1 Peter: God is faithful in the furnace

Peter’s first letter is written to Christians under pressure for their faith, to encourage them to stand firm so that they may receive their reward, and so that those living around them would see God at work in them.  Perhaps some key verses are these:

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

1 Peter 2:9-12

If you think the start of v9 sounds familiar you are right.  Peter is quoting from Exodus 19, and I imagine that he has at least the whole of these verses in mind as he does so.

⁴ ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you^[a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Exodus 19:4-6

In Exodus 19 God speaks to Israel  and assures them that they are his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  These words, spoken to Israel at Mt Sinai are true, Peter says, for his hearers – Jew and Gentile believers in Jesus together are God’s ‘elect’, his chosen people.  For in Christ those who believe in Christ are grafted into Israel’s story and Israel’s story becomes ours. We who believe in Jesus are now Abraham’s children, heirs of the promise to Abraham, and heirs of the mission to bring blessing to all nations.

Our purpose as a chosen nation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation is to declare God’s praises to the world – remembering that we only have these privileges because of God’s mercy.  We do that, not as a nation state living in a land, but as ‘strangers and exiles’ in the world. Peter places us in the same position as the Jews scattered after the exile. Our declaring of praises is done as we live lives of such good quality among the ‘pagans’ that they see a difference of quality in our lives.

Here ‘pagans’ is ‘nations’ or ‘Gentiles’.   The division now is not between Jew and Gentile, but between believers in Jesus and the rest of the nations.  This division is not intended to be an iron curtain, but one which is constantly changing as more and more people come to put their trust in Jesus and so are in a position to glorify God on the day ‘he visits us’. The word ‘visit’ here conveys the sense of inspection or judgement – it is the same word as ‘overseer’ – it is the day God judges sin and puts everything to rights.

These verses are vital to Peter’s letter because he writes to a situation where the early believers are under pressure.  It is clear as the letter goes on that the believers face persecution and trouble for their Christian faith.

In the first part of the letter, up to these verses, Peter reminds them of the sure and certain hope that they have which is kept for them in heaven by God, of the call to a holy life, and of the reality that are being built together into God’s temple.

All of that means that they rejoice now with an inexpressible and glorious joy.  That joy is a reality – Peter doesn’t even command it, he just notes it as true:

⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1:6-9

Joy comes because of their love for Jesus, because of their trust in him, and because they know that even now they are receiving the goal of their faith.  Salvation begins now, and brings joy. Not a joy because of the absence of pain – that is obvious as you read the letter, not a joy that is a deep down imperceptible joy that no one can really see, but a joy that is able (as one hymn writer put it) to ‘trace the rainbow through the rain, and know the promise is not vain, that morn shall tearless be’.  

After Peter’s call to a godly life comes a series of places to work that out – in relating to the state, in relating as slaves and masters, in relating in marriage (especially where one person is still an unbeliever) and indeed in all of life – the call is to persevere in the midst of suffering.  

Peter is not writing to justify slavery or the Roman Empire, or patriarchal systems, rather he is writing to explain how to live as people who have to survive in the midst of such systems. Ultimately in living in the midst of such times Peter’s call is not to be afraid, but to keep on placing Christ as Lord:

¹³ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear their threats^[b]; do not be frightened.’^{[c] 15} But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

3:13-16

Peter follows these words with encouragement for those suffering specifically because of their Christian faith, and then specifically for church leaders – reminding them to lead willingly and faithfully.  They are not to be in it for the money – and sadly all too often we still see headlines of church leaders who have exploited vulnerable people, some becoming extremely rich in the process.

Peter’s final call is worth reminding ourselves of:

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 5:10-11

Peter writes these words, he goes on to say in his farewell, from ‘Babylon’ – almost certainly not the actual Babylon, but a cryptic way of saying Rome.  Peter writes from the heart of the one of the greatest Empires on earth to that point to remind his readers not to be fooled by its greatness. Rome will fall.  

The kingdom that will last is Christ’s, and all who believe in Jesus are part of that kingdom – God’s chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, God’s treasured possession. That is you, and it is me, and it is all who trust in Jesus – we are God’s treasured possession. We are kept by him for that day. There is suffering now. But it is worth it. There is a day that all creation is waiting for. A day when we will see God’s eternal glory in Christ for what it truly is.

Knowing that reality means we can truly cast ourselves on to him because we know that he cares for us. We can humble ourselves before him and trust him in the hardest of times because we know that he has our ultimate good at heart. We are his treasure, and so we can trust him. He is the God of all grace who gives us the grace we need to live each day trusting him. Until he returns or calls us home we stand in that grace.

Resources

Bible Speaks Today & Tyndale commentaries are both helpful.

Note on authorship: scholars have questioned whether the quality of Greek in 1 Peter could have been written by a Galilean fisherman – but 5:12 says he has done it ‘through Silas’ who presumably wrote down Peter’s words and had some freedom to arrange them.  Silas’ and Mark’s names at the end of this book show that there was some overlap between Peter and Paul’s circles, so it is not surprising to find echoes of Paul’s letters here either.

James: God the Generous Giver

After Paul’s letters, and the lengthy arguments and quotations in Hebrews, the book of James can come as something of a shock.  James does not pull his punches as he instructs and exhorts his readers in Christian living. It is usually thought that James is the brother of Jesus, who also appears in Acts in the Jerusalem church, and that seems to fit the rest of the book well.  

The book is sometimes seen as very practical without much theology – but I think that misses the heart of what James is saying.  James’ exhortation is rooted in the character of God, and most especially in the goodness of God. For James God is the one who gives generously to all without finding fault, he is the giver of good gifts, the God who does not set us up to fail, the God who gives more grace and the God who loves to answer prayer.  

James’ exhortations to action are set in the context of a good and generous God who delights to give more grace to his children.  Obedience to God is not about simply gritting our teeth and trying harder. It is first and foremost a matter of getting on our knees before God and asking for his help.  This seems fitting for a man who one ancient tradition tells us had the nickname ‘camel knees’ because of the amount of time he spent on his knees in prayer.

God will give us the wisdom we need to endure through trials without becoming bitter and blaming God.  God will give us the grace to obey him more fully as we draw near to him. James exhortations are a way of encouraging us to seek the grace we need to be able to live this kind of life.  They are not designed to crush us to despair, but rather to humble us to renewed dependance on the good God who gives generously without fault finding.

James begins in typically direct fashion:

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

James 1:2-8

According to James believers should consider it joy when they face different kinds of trials.  That doesn’t mean a rejoicing over the event which brings the trial, which may well be a very sad or difficult event or sequence of events.  Instead it means rejoicing over the God we know in the midst of the trial and the results that the trial can work in us if we let it – maturity and completeness as believers. That maturity does not come automatically – instead it comes as we persevere through the trial.  

In order to see trials in this way we need wisdom which, as in the rest of the Bible, isn’t about cleverness, but about living with respect for God and the way he has made the world.  This wisdom comes from God, and James encourages us to ask God for that wisdom by reminding us that God gives generously to all without finding fault.

The next words can sound condemning: when you ask you must believe and not doubt.  We tend to make both of those somewhat intellectual and make it sound as if uncertainty in belief must be sinful.  It is better to see both of these words: believe and doubt as about loyalty. The issue is will we trust God, or will we set ourselves up as his judge (the word for doubt can also refer to judging or discriminating).   

The person who ‘doubts’ is described as ‘double-minded’ – literally ‘double-souled’, we might say ‘two faced’.  The ‘doubter’ here is not wrestling with questions about God, or even questions about what God is doing. The doubter is someone who is trying to face both ways, or serve two masters – and if that is the case they cannot expect to receive from God.  The issue is not primarily about intellect, or emotion, it is about loyalty. To ask for wisdom without wanting to act in line with the wisdom that God will give is foolish.

James goes on to talk about responding to the trials of poverty, and, in a different sense, the trials of wealth.  He then returns to the theme of testing with these words:

¹² Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

James 1:12-18

Key to understanding the link with what has already come is knowing that the word translated tempt here is the same as trial earlier in the chapter.  The only way to decide which way to translate it is the context – and it may well be that we should try and hold the two things together in our minds as we read.  Trials and temptations can be separated out by us, but if we hold them together we may begin to see what precise temptations particular trials can lead us into.

James is particularly keen to make sure that we do not blame God for these temptations/trials.  God is not tempted by evil, and he does not tempt anyone. The pull towards sin we all feel comes from within.  It comes from our own desires (not necessarily evil in and of themselves – the word doesn’t have any connotation of evil in and of itself), when the desire to fulfil those desires leads us astray.  That desire leads to sin, and on to death.

Rather than being the source of temptation God is the giver of good gifts, who chose to give birth to us through the word of truth.  Our tests, trials and temptations do not come from God, rather they arise from life in a fallen world, and from our own desires for comfort, security, significance and fulfilment that want to make life now work for our benefit and our advantage.  Instead of giving way to such desires we are to ask God who gives generously for wisdom to know how to persevere in such a world and with such temptations around, and he will give to us. We do that trusting him – and we can trust him because James reminds us here, God is good and not out to trap anyone.  

James goes on in his letter to talk about the need to not merely hear the word, but to take action and do what it says.  He then returns to the contrast between wealth and poverty, and gives a strong warning against showing favouritism to the rich (see ch 2:1-12) in our church communities.  This leads into his discussion of the relationship between faith and works.

Here James is famous for sounding as if he is contradicting Paul on justification by faith alone.  Careful reading of both James and Paul, however, shows that they mean slightly different things by both justification (or ‘considered righteousness’) and faith, so it is perhaps better to see James as correcting a misunderstanding of Paul’s theology.  

Some people that James is addressing seem to think that simply believing the right things about God can save them.  James’ point, one with which Paul would wholeheartedly agree is that such belief is empty. True trust in God goes hand in hand in with a changed life.  The deeds that James has in mind are the deeds that come from loving our neighbour as ourselves – and it is just such deeds that Paul wants to see in the lives of the people in his churches (see Galatians 5-6).  

It is interesting to ponder whether the different tone of Paul and James on justification would have meant they disagreed face to face.  Sometimes people can disagree over the words they use, but not quite see that they are using words in different ways, to achieve different things.  I suspect people have been doing this in discussions and debates about justification ever since.

James goes on to warn of the dangers of not guarding what we say, of the need for wisdom that enables us to act as true peacemakers and of the need to not become angry.  He does this once more by exposing the heart attitudes that underlie anger:

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”[c]

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

James 4:1-10

In this section James moves us right back to where we began – to the desires in our hearts that are not fulfilled.  Perhaps surprisingly he identifies the reason for these unfulfilled desires being unspoken prayer. Even when they do pray, it is for selfish pleasures.  We should bring our desires to God in prayer – and we should do so ready to have them exposed and redirected.

Once more James confronts us with a stark choice.  Friendship with the world, or with God – either we can live to please people, or live to please God – either we are wholeheartedly committed to God, or we are doubleminded.  God longs jealously over us – or perhaps God’s Spirit jealously longs for us – either way God’s jealousy is a way of talking about his burning zeal for our good. So God gives more grace.  More grace to live his way. James’ call to his readers is not a call simply to try harder, but to return to Jesus. To renounce sin, and to beg God for more grace. Knowing that God gives generously to all is the ultimate encouragement to bring our need for more wisdom and more grace to him.

James concludes by encouraging us to a life of humility, perseverance and prayer.  We are to remember the example of Elijah’s prayers and pray. Prayer will make the difference in others, and it will make the difference in us as we come near to God, he will draw near to us and in due time lift us, and those we pray for, up.

Try to read James slowly.  Ask God to expose your hearts as you read.  James’ letter has the potential to get under our skin and provoke real and lasting change.  Take seriously the encouragements to prayer, and to remembering what God has already done for us.  And act. Choose one thing at a time, and ask God to help you put it into practice. Ask God how he wants you to change as a result of these words.  

Resources:

Bible Speaks Today (Alec Motyer)

Hebrews: No Turning Back

With Hebrews we reach the first of the letters which isn’t by Paul – and in fact we have no idea who did write it. What seems clearer is who he was writing to – Jewish Christians who were facing persecution and might have tempted to go back to a previous, more comfortable way of life.

The writer to the Hebrews takes time to show why going back would be foolish, and why it is worth pressing on in the Christian faith. His answer is Jesus. The letter begins with Jesus:

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.”

Hebrews 1:1–4 TNIV

He speaks of how Jesus is superior to the angels – because he is a Son. Jesus is the perfect human being, who lives out all that people were created to be – he is superior to Adam (Hebrews 2). He is the one who has defeated death (Hebrews 2). He is superior to Moses (Hebrews 3) – a Son, while Moses was only a servant. He is superior to Joshua – because he gives rest that Joshua could not. He is superior to Aaron – he is a faithful High Priest, who was tempted in every way, just as we are – yet never sinned. He serves in the heavenly sanctuary of which the tabernacle is only a copy, and he is the perfect sacrifice for sins.

To turn back from that would be foolishness indeed. Jesus is the completion and fulfillment of Israel’s story, and of Israel’s religious system, given through Moses at Sinai. Not only that but Jesus is the ultimate hero in the sequence of those who lived by faith. He is the pioneer and perfecter of faith, the one who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

So the writer of Hebrews urges us forwards. Further up, and further in. He appeals to us to accept God’s discipline and training, hard as it may be at the time. We are to be ready to suffer for and with Christ, and to keep going. the final prayer for the readers of Hebrews are these wonderful words:

“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Hebrews 13:20–21 TNIV

They bring us back to the reality that Jesus is the perfecter of our faith. We are utterly reliant on God to give us all we need to do his will – and that all happens through Jesus Christ. Through his work for us. For his death for us on the cross, and his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father where he lives to always intercede for us.

There is much in Hebrews to encourage us. Yet there are also many strong warnings against falling away and turning back. The writer wants to reinforce that to make a deliberate choice to turn our backs on Jesus is to crucify him all over again. It is to risk the consuming fire that awaits the enemies of God.

That deliberate wilful choice to leave the God we love is one we should dread the thought of – but the reassurance of Hebrews is that there is no need for any to make that choice. Jesus lives, and stands before the Father, interceding for us. He is the anchor for our soul that stands secure. He is the High Priest who is always full of mercy and grace.

Jesus is the one who brings the new covenant in which our sins are forgiven and forgotten and we are made holy once and for all by his sacrifice on the cross. There is no greater assurance than this. As the hymn writer puts it:

Before the Throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea,
A great High Priest whose name is love
Who ever lives and pleads for me

My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

Because my sinless saviour died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on him and pardon me.

Behold him there the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of glory and of grace.

One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God!

Resources:

The Majestic Son – Peter Adam – Good Book Company – clear, short enough to help with daily bible reading.

An Unshakeable Kingdom – David Gooding – IVP – I remember this being really helpful when I first read it some years ago because he takes time to unpack the different OT quotations used in Hebrews and shows how the writer is not just picking words out of context, but using the context of the quotations to make his point.

Final note – if you have been alert you’ll have noticed I use ‘he’ for the writer – mostly for convenience and also because that seems most likely – but it is possible that the writer was a woman (Priscilla has been suggested).

Philemon: Transforming Gospel

The final letter of Paul’s is also the shortest, and the most personal of any of them – and at first glance we might wonder what it is doing in the Bible at all.  It all seems to be concerned with Philemon and how he might treat a returning slave – Onesimus. But in reality what we have here as we read this letter is a vision of just how radically the gospel transforms society – but with a very different slant on that word ‘radically’ to how we might think of that usually today.

As we read Philemon it emerges that Onesimus is a runaway slave, who has somehow met Paul and come to faith in Christ – one of the stories behind the text that it would be lovely to know more about.  Paul is writing to explain to Philemon what he wants him to do next – and along the way he gives us plenty of insight into how the gospel works in practice. He starts straightforwardly enough:

⁴ I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, ⁵ because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have towards the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, ⁶ and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.^{[a] 7} For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

4-7

Verse 6 contains a key word for the letter, and for Paul’s writings more broadly – it is translated ‘sharing’ here, but has the sense of ‘fellowship’ or ‘partnership’.  This attitude of partnership with others should characterise Philemon’s faith – his faith is not to be isolated, but operate together with other believers. Paul goes on to pray that this ‘togetherness’ aspect of Philemon’s faith would be active – because that way he will have a full knowledge in practice, not simply knowing about, of all the good things that are ours in Christ.  

Having prayed for Philemon Paul moves on to the heart of the letter:

⁸ Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, ⁹ yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— ¹⁰ I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,^[b] whose father I became in my imprisonment. ¹¹ (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) ¹² I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. ¹³ I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, ¹⁴ but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. ¹⁵ For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, ¹⁶ no longer as a slave^[c] but more than a slave, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

8-16

Paul is not commanding Philemon – he is asking him, although it should be noted that he has somewhat put the pressure on Philemon by his positive public comments about Onesimus in Colossians which the whole church in Colossae will know about.  Onesimus has become very dear to Paul, and Paul would have been very happy to keep him with him, because he has been so useful to Paul.

But Paul doesn’t want to operate without Philemon’s consent – he wants Philemon to act willingly in this matter.  Paul speculates that perhaps Onesimus’ running away has a deeper purpose, that he might be reunited to Philemon, not as a slave, but as a brother.  

Onesimus, as a runaway slave, would usually face severe punishment if found and recaptured, perhaps even death. Paul is asking for him not to be punished, but to be welcomed home, and welcomed home as part of the family, rather than as simply a slave.  He reaches the culmination of his appeal:

¹⁷ So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. ¹⁸ If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. ¹⁹ I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. ²⁰ Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

17-20

Notice in v17 the ‘partner’ word – related to the ‘partnership’ of v5 – perhaps a subtle hint that one of the ways he can deepen his knowledge of all the good things we have in Christ is to act in accordance with Paul’s request.  Onesimus is to be received as Paul would be received, and if he has wronged Philemon or owes Philemon, that is to be regarded as Paul’s debt that Paul will repay. Paul wants some ‘benefit’ from Philemon. The word for ‘benefit’ is only used here in the NT, but happens to be related to Onesimus’ name.  Onesimus means something like ‘useful’ – it is the adjective, and ‘benefit’ in v20 is the noun – we could say ‘profitable’ and ‘profit’. This compliance from Philemon will bring joy to Paul.

Then finally Paul says his farewell:

²¹ Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. ²² At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

21-22

Notice in v21 how carefully Paul writes – he is sure that Philemon will do even more than I say.  It is this final appeal that cements the hints elsewhere that Paul is not simply asking Philemon to receive Paul back as a returned slave, but as a fellow brother, and perhaps even to free Onesimus, so that he is truly no longer a slave, but a dearly loved brother.

I don’t think we should miss how radical Paul is.  It could have gone wrong. Philemon could have decided that receiving back this runaway slave and risking his reputation in the city wasn’t worth it.  He could have decided at this point that the gospel’s demands were too radical – and perhaps even have accused Paul of aiding and abetting a known criminal.  

But I imagine from the fact that we still have this letter that Philemon did comply with the request, and there is evidence that someone with the name Onesimus became a leader in the church.  The gospel transforms relationships and social standing and status.

Sometimes the Bible is criticised because it seems backward with regard to slavery.  But in the NT, especially here, we have the seeds that will lead to slavery being rooted out.  For Paul and others to launch a campaign against slavery would have led to very speedy trouble.  The gospel had to operate undercover to a degree.

It does that because true virtue is not about simply jumping on the latest bandwagon – it is about actions, deeds and words that take risks to bring about real and lasting change to people. The gospel brings about the inward transformation that will lead to lasting change for individuals and for society as a whole.

Resources:

Any commentary on Colossians will usually have Philemon as well (because Philemon was in Colossae and Onesimus travels back with the letter).

The Bible Gateway website gives you access to IVP USA’s New Testament series for free – a very useful resource indeed.

Titus: Zealous to do good

Paul’s short letter to Titus is perhaps easy to overlook, and also slightly hard for a modern westerner to fully appreciate. Paul places a lot of stress on respect for authority, submission, and order, all of which have something of a negative reputation for many. But we need to look more closely at the letter to understand the context and see the reasons for Paul’s instructions.

Paul writes to Titus, who he has left in Crete to establish order in the newly formed churches. Titus is to do that by appointing leaders who are called ‘elders’, and ‘overseers’ (the same word that we derive bishop from) – in Paul’s churches at least it seems that elders and overseers are the same thing – in every town. These elders are to live good lives and be above reproach, and they are to be able to teach healthy doctrine and correct those who oppose it.

This concern for order and healthy teaching is however only a step on the way. Paul is not concerned simply to have an ordered church full of well behaved people who believe the correct things. To look at Paul’s desire for the church we need to look first of all right at the start of the letter:

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness – 2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Saviour.

Titus 1:1-3

Paul emphasises that his calling is for the benefit of the faith of God’s ‘called out people’, and in particular so that they would know the truth that leads towards godliness. Paul’s aim is that the church in Crete would be full of people who are godly – who do and think what God wants. The truth that will lead them in that direction is the hope of eternal life which God has promised.

Paul does not seem to think much of the Cretan culture of the time. It is a world that encourages laziness, lying and ‘beastly’ (fulfilling their own appetites) behaviour, and in such a world Christians need to work hard to be different. In particular in chapter 2 it seems that ‘self control’ is a key virtue that all people in the church need to show. At the end of chapter 2 Paul tells us why:

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

2:11-14

In opposition to laziness, lying and fulfilling our own appetites we are to be self controlled, upright and godly – as we wait for the coming of Jesus. Jesus’ death was in order to purify us, and make us his own people who are zealous – passionately committed to doing good works.

In our world ‘do gooder’ has almost become an insult, but here Paul wants each and every Christian to be passionately committed to doing all the good they can possibly do. The theme of being utterly committed to doing good is found in the third chapter also.

3 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle towards everyone.

3:1-2

We are not to be argumentative as Christians. We are not to cause trouble for trouble’s sake. Sometimes doing good will cause trouble for us, but we are not to go looking for trouble unnecessarily. We are to be peaceable and considerate and gentle – loving peace, taking care of others, and not trampling on the weak. Such behaviour will look very different to the world around.

This kind of life flows out of God’s work for us:

4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

3:4-8

If we miss out these verses we might think that Paul is interested in creating people who will respectably fit into the society, not cause trouble, and behave well. The reality is very different. The reality is that we are all people who deserve death and separation from God, but that God has saved us, and given us his Holy Spirit so that we might have life.

But that life needs guidelines, and a lot of Paul’s guidelines in relation to correct order in church and society in this letter are to make sure that the church does not get taken over by people who simply want to cause trouble. Crete, and cities in the Roman world generally, were often places where the smallest hint of trouble could cause a riot (see Acts for examples). Paul does not want the church getting itself into trouble unnecessarily.

Fundamentally Paul’s concern for church order is so that the truth might be taught, and godly lives lived. For Paul, the way his churches will grow and thrive is if they know the truth and devote themselves to godliness, and to doing what is good.

When we read Titus today that is the challenge for us also. We too live in a world devoted to fulfilling its own appetites, where laziness and lying are ever present temptations. Will we be devoted to doing what is good? Will we seek after godliness? Will we make sure that we know the truth?

Not simply truth as in facts that are true, but truth about what Jesus, who is the truth, has done. It is the truth about how God has given us new birth and made us new by the Holy Spirit, and the reality that through this renewal we know him who is truth. It is out of God’s grace that we can begin to live out the reality of these lives made new by Jesus. Lives that begin now and go on into eternity.

Resources

As with 1 & 2 Timothy the BST by John Stott, and Gordon Fee’s commentary.

2 Timothy: Guard the gospel

I love 2 Timothy, I think I always have. The first sermons I ever preached were on this book (chapter 1:1-14 and chapter 3:10-4:5). It is a book that gives us a window into Paul’s life and heart as he faces the possibility of immanent death – although he is potentially also preparing for the chance of release.

I feel a kind of affinity with Timothy – the heritage of faith, the reminder he needs to fan into flame the gift God has given, the call not to be timid, but remember that the Spirit God gives is one of power, love and self discipline, and the reminders not to be ashamed. There is also something vital and life-giving for me in the familiar verses of 3:16-17 and their context.

Paul begins his letter like this:

“I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self–discipline.”

2 Timothy 1:3–7 TNIV

These verses are sometimes used to slightly overdraw a picture of a ‘timid Timothy’, who is shrinking back, full of tears and completely overwhelmed because his character is not quite up to the rigours Paul expects.

I don’t think that is quite right though (see Chris Green’s Finishing the Race on 2 Timothy especially) – we need to remember 1 Thessalonians where we saw Paul’s heart, and the depths of his emotional engagement. Timothy’s tears may well not be a sign of weakness, but of reality and of full awareness of what is at stake.

Paul longs to see Timothy, and he is utterly convinced that Timothy is following in an honourable tradition of faith – learnt from both mother and grandmother. So Timothy needs to be active in his current situation, teaching truth, combating error and shepherding the flock. Timothy needs to remember that God’s Spirit is in him to equip him with power, love and self discipline. that he has the gifts he needs to do the job.

Most of the first two chapters of Paul’s letter is taken up with direct instructions to Timothy to keep on teaching truth and pursuing holiness. There is much material to ponder, much to encourage us in our own walks with Jesus.

Then in chapter 3 a larger note of warning strikes. In 3:1-9 Paul warns that during the ‘last days’ – the time in-between Jesus’ first and second coming – there will be terrible times. Paul reels off a list of characteristics that people will have in this time (see 3:2-5) – and at first it sounds like a generic description of evil in society. But it becomes clear in v6 onwards that Paul is describing people in the church who prey on the weaknesses of others for their own gain.

In such a world, and in such a church, how is Timothy to act. First of all (v10-13) he is to expect persecution and suffering. He is not to be surprised – and by implication we shouldn’t be surprised either. And in the midst of the turmoil Timothy is to hold fast to what he already knows:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God–breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

2 Timothy 3:14–4:5 TNIV

Timothy is to continue in what he has learned – from Paul, and in the Scriptures, which he has known since infancy – what we would call the Old Testament. All Scripture, Paul says, is God-breathed.

The question of course, is what Paul means by Scripture. He must mean at least the OT, but it is also clear that by the time this letter was written other documents were circulating – and by the time we get to 2 Peter, Peter is referring to Paul’s letters in the same breath as ‘scripture’. Very early on in the churches history the documents we now know as the NT were seen as inspired, on a level with the OT.

So for us Paul’s description applies to OT and NT alike. It is all the words of God – breathed out by God. Not that God dictated the words and obliterated human personality, but rather that God caused the writers to write down what he wanted said, in the way he wanted it said, and breathed his life into it, so that it could be declared his words.

This book is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the one working for God will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Bible gives us what we need to do God’s work – because it is such a multifaceted book, with so many different genres and approaches. In all its diversity it speaks with one voice – the voice of the living God.

Therefore Timothy is to preach the word. The ‘word’ here is the message of the Bible – the good news about Jesus, and about what God has done. The Bible is God’s way of telling us his good news – and Timothy is to announce that message clearly.

For there is coming a time, says Paul, when many people will gather around them teachers who tell them what they want to hear. In such times the one working for God is to stick to what God has said in his Word. We live in such a time today. At a click of the mouse you can listen to or read the words of any teacher, anywhere in the world. You can select for yourself the teacher who will say what you most want to hear.

In such an era the local church is vital, and it is absolutely critical that the local church leaders stay rooted in all scripture – in all its richness, to ensure that they are the preaching the full dimensions of the gospel. Pray that your local minister would be a faithful disciple of Jesus, and a faithful expounder of scripture – rather than one who follows the latest internet preacher or blogger.

Such a vision of preaching is not narrow – for the Bible is varied, wide and broad. It contains all sorts of genre – poetry, narrative, history, story, song, proverbs and wisdom, gospel and letter, prophecy and apocalyptic. It was written over several thousand years. It was written by all sorts of different people – warriors, kings, scribes, priests, fishermen, tax collectors, ex-pharisees, doctors, etc. It gives us promises to trust, commands to obey, stories to wrestle with, proverbs to make us think, visions to stretch our imagination and much more besides.

This book contains everything needed for salvation. This book is not constrained by the minds of men, but unfolds the revelation of God’s plans and purposes, and shows us God’s character in all its splendid variety. At times we struggle to see how the different aspects of God’s character and emphases in this book hold together – and yet that struggle is a vital part of what it means for this book to be from God. If we – finite, sinful, humans – could understand an infinite, holy God, what kind of a God would he be?

So ‘preach the Word’ is not a constraint – unless tuning a piano before playing it is constraining. It is the only way to give the parched souls of people thirsting after a Saviour what they need. When we lose confidence in this we turn to other things, to novelty and to clever manipulation, but holding fast to Scripture and digging deep in Scripture will give the resources we need to hold fast to the gospel and to be transformed by that gospel into the people God would have us be.

Paul goes on:

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.”

2 Timothy 4:6–13 TNIV

It seems likely that Paul knows he doesn’t have long left – but he can say that he has fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith. Notice the sort of fight he is talking about – it is a good fight, and we know from Ephesians 6 that it is a battle not against flesh and blood, but the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We fool ourselves if we deny the reality of this battle. While we must condemn unreservedly every time in Christian history that the rhetoric of spiritual warfare has been applied to ordinary wars we must hold fast to the reality of the spiritual warfare that exists. There is an enemy, who seeks to kill, steal and destroy – and the fight against him is a good fight, one that we fight with the weapons of faith, hope and love.

Paul is looking forward to the crown waiting for him, and all who look forward to Jesus’ coming. That forward look forms a sharp contrast with Paul’s outward circumstances. Demas, in love with the world has deserted. Titus is gone elsewhere. Only Luke is left.

Paul wants Timothy to come, and to bring Mark – who is useful – I love this verse (not just because it says that Mark is useful…) because if you read Acts 16 you will know that Paul refused to go with Barnabas because he wanted to take Mark, who had previously deserted Paul. Sometime between then and now Mark had come good. It doesn’t mean Paul was necessarily wrong before. Perhaps the combination of Paul not wanting him, and Barnabas being willing to take a chance on him was what Mark needed to put things right.

Read through the final words of 2 Timothy and notice once more how strong Paul’s network of relationships was, just how many people were involved together in his work of spreading the gospel. Paul was not a lone ranger – and we should not be either.

Reading 2 Timothy should encourage us to stand firm on the truth of God’s Word – and encourage us to turn back to God to pray that he would equip us with the Spirit of power, love and self discipline in order that we can play our part in his mission today.

Resources

Bible Speaks Today – John Stott – very helpful as usual

New International Bible Commentary – Gordon Fee – excellent

‘Finishing the Race’ – Chris Green (Good Book Company) – excellent – very good at showing the flow of the book, and an interesting challenge to some assumptions we make about Timothy.

“In the steps of Timothy” – Lance Pierson. A helpful attempt at a biography of Timothy – he indicates where what he says is more speculative, so read with Bible open, but lots of encouragement here too.

1 Timothy: Healthy Teaching

When we move to Paul’s first letter to Timothy we move into different territory. Paul is writing to his trusted friend and colleague in ministry. He has left Timothy in Ephesus to sort out some issues in the church, and he is giving him guidelines on how to do that, and what to focus on.

Many scholars do not think Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, or 2 Timothy and Titus. They suggest that they came from someone in Paul’s circle after Paul’s death, and argue that the practice of writing in Paul’s name would have been understood and accepted.

This isn’t the place to deal with all the arguments, but I’m not so sure that it would have been so easily accepted, and I think (as both John Stott & Gordon Fee argue) that the differences in style between 1 Timothy and some of Paul’s other letters can be explained by Paul’s practice of having a scribe write the letters down, and perhaps giving the scribe more freedom in some cases than others – much as in some job roles letters may be drafted for others to sign, with greater and lesser degrees of freedom given to the drafter in different cases. You can find more details in the commentaries by Stott and Fee that I list below.

Paul’s purpose in writing is set out early in the letter:

“As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain persons not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.”

1 Timothy 1:3–7 TNIV

I think it is really important to pause and notice what Paul is saying here. There are false doctrines, and there is pointless speculation, and it is sometimes right to command people not to teach such things in the church. This isn’t a command that sits well with the general spirit of the age. We are likely to find Paul’s command oppressive. Who is he to be so dogmatic we might ask?

Yet follow Paul’s logic. He wants to advance God’s work – which comes by people trusting in Jesus, with the aim of love. For love to be built up a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith are needed. The doctrine Paul wants to be taught is described throughout 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus as ‘sound’ doctrine.

For some of us the word ‘sound’ is a rather scary word. It can end up being used in certain Christian circles as a kind of code for ‘he agrees with us’ – he’s ‘one of us’. But for Paul it means healthy. There is a healthy teaching, and there is unhealthy teaching. Healthy teaching promotes faith, purity, a clear conscience, sincere faith and love. Unhealthy teaching promotes speculation, and leads people astray.

Timothy is to make sure he teaches what is healthy, and he is to command the Ephesians leaders to teach what is healthy, and to silence those who are not. In the rest of the letter Paul expand on what he expects this to look like. In chapter 2 Paul urges us to pray:

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

1 Timothy 2:1–4 TNIV

To put right this church that is going astray Paul’s first priority is prayer. Prayer for everyone – and particularly that the church would be able to get on with its life and witness to Christ, so that people would come to be saved. God wants everybody – and our prayers should be for everyone.

Paul goes on to discuss how he wants men and women to behave in the church. These words in chapter 2 have caused a lot of ink to be spilt, and a lot of arguments to be had. I think it is important to focus on the main things, to make sure we have those in perspective – and then to be able to slot the more confusing parts of Paul’s argument into their proper place.

First notice this:

“Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.”

1 Timothy 2:8 TNIV

The command to men is clear: pray – lifting up holy hands – the usual Jewish posture for prayer was standing up with hands raised. The men are not to be angry or arguing. So before men go to battle on what Paul means in the rest of chapter 2 we need to make sure we are men of prayer, men of holiness, and men who not argue angrily.

Then the famous words.

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”

1 Timothy 2:11–12 TNIV

As 21st century readers our attention goes to ‘I do not permit’. But as 1st century readers our attention would go to ‘a woman should learn’. Paul wants the women to learn.

In quietness and full submission it is true – but that is the same for men – after all in 2:1 we saw that the ideal is that we all live peaceful and quiet lives. The quiet in v1-2 is the adjective, that goes with the verb ‘to be quiet’ here. It means something very similar to ‘without anger or disputing’. I think full submission means to God, expressed here in appropriate behaviour towards the church leadership.

The key thing is that the woman is to learn. That is miles away from the 1st century view of women in much of the Graeco-Roman world, and in the Jewish world of Paul’s day.

The woman is not to teach, or to assume authority over a man. The question is whether this is an ongoing permanent every time and everywhere distinction, or whether it is a particular command for Paul’s day, and perhaps especially for Ephesus. Ephesus after all was the centre for the worship of the goddess Diana – and women did have something of a role in that cult.

It may be that the word Paul uses for authority – here translated ‘assume authority’ may be related to the idea that women were importing aspects of that worship into the Christian church. It is interesting to note that this is the only use in the NT of this word for ‘authority’ – so it is hard to make a case for exact nuances of its meaning by drawing on other biblical texts.

The choice for the Bible reader approaching these verses is either:

1. To take them as a definitive prohibition at all times everywhere for women ever teaching men in a Christian context (Wayne Grudem, John Piper, and others)
2. To say that some aspect of this verses is a cultural expression of a general principle of overall male leadership – but that as cultures change women may well be able to teach and be part of leadership teams (John Stott)
3. To say that Paul is making a command appropriate to the Ephesian culture and context, but that when set in the light of the rest of the NT and sweep of scripture this command is clearly seen as only temporary. (Gordon Fee, Tom Wright etc)

In my mind the choice is between 2 and 3. The rest of chapter 2, Paul’s reasoning for his statement, is a section of scripture I find obscure. I don’t really know what Paul means by most of it. You can read the commentaries and see what the best explanations seem to be to you. The very difficulty of the text makes me think that to go for option 1, the most restrictive option, on the basis of something so difficult to make sense of would be problematic.

Then Paul goes on to talk about the qualities an overseer (literally: ‘bishop’ – the words for leader are used quite fluidly in the NT) should have. They are essentially qualities of character. Leaders should be examples of godliness, and should be managing their own families well – because the church is God’s household.

He follows this with a charge to Timothy to teach the truth, and to live a life that accords with the truth. The church is to be able to look at Timothy and see his progress – not that he is perfect, but they should be able to tell he is making progress in his faith.

Timothy is to make sure certain things in the church are ordered correctly, including the support of widows (often left destitute by the death of their husbands). Paul warns Timothy to hold fast to the truth, and not to be led astray by the love of money. Chapter 6 is a great chapter to read about a correct understanding of money from a Christian perspective.

To those who may be poor, or at least to those who want to become richer (which is probably most of us at some point) Paul says this:

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

6:6-10

And in relation to those who have wealth and money at their disposal Paul writes:

17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

6:17-19

Paul is no killjoy, and doesn’t demand a joyless legalistic approach to money. Rather, whether rich or poor, we are to put our hope in the God who provides everything for our enjoyment. Paul is quite clear in this letter that creation and the material world are good – look at chapter 4 again. Some of the false teachers Timothy had to contend with wanted to forbid Christians enjoying this world. Paul has strong words to say about such people. God has created a good world, and given us good gifts. We are to be thankful and enjoy those gifts.

In addition to that we are to do good, be generous and willing to share. By holding to riches lightly we will lay up treasures in the age to come, and gain real life. We are to be content with what we have – not chasing after more, but trusting God to provide for our needs as we seek to follow him in our lives. These verses give us the basis of an attitude to wealth and money that will help to break us free from the hold such things can easily have on us.

Reading 1 Timothy will remind us that there is a time when we need to say ‘no’ to false teaching, encourage us to pray, encourage us to hold fast to what is good and to have a right attitude to money and wealth. It will be particularly helpful to understand what sort of leaders we should be looking for in difficult times – people of character, who show by their example what it means to live a godly life free from the love of money.

Resources

Bible Speaks Today – John Stott – clear and helpful

New International Biblical Commentary – Gordon Fee – also clear and helpful

2 Thessalonians: Jesus the Judge will come

While 1 Thessalonians had a warm pastoral tone, 2 Thessalonians sounds a more urgent note. Paul clearly still has great affection for the Thessalonians, and speaks warmly of their faith, and their love for one another.

But Paul is also concerned that the Thessalonians Christians have become confused about Jesus’ return, and he knows that the key thing which will keep them going in the midst of persecution they are experiencing is clarity about Jesus’ return.

So Paul begins his letter with a call to remember the day of judgement to come:

⁵ All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. ⁶ God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might ¹⁰ on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

Notice here how Paul appeals to the reality of judgement to come to encourage them to keep going here and now. There is a day coming when those who are persecuted for Christ will receive a relief – and on that day those who now persecute will receive trouble.

These verses are stark. There is a day coming when Jesus will return in blazing fire. A day when he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel. I think that is two ways of saying the same thing. Those who have heard the gospel, understood its call, and rejected it face punishment.

That punishment is everlasting, or perhaps better eternal, destruction, shut out from the presence of Jesus for ever, on the day that he is glorified in his holy people. The language here is striking. They will be destroyed forever. There is no return from this fate. It is to be fully and finally shut out from God’s presence.

I think this clearly excludes any kind of idea of a second chance after death. I’m less clear that it categorically determines the duration of the punishment. In some NT texts it looks like punishment is something that never ends. In others it looks like a destruction from which there is no escape, but which is limited in duration (and notable Evangelical pastors and scholars such as John Stott and John Wenham have argued for this option – it can hardly be dismissed as a ‘liberal’ idea). My own speculation is that perhaps there are differences of degree and length of suffering depending on the severity of the rebellion.

However the starkness should not be blunted. Jesus will one day exclude some people from his presence. Those who reject him here and now will find themselves one day rejected. As CS Lewis put it, there are finally only two types of people: those who say ‘your will be done’, and those to whom Jesus will one day say ‘your will be done’, as they receive what they have asked for – exclusion.

This horrifying reality should drive us to our knees. We should be praying for those who do not yet know Jesus. We should also be humble about it. We do not have the lists of those who are in, and those who are out, and Scripture gives us enough hints that we could well be in for a few surprises on that day.

We don’t rely on those surprises as we live now – rather we act on what we do know – that the way to life is by Jesus’ death. Jesus has done everything necessary to provide salvation – and one day all who trust in him will see him face to face.

In 2 Thessalonians Paul is writing to people who are worried by a rumour that Paul has taught that Jesus might have already come, and they have missed out. Paul spends chapter 2 countering that fear, and pointing out that there are several things that need to happen before Jesus returns.

He then moves into more general encouragement – praying for the Thessalonians, and asking for their prayers – before turning to the final matter he is concerned about. It seems that some of the Thessalonians are giving up their work to wait for Jesus’ return – perhaps reasoning that they won’t need their jobs when he returns so they might as well stop now.

This has the twin problems of making them a burden to others, and becoming ‘busybodies’. Paul wants to make quite clear that he is not in favour of such actions. Christians are not to give up their ordinary work and become a burden on others. They are to earn the bread they eat and never tire of doing good.

It is important to realise that Paul is not condemning those who are poor, or those who are unemployed but want to work, or those who are sick and cannot work. He is only condemning those who could work, and deliberately choose not to because of this wrong idea about Jesus’ return that they have got.

The principle stands – where we can work we should, and we should use the resources that gives us to do as much good as we can, and to help us not become a burden to others. And certainly not to become busybodies, causing disruption because we have nothing better to do.

Paul’s final prayer is a prayer against such behaviour, and for the peace that only God can give – the true shalom, wholeness. May it be for you this night:

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.”
(2 Thessalonians 3:16 TNIV)

Resources:

Bible Speaks Today – John Stott – as usual clear and helpful

On the issue of the duration of hell a good book to think through the issues is this one:

Two Views of Hell: A Biblical & Theological Dialogue – Edward Fudge & Robert A Peterson

1 Thessalonians: Paul and the Pastor’s Heart

In moving to Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians we are actually moving back in time. 1 Thessalonians and Galatians compete for the title of Paul’s first letter. You can read about Paul’s brief time with the Thessalonians in Acts 17:1-9. He only spent about three weeks (3 sabbath days) in the city before having to be smuggled on to the next city to escape some of the Jewish leaders.

Yet it appears that in that short space of time he helped to lay the foundations for a church that was growing and thriving. It emerges as you read the letter that Paul was concerned about the church in Thessalonica. Paul and his team had been driven out by some of the Jewish community there, and eventually Paul sent Timothy back to find out how they were doing. Timothy has just come back and reported the good news that they are making good progress.

One of the most striking things as you read through the letter is to identify Paul’s statements that show how much he – and the team of people with him – care about what happens to the Thessalonians:

“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.”

(1 Thessalonians 1:2–6 TNIV)

Paul’s team always thank God for this group of believers. He remembers their faithful work, their loving labour and their hope-filled endurance. They shared their lives with this group of believers. As the letter continues we see more of what this means.

“On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from any human being, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our prerogatives. Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.”

(1 Thessalonians 2:4–8 TNIV)

Paul is not trying to please people but God and so he is free from the need to wear any kind of mask with these people. Paul and his team don’t look for praise from people. But not looking for the praise of people does not mean they were cold or remote or uncaring. They care for the new church like a mother nursing her child.

Stop on that image for a minute. Think of a mother with a baby suckling. There are moments of utter peace and love radiating. There are also moments of utter weariness and total exhaustion. There are moments of utter mess as the milk comes back up. There is worry: are they feeding enough? There is joy at their windy smiles, and growing personality. Paul says his ministry among them was a bit like that.

And he goes on. We loved you so much that we delighted to share with you not just the gospel of God but our lives. This is utterly fundamental to any kind of pastoral work. We must love people – and we must say we love them. Paul is not afraid to say “I love you”. That love must be a reality that leads to joy in sharing not simply the words of the gospel but lives as well, lives that show the impact of the gospel as the rubber hits the road.

We have to love people well. We have to show that love, both in word, and in the joy we have as we live with the people we are ministering to. And Paul goes on:

“Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.”

(1 Thessalonians 2:9–12 TNIV)

It was hard work – Paul was making tents as well to earn money to buy bread. As he was working no doubt he was praying for and quite possibly talking with others about Jesus. And then he is free some of the time to talk about Jesus – and he had a team of people doing the same thing. Paul wasn’t after money, and he wasn’t doing it as a job. Not only was he like a nursing mother, he was like a father taking action to encourage and motivate his children (notice the assumption that makes about how involved fathers should be with their children).

“But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.”

(1 Thessalonians 2:17–20 TNIV)

Notice this too. Having used language of parenthood Paul now speaks of being orphaned by being cut off from the Thessalonians. Having to leave them led to a grief almost like that of the loss of a parent. They long intensely to see the church again. This emotion is powerful and strong. Emotion has a key part to play in Christian ministry.

Too often our models of ministry owe more to our culture than to Christ. In England, and especially in the South it means a stiff upper lip. It means not showing emotion. It means not talking about it. But we deny and repress at our peril. Yes some emotion is unhealthy, some is sinful. But if we have that emotion we have to find safe ways and places to express that emotion.

And if we come to the Bible honestly we find so much expression of emotion. It appears that God is not a Victorian Englishman. Think of the Psalms. But here think of Paul. Think of the way he talks about his intense longing for them. The way he wants to see them again, and know they are doing OK. Strong emotions about how other people are doing are good. What matters is developing healthy ways to express those emotions and share them appropriately with others.

And then look at the last line of that quote. What is Paul looking forward to about being of presence of Jesus. He’s looking forward to seeing them, to seeing the difference Jesus has made in their lives. For there is a day to come when we will stand before Jesus and one of the greatest joys will be when we see people who we have made a difference to. When we see people we’ve helped know Jesus better and the difference that made to them.

Then Paul moves on, to tell of how finally he sent Timothy to encourage them – and now he has heard from Timothy:

“For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.
But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?”

(1 Thessalonians 3:5–9 TNIV)

Look at what Paul says. Timothy has brought good news. That word for good news is the same word as ‘gospel’. Sometimes we can use the word gospel in a way that means it doesn’t sound like good news – at such times it helps to remember that ‘gospel’ is simply the every day word for good news – whether good news conveyed about a new ruler, or good news about a friend coming to visit.

Timothy has reported that they have good memories of Paul, and the same longing to see Paul, as he has for them. This longing is a good thing, not a problem to get rid of. In the midst of all the hassles Paul has – and he has many – he is encouraged because they stand firm in the Lord. Paul cannot thank God enough – and indeed he can say ‘now we really live’ – because they stand firm in the Lord.

This shows us what is at stake in the Christian life. In the midst of persecution what really matters it that we stand firm in the Lord – because that is the way to life. That is why Paul’s emotions run so high – and why it is right that they do.

I worry sometimes that in all our desire to be relevant and connecting with our culture that we can miss this sense of life and death, this real earnestness about God and his ways. The relevance and connecting with culture need to be done – but they are not ways of making ourselves look appealing but of laying bare and exposing the reality of the life and death nature of the choice that lays before us.

Having established that the Thessalonians are doing well, and still keen to hear from Paul, Paul can move on to the important additional teaching he needs to give them. There seems to be some people who had got confused about how quickly Jesus was coming back. They thought it would be very soon, and so when people died they were worried that they might miss out. In addition some of them seemed to have stopped working all together, because if Jesus was coming back soon then there was no need. They also seem to have been under pressure in the area of sexual morality.

Paul deals with the last two issues first and calls them to sexual purity and faithfulness in their everyday work. He then moves on to the first of those issues, and explains what will happen when Jesus returns.

When Jesus returns it will be unmistakable. Jesus will come, and those who have died in Christ will rise. We will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air and will be with him forever. Paul doesn’t go into details. We know from elsewhere that this rising to meet Christ will involve a rising to a new body, and a renewed earth. Perhaps the rising to meet Christ gives space for the transfiguration of the cosmos into the new creation.

This day, Paul says, will be like a thief in the night. It will take people by surprise – but we do not need to be surprised by it. Not in the sense that we know it will come at a particular time, but because we know it will happen one day, and we are ready. And then he moves on to his final instructions:

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything; hold on to what is good, reject whatever is harmful.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:16–22 )

Sometimes Paul can speak in very long sentences. Here he goes to the opposite extreme. Rejoice always – not by denying all the feelings we have seen already in this letter, but by remembering all Jesus has done for us and is doing in our lives and the lives of friends. Keep on praying – and be thankful. Two things in this letter are said to be God’s will for us – holiness of life especially in regard to sexual purity and thankfulness. Thankfulness sounds mundane in many ways – but thankfulness helps us grow contentment, and that helps us defeat the idolatry of materialism that is all too prevalent.

We are not to quench the Spirit, and one of the ways we avoid quenching the spirit is by testing everything and holding to what is good. We need to think. We need to think based on what the bible says – and not just reflect the echo-chamber of social media that we choose. And when we have thought we need to hold on to the good, and let go the harmful.

It is a tall order. But Paul’s final prayer has so much encouragement for us in it. This life we live now, with all the tears and longings it brings is a life lived by the faithfulness of God.

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 TNIV)

God calls us. He is faithful. He will sanctify us and he will keep us to the end. Nothing we do has the power to separate us from God. He is always faithful. Always ready to forgive. Always ready to give us a new start. Never run away from him. Run back to him. He is faithful. He is the God of peace, and what he has started he always finishes. Jesus will come back. We will be with the Lord forever.

So pray Paul’s prayer for each other and for ourselves. Learn from the heart of this pastor just how much we are to love God and others, just how much we are to find joy in Jesus, and in all Jesus does in our lives, and the lives of those we love.

Colossians: Christ is Enough

The next of Paul’s ‘prison epistles’ is Colossians. In this epistle Paul focuses very clearly on the centrality and supremacy of Christ in the world and in the church.

It is easy for us to miss just how radical this is. But we need to step into Paul’s shoes in the 1st century AD, and then apply that into our world to see that the message that Christ is enough is one of the most truly world-changing realities that we can encounter. Here is his prayer for the Colossians at the start of the letter:

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1:9-14

It is worth dwelling on several key terms here. First of all notice the aim of the first part of Paul’s prayer – that they may bear fruit in every good work, and grow in the knowledge of God. They are to be fruitful, and grow. For Paul’s early readers there were two contexts for that kind of language. One was Empire, which talked about the fruitfulness of the Roman peace. The other was the OT. Think of Genesis 1 where people are supposed to fill the earth and multiply. Think of Genesis 12 where God promises Abraham many descendants.

Here that language is applied to good works and the knowledge of God. Christians are to be active in doing good to all, and in knowing God better, and in both of those things there is to be growth and fruit. That growth and fruit is not a product of our own efforts, but of prayer for God’s will and understanding given by the Spirit.

We produce this fruit in a spirit of joy and thankfulness to God who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of his holy people. God has qualified us – this isn’t something we achieve by either birth, or our own efforts, it is given by God. What we receive is a share in the inheritance of his holy people. It is easy for us just to think ‘that means heaven’ or something similar.

However to skip forward that quickly is to miss the importance of the word inheritance. In the OT Israel ‘inherit’ the promised land. Their rescue out of Egypt involves a rescue from slavery to a promised land, a land which they receive as their inheritance even as they themselves are in some sense Yahweh’s inheritance. Inheritance then represents everything we are saved for – ultimately the new creation which Christ will bring in all its fulness when he returns, but also the new life of God in us now – the life we have by his Spirit who is the deposit that guarantees our inheritance.

It is important to think carefully about these terms, and their roots in the OT because it means we realise that we are part of God’s story of redemption. We live now in a world that tells us lots of stories about how we should live, and about what a ‘good life’ looks like. In such a world we need to know that we are rooted in a very different story.

We are rooted, according to Colossians, in a story about a God who qualifies us – who doesn’t demand adherence to particular rules about rituals or diet, or even of specific spiritual experiences. Neither does God demand that we work him out by careful philosophy and reasoning. The work of qualifying us to share his inheritance has been done on the cross.

It is the light of that work that we then live differently. We choose to live with our minds fixed on Christ, and on heaven – not because we don’t care about earth, but because to have minds set on heaven is to have our minds set on Christ. To set our minds on Christ sends us back into the world to live for Christ, bearing fruit and growing.

We choose to put on the clothes appropriate to God’s new life, to his story of redemption in the world. We live as God’s holy people. In that light everything looks different (Colossians 3:1-17). As God’s community we let his peace, his shalom, rule over our lives together, so that we seek the good of others and show a different way to the world around.

In all this, we remember, Christ is enough. In Christ there is abundance for our lives of fruitfulness and growth. We do not need to hoard. In our world there is plenty of lack and scarcity. Politically over the last 9 years in the UK we have had ‘austerity policies’ – government cut backs on spending in many areas, especially welfare and benefits. It is commonly assumed that there is not enough money to go round (although there is also a massively widened pay gap between those at the top and those at the bottom of the pay scales). That is how our politics and economy operates – we have finite resources, and they need to be hoarded to survive.

But in the church, as we plan our activities and our community life we do not do so jealously guarding our resources, but as children of the King. Christ is enough for me, yes, but he is also enough for us together. Indeed it is truer to say he is enough for us, together, because each of us reflects a different aspect of Christ, and it is only together that we fully reflect him and live out lives of fruitfulness and growth. Christ is the one who ‘owns the cattle on a thousand hills’ (Psalm 50) – in him there is a super abundance of resources for all that he wants us to do for him. That gives us ambition to do whatever he wants – and contentment that he is enough – we don’t need to work ourselves into exhaustion because he supplies the energy we need to do what he wants us to (Colossians 1:29).

Then, at the end of Colossians we reach the sections that can read quite awkwardly to modern hearers. We have the household codes, with their blunt commands ‘wives submit to your husbands’, ‘slaves obey your master’. We shouldn’t miss that these codes were common in the ancient world. What were less common were instructions like this: ‘husbands love your wives’ and ‘Masters, give your slaves what is right and fair, because you know you have a master in heaven’.

In those days husbands owned their wives. They might be told to treat them well, as one would treasure a possession. But to love them as an equal. That was remarkable. And actually it transforms ‘submission’, because to truly love another person is to submit aspects of your will to theirs.

In terms of the implications of these codes for the church we should be careful not to assume that these would have meant leadership was only male. In Colossians we should note 4:15 where Paul greets Nympha and the church that meets in her house. For us that doesn’t sound particularly important. But many scholars argue that for a church to meet in someones house it was more than likely, given how hospitality worked in the ancient world, that the host was also a leader. So it may well be that Nympha was a church leader (I’ve listened to a set of talks where Gordon Fee argues that this is a legitimate interpretation).

In the early church we know of other women mentioned as co-workers, Junia is prominent among the apostles (whatever that means exactly), Priscilla is sometimes mentioned before her husband, and in Philippians Paul refers to two co-workers who are women who need to reconcile – it seems likely that if they were men, we would assume they were prominent leaders.

Even more radical in many ways is Paul’s instructions to slave masters, where he points out that they too are slaves – slaves of Christ. For many Paul doesn’t go far enough – why doesn’t he demand that masters free their slaves? But to ask that question reveals how hard it is to place ourselves in the shoes of those who lived in past ages. The early Christians often found themselves persecuted by the authorities. Rome depended on slaves, and penalties for runaway slaves were severe.

To openly question this in letters circulating around the globe would be to bring extra pressure on the church communities around the empire. And yet Paul does everything bar openly call on masters to release slaves. In chapter 4 of Colossians we are told that one of the people bringing the letter to the church was Onesimus – a runaway slave, so one who could be punished by crucifixion, described as a ‘dear brother’. Paul’s more private letter to Philemon asks Philemon to welcome Onesimus back as more than a slave, but as a brother, and that Paul will pay any damages owing.

Slave trading features in Paul’s list of sins. The seeds are laid here for the eventual abolition of slavery – but there is a difference between the things the church can openly call for when it is an underground organisation, and how it is to operate when Christians, and those supporting Christian principles have a major open influence.

So as we read the household codes in the NT we learn that Christians support family life, and that they transform society by Christian husbands choosing to love, and thus making a marriage one of mutual respect, love and friendship. Christian parents bring up their children with loving discipline, rather than treating them as objects at their disposal. Christians caught in unjust structures work knowing that their ultimate master is God, and take any opportunities to transform those structures.

As we finish Colossians it is also worth paying close attention to the names, and to what Paul says about those people. Sometimes we have the idea that Paul was a lone worker, but a close reading of the NT shows just how much of a network of co-workers Paul had. We notice that Mark is mentioned – Mark who deserted in Acts, and who Paul did not want to travel with again. We see Epaphras held up as an example of prayer once again (see Philippians). We hear of Archippus who needs to complete the ministry he has started – was in danger of wavering, or did he just need some public encouragement, or some mixture of both? Don’t miss these details – they show a very human and team-working side to Paul that is sometimes missed by his interpreters.

Resources

Bible Speaks Today – Dick Lucas – a good introduction, and some very helpful comments on Colossians 4:2-6 which could have lifted a burden of guilt in regard to evangelism if I had let them when I was a student (he simply comments that not everyone is called to make opportunities to speak of Christ – but all are called to pray and take opportunities as they arise – that distinction is based on the prayers Paul asks for in regard to himself and for the Colossians)

Colossians Remixed – Brian Walsh & Sylvia C Keesmaat – this is a very different read of Colossians paying particular attention to the ancient context and OT allusions, and to the pressure the church faced under Rome. I’ve not read anything quite like it – it is not a standard commentary, it takes seriously our context as 21st century people reading in a post-modern world, and gives really good ways to grapple and think through the text. I doubt anyone reading will agree with everything, but that isn’t really the point – the point is that it will help you engage with the text and the contemporary world.

While I remember, not about Colossians as such, but about Paul in general is: Reframing Paul: Conversations in Grace and Community – Mark Strom. I think this is brilliant. He spends about half the book helping the reader understand the Graeco Roman world that Paul’s churches lived in – thought patterns and culture, and then the rest of the book developing the implications of how church life looked for us now. It is a great book, and a particular challenge for those of us who call ourselves evangelicals to consider how biblical much of the way we do church really is.