{"id":16372,"date":"2018-01-23T09:30:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T14:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16372"},"modified":"2018-01-23T09:30:21","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T14:30:21","slug":"jesus-of-nazareth-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16372","title":{"rendered":"Jesus of Nazareth: Week 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In Imitation of God<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Tuesday, January 23, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jd4Vw7YfV6M\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nTheologian and New Testament scholar Marcus Borg (1942-2015) significantly contributed to our new understanding of Jesus in his historical and cultural context. Today I\u2019d like to share Borg\u2019s insights on how Jesus pursued the imitatio dei (imitation of God) as his life\u2019s purpose. This is the best any of us can do: to act as God acts (see Ephesians 5:1). But first we must be clear about how God acts, which is why we need good theology. Borg writes:<br \/>\nThe central imperative in the teaching of Jesus is to live in accord with God\u2019s character: \u201cBe compassionate, as God is compassionate.\u201d . . . We are to feel for others as God feels for all of God\u2019s children and act accordingly. . . .<br \/>\nThe author of John\u2019s gospel speaks of God\u2019s love for the world: \u201cFor God so loved the world . . .\u201d (3:16). Jesus, for John, is the revelation of God\u2019s love, and so the imitatio dei then becomes an imitatio Christi, an imitation of Jesus. The Jesus of John\u2019s gospel says, \u201cI give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another\u201d (13:34). The symmetry between the message of Jesus and the testimony of the post-Easter community is striking: love one another because the character of God as known in Jesus is love.<br \/>\nWe move from how Jesus saw the character of God to how he saw the passion of God. God\u2019s character and passion are not separate, but closely related, just as they are in people. Our passion\u2014our dedicated devotion, our consuming interest, our concentrated commitment\u2014is a major indicator of our character, indeed, flows out of our character. So it is in Jesus\u2019s teaching about God. God\u2019s character and passion, what God is like and God\u2019s will for the world, go hand in hand.<br \/>\nGod\u2019s passion is justice. . . . As the social form of compassion, justice is about politics [the word \u201cpolitics\u201d comes from the Greek polis for \u201ccity\u201d]. . . . Politics is about the shape and shaping, the structure and structuring, of the city and, by extension, of human communities more generally, ranging from the family to society as a whole. . . . Justice is the political form of compassion, the social form of love, a compassionate justice grounded in God as compassionate. . . .<br \/>\nThe way of Jesus was both personal and political. It was about personal transformation. And it was political, a path of [nonviolent] resistance to the domination system and advocacy of an alternative vision of life together under God. His counter advocacy, his passion for God\u2019s passion, led to his execution. . . .<br \/>\nWhat would Jesus do in our context? He might once again disrupt the temple\u2014the unholy alliance between religion and empire. I think he would teach the wrongness and futility of violence in human affairs. He would be passionate about compassion and justice as the primary virtues of a life centered in the God whom he knew. And of course, he would teach the importance of a deep centering in God.<\/p>\n<p>_______________________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"row title-row\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"utmost-devo-title col col-sm-12 col-xs-12\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\">Transformed by Beholding<\/h2>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><strong>We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=2+Corinthians+3%3A18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2 Corinthians 3:18<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-rule\">\u00a0The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person\u2019s life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord\u2019s own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it\u2014 something good, but not what is best.<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that \u201cis hidden with Christ in God\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Colossians+3:3\">Colossians 3:3<\/a>). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue \u201cbeholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Imitation of God Tuesday, January 23, 2018 Theologian and New Testament scholar Marcus Borg (1942-2015) significantly contributed to our new understanding of Jesus in his historical and cultural context. Today I\u2019d like to share Borg\u2019s insights on how Jesus pursued the imitatio dei (imitation of God) as his life\u2019s purpose. This is the best [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16372"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16373,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16372\/revisions\/16373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}