Established in Faith

1 Thessalonians 3:1 - 13 (RSV) ¹Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,  ²and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the gospel of Christ, to establish you in your faith and to exhort you,  ³that no one be moved by these afflictions. You yourselves know that this is to be our lot.  ⁴For when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction; just as it has come to pass, and as you know.  ⁵For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent that I might know your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor would be in vain.

⁶But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— ⁷for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith;  ⁸for now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.  ⁹For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, for all the joy which we feel for your sake before our God,  ¹⁰praying earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?  

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you;  ¹²and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you,  ¹³so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Faith (Pistis)
Persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself:—assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity. 

“Faith” is a word with one meaning but with various applications. Faith is, at its core, reliance upon Christ for salvation. It is also the quality of the conviction we hold toward God. The purest and simplest form of faith is measured by our confession of Jesus as Savior and our assent to His Lordship of our lives. Yet Paul is looking for something far more complex here when he desires to know about what “is lacking in your faith.” Paul interchanges the word “faith” with the word “heart.” In this context, the two words are synonymous. We might say today that someone does not have their “heart in the game.” This means that they have lost or are weak in their constancy or resolve – their will is broken and weak. 

Paul is interested in their “constancy” or, better, their faithfulness toward our God and Father. His aim is to “establish” their faith. The word means, “to turn” in the right direction. It might have been used by sailors who turn (establish) their vessel so it correctly faces the wind.

God’s Holy Spirit desires to establish our faith or, better, our hearts. He wants to make produce in us two qualities. He wants to increase our love for others and to perfect our personal holiness. Here is the question that begs to be answered today: Do you agree with those two aims? Is your heart well established in the will of God?

God Keeps it Real

Psalm 31:15 through Psalm 31:18 (RSV)

 ¹⁵         My times are in thy hand;

          deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors!

¹⁶       Let thy face shine on thy servant;

          save me in thy steadfast love!

¹⁷       Let me not be put to shame, O LORD,

          for I call on thee;

          let the wicked be put to shame,

          let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.

¹⁸       Let the lying lips be dumb,

          which speak insolently against the righteous

          in pride and contempt. 

I see so much Christian piety that is romanticized. We are often sold a G-Rated faith in an R-Rated world. Lots of religious poems I hear read at the start of various meetings are about pussycats and daffodils – rainbows and golden meadows. I appreciate the charm of these lovely things, but I think we ought to forge a faith that is tough enough to take us through those seasons where the enemies are real and our persecutors appear far stronger than our meager resources can withstand. 

I thank God for the faith expressed in the poems and songs of David. I thank God, further, that we have the ministry of Jesus to balance the fear-based pessimism of the Psalmist. Yet, we must admit that Psalm 22 describes, in stark detail, the suffering of our Lord of the Cross – at the hands of His enemies.

One attribute of God we rarely meditate upon is God the vindicator. Paul rests on such a God in Romans 12, where he says of God, “vengeance is mine, I will repay.” In one place Jesus warns that those who hurt these “little ones” that after “my Father” gets through with them, they would wish they had a millstone tied around their necks and been thrown in the sea. 

When we are wronged, unjustly, it is good to say to ourselves “my times are in Thy hand” and “let Thy face shine on Thy servant.” 

Persecution often does in this life what the last great day will do completely—separate the wheat from the tares.

James Milner (d. 1721) 

Be of good cheer, our God has overcome the world.

Trusting, Trusting, Trusting

Psalm 37:3-6 (NKJV)
³ Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bringit to pass.
⁶ He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.

There is a shortcut to interpreting the deeper meaning of a Bible passage. I don’t apply it as often as I should, but it never fails to be helpful. It is simply listing the verbs. What are the verbs in this portion of Psalm 37? By the way, if someone quotes a single verse, always finds its full context to see if it is a fair representation of the wider context. We see the words trust, dwell, do good, feed, delight, commit and trust again. Now look at the actions of God in response to the Psalms actions. They are “shall give,” “shall bring to pass” and “shall bring forth.”

We are to trust in the LORD himself. We are not directed to place our confidence in some abstraction but in the personally self revealed God of Abraham. In other places we are asked to trust is the law, God’s promises, etc. But here, we place our trust in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is repeated in the New Testament. Jesus tells us “believe in God, believe also in me.” The Apostles’ teach the same personal trust. “Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.” Jesus exhorts us to “Come unto me, all of you who are about to buckle under the weight of the stress you are carrying around.” (Now that is paraphrase.)

Carefully consider with me the profound phrase “feed on His faithfulness.” In Hebrew poetry there is often parallel phrases. The writer repeats the same meaning using slightly different words. Here is it is “delight yourself in the Lord.” The promise that God shall give you the desires of your heart is prefaced on the state of your heart. The state of your heart should be trust, righteousness, and delight. We are to, also, submit to the Lord’s ways. If your ways comport with God’s ways, then, naturally, God will bless your ways.

Here the theme is a man, David, who is doing the right things and getting his butt kicked for it. In the reading the entire Psalm and the Psalms around it, it is clear that David is losing sleep over the conditions of his life. This Psalm is for the people but it is first for David’s own soul. In verse 24 we get the background of the Psalm. “Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord will uphold him with his hand.”

Our responsibility in prayer is to trust God and earnestly desire to please him. It is to do the right thing, that is, the righteous thing. If the evildoer prays for protection from the evildoer, then God can only guard him and others from the consequences of own his or her evil.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Courage, brother! do not stumble,

Though thy path be dark as night;

There’s a star to guide the humble,

Trust in God and do the right.

Norman Macleod (1812–1872)

God knows, not I, the reason why

His winds of storm drive through my door;

I am content to live or die

Just knowing this, nor knowing more.

My Father’s hand appointing me

My days and ways, so I am free.

Margaret Sangster (1838–1912)

Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber,

Holy angels guard thy bed.

Heavenly blessings without number

Gently falling on thy head.

Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Nevertheless I Live

Psalm 50:16-17 (NKJV)

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to declare My statutes, Or take My covenant in your mouth, ¹⁷ Seeing you hate instruction And cast My words behind you?

I was reading Richard Baxter’s book, “The Reformed Pastor” where he speaks of temptation. He begins with a discussion of the unconverted preacher. At length he describes such a preacher as one who, while preaching heaven, is bound for hell. Being the Narcissist that I am, I began to wonder if this isn’t me. I allowed this mental self-abuse to travel to its reasonable end. The unconverted have no sense of the voice of God the Holy Spirit. I am not deaf to the voice of the Spirit, so I am converted or transformed by the power of the Gospel. I heard and I believed. My life was from that point changed. Still, I am daily influenced by sinful impulses.

I have found it odd that ever since my sins were grace-covered I am more keenly aware of my sinfulness. One would think that the life of Grace would make temptation to sin as little more than background noise. Paul calls himself “wretched” and “chief among sinners.” Is Paul then among the “the wicked” God’s word speaks of the Psalm 50? No, because the truly lost “hate instruction” and cast God’s words behind them. I don’t hate instruction; I simply find it impossible to follow perfectly and consistently.

The early (200s) Church Father Origen treats temptation as a struggle between two “minds” – one is spiritual and the other carnal. In the process of being “conformed to the image and likeness of Christ” we are always subjected to a war between our Christ nature and our Adamic (fallen) nature. Calvin calls these two processes as the mortification (killing) of flesh and vivification (making alive) of the spirit. Luther differs from Calvin, Baxter, and Origen in that he does seem to believe the flesh can be defeated or even curtailed. For Luther, not only is the flesh weak it is unconquerable. Luther was so cautious about “works righteousness” that he seems to overstate his case regarding spiritual or moral progress that can be made in this life.

The position held by the Puritan, Richard Baxter, stands utterly opposite of Luther’s. He sees our lack of moral and spiritual progress as a sign that we may not be converted (saved). Origen and Calvin are most gentle in their view of human potential. I think these two are closer to Paul’s teaching, in Holy Scripture, than Baxter or Luther.

 

The pastoral insight I gain from recogning this war within is that I am not surprised when you act like a sinner. Just as I long for forgiveness and understand, I also am willing to extend it to others.

Galatians 5:17 (NKJV)
¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Romans 8:9 (NKJV)
⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Chapter 4 - On Human Temptations by St. Origen

We have accordingly to ascertain what is this very will (intermediate) between flesh and spirit, besides that will which is said to belong to the flesh or the spirit. For it is held as certain, that everything which is said to be a work of the spirit is (a product of) the will of the spirit, and everything that is called a work of the flesh (proceeds from) the will of the flesh.

 
Galatians 2:20 (KJV)
²⁰ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Good Friday is Far Better than We can Imagine

John 10:14 - 18 (RSV) ¹⁴I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me,  ¹⁵as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.  ¹⁶And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.  ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.  ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.” 

2 Corinthians  5:21 (RSV) ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

1 Peter 3:18 (RSV) ¹⁸For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit;  

The words “vicarious” and “substitutionary” describe the traditional understanding of Jesus’ death. The word “vicarious” is more commonly used in daily parlance. When we read a good novel, we might feel what a character feels, we might share in their love life, their heroic escapades, and even their pain and shame. We live vicariously through them. This is purely psychological. We may read an account of some character falling off a building. We may feel their fright as they plummet to the ground, and experience the shock of impact, but we are not injured by their fall. The experience is merely vicarious. 

While a vicarious experience is subjective, to become a substitute for another is objective. For the liberal, they would say that “it was as though Jesus became sin for us.” That is subjective or imaginary. To say, “He was made to be sin” is real life and an objective reality. Jesus died a real death so that your sins are placed on him. This is clearly what the Scriptures teach.

 

In combat, a soldier might jump on a hand grenade so that his body takes the full explosion to save his comrades. This is a substitutionary sacrifice. To make it come closer to matching Jesus’ death, it would be necessary for the soldier to leave a safe place, that is, to choose death when he could have lived. Another example is a mother sacrificing her life during childbirth, so her newborn could live. As profoundly inspiring as such human sacrifice is, its benefit is temporal and limited. When Jesus died for the sins of the Elect, he died “once for all.” His blood was shed, as our creed says, “for us and for our salvation.” 

Beyond the glorious substitution, there is also an act of creature / Creator reconciliation. When Jesus suffers and dies “for us and our salvation” he does so as an eternal transaction between the Second Person of the Trinity and the First Person of the Trinity. Jesus satisfies the Covenant of Redemption, he thereby gives birth to the Covenant of Grace. The Covenant is between the Father and the Son, the second is between God and the Elect.

 

Men may flee from the sunlight to dark and musty caves of the earth, but they cannot put out the sun. So men may in any dispensation despise the grace of God, but they cannot extinguish it. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) 

God giveth his wrath by weight, but his mercy without measure. Sir Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) 

God of all mercy is a God unjust. Edward Young (1683–1765)

 

God did not abolish the fact of evil; he transformed it. He did not stop the Crucifixion; he rose from the dead. Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957)

He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will. William Cowper (1731–1800)

 

Maundy, Maundy, So Good to Me

John 13:31 - 35 (RSV)

³¹When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; ³²if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ ³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

The Greek word for “commandment” is   en-tol-ay'   the Latin word is mandatum, the Middle English Maundy. Today is Maundy Thursday. It is always the Thursday just before Good Friday. It is on this night that Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. In the first three Gospel accounts, this is the night he celebrates the Passover meal. John does not as clearly link the Passover to this occasion. That does not means that he means to say that the Passover did not happen but he, for some reason, speak of it as an event about to happen.  

John speaks of the supper. It is clearly the Lord’s Supper. It is on that night that Jesus models humility as a mandatory quality for Christian fellowship. He takes off his cloths – at least down to his underwear. He wraps a towel around his waste or places it on his thighs and he sits before every disciple and washes there feet. He commands (entolay) that they submit to this service and he commands that they perform this same service for one another.  

We are not simply to love one another. That is an abstraction. We are to love one another the way Jesus loved his disciples. That is a concrete reality. The quality of love we should have for one another is the washing of feet. This, naturally, is the quality of humble service. 

Love is the giving of charity. Love is charitable acts. It takes a lifetime to learn this quality. The lessons are hard and progress is measured by slow improvement and even by more failures than victories.

 

Charity is never lost. It may meet with ingratitude, or be of no service to those on whom it was bestowed, yet it ever does a work of beauty and grace upon the heart of the giver.

Conyers Middleton (1683–1750) 

Charity is the scope of all God’s commands.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) 

Never to judge rashly; never to interpret the actions of others in an ill-sense, but to compassionate their infirmities, bear their burdens, excuse their weaknesses, and make up for their defects—to hate their imperfections, but love themselves, this is the true spirit of charity.

Nicholas Caussin (1583–1651) 

“Whatsoever” is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting (whether half an hour or half a lifetime), learning, suffering, sitting still. But shall we be less ready for these if any of them are his appointments for today?

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879) 

Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will not be judged by how much I have done but by how much of me there is in it. No man gives at all until he has given all. No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice.

A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)

 

Where Are You Weakest

Our Lord’s Last Wednesday

We learn that Jesus stayed in the home of a man named Simon, who is or was a leper. Since lepers would not have hosted guests in their home, it is most likely that Simon was once a leper but is now healed of his disease.  What would it be like to host Jesus in our home? No doubt, Simon loved and respected Jesus, especially if Jesus was his healer.

 Simon planned a fine meal for Jesus and his disciples. It was during this event that a woman came in and knelt down at the feet of Jesus. Holding an alabaster flask containing expensive ointment, she begins to bath our Lord’s feet with the ointment. This act shocked many who saw it. Fragrances were made using a laborious process that required an abundance of costly materials to gain a small about of perfume. To so lavishly anoint a man’s feet with such an expensive material seemed an improper, even wasteful, use of this rare commodity. 

We know that Judas was the treasurer for the disciples. He must have been a man gifted in administration. He was obsessed with money. He was a thief. This was his weakness. Why would such a man decide to become a disciple of Jesus? What attracted him to Jesus? We can’t answer this question with any certainty, but the fact that Jesus allowed this man to remain in his company says something about the permissive will of God. God permits destructive persons to belong to the Church and even to become leaders in the Church. 

Judas, perhaps because of his weakness and his hypocrisy, became the prime target of the Devil. The writers say with haunting simplicity that Satan entered Judas that evening as Judas saw the woman worshiping Jesus with such extravagance. The story of his meeting with the priests and the Temple guards sounds so orderly and business-like. The two items on their agenda were (1) to quietly arrest and (2) kill Jesus. Judas was there when they developed this plan and was instrumental in leading them to Jesus at a time when he is mostly to be alone. 

Jesus knows about this plan and it must have broken his heart. If Satan is looking for a weakness in you, what would it be?