Maintaining Peace

"I urge you to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." –Ephesians 4:3

We live in a world of chaos. The trampling herd of people chasing pleasures apart from God plays out and takes unpredictable turns in moods and mindsets of the victims in its wake. But we followers of Jesus are gifted by the Holy Spirit a peace. We enjoy the gift God’s peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:7). Paul urges here in Ephesians 4 that the peace that you and I enjoy with God as a gift is to be maintained in unity as a bond of peace with one another.

But why? Why must we strive to enjoy peace in the local church? What purpose is there of God to urge me to maintain peace with other sinners saved by grace, even and especially when it’s hard? Why be humble, gentle, patient, and bear with others in love (vs 2)? 

Paul says it is in keeping with a life worthy of the salvation I received (vs 1). To use my Holy Spirit giftedness to the gospel mission of the local church, being an actively loving and serving member of the church to equip saints for gospel service and build one another up to maturity in Christ-likeness (12-13). This maturing process, which is found in the increasing knowledge of the Son of God, means that the church has immature followers of Jesus in our midst. 

How well do we know one another? Do you patiently listen to or voice confessions of weaknesses in your faith? How do you give good counsel to trouble in other’s lives? How well do you receive biblical challenges from others to be closer to Christ?

Oftentimes, we gather for worship together all spiritually limping in wounded from our world of chaos. So, maintain our bond of peace, my beloved, by being a safe place, a refuge, a healing place. How? By increasing one another’s knowledge of the Son of God, Paul says. Be humble toward one another. Patient toward one another. Gentle toward one another. And bear with one another in love. Let us be the safe place for one another by being in Christ in the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Sunday morning may be the only peaceful moment a struggling young mother has this week. Or someone wrestling with drama at work. Or a teen pressured by friends at school. Or someone with a private internal wound. Let us be a safe place of God’s peace to one another. We are commanded to love as Christ loves us (John 15:12), and by His Spirit our Lord gifts to us all that He requires. If you lack peace and love, ask in His name.

Heavenly Father, grant us peace to rest in Your sovereign might through our Lord Jesus Christ. May the peace we enjoy with You be enjoyed together in unity. Teach us Your Word, equip us for Your mission, and fill us with Your love that our church may be a safe and healing place of Your peace. Amen.

Pray for Me, for Us

“I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” –Romans 15:30

Paul was a giant in the faith. Thoughtful, intelligent, willing to work and to suffer for Christ. He planted churches around the Mediterranean Sea, fought off wolves endangering young Christians, and was a bold preacher in front of Herod, Mars Hill, and angry mobs. Yet, Paul still needed the prayers of the church gathered. “Join in my struggle through prayer,” he pleads to the church. 

Why does Paul ask the church to join in his struggle? For “our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit.” Paul’s prayer for the local church is that our “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians1:9). Love increases in the church that gathers to know God more and discern His truth. 

My ministry, just like Paul’s, is utterly dependent on God to do the things only God can do. Making disciples of all people to the glory of God requires God’s power. Paul knew his personal growth and labor in ministry was by God’s grace alone (I Corinthians15:10). Who I have become and how I minister is dependent upon God’s grace alone. Therefore, my beloved Allison Avenue saints, struggle with me by praying to God for me.

Also, Paul pleads for the saints in Rome to join him in his struggle by praying “by the love of the Spirit.” There is a sweetness found in a church who prays such Kingdom prayers together! Join the struggle together by praying to God together! Paul already commanded the Roman saints to “rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). Be constant in prayer…together. Struggle together. Paul wrote to the Colossian church how he heard of their faithfulness to God and of their love in the Spirit (Colossians1:8). This is the same Holy Spirit in whom we the church enjoy unity and a bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3), a perfect unity held together by God’s perfect love (Colossians3:14).

I plead with you: pray for me, for my teaching ministry, for my leadership of our church. Pray that I speak the mystery of the gospel in the way I should (Colossians 4:3-4) with boldness (Ephesians 6:19). Pray for one another. Pray together. Pray constantly. Pray that you love one another more (Philippians 1:9). Pray that you encourage one another to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and to bear fruit for His glory (Colossians 1:9-10). 

Let us be a praying church, faithful to God and depending on God and going to God on behalf of one another. Join in the struggle of the global gospel mission of Christ in prayer for laborers to enter the field for the harvest (Luke 10:2) and then go to the field ourselves (Luke 10:3).

Heavenly Father, my love for Your people whom You have sovereignly placed under my leadership compels me to ask You for Your favor to them. Bless them by Your rich mercies, deliver them from temptation, and may our love for one another increase. To Your glory and in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Knowing and Loving God

“I have stored up Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” -Psalm 119:11

We humans are in desperate need of correction. The Bible tells us that our minds are corrupt and bent toward evil constantly (Genesis 6:5) and that we need the Bible to renew our minds so as to not become like the world around us (Romans12:2). How well do you know the Bible? Do you store up the wisdom from the Word in your heart?

I sense an awkward hesitation from some to attend our Bible studies and discipleship groups, and I am curious if it is our pride being intimidated. We are intimidated by what we don’t know, especially if we walk into a room filled with people who do know the Bible well. Let me teach you a proverb I took up many years ago: do not be ashamed about what you do not know, only from an unwillingness to learn.

The Scripture is God speaking of Himself; His infinite, eternal, everlasting, beauty never fading Self. None of us would know God without Him revealing Himself. And the Lord says to worship the Lord our God with all our minds. Have a desire, a willingness, to learn from His Word. We are to know God well to love God well. Do you know Him well?

I encourage you and your family; do not be content with the label “Christian” without knowing and loving God well. We learn in community as a local church. God made us to need Him and to love Him, and we learn by renewing our minds with Scripture together. Join our Bible studies, discipleship groups, and for our worship gatherings. But don’t leave it there. Take your Bible and learn from God at home. Learn the God you love. He will instruct and correct you, discipline and convict you, to renew your mind to love the Lord will all your mind. Our Lord teaches us His revealed Word that His complete joy may be in us (John 15:11).

Heavenly Father, forgive us for any idle thinking and grant us Your mercy a yearning to receive Your instruction, storing up Your Word in our hearts. Grant us repentance, O Lord, and teach us that Your joy may be in us. We praise You for Your steadfast love given through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discerning Ear

“The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge,
                and the ear of the wise seeks it” (Proverbs18:15).

I recently joined our church choir. I’m not a trained singer, so I have to listen to the music and other tenors and adjust my voice to match. This does not come naturally to me. The choir practices, helps one another, and seeks guidance from Bill, our music director. 

The same is with discernment. No one is born with the “perfect pitch” of a wise, discerning ear. We don’t cruise into receiving a discerning ear with ease. We need to listen to truth to know truth from lies. We need each other for encouragement and a biblical understanding. We need pastoral guidance in the rightly divided preaching of the Word. We need to gather as a biblical church to mature each other as discerning disciples of Jesus (Hebrews 5:14). 

We need more than a listening ear for truth, however. We need a grace-fueled desire to delight in the truth. Sin and false teaching are attractive to us. That’s what makes them tempting. We need to learn to ask: Is the teaching that speaks to my heart the rightly divided Word of God? Again, this is not natural to any sinner. 

The Proverb above tells us that wise disciples gain an ear to discern with the acquired knowledge of the Bible. Why would we want to learn discernment? First, Jesus said He teaches us truth that our joy may be full (John 15:11). Sin and false teaching may seem attractive, but are short lived and the joy is temporary and incomplete. When Jesus is our joy, our joy is eternal and complete. Second, because the truth sets us free from temptations which persuade us to settle for lesser joys than God. 

We need to trust Jesus with our joy and diligently listen to His truth in the Bible to gain an ear to know good from evil. We do this not in personal study alone; we need to study the Word with each other. So, let us encourage one another toward the full joy in Christ Jesus by teaching the truth in love for one another (Ephesians4:15).

Be Still and Know...

A verse in the Bible that manages to find its way on coffee mugs these days is Psalm 46:10, which reads, "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Yet, if we maintain the American hermeneutic of reader-response, we will simply handle this beautiful verse in the mud of our own feelings rather than the glorious meaning of God's Word here.

Psalm 46 in Context

The theme in this Psalm is that God is our protection and that the glory of God will be praised in all His creation. Note the absence of man-centeredness in the themes. This Psalm is all about God: His might in protection and His greatness displayed in His creation. "God is our refuge and strength," says the Psalmist. Both our protection and our strength against our enemies are not a co-operating effort, nor does our strength and protection originate with us. The fortress of might belongs solely to God. Furthermore, God is a very present refuge and strength. God is with us.

Earthquakes and floods compromise the strength of foundations of buildings built by humans. No matter the amount of rebar or concrete, natural disaster has a force grander than its strength. Thus, these buildings of refuge have untrustworthy strength. God is a fortress with almighty strength that cannot be compromised by anything or anyone. His might is sovereign over all things; thus, all things (including kingdoms, world leaders, and people) "melt" simply by the voice of our sovereign God, like a candle to a flame. The voice of God that melts all the earth is a mighty fortress of refuge for those who love and trust Him, and is a melting fear that strikes the heart of men of disobedience! The voice of God is found in His Bible.

The last paragraph of this Psalm is a call to worship this all-powerful God whose voice melts the earth and is a powerful fortress. "Come, behold the works of the LORD," commands the Psalmist. Behold which of His works? "How he has brought desolations on the earth," declares the Psalmist. God is a mighty fortress against His enemies and a God who is mighty in battle, making all wars cease and utterly destroying the armies of His enemies. He "breaks the bow and shatters the spear," destroying His foes and their weapons of war. God is a God that utterly destroys the kingdoms, the peoples, and the weapons that oppose Him. This destruction is from the hot melting power of His voice alone, with no contribution from us.

Be Still...

In the call for the faithful to worship this powerful and sovereign God comes the command to "be still." The word is הַרְפּ֣וּ (harpoo), which means to cease. This is under the phrase, "behold the works of the LORD," from verse 8. The works of the LORD are (1) ceasing wars and (2) ceasing His followers. In Hebrew parallelism, which is a form of poetry in the Hebrew language, the Psalmist beautifully uses the word מַשְׁבִּ֥ית (masbith) to illustrate ceasing wars in verse 9, then using a different word to cease (or "be still") the worshipers of God.

Imagine the scene of a lopsided battle. Tanks, helicopters, fighter jets against a weak enemy with sticks. A battle with God on our side is even more lopsided than this! The enemy stands no chance. God melts His enemies and breaks their weapons with His thunderous voice. This mighty God ceases all wars. In the same way, God ceases His worshipers! God commands us to be still in the very same way as the warriors that stood against Him. All of our opinions on life, all of our anxieties, and all of our striving are to be ceased in hearing the voice of God.

...and Know that I am God

Beholding the great might of our God who melts His enemies with His voice and causes His followers to be stilled leads to a knowledge of God. In Jeremiah 9:23-24, God says, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom" but "let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me." However, this is not simply an acknowledgement of God's glory and great works that is divorced from awe and wander. James 2:19 tells us that even the demons know God...and tremble! This knowledge of God melts His enemies and stills His followers!

The knowledge of God referred to here is not simply in our knowing about God, but a knowledge coupled with a ceasing (being still) from our trust in ourselves, leaning on our own understanding, and our works apart from loving God. To be still and know that YHWH is God is a knowledge that boasts in God, not boasting in our own ambitions or in jealousy. A knowledge of God with our boasting arrogance is a knowledge that is demonic (James 3:15). A worshipful knowledge of God boasts in the Name of God that is exalted among all the people and all His creation.

Application

Those called to behold the great works of God are called to be theologians and practitioners. First, we study the voice of God in His Word. Second, this study leads to obedience. Our words are not in self-defense or self-exaltation, but the words as learned in His Word. Our works are not self-preservation or self-ambitious, but works flowing from the grand knowledge of God. We are not craftsmen working on ourselves, but pots molded by God's Word for we are His craftsmanship to do His works in which God Himself prepared to do before He even created (Ephesians 2:10).

When our knowledge, our deeds, and our boasting are entirely dependent on God through His Word, God who gave all the knowledge and has done all the work receives all the glory. His Name is highly exalted in all His creation! Be still, cease in your selfish striving and arrogant boasting, rest in God and in the knowledge of Him, and you will have a mighty Fortress and a Strength that cannot be thwarted. We can persevere through all temptations that spring here in the wilderness. As Martin Luther put it in his hymn "A Mighty Fortress is our God," which he wrote to correspond to Psalm 46:

And though this world, with devils filled,

should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
one little Word shall fell him.

Causing Division and Creating Obstacles

In the closing of his epistle to the Romans, Paul writes, "I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them" (Romans 16:17). Paul is not appealing that Christians avoid any division, but those divisions contrary to the truth of the Scripture. Paul is appealing for Christians to unite in the truth of Scripture and to separate from those challenging the Word of Truth.

Unity in Truth is True Unity
This is not the post-modern message in the West, which defines unity as avoiding any and all division in tolerance of all beliefs and doctrines as equally valid and acceptable. For the apostle Paul, unity is found only in "the doctrine that you have been taught." Christ perfects, equips, and gifts His people through the Word "divided accurately" (II Timothy 2:15) until "we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Ephesians 4:13-14). Paul contends that the saints are not brought to "the fullness of Christ" and perfected by smart preachers or human wisdom, but by Christ Himself through His perfect Word.

In Colossians 3, Paul commands the local church to have hearts ruled by the peace of Christ and put on love, "which is the perfect bond of peace" (Colossians 3:14-15). Our understanding of true unity and peace and love of Christ are not to simply take verses out of context and redefine the meaning. Paul finishes in verse 16 with, "Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all teaching and admonishing one another..." Our peace and love of Christ is ruled ultimately by Scripture, which so abundantly takes up residence in our hearts that we teach and admonish one another. Christ washes His local church with His Word (Ephesians 5:26), and Paul commends the God-breathed Scripture for "teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," which equips us for every good work (II Timothy 3:16-17).

Unity in the truth of Scripture is the only true unity Christ graces for His church. Unity in the truth means not to have a problem with authority of Christ in His perfect Word, but to have problems with authority from any other source, including a self-distrust.

The Singularity of Truth
Paul consistently speaks of the truth (singular, not plural) of Scripture. Paul states that unashamed believers can "rightly divide the Word of Truth," claiming Scripture to be one, cohesive, consistent, non-contradictory revelation of truth. Paul supposes that, although difficult to understand at times, the Scripture is clear and speaks of truth, giving full authority to the Word's Author and no authority to the reader. In other words, the reader is not permitted to suggest truth into Scripture that is not there, but the Author reveals truth to the reader that did not know. For instance, Paul commands the local church in Ephesus to "Speak the truth in love." Not truth(s), or kindly suggest an opinion and happily agree that everyone has their own opinion or "personal interpretation", or be kind and "lovingly" never confront anyone with the truth of Scripture, but speak the TRUTH.

The singularity of truth in Scripture contends that God is sovereign; in other words, God is in full control and fully capable of revealing truth to us in a clear manner. Our reading of Scripture must be of an attitude of complete dependence and trust in God to reveal truth to us, lest we claim partial or complete sovereignty of truth. Remember, Scripture tells us that without Christ we are blinded by Satan (II Corinthians 4:4), not dimly seeing. Without Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), not merely sick or wounded. To challenge truth with our opinions or to suggest parts that we do not like are antiquated or contradictory challenges God's sovereign authority in His Word, which causes divisions and sets up obstacles in the church.

Avoid Division
Paul goes so far as to command the local church in Rome to avoid those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the truth of Scripture. Avoid them. Paul suggests that in order to serve Christ and not be a people-pleaser, we are to be united in the gospel (again, singular) and reveals that if anyone including angels preaches another gospel contrary to Scripture, that person is eternally accursed (Galatians 1:6-10). Paul handed false teachers "over to Satan" for spinning a different teaching of the gospel.

To remove people from congregation in church discipline or to correct others with the Scripture seems intolerant or divisive in this day and age. However, biblically speaking, we are to unite in the truth of Scripture alone, and avoid and separate ourselves from those teaching otherwise. Some might suggest that Christians can unite with others to get work done. However, to compromise truth for pragmatism sets the church up for human cunning and deceitful schemes, placing what we do above the truth.

However, Paul does command the local church to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). We must yearn for unity, but unity is something the local church maintains (guard, keep) not creates. Unity in the truth of the Word of God is given to us by Christ, not made up by groups of people in our own opinions and suggestions while leaning on our own understanding. We must be eager, with gut-gripping yearning for the saints to be unified in peace bound by Christ's love and provided by His Word of Truth.