What’s in the Name?

So, why the name?  “+1 Bible Blog”?  And why even start the blog to begin with?

We’ll start with the name.  It actually has three meanings.  First, (the humility portion of our show) there are probably thousands of Bible-related blogs in the world.  Mine is simply one more voice, added into a choir already in perfect harmony and filling the concert hall.  Nothing special there.

Second, the visual play.  The plus sign can pass for a cross, and the “one” is a nod to the one God.  Though, as a Christian, I could have called it the +1(3) Bible Blog, or the +3-in-1 Bible Blog, but that gets confusing pretty quickly.  And, it doesn’t fit with the third reason, my favorite:

If you’ve ever received a wedding invitation, there’s usually a place on the response card for a guest, a “plus-one”.  The +1 in my blog is a reference to bringing a guest to the wedding, or, more literally, bringing one more person into Heaven with me.  (Sidebar: I once heard a priest say that his mission in life was to get to Heaven, and bring as many people with him as possible.)

And that leads me to the question of, “why start a blog”?  The answer, appropriately enough, comes in the Parable of the Marriage Feast.  (This is a link to the verses on BibleHub.com, Matthew 22:1-15.  It’s a really useful site.)

For those who don’t want to click the link, a short summary: Jesus explains the Kingdom of God as a wedding feast thrown by a king.  Wedding feasts, as I’m told, in those days, lasted a week.  MAJOR partying.  The initial wedding guests (the Jews) didn’t want to come, so the king invited everyone from the town (the Gentiles, or non-Jews.  This “invitation” refers to the salvation of believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.)  During the feast, the king sees a man not wearing his fancy wedding attire and asks him why he’s not dressed up.  The man stands there silent, and the king kicks him out.

This “wedding attire”, as I heard a priest once explain, is a reference to doing good works.  So yes, while believing in Jesus is enough to overcome our original sin and get us into Heaven, we still need to do good things in this world.  Not for some payment, but because we’re Christian, and we’re supposed to do good things.

So, metaphorically speaking, if you’re going to a major celebration, where all you have to do is show up, eat, drink, and be merry, for crying out loud, at least have the decency to dress up for the event.  Put on your nice wedding clothes, and do some good things for people.  (Which, let’s be honest, if you’ve actually opened your heart to Jesus, you understand Him and His work, and you really believe what He taught, doing good things should come pretty naturally.)

This blog is my wedding clothes.  Hopefully, just a small accessory to a life lived for a Purpose.

You see, at some point, I’ll stand (alone) in front of Jesus and give an account of my life, just as we all will.  And while I know He’s going to grade on a very, very generous curve,  I’ve done enough bad things already – before I really came to know God – that I don’t want to make it any harder for myself to answer His question, “What work did you do for Me with the gifts I gave you?”

Like the man in the Parable, standing there silent doesn’t seem like a good option.