Blog Archives

Have you ever been in the witness protection program? Obviously, don’t answer that! This was a program created in the 1970s to protect people who would testify against dangerous criminals from harm. It is a very effective program with a 100% success rate (at least according to themselves) for those that follow the rules. The rules are quite strict. One is not allowed to make contact (except through controlled means) with prior friends or even extended family. They are to take on new identities, start new jobs, live in new places, and promise not to ever return to where they lived before. They have to lay aside everything about their previous life so their cover isn’t blown. This requires a definitive break, a cutting of all ties. Some find this easier to do than others. A large portion of the people in this program are criminals themselves (which is why they are able to testify as key witnesses to crimes!), and while they are obviously supposed to stop doing crime while in the program, between 10-20% go back to criminal ways, anyway.

Laying aside an old life is hard to do, but in the case of becoming a Christian, this is absolutely essential. No, you don’t have to change cities or jobs, but your conduct sure will. That’s what Paul is beginning to address to us today. To reorient ourselves to the context, we are being told about how to live the Christian life. This passage isn’t detailing how one becomes a Christian, but rather spells out what your life will be like once you have put your faith in Christ. We were told that Christians are made up of one body with the goal of that body to be unification and maturity. While we have many things that unite us, God doesn’t give us all the same gifts and talents. That’s what we saw last week, as God gives us different gifts but we have the same goal to become more mature in Christ.

We are continuing in that theme of looking at what our individual lives are supposed to look like. We will be examining two points today: Leave behind the futile life and Be renewed into lasting life.

Leave behind the futile life

Paul exhorts us with an introductory statement about not walking as the Gentiles do. Now, there would have been Gentiles in the congregation at that time, and this whole room is filled with Gentiles, that is, non-Jews. Should we be offended about this? Should Paul have taken a diversity and inclusion course? No, what Paul is getting at by using this term is to say, “Don’t live like people who are out of God’s covenant.” For centuries, Gentiles didn’t have the promises of God like the Jews did. And while that has changed in the New Covenant, there are still people who are outside of God’s covenant, people who are not Christians. We are not supposed to act like them. We are to cut ties with that kind of life.

So what kind of life are we to cut ourselves off from? We are not to look like and act like the world. Now, if we look around at the world, doesn’t it seem like they actually understand how to really live? Look at Hollywood and all of its citizens of questionable morals. What are their lives like? They drive around in fancy cars; they have tons of money and adoring fans. They are given free stuff just for existing! Or what about those who are sitting in the science labs of the modern age? They are populated with atheists who are doing really exciting things like launching rockets to distant planets, discovering cures for awful diseases, and understand things about the world that we couldn’t even begin to imagine. It seems like from the outside, we can point to the people who don’t believe in God and aren’t Christians yet have everything that we could want. Aspah, who wrote Psalm 73 which we read earlier, asks the same question. It seems like good things happen to bad people! But then he considers their end. That’s what Paul warns us against. It doesn’t matter how rich, smart, or famous you are, the question that matters is your soul.

So what is the soul like without God? Well, Paul tells us that it is a futile, dark, ignorant, hard-hearted, and sinful place. It’s not a pretty picture, and honestly, one that should inspire feelings of pity towards those people rather than a smug sense of superiority. Futile means empty, or vain. We see this in Romans 1:21. Imagine if you were trying to untangle a financial report, and everything was there except decimal points. You wouldn’t be able to know if there were dollars or cents at play there. You could come up with a lot of theories about what that balance sheet said, and you may even come up with some correct answers, but without something as key as a decimal point, you wouldn’t be able to get the full, real picture. That is what the whole of life is like without the knowledge of God. My old seminary professor put it this way, “The worshipful acknowledgement of the one God is foundational to all useful knowledge” (Thielman, 297). In other words, unless you know and love God as the driving force in your life, you won’t have the foundation you need to understand the world. If you don’t worship God, then marriage, kids, right, wrong, purpose, you, everything has to be made up by you. That’s the world we are seeing today. It is a place where there is no guiding principle, so everything is made up as you go. That’s what futile thinking is.

But there is more happening than just not being able to navigate life from an intellectual perspective. What we are more worried about is being able to navigate life from a moral perspective. Paul goes on to say that those who aren’t Christians are alienated from the life of God, the essence of life itself. This is due to ignorance and hardness of heart. They are unwilling to learn because their hearts are deadset against God. Then it goes on and says that they have become calloused and are greedy to pursue all kinds of impurity. These words often have sexual overtones (Thielman, 300) This doesn’t mean that every person who isn’t a Christian is as utterly depraved as they otherwise could be, but I think this is getting at the fact that there really isn’t anything in themselves to prevent sliding further and further down whatever sin they fall into. Without God, sin is the next most pleasurable thing (at least at first, there are always consequences to pay later).

This is what Paul is telling us to leave behind. He is showing us that the life that we are leaving behind is actually one of futility. We actually do need to be reminded of that. Remember what we read earlier in Psalm 73? Looking at the famous sinners in our world, it looks like they have it all. But that is a limited perspective. When we consider their end, then all the money and debauchery we could stand simply won’t help on judgment day.

Even with all of those warnings and wider perspectives, this is something that we are going to have to be continually reminded of to walk away from. There are a couple of reasons for this, I think. One is because some aspects of our old life are harder to put down than others, and we need to be reminded of what they really are and what they lead to. Another is that God doesn’t reveal to us all at once all of our sin. It would crush us if He did, so He leads us step by step to see what needs to be put off.

The one thing we never want to do is to be comfortable in our sin, because that is where things are the most dangerous. That is the condition that Paul calls here “callous.” As one commentator put it: “The original force of the word is to have no more pain or sorrow, and so can be applied here to indicate that ‘they have deadened their conscience and do not feel its stings’ (Lock; cf. 1 Tim. 4:2)” (Francis Foulkes).

These are the things that we have to put away. So what should we be doing instead?

Be renewed into lasting life.

Here Paul makes the turn in verse 20 to say that holding on to the old way of life is not what is taught Christ. You can’t follow two people at the same time when they are walking in opposite directions. You are to put off your old self. Now there is the sense in which one has already done that to follow after Jesus, Paul is talking to Christians after all, but there is a sense in which we are doing this for the rest of our lives (Merkle, 81). Pastor Reeder uses the illustration of living with someone who is oppressing you, that being sin, the Old Man. When Jesus comes into your life, He breaks the power of that sin. He breaks the back of that Old Master so he can’t control you anymore. But the old man is still in the house. He can’t force you to do anything, but he can sure yell at you. Old habits die hard, and there will be times you will jump to his call. The longer you submit to Jesus, though, the quieter that old sin master gets (Reeder, Private Group Teaching).

Instead, we follow after our new master, Jesus. He is going to be the one to renew our minds from darkness to light. Our old sinful desires lie to us. Jesus doesn’t lie to us. He is up front with us that this way isn’t easy, but He is not lying when He says that it is worth it. He isn’t lying when He says that this is the way of joy. How do we get to this point? It comes from being recreated. All of a sudden the things that you used to hate you now love and the things you used to love you now hate. That is what it means to put on the new man. That’s what it means to be recreated into what God always meant for you to be. Too many people try to “find themselves” in the mountains of Europe or in some job, but the real place to find yourself is in Christ. He is going to make you not some more instagramable person, but a person who doesn’t need that kind of validation.

We are going to see in the coming weeks what that is going to look like. Paul is going to lay out some examples of laying down the old man and picking up the new. Paul will tell us not only to not lie but to also tell the truth. Don’t just not steal, but work honestly. Work honestly not even to hoard it for yourself but to share it with others who have need. That is a radical reworking, folks! The thief is going from someone who cares about others so little he steals from them to someone who cares so much about other people he will steal from himself as it were to meet the needs of others.
I think this leaves us with a few implications.

One, we need to be intentional in both directions of this passage. What I mean is, you have to intentionally leave behind your sins specifically and be renewed into the opposite of that sin. It isn’t just not getting frustrated with your kids. Getting the old man off isn’t just doing nothing with the kids. It is treating them well. It is getting down and playing with them. Putting off the old man involves stopping your bickering between you and your spouse. But putting on the new man is having a time of devotions with them. Going from tearing down to actively building up. Can you see what a better vision this is for the Christian life than we typically give it? This renewal isn’t just stopping us from sinning, but building into us the character and nature of God. Jesus doesn’t just help us quit pornography. He doesn’t just stop us from seeing people as objects for our pleasure. He continues all the way until we direct those passions, energy, and romance into one person for the rest of our lives. This happens so much so, we dedicate all the remaining parts of our lives to that person as well. That’s beautiful!

Kids! Let me talk to you again here. Start this process of following after Jesus early. The more you get used to saying “no” to bad behavior, the easier it will be for you. And the more you say “yes” to what Jesus has for you, the easier it will be. If you can learn to be kind to your brothers and sisters now, you will be able to be kind to so many other people. Jesus loves you, and wants to see you living a good life that follows Him closely.

I believe it was Augustine that said that God gives what He commands. In other words, God tells us what to do, and then makes it happen in our lives. This should give you tremendous hope as you look to the future. The sin struggle you have today can be made less, and the righteousness that you think is impossible is made possible with God. The biggest joy is yet to come. We will never be fully rid of the old man on this side of heaven, but one day, we will be removed from this world of sin and the sin that is inside us. One day it will all be gone, and we will feast with God Himself celebrating His victory. That hope is what we are going to be picturing here in just a few minutes as we turn to the Lord’s table.

Christian, your relationship with sin can be further apart than you realized. And your experience of righteousness can be greater than you ever thought possible.

Works Cited:
Foulkes, Francis, Ephesians, Tyndale
Merkle, Benjamin, Ephesians
Thielman, Frank, Ephesians, Baker

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/hebrew-poetry
This is a great article that explains how Hebrew poetry works, which is important to know as a third of the Old Testament is written that way!

https://barbaraleeharper.com/2023/01/22/be-your-own-unique-style-of-grandparent/
What kind of Grandparent can you be to your grandkids?

https://www.challies.com/articles/we-dont-sing-for-fun/
A thought-provoking short piece about why we sing in church.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/be-still-my-soul
This is a wonderful walk-through of one of my favorite hymns.

We have all heard of the concept of regifting something. You have been given something that you either already had or doesn’t quite fit your life right now, so you turn around and give it to someone else. Sometimes regifting can be seen as a negative thing to the person who gave the gift in the first place, but in this passage, regifting is encouraged, even expected. God is good, and He has given His church gifts in the form of people who use those gifts for the equipping of the church. Here we see a vision for how the church is intended to function, and everyone gets to be a part of it! The Church is more than me, for it encompasses all of you as well. We all have a role to play here with no one just sitting around with no purpose. To that end, we are going to be looking at two points: God gives us the gifts we need and We give these gifts to each other.

God gives us the gifts we need

The earlier passage we looked at last week showed us how we are all to be united, but that doesn’t mean total uniformity. What do I mean by that? I mean that God has put us on the same team, but we are not all the same people. God has made us all different (hence the difficulty in being unified sometimes), and that is a strength. God has gifted us all differently so that we would need each other. No one is able to do church or even the Christian life alone.

So let’s see how God has set this up. Paul says that grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. One scholar points out that the word “grace” was the same word that Paul used of God gifting him for ministry (Thielman, 263). We must never forget that these gifts God gives us are indeed that, gifts. It may not always be easy to deploy these, but it is always a privilege to do so.

These gifts come from Christ, as Paul mentions in Psalm 68. Now, an eagle eyed reader of the Bible may notice something interesting. If you look at the verse that Paul is quoting from in Psalm 68:18, you’ll notice that there is a different word there. Not just a different one, the opposite one! Instead of giving gifts to men, God is portrayed as receiving gifts from men. There are a few different explanations to it, but I think the best one comes from my old seminary professor. Thielman notes that Paul is quoting and explaining this verse here (262). He goes on to say that Paul is still in line with the overall thrust of Psalm 68, so He is adapting the verse to explain what it means in its context (267-8). Namely, Christ has conquered and is generous to His people. There are other ways of looking at it, but I think that makes the most sense.

As we get into the next verse, we have yet another interpretive conundrum. Paul is talking about Jesus descending, and the controversy comes from is Jesus merely descending to the Earth, or is Jesus descending below the Earth. If you take the first approach, there is nothing more to say about it, it simply is talking about Jesus’ incarnation. If you take the second approach, you have to then ask what that means as well. I take the second. I think, again, along with my old professor and other scholars as well, that this is Jesus going below the Earth, and I think that this is referring to the underworld, the realm of the dead. As Thielman notes, the people’s culture at that time saw the realm of the dead as being in the lower parts of the Earth, so for Paul to say it this way (remember, they would be listening rather than reading this letter), it is hard to imagine the people taking it any other way.

So what was Jesus doing? Well, a lot of scholars point to 1 Peter 3:19 which references Jesus preaching to the spirits of the underworld. This wouldn’t be Jesus giving demons a second chance, but rather this is Jesus proclaiming His victory, which I think fits the overall context here of the victorious Jesus rising up from the grave, into heaven, and taking His seat as Lord over all!

So what difference does this make to your life? Well, this reminds us that we are serving a glorious and conquering King. We are not following a champion, we are following the champion of all. There is not a place in heaven, Earth, or under the Earth, that is outside of Jesus’ purview and control; He’s conquered it all. (Thielman, 272). You don’t have to fear death. Jesus can walk you through that because He has been there and back. You don’t have to fear demons, because He has risen through the heavens! Do you ever have pests or other problems that show up in your house? I do, and when you find a good repair person who does a walk-through of the house correcting all the issues that were there, you find a sense of relief, don’t you? It’s like Mom and Dad checking for monsters under the bed. There is relief there that someone powerful has gone through your world and conquered the issues. That’s what Jesus has done. He has gone through all spheres of the world and has said, “I rule here,” and He does. Nothing is outside His control. One day, He will return and deal with all of our problems in the same way that He has dealt with our spiritual issues.
More than that, though, He has given the Church gifts. What are those gifts? Well, there are a few different lists of gifts that are in the Bible (you can find them in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28-30, and 1 Peter 4:10-11), 20 spiritual gifts, in fact. As a quick definition, a spiritual gift is something that is given to you by God for the building up of the church as found in those lists. In the passage before us, Paul’s is focusing on a particular category of gifts, those of teaching. We as a whole church benefit from these, so let’s jump into them.

Paul first mentions the apostles and prophets. The apostles were those who had personal interactions with Jesus and witnessed His resurrection. These were the original guys and as sun possessed an authority that no one else has. Jesus had specifically commissioned them to bring God’s Word to us in the form that we see today in the New Testament. Now, this gift doesn’t exist anymore. No one else has the right to write additional books to the New Testament. God has spoken, and His Word is complete. In the same way, we don’t see the office of prophet anymore. The passage here is referring to New Testament prophets (Merckle, 74). These folks were able to receive direction from God, which we see a handful of times in the book of Acts. Bear in mind that this was during the time of a incomplete Bible, so it wasn’t like one could just open up the Bible to get direction. Now that we have the Bible, it is sufficient for all we need to live the life God calls us to live.

So what is the gift of evangelist? It is something of a rare word in the New Testament, but as near as we can tell, this is the gifting of someone who preaches the gospel while traveling around to lots of different places (Thielman, 274) I know someone by the name of Paul golden who does exactly this. This doesn’t mean that those of us who don’t have this specific calling to travel are excused from sharing our faith. The great commission at the end of Matthew includes everyone. If it only applied to the disciples, then the message would have gone no further than their generation.
Next we have shepherds and teachers, or pastors and teachers, if you prefer the more modern word for my role. These two terms are grouped together because oftentimes these two roles overlap. All pastors are teachers, but not all teachers are pastors, as the pastor also has more of an administrative role as well. (Merckle, 74).

We give these gifts to each other.

Now, why are these people gifts to the church? Is it because people who teach have better personalities or are more important people? Are they gifts to the church because they are the ones who do the work of the church on behalf of the rest of the people? Contrary to popular practice in this country, that is not how it is supposed to work. The text says that the four gifts listed above are supposed to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, or the work of service. My job here is to pass on the teachings of the Apostles, prophets, and evangelists to you so that you may be equipped to go out into the world. There has been a lot of debate on whether that is the right reading of this text, but I think, along with other scholars, that the context of this passage is talking about the gifts that Jesus gives to everyone, thus there is an expectation that everyone would be involved in the work of the church. My job, as one who has been given the gift of pastoring, is to show you all how you use your own unique gifts for the building up of the body. I don’t have all the gifts, and even if I did (which is impossible), I wouldn’t have them to the same degree that you all would. No one is omnicompetent, good at everything. Some of you major at serving. Others of you major in mercy. Still others major in teaching. This is one of the things I love about our session and diaconate. Each man brings something different to the table, and we need all of that. It’s like if we were building a garden. You need people to come in and build the garden boxes, put up the trellis, and install a watering system. And then you need other people who will pick out the plants, tend to the weeds, and nurture the vines up those trellis. No one is more important than the other, and both are needed. We will be coming to a time soon of officer nominations, so be thinking and praying about who might fit in those categories to help build up the church.

So what happens when the saints are equipped? The church is guarded and grows in maturity. What does this look like? Well, this looks like being united in the truth so we won’t be so easily deceived by error. It can be hard to see the importance of that sometimes. We tend to think that theologically mature people are those who read these massive, stuffy volumes written by old dead guys that has very little relevance to daily life. This is a huge, and dangerous, misunderstanding. Knowing what you believe and why is very important because what you believe controls your life. It is not what you say you believe, but what you actually believe. You will go through hardship in your life very differently if you have a strong grasp of the sovereignty of God. But if you haven’t come to a strong conviction on that, you won’t be anchored and the boat of your life will be tossed around by every passing wind. You will be subjected to the predations of other people. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that will use theology wrongly to abuse people and especially to bilk people out of money. Be grounded in what the Bible says, and you won’t be as easily dissuaded from the truth.

Finally, the church is going to grow. Maybe numerically, but more importantly the church will grow to be more like Jesus. He promises to use the people and the gifts that He has given to them, but in the end, it is always Jesus who is the one building up the truth (Merckle, 76).
So what implications does this passage give to us?

Well for one thing, none of us do anything in isolation. When each person has been given a gift (and this tells us that everyone’s got one), the expectation is that you will use it. The church will not grow in maturity as well as it could if you aren’t getting in the game. We need you. We don’t just say that to make people feel needed, we really do. God says we do, even if we both don’t realize that. Your relationship with God affects the rest of the church. When one person is striving after God, it motivates the rest of us to follow suit. Your life has an impact.

Now you may say, “Ha! I’m at the end of my life. I’m lucky to even be here today, how can I serve in this way.” By exactly doing that. Being here. Whatever you are able to do, even if that is being confined to a bed. As John Piper once said something to the effect, if you are 100 years old and confined to a bed, your challenge and display of faith is not cursing God. Remaining steadfast in your love for God when everything hurts, when no one visits, when friends have passed on long ago, yet you still cling to your Savior, that’s hugely helpful to us who are younger. That shines the way on how to live the later years well.

Others on the opposite side of the spectrum may say, “Well, I’m just a kid. How can I do something that will help grownups?” You can do that by loving God right now. Start learning as much as you can. Ask questions in Sunday School, be curious about the things of God. Start getting serious now. That motivates adults. When we see kids memorizing the Bible, we think, “Goodness, if the kids are doing that, how much more should I?” You kids can be unbelievable servants of God.

Maybe you are somewhere in the middle. You’re the one taking care of the kids. Invest in them. Equip them as you have been equipped. Don’t wait for the Sunday School teacher to do it, they are there as a needed supplement. No, you do not have time to attend every small group and church function. Martin Loyd Jones said once to a group of medical students, “You have time to study the Bible. The only one who doesn’t have the time or emotional energy to deeply study the Bible is a mother of young children.” So Moms, when you have opportunity dive into God’s Word, do it, but don’t feel bad that you’re not at every single Church function. Raise your children to love and fear the Lord, and you are doing the best work you could possibly do for the church. No one will impact your children like you will. Maybe you are retired here today. Use this beautiful ratio of wisdom, energy, and choice of schedule for the church. People do still need you.
And if you think, “Man, I don’t even know if I’ve been given a gift.” Come make an appointment with me, and we’ll figure it out together. That’s my God-given job! We’ll start by making sure that you have committed your life to Him in surrender and trust.

And if you have done that but you feel that you’ve been on the sidelines for a while, then may I, along with JC Ryle, encourage you not to linger there like Lot did at Sodom. Staying immature benefits no one around you. Strive for the holiness and maturity that is yours already in Christ.

Works Cited
Thielman, Frank, Ephesians
Merckle, Benjamin, Ephesians

Image by Yvette Fang

Hospitality
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/hospitality
Hospitality isn’t entertaining. It is something far more profound.

The Cure for the Lack of Fruit in Our Christian Lives
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/cure-lack-fruit-our-christian-lives
Do you struggle with assurance? Does it seem that no matter what you do, you never “feel” saved? Perhaps you are taking the wrong approach.

The Cure to Polarization and Outrage: Humility
https://overcast.fm/+RR83DeZnE
This is a wonderful Episode of the Crossway podcast (which you should probably subscribe to, if you haven’t already). This is Gavin Outland explaining the cure to our polarization and outrage culture: humility!

Ten Practice to Kill Pride
https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-practices-to-kill-pride/
This is the fantastic article that I referenced on Sunday. You can also listen to it at the link so you can follow along.

1 Comment

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

1/15/2023

0 Comments

It has often been asked in a sigh of exasperation, “Why can’t we all just get along?” Without Jesus, this really is a difficult question to answer. After all, we are on the same planet, made of the same stuff, and experience a lot of the same problems, and have similar plans for the future, so why IS it so hard to get along? The answer of course is that we are sinners. We don’t get along because we are opposed to unity. We like to look out for our own interests, or the interests of our own tribe, if we are in a more collectivist culture. For those that we do tend to align with, we do so because of something larger that unites us, but as the last few years have demonstrated, even people that were close have split apart over politics, pandemic responses, or just the rough and tumble of life.
I’m starting here because unity is unnatural. Unity just doesn’t happen. Something or someone has to pull people together and that unity has to be maintained. The same is true in the church. There is a reason that Paul in this fourth chapter of Ephesians begins here. In order to have unity, you need other character traits that don’t come up naturally either. So if you have unity with your fellow church members and the character traits to maintain that, then you are well on your way to walking worthily.
This chapter begins the second half of the letter. The first half has given us the doctrinal foundation for the Christian life, and here the second half gives us a photograph of the Christian life. This life is different, people, weird even! People should look at us and say, “I wouldn’t have put those two together to be friends.” But then, once they’ve heard what unites us, then they should be able to say, “Oh, of course, that is why they are so tightly united.” We are going to explore what that looks like as we examine our two points today out of this chapter. A new walk united with others doesn’t come naturally and Unity can only be found in God.

A new walk united with others doesn’t come naturally

The rest of the book of Ephesians is going to have a different tone than what we have seen thus far. The whole book of Epheisans has forty commands in it. The first half of this letter had all of one command. The other thirty-nine appear in this second half (Merkle, 68)! Here, we see the first one: walk worthy. We have been told some pretty incredible things in the first half of this letter. We were told that we were dead sinners have been raised to new life and adoption by the King of the universe. Now we are told to live like it! Jerry Bridges, in his book The Pursuit of Holiness uses this illustration: In the military, when an officer is disciplined for wrongdoing, part of the language they use to describe his actions is “activity unbecoming of an officer.” That officer is not acting in accord with his rank. When we sin, we do things that are unbecoming of a Christian. It is something that happens in our Christian lives, and Paul is here to urge us to walk in a way that is worthy of the call we have been given. As one commentator put it, “conduct always follows calling. It is only after the experience of new life or regeneration that God’s people are able to follow his commands faithfully and worthily” (Merkle, 68).

So how do we walk worthily? Is it through difficult physical challenges like other religions? Do we need to go without food for weeks at a time, or crawl over a bed of red hot coals? No, what we are called to do is even harder. We are to have all humility and gentleness.

Let’s take a look at humility. Humility was not considered a virtue in the ancient world. In fact, the Greek word for it didn’t exist until the New Testament times (Honeher, 506). It is a virtue, but it is often misunderstood. It isn’t thinking that you are the scum of the Earth. It is more profound than that. One commentator put it this way:

"The demand to humble oneself like the child that was placed among the disciples [Matthew 18:1-5] does not mean that one should make oneself lower than one actually us. Rather, one should know, like the child, how lowly one really is. Humility is to know how lowly we are before God. Such humility and lowliness bring joy and bliss, for they permit one to share in the royal rule of heaven" (Verbrugge, 556, emphasis added).

Do you see the difference? The false humility that just beats on oneself is still focused on oneself! A godly humility has caught a vision of how great God is. This leads to the recognition of how lowly we are in comparison, but we are so thrilled with God that we don’t really notice ourselves at all! We have heard that a Being that grand has called us to Himself, so there really isn’t any room for self-exaltation.

Gavin Outland had a wonderful podcast talking about humility. He described two kinds of humility. One was the kind that you feel walking into a grand throne room and coming face to face with the king. The other is when that king steps down from the throne to cook your breakfast. Both are humbling but in different ways, and we get to experience both of these with our Lord and King Jesus (Ortland).

So how does this work out practically? You stop looking at life as you being the main character and everyone else as extras. You aren’t the director, and you aren’t the star of this movie. Jesus is. This means anything that you think you are entitled to, you aren’t. People will think that they are entitled to life following their preferences, they aren’t. People will think they are entitled to sexual experiences, so they will watch porn or go outside of marriage to seek their satisfaction. People will think they are entitled to ease, so they won’t serve. Humility changes all of that. Humility looks at God, looks at oneself and says, “Whatever you would have me do, Lord.” Y’all, humility is freedom. Freedom from yourself. You actually drive a pretty hard bargain. The things we naturally pursue require an awful lot of work that ultimately comes to nothing. God calls you to difficult service, no doubt, but it is always, always worth it!

Humility goes hand in hand with gentleness. Aristotle described gentleness as being “between ‘excessive anger against everyone and on all occasions’ and ‘never being angry with anything’” (Hoehner, 506). In other words, gentleness is using just enough force as is necessary. When you need to put a contact lens in your eye, you don’t jam it in there, nor do you do nothing. You use just the right amount of force to get it into your eye but no more. Gentleness in interpersonal relations works the same way. If you want to communicate something, especially something hard, you need to use some force, but there is a line when it becomes excessive. It’s difficult to reign in. Gentleness is another one of those character qualities that doesn’t come up naturally. Yes, some are more hesitant to get into conflict but don’t confuse self-preservation with gentleness. Gentleness is using just enough force when you feel like using all your force. Or as my old seminary professor put it: [Humility and Gentleness] together, then, refer to an attitude that both recognizes one’s true position before God (a suppliant in need of his help) and is willing to be kind and gracious to others even when circumstance might excuse one from showing these qualities…” (Thielman, 254).

Now, if we were trying to ask hard questions around here, we would look at the story of Jesus flipping over tables in the temple. Does flipping over tables, making a whip, and driving people out of the temple really considered an example of gentleness? Remember, gentleness is only using the force that is necessary, and in this example, Jesus, with perfect insight into the situation, saw that this was the needed force. Sometimes that level of force is required. Jesus was also God and could have been justified in killing them for desecrating the temple, so honestly, this was a gentle response. Sometimes we have to make our points strongly. When the kid tries to put a butterknife in the outlet, you’re gonna raise your voice! You do what you need to do, but when that level of response isn’t required, that is where gentleness gets hard.

Patience is next! Patience is one of those things we are warned not to pray for. If you pray for more patience, God will give it to you in the form of more ways to grow in patience. That means waiting! I think of patience as being on God’s road going God’s speed limit. When you try to rush things, the road paradoxically gets longer.

Being humble and gentle for a moment is one thing, but doing so over a long period of time is where the real challenge comes in. This is all part of the command to bear up with one another. Looking up the word “bear up” does accurately translate to our modern “put up with” or “tolerate.” But Paul adds that we are doing this “in love.” This means our humble, gentle, patient bearing up with one another is not done through gritted teeth, but is done with a loving smile. In this way, it is similar to being a total caregiver for a family member. Is it easy? No it isn’t. But do we do it because we love the person, and it is that love that keeps us going, a love planted by God.

It is important to say that bearing up with one another does not mean that we turn a blind eye to sin that needs to be dealt with. That’s not loving. Letting someone poison themselves when you can do something about isn’t loving. We don’t need to become sin detectives looking around trying to find mistakes. Honestly, there will be plenty that will come right up at ya for you to deal with without having to hunt them down yourself. Instead, we confront sin when we need to, and then patiently work with each other as God grows them.

None of this is possible without being changed by Jesus. We can’t do this long term without being converted.

All of this is done in the service of eagerly maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. What this means is we are simply keeping up what the Holy Spirit has already brought to us: unity. To borrow again from Thielman: “[P]eace is the ‘fastener’ that preserves the church’s unity. It must be energetically worked out in practical ways, such as lovingly putting up with each other’s foibles, being polite and gentle under provocation, and being humble” (Thielman, 255). If there is no peace in the church because people aren’t being humble, gentle or patient, we won’t have unity.
Unity is important because that is what God is building. As we saw in chapter 1, all things are being summed up in Christ. Ultimately, everything is going to be unified one day, and we as the church are to model that. This is unity for unity’s sake or unity to put a good face to the community, this is unity because that is what God creates.That’s what humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing up, all gifts from the Spirit, create. And if it isn’t being created, then we have to wonder if God is with us. We have to wonder if we are really united because of Christ.

Unity can only be found in God.
We will go over this section quickly with the main point that the basis of our unity is in the Trinity (Hoehner, 513). The Spirit, Son, and Father and all of their works are what provides us a basis of unity. We have the same Lord, the same Savior, the same indwelling Spirit, and the same Father who is in control of all who will bring us to the same hope in the end! Can we not be united with all of that being true?

So what is our takeaway from this passage? One, this sort of unity begins at home. This passage is about a united church, and if your family is Christian as well, they are part of that church, too. If they aren’t Christian, then they need to be brought into the church so you can be even more united with them. And if they are in the church, then we really have no excuse. We aren’t supposed to get proud, harsh, and rushed with our kids, our siblings, our parents, or our spouses. We are called to be humble, gentle, patient, and bearing up with them, too. Not just when it is easy to do so. It’s very easy for me to be humble and gentle with the kids when we are sweetly cuddled up with a book. It’s a lot harder when they are fighting, but that’s exactly when it counts. One practical way to see where your humility is is do you listen well when people speak to you (Ortland).

Two, this extends to our behavior online. Zingy one-liners and punchy memes often don’t carry with them the character of humble, gentle, patient, and bearing up. Even if they are your political enemies, Paul doesn’t seem to have an exception for these qualities. Can we speak against evil rulers? Yes, and we should, but only with the force necessary. Being humble, gentle, and patient means being precise and careful with our words, something that the internet seems absolutely not made for. Your Christian walk should go into cyberspace with you.

Third, and finally, always remember Who unites you, not what. I remember a rebuke I received in seminary. I was speaking with another colleague about an upcoming assignment that was difficult and required lots of work. I was trying to encourage him by saying, without thinking too much about my words, “Well, the faith is worth it.” The professor, Dr. Park, looked at me with a stern face and said, “HE is worth it.” I didn’t quite grasp the full significance of that response in that moment, but as time went on, I think I do understand now, and it is likely one of the most important things I learned there. What Dr. Park was warning me against was even lightly thinking that I was working just a job. She didn’t want me equating, even by implication that working for the church was like working for any other faceless institution like Southern Company. I am here, you are here, because of Jesus and His work. Jesus is who unifies us, Jesus is the one we worship, Jesus is the reason why we get up each day. It isn’t just some religion. It isn’t just another club. This gathering here is in response to the person who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead! That’s why we are here. That’s why this is worth it. It’s because of Him. If we forget that then we will just look around and say, “Is Mark worth it?” No, I’m not. I am not worth the trouble, but Jesus is. You don’t put up with me because of me, you put up with me because of Jesus. You call me out on my sin not because of me, you do that because of Jesus. Jesus has called us to be united together with Him at the center. God’s glory is the goal of our unity, not approval of the world. So if you have it out for someone, forgive them. Not for their sake or even for yours. For the sake of Christ. Is there a sin that you have observed that needs correcting? Boldly, yet gently go in Jesus’ name.

A day is coming where we will all be perfectly unified. There will be nothing to be patient with or anything to bear up. But until that day comes, let’s enjoy a taste of it right here, today.

Works Cited
Hoehner, Harold, Ephesians
Ortland, Gavin, Crossway Podcast, “The Cure to Our Polarization and Outrage: Humility”
Ortland, Gavin, Crossway Podcast, “10 Practices to Kill Pride”
Merckle, Benjamin, Epheisains, ESV Expository Commentary
Thielman, Frank, Ephesians
Verbrugge, Verlyn, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology: Abridged Edition.

Image Credit: Image by Darby Browning

0 Comments

Blog Buffet

1/10/2023

1 Comment

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-curse-under-our-breath If you read any article today, read this one.

https://www.challies.com/vlog/the-difference-between-lament-and-grumbling/ What is the difference between lament and complaining? One is allowed and the other is not!

https://medium.com/@kennykuykendall/what-you-probably-dont-know-about-your-pastor-when-he-preaches-b8475add8537 Want a behind the scenes look at preaching?

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/say-full-story/ What do you say when you don’t have the full story? While I can’t recommend every article on this website, this is a very helpful article giving some practical things to say when you don’t know what to say.

1 Comment

Strengthened to See

1/9/2023

0 Comments

Have you peaked in your life? It’s a question that we tend to not want to confront in our lives. We don’t want to think of the best days of our lives being behind us or think that everything else that we will do won’t quite measure up to what we have already done. This is something that I think everyone from artists to athletes to academics worry about to some level. The harsh reality is that if we haven’t done so in this life already, at some point, we will, and we likely won’t know it, or at least know it for sure, until sometime after.

But before we all have a crisis about that, let me ask you a better question, a more important question, have you peaked in your Christian life? What this brilliant passage tells us is no we haven’t. There is still progress to make, and wonderfully there is still wonder to behold.

We are returning to our series in Ephesians, so it is worthwhile to have a review after so many weeks away.. Paul is writing a letter to the believers in Ephesus. He started out by describing the immense grace of God in predestining, electing, and sealing us for salvation. He has given to us a beautiful inheritance to look forward to as we await God’s plan to fully unfold. What is that plan? Why, it is nothing less than the summing up of the entire world in Christ Jesus. And the fact that God chooses to have us as part of that plan is amazing, especially when we get to chapter two and find out that when God found us we were dead in sin, totally insensitive to the things of God. Not only that, but we were in lockstep with the rest of the world, following Satan himself. But thanks exclusively to the grace of God, we have been saved from the wrath of God that was so richly deserved. As we get to chapter 3, we find out that Jews and Gentiles, formerly outside of God’s covenant with the Jews, have been brought in. Together, we are being made into a place where God dwells, a new temple where the world can go, “What an amazing God!” To bring this gospel has cost Paul a lot, but he is going to pray for the church that they would know something. He interrupted himself at the beginning of chapter 3, and now, as we come to our passage today, he picks it back up. How is Paul going to be praying for us, and how is this going to be the perfect wrap up of the first three chapters and be the perfect setup for the next three chapters? Let’s find out! Our points today are: Your spiritual life can be stronger and You can know God’s love deeper.

Your spiritual life can be stronger

Paul begins His prayer to the Father from whom all the families on earth and heaven are named. One of my old professors thinks that what this is referring to is people on earth and the spirits in heaven. They are named by Him which gives a sense of ownership and control (Thielman, 227-228). Paul is not hoping, wishing, or dreaming; he is praying to the One who does great things.

So what does Paul pray for? In what follows, we have a series of statements that build on one another (Thielman, 238). He is praying that the Church will be strengthened by the Spirit in our inner person. He is asking that we will be empowered. This power isn’t focused physically, but spiritually. But why?

Paul continues in verse 17, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” We need to do a little talking about this verse. Paul can’t be talking about Christ entering into the hearts of the people there in a salvation sense. Why? Because Paul is already talking to believers! (Hoener, 481). These are folks who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, so he can’t be talking about folks who are already converted to Christ telling them to be converted. As an side note, this is why it is important to remember the context of a passage of Scripture. The original audience is key to understanding what is meant.

So, then, what does it mean for Christ to dwell in our hearts in this passage? The word used here for “dwell” has a stronger meaning than just living somewhere (O’Brien, 259) with one scholar saying that it “connotes a settled dwelling” (Hoener, 480). When Christ dwells in a heart, He transforms it, and the longer He stays, the more gets changed. The way that I think of it is like when you move into a house. If you are traveling for work and need to live out of a hotel room for a couple weeks, you don’t bring your own furniture or pictures. You leave the hotel room as it is because you won’t stay long. However, when you move into a house that you bought and plan to stay in for a while, you don’t leave it how it was. You repaint the walls, put up your own pictures, change out some fixtures or even knock out a wall! You transform the place to better reflect your own tastes.

This is what Jesus does when He “settles.” This is what Paul is praying for when he asks for the Spirit to strengthen us so that Jesus may settle. As soon as we are converted, Jesus dwells in our hearts and starts changing things to suit Himself. Some things Jesus deals with very quickly, and other things are long term projects, but rest assured He will deal with them. What’s great is that He involves you in the project! And He’s got more for you to do than just hold the flashlight! He invites you to work with Him using the means of grace. These would include coming to church, reflecting on God’s Word, spending time with Him in prayer. You haven’t peaked! No matter how long you’ve been with Jesus there is more strengthening to be had!
But why should you seek more? I mean, we know that reason enough would be the fact that God told us to,but would you like some motivation? Now we get to the meat here of this passage and our second point:
You can know God’s love deeper.

Paul next says that we are rooted and grounded in love. Paul is using an agricultural and architectural metaphor. We have our root and foundation in love. Whose love? God’s. This is something that we have rightly said so much but wrongly reflected on so little. You find all of your support in the fact that God loves you so much. And the crazy thing is you barely understand that. Paul is going to go on and say that we need to be strengthened so that we can understand that.

Does that surprise you? No matter what you know about God’s love, there is more to know. I don’t just mean facts to know about God’s love, I mean knowing in an experiential way, grasping God’s love for you. It’s something that you need to be strengthened for. You wouldn’t just leave here and go run a marathon without training, and in the same way, you can’t leave here fully grasping God’s love for you. This is something that you need to pray for strength to understand, appropriate the means of grace to understand, and there will always be more for you to comprehend.
Knowing that God loves you is one of the most life-changing things that you will ever grasp. Let’s see what that will change when you have a firm grasp of the love of God.

Let’s begin with trials, the hard things in life. You will trust God to the level that you grasp His love for you. If you have a hard time trusting God, it isn’t because God doesn’t love you, it is because you don’t realize how much He does love you. When your health isn’t good, when a relative of yours dies, it is tempting to say, “God must not love me. Look how much suffering He is putting me through!” If you have ever seen an intense strength coach working with a player, you’ll see him making the athlete pick up these super heavy weights, screaming right into their face! If you weren’t aware of the context, you’d think the coach hated the player. But because you know what the coach is doing, you’ll see that the yelling is passion, the yelling is trying to motivate the athlete to use more of their potential to better themselves. If you are the athlete, and you assume the coach hates you, your experience of that training is going to be very different. It is similar with God. When God takes us through something hard, all we can hear is divine shouting. But what these trials are doing for us, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17 (1147) that our afflictions are producing an eternal weight of glory! There is something wonderful that God is doing with our trials, and they are hard enough without also believing the lie that God hates us. This is why Paul wants us to be strengthened so that we will be able to grasp such love.

God’s love also changes how easily you fall into sin. Try this the next time you are tempted to sin. Take a moment, step back and think about the fact that God actually loves you more than you can literally comprehend. Spend time thinking about the cross, think about the blessings in your life, your life itself, and remember that you were not owed any of those things. In fact, you deserved to be denied all of those things. How can you sin against such love?

Knowing God’s love will also change how you approach the things that you know you need to do! Doing things out of duty is a fine motivation, and sometimes that’s necessary, but oh, how much sweeter your devotion time will be knowing that what you are reading is written by a God who loves you, not just what you do for Him, but just you! Praying is conversation with a God who loves you perfectly.

This love that God has for you is one that wants the best for you. He doesn’t tell us to do things that are hard because He gets a kick out of seeing us struggle to do them. He calls us to the things that He does because He is doing something great for us. I’ll grant you that some situations are harder to see that than others, but I can be sure because I have see God’s love that He will do something good.

Having this attitude will lead us to the fullness of God. What Paul is referring to here is full maturity, arriving at the potential God has for us (Thielman, 238)!

After this, Paul then goes on to praise God in a final doxology to close out the first half of the letter. Paul lifts up his glass so to speak to praise God for being able to do far more than we can ask or think. Now, you may say, “I don’t know, I can imagine quite a bit.” I guarantee you can’t. Sure we can think of stuff to ask God for, but would you think to ask God to give you an honored place in heaven based on what Jesus did? Would you think of asking God to give you a heart that can love someone who hurt you badly? Would you think of asking God to forgive all of your sin? It’s hard to come up with other examples because that’s what I can think of, and Paul is saying that God can do more than even that! Paul then closes with a call to give glory to God in all times forever and ever, amen!

Thus closes the theology section of Ephesians. We’ve learned a lot, but what does this mean for you to be loved by God?

Well, if you are single and earnestly desire to love and be loved by someone, this is a good desire. God created us to love and be loved, but even when you do find that special someone, this will not replace your need for God’s love, and He will always provide it. Expecting your spouse to be the one to fulfill your need of divine love is a burden that will crush them! Learn to lean into this love now, because you will always have a need for it and gloriously will always have a source for it.

If you are loved by God you are never alone. Kids, this is a good one for you to remember. Jesus lives in your heart. You are neve alone in the dark. Jesus is always with you and is always watching you. Adults, this is true for you as well. Our fears may be more sophisticated than monsters in the closet, but we fear that feeling of being alone.

If all this sounds mysterious and vague, it’s because it is hard to put into words this magnificent truth that God loves you. So pursue knowing it. Dive headlong into God’s word and prayer and just behold what you will find there. Will you ever fully grasp it? No, just like you can’t eat an entire birthday cake by yourself. But that shouldn’t stop you from taking a slice or three. This is something that you can indulge on! Pray that God would show you more of His love, seek down into its depths and you will find more! Rise up to its heights and you will find more. Run to its left, run to its right, and you will never reach the end! So keep going, you will never know what you have been missing until you find it.

And when you do, share it. Don’t keep it to yourself. See how much God loves you, and then let that pour out of yourself and on to those around you.

Works cited:
Ephesians, Frank Thielman

Ephesians, Harold Hoener

Ephesians, Peter O'Brien

0 Comments

Charcuterie Board

1/4/2023

0 Comments

Hope you are having a great day on this lovely Wednesday! Today on the blog, I am sharing with you some things that I have come across on the internet that I have found helpful. You can pick one, or all, or none, that's the beauty of charcuterie!

Sin is Never Inevitable
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/sin-is-never-inevitable
The struggle against sin is something we should all be fighting for, but do you know how to do it?

Dangers of Self Revolution
https://danielmartynharris.blogspot.com/2023/01/dangers-of-self-revolution.html
What if you got everything you wanted this year? Would it actually be better for your soul?

Was the Pope a Catholic?
https://stephenmcalpine.com/was-the-pope-a-catholic/
As the world reckons with the death of Pope Benedict, here is a timely reminder of what separates us from Roman Catholics—the gospel of mercy, not leniency.

0 Comments

Mist Opportunities

1/3/2023

0 Comments

Ah, the start of a brand new year. A brand new calendar gives us the opportunity to think about how we are going to live this year differently than last. It is tempting to sit in front of our calendars, our bank books, and perhaps even our bathroom scales and tell ourselves that this year we are going to do this and that with all the confidence in the world. I know I fall prey to this year after year. In the week between Christmas and New Years, I find myself cruising through articles on productivity and schedules that will make me more organized, articles of questions to ask myself, with varying degrees of realistic attainability. I remember one article in particular had several Bible reading plans including one that took you through the entire Bible in a single month! Day one you read Genesis, the whole book, next, Exodus, the whole book. On average, such a plan would have you reading the Bible for 3 continuous hours. Now, I’m not sure what reading the Bible through in a month does for someone, but I was ready to find out! My wife looked at me and said, in the most loving way, “The internet is a dangerous place for you this time of year.” Yes, our optimism stands against countless years of opposing testimony to us, but that negative thinking isn’t going to stop us now! Or maybe you’ve reached a point in your life where you are quite satisfied with how life is going. The calendar, bank book, and more or less the scale are quite fine, thank you, and we are planning to do this that and the other thing because that is how life has always shaken out. We’ve come up with our system, our routine, and it works quite well. No need to plan anything differently.

Maybe a new year doesn’t bring either of these positive approaches. Perhaps you are looking at this year with a certain amount of dread. The same projects that have sat unfinished at the house appear to continue to look like they will be unfinished. The problems in your marriage will continue to be the problems in your marriage, the wayward kids will still be the wayward kids. Life has always been problem after problem, so you can count on that being the case this year, too.

No matter which approach is yours, they are all missing something: an acknowledgement that God runs the world, not you, and not even your previous circumstances. That is what the passage before us is trying to tell us. Contrary to the poem, we are not the masters of our fates nor the commanders of our destiny. We are utterly, totally dependent on God, and to act, or speak, otherwise is to commit a soul-decaying sin. As I will emphasize, this passage does not forbid planning. By all means, read the productivity blogs, reflect and strategize for the coming year, but before you do so, take a moment to get your soul in a place of humility and dependance. We are going to look at two points today: Be confident in God, not yourself, for this year’s plans and Pursue God’s will with the time you have.

Be confident in God, not yourself, for this year’s plans

What we have before us in this passage is a very familiar scene. The board room is packed, the plans are being laid, and the confidence is high! One commentator points out that these merchants presume the following elements are under their control: Time “today or tomorrow,” Location “such and such a town,” duration of their business “spend a year there” Labor and profits “make a profit.” (Scot McKnight, 370). Well, if one could control these elements, then confidence would be quite warranted, wouldn’t it? Business would be easy if one could control all of these things.

Now, when it is said like that, the absurdity of what they are saying comes forward. They don’t control these essential elements of life, and neither do we. That never seems to dim our confidence, though, doesn’t it? We forge ahead with plans as confident as if we did control those things. And if you are saying here, “Well, I don’t struggle with overconfidence; in fact, I struggle with constant worry about how out of control this is!” Speaking as someone who worries a lot, I actually only worry about the stuff I feel like I do have some degree of control over. If I literally can do nothing about it, then why worry? The only reason I worry is because I think that maybe there is something I can do about it, or there at least was something I could do about it, so now I’m punishing myself with regret. It’s the same pride of overconfidence just without any of the positive feelings.

At any rate, it is at this point that James makes the move to the next verse where he hits us with some cold reality: you don’t even know what tomorrow will bring. What is possible to happen in a day? I remember when I got my first ministry job in Brewton, Alabama. I was in a hurry to get to the church early (wanted to make a good first impression on the job, right?). I forgot that the street that I was on didn’t have a stop sign for the oncoming traffic, I pull out and *wham* my first (and hopefully only) car accident. Totaled my car, left some minor hood damage on the suv that hit me. A lot can change in a day. Not a great start. I had to drive around the church youth van until I could find a new ride. Humbling is the word. Now, in the grand scheme of things, that’s a minor example. No one got hurt, no one was sued, but that day taught me that I was not in control of all things. The saddest part about it, was I hadn’t even gotten off the street I was living on! I couldn’t even drive a hundred feet in my new city without an accident!

It turns out that not only is tomorrow out of control and unknown, but so is the rest of our life. It can change—or even completely disappear—in a moment. We are like mist: here this morning and gone by early afternoon. Mist isn’t permanent or definite which makes it a perfect analogy for the transience of life, and how impermanent it is. This isn’t something that we like to think about. There is terror in the idea that life doesn’t last forever, and the world of the spiritual is unknown to us and therefore scary.

So with all of this here, does this mean that we shouldn’t plan? It is actually a question worth wrestling with. After all, we don’t actually control the elements necessary to make confident plans. In fact, as one commentator put it: “...we should not take even living for granted because our very lives depend on God’s grace for their continuance” (Blomberg and Kamell, 209). Nevertheless, James isn’t saying we shouldn’t plan. As the very next verse tells us, we ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will do this, that, and the other thing.” James still has us planning at the end of that phrase but the attitude that we bring to that planning is what is different, and it is miles different than what was said at the beginning.

This phrase, “if the Lord wills” isn’t something that we just tack on to the beginning or end of a sentence, but if we actually make that a part of our thinking, it is amazing the difference it makes to our plans. This is something that has been working on my heart in the last couple weeks. I like to plan things, but the problem is that I am very bad at knowing how long something is actually going to take, and I am usually overly positive about how often I will need to work on something in order for it to work. As many of you know, I’ve been doing a lot of work in my crawlspace under my house. Every time I’ll tell Abby, “Ok, I should only need to do this that and the other thing, and this should be all done! I’ll only be twenty minutes or so.” And it would never be that. I would usually come up from the place dirty, tired, and discouraged. But when I encountered this passage, I started saying, “Well, if the Lord wills, I’ll do this, that, and the other thing.” Then going down there and seeing if what I did worked or not became a humble approach to see if God let it work or if He wanted to teach me a little more. Now with this new attitude, whether or not something worked wasn’t all dependent on me. I didn’t get credit or blame. I did my best, and I would see if the Lord would make it happen or not. Everything was in His hands. It gave me a chance to submit and a chance to rest in the good hands of God. That is what this attitude brings to us.

To do otherwise is a great deal of arrogance. And that is what James is getting after here in verse 16. Arrogance is more than just an ugly and unattractive character quality, it is actually evil. God is actually rather disgusted by pride. Earlier in chapter 4:6, it says that God opposes the proud. Why is that? Pride lies. Pride always lies. Pride always lies because Pride says you don’t need God. This is true when we attempt new things, and it is bad when we do things a million times and think that we can do it on our own (for a great example of this, see this great Desiring God article). Every time we start the day without prayer our pride is lying to us. God in His mercy works despite our prayers, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t a sin. Starting out the day by saying, “God, I have lived for many years now. I’ve gone to this job, raised these kids, taught this class, preached in this pulpit a good number of times. I still need you to help me do it again this time.” John Piper used to pray every day going into work as he would cross over a particular bridge, “Lord, help me to be faithful one more time.” I love that approach. We aren’t praying one time for a lifelong ministry of faithfulness, but we are praying for it everyday not only because we need it everyday but because we need to be reminded that we need it everyday. Perhaps this is why Jesus has in His model prayer has us praying for our daily bread. We are to regularly bring our most basic needs to God. Wal-Mart and Publix have not replaced God in providing for our food needs. The 2020 year showed us how tenuous all that can be.

Pursue God’s will with the time you have.
The final verse tells us that if we know the right thing to do, and then don’t do it, it’s a sin. In context here, this is referring to the fact about not boasting. James has told us this very plainly, so for us to continue to be arrogant in our planning can only be sin. However, this is something that can be applied in a lot of different spheres of life as well (Blomberg and Kamell, 210).

So how do we live in light of this verse? Well, that is answered here in my second point, pursue God’s will with the time you have. This phrase, “if the Lord wills” is also helpful in the way it directs our thoughts about our plans themselves. It is one thing to be reminded that we need God to make sure that our plans work out, but it is another thing to be reminded that those plans need to line up with God’s will. If you notice that all of your financial planning always comes down to saying, “Well, if the Lord wills, I’ll be able to get that boat, that lake house, and that vacation,” without a thought about the poor, the needy, and the lost, then this should point to an area that needs improvement. By telling ourselves constantly that all of our plans are up to God, we might start asking what plans might God have for our lives.

God’s will is actually not all that hard to discover. Most of the time, it is right there in God’s Word what to do. It involves prayer, a close study of the Scriptures, a sharing of your faith, and a love for God. If you are stuck between a choice for two good jobs, which of the two will allow you to do all of the above the easiest. And if either one will suit those purposes, well, then which one do you like the best? Make a choice, and boom God’s will is revealed. Even if it turns out that the decision, in hindsight, didn’t have all the facts and you made a decision you wouldn’t have made again. It was still God’s will. How do I know? Because it happened. God will teach you something through it and deliver you to greater usefulness for Himself. So wherever you find yourself, just do the next right thing. If the future isn’t clear, then stay obedient in the present.

And as you are doing this, we keep in mind that we don’t have forever. God has given us enough time to do the work He has for us, but we don’t want to waste it. Don’t fritter time away with useless pursuits. We are only here for a short while. This doesn’t mean we never rest (see the fourth commandment) or we never watch a baseball game, but it does mean that we don’t make those things our ultimate aim. We have been given something larger, much larger to be aiming for. We have the opportunity to love and be loved by God and to submit ourselves to Him.

I think this passage as a whole helps us keep this balance. “Don’t boast about tomorrow” = don’t be full of yourself as to what you can do. This will keep our overachiever in check by reminding ourselves of our dependency on God and His ways. But at the same time “the one who doesn’t do what he knows is right is sinning” keeps us from being lackadaisical. In context, this verse is telling us that if we know we aren’t supposed to boast but do anyway, it is sin. But this I think can be applied much more broadly. Don’t boast about tomorrow; keep at it today, because our lives are vapors.

Of course, the first command that God gives to us is to submit to Jesus. If you have been going back and forth about surrendering your life to Christ, this is the time to do it. Count the cost and make that commitment. If you have surrendered, well, most of your life to Christ, then consider what you are holding back and ask yourself, “Is this worth sacrificing a relationship with Jesus for?” And if you are saying, “Yes, I am following after Christ, but I am just overwhelmed with all the things I need to improve on in my life.” Remember that this is a long-term process. Keep the enthusiasm to follow Jesus, but lose the angst as if it is all on you.

All of us would do well to remember the words of Jesus in Luke 10:41 to Martha, the lady all frazzled with all she had to do: “you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.” That one thing is commitment to Jesus by being His disciple. That’s what really matters this year. Will you submit to depend on Him?

Commentaries Cited: James, Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan.

Image by Couleur

0 Comments

From the Pastor's Study

Be Renewed

Blog Bouillon

Regifting God's Good Gifts

Blog Banquet

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Blog Buffet

Strengthened to See

Charcuterie Board

Mist Opportunities

Author

Archives

Categories