The Challenges (08/15/22-08/17/22)

We have before us a set of commands.  If we seek to distinguish law and gospel, then what is before us is law.  But it’s the new law of love.  It doesn’t look much like love to us, I don’t think, but this really does give us good illustration of just what that peculiarly Christian love of agape should look like in practice.  It’s an interesting picture, and challenging.  But before we can really deal with the challenge of God’s instruction to us through Paul, we have first to deal with the challenge of properly understanding what we’re dealing with.  I find, for example, that the second of these commands, “admonish the unruly,” as the NASB has it, is variously understood.  That matter of unruliness is presented in a term used only here, with the appearance in 2Thessalonians of another singular word which is closely related, and to much the same point.

What is that point?  That’s where questions start to arise.  There are effectively two threads of meaning that I find running through the translations.  One thread stays fairly close to what we see in the NASB.  “Rebuke the unquiet,” says the Douay-Rheims.  “Keep control over those whose lives are not well ordered,” reads the BBE.  But then there’s this other aspect that comes out.  The ERV gives us, “Warn those who will not work.”  And the Message, with its much more freestyle approach to presenting the text supplies, “Warn the freeloaders to get a move on.”  Now, encountering those last few translations, and others that follow the same line of understanding, my first reaction is to think somebody’s reading that second letter back into the first.  And that gives rise to questions of whether such an approach has led to misinterpreting the meaning here.  There is, however, the equal and opposite possibility, in this case, that given these two letters are written by the same man to the same church at nearly the same time, this is precisely the right thing to be doing.  In other words, what is observed as a seedling issue here has flowered and borne fruit by the time of that second letter.  And if we are correct that little time passed between those two letters, we have a sense of just how swiftly sin’s corrupting influence can spread and fester, even in the church.

Seeing this divergence of interpretation led me to consider more sources than usual in seeking to understand the words before us, and that has proven, I think, beneficial; particularly so with this first matter of unruliness or idleness.  The basic meaning is that of disorderliness.  It seems to have been something of a military term, indicating those who were out of position, out of their ranks and insubordinate.  They had their orders, and ignored them.  If we let in this idea of laziness, as Kittel’s observes, we mustn’t allow it to occlude the larger problem.  Yes, idleness is one symptom, but there are others.  The more fundamental issue is irresponsibility, of not fulfilling one’s duties.  That idleness, or evading of obligations, is but a part of it.  The author there puts this down to the ‘irrational soul of man’, being, as it is, misled by passion and error, and this without order or plan.

Now, this may not be the best time to note it, but last Sunday might well stand as an example of the issue.  We undertook to get away from the house for the afternoon, feeling somewhat the pressure of disrupting rote habit just a bit.  But we went without plan, driven, if you will, by this passionate need to get out, to do something; something different.  So, off we went.  We had a destination in view, and the idea that we would just as soon not hop on the major highways to get there, but take a more leisurely course.  Well, we certainly avoided the highways, and I suppose, at some juncture, it managed to be leisurely.  But mostly, we wandered quite off course, banking more west to east than our northbound plan had envisioned, and before you know it, we had managed to turn a simple one hour journey into a four hour trek.  Now, this wasn’t, in our case, some terrible error or grounds for recriminations.  But it was, I would have to confess, rather more indirect than intended.

My point is simply this:  This is somewhat the idea Paul has in view here, as concerns these individuals in need of correction.  It’s not just that they were idle.  We have that image from the second letter, of those whose sense of the imminence of the last day had led them to just set aside the obligations of daily living.  This was beyond the monastic withdrawal from society.  In fact, it could be argued such a withdrawal would have been a vast improvement on their part.  No, they were not merely shirking their own responsibilities, but they were getting into everybody else’s business, stirring up trouble.  “We hear,” writes Paul, “that some among you are leading an undisciplined life,” – there’s our companion word – “doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies” (2Th 3:11).

You can see Kittel’s point.  The slothful negligence toward work is there, but there’s more, and that more is insidious.  They’re getting into everybody’s business, stirring up strife.  This is exactly what you don’t need.  This is the opposite of love, and certainly the antithesis of peace.  Vine’s offers the thought that this disorderliness can be put down to a number of things.  It could be idleness.  It could also be excitability, which can be such a distraction to those who are quietly pursuing their labors.  It could be a sort of officiousness, viewing those labors and offering unhelpful criticism as to its doing, or even whether it should be done at all.  One gets the sense, again considering that later letter, that all of these come into play, and we don’t really need to choose.  You can see the busybody in that officiousness.  You can see the insubordinate’s influence in excitedly encouraging others to join in the fun of going your own way.  And you can certainly see the idleness that supplied these individuals with the time to pursue such things.

The saddest part, perhaps, is that this comes of hearing sound teaching.  Table Talk, this morning, had cause to remind of Paul’s treatment of the law of Moses, and how sin was able to take that good law and make of it a launching pad for further sin.  Well, rest assured, the Gospel is not immune to similar abuse.  Here had been news of Christ’s return, and that ultimate realization of salvation which would come with His return.  Hey!  This life is going to be left behind.  All the woes and dissatisfactions, all the sorrows and labors and trials that constitute life in this fallen world will come to an end, and we go to heaven to enjoy the immediate presence of our Lord forevermore.  Now, the lazy would hear that and think of ages spent on the couch, enjoying fine foods and entertainments, and never needing to lift a finger again.  Others, it seems, began to wonder.  If He’s coming, where is He?  Have we missed it?  Did we not make the cut?  And they stirred up questions and doubts in others because, of course, they had no answers.  The problem was there, and it was growing.

The problem remains, in varying form, in the house of God today.  We have that longstanding truism that 20% of the body does 80% of the work.  If you can get to 20% volunteerism in your congregation, you are doing well, and if you’re expecting more, well, good luck with that.  And there’s a reason we have that truism:  Because it generally holds true.  Many a congregant comes, sits in the pew of a Sunday, perhaps spends a few moments chatting over coffee afterwards, and goes home.  Some can’t even manage that much, if there’s something better going on, a game perhaps, or some other adventure on offer.  Some are too busy looking around and taking measure of their fellow congregants to ever get a good look at themselves.  Others, perhaps, give their tithes and energy, but remain spiritually detached.  The problem remains, and as I said, the form varies.  But the antidote really doesn’t.

Okay, I’ve spent a lot of time on this first issue, because it’s the harder one to resolve in translation.  But we have other issues to address.  We have the fainthearted.  What’s up with that?  Some would see a character flaw.  Some would take fainthearted as chicken-hearted, as we used to say.  Just not up to it, are you?  Don’t have it in you?  That mindset seems far more prevalent in times of conflict, when courage is most needful and strength to follow through.  Well, brother, I’ve got news for you.  Your time here is a time of conflict.  It’s not conflict with your brothers in Christ, certainly.  Neither is it conflict with those unbelievers around you, even if they are of the more antagonistic sort.  These folks in Thessalonica knew from antagonistic.  The early church in general was entirely too familiar with the issue.  It didn’t stop them believing.  They proved to have that strength of character to stand and stand some more, at least for the most part.

We know, from the early fathers, that there came a time when the persecutions arising out of Rome’s leadership proved too severe for some to handle, and they bolted.  When things had changed course, and faith could be held without fear of being put to death for it, they came back.  And those who had stood firm were at a quandary as to whether they should be welcomed or not.  These were the chicken-hearted!  They had run when things got hard.  Who could trust them, really?  If they had denied Christ, surely this was unforgivable, and the church would be wronging its Lord to let them back into fellowship.  Are we not the gatekeepers?  Will we really just let this weakness pollute the house?  And the answer that came, after prayerful consideration by godly men, was yes.  Here are the prodigals come home, and would you be that brother whose resentment sought to prevent restoration in the family?  Far be it from you!  No, the proper course is not to reject them and drive them away.  It is to encourage them, seek to bolster their strength and courage.  The battle is hard enough without reducing forces in the midst of it, because you find this soldier insufficiently prepared to stand his post.  Encourage him.  Speak to his backbone, that he might indeed become a welcome brother-in-arms.

Then, too, we have the weak.  Again, what’s in view here?  This isn’t fearfulness.  It’s true insufficiency to meet the need of the moment.  It might be physical weakness.  It might be material lack.  I want to help, but I haven’t the means, the talents needed for this effort.  But, given our setting and concerns, we must recognize, I think, that at root, the weakness is a spiritual weakness.  That leads me to the idea that what we’re talking about is those whose faith is perhaps new, little developed.  They have not the depths of experience or understanding that we have.  They have not as yet wrestled with some of those deeper truths, or experienced those trials which leave us with a tested faith, and a stronger assurance as to the faithfulness of our God.  But that battle we are in won’t wait for them to mature.  It’s here now.  They’re here now.  They’re in it together with us, and if they – and we – are to survive the engagement, they will need our help.  Helping them now may just set them on course to be help to us later.

I see that I have slipped into a militarily informed perspective on the whole business.  That may not entirely suit, but I think it does well enough.  These brothers in Thessalonica had faced serious opposition.  We don’t know but that it had turned deadly in some instances.  It was bad enough when Paul was up there, bad enough that they found it necessary for him to depart not just the city, but the region, for his own safety, and the Church’s good.  We see, repeatedly, the willingness of the Jewish community that rejected Messiah to stir up all sorts of trouble, even purchasing mobs to turn out and do their dirty work.  Anything to squash this new sect.  Anything to divert the need to face the corrective, life-changing message of the Gospel.  This was a battle they were in, even if it was one they joined in with such joy and goodwill as had become news even down here in Corinth.

There is something about weakness, though, that we ought to consider.  It’s a point Kittel’s brings out, and it bears remembering.  There is something of a paradox to this Christian life, in that God displays His power within our weakness.  “When we are weak, then He is strong.”  Somehow, that’s the way it comes to memory.  But the actual declaration is, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2Co 12:10).  But it comes on the basis of what Paul was told by his Lord Jesus.  “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2Co 12:9), and the observation that it was due to his weaknesses that the power of Christ dwelt so richly in him.  Now, this is by no means suggesting that God cannot oppose our strength.  It has far more to do with that humility that comes of recognizing that our strength is as nothing compared to His.  Our physical frame, after all, is subject to disease and affliction, and the general effects of aging.  God suffers no such issues.  Our power is largely limited to what bone and muscle can supply, with perhaps the additive of what mind can conceive by way of augmenting those capabilities.  God’s power, however, is limitless.  My point is simply that we don’t want to misconstrue Paul’s intent here, as suggesting something it does not.

And that gets us to the other aspect of weakness, that which is before us here.  Yes, there is a sort of weakness, which again, I would set down to humility, which renders one a suitable instrument upon which, or through which God can display His power.  But there is another sort of weakness that is not acceptable to God, and therefore not to be accepted by us.  That weakness is a moral condition, a moral weakness that we must seek to overcome.  This, too, will rely on the power of God to achieve, but it requires as well our personal involvement, apart from which God will not be found willing to empower the necessary change.  This is part of being a moral agent.  You must make your choice, and will yourself to follow that choice.  But in cases such of this, you choose and you will knowing that will alone won’t get you there.  Choice alone won’t get you there.  You choose knowing your dependence upon God to provide the means, and knowing that He will.  Thus, weakness is not celebrated in passages such as this, but neither is it condemned as cause for exclusion from fellowship.  Rather, it is an opportunity for love to take action.

Let me touch once more on the matter of the faint-hearted, a term which taken more literally speaks of smallness of soul.  Here, then, we are concerned more with soul than mind.  But it is a matter of despondency, a giving up of hope if you will.  And let us make that connection.  This despondency is not the product of reason, or of the mind having thought things through.  In truth, if the mind thought things through, then despondency must flee, for the things we consider are matters of God’s doing, as we have seen.  The power by which we pursue the life of faith is not that of main strength, but of God Himself.  And He richly supplies His sons and daughters with all that is needful for life and godliness (2Pe 1:3).  That is one of those passages that has really been sticking with me.  His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true and full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  What a marvelous thing!  He has done it.  You are already equipped.  Not only that, but as Paul reminds the Philippians, it is He Who is at work in you both to will and to work (Php 2:13).  He equips.  He works.  Where, then, is cause for despondency?  There is no cause.  It is a sickness of soul, a reaction, I think we could say, to the lies of a deceitfully wicked heart, which leads us away from that weakness which lets God’s power work in us, and has us thinking we need to get there in our own strength – a hopeless task indeed.

Paul does not identify these issues to condemn, or to purge those thus afflicted from the Church, but rather that we might see the need among us and be part of God’s answer, as active exponents of love.  Before I turn to that part, though, I would put before us an opportunity for self-examination.  We have seen three points of need, the insubordinate, the despondent, and the morally weak.  I wonder, do you see yourself in that list of needs?  On the right occasion, I fear I could find myself in any one of the three, and sometimes in all of them.  It’s easy to slip into a place of insubordination, of being a busybody, all over everybody else’s business, and neglectful of our own.  It’s certainly easy to become despondent, and honestly, I think there is something in the impact of the last few years that has made this far more common.  When you’ve had fearfulness and anxiousness broadcast at you daily for so long, it’s kind of bound to have its effect.  Some may recall those early years of the cold war, when as school children we were being taught some rather laughable response to nuclear attack.  Honestly, about the most it was going to do was make the devastation a bit neater, should there be any alive to clean up afterwards.  It certainly wasn’t going to preserve one intact.  But it was pretty good at instilling a sense of dread, or futility in the souls of those being so trained.  I mean, really, what’s the point in obtaining education if the bomb’s going to fall any day now?  And that, I should observe, is not so very far from the thinking that was afflicting the church as Paul writes to them.  If the end is nigh, why be bothered with this business of daily living?  Why seek to improve oneself?  Why do anything?  If nothing we can do will work to keep this deadly Covid away, what are we to do, but hole up in our little houses and cut off all outside contact?  And what is that going to produce besides despondency?  We are not created to be isolated creatures, nor even so isolated as we may be within the confines of our homes.  We are social beings, designed for community.  Cut off community, and despondency results.  Honestly, it’s just about that simple.

But where do you find yourself?  Are you becoming insubordinate?  Are you setting yourself above those leaders God has seen fit to provide?  Do you play the game of seeking the errors in every sermon, or have you decided you have a better grip on sound doctrine and administration than those charged with maintaining the same?  Watch out!  It’s one thing to test and approve that which is good.  It’s quite another to assign yourself the office of official church critic.

Has despondency overcome you?  Do you feel like the whole thing has sort of lost a point? Does it feel too much like you’re just going through the motions, performing rote duties but not really getting anywhere?  I’ve known that feeling of late, both in the pursuits of faith and in the realm of employment.  As I note, some of that comes from the isolated nature of recent years.  But then, too, we must recognize that some of that isolation comes by choice rather than by necessity.  I am, admittedly, more introverted as I grow older, and much of what I enjoy consists in things enjoyed primarily alone.  Some of my greater pleasures require rather large swathes of time in which I can pursue them uninterrupted and undistracted.  That, of course, requires me to cease from interrupting and distracting myself, but the demands of life tend to limit those opportunities, and leave me more demanding of such time as I can find.  But that feeds the isolation, and isolation feeds the despondency.  This is something to consider.

I have faced it in the last several weeks as it applies in the workplace.  It’s been a challenging project, this latest assignment, and I have often felt that my progress and contributions are insufficient.  The learning curve has been something of a steep and constant incline, and it feels like I’m never getting anywhere.  Add to this the impersonal nature of communications when working at distance.  Most communication now comes in the form of text messaging, which, even more so than email, has the effect of leaving one seeking to discern attitude without the benefit of visual clues.  Are they as frustrated with me as I am?  Have I proved a disappointment?  There’s just not much to go on when you start facing such questions, and it’s not really the sort of thing you can ask outright.  So you’re seeking what feedback you can find, but that feedback is often a thing imagined rather than an accurate reading, and so, we find negative responses where no such thing is suggested.  We read frustration where there is only the offering of information.  We are a circuit that has come disconnected from some critical control inputs, and oscillate wildly.

The same thing can hit us in spiritual matters.  If we are cutting ourselves off from the fellowship that pertains within the church, we will likely perceive that as being the result of an unfriendly church, or perhaps a signal that it’s time to go.  But honestly, it is far more likely that you have cut yourself out, rejected whatever attempts at fellowship there have been, or simply been stand-offish.  Let me put it another way.  You have made yourself unwelcoming, and then wondered why nobody seeks to welcome you.  Hmm.  Well, moving on certainly won’t help that issue, because you’ll still be there, wherever you may choose to go.  Perhaps, then, the problem is not them, but you.  Perhaps it would be better to seek those who could help you in your place of need rather than expect them to guess, or expect the Holy Spirit to magically guide them to you.  Oh, I know.  I’ve done it too.  And it’s possible He will in fact send along somebody to speak, all unknowing, directly into that need.  But it’s also possible He’s waiting for you to get over yourself and seek out help yourself.

Are you weak?  Are you lacking in the equipage of knowing God, knowing what He says of Himself in Scripture, and how that applies to your daily life?  This, I should hope, is the least likely self-diagnosis, although maybe we ought to consider it more carefully.  If your answer is a no, but comes of wounded pride, then perhaps the answer is actually yes.  If your answer is no, but it arises from a burgeoning self-reliance without proper basis, again, the answer is actually yes.  We’re not talking mere head-knowledge here.  We’re not considering a capacity to go on at length concerning the fine points of this passage or that, and we’re not talking familiarity with the doctrines propounded by this or that teacher of note, as if we were in the business of choosing sides with one rabbi or another.  You know, we saw such things among the Pharisees in Jesus’ day.  There were those of Hillel, and those of Gamaliel, and the two sides really didn’t see much eye to eye.  There were the doctrinal divisions between the typical Sadducee and the Pharisee, and we could add in the Essenes as well.  But all those doctrinal disputes spoke nothing to the question of true, spiritual knowledge.  It may have been that some individuals in any of those groups did indeed have such knowledge.  But it wasn’t because of being in any of those groups.  Having all your doctrinal points in proper Pharisaical order would not render one spiritually pure.  Carefully pursuing the tenets of the Essenes would do you no better.  Indeed, as proved to be the case, these approaches might very well leave you farther from spiritual truth than when you started.

Studying alone is not going to bring you to the place of strength in Christ.  Knowing intricate details, or seeing all these connections between ideas is not, in itself, going to do anything for you.  You could do the same with the works of any given philosopher.  You could go exercise yourself on Plato, or on Kant, or on Jung.  You might even derive some small benefit from it.  Some have.  But you won’t grow spiritually strong on that diet.  You need the nourishment of the word of God, and you need the digestive juices, if you will allow the idea, of the Holy Spirit, so as to allow the nutrients in that word to be rendered usable to the soul and spirit.  You need wisdom, not merely knowing the facts, and not even merely knowing how they ought to apply to your day to day, but actually applying them.  And that, again, depends on God.  It also, by His design, depends on being in the company of your brethren, who may in fact see you with clearer eyes than you suppose, with clearer eyes than you see yourself.

It is a community of faith for a reason, and again I ask.  Where do you find yourself?  Have you practically excommunicated yourself?  Well, perhaps it’s time you welcomed yourself back in.  Have you felt isolated?  Perhaps you might make some attempts to connect, rather than just standing about looking lost and directionless.  Have you felt powerless, stuck in idle?  Perhaps you might try applying that which you have been learning, seeking to incorporate His instruction into your character, through prayer and through practice.  Who knows?  Maybe things can improve.

The Commands (08/18/22-08/19/22)

So, Paul lays out the challenges, the issues in the body.  And he also lays out commanded actions to address those challenges.  It begins with what we might see as a transitional command, connecting this part of his instruction to the previous point about leadership.  Live in peace with one another.  Okay, but what does that look like in practice?  If he had left it there, we would incline to suppose the right thing to do is to simply put up with each other’s weaknesses and failings.  We would seek to tolerate one another.  But that is not the call.

He expands.  See the need in your brother and be the needed answer.  That, I think, would sum it up nicely.  Keep control over the unruly.  We’ve looked at this, and the varied ways the concept is put forward, so far as the problem is concerned.  There is also some variety as to how the corrective action is defined.  Keep control, warn them, admonish them.  If they are becoming freeloaders, shirking their labors and shirking their spiritual health, don’t let it ride.  We see this made more explicit in the second letter.  “If anyone will not work, neither let him eat” (2Th 3:10), and this, he says, was instruction they had from him when he was first there with them.  There is direct command to such individuals on that later occasion.  “Work quietly, and eat your own bread” (2Th 3:12).

This does seem to clarify what was happening, and why it was becoming an issue.  It would seem the Thessalonians had modeled their faith much like the early church in Jerusalem, where we saw in Acts that they would pool their resources to see to the needs of all the body of believers.  They gave as they had to give, and they were supplied as they had need.  Some have looked at this as evidence that Christians should practice communism, but that simply won’t work.  Sorry.  This was not a denial of personal property.  It was a people moved by their own freely made choice to support their brothers who were having greater difficulties.  It was not coerced loss of property, but willing offer of that property to see God’s work done.

Of course, such free access to means led to abuses.  As in our own day, there were those who would take without really giving back.  Here was a free meal ticket, so why bother with working at all?  They’ll cover me.  I just have to profess faith in this god of theirs.  Was it so brazenly false as all that?  Paul does not say so directly, but one has to wonder.  Is it really possible that one would have such faith as comes of God and yet be so ready to abuse the goodwill of his brothers?  I suppose it could have been simply an overly excited response to the news of Christ’s imminent return, or perhaps a warped sense of what it means to trust God for your provision.  But it would not surprise me to learn that even then, there were false confessors of faith.  I should think it almost a given that such issues were as present then as now.  And they were likely missed by many, then as now, faith almost requiring of us that we view our fellow religionist in the most positive possible light.  There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it must be tempered by wisdom and discernment.  And where there is a problem, the problem must be addressed, not accepted as inevitable.  Correct them.  Don’t put up with the insubordination.  If they will not accept the leadership, let them neither accept the charity.  Let them not be a poison seeping into the body.  This is not a step to take lightly, but it is not one to be avoided at all cost, either.

We have, as well, an answer to the fainthearted, the despondent.  Don’t tell them how this is a terrible misrepresentation of God, or how poor a testimony it is, that they should behave so.  It’s all well and good to note how a Christian ought to be a joyful fellow, confident in the care of Christ, and keenly aware that nothing in this world can separate him from his Lord and Savior.  But when one is down, ‘cheer up,’ is not particularly helpful to hear.  And if it comes not as encouragement, but as command, well, so much the worse.  Yes, yes, you feel miserable.  You can’t see your way out of the hole you feel yourself to be in.  But buck up, lad!  Stiff upper lip, and all that.  Put a smile on that face of yours and get on with life.  Honestly, such advice at such a time is as likely as not going to deepen the darkness of soul rather than help.  This is not encouragement.  This is annoyance.

That said, the answer is just as surely not to advise them that they are right to feel as they do.  No.  They need encouragement.  But they need real, useful encouragement.  If they are despondent, having lost any sense of hope, perhaps the thing would be to gently turn their attention back upon the rock-solid hope that is theirs in Christ.  Perhaps they have become despondent because they have been too much concerned with their works earning them place in God’s favor.  Then, they need to be gently restored to understanding that God’s grace is not a response to our works, but a necessary forerunner of any works we might come to pursue.  If those works are of value, after all, it is as expression of what faith has already wrought; it is because the works we do are those God prepared beforehand for our doing.  They are not jobs performed for wages, but offerings made in love for the God in whose name they are done, and by whose power they are done, if indeed they are done.

Perhaps it is simply the weight of daily life that has this person down.  Maybe they’ve lost a loved one recently.  Assuredly, if that loved one was a believer, then they are not truly lost, but only gone on ahead.  But there is a place for sorrow on that occasion, a place for mourning, even so.  God has not called us to be emotionless and cold.  He is not unaware of our human connectedness, nor does He call us to set that aside.  Yes, we need to be nurtured and encouraged to recognize the great truth of the resurrection in those times, but in due time.  Comfort is called for, and encouragement.  Yes, they are gone, but you will see them again by and by.  Death, dear one, is not a permanent separation, as concerns believers.  Eternity yet lies ahead, and we shall enjoy it together.

It could be some job loss, as well, I suppose.  Welfare systems were not really in place in that day and age, and if one could not work, well, one could not eat.  This kind of comes at the reverse face of that coin abused by the indolently insubordinate.  There was a reason for such charity in the family of God.  Far more so then than at present, at least in the West, to be a Christian could very well be grounds for termination.  And it wasn’t exactly the climate where entrepreneurs could just go off and start a business.  Nor were many in the church of such status as would permit of such an outcome anyway.  A slave really couldn’t expect such opportunities, even if his master had turned him out.  Not that such an event seems likely.  Sold, perhaps, to cut losses, or killed.  But unlikely that they would simply be tossed on the street.  The point is, though, that real suffering was a very real possibility for real faith.  And suffering can readily lead to the sort of despondency that is in view here.  It is up to us to come alongside our brother should such things transpire, to be both spiritual and material support to them in their place of need, and encouraging them until they can in fact get back on their feet.

Then, we have the weak, the small-souled.  Their faith is of little strength.  I don’t honestly think we are talking about physical infirmities here.  Rather, the concern is with the life of faith.  These believe, but perhaps belief is not as yet well established, or well-informed.  They didn’t quite realize what they were signing up for when they professed faith in this Jesus.  You know how it goes.  So often the good news is put out there without any notice given to the cost involved.  We so want these lost souls to come to Christ that we are a bit lax about noting what might be seen as downsides.  It’s a rare evangelist who will lead his appeal with Jesus’ observation that, ‘in this life you will have tribulations’.  It matters not that this observation was followed immediately by, ‘but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world’.  That’s well and good when you are already in the camp of believers, and have some understanding, but as sales pitches go, this is not exactly a winner, is it?  So, we stick with the message of “God loves you,” and figure we can get to the price tag, the whole-self giving unto Christ, at some later date.

But the world isn’t going to wait for us to get around to that.  The battle comes swiftly, and doesn’t much care if you’ve trained your new recruits yet.  So, that battle comes as something of a surprise to them, and they may not yet know how to stand in the strength of God.  Half the time, I think we don’t know how to do so.  We try to do it, but discover that no, really, we’ve been trying to stand in our own meager strength, and forgotten God entirely.  Sorry, Lord.  So, it’s hardly a surprise that those newer to faith would be struggling.  Do we just let them fall by the wayside?  Inform them, perhaps, that their faith was too weak.  So sorry.  Of course, this is not the answer!  If God does not lose sheep, then we who are fellow sheep ought not to leave them to get lost, either.  Help them!  Carry them, if you must.  Your Shepherd carried you, didn’t He?  Here, I really like the presentation Wuest supplies for us.  “Be a mainstay to those who are spiritually weak.”  Have their backs.

It comes back yet again to that sense of military action, doesn’t it?  The military has that idea of, ‘no man left behind’.  We don’t leave our brothers there to be picked up or picked off by the enemy.  We carry them, if we have to, but we will see to it that they are secure with us, and not casualties.  Should it not be so in the camp of God?  Here in this outpost of the kingdom, with the forces of darkness at every side, we have need to stand by one another, to be on guard one for another, and to see that each of us is as fully equipped as possible to withstand, and not only to withstand, but to carry the light forward into that darkness.  We can’t do that by staying focused on ourselves alone.  We can’t do that by succumbing to infighting.  And so, we take these corrective actions.

Now, I have observed that these are commands.  They come in the imperative voice.  They are also in the active voice.  You, subject, perform these actions.  Then, too, they are presented as present tense operations.  They are ongoing, we might even say stative.  Be doing these things constantly.  These are activities that should define life in the camp of Christ.  If you see one slacking, correct him.  If you see one weakening strengthen him.  If you see one giving up, lend him courage.  Be a mainstay!

Let me look at that last a bit more.  The word has this sense of adhering to the one you would care for.  Hold yourself to that one who is fading.  Don’t let go!  Don’t let them miss the fact that you are there for them.  Don’t leave them to wonder if anybody notices they are falling behind, falling away.  Don’t leave them to wonder if anybody would even realize it were they to go.  Bind yourself to them.  I don’t think that’s too strong a thing to suggest.  Some folks get a little leery of the idea of binding together.  Oh, you could wind up with spiritual bonds that are unhealthy for you.  Well, yes, I suppose if you go off binding yourself to whomever with no spiritual sense applied, this could be the case.  But then, that just puts you in the place of need rather than the place of aid, doesn’t it?  God is not a fool, nor is He one to lose those He has chosen.  Remember.  And then, when you see that one falling behind, go.  Be their mainstay in the power of Christ.  Don’t hold back lest you become a substitute for Christ.  Be an instrument in the hands of Christ, and if you have won back that brother to the security of sound faith, praise be to God, that He has done the work through you.

The whole is summed up by Paul with the call to be patient with everybody.  Don’t get frustrated because they’re not at your stage of development.  For all that, don’t be so sure your stage of development is actually greater than theirs.  Be patient.  And the particular term here addresses that sort of patience needed in regard to relationships.  It’s not patience with circumstances, endurance under pressures.  No, it’s persevering, bearing the offense without turning to anger and vengeance.  It is exercising that same forbearance towards those who need it as God did towards you.  But it is patience that is being called for, not tolerance.  To exercise patience does not mean we simply accept that these individuals have their failings.  We don’t tolerate the idler in his idleness.  We don’t simply leave the despondent to their misery.  And we don’t leave the weak behind as if their weakness threatened our own security.  No.  Action is commanded.

Let me emphasize that.  Action is commanded!  These are not optional behaviors.  These aren’t offered as possibilities to try out should occasion seem to call for it.  Neither are they instructions reserved to the overseers mentioned in the previous sentence.  This is everyone for all.  We are family, and in many ways, closer than family.  Or we should be, at any rate.  We are to love one another.  This is how the world knows we are His, that we love one another, and not in some mushy, sentimentalist fashion.  No.  This is love in action.  That is exactly what is set before us here.  If you love your elders because of their work, it is because their work expresses this love in action.  If you love your elders because of their work, recognize that their work is not theirs alone, but modeled that you might do likewise.  If it commanded of them, it is also commanded of you.

This Sunday, we shall be coming to that portion of James which some find so contrary to Paul’s emphasis on grace.  It is not, but that’s for another time.  The connection here is that James speaks of faith taking action.  If you see your brother in need, and all you can do is tell him to be at peace, but you do nothing to actually address the need, how is this an expression of faith?  It isn’t (Jas 2:15-16).  Now, James is focused on issues of real faith, but where there is real faith, there is real love, agape love.  And real love takes action.  Real love doesn’t tolerate, but it is patient, kind, not taking into account any wrongs suffered, nor seeking its own benefit.  Love is a thing exercised, and it is exercised most where the need is greatest.  Love is what lends patience to our efforts.  For we know from our own experience, and our own reactions, that the exercise of love that seeks to supply the true need often faces rejection by the one in need.  That requires patience.  That requires deferring anger, and persevering in spite of rejection.

I find as often as not that when a corrective word comes, the immediate response is what we might call one of the flesh.  We don’t want to hear it.  We don’t much like being corrected.  But the word is received anyway, and given space for the Spirit to speak to us, realization comes, the rightness of that correction is recognized, and if there has been a spiteful response at the outset, we know our need to repent of it, to apologize to the one we have wronged with our fleshly anger, and confess the welcome acceptance of their correction.  And then, we must as surely seek to truly repent and change our ways.  We have heard.  Far be it from us to hear without becoming doers.

So, there it is.  Meet the need you see.  Let love be active.  Address the issues that all might indeed grow into the fulness of the mature image of our mutual Lord and King.  Don’t let this stuff fester.  It won’t get better that way, and it just might prove fatal.  Would you suffer your hand to be destroyed through neglect?  I rather doubt it.  Why, then, would you suffer your brother to be destroyed through neglect.  He is part of the same body of which you are a part.  Should you not, then, have great concern for his wellbeing, as great a concern as you have for your own?

I had some concerns as to my own attempt at paraphrasing this message, in that it strayed rather farther from the underlying language than usual.  Primarily, it consists of giving a bit more flesh to the bare bones of these commands.  Does it hold up okay?  I think so.  There is question, of course, as to whether ‘live in peace with each other’ belongs more to the preceding call to esteem your elders or with the following commands as to our own role in the body.  In fairness, both aspects come as a single whole, and I may have done the greater disservice to the passage by separating them.  But, if I take that as a connective tissue, as it were, recognizing these elders as examples to follow in our own turn, then I think having it as an underpinning for the commands that follow is acceptable.  Here is what it looks like to be at peace, and to pursue the work of God in love.

Why admonish the slacker?  Because it will do no good to pretend tolerance toward him.  This is not a case of going out and finding cause to disagree and be disagreeable.  But neither is it accepting that which is in fact in disagreement with sound faith.  But neither is it a cutting out.  Rather, it is a seeking to restore real peace, that real peace that comes of harmonious concord.  Comfort the discouraged, lest they become despondent.  Yes, that works, and there is something of an added note to the flavor with that explanatory addition.  Catch it before it gets to that point.  Don’t wait for the despair to set in and then try and address it.  Get at it early.  Much easier.  Then, too, help the weak.  Don’t let them slip away.  Don’t leave them behind.  Don’t be so caught up in your advanced faith that you become negligent towards those who are newly come to it.  Help them, don’t belittle them.  Help them, don’t preen in your comparison of yourself to them.  Yes, I think that all holds.

And let me return to a note of thanksgiving.  You know, God has set us in these congregations, these families.  He has set us amongst those who will render this service should we be in need of it.  He has set us, as well, to be of such service where we discover need.  But let me be just a little selfish here for a moment.  God has seen to it that there are those who can give answer to our need, who can encourage us when we grow faint or weary of the challenges of life.  There are those who will bring that needful gentle rebuke when we have allowed ourselves to wander from God’s path, whether through sloth or through worse sorts of insubordination.  Yes, God can do it directly, and will do so if that’s what’s needed.  God does not lose sheep.  But if He has so arrayed His children that they have this capacity within their number to supply one another, ought we not to be accepting of just such supply?

Give thanks to God that He does this.  Indeed, should you find yourself the one needing admonishment, rejoice rather than revile.  God does not lose sheep, and He’s not willing to lose you.  He has set this brother in your path to remind you of the Way.  And should you, then, respond in the anger of a wounded animal at his loving admonishment?  Of course not.  But we do, don’t we?  We do, before good sense, and the Spirit’s reminders to our conscience get hold of our worse nature.  And praise God He does so.  Praise God that He has His people in position to be boon companions to His people, lest we find ourselves alone and ill equipped for the challenges of this life we live.

Now, it must be said that if we are to experience this good providence of our gracious God we must be available.  If we are shutting ourselves away by ourselves, then these means of grace which are our fellow believers cannot be of help.  I mean, sure, God could send prophetic word through dreams and visions such that they come knocking down your door to bring you back in a spiritual intervention of some sort.  But that’s a bit too much drama, really, isn’t it?  It’s not the normal course of fellowship.  If we have not been making our weakness known, just how do we suppose those around us are supposed to discover it and come help?  And then, shall we complain when they don’t?  These communication failures, when they occur, are not one-way affairs.  If it takes two to tango, it takes two to isolate as well.  Come, avail yourself of the fellowship into which God has set you.  What did you suppose it was there for?

And then we have that final bit of instruction.  See to it that none of you repays evil for evil, rather seeking ever what is good for everybody.  And note well that this is phrased to make clear that the call doesn’t stop at the bounds of the church.  It’s for all men.  In your dealings with the unbelieving world outside, don’t adopt their habit of looking out for number one.  Do they rebuke and revile you for your faith?  Do they believe different things than you do?  This is hardly a surprise.  But neither is it excuse to rebuke and revile in turn.  How does that serve to represent the God you serve?  Does He do so?  Did He do so with you?  I mean, when He first brought you to Himself, you were of exactly that nature, reviling Him and His, laughing at the idea of some need for God.  Oh.  It’s a crutch for weak men, this religion nonsense.  Or, it’s so judgmental.  Or, it’s so old-fashioned.  Good enough for our forebears in their unenlightened state, perhaps, but hardly the thing for modern man, is it?  Well, yes, actually.  It’s exactly the thing.  But they are no more inclined to hear it than were we.  Until we did.

So, instead of developing ill-will towards these individuals, or merely pitying them for their benighted condition, we are called to seek out what will do them good, just as if they were brothers.  It comes back to that expansion of neighborliness that Jesus imparted.  Who is my neighbor?  Why, everybody.  It’s not something you can set limits on.  It’s not just your fellow Christian nor is it only your own countrymen.  It defies boundaries.  That one who is a pariah in society’s eyes?  Yes, him too.  He is your neighbor.  That one with whom we have been at war lo, these many years?  The ones we have been told to view as barbarians barely out of the Middle Ages yet?  Yes, even that one.  Do they hate you?  Perhaps so.  But they are not the enemy.  They are neighbors.  Seek to do good by them.  And, as it comes later in Paul’s writings, insomuch as it lies with you to do so, be at peace with all men (Ro 12:18).   Leave the vengeance business to God.  You, seek to do good by them.

That doesn’t preclude self-defense.  It doesn’t preclude taking up arms when occasion demands.  Assuredly, those who went to battle in the Second World War did not somehow violate their Christian faith in doing so.  Far from it.  But to the degree that hatred for that enemy was a matter of dehumanizing demonization, well, yes.  There’s a problem.  It’s somewhat natural, in war, to have that mindset, I suppose.  I would actually rather hope we found such lethal force pretty much impossible to bring to bear without this sense of needing to address a great evil.  But we daren’t let it bring us to see that enemy as less than human.  We daren’t lose sight of the reality of the situation.  It is not against flesh and blood that we battle, although this battle may require real flesh and blood combat.  No, the real battle is elsewhere, in spiritual realms where dark powers hold sway over those we oppose, and may just as readily hold sway over some with whom we are joined.  Not every young man who went to war for the allies was pure of motive.  Military service is not some automatic guarantee of good behavior.  Far from it.  But neither is it a marker by which to exclude from godly fellowship.  It is, as Paul observes, a ministry of God, this arm of civil service.  It does not bear arms in vain.  But, like any other good of God, it can be abused.  So can our appeals to faith and church.

But again I say, rejoice!  Rejoice as you seek to do good to all.  Rejoice even when that effort is rebuffed.  Rejoice when they spitefully use you.  Rejoice that you do still have those who will come alongside, who will buffer you with their prayers, with their counsel, and where possible and needful, with their effort.  God has indeed arranged brilliantly for His own.  If we have thought otherwise, perhaps we ought to look at ourselves.  Have we been cutting off our own supply lines?  Have we taken ourselves away from those means of grace which He provides, and shall we complain of the lack of provision?  Foolish child!  Admonish yourself for your unruliness!  Pick yourself up and get back there.  You need it, and it has been supplied to you in abundance.  But God, while He does the work in us, does not suffer sluggards gladly.  Do your part, and you will soon find that He has done His.

Well, this has wandered down paths of thought I had not expected, but I thank my God for what He has provided.  It comes, I think, as loud correction for my own course, my own ways of late.  It’s easy to self-isolate, and recent years have only made it easier.  But to sit alone in the dark and complain of loneliness when light and fellowship have always been right there awaiting our participation is beyond childish.  It is foolishness in the uttermost.  May as well send God packing and then wonder why He doesn’t call anymore.  Repent, boy.  Change your ways, and partake of that fellowship and family your loving Father has supplied.

Yes Lord, and so I shall.  So I do.  I thank You, also, for that sweet sense of being ministered to by the songs we practiced last night.  It is too rare a thing that I really take in the message that is there to be heard, but by Your grace, what they spoke last night was exactly to my need, as well You know.  It was, I dare say, a musical presentation of this very set of instructions, admonishing by reminder.  I am who You say I am.  Yes.  It was encouraging, as I heard the strong and needful truth that You hear our cries.  And forgive me, for I have been crying to myself, rather than to You.  What have I been thinking?  But You are there, and You are patient with Me.  And You have seen to it that I am not left to be despondent, but lifted by Your word, by Your intervention.   Thank You indeed, and let me truly lay hold of that intervention.  Let me truly grab tight to the rope You have thrown me, and allow You to pull me out of this mired darkness of late.  Glory be to Your name.