April 2

Leviticus 5; Psalm 3-4; Proverbs 20; Colossians 3

Daily Catechism

QUESTION 61: WHAT IS FORBIDDEN IN THE THIRD COMMANDMENT?
Answer: The third commandment forbids all profaning and abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known.
Scripture: Exodus 20:7; Malachi 1:6, 7; Leviticus 20:3; 19:12; Matthew 5:34-37; Isaiah 52:5.

Psalm 4

v1.  This is huge because Christ is my righteousness and his past rescue is evidence of his future mercy. 
v3.  The Lord sets some apart for himself.  We do not do it…he does it.  These are those whom he hears.
v4.  Be angry and do not sin.  Contemplate your heart and reflect.  Be not so quick to move on to the next day.  See below for arcing of verses 2-5.

Click image to open larger view

v6.  The world looks for “good” in order to find happiness and contentment.
v7.  God’s elect trust him and can celebrate in all circumstances and he gives more true joy even in the midst of trouble. 
v8.  Because I am secure in Christ and I have a great and mighty God who cares for me and is merciful I know that I can rest well under his sovereign care. Let me remember each night to rest in your peace O God that I have by the blood of your Son.

Proverbs 20

 
v1.  Do not let wine control you.
v3.  It is honorable to avoid fighting and conflict for every fool seeks a fight
v4.  Plow in the autumn.  Work hard in the Lord
v5.  My desires and motives and purposes are deep inside and it take purposeful seeking and pondering and considering and thought to find my motives and to consider my sin and my misalignment of thoughts and attitudes.
v6.  It’s easy to claim how much I love the Lord or my wife but how does it display itself?
v7.  Let me walk faithfully Lord in the integrity of my heart with the righteousness that you assign to me from Christ.  Let my children be blessed after me O God.
11.  Let my conduct indeed be pure and upright O God for the sake of your name.
v13.  Sleep too much is not good!
v18.  Much counsel is good in difficult decisions where much is at stake
v22.  Don’t seek vengeance but leave it to the Lord and simply wait upon him

Colossians 3

v1-2. Correlate to Romans 2:7 and Romans 8:5-8. This is walking in the Spirit.
v3. See Romans 6:2-5.  Life hidden in Christ- this is beautiful and I take it to mean that all I am is wrapped up in Christ and that there is no treasure and nothing valuable in my life that is outside of Christ.  He is my all in all and there is nothing about me that is outside of him.  I have not a secular life and a church life.  Christ is my very life. 
v4.  When you walk like this it is evident that Christ is your life and when he appears you will also appear with him in glory.  This seems to reference the second coming where the saints come with him in the air.
v5. Be killing sin.  Put it to death- by violence seek to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit.  Rom 8:13.  This verse seems to focus on bodily pleasure seeking and maybe the covetousness here is the desiring of someone who is God's provision to another man.  The big lust problem of doubting God and questioning the appropriateness of his provision to you in wondering what you are missing elsewhere.  This is idolatry because I want something more than or other than God and his provision for me.  Focusing above put to death the things that pull your attention back down to earth.
v6. God's wrath is coming because of these things that trap our attention and steal us away from God. 
v7-11.  We once walked the same as these but note that this is no longer the case.  Something is categorically different about us now.  We have put away the old self- we are new creatures.  We are new and under a process by the spirit of God that is making us like Jesus.  It involves being renewed in our mind.  We are to be studying God's Word for this renewal see Rom 12:2, Rom 2:18  Also there are no categories among us but we are all one body in Christ and he is all for all of us.  We all have him and are united in him.
v12. Here he flips from talking about what not to do and he switches to the new self and the things that we now are to do. 
v13. Here he gives the imperative that we are to forgive since God forgave us. 
v14. The greatest virtue to define our new identity is love. 
v15. The result if putting these things on (and taking the others off) is that peace will reign.  We were called to this peace and it may speak of peace between man as it refers to us being one body.
v16. Here Paul urges that we study and know the Word in order that we may teach one another and that we might speak to Word of God to one another in song and that we might joyfully relate to one another with thankfulness to God in our hearts.
v17.  And in this teaching or admonishing or singing, let us do it in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God.  We aught to be giving thanks to God for the blessings of his Word and for the joy he gives us in one another.  We give thank to God for what he enables us to do in service of the body.
v18-25.  Here a teaching on domestic life that deserves more study.

Soli Deo Gloria!