📖 Don't be a fool

I. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that “everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” (Matthew 7:26)

We often think we should do what God says so we can do morally good things and avoid morally bad things. But there is more to it than that. We should also do what God says because it is pragmatically foolish not to.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses topics like anger, lust, greed, anxiety, and more. We should follow his teachings because they are both morally good and pragmatically wise.

Our ways are shortsighted and foolish, but God’s ways are solid and good.

His way is always better.

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II. You can do the “right” thing without actually doing the right thing. Jesus implies as much with his rebuke of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness.”

Here are a few ways we might do the same thing:

You can do the “right” thing without actually doing the right thing.

And Jesus wants us to make sure we are actually doing what is right.

The word amen comes from Hebrew and means “truly,” “certainly,” or “let it be so.”

In the Gospels, Jesus often begins statements by saying “amen” (often translated “truly I tell you”).

Sometimes Jesus says it twice: “amen, amen.” Most English translations render this as “truly, truly” or “very truly.”

In Hebrew and Greek, repeating a word like this adds emphasis. It signals that something especially important or authoritative is about to be said.

So when Jesus says “amen, amen, I say to you,” he is essentially saying:

“This is absolutely true.”

In many English Bibles, you will sometimes see LORD in all capital letters and other times Lord with only the first letter capitalized. That difference is intentional.

When you see LORD (all caps) in the Old Testament, it is translating the Hebrew name Yahweh, which is God’s personal covenant name.

When you see Lord (only the L capitalized), it is usually translated from the Hebrew word Adonai, which means “master” or “lord.”

So:

Sometimes both appear together. For example, “Lord GOD” in English usually represents Adonai Yahweh in Hebrew.

King of Kings by James Baird

A short book on how Christians should view and engage in the political process.

In my experience, many Christians’ thoughts on how Christians should engage in politics are based on vibes and feelings. That’s not to say those don’t matter at all, but Scripture and wise Christian tradition should be our starting point.

This book does a good job of engaging both the Bible and the wise Christian thinkers on why it matters how Christians engage in the political process and why their involvement does matter. And I would say, quite wrongly, that many Christians falsely believe that Jesus doesn't want believers meddling too much in that sphere.

This book is both thought-provoking and practically helpful.

It’s hard to give a rating since it is a short book on a very niche topic, but I would recommend the book, and it won't take you long at all to get through it.

P.S. When you let your doctor down…