Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn offerings to Baal, and go after other gods, and then come and stand before God in the house called by His name and say, "We are delivered!" — only to go on doing all these abominations? (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 7:9–10).

Paul had a similar indictment against some in the New Testament: "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" Are we to sin because we are under grace and not law? (a paraphrase of Romans 6:1, 15).

In the Old Testament, some Jews trusted in the Temple to absolve them of the guilt of their sinful lives and idolatry. In the New Testament, some Christians thought God's grace was a license to sin. Neither was true.

Paul writes that the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, while we wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people "zealous for good works" (a paraphrase of Titus 2:11–14).

Paul clearly says that the grace that saves us also trains us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. If we think otherwise, we may not have received the saving grace of God but instead believed a lie. We must not treat the grace of God as a rabbit's foot, a lucky charm, or a "get out of jail free" card.

While the grace of God does what we could never do for ourselves — accomplish our salvation in Christ — it also produces in us an eagerness to do good. Although we were not saved by good works, we were saved for good works: "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand" (a paraphrase of Ephesians 2:10).

At the heart of this call to obedience is the knowledge of God, given to believers in the Old Testament as in the New. The Lord says that the wise man should not boast in his wisdom, nor the mighty in his might, nor the rich in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, "that he understands and knows me," that He is the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these He delights (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 9:23–24). And Peter writes that God's divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us, and has given us His precious and very great promises, so that through them we may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by sinful desire (a paraphrase of 2 Peter 1:3–4).

As these texts suggest, knowing the Lord means understanding His nature — His steadfast love, justice, righteousness, and goodness — and in understanding this, partaking of the divine nature by doing the things in which He delights. So Peter continues: make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love; for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; but whoever lacks them is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins (a paraphrase of 2 Peter 1:5–9).

Peter commands us to build on the foundation of our faith in Christ the virtues that reflect God's nature. He says that in doing this we will be kept from being "ineffective and unfruitful" in our knowledge of Christ. Not doing this means we have become "nearsighted," "blind," and forgetful of what Christ has done for us. That is not all. He goes on to say that it is by doing these things that we are assured we are truly saved in the first place: therefore be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall, and there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (a paraphrase of 2 Peter 1:10–11).

So it is in building on our saving faith that we confirm our "calling and election." We are not saved by good works, but good works confirm our salvation.

Friends, we are saved by God's power and grace, apart from any willing or doing on our part, but this does not mean we are free to sin according to our sinful nature. As Paul wrote, "By no means!" We have been made "partakers of the divine nature," set free from the corruption of our sinful nature and led to eagerly desire the good works God prepared beforehand for us to do — virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.

Therefore let us persevere in building these virtues on our faith. They will keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful. If we consistently pursue them, we will "never fall." In doing them we will be assured of our salvation. And in doing them we will find a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What, then, should we be working on? Let me comment today on just the first virtue in Peter's list.

Goodness (or virtue): this is uniquely defined by God. The psalmist writes, "for me it is good to be near God" (Psalm 73:28), and again, "I have no good apart from you" (Psalm 16:2). Jesus says that God alone is good (cf. Matthew 19:17). James writes that every good gift comes from God (cf. James 1:17). One of my favorite theologians, A. W. Pink, in The Attributes of God, describes God's goodness as absolutely perfect: nothing is lacking in it and nothing can be added to it. Drawing on the Puritan Thomas Manton, Pink explains that God is good originally, of Himself, while creatures are good only by participation in His goodness; that He is essentially good — goodness itself; that He is infinitely good, an ocean where the creature has only a drop; and that He is eternally and unchangeably good. God is the summum bonum, the highest good.

What does this mean for you and me? How do we add this virtue of goodness to our faith?

Simply put, I believe it means we do everything we can to draw near to God. This implies praying to Him always, trusting Him in everything, and making Him the center of our lives. It certainly means knowing Him through His Word — in fact, that is the very next virtue on Peter's list. It includes doing what honors Him, pleases Him, and what He commands. Humility is implied, because in practicing this virtue we recognize that there is no good in ourselves (cf. Psalms 14:1; 53:1; Romans 3:9–18); every good we have comes from God.

Friends, I stop here because this post is already long. But I encourage you to search out in the same way the other virtues Peter lists, for your own good.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 7 is the famous "Temple sermon," preached at the Temple gate. The people's refrain — "This is the temple of the Lord," repeated three times (7:4) — had become a kind of charm, as if the building guaranteed their safety regardless of how they lived. Jeremiah's answer was to send them to Shiloh, where the tabernacle had once stood and which now lay in ruins (7:12–14). Jesus quoted this chapter when He cleared the Temple: "you have made it a den of robbers" (Jeremiah 7:11; Matthew 21:13). A "den" is where robbers retreat to feel safe after their crimes — which is exactly the misuse of grace the comment warns against.

Jeremiah 9:23–24 is worth noticing for what God says He delights in: steadfast love, justice, and righteousness "in the earth." Knowing God is not only private devotion but sharing His delight in how the world is ordered. Paul quotes the passage twice (1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17) — "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

The comment's reading of 2 Peter 1:10 — that growth in virtue confirms, rather than earns, one's calling — is common ground across traditions, which differ mainly in how they relate assurance to perseverance.

Jeremiah 8:1–3

“At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

Discussing Scripture with nonbelievers can be a bit frustrating. There is a way of reading that is right. Most would agree with this. But whose system is right? Even speaking with believers can be a task.

With both, the argument becomes about the system. The former has a moral agenda to not believe. The latter could have various agendas for hope, security, or love, and what love means can vary, for some it means giving and receiving health wealth and or success.

Using Scripture that directly addresses Scripture is best. It is the self-evident system. This one takes an effort to wield, but this manner of wielding this sword is swift and true. The nonbeliever will condemn themselves, by simply assigning the reference as a contradiction or a deception. The believer will reveal their agenda; the only agenda we should have is Truth.

I had to stop and reread this passage because I thought this was speaking of raising the bones of saints and then referring them to dung... Well by this point I thought something was wrong.

Anyway, this pause made me think of those who would casually read and make assumptions. Or would try to read too much into it, or try and mold this to a 'more relevant' passage.

This was not written to us but for us. Jeremiah's message's meaning will not change but what it reflects can be used for other things, which is part of the interesting thing to see the 'blog' entries of this site and see how the same passages can pull different thoughts.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The pause described in this contribution is an important act of interpretation. A first reading suggested that the passage might describe the resurrection of saints followed by their humiliation. Rereading the context reveals something different: the bones belong to members of a community whose worship has turned toward the heavenly bodies. The scene is one of desecrated graves under judgment, not the glorious resurrection promised elsewhere in Scripture.

Jeremiah 8:1–3 develops the consequences of the idolatry condemned in chapter 7. Kings, officials, priests, prophets, and ordinary inhabitants are all named, so social or religious office provides no exemption. The bones are spread before the sun, moon, and heavenly host that the people loved, served, followed, sought, and worshiped. The accumulation of verbs emphasizes the depth of their misplaced allegiance. The objects to which they entrusted their lives cannot protect even their remains from dishonor.

The imagery is deliberately shocking. Proper burial is denied, and the survivors' anguish is described as making death preferable to life. This is prophetic portrayal of devastation, not advice to seek death or a statement that distressed people ought to regard themselves as worthless. Its function is to expose the ruin toward which the community's choices are leading. The reader must distinguish the description of a terrible condition from a command to embrace it.

The original's principle that Scripture should illuminate Scripture is valuable, but the nearest literary context must not be skipped in favor of distant verbal parallels. The occurrence of bones in both Jeremiah and a resurrection passage does not establish the same subject. First ask who is addressed, what action is described, and how the paragraph develops the preceding argument. Then broader canonical connections can clarify rather than replace the local meaning.

The comments about believers' and unbelievers' motives also deserve a measured application. Readers can certainly approach a text with an agenda, but disagreement alone does not reveal whether someone is dishonest, afraid, uninformed, or conscientiously persuaded by another reading. We should test arguments rather than presume complete access to the other person's motives. Our own preferred system can also protect assumptions that need correction.

The distinction between what a passage meant in its setting and how it may instruct later readers helps avoid forced relevance. Jeremiah's message does not need to become a direct prediction about our immediate circumstances in order to challenge idolatry today. We can recognize the folly of entrusting ultimate security to created things while preserving the specific judgment the prophet announces. Careful reading becomes a form of humility when we allow the text to interrupt our first impression and teach us something we had not planned to find.

"When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. Therefore say to them, 'This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. (Jeremiah 7:27, 28 NIV)

In these chapters of Jeremiah, God tells the people that they have been disobedient and rebellious right from the beginning. There has never been a time when they have been faithful to Him. And now their sinful rebellion has reached the critical point, where God will not stand for it any longer. What is more, even if He were to continue His appeal to them to repent, they would not listen. So He declares, "Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips."

Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people. "They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me," declares the Lord. "Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:2–6 NIV)

These are but excerpts from God's long diatribe against Judah. By these descriptions we are led to understand that there was no good in the people, for even whatever good there could be had been corrupted and whatever truth had been twisted with lies and deception.

Yet, in the midst of this we have some words of hope.

This is what the Lord says: "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23, 24 NIV)

Now, this is remarkable. God has just before this pronouncement of hope indicated that the people would not and, therefore, could not know Him. He said that their understanding was dull and twisted by scribes that penned lies. He indicated that truth had perished among them, that it had vanished from their lips. So, wherein could they boast about having the understanding to know God?!

May I suggest that this understanding did not arise from the people's own minds or wills. It was given them by God. According to the freedom of their wills they were trapped in their own web of self-destructive lies; however, as we will learn from Jeremiah's later explanation of the New Covenant, in the New Covenant God would give them what they could not gain for themselves. He would give them the knowledge of God:

The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the Lord."I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, 'Know the Lord, 'because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Jeremiah 31:31–34 NIV)

Praise God, dear friends! We are inheritors of this New Covenant, for it was ratified through the precious shed blood of Christ Jesus to the benefit of all of us, who have been given the privilege and enablement to believe in Him. Jeremiah's words to them apply to us too, for we too have been given what we could not have gained for ourselves.

So, today, don't worry about what you may be worrying about right now. What does it matter in view of your eternal inheritance, which will never fail nor fade? While I would not go so far as to encourage you to be carefree, I would say be free of the kind of cares that debilitate and keep you from enjoying the full riches of God and His promises in the short life you have left on this earth. There are others that joyfully look forward to heaven while being tortured until they die, so you have no excuse for your miserable outlook. Take to heart Paul's encouragement and admonition:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4–7 NIV)

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 7–9 describes the collapse of trust in a community whose religious identity has not restrained deceit. The image of tongues prepared like bows makes speech itself an instrument of injury. Friends deceive friends, and social life becomes exhausting because words cannot be received with confidence. The diagnosis concerns a public moral condition as well as individual dishonesty: people have learned practices that repeatedly conceal reality from one another and from themselves.

Jeremiah 9:23–24 then redirects boasting away from wisdom, strength, and wealth toward understanding and knowing the Lord. The contrast does not condemn learning, physical ability, or every possession. It rejects their use as final grounds of security or superiority. What makes knowledge of God distinctive is the character of the God known: he exercises steadfast love, justice, and righteousness on earth and delights in them. Knowing him cannot remain disconnected from those concerns.

The original's connection with Jeremiah 31 is theologically fruitful. The promised new covenant includes inward instruction, shared knowledge of God, and forgiveness. It addresses the failure of a relationship maintained only through external claims and repeatedly broken by the people. Yet Jeremiah 9's invitation should not be treated as logically impossible for every hearer simply because the surrounding indictment is severe. Prophetic exposure and prophetic summons can stand together: the truth that condemns false confidence also directs people toward the only fitting ground of hope.

The new covenant's promise that all will know the Lord does not abolish every ministry of teaching. The New Testament continues to appoint teachers and urge growth in understanding. The promise concerns shared covenantal knowledge and access to God, not instant possession of every interpretive answer. A believer can truly know the Lord while still needing patient instruction, correction, and the wisdom of other members of the body.

Philippians 4:4–7 supplies a fitting response of prayer, thanksgiving, gentleness, and confidence in God's nearness. Its peace is not produced by comparing our pain unfavorably with the suffering of martyrs. The original's forceful exhortation should not be used to shame someone experiencing depression, trauma, or persistent anxiety. Paul invites the presentation of actual requests; he does not demand that believers prove their troubles unimportant before bringing them to God.

The practical movement is from deceptive self-sufficiency toward truthful dependence. We can confess where we have used intelligence, position, or possessions to establish our worth, then ask how God's justice and kindness should shape one present relationship. Prayer can hold real concerns while refusing to let them become ultimate authorities. The boast that remains is gratitude for knowing the Lord whose character is trustworthy and whose promises call us into a more truthful life.

God declares He'll take away Israel's harvest — no grapes on the vine, no figs on the tree, withered leaves, everything given taken back (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 8:13). Why? Because truth had perished, vanishing from their lips (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 7:28). Jesus prayed for His disciples that the Father would sanctify them by the truth, since God's word is truth (a paraphrase of John 17:17). Israel had forsaken God's word, trusting instead that their status as a chosen nation, and the Temple's presence among them, would save them regardless. But Scripture consistently makes clear that faith alone saves, and obedience to God's word is simply the expression of that faith. Just as God revealed the coming Babylonian invasion to Jeremiah, He gave the same revelation to the prophet Habakkuk, who couldn't understand why a holy God would use such an evil, wicked nation to bring judgment on Israel. How does the Lord answer him? "The righteous will live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). Habakkuk responds by praying for mercy in the midst of wrath, describing his own trembling fear at what he's heard — yet declaring he'll wait patiently for the coming disaster, and even if the fig tree doesn't bud, the vines bear no grapes, the olive crop fails, the fields produce nothing, and the flocks and herds are gone, he'll still rejoice in the LORD, still be joyful in God his Savior (a paraphrase of Habakkuk 3:2, 16–18). Why can Habakkuk rejoice in the middle of coming devastation? Because he understands it's God's will, and he's chosen to live a life of faith, obedient to God's word regardless of circumstance. Let truth prevail. Let's keep truth on our own lips, proclaiming it to everyone — the righteous will live by faith.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The specific progression in Habakkuk's prayer — fear and trembling first, patient waiting second, and joy in God only third — is worth noting as a realistic sequence rather than an instant leap to praise. Habakkuk doesn't skip past his own physical terror at what's coming; he names it plainly (his legs trembling, decay creeping into his bones) before arriving at his declaration of rejoicing regardless of circumstance. That order matters for anyone trying to imitate this comment's call to trust God through hardship: the goal isn't to bypass honest fear on the way to faith, but, like Habakkuk, to let faith be the thing that has the final word after fear has been fully acknowledged rather than suppressed.

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves — since when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I didn't just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this command: obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people; walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 7:21–23). I could hear the voice of my Shepherd this morning, calling for reformation in my own life. God tells Israel here that merely having His commands won't do them any good in the face of coming judgment. All the religious activity, or fulfilling duties as a member of a local church, is useless before God unless it's paired with actual obedience to Him. We don't have all those ordinances of offerings and regulations anymore, but we do have a new commandment: love one another. When we do that, Jesus said, people will know He's with us. Let's keep praying for this fundraising event, and at the same time, faithfully do what we're called to do.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The specific offer God makes here — "go ahead, add your burnt offerings... and eat the meat yourselves" — is worth noting as biting sarcasm rather than genuine permission: since the burnt offering was normally wholly consumed on the altar rather than eaten, God is effectively saying the people have already reduced worship to something they consume for their own benefit anyway, so they might as well be honest about it. That detail sharpens this comment's own point about religious activity without obedience: the danger isn't just going through empty motions, but going through motions that have quietly been repurposed to serve the worshiper's own appetite rather than God at all.

Consider the reason given for the coming judgment on Judah: who is wise enough to understand this, or who has the LORD spoken to, that they might explain it? Why does the land lie ruined like a wilderness, with no one passing through? The LORD answers: because they forsook the law He set before them, didn't obey His voice or walk according to it, but followed the stubbornness of their own hearts and the Baals their fathers taught them to worship — so the LORD will feed them bitterness, scatter them among nations they've never known, and send the sword after them until they're consumed (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 9:12–16). Notice the three sources of the people's misguided knowledge here: from God, from themselves, and from their "fathers" — influential leaders passed down through generations. Rather than follow God's word, they followed their own thoughts and feelings, and rather than trust God's counsel, they followed misguided leaders who'd taught them to blend worship of the LORD with worship of Baal. Reading Jeremiah, you'll notice the people didn't outright reject God or His word — they'd even later seek out Jeremiah for God's counsel. But instead of embracing God's word as truth on its own terms, they filtered everything through their own feelings and the competing counsel of others, and more often than not, that's what they actually followed. This reminds me of Paul's words to Timothy: a time will come when people won't tolerate sound doctrine, but will gather teachers who tell them what their itching ears want to hear, turning from truth toward myths instead (a paraphrase of 2 Timothy 4:3–4). It's no surprise that some of today's most popular preaching doesn't reflect the full counsel of God's word, only a comfortable version of it — the kind that avoids the sort of holy discomfort that would actually reorient people's lives around Christ. In Jeremiah's day, people's fallback phrase was "the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD" (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 7:4) — a kind of talisman assuming God's presence guaranteed their safety regardless of their conduct. Today, the equivalent might be "I go to church, I go to church, I go to church." In Jeremiah's day, people said "peace, peace" when there was no peace (Jeremiah 8:11); today, people might say "don't judge me, don't be so negative" — when honest correction is exactly what's often needed (see 1 Peter 4:17). We can't ultimately rely on any pastor or teacher to guide us reliably, since even faithful leaders are shaped by the culture around them, and in Jeremiah's day, most prophets and priests were speaking outright lies. And we can't simply rely on our own feelings either — our reasoning is limited, and Scripture says the world's wisdom is foolishness to God (a reference to 1 Corinthians 3:19); feelings especially can be manipulated and are unreliable guides on their own. The only real recourse is to trust God's word fully. As Jeremiah writes: let not the wise boast in wisdom, the strong in strength, or the rich in riches — let whoever boasts, boast in this: that they understand and know God, who exercises loving devotion, justice, and righteousness on earth, since these are what delight Him (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 9:23–24). Let's glory in knowing God — and there are really only two reliable paths to that knowledge: generally, through creation itself (Psalm 19:1–6; Romans 1:20), and specifically, through His word, which alone can sanctify and make us holy (John 17:17). So let's daily meditate on and memorize God's word, praying that His Spirit would help us both speak and live it out faithfully.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The three sources of misguided knowledge this comment identifies — God's own word, personal feeling, and inherited tradition from influential leaders — are worth noting as still the primary competing authorities people default to today, even outside explicitly religious contexts. What Jeremiah's indictment specifically targets isn't that the people consulted these other sources at all, but that they let personal feeling and inherited tradition function as filters through which God's word had to pass before being accepted, rather than the reverse. That inversion — treating feeling and tradition as the standard, and Scripture as merely one more input to be weighed against them — is precisely the pattern this comment identifies in contemporary preaching that avoids "holy discomfort," which suggests the underlying temptation Jeremiah describes hasn't required any real modernization to remain fully current.