8First,
I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ concerning all of you, because
your faith is being proclaimed in the whole world.
“First,” he says. Paul has set down to write this letter
because he has quite a message he wants to deliver, yet, before he gets to his “good
stuff,” he thinks “first” he wants to say a few things. Isn’t it nice of him to
say to these people, “I thank God for you.” It makes me wonder if we don’t need
a lot more of that? Maybe this is just more of the “sincere greeters” I
suggested we ought to be in the last post, but I still think it needs to be
observed. How totally Christian to say to another person, “I thank God for you.”
I wonder if that doesn’t communicate something deeper and more eternal than
even just “I’m thankful for you.” That in itself would be a giant leap in the
right direction for most people, but I think Paul is showing us a very simple,
very basic Christian gesture we all ought to carefully cultivate.
It’s interesting that he says, “I thank my God.” I don’t know why he injects the “my.” I’m sure there is a
good reason. I just don’t see any real difference between simply, “I thank God,”
or “I thank my God,” or even “I thank
our God.” There may very well be some
point of wisdom in Paul’s choice which simply eludes me for now. If I live long
enough to look at this closely again in years to come, perhaps I will have
matured enough myself to say, “Well, of course…”
He’s also careful to add the “through Jesus Christ.” This is of course always true whether we
realize it or not – everything we do right is through Jesus. We pray through
Jesus. We’re enabled through His Spirit to live and think and speak. I would
guess if there was a reason why Paul particularly injects those words here, it
is because of the nature of the letter he is writing. As we saw in the first
few verses, Paul emphatically makes the point that it is all about Jesus. The
Gospel is all about Jesus. The Gospel is
Jesus.
What particularly interests me, though, is Paul’s statement
that “your faith is being proclaimed in the whole world.” First of all, it’s
interesting that that is specifically what Paul thanks God for – their faith
and its broad acclaim. There are a lot of things which might stir in us a sense
of thankfulness for other people. Is it not worth noting that one of the
greatest things to be thankful for is when we see real faith in another person?
If we are wearing our eternal eyes, is not faith the root of all other real
blessings? Is it not the one thing which, if another person possesses, we can
be assured they will be a person who will not only be blessed but also be a
blessing? They may not be rich or enjoy good health or a lot of other earthly
blessings, but if they have real faith, they will know “the peace that passes
understanding.” They will have a wonderful Father who draws them ever closer
and closer to His heart. Whether at work or at church or in the home or
wherever they go, they will be able to live in the assurance of His great love
and perfect wisdom, which will then overflow from their heart into the lives of
others. It is such a blessing to see real faith in another person. Let’s not
forget to notice it, to thank God for it, and maybe even tell them so!
But what leaves me curious is the fact that their faith is “being
proclaimed in the whole world.” I wonder what exactly is “being proclaimed?” I
mean if someone said about me, “The whole world is talking about your faith,”
what would they be talking about? What particularly is it that they would see?
Someone could mention Joni Eareckson Tada and certainly the whole world could
speak of her faith trusting God above her terrible quadriplegia –but then I don’t
have anything that dramatic to see, and I don’t think the Roman believers did
either. Maybe it was the believers staying faithful to the Lord and loving to
people and to each other in spite of their terrible persecutions. I’m thinking
in my mind though that the intense persecution hadn’t started yet. The rest of
the book certainly doesn’t give any such hints. So what is it that people saw
that was so significant “the whole world” was talking about it?
Frankly I don’t know. This may be another one of those
wisdom problems. Perhaps years from now it will be obvious to me. It just isn’t
now. I do want to say, though, wouldn’t it be nice if that is what people
talked about – our faith? I’m afraid when people talk about American churches or
American Christians today, “faith” wouldn’t be their main point of discussion.
Frankly, I’m ashamed to even suggest what they’d probably be talking about. But
then, we can’t change the rest of the world, or the rest of the church for that
matter. We need to worry about ourselves and let the Lord work on the rest of
the world. I hope the Lord will help me to truly be growing in real faith and
then, whatever it is that other people would see, I hope they see it.
And for whatever it’s worth, just because it’s been on my
mind, I wonder if for many of us, we’ll never know when someone else “saw” our
faith and it helped them. I know most of the people who have helped me all
through my life didn’t even know they were helping me. It was so often just
something someone said, or something I saw them do, that the Lord used to light
some kind of a fire in my heart or teach me some very helpful truth. So maybe
we just never do know?
I also suspect that, oftentimes, the Lord’s greatest use of
our lives is after we’re dead and gone. Stop and think about it – there is a
Paul to write the book of Romans because a man named Stephen prayed as he died.
You and I are reading the book of Romans 2,000 years after Stephen died. He
died not knowing the man holding the garments would be the Apostle Paul. He
died not knowing that that very man would write the book of Romans and you and
I would be sitting here being blessed by it now. I suspect that God often uses
all of us that way. We just have to be faithful, love Him, try to trust Him,
love people, live our lives, then lay down and die and let Him do His great
eternal work with whatever fishes and loaves we left behind.
Again, those are just “for whatever it’s worth.” I’m certainly
not getting it from the text.
But once again there is plenty of encouragement for us to
grow on.
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