EMULATE WORTHY MATURED CHRISTIANS
We go on to look at the second aspect in the epistle to the Philippians Christians: “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do” (Phil. 3:17).
Paul was referring to the pattern of life he and his co-workers manifested, that is, the ‘lifestyle’. He knew that many elements of Christian discipleship are more easily caught than taught. In effect, Paul was telling the believers to follow him as he follows Christ.
In Phil. 2: 5-8, Paul tells us that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. The eternal Son did not think of his status as God as something which gave him the opportunity to get and get and get. Instead, his very status as God meant he had nothing to prove, nothing to achieve. And precisely because he is one with God, he ‘made himself nothing’, and gave and gave and gave. Paul also considered himself as a servant and even though he was in prison and others were preaching the gospel to taunt him, he was glad that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ Jesus is preached and in this he rejoiced. He was putting Christ and the gospel as the top priority in his life and he was prepared to be side-lined for the sake of his Lord and the gospel; he was prepared to suffer for his Master, to do everything without murmuring or grumbling, and to do nothing out of selfish ambition, but rather to do everything in humility, valuing others above himself.
Paul was insisting that the Lord Jesus whom we serve, makes himself a nobody, becomes in fact a slave (becoming a human being as part of this process), and then humbles himself yet further and obeys his heavenly Father by dying the death of the cross, reserved for public enemies and the dregs of the criminal justice system. Because of this, the Father exalted him to the highest place, approving and vindicating His Son. One does not have to be a Christian very long before one discovers that there are countless occasions when we are called to put aside self-interest for the sake of Christ. And in large measure it is the example of Christ and his sufferings that will empower us to tread this path. Paul did just that, and he endured much sufferings, beatings, stoning, and imprisonment, coming to an end of himself, no matter how costly, in order to follow Christ – and Paul exhorts us to follow him as he follows Christ.
In Phil. 3:17-21, there is the implication that there are other believers, who, instead of being excellent models to follow, are in fact the very opposite. Paul, even with tears, lamented that such ones live as enemies of the cross of Christ (vs18). They make some sort of profession of Christian faith, but in reality they are enemies of the cross. They dupe the unwary and the undiscerning, parade themselves as Christian leaders, and perhaps even exhibit a good deal of ‘power’. But what is missing is a focus on the cross like that of Paul’s.
We must instead emulate those who are interested in the well-being of others, and not their own; and we must be such people ourselves. We must emulate those who have proved themselves in hardship, not the untested upstart and the self-promoting peacock; but we must become such proven people. We must emulate those whose constant confidence and boast are in Christ Jesus, and nothing else; but that must be our boast too. Yes, we must emulate those who are continuing to grow spiritually, not those who are stagnating; yes, we must emulate those who eagerly await Jesus’ return, not those whose mind is on earthly things.
Brethren, we are called to emulate worthy Christian leaders, matured believers; and we are called to be worthy Christians ourselves whom others will emulate.
In line with asking the believers to follow him, in the closing chapter, Paul ended with some specific instructions and exhortations:
– Stand firm in the Lord ..(vs1)
– Rejoice in the Lord always…(vs.4)
– Let your gentleness be evident to all..(vs.5)
– Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God ..(vs.6)
..Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice..
– I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want…I can do all this through him who gives me strength (v. 12-13).
As we ponder over the above, in seeking to emulate Paul and to follow him as he followed Christ, we realise that Paul was actually sharing the secrets of victorious Christian living; living worthy of the gospel; living above all circumstances, standing firm and strong in the Lord; living with contentment, seeking to know Christ more and more, and to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
For, to him, …to live is Christ, to die is gain…keeping his eye on the finishing line.. pressing on toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus!
ELABORATION ON LIFESTYLE
In the previous sharing, the apostle Paul urged believers to follow him as he follows Christ – we noted that he was referring to a lifestyle consistent with committed discipleship in Christian living.
There are certain aspects of such a lifestyle which may not be obvious to believers; but in fact, they are true reflections of faithful discipleship.
One aspect is non-conformity. The church has a double responsibility in relation to the world around us. On the one hand we are to live, serve and witness in the world; on the other, we are to avoid becoming contaminated by the world. So we are neither to seek to preserve our holiness by escaping from the world nor to sacrifice our holiness by conforming to the world. Both escapism and conformism are forbidden to true believers; and to know that God is calling out a people for himself and a summoning us to be different from people of the world are paramount. And this requires the guidance, wisdom, and dependence on God’s Spirit; it cannot be worked out just by studying some principles from some summaries of theology.
Another aspect of a positive lifestyle of disciples is simplicity, especially in relation to the question of money and possession, and materialism. We noted Paul saying that he had learned to abound and to be in want; in all these, he learned the secret of being content in Christ.
Christians have received a new life from Christ. What lifestyle, then, is appropriate for them?
We worship God as Creator of all things, and we celebrate the goodness of his creation. We therefore denounce environmental destruction, wastefulness and hoarding. We deplore the misery of the poor who suffer as a result of these evils.
God made us, male and female, in his own image; he made us stewards of its resources, and we become responsible to him as Creator to the earth, and to fellow human beings with whom we share its riches. Authentic human fulfilment depends on a right relationship to God, neighbour and the earth with all its resources. We look forward to the restoration of all things at Christ’s return (Acts 3:21); in the meantime, before our full humanness is restored on that day, we must promote human dignity today and remember that every human is created in the image of God and is valuable in his eyes. For disciples, there is the principle of sacrificial sharing expressed in holding ourselves and our goods available for people in need, and this ought to be an indispensable characteristic of every Spirit-filled church. Those of us whom God blessed with plenty should do more to relieve the needs of less privileged believers. But there should be wisdom and discernment in doing this, as there are also those who are dishonest and seek to exploit the ‘kindness’ of genuine believers.
Our personal lifestyle should be one of holiness, humility, simplicity and contentment. Without the constant renewal of Christ’s peace in our hearts, our emphasis on simple living will be lop-sided and ignored. Christian obedience demands a simple lifestyle, irrespective of the needs of others.
While some of us have been called to live among the poor, and others to open our houses to the needy, all of us are called to develop a simpler lifestyle. Living in an affluent society, all us are exposed to the temptation to covetousness. So we need one another understanding, encouragement and prayers to become accountable to God even in such areas. If wealth, comfort, luxury take the place of Christ as supreme in our lives, then we are on the road to become fleshly, self-centred individuals and certainly not disciples pleasing to the Lord God.
DISCIPLESHIP IN LINE WITH THE GOSPEL (B)
If we genuinely responded to the true gospel, we have been united with Christ, and our nature has been changed by Christ. We notice that Christ emphasised on the character in his discourses on discipleship with his disciples, and indeed because of the way in which our nature has been changed when we are born again, our hearts are now set against all known sin. Then why is it that Christians let themselves be deceived into supposing that giving way to inordinate desire – for food, drink, pleasure, ease, advancement, or whatever – is what they really want to do; why is it that they make sin a habit in life?
Again and again, it appears that Christians are not sufficiently in touch with themselves to realise that, because of the way in which their nature has been changed, their hearts are also set against all that God hates, and increasingly, they learn to love what God loves, and hate what God hates.
When Christians sin habitually, then they are actually behaving in a radically unnatural way, one that offers deep-level violence to their own changed nature; or perhaps they have not been born again, and their own natures still remain, and dominate.
For Christians like the Corinthian Christians, whom Paul described as carnal, immature, who dabbled in idolising certain leaders and causing division, as well as allowing immorality (incest) to continue in their midst, they felt that to give up those things would be impossibly painful and impoverishing, and lso they did not. Instead, they settled for being substandard Christians, imagining they will be happier that way. Then they wondered why their whole life seems to them to have become flat and empty – sounds familiar for many believers today .
The regenerate heart (from positive response to the gospel) cannot love what it knows God hates. So these Christians are behaving unnaturally, occupied in activities against which their own inner nature revolts.
In 1 Corin. 5:1-6:20, Paul dealt with immorality in the church at Corinth. In 5:10, Paul corrects any misunderstanding that he had condemned contacts in secular society with immoral people, those greedy for gain, the swindlers or idolaters. If that were the case, then Christians would have to withdraw from the world. Paul clarified that Christians are to withdraw from any Christian who is sexually immoral, greedy for money (covetous), an idolater, a drunkard or dishonest business person. Table fellowship was prohibited. The Christian church is responsible for judging its own members.
The ease with which the present day church often passes judgment on the ethical or structural misconduct of the outside community is at times matched only by its reluctance to take action to remedy the ethical conduct of its own members.
Some liberal elites argued that success enabled them to do as they wished, for everything was lawful (6:12). Paul countered that not everything is beneficial i.e. ethics that become blessings on others. He insisted that actions must never enslave.
The body is not meant to engage in sex outside marriage, but in the case of the Christian, his body belongs not to himself to do as he wishes, for it was made for the Lord (recall sharing on Romans12:1-2). The Christian is to honour and glorify God in his body.
The sexually immoral, worshippers of idols, men who cheat on their wives, the participants in male homosexuallity, thieves, the greedy, those who are drunkards and went on drinking orgies, and those in dishonest business – all these have no inheritance in God’s kingdom. None of these sins ever strengthens relationships with God or with others; they are destructive and unhelpful to relationships and inflict grief and anguish.
Discipleship, holiness, character – all these are in line with those who have received the true gospel of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit would be seen, although with the passing of time for some, but the good tree would produce good fruit. If the fruit is rotten, something is basically wrong with the tree!
SOME DEFINITE PERSPECTIVES ON PREACHING
Following the reflection “God’s Word is clear and complete”, it seems needful to state some definite perspectives on preaching. It ought to be clear to Christians and the church that preaching is necessary for a healthy church. Without a regular diet of Bible-base, Christ-related, life-impacting messages from God the mind-set of a congregation will become either institutionalist ( preaching is seen and presented in terms of buildings, pulpits and pews and not effective in building a healthy church), or moralistic and legalistic, as in liberal congregations where the agenda is social service (associated with ‘rules’, moral obligations without God being truly in the picture).
Christian preaching is the event of God himself bringing to an audience a Bible-based life-changing message of instruction and direction through the words of a spokesperson. Preaching is not seen as human performance but as divine communication; it views God as speaking his own message via a messenger whose sole aim is to receive and relay what God gives. It envisages God embodying his communication in the person of the messenger who both delivers it and, in delivering it, models response to it; it is preaching as truth through personality, that is, it points to the way in which personal attitudes to God and man come through in the course of declaring God’s message. The demeanour of preachers in their messager-role as bearers of God’s truth and wisdom to people whom God loves will always, for better or for worse, become part of their message and affect the impact that they make.
This normative definition of preaching has a critical function to fulfil, for it obliges us to test pulpit utterances, and to say of any that was not Bible-based, Christ-related and life-impacting, that, whatever else it was, it was not preaching in the and proper meaning of that word. Not to test pulpit utterances is a serious failure on the part of the listeners in the eyes of God; for not every performance from the preacher’s podium is preaching. Some sermonizing produces only bitter wisecracks which may be ‘attractive’ to some hearers; and preachers as standing above contradiction, talking at rather than to to their hearers, and as cllmaxing invisibility during the week with incomprehensibilty on Sunday, and so on. But such sermonizing, which is certainly bad preaching, may not be preaching at all, though the institutional and sociological definitions would compel us to call it that.
Preaching regards the Bible as the Word of God, because it will constantly be impacting people as just that; Jesus Christ will be known and love, because he will constantly be projected as lover and Saviour of our souls; and Christians will grow and flourish through being fed on true spiritual food. Surely it is beyond dispute that a church made and kept healthy by authentic preaching must ever be our goal!
Sadly, many pulpit discourses have been put together on wrong principles; somehave failed to open up Scripture; some have expounded biblical doctrine with applying it, thus qualifying as lectures rather than preaching (for lecturing aims only to clear the head, while preaching seeks to change the life); some focus on applications not from the text but taken from elsewhere (not even from other parts of Scripture); some do not even confront the listeners with the Word of God, but just rattle on with the preacher’s opinion, based solely on the preacher’s own expertise, rather than messages from God carrying divine authority.
Another point to note is that low expectations from the hearer become self-fulfilling. Where little is expected from sermons, little is received. Many unfortunately have been impressed not to expect much from sermons, and so sermon time is to relax, settle back and wait to see if anything the preacher says will catch their interest.
Also, spiritual issues themselves, issues of radical repentance, self-despairing faith, costly cross-bearing as central to discipleship, spending and being spent in order to do others good, putting holiness before happiness, and keeping the world out of one’s heart, are felt to be irrelevant by many church attenders. The problem preachers face here is that church attendance for many has little or nothing to do with the quest for God.
God speaks through his Word, written and preached, and our preaching of the Word should match the Spirit’s strategy – that is, we should always be seeking to bring home God’s reality and authority to human minds and hearts by elucidating and applying Holy Scripture. Encounter with the living, authoritative Lord brings spiritual understanding and life as we hear and respond to his call for trust and obedience, praise and worship, and the preacher’s aim should ever be to occasion this edifying encounter.
WHAT ‘EVANGELISM’ OUGHT TO BE
Firstly Evangelism and Theology
When evangelism is not fed, controlled by theology, it becomes a stylized performance seeking its effect through manipulative skills rather than the power of vision and the force of truth; all true theology has an evangelist thrust, and all true evangelism is theology in action.
Why the focus on evangelism and theology together? Because the separation of theology and evangelism remains a characteristic fact over the recent century and there are unhappy consequences.
One of the consequences is that it led to evangelism being equated with revivalist procedures, or at any rate, revivalism being regarded as evangelism par excellence. The revivalist pattern, with special meetings and preachers, with its aura of excitement, its methods and techniques for ‘drawing in the net’ was created by such men as the ‘new school’ Pelagian, Charles G. Finney and that much loved exponent of the ‘simple gospel’, Dwight L.Moody.’ That God has worked, and worked wonderfully through men who have used this pattern is undoubted, but one can still ask whether he has done so because of, or despite, this or that feature of it. Through revivalist crusades, men and women are finding salvation, and for this, one thanks God. Yet it cannot be denied that the situation, as described, has its problems. Those who evangelise by other than revivalist means (e.g., through the structures of Christian nurture in church and home) find themselves constantly under suspicion of neither understanding nor pracising evangelism at all. To argue about methods while agreement on the message is lacking is inept; but revivalism, with its stress on techniques, has unfortunately encouraged this kind of ineptness.
Evangelism then ceases to be primarily a matter of speaking and becomes instead primarily a matter of practising a serving presence among men. And for this task the world must be allowed to write the agenda; dialogue with men of other faiths and of no faith will be to achieve mutual understanding and respect within the bonds of our common manhood rather than to persuade anyone to become a Christian. If revivalist evangelism needs a little correction from Scripture, radical evangelism (a matter of practising a serving presence among men) needs far, far more.
Evangelism is usually defined as man’s work, and this man-centredness leads to many mistakes about it, but the basic biblical perspective is that evangelism is a work of God. God the creator, in the glory and power of his tri-unity, is both God the Redeemer and God the Evangelist.
God’s world is under judgement because of mankind’s apostasy and sin; the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Roml.1:18). But God loves the world to which, because of sin, he is hostile; ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). He is the God who in love sends: The Father ‘loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1John4:10); the Son brought us knowledge of the Father (John 14:9); now the Father and the Son have sent the Spirit to testify and give knowledge of the Son (John 14:26;15:26; 16:14), and of his Father as our Father through him (cf. John 20:17).
It is through the Spirit’s agency that blind eyes and hard hearts are opened, so that Christ is acknowledged in his divine glory as our Saviour and Lord. ‘God who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ’ (2 Cor.4:6). ‘No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit’ (1Cor.12:3) – but when the Spirit enlightens, this is precisely what men do say. Thus God in sovereign love overcomes the spiritual paralysis and perversity of the fallen human heart, and through this inward teaching by the Spirit draws us to himself (John 6:44-45).
But this is not the whole story. In the BIble evangelism is not only a work of God, it is also a work of man or rather a work of God through man. As God sent his Son to become man and so to ‘explain him, son now, adhering to the incarnational principle, if we may so speak, he sends Christian men to be heralds, ambassadors, and teachers in his name and on his behalf.
The task which God gives to his messengers is primarily and essentially one of proclamation which the New Testament expresses chiefly by the use of three verbs – tell the good news; utter an announcement; and bear witness. The proclamation is not, however, to be made on a casual, take-it-or-leave-it basis; the end in view is to ‘persuade’, to ‘disciple’, and so to ‘turn’ or ‘convert’ with the sinner as its subject, to turn the sinner from darkness to light (Acts 26:18; Luke 1:16; James 5:19-20). Evangelism is ‘communication with a view to conversion’.
Recognition that all the power and fruit of the word is from God and not from any human source does not, however, mean that the evangelist may disregard the human factors in persuasion. Paul himself was very conscious of the human factors in persuasion, and he was most conscientious in observing them. He set no limit to what he would do to ensure that he did not, through personal insensitiveness or cultural inertia, set barriers and stumbling blocks in the way of men’s coming to Christ.
Christian communication is not evangelism unless the full truth about Jesus is set forth. It is not enough to speak of the attractiveness of his person while omitting reference to the atoning significance of his work, as old-style liberals did. Nor is it enough to speak of his death as a sacrifice for sin if one declines to confess his deity, as Jehovah’s Witnesses do. Nor will it suffice to dwell on his earthly life and impact while remaining indifferent to physical resurrection, present reign, and approaching personal return, as is the common radical way.
The gospel invites to fellowship, not merely with the Father and the Son, but with the saints too. What God calls us to is not ‘flight of the alone to the Alone,’ but life as a son in his worldwide family, where the rule is that our Father provides for each of us through the ministry of our brothers.
An excellent definition of evangelism then is: ‘To evangelise, is to present Christ Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men shall come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their Saviour, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His Church.
Evangelism is man’s work, but the giving of faith is God’s. The results of preaching depend, not on the wishes and intentions of men, but on the will of God almighty. This does not mean that we should be indifferent as to whether we see fruit from our witness to Christ or not; if fruit is not appearing, we should seek God’s face about it to find out why. But this does mean that we ought not to define evangelism in terms of achieved results. Anyone who faithfully delivers God’s message of mercy to sinners, under whatever circumstances, in a large meeting, in a small meeting, from a pulpit, or in a private conversation, is evangelizing. Since the divine message finds its climax in a plea from the Creator to a rebel world to turn and put faith in Christ, the delivering of it involves the summoning of one’s hearers to conversion. If we are not, in this sense, seeking to bring about conversion, we are not evangelizing. Properly speaking, it is God who converts and saves. However, the conversion and salvation of others should be the Christian’s objective. Evangelizing, therefore, is not simply a matter of teaching, and instructing, and imparting information to the mind. Evangelizing includes the endeavour to elicit a response to the truth taught.
Broadly speaking, when we evangelise, the gospel is a message about God. The gospel starts by teaching us that we, as creatures, are absolutely dependent on God, and that He, as Creator, has an absolute claim on us. Only when we have learned this can we see what sin is, and only when we see what sin is can we understand the good news of salvation from sin. We must know what it means to call God Creator before we can grasp what it means to speak of Him as Redeemer.
Secondly, the gospel is a message about sin. It tells us how we have fallen short of God’s standard; how we have become guilty, filthy, and helpless in sin, and now stand under the wrath of God. It tells us that the reason why we sin continually is that we are sinners by nature, and that nothing we do, or try to do, for ourselves can put us right, or bring us back into God’s favour. It shows us ourselves as God sees us, and teaches us to think of ourselves as God thinks of us. Unless we see our shortcomings in the light of the law and holiness of God, we do not see them as sin at all.
Thirdly, the gospel is a message about Christ – Christ the Son of God incarnate. We must not present the Person of Christ apart from His saving work; this Jesus was in fact God the Son, made man to save sinners according to His Father’s eternal purpose. We can only make sense of HIs life when we know about the atonement – that He lived as man so that He might die as man for men, and that His passion was really His saving action of bearing away the world’s sins. We must approach Him on the terms of knowing about the resurrection, ascension, and heavenly session – that Jesus has been raised, and enthroned, and made King, and lives to save to the uttermost all who acknowledge His Lordship.
We must not present the saving work of Christ apart from His Person. By focusing on the atoning death of Christ as the sole sufficient ground on which sinners may be accepted with God, we have summoned various ones to saving faith by representing the saving work of Christ in the past, dissociated with His Person in the present, as the whole object of our trust. The object of saving faith is thus not, strictly speaking, the atonement, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who made atonement. We must not in presenting the gospel isolate the cross and its benefits from the Christ whose cross it was. We are to trust His Person, and believe, not upon His saving death simply, but upon HIm, the living Saviour
In evangelism, the demand is for faith as well as repentance. It is not enough to resolve to turn from sin, and give up evil habits, and try to put Christ’s teachings into practice by being religiou and doing all possible good to others. We need to lead sinners to abandon all confidence in themselves and to trust wholly in Christ and the power of His redeeming blood to give them acceptance with God. For nothing less than this is faith.
It is not enough to believe that only through Christ and His death are sinners justified and accepted; one’s knowledge of the gospel is no substitute for repentance. If there is to be repentance, however, there must, again, be a foundation of knowledge; Christ called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance, and believers must know what repentance involves. The repentance that Christ requires of His people consists in a settled refusal to set any limit to the claims which He may make on our lives. The Lord wished us to face out and think through the implications of discipleship before committing ourselves. He did not desire to make disciples under false pretences. He had no interest in gathering vast crowds of professed adherents who would melt away as soon as they found out what following HIm actually demanded of them. In our own presentation of Christ’s gospel, therefore, we need to lay a similar stress on the cost of following Christ, and make sinners face it soberly before we urge them to respond to the message of free forgiveness. We must not conceal the fact that free forgiveness in one sense will cost everything; or else our evangelizing becomes a sort of confidence trick. And where there is no clear knowledge, and hence no realistic recognition of the real claims that Christ makes, there can be no real repentance, and therefore no real salvation!
Finally, the chief motive in evangelism is to glorify God, Men glorify God by obeying His word and fulfilling HIs revealed will. Evangelism is one of the activities that the Father and the Son have commanded (Matt. 28:19). If therefore, we love God and are concerned to glorify Him, we must obey His command to evangelize.
We glorify God by evangelizing, not only because evangelizing is an act of obedience, but also because in evangelism, we tell the world what great things God has done for the salvation of sinners. God is glorified when HIs mighty works of grace are made known.
The second motive that should prompt us to evangelism is love to our neighbour, and the desire to see our fellow-men saved.
‘….BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE’
‘And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love’ (1 Corinthians 13:13).
In my Bible reading, when I come to this verse, I have to pause, and wonder at the truth of verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 13:
We are not to suppose that love can atone for our sins, or make our peace with God; nothing can do that for us but the blood of Christ, and nothing can give us an interest in Christ’s blood but faith. The office of justifying joining the soul to Christ belongs to faith alone. Our love, and all our other graces, are all more or less imperfect, and could not stand the severity of God’s judgment. When we have done all, we are ‘unprofitable servants’ (Luke 17:10). We are not to suppose also that love can exist independently of faith. Paul, in this verse, did not intend to set up one grace in rivalry to the other; he did not mean that one man might have faith, another hope, and another love, and that the best of these was the man who had love. These three graces are actually inseparably joined together. Where there is faith, there will always be love, and where there is love, there will be faith. Then why is love called the greatest?
Firstly, because love is the one in which there is some likeness between the believer and his God. God has no need of faith. He is dependent on no one. There is none superior to the one in whom we must trust. God has no need of hope. To him all things are certain, whether past, present, or to come. But ‘God is love’ and the more love his people have, the more they are like their Father in heaven.
Secondly, love is called the greatest because it is most useful to others. Faith and hope, beyond doubt, however precious, have special references to a believer’s own private individual benefit. Faith unites the soul to Christ, brings peace with God and opens the way to heaven. Hope fills the soul with cheerful expectation of things to come, and amid the many discouragements of things seen, comforts with visions of the things unseen. But love is pre-eminently the grace that makes a man useful. It is the spring of good works and kindnesses. It is the root of missions, schools and hospitals. Love made apostles spend and be spent for souls. Love raises up workers for Christ and keeps them working.
Love smoothens quarrels, and stops strife, and in this sense ‘will cover a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8). Love adorns Christianity and recommends it to the world. A man may have real faith, and feels it, and yet the faith may be invisible to others. But a man’s love cannot be hidden.
Thirdly, love is the greatest of the graces because it is the one that endures the longest; in fact, it will never die. Faith will one day be swallowed in sight, and hope in certainty. Their office will be useless on the morning of the resurrection, and they will be laid aside. But love will live on through the endless ages of eternity. Heaven will be the home of love. The inhabitants of heaven will be full of love.
So perhaps, an important question for us believers Is: Have you love? This question is not one that ought to be lightly put aside. This is the grace which the Lord Jesus says expressly is the great mark of being his disciple – such a grace as this demands the serious consideration of every one who is in earnest about the salvation of his soul.
You may have some knowledge of religion.You know the difference between true and false doctrine. You can, perhaps, even quote texts and defend the opinions you hold. But remember, the knowledge that is barren of practical results in life and temperament is a useless possession. Remember the words of Apostle Paul: ‘And though I….understand all mysteries and knowledge…but have not love , I am nothing’ (1 Cor. 13:3).
Look at your own daily life, both at home and away, and consider what place the love of Scripture has in it. What are your ways of behaving toward all around you in your own family? What is your manner of speaking especially in times of irritation and provocation? Where is your courtesy, your patience, your meekness, your gentleness, your tolerance? Where are your practical actions of love in your dealing with others?
M0RE ON DISCIPLESHIP FROM LUKE GOSPEL
“As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’
He said to another man, ‘Follow me.’
But he replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’
Jesus said to him,’Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’
Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.’
Jesus replied, ‘No-one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’ (Luke 9:57-62)
Jesus sensed that the first man was not ready to commit. He knew this man would have expected security and even privilege because he was linked with Jesus. But the Lord said that the reverse would be true. In effect, Jesus was telling him that if he were to come with Jesus, he will have no guarantee of home comforts and security.
Jesus was born in a manger and died on a cross and in between had nowhere to lay his head. So Jesus challenges us: ‘How important are material things and material comforts to us when it comes to following and serving the Lord Jesus?’
In following Jesus, material comfort and security are not guaranteed. Even family demands must not stand in the way of serving God’s kingdom. Jesus went to speak to two others.
Both the two seemed to have an allegiance to Jesus, but Jesus rebuffed the first one and challenged the second; the first one was quick to make an excuse, the second slow to make a commitment.
Jesus wants our total commitment. He calls us to be willing to leave the security of the world’s wealth; the security of a comfortable home, the security of family and friends – we have to make a choice.
To follow Jesus is to join him on a road which may be rough and difficult. But it is worth it, because our relationship with him will be far more satisfying than any other relationship. It was to save our souls that Jesus came. If we spend our life for him, we find it – this is the paradoxical truth.
Throughout history, the church has been seduced by the attractions of honour, power, rank and prestige – various ones vie for power and influence; positions, titles, and power all too often become more important than serving Jesus Christ.
We see a significant difference in the life of Apostle Paul.
“…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philip. 4:11b-13)
This contentment in Paul was manifested because he had settled the issue of total commitment to Christ – he was prepared for the cost of discipleship in following and serving the Lord Jesus.
In Acts 20, Paul spoke to the Ephesian elders: “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only knew that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardship are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”(vv22-24)
Lest we think that only an apostle like Paul could fulfil the cost of discipleship, read what he wrote in Philippians 3:17: “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.”
Perhaps Galatians 2:20 gives us an inkling on why Paul viewed discipleship to the Lord as most important: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul saw his old life (the old Paul) as ‘dead’; elsewhere, he wrote that he no longer lived for himself but for Him who died for him and rose again. His new life (new creation) is ‘Christ living in me’; he lives by faith in Christ who loved him and died for him.
Paul appreciated so much the grace of God in his life; he saw himself as a chief of all sinners, the least of the apostles – there was so much gratitude to the Lord in his life; and there was also much love for the Lord who loved him and gave Himself for him.
Discipleship is no longer a great price to pay for one who truly appreciates how much the Lord Jesus loves him and how much He has done for him. It is ‘easy’ for those who learn to truly love Him in return.
That is perhaps why the Lord asked Peter, “Do you love me?” three times. Peter probably denied Christ 3 times because he loved his life more than he loved the Lord and he was afraid to lose it. But after the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord pinpointed the ‘problem’ in Peter’s life as an apostle. He reminded Peter that if he truly loved the Lord, (even more than his fishing, and his life -the Lord indicated to him that he might have to die for Him), then he can fulfil his role as an apostle to feed and tend the sheep (the people of God) in preaching the kingdom of God.
The bottomline for us refusing to pay the cost of discipleship: we love material things, pleasures of this world and our lives too much – our love for the Lord dwindles in the face of all these attractive things.
It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus said: “If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. “(Luke 9:26)
Let us not take these words of the Lord Jesus lightly.
JESUS WEPT
In John 11, it is recorded that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Before Lazarus died, the sisters of Lazarus had informed Jesus of his severe illness. However, surprisingly, Jesus purposely delayed in going to see Lazarus. His conversation with his disciples indicated that he knew that Lazarus would be raised from the dead by him, and he wanted to demonstrate that when he arrived subsequently, Lazarus was truly dead, dead in fact for 4 days; and when Lazarus is raised by Him subsequently, there is no question that Lazarus came back to life after being dead for 4 days. There is no question that it is just resuscitation or that Lazarus was just unconscious and not truly dead.
“Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
This took place when he arrived at the tomb of Lazarus. Some feel that Jesus wept because of his bond and friendship with Lazarus. But He was aware that He would raise Lazarus subsequently. In all probability, Jesus wept and was sorrowful as He saw the pain, agony and the unnecessity of death. Death is not the intention of God; God desires man to live forever with Him in glory and in eternal bliss.
Jesus in fact came into this world to defeat the guilt of sin, the power of sin, the devil and death.
Hence the apostle Paul wrote: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:55-56)
J.C. Ryle wrote” “The subject of death is one that men blink and refuse to look at. All men think all men are mortal but themselves. But why should we treat this great reality in this way?…..Death will come to our houses, whether we like it or not. Death will take each of us away despite our dislike in hearing about it. Surely it is a part of a wise man to get ready for this great change. ..There is One who can deliver us from the fear of death (Heb. 215). Christ has overcome death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10). He that believeth on Him hath everlasting life, and though he were dead, yet shall he live (John614; 11:25). Let us believe in the Lord Jesus, and then death will lose his sting”.
But Paul also wrote: “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor.15:50). Even Nicodemus, who was a religious Jewish teacher was told that unless he is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Yes, all will be raised subsequently – those who belong to Jesus to eternal life to be with Him; those who reject Him to damnation, and eternal hell and death.
Sometimes, I wonder at an obituary statement that so and so has entered into glory with Jesus; and yet there is no indication that the particular individual had turned to Christ in his lifetime and had been born again.
It is imperative that we do not reject the salvation God presents to us in Jesus, a salvatlon initiated by God who so loves that He gives His begotten Son so that those who believe shall not perish but inherit eternal life. Those who reject this gift of love and grace from the Triune God because of unrepentant and hardened hearts cannot presume that when death comes, they will invariably enter into glory with Jesus. Think about this. Understand why Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus.
Let us now look at another verse which recorded that Jesus wept:
“When he drew near and saw the city (Jerusalem), he wept over it.” (Luke 19:41) Then He said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes” (vs42).
In John 23, Jesus cried out, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (vs 37)
It is clear that Jesus wept over the city because of the hardness of the hearts of the inhabitants and their unwillingness to receive Him as the Messiah and Saviour. He wept as He ‘saw’ the coming judgment on this city and the eternal consequences that would come about upon those who reject God’s salvation.
Remember that Jesus wept over the ‘people of God’ – the Pharisees, the Scribes (those described as hypocrites, whitewashed tombstones with dead bones within), the multitudes who were looking for physical gratification and deliverance; also He knew that their rebellion and sin can only be reversed by His going to the cross and even then, He knew that ev after that, many will still not believe. His longing and love for them is described like a mother hen who gathers her chicks under her wings – yet they refused to come to Him.
Ponder over this: we who claim to be the people of God today, are we also like the people of Jerusalem? Despite God’s grace, love and invitation to receive His salvation, do we still refuse to commit ourselves to Him wholeheartedly? Do we cling to our status and position like the Pharisees; do we just long for physical well-being, gratification, pleasure and are not willing to pay the cost of discipleship? Will Jesus weep over us??