Blessed Indeed

TLDR - Too Long Didn't Read Summary In the Old Testament holiness was synonymous with physical perfection and people thought Holiness came from the outside. Many rules were created around how you could be made unholy by things like illness or disability or touching or eating or wearing the wrong thing or hanging out with the wrong people. Jesus disagreed - he said holiness comes from the inside, from our hearts, from love - and unholiness from our evil thoughts that lead us to stop loving God and other people. The key reason for all of the rules was to teach us to ‘Love our neighbour’ and to take care not to hurt others in what we do. When laws were being twisted to harm, judge or reject people they were missing the point. Food and drink and people can’t make you unholy, because nothing God made is un-clean. However if you think doing something is wrong, and do it anyway - in your heart you are not loving God. Holiness comes from outside. You can be made unclean by what y...

TLDR - Too Long Didn't Read Summary During Israel’s early history Foreigners and Eunuch’s (LGBT people) were excluded from worship. As time goes on the trajectory of scripture leads to more and more inclusion. Deuteronomy 23:1-8 – Exclusion from worship for foreigners, eunuchs and others and their descendants.  1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.  2 No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.  3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation. Isaiah 56 1-6 – Inclusion for those who have been Othered is Coming! 1 This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. 2 Blessed is the one who does this— the person who holds it fast, wh...

To find out what God is teaching us on a particular topic, it often helps to chart the course or trajectory throughout scripture and history to see how God has been slowly moving people to a better standard. Sometimes this trajectory continues moving forward beyond the New Testament into the present day world too. Slavery is a good example. In the Old Testament times, slavery was accepted as a normal part of culture. However the law limited what could be done to slaves, for example, beating was ok as long as they didn’t die. Later Israelite son’s sold as slaves were treated better than daughter’s. Then all Israelite slaves were treated better. By the New Testament, all slaves were treated fairly. Then slaves were referred to as your brothers, your family or your equals. If we follow this path that scripture naturally sets us on we conclude that God desired the emancipation of slaves. While no scripture exists that abolishes slavery outright, we can infer from the trajectory...