This week’s text shows us three types of faith: a lacking faith, a lying faith, and a liberating faith. The lacking faith is not incorrect, just incomplete. The lying faith is an imposter which needs to be exposed. The liberating faith is a life set free as it is immersed into the identity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
From Barnabas to Bar-Jesus, Acts 13 introduces us to a lot of new names. Each of them has a significant meaning and tells a story. Bar in the Hebrew/Aramaic means “son of”. Barnabas was ‘son of encouragement’ and Bar-Jesus, ‘son of salvation’. One of those characters lived up to their name. What name do you carry? How can you live up to the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit you have been called into?
A good name is better than perfume on your day of death… and it’s better to go to a funeral than a birthday party. These are just some of the uplifting nuggets of wisdom the author of Ecclesiastes offers us. What does this mean? And how can we make it to our own funeral with a good name, when the Preacher of Ecclesiastes admits in the same chapter that no one on earth is righteous because we’ve all left God to search “many schemes” to make a name for ourselves?
