How often are we scared, ashamed or shy-failing to share our faith when we know we should. Our modern world is very similiar to the day when the Apostle Paul walked the streets of Corinth with a bold faith. Using Paul as our example, let’s worry more about living out the true message of the Cross and a lot less about what people think of us. 

THE DAYS OF CORINTH

During the Apostle Paul’s ministry, the city of Corinth, similar to many U.S. West and East Coast port (and non-port) cities was the most strategic city in Greece. Not even Athens was as strategic as Corinth during the time in history. This had to do in part with ships having to sail around Corinth and into some of the most dangerous waters in that part of the world. As a result, most ships avoided the waters by moving ships and cargo over land in one of two ways.

WAY #1: If it were a large ship, they would dock and move the cargo over land manually to a second ship parked on the other side.

WAY #2: If it were a smaller ship, they would move the entire ship over land to the other side.

As a result of being such a strategic location, there were upwards of 750,000 people living in Corinth at the time of Paul’s ministry. This takes us to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians). 

1 Corinthians is a unique letter. Some call it Paul’s best sermon while others-his worst. The lesson in 1 Corinthians it simply that while we can RE-PACKAGE the message of the Gospel, it is an OFFENSE to the non-Authentic Christians of this world. It was an offense to the flesh in Paul's day and is the just the same to the people of the world today in the 21st Century. 

As a result of his reputation, Paul was invited to preach (in 1 Corinthians), trying to appeal to some of the world’s most highly educated, philosophically astute individuals. The people were wealthy, and self-reliant.

A RE-PACKAGED FAITH

Over the ages, the Word of God has (and cannot) change one iota, not a dot (Matthew 5:18). But, while God’s Word does not change, how we present it through the generations has. Sadly, in some cases, the re-packaged Gospel had left out the offense and power of the true Gospel message. 

PRESENTING THE GOSPEL WITH PROPERLY

When it comes to sharing Christ, we want to be loving, sensitive, gentile, relevant and respectful. But MOST of all, we want to be RELEVANT to the true message of Jesus Christ who went to the Cross for you, me and all who would receive Him.

THE CONSEQUENCE

When sharing your faith, people will at some point accuse you of being intolerant and judgmental. WHY? The answer is found in 1 Corinthians 4:10 whereby Paul says that we are considered fools for Christ for sharing the Gospel. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “for the message of the Cross is foolishness for those who are perishing”. For the spiritually blind and dark, they will see our message as foolishness. But for those who seek God, He will open their eyes. Look at it God’s way-If someone considers you a fool for sharing Christ-at least you are in good company!

When we share the Gospel message we are often considered fools. It’s not the Gospel’s fault and it’s not God’s fault. The problem lies with the heart of the person you are talking with. Our message is not foolish-it’s the people who listen but fail to accept Christ who are foolish. 

“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believers. To the Jew first, but also to the gentiles” (Romans 116).  

It’s in the uncompromising Gospel where the power of God resides. And its in the uncompromising Gospels is where the power to save and to change people’s  lives is.

So, let’s worry more about giving out the true message of the Cross and a lot less about what people think of us. If we do that, lives will changed and the world will never be the same-but for the better.

Is retirement biblical? Is it condoned in the Bible as a good, proper and rightful thing to do. Let's start by defining what "Retirement" is.

“RETIRMENT” can be defined as: “The action or fact of leaving one's job and ceasing to work”

As to what the Bible says about retirement, we have to look all the way back to “THE BEGIINING” of time and creation whereby God calls Adam to a life of “difficult work” (Genesis 3:19). Remember that Adam already worked in the Garden before he and Eve ate of the “Tree Of Knowlwdge”. What changed was that after they disobeyed God by eating of that fruit, that they were judged by God and subjected to a new life outside the Garden. That life entailed not having God’s provision and protection. From there forward, Adam would have to not only work, but work to provide for himself, “by the sweat of his face” (3:19) meaning hard work. People sweat when they work hard not when they don’t. This is what the Bible says.

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

This draws us back to ask the main question as to, “Is retirment biblical? I would submit that it depends by what you mean by retire, but generally speaking- no, it's not. Why? Let me list a few reasons why.

FIRST: Because God said so. God said that Adam would have to work by the sweat of his face until when? "Till you return to the ground". That means until Adam physically died on earth. As such, the same is true for you and I.

SECOND: Because to fully retire in many cases entails amassing government debt and making others work to pay for your retirement. This is not a biblical model. For example,  U.S. Federal workers under the Employee Retirement Systems (FERS) contribute only between 0.8% and 4.4% of their paycheck towards retirement. After they work 20-25 years, which is not a long time, they usulaly draw 75% or more of their normal paycheck in the form of a pension. They put in between 0.8-4.4% and take out 75%. For round numbers, if they make 100K in annual salary, they pay 9jnbetween $800.00 and in some cases, a maximum of $4,400.00 annually into their pention. Upon retirnment, they will withdraw $75,000.00 a year. No investment is good enough to meet those odds, so it falls upon the everyday tax payer to work and pay them through higher taxes not to work while paying even more taxes to pay a new, less experienced person to do the job they vacated. The government mandates that every day working people paying for these pensions. So no, I don't see this retirenment model as right or biblical as it means putting debt on our children, and mandates every day people who work hard at regular jobs to pay someone elses way. 

Then there is the private sector which is the more proper way to slow down in some form of retirnement. Sadly, our system is broken and there is little if any legitamate form of saving for retirnment. The Bond Market has been leveraged beyond it's capacity to pay a reasonable return and is being upheld by the U.S. Treasury Department who simply digitally prints more money and gives it to the Treasury Department to keep the Bond Market from crashing. The banks pay very little interest an the stock market is basically gambling.

NO MENTION OF RETIREMENT

There is NO mention of retirnement in the Bible. We seem to want it in an effort to eliminate the "sweat from our face" (Genesis 3:19).

Our modern day idea of retirement was formed in the 1950's, and was basically an America idea at the time due to our wealth. As the US became wealthier, with access to better food, medical care and transportation, family dynamics change. For example, older generations started living longer and younger generations were financially capable of moving out and living on their own much sooner. As such, peple were able to have a much longer period of what we might call "retirenment, which was also much more active and pleasure focussed as a phase of life. But back then, that season still only spanned around 5-10 years before the person passed away.

Over the past 70 years, due to medical improvments and other developments, people have started living longer; in some cases people are retired almost as long as they have worked. As of 2024, one of the fastest growing segments of American society are those over the age of 85. Since many of them are thankfully in good health, they tend to focus on leasure (golf and travel), family (grandchildren), hobbies and more relaxation. These are good things when kep in persepective of God's calling upon their lives.

BACK TO THE BIBLE

Nowhere in the Bible does it mention that any of us with the ability to work should stop working. This does NOT mean that we ought to work until we die, but that the work we do later in life is diferent. As Christians, our goal ought to be to "finish well". A person may semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. As such, our retirenment is a phase of life where we can use our gifts, skills and abilities to glorify God differently than we we may have worked full-time. This doesn't mean that we ought not play golf or travel but that our comfort and enjoyment-our focus in this stage of life ought not be so self-absorbed that we miss the joy and calling that God planned for us.

THIRD: Retirement can and should be a wonderful time of taking it easy and not having to report to the stressful work environment we find ourselves in today. This is called "Semi-Retirenement". This is the proper idea of retirenment as it's here that we have the opporutnity to give back to society in the name of our Lord-helping serve at church and help others less fortunate than us with the goal to fulfill all that God has called us to. We can't take any of the wealth we amass with us, so we might as well glorify God with all He has lent us in the temporal to help other in light of eternity.

CONCLUSION

 Let's remember the Westminster  Shorter Catechism whish says that "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." How will you fulfill that during retirement? Perhaps that's a good question for all of us to ponder.

I was reading through the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:1-5 in the ESV regarding judging others when it occurred to me that this verse is almost exclusively studied regarding “judging others”. I must admit that this is the focus of the passage, and I will speak to that briefly-but the last verse in this passage brings it home in that in place of judgement, we are to help restore our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It’s a rough, torn and broken world we live in. The United States is in a new state of existence; something I am going to speak to in an upcoming entry. For today, I want to look at WHY we often judge one another instead of helping to restore them. 

Jesus says in Matthew 7:1-5 regarding Judging Others:
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

To be fair to the context of this passage, this does NOT mean that one is never, in any sense or to any extent to judge another person. Verse 5 indicates that when one’s own life is spiritually healthy and pure that he should take the speck OUT OF his brother’s eye. That said, this verse makes clear that as a follower of Christ that we are not to be censorious or critical of others. 

We are (always) called to judge sin, but within the context of understanding that we too are sinners-and with the goal of helping restore our brother or sister who has sinned back to a rightful, healthy relationship with Christ. That takes a lot of moxie in today’s world because people are often unteachable, unapproachable, and arrogant. In other words, most folks today, including many Christians don’t want to be told anything they might not want to hear or may not agree with. 

That being said, I want to focus on the very last verse (v.5) which says:

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to TAKE the speck out of your brother's eye” (v5).

The word “TAKE” here is a VERB. Remember from elementary school that a “VERB” is an ACTION WORD not a “NOUN” which describes what ought to be done-presumably by others, namely the church. Remember, we are the church.

LIVING OUT THE VERB
“…then you will see clearly to TAKE THE SPECK OUT OF YOUR BROTHER’S EYE”. We must be right before and with God as a start point. But once we are properly in line with God’s Word and in relationship with Him, we are CALLED to HELP others find their way back, perhaps leaving a sinful thing to return to God. Again, this is an action YOU and I are to take to help others. It’s easier to stay quiet and keep to ourselves. That’s not a true friend and that’s DEFINITELY not acting biblically. It takes ENERGY and costs something. We can’t put a tithe in the box and pay the church to fix the world because we ARE the church.

SO WHY DO WE TEND TO JUDGE OTHERS and throw our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to the judgmental heap pile? Because most of us are scared, sometimes a coward, and more often than not-too lazy to want to use the emotional, physical and spiritual capital (it will cost us) to help another person. In other words, it’s easier to either ignore the issue or dispose of them as a person rather than jump into the mud pit and help restore them.

I see this all the time in the Christian community. For example, famous author and speaker Dinesh D’Souza is one that stands out. Dinesh was in the final throws of his divorce when he took a girlfriend when he got caught with his new girlfriend before the divorce was final. While a sin, it was not handled properly, and we lost a great soldier for Christ due to two self-righteous Christian national leaders who decided to play Jesus-police instead of helping confront and restoring Dinesh. How do I know this? Because I spoke with both Dinesh and the two men who exposed Dinesh.

I spoke with the two gentleman who exposed his seeing Dinesh with the girl who he shortly there-after married and he told me his side of the story. My conclusion was that instead of approaching Dinesh to help him tweak his approach with the girlfriend, these two nationally known figures exposed him to the public with the goal of destroying his reputation-with no desire to restore him-but to take him down. What a shame. If we were to take down every pastor who sins, all of them would be taken down. The same is true of you and I.

The proper way to handle a person who is out of bounds biblically speaking is to sit with them, see if they are teachable, and lovingly and directly confront them with the goal of restoring them. At the very least, we should privately speak with them to show them their lost way and give them the chance to self-correct. In the end, the biblical mandate is for us to “…take the speck out of your brother's eye” (v5) and not beat them with the log in our own eye.

IN CLOSING I want to bring to light one simple truth which is that we often think of ourselves much higher than is truthful. This includes you, me and all of us as believers in Christ. We tend to see ourselves as saved and superior as opposed to lost and lingering toward hell. And if honest we tend to demand “justice” for others but expect mercy from God for ourselves. Please think about this passage the next time you encounter a fellow believer who needs your help to course correct. Let’s make sure that we are taking the energy to GIVE and not simply TAKE from them.