In previous podcasts we’ve talked about the Bible teaching about God and the Holy Spirit. Now the Bible Bard turns our attention to Jesus. The first teaching about Jesus in this literature is that in his humanity, Jesus is subordinate to the Father. This means that while living on earth, Jesus lived under the authority and willing control of God. This is important because the texts describe Jesus as fully human. The human Jesus has no more spiritual power than other humans even though Jesus is related to the Father God in a unity that is above that of metaphor. Yet, as completely subordinate, he lives as no other human ever has, he is completely obedient to God the Father! So, texts that we read say that Jesus was dependent upon God in a way that a human child is dependent upon their parents to meet their needs. These sample texts indicate that Jesus was just like us in our own human limitations.

In our episode today, we ask what the Bible teaches about how to live our lives? We look at a few things Jesus said about living the good life.

The literature of the Bible can be divided by style or topic into six groups: Law (beginning of world to Moses), History (of Jews), Poetry, Prophets, Gospel, and Church. Therefore, when you read the Bible, you need to know where you are in these categories, who is speaking, who is the audience, and the topic or subject of any passage. If you know a little bit of grammar, a little bit about similes and metaphors, you can understand everything you read. Knowing a bit of world history, the story of empires and rulers, can enrich your understanding; because the stories told occurred during the times of Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kingdoms/civilizations.

Jesus said things that apply to all peoples at any time. He also said things primarily to a Jewish audience. Some of the things he said greatly impact the later message of the church.

Today’s podcast we look at the use of the term Holy Spirit in the Bible. Other monotheists, like those in Judaism and Islam, think of the term Holy Spirit as a synonym for God. Their God is indivisibly one. The monotheism of most Christians is more complicated. Their God is three distinct persons who are indivisibly one being! This is a very bizarre idea and couldn’t possibly be true unless it was a revealed concept. Because of this complication in the definition of God in his essence, we must be careful to stick to what the text says, without re-interpreting it according to some ideology. That is what we do in this episode.