Biblical Values
1 Samuel 7:3-13
Hallelujah! May the grace and peace of the Lord be with you. The foundation of the Christian faith is the belief that God is love and that everything in this world is under His absolute sovereignty. Moreover, God does not look at outward appearances but examines the heart. However, we are often accustomed to worldly values, judging people based on external conditions and mistakenly considering success as a model of faith. To correct this distorted perspective, we will first examine how worldly values influence our lives. Second, we will explore examples of lives that follow biblical values to understand God’s will. Finally, we will discuss the repentance and grace needed to live according to biblical values.
1. Secular values often emphasize human abilities and external conditions. This way of thinking aligns with modern society’s focus on competition and achievement, and at times, it can even influence faith by prioritizing outward aspects. People tend to judge the value of life based on success, wealth, and academic background. However, God does not look at such things.
Biblical values are often challenged by secular values. For example, even in deeply faithful families, children with disabilities such as Down syndrome may be born. However, people sometimes question why such children are born into families with strong faith. This question stems from the influence of secular values, which prioritize intelligence, physical ability, and excellence to gain superiority over others, rather than the biblical perspective that values human life based on service to others.
Let’s look at an example from the Bible. When Israel was defeated in battle against the Philistines, the elders thought they would win if they brought the Ark of the Covenant before them. So, the priests Hophni and Phinehas carried the Ark into battle. However, the outcome was disastrous. The Ark was captured, and the priests were killed. These priests had no reverence for God; they treated offerings carelessly and behaved improperly with the women who served at the tabernacle. Would God grant victory just because they carried the Ark into battle? No. God does not dwell in the Ark itself but is with those who obey His Word, protecting and guiding them.
When the victorious Philistines placed the Ark of the Lord in the temple of Dagon, they found the next day that Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark. They set it up again, but the following day, its head and hands were broken off, leaving only the torso. Furthermore, a plague of tumors spread throughout the Philistine land. To determine whether this disaster was truly from the Lord, they placed the Ark on a cart with two cows that had recently given birth and sent them away, separating them from their calves. If the cows went straight to Beth-shemesh in Israel, they would conclude that the plague came from the Lord. Amazingly, the cows went directly to Beth-shemesh, crying as they went. Seeing this, the Philistines realized that the disaster was not a coincidence.
What do you think about this? The Philistines’ victory over Israel was not due to their own strength but because God had delivered Israel into their hands.
Just as the Israelites expected victory simply by possessing the Ark of the Covenant without obeying God’s Word but failed, we too cannot truly show a life where God is with us if we only receive baptism and hold church positions without having a heart that reveres God. This is why the Lord said, ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’
2. Biblical values are formed when there is a deep faith in God at the center of one’s heart. We live in a culture that values appearance, talent, and ability in order to succeed. However, God looks at our hearts. Then, how should we live? What kind of values are rooted in the center of your heart?
The house of Eli, the priest, fell, and Samuel became the priest and led Israel. He gathered all the Israelites at Mizpah, where they fasted all day and confessed their sins before God. At that moment, the Philistines attacked. Shouldn’t they have immediately gathered their troops and prepared for battle? A person with a worldly perspective would think so. However, Samuel did not do that. Instead, he took a young lamb and offered a whole burnt offering to the Lord. On that very day, God sent a mighty thunderstorm that threw the Philistines into confusion, causing them to flee in terror before Israel. This was evidence that God was with them. As a result, throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines, preventing them from invading Israel. The same Philistine attack had previously led to defeat under Eli’s leadership, but under Samuel, the Philistines feared God and did not dare to attack Israel.
Our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. During Eli’s time, the people believed they could win the war just by carrying the Ark of the Covenant, without true repentance. This is a worldly way of thinking, and the result was a devastating defeat. However, Samuel called the people to gather in repentance. He then took a young lamb and offered a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Here, we find the biblical perspective. The same principle applies today. We no longer have laws written on stone tablets, but we have the letter of Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God on the tablets of our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3). Therefore, we too have the Ark of the Covenant. However, simply possessing it does not guarantee victory. We must repent of our sins and offer a whole burnt offering through the Lamb of God.
3. Now, let us talk about repentance and grace in order to embrace biblical values. What are the sins we must repent of? The Lord said, ‘How can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him’ (Matthew 12:34-35).
When God opened Isaiah’s spiritual eyes, he saw the glory of Jesus and cried out, ‘Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’ (Isaiah 6:5). When he confessed that he was unclean, the Lord declared, ‘Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’
So, what is our sin and evil? As we see in Isaiah’s words, we may think we have built up righteousness through our faith, but in reality, we have accumulated evil. We have failed to speak words that give life to others, instead judging them based on outward appearances under the law. This is sin. That is why Isaiah said, ‘All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’ (Isaiah 64:6). Our self-righteousness, shaped by worldly values, is like filthy rags before God. True repentance is acknowledging this.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Why did Jesus become the Lamb? What is the relationship between the Lamb and us? Understanding this is essential if we are to offer a sacrifice like Samuel.
All people have sinned, and as a result, they are destined for death. This is God’s justice. However, there is another aspect of God’s justice: the principle of atonement. If someone takes my place and pays the price for my sins through death, I can be spared from death. In order to be a substitute for my sins, that person must be fully human like me, yet without sin. Furthermore, a true atoning sacrifice must be capable of bearing the sins of all people. The only one who meets these conditions is God, the Creator. But since the atoning sacrifice had to be human, Jesus, the Son of God, was born into this world through the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, because life is in the blood, Jesus shed His blood on the cross as the price of life, dying in place of all people. Therefore, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. God declares righteous those who believe in this atoning grace. This is God’s justice, and He has established it this way. Those who receive this grace of redemption gain the privilege of calling God their Father and becoming His children, ultimately inheriting the kingdom of God.
The price of my sins, as a sinner, is death. However, if we express the price of redemption that grants eternal life in a parable, it would be equivalent to ten thousand talents. To help us understand even a fraction of the suffering Christ endured for our sins, God allows us to experience pain and wounds through our neighbors and brothers. God is love. Nothing happens in our lives outside of His sovereignty. Yet, the debt of the person who has wronged me is, figuratively speaking, only one hundred denarii. Compared to ten thousand talents, this is merely one six-hundred-thousandth of the amount.
In other words, through the person who has hurt us, God helps us realize the immense suffering He endured to forgive our sins—this is His grace. However, if we cannot forgive, it means we are still holding on to our own righteousness.
The Bible says, ‘Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen’ (1 John 4:20). Therefore, true repentance involves letting go of our own righteousness so that we may be justified by God’s righteousness. One of the most important ways to do this is by forgiving our brothers and sisters. When we practice this, we truly embody Christian values. As it is written in Scripture, ‘Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines’ (1 Samuel 7:13), and we too will experience this blessing in our lives.
To summarize, why does God allow situations that hurt our pride? It is so that we may be even more grateful for the grace of Christ’s atoning sacrifice as we endure our own wounds. The Lord said that those who receive much grace will love Him much in return. Therefore, I bless you to shift your perspective from a worldly view of pain and suffering to seeing everything under God’s love and sovereignty.
When this happens, even our wounds will become opportunities to offer a pure and complete sacrifice to the Lord, like a lamb for a burnt offering. As God’s covenant people, we will see our prayers answered and walk in His peace. In the end, even if we do not ask for what we need, God will supply everything by His grace. May this abundant grace of God overflow in all of our lives.