New Thoughts (09/14/14-09/20/14)
What Finds Favor (09/16/14)
It is clear that Peter is still focusing primarily upon the situation of the servant who has come to Christ in this pagan society. However, the lessons contained in this passage are so generally applicable as to obviate any need to explore their specific situation. It is not the form of suffering that is in view, nor is it the station of life in which one finds himself suffering. The focus is elsewhere: On the response to suffering, and in particular, the response to injustice.
Peter makes this point clear at the very outset. It is not suffering itself that is being commended. It is not, in fact, suffering at all which is commended. This is a mistaken view and should be dismissed from our thoughts. If any suppose that the Gospel doctrine commends suffering as a good then they have completely misconstrued the Gospel. Suffering is not good. A good God is able to utilize suffering for good purpose, but that does not render the suffering good or a thing to be sought after. Suffering is presented quite simply as a fact of life.
Note the contrasting situations that Peter puts forth. On the one hand there is that suffering which comes about because we have brought just punishment upon ourselves. On the other hand there is that suffering which comes in spite of our being on our best behavior and doing everything we ought to be doing. Has the suffering changed? Is the punishment being meted out any different? No. Is our response to this to be different based upon circumstances? No. What is commended as our response to unjust suffering is just as applicable to just punishment. However, we ought to be striving to live such a life as does not result in just punishment.
What is in view, then, is not the cause for suffering so much as the way we ought to respond. The first, key aspect of our response is found in the clause, ‘for the sake of conscience toward God’. Here we are stripped of false hope. If we are responding properly, but only out of concern for the man who has power over us or for the man who is observing the event, then all the stoicism and forbearance that we might muster up is of no particular value. We have our reward in full in the response of those we have sought to impress. This is not to say that we utterly devalue the opinions of man. Christ, I am mindful, found favor with God and man (Lk 2:52). But, there is a primacy to be observed. It is God’s perspective that matters. Where the opinion of man is of any particular value, it shall be when man’s opinion coincides with God’s. As such, we are to observe this prime directive: Do what God approves. Indeed, as Adam Clarke advises, we must needs consider His interests to the degree that we develop a preference for His authority over our own ease.
I am inclined to think that was easier in other ages, although that is not necessarily the case. Certainly we live in an era of ease, although one might be uneasy as to how long that will last. We are in the age of entertainment. We like to think it’s the age of information, but in reality entertainment has trumped information. We are at ease and we like it so, and anything that disrupts our ease is, by our definition, evil. But, it is not our definition that matters. I know for my own part that I have great need to be reminded of this great Truth. To consider our ease is to consider man as the primary measure, and that is never going to do.
Even in doing good, we must be mindful of our motives. This is of first importance, and that, too, strikes us as odd. Doing what is right is not in itself sufficient, nor even right. If we are doing the right thing, but only for fear of reprisal, only for concern as to our own reputation or the likelihood of getting caught were we to do otherwise, we are not doing anything praiseworthy. We are still as far from righteousness as that one whose punishment is deserved. It is not, in the end, the deed that matters, but the motivation behind the deed. To be clear, we cannot suppose that pursuing an evil deed was done with good motive. We cannot reasonably conclude that it is possible to pursue sin in righteousness because we are doing so with an eye to what God approves. The very concept, stated thus, is shown to be nonsensical. How can we think that God approves sin? He is holy, and perfect in Holiness. There is not the least shadow of sin to be found in Him nor in His presence. No. If our motivation is found in consideration of God, truly found there, then we can be certain as to the deeds our motivations produce.
Returning to the consideration of outcome, let it be understood that the credit of which Peter speaks is not so much reward in the sense that we have achieved something of merit. There may well be reward for our achievements, such as they are. Scripture certainly seems to point in this direction, perhaps only because our motives are ever impure and we need the enticement to do what is right. But, let us suppose a better reason. Let us attribute this to nothing more or less than God’s Justice. There remains this overarching Truth. Whatever may be merited by our righteous deeds done of righteous motive, it is not salvation. We shall have nothing to boast of before God. That is abundantly clear. If there is reward awaiting us when we come before Him, that too is grace. Our acts, the best we can muster up, remain as filthy rags. We shall never, ever, come before Him having deserved a reward. But, this does not preclude God rewarding that which He deems worthy in us.
The question before us is not really that of reward. It is a matter of approval. The Wycliffe Commentary offers the point that, “Reward begins where the reasonable ends.” Let it be understood, though, that this reward is, as I have labored to say, not a matter of earned repayment or a thing of which we might boast. I dare say that however much we may deal with pride in this life, when we stand before Him any pride we may have felt shall flee away.
I’ll end this part with a quote from Calvin. “What we do is approved by God if our object be to serve Him, and if we are not influenced by a regard to man alone.” Note the qualifier: man alone. If God is not part of our thinking, then what might otherwise have been approved is approved no more. But, as I said earlier, concern for man is not cast utterly away. It is but set in its proper place; fully subjected to that which is approved by God. If pursuit of the God-approved course sets us at odds with man, so be it. In the end, when the Righteous Judge has taken His seat and weighed all in the scales of Justice, we shall find those who reviled us for our right actions will confess the right of our ways.
Revenge or Forgiveness? (09/17/14)
Now, in setting the example of Christ before us, Peter offers a bit of a caution that we do well to heed. It concerns what this bearing up looks like from the inside. It is well and necessary that we are bearing up as we do for the sake of conscience toward God. But, what does our bearing up say about how we understand God to be? Let me attempt to clarify the question. If we are bearing up under the oppression of injustice in such a fashion that we appear calm outwardly but are inwardly seething and calling out to God to come avenge us for this indignity, then we certainly recognize God’s holiness and wrath at sin. But, do we recognize His fullness? If, on the other hand, we have that same outward calm, but inwardly we are praying for the forgiveness and salvation of those who persecute us, does this not give evidence of a more complete sense of who God is?
This is the lesson that Peter delivers to us. He reminds us of the nature of Christ’s response. In Jesus we have the visible image of the invisible God. We have the standard by which we are to know what is not only required, but possible. This is the point Peter is making. He left an example. That word, as the commentaries point out, refers to something in the way of a copy book one might use in learning to write. We might think of those old worksheets from our earliest school years. Here is what a letter A is supposed to look like. Now, fill in the rest of this sheet by making your As look as nearly like the example as you can. It’s the same idea here. In Jesus we have our perfectly modeled A. Our task is to fill the worksheet of our lives with as copies that look as nearly like His example as ever we can make them.
Calvin, for his part, takes note that this aspect of Christ as example does not suggest that we should expect to repeat every one of His deeds. Much of what He did was done for the express purpose of demonstrating that He was God. In that, we are not given an example to follow. We are not God, though He dwells within us. We are His temple. But, His temple was not designed to walk on water. No, it is in those things wherein Christ is demonstrating a holy life that we follow Him.
In particular, Peter has set two points before us. We may be inclined to see it as one point: That He did not respond to injustice in kind. But, in truth there are two. The first is less directly stated, but it is there: Live so as to deserve no just punishment. It is the second that we see more readily: Respond to injustice in righteousness.
But, the question might still arise as to whether one cannot respond righteously with the desire for God’s vengeance. David seems to have done so, after all, and isn’t he a pretty good example; a man after God’s own heart? It’s not like I’m taking revenge into my own hands by praying that God might bring it to pass, is it? But, we must consider the Example. Here was one perfect in righteousness. That point Peter makes about His words stresses this fact. Even in His speech, in His response to those who accused Him unjustly, not one thing could be found that was less than holy. Not one word wrongly spoken could be held against Him. By the standard we find laid out in James, He has demonstrated His perfect righteousness. Even the tongue is subjected to the Spirit. And, what are the few words we hear Him utter in response to being so unjustly put to death, so ill-treated and abused? “Father, forgive them.” He left you an example.
If Jesus, crucified for no cause, prayed not for revenge but for forgiveness upon His tormenters, how can we reasonably conclude that we are right to do otherwise? Look, Christ could easily have called down death and destruction upon them. Had He called for them, legions of angels would have been there to smite both Jew and Roman to have Him freed from that cross. I doubt not that the fact they were not called down caused no end of wonder in the angels. But, He did not cry out for revenge, only for forgiveness. He cried out that Good might come of this evil done Him. He left us an example.
Clarke emphasizes the point that when Peter says He kept entrusting Himself to God, it is not just a figure of speech. It is the very example we need! If we would avoid seeking vengeance, either by our own hand or by the hand of God, this is a necessary action to take. To fail in taking this step is to fail utterly. It is to attempt righteousness by main strength, and that will never succeed. The conscious, constant committing of our case to God keeps us mindful of His perfectly righteous judgment. It keeps us centered on the fact that He will see us vindicated, whether in vengeance or in acknowledgement by those who falsely accuse now that their accusations were indeed false. This is a theme we have seen already in Peter’s letter. He is simply backing up His advice with the example of the Master.
Calvin, in commenting on this topic, says, “He who leaps to take vengeance, intrudes into what belongs to God, and suffers not God to perform His own office.” We are, he says, asking God to come as executioner rather than judge, and that is precisely where things get problematic. If we are calling upon God as executioner, then we have set ourselves as judge. We should know better. We do know better. But, that doesn’t stop us from trying to play judge anyway. We know our judgment is flawed and our knowledge incomplete, and yet we are so certain we know the heart of this one who as offended us. God, smite him! Look how he reviles You. Oh, we know well enough how to couch our request in holy sounding language. But, we fail to look beneath our own words to assess motive. We fail to consider that by our very request we have confessed our own sin of seeking to usurp God’s office.
The short version of what Peter is teaching us here is: Expect no better than He got and do no worse than He did. I was actually rather surprised to find almost the exact same expression of this summary in both my own notes and those of Barnes. It is quite comforting to find myself in good company as far as my thinking goes. There has been quite a bit said in the commentaries that I did not necessarily see on my own, but on this main point, praise God, I seem to have been paying attention.
To wrap up this topic, many of the commentaries point out how the example of Jesus demonstrates that which Paul advised the church in Rome, echoing the instruction passed by God to Moses (Ro 12:19-20). Never take your own revenge. Leave room for God’s wrath, Who says, “Vengeance is Mine. I will repay.” For your part: If your enemy is hungry or thirsty, see to his needs. Then comes that enigmatic conclusion: This will be to him as if you heaped burning coals on his head. Doesn’t that sound like doing good in hopes of aggravating? After all, I can hardly suppose that one is going to appreciate having burning coals laid on his head, let alone heaped there. Then, it seems to me, the light came on. What Paul is getting at with this image is that this will cause this enemy of yours to be embarrassed for what he has been doing.
Now, I have to say that having arrived at this new insight, I was rather curious as to whether it was something I’d already figured out before. But, at least as far as I can tell by quick review of my (much shorter) comments on that passage, this is indeed news to me. Let me build it out just a bit further, though. Even this matter of embarrassing one’s enemy with kindness is not an act of vengeance, or ought not to be so. No. If we have left room for God’s wrath, we have also left room for His mercy. If we have, by our goodness in response to offense, caused embarrassment, we have also caused a return to one’s senses. That is to say, we have not only left room for God’s mercy, we have, as it were, made room for it. We have prepared the ground for repentance that mercy may come with forgiveness in tow. There again is our example: Expect no better. Do no worse.
Christian Character (09/18/14-09/19/14)
What we are after in our consideration of our Example is the development of our own Christian character. This is the part of our walk that we do not only by God, but together with God. That is to say, whereas justification has come wholly by the work of God, this development of character (which is in many ways synonymous with sanctification) is a work we do together. Apart from God, our efforts at sanctification are without hope of success in any degree. Apart from our applying ourselves to the task, God is unlikely to expend any effort on the process. Alternately phrased, the character that was entirely the result of God’s work would be God’s character and not our own.
Character, as I chose to define it in my first pass through these verses, is the muscle memory of the soul. Muscle memory doesn’t come about by accident. It comes of long practice. There is a period where the things we seek to excel at require a great deal of concentration and long hours of practice. But, those long hours of practice are to the purpose of training our muscles, whether physical, mental or spiritual, to such a degree as they can take the correct action without concentration, and even without thought.
Our goal is not a thoughtless religiosity. That would be a most unwelcome outcome. Our goal is to so train ourselves in righteousness that our response to circumstance (or better, providence) is not one of agonizing over how to react, but to react in righteousness. To the degree it is possible, we undergo this training so that our reaction is not only right but also instant.
The ball player does not develop amazing reflexes and instant reading of the opponent’s intentions by magic. It comes of long hours spent training, working through any number of possible scenarios so that when each such scenario is encountered, his body knows instinctively what to do and does it. The musician who is adept at improvisation or accompaniment is much the same. The ear hears and there may be some thought of where he would like his part to go, but the thought is not one of fingerings and timings, it is the thought of melody, and the fingers, hearing that melody, just know where to be and when. Indeed, it is often the case that if thought of fingerings and timings comes into the foreground, the fingers will stumble because of the interference.
Our spiritual development is much the same. There is a reason for the spiritual disciplines. They are the training program by which our spirit is trained to respond as it should without the intervention of thought, even in spite of the intervention of thought. Understood thusly, we begin to recognize that these events that God ordains in our lives are to a purpose, to this purpose. But, I get a bit ahead of myself. Before we consider that providential arrangement of suffering, let us consider our Example just a bit further.
Let it be understood by us that provocation to sin is never justification for sin. That is rather the point of the admonition, “Do not return evil for evil, but overcome evil with good” (Ro 12:17, Ro 12:21). That is also very much the point Peter is making on this occasion. Slaves might be tempted to think their ill treatment justified rebellious uprising against their oppressors. So the various rebel groups in Israel had viewed the Roman occupation, and particularly the tax collectors. So we tend to view oppression ourselves. If the boss doesn’t treat us right, we are inclined to view it as justification for slacking off. If our spouse isn’t all that we would have him or her to be, it becomes justification for a wandering eye and wandering thoughts. God will have none of it. Our call in the face of injustice, whatever form it may take, is to act justly. We dare not let such sinful provocations lead us to sin in response.
Barnes offers this thought, and it bears a bit of meditation on our part. “Our proper business in life is to do the will of God; to evince the right spirit however others may treat us; to show, even under excessive wrong, the sustaining power and excellence of true religion.” Let’s consider that just a bit. Our proper business, we might recall, is defined by the fact that we have set ourselves forth as bond-servants of God. We are all of us, by our own happy choice, slaves in His household – just the sort of person Peter is addressing here. Of course, God is not an unjust master, but that just amplifies the propriety of responding in right spirit. His command to us includes what Peter is laying out for these more mundane, earthly associations with which we cope. You have a bad boss and you can’t get out from under his authority? Do God’s will: Evince the right spirit. Don’t respond to his nastiness with nastiness. Don’t respond to his failed leadership by doing less than your best. Respond with a right spirit no matter the wrong done to you. Why? Because this will show him the sustaining power and excellence of true religion.
Barnes concludes that in this fashion, oppression is made opportunity. That is the whole point. That is why God ordains these things in the first place. These unjust sufferings are not punishment for some sin we have hidden away from ourselves. They are not, most assuredly, punishments meted out on account of the sins of past generations. They are opportunities for the Gospel. They are training your own spiritual muscle. They are also giving a testimony as your responses take on the purity of godliness. Oppression is made an opportunity to demonstrate that this belittled faith of yours is the real thing.
Therein lies the power of the martyr. It is not a fate to be sought. But, neither is it a fate to be eschewed. As terrible as it is to contemplate, it remains a glowing testimony to the power of God. I think of the woman Miriam Ibrahim, who was so recently rescued out of Somalia. She was under a very real threat of death and it was demanded by her captors that she renounce this Christian faith which made her an apostate in their eyes. She would not. In spite of threats to herself and to her children, she would not. There was, in the end, nothing they could do that would cause her to let go of Jesus Christ her Savior. This is, I think, a much more powerful declaration than those who blow themselves up in hope of some harem in the afterlife. This is real faith, not just fanaticism. And, whether we see it immediately unfolding or not, I am confident in saying that example of real faith gets noticed. There are those even amongst her tormenters who have taken note of what they have witnessed in her Christian character and found evidence therein of a better way.
How do we come to this place of patience? The JFB offers the thought that it is through knowing His judgment is righteous which allows us to remain tranquil in the midst of oppression. There is also the aspect of suffering as a calling. That may sound a bit strongly stated. But there is truth in it. We are called to be sufferers. It stands to reason, then, that suffering is our calling. It is not a calling for some select few amongst the followers of Christ. It is in the very definition of following. That is what Peter shows us. He was reviled. He suffered. He bore our sins and took our lashes. Yet, He was utterly without sin, perfectly righteous in all His ways, His words, and even His thoughts. What is our command? “Follow Me.” Do as you see Me do. Live as you see Me live. They did this to Me. Expect the same.
If it is a calling, then we can come to recognize this: The suffering which comes our way is not necessarily punishment. Arguably, if we are truly among the elect, it is never punishment. After all, if Christ took upon Himself all the punishment for all our sins, it would be unjust to then visit the some of the punishment for some of our sins upon us. Our accounts before the court have been settled. No, the fact is that our suffering comes as an act of divine Providence. Sufferings, my friend, are provided for us. This must lead us to recognize that however sorrowful the experience of suffering may be – and none would say otherwise – it is for the working of some good on our part. For we know God’s plans for us are for good and not for evil. We know that God works all things together for the good of those who are working in His purpose. We know, although we may shrink from saying so, that He not only works all things, He ordains all things. And, by the practice or our Lord and Christ, we find ourselves bound to do as He commands and exemplifies when called to this suffering.
It is not a time to cry out to heaven asking, “Why me, Lord?” It’s a time to look to heaven to discover what it is that God is accomplishing through this thing and how best we may join with Him in that work. If my patient endurance of injustice is the thing commanded of me, then I can be confident of this: It is the means by which I may best join with Him in that work. It’s no great mystery. He’s already told us. We may not understand how this is going to be some great good. But, we know our part. It only remains to do it.
If we can keep His Providence in mind as we persevere, it is the very thing that is called for. Therein is the strength to endure. If we look at our situation and recognize, God set me here and He did so for a reason – a good reason – then we are empowered to bear it. He is doing something in this. Let me do my utmost for Him, then. Let me stand with those before me who have said, “Though He slay me, yet will I praise Him.” For, we know this: Christian suffering is not fruitless. It is never fruitless, and certainly never frivolous. At minimum, this suffering produces sanctification in us as our sins are put to death and the new life in Christ is begun. One other immediate fruit that we obtain in this perseverance is that we come to discover ourselves. That is to say, we are given a clear bit of evidence that God has indeed been at work in us, our character is being renewed.
If I do not react to these abuses in the way I once would have done, it is that much more cause to give God the glory. Look what He has done! I am not who I was. I am being renewed by the work of the Spirit in me. He is in me and I am in Him, and all of this pain only makes the point. This then serves in turn to give us that much more strength to endure. I shall not shrink back to the ways of my past. God has won this ground for me, and here I shall take my stand in Him.
But, let us understand, even as we endure, that endurance alone is not the call. Bearing with punishment is not sufficient, for punishment may very well be deserved, and as Peter says, what credit is there in bearing what you have brought upon yourself? There is the second ingredient that is required, and which presents the more difficult call: Live so as to deserve no punishment. That completes the example we are to copy. The example of Christ combines patience with innocence. We must likewise live a life of innocence and, when called upon to suffer in spite of innocence add patience. Do not return evil for evil. Bless the one who curses you. Sin against one’s person does not excuse the sinful response.
This is the character Christ is developing in us. It is a labor in which we have our part. It is the very process of sanctification, and ought really to be a major focus of our life of faith. It is well to know our Scriptures. It is well to pray often and earnestly. It is well to sing praises to our God morning and evening. But, it is very well to give our all to demonstrating the character of Christ in our own character; working together with Him that we may show Him to the world around us, a Light in the darkness.
The Power of Christ’s Death (09/19/14)
It is well to recognize the example we have in Christ. But, if we view His life and death as no more than an example, we remain pagans. Peter will not stop there. We cannot stop there. We must recognize the full power of Christ’s suffering. There is a footnote in Calvin’s commentary on this passage, which reads, “Christ’s death was intended to answer two great ends – to remove guilt and to remove or to destroy sin in us.” This is far and away beyond setting an example we can follow. We cannot remove guilt. We cannot destroy sin. It is the fact that He has done so which gives us both cause and power to persevere as we are commanded here. But, we follow the example recognizing that in Him there is so much more than just the example.
Guilt and punishment were both dealt with in His suffering. The JFB makes the point that the burden of our sins remained upon Him until that burden was legally destroyed through the death of His body on the cross. Notice Peter’s insistence on that point. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” There was no swap, no sleight of hand. It was very real death, very real punishment for very real sins. And it was a very real satisfaction of the demands of Justice. But, the power of His death and resurrection is not merely that we can walk about proclaiming ourselves justified before God. We cannot, like those Paul refuted, make His satisfaction of the legal consequences an excuse to sin with impunity.
See where Peter takes this. He did this not merely to account for our sins, but so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (v24). Understand that God has done this. He has so effectually separated us from sin that we are able to live to Him. There’s a corollary to that which we are not as inclined to face. If we would live with Christ we must first die with Him. Generally, it seems to me that Scripture puts this in a more comfortable view: You have and therefore you can, or better still: He has and therefore you can. But it remains a true statement that we must if we would. Matthew Henry sets the point this way. “No man can depend safely upon Christ, as having borne his sin and expiated his guilt, till he dies unto sin and lives unto righteousness.”
If we are still making Christ’s expiation an excuse to sin without concern, then we cannot afford to think we belong to Him. There remains that which we must do. We don’t do as adding to His grace toward us. We don’t do as some meritorious work by which we complete what He started. We do because if He has indeed done this work of grace in us, we can do no other. We do because it strengthens the soul to see ourselves doing as we ought. The more we see by our choices and actions that sin has been put to death in us and we have become as dead men to the enticements of sin, the more we are assured of the Spirit of the Living God dwelling and working in us. The more we see our choices continuing to choose the sinful course, the less cause for confidence we have and the more doubts must surely creep in. Am I truly His? How can I be His and still do the things I do?
No, we shall not attain to perfection in this life. We shall ever struggle, ever know the anguish of soul that Paul so eloquently expresses. We shall ever have cause to shout together with him, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Ro 7:25). His grace is greater than my struggle. His grace is sufficient. We shall overcome. More rightly: He shall overcome. He has overcome. It is finished!
It is finished because Jesus Christ, the Son of God came, lived, died, and was resurrected. The Wycliffe Commentary makes note of this thread running through Peter’s presentation. Here is Jesus Christ, the Lamb without spot or blemish (1Pe 1:19). Here is Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, He by whose stripes we are healed. Here, fulfilling the type of the Mosaic Law, is the scapegoat taking away our sins in His own body on the tree. He died that we might die to sin, that we might then live to righteousness having been healed by His wounds. Let us never think to reduce that most powerful healing to a matter of merely relieving our physical maladies. He may, He may not. But, He has healed the most lethal of wounds: The bondage to sin which was destroying us surely and utterly. Therein is cause to rejoice, whatever suffering we may endure in this fallen body.
Sheep (09/20/14)
As we look at the close of this chapter, I feel I must reiterate that chastening doesn’t come in response to sickness. When we see the wounds of Christ by which we are healed, understand that these are there because He bore our sins in His body, not because we came down with the flu. It is not, ultimately, the body that needs healing but the soul. This has perplexed God’s people forever, it would seem, but it holds true. One can be as healthy and wealthy as can be imagined and still be doomed to hell. One can be so poor that he can barely scrape up a penny to put in the offering plate and yet be accounted righteous because God has redeemed him. The reverse, it must be said, can also hold. There is no correlation between health and holiness, between wealth and righteousness; not in this life, certainly.
In the end, while bodily healing is desirable, it is the soul that needs healing. The body may be repaired as often as one likes, and the grave will claim it yet. I can’t help but point us to Lazarus once again. Here was a man who had already been in the grave, but Jesus saw fit to call him back out. Dead man walking! This was a miracle to set Jerusalem on its ears. He was well known around the city, and his death was quite thoroughly attested. Yet, here he was, walking and talking with Jesus. But, here’s the thing: Lazarus still died. It may have taken longer, but it came to pass. The grave claimed him again. That is not in question. Frankly, given that God knows and has decreed the number of our days, that is the unavoidable appointment. He knows the hour and the day and however much you may think you are altering the schedule, the fact is you cannot add or subtract so much as a second from the span ordained for you.
It is the soul that lasts. The body will be renewed in time, for God is quite able to reconstruct our constituent atoms when the time comes. The question is whether the soul that fills that reconstructed body is renewed or reprobate. There will be an eternity to occupy. Will you occupy it in praising the God of Life? Or, will you occupy it with agonizing payment for your own sins, having rejected His good work on your behalf? Will you occupy it in ruing that most critical of decisions, when you determined to have your own way rather than His?
This is what needs healing. It is the sin-sick soul. It is the soul determined to get lost. If that is not healed, eternity will be no blessing whatsoever. It will, however, remain eternity. You see, that closing sentence: You were continually straying like sheep; it’s the same message. Your wounds aren’t healed yet. Your mind can’t think clearly nor your soul choose wisely because as yet you have not deigned to pay heed to the shepherd. You have insisted on going your own way and you haven’t even noticed where that way has led you. You have walked yourself right straight in to the valley of the shadow of death. You have put yourself in harm’s way, and harm is not going to wait long in coming to you.
We all tend to stray. It is in our nature. Righteousness is hard. It requires conscious effort, and we prefer our ease. We just want to kick back and relax. But, that is not an urge to rest. Rest has its time and place. It is, in fact, the urge to reject what is commanded, to take life into our own hands and let go of responsibility. And it is this tendency that needs addressing. Can I route this back to pride? Yes, I think I can. It is pride that convinces us that we are wise to follow our own lead. It is pride that rejects the idea that we need shepherding. It is humility that reminds us that we are lost.
It is, even more, mercy, for we will not remind ourselves of our own accord. It takes the voice of God calling us back to our senses. I hear this in the prayer of the psalmist. “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant, for I do not forget Thy commandments” (Ps 119:176). If I might rephrase it: Seek me, for I am lost. I’ve not forgotten your laws, but my mind wandered. And now, here I am and I don’t know where here is. Find me, dear Shepherd and bring me home. Guard me, dearest Bishop of my soul, lest I stupidly do this all over again.
Please notice: You were continually straying like sheep. Would that this tendency ended at conversion, but I know too well that it does not. The tendency remains, but now we have the voice of the Shepherd in our ears to bring us back to our senses more swiftly. Now we have a chance of catching ourselves before we pursue so daft a course. And we are growing. We are trained by our experience, instructed by our Teacher, in order that we may recognize that straying urge for what it is and resist the temptation. Persevere! Live in innocence and rest even in suffering. Your Savior is ever near to you and He will not suffer you to be lost; He who has paid so dearly to make you His own.
Lord, I hear the Psalmist’s words and I know them as my own: I have not forgotten You. But, my mind wanders. I neglect that which I should most pay heed to. I seek out my distractions when You would have me mindful of my duty. Forgive me, and help me to grow in this role You have set me. I would be faithful to You, knowing Your faithfulness. If I am off, Lord, bring me back in line. If I am at ease when I ought to be alert, awaken me to my situation, that I may serve You better, love You more, and know You forever. Heal this sickness in me, my God. I know You have done so, for it is indeed finished. Yet, I would that the outworking of that finished deed were more complete in me. Still, Your time and not my own. I shall rest in the knowledge of Your love for me, and work in the strength and wisdom You provide.
