Thursday, November 30, 2017

I Thessalonians 5:16 – “Be Joyful Always”



As I'm studying this verse, I ran across the following commentary from an old English minister named Benjamin Beddome, written some time in the 1700's. In this world of many sorrows, I have always found joy to be an elusive condition; yet, the Lord would call us all to "be joyful always." Of course, the path to that end leads straight to Him, but I thought Benjamin's thoughts particularly inspiring, so I've recorded them here:

Real Christians are rare; joyful ones more so.

I. The duty and privilege.
1. It must be carefully distinguished from levity or sinful mirth. “I said of laughter, it is mad,” etc. Gravity, mixed with cheerfulness, becomes the man and the Christian.
2. We are not to drown our sorrow in gratification of the senses (Proverbs 14:13), and thus obtain a temporary satisfaction.
3. This joy is not intended to render us insensible to affliction. There is a happy medium between impenitent indifference and overmuch sorrow.

II. The disposition to be cultivated in order to a high state of religious enjoyment.
1. We must guard against whatever might incapacitate us for holy satisfaction: sin especially. The wine of heavenly consolation is poured into none but clean vessels.
2. Divine interpositions in our favour should be carefully noticed. If God keeps a book of remembrance of us, so should we of Him. As He treasures up our tears, we should treasure up His mercies.
3. We must watch and pray against a spirit of murmuring and unbelief.
4. We must guard against unreasonable doubts and fears as to our spiritual state, or our tears will drown our triumphs, and our lamentations silence our songs (Psalms 46:1-2).
5. The assistance of the Holy Spirit must be implored, who is the efficient cause of joy.

III. The reasons which should render our joy permanent. Some duties are to be performed at particular times--this always. Godly sorrow, instead of being an impediment, is a preparative to joy. There are times which more especially call for joy--our conversion, the day of our espousals--the time of spiritual revival, etc. Yet there is no time in which it would be unsuitable.

1. Because its sources are unchangeable. The love, purpose, and promises of God are without variableness; the blood of Christ never loses its virtue; the efficacy of the Spirit is evermore the same.
2. Its benefits afford a powerful inducement for its continual preservation. “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” It invigorates every grace, gives a fresh impulse to every duty, lightens our troubles, sweetens our mercies, and gives glory to God.
3. It will be the work of heaven, and should, therefore, be our employment on the way to it. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

Saturday, November 25, 2017

I Thessalonians 5:15 – “Living Grace”


As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

15See [that] no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but pursue the good always into each other and into everyone.

This is a very interesting verse to me. I barely remember a time in my life when I didn’t know we believers are supposed to “return good for evil,” that “revenge” is an unchristian response, that our guiding principle is supposed to be “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:19,20 & Prov 25:21,22).

I see now however, that I have always missed the point. My whole life I have viewed the matter legalistically. For whatever it’s worth, when it comes to this, I don’t think I’m any different than practically anyone else. I think we all tend to read this legalistically. We see this as a rule we must follow. Someone does me wrong and I’d like to skewer them on a spit and slow-broil them over an open fire – but I can’t, because I’m a Christian. I’m supposed to “return good for evil.” So, while I’d really, really like to punch them in the face, I restrain myself, because, well, I just shouldn’t do that.

Certainly, if that is the best we can do, at least we can say the whole world would be a better place if everybody did. But even as I have been reading and studying this verse, I’ve realized that what Jesus has called us to is something so much greater, so much more noble than grand restraint. He is genuinely calling us to be like Him. “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats … He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree …”(I Pet 2:23,24).

But why? Why did He not retaliate?

Because He loved.

It was not because He had some “rule” to follow.

I may sound like a broken record, but what are the two great commands? Love God, love people. No matter the situation, to love is to succeed, to not love is to fail. We’re told in Eph 5:1,2: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

In the verse before us we’re told not to return evil for evil but always to pursue the good with each other and with everyone. As Eph 5 reminded us, we are “dearly loved children.” God loves us for Jesus’ sake. Our mission all day every day in this world is to do good, to love, and that, not because it’s a rule, but because we live ourselves in this wonder of grace, loved by the God of the Universe, with our hearts and lives (and eternities!) surrounded by the arms of our Savior Jesus. As we sit securely in His lap, wrapped in His great strong arms, feeling His kisses on our (very) undeserving heads, as we walk along our way amazed that I am forgiven, that I’m being carried and have been all my days, we look out at a world no different than us, except that perhaps they haven’t (yet) entered into the wonder of this beautiful relationship offered to everyone in Christ.

As long as I remember that is who I am, I don’t want to harm anyone. They did me wrong? It only reminds me how grievously I have failed Jesus my whole life, and yet He loves me anyway. I wish so much that person could know the love and forgiveness I enjoy. They’re a slave just like me. I have hurt so many people in so many ways. In fact, grace is for me my only shelter of sanity against the mountains of regret that would otherwise overwhelm me. Their “sin” against me really has nothing to do with me. I just happened to get caught in the cross-fire of their miseries and their endless attempts to somehow protect themselves and make life work. How awful it is to face life, to face pain and trouble and fears … without a God to trust. Why shouldn’t I love them and return good for their evil? When do I ever not want to “do good?”

Such is grace.

It sadly took me most of my adult life to learn to live grace, not law. Law just gives me rules to follow. Grace changes my heart so I actually want to do right. What a horrible, petty form of Christianity it is to think love is a rule I have to follow. Real Christianity knows love is a Person. It is Jesus. And when He fills my heart, the rules are not something to follow but rather a sort of markers along the way to remind me who I want to be anyway.

I suppose I need to inject here that I am not a pacifist. There is a time when love means defending your own. Jesus’ command to “turn the other cheek” was over frivolous matters like someone giving you a back-handed slap (the only way a normally right-handed person could strike you on your right cheek), or someone actually suing you to get your shirt (in which case, He says to just give them your coat and be done with it). When a soldier or a policeman (or a dad for that matter) points his gun at an enemy and pulls the trigger, it is (or should be) an expression of love – not to the person in his sights, of course, but to the people he is supposed to love and protect. There was never a greater expression of love in this world than when our young men formed that human wall that kept WW II outside the borders of our country. A whole nation of women and children and elderly people slept securely in their beds every night and never heard a single gunshot precisely because of the love of “the best generation.” I read once of a dad whose daughter screamed in the night. He charged into her room to find a naked man with a knife and duct tape standing over her. The dad threw him to the floor and held him down so tightly that, when the police arrived, they found he had actually suffocated the man to death. Does anyone question whether or not that daughter felt loved? You bet she did. Again, I am not a pacifist. I believe love includes protecting our own – just so I make that clear. Love is not whatever we want to call it. Once we decide to love, we then need to make sure we let God define what it means. The two great commands are to love God and people and the entire rest of the Bible is how to love wisely.

But back to our passage, once again, grace means living a life of love. When our Lord directs us to follow after the good with each other and with everyone, He’s just asking us to live grace.

May the grace we all enjoy so fill our hearts and minds and lives that we find this verse just a marker along the way – something to remind us of Jesus.

Monday, November 20, 2017

I Thessalonians 5:14 – “Redeemers”


As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

14But, brothers, we are urging you, be warning the unruly, be comforting the faint-hearted, be supporting the weak, be being patient toward everyone.

What a pleasant little jewel this verse is! Back in v8, Paul urged us to put on faith, hope, and love. In a sense now he’s explaining what he meant.

I fear, as Christians, we very quickly forget what a dark, ugly world it is without Christ. In Titus 3:3, Paul reminds us that “we too were once foolish, disobedient, … We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.” Yikes! “Hating and being hated.” What an awful epitaph.

Even as I type these words my soul is wanting to say it isn’t so – most people aren’t really like that! I can honestly say I don’t personally find people that way. I generally just naturally “like” people and find it pretty easy to get along with just about anyone. But then again, and particularly as a Christian myself, I realize that I generally am not provoking people either. I am very deliberately trying to avoid saying or doing anything that would trouble or discomfort or inflame someone else. And I think it is basically true that, as long as you are kind to other people, it generally draws out their better self. And that is all well and good for the world I have to live in. But, from time to time, the curtain gets drawn and we see people’s ugly side. It is there. And all you have to do is provoke it and the fangs and claws come out with a seething vengeance.

You really see it on the internet. Holy cow. All you have to do is say anything of any substance at all and people’s comments turn rapidly venomous – talk about a living illustration of the Lord’s very words: “hating and being hated.” But we have to realize that is the world those people live in.

On the other hand, I think about Christian radio. For years and years and years, if I turned on the radio, I have listened to the local Christian stations. What a different world. The music, the discussions, the conversations – everything you hear – is encouraging and positive, kind-hearted, patient, and always urging us toward exactly what Paul wished for us – faith, hope, and love. In  a sense that is our “Christian” world.

 … Which brings me back to our passage: But, brothers, we are urging you, be warning the unruly, be comforting the faint-hearted, be supporting the weak, be being patient toward everyone.” What Paul is here acknowledging is that, as you and I live our lives, we will constantly intersect with people who are something less than strong or perfect. Less than perfect? Evolution would say, “Kill them. Their weakness is contaminating the gene pool!” But what does God say? Love them.

Rather than living this “hating and being hated,” the Lord’s desire for us believers is that, as we encounter people in their faults and weakness, we would be redeemers, not murderers.

He says to “warn the unruly.” A very quick word study will reveal that “unruly” is a military word that means “out of rank.” It can describe a soldier who simply isn’t at his post. In II Thess 3:6-12, Paul identifies people who are “unruly” and they are specifically people who don’t think they need to work for a living, who are more than happy to sponge off others. Those verses are the text where Paul says, “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.” “Unruly” can certainly be applied to a lot of problems, but I suspect in this case, this is the problem Paul has in mind – people who don’t want to work.

At least for those of us who are older, modern America’s whole idea of a welfare state is offensive. We grew up in a world where Paul’s maxim was the mindset – if you want to eat, get a job. Particularly for us, Paul’s words here in I Thess 5 are applicable, that, when we see a “lazy sloucher,” our hearts should not despise them but rather, at the right time and in the right way, we should love them enough to challenge their lifestyle. I’m not entirely sure how we do that in this welfare entitled society – where it isn’t “wrong” at all. People think it is perfectly acceptable and in fact they have a right to it. Again, I don’t know how we would “warn” such a person and even hope to get a hearing – but somehow, whatever we do, it needs to be done in a genuine spirit of love and not the “hating and being hated” mentality. I would think younger people might be inclined to see no reason to “warn” at all, while those of us who are older would rather just lop off their heads. Either way, it wouldn’t be love.

He goes on to say, “Comfort the faint-hearted.” The word “comfort” means just that – to “soothe, to encourage, to cheer.” “Faint-hearted” is an interesting word that literally means “small-souled.” It could be translated with other words, like “desponding,” or “fearful.” The idea of the “small soul” it seems to me is someone who lacks the resources to face whatever they’re up against. The “lack” may only be in their mind, but still, as they face whatever it is, they feel overwhelmed and hopeless. In a real world, what you and I might see is someone we perceive to be cowardly. Perhaps it is someone who seems to be running from their responsibilities, someone collapsing right when we need them to step up to the plate. The natural response is not to somehow “comfort” such people but rather to clobber them! “Shape up or ship out, cupcake!” “If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen!”

Once again, Paul calls us out of the natural world of “hating and being hated” and urges us to love. He is calling us to care enough to try and discern why they seem to be shirking their responsibilities or collapsing in front of their problems. We should be asking ourselves, “In what way are they lacking the resources they need to face the issues?” Perhaps they really don’t “have what it takes?” If we understood, maybe there is something we ourselves could do to help them – maybe we could provide that missing resource? Or maybe they do have the resources, they just don’t realize it. Maybe they just need encouragement? Maybe they just need someone to actually literally say to them, “You can do it.” Prov 8:14 says, “A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” while 12:25 says, “An anxious spirit weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” This is a case where “life and death are in the power of the tongue” (18:21).

Once in high school cross-country I suddenly developed some kind of problem in my right ankle and couldn’t “go” like I wanted to. It was very frustrating and discouraging. He must have seen my problem and, completely to my surprise, Coach Louie Baker pulled me aside and showed me on a clipboard how my times weren’t that different than what I had been running before. It meant so much to me, just the fact that he would encourage me at that point rather than just yelling at me like all of the other coaches and teachers would have done. I will never forget the kindness in his eyes or the feeling of strength it gave me. Now looking back I can honestly see where I was a “small soul” and his words made my soul “bigger.”

Then Paul says to “support the weak.” Much like the previous command to “comfort the faint-hearted,” this is a command to observe when someone is “weak” and provide the “support” they need to bear up under it. The word “support” means just that, and is a picture of coming alongside someone who is about to collapse and holding them up, or someone who is about to be pushed over and using your body to buttress them and help them stand against whatever it is. The word “weak” means just that and can apply to a lot of things. It can be a person who is sick physically or, like in Romans 14, it can be referring to a person whose faith is “weak.” In that case, of course, “weak” faith refers to someone who has what we consider to be unnecessary scruples, rules they think are important but that someone more mature (like us) knows not to be so.

If the person in view is actually sick or infirm, it is easier to see what it means to “support” them, to “lend a hand” or offer them aid in some way. That seems easy enough. I don’t know that I’ve ever understood what it means to support the “weak” in faith when that is referring to basically people with what I see as unnecessarily legalistic scruples. I can see where I need to overcome my irritation or dislike for such people and somehow choose rather to love them – whatever that means. But, again, I don’t really know what it means. I personally feel that legalism is almost the death of faith itself. It kills any testimony we could have had in the community and I believe it eclipses the face of God in people’s hearts. So how do I “support” people who think like that when in my heart I’m thinking they are in serious need of correction? Frankly, I don’t know. I guess what I do know is that somehow I need to love them and I am quite confident that, given the situation, the Lord will help me – whatever it means.

Finally he says, “Be patient with everyone.” Can I inject here an exclamation of praise? By the Gospel, Jesus steps into a world of “hating and being hated,” calls out people to follow Him, and then says, “Be patient with everyone.” Pause a minute and savor that thought. Jesus wants to save you. He wants you to follow Him. And if you do, what will you become? “Patient with everyone.” Knowing Jesus makes us better. If husbands and wives really follow Jesus, how will it change them? They’ll stop “hating and being hated” and actually learn to be patient with each other. Moms and Dads will become patient with their children. Bosses and workers will become patient with each other. People driving down the street will stop blowing their horns and shaking their fists and actually be patient with each other.

Can you imagine? It sounds like a world of love! What is it? It is, in effect, the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. How can we praise Him enough for calling us individually out of this world of “hating and being hated” and drawing us into a life of love?

I need to add here the realization, though, that this phrase, in a sense, highlights the problem itself. We have need of patience! What I mean is that, in this verse, we can read it like a nice Christian cliché, read that we should support the weak, and then imagine ourselves “reaching out” to help some poor pathetic sick person. But that isn’t really where we need this verse. We need these commands at those times when we need patience. In other words, it is likely that the other person’s “weakness” or “faint-heartedness” in some way bothers us. In some way, whatever their problem is, we don’t like it. What we’d really like to do is either lop off their head or just ignore them and hope they go away. That is our setting. That is where we need this verse. That is where we need God’s help – to take those situations where we’d really rather just hate and be hated and instead be the one to conquer first of all ourselves and then with God’s love to do good to the very person whom we thought was bothering us. It’s in situations where we have need of patience.

As I said to begin with, what a wonderful little jewel. If we’d just take to heart this one simple little verse, what a different world it would be. The fact is, for us Christians, even with all our failings, our world is a lot more that than what others have to live in. That is all to the praise of Jesus and His glorious redeeming Gospel. We just need to resolve to live out that Gospel in a world of people who are weak and imperfect. Jesus is a Redeemer. We should be too.

Saturday, November 4, 2017

I Thessalonians 5:8-11 – “People of Hope”


As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

8but we, being of day, let us be being level-headed putting on a breastplate of faith and love and a helmet, hope of salvation 9because God did not destine us into wrath but into acquiring salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10the One who died on our behalf in order that we might live together with Him, whether we should be awake or whether we should be sleeping. 11Wherefore, be encouraging each other and be building up into the same, just as you also are doing.

Verses 8 tells us the Lord wants us to be level-headed people who live faith, hope, and love, then verses 9&10, in effect, draw back the curtain of God’s heart. And what do we see? He did not destine us into wrath. Note again how, in verses 6&7, He sees us as “children of light” and as being very different than an unbelieving world which is (toward Him) sound asleep and slobbering drunk. We are objects of grace. We know we’re rotten, but He has chosen to make us His children and “children of light,” at that. “Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God …” We of course are naturally in fact “children of wrath.” In the passage before us, the “wrath” in view specifically is the Day of the Lord. He has already warned that just when the sleeping, drunken unbelievers of this world are mumbling about “peace and safety,” that Day will come upon them very suddenly “and they shall not escape.” “But you …” He says in v4.

There are children of darkness destined for wrath, but God calls you and me “children of light.” And to what are we destined? Verse 9 answers: “Into acquiring salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Salvation. Deliverance. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain …’” (Rev 21:3,4). And this isn’t based on what we’ve done but it is “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The entire panorama of grace is an infinitely kind God offering up His own Son to purchase us undeserving, ruined sinners to redeem us out of all this darkness and “translate us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Someone pointed out that, given all of this, it is unthinkable that the same God would allow us to share in the wrath to which an unbelieving world in destined.

Dispensationalists take this as an assurance that Church-age Christians will be raptured before the seven years of the Great Tribulation. I am persuaded they are right, but whether or not anyone agrees with that particular application, we believers can rest assured our God has good plans for us. He may in fact be planning a Day of the Lord that is to others “sudden destruction,” but for us even that Day will be a day of salvation and deliverance.

Having said all of that, He circles back to the whole discussion at the end of chapter 4 about believers “sleeping” or being “alive and remaining until the Day of the Lord.” There His “sleep” was referring to death, of course, so here when He says “Whether awake or sleeping,” He means whether dead or alive. And whether awake or asleep, our destiny is to “live together with Him.” Note that, in English, those four words can simply mean that you or I will “live together with Him.” However, in the Greek, it is more likely the “together” is referring to “us.” It’s emphasizing that it will be us, that we together will live with Him. I have to say for myself, as hopeful and exciting as it may be to think I will live with Him, it is enormously encouraging and hopeful to know I won’t be alone in it, that we will all be there, together, with Him.

We are people of hope. In a very dark, frustrating, and sometimes frightening world, we are free to live lives of faith, hope, and love because we already know our destiny. And what should we do with that? Verse 11 says we should “be encouraging each other and be building up into the same, just as you also are doing.”

Because we are people of hope, we should be encouraging others and “building up.” I’m sorry to note that most people today are very negative. They can’t seem to say anything positive about anyone. They say things to each other that only discourage. And too many people are experts in tearing down. Us believers, because we are ourselves objects of grace and children of hope, ought to be resolved to be different. We should be the encouragers and the ones who build up, not tear down all the time. It starts with each other. Though we are children of grace, we certainly most days don’t feel it. We all need often to be reminded that we are people of hope. May you and I resolve that even today, we will very deliberately try to say encouraging things to other people, to be people who build up, not tear down. And why not? We are people of hope!