The Minister's Heart (12/03/22)

What we have set before us in this chapter is Paul’s heart, the minister’s heart.  It becomes quite unmistakably clear that his care for those who have come to faith in Christ through his ministry supersedes concern for himself.  I could note from other letters that this was just as true for those who had come to faith at best indirectly through his ministry.  The church in Colossae, for example, was not, so far as can be shown, established by Paul, but more likely, by others from the church in Ephesus.  And the church in Rome was certainly not his planting.  Yet, the care he shows in his epistles to these churches is no less than is shown here.

That said, his addressees in this case are a special case.  He had not been able to remain with them as long as he knew would have been best for their firm establishing in this new faith, and their trials were great.  He was concerned.  He was not concerned that God had somehow failed them, as if that were a real possibility.  But he was concerned for the impact these persecutions were having, and would not have them in any way diminished by their trials.  And so, his heart is revealed.  His own comfort is as nothing if he cannot comfort them.  Matthew Henry observes that this is exemplary of how every minister ought to value his charges, so greatly that he would deny himself much in order to see them established and improving. 

One might suggest that the symptoms of a workaholic, however inappropriate in the normal course of world affairs, is absolutely fitting to the minister of God.  You can sense it with Paul.  It occupied his every waking moment, this concern for the churches, and for those who at present needed to hear and receive this gospel.  I have no doubt but that he found himself waking up early at times, so occupied by concerns for this labor that sleep evaded him.  We’ve all felt it, I should think, when our concerns were for much lesser matters.  How much more likely, then, when concerns are for matters of eternal import?

But he thought it best to be left wholly alone there in Athens, rather than to see them left without support.  Isn’t that something?  We look at the events that led him to be in Athens, and already, there had been evidence that ministry came first, safety a distant second.  Why had he gone to Berea, he and his companions?  It wasn’t for fear as to their own safety.  In point of fact, it does not seem to have been their own decision primarily, but rather, these young converts, in their own way emulating this fine example, had sent them away in the night (Ac 17:10).  And they had not looked at it as escape, but had immediately begun ministering in Berea, just as before.  And again trouble was stirred up, and again, those who believed sent Paul onward for his own safety, this taking him to sea and accompanying him to Athens (Ac 17:14-15), from whence they returned with word from Paul that Silas and Timothy ought meet him there at soonest opportunity.

Pause.  Why hadn’t all three come in the first place?  Clearly, however rushed this departure had been, there had been time for them to confer.  I would suppose that those who thought it best that he should depart had been thinking in terms of helping all three to leave in safety before things got ugly.  Why would they have considered anything different?  If trouble was brewing, surely it was due to the message at least as much as the man.  But only Paul departed.  It seems, thought it had struck me as a dubious proposition when I read it suggested in the commentaries, that they had found opportunity to consult one another prior to Paul departing, and had determined then, as now in Athens, that it was best they remain and Paul go on alone.  They may not have had clear idea where Paul would wind up, but those who went with him could bring back this news.  And they did.  And they brought back that command to join him, as we say, ASAP.

But how was that to be interpreted?  Presumably, if they remained in Berea, it was to some purpose, some ministry purpose.  This church, too, needed establishing.  After all, even the Jews here were proving ‘more noble-minded’, and had seen the veracity of Paul’s message.  Did they not deserve to be established, even as Thessalonica?  So, what was soonest possible in this case?  I should think it would require assessing the state of the faithful there in Berea, and having that as the driving determination. 

Whatever the case, Timothy was eventually freed up to make the trip to Athens.  Young though he was, this wasn’t really anything new to him.  Consider how we meet him.  He was known to the brethren both in Lystra and Iconium (Ac 16:2), and appears to have served to carry messages between the churches of that region before Paul called him to join his own travels.  And he would be used frequently for similar duties to those we see him filling here.  But he was more than a messenger, much more.  He, too, was “God’s fellow worker.”  He, too, was a minister, fully able and equipped to preach and to teach, to comfort and to exhort.  And his teaching was every bit as authoritative as if Paul had come in person, being as his teaching was Paul’s teaching.  We see it elsewhere.  He is, “my true child in faith” (1Ti 1:2), like Paul, a bond-servant of Christ (Php 1:1), a ‘beloved and faithful child in the Lord’ who will ‘remind you of my ways which are in Christ’ (1Co 4:17).  All of that to say that this companion to the Apostle was every bit a minister of the same Gospel.  He may not be an Apostle, and he may be surprisingly young for such duties, but he is utterly trustworthy in his teaching and in his example.

There’s something of a chain of evidence here, isn’t there.  Jesus observed, in response to concerns from Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9), continuing to the point that, “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (Jn 14:11).  And Paul, no less than the other Apostles, could say, “You ought to follow our example” (2Th 3:7).  “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ” (1Co 11:1).  Now, Timothy is sent, whose word is effectively that of the Apostle.  And in this case, they had knowledge of the young man, having seen his example even as they had seen Paul’s.

That example, no less than Paul’s, had displayed the minister’s heart.  He was being sent off from Paul again, alone in foreign lands, to a church known to be facing serious afflictions.  He was going into a trouble spot, and that without benefit of any senior partner.  It seems to me that what can be said of Paul’s decision to remain on alone in Athens applies just as readily to Timothy’s willing departure to minister to the Thessalonians.  He was, as Clarke observes, God’s employee doing God’s work by God’s appointing.  The JFB offers this quote from Edmunds.  “Gospel ministers do the work of God with Him, for Him, and under Him.”  It is much the same thought, isn’t it?

That thought serves to provide my first application from this passage.  I note how it describes both Paul and Timothy in this decision.  I suppose we must concede that it applies to Silas as well, now alone up in Berea.  For each of these men, the case was much the same.  Ministry comes first.  Personal comfort, even personal safety, are secondary concerns at best.  After all, if they are indeed doing God’s work by God’s appointing, they are, following Edmunds, doing the work with Him.  That is as much as to observe that He is in fact doing the work, and they are but the instruments.  And will such a one as God not take good care of His instruments?  Of course, He will.  Those who serve Him to good purpose must surely recognize this; that all their days are in His more than capable hands.  In the security of knowing this, they are free to make the purposes of ministry their primary, nay, their exclusive focus.

Yes, we see from Paul’s own example that matters of making a living intruded, as it were.  But even when occupied with the mundane tasks of tent-making, yet his focus was on ministering.  He was earning his keep in this fashion so as to not allow his needs to interfere with the reception of the Gospel he was tasked with preaching.  We saw that in his reminder to the Thessalonians.  I did not charge you in any way, not even by accepting a free meal from you.  We see it again in Corinth.  It is only when his companions have rejoined him that he leaves off tent-making, and that, because now his companions can deal with the necessities of earning some income while he turns more fully to matters of direct ministry.  But it was always about ministry to anyway.

Here, the decision to prioritize matters of ministry is more starkly on display, the personal cost more evident.  But the decision is perfectly in keeping with what we see as the constant example of these men.  But I said I was coming to an application.  Let me get there.

This description befits any who would serve as a minister of God, doesn’t it?  God’s man doing God’s work by God’s appointing.  Any two of those three will not suffice.  If I am God’s man and doing God’s work, but not by His appointing, I am a rebel.  If I am God’s man and appointed by God to the work, but not doing it, I am slothful.  And if I am not God’s man, well, how can it be by God’s appointing that I do God’s work?  I mean, He can surely use whatever means He pleases, but I’m just not at all sure I could account this a sensible formulation.

But my purpose here is not to lay out for us some measuring stick by which to assess our ministers.  No.  My purpose is to lay out a measuring stick by which we might assess ourselves.  We are, after all, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, established by God to proclaim His excellencies (1Pe 2:9).  We are all of us ministers.  We are all of us, if we are in fact of the elect, chosen and called by God, God’s men, called to God’s work by God’s appointing.  We are not all Apostles, but neither was Timothy an Apostle.  We are not all called to serve in the office of minister, but we are all ministers.  It may be only to family.  It may be that your or I are to serve as the instrument in God’s hands by which to reach some coworker or acquaintance, or even to bless some total stranger with the good news of salvation.  This must surely give us cause to ask in regard to ourselves, if I am God’s man, called by Him and appointed to such good works as He has prepared beforehand that I might do them, am I in fact doing them?  And let it be supposed we can answer in the affirmative to that much.  Am I doing so, as we see it described, with, for, and under Him, or am I trying to do things my way? 

Let me put it another way.  Faced with a similar situation as these men faced, would I make a similar decision?  Would I willingly set aside my comfort and even my relative safety to see the work of the gospel proceed to greater effect?  Would I do so even if the return on my efforts looked likely to be negligible?  Jesus, we often like to observe, would have died as He did even if it were to save only me.  Even had He saved but one, He would have accounted it worth the cost.  I cannot say just how legitimate that sentiment is, and the premise is entirely unprovable anyway, given that He didn’t die for only one, but for all who are the called of the Father, all who have been given Him by the Father.  But accept the premise anyway.  What of us?  How sacrificially do we serve this One Who sacrificed Himself for us?  How much are we willing to set aside if only His work goes forward?

It is a matter for much prayer, isn’t it?  For I would imagine that like me you cannot readily imagine choosing as they chose.  We have become too comfortable.  We have, for long years, had to downgrade our perception of persecutions if we wish to think ourselves persecuted.  Our persecutions consist in things such as not being able to insist on God-centered prayers at school, not being able to spend company time preaching to our coworkers.  Maybe we face a bit of ridicule for our faith, but in general, we do not face full ostracization, loss of employment, imprisonment, or execution.  And yet, we fall silent.  And yet, we don’t set such concerns aside and preach anyway, present the gospel anyway.  And when we do consider such things as we might deem more akin to the trials faced by the early church, I suspect our first and strongest prayer is, “please God, not here.”  I suppose such a reaction is unsurprising, and I don’t know as I would account it sinful.  There is no crime in asking that God might not lead us into such things, anymore than it was sinful when Jesus taught us to pray, “lead us not into temptation.”  Far to be preferred, clearly!  But should my way be into hardship and trial, and having prayed, I find my instructions to take that way remains unchanged, it would surely become sinful to refuse.  Sorry, God.  I’m busy that week.  No.  That’s not going to do.  God’s employee doing God’s work by God’s appointing.  This is our calling.  What is our answer?

The Means of our Affliction (12/03/22)

It would be near to impossible to pursue this passage without observing what it has to say about affliction.  Affliction is, after all, pretty much the central point not only of these verses, but much of both this chapter and the last.  And it is an important subject for us to encounter and understand.  For if there is one certainty in the life of a Christian it is that afflictions will come.  Our Savior assures us that it is so, and it is clear from the things said here that Paul likewise made sure his converts recognized this reality.  It surely says something about us that by and large our preaching does not emphasize this point so very much anymore.  But perhaps that is changing.  For now, though, let me stick with what is happening in the passage I have before me.

The first thing we have need to recognize is that affliction is inevitable, or if not inevitable, certainly the norm.  It could be argued, and reasonably so, that if we are not in fact experiencing affliction our true membership in the elect is in question.  I don’t say that as encouraging us to go out and stir up affliction, but really, if we’re so comfortable in our life of faith, one wonders just how much our life is of faith.

You see, we have enemies if indeed we are in Christ.  We have many enemies, but one in particular, whom we see here referred to as the tempter.  Surely, we recognize that this is a reference to Satan, the enemy of our souls.  And surely, we see that this is no anomaly on his part.  As Matthew Henry observes, this enemy of ours is untiring.  And he is subtle as to his ways.  He will try all manner of gambits to destroy us, whether through hard times or through what we see as good times.  And don’t be fooled!  Good times are as much a risk to us as affliction, perhaps even more of a risk.  For good times encourage ease, and ease encourages negligence.  Affliction has the tendency, if it does not in fact serve to turn us from our course, to sharpen our guard and keep us alert and on defense.

But the truth is that this enemy of ours has found affliction to be effective for his purposes.  If he had not, he would have abandoned this line of attack a long time ago.  He may be doomed to failure ultimately, but he is not a stupid foe.  Rather, he is quite adept, and quite a bit cleverer as to his thinking than are we.  But the tool has been effective in his hands, and so he turns to it over and over again.  Many of us, and I must certainly account myself in that number, tend toward the path of least resistance.  If we see two options ahead of us, both of which appear to move us toward our goal, but one way looks easier and the other much harder, which shall we choose?  If one requires hardship and the other looks to be fun, which is more likely to be our choice?

Well, here’s another test for us.  If we have thought to make a change, and pursuing that change for some period of time, it seems like things have gotten harder rather than better, just how inclined are we to reconsider?  Could it not be, after all, that this is God telling us we went the wrong way back there, and need to get back on course?  Well, it could be, yes.  It could also be this enemy of ours seeking to turn us from the very path we need to be on.  Consider the events that arose as Paul neared Jerusalem when he sought to return there with the contributions made by these Gentile churches to support their brethren in that city.  Prophesies arose, warning him of dire, personal dangers ahead.  Now, let’s understand clearly that those prophesies were quite accurate as to what they had to say, and I have no doubt but that the prophet who spoke the message operated from a clear sense of speaking as God had revealed.  In point of fact, I have no doubt that he was right to believe so.  And yet.  Delivering this message, “Thus will the Jews in that city bind you and deliver you into the hands of the Gentiles” (Ac 21:11), for all that it intended to serve as a warning of dangers ahead, how could that prophet have expected any other response than that Paul would reconsider?  And given that Paul was pursuing the course set for him by the God for and in Whom he ministered, how could this be seen as anything other than a temptation to change course?

Temptations come in the hope of causing those tempted to apostatize.  This is the case when comfort and ease are the temptation.  This is the case when affliction is set in our path.  How will the believer respond?  I think, as my questions have suggested, that these often come paired.  Here is the course you believe you are to take, and see where it leads?  See what troubles it will bring your way?  You will be beaten.  Again.  You will be imprisoned.  Again.  Nothing for you on this course but pain and suffering.  Now, let me show you this other option.  You could let somebody else do it, hang out here for a bit with friends and fellow believers.  No persecution happening here, brother, and we could use your teaching, and would welcome it.  Why continue as you intend?  Why not reap some of the reward for your service now?

Isn’t this much the same as the temptations our own Lord faced at the dawn of His earthly ministry?  Oh, dear boy.  You’ve been out here starving yourself for weeks.  Why?  If in fact you are the Son of God, just make some bread for yourself of these stones.  No need to suffer, here is offer of comfort.  (Mt 4:3-10).  Why go down this road to the cross?  You have God’s own word that He won’t let you so much as trip on a stone.  What are you thinking?  You think this is the way?  I tell you no!  It’s all about obtaining this kingdom, right?  But I could give it to you for next to nothing.  Just do this little, painless act of honor to me, and it’s all yours.  No need to die, and to deal with all the humiliation that lies ahead.  I don’t need to show you what’s ahead on that course.  You know it well enough.  But look!  Here’s a shortcut.  Take it, and save yourself all that tribulation.

Subtle.  That’s our enemy.  He knows full well that to take him up on his offer is to prove oneself the enemy of God every bit as much as himself.  And that is ultimately his goal, to prove those who profess faith in Christ and trust in God to be utterly false to God.  When afflictions come, it is in the hope of turning us from the Way.  Now, here’s the tricky bit.  When afflictions don’t come, it is also in hope of turning us from the Way.  And, should we be alert to what’s actually happening here, he will seek another gambit, which is to convince us that it’s not some action on his part, but down to this people or that.  The Church has, historically, fallen prey to this deflection in various ages.  Oh, look.  It was the Jews put Him on the cross.  They got what was coming to them.  It was the Romans who executed the Son of God, and look what became of their empire.  They only got what they deserved.  Well, true enough.  And give thanks to God that we don’t all just get what we deserved.  For the greater truth is that we all, through our sins, put Christ on that cross and served as the cause for His deepest suffering.  He suffered, as Pastor Neil was saying last Sunday, a rift in the eternal fellowship of the Godhead.  How that can be in an unchanging being, I cannot begin to explain.  And what it meant to Him as the God-man, if God could not look upon Him in His human condition of having taken on the sins of all mankind, I likewise cannot begin to declare with certainty.  But it does seem that if the Father could not look upon Him for that debt of sin He had taken upon Himself, neither could He look at Himself.  I say this only to emphasize the depth of suffering that was present as the full force of God’s just wrath poured out.

Beloved, this was the choice He faced back there when this enemy of ours came to tempt Him.  He knew this was ahead.  It had been ahead for Him through all eternity.  From before the first moment of time and the dawn of creation, this critical path had been determined.  Indeed, it was the whole purpose of creation, and remains so.  Now, how those who exist outside time experience the passage of even so great a span of time is yet another thing I cannot hope to apprehend, let alone explain.  But certainly, through those years of His walk on earth, this lay ahead and He knew it.  And yet, He chose it.  This is the Way.  Walk You in it.  And He did.  He was not to be dissuaded from it.  Had the Father chosen to shift the plan at some juncture, declare He had passed the test and need not continue, as He had done with Abraham so many centuries prior, sure.  He would have welcomed a more pleasant means to achieve God’s ends.  But that was not forthcoming, and so He continued, willingly, willing even unto death, along that course God had set for Him.

While our persecutions are never going to come close to being equal to what Jesus suffered, even if we should come to be crucified in our own turn, or burned at the stake, or tossed to the lions, or whatever other vile means might be devised to torment us to the point of denying Christ, the choice remains for us as it was for Him.  Shall we let such persecutions turn us aside, or shall we willingly, consciously, and conscientiously commit ourselves to that which He has commanded, and remain firm in faith?

Take care!  This enemy of ours is forever seeking to prove us false to God.  If he does not bring affliction via outsiders and unbelievers, hoping that we might expend our meager energies attacking his pawns, then he will get us to afflicting ourselves.  How is that?  Well, certainly within the body there are plentiful occasions for us to turn on one another, to allow petty disagreements to become serious divisions.  Oh, you believe that?  Sorry, we can’t be friends.  This is where you stand on the question of free will?  Sorry, but that’s a lie from the pit of hell.  You hold to that position on the end-times, or you have this view on creation versus evolution?  Yeah, we’ll just have to part ways, then, and may God have mercy on your soul, heretic.

But there’s another, more subtle attack that also comes as a sort of self-persecution, or self-affliction, and that is the attack of convincing us that our failures to date have put us beyond all hope of grace.  You really think God can forgive you after that?  Look at you!  How many times have you gone back to that same old sin?  How often have you sought forgiveness for it before, and He forgave?  Indeed, how often have you gone toward that sin counting on His forgiveness after the fact.  And you think He’s still going to take you back?  You worm.  You worthless, faithless swine.  Give it up, already.  You can’t make it.  He clearly isn’t going to save you, or He’d have done so, already, wouldn’t He?  He didn’t really call you, else you wouldn’t be struggling like this, would you?  If, in fact, He has given you everything needful to succeed, and indeed given you of His own power so as to see you succeed, what can failure mean?  Either His power isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or He hasn’t really given it you, right?  So, why keep up this charade?  Why play this game of self-denial, if it’s guaranteed to lose?  Come to the dark side.

But no!  Don’t fall for it.  It is all lies from a lying liar, even if they whisper in your very soul.  This is your subtle enemy, seeking to turn you away from the hard course of salvation.  Barnes makes a great point here, several in fact, but let me start here.  Many are indeed tempted to apostatize in hope of avoiding suffering.  Many more find these afflictions to be cause to complain, to murmur against God, and doubt Him.  This is the game.  Get the Christian to accuse God of being ungodly.  Let him come to find God to be partial, to be overly severe in His dealings.  Let him come to doubt that there is power for him in faith, that faith is truly able to support him amidst trials.  Let him become embittered and dissuaded.  Then, he shall curse God to His face.  And that’s it in a nutshell.  All of this comes about to seek that we might begin to doubt.  To doubt ourselves is not the issue.  That’s actually a pretty reasonable response.  But then we come to doubt our status as the elect of God, chosen by His choosing.  Then we come to doubt that He is in fact able to save.  Oh, He may have given us a leg up, but we’re still here on our own.  He may have given us a spark, but what if we let that spark go out?  It’s really all about us, isn’t it?  What if I stumble?  What if I fall?  The old D.C. Talk song comes to mind, doesn’t it?  And it’s worthy of consideration.  What would the impact be?  Not only, what would become of me, but what would become of those I’ve counted as brothers, as sisters?  Assuming there has been any fruit of ministry in regard to my past, what would become of that?

And that takes me to a second aspect of Matthew Henry’s observations.  It’s not only for ourselves that we need to have a care.  We need to be concerned with our brothers and sisters.  We need to be on guard for them, lest they be ensnared by such trials and afflictions.  Their downfall, after all, can only diminish our own security.  Their downfall may cause others, even ourselves, to weaken.  By way of contrast, their standing firm gives us encouragement to do so ourselves.  And that really rather explains why Timothy is being sent back into the fire, as it were.  Look!  If afflictions were cause to toss this business, would we truly continue in it?  You saw our condition when we first came to you.  And you saw that it played out again while we were among you.  And you saw how trouble followed us when we moved on to Berea.  Did that trouble prove us false somehow?  No!  We had told you how it was going to be, and there it was.  Nor did it move us from proclaiming the Truth.  Neither should it move you.  We stand fast.  You can, too.

Understand.  Paul had not sought to downplay this point, but had in fact emphasized it.  The point is made here.  We told you – repeatedly – that such things would happen.  Now, we can have a fine linguistic argument as to whether he’s talking about what happened to him personally, or what they could expect themselves.  Honestly, given what had already happened to them before Paul left, I see little enough reason to assume they are not in the picture here.  Hey, guys.  When they came and harassed Jason, that was no surprise, was it?  We told you such things would come about.  Call it prophesy.  Call it simple acknowledgement of realities.  Either way.  You were told.  You knew you could expect such treatment.  And I have no doubt but that he could as readily say that they knew they could continue to expect it even having sent Paul away.  That wasn’t going to stop the attacks.  It might preserve Paul to further God’s ends elsewhere, but  they would still have need of holding fast against every trick and assault of this tireless enemy.

Darkness does not like exposure to the light.  That darkness that remains in us does not like it any more than the more fulsome darkness that resides in the unbeliever.  Why would we expect a better reception from them?  It is because of that darkness that such vehement opposition arises when all we have for them is good news.  Yes, you are a sinner.  Yes, your ways are utterly deserving of the fullest outpouring of God’s wrath upon your person.  But that’s not the end of the story.  That’s hardly even the beginning.  God has been pleased to make a way for your restoration to His good graces.  There is hope for you, however vile your actions have been to date, whatever gods you have chosen to enslave yourselves to.  This can be set right.  The threat of death can be removed.  The cause to fear God should He come can be put away from you.  Only believe.  Only receive that which has been put on offer.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish eternally, but should have instead eternal life (Jn 3:16).  Yes, I insert the idea of eternal perishing in there, but only because that’s what’s in view.  “He who believes in Him is not judged.  He who does not believe has been judged already, for not believing in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn 3:18).

Pay attention to that, believer.  He who does not believe has already been judged.  This is not failure on God’s part.  It is not lack of efficacy on Christ’s part.  It is not some fault in your preaching or your efforts to make known the truth.  It is that they have already had their case settled, and it wasn’t resolved in their favor.  Don’t let the numbers become a temptation to you.  Oh.  The church has proven so ineffective, and it’s because of this or that or the other thing.  This is every bit as much a ploy of the enemy as is the stirring up of hatred against the Jews as if they were the prime movers in bringing about the death of our Lord.

This starts to bleed into my next section, which is well, as I shall turn there almost immediately, but, understand this and understand this well.  People are not the determining factor.   Indeed, the Tempter’s intentions are not the determining factor.  Recall the discussion from the previous section of this study.  Satan may have been given credit for blocking Paul’s return to Thessalonica, but in point of fact God remains fully in charge.  If Satan could oppose it is because He had purpose in allowing that opposition.  Paul being blocked from returning set him on course for Corinth, which was where God wanted him at the moment.  This was really no different, other than the means employed, than his having been turned from going into Asia to instead heading over to Macedonia.  And look what had come of that!

So, don’t blame the Jews for what was in fact the determined outcome of all our sins, and fully a part of God’s own plan to deal with those sins.  Neither fall into blaming the Church because so many in the world are found rejecting the Son.  The Church has every reason for self-inspection, to be sure.  But that holds just as true individually as collectively, doesn’t it?  But even the faultiest believer can yet find himself used of perfect God to further God’s perfect plan.  It’s not about you.  You don’t need to be so advanced in holiness as to never slip up.  As if you could be!  Ministry, when it succeeds in being fruitful, isn’t so because of the wondrous powers of the minister.  It is so because this Gospel is the power to save.  If it fails to save, it is not because the minister proved faulty, nor is it because the Gospel proved faulty.  By that passage from John we have the truth of it.  These have already been judged, and no preacher, however persuasive and impassioned his preaching, is going to change that.  God has already decided, and like Pharaoh, that heart has been hardened beyond recall.

Be not dismayed, brothers.  Be not dissuaded from proclaiming this great good news, and be not discouraged when so few seem to respond with anything but hatred and vitriol.  Your enemy seeks your discouragement.  But stand fast.  Remember Who is in control.  “Don’t fear those who kill the body, but can’t touch the soul.  Rather fear and worship Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Yes, I tell you.  Fear Him!” (Mt 10:28, Lk 12:5).  Honor Him.  Serve Him.  Remain keenly aware of Him.  He matters.  And He is most assuredly and most fully in charge.  Be not dismayed.

The Source of our Affliction (12/04/22)

I have hopefully established sufficiently that our sufferings do not truly come of those through whose hands afflictions come our way.  They may be instrumental in those afflictions, and will assuredly bear their own guilt for serving such purposes, but they are not the source of their own deeds.  Rather, their deeds have been instigated by their father, our enemy Satan.  But we need to take a second step back here.  Satan himself is, for all his power and antipathy to all that is godly, a tool in the hands of God.  He is, as it were, on a leash, unable to stray further from the depths of Tartarus to which he has been cast than the true Lord of all permits. 

Recall Peter’s description of the state of this and other fallen angels.  God did not spare them when they sinned, but cast them into hell, committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment (2Pe 2:4).  The term hell, in this instance, is not translating Hades, but Tartarus.  It is not substituting for Sheol, but instead indicates a place of imprisonment, and the jailor is God Himself.  And observe, though reserved for judgment, the clear indication is that the decision is already rendered.  It’s not as though they await a decision as to their guilt.  No.  It is simply a holding cell, if you will, until such time as the full sentence is passed down, the full penalty imposed.  And there they are chained to that dark place.  They can go so far as God permits and not one step farther, and they can do so only as God permits.

This is a point that bothers us.  We will not have a good God in charge of such evil, and indeed, so far as the evil of their intentions go, God is assuredly innocent of any involvement.  But as to actions, we must accept that indeed He is fully in control of events, and as I have often enough observed, He is not shy about acknowledging this to us.  One has only to search for the word calamity in the course of the Old Testament to see it.  The day of their calamity is near, and the impending things hasten upon them (Dt 32:35).  Why?  Because “Vengeance is Mine.”  The Lord would bring calamity on Absalom (2Sa 17:24).  Job recognized it well enough.  “Calamity from God is a terror to me, and because of His majesty I can do nothing” (Job 31:23).  But more than all, hear God’s clear declaration as to Himself.  He is, “the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity.  I am the LORD who does all these” (Isa 45:7).  “All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, those who say, ‘The calamity will not overtake or confront us.’” (Amos 9:10).  “A calamity has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem” (Mic 1:12).  Indeed, “Behold, I am planning against this family a calamity from which you cannot remove your necks.  And you will not walk so haughtily then, for it will be an evil time” (Mic 2:3).

It's like the constant beat of a hammer, isn’t it?  But we need so very much to understand this.  God is in charge.  Not Satan, God.  Satan is a tool, used of God for His good purposes entirely in spite of Satan’s evil intent.  But understand well that God, in bringing such things to pass, is no capricious deity such as the Greeks imagined.  He is not perverse, seeking His amusements in the sufferings of His creatures.  He is not like some little boy with a magnifying glass, out tormenting ants on the sidewalk.  But He does set these roadblocks in our path, as Paul speaks of Satan’s opposition blocking his return to Thessalonica.  He does permit trials to come our way, that we might be tested by them.  But understand that these tests are not, as Satan would prefer, things we are doomed to fail, nor are they God’s attempts to answer some question as to our resolve.  In His plan and purpose, they come as training, as discipline by which to strengthen His children.

Oh, how these things bother us.  I see it clearly in Clarke.  He simply cannot permit this idea.  “God appoints nothing of this kind, but he permits it.”  Of course, this comes of the perspective, the worldview, to which he adheres.  “For he has made man a free agent.”  Indeed, Mister Clarke, we are moral agents, and assuredly our failures remain our own.  But are we free?  Oh, we choose freely enough, but as my dear friend of old was wont to say, God remains freer.  Honestly, how can we take Paul at his word here, and take his word as God’s word, and conclude as Clarke does.  “We have been destined for this.”  We are appointed:  keimetha.  It is laid down for us as if it were a law.  We are set in his power by Him in Whose power we are held.  There is a necessity of result to the action.  We might note that this is the same term used of Jesus at His birth, when the prophesy came, that He is appointed for the fall and rise of many, a sign to be opposed and a sword to pierce (Lk 2:34).  This was not some optional course that Jesus could freely choose to follow or not as He pleased.  To be sure, He chose, and He chose most willingly.  Yet, at the same time, it cannot be otherwise than that He should choose to travel the path set for Him.  He is appointed.  And so, too, are these sufferings that come our way.

It's clear that this was a fundamental to Paul’s preaching, as fundamental as was the message of resurrection.  Think of his statement to Corinth.  “I determined to know nothing among you but Christ, and Him crucified” (1Co 2:2).  He would not present even the Lord apart from His suffering.  The Wycliffe Translators Commentary pulls out this central point, observing that the suffering of Christ is and must be central to the message of the Gospel.  Without it, there is no redemption, just as without His resurrection, there is no life.  And it’s clear that this wasn’t something observed to Corinth alone, as if in reaction to the limited successes of Athens.  This was the message he bore to Thessalonica from the outset.  He came into that city, went to the synagogue some three weeks running, and spent that time, ‘explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, as proof that “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ”’ (Ac 17:3).

There it is!  The two fundamentals of faith.  Suffering and resurrection.  I’ve turned to it often enough.  Doing so again won’t hurt.  “I have told you these things in order that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but fear not!  I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).  You have.   Present Indicative.  It is our steady state condition, and it is fact.  It’s not a possibility.  It’s a certainty.  But over against that Present Indicative, we have the trump card of Christ’s Perfect Indicative.  “I have”.  Again:  fact, not possibility.  But this is no longer stative.  It is completed action.  It’s not, “I am constantly overcoming the world.”  No!  It’s a done deal.  But it’s an accomplished act with continuing repercussions for us.  That singular act of overcoming rings down through the ages.  It is the basis for our peace.  It is our stronghold in the face of these tribulations which are our stead state.

Understand well.  “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2Ti 3:12).  It’s not a possibility.  It’s a certainty.  As I observed yesterday, if we see no signs of such trials in our lives, perhaps we should ask why not, rather than simply wiping our brows in relief.  Jesus suffered, and He states plainly enough that the disciple is not greater than his teacher.  The slave cannot expect better treatment from the world than his master.  They hated Me.  They will hate you.  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22).  There is no alternate course.  There is no easy road to heaven.  There is not evading the tribulations.

But there is strength to withstand.  There is hope, indeed assurance.  God does not test us further than we can stand.  He does not permit these tribulations to exceed our rated load.  Now, there’s both a comfort and a concern in this.  First the concern.  If God does not permit us to be tested beyond our capacity and yet we continue to fail those tests, whose fault is it?  Shall we blame God for making the quiz too hard?  That’s a child’s game, and will have about as much success with Him as adults as it did with our teachers as children.  No.  It’s not that the quiz was too hard.  It’s that you chose not to prepare.  Shall we blame Satan for bringing such temptations our way and forcing us into failure?  Sorry.  That won’t fly.  He can no more be blamed for our failure than his involvement can rid those who labor in his purposes of their guilt.  The failures remain our failures.  The choices remain our choices.  If we did not stand firm, it’s because we ourselves chose not to stand firm.  If we failed the test, it’s because we chose failure.  Now, I rather doubt we ever set out with intent to fail.  But the choices we make influence our response when trial comes.  If we have had our eyes on Christ and our hearts set on heaven, if we have concerned ourselves with knowing and following God, then stand we shall.  If we have preferred to indulge the flesh and put off such heady concerns for eternity, then yes, we shall fail.  But even that failure, if in fact we are His, comes as discipline, not as condemnation.

It is hard, I would say impossible, to read this and not find Clarke’s conclusion invalid, at least in its full extent.  Yes, God does appoint.  Suffering, as the JFB accepts, comes by God’s appointing, and it comes for His purposes.  This holds however much the enemy of our soul is involved as the means or the instigator.  Oh, he’s willing enough when it comes to tormenting those who love the Lord – or anyone else for that matter.  But his actions can only be as appointed.  Like the ocean, he operates within constraints set by One who is infinitely higher.  “Thus far, and no further.”  The same can be said of us.  We are free – within limits.  We are fenced about by the guarding hand of God.  We may stray for a season, but, “Thus far, and no further.”  We may have a wide field in which to wander as we please, and yet, “Thus far, and no further.”  And however wide our field, however liberal our wanderings, this fact cannot be evaded.  We who are His are appointed – by Him – to such sufferings as this.

In this we do no more than to imitate our Savior, and to obey Him.  He called us, as Calvin reminds, to bear our cross.  He wasn’t talking about putting on a pretty gold chain with a bangle.  He was talking about bearing trials such as were designed to shame and break a man.  The cross, as has often been observed, was designed by a people quite skilled in the arts of killing and killing painfully.  It was a punishment intended to most thoroughly break and humiliate the one thus punished, and to prolong the process as long and as painfully as possible.  It was a demonstration of complete and utter dominance intended to break the will not only of the criminal thus punished – who would soon enough be dead anyway – but also to break the will of such as might consider such a course of action as had led to this punishment.  There’s a reason, you know, why we impose the death penalty in our wiser periods.  It does much to discourage others who might choose so murderous a life.  But where there is no penalty, as we are discovering once again to our dismay, there is no discouragement.  There’s no reason to choose a better way, when this way carries no cost.

Put it in terms of faith.  What purpose is there in living godly in this godly world if there is no threat of hell?  We have those who would preach a God who, in the end, is going to forgive everybody anyway.  Sorry, folks.  It was all just a big game, really.  Religious or not, it didn’t matter.  Everybody gets a passing grade.  What?  No!  This is the God of Justice, and there is not justness in that outcome.  Mercy may trump Justice where He so chooses, but it doesn’t simply erase the concept.  That would require that one aspect of God’s perfect essence overpowers another, and that simply will not do.  That is no longer God.  No.  All that He is He is in perfection and in perfect unity and balance.  Faith has hope, it is true.  But hope is needed not only because there are things we have not as yet obtained, but because there is real threat to our wellbeing apart from faith.  Heaven becomes pointless without the threat of hell.  Faith becomes pointless if faithlessness bears no penalty.

But again:  We are called to take up our cross, to bear it daily.  Calvin is particularly blunt in his observation of this basic, fundamental truth.  “This is our condition, which the Lord has assigned to us.”  Man!  We don’t want to hear that.  But it remains to be heard.  We are appointed to such sufferings as are on view here.  We may or may not face the sorts of things Paul faced.  But you can bet we will experience friendships lost, societal rejection, perhaps job loss, perhaps even imprisonments and even death, all for the sole reason that we have embraced this Jesus, have chosen to follow and worship the God Who Is.  Understand it and understand it well.  God made the arrangements.  Barnes is likewise plain on the point.  “No one who professed Christianity could hope to be exempted from trial, for it was the common lot of all believers.”  Well, I tell you, nothing has changed.

We have had a comfortable season, here in the West.  We have doubtless sensed that the Christian influences on our society are waning, and sorrowed for it.  We saw the signs long ago, didn’t we?  I can recall from youngest days encountering friends whose parents had opted to have nothing of religion in their children’s upbringing.  I remember it because it seemed so odd to me.  What?  You don’t go to Sunday School?  Or at least to synagogue?  I mean, we didn’t have but a few in our community who would have taken that course, but those who would have, did.  Parents insisted.  The church was still, by and large, central to the community.  I mean, in the little Connecticut town in which I grew up for the most part, the church building pretty much was the community.  There was a town hall, but it was primarily a garage for the ambulance other than on voting days.  There was a firehouse.  But that was it.  So far as public infrastructure went, the church was the center.  That’s not to say that everybody was terribly religious, but even so, one showed up.  At least, most did, or many.

My memories may be slightly askew.  After all, as children we have a tendency to assume our own experiences are the common experiences of all, right?  In fairness, we still carry that perspective in adulthood by and large.  Oh, we may think our troubles are unique, and far beyond those of mere mortals, but then we also wish to have the comfort that our failings are no more than any other.  It’s funny, isn’t it?  Though, not in a good way.  We are ever quick to pronounce ourselves no worse than the next guy when it comes to our failures, but at the same time we are ever so fast to take credit for our superior accomplishments when it comes to successes.  But, beloved, we can’t have it both ways.  Our successes are no more uniquely to our credit than our failures.  If our sins are only those common to man, so, too are our successes.  And indeed, that is the way of it, for our successes are of no particular merit to us, being as all that is good in us comes of Christ.

Paul writes elsewhere that, “it is no longer I that lives, but Christ living in me” (Gal 2:20).  That cuts both ways.  Paul could observe, and did, that while the spirit is renewed and wants nothing more than to follow Christ, the flesh does that which I do not want.  But it is sin acting in the flesh, Christ acting in the spirit.  My sins I can lay off to the sinfulness of sin, but then I must likewise lay off my righteousness to the righteousness of Christ.  And yet, through it all, it remains the case that I am responsible for my choices.  If my flesh reigns, it is by my choice.  Christ is certainly not so weak as to be unable to overcome my flesh.  If, on the other hand, my spirit reigns, this, too, is by my choice.  And yet, I could not have thus chosen except Christ had made the choice of me, and made the choice in me.  There is no merit, no earning of heaven.  There is, it would seem, reward accrued for choosing aright, but the choice of admission was already made on my behalf in that this God I serve chose me.  He called me by name, declared me His own, and honestly, if He has thus declared, how am I going to gainsay Him?  And why would I wish to?

In the meantime, here we are.  God has made these arrangements, appointed us to these trials.  When trouble arises, beloved, pay attention!  These are occasions set in your path in accordance with God’s intent.  Joseph, tossed in a pit and then sold into slavery by his own brothers met with these rather significant trials not because he was somehow out of God’s will, not as punishment for so arrogantly sharing that which had been shown him in dreams, but because God had arranged it.  He would recognize it quite clearly later, but he didn’t lose sight of it then, either.  You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good (Ge 50:20).  The events in themselves could not be described as good, but… They set things in motion by which many, and not merely Joseph’s kin, but many in Egypt as well, were preserved alive.

No one could look at the things Jesus dealt with and say, my, those were pretty wonderful, weren’t they?  Chased from his hometown for no greater crime than proclaiming God’s truth; wandering the nation as a homeless itinerant preacher, dependent (at least to some degree) on the kindness of strangers for provision; harassed by the very religious authorities who had, at the first, been so impressed with this precocious child and His interest in the things of religion; mocked by His own, rejected by His own, beaten and broken, nailed to the cross, and for what crime?  None.  None whatsoever.  He was put to death for no worse crime than speaking truly.  He was put to death, if we would arrive at the ultimate reason, because this was God’s arrangement for Him, and, like Joseph before Him, he could look upon it and see that this evil was meant by God for good, so as to preserve many alive.  And so, He could look down upon His tormenters from the cross and say, “Father, forgive them.  They don’t know what they are doing.”

And this is our Lord, our Teacher, our Master.  We can expect no less.  Behold!  These afflictions come by God’s counsel.  We are destined for such things, appointed for them.  Can you imagine?  Now, the JFB makes an observation on this point which deserves a bit of thought.  They write, “None but a religion from God would have held out such a prospect to those who should embrace it, and yet succeed in winning converts.”  Well, two reactions arise in me.  The first is that such a prospect is not entirely unique to Christianity.  Follow Me and know suffering is not entirely reserved to the Christian message.  I should think one could find at least some parallel in the prospects of the Muslim.  Follow me and you shall blow yourself up at some point.  You shall have to embrace violent death, and just hope maybe you were good enough.  But there’s the distinction, isn’t there?  It’s still on you to earn entrance.  It’s still no better than a maybe, no matter how hard you have worked at compliance.  Still, there is something to that point.  Follow Me, and take up your cross.  Follow Me, and know suffering and trial, rejection and persecution.  It’s quite the sales pitch.

Honestly, you bring this idea before the pastorate today, and you won’t find many ready to take up the message and proclaim it from the pulpit, certainly not at an evangelistic crusade or a tent meeting or the like.  No!  We’re salesman promoting Jesus.  Nobody’s going to buy with an offer like that, and frankly, we’re far too concerned about numbers, far too little about real results.  But look again at the examples we have from Paul.  He no sooner gets to town then he starts talking about the necessity of suffering.  It was necessary for Christ.  It is necessary in the life of the Christian.  It’s not a maybe.  It’s a certainty.  Tribulations will come, and they will come fast and furious.  But this news comes hand in hand with news of the resurrected Christ.  He preached Christ crucified, but he also preached Christ risen.  And he preached quite clearly that if we have died with Him, if we have suffered these trials because of Him, we shall also live with Him. 

That message comes through in this letter as well.  Here, the focus is on the tribulations, because there was immediate need of addressing that concern.  And yes, we were appointed to such things.  But there’s more to the message.  We are appointed for tribulations, but God has not appointed us for wrath, rather for obtaining salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord (1Th 5:9).  This is the way, but it is not the end.  The sufferings are necessary, but they aren’t the point.  They aren’t the summation.  There remains the consummation.  There remains a reward stored up for us in heaven, where moth cannot destroy, thief cannot steal, where waits for us an imperishable crown as we enter into the eternal glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our Comfort in our Affliction (12/05/22)

Consider why this letter was being sent, why Timothy was being sent.  Paul states it well enough here:  to strengthen and encourage you.  We might ask how it is that discussing afflictions is going to encourage anybody, but it’s not so odd as all that, I think.  It would have been harder, for example, for the disciples to have heard similar things from Jesus, for they were not as yet facing affliction, at least not at its worst.  They had known rejections, certainly, and seen some hardship in leaving their various employments to follow after Jesus.  But here He is seeking to comfort them.  “I have spoken these things so that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation” (Jn 16:33).  Of course, there is more that follows.  “Take courage!  I have overcome the world.”  But still, hang on that first bit for awhile.  You’re going to have tribulation.  You already do.  We’ve got that present indicative thing happening again.  You have it.  You’re going to have it.  It’s pretty much your steady state condition.  But again, the perfect indicative of Jesus has overcome.  Already done, results continuing.  I think I’ve been over this already.

We can argue that by now the disciples should have had a sense of what was coming.  Jesus had been telling them.  I’m going there.  I’m going to die.  But that’s not the end of it.  There’s something in us, though, that cannot accept so unacceptable a report.  We’ll hear it, but we won’t receive it.  Oh, no.  That’s not right.  Never mind that it’s God Incarnate telling you this.  It just can’t be so.  But we can’t really tell God that He’s wrong, can we?  So instead our brains play this little trick on us, and we just go on as if nothing was said at all.  It would only be later, when the reality of His warnings had come to pass, and they had scattered for a season for fear of being put to death themselves, that they would really hear this message.  And even then, it would take His having completed the prophetic fulfillment, and standing among them having conquered death for them to really begin to comprehend.

And as I have observed, Paul took up this message as that which he had first received from the Lord.  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22).  There, too, the task was one of strengthening and encouraging, just as here.  This was nothing new for him.  He has made that clear as well.  We told you this would happen, and it did.  There’s no surprises here.  There’s nothing in this that should dissuade you from your faith or from your commitment to follow Christ.  And Peter’s message, though so different in style, is no different in content, is it?  “In this you greatly rejoice, though at present you have for some little while been distressed by various trials” (1Pe 1:6).  Why is that?  Well, They only prove your faith.  They only serve to demonstrate that this faith which has been given you by grace is more precious than anything this world has on offer.  And now it’s been tested, proven, found pure, and it will result in praise, glory, and honor come the revelation of Christ.

Now you can see the encouragement.  The message doesn’t stop with, “you’re going to suffer for this.”  If it did, who would come?  Whatever else may be said, nobody is going to take up a life of suffering that’s to no purpose.  I don’t suppose the worst masochist undertakes to pursue his pains without thought to some reward coming from it, even if that reward is entirely perverse.  We don’t, in the end, choose other than as we wish to choose, however much coercion may have been applied to render us desirous of so choosing.

The encouragement here is not merely in being reminded of prior warnings, nor the slim comfort of knowing we are not alone in our trials.  Misery may love company, but it’s not going to draw much strength from it.  The company doesn’t change the situation.  Their misery does nothing to offer us hope.  But:  Their standing firm and winning through to something better?  Oh, that’s reason to hope.  Somebody else has been down this road before us, faced these same trials and stood up to them?  Okay.  I can probably do so as well.  Besides, now I’ve their example to learn from.  I can see how they did it.  I can see, as well, their errors and learn from them, if I’m sufficiently wise to do so.  And should we learn of their gaining great reward in having done so, well!  Now we have all manner of reason to push through.

That’s the message of encouragement we are given.  We have a rich history of those who have faced trials just like ours and stood firm in their faith.  They have gone to their reward.  We, if we are likewise steadfast, shall surely win through and receive reward in our own turn.  But it’s more than that.  If all we had was the examples of other men, we would fall into comparing ourselves to them, as we always do, and we would soon excuse ourselves, since they are clearly stronger than us.  Oh, sure, the Apostles did some amazing things, but they were amazing men, and amazingly equipped.  Me?  I’m just a guy.  I’m nothing to compare with them.  I can’t be expected to pull off the same exploits.

But the Apostles, for all that they are examples to follow, and faithful ambassadors of Christ, are not the point.  Christ Jesus Himself faced these things.  We have a high priest who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet did not sin (Heb 4:15).  We have a high priest who has no need of making atonement for Himself before He can make atonement for us.  He has nothing to atone for, and as for us, He already did.  It is finished!  Here is our true and perfect model of victorious faith.  Oh, you may say, but He is God.  Yes.  Yes, He is.  You will follow with, I am not, and I cannot be expected to do as He did.  And I will follow with, yes, you can.  “He who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater than these shall he do; because I go to the Father” (Jn 14:12).

We make that about performing miracles, bringing the dead to life, and so on.  And then we weaken because these things do not transpire at will for us.  We look at that promise, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do”, and we very carefully append our, “in Jesus’ name,” to the prayer, and then we wonder why it is that nothing happens?  Our loved ones still pass from this life.  Diseases continue to ravage.  Wars continue to wreak havoc.  Politicians and men of wealth continue their corrupt course seemingly untouched by their sins.  Is it us?  Are we somehow out of favor with God?  Is our faith so lacking?

Well, let me offer an alternate interpretation of events.  Is it maybe that what we are asking is not in fact in Jesus’ name, that while we’ve been seeking that He might stamp “Approved” on our prayers, we haven’t really consulted with Him as to whether this is in fact what He wills?  Have we, perhaps, presumed upon His authority rather than acting as under His authority?  And perhaps we can take one further step, given our context here (not that it is really the context there, except in some ways it is.)  Maybe, those greater things concern not these feats of supernatural display, but rather our standing against the constant onslaught of temptation and persecution that we will face.  After all, as we just considered, He is God.  He does have a certain advantage in this struggle, even if He faced it as having set aside the prerogatives of Godhood.  It’s not as though He could cease to actually be God, and frankly, the miracles He performed demonstrate this very thing.  He wasn’t just training His disciples, saying, “See what I can do?  You could do that, too.”  That’s the way of the magician, not the message of the Gospel.  But, in that He faced sin head on and walked away victorious, well!  Greater things than this you will do, for you do not have that benefit of being God.  You’re close.  You have the Holy Spirit indwelling, which has got to be the next best thing.  You still have holy counsel.  You still have God’s own power coursing through you, equipping you with everything needful for life and godliness.  But there’s still that one step of remove which Jesus did not deal with.  Your standing, insomuch as you are a much lesser being, will in fact be a much greater thing; even, dear ones, when your standing is far more imperfect than was His.  Because, in the end, it’s not your standing that wins through, but His.  We live because He lives.  We stand because He stood.  Our faith is victorious because our Christ is victorious.

But while His victorious faith is far and away the greatest encouragement we can hope to receive, it serves well to receive witness of our own brothers and sisters who have known their own victories in Christ.  There are myriad others who have faced suffering and persecution akin to our own.  They have stood fast.  We can stand fast.  There are manifold others who have faced far worse than what we face, and still they stood fast.  Surely we can do so in our present circumstance.  There are multitudinous examples for us of those who have stood fast even in the face of death, even as they were crucified, beheaded, burned at the stake, boiled in oil, whatever torments their enemies could devise to try and push them from their position of absolute trust in the goodness and the salvation of our God.  And it didn’t work.  We don’t have to go back to ancient history for our examples.  We have seen it on the screen, live, in recent years.  The story doesn’t change, because God does not change.  Their victory is His victory, and God does not lose.  If we should be required to stand in the face of like trials, beloved, take courage!  Fear not that you might fail, for if you stand, it shall be in His strength, not your own.  If He has seen fit to appoint you to such a display of faith, be assured that He has in fact supplied you with just such a faith as He would see displayed.

Death may remain our enemy, and pains and torments are never things to be pursued as joyful ends in themselves.  But they can be faced, and faced with aplomb, because we serve Him Who has already overcome them, and in His victory, we have that perfect indicative result.  His victory over them continues to run down through the ages, even to us.  Should we remain until the last day, should we be those who will witness the final throes of Satan’s reign, yet it shall be that we shall stand, for it is Christ who causes us to stand.  And we shall find ourselves given these encouragements and reminders to the end.

Persecution is nothing new.  It is no cause to abandon ship.  Hear the message of the Apostles, of Christ.  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom.”  This is how it has always been.  God’s people have been persecuted in every age.  Ours shall be no exception.  It changes nothing.  Jesus remains the Son of God, and we remain His brethren.  We are not somehow proven false in that trials have come.  Nor is He.  God is faithful, and He is most assuredly and most fully able to support and sustain His own.  And He has told you, o man, what is coming.  And He has told you what is required of you.  Trials will come, but He is with you even to the end.  Trials are foretold, as they have been in times past.  In those former times, fulfillment came.  Prophecies proved true, and though the events were not exactly things to be desired, yet they revealed God’s hand fully in control of what transpired.  He was not dismayed by them.  He was not surprised by them.  He was in charge, having appointed them, and appointed them to serve His good and perfect purpose.

They knew this.  Paul repeats it, as the JFB observes, to emphasize the point.  You know.  You know because we told you.  You know because you saw us.  You know because you yourselves experienced it just as we told you that you would.  And, far more critically, you know God sustains.  You know, just as with the trials, because we told you.  You saw it in us.  And you have experienced it yourselves.  He hasn’t failed you yet, and He never shall.  Stand fast!  Hold to faith, and know that this same God who raised Jesus from the dead is with you, strengthening you.  He lives in you!  He lives, and because He lives, and He is the giver of Life, you shall live.  “I AM the resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26).

“Do you believe this?”  If you don’t, I have to think you’ve yet to receive the first glimmers of faith.  If you do, then you have everything you need to stand fast against the greatest of trials, for God is with you, in you, granting you every gift necessary to do so, and instructing you in their use, making sure that you have had the necessary training so that when the crisis comes, you will not only know what to do, but will do it.  Stand fast.

Flattering Temptation of Affliction (12/06/22)

There is an aspect to this passage which, while our translations do not really make it visible, comes across as just a bit odd.  When Paul speaks of his concern lest they be disturbed by these afflictions, as the NASB states the case, there is a word underlying that matter of being disturbed which is quite unusual.  It doesn’t help matters that so far as the NT is concerned, it is unique to this one place.  Sainesthai:  At its base, it has the meaning of wagging the tail, with the sense of what it means when a dog does so.  It is, for that dog, usually a signal of friendliness, or perhaps just a bit fawning.  And so, from there it takes on an application to man, as depicting that act of fawning flattery, of seeking to move one’s mind in an agreeable direction.  There is, then, an intent to influence, to move opinion.  In that aspect of fawning, we find that the apparent friendship is really but a simulated thing, deceptive in its flattery.  And so, the significance gains new aspect, as that deceptive flattery is seen to be seeking to move us from what is right and wise to that which may prove detrimental to us, though it serves the purposes of the one who thus flatters.

Paul would not have his charges moved by such fawning falsities.  And he puts these afflictions in that category.  Now, it’s hard to look at affliction and see how that counts as flattery.  But it’s clear enough that these things are designed to move us, move the mind off of faith and onto worry.  And worry, has this flattering affect on us, leading us to conclude that the path that is free of such afflictions is the more desirable, and therefore the wiser course.  And Paul says, “Don’t be moved.”  Don’t let this stuff wag you, distract your understanding of what is good to prefer what looks good but isn’t.  Don’t let it move you to fear and dread.  Don’t let trials shake your confident faith in God.

So many ways that shaking could take form.  For one, there’s the mere reality of affliction.  Perhaps I have erred in taking this course of Christian religion.  Perhaps the true gods are angry, and I had best resume my former course ere they destroy me utterly.  No!  That’s what they would have you believe, but they remain idols and worse – they are the workings of the enemy of your soul, seeking to beguile you away from your soul’s best security.  Don’t buy into it!

There’s another aspect, and that is that our minds will seek to convince us that these trials have come because we’re doing something wrong in this new faith.  We have believed it well enough, but our execution must be off, because here is this affliction besetting us.  Clearly, God is mad at us.  What are we to do?  Here is the message to answer those doubts, and I’ve repeated it often enough already.  I’ll let the Wycliffe Translators Commentary supply the language this time.  “Afflictions are part and parcel of the Christian experience.”  This is nothing new.  Indeed, you might go so far as to count it the stamp of authenticity upon your faith, that afflictions have come.  For thus it has ever been.  Go back through those Scriptures and observe the man of God, and you will always find yourself observing that man in the face of affliction.  Affliction may come in self-doubt.  It may come in temptations overwhelming the man for a season, and in the painful cost of giving way to those temptations.  Think of David’s situation when once his sin with Bathsheba was addressed by God’s wrath.  And it wasn’t just the loss of their firstborn that we should put in that category.  We can add the whole business with his oldest son, Absalom.  That, too, can be accounted as tracing back to this sin and its consequences for David.  Yet, he remained a man after God’s own heart.

We can go back to Cain and Abel.  One sought to honor God, and the other, from jealousy or perhaps from the embarrassment his disregard had caused him in the presence of God, killed him for no greater crime than having thus honored God.  We can look at the disciples, there in Jerusalem with Christ arrested and judged by the Sanhedrin, taken before Pilate for capital punishment.  They were utterly at a loss, fleeing as fast as they could, dejected, overthrown, ready to pack it in and go back to life as they knew it before they began this three year exercise.  What fools we have been!  How could we have believed this?  Well, boys, it’s because what you believed was True, and Truth would rise victorious from the lie of the grave.  I told you this was coming.  I told you this must come.  But behold, I was dead and now I live.  Did I not tell you?  The one who believes in Me, though he dies, yet shall he live.  He shall live because I AM alive.  I AM Life.  Don’t be moved.  Don’t let circumstances wag you.  You are only facing what every true follower of God has faced, and ever shall, so long as life on this planet endures.

The JFB offers comments from another author, whose name I do not recognize, but his statement is cogent.  Tittman wrote, apparently, “That no man should, amidst calamities, be allured by the flattering hope of a pleasant life to abandon his duties.”  I was so glad to see that quote, because it finally puts before my eyes how this matter of flattery finds place in affliction.  There it is.  It’s not that the calamities flatter us somehow, but they give cause for flattering thoughts to invade, that we could skate past these if only.  Go back to the time of Jesus’ temptation there in the desert wastes.  Oh, Jesus.  I’ll simply give you this kingdom You came to establish.  You don’t need to go through with this.  Just bow down and worship me, and I’ll give it to You right here, right now.  Save yourself this suffering and humiliation.  There’s the flattery, yes?  There’s an easier way.  You don’t need to obey God’s way when God’s way proves painful, even deadly to your body.  Go ahead take the easy way out.

It gets worse when we consider temptations we face, doesn’t it, and all the more so because Jesus did not succumb, but remained faithful even unto death.  See?  His death purchased my salvation.  I am assured of this certain hope.  So, surely I can now sign with impunity.  And you and I both know just how readily that sort of thinking asserts itself.  What can be the harm?  God will forgive me anyway, already has.  I may as well indulge.  No!  Far be it from us!  “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Ro 6:2).  That sinful old self was crucified with Him.  You are no longer slave to that sin, bound to obey its lure.  Consider yourselves as dead to sin, then, and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Ro 6:11).  Knock it off!  You have been freed from sin’s mastery.  Now become slaves of righteousness (Ro 6:18).  Whatever sin’s enticements, its ends remain unchanged:  Death.  And you have been handed the free gift of eternal life (Ro 6:23).  What are you thinking?

But sin is tricky, and this enemy we face is clever.  He may not have many new ideas, but he is adept at finding new ways to present them so as to slip them past our guard.  Knowing this, we can become perhaps overly resistant to new ideas.  We do run the danger of letting our current understanding harden into traditions we deem inviolable, more inviolable even than God’s word.  Watch out!  You are not so perfect in your understanding that you can afford to simply dismiss every new idea that comes along.  We dare not simply begin to reject every fresh teaching out of hand.  Perhaps it comes as corrective.  Perhaps it would be best to take the Berean approach, and examine the Scriptures to discern whether in fact these things are true (Ac 17:11).  Understand that they didn’t take this course of action out of skepticism, but rather, in hope of proving Paul’s message accurate.  It was a noble-minded examination. 

And so we ought to treat the minister who comes with a change of direction for us, who comes with a new perspective on Christian faith.  He might just be bringing the corrective we have needed.  Now, it may very well be that he is a flatterer, a deceiver come to tempt the faithful, and if that should prove to be the case, then he must be rejected most vehemently.  But if in fact his words prove to hold with the Truth, then we might should look to our own false ideas and see which of them need be shed in light of this new data.  We have this call later in this very epistle.  Examine everything carefully, and hold fast to what is good (1Th 5:21).  Note that this comes in conjunction with a call to avoid despising prophetic utterances.  There’s a risk there, isn’t there?  We know the speaker too well.  Our first response is likely to be, how could God deign to use such a one as this?  Does He not know this man’s past?  And it’s not even distant past.  We might be talking last week, or yesterday.  But of course, God has been known to use a donkey, so this is hardly such a stretch is it?  And he rescued the likes of us, taught us to think and to live holy before Him.  Could we expect any better reception from those who know us best?  Honestly?

But don’t simply take for granted that the claim of godly sourcing is valid.  Test.  Examine.  Lay it alongside Scripture and see if it lays true.  Sometimes the error will be obvious to us.  Sometimes, it will be terribly subtle and easily missed.  There is a reason we maintain fellowship, and take counsel with our brothers and sisters.  If we become convinced of some novelty that should not have our approval, others among us will have discerned the error and may point it out to us, that we might reject that falsehood and resume our way with Christ.  But if it is good?  Don’t let pride prevent you from improving.  Don’t let your preening self-regard hold you back from being rendered a bit more fit for heaven.  Hold fast to what is good.  Keep the meat, but toss the bones.

Don’t be wagged about by every new doctrine that comes along, but neither become so hidebound as to be rendered unteachable and unreachable.  Walk humbly with the Lord your God, and love what is right.  Love what He loves.  That’s enough to keep us pretty fully occupied, I should think.  And don’t be bothered about afflictions that may come about.  You don’t need to be seeking them out, certainly, as some sort of merit badge to adorn your faith.  But when they come, be not dismayed.  Stand fast and hold tight to Christ.  If they do not come, perhaps examine yourself a bit to see that your faith is real.  But even this, I think, must not be permitted to move us to anxious concern.  God knows what we can handle, and does not send us greater trial than we can overcome.  And even the least trial, we cannot overcome except He is with us, empowering us and causing us to stand.  So stand fast we will, and trusting in God alone.

The Response to our Affliction (12/07/22)

This thought probably belongs more to one of the earlier portions of my study, but it’s here now, so I shall touch on it.  We saw that Paul had not left matters of persecution unaddressed, but had made it quite central to his teaching.  I don’t think for a moment that this was part of his evangelistic approach.  Confront the man on the street with this offer of forgiveness and life, but only if you also take this subscription to Affliction Weekly, and it just isn’t going to get you anywhere.  There is an order to these things.  First, the precariousness of their present estate must be made plain, the need for salvation.  Then, there can be the offer of salvation in Christ, the solution to their present condition, holding out a true hope and a wonderfully real future.  But until that is accepted and somewhat established at least, I can’t see that coming in with the, oh by the way, the way to heaven must be attained through much affliction is really going to serve.  That is a message for the believer, not for the newly encountered.

This being the case, it also won’t do to hold it off for a few years until folks get settled into their faith.  For the persecutions won’t hold off, and we mustn’t leave our brothers ill-prepared to face them, so far as it lies with us to prepare them.  This, it seems to me, is the example we find in Paul.  He didn’t wander into the synagogue on day one and say, Hey!  I’ve got this great new perspective on God.  He wants us to suffer persecutions and maybe He’ll even save us.  He didn’t sidle up to the average pagan and say, your gods are fakes.  Real gods make you suffer!  No.  But he didn’t wait so very long to make the facts known.  Here’s God.  Here’s you.  Here’s your sin, and here’s God’s remedy for sin.  Here’s what you have known, and here’s Who you have come to know and be known by.  All of this is marvelously good news, isn’t it?  I trade my sorrows and get His joy.  I give Him my sinful self, and He gives me life and holiness.  It’s not that I’m without work to do in the process, but it’s also not about earning a possible slot.  The slot is a given, already provided with full warrantee when first we hear our Lord calling and answer, Yes, Lord, here I am.

But such a glorious future makes it all the more needful that we learn early on that it is future.  For the present, it remains that we have tribulations.  This must be spoken plainly to the believer.  Our Lord spoke it plainly – no, not on that first day, but before it would be necessary to know, if His disciples were to persevere.  This stuff is coming at you.  It’s not a maybe.  It’s not a punishment because you blew it somehow.  It is the world’s reaction to the kingdom of heaven, because the world lies yet in darkness, and darkness does not wish to see the light.  As Mr. Henry observes, the Apostles were miles away from being preachers of any sort of prosperity gospel.  Prosperity, at least by worldly measures, had nothing to do with it.  This was war.  It still is.  But it is not war against those who remain in darkness around us, but rather with those powers of darkness which have brought about that situation.  And it is a war fought not with physical strength, but with spiritual weapons which, being of God’s own power and direction, are strong to the tearing down of strongholds.  But battle zones are not the right scene for prosperity.  They are the scene for hardship and difficulty, for wounding afflictions and being hard-pressed by opposition.  Were it not so, there would not be the repeated call to stand fast.  Set your pikes against the coming charge.  Hold fast the line.  We shall win through, but not by running away.

So, yes, we have cause to consider the situation Paul lays out, and that includes considerations of the language he uses.  We are appointed to this facing of affliction.  It is an indicative factual statement.  It’s a given.  We told you we suffer tribulations.  This one’s just a bit trickier, but still the verb remains indicative, and present indicative at that.  It’s stative, constant.  The verb itself is mellomen, indicating what is about to be or about to transpire.  There is room in the term for ideas of probability or possibility, but in the indicative, I think we must hear it shift gears into necessity, but necessity with purpose.  We are about to suffer tribulation.  The NASB gives it something of a prophetic sense, and I don’t suppose that’s entirely inapt.  We told you we were going to suffer affliction.  But it does lose sight of that present tense aspect.  We are always going to suffer affliction.  It is our station in life, if you will.  It is the thing we can expect as representatives of what is, after all, something of an invading force, even if that invasion comes as retaking what rightfully belongs to our King.

The passage also expresses concern, though, as to the impact of these trials.  He was pressed with anxiousness, lest the temptations that arise from affliction might have in fact tempted them, rendering his work among them in vain.  But here, we are in the subjunctive.  Such an outcome is possible.  His labors might prove to have been in vain.  But such an outcome remains contingent.  It may be probable, or it may merely seem probable, but it is not a given.  Affliction does not necessitate apostasy.  It might well serve to weed out those whose claimed profession of faith were just so many words.  And I think, given history, that we should have to accept that not all who turn back in the face of affliction are false believers.  Some are merely weak, and may yet find their faith strengthened such that they will stand in future.  Here, if anywhere, it would seem wise to heed the godly instruction to judge not, lest we be judged by our own measure.

So, we have this assurance, as concerns afflictions.  Ironside puts it thus:  “All Christians should expect to suffer afflictions in this world.”  Over and over again we see it.  It’s not a maybe.  It’s a given.  It’s simply a fact of life for the reborn.  But let me add this caveat from Barnes.  Whether we face affliction or whether we face prosperity, we can be assured of this:  The Tempter is right there, seeking to dislodge us from our trust in Christ, and we have need, in whatever circumstance, to be on guard against his tricks.  It just happens that afflictions tend to serve his purpose well, so they are the tools to which he turns most often.  And they work.  Even we who are firm in our faith can come into seasons of doubt when trials come.  Ironside lists but a few of the thoughts that may occur to us in such times.  Has God indeed forgiven me?  It’s easy to see how that crops up.  If He has forgiven me, why am I being punished like this?  Perhaps I was mistaken in believing myself reborn?  Perhaps I only deluded myself into thinking I was numbered among the elect.  Perhaps I’m still lost, still under the full penalty of eternal death by God’s wrath.

But that’s the game, isn’t it?  That’s the exact sort of thinking our enemy wants to stir up in us.  It’s not all that different, really, than his first foray with Eve.  God didn’t really say that, did He?  It’s the same game He played with Jesus.  You think You’re the Son of God?  Then why aren’t You proving it?  Why aren’t You taking up Your godly prerogatives?  It’s all about casting doubt on God’s work and God’s word.  Has God truly said of you, “I have called you by name, and you are Mine”?  Then, how can you be like this?  If He’s so holy and so powerful, what’s with this persistent sin in your life?  You call yourself a Christian?  I’ve seen better from the most committed of reprobates.  But, beloved, it’s the lies of the liar seeking to undermine your assurance.  Your salvation does not lie in having carefully applied yourself without fail to these deeds of holiness, although they are assuredly most worthy of pursuit.  No!  Your salvation lies in the finished work of Christ.  “It is finished!”  You can’t earn it now any more than you had earned that first offer of forgiveness.  You can no more comply with the high demands of real holiness now than before.  Oh, the time will come, and you are, one trusts, making progress.  But the old man of the flesh remains, the old habits die hard, and the process continues.  Don’t give up.

But don’t make it some struggle you have to face with stoic endurance.  Try this.  “When we find pleasure in the ways of God, we shall thereby be engaged to continue and persevere therein.”  It’s a matter of focus, isn’t it?  If our focus is on the trials, the trials will soon overwhelm us, exhausting our energies and riding roughshod over our position.  But if our focus is on the sweetness to be enjoyed in pursuing God’s ways, then, with Paul we might very well find ourselves counting these things as nothing.  “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ” (Php 3:8).  How gloriously that passage continues.  I would be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from Law, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ, coming from God on the basis of faith:  “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Php 3:9-11).

Or we can come to this:  These momentary, light afflictions are producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison (2Co 4:17-18).  These afflictions are temporal matters, painful enough, but passing.  But we look to things unseen, things of eternity.   That’s it exactly.  That’s what Mr. Henry is getting at.  That’s the whole message when it comes to these unavoidable afflictions which define our present state.  They are earning a weight of glory, and while these afflictions must inevitably come to an end at some point, that which has been earned is eternal.  It has no end.

Understand, then, that Paul’s concern here was both real, and quite legitimate.  What it was not, however, was concern that some from among the elect of God might fall away.  Rather, it is recognition that there are always those whose profession has had more to do with following the crowd than with following Christ.  There has been an emotional response, perhaps.  The message happened to hit a nerve that day, and the sense of foreboding led to them grasping at this proffered means of preservation.  But they were looking for a way out of some present, pressing trial, not for further trials to come.  It may be that with the passing of their immediate emergency, so, too, passed their concern for Christ.  It may be that, since they didn’t really want Him, just relief, the appearance of further trial was reason enough to walk away.

The thing is, these false professors, in their giving up, can also have a weakening impact on the faith of the true believer.  We see this one we thought a brother fall and fall hard, or just toss it in and depart, and it leaves us to wonder.  After all, we had seen him as one far more developed as to faith than ourselves, far more assured and committed, and yet, there he goes.  What does he know that we don’t?  If he’s not holding up, what chance do I have?  Or worse, why should I bother trying?

There’s a reason that the enemy’s attacks so often go after those with a name and a reputation in the Church.  When the mighty fall, it saps the strength of those who held the mighty in high regard.  I think back to the issues Jimmy Swaggart went through.  Or, I could think of the things said of Ravi Zacharias now that he’s not here to defend himself.  But I don’t need to have modern examples.  I can think of David, or Solomon, or Abraham lying about his wife to save his skin, or Noah freshly delivered from the flood and off to get drunk.  Or, we could parade before our mind’s eye the litany of kings in Israel, whose examples, more often than not, proved detrimental to the health of that nation’s faith.  We see that, just as the persecution of God’s chosen is nothing new, not even such persecutions that come from those who thought themselves God’s chosen, neither is failure in high places.  The enemy strikes at the head, knowing the impact it must have on the rest of the body.

But the head he strikes is only a figurehead, only an undershepherd.  It is no less a strike for all that, but the Head remains, and He sees to it that His body remains.  It is His blood courses through us, His power which upholds us.  It is His grace which has saved us, and His workmanship which makes us what we are.  And He will cause us to stand.

Beloved, fear not!  Whom God has called, He has called irrevocably.  He is not so weak that His word may fail of its purpose.  We may misapprehend it, but it will not be proved false.  It will accomplish all His purpose.  If you have heard His call, and known that response of your spirit to His voice, then rest assured that whatever trials may come, whatever doubts may intrude from time to time, you remain His, and if you remain His, He has got you.  If trials come, as they surely will, we can be confident that our gracious and all-wise Lord has already prepared us sufficient to stand.  He will not test you beyond your ability, but only tends to prove and improve that work He has been doing in you.  He is slowly working you from the raw iron of yourself into tempered steel.  These things come not to destroy, but to strengthen.  The Tempter has his own motives, but they are not the final say.  God has the final say.  He proclaims, “Thus far, and no further.”  And He strengthens His children to withstand, and having withstood to come away stronger, and with greater cause to trust in the One Who has called us His own, declared us the apple of His eye, and taken us in hand, from which hand nothing – NOTHING – is able to snatch us.  Fear not!  Be not tempted by our doubts, but only trust in Him Who has redeemed you.  This battle belongs to Him, and He shall reign victorious.