John 14:1-14

John 14:1-14 (NRSV)

 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And you know the way to the place where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

John 14:1-14 (Year A Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C, verses 8-14, Pentecost Sunday) expresses the idea of Jesus as the way to the Father for those who believe in him. 

Summary

This passage addresses the disciples' anxiety over Jesus's impending departure, assuring them they won't be separated but will join him in the Father's house—a prepared, multi-room dwelling signifying eternal communion with God. Jesus's departure, though a death, is a necessary step towards their eventual reunion at his return.

Thomas's earthly misunderstanding of Jesus's spiritual journey leads to the profound declaration, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." This emphasizes Jesus's exclusive role as the sole path to the Father, with "truth" and "life" representing both the immediate reality of his teachings and the ultimate goal of salvation. The "I Am" statements throughout John underscore his divine authority, echoing God's own self-revelation.

The text also highlights Jesus's distinct yet unified relationship with the Father, portraying him as the revelation of a transcendent yet immanent God. Through the Son, the hidden Father becomes visible, resolving the tension between divine transcendence and presence. Finally, Jesus empowers his disciples, affirming that their works will continue his ministry, acting in his name and extending the Father's work.

The text functions as a theological exegetical study. Its purpose is to interpret John 14:1–14 within Johannine theology, with explicit attention to:

·      Christological exclusivity, the sole authoritative Son (Jesus’ identity and role),

·      Eschatology as relational presence (departure, return, salvation),

·      Divine identity in the “I am” sayings (Ex 3:14) gives Jesus divine authority, continuity with Israel’s God, and revelation through incarnation,

·      Trinitarian theology (Father–Son relationship), the Father remaining transcendent and hidden, the Son revealing the Father in history, and their unity is real but not fully disclosed until eschatological glory,

·      Pastoral concern (disciples’ anxiety).

The controlling claim is that Jesus is the exclusive mediator between humanity and God, not merely as guide but as the embodiment of access itself—“the way, the truth, and the life.” This is framed as a response to existential anxiety caused by Jesus’ impending departure. 

Key dimensions of this thesis: 

·      Jesus’ “going” (death) is necessary for communion, not its negation.

·      Salvation is relational and participatory (“where I am, you may be also”).

·      The Father is known only through the Son, resolving divine transcendence and immanence.

Verse-by-verse study

The issue of this segment is what will happen to Jesus after his departure. He notes that they have troubled hearts. They have fear of separation from him. They have worry, fear, anxiety, or stress. John has portrayed a spiritual battle between spirit and flesh, light and darkness, sight and blindness, and life and death. Jesus then offers a word of revelation in verses 2-3 which because of its isolation from its context may be older,[1] Jesus assures them that while dark forces at work against him and the disciples, God will have victory. Their destination is to be in the house of the Father. Jesus portrays an intimate setting between God and human beings in eternity. Jesus goes to prepare a place for them, and take them to himself, so that where he is, they may be also. This is close as John gets to the idea of Jesus being elder brother or first-born of the eschatological family (Rom 8:14-17, 29, Heb 2:10-12). They will not make this home in eternity, for their Father in heaven will make it, a house that has many rooms, including some of which they do not yet know. [2] The exalted Christ is both identical with the Spirit in the experience of the believer and stands before God as Son in his own right as well as for others.[3] Since he goes ahead of them to prepare them a place in the house of the Father, they will not be separated from him. the heavenly dwellings that are the goal of salvation, the movement is from below upwards, and to which believers will go after their earthly separation from God, are called abiding place that are fully prepared for them in the house of the Father. Our earthly state is transitory and provisional compared with eternal and blessed being with God.[4] in verse 4, he stresses that they know the way to the place where he is going. He is speaking about the situation in which his disciples will be left. The dwellings to which he refers represent the goal of salvation. The emphasis is upon the going away and the returning of Jesus and what they will mean for the disciples. Jesus alone goes, and his going is his death. They will be together at the same goal, as Jesus receives them at the Parousia. The disciples know where Jesus is going in that they will attain to the house of God, and they also know the way which leads there in that Jesus will take them. It refers to the going away of Jesus only because this is the presupposition of the promised being together of the disciples with him. However, in verse 5, as is typical in John, and showing the more advanced stage of reflection by identifying one from the group,[5] Thomas, one of the disciples, shows he does not really understand, thereby taking on the role of the interlocutors in the Book of Signs. In saying he does not know where Jesus is going, so they cannot know way, he shows he is thinking on an earthly level, while Jesus is speaking on a spiritual level. In verse 6, “I am the way, truth, and life.” This refers to the way of the disciples. It underlines the exclusiveness of the saying, directing the disciples against other attempts to reach God. Jesus, and he alone, is for his disciples the way to the Father, because he alone, as the Son, has full authority to receive them iinto the house of his Father. Truth and life represent the goal, in that both terms carry an eschatological reference, and so they might be regarded as descriptions of the goal of salvation. Jesus is the way because he is the truth and the life. Truth and life redirect us to the present. Jesus will one day take the disciples to himself in the house of his Father, and he will then show himself to be the way. However, Jesus is already the way, for even now he gives truth and life. This thought that Jesus came from God and goes back to God belongs to John and is in keeping with the character of the farewell discourses that our gaze is directed to his future destiny.[6] No one comes to the Father except through the Son. He makes the explicit claim of the oneness of the Son with the Father.[7] We have here one of many “I am” statements in John: "I am the bread of life" (6:35); "the light of the world" (8:12; 9:5); "the gate (for the sheep)" (10:7, 9); "the good shepherd" (10:11, 14); "the resurrection and the life" (11:25); "the (true) vine" (15:1, 5). He in his person is the way of moral and wise instruction regarding how to live because he is truth (revelation or that which grounds, sustains, and comprehends all things) and life (salvation). [8] The metaphorical conceptions of truth and life John uses have Jesus as their true and proper object. [9] Others of these statements are absolutes which remind one of the name of God in the Old Testament, "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14). For instance, "You will die in your sins unless you believe that I AM" (8:24); "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM" (8:28); "Before Abraham was, I AM" (8:58); and "When it does occur, you may believe that I AM" (13:19). In John 6:20, when Jesus comes walking across the water toward the boat, he says to the disciples, "I AM. Do not be afraid.” In verses 8-14, we also see Jesus distinguishing between himself as the Son and his heavenly Father, pointing the way to reflections on the Trinity. The Son is the revelation of the Father. We know the Father because we know the Son. God is transcendent, beyond anything we can imagine, but also known and revealed in the Son.[10] Thus, the Father is transcendent, but present and close through the Son and Spirit. Trinitarian life of God proves to be the true infinite of divine omnipresence.[11] John in his notion of Logos and Son has resolved a tension within the Jewish faith, for God is transcendent and immanent. He identified the impersonal Logos with the person of the Son and presented Jesus as the incarnate Logos who explains the unseeable God, the immanent Son who makes the transcendent Father visible. [12] The transcendence of the Father means that we rely upon the Father to show, disclose, or reveal who God is, and this happens through the Son. We have a natural desire for clear and distinct knowledge because we want to get things right. We get a hint of the idea of the prophet like Moses when Jesus says that the words he speaks are not of his own authority but the authority of the Father.[13] In the event of revelation, the hidden God is revealed as the Father of Jesus Christ. John suggests the unity of the hidden and revealed God is shown the unity of the Father with the Son. This truth will be shown only in the light of eschatological glory, which means the unity of the Trinitarian God is still engaged in the process of history. While the event of revelation discloses the reality of the divine distinctions within the Trinity, the unity of the divine essence remains hidden. [14] The word and work of Jesus disclose the Father, making the explicit claim of the Son with the Father. As the Son, Jesus makes the Father visible.[15] In verse 12, Jesus introduces his words with “truly, truly,” used to introduce and strengthen the following words,[16] stressing that the works of Jesus will continue in the ministry of the disciples, who will accomplish much because they will ask in the name of Jesus, which suggests a limit of asking to those things relevant to the Christian life and mission, making it clear that Jesus acts in and through the disciples and their works, which by extension is the work of the Father.[17]

---

[1] Michel, TDNT V, 132.

[2] (Barth, Church Dogmatics, 2004, 1932-67), IV.2 [68.3] 808)

[3] (Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, 1980, 1989), 148.

[4] Hauck, TDNT, IV, 580.

[5] (Bultmann, The History of the Synoptic Tradition, 1921, 1931, 1958), 309.

[6] Michaelis, TDNT V, 78-84.

[7] (Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, 1980, 1989) 58.

[8] (Barth, Church Dogmatics, 2004, 1932-67), II.1 [25.1] 29)

[9] Eduard Schweizer.

[10] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 1998, 1991)1988, Volume 1, 415)

[11] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 1998, 1991)1988, Volume 1, 415)

[12] Dunn (Christology in the Making, 1980, p 250)

[13] (Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, 1980, 1989) 141.

[14] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 1998, 1991)Volume 1, 340)

[15] (Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, 1980, 1989) 57, 244, 250.

[16] (Jeremias, New Testament Theology: The Proclamation of Jesus, 1971), 35.

[17] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 1998, 1991)Volume 3, 204)

I Peter 2:2-10

I Peter 2:2-10 (NRSV)

² Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴ Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵ like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in scripture:

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷ To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the very head of the corner,”

⁸ and

“A stone that makes them stumble,

and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹⁰ Once you were not a people,

but now you are God’s people;

once you had not received mercy,

but now you have received mercy.

                       I Peter 2: 2-10, a segment that embraces verses 1-12, focuses upon avoiding malice, involving the new priesthood and holy conduct. 

Introduction

This brief reading shifts rapidly from one image to another. You have metaphors involving babies and milk, a stone, a living stone, a precious stone, a cornerstone, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a chosen race, a holy nation, darkness, light and the people of God. All are images that convey a specific, spiritual truth. Community and commitment are the two chief challenges facing the new, struggling church here in I Peter. The widely scattered Christian churches of Asia Minor had to learn how to live apart from the greater pagan society in which they existed while living as part of that same culture. The author of I Peter knew that this was a balancing act not easy for anyone - but even less so for such new and inexperienced Christians.

This passage beautifully outlines the transformative identity and purpose of early Christians. Beginning with the image of "newborn infants" craving "pure spiritual milk," it emphasizes the need for spiritual nourishment and growth. This swiftly transitions to the powerful metaphor of "living stones," with Christ as the precious, rejected, yet foundational cornerstone. Believers are not isolated but are built together by God into a "spiritual house" and a "holy priesthood" – a true community of faith bonded by commitment to Christ.

The text asserts that Christians are a "chosen race," a "royal priesthood," a "holy nation," and "God's own people," inheriting titles once belonging to Israel. This new status empowers them to "proclaim the mighty acts of him who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Central theological claims include:

·      Corporate identity over individualism, applied to the notion of the priesthood of all believers

·      Continuity of the Christian community with Israel

·      The word of God refers to the revelatory action of God and the proclaimed gospel, not the later biblical canon

·      Holiness or ethical conduct is public testimony or missional witness

The practical application stresses living as "aliens and exiles" in the world, abstaining from worldly desires and maintaining honorable conduct among non-believers. The goal is that their virtuous lives will lead others to glorify God. Through compelling analogies like marathon running and the Spartan king's "walls," the analysis underscores the vital role of community in fostering faith, providing encouragement, and developing a "taste for the things of God."

Verse-by-verse study

The focus of this study is:

·      Baptismal and growth imagery (milk, infants),

·      Christological paradox (the “living stone”),

·      Ecclesiological identity (spiritual house, priesthood),

·      Scriptural fulfillment (Isaiah, Psalms, Exodus, Hosea).

² Like newborn infants, the focus on "infant" Christians here and the newness of these Christian communities in general has suggested to some scholars that these texts originally might have been part of a baptismal service. While scholarship that is more recent has discounted the actual liturgical use of these texts, there is later evidence that shows the baptismal influence of I Peter's references. They are to long for the pure, while the author chose not to detail a list of "virtues" to contrast with the list of "vices," the Greek term translated here as "pure" is the opposite of the previous verse's term translated as "deceit" (or as "guile" in the NRSV) - making a clear contrast for readers. They are to long for pure spiritual (λογικὸν, reasonable) milk. This "milk" image was also used to describe those just beginning to turn away from their old, evil lives in I Corinthians 3:1-2 and in Hebrews 5:12-13. In Hippolytus' Apostolic Tradition, newly baptized Christians received not only the bread and wine of the Eucharist meal, but a cup of milk mixed with honey, symbolizing the newborn status of the believer. So that by it you may grow into salvation. Surprisingly, the text does not follow up this list of vices with a corresponding list of virtues. Instead, I Peter depends on an image to convey the best attitude novice Christians could adopt - the image of an innocent, trusting infant. The word is that which feeds Christians; birth is followed by growth. Christians are newborn babies.  The means by which this new birth takes place is “the living and enduring word of God” (v. 23), which, the author goes on to explain, is “the good news that was announced to you” (v. 25). The spiritual nourishment they seek is the word.  Early symbolism involved milk and honey given to baptismal candidates coming, out of the water for the sweetness of the word. ³ in words drawn from Psalm 34:8, If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good (χρηστὸς). If we assume that "the Lord" is a reference to Christ, one could read verse 3 as "Christos" is "chretos" - in other words, "Christ the Lord" is "good." “Taste” used in this way is simply an experience of something or developing a partiality for something.  We become partial in our sense of what is proper, what is harmonious, what is beautiful, what is good, and even for the things of God.

In 2: 4-10, one finds imagery from Exodus 19:5-6, where Israel is a special possession, a kingdom of priests, and holy nation. This segment is a key to the letter in that it portrays the vision of the church. ⁴ Come to him, a living stone (altar of communion?), though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight. Peter does not linger on this image of infants in the faith suckling on spiritual milk. Instead, he moves to yet another image - one of the most startling images in Scripture, an image as paradoxical as the Cross itself: "living stones." Some scholars have tried to reduce the lunacy of this image by suggesting that "living stones" refers to unhewn or uncut stones - stones still in their original state. However, as I Peter continues to use this and other "stone" images, it seems evident that the paradoxical nature of such a reference deserves emphasis rather than attempt to smooth it over. First, the Lord is the "living stone" - a reference now more nonsensical than a crucified Savior or a resurrected Lord. Stones are the opposite of something living. Likewise, it is in Christ's death that believers gain the opportunity to come fully alive, through the power of the Resurrection. The new people are founded upon another Rock.  Christians now offer spiritual sacrifices.  The imagery of growth gives way to building. We find the comparison as well at the conclusion of the parable of the tenants, in which the tenants reject the son of the owner of the vineyard, with Jesus referring to Psalm 118:22-3, where the stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone, the Lord doing this and it was marvelous even to our eyes (Mark 12:10-11).  I Peter declares that not only is the Lord a "living stone," all Christians are also "living stones," and ⁵ like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house. It reflects the mythical imagery of Isaiah 28:16, where the Lord is laying a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, in Zion. Paul uses similar imagery. He refers to the church at Corinth as God’s temple, the Spirit of God dwelling in them, the temple is holy, and they are that temple (I Corinthians 3:16-7). Paul ponders what agreement the temple of God can have with idols, and stresses that we are that temple (II Corinthians 6:16). His readers are members of the household of God that has the foundation of the apostles and prophets, but Christ is the cornerstone, who joins together the entire structure, growing it into a holy temple of the Lord and who builds them together spiritually into a dwelling place for God (Ephesians 2:19-22). We find the image in authors of the New Testament as well. One needs to learn how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth (I Timothy 3:15). Christ was faithful over the house of God as a son, and we are that house if we hold firm in our hope (Hebrews 3:6). I Peter is not unique in suggesting that Christians are building blocks in God's great construction project as God builds up a "spiritual house," the true community of faith, the church. This is not any human construction project. This "house" is, of course, the church itself, the God-designed community of faith that is bonded together through the cement of its commitment to Christ. The stone image applies to the community and therefore enriched with life-giving love. The target is not isolated individuals. Just as God is the architect building up the stone walls of their "spiritual house" in verse 5, God is also the one responsible for this transformation into chosenness. The meaning of “house” here, however, as in the Hebrew Bible, means more than simply a physical building; it also refers to a dynasty or a physical line of descendants (as in “the house of David,” I Samuel 20:16 and many times). The author of I Peter exploits this meaning of house to exhort his hearers to allow themselves to be fashioned into a spiritual house, i.e., a new dynasty that is based on acceptance of the good news that was announced to them. The spiritual house is to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The image shifts to that of the priesthood. Spiritual sacrifices manifest themselves through holy conduct.  This is the way Christians become a spiritual house. Note the passive language I Peter uses to describe this building project. God is the builder here.⁶ For it stands in scripture from Isaiah 28:16: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." God designated Christ long ago as the foundation of a new house. ⁷ To you then who believe, he is precious, for those who trust Christ partake in his glory, but for those who do not believe, as stated in Psalm 118:22, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," ⁸ and in the words of Isaiah 8:14, where the Lord will become a stone one strikes against and a rock over which one stumbles, to which Jesus refers in Luke 20:17-18, "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." The rejection of the messenger from God by Jewish and Roman leaders, Jesus of Nazareth, welcomed by Christians as the promised Messiah and as Lord, is the fulfillment of specific passages of Scripture that emphasize the rebellion of the people of God. They stumble because they disobey the word. They disobeyed the word Jesus proclaimed and later disobeyed the proclamation of the church. Contrary to prevailing contemporary Christian usage, the expression “the word of God” does not usually refer to the Bible, or any written part of it, in the Bible itself. Indeed, nowhere in the Bible does the expression “the word of God” refer to the collected writings regarded as authoritative Scripture by Jews and Christians. In both the First and Second Testaments, the expression “word of God” or (more commonly in the Hebrew Bible) “word of the LORD” refers to a far more encompassing revelation than a canonized written text. When New Testament authors speak of the “word of God,” they are referring to the content of divine revelation in both its unique temporal aspect, and in its comprehensive eternal aspect. Both senses are captured in the verses immediately preceding that passage, in the quotation from Isaiah (“but the word of the Lord endures forever,” 40:8) and in the equivalence given in I Peter 1:25, the content of Christian preaching. They stumble as they were destined to do. The reference is to Psalm 118:22. By rejecting the gospel, Jews have lost their prerogatives, which God has transferred to Christians.  Jesus causes others to stumble.  The stubbornness of Jews leads to the conversion of Gentiles.  Paul puts this notion more broadly. God has imprisoned all persons in disobedience so that God may be merciful to all (Romans 11:32). We also learn that God desires everyone to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:4). Far from proving the final eschatological rejection of the Jews, we need to set the passage alongside other passages to gain fuller picture. Verses 9-10 contain allusions from Exodus 19:6 and Isaiah 43:20-21. ⁹ But you are a chosen race. The biblical allusions give to the church the titles of the chosen people, to underline its relationship with God and its responsibility in the world.  The fact of their election should make it clear to Christians that they are the new and the true Israel, the people of God partaking of all the promises.[1] Their being as individuals has its basis in their personal election.[2] You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people. Only God's activity makes these newborn babes in the faith "God's people." Christians, formed together into a close-knit community through the spiritual power of the "living stone," undergo a miraculous transformation. Peter has called them infants, yet God has chosen them, made them into priests and a nation set apart. God has made them the people of God. Christians are prophets, priests, and kings because Christ is this and has made Christians his own.[3] Peter applies statements originally applied to Israel to the church.  Here is a unity that defies all classification.  The Reformation thesis of the priesthood of all believers supports the notion of the immediacy of individuals to Jesus Christ. For Luther, faith and baptism mean sharing in Jesus Christ and therefore sharing in the offices of Christ. Vatican II in the constitution on the church refers to this passage, as does Luther, and relates sharing in Christ to sharing in his offices. However, the issue here is not the individual relation to God, but rather, the Christian community as the people of God and royal priesthood, functions that only Israel possessed as the covenant people.[4] God transforms you into the people of God in order that you may proclaim (ἐξαγγείλητε) the mighty acts of him who called (καλέσαντος) you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Only God's call brings these new Christians "out of darkness" and "into his marvelous light." God called Christians out of darkness and into the marvelous light of God.[5] He then refers to Hosea 2:23: ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Their elect status is cause for humility. The concept of the new covenant validates the claiming of the title “people of God” for the Christian community. I Peter is direct in this claim, while Paul is a little more nuanced.[6]

As God's own people, Peter challenges Christians to live as servants of God. It makes perfect sense, then, for verse 11 to begin a new section of the letter concerning the obligation of Christians (2:11-4:11). He explores the practical demands for living a life holiness in a non-Christian setting. Verses 11-12 will form a keynote for the rest of the section. ¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles. Christ has called them from the comfort of what they thought was home and brought them into exile. For these "resident alien" Christians struggling to live out the faith in Asia Minor, the image of being part of such a secure house, a spiritual home, was especially poignant. They are to be persons who are in the world but not of the world (John 17:14). They are to consider their real world to be heaven, and to think of themselves as aliens moving toward their true home. If these fledgling believers settle into this world and adopt its values as their own, there is the very real risk that they will reach a peak of earthly pleasure but then die on their journey to their spiritual homeland. As aliens and exiles they are to abstain from the desires (ἐπιθυμιῶν) of the flesh (σαρκικῶν), such as the malice, guile, insincerity, envy, slander mentioned in verse 1, that wage war against the soul (ψυχῆς).  To guard against the danger of adopting the values of the world, Christians must have victory over the world (see I John 2:15) and avoid being conformed to the world (Romans 12:2), thereby engaging the battle for the soul. Only by such abstinence from the vices can we win the war that is waged in every age between "the law of sin" and "the law of God" (Romans 7:22-23) and avoid dying on the way down. ¹² Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge. The gospel in daily living is the focus.  If Christians live godly lives, the governing authorities will not persecute them.

Application

The final section translates theology into lived experience through:

 

The marathon anecdote,

The Spartan “walls” metaphor,

The Scottish physician story.

 

These reinforce the earlier claim that faith matures in community, not isolation.

I have enjoyed running ever since I was about 18. Even in my retirement I run a few miles a week. I do this alone, but now in the beauty of Clearwater, FL. I used to run the Indianapolis mini marathon. It will not surprise some when I say that my time is better when I run in the crowd. I have more fun. The music along the way, the cups of water every mile, and the presence of other runners to help keep up the pace, are all helpful. When I struggle, other people encourage me to keep it up. In one year, as I went quite slowly around the last turn, I looked down the long stretch toward the finish line. I knew I would make it, but I was tempted to walk it. Suddenly someone shouted out, “You are almost there! You can sprint this.” Suddenly, I thought to myself, “She is right.” I picked up my knees and started running. I sprinted the rest of the way and made the best time I have done.

The people of God together, as a community, are living stones that are part of the temple God is constructing. We are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the people of God, learning what all this means as we live in community. For the first Christians, the temple is gone. Their risen Lord is the foundation of a new temple, a new spiritual house, employing the building material out of the lives of those who long for the pure spiritual milk and have tasted the goodness of the Lord. Such a special meeting place to meet God is available to all through the living community of those reconciled to God and live with the hope of redemption. Wherever they gather, there is the spiritual house of God. 

There is a story from the days of yore where a Spartan king boasted to a visiting monarch about the walls of Sparta. The visiting royal looked around but could see no barricade, and so he said, "Where are these walls about which you boast so much?" The host pointed to his troops and said, "These are the walls of Sparta -- every man a brick."[7]

Have you tasted that the Lord is good?  

A Scottish physician tended a friend during the last hours of life.  “Tell me.  You are a believer.  What will it be like after I die?”  The physician was silent.  That was interrupted by the scratching at the bedroom door.  The doctor turned to his friend and said, “Do you hear that?  It’s my dog.  He’s been waiting patiently for me downstairs and has become impatient.  He has never been in this room.  He has no idea what it is like.  He knows only one thing about it and that is that I am here ... and that’s all we know about the future ... God is there.”

We may observe certain behaviors as not very tasteful or lacking in taste. Humanity will always have bad taste and find itself attracted to it. Such a use of the word “taste” has to do with value judgments in manners and the arts. We have personal tastes, meaning likes and dislikes. The whole notion of taste draws from the influence of a group that proclaims such behaviors as in good or bad taste. The point Peter makes is that we develop a taste for the things of God by desiring pure spiritual milk. 

The church can provide a spiritual home where people can develop an appreciation for the things of God.

 

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[1] Barth, CD, II.2 [32.1] 15.

[2] Barth, CD, II.2 [35.2] 342.

[3] Barth, CD, II.2 [35.3] 432.

[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 126, 127, 128, 373.

[5] Barth, CD, IV.3 [71.2] 509.

[6] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 465, 475.

[7] Chambers, Merritt M. Every Man a Brick! Bloomington, Ill.: Public School Publishing Company, 1927, Publisher's Preface.

Acts 7:55-60

Acts 7:55-60 (NRSV)

⁵⁵ But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” ⁵⁷ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. ⁵⁸ Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

Acts 7:55-60 reports the death of an early Christian witness who offered criticism of the law and the Temple and introduces us to the leadership of Saul in the first persecution of Christians by Jewish leaders.  I break down the historical and theological details, especially concerning the Sanhedrin's rules for blasphemy and the act of stoning. I will bring out points about religious devotion leading to violence, not just historically but also in modern political ideologies. Forgiveness, while extraordinary, is crucial for breaking the cycle of consequences.

Stephen's martyrdom in Acts 7:55-60, criticized for speaking against the law and Temple, mirrors Jesus's death, highlighting religious devotion leading to violence. Full of the Spirit, Stephen received a vision of the Son of Man standing, enraging the crowd. They dragged him out of the city and stoned him for blasphemy, citing Deuteronomy 19:15.

The Sanhedrin tractate detailed specific conditions for stoning blasphemers, including misusing the Tetragrammaton and requiring three consistent witnesses, which were not fully followed in Stephen's case. Saul's role in holding coats instead of participating suggests variable local practices or his non-membership in the Jerusalem congregation.

Stephen's final words, appealing to Jesus and forgiving his persecutors, echo Jesus's own death, embodying sacrificial love. The analysis argues that forgiveness, though uncommon and counter-intuitive, is essential for freedom from the consequences of violent acts like the crucifixion of Jesus and the stoning of Stephen, which otherwise define the perpetrators.

Verse-by-verse study

The parallels with Jesus become even more obvious. Stephen was in good standing and full of the Spirit and wisdom. The text records an act of violence in the name of religious passion for God. In the history of religion, religious devotion has often led this violent result. Yet, such whole-hearted devotion to any cause can lead to acts of violence toward those outside the group. The modern era has seen this violent result in political ideology as well, especially embodied in the political Islamist, the Marxist, and the Fascist. Luke says that the Holy Spirit affirmed the faith of Stephen, as he received a vision, a visionary-ecstatic, prophetic seeing that grants this dying person a view of his destiny,[1] of the Son of Man (Υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου) standing next to the Father, this standing indicating the urgency of this moment and the active presence of the risen Lord he senses, possibly to welcome the martyr, or to confess him as a witness in the judgment.[2] The communication of this vision to the crowd enraged them. Leading them to drag him out of the city and stone him to death, with the authority of Deuteronomy 19:15 behind them, since they accused him of blasphemy. The Mishnah tractate Sanhedrin 7:4 lists the blasphemer as one whose crime merits stoning. Sanhedrin 7:5 outlines the conditions under which this sentence can be issued, namely, the person must have misused the formal name of God, the Tetragrammaton (Tractate Shevuoth 4:13 also affirms this), and there must be at least three witnesses to testify before a judge as to what exactly was said. All the witnesses, interviewed separately, must repeat what was said, and they must agree. Finally, the mechanics of stoning a blasphemer are outlined in Sanhedrin 6:4, including the fine point noted in Leviticus 24:14, that the witnesses are to hold the accused, and all the congregation are to stone the person. It is not clear, then, why Saul merely holds the coats of those stoning Stephen instead of participating in the execution himself. Perhaps not being from Jerusalem, they did not consider him a member of that congregation. It is also possible that just as all the conditions of Sanhedrin 7:5 was not followed in this case, local practice of such judgments was still variable at this point in history. The final word of Stephen appeals to the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit, from Psalm 31:5 and like the death of Jesus (Luke 23:46). Recalling the death of Jesus again (Luke 23:34), Stephen asks the Lord not to hold this sin against them. His spirit is that of sacrificial love, forgiving in the spirit of Jesus. There may be some wisdom in the saying that urges us to forgive our enemies, but never to forget their names.^[3] To forgive is extraordinary and uncommon. It runs counter to our instincts, which is to declare our pain, nurse our hurts, gain sympathy, and get justice. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem needed forgiveness. Without forgiveness, they would never be free of the consequences of their actions. Their act of crucifixion of Jesus, their act of stoning Stephen, would be their defining act from which they would never recover. They would remain the victims of its consequences. Forgiveness breaks the spell of their act.^[4]Jewish leaders carefully brought about the death of Jesus by legal manipulation.  Stephen's death was the act of a vicious, spontaneous, lawless act.

Application

My central thesis: Unrestrained “hot” faith—religious or ideological passion driven by rage—leads to violence, whereas “cool” faith, modeled by Stephen and Jesus, is marked by trust in God, sacrificial love, and forgiveness.

I widen the scope of the discussion:

 

·      Modern Christian martyrdom

·      Media silence in the West

·      Political indifference

·      Historical examples of 20th-century persecution [Document | Word]

Violence arises not from religion per se, but from ideology that narrows moral vision:

 

·      Religious extremism

·      Political ideologies (Marxism, Fascism, Islamism)

·      Nationalism and racial rage

 

This theme is reinforced by examples from history, media, sports, and pop culture.

Forgiveness is not merely a virtue but is a means of liberation:

 

·      Without forgiveness, perpetrators remain defined by their violence

·      Forgiveness “breaks the spell” of violent acts.

 

Stephen’s final prayer becomes the theological climax of the entire document.

We live in a part of the world where Christianity rarely makes the news unless it is to be mocked or defamed. Otherwise, the media is strangely silent about modern Christian martyrdom. In one month in 2013, 80 people died in Pakistan attending a Protestant church, assailants killed three members of a Christian wedding party in Egypt, and Jihadists in Syria target Christians. Political leaders in the West refuse to make the slaughter of innocents a foreign policy priority. Why the silence? "Three things distinguish anti-Christian persecution and discrimination around the world," said Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. "First, it's ugly. Second, it's growing. And third, the mass media generally ignore or downplay its gravity." ...

The secular West has been looking the other way for a very long time. Even the average church-going Christian is not likely to know that 45.5 million of the estimated 70 million Christians who have died for Christ did so in the last century. For this reason, scholars such as Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., and author of The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, refer to the past century as one of the darkest periods of martyrdom since the birth of Christianity.[5]

Pope John Paul II has paid tribute to the Christian martyrs of the 20th century in a solemn ceremony at Rome's ancient Colosseum. Anglicans, Lutherans, Russian Orthodox and Pentecostalists joined the pope in prayer in an unusual ecumenical event attended by thousands of pilgrims. The Pope said countless Christians had been united in their readiness to die for their faith in the 20th century. Those who died in Soviet gulags, in Nazi and Japanese prison camps during World War II, in the 1994 Rwanda genocide and during the recent fundamentalist unrest in Algeria were honored in prayer and song. In his sermon, the pope said Christians had experienced "hatred and exclusion, violence and murder" in the modern age. He noted that some 3,000 priests were interned in the Nazi death camp at Dachau. A prayer read in Czech recalled the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. The killing of more than a million Armenian Christians in Turkey during World War I was also remembered. Saying he himself witnessed "much pain and many trials" as a young man in communist Poland, he said his generation was particularly marked by war, concentration camps and persecution. Special tributes were paid to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Tikhon, who stood up to the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution, and Olga Jafa, a Russian teacher exiled to a Soviet gulag. The tributes also included Anton Luli, an Albanian Catholic priest who spent 28 years in prison, and Paul Schneider, a Lutheran anti-Nazi priest tortured to death in Buchenwald concentration camp. Many of the people who suffered or died for their faith were "unknown soldiers," the pope said.  "There are so many of them. They must not be forgotten. They must be remembered, and their lives documented," he said.[6]

I want to draw your attention to the crowd. It acted with rage. It was USA Today (September 2, 1992, 9A) which asked if we were becoming the "age of rage."  They asked the question, "Are we becoming a country of haters?"  Think of it.  Rap music began with a strong sense of rage.  Andrew Dice Clay, the comic, uses the theme of rage throughout his act.  There is a rise in skinhead groups throughout the country.  Racial incidents are increasing.  What is happening to us? Little League was started in 1939 with the aim of assisting youth in developing qualities of citizenship, discipline, teamwork, and physical well-being with proper guidance and exemplary leadership.  Yet, in 1992, one coach slashed a rival coach's throat with a pocketknife, blood splattering on one player's shirt.  In Terre Haute in 1989 a manager was clubbed with a baseball bat by a rival manager.  In El Centro, California league play was suspended after an umpire was threatened by a knife-wielding parent.

The crowd acted violently in the name God. Religion is not naturally violent. After all, connecting with the divine has been a matter for quiet persons. They search for communion with the divine and other like-minded persons. This desire for communion for that which is beyond the finite and temporal allows them to place their immediate ideas and concerns in proper perspective. Such persons can appreciate multiple forms of judgment and contemplation. In that sense, religious temperament opposes narrow-mindedness. When an ideology grabs the mind and passion of a person, the result is narrowing and limiting in a way that generates hostility. However, the desire for communion with that which is beyond our finite and temporal world leads to genuine liberty.[7]

Certain forms of religion become an ideology that leads to violence. Fascism and Communism are atheist but also have ideologies that lead to violence. All religions have their violent forms. Supposedly Christian militia receive no endorsement from the major brands of Christianity. A difference that Islam has with other major religions is that Islamists, the political ideology that leads to violence within Islam, is a major component of Islam and receives a sympathetic hearing among many other adherents of Islam. 

Do The Right Thing is a 1989 movie. Spike Lee wrote the screenplay and directed it. When this movie first appeared, the violence bothered some people; they thought it would cause trouble. Others felt the message was confused. The movie is violent, and if cussing bothers you, do not watch it.

The movie takes place during one long, hot day in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. It reveals the racial tensions in the neighborhood. At one point, Radio Raheem: (50:29 to 51:47) says:

 Let me tell you the story of "Right Hand, Left Hand." It's a tale of good and evil. Hate: It was with this hand that Cane iced his brother. Love: These five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand: the hand of love. The story of life is this: Static. One hand is always fighting the other hand; and the left hand is kicking much a--. I mean, it looks like the right hand, Love, is finished. But hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes, now, that's right. Ooh, it's the devastating right and Hate is hurt, he's down. Left-Hand Hate K.O.ed by Love. If I love you, I love you. But if I hate you … I love you man.” 

 

            It often looks like hate is winning the war. It even seems as if hate has taken over religious people as well. I must confess that I look at passages like the one before us in a quite different light since 9/11. 

According to The Washington Post (August 6, 2007), an enormous mental gulf separates “cold” emotional states from “hot” emotional states. “We tend to exaggerate the importance of willpower,” says George Loewenstein, a professor at Carnegie Mellon who has studied the power of cold and hot emotional states. Avoiding junk food and shedding a few pounds seem like reasonable and responsible things to do. But then, you know what happens — you get stressed or hungry, and suddenly a bag of potato chips becomes completely irresistible. You go temporarily insane and eat the whole thing. People in a hot emotional state have blown many diets.

Well, many religious people have blown the principles of their religion in hot emotional states, doing much harm to the witness of their faith and to other people.

We want passion when it comes to our faith. Lukewarm is not the type of faith we want. It would hardly be a complement to say that someone was “ice-cold for Jesus.” 

Yet, hot faith can be a violent and deadly force in the world. Look around: Sunnis are fighting with Shiites in Iraq. Hindus are battling Muslims in India. The church has had plenty of violent sins in its history. Call them extremists, or call them crazy, but one thing is certain — their faith is hot. 

Several outspoken atheists have gone as far as to say that religion is the cause of most of the world’s troubles. Christopher Hitchens, author of the book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, blames faith for genocide, sexism, suicide bombings, genital mutilation, totalitarianism and every other problem in the history of the world. He scores some points — no one would argue against the notion that people do a great deal of evil in the name of God. I am sure none of us would want to defend suicide bombings and genital mutilation. 

The alternative to hot faith is not no faith, as Mr. Hitchens says. It is cool faith. What would cool faith look like?

Cool faith is trust in God. It is trust in a God who “does not dwell in houses made with human hands.” So often, we worship a god of our own making, instead of the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, as the Apostles’ Creed says. We make a god that likes the things we like and hates the things we hate. Yet, God is above all and in all, working through all that God has made. God does not live in the tiny houses we make. Nothing in our finite world can contain an infinite Lord. A nation cannot do it; a political party cannot do it; a denomination cannot do it; our personal agendas cannot do it. When Stephen catches a vision of Jesus at the right hand of God in heaven, he sees God as not defined by the heat of this moment. God has a perspective on matters that we can never have.

Cool faith is also a sacrificial faith. Stephen is determined to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, so he does not fight back when the crowd attacks him. As the crowd throws the stones, he prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He wants to be in complete and eternal relationship with the One who is his Savior. 

Sacrifice is a tough one for us. We show our strength by getting our way, sometimes no matter who we hurt in the process. We show strength by fighting for what we want, sometimes at all costs. But: 

• to be a good parent, you must sacrifice time at work to be with your children;

• to be a good spouse, you must give up some of your own desires to satisfy the needs of your partner;

• to be a good Christian at school, you must sacrifice some of your popularity to live the life that God desires for you;

• to be a good church member, you have to offer time and talent and money to advance the mission of the congregation. You may have to set aside what you want, no matter how much you think you are in the right, because the majority has made different decision from what you would have chosen.

 

            None of this is easy, and some of it can be painful, but sacrificial living is part of what it means to be a follower of the One who gave his life on the cross. In fact, in the next chapter, we find that the death of Stephen will lead to the conversion of a man named Saul, who in turn would become Paul, the great apostle for the Gentiles. Stephen would not see the result of his faithfulness.

Finally, cool faith is a forgiving faith. Stephen’s very last words are, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”  Like Jesus himself, Stephen forgives his killers, knowing that they are acting out of hot faith — overcome by rage and passion. His final words echo the prayer Jesus said on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). 

This may be the biggest challenge of cool faith, but it is at the heart of being a follower of Christ. Look around the world, look around the public discourse in this country, and look deeply into this community and this community of faith. We have a forgiving faith. We need to practice it. As Christians, we live as people forgiven by God. Our job is to forgive — forgive our friends, our family members, our boyfriends and girlfriends, our brothers and sisters. Our job is to forgive our bosses, our coworkers, our opponents, our enemies … even ourselves. 

The hot emotional states of anger or anxiety are powerful. When we offer true forgiveness, we let go of the anger and anxiety that we feel toward those who have hurt us so badly. We also ask God to show them mercy, for in so many cases they did not know what they were doing. God knows, you know, the world needs a witness to a faith like that.

In a world ripped apart by anger and violence, in a world willing to injure what deserves respect, it is hard to believe that a hotter faith, a faith rooted in a hot emotional state, is going to bring us all closer together. A call for more passion is not going to lead to peace.

Instead, let us have the cool faith that leads to trust in the providence of God, sacrificial living, and forgiveness. Then, we can be part of bringing people closer together so that they can bear witness to the genuineness of their faith to the world around them.

The film ends on an ambiguous note due to two quotations. The first, from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., argues that violence is never justified under any circumstances. The second, from Malcolm X, argues that violence is "intelligent" when it is self-defense.

 

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I must preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence. – Malcolm X

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[1] Michaelis, TDNT, V, 353.

[2] Colpe, TDNT, VIII, 462. He could also be rising in anger to bring judgment on behalf of the martyr and all those who suffer for Jesus.

^[3] Attributed to both John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert.

^[4] (Arendt, 1958, 1998), 237.

[5] --Susan Brinkmann, "The greatest story never told: Modern Christian martyrdom," Catholic Online Website, catholic.org. December 5, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2013.

[6] --http://news.bbc.co.uk.com Retrieved November 5, 2001.

[7] Friedreich Schleiermacher, On the Christian Religion (1768-1834).  Seers of the Infinite have ever been quiet souls.   They abide alone with themselves and the Infinite, or if they do look around them, grudge to no one who understands the mighty word his own peculiar way.  By means of this wide vision, this feeling of the Infinite, they can look beyond their own sphere.  There is in religion such a capacity for unlimited many-sidedness in judgment and in contemplation, as is nowhere else to be found ... Religion is the natural and sworn foe of all narrow-mindedness and of all one-sidedness ... The man who only thinks methodically, and acts from principle and design, and will accomplish this or that in the work, un-avoidably circumscribes himself, and makes everything that does not forward him an object of antipathy.  Only when the free impulse of seeing and of living is directed towards the Infinite and goes into the Infinite, is the mind set in unbounded liberty.