Articles
A Happy Home Is Undergirded with Love / The Scourging of Jesus
A Happy Home Is Undergirded with Love
(by Grant Caldwell)
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
- Love suffers long and is kind. Patient if necessary, be taken advantage of. Forbear and not critical. Encourage; not nag or retaliate.
- Love envies not. Never a competitive spirit. Face the world united in purpose and desires. Don’t let jealousy eat at your heart and at the heart of your home.
- Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Not arrogant or conceited or proud. No superiority complex. No bragging.
- Love does not behave rudely. Not rude, discourteously, boorish or pouting. Not flying off the handle.
- Love does not seek its own. Not selfish, self-centered or seeking own rights. Our interest, not my interest. Not thinking “Why doesn’t he/she do this to make me happy?” but “What can I do to make him/her happy?”
- Love is not provoked or irritated. Not grouchy about failings or faults of the other. Having patience without losing one’s temper.
- Love thinks no evil; does not indulge in self-pity or holding grudges. Does not brood over slights and injuries. See Philippians 4:8.
- Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Not glad about or drawing attention to the failings of the mate. “You’re not so perfect.” Emphasize good and shield against bad.
- Bears all things. Withstand anything for mate. No resentment or bitterness.
- Believes all things and hopes all things. Put best construction on everything, facing facts and looking on the bright side. Having faith not suspicion. Not giving up.
- Endures all things. Withstands whatever it must and fidelity to the end. Courage in the face of disillusionment.
- Love never fails. Weathers all storms. Never terminates. Will endure throughout time and eternity.
The Scourging of Jesus
(by Kevin Heaton)
When did the scourging of Jesus take place? What purpose did it serve?
If you were like me, you probably thought that it was after He had been sentenced to die by Pilate and right before they led Him away to be crucified. There is good reason for having thought that way. Matthew and Mark both seem to record the events leading to Jesus' death in this way. But if we look to Luke and John, they supply us with more detail which reveals the true timing and purpose of Jesus' scourging.
Luke only alludes to the real timing and purpose of Jesus' scourging in Luke 23:16 and 23:22. Pilate had been weighing the case of the Jews against Jesus and knew that Jesus was guilty of nothing. To Pilate's credit, he had enough sense to realize that and tried to have Jesus released. In Luke 23:16 and 23:22 Pilate proposed to the people that he would go ahead and punish Jesus but that he would release Him.
John is the one who gives us more understanding about what took place. Notice John 19:1-6, 12-16: (vv 1-6) "Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed Him in a purple robe. They came up to Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' and struck Him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, 'See, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.' So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, 'Behold the Man!' When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, 'Crucify Him, crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.'" Then… (vv 12-16) "From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, 'If you release this Man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.' So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, 'Behold your King!' They cried out, 'Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.' So he delivered Him over to them to be crucified."
From John's account we find that the real purpose for the scourging of Jesus was actually an attempt of Pilate to satisfy the people's thirst for blood and violence in order to have Jesus released. Sadly it didn't work. The people's hatred of Jesus was so much so that the only thing that would please them was to see Him dead.
Ultimately, we see an even greater meaning for the scourging of Jesus revealed to us by the prophet Isaiah when he wrote:
"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:3-5).
