Taught of God (01/06/23)

As seems to happen more often than I like, lately, the notes I have collected for comment seem a bit disconnected from one another.  But they assuredly connect to our passage, so I shall try and put them in some semblance of order.  I want to begin with this matter of being taught by God, primarily because it’s one of those ideas that can really get us going off course if we misunderstand the point.  There is something in us that just thrills to this idea, and not solely due to the thought of having God Himself as our teacher.  It has more to do with a sense of independence, at least as concerns others.  If God is my Teacher, it stands to reason that I have no need to attend so much to what you are saying.  I can dismiss the pastor, the elders, my brother.  After all, if God is teaching me, how can I be wrong?

Let me state bluntly that this is not spiritual maturity.  This is prideful arrogance.  It is also a most deadly danger to the health of the soul.  If we are so self-involved as to suppose ourselves the inerrant channel of God’s truth, then every lie of our deceitful hearts will soon be felt to constitute holy law.  We move ourselves beyond possibility of correction, and in so doing, all but guarantee that we are firmly set on the paths of error.

This notice of God’s instruction is not a call for the church in Thessalonica to dismiss all further instruction.  Neither is it cause for them to pat themselves on their backs and congratulate one another on their piety.  Not at all!  For one, why would Paul be suggesting they need no further instruction in the midst of giving further instruction?  If being taught of God puts paid to all human instruction, then we’re done here.  We can shut down the broadcasts, close down the publishers, and shutter the churches.  They’re all pointless.  But that’s not the case, and we do well to recognize that.

When Paul says they are taught of God, this is no suggestion of them receiving revelation knowledge.  How enticing those words are.  How hungry we are to be granted some bit of that.  It makes one tingle, the very thought of it.  Me, granted revelation knowledge.  But it is most unlikely, if not entirely out of the question at this point.  You and I are not prophets after the order of the Old Testament prophets, nor apostles on a level with those individuals selected and appointed by Christ Himself to be the agents of revelation for the Church.  Like it or not, no provision is to be found in Scripture for the continuance of this office past its original assignees.  Elders and pastors are equipped in each church.  Teachers and leaders in prayer and worship are to be seen.  But not agents of revelation.  There is no need if the revealing of God’s purpose has been completed.

Neither is it necessary to suppose that Paul is speaking of inspired instruction.  That may be a fine distinction for many of us, this line between revelation knowledge and inspired knowledge.  Aren’t they the same?  Not really.  For one, revelation knowledge pertains to the revealing of mysteries in a theological sense.  It is new information, not previously made known to man period.  Inspired knowledge comes more in the form of suddenly gaining insight into the passage, or finally getting the point of the instruction.  It’s sort of an aha moment, but thanks to the Holy Spirit.

Then, too, I have no doubt but that Paul had taught them in regard to this brotherly love when he was there with them, and not only taught them, but lived the lesson among them as their example.  That said, they had clearly taken those lessons to heart and had improved upon their love for others.  They didn’t truncate the application to their own local body only, but knew all believers as their brothers, as members of this new clan.  And in this newfound love, they acted.  It wasn’t just an emotional response, a certain affinity for those of like faith.  It was a willingness to act upon the needs they saw.  You’re a stranger in town?  Come!  We can give you a decent meal and a place to sleep.  You have undergone hardship because of your faith?  We can help.  You just want some prayer and fellowship?  By all means!  Come on by.

And in all of this, I think we can recognize that these Thessalonians did not suppose themselves instrumental in such activities as love caused them to pursue.  It’s not that they were something special.  They were instruments in the hands of a holy God.  So are we.  No more, no less.  We are able to do good because God is Good, and it is He Who is at work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure.  He is in charge.  He is empowering, directing.  We are not passive marionettes in this, but we recognize humbly that the things we do in His name are done in His power, and are good only because He is in the doing.  Our best efforts apart from Him are yet as filthy rags.  But we have the Holy Spirit, and He, as He purifies His temple, purifies as well these offerings of love.

However it is that God instructs us, whether through insights gained in prayerful contemplation of His Word, or through the teaching of those whom He gives as teachers, or through the edifying, caring brother who engages us in a bit of iron-sharpening discussion, we are instructed.  And being instructed, we act upon that instruction; laying hold of the grace and the strength which God has provided to pursue the ends He has in mind.  We do the works of love because by God’s grace this is who we are.  As I wrote in my earlier notes, these works are who we are.  It’s not that works define us.  That’s worldly thinking.  I mean, how long is it after you’ve met somebody new that you enquire, “What is it you do for a living?”  That’s how we categorize and catalog.  It gives us a place to file this new acquaintance.  We may have to revise later, but we have a baseline, a starting point.  Well, for the Christian, here’s your starting point.  What do you do?  I love the brethren.  I seek to meet the need, wherever it is within my means to do so.  I do these things God desires because I love.  I love Him, and as you bear His image, I love you for that.  If indeed you are, as I am, a recipient of this grace of faith, then I love you all the more, for you are family.

How is this, then?  We are taught of God because we see this same response and reaction from Him.  As one or the other of the commentaries pointed out, we have the prime example of John 3:16.  He loved us enough that He gave His only begotten Son that we might live and not perish.  Bear in mind that perishing in the biblical view is not merely a matter of breathing your last and going to your grave.  It’s an eternal matter, just as the life He gives through Christ is eternal.  It’s forever spent in utter separation from God, which I think we can presume indicates an utter separation from all that God is; from love, from peace, from rest.  We may well be seeing a foretaste of that in the world as it devolves and devalues.  But it remains only a foretaste.  Now imagine those conditions worsened a thousandfold, and no possibility of it ever ending; no light at the end of the tunnel, and no tunnel.  No escape.  Just darkness and unremitting suffering unceasingly forever.

But God loves, and in His love He works.  He works to express this charitable, selfless love to those who are, in that moment, most unlovely.  He did this for a world that by and large dismissed Him at best, despised Him at worst.  And such were we.  But He poured out His love on us anyway, did for us that which was most needful, even though we had no least desire to see it done.  And now, here we are.  We love because He first loved us.  And seeing that He acts upon His love, we likewise act.  We love because He loves.  We love as He loves.  We do so because it is in fact the very love of God flowing through us, His instruments.  And knowing this, we lovingly turn to our masterful Musician and say, “Play on.”

Increasing Grace (01/07/23)

While Paul is dealing with a few specifics in these verses there is a general principle we can draw from his message.  The principle is simple enough.  Whatever grace it is we may have, it can increase, and it needs to increase.  The gifts we have need exercising and growth, and to that end, we have need to persevere in them.  It may seem an odd thing, to persevere in grace.  Grace, after all, is a gift, right?  It most assuredly is.  But then, we know well enough that the gift which remains boxed and put away in the attic is of little value to us, and little use to any.  To possess the thing is one matter.  But to use it to good purpose is another entirely.

Well, let us take this into the regions of grace.  You have, first and foremost, been given the immeasurable gift of faith in God, and this is indeed a most wonderful gift.  But if we have believed in Him, yet get on with living just as we did, assuming such were truly possible for one possessed of true and living faith, will that faith prove to be of any value?  As James says, that faith which does not proceed to works is a dead faith.  If a man says he has faith, but has no works, can that faith save him (Jas 2:14)?  Faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself (Jas 2:17).

If one has been granted wisdom to speak God’s Word in such fashion as will make clear its application to some present circumstance, but for whatever reason opts to remain silent, keeping his wisdom to himself, where is the value in that gift?  What benefit has been had of it?  The one with that wisdom might benefit from understanding, but if that understanding was needed by a brother, and said brother was left to his own guesses when you could have helped?  The gift has in such instance been abused as well as disregarded.

But so far, we are considering perhaps the extreme case of effectively ignoring the gift one possesses.  How does a gift increase?  Do we go back to the Giver and ask for more?  There may be a case for that.  But there is at least as strong a case for exercise.  Let us consider gifts of talents or skills.  We may disincline to view these as matters of grace, but they are gifts from God every bit as much as the more spiritual matters we usually consider.  Think, for example, of Bezalel, called by God to direct the work of fabricating the components of the tabernacle.  Of him, God says, “I have called him by name, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all manner of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, for cutting stones for settings, in carving wood, such that he can work in all manner of craftsmanship” (Ex 31:2-5).

Now, he may well have had some degree of skill before this.  But be that as it may, further skill has been supplied.  If we consider briefly the breadth of application which God indicates, it would indeed be unusual for us to find a single craftsman whose skills encompassed all of them.  And more to the point, whatever abilities he may have had, they were clearly increased by God’s gracious choice of giving that increase.  But here’s the thing:  Such talents improve with practice.  And there is the counterpoint that such talents fade with disuse.

I was chatting with a dear brother with whom I worked for years.  He has now gone into retirement, though our boss occasionally tries to call him back out of retirement.  But as he observes, having stepped away for what has now been a year and more, simple things like the muscle memory that builds up from using our preferred editor have faded.  Things would have to be retrained.  The same would apply to matters of syntax, or matters of the esoteric bits of knowledge one has gleaned from constant effort developing things with the languages and tools we use.  It fades fast when you’re not using it.  In some cases, it fades pretty fast even when you are.  You step away from one particular aspect of the job for awhile, and come back to it, and sheesh; you need to go back to the manual again.

Or, take a favorite example of mine, that of playing an instrument.  Step away from it for a season and skills rapidly rust.  For a guitarist, the callouses have faded, and fingers get sore too fast.  For the horn player, a similar thing applies with the lips.  Or, fingers are no longer navigating on autopilot as the thoughts pursue a melody.  The ear is not so quick to identify scale, the voice may crack a bit, or we may find ourselves short of air.  On the other hand, constant practice, boring though it may be, improves the gift, increases the grace.  And that is really where we are at with this passage.  To borrow from Matthew Henry, the most eminent in any grace still has room and need to increase, and still has need to persevere in that grace.

Coming down to the specifics of our passage.  Love is always capable of increasing.  One can always do better at loving.  If you’ve been in any sort of close relationship, I suspect you know the truth of this.  The marriage that has not understood this to be the case is a marriage at risk, for love, if it is not increasing, is waning.  And this is not a matter of romance, although the active exercise of increasing love for one another in that setting will assuredly enhance the romance.  As many a comedian has observed, nothing turns on the housewife more than to hear her spouse say, “I’ll do the laundry.”  For all that, the same or similar might be said of the man.  My wife often asks why it is I have this strong urge to hug her when she’s in the kitchen.  Well, in large part it’s because she’s in my locality and that’s enough in itself.  But I do think there’s that underlying factor of, you are actively loving me, and it only increases my desire for you.

Of course, the sorts of love we consider in these examples within marriage cover multiple sorts of love.  It is really a shame, I think, that we lack the distinctions available in Greek in regard to this matter of love, for it leads to some really sloppy thinking on our part.  We may, for example, confuse that love shown in doing things for one another with attempts to encourage a more romantic sort of love.  We may confuse the warm feelings and, shall we say, Hallmark emotionalism of romance with the sort of love that ought to pertain when it comes to family.  We may be so debased as to be incapable of distinguishing between the active love we are called to pursue and the gratification of lusts which we are called to avoid like the plague.

So first off, let us recognize the stark contrast that has been set up here.  We were just looking at matters of lust and sexual sins in the previous verses, and being told in no uncertain terms to steer clear of all such things.  Now comes the counterpoint.   Love one another.  And those of a particular mindset look at this and see evidence of Christianity supporting their perversions.  But no such thing!  It’s a different sort of love.  And it’s not even that brotherly love expressed in philadelphia.  It’s gone beyond that familial affection we might have for our siblings, and it’s most assuredly not suggesting having relations with anybody, family or otherwise.  It’s the simple affection we have for one another as having shared interests, shared history.

I spoke of that coworker of mine.  We have known each other for what, forty years and more?  We have shared the development of some projects.  We have a shared interest in music, both as listeners and as musicians.  We have a shared faith in God.  We have history.  We have locked horns on occasion.  We have come to greatly respect one another’s abilities, and appreciate one another’s advice.  When we are able to connect, however long it’s been, it’s rather as if no time has passed.  This is rare.  And it is love, but of this brotherly, mutual appreciation sort.  It’s like your best buddies when you were kids, except with the added capacities of adulthood, and particularly, the joys of shared faith.

But our passage moves beyond even that comfortable, companionable affection of philadelphia, into agapeo, the sort of love so uniquely connected to God and God’s gracious giving of it that it required a new terminology.  This is, in simplest terms, active love.  This is actively caring for one another.  This is loving enough to be concerned for another’s well-being, and concerned with seeing them progress in faith.  And sometimes, often times, this active love requires of us that we take action even when the one towards whom we would express this love wants nothing to do with it.

In this, of course, we have our Lord as chief example.  It is the best-known verse in all the New Testament, I’m sure, and the most widely broadcast.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).  I’ve already noted that verse in this study.  But add this.  While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son (Ro 5:10a).  He didn’t wait for us to acknowledge Him, let alone for us to love Him in any capacity.  We were enemies, utterly opposed to His rightful rule of us, thumbing our nose at Him and doing just as we pleased, even seeking actively to do the exact opposite of what He required.  And while we were in that condition, while we were running headlong in the wrong direction, then He reconciled us to Himself.  Then He gave Himself up even unto death, that we might live.

That is love of the sort we have in view in our passage.  We love because He first loved us (1Jn 4:19).  More directly, we know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1Jn 3:16).  Indeed, he goes further.  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is Love (1Jn 4:8).  And this love can always increase.  And this love is always working.  To loop this back to our passage, love and work are integrally connected, even in the terminology Paul is using.  Agapeo is active, working love, effectually seeking the good of the one we love.

That is why, when he does turn his attention to those more spiritual graces in writing to the Corinthians later, he emphasizes the point:  Without love, these other gifts are junk (1Co 13:1-3).  Their exercise may be as showy as you like, but they have been rendered pointless.  Gifts are given that you may edify your brother, build him up.  What is that but to exercise love towards your brother, to use what you have to his advantage?   And therein we see how these gifts supply us with the capacity to fulfill what Jesus observed to be the secondmost commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself.  And given that your neighbor is your brother, and the son of one Father together with yourself, is this not also fulfilling the foremost commandment to love God with your all?

Love and work are integrally connected, and as such, the call to increase in love is a call to increase in works of love, or loving works.  We understand well enough, I think, that we are intended to know this loving care and concern for one another.  We are certainly finding it emphasized well enough in our church of late.  Fellowship matters.  Awareness of the goings on in one another’s lives should be a concern for us, and not just awareness, but seeking to address those needs of which we become aware.  If we see a brother struggling, and have it in our power to help, then we should help.  If we see a brother straying, it behooves us to seek that we might bring him to awareness of the fact, and draw him back to the Way.  Indeed, it not merely behooves us to do so.  It is incumbent upon us to do so.  If you love him as Christ loves you, you will not suffer him to be lost.  God does not lose sheep.  We ought not so readily suffer the loss of a brother, if there remains any hope of restoration.  And even should such a one depart the fold, or be turned out from the fold, yet he is to us a mission field, and our prayers and our actions ought to be such as might yet cause him to turn and return.  We don’t simply dismiss him and forget his existence.

So, love and love actively.  Seek the good you may do your brother, and do it.  And, observe in this that Paul has already noted their willingness to so act in regard to their brethren, however remote.  You already practice this towards all the brethren throughout Macedonia.  And still, you could excel more.  Whoa!  How so?  Well, it may be that he’s turning his attention to the next point already, and to be sure, there’s connection to be had between this godly, active love and the quiet diligence in labor that follows.  But I don’t think that’s quite the point here.  I can see two ready avenues for expansion.  The first would be to love actively beyond the borders of Macedonia.  Was there yet a sort of tribal competitiveness that would lead the Macedonians to confine themselves to those within the tribe?  I don’t believe so.  It seems, from some of the comments I’ve read, that it was quite the opposite, that such familial loyalties were much weaker in this region, leading to the admonitions ahead of us.  Besides that, this was a pretty cosmopolitan setting, being such a central port city, and at the bridge of different civilizations, as it were, connecting east and west, north and south. 

So perhaps it is the second boundary that needs attention:  That between brother and neighbor.  Your love for the brethren is in clear evidence, so clear that I am hearing about it even down here in Corinth, and not just from Timothy’s report.  No, your diligence in this has been observed and commented upon by others even before I got here!  I hear of it from those coming into this port city from yours.  But you can excel still more.  You can maintain this same attitude of active love towards your neighbors, toward outsiders.  The specifics may of necessity differ.  But the motive power is the same.  The grace being exercised and increased is the same.  At the very least, here is a place for perseverance.  It’s easy enough, I should suppose, to exercise this active, selfless love towards those of like faith where, though you may hit resentment on occasion, you can reasonably expect repentance and even appreciation to follow.  But towards outsiders?  Towards those who are yet your enemies?  Yes, towards them.  Do not repay evil for evil.  Never!  “Respect what is right in the sight of all men” (Ro 12:17).  That same point will be made later in this letter (1Th 5:15).  Don’t trade insults with them.  Bless them instead.  For you were called for this very purpose, in order that you might inherit a blessing (1Pe 3:9).  I don’t advise enlightened self-interest as a motive, but the point is clear enough.  Show this love for those who spitefully use you.  Love them while they are yet your enemies, just as God loved you.   Thereby you show yourselves true sons of your Father.

That is a seriously high calling, isn’t it?  But it is your calling.  And mine.  Let us be about this work the Father has given us to do, and love, even love sacrificially, both those in the household, and those who are, at least for the present, without.  This will most assuredly require of us a determined pursuit of God’s own gracious gifts.  But we pursue them knowing this:  That He has already given us everything needful for life and godliness (2Pe 1:3-5), granted us to partake of His own divine nature, so as to show forth the excellencies of Him Who has been pleased to own us His own children.  The gifts have been given and received.  Now, to follow along Peter’s line of thought, let us apply all diligence to using them.

Dignity of Vocation (01/08/23)

I have observed already that love and work are connected.  They are connected in that love is to be active, seeking actively to do good for those others we are called to love.  In similar fashion, this call to live industrious, productive lives does not come as advising us to pursue prosperity and riches.  That’s hardly the point, and to be sure, the trade at which Paul labored among them when he was there was highly unlikely to be such as led to riches.  But it would support him and his team.  And more, it would supply them with the means to do good for others.

This is our example.  God gives us these employments, these vocations, and to be sure, they are a means given for our provision, that we might not go begging.  But it’s so much more than that.  We aren’t advised to work hard to enrich ourselves.  We are advised to work so as to first, be no burden ourselves, and second, to have the means to give real expression to this love God has poured out in us.  When we see a brother in need, by our industry we have means to do something about that need.  We are equipped by God to serve as His agents.  This is so, certainly, in areas more readily recognized as ministry related.  The preacher, being appointed by God, is equipped by God with the requisite understanding and wisdom to be able to teach others.  He is equipped with the patience, the compassion, the humility, to understand and advise those he serves, even if he himself has not been in the situations they may be facing.  He can do so because God supplies the knowledge and the instruction for him to impart.

The missionary, the evangelist; they too are equipped by God to do His work.  This may have required mundane, human efforts to prepare, such as learning the language and culture of those we would reach with the Gospel.  It might require a bit of effort in fundraising and the like, and also dealings with sundry government types to obtain passports and permits and so on.  But if that missionary or evangelist is indeed called by God to his mission, God is orchestrating these mundane matters, and God is seeing to it that His representative is duly equipped to represent.

So, when we come to the less obviously ministry-related matters that constitute loving one’s neighbor as oneself, it really ought not surprise us that God equips us for that activity.  Here, too, we represent Him.  The love we express is His love.  Yes, we love, and are actively, volitionally involved in choosing to act, but we do so as His representatives.  We love, as John said, because He first loved us (1Jn 4:19).  We love because He has commanded us to do so, and He is Lord.  We serve.  We love actively, giving active, practical expression to our love, because this is what He has done for us.  We love in this fashion because as a new creation, born anew into a newness of life, this is who we are.

So, we see this instruction to work.  And Paul actually does make this connection to love in some degree.  Work with your hands so that you may behave properly towards outsiders, and not be in any need.  There are both aspects on display.  Work so as to be no burden on your brothers.  They love.  As such, seeing your need, they will feel the need to come to your aid.  That is a beautiful thing, but not when you take advantage of them, knowing their holy inclination.  And, if they expend their supply in supplying your need, they have that much less with which to help those whose needs are, sorry to say, more legitimate.  There are plenty who, through no clear fault of their own, fall on hard times.  Perhaps they have lost the breadwinner in their household.  Perhaps they have suffered injury, or loss due to things we refer to as acts of God.  Such as these deserve our loving assistance, given in such fashion as preserves life and dignity.  But those who through idleness alone find themselves caught short?  Not so much.  But that’s for the next section.  Here, we shall concern ourselves with this call to work, and the reasons given.

This idea of behaving properly toward outsiders gives the clear purpose.  By supplying our needs, and having something beyond bare sustenance to spare, we can love outsiders in the same fashion as we would care for our own.  We can, perhaps, seek to give provision to those who are homeless.  This, to my mind at least, is a matter for careful thought.  Are they idlers, or truly caught out by circumstance?  And should that make a difference in our dealings with them?  I have my thoughts on the matter, and I think in some degree I would find Paul backing me up in those views.  But more, I think it a matter of conscience, and particularly when we are considering those who are, as Paul describes them, outsiders.  They are foreigners to us, or we, foreigners to them.  For we are no longer of this world, but sojourners in it.  This by no means precludes us behaving kindly and honorably towards the locals.  Indeed, our Lord calls us to do exactly that.  But there is also the recognition that our first loyalty is to Him, and thus, to those who are, like us, His kin, His tribe.

So, we have this rather peculiar formulation from Paul.  “Work with your hands.”  This perplexed me somewhat in my first notes on this passage, for it seems unnecessarily specific.  Why physical labor specifically?  What’s wrong with matters of art or education or the like?  Is there some prohibition in this upon pursuing such vocations, or those of, say, a politician – for they don’t appear to labor particularly, certainly not in this manner of physical labor.  Well, the commentaries offer a bit of an answer.  The Wycliffe Translators Commentary observes that, “Greeks shunned manual labor.”  Sad to say, but something in me took offense at this statement, not because I am Greek, but because we are so constantly battered with the modern conceit that any notice of cultural traits is racist somehow.  Reality must not be permitted recognition if it doesn’t reflect equally on all.

But there it is.  There was a cultural disposition that found manual labor somewhat demeaning.  This was better left to slaves, that we proper citizens can pursue more lofty things – things like art and sport and philosophy.  You get a hint of that in Paul’s reception in Athens, don’t you?  Luke gives us the travel guide synopsis of that culture.  “All the Athenians, and those visiting them, used to spend their time in nothing more than telling or hearing something new” (Ac 17:21).  We can wrap it in terms of philosophy, the love of wisdom.  Alternatively, we can wrap it in terms of idleness.  When Paul came with news of the God Who Is, the general response was, “Entertain me.”  Let’s hear this novel idea.  Sounds amusing.  And that was as far as it got.  It’s not that as philosophers they had some deep interest in pursuing Truth.  That might at least have been commendable.  They wanted the appearance of seeking Truth, but couldn’t be bothered with it once found.  It was the finding that was interesting, not the possessing.

Now, clearly, there were those whose skills set them apart.  Greek culture is famous because of the accomplishments of such men.  Their architecture has a beauty that persists to our day, and influences culture to our day.  Their statuary and mosaics and such were truly impressive works, still prized the world over.  Their philosophers and scientific types are reasonably perceived as laying the foundations of western culture, and I have to say, more fool they who seek to erode those foundations.  They were foundational because they were skillful, and in many ways correct.  I’ve noted often enough that one can find points made by Plato that could quite readily have come from the teachings of Christ Himself.  But then, one can find other points made that are utterly at odds with Scripture.

The issue, then, is not so much that higher trades, as we might construe them, are less valuable than manual labor.  To be fair, manual labor would largely be to no purpose apart from such higher trades.  One might be able to pile up stones to make a rude hovel in which to dwell, but architecture needs architects.  One might manage to gather enough from the wild to provide sustenance, but real agriculture requires the developments that have come about through metallurgists, botanists, chemists, and the like.  The point is more along the lines of observing that there is nothing particularly demeaning about being such as labors with his hands.

Perhaps those of less skill felt they had nothing to contribute, and thus did nothing.  Perhaps, indeed most certainly, as we find from the later letter to this church, they simply felt that Christ’s return was so close that further pursuit of earthly labors seemed rather pointless.  Or perhaps they were simply lazy.  Coming to Christ does not somehow automatically put paid to inherent laziness.  It certainly gives strong incentive to change, but it remains a matter for the individual to address.  As such, it remains a matter for the active love of a loving brother to help us to address.  And if we are the lazy brother, odds are we won’t immediately appreciate such loving.

Let me try and get back on course here.  There  is something in this that touches on our relation to the world around us.  Our responsibilities in society have not altered due to being called into Christ’s kingdom.  Yes, we answer to a higher authority, but He, in His authority, instructs us to abide by the rule of the land.  He informs us that those civil authorities that have jurisdiction over our earthly lives are in place on His authority.  That may be hard to swallow at present.  I dare say, it was hard to swallow for those under Roman governance in this period; certainly so in what for them was the not-too-distant future.  To be a Christian with Nero about was a precarious thing.  Later emperors would prove as bad or worse.  And even when more benign emperors were in power, there was still the general rot at the top, which led to cause for wonder.  God authorized this?  Well, yes.  Mind you, we might need to pray more to contemplate why, and to ascertain if perhaps there is something in us that needs to change, that we might be blessed with more positive, more godly, more productive leadership.

So, one simple lesson from our passage is that there is nothing offensive in pursuing one’s employments.  And with certain, hopefully obvious, exceptions this holds regardless of the nature of those employments.  To quarry rocks for a living is no less honorable than to shape them or to arrange them so as to produce such structures as buildings.  To plow the land is no less honorable than to own the ships that carried goods and produce to and from distant lands.  The rich are no more honorable than the poor, nor the other way round.  Christianity is called to be a classless society, apart from that one distinction between brother and outsider.  And even there, the distinction is almost so slim as to be no distinction, at least so far as our treatment of others is concerned.

The offense here is idleness, slothfulness.  If we seek to get away with doing the minimum possible work with the minimum possible effort, and then go about behaving as if the world owes us a living beyond what those minimal exertions have earned, then we have cause to repent of our wicked ways.  We are an offense to God, and deserve no kindness from those we may call our brothers.  “Idleness,” Barnes writes, “is one of the great evils of the pagan world in almost every country, and the parent of no small part of their vices.”  You could as readily say, ‘in every century’.  Some things, it seems, never change; not without that great change which God works in our lives.

This propensity for idleness, with its concomitant disregard for manual labor, require our attention.  We are not immune.  It doesn’t require us to become workaholics, and indeed, would never advocate such a thing.  But it does require of us that we give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage.  We enter into something of a covenanted agreement with our employers.  They agree to supply us with such and such a wage, and perhaps some set of benefits beyond said wage.  We agree to supply some period of our time to labors on their behalf.  If we are in more intellectual fields of endeavor, we agree to give over to them such ideas and discoveries as we might make in the pursuit of those labors.  Our time is theirs, at least for the hours contracted.  By right, I think we could reasonably insist that our time is most distinctly not theirs beyond such hours.

Those in technical trades may, if they are not careful, come to have a certain disdain for those in what they perceive to be less skilled trades.  Oh, you do that?  How quaint.  Mind you, those whose days are spent in skilled trades might have just as low a view of the technical sorts.  That’s a fine thing, lad, but what useful thing will you contribute when the power goes out, when the hard times come?   What sort of practical contribution can you make, eh?  And both may still incline to view the farmer, the trashman, what have you as having less to give meaning to their lives, or anybody else’s.  But they’d be wrong.  Let the farmer or the trashman go missing for a week or two, and I dare say opinions of their value would change rather drastically.

The overarching point here, and one we must take to heart, is that it’s not the nature of the labor that gives it value, it’s the fact of labor.  Idleness is a stench and an offense.  As such, labor, being its opposite, is a pleasing aroma.  It is not purposeless, demeaning subjugation to the more powerful.  It is God’s appointed means for your provision.  More, it is God’s appointed means of supplying you with the wherewithal to love actively.  You, if you are in the Church, are surrounded by family, and love your family.  In any family, there will be those who have legitimate need, and you, should you see such need, have legitimate necessity to see to that need, so far as it lies with you to do so.

You see something of this in Paul’s advice to Timothy, as that young man continued to serve the church in Ephesus.  “If any woman who is a believer has dependent widows, let her assist them, and let not the church be burdened, so that it may assist those who are widows indeed” (1Ti 5:16).  If they have children, let their children support them, and ‘make some return to their parents’ (1Ti 5:3), “For this is acceptable in the sight of God.”  We have responsibility to our family.  As I said earlier, our civic responsibilities haven’t changed, and this is certainly to be included under that head.  But we also have as family the whole body of the Church.  We see a distinction made here, but it’s a matter of increasing reach.  If you have those in your physical family that you should support, you see to it.  Don’t expect the church to cover what you can already supply yourself.  That will leave the church more with which to help those who have no family to support them.

Work with your hands.  Work with whatever talents God gave you.  Work to see to your own provision.  Work to see that you can provide for those who are family.  Work so as to have means with which to do good to your neighbor, to the stranger you may find in need.  Work that you may be supplied to show yourself a true son of your Father, loving as He loved, giving as He gives. 

There is our call, and it is a high calling indeed.  We don’t look at our vocations as being a calling, but we should.  It would certainly make it more pleasant for us, I should think, if we viewed our employments as holy calling, rather than dull necessity.  We would certainly give ourselves more to the tasks required if we would maintain the perspective that we are doing these things as unto the Lord, not as enriching the boss.  And we would have the added blessing of being able to help a brother in need in tangible ways, because we have set aside the means by which to help, all thanks to this labor to which we have been called.  Glory to God indeed!

Idle Busyness (01/09/23)

Now perhaps we can consider the first part of verse 11.  We have established the active duty of love for our brothers and our neighbors alike.  We have established the value of labor, whether skilled arts and trades, or simpler and more essential matters.  And we have established that these two things are closely connected.  Work provides us with the means to love, and love requires that we work.  If, then, our work is an expression of love, if our love is active and working, then it will surely require of us that we are at least sufficiently involved in our brother’s life as to know where such active love may prove beneficial.  We are called to fellowship, created for fellowship and honestly, rather poorly equipped for isolation.  Even the more introverted among us know some need for fellowship, if not the broad and boisterous gatherings of the extrovert.

If we are to have real fellowship, this requires having real interest in one another’s lives, real knowledge of one another.  It requires that at some level, we actually are in one another’s business.  We can’t very well care for the one we don’t really know.  We can’t speak into their lives, let alone have understanding of where we might help.  We will often hear the complaint of how this one was absent for some period of weeks and nobody took notice; nobody called to see if they were okay.  To be fair, we can be pretty certain there’s some validity to that complaint if indeed nobody checked in with them.  Where’s the shepherding in that, after all?  But we can be equally sure that a portion of the blame lies with the one who’s complaining.  To whom have they drawn close in fellowship, that somebody might incline to note their absence?  Yes, there is a responsibility on the elders to have sufficient awareness of the flock to notice.  But let’s be fair.  There are perhaps six to eight of them, and a few hundred of us.  And they have duties occupying their attention during the course of service which might reasonably be expected to perhaps make it a bit more difficult for them.  Do we expect them, perhaps, to stand at the front of the sanctuary and do a roll call or something?  If we have been acting the typical New Englander and largely keeping to our own counsel, or our own family cluster, how is it we wonder when nobody really notices we’ve gone missing?

So, yes, we should be seeking to be aware of the goings on in our brothers’ lives, and we ought also to be seeking that they may become near enough to us to know what’s going on in ours.  But there’s a boundary here.  It’s well and good to be aware of their situation, their victories and their needs.  It’s quite another to make it our business to pry into theirs.  This may be somewhat the case that Paul is addressing here.  You have been doing great at loving one another.  You really are becoming family.  But this tendency to idleness among some of your number has led to something unhealthy.  It has led to idlers becoming busybodies, and it may well be that there is nothing worse for the health of the family.  Here is the call to these gossipers and burdens on the Church:  Devote yourself to your own work.  Earn your own keep.  And let your brother get on with his job.  If there is a need that you can supply, fine.  By all means, know your brother well enough to see the need, and then use the fruits of your own labors to supply his need.  But that’s a far cry from sticking your nose into his business, and telling him how better to do it, or perhaps complaining because he hasn’t been meeting your needs in the fashion you would like.

Devote yourself to earning your way, and let your brother do his job.  Don’t be so cautious in minding your own business as to be isolated from each other.  By no means!  How shall we love in isolation?  But prying isn’t loving.  Gossiping isn’t loving.  Carping isn’t loving.  If there is a place for love to act, act.  If there is not, get on with your own labors.  As Calvin observes, “So soon as men turn aside from this, everything is thrown into confusion and disorder.”  The problem is multifold.  There is the rather obvious aspect, of which Ironside writes, “Minding other people’s business always results in strife and dissension.”  This is one of the roots of factionalism, what we refer to in our youths as cliques.  There will be one group over here muttering amongst themselves on this issue, that group over there practically up in arms over their preferred issue.  It may be the style of worship, it may be politics and its perceived influence on the faith of others (surely not on us!), it may be some secondary point of theology that we’ve elevated to the level of Law.  And factions are never a healthy development, certainly not in the body of Christ.

We’ve all heard the tales of wedding nightmares, as seating plans must be carefully considered to keep these folks apart, avoid offending that one, and so on.  Perhaps we’ve lived through those nightmares firsthand.  Or perhaps we’ve only seen it through the lens of comedy or film.  But we get the issue.  Personal dynamics are hard.  And where factions have formed, they become nigh on impossible.  Far be it from us to allow this in the house of God!  To be sure, there is a place for discipline.  There is a place for clearly identifying those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, that the true sheep be not devoured by their nefarious intent.  There is most assuredly a place for seeking to maintain sound doctrine and practice in the Church.  But there is no place for factions of this sort, for the divisions that gossiping, idleness, and nosiness bring about.

The Wycliffe Translators Commentary observes that this tendency toward factions was clearly a temptation to the early churches.  They find cause for this in that unlike the cultures of the Middle East, clan loyalties were not so strong in the Greek world.  The ties of familial love were not as firmly inculcated, and so needed inculcating, needed training.  Be this as it may, I cannot see but that this same tendency applies to most of Western culture, which is no great surprise, given our descent from the broad influences of Greek and Roman cultural development.  Yet, it seems to me that suggesting that this issue of factions was something that plagued the early church inclines us to think it’s not a problem for the present day, and nothing could be further from the truth.  What we have in these epistles to the early church, whether those in Greece or those in Asia Minor, or even such as we have in regard to the home church in Jerusalem, is a pretty solid encapsulation of the issues that beset the Church in every era.  Man, I think we must conclude, has not so much progressed as continued unabated.

If there was a propensity for factions in the early church, rest assured that propensity is yet at work in your own church.  If there were issues with sexual sins in the early church, amongst those freshly called out of the culture, you can be dead certain those issues persist with a vengeance today.  Nothing of significance has changed, only the setting and the language.  The culture, sadly, remains just as fallen, and we just as steeped in it.

I do want to note the other aspect of this call away from idleness, and that is in order that we can cease to be a burden.  I think I have touched on this already.  If we are not working at our own labors, we have not the means to actively love as we are called to do.  We also become a drain on the means of others.  If we are inappropriately laying ourselves on the mercy ministries of our church, then we are preventing those ministries from better serving those with true need.  If we have allowed ourselves to be enticed by the easy life of the welfare state, then we have become a drain on society at large, an unwarranted burden on those who are doing as Paul instructs, and getting on with our own work, doing our best to lead a quiet and productive life.  I grant you that the present state of things has made that horrendously enticing.  If I can make as much doing nothing, why work?  If I can have income and keep my time, why should I give my time to you?  Well, there is that little matter of human dignity.  Then, too, there is this issue of being a burden, a drain on the strength of society.

This issue is rampant outside the Church.  Let us heed the advice of our Apostle and our Lord and see to it that it is not given to take hold within the Church.  Let us be of a properly industrious and generous nature.  But in our generosity, let us not be taken for a ride.  As Mr. Clarke comments, Paul’s admonition is as much for those well-meaning folks who tolerate the idler as it is for the idler himself.  If we enable such behavior, we but encourage the rot.  We will see this advice become much sterner in his second epistle to this church.  They won’t work?  Then don’t let them eat, either (2Th 3:10-12)!  If they’ve got time to nose about in everybody’s affairs and play the busybody, they’ve got the time and energy to get out there and earn their own bread.  We command them in Christ Jesus to get to work and stop stirring up trouble.  There’s a reason we have the old adage that idle hands are the devil’s workshop.  So, deprive him of his workshop and get going.

Quiet Honor (01/09/23)

I turn now to the last piece of this instruction:  Strive to be quiet.  It sounds a contradiction of terms, doesn’t it?  How can striving and quiet be coexistent?   But they can!  In context, there is clearly connection to the issue of being sufficiently occupied with your own business to stop being in everybody else’s business.  But we’re not talking about shutting down conversation.  We’re not talking about withdrawing into ourselves.  We are talking about such inward tranquility as expresses outwardly in causing no disturbance to others.

We are called to make this mode of life a focus of study and practice.  Study to learn this way!  Let it be your great ambition to be calm, patient both with yourself and with others.  Get exercised about this!  If you encounter disagreement, seek peace.   Seek it by seeking God, from Whom we seek understanding.  Seek to see your brother as a godly man, even where such disagreement may pertain.  We may have our differences on various matters of faith, and they may be important to us.  I would hope matters of belief are important to us.  Otherwise, I should have to wonder just what value faith has in our worldview.  But we dare not make them so towering a matter that we can no longer accept one with different views, perhaps different emphases, as being a true believer.  Yes, there are points where doctrinal matters MUST divide.  This morning’s Table Talk was commenting on one such occasion back around the turn of the last century, when the doctrine of the Virgin Birth came under assault.  Well, let the Apostle’s Creed remind us of our foundations.  “[I believe in] Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”  This is fundamental.  You cannot not believe this and still maintain valid claim to being a Christian.  How can you be a Christian if you do not believe in the Christ?  And to be blunt, if you do not accept the Virgin Birth, whoever it is you think you worship, it is not the Christ, the Son of God.

But the body of doctrines that are beyond negotiation, beyond the possibility of disagreement among men of sound faith is a relatively small body.  As concerns many other aspects of the truths revealed in Scripture, understanding is hard, and it is entirely possible that those who devoutly desire to know God in Truth may perceive things differently.  It is not possible, to be clear, that where such disagreements arise, both are right.  That leaks into the post-modern perspective that truth is malleable; you can have yours, and I’ll have mine, and we’re both right.  No!  It’s certainly possible that we are both quite wrong, but it cannot be that Truth contradicts itself as it must for us to both be right.  But in spite of this, we can live quietly and at peace with one another.  It’s just possible we can do so in one local body, although I admit these secondary issues can make that difficult.

Our pastor was commenting yesterday about his dislike of denominationalism.  I suppose to the degree that denominational distinctives are raised above their proper level, and give rise to unwanted division in the unity of the one holy, catholic church of Christ, he’s got a point.  But in that our separation into gatherings with like views on these secondary issues promotes the peace and tranquility of that same holy, catholic church of Christ, I think we can accept that even this was in keeping with Christ’s plan for His Church.  I recall from teaching on the London Baptist Confession just how strongly these early Protestant confessions sought to stress the common ground.  Yes, we Baptists hold to believer’s baptism, whereas you Presbyterians and Congregationalists see grounds for infant baptism.  I don’t agree with you, but I can see how you get there, and I know you could say the same.  Yes, we Presbyterians have our views of synodal governance over the local body, and you Baptists and Congregationalists are more inclined toward local governance having precedence.  But such matters are no cause for us to denounce one another.  Such matters do nothing to prevent us worshiping together, confident that we serve the same one God in the same one faith.  They merely demonstrate the limits of our still earthbound understanding, even in light of being taught of God and indwelt by His own Holy Spirit.

If one looks at the great body of those early confessions, it must strike us just how closely they adhere one to another.  It’s nearer the case of contrasting, say, the NASB and the NASU translations, or maybe the KJV and the ASV.  There may be a few differences here and there, but hardly anything that constitutes a shift of any real significance.  You prefer this phrasing to that.  Fine.  It says the same thing.  Your footnotes may emphasize certain matters, where mine emphasize others.  But neither denies the other.  It’s still the same God and the same God’s Truth.  Glory be to God!

Here is a unifying notion, an understanding that will carry us far toward this goal of leading a quiet life.  “Whoever does that which is good is taught of God to do it, and God must have the glory.”  Matthew Henry writes  this in regard to that first portion of our passage, where Paul observes that they have been taught of God to love one another.  But see how this applies in these matters of secondary, tertiary doctrines.  If my brother in another denomination is doing good, if he is loving as he ought, seeking to promote the life and wellbeing of his brothers and outsiders alike, then whatever differences we may have, we must recognize this:  He has been taught of God to do this.  It may not be our thing.  It may be done differently than we would do it.  But the facts on the ground remain:  God has taught him.  He is truly our brother.

So don’t be given to strife and contention.  Don’t feel the need to jump in there and correct your brother on every little difference in perspective.  After all, it is at LEAST as likely that you are the one more properly in need of correcting.  You are not the final authority, the first in all creation to come to full and perfect knowledge of every aspect of doctrine and holiness.  Far be it from you to suppose otherwise!  There’s a CD I hear on occasion, whereupon the artist states that to know God is an oxymoron because this finite being can’t know God.  I suppose I take his point, but I fear it is stated perhaps too strongly.  It leaves us thinking we can’t know Him at all, and that is, at least according to my doctrine, patently untrue.  He has taken great pains to make Himself known.  But that’s a far cry from saying we know Him perfectly.  If that is my brother’s intended meaning, then by all means we agree.  Would that perhaps he had stated it more succinctly.

Don’t be given to strife and contention.  There is a place for iron sharpening iron, clearly.  After all, we are encouraged to this very action.  But there’s a vast difference between the mutual benefit of iron sharpening iron, and the sort of strife and contention we are directed to avoid.  Seek to behave properly towards all, and particularly towards those outside the Church.  What does this mean?  Live honorably.  Treat others honorably.  Don’t make your faith an excuse for laziness, or for disregarding those who don’t share your faith.  Don’t let your attitude and behavior become cause for them to despise the God you claim to represent.

In that regard, I come to this application from Barnes.  I’m not sure what was happening in his day that led to such observation, perhaps the rise of Abolitionists, and the sorts of uproar that brought us to the Civil War.  But his advice from this is to have nothing to do with mob actions.  Have no part in excitements to riot.  It strikes me that, as with so much of that advice and instruction we receive here, this has application today every bit as much as then.  Go back to the Thessalonian situation, and they had seen these mob actions first hand, themselves the target of that mob.  It seems likely such things were still ongoing, and give cause to the subject of the next part of this letter; that of those who have died in faith.  It wasn’t necessarily from old age.  But don’t let these outrages stir you to equally outrageous response.  Have nothing to do with such things!

As I say, it may have been the heated debates over slavery at the time.  I know I’ve seen Barnes comment on that argument in covering other Epistles, such as Philemon.  It was the hot topic of the day, led both to political divide and to outright violence, and that, I think, from both sides of the argument.  And Barnes reminds his readers that there’s no place for you in such activities.  Indeed, he goes so far as to write, “Every man should regard himself as disgraced who is concerned in a mob.”

We seem to be in a period of history where mobs are practically the norm.  It’s become the standard mode for airing grievances.  You think the police have acted unfairly?  Forget the courts and the systems set in place to provide justice.  Burn it all down!  Your side lost the election?  Well, let us suppose for the sake of argument that perhaps there were some underhanded actions.  Wouldn’t be the first time in history, certainly.  The scale may be a bit greater and the alleged offenses more grotesque for their obviousness.  But this is not an excuse to riot.  This is not cause for mob action.  You didn’t care for the restrictions that were put in place due to fears over the Covid epidemic?  I’m with you.  I didn’t care for them either.  I didn’t see them as right or appropriate, and in hind sight, it would seem we have some evidence of having been right.  But even this is no cause to be taking to the streets and rioting.  There are systems in place to address such disagreements.  Those systems may be in some disarray at present, may be corrupted.  But the answer is not to be found in riotous mob actions.  The answer is not to be found in violent overthrow.  This has never been a course permitted to the Christian, and it isn’t now.

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business.  God provides you with work to do that you may see to your own provision, and that you may have means by which to provide for others when they are in need.  Make that your focus.  So far as it lies with you to do so, live at peace with all men, even those with whom you have significant differences (Ro 12:18).  Bless those who persecute you, don’t curse them (Ro 12:14).  You have a high calling on your life.  Live like it.  Don’t degrade and debase yourself by falling to their level.  Stand fast, child of God.  Stand fast in love, in quiet, in resolute pursuit of holiness, the Way upon which your God has set you.  That Way, and that Way only, leads you home.

Father, I pray for myself, and I pray for all those I account as my brethren, that You would guard us from the infiltration of worldly views.  Let us not succumb to the daily input from those outside.  Let us neither submit to the siren call of sexual sins, nor allow ourselves to be instigated to anger and violence by the news of the day.  So much is set against us, seeking to undermine our devotion, to distract us from what is good and true and lovely and praiseworthy, so as to focus on what is vile and destructive and contrary to life.  But You call us to attend upon You, not upon circumstance.  You call us to live by faith not by sight.  And when all we can see is ugliness, how shall we abide in faith?  So, I commit myself once more to seek You and Your ways, to reject the ways of man, and the concerns of man, and the distractions and idleness that are promoted by man.  Keep us, Lord, from complacency, and let us be busy with the things You have given us to do, the things You have prepared beforehand, that we might do them.  Let us be about Your business and stay out of everybody else’s.  Let us live lives of quiet honor, as You define honor.  And be it pleasing to You, Lord, grant us such governance as gives place for such lives of quiet honor.