IN SONG AND IN PRAISE LET US PROCLAIM TO ALL NATIONS THE MERCY AND THE LOVE OF GOD
Verse:
But when the kindness of God our Saviour and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly– through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7 NASB1995
Song: The love of God is greater far: Written by Frederick Martin Lehman
The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.
Refrain: Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure- The saints’ and angels’ song.
When hoary time shall pass away, And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, When men who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call, God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong; Redeeming grace to Adam’s race- The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.
Songwriters: Robby Shaffer/Jim Bryson/ Mike Scheuchzer/Nathan Cochran/Bart Millard/Pete Kipley image: pixabay.com/en/tatras-mountains-sky-clouds-haze-2470928/ expression by kaycude 03/23/21 AD
I received this question in my comment section. Here is the question and my answer. I thought it was a good one. See what you think:
Q. I was convicted by the article about gossip, but wondered if you could explain how warning about a person (ie. Beth Moore) is different than gossip. Thank you.
A. Good question. Today’s climate has become so sensitive that anything that is said negatively about another person is screamed to be GOSSIP! (or slander). If warning something negative about a false teacher like Beth Moore is gossip, then Paul gossiped when publicly called out in his letters Alexander, Philetus, Hymenaeus, Demas, Phygelus, and Hermogenes; or John against the Nicolaitans. The instructions in Matthew 18 for church discipline where two go to confront a person in their sin, or if they have to confront the person in front of the church as we are instructed in some cases, would also be gossip.
We are told in Ephesians 5:12-12 Do not participate in the useless deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
Warning the sisters or sharing with your pastor is one way to expose them.
Let’s understand the terms, first. I found this definition online: “casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.”
Meanwhile, discernment is a conscious effort to consider the right and wrong of a situation based on biblical doctrinal or behavioral standards.
Gossip: “I heard that Susie is having an affair and her husband is considering a divorce!” (unsubstantiated negative news and unnecessary to repeat).
Gossip: “Susie told me she flunked the Bar Exam again!” (substantiated because it came from the primary source, but unnecessary to repeat)
Not Gossip: “Pastor, Elder John confirmed to me he is having an affair and divorcing Susie, and he refused to repent when I and Jim confronted him about it”. (Substantiated and necessary to repeat to proper authority as per 1 Timothy 3:2, Matthew 18).
Not Gossip: “Pastor I need to let you know that John, who has recently come to our church and applied for membership and to serve in Kids Club, has a record of child sexual molestation in another state according to that state’s online sex registry, and he is hiding this fact from you.” Obvious why this substantiated information needs to be repeated to proper authority.
While many people warn others about the dangers of a particular false teacher’s teaching, sermons, Bible studies etc, when we begin warning because of their lifestyle, the claim that someone is gossiping becomes more heated.
Yet we are to watch both life and doctrine. Most of the qualifications for teachers of the faith are behavioral. 1 Timothy 3:1-7 has it as well as Titus 1:5-9. Behavioral standards for youths, women, and slaves are contained in Titus 2, among other places (Proverbs, etc).
Joel Osteen is known for his false teachings of the prosperity gospel, (doctrine) but Mark Driscoll was disqualified mainly due to his unbiblical behavior (behavior).
Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. (Titus 2:3-5).
While all gossip is bad, the verse here emphasizes “malicious gossip”. The meaning in Greek is a “false accuser; unjustly criticizing to hurt (malign) and condemn to sever a relationship.” The intention is to hurt another person or to harm a relationship.
Jesus said to test the fruit of the teachers’ lives (Matthew 7:15–20) and this includes behavior- good fruit or bad fruit. Paul urged the Thessalonians to test his fruit in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, saying just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sakes and then in verse 6 Paul urged the congregation to imitate him. His behavioral witness was part of his qualification.
While it is harder to know what kind of men (or women) they prove to be if they are a celebrity Bible teacher and you know them only by online works, it is still possible to make an assessment and to substantiate it (test the fruit). Except, be careful not to spread secondhand news, OR to spread news of a behavior that has happened only once or twice. Be patient, look for a pattern, like the police look for a MO (modus operandi, which means “mode of operating”.)
Mainly, we can test if it’s gossip vs. a warning if the information is true, if the information be substantiated, and if it is necessary to repeat. Warning someone about a false teacher, if that has been substantiated, is necessary. It’s actually commanded. It would be like if the Sheriff came to your neighborhood homes to warn about an escaped convict in the area and gave you the details of his behavior and what he looks like, and you told him that this is gossip and you won’t listen. The sheriff came to you for your protection. It’s the same with discernment, warning about an evildoer outlaw is for your spiritual protection.
Keep the questions coming, I appreciate them. Finally, I thought this was a good link explaining the difference:
Article by Matt Mitchell: The Scriptures do not provide a definition of gossip in one location. Instead, they describe gossip in action and intimately tie it to the character of the people participating in this tantalizing sin. The Bible often uses the word gossip to describe a kind of person more than just a pattern of communication. FMI- What is Gossip? Exposing a Common and Dangerous Sin
Building and curating a home library does not have to cost a fortune. I have a small and limited income but I haunt library book sales, swaps, deals, have a Wish List, and over 15 years I’ve amassed a home library of 1200 books. If you are a homeschooling family or just a reading family, I know the struggle. See this post on Facebook of Charlotte Mason Poetry-
Monopoly, the eternally long board game we all know and love, or hate. Who invented it? What iterations has it undergone since 1903? Here are some Facts about the Monopoly board game
Growing up, I lived next to a large, historic cemetery. I’ve always had a penchant for quietude, and the cemetery was relaxing and quiet. I used to ride my bike up and down the orderly rows, read Nancy Drew under a tree, and occasionally wander among the tombstones and read them. My young mind didn’t really make a connection between death of these people under the ground and my own death someday.
My family owned a string of funeral homes, but of course I was never allowed in the embalming room and I never saw a dead body. I did used to play in the casket room. Those ‘boxes’ were lined with pretty satin and had cute satin pillows in them. But still, those shiny satin lined mahogany boxes and death were not a connection point to me.
EPrata photo
It wasn’t till Pompeii came to Boston that I stared death in the face…and knew death would come for me one day.
In the early 1970s some high schools still offered a classical education. In my Junior and Senior years I took electives such as Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Latin. By my second year of Latin I was in my senior year of high school. It was then that the huge discovery at Pompeii was revealed to the world in the form of the traveling exhibition “Pompeii A.D. 79”.
Boston was only an hour from my school so field trips to that city were common. In 4th grade our class went to Plymouth to see the Mayflower. Boston afforded us Rhode Island students lots of cultural opportunities.
The exhibition “Pompeii A.D. 79” spent a year first in Boston in 1978, then Chicago and Dallas. The traveling exhibit included include wall paintings, mosaics, marble sculptures, pottery, glass, gold and silver jewelry, and something else, something that captured my imagination and brought home death to me like no other. The plaster casts of people and animals contorted in death by the sudden flood of gas and cinders that erupted from Vesuvius on Aug. 24, A.D. 79, as described by the NY Times.
“Pompeii, A.D. 79” at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts reinforces a belief common to nearly all of us: that one day Nature will cry “Enough!” and gobble us up. A sinister fascination attaches therefore to the Roman city of Pompeii, which was swallowed up entirely and without warning on a fine day in August nearly 2,000 years ago. Pompeii on the morning of that day was a combination of Scarsdale and Acapulco: a place where people lived very well in surroundings of sensational natural beauty. By nightfall on that same day it was dead and gone, buried beneath layer upon layer of ash, pumice and volcanic mud: and not until the 1730’s did people try to find out what was underneath.
Rome, Not Pompeii. EPrata photo
I have to say, the New York Times back in the day sure could write well.
As an impressionable and naïve teenager, I looked at those plaster casts of the people who died in contorted positions, in agony, hugging one another or simply dead in the street alone…death stared me in the face. Slapped me silly and laughed in maniacal glee. Whispers of “you, too, someday!” echoed in my spirit.
This was the first time I really started to think about death as a personal thing. Not an abstract thing, not a dad’s business thing. Personal. Like, I may die. At the Pompeii exhibit I was looking at people where death had gobbled them up in an instant! Whoa! Woe!
This notion haunted me for another 25 years, but after a while as the shock of Pompeii wore off I suppressed it (in unrighteousness). It reared its head when a teaching colleague retired but then died quickly of cancer. I pondered the meaning of life. As an adult, other than that one colleague who had died, death was remote to me, so it was easy to suppress the concept.
EPrata photo
It was also easy to suppress the logical next questions- what happens after we die? Where do we go? Why does every culture have a concept of the afterlife, if the afterlife is not real? Is there a God in charge of the afterlife? How does that work? Who does he let in and who gets left out? On what basis?
These I assure you are the questions roaming around in corners of my brain, springing into consciousness once in a while to startle and perplex and honestly, plague me. So it is with every unsaved person. Romans 1:18-19 says it, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
EPrata photo
If a culture does agree there is a god, they make them up. The NYTimes article further explains, in a way that is to this now saved person painful and sad:
They [Pompeiians] also had a great sense of home. Home for them was half in and half out of doors, and it was presided over by household gods of a frisky and convivial kind. Many of those gods are indeed personified in the Boston show as fun people: rakish little figures cast in bronze, they seem to be egging the householder on to enjoy himself while he still can. Even Jupiter at Pompeii was not so much a figure of awe as a convivial chairperson who made the evening seem all too short.
If you have to agree there is a god, make him foolish, make him human-like, above all, make him non-threatening! The Romans 1 verse clearly says the wrath of God abides on all of us who have not come to saving faith. Intuitively, we know this but we suppress it. To salve our conscience, we make gods we can live with.
In His mercy and grace, God delivered to me the faith that saves, knowledge of my sins and the wrath to come. The fact that “God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).
Death WILL gobble me up someday. Not “Nature” with a capital letter, lol. Not “The Universe”. God himself who determines the number of our days, saved and unsaved, will call us to our final place. I am grateful the eternal question about death is finally resolved for me. I will go to Jesus and dwell with Him forever in joy. You can too, if you have repented of your sin and acknowledge Jesus as the Lord.
Colossians 2:18a “Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humilityand the worship of angels”
Take that phrase, ‘delight in humility’? How do we ‘delight in humility’? It’s an attribute, it is part of our personality (hopefully). If we focus on it enough to be delighting in it, doesn’t that contradict what humility is? Rendering it moot?
Yes.
Other translations besides the NASB which I use, is KJV- “voluntary humility” or NKJV which says- “false humility”. The idea is, that the humility Paul warns about isn’t a genuine attribute in the person, but a false display. A performance.
It means “to indulge himself in a humility of his own imposing” says Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
False teachers love to tell you about their allegedly holy attributes. But doesn’t telling you about their humility contradict what humility is? Rendering it moot?
Yes.
This is where I warn us all again, don’t assess a teacher solely by what she says. Watch what she does. And vice versa. Both must match up- what they say and what they do.
*Genuine* humility, that is
Others who are more subtle don’t outright tell you that they are humble, but perform it. How?
“The meaning is, that they would not announce their opinions with dogmatic certainty, but they would put on the appearance of great modesty. In this way, they would become really more dangerous – for no false teachers are so dangerous as those who assume the aspect of great humility, and who manifest great reverence for divine things. ]They] had pleasure in attempting, to search into the hidden and abstruse things of religion. They were desirous of appearing to do this with an humble spirit – even with the modesty of an angel – but still they had pleasure in that profound and dangerous kind of inquiry.” ~Barnes’ Notes on Colossians 2:18.
Matthew Henry explains one method the false ones use to display their false humility, Colossians 2:18,
“v. 18. It looked like a piece of modesty to make use of the mediation of angels, as conscious to ourselves of our unworthiness to speak immediately to God; but, though it has a show of humility, it is a voluntary, not a commanded humility; and therefore it is not acceptable, yea, it is not warrantable: it is taking that honour which is due to Christ only and giving it to a creature.“
What they are really saying is, “I am smarter than God. He commanded us to come boldly to the throne. But instead, I will go poorly thru an angel, saint, or Virgin Mary…” It is outright disobedience, but couched in humble terms that are not genuine. Don’t be fooled. Be vigilant. If someone keeps telling you how humble they are, it’s a first clue. If someone says ‘we can’t know the Bible for sure, let’s not be arrogant in interpreting it’ it’s a clue.
More on this idea of false humility in subsequent blogs.
The word hypocrite means “from Greek hypokritēs actor, hypocrite, from hypokrinesthai, 13th century. 1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion 2: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.” Source Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary.
Did you know that Moses was a hypocrite? The most humble man on earth? (Numbers 12:3). The one God called His friend? (Exodus 33:11).
Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his fellow Hebrews and looked at their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his fellow Hebrews. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no one around, he struck and killed the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand. Now he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, “Why are you striking your companion?” But he said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known!” (Exodus 2:11-14).
I think it’s safe to say that according to the definition of hypocrite, Moses briefly was “a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.” He murdered a man and hid it, therefore Moses had no leg to stand on when he rebuked the other men of beating a third guy. ‘You rebuke us of striking a man when you just killed one?!’ They were right. Moses did not have the moral ground here.
How about Lot? Called righteous (2 Peter 2:7), Lot begged the homosexual men at his door not to act wickedly-
But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, 7and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. 8Now look, I have two daughters who have not had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in as a foreigner, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against Lot and moved forward to break the door. (Genesis 19:6-9).
Lot might have been (nominally) righteous, agonized in his spirit for the perversity around him, but he also loved living the comfortable, carnal life in Sodom. These homosexual men tolerated Lot until he rebuked them personally, and they flung Lot’s own hypocrisy right back at him. ‘You live the carnal life here in Sodom, enjoying its pleasures and then try to rebuke us?!’ In addition, out of one side of his mouth Lot called them wicked for wanting to fornicate outside of marriage with men, but then offered them his daughters for fornication outside of marriage. BOTH acts are “wicked.” Lot did not have any moral ground to stand on.
Often, other people see our sins and foibles much earlier and clearly than we see ourselves. 1700s Scottish poet Robert Burns famously wrote “To a Louse“. He was in church one Sunday and the upper class lady in front of him, decked out in her Sunday best, and wearing a hat, did not know that a louse was crawling around in her hair and on her bonnet. She was attracting stares and thinking they were approving stares she tossed her head with pride. She didn’t see that she had vermin on her which she could not see, but others could. He ends his poem thus (translated),
O would some Power the gift to give us To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion: What airs in dress and gait would leave us, And even devotion!
Yes, to see ourselves as others see us, would free us from many a blunder. But God DID gives us a mirror, the Bible. If we look in it, we see ourselves both as we are (sinning vermin) and as He sees us (righteous stumbling sheep). We do need constant reminding of our fleshly estate so that we persist in slaying our fleshly sin. The lesson here today is two-fold and simple-
1.Don’t be a hypocrite, live as you say and speak. We should not put on one face for the outside world and another private one. God sees both faces. And many times, others see the gap between what we say and what we do and rightly assess us as hypocrites. Our job is to kill sin so that gap shrinks over time.
2.Read the Bible to constantly remind us of our gracious God who lifts us up and transforms us from vermin to brethren.
Everyone is a victim these days. ‘Someone did this to me,’ or ‘Someone did that to me’. People use victimhood as a reason or cover for their poor actions. You would not believe how many Youtube police action videos where the person stopped for traffic violations uses PTSD as a reason they were speeding/weaving/eluding.
If someone is easily offended or had something minor happen to them, again the victimhood comes out. ‘You would not believe who cut in front of me at the grocery store!’ “I can’t get over that text she sent me!’ They milk their pity to anyone who would listen. I know people like that. I’m sure you do too.
Even if someone had a violent crime done to them or a legitimate complaint, some people tend to milk it and point to their emotional or physical wounds for far too long after or use it as a justification for things they shouldn’t.
You know who never pitied Himself? Jesus. We cannot imagine Him saying anything like, ‘When I was in the desert 40 days, all alone, that ole devil harassed me to no end! It was so aggravating!’
He never complained about the thousands of people who only followed Him for the freebies but quit Him when the freebies dried up.
He never pouted to the disciples that ‘After all I did for Judas, he betrayed me!’
I recently wrote about emotions that Jesus experienced. As the God-Man, He felt and displayed emotions. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), is the shortest verse in the Bible but packs a punch. For example, in that scene, He is looking at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He wept visibly.
Our Lord’s weeping reveals the humanity of the Saviour. He has entered into all of our experiences and knows how we feel. In fact, being the perfect God-Man, Jesus experienced these things in a deeper way than we do. His tears also assure us of His sympathy; He is indeed “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary.
Today we look at emotions Jesus never displayed.
Jesus was empathetic toward others, ministering to the physical and spiritual pain they experienced.
Jesus suffered more than any person born on this earth then or now. His suffering on the cross was monumental and incomprehensible, yet He ministered to His own mother by ensuring she had a place to live and would be taken care of by John.
But none of Jesus’ emotions were never sinful. Evoking pity from others is a self-centered act, designed to bring attention and favor upon one’s self. Jesus is our model. He only sought the good and uplifting of the frail sheep. He sympathized with us in our weakness, ministered to physical and spiritual needs.
Self-pity is oft-putting. Sure, we can mourn for a bit, we can grieve for the wrong done to us, briefly. But don’t camp on it. And certainly don’t make it a lifestyle or a constant topic of conversation.
I learned this lesson in reverse when I lived on a sailboat for 2 years. We sailed from Maine to Florida, crossed the Gulf Stream, and continued down to the Tropics. Then came back up. We thought ourselves pretty good sailors, navigating without incident and arriving at Georgetown Bahamas. But you know what? Along the way we saw people in smaller boats doing the same thing. We saw a grandmother rowing! Then we saw a a couple in their kayaks! So, we dispensed with the smugness and private boasting, because firstly, people were accomplishing the same thing as us except in a more challenging way, and secondly, we are all enjoying the same sunset.
So in reverse-reverse, if I decide to pity myself, I know there are people out there who have experienced things that are worse, more chronic, more evil. Who am I to try and garner pity? My wounds feel bad to me, but are much lighter than others’. Let me minister to them.
Jesus Himself endured all, for us. Let me hand my wounds over to Him and go on with life with joy. Then I am better able to help others. I pray you are able to do the same.
Anger: Mark 3:5, After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
He was angry at hypocrites, namely, the Pharisees, and He overturned the tables and cleansed the temple. His anger wasn’t a wild, uncontrolled anger tough, it was a righteous anger.
Compassion: Now Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” Matthew 15:32
Mark 1:42, Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
Sorrow: And when Jesus saw that [the Rich Young Ruler rejected Him] he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! KJV, Luke 18:24.
Exasperation/Frustration: And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” Matthew 17:17
Matthew 8:26, He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.
Tiredness/Exhaustion, John 4:6, and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Love: Looking at him, Jesus showed love to him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Mark 10:21
Joy: At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for doing so was well pleasing in Your sight. Luke 10:21.
Jesus felt joy in serving His Father: Hebrews 12:2, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Marveled: And He was amazed at their [Nazarenes] unbelief. Mark 6:6.
In Matthew 8:10 Jesus said, Now when Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”
Emotions never recorded: Jesus is never astonished. Why? He can’t be. He knows the end from the beginning. Nothing surprises him or startles Him. We never read of Him feeling sorry for Himself. More on that tomorrow.
We are grateful to a Savior who at all points felt the pressure of temptation, yet never sinned in thought, word, or deed. He knows and understands when we feel anger, frustration, sorrow. He rejoices with us when we triumph over sin or feel joyous empathy for another. He is a good, good God.
We humans feel, we are emotional beings. Monitor what you feel today, and think about why. Is our anger righteous or sinful? Were we feeling sorry for ourselves for a selfish reason, or are we legitimately down, yet trusting the Lord? Emotions are part of who we are, but they don’t have to lead us. In fact, our emotions should not lead us. Jesus felt emotions, but the right ones at the right time. let us do our best to copy His model.
Today we have a scene in Luke. There was a centurion, not named, who had a slave who this centurion regarded highly. The centurion is only known by his profession, but his words are recorded. Further the centurion, a gentile no less, was commended by Jesus for his “great faith.”
Jesus Christ was very ready to show kindness to the centurion. He presently went with them (v. 6), though he was a Gentile; for is he the Saviour of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, Rom. 3:29. The centurion did not think himself worthy to visit Christ (v. 7), yet Christ thought him worthy to be visited by him; for those that humble themselves shall be exalted. (Source: Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible).
A Roman Centurio on a portrait medaillon of his grave, 2nd century A.D. from Flavia Solva. CC Wikipedia
We read actually of four centurion in the Bible.
Cornelius, a god-fearing centurion who Peter baptizes and is the pivot point of the beginning of the spread of the gospel to Gentiles (Acts 10–11).
A centurion who was present at Jesus’ crucifixion and identified Jesus as the Son of God, Mark 15:39 and Matthew 27:54, as innocent as per Luke 23:47.
A centurion whose slave Jesus heals from a distance, Jesus praises his faith (Matthew 8:5–13; Luke 7:2–10).
Julius of the Imperial Regiment to whom Paul was turned over, (Acts 27:1) and who “treated Paul with consideration and allowed him to go to his friends and receive care”. v. 3
Roman centurion were known as brutal military men in battle. They lived an orderly lifestyle. They were also known as ingenious engineers, fearless leaders, intelligent and brave.
AI generated illustration of a Roman Centurion
A Roman centurion carried the following equipment: a short sword called a Gladius as well as two spears called Pilum (plural, Pila). Body armor was fashioned from leather and a metal, usually bronze and iron. Metal hoops were tied to a leather harness, resembling later metal armor. He had a helmet called a galea topped with a crest, made of horsehair and sometimes dyed red. He had a shield called a scuta, which was large and heavy. His cape was held together across his neck by a brooch.
This shield is the only known surviving example of the examples known as a scutum. It was found at Dura Europos. Roman soldiers used round, oval, and rectangular shields as military evolution progressed. Source Wiki, CC
What was life like for a centurion?
A centurion was a soldier, but not just any soldier. He was a lifetime soldier, this was his life’s profession. He advanced through the ranks, accumulating authority along the way. A centuria was the smallest unit of a Roman legion. A legion was usually composed of 6,000 soldiers. Each legion was segmented into 10 cohorts, with each cohort containing 6 centuria. The centurion commanded about 100 men. If you wonder about the word centuria of 100 soldiers, and ‘century’ meaning 100, this is where we get the word from.
Here is a picture of it. All the soldiers in the illustration are a legion. Each colored column of men is a cohort. Each of the 6 squares in the cohort contain 1 centuria, with a centurion leading it. Source. The initials CT on the left mean Centurion. O is Optio, the centurion’s second in command.
The red box indicates the men a centurion would command.
Pause for a minute to think of the poor demon possessed Gadarene man in Mark 5:8-9. When Jesus asked the demon’s name, he said we are many, our name is legion. So that is about how many demons possessed the poor man!
The three main categories of ranks in a Roman legion were centurions, tribunes who commanded the cohort and were above a centurion, and prefects. Prefects administered things like a quartermaster does in our terms, but could command if senior officials were absent. The Legion Legate was the commander of the whole legion. We read of tribunes in the Bible. In some versions Acts 21 mentions it was a Tribune of a cohort who arrested Paul at the temple in Acts 21.
So the centurion has authority over 100 men. He himself is under authority to the Tribune who commands the cohort, and above him was the Legate who commanded the legion. See, I told you the life of a Roman was under layers of orderly hierarchical authority.
So when the Centurion said to Jesus, “For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under myself; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.'” (Luke 7:8). The centurion was saying he possesses authority to command men, and he is also under authority and must obey commands of those above him.
Centurions were paid more than a regular solider. Career opportunities to advance in rank awaited him, based on performance. They were supposed to be strict toward the men below them, and responsible for training them in the military arts, the success of which, the entire cohort and then the legion depended upon when action came their way.
From scripture we know that centurions helped maintain peace- they quelled riots and protected citizens (Acts 21:32 ESV). They accompanied prisoners, such as Centurion Julius sailing with Paul for Italy. They oversaw execution of criminals (Acts 23:47). This centurion who had asked for his slave to be healed, was the same one who built the city’s synagogue. (Luke 7:5). Idle soldiers tend to get into trouble, so, often the Roman army would have the soldiers build or repair buildings or roads in between battles. This kept the men in shape, in addition to the centurion training the men.
God used a centurion as the pivot in His plan to bring Jews and Gentiles together into one body under His New Testament Gospel. Cornelius the centurion of the Italian band is considered to be the first pagan convert after the Resurrection. (Some say it was the Ethiopian eunuch, but I side with Cornelius). He had been a God-fearer, the name Jews gave to Gentiles who worshiped Yahweh and held to the food laws. Cornelius was “a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews” (Acts 10:22).
The Lord graciously converted this centurion. He then brought Peter to Cornelius. The societal laws were now moot (Peter said it would have been unlawful to go to a Gentile’s house, but could go to Cornelius as per the vision, Acts 10:28), and that the food laws were now moot (Acts 10:11).
A Roman centurion living in Judea converted to the God of Israel! We serve a great, GREAT God.
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