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When does a boy become a man?
If you’re a person who lives your life in the scriptures, and in God’s presence, seeking to live out his will on earth, hopefully you’ve noticed that, all around us, maturity is vanishing. Our culture prizes youth and youthfulness in almost every aspect–from looks to pursuits. A complete disdain for the actual shouldering of responsibilities is taking over, along with an inability to care about things that aren’t enjoyable.
This is just one way that the way of Jesus is diverging more and more from the way of the culture around us. A Christian understands that God created us, not to spend our lives pursuing fun, but to strive to transcend youthfulness and press on to maturity. For everyone who has reached the age of biological maturity, it must be said: a fully human person is a mature person. That’s why part of our focus in the Young Adults fellowship is on maturity. Christian maturity is absolutely essential for a believer of adult age.
And since those of you who are on the younger end of the spectrum can no longer look to the culture for cues on how, practically, to grow up, we need to turn our attention to the scriptures, and to wisdom from trusted, established teachers in the church.Along those lines, I recently found this excellent guide for young men, from Al Mohler. It’s called From Boy to Man–the Marks of Manhood.
You can download a pdf here, or read it all in two blog posts, Part 1 and Part 2.
Mohler starts off like this:
When does a boy become a man? The answer to this must go far beyond biology and chronological age. As defined in the Bible, manhood is a functional reality, demonstrated in a man’s fulfillment of responsibility and leadership.
Then he goes on to suggest 13 “marks of biblical manhood,” and observes, “The achievement of these vital qualities marks the emergence of a man who will demonstrate true biblical masculinity.”
Here are his 13 Marks of Manhood, with a choice quote for each one.
- Spiritual maturity sufficient to lead a wife and children. “A man must be ready to lead his wife and his children in a way that will honor God, demonstrate godliness, inculcate Christian character, and lead his family to desire Christ and to seek God’s glory…Spiritual maturity is a mark of true Christian manhood, and a spiritually immature man is, in at least this crucial sense, spiritually just a boy.”
- Personal maturity sufficient to be a responsible husband and father. “True masculinity is not a matter of exhibiting supposedly masculine characteristics devoid of the context of responsibility…Marriage is unparalleled in its effect on men, as it channels their energies and directs their responsibilities to the devoted covenant of marriage and the grace-filled civilization of the family.”
- Economic maturity sufficient to hold an adult job and handle money. “Slothfulness, laziness and economic carelessness are marks of immaturity. A real man knows how to earn, manage and respect money.”
- Physical maturity sufficient to work and protect a family. “A boy must be taught to channel his developing strength and emerging size into a self-consciousness of responsibility, recognizing that adult strength is to be combined with adult responsibility and true maturity.”
- Sexual maturity sufficient to marry and fulfill God’s purposes. “The true Christian man practices sexual integrity, avoiding pornography, fornication, all forms of sexual promiscuity and corruption.”
- Moral maturity sufficient to lead as example of righteousness. “As a boy grows into manhood, he must develop moral maturity as he aspires to righteousness, learning to think like a Christian, act like a Christian and show others how to do the same.”
- Ethical maturity sufficient to make responsible decisions. “The indecisiveness of so many contemporary males is evidence of a stunted manhood.”
- Worldview maturity sufficient to understand what is really important. “A boy must learn how to translate Christian truth into genuine Christian thinking.”
- Relational maturity sufficient to understand and respect others. ” “Individuals who lack the ability to relate to others are destined to fail at some of life’s most significant challenges and will not fulfill some of their most important responsibilities and roles.”
- Social maturity sufficient to make a contribution to society. “The Christian man bears a civilizational responsibility, and boys must be taught to see themselves as shapers of the society even as the church is identified by our Lord as both salt and light.”
- Verbal maturity sufficient to communicate and articulate as a man. “Though not all men will become public speakers, every man should have the ability to take his ground, frame his words, and make his case when truth is under fire and when belief and conviction must be translated into argument.”
- Character maturity sufficient to demonstrate courage under fire. “This courage is demonstrated in taking a stand under hostile fire, refusing to succumb to the temptation of silence and standing as a model and example to others, who will then be encouraged to stand their own ground.”
- Biblical maturity sufficient to lead at some level in the church. “There is a role of leadership for every man in every church, whether that role is public or private, large or small, official or unofficial. A man should know how to pray before others, to present the Gospel and to stand in the gap where a leadership need is apparent.”
That’s just a taste. There’s two or three paragraphs of great wisdom under each heading. The whole thing won’t take you more that 15 minutes to read, but it could affect the rest of your life. Literally.
If you’re a man, I encourage you to read it and pray about these things, along with familiar scriptures on the subject (like, say, 1 Timothy 4:12 and Corinthians 13:11). Ask the Holy Spirit–where do I need to mature? Then, take action.
And if you’re a woman, I encourage you to read this piece also, for two reasons. First if you want to be married some day, you should be looking for this kind of man to marry. (Men, listen up!) Pray for God to send one your way. He will not lead you to marry a boy in a man’s body. It’s a man you need, and you should know how to recognize one when you see one. Second, if also one day you end up raising little boys of your own, these are great things to lay down as foundations for the goals of your parenting.
So go read it–You can download a pdf here, or read it all in two blog posts, Part 1 and Part 2.
Jesus, Being Real About Our World
Last night we took some time to pray for those of us who are heading back to school soon, and then to look at a particular teaching of Jesus that provides help we need in these times. Here are the notes:
In Matthew 10:1-4, Jesus gathers his inner circle of 12 followers, gives them special power, and sends them out to go preach his message all over the country side. And so here we get the speech he gave to them when he sent them out. (See verse 5). In verses 5 through 15 he gives them some basic instructions for their temporary journey away from him they’re about to take. And then in verse 16 he says this:
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
And this verse seems to take us beyond their immediate small mission, out into the future time when Jesus isn’t physically with them anymore, and they face longer, bigger battles. It had to do with the rest of their lives. And then we read the rest of the New Testament we can see that it kept applying to the people who believed the message and become preachers of the message themselves. I say all that just to say that when we realized that Jesus spoke this way, we should quickly also realize that he’s saying these words to us too. [Here we read Matthew 10:17-38] Now, we readily admit that right now some followers of Jesus around the world are facing some of these things. We’re not saying that believers who live in America are, but we are followers of Jesus, so we know that anything Jesus teaches may apply to us, and more and more, we are starting to face this kind of energy, even if it hasn’t reached its full intensity yet.
Tonight we’re going to just think about verse 16 and how it applies to our situation right now. So here’s his basic teaching: When you live your life for Jesus, it’s like being a sheep who’s sent out into the middle of a pack of wolves.
He’s painting a contrast, between his followers and everyone else. His followers are those who spend their lives learning from him (which is the meaning of the another name for Jesus’ followers –“disciple”), and being sent by him to spread his message so that other people will believe the message. If you’re not familiar with what their message was, it’s just that Jesus is the King who is returning to rule everything, and that everyone needs to obey God’s command to turn away from sin and trust Jesus as the only one who can forgive their sin and save them from the wrath of God that’s coming when Jesus comes back to conquer.
Everyone else, all the people who populate the world the followers of Jesus are sent out into, Jesus calls them, “wolves.” And just, right off the bat, if you’re not a follower of Jesus, you might already be thinking, “wait, is he saying I’m a wolf?” In one sense I guess we could say no—maybe Jesus is specifically talking about people in power who will actively oppose the spreading of his message. But in another sense, unless you’re a person who is promoting Jesus’ message, then…we have to say say, yeah. But before you get offended (understandably), you need to know that, from the rest of the bible, we know that “wolves” are people he loves by dying for them. If we’re going to be consistent with the imagery, we have to say that everybody who’s a follower of Christ today was once someone in the category of “wolf.” In this sense, we’re all either wolves… or former wolves. It’s wolves who Jesus is offering salvation to—in other words, wolves can submit to Jesus Christ and become sheep. So if you find yourself tonight on that side of things, realize that Jesus is like a doctor—he diagnoses and offers a cure. If you’re willing to accept his diagnosis, you can get his cure. And it’s something all his sheep had to go through—in fact, it’s how you become a sheep.
But it’s also significant that Jesus didn’t talk this way to general crowds of people. Everywhere he went he wasn’t saying, “Hey everyone—you guys are wolves.” And we wouldn’t talk that way to mixed crowds either. Jesus didn’t say this to people directly, he said it to a closed group of his closest followers, indirectly, about the wider world. He’s just said—let’s not be naïve, there’s wolves out there. So that’s kind of what this bible study is, with the important difference that we hope there’s non-followers of Jesus here every week, and we just invite you to listen in and consider the message of Jesus. So, to consider the verse…
We should know this was how Jesus talked about the world. So we shouldn’t be surprised when the world feels this way. At our jobs. At school. Maybe in our homes. Definitely in the wider culture and online, etc.
When men and women push God and the message of Jesus further and further from our thoughts, we become less and less like God—less patient, less loving, more selfish, more dominated by our physical drives, our pride, and our insecurities, more concerned with self-preservation and our own pleasure, than anything else. So the world just gets more and more dangerous in general, because people are looking out for each other less and less, and more and more just seeing what they can get from other people.
In thinking through this study, I had originally written a list of all the dangerous things in our society—from babies getting killed to all the cultural tensions to how women feel in the world, and I realized, we can just admit it—and I think everyone here knows what I’m talking about—it’s a dangerous place out there. It’s getting more and more dangerous generally, and specifically, like Jesus says, people who follow him are starting to feel more pressure. Because the more people ignore God and reject what he says, the more the message of Jesus in particular becomes offensive and intolerable. I think most of you know this—On college campuses for instance, where a bunch of you are headed for another semester, the ideologies that are being promoted almost everywhere are radically hostile to the Christian message—they call our message, the message that Jesus has the authority to define and forgive sin, harmful and hateful.
And, maybe it’s going to keep getting more dangerous in our neck of the woods. In some places of the world, people are like wolves to followers of Jesus because, right now, they’re doing v.17 and 21 to them. For us it’s not like that today, but we’re definitely feeling a lot more this than we used to: “Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.” (That’s Luke 6:22.) And some believers, through lawsuits, are even facing the “plundering of their goods” like the Christians described in Hebrews 10:34. We know of people who’ve faced financial consequences, like the destroying of their businesses, and one woman already who spent a few days in jail because of her insistence on taking a stand on a question of morality in her capacity as a public servant. That’s in America. So, even though, as you go off to school or start another fall at work, I don’t expect to hear about any of you being martyrs, we all know full well you’re going into a world that’s hostile to authentic, living, vocal Christianity. You can be a Christian and people will be cool with you, you just can’t be an “out” Christian. So be it. Jesus told us it would be this way.
That’s why it’s so important for us to really hear the direction he gave us. He says that, if we’ve been sent out by him, we’re like sheep—but not regular sheep. We’re to be like sheep that are also wise as snakes, and innocent as doves. This is important, because mostly when people say someone’s a “sheep” they mean they’re just a dumb, blind follower. But that’s not what Jesus means. He used the term “sheep” in this teaching just to draw a contrast between his followers and the people he calls Wolves—and that’s where we see the issue is not about how intelligent you are, but how lethal you are. His point is not that wolves are smart and sheep are dumb, but that wolves are dangerous, and sheep aren’t.
In biblical imagery, what wolves do is hunt and devour, and they especially like to devour sheep. Which means that what Jesus is saying to his followers by telling them they’ll be like sheep is, “I’m not going to send you out with the ability to protect yourself like a wolf, or fight back the way a wolf does. I’m not going to arm you with the weapons wolves are armed with.” We don’t get to be lions among wolves, or even wolves on par with the other wolves, instead, we’ll be spread throughout society in a position that feels as vulnerable as a sheep in a wolf pack. I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.
And I think if this was all Jesus said, it would get our minds going…If we’re not going to bring wolf weapons to the war…if we can’t expect to win by fighting back, tooth for tooth, is Jesus saying we just should give up and expect to get eaten? The answer is no…and that’s what makes the two other animals Jesus uses to describe his followers so helpful.
First, he says, we should be “wise as serpents.” The Greek word that gets translated “wise” here is not the usual word which gets translated wise (sophia), it’s another word which shades over into the idea of being clever or skillful or experienced. The idea seems to be, when you go out, and it’s like there’s wolves all around—be heads up and aware. Be “street smart” about the world we live in. I read a great comment on this that said the snake was sort of a proverb for being able to get out of the way of trouble, and for being a master of self-preservation. “Disciples under threat are not to be helpless and gullible, but to maintain the initiative…” Our intelligence isn’t to be aimed at hurting people, like wolves, but to survival and the promotion of the gospel. “[Disciples] need the cunning of snakes without the venom.”
So when we follow Jesus, we don’t become dumb followers of just anyone, but wise followers of Jesus, and following Jesus means we operate like he operated. Just read the histories of his life…watch how he carried himself, and how he was a genius at avoiding danger, and then, when it was his time, how he walked straight into the teeth of the attack so he could die for our sins. That’s our model. There’s nothing naïve about it.
But that image of being snakes with no venom is a good way to sum up what Jesus seems to mean by being “harmless” as doves. It’s interesting that this word gets translated “harmless” here, because it usually seems to mean something more like innocent or sincere. This is a person who doesn’t have ulterior motives or hidden plans. They’re not maneuvering for power or personal advancement. They’re not trying to use people for their own purposes. They just are who they are. When you meet them, you really meet them, all the way. You can trust them. So when they seem like they want to help you, or want the best for you—they really do. In that sense, they really are harmless, but not because they’re just weak or clueless—no, it’s because they’re just…straight-up, good people.
When you read the letters of the Apostle Paul, there’s a couple points where he seems he has this teaching of Jesus right in his mind, and he even uses this same word. For instance in a passage that begins in Romans 16:17, he says, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
That word “innocent” is another translation of the same word that gets translated “harmless” in Matthew. And notice the exact same ideas as what Jesus was saying—be a wise person, but be a safe person. Be wise about what is good and how to do it, but be innocent of all the evil.
And in Philippians 2:14-15 Paul writes: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…”
The word “innocent” is our same word again. And I think it’s pretty important for us to notice the two other things Paul adds to help us have hope in all this. When we live like this—when we let the teachings of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit, so shape our lives that we become people who exhibit a pretty amazing combination of qualities—harmless, intelligent, and sincerely good—we can be assured of two rock-solid truths. First, here in Philippians 2:15 says that we’ll impact our world that’s so full of wolves—the way a shining light impacts darkness. It doesn’t matter if we face cultural marginalization, or if we feel small and unimportant and unpowerful—Jesus says, don’t worry, you’re the light, and you’re shining. This semester at school, this fall at work, this year with your family and with your neighbors—don’t underestimate the power of an authentic Christian life lived out simply and sincerely in front of people. No matter what they say, a lot of people are going to see how much better the way of Jesus is than the ways they’re being told to live.
And also, back in Romans 16 in verse 20, maybe you didn’t catch it, but right after he tells us to be wise and innocent, he says: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” I was reading this the other day and it was like one of those moments where the sentence just lights up on the page for you, you know? It’s so clear once you see it—aren’t these things exactly what we need to hear? When we’re being pushed to the sidelines of everything, excluded and shouted down, don’t we need to hear that our light is shining? And when it feels like we’re losing our power to influence the culture for the good, and we might get tempted to think that if Christians are hated, evil will win…don’t we need to hear this—“Don’t worry, God’s going to crush Satan under your feet, and he’s going to do it soon.” Evil won’t win. But it’s going to be overcome God’s way. So we just need to keep learning more and more how to do what Christians have always done—we need to follow Jesus, and keep his commands, and love the world, and spread the good news.
So whether it’s a boss or co-worker breathing down your neck because of how you live your life, or a new policy at work that seems like it’s going to exclude you because of your faith, or a professor who targets you in class, or a mob of students on campus who are violently anti-Christian, or a family member who scoffs at the bible, or whatever might come our way—we have what we need right here. Jesus knew it all ahead of time. And if we walk with him, he’ll prepare us and equip us to be the lights he was talking about in our days.
Before you go back to school: Understand Intersectionality
I posted the beginning of this post a few weeks ago, but I want to repost it here because it goes with tonight’s study, and it’s so essential for those of you about to head back to school in the next few weeks. If you’re going to college this year, please read this, and the two articles linked to. And, if you’ve already read it, I added more, and another article, below.
______________________________________
Do you understand this sentence?
“The problem with intersectionality arises when it ceases to be an insight and becomes an ideology.”
If not, and you have anything to do with any part of higher education, or for that matter, professional America, I highly encourage you to take some time very soon to read Joe Carter’s excellent, concise article, What Christians Should Know About Intersectionality.
Carter writes:
Although the concept has been around for almost three decades, many Christians have never heard of intersectionality or are unaware of the way it has morphed into a competing worldview.
After explaining the origins of the term and the ideology, he gives a quick explanation of its basic ideas, and notes that, while it offers some helpful insights into the struggles different people face within our cultural structures,
The problem with intersectionality arises when it ceases to be an insight and becomes an ideology. As with many useful concepts, intersectionality can be used to promote the flourishing of the human community or can be used to create new forms of systematic sin. And over the past decade, the concept has frequently…been used as a tool for building division not only between the “oppressors” …and the oppressed, … but separation between groups deemed to be victims.
If you want to understand what’s really happening on College campuses today, and what is driving so much of the tension in our culture at large, in short, if you want to be able to talk to the people who are fired up about things, and not just the people who are checking out, read the whole thing.
Also, in this month’s First Things magazine, Elizabeth Corey has an article entitled The First Church of Intersectionality. Please read this one too. She explains:
Intersectionality is a wholly academic invention that plays a large role in this movement. Indeed, it stands in the vanguard of the progressive academy, allied with critical race studies, queer studies, women’s studies, and ethnic studies. Intersectional scholars proudly proclaim their goal: to smash the neoliberal, corporate, heteropatriarchal academy and then to reinvent it in a way that rejects traditional notions about what universities are meant to do. These scholars also want to redefine the family and to abolish the “binary” of man and woman.
Also:
Intersectionality is…quasi-religious gnostic movement, which appeals to people for precisely the reasons that all religions do: It gives an account of our brokenness, an explanation of the reasons for pain, a saving story accompanied by strong ethical imperatives, and hope for the future. In short, it gives life meaning.
In other words, it is, “another Gospel.” And, not only is it firing up rallies on campus, but with only a little attention paid, you’ll notice it shapes many of your text books and class discussions. When I started reading about it, I realized why, in my college days, I had a text-book entitled Race, Class, and Gender.
There’s more to say about this, especially by people who, motivated by the love of Christ, care for the helpless and oppressed. But for tonight, may I just suggest that you get up to speed on all this before you’re back in class?
Practical Spirituality: How to Have Joy
Last night we took the evening to look at Paul’s letter to the Philippians and ponder this topic: How can we have joy, even in difficult times? Here are the notes:
How to Stay Joyful: A Trip Through Paul’s Letter to the Philippians
Previous to writing the letter to the Philippians, Paul had been in arrested in Jerusalem, and spent two years in prison waiting for a trial under false charges of sedition against the government. Finally he exercised a right he had a Roman citizen, and appealed to the emperor. This meant that he was sent, under guard, to wait for a personal trial before Caesar. In Rome he was under constant surveillance, probably chained to a guard at all times (Acts 28:16). He did have the ability to meet with people, and even attend Synagogue, and he rented his own place to live in. But still, for the two years he spent in Rome (as well as the two previous years) he was a prisoner, with no real freedom, and no certainty of the outcome of his case. It was during this time that he wrote the letter to the church in Philippi.
But even in these circumstances, this letter is full of joy—Paul expresses joy himself, and he expresses a concern that other Christians would have joy. In that sense, among other things, the letter is a kind of manual for joy in difficulty—how did Paul not get totally down when all his plans got ruined, when he was stuck in Jail on trumped-up charges, and he seriously had to contemplate his life being over sometime soon? And since this isn’t just a letter from a person to a church, but it’s also God’s inspired word—that means that God himself wants us to see these things—he wants us to learn the lessons Paul has learned by experience, so that when we experience our trials, even when they’re not up to the level of Paul’s, we can have a joy that’s not rocked by everything we’re going to face in life.
How to stay Joyful, even in difficult circumstances…
1:3-8 Care about God’s work and God’s people. Know what’s going on with people who love and serve Jesus, and pray for them. And in general, care about other people.
1:12-17 See the things that have happened to you as being part of the necessary battle to do God’s work. The prerequisite: actually having a life that is engaged in the work God is doing, and in the battle that he is carrying on to spread the Gospel. So: 1. actively involve yourself in God’s work to spread the gospel and to see people come to know Christ, and then 2. Realize that opposition to the work is going to affect you.
1:18 Be more moved by message of Jesus, and its spreading, than you are by other things. In this way excitement (joy) over the work of God can overshadow disappointment or aggravation.
1:20 Get excited about the glory of Jesus. When we cultivate an awareness of how awesome Jesus is, and how great it is to know him, we start to want more and more people to see how great he is—that’s what it means to glorify him. We want him to get glory among more and more people. And the possibility of that begins to excite us. And then that excitement gets big enough to overpower other things like fear—even fear of death!
When you take these verses together, you can see an important difference between the way God had taught Paul to view his life and the way most people in America today want to see their lives. Paul could maintain joy through opposition and threats because he didn’t see life as a vacation, he saw it more as a race or a battle. And he didn’t see the events of his life as random—he saw them as all related to the fact that he was in a race or a battle. So when life was hard, he could think, “yeah, races are like that.” And when he took some shots, he could think, “well, this is war.” And since he believed that this battle was important, and that the outcome of victory—the reward—would be worth it, he found a joy in thinking about the victory that lifted his spirits in the difficulty of his present circumstances.
1:23-26 Care about other people’s joy. Become someone who is all about spreading joy. Paul understood the source of joy, and how people find it for real. That’s all wrapped up in why he wrote about their “progress and joy of faith.” He knew his friends in Philippi would find joy for real the same way he had—by their connection to Jesus and his work. So when Paul became a spreader of joy, it didn’t mean that he just became some sort of hippie talking love and peace all the time. He became a serious spreader of the only message that brought people into connection with Jesus. And he spent his time teaching people how to progress in that faith and how to deepen that joy.
2:16 Think about future joy you’ll have when the fruit of your labor is seen.
2:17 This is along the same lines as what we saw in chapter one. Paul saw any suffering he went through as being worth it because of the way it furthered God’s work, especially the way it helped other believers—and he saw all of it as spreading joy.
3:1-3 Rejoice in the Lord. In other words, let the source of your joy be Jesus—who he is, what he’s done, the fact that you have a close friendship with him, and the fact that he’s coming back to be with us and fix everything. And also it probably means, within the sphere of everything the Lord is for us, within the life he’s given us to live—rejoice!
Everything we’ve been seeing here kind of adds up to at least one obvious take away—the Christian life should be colored by joy. Because of who Jesus is for us, and what he did for us, and the life he’s given us to live, we should have a strong note of joy running through our lives. It should be generally dominant. At this point in the letter Here Paul’s writing to them about the fact that there are people who masquerade as servants of God, but are actually working against Jesus. So Paul says, how will we know who’s legit in terms of promoting Christ? Joy shows up again here. One of the marks of a Christian’s authenticity, is that we “rejoice” in Christ Jesus. We really have joy. Honestly, doesn’t that quality alone set Christianity apart from so many other things these days?
The other mark of being authentically connected to God is that our joy is “in the Lord.” Even if there are other, counterfeit joys, even religious ones, one mark of the person who’s truly connected to God is the fact that Jesus himself is a source of joy for them.
4:1-4 “Rejoice in the Lord.” Here it is again. This time he says it to Christians—and it seems like there was some conflict in the church. He tells them that instead of conflict over each other, they should have joy over the Lord. He says it twice in verse 4 to drive it home. And he says, it should be what we’re doing always. Now he doesn’t mean that there aren’t times in life to grieve, or to really experience the sadness and pain that so much real life brings (In Romans 12:15 for instance he wrote that Christians should follow Jesus’ example and “weep with those who weep”) —just remember that here he’s writing to people who weren’t experiencing joy because they were just fighting with each other.
And so I guess when he says “rejoice always” he means—instead of letting all the unnecessary things that we usually get upset about to dominate our thinking, make it a point to be people who rejoice.
4:10 Notice here in verse 10 Paul writes again about rejoicing in the Lord himself. This time is interesting though because it’s actually something other than Jesus himself that caused the joy—it’s the financial gift that the church sent him to care for his needs. Paul’s like, “That gift was awesome! It brought me joy!” And one thing maybe that’s obvious here is that Christians rejoice in normal things—like when friends come through and take care of you when you really need it. But again, if we look at the words Paul uses to describe how his emotions worked when he got their gift, it’s really helpful—he calls his joy over the gift, “rejoicing in the Lord.” So maybe we can say this about what he expresses in verse 10…
To have a consistent joy in life, when good things do happen…See the good things that happen to you in life as being part of God’s love and care for you. So when Christians rallied and came to Paul’s aid, he rejoiced! But he rejoiced “in the Lord” which meant, for him, everything was connected to Jesus. It’s like, “Thank you Jesus for moving your people to aid in your work by sending me these things I needed.” Again what’s interesting is that it doesn’t take away his gratitude to them for what they did, and it doesn’t take away his ordinary excitement. Actually I think it probably solidifies it. That’s what I mean when I say we’re looking for a consistent joy.
Have you ever had something good happen, and you get excited about it, but then something bad happens, and it kind of washes away the good thing—almost like the good thing never happened? I wonder—if we learn to receive our joys like Paul does here—in the Lord, from him, because of him, as part of his work—does it actually make those joys more solid, so that the next bad thing can’t just wash it away? If we don’t locate our joy on the things or the people primarily—but on Jesus, maybe we will have our joys in a more permanent way—they become eternal things, rooted in God’s eternal plan he’s working out in our lives through our connection to Jesus. Like, if God gave it to me, nothing can ever really, finally, take it away. Maybe that’s even in his language here in verse 10: “I rejoiced that you cared enough to send me a gift, and I rejoiced in the Lord.”
And there’s one more final, crucial thing in this passage. It doesn’t have the language of joy right in it, but it’s tied in to the whole letter in a pretty fundamental way, so we have to see what he says in verse 13.
4:13 Live off of the inner strengthening Jesus provides when you’re in a living relationship with him. Paul tells them that he’s content in any kind of circumstance—having a lot or having nothing, because Christ is always giving him strength. I think this turns out to be the key to everything we’ve seen.
Without this, the message of Christianity would be something like, it’s gonna get better, so think about the future, put a smile on, and try to stay happy. And of course, it is going to better. And thinking about that is a major help to us in the difficulties we face. But the open secret to the whole Christian life is what Paul describes here—when someone trusts Jesus, and follows him closely, they find that Jesus himself, through his Spirit, lives inside of us in such a way that he is empowering us to do anything and everything he asks of us. That’s the ultimate source of joy. Jesus talks about drinking water that, when it gets inside of you, it becomes a fountain of everlasting life and a river that flows out of you. You’re so full of life that you can’t contain it. He talks about life flowing from a vine to a branch so that it’s always bearing fruit. God promises the same thing in the writings of the prophets. And Paul says, the real source of my joy, even before the gift came to supply his needs, was (and is) that Jesus is living in me and giving me his strength.
That’s the center of everything for followers of Christ. We look forward to an eternity of an ever-deepening connection with the source of all life, and it’s a person: It’s God Himself. It’s not just God in some crazy, incomprehensible sense, it’s God in Christ—a man we will have as our king and our older brother forever. This same idea is buried in another key passage in this letter, back in 3:8 & 10, when Paul writes that he’s willing to suffer everything he’s suffered in life because he’s finding that it’s so great to know Jesus. Friendship with God makes life worthwhile. It makes suffering significant. It makes the universe not lonely anymore. It reorders the value of everything, like any real relationship does—only this one is the ultimate relationship, so it’s the ultimate revaluing and reordering of everything in our life.
So that’s a trip through the letter to try to see why Paul’s talking about Joy even though he’s in some pretty rough circumstances. And I think you’re probably noticing that there’s some real practical direction for us in all this.
First, if we want an unshakeable joy, we’ve got to actively choose to connect ourselves to the work God’s doing in Christ and to his kingdom. The little things in our lives will seem random and meaningless unless they’re connected to something big. The painful things in our lives will only seem tragic unless they’re connected to something glorious. The difficult things in our lives won’t seem worth it unless they’re connected to something significant.
So Christians—we can’t hope for happiness and ignore the way the bible says it comes. We can’t live like regular Americans, figuring that trying to have fun week to week is the pinnacle of life, and wonder why we don’t have joy. We need to let Jesus call us to bigger things. The message of Jesus. The work of God in the world to save people from sin. The plan of God to fix everything. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.”
Second, is that ultimately, the bigger thing we need our lives connected to, the kingdom of God, is all about connection to a person. Our joy will increase as we make Jesus a real, personal focus. It’s not corny—we need to spend time in His presence, the presence of His Spirit, with his word open in front of us, and our ears open to what it says, and prayers in our mouths going up to him. We need to enjoy him directly that way, and not just indirectly by sort of assuming he’s with us wherever we go.
Third, we can’t focus on ourselves, and our own joy, if we truly want joy. Since the kingdom of God is people knowing Christ, if we’re focused on the big thing God is doing in our lives, we’ll be focused on others. And it turns out that God has made us that way. When we let our thoughts dwell on ourselves we shrivel up. When we focus on the family of humanity, with Jesus at its head, we come alive.
Finally, if you aren’t a follower of Christ, I want to just point out one seriously important way all of this is connected to our lives. If we’re tuned in at all to what’s going on in the world, I think we have to admit that loss of joy is a serious problem today. Any sort of real happiness is gone out of life for so many people—and that’s why we have millions who live on anti-depressants and what is basically an epidemic of suicide. And the only answer our culture is giving—go deeper! Watch more movies. Live out your deepest longings. Get more technology. Take more drugs. Have more sex. And we always say it here on Monday nights but, come on everyone—is it working? And if you go back and read the words Jesus said when he showed up to preach a better way, it’s so huge! What he said was, “The kingdom of God is at hand—repent, and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:17)
In other words, there’s a much bigger thing than all of these small things that are breaking you anyway—God’s kingdom is arriving! Let go of sex and Netflix and Pot and money and living for good times and all the other stuff that’s much, much worse—because the Kingdom of God is coming! Realize that your life is meant to be part of something so much bigger—every part of your life is meant to be connected to the eternal, glorious kingdom of God that Jesus is bringing—and the first step is, admit that your life has been preoccupied with those evil small things, and acknowledge that Jesus died and rose again to provide you forgiveness and escape from all that, and then become someone who is preoccupied with God’s kingdom. God wants you to hear this message—How will you guarantee that you’ll have joy in your life? How will you survive if the things that make you happy are taken away? The answer most people have is, I won’t. How many people do you know (maybe it’s you), that when the thing or the person or relationship or dream gets taken away, all the color goes out of life and they question whether life is worth living?
As followers of Jesus, what we’re saying to you tonight is that we’ve found a person who is so great, and the things he’s doing are so huge, that knowing him, having his friendship, can gather up all the details of life, even the most painful things, and transform them into meaningful parts of the greatest story—the only true story—the one that God is writing. You’re invited—your life is invited, into all of this. Jesus lived, and died, and rose again from the dead to make it all true and offer it all to you. And you should join us—you should trust him and get to know him!
Does the Spirit make us win?
What does the Holy Spirit really do in our lives?
Among some of the largest, most popular and youth-oriented churches today, it is popular to talk about the Holy Spirit as if He is God’s way of giving us lives of beauty and victory as much as possible. You know the Holy Spirit’s working in your life if you hear his voice all the time, and if you are pursuing your dreams and getting the life you really want. And so we have musicians, singers and artists, along with pastors and other preachers, talking endlessly about this life of awesomeness that you live when the Holy Spirit is really working in your life. Since they have successful careers, talk to large audiences, and produce really, really beautiful instagram feeds, it can be tempting to think–why don’t I have the Holy Spirit in my life like that? I mean, I want that!
But are these the kind of things the Holy Spirit really does?
Which brings me to some more gold from Gordon Fee’s God’s Empowering Presence. In this passage, discussing 2 Corinthians 5:5 (“Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. “) Now, Dr. Fee is a bona fide Pentecostal, and if you listen carefully, he’s directly addressing some of these teachings about the Holy Spirit, because they were exactly the sort of thing the Christians in Corinth were dealing with. About the verse, he notes:
[In 2 Corinthians 5:5,] as in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and 1 Corinthians 15:44-45, the Spirit is…the affirmation of our present bodily existence. We may “groan” a bit in it; but it is not to be despised. As down payment [or “guarantee”], the Spirit in our present earthly existence also serves, as this passage makes abundantly clear, to verify that this is mortal body is going to be “overclothed” with another body, which in 1 Corinthians 15:44 Paul called a “Spiritual” body and here images as a “heavenly dwelling, eternal, not made with hands.”
And here’s where Dr. Fee makes the really relevant connection between the Corinthian church and so much of our church in America [with my added emphasis]:
It is impossible to know how the Corinthians responded to 1 Corinthians 15:35-58. Very likely, they did so with less than enthusiasm.
For them the Spirit meant present ecstasy, life above and beyond mere bodily weakness, and thus evidence of being finally released from the bodily existence altogether; for Paul the Spirit meant present empowering for life in the midst of bodily weakness in a body obviously in process of decay.
But now he is reaffirming his position from 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, that the presence of the Spirit also means that these “decaying bodies” have also been stamped with eternity; they are destined for resurrection and thus transformation into the likeness of Christ’s now glorified body. God himself, Paul here argues, “has fashioned us for this”; and the Spirit, whom the Corinthians have come to understand in a triumphalistic way, is rather the guarantee, the down payment, from God that these bodies are also destined for a “Spiritual” (=glorified) future. (pp. 326-327)
And then Fee adds this observation about Paul’s list of “proofs” of his authority in 2 Corinthians 6:6-7:
What is striking in all of this is the inclusion of the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a list that fully affirms weakness, in the form of hardship and apparent defeat, as a part of his apostolic ministry. This theme receives a thoroughgoing workout in this letter and is brought to its climax in 12:6-10 and 12:6-10 and 13:1-10. As noted before, the Spirit for Paul leads not to triumphalism, but to triumph in Christ (= death in the arena, as it were), even in the midst of those things that others reject or avoid as signs of weakness and powerlessness.
For Paul the power lies elsewhere, not in deliverance from hardships, but in the powerful working of the Spirit that enables and empowers him for ministry even in the midst of such adversity. (p. 335)
Did we catch that? The power of the Holy Spirit does not give us deliverance from hardships, but instead powerfully enables us to serve God in and through hardships. And he makes the results of our service powerful in the lives of others. He does not necessarily grant us victory in a way the world can recognize (a way that looks like victory on social media, for instance), but enables a victory that matches the victory of Christ on the cross–no beauty that we should desire, often apparent death and defeat, but resurrection, leading to the saving of many from sin.
…all of which means that the power and beauty of the Spirit is not so much about experiencing outward power and beauty now, but about a down payment, a guarantee that the power we see now to bring people to the kingdom despite hardship is evidence that one day we will experience the full work of the Spirit–the glorification of our bodies, and the whole earth, and the final expression of victory for God and humanity in Christ. The victory of the Spirit today is perseverance in hardship. The victory of the Spirit tomorrow is full glory.
Fake News About Christianity
Dr. Michael Reeves recently posted a great article with the title, “Five ‘Fake News’ Stories That People Believe about Early Christianity.“
Here they are:
1. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
2. The divinity of Jesus was not decided until the council of Nicea in the fourth century.
3. Christians did not have a “Bible” until the time of Constantine.
4. The “Gnostic” Gospels like the Gospel of Thomas were just as popular as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
5. The words of the New Testament have been radically changed and corrupted in the earliest centuries.
It’s great stuff, and won’t take you a long time to read. Check it out.
The Art of Boda Riding and Other Stories
Our friend Julianne Heilman has been a missionary in Uganda for several years now. Recently she posted these thoughts:
I often have to go on very bumpy dirt roads that are hard to drive on in a car, so I jump on a boda and for less than $.30 I get where I need to go. Boda riding looks easy, but it does take some skill to do it well. And after 3.5 years here, I think I have acquired some boda-riding skills…
We now have 31 kids in Asifiwe Child Care. It is amazing to think that it has been over two years that we have been caring for children. When I look at the kids that have been with us since the beginning and I see how they have changed, I am amazed at the evidence of what the Lord has done. He is always faithful.
Here is an excerpt from my personal journal of an encouragement the Lord gave me in March, at which time we had 26 children.
“And although there were so many, the net was not torn.” John 21:11
The fish were many, as directed by Jesus. On a normal day, the nets would not have been able to hold 153 fish. But because God ordained that net to hold those 153 fish on that day, it was strong enough to haul all of the fish to the shore without breaking.
Often, I get overwhelmed with the number of children we are caring for. Twenty-six children seems to be so many. How will we manage more than that?
But I think this story could be considered a promise. When God ordains a ministry, those He has called to that ministry will be sustained, no matter how many people or how much work is involved in the ministry.
I will not be torn, even when there are many more children to be cared for.
And also check out her work building real holistic care for orphans–it will inspire you–with Asifiwe Child Care.
The Good Gift of Gender
This past Monday night, we took some time to think about the current and crucial topic of gender. Below are the audio files for the main teaching and the “Q+R,” along with the pdf file for the booklet we handed out during the evening. The booklet will continue to be available for you to grab off the literature table at the back of the room on Monday nights.
The Good Gift of Gender | Main Session (mp3)
The Good Gift of Gender | Q + R (mp3)
The Good Gift of Gender | Booklet (pdf download)
As always, let me know if you have anything you’d like to discuss about these issues. The issue may be personal and private, or you may face issues of how to best love and represent the truth of the gospel in these areas.
And, from the booklet, here’s some quotes that capture the heart of the evening…
“Your body has a value and meaning far beyond any random process
or self-chosen preference. It is made by God, and precious.”
“Your significance is not self-assigned. God made you in his image.
That is a high and holy thing.”
“Your gender, your maleness or femaleness, is a precious and holy
part of who you are. It, like all other aspects of who you are, is a gift.”
“Your body, significant as it is, communicates to you about the gift of
your gender. This is because you are a whole being, an integrated
being. You are an enfleshed spirit. And you are a Man, or you are a Woman.”
“Wholeness, health, and flourishing are not found in discovering what
you feel, but in discovering who God made you to be.”
“Whether it’s festering in our hearts or expressed through our bodies,
sin is the great enemy of our humanity. It clouds our vision and
obscures our self-perception.”
“Jesus’ love will destroy sin, our great enemy, free us, and heal us.”
What true human freedom tells us about humanity
The last two posts have looked at the difference between the way Jesus and the Apostles promised freedom, and the way people typically think about freedom today. Of course, we’ve seen the two ways of thinking are basically opposite. So when Jesus says, “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin,” and promises that, “the truth will set you free,” and that, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” we need to stop and think: What kind of vision of humanity is present here? What is Jesus really getting at?
What does it mean about us, if true freedom is the true expression of what it means to be human–and that true freedom is the freedom to have full control over our minds and bodies to know God and do his will? (See Galatians 5:23, Romans 6:13)
In other words, what are we, if sin is beneath us, if ignorance of God is inhuman, and if our true status–the one we were created for–is to work and build what is good and right and true?
Think about it! Does the world which shouts through all the screens offer a better vision of humanity than this? Aren’t they pushing a naked offer of slavery? Aren’t they saying, “You have no choice, you were born to want certain things, and you just have to live your whole life to get those things. You can’t ever change. There’s no use trying. Give in! Do what you want, all the time! Don’t even try to resist. It’s your destiny!”…?
So Jesus says: “This is slavery.”
And is he ok with it? Well, here’s what he says in John 8:35–“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.”
Coupled with the rest of that passage, I guess this means that Jesus has a better way for us. He wants everyone to be a child of God (a status far above that of being heart-slaves), and Jesus wants all the children in the house…forever.
When “Freedom” is Slavery
Yesterday I posted a quote from Gordon Fee which examined Paul’s use of the word “liberty” in 2 Corinthians 3:17. I included this thought:
When the Spirit inspired Paul to write, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” he didn’t mean what we Americans mean when we say freedom, which would best be described as “everyone doing whatever is right in their own eyes.” That, the bible says, is actually a kind of slavery–slavery to your own passions and desires, which will end up costing you the biggest, most glorious experiences you could have. No, God’s definition of freedom has to do with huge, eternal truths–not what you feel like doing right now, but what you were made to enjoy, forever.
Today I want to highlight how counter-cultural this really is, how counter-intuitive it is (it’s not what we would ever think if we just went with our own innate ideas) and also, how clear it is in the Bible.
For instance, listen to how Peter addresses the issue, writing to believers about false teachers and the followers of those false teachers:
“Speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” (2 Peter 2:18-20)
Notice the way he uses our key words here. “Sensual passions” are simply “things you really want to do because of your desires.” These teachers promise people freedom to live out those desires–God is totally cool with you doing what you want! In fact, that’s what he’s all about! Just figure out what your heart wants, and go do it! That’s God’s freedom! (And what could be more American than the ability to do whatever you desire?) The teachers themselves lead the way–they are actively living out whatever they desire. But Peter says they’re not free for doing this, they’re slaves. These inner desires aren’t good, or even neutral, they’re corruption–they represent the breakdown and destruction of what is healthy and good, the rotting away of life. They’re not actually walking in liberty, they’re entangled, and overcome–they’re caught in a net and defeated. What these teachers promised as victory, liberty and life is actually defeat, slavery and death. So Peter is clear: what people think is freedom is actually slavery.
Paul taught the same thing. Here’s what he wrote to Titus about his past life: “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). Notice, Paul says that before we found freedom in knowing Christ, we served (that is, slaved for) our passions and pleasures (exactly what most people think they should obey). Or take what he wrote in Romans 6. There he tells Christians not to allow sinful desires to “reign” in their bodies. Again–to live out your sinful passions is to be ruled by them, not to be free. He asks the Romans Christians, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Then he says “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” (Romans 6:12-18)
Of course, this all comes from Jesus himself, who said to a crowd of people that: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And they answered: “We’ve never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
And his paradigm-shattering response was: “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36)
If what my heart desires to do is something the bible tells me is evil, and I go ahead and do it, Jesus says I am not free. I am a slave of sin.
And his whole aim is to set men and women free from that slavery.
Really, doesn’t this bear some serious reflection?