A Holy Charge (16)

 

 

“See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” (1 Thess. 5:15).

 

As I write this it is early morning, the sun has yet to rise, it is dark and quiet on our cul-de-sac. There are nine other homes on our street, and on the dead-end street that leads to our cul-de-sac are seven other homes. An element of our morning prayer together is, “Lord, help us to be a blessing to others. Please make us a blessing to others.” As we make this request to our Lord Jesus the people who live in these sixteen homes are very much in our hearts and minds, we want to do good to them, we want to be a blessing to them and others in our neighborhood.

 

One of the things I miss about the workplace is the opportunity to do good to others; to coworkers, customers, suppliers, and vendors. In the workplace I engaged with people throughout the day, people to whom I could seek to do good.

 

When my friend Bruce Harrison moved from Fredericksburg to Richmond, VA, he visited a number of dry cleaners, looking for one to which he could take his shirts. He had one question for each one, “What business are you in?”

 

One after another the response was, “We are in the dry cleaning business.” At each of these responses Bruce left the establishment, knowing that was not the one for him.

 

Finally he found the response he was seeking, “We are in the service business. We are here to serve our customers.”

 

In much the same way, are we not in the “doing good to others” business? That is, are we not to live our lives seeking to do good to others, to bless others, to encourage others, to give to others?

 

“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal.  6:10).

 

Since we are to live in koinonia in Christ as His People, since we are to share life together in Him, it is natural that we will especially do good to those with whom we are in intimate relationship; just as a husband ought to especially do good to his wife, and the wife ought to especially do good to her husband, and parents ought to especially do good to their children. A fruit of the members of the Body of Christ doing good to one another is that they also do good to all people, that blessing flows from the People of God to the people of their street, their neighborhood, their broader community, to the ends of the world.

 

What would it look like if churches sought the good of other churches? If churches sought the good of their communities, and sought the good of those beyond their communities?

 

Paul writes, “Let us not lose heart in doing good” (Gal. 6:9). We give because our heavenly Father gives. We do good because our heavenly Father does good, “causing the sun to rise on the evil and the good, sending rain on the righteous and the unrighteousness” (Mt. 5:45). We cannot control what others do, but we can control (by God’s grace) what we do, we can decide (by God’s grace) to do good to all people.

A Holy Charge (15)

 

 

“See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” (1 Thess. 5:15).

 

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).

 

I suppose there is no better commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:15 than the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:38 – 48.

 

“Do not resist evil…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

It is quite the passage (Matthew 5:38 – 48), a passage we rationalize away, a passage we seek justification to violate, a passage that is simply not practical; it makes no sense…at least to the “natural” man or woman.

 

And yet, in the Cross we see that it leads to victory over sin, death, and the devil. Yet, in Revelation we see that the Lamb and His followers are victorious as they lay their lives down, not as they take the lives of others (Rev. 7:9 – 17; 12:11).

 

You see, dear friends, you and I are to participate in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. The Cross is an event in time and space, but it is also an event in eternity. It is an event in eternity, but it is also a Way of Life in time and space. It is a Way of Life in time and space, but it also reaches into eternity and eternity reaches into our hearts, minds, and souls.

 

In our koinonia in the sufferings of Christ, we participate in the filling up of Christ’s afflictions for His People, His Body (Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24). We simply cannot understand this, but we can experience it.

 

“For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats; but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:20 – 23).

 

“Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Peter 4:19).

 

Not returning evil for evil often involves suffering; suffering the wrong, suffering the effects of the wrong. It also involves blessing those who are propagating the evil – praying for them, sharing Jesus with them, forgiving them. We can only truly live this as we abide in the Vine, our dear Lord Jesus Christ, for without Him we can do nothing (John 15:1 – 5).

 

Not returning evil for evil is a testimony that we will trust our Father to care for us, for He is righteous and He is ever faithful. Not returning evil for evil means that we relinquish control of our lives, of the situation, and that we do not attempt to control others.

 

Not returning evil for evil is anything but passive, for it requires an act of the will, enabled by the grace of God, to surrender ourselves to Christ and to actively seek the good of those who inflict evil upon us.

 

Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt. 6:12). We might also pray, “Forgive us the evil we have done, as we have forgiven others the evil they have done to us.” Or “Forgive us the sin we have done, as we have forgiven others the sin they have done to us.”

 

We are to always be “forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).  

 

When the Thessalonians first met Paul and Silas, they had come from being beaten and imprisoned in Philippi. As Paul and Silas shared the Gospel in Thessalonica persecution again broke out, with the cry, “These men who have upset the world have come here also” (Acts 17:6). Nowhere do we see in Acts that Paul and his friends returned evil for evil during persecutions and hardships they endured. The Thessalonians knew, as they read Paul’s words about not returning evil with evil, that Paul lived what he preached; Paul not only talked the talk, he walked the walked.

 

Nowhere in Acts do we see the followers of Jesus returning evil for evil.

 

Nowhere in the storms of persecution in Revelation do we see the followers of the Lamb returning evil for evil.

 

Nowhere in the life of Jesus Christ do we see Him returning evil for evil.

 

This is not a natural way to live, but it is the way we are to live in Christ, if indeed Christ lives within us. Let us remember that “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His son” (Ro. 5:10). As the death of Christ is manifested in us, as we participate in the sufferings of Christ, others can also be reconciled to God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

If this is the way we are to live toward all mankind, it is most especially the way we are to live in Chrisian community.

 

What does 1 Thessalonians 5:15 look like in our lives?

 

We’ll continue with this verse in our next reflection in this series, the Lord willing.

Mythical Identities

 

 

I love the early morning, spending time in communion with our Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit; meditating in the Word of God, praying for friends, family, and others. I love listening to creation awake, the birds singing. I love watching the first hint of sunshine reflecting off trees and flowers.

 

As I write this I’m reminded of a morning in Daytona, Florida in February quite a few years ago. I arose early that morning, as I normally do, and decided to walk around Daytona International Speedway. In just a few hours the racetrack would roar to life as the command, “Gentlemen start your engines,” was given, then, after some warmup laps the green flag would wave and the Daytona 500 would begin – NASCAR’s premier race. At the beginning of my walk all was quiet around the outside of the track, but by the time I returned to my father-in-law’s RV where we were staying, the racing community around the track was waking up and I could hear stirrings inside the facility.

 

The capacity of the speedway is listed at 101,500, and it seemed as if all those people were in RVs and campers parked around the track, though I knew Daytona’s hotels were also full of race fans, as were accommodations in surrounding towns and cities. The thing about race fans in campers and RVs is that virtually each vehicle has at least one flag flying, a flag representing the race car driver whom the occupants of the RV identify with and want to win the race. Many vehicles have more than one flag because often a husband identifies with one racer and a wife with another. Some of these flags are modest; others are huge.

 

NASCAR fans not only fly the flags of their favorite racers, they wear shirts and hats with the racers’ car numbers and names – and they speak of them as if they know them personally, generally using their first names, even though most fans have never met those whose flags they fly, and if they have met them, it was only for a brief moment – perhaps to obtain an autograph.

 

Whether it is a fan of a race car driver, the fan of a singer or musician, or of an actor, or of an athlete in another sport – when people strongly identify with someone popular or famous they often derive a measure of their identity from that person. People can become obsessed with details about a celebrity’s life, thinking that they personally know the celebrity. The same can be true with identifying with sports teams. It can be true with politicians. It can be true with ideologies. It can be true with cultural practices. It can be true with our view of history.

 

In one way or another, much of what we identify with is myth and image, it is not real, it does not match the reality of the person, the political movement, the history or the culture or region or country – when we idolize others, when we idolize images, we gloss over the fallenness of mankind, we ignore sin, and we look to others and images as our saviors and redeemers and source of wholeness.

 

College sports is a particular reminder of this for me; in Virginia many of my friends identify with either the University of Virginia or Virginia Tech – and when their team is winning all is right with the world. They wear hats and have stickers on their cars indicating that they identify with the Cavaliers or Hokies – this is part of the “identity culture” in Virginia. However, this uncritical identification ignores the reality that much of what transpires in these universities is hostile to the image of God, the Gospel, and the commonsense moral and ethical health of their students. Parents and grandparents don’t really want to know what is taught and practiced in the colleges they send their children to and pay tuition to - they would rather subscribe to mythical images. The same is true for our public schools – it is easier to root for the high school football team than it is to critique what is being taught in classes and to evaluate the (a)moral and (un)ethical practices inculcated in our children.

 

Because of the media tools at our disposal, the power of myth and image is so much stronger today than it has ever been in history, it is what a friend once called “electronic cocaine.” Our attention spans are shorter than previous generations and our capacity for critical thinking is diminished more than they have probably ever been.

 

When we have culture clashes and disputes over the reading and interpretation of history, much of it is about mythical identities rather than the truth – for the truth puts us on our faces, for when we see the truth, as fragmented as our vision may be, we have to acknowledge deep moral and ethical failure in humanity. We are angry when others challenge our myths, we are afraid to see our myths for what they are, and we are most afraid to question our mythical identities – whether they are cultural, ethnic, racial, regional, national, political, or having to do with religious tradition.

 

For sure we should beware of seeking to unmask the mythical identities of others while leaving our own untouched – for unless we know something of the pain of confronting our own myths, it is unlikely that we can communicate with others in such a way as to help them see their own.

 

Perhaps this is one of many reasons why the message of the Bible gives us hope, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – this means, in part, that none of us is measuring up to God’s original intention for us. The Cross is the great leveler of humanity, “there is none good, no not one.” That means me and it means you, and perhaps more importantly in the context of mythical identity, it means “us.” We are all infected with mythical identities. It is only when we discover our true identity in Jesus Christ that we can begin to shed the mythical identities that have encumbered us.  

 

By God’s grace I have encountered mythical identities in my own life, and that is one reason I refuse to use words such as liberal, conservative, progressive; it is why I don’t care for the words clergy and laity; it is why I much prefer Mere Christianity to a franchised brand that would distinguish me from other Christ-followers; it is why when people do coalesce around labels, or attack labels, that I try to understand what they really mean…and have found that often they don’t know.

 

I have been appalled at the mythical identities that I have worn without question.

 

Can you identify mythical identities in your own life?

 

Galatians 2:20; 6:14

The Second Story

 

The second story

Ephesians 1:1-12

 

 

 

               When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

 

              

               Last week I asked two homework questions, the first was “How many wise men came to see Jesus?”, and the second was, “Where was Jesus when they found Him?”  Now, those of you who did your homework know that the Gospel of Matthew, where the account of the wise men is found in chapter two, doesn’t tell us how many there were.  However, it does tell us that when they found Jesus that they found Him in a house…and when we take into consideration some other information that Matthew supplies us with it seems fairly clear that Jesus was not a newborn when the wise men encountered Him.  Yet, were we to take a poll of the average man on the street and ask how many wise men there were, the likely answer we would get (from those who have an inkling of what we’re talking about) would be three, and the follow up would be that they found Him in a manger.

               Now you may wonder what we’re doing talking about the birth of Jesus and wise men as we begin our adventure in Ephesians…before I share that with you I need to make as certain as I can that you please understand that seeing three wise men in a nativity scene is perfectly fine with me…it doesn’t bother me one bit…I think a nativity scene would be lacking something without them…so please don’t leave here and tell folks that I’m against having three wise men at nativity scenes…

               In 1977 or 78, I can’t quite remember which year, I was teaching a Sunday School class of young adults and older teenagers.  I think that without exception all of these students had been raised in the church…and had therefore been exposed to preaching, teaching and the Bible all of their lives…it was my first class with these young people…though I knew them all pretty well…and I asked them these same two questions…and the answer I got, without exception…was that there were three wise men and that they found Jesus in a manger…and by the way…my point in doing so then was my same point in doing so this morning…

               So I had a student read the second chapter of Matthew aloud, and I asked my same questions and got the same answers.  So we read it again…and had an instant reply…same answers…and this went on for a few minutes…until the light dawned on Rachel Turnage and she excitedly said, “The Bible doesn’t say how many wise men there were…and it says they found Jesus in a house.”  The power of inherited and taught image was so great in those students that even though they were reading the words of Scripture…the images that they had within them of the passage overrode their understanding of the passage.  Let me repeat that, the power of inherited and taught image was so great in those students that even though they were reading the words of Scripture…the images that they had within them of the passage overrode their understanding and reading of the passage.

               And my point is that if this is so when it comes to material things…concerning how many men and what location the passage is referring to…how much more can this be true when it comes to the way we view ourselves, the way we view each other, and the way we view God?  Does our image of who we are in Christ measure up to what Jesus Himself taught, does it measure up to what the Bible teaches?  Does our image of the Church match that of the Bible?

               Could it be that we have taken negative images, received from family, other people, perhaps even religion, and superimposed them onto our reading of the Scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  What does the Bible really say about who we are when we believe in Jesus Christ?

               When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

               Let’s do a quick survey of our passage.

               Verse one, Paul calls the people he is writing to “saints”.  Well, there’s a roadblock isn’t there?  The fact that most of us have an image that a saint is a spiritual Michael Jordan, in a place unattainable by most of us, demonstrates how far removed the original idea of saint has become from what it is today.  It also demonstrates how self-centered we’ve become in our approach to the Scriptures.  For being a saint has nothing whatsoever to do with our ability…but it has everything to do with what Jesus Christ has done for us…and you see…that’s the Gospel…the Gospel is not about us…as we saw in our journey through the Gospel of Mark…but it’s about Jesus Christ.  Well, let’s keep going…

               Verse 3 – we’ve been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ.

               Verse 4 – we’ve been chosen in Him that we should be holy and blameless.

               Verse 5 – we’ve been adopted as His children.

               Verse 6 – God has freely given us grace in Christ.  Please notice…that nowhere in the Bible do we earn mercy or grace…it is always…always…without exception…a gift of God.

               Verse 7 – in Christ we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

               Verse 8 – God has lavished His grace upon us.

               Verse 9 – God made His will known to us.

               Verse 10 – our destiny is in Christ…we’re not accidents looking for a place to happen…but we are people of purpose and destiny.

 

When we have the big picture, when we know Christ, and know who we are in Christ, we can live life confident of His love and acceptance and can be a blessing to others.

A couple of weeks ago I was over at Dave Mitchell’s house, and Dave and the kids showed me a gallon jar…and in it was a Monarch butterfly in the process of metamorphous…when I first saw it that morning there was a thin membrane surrounding the butterfly…but when we looked at it about an hour later the butterfly had spread its wings and would be released from the jar as soon as its wings dried…

Now just suppose when I looked at that butterfly with its wings unfolded I had said to Dave and the kids…”That’s a nice looking caterpillar.”…what do you think their response would have been?  Maybe Dave’s daughter Marley would have tried to explain to me that what was once a land bound creepy crawly thing called a caterpillar had been changed…and that the new thing is called a butterfly.  Maybe Dave would have wondered how soon he could get me out of his house.

Maybe after hearing Marley’s explanation I would have revised my opinion, and called the thing a “converted caterpillar” or a “good looking worm”. I still don’t think that would have cut it with the Mitchell family…for the butterfly is a new creature…

Notice that Paul never addresses his letters to sinners…or even to converted sinners…he addresses them to butterflies…to saints…to new creatures in Christ…not on account of anything that they’ve done…but because of what Christ has done…we’ve had a change of identity when we believe in Jesus Christ…

Sure there may be times when we forget who we are…and we may imitate caterpillars now and then…but that doesn’t change our identity…we may be butterflies acting like caterpillars…or saints acting like sinners…or new creatures acting like old creatures…but it doesn’t change our identity in Christ…

When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

The thing is…many of us live on the first floor of a two-story house…those of you this morning…who live in a two-story house…how would you feel if…when you got home today…you found that someone had come into your house and taken away your stairs?  Would you simply accept the loss of your stairs…and of your ability to access the second floor of your home…and learn to live solely on the first floor?

Suppose when Vickie and I were doing our house hunting…and we found a two story house that looked great from the outside…but upon entering found that it didn’t come with stairs…that zoning laws prohibited stairs…and that we’d have to confine our living to the first floor… would we have gone along with that deal and purchased the house…would you have purchased the house?

Yet…we think nothing…as a society…and all too often as God’s people…of living in a two story house without stairs…we are conditioned to live with a consumer mentality in which he who dies with the most toys win…we are conditioned to view life economically…we are conditioned…as a society…to believe that there is no absolute truth…no absolute right or wrong…we are conditioned to be caterpillars…things crawling around on the ground…

And when we get a peek of what’s on the second story of life…maybe a glimpse of unselfish love…or of hope…perhaps of comfort…maybe of God…well…we’re told that all of that is conditioning of one type or another…that there’s nothing really up there on the second floor…

When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

Christ is our ladder to the second floor…Christ has restored the image of God in us that sin fractured…Christ has restored us to fellowship with our heavenly Father…

Did Dave Mitchell have to give that butterfly a lesson in how to fly?  Did he have to enroll it in a course to teach it how to be a butterfly?  Was Dave afraid that when he let the butterfly out of the jar that it would crawl around on the ground and act like a caterpillar?  I don’t think so. 

What do you say to the idea that when we look at each other this week that we see new creatures in Christ Jesus…and that when we look in our mirrors…that we see ourselves in Christ…as new creatures…transformed to worship Him and love others?  What do you say to the idea that we venture up on the second story of our house and live life in the perspective of the big picture?

A Holy Charge (14)

 

 

“Be patient with everyone” (1 Thess. 5:14).

 

Let’s look at the flow surrounding “be patient with everyone,” what do you see?

 

“Live in peace with one another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” (1 Thess. 5:13 – 15).

 

Peace is married to patience; patience is married to peace. Without peace we have no patience and without patience we have no peace – and without Jesus Christ we have no true peace or patience. The patience and peace of which the Scriptures speak flow from the Person of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father.

 

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…” (Gal. 5:22).

 

“Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4).

 

To “admonish, encourage, and help” requires both peace and patience.

 

Paul writes to Timothy, “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting…” (2 Tim. 2:24 – 25).

 

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2).

 

We can be an agenda-driven people and miss the Presence, Person, and Character of Jesus Christ. We can “do things” without the Holy Spirit. We can pressure one another, manipulate one another, and “convince” one another that we should do this or that, without loving one another, finding joy in one another, having peace with one another, being patient with one another.

 

Paul writes that we are to have “all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing longsuffering for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2).

 

What do you think? Is our tendency to look at what we “do” as a people, or is it to consider who we are as a people? That is, do we tend to look at our actions and not so much at our character in Jesus Christ? Do we look at the outward and not at the inward?

 

Is our admonishing done in peace and patience?

 

I have included, “See that no one repays another evil for evil” in our reflection because if we are not living in the peace and patience of Christ the possibility of responding to evil with evil is greatly increased – our tendency is often to strike back at others when we are hurt, to give others the evil they have given us.

 

The life of the Body of Christ which Paul describes in our extended passage (1 Thess. 5:12 – 28), is only possible as we are at peace with one another and are patient with one another; this peace and patience must be the peace and patience of Christ.

 

Perhaps, in some ways, we are all in too much of a hurry to know peace and patience. Perhaps we are so agenda driven, so insistent on producing programs, increasing membership, raising money, becoming “bigger and better” that we have no patience with patience and can’t be still long enough to know the peace of Jesus Christ. What do you think?

 

Should Mary come into our gatherings and wish to sit at the feet of Jesus, or should the woman who “wasted” the precious ointment on our Lord appear in our mist, would we have patience with them?

 

For myself, as much as I honor those who practice the Presence, peace, and patience of Christ, I admit that I have not only often fallen short of the command and ideal, but I have grievously erred and done damage by violating the peace and patience of Jesus Christ. My foolishness and sinfulness have caused much pain from time to time. My decisions outside the patience and peace of Christ have been terrible and I live with their consequences.

 

Why, O why do we violate the patience and peace of Christ? Why do we pollute our relationships?

 

For myself, I think fear and anxiety and insecurity play a large part. If something or someone is a threat to me, do I rest in Jesus? Do I seek to bless the other person? Am I willing to offer myself on the altar of the Cross of Christ? Do I believe that Jesus will always be with me and care for me?

 

If you have ever been through hard times, really hard times, then you may know the temptation to fear that it will happen again in some way, shape, or form. Whether those hard times are emotional, mental, material, spiritual, or all wrapped together, the scar tissue often remains and when similar situations arise we may indeed fear what lies ahead. But once again, Jesus is not only with us, but He has also gone before us and He will never leave us nor forsake us.

 

If our security is based on our production, on us measuring up to standards by what we do, by being useful and necessary, then things that threaten our “value” can elicit anger and defensiveness and we can soon find ourselves outside the Presence, peace, and patience of Christ Jesus.

 

Perhaps at the entrance to our church buildings we ought to have a sign that says, “Be patient with everyone.”

 

Perhaps as I begin each day, I ought to remind myself, “Be patient with everyone.”

 

What do you think?