

 

In honor of Mark

 In honor of my teacher Mark Arrington being with the Lord, I will certainly try and think hard about issues, as he did as our teacher and asked us to.

A hard issue for many Christians is the statement of Jesus "every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Mt 7:19)." This is a verse that (some) Christians say, makes them  anxious about tomorrow, in their own case, since this an eschatological statement.

There is a simple-to-state solution about this anxiety, that Jesus already made in the previous chapter, and it is sufficient in itself, if we take it: "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for  itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Mt 6:34)."

Although a command to not do something is also "enough," sufficient if obeyed, the verse (6:34) has a command, but it also has teachings supporting it.  1) tomorrow will care for itself; 2) each day has enough trouble of its own. I don't know why this translation changed the literal words of this second part,  but at least it put them, the literal words, in the margin: "sufficient for the day is its evils."  This is a teaching that is greater than what "each day has."  This is also a statement that whatever evil each day has, is sufficient for the day!  It's one thing to know that each day has trouble, or "enough trouble of its own."  It's quite another to recognize that Christ, the first and last, who died, and has risen from the dead (Rev 2:8), is the one who states to us, that a day's trouble is sufficient for that day.  If He says that the trouble of today is sufficient for today, then that implies that tomorrow's trouble is not upon us to worry about, from God.  In another post, we can see more, why (from Mt 12:33, NASB95).