A Cause for Growth (05/17/24)

I am going to start by picking up somewhat on the thoughts of the previous passage.  Paul expresses a certain confidence here, as to how things will fall out for him, and that confidence continues as the letter continues.  He is convinced.  It is striking to me that we have both faith, and the underlying conviction that produces faith evident in this passage.  Faith without such underlying conviction, without having been convinced by the evidence, is little more than wishful thinking.  But that is not what we have in faith.  Even in the Greek, the connection is made.  Pistos comes of pietho.  Faith comes of being convinced.

For my part, it’s hard to hear that note of conviction, “I am convinced,” without my thoughts going to Romans 8:38.  It’s a different matter there, to be sure, but the same foundation:  Convinced by the evidence.  “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Ro 8:38-39).  That’s conviction.  That’s real faith expressed, because it has looked at the evidence and found basis for a sound conclusion.  And having reached so sound a conclusion, it has been fully internalized.  Paul’s not spouting theory here, he’s speaking bedrock truth.  Here’s the facts.

So, feel that same depth of conviction in what he is saying now.  At some level, his point must remain suppositional, for he’s not talking revelation knowledge here.  He’s talking conclusions reached upon examination of the available evidence.  He has looked at his circumstances.  He has looked at the God he knows.  He has weighed, as best he may, the potentialities, and on this basis, he has a settled sense of how God will steer events.  Why?  Because this is the course of greater value in the grand scheme of things.  Personal benefit must be outweighed by the greater value of group benefit.  This will be the case because it is for your progress.

And by progress, we might reasonably expect an outcome of growth on their part.  To progress in the faith is to advance in the faith, is to grow in the faith.  Now let’s understand that the significance here is not of obtaining more faith, as if it were some mystical supply that we must seek more of.  It’s not like some spiritual cashflow, some account in which we hope to have greater deposit so as to have greater potential to spend.  I would suggest that the issue here is far more to do with ‘the system of religious truth’, as Strong speaks of it.  It is greater conviction as to the truth, yes, but that greater conviction comes of greater knowledge, greater understanding, and it produces in the man of faith a greater trust, a greater and more well-founded holy fervor.  Why?  Because what that greater conviction and knowledge consists in is greater reliance upon Christ Jesus.  Here is the foundation, the sole foundation of faith.  Jesus Christ is Lord.  That’s it.  I could add that favorite note of mine, that He, the Lord, has called you by name and declared that you are His.

And then, we can go back to Romans 8:38-39 yet again.  I am convinced!  NOTHING can separate me from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ my Lord.  Nothing!  Not even my doubts and failures.  No!  I am convinced of this.  This is bedrock truth.  This is so much a part of who I am as leaves no place for doubt.  It forms the basis of who I am.  Why?  Because He is.

See, this is the whole function of all these various means of grace.  It is the function of the Word.  It is the function of study, the function of prayer, the function of preaching:  That we might have cause to grow in our reliance upon Christ.  And we grow in our reliance upon Him as we grow in our sound understanding of this whole system of religious truth.  Doctrine matters.  What, after all, is doctrine, but exposition upon this system of religious truth?  If it is true, then true exposition of it does nothing more than to help us sort out in our thinking just what that truth is.  It’s all well and good, beloved, to have belief in divine matters, but for it to have value, we must first ascertain that what we have declared as divine matters are in fact in full accord with the truth.  For God is Truth.  He is Truth in fulness and perfection.  Our understanding, however, is not full and perfect.  We are often in need of correction, always in need of making progress, both in understanding truly, and living truly by what we understand.

A Cause for Joy (05/18/24)

There’s a connection here that I would not have us miss.  Paul’s conclusion is that God’s preference is for their progress in faith.  But observe that with progress in faith comes joy.  Now, I am quite certain I have observed this before, as it is a part of the definition of this joy that always resonates with me.  Perhaps it’s just my generally introverted way.  But the idea of joy as ‘calm delight’ always strikes home.  We’re not talking giddiness here.  We’re not talking laughter and a sense of fun.  We’re not even talking about that sort of excited gladness that may enfold us as we open a present, although I might allow that this last applies in some degree.  After all, progress in faith is the opening of a present, isn’t it?  And what a wonderful present it is!  None shall ever even come close to matching its value, matching its perfect suitability for us.

What is it, after all, that causes that warmth of delight when we open a present?  It may be that we have some recognition of the expense involved, seeing that someone has loved us enough to spend on us what we would not spend on ourselves.  It may be the way this gift so perfectly suits our desires and interests, and how this, in turn, demonstrates to us just how well the giver has come to know us.  I am assuming, of course, that we have advanced beyond the simple me, me, me of childhood.  At that stage, it may be the sheer number of gifts received that stirs us to an excited sort of joy.  But this!  This is calm delight.  This is the wonder of seeing how much somebody has loved us, how much they have taken pains to know what makes us tick.  And for many of us, I suspect that like myself, there is a certain wonder that they could, even with such care, manage to choose something that really, truly satisfies a desire in us.

I think of my daughter and her attempts to achieve this in the realm of recorded music.  But that, I would have to say, is the most challenging place to attempt a match.  We share certain tastes, which is, quite frankly, a gift far beyond any purchase.  But to buy a recording that I am going to want?  Near to impossible.  To buy a piece of music equipment, whether for playback or for production?  Unlikely in the extreme to truly align with what I would want.  Far better in these cases to send money with instruction to spend it on the desired item.  Tastes are too, I don’t know, unpredictable?  Emotionally fraught?  At any rate, it truly becomes one of those cases where it’s the thought that counts.

But here!  Here is the God of all creation, who knew me before ever I was knit together in the womb.  And He has indeed been extravagant in the giving of this gift, no expense spared – not even His own blood.  And it’s a perfect fit.  It is exactly what I needed, what you needed.  We may not have realized it at the time we first received this gift of His love.  But once received, once opened up, oh yes!  It’s perfect.  It suits me to a tee.  And the greatest wonder of all is that having opened up this gift, we discover a lifetime of opening this gift remains ahead of us.  There are depths to it, layers upon layers.  It’s like receiving a book in your favorite genre, but a book which will continue to deliver tale after tale, never reaching the point where there is nothing further to read.  I don’t know.  Perhaps you’ve known that bittersweet moment of completing a series, or maybe of obtaining the last recording by some favorite musician.  There is satisfaction at the completion, but also the letdown of knowing there will be no further additions to be made, no further wonders to read.  That doesn’t happen with God.  We may read these Scriptures a thousand times, and a thousand times we shall discover things that went unnoticed before.  There will, to be sure, be those parts that are familiar, intimately familiar.  But always, there is something new to discover in this gift.

Here, then, is the joy of this Christian life.  It is the calm delight of seeing that indeed we are making progress.  It is the gladness we have in discovering more about our Savior.  It is the satisfaction of having reason to note that we have matured just a little bit more, of looking back and seeing one more bit of the past put behind us, one more sin vanquished, one more evidence of grace in our character.  And if you’re like me, it’s quite likely that these new things transpired all but unnoticed.  We discover depths in ourselves that we did not know were there.  We discover reserves of spiritual strength that have gathered like pools in our character, reshaping our thoughts and habits to reflect that little bit better the character of our Beloved.  And yes, seeing this, there is calm delight.  Not boasting, no.  For the very surprise of the result is already evidence that it was none of our doing, but all of His.

So, come!  Rejoice that indeed you are His.  Be gladdened by the progress He has caused to come about in you.  You are growing!  And that growth demonstrates that much more clearly that indeed you are His.  He is at work in you.  You are being led of the Spirit.  It doesn’t need that spark of the supernatural to tickle your senses.  The still, calm voice is something far different than the fanfare of tongues and prophecy.  There’s nothing wrong with these.  Paul, after all, commends them to us, and if so, then we must accept as well that God Himself commends them to us as gifts He has given us for our benefit.  What benefit?  To build one another up in holy faith.  They aren’t for show.  They’re for use.  It is for this cause that he insists that tongues ought to be dismissed where there is no interpretation.  Nowhere can I find support for this idea of the entire congregation breaking forth in tongues.  That’s not spiritual building up.  That is far more of fleshly excitement.  But these aren’t toys to excite.  They’re tools to refine, to build up, to renew and reshape these lives we live.

Now, it remains almost a background matter here, but there is something of a contagion to this joy.  We can see it in verse 26, once we get over the mention of pride and boasting.  I mean, aren’t those supposed to be sins we are overcoming?  Okay, we’ll get to that, but for now, set aside the offense and look at the reason.  There is joy in seeing a brother fruitful in the Lord.  There is joy in seeing your fellow believer growing, perhaps even excelling your own development.  It ought to bring us exceeding great joy when we discover one of our number called to vocational ministry.  It should thrill us when their gifts and talents are being trained and refined so as to glorify God.

This is not an occasion for competitiveness.  There’s no contest here, where one wins and everybody else loses.  No.  To the degree that we can declare a winner, whoever wins, it’s a win for all.  So, perhaps a bit of a self-check here.  How do I respond to news of God working in a brother or sister?  And is my response somehow conditioned on their resemblance to my own development?  Do I grow jealous because their gift, their growth, comes in a different area or form than my own?  If a brother prays with particular effectiveness, or simply with a greater regularity than I do, shall I be jealous of him?  Shall I become frustrated that he has done better than me?  Or shall I rejoice to know his example?

If my wife excels me in various aspects, though they appear to me so often to be at odds with my own understanding of faith, should I reject or ridicule?  The answer is obviously no.  And yet, what is the response I see?  I have seen it called out repeatedly these last few weeks.  There is no righteousness in seeking to shut down any discussion of the matter.  There is nothing to be gained by rejecting what training she is receiving, whatever I may think of it.  There’s a boundary here somewhere, and I’m probably overly inclined to back off from any vocal criticism, not least because I am pretty clear that it would achieve nothing anyway.  But she is a woman of God, and this is apparently the means He has chosen for her growth, however much it may offend my sensibilities.  And in this case, my sensibilities don’t enter into it.  It’s God’s call, she is His daughter.  It kind of puts me in mind of Peter’s thinking when called to preach to Cornelius.  Who am I to oppose what God is doing?  Would that we were more alike in our development and in the details of our beliefs.  But we both love God and serve Him after our own fashion, and if He is pleased, then the only right response is calm delight.

I can say that as I see her growing in capacity and willingness to actually dig into the Scriptures a bit, there is indeed a calm delight.  I must refrain my inclination to correct and reshape what she is discovering there.  After all, I would not well tolerate somebody coming along and critiquing the various things I have found in my own studies.  I have my chosen means of checking results, and she, I expect, has her own, has those who can correct any glaring error where the same correction coming from me would be rejected.  And so, I seek to be at peace with developments, and to rejoice with her in her gladness.

Well, Lord, I see the note I left myself, about the lack of excitement in myself when news comes of a brother’s answer to prayer.  I can barely work up an, “Oh, that’s nice,” half the time.  And as to prayer requests, too many of them seem too remote.  But I have to recognize that this is a reaction bred of reading one man’s opinions, rather than anything with solid basis.  And it does concern me that I have become somewhat numb to these things.  Really?  Another prayer request for another somebody I don’t know from Adam?  Honestly?  Well, yes.  Honestly.  And what’s wrong with me, Father, that I find it more a bother than a call to pray?  Help me with this.  Restore to me that sensitivity to the needs of Your children, the needs of my family.  Restore to me that desire to pray that was once there, or, if it was never there as it ought to be, then bring it into being.  I am drier than I have reason to be, and it’s time to flourish time to grow in new growth.  But I cannot grow except You are my water, my light, my entire nourishment.  Nourish me, then, my God, that I may bear more fruit for You.

A Cause for Boasting (05/19/24)

So, I come to this question of what to do when Scripture offends our sensibilities.  And as answer, I must begin with this:  If our sensibilities are offended by Scripture, either our understanding of the Scripture is wrong or our sensibilities are wrong.  These are the only two options.  For, Scripture is true, and truly informs us of God, Who is true.  In this present instance, it is that note of boasting, or proud confidence.  It sounds so prideful, doesn’t it?  Paul is convinced that God will see to His release so that they can boast more about him.  And I can’t help but notice how the various translations seek to soften the offense of this statement.  The NIV, which happens to be this morning’s reading, reduces it to the point of simply saying, “So that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.”  The NASB at least leaves us a hint of the real wording.  “So that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.”  The BBE is more direct.  “So that your pride in me may be increased in Christ Jesus through my being present with you again.”

What are we to do with this?  After all, the proud boasting is there.  That’s what the Greek actually conveys.  Kauchema has this fundamental meaning of proud boasting, or cause for such.  But isn’t boasting bad?  And to put oneself forward as the cause for boasting?  That’s got to be bad, right?  Well, yes, if it stopped there, I suppose we could say that yes, boasting is bad.  But notice the chain here.  We have some little prepositions to contemplate, en and dia.  This proud boasting is en Paul en Christ, dia his coming alongside them again.  And actually, going to the Greek, it is first en Christ, then en Paul.  The order has shifted, it seems, to better suit the English language.  But Greek sets order not by grammatical necessity, but by emphasis.  That is to say, the emphasis here remains on Christ, as is right and proper.

So, there’s one piece of our answer already, isn’t it?  First step is to gain a better understanding of what the text is actually saying, and what Paul is saying is that his restoration to them will lead to their greater proud confidence in Christ.  It still seems a bit odd, I confess, to have that en emoi, in me.  Would it not have sufficed to say in Christ by my coming to you again?  Why in Christ in me?  Well, there is the matter of causation here.  And when we come to matters of causation it’s easy to get lost in the distinctions made.  Both en and dia have application in indicating the instrumental cause, but then there are distinctions made, subdivisions, where en indicates the medial or constructive cause, whereas dia points to the efficient cause.  Okay, so dia is a bit easier to distinguish.  It is indicating how the thing is accomplished, what is the first cause (oh dear, now we have a fourth variation of instrumental cause).  But how the thing is accomplished; this we can understand.  How they shall come to be more abundant in proud confidence is by Paul’s restoration to them.

But perhaps we should back away from seeking causal implication in the first case.  If we return to a more basic definition of en, it is a preposition of fixed position:  at rest upon, in or amongst.  So, to have their proud confidence resting upon Christ Jesus, and this, more abundantly, indeed, in overflowing abundance; now, that sounds a good thing indeed, doesn’t it?  This is where we all should be, our proud confidence firmly set upon Christ Jesus.  This is, after all, the true and proper foundation for faith, that faith which is cause for joy because it has been established on confirmed evidence.  What is that evidence?  Christ Jesus.  In Him, we have seen the Father.  In Him, we have come to know God’s love for us.  In Him, we have repeated experience of forgiveness.  And from Him, we have received the Holy Spirit, whose guidance is again a matter affirmed to us by experience continually.  There is great cause for Him to be known as our surety, for by His constant speaking to us, steering our conscience when we would stray, reminding us of God’s love when we lose sight of it, we know more each day that we are indeed sons of our Father Who is in heaven.

So, yes, by all means let our proud confidence rest upon the Solid Rock of our Savior’s love for us.  Now, perhaps, we can contemplate this en emoi from a causal perspective.  The proud confidence in Christ is, in some way, produced by him.  We’re back at the medial cause, which would be to say the intermediate cause.  So, Paul is instrumental to their confidence, but in an intermediate way, perhaps a constructive way.  Let’s try this:  They would overabound in proud confidence in Christ by virtue of Paul, through his coming to them again.  That begins to sound more appropriate, doesn’t it?

I conclude that the BBE is actually a bit off course in its rendering.  “Your proud confidence in me” simply doesn’t apply here.  That’s not the point of it.  Your proud confidence is in Christ.  He is the object of our confidence, the sole object.  Preachers and teachers may help us to gain confidence in Christ by helping us to gain in knowledge and understanding of Who He Is, but they remain at best intermediate causes.  This is an aspect of instrumental cause that sometimes eludes me.  I hear instrumental cause, and my first impression is, ah, they were instrumental.  It couldn’t have happened apart from them.  But that’s not the sense of it.  No.  They were instruments.  And the instrument, however well crafted, can do nothing of itself.  It requires one to take up the instrument and use it.  The saxophones behind me will never, of their own accord, produce even a single note.  Yet, they are the instrumental cause of the particular timbre of sound produced when I pick them up and play them.  And I might observe that each one has its own unique personality, if you will, its own quirks and textures.

If viewed with this mindset, then Paul setting himself as instrumental cause for their confidence is doing nothing more than declaring himself an instrument, and the player, the one producing such music for the spirit upon this instrument is Christ Jesus.  Thus, to the degree that this proud boasting pertains to him at all, it is only as he is the instrument Christ Jesus has used to cause their boasting in Him.

Well, that’s taken us rather a long way round, hasn’t it?  But we are left to observe that indeed, there is a place for boasting.  It is in Christ.  There is a place in recognizing our being used of Him to produce such proud boasting.  It’s okay.  And where it’s okay, I think we find it is also reciprocal.  I look at the example of Paul’s comment to the Corinthians.  Without delving over much into the context, the second letter, as we have them, goes to a church that has been disciplined severely by Paul, and a church that has known a degree of dissention as to his right to do so.  He has observed, in this second letter, that what he has written to them are in fact things to which they have given agreement in the past.  That is to say, the corrections he gave were of a piece with the doctrines he had taught while with them.  They were but reminders of truth.  And so, he says that he hopes they will continue to agree with these truths to the end (2Co 1:13-14).  Or, returning to the NASB, he is effectively saying there’s no hidden meanings here.  He writes to be understood, and they understand what he wrote, his hope being that they will continue in that understanding.  And then, we come to this:  “Just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.”

We’re back into it again, aren’t we?  Never mind the question of partially understanding.  I’ll save that for such time as I get to that letter, if indeed I do.  But we are your reason to be proud?  You are our reason to be proud?  Are we misplacing our focus again?  Well, let’s note with appropriate attention the occasion:  in the day of our Lord Jesus.  When we are called to give account of ourselves as concerns this life of faith, what will we have to show for it?  That’s the thing in view.  For their part, they could point to their acceptance of the things Paul taught, and also to their abiding the corrective discipline he supplied, and profiting by it.  Look, Lord, we received his correction and reformed our ways, repenting and returning to You.  We stopped setting our confidence in the flesh, or in the fleshly displays of spiritual gifts, and put our confidence fully and solely in You, in Your grace and mercy.  He, in turn, could point to their progress and say, see, Lord?  I have cared for them as You instructed.  I have fed them, and they have grown.

This, I think, should be the right relationship of church and pastor.  The church ought to have cause to boast in their pastor that he has brought them the truth, spoken to them lovingly even when discipline was needful, and has not shirked in telling them the truth of their situation, even when the truth must prove painful.  He has been a proper shepherd, a true teacher, and an instrument in God’s hands to produce growth in faith’s understanding in them.  And he, in turn, ought to be able to look at his flock and see the maturing of faith in them, see the growth that his careful ministering has brought about in each of them.  It doesn’t always work out this way, but it should.  Jonathan Edwards wrote somewhat of this final accounting, suggesting that come the day of our Lord Jesus, there would be a reuniting of churches with their pastors to give account together.  It is eminently to be hoped that in such accounting there will indeed be this mutual cause for boasting.

But observe as well this later explanation Paul supplies in this same letter.  “We’re not commending ourselves to you again” (2Co 5:12).  That’s not what this is about.  There had been occasion, in the first letter, for Paul to defend his apostolic authority.  It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.  But that’s not what he’s about here.  Enough.  That’s been settled.  And if it hasn’t been, well, further exposition on the matter isn’t going to change anything, is it?  He knows his status, and at least the majority of them do as well.   If dissenters remain, so be it.  But here, Paul is no longer playing defense.  No, “We are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those whose pride is in their appearance, rather than in their character.”  I am paraphrasing somewhat.  But it’s basically a presentation of factual basis for boasting rather than the false pride of appearances, perhaps of oratorical skill.  Oratorical skill was, after all, the boast of Corinth.  The competitions in their games included such categories, the art of the argument, if you will.  But the artfulness of the presentation does not, in the end, determine the truthfulness.  Any lawyer could tell you that.  Newscasters may speak ever so well of some eventful occasion and yet be telling an entirely slanted viewpoint.  They may be convincing, but they may also be entirely wrong.

So it was with those seeking to influence the young church.  Some came with truth.  Others came with poses.  The latter may have seemed more impressive.  They certainly tried to do so.  But it’s not about being impressive.  It’s about being correct.  If we have cause to boast in one another it is in that we abide in the truth of God, believing it, living it, declaring it.

There is a place for boasting.  It is in Christ Jesus.  To the degree that we are in fact taking our place as instruments in His skillful hands, that boasting may involve us, and that is acceptable.  Yet, the cause is Christ.  The cause is ever Christ.  What do I conclude, then?  I conclude that we ought to live such that others may find reason to boast of our impact on their faith in Christ, and that we may boast of having responded well to those who had like impact on our faith in Christ.  Let the boasting ever redound to His glory, and His alone.  But we need not shy away from commending the commendable.  Neither, I think, need we be so meticulous in deflecting any praise that comes our way.  Seems to me that as often as not, these deflections are nothing but pride in disguise.  Let humility be natural, and let such commendations as come your way take their course.  And praise God through it all.  It is enough.  And in all, find cause to boast in your Lord.  For He is glorious, and all that is good in us is Him.  Praise be to His name!