Renewing Our Values: “Regaining a Hunger for True Wealth” – 1 Timothy 6

Harder HallFor a small Florida town, Sebring has more than its share of international landmarks. In fact, while most small towns have NONE, we have at least TWO. One is the “Sebring International Raceway”, and the other is the now vacant “Harder Hall”, which is on the national registry. Two developers, Lewis F. Harder and Vincent Hall, joined the Florida land boom in in 1925, and built the large hotel by Lake Jackson, as well as the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. Harder Hall opened in 1927, and was placed in Sebring because the city was a stop on the Atlantic Coast Line railroad. By the 1950’s it became a part of the PGA Tour/LPGA Tour, and hosted celebrities Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Mario Andretti. Despite the reputation of our sleepy little town, we have seen people with wealth over the years, and our population is not immune to the hunger for nice things.

The year Harder Hall opened, the moving picture show that graced the big screen in the larger cities was simple entitled: “Greed”.

The story was about a man named John McTeague (called by his friends simply “Mac), a former mine worker who became a dentist in a small town. One day he met a woman named Trina, and her boyfriend Marcus at his office. The dentist kindled an interest in Trina, and she later fell in love with him. After Trina and Marcus met Mac, they stopped at a shop, and she bought a lottery ticket. In time, Marcus stepped aside and Mac and Trina became a couple. A bit later, Trina discovered she won $5000 at the lottery, and she quickly became obsessive about the money. Marcus, recognizing that he stepped aside from a woman who was now rich, had the law shut down Mac – because he had no official schooling for his dentistry. Trina was fearful of losing her money, and both plunged into poverty while the hidden gold sat protected. Desperate, poor and hungry, Mac presses Trina to release her gold so they can live – but it wasn’t that simple for her to do – because of simple GREED.

The movie echoed a problem of the roaring twenties, and offered a social commentary on the deep hunger for things that many felt. The sad part is that many still do. People will shoot someone for the notes in a cash drawer. What I find even sadder is that some who claim to be believers and followers of Jesus Christ – and even some of them are leading ministries – have allowed GREED to be a regular part of their character. In some cases, people even built an acceptable theology around it… The last chapter of Paul’s first letter to Timothy was addressed to believers – a warning to be on guard against focusing on the “wrong life”. It is easy to do… to make our goals, our hopes and dreams about the next house, the next car, the next TV set, tablet, computer…you name it. The problem isn’t with those things, but with our longing for satisfaction here in the physical world, apart from God’s use of those things to further His ends. Here is God’s call…

Key Principle: The mature believer moves his or her eyes from the temporal world and deliberate makes their primary focus the eternal view.

On our way to our lesson in 1 Timothy 6, I need to ask you to be a bit patient. Since we end our study of this letter today, I would like to accomplish three objectives – not simply deal with one lesson:

First, I want to quickly attempt to tie the letter together – to help younger believers to grasp the whole of the letter before we leave its pages.

Second, I want to finish the section that began in 1 Timothy 5:1 concerning behaviors, since it continues into what is now “chapter six”.

Third, I want to move us to the lesson on greed we introduced a moment ago in our key principle.

Grasping the Whole Letter

In this last part of our series through this letter, we again recall the lessons on renewing our values. As we have traveled through this letter by the Apostle Paul to the younger Pastor-Bishop Timothy, we have noted that most of the letter is geared toward straightforward instruction of behavior. How we behave is a statement of our true set of values – much more than any creed or doctrinal statement. Paul knew that, and Tim needed to be taught that lesson. Paul broke the behavioral lessons into eight parts:

• Lesson One: Returning to Costly Grace: (1 Tim. 1) Tim needed to be reminded that God’s grace was no excuse for bad behavior, and the scope of God’s desire was greater than simply giving us a ticket to Heaven. That set up the letter to provide other instructions on current lifestyle.

• Lesson Two: Renewing Commitment to God’s Sovereignty: (1 Timothy 2:1-8) Tim needed to instruct men to settle down and set aside angry disputations by re-focusing them on peaceful prayer.

• Lesson Three: Refocusing on Proper Affirmation: (1 Timothy 2:9-15) Tim needed to make clear to the women the need to re-examine the emphasis placed on physical appearance over the spiritual reality and correct the behavior.

• Lesson Four: Restoring an Emphasis on Character: (1 Timothy 3:1-7) Tim needed instruction on the primary need for character in relation to elders as opposed to choosing men based on a pragmatic solution to the current set of problems.

• Lesson Five: Recognizing the Value of Servanthood: (1 Timothy 3:8-16) Tim needed to recognize the high value God places on servants (particularly in relation to the deaconate) and clearly recall how this vital connection of the body has been designed to function.

• Lesson Six: Realigning Priorities to Guard Truth: (1 Timothy 4:1-16) Tim needed to recognize the value of truth above all else – directly confronting the assault on truth and the erosion of resistance to standing for it.

• Lesson Seven: Redefining Standards in Relationships: (1 Timothy 5:1-6:12) Paul made clear to Tim intended behaviors that should mark relationships among and between believers.

• Lesson Eight: Regaining a Hunger for True Wealth: (1 Timothy 6:3-21) Paul reminded Tim to teach clearly concerning a believers temptation toward temporal gain in light of eternal truth.

Understanding the Section on Behavioral Standards

To wrap up our series without skipping any verses, we must straddle for a few minutes the opening verses of chapter six and link them to the last lesson. The last chapter opens with the end of a section on instructed behaviors Paul offered to Timothy about dealing with different people in the congregation.

• We noted the words “older man”, “younger man”, “older women”, “younger women” in 5:1,2 and “widows” in 5:3, as well as “elders” in 5:17 – and took time to look at the treatment Paul expected Timothy to afford each in our earlier study. The words RESPECT and HONOR were a big part of our examination.

• The beginning of chapter six is still in that instructional mode – but with one difference. Instead of just instructing Timothy on the direct treatment of the individuals involved, it was an entreaty about what to teach those involved in the slave-master relationship (6:1-2).

1 Timothy 6:1 All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and [our] doctrine will not be spoken against. 2 Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these [principles].

Rome was a world filled with slaves. Some scholars estimate that perhaps as many Romans were slaves as free at different times in their history.

The record of Pedanius Secundus, prefect of Rome under the Emperor Nero, provides an example. His townhouse was serviced daily by no fewer than 400 slaves. If all the nearly five hundred senators owned a similar number, that single group of elites alone would have owned 200,000 slaves!

Roman slavery was highly regulated, taxed and meticulously recorded (though many records have perished in time. Slaves routinely came with a “money back guarantee” if they were found to be defective, as least compared to their advertised state. The slave system was not racially based, and slaves had no special standard marker of dress (apart from the common tunic worn by others of the poorer classes. As a result, slaves who had run away were sometimes made to wear metal collars with inscriptions such as: “I have run away. Capture me. When you have returned me to my master, Zoninus, you will receive a reward.” Some scholars of antiquity estimate that between one third to one half of the Roman population were “servii”.

Obviously, many slaves heard the message of Jesus, and some accepted Christ. Sitting beside their Master in the atrium for worship may have caused some of them to lack respect as the day’s chores were later distributed – and Paul needed to address the problem. Though we do not have the same arrangement economically as Paul and his readers did, the principle of “serving Jesus by serving another” definitely applied then and now. When we do what we do for others as a direct service to Jesus – we give our best for reasons far beyond the human relationship and the human reward. This is the call of the believer that would walk in maturity.

Let us be careful to be the best employees – we who name Jesus as our King. Let us be the best of the spouses, the best of the friends, the best of neighbors. These common, daily interactions, and our attention to serving Jesus with our best through all of them, will yield fruit in eternity. Jesus is most honored by believers who recognize that whatever we do, in word or deed, it is for His glory, and therefore do it to the best of our abilities. The world waits for believers that can be seen before they are heard.

• The last part of this “behavior instruction primer” (with the possible exception of the message to the rich in 6:17-19) was directed to Tim’s handling of those who oppose the teachings of God’s Word as Paul revealed them and through that opposition, they are drawing Tim into distraction.

1 Timothy 6:3 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited [and] understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

The modern church has been distracted by theoretical theology. The term “doctrine” as used in the letters to Timothy and Titus is a bit different than is customary in our time. Here, as in Titus 2, sound doctrine appears to refer to teachings that have practical and behavioral commands for the church to get along with people – not some “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin” theoretical debate. Let me posit that it is fine for believers to have theological nuance differences in a number of areas where there is a sincere effort to understand some detail of the text of the Word – all the way until the point that such a view would allow ungodly behaviors to be licensed.

Let’s be careful to stay away from disputes that offer nothing in regards to our walk with Jesus and practice of love with each other. There is much we don’t know, and much we won’t find by arguing with other people. At the same time, the basic lifestyle questions are thoroughly explored in God’s Word. He is never unclear about what honesty, purity, love, grace, integrity are… nor is He bashful to point out vulgarity, sensual thinking and course words or actions. Let’s be careful to speak and act within what is clearly part of the life of a believer – and be on guard of teachings that cause men and women to stray from these revelations of the Spirit through the Word.

There will always be those who will use the Bible for purposes other than what it was written for – to give us the essential truths that guide us to finding and then following God. We are to acknowledge that our guard must be up – even inside the body of believers. Paul offered a specific note of caution in this passage, because the enemy will continue to attempt to spread “tares among the wheat” (Mt. 13). We need to recognize that some will come in to the body posing as real believers that:

Remain out of self-interest: The words in verse 4 “he is conceited (Gr: tuphoo: “to raise in a smoke”) and understands nothing;” reflect a self-interested person that has no real spiritual perception, even if they are accustomed to being a part of the church body.

Desire to derail the discussion into “dead end” controversies. Verse 4 again warns “but he has a morbid interest” (Gr: “noseo: to be fixated to the point of an imbalance or illness) “in controversial questions” (Gr: “zaytasis”: a matter of controversy) “and disputes” (Gr: “logomakhia”: to wrangle about empty and trifling matters) “about words”. People of this sort seem to keep things stirred up and leave the boundaries of real seeking of God. The discussions bring out the fleshly works of “envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth”. There is a key not to be missed here: If the fruit of the discussion is works of the flesh, the problem may be the discussion itself. The platform may be used by both the enemy and the magnetic pull on our old nature to tear away at the body.

• A desire to personally feed an appetite for gain. The underlying purpose of these teachers is found in the phrase: “who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.” This seems to be the real issue. Gain (Gr: “porismos”: acquisition) may be a financial idea, or a power one. People stir things up to gain power, and sometimes to gain money. Believers need to carefully watch out for those stirring the pot. We need to humbly remember that we can stand most effectively for Christ when we filter the opinions of those around us through the Word of God and are consistent adherence to the Word’s principles.

Drop your eyes to the last part of this letter, because it is our focus for the remaining minutes of this study – and it is a singular but essential truth. Many believers suffer from a terrible problem…

The Problem of “Wrong World Focus”

Understanding that we have been called to a higher purpose than what can be found in this world is vital for the church to be what God intended. It is a call to our foundational thinking – a plea for recognition that our perspective must be fundamentally transformed by God’s Spirit to live as God intended us to journey through this life. It is a principle that separates the believer from the non-believer…

Key Principle: The mature believer moves his or her eyes from the temporal world and deliberate makes their primary focus the eternal view.

Even believers need to be on guard about where we find our hope and what we dream about. If we long for the things of this world in inordinate ways, we fail to walk with the right hopes lodged in our hearts. Our sure footing in the Gospel will begin to slip into old patterns of thinking and an old value system. The “old man or woman” will grow stronger in our thought life, and the “new man or woman” we are to become will slowly be disabled by starvation. God offered help in how to move to godly transformation.

Six Truths that help our transformation:

Truth #1: Resting in God’s provision and program provides its own reward (6:6-8).

1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness [actually] is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

The formula for “joy in the foyer of life” begins with godliness (Gr: eusebia: taking God seriously) and adds contentment (Gr: “autarkeia”: a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed; sufficiency of the necessities of life; a mind contented with its lot). Paul goes on to note that we don’t truly own anything. We came with nothing and take nothing. That kind of thinking must be posed in the mind of one that sees the “life after this one” or it will lead to a debauched life in the here and now. Because Paul knew that life would go on, he needed only the basic necessities to accomplish his task – he could feel a sense of privilege for anything more God granted! Here is the truth: I become effectively selective in what I take delight in when I recognize this life is the appetizer, not the main course! Far too many believers are gorging on this world, and leave no room for the delicious main course in the life to follow. They don’t SEEK HEAVEN and its blessing, but rather seek to make the HERE AND NOW suffice for all their deep-seated needs. The problem is it won’t work because it isn’t supposed to.

Truth #2: Focus on the physical comforts pulls a believer in the wrong direction (6:9-10)

1 Timothy 6:9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

The temptation to be rich in the here and now pulls my eyes to fulfillment in the here and now. The fanning of the flame of desires for STUFF will war with my call to find my completion in my Savior, and use things to do His work and enjoy from His hand. You can have nice things and not live for those things – but use them effectively to help people. You can even enjoy your life – if you do so as a reflection of God’s goodness to you, and celebrate it WITH HIM.

Scripture is FILLED with places that call us to celebrate life each day and into eternity, and live today joyfully!:

• Psalm 16:11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

• Psalm 100:1 Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. 3 Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 5 For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations..

To all my believing family I plead: Don’t be GLUM, but don’t make this world and its riches your focus. You are only a renter here, and your permanent home is being built right now. Don’t get too comfortable, but enjoy the day while recognizing that not all will be as it should this side of home.

Truth #3: Even godly people must be deliberate about their redirected focus (6:11)

1 Timothy 6:11 But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance [and] gentleness.

I LOVE this verse!! Paul reduced the issues of godliness down to CHOICES. We have choices about which direction we face, and what we gaze at. We have CHOICES about what we pursue and what we run away from. We even have choices about HOW we move in relationship to our choices – in gentleness like the quiet bow hunter, or in stomping noises like one who is trying to scare snakes off the path in front of us. Paul made it clear:

Godly transformation is essentially about right choices in regards to deliberate pursuits. The term “pursue righteousness” (as defined by the Word). You and I will never be transformed to what God intends without choosing to pursue – energetically – the path of right choices. Let’s stop being SPOOKY in the Spirit – acting as if God will grab us against our will and somehow get us on the right path in opposition to our choices.

Godly transformation begins with taking God seriously. The idea is found in the underlying term “godliness”. Bonhoeffer famously reminded us that when we sin, we don’t HATE GOD, we simply FORGET GOD for a time. We distance ourselves from the truth that He is present with us when we make our choices. If we truly see Him as present, and we also see Him as HOLY- this should inform our choices as believers.

The text called Timothy to pursue FAITH – God’s revealed view of the world – things as HE says they are . Right is what God says, not what surveyed Americans think. Wrong is what His Word teaches – not the latest “injustice” pointed out by Hollywood.

Paul told Tim to vigorously pursue opportunities to selflessly act to benefit others who have needs around us, because that is what the term “love” means. Believers preaching truth without love are like weathermen explaining how snow is formed to a man whose car is stranded in a snow drift. At that moment, the stranded don’t need an explanation – they need a helper.

Paul then had the AUDACITY to call Tim to PURSUE A STRONGER BACK. God calls His followers to build up their resistance to whining and being crushed by troubles as we faithfully remain under the troubles of this life – as can be found in the term “perseverance” (hupomeno: to remain under).

• While troubles may assail the believer, they must not become angry or harsh – but must learn to respond with tenderness (11b).

Truth #4: The secret to a transformed perspective is how widely you focus your view (6:12-16)

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about at the proper time– He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him [be] honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

Look at the secret to fighting with perseverance – it is taking hold of eternal life. It is looking up to Jesus Who understands unfair trials (as in the case before Pilate!) and yet calls us to His example of endurance and careful response.

• Don’t forget that Jesus is still in charge of all things!
• Don’t forget that God holds time in His hands, and will end all things the best way to tell His story!
• Don’t forget that our King possesses all life and dwells in unsearchable light –His ways beyond understanding of His creatures.
• Don’t forget that He is absolute in authority, unrivaled in power, unconcerned by the flexing of the muscles of the wicked kingdom.

Truth #5: Those who have abundance will need to be particularly careful (6:17-19)

1 Timothy 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 18 [Instruct them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

Paul reminded Timothy of one more group to instruct – those who possess much in this world. He told Tim to remind them:

• Hope cannot be fixed on the temporary nature of this world and its delights – but on God Himself, Who is the supplier of all things.

• What we can do, what we MUST do – is use the blessing of this life to do good to those around us – expending ourselves this side of Heaven.

Truth #6: Godly leaders must see the truths of Scripture as a trust (6:20-12)

1 Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly [and] empty chatter [and] the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”—21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

Finally, Paul called out to his young friend who was uncomfortably seated in the place of responsibility for the lives of other believers…He needed to see the ministry as a SACRED TRUST placed in his hands by God. He needed to recognize time wasters and pot stirrers and know when to walk on. He needed to be able to see clearly those who were going in the wrong direction – and the false professors of faith. He needed to keep his HOPES on HOME with his EYES ON THE TRUTH for the protection and growth of the flock.

The church must remember we are not just an organization, but an organism – a living body that must work at health and growth. We cannot look to the symbolism of the past, nor the popular embrace of the present – we must look to our founder, and proclaim Him. It is our sacred duty, and it is our glorious opportunity to cast a rescue line to those about us! I agree heartily with the words of the theologian John McKenzie:

If the church were to lose its hierarchy, its clergy, its vast collection of learning amassed over the centuries, even the text of its sacred books, and had to face the world with nothing but the living presence of the Risen Jesus and its mission to proclaim the Good News to all nations and people, it would be no less a church than the church of Peter and Paul was. Perhaps, it might be more of church than it is now.” Why? Because when we truly proclaim HIM, it is about a different view of the world. It is about the view of the physical inside a story told for a world spiritual by the Creator of BOTH!

The mature believer moves his or her eyes from the temporal world and deliberate makes their primary focus the eternal view.

“The Family Assembled” – Galatians 6

christmas-familyMost of us truly enjoy being together with our family at the holiday season – but apparently we don’t represent all of modern American society. I searched the blogosphere a few days back, and apparently, the family gatherings of a significant number of Americans are froth with danger and apprehension. Martha Beck wrote for Oprah Winfrey’s online magazine these words:

In the Uncle Remus story of the tar baby, Brer Rabbit picks a fight with a lifelike doll made out of tar and turpentine. The tar baby is so gluey that when the rabbit punches it, his fists get hopelessly stuck. He tries to kick his way free, trapping his feet, then finishes off with an infuriated head butt that renders him utterly helpless. I can’t think of a more fitting metaphor for family life in the 21st century. There’s nothing in the world as sticky as a dysfunctional family. You can put half your life’s savings into therapy—good therapy, effective therapy—and, 15 minutes into a holiday reunion, you still become hopelessly enmeshed in the same old crazy dynamics. Your assertiveness training goes out the window the minute your brother begins his traditional temper tantrum. A mere sigh from your grandmother triggers an attack of codependency so severe you end up giving her your house. For many people, family get-togethers require strategies for staying out of such sticky situations.” Wow! Reading that makes me deeply appreciate the family God has given me…

I kept looking, and found on “Web MD” an article that deals with the “holiday family get together” as almost some kind of modern disease when Dr. R. Morgan Griffin wrote:

There’s this idea that holiday gatherings with family are supposed to be joyful and stress-free,” …“That’s not the case. Family relationships are complicated. But that’s doesn’t mean that the solution is to skip the holidays entirely.” The doctor went on to describe five reasons for the anxiety of family get assemblies: 1) Unhappy memories. Going home for the holidays naturally makes people remember old times, but for you the memories may be more bitter than sweet… 2) Toxic relatives. Holidays can put you in the same room with relatives you avoid the rest of the year… 3) What’s changed. The holidays can highlight everything that’s changed in your lives — a divorce, a death in the family, a son who’s making his first trip back home after starting college…4) What’s stayed the same. For others, it’s the monotonous sameness of family holiday gatherings that depresses them — the same faces, the same jokes, the same food on the same china plates…5) Lowered defenses. During the holiday season, you’re more likely to be stressed out by obligations and errands. It’s cold and flu season and your immune system is under assault. It’s getting dark earlier each day. You’re eating worse, sleeping less, and drinking more. By the time the family gathering rolls around, you’re worn out, tense, and fragile. The holiday stress makes it harder to cope with your family than it might be at other times of the year…

That’s right, they must be sick of each other because of a low tolerance to the flu! Is he serious? Ah yes, the holiday season…Time to fret, fight and feel terrible. Doesn’t America sound like a warm and friendly place these days? Well, our world is filled with struggling families that are trying to keep things together. I shudder to think about it, but it is true… and we need to consider how deep this wound goes, and not gloss over it… Truthfully, I don’t want to try to settle the domestic issues of the home in this lesson, but I do want to run at problems of A FAMILY – your church family! Our text deals directly with this critical subject of “life in the fellowship of believers” and offers a sobering truth…

Key Principle: When the family comes together, we must face the fact that some issues (and some people!) need to be dealt with.

We are going to look at how we deal with five different kinds of people, and the issues they bring to the family gathering in the final chapter of Galatians:

  • Each believer needs to deal with weak brothers – those who are caught in sin and need release.
  • Each believer needs to deal with self-reliant believers – those who are deceived into thinking they don’t need the rest of the body.
  • Each believer needs to deal introspectively and regularly with their own heart.
  • Each believer needs to deal with the variety of personalities and gifts found within the church community – without being “wrung out”.
  • Each believer needs to deal with ongoing agitators outside the body that are poking at the church with Biblical truth and gracious outreach until they make it impossible to do so.

The chapter opens with those who have fallen into sinful behaviors, who will need assistance to get back on the path of walking with God. We will call them…

Dealing with the “CAUGHT”:

These are people who asked Jesus to be their Savior, but after a time they found themselves unable to follow through on their walk in some area or behavior. Sometimes it was due to slipping back into a pattern of their old life, and sometimes the slip came because of flaws that were not yet addressed in their character growth as believers. Let’s read about them:

Galatians 6:1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

The term “caught” in 6:1 was prolambanó, a compound word that paired “pro” (before) and “lambano” (to take). When paired together, they mean in this case “to come upon in advance” as a thief would be discovered or overtaken by an owner of the household. The term “trespass” is “paraptóma”, another compound word that properly meant “a fall beside or near something” but when used figuratively (as in this use) meant “a lapse or deviation” from right behavior; as in a sin. We looked at these words to help us truly grasp WHO Paul was referring to when he wrote. It appears they were people who were discovered in the midst of involvement in something they did not plan to do, but rather fell into. In the strictest sense, they made a choice, but not with great extended intent to do so.

Let’s say it this way: They were CAUGHT in something that seemed to have power over them, and the behavior or action was causing them to SLIP AND FALL back into a sinful pattern or behavior. Wise is the man or woman of God who recognizes how fragile our faithfulness to God truly is! Galatians 6:1 offers five details of the restoration process:

First, the work is distinct – the violator must be a brother or sister in Christ (“brethren”). The address is to believers about believers, and teaches NOTHING about interaction between believers and those who do not follow Christ.

The work is also determined – both the violator must admit the behavior is NOT God honoring (“trespass”) and the responders must agree by Spirit-led and Biblical understanding it is a violation (“spiritual”). Nothing is to be gained by putting people who are in sin together with people who do not have the maturity to identify the behavior as a violation of God’s Word. This is one of the reasons we need to be careful to be a part of a local church where the Bible is carefully studied, and where you have confidence the leadership truly recognizes Biblical truth and error. Nothing will do more harm to a person who is caught that to have that person affirmed in their wrong actions because they were with leaders who did not recognize the truth of their behavior!

The work is deliberate – with a goal to bring back to proper use (“restore”). The term “restore” is katartízō from katá, “according to, down,” and artizō, “to adjust”. Together, the word means to be adjusted back to good working order. The PURPOSE of the gentle work of godly brothers is to get the wayward brother or sister back on track and walking with Jesus.

We must be careful here. It is easy to gracelessly confront someone when they are wrong because we are annoyed, or embarrassed at their behavior in front of others we care about. That isn’t our call. Our Lord instructed brokenness in our hearts toward the caught one, and a goal of restoration. I want to illustrate the idea of restoration if I can…

A few Christmases ago a twenty-four year old son of Christian parents began a terrible killing spree at the “Youth With A Mission” Headquarters that ended hours later with his injury and subsequent suicide at a second location – the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Matthew J. Murray was responsible for shooting several people in the church parking lot and in the church building – a spree that left three dead and three wounded. Earlier that day, he had entered the “Youth with A Mission” Headquarters in suburban Denver, shooting four and killing two. The tragedy shook New Life Church that had just started to come out of the painful and very public story about their former nationally known Pastor’s sexual sin (that was Ted Haggard). Now they were faced with this terrible tragedy. Sometime after those events, Christianity Today published an article that offered a stunning picture of Jesus and restoration…

It seems that after the tragedy, Pastor Brady Boyd, then Senior Minister of New Life Church, called Matthew Murray’s parents (the shooter) and asked if they would like to come to New Life and see where ‘their son had passed away.’ They said they had wanted to, but had refrained from doing so because of their concerns for the church. They were also asked if they would be willing to meet with members of the family who had lost two teenage daughters that morning. They said yes. The same invitation was extended to the victim’s family, the Work’s. They said “Yes”. After showing the Murrays around the church where the tragic events took place, they met with Mr. and Mrs. Works in Boyd’s office. “What happened there in the two hours in my office … was the most significant ministry moment I’ve experienced, maybe in all of my life,” Boyd said. When they first entered the office, the two families embraced. They sat, wept, and cried together, Boyd said, for “I don’t know how long.” Then they prayed together. Later Jeanne Assam [the security guard who shot and wounded Murray before he committed suicide] joined them. When Jeanne, who had undoubtedly saved many lives but had been forced to shoot the Murray’s son, walked into the room, “the Murrays embraced her and hugged her and released her from any guilt and remorse. Matthew Murray’s dad looked at Jeanne and said, “Please know we’re so sorry that you had to do what you did. We’re so sorry.” The article concluded with these words from Boyd, “We can talk philosophically about repentance and redemption and going forward with God,” Boyd said, “but what I saw in that room in my office was the greatest testimony of forgiveness and redemption that I have ever seen. It was a testimony that God really can restore and redeem.” (adapted from a message by Pastor Jim Kane, taken from sermoncentral.com).

I recognize the boy wasn’t there, and I understand that he wasn’t restored. The purpose of the illustration was to highlight the deep emotional nature of restoration. These families were not fractured from one another, but were drawn together at the foot of the Cross. That is the way restoration should look when a CAUGHT ONE is restored as well.

The work is delicate, and must be handled with deep sensitivity (“spirit of gentleness”). Did you notice the “spirit” of the work? The word prautés is meekness (or “gentle strength”). Though it takes STRENGTH to confront sin, it takes GENTLENESS to restore one who has been caught in the snare. That may seem counter-intuitive. Let me suggest a secret: brokenness over sin. If we are truly broken FOR our brother, their correction is for THEM, and not to preserve our reputation, or to indignantly defend Jesus. If we come with broken hearts and a hunger to see the violator restored to a place of blessing – the caught one will know it.

The work is dangerous (“looking to yourself” and “tempted”). There is a danger of smugness that sows the deep seeds of arrogance within those who correct a straying brother – so Paul warned them to be careful!! The spirit of the Pharisee, who stood on the corner and prayed aloud: “Oh Lord, I am glad I am not as that other man!” lives inside us all – and we must be careful to guard our heart.

If the one overtaken in sin is restored, we have added a new joy to the household of God, and removed a cancer that could have spread rapidly. Nothing is served by God’s people ignoring sin in the family… nothing! At the same time, there are others that will need to be “dealt with” as well…

Dealing with the DECEIVED:

There are people who believe they are self-sufficient in Messiah, and do not grow to recognize their responsibility of involving themselves in caring for the needs of others – but they are deceived. Paul wrote:

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

God placed in every church those who need help. Some are overtaken by a specific sin, and others are simply weakened by living in a sin-sick, fallen world. Look closely at verse two, and you will learn three important truths about dealing with deceived people in the church:

The work is planned: Believers are called to SHARE the load of those who are unable to carry it themselves (i.e. “bear one another’s burdens”). In truth, God deliberately gives some among us a burden to carry that is quite large, so He can draw together those who are in the body beside them. Often, troubles keep the team together, but there is even a greater benefit. Those who feel “too important” to care for others are exposed as deceived. The greater need is not found in the one who had a burden too large, but in the one who had a deception so hidden. Self-sufficiency is not the mark of following Jesus, sensitivity is.

The work is prescribed: It is a matter of OBEDIENCE, not choice or preference (note the phrase “law of Christ”), particularly because it helps reveal some who have a self-deception based on inordinate confidence (“deceives himself”). We cannot claim we “don’t feel called to help each other” because we are commanded to do so.

The work is piercing: It calls for people who are involved in the process to look honestly and deeply within (‘deceives himself”). The person under restoration dare not think they can do this without help – because pride is part of the sin formula. The same is true of those who think they are too good to get their hands dirty.

Here, though, is the really “tricky part” of load bearing. When am I ENABLING another, as opposed to properly helping them with their load? Look closely at the text, or we will fall into soft-minded emotionalism that lets people do wrong and blame the people around them. The context is someone who is CAUGHT in a sinful behavior (6:1), or to keep the imagery solid TRAPPED under a load. The load is clearly sinful behavior, and it is something both THE TRAPPED ONE and the RESCUERS see as a collapse that can and must be moved. The load is removed when the sin has been set aside.

Let me say it this way: Johnnie and Suzie met and were married. Johnnie grew up in church, but he wasn’t a Christian in the Bible sense of asking Jesus to live and reign in Him. Suzie was largely unchurched, and also had made no commitment to Christ. Johnnie was deeply involved with pornography since he was a young man, and Suzie had little resistance to his participation, since she really didn’t see this as a problem. Johnnie and Suzie were both befriended by a new couple that moved in next door. They were impressed with this couple, and really appreciated their humor, and their integrity. In time, Johnnie and Suzie were led to Jesus by their friends. For a while, Johnnie set aside his pornography because his excitement in his Christian life helped him to really enjoy Suzie in new and deep ways – as they both grew in their walk with God and each other. They connected now on a level neither could quite understand. About that time, Johnnie’s work situation changed. He was moved from his day shift to an all night shift schedule. His world was turned upside down. Suzie worked days, he worked nights – life got strained. Time apart led him to feeling unattached again – and the porn became his coping mechanism. Suzie came home early one day and discovered Johnnie feeding the old habit again. She was crushed! She went to some of her believing friends and asked for help – and two guys came to see Johnnie. They didn’t shake their finger at him – they understood the problem and really tried to help get Johnnie out from under the load of guilt and the threatening cracks to his marriage. They were sensitive to his feelings, but they still directed him to get out from under the load. If Johnnie chose to admit the problem, and turn from it – the load was lifted. If he chose to refuse to eliminate it from his life – and he continued to do the wrong thing, he was not restored. If he decides to “‘DO IT ALL BY HIMSELF” – pushing away the help of others, he will likely overestimate his own strengths and abilities to cope with his desires. In any case, he cannot claim victim status and say, “They don’t really care about me!” if he refused to turn from the sinful practice. Bearing any burden that comes directly from a choice to remain in sin would be sharing in that sin and enabling it.

Perhaps one of the hardest people in the church to deal with is the person inside our own skin…

Dealing with MYSELF:

Verse four seems to continue the look within that was opened in verse three with the idea of “deceives himself”. One problem we may have is self-deception in the area of OVERINFLATED EGO – but that isn’t the only self-deception we must guard against. A second one may be found in CONSTANT COMPARISON. Instead of heeding the Word in our own lives, we can easily become numb to our own walk and focused on the walk of others around us.

Some believers come to church with the wrong tool in their hand. It is easy to get used to coming to church with a shovel, hearing truth and passing it out to people without pulling it toward us (as with a rake). We hear something, and before we even allow ourselves to apply it, we are tossing it to someone we believe needed to hear it more!

Paul charged the Galatian believers to self-examination…Galatians 6:4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. 5 For each one will bear his own load.

This self-examination is a productive work: In dealing with another rightly, I must inspect myself closely. God not only provided the one who was over-burdened to draw us together, but to make us see our own frailty and weakness, and keep us seeing ourselves clearly.

The nineteenth century theologian and Pastor, Albert Barnes’ made this note on Galatians 6:4-5:

The man who forms an improper estimate of his own character will be sure to be disappointed. The man who examines himself, and who forms no extravagant expectation in regard to what is due to himself, will be appropriately rewarded, and will be made happy. … Compare Proverbs 14:14; “A good man shall be satisfied from himself.” The sentiment is, that … In an approving conscience; in the evidence of the favor of God; in an honest effort to lead a pure and holy life, he will have happiness. The source of his joys will be within; and he will not be dependent, as the man of ambition, and the man who thinks of himself more highly than he ought, will, on the favors of a capricious multitude, and on the breath of popular applause.

Let’s be clear about what Paul is calling for. Paul told the Galatians NOT to examine another without examining themselves – just as Jesus told His followers to remove the LOG from their own eye before judging another. Yet, that was not the END of the saying. The Apostle went on to make clear to the Galatians that they SHOULD then turn to deal with erring believers, while seeking to keep their own house in order. The modern believer may draw the conclusion that identifying sin in another is “judging another” – and conclude it is intrinsically wrong to do so. Yet, that is not what the Bible truly teaches. On close inspection, such judgments ARE to be made, if we are to fulfill our call to show practical love. We MUST judge our own actions, but we are also called to clearly call sin what it is in BOTH self and others, on the way to attempting to rescue a fallen brother. We will not boldly attempt any such rescue to which we were called if we fail to recognize the peril to the life of the one caught in sin. If we allow another to continue in sin’s trap without attempting rescue because we thought we “didn’t have the right to judge their behavior”, we will fail to follow all the commands related to attempting restoration of the ensnared. That gently pushes us to dealing with others in the family of believers…

Dealing with MY BELIEVING FAMILY:

Paul wrote to the believing family some important words about doing good to one another in the church family:
Galatians 6:6 The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. 10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

First. Paul made it clear that believers who were growing were to share “all good things” with those who were sowing spiritual truth into their lives. In the first century when this command was written, it may have been hard for some in the house-church of the period to recognize the work involved in equipping and training believers by elders who were by-vocational (they worked another job all day). Some believers were slaves and had little to offer their teaching elder to compensate for the extra hours of work to train them in Christ. What they COULD offer, and what they were TOLD to offer, included more than just support. It included encouragement. It included sharing with their teacher the lessons God was using in their lives. The “all good things” isn’t just money – it includes a host of other encouragements as well.

Second, in the middle of the point about sharing good things, Paul reminded the Galatians of a truth believers often forget: we will reap what we sow. If we invest hours in fleshly pursuits, but neglect the pursuit of knowing God’s Word – we will not be transformed by the renewing of our minds, but be “pressed into the mold of the world”. Tragically, I see many believers who are harming the cause of Christ in the public square because they know Him, but not His teaching. They have spent hour on secular education, but have been contented with minutes a week in God’s Word. They have sown the principles of a world that is fading away, but not learned of the world that is emerging after. They have a conscience that has been seared and tailored to modernity, but not transformed by Christ. Rather than offer help to the church, they often become those who cause most of the problems – even though they do not mean to do so. They don’t see SIN as SIN – because they have learned the world’s fluctuation definition of “right” and “wrong”, “fair” and “unfair”, “just” and “unjust”.

These are the “friends” on Facebook that decide offer pronouncements like: “Jesus never spoke out on things like abortion or same-sex marriage, the church must be off base for spending time on these things”. They mean well, but they haven’t studied well. They forgot that Jesus was the same Lord as the One at Sinai, or He is not “the expressed image of God Himself”. They forgot that when Jesus lived, the Law took care of such things. The word for those involved in such a “marriage” was “stoned” outside the city gate. They forget that when Paul, who lived in the Roman world outside the parameters of the standard of God’s Torah Law encountered these ideas, he had very stern judgments concerning them, commanding people not to allow them a meal among them (1 Corinthians 5-6). Believers who sow worldly learning harm the spread of the Word’s transformational power.

Third, because the world buffets against the spirit and because even some of the believers refuse to be careful to sow to the Spirit by learning the Word – walking with Jesus in the context of the body can become exhausting. Paul told those who were tired not to allow themselves to “lose heart” in well doing. Remember, we don’t own the world – we just work for the One Who does. People who fail to walk with Christ aren’t primarily failing US – they are failing the Master. We should pull from within LOVE not ANGER. We should answer their failure by PRAYER for them, and while keeping our house in order, careful outreach to them. Yet, there will be another group we must keep a steady eye upon…

Dealing with AGITATORS:

The phrase we use for agitators is often “playing the devil’s advocate” – and that is a good terminology. The problem is, that many of us don’t see why that is a problem any longer. We are very comfortable listening to the devil’s argument up close. Paul knew them. The agitators were attending the small house church fellowships in Galatia, and diverting attention from the balanced teaching of God’s Word. He wrote:

Galatians 6:11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. 17 From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.

Paul ended the letter with a few warnings about two kinds of agitations that have popped up in the church since its inception. The enemy uses these all the time, and we need to help young believers sort out these sneaky approaches to pull them away…

The first is “Agitation by Confusion”: Paul made sure they knew HE wrote the letter, at least at the end of the scroll where it would show he personally endorsed the contents. It appears that some agitators had already spread a “false scroll” in Corinth, and Paul identified this trick and worked to thwart it.

Today we see this same method – with young or poorly taught believers being “hacked” by confusion-geared arguments.

World views are shaped in the education system that is increasingly being reworked at the foundational level to retrain the thinking of our youth. Much of the post 1960 re-engineering of American culture began as social experimentation in a classroom. Let me offer a simple example. Train young people to think this way: “Those who oppose sanctioning under law the lifestyle choices of other people are bigots” and you will produce a generation that believes it is intrinsically wrong to make value judgments about behaviors in the public square. Relativism will be enshrined in their thinking. When they grow up, as voters, they will believe that no one has the right to judge any lifestyle choices and behaviors of another – and their state will be forced to mandate all choices as equal under the law. They will fail to understand that such judgments are necessary to operate a stable republic and stop a cultural decline. They will lack the long term understanding to know that routinely licensing behaviors that are harmful to the whole of the community will only cause the community to lose the bonds that held it together. The end is the death of the connected community itself. In one generation, they will hail the rise of the un-bonded “test tube baby” without regard to the crying young people that filled Oprah’s set in search of their parents and their biological identity a generation later… They will fail to think long term about the outcomes of social experimentation.

Closer to the training in the Scriptures, sometimes unsuspecting and young believers are sucked into the internet discussions that offer a distilled version of two thousand years of attacks against the Bible. They are tugged to conclude that the Bible has “many interpretations” as if God was somehow unclear. They don’t recognize that most all of the attacks on the Bible now are repeats of earlier attacks over the centuries that were long ago answered. Previous generations of Christians took time to learn the Bible well at an early age in their faith and those attacks didn’t gain such ground as they do now. Today the church is filled with the legions of the untaught and retrained thinkers, as susceptible to attack as the weakened body is to infection. While cults will introduce “another testament of Jesus Christ”, others will introduce young Christians to the “lost Bible books”, like the Nag Hammadi documents, etc. This is an old ploy of our enemy – to deceive with false words and water down true words. Paul shot back in 6:11 by making sure they knew what was authentic – because he spotted the attack. May we be so diligent.

The second is “Agitation by Controlling interests”: Paul made clear the attempts at abuse of those who wanted to gain control of the fledgling house church groups that were following Jesus. He made clear (cp. 6:12) how to recognize them – “those who… compel you to be circumcised”, because that was THEIR ISSUE. Paul explained their real purpose – to boast in their control over you.

Paul warned that Judaizers wanted to control the believers. Today, I would suggest that American political forces have done this with Christendom in our country. The right hearkens to the evangelical movement, while the left beckons the liberal movement. Neither political framework, of itself, cares a whit for the Christ presented in the Bible, and the spread of the Gospel. Each are using religion to prop up their point of view and gain followers, and to keep saints enraged by the other side’s abuses. Their ultimate angle is control… I am not suggesting that each side doesn’t have some positive moral concepts within their framework – quite the opposite. The right emphasizes responsibility (and that is needed) while the left reminds the citizenry of the less fortunate and needy (another Biblically important concern). My point is this: Christians must not put our trust in the bonds forged between political entities and Christianity – they are short lived and constantly shifting. We mustn’t look for media outlets to truly defend Jesus – they will only do so if the ratings and income make that a good thing for them to do in the short term. The world and its organizations are not where Christian energies should peak – but rather they should invest appropriate energy in the public issues only after undergirding themselves in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, study, quiet reflection and engaging in the practical neighborly help of those in need.

These are heavy words, and important teachings that help us DEAL WITH OTHERS in the church family. At the same time, they can lead us to a negative feeling about life – and that is not what Paul desired, nor what the Spirit wants. Let’s end our study with the same sense that Paul did… a spirit of grace and a trust in God’s plan.  He ended with JESUS – not simply with the believer! He wrote a simple ending sentence to the Galatian believers:

Galatians 6:18 “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.”

Paul ended with words of God’s grace – of the undeserved favor of Jesus Christ to those of us who have experienced the depth of His love! The message of Christ is not the prevue of a select few professional ministers – it never has been! The qualification for effectiveness in helping the body stand well is to be in love with the Savior, and follow His directions. I close with a simple illustration of that very truth from American history:

In 1857 there was a 46 year old man named Jeremiah Lamphere who lived in New York City. Jeremiah loved the Lord tremendously, but he didn’t feel that he could do much for the Lord until he began to feel a burden for the lost and accepted an invitation from his church to be an inner city missionary. So in July of 1857 he started walking up and down the streets of New York passing out tracts and talking to people about Jesus, but he wasn’t having any success. Then God put it on his heart to try prayer. So he printed up a bunch of tracts, and he passed them out to anyone and everyone met. He invited anyone who wanted to come to the 3rd floor of the Old North Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton St. in New York City from 12 to 1 on Wednesday to pray. He passed out hundreds and hundreds of fliers and put up posters everywhere he could. Wednesday came and at noon nobody showed up. So Jeremiah got on his knees and started praying. For 30 minutes he prayed by himself when finally five other people walked in. The next week 20 people came. The next week between 30 and 40 people came. They then decided to meet every day from 12:00 to 1:00 to pray for the city. Before long a few ministers started coming and they said, “We need to start this at our churches.” Within six months there were over 5000 prayer groups meeting every day in N.Y. Soon the word spread all over the country. Prayer meetings were started in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington D.C. In fact President Franklin Pierce started going almost every day to a noonday prayer meeting. By 1859 some 15,000 cities in America were having downtown prayer meetings every day at noon, and thousands were brought to Christ. The great thing about this revival is that there is not a famous preacher associated with it. It was all started by one man wanting to pray. People have been seeking God, and seeking a relationship with God through Jesus Christ for centuries. (From a sermon by Rich Anderson, Seeking The Face Of Jesus Christ 2/18/2011)

Every believer has a Savior, His Spirit, a set of gifts and a calling to serve the Master well. We also have a family in Christ, for better or worse! We must remember…

When the family comes together, we must face the fact that some issues (and some people!) need to be dealt with.

The Christmas Journey (Part Two) “Men and Diapers” – Matthew 1 and Luke 2

men and diapI want to talk about something that is utterly politically incorrect, and I am concerned that I may get a reaction in my inbox over the next few days. I have a reasonable expectation that my contract (if I had one) would not be cancelled for expressing it, but let me soften any such response by warning you now, I am not suggesting everyone will agree with me, because my view has been tainted by my own flaws and experiences. Here it is… I don’t personally believe that men were given sufficient, instinctive, practical tools to be good at “lone parenting”. Based solely on the men I know up close, I think babies need the practical hand of a momma. I believe if my children were raised only by me, we would visit them in our memories – because they would not have made it through their first twenty years of life. I know, I know, perhaps my deficits are more pronounced than that of other single parent homes that have only a man raising a family. In practical terms, with my limited experience, I just cannot understand how a guy could really pull off parenting. I don’t have the skills for it, and haven’t met other men who really do either. Of course, there is always YouTube and Google. I didn’t check, but I suppose there is a page for “how to diaper a baby” on the net, complete with “pee-pee tee-pee” instructions for changing little boys. I can’t imagine the net missed that engaging bit or emerging demographic!

In my humble defense, I am not the only one who thinks the way I do. Pastor Kyle Meador wrote: “Again, there’s a great deal of Internet research and revisionist thinking going on about these characters in the Christmas story. Some of have suggested that things would have been considerably different if these wise men had actually instead been wise women. And things sure would have been different. If it had been ‘Wise Women’ instead of ‘Wise Men’, they would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts from Baby’s-R-Us, including diapers, wipes, bibs and formula. But that’s an entirely different story…” (Sermon Central illustrations).

Do you see what I mean? Men just don’t seem, at least in our culture, as equipped to raise a child. For one thing, we lack the physical anatomy to feed a newborn without modern plastics… If you will permit me to suggest that we have such a lack, I want to gently propose that we view the story of several men in the text with both humor and honesty – but I ask you to be a bit understanding toward them. They are men, and trust me, most of us do “mean well”. Each of the men in the story of Jesus’ entrance to the world was in the midst of a growing and learning experience… and though my introduction to the subject has been light, Scripture never is. It engages our heart and transforms our thinking. So with a sober smile, let’s consider a truth…

Key Principle: Because men come from diverse perspectives, they each deal with Jesus differently. Yet, how they deal with Jesus changes the kind of men they become.

Herod: Selfish men use Jesus!

Ladies, I have a news flash: Some men are selfish. I know that comes as a shock! What is more, some of them have even made it to powerful positions, using their selfishness as an advantage in a society of “sheeple” that are often found following the tinsel and that loudest voice in the room. I want to introduce you to a man we know both from the Gospel accounts, as well as from ancient historians and archaeological finds. Meet King Herod called “the Great”. He appears in Matthew’s Gospel as follows:

Mt. 2:3 When Herod the king heard [this], he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: 6 AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.'”7 Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found [Him], report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.

In the passage, it is clear that Herod was King of Judea, and that he ruled from Jerusalem (2:3). He was dealing with a group of eastern men who came searching for the new king, marked by the ascension of a newly noted “star” in the heavens. Herod had authority under Rome that allowed him to call a tribunal of the local Jewish leadership, according to the text (2:4) and to pose specific questions concerning their ancient traditions, mostly found in the Hebrew Scriptures. When posed with the query about a coming King, the report paraphrased the work of the prophets like Micah (see Micah 5:2, cp. Mt. 2:6).

herod coin with starFor those who know about the physical finds from archaeology that relate to Herod, you smile when you read this passage. The symbol probably most associated with Herod in antiquity was a star. In perhaps the earliest coinage minted to signal Herod’s rise to power, the obverse of the coin was embossed with a helmet beneath a star in 37 BCE. The star was a common Octavian/Augustan iconography, and appears as a symbol of “the deification of Caesar” by the Senate. Herod later adapted the star inside a diadem crown as his own symbol – or sometimes a star inside a dotted circle. Some scholars suggest the star was from the Numbers 24:5 Messianic symbolism, something Herod co-opted from the Hasmonean rulers (Alexander Janneus) and their kin that he supplanted. The bottom line is this: Herod used stars as a symbol of ruling, and having astronomers visit following a new rising version was unsettling to him and an attack on his public mythology. Coins were the ancient version of billboards in the Roman world, one of the simplest methods of spreading a message far and wide.

Herod accepted the magi as scholars. Though much has been written about them, I believe they were Jewish sages from Babylon, left with the majority when about 50,000 Jews returned to the land of Israel after the captivity. Skilled in astronomy (probably due in part to interaction with the Zoroastrians of that place) they sought God’s guidance from His handiwork in the heavens. That may not have been the best way to find truth then or now, but in the Scriptures God often used people’s flawed methods to speak into their lives. A star got them to Bethlehem. Before we knock it, remember it has taken two thousand years to get a reliable GPS unit to do the same thing! If God could direct Moses with a cloud, He could certainly direct some magi with a star… but this star had significance in the Roman world that it did not appear to have in the Parthian world – it signified “deity” as one who “meets my needs” as Caesar did, and as Herod wanted to be known. The star stung Herod, and his reaction was predictably political…

Matthew includes the “tongue in cheek” note that Herod claimed a desire to know where Jesus was, so that he could WORSHIP Him. Of course, this came from a man who killed even his own offspring that rivaled his throne – but that wasn’t an uncommon thing for men in his position in his day. In fact, nor was his desire to gain control over the “Jesus message” as quickly as possible. News flash: politicians that can MANIPULATE religious belief, USE it to control people and win their favor. They do it for fame, and they do it for favor. Ultimately they do it for CONTROL.

The problem is that Jesus is a STUBBORN SAVIOR. Heaven isn’t so easy to manipulate. God’s standing Heavenly army of millions cannot so easily fooled, so God sent a dream to make clear to the Magi that Herod was not being genuine. God’s messaging systems in the Bible may seem crude, but His ability to invade even the dreams of our sleep should challenge us to re-think what effect texting truly is! Matthew continued:

Mt. 2:16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. 17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 “A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.”

When politicians cannot control Jesus’ message, they try to SHUT IT DOWN. The kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ – but not until the kings of this earth do all they can to fight God for control. Men WANT to call the shots on their own destiny. If they cannot, they will pretend they control what they do not. They will preach about a world without a Creator, without a purpose, and without a destiny. Yet, in all of that, they will long for meaning that is more than about good meals, a few laughs, and aging fragile bodies. One hundred years here won’t be enough, because they have been designed for more. Selfish men use Jesus – and will stop at nothing to silence Him if He threatens their right to control…even though their “control” of anything is a temporary illusion.

Consider how pervasive sin and arrogance had become: On 11 May 2000, a lady found a new e-mail message on her computer, which simply said, “I love you”. It looked innocent enough, perhaps even a bit “romantic”. Like most of us would, in hopefulness she clicked to open the message, and the so-called “Love Bug” hit its first generation of unsuspecting recipients. With lightning speed it raced around the world, bringing politics and business to a halt in several countries. It was a deadly computer virus that caused millions of computer software programs to crash. It was only a one little, but it caused so much contamination. One violator cost millions to suffer… But it’s not the first time that a single virus has caused so much grief to mankind. In fact, it’s a kind of replay of a deadlier virus that hit Planet Earth more than six thousand years ago polluting the first human couple, Adam and Eve. Despite God’s warning not to click on to Satan’s message, they did so with appalling consequences for them and through them to all mankind. That virus is called “Sin”. (From A-Z Illustrations).

Shepherds: Simple Men seek and share Jesus!

Turn to Luke’s account of the night Jesus was born. The familiar story of the shepherds offers the setting for our next observation about the men of Christmas. Luke recorded:

Luke 2:8 In the same region there were [some] shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 “This [will be] a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds [began] saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

The shepherd’s story is very familiar to most of us. Luke tells us several important details about the men:

They were men of the region surrounding Bethlehem, and on a night during the dry season they were “on the job” camping outside the city with their sheep tucked in a sheepfold. The sheep weren’t out in the field – that isn’t the right way to read the text. The men were outside town in the open areas of the wilderness of Judea nearby. It was night, and sheep don’t eat on the hills at night. The men were likely sitting beside a small cooking fire, in for the night.

The choir wasn’t immediate. First, there was an unexpected visitor appeared (2:9). Like the bush that was on fire before Moses, this visitor got their immediate attention because his appearance was bright – so they were frightened! They weren’t expecting anyone, and they knew this guy wasn’t a shepherd from the next hill over.

The messenger spoke words to comfort them: “Stop being afraid! I have great news!” (2:10) He proceeded to describe in detail the coming of Messiah as a baby, and even details as to the place in Bethlehem they should look for the baby (2:11-12). He told them: “You won’t find the baby in the front room of the home, nor in the middle room of the cave or upper chamber called the ‘kataluma’ – the family didn’t allow that. You will find the child wrapped in the birthing scraps and placed in a manger in the rear of the cave of the Bethlehem home.

Just before the Heavenly Guardians appeared above them, Luke slipped in the directive given to the men to search for the child. It is so subtle, you could almost miss it! The messenger said: “You will find Him…” In other words, I am telling you about this because I want you to do something about it. I want you to go looking for Him. I want you to see what an incredible GIFT God has given man… a SAVIOR! Why? What audience did Mary need on a night after giving birth? None! Yet, God knew there were others that needed verification that the baby was more than He appeared to be, and Mary and Joe’s story had more behind it than just his and her word.

They saw the child, but they saw Him as more than a child. They heard the Word of God concerning the baby – and that made all the difference!

How like them we are, when we who believe the Savior has come stand gazing back into that manger. We don’t see a helpless baby. We don’t see shepherds bowing. We don’t think of Magi and their strange gifts… we see God’s hand giving us what we need. We see a RESCUER coming to pull us from the sweeping tide of sin that we have been drowning in.

I don’t want to take a swipe at the world – I will speak for myself. I am a selfish man. On my knees before Jesus I have found myself to be more than flawed… I am depraved. In myself, if left without the gentle touch of Jesus, I find no good thing. I could kill. I could lie. I could cheat. I could wound those who I profess to love so dearly. Do you think the shepherds were somehow chosen because they were better than all others? I KNOW that is not the case. I know it because I was chosen too – to seek Jesus, and when I found Him to recognize what God’s Word said about Him – He is my rescuer… and I need one!

People who have no commitment to Jesus will simply view Him as a cute baby that came on a selfless quest. They will enjoy the season, and think nothing more about Him when the day is passed. Sure, He was a good man. Sure, He healed sick people, and probably was a pretty good guy to live next door to. Sure, He died believing He could make a difference. If they are CHURCHED, they may even believe He rose from the dead. Yet in all this, they will miss WHO HE IS. He is the RESCUER of man whose fist has been raised in angry mutiny against God.

“I am not like that!” Many will say. Yet they will not surrender their life to the Creator. They will not acknowledge His right to demand changes in their behavior. They want the baby Jesus – the MUTE Jesus. They would like just enough Jesus to fill a manger, but not enough to make them change their selfish lifestyle. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is usually not whether they believe Jesus came as a baby, but whether He came as a RESCUER from mutiny and the Divine penalty of it. Simple men don’t try to out-think God, they believe what He said about Jesus.

Joseph: Surrendered men value Jesus!

At long last, in our saga about men and the baby Jesus, we come to Joseph – the man close to the center of the story. Here was a guy who truly desired to follow God, but wasn’t sure HOW with all the turns in the road. His story shows up in four segments in the Gospels:

Mt. 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took [Mary] as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

The time for the census called Joe and Mary back to their ancestral home in Bethlehem. They were “married” but hadn’t consummated the marriage, so it was called a “betrothal” – the last step left incomplete. Off they went from Nazareth. Luke 2 records:

Luke 2: 3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,

They arrived at Joe’s family home, and I suspect because the story of the pregnancy was too much for this old Jewish family to believe, they put them in the cave at the back of the house. The baby was born. The shepherds visited and let them know what the angels told them. They presented Jesus at the Temple a week later. Anna and Simeon both prophesied over the child. Time passed. Men from the east arrived when Jesus was a toddler and gave the baby expensive gifts, then left. Matthew tells the story:

Mt. 2:13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” 14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. [This was] to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.

The toddler, his mom and Joe stayed outside the realm of Herod the Great’s reach. Bethlehem families probably wouldn’t have thought highly of them if they returned and told how they were warned to leave, but hadn’t told everyone else. The weeping daughters of Rachel would have been incensed. More time passed, and so do King Herod. His death and burial outside of Bethlehem at the mountain called the “Herodion” signaled to the angel to again invade the dreams of Joe’s sleep. Matthew records:

Mt. 2:19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, 20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” 21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned [by God] in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. [This was] to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.

Joe bounced around more than a ping-pong ball in the hand of God! Three times in the Gospel accounts God re-directed Joe by breaking into his life and revealing truth to him that he did not already know. Each one was an essential direction, and looking back – the reasoning for each one is clearer to US – than it was when Joe received it.

Joseph’s life reads like a textbook on “lessons in resting during God’s re-direction”. If you truly read these few verses carefully – you will be HIT with a lesson that will wallop you in life.

In Matthew 1:20, God opened the door to truth when Joe’s life map got derailed by a baby announcement. He acted within what he knew, and then needed God to direct him in what he did not know. The first dream came in the backdrop of a deep interpersonal confusion. Joseph committed to marry Mary, but she appeared to be unfaithful.

If you pull aside Joe in Heaven someday, I suspect he would tell you that a BIG LESSON in his life was this: “I must understand that God can move in my life in a way that makes no sense to me at that time.” This is part of His Divine Prerogative. He is entitled as my Creator and my Master to do this, and we must not be surprised by this work. After all, isn’t the Bible filled with stories that make this truth obvious?

• Didn’t God push Noah into a building project that made little sense apart from God’s direction?
• Didn’t God lay out a “hard to believe” family expansion for an aging Abraham and Sarah?
• Wasn’t God’s call from the burning bush – a call for Moses, dressed as a Midianite shepherd to stand before a powerful prince – one that seemed mistimed and a wrongly cast part?
• Don’t you wonder if David felt uncertain about God’s protection when the bear appeared to take a young lamb? He didn’t know he was in combat training for giant slaying.

How long will it take for us to recognize that God’s call in our lives is to follow Him, not to figure Him out?

Over and over again, Joe learned a hard lesson…How we respond when we have been disappointed by another’s behavior, or even when we think we have been wronged is a water mark of our real maturity. When Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant (likely she told him after the visit of Gabriel recorded in Luke 1:26-38), any one of us would likely have backed Joe up if he stormed out angrily and slammed the door – and we would have been wrong. Who couldn’t understand that reaction? What friend, hurt for Joe, wouldn’t have consoled him that such an outburst was both normal and justified. The only problem is that our understanding would have blocked God’s lesson in Joe’s life. God didn’t pick a short-fused man – He seldom does for the delicate task. A godly person is patient, circumspect and gentle – they are not vindictive when wounded – no matter how deeply.

The bottom line on Joseph’s Christmas lesson was this: God works best with instruments that won’t wrestle Him for control, but will follow His lead. Uncooperative tools don’t get often used.

So let me ask you men: How are you doing in the SURRENDER department? Is God in charge of what you watch, what you listen to, what you laugh at, what you drink and how much, what you eat and how much? I am not asking you to BIND YOU TO LAWS AND LISTS, but to prompt you to the inner nudges of God’s Spirit in regards to your yielded-ness to Him.

You see, it it true… Because men come from diverse perspectives, they each deal with Jesus differently. How they deal with Jesus changes the kind of men they become.

Before I close, I want to mention ONE OTHER DAD – but it is not a fair comparison – for He is no MERE MAN. I want you to think about what the Father in Heaven passed through as He allowed His Son to become a baby, and deal with man’s depravity by a horrible death payment. The best way for me to explain Him, and to describe His love for you might be to end with a story…

Jeannette George tells a story about an experience she had on a short flight from Tucson to Phoenix. Across the aisle from her sat a young woman and her baby, both dressed in white pinafores. The baby had a little pink bow where there would eventually be hair. The mother was smiling, as the baby kept saying “Dada, Dada,” every time someone walked down the aisle. The mother said Daddy was waiting for them after they had been gone for a few days. She was so adorable – quiet – that all passengers enjoyed watching her. Unfortunately, there was a lot of turbulence, making the flight extremely rough, which of course was hard on the baby. But the mother had some fruit and a little Thermos with orange juice in it. Every time the baby cried the mother fed her a little bit more orange juice and a little more fruit. While this seemed like a good idea at the time, the turbulence seemed to spread from the air around the plane right down to that baby’s gastro-intestinal system, and pretty much all of the fruit that had gone down came up. However, the process of coming up was considerably messier than the process of going down had been. It also seemed to have increased in volume tremendously between the going down and the coming up, so that not only were the baby and the mother pretty much covered in it, but so were most of the passengers within a significant radius of the baby, [including Jeanette George, who was telling the story.] Fortunately for the mortified mother, all of the passengers were gracious and tried to help her and tell her it was OK. After all what could she do about it?? The baby was crying, and she looked awful. Even though they didn’t cry, her fellow passengers looked – and smelled – pretty awful, too. The mother was so sorry about it. As soon as they landed, the baby was fine and returned to calling: “Dada, Dada.” The rest of the passengers didn’t recover quite so quickly, being covered as they were in pre-digested fruit. Ms. George said, “I had on a suit, and I was trying to decide whether to burn it or just cut off the sleeve. It was really bad.” Waiting for the plane was a young man who had to be “Dada.” He was wearing white slacks, a white shirt, and he carried white flowers. Now what do you think that clean Daddy all dressed in white did when he saw his baby who had that sticky, smelly stuff all over her clothes and her face and her hair? He ran to the young mother, who handed the baby over pretty quickly so she could go get cleaned up. That Daddy picked up that baby, and he hugged her and he kissed her and he stroked her hair. As he held her close, he said, “Daddy’s baby’s come home. Daddy’s baby’s come home.” All the way to the luggage claim area, he never stopped kissing that baby and welcoming her back home. Ms. George thought, Where did I ever get the idea that my Father God is less loving than a young daddy in white slacks and white shirt with white flowers in his hand? [Jeannette Clift George, “Belonging and Becoming,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 93. Taken from sermoncentral.com]

My Father in Heaven loves me, and He sent me His Son to prove it. His Son rescued me, and I will ever be grateful!

The Christmas Journey (Part One) “A Young Woman Meets God” – Luke 1

celebrityHave you ever gotten the chance to meet a celebrity? Have you ever bumped into someone that you thought might be a TV personality? You watch them at a distance, too timid to ask, but you are just sure “it is them”! One of the most vivid images of my youth was a time I was watching a black and white television set, and viewing a group of teenagers inundating the singing group, the “Beatles”. People were screaming as though the building was on fire, and some even passed out as they passed by! Meeting celebrities must be an experience that some are overcome by!

Today, we want to share a story about a celebrity meeting of the strangest and most fantastic kind. It comes from the beginning of the New Testament, from the Gospel according to Luke, beginning in the first chapter of that story. It strikes me that each of the four Gospel accounts open differently, but they all do exactly the same thing – tell the story of how God put on human skin and met a variety of people among His creation. He went about doing good, but brought out the barbarism and inhumanity that came as a byproduct of the Fall in the Garden of Eden. In this lesson, we want to focus on the one human being that He knew most intimately of all in human history – the young woman who carried Messiah in her womb. Her story doesn’t begin exactly like any other, for no one on the planet would ever experience God the way she did. Yet, the meeting between her and Jesus, in other ways, is very similar to the ways we all meet Jesus. Not only that, but her life journey is not dissimilar to ours.

Key Principle: Our walk with God is a journey, each step defined and explained by God’s Word.

Think of it this way. Our journey with the Savior usually takes place in six stages:

First, we meet someone who is a messenger of Jesus. They show love and a stability that is uncommon. We are attracted by the nudging of God’s Spirit, though we don’t know that is what it is that drives us to look more closely. They are our burning bush, and we must draw closer to see what empowers them. We call that PRE-EVANGELISM.

Second, we hear words that don’t initially sound familiar to us. They speak of God’s love and favor for us, and we want to believe that it is so – He Who created us truly DOES care. We don’t want to live life without Him, and the enveloping of His love. We call this our GOSPEL ENCOUNTER.

Third, His messenger makes clear what He wants – surrender. God never invites us into His Kingdom on our terms. We need not pay to enter, but we must stop resisting His right to be the King. God isn’t hoarding rebels for Heaven, but refugees. We must recognize His Sovereign right to rule – not only the universe – but our lives. We call this the POINT OF DECISION.

Fourth, we respond by yielding to Him. We see His care as a GOOD thing, and His rule as a POWERFUL lifting up of our broken lives to restore us. We call this practicing FIRST STEPS as disciples.

Fifth, we learn to celebrate His work in us. We enjoy praise, and we exalt in His use of our body, life and choices. We learn to stop clinging to controls and enjoy when He does through us what we could never do alone! We call this growing in WORSHIP.

Sixth, we let Him lead us through the hard times, and trust that He knows what He is doing. As the path of life unfolds, we learn that God’s plan for us isn’t always sweetness and light, but includes His patience toward evil and allowance of pain. Hard experiences befall our lives and those around us, but we learn to lean and to trust in the face of it all – until we are gathered in His arms at the end of our days. We call this THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

Let’s look at the journey of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and compare it to the stages of our own journey with Jesus.

I recognize that our walk won’t be exactly the same. Mary delivered a baby that grew up and delivered her from sin. She tenderly counted the fingers of hands that would one day feel the pain of nails piercing them for our transgressions. At the same time – not everything was so unusual… Remember the first stage of meeting Jesus in YOUR LIFE? For most of us it is like that of Mary – it began when we met someone who was a messenger of Jesus. Before we could hear the Gospel, we needed to see the love of someone who KNEW GOD WELL. God’s Spirit pricked our hearts with the reality that we were encountering someone with an answer to nagging questions that we couldn’t shake – “Why are we here? Does life have a purpose? Can I know what that purpose truly is?” These are the moments drawing us to Jesus and His message, and it is a time called PRE-EVANGELISM.

First, the pre-evangelism: Meet a young woman living in a small, poor village in the Galilee.

Let’s look at the example from Mary’s life. The description of Dr. Luke from his writing is small, but rich:

Luke 1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord [is] with you.” 29 But she was very perplexed at [this] statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

The text helps us understand the young woman, and her walk in life. We learn four important factors that help explain the story, and “add meat to the bones” of the account.

Mary was a virgin (1:26-27). Her experience with a man was limited to a distant glance. She wasn’t naïve, because the agricultural life of a villager of the time was openly exposed to biological processes – as those who grow up on a farm can attest. The process of bearing a child was no mystery to her – it was a future hope when the time was right according to God’s law. Because of the day in which we live, perhaps we should also make clear that she was not feeling “left behind” other “more adult women” of her day. She looked forward to the opportunity to raise children – as women of the period, like her cousin Elizabeth did. Bearing a child was one of the highest stations for a woman in the Bible. It was not a quaint decision of a woman who “couldn’t qualify” for the rigors of the working world. It WAS her significant dream of work – and she longed to perform the work of bearing and raising a child.

Mary was engaged (1:27). In Mary’s case, it just wasn’t time yet for bearing a child. She understood the Biblical pattern: marriage commitment, then family blessing. She required a man to leave his father and mother and bring her to his own built and established home – so that he could become her husband. She was close to having the longing for a child fulfilled in her, and probably anxious about many things. What kind of husband would Joseph be? Would she bear him healthy children? In a world of high infant mortality rates and high rate of mortality among child bearing women – they faced this joy with a much greater concern for their own strength. Many women died in childbirth – something that we have thankfully almost forgotten. Let me suggest that she was excited, but also probably somewhat apprehensive.

Mary was favored by God (1:28). Like children of believing families through the ages, she had always heard about “the things of the Lord” from as far back as she could recall. One of her earliest memories was likely drawn from a Biblically commanded feast, with the joy of her family gathered near. She knew simple village life in the Galilee, surrounded by families of religious Jews that viewed the passing Gentile caravans from a distance. The messenger told her of God’s favor on her life, and she heard with JOY that her Creator was not a STRANGER.

I cannot let the opportunity pass when I read the words of verse 28. Do you recall when you first heard that God truly loves you? I don’t think there is ANY MESSAGE in the world more important to hear and grasp. Without understanding God’s love, we have no basis for eternal hope. As a thoroughly depraved individual, it is hard for me to grasp how God could love me, care for me, and WANT a relationship with me. That message puzzled Mary, and it still puzzles me.

It still doesn’t often get the headlines in the news of the church, either. We are fast becoming a people driven by the latest outrage – and wrestling with our response to it. We forget the most amazing truth is still ours – the Creator loves us. He KNOWS us. He NOTICES our life. While pausing the story, let me take a step even further from the ancient world into our world. We not only FORGET God’s love – we forget to communicate it.

Bret Trotman shared a selection from Soul Talk, by Dr. Larry Crabb a few years ago: “”Which is worse? A church program to build community that doesn’t get off the ground or one person sitting every Sunday in the back of the church who remains unknown? A Sunday school class that once drew hundreds but has now dwindled to thirty or a Sunday school teacher whose sense of failure is never explored by a caring friend? A family torn apart by the father’s drinking, his wife’s frustration, and their third grader’s learning disabilities or a self-hating dad, a terrified mom, and a lonely little boy, three human beings whose beauty and value no one ever discovers? A national campaign that fails to gain steam for the pro-life movement or a single woman on her way home from an abortion clinic in the backseat of a taxi, a woman whose soul no one ever touches?” We may notice the unknown pew sitter, we may wonder how the teacher of the now small class feels, we may worry over each member of the torn-up family, and we may feel for the guilt and pain of a woman who has ended her baby’s life. But we do what’s easier. We design programs, we brainstorm ways to build attendance, and in our outrage over divorce statistics and abortion numbers we fight for family values. These are all good things, but [NOT WHEN] we don’t TALK to the pew sitter; or ASK the teacher how he’s feeling; or INVITE the dad to play golf, or take the woman to lunch, or invite the little boy to play with our children; or let the young woman know we CARE about her soul….That response to hurting people, I would label disunity. Disunity is not just fighting over personal preferences. It’s not just leaving the church because someone hurt your feelings. It’s not just gossip that tears down other members of the body. It’s leaving needs unmet. It’s failing to love people the way God would have us love. Unity is lived out in caring concern for others.” (From sermon central illustrations, adapted).

Mary didn’t expect special things from God (1:29). Go back to Mary’s inner turmoil concerning the angel in verse 29. The text reminds: “But she was very perplexed at [this] statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.” She may not have been a “woman of the world” with extensive social interaction, but she never heard anyone offer a greeting like this one. I suspect it was because the message was so hard to grasp. You see, Mary possessed no spirit of entitlement. She didn’t think of herself and anything special. She did right, and she was happy to do it – but she didn’t think that was particularly rare. On occasion, someone will do an uncommon act and be thrust in the “public eye”. I can think of numerous examples. The ones I draw particular JOY from are the ones where the recognized person offers some variety of saying like: “Hero? I am no hero. I was just doing what I hope anyone would in this situation!” That was Mary. She lived her life well, but didn’t expect a special reward or recognition for doing the decent thing.

Mary was met by a stranger that carried a message from God. The words were loving, and the messenger communicated clearly, and with grace. Don’t forget that is ALWAYS how the love of God and the saving message of Jesus moves out. People know YOU before they know the Jesus you serve. Be the example of a believer, and you will do the work of leading others closer to Jesus with your life. Pre-evangelism is about showing genuine love to another – not to win them to Jesus – but because Jesus made them. They aren’t an agenda or a ministry – they are a human being and as such deserve love, care and compassion.

Second, the Gospel Encounter: Watch Mary engage the strange messenger.

As Mary listened, the messenger took the next step in the encounter – the presentation of the Gospel. Jesus and His salvation was being presented to Mary. The GOOD NEWS of the Rescuer was as startling to Mary as it was when it was presented to you and I. Listen to her GOSPEL ENCOUNTER:

Luke 1:30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36 “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Mary felt apprehensive about flattery (1:30). Notice that Mary was afraid. I suspect that some of the fear was wrapped up in her query about the identity of the messenger. Part of the fear probably related to the unexpected message that God favored her. Part of the apprehension was likely related to the embarrassment to being so directly congratulated when she didn’t feel particularly deserving of such a compliment.

The message was not unknown – but seemed misplaced (1:31-33). Unless Mary’s family hadn’t told her ANYTHING about their faith – she knew about the promise of the coming King to redeem the Jewish people from their sorry state. When you look closely at the verses, some of the promises of the King were enumerated:

He will be called “Savior” or “Rescuer”. He was the fulfillment of God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 to crush the head of the enemy through the womb of the woman. “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

He will be exalted. The “greatness” is likely a reference to Isaiah 9:6-7, as in being distinguished in power and wisdom. 9”6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

He will be called the Son of the Most High God. The one who started that rumored title from Gabriel’s mouth, later fueled it from Heaven when in Mt. 3:17 God said: “and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

He will sit on David’s throne. The promise to David was a perpetual inheritor if the kings followed God, as in 1 Kings 2: [Do these things] 4 “and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’”.

He will have an unending dynasty that restores the household of David in Judah. This sounds like the reference of Isaiah 9:7 “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Mary wasn’t mystified by the promises – she knew them. What was a mystery to her was clear by what came out of her mouth next…

The method was a puzzle (1:34-37).

In Luke 1:34 it records: “Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” There isn’t anyone who would have heard this and WOULDN’T have had this question. It is reasonable, logical and necessary for Mary to have an understanding. She wasn’t resisting the WHAT of the message of God, she was questioning the HOW of that message.

Third, the Decision Point: Mary gave God her life.

The stunning point of the narrative is that this young woman named Mary appears to have already decided that God’s message was FINE WITH HER. The messenger made clear what God wanted – surrender of her body for God’s use. The angel explained that God’s Holy Spirit would come upon her, and that she would be with child without any human agency. God offered both a TRUTH, and the EVIDENCE to back it up. The simple TRUTH was this: This wasn’t hard for God. The evidence was that even her old auntie Liz was in her sixth month with child.

The fact is that God wants to be able to use us, our bodies, our hands, our feet, our choices, our lives. He invites us to surrender them to both His care and His use. We must remember it again and again: God never invites us into His Kingdom on our terms. Though entrance to eternal life has been fully paid by Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary, we cannot come into a right relationship with Him while resisting His right to be the King, and insisting on our own way. God isn’t hoarding rebels for Heaven, but refugees. God calls people who AREN’T MAKING TERMS, aren’t justifying their desires and making them equal to His Word… God calls people to a POINT OF DECISION about HIS SOVEREIGN RIGHT to rule their lives, change their nation, make or break their reputation, endanger their most treasured relationships, cause people around them to doubt their integrity… ALL OF THAT.

Why do we think God cannot call His church into a time of persecution and struggle? Is He not the same God Who called Mary into a position of public disgrace?

Yet, look at her response, because it is touching…

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary saw herself as a SLAVE of the Most High. There was no arrogance, nor any talk of her personal rights. There was no dispute over God’s plan and her plan. His plan was the ONLY plan she wanted. Her response was simple, precious, difficult, painful obedience – I am God’s to use as He will. There is the whole struggle from the Garden in a nutshell. God sets the parameters, I live in them and serve His purpose. Adam and Eve wouldn’t… and people wouldn’t today without the intervention of God in their lives. How offensive is this truth of surrender to the modern mind! How degrading to be used in the thoughts of our lost friend. They cannot imagine the appeal of this to those whose heart beats to serve our Savior. We sing of surrender! We ask ourselves, what higher use for a man or woman is there than to be a precious tool in the hands of the Magnificent Creator? Mary KNEW IT. She understood the impulse to surrender.

Fourth, her Initial Steps begin: Mary learns from a mentor and friend.

No sooner had she surrendered to God’s call, when she began her FIRST STEPS as a follower of God. Do you remember that time! You had MUCH ZEAL but LITTLE KNOWLEDGE. Off she went on a quest to visit her auntie Liz, and see the miracle of the barren woman now growing with a child within.

Luke 1:39 Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed [are] you among women, and blessed [is] the fruit of your womb! 43 “And how has it [happened] to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? 44 “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. 45 “And blessed [is] she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.

Did you ever wonder WHY this trip is recorded? Do you think it was simply to tell the story of John’s womb flipping worship? Let me bother you with a thought. Where could a young woman who was unmarried travel ALONE? The best answer I can offer is “Nowhere!” What if she WAS NOT ALONE on the journey? What if she had company with her for this encounter? Could the story have helped settle her reputation in the family when another observer reported that she met Auntie Liz and heard the prophetic voice of the older woman exclaim the child within Mary to be exactly what Mary reported to her family – a child from God begotten by the Spirit?

Scripture says that Elizabeth greeted her and the Spirit empowered her voice. She told Mary:

• You are blessed and so is the One inside you!
• I am humbled at your visit and the baby within me is excited!
• You have done right to listen to the Lord’s message.

Liz knew that what Mary was doing was not easy. She learned about shame the hard way – through YEARS of celebrating the births of OTHER WOMEN’S CHILDREN. Her prayers and longings went UNANSWERED through her whole naturally fertile life – and THEN God acted. Then God heard her cries in the night. Mary did right by going to her home and hearing from her lessons. We need that kind of support to grow up in the faith.

Fifth, Praise rises: Mary shares a heart of worship!

I cannot do justice to “The Magnificat” – the celebration that poured out of Mary when she was encouraged by the words of Auntie Liz. I can only say that believers that surrender and begin to grow, learn the JOY of WORSHIP. Mary answered Liz with a beautiful reply:

Luke 1:46 And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 “For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. 49 “For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. 50 “AND HIS MERCY IS UPON GENERATION AFTER GENERATION TOWARD THOSE WHO FEAR HIM. 51 “He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered [those who were] proud in the thoughts of their heart. 52 “He has brought down rulers from [their] thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. 53 “HE HAS FILLED THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS; And sent away the rich empty-handed. 54 “He has given help to Israel His servant, In remembrance of His mercy, 55 As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever.” 56 And Mary stayed with her about three months, and [then] returned to her home.

So much more should be said about that song, but we must move swiftly to the final stage of her encounter with God in her life… for it is the one that many of us are living in right now…

Sixth, the Christian Walk is traveled: Mary followed God’s plan for her.

God lead her through the hard times, and she continually learned to trust that God knows what He is doing. The path of life unfolded, and this CHRISTIAN LIFE brought joy, but also pain. It brought satisfaction, but did not eliminate uncertainty. There was an uncomfortable journey to a less than receptive extended family for an uncomfortable birth.

Luke 2:1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

There was the strangeness of visitors and their kind but unusual words…

Luke 2:17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

There were the hours of watching the baby breathe, of counting the little fingers and toes, of checking skin temperature and bundling to keep Him warm in the cold. Think about what she pondered…

• Did she wonder if those were the hands of a King?

• Did she recognize as she taught the boy to speak that He was the very Word of God?

• Did she wipe the tears from a little boys eyes and blood from his skinned knee and really know the preciousness of the blood she dabbed?

• Did she comb his hair and know that it would shine brightly one day when He sat again sit enthroned above the angels, with myriads shouting His name?

• Did she know as she weaved a tunic for her child that He would one day wear the white linen of Heaven?

• Did she scrub his little body knowing that she would do so to bury Him later… and wash His feet, and know how hard His journey would be, and how excruciating the nails would be that one day were destined to pierce Him?

She would SEE His painful sacrifice. The Gospels record that she was not spared this horror…

John 19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, … 25 …. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

Her life of following God didn’t insulate her from PAIN, LOSS and HEARTBREAK. It did help her to rest in God’s hands when life’s crushing blows would have beat her down. Mary saw her Son doing what she had done long before…Surrendering a body to God’s use to fulfill God’s plan.

She knew what she needed to know in order to remain strong… Our walk with God is a journey, each step defined and explained by God’s Word. Nothing else would have held her together, because nothing else was as powerful.

Renewing Our Values: “Handling Leaders of God’s People” – 1 Timothy 5:17-25

 Tleadersoday’s church is in what even the most casual observer would likely call “a leadership crisis”. First, the number of qualified leaders for congregations is much smaller than in decades. Entry into clerical training geared toward congregational ministry has curtailed in Catholicism and Protestantism. The ranks are thin in most countries today. At the same time, we have had significant issues with ministry personnel getting along with one another. Leroy Barber wrote an article about leaders some time ago, and I want to excerpt it as a way of beginning our lesson on handling leaders: “Leaders make decisions every day that affect the lives of many people. This list should be a reminder that our jobs are important and that we should be constantly working to improve ourselves. There are a few signs to look for that will warn us if a leader is headed in the right direction and can help guide when deciding to give someone our support. I call them the red flags of leadership:

1. The use of too many personal pronouns when describing the work of a team or organization. Most, if not all, great accomplishments are the result of a good team. No one does everything themselves, and when a leader over uses “I” and “me” to describe the work of an organization, you might have a problem.

2. When a leader surrounds him or herself with people who will not tell them no. A good leader purposely [surrounds himself with] people who will think for themselves and who will challenge decisions they make…

3. When a leader only [surrounds himself with] people who think … they way they do. You need multiple views on any given decision, and if a leader only surrounds themselves with a team that processes the way they do, this could lead to an organization with a narrow base.

4. When a leader has to criticize others to legitimize his … work. If an idea or vision is a valid one, it will stand-alone without putting down someone else.

5. When a leader can’t follow. When a leader is not a good follower, it is a major sign that they may be immature in their leadership. It is a major hypocrisy to ask people to trust and follow you and you are not able to do that well.

6. When there is no [Prophet] Nathan in the leader’s life. When a leader doesn’t have someone around them to point out when they are leading out of selfishness or emotion, then there is problem…

Barber’s list is helpful, and as a leader warning other leaders, it points to a prickly problem of leadership: how to appropriately treat others God has chosen for leadership. Clearly the Apostle Paul called out by name those who were violating truth in a gross and public way. I suspect there are times when it is necessary to do so – though we must be careful because we don’t serve as Apostles, and our sermon writing isn’t going to be canonized and Scripture!

Add to the problem of handling each other, and unless you left the country over the past three decades, you know that American Christianity has seems to have been stripped of its former innocence and rocked by scandal after scandal in its public leadership. The Catholic community has paid incredible sums in legal fees with wave after wave of charges against leaders. The Protestant community suffered through televangelist scandals that made all who held clerical titles blush with embarrassment. Clearly those in leadership needed to deal in a more effective way with those who were abusive, and those who brought derision to the name of Jesus Christ. We have to admit, the issues of handling leaders, even by other leaders, is a complex one. Two thousand years ago, Paul wrote to Timothy about his behavior as a supervisor of co-laborers in ministry, and both essential commands and stern warnings. He offered helpful standards and even some encouragement.

Key Principle: Dealing with co-laborers in ministry takes special care and wisdom, but if done well it produces long term relationships that increase both the joy and productivity of ministry.

Before we move forward, let’s glance backward to set the context. If you haven’t been following our study, I can summarize what led us to is point in three simple thoughts:

First, we noted this letter was geared toward teaching about BEHAVIORS that God instructed believers to exemplify as they sought to live out their faith. The book is not about the lost world, but about the world of believers.

Second, we noted in the section of the letter we are currently examining, from 1 Timothy 5:1 to 6:12, there is a particular focus on interpersonal behaviors, relationships between the young man who acted as shepherd to the church, Timothy, and those he served. We are reading his personal mail, and gleaning both prescribed behavior for leaders, and the goal of behaviors for all of us.

Third, we noted that Paul’s commands in the first part of chapter five were essentially two – respect believers of various ages in the church, and take a special interest in those who have found themselves in a position of need as a result of life’s troubles. We noted that respect looked a bit different for each group of people mentioned in 5:1-2, but the command to respect each person was absolute. We also made clear that those who are in need, like widows, are a SACRED TRUST to the body of Christ. We have been given a GIFT in the package of those who cannot care for themselves, because they give us the opportunity to show love, and offer care.

The section for the study in this lesson deals with Timothy’s relationship with those with whom he co-labored in the church – other leaders. Let’s first look closely at the words Paul instructed, and then carefully look for the keys to understanding the passage:

1 Timothy 5:17 The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” 19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. 20 Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. 21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality. 22 Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin. 23 No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. 24 The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after. 25 Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed.

Many people mistake this passage as some crass opportunity for a preacher to ask you to pay him more – but that isn’t what the passage is about at all. Preachers talking about payments due them is about as savory as Congressmen voting themselves another raise in an era of deficit spending. That isn’t what the passage is about, but it is often taught that way. Let me explain…

We must recall the first century church wasn’t structured exactly as our church is today. Long before hymnbooks, parking lots, dedicated church buildings with steeples dotting the landscape, professional clergy, church offices and printed bulletins, the church in a Roman city was a network of people who committed to follow Jesus and learn of him in small groups that met in the atrium (entry hall) or triclinium (dining hall) of Roman urban villas.

Back to the Beginning

Imagine that you lived in the first century, and as a Roman free man or woman, you heard about this man from Nazareth called Jesus. You were so moved by the love of the people that claimed to follow His teachings, you asked one of them to allow you to attend a little study and prayer group that met in their home several times a week. You visited and noticed their practices carefully. They greeted one another with a holy kiss, and they looked each other in the eye, listening to one another. You were amazed that bond or free, Jew or Gentile, Nubian, Scythian, Gaul or Roman – people didn’t seem divided, nor did they feel the need to separate by class when seated. In your class conscious society, you had never seen anything like that!

As they gathered, they held hands with one another and closed their eyes, praying… not a simple memorized set of phrases repeated over and over – but a prayer of such intensity, it was as though their God was in a room above them, intently listening. Following prayer, the people sat in a small circle as a man read from a scroll that contained a letter from the leader of church in another city. The reader paused periodically to explain the words he read as you listened intently with all the others. At the end, he explained the coming of Jesus as man’s Savior, and the story of a single God that stood alone in the Heavens as both Creator, and a personal deity that desired to have a relationship with His created.

The man who was reading the scroll acted as a Shepherd to the group. They called him an “elder”, the term you knew from the marketplace as a wise man or sage. He was not the head of the group. He was one of a number of men who served in this position, and they all served under one “overseer” who cared for the needs of the shepherds of each small home group scattered throughout the city. Though you were a part of only one house group, it became clear to you that you were welcome to join ANY of the groups in the city, as they were UNITED by common faith in Jesus Who was called the Christ.

I mention this story to make the point that the letter to Timothy wasn’t written to a “Pastor” of a church in the same way we would mean that term today. Tim was a city leader, a “Bishop” or “overseer” of a variety of men who cared for small flocks in the villa group setting. He almost certainly did not gather the whole group of believers in the city to hear him preach. In some periods of early church history, it is doubtful that everyone in the city actually ever met and fellowshipped with the overseer. His work was to select, disciple or mentor group leaders, and instruct them in properly exposing the truths from the Word of God. He was a shepherd of shepherds.

When Paul wrote to him in that capacity and said : “1 Timothy 5:17 The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching”… it was not for him to PRESS BELIEVERS TO PAY HIM, as though he needed “cover” from the Apostle for this instruction. The problem was that Tim was a SUPERVISOR of ministry personnel spread throughout the city, and he needed guidelines to help HIM know what was appropriate in that relationship. The issue wasn’t Tim getting money for Tim, but Tim knowing the value of what each man who was serving in the field was supposed to receive, and how to place a value on their labors.

With that in mind, let’s make clear four standards Paul gave to Timothy about those who worked in the small group settings of the house churches:

First, Paul called on Timothy to ACKNOWLEDGE the value of the work of men in the Word for the growth of the Kingdom.

Go back to the first words of Paul in this section. 1 Timothy 5:17 “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” The words expose several important truths:

1. Elders who led the studies were leaders, and they had the responsibility to oversee their flock, demonstrated by the term “rule”.

2. Some of them did a better job at that work than others, and it was something that Timothy was supposed to be able to measure, based on the words “rule well”.

3. Not all of them were dedicated only to the task of teaching and preaching, as was demonstrated by the term “especially”.

4. The men who worked at teaching and preaching were also performing real labor (something made clear in the reference to WORK in 5:18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

The idea that studying and preaching was a legitimate labor was perhaps the part of the acknowledgement that was most difficult for Tim, because Roman citizens were taught to revere hard working farmers, and tough bodied soldiers. The word for a “man of the scrolls” was often a derogatory use of the term like “Jew” or “Greek”- meaning a lazy sophist, a sitting sage, or a lethargic philosopher. In a variety of Roman works, philosophers seemed to be regarded by the masses as “loafers” who sat for hours reading scrolls rather than doing true manly labors.

Bear in mind that most of the men that performed these tasks also labored in other areas, probably in work that included business transactions and public records – because they became adept at reading and thorough study in those pursuits. That would not have been true of all of them, but it is hard to imagine a farmer who did not use reading and writing skills on a regular basis becoming the most learned of the community, and acting as a teacher of the Word. The point is that in an agricultural based economy, many would not have readily understood that studying the Scriptures and preparing the instructional diet of the community was true and hard labor, but Paul made it clear to Tim that it was exactly that when performed diligently.

Perhaps the issue for “double honor” was that other elders were not demanded to put the time into the arduous labors, but performed other labors in overseeing the congregations. We cannot be sure. At the same time, it may be that the real issue was that people knew these men had “day jobs” and were gainfully employed, and could not see giving them support in addition to their other income when so many needy in the community existed. Why give to the man who is preparing Bible study sessions when there are so many POOR that could use a good meal, or a little help? That seemed like a reasonable question.

In the end, God’s Word on the matter was this: take care of them. He said: “I provided for Levites and Priests in the atonement system of Israel by gifts and offerings of the Jewish people. They also worked in their own fields, many of them, but that didn’t mean God didn’t want them to have the support of the people.” In that way, God said, even if the men have work and an income, they are worthy of double repatriation (once from their day labor and again from their Word labors). This allowed the families of these men to be compensated for the hours of labor they would work “over and above” the menial work day.

“Tim needed to learn that those among his men who were charged with preparing God’s Word were doing an important work, and he was to acknowledge them in it.”

I have noticed in my time in ministry that there are many believers who DO NOT TRULY VALUE the Word of God in their lives. In individuals, the most obvious way to spot this phenomenon is when they look at you quizzically because you mention that you are daily in God’s Word. I have met people who are a regular part of a Gospel preaching church that don’t own or open a Bible. They feel it is the preacher’s job to know it, and claim they will give him a call if they ever have an issue. When I ask if they have ever called on him for that purpose, they shrug their shoulders. It is as if life isn’t all that informed by the Bible. I know of a number of churches that give scores of hours to labors among the poor with little regard for growing adept in handling the Word of God.

Men and women, the work among the poor is essential, that is sure. The neediest among us are God’s opportunity to extend His hands of care through us. At the same time, a church that grows away from the Word will move begin serving with Spirit-led help of hurting people, but quickly find themselves opening exposure to serious emotional and spiritual challenges without the resources and parameters of the Word of God.

Second, Paul called on Tim to make clear AFFIRMATION of his belief in the men leading the church.

Beyond acknowledging the value of the work in the Word, Paul instructed Tim to be careful about his emotional support for the men. He said: 1 Timothy 5:19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.

The sin nature of people and the nature of spiritual warfare combined with the sensitive nature of the work in people’s lives left men in ministry dangerously open to accusation. Some men would fail their Lord in purity matters. The enemy uses one true story to raise doubt in twenty false accusations. Add to that, some people would even honestly misread the attention received by ministry personnel, causing hurt feelings and raising questions about their integrity. In the years I have been in ministry, I have seen all of these develop.

What Paul told Tim was to make the standard of accusation high, in order to express affirmation to the men. Remember, Tim KNEW these men. He met with them all the time, and coached them. That didn’t guarantee they were not wandering into sin, but it did mean that he was involved and checking on them spiritually as regularly as necessary to help them walk uprightly. Paul knew that when a leader doesn’t show support for his team members, they lose heart. Even though men and women constantly fight their sin nature, God didn’t want them to serve under undue suspicion and lack of adequate support by their team leader. Even leaders need to be affirmed and trusted, if they have walked in a way to earn that trust. No one should get blamed for the acts of others simply because they hold the same post.

Third, Paul then balanced the need for affirmation with the requirement for ACCOUNTABILITY.

Note the words in 1 Timothy 5:20 “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.”

People have always needed to be able to trust the integrity of the men who serve Jesus by serving them. There is no sense in which they will be regarded as flawless, but they should be keeping themselves well inside God’s revealed borders for life. Men that do not must be held accountable. I am stunned by the number of men in ministry that have been discovered in violation to their sacred walk that have been left to continue. Some feel it is not good for the church to make clear the violation – but that is not the truth. Note that Paul says the men he is referring to are CONTINUING in sin, after they have been privately confronted. When men do not humbly repent in private, they must be dealt with in public for the good of the body of Messiah.

Obviously, whether in private initially or in public eventually, sin in leaders is a serious matter that cannot be ignored. It is true that sin requires repentance, and dealing with the repentant always requires grace. We dare not make those who fall into sin and now are contrite and vulnerable feel as though they are beyond God’s mercy and love. At the same time, the standards are higher for leaders, and they know that when they enter public ministry. I chuckle when I read articles about how obtuse leaders can be, because I see myself as one of these deeply flawed vessels. In Leadership magazine, Dave Wilkinson wrote the following to pastors…

Have you ever wondered why your pastoral resume doesn’t evoke more enthusiasm? Do you ever think, “What are these people looking for?” Perhaps the question should be, “What aren’t they looking for?” because with the numbers of applications pastor nominating committees receive, their first task is to eliminate applicants. Here, then, as a public service, are statements certain to stop a resume dead in its tracks.

• “I believe empathy is overrated.” •
• “In the five churches I have faithfully served over the past two years …”
• “My hobbies are pit bulls and automatic weapons.”
• “I am willing to sacrifice my family for the sake of the ministry. I am also willing to sacrifice yours.”
• “I have learned to cope with financial crisis at every church I’ve served.”
• “I require an attractive secretary and/or organist.”
• “My extensive counseling of church members has proved a rich source of pointed sermon illustrations.”
• “I’ve been told that every sermon I preach is better than the next.”
• “My personality has provided me ample opportunity to develop conflict-resolution skills.” [Resume Stoppers, Citation: Dave Wilkinson, Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 1.]

How does this apply to the larger picture of leadership? Timothy had to find mechanisms to measure the effort, effectiveness and diligence of the men under his charge. We do no favor to men if we allow them to be lazy in ministry and not correct their behavior. It is uncomfortable, but essential. If you promote everyone regardless of their effort and effectiveness, you kill productivity. If you overlook undisciplined behavior, you encourage sinful developments.

At the same time, it is easy to overreact to accusations and quickly allow stories to be accepted as TRUTH. Let me caution you about this as it regards media ministers. I don’t always like what I hear from men in ministry when they appear before the cameras. At the same time, we need to be careful, because modern media is a FILTERED venue. The interview can be clipped, and the intent of a statement changed or contorted. When Paul told Tim to be careful about accepting too quickly accusations, he used some interesting language. The word accusation: “katagoria”: literally from kata: around, down from and “agora” the market. It meant a charge list from the “word on the street” from the marketplace. How often do we quickly believe a Facebook post of an article excerpted from an interview? If people would stop and ask the speaker to clarify before reposting, that would at least show some effort.

Note that not EVERY BELIEVER was to make it their job to rebuke the elders. The term elenghko means to call attention to, to chasten. This was the work of Tim as their supervisor, not as someone who just dropped in for a visit. One of the things that really puts a smile on my face are some of the things Pastors hear about their work…

One pastor said that the following have been said to him about his sermons (and I had to clip it out):

• “You always manage to find something to fill up the time.”
• “I don’t care what they say, I like your sermons.”
• “If I’d known you were going to be good today I’d have brought a neighbor.”
• “Did you know there are 243 panes of glass in the windows?”
• “We shouldn’t make you preach so often.”
• One of my personal favorites; was when someone told me, “Preacher that wasn’t half bad.”

Be those words as they are, the principle is still true – Leaders need accountability.

Ultimately, WE HONOR OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS BY TREATING THEM FAIRLY. We watch and we listen, but we expect evidence to believe something that is damaging to them. Be careful! Do not jump to conclusions based on what someone tells you. The formula, “I want to think well of you, but I have this report and I want to be sure that we are walking together properly…”

The rest of the passage unfolds some COMMON DANGERS and PITFALLS that Tim needed to be aware of if he wanted to lead the other elders well.

Paul included four temptation areas that Tim needed to guard against:

First, there was a temptation to miss a BLINDING BIAS. Paul warned: “Keep the standard impartially.” (5:21)

5:21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.

The term bias was prokrimatos which is taken from two words – “before” and “judge”. Simply put, it meant “Do not PREJUDGE”.

Bias is damaging and dangerous. You can’t tell by the cover! During the preparations for an evangelistic crusade in Latin America, a very poor, unshaven man came to one of the week-long biblical counseling courses. It was unusual to see a man of this condition attending an in-depth training session. Most often, those with a better education and social standing are the ones who take an active role in this type of intensive preparation. The illiterate man attended every class, but those in leadership didn’t expect him to do much counseling. Several weeks later, all of the available counselors were busy when a physician walked in. This shabbily dressed man immediately greeted the doctor and took him into a room for counseling. Once the director discovered what had happened, he became deeply concerned. When the doctor came out, the director asked if he needed any help. The physician replied, “No, thank you. This fellow has helped me very much.” The next day that same doctor showed up with two other colleagues and asked to see the shoeless man. By the end of the week, that illiterate man had led four doctors and their wives to Christ. God needs nothing more than available servants. Christian Reader, Sept./Oct. 1991, p. 61

Paul said to Timothy, “HONOR YOUR GROUP LEADERS BY EXPECTING THEM TO ACT WITH INTEGRITY.” Don’t skip over bad behavior, and don’t give them a pass in acting rightly. It might sound odd to place an expectation on our leaders to live consistently and call that an honor but it really does honor our leaders. Integrity means that a person’s private life and public life are consistent, that the leader is seeking to live a lifestyle that reflects the values of Jesus. A person with integrity is brutally honest about his or her shortcomings and failures, but they’re not content to stay there. They want to grow, to move forward, even while being honest with where they fall short.

One writer said it this way: “Leaders are to be examples to God’s people of the beauty of virtue. But when they fail, they become examples of the ugliness of sin. So when a leader sins, it becomes a very serious concern for the church. The church must face up squarely to the fact that the one who was expected to be a model of godliness has become just the opposite, so he must be rebuked in front of those to whom he was a poor example. What an awesome responsibility leadership is!

I appreciate the words of Ray Stedman: “Timothy might well have felt inadequate, but notice whom the apostle summons to his aid, whom he says is watching: “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels.” God the Father is involved. He is at.work in the congregation. He knows what is going on; nothing is hid from his eyes. Christ Jesus, Lord of the church, head of the body, is present also. Jesus can work from within. He can touch men’s consciences; he can get at their hearts. And the elect angels are involved, these personages whom the book of Hebrews tells us are as “ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation,” {Heb 1:14 KJV}. I do not know exactly what these angels do, but it is very important and significant. Paul tells Timothy not to be intimidated. If it requires action, act — patiently, lovingly, thoughtfully, carefully — but act.” (Though Ray is with His Savior, you can still be blessed by his Bible teaching at www.RayStedman.org).

And so must any good leader. We are called to make sure those under our care are acting as they should be. If they aren’t and we “overlook them because of a bias” we damage the whole organization and fail to lead as Jesus would have us.

Second, there was a warning about HASTE, a call to be patient and train the team members well before appointment (5:22).

1 Timothy 5:22 Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin

The act of “laying on of hands” is a symbolic placement of trust in and bestowal of office upon a man. Following the idea of judicial transfer established in the sacrificial system of the Hebrew Scriptures – a man could confer his sin to an animal – there was the idea that an office appointed by God in Heaven could be symbolized as conferred by men on earth. We don’t make Pastors, nor do we ordain men in the technical sense – God does. Just like a wedding is the physical symbol of a Heavenly made bonding, so the “laying on of hands” is a physical symbol of a spiritual act of God, who Alone calls His workers.

Paul told Tim to SLOW DOWN and take a good look at men BEFORE he conferred on them the public measure of endorsement. Failure to do so would allow the men’s sins to be cast against Tim as well. I am thankful to God that in my career I have been surrounded by men and women who have lifted me, and been an example to me! What grief comes from passing men to a congregation when they are clearly not equipped to lead them!

Third, Paul warned Tim about NEGLECT – in this case to his body. It is possible to ignore the vessel and over-engage.

I don’t think the work of ministry is somehow HARDER than other kinds of work. What I do believe is that ANY WORK performed well takes tenacity, particular energy on any undone task, and can allow you to become stressed out. At the same time, in PEOPLE WORK, it is possible to easily get torn up over the disappointments, and that appears to have been happening to Timothy. Paul wrote:

1 Timothy 5:23 No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

Tim needed to watch out that leaders in ministry did not get so absorbed in the work they did not use their head about caring for their body and their heart in a proper way!

I have often been reminded of this simple story: One New Year’s Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas. Let those who follow Jesus and lead others be warned. The lack is not in the resource, but in the appropriation of it.

Peter Drucker, the secular leadership guru of the 20th century, said: “A leader is one who has followers. An effective leader is not someone who is loved or admired. He is someone whose followers do the right thing. Popularity is not leadership, results are. Leaders are highly visible. They, therefore, set the example. Tim needed to look to his own body, so that he could teach others to look to theirs as well.”

Part of ministry should be about ENCOURAGING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE – mentally, emotionally and physically. I find great refreshment in learning – those who know me know that is true. I take courses all the time, because they stretch my mind, and help me stay sharp. For Timothy this meant taking wine for stomach issues – for other men it is something else. I like Ray Stedman’s comment: “In writing this, Paul very likely was reminded of something about Timothy that he felt needed correction. Timothy, evidently, was leaning too far toward total abstinence from wine. We know there was a lot of public drunkenness in Ephesus at that time. The reaction of almost all Christians to public drunkenness is, ’I don’t want anything to do with that.’ There has sprung up in the church a widespread attitude that the Christian position about drinking should be one of total abstinence; that no Christian ought to drink at all. But that completely sets aside the record of the Scriptures that our Lord drank wine, and so did the apostles. Paul is evidently warning Timothy about total abstinence, especially because it was affecting his health. Timothy had not taken a balanced position. Paul warns him, ’For your health’s sake, don’t do this.’”

I have taught on this subject before, and we don’t really have the time to go far with it here. The point I would stress is this: Don’t always assume the most radical position is somehow the most GODLY. Our behaviors need to be set by the Scriptures, not by the most austere monks of Christian society.

Fourth, Paul called Tim to be careful about MISJUDGMENT of those he appoints (5:24-25).

1 Timothy 5:24 The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after. 25 Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed.

Note the word evident in the last verse. The word prodayloi is a combination of “before” and “manifest” and means “open” or “obvious”. The fact is that it takes time and skill to recognize the hardest workers, the most valuable to the team, and those who are not accepting responsibility well. Look at both sides:

Learning to properly value them: “A gem dealer named Roy Whetstine was strolling the aisles at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show when he noticed a blue-violet stone the size and shape of a potato. He looked it over, then, as calmly as possible, asked the vendor, “You want $15 for this?” The seller, realizing the rock wasn’t as pretty as others in the bin, lowered the price to $10. The stone was subsequently report to be a 1,905-carat natural star sapphire, about 700 carats larger than the largest stone of its kind. It was appraised at $2.28 million, [but that was later challenged]. The bottom line price may never be known, but what is clear is that it is worth more than $10! (Adapted from Online Leadership Journal AOL, via Wanda Vassallo). Sometimes it is hard to tell the value of a diamond in the rough, or a gem that hasn’t been tumbled… and the same is true of ministry leaders.

Another reason Paul said that men must be more carefully watched over time was pointed out by Ray Stedman: “Some men are skillful at hiding sin. They appear to be very dedicated, committed people, but there is rotten evil in their hearts all the time. If you get into the habit of electing people to office or appointing them into some responsible position without giving time to observe them you will get into trouble. ’Time will tell,’ the world’s proverb says.

The truth is that some men get caught up in the trappings, before they show their character…A newly promoted colonel had moved into a makeshift office during the Gulf War. He was just getting unpacked when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a private with a toolbox coming his way. Wanting to seem important, he grabbed the phone: “Yes, General Schwartzkopf. Of course, I think that’s an excellent plan.” He continued: “You’ve got my support on it. Thanks for checking with me. Let’s touch base again soon, Norm. Goodbye.” “And what can I do for you?” he asked the private. “Uhhh, I’m just here to hook up your phone.” From Leadership Journal, submitted by Ron Willoughby, Augusta, Georgia.

The fact is that ministry is designed as a TEAM SPORT. If we don’t take care of the team, we all lose…

Dealing with co-laborers in ministry takes special care and wisdom, but if done well it produces long term relationships that increase both the joy and productivity of ministry.

“The Overwhelming Power” – Galatians 5:14-26

driving down streetWhen you went out on the road this morning you probably didn’t observe some things in the world is around you that have a PROFOUND EFFECT on your day. On my drive each morning, I see neighbors walking their dogs (and a few dogs walking my neighbors!) Some people are manicuring their lawns, cutting, raking, cleaning, edging and the like. I may pass some joggers, bicycle enthusiasts and walkers who are out and about to exercise their bodies and get some fresh air. Driving down the road, I will no doubt encounter some of our world class Floridian drivers – people who seem to want to make the point that no one should put stress on the engine by actually depressing the gas pedal.

One of the interesting parts of that daily journey is that is MASKS a problem. You and I have encountered an issue so frequently along the way we may not even see it. We pass by unaware, because we have grown accustomed to the world around us. Here is a thought: Everyone driver you passed today was a DUI – “driving under the influence” of SOMETHING. Though each person got out of bed with their own idea about what they wanted to accomplish, they are, in fact, being “driven” by inner desires, ideas and influences that were pressing them to act on their plans for the day. According to the Bible, everyone is being driven by something. Most of the people we meet in the world are under the influence of their flesh – simply doing the things that make sense to them, because they are following a variety of hungers and desires the world would call “natural”. Of course, a significant problem with that “natural” view is that it underestimates and even ignores the truth that after the Fall in the Garden, man’s nature was marred, and so were his natural desires. When the umbilical cord that connected the life flow of God’s Spirit in them was cut in an act of mutiny – a state was initiated that is referred to in the Bible as being “dead” in spirit – with no particular connection to their Creator. The Bible refers back to that time as the “fall of the flesh” and presents fallen man as alive in body, but estranged from God and His purposes.

If you look further into the Bible, it cautions that others around us – the vast majority – are equally dead in spirit, and have been placed under the domination of the “prince of the power of the air” – the enemy of the Creator. The Bible refers to these people as “under the world’s system” – a temporary state in which rebellion against God and reliance on self looks completely normal. In that system, God is a crutch made up by weaker men, while self-reliance is touted as maturity. When the Bible mentions things like “love not the world, nor the things in it” – this influence is being mentioned. We are not called to eschew cute puppies and force ourselves not to enjoy a sunset –that isn’t the “world” about which the Bible is speaking. The world system is a fallen system that operates in a perpetual state of rebellion that is so common and so entrenched, it looks completely normal this side of the Garden of Eden’s mutiny.

Look even deeper, and you will find religious people who are “under the influence of the law” – deeply committed to their daily actions because of something they believe to be the “right thing to do” (moral and religious obligation), in spite of the fact that they have no real attachment to their Creator or His purpose for them. These are people who follow the tradition of their religion and hope God thinks they are fine because they are faithful to that tradition. Their religion brings them comfort in this life, even if it has no effect on the next. God doesn’t offer truth, then put value on the shades of false thinking. He sent His Son to provide a bridge to God, and because of that is not particularly open to other ways people are trying to erect their own bridge. Every religious effort is an attempt to cross the chasm of separation in a way that ignores God’s sacrifice – another expression of rebellious self-reliance. Still, many are being driven by an influence of religious fervor – especially if you drive on Sunday morning.

In contrast, there are a few (and on Sunday morning perhaps more people than usual) that the Bible says are being led through life under the dominating influence of God’s Spirit. Their lives are reflecting the fruit of the connection to God. Today we want to move in close and see how they do that, and discover how our own lives can be pulled into that way of living. We want to talk about people who are ‘DOMINATED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD’. Even more, we want to examine what the critical differences are between followers of Jesus who are walking in God’s power, and those who began a journey with Jesus, but are now walking in the power of the flesh.

Let’s review two truths we have seen many times, just to make sure we are on the “same page”:

• First, there are two kinds of people in the world – those who know God, and those who need to know Him. We mean by this there are those who have a personal relationship with God through Jesus, and there are those God desires to come to that place.

• Second, there are two kinds of believers in the world – those who are honestly attempting to allow God’s Spirit to dominate their thinking and actions, and those who need to start or re-start doing that. By this, we mean that there are those in relationship with Jesus who are not allowing God’s Spirit to direct them, but are making their own choices of direction in daily life. They know Jesus as Savior, but they don’t let Him control their goals, choices, etc. because they claim the position of their own lordship in relation to their choices.

Cutting through all the clutter, it seems the defining difference between the two believers is really one issue – their effort to surrender or their choice to keep leading themselves. The last portion of Galatians 5 deals with that in succinct terms.

Key Principle: The mature believer isn’t interested in trying to do what doesn’t honor the Savior in the name of freedom, but learns to let the empowering of the Spirit bear the fruit of the Spirit.

In our series on “myths” of the Gospel – popular sentiments that are NOT true, there is an eleventh myth that keeps “popping up” in daily life…

Myth #11: The Law is simply now to love! All that detail does you no good, because it all has been distilled in Jesus to “Love your Neighbor”.

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the [statement], “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Did Jesus really wipe out any need for me to deliberately make efforts to deal with my daily walk before God? Some people think so. The pop version of Christian freedom seems to be that we can choose to do whatever we want as a child of God – because Jesus took away all moral obligation to DO anything to be pleasing to God. Here is the problem: Jesus provided “JUDICIAL SATISFACTION” for our sin, paying completely for all of it. For the follower of Jesus who has placed his or her faith in Christ alone for salvation, we don’t get into Heaven through any effort we make on any level. Our door pass was completely made possible by Jesus and His sacrifice. The problem is, many believers stop thinking clearly at that point. Entry to God’s Kingdom m ay be fully paid, but the New Testament makes clear that our entrance brings with it the expectation of behaviors appropriate to the new house and new family to which we now belong. Look at Paul’s instruction to the Galatian believers:

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

The question behind the statement

Paul opens with a response to a simple question: “What is the full purpose of our freedom in Christ?” Was the relationship to God through Jesus’ sacrifice ONLY about our eternal destiny as individuals, or does it have implications in our lifestyle, practices, choices and behaviors today?

Paul argued in the first part of the chapter that the point of the Law of God in the Torah was not for God’s people to destroy one another by consuming each other in the arguments over the Law. He added in this section another truth – the point of freedom from the atonement law was not in order for us to spend our time and resources on ourselves. It was costly and time consuming to obey the Torah standards that marked atonement law. Without the need to raise a lamb for sacrifice, without the requirement to go before God with constant sin offerings – religious life just got a whole lot simpler and cheaper. The problem is, that isn’t true. God still wanted His people to look to Him for direction on everything they did, and everything they owned. Failure to do so was, in effect, adopting standards without the objective they were ever intended to produce. Freedom was given to produce a community of God-loving and God-fearing people! Freedom was to give people a new way to serve God – by serving each other! Paul continued:

Galatians 5:14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the [statement], “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

The Law was given for more than making one right before God – it was for community formation. It was to bring about peace, long life and deep relationships between people. Moses wrote as much in Deuteronomy 6, but many seemed to have forgotten that part. Harming one another was unlawful, unloving, and outside the character of one who truly wanted to serve God with all their heart. Paul made the point that even in freedom from the atonement law – the same is still true. God wants people who not only VALUE SALVATION but in daily practice VALUE EACH OTHER in relationship. He poured His own Holy Spirit within us to make the practical standards of walking with Him a matter of following the leading of that Spirit. Paul then made clear a warning: when we follow the Spirit, we do that which is unnatural to the fallen man and his flesh.

A spirit-filled life is a disciplined life – not a lazy “do what is natural” life. It is to behavioral choices what diet and exercise are to any one who desires to train for successful athletic performance. Though I am born of the Spirit, I have much of the value system of fallen man still coaching my thinking – and it must be dealt with by God’s Spirit through God’s Word. Flesh wars against spirit like a disciplined diet wars against a hungry stomach.

Here is the truth: I don’t WANT to discipline my life. I want to SLEEP IN when I should get up. I want to eat WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT – and let’s not even TALK about exercise. When you think about the Spirit-filled life, it ISN’T an excuse for laziness – but it is a battle against flesh thinking that CAN BE WON because the Spirit lives WITHIN ME! Look again at verse 16: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Obviously, walking by the Spirit is something that I CAN do, and something that can be measured by whether or not I am living “under the influence” of satiating the desires of the flesh.

“What is the Spirit-Filled Walk?”

Paul elsewhere makes the claim that “Now, the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty or freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:6, 17). He says that because the Spirit of the Lord is in us, we are now free to walk with Him without any constraints. We are free moral agents when it comes to pleasing God. We are released from allegiance to perpetual sin (Romans 6 makes this argument completely), and we are no longer compelled to walk according to the flesh as we were before the Spirit of God was planted inside us and God was completely satisfied with us having put on the righteousness found in Jesus.

First, note in verse sixteen that walking by the Spirit’s direction is not passive. The issue isn’t simply talking about walking in the Spirit, nor sitting in the Spirit – it is making my life choices form the pattern of a walk.

Second, note that walking by the Spirit is not running. It isn’t achieved through endless, exhausting activity. It isn’t about harder work for God so that we will become more spiritual.

Third, note in 5:17, that walking by God’s Spirit isn’t a license to indulge my leftover fallen natural desires. Paul could not have said it more clearly: 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

A lecturer was once invited to speak to a religion class at a private high school on the topic of Christianity. At the end of his talk, an athletic-looking, street-wise student raised his hand and asked, “Do you have a lot of don’t in your church?” Sensing that the student had a deeper motive, he answered, “What you really want to ask me is if we have any freedom, right?” Yes, he nodded. “Sure, I’m free to do whatever I want to do,” he answered. The student’s face reflected his disbelief at what the man said. “I’m free to rob a bank. But I’m mature enough to realize that I would be in bondage to that act for the rest of my life. I’d have to cover up my crime, go into hiding or eventually pay for what I did. I’m also free to tell a lie. But if I do, I have to keep telling it and I have to remember who I told it to and how I told it or I will get caught. I’m free to do drugs, abuse alcohol and live a sexually immoral life-style. All of those “freedoms” lead to bondage. I’m free to make those choices, but considering the consequences, would you really be free?”

Were I speaking to that student, I think I would have continued to make yet one more point. The issue of freedom is that I can now PLEASE GOD in my daily choices, and that is something a mature believer should HUNGER TO DO. Babies care about themselves to the exclusion of others. They cry when they are hungry to get you to FEED THEM. They fuss about a wet diaper because they don’t have the ability to relieve the discomfort without your help. All of us get older, and some of us GROW UP. “Growing up” literally means “seeing past MY NEEDS” and looking to the benefit of others. Mature believers grow up and see the benefit of pleasing God as its own purpose, and its own reward.

Fourth, if you look closely at 5:18, it is clear that walking by the Spirit isn’t simply mimicking the laws God gave in the past. In fact, it is more complex than that. Walking by the Spirit is accomplished when I recognize the principles behind God’s laws of the past – identifying what God really cared about in each situation. Paul said: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law” for at least two reasons:

1. People from Judea were telling them the way to walk with God was to walk in the Law – but that was short-sighted. The issue wasn’t simply: “What did God say to the Jewish followers of the past” – but the much more complex “What does an unchanging God truly care about” as revealed in those past situations. The new situations of people as they spread across the globe would have pulled the Law apart. After all, it wasn’t possible by the time of Paul for EVERY JEW to go to Jerusalem three times a year from everywhere they lived, in spite of Deuteronomy 16:16. It isn’t possible to keep a sacrifice without a Temple – so parts of the Law were forcibly suspended by circumstance.

2. The freedom of following God is found in the insertion of His Divine standards inside the human heart, and God uses inner transformation as the modus operandi of the whole New Covenant, just like He promised Israel in Jeremiah 31. We have a LAW WITHIN, and the Spirit whispers it into the ear of every submissive son or daughter of God. With the whisper, comes the empowering to be transformed. That is a BETTER PLAN! Telling someone that it’s wrong to do this or that doesn’t give them the power to stop doing it!

The War Within

Look at the WAR WITHIN YOU as a believer for a minute. In Galatians 5:19-21, God makes clear the works of the flesh are all ABOUT ME taking care of ME (at least my perceived needs). Here we have a list of fifteen deeds we can be drawn into – all of which displease God and enslave us:

Immorality: porneia; illicit sexual activity or intercourse, or essentially using body for self-pleasure without regard to the proper use of the gift of sexuality.

Impurity: akatharsia; uncleansed living, living with unbridled desires that are not corrected. Thisn is literally about living in a withdrawn state from God, because you refuse to yield to His cleansing and have the relationship restored. It is hiding in guilt and isolation from God, because you don’t want to stop doing what you are doing.

One of the shocking things about the day in which we live is the arrogance, sheer aggressiveness and verbosity of those walking in sinful practices…There is an old story about how a mountain lion felt so good after eating an entire bull, he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter tracked the sound and shot him… The moral of that story: When you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

Sensuality: aselgia; shameless hungers for self-fulfillment. We see this in people who openly make life about their pleasure and walk about thinking that way of seeing life is fine with God! Today, a great many Christians are in fact, sensual thinkers.

Idolatry: idolateria; things pertaining to idols or unbridled desire for money. Anything that comes between you and a relationship of intimacy with God is considered an idol.

Sorcery: farmakia; the use of anesthetizing drugs or “highs” from them. This is a byproduct of the immature person who needs to feel good constantly without regard for the effects of their behavior on themselves or others.

Enmities: echthros; someone openly hostile and energized by deep-seated hatred. It implies irreconcilable hostility, with actions prompted by envy or hatred.

Strife: eris; wrangling and dissention. This is the notion that causing troubles between people will reposition me into a better place in the relationship with one of them.

Jealousy: zélos; to want what has not been granted to you. We involve ourselves in this when we obsess over things that we don’t possess that others seem to have.

Outbursts of anger: thoomus; boiling over passionate lashing out verbally or physically. We buy into this when we claim to be a victim of our own emotions, as in: “It’s not my fault, they all make me so mad!”

Disputes: erithia; electioneering, manipulation for personal gain. This is using people so that we can get what we want out of them, without regard for their intrinsic value.

Dissensions: dikhosetia; to force a wedge between to divide.

Factions: haheresis; factions like Pharisees or Sadducees that operated to undercut each other without regard to those wounded in the process. It is what happens when we believe our point is more important than the other person is!

Envying: fthonos; to plot the downfall because of jealousy. This is a product of jealousy, with the mixture of revenge, as in: “You are going down sister!”

Drunkenness: methay; intoxication. This is a life that buys into a lie that “I can’t face my problems” and settles for the dulling effects.

Carousing: komos; from the Bacchus festival; late night revelries that include boisterous displays. This is a demonstration of the modern epicurean motto: “Life is short and I want to have as much fun as I can!”

All of these items are about ME. MY PLEASURE. MY HAPPINESS. MY STATISFACTION. MY NEEDS. MY WANTS… and they stand in direct contrast to the “other person centered” lifestyle taught in the Scriptures.

I want to be very clear so that you will be equipped to understand the changing sounds in the world around you. As Biblical influence wanes in our society, the understanding of maturity and adulthood is also changing. What the Bible makes clear as “infantile behavior” the world will increasingly laud as “adult behavior”. Here are places you will see this trend:

• Youths cannot be denied their desire to have sex when they feel it is appropriate. God’s Word: It isn’t right unless it is within the context God says it is supposed to happen, period. Any other approach will rob the picture of intimacy, break the proper bonds of the family, and add disease, weakness and affliction to our society. Both physical health and mental health needs will increase.

• Advertising everything with sensual and sexual overtones is increasingly thought of as both “appropriate and normal”. There are commercials for everything from fragrances to underwear that would have been deemed pornographic just a short time ago.

• Competitors are routinely stealing blue prints, formulas and even whole product lines as it begins to sound like the “rough and tumble of today’s business”. Really? We used to call it “theft”.

• Lie to people to get them to buy into your legislation. Some people will call it “smart politics”. We used to call it simply “telling lies”.

• When people include beer bashes as a “natural part” of college life, they surrender the argument that adulthood is about building controls on your own away from parents.

Note the end of this selfish shopping list. Paul wrote at the end of 5:21: “…which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Look at those words. Paul claimed that ACTIONS AND BEHAVIORS could show the reality of a person’s true walk with God. Today’s American Christian all too often wants nothing to do with that kind of thinking. In a world centered on individual rights and liberties almost to the exclusion of community responsibility, this is foreign thinking. This shocking claim is that there is, in fact, a connection between how I live and whether or not I truly belong to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Let that soak in for a moment. Paul actually claims that people who truly have Jesus as their Savior make choices to walk a different path than they had when they came to Christ.

The Bible teacher inside me won’t let this go without a question: Is that true of YOUR LIFE? Are you consciously asking God to help you walk differently than you did in your old life choices before you knew Jesus?

A Fresh Wind

At this point in the letter, Paul lifts up the readers. He reminds them that God imparted His Spirit to us, and give us a breath of fresh air in the reminder of God’s work in us. He offered a picture of the life “produce” of one dominated by the Spirit of God:

Galatians 5:2 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Paul reminded the Galatians that following the Spirit wouldn’t put them in conflict with the Law of God – it would help them see the principles of that Law clearly. Look at the nine fruits that are perhaps quite familiar to Bible students:

Love: agape; acting to meet needs of others without expectation of personal benefit.

Joy: kharah; the resolute assurance of God’s recognition.

Peace: iraynay; confident rest in God’s promises.

Patience: makrothumia; distant boiling. A transportation safety report suggests that the annual cost of people running red lights in the United States is reported to be about seven billion dollars. The average amount of time saved by running a red light is. 50 seconds.

Kindness: kray-stot-ace; akin to moral integrity; comes from a potter’s word for in “usable” condition.

Goodness: agathós – inherently (intrinsically) good; as to the believer, the term describes what originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith.

Faithfulness: pistis; living by the vision of what God says is true, a Biblical world view. Norman Geisler, as a child, went to a VBS because he was invited by some neighbor children. He went back to the same church for Sunday School classes for 400 Sundays. Each week he was faithfully picked up by a bus driver. Week after week he attended church, but never made a commitment to Christ. Finally, during his senior year in High School, after being picked up for church over 400 times, he did commit his life to Christ. What if that bus driver had given up on Geisler at 395? What if the bus driver had said, “This kid is going nowhere spiritually, why waste any more time on him?” Max Lucado, God Came Near, Multnomah Press, 1987, p. 133.

Gentleness: pra-ootace; mild disposition, meekness (or “gentle strength”) which expresses power with reserve and measure.

Self-control: engratia; mastered one’s own desires. Plato used the term as “self-mastery”. It is the spirit which has mastered its desires and its love of pleasure. It is used of the athlete’s discipline of his body (1 Corinthians 9:25) and of the Christian’s mastery of sex (1 Corinthians 7:9). Secular Greek uses it of the virtue of an Emperor who never lets his private interests influence the government of his people. It is the virtue which makes a man so master of himself that he is fit to be the servant of others. (William Barclay). He further states: Self-control is that great quality which comes to a man when Christ is in his heart, that quality which makes him able to live and to walk in the world, and yet to keep his garments unspotted from the world. It is akin to Proverbs 25:28 (GWT) “Like a city broken into is a person who lacks self-control,left without a wall”. John Maxwell writes: “In reading about the lives of great people, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves.” There was an office sign that read: “If you could kick the person responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn’t be able to sit for a week.” Former Tonight Show host Jack Paar stated: Looking back, my life seems to be one long obstacle course, with me as the chief obstacle.

The Antidote Offers Healing

Look at these words of Scripture from Galatians 5. 24 “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Paul makes the BOLD CLAIM through the Spirit’s initiation of the text claiming: If we truly belong to Jesus, He has provided in HIS BLOOD the empowering to DIE TO SELF. One man’s blood injected righteousness and power to conquer the selfish fever.

Gordon Curley offered this story from the twentieth century that may help illustrate this point:

In 1927, in West Africa, a blood specimen was taken from a native man named Asibi, who was sick with yellow fever. A vaccine was made from the original strain of virus obtained from this man. In fact, all the vaccine manufactured since 1927 by the Rockefeller Foundation and health agencies derives from the original strain of virus obtained from this one man. Carried down to the present day from one laboratory to another, through repeated cultures and by enormous multiplication, it has offered immunity to yellow fever to millions of people in many countries. Through the creative imagination of science, the blood of this one man in West Africa has been made available to serve the whole human race. In another, more important way, the blood of another Man has been made to serve the human race.”

Here is the truth: You don’t have to serve the flesh, you have been injected with Jesus and His Spirit. Now the real question… What will you DO with that information?

The mature believer isn’t interested in trying to do what doesn’t honor the Savior in the name of freedom, but learns to let the empowering of the Spirit bear the fruit of the Spirit.

“Finding Freedom” – Galatians 5:1-13

flagWhat does it REALLY mean to be FREE? The flag of the United States of America has been for generations a symbol of freedom all over the world. Its vibrant colors signify a land where a small group of men realized their dream for a government that has protected freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press as sacrosanct ideals. Those men prized these human freedoms so much that many were bankrupted or died defending them. Oddly enough, in the long history of man, there is no record before their document that recorded them all as God-given rights before the one penned by them. No one thought, in the ions of the past, those simple but vital freedoms were worth enshrining in a document, until this group of gentlemen farmers, shop keepers and tradesmen sat together to form a government that offered a profound statement of man’s best intentions.

No sensible person would argue that these freedoms were not costly. At the same time, no thinking man or woman would deny these freedoms aren’t absolute – they have limits. I may have free speech, but I cannot yell, “Fire!” in a public place no fire exists. I will be arrested if I claim to possess a bomb on a plane (even if there is no such device). Why is my free speech curtailed? The simple answer is that it is reined in by well-placed and defined limits. True freedom provides civil society protections by limiting personal freedoms only when failure to do so will cause significant harm to others. I have the right to disagree with you, but not to cheat you and swindle you out of your money. I have the right to articulate a contentious position, but not to alter the facts before a court of law or the Congress of the United States. At the same time, it is worth noting that civil freedom isn’t the only realm in which freedom must be carefully defined.

Freedom has limits, and freedom has rules. Freedom is not a “free for all” in behavior, but rather a state or environment that is made safe by appropriate limits. In fact, I want to make an observation. I believe that no one can successfully navigate the tough circumstances of life if they don’t recognize that freedom has limits and rules, and we must learn to act within appropriate guidelines. We need to both learn the appropriate ground rules for interpersonal relationships, and regularly have a loving person hold us accountable for our actions. Today’s redefinition of LOVE as TOLERANCE OF ALL BEHAVIOR is as weak as yesterday’s definition of LOVE as LUST – so frequently stated on the radio of my youth. This fad will perhaps fade, but its thinking is enslaving the current generation into a kind of politically correct speech, while their uncivil behavior astoundingly increases but goes almost unabated. We need instruction, and we need correction. The Bible defines freedom, and it makes clear how people who are free should use their liberty – especially that spiritual liberty found in Christ!

Key Principle: True freedom is found in intimate attachment to God initiated by faith in Christ alone, and lived out by careful diligence in following God’s Spirit.

Because freedom in Christ isn’t a trip to Outback with their famous motto: “no rules” – we must challenge a spirit permeating the theology of the twenty-first century American church. There is a serious error that has been allowed to grow in our most hallowed halls, and some of it seems to stem from a misreading and misapplication of Galatians. It can be found in the misunderstanding of Paul’s words at the beginning of Galatians 5 – it “was for the sake of FREEDOM that Christ set us free!” Yet, what he meant by this claim may NOT be what people use the statement to justify!

Paul made clear that Christ offered justification and freedom from the atonement system’s bondage of continuous sacrifice – but it did not mean that believers were to devolve into undisciplined or loose living. To grasp his argument, we have to tear down some mythology, and then see what God really wanted us to become as a result of the truths about freedom He uncovered for us. Let’s start with a myth that keeps popping up, as we lay to rest for one last time what Paul was, and was NOT saying about keeping the Law.

Myth #10: The Law is worthless (circumcision, etc.) because no one can keep it! If you break one law, it is as though you broke them all – so Jesus made it all pointless.

No matter where I go, I find people that use the verses at the beginning of Galatians 5 to justify practices that have little or nothing to do with Paul’s argument. He wrote:

5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Before we go any further, let me say it clearly. Paul NEVER made this statement to justify ANY behavior that was morally forbidden in Scripture. Jesus didn’t free us from the expectation before God that our walk of life would include immoral behavior, lying, cheating, stealing, disrespect of authority, immodesty, etc. For illustration purposes, you can see this kind of thinking in places like www.christianswingers.com, where you will be able to read:

Christian Swingers – New Dating Site For Faithful Couples: For Christian Swingers things are not easy – often other religious people judge you, out of ignorance or envy, telling you that your lifestyle and love practices are wrong. But the Bible teaches us ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’ and there’s that verse about the first stone… but if you’re keen on keeping your privacy, well – yours, and don’t want your friends, coworkers, other PTA members or just about anyone else to know that you don’t have a problem with faith and enjoying free love with other couples, this site can help you! It’s designed to cater to the needs of those like you: devout Christian couples who still want to have an active love life and share it with another, in good faith! … Visit our club and discover other Christian couples with the same interests and desires who find you hot – Christian Swingers website will make your life easier and give you more access to potential dating partners!

Again, let me be clear. There is Christian, there is love and there is freedom – but what these folks are talking about is neither free, nor Christian (Jesus didn’t authorize a brothel nor visit one), nor is it love – it is spelled L-U-S-T. I know some of you may think this is a hoax, and that I am being extreme, but I assure you the changes that are happening are very real all around us, and the resistance of the church is growing extremely thin.

Let’s get back to Scripture in Galatians 5:

2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. 7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion [did] not [come] from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough]. 10 I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. 12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. 13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

We have carefully explored the argument in the letter, whereby Paul reasoned that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross alone provided the means to satisfy God and the old atonement system was finished and replaced. The freedom Paul spoke of in that context was NOT from RULES OF THE BIBLE. But we do have to answer some questions:

What WAS the issue?

The entire argument of Galatians has been about the “formula of salvation”, not a manifesto to get Jews to quit doing things God told them to do perpetually. Paul said, on the basis of everything we have seen (in Galatians 1-4), you should throw out those who are trying to place you under the thumb of the old atonement system (as he said at the end of Galatians 4) and take a stand (stay’-ko – stand fast, persevere) in the cancellation of the obligation (the word “free” is eleutheróō – properly to be released from obligation or restriction) to the atonement law and those who run it in the Temple of Jerusalem. In short, Paul said, drop them, and don’t feel any obligation to their beckoning to become enslaved by them or their teachings.

Paul moved on from his “drop them” to one final and clear statement about the defunct atonement system, He said:

5:2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Obviously, Paul didn’t want Galatian Gentiles to start getting circumcised. Why would circumcision (something God commanded Jews to do as a prerequisite for a walk with Him) suddenly hinder the work of Christ in the Galatians? Essentially, there are two reasons. First, God didn’t tell GENTILES to do it, and second, if they started into the old and defunct system to please God, they would be drawn from the right way to satisfy God.

Imagine for a moment you are out west in a remote area. The last gas station you saw was more than an hour ago. You are on remote and winding mountain roads. The signs along the road are shot through with shotgun holes. The whitened skull of a bull is lying beside the road with the horns sticking out. As you drive, you pass over one old bridge after another – what appears to be the work of Roosevelt’s WPA. There have been only slight repairs for years. As you come upon a curve, you see a fork in the road. The left side of the fork is blocked with old and deteriorating barricades. The right side of the fork is open for “traffic”, but you are the only one you have seen along this road since you got on it. The closed side of the fork leads to the old main road, but was closed by the severing of a bridge that happened years before. The right side was the newer road, and it was open and safe to connect you to your destination… Now suppose you were being waved past the barriers into the broken road by someone who wanted to call you down the road to the broken highway, so that their gang could overtake you and get the benefit of your half tank of gas and the food items in your trunk. That was the argument Paul was making.

What the issue WAS NOT (but people try to say it is!):

It is clear that Paul was speaking about “salvation” or “justification” and not lifestyle issues after salvation (what theologians call “sanctification” issues). In 5:3, Paul makes a reference of circumcision as the “entry point” of the system of laws found in the Torah. Was he saying that circumcision was not appropriate for any believer because it forced the circumcised one into the keeping of the Law, be he Jew or Gentile? If that verse stood alone, or if it gets quoted alone in an article or theological statement it could easily seem that way – but I would argue that is NOT what he is saying at all. In fact, if you keep reading, it becomes clear that Paul was concerned NOT about the practice of circumcision (something he has done to Timothy AFTER he led him to Christ for salvation (Acts 16:1-3), but about the ISSUE OF JUSTIFICATION, as he makes clear in 5:4.

Let me be exacting in this: Paul wasn’t destroying the value of a symbol of circumcision that God told Jews to do for all their generations” (Genesis 17:12) at all. He was making clear that circumcision has ABSOLUTELY NO VALUE in the cause of satisfying God concerning a man’s fallen condition, nor did the entire atonement system to which it belonged. In other words, Paul said circumcision had NO EFFECT on anyone’s acceptance before God because of the full cleansing through faith in Jesus that replaced the former atonement system. I DON’T NEED circumcision to be saved, and nor does my Jewish neighbor. At the same time, if my Jewish neighbor trusts Christ and stands in that alone for salvation, he is not exempted from doing those things God called on his people to do “for all their generations” if he cares about being obedient to God’s Holy Word. He doesn’t keep Sabbath or get circumcised to be saved – he does those things God told his people to do BECAUSE he is saved and wants to honor the unique place God gave His people for all their generations, looking to a future time when God will turn His eyes back to that nation. Along with that, he doesn’t try to get those (i.e. Gentiles) who WEREN’T born under those commands of obedience to START keeping them.

Paul’s distinction is clear: Jesus alone saves. After salvation, it matters WHAT YOUR IDENTITY WAS WHEN you were saved as to HOW YOU SHOULD WALK. Sanctification is dependent upon God’s assignment to you in your birth identity. How do I know? Paul made it clear in 1 Corinthians 7:

1 Corinthians 7:17 Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. 18 Was any man called [when he was already] circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but [what matters is] the keeping of the commandments of God. 20 Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called.

The distinction between those who were called to salvation in Christ as Gentiles and those who were called to salvation in Christ as Jews was to be maintained after salvation in daily life. Jews and Gentiles became ONE in Messiah’s salvation, but they were as distinct in lifestyle as bondmen and free men, as men and women. Each had restrictions and parameters of service, and these were determined by where God placed them in society when they came to Christ. In a unique distinction from the others on the list, bondmen (slaves) were encouraged to take advantage of any legal way to change their estate if an opportunity was presented (1 Corinthians 7:21).

As a result of all this detail, what we know is that Paul was arguing that circumcision has no effect on salvation whatsoever, regardless of WHO you are, where you come from, or what your background has been. At the same time, Paul wasn’t trying to get Jews to STOP following these commands of God to the Jewish people. The book of Acts makes clear that Paul was concerned that people who thought such things about him be corrected by a public display. Do you recall the scene? Paul returned from his third mission journey. He arrived in Jerusalem, and the believers were EXCITED, but there was a murmur in the room. Let me remind you of the story from Acts 21, as Dr. Luke, the writer, reminds us:

Acts 21:17 After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. 18 And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. 19 After he had greeted them, he [began] to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 And when they heard it they [began] glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law; 21 and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. 22 “What, then, is [to be done]? They will certainly hear that you have come.

Paul didn’t defend that he was doing any such teaching – to get Jews to stop keeping the things God told them to do forever, but took a public vow to show THAT HE WAS NOT teaching Jews to stop circumcising. He was not saying “Jews are OUT and church is IN”. He was not exclaiming “Law BAD, grace GOOD.” He was NOT just placating Jewish sentiment for the sake of making them happy. If that is true, Paul was a political animal, not to be trusted because he wrote one thing to the Galatians, and lived the opposite before the Judeans. That isn’t Dr. Luke’s view, and that isn’t a true retelling of the story – but it IS the popular mythology in a great many church circles.

Look back at Galatians 5. Paul talked about JUSTIFICATION in 5:4, and connected it with CIRCUMCISION. Since circumcision started long before the atonement system was defined in the Torah, why did Paul connect circumcision with the sacrificial system?

To a Jew, circumcision was part of the sacrificial system.

It didn’t START there, but it eventually became indelibly linked to it. Some Bible students struggle to reconcile how the issue of circumcision has ANYTHING TO DO WITH the issue of sin satisfaction or atonement. They may have trouble making the connection in their mind that would not have been troubling for Paul, or any educated Jew. The reason is simple: In the sacrificial system, only circumcised people could fully participate. In places like Exodus 12 – the famous passage on the Passover, God said:

Exodus 12:48 “But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

During the days of the atonement system, the “ticket in” to be able to be a part of the Israelite system of sacrifice under the First Temple system was circumcision. By the time of the Second Temple (what many call the NT Period), there were two kinds of “proselytes” to Judaism – a proselyte of “righteousness” and a “proselytes of the gate”. The term “proselyte” is from an ancient Greek term for “stranger” or “newcomer”. Rabbinic Judaism separated them into two types; ger tzedek (proselytes of righteousness) and ger toshav (resident proselyte, proselytes of the gate, limited proselyte, half-proselyte).

• A ger tsedek was a gentile who came under the covenant God had with the Jewish people in the atonement system and was bound to all the doctrines and precepts of the Torah, considered a full member of the Jewish people. They were circumcised as adults and immersed in a mikvah in order to participate in the system of sacrifice.

• A ger toshav was a resident alien who lived among the Jews in Judea and was learning to follow the Torah, but were not required to be circumcised nor keep all the Torah commands. They were bound to the Noahide Laws (do not idolatry, worship idols, blaspheme, murder, commit Biblically immoral sexual acts, steal, etc.) to be assured of a place in the world to come. One NT ger toshav was likely the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10:22) who was referred to as a “God fearing man”. Another was likely the “Ethiopian Eunuch” (Acts 8) who could not be fully embraced in the Temple because of his deformity (Dt. 23:1).

Paul made clear the entry to a defunct system was no help for salvation, and allowing the people who are offering this confusion to stay would only hurt them:

Galatians 5:5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. 7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion [did] not [come] from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough].

Paul was SO DISTURBED by the people pulling them off track, he spoke rather graphically and said: Galatians 5:12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. If they are SO BENT on getting you to do this, let them cut themselves!

Jesus didn’t make the Law pointless – he made the sacrifices pointless. He didn’t strip the symbol of circumcision from the Jewish people. He put it back in the category of unique identity commands and cut it away from anything that was required by God for justification of ANYONE and for practice of Gentiles under any circumstances. Jews can do it to show they are Jews, but not to get to Heaven. Gentiles shouldn’t feel pressured to do it at all – since it is meaningless in their direct access to God.

SO WHAT?

I have poured out, in exacting detail, a passage that is used to open the door to countless permissions of bad behavior among believers. The “liberty in Jesus” is cited often in debates where people decide that rules of behavior of any type have been eliminated in the “destruction of the law” by Paul – a wholly misunderstood approach to God’s Word.

Let’s be clear: God’s limits aren’t bondage – the sacrificial system’s incompletion was. Liberty isn’t a release to engage in moral filth that which God forbade people of the past to do – it was the freedom to directly access an intimate and personal relationship with God through belief in Christ and His saving blood. Practicing a symbol God gave people to do for their unique and enduring identity wasn’t a description of some “cultural practice” – it was a description of God’s command to Abraham repeated over and over as a measurable symbol of identity. Paul wasn’t arguing to chop out parts of the Bible or become complacent in following God completely – he was making a distinction between the formula of salvation and the distinctive forms of sanctification.

Paul never argued that the life of a follower of God was marked by never denying any physical desire. He never meant by “yoke” that the Law was the problem – only that it couldn’t provide, even in the scores of animal sacrifices – a permanent and complete solution to sin.

Listen to the the subtle way this is confused: David Guzik, a commentator of enduringword.com wrote: “If you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing: When we embrace the law as our rule of walking with God, we must let go of Jesus. He is no longer our righteousness, we attempt to earn it ourselves.”

That is dangerous speech in its implications, and it wasn’t Paul’s argument. If it were he needed to apologize for the confusion he made to that very point in Jerusalem in Acts 21. Paul didn’t want people to strip an allegiance to living life according to the standards of the many books of the Bible that preceded his writing career. What he wanted to do was clarify that the atonement system was broke and replaced. That is about justification, not about whether “doing the things God’s Word teaches in the first half are cancelled in the second half.”

• I want deliberately to defend Jewish believers who keep Sabbath and are improperly called LEGALISTS – Paul called them JEWISH BELIEVERS. If that isn’t true – he should have corrected the people in Jerusalem who knew Christ and yet were “zealous to keep the Law – but he didn’t correct them, he joined with them (Acts 21). They were saved by the cross and lived as believers by the standards God gave to their fathers.

Legalists aren’t people who DO what God told them to do – they are people who try to gain control of others by taking standards God DID NOT SET ON THOSE PEOPLE. Legalism isn’t having rules – it is misapplying them for the purpose of gaining control of another’s actions.

• Paul closed the section with an admonition: Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. The freedom from the continual sacrifices of the atonement and all the labor that goes along with it was not given to us so that we may release ourselves to inattention to our walk with God, nor waste our stewardship on personal extravagance – it was a unique opportunity to allow us through our walk with Jesus to SERVE ONE ANOTHER.

The point of the Law was NOT to destroy one another by consuming each other in the arguments over the Law. When we do, we are adopting standards without the objective they were ever intended to produce – a community! When those who were never given the Law try to make it the standard in their lives (to become a new version of the Jewish people) they corrupt the binding influence the Spirit of God should have on their lives – to bind them to each other and to help them consistently be pleasing to God. If you allow the Spirit to lead you in your relationships, you will follow all that Jesus is concerned about for your building a community as Gentile believers. You will see the flesh without learning every careful distinction of the Law. There are many who live godly lives without a thorough knowledge of the Law – a with little desire to keep it. The following of the Spirit should produce bonds that will not come with angry disputing and boasting!

We will need to revisit this passage to look more closely, now that the atonement argument is finished. You have been patient through all of this. I wonder if, in all the words of Galatians 5, you see the clear point of the end of the chapter.. God had a goal with the Law, and it is the SAME GOAL that He has with His Spirit’s leading – to produce a loving, active, vibrant corps of people that live joyfully for Him!

I want to close this lesson with a plea. It comes in the form of a story, but it really IS a plea. Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free quickly and easily. Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about this lock. For 30 minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed, and still he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. Finally, after laboring for 2 hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! But in his mind it was locked and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.

I plead with you to stop struggling with ANY LIST that you think keeps you from God. Open the cage. Jesus unlocked it. There is no longer condemnation for those who trust His completed work. If you think you need to earn God’s love, you haven’t checked the cage door. It is now unlocked. Come on out!!! True freedom is found in intimate attachment to God initiated by faith in Christ alone, and lived out by careful diligence in following God’s Spirit.

Renewing Our Values: “Redefining Standards in Relationships” – 1 Timothy 5:1-16

Adult and Daughter (9-10) Holding HandsBeyond showing a child how to relate to the God that created them, the next most significant lesson a parent has is to teach their child how to navigate life with proper behavior and consideration toward others. That interpersonal task is not disconnected from walking with God – it is related to the knowing and following Him. A child that learns to reflect God’s love to others will grasp much more quickly that happiness begins where selfishness ends. Meaning is found in walking according to the Creator’s purpose. Our richest delight can be found by following God’s deepest desires for His Creation as expressed in His Word.

When a child doesn’t learn to hold God’s love tightly, they don’t understand their own intrinsic value – because the value of a human being is found in the breath of the Creator within. When a child doesn’t learn that same value extends to all the others in his village, the child doesn’t learn boundaries and respect. Without an intimate knowledge of respect and value, behavior increasingly violates others and becomes caustic…On a societal level, as America shifts from our once assumed foundational morality to a different ethical environment – behavior is noticeably changing.

As the Creator’s authority was stripped from classroom, courtrooms overflowed… it was inevitable.

As Biblically molded structures are removed from the public eye, Biblically acceptable public behaviors devolve. So that I don’t speak in abstract terms, let me offer the picture from a “real life” story:

You are really tense from long hours at work, so you decide to go out with your spouse for the evening, onto the “red hot” town that is Sebring, Florida. As you get out on US 27, someone in the lane in front of you rolls down their automobile window and tosses a full bag of fast food trash from their car onto the median. You watch, helplessly, as the leftover soda cup falls out onto the highway, and the bag breaks apart. You deliberately try not to notice, because you are trying to have a good time. In a few minutes, you arrive at one of our little restaurants, and begin to look over the menu. It has been a day, so you pick out your favorites, and then start a conversation with your date, trying to talk about something other than your work and tension related issues of life. A minute into the conversation, you both are consciously struggling to hear each other because a man across the aisle is yelling into his cell phone about his work troubles, and trying to get someone to give him a break on a late fee. You suffer through the meal, listening to details of his life, payment history and many troubles – when you don’t know him and don’t intend to. Dinner ends, and though the evening has been “bumpy”, you want more from your date experience – because you both need to relax. The two of you decide to make your way to a movie for a diversion, but five minutes into the movie the group of children in front of you have decided they don’t want to watch the feature, and you shouldn’t want to either. They get up and down, make noise all the way through the movie, and distract everyone around them. You cannot find anyone claiming to be a parent. You miss critical scenes with them standing up and blocking you, and by now both of your blood pressure numbers cancel any plan for stress relief. You move elsewhere in the theatre, but they just get louder. Your complaints to the management obviously fall on deaf ears, so the two of you leave never seeing the end of the movie. Wound up tighter than a clock spring, you both decide to stop off for a cup of hot tea before heading home. You walk into the restaurant and sit as far as you can from anyone else. “Good!” you say, as you see only a handful of people in the whole place. As you sit down with your hot cup and begin another attempt at quiet conversation, a roar overtakes the room as a very loud woman two booths down shares a funny story with her small group of friends. You try to smile and think, “At least they are having fun!” Then you both notice it. Apparently, the poor young lady suffered some lapse in education, because she appeared to only be able to express happy thoughts in sentences thoroughly mixed with vulgarity – she has far too many words that contain four letters to keep in her head. Embarrassed at the crude speech, you both decide to go home, and you admit the time to relax somehow just didn’t do the trick.

Do you recognize “stressers” you have been facing this week? Public behavior is becoming a problem as the moral base of the country frays and recedes.

We all readily admit this is a problem, and there is little we can do to address it beyond reciting the “Serenity Prayer” and letting go what we don’t control. Now… if that is truly the case, why did I bring it up? Our text for study today reminds us that long ago, Paul recognized that behavior was a matter of training, and church behavior was a matter of church teaching. He spelled out relational behaviors for a younger Pastor, because he knew we would never be able to learn from the world the standard for the church.

Key Principles: Relationships are often defined and always guarded and preserved by proper behavior (right actions). For what is RIGHT, we should look to God’s definition of GOOD BEHAVIOR.

I have an app on my iPad called “Seven Little Words”. Today, we are going to take the complexity of relationships within the context of the Christian community and organize the teaching from God about this important subject around some little words that preserve the essence of the instruction to each of the people mentioned. For the sake of this lesson, let’s key in on TWO small but powerful relational WORDS – “Respect” and “Value”.

First, people must be RESPECTED:

Let’s start where the text starts with relationships…Paul opened in 1 Timothy 5:1-2 with two verses about four kinds of people that are grouped by their sex and age, and Paul related them to family relationships to help illustrate a single truth: relationships between believers must be based on proper respect boundaries. He wrote:

1 Timothy 5:1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but [rather] appeal to [him] as a father, [to] the younger men as brothers, 2 the older women as mothers, [and] the younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Respect in the context of the older men looks like asking them, in an appeal for help, not presumptive or angry correction (5:1). Address them the way you would address your father as you try to honor him.

Paul told Tim to be careful with older men (presbuteros) and not sharply rebuke them (lit. epiplasso: mold by striking with hard mallet, used only here and referring to “mallet speech”). Rather call him alongside to help (parakaleo) as you would your father! The idea is that you will gain help by humbly asking for it, not by demanding it. Good fathers don’t mind helping their children when the children don’t present an attitude of entitlement or demand, but they won’t be barked at and called to “jump through hoops”. Respect looked like Tim lovingly and humbly recognizing their value as a gift from God to the church as men that possessed skills essential to the community. Respect begins with recognition of intrinsic value.

Respect for younger men looks like comradery and brotherhood that can be drawn in when treated with the respect you wish to get (5:1b).

Younger men are to be treated as brothers (adelphos). The verb parakaleo (used as “appeal” to the older man earlier in the sentence) is grammatically linked and carries the verb to young men as well. In other words, Tim needed to “appeal” to younger men as he would to a brother he grew up with, and deeply loved. Brothers are part of that attachment we have to our past and our heritage. They are part of our blood, and (if yours were like mine) sometimes they drew blood just to prove it! Seriously, they are a part of us, and their success is familial success. They carry (along with us) the family name, and they are a direct extension of who we are.

Respect for an older women in the church looks like one who is treated with the deep respect one should give to their mother (5:2a).

So central was this respect, that it was part of the core standards of the civil code of Law, often referred to as the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20). It was repeated in constitutional law in Deuteronomy. Striking a parent was a capital crime. The Scriptures were filled with strong words about this, and Timothy knew them well:

• Leviticus 20:9 ESV: For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.
• Exodus 21:15 ESV: “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.
• Proverbs 20:20 ESV: If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

These words represent violation, but given a few minutes we could amass a great repository of stories of care for mothers by sons – so the point need not be expounded.

Respect for younger women looks like treating them with PURITY as one would toward a sister (hagnia: purity, 5:2b).

Our culture has (sadly) objectivized women, and in doing so it has made them less than they were created to be. God didn’t create women as objects – but as His treasured, beautiful and wondrous human creation. She was made second – so some would be inclined to point out that usually a builder does a BETTER JOB the second time around. (Of course, since the Creator is perfect, that truth of human creation may not apply!). Seriously, men (and in this context in particular to a Pastor) need to be careful in their relationships with younger women.

Men, relationships with women begin with discipline of mind. God made you to desire them, and made their form beautiful in your eyes. I have it on good authority of men much older than I, that attraction does not leave us all our days. Because that is true, we must change our thinking about those dear younger women God has entrusted to our care and fellowship. We must see them differently – and that is about YOU and not THEM. Let me illustrate:

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. ‘That laundry is not very clean’, she said. ‘She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap’ Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: ‘Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?’ The husband said, ‘I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.’ And so it is with life. What we see when watching others, depends on the purity of the window through which we look. (from sermon central illustrations).

We need the “spirit of windex” to descend upon our thinking. We need to see these dear ones not in FORM, but as substantive, rich, promising parts of the community of faith!

While we are dealing with the subject of purity, I want to offer something that may be helpful for some of our younger believers to bear in mind. Tim White wrote this:

Where at one time, having sexual relations outside marriage was considered liberating, current studies show that it damages one’s ability to trust, affecting future relationship, one’s respect for self, affecting every decision and diminishing the value of right decisions, and one’s respect for health. Liberating? At what cost? Drs. Freda Bush and Joe McIlhaney released a study at Harvard University that shows that exposure to immorality and participation in sexual acts during childhood years actually changes the brain, interrupting the normal production and usage of dopamine, vasopressin and oxytocin in the brain for the remainder of the life. These chemicals, when released properly, create the “monogamy syndrome”, in that moment bonding the person to another. … According to the study, … “But that bonding, which acts like adhesive tape or Velcro, is weakened when people tear away at its power by breaking off with a sexual partner and moving on from one to another to another. So when it does finally come time to bond permanently with a spouse, the ability to bond is damaged. The brain actually gets molded to not accept that deep emotional level that’s so important for marriage. When they do marry, they’re more likely to have a divorce than people who were virgins when they got married…”

Purity is an issue on many levels – but it always, always ALWAYS begins in the heart and mind Deal with it there before it grows.

The bottom line is that people need to be respected – or the church will fall apart.

Respect in the public square sounds like civil discourse that adds substance, but is careful about attacking people. Respect in the church sounds like “Yes, sir” and “No, sir”. It can be seen when we hold doors for one another, when we get a chair for the one who is struggling to walk, when we control our children so that they don’t (in their youthful enthusiasm) create a hazard for an elderly person by running about unsupervised. Respect in relationships looks like deliberate focus on careful relationships, never creating a situation that could lead another to sin in thought or action. Thinking purely adds sanctity to this whole body. Defiled TVs lead to defiled churches – because a guttered mind won’t raise because the room is filled with hymns. We must be honest with ourselves, and careful with our minds.

Now stop for a second. With all that I just mentioned in mind… don’t forget that we don’t do ANY of what we do out of obligation – we do it out of LOVE. Biblical LOVE means that I see you as one that I can HELP, not as a plaything or toy. Biblical LOVE means that I get to show my King how I feel about Him by reflecting His character in my life and His Word in my value system. I AM TIRED OF OBLIGATED BELIEVERS- I want love-sick ones!

Second, people who are in painful and disadvantaged situations need to be VALUED. They are not a “problem” or a “ministry” – they are a valuable part of the family of God!

In the rest of our remaining study, I want to focus on the words of Paul about WIDOWS in the section between 1 Timothy 5:3-16. It is obviously a primer on who qualified for assistance and specific parameters of that help. At the same time, there is a larger theme that made it fit beautifully into the passage. In ancient society, a woman’s familial relationships defined her in even a more profound way than in modernity. Women deeply desired to have children – for it was their best opportunity to contribute economically to the family’s long term benefit. Many are the stories of women in the Bible that LONGED for a child – like Hannah, Sarah, Rebekkah, and Elizabeth – just to name a few. They “hard wired” their identity to their spouse and their family. I shouldn’t smile at this point, but it reminds me of a cute and pointed little story about a widow I read some time ago:

A dear woman had “Rest In Peace” put on her husband’s tombstone. A few days after his passing, she discovered that he left her out of his will. She had added to the tombstone inscription: “Till we meet again!” (Sorry! I couldn’t resist!)

In all seriousness, we cannot be glib with the fact that widows are women who suffered a seismic shock to their identity – and that is my real point. Today, we also could perhaps include a substantial number of women who have suffered the loss of their partner by divorce – who have also survived a shock of great import. In a very real way, the Biblical period “widow” was usually quite economically challenged, as well as grappling with facing life without her soul mate. There aren’t words I can use from a pulpit that would convey that deep sense of loss and pain. What I CAN do, what I am COMMANDED to do – is to recall the unique tenderness such a woman would require from both her Pastor and the congregation of fellow believers.

In short, people must BE VALUED.

If you look at this closely, you may be surprised at what Paul said. He offers us a very special nugget from an unlikely place – and it all starts with a person shattered by events beyond her control.

Many widows, if you take the time to listen, will admit they went through a time when they felt like a “fifth wheel”. Couples they and their spouse spent time with can turn into strained relationships, because she is ALONE, and that is awkward for some. In truth, there is little we can do about that but help her gain a sense of identity apart from her late husband. Paul told Timothy he was to honor her (timao: from to set the cost of; from temeos, to value or view as precious) widows (khayrah: stripped ones, reduced ones) 5:3. Here is exactly what Paul wrote:

1 Timothy 5:3 Honor widows who are widows indeed

Immediately, Paul had to establish WHO qualified for specific aid as a widow, and it is not simply anyone who has lost a spouse to death… that made them widows, but eligibility for assistance was another matter.

Paul sought to make believers place their families in the first position in regards to their own care.

He wrote: 5:4 but if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

There are perhaps two ways to understand what 5:4 actually addresses – but both lead to the same place in principle. If, in the grammar of the passage, the intended subject of the passage is the “children” or “cousins” (translated and updated by the proper word “grandchildren”) – then the issue is that children that can care for their widowed mother should be instructed to do so. That is certainly a true statement, but may NOT be the primary issue involved in the passage.

Look at the statement again. If the subject of the Greek sentence were supposed to be the “widow” – the issue of the text changes significantly. The issue was that in many Roman homes, parents sent their children to their parent’s home while the parents served in army duty, or did hard labor in a field, working outside the home for long hours. This allowed the younger family to have their children cared for by trusted “daycare” workers (that raised them years before) and yet establish stability without the extra issues created by raising children at home. In such cases, widows had to be instructed to send home their children’s children – thus allowing the family to take responsibility in a new way – similar to the teaching above in principle. The problem would have been that the women would feel GUILTY and not want to BURDEN the family. The had to be instructed to practice piety (eusebeo: act out properly and dutifully the right order from God) and to return value to (apodidomee: restore, repatriate or give back what is rightfully owned) to their families (5:4).

Don’t get lost in the verbiage. Paul wanted the woman without a family to help her to know that the church would be called up to “step up”. Those widowed believers without families needed to live out their faith and not waste their unique opportunity. Paul said:

1 Timothy 5 Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day. 6 But she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives. 7 Prescribe these things as well, so that they may be above reproach. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

That unique place of becoming a picture is what brings about in Paul’s writing the warning: A widow who lives with extravagance, rather than caring for others about her, has missed the point of God’s blessing in this life! (5:6). Rather than become an example of God’s blessing, and an opportunity for a church to show their love to God, if she behaves badly she will create “handles” on their lives that the enemy can use (note the word anepileptos in 5:7).

Timothy was to expect believers to provide for their own families before anyone else helps them (5:8). The church could and SHOULD HELP – but must first must make clear standards for that help – because that was part of the display of God’s lesson through their lives.

Go back to verse 5 and note the words: “left alone” (mono-o, used only here) fixes her hope on God’s constant provision for her and others around her, asking God to care for them tirelessly.

Here is the heart of the teaching: The woman with the need becomes a picture of God’s provision before the whole church, as God uses the church to help her live day by day.

She becomes God’s teaching tool to her family to learn to care for her needs before asking for others to do so. She becomes a unique and deliberate tool in God’s hands to call those in the church to caring and loving acts of service. God grant that He will always raise up among us some with deep compassion who ask if needs are met!

Here is the point of God’s desire to USE HER. Her NEED isn’t a PROBLEM, it is an OPPORTUNITY for the church to learn to BE THE CHURCH. It is a display to the church of the need to slow down and not allow those who hurt to be trampled by the world with no recourse.

The widow is not a problem, she is a gift of God for a congregation to MEASURE its trustworthiness, its true desire to LIVE OUT God’s Word, and not just study its theory. Let me see if a story will make the idea of a SACRED TRUST more clear:

An elderly man was desperately ill. Knowing the time for his departure was near, he called for his closest friends to come see him one last time. Attending him were his doctor, his pastor and his business manager. The old man said, “I know you can’t take it with you, but who knows for sure? What if the experts are mistaken? I want to account for all possibilities. So I’m giving you each an envelope containing $100,000. When I die, I want you each to slip the envelope in my jacket pocket at the funeral service. Then, if I do need money in the life to come, I’ll be ready. And I’m giving the envelopes to you because you are my most trusted friends.” Shortly thereafter, the man did die. Each of his three friends was seen slipping something into the deceased’s coat pocket as he walked up to the casket to pay his final respects. Following the service, while these friends were visiting with each other, the doctor, with a sheepish look on his face, said, “Guys, I have a confession to make. You know with the cost of medicine today, I don’t make that much money. The hospital is desperate for funds. We can’t even replace the CAT scan machine that’s broken down. So, I took $20,000 for the new CAT scan and put the rest in the coffin.” The minister cleared his throat and looked down at his shoes. He said, “I, too, have a confession to make. As you know, our church is seriously overburdened by the needs of the homeless. I couldn’t just see burying that money. So, in hopes of helping the homeless, I took $50,000 out of the envelope and put the rest in his pocket.” Looking sternly at the doctor and the minister, the businessman exclaimed, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I am astonished and deeply disappointed that you would treat a solemn trust so casually. He was our friend. I want you to know that I placed in his casket my personal check for the full $100,000.” (From Sins We Love, by Randy Rowland, p. 125-126).

People that understand a SACRED TRUST will see the widow as what she is – a special gift of God. Every needy person we meet is an opportunity for believers to show how much God has provided for them, and how much they trust His ability to provide for them in the FUTURE!

Keep reading about these precious “unlikely treasures” that God supplies to the church:

1 Timothy 5:9 A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, [having been] the wife of one man, 10 having a reputation for good works; [and] if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, [and] if she has devoted herself to every good work. 11 But refuse [to put] younger widows [on the list], for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married, 12 [thus] incurring condemnation, because they have set aside their previous pledge. 13 At the same time they also learn [to be] idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper [to mention]. 14 Therefore, I want younger [widows] to get married, bear children, keep house, [and] give the enemy no occasion for reproach; 15 for some have already turned aside to follow Satan. 16 If any woman who is a believer has [dependent] widows, she must assist them and the church must not be burdened, so that it may assist those who are widows indeed.

Paul clarified some guidelines:

• The woman must be sixty plus, and a one woman man (5:9; cp. Titus 1:6).

• She must have been consistent in her walk and have witnesses (marturia) of her work for God (5:10):

a. showing a pattern of care (hospitality)
b. showing a pattern of service (nipto: washing of feet)
c. showing a pattern of sacrifice (aiding in care of distressed ones: (thleebo: pressed down and crushed as in the case of grapes).
d. Showing a constant readiness to be on board to serve (“to be on the heels of”) the work that needs to be done.

• Young widows must be held off the permanent list, as they are not ready for this distinction (5:11-12). They are not wrong for their desires to remarry, but the list is to be solemn and permanent. It isn’t just short term assistance; it is a long term symbol!

• If added permanently to the list before the age, they are enabled to misplace priorities (5:13-15)

Paul ended by reminding believers in the congregation that they should individually care for those they can BEFORE enlisting the whole church’s support (5:16).

The point was that just as the men and women of the church are to be RESPECTED, so widows are to be moved from a “liability” and “ministry” to a place of TREASURED WORTH – because God set up a special place for the church to pour out physical assistance on them as a display of His hand working through the congregation.

Have you ever thought of widows as having a SYMBOLIC OFFICE that God established? They do. They, and others who have needs in their lives not created by their choices, but by an act of God, offer the church a unique opportunity to show LOVE for Jesus by showing LOVE for THEM!!

I need to close, but before I do, give me just a minute and let me tell you what happened to Ted Forbes back in 1984. “While walking down a street in Chicago…Ted found a wallet. Being an honest Christian man he wanted to return it to its owner. So he opened it to look for identification. The wallet contained just $3.00. No driver’s license…no Social Security card…no pictures…nothing to indicate who owned the billfold. Looking through the wallet a little more, Ted found and an old envelope. It was wrinkled and looked as if it had been carried there for years. The only part of the writing on the envelope that could be read was the return address. To find more information, Ted opened the envelope, and to his surprise, the letter was dated June 6, 1924. The letter had been written nearly 60 years before. It was a “Dear John” letter. It was written to a man named Michael, and it was from a woman named Hannah. She explained that though she loved him, and she would always love him, her parents had forbidden her to see him any more. Ted Forbes wanted to locate the owner of the lost wallet. He drove to the location listed on the return address. He parked the car and walked up to the door. A woman answered the door. Ted asked the lady if she knew a Michael or a Hannah. He was told that 30 years ago she had purchased the house from a family whose daughter was named Hannah. She said that Hannah had placed her mother in a nursing home just a few blocks down the street. Ted drove down to the nursing home. He explained the story to the Nursing Supervisor. She told Ted that the lady he was trying to find had died. However, she gave him a telephone number where he might locate Hannah. Calling that number he learned that Hannah was not living there anymore. The person answering the phone said Hannah was now in an apartment house for the elderly. Ted began to wonder why he was making such a big deal out of an old, lost wallet which contained only $3.00 and a crumpled up old letter. But he decided to keep looking until he ran into a dead end. He finally tracked down Hannah and went to visit her at the elderly apartment house. She had an apartment on the 3rd Floor. Ted knocked on the door. A gray-haired, alert, bright eyed lady with a warm smile on her face answered the door. Yes, it was Hannah Marshall. Ted told her about finding the wallet and, showing her the letter, asked if she knew someone named Michael. Hannah took the letter. Tears filled her eyes. She told Ted that the letter was the last contact she had with Michael. She said that she had never married because she never met anyone she loved as much as Michael. Then she asked Ted if, when he found Michael, he would tell him she still loved him and that she thought about him every day. Ted thanked her and left. As he was walking down the apartment house hallway, he was carrying the wallet in his hand. The janitor saw the wallet and stopped Ted in the hallway. “Let me see that wallet.” Ted handed it to him. “Why, that’s Mr. Goldstein’s wallet. I’d know it anywhere. He’s always losing it.” Ted asked where he could find Mr. Goldstein. The janitor said he lived in Apartment 6 on the 8th Floor. So, Ted quickly made his way to the eighth floor. He found Apartment #6 and knocked on the door. Sure enough, an old man named Michael answered the door. Ted showed the wallet to the old man. He asked if it was his. Yes, it was. Ted admitted reading the letter to seek identification of the owner. Mr. Goldstein asked, “You read it?” Then he told Ted that his life nearly ended many years ago when he lost Hannah. He had never married and had never stopped loving her. Then Ted said, “Mr. Goldstein, I think I know where Hannah is.” The old man became very excited. Ted simply took him by the hand, led him to the elevator and down to the third floor to Hannah Marshall’s apartment door. When she opened the door, they looked at one another in disbelief. Michael Goldstein walked slowly to Hannah. He took her in his arms. And the 60-year separation evaporated in the warmth of their love. About three weeks after Michael and Hannah were reunited, Ted got a call asking him to be their best man. They were to be married after years of separation. It must have been some sight: a 79-year-old man and a 76-year-old woman acting like teenagers. A perfect ending to a tragic separation. They had every reason to celebrate.” (From a sermon by David Rigg, When a Lost Person Is Saved, 3/30/2011)

Relationships are often defined and always guarded and preserved by proper behavior (right actions). For what is RIGHT, we should look to God’s definition of GOOD BEHAVIOR.