The Example Set (09/30/22)

Our passage begins with the observation, “You also became imitators of us.”  This connects us quite firmly to what he had just written, as to how they well knew the example had been set by Paul and his team. “You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake” (1Th 1:5).  There had been no need to separate out the truth of the words from the falsity of their character.  Indeed, their whole manner of life reflected a real and full-throated commitment to the truth of what they spoke, and to the divine origins of that truth.  Clearly, these men believed what they taught to be the very instruction of God.  What went forth from them, not to get too far ahead of myself, was the word of the Lord.  But that could only go forth because what had come to them, by the instrumental means of the Apostle, was that same word of the Lord.

Paul was indeed an instrumental means, an instrument crafted for this purpose by God, and played by God’s hands.  I wrote elsewhere that Paul was as a guided missile of faith, launched and directed by God Himself, and that can certainly be seen by his having come to minister in Macedonia in the first place.  We know the story.  He had thought to continue his work in Asia Minor, but God had other ideas.  Paul would have turned inland, to more familiar regions, but with less impact.  God sent him to the main port cities, rendering his ministry there fruitful in the power of the Holy Spirit, because here were places where small beginnings could bear copious fruit.

But observe how this happens, because it is a template which really hasn’t changed any over the years.  Ironside writes, “It was what these converts had seen in Paul and his companions that had led them to be interested in the things of the Lord.”  They saw something different in these men, a firm commitment to something much greater, much holier, than was to be found in their own society, in their own history, illustrious though it was.  Thessalonica, and Macedonia more generally, had much to be proud of, so far as worldly measures go.  By most measures, they were a resounding success.  They were prosperous, relatively self-ruled even under Rome’s oversight.  They commanded the respect of their neighbors in the region, and they were turning a tidy profit in their trade.  They were something of a powerhouse in the region.  But here, in Paul, in Silas, in Timothy, was something of greater worth.

But that greater worth would go unrecognized were it not for the fact that they lived what they believed.  Now, let it be accepted that many a philosopher or a student of philosophy had set themselves to live out their beliefs before, and many have done so since.  They have done so with varying degrees of success.  And it must be said as well, that Christians in our turn, have likewise lived out our beliefs with varying degrees of success, which is to say, with varying degrees of fidelity.  But God had so showered grace upon these men that it seems they were all but faultless in their consistency of habit and word.  What they preached, they believed, and what they believed, they lived.

This is what sets the example.  Indeed, this is what sets the stage for the gospel to gain a hearing in the first place.  Mind you, there would need to be hearing of the gospel in some degree for the example to be recognized for what it is.  But were the example not there, the words would be brushed off in short order.  That is a large part of our issue at present, if I may say so.  Perhaps I should say the issue is twofold – at least twofold.  For one, we are not as inclined as we should be to speak of our faith to those who do not share it, and where we do, it is often in the nature of the cold-call salesman.  Those to whom we would speak of God have no prior acquaintance with us, no measure of the man, as it were, by which to assess how firmly we hold these truths we now proclaim as self-evident.

That is already a problem, and it’s one that Paul and company assuredly faced in coming to places like this.  What did anybody in Thessalonica know of them, apart from those reports brought perhaps from Philippi by those from the Jewish community who sought only to thwart any advance by this new sect?  Whatever news may have come was unlikely to have been particularly positive.  There would be some positive reports, I suppose, but most of it seems, if we take the example of those who dragged Jason and company before the magistrates, spoke of the turmoil this new religion was causing, and very little pertained to any positive effects.

But Paul didn’t let it remain that way.  He and his partners lived before those to whom they preached.  They made themselves available, and that, without limits, so far as I can see.  It reminds me of that book I often note, with its comments on the life of the missionary.  “You Have No Rights”.  Your life has become an open book.  The doors of your home are open at all hours, and those to whom you would minister will walk through those doors, look through your windows, at any hour.  You are, as it were, under the microscope, and every aspect of your habit, your lifestyle, your interactions with those who might, in other situations, be accounted annoyances, is being measured, weighed, held up in comparison to the message you bring.  Do they correspond?  Does he really believe this message he’s telling us?  If this is from God, as he claims it is, surely he who would insist we take it seriously must demonstrably take it seriously himself.  And it surely did.

As Matthew Henry notes, to observe them was to witness consistency of message and habit.  Yes, they truly believed.  Yes, the lived what they preached.  And that, friends, prepares the way for the Gospel as nothing but God can.  Be it granted that the best and most consistent of examples, combined with the clearest and most compelling speech, can in itself avail nothing except God has chosen to accompany that message in the power of the Holy Spirit, and still it must be recognized that where there is no consistent example, His power is most unlikely to be supplied.  Indeed, that inconsistent example gives reasonable cause to question whether God is truly in their message at all, doesn’t it?  They may speak truly, and yet, be held utterly suspect because if this was God’s message, would He not deliver it by more faithful messengers?

The example of the messenger is thus critical to the reception of his message, especially where that message is of such claimed significance.  Would you accept that the one knocking on your door, claiming to bear official notice from the governor or president, was indeed his spokesman simply on his or her say-so?  More fool you, if you would!  Would you accept that claim if the one before you is in disarray, unwashed and unshaven?  I rather doubt it.  Would you accept his message if it insisted on some action that was clearly unlawful, and at odds with the governing principles of your state or country?  I should hope not.  You would have every reason to find this messenger suspect, and at minimum, send him packing, if not reporting him to the authorities.  We need only to think of the sundry reports one reads of somebody posing as a police officer so as to gain access by which to commit their crimes.  No, there are proofs one expects, both in form of identifying proofs of position, and of a demeaner in keeping with the claimed position of authority.

The same holds with those who would claim to bring word of God, and especially, as was the case in this region, amongst a people replete with any number of gods already.  Really?  You say yours is the real one, the Only One?  That’s quite a claim.  What’ve you got to back it?  I mean, we’ve this god and that.  Rome has their own set, and so does pretty much every foreigner who wanders through.  We don’t pay them that much heed, other than to accept that they are welcome to their gods, and we shall keep with ours, thanks.  Why should you be any different?  But the claims were great because the reality of God’s own Truth is great.  And, because the stakes were so high, God took great pains to ensure the consistency of his messenger.  What they saw in Paul, Silas, and Timothy gave clear evidence that this God of whom they spoke was truly with them, His impact, His grace, clearly to be seen in how they dealt with people, how they maintained themselves, how they graciously responded, even when seriously put upon and persecuted.

It is so much easier to believe when we don’t find it necessary to weed out truth from false example.  We might still glean something from a preacher whose life is less consistent, but we shall know the constant need to test, to sift, to keep the meat, but throw the bones.  We must listen critically, and that is ever the case, but there comes a point where critical listening becomes cynical listening, not the praiseworthy attentiveness of the Berean, going home to study his scriptures and affirm the veracity of the message, but rather seeking the mistakes, emphasizing the errors, and along the way, completely losing sight of any truth that may have been imparted.  Oh, yes.  It’s far easier to build when we don’t need to first tear down and clear away.  It’s true in our own lives, but then, there is almost never a case where we will be building on clear ground at the outset, nor even after years of life as a believers.  We have too much garbage built up on our plot.  But it’s equally true as regards applying that which is supplied to us in the ordinary grace of preaching.  If we have to constantly assay, disassemble, sort truth from falsity, it’s too much work, and we will likely lose interest in bothering in short order.  Who needs it?  I can get that exercise listening to the news.

But that’s not what had happened here.  To observe Paul and his companions was to witness consistency of message and habit.  They had seen this.  They knew that the one was in perfect accord with the other.  And that was impressive indeed.  It made an impression, not all that unlike the impression made by the hammer as it seeks to implant in wood or clay or stone the mark of some stamped pattern.  The impression of their example was having the impact of a mold, a formwork, shaping those to whom they ministered into like image and character.  And those to whom they ministered indeed took the example of the Apostle to heart, and sought to shape their lives in like fashion, that they, too, might demonstrate their belief by their lives.

Is this not what we should expect?  Is it not what we should expect of ourselves, first and foremost?  If we have been discipled, surely, we have been brought near that place of observing, ‘all that I commanded you’ (Mt 28:20).  Surely, this Gospel has been more to us than mere words to nod at on a Sunday, but have indeed gone deep in us, taken hold of us, and refashioned who we are.  This Gospel is, after all, the power of God for all who believe (Ro 1:16).  It is the chosen vehicle of God’s grace, and where His grace has sent forth in His Spirit to prepare hearts to receive, He will assuredly so work as to truly renovate and reform the one to whom He has come, such that this one may, like those before him, become living temples of God Most High (2Co 6:16).

If this is not our story, let us pray that it may swiftly be so.  Let us give every prayer, every thought, every effort to seeing to it that those who see us see an example that makes an impression, not for grandiosity, but for true piety.

The Example Followed (10/01/22-10/02/22)

I should think it almost goes without saying that however fine an example one is set, it does you no good if you don’t in fact follow that example.  Put differently, the best preaching, delivered by the most faithful of preachers, will be of no value to us unless we take what has been taught and make it our rule of life.  The Gospel, as we have been considering in the previous study, is the power of God to save, but where it is not received as such, that same message is no more than mere words.  There was a reason for Paul’s excitement at their response, then, and that is that their response demonstrated clearly that God had indeed empowered His gospel.  The message was received, and received, as he will say to them shortly, for what it truly is:  The very word of God (1Th 2:13).

This is evident, as he now observes, because they are quite clearly following the example set them not only in the preaching of Paul and company, but by their example, by their lives lived in accordance with their own teaching.  These Thessalonians, as Matthew Henry observes, had received the imprint of the Apostolic teaching, and now they impressed it in turn upon others.  We shall have opportunity further on in this current study, to consider just how they were doing so, but here, let us satisfy ourselves with the fact that they were, and to note that one of the chief aspects that so made an impression was this most thorough response to the teaching they had received.  Theirs was an obedience born of reverence, and not reverence for Paul, though they esteemed him most highly, as well they should.  No, it was reverence for this Christ, this Son of God of whom Paul had informed them.  It was reverence for the Father, whose love, whose mercy, whose graciousness towards them had been made known through the Gospel Paul so faithfully delivered.

Paul’s faithful delivery of this Gospel came in far more than words, far more, even, than preaching accompanied by the confirming power of the Holy Spirit.  And here is a lesson for us, as well.  Faithful delivery of the Gospel includes the example set by our own lives.  This is what made an impression on them, rendering them (alongside the working of the Spirit within them) receptive to hearing what these strangers had to say.  This is what made their impression so significant on those who encountered them, that they would speak of it in other places to which they traveled.  These people aren’t just mouthing pieties.  They aren’t just playing intellectual games with some novel ideas.  They are different.  They have an entirely different perspective, an entirely different lease on life.  They are honest and earnest.  They are not merely calm under pressure, but irrepressibly joyful – another thing we shall get to in its turn.

Here is the thing for us:  Our efforts to speak of Christ, to share this gospel, will be most effectual where our lives are seen to be aligned with what we say.  If we come across as just one more insisting that others, “do as I say, not as I do,” then we will receive no more of a hearing than such kinds of instruction generally do, which is to say none at all.  I cannot help but think of the behaviors we have seen around here in regard to the small influx of illegal aliens sent our way from Florida.  Here (whatever I may think of the matter personally) is a state which has proudly proclaimed their status as a ‘sanctuary’ state, which is to say a state that has opted for ignoring certain federal laws in regard to these very illegal aliens.  It’s a bizarre stance for those who are ostensibly the upholders of law and order, but there it is.  But it’s not just them.  There is a large portion of the populace who happily express similar sentiments about how hate has no home here, all are welcome, etc.  But then comes the time for slogans and sentimentalism to face the test of cold reality, and what is seen?  The words were empty.  The responses may come with pleasant faces and cheerful waves of the hand – especially for the camera – but the ostensibly charitable welcome turns out not to include the immediate vicinity.  No, no.  Send them elsewhere.  Let the State take care of them.  We can’t.  And as always, actions speak ever so much louder than words.

But before we find it in ourselves to laugh too much at their discomfort and dishonest posturing exposed, let us consider ourselves.  We, after all, declare something far more significant than those virtue-signaling yard signs.  We declare truths much higher than the latest thing by which to express our being on the right team.  Indeed, if we are being faithful in proclaiming the Gospel which we received, we are very much declaring to many of these same folks that we are very much on the wrong team.  This is how a world in darkness receives the Light.  They don’t.  They will react violently against the Light, because light must expose their darkness, and that would never do, and it must surely be even more true in this present climate where signaling one’s virtuous opinions (as long as there’s no cost involved) is all the rage.

Thessalonian Christians knew the deal.  They had seen it in Paul before ever they discovered the same response to their own newfound faith.  Paul came to them beaten and bloodied by the opposition that had arisen in Philippi.  This wasn’t lost on those who now met him in Thessalonica.  To be sure, they had cleaned up before presenting themselves.  They weren’t appearing at synagogue in torn robes and blood-crusted faces.  For one, that would never do.  For another, it wasn’t to the purpose.  But neither did they disguise what had been their treatment in that city, nor could they, for such was the hatred for this Christian faith that those who opposed it so vehemently there would surely have sent their own runners to the city to inform the local populace of events, just as the Thessalonian synagogue sent others to trouble the ministry when it moved to Berea.  It’s not enough for the world that it should simply reject or ignore the gospel.  It must oppose the gospel, and do so with a vengeance.  This has not changed, and don’t be fooled into thinking it has.

This may, in fact, be a large part of the challenge faced by the Church at present, that we were lulled into believing ourselves a majority stake.  We believed, and not without some evidence, that the Church had so impacted the society of the West as to be almost a given.  But it never was so.  Our kingdom is not of this world, not as she stands.  We are never a kingdom established here, but an embassy of the kingdom that is established and will, in due time, be established in full here as in heaven.  And so long as this remains the case, we have this calling:  By the way you live your lives, by the way you speak – whether to friend or to stranger or to enemy, by the way you think, by every expression given your inmost character, whether in word or in deed, become a visible model of the invisible, inward Spirit of God which is in you.

The Spirit, having come, bears witness of Christ, and He does so in our inner chambers of thought and conscience.  And we, too, bear witness, as we must, because we have been with Him (Jn 15:26-27).  We cannot say that we have been with Him from the beginning.  But then, neither could Paul and his team.  But there is something more universal here.  You have been with Him.  Indeed, Christian, He is in you, now and forever.  His presence must make an impression, and that impression must show in outward, visible fashion.  How could it not?  The fruit of the Spirit, as I have often observed, following that teaching which we are given in Scripture, must surely grow where the seed of the Spirit indwelling has in fact been planted.  How could it not?

As concerns these Thessalonians, the message is clear.  There was no doubt as to the reality of their conversion.  That reality was very much evident in them.  None could encounter them and fail to notice.  Now, at present, Paul is observing their impact on other believers.  “You became an example [or examples] to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.”  I could suggest that this limiting of scope to those regions has more to do with Paul’s limited travels since having had to leave them than with the reach their example was having.  But this reverent obedience – not to Paul, but to Christ through Paul’s example – made an impression.  It was particularly recognizable by their fellow believers, who most fully understood the reason for their exemplary obedience, who took it as something of an amiable challenge in regard to their own response to Christ.

Is this not what we are intended to be doing for one another?  Peter wrote to stir up his readers (2Pe 1:13, 2Pe 3:1) by reminding them of the depths and the power of this faith into which they had come.  Paul would comment, as concerns the Corinthian church, how their example, their zeal, had stirred other churches to respond in like fashion to the appeal that had gone out regarding the contribution to support the suffering church in Jerusalem (2Co 9:2).  Indeed, in giving corrective instruction to that Corinthian church earlier, he had made plain that one of our chief duties in the service of worship, apart from shared reverence to God, is this:  “Let all things be done for edification” (1Co 14:26).  And I should have to insist that this mindset should persist outside the church as well as in.  These Thessalonians had done just that.

I rather liked Clarke’s observation in this regard.  “They walked so conscientiously before God and man, that their friends could speak of them without a blush, and their adversaries could say nothing to their disgrace.”  It has to be said that this had not prevented opposition from arising, arising fiercely, and quite possibly having even turned deadly.  But there were no charges that could be brought.  Even those early attempts to tag Jason as an enemy of the state had pretty quickly proven nonsense, even if the event had been rather costly to Jason.  Yes, the magistrates shook him down, as it were, for bail money, but there was plainly nothing to the claim, and they were free to continue, even to continue in this religion they had taken up.  And honestly, who could stop them anyway?  This, too, has been something of a universal experience of the Church.  Let opposition come, let vehement, organized suppression arise, and the Church only grows stronger, because fidelity amidst persecution displays more fully the validity of that faith.

I will take a brief moment to observe that there is apparently some question as to whether, when Paul speaks of them becoming an example, he uses the plural or the singular form of the term.  It apparently depends which manuscripts you are following.  Of course, which you find to be the case will have some input as to how you hear Paul’s commendation.  Calvin, holding to the plural (and perhaps having no access to such manuscripts as might raise questions about it), sees a notice of each individual believer:  Each of you has become a type, a stamp impressed upon all who hear of you.  Others, like the Wycliffe Translators Commentary, and the JFB, are rather insistent that the singular is correct, and thus, that the message is in regard to the church as a whole.  I don’t find it unreasonable, honestly, to suggest that if the latter is true, then Calvin’s point must likewise hold.  That is to say, if the church as a whole could be spoken of with such profound impact on those who heard of them, so, too, could those individuals who composed that church.  It might not apply universally to each and every member, but I reckon the likelihood that it did was far greater, given their circumstances, than might be the case for our own churches.

Some would, after all, have discovered the powerful effect of the gospel on this church through encounters with individual members thereof.  Perhaps they were met in the course of business around the docks, or perhaps encountered as members of the crew on those ships which traveled out from that port city.  Perhaps, as other believers came through the city on business, or whatever other purposes might bring them along the Roman road, they had cause to experience the hospitality these young believers were so keen to make available to their brethren from other regions.  And so, the impressions were of specific individuals.

Others might not have had direct experience, but were hearing the reports, as Paul observed, which were going forth, however they were going forth.  These reports would be less likely to involve individuals by name, but would rather speak of an overall impression of that church, how all those encountered from its body were so profoundly and observably changed.  Some, after all, would have encountered these folks on prior trips, and might have some familiarity with what they had been like.  I think of Paul’s observation, in regard to the Corinthians, that ‘such were some of you’, and the list he refers to could hardly be construed as favorable in the light of Christ (1Co 6:9-11):  Sexual promiscuity of all sorts head the list, and the sorts of activities we used to assign the label of party animal.  Then, too, there were attitudes that spoke to an unscrupulous nature in business.  As I say, those who had met them before may well have encountered some of these ‘such were some of you’ behaviors.  We knew you when…  And now, they quite clearly, just as blatantly, were not such.  That has an impact.

There is a reason why Jesus chose to leave us as in the world, but not of it (Jn 17:14-16).  Having been of the world, but no more, we leave a mark on the world, and particularly, as I say, on those who knew us in our prior sinful nature.  This is part of the cause for opposition, for persecution.  We have become different.  We don’t do as they do any longer.  We don’t partake of their amusements, and in many cases, must, in rejecting participation, make our opposition to such things known.  Just consider the tensions that rather necessarily arise between faithful believers and the modern proponents of anything-goes sexual libertarianism.  Those who insist, in their darkened perversity, that every form of perversion is not merely to be permitted, but must be welcomed and even celebrated, are bound to come to loggerheads with those who insist that no, the laws of physics, amongst other things, impose limits on what can reasonably be proposed, and that beyond that, there exists the moral imposition of a just and righteous God, Who has expressly declared, as even in that passage from 1Corinthians, that those who practice such things will not find a place in His kingdom. 

Let me just observe, to those who remain committed to such pursuits at present, His kingdom, in its full and final form, encompasses all the earth.  In truth, it already does so, but in this interim period, there is another dark power that has its way amongst those who are not of His elect.  That usurping power will not always hold sway.  Its days are numbered, and well does its ruler know it.  There will come the day when the kingdom of God is established in full.  It does not require some political will toward establishing a theocracy in this country or that.  It so thoroughly transcends any bounds of country as to render the idea rather laughable.  Neither is it to be established by the power of man in any way, shape or form.  God is hardly in need of such an assist.  It will come, when it comes, because God has come – the all-powerful, all-wise, omniscient and omnipresent God of all creation; come at last to take full possession of that which He created.  This is the One who declares, “The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Rather, it is the gentle who shall inherit the earth (Mt 5:5), a concept that has angered so many a philosopher, bound up, as they tend to be, on the perfectibility of man.  It is to these that the true King will say, having come to judge both the living and the dead, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34).  Truly, He Who so arrayed events as to ensure with perfect timing the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus even from those first days in Eden, is just as perfectly able to ensure the final outcome, both as to its timing and its unveiling.

In the meantime, here we are, we believers, left to serve as a template, a mold to be used in impressing the proper form of faith upon those we encounter.  How do we go about making such an impression?  By holding fast to the example set us.  For those in Thessalonica, it was a matter of doing as they had observed their teachers doing.  Paul, Silas, and Timothy lived out their faith in actions, and these new believers, having themselves been so impressed by that example, sought, in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit now indwelling, to go and do likewise.  They were committed.  They had to be.  After all, this church was born in opposition, born under adversity.  Those who were reborn to become this church knew that opposition from the outset.  If they were going to come to faith, it would have to be such faith as was fully powered and guided by the Holy Spirit of God Himself.

We share in part this advantage, for we most assuredly are likewise indwelt by this same Holy Spirit of God, if indeed we have heard His Gospel and responded with faith.  It cannot be otherwise.  All claims to the contrary, if the Gospel has been received and salvation has come, then assuredly, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in the temple of the soul.  But we might be rather hard-pressed to find examples such as Paul and company by which to establish the model of faith for ourselves.  We certainly do not have the apostolic witness in any man alive today, whatever claims they may make for themselves.  We have pastors, and hopefully we have pastors who are faithful not only in their preaching, but in the example they set.  We have elders which we would hope are likewise faithfully exercising faith on their own part.  But we aren’t with them daily, as was more likely to be the case with these.  We have a few hours together of a Sunday, mostly spent sitting under the ministry of the Word.  We have, perhaps, a mid-week service, but again, spent primarily the same way, and even where there is a more social aspect to it, still, we are on our best behavior, aren’t we?

Account for it as you will, what you get on Sunday is not the whole me.  It is, I might suggest, the me I desire to be, or the me I am on my better days.  We can, after all, generally hold it together for a few brief hours, however much we may struggle at other times.  We can set aside those besetting sins for that window of time when we are together, particularly knowing that soon enough we’ll be apart again, and free to pursue our pursuits away from prying eyes.  Ah, but never beyond sight of our Lord!  But we know that this is not always enough, even as we are aware of it.  For all that we profess a true and profound love for God, yet we know equally well that sin is still in us.  And I suspect most of us know those times when we would have to confess that sin has the upper hand.  We may look with dismay upon the failures of David or of Solomon, and pronounce our wonder at the idea that one so richly used of God could fall so hard.  But if we are a bit more lucid, I dare say we should have to recognize that we are just as capable of just as grand a fall, given the same temptations.

So, what are we to do?  We are deprived of the Apostolic example, the personal encounter with the living Jesus or His immediate ambassadors?  Ah, but we have this:  We have those same traditions delivered once for all to the saints.  Jude, the brother of Christ speaks of wanting to expound upon that ‘faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jd 3).  And even in expressing this point, he has in fact done so, even if not in the way he had desired to do.  But we have this record, this marvelous text, or collection of texts really, which we speak of as the Bible.  I say it is marvelous because it is!  Even considered simply in terms of how it has come into being, and how it has been preserved across the millennia, it is marvelous.  If we take the time to consider how, with so many different authors, writing across so great an expanse of time and in such varied eras and circumstances, have presented so consistent a message, so integrated a body of Truth, we must marvel.  We must, I think, at the very least entertain the possibility that some higher power has been orchestrating that effort.  If we contemplate how, historically, this text has been preserved and attested, we have another marvel.  How many efforts have there been to suppress, distort, and destroy this message, and yet, what we have in hand is the single, most historically attested text of all antiquity, and that body of historical records remains incredibly consistent, in spite of the sorts of scribal errors that have cropped up, such as our question of singular or plural in this matter of example.

Let me reiterate a lesson from my earlier notes, one I have no doubt reiterated many a time.  The message to us in all this is that we have no need for novelty.  We need no new ‘revelation’ posited to excite our imaginations.  Indeed, we have every reason to treat any such proposed revelation as being rather entirely suspect, except insofar as it reiterates that which has been revealed.  I go back to that message of Peter’s.  “His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2Pe 1:3).  Such a powerful declaration that is!  And beloved, if you are already granted everything you need, already granted true knowledge, complete, precise and entire, epignosis knowledge of Him, honestly, what need have you for some other revelation?  What else is to be revealed?   Are you still shopping around for timetables, for the lurid details of all those trials and tribulations to come?  Honestly, I have to ask, why?  As to timetables, He stated plainly enough that they would not be given.  “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Ac 1:7).  What?  You thought that was just for the Apostles?  Seriously, if anybody was to get the news, would it not have been them?  Would not John, there on Patmos receiving visions of those end times that have you so preoccupied, have been told the schedule?

And as to those end-times, I have to ask as well:  What value would it be to you to know with greater detail the trials and tribulations to come?  In what way is faith improved by terrifying pronouncements of certain doom?  Even if it be accepted that we must go through these events even though adopted into God’s own family, what of it?  The simple fact remains:  We know how it ends.  We know we have an inheritance, and we know that the grave, however unwelcome, is not the end.  We ought to know that whatever this life throws at us, it is, in fullest perspective, but a blip on the horizon of eternity.  It is only by the slightest of degrees more than nothing, and as Paul observed, unworthy to be compared to that ‘eternal weight of glory’ being produced in us by these very same afflictions of the present.

We lose sight of this:  Glory is always presented as a weighty thing, and not in the sense of profundity alone, but truly a weight.  The shekinah glory of old was a weighty thing.  There is a reason, I dare say, why those who come into the true presence of God find themselves driven to their knees, and prostrated.  It’s not simply that this was the common posture of worship and submission at the time.  A weight has come, a weight far beyond the capacity of this human frame to bear.  Is this not at least part of the reason that we discover a need for a new, resurrection body if indeed we are to come into the eternal kingdom of our God?  There is the place where this very weighty Glory dwells.  And we have this as promise, that we who have been called by God, adopted as His family members, will indeed come into this place.  Our house has been prepared there, and our inheritance is already stored up there.  Our Lord is there, the Light which lights that place by day and night (if such terms still have meaning in eternity) forevermore.  And we, having been at least fully and truly transformed, will be such as can, like the angels, abide in that weight of glory.  Abiding in that weight of glory, if we look back at all upon this brief span of earthly life, I dare say we shall conclude as Paul already did, that it is insignificant, all that we may have suffered.  It is nothing.  Look what the Lord has done for us!

As concerns this matter of example, let me suggest that even in our present experience, it is the weight of this glory which is God’s alone which bears down on us, impresses His image and character upon us.  It is His glory which works through us to leave its mark on those we meet, those in whom the Spirit is working, preparing the ground, that His mark may be received there as well.  We have the example.  We have the example of Christ, and we have the example of those directly impacted by His ministry.  We have the example of the Apostles, and of the Prophets, their forebears.  And, we have the examples of these churches, the record of their successes and failures, as we have them of Israel before them, that we might learn, and perhaps might even avoid simply repeating the same errors.

Don’t chase after novelty, dear ones.  Be instead imitators of Christ.  Let your character be more fully shaped by the weight of His glory.  Take the lessons and the discipline He imparts.  Take His yoke upon you, for it is light, in all reality, though its impress is deep.  Become an example in your own turn.  Let me stress, you cannot do this for yourself.  You cannot will your way to being a fine, upstanding citizen of heaven’s kingdom.  But neither are you likely to become such an example apart from your willing participation in the process.  Observe what is here to observe.  We are now some two thousand years down the road from the establishing of this little church in Thessalonica, and still their example is before us; still we can look back on the admittedly limited record we have of their faithfulness to the Christ of the Gospel, and take it to heart, seeking that we might follow their example as they followed Paul’s, as Paul followed Christ.

This, after all, is the model set for the Church.  We become imitators of those whose faith has been modeled for us, and in doing so, we become examples for others to follow.  This is your first and chief good work, your grand purpose in being.  Yes, our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  But this is part and parcel of that same primary end.  As we live to glorify God, as we are shaped by our love for Him, and even more, in His love for us, we are given purpose to our being.  We are made stamps, each one of us, by which the Holy Spirit may then impress the truth of the Gospel on another, and another.

I wrote, in my first pass notes, that there is a great deal of being exemplary imitators of Christ which goes beyond mere obedience.  We can, after all, give grudging compliance.  We’ve known how to do that from earliest days, haven’t we?  Perhaps you were what we call a compliant child, always ready to simply do what you were told, but I don’t know as that’s a terribly common experience.  I would suspect far more of us can recall testing the limits, complying more for lack of viable alternatives than for any desire to please or to emulate.  Why do we (assuming we do) comply with the laws of those lands in which we live, except it be a perceived lack of viable alternatives?  Why, we might ask, do we see criminality on the rise, except that those alternatives now seem far more viable?  Why do you feel free to pretty much ignore speed limits, to take the common and relatively benign example?  Because you perceive very little likelihood of being caught out for it.  Why are business trips and conventions so often held up as occasions when individuals let their true colors show, and chase after such sins as they would never contemplate pursuing at home?  It’s the same deal:  There is no perceived risk of discovery.  “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”  Except it doesn’t, does it?  God knows.

So, our example, our imitation of Christ must get beyond rote obedience, or that obedience born of concern for consequences.  Even taking my examples above, it’s insufficient that we keep our nose clean out of awareness that even in our private moments, God remains present and aware of our every action and every thought.  That’s still nothing but risk aversion.  No, if we would be examples in our faithful adherence to Christ, it must come of a motivation of love for Him, both that love which speaks of real fondness, and that love which is the reflection of God’s own love for us.  It is that love which empowers those labors of love which Paul just mentioned in the preceding verses.  It is that love which gives true shape to the stamp of our character, of His character formed in us – by Him, but with full cooperation from our willing, gladly willing compliance.

The JFB observes, as we have been observing, that these Thessalonians became imitators, and in so doing, became themselves examples to be imitated.  Let this be our goal.  Indeed, let this be our story, God willing; that we, too imitated the example set for us both by those we encounter in Scripture, and by those we encounter in life.  Ever, in doing so, we must hold to that habit of our forebears; following no man farther than he follows Christ.  But let us be equally committed to fully following that man so far as he does follow Christ!  Let us be made, by the collaboration of the Spirit’s powerful work in us, and our own willing exercise of that power, such examples as may resound as does the example of this little church on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Exemplary Joy (10/03/22)

This morning, I’m going to look at the clause that comes between being imitators and being worthy of imitation.  These to whom Paul writes had ‘received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit’.  I have already spoken somewhat of the tribulation part, and we shall revisit it again, but here I just want to note the observation made in the Wycliffe Translators Commentary, that what is in view here is ‘the relentless pressure to which a believer may be exposed in a world opposed to Christ’.  I’m not sure I should leave that as ‘may be’.  I suspect, where that believer is indeed living evidence of the work of God within, that this relentless pressure of opposition is a given.  The believer will be exposed to such pressure, given that he lives in a world that is opposed to Christ.  And yet, this pressure is faced, met head on and defeated by something unexpected, at least in worldly terms.  It is met and withstood by joy.

Indeed, that joy was already on display in that these fresh-minted believers in Thessalonica had come to be minted in the first place.  They listened eagerly to word of this God that everybody seems opposed to.  The Bereans were perhaps more famed for this eager reception, happily searching the Scriptures upon learning of the Gospel’s message, to see if indeed these happy promises were true.  This was not the skeptic’s searching for holes in the sermon, or pride seeking to assert its superior knowledge and understanding.  This was a hopeful search, a joyful discovering that indeed, these great and precious promises were from of old, and were now being made known in their day.  And they, praise the Lord, had been chosen to receive this message, and receive it they did!  With great joy.  But the Bereans weren’t the only ones.  The Thessalonians had received this message with much the same welcome and fervor.  The Philippians, for that, had received it before them, and again with welcoming embrace.

The world, you see, comes with relentless pressure, but the Spirit comes with indomitable joy.  The Spirit comes, as well, with the seed of this Gospel, implanting it in hearts rendered receptive.  Where the call of God has come, that heart will be made receptive, because it is not the flesh of man working up response to this news.  It is God rendering this good news to be welcome indeed.  He opens ears to hear.  He softens hearts to receive.  He renders His elect, as Calvin puts it, eager to obey God.  And that first act of obedience consists in first receiving that which He has given.  The Gospel came not in mere words that washed over without impact, but with power, with the Holy Spirit accompanying, assuring that this Gospel had its desired result in those who heard.

It’s not just that initial reception that so depends upon the work of the Spirit.  The example we are seeing set, this joy of which Paul writes, is every bit as much the result of the work of the Spirit, producing in these believers that which ‘flesh will never render’.  This is the joy we are talking about.  It’s not a feeling worked up in us, it’s the work of the Spirit in us.  It’s not giddy laughter, and it’s not thoughtless smiling as if utterly unaware of circumstance.  It is, however, that joy which recognizes that however trying the circumstance, and however relentless the pressure of worldly opposition, it really doesn’t matter all that much.  It’s the sort of joy that resonates with David’s bold confidence.  “In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.  What can man do to me?” (Ps 56:11).  We hear it echoed by a later psalmist.  “The LORD is for me; I will not fear.  What can man do to me?” (Ps 118:6).  Paul has much the same to declare.  “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Ro 8:31).  But it gets better, doesn’t it?  “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?  As is written, ‘For Thy sake we are put to death all day long, like sheep to the slaughter.’  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  I am thoroughly convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor principalities, nothing present, nothing to come, no power, height, or depth, nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 8:35-39).

That is the believer’s assured confidence, his assured hope of heaven; assured not by bare reason, but assured by this same Holy Spirit who has taken up residence in the temple of the soul.  The heart He has prepared has become a welcoming throne upon which our Lord Jesus Christ is seated and reigning.  That is joy.  You are the temple of the living God!  Imagine that!  He is with you, lo!  Even to the end of the age.  Whom shall you fear?

Let me tell you, it ought not to be that you fear even Him, not in that sense we usually apply to fear.  By all means, He is to be reverenced, worshiped in His transcendent majesty.  But feared?  He loves you.  He has given unprecedented, unparalleled evidence of His love for you.  He gave you His very Son, made hideous by the weight of your sins, rejected by man, and for that brief time separated even from the fellowship He had known for all eternity for this one express reason; that you might be made righteous in the atoning sacrifice of His innocent blood.  And He lives, that you, too, having been bought clear of your eternal penalty by that sacrifice, might live – really live, and that, forever, together with Him.  Yes.  There’s cause for joy, isn’t there?  There’s cause for that quality of joy that truly transcends circumstance, not dismissing them as if they aren’t happening, but fixed upon and certain of God Who saves.

Listen up!  This is the sort of calm joy, even in the midst of great trial, which makes an impact.  There is that impact of which Kipling wrote, observing that when you can hold your head amidst these trials, ‘then you shall be a man’.  This goes beyond that, which in the end is but a worldly yardstick.  When all about you are seeking to tear you down, and still you face even the imposition of death with calm confidence that flows from assured hope in God, then shall you be something more than just a man.  You shall be such a testimony to the transforming power of God as shall indeed leave its impression even upon those who would see you broken and destroyed.

Again, this isn’t pretending that such events are somehow fun.  There may be those who, like Polycarp, will face so gruesome a death being imposed, and yet stand singing with gladness unto God.  It’s not out of the question.  But I really don’t think that’s the point.  Merely facing those events with assurance unshaken, or like Stephen, crying out news of seeing the Lord seated at the right hand of the Father’s throne, and having no more to wish against his tormenters than that they might be forgiven, as they don’t really know what they are doing:  That has power.  I have little doubt but that it made significant impact on Paul, who sat as witness to that event.  After all, it is his companion Luke from whom we learn of this event.  And where did he learn of it?  That is the sort of joy, I think, that Paul has in view.  I don’t think Stephen was dancing about with glee as he was stoned.  That just doesn’t happen.  Sorry.  But still, with his dying breath, he proclaimed the gospel and the displayed the character of his Lord; not reviling, not calling down vengeance, but seeking their salvation.  And I have to say, it seems clear enough that God was pleased to hear such a prayer on the lips of His child.

This is joy:  You know your sins pardoned.  You know your standing with God.  He has forgiven you.  He has not merely made your rescue possible.  He has made it a certainty.  There is no longer any enmity between you.  You may have been enemies when He came to you, but He has put paid to that.  There is no war between you any longer, no calls from vengeance from heaven against you.  The courts of heaven no longer record your many crimes against its King, but instead have you recorded in the Lamb’s book of life, with notations as to that place prepared for you, and perhaps some indication as to when you shall be arriving, that joyful preparation may be made to welcome you home.

This is the confidence that lends strength to the believer in the midst of trial.  Paul writes, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Ac 17:28).  Now, the occasion upon which he uttered this famous formulation was not one in which he was in peril.  Rather, he was presenting this great good news to those who pursued philosophy, those who claimed to seek answers to the very sorts of questions he answered by that simple statement.  Why do we live?  God.  How is it we are possessed of motive force?  God moves you, not as pawns, mind, but God moves you.  Why do we have being?  Because God has breathed into you this breath of life.  He has given you being.  Modern science may understand much about the processes that lead to life – even if there is this disturbed tendency to deny that it is in fact life at those early stages, or even not-so-early stages of development.  But they cannot give answer to why.  They cannot accept that whatever the mechanics of the deal, and however conscientiously involved the parents, as to both planning and execution of those things which have led to life, it is God who gives life. 

I dare say, we must also accept that it is God who takes life away.  But we don’t much like to hear that part.  We would prefer to blame that on other forces.  But that must, if we do so, leave those other forces equal or near equal to that power which resides in God alone, and that simply won’t do.  It is in Him we live, move, exist – Him alone.  Somewhere, the Psalmist observed that were He to turn aside for the briefest moment, all existence would cease.  He is attentive, this God.  He is involved.  He is in control.  And He has chosen you, if you who read this are in fact believers who have known His call.  This gives a confidence unshakable.  This gives cause for us to proclaim with absolute assurance that the worst man can do to us will only speed us to our reward.  And even that, to be honest, they cannot do.  They cannot alter the schedule by so much as a femtosecond, or even a subdivision of a femtosecond.  God knows the exact number of your days, for He has decreed it.  You can’t prolong it and they can’t truncate it.  But from our perspective in this life, we can still say that yes, should they kill the body they succeed in nothing more than sending us home to our reward.  Is there sorrow in this?  How can there be for us?  Where’s the downside?  Shall we be so attached to those left behind as to resist this upward call to home?  I rather doubt it, not when that call has become reality.  There can only be fond farewell, and fonder anticipation of the welcome ahead.

The Wycliffe Translators Commentary observes, “Affliction cannot dampen the true joy of the Spirit.”  Agreed.  Paul and Silas, beaten and imprisoned in Philippi, did not find their joy, their enthusiasm for the Gospel and for the God of the Gospel, any bit dampened, but sang out praises to Him to whom they belonged, Him they served.  And lo!  When afflictions abounded, God saw to it that consolations abounded the more.  I thank Matthew Henry for this thought.  For it applies to us as well.  We, too, have need of consolation amidst the afflictions of this life.  We may not face the mortal perils that have faced others, but we certainly know the agony that cries out, “Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshech, I dwell among the tents of Kedar!  Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace” (Ps 120:5-6).  We may not know the peoples of whom the Psalmist writes, but we assuredly recognize the circumstance.  But facing that pressure, facing all that the world opts to throw at us, we walk in confident joy, for we have this from our Lord and Savior:  “I have told you all this that you may have peace in Me.”  And ‘all this’ was not some pile of good news as we should measure it.  It was the assurance that they would abandon Him, and be scattered.  They would be, by every worldly measure, abject failures, utterly overwhelmed and lost in the opposition that must come, utterly shattered as they witnessed the death of their friend, their teacher, their Lord.  All hope would seemingly have been lost.  But hear it, and hear it to the depths of your soul:  “Take courage!  I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).  It’s not going to look that way to you, but there it is.  Be calm and hold fast your joy.  You shall see it.  You shall see Me.

And we have the enormous benefit of hindsight in this.  We did not have to witness His utter humiliation, His bloody and torn body paraded through the streets, spiked to the cross like some entomologist’s prize specimen, and hung up to die slowly, painfully, as people from all walks came by to spit out their abuse at Him.  We did not awake to find Him being arrested, and fearing for our own safety, to flee into the night.  We have seen how this part of the story ends, learned of it, most likely, before the full horror of those events ever began to register with us.  And so it is with our own eventual transition from this life into the next.  It may be every bit as brutal.  Who’s to say?  It may be the peaceful transition of one who dies in his sleep.  The details really don’t matter.  Because we know the end of this story, as well.  He has overcome the world.  He has overcome our sin.  He has put paid to the debt of death, and transferred us into life, real life.  And in that life, we have joy.  And in that joy we stand.  And in standing, we become a Maker’s seal, if you will, leaving a deep impression on those who witness our steadfast, joyful faith in the God Who Is.

The Example Spread (10/04/22)

I come to the last part of this passage, where we have something of a paralleled thought presented:  The word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, and your faith toward God has gone forth.  These two are inseparable.  We cannot have faith apart from the Word, and where the Word has come, there cannot but be faith.  It is of a piece with our understanding in regard to the presence of the Holy Spirit.  If He has come, it cannot be but that His fruit will show in us.  If faith has come, this going forth of the word, the gospel being spread, is the necessary result.  Faith, if it is faith in God, is not satisfied to just be.  It is not satisfied to know itself saved, having no care or concern for those others who have yet to hear and receive.  Faith spreads.  It has as its great desire the glorification of the God in whom it rests, from whom it came.  As such, is has as its great desire that as many others as possible may know of Him, may hear His call and respond with hearts as delighted in Him as is our own.

And how is this achieved?  Do we go out to the street corners and start shouting at passers-by?  I rather doubt it, although I don’t suppose it’s entirely out of the question.  Do we mount tent meetings, energetic outreaches such that those walking about in the summer might perchance hear and find themselves intrigued enough to stop and truly listen?  Perhaps.  There’s a place for such exercises, I think.  I suppose I must so think, being as I used to participate in just such activities in the hopes that perhaps one or two might hear and come to Christ.  But there’s something to be said, as well, for the quiet example of life lived in concord with that faith.  The life of the faithful preaches, and whether pastors like it or not, sometimes, perhaps oft times, that preaching happens quite apart from any vocalized message.  Oh, it will come in time, I think.  But the example sets the stage for it to be truly heard.  Yes, the power of God to save is in the Gospel, and that Gospel is a thing to be preached.  By all means, it must be preached!  But let there be no example of its impact and who shall give it a hearing?

The Wycliffe Translators Commentary, which I seem to have found most useful on this passage, observes that when Paul says that the word of the Lord sounded forth from them, he brings into view the prophetic force of the Old Testament.  There is an emphasis being laid on the authority behind the message, we might say the power behind the example.  But let us stick with the audible word.  There is something of a “Thus sayeth the Lord” sense to his statement.  The example is there, but it is spreading because those who set the example were also ready, in season and out, to give reason for the hope that was in them (1Pe 3:15).  Their joyful persistence raised questions in those who observed their righteous response to trial, and they were more than happy to explain how this could be.

So, yes, we may begin the exercise of sounding forth in quiet, exemplary living, but it won’t stay quiet, will it?  Comes a time when questions will be asked, and when questions are asked, we must needs be ready, willing, and able to give an answer.  Here is our moment of serious dependency on the Spirit to give us that which we should say.  It’s not time to pull out a canned speech, or some prepared testimony.  It’s time to speak as the Spirit gives utterance – not in incomprehensible bursts of ecstatic utterance, but in on-point explanation that strikes home.

I find our commentaries at loggerheads as to just what Paul has in view here.  Barnes is quite certain that this indicates active evangelic pursuits.  They were purposefully and personally involved in propagating the gospel which they had received.  And one can see how, if they were indeed walking as they had seen Paul and the others live out their faith, this would be a natural result.  But then others, like the JFB, are just as convinced that if there was anything missionary in their response, it was more virtual.  It was word of them that spread, not themselves bearing the word.  I’ll come back to that latter opinion, for whatever may be the truth of the case, they do have something valid to say on the subject, which has more bearing on our present day than questions of just what Paul means here.

But let me simply say that this church we are looking at would appear to have been drawn from a wide range of people.  There were those who were well to do, and they might well have been traveling in pursuit of their business interests.  Where they went, did they cease to be Christians?  No.  They lived elsewhere as they did amongst their brethren:  In imitation of that example set for them, and in the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  Some among their number may have been crewmen to those ships that plied the waters of the Aegaen and the Mediterranean.  They, too, were the same men as they labored, and as they visited distant ports, as they were at home.  Others may have hosted travelers coming along the Via Ignatia, who having experienced their hospitality and encountered their examples in greater degree, bore news of it as they went, preaching, as it were, by relaying news of the great impact this Christian faith was having on believers there.

I suppose my conclusion, to the degree there is one, is that quite likely both perspectives are correct.  There were those actively, purposefully engaged in missionary evangelism of a nature at least somewhat familiar to us, and there were those whose faith was sounding out by means more local, more virtual, as the JFB puts it.  These were ‘recommending the Gospel to all within their influence by word and by example’.  That’s the way the JFB chooses to describe it, and I have to say, this must surely apply whether their efforts were the virtual impact of local encounters or the more purposeful efforts of missionaries traveling abroad.

Our church is, this weekend, sending off a team to serve as missionaries for a week or so in some foreign place.  This is a fine exercise, I suppose, and it will have some impact, one hopes.  But its value is distinctly, inexorably tied to the degree in which those who go to serve present the Gospel not merely by word, skit, and maybe some contributed labor, but by a consistent example of the influence of the Gospel on their nature.  Others have been involved with more local outreaches, seeking to give aid to the many homeless in the area.  The same applies for them.  If they are but bearers of free food then they shall have been no more than one more public service, perhaps helping, perhaps only enabling.  But if their consistent example is of one whose motive power is found in Christ alone, if their material supplies are accompanied by lived testimony to the God of heaven, perhaps, just perhaps, there can come of this something more than an easing of the hardships of that style of living.

But then, this same impact is possible in our workplaces.  We needn’t be stealing company time to evangelize.  We needn’t be some obnoxious office dweller with posters loudly shouting out our faith.  But neither need we hide it away and pretend to be just like those others around us.  We need, by our honest dealings, by our earnest efforts on behalf of our employers, by our considerate and helpful dealings with our coworkers, to manifest this gospel that is in us, to encourage not by overt exercises, but by quiet example, those questions that just might give rise to an opportunity to speak of this Jesus we love.

Hear it!  Whatever the means, their influence was in fact spreading the gospel.  Barnes suggests that this is the ‘necessary result of their conversion’, whether it involved direct effort on their part or not.  Where the Gospel has come in power, it’s going to show.  It’s going to leave a mark, and that mark is beautiful.  As I concluded in earlier comments, faith preaches even when you don’t.  If it is real, it must.  If it doesn’t make itself manifest in our word and character, then I must suggest we have great cause for concern as to whether in fact it is real.

We heard discussion in last Sunday’s sermon as to the nature of those with whom James concerns himself at the end of his epistle, those who had strayed from the truth, and were at great risk of death (Jas 5:19-20).  The call is, of course, to do as best we can to turn such a one back.  But this raises questions, doesn’t it?  Is James saying we can in fact lose this faith which God has implanted?  Well, no.  It cannot be that, for what God has established shall in no wise be destroyed.  One of my favorite passages was even brought forth to bear on that question.  “I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and on one shall snatch them out of My hand,” with its follow-on, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are One” (Jn 10:28-30).  The power to do that doesn’t exist.  God’s Word does not fail of its purpose.  The only question, then, is whether its purpose was salvation or condemnation in a given individual’s case.

What it comes down to is this.  There are many who attend but don’t believe.  There are many who profess a faith they don’t really possess.  They may think they do.  Perhaps they have mistaken excitement for faith.  Perhaps they have managed some reasoned response of agreement.  After all, it would be hard, for instance, to examine the requirements set forth in the Ten Commandments, and find them odious.  Certainly, the morals present in the second table could find little argument.  Don’t murder?  Check.  Don’t mess with your neighbor’s wife?  Check.  Don’t steal?  Well, I certainly don’t wish to be stolen from, so check.  Honor your parents?  I’d prefer it if my kids did, so sure.  There’s plenty of room for that sort of acceptance and agreement that comes of acknowledging that there is indeed wisdom in these pages.  But it’s not faith.  It’s not dependence upon that God Who reveals Himself in the message.  It’s still all words, no power.  These are the ones James sees at risk.  They might hear some new philosophy that sounds just as good and perhaps doesn’t place such requirements upon them, doesn’t bother them about their sins, just offers a path to self-improvement.  And wandering down that path, they might very well discover that they have in fact taken to the broad highway that leads only to perdition.

What to do?  Seek that they might yet be turned from their error.  Seek that they might yet hear the Gospel in its saving power, not merely as a fine philosophy.  Seek that they may yet be truly of the elect.  Here is a fine mission field, you who would be missionaries.  And it requires no travel, no raising of funds.  It requires only that we live as we believe, that we love as we are loved, that we preach by example and word alike, always in hope, always in that calm joy and confidence afforded us by the Holy Spirit Who guides and instructs us.

However this worked in their case, and I do suspect we’re looking at multiple modes, rather than having to choose one view or the other, Paul was discovering that he did not need to bring them forward as an example when he preached.  He didn’t need to appeal to past successes in hopes of furthering the chances of current success.  Word of the impact this Gospel was having on others reached them before he did.  Ships, after all, travel rather more quickly than men afoot, and especially so when they stop for a season in this city or that.  News traveled fast, and what came of it was that when Paul came with the Gospel, the ground was already favorably prepared.  Oh, there would be plentiful opposition, for those who opposed Christianity traveled just as fast as the positive news.  But here was this profound testimony of lives so utterly, so vibrantly changed.  They were not as they used to be.  We knew them when, but they’re not like that anymore.  We may not know what’s up with this Christian faith, but we can see its impact, and its impact is all to the good.  It’s certainly showing better influence on its members than these gods of ours.

Well, I approach a close, and I must approach a lesson, a question.  If I am His, as we are seeing from this greeting overall, and from this section particularly, it ought to show.  Does it?  I admit, I see my case as a bit unusual, at least historically, in that so much of my time is spent in relative isolation.  I work from great distance, and have fairly limited contact with my coworkers, certainly nothing that might count as socializing time.  It’s been so for years in my case, and introvert that I am, I rather like it this way.  Much less noisy; much less annoyance.  But also, it must be said, much less opportunity.  I don’t live before them.  On the one hand, great!  My failures of character won’t destroy my testimony.  On the other hand, what testimony?  All I have to offer in this setting is a job well and conscientiously done.  And I can find plenty of others here whose devotion to the job is above and beyond.  But that’s not the same thing, is it?  It’s one thing to be competent, and it’s one thing to be industrious to the point of being something of a workaholic.  It’s quite another to be a consistent Christian in one’s employments.  It doesn’t demand slaving away at all hours.  It does demand an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.  It does demand giving one’s best, even when that effort goes underappreciated, or even maligned.  We plug on.  We don’t allow frustration and anger to take root.  We live our work as we live our lives as we live our faith.

But the question remains:  Does it show?  When we encounter neighbors, does it show?  Do we even find ourselves counted as neighbors, as opposed to merely the folks who live next door, or the couple we see walking the neighborhood streets day after day?  Is there contact?  Is there engagement?   Not so much as there should be, no.  Indeed, would any who knew me have cause to speak of my faith?  I’m not sure I could give positive answer to that.  I could ask, for all that, if anybody I know actually knows me.  And there, too, I’m not sure I could give positive answer.  But the fact remains:  If I am His, it ought to show.  This is not something for me to try and work up in myself.  It is, however, something about which to pray, so I shall.

Father, I confess I don’t know just what to make of this.  My faith in You remains utterly confident.  I have known Your call, and I still do.  I have seen my excitement and my desire for holiness wax and wane at times, sometimes growing, sometimes stagnant.  But this is not my basis.  You are my basis.  You are my all in all.  Yet, I would be a faithful servant, one whose life and character truly serve to proclaim Your goodness.  I don’t know as I have it in me to be a public speaker on Your behalf, but then, neither did Moses think himself up to the task.  I can only lay myself before You, earnestly seek to give myself over to You to do with me as You will, and then set myself to be willing, moldable clay in Your hands.  Make of me, I pray, an expression of Your handiwork.  Let me walk so as to bring glory to Your name, by whatever means You choose.  Grant that I might indeed operate in the strength and power that You provide, and not in my own cleverness or insight.  Let me be such as will cause Your word to sound forth.  I am Yours.  Use me as You will.