What does the one God Seek?

In continuing my study on what Godliness is I've started with a concordance and gone to where the word "godly" or "godliness" occurs in the Scriptures. The first instance is Malachi 2:15:

"Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth."

For some context I read the whole of Malachi. It talks about the faithless who have married women devoted to foreign gods. It talks about returning to God and Him promising to return to the Israelites. Since, godliness requires a full devotion to God, foreign gods cannot be tolerated. It talks about the sacrifices the Israelites were giving to God were not pure (lame, blind, blemished animals).

Through Malachi God poses a few good questions. First, he asks, "If I am a father, where is the honor due me?" (Malachi 1:6). Since God made us, we belong to him in body and spirit. We must be devoted to Him fully because we are His. This is the foundational aspect of godliness, being devoted to Him. If we are devoted to Him as a father, we must therefore honor Him. So in response to God's question I pray, Lord you are my father and help me to do all that is honorable to you. Keep me from temptations that would bring dishonor to you and in the face of temptations help me to be strong to overcome them.

The second question posed in Malachi is actually a response to God's assertion. God states, "Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty" (Malachi 3:7). The writer then states, "How are we to return?"

This is the question I am asking. How am I to return? How am I to be godly?

God responds with a question and a declaration. The Israelites have been robbing God by not bringing their whole tithe to Him. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house" (Malachi 3:10). So to return to God is to give the whole tithe to God. To return to God is to give Him all that is asked of us. To be godly is to Give to God what He is owed. Since I belong to Him in body and spirit, I offer all of me to Him. Hear my prayer God and accept my offering of myself.

Malachi 3:10 is both instructions and a promise. It's funny how God often links these together. He instructs us to do something and promises a great outcome. Give to God the whole tithe and He will "throw open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it".

God you are the one God, who created us. You are the Father and I have been robbing you. Accept now my whole tithe. So, what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. As a child of God, I seek to be that. I seek to be a godly offspring.

Some Cultural Context for the New Testament

(Originally written January 3, 2006 in Notebook 20)

Class Notes

Part I, the Old Testament
- Covered thousands of years of history

Abraham (Genesis 12, ca. 2165 BC)
Pentateuch (ca. 1400 BC)
Malachi (ca. 430 BC)

430 BC - AD 33 "Intertestemental History"
(The 400 Silent Years)

New Testament

AD 33 - Jesus
Gospels AD 55-90

When was the Pentateuch written?
- 4th year of Solomon's reign - 966 BC
- Date of the Exodus - 1446 BC
- Israel Wandered 40 years (1446 - 1406 BC)

It is likely that Moses wrote the Pentateuch during the wandering.

Part II of the Bible

Covered less than 100 years and is a third the length of the Old Testament

When was Jesus born?
- Winter of 5/4 BC (late 5 or early 4)

Christ died on April 13, AD 33.

A 6th century monk miscalculated the year of Jesus' birth when setting up the system of dating B.C. and A.D.

The Old Testament is called the Hebrew Bible or the Tanak by the Jews.

Tank is an acronym:
Torah (Law or Instruction)
Neviim (the Prophets)
Kethuvim (the Writings)

Protestant Bible: 66 books
- 39 from the Hebrew Bible
- 27 from the Greek New Testament

Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox churches include additional books: The Apocrypha.

The New Testament stands for the New Covenant, contrasted with the Old Covenant God made with the Israelites at Sinai (Exodus 19). Under this covenant, God forgave the sins of individuals provisionally via animal sacrifices.

The New Testament was written in Greek about A.D. 45-95
- Yet Jesus' native language was Aramaic.

3 Stages of Gospel Composition:
1) Jesus speaks in Aramaic
2) Jewish Christians followers had oral traditions
- Hebrew Jews
- Hellenistic Jews
3) Luke, writing in Greek to gentiles in Rome

Outline of the New Testament
1) History - 4 Gospels & Acts
2) Epistles - Pauline (Journey & Prison) or General
3) Visions - Revelation

Why Study the New Testament? (See Handout 1)

"The relative importance of the document will dictate the care with which it is examined" - Philip Yancy

Historical reason - to understand where the Christian faith came from
Cultural reason - The New Testament has permeated Western Civilization
Theological Reason - inspired account of Jesus' redemptive mission in the world, standard for faith and practice
Devotional Reason - Holy Spirit uses it to help you grow closer to the Lord

Socio-Cultural Setting of the New Testament

1st Century Social Setting

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God - even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ"

- Jews
- Greeks
- Romans

Jews
- Religious, spiritual people: concerned with their relationships with God
- Believed that God had chosen Israel and that all nations would be blessed through Israel
- 1st century Jews were looking a politically powerful Messiah
- Individual and solitary persons, a minority

Greeks
- Philosophers and intellectuals - speculative and reflective
- Aesthetic - loved beauty, spoke of virtue, admired eloquence
- Original
- Conceited & clever

Romans
- Practical, not speculative or spiritual
- Orderly: excellent in legislation and administration
- A mimic: copied Greek culture, not visionary
- Coarse and cold blooded
- The Romans created an amazing system

A Jewish Palestinian family was larger than the Greco-Roman family (see Psalms 127:3-5)

Joseph & Mary's Betrothal
- Bride money (mohar) affected the Jewish betrothal and marriage customs. The groom paid the family for the girls' hand.

What is an "inn"?
- a spare room in an apartment complex.