Lenten Devotional (12) and Athanasius

The end of devouring someone is that your appetite will consume you.

Interestingly, the law of mutual destruction is a consistent biblical doctrine:

“If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” -Galatians 5:15

Sometimes, we think we gain by devouring others with our words. We certainly don’t want others to escape our conception of true justice. Of course, we happen to be the devout judges in this affair.

The ‘biting’ can reference offensive language, false accusations, slander, etc. To ‘devour’ someone is to consume their well-being, leaving them defenseless and ashamed. These methods vary significantly from the biblical remedy of speaking the truth in love. Love protects one another. Yet, according to Paul, when church members engage in such activities, they dig their own graves for themselves.

The end of devouring someone is that your appetite will consume you. It is a profound idea to remember this Lenten Season that Jesus could have quickly devoured those nearest to him, yet he fulfilled the commandments (Gal. 5:14) and loved them even to the point of death.

Let us repent of biting and devouring one another as the Lenten Season carries its blow to our pride. May we rightly repent and turn from the addiction of destroying others, for that addiction leads to death.

Prayer: O gracious Lord, you do not look upon us in your fierce anger, nor do you devour us with your consuming wrath, but you love us as a Father loves his little children and you serve us with unfailing mercy. We pray that we may seek to love others because you first loved us through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Psalm 22, Be Not Far Off For Grief is Near

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Notations

• New Saints Andrews interviewed me for their latest blog:

  Pastor Brito added, "Peter's language of 'royal priesthood' means that individual priests dressed in God's armor can only function rightly when they are assembled with other priests in battle. A one-man army will not frighten principalities and powers, but an army of saints ready to war against evil will scare hell itself."

• I am slowly working through Athanasius' On the Incarnation. Let me add a few highlights from my latest read: