Malachi 3:16-18 -They will be my treasured possession

3:16

Amidst all the gloom and doom, there were still some who feared the Lord. In 1 Kings 19:1-18 we read that Elijah thought he was the only faithful one left, whereas God told him that there were actually several thousand who still feared the Lord. We need to bear this in mind today when some mainline churches are seemingly abandoning all faithfulness to the Lord. Even within these denominations there may well be many who do still fear the Lord. A scroll of remembrance was written with the names of those who still feared the Lord. They were not forgotten, and God knew who they were. So if we are in a situation where few honour God, we should not lose heart.

3:17,18

The Lord then gives words of encouragement. The first thing to note is that there is a day when He will act. It often seems to us that the Lord is slow to act, or is doing nothing at all, that He has forgotten about us. This is never true. God’s timing is often very different than ours, but we can be assured that there will come a time when He will act. And when He does so He remembers those who are faithful. They are His “treasured possession”. Let us remember this. When times come that being faithful to God is hard or costly, we are God’s treasured possession, we matter to Him. The Lord takes care of us. And when He acts there will once again be a distinction between right and wrong, between those who serve God, and those who do not.

Mark 1:1 - The beginning of the gospel

1:1

Mark declares the purpose of his book from the beginning. This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ (or Jesus the Messiah). Christ and Messiah both mean anointed one. And this Jesus is the Son of God. Good news, or gospel. It is the good news about the victory that Jesus won. Now why is this good news, remembering that Mark was writing for a largely Gentile audience.? One can see why it would be described as good news for the Jews for it was God’s fulfilment of the promises in the Old Testament, but why good news for the Gentiles? Well most (all?) people have problems in life. Life is fundamentally flawed, there is something deeply wrong. Perhaps most fundamental of all is that we all grow old and die. There are times when life is good, but there are also times when life is bad. For some people life is bad most of the time. Jesus Christ is the saviour of the whole world, the saviour for all men and women.

“The beginning of the good news”. Mark describes this as the beginning. This could be taken in two ways. One is that the mention of John the Baptist was the beginning, and he would then go on to describe the subsequent events. Another way to look at it is to take this as referring to the whole gospel, and what we see described in the gospel is just the beginning. The good news and the good effects will continue to spread throughout the world and throughout time.

Mark, unlike Matthew and Luke, does not make any reference to the birth of Jesus. This is consistent with Mark being the first gospel.

Malachi 3:11-15 - Yours will be a delightful land

3:11,12

There are two aspects to abundance. One is plentiful provisions, which we heard about in the previous verse, and other is the stopping of things devouring the abundance. Here God promises to stop pests from devouring the crops. The result will be that all the nations will call Israel blessed. So what are we to make of this for today? Are we to go along the prosperity gospel line that if we have enough faith we should all be living in luxury? Or is this all for the end of time, either in the millennium or after Christ returns? Or is it partly for today, but in a much deeper way that mere material prosperity? We live in a time when society is breaking down in all sorts of ways, when relationships are breaking down. There should be something different about the church, something different about our lives, someway in which our lives are a “delightful land”. For this to happen we need to be dedicated to God.

3:13-15

We still haven't run out of the charges that God is making against His people, though this is the last one. The people have spoken arrogantly against the Lord. As usual, the people are clueless as to how they have done this. Their crime was to say that it was a waste of time serving God, and that the evildoers get away with it. In short, there is no point serving God, and He is doing nothing about the evil in the world. Why is this arrogant? It is arrogant because it assumes that we know everything that is happening, that we know how things will turn out, that we understand God. None of these things are true. We do not have such wisdom or knowledge.

Mark - Introduction

Mark is the shortest of the four gospels. In fact it is almost exactly half the length of Matthew and Luke, possibly suggesting that scrolls had standard lengths, and also make it the cheapest! The general consensus is that Mark is the earliest of the gospels, though there are some who say Matthew and Luke came first. The most likely date is around 60 AD, with 64 AD being a popular date. It is important to understand that this does not mean that this was first date of the recording of the events covered in Mark. Originally the gospel events were transmitted orally, and there may have been earlier written sources of gospel events. There is the hypothetical source, called Q, which is supposed to be a record of the sayings of Jesus, and it is suggested that Matthew Mark and Luke drew from this source.

The gospel itself does not actually say who it was written by, the early church unanimously attributed it to John Mark of Acts (Acts 12:12,25; 15:37). Papias attributes the gospel to Mark, and says that Mark was an associate of Peter, from whom he got a lot of his information. The content of the gospel is consistent with such a hypothesis. The style of Greek is fairly common Greek, unlike Luke which is of a much higher standard. It was probably written in Rome with Gentile Christians being the primary audience.

While almost all the incidents in Mark are recorded in Matthew and/or Luke, Mark’s accounts are sometime fuller than those found in Matthew. When reading the gospels it is important to realise that they were not intended to be strict chronological accounts, but were written with a purpose. So while the material follows a rough chronological order, it was not the overriding guiding principle.  Mark is focused very much on action, with only four parables of Jesus being mentioned. Mark emphasises the cross, as do all the gospels, discipleship and the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. Mark sees the truth of this being demonstrated by the actions of Jesus. It is clear from Mark that Jesus is a teacher, but apart from chapter 13, Mark does focus much more on the doings of Jesus.

There is one key textual issue with Mark, namely the ending. Does the gospel end at 16:8, or is 16:9-20 authentic? Before looking briefly at the evidence, it is important to note that nothing in 16:9-20 contradicts anything else in the Bible, and, indeed, is entirely consistent with other parts of the New Testament. This helps put the “problem” in context, it is not a major theological issue!

Anyway, to the evidence. This is taken from J D Grassmick’s commentary on Mark in the Walvoord & Zuck New Testament commentary.

• The two earliest manuscripts from the fourth century do not include 9-20, though there is a space there, so quite possibly the scribe knew of a longer ending, but did not have access to it.
• Most other manuscripts (fifth century onwards) contain the longer ending.
• Early patristic writers (such as Justin Martyr, Tatian and Irenaeus) support the inclusion of the longer ending.
• Eusebius and Jerome say that the longer ending was missing from the manuscripts they had.
• An Armenian manuscript of the 10th century attributed the longer ending to Ariston, a disciple of the apostle John.
• The ending at verse 8 is rather abrupt, so it is easy to see why some would want to make it more “complete”.
• The transition from verse 8 to 9 is rather abrupt.
• The Greek style is rather different in 9-20 than in the rest of the gospel.

There are various suggestions as to what happened, but no firm conclusions can be reached. As mentioned earlier, no key theological issues are at stake, so we will assume that 9-20 are an intended part of the gospel.

Malachi 3:9,10 - Bring the whole tithe

3:9

This withholding of tithes and offerings put the nation under a curse. Now remember our working definition of “curse”: God’s judgement on man’s sin. It is not a spell that the nation is under, but God’s judgement. The whole nation was under judgement. We don’t like the idea of being under judgement these days, for God is all nice and cuddly, or so our superficial thinking tells us. This is never a picture of God that is presented in the Bible, Old or New Testament, and definitely not one presented by Jesus. Politics and economics matter, but a nation that defies God is liable to come under judgement and find that all its plans prove futile. This can apply to most nations in the West today.

3:10

However, God has not said this to leave Israel in the lurch. He has said it in order to urge them to repent. They should change their ways and bring the whole tithe into God’s house. Then they would see that the Lord would open up the heavens and pour out blessing upon blessing.

One of the many questions that arises over tithing is whether we should give the 10% to the church, or whether it includes money given to missionary organisations or other charities. I am always wary of being legalistic on these matters, and mistrust some who advocate tithing on a very legalistic basis. However, the church is the body of Christ, it is God’s primary means of working on the earth today, His chosen means. And Christ is the Head of the church. So, normally at least, I believe we should give 10% to the church we are part of. It is an act of faith, for we must be believing that God will work through the church we are part of. If we don’t believe that then why are we still part of that church? What about money we want to give to other charities and good causes? Well, give 10% to the church and then give to other causes. That is true prosperity.

3 John 1:11-15 - Do not imitate evil but imitate good

1:11

John urges his readers not imitate evil. The first thing to note is the clear implication that evil is at work in what Diotrephes is doing, again there is no beating about the bush. The second is that we are not to employ the same weapons (see 2 Cor 10:4,5). We are only to imitate good. Jesus said that by their fruit shall you know them (Matt 7:16), and John is making a similar statement here.

1:12

Having named the evildoer, John now names the good brother, Demetrius, and strongly commends him. Everyone who knows him speaks well of him, and his life is in line with the gospel (the truth). It is not just a matter of who has the right opinions, but also a matter of the life a person lives. John then makes it clear that he adds his commendation of Demetrius as well. And Gaius knew John and that he was reliable.

1:13-15

Verse 13 is very similar to verse 12 in 2 John, as is verse 14. John wants to meet up with Gaius face to face. He then closes with a typical blessing and farewell.

Malachi 3:7,8 - Return to me and I will return to you

3:7

So on the one hand we have the unchangeableness of God, which includes His absolute commitment to His covenant. On the other hand we have the unrelenting sinfulness of Israel. The tragedy of Israel, and indeed the tragedy of all mankind, is that if she had obeyed the Lord’s statutes she would have enjoyed peace and prosperity, as would the whole human race. But she did not. Even so, the Lord calls on her to return to Him. Israel replies how should they return? Are they asking because they think they are already doing pretty well, or because they genuinely don’t know?

3:8

The aspect that is presented to them here is that of tithes and offerings. The tithes were supposed to support the Levites. The offerings may refer to the tithe of a tithe that the Levites were meant to present to the Lord. In not presenting the tithes to the Lord the people were robbing God. There is much debate about whether tithing is still applicable today, and questions like whether it should be on net or gross income. Such debates usually miss the point, and such questions are usually a symptom of a wrong attitude. Our God is a giving God, and we should be a giving people. If we do not give then we are not being Christlike, and ultimately we are missing out. We may be “missing out” financially, but most importantly we are missing out on being like God. We were created to give.

3 John 1:9,10 - Talking wicked nonsense

1:9

John now mentions another person by name. Diotrephes seems to have had a leadership role of some sort, but was fulfilling the role not as a servant of Christ and the people, but as a means of self-aggrandisement. He did not recognise John. ESV has “does not acknowledge our authority”, NKJV has “does not receive us”. The practical implication of the two translations is the same. We may wonder why such short letters as 2 and 3 John appear in the Bible. They do not contain anything like the same grandeur of Romans, Ephesians or Hebrews, nor even of 1 John. However, they deal with issues that still are, and always have been, relevant in the church. In 2 John we have the matter of whether or not we should welcome false teachers, to which the answer is a resounding no. We would do well to question our current practices in the light of this. Here we are dealing with self-centered leaders. John deals with the matter head on, including naming the person concerned. Again, we have much to learn from this.

1:10

John says that if he visits then he will raise the matter directly. ESV has “talking wicked nonsense against us”, I prefer the NKJV “prating against us with malicious words”. In short, Diotrephes was a prat, and John was not afraid to say so. Diotrephes was a very controlling leader. He refused to welcome the faithful brothers, and if anyone did welcome them, they were put out of the church. We all know that this sort of controlling behaviour is still very much around in all branches of the church. As mentioned in my comments on the previous verse, these two short letters deal with very real problems that churches have to address.

Malachi 3:5,6 - I the Lord do not change

3:5

The salvation will come with refining. Remember that John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptise with fire as well as the Holy Spirit, and talks explicitly of a serious refining (Matt 3:12). We need to appreciate that the gospel is about God dealing with the enormous problem of our sin. Part of this is Jesus paying the price for our guilt, taking the judgement that should have been ours. But the other part is the cleansing of our lives, the Holy Spirit sanctifying us. So there is a purging of all unrighteousness, and the specific examples listed here are: sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who oppress workers and other needy groups, those who do not welcome travellers, and those who do not fear the Lord. All these “sins” are ultimately a consequence of not fearing the Lord, and fearing the Lord is a very good antidote to sin!

3:6

The Lord declares His commitment to Judah. Why is Judah not consumed completely? Because of the Lord’s unchanging nature. He had made a covenant with Israel and this would be kept. Sending His Son was the key element in the keeping of that covenant. We can also apply this to Israel today. It is amazing that Israel has not been “consumed”, especially when one considers all of her history. The reason is the Lord’s covenant with her.

3 John 1:5-8 - Fellow workers in the truth

1:5

In 2 John the church was warned against welcoming people who were false teachers. Here we get a counterbalance, in that Gaius is commended for helping Christians even though they are strangers. I guess we have all had the experience that we meet someone for the first time who is a Christian and our shared faith in Jesus Christ means there is an immediate bond between us.

1:6

The brothers who were welcomed by Gaius told their church of the warm welcome that they received from Gaius. It is not clear what the point of the second half of verse 6 is. The first part would seem to imply that they had already left and returned to their home church. Alternatively, they could have been staying for some period of time and have sent a letter to their home church. If the latter is the case, then John is urging Gaius to continue to act well towards them and to send them on their way with a blessing.

1:7,8

The brothers had gone out “for the sake of the Name”, presumably to spread the gospel. They received no help from the pagans. It is not clear why John says this, as one would hardly expect them to receive any help from the pagans. John then gives a general principle. The gospel cannot expect any help from the world (though it may sometimes receive some), so it is vital that the church works together, supporting each other, so that we can “work together for the truth”.

Malachi 3:3,4 - He will sit as a refiner

3:3

The Lord has severely criticised Israel, the priests in particular. But He has not done so to write them off, but to explain why He will come to purify them. So the goal is that they will learn to make righteous offerings. But oh how severe the purifying was and is. When Jesus came they failed to listen and then in AD 66-70 the temple was destroyed, and since then the nation has suffered much. And still we are waiting for Israel as a whole to turn to the Lord.

3:4

But there will come a time when the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem are acceptable to the Lord, when they do truly trust in Him and recognise God’s Son, Jesus, for who He is. There are those who spiritualise all of this and say that Israel as a nation no longer has any special in God’s plans, only as one nation among many. I think such notions are unbiblical and miss the heart of God. Two key features of the whole of the Old Testament are (i) God is completely open-eyed to the sins and sinfulness of Israel; (ii) He is absolute committed to Israel, He has a plan, and one that takes full account of Israel’s sin. One further feature that Israel never appreciated (in point of fact, she never appreciated much at all of God’s heart) is that this plan for Israel includes the plan of salvation for the whole world, which was meant to come from Israel.

3 John 1:1-4 - I pray that all may go well

1:1,2

This addressed to a particular individual, Gaius, and one whom John obviously knew well. Verse 2 is one that is beloved of prosperity gospel preachers, supposedly showing that if we believe the gospel then financial prosperity should be ours. Well here is an example of why we should look at verses in the light of all Scripture (this also applies to those who tend more towards a “poverty gospel” (ie the poorer the holier line). First, in its immediate context it is a greeting, to base a whole theology on it without proper support from all Scripture is a very unwise thing to do. Now, God does care for all aspects of our lives, He does want all aspects of our lives to go well. Moreover, other things being equal, the more in line with God our lives are the better all things will be. The problem is that other things are not equal. First the negative side. There are three factors which mean that things will not be perfect in my life. One is my own sin and sinfulness. Second is that other people will sin against me. And thirdly, we live in a fallen, and therefore imperfect, world. But now let’s look at the positive side, and this is perhaps the most important. Part of the gospel, part of the promise of the gospel, is that we share in Christ’s sufferings.  So sometimes we will suffer unjustly or undeservedly, but God will work through this to bring about His good purposes in our own lives and in the lives of others. We need to grasp the full glory of the gospel.

1:3,4

John had clearly heard news of Gaius from others, and he clearly was progressing spiritually. How did John know this? Or, rather how did the believers who brought the news to John know this? It was because Gaius was faithful to the truth and was walking in the truth. Ie his “life and doctrine” were consistent with the gospel. In the light of my comments on v2, note that it is the quality of his life that matters, not his wealth! Note also that how John judges a man’s life is by how well it aligns with the truth of the gospel, he does not use a worldly measure. We should do the same when assessing ourselves, and when assessing others.

Malachi 3:1,2 - Who can endure the day of His coming?

3:1

So, the situation is far from good, to put it mildly. However, God is not going to stand idly by. He will send His messenger. Just look at the wording here: “I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me”. Mark refers to this in the opening of his gospel (Mark 1:2). John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare the way for the Lord Himself. The Lord would come suddenly to His temple. This can be taken generally, or more specifically to Jesus’ appearing at the temple when He cast out the money lenders. This was the Lord of the covenant in which the Israelites claimed to delight. He would seek to put the nation right, but as we know they would reject their Messiah.

3:2

The coming of the Lord would not be an easy matter, for He would come as a refiner’s fire. The Jewish religious system would not withstand this, for it would be found wanting. But being found wanting was not the problem. The problem was that they would be found wanting and refusing to admit their guilt and their need of mercy from the Lord. Whenever God comes into our lives there will be things that He highlights that need changing. But He does not come to condemn (John 3:16-21), if we will come into His light we will be healed, but if we are stubborn and refuse to come into His light because we do not want our deeds exposed, then we remain under condemnation.

2 John 1:11-13 - I have much to write to you

1:11

The attitude today is that if we did not welcome these false teachers then that would be unChristlike and unloving. John’s teaching (and remember that he is sometimes known as the “apostle of love”) is completely different. If they were to welcome these false teachers then they would be sharing in their wicked work. Note two things here. First, the work of the false teachers is described as “wicked”, they were having a destructive effect on people’s lives. Secondly the direct approach of John, rather than beating about the bush. Today some Christian radio programmes (or podcasts), or magazines (websites) sometimes treat heretical teachers on an equal footing to Biblical teachers. This is all done in the name of balance and respect, but in reality it is a completely unbiblical approach.

1:12,13

John had a lot more he wanted to say to them, but he preferred to say this on a face to face basis. This would imply that he was not that far away from them, and that he had a personal relationship with the church. It also shows that he considered the matter raised in this letter as of great importance. We should treat it with the same seriousness today. John then talks about “our joy being complete”, a phrase also found in 1 John 1:4. “The children of your sister” is presumably a nearby or related church.

Malachi 2:17 - You have wearied the Lord

2:17

Yet another charge is laid against the priests. This time it is that they have wearied the Lord with their words. Again, the people do not realise how they have done this. We can all be blind to our sins. “All who do evil ...” This could be taken either as calling evil good, or as saying that the Lord does not care nor do anything about the injustice in the world. In the light of the last part of the verse, the latter seems the more likely. It is very easy to start thinking like the people at this time were thinking, ie that God is not going to do anything about evil, and there seems to be much evidence to support such a view. However, we need to take the warning of this verse seriously. Such world-weary talk is not good. This is not just because God doesn’t like it! It is because there is actually a better way, and God’s ways go deeper than we imagine.

2 John 1:9,10 - Do not receive him

1:9

Just as we find in 1 John, John is very clear and direct about the nature of false teachings and false teachers. If only we could have the same clarity from church leaders today! If someone does not continue in the teaching of Christ, then they do not have God. Conversely if someone does continue in the teaching of Christ then they have the Father and the Son. If we deny Christ or deny His word, the Bible, then we are denying God. It is not an interesting point of view, it is not something worth considering, it is harmful nonsense that has nothing to do with God. But if we remain faithful to Christ and His word then we have Father and the Son. There really is no option.

1:10

So we now get the clear practical warning, and the primary purpose of the letter. There were many travelling teachers and preachers, and not all of them were good. So if someone came who was not faithfully proclaiming Christ then they were not to be welcomed nor taken in to their homes. There are wolves out there, some dressed in sheep's clothing and we need to be wise to this.

Malachi 2:15,16 - You belong to Him in body and spirit

2:15

“Has not the one God made you?” This is so fundamental and is at the root of so many of our problems, and the distorted worldview so many have. We are created beings, and we were created by God. Two of the things this means are (i) God knows what is best for us; (ii) we have a responsibility towards God. We so often talk and act as if we are our own. This is simply not true, we are not our own. Rather, we belong to God “in body and spirit”. Only then will we be who we are truly meant to be. And God denies Godly offspring, and they can only be produced within a faithful marriage. We must not be unfaithful to our wives. Note that the onus is put on the husband.

2:16

The Lord then speak very firmly about what He thinks of the man who divorces His wife. Men are meant to cherish and protect their wives. A man who divorces his wife does violence to her. This violence may well be physical, but it can also be psychological or emotional. God created us, and the primary building block of society is the family. A husband and wife are meant to work together, living as one. It is not a contract, it is a covenant. When divorce happens it always involves two things: sin and pain. The sin may be very much on just one side, though can also be pretty evenly balanced, but by definition there will be sin. There will also be pain, for we were not created to be divorced, not created to be in loose relationships, but created to be in faithful relationships. Our society is looking to make divorce “easy”. There are two things wrong with this. The first is that divorce cannot be made easy, it is always painful. Secondly, our focus should be on being more faithful.

2 John 1:7,8 - Many deceivers have gone out

1:7

John now explains why he is giving these warnings, and it is because of false teachers. Indeed, there are “many deceivers”. It seems that their false teachings were similar to those that John dealt with in 1 John, for they do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ “came in the flesh”. It is interesting that most of the heresies encountered by the early church rejected the humanity of Jesus, whereas nowadays it is the divinity of Jesus that is the problem. As in 1 John, John is quite direct about these false teachers. They are deceivers and the antichrist. They are opposed to Jesus, whatever else they may claim about themselves. When we think of the term antichrist we tend to immediately think about the end times and the beast and such like. The term antichrist is hardly used in the Bible, and when it is it is in a very mundane way, ie referring to false teachers. This makes it both less and more “scary”. It is less scary in that we are not talking about some demonic monster of the horror movie genre, but it is far more scary in that it shows the seriousness with which false teachers should be dealt with, and is indicative of the damage that they can cause.

1:8

John’s hearers need to pay attention. Otherwise there is a risk that they will lose “what we have worked for”. John and the church had worked so that the people could enter in to God’s salvation in Christ. If they accepted the false teachings and the false teachers they risked losing all that. False teachings matter, they are not interesting ideas to be entertained, but poison to be rejected.

Malachi 2:13,14 - You have been unfaithful to her

2:13

Malachi then turns his attention to another thing that the priests were doing. They covered the altar with tears. They knew that God was not accepting their offerings, not responding to them. Note the implication that they if God accepted their offerings they would have known about it. When we are in right relationship with God He responds in concrete ways towards us.

2:14

The priests wondered why this was the case, why God did not accept their gifts. Today many ministers maybe wonder why the church seems to be failing. God then points to a particular sin, namely divorce. Now, they must have known divorce was prevalent, but they were blind to the wrongness of this. We could very well say the same today! As noted in comments on v11, this may have been related to the practice of marrying foreign women. The key feature brought out here is that marriage is a covenant. The surrounding culture saw marriage as a legal contract. Again, we can observe that that is very much the way things are viewed today, as shown in moves to try and get “no fault” divorce. Marriage in God’s eyes is something much more than that.. Moreover, the Lord was a witness to the covenant. Even today in church marriages we speak of a couple getting married before God and before the people. The wife is a companion, there is meant to be a living together, going through life together. We know from Ephesians 5 that it is also a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the church. We need to better appreciate the wonder and the seriousness of marriage.

2 John 1:5,6 - And this is love

1:5

This is right out of 1 John 2:7,8. It is interesting that today so much wrong teaching claims to be based on love. “Love is love” is one of the slogans of the LGBT supporters, those in the sin-affirming churches claim that they are acting in love. In the next verse we will see the error in the “love is love” brigades teaching, but why does John talk about it in this context? Sadly we don’t know the exact nature of the false teachings he was countering, or the sort of arguments that the false teachers were using. Maybe they claimed to be acting in love, but who knows? There are several times in the Bible when we wish we knew more about the details. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that while John wrote this letter (or Paul or Peter etc, depending on what we are looking at), Scripture is God-breathed, and at times God does not want us to get hooked up on the precise historical details of a particular incident. When there is false teaching it is easy for us to get angry, but one of the first things we need to remember is that we are to act in love, and we are to love one another.

1:6

Having agreed to love one another we now get one in the eye for the “love is love” brigade, exposing the vacuity of such statements. “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments”. This too is right out of 1 John. Loving God involves obeying His commands. Indeed, Jesus said exactly the same about loving Him in John 14:15. So any talk of love that involves disobeying God’s commands is just so much nonsense. We are to walk in obedience to God, not disobedience.

Malachi 2:11,12 - Judah has been unfaithful

2:11

In Ezra 9:1,2 we find Ezra dealing very firmly with those Jews who had intermarried. To our modern western ears we find this a little offensive, so let’s look a little more deeply to understand the situation. Marrying a “daughter of a foreign god” was not just a matter of a Jew falling in love with someone who was not a Jew. First, it was often done for economic reasons. In order to join some of the trade guilds it was necessary to intermarry. This would also involve divorcing an existing Hebrew wife. So this was not a “nice” practice at all. Then it would also involve the Jew getting involved in the worship of the false idols that the new wife worshipped. So it was a wholly destructive practice, and Judah had indeed been faithless and did profane the sanctuary of the Lord. It was an “abomination”, this is one of the strongest terms used in the Bible for unacceptable practices.

2:12

Malachi then declares his desire that the Lord cuts off from the “tents of Jacob” any descendant of the man who does these things. Ie there is complete cutting off of this person and all he does from Israel. The man was still pretending to worship God, maybe even deluded into thinking he actually was worshipping God, when all he was doing was profaning the sanctuary. We are called to holiness. The warning is against mixture, and today in the church we should be equally wary of mixture. We too readily take on board the world’s ideas.

2 John 1:3,4 - Grace, mercy and peace

1:3

Grace and peace feature in the introductions of Paul’s letters, but there it is usually “Grace and peace to you”. Here John says “Grace, mercy and peace will be with us”. He is asking them to take action in the way they responded to travelling false teachers. This might not have been an easy thing to do, but John is assuring them that if they do this the grace, mercy and peace of God will be with them. This is so important. We often shy away from difficult decisions, difficult courses of action out of fear and out of an awareness of our own weakness and unworthiness. But in Christ we succeed not because of our own goodness or ability, but because of the Christ’s goodness. It is because of the grace of God that we will succeed, that our actions will be fruitful. It also almost certain that we will get things wrong, or are in a difficult position at least partly because of our own failings and mistakes. We receive mercy from God. And while the decisions we have to make might be difficult, we will receive peace from God. The gospel leads us to be active.

And this grace, mercy and peace comes from God the Father and the Son (more evidence, if more was needed, that the early church always saw Christ as being God) in truth and love. This is grace, mercy and peace is no impersonal thing, but a personal gift of love to us from God. Truth and love are two of John’s great themes, see 1 John.

1:4

John then commends them, though it is only a partial commendation. He is pleased that some of them are walking in truth. John does not simply mean that they were honest, but that some of them were walking in the light of the gospel. However, the implication is that some of them were not. We should note that it was true even in New Testament times for churches to be a mixed bag, with some walking in truth, and others either lukewarm or walking in falsehood. And walking in truth is not an optional extra. Indeed, the very phrase “walking in truth” should indicate that it is the only way we should live, but it is also a command from God.

Malachi 2:9,10 - Did not one God create us?

2:9

When priests, ministers or preachers depart from God’s truth they do so for various reasons. Some may do so in order to get money. Today this is most true of so-called prosperity gospel preachers. Perhaps the most common reason today is to avoid being seen to go against the prevailing tide, to court some sort of academic acceptability or popularity. However, this will not work. Here the Lord says that He will cause the priests to be despised and humiliated. And what do we see with the liberal “church”? Has it increased their congregations? Does the world come rushing to learn from them (what would be the point of that when they have merely learnt from the world)? No, their congregations are dwindling inexorably, and people know that they have nothing worthwhile to say.

2:10

It seems that Malachi is now speaking himself to the priests, or whoever else was listening. He is urging them to realise that they owe their very being to God. This was particularly true of Israel, for the nation existed only because God had created her, and rescued her on many occasions, most notably when he took them out of Egypt. But it is actually true of all of us, for we did not create ourselves. So Malachi asks them why they are unfaithful to the covenant (the Law), and why they do harm to each other.

Desperate Faith!

In Mark 10:46-52 we read of the healing of blind Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was around and cried out loudly, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”. Look at the contrasting reactions of the crowds, and of Jesus. The crowd told him to shut up. Who did he think he was? However, the man was not to be deterred. So why was he not deterred? There were two factors, and these were working together. First, there was his condition, being blind. This was highly debilitating and he was desperate, or at least very keen, to be healed. The second was that he had faith in Jesus. When these two things work together we will act in ways that others cannot understand, nor will they be able to stop us! There is a strength to being desperate and full of faith. It is also why the world will not overcome the church. A world without God is a desperate place to live in, there is a loss of all sorts of things, including freedom and tolerance. Indeed, we see this happening in the West at present. Have you noticed how utterly unforgiving and unmerciful the world is? No matter how hard the world tries, there are always people who still have faith in the Lord. Many a society has tried to squash this, but none have succeeded. The world, by its nature, produces desperate people. The Holy Spirit produces faith in people, and the world cannot stop the Spirit.

In contrast to the crowd, Jesus welcomed the man. Jesus delights in people who have faith in Him. And, of course, Jesus healed the man. In fact, He said “your faith has healed you”. So if you are feeling desperate, do not listen to the voices around you, but call out to Jesus in faith. The world may tell us to shut up, but Jesus will welcome us with open arms.

2 John 1:1,2 - The truth that abides in us

1:1

“The elder” is the term that John uses to refer to himself. He was quite old at this stage, and it is interesting that he does not refer to himself as an apostle. “The lady and her children” is taken as John referring to the church he is writing to (we don’t know which church). He reminds the church that they were chosen by God, and that is indeed the status of us all. He then says that he loves the church “in truth”, and goes on to add that all who know the truth love the church. He says this because he is going to be warning them against travelling false teachers.

1:2

John lays a great emphasis on the truth, as he did in his gospel and in his first letter. The truth lives in us and will be with us forever. This is a very different approach to life than that taken by many today, even, indeed especially, in the church. Jesus is the truth, the gospel is truth and is true. Yet so often people in the church seek to subvert the truth, or talk about “your truth” and “my truth”. God’s truth is the only truth that matters, the only truth that there is.

Complete notes on Zechariah

Complete notes on the prophet Zechariah are now available on Dundee Believer.

2 and 3 John - Introduction

Introduction

2 and 3 John are the two shortest books in the New Testament, both having the form of letters. The language and teaching bears a lot of similarities to that found in 1 John, and common authorship is a reasonable assumption. Despite their shortness, there is attestation or allusion to the letters from very early on in church history. Ireneus links 2 John with 1 John, and Clement of Alexandria knows of more than one Johannine letter. No one ever attributed the letters to anyone other than John the son of Zebedee.

The date of the letters is tied up with whether one takes them as being written before John’s gospel, or being written after the gospel. Most take the latter view, and that gives them a date of roughty 80-85 AD.

The letters do not state their specific destination, though 3 John does state the recipient, who is probably not one of the various Gaius’s mentioned in the New Testament. The region of Ephesus is taken as the most likely destination. 2 John seems to have the purpose of warning the church against travelling preachers who were not preaching the gospel. This is also timely today, when people have access to so much in the way of YouTube and podcasts. Some is good, but not all of it, and some is dangerous nonsense. 3 John was warning against a specific individual who seemed to be accruing power for himself. That is also very timely for our day as there are numerous instances of this sort of thing happening.