My mother used to distract us. Other parents yell. Some separate their children. Whatever the remedy, mothers and fathers all over the world do not like seeing or hearing their children fight. It is the subject in cartoons, but a distressing and universal issue in families.
The apostle Paul didn’t like seeing God’s children fight either. I’ve not done the math, but most of his letters to the churches (now become books in the New Testament) contain admonitions to get along. Fighting is easy. Unity requires more effort. To the church in Philippi he wrote:
Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. (Philippians 1:27)
The world knows that Christians ought not to fight. Jesus gave them the criteria for judging our genuineness when He said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
As Paul indicated, we are able to “stand fast in one spirit” because we have the Holy Spirit. We can also think “with one mind” because we have been given the mind of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:16). We also have one purpose, to “strive together for the faith.” Add this up and we have no excuse for fighting and many reasons for unity.
At the time Paul wrote Philippians, he was in prison for his faith. This church had been founded by him years earlier. He had visited them several times. Now he was letting them know what was happening in his life and encouraging them that he was okay, even joyful. His letter showed them that the God they served was able to sustain His people even in the most dire circumstances. He didn’t say it, but as I read Philippians, I hear the Holy Spirit saying, “If I can keep my child joyful in prison, what is bugging you so much that you have to fight with one another?”
Paul is more concerned about them. He wants them to represent Christ well. The closest he comes to mentioning his own needs is when he asks these Christians to add to the joy he is already experiencing. He says to them:
Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. (Philippians 2:2)
Again, he reminds them that all of them possess the love of God in Christ Jesus. They can have unity because they have the same purpose and the same mind of Christ. Because believers have one Spirit living within us, there is no reason for fighting and all the help we need to get along.
It is easier to fight than get along. As Veterans Day and Remembrance Day in Canada approach, I’m reminded of global scale spats. Wars go on almost at every point in the world’s history. Every time I read or watch the news, conflict almost always makes the headlines. People want their own way and are willing to be wounded or worse to make it happen.
This propensity to fight comes partly from our propensity to sin. Sin is thinking I know better than God and sin is simply going my own way in defiance of God’s way. I want what I want and sin will make me push others out of my way.
But God’s way includes fighting too. The Old Testament is filled with physical battles, and God is often misunderstood because of these literal skirmishes where thousands were slaughtered. Why did God want war, and does He still endorse “religious” wars?
We took two of our grandchildren to church one Sunday. Old Testament battles were the topic in their class. On the way home, one of them asked about God’s reasoning in asking His people to kill so many people. We didn’t answer, waiting to see what he would come up with on his own. After a few moments of silence, he said, “Oh, I understand. It was because those nations were so evil.”
Generally people ask the wrong question. Instead of wondering why God had people killed, we need to recognize the sinfulness of sin and wonder why God allows anyone to live!
Besides that, it seems to me that the Old Testament battles were literal representations of the spiritual struggles described in the New Testament. For Christians, we are clearly told that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness and evil forces in the spiritual realm (Ephesians 6). For this, we need to fight, not with each other (shame on us), but against the enemies who would ruin our walk with Christ and destroy our testimony of His grace.
Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. (Philippians 1:27-29)
Fighting that is worthy of the gospel of Christ does not mean fighting with other Christians over correct doctrine or what color the church carpets should be. It means that we stand together on what we believe, agreeing that Jesus died for our sin, was buried and rose again the third day. It means we know who the enemy is, and it is not us.
Fighting that is worthy of the gospel might also mean standing against people who teach otherwise. This is not about a physical altercation, but about taking all sorts of abuse for what we believe rather than backing down or arguing. Yet this passage is mostly about getting along with other Christians.
Such spiritual harmony requires work. It is easier to fight that to love others unconditionally, even when they like blue and we like green. It is easier to fight than support and sustain people, especially if we don’t see eye to eye on every issue, major or minor.
When Christians do not agree and sin like criticism, bitterness, unforgiveness, partiality and pride spread through the church, we are not to go to war but to our knees. Only the God of peace can restore to us that loving attitude that is rooted in the heart of Christ — who lives in our hearts.
With Jesus in control, we can care and pray for each other, support the weak, lift the fallen, restore the broken, and stand together against spiritual wickedness and the forces that threaten to destroy us. We need to fight, not with each other but the evil forces that work to maintain their stranglehold against the people in the world by holding them in darkness and sin and encouraging them to be always at war with one another.
After eight hours sleep in a king-size bed, a warm shower, dressing in clean clothes that fit, and eating a pear and a toasted English muffin with peanut butter, I’m not able to relate to today’s devotional verse.
You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (2 Timothy 2:3)
In context, it is about a pastor’s role in disciple-making. Paul is writing to a young pastor and tells him, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (verse 2).
Timothy was young, one strike against him because it gave opponents of Christianity an excuse to dismiss his teaching. He also had this role when the church was new and persecution for following Jesus was common. He needed this reminder to endure hardship for he faced it every day.
Some hardship comes to leaders from within. Several verses indicate young Timothy was by nature a timid man. He had to battle his own fears and sense of inadequacy. More opposition came from the world outside the church too. People did not like the message of the Cross and one way to reject it was by getting rid of its messengers. Spiritual opposition came from Satan as well. This enemy is always trying to thwart or destroy any attempts to tell others about Jesus. He does not want Christians to become more like their Lord and Savior either.
Timothy is not alone. Today’s pastors also face opposition and difficulties. Their role is broad yet basic. The truths of the Christian faith and life must be passed on to the next generation. Christians must be taught and trained, sometimes rebuked and corrected. Most of the people in the pew resist change, offering their pastor a forth kind of opposition because the way many Christians resist personal change and growth is by attacking the pastor.
Oh, that is not the only reason. Some pastors have slipped off their divine calling and no longer teach and preach the truth. They should be rebuked and corrected (rather than roasted for Sunday dinner). Some do not take the Bible seriously and fail to use it properly in their weekly messages, making them weakly messages. Those pastors need to be challenged also.
Yet even those who are doing a good job face criticism and pettiness concerning the tie they are wearing (or not wearing), the music selected for the worship service, the color of the new paint in the foyer, the messages they preach (or should preach), the way they deliver that message, and a host of other deflating attacks. These come from people who would never say that they are on the side of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but their actions betray them.
I’ve never been a pastor nor want to be one, but even a slight taste of the battle of leadership show me that being up front means having your backside exposed. It calls for endurance, for soldierlike singleness of purpose.
In my cushy life, if someone opposes me about my responsibility of teaching a Bible class and interacting with Christian women, I feel like running. It must be many times more extreme for pastors. Yet instead of running, God calls His people to endure, to keep our eyes on Him and the goals He sets before us. Hardship might come in various degrees of challenge, but the response is always the same — just soldier on.
What makes people happy? It used to be money, power and popularity, but the list is changing.
The American Psychological Association did a new study. They say that attaining popularity or influence and money or luxury is not what makes people the happiest. In fact, those items are now at the bottom of the list. Topping the list of needs that appear to bring happiness are autonomy (feeling that your activities are self-chosen and self-endorsed), competence (feeling that you are effective in your activities), relatedness (feeling a sense of closeness with others) and self-esteem.
Marilyn Elias, in USA TODAY, says, “The happiest people surround themselves with family and friends, don't care about keeping up with the Joneses next door, lose themselves in daily activities and, most important, forgive easily.”
Interesting lists. They even come close to some ideas in the Bible. However, the idea of self, and even the word “self” pops up in both statements, more so in the first one by the APA. Both lists seem to make being happy related to self-effort, self-protection (cocooning) and taking care of me and mine.
When I read these lists, I thought about a few times I have been very happy. Here is a short list, in random order.
• standing on a rock in Maui watching forty foot waves roar toward me
• a conversation with my 41 year-old nephew who told me about his decision to follow Jesus
• listening to my daughter and granddaughter describe their recent ride in a helicopter where they could “almost touch the mountains”
• giving a freshly baked loaf of bread to my adult son
• just thinking about making up this list
Today’s devotional is about what made the Apostle Paul happy. He was delighted in the people that were his brothers and sisters in the family of God. He wrote,
Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. (Philippians 4:1)
I can feel the love in his words and know that same pleasure of simply enjoying other Christians. We enjoy each other because Christ is in each of us and when fellowship is at its best, we are communing with our Savior who, because of this indwelling, becomes near to us, even has “skin on.”
I recently read an amazing book by John Piper called God’s Passion for His Glory in which he reproduces a work by Jonathan Edwards. Edwards is a difficult read, but one truth comes shining forth from this work and the whole of Piper’s book: God is most glorified when His people are most delighted in Him.
After weeks of thinking about this book, I have discovered a wonderful thing, at least it works for me. I can turn on “delighting in Him” almost like a water faucet. Well, it is more like a fire hose or a rushing river. It is possible, no matter where I am or what I am doing, to turn my mind to the wonder and glory of God and feel an incredible sense of delight.
This is a gift, but it is also the extreme of happiness, a joyful sense that no matter what is happening, God is God. He is in charge. He loves me. He loves the people around me more than I do or possibly could. He made the waves that excite and delight me. His grace brought my nephew to Himself. He built those mountains and the opportunity to lift my girls up there to see them. He is the Bread of life, a greater delight than my best baking.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” It has been my discovery that when I am delighted in God, I have no other desires. The Lord Jesus Christ likely will never make the American Psychological Association’s list of what makes people happy, but He makes me deeply happy and totally content.
Satan likes to confuse Christians about the identity of our enemy. It is him, not “us” — yet he is often successful in turning believers against each other and creating feuds in the family of God.
Jesus knew it would happen. In John 13, He showed His disciples what love does, and then told them to love one another. He said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35)
This statement seems to give those outside the family permission to say that those who cannot get along and lack that love toward other believers cannot be Christians. In other words, infighting in the church is a serious matter. It can ruin our testimony to the world.
I remember the first time another Christian irked me to the point where I considered her my enemy. I knew that this was wrong, but had zero affection for this person. For months, I wrestled with a bad attitude and anger. Finally it became obvious that the other person would never change, so I asked God to help me get over it.
I thought it would be impossible, but the Lord showed me several things that I could do that would change my attitude. Three of them are in today’s devotional passage.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:3-8)
First, I needed to pray for this person every time I thought of her and ask God to bless her. This was a challenge in the beginning, but it had the effect I wanted; my anger began to go away. You cannot pray for an enemy and remain antagonistic, particularly when that ‘enemy’ is someone in God’s spiritual family, a brother or a sister in Christ.
Second, I needed to remember that God was at work in this person. I needed to trust Him to do in her what I perceived needed to be done (which is an arrogant thought in the first place). He was her Savior too, and just as I trusted my life and spiritual growth to Him, I must also trust her to Him. If there were no changes and I complained, I was really complaining about the plan of God.
Third, we were both partakers of grace. Grace means that God loves and forgives sinners, including her, including me. Is my sin any less than anyone else’s sin? I began to see that my unloving attitude was just as bad, if not worse, than the things that angered me in this person.
Praying for her dissipated my anger. Trusting God and seeing that we were both partakers of grace changed my perspective. This was more than twenty years ago. This person has not yet changed, at least as far as I can see, but I’m no longer filled with frustration concerning her and still trust God to do as He wishes in her life (and mine).
Praying for those that seem like enemies (and remembering our real enemies are not flesh and blood, Ephesians 6:12) will break the power of that real enemy. We don’t have to let him stir us into sibling spats and give those outside the church good reason to doubt that we are children of the King.
Graphic from Ray Comfort's Blog
In two episodes of NCIS (taped reruns) we watched Gibbs and Tony each face someone with a raised weapon who started shooting. Both officers stood their ground, drew their weapon, and successfully defended themselves. Of course this is television not real-life, yet their actions illustrate my devotional reading for today.
Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! (Philippians 4:1)
Standing firm means just what it says. While this is not necessarily about an enemy with a gun, it could involve harm of some sort, so no matter the threat, whenever something challenges my faith, I am supposed to face it, not run, nor give up, nor turn away.
If the danger is physical, and it could be, the context gives the grounds for standing firm. The verses just previous to this say,
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)
In the face of an extreme threat, like death, I can be fearless because I know that death is my doorway to eternity with God. This gives me pause. My life is hardly ever in danger, but I have friends who work in other parts of the world where this threat is real and constant. Their lives are often threatened simply because they are Christians and this promise is for them too. No matter what happens to the old body, we are guaranteed to receive new bodies that are like the body of the resurrected Christ. Death is not the end for us, far from it.
Standing firm is also the attitude God wants me to have when I face temptation, or when my faith is challenged. Ephesians 6:11 uses a similar term, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Satan would love to see my back. He tries to make me fearful so I will not face or defend my faith or stand firm in the face of his strategies to ruin my Christian life. God commands me to never compromise my Christian testimony or allow myself to be overwhelmed by trials or temptation. He gives me what I need to obey.
Sadly, there are times when I do not take God and His commands seriously enough. The writer of my devotional book laments that many Christians do need seek the knowledge of God, but prefer to be pampered and entertained. Some even are apathetic to the point of acting as if His commands are mere suggestions, and the alternatives are desirable options.
I like watching NCIS, partly because the characters are believable and with human quirks and flaws, but more because of their zeal to “stop the bad guys” and stand firm against evil and wrong doing.
However, as I think about those two shows, I get a picture in my mind of what would happen if the script writers decided to show Tony or Gibbs as not willing to stand firm. They would die. The end. Show over.
In real life, standing against sin, could mean death. Jesus is a prime example. He refused to sin and was crucified because of it. Yet because of His firm stand, I can do the same.
Therefore . . . let me stand firm against everything that hinders me and the sin that so easily entangles, and let me run with perseverance the race marked out for me. Let me fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. May I consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that I will not grow weary and lose heart. In my struggle against sin, I have not yet resisted to the point of shedding my blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4)
Photo credit
Never tell your child before his first visit to the dentist that it won’t hurt. The truth might be fearful, but anything less will have far worse consequences. This makes sense. If a child is promised it will not hurt and it does, then you have betrayed them and trust is broken.
Jesus knew this principle works. He told the disciples that their joy would turn to sorrow (and back to joy), and that they would be scattered and alone because of their faith in Him. He said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)
Christianity is not a Pollyanna religion. It is not “pie in the sky” for those who wish to absent themselves from the concerns of life. Rather, living for Jesus can be filled with lonely and tumultuous experiences, tribulation in a world that is at best blase about faith in Christ and at worst, hateful. Jesus never promised the proverbial rose garden.
I live in a country whose laws protect God’s people from open persecution, at least for now, but there are places in the world where Christians are daily murdered simply because they believe in Jesus. How can His words be practical for me when my world is relatively peaceful? How can they be practical for those whose world is filled with horrors?
The author of today’s devotional reading says that serving the Lord and staying true to Him can be more difficult in a world like mine than in a place where persecution is open. He once asked a Russian pastor, “Is it difficult to pastor a church in your country?” The pastor responded, “No, it’s easy because I know where everyone stands. But how can someone pastor a church in America, where compromise is so common and subtle?”
Here in North America many people who call themselves Christians still want to fit into this comfortable world around us. Acceptance becomes more important than truth or taking a stand on spiritual matters. Instead of saying that we believe in Jesus, we will say we believe in God. The difference may not seem like much, but believers in God are common. Name the name of Jesus Christ and things change.
We will talk about doing church work rather than serving Christ. We will tell others that God loves them, but shrink back when it comes to saying that Jesus died for them. We know what Jesus said — in the world we will have tribulation, but then ignore that He also will give us what we need to overcome the world. Instead, we do our best to fit into it so we can avoid the opposition of its people.
When we do that, the oddest thing happens. Once the people of the world realize that we are Christians yet see us trying to be like them, instead of acceptance, they reject our “faith” and call us hypocrites.
There is only one way to overcome the world. It is by accepting the tribulation Jesus predicted and embracing His power and grace to live in this world — loving them as Jesus did, but without back-peddling or compromising the truth.
My mother used to distract us. Other parents yell. Some separate their children. Whatever the remedy, mothers and fathers all over the world do not like seeing or hearing their children fight. It is the subject in cartoons, but a distressing and universal issue in families.
