By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 14, 2026
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Romans 5:1–8 (ESV)
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Last Sunday we spoke about the wrath of God. Most of us look at that word and our mind tends to wander to something akin to rage. The problem with that is rage is often uncontrollable, it is fraught with unanchored emotions, and is often unmeasured. When we rage as humans we have lost all control. The person has cut us off in traffic, rage enters, and now there is a story on the evening news speaking about the incident. We can go from a calm and collected citizen of the community to a monster in a manner of seconds. This is rage, and this is typically what we see when we see the word wrath.
Wrath is not rage. And that wrath of God is not God going into a fit of rage, to smite everyone. God is patient. God is merciful, and filled with grace. God’s greatest desire is not driven by vengeful emotions instead God is driven to restore creation to the order created in the beginning.
Paul continues along this line as we go into today’s passage. Last week’s passage said that the law brings wrath, but righteousness comes through faith. The law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. If wrath is not vengeful rage, what is it? Annoyance. The law brings annoyance. And when we know the law, we push as close to the law as we can until the annoyance flares.
Imagine you are on a long road trip with children. There is a rule or law in the car to keep your hands to yourself, and one of the siblings gets as close to touching without touching until their sibling begins to complain. The parent looks in the rearview mirror staring down the guilty party as they fain innocence saying, “I wasn’t touching them.” The parent asks them to stop. And all is calm, but eventually the annoyance returns. And now the response from the parent is a bit more stern. This cycle continues until the parent finally slams on the brakes and pulls to the side of the road and turns around. You know what comes next. The law was not broken, but it was pushed until an intervention was required. This would have happened with or without the law, because that is our sinful nature. We like to know just how far we can push.
Which brings us to righteousness, or right relationship. The law does not bring about the right relationship, no law can. If we think of law as legislation or as teaching. All the law can do is to provide a boundary or set up a sign post. It gives us guidelines that point us toward righteousness. The law teaches us where the lines are drawn, but we still push and challenge.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The concept of justification comes from legal concepts. It points to the declaration of righteousness. It is a declaration. It does not mean that you are righteous, or in a right relationship, it simply means that from a legal standpoint, you are declared as such.
Who makes this declaration?
We have been justified, declared as being righteous by faith. Again faith is this process of trust, from belief to entrusting every aspect of our being to God. Just like with every broken relationship building trust is a process, we slowly become more intimate. Each step of the way we gain just a bit more trust. As that trust builds we might question why, but we know that the one we have entrusted ourselves to is trustworthy. We are declared righteous by this relationship, we are declared righteous because we have entrusted our lives to one that is trustworthy. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
As a pastor within a faith movement known for their peace testimony, you might think I would be a scholar on peace. I once thought that myself. I have struggled with peace most of my adult life. Shortly after I graduated from college our nation entered into a war that continued until a few years ago. We say we were at peace, and yet for some reason helicopters are being shot down and drones and missiles are finding targets. This word peace, if looked at from a secular perspective, designates a political and social phenomenon where the state of a nation is not at war, or the absence of conflict. While I was reading about peace in the Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, they mentioned that treaties of alliance and of peace almost always link peace and philia (brotherly love or friendship). So in the secular world, peace, requires a caseation of violent conflict and a movement toward mutual profit. According to the Hellenistic philosophers a king who is philanthropic will be interested in restoring order and guaranteeing the peace, because it is recognized that peace is better than war. This philosophy applied to the relationships between nations, and they also applied the same concepts within a nation. A nation at peace is a nation without war, and has a population that is also without discord.
These are the teaching of the Gentile philosophers speaking of peace. This same Greek word that we translate to peace, was used by the Jewish scholars that translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. They used this word for Shalom. This Hebrew word holds all the concepts that the Greek philosophers held, but there is more. The concept of Shalom is derived from a root word meaning to be well, complete, and safe. To live in shalom means that we lack nothing and have no fear. The Hebrew idea of peace is for humanity to be restored into that state of being before the fall. We as humanity should strive to live at peace, but ultimately peace is a gift from God.
To the people of Israel peace became not only a means to the end of conflict and economic stability, peace became the religious ideal. It is our goal to be well, to have safety and security, and completeness. The life of Shalom was the goal, the ultimate life.
Adam and Eve once had Shalom, but that was lost. From the fall until today humanity has not obtained shalom because we are constantly attempting to define what is good and evil through our own means and purposes. We want to define what well-being is. We want to determine our safety and security. We, as individual humans, want to decide what will make us complete.
Think about the results of this? Right away in the stories of scripture we meet the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was a farmer and Abel tended the flocks. Each of these boys brought an offering to give to God. God was pleased with what Abel brought but was not impressed with the offering of Cain. Cain despised his brother for this. This response grabbed God’s attention, and he spoke to Cain. He told him, “If you do well will you not also be accepted?”
Cain thought he was doing well, yet he was rejected. But why was he rejected? I have heard many sermons on the topic saying that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted because it was from the flocks. And only an offering of blood was acceptable in the eyes of God. Cain only brought produce from the fields. As a former wheat farmer, I do not accept that interpretation. The grain produced in my family’s fields has great value, it provided for my life. But I find that interpretation unacceptable. I am determining what is of value from my own position. I do not fully know if it was the type of sacrifice or not, or if it was just the attitude of the one offering the sacrifice. What I can say is, Cain was not looking to God. He was looking to himself, and he was looking toward his brother. Sin was crouching at his door, and God urged Cain to resist. But Cain did not resist. He did not allow God to determine Shalom for him, he took matters into his own hands and removed the annoyance himself. And the blood of Abel cried out to God about the injustice.
When we determine the value, when we define our own peace, it tends favor ourselves. We make the determination, the justification, and at times our well-being comes at the expense of others. This injustice often leads to greater conflict instead of peace.
“Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” God knows our struggle. God is aware that we have a tenancy to favor ourselves and those closest to us more than we value the well-being of those less closely associated with us. God knows, so God took it upon himself. He made himself just a little lower than the angels for a little while, and took on human flesh. Jesus lived an entire human existence from the gestation within his mother’s womb to death and burial. Through that entire life, he experienced every form of temptation we face and remained righteous. Jesus lived within a community, he taught, he worshiped, through his entire life he showed us what life with God was truly intended to be. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace.
We are justified not because of anything we have done. No, we are declared righteous because Jesus has stood in our place. We are declared righteous because Jesus stands with us.
I want to again speak about Red the bull. This massive beast loved us, but he was not a tame bull. If he felt threatened he would snort, his nose would become hot, and if you did not respond appropriately he would charge. This was if he sensed something was off. For the most part I did not have to worry, Red and I had a relationship, he knew who I was and would act like a giant dog when I was near. But that was not always the case. When I was a child I did not have that relationship. If I entered the pasture he would treat me as if I was an invader, unless my grandpa was with me. Red would come to my grandpa and love him. My grandpa would laugh with Red and tell him how good of a bull he was, and once he had Red’s attention I could join in. Red accepted me because my grandpa provided the justification. My grandpa declared to Red that I was safe, and Red remembered this.
Did this mean that I could just jump into the pasture and do whatever I wanted. No. Red was not tame. I did annoy the beast, but he knew that my grandpa was ok with me. There were times when Red did challenge my presence, and I had to learn what was and was not acceptable with Red. But as I spent more time with this animal the relationship grew, soon Red responded to me just as he responded to my grandpa.
Eventually I had to leave the farm, and someone else came in to fill my position. Someone that Red did not know. The process of introductions had to begin again. I had to justify my replacement to Red, and he had to become accustom to someone new.
God is not like Red. But God is also not tame. When I was in school my theology professor once illustrated justification as Jesus taming the Spirit. He pointed out that prior to Jesus the spirit was something to fear, like the tenth plague of Egypt. There were very few people that were said to interact with the Spirit of God. But after Christ the Spirit was tamed and dwelt within each believer. Jesus tamed the bull. The bull is still not safe, but the bull is good.
Through Jesus, we are justified. We are declared righteous. We have obtained this access by faith, we have this by entrusting our lives to Jesus, and Jesus then speaks and stand with and for us. Jesus provided this access through his life, death, and resurrection. And in this grace, we can stand and rejoice in hope of God’s glory.
We have been declared righteous. Jesus will and is standing with us, but does this mean that everything in life will be perfect? No, we must grow. We have justification, we have grace, we have a starting point, but we must learn to live in the presence of the spirit.
Paul says, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
We must grow. You all know by now that I am a bit of a nerd. I like to learn about things, and there are times when something attracts my attention and I cannot let go of it until I know everything about it. I have a crop science degree, so much of what attracted my attention in college revolved around plants. Somewhere along the line I read about the trees in the Biosphere. If you do not know what the Biosphere is, Pauly Shore has an excellent documentary. Actually, his movie is a comedy, and it is actually pretty terrible, but the idea of the Biosphere was to create a perfect ecosystem so that we could study the effects of various factors upon the environment. They made this biosphere with various plants and climates, and inside it was supposed to be completely self-sufficient. The original experiment, however, failed miserably. The reason it failed was because the trees grew tall and fast, but eventually they would just fall over.
The reason the trees fell was because in the biosphere they forgot to include a very important factor, the world has wind, where the biosphere did not. Trees need the wind, because the wind provides stresses the plant in such a way that the plant must build resistance to it. Without the wind the tree will grow straight and tall, but will eventually be unable to support itself. This is what suffering does for us.
We do not like suffering, we often think of suffering as something evil. But suffering is part of life, it is what makes us stronger. The spirit of God does not remove suffering because God knows that we need to grow, not merely tall, but in strength. As we endure the various sufferings of life we gain endurance. We begin to understand not merely the rules of God’s teaching but why those rules are there, and it gives us character, and hope as we face more struggles in the future. We struggle, we suffer, but we do not suffer alone. Jesus is there standing with us. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” While we were weak Jesus was there. He endured with us, and he provides the strength for our own endurance.
Jesus stand with us while we were still weak. While we were without knowledge of what a godly life is. While we were immoral, sinful, vengeful, and living within the self-justification of Cain. We were weak, unable to understand what the peace of God truly was, and while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
I want us to think about that for a moment. We were weak. He is strong for us. We seek to make our own justifications, but even at our best we are often incapable to set aside our own interests for others, we even struggle to sacrifice ourselves for people we regard as good. We do sacrifice though, do not misunderstand me. We sacrifice for our children, we will sacrifice for our nation. We will be capable of doing many good things from our personal justifications, but will we sacrifice for the good of humanity?
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And if we were to continue to read in this passage Paul says later, “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”
Jesus stands for us. He stands even when we reject. He stands even when we are weak. He stands to help as we struggle, and he declares that we are with him. Jesus tames the bull, and provides the way for the spirit to write the teachings on our hearts. Jesus stands, and we can rejoice that through him we have shalom, because he has brought us into completeness. And he has called us to stand with him as he calls out to others.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church July 19, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 8:12–25 (ESV) So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church July 5, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Hebrews 12:1–3, 12-17 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 28,2026 Click to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 6:12–23 (ESV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 07, 2026
Click here to join our meeting for worship
Romans 4:13–25 (ESV)
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
The promise to Abraham and his offspring, is where Paul begins today’s passage. This is where so much of faith begins. What does it mean to be part of this community? Is it Christian, is it interfaith? Does it only apply to Israel or does it extend to all people? There is a great deal of debate around these very things. Intense debates that bring into question every aspect of life and how we interact with those around us.
This is important, because it gets to the very nature of human existence. Why are we here, and what is our purpose?
To begin we need to look at the promise given to Abraham found in Genesis 17. “Behold my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
God gave Abraham this promise after Ishmael was born, and just prior to the birth of Issac. Prior to this particular promise God had called Abram to follow him, and the benefit of following was that his offspring would be greater than the stars in heaven. There is some debate as to if this means the number of stars, which would be seen as infinite, or if the promise was that they would be greater than the stars, or the substance of the stars. In that ancient time, there was an understanding that the stars were not spheres of gas with such mass that nuclear fusion occurred to produce heat and light, instead they believed that the stars were heavenly beings, or Elohim. The stars were lesser gods, or angels that had power that could be wielded over the creatures of Earth.
The reality of the promise is that Abraham would become the father of many nations. God promised that his offspring, those that emerged from his life and his influence would become so great in power, or number that they would rule the entire world. Both interpretations are correct to various degrees.
But this promise came after a long history. It came after the fall in the garden, after the great flood, after the rise of a monolithic empire that held unitary power over all the known world. Those were the three falls of humanity that shaped early Hebrew thought. Out of those falls the children of Abraham held to the idea that the most high God divided the nations of the earth, that he scattered the nations, and from Israel he would bring them all back to himself. He chose Israel. He selected this small insignificant family to reveal his teachings and his ultimate redemption.
I want us to think about this for a moment. Does this mean that Israel is chosen forever? This is where the debates begin. I do not see this as being necessarily the case. But let me explain, it means that Israel’s God is forever. The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob will remain and through his patience and grace he will preserve a people of faith. God will preserve his teachings forever. And to preserve his teachings, he will ensure that Israel will remain as a testimony of his faithfulness.
This is what Paul is getting at in this passage. The influence, or the teachings of God through faith will remain. It will spread to the ends of the earth and that will influence the nations. But this influence does not come through direct inheritance. Biology does not spread the influence of God, nor does biology prevent the spread of God’s influence. We see this in the genealogy of David and of Jesus. Within their linage there are people that come from outside Israel. Rehab, and Ruth are examples. It is even said that Caleb, one of the faithful spies that Moses sent into the promised land, was not directly part of the tribe of Judah but was someone that became part of the tribe. He was a foreigner that chose Israel as his nation, and through him and his faith Israel became stronger.
If it is not direct biology, what then spreads the influence of God? Paul says in this passage that the promise did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. It was not the offspring, or the law but faith.
At this point we need to understand the law. In our western mind, we look at law differently than they did in region Israel developed. For us a law is legislation, and when we break a law there are certain consequences of those actions. In the ancient near east the law was less about black and white legislation, and more about teaching. I have spoken about this at length. But what I have not expanded on is how the understanding of the law changed as Israel matured.
The teachings should have encouraged a certain lifestyle. The lifestyle that it points to is a lifestyle where we love God with all that we have and all that we are. To express that love of God by treating the people around us as we would like to be treated. This is the teaching. It is the start of the conversation. As we converse many aspects can emerge. We begin to ask different questions, and we begin to seek answers to those questions. Eventually Israel could justify any sort of action within the law because they reasoned through it. These justifications began to look more like the world around them and less like original teachings. To such a degree that one could not tell the difference between Israel, Judah, or any other nation in the world. From this judgment came. The Northern kingdom of Israel was scattered like dust, and Judah was taken into captivity and lived in exile.
Upon return, they had devised a different understanding of the law. What makes us distinct? What makes us Israel? Their focus turned to the physical. Circumcision became even more important. The dietary laws became a priority. These were the things that the world could see that set them apart. As more persecution emerged they would double down on these aspects of the law. They used to marry outsiders and bring them into the faith, but in the past this led to idolatry so they outlawed marrying foreigners. They did all of this because they thought if they could just do the right things. If we could make rules and force people to comply to these rules, we could make the world righteous.
This is the interpretation of the law that Jesus and Paul both objected. The outward aberrance without true dedication. The rabbis taught that Israel went into exile because we married foreigners, so they outlawed certain marriages. They thought that they experienced judgment because we did not eat right, or perform the proper rituals. So they dedicated their lives to making sure every aspect of life was covered. Jesus described this as laying a burden on the shoulders of the people without lifting a finger to assist.
Paul then speaks of the law bringing wrath and then says where there is no law there is no transgression. I think it is important to look at this from the proper context. Law brings wrath. When we think of wrath, our mind goes to judgment. The wrath of God against Israel lead to the exile. This is not wrong, but it skews our perspective. Most of our view of wrath does not come from a Hebrew understanding of wrath, it instead comes from pagan perspectives. It is from a pagan perspective that a lightning bolt will come from the heavens to smite us if we do wrong. Why lightning? Zeus, Thor, Baal are all storm gods that control lightening. That is why Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to have the greatest God light the sacrifice, if Baal had the power of lightening it should be easy, but Baal was incapable. Our thoughts of wrath come from these pagan views, not from the character of the God of scripture. God is slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
The Hebrew understanding of wrath is not judgment, but is instead a picture. CS Lewis captured the picture in the description he provided of Aslan from the perspective of Mr. Beaver. He said that Aslan was a lion. The girls were concerned about this since they were going to meet the lion. So they asked if it was a tame lion. Mr. Beaver, scoffs and says not he is not safe, but he is good. This is the image of God’s wrath that is truly derived from scripture. The word is derived from the nose, and it sounds silly, but it is good. The wrath of God is snorts and scoffs.
It is like a bull casually standing in the sun of a pasture. Bulls are scary, but they are good. They are majestic and powerful, there is a reason that Israel used the symbolism of a bull at Sinai. But what if you go into the pasture with the bull and the bull does not want you there? That bull snorts. He gives a warning. If you are wise you would take heed, because if you continue down that path the bull will escalate, the nose becomes hot. The snort becomes deeper, the head lowers, and the air coming from the nose rises along with dust. The picture is smoke coming from the nostrils, or a hot nose. The bull is preparing to charge, but there is still a chance, we can divert the attention, or we can change course. But if we do not change course we face the horns. This is the mental picture of wrath. It is not a bolt of lightening coming from the heavens, it is instead the snorts of a bull.
The bull is scary, dangerous, but good. When I worked on the farm, the bull was my favorite of all the cattle we had. We had an enormous bull named Red. This bull would see me from across the pasture and run to greet me. I could call out his name and like a dog he would come to me and I could scratch him behind his ears. He was such a loving animal that you had to be careful because his eminence love could literally smother you. There were more than a few dents in our farm pickup with a distinct Jared shape, where Red became a bit to generous in expressing his love. But we could not take the love of Red for granted. We could not force Red to do things contrary to his own mind. When we needed to load cattle to move them to a different pasture, we could not force Red to go, we had to convince him. When we tried to force Red, he would snort, he would charge. There was one instance where Red came charging at me and I thought I was going to die, but instead of hitting me he jumped over the coral fence behind me. He cleared the fence that was seven feet tall without any trouble. That is the image of wrath.
“For law brings wrath,” Paul says, “but where there is no law there is no transgression.”
Is Paul rejecting the law? No. Paul loves the teachings of scripture. He quotes them, he tells the younger pastors that he trained that all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching and reproof. So what is Paul rejecting? Is he speaking of God, or of Man? Is he saying that anything and everything goes? No, the law brings snorts. These things annoy, they begin the process that leads to the use of the horns.
The question then is if it is God or man that is annoyed and wrathful. Paul, prior to this, speaks of righteousness. And almost exclusively the topic revolves around circumcision. This is an outward physical body modification that was used when God made his covenant with Abraham. This symbol we often associate with Israel, but they were not the only culture that used this form of body modification. The nations that surrounded Israel also practiced circumcision, but they did it differently and for a different reason. In Egypt only the priest participated in this ritualistic cutting, but they did not remove the skin only slit the skin. Among the Phoenicians, it was to ward off evil. To the people of Moab, circumcision was associated with marriage and fertility. This skin was taken and given to the wife so that she could bear his children. When Moses was going back to Egypt there is an incident where Moses’ wife is required to circumcise someone, and she calls God the bloody bridegroom. The passage is not clear as to whom she had to circumcise, if it was Moses himself or their son, but she is angry with God because God demanded the blood, and it was taken from her. Even outside the Near East there are cultural practices similar to this. Each culture has their own meaning. But what does it symbolize?
Most associate it with a marriage of sorts not between individuals but between God and humanity. The people of Israel are to do this to infants not adults, as other cultures did. And the Greek cultures saw this practice as obscene and immodest. In their perspective a circumcised individual was naked or exposed. Which philosophically provides more layers of thought. The Greeks outlawed the practice, and circumcision became a symbol of rebellion. And later after the Jewish people gained their independence from their Greek rulers during the Maccabean revolts, it became the law of the land. Every male living within Judea had to be circumcised, so that God would bless Israel. It did not matter if they were part of the religion or not. They forced compliance to this law.
This is the background of Paul’s argument. It is a mix between human mandates and the teachings of God. Some remember the brutality of the Hasmonean dynasty in this regard. They remember the teachings surrounding it. And the ritual that once held such meaning to the righteous people, became something akin to nationalistic scarification. There was no dedication other than to king and country. No faith, no repentance, no understanding, only obedience.
The law brings wrath, Paul says. This blind obedience, this adherence without knowledge and the nationalistic desires of theocratic statehood caused annoyance. It causes nostrils to flare and the nose to get hot. It annoys those that do not have belief and are being forced to follow, and it annoys those that do have belief because the ritual has lost its meaning. Eventually something will happen. There will be a revolt. There will always be a revolt because the requirement of obedience without the transfer of knowledge gives the perception of unjust control.
In other letters Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…for you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another… Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 5 & 6)
We are not to participate in injustice. We should not be provoking others, we should not be living in envy. We should not be looking out at those around us, seeing them as sources of ire and blaming them for everything wrong within our world. This is wrath, this promotes and provokes wrath. Not only does it annoy everyone around, but it annoys God. It annoys God because the way we exhibit our love and devotion to God is in how we treat those around us.
I want to go back to Red the bull. If you were to go out into the pasture he would show you his wrath, because he does not know you. He is a giant of a beast, and yet he is good. I can walk into the pasture and call out to him. With me, he is like a pet. I know what makes him happy, I know what makes him upset. I know Red, but even I have been subject to Red’s wrath.
The same is with every relationship. Your cats only allow so much loving before they get annoyed, and you end up with claws and teeth. Your spouse can only be pushed so far before they snap. You must learn how to write an essay to for each of your teachers, because they tend to focus on different things which are listed in the syllabus. We can provoke, we can annoy and then cry that we have been subject to wrath, but are we the victim or the cause? To prevent wrath, we need communication, we need understanding, we need convincement not mere obedience. Love God with all that you have and are, and your neighbor as yourself. Against such things there is no law.
This leads us to Paul’s point. It is faith, not law, not biology, but faith. I have spoken about faith many times over the years. There are three stages of faith. The first is belief. We have looked at the lives of those around us, and we have looked at the scriptures, and we believe it to be true. The second stage is trust. We believe, then start to put what we believe into action. We trust that God will provide so we give out tithes. We trust that God will direct our path forward, so we take the risk.
Then there is the third stage, we entrust. Entrusting goes beyond trust, because the reward is not sure, and the path is not clear. Entrusting our lives to God is that place of faith where we have a clearness to our path forward, we have assurance that it is right and yet those around us may have the same perception. It is in this place that we entrust our lives to God, fully devoted to His will, be it suffering or blessing. We entrust because we know that by living for him at that moment he will bring about the necessary changes. Abraham entrusted his life to God. And it was counted to him as righteousness. It did not make sense to the world. It did not even make sense to his own family, yet he moved forward entrusting that God was worthy of that trust. When we step back from seeking our own personal gain and entrust our lives, our property, our future to God we are walking in faith. When we encourage those around us to look beyond, to dig deeper, to trust just a bit more, we are walking in faith. Seeking not to control but instead to encourage change even when it seems contrary to what society desires, we are walking in faith. But why do we do it? Why? We do it because we know the one we are entrusting ourselves to. We know that God is similar to a lion or a bull. God can be provoked to wrath, but God is also good. God is slow to anger, abounding in mercy and grace, and will bless those that trust him.
Where do we stand? Will we entrust our lives to God? Will we live into the things that there is no law? Will we become a people Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others? Or will we be people of wrath?
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 14, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:1–8 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 07, 2026 Click here to join our meeting for worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 4:13–25 (ESV) 13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 31, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 2 Corinthians 13:11–14 (ESV) 11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
May 31, 2026
Click here to join our Meeting for Worship
2 Corinthians 13:11–14 (ESV)
11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The past few weeks I feel like I have been being fairly preachy. We have been using the lectionary since I have been a pastor here at Willow Creek. If you feel like I am being preachy, just know that the verses that I have chosen to speak with are verses that are on a three-year repeating cycle. I have not purposefully gone to the trouble of seeking these out, it is the scripture on the list. And that list of scriptures are based on a calendar that was established a thousand years ago, which was based on a calendar that has been used for over three thousand years.
This calendar uses the seasons of nature, to remind us of the goodness of God. It uses the cycles of light and darkness to tell us about judgment and hope. It uses the growing season to teach us about life, and what is most important about life.
We are now in the season of Pentecost or the first fruits. This season of the liturgical calendar falls at the harvest of the first crop. This first crop sets the stage for the entire year. When the first crop is good, the second crop will likely be good. If the second crop is good then we will survive through the winter.
But this season is interesting religiously. It is place near the beginning of what would be wheat harvest in that part of the world. Harvest is a stressful time of year. You have a short window of time to bring all the crops into the storehouses. If you do not get it done within that window of time the grain falls out of the head and to the ground. Or even worse the grain begins to sprout while still it remains unharvested leaving the grain unfit for human consumption. Yet right as the grain matures and harvest begins, God demands that all the righteous bring their offerings to the temple. He does not say put aside the offering to bring later. The practice is to harvest the tithe, load it up into baskets, pack up the entire family, and travel across the nation to the temple to present your tithe and sacrifices to the priests.
We live in the city here, we may not fully grasp how stressful this requirement is for someone whose entire existence hinges on moving the grain from the field to the storehouses. We get paid once or twice a month. Likewise, we know exactly how much we will get paid. We know that on payday we will get a check, go to the bank, and we will have money available to us to use for the expenses we face. It is probably not enough money, but we know we have it. A farmer does not get paid once or twice a month, they have one payday and that is harvest. They work the entire year, not knowing what the future will bring. For months, they watch the plant grow, they worry about the rain, the temperature. They worry about the birds, and storms. Each day the watch the plants grow, and then they begin to harvest. And at the time when just about a tenth of the harvest is brought in, they are encouraged to make a decision. They before God and their community must make some declaration. They announce that they have faith that God will provide, or they physically show their community their concern.
Once a year they get paid, and before that payday comes, they must declare their faith.
That is just one aspect of Pentecost. It is a public declaration of faith. It is declaring to the community that you will trust God. You will trust that God will provide for you, your family, and your community. You make that declaration not after the crops are in, but right as harvest begins. You enter into the most crucial time of your year, you begin, you stop, and you praise. Then you go home to finish.
Then second aspect of Pentecost is the giving of the law, or as the church recognizes the giving of the Holy Spirit. The law is the wisdom of God. We often look at it from a western mindset of law, but to the Hebrew mind it is not as ridged as we make it out to be. For them, it was a conversation starter. It was teaching that we were use and apply to everyday life. The Rabbi would ask the students what God meant by do not covet your neighbor’s ox and the disciples would begin to discuss it. Then the Rabbi would probe a bit deeper, “Does this only apply to an ox? Could it apply to a chicken?” They would then circle around that aspect, how the teaching provided through Moses would or would not apply. This law, or teaching, became the framework upon which they built their society.
There were times when the teaching of God were the primary focus of their thoughts, and there were eras where they fell away from that teaching and chased after the things of the world instead. This falling away lead Judea into exile. They lived in captivity for an entire generation, and during that time they had a reformation. The temple was gone, how do we remain God’s people when we no longer have his temple? This is where the teaching of the prophets became more important. They saw the teachings about God writing the law on their hearts, so they began to read and study. They became a people that embodied the wisdom instead of a people that just went through the actions.
While in exile they became scholars, it was in exile that the Rabbinical methods of faith emerged. And when they returned to Jerusalem this rabbinic tradition did not end. It actually expanded. But one tradition that was added to the Pentecost celebration was that the evening prior to the feast of first fruits, they would read the entire Torah. They would do this to remind themselves that they were a sanctified people, set apart from the rest of the world. They needed to remind themselves that they were the people of God.
But there was a problem. They looked forward to the advent of Messiah, but in their understanding of scripture, the Messiah would not come until all of Israel returned. The missing tribes were dispersed among the nations, how would they find those lost tribes? The Pharisees as much as we tend to dislike them, were active missionaries. They went to the dispersed areas teaching, because in their mind they were bringing the dispersed tribes back in. Along with those dispersed children of Israel, they also had Gentiles that were convinced in faith. This activity did not stop with the followers of Jesus, instead they too joined in the activities. They joined and expanded it. They were convinced that not only were the dispersed children of Israel to return to God, but all people. Scripture taught that they, the children of God were to become the light to the nations, that they were to bring all people back to God. They were to participate in the restoration of Eden.
This idea of Pentecost, is necessary for us to understand the fullness of today’s scripture. Paul, this former Pharisees that was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah they were looking for, made it his mission to go to the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel. God had inspired in him a desire to take the Gospel all the way to Spain, which they believed was the edge of Earth. They did know of places like America, or Australia. In their mind the earth consisted of Africa, Asia, and Europe. And Paul had this unquenchable desire to take the message of Christ to the edge of the world.
He says to the people of Corinth, “Finally, brothers, rejoice.”
In this first verse of today’s passage there are six commanding verbs. There are six imperatives. Six things we need to focus on to be able to experience the life that God has for us. That first thing is Joy. Rejoice Paul says. This is an emotional response to stimuli. I want us to consider that. Paul is encouraging, not merely encouraging, but commanding us to rejoice. He is commanding us to override every emotion coursing through our body to reformat it to joy.
This is ridiculous. This church was a church of division. It required not one but two letters to be written to it, because it was messed up. Some scholars even believe that there might have been a third letter. The narrative within the two letters at times has a disruption to in flow, and their theory is that maybe there was a third letter that somehow we only have a portion of. Either way multiple letters were written to this church. It is divided. It is filled with people that have different understandings of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Every time they get together, it seems as if the division only increases instead of decreases.
Yet as Paul closes the final letter to them, he commands them to rejoice. Rejoice in the trials, rejoice in the divisions, rejoice in the suffering.
It is ridiculous. How can I be filled with joy when I know that there is someone saying something I believe is wrong? How can I be filled with joy when there is someone out there questioning my devotion? How can I be filled with joy when there are people within this community that seem to actively be working against the very things I believe God is calling us to?
Yet Paul commands us to rejoice anyway.
This does not change the reality around us, but it changes our attention. We are commanded to rejoice, so that means we must actively find something to be joyful about. If I am going to rejoice amid the chaos of division I need to find that singular bright spot of hope and direct my attention there. We need to actively redirect our attention away from the negativity or the stresses that are pressing in on us and find something that we rally around.
This is not easy. It is difficult to see find joy when the world seems to be falling down around us. It is just as difficult to do that, as it was for a farmer on Pentecost to load baskets up with grain, at the beginning of harvest before they had full knowledge of what harvest might yield. It was hard for them to begin the harvest and then drop everything to go to a party, a feast, and a worship service. It is hard to trust that God will take that seemingly minuscule ember of joy and allow it to burn brightly.
Paul does not leave us there with that seemingly impossible task. He says, “Rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
In this verse Paul is telling us how to find joy so that we can live into the mandate to rejoice.
If you were to go to any therapist today what is the most common advice you might be given? Take care of yourself. If you want joy they tell you to find that joy in yourself. Even Christian counselors might give this advice. I am not saying it is completely bad advice, but it is incomplete. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, what the most important teaching of the entire Torah was, he said it was, “Love God with all that you have available to you, and to love your neighbor as yourself.” The world teaches us that to find joy, we must find in ourselves. Jesus’ teaching would say yes sure, but there are a few more steps. We need to take that self-love, that self joy, and extend it to others.
Both Paul and Jesus are telling us, that it is not about you. It is not about what you think is right, it is not about whom you think is right. It is not about your argument winning or losing. In fact, it has very little to do with you. If you want to find joy, if you want to truly find the things you desire, you must get outside yourself. And that begins with restoration.
The idea of restoration is fascinating when we begin to look at it deeper. On the surface we might look at this to simply be a healing of sorts. If there is division then restoration would be talking through those things that are causing division and finding a way to bridge the gap. But as I began looking into this a bit deeper, I found that this word was often used in a mathematical sense to indicate balance.
I want us to think about this for a moment. Paul is telling us to balance the equation. Equality.
Restoration is about balance and allowing each member of the society to have the opportunity to contribute to the community according to their ability. To aim for restoration means that we need to become aware of various barriers that have been placed in the way of participation. Examine why they are there, and then remove those barriers when we recognize them as hindrances instead of protective guides. Should there be barriers? Yes absolutely. There are times when it is necessary to have some barriers because without specific training one can cause harm. We need regulations to ensure that those practicing medicine know the arts and sciences of medicine. We need to make sure that those that prepare our taxes understand the tax laws so that we do not go to jail because of their mistakes. There are times when barriers are necessary. But are these barriers being applied ethically, are they being enacted morally and justly. Are the regulations and barriers of entry being applied equally? This is what aim for restoration is point toward. Are we working together to make our society reflect the mind of Christ where there are no slaves or free, no Jews or Greeks, no males or females, but we are equal image bearers of God?
Comfort one another is the third command or teaching. There are basically two senses to this phrase. The first is to encourage. It was the type of encouragement given to soldiers before they entered battle, like in the movie Braveheart. The second sense of the word is to provide encouragement to those suffering grief or loss. Generally we tend to focus on the second aspect of the word, but we need to remember that the primary command is to rejoice, so really both apply. If we are facing injustice we need encouragement to continue to stand through the persecution. When we have loss we need comfort from those within our community to tell us and show us that hope remains.
The fourth command or teaching is to agree with one another. This seems about as ridiculous as rejoice. I command you to agree with me! The point here is to come to an agreement, seek unity or to find a fitting compromise. The command is to agree with one another, not agree with me. No one person is greater than the other. Some might carry a bit more weight or clout within a community, but we are all image bearers of God. We are all equal in God’s sight. This means that even though I might be seen as a leader among you what I say is not the law. We must come to an agreement with each other. We should be mindful that as we make decisions we are taking the entire community’s best interest into account, not merely what is best for myself. The more proper understanding is to be of one mind, or in unity with each other.
The fifth command is to live in peace. This is a difficult concept, all of these are difficult. They are difficult because to fulfill these commands or teachings, we must participate with the community. We cannot do any of these things on our own. The idea of peace though is to live without conflict. How is it possible to live without conflict? This really goes back to the core teachings of God at Pentecost. God spoke from within the cloud as the people of Israel gathered at Mount Sinai and gave them the ten words, sayings, or commandments.
When you look at those ten teachings four focus on our relationship with God and six deal with our relationships with each other. And at the center of the ten is honor your father and mother, which is the only command that carries a blessing. To live at peace we need to recognize that, I do not have the right. I do not have the right or authority to extinguish the life of someone. I do not have the right to fulfill my carnal desires with someone’s spouse. I cannot take your property without your permission. We could go on, but the point is made. I do not have the right, but we think we do. I want money, so I am going to try my best to convince you that my inferior product is of greater value so that I can have more. That product breaks, you are mad, and you come after me to demand a refund. I am unwilling to listen.
When we think of peace we often only associate it with warfare, but it is so much more than that. Peace begins with each of us. It begins with us realizing that I do not have more or less rights than the person next to me. And we should recognize that if I want my personal rights preserved I need to make sure that my neighbor is also being treated with the same human dignity. And when conflict does arise we need to make every effort to resolve that conflict while respecting the dignity of all parties involved.
The person yelling at the customer service counter is not living in peace. The person being yelled at may not be right either. I know that this happens because when I was in college I would always ask my sister to return items to the store for me, because they would always tell me no. I could have the receipt be within a reasonable window of time, and they would still say no, yet they never questioned her. Living in peace is resolving conflict, it is respecting the dignity of other, it is applying the rights you have to everyone around you. To live at peace means we need to actively aim for restoration, comfort and encourage one another, find a path forward together, and to respect each other as fellow image bearers of God’s image even when we might have a difference of opinion.
Paul commands these things. He commands us to rejoice even thought we are not currently living in these things. He says this because they do not just happen. If you do not have joy today what are you doing to resolve that? Are we pursuing a lifestyle where we can find joy or are we living within a framework where we are instead focusing on everything wrong around us?
This brings us to our query this month. Do you abstain from the abuse of alcohol, drugs, and any other substance or behavior that might lead to addiction or dependence? Do you intelligently and lovingly use your influence to minister to those already damaged by such abuses?
We often look at these questions as legalism. We look at them from a context of organized religion seeking to suck the enjoyment out of life, but this is not the case at least for Friends. Our abstention from the use of alcohol began long before the work of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. We began to encourage those within our scope of influence to abstain from alcohol because it was an industry that often opposed the very things we promoted, particularly slavery. But there was something more than just slavery involved. There was a three part aspect to this industry. The first part was that Europeans would take manufactured goods, clothing, alcohol and weapons to Africa so that the various leaders could continue their wars. And they would trade humans for these good. They would then take these slaves to America where they would force them to produce the raw materials, and then they would take those raw materials back to Europe. This entire triad of trade, was dehumanizing.
It dehumanized the African’s, it dehumanized the factory workers that they forced to work in inhumane conditions, and it dehumanized the Americans. And who profited? The Africans were seen as less than human, the factory workers we kept drunk so they would remain compliant, and the colonies were not being enriched but the resources were being pillaged so that others could profit. This triad of trade is dehumanizing, and aspect of it continue to this day.
The point of the query is not to keep you from having fun, it is instead to encourage you to be mindful of your actions. Your dependence on things to allow you to cope or numb our awareness of the surrounding injustice instead of actively working to overcome and bring true peace within your life. The point of this query is to encourage us to recognize those areas within our life where we have not dealt with things in a healthy manner, to seek help, to be willing to offer assistance.
Paul commands us to rejoice. He commands us to aim for equality or equal opportunity. He commands us to seek resolutions together, and to honor the dignity of those around us. And then he gives us one final command. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
I have heard a lot of debate as to what this means. I actually find it humorous. I have heard people explain it away as just a culture greeting, likening it to a handshake in America. I laugh at this not because it is inaccurate. I laugh because there is a reason behind this cultural tradition. What is required of us to give and accept a kiss? We need intimacy between each other, a closeness where someone entering into our personal space is allowed. Then there is another thing, we have to be willing to breath the same air as they breathe for a while. We have to endure their bad breath, their perfume, their skin, and whiskers. We do not do this. We cannot do this unless there is true friendship and love for one another. For Paul to be able to greeting one another with a holy kiss is the sign that we are in a position to rejoice.
I have been preachy for the past few weeks, maybe months. I have been preachy because we are allowing division to occur. We are justifying things within our community that we have spent a great deal of time and energy to overcome. Friends have had equity as one of our core tenants for centuries, and that is now being questioned. Peace has been part of our testimony from the beginning and many want us to stop being so dramatic. Our decision-making methodology requires us to seek out the spirit and to come to a sense of the meeting, and so often we abuse that to grand stand on our own personal agendas or pet projects. We have forgotten who we are in so many ways, and it grieves my heart.
Yet there is hope. We have been in this place before. And we have found a way forward. We have found that way because of the grace of God. We have come together time and time again, seeking the will of God, and the Spirit been our guide. I may be grieved, but I still rejoice. I rejoice because I know that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is available to us. I rejoice because the same Spirit that preserved the saints of old through persecution is still active today. And that same Spirit is empowering us for the common good. I know even in my grieved heart that there is hope. I have faith that even in the darkest periods of disunity that we will once again be able to live in peace. And I pray that the peace will begin with us.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 24, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Corinthians 12:3–13 (ESV) 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 10, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 3:13–22 (ESV) 13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 03, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 2:2–10 (ESV) 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have…
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