A Truine Basis (06/07/24)

As is observed in the footnotes of the NET, this passage consists in one, lengthy if-then statement, of which verse 1 is the protasis, or if clause.  It comes as a first-class conditional, which indicates that what is proposed in the first verse is taken as true.  In the realm of rhetoric, such a clause might simply be for the sake of argument.  Let’s assume these things are so, for the sake of argument.  It follows, then, that…  But here, there is no need for supposition, for positing hypotheticals.  Paul knows his audience, and knows well of their faithful pursuit of gospel life.

What I found intriguing, as I began collecting my thoughts for this study, was how, in the first few parts of this if clause, we are presented with experience of the Trinity.  Look closely.  You don’t even need to look all that closely.  It’s just there.  And remember that these are being set forth as pretty much a given in their case.

Look, then, at this first condition.  Is there any encouragement in Christ?  Here, we have paraklesis, which we may associate more with the Holy Spirit.  But remember, he comes as another Paraklete.  We already know one in Jesus.  In coming to faith, we have answered His call.  But in so answering, we have also called Him alongside to our aid, which gets us to the base sense of the term.  So, we might hear this as, “Is Jesus at your side to help?”

Then we come to the consolation of love, as the NASB presents it.  Have you known the consolation of love?  Now, we might rightly attribute love to any and all persons of the Trinity, for God is Love (1Jn 4:8).  But I think we can attribute it particularly to the Father.  We need but consider that most known of verses, John 3:16.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…  Well, the Son could not, in this formulation, give Himself.  To be sure, He came freely, of His own volition, but He came because the Father loved enough to send Him.  And when we come to the love of God towards man, we see the unique nature of this love, a love so distinct from the various loves of human experience that it required a new word to describe it:  agape.

This love is not Hallmark love.  It is not the companionableness of brotherly love.  And it is certainly not the passion of lovers.  It is something distinct.  It may well be that in certain contexts those other aspects of love might apply to this relationship as well.  We are, after all, described as the bride of His Son.  But in this act, as Zhodiates takes pains to observe in his lexical entry on this term, God acted with self-sacrificial benevolence.  And this benevolence, it must be observed, took place in spite of our total disinterest and even outright rejection.  I’m not finding the verse I have in mind this morning, but this one suffices to make the point.  “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Ro 5:10).  While we were still His enemies, He sacrificed His own life that we might live!  Or go back a few verses.  God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, still actively opposing Him, Christ died for us (Ro 5:8).  This is the love we’re talking about when we come to agape, which is probably the most common variant of love mentioned in the New Testament.  Older translations tended to translate it as charity, but while it is charitable, it seems to me there’s far greater depths to it than that.

So, now, coming back to our verse, we have this matter of consolation, paramuthion.  We have already, Christ come alongside us to help, to encourage.  Now, we have another alongside, another para.  This one has a curious derivation, going back to muthos, a tale, a fable.  But that is not to suggest that God’s love is but a fable, a myth to keep us quiescent or compliant.  I see also that in this derivation, we are travelling farther, to a middle-voice of mueo, to teach.  So, middle voice:  done for oneself, or action shared between subject and object.  I suppose teaching must ever be so, mustn’t it?  It can’t happen without an active teacher, nor can it happen without an actively engaged student.  So, then, we must understand that while muthos may indicate a mere tale or fable, it also applies to truth and the imparting of truth.  Thus, when we arrive back at our matter of consolation, it can have a sense of persuasive address.  Has God’s love convinced you?  Have you had persuasive experience of His love for you?  Well, certainly, if you have known the Son come alongside to your aid, you have experienced God’s love, for as we just noted, it was from His love that the Son was sent.

Finally, we have the fellowship of the Spirit, the koinonia.  It’s an interesting bit of connective tissue, given how agape came to describe those times shared by the early church, when they would gather to break bread together, taking not only Communion, but also a shared meal.  These must have been times to truly knit the body together in mutual care and interest such as we find encouraged in the remainder of this passage.  But koinonia has something of that same sense to it, doesn’t it?  In our present practice, Pastor is seeking to reestablish a habit of such fellowship among us, which is assuredly of value.  We do not engage sufficiently with one another on an average Sunday to truly know one another, to have a sense of each other’s particular trials and triumphs.  We may know some little snippet of information about one another, but there’s no depth.  Sadly, I should have to say that the same applies in the family life of too many today.  We may share space, but we don’t share.  We’ve been encouraged to isolation, each off in his or her own space pursuing his or her own interests.  But here?  No, koinonia goes much farther than simply meeting for a meal, or even than cohabiting.  This speaks of joint participation, and that, I have to say, drives strongly into the apodosis, the ‘then’ conditions of this passage.

But we’re still here in the ‘if’, in the foundational truths.  Are you participating together with the Spirit who indwells you?  One would hope so!  Again, we have already observed the Son come alongside, and the love of the Father poured out.  Now, here is that other paraklete.  Here is God, Who is Spirit, come to occupy His own temple, the temple of your body.  If He is indwelling, I would certainly hope there is joint participation.  Otherwise, life is likely to prove most turbulent.  Isn’t that what we see in matters of demonic possession?  This is not, at least in the general case, a welcome development in the life of the one possessed.  At least in their more coherent moments, they know something’s terribly wrong.  There is, as it were, a second mind operating, and operating quite at odds and antithetical to one’s own thoughts and preferences.

Now, to be fair, at least in early days, we may well find the presence of the Spirit, speaking as He does to our conscience, to likewise seem antithetical to our own thoughts and preferences.  But that is because our own thoughts and preferences are so tainted by a lifelong pursuit of sinfulness.  We have our habits, our lusts, and they are not easily given up.  Indeed, prior to this invasion, if you will, of the Trinity into our lives, it was quite impossible, unthinkable really.  After all, sin and lust were pretty much all we had known.  The pursuit of our own interests and desires had been encouraged in us every moment of every day, and nothing said to the contrary, unless our interests set us at cross-purposes with somebody stronger, and we found it needful to give way, at least for the moment.

But now?  Now, we have come to know, to be persuaded by the love of our Father for us.  We have met God and discovered that while He is assuredly all-knowing and all-powerful, He is not some vindictive tyrant to be appeased.  He is our Father.  He loves us, wants (and provides), only the best for us.  And we have been aided by the Son, come alongside us to free us from our blind enslavement to the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the world.  That doesn’t mean we become aesthetes, forsaking every worldly pleasure and hiding away in our spiritual dens.  No.  God created the world, and He created wonderfully well.  There is much beauty to be observed in the work of His hands, and He clearly intends that we should have joy of that beautiful display of His workmanship.

This comes as the core of Paul’s levelling of the playing field in Romans, as he observes the absence of ignorance as an excuse for unbelief.  “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature, have been clearly seen, made understandable through what has been made.  They are without excuse” (Ro 1:20).  Sure and the atheist can find joy in nature.  Many even undertake to worship it in one aspect or another.  What else are we to make of the fanaticism of environmentalists?  It’s just another paganism, dressed up in the clothes of modernity and ostensible science.  But in reality, it cares little for science, and seeks only the validation of that label.  But for the Christian?  Well, you’ve a choice to make.  You can look about you and see nothing but fallenness and evil, and many a Christian does just that, seeing nothing in life but things to be decried and rejected.  But there is another perspective to be taken, and it seems to me the wiser one.  God made these things!  There is beauty yet, in spite of the worst man has done.  Birds still sing, flowers still bloom, sun and rain come in their turn.  There are things to taste, things to smell, things to touch, which truly delight.  And I don’t really think we need limit ourselves to things of the natural order.  The creativity of man can likewise discover its proper source in God, and in some periods of history has done just that.

Consider the things that have lasted, down through the ages.  The finest of paintings have often taken up biblical themes.  The finest, most universally celebrated pieces of music came of men deeply devoted to Christ and His Church.  Consider the markings of Bach upon his scores:  TGBTG – To God be the Glory.  Consider Brahms who, having spent hours in prayer would, if the composition was not forthcoming, return to that place of prayer until God set in his mind the melody, the harmony to be pursued.  Consider how many of our greatest books, and for all that, our greatest movies, have at their base a theme drawn from the gospel.  Even the renewed Dr. Who, at least in its earlier seasons, tended to find itself presenting gospel themes and gospel images.  I strongly recall the finale of that first season, with all humanity imperiled by a massive force of Daleks, and the thing that stood in the way of their evil was a space station which, as the view pulled back, had a clearly cruciform shape.  Intentional?  Possibly, perhaps even probably.  But intentional or not, the image is there.  God works as He will, even in the hands of impure man, even through the likes of you and me.

So, then, here we are.  The Trinity, and our relationship to the Trinity is the first foundation of Paul’s encouragement here.  Apart from this basis, there’s no point in continuing.  The rest becomes an impossibility, or at the very least a vain exercise.  Am I suggesting that the unbeliever has no capacity for affection and compassion?  Not at all.  These are common to man.  But as one enters into this love-persuaded, Christ-empowered joint participation in God’s plan and purpose, affection and compassion take on new dimensions.  There’s more to our affection for one another than a few shared hobbies.  There’s more to our affection than reciprocity.  To be sure, there’s new shared experiences held in common.  For those with whom we have been knit together as a body have likewise entered into this love-persuaded, Christ-empowered joint participation in God.  We are of one Father.  That point is stressed repeatedly.  We are family, and family more closely knit than even the best of physical families.  These are your mother, your brother, your sister.

It may well be that we have had to sever some of our earthly family ties, or that they have at least suffered degradation because of our love for Christ, a love not shared by our siblings or parents or children, as the case may be.  They may have become to us more a mission field than a sanctuary.  So be it.  The one who will not leave them behind to follow Christ is unworthy of Him.  And this, too, is love.  It won’t feel that way in the moment, but it is.  It won’t be perceived as such by those from whom we have found it necessary to withdraw.  But it is.  It’s a higher love.  And that higher love may, in due course, lead us to preach the gospel to them, whether they wish to hear it or not.  But in doing so, we shall have to remain mindful that it is God’s decision how the power of the gospel shall impact the hearer, whether as life unto life, or as death unto death.

That’s an uncomfortable point to stop, I admit.  But it must needs be so.  So, hear again the foundation laid, the things assumed to be true of you and me.  I’ll repeat my paraphrase of this first verse of the chapter.  Have you known Christ’s help?  Have you felt His love?  Is the Spirit indwelling?  Have you any affection, any compassion?  I know you do!  It may not feel that way, particularly in the affection and compassion department.  Yet, just as assured as you are of your being called by the Triune God, just as assured as you are that Christ died for you, that the Spirit indwells you, just so assured can you be that this affection and compassion is growing in you, the fruit of that very indwelling Spirit, the evidence of God’s power at work in you.  It is not yet perfected, but there is a proper trajectory to your character.  Those things that lie ahead truly do lie ahead, not because of your diligence and exertion, though these are called for.  No, at base, most fundamentally, it is because God loves you, saved you, and now guides and shapes you.  You are His, and He does not fail.  This, too, should be a matter of consolation to you, a matter of which you are most fully persuaded.  If it is not so, I pray God would make it so.  You need this foundation, as I need this foundation.  It is the necessary platform for growth in Christ.

The Church Represents (06/08/24)

As we move into verse 2, we pick up the apodosis, the ‘then’ clause of this point Paul is making.  And it begins with an imperative:  Complete my joy.  Fill it up to the full.  Make it like that fishing net that Peter and the boys pulled into the boat when Jesus first called them, and He told them to cast their nets in one specific place.  Fill it up like the sacks of grain that Joseph sent his brothers home with back in Egypt.  And then, he moves into indicating those things that will bring him joy.  And what will bring him joy is seeing this church represent.

Paul had already seen them represent.  He was experiencing that from his prison cell even as he wrote.  They had sent along their own pastor to minister to his needs there in Rome.  They had sent funding – again.  This was something he had experienced from them repeatedly over the years since first he preached to what would become the first members of that church.  They were already a source of much joy to him, and by and large, already operating in exactly the ways he now urges them to pursue.  In effect, he is encouraging them to keep doing what they have been doing.  Hold fast and grow.  Hold fast and grow.

What he is encouraging are those things that are at least as much the marks of the true church as are the things we usually see identified.  The Word preached, the sacraments rightly observed, the exercise of church discipline as required; all of these are indeed marks of the true church.  But I would have to say that, if not accompanied by these practices now set before us, I am not sure I could account them sufficient marks.  What have we got?  We’ve got a mutual devotion.  We’ve got a church giving evidence of being sons and daughters of one Father.  How does this express?  They share the family characteristics, the family interests, the family mindset.

Look at what is being urged here.  Be of the same mind.  Think alike.  Have the same mindset, the same interests.  Be one in the exercise of your will.  Maintain the same love.  How could it be otherwise, if indeed God has poured out his love in you?  For it is that same agape love of the Father that is in view here.  Each of you:  Love as God loves.  Be united in spirit.  It’s actually stronger than that.  It’s presented in one word, sumpsuchoi, same-spirited, or more properly, same-souled.  Be so unanimous as to be joined in soul.  You are, after all, organs of one body.  It stands to reason that there would be one soul, one accord of feeling and mutual affection.  Zhodiates goes so far as to suggest that this same-souled, co-spirited state defines a community of life and love, which is exactly what Paul is seeking to describe here.  And then, we have one purpose.  We’re back to the mind again, the direction of the will.  Only now, it is being given as a descriptive, a verbal adjective that ought to describe the ongoing, steady-state activity of the believer.  Be of one mind, intent on one purpose.  What purpose?  Well, we could call it the purpose of truly being a church.  We could call it the purpose of manifesting Christ, of being and functioning as His body according to His design and purpose.  Indeed, we who have the mind of Christ ought by rights to be pursuing the one purpose of His purposing.

You see, then, that what is urged here directly flows from what is assumed.  If Christ is alongside, God has loved, the Spirit indwells in union with you, then show it!  I could, without stretching things too far, take this as, then you will show it.  If the Spirit dwells in the temple of your body, then the fruit of the Spirit will grow in you.  If you are in the Vine, then you will bear fruit.  Here is where we can get ourselves into trouble.  If we look at this as simply a to-do list, a new set of commandments to try and maintain, then we shall be back in the same boat as those who sought to find righteousness in adhering to the law of Moses.  We shall be striving in the flesh when the whole matter depends on the Spirit.  We will come to that point more fully as this chapter continues, so I’ll leave it to that place to consider this point more fully.  What I would have us see at this juncture is simply this:  If, as is clearly the case, you are abiding in the Triune God who called you, then of course you will have the same passions and interests – Christ and His glory; then of course you will be giving expression to that love which God has poured out upon you – both towards one another and towards the worldly; then of course you are united in your soul – you are one body; then assuredly you are seeking the same goal – the purpose of Christ in seeing this gospel proclaimed and further souls saved.

I want to now combine some fragments from a few translations, in hope of giving us an even stronger picture of how we represent this God Who so loved us.  ‘Cherish the same views, since you have this love, this same divine self-sacrificial love’ of the Father, such that you are ‘joined in the soul, thinking one thing’.  I’m taking from the One New Man, Wuest, and Darby in this combined presenting of the text.  And I think it is that last part that presents us with the greatest challenge, isn’t it?  Well, no.  Honestly, it’s the whole thing. 

Be joined in soul and sentiment, to borrow from Zhodiates’ definition of things.  That’s hard enough between husband and wife, between the best of friends!  And now, we’re talking a community of such singular depth of fellowship.  No.  This moves miles beyond mere fellowship.  We can participate together in a thing, labor together in it, and still be nowhere near having a unity of soul.  Arguably, every workplace fits that level of fellowship.  For most of us, we probably spend more waking hours together with our coworkers than with our own families.  Perhaps that is less so with the rise of remote work, but the example still holds well enough.  Here is a place where we are hopefully laboring together.  The workplace that hasn’t at least got this going for it is going to be a particularly miserable place, and those who can avoid having to be there will do just that.  But family life can take the same course, can’t it?  We live together.  We take care of business.  We see to it that the house is fit to live in, the grounds are kept up, the kids are raised to be something better than feral beasts.  But one-souled?  Maybe.  Some couples attain to it, but by no means all.  Some don’t even try.

Have the same love for one another, this self-sacrificial love such as the Father has demonstrated towards you.  Give expression to His love.  Well, until you brought that matter of self-sacrifice into the picture, we were good with that.  I can love my brother.  Sure.  It’s only for brief periods anyway, right?  We try and be amiable at church, to lend an ear even if we’re not all that interested in the topic being discussed.  We try to set aside our differences, such as they are, to be polite.  But that’s not what Paul is talking about.  Not at all.  We’re so far beyond politeness that this sort of love might very well wind up being viewed as offensive, specifically by the one towards whom we are expressing such love.  Again:  This is the sort of love that will take action on behalf of the loved one even when he or she is dead set against that very action.   We might construe it as interventionist love, willing to step in and get messy when the one we love seems blind to their peril, or too weak to even recognize the need to help themselves.

Be same-souled.  My, but we have many who are too deeply concerned with severing soul-ties to be same-souled with much of anybody!  And again, I might observe that even in that closest of relationships that must arise between married couples, this proves a challenge that is beyond us.  We are informed that we are in a one-flesh relationship, that in marriage, we are no longer our own, but each belongs to the other, submits to the other, loves the other as Christ loved the Church, giving Himself up for her.  And this is hard!  I could easily argue that it’s impossible, at least in our own strength.  And in fact, I should argue that.  This whole list is impossible in our own strength, and that’s rather the point.  That doesn’t mean we needn’t bother trying.  It means we’d best be leaning hard on that help of Christ, on that love of the Father, on that fellowship of the Spirit, else we’ll fail utterly.  It’s true in marriage, which I dare say, is precisely why so many marriages fail.  It’s true as well in the Church, and where the Church suffers division and disunity, this same problem lies at the root:  That body has been trying to live godly without having recourse to God.

Be intent on one purpose.  Okay.  With all due respect to the NASB, there is nothing here to translate as ‘intent’.  It is simply ‘of one mind’.  The nearest I can get this is that being of one mind, we are pursuing one purpose.  We have one intention.  This is, again, the directing of the will and the affections towards some goal, some moral consideration.  Well, certainly, faced with the same moral challenge, our desire should be that we would all of us likewise conclude the right course of action.  And perhaps, that’s really the extent of it here.  There is such a stress on singularity here that it really does feel as though Paul is urging not just unity but unison, a people marching in lockstep, with no personal thought, no personal opinion, but only some overpowering directive from on high.  And I think that image serves us poorly.  There is the realm of automatons, moved about entirely by the whim of some controlling power, with no personal volition and no personal culpability.

To be clear, that is not the church, not the Christian worldview.  We have much in common, yet we also have much that is individually distinct.  It is the way God has made us, the way He designed us, the way He intends us to be.  There is a reason we find the individuals within the church described by Paul as members or organs of the one body.  We have our unique features.  We each have our particular perspectives to bring, our particular priorities, talents and yes, weaknesses, too.  When our men gather together of a Tuesday to consider what we have read in the Scriptures, there is great variety in what has stood out, as well as those points that speak to all of us.  There are perspectives that one brother may bring to the discussion that others had not even considered.  And it’s wonderful!  It’s not a debate club.  It’s not one of us insisting on this point of doctrine, and another denouncing it.  It is the practice of exactly what the Church is intended to experience:  Each one of us lending our gifts and perspectives to the edification, the building up, of one another.

We are indeed joined in soul and sentiment.  By design.  But we remain unique in our individual areas of focus within that unity of soul and sentiment.  And that begins to steer me towards the next portion of this study.  I’ll foreshadow it just a bit with this version of verse 2 from the Amplified Bible.  “Fill up and complete my joy by living in harmony and being of the same mind and one in purpose, having the same love, being in full accord and of one harmonious mind and intention” [emphasis mine].  This unity is not unison.  It is harmonious, just as, when we sing our hymns and praises together, not all sing or play the same note, yet we are all singing one song.  And, God willing, we do so harmoniously.  And if we do not, well, we shall have resort to the Holy Spirit to render our offering of song pleasing in the ears of our God and in the ears of one another.

Lord, help us towards this goal.  Keep us mindful that apart from You, there is no hope of attaining to these ends.  Indeed, keep us mindful that apart from You, there is nothing we can do, certainly nothing good.  Let us, then, draw from Your present help, your extravagant love, your intimate fellowship with us, that we might be a present help to one another, truly love one another with the same love in which You have loved us, and enter into a fullness of close fellowship together – all with a purpose of showing forth Your own most excellent attributes amidst a world sorely lacking in them, to the glory of Your name and the expansion of Your kingdom.  Come, perfect Your work in us, that we may rightly represent Your work as beacons in this darkness.

Unity in Diversity (06/09/24)

This is our challenge:  Be of the same mind.  The NET takes this as the main concern of the whole passage.  We have that if clause laying the foundation, and we have the imperative command to complete Paul’s joy, to fill it up.  And then comes, hina, indicating the purpose or result.  Here is the goal:  That you be of the same mind.  The rest, being presented as participles, serve as descriptors identifying what that looks like, or how such same-mindedness is to be achieved.  And yet, when I look at it, this call to unity seems such a lofty goal as to be unobtainable.

Just look at us!  Look at us in our smallest units of community, in the family, even the childless family.  Would you consider you and your spouse to be of the same mind in all things?  I sincerely doubt it!  You may, after discussion, arrive at agreement on this or that matter, but more than likely it is an agreement achieved not by like-mindedness, but by compromise.  Or maybe that’s just me.  I rather doubt it, though.  Share the same love.  Well, I suppose at base, I can say that in that we both love Christ, yes, we share that.  In that we have both known the love of God poured out upon us, and experienced the change of heart that comes of His call and choosing, sure.  We share the same love.  But how differently it is experienced!  How differently it is expressed!

Take this to the scope of the Church, then, and again, at least so far as it concerns those who truly have membership in the church invisible, the True Church, yes, we can profess a shared love.  But again, the variety of expression it is given, the varied progress we have made in knowing and loving God, renders it very difficult to view it as really the same. 

United in spirit?  Intent on one purpose?  Again, if we are considering those who are truly in Christ, truly of the elect, the redeemed, then at some level this must be true.  It is, after all, the same Holy Spirit indwelling us all, and it is at the command of one Lord and Savior that we move, at least when we are moving as He directs.  But does it really feel this way?  Have you ever been in a church where it felt this way?  Honestly, there is much in us, in me at least, that rebels at the very idea of being so consumed by the need to comply and march in one direction together.  I would agree that we are headed in the same general direction, but it still seems to me that we travel at different speeds, on different routes.  We each of us have our own pursuits which one hopes still serve the general purpose, serve to edify and build up one another, and to reach the lost, but I am truly bothered by calls that insist we must all focus on this one task, this one means.  Does not Scripture speak of us as members of a body, members with different functions, different pursuits?  How, then, this insistence on unity, this seeming call to unison?

Okay, so I’ve already at least hinted at the point that this is not in fact a call to unison, but to unity.  These are two different things.  Unison applies primarily to song, to singing the same pitch at the same time.  But it can also apply to acting or speaking in unison, all at the same doing saying or doing the same thing.  Unity is perhaps a tad softer in meaning, indicating a state of being joined together, in agreement.  I take that from the Cambridge Dictionary.  And it assuredly fits the case here.  Be in agreement.  There is a sense of the parts being related.  But it’s a step or two short of being identical.

So, how are we to maintain unity when our views so differ, and our priorities are at odds?  Well, it may help if we recognize that these participles do apply to our brothers and sisters.  They do share the same love, the same spirit.  They are pursuing the same ultimate purpose.  And to the degree that this is not the case with us, we should most certainly be seeking that it might become so.  Here, I dare say, is the call to look to the log in your own eye before becoming overly concerned with the speck in your brother’s eye (Mt 7:3-5).  We must first return to those founding assumptions:  That we have known Christ’s help, the Father’s love, the Spirit’s fellowship.  If this is not the case, then frankly, we are not yet of the body, not yet called and redeemed, and I can only pray that God would yet call you.  Or, if it is I who lack that call, that I would hear His call, know His touch, and respond as I should, as I must.  But, let me join Paul in accepting that this much is settled.  We have known His call, have responded, and do know fellowship with the Trinity, know it deeply, intimately.

We come, then, to these descriptors for what it is like to be same-minded:  You have and maintain this same love.  More rightly, I think, God expresses His same love through you.  But never without your active participation, so we can leave it as it was:  You give expression to this love of God.  You do share the same spirit, being indwelt by the same Holy Spirit.  How could you not?  Where the seed is, the fruit grows.  You are pursuing the same purpose, being likewise servants of the same God.  Now:  If you discern in yourself that any of these points are lacking, if you discover in yourself that you are not giving expression to the love of God; if you find yourself constantly at loggerheads with your brethren; if, heaven forbid, you do not perceive the leading of the Spirit within you, guiding your conscience and your actions, then surely the antidote comes in deep prayerful repentance.  We must ask ourself, are you availing yourself of those means of grace which God so richly supplies?  Are you taking the time to truly soak in His Word?  Really?  I don’t simply mean ticking off so much time reading it.  I don’t even mean this practice of mine, of taking to the study of it first thing in the morning daily.  These can become mere rote motions, things done without depth of involvement.  Surely, as I explore these lengthy periods of writing, it can devolve into nothing but opinion.  It can be but the expression of things that are on my mind.  But that’s not the goal.  That should not be the goal.  The goal is to absorb the lessons of God’s Word more fully, to drill them deep into the soul.  And where that is being done, they surely begin to take root, to grow, to flourish as we continue to water the work.

Okay, so let’s take it the next step.  If we have seen to our own estate, taken care to tend to the growth of godliness in our own turn, then it remains to consider our views of those who are our brothers and sisters.  Do we understand that they are in this same condition?  They may be facing the same challenges of self-perception, the same points necessitating repentance.  And they may very well be pursuing a course of repentance out of sight of our eyes.  We cannot rightly know the precise state of one another’s development, and I should think it the height of spiritual arrogance to suppose we can.  Even if one is possessed with an extraordinary gift of spiritual discernment, I doubt it would supply such depth of detail in its analysis.  But we can do this:  We can practice love.  Love is not arrogant and boastful (1Co 13:4).  We don’t put ourselves forward as having further advanced, and insist our brothers and sisters ought to be like ourselves.  We don’t run about saying, “look at me!”  Love believes all things, hopes all things (1Co 13:7).  Love believes that our brothers and sisters are truly brothers and sisters, certainly hopes they are.  And I must remind that this hope is not of the, “boy, I wish it were so,” variety.  It is confident expectation.

Take that to the condition of your fellow believer.  Love confidently expects that they are indeed possessed by and of that same love we know from God and for God.  Love confidently expects that the same Holy Spirit who fellowships with us fellowships with them, guides their growth every bit as much as our own, directs their intentions every bit as much as our own.  Love confidently expects that these our brothers, these our sisters, are in fact of the elect, even as ourselves.  Love recognizes that these may not be of the same function within the body of the Church, yet they are within the body.  The loving foot, taking freely from Paul’s analogies, welcomes the hand for all its differences, rejoicing in its gifts and lending its own.

I come back to the sense that this unity to which we are called is far more to do with harmony than with unison.  I’ve noted it already, how Paul comes to this point, in urging those two sisters to be more harmonious (Php 4:2).  That’s the same message here, really.  Make my joy complete by functioning harmoniously together.  Your notes may differ, but you’re singing the same song.  Your gifts may differ, but you’re pursuing the same goal of demonstrating the love of God, of reaching the lost, of building up the saved.  I could go back to that series for married couples, that stressed our pink and blue differences, but also that we are both love-driven, Spirit-filled individuals.  We are different but we are one.

Understand this, and understand it well.  We cannot work ourselves into this state, not in our own power.  We can join God in what He is doing, and if we do so, then these things will surely, certainly work themselves out.  Perhaps if we spent a bit less time gnawing on our differences, and lent our focus more to those things that define us as one?  Perhaps, as the next verse urges, if we would be less concerned with our own opinions and priorities, and have concern for what concerns our brothers, counting one another as more important than ourselves, then these challenges of one love, one spirit, one mind, one purpose, would be less challenging.  Perhaps we would discover that they have been the case all along, but we had the wrong glasses on, and couldn’t see it clearly.

Look.  It is only in His love that we rightly love one another.  It is only by His grace that we are knit into this body.  It is only by His Spirit working in us, that we have come to have fellowship with Him.  And it is only by that same Spirit working that we come to have fellowship one with another.  So, then, as the argument goes:  It being the case that you do belong to Christ, bathed in the love of the Father, knowing the fellowship of the Spirit, you do share the same love, you are united in spirit with your fellow believer, you are driving towards the same goal, however varied your means.  You are of the same mind.  Sometimes, the hardest work we have to do consists in recognizing what is already so.

Beloved, let us pray that where we know ourselves to be falling short in this, God would be pleased to work upon us that it would not be so.  Let us pray that we would gladly come alongside Him in that work.  If we cannot see this unity among us, let us pray that God would open our eyes to the truth, that we would stop being so proud of our own particular strengths and understandings that we suppose those who don’t share them are somehow inferior, suspect even.  Let us pray for clarity of sight and discernment for each and every one of us, that we might indeed represent, by our unity, that the God we love and serve is indeed One, and we are one in Him.

True Humility (06/10/24-06/11/24)

Now comes what I would deem the key verse of this passage.  The main action may be in verse 2, with its command to complete joy, but the means to unity begin to find expression here in verse 3.  Do nothing from selfishness or vanity, but everything from humility.  This is step one.  There is something about the KJV presentation of this thought that just hits.  Perhaps it’s just the elegance of its more Shakespearian style, but I think it’s more than that.  “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.”  That, I think, is a word that could stand to come back into common usage.  We have our more modern idea of virtue signaling, and I think that would fit quite neatly under the aspect of vainglory.  And you can just see in the term exactly what the problem is.  You’re puffing yourself up, pridefully seeking to demonstrate or lay claim to your virtuous superiority, but it’s empty fluff.  There’s no validity to it, no content.

This, I think, is ever the problem with such pride as Scripture denounces.  I do think there’s a place for pride, but it is a smallish place.  If one has truly done good, if one has truly sought to pursue the Lord’s ends, to seek and save the lost with Him, has truly managed to set themselves aside as to their own wants and desires in preference for seeing His kingdom come more fully, then yes, I suppose there’s something there to be proud of.  But as Paul observes in his own case, the one thing to be proud of in all of that is Christ.  “As it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the LORD’” (1Co 1:31), and, “Let no one boast in men” (1Co 3:21).  Yet, in his other letter to that church we hear this from our Apostle.  “I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians” (2Co 9:2).  There’s a distinction here.  Boasting in man – whether self or some other particular hero or exemplar – is inevitably going to prove to be vainglory.  And, I might add, tearing down a man – whether self or some other particular target – is just that same vainglory in disguise.  Tearing down another always consists in trying to boost oneself, or some other preferred candidate.  And man will always fail you, which most assuredly includes all your self-driven efforts at self-improvement.

This is not a call to give up.  This is not some nihilistic, nothing matters, why bother trying conclusion.  It is a recognition of facts on the ground.  We are, even as the redeemed, still fallen men.  We fail constantly.  If I have not failed you, it is primarily because I don’t know you.  And I have failed me.  I fail me every time I begin to think that I can do this in my own power.  I fail me every time I neglect to turn to my Lord in prayer.  I fail me every time I lose sight of God and become too focused on this world of woe around me.  And how, then, am I to serve as an aid to build anybody else up?

There is a second half to this verse, though:  Consider others as more important than yourself.  This is not a matter of dragging through your days beating yourself emotionally with loud proclamations of, “I am but a worm, not a man.”  It’s not about abasement.  It’s not, after all, a competition, not even a competition to see who can throw the race more effectively.  It’s simply this:  You won’t use your gifts to build up your brother if you don’t account him more important than your own concerns.  We can become entirely wrapped up in our own issues, our own concerns, our own interests.  Call them what you will.  “I’ve got trouble enough of my own,” is a familiar sentiment, especially when somebody is unloading theirs on you.  “I don’t have time for this.”  I’ve so much to do, I really can't be sparing you this half hour to listen to you run through your list of trials and complaints.  And how often, do we find ourselves appending an ‘again’ to that assessment?

But perhaps, just perhaps, the reason you’re hearing it again is because you’ve never been available to help build this one up, to redirect them to their Savior the last several times they managed to get a moment of your time.  Perhaps, just perhaps, the problem is you.  Now, in fairness, the problem is probably both, as both are fallen creatures inclined by nature to fail themselves and each other.  And herein lies one of our primary battles:  Don’t let pride and selfishness drive you!  Yet, all around us are constant urgings to put self first, to compare ourselves to others so we can feel better about ourselves.  All of us know that Pharisee voice within.  “At least I’m not like that guy.”  Well, yes, actually.  You are.  You’re just too full of yourself to see it, or at least to acknowledge it and do something about it.

The NET provides the thought, in their footnote to this verse, that Paul’s language here is far stronger than generally comes through in translation.  They bring it to the point of, “Don’t even think any thoughts motivated by selfish ambition.”  Okay, now we’ve moved from the painfully difficult into the utterly impossible!  Well, yes.  God’s law tends to do that.  His standards are high.  His standards are perfect holiness – as perfect as His own.  Don’t even think it!  How am I to do this, Lord?  Well, let’s hear His answer, given again through Paul.  “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.  And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2Co 10:5).  This is not Paul boasting.  Well, actually, it is, looking at the context, but boasting of Christ and that authority which he has from Christ to serve Christ.  But his larger point was made in the previous verses.  “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh” (2Co 10:3-4), “for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but of divine power for the destruction of fortresses.”  We can argue, I suppose, whether his we, in this case, refers to himself in his apostolic office, or to the children of God more widely, but I would hold that they should apply to every child of God.

This is how you avoid thinking thoughts of selfish ambition:  Take every thought captive!  How do you do this?  Not by your own strength, not by fleshly exertion.  No!  You avail yourself of the power of God which is at your disposal.  It’s been awhile, so let me bring that favorite point of mine to bear.  “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the lust of this world” (2Pe 1:3-4).  You cannot take your thoughts captive to Christ.  But He can.  In Him, we can.  Because it is by His power granted to us to this very end.  But power, granted or innate, is of little use if you don’t put it to use.

In a very simple and obvious analogy, there is significant power flowing into this house.  There is the power of electricity lying latent in wires laced through wall and ceiling, just waiting for a switch to be thrown somewhere.  There is the power of natural gas ready to produce heat for cooking, for washing, for warming the house as needed.  But it won’t do any good unless the furnace, the water heater, the stove is ignited.  It will just sit in the pipes exerting no power and achieving no purpose.  For all that, this computer on which I work has powers that would have been unimaginable just a generation or two ago.  Yet, all that power is nothing if I don’t first turn the machine on, and then utilize it toward some useful goal.  And here, I could note just how readily we set aside that useful power to go chase after distractions and amusements.  We’re right back at self-interest and vainglory.  Be careful, little eyes!  Don’t let selfishness drive you.  What else is it when we take this gift of time and turn it to endless hours of, “amuse me” demands?

Returning to this idea of regarding others as more important than yourself, there are a few ways we can understand the intent.  Per Thayer’s Lexicon, where there are two accusatives given, the term hegoumenoi takes on the sense of deem or think.  It’s an assessment made between two options.  And given its middle voice nature, some interaction of subject and object would suit.  But the fact is, we don’t have two accusatives here, unless we somehow take allelous, each other, as being both of them, and that’s not entirely out of the question. 

But there is another sense the term can take, of allowing this one to lead, or have authority over you.  This kind of reflects the teaching Scripture gives to married couples.  It comes across to some degree in Paul’s discussion of marital matters, or matters of sexuality, with the Corinthians.  “Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and the wife to her husband.  She does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and he doesn’t have authority over his own body, either.  The wife does” (1Co 7:3-4).  And this, I should note, comes on the heels of him observing our union with the Holy Spirit.  “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God.  You are not your own!” (1Co 6:19).  These are our deepest, most intimate relationships.  But the same reality holds within the communion of the Church.  In that setting, it still holds true:  You are not your own.  That’s pretty much the message here.  Have in yourself this mindset that every other person in this congregation has command of you.  Now, by corollary, you also have command over every other person ion this congregation.  But it’s not an authority to be abused.  Worldly rulers lord it over their subjects, and give exercise to their authority over them.  But for us, it must not be so.  Rather, whoever wishes to become great should set himself to be servant of all, even slave to all.  For this is the example we have from our Lord, from the Son of Man, God Incarnate (Mt 20:25-28).

There is humility in action.  It consists in making oneself available to serve, in whatever fashion, whatever capacity.  It consists in seeking to know the needs of your fellow believer, not so as to build up a body of gossipy tidbits to share, but so as to know how you can be a means to strengthen them.  Here is your humble calling:  Admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with all (1Th 5:14).  Build one another up in holy faith.  Whatever gifts it may be that God has been so gracious as to give you, put them to work to serve these ends.  They’re not for you to preen.  They’re for you to serve.

And observe:  This is not a one-time issue.  It’s not an occasional offering of service.  These are stative actions.  They are intended to describe our steady-state condition.  Daily, hourly, moment by moment, do nothing from selfishness.  Leave no place for self in this.  And here, I think, we could and should extend the call even to our workplace, our mundane daily activities.  This can be difficult, but it is a marker of Christian maturity.  And it’s exactly the same action we are having urged upon us here.  Consider your coworker and his or her difficulty more important than your own immediate concerns.  After all, if you have hit a roadblock, or some quandary that you simply can’t resolve, would you not desire that your coworker, whom you feel sure has the insight to help, or who can supply what is needed to clear that roadblock would drop what he is doing to see that resolved?  I know I would.  I also know how frustrated I can get when this does not happen.  And yet, how frustrated do I get when yet another coworker has interrupted my flow to address their problem?  How frustrated do I get when my beloved wife comes with her concerns, or her excitements, and does the same?

And what should be my response?   Regard this interruption as far more important than my personal tasks and concerns.  Consider helping them far more critical than maintaining my stream of thought.  Allow them to have command of my time, authority over my attention.  And, lest there be any mistake about it, do this without rancor, without annoyance, even inwardly noted.  Oh yes, here’s another of those impossible challenges!  And the means remains the same:  Lay hold of God.  Lay hold of the power He has set at my disposal to be the man He has designed me to be, called me to be.  Display real humility, and stop being so darned self-centered.

Look, I think it is the common condition of every engineer to view his or her particular task as the most critical.  But it just ain’t so.  There is the countervailing reality that everything is critical.  The system cannot work except every component in the system works.  The goal cannot be achieved except every one of us is contributing his part towards reaching it.  And often times, that contribution is going to consist in picking up our flagging coworker to carry them forward.  Often times, we shall find ourselves needing to be carried as our own energy ebbs.  If it’s so in the workplace, or in the home, how much more in the Church, in the spiritual warfare to which we’ve signed up?  In this battle, if you would march under the banner of Christ, let each other have command of you as needed, and by this know that you in turn can call upon your brother to have your back as well.  And all done in Christ, all done in the power God so richly supplies.

This is not some one-off instruction from Paul.  It is heard repeatedly in his instruction to the churches.  It is perhaps plainest as he addresses the church in Ephesus.  “Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (Eph 5:21).  There it is!  Just like husband and wife, so each of you in all your interactions.  But it’s everywhere!  “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Give one another preference in honor” (Ro 12:10).  This is your antidote for pride, which is ever our challenge.  This is how you achieve the instruction given the Galatians.  “Don’t become boastful.  Don’t challenge or envy one another.”  How?  Give preference to them instead.  Grant them the right to command you, and be subject to them, not as resentful slaves left no choice, but as brothers only too glad to be of service.

And all of this brings us right back around to pursuing that unity which was set forth, this singleness of mind.  Going back to Ephesians again, “With all humility, gentleness, and patience, show forbearance to each other in love.  Be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace” (Eph 4:2-3).  There are going to be times when this is challenging.  Of course there are.  Some of us can be a bit prickly at times.  Some of us are a bit prickly at most times.  We may not respond as well as one would hope when called upon to be of aid to another.  We may not respond well at all when a brother loves us enough to rebuke the sin in us.  It’s going to need patience to persevere in love.  We will have those among us who are more challenged by the process of sanctification, who don’t make progress at the rate we think they should.  For all that, we may not be making progress at the rate we think we should.  Or worse still, we may not be making progress at the rate we think we are.  Patience!  The call is not to expel the underachiever.  The call is not to withdraw into our little circle of those most like ourselves in thought and progress.  The call is to bear with one another in love, to seek first and foremost to preserve the unity of the Spirit.

Now, think about that for just a moment.  Get below the surface of that command.  Does the Holy Spirit need our help preserving His unity?  I think not!  Is He incapable of preserving this unity of His own accord?  Unthinkable!  He is God, after all, and who shall stop Him from achieving all that He purposes?  Certainly not you or me.  We have neither the wit nor the power.  But what if, in His purpose, He has determined that we are to be His means to unity?  What if He has decided in His wisdom that He will not uphold this unity any farther than we who are being held?  That is to say, what if God is insistent upon having a willing partner in the work?

We have, as the Church has had, it seems, throughout its existence, this terrible debate between understanding the sovereignty of God – that His will most assuredly will be done, and the free-willed liberty of man as a moral agent.  If there’s no choice, how do we choose?  Or, if we choose and so often choose non-compliance, how is God sovereign?  I continue to come back to that which my brother long ago said, for it really does seem to capture the reality of the thing.  Man’s will is free, but God’s will is freer.  If He must, He most assuredly can override your decision, or, as seems more often to be the case, simply turn your ill-intended actions to His good purpose.  Surely, if He can do so with Satan, He can manage as much with you or me.  But His strong preference is that we might labor side-by-side with Him, be coworkers with Him, first in the field of our own sanctification, and then, in the work of coming alongside one another, as we see here, in mutual support.

Let’s touch on the last part of this passage.  It’s a curious bit of wording, difficult of translation simply because it seems so much as though there are critical words missing.  But such is the nature of Greek.  Literally, it reads something like, “Every man look not on the himself, but and every man look on the other.”  Now, that makes just about zero sense left like that in English.  And when the KJV seeks to add that sense by offering, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others,” it comes across almost as advocating envy.  But that can’t be it, can it?  The NASB, and several of our other more modern translations swap ‘things’ for ‘interests’, which helps a bit.  The God’s Word Translation, for example, offers us, “Don’t be concerned only about your own interests, but also be concerned about the interests of others.”  That’s certainly a step in the right direction, and fits well with the idea of mutual regard, mutual submission.

But then I come to Darby’s translation, which gives us, “Regarding not each one his own qualities, but each those of others also.”  This clearly couples us back to this issue of regarding others as more important than oneself, and that seems, in turn an apt solution for the passage.  Yes, you have your own finer qualities, but they are incomplete.  I dare say, they are incomplete by design, for we are designed for community, designed for interdependency in this body of Christ.  We simply cannot do without one another.  We need each other.  Some of us lose sight of that, but that doesn’t change the truth of it.  And I dare say, if you seek to be doing that which God is calling you to do, if you find yourself in any way actively pursuing a gospel-focused life, you will soon enough come up against that which is too big for you, and you will soon enough come up against it in such fashion as leaves you short of access to God.  There is that assurance from God, given to a disobedient people.  “I will break down your pride of power.  I will make your sky like iron, your earth like bronze” (Lev 26:19).  This is not, I should observe, an assurance we ought to seek after.  But neither is it an assurance of condemnation.  No!  It’s a disciplinary action, undertaken to bring us back to the place of safety, the place of obedience to the God Who Is.  God loves us enough to do as He must to see us back on course.  But, as is observed in Hebrews 12:11, no discipline is pleasant at the time.  Oh, but afterwards!  Afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness, and in that fruit we find true humility.  In that fruit, we become peacemakers.  In that fruit, we let go of ourselves just a bit, our egos and priorities, and turn our attention to those around us, to their needs, their interests, their qualities.  And as we do so, we may very well be struck with wonder at what God has been doing in them.

This is our final admonition from this passage.  Direct your attention to this.  Direct your attention to your brother.  This is not an attempt to stir up envy.  It’s not a call to compete with him and seek to show him up.  It is, however, a call to set aside your navel-gazing self-involvement and see what’s around you.  Get over yourself!  Be strong enough to see your own need.  Be weak enough to recognize their strengths and appreciate them.  Start to care.  Or, if that’s too harsh, start caring more.  There’s always room for improvement.  I remember that instruction given me as a young manager, come review time.  However well you think of your employee, leave room for improvement, for there is always room to improve.  How much more in this process of sanctification?

The call is to unity.  This is the goal of Paul’s command here, God’s command here.  The how of unity lies in this:  True humility and compassionate care.  We can be ever so humble and still remain wholly self-involved.  But that won’t do.  We can be truly compassionate and yet find clever ways to be boastfully proud of it.  And that won’t do, either.  It needs both, working together harmoniously.  And as we work thus harmoniously in our individual actions, we shall discover that we are working harmoniously as a body.  And isn’t that the goal?

I’ll wrap up with Romans 15, which again gives very similar instruction to that which we have in front of us.  No surprise.  What Paul taught in one church, he taught in all.  The strong, he tells us, should bear with the weak, and not just suit themselves.  There is no place in Christ for demanding our rights and privileges. That doesn’t mean they are illegitimate and falsely held.  It means that they aren’t the point, and they ought not to dominate our thinking.  To continue.  Let each one seek his neighbor’s good, to be pleasing to him, to build him up.  After all – and this really ought to ram the point home for us who believe – even Christ our Lord, the God of the Universe, did not please Himself, but rather, “the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”  Far better for us if we would stop being quite so concerned with our appearance and reputation, and become more concerned with how we’re all really doing.  Far better that we would cease trying to prove to one another how self-sufficient we are, and admit our need for one another, our need for Christ.  The world doesn’t need another boastful Christian.  The world needs a compassionate guide to lead them to Christ, and to make Him known with all humility.

Lord, I know full well that I have been preaching to myself throughout this exercise, and I have been coming face to face with my own inadequacies.  First, thank You for not leaving me to wallow in my pridefulness.  But I know that pridefulness remains.  Otherwise, you’d have no need of bringing it to my attention.  I know I’ve made progress, for You have indeed been working in and on me, and thank You for that!  But I know as well that I can still be too ready to be the man with all the answers, to boldly assert things barely understood, and to simply laugh off or ridicule any disagreement.  Teach me, Lord.  Give me wisdom to deal with disagreement, with divergent perspectives.  Help me to know the boundary between those varied ideas that yet abide within good-hearted desire for You in truth, and those which present such heresies as must be confronted.  And should confrontation prove needful, I beg of You to work upon me such that I can do so with this humble, compassionate love that ought rightly to apply, rather than with arrogance, frustration, and a demand for capitulation.  You know, after all, how thoroughly I dislike confrontation, dread it, even.  Yet I know that it is sometimes needful.  And like discipline, it is never pleasant at the time.  Yet, there is also a likeness in the result, isn’t there; that it produces the fruit of peace.  So, Lord, grant me the willingness to love as You have loved me, the willingness to risk insult and rejection if need be, in order that Your love may win through.  I am Your servant, and sorry that I am so often such a poor one.  Help me to improve.