New Thoughts (4/19/02-4/24/02)
Let love be without hypocrisy; without artifice. In your love of others, be as one inexperienced in the art of acting, know yourself incapable of putting on pretenses, and so, love in earnest. And lest you think this is to apply only where you feel love, consider again the Lord's words to you. (Jn 15:17 - "I command that you love one another.") This is unqualified. There's no if clause attached to this, nor is it a request that we can choose to accept or reject as we will. It is a command from our declared Master. Love each other. Period.
I have heard many a Christian try and minimize this with thoughts along the lines of "I love you, I just don't like you." This doesn't fly. Sorry. Look once more at the degrees of love we are summoned to here: There is brotherly love, there is the devotion known between mother and child. Note that I keep that mother and child, for the bonds there are more tender than that of father and child, the involvement has been more personal. This same love, we are commanded to have towards each other, in fact a stronger love is called for, the agape love which we have learned of from God Himself.
God has set us the example of the love he expects us to show (and to show only because it is our true feeling). His love for us, the most unlovable of creatures, was so great that even when we ignored Him, abused Him, broke every rule He gave us, and reviled those He sent to speak with us; even then, He was willing to give up His own Son to pain and suffering beyond our imagining so that we might be made lovable once more. Notice that He did not start loving us after He made us lovable, He made us lovable because He loved us already.
Who else could have any credibility in telling us to love our enemies? Again, our Master has led the way by example. He came to us, His enemies, to make us lovable, to reconcile us, to give us life when we had so long pursued death. And what was our reaction? We sought His death instead. And still, He loved us, still He sought our good, still He prayed for our forgiveness. Love your enemies, He has told us. Pray for their good. Not pray against them. Not pray that they might be removed as a thorn in our side. No. Pray for their good. Desire that they may live long and prosper. Pray that they might come into the light as we ourselves were brought into the light. There is no room for revenge in the Christian life. There is not even room for wishes of revenge, for thoughts of revenge.
Indeed, but for the Holy Spirit, this command remains as impossible as any given to man. It is another measure of character that we cannot hope to meet. "If they shall not work, neither shall they eat." Consider that Scripture in light of love, and yet another truth comes out of it. There is great cause to love in this fashion, for if we shall not love, neither shall we know love. It takes work to love in this way. It takes incredible amounts of effort to love our spouses. It takes effort seemingly beyond the call of duty to love all our brothers and sisters. Face it. The Church as a whole is made up of some of the most unlovable folks we'll ever meet. Most of our co-workers, if we are honest about it, seem more lovable to us than any number of our fellow parishioners. Yet, we are commanded to love them all, unconditionally and without pretense. This, we must work at. This, we ought to feel compelled to work at, for it is that same love, shown by our God, and by others, that has brought us into the fellowship of Christ. If we will not work at knowing and showing that love, what right do we have to expect that we shall continue enjoying such a love from our fellows?
What makes it so exceedingly difficult to love is our own pride. Yes, there may be those that have such an issue loving even themselves that all pride appears dead in them. But the rule for man is that pride will come, and in its coming, we find our ability to love our brothers as we should poisoned and dead. As I noted in previous comments, God has given us tools and weapons powerful to the tearing down of strongholds. He has empowered us to tear down the pride that has built up within us. He has empowered us to overcome envy, and anger, and the desire for vengeance, which are no more than colorations of that same pride. What is envy, but the feeling that we deserve better? What is anger, but the reaction of wounded pride? What is vengeance, other than pride declaring that it has a right to recompense for some perceived wrong? How can we think to overcome the enemy without, when we allow these enemies to remain in our own camp?
The example that Matthew Henry gives us regarding Moses is most apt. Here was a man in whom God had concentrated a great deal of His grace, a man given the wherewithal to overcome Pharaoh and the army of Egypt, a man given charge over a newly born nation, a man given the wisdom to sort out every disagreement any individuals in that nation might have. Here indeed was great wisdom, and we know wisdom is good. After all, God is all-wise, and He is all-good. The potential for trouble lies not in having wisdom, but in thinking ourselves wise. The wisest of men knows his wisdom is yet nothing. Returning to our example, though, Moses had been with God. Returning to face the people, his face was seen to shine with the glow of God's glory upon him. Yet, he could not see this in himself, he was not allowed to see the glow on his own face, and marvel at how wonderful he must have been to be so blessed. No. He knew where his wisdom was found, and left no room for pride.
Many in his camp did allow room for pride. They were unwilling that God's gifts should be parceled out as they were. In the insanity of pride, they felt that they each should have as much 'right' to all of God's gifts as those who had them. In this, they were correct after a fashion, for no man has a right to any of God's gifts. They are His to give to whom He will. But pride cannot help but think that we deserve these gifts, we are worthy of them. In this is the height of insanity! Have we so quickly forgotten how utterly unworthy we are to receive even such gifts as He has already given us?
What in us can be found worthy of the breath He continues to breathe into us each day? What in us is worthy of the fact that He continues to provide us with the means of shelter and food? What in us is worthy of the salvation He so freely gave? What can we offer to suggest that He shouldn't take these gifts back most immediately?
Lord, I know I am as guilty as the next man in this regard. Even as I have been writing these last paragraphs, there has been that piece of me that remains in rebellion against the command to love. There are those I just do not make the attempt to love. There is envy in my soul. There is pride in every form, and I seem incapable of removing the disease. I am incapable of removing the disease. You, O God, You are my only hope. No other can help. No other can remove that poison of pride from me. No other can empower me to love as You require. Yet, My Lord, You require that I be diligent in pursuing this. You require that I not lay back and await Your answer, but that I work. You require that I work to eradicate this pride, as You give me the tools and the wisdom to combat it. You require that I work to build up in my spirit the love that is in Your Spirit. You require that I learn how to love the unlovely. It should be easy, given that I love myself so, but it remains hard. You know. You know who I am. You know my every weakness. You have witnessed my every failure. I am thankful that You have also witnessed my every victory. I pray, oh God, that You would so work in me that there would be far more victories, and far less failures for You to witness in the days that remain. Just one day, my God, I would be pleased to make it through. Just one day, that I have loved as You love, that I have walked humbly with You from sunrise to sunset. That would be enough for a start. Empower me, Lord.
Pride is the great poison that kills our love for each other, and it is a wily opponent, ever changing its tactics to keep from detection. What then can we do to combat this? The answer lies in looking not at what works we have done, but turning our attention on the question of how fully and completely we have been faithful to God. When we consider God's commands, and we consider our inability to follow them for so much as one day, how can it not drive us to our knees in prayer? How can we find anything in ourselves on which to base our pride when we see that the best of our own righteousness is still no more than filthy rags when held up to the standard of God's righteousness?
Pride must bow itself under the knowledge that it is God's grace alone that has appointed gifts to men. That same grace has qualified the recipient for the use of the gift given. That same grace has given those men the inclination and the will to use the gift given them, and it is but that grace that has set them to doing that which the gift was given for. Pride thinks it ought to have a gift. Humility recognizes that God knows precisely what gift is right for us, as He knows precisely who is right for that gift pride thought it should have.
When pride seeks its claim to a gift, one argument, whether stated or not, is that all men are created equal. This is one of the founding claims of this country. It is the basis by which the Continental Congress claimed its 'rights.' Yet, man was never created equal. There has been no time in history when all men were created equal. Each man was given the unique set of endowments that God had in store for him. We have seen throughout this study that there are any number of things we do share in common. We share our fallen nature. We share our tendency toward sin. We share our need for redemption, and we share the solitary means of that redemption. We even share our tendency to seek out any other way to be redeemed than the One who is given us.
Whereas the equality of all men is the stated basis of democracy, the rule in the body of Christ is 'diversity in unity.' A great noise is made in America today about respecting and preserving diversity. Yet, the idea that is promulgated under this banner is that we must not hold any diverse opinions of our own. The 'respect' they ask that we show is to essentially have no thought, no opinion, no belief. Christ shows us the real way of preserving diversity, of honoring the diversity that He has bestowed upon us. At the very root if this way lies the understanding that what each of us has been given, we have been given to use in the service of all. There's something the world will never quite get. As we recognize that the gifts are His, the giving of them is His, and the direction for their use by us is His, we learn our proper place. Our place is to use what He has given us strictly as His will declares. It is His to determine when we use what He has given us. It is for Him to determine where we use what He has given us. It is for Him to determine how we use what He has given us, and to what end. It is for us to "employ them in the purpose for which God gave them; AND FOR NO OTHER," as Mr. Barnes puts it.
We have presented ourselves to God as living sacrifices. Having done so, it must certainly be our task, our only task, to serve Him to whom we have given ourselves. As the slave of old, who was marked as a permanent slave, if he so chose to serve his master, we have been marked. We are perpetual servants in the house of our Lord. Can we not see, then, that for us, to refuse to labor is as great a sin as it is to disobey Him by failing to keep His commands? Hear the lesson of the parable of the talents. Hear the proverbs of wisdom that He has recorded for us. Hear the words of his servants throughout time. (2Th 3:10 - When we were with you, we gave you this order: if one will not work, neither shall he eat.) If you will not work in My vineyard, neither shall you receive the harvester's reward. If you will not use the tools I have given you for the work I have entrusted to you, you will surely not enter into My house to rest.
Pride will always goad us to seek after things that are not ours, after talents that are not ours, after works that our not ours to do. Sloth will always goad us to seek after excuses not to do that which God has prepared us to do by giving us such talents as He has given. Paul was unwilling to exceed the bounds of the task God had given him (2Co 10:13). At the same time, he was always about doing the work he had been given. This is the example for us. God has prepared us in advance for specific good works. God has prepared those good works to be presented to us for the doing. There is no mismatch. We may choose to believe that the work presented to us is the wrong one, that we are ill-equipped for the task. Isn't that the reaction Moses had when God first presented the task of rescuing Israel? Isn't that the reaction we have entirely too often ourselves? Yet, Moses proved to be precisely the right man not only to rescue Israel, but to lead them through the desert, and to plead for them in their times of disobedience.
What is that opportunity that He has put before you? Does it seem beyond your ability? Does it seem impossible, or like there are any number of others that are better fit to accomplish it? All these things may be true in some degree. Most good things, if not all, are beyond our ability, but they are not beyond what He has empowered us to do, if they are the things we have been called to do. We may be called to impossible tasks. Again, Moses stands as an example. That's why He must give us faith to comply. It is impossible to obey Him without faith, just as it is impossible to have faith in Him without obedience. It requires faith to accept that He has prepared us. It requires faith to recognize that He will accompany us throughout, that He goes before us to prepare. It requires faith to know, to KNOW that He never gives us more than we can handle, it's just that our self-assessment tends to be conservative.
Father God, I know there are many things that seem overwhelming to me of late. It just seems to be so much to have to care for this family, to be their first line of defense in things spiritual. It seems so much to carry this role of leadership in the office at the same time. It seems so much to add to that the time and effort that worship service has required of late, especially with the trials that our team has been going through in these times of change. It seems so much to add to that these times of study and prayer, and to apply that gift You have blessed me with to times for teaching. Lord, I would have considered none of these things to be possible on their own, but for You. Now, when they are all combined, I pray that You would continue to provide the wisdom and insight, the strength and perseverance that are required to continue in all that You have for me to do. Don't allow me to grow weary of it, my Lord. And, if there be any of these activities whose time has passed for me, make me to know it, and to gracefully bow out. But so long as You desire me to be at these various works, my God, may You find me faithful to continue in them, to continue doing them for Your glory and for no other reason than that You have called upon me to do it. My trust is in You, oh God. Help me to remember that. My trust is in You; not in my strength, for I am all weakness; not in my talents, for I can do nothing without You; not in my goodness, for there is no goodness in me but that which is from You.
There are some admonitions for the teacher in here that I really need to learn how to handle. For a little over a year now, I've been teaching a home group once a week. While it does take time to prepare something to teach, and to work it into something presentable, this is not the hard part. Nor is the matter of speaking before a group overly challenging. It is the matter that Mr. Henry brought out that proves most difficult for me, not only in teaching from the Bible, but in other areas as well. It is the matter of proportioning the lesson to the student. This, at least for me, is incredibly difficult to do. Researching the lesson, organizing the material; these are simple enough, but bringing the subject matter out in such a way that those listening can best grab hold of the thought… Therein is an art that I have yet to master.
Another ever present temptation in teaching is that of coming to Scripture with the answer already in hand, and then bending what is there to fit the answer. This, we must never do. The teacher who thinks himself wiser than the Word must be shunned by the student. This is clear. However, there are many snares and traps that can cause the teacher to become like this without clearly intending to deceive. How easy it is to fall into this manner of preparing the lesson by first deciding what point you wish to make, and then hunting out scriptural support for your point. How easy it is, when this is one's habit, to completely miss the point that is actually there. How easily we can slip into selectively ignoring whole chunks of God's word because they don't line up with our preconceived answers.
If we would come to the Scriptures for a lesson, we must come to them not as having the answer, but as seeking the answer. No prophecy is a matter of personal interpretation. That is the warning of Scripture in this regard. There is a singular meaning to what is written. It cannot mean one thing to you and another to me. It means what God means it to mean. So, too, with prophecy, whether we consider that to be no more than teaching by another name, or a more inspired, more direct connection to God's thoughts. However it is viewed, the warning is again clear: line it up. Test what you are hearing. How? By comparison with Scripture.
We are a people ruled by Scripture. We can have no other standard. There is no other standard. God has chosen this as the means by which His pure Word is transmitted through the ages. He has gone to great lengths to make certain that this Word of His survived any number of attempts to wipe it out. In the church today, we have largely let go of this standard. I find a people entirely too willing to blindly 'amen' whatever any preacher says from the pulpit. I have watched folks give the amen to two speakers on two consecutive weeks who spoke absolutely contradictory messages! Where is the rule of Scripture in that? Where is the testing of the spoken word to find and hold to that which is true? Where are the Bereans?
Be aware that this is not a call to high skepticism. No! When the Bereans tested the message, it was in hope; it was to make certain that the good things they heard were real. This should be our typical approach. Granted, there will be things said that are so clearly non-Scriptural as to require us to question the validity of whatever else may be said from that source, but the rule is to be this hopeful testing. Hold to the good. Cling to it. Shun the evil. Hate it vehemently! What better application that to the teaching we receive?
How should we react to one whose message has been found false? This is a hard thing. Every man is capable of mistake, indeed, we could argue that every man is incapable of perfection. Thus, the Christ. I think we must allow some slack to the preacher, if not the prophet. With the prophet, we are given clear instruction. If a man claims to speak God's words, and his words are found false, the man is to be stoned. Would that we could so purify some 'ministries' today! With a preacher or teacher, though, we may perhaps allow for correction. For such a one, I would say, pray. And accompany that prayer with earnest discussion, if the teacher is open to such. God is a god of truth. He desires for the truth to be known. Where there has been honest mistake, will He not provide for honest correction? Should we not show the same mercy He has shown us? It would seem we ought to.
Isn't it interesting that this Gospel of hope, this good news from God, is forever pointing out that troubles will come, that sufferings will come! Sound's pretty wonderful doesn't it? Can you imagine going to your neighbor's house, and opening your conversation with something like, "Hey! Got great news for you! You're going to find yourself amidst such crushing sorrows that you'll question how long you can continue!" Can't you just see the looks of joy coming to their faces at this wonderful greeting? Of course, we know the news continues. "But, through all of these sorrows that are coming your way, there is One who will be standing with you, giving you strength to continue, giving you hope when all seems hopeless. There is One whose love for you is so great, that even in the midst of all this, just knowing His love for you will give you reason to rejoice!"
This question of suffering always bothers us. Why, God? Things were going fine, and then You came into our lives, and all the sudden, everything seems to be problems. The things I used to like doing just aren't any fun anymore. The things I took for granted, I now want to stop, and find I can't. It seems that every day, I just embarrass myself with my inability to change. And, as if all this isn't enough, I find that my friends don't like me any more, because they say I've changed. I find I have to stand up for thing that most people either don't care about, or are vehemently opposed to, and their anger towards me is so palpable! I find myself the target of people that want to wipe the knowledge of You from the earth? Why, God? Why am I punished for trying to do right?
This is the way it feels to us, at least to the degree that we are truly following after our Lord. But, we are forewarned. We were told that this would happen, whether or not we heard or heeded the warning. God has also told us why, and the answer is twofold. First, we must remember that the punishment is not punishment. It does not come from our Father, it comes from a world that hates Him, that hates our Lord. Because the world hates Him, it hates everything that reminds it of Him, and that has come to include us. We cannot expect better treatment than our Master. But God doesn't stop with explaining that He didn't do it. He couldn't, because we know that He is the one truly in control. We know that even the 'bad' things come only as He allows it. So, even knowing that this trouble is coming at the hands of those in the world, we come back asking, 'so why do You allow this?' And, of course, He has already given us the answer.
He gave us the answer even as He gave us the warning. Hebrews 10:32 gave us the warning - after enlightenment will come great sufferings. It's not even going to be a one-time event. The sufferings will be manifold. But in Hebrews 10:36 God tells us why this must be. It must be, because we need the endurance that only such sufferings can produce in order to do the will of God. You may not have noticed, but His will is difficult for such as you and I. It takes an incredible amount of effort to keep on that narrow road He points us to. It takes an incredible amount of strength to keep our feet from moving us out ahead of Him. It takes great energy to keep our feet from stopping, such that we fall behind. We need endurance. Endurance is a good and perfect gift. God is kind in providing this gift for us by the only means that will ensure that we gain the gift, by sufferings. Hard as it is to consider suffering a good thing, it is producing a great result in you, it is giving you exactly what you need to endure, to reach the goal, to finish the race laid out before you.
With this in view, knowing that God is working something good in us with our trials, we are able to come to a place of rejoicing. Whatever may come our way, we can rejoice in the knowledge that God is still at work in our lives. Whether it be trial or obvious blessing, we have cause to rejoice. Admittedly, it is hard for us to work up a spirit of rejoicing when the trial is upon us, but Paul is giving us the key to that problem, if we will but take it. Pray. Pray unceasingly. Prayer reminds the soul of its reasons to rejoice. Prayer strengthens the soul to hold fast in the storms of trial. It is that soul-strengthening power that will help us persevere, and having persevered, we will find ourselves with all the more cause to rejoice. We will have further experiential proof that God is indeed in control, and working for our good.
Consider this God we serve. We are reminded that He has shared in our daily existence, He has known both the joys and the sorrows of this life we live. Consider the testimony on His behalf. Ps 35:27 tells us how greatly He delights in our prospering. This, it says should have us shouting and rejoicing continually, giving glory to the Lord. Isa 63:9 reminds us that He has also shared in all of our afflictions. He has done more than shared our pain. Our pain has in itself hurt Him. But He hasn't stood by waiting to see what may come of it. No. He is present in our afflictions, and His presence saves us. He redeems us from our afflictions, and carries us away from our place of torment. What an awesome God! His loving concern for us is overwhelming in its completeness. He does not glower down upon us and tell us how much we deserve what's come upon us. He offers mercy in our times of hurt. He comes with loving concern upon His face, and comes to our aid.
We must take our queue from Him, when it is our turn to aid and comfort the suffering. We cannot be of use to them if our faces are tied in knots of anger or annoyance. This is not mercy, it is a compounding of their troubles.
Indeed, the world we live in is difficult. The way in which God calls us to live amidst this world is even more difficult. It is, to our meager abilities impossible. If we attempt it, we will fail just as miserably as the Pharisees before us. Mr. Barnes tells us that there is one way, and only one way that we can stand up to these challenges. We must 'live near to God.' Apart from Him, apart from His abiding Spirit, there simply is no way that we can bear up under the challenges. How do we do this? How do we live near to Him? Again, Paul has answered the question for us. Pray unceasingly. Pray for the light of the Spirit in our hearts and minds. Pray for the power of the Spirit in our thoughts and actions. For it is only by the influx of God in our lives that we can do as He has asked: hate evil, do good, love our brothers, hold fast to our hope, and bear our trials rejoicing.
In the end, these are the things that will determine the quality of our character, for these are the things that display our attachment to God. As it is only by continued closeness to Him that we can comply with the requirements of Christian living, what success we have in living this Christian life will come only by that closeness. In our weekly home group sessions, we've been looking at the Ten Commandments, coming to grips once more with their application to our present day, once more digging in to find the spiritual matter.
Last night, we pursued the first and greatest commandment; to love God, and have no other. In preparation for that lesson, this material came to mind once more. Truly, it seems to me that Paul is laying out a portion of the spiritual significance of the Law for us in this passage. What does it mean to love God wholeheartedly? It means being a living sacrifice for Him. It means that we are doing all that is in our power to remain close to Him, so that we can rejoice and give thanks continually to Him, so that we can be a living example of what God is like.
God, I cringe to think how poorly I reflect Your character on an average day. When I declare myself Your child, does it bring you glory, or do I simply make people wonder what kind of God would have me? I know. In large part, we all ought to wonder what kind of God would have us. But, in claiming us as Your own, You have called us to a higher level, You have promised the strength and the power to attain to that higher level. You have been patient beyond measure with us when we refuse to lay hold of what You have provided us. Forgive me, my God, for my timidity. Bring boldness, oh Lord, to live as You have required, to trust in You as I ought, to overcome as I ought, with You on my side. You have brought the victory. You have prepared the way before me. And yet, I find myself wandering weak and aimless. Open my eyes, Holy Spirit, that I may see the path laid before me, and walk it. Guide me, my Shepherd, for like a sheep, I have wandered dumbly astray.
