Lamb of God
The election is now history. The people have decided and the victory of Barack Obama is decisive. Yet scripture declares a truth even more decisive: The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. (Ps. 29:10)
However you may feel about the outcome of the election we know that God is working his eternal purposes and that He has not turned a deaf ear toward His people. The growing voice of united prayer emerging all across this nation will be answered by our God. The cries for Him to have mercy on the nation, and in particular to come to the aid of the most vulnerable will not be ignored by our compassionate heavenly Father. I am undaunted in pressing in to prayer for awakening among the people of God, and I hope that you will see how critical it is for us to never give up (Luke 18: 1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart).
Our hope is in God alone. However, our strategy to see righteousness established is not simply a matter of praying and waiting. We are compelled by the Word to marry our prayers to wise action which puts our ‘money’, so to speak where our mouth is. We are not ideologues, but as James exhorts us: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (James 2:14) (more…)
Posted by Scott on November 6th, 2008 in Lamb of God, cultural relevance | 8 Comments »
Spiritual Formation is not optional - we are being formed, whether we acknowledge it or don’t. The question is will it be into the character of Jesus or something else?
Early on in the Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard writes: A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying ‘why?’
Later at near the end of the chapter entitled ‘The Heart in the System of Human Life’ Willard writes: ‘We therefore live in “hot pursuit” of Jesus Christ. “My soul followeth hard after thee”, the psalmist called out (Ps. 63:8). And Paul’s panting cry was ‘That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death‘ in order to participate in the life of His resurrection. (Phil. 3:10-11). What are we to say of anyone who thinks they have something more important to do than that?
That is a very challenging statement. Recently, there was a study done on the level of spiritual growth one finds among regular church attending Christians. It is now necessary to differentiate those individuals who call themselves Christians, but do not attend church from those who do attend. In this study the people involved in designing it wanted to try and take a measure of whether people claiming to be Christians, and attending church were actually experiencing ’spiritual growth’. They used criteria like, regular bible reading, regular prayer, service to others etc (there were something like seven categories).
One series of responses is quite telling. Over 50 percent claimed that they had grown spiritually in the previous year, but when measured against conduct, or modest evidence of this only a little more than 3% actually could demonstrate that in any measurable manner. Now that indicates two things - apparently most Christians think they are growing, but have nothing tangible to point to which might indicate that growth.
I don’t know how you feel about this but I feel very frustrated when I think of that tiny a number of Christians being able to point to anything substantive in their lives to indicate growth in Christian maturity. It seems easy then to conjecture from that the seemingly profound impotence of Christianity must be directly related. If its really true that only 3 out of 100 Christians can point to measurable change in the past year, we are really in trouble. This is a significant part of the reason why I am so passionate about the book ‘The Renovation of the Heart.’ I really believe must raise the level of expectation we have of ourselves relative to growing as disciples of Jesus. It begins as Dallas Willard suggests with a vision of the kind of life that God desires for us. Jesus said that those who give themselves to him will receive ‘living water’, and that they will not be driven and ruled by unsatisfied desires. Paul writes that we can know the love of Christ in such a way that we will be filled with the fullness of God. Peter writes that those who love and trust Jesus ‘rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy. Can it really be that only 3 out of 100 Christians have anything approaching that kind of experience of following Jesus?
We simply cannot let this be the case for Lamb of God Fellowship (we don’t want it to be true about any believing congregation), but we begin with ourselves and our own backyard. I say all of this in the hopes that somehow God, by the workings of His Holy Spirit would stir up a tremendous urgency in every single one of us to undertake a serious effort to understand how we grow as followers of Christ. My experience is that most people are unreflective concerning their lives. Only tragedy, loss, or serious illness slows most people down long enough to ask - where am I going with God, am I making progress in getting there, is there any real change going on in me?
What we are trying to do about all this?
Saturday, October 18th a group of men and women gathered together for in an effort to try and make some progress in gaining an understanding of how one ‘watches over their heart.’ I want to use the rest of this post to try and summarize as best as I can the essential things that came out of that effort. My heartfelt prayer is that we would see a stronger core of brothers and sisters who are clear headed about how one ‘puts on the character of Christ’ as well as growing in the ability to help others who want to learn how to do it for themselves.
The Basic Principal - The Heart Directs the Life.
This is the core of what the Bible teaches about growing as a disciple of Jesus is this - we live out of our hearts. “The human heart, will or spirit is the executive center of a human life. The heart is where the decisions and choices are made for the whole person.” (pg. 30) Jesus taught this very clearly - ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’ (Matt. 12:34) In another place Jesus broadens this - Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.’
Spiritual formation has everything to do with the process which leads us to the place where we do the will of God out of our hearts. It has a lofty, but a concretely Biblical goal - ‘to love God will all the heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.’ This is what God desires, this is the end to which He is directing everything and it is what will make eternity an endless delight. But the real, and necessary process of spiritual formation says this ideal is not just for the sweet-by-and-by. God intends for his sons and daughters to ‘be prepared for and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right’ (pg. 29).
Basic Elements of Human Life:
Willard suggests that we can think about human nature as six basic aspects. (1) Thought (2) Feeling (3) Choice (4) Body (5) Social context (6) Soul. He summarizes in the following way: ‘every human being thinks (has a thought life), feels, chooses, interacts with his or her body and its social context, and more or less integrates all of the foregoing as parts of a life.’ Later in this section Willard suggests that this isn’t mysterious (in other words, we can all understand it). Human nature has parts, these parts have properties, which in turn make possible relationships between the parts to form larger wholes and so on. We can learn how our thoughts, our feelings, our will, and so on work and how they can be formed in cooperation with the Holy Spirit working though the Word, and the various means of grace which God makes available to all Christians. In my judgment we are required by the Word of God to gain this understanding. This is certainly what is implied by a scripture like II Peter 1:15 - For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith…
One of the most helpful understandings which Dr. Willard advances is a concept he calls ‘relenting.’ “Our actions always arise out of the interplay of the universal factors of human life: spirit, mind, body, social context, and soul. Actions never come from the movement of will alone” (pg. 39). Relenting describes how these various elements(thoughts, emotions, body, social context) place pressure on our will so that our choices are principally a relenting to these pressures.
This means that good intentions are not enough, and that there is a ‘rigorous consistency in the human self and its actions.” This single sentence may be worth the price of the book: “Actions are not impositions on who we are, but are expressions of who we are. The come out of our heart and the inner realities it supervises and interacts with” (pg. 39).
Trying to make this personal
Let me make that very personal, and I will use myself as the example. From about the 8th grade in school until I graduated college I was a fairly well disciplined athlete. Not a gym rat by any means, but pretty faithful to staying in shape. After college I began to slowly allow myself to ‘coast’ on past effort. It takes a fair amount of time to undo years of weight training and conditioning, but I am living proof that it can be undone. Over time I became a lazy person in so far as it relates to taking good care of myself, health wise. About 7 years ago I was diagnosed as a diabetic and this caused me to make some changes in my life including a fairly radical change to diet and to begin exercising once again. After about a year of conditioning and weight loss I began to see improvement. As most everyone who knows me knows five years ago I fell and suffered a serious break in my leg, one which resulted in surgery and the insertion of a 14 inch steel rod into my leg. Unfortunately, I used this excuse to drift back into inactivity and began to slump back into poor physical condition. In January of 2007 I promised myself and the Lord that this would change, and praise God I have been able to sustain nearly 11 straight months of consistent conditioning.
But I would like to make several observations about myself. I wasn’t someone who had ’slipped’ into a lifestyle of physical inactivity, I was in fact a lazy person who occasionally sustained physical activity. My use of the physical injury as a rational for inactivity wasn’t a slip, it was a pattern. Until I faced up to the condition of my heart - one which treated physical conditioning as unimportant, or as an optional matter of good stewardship I could never change. I wasn’t an occasional ’slug’, I was in fact a committed slob. Only the words of my family physician working in concert with my pastor Ray and the prompting of the Holy Spirit could get through my rationalizations for further inactivity. I had to face a truth which Dr. Willard makes plain - ‘whatever my action is comes out of my whole person’ (pg. 40). I now consider myself in recovery. Sustaining change, with all its concomitant elements (thoughts, emotions, body, etc) takes time and it would be a prideful mistake to think I have licked the problem.
However, the Lord taught me a good deal about change in the past 11 months. But I can do no better in describing that learning that to refer to Dr. Willard’s description of the nature of spiritual change in chapter five of the Renovation of the Heart. First, this past 11 months has reminded me that change is possible. I am 54, and like many folks my age I am set in my ways. But developing a lifestyle of physical conditioning has taught me again that you can teach an old dog a new trick. And although physical exercise is not the same as spiritual formation it is in many ways parallel. Listen to Dr. Willard: “Without the gentle though rigorous process of inner transformation by the graceful presence of God in our world and in our soul, the change of personality and life clearly announced and spelled out in the Bible, and explained and illustrated throughout Christian history, is impossible. We not only admit it, but also insist upon it” (pg. 79)
Lamb of God brothers and sisters get this! “Without the rigorous process of inner transformation… the change of personality and life… is impossible.” As Willard observes - “the result of the effort to change our behavior without inner transformation is precisely what we see in the current shallowness of Western Christianity.” Even revival alone will not change this. I am praying for, and believing God will bring revival, however, we cannot bypass this truth so eloquently stated by Dr. Willard.
V.I.M. - A Pattern of Change
The acronym which Dr. Willard develops for this pattern of change is simple: V.I.M., Vision, Intention, and Means. If we are to be spiritually formed in Christ, we must have and must implement the appropriate vision, intention and means (pg. 85) Dr. Willard wisely points out if we are concerned about our spiritual formation then we must have a vision of life under God, in His kingdom that is compelling. This requires me to know deeply what it is that God is making available to me in Christ and for me to embrace it with my whole heart. But as Willard says it is a vision that has to be given to us, one which we don’t naturally see on our own. But, thanks be to God, that vision is given to us in the Word of God. It is a vision of a new kind of life, life lived in the range of God’s effective will being done. It is a vision of life which can be discovered, meditated upon, and in cooperation with the Holy Spirit worked into our lives until it becomes an overwhelmingly compelling desire of our hearts.
In concert with the vision of life in the Kingdom of God is the necessity of our actual intention to do it. This is an extraordinary quality of being a human. We can decide. I can choose to make this vision of life in the kingdom a reality that I actually pursue. That means, even if my resolve is weak, I can decide that no excuse will any longer be accepted (even if I struggle and fail to always follow through). Intention moves us beyond our rationalizations, our denial, our blame-shifting to a place where we accept that the decision to do what ever is necessary to grow as a disciple of Jesus belongs to me. I must decide, and that intention is mine to follow through on. God will not magically make me do this. If I am to change, it is my decision to pursue the things that bring change. One of the observations which Dr. Willard makes which really stings is this: “Perhaps the hardest thing for sincere Christians to come to grips with is the level or real unbelief in their own life: the unformulated skepticism about Jesus that permeates all dimensions of their being and undermines what efforts they do make toward Christlikeness” (Pg. 88) Intention means I can no longer accommodate this unbelief as acceptable.
Finally, vision and intention must be combined with means: how will we go about replacing the inner character of ‘lostness’ with the inner character of Jesus? Thankfully we are not left to make this up on our own. But let me use Willard’s own summary: “We must start by discovering, by identifying, the thoughts, feelings, habits of will, social relations and bodily inclinations that prevent us from growing in the character of Christ. God has given us many ‘means’ of grace to enable this process to actually get somewhere. Richard Foster’s classic ‘The Celebration of Discipline’ is an excellent resource. Dallas Willard’s own ‘The Spirit and the Disciplines’ is also incredibly helpful. The is no lack of carefully explained material to help each one of us to become fully engaged apprentices of Jesus. The problem is not lack of information.
As Dr. Willard says: “The problem of spiritual transformation among those who identify themselves as Christians today is not that it is impossible or that effectual means are not available. The problem is that it is not intended. People do not see it and its value and decide to carry through with it. They do not decide to do the things Jesus did and said” (pg. 91)
This truth of this must be faced: I must not allow my harried life, or my state in life, or any other vicissitude to stand in the way of the blessed life of being apprenticed to Jesus. He paid an extraordinary price to open a doorway to make it possible. He gives amazing resources to sustain any who seek it and it is not idealistic to hold forth the expectation that what Jesus calls us to is in fact possible.
Posted by Scott on October 21st, 2008 in Church life, Lamb of God | No Comments »
Several things: First, I thought I had better say something about the possibility of LOG moving. The possibility is significant enough that everyone at Lamb needs to know it is out there. This is a very difficult, even agonizing decision with which the elders are wrestling. There are several reasons why it is difficult. One is that we initially prayed about staying and felt strongly that we had leading of the Spirit, confirmed by a sizable drop in the rent. This seemed clear to us.
However, since that time the Episcopal Diocese has been pretty unresponsive to the maintenance issues at the building. One case in point - there is a serious leak in the roof and its is nearly 6000 dollars to repair. We don’t believe this should be our responsibility to repair a building we don’t own. Think about it relative to a house or apartment rental - would you want to be held responsible for repairing serious maintenance issues related to the house or apartment you were living in? (more…)
Posted by Scott on September 6th, 2008 in Church life, Lamb of God | 2 Comments »
This handsome old gentlemen is a great treasure of the Christian Church. J.I. Packer has taught, preached and written marvelously on Christianity for nearly 50 years. Packer has written classics like ‘Knowing God’, ‘Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God’, ‘Keeping in Step with the Spirit’, ‘Growing in Christ’, ‘Knowing and Doing the Will of God’ not to mention dozens of other popular and scholarly works on Christianity.
I had the great pleasure of hearing Dr. Packer many years ago at a conference arranged by Sword of the Spirit. He was spellbinding, full of warmth and a great gentlemen who treated his audience with great respect and affection.
It is possible to soak in the great J.I. Packer thanks to the technology of the internet and the wonderfully free I-Tunes software. If you don’t have it - go and download it on your computer, it won’t bite you! It is quite easy to do, and more than likely most who will read these words already have it and use it. Now listen carefully. Here is how you get the absolutely stirring 17 part series on the Puritans available through Reformed Theological Seminary’s virtual program.
1. Go to I-Tunes (through I-tunes, i.e. Open the program it will take you there)
2. On the left column of I-tunes click on the link “I tunes store” (relax, its free)
3. Under the heading I-tunes store click on the link ‘I-tunes U’
4. At the top of the page you will see a blank box (its a search engine) Type in the following - ‘Reformed Theological Seminary’
5. When you get the results you will see on the left of the screen a link for Reformed Theological Seminary, click it and it will take you to their specific site inside I-tunes. On the RTS Catalog on I-Tunes U heading click on the third link down, which is Church History. This will take you to a series of different lectures - Click on the one which reads - History and Theology of the Puritans. Click on it and it will give you the option of down loading on the lectures. They are totally free!
I am just about through the series and I have throughly enjoyed ever lecture. They are not for the faint hearted, but take your time and listen and I promise you that you will be edified. Some of the theology may not be your cup of tea, but the history lesson, the beautiful example of the puritan’s commitment to Christ, and to the Word will inspire you. Oh, one more thing. Here is the Puritan prayer for worship I promised. (From Sunday’s messsage)
It is the flame of my life to worship You,
the crown and glory of my soul
to adore You,
heavenly pleasure to approach You.
Give me power by thy Spirit to help me worship now,
that I might forget the world,
be brought into fullness of life,
be refreshed, comforted, blessed.
Give me knowledge of Your goodness
that I might not be
over-awed by Your greatness,
Give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God,
that I might not be terrified,
but be drawn near
with filial love;
with holy boldness;
He is my mediator, brother, interpreter,
branch, daysman,(arbitrator) Lamb;
Him I glorify, in Him I am set on high.
Crowns to give I have none,
but what You have given I return,
content to feel that everything is mine
when it is Yours,
and the more fully mine
when I have yielded it to You.
Let me live wholly to my Savior,
free from distractions,
from carking (distressing) care,
from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way.
I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus -
give me a new sense of it,
continue to pardon me by it,
may I come every day to the fountain,
and every day be washed anew,
that I may worship thee always in spirit and truth.
Posted by Scott on August 26th, 2008 in Church life, Lamb of God, Revival | No Comments »
This fine young lad has a wonderful thought written in Satare on his tee-shirt - Tupana aria hetyhot rakat - God is a strong tower. It is an interesting picture for a number of reasons. First, in a certain way I believe it may be a prophetic image of a possible future. A future in which we have a real partnership in reaching the entire Satare people, as well as entree into other unreached indian people groups in the Amazon.
How can that be? How can a small congregation with limited resources actually have a real partnership in reaching, and even touching unreached peoples in the Amazon? Luke 1:37 - “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Two years ago while in the Amazon we met for the first time a simple man with a big dream. Chagas, a Christian and a Satare Indian had a dream - he wanted to be used by God to reach his own people. He had a problem - virtually no resources to accomplish this. God heard his prayer and moved on our hearts to become involved. (more…)
Posted by Scott on August 16th, 2008 in Lamb of God, missions | 2 Comments »
I believe with all my heart that the trip to the Amazon has little to do with digging wells. In the story of the multiplication of the fishes and the loaves found in the gospels is the story primarily about 5 loaves and two fishes? Or does it have more to do with the provision of God, and the capability of Jesus to take a small offering and do great and wondrous things with it?
From the very beginning of our trip, again and again we heard prayers, and declarations that we wanted more than just to do ‘humanitarian’ work. We wanted not just physical thirst, but that the Lord would quench the deepest longings of the heart - the thirst for God.
But that is a spiritual matter, not one that we in our humanity can impact apart from the work of God in the soul of a man. We wanted out modest offering of fresh water to be multiplied and to become in the Satare people a well spring of ‘Living Water’. Many times through the days on the river we prayed and trusted that Jesus could take this small work and have it touch the people in a way that would open their hearts to salvation. (more…)
Posted by Scott on August 15th, 2008 in Lamb of God, Uncategorized, missions | 1 Comment »
We made it home. Just to give you an idea of the immensity of the experience in the Amazon - We have over 7000 pictures and 25 hours of video footage.
Just the trip from where we completed the wells back to Tom and Kathy’s home in Nova Lima took nearly 40 straight hours. 28 hours on the river, ending with a magnificent storm and rain so severe there wasn’t any way to keep from getting wet, even under the cover of the boats decks. After getting to Manues we had a frantic trip to the airport to catch a flight back to Belo Horizonte. It was crazy. Though in many ways typical Brazil. Because of such poor internet access we were unable to keep you all updated on the trip, and for that I apologize.
The three of us (Troy, Ben and Scott) are throughly exhausted from the 11 days in the Amazon. It is impossible to convey the intensity of the heat effect, high humidity, close quarters, and limited sleep other than to say ‘exhaustion plus.’ But in the same breath I would add every single drop of sweat, every discomfort, every inconvenience was nothing compared to the things which the Lord allowed us to see, experience and participate in on this trip. We saw the glory of Christ in the nations. Pure and simple. (more…)
Posted by Scott on August 14th, 2008 in Lamb of God | 4 Comments »
I will have some pictures up here soon. We had one day to rest up and the conference in Belo Horizonte began. Today (Wednesday) was the first complete day for us at the ARC conference in Belo Horizonte.
Ben is really enjoying being back in Brazil after having been unable to come the past four years. He is entering into the whole scene here like a native. In fact he speaks pretty decent portuguese. Anyway, Josh Cheatham is here with us as well and he seems to really be enjoying himself.
James and Flans, April and Judson, Jenny and Arnaldo, Tom and Kathy, as well as many others with whom we have a relationship all send their love to Lamb of God. Rick and Joanne Widner are also here and its great to seem them in this environment.
We are meeting new friends as well - One brother from the South of Brazil is doing amazing work among the poor and the drug addicted in his city. I was really impressed with the tenderness of his heart toward the needy.
This morning I preached two of the four messages I will be bringing here at the ARC conference in Belo Horizonte. The theme of the conference is ‘re-discovering the foundations’. My talks all center on the Cross, and are similar to messages I preached at Lamb in the past month. This morning was very encouraging - As I concluded the second of my talks weeping began to break out all over the room. James Padley, my translator was so overcome with emotion he was nearly unable to continue his translation. The Holy Spirit moved in a sweet way, touching many in the room with reminders of the gospel, taking them back to the basic truth of their own conversions and how precious the Lord is to those who know Him.
I am back at Tom and Kathy’s for the rest of the day - I’m kind of beat, sort of a combination of late nights, jet lag and the excitement of being back here again. I praise God for the generosity of the people of Lamb of God. It is that generosity that allows me to go and be a part of what is taking place in Brazil.
Thank you dear friends for the support you give to the work here in Brazil. I wish all of you could see how God has multiplied your graciousness to the Brazilian people. I will write soon with pictures and more.
peace - Scott
Posted by Scott on July 24th, 2008 in Church life, Lamb of God | 2 Comments »
Over the last 3-4 weeks I have been focusing on the foundational role which the Cross has in helping us to think properly about ourselves, relate well to one another and to worship.
We who follow Christ have a most unique identity. We are sinners who have been redeemed and beloved sons and daughters of God. These two idea must be ‘experientially’ true, and not merely precepts. Together they make the possibility of contentment a reality. When they are believed they make possible honesty regarding my sins, weakness and immaturity’s. When they are held weakly I increase the chances that I will be quick to make excuse, rationalize and otherwise avoid responsibility for my own shortcomings.
If both of these biblical ideas are held close we can also walk together as a body with greater success. As I have been saying conflict is an inevitable outcome of getting human beings together. That conflict is unavoidable as long as we sin, and until Christ returns and we receive the fullness of the promises of redemption we will have this proclivity. Sober estimates of myself (Romans 12:3) play an important role in helping me to maintain peaceful, edifying and encouraging relationships with my brothers and sisters.
In my last post I spoke at length about the hinderances which defensiveness, rationalizations and sinful anger play in making Christian community difficult. If you haven’t read my last post, consider doing it. I think there are some useful ideas about how we must not let defensiveness or anger keep the body from unity. The Cross of Jesus provides both the motivation and the power to enable us to be sanctified by the vicissitudes of human relationships. Today I want to focus on several positive exhortations found in the epistles. This material, sometimes referred to as ‘didache’ (or practical teaching) very often follows a doctrinal section of an epistle. The reason for this is that Paul, under the power of the Spirit’s inspiration would often follow ‘doctrinal’ material with the practical outworking of that theological truth.
For example Ephesians chapter 4 begins with some very exalted language about the church - (4) There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— (5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism, (6) one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (7) But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (8) Therefore it says,”When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (9) In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? (10) He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) (11) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
What does this mean, and how does it relate to building Christian Community?
First, Paul states a series of things which are expressed as simply the ‘way things are.’ (1) There is only one body (what the Nicene Creed calls ‘one holy catholic and apostolic Church.‘) This means that no matter what we see in the multitude of denominations, there is in fact only one church. (2) There is only one Spirit. The promised gift sent by the Father can be found wherever the people of God are found. The same Holy Spirit can be found among Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Orthodox, Catholic and the many other groups who claim Jesus as there Lord and Savior. (3) God has given leadership to the Body for the purpose of equipping the people of God so that they can build up the Body of Christ into increasing maturity. Paul calls this ‘the stature of the fullness of Christ.’ (Ephesians 4:13) Paul describes the healthy body of Christians as people committed to the truth, but spoken in love for the purpose of helping us grow up into Christ. Paul sees this being accomplished not by some elite body of leaders, but by the contribution of every believer, doing whatever God has given them to do so that the body might build itself up in love. That is an exalted theology of the supremacy of Christ, and how the body of Christ increasingly matures in glorifying Jesus.
Then in verses 17-19 Paul brings back a reminder of what the old life apart from Christ is like. Darkened thinking, isolation, and addiction to only those things that are of the senses. It is a sober and stark reminder of what we are capable of in our sinful nature. And I love the way he transitions into his positive exhortation - ‘But that is not the way you learned Christ!’ We who have trusted Christ have experienced a radical discontinuity with our old life, and we are now capable of a whole new range of choices. We can ‘put of’ the old self and be renewed in the spirit of our minds’ (more about this in a moment). We can also ‘put on the new self’ which has been created in the image and likeness of God himself.
Putting off and putting on?
I can draw an analogy which can help us understand this. In January I made the decision that I was going to stop using my injured leg as an excuse for not exercising (I managed to milk that for 4 years). I had begun to see a decline in my health, and I knew I needed to make a choice to take better care of myself. So I began with something simple - walking daily to improve my health. I started out in January with roughly 30 - 40 minutes a day (about 2.5 miles a day). I hated it at first. Little by little I improved in stamina. About a month ago I was able to increase my exercise substantially. Strangely now it seems like something I can’t do with out. Strenuous exercise now seems like a norm to me.
Sanctification is a process analogous to my experience with walking. Putting off has to do with breaking old sinful habits, patterns and things which ’seem’ automatic to our sinful nature. It is accomplished by ‘putting on’ a who new set of godly ideas, attitudes, perspectives, and conduct. It happens with daily reliance on Christ through prayer, scripture meditation, scripture study, worship, fasting, times of silence/solitude, service to others and the sacraments. Old ideas of bearing grudges give way to forgiveness and reconciliation. Old ideas of lustfully relating to our sexuality give way to purity and valuing the opposite sex as beautiful, beloved of God and fellow heirs of the gospel. Old ideas of greed, hoarding and consumption give way to generosity and investment in the Kingdom of God. It takes time, and it takes getting up when we fall and pressing on by confession and repentance. But over time the Holy Spirit yields results in our character, producing in us the likeness of Jesus.
Notice then how extraordinarily practical are exhortations of Ephesians 4:25-32. Each of these clauses is worthy of consideration:
(25) Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Remember that Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked. The prophet describes the fallen heart of man with amazingly succinct accuracy. But now we are in Christ, with new natures and we must be all about ‘putting away falsehood.’ Obviously this refers to lying, or misrepresenting the truth in any way. But it also has subtler implications. All of us will from time to time be inclined to be swept away by some deception that gets the best of us. It will often be wrong conclusions we draw about some conflict we are having with another person. We crystalize our point of view and believe we are seeing the whole picture. We then proceed to see only what supports this point of view. This is one reason I believe so completely in the plurality of elders. I need my fellow elders to be able to find wisdom when difficult matters come before me. I need to make sure I am not acting in anger, or being driven by some exaggerated point of view. From time to time I as a pastor, along with my fellow elders have to judge a matter that requires sober judgment. I have learned not to trust myself without consulting my brother elders.
Here in Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians he begins with this simple idea. Christian community depends in part on a shared consensus to love the truth and to be willing to speak it to one another (remember that in another place he says we are to do this in love). Why? We are members of one another. What does that mean? The word translated ‘member’ can actually refer to a part of the human body, like an arm or a leg. In the context of this passage Paul is trying to say something about the interdependency of Christians - it is as though we are physiologically joined together with one another. Why do we lay aside falsehood and speak the truth to one another? Because we are a part of each other, in as real a way as the various physical parts of a human body. Could you imagine the transformation to Christianity if people actually believed this to be the truth. People leave churches, move from one to another and very often leave behind people hurt by their abruptness or seeming capriciousness regarding their decision to leave. It is virtually unheard of for people to process decisions like this - they just leave. The worst examples are those who leave and then hurl back a few bombs as they go, feeling no responsibility for the collateral damages.
Can you hear Paul - You are members of one another. (26) Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, (27) and give no opportunity to the devil. Will we get ticked at one another? Of course, it really cannot be avoided. But, as members of one another do not sin in that anger, and make sure you work it out as quickly as possible, trying your best to be at peace before the sun goes down on the conflict. It is fomenting anger which lies the ground work for what the writer of Hebrews calls the ‘bitter root.’ Hebrews 12: (15) See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled… Defilement is a word which the bible tends to associate with the corrupting influence of coming into contact with those things which make one ‘unfit’ to be in the presence of holiness. Anger that isn’t dealt with properly, and gets nursed (rumination is the precise term I’m thinking of) ends up causing trouble (because angry people typically can’t help but talk to others about their anger) and by that they end up making themselves and potentially others ‘unfit’ to be in the presence of God. In a word they defile themselves and others who join them in their sin. Paul in his exhortation states ‘give no opportunity to the devil.’ Angry people are like cars that are speeding down the road with no driver. Satan is perfectly willing to take the wheel and cause as severe an collision as he possible can.
(28) Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. There is of course the obvious sense in which Paul means this. If someone was converted from a life of criminal behavior, he must not return to that behavior. We have experienced this on a number of occasions in reaching out to people who alleged that they want to ‘change’ from a criminal past and straighten themselves out, only to later steal from us with pretty abysmal results.
But I also think this has a much broader application, as a statement calling for reciprocity in the body of Christ. Allowing the bulk of the work of a church community to fall on just a few is a form of stealing. Early Paul exhorts us to work together in such a way that ‘the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly.’ The body of Christ is meant to be a cooperative, with everyone looking for ways to serve one another. The church is to function like a family, and in healthy families everyone contributes to build that family. What we call ‘dysfunction’ is really just a fancy way of saying that the family isn’t working together. It is a dysfunctional church in which ‘professionals’ do most of the work and the constituency sits back and is ’served’. Paul reminds us - each part supplies something vital.
(29) Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (30) And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Faithful adherence to verse 29 would forever change Christian community into a paradise here on earth. Can you imagine a community where a premium was placed on edifying speech and we really and truly tried to speak well of one another? I believe it can be done, because Paul exhorts us to it, and Christ always enables what he commands. We really can, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit build community by words of encouragement, and blessing.
Prov. 10:19 - When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
Pro. 12: 6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright will deliver them.
Prov. 16:24 - Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Prov. 17:27 - He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
Note verse 30. Just how much of this passage can be applied to the admonition ‘not to grieve the Holy Spirit’ isn’t clear. But it is a fairly safe bet to assume that at the very least this warning against ‘grieving the Spirit’ at least applies the verse which comes right before it (29). The Spirit is certainly grieved when Christians wound each other with unkind words, carelessly thrown around.
(31) Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. (32) Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Here Paul concludes Ephesians 4 with a laundry list of things he exhorts the church to ‘put away.’ Nearly all of them are related to uncontrolled anger. Please note that very carefully. And I believe this passage of practical Christian teaching reaches it’s only reasonable finale in verse 32 with a return to the Cross and what Christ has accomplished for us. What is that which stands as our inspiration and our empowerment to do as we are inspired by the Word - Christ. Kindness, tenderness and forgiveness is possible for one reason and one reason only - because God in Christ has done all these things for us. He has been kind when we deserved judgment. And now his kindness can empower our kindness to one another. He has been tender when we deserved the ‘roughest’ treatment. And that tenderness can propel our hearts to be tender toward one another. He gave forgiveness when I deserved condemnation. And that spiritual truth can set me free to extend forgiveness again and again to my brothers and sisters.
Brothers and sisters this entire next year will have a renew focus on building Christian community. We will have a pattern of regular community meetings and meals to help give us a pattern which encourages us to be together. But a pattern is only a strategy - in the end it is the choices we make to actively engage the Lord by consistently engaging one another. May God bless each one of the body here at Lamb as we endeavor to deeply the bonds of love.
Posted by Scott on July 19th, 2008 in Church life, Lamb of God | No Comments »
Scripture is filled with concern for peace. Romans 12:18 - If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. That sets before us a weighty responsibility to seek and maintain peace with one another. This begins with family life. Husbands and wives are required to ‘as far as it depends’ on themselves to live at peace with one another. This exhortation extends to the church community. We are too, ‘as much as it depends’ on our actions to seek to live at peace with one another. That is formidable, but it is the word of God and it is possible to be obedient to that word. (more…)
Posted by Scott on July 8th, 2008 in Church life, Lamb of God, spiritual warfare | No Comments »
