Category Archives: Language

Romans 13:8-14 – The light of Jesus within drives away the darkness of ignorance [Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

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This is the Epistle reading for Proper 18, the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will be read aloud in Episcopal churches (and others) on Sunday, September 10, 2017. While a short reading selection, it is a powerful disclaimer message, one worth taking note of.

When Paul said – again, realizing that Paul spoke as did Jesus, “for the Father,” through the Holy Spirit – “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” means a true Christian (only Saints and Apostles) repays everyone to whom he or she ever associates with love. LOVE (which is grossly misunderstood, but what else is new?) has been given as God’s blessing, making LOVE the only currency that matters. Thus, LOVE is all a true Christian owes in return for receipt of the Holy Spirit.

When Paul wrote, “The one who loves another has fulfilled the law,” the message between that line is: “Jesus Christ is LOVE.” Think back to the encounter Jesus had with the young rich man, who asked Jesus, “How can I be assured of going to Heaven?” When Jesus said, “Of course, there is the Law,” he meant step number one was to LOVE.

The rich man mistook obedience to the Law of Moses as step one, when LOVE is the only way anyone can be so compliant to the demands that include “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet,” … on and on. We know he mistook what Jesus meant, when Jesus then followed up the young man’s happy acknowledgement of the religious legal maintenance requirements by saying (in essence), “Don’t forget how much you owe!” That means that Jesus telling the young rich man to sell what he owned and give to the poor, was him saying, “The love of the poor made you rich; now go and show your return LOVE, which is you debt that holds you in the material realm.”

That is what Paul was saying as he wrote, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul wrote that after stating the second greatest commandment that Jesus told an “expert of the law” (like a lawyer, only religious), when asked which was the greatest commandment. The first was, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” This means Paul was repeating that line of thought, speaking from the same Mind of Christ.

When Paul told the Christians of Rome, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you have to realize the context. Romans ruled vast regions of the world as the Roman Empire; and they ruled as pagans, in the sense that they believed in many gods. Those Romans certainly did not believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the promised savior of Jews. Just as Jesus had his ministry for the Jews of Judea and Galilee (and the neighboring places where Jews lived), Paul was a Jew of Roman citizenship. Therefore, he wrote to the Jews of Rome, who were Romans. However, they were the lowest class of citizens of Rome, most of whom lived in the slums that Nero would burn, so he could build a more beautiful Rome.

Simply by understanding these logistics, where Roman domination saw Jews as little more than slaves to the State – which was certainly in the minds of most Jews – Rome was the enemy Gentiles that enslaved poor Jews. Jews were then neighbors only to other Jews, because they believed in the same YHWH – the living God, while giving honor to the Law set forth by Moses.

This means a “neighbor” is someone of like kind. Of course, it is normal for human beings to question my views, pondering just who is a “neighbor” in the eyes of Paul and Jesus. Much confusion has come in modern times, since the Christian world (primarily Europe and the Americas) has become so culturally blended. World wars pitted nations against neighboring nations, so perhaps the blending is a grand plan to confuse who neighbors are, with immigration, migration and refugee displacement testing the limits of Christian acceptance of foreign “neighbors.”

According to the various definitions of the word “neighbor,” it commonly is a word used to denote someone who lives next door or in the same general area; but the word also bears a most generalized meaning, as that of “a fellow human.” Non-Christians like to focus on that definition, such that everyone on the planets can be called a “neighbor.”

That, of course, makes it hard to differentiate a family member who lives in the house on the lower 40 acres of the family ranch, and the enemy who hates your guts, who lives near the same town where you buy groceries. That makes subsets of the “neighbor” set, so a “neighbor” is a separate subset that is exclusive of “family” and “enemies.” This means a “neighbor” has to be someone who lives nearby. When geographic areas are widened, so that “near” becomes the same country,” a “neighbor” easily becomes any fellow countrymen.

Because Jesus spoke of love that identified enemies, neighbors, and friends (and by association family), and because Jesus was a Jew, who as a group segregated themselves from those of other religious-cultural values, a “neighbor” was (and still is) clearly a reference to someone who believes in the same God and follows the same moral codes. These are personal and cultural values passed on over great lengths of time, and not government declarations.

As a Christian in the eclectic neighborhoods of the United States of America, a “neighbor” would be other Christians; but they would represent those that one was not in a close personal relationship with. Further, in America, where so many religious backgrounds have relocated that do not worship the same God, but a brotherhood exists as “Americans,” one would want to show the same love that you would expect in return as another American.

Because Paul was a true Christian, Apostle, and Saint, we Christians who truly want to be just like Paul (and just like Jesus) should read “Love your neighbor as yourself” and only think in terms of having the same Christian mindset. There is a commandment to love the rest of the world, so it is okay to differentiate “neighbors” as just being other Christians.

The Jews could truly call someone in their subdivision a “neighbor,” because the Jews lived among those of the same faith and did not mix with Gentiles. We do not have that same arrangement today, especially in the United States of America. We can identify people by race, creed, or national origin, such as “My India Indian neighbor” or “My Facebook Muslim friend” or “My son’s Catholic teacher at the parochial school,” but this is simply a sign that Americans have largely lost their Christian identity. Political correctness requires that everyone must be a friend, regardless of how little one knows about someone’s personal and cultural values. That is quite relative to the newfound inability to properly identify who we are supposed to love like we love ourselves.

Meet the neighbors through children and block parties.

Relative to that dawning, when Paul then wrote, “You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep,” he was not referring to “time” as if wrist watches were common in 50 AD. He was referring to the “opportunity” that came with the presence of the Holy Spirit. He meant and other Apostles understood (thus “you know”) that the Holy Spirit made it the “right moment” to “rise up” and help their neighbors, as enlightened disciples. It was a presence that made putting on the armor of light possible: the protection of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of the Mind of Christ. It was a light that easily identified friends, neighbors, and enemies … with LOVE.

The slumber they had awakened from was their prior state of confusion about the purpose of being a Jew. The Law had been difficult to incorporate into their daily lives and they struggled with the responsibility of be chosen by God, but not knowing what that meant.

Or dreams can become nightmares in the darkness.

The “works of darkness” kept neighbors divided against one another, while their fear of contact with their enemies led to disdain and animosity towards them by Gentiles. However, the presence of the Holy Spirit brought them to that state of understanding love automatically, especially in seeing all who welcomed Christ as their “neighbors.”

The Apostles found their love of God allowed them to “live honorably as in the day,” as shining examples of what God truly chose them to be – ministers of the truth and fishers of men’s souls. The light of day removed all fear of inadequacies and guilt that always surrounded them in a lustful world. As Saints, they could release that worry and realize the Christ Mind made them much closer to “salvation” than they ever thought they would be, when they first believed Jesus was their Christ.

The presence of the Holy Spirit being understood by the Romans to who the letter was addressed is the only explanation for how Paul could write, “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” The works of darkness are the imaginary dreams and fantasies of those asleep. Thus, being asleep is akin to being a mortal in a world that cannot sustain life eternally. To survive eternally is to awaken from the illusions of the world. That wake state is only possible when one “puts on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” To “put on the clothing of Christ” means to be reborn as him.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 18:15-20 – Defining a church in spiritual terms [Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“Jesus said, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”’

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This is the Gospel reading that a priest will read aloud in church on Sunday, September 10, 2017. That Sunday will be Proper 18, the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, as listed in the episcopal Lectionary schedule. It is the Word of the Lord spoken by Jesus, defining what a church truly is and is therefore very important to understand deeply.

If one looks up these verses from Matthew’s Gospel, one can find a summary title in some versions of the Holy Bible. For example, one title says these verses are about “A Brother who Sins.” Other titles say they are “Dealing With Sin in the Church” or “Reproving Another Who Sins.” These titles influence the reader to think of that summary before reading the verses, when a title was never offered by Matthew. Therefore, the title is an outside opinion that usually is not the only correct summary.

To get the context of this element of Matthew’s Gospel, one needs to go back to chapter 17. At the beginning of that chapter, Jesus had transfigured before Peter, James, and John on the high mountain, Mount Hermon, in the northern reaches of Gaulanitis, beyond Caesarea Philippi, and actually into Phoenicia. By the end of the chapter, Matthew wrote: “When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?” That says the group following Jesus had traveled south, reaching the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. This was where Jesus gave lessons to the disciple, prior to them leaving Galilee and going to “the region of Judea beyond the Jordan” (as stated in the next chapter, Matthew 19:1b).

In this big picture view, one can fully grasp how chapter 18 of Matthew’s Gospel is a remembrance of Jesus giving personal guidance to the disciples in Capernaum. It may be that Jesus sat them all down and then rattled off everything in chapter 18; but it might rather be that these lessons and parables were told to them over a period of time, while the group was basically back home by the sea.

It then becomes easier to see a group of devout Jews together, all of whom saw Jesus as their rabbi (or as John wrote in John 20:16b: “in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).” The lessons of Matthew 18 then might have been given on a Shabbat (or multiple Sabbaths), in a house that acted as a synagogue. The lessons might have been brought on due to readings from the scrolls, which then led to questions and discussion, which were memorable.

The element of “church,” at that time, was absolutely nothing like a modern mind tends to think. The disciples, at that time, were not Christians. In fact, the Greek words that begin this selected Gospel reading can most clearly be translated as saying, “If a brother of you sins against you, go reprove him, between you and him alone.” (Bible Hub Interlinear Bible). The translation that will be read aloud, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone,” can then be seen like a title that influences you to make conclusion about this reading that may be incomplete or incorrect.

In actuality, Jesus was restating Deuteronomy 19:15-21, which gives strength to the notion that Matthew 18:15-20 was a clarification that Jesus made, relative to that text from the Torah, about “witnesses to a crime” (another one of those titles). That would mean Matthew wrote about how Jesus related ancient Scripture to his modern times. As such, the scroll reading (if translated into English) would have been this:

Deuteronomy 19:15 – “One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 16 If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. 21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (NIV)

Seeing this parallel means the focus placed on “fellow Israelite,” who were all that were in the wilderness with Moses (no Gentiles involved in this instruction), is relative to the identifying word “adelphos,” meaning “a brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian.” (Strong’s) The New International Version (NIV) makes the leap from Israelite in a wilderness tent, and Jew in a Capernaum synagogue, to “member of the church.” There was no “church” then, at least not one as most Christians think of when they read the word “church.”

When the translation read aloud gets down to the point where the priest says, “If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church,” the Greek word actually written is “ekklēsia,” which means, “an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers.” (Strong’s) Certainly, since the New Testament and the four Gospels lay the foundation of what has since become identified as “the Church” of Christianity, and this Scripture naturally is applicable to that translation, one cannot overlook how Jesus was discussing Jewish LAW with Jewish disciples that were not yet Apostles. Thus, it is more appropriate to grasp “the assembly” as the intent, more than something that can be as misleading as “the church.”

Keep in mind that God was dictating the LAW to Moses, so Moses could make a list of “must and mustn’t do’s” that an exclusive group of people – “the assembly” of Israelites – had to follow. Hopefully, when the Deuteronomy verses above were read, one noticed how Moses (speaking for God, just as Jesus spoke for the Father) wrote, “You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (Deuteronomy 19:19b-21)

This means this particular LAW was not about some nitpicking arguing Israelites taking revenge on others who enjoyed back-biting or spreading gossip or generally bad-mouthing someone. It was about purging “the assembly” of all evil-doers. End of story.

What seems to be lost in the freeing of the Israelites is they were actually enslaved to God, as His priests. The Israelites agreed to a promise of a land to call their own forever; but more than the incubator that was Canaan (like the first delegated seminary, with Dead David and Dean Solomon), the greater promise was to be freed from earthly servitude so their souls would be released to Heaven (the true Promised Land). Their role in that bargain was to serve the LORD with all their hearts and all their minds. Therefore, God chose totally committed Israelites as His representatives on Earth, with all the unfaithful Israelites ending up freed of the obligations to God, able to come back as reincarnated non-Israelites (i.e.: they died).

Here is the biggest surprise to Christians: The Laws of Moses were never intended to be applied to common human beings. All the sins of the world – the listed crimes and allowed sins of civilizations and governments – are fully expected to be a part of the world. Murder is what human beings do. Stealing is what human beings do. Coveting is what human beings do. Lying, cheating, and tricking others so one never goes punished for sins and crimes committed is what human beings do. Lawyers love to get the guilty freed and make the victims seek revenge illegally. It is what ordinary lawyers do. However, the ways of the evil world are NOT what priestly servants of YHWH do.

Thus, the wicked are culled from the righteous. It is a necessary process that can only be that. Evil is the way of the world (as Satan’s realm). Righteous is the way of the LORD.

The saying, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” means God does not allow common human beings to gain leadership over His flock. It is like another saying: One bad apple spoils the whole barrel. Jesus told parables about the weeds and plants that did not bear fruit. An Apostle has to be a responsible gardener.

This is the message Jesus was presenting to the disciples at that time, and it is what Jesus should be understood as saying to all human beings to heed, at all times, in particular those who are truly Christian. The element of “brothers” being two of “the assembly” means “the assembly” can only be strong when both are full-fledged Apostles, or at least truly devoted disciples who are earning their righteousness badges (100% on board). The message is that a true Christian is required to confront those caught committing crimes (sins) against the Laws and demand a return to righteousness (repentance). If the guilty party refuses to admit guilt, then denial of a crime committed means to lie before God, or to claim to possess the Holy Spirit falsely.

Matthew 11:30-32 addresses this, when Jesus said, ““Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

In essence, verse 30 says, “If you are not in Christ then you are not truly Christian.” Verse 31 says, “Repentance can mean forgiveness, but it is blasphemy to claim to be a reborn Jesus, through the Holy Spirit (say you are a true Christian), and be lying.” Verse 32 says, “You can speak against Jesus Christ and be forgiven, but you cannot claim the Holy Spirit tells you your crime is not a crime, without eternal condemnation.”

Thus, a true Christian addresses the blasphemy of professing righteousness, when one is not so. To confront one who has openly committed a sin in one’s presence is not only a required responsibility of the Apostle, confrontation is proof of Apostleship, because the Holy Spirit knows the truth, can spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and does not shrink in fear of confrontation. The progression of confrontation against one sinner, from one-on-one, to a small group of Apostles on one, and finally to the whole “assembly” or “congregation” confronting a sinner is totally for the purpose of gaining sincere repentance or forcing total expulsion from the flock. No half-ass professed Christians can be allowed to remain in “an assembly” of true Apostles and devoted disciples.

This has not changed one iota from when God told Moses to lay down that Law. Jesus did nothing to amend that Law.

Again, living a sin free life is not what common human beings do. The Law is not established to be like a school system, where getting a minimum percentage of things done right gains a passing grade. There can be no C- graduates sent out into ministry (with one or two D grades transferable). Again, using the Israel as a seminary analogy, that whole school eventually collapsed in utter ruin.

The Law of Apostlehood requires total subjection to the LORD, from a deep love of God. It is one’s total commitment to God’s will, which means every Law must be followed completely. To ensure that happens, God sends His Holy Spirit to lead an Apostle with the Christ Mind. While God would love the whole world to make this complete commitment to His service, the world is the place where the lure of sin is too great for everyone to make that sacrifice.

Therefore, God understands there will be MANY human beings who will choose life in a sinful world (born of death), than sacrifice everything here for eternal life (reborn in Christ).

Maybe it will help if you think of Jesus telling his disciples about the requirements demanded for a recruit to become a Navy SEAL. Half-ass does not make the grade, because the life of your fellow SEAL depends on one’s complete physical and mental competence, through total sacrifice of self, for the good of “the assembly.” You might get the point then. Like those washout standards, the world is where weak links abound and that is okay. However, weak links are not accepted by God (nor SEALs); and to pretend otherwise is not fooling God … it is the actor fooling him or herself.

Also remember, Jesus had twelve disciples, but one failed to graduate to Apostlehood (Judas Iscariot). This mean it is better to only have “two or three are gathered in my name” – two or three true Christians-Saints-Reborn Jesuses – than to have that number amid a sea of ordinary human beings prone to crimes against God. Wherever “two or three are gathered as reproductions of Jesus Christ,” there will be the true “assembly” … “the church” of God … where only His chosen priests gather together.

Exodus, Language, Teaching

Exodus 14:19-31 – The world destroys the worldly while saints are saved spiritually [Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

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This is the primary Old Testament selection in the Episcopal Lectionary for Year A, scheduled as Proper 19, the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud in church on Sunday, September 17, 2017. It is the story reproduced in the Hollywood movie The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston as Moses.

The story is that of Moses parting the Red Sea, so the escaping Israelites could cross safely, with the approaching Egyptian chariots caught drowning. This story is both awesome and difficult to totally believe. It is one of those stories that tell of miraculous happenings that have not been reproduced since.

Disbelievers can point to that uniqueness and scoff that the story is simply made up – untrue. Believers seek natural phenomena (such as the destruction of the island Santorini and the subsequent major tidal changes at the “Reed Sea”) as explaining this rare (but repeatable given similar conditions) occurrence.

Such arguments, as with any that debates the truth of God in the absence of observable proof, can never be completely solved. It is either believed or not. After all, it happened so long ago that there are no witnesses alive that can confirm how Moses put an end to the Pharaoh’s last-ditch chase.

The Old Testament, as is every holy document, is primarily intended to be prophecy. Sure, Exodus tells a series of great stories, worthy of Cecil B. DeMill’s attention; however, prophecy is less about the cinematic details and more about the symbolic fabric. Prophecy is always more applicable to the present and future, than as a presentation of the fixed and fast past.

While it has to be wholeheartedly believed as a story that is totally, completely and 100% true, with everything happening exactly as the holy book of Exodus claims, that story must also have a personal and most real application to those who do believe in the parting of the Red Sea and the escape of the Israelites, under the guidance of Moses. That application does not require one go to Egypt.

The story of the Israelites being freed from bondage under a mean Pharaoh has to be seen personally, as one reaching a point where the stresses and pains of life make it a struggle to continue onward. When whatever happiness one finds from life is short-lived and replaced by another oppressive demand that seems almost impossible to bear, the story of freedom from such bondage is one that can be renewed continually. Thus, the willingness of Pharaoh to allow one to escape becomes symbolic of one seeing the light of opportunity that comes in serving God. Christ then becomes one’s personal Moses, who has taken up the staff of responsibility over one’s soul.

That comparison of Jesus to Moses is a good one to ponder. Recall how Matthew wrote of the Transfiguration of Jesus, as witnessed by the disciples Peter, James and John (of Zebedee). They saw Jesus glowing brightly and standing alongside Moses and Elijah. That threesome is less symbolic of three separate persons, or three separate souls, but one most holy soul manifest in three different mortal manifestations. Jesus is Moses and Jesus is Elijah. Jesus leads souls to safety and teaches them how to be holy priests. Jesus is the most high prophet who speaks through the Mind of Christ, as one being with a soul. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who knows each lamb by name and goes to rescue the ones who get lost.

When one has found faith in God has moved one to act, then one stops sitting on the sofa complaining about how hard my life has been. So much has been debated about the teeter-totter of just who qualifies as a Christian, based on works or faith. So many Christians sit on the fence, afraid to do much of either. Saint James made that issue fairly moot, when he wrote:

“But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2:18-20, NIV)

That last verse recalls how all mortals are “born of death,” which means human beings are born into life after life of reincarnations that says a soul is marked as, “Couch Potato Here.” To get beyond that eternal cycle of death, one has to be moved by the Holy Spirit to do something to save yourself. After you prove you are capable of following the lead of a Moses, or Elijah, or Jesus, you can begin your training to actually help others.

So, you have to be able to see yourself in this Exodus story. You have to be the eyewitness that saw the miracles happen, just as written. You must be one who saw the angel of God and the pillar of cloud, before you and behind you. You have to have personally marched on dry land, between two walls of water. You have to be able to look back and see how miraculously you were saved, while those who hated seeing you leave their ranks – as the living dead – drown in the same emotional upheavals (walls of water that come crashing down) that always does in those who are enslaved to the material realm.

The Israelites were oppressed in Egypt, known to be a separate people of faith; but their works were those of slaves to a human ruler, not to the God in whom they professed faith in. Only when Moses was sent to the Israelites by God, hearing their moans and groans from being too weak to act on their faith alone, did the Israelites get off their Egyptian couches and march to the commands of God’s voice. Therefore, in this selected reading, it projects upon anyone who has up-close and personal experience of having followed that inner voice that comes from the LORD.

I can relate personally to this reading from Exodus. In my early twenties, I was stupidly headed down the wrong life path. I was close to be enslaved to the world, which would have meant a most bleak future. Without going into the sordid details, inexplicably, I had an automatic writing experience. That means I suddenly began writing down on paper a conversation that sounded loud and real (not imagined), as if two men were standing behind me. It was God and Satan; and they were (calmly) discussing who had the right to take my soul. Satan pointed out the rewards of my present being his bargain with me. God told Satan that He had plans for me and Satan must stand down.

That experience was frightening. I have not had one since and do not expect to ever have another one. Still, it made a cold chill run down my spine, because I was alerted that I was in perilous danger if I did not immediately change the direction I was headed. I did just that and my life changed for the better. I avoided ruining my life by believing that conversation, which I heard as quite real, as a warning to act now, not later.

Like the freed Israelites, I had been told to leave and I obediently did. Out into the unknown I went, but as I wandered through life I became attentive to signs that led me to an eclectic education. I was open to investigating and exploring, with the faith that God was exposing me to new ideas for a purpose. I learned things that are known, but not commonly. I found values from experiences, rather than simply being told what to believe and disbelieve. I became a seeker, but I did not know what (if anything) I expected to find.

Then, I went dormant, like a seed waiting to germinate. It was like a shell surrounded me that made my past invisible. This period of my life was like walking through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water forming the path I was supposed to take. I did not look back with emotional fondness or anger, as I lacked personal emotions because I could not be distracted from my commitment to walk the straight and narrow. Those I once associated with, who might have been wildly chasing after me to drag me back into a past that I was being led away from, they drown into history. Once I had reached a point of safety, on the other side of that sea of personal history, I could see the bodies of those I once knew washing ashore, like the Pharaoh’s men. I had reached a point where my past could no longer harm me.

Just as Moses had the story be written in the Torah – “Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians” – I saw that my actions were successful because I had followed the directions of the LORD. I followed diligently and had been protected.

Still, my life was my own. Sure, I had followed God’s warning and straightened out my course through life, but like all other human beings I was necessarily selfish. I cried when things did not go my way and rejoiced when things did. In that phase, I had developed a hard shell. But, then my shell split open and I began the evolution towards being what God had said His plan for me was, so many years before. My static life changed and I began to grow. What would develop over the years to come, in hindsight was a rapid transformation into a vine cultivated to bear fruit.

As those roots were taking hold, the forces of nature – the world’s darkness that I was saved from in my early twenties – tried to destroy me again, before I could bring forth a yield. At those times I was again protected. I have been aware of how little (small and insignificant) I can become, as if invisible, when the world is blindly swiping at anything not paying attention to its wrath. This, again, is walking through the sea on dry ground, with all the turmoil parted away from one’s path.

The destructive powers of nature are still collapsing on those unprotected, just like it swallowed up the Egyptian army. I watched as those who sought to return me to a life I was not meant to live realized: “[They] said, “Let us flee from the [Protected], for the Lord is fighting for them against [Us].”

I thought I would share this with you so you do not yawn when you hear another unbelievable Bible story and think, “This has nothing to do with me.” Hopefully, it has everything to do with you, as you too have a similar life story as mine.

Language, Romans, Teaching

Romans 14:1-12 – Judgement on another becomes a reflection of one’s own Judgement before Yahweh [Fifteenthe Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,

and every tongue shall give praise to God.”

So then, each of us will be accountable to God.”

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This is the Epistle selection for the Episcopal Lectionary readings for Year A, Proper 19, the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read in church on Sunday, September 17, 2017. This is an important lesson that can be summarized as a notice to all true Christians that they are not to judge their brothers or sisters in Christ.

The first verse of this reading, as translated by the New International Version (and similarly by other versions) has English syntax pull the Greek word “proslambanesthe” (meaning “receive, take aside, take to yourself,” thus “welcome”) to the front, so we think an instruction is given to “Welcome” those who have “weak faith.”

This can be confusing if one assumes (which many people readily do) that Paul was asking you (the reader) to greet some newbies. Instead, as I see it, it addresses all of the Christians of Rome (Romans) who had not yet fully welcomed the Holy Spirit. That is the majority of Christians today, so modern Christians can read Paul telling them (all who are weak in the gifts of the Holy Spirit) to “receive.” Once that is grasped, those true Apostles are to welcome those who are struggling with the letting go of the ego and the opening of the heart to God, so others can increase and strengthen their faith.

In John 20:22, Jesus breathed upon the disciples-in-hiding and then said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The word written there is “Labete,” which means “take hold of” or “get.” The difference between “proslambanesthe” and “Labete” (or “welcome” verses “Take hold of”) can be seen as relative to the different states of the disciples.

When Jesus “breathed into them” (or “blew upon them”), his followers had been stricken with fear, afraid they would be the next to be crucified, if they were to be identified as followers of Jesus. His “breath” was then akin to someone telling a panicked child, “breathe … slowly … in … out.” In other words, Jesus calmed the disciples before he then gave an order to God that those in that upstairs room were his to be saved. As such, Jesus made a prayer to God, for those present to be given his approval to “Receive the Spirit of Sainthood.”

In Paul’s case, he was writing to those who had been presented the revelation that the promised Messiah had indeed been delivered to them, in the person that was Jesus of Nazareth. Those Jews (and a few Gentiles possibly, other slave citizens in the slums of Rome) had “welcomed” that Good News. Certainly, some had believed and readily acted upon that belief, such that they full-heartedly were filled with the Holy Spirit. Others were not so able to be so self-sacrificing, which hindered their progress to sainthood. Therefore, Paul was telling those filled with the Holy Spirit to help those who still had doubts and questions, while also telling those who were struggling to stop thinking so much … and just let the Holy Spirit come into you.

“Breathe … slowly … in … out.”

Giving birth to a new you requires some labor.

When one is able to see that significance that comes from looking deeper at just one word written, one then needs to understand the second half of verse 1. It is translated above as, “but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.”

This seems to be a clarification as to why one has “weak faith,” as they are using their brains too much (“quarreling opinions”). As such, one of true faith should “welcome” those who like to argue about faith. That actually leads one to missing the point of what Paul wrote.

The Greek of the letter has verse 1 saying, “mē eis diakriseis dialogismōn.” This literally states, “not for passing judgment on reasonings.” It could also be translated to say, “not for discernment on deliberations.” This means a new disciple who, for example, believes Jesus was the Messiah, but struggles with the concept of resurrection and ascension, should be aided in that struggle (‘welcomed, received”) but not for the purpose of “setting them straight” on what to believe.

This is why Paul went into the example of foods. Some meats and vegetables are seen by some as acceptable to eat, but by others as forbidden. Because new disciples are seeking God in their struggles to understand (“discernment by deliberations”), they are seeing ways that faith can be weakened by outside influences. (“Hey, I ate pork and nothing bad happened! What’s up with that?”)

These become confusing at first; but because new disciples have been “welcomed by God,” this is part of their “discernment” towards stronger faith. This means it is not for an Apostle “to pass judgment on servants” other than themselves, as their “reasonings” [the Apostle’s] may not be where God will lead another [the weak-faith disciple] to conclude. Therefore, “Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.”

This means that following someone else’s brain will never lead one to ownership of an idea. Each disciple must be convinced of the truth alone, with only God’s whispers being the breath that one’s mind follows.

Since Paul was an Apostle, one who never personally knew the living man that was Jesus of Nazareth, he had to have a metaphysical experience of Jesus Christ to find his own way to receiving the Holy Spirit.

In Acts (9:9) we read, “For three days he [Saul] was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.” Remembering that, see how that parallels Paul writing to the Romans about food and eating.

A new disciple has “blind faith,” which is “weak faith.” Paul was stricken blind by his encounter with Jesus Christ, which is a symbolic statement that Saul was no longer able to see as he had seen before – as a Jew who condemned Jesus and those Jews who believed he was the Messiah. Saul had been totally influenced by one view prior to encountering that Holy Spirit, which was that view the Pharisees preached to him.

This means the symbolism of food and drink are those words and beliefs that one consumes, which come from external sources. This is where those who are not filled with the Holy Spirit will preach what to eat or what not to eat, with opposing viewpoints on religious matters being that which further weakens faith [contradictions]. Thus, Paul wrote of his personal experience of going without food and drink for three days (three is a symbolic number that denotes a period of initial completion), simply by saying in his letter to the Romans how someone else’s views do nothing to strengthen the faith of new disciples. Without external influences, Saul became Paul.

From this understanding, one is then led to understand the deeper meaning that caused Paul to write, “Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord.” The only light of day one observes that matters is that of God’s, which is absorbed like photosynthesis and nourishes the new disciples (young vines) inwardly. This inner growth of awareness is then what leads one to stronger and stronger faith, such that one cannot owe honor to another human being, as all honor and thanks is due to the LORD.

When Paul posed the question, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?” he asked from personal experience. Saul held the coats for those who stoned Saint Stephen to death, when his “brother” Jews had cast their judgment on Stephen, for proclaiming Jesus as the Christ. Paul, as Saul, it was written: “Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” That action brought on his spiritual encounter, where the Spirit of Christ asked Saul, “Why do you persecute me?” Thus Paul (the name of the converted Apostle) knew not to judge others, and by the Holy Spirit he advised those Christians of Rome, “We will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”

True Christians stand together as fountains of water of eternal life. They support one another by offering a drink of the Spirit, when another may become thirsty. But Apostles do not judge others, as they known no human can get any soul to Heaven, other than their own; and that means supporting others in their own individual relationships with God.

This is why Paul quoted Isaiah, who wrote: “Before me [the LORD] every knee will bow; by me [the LORD] every tongue will swear.” (Isaiah 45:23b) In that way Paul reminded those Christians of Rome to lead by example, with the Holy Spirit being the only motivation for tongue-wagging.

[Isaiah 45:23 – “By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.”]

“Each of us will be accountable to God.” When each individual has found his or her judgment coming from within, knowing there are no secrets kept from God, where every heart is truly known by the Christ Mind, then total commitment to God lead each one’s knee to bow to Him and an oath of love is sworn to serve only Him [engaged to God].

Accountability leads to repentance, which means one is able to gain a clear idea of where all false influences come, leading to the severance of loyalties to those who offer opinions that weaken one’s faith. We become “accountable to God,” which means we are each “expected or required to account for one’s actions.” One is then able to receive the Holy Spirit and then ACT for God, “in the name of Christ.”

The moral of this part of the Epistle to the Romans is directed at those human beings who claim to be Christian, but really have “weak faith.” I like to use the Forrest Gump analogy, where a true Christian sits at the bus stop meeting strangers. Strangers are those of all varying degrees of faith, most very weak in their devotion to the One God.

Weak-faith Christians often will “go to battle” for Christ, as if humming the tune to “Onward Christian soldiers” in their heads (an external influence). Many follow the mega-church superstars of cable television as their teachers, who tell them what to eat and what not to eat (or what trinket to buy for a “love offering”, so in return Pastor [fill in the blank] will have God bless them).

At the bus stop encountering the “Forrest Gump” Christian, those of weak faith open their mouths and insert their feet. Time and again Forrest asks them a question they have never been told the answer to. Those so-called Christians hop on the next bus or run away with their tails between their legs. All atheists (those of faith in science, not God) are left scratching their heads, with no learned retorts of biblical quotes they have memorized as examples of contradiction. The “Forrest” Christian explains all of that seeming inconsistency for them, using the tongue of God (not his brain … he’s not a smart man).

Like Forrest, Paul would not be judging any of the varying opinions that show up at the bus stop. When one is fishing for souls, you still have to put bait on the hook. The elderly woman that was enthralled by what Forrest was saying, offering, “Oh, there will be another bus. Please, go on.” was like the Romans. The ones who want to hear the truth have weak faith, but they want their faith strengthened. An Apostle has to speak for God, because God will have it no other way.

“Silence is not the way. We need to talk about it.”

The Israelites made lots of commitments to God, through Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, but they really had weak faith. They eventually went to Samuel and told him to go tell God they wanted to be led by a king, to be like other nations. That meant they were tired of being personally responsible for their own souls. They wanted to put all the guilt of a nation on one scapegoat, and then catch the bus into town so they could do wicked deeds for self-advancement. They lost everything in that process.

Paul was writing letters to lead the lost sheep back to the One God. The picture in Sunday School for children shows Jesus carrying a lost lamb to safety. In the adult word of true Christianity, the picture is you doing the carrying of your little lamb ego, while you can barely make out the Jesus Christ Mind that is behind your face. The moral of that picture is you must bow your knee to the LORD. After you make that commitment, then you go to bus stops and let God speak the truth. Forget ever getting on a bus and getting lost again.

“Each of us is accountable to God.” I know that is a fearful concept. So … breathe … slowly … in … out. Receive the Holy Spirit.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 18:21-35 – The parable of the Unmerciful Servant [Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

Matthew 18:21-35

“Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”’

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This is the Gospel reading for Year A Proper 19, the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud by a priest on Sunday, September 17, 2017. This lesson is important because it addresses the issue of forgiveness by human beings, with the parable of the Unmerciful Servant told.

The context of this reading is it continues Matthew’s account of the Proper 18 lesson, when Jesus explained to his disciples (as a Sabbath clarification of a reading from the scrolls from Deuteronomy) how it was the responsibility of each follower to maintain the religious focus of other followers. That began by one confronting another who had sinned against that one. Having personally witnessed a breaking of the laws, each of God’s devoted faithful was required to bring such an offender to honest repentance.

When this reading begins by Peter asking Jesus a question about forgiveness limits, it does not mean that he rose in a synagogue and challenged Jesus’ instruction of how a Law of Moses should be applied to modern believers (then and now). It makes more sense that Peter had contemplated what Jesus said and later spoke outside the synagogue, when only Jesus and the disciples were present. Therefore, it should be noted that the Proper 18 Gospel focus was not on forgiveness, but the responsibility of confronting sinners; and Jesus was doing his share of pointing out how the Pharisees and priests of the Temple were in a confrontational state with little repentance openly stated by anyone.

Peter, who appears often as the spokesman of the disciples, was then asking Jesus when confrontation should end and complete separation begins, as far as keeping the “Church” pure. Because the Law forbid Jews from commonly associating with Gentiles (and the disciples were not yet Apostles), they could understand Jesus’ instruction to directly confront one on one, then confront in a small group, before advancing to confrontation before the whole gathering in the synagogue.

In general, all Gentiles were sinners, so there was no need to forgive them for not being born into the exclusive race-religion that bore the responsibility of being chosen by God. Thus, Peter’s question was about who excommunicates who among Jews and when? This was relative to one who had run the gamut of confrontations, but who (still was born Jewish) was just not feeling any responsibility to obey the laws of Moses.

For Peter to ask Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” it is important to realize that Peter did not just pick the number seven out of thin air. Seven is a special number, which is repeated in Biblical stories that include cycles of seven weeks and seven years, but the greatest aspect to grasp is seven days. The seventh day is the Sabbath, which God blessed as holy and rested from His work of Creation. Therefore, Peter was asking if devoted Jews should rest all complaints against those who simply would not comply with Law, and allow them to act unrepentant by simply being Jewish … God’s chosen people (remnants thereof).

When we then read: “Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”’ This has to be realized as Jesus saying, “Seven times eleven times.” This, like the number seven, is also use of numbers to symbolically make an important statement. This is because the number eleven is a holy number.

In Numerology (a division of Kabbalistic training that teaches how to recognize signs and symbols), there are nine base numbers: 1 through 9. A ten is a repeated 1, as 10=1+0 => 1. All numbers can be reduced to one of the base numbers, no matter how large the number. For example, 2017 is seen as 2+0+1+7=10 => 1+0=1. A 1 number symbolizes the beginning of a cycle; so the year 2017 is (generally) symbolic of a year starting a new cycle [such as a new President and new reaction to him … for one of many possible examples].

Still, besides the base numbers, Numerology recognizes three Master Numbers: 11, 22, and 33. Each of those numbers represents elevations from the mundane or base, due to holiness levels achieved. An 11 could be a base 2, with a 22 elevated from 4 and 33 a higher form of 6, with the difference being the presence of God in some way. As such, it is easy to reflect a 2, but it takes a special presence to reflect that as an 11.

The number 2 is a reflection of duality. A base 2, as seen in Peter’s question, is 1 relating to another 1, where 2 are the focus. Peter’s focus on how he (1) should deal with someone (1) who sins against him is an ordinary circumstance of relationship. For Peter to use the number 7 as how he (1) should accept the sins of another (1), he sought a peaceful solution that reflected forgiveness because “God said to rest.” It removed God from 2, where 1 acts as God says, and another 1 does not act that way.

Jesus said, “No!” to that common (human) response to another’s sin. Jesus said, “Let God be the influence for forgiveness.” This means Jesus said not to be 1+1=2 but be 1+10=11, where that number becomes 1+God (10). One’s self is then elevated intuitively, from the common and mundane, to a spiritual presence of God incarnate in 1. Thus, to act in a restful and holy way to the presence of sin in another, one should do more than react to what was being told by God through Moses. Instead, act by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit within. That is the true answer Jesus gave to Peter’s question.

Of course, neither Peter nor the other disciples (remember, Judas Iscariot is still present with the disciples then, and possibly Peter has witnessed Judas stealing – a sin against them all) were elevated as 11’s yet (much less 22’s or 33’s). They still stumbled around as 2’s, 4’s, and 6’s, so what Jesus said often flew over their human brains. While they would later full well recall this lesson and understand its meaning (after being filled with the Holy Spirit), they needed to hear Jesus tell a parable that would make everything about the 7×11=77 be more meaningful later.

Realizing this aspect of numerological values, the parable begins by saying, “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.” This is relative to the number seventy-seven (or seventy times [and] seven). The “kingdom of heaven” is brought to earth by God’s presence in one who does as Jesus says about how many times to forgive a sinner. Therefore, a king (more like an emperor) is reflective of the number seventy-seven, as an eleven times seven, such that an Apostle is the kingdom in which God presides.

The reason behind the royalty of Europe was a bloodline to Jesus. Thus, a king was elevated above commoners.

The slaves are each a one, just like the person was (like Peter) who wanted to “settle accounts” before he was elevated to that kingly status. While Jesus referred to God as the landowner or king in other parables, it is best to see the king (11 x 7) here as a human being (1) influenced by God (10). After all, we are all humans first.

One needs to also see the parable addressing Peter, who along with the other disciples would become kings after the Holy Spirit lit upon them. Without that holy presence, the king of the parable would simply be someone like a Pharisee (a wealthy landowner with slaves), who would not otherwise “wish to settle accounts with his slaves.” That “desire” (an alternative translation for “ēthelēsen”) comes from an elevation from common human (one of Jewish race-religion) to one who wants to do the right thing and do as Jesus said (“forgive as a seventy-seven”). The title of king (“basilei,” which infers emperor) means one of great wealth, but material possessions (money and property) should be interpreted as side-effects of God’s blessings. Thus, the king gave his blessings to his slaves. The measure in “talents” (as the symbolism of the parable of the talents) is more powerful when viewed as the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The focus that then goes to “one who owed [the king] ten thousand talents,” who “was brought to [the king]” for repayment, should be seen as the type of person that spurred Peter’s question about how much should I give, with never any repayment. To see just how much value was placed upon ten thousand amounts of gold or silver (one talent was worth about 6,000 denarii silver, 18,000 denarii gold), this “slave” is more than just some Joe Schmo.

A talent is actually a weight (about 75 lbs.) of precious metal, which can then be smelted into denarii coins, with ten thousand talents being representative of 75,000 pounds of gold and/or silver (roughly $1.56 billion @ today’s price of gold). A king (or emperor, like Augustus Caesar) that “loans” that much wealth, would only do so to a governor (like Pilate, or the sons of Herod the Great), or perhaps whoever was in charge of the seemingly never-ending beautification and remodeling that going on at the second Temple of Jerusalem (Herod’s Temple). Since no small-time “slave” will ever be able to get that deep into debt, let’s pretend Jesus had in mind the High Priest of the Temple as the “one who owed … ten thousand talents” to the king (or emperor).

This would mean that the king (or emperor) was led by God to give or loan that much wealth; but because the “kingdom of heaven” made the king decide to settle up with those who owed him, the “kingdom of heaven” was then like a doctor telling the king he only had so much time left in this world. While love and recognition of God led to his benevolent loans, failure to be repaid with death so near meant the only way to get something back would be to sell the slave and his entire family and possessions.

This would mean changes would be foreseen in the management structure of the king’s empire, like him sending an envoy to an Assyrian king or Persian king, letting them know Galilee and Judea (along with a lovely Temple-Palace) was on the market to the highest bidder. This, of course, would upset the High Priest significantly, causing him to plead with the King (or emperor) not to let heathen take over the building where God lived.

This “seven of swords” Tarot card (upside down) represents thieves caught.

When the slave “fell on his knees before [the king (or emperor)], saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything,’” that was like Peter catching Judas stealing funds for the group surrounding Jesus. Once confronted with being found committing the sin of living off the donations and personal contributions of the disciples and their families, Judas must have begged Peter to not tell anyone … he would repay everything he owed. If Jesus spoke to Judas about his sins, as the king (or emperor) warning how Judas was damning his soul, meaning his own deeds were selling him into the service to Satan and eternity is Hades, then Jesus would have done that individually, before progressing the issue to the whole group. Jesus confronting Judas would have had him pleading for forgiveness, like seen in the parable.

The personality of this slave in the parable shows that his first sin was as a thief; but he then followed that sin closely as being a liar. To have accepted large quantities of gold and silver as loans, when such quantities could only be repaid by a king (or emperor) and never a slave, was stealing. The promise of repayment, both prior to the loans and after payment was demanded, was a lie. Most probably, lies were made to get the loans. So, the slave is like the habitual sinner that Peter asked Jesus, “How often should I forgive a person like this?”

To then hear Jesus say, “Out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt,” this is only done by the king (or emperor) acting as a seventy times [plus] seven. The Greek word “splanchnistheis” has been translated to read, “out of pity,” but it properly says, “having been moved with compassion,” which is more than some slight degree of sympathy or sorrow felt (imagine Bernie Maddoff telling all he owed money to how sorry he was and them releasing him of his debts “out of pity”).

The Greek word “splagchnizomai” (the root) is best read as meaning “to be moved in the inward parts” as feeling “compassion,” which becomes a statement of a higher presence that offers forgiveness. Such deep feelings come from God’s presence, which then offers forgiveness of debt. When Peter suggested seven times, that meant a one-to-one exchange (a 2); but human beings do not get moved by the lies of thieves, when caught red-handed, so a common forgiveness is void of compassion. The forgiveness Peter was referring to was by orders from God, leaving deep-seated residues of resentment. Therefore, Jesus was telling Peter, “You have no powers of forgiveness (as a 2), as only God can forgive sinners.”

It is easier to grasp this as the message when the forgiven slave then reacts to forgiveness like this in the parable:

“But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.”

There is a saying, “A leopard can’t change its spots.”

I wonder if there is symbolism to “being spotted”?

It actually comes from Jeremiah (13:23), who wrote, “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” (NIV) Jeremiah wrote that as a response to his writing, “And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?”– it is because of your many sins that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated.” (Jeremiah 13:22) Therefore, the sinful slave, even after God-inspired forgiveness, will still be sinful.

The reason no lasting change will take place is we human beings are born to a sinful world and no matter how much we try to will ourselves to be sinless, we will always have that will broken by the lures of that sinful world. We are therefore 2’s, us (1) in the world (1). It is our dual nature. Only by the elevation of God can we ceases being sinful AND forgive others of their sins against us.

In the parable told by Jesus, we read how other slaves saw what had happened and ran to tell the king. This is symbolic of how those led by God will be enlightened as to the truth that is often covered from them.

Into the right ear comes the whispers of good angels.

It is by being at that elevated state of eleven that we are led to the truth. This is how Peter became aware of those sinning against him and how Jesus knew everything about Judas, well before his final betrayal.

It becomes vital to grasp the change of attitude the king has in the parable, after he has been made aware of his “wicked slave!” We must realize that the forgiving king (or emperor) was led by God to forgive, by feeling compassion from an inner presence. That presence of the LORD has not left the king (or emperor), when he confronts that wicked slave a second time, knowing that the wicked slave has sinned once again against him. We read: “In anger his lord [the king] handed him [the wicked slave] over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.”

That is the answer given by Jesus to Peter, about how much forgiveness devout Jews should have in dealing with wicked Jews. Jesus said not to be forgiving simply because you believe in a merciful God, as it is written in Numbers:

[Moses said to the LORD] “In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.” The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.” (14:19-23, NIV)

Only the LORD can truly forgive, although common and mundane believers in God must accept sin in others as a way of the world, forgiving it when confronted and repentance is given by the sinner. Disciples in training must both ask God for forgiveness and “forgive those who trespass against us,” in order to be elevated to Apostles. However, forgiving as a means of forgiving someone else who reflects one’s own sins is not a state of true repentance (“forgive me for my sins like I forgive those who sin like me” misses the point).

This is why this parable ends with Jesus saying, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” A disciple is training his or her brain to develop a will to obey the Laws of Moses, but an Apostle has gone beyond the thought process of self-power and fallen in love with God. When one loves the LORD, one opens their heart to receive God in marriage (“till death do us part”). With God in one’s heart, one will be led to forgive a brother or a sister from inner stirrings of compassion and pity. Still, with God in our hearts we will condemn those who are wicked and do not welcome the LORD as their lover.

It must be seen that this lesson in no way contradicts the prior lesson about maintaining the purity of the “Church,” where Jesus explained the process of confrontation that is a devoted believer’s responsibility. The issue of forgiveness is then a subset of confrontation, where we are also responsible for forgiving those who repent, once confronted and exposed as a sinner. At all times, a true Christian will attack the wicked who sin against Christ by saying they are Christian and not acting as such.

A true Christian also has God within him or her, so their ego has been sacrificed for the will of God to shine through him or her. The will of God will tell a true Christian when to show compassion and forgiveness from the heart (an inner part). However, the will of God will equally tell a true Christian when to cast evil out from his or her midst.

The moral of the story, which applied then as it applies today, is to elevate your common and mundane self to a self that is led totally by God. Then you don’t only act Christian on Sundays (day seven). You act Christians 24/7 (or seventy times [plus] seven).

Exodus, Language, Teaching

Exodus 16:2-15 – Complaining about fleshpots brought quail and manna [Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.”

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’“ And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’“

In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

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This is the Old Testament reading for Proper 20, Year A of the Episcopal Lectionary, the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (2017 and 2020; 15th in 2014). It will next be read aloud in an Episcopal church on Sunday, September 24, 2017 (September 20, 2020). It tells of the Israelites complaining to Moses about not having food, which leads to God providing food for them. This is least important as a story of God producing the miracle of manna and quail as sustenance, as its greatest meaning is directed to the individual who is reading (or hearing) these words. They, like everything in Scripture, should be read as a message intended for you to grasp. Therefore the manna and quail are likewise God’s gifts to you.

Again, the miracles of the Exodus story makes atheists crawl out of their holes and point to the quail of Exodus 16 as being a contradiction of what is written in Numbers 11. In turn, rejections of Scripture either makes Jews and Christians stop being active in their faith, or they just shrug their shoulders and say, “I dunno. I can’t explain anything. I just go to church (or the synagogue) and believe what they tell me to believe.” Reading the Holy Bible as a scholastic-history-story book, without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, leads many people to misunderstandings, like seeing contradictions or being blind to everything.

Atheists study the Holy Bible more than most Christians. They do it to make Christians tuck their tails between their legs and run away.

If one has read the whole Exodus story, one might think this story is eerily similar to the Israelites complaints about not having anything to drink. They did that in chapter 15, when they arrived at Marah (in the Desert of Shur), where they found bitter water. After complaining, Moses led them to “Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” (Exodus 15:27) There would also be complaints of thirst later, when Moses went to God and God told him to strike the ground with his staff, and lo and behold water flowed forth. (Numbers 20) This reading is about food, rather than drink, but both are to be understood as necessities of life being met and not the grumblings of selfishness being satisfied. Still, the specifics of what foods and what drinks were provided, as the result of miracles, are really less unimportant than the symbolism.

Missing from this reading is verse 1, which states the timing of this complaint: “On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.” The Passover meal was eaten after 6:00 PM, beginning the fifteenth day of the first month (15 Nissan, or the evening of 14 Nissan). This makes the complaint of this reading be 30 days after eating the roasted lamb, which is 15 Iyar (the second month). This information is important because 14 Iyar is a Jewish day of recognition named Pesach Sheni, meaning Second Passover. Therefore, the focus of this reading should begin with this realization. The symbolism of this reading is for a ceremonial remembering, even if their bellies felt empty.

When I wrote about Exodus 12, the instructions for the Passover (Proper 18), the food of the lamb and the blood of the lamb were the symbols of the Passover Seder (last supper), which are the same symbols of the Eucharistic wafers and wine. The roasted lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs was not God feeding hungry people. It was God feeding hungry souls with spiritual food. That same element of spiritual food has to be seen in the manna (“what is it?”) from heaven.

The reason this can be said confidently is the Israelites had livestock with them. In Numbers 20:4 the Israelites went to Moses, asking: “Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here?” In Exodus 9:4, before the plague that would strike the Pharaoh’s animals, Moses said, “But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’” Finally, the yearling lambs or goats that were to be inspected and slaughtered for the initial Passover meals came from Israelite livestock. These animals went with the Israelites when they left Egypt.

When you realize the complaint of hunger cannot be from lack of food for survival, then one has to read the complaints of the Israelites on a spiritual level. They complained, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” This is a longing for the ways of the world and not the LORD.

Death is synonymous with living in the world without God leading one’s soul, as was life in Egypt, which is the true force of life (a soul) within a “pot of flesh” (“sîr hab·bā·śār,” rooted in “ciyr basar“). The Israelites were full of life as mortals born to die, before Moses took them away from their teat of addiction – worldly existence – like a mother weaning a child and leading it to eat solid food. Their complaint, as such, should be read as the cries of a baby not getting what it wants.

Rather than die a death of ego (symbolically die as common laborers and be reborn as servants of God), to serve the LORD as His priests, they wished to have died like all mortals who are born of death. They saw the cauldrons of boiled meats and vegetables with lust, as their memories of the offerings of the world were more pleasurable than those of the LORD presently (stuck in the wilderness, off the well-beaten path to Canaan). They remembered bread risen with yeast, which made them feel full inside, due to the gas releases of microbes. Leavened bread is symbolic of more than one’s basic needs being met.

This means Exodus 16:2-25 is the Israelites telling Moses, “We’re just not feeling why God chose us. Release us back to Egypt, or feed us with some tasty inspiration and promise that will make us feel alive, filled with spiritual knowledge.” Metaphorically, the Israelites were like a mixture of flour, salt, and some water, rolled into unleavened dough ready to be baked each day. (If dough could talk), they asked Moses for a pinch of yeast, so they could rise in the oven and be hot, fresh, desirable bread, like that the world loves to consume. The manna is then them gathering a daily amount of yeast to give rise to their spiritual connection to Yahweh. Without that, the Israelites would never amount to anything more appealing than crackers or flatbread.

The unknown substance that covered the ground in the morning (manna) was then spiritual additive to the life Moses had brought them to know, which gave the Israelites reason to continue following Moses and Aaron, as devoted disciples of the LORD. This is why the men would gather for themselves and their families, as the men were the rabbis of each, who taught the ways of the LORD to their own, passing on knowledge that came to them from that spiritual addition taken in as food. The men were thus “fathers,” and their families were their responsibilities, just as “fathers” are priests (or pastors) of flocks.

[This is a non-human gender-specific title, as anyone – male or female – who acts as a vehicle of God the Father is a “father” Spiritually. It is then wrong to identify female priests as “mother” because had Moses played the role of momma to a bunch of crying babies who wanted to go back to Egypt, then that is where they would have gone. The end of the story. However, the “father” principle is one that teaches, disciplines, and rewards good behavior, turning the weak into the strong, through ‘tough love’.]

This is indicated when God told Moses, “Each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.” The manna of knowledge was like the title of this Word Press blog, where Our Daily Bread offers just enough to feed a Christian until another hunger pang for inspirational knowledge is felt. Scripture is written like unleavened bread, requiring the insight of the Holy Spirit – the true bread from heaven. This article also offers a test, as to whether or not the reader (or listener) is following these insights that I offer as manna from heaven.

As for the quail, one needs to look at what they symbolize, rather than see them as a truck load of Cornish Game Hens being dropped off in the wilderness (or U.S. military MRI’s after a disaster). A quail is a wild bird. Birds have wings, so they can easily transition from ground-pecking to airborne.

Supposedly (from the account in Numbers 11:31), the quail were blown off course from the “sea” (Red or Mediterranean?) in large numbers. So, their flight plan had been changed by God, so that they all landed in the same place as the Israelites. The Israelites also had a path they were following, but they had taken flight from Egypt (after crossing the sea). It was the breath of God (as an east wind) that blew apart the waters, so the Israelites crossed on dry land. The quail are thus symbolic of the Israelites themselves.

The quails died as food for the Israelites. That is metaphor that says the Israelites died as those doubting their faith in this guy with a magic staff (Moses) and whether or not YHWH really meant to choose them … for only God knows what purpose that is. Quails and Israelites together in the wilderness, with both surprised to be there.

In the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, six of the first seven days are represented by birds: partridge; turtle doves; French hens; calling birds; geese; and swans. (The fifth day is represented by a wedding ring, by the way – marriage to God, a soul forever united with the Holy Spirit.) In the hidden meaning of the song, it is the numbers that are symbolic of the Holy Bible and its messages. The birds are symbols of humans who leave the mundane world and fly as Christians. So, in that way of looking at birds, it is worthwhile seeing the Israelites as symbolic of quails.

Before anyone raises their hand to question how any Israelites could eat his fill of other Israelites, recall how Jesus said this: “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53) There are atheist sowing doubts & Bible study groups that delight in seeing this as the “cannibalism” of Christianity (even the Jews who heard Jesus say that were greatly offended).

Of course, the meaning of Jesus’ words are not literal but spiritual. To eat the body of Jesus Christ, you must consume the body of text that prophesied his coming, as he came – the Son of God, the Messiah. At that time, that body was the Torah, the Psalms, and the writings of the Prophets. Today, that body has a “New Testament” (two turtle doves = Old & New Testaments).

Since Jesus was not yet in the world and God had just begun to train His Israelite disciples, just as Jesus would train his many centuries later, the Israelites still had a history that needed to be shared. In the evening, a quail roasted over a spit dinner would pass by quickly; but the coming together of the groups so they could recall their histories, as to why God had chosen them – the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob (aka Israel) – that was spiritual food that filled them with the knowledge of their exclusivity.

The quail (symbolically) is representative of “communication and social relations. (link) Thus, being fed quail means their coming together as an “assembly, gathering, congregation” (i.e.: church – “edah” or “ecclesia“) for religious purposes.

The quail then represented how God told Abraham, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,” (Genesis 22:17) They became specifically bred to become quail. They were different than all the other ‘birds’ of the world that were likewise descendants, born without God’s prophets to lead them, those more numerous than the Israelites, because of being common to the world. The Israelites would become the blessed quail sent to the Gentiles, en masse, as the first Christians blown off course from Judaism, sent to feed hungry spiritual seekers.

From this perspective, one hears read aloud on Sunday, “When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” [Hebrew “manna“ means that] For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”’ Another way to read the Hebrew word “lechem” (“bread”) and “oklah” (“eating”) is Moses saying, “It is the additive to bread that the Lord has given to make this gathering be a tasty experience.”

The same words are spoken to each and every Christian today and forever. Scripture is the bread gathered to be eaten. Still, it is unleavened bread that is bland and difficult to eat alone. It needs the additive from the Lord making it desirable to eat, fulfilling to digest, and energizing as nourishment. Manna is why I write here and it should be why priests, pastors, and ministers preach each Sunday. It is why there is Bible studies offered in places where atheists fear to tread. Manna is the additive that makes the divinity of the Holy Bible rise and be consumed; but when first seen, Christians ask, “What is it? What does it mean? Who can understand it all?”

The answer is, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.” Only eat what you need for a day; but then in the evening gather with other Christians and feed on the knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit. Instead of quail, eat the body of Christ and share that experience with others of like mind.

If you don’t, then your complaint is against the LORD, so you say, “You have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Eat the manna! Have it with cheese, compliments of the cow near your tent, and put some cheese on unleavened crackers.

The LORD has provided you with spiritual food. You are supposed to gather it six days, with the seventh day’s portions gathered on the sixth day. How many only go hunting for a little manna on Sunday mornings, but never seek a quail gathering in the evening? Remember: The LORD said, “I will test [you], whether [you] will follow my instruction or not.”

You know He said that to you, because you heard it read aloud or you read it here. Who are you going to share this with now?

Language, Philippians, Teaching

Philippians 1:21-30 – Dying of self is spiritual gain from living as Jesus reborn [Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“To me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.

Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well– since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”

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This is the epistle reading from the Episcopal Lectionary, Proper 20, Year A, the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud in church on Sunday, September 24, 2017. This reading is important because it addresses the struggles that come with being Christian.

A powerful verse in this reading is number 24, which states: “But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.” It isn’t supposed to be you live like a common human being and then get to go to heaven. In order to get your soul released from reincarnating into a sinful world, you have to “remain in the flesh” while serving God first. This states the core purpose of a true Christian, which is not for self-aggrandizement, but to wholly be a servant to God. This is what Paul meant by stating he was, “living is Christ.”

That servitude to God, proved by living a Christ-led life, is why Paul said, “That means fruitful labor for me.” “Fruitful labor” means the work that is involved in planting and sowing, so that an “abundance” of Christians develop, ripen, and mature. [The Gospel reading for Proper 20 is the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, so this reading fits that theme.]

Remember how God instructed animal man and animal woman (not the two individuals who would be made on the seventh day, a.k.a. Adam and Eve), “Be fruitful and increase in number.” (Genesis 1:28) That was an instruction to beasts with big brains to reproduce more bodies that live in the flesh. Paul, speaking for God via the Holy Spirit, with the Christ Mind, was saying that a true Christian reproduces other Christians, increasing their numbers. Thus, Paul’s labor was spreading the seed of the Holy Spirit.

Christians that miss how Paul was writing to them (and everyone who reads Paul’s words) and do not likewise feel a strong urge to do “fruitful labor,” they need to question if their “alive [as] Christ.” Living [as] Christ [or another “Alive Christ”] means more than simply believing Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, who lived, died, was resurrected, and then floated away into heaven.

Living in Christ [or being “Christ Alive”] means you have lived in the flesh, but then you died of ego, becoming reborn as a brand new reproduction of baby Jesus (in your flesh). Your brain is what goes floating away into the cloud formed around you, which is the Mind of Christ.

Living is Christ means you gave up living as YOU. That means YOUR death [transition, change] represents “dying is gain.” Mortal death comes when God decides (other than suicide), but figurative death comes when humans decide to choose to serve God. Life stops being about “Me! Me! Me!” as one is thus reborn as Jesus was – a laborer of God for others. Living is Christ … from that point on.

Living as you is what common human beings do, with every you always seeking to please selfish desires. Because human beings are social creatures, with strong urges to eat, drink, and reproduce [carnal pleasures], the requirements of societal living mean every you has (at some point in time) to be somewhat “giving,” so that others will enjoy your company. That measure of generosity has to be viewed as selfish sacrifice, because you give in order to receive what it is YOU want. It is like giving to a charity in September and then amazingly having the receipt the next April to deduct on the income taxes.

“Your boasting in Christ Jesus” does not mean you drive a car with a Christian fish on the rear bumper or a decal for the Church you attend in the rear window. It is not exclaimed proudly by your wearing a cross pendant around your neck, for others to see. It is not proven because you “like” and “share” memes on Facebook that say, “share if you love Jesus.”

That is living as YOU, which is like carrying around a Jesus Christ fan club membership card in your wallet or purse. YOU cannot boast in Christ Jesus if you have never once reproduced Christ in another human being.

Paul was writing to Christians in Philippi, a city in eastern Macedonia. As Christians, they had received the Holy Spirit due to Paul’s fruitful labors there. Paul wrote to them afterwards as a continuation of those labors. Thus, Paul was taking the time to speak to others, some of whom he would never meet personally (in the flesh) again, to care for the fruits he had brought forth.

Paul stated that when he wrote: “Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents.” Communicating – one Christian to another or others – is fruitful labor, a labor of love.

“A manner of life worthy of the gospel of Christ” means to live like Jesus lived, leading disciples to God and not being intimidated by any opponents. Being “firm in one spirit” means to not be divided, unable to decide if you should act like Jesus today or act like YOU once more. “Striving side by side with one mind” means your little brain standing behind the Mind of Christ, understanding everything that Mind reveals to you.

In more simple words, Paul told the Philippians (and you), “Remember to live by the Holy Spirit.”

To hear Paul speaking to YOU, it is important to understand just why YOU have such a hard time “letting go” and having faith that the world cannot harm the soul giving life to your flesh. A lifetime of struggles has made all adults wary of the promises of the world. Many have learned that YOU must take what YOU want, because nobody else will give YOU anything. The world is where survival goes to the fittest and only the strong get anywhere of value.

That fleshy YOU has been “intimidated.” YOUR “opponents” are those like YOU, who see religion as a trick that fleeces sheep for profit, while selling belief in the invisible. YOU are distracted by those opponents of Jesus Christ.

YOU do not want to be fooled by life again; but you know you need a warm security blanket to hold onto, just to keep being YOU. So, you go to church and you privately tell people you are Christian; but YOU have a hard time fully grasping what that really means, because it is YOU who keeps Christ a separate entity that you could never match. He lives outside of YOU. Jesus Christ was the Son of God and YOU could never make that claim.

I have said it before (many times), but I will say it again. YOU have to marry into wealth, where “wealth” means “eternal life.” YOU do that by marrying God (not Jesus … Roman Catholic nuns do that).

Marriage to God is how one stands “firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.” Forget all the “equality” stuff that buzzes in a human brain, where women have careers and men do housework. That is more of that distraction that is the opponent that must be destroyed.

Marriage to God means: 1.) One has a deep love for God, which is recognized and accepted through a proposal of marriage. 2.) God is the master of the union with the one to whom He is betrothed, who is totally subservient to God. 3.) God is the husband, a word that means the one who brings forth offspring, with the human being the wife (regardless of physical gender), meaning the womb in which God creates. 3.) The consummation of the marriage bears fruit through the Mind of Christ being born, with the human body caring totally for the needs of that “baby Jesus,” as its mother (regardless of physical gender).

The union is the point where the physical and the Spiritual become One. It is like the 0-point on a graph. That 0-point is where God resides – in the heart. The symbol of holy matrimony is the cross.

Vertical is the physical. Horizontal is the Spiritual. They meet at the heart when married to God.

What Paul wrote in this selection supports this conclusion I have made, as it is representative of his stating: “progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus.” A true Christian has “progressed” in his or her love of God (the husband), leading to the “joy” that the birth of the Christ Mind brings, greatly expanding one’s “faith.” As Paul was also married to God and had been blessed with the birth of the Christ Mind, he “shares” as a brother to this newborn of the same Father. Brothers and Sisters (depending on gender) “Living as Christ.” Together, all reproductions of Jesus Christ represent an “abundance” of duplicates, all who can “boast in Christ Jesus.”

The Greek word that is translated as “boasting” is “kauchēma.” According to Strong’s cognate of this word, it means: “boasting, focusing on the results of exulting/boasting (note the -ma suffix). This boasting (exulting) is always positive when it is in the Lord, and always negative when based on self.”* This usage by Paul, in the context of “progress” and “joy in Christ Jesus” is then better translated as “exulting,” as such receipt of the Holy Spirit is a triumphal success.

The element of suffering that Paul referred to, which is aligned with the struggles the Philippians had witnessed Paul have, and he knew they faced, can now be seen like birth pangs. The symbolic or metaphoric meaning of “birth pangs” is “Difficulty or turmoil associated with a development or transition.”** Paul is then stating the obvious, which is the joy of giving birth to a new YOU – a true Christian – will always come with tests that will bring aches and pains. Like Paul, YOU will survive this transitional stage and be elated with the new development within your being.

God will be in the delivery room holding your hand, “striving side by side with one mind” to guide you through all that this test brings. That is the fruitful labor that is required first, so all the work to come afterwards will be a piece of cake.

** Fair use.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 20:1-16 – The parable of the laborers and humans who refuse to work because it reminds them of slavery never known [Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”’

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This is the Gospel reading from the Episcopal Lectionary for Proper 20, the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud by a priest on Sunday, September 24, 2017. It is the parable of the workers in the vineyard, which concludes with the message, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” (NIV)

This New International Version selection, as shown on the Episcopal Lectionary website, omits the full statement of verse 16 (beyond that conclusion), which says, “For many are called, but few chosen.” As this is a significant clarification to “the last will be first, and the first will be last,” I will interpret this Gospel reading as if the whole statement were to be read (as it is in the King James versions available).

According to the website Greek New Testament (http://www.greeknewtestament.com/B40C020.htm#V16), there are five versions of the Greek text, from which all translations are based. Verse 16 is shown to contain “outwV esontai oi escatoi prwtoi kai oi prwtoi escatoi polloi gar eisin klhtoi oligoi de eklektoi.” That shows in the Stephens 1550 Textus Receptus, the Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus, and the Byzantine Majority copies. However, only “outwV esontai oi escatoi prwtoi kai oi prwtoi escatoi” is shown for the Alexandrian and the Hort and Westcott copies, omitting “polloi gar eisin klhtoi oligoi de eklektoi.”

The quote from Jesus (“Many are called, however few chosen”) appears in Matthew 22, verse 14, as a stand-alone conclusion to the parable of the wedding banquet. All five of the above copies show verse 14 of Matthew 22 as, “polloi gar eisin klhtoi oligoi de eklektoi.” It is the same text found in two verses, in two chapters.

As to this stand-alone parable, context may help to understand why Jesus would address “length of service” to the Lord. In Matthew’s seventeenth chapter, Jesus appeared transfigured on Mt. Hermon (in Gaulanitis), before going to Capernaum (Galilee) at the shores of the sea. In chapter 19, Matthew began by telling the readers that Jesus “departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.” That is where Jesus told this parable of the vineyard laborers.

One could then assume that the lessons Matthew remembered Jesus teaching, in chapters 18 and 19, were lessons on different Shabbats, as weeks were passing. In John, we learn that Jesus was in Jerusalem during the winter festival for the Feast of the Dedication (now known as Hanukah, beginning on 25 Kislev, usually in December). Then, after angry Pharisees tried to grab and stone Jesus, he eluded them and went to the other side of the Jordan. This means Jesus is telling this parable probably in January or February, in the dead of winter, quite some time after being in a high mountain that is known for being a ski resort today.

Immediately following this parable of the workers in the vineyard, Matthew wrote that Jesus told his disciples they will soon return to Jerusalem, where he will be arrested, killed, and rise on the third day. That would take place during the time of the Passover, usually in April or May, during the spring. On the eve of that return to Jerusalem, the news of Lazarus being sick reached Jesus while he was beyond the Jordan. During the return to raise Lazarus from death, soon before the Passover festival would begin, Matthew tells of Jesus healing a blind man in Jericho, as the group was returning from beyond the Jordan. This sequence of events recorded allows one to see a timeframe of months passing, which means the parables can be weeks apart. It is my belief that they were all told on Sabbaths, as Jesus was a rabbi for his disciples.

It may be that the reading that led to Jesus telling this parable was from the Songs of Solomon, chapter 8, verses 10-14, as that uses the metaphor of a vineyard and laborers.

10 “I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers;

Then I became in his eyes as one who finds peace.

11 “Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
He entrusted the vineyard to caretakers.
Each one was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

12 “My very own vineyard is at my disposal;
The thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
And two hundred are for those who take care of its fruit.”

13 “O you who sit in the gardens,

My companions are listening for your voice—

Let me hear it!”

14 “Hurry, my beloved,

And be like a gazelle or a young stag

On the mountains of spices.”

In this song, reality is not stated, as much as the Songs of Solomon are written as metaphor of the love between a human being and God. Because they appear strongly as human love in a setting of sensuality, there is higher meaning to such physical love. This makes his songs parables, which require explanation beyond the obvious.

A vineyard represents a productive land, amid a world less cultivated. Baal-hamon (the name of a deity of Carthage & Phoenicia) is representative of the surrounding barren lands, among which Israel was set as a jewel of fertility. This is why the vineyard was so valuable to tenants, who had a need for devoted caretakers of their fruit. Such an explanation by Jesus to his disciples would have raised questions about the loss of that vineyard of Solomon’s and if it still bore fruit. If so, who were the laborers then, in a Roman-dominated Judea and Galilee?

As the time neared when Jesus would return to Jerusalem his final time, such questions would have perfectly been answered as a new parable, remembering how Jesus had already told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” (Matthew 9:37) That statement, which followed Jesus saying that the crowds who followed him “were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). It was made prior to his saying, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field,” (Matthew 9:38) Both of those truths are reinforced in this parable. With Jesus’ time on earth being ripe for harvest, it was time to have God call for laborers. That urgency is seen in how the landowner went out regularly during the day to hire workers for the harvest.

Because this landowner possessed a vineyard, this is metaphor for Jesus being the good vine (“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener” – John 15:1). As grapevines are cut back after each season, allowing for new growth each year, the roots are those coming from “the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1 – “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”) The “landowner” is therefore a metaphor for God, with the “true grapevine” being the source for those feeding on the body and blood of Jesus the Messiah, and the grapes being harvested representing the souls saved. The good workers are thus true Christians, as devoted priests filled with the Holy Spirit, which the disciples would become (as well as all others they would affect). However, not all workers are good.

The various times of day, when the laborers were hired, reflects the history of God choosing people to “take care of his fruit.” They are representing: the Israelites freed from Egypt, who first entered Canaan (led by Joshua and judges) at 9 AM; They are the people of the nations Israel and Judah (led by kings and prophets) at noon; They are the scattered remnants of those fallen nations (led by Pharisees, High Temple Priests, and Scribes) at 3 PM; and, They are the disciples, family and crowds who sought their Messiah (led by John the Baptizer and Jesus of Nazareth), at 5 PM.

The grumbling of the workers, who were all paid the same wages at 6 PM, regardless of how long they had been working (poor babies “who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat”), are those made by Jews who believed they were closer to the landowner because they had been hired hands longer. This group can be generalized as the trail of tears so frequently shown by Israelites, Judeans and Jews – The Grumblers. They easily complain, as if being chosen by God demands their being due more in return than other “mere humans.”

Their bellyaching did not agree with the landowner, as the Covenant was clearly stated from the beginning, at 9 AM (“Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?”). Some things never change, as God told Moses, “”I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.” (Exodus 32:9).

Because the wages were all the same, the metaphor cannot be all getting the same reward of getting to live in the landowner’s palatial estate or heavenly kingdom manor. The agreement was not “work a day and get eternal rest.” The “usual daily wages” says the reward was limited (“daily” can be read as “most temporal,” not eternal), which means they are physical rewards for physical labors, rather than spiritual rewards for picking a few grapes.

The Jews often take pride in how many are doctors – medical and academic – and lawyers (the highest paid professions in worldly wages), while being known for always giving discounts to other Jews (generosity at the expense of Gentiles). As day laborers, they are not regular employees of the landowner, but they have been “chosen by God” to work for Him. Such an arrangement symbolizes how they (like all human beings) have been born of death, as mortals in new “chosen one” bodies, who then do as they want until they need the LORD to come and bring them some material gain. They hang out in the town square (“standing idle in the marketplace”), doing nothing to harvest the fruit of God, by taking no actions upon themselves (unsolicited) that seek to serve Him.

Certainly, the whole world of humankind is just as self-serving, whether or not Gentiles earn more or less physical wealth than Jews. This is why the landowner showed up at the marketplace at 5 PM, asking, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” When “they said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us,’” this is the ignorance of all who have not been led to the LORD. Rather than be a seeker of higher meaning, many just idly wait for God to come serve them.

When the lateness of the five o’clock hiring’s is seen as work still needing to be done, one can assume that many of the workers hired earlier in the day were slackers, so work was left undone. Perhaps, they were too good to work in the fields of grapevines, especially when the sun was so hot overhead. While there, they probably hung out at the water cooler more than they filled baskets with grapes. They were hired hands who were just there to draw a paycheck at the end of the day. This means they were getting material reward, but doing nothing towards earning spiritual reward.

This is where the continuation of verse 16 is so important. “For many are called, but few chosen” is a statement less about the landowner not having enough laborers, as it is more powerful as a statement that those who call themselves laborers are simply pretending to work. It becomes an amphibological statement – with double meaning intended.

The Greek word translated as “few” is “oligoi.” The root form, “oligos,” means, “small, brief, few, soon, little,” with the implication, “hence, of time: short, of degree: light, slight, little.” (Strong’s Concordance) This word’s compliment, “many,” is the Greek word “polus,” which also denotes “much, or often.” (Strong’s Concordance)

This means the deeper meaning comes out when read as, “Often does God summon, little however choose.” This has the effect of stating, “The call to serve God is always there for everyone, but those who choose to answer most frequently do little of value.”

This means the other part of verse 16, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last,” is not a matter of everything about the harvest coming down to the bad planning of God (You should have known there are slackers and starting hiring well in advance of the harvest time), but the unwillingness of human beings to heed the continuous call of God.

A valid literal translation of “So the last will be first, and the first will be last,” is “Thus will be until the end most important, and the principal, extreme.” The Greek word translated as “last” is “eschatoi,” which is the root word (“eschatos”) for “eschatology,” or “the study of the End Times,” more properly defined as, “any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc..” (Dictionary.com) That word being used twice in this verse makes its deeper meaning have more impact as a parable that leads to the end of the day, when wages are paid individually. It reflects a time when the sun sets on one’s life.

Each human being chooses what is “most important” in his or her life (what comes “first”), until that life reaches its death (what comes “last”). It is a matter of whose “principal” one lives by (God is the “highest,” “the first”). That decision projects to the end of the physical time on earth, when the soul is released.

The “Text Analysis” of this Greek text on BibleHub.com shows a comma separating the last two words, as though necessary for an English translation, as if written: “prōtoi , eschatoi.” A separation indicates each word has equal importance, with one’s meaning preceding the second’s. Thus, the implication becomes one’s “principal” (“first” choice of philosophy) in life then determining the “extreme” (the “final” state) to come upon one’s soul.

As a matter of seeing “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” as some ranking of service to the LORD, or seeing the weak and poor as inheriting the earth being implied here in this parable, that is being misled. Neither is it a statement about having done little all your life for God, but on your death bed you confess all your sins, so you are then allowed to go to heaven. It is more in-line with Jesus being the Alpha and the Omega.

As such, length of service has absolutely nothing to do with this message. As a broad-stroke view, it says anyone, at any time, who has been filled with the Holy Spirit and had the Christ Mind born within him or her, that person will be alive as Jesus – the Alpha and the Omega. Moses worked in the vineyard. Elijah worked in the vineyard. Saint Paul worked for God during his day on earth. All the holy have worked for God, but they have done so alongside some riffraff who were just there for the paycheck. The point is that time ceases to exist when in the Spirit, as human bodily death represents an awakening to eternal life.

Again, as this parable comes not long before Jesus would head the gang of followers from beyond the Jordan to the vicinity of Jerusalem, for his End Time on earth, Christians today need to see this message as being told by Jesus directly to each reader or listener. Are you one of those who was hanging out at the marketplace at 9 AM, as a baby raised from “cradle to grave” in a church, but still do not know Jesus? By the time old age comes around at 6 PM, do you grumble at the thought of all those so-called Christians who are Johnny-come-lately’s, calling themselves Born Again Christians and acting like they deserve heaven more than you?

Or, are you one of those who escaped the real heat of being Christian, by acting atheist as long as that was cool and that got you places, only to find some life emergency made praying to an unseen God the only promise of hope still available, meaning you got hired at 3 PM?

The mega importance of this parable is to realize it is now 5 PM and you are still standing idle in the town square, with God once again offering the same employment as always. God says to open your eyes and realize NOW is the time to go to work for God. There are other parables about those fools who thought they could wait a little longer, only to find out that didn’t work out to well for their souls. The ones hired at the last hour of daylight are the ones who sincerely want to serve God with their whole heart.

God is asking you, individually, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” If you are arguing with God about what you think He owes you, then you might want to re-read that contract you agreed to (both Old part and New part). Prove to God you belong to Him, not by how much you know, but how much you selfishly do. If you do service to the LORD without expectations (letting go of the ego), then you will find out His generosity extends well beyond the wages of one lifetime.

Exodus, Language, Teaching

Exodus 17:1-7 – Thirsting for everlasting waters [Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

“From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”’

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This is the Old Testament selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for Year A Proper 21, the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud in church on Sunday, October 1, 2017. It is the story of Moses striking the rock at Mount Horeb and making water flow to quench the thirst of the Israelites.

In Proper 20’s Old Testament reading from Exodus, the Israelites were complaining about being taken out into the wilderness to die of hunger. God responded with manna and quails. Here, they are complaining about having no water. Whereas their complaint for food did not mention the “children and livestock” that were in their numbers, now it does.

As I explained about Exodus 16:2-15, their pleas of hunger were less spoken from their bellies and more from their minds. They needed spiritual food to consume, so they would have reason to live … live in a largely barren land. The fact that they had children and livestock that were not mentioned before says the adults were the ones needing inner motivation, as the babies and beasts would follow them wherever they went. Water, on the other hand, was a need for everyone, women, children, goats, sheep, and cattle; but, similarly, the need expressed here is not meant to be seen solely in a physical way.

To understand this, one needs to grasp how “water” is one of the four basic elements, metaphysically. The four are water, fire, air, and earth. I have repeatedly stated (so I will state again), “Water represents emotions.” Thus, this whole reading is a statement about the emotional needs of all living creatures in an environment that screams, “Get me out of here!” While being mentally motivated by spiritual food will keep one’s determination strong, will power is limited, with those limits eroded away by changing emotional states. Therefore, the Israelites are metaphorically telling Moses, “We need to be confident in our love for God, which means God needs to show us His love so we don’t worry and doubt.”

In the first verse of this reading, beginning chapter 17, the reader is told, “From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded.” This is important information that is relative to understanding this theme of “water.” Relative to the “wilderness of Sin,” this is written on a Wikipedia page under that heading:

“The Wilderness of Sin or Desert of Sin (Hebrew: מִדְבַּר סִין, Midbar Sin‎‎) is a geographic area mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as lying between Elim and Mount Sinai. Sin does not refer to sinfulness, but is an untranslated word that would translate as the moon; biblical scholars suspect that the name Sin here refers to the semitic moon-deity Sin, who was worshipped widely around the entire periphery of pre-Islamic Arabia, the Levant, and Mesopotamia.”

In astrology, the Moon is seen as a symbol of “water.” The Moon is the ruler of the sign Cancer – a water sign. The Moon symbolizes the inner self and its emotional realm. The Moon is associated with water because of its phases, from New Moon, to Full Moon and back to New Moon. That change reflects how emotions change (have fluidity), as they wax and wane, over and over – the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

By knowing this (whether or not you believe it), one can read how “From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded” is referring to emotional tests. The “stages” of travel means they moved and stopped, picked up and set up camp multiple times, by the directions of God. Those “stages” can be read as changing states of emotion because they are “of the Moon” (“of Sin”).

When one reads, “They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink,” the Hebrew root verb for Rephidim (rapad) means “to spread.” In a desert setting (like the changing Moon), places that once had vegetation and water can be overcome by “desertification,” which is defined as: “The transformation of arable or habitable land to desert, as by a change in climate or destructive land use.”* Thus, the name for that campsite was given because Moses thought there would be water there, but that place had changed (“spread”) to desert.

When the Israelites “quarreled with Moses,” he asked them, “Why do you test the Lord?” Moses had knowledge of the area, which came from God, so they had arrived to a place that was no longer an oasis for some unknown reason. Moses, taking offense at the quarreling, gave an emotional response to an emotional confrontation, brought on by fears that everyone (children and animals included) would die of thirst. Therefore, it was with strong emotions that Moses “cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”’

In the emotional outburst made by the Israelites about food (Exodus 16), we are told “The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” However, there was no report about crying by Moses, as we then simply are told how the LORD told Moses how that problem would be solved.

Since the transition from chapter 16 to chapter 17 is not clearly timed, the statement of “From the desert of the Moon (Sin)” can be an indication that one complete lunar cycle had passed. If that was the 29 days from full Moon to full Moon, then the Israelite people complained the easiest when that “stage” occurred. The symbolism would then be they complained when everyone’s emotions ran high and it was easy to become angered.

Knowing God told Moses to establish the Hebrew calendar, beginning with 1 Nissan, with the Passover on 15 Nissan, and knowing that calendar is lunar based, the Passover occurred when it was full Moon. In Exodus 16, we read that the setting was “on the fifteenth day of the second month,” so the issue over food was also taking place on a full Moon. One can now assume they reached this place where no water was found, again, when the Moon was full.

Additionally, there are some who say the name Israel is a combination of the Egyptian gods Isis (the Moon), Ra (the Sun), and the Hebrew word El (Saturn). Astrologically, the Sun and the Moon, together, project humanity’s duality of an inner soul (Moon) with a bodily projection (Sun); and Saturn (El) represents God and the Law, while el is the Hebrew word for “god.” So, it is important to realize the role the Moon played in Israelite history, as being chosen by God was not because their bodies looked good. They were chosen because of their inner being (descendants of holy men).

Because we read how Moses became upset and expressing fear that the emotions of the people may be so high they would stone their leader, the one who was God’s emissary, we can see that Moses also was affected emotionally. As it is always best to count to ten during times when emotions are overtaking reasonable thought, God responded to Moses, giving him instructions that would solve the problem.

The solution then becomes an uplifting emotional experience for all of the Israelites to witness. The same staff that Moses used at the Nile, when “in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials [he] struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood” (Exodus 7:20b), would symbolize God working through Moses, creating miracles. To have wafers of spiritual food (manna) was good to set the head straight; but to have water flow freely in a desert was an uplifting reinforcement that straightened out their hearts.

In my analysis of Exodus 16:1-15, I offered that the manna and quail represented spiritual food, which equate to the body of Christ. One cannot come to Jesus, from a true faith mindset, without devoted study of the holy documents that prophesied his coming, as he came. That requires a deep level of understanding that is aided by the Mind of Christ.

Here, in Exodus 17, the water rushing from the rock, which quenched the thirsts of the Israelites, is then symbolizing the blood of Christ. Because God told Moses to use the staff that turned the Nile waters into blood, rather than the same staff that parted the sea, that specific staff reference is then saying that Moses released the blood of Christ from the rock. That release was to revitalize the Israelites and their children and animals.

The rock (in Greek petra, or in English Peter), symbolizes the cornerstone upon which the blood flows. Therefore, the blood of Christ is the emotional swelling of faith, like that which one feels when fermented wine enters the bloodstream and, from the heart, the body feels high. The Israelites had their faith uplifted by the miracle of Moses and his staff at Horeb, while their emotional distress over lack of water was quelled by flowing water.

This reading can then be seen as a parallel to Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, who Jesus told he could provide her with “living water.” In John 4:10 we read, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The Israelites were asking Moses, “Give us a drink.” The same lesson can be seen here, as when Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks of this [well] water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) God was providing, through Moses, this “living water.”

This reading ends with the statement: “He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” The name Massah is said to mean “Testing,” as a “test by trial.” The name Meribah means, “Quarrel” or “Place of Strife.” When verse one says, “the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded,” this means reaching the point of need for spiritual knowledge is one stage of development in one’s faith, while reaching the point of need for becoming emotionally uplifted is another stage in that development.

Faith is a journey in stages, with God’s test of one’s faith requiring emotional outbursts. Without one quarreling, there is no emotional connection at all. This is supported in the New Testament, when God spoke through the Spirit of Christ, saying, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelations 3:15-16)

This is why God posed the question at that place, “Is the Lord among us or not?” The question asks, “Is God in your heart? Are you committed to love the LORD? … Or, not?” Caring for God, enough to quarrel over His tests, is a sign of love and commitment, as in a marriage. It is a testing stage all marriages come to, necessarily. “Are we in this thing together or not?”

A marriage built on love and devotion is rock solid, from which flows unconditional love. A marriage built on selfish desires will fail the difficult tests. The aspect of this reading placing focus on the “children and livestock” reflects the symbolism of a marriage extending beyond the realm of two, with those “offspring” not having the mental capacities to understand the reasoning of faith. Every living creature, however, has the capacity for deep-felt emotions.

The metaphor also says human beings are the children of God, with the devoted faithful being his servants, like beasts of burden. Therefore, God will lead us, as David wrote in Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

* Fair use.

Language, Philippians, Teaching

Philippians 2:1-13 – All saints share the same Christ Mind as brothers in the name of Jesus [Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost]

January 23, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death– even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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This is the Epistle reading from the Episcopal Lectionary for Year A, Proper 21, the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud in church on Sunday, October 1, 2017. It is important because Paul tells how true Christians are resurrections of Jesus Christ.

If one goes to the BibleGateway.com website and looks up this selection, you are offered some of those summary headings I have talked about before. For the New International Version, the two segments in the presentation above each have a heading. The first part says, “Imitating Christ’s Humility,” with the second part entitled, “Do Everything Without Grumbling.” For the New American Standard Bible, the whole reading is under the heading, “Be Like Christ.”

That NASB heading sounds an awful like the old (I’m dating myself now) “Be like Mike” commercials for Gatorade. Mike was Michael Jordan. Of course, nobody drank Gatorade and became Michael Jordan. Certainly, lots of players of all ages and all skills drank Gatorade, like Michael Jordan did (at least for the commercials), and many of those played basketball in all types of basketball courts, indoors and outdoors; but none other than Michael Jordan was ever Mike (the person dunking basketballs in the Gatorade commercials).

Do the people at the New American Standard Bible think God wants a lot of pretend Jesuses being as bad at ministry as those who thought drinking Gatorade would make them soar down the lane with a basketball held high before a slam dunk?

If they really do, they should slip a few bucks to the Gatorade advertisers and ask permission to begin a “Be like Christ” campaign. They could sell Nike Jesus sandals and Under Armour Jesus robes, and for the kids some costume Jesus wig-beard head gear. Somebody would get rich; but they would get the exact same result as Gatorade got … still only one Christ, and he (like all superstars promoted on TV) cannot be duplicated … only imitated (as implied by the NIV heading).

When someone reads (or hears read) this excerpt of Paul’s letter to the Philippians and then preaches that it means, “Dear brothers and sisters, it is imperative to live your lives like Jesus did,” one ends up with a world exactly like we have surrounding us today. It is a world that is lost and has little hope of finding itself. After all, who knows how to live like Jesus?

I’m sure there are many who think, “Today’s times are so different than those back then. I bet Jesus would be different if alive today.”

Reading that into the message from Paul – who was an Apostle, a Saint, a Christian – is to be a chirstian like the vast majority of Westerners who have called themselves that since Constantine reorganized a Spiritual movement into a business plan for an Empire. Today’s Christians are more creations of the Church of Rome than Apostles, as that Church routinely read Latin verses to people who could barely read, much less understand Latin, while telling their captive audiences, “Just do as we say, not as we do” (mostly).

It begat the mindset that has one pondering, “What would Jesus do?” when confronted with life’s decisions.

Certainly, those who ponder like that – and make the right decisions and live a good life of sacrifice – are headed in the right direction; but that direction, invariably, leads to a plateau, with high mountains that must be climbed still well in the distance. It represents a return to the same state of life that was for Jews in Judea and Galilee, who were plateaued believers in God when Jesus and followers were walking the land. The Jews then were people who were trying to ponder, “What did Moses tell us to do?” but people who were unable to make all the sacrifices and good life choices (consistently) the Law said to do.

And were miserable then, just as many are today.

“Forgive me God. I go to church but nobody ever tells me **how** to stop sinning.”

There is a statement of faith openly recited in Episcopal churches each week (and other brands of churches), which is labeled “the Nicene Creed.” There is a variation of that, known as “the Apostle’s Creed,” where an “Apostle” should be defined as “a Saint,” with a “Creed” being defined as, “A formal statement of religious belief; a confession of faith.”

It is a statement that is supposed to be read aloud only by Saints, as the true Church is an exclusive body (although it welcomes seekers of truth). Both Creeds are confessions of faith that all true Christians fully understand. This is especially understood when Saints say, “He [Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord] will come again to judge the living and the dead.” The Nicene Creed varies that to state, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.”

What a true Apostle realizes – knows – when he or she makes that public confession of faith is what Paul wrote in this selection of his letter to the Christians of Philippi. While the ordinary – do as I say and not as I do – Christian is asked, “What does that mean … will return again?” they smile and say, “Shhhhhh! We don’t talk about Judgement Day or the End Times in church.”

That implies, “That is what those evangelicals do.” It fosters an “Us vs. Them” mentality. It represents divided brains and not One Mind in Christ.

Such views totally miss the point of how Jesus Ascended on the 49th day and “came again” the next day (the 50th day – Pentecost). The spread of true Christianity meant an exponential return of Christ, with 3,000 filled with the Holy Spirit because the Mind of Christ opened that many eyes, ears, and hearts that day. That spread was why Paul had to write letters to those in his wake, telling them to, “Keep up the good works.”

But, that rapid spread of true Christianity was slowed by those who dreamed of empires.

The Day of Pentecost was when eleven disciples (and close family of Jesus who were in the upstairs room) were filled with the Holy Spirit and became multiple New reproductions of Jesus of Nazareth, in possession of the same Christ Mind. At that time, those Apostles were judged by Jesus Christ as being worthy of climbing those distant mountains – the boundaries of mortal death – thus gaining eternal life. The disciples-turned-to-Apostles began living at that point.

Their bodies became the “kingdom” of God, with the Christ Mind being the right hand of the LORD within them. They bowed down to Christ Jesus, so each human body’s soul would forevermore serve God.

When Paul wrote, “Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind,” he was saying, “You cannot keep your big brain and try to figure out what God and Christ want you to do, when the love in your heart is for self and the brain in your head keeps trying to ask, “What would Jesus do?”

You cannot be like Christ, when you like being you more.

When Paul then wrote, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” we have to remember that Jesus’s name was not “Christ.” The statements of faith that say, “[Jesus] was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,” all acknowledge that Jesus was a human body, just like all of us are. What made Jesus the promised Messiah was the presence of a Messianic Mind, coming from God, via the Holy Spirit.

The same process came upon the followers of Jesus on Pentecost, when they too became with “the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.” With tongues like fire they became Christ Peter, Christ James of Zebedee, Christ John of Zebedee, etc., etc. They suddenly became filled with the same mind.

This is why Paul wrote, “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,” which is “Christ,” or the name-title as the “Messiah.” That title is greater than any title ever held by any human rulers; but it is a title that human beings, like Jesus, can gain.

This means that when Paul wrote, “So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,” all true Christians are to bend a knee to Jesus, by sacrificing their own name, being knighted as Christ Jesus reborn. You must sacrifice your brain to the service of the Christ Mind. Your brain is not capable of figuring out what Jesus would do.

“Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” is stated in the Apostle’s Creed where it says, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.” Still, “every tongue” in every Apostle stops saying, “I think this is what Jesus would have us do,” as those tongues wag to an ego-driven brain.

An Apostle’s tongue speaks as Jesus spoke, and as Peter spoke with the other ten, when they all spoke to the crowds of pilgrims in Jerusalem. They spoke what God told them to say, which is why Jesus repeatedly said, “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.” (John 12:49)

Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem to a Virgin Mother, as a mortal human being, was never quoted in the Gospels, because his tongue confessed that his being the Christ was due to the LORD, with all glory going to God the Father. The answer to the question, “What would Jesus say?” is “Jesus would say, ‘You know, LORD.”‘ That is what those with the Christ Mind always say.

This devotion is why Paul encouraged the Christians of Philippi to “work out your own salvation.” You will not save your soul by eavesdropping and overhearing someone say, “You know, I’ve been thinking about what Jesus would want us to do, and that is ….” You cannot be like Christ by repeating what the Apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John said Jesus said. You have to do as Jesus did. You have to work for God in order to be saved by the Christ Mind.

This means “to will and to work for his good pleasure” is a statement that only God’s will can guide one’s actions. One does the work of Christ, for his good pleasure, which means one is reborn as Jesus, led only by God, through the Christ Mind. This is why the Acts of Jesus are called Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles is the first book that follows those four. All of the letters written are also Acts of Apostles, as it is the work of Christ that does “nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”

Scene from the 1980 movie *The Resurrection*.

There are no words that can tell one how to be filled with the Holy Spirit and gain the Mind of Christ. If words could make that happen, then just do this: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Matthew 19:21) Too many read those words and start looking down at the footsteps of Jesus, trying hard to place their foot in the same prints. You do not follow Jesus by walking behind his legacy. You follow Jesus by being another Jesus Christ; and that requires happily working for others.

Next!

Explaining the Readings

Category Archives: Language

Romans 13:8-14 – The light of Jesus within drives away the darkness of ignorance [Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Matthew 18:15-20 – Defining a church in spiritual terms [Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Exodus 14:19-31 – The world destroys the worldly while saints are saved spiritually [Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Romans 14:1-12 – Judgement on another becomes a reflection of one’s own Judgement before Yahweh [Fifteenthe Sunday after Pentecost]

Matthew 18:21-35 – The parable of the Unmerciful Servant [Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Exodus 16:2-15 – Complaining about fleshpots brought quail and manna [Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Philippians 1:21-30 – Dying of self is spiritual gain from living as Jesus reborn [Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Matthew 20:1-16 – The parable of the laborers and humans who refuse to work because it reminds them of slavery never known [Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Exodus 17:1-7 – Thirsting for everlasting waters [Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost]

Philippians 2:1-13 – All saints share the same Christ Mind as brothers in the name of Jesus [Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost]

The Episcopal Lectionary Discerned