New Thoughts (04/14/12-04/20/12)
Love & Hate (04/15/12-04/17/12)
Once again I find myself with three primary heads to touch on in the course of exploring the passage. As I begin, I am mindful of the fact that what I am reading here remains firmly connected to what I was reading last. It has been most beneficial to have been reading a study on Amos at the same time as pursuing a study of this grand discourse, for the similarities are striking both in content and in form. Concerning the latter, it is easy to read the prophets and come away with the sense that one is looking at a bunch of random proclamations made on disparate occasions. The author I’ve been reading gives the reminder that the prophet, knowing he had been entrusted with a message direct from God, and knowing that he ought to write that down for posterity, was hardly likely to simply record a mishmash of memories with no organization and no clear line of development.
When Jesus speaks, one can come away with that same surface impression that He is jumping from point to point in such a way that it seems He has completely shifted His train of thought. What has this to do with that? Reading casually through, we may never seek to find the connections, just write it off as some issue with the author’s memory or something. Others, in recent decades, have presumed the apparently disconnected flow of the narrative proves that either the author was working from some other, unknown collection, or that there were multiple authors, with later revisionists seeking to bend the message to their own purposes. Seems to me there’s a bit of projection in that last approach.
The reality of the matter is that Jesus teaches in the prophetic voice. The reality is that Amos taught. He did not just blurt out the content of his book as it stands. Rather, he condensed down the full message delivered (and more than likely, delivered on or across multiple occasions) so as to preserve the core message. In other words, though the development of his argument and the delivery of his point may be obscured to our casual reading, it is there. Likewise, the connection between what Jesus proclaims and the events into which He proclaims them is often obscured to the casual reader, but it is most assuredly there.
This discourse, in which I’ve been wading for many weeks now, records what might be construed as the closing lesson of all Jesus has taught. It is, because He knows it will be the last chance for a real lesson, both lengthy and dense. There is a lot here, and it will require more than the evening meal over which it was delivered for the disciples to make sense of it all. Likewise, it will take more than a simple read through for us to truly follow Jesus’ thoughts.
In the present case, it behooves me to remain mindful that this introduction, or re-introduction really, of the world’s hatred comes abruptly. He has just finished that well-developed presentation of His command to love, and now He switches instantaneously to the matter of hatred. Boom! The disciples are thrown from the track. Where’d He go? But, you see, that’s the intent. It’s like the pastor who has been speaking in sedate, nicely modulated tones and suddenly he shouts out his next point. It’s designed to grab hold of the wandering mind and focus it most sharply on what’s now at hand.
I will also note, at this stage, a few of the connecting threads that bind this part of Jesus’ thought to what has gone before. First, there is that deliberate contrast of love and hate. Second, we have yet another reminder of the relationship between these graduate students and their Teacher. He may have elevated them to the status of friends, but they are still not greater than He, nor ever shall be. They are still to serve, for serving is what He is about. That lesson, begun with the foot washing, has remained an integral part of all He is presenting. Third, the issue of fruitfulness remains paramount, reflected here in the closing call for them to bear witness. For, that is the seed which will bear fruit. Finally, there is the thread of the coming Holy Spirit of Truth, Whose introduction has also been running through much of what Jesus says this night.
So, the passage under the spotlight here, beginning at verse 18 and closing out the chapter, breaks into three subsections; the first considering the cause and effect of this hatred in the world, the second considering the judgment brought about by the very presence, the very fact of Jesus, and the third considering the issue of witness. Indeed, those last two are much the same topic, just considered from different angles.
Once again, then, the development of thought here is very firmly connected, and very cogent in its presentation. Let me present it with the lead in of that command which demarked the previous section of the lesson. 1) You are to love each other. Why? Well, apart from My own love, there’s this: 2) the world will hate you. Why? 3) because they hate Me, and you graduates, My friends, are still not going to surpass Me, nor can you expect different treatment from Me if you are truly acting as My disciples. 4) Point for later development: You are not of the world. Dig that! 5) My very being represents the final straw for them. I speak Truth, I demonstrate God’s power, God’s love, and they respond with hatred for Me. That is the condemning proof that they hate God, whatever they may claim to the contrary. 6) I am going, but the Holy Spirit will continue the witness, and so must you.
Do you see it? Indeed, it is for the purpose of this witness that the command to love is given. This is all of a piece. Our love, genuine, active, unqualified love for one another is the most fundamental witness to the fact that we are no longer of the world. The world cannot love in this fashion. Yes, there are altruistic tendencies even in many an unbeliever, and indeed, we can quickly arrive at examples of outright atheists who, in their example, outshine many a believer. All that is granted. Yet, the reality of an unqualified active compassion, even for those who hate you with just as great a degree of active involvement, is not there. It cannot be there except God is in it. That’s as true of us as of them, and therein lies the distinction. God is in us. We are in Him. They are in and of the world, and the world, as Jesus commented not that long ago, cannot receive Him, does not know Him and will not abide Him (Jn 14:17).
The commandment to love is of such great import because it presents just as shocking a contrast with the world’s hatred as was delivered in the way Jesus has spoken. You must love each other. The world hates you because it hates Me. We may as well drop the ‘if,’ because it’s really a given. The world does hate Him, and therefore, because our presence has that same effect of inevitably exposing their real condition, they hate us.
If this does not present you with a great challenge, then I must either commend you as a saint with few if any peers, or recommend that you think a bit harder. How do you respond to slight? How do you react to disagreement? Even with your own spouse, your own children or parents, the challenge arises. What do you do when an argument arises? Do you escalate or ameliorate? What happens when there’s need for discipline? Do you know how to apply it lovingly, or do you come the tyrant?
How often have I heard my wife saying that we cannot expect to maintain in public what we cannot maintain at home. I’m not so certain that this is quite true, particularly as experience seems to pile up a great weight of evidence to the contrary. However, we surely cannot expect to maintain in public what we don’t even bother to practice at home! I had a worship leader a few years back who tended to make this point. What you do in practice is what you will wind up doing when it’s time to perform. I don’t wish to intimate that our public behavior is a performance, but there’s few other options for describing the distinction, at least that come to my mind.
What you practice is what you will do. It’s basically the same statement as, “as a man thinks, so he speaks.” At least that’s the way I tend to remember the passage. Looking now, I find it somewhat different as Jesus delivered it. “How can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Mt 12:34). What holds for words holds for actions. This is not to say that we are perfect, or even close. But, have you ever been pleasantly surprised to realize how you’ve reacted to a situation?
I recall that occasion when we were rear-ended as we were turning into my father’s driveway. There was plenty about that event which I would that I had done differently. However, there was this: In the shock of being hit, in that split second of seeing it coming and knowing there was nothing I could do, in the violence of the moment, not a single foul word befell my lips! I was frankly amazed to realize that in retrospect. My! How unlike me. Yes, I confess that has been an issue of longstanding with me, that my language can run a tad coarse. No, I would not allow that to transpire of a Sunday morning, although I admit there are occasions when that requires a good deal of conscious effort. But, it’s a habit that began far too early in my youth, and it’s a battle that God and I wage with myself as part of this developing character. I don’t always stand victorious at the end. But, on that one occasion (and others, to be sure) I had a little victory there. I could look upon myself and say, “my, but you’ve changed.” And, then I could immediately turn heavenward and thank God for the change, and for the realization of it, the proving of it.
So, we practice. We still blow it over and over, but we practice. And what we practice is not the fine art of blowing it. What we practice is not hatred and anger and condemnation, but rather love, and peace and mercy. Why? Well, amongst other things this is what we have received from our Father in heaven, and He has called us His sons. We desire to be sons in the truest sense, reflective of His own character. Don’t get me wrong, His character contains wrath and condemnation as well, but this is not the side He has chosen to show us, and so, we must choose not to show others that side in ourselves. We are commanded to love, even when spitefully used. We are commanded to bless, even when cursed. We are commanded to judge not lest we be judged. Ah! But, the nearer my Lord to Thee, the more does my own quiet example serve as Your own.
Notice that in His ministry, Jesus very rarely took the tone of judgment. It’s there, certainly. That passage I just referred to back in Matthew is a case in point. “You brood of vipers!” Those are not conciliatory words. But, they were words reserved for the stony-hearted, unrepentant religious faker. For the rest, there was mercy, healing, compassion, sorrow for the incapacity of us fallen creatures to resist or do much of anything about the temptations surrounding us. Blind, deaf and dumb, we were all stumbling about, wallowing in our sins and not even aware of the filthiness of our condition. But, He didn’t turn away in disgust. He came and pulled us out. He came and washed us up. He came and changed our condition once for all. Mercy. Compassion. And the most glorious, shocking, improbable, impossible news that through His ministrations we had come to terms with God. We were at peace with the One with the power to uncreate His creation.
Now: I am mindful of the point made by Thayer, that this matter of hatred and love may not bear quite the degree of emotion that we would tend to associate with the terms. Hated, that lexicon notes, may not come to much more than indifference and disregard. Love may mean little beyond showing some interest. If we think in terms of how we might say we loved this show, or hated that book, we get a sense of the devaluation being suggested. In that light, it becomes a little easier to think about a people who are aware of and convinced of God’s existence, yet remain indifferent to that fact. They disregard His being and His right of rule. They couldn’t care less what He thinks they should be doing. They’ll just do as they please. Thus we have that Clockmaker perspective of God, that He created the universe, wound it up, but then He’s been hands off ever since. And, frankly, that’s the way many of us would prefer to find Him: some thoroughly disengaged power to whom we were but a moment’s amusement, now left to our own devices. Such a God poses no threat to us, because He’s long since lost interest. There is no judgment pending from that sort of god, only the possibility of a mild curiosity as to the outcome. Ah, but He may hold that omniscient aspect that doesn’t bother so much when it’s only observatory omniscience. So, perhaps there’s not even curiosity.
Yes, we can grasp the idea of indifference towards God. The sad truth is, we have experienced it in our own right. We have known such indifference. Indeed, we have likely known it in the last twenty four hours. There was something God wanted us to be doing, or not to be doing, as the case may be. And, we chose our own road instead. Nope. We’ll do what we want, there, Lord. Maybe later we can do that thing You wanted to do, but right now, I’m off the clock. Now, it would be an odd sort of Christian who actually thought along these lines, and we would rightly find his claims to being a Christian suspect. But, this is effectively how we go about many a day. We go to work, we have our meals, we pursue our entertainments, healthy or otherwise, and we go to bed. And, in none of it do we really consider what our purported Lord and King would have us to be doing. Work isn’t about God. It’s about earning a living. Earning a living isn’t about God, it’s about putting food on the table, getting the kids through college, keeping the car in good shape. And none of that activity is about God. It’s about, well, we’re not entirely sure what it’s about. It’s just what’s done.
And, we lose track of the fact that the world hates our Lord and our King. In certain moments that may not come to light as anything more than indifference. They may simply not seem to care much about religion, or about Truth. But, rest assured, when Truth stands implacably before them, that indifference will indeed become active, operative hatred. The demands of Truth, of God, are one thing when they can be dismissed and ignored. But, when they are brought front and center, made so clear that one cannot reasonably pretend not to see, then a reaction is going to come. It is that moment of crisis that I find so much a part of the work of Christ. It is that moment Joshua points to, saying, “Choose you this day.”
The world is not pleased to confront its real condition, any more than we tend to be pleased to see our own. Oh, we don’t mind looking at the fact of salvation. We don’t mind looking forward to that moment when we are made like Him, completely washed once for all of sin and sorrow. But, the present? No thanks. Mind you, I’m talking confrontation. I could say that in many ways I don’t mind so much confessing my sins. He knows anyway, and besides, it looks good, doesn’t it? We’re supposed to ‘fess up. We’re supposed to get it out in the open where it can be dealt with. It’s just that pesky repentance stuff that’s a problem. I don’t mind telling you I’ve done wrong. I’m just not all that interested in the work required to do right. Just because I admit to it is not proof that I’m ready or willing to change. It’s rather like the one saying, “I’m sorry,” but the sorry is not for what was said or done, it’s for the fact that having said or done that thing, one has found oneself facing certain troubles. In the press and in politics, that tends to be spoken of as the non-apology apology. Sadly, this is often exactly what we present to Jesus.
Boy, Lord, I’m really sorry I’m not measuring up. But, it’s this woman you gave me. It’s this world you left me in. It’s your fault really, not mine. I mean, you made me like this, and all. How can I possibly be to blame? I try to be good. Well, I do when it’s not running counter to what I feel like doing at the moment. I try to be better than that heathen I work with, anyway. Isn’t that enough? No? Oh. Well, forgive me anyway, OK? I’ll try harder next time. Sure I will. Oh. That’s right. You already know the end of that story, too, don’t you. Umm. What can I say? Love me, right?
Oh! Listen up, self! This stuff needs to shock you out of complacency! If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. Reverse that: If the world loves you, you’ve got a problem, because the world doesn’t love the One you claim to be trying to emulate. I suppose there’s that outside chance that you’ve just managed to surround yourself with nothing but true believers. No. I don’t really buy that, either. So, the question has to be asked: What matters more: What God loves or hates, or what the world does? Yes, and don’t answer that, because you’ll just give the answer that you know to be correct. But, what answer do your actions give? Who are you concerned with, and whose concerns don’t concern you at all?
This is the crisis, and I should say it is the crisis on a very personal level, for I don’t much care for my own answers to those questions. Again, I would note the confluence of studies, or the confluence of message, that I have been experiencing in recent weeks. There is the message of Amos, which is absolutely of a piece with this line of inquiry. This is precisely where Israel was at the time of his ministry: fully involved in church life, but having no life in the church; full of religion, but wholly unaffected by it. There is that message we listened to, my wife and I, the one delivered by our candidate pastor, which bespeaks a very similar state, perhaps an even more terrible state, in the church today. The percentage of professed believers who don’t believe much of anything is shockingly disturbing. But, if we were to measure the percentage of believers whose lives show little or not reflection of the beliefs they claim to hold, I can only expect that the numbers get worse, more than likely far worse.
There’s that old question, sort of a bumper-sticker sort of question, that asks if you were convicted of being a Christian would your coworkers find any cause to testify against you? Is there any evidence to support that charge? Let’s be clear about this. “He’s a nice guy,” is not evidence. “He’s a hard worker,” is not evidence. I love to think that the witness of example is all I really need to put forth, that if I just do my best to be a good man as God defines a good man, then I’ve done my job for Christ, and I can just go on about my business without really having to do more. But, that’s not how this passage reads.
I would continue to maintain that the groundwork witness of a life that corresponds at least reasonably well to the Truth I claim to believe is a beneficial precursor, if not an absolutely necessary one. I would continue to maintain that the effective evangelist must first establish grounds upon which to speak to the unbeliever’s life. In other words, there must be some form of relationship there that provides the opportunity not just to speak, but to speak with some reasonable expectation of being heard. But it seems we tend to avoid associations that might lead to opportunities. We draw up in our clique of believers, and don’t really want to rub up against those still in the darkness. But, what does Jesus say here: You will bear witness also. Being as that’s an Indicative mood statement, we can debate, I suppose, whether that is issued as a command; particularly as Jesus has previously made His commands pretty explicit. “I command you to love one another.” There’s no question about the intent there. Here, it’s just you will. It may not be a command, but it’s stated as a certainty. You’re going to do this. No doubt about it.
And, that, too, is part of the fruitfulness by which the healthy branch of the Vine is identified. This is a thing to consider. Do my actions identify me with the Vine or with the world? You know, I really, really want to justify myself on this account. I want to offer up all manner of reasons why I really must make myself attractive to the world in order to gain a hearing for Christ. But, the fact of the matter is that this is no more or less than an excuse for not doing a thing. The fact of the matter is I will gladly spend all of my time on the task of making myself attractive, and none on speaking for Christ. And this, there can be no doubt, is not as it should be. It is evidence of that same poison that infects so much of the Church. It is the urge to be relevant. No, it’s worse. It’s the desire to be considered hip.
The Church wants to be liked. I want to be liked. It’s a natural enough desire, I suppose. But, it’s not conducive to the mission to which we are appointed. We are not appointed to go out and make friends. We’re appointed to go out and make disciples. It’s rather like the task of parenting. We are not primarily expected to make good friends for our children, but rather to shape their growth such that they arrive at a maturity we would be pleased to count as friend. In short, we discipline them, or if we prefer a less negative term, we disciple them. It’s really the same thing. We train them, and that training is not always received with joy. Discipline, as we know ourselves and as we have confirmed by Scripture, is never pleasant at the time. But, the fruit it bears is a joy that lasts. So it is here. We are as parents to the world around us, the adults in the room, the ones with a clue. We are called to bear that knowledge and maturity about us, to take some responsibility.
But, we don’t want to. We have become somewhat infantilized even as the culture around us has done. We are, as the Message offers verse 19, living on the world’s terms. That’s what it takes for the world to love you, and that, sad to say, is one of our primary desires. We lose sight at the clear warning of Scripture in this regard. James would be shocked with us, as he was shocked with his own charges. Don’t you realize that friendship with the world is enmity with God (Jas 4:4)? Now, this is clearly not to say that we must reject every last bit of what the world is about. We cannot do so and live. But, if our tastes are no different, if we are as sensually oriented as the lost, what value are we to them? If we are as coarse in our own discourse, as prone to pepper every conversation with bright blue verbiage, as unmindful of gentler ears in our vicinity; how do we shine forth as being of the Vine?
It’s not enough, nor even beneficial in many cases, to go about our day thinking, what would Jesus do? It might just be of value if we would consider the thing we are about to do or say and consider, what would Jesus think? If I am going about seeking the praises of coworkers and customers and whoever else I may interact with, I’ve got a problem! Now, I have to immediately counterbalance that. If I am going about purposefully seeking to offend my coworkers and customers and whoever else I may interact with, I’ve got a problem; quite probably a much worse problem. We are not called to go forth and torque everybody off. We are not called, at least the vast majority of us, to go forth and rub peoples’ noses in their sins. We are called to go forth and walk godly in an ungodly world, to live what we claim to believe, to do so, if you’ll pardon the phrase, organically.
Listen! Part of that organic life of the Christian is going to consist of verbal testimony to Christ. But, that comes as a natural aspect of being who we are. We oughtn’t, I don’t think, need to force it into the conversation, to vigorously insist on turning every single interaction with every single fellow being onto a spiritual, you need Jesus, path. By the same token, if our conversations never go there, one must eventually conclude that we are ashamed of Jesus in spite of our protestations to the contrary. But, if we will only go about living life authentically, do you know, those opportunities to speak will come to us. They will seek us out. And, if we are living authentically, really seeking to live as we believe we ought, we’ll be ready for those opportunities and we will no longer walk away from them thinking, “I should have said…”
I cannot say this with the certainty of knowledge, but I rather doubt the Apostles left home every day thinking, “I’ll just go down to the corner there and accost the first person I see, let them know how much they need Jesus, see if maybe I can get them to recite the sinner’s prayer.” No. They were focused on heaven, on honoring God, on worshiping their creator by every action and thought, and do you know what happened? People that needed Jesus found them, were laid out in their path, happened across them and asked questions because – get this! – it was patently obvious to them that these were men with answers.
So, we must, I must, take to heart the things Scripture tells me on this subject. Paul warned his young pastor Timothy that those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2Ti 3:12). We ought to take that as a given, be neither shocked nor disheartened to discover that Paul was right. Oh! Think about the things said of Peter and James and the others, how they left the Council ‘rejoicing at having been found worthy to suffer shame for His name’ (Ac 5:41). How do you feel about that? I, sadly, feel like I cannot relate. I know I should, but I also know I don’t. I know that persecution is pretty much the natural fruit of a faithful life. It’s a given. Yet, I don’t willingly accept it. I am inclined to avoid it.
How I need to hear what Jesus says. “Woe to you if all speak well of you. For their fathers used to treat the false prophets the same way” (Lk 6:26). How shall I take that point? Again, the idea is not to go out and make oneself utterly distasteful to one and all, to try and be as obnoxious in one’s faith as one can possibly be. No! Think about what is said of the Gentiles in regard to Israel. We have been set forth in God’s grace to make them jealous (Ro 11:11). We don’t do that by acting like jerks. We do that by walking in the favor of Christ, by living as He has told us to live. In short, we do that by obeying that command He just laid on us, to love one another. Indeed, we recognize that this call is not limited to the circle of our church associates, nor even to the community of the saints. We are to love our neighbor, and Jesus made it abundantly clear that this call to love knows no boundaries. There is none we can look at and say that he is not our neighbor.
What does that love look like? We went through that in the previous section. It looks like Christ. It looks like setting aside every bit of personal interest and agenda in favor of doing for that neighbor what needs to be done. It calls for doing so even when our neighbor doesn’t particularly want it done, as Christ did for us. While we were yet enemies… When we wanted nothing to do with Him, yet He came and unbound us, yet He came and spoke lovingly to us, drew us, and in short order had made us His friends. Like raising children, so we raise our neighbors, by living. By speaking correction when we have earned the right to do so. We can’t get to that second step if we don’t know them, if we haven’t already established a relationship with them.
Look at Paul. He didn’t just drive through the town, preaching a weekend or two and move on. He parked. He was there for years, long enough to establish relationships that lasted well after he had departed, establishing mutual concerns that would remain firmly linked through prayer to his dying day. “I pray for all of you, all the time.” From me, that would sound hollow, and it would be hollow. From Paul, it’s just a statement of fact. It’s who Paul is. It’s who I would be, who I desire to be. There’s a reason, though, why I may insist on praying immediately, if I’m thinking clearly. It’s because I don’t want the promise to pray for you to be an empty promise, swiftly forgotten in your absence.
Lord, let that not be my way. There is much here that needs work, isn’t there? So many ways in which I know the right way and refuse to travel in it. So many things about which I know Your word, and know Your command, and yet, I keep finding reasons to put it off. Some servant! Some friend. Yet, I have hope in this, Jesus, that You have not given up on me. I know You remain, else I would have long since ceased to care. At the same time, I know I cannot simply lay back and wait for You to fix me. I need to take action, to take responsibility for myself, not as attempting to go out on mission in my own strength, as if that could work, but as going out willingly in Your strength. I know I must in some sense take the helm, but I know as well that I cannot do so except Your hand is upon my own. This day, Lord, would You be so kind as to keep my eyes and ears open, my heart willing, that I might indeed by of service to You here in this world?
Exposed (04/18/12-04/19/12)
Verses 22 through 25 present the second major point in this passage: the exposure of sin. The several translations find many intriguing ways of translating what Jesus says here, particularly in verse 22. The KJV comes up with the phrasing, “they have no cloke for their sin.” This is an interesting choice, and I would note that the NKJV does not continue to use that concept. The word in question is prophasin. This is a term that has to do with seeking to disguise the true situation, to put a better face on events, to spin the facts in such a way as present things in a better light. Put more bluntly, it is to lie through one’s teeth.
If I consider how the KJV arrives at this idea of a cloak removed, it may be that they were put in mind of a fairly common Old Testament phrase, about having one’s nakedness exposed. This is, after all, a phrase used to indicate sin exposed, and that is very much what Jesus is driving at in these verses. Their sin stands exposed. No further excuse exists which has the least bit of credibility. If I were to combine the two images, of excuse removed and cloak unavailable, I would phrase it thus: “Every last pretense is stripped away and their sin stands exposed and naked: They hate Me and they hate My Father.”
That is a point that needs to be dwelt upon. Whether we choose to see that hatred in the full, Western scope of its intensity or in the sense of indifference and negligence, I don’t think the power of the message is much changed. The reality is this: They hate Me and they hate My Father. They’ve dressed it all up in a pretty religion so it doesn’t look like that to most people, and until I came they could get away with that. They could hate God even while they served in His house. They could hate Him entirely, and at the same time promulgate their perverse religion that claimed to have Him as the object of worship, even while promoting all manner of behaviors utterly abhorrent to the God they claimed to love. But, all that becomes impossible now. They have heard Me and hated what I had to say. They have witnessed the call to repentance and refused it. They have seen the innumerable signs by which My Father has confirmed My ministry, My being, and far from acknowledging Me as the Messiah, the Son of God, they instead seek My destruction.
Why? It comes back to that very point: Because I AM has stood among them, every excuse for their sins has been removed. Because I AM has shown true religion, their religion is exposed as scam. Because they have been forced to confront the Love of God and rejected it, their very real hatred of God is plain for all to see.
Consider with me just what it means to sin, and for the moment, let’s leave it in its more literal sense. The term, hamartia, has to do with missing the mark. We might choose to picture an archery competition, that small bulls-eye target set well down the field. The archers each in turn draw their bow and let loose their arrow. It takes strength and skill to do so in a fashion that causes that arrow to pierce the target at all. It takes great skill to cause that arrow to pierce the center. Such a one has truly hit the mark! He has neither overpowered or underpowered his shot. He has not overflown the target with his arrow, nor has it buried itself in the ground far short of the target. He has also accounted for such air currents as might have caused his shot to veer to left or right. In short, his aim is true.
At the other end is that one whose skills are simply not up to the task. His shots fall short, or overshoot, or wander away left and right, never so much as grazing that target. He has missed the mark completely. And, having missed the mark, he has assuredly forfeited any share in the prize. This, too, this forfeiture of share, is contained in the thought of hamartia. Sin, as it seems to the sinner, offers a prize. Were it not so, we would find no enticement whatsoever in its allures. Sin seems to offer a prize, a reward, the fleeting satisfaction of instant gratification. But, the reality is that sin offers no such thing. It offers only disappointment and eventually death.
On the other hand, there is obedience. Obedience, though we almost never think of it in this fashion, brings reward. Obedience is to our heavenly estate as practice is to the archer’s efforts. Obedience is our practice. It is the practice of righteousness and justice, those things which God values so highly that He will in truth forgive us much as regards our vertical relationship with Him if we will but hone our skills in these issues of our horizontal relationships.
I have noted often enough of late how this study is finding a very strong harmony with the message of Amos. As I read these verses pointing to the end of excuses for Israel, I am put immediately in mind of that phraseology particular to the woes that begin that prophet’s text. “For three transgressions and for four…” The book I’ve been reading in preparation for teaching on Amos notes how this points to God finally losing patience. Yes, even His patience comes to an end. In spite of the very real truth that His Lovingkindness is new every morning, there comes a time when His Justice must say that enough is enough.
Looking at the state of Jerusalem, Jesus wept. He wasn’t looking at the physical conditions in the city. It wasn’t that so much of the place had gone over to slums, or that there was filth running in open sewers in the streets. That may or may not have held true, but Jesus was looking at spiritual realities. You had a chance. You had every chance, opportunities no other nation was ever given. Everything that could possibly be done to restore you to fruitful service to your God, He has done for you, and still, you refuse. Still you are determined to be fruitless, worthless. Your religious show is all false promise, pretending to life, you give aught but death. There is nothing here, for all that you boast of My name. Nothing! I AM is left completely out of it. This is the ‘for four’. You hate Me! You sing songs in My name, you slaughter cattle in quantity in My name, you collect your pay in My name. Yet, I am left totally out of it. I am but the cloak by which you seek to disguise your true avarice. Enough! The time for mercy has passed, and the time for justice is come. There are no further opportunities for you. The final chance for repentance has come and gone, and there is only the swift vengeance of the Lord which remains. You hate Me. That’s the Truth. And I shall leave you to your hate.
This is the message. Time’s up! As I have been noticing, that’s the message Amos had for the people of his day. It’s the message the Son of God has for the people of God in His day. It’s the message that the church in our own day had better hear and soon! God will not be mocked, least of all in His own house. I look about at what passes for worshiping God, what abominations are not only given a pass, but even claimed to have His approval. I look at the lack of love in this world, the lack of real caring one for another. We have a more well-developed grievance industry than has ever been seen before in the history of man. We have a national mentality that seeks to find reasons why you owe me, rather than how I might help you. In the short years of my own lifespan, we have gone from being a country moved by the words, “Ask not what your country can do for you,” to a country driven by, “ask your government, where’s mine?”
Charity, which should begin at home, is largely left to fend for itself now. What need for charity from me, when I can so easily legislate that ‘charity’ from your pocket? For three transgressions and for four… Would that we would recognize the dread possibility of that very proclamation being made on our own heads before the time comes when the possibility becomes certainty!
And it should be noted with alarm that if charity begins at home, so, too, does the judgment of God. That’s exactly what Amos was driving at. That’s precisely where Jesus is in this final week. That’s where God looks first. How our My people doing? Do they behave as My sons, or do they make themselves to be no different than those of the world? Do My children demonstrate gratitude for My grace, or do they presume upon it? Do My ambassadors go forth on My business, or are they too caught up in their own to be bothered? Some things never change, and that ought to concern us very much.
I’m going to touch very briefly on the topic of logos and rhema once again, having spent time seeking some important distinction between the two a few studies back. That effort came to a rather nondescript end upon reading in Kittel’s that there really was no great distinction between the two as they are used in Scripture. I will note that most typically, rhema is spoken of as referring to more specific words, particular sayings or commands with logos indicating the whole body of what has been written or said. Alternately, rhema is held up as the ‘message for today’ word, where logos is less specific, or less immediate.
The passage before us would seem to be a fairly solid proof of Kittel’s contention that these distinctions are at best inconsistent. Twice, Jesus speaks to His disciples about a logos word, and in both cases, He makes plain that He is talking about a very specific sentence. In the first case, He reminds His disciples of that specific point that the slave is no greater than his master (verse 20). It is logos, and we might suppose that Jesus is playing with the language just a bit. “Remember the word I said to you.” One could hear in that isolated phrase a command relative to the whole of His teaching, and be well served to obey it. Yet, the continuation of His sentence points us to that one specific bit of the message about the relationship of slave and master, and He expands upon that single point. The immediate reference, then, is very specific.
Now, in verse 25, He is pointing up the fact that the worldly reaction, actually the Israeli reaction, to Jesus was a matter long since indicated in Scripture, in their Law (but, I’ll come back to that peculiarity of phrasing). Their hatred fulfills the word, the logos written in that holy text. Again, the concept of logos as encompassing the whole of the text could possibly be seen as another double-pointed message from Jesus. The whole of the Law (and the Prophets and the Wisdom) ought to be so firmly in the mind of God’s people as to be a ready reference in every situation, and ought to be the lens through which His people view their world. But, again, He is pointing to a specific verse, which He proceeds to quote. “They hated Me without cause.” The word, the logos, is very specific, at least in its immediate reference.
Here, it would seem that Jesus is applying the term in its sense of specifying an aphorism, not even a command or promise, so much as simply a well-phrased bit of solid wisdom. One does not generally look at the prophetic aspect of the Old Testament writings as being in the nature of such an aphorism. Yes, the Psalms and Proverbs are quite full of aphorisms, of well-turned phrases imparting wisdom of the most solid standing. But, the particular phrase Jesus points us to is more in the way of prophecy, and He is utilizing it more in the way of prophecy. How interesting, that we should in this way be pointed to the wisdom in the prophet’s words! How we ought to recognize from this that the distinctions made as to the nature of Scripture ought not to be held so rigidly. There is the Law, the Prophets, and the Wisdom writings, but the lines blur. The prophets speak wisely, and the wisdom writers prophecy. And, surely, Moses, the great imparter of the Law, was a prophet as few others had ever been. Nor is he the sole prophet to be found in the pages of those first five books. Likewise, we have songs and psalms from his hand.
So, I shall allow the possibility that Jesus is utilizing logos with a keen ear, with the understanding that it ought more properly to point to the larger body of message, but can also indicate these singular aphorisms, commands and promises. Perhaps He is intentionally employing that ambiguity. But, it would seem to stretch the immediate context, so I could not strongly affirm such a view. It is more an amusement, a mental game, and should likely be set aside as such.
Returning to that curious reference to their Law, it is the more striking for the fact that the verse Jesus refers to is not in the Law proper, but rather in the Wisdom writings. I suspect that here, too, the apparently ambiguous usage was sufficiently commonplace as to be less surprising than we might find it to be. We, living well future of events, suppose the distinction hard and fast, and so firmly entrenched in the minds of the Jew of that day that to hear the Psalms referred to as Law would be almost offensive. But, I have a suspicion that this is not so, that much like logos and rhema, the lines had blurred, and the idea of Law encompassing the whole of Scripture would not come as a surprise. Neither, tempting though it is, do I think there is cause to read anything into that usage.
It is the ‘their’ bit that captures my attention. It’s their Law. Why that word, and not simply the Law? Is it not His? Of course it is, and more fully so than ever it was for another. He, after all, had actually obeyed it in every respect, a thing no other had done to that point, nor has since. We cannot for a moment suppose He is disassociating Himself from the Law. Neither, given the reference He uses, can we suppose He is limiting the portion that applies. Quite the opposite, really. He is expanding the scope, although not in the same way as His contemporaries. The commentaries do not enter into His equation as to what is binding. Traditions can be discounted. But, the Psalms? No way! The Prophets? At your peril.
It is their Law, one suspects, in that it is binding upon them. It is not that the Law was not binding upon its Author, but that emphasis on the ownership points to their pride of ownership. Israel was quite proud of being the people to whom God had entrusted the Law, and thoroughly inclined to look down upon the other nations as unworthy of that Law. Far from fulfilling the Law’s requirements, or even of being just arbiters of the Law, they had become hoarders of the Law, intent on preserving it for themselves, of harvesting the promises for themselves exclusive to all others. And in doing so, they had arrived at a first transgression. Indeed, through the years, their concern for the Law as law had fallen by the wayside. Traditions were binding. God’s Law was optional. Besides, they already had the promises, so what need did they have for all those preconditions? The saying about paying for the cow when one already has the milk comes to mind. Of course, this mindset must completely ignore the curses attendant upon failure to comply to that Law, but they were hardly the first generation to do so. Neither were they the last.
Yet, it is their Law. They are bound by it whether willing or no. The Judge will not be moved by their perspective on the matter. They may discount its strictures, but He will not. This is the point that ought to be kept firmly in mind, for it is the point that continues to hold in our own day. The security of the true believer cannot possibly lead to a disregard for the demands of righteousness. Any such disregard must be seen as evidence contrary to that presumed security. Where there is no fruit, there is no Vine. Has that not been the thrust of this message Jesus is delivering? Is it not a fundamental of theology? If the Holy Spirit is abiding in you, then the fruit of His presence must surely be manifest in you. The corollary holds. If there is no such fruit being manifested, neither is there a Spirit abiding. To pretend otherwise is to do just that – pretend. And pretense of such a nature is most lethal! Look to the fall of Jerusalem and be warned. God’s patience indeed knows an and. For three transgressions, yes, we can still find forgiveness. But, for four? No. For four, judgment must come or the judge be found incompetent, and He is never that.
So, I had thought to read more into this mention of the Law as referring to the Wisdom, perhaps finding in what Jesus is saying more than simply a reference to the specific quote. Perhaps, I had supposed, He intends us to understand that in fulfilling that prophetic bit of wisdom, the inevitability of the Law’s justice being served was established. That is an intriguing thought, in that it indeed points to the whole of Scripture; Law, Prophet and Wisdom all contained in that one point. But, if I am to hold that the plain meaning of Scripture is the true meaning, then I must set that aside as yet another vain imagination.
The scope of the condemnation that Jesus pronounces here is chilling. The NLT does a nice job of bringing out the shocking extent of Israel’s failure, as represented by the Jerusalem elite. “They have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father” (verse 24). We could almost excuse our contemporaries for rejecting the claims of Christ. They have not seen Him. They were not watching as He did the things He did. They have not had personal experience of Him. It is understandable, then, that they would find the claims that come to their ears hard to credit. We are, after all, a well reasoned, well educated people, at least in our own estimation. These mythologies just won’t do for so intelligent and advanced a man. Indeed, indifference is not a strong enough response to the insistence that we accept such silliness as actually being true. We must strongly, vehemently oppose such a mindset, show it up for what it is. We must denounce this religious tendency with all the strength of mind we can bring to bear. So thinks the atheist in our own day. And so, the atheist brings himself under the same sentence. “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father Who sent Him.” They hate both without cause. Justice will be served.
But, I cannot allow it to be that we look upon this situation as applying solely to the ancients of the Middle East, nor to the particularly militant unbeliever of our own day. Judgment, as the themes of both Amos and Jesus have been driving home with great force, begins at home. We who profess ourselves believers in the Risen Christ, who daily turn ourselves towards heaven and call its Lord and King our own; the words are very fine, and properly directed. But, how about actions? How about thoughts? Is His Lordship evident in our day to day? When it comes to our interactions with neighbors, co-workers, salespeople, phone bank workers, customer service representatives, choose your undesirable, do we interact with them as Christ would do? As He would have us to do? Or do we dehumanize them, treat them as disposable? Oh dear.
Scripture insists upon the dignity of human life, and in most corners of the Church, we concur wholeheartedly. Turn to issues of abortion or euthanasia, and we’ll bear that banner high. But, what does it look like when we interact with those whose views are antithetical to our own? Is that respect for the dignity of human life still to be found when we face supporters of those very practices, or proponents of a gay lifestyle? Are we still speaking to humans or are we confronting demons in the flesh? The true answer is both. And, it is one thing for us to confront the demons for what they are. But, we must also be mindful to treat the humans as who they are.
That is but one, perhaps extreme, measure of our seriousness as purported believers. Faith must produce character. It is inevitable. The character that constantly reverts to worldly form is a confirmation of sorts, but it is not the confirmation we should seek. It is evidence that the body has rejected the cure. It is evidence of a hatred that we may be denying wholeheartedly in word and in thought. We are in need of great vigilance, being a people forewarned at the deceptiveness inherent in the human heart. Psychology confirms it. We are incredibly adept at fooling ourselves. Politicians play the game of the big lie: repeating patent falsehood with sufficient frequency for it to be accepted as truth. But, they only play this game because it is the same game we play with ourselves.
Just ask yourself how well your self-image coheres with that of those who are with you day in and day out. Do your coworkers view you the same way? Does your spouse? Do your kids? It is highly unlikely. The variation of opinion may work either way. They may think more of you than you do yourself, or they may think less. That may even vary from person to person. This is, however, merely a guideline, a further warning as to the trustworthiness of our opinions. The true question is, how does my self-image cohere with God’s perspective? That’s where the trial comes. That’s where we must turn.
These words from David are some of the most fearsome words of prayer imaginable. “Examine me, O Lord, and try me. Test my mind and my heart” (Ps 26:2). “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps 139:23-24). That examination, that searching, implies a revealing of the results. As with any test, the value of the test lies in revealing to the student where his understanding and talent is strong, and more importantly, where it is wrong. We don’t come willingly to the test that we know ourselves unprepared for. The willingness of David in these verses might suggest to us that he felt himself fit to pass the test for which he applied. I’m not so sure. I think David may just have been a bit more self-aware than that. I think he knew. He knew what he was capable of, and he feared that perhaps he was fooling himself, that he thought better of himself than he ought. I think he called upon God to do this testing with a quite proper trembling of heart.
Show me what ails me, God, for my heart lies. My thoughts tell me I’m doing okay, but my spirit knows it cannot be so. Where am I off, Lord? What needs to change? If anything in me is threatening my standing with You, show me now, and grant me the strength of will to do something about it. It is hard to be willing to pray such a prayer, for You are sure to answer. And, I am sure to be less than happy with the answer. For, I do not like to fail, although I am so good at it. But, Lord! Do not let this hope be false. Do not let this security I find in You be found a lie I have told myself. You, O Lord, have the word of Life. Speak, then, for your servant listens.
Your Assignment (04/20/12)
As Jesus returns to the subject of the Holy Spirit in verses 26 and 27, it puts me in mind of that particular office of the Spirit in reminding us of all that Jesus said (Jn 14:26). He will teach, and He will jog your memory. But, as has been a chief cause to study for me, He cannot recall to mind what has never been there. In this process, we must be active partners. We must do our part by listening, considering, acting upon the things God has caused to be recorded for our benefit.
In this, the first disciples were no different. Their greatest difference lay in the fact that they heard Jesus speaking first hand. This, I am sure, had great value. We sense, for example, how He would draw from the surrounding imagery in fashioning His parables. They would be able to look about themselves and see these visuals, as we can only do in imagination. We, on the other hand, have the luxury of reading His words at a slow pace, and whenever we so choose, where they had but the moment into which those words were spoken. Fortunately for us, they were a people well practiced in receiving an oral tradition. And, Jesus taught in a fashion suitable to that tradition. He spoke memorably and, as we see in this discourse, repeatedly. He would come at His points multiple times, allowing them to be planted more deeply in the minds of His students.
That His method worked is clear. We have but to consider how these Gospels were written in the first place. Whether we choose to argue for the existence of some original Q document lying behind Matthew and Mark, whether we suppose that Luke borrowed heavily from those two in writing his own account, or whether we are inclined to take things more at face value; the fact is that these writings at some point came down to us without the benefit of some stenographer recording all that Jesus said in His three years of ministering. This was the primary reason that they would need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring it all back to mind. They were charged with preserving that teaching for the ages! It’s a high calling, and it required a greater power of recall than most possess.
There is, however, another facet of the disciples’ character that contributed well to what would come. They, like Mary, treasured up the things they were hearing (Lk 2:19). They, like Mary, did not merely listen to His lesson, then go home with words to the effect of, “good sermon, today.” No! They pondered these things. The Biblical term would be that they meditated on what He taught, but that has certain connotations in our day that rather confuse the issue. Let us say, then, that they thought long and hard about what He taught, wrestling with His words and searching out His meaning. Yes, and that searching was not for the satisfaction of intellectual pursuit, but with a firm eye on the implications. What does this mean for my life? What is He trying to shape in me, and how must I respond, given this lesson? If I am a disciple, fashioning my life after His, what has He just revealed of His life, and how do I put that in practice?
Quite apart from the Gospels, the letters we have from Peter and James and John make it clear that they did indeed treasure these lessons, and take them to heart. It is clear that as they moved out into their own assignments, the Holy Spirit did indeed bring to mind all that Jesus had said to them, did indeed guide them into all Truth. Their letters reflect very strongly upon the messages, particularly, of this final discourse. And, what we know of their lives also demonstrates that they didn’t simply take the material and become itinerant teachers using that lesson plan. They lived it.
Now, notice what is said to them at the close of this passage. The Holy Spirit, being Truth, and being an extension of the Father Himself, will bear witness of Jesus. How could He not? Indeed, were He not to bear witness, who could be saved? For, the words of man were never so powerful as to break through a stony conscience. Moses, without God indwelling, was unlikely to move Pharaoh even so far as he moved. Paul, for all that he means for our own understanding, and as well trained a rhetorician as he was, would have convinced no man of anything concerning God except God were truly with him Think about his reception in the agora. They found him but a novelty, an amusing rube who might provide a few days’ diversion, but whose message did not even warrant consideration.
Had it not been for the Holy Spirit working, that would have been the best reception Paul’s message ever received. But, it was not. Because God was working in and through him, He was a particularly fruitful branch, as were all the apostles. True, we do not read about all of them, what exploits they achieved in the name of Christ. But, then, the books they left us were not about them. They appear in the text, because they were part of the events, but it is Christ Who is all. Even in that book we know as the Acts of the Apostles, it is not the Apostles who are primarily to be focused upon, except as proof of what God can do with the likes of us. It is really, as Pastor Najem was so fond of noting, the acts of the Holy Spirit. As such, we can more properly say simply that this was the book of the Acts of God. But, then, isn’t the whole of Scripture? The whole of History? It is, after all, His story. He made it. He scheduled it. He sets the course and determines the outcome. We can deny it all we please, in our desire for self-determination, but our strongest denials do not even put the tiniest of scratches on the Truth.
Meanwhile, there is that final point, which is a precursor of sorts to the Great Commission. “YOU will bear witness, too.” Now, the immediate setting makes it abundantly clear that these words are directed specifically at the eleven. We cannot speak of them as the twelve, for Judas is out of the picture. It is the eleven. You have been with Me from the beginning. You have seen it all, been a part of it all. You, therefore, must bear witness of Me. It’s about to become impossible to believe. But, you are the proof. From the mouths of two or three, the truth is established, and you are far more than two or three!
I would note that in this case, the first who would need to be convinced of the Truth were those witnesses themselves. They were going to find it hard to believe. How much more those to whom they were being sent with the news? Paul summed up the situation nicely when he wrote to the church in Corinth. “We preach Christ crucified, and to the Jews this is a major stumbling block. To the Gentiles, it’s utter foolishness. Ah! But, to those who are the called! Whether Jew or Greek, it is Christ the Power. The power of God, and the Wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of man, and His weakness is stronger than all the might of mankind” (1Co 1:23-25). I embellish the thought, but only slightly, and I believe it is in full accord with Paul’s thinking.
The Spirit is in the witness, and witness we must. This specific command of, “You: Witness!” is for the eleven, but it is also for us all. We have likewise seen and heard. I think of that early appearance at court which is recorded in the beginning chapters of Acts, and the simple defense proffered by the men on trial. “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Ac 4:20). Is this not how it should be? We have become witness to the saving power of God! We have met Him. He has called us friends. He has shown us our adoption papers, made us part of His own family. These are things unthinkable, unimaginable, and yet these are reality. I am inclined to write that they are our reality, but not in the sense that we shape our reality. No. It is our reality, because He has so chosen. There are those for whom these things will never be said, and that ought to sadden us no end. It is His right, to be sure, and His justice is upheld, His righteousness maintained in perfection. Yet, who can be pleased to see men lost to perdition? He is not.
What, then, prevents us? I look around and there are very few indeed who carry this fire within them that would say, “we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard!” No. We have learned to stop speaking. We have been, as has so often been said, corralled onto our churchy reservations, and we’re allowed (for now) to say what we please, more or less, in that setting. But we have been conditioned to leave it there. Don’t bring it to school with you, and certainly not to work! And yet, those who employ us would generally prefer the benefit of a godly employee. They just don’t particularly wish to hear about your motivation, what makes you who you are. That would cut into their own fun, and we can’t have that, can we? No. The world is trying hard to beat us down, to convince us that the proper human being lets others believe as they please, takes great pains to cause no offense.
But, how offended is God? And shouldn’t we rather care about that?
Lord, I want to be in this place, in this state of mind that cannot but speak about You. Yet, I know I am not. I am too cautious by half. Too concerned for self, too concerned for public opinion. I need to throw all that off and truly love as You love. I need to be less concerned for what they think about me than with whether they know of You. I need to give them every opportunity to know You. Yes, it’s all in Your hands anyway. But, You have granted me to serve in this assignment and I have refused to do so. The more I see of the consistency of the message of Your Scriptures, the unchanging demands of Your Truth, the more it concerns me to find I am amongst those who are negligent towards Your lordship. You are my Lord, and I must find it in me to obey You as such. I cannot say whether this falls within the purview of Your work, Holy Spirit, but I pray it does, and I pray You will. No, as You recall it to me even now, I can say. It is You working in me to will and to work. Let it be so! Let this will of mine accede to the work You are doing, and let this branch of Your Vine be fruitful.
