Life isn’t fair! We all learn that at an early age, don’t we? If we expect most things we encounter in life to be unfair, we won’t be too disappointed. Even though I know this, sometimes unfairness can still take me by surprise.

In this verse, Paul advised Christian masters to be just and fair to their slaves and to remember they also had a Master in heaven. Even though slavery itself isn’t fair (it’s evil), because of the fairness of God, anyone in a position over someone has the responsibility to be kind and considerate to him or her. Because God is fair to us, we must remember to treat others  fairly.

As I’ve written before, we don’t have to ask for God’s presence when we pray. Because he lives in Christians, his presence is a constant. This verse explains how and why – God reconciled us to himself through the death of Christ and as a result, he has brought us into his presence. By his shed blood, he has made us holy (set apart) and blameless.

This is one more example of how God has done everything for us. Not only are we incapable of doing anything to gain or further our salvation, there’s no need – he has done it all.  Just as a parent would make sure all is prepared for a son or daughter to come home after a long absence, he’s taken care of everything. That’s how much he loves us.

Many think love is a feeling. Some have figured out it’s a choice and a commitment. It can be both, but from God’s point of view, it’s a fruit of his Spirit, a gift from the Spirit and it’s who God is. Sometimes even Christians aren’t very loving so it’s good to realize God is the one who gives us love out of himself and fills us with himself, as we (by his power in the Spirit) surrender our wills to his.

Most religions feel the need to give people work to do to keep them in the mode of earning their place in heaven. Fear of losing out or even having a lesser position or reward is a way of keeping them under control. Legalism perpetuates the cycle of obey, disobey, fearfully repent, obey, ad infinitum. The conditioned response becomes one of work harder, do more, repent deeper.

This verse has always been encouraging to me, especially in those times I have willfully or even accidentally (OK, it’s rarely accidental) done something wrong. It’s impossible for us to stop sinning on our own and at times, equally impossible to want to stop. Thankfully God works in us, giving us not just the power to please him but the desire. Oh how he knows us!

Proverbs is full of wise one liners and pithy sayings. A thorough study of the book would be helpful to anyone seeking wisdom and an understanding of life.  We are advised to love wisdom like a sister (Proverbs 7:4), to prize and embrace her (4:8) and that she is more precious than rubies (3:15).

The craftsmen in Exodus were filled with the spirit of wisdom. God is the Spirit of wisdom and when he gives us wisdom, he is in effect filling us with himself. He is wisdom and he is our wisdom.

In some mythical Greek and Roman stories, the gods cause mischief and take great delight in watching the helpless humans deal with the mayhem.

God isn’t like that – he doesn’t amuse himself by causing us trouble. Rather, he enjoys our successes and provides everything we need for life. When we ask for daily bread, we acknowledge his sovereignty and our dependence on him. When we ask for wisdom, we humble ourselves before the one who IS wisdom and he freely gives it. The wise are the ones who know where it comes from and who to ask.

We tend to think of wisdom in terms of lessons learned by older folks, like don’t get involved in a land war in Asia (sorry, couldn’t resist quoting from Princess Bride). There are many kinds of wisdom and it doesn’t only come from the elderly. Wisdom can come from anyone, at any age and in any circumstance. Some even believe in the wisdom of animals.

God is the source of all wisdom, and gives it freely. As this verse says, his wisdom is rich in variety and he uses his church (his body) to display it. We don’t always do a good job of that, but maybe we are looking for wisdom in ourselves. His wisdom is on display, not ours, which means it doesn’t look like ours and often may not even be apparent except to those unseen rulers and authorities Paul mentioned. The wisdom of God is rich in variety and often way above our heads. Thankfully he shares it with us if we will only ask (James 1:5).

Riches, treasures, wealth - the stuff of dreams. A sunken ship was recently discovered, holding billions of dollars worth of treasure. There will no doubt be some arguing about who owns what, but the discoverer will get a nice share of the booty.

Loving money hasn’t made anyone happy. It seems to cause more heartache and grief than anything else. But the riches in Christ are the best kind and don’t lead people to shoot, sue or hate anyone. His riches are unfathomable to our three dimensional minds but he has given us a taste now to whet our appetites for more. Salvation by grace, knowing God, the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), being in Christ – these are some of God’s treasures we can only understand in part now, through the proverbial dark glass, but which we will fully experience when we receive eternal life. We can’t even imagine the “endless” part!

Everyone loves to receive gifts. Even though we’ve all heard it’s more blessed to give than receive, do we really believe it? After all, what can be more exciting than anticipating and then opening a lovely gift?

God is the original gift-giver. We can’t out give him and in reality have nothing to give. Everywhere we look we see his gifts – the earth and all it holds, the beauty of life, love and relationships, mates, babies, friends. The best gift of all is the gift of salvation but sometimes the hardest thing is to accept it for what it is. It truly comes with no strings attached, no conditions, no quid pro quos. When God gives a gift, we are the ones who are blessed and in receiving, bless him back by accepting it with gratitude and grace.

Those of us who aren’t rich wonder what it would be like to have so much wealth we could do whatever we dreamed and never have to worry about being on a budget. It sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Our God is rich – everything belongs to him, all the precious metals and gems and every resource this earth holds. The riches that mean the most are the intangible ones: his mercy, kindness, wisdom, strength and grace. These are the riches he shares with us by giving us life when he raised Jesus from the dead. He doesn’t wait for us to do anything; we can’t earn it or perform for it like a dancing bear. We have been saved by his grace and that makes us the wealthiest ones on earth.