Abiding in Christ

Today’s devotional reading is based on the same passage as yesterday. The focus then was adding virtue to faith. Today, Chambers points to the line about adding love to brotherly affection.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. (2 Peter 1:3–9)

Love is much discussed and often misunderstood. What the Bible means is not the same as what Hollywood means, or even how most of us would define it. Chambers uses Jesus’ words for his definition:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)

From this, he says love is the sovereign preference of one person for another, with Jesus demanding that preference be for Himself. However, I’m hesitant about that definition because it leaves room for abandoning people when I should be loving them.

Chambers also says that God loves us, not because we are lovable, but because it is His nature to do so. I wholeheartedly agree. When Jesus said to “love others as I have loved you” this isn’t about dying on a cross, but about loving others because it is our nature to do so. In other words, loving someone is not about who they are but about who I am. Yet I must add that because Jesus lives in me, loving others is the result of His power and presence, not anything I am or can do without Him.

Of course I don’t always do it. That is not usually because of ignorance, but because of unwillingness. Love is costly and time-consuming. It is sacrificial because I must give up something else I would rather do. To love others, I must be yielded to Jesus Christ and filled with His Spirit.

This connects loving others to loving God. On a sermon about the two great commandments -- love God with all our heart, and love our neighbor as ourselves -- our pastor said that the second one is really a description of how to do the first one. If I want to show my love for God, prayer, praise, etc. are good, but loving others is an active and visible response to His love for me.

Knowing that God loves me unconditionally and with an everlasting love makes a huge difference in the way I live. Instead of seeking the love and approval of others, I am set free from that need (which winds up being selfish and sinful) and free to focus on caring for others. What trips me up is forgetting who I am and that God is the source of love.

Before the crucifixion, Jesus knew it was time to go. The Bible says He had loved His own, loved them to the end. Then during supper, He knew “that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God” so He took a towel, poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet. Jesus knew who He was and how much His Father loved Him. He was free to gladly be a loving servant. (John 13:1–5)

Adding love to brotherly affection can never be achieved by trying harder, nor is it maintained by discipline. I often need to confess my lack of love and my need for the Holy Spirit’s filling. He alone gives the grace needed to love others. Apart from Jesus, I cannot do it.

Abiding in Christ

Along the way, certain events shape our lives. For me, certain books have hugely influenced my thinking. One is “His Part and Ours” by J. Sidlow Baxter. While Chambers says “We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do,” Baxter clarifies passages (such as the one following) with a greater focus on God’s part.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3–8)

Chambers rightly says I cannot save or sanctify myself. Then he adds that God will not give us good habits, character, or make us walk rightly; we have to do it ourselves. After years of trying to do that myself, I shake my head. Apart from Christ, I can do nothing.

Actually, from the above passage, what God expects of me is an appropriate response to what He has done. He has given me all that I need to live a godly life through knowing Him. In that relationship, He lives in me. I have His nature, even His mind. My part is learning how to respond as a new creation to what He has done and is doing, but I cannot do that myself.

I cannot think right without His mind. I cannot speak right without His Word. I cannot do right without the fullness of the Holy Spirit who motivates every action, word, and thought. There is no DIY or “do it yourself” in Christian living.

As for habits, those too are a fruit of the Spirit. The one on the end of the list is not spoken about as much as those at the beginning . . .

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22–23)

Habits are formed through self-control. When that word ‘self’ gets in there, how easy to conclude it means we have to do this ourselves, but this is impossible. If I could do it myself, I would not need the Holy Spirit, nor even Jesus to save me from sin’s power. I could simply control that myself.

There is a difference between responding to what God has put into my life, and taking the initiative to work out my salvation. My tendency leans far more toward self-righteousness than the lackadaisical attitude of not obeying God that Chambers seems to be addressing. For me, saying “I will do it” has a heavy emphasis on the “I” without turning to Him for help.

We have attended many churches in our years of travel and relocations. A few stand out for their vibrant and growing ministry. While each was from a different denominational tradition, they all had one thing in common; the focus was on what God has done and is doing. Those churches with an emphasis on “you must do this” and “you must do that” were listless and yet rigid. One was so out of touch with God that everyone sang off-key.

Beware of those who shake their finger at your life instead of pointing it to the life of Christ and His glory. Yes, I need to obey God, and yes, I need good habits, but they form when I am filled with the Spirit and aware of God’s goodness to me, not when I am trying harder. 

Ideals and Visions

For a long time I thought that if I had unlimited education and resources, I’d start a Bible school. After being educated at four different colleges and seminaries, I became convinced of what would be an ideal school, one that would make solid disciples.

No one has ‘unlimited’ resources, yet as much as God has blessed us, that school has never happened. Chambers’ devotional for today gives me a good idea why not. He makes practical comments about this verse:

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18)

My school is an ideal, but it has no vision. I’m good at the ideal part. Creative thoughts flow out of me almost without ceasing, but as Chambers says, there is a difference between an ideal and a vision. He says an ideal has no moral inspiration; but a vision has. I’m not sure about that, but from experience I must agree with his next statement: people who have great ideals rarely do anything.

Ideals are not necessarily immoral, however they can be misused. I could argue that God is sovereign therefore He will save whom He will save. This is true and could be called an ideal, but I could understand it incorrectly and assume that I don’t need to share the gospel with anyone. On the other hand, if God gave me a vision of how He was going to save an entire city, that vision could impel me to seek my part in fulfilling it.

My ideal school is another example. As some might say, it is the stuff of which dreams are made of, but without a vision from the Lord, at the very least the ideal fades. It could also side-track me into daydreaming about what could have been instead of doing what God actually wants from me in the first place.

These are interesting thoughts. Was my ideal school first a vision and I let it slide without reaching for it? Did God intend that I take this and run with it? Or was it only my ambition seeking something else? I might never know the answers to those questions.

Chambers also says that when the vision fades, we cast off restraints. It seems the verse refers to those restraints that keep people walking the straight and narrow. Could they also include barriers God puts in my way so I will stay focused on His will, restraints He wanted but I didn’t want so tossed them out of my way? Whenever I insist on doing my own thing, I also begin pushing God away. With that, any vision I might have had fades as well. When that happens, life becomes mediocre instead of an exciting adventure.

In John Piper’s book, Desiring God: Confessions of a Christian Hedonist, one thought summarizes the gist of it -- we are too easily satisfied with mediocrity. We go for what this world offers when we could have the glories of Jesus Christ. Even then, the Christian life can also settle into a rut and because change is often stressful, we stay in the rut. Author and educator, Howard Hendricks points out the folly of resisting change because for Christians, change is our destiny.

Chambers challenges me too. He says ideals can lull me to ruin, the ruin of wasting minutes, hours, days, and years instead of focusing on God’s vision. I need to takes stock: do I have ideas only? Or do I have a vision of what God wants from me? Chambers says my reach should extend my grasp. At the same time, I realize that visions are from God. If not, then all my planning and imagination will come to nothing.

I’ve never been much of a risk-taker, never mind a visionary. However, God keeps stretching me beyond what my teeny mind can imagine.

Sparks fly upward

The wildfire in our province is still burning. Many evacuees from the city that was hit the hardest have come to our city, some with amazing stories of escape. Two young women rode their horses through the flames. Many families came out with a car full of small children, and took up to 48 hours to get to food and shelter without losing patience with the cries of their little ones. Strangers are helping strangers.

This has been an awful yet incredible week. We have seen patience in dire straits rising above the ordinary. We sometimes joke about praying for patience because the Bible says we learn it through tribulation, so don’t pray for it unless you want trouble, but this really isn’t a joke.

One of Job’s friends declared that a man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward. We live in a world filled with trouble, and if I’m having a good day today, tomorrow might bring the opposite. No one in Fort Mac expected that devastating fire and many are now facing years of recovery. This will take a great deal of patience.

Chambers talks about patient endurance from the perspective of what God is doing behind the scenes during those trials of life. He gave a promise to the church in Philadelphia (an ancient city in Asia Minor):

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

This church was noted for enduring under trial. Did they see their trial with any clarity? Chambers uses a word picture: patience is more than endurance because a Christian’s life in the hands of God is like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God aims at something we cannot see. He stretches and strains, and every now and then we cry out that we cannot take any more of this, but He doesn’t listen. He goes on stretching us until His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly.

This image is a good one. God uses it to tell me to trust God’s hands for whatever is testing me right now. The key is to maintain my relationship with Jesus by this patience that comes from faith, the patience describe by Job when he said, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” (Job 13:15)

Chambers insists that faith isn’t a ‘pathetic sentiment’ and I agree. Rather than a mousy acquiescence to the trials of life because I’m helpless to change anything anyway, it is an active confidence based on who God is. I cannot see Him every moment of every trial, nor can I always understand what He is doing, but I know who He is. I can be like those horses who trusted their young owners to get them beyond the wall of flames, or that child who took her father’s hand and lets him lead her through the fire.

Chambers also says faith is the heroic effort of life. I can fling myself in reckless confidence on God because I know and trust Him. He gave His all in Jesus Christ to save me. Now He wants me to give my all in total trust to Him, living through trials knowing that His life will touch all the places in mine that are yet to experience Him, places that will be exposed by the trial.

Eternal life is the kind of life that can face anything tossed at it without wavering. This makes life an adventure, even a great romance filled with opportunities for seeing the awesome goodness of God all the time. God keeps stretching me so as the sparks fly upward, I will rise with them, not to destruction or disaster, but to a place of great confidence and power.

Counting the cost?

One thing I like most about Oswald Chambers is that he shows me how often I put myself into the Scripture as the principle person when it isn’t about me at all. The words may sound like Jesus is talking to me or about me, and I relish that designation, but Chambers turns my understanding on its ear and I realize how self-centered I really am.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25–33)

Chambers begins his thoughts on this passage with: “Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted.”

He did say, “which of you . . . .” but the big picture shows the obvious; none of us know anything about counting the cost. It is Jesus who paid the price, counted the cost, and no one is going to mock Him and say, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”

Not only that, as He builds His kingdom, Jesus will use people that He has brought to a complete and total devotion to Himself. He says, “If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple.”

Jesus said He would build His church; the bricks and mortar are people who are utterly devoted to Him. He cannot use me if I am preoccupied with other things and other people.

Chambers’ thoughts remind me how the Bible says we plant and water but God produces the growth. Our works will be tested by fire to reveal what has been built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Yet as Chambers says, technically we do not work for God. Jesus moved into my life and claims it for His purposes. He is building His church according to His blueprint and plans. I’m not the builder or even the foreman on the job. Unless He grabs hold of me and makes me a brick, or trains me and makes me a brick-layer, I’m useless to this tower He constructs.

I’ve no claim to myself. Having counted the cost to Himself, He left heaven and came to earth to seek and save the lost and make of us a church, a kingdom, a people devoted to Him. I cannot dictate to Him what I shall be, become, do, or not do. He puts me where He wills because He counted the cost and paid the price. He will finish what He started. The tower will be completed, just as the war will be won.