@FirstChurchofJerusalem
Today's Early Church Wisdom
“I shall not hesitate also to put into ordered form for you, along with the interpretations, everything I learned carefully in the past from the elders and noted down carefully, for the truth of which I vouch. For unlike most people, I took no pleasure in those who told many different stories, but only in those who taught the truth. Nor did I take pleasure in those who reported their memory of someone else’s commandments, but only in those who reported their memory of the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and proceeding from the Truth itself. And if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders arrived, I made enquiries about the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip or Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and John the Elder, the Lord’s disciples, were saying. For I did not think that information from the books would profit me as much as information from a living and surviving voice.
~ Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60–130 AD) From the Preface to his lost ‘Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord’
This week's Psalm is Psalm 31 'My Rock, My Shield, My Song'

The Right Moment

When Jesus says to John the Baptist, “Let it be so now…for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), the Greek text (ἄφες ἄρτι…πληρῶσαι πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην, aphes arti…plērōsai pasan dikaiosynēn) carries a profound and layered force: “Allow it at this decisive moment” (ἄρτι implying a divinely appointed “now”) and “to complete / bring to fullness every aspect of God’s righteousness.” This was a divinely appointed moment; it was THE moment! In this context, the term dikaiosynē means not merely moral goodness but full alignment with God’s will, purposes, and covenant plan. Or as the great healing evangelist and apostle of faith to South Africa, John G Lake, put it, “total consecration”. As someone once said, “If Jesus is not Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all.” Let us not be content simply to call ourselves disciples but let us be those who give our all to Him who gave His all for us.