Constant in Prayer (03/30/24)

My notes this time follow along pretty closely with Paul’s message, so let us begin where he begins, with a notice of prayer.  To begin with, be sure that every time we thank God it is in fact an act of prayer.  Perhaps that may give us a key to how it is we are to pray without ceasing, as Paul urges elsewhere (1Th 5:17).  We tend to think of our prayers as a bit more of a production, a carefully cordoned off time with God, whether alone or together.  But prayer is also conversational, as God is our constant companion.

We may also develop an overly keen sense of carefulness in regard to our conversations with God.  We don’t want to be thought of as appreciating only His gifts and not Himself.  But those two go together, don’t they?  It becomes rather an odd, awkward thing to studiously avoid mention of gifts received.  I mean, it’s nice to be appreciated for oneself, to be sure.  And, to know that one is not seen simply as a sugar daddy of some sort, an easy mark, is assuredly welcome knowledge.  I don’t suppose God is that much different in this regard.  If His children are praying solely with an eye towards, “Give me this, I want that,” then can it honestly be said that they love Him?  Are they not simply viewing Him like one more pagan deity, to be appeased and wheedled so as to make life a bit more pleasant?

Yet, to receive from God and insist that those gifts don’t even register?  Act like we didn’t notice?  Well, for one thing, it’s not like we’re fooling Him with this pious acting.  Perhaps we seek to tame ourselves, to discipline our flesh.  That’s possible, certainly.  And maybe that’s something we need.  But I will maintain we need balance in that as well.  And here is another key to propriety in such prayer.  Notice that the thankfulness Paul expresses is somewhat outwardly focused.  “I thank my God for you.”

One could argue, given other matters covered in this letter, that Paul’s thankfulness was in response to having received material support from this church.  And to be sure, that support was appreciated.  But as we see later in the letter, material support wasn’t the point.  It was appreciated, but of far greater interest to Paul was the benefit accruing to them for their generous participation in the work of the Gospel.  What was of greater interest to Paul was what God was accomplishing.  And that also comes across clearly in this prayerful beginning.

So:  Thankfulness.  What Paul expresses here is connected with the dative of God.  God is the focus and the recipient of this action.  And the use of the dative has impact on how we are to understand the word itself in this case.  Thus, the thankfulness expressed implies a favor received.  And God being the focus of action here, it is a favor received from Him.  And what is that favor received, that kindness done Paul by God?  “You.  Your participation in the gospel from the very first, continuing even now.” 

Well, there’s something to take into our prayers!  Could I, I wonder, look about the church tomorrow and honestly say, “I thank my God for each and every one of you”?  Could I even claim to have any idea who some of you are?  There are many in the body whom I barely know or recognize at all.  And on one level, this is a good thing, for it means the church is growing.  On another level, it is a personal note of concern, recognizing that I do tend to partition somewhat, and keep to those few whom I have gotten to know more.  And even there, I may tend to a degree of insular behavior.  But it remains the case that these who share in the gospel with me are a source of joy to me.  I can look about this church and rejoice for those who love God as I love God.  We may not always see eye to eye on every aspect of worship and godliness.  We may not be so compatible as one might like, personality-wise.  But yes, I can thank my God for the kindness done in setting me amongst such a body of believers, and granting me a part in the work of His church.

Yet, the chief aspect of this whole passage for me at present is this note of constancy that rings throughout.  I think the NASB does well in presenting that constancy as regards Paul’s thankfulness.  “I thank God in all my remembrance of you, always offering joyful prayer, in my every prayer for each and every one of you.”  Look how repeatedly that point comes up.  It’s always.  It’s every day.  It’s all-inclusive, and it’s also intensely personal.  I bring this up in part because the NIV, which was my daily version for today, presents this rather differently.  “I thank my God every time I remember you.”  Now, that may be a perfectly fine rendering of the Greek in a more familiar speech pattern for modern English, but it loses something of that constancy.  After all, “I thank God every time I remember you,” is not saying all that much if I never give you a thought.  But it’s all, always, in every prayer for all of you.  That powerful constancy of mindfulness and prayer is something we ought to long for, strive for.

And that this is Paul’s intent, I think, becomes clear when we compare to other such greetings as this.  As Romans 1:9 comes up as parallel for our passage, that comes readily to mind.  “For God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is witness as to how constantly I make mention of you in my prayers.”  There it is far more explicit:  I constantly speak of you in my prayers.  And this was a church he hadn’t as yet had any direct involvement with!  How much more these churches he had planted, and with whose members he was in far more constant contact?

I want to suggest something.  I am not a fan of the whole positive thinking business, but there is something powerful in adjusting our attitudes and perceptions so as to appreciate that which is good.  We will be hitting that more fully towards the end of this letter, with Paul’s great admonition to focus on what is good and lovely and praiseworthy and true.  How needful such advice when the world is busily flooding us with news of the awful, the ugly, the false.  But thankfulness:  If, instead of being ready to complain at every little inconvenience, we could instead shift ourselves to a readiness to appreciate every small kindness, how very different our perspective on the day!

I will give the simple example of yesterday, as it was so in contrast with days preceding.  For one, there was the joyful sound of peepers out back as I awoke, which is always a spark of joy to me.  And coming, as it does, amidst a spring that seems slow getting off the ground (though it is probably quite typical), I acceded to the urge to open my office window a bit and enjoy the serenade as I went through my morning studies.  Add in the voices of birds awaking, including the two ducks who have made our back swamp their abode for however brief a time, and honestly, it just supplies such a joy to the day as carries forward.  For a change of pace, the thought of logging on to work lost somewhat the sense of dread and overwhelming load that it’s had of late.  Nothing’s changed at work.  The load is still there, and the difficulties still quite present.  But there’s a shift in me.  There’s a joy.  And that renders the work much lighter.

Noon came before I had time to register the length of hours that had already passed, and oops!  Forgot I need bread, so off to the grocery store at noon – always a busy time.  Lots of traffic to navigate, and feeling at least a little bit the urgency, as Jan was already preparing her meal, and now I was holding things up.  But in quickly enough, grab my bread, go to the checkout.  Understand that this grocery store in particular has, for some time now, seemingly been working under a cloud.  None of the employees seem particularly thrilled to be there, which is understandable, I suppose.  But they had by and large become almost zombie-like, unresponsive, unhelpful, just trying to get through the day and be done with you.  Today, the girl at the register was downright bubbly.  Ask her how she’s doing, and she just explodes with a litany of positivity.  I’m wonderful!  I’m grand.  I’m every superlative there is.  That’s me!  I have to say, such a cheerful spirit just encouraged the cheerfulness in my own.  It was like a booster shot atop those peepers in the morning, and helped keep me going through the afternoon.

Now, observing all that, it’s easy to recognize a danger.  I could become one who simply responds to circumstances, whose feelings for God are nothing more than this response to stimulus.  And I know that’s certainly a risk for me, I suspect for all of us.  That’s the risk we feel when we move to thanking God for what He’s done.  We’ve all read Job, after all.  We’ve heard Satan’s argument there.  Meh.  He only honors You because You do so much for him.  Stop that, and he’ll curse you to your face (Job 1:9-11).  And we don’t want that to be true of us, certainly.  But what happens?  We become unthankful formalists.  Oh, God, I love You, but it’s You, not what You do.  Yeah.  Okay, Jen.  Look.  He knows you’ve noticed those things He’s done.  He knows that you’ve enjoyed them.  It’s okay to fess up to it.  Indeed, it’s appropriate and right.  Thankfulness is His due, not this pious façade.  Be honest.  Be real.  Love Him for both.  You do anyway.  You might as well be open to that truth with yourself.  It’s already open knowledge to Him.

So, yes, my God.  Thank You for that lesson of yesterday, and may I, by Your Spirit and Your strength, carry it forward into this day, and into days ahead.  Help me to stop looking for things to criticize, and instead, to look upon the work of Your hands with gladness.  Help me to cease from trying to take the measure of my fellow believers and instead, to rejoice in their fellowship, at whatever level.  And help me to be such as would provide a welcome fellowship to these, my fellows.  Bring me to such a constancy of thankfulness as I see here in Paul.  There, indeed, would be a great change for the better!

Constant in Participation (03/31/24)

The second matter of constancy that I see is in the matter of participation, or fellowship.  It’s a term that has become familiar amongst Christians, koinonia.  We generally associate it with fellowship more than anything, with the sense of shared community that we hope to experience as part of our church life.  This is quite certainly a function of our need as social creatures.  We are created for fellowship, being made in the image of the Triune God Who has perfect fellowship in Himself.  But there is more to this than just sharing space and experiences.  There is this aspect of real participation.  We cannot, for example, feel ourselves part of the community in which we live if we do not take part in community events.  We may count ourselves citizens of the town, but really we’re little more than occupants at some address unless we actively, intentionally take part in the things which make this town particularly what it is.  In a nation of bedroom communities, I fear the majority of us probably find ourselves lacking in this department.  And that bleeds into our experience of church because, once more, we come into the church as products of the society in which we live, and we bear with us many of those habits and behaviors which define said society.

There is a third sense of the word mentioned; that of a collected contribution.  The idea here appears to be that this contribution has come from the shared effort of many contributors though it seeks to address a single need.  Thus, certainly, that collection taken up to help the Jerusalem church as famine threatened was a koinonia, a contribution from the many.  This sense of the word seems potentially of interest as we consider the passage before us.  After all, it comes up as giving reason for Paul’s thankfulness to God.  So, is this just a first thank you, of sorts, for their contribution sent to meet his need?  It’s possible, I suppose, though it would then strike my ears as being at least a little at odds with his later addressing of that matter.  There, the emphasis is on his contentment, and on the idea that his thankfulness is more for the good such giving would do for them spiritually, than for the provision it represented for him in his present situation.  If I take that meaning of contribution here, it shifts the focus from “I thank God for each and every one of you,” to, “I thank God for this gift sent from each and every one of you.”  And that just doesn’t sound right to me.

However, if I come back a step, to this matter of participation, now we’re onto something.  This is, after all, the basis for their giving, as well as for having sent Epaphroditus.  There was concern for Paul, yes, but alongside of it was a concern for the matter of the Gospel.  Why had they sent support to Paul in Thessalonica?  It wasn’t as if he was in any particular need there.  He could support himself with his tentmaking.  He wasn’t in need of alms.  But they sent.  They sent to support the ministry that he was doing, to relieve him of the need to ply his trade in order that he could focus more fully on the ministry of the Word.  They were as deacons to him in that sense, we might say.

But I find I incline to returning to that most basic sense of the word, that of fellowship.  “I am thankful for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now.”  The ASV comes close to this with its reading, with verse 5 presented as, “for your fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now.”  Well, if we look back to the record of events there as presented in Acts 16, one thing is clear.  From the very first preaching, there by the riverside, Paul had met with a positive response.  Lydia had been, it would seem, an instant convert, and her fellowship and hospitality to the travelers was equally instant.  As brief as his time there was – and it’s hard to get a read on just how long he was there – this seems to have been a defining feature of those he met.  They were ready to receive this gospel he bore, and they held to it.  It’s a response that seems to have been prevalent throughout Macedonia, more so than in other places Paul ministered.  It’s somewhat the defining feature of that work, that here were people who gladly received the gospel, and then held to it tenaciously, even when faithfulness to Christ became difficult and costly.

So, let me work back the other way through these shades of meaning.  As I have already observed, if we have real fellowship in our community, whether we consider the societal aspect, or simply life in the local church body, it must surely involve participation.  Let me focus on the church side of that equation.  I may count myself a member of this church, but if my membership consists in no more than coming in on Sunday morning, occupying a pew for an hour or so, and then departing, is it really membership?  If I add to this attendance at business meetings of the church so as to cast my vote, I don’t suppose I’ve yet shown myself a member.  I’ve merely availed myself of the chief right granted to members in being part of the decision making as concerns leaders and budget.  I could say the same of those whose sole participation in the life of the town in which they live consists in attending town meeting and voting.  You likely don’t know much of anything about those for whom you cast your vote, and you still don’t know all that much about your town, only about those few who choose to be politically active.  Taken at larger scale, it seems to me that this is part of the trial facing our nation.  We don’t know our countrymen anymore, and I don’t think we’re all that sure we want to.  We vote, and we would like to think our vote counts.  But in truth, we know little to nothing of those for whom the vote is cast.  It may be slightly less the case when it comes to voting for president, but even there, we have come to learn that what we know of them is carefully scripted, more reality television than reality.

But back to this participation in the life of the church:  We face a challenge.  On the one hand, fellowship indicates active participation, and something in us longs for such depth of fellowship, longs for shared experience, shared life.  And as Christianity becomes less welcome in the marketplace of ideas, it becomes that much more of a need for us to have this fellowship in the body.  Faith does not thrive in isolation.  God will maintain it, for He is faithful.  But this is not the design.  This is not the intent.  The church is called a body for a reason, and a large part of that reason is that each part of the body has need of every other part.  We need that support.  And in return, we need to be that support to our fellow believers.  And that, in turn, gives motive to the ideas of contribution.  Why do we support missionaries?  After all, they’re not serving our local community, and they’re not really contributing directly to the fellowship of this body.  They may not even be part of this body, most likely weren’t.  Yet, we send support gladly.  Why?  Because they are furthering the work of the Gospel, and we, by participating in their supply, are able to have some small part in that effort.  We may not be able to go, but we can send.  In like fashion, we don’t ask our pastors to work for free.  I might argue that we probably underpay them significantly, but that’s a different matter.  We pay them because they are doing the work of ministry, and the minister is worthy of his pay.  We would prefer that he has his time free to pursue the work of ministry than that his time be eaten away by the needs of making a living at other trades. 

I think how that impacts my own pursuits.  So much of life is given over to earning a living, and to other necessities of maintaining life and property.  It’s easy enough to understand the longings of idealistic youth, that one might be free to simply pursue their passions and not be troubled with this matter of making money and taking care of stuff.  How much better such a carefree existence would be!  But it’s not reality.  It’s not the course God has set for His children, because it does not in the end produce maturity.  And what does not produce maturity cannot produce beauty, cannot finally result in good either for oneself or for the community at large.  No.  We are called to work.  We are called to participate, to contribute, to be part of the life of the church and of society.  It is here that we discover how it is that our wholly prosaic employments are in fact a holy vocation; holy because they are appointed to us by our God as the means by which we are enabled to support ourselves and our families, and the means by which we are able to contribute to the cause of the Gospel.

So, then, may we be found faithful.  May we, like these Philippians to whom Paul is writing, be found constant in our participation in the gospel, and in the work of the gospel.  As it was at the beginning, so let it be with us throughout our remaining days, however many they may be.  May we be found holding fast to the word once for all delivered to the saints, and may we not hold only to the word, but to the ground we have gained in godliness as God has thus far worked in us.  Praise be to His name.

Constant in God (04/01/24-04/02/24)

In first reading through this passage in various translations I found myself wondering exactly what Paul meant about this work in verse 6.  Was he addressing the work of sanctification, or did he have in mind this contribution they had sent?  Come across this definition of koinonia as describing a collection taken to support another, and it could readily tilt you toward that latter idea.  I see that I am not alone in this.  Wuest, in his translation, appears to pursue a similar thought.  He writes, “having come to this settled and firm persuasion concerning this very thing, namely, that He who began in you a work which is good [their financial support of Paul] will bring it to a successful conclusion right up to the day of Christ Jesus.”  Such a reading aims Paul’s thankfulness at that work of ministry which their support would enable, or perhaps even more personally, to his solvency while facing the costs of his own imprisonment.  Recall that while he was granted to live in a rented house, rather than a prison cell, he did so at his own expense.  And that in turn provided him with the liberty to receive visitors and to proclaim the gospel to those who came, as well as to those guards who had no choice but to listen.  So, sure.  Such a meaning is possible, but it feels too self-centered to me.

It’s going to depend heavily on how we hear verse 5.  Is it in view of their participation in the gospel as having received saving faith and growing in it, or is it in view of their participation in the gospel in that they, having believed, lend their effort and their wealth to the support of seeing that gospel spread?  I incline towards thinking that if in fact the latter is in view, it is in connection with the former.  After all, their active participation by giving, and most likely by their own efforts in evangelizing, could not come about except God was indeed at work in them to bring sanctification from this seed of salvation.  That, too, is a theme we shall see pursued as the letter continues, and I incline to see it as the predominant message here.

Consider the ERV translation, for example.  “I am sure that the good work God began in you will continue until he completes it on the day when Jesus Christ comes again.”  Let me just say.  No financial contribution, however large, is likely to persist to such a time.  However much you have given, and however great the impact, those funds will run out.  If it built edifices, those edifices will, in due time, fall to ruin.  If it established churches, sad to say, there is no guarantee those churches will survive.  Again, look for the church in Philippi today.  It cannot be found, for Philippi is no more.  Did faith persist?  I am sure it did, even when adhering to faith led to persecutions such as we have never known, and I would add, hopefully never will.  But should it come, praise God, and count yourself blessed to be found worthy and mature to the bearing of it.  For He will be there with you.

Let me combine a couple more of the more paraphrastic translations.  I begin with the NLT, and then revert to the TLB.  “God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.”  That, friends, is believable.  It is anchored on the fact that God is doing the work, that God is both faithful and eternal.  God cannot fail.  Finances can fail.  Buildings can fail.  These bodies can most assuredly fail.  But the work of God is in the soul, and the soul persists even when the flesh has been destroyed.

Now, as we see that God is doing the work, there is a response we may find in ourselves which can prove counter-productive, if not downright destructive.  We could sum it up in the bumper-sticker slogan, “Let go and let God.”  Now, there’s some truth to that, in that if God is not doing the work, the work shall not be successfully completed.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, he labors in vain who builds.  Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain” (Ps 127:1).  So, too, the work of ministry, whether in personal growth or in evangelization.  If God is not in the work, the work is all vanity and wind.

So, let’s consider the two actions of this most wonderful verse, began, and will perfect.  The first, it is well worth noting, is presented in the middle voice, that voice which English lacks.  It’s a curious bit of syntax, in that it so often devolves to an active voice application.  In those cases, we find there actually is no active voice form of the verb, primarily because the action denoted by the verb is fundamentally of a middle voice nature.  But what is that nature?  Well, there is a sense of acting in regard to oneself in the nature of middle voice action.  I do this to me, or for me.  Or, it may take on a permissive sense, reflecting a more nearly passive voice activity:  I permit that this may be done to or for me.  But there is this reciprocal sense to the voice as well, which I think applies here.  In such a usage, the idea is that there are two subjects involved in the action.  It’s no longer I act upon you, or you act upon me.  It’s we, together perform this action. 

As we look at this beginning, it may appear to us in the English of the translation that God is the clear subject, and you are the object, which is to say, God does, and you receive.  But that would require the active voice.  We have the middle, and that being the case, we have two choices in how to receive the meaning.  Either God, as subject, is acting in self-interest.  I.e.  He is doing this good work in you for His own benefit, or some such, which would be true enough, I suppose; or He is doing this with you.  Let me stress:  It is quite true that where God has chosen to save, He has done so solely from His own volition.  He has acted solely in self-interest, in that regard.  Nothing compels Him thus to act.  Nothing forces His hand.  Ever.  And that’s well and good.  But if I view this as reciprocal action, as God and, shall we say, soon-to-be believer both working in tandem, then here is that acceptance of God’s offer in us.  We may still pursue our arguments as to whether this was an act of man’s free will accepting what God proffers, or whether this was irresistible grace, the Spirit working upon the soul in such fashion as renders rejection not only unthinkable but truly impossible.  What we cannot argue, though, is an uninvolved soul, a passive receiving of the inevitable.  We did not, ‘let go and let God’, we willingly laid hold of what God had initiated in us, joined Him in that process, and received, as ultimate blessing, this marvelous gift of salvation.

There is something of a parallel to conception here, isn’t there?  And that is most fitting, I should think, to what has brought about rebirth in us.  The egg does not just passively receive the sperm.  As we have all learned well enough, there were myriad sperm making attempt on that egg, and in some fashion, I think we can say that the egg made choice of which sperm would be granted union.  I suppose a more masculine view might insist that this warrior sperm won through against defenses too strong for its weak competitors, but I suspect that misses the reality of the thing.  But let me not try and press this analogy too far.  Suffice to say that here, in this first act of salvation, man’s will plays a role.  I would maintain that indeed, the soul’s willing participation and reception of God’s offered salvation are, in this case, irresistible, inevitable.  The Holy Spirit, after all, is already present and involved.  The heart is already undergoing change.  Truth has won through the defenses of unbelief, and what else could possibly result?  Would you really look upon this good news of reconciliation with God made possible, knowing to your core that you are in fact a sinner of long standing, and fully advised of your status as rightly condemned by the court of heaven, and throw this pardon aside?  I think not.

Okay, let’s go to the other end of this equation.  “He will perfect it.”  Now we have shifted into the future tense.  This is an action that lies ahead of us yet, and given the description of that timing, odds are it will remain ahead of us however long this physical shell may persist.  That act of perfecting is reserved for ‘the day of Christ Jesus’, and there’s simply no way to hear that other than as indicating the time of His return to claim His kingdom, and bring us into heaven once for all eternally.  There, as we take reference to other parts of Scripture more fully exploring that final day, we shall find our bodies not simply renewed, but as regenerated as our spirits have been, which is to say, entirely new and quite different.  We may, it seems, remain recognizable to one another, but the nature of this new body has little in common with the old.  It does not wear out, for one.  It is not bound up in inherited proclivity toward sin for another.  And it is apparently able to take to the air.  I don’t know about you, but as a youngster I had many dreams in which flight, or something very nearly like flight, was possible, and it was a wonder my dreaming self thrilled to experience.  But it’s something of a foretaste, isn’t it?  This won’t be the stuff of dreams and fancy, but the stuff of reality in that day.  We shall lay aside these mortal, failing bodies for a new body, fit for eternal use.  This may happen as the component remains of our bodies are revived from wherever they may have been interred – and I would have to say that there is nothing about cremation which prevents such a thing, any more than natural decay and recycling of organic material in the course of existence would, or it may happen, as Paul writes, in the twinkling of an eye (1Co 15:52).  But it will happen.  This body simply cannot handle eternity, cannot handle heaven.  However much we have advanced in our maturation in Christ, the fact remains that this body is tainted by sin, and as such, could not gain entry into heaven even if it were capable of survival in that place.  It needs replacing, renewing, even as our souls have been in need of renewing.  The distinction would seem to be that whereas the soul requires this gradual, gentle work of renewal, the body shall be dispensed with and replaced outright.  At least that’s my read of things.

Back to our perfecting, more rightly, God’s perfecting of us.  Yes, this is presented in what must still feel to us a distant future time.  It may feel closer these days, given the increasing decrepitude of life, but there’s no guarantee that this is truly the case.  Try as we might to pretend otherwise, God’s timetable for these events remains His to know, ours to experience.  This revolution, to steal the old sixties line, will not be televised.  But here’s the thing.  In spite of being some future event, quite likely so far future as to lie beyond our physical expiration date, it remains a certainty.  It is an indicative verb, the action rendered certain.  Now, typically, a future event would have to carry some degree of uncertainty.  We might see it in the subjective voice, as a high probability.  But when we have God involved, God as the active performer of the thing, this thing is certain to come to pass.  God, after all, does not fail.  Nor is He a man, that He should repent of His decisions.  His word goes forth, and having gone forth, accomplishes all that was purposed in that going (Isa 55:11).

Well, beloved, His word has gone forth.  It was there in that middle voice beginning.  The future outcome is already certain.  That’s no cause to just get on with life as if nothing had happened.  That’s certainly no permit to return to the vomit of your sins with impunity, convinced that God will clean you up and bring you home regardless.  If you can still consider such a course, I think we have to wonder whether indeed you have ever known that beginning.  That’s not to say that we won’t slip up and sin.  We will.  And with sad, maddening regularity.  But there’s a new trendline in our lives.  There’s a new desire in us, the desire to please God, and the regret and repentance that come when we see that yet again we have acted contrary to His good pleasure.  We might sum this up, then, with this idea:  God is indeed doing the work of sanctification in us.  If He is not, then it is, quite simply, not being done.  We may deem ourselves, ‘a good man,’ but we are quite wrong.  Our definitions of good remain off.  But where He is at work, He is at work alongside our glad participation.  I tend to think of it like this:  The work of sanctification is not possible without God, but God is not inclined to pursue that work except that we commit ourselves to work alongside Him.

I could once more think in terms of my father’s example.  I’ve spoken of that example before, how he would have me alongside to help in this or that.  And this or that may have been some project I wanted him to do for me.  That business of those speaker cabinets for my car come to mind, or for that matter, the obtaining of a car in the first place.  But he wasn’t going to just do it for me, and present me with feat accomplished.  He would have me actively participating, in whatever small way I could.  I think, also of that first car he had repaired for me, and the wreck I made of it within hours.  And there it sat, behind the local NAPA where my brother worked.  And there it would continue to sit until and unless I proved willing to lend myself to the work of repairing that damage.  Stubborn mule that I was, or careless youth, I never did.  But it was still a lesson learned, however belatedly.  And it’s a lesson we would do well to carry into our participation in God’s work in us.  Get busy with it.  See what He’s doing and see how you can contribute to it, or at the very least, get out of His way.

But come back with me to this confidence Paul expresses, confidence that God will indeed finish what He has begun in us.  There are times when we may find ourselves questioning this, whether about ourselves or another.  Having just read of Simon the Magi this morning in Table Talk, and having discussed his case at men’s group last week, here is one such case.  Did he truly believe, or did he make false profession?  Table Talk seems pretty confident that his was an example of false conversion, and a comment on those whose faith is too much in signs and not enough in the Word.  That’s certainly one way to read the event, but I have to confess that I look at the end of the brief snapshot we have of this event and find at least the possibility of repentance there.  But then, too, I have to recognize that Peter apparently saw no such possibility.

We may have times when we hit similar doubts about ourselves.  There are times, certainly, where my actions and attitudes leave little place for seeing Christ in me, and in those moments, I can certainly wonder if this faith of mine is real, saving faith.  But then my Counselor speaks comfort to my troubled soul, reminding me yet again that yes, I am His, and He is doing the work.  He will do the work, as He has been doing, and this work, being His, will have its perfect completion in Him. 

Consider how this same confidence displays as Paul writes to the church in Corinth, that, too a church of his planting, but one with some serious issues at the time he wrote.  What does he say in greeting them?  “God will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Co 1:8).  And I can’t but notice that here, too, it would seem both church and city are long gone.  But the promise remains.  What is God doing, then?  We will see more in answer to that as we move forward into this letter, but to bring some application of that back into this passage, as He causes love and knowledge of Him to abound in us, He is bringing change in us, “so as to approve what is excellent, and to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, holding fast the word of life.”  I am combining Philippians 1:10 and Philippians 2:16 for that thought.  And again, we have that note of permanence, such permanence as outlasts this body, and these edifices we build up so as to be remembered in future generations.  They are as nothing on this timescale, mere dots on the line of time.  All memory of us may have long since faded from the thoughts of mankind.  All evidence of our time spent here may be gone, for nothing in this life is permanent.  But still, this work of God in us remains.  Still, the assurance of His word stands.  We who have held fast the word of life will arise in that day to the reality that we are held fast by the Word of Life, and by His doing, we are now refit for heaven, equipped for eternity, an eternity together with Him Whom we have come to love, He Who has loved us with an everlasting love.

Listen!  This is not some new development in this ancient faith.  This wasn’t some sudden shift of belief worked up by Jesus and His followers.  We can go right back to David.  We can go farther, in all fairness, but this will do.  Hear him, and hear God speaking through him.  “I will cry to God Most High, who accomplishes all things for me” (Ps 57:2).  I have to think we will be seeing this verse again when we reach chapter 4 of this text.  How is it that Paul knows He can do all things through Christ Jesus?  Well, there it is!  He accomplishes all things for me.

In my case, I have observed before that when I give thought to how it is I am still alive and well and able to praise God at all, it comes back to that same fundamental truth.  How is it that I did not become a junky, as did so many I knew?  It wasn’t me.  I was, sadly, quite ready, willing, and able to take that same course.  Why?  Who knows.  To fit in, I suppose, or to stand out.  Something like that.  But God.  This was not His intention for me, and in spite of my willingness and my attempts to be part of that scene, it didn’t work.  The needle could not find a vein, and I was spared.  How is it I did not become a traffic fatality statistic driving that long stretch of icy highway at foolish rates of speed?  At the time, I put it down to my stellar abilities and a good car, but honestly?  When the professionals have taken to the side of the road to cower and wait it out until things improved, it’s nothing of the sort.  It wasn’t my handling that led to my car simply waggling its tail once and getting back on a straight line after an emergency shift across two lanes of black ice.  Nor was it my situational awareness and quick thinking that got me around the car that cut me off in depths of snow later that same long drive.  God was good.  And this, I have to stress, was well before I had any thought of acknowledging that fact, or that He was anything at all, for that matter.  I am here because God was doing it, and I remain here because He still is.

This, as I noted in preparation for this study, is our blessed assurance.  God has begun the work.  God is doing the work.  God will continue to do so until He has accomplished all His good purpose for me.  And how can I think such thoughts and not arrive back in Romans?  “For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, and are called according to His purpose” (Ro 8:28).  We know this.  This is settled ground with us.  We may question the goodness in present circumstance.  I’m sure Joseph had his questions at times, and Abraham before him.  Yet, like us, they knew this.  And, I should have to say, they know it with even greater certainty now, as we will also in due course.  All things.  To be sure, there are hard providences in the life of the godly.  It’s easy for me, who has lived in relatively sound health, to be a tad condescending to those who have faced chronic illness, and wonder how it is that they find themselves so tried as to faith that God is good.  I have known some who dealt with those conditions with a grace surpassing all reasonable expectation.  I have known others who, as it were, kick against the goad, all but demanding that God had better fix things.  And, in my clearer moments, while I would hope to emulate the former should such trials come my way, I suspect I would more likely join the latter.  What can I say?  I’m soft.  But should such trials come, I will join David in this prayer of his, crying out to God Most High, who accomplishes all things for me.  I shall no doubt be reminded by the Holy Spirit of that marvelous assurance of Romans 8:28.  Because I do know this.  I may occasionally lose sight of it in my pain at present circumstances.  I may fail to live in the recognition that this is all working for good somehow.  But I know it’s the case nonetheless.

And let me make further observation on that verse.  I have noted before how we tend to misremember it, to make it a matter of those who are serving and working according to His purpose.  But that’s not how it reads.  And such a reading puts the weight of compliance back on us, a weight we are still ill-equipped to bear.  No.  It is those called according to His purpose.  Not even those who answered the call, but those called.  The impetus is all in Him.  If we love God, as John reminds us, it is because He first loved us.  He is ever the one with the initiative.  And He is God Most High.  What He would have done, He will see done.  His word does not fail.  God does not fail.  As such, this work of sanctification which He has begun in me will not fail.  He will complete it because He is faithful.  It’s not that I’m something special, and therefore He goes out of His way to preserve me.  He has gone out of His way, and that alone renders me something special.  I am special because God has chosen to account me so, and He has been at work these many years to make me so.

Recognize, then, that this confidence Paul expresses, not only here, but in all his epistles to the churches, is indeed well-placed confidence.  For his confidence, though it is applied to specific, and oft-times troubled believers, is not finally in them and their constancy, but in God and His faithfulness.  As Paul looked at his own situation, jailed and awaiting trial before a truly unstable emperor, it had clearly become his maturing outlook that however things turned out for him, it would indeed prove to be for his good.  Should this be the end, and his days in this life about to be terminated, well, it was God who numbered his days, and God who was calling him home.  Well and good, then.  Indeed, the best of all possible outcomes.  But should God decide his work here was not yet done, well and good, as well.  If it serves His purpose, so be it.  If it suits His good pleasure, so it shall be. 

How we need to have this same perspective.  We are too much caught up in the constant tragedy and terror of daily events.  If things aren’t awful, we’re being urged to look ahead to the awfulness to come.  And we wonder that suicide is on the rise!  Why wouldn’t it be?  If all one has to look forward to in life is this constant battering by events, if nothing good and lovely and true is in the offing, really, what’s the point?  And this is the drumbeat of modern life.  This is the substance of every newsfeed, and the lion’s share of our every entertainment.  And sad to say, there are plenty who take to themselves the mantle of ministry to promote this same landscape of fear.  Judgment is coming!  Take heed!  Look out!  Prepare for awfulness.  Well, yes, judgment is coming.  We know this.  We are called to live in light of it, but not in dread of it.  Something is very off in the message when that message produces fear rather than faith.  Something is very off in the message when it leads to assured believers being so caught up with earthly trials, and dangers yet unseen, that they lose sight of what God has already said.

Indeed, all of this will burn up.  Is there some rogue planet X out there, careening towards us yet somehow managing to pass unnoticed until it’s too late?  Perhaps, though I have to say I am utterly dubious.  Honestly, consider how visible Jupiter and Mars are in the night sky.  It’s not like you can hide a planet, unless it is somehow made of some light-absorbing substance unknown to mankind, such that the sun does not reflect off its surface or such atmosphere as it may have.  I mean, yes, such a thing would of course prove catastrophic, should it come to pass.  But here’s the thing.  If that’s the plan, that’s the plan.  And if that’s the plan, then God has got you.  If this is how the destruction of the present order is coming to pass, all that means for the believer is that the new creation has been ushered in.  It’s not a thing to dread, but a thing to anticipate.  And in that anticipation, we rest in this confident assurance:  He has clearly begun this good work in us, else I for one would not be here in the early hours of the morning each day to study His word to me, to consider what it speaks to my life each day.  I certainly would find other uses for my time of a Sunday, or lately, for a large chunk of Saturday spent in preparation.  But He is God, and He is at work, and He will finish in me that which He has begun.  That holds come what may.  That holds whether He comes for me in this lifetime, or manifold centuries from now.

My part, our part, is to live in the possibility of imminence, not in the dread of it.  We are called to live each day as though it could well be the day of His return.  There is, as we have seen in other texts, no schedule given for these events, nor shall there be.  It is tempting, honestly, to look to each one of these dire predictions that comes along as an assurance that there is one more day that can be written off as not being the one, one more set of developments that can be dismissed.  For, the more stridently these self-proclaimed prophets pronounce their certainty as to how things are going to fall out, the less likely it seems to me that their prognostications are likely to prove accurate.  But I suppose were one to start predicting each day in turn as being the last, he must eventually prove right.  So, let us be no less dissuaded from expectation of His return by these prophecies of near and certain doom than we are encouraged in expectation of His return by His instruction to live in daily expectation.  And this we are called to do in joyful anticipation, not in dread.  God is doing the work.  He is doing the work in us, and He is doing the work in Creation.  If today happens to be the day He has chosen to bring that work to completion, praise God!  If it is another day to walk about in this Creation which He made, praise God!  If it’s a beautiful day, and full of ease, praise God!  If it’s a miserable day, and full of challenge and annoyance, praise God! 

Here is a thing we need to establish in ourselves, right along with Romans 8:28, and with this passage of Philippians 1:6:  Whatever becomes of these earthly bits of our lives is utterly immaterial, other than that we grow daily in the reverence and admonition of the Lord.  Whatever becomes of these earthly bits of our lives, our inheritance remains secured in heaven.  Whatever becomes of these bodies, our soul goes on, and should we be laid to rest, whether due to traumatic injury, or disease, or old age, the most this means for us is that our soul has gone home to be in the presence of our loving Lord, no longer facing the trials and sufferings of life, but now together with Him forever, and joyously awaiting this day of the fulness of His reign, when new bodies shall be ours.  It’s a time of rest.  What is to be dreaded in that?

Beloved, let your soul rest at ease in Christ.  This is not to say we can just slack off and wait for the inevitable.  God forbid!  Let us, through His power, live for Him.  May I, dear God, live more fully for You.  I know I am as yet too full of my own wants, and You have been gracious to address those wants.  Thank You.  But help me to keep my eyes where they belong, on Your goodness and Your certain hope.  Grant that I might enjoy the gifts of this life without becoming so attached to them that I lose hold of You.  Perish the thought!  And even should my grip slip, yet I will praise You and give You thanks, for I know that You have firm hold of me still.   Blessed be Your glorious name, and how I look forward to this day when You have come and I have gone to be with You ever more.  Even so, Lord.  Even so.