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                Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 1:9-11)

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

I’m sure I’ve written about this more than once, but Biblegateway.com chose the verses from Philippians, and these are thoughts those verses bring to mind. The first deals with other religions. Some claim that all religions are the same, so on one hand it doesn’t matter which you pick, and on the other hand, if one is admitted or proven to be wrong or ridiculous, they all are. These verses and others in the Bible (including the Old Testament) proclaim that Judaism and Christianity are not like other religions. They aren’t about how by performing certain ceremonies or even keeping certain rules we can earn our way to heaven. They aren’t about our figuring out how to remind or manipulate some god(s) into doing something. All roads don’t lead to heaven. Jesus said that only Jesus does that.

            This brings us to the second challenge of the Philippians passage. It’s about bowing to Jesus as Lord and glorifying the Father. I suspect that sometimes we’re tempted to think that those bad folks in Hell and the good folks in Heaven are going to spend eternity on their knees, repeating “Jesus is Lord” every three seconds. That reminds me of a scene in the movie Harvey in which the psychiatrist character explains to Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmie Stewart) how he wants some woman to sit by him and respond to everything he says by patting him on the shoulder and saying, “There…there.” Elwood reckons that would be rather boring for all concerned. There are other ways to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord that are more in keeping with what God has revealed about Himself: loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths, obeying Him, and loving our neighbor as ourselves, for example.

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