Engaging Scripture

Should we “fill our body with affliction”? – Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 2

*Photo by Žygimantas Dukauskas on Unsplash*

In the previous post Paul reminded us that we can learn to rejoice in the Lord, even amid difficult circumstances. But as we continue to trace his teaching in Colossians 1:24-2:5, Paul writes something that seems bizarre to me. In fact, it seems wrong.

Paul writes that he fills up in his body what is still lacking of Christ’s afflictions.

What do you think about that? I find it to be a very strange phrase. When I read that I get the image of some kind of burning hot painful liquid being poured down Paul’s throat. He is being filled up, but its very bad. On New Year’s Eve, our son and daughter-in-law had us over for a get-together, and they created a mini-Olympics that we did right there in their living room. One event was “Who can drink an ice-cold slushee the fastest?” We each had a small slushee, probably in an 8oz cup, with a spoon to help. I started shoveling it in, as I wanted to win this event! I knew brain freeze was on the way. Sure enough in no time the roof of my mouth was screaming in pain. What I didn’t expect was something that I call, because I don’t know how else to describe it, chest freeze. I had never experienced that before, and I wondered if I had seriously injured myself. The freezing slushee sliding down my gullet had me feeling affliction inside my body. Is that what Paul is talking about? No, not that he drank slushee too fast. Instead when Paul says he fills up his body with affliction, it’s just a symbolic way of saying that he went through many difficult times. I won that slushee event by the way… Yes, it was a “difficult time” for me, but nothing compared to what Paul endured. In the book of Acts, we heard that Paul suffered much physical persecution because he boldly shared the message of Jesus around the Roman Empire, and there were many people who attempted to brutally shut him down. All that to say, I understand this part of the phrase, the part about pain filling up his body.

It is the second part of the phrase that has me scratching my head. What could be lacking in Christ’s afflictions? Is Paul saying that the flogging and crucifixion and death that Jesus endured wasn’t enough? There’s no way that could be true, though, right? Jesus’ death was sufficient and complete, lacking nothing. He fully gave his life and rose again. There is nothing else needed for the forgiveness of sin and for the salvation of the world. Even Paul, himself, writes that Jesus completed his mission.

Look at what Paul wrote, just a few verses earlier, in Colossians 1:18-20. There Paul describes Jesus as 100% successful, accomplishing the task God set for him to do. Then look at verses 21-22. Very similar. Jesus’ work is fulfilled! There is nothing incomplete about Jesus’ suffering. So what does Paul mean when he says that there is still something lacking in Christ’s afflictions?

It seems best to understand Paul as saying that there is still something lacking when it comes to the cause of Christ. What is lacking? The many, many people who are not yet followers of Jesus. That’s what Paul refers to in his next phrase.

Paul says he has suffered “for the sake of his body, which is the church.”

So, to put it all together, Paul is saying that what is lacking is that there are still many people who are not yet a part of the church of Jesus, which he refers to using the figurative concept of Christ’s body.

Paul is willing to endure affliction in order to complete the mission that Jesus has given him. That’s an incredible example for us. Paul has made the mission of Jesus his priority. What will it look like for you to give the mission of Jesus more priority in your life?

The natural next step for Paul, then, is describe this role and mission.

Look at verse 25. Paul explains the mission by saying that he has become the servant of the church. Before he said he was servant of the Gospel. Now he says he is servant of the church. Well, he is both.

“Servant” in the Greek Paul wrote in is “diakonos,” where we get our English word “deacon.” Paul says he has become a deacon, one who serves, a helper. Paul saw himself as a servant of the larger church. He was never a pastor stationed at one church. While he did stay for a year or two in both Corinth and Ephesus, he did so not as a shepherd or pastor. Instead Paul was always in the role of apostle, evangelist and teacher. Most often he would be on the move, trying to push into new places to start new churches, or revisiting past places to strengthen churches.

He also served the church by his writing. He helped the churches solve problems and understand the good news about Jesus. That’s how he served the Gospel and the Church.

Furthermore, Paul says God commissioned Paul to this role as an apostolic servant. We studied the story in Acts last year. In Acts chapters 8 & 9 we learned that Paul had been a persecutor of the early Christians, but Jesus appeared to Paul and changed his life.

Ever since that moment, Paul had been a servant of the mission, with the purpose of presenting the word of God in fullness, he says in verse 25. Paul saw his mission as preaching the word God as fully as it could possible be preached. That could be geographically, meaning that Paul wanted the message about Jesus to be spread to every corned of the world. Paul could also be talking theologically, meaning that he wanted the true message of Jesus to be shared.

That idea of the true message of Jesus is especially important to Paul as he writes this specific letter to the Colossians because he has heard some troubling news about them. There is a controversy that he needs to address. He doesn’t address it just yet, not in these verses, but we’ll get to that controversy in the weeks to come.

Paul wants the true message of Jesus to be heard. What is that true message? If he is so concerned about making sure they know the true message about Jesus, you’d think he share it with them, at least as a reminder, right? Well, he does share it with them, and we’ll study that in the next post.

Is rejoicing in suffering a bad idea? – Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 1

How should we respond to suffering? Maybe you’re suffering somehow, and you’re sick of it. I’ve had heel pain for the last few months, and though I will admit to being very inconsistent in treating it, I’m frustrated with it. I want it to be healed. I am not rejoicing in this suffering.

Rejoicing? If you’re wondering why I mention that concept, it is because so often Christians talk about rejoicing in suffering. Frankly, it seems to me that we sound odd when we talk about suffering that way. Even something small, like heel pain doesn’t seem anything close to the kind of thing we should be rejoicing about, let alone the plethora of major reasons for suffering. So why do we talk about rejoicing in suffering? In this post, we continue our study of Colossians, looking at a verse that describes that very concept.

A couple months ago we started studying the New Testament letter to the Colossians. The writer of the letter is one of Jesus’ earliest followers, the great missionary and teacher, Paul. Paul wrote numerous letters to groups of Christians around the Roman Empire, and some of those letters are collected in the New Testament. The ancient ruins of the town of Colosse are located in modern-day Turkey, but at the time Paul wrote it was a medium-sized town where perhaps 4 years earlier some people had become Christians.

Paul has heard some news about these Christians, and he is concerned. So he writes the letter to help steer them in the right direction. If you scan back through the blog, you’ll see that we have studied verses 1-23, learning how Paul presents Jesus as completely God, and how we can have reconciliation with God through Jesus. If you’d like, open a Bible and read chapter 1 verse 23. There Paul says that he became servant of the gospel. What does he mean? You can be a servant of God, or a servant of people, but a servant of the Gospel? The Gospel is an inanimate object. It’s just an idea. We Christians believe it is a true idea! But it is an idea, a concept. How can a person serve an idea? Paul explains himself.

Please read the passage that we’re studying on the blog this week: Colossians 1:24-2:5. As I studied this passage, I found two major themes Paul communicates to us. They’re different enough that we’re going to study one this week, and the other next week. This week we begin the first theme, which will develop over the week, by focusing on what Paul says about the idea of being a servant of the gospel.

Today we look at verse 24 where Paul writes that he rejoices in what he suffered for them. There it is, another Christian talking about rejoicing in suffering. Is something wrong with Christians for taking this view of suffering? Let’s see if we can understand why Paul might say something so counterintuitive.

We begin by trying to answer, what did he suffer for them? It is unlikely that Paul suffered anything specifically because of the Christians in the city of Colosse. He didn’t start the church. We read in chapter 1 verse 7 that it seems his missionary associate Epaphras started the church. It is likely that Paul is speaking here about his apostolic mission, and the sufferings he encountered, which if you remember the series through the book of Acts from last year, were constant. Also Paul is likely writing this letter while on house arrest in Rome. He knew suffering. There is a sense in which Paul suffered for the mission of the Kingdom, and therefore he suffered for the whole church. His really was a suffering on their behalf.

What is amazing is that he rejoices in his suffering. It is so easy to get fixated on our suffering and all we can think about is getting it over and done with. Or get stuck in a victim mentality, a “poor me” pity party. Paul shows us a different way. Paul transcends his suffering, seeing how his suffering has led to greater things. And that causes him to rejoice. I’m not saying that all suffering has some greater purpose. Not all does.

Some suffering occurs because we made a bad choice, and we’re facing natural consequences. Actually we can rejoice in that suffering, if we have a humble teachable attitude, desiring to learn from our mistakes.

Some suffering is perpetrated against us, and some is just part and parcel of our broken world. It can be hard to rejoice in the face of that kind of suffering because it appears to have no meaning. To that apparent lack of meaning, we should ask, “Does the suffering we’re facing have actually have meaning that I am not aware of?” Rather than simply fixate on trying to eradicate the suffering, we should observe it, face it.

Paul is an example of one who suffered physically, because of his activity as servant of the Gospel. As a result of his preaching and teaching about Jesus, he was beaten numerous times, to the point where the perpetrators left him for dead. In Colossians 1, then, Paul is providing meaning to the suffering, meaning that enables him to rejoice. He does not see his suffering as pointless or predetermined. Instead, he owns the fact that his free choice to follow the way of Jesus has led to suffering, but the suffering was worth it because of the greater good it accomplished for so many people who now were a part of the family of God. For that, he rejoiced.

When we face the suffering that seems to have no meaning or purpose, I urge you not to just explain it away by saying, “Well, God has a reason,” or “God is in control.” While those kinds of epithets sound spiritual and give the appearance of trust in God, they do not face the suffering. There are other faithful ways to respond to suffering.

One faithful way is the example of Paul. Paul is showing us that we can learn to rejoice in the Lord, even amid difficult circumstances. I’m not saying it is easy, but that it is a good goal, an attainable goal.

Another faithful response to suffering is lament. Lament is holy complaint, demonstrated often in the Psalms, in which the suffering calls out to God, asking for him to intervene, even to wake up, because it appears God is asleep. I include a psalm of lament in every Wednesday prayer guide for Faith Church, because we need to learn to lament.

Finally, another faithful response to suffering is to seek appropriate means to stop the suffering. Suffering in and of itself is not automatically honoring to God. When Paul was beaten for proclaiming the Gospel, the beating was unjust and sinful. It should not have occurred at all. When Paul says he rejoiced in the suffering, he was not indicating that God approved of the beatings. There are many cases of injustice that lead to suffering and we Christians should be on the vanguard seeking to eradicate suffering. This approach also applies to suffering that is not in the category of injustice, such as natural disaster, illnesses of all kinds, or relational brokenness. We should seek to right all of them, using appropriate means. Suffering in and of itself is not unmitigated good.

Current Events – (How to Avoid) The Failure of Ravi Zacharias, Part 5

This week on the blog, I’ve been talking about the recent news of the awful failure of Ravi Zacharias. He is one in a long line of abusive leaders, and started with the first post here I’ve attempted to tell his story and how we might respond to it. As I mentioned in some of those posts, it is not just leaders. Any of us can live a double life, unaccountable, isolated. We might even look real good on Sunday mornings, wearing our Sunday clothes and smiling, as we worship in our church worship services. But there is another side to our lives. It might not be as awful as Ravi Zacharias. It doesn’t have to be, though. Hear me again: I am not saying that, in order to be genuine followers of Jesus, we have to be perfect. Absolutely not. What I am saying is that we should be living highly consistent lives. The choices and actions of our lives should be significantly in line with what we say we believe about Jesus. The Fruit of the Spirit should be evident.

To build a culture of goodness, we need to live lives of goodness, and that means we need to be humble, teachable, accountable to others. Surround yourself with a few people you know you can trust and who you know have your best in their heart. I know that during this time of less contact that can seem difficult. But, I suggest to you, in love, that you do it anyway. Maybe it is by Facetime or email or text instead of as many coffee dates as you used to be able to have. It is important to stay in relationships where goodness is the culture that is being created.

Confess your sins to another.

Confront sin in one another.

Speak the truth in love.

Pursue the Fruit of the Spirit.

In McKnight and Barringer’s book, A Church Called Tov, they told the story about a person that was accused of wrongdoing in their life. They chose to respond to it exactly the opposite of Ravi Zacharias. You know what they said? They said this: “I say let the stories come. Let them all come out. Let every attempt to deflect or defend come to an end, and let us listen and learn from the courage of the abused. They, the abused, are our prophets now…Indeed the overdue purge has begun, and may it not relent until every hidden darkness faces the light of justice.”

We need to be especially concerned and empathetic about the vulnerable. About women, about those on the margins. About injustice, about truth, about abuse of power. We need to build a culture of goodness. I encourage to read McKnight and Barringer’s book.

Work to intentionally build a culture of goodness in your life. Jesus promises that in him life is abundant. This culture of goodness is a key part of that abundant life. Living in honest community with one another, pursuing a culture of goodness, letting our light shine and as we read in 1 Peter, “that we may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. For, 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. That people may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Current Events – The Failure of Ravi Zacharias, Part 4

This week its Current Events week on the blog, and I’ve been been writing a five-part series about the failure of Ravi Zacharias (so far you can read part one, part two, part three, and this is part four). How do we respond to such a grievous failure?

It seems to me the primary response is that we must live in light of the truth that we are not intended to be alone. We are meant for community, including the checks and balances the community affords.

We should run towards being part of groups and having relationships with people who will speak the truth in love to us. We should welcome those relationships, not because they will be always fun and easy but because they are marked by people who love us enough to be with us in the good and bad times of life and who will speak truth in love when it is needed.

This means we need to see love not as a free for all, but as something that has checks and balances. Real love is guided by what is best for someone else. “By this all men will know you are my disciples that you love one another,” Jesus taught. What Ravi Zacharias did was not loving; it was incredibly hurtful to many vulnerable women. Furthermore, Zacharias committed his evil regularly with a built-in culture of secrecy and deceit.

Love, then, has boundaries. Love has accountability. Boundaries and accountability can seem to be constraining or blocking freedom. People might respond to accountability saying, “But we are free in Christ, and we should have relationships that are marked by freedom.” People who think like that, though, misunderstand the loving nature of boundaries and accountability. Loving boundaries and accountability are meant for good.

It seems that many of the leaders, like Ravi Zacharias, who abuse others have false accountability. They have very few or no relationships with people who could speak truthfully and boldly to them. They live double lives and no one knows it. Oftentimes leaders are isolated. People assume that leaders are doing great, that leaders love the Lord and are just walking in the Spirit all the time. Do not assume that about any Christian leader, including your pastor, your group leader or any Christian person you want to assume is living a consistent life of following Jesus.

Instead, make time to connect, to reach out in real community with those around you, including your leaders. The leaders in your life should be able to definitively explain and demonstrate for you how they are living consistent, accountable lives.

As I have mentioned earlier in this five-part series, the failure of Ravi Zacharias is not just applicable to leaders. Any of us can live a double life, unaccountable, isolated. We might even look real good on Sunday mornings, wearing our Sunday clothes and smiling, but we are hiding another side to our lives. That other side might not be as awful as Ravi Zacharias. It doesn’t have to be, though. Hear again what I said in the previous post: I am not saying that, in order to be genuine followers of Jesus, we have to be perfect. Absolutely not. What I am saying is that we should be living highly consistent lives. The choices and actions of our lives should be significantly in line with what we say we believe about Jesus. The Fruit of the Spirit should be evident in our lives. Regular, consistent participation in honest accountable relationships is vital to helping us pursue Christ.

Current Events – The Failure of Ravi Zacharias, Part 3

This week we’re talking about the failure of Ravi Zacharias. In the first post, I wrote about how Zacharias was for me and many others a mentor from afar, but how it has been revealed that he lived a double-life. In the second post, we looked how Jesus’ disciple, Peter, wrote about the story of transformation that Christians not only tell, but also, and I would say, more importantly, live. Because we are people who can experience new life in God’s family, Peter says, we live a new way. Zacharias powerfully told the story of new life available in Jesus, but he lived something different and insidious. We all know this battle. In fact Peter wrote about it using the imagery of a battle. Let’s continue to hear what Peter has to say about winning the battle.

In 1 Peter 2, verse 11, he writes that Christians abstain from sinful desires. It is a war Peter says, a war against the soul. Notice in that one short phrase how he combines both the physical and the spiritual. We have an inner part and outer part. We have a material part, our body, and an immaterial part, our soul. A human person is both. We cannot compartmentalize ourselves. If we think, for example, that our church part is something that does not relate to our work part, we have misunderstood our humanity. If we think that our private life doesn’t affect our public life, we are fooling ourselves. If we think that we can be one person at church, but another person at home, we are deceived.

We are called to live a new life, a new life of choices and actions that show we are truly members of God’s family. Furthermore, Peter says, when we enter God’s family, we become aliens and strangers to the world around us. We take on the identity of God’s family.

I wonder if your family has an identity. Most do. What I am referring to is family tendencies. For good or for bad. One of my Kime family identities for generations now is being in involved in ministry, and specifically, teaching. My grandfather on my mom’s side was an ordained pastor and long-time professor at Lancaster Bible College. Then my dad became a pastor and a long-time professor at LBC. Then Michelle and I got married. Michelle’s dad is also an ordained minister and was a long-time professor at LBC. Now I became an ordained pastor, and I teach courses from time to time as an adjunct pastor at LBC. I’ve joked that it is the family business. Now we have a son married to a teacher and another son engaged to a teacher.

Or it could be a different tendency in your family. Maybe a tendency that you are trying to build into your family. When our kids were younger, and one of them got frustrated at a board game or a puzzle or playing sports with the neighbors outside, they would storm into our house declaring, “I quit!” If you have kids, you are likely familiar with this scenario. But in response I would say, “Kimes aren’t quitters.” I wanted to build persistence into their lives. It wasn’t just a phrase, though. The phrase had the right content, but to make it meaningful, it would require me and Michelle to make the kids to get back out there, to not be a sore loser, keep at it, and finish what they started. Even if they lost the game.

The family of God has tendencies like that. Tendencies that are not just beliefs, but actions. Because, Christians, our identity as children in God’s family is our primary focus, our primary identity, we not only have content that we believe, but more importantly we make choices and we perform actions in our lives that show what we really believe.

Authentic Christians are Christians more than just during the one hour per week that we attend a worship service. It is a very good thing to attend church worship services, but I have to ask: Is it possible that our attendance at worship service is covering up a different reality in the remaining 167 hours each week? The choices and actions of our lives in those other 167 hours are where we show what we really believe. That is why Peter says we abstain from sinful desires, we live good lives, we do good deeds.

Does this mean that we have to be perfect or we aren’t really believing in Jesus? No, that is not what I am saying. What I am asking you to consider is this: What is in your heart? What is the culture you are creating and working to create in our lives? A culture of secrecy? A culture of deceit? Of hypocrisy?

We are to be creating a culture of consistent goodness, both in our own hearts and in the organizations we participate in.

What I am talking about is practicing a humble teachable faith, such that our hearts are being transformed so the fruit of the Spirit flows from us.

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that I talk about the Fruit of the Spirit often. But that is because it is such an important principle. So let’s talk about it again. I think you’ll see the link between what Peter taught in 1 Peter 2:9-12, which we looked at in the previous post, and what Paul talks about in Galatians 5:16-26. Let’s read that:

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

While a person like Ravi Zacharias proclaimed boldly and powerfully the authenticity of faith in Jesus, in his private life he demonstrated the regular, purposeful acts of the sinful nature which were destructive to other human beings. He also set up a lifestyle and a culture that allowed for him to continue in that way without accountability.

So what do we do in response to this? How do we turn away from the sinful nature and grow the fruit of the Spirit?

We cannot turn a blind eye to sin. In ourselves and others. This is especially important and difficult when a poorly behaving person is also respected and successful. It is so easy to become starry-eyed by the powerful speaker, the wealthy person, the leader with power and influence, or the person who makes you feel great. It is so easy to be dwell on their perceived success. I mean, they are bringing in people, they are building buildings, they are writing books, they are on TV, the radio, and have tons of followers on social media. They can’t possibly be giving in to the acts of the sinful nature, can they?

We look at people that appear to be successful and we assume that they are golden.

Instead we should ask a different question: What is success?

Or more precisely: What does God’s Kingdom-minded success look like? How is that different from the version of success so typical in many cultures around the world?

The world’s version of success is often, “bigger is better.” More people paying more money at more events in more buildings. We Christians can use these metrics or measurements of success too. We can even spiritualize these metrics. “God must be blessing that big church down the road because of how big they are.” I recently was talking to someone about a new church building that their church completed in recent years, and that person said, “They did it right.”

They did? How do we know that? Did it right according to what standard? God’s standard?

Let me clarify. Sometimes Kingdom-minded success will lead to that which the world calls success. Ministries growing large is not inherently evil. The early Christians, as we studied last year in the book of Acts, grew and grew and grew. And we are thankful they did because the good news of Jesus through the centuries eventually reached us!

What I am suggesting is this: if you turn your eye away from evil, just because a person or group is bringing worldly success, then those who turn their eyes away are culpable in the evil. That is what happened with Ravi Zacharias and so many others. They were incredibly successful, and there was a willingness on the part of the people around them to allow bad behavior to continue because, “the ministry is flourishing.”

Instead our goal is to do exactly what Peter and Paul teach. Walk in step with the Spirit, so that the Fruit of the Spirit is flowing out of our lives. That should be our standard for measurement. Not how many people are viewing our YouTube videos. Not how many people are attending our worship services. Not how many people are getting baptized. Not how big our budget is, or whether or not we have a fully funded budget at the end of the year. Not how many events we had. The measurement that we seek is how much we are filled with the Spirit so that acts of the sinful nature are decreasing in our lives and the fruit of the Spirit is increasing in our lives.

(Author’s Note: I’m thankful for the book A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer for introducing me to this concept. I’m just scratching the surface in these blog posts. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book and read it with your small group, class or church leaders. Another excellent resource is The Emotionally Healthy Church: A Strategy for Discipleship that Actually Changes Lives by Peter Scazzero.)

Current Events – The Failure of Ravi Zacharias, Part 2

*Photo by Mitchell Hollander on Unsplash*

In yesterday’s post, I told the story of Ravi Zacharias’ moral failure. How did this happen? The reasons are typical for leadership failure. There was a decades-long lack of accountability. Zacharias had too much control and authority in his organization. He was alone in many ways. He was also extremely intelligent and convincing, able to make himself seem totally innocent.

We hear a lot about leaders like that, sadly. But it is not just leaders.

This relates to all of us. Sure, leadership failure makes the news, but this should concern all of us.

It reminded to me of something Zacharias said in one of his sermons. He told the story of a conversation that occurred after a conference, at which Zacharias was a speaker. The conference organizer had invited a friend to come hear Zacharias. She was not a Christian and she was a very intelligent woman, so the conference organizer thought Zacharias’ way of explaining the truth of Jesus might be meaningful to her. That conference organizer was right. After the event was over, he was very eager to see what his friend thought, so he asked her: “What did you think of Ravi’s talk?” You know how she responded? “Very, very compelling.” And then she asked a surprising question of her own: “I wonder what his personal life is like?” The woman was making a great point. We can speak all the truth we want, but if our lives don’t back it up, then our words are empty. She had seen far too many Christians live hypocritical lives.

When Ravi Zacharias told this story, he was saying that for Christianity to be real, Christianity has to actually work. Christianity, and therefore actual Christians, must live up to our claims. Coming from Zacharias, this is a sobering truth when considering the moral failure in his own life.

The important implication of this story is that Christianity is not only a series of doctrinal statements or beliefs. Yes, we do have beliefs. But for Christianity to be authentic, it must lead to transformed lives because that is what Jesus said would happen. For Christianity to work, disciples of Jesus not only believe in him, but are also being changed so that we live more and more like him.

That conference organizer’s friend was exactly right. A Christian can talk all they want, but if they don’t walk their talk, then they are doing a disservice to the cause of Christ, and worse yet, they are not to be believed.

This reminds me of what one of Jesus’ earliest followers, Peter, wrote in 1 Peter 2:9, in which he talks about how Jesus’ disciples should view themselves. Who are you, Christian? Here’s what he writes in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.”

As we continue following Peter’s logic, now that we know our identity, that we are a people belonging to God, Peter tells us our purpose.

What are the people belonging to God to do? Look at what Peter says in the middle of verse 9 through verse 12: “…that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 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. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 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.”

In verse 9, the phrase “praises of him” specifically refers to telling the wonderful deeds that God has done. We Christians are people who tell the story of God’s goodness. There is content to that story. There are actual things that God has done in history, up to the present day. That is the story we tell. We are story-tellers. Story tellers who focus on telling the good news. Notice how Peter himself tells the story. Three ways:

We are called out of darkness into God’s light.

We once were not a people, but now we are the people of God.

We once did not have mercy, but now we have received mercy.

That is some amazing good news that we get to experience, and that we get to communicate with the people around us.

But Peter doesn’t stop there. Because we are people who can experience new life in God’s family, he says we live a new way. Check back tomorrow, as we’ll look at what that new way of life is like.

Current Events – The Failure of Ravi Zacharias, Part 1

It’s Current Events week on the blog. For the past year, one week per quarter I pause whatever blog series we’re in, and I scan the news on Monday morning to see what headline I’ll write about that week. My goal is that we learn how to engage what is happening in our world. We do not want to be people who bury our heads in the sand, unaware of what is going on. But we can be confused by or uncertain of how to process the latest news. So, as one person famously said, we need to be people who hold a newspaper in one hand and our Bible in the other. Or maybe nowadays I should say it this way: on our devices, we have a news app open side-by-side with a Bible app. In other words, we study scripture and theology, and we apply it to the world around us. We are trying to answer the question: “What does God say about things that are going on?” I want us to learn to think Christianly about our culture.

There were certainly a lot of headlines to choose from as I started looking through the news this past Monday, but the news about Ravi Zacharias struck me personally, and I thought it was important we talk about it.

I have mentioned Christian speaker and writer, Ravi Zacharias, in my sermons over the years. I did a search on my computer through my sermons since I started at Faith Church in 2002, and I found that I’ve mentioned Ravi Zacharias at least ten different times. I did so because he had such a wonderful way of explaining things. He had a combination of intellect and humor grounded in biblical truth, with the ability to speak in a compelling way.

I would say that as a public speaker, and as a preacher, though I never met him, Zacharias was one of my mentors from afar. I first learned about him at the Urbana student mission conference in 1993 which I attended on winter break of my sophomore year of college. It was awesome. 20,000 college students learning about how God’s Spirit was at work around the globe. Then Zacharias spoke at a main session one evening, and it seemed the entire crowd in the University of Illinois basketball arena was mesmerized. When he got to the end of his sermon, he asked the organizers of the event for a bit more time, because he had more material he hadn’t covered, and the crowd cheered like wild. We wanted more! Even then he only summarized a few of his closing points, and we wished he could keep going.

I bought the cassette of that sermon and listened to it frequently in the months and years to come. It is still my favorite sermon of all time. At some point I lost the cassette, so I bought the DVD, and then the digital recording. I wanted to learn to communicate like Zacharias.

As I continued my college career, I took a philosophy class in the spring semester of my junior year. Maybe it was because it was early in the morning. Maybe it was because philosophy can be dry. I hated it. At that point in my life, I was a bit of a missionary elitist, thinking that studying philosophy was a waste of time when I could be out there doing ministry. In fact, I was getting excited about my upcoming summer as I was traveling to Guyana, South America, for a 13 week-long missionary internship. Philosophy seemed pointless when there were so many that needed to hear about Jesus. As I was packing for Guyana, I brought along some books to read in my free time, including a brand new purchase: my first Ravi Zacharias book, Can Man Live Without God? I read it that summer, as I ministered in Guyana, and just like his Urbana sermon, the book was compelling. Interestingly, in the book, Ravi Zacharias engages with philosophy the whole way through. All of a sudden I had a new vision for how Christians can appreciate philosophy. In fact the book opened my eyes to how vital it is that we think deeply about God, and that belief in God is rational. I went back to college that fall and took an apologetics class, which is basically using philosophy to show that Christianity is rational, and I loved that class and it strengthened my faith. Thanks to Ravi Zacharias.

Over the years, I listened to many, many more of Zacharias’ talks and sermons online. I also read a bunch of his books, and watched as the evangelistic organization he founded, and which bears his name, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, grew and grew. I heard him speak again in person at Lancaster Bible College. If I ever started doubting this whole Christian thing, all I needed to do was go on YouTube and watch more Ravi Zacharias videos. I found his Q & A sessions to be especially fascinating. Many times after a talk, he would answer questions from the audience. Often the questions were really intimidating, as people raised objections that make Christians cower and feel immature about our faith, as if we are just believing fairy tales. Zacharias, without missing a beat, would have amazing answers to the questions. Often he would even be able to take apart the questioners’ questions, showing how their question had false assumptions or inconsistencies. Certainly I did not watch every Q & A session, but I never saw him interact aggressively with the questioners. Instead he answered calmly, with kindness and humor, inviting the questioner to talk more in person afterward.

Then a couple years ago, a story broke with accusations against Zacharias. A woman said he had an abusive relationship with her. Not what you want to hear about one of the people who influenced your faith so positively. It didn’t make major news, but Christianity Today certainly reported it, so it was out there in evangelical Christian circles. Zacharias adamantly denied the charges, saying instead that the woman was aggressively pursuing him. He claimed he was being attacked, and people including his ministry board strongly came to his defense. He ended up settling the case in court with a non-disclosure agreement. That means case closed, and details were kept under lock and key.

Ravi Zacharias continued his ministry, and it grew even more. Then in 2019 he broke the news that he had cancer. It was fast-moving, and he passed away in early 2020. Many in the evangelical community around the world were grief-stricken and numerous people shared stories about how Ravi Zacharias impacted their lives. Loads of people shared their favorite Ravi Zacharias videos online.

Just a couple months after his passing, though, the adulation and praise turned to more accusation. New stories started coming out about Zacharias. Stories about massage parlors and inappropriate relationships. Christianity Today reported again. This time his ministry, the large international organization that still bore his name, commissioned a law firm to independently investigate charges. That was about six months ago.

Their report was published this past week. What they uncovered was horrible. Now it wasn’t just Christianity Today reporting the news. It was all over the media. Ravi Zacharias had maintained numerous extra-marital sexual relationships in which he manipulated and abused women. It was spiritual abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse, including rape. The report is very hard to read, especially because of the excruciating pain Zacharias caused to so many women. While this five-part blog post will examine Zacharias’ failure and what we can all do to avoid such failure in our lives, let us remember the women, the vulnerable hurting ones, because of the evil inflicted on them by a powerful persuasive abuser.

How did this happen? Check back in to the next post, and I’ll try to begin to answer that question.

Worship services are not enough – Colossians 1:20-23, Part 5

I recently saw a conversation between two people on social media. One is often outspoken about their Christian beliefs. That person began the conversation by writing a post angrily condemning people who are of a different political persuasion. Many people responded with supportive comments, but one person disagreed, confronting the Christian writer. I don’t know for sure, but I wonder if that other person would not consider themself a Christian. Let’s call them an agnostic. The agnostic responded to the Christian, writing a kind and gracious response saying that the Christian person’s words were hurtful and mean. The Christian responded back sharply accusing the other person of trying to shut down their free speech. The agnostic responded again simply saying that the Christian came across very hurtful and mean.

I ask you, which one sounds more like a person who has received reconciliation with God, evidence by the Fruit of the Spirit of God flowing from their lives?

As you consider an answer to that question, I want you to think about worship services. How long is your church’s worship service? When I preached this sermon, it was about 35 minutes long. Add in the prayer, the musical worship, and fellowship, and my congregation has something like 75-90 minutes together on Sunday. Is that enough time and emphasis for us to reorient our lives on the mission of God? Or does the deluge of other stuff we give attention to throughout the rest of the week impact us far more? A one to one-and-a-half hour worship service pales in comparison to the amount of time most of us spend watching TV each week. Or reading books, emails and articles. Watching movies or scrolling through social media. Is it possible that we are being refocused more by the other influences in our lives, but we are unaware of how much those other influences are shaping our thinking?

I think it is highly possible, and I suspect the social media conversation I mentioned at the beginning of this post is evidence. I know the Christian person attends church worship services quite frequently, and yet their social media post and responses were unbecoming of a follower of Christ. What gives? Is it possible that though the Christian would believe they are a true follower of Jesus, it was actually the agnostic who was more genuinely Christian?

I ask that because this week we’ve been talking about Paul’s description of reconciliation in his letter to the Christians in a town called Colosse, located in the First Century Roman Empire. In Colossians 1:20-23, starting here, we’ve heard Paul’s world-changing message that God has gone to great lengths to bring reconciliation between himself and all humanity. But so what? If we rarely think about that, to the point where the message of reconciliation has no or little affect on our lives, what does it matter? While it should matter, is it possible that we have allowed other lesser things to get in the way?

Perhaps. So how should the truth of reconciliation between God and humanity affect our thinking? Paul tells us as he continues in verse 23, where he writes, “…if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the Gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”

This is right in line with what Jesus taught back in Matthew 7. Remember the people who thought they were shoo-ins to the Kingdom of God, and Jesus says, “I never knew you”? Well, what does Jesus say about how people can know God? In Matthew 7, verse 21 he says, “Only he who does the will of my father in heaven will enter the Kingdom of Heaven”

In other words, we can think we have the right beliefs, but if those right beliefs don’t lead to right actions, something is missing. What is missing is our embrace of the reconciliation God offers us, a reconciliation that transforms us inwardly into people from whom naturally flow the deeds of the will of God.

This is what Paul is describing in Colossians 1, verse 23: People who remain steadfast in the faith. People who are not shaken, but who instead, people who live lives that are consistent with the heart of God.

Paul is referring to people who hold fast in belief and in deed. See how this connects to verse 21 where the mind and the actions, the entire being of the person, is in need of reconciliation? So also the entire being of the person is expected to hold fast to the faith.

God does the work of reconciliation, and it is our choice to enter in that reconciliation. He doesn’t force us. Furthermore, once we have entered into a reconciled relationship with him, it is our choice to remain in it. It seems to me that there is no better place to be! So, how are you doing in your relationship with God. I wonder if any of us need to re-enter the reconciliation?

God has already taken a massive step toward you. What will it look like for you to receive him? What will it look like for you to help others receive him?

What I learned about reconciliation from a guy who drove through my mailbox – Colossians 1:20-23, Part 4

A year or so ago, we were in our living room at night watching TV, and we heard a loud crashing sound out front. I went to the front porch, opened the door, and saw a car had skidded off the road, right through our mailbox, across our front lawn, tearing up two tire-streaks of grass, taking out a bush and eventually bumping into the corner of our neighbor’s house. It was late, and we suspect he might have fallen asleep at the wheel, though we don’t know for sure. I say “bumped” into the neighbor’s house, because as the vehicle hit all our stuff, by the time it reached the neighbor’s house, it had slowed down enough to just nudge the corner of the house, thankfully causing almost no damage to the house or his car. Our yard, though, was a mess.

Maybe you’ve encountered a mess. Maybe you’re in a mess. Financial. Health. Work. Family. It seems to me that most of the messes in our lives are relational. What is needed to heal a mess of a broken relationship is reconciliation.

The word “reconcile” means: “to reestablish proper friendly interpersonal relations after these have been disrupted or broken.” (Louw & Nida)

The same scholar who provided that definition suggests that there is a process to reconciliation: “[It starts with] disruption of friendly relations because of a presumed or real provocation. [Then reconciliation begins with one party choosing an] overt behavior designed to remove hostility, [leading to] restoration of original friendly relations.”

Something bad has happened, and reconciliation is the process whereby the separated parties make things right.

In Colossians 1:20-23, which we have been studying this week starting here, the writer, Paul, tells us that God brought reconciliation between us and him. What is the bad thing that happened between Creator and Created? Between God and us? Clearly it wasn’t something bad on God’s side of the relationship, right? Nope. God is perfect love. So that means something bad happened on our side of the relationship.

We have a word for that something bad. Sin. We humans choose to sin. Sin is a willful act in which we do one of two things: 1. Sin of Commission, when we commit a sin, which is when we do what God does not want us to do. Or 2. Sin of Omission, when we omit doing the right thing, which is when we do not do what God wants us to do. It is not as if God has a bunch of random stuff that he wants us to do. God’s will and God’s way flows from who he is, perfect love. Sin is when we choose to do something that is out of line with God’s perfect love, or to omit something that is in line with God’s perfect love.

Sin is also described in the Bible, including in this very passage, as evil power. Look back to verse 16, and those four words, thrones, powers, rulers and authorities. As I mentioned last week, Biblical scholars believe that when he mentions those first two, thrones and powers, Paul is potentially referring to forces of evil. To sum it up, sin is both the use of human free will to choose what is out of alignment with God’s perfect love, and sin is the forces of evil, the enemies of God.

Because of sin, we need reconciliation with God. Going back to the process of reconciliation, reconciliation starts with an act, a reaching out in love, from at least one of the parties. It is an act designed to remove the hostility, thus making space for friendly relations to be restored.

Typically, we consider it the responsibility of the one who committed the original hostile act to express their remorse and reach out asking for forgiveness, right?

Remember the guy who drove through our lawn? As I walked over to his car that night, he was already out and looking around at the damage. I made sure he was OK, and he was, apologizing profusely for the mess he caused in our yard. That was the first act of reconciliation: his apology. We exchanged info, which was the second act of reconciliation, showing his intention to make things right. Then he drove off. The next day he and his parents got in touch with us, and in the ensuing days they not only paid to replace the mailbox and post, they also installed them, both upgrades from our old ones! It was another act of reconciliation. We let the bush go because we had intended to dig the row of bushes out anyway, and we knew the grass would grow back. In other words, the mess was cleaned up by acts of reconciliation.

In that situation, reconciliation worked like it is supposed to work. One person messes up, there is brokenness, and that person reconciles by confessing their sin, making things right. In fact, this is so often the case in our world that when there is a brokenness, it is assumed by all involved that the first person who reaches out is the guilty party.

Why would the not-guilty party that have to reach out? Why would the not-guilty party have to do anything to make the relationship right? That would be strange, right? They were hurt, they were treated badly, and we would never expect them to be the one to reach out to the offender? In fact, in many situations, we counsel the hurt party not to do that because we don’t want them to get hurt again, and we don’t want them to give any indication that they did anything wrong. We definitely encourage them to forgive, to work on healing the relationship, but they are wise to be cautious. Sometimes boundaries are needed and healthy.

Yet consider how God handles the brokenness with us. He is perfect love, so it is clearly we who are the guilty ones between us and him. Yet it is God who reaches out to reconcile with us! Furthermore, it’s not just some simple, “Shake hands…all better now?” No, no, no. The reaching out that God does is so amazing that it requires Jesus, first of all, to become one of us, and second of all, to live a perfect life, and third of all, to die an unjust death, and fourth of all, to defeat sin, death and the devil by rising to new life. All so that we can experience new life ourselves and be reconciled to him.

This is what Paul means when he continues in verse 21 saying that God did this, “to make you all stand holy, without blemish, without accusation, in his sight.”

Think about what God did! Think about the incalculable gift of reconciliation that he has given us. All in spite of the fact that it was we who sinned against him! That’s how deeply God loves us. That’s how deeply he wants to be close to us. And that’s how much he wants everyone to be reconciled to him. Where once we were enemies and strangers with God, he has made it possible for us to stand holy before him. We can be in a place of right relationship with God.

I don’t know about you, but I admit that I don’t think about the truth of reconciliation enough. It’s one of many reasons why gathering with other Christians is so needed. We are people who need regular consistent reminders of this truth, that God has reached out in love to reconcile us to him. This truth can and should have the result of re-orienting our lives. It’s a game-changer!

Is it possible to be an enemy of God and not know it? – Colossians 1:20-23, Part 3

Are you an enemy of God? Are you and God strangers? Neither of those? How are you and God doing?

How would your friends and family answer that question about you? About themselves and their relationship with God? Do people think of themselves as Paul put it in Colossians 1:21, that they are alienated from God, or strangers of God? What about enemies of God? Would they describe their relationship with God that way?

I think there might be a number of people who might say, “Yeah, God and I are not on speaking terms. I am definitely a stranger to God.” But even if they think they are distant from God, they almost certainly couldn’t imagine Jesus saying to them, as I mentioned in the previous post, “Away from me, I never knew you.” He’s a loving God, right? He would never say that. Or would he? Jesus actually says it right there in Matthew 7:21-23.

So while people might think they are distant from God, even strangers with God, how many would say they are “Enemy of God”? Sure, some would. But I think most people would say, “God and I are not close, but enemies? No, I have no beef with God.” In fact, some of you might say that too. There are definitely times when I myself feel distant from God.

I wouldn’t say, though, that God and I are strangers to one another. How about you? Evaluate your relationship with God. How would you describe it?

Paul says that at some point in time prior to writing the letter we call Colossians, the people in the church family there in the town of Colosse used to be enemies and strangers with God. I wonder if that was surprising to them. I wonder if they would have agreed with that. Enemies with God? Highly unlikely.

Yet enemies is what Paul says they were. Why? Because there was a brokenness between them and God. Paul said that the manner in which they thought in their minds, and the evil works they did were evidence of the brokenness, evidence that they were enemies of God.

The word Paul uses for “mind” is actually a reference to the entire inner life of a person, not just brain activity as we scientifically describe the “mind.” Paul is referring to the will, the intent, the desire, the emotion, the longing of humans. Because it is from those inner places that action flows, right? Paul says their entire being was in a position of separation from God, alienation from God, and thus they were enemies with God.

When I read his talk about their minds and deeds being evil, I wonder what exactly they were doing? And by the way, how did Paul know this? Well, Paul actually tells us if we peek ahead to chapter 3:5-9. Just skim that list, and you’ll see for yourself. Paul has lists like this in almost all his letters, and as archaeologists and historians confirm, there was a lot of evil behavior going on in the Roman Empire. Paul could have easily seen it when traveled around the Empire’s various cities and towns. That might sound familiar to those of us living in America in 2021, right? Have we ever seen any of those actions in our culture? Yeah. We even see some of them in our own lives, and in our churches. In a few months we’ll study that list in chapter 3, so for now suffice it to say that the people Paul is writing to were previously in a status of brokenness with God.

Therefore, just as Jesus’ death and resurrection was what was needed to reconcile all things, as we learned here, the broken relationship between God and humans also needed reconciliation. What is needed to heal a broken relationship is reconciliation.

Check back to the next post as we learn what Paul has to say about how we humans can be reconciled to God.